Monday, February 15, 2010

Food Alert: Read the Fine Print!

For many, many years, I've been buying the same tomato paste/concentrate. It was made of tomatoes only. It was a very dark, blood red. Then one day, a couple of weeks ago, I opened a can and some bright red "mush" stared up at me. Nu, this didn't look like my old trusty tomato paste. Could I be mistaken?




I checked the can. I was right.  I don't think that the writing came out clearly here in the picture, but trust me.  There's more than just tomatoes in the paste.

So, the next time I needed tomato paste I went over every single brand in the store.  There wasn't any other concentrate of 28-30%.  I had to settle on the 22%.  So I found two brands without additives.  Nu, how could I choose one.  I checked the sodium.  One had almost double the other one.  Yes, of course I took the lower sodium.

Read the fine print and don't take for granted that products won't change.

Kosher food consumers or those with lactose or celiac restrictions must also be alert to changes in recipes and ingredients.

Read the fine print.

2 comments:

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
As I read the title I thought to myself, "I'll add a comment about tomato paste." No need... However I can add that I can't find "100% tomato paste" that doesn't contain large quantities of fructose.
What really galls me is that the companies didn't change the "100%" on the label.

Batya said...

The one I finally chose, is called "tomato" and is even kosher for Passover. It lists only tomatoes as the ingredients, but there is sodium, as there is in everything.