Dammit! Another food goes off the menu

[miriam_e]

Nestle has bought Uncle Toby's. For the last few decades I've enjoyed eating oats every morning. Lately I'd become a little puzzled at the crappy quality of Uncle Toby's Oats. They have always been reliably the best. However now they taste bitter instead of creamy and have adulterants in them -- little bits of round, black stuff, and bits of what look like mould. Well, I've found the reason. Uncle Toby's has been taken over by the biggest vampire of them all: Nestle.

No more oats from them.

It is no suprise that a high quality company gets swallowed up by one of the biggest collectives of immorality and then the quality drops through the floor. I mean, after all, they have no problem killing thousands of little children who are their customers (earlier in Africa, more recently in Bangladesh). They do everything they can to ram as much sugar, coloring and flavoring down Western kids' throats, helping to build a generation addicted to the stuff and in line for terrible health problems. Have you ever noticed how hard it is becoming to buy food that isn't sold to you by Nestle? They are clearly aiming at controlling as much of the food market as they can. They are definitely not the sort of organisation that you want controlling your food supply.

I wonder what it is in the oats that makes them taste bitter now. Probably pesticides. I don't think they are deliberately poisoning us -- I think they just don't care.

Comments

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Is Dick Smith still doing his thing, are are they an alternative for you?

Of course, considering Nestle took control in 2006 probably not much point getting upset by the symbolism of Nestle now.

But if the food quality has changed, maybe you should ask where they source the oats. They'll lie, of course, but you could ask Choice (http://www.choicefoodforkids.com.au/review/UNCLE-TOBYS-Oats).

They do seem to be buying local oats (http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2008/11/07/22255_grain-and-hay.html) - I wonder if there's some drought connection in the changes?

Nestle ingredient buyer Michael Arnone said the company had struggled to source oats in the past, importing the shortfall from Canada and Western Australia last year.

Seems like Nestle don't control the food chain, so that's something.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Dick Smiths is a very good idea. I already buy a number of things from them. Don't know why I didn't think of their oats. Thanks for that. I'll look into it.

Nestle do control much of the food chain and seem to be trying to own it all. If you ever want to see what kind of future they're attempting to set up for us, see the scary 1975 science fiction "Rollerball" (not the stupid 2002 action flick with the same name).

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice that you'd said 2006. That explains a lot. I think it was early 2007 when I started noticing the drop in quality. Now, however, after progressively worsening, these expensive oats are worse than the cheapest 3rd world offerings.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Strangely, I am on Wikipedia now looking up various Nestle products.... (completely unrelated to your post - I discovered US Smarties are not what we know as Smarties).

They are certainly a more expansive company than I realised.