On bag of sugar from HyVee
 

Clean
Honest
Ingredients

What were they using before?

I forget what it is now, but I had one of those things this past week while shopping with the hubby. I think it was "applesauce made with real fruit" which sort of gave me a queasy feeling on what else would it be made of??

I'm rather amused by the Gluten Free! labels my market puts on things like steak. Yeah. No gluten in steak and no need for a sticker...

Tartan, I don't know the current standards but being in border states, when I've had the options between something grown/produced in the US versus Canada, I pick the Canadian option as being more consumer friendly.

It used to be that US farmers were allowed to put in essentially formaldehyde plugs in the trees to keep the sap running longer which was forbidden in Canada. I also like Canadian standards for sausage and meat products and will buy accordingly as well.

Iceblossom - I had no idea about the Canadian option for food. I will,not buy anything made in Mexico - which limits my tomato purchase at certain times of the year. If I lived close to the Canadian border I thunk I would do just as you do.

The gluten-free labels have gotten quite amusing indeed. I just read that people who are going gluten-free just as a choice and nit because of a medical reason aren’t doing their bodies any good at all as they are missing certain ingredients that are needed. I understand about the medical reasons, but it seems to me that the gluten-free idea is just another bandwagon people are jumping on without investigating the products. And the GF products costs more. I’m also very Leary if the term “organic” because any company can slap that name and raise the price. True organic products have very stringent rules that must be followed when growing the products - even a farm right next to an organic farm can spread the pesticides, etc. that delete the true organic product.

I always think organic foods should cost less as there is less processing and less things (herbicides/weed chemicals) used on them. They are more labor intensive though.

Years ago my daughter had a horse. The farm would sell organic manure.....the horses were de-wormed, would have had antibiotics, as well as vitamins. Thus it wasn’t truly organic. LOL.

Kind of makes you wonder. Before the sugar was made clean, etc., what did they add? Sawdust? Ground beef? Old clothes? Or maybe some even worse stuff?

When the GF craze started, my favorite grocery store slapped that label on everything! It was really funny! GF fresh veggies; tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, celery, etc.

I had never heard of this and I live in a big maple producing area. So I did some quick research. The EPA banned it's use in the US in 1982. Canada did not follow suit until almost 10 years later and banned it in 1991. According to a couple of articles I came across, apparently there were some cheaters in Quebec that were discovered about 5 years ago. I have found the best and safest is to simply go right to the source. I get my maple syrup from local producers. My husband keeps bees so I get honey straight from the hives. In the summer when we have farmers markets all over, most of my produce is bought at the farmers market. I go straight to the farmer for a lamb every year for my freezer and I get a pig every other year. I raise my own chickens (both meat birds and egg layers). We used to go up into Quebec to buy cheese form a local cheese factory in the middle of dairy country just over the border. Boy did they have good cheese! Because I simply don't have the freezer space for quarter cow, I do still buy beef from the grocery store as well as italian sausage.

Buying local at the source, if you can, is the most consumer friendly and environmentally friendly way to go.

Thanks for the update Feline, I haven't followed maple sugar stuff since the 70s. From what I understood at the time, the Americans mostly used the plugs and the Canadians didn't. I was quite concerned over the use of pesticides and the amounts of residue in prepared foods, cottonseed oil was a big offender.

I've always believed in growing what I can, and eating as local as I can (not that many choices growing up in Alaska...) as well as eating seasonally. Mostly we eat fresh foods now, and we try to buy within 200 miles from us, our milk for example is local. Since hubby has gone Keto and lost so much weight (200 pounds!) he is more interested in where his food comes from and we will be switching to locally produced meat. Will be a large financial hit at first, we will have to buy a freezer among other things. I'm a former vegetarian but have adjusted to life as an omnivore, however the modern factory farming of pigs particularly bothers my moral senses.

