The above title does not contain a typo. This is part one of a story about Skippy, the most famous brand of peanut butter.
You may not have noticed, but Skippy has a new product on the shelves (or at least new to MrConsumer), called Skippy Natural. Many would expect that this product will be nothing but ground peanuts and salt.
Not so fast.
*MOUSE PRINT:Â Here is the ingredients listing:
How can this be? The recipe is like regular Skippy: peanuts, sugar, oil, and salt. First, the federal government does not have strict rules about use of the word “natural”. So we shouldn’t assume it means just nuts, even though competitors like Smuckers Natural Creamy peanut butter and Teddie Old Fashioned Natural peanut butter contain only nuts and salt. More interesting is another bit of Mouse Print* that most people miss:
*MOUSE PRINT:
The product is not really peanut butter, but rather “peanut butter spread.” What in the world is peanut butter spread? It is a fanciful term used by product manufacturers when they cannot legally call their product “peanut butter” because it does not meet the federal standard of identity for peanut butter.Â
§ 164.150 Peanut butter.
(a) Peanut butter is the food prepared by grinding one of the shelled and roasted peanut ingredients provided for by paragraph (b) of this section, to which may be added safe and suitable seasoning and stabilizing ingredients provided for by paragraph (c) of this section, but such seasoning and stabilizing ingredients do not in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food.Â
Translation: To be called peanut butter, the recipe must include at least 90% peanuts, and can include a stabilizer to keep the product from separating. If the stabilizer is oil, it must be hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. And therein lies the reason(s) it can’t be called peanut butter. It uses non-hydrogenated palm oil — an oil higher in saturated fat — than the type used in regular Skippy as an emulsifier. Here is how the company explained it:
“Since Skippy Natural uses palm oil as a stabilizing ingredient, which as an oil is not hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, Skippy Natural cannot legally be claimed a Peanut Butter, as per the FDA. However, Skippy Natural does qualify as a Peanut Butter Spread, just like many of the Reduced Fat and Low Carb peanut butters on the market. Skippy Natural is made with ingredients that are minimally and non-chemically processed. The FDA does not have a definition for natural products, like it does for organic foods, but the general ruling is that natural foods should be minimally and non-chemically processed.”
After tasting Skippy Natural, and not sensing much of a peanuty flavor, MrConsumer wondered whether the company also tinkered with the amount of nuts in the recipe since they no longer had to meet the 90% standard anyway. It took two attempts to find out whether they still put in at least 90% peanuts. Here is their answer:
“We do not provide percentages for ingredients used in our products. This is considered proprietary information.”
So, if you want natural peanut butter, defined as just peanuts and nothing else but maybe salt, better stick with another brand.
Part 2 of “Skimpy” peanut butter will focus on a new packaging trick used by the company.
Would you believe that at the exact moment this item scrolled by in Google Reader and caught my eye, I had a mouthful of Skippy Natural and a piece of toast covered with it in my left hand?
Interesting details, but I wonder if Palm Oil is better that anything partially hydrogenated?
I’ve seen a packaging trick with Skippy recently so I’ll be looking forward to seeing what the one you found is. I won’t spoil the fun.
As you have pointed out, Skippy Natural is not real peanut butter as defined by law, but imitation peanut butter. But to call it imitation peanut butter would probably affect sales so they call it peanut butter spread, which is not defined by law. I haven’t seen it in the market, but I assume Skippy Natural is lower in price. Let the buyer beware.
Edgar replies: Actually, it appears to be slightly premium priced!
While the Skippy Natural doesn’t have as much of a peanut taste as those that are simply peanuts and salt, you also don’t have to stir it or refrigerate it. The most recent peanuts and salt peanut butter I bought wound up having so much oil that it was the consistency of salad dressing, not easy to put on bread without dripping.
Two points about the palm oil. The first is that, like coconut oil, this type of saturated fat is good for you as it has medium chain triglycerides which are necessary for our bodies to function optimally. The second point is that even if you don’t subscribe to the the “it’s good for you” mentality about palm oil it’s better for you then hydrogenated oils (transfat). Don’t take my word for it, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that it is less harmful to the heart than partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their palm oil bashing report. [http://www.cspinet.org/palmoilreport/PalmOilReport.pdf; p4]
And for the record, I always ignore the “Natural” label and just read the ingredient list. I chose the Skippy because it didn’t have the transfat. I missed however, the “spread” verbiage.
Overall, not a bad mouse print… just wanted to correct the misconception about the palm oil… and yes, I’ll probably still continue to buy this brand over those with the transfat.
I, took, bought this when on my quest for a more natural pb. I didn’t pay attention to the ingredient list till I got home. 🙁 I only bought the one jar, however, as there’s a HUGE problem with palm oil, at least for those of us seeking a more natural pb for environmental reasons: palm oil is generally grown on clear cut or burned out previously-forested land. The use of palm oil is just another thing destroying the rain forests. (There are tons of articles about it. One is http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0425-oil_palm.html )
I avoid palm oil as much as I can.
Oh, and this is far from new. I bought it at least a year ago, possibly upwards of 2.
Susan,
If you’re going to quote a source include the whole context.
“Though less harmful than partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, it is far more conducive to heart
disease than such heart-protective liquid oils as olive, soy, and canola.”
