Health

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Skimpy Peanut Butter — Part 1

Skippy NaturalThe 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:  Here is the ingredients listing:

ingredients

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:

spread

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. 

§ 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. 

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.

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Bayer with Heart Advantage: Not a One a Day Aspirin

You may have seen TV and print ads for a new low dose aspirin called “Bayer Aspirin with