Today is my small group day and Farmer's Market day, our market is in the afternoon so work people can come, runs from 3-7 PM and so most of the produce is indeed picked that morning or the day before. We have new vendors this year including an egg guy and a meat guy. True free range farm chicken eggs are $8.00 a dozen, we can probably buy for $6 if we travel to the farms. Fresh eggs are a marvelous thing and have flavor! Hubby has been really enjoying a couple other new vendors this year, a micro greens lady (not sprouts, they are cut off at the roots) and the mushroom lady. She has several varieties of mushrooms, hubby loves the Lions Mane.

I have noticed a brand of tuna that adds soy protein, probably as a filler. Not sure if it is in stores, I saw it in the food shelf where I volunteer. We also have started carrying a brand of peanut butter that boasts on the label "90% peanuts!!" Really?

It's the labor involved that drives the prices higher. It is more costly than the pesticides and their application to kill the bugs. To be organic is more hands on than using machinery.

These comments are cracking me up! Bear and Silly Susan;) Bwahaha!

Recently I read something from a customer service person at a big box store. Customer returned a bag of topsoil because there was dirt on it.

I know years ago the Canadian government did not allow the little popup tabs on a turkey for roasting. Friends from Canada would come here to buy turkeys for the holidays. I live close enough to the boarder for occasional visits. I personally don't make the trip any more but send friends. They will pick up any number of items the other side of the boarder that we cannot get here. As far as fruits and veggies I purchase while in season at our County Farmer's Market where I get locally grown produce. I can my own fruits and veggies for the off seasons.
There is so much work involved in making Maple syrup. I had no idea that some harvest with additives that are dangerous!! I would have never thought this possible?

You can make your own peanut butter at home with a food processor....just peanuts, no additives, no extra oil, of sugar. Taste the same as what you buy in the store, only without anything added. Of course you can buy organic peanut butter at the store that may be 100% peanuts, but it costs you more.

Another paragraph that was on the sugar bag:

"Less can be more - especially when it comes to food. That's why we've removed unnecessary additives from many Hy-vee products. Just look for the Clean Honest Ingredients (TM) logo."

It does make me wonder - - - -

Ice,

I like how you shop.

I buy beef from a local farmer who has his beef, cut and wrapped and I can choose which cuts I want to buy. I do not have to buy a side or a quarter. They also sell duck and hens eggs for less than the $8 you have ot pay at the market. If baking one duck egg and one small hen's egg equals about 2 large hens eggs.

Having said that I do have two deep freezers and buy 1/2 a pig each year. plus locally raised chickens and turkey. One freezer is almost full of frozen berries. I freeze a couple hundred pounds of various berries to enjoy all winter when fruit prices are much higher.

One tip when you are freezer shopping, an upright freezer is much easier to manage, stuff does not fall to the bottom, but chest freezers are often available second hand at great prices. I have one of each.

That made me think of an observation I saw on Pinterest to the effect that today, lemonade is made with artificial ingredients, and furniture polish is made with real lemons.

Leslie

My husband is a food chemist and he told me there is all kinds of misinformation on labels. They have clever ways of making you think something is one thing when it's really quite another!

......... or often, accurate info, giving the impression that a product has special attributes
over other similar ones (when truly it does not!).

When some consumers get on a "bandwagon" ... then food marketers jump right on with them!
Almost like taking advantage?

Labels are an interesting conversation. Here is something you never see on labels and it's pretty scary: https://www.biosludge.news/

I'm not sure how being gluten free could mean you didn't get some nutrients. Gluten is an additive to processed foods. If you go gluten free by buying whole foods and cooking them yourself, you're probably eating healthier than if you eat gluten. Now if you go gluten free by eating the same processed foods you ate before, you won't be eating healthy. But then you weren't eating healthy before so you're not going to miss anything you weren't missing before.

This is what I have believed gluten to be:

https://celiac.org/gluten-free-living/what-is-gluten/

It is naturally occurring in some grains.

Right. You could eat all natural, organic whole wheat and you would get tons of gluten. I never heard of it being an additive, except maybe for high-gluten flour.

I am an avid label reader and have learned what most of the tricks are. I stick to as few ingredient as possible on the label. I won't buy grown in Mexico food or pet food manufactured in China.

My DD had a college friend that was vegan and gluten free and all her food had to be organic and nothing with a face being a part of it. I thought she was recovering from an illness when I first met her. She didn't know that organic growers at the farmer's market used animal manure as fertilizer. She tried to get others to protest that and make a scene over it. My DD distanced herself from her and I was curious to what the sad girl ever found to eat

Though by eating that natural, organic whole wheat, you would not be
eating any more gluten than if you ate non-organic whole wheat.

Organic has nothing to do with gluten and vice-verse!

When reading products labels you can often find gluten-containing ingredients
in foods that you would not expect to have grains in .....

BearIsGray's link gives a good explanation about gluten.
... as well as as an overview as to where one may find gluten that they would not expect.
For example, food colouring was a total surprise!!

Like who would ever have thought that?
Well, at least not me!

Even in foods that do not naturally contain gluten, people who are very sensitive to it need to look for the GF label, to make sure there is not cross-contamination in the manufacturing and packaging. For instance, Cheerios have the GF label, store brand "toasty-o's" do not.

I work in a supermarket deli; all of our lunchmeat and cheeses are gluten free, but marketed in different ways.

the name brand hams and turkeys come in with the name of the company and 99% fat free and gluten free already printed on the wrapper. the gluten free part is about the size of my house key.

the store brand hams and turkeys come in with a plain clear wrapper. Interestingly, they are also a name brand meat, just seasoned to our chain's individual specifications. We have a big roll of stickers with our store name on it, plus the words gluten free. the sticker is about the size of my hand. We don't have always have the stickers to put on the store brand meats, but you would be surprised at how many more customers buy the store brand 'because it's gluten free' when we have and use them. these are the same customers who refuse to buy anything but the name brand lunchmeats when we don't use the giant gluten free store brand stickers.

I am not sure how many people are very educated about what gluten-free is by their buying habits. I think they mostly know that there is a diet thing going around about gluten, and it is a snap decision to be a little more healthy. I only have a handful of customers with actual gluten allergies, and they always make sure to educate themselves on how we slice and handle our products before they buy anything. In fact, I have one customer who is so sensitive to gluten they cannot buy our lunchmeats because we share prep areas and a kitchen with the bakery, and don't have separate sinks, etcs.

Remember “ one size fits all” clothing labels?

Now they read “one size fits most”.

I remember those labels -

That's about the craziest thing I've heard! Animal manure is very "natural"- nothing my 2 vegetarian sons would object to! And they know a lot about it. They are two of the healthiest people I know. It's been so long since they've eaten meat that I can't even remember when they started being vegetarian.

yes, but if plants are fertilized with manure from animals that ate non-organic feed, is the manure (and plants) still organic?

We each have reasons (or not) on why we do things. My son is vegan and has cut out honey because it is made by bees -- well, so is almost every piece of fruit you eat as well as many vegetables are pollinated by bees. Even having been a vegetarian myself I never understood the bee thing, but I know it is a thing.

There are (of course!) standards on what makes things organic. It is my understanding that non-processed/composted manure is considered organic if there are no additives and that it does not matter what the feed or antibiotics that the animal is treated with, only what the manure is treated with after it is produced. It's one of those areas that causes concerns because things like sewage sludge waste products (which have been sterilized) can be used despite mineral and other contamination.

Today is Farmer's Market day. I'll chat with a couple of the vendors. I know we have organic, regular, and "transitional" farms represented. Transitional is the period they have to go through before they can be certified as organic even if they have grown the crops organically on fresh ground.

I read through a few articles there; that site contains a *lot* of misinformation. There is also some good, accurate information, but I hate it when sites treat science and conspiracy as being equal.