There, now people can make a more informed decision. In this case the less harmful in context is like saying a snapping turtle is less harmful thank a alligator. The real bottom line when it comes to things like palm oil is that in moderation its less likely to kill you than if you fry you bologna meat in it daily.
LEAVE SKIPPY PEANUT BUTTER ALONE! Oh wait. You people don’t understand anything. What Skippy is trying to say is that they have a “natural” imitation peanut butter spread. You know, like natural artificial flavoring or natural artificial real ingredients. Thanks for smoking!
Buy a can of roasted peanuts (oil roasted is better, or add peanut oil to dry roasted) and run them through the blender or food processor. Adjust the processing time to control the consistency. Add salt to taste.
Great ‘natural peanut butter’
roasted peanuts, sugar, palm oil adn salt sound like pretty “natural” ingredients to me. what’s the big deal?
that’s just dandy jim! now it will only take me 45 minutes to make a frigin’ peanut butter sandwich. not to mention the extra two hours i’ll need to dig all the pulverized peanuts out of all the nooks and crannies of my blender and that every margarita i make from then on will taste like stale peanut butter. that’s just a fantastic idea!!
Yum, Peanut butter Margarita!!! Thanks for the tip Shawn…:)
So you’re telling me you would rather consume hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil as opposed to palm oil? Wow. This article is really stretching for negativity. I’ll stick with the brand, thank you.
rahlquist is correct. I should have provided the entire quote so that consumers could be informed that the healthiest peanut butter would be made with olive, soy or canola oil. I humbly apologize for not thinking to allow for the possible existence of such products.
Ann Marie may want to look at a more recent page of Mongabay. Unilever (maker of this product) has called for ban on rainforest destruction for palm oil [ http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0501-unilever.html }
I’m still buying the product from my local Target store (cost $2.09/jar). And I did notice the bottom divot mentioned in this week’s (9/8/08) mouseprint; same container design… makes it a bit of a pain to get the last bits of peanut butter spread…
Yeah, I’m kind of confused too about the complaint about it being called “natural.” Does the author not know what is natural and what is artificial? The ingredients on the label all appear to be natural to me or derived from natural sources. There are no artificial ingredients listed on that label. But if you want to argue that palm oil has to be processed, well, then peanut butter isn’t “natural” in that respect either. If you are going to complaing about something, at least make sense.
Edgar replies: As noted above, most name brand “natural” peanut butters are nothing but nuts and maybe salt. The fact that Skippy Natural adds both sugar and fat is unexpected, and therefore is an appropriate example of where the mouse print reveals a surprise.
Yes, and as also noted above: “First, the federal government does not have strict rules about use of the word “naturalâ€. So we shouldn’t assume it means just nuts”
So, why go and assume it’s just going to be peanuts and salt, when you tell us NOT to assume in the first place because there is no strict definition?
Again, I can’t fault a brand for telling us it’s natural when all the ingredients are indeed natural. Seeing the ingredients listed would NOT surprise me.
First of all, I am never swayed by what’s written on a label that’s promotional. The term “natural” has no undue influence over my choices because I know
that rat droppings and cyanide and Nightshade are all natural. So, I don’t know why you should attach a value to the term “natural” and expect anything
but natural ingredients? I could see your indignation and surprise if they put “Healthful!” or “Good for you!” on the label, but “natural?” I would be more
outraged to see “cholesterol free” on a bag of potato chips fried in vegetable oil. Of course, they’re cholesterol free. Cholesterol is an animal product.
My local supermarket has a grinding machine with peanuts in a hopper, and that is the only peanut butter that I buy. It’s $1.89/lb, doesn’t separate, and doesn’t need to be refrigerated, so don’t believe the FUD. I don’t feel the need to add salt, but YMMV. I’ll never go back to Skippy.
Since we’re on the topic of “all natural” interpretations, if the product was 50% peanuts and 49% carrot mush, would you consider it “all natural PEANUT BUTTER”???
I think the point is that you expect this to be ground peanuts and at this point by adding the word “spread” it can probably have 1% peanuts and qualify. And when companies do that, they hide these facts behind sneaky terms like all-natural.
If I sold you ice cream with 10% milk (with 1% fat so it can contain cream) and then give you 90% lard, would you be okay with me selling you all-natural ice cream?
I’d say that the word natural with this peanut butter is a marketing trick to hide the truth behind the product. I had seen this a while back and couldn’t determine why they were selling it as a different product from their other one. Thanks to Edgar for enlightening me.
BTW
Ranma, thanks for the info…I’ll have to look for that in some of my health food stores around town to see if they offer it at a reasonable price.
I bought the skippy. I am a Jiff fan, but bought into the “natural” claim. Palm oil has to be one of the worst oils out there. Peppridge Farms use to use in their goldfish, they don’t any more, nor does anyone who knows any thing about palm oil. I will continue to eat peanut butter, but not Skippy.
LOVE YOUR SITE. But completely disagree with you on this one. They are using palm oil in place of partially hydrogenated oil. Which is aka TRANS FAT. The worlds worst/most dangerous fat there is.
So to call it natural because they aren’t using a poison, I have to side with them.
I was shocked to find out that partially hydrogenated oil was a requirement. Also know that hydrogenated oil is completely seperate than partially hydrogenated. So the two can’t be used interchangeably. Someone doesn’t know what’s going on.