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]

You could ring and ask.

I wonder why they would change the production process?

[damien-wise.livejournal.com]

Crap! :(
I thought [past tense] UT was a reasonably reliable brand and worth paying a bit extra for the quality.

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.

It's all about churning-out much stuff per square metre of farm-land and getting it sold on a shelf for as much money as possible with as little care or expense in-between. If they lace the crops with pesticides, rip-off farmers, trash the land, accidentally breed-out flavour and nutritional content, then so be it...
All we need now is for Nestle to merge with Monsanto (or whatever it's calling itself this year to avoid the flak...Bayer, Pharmacia?)

Also, it's worth looking at the fine print near the ingredients-list of most packaged food nowadays.
The label can say "Australian Made" even if the contents aren't Australian...all they need to to is package it here and pay the regulatory fee for the green&gold kangaroo "Australian Made" logo.
Likewise, "Australian Owned" only applies to the parent company or label/brand and doesn't say anything about where the farms/factories/workers are or where the ingredients/contents came from.
The new scam is to say: "Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients"...which can mean anything.

[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.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

What always surprised me is that they seem to think people won't notice.
They buy a company that's doing well because it's a high value product, change the product to a low value one and think they're gonna keep people buying it. That's bizarre.
I used to buy Tom of Maine's toothpaste. It got bought out. I've tried it since. They've obviously changed the formula somehow. It doesn't taste right and I feel I get less benefit from it. I won't buy it again.
Really that simple.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

I had to do a project on them in 8th grade. Once I started reading into it I refused to do the project.

[hestia.livejournal.com]

Ah that would explain the nasty little hard bits of grit or whatever it is I've found in the muslie bars. Bastards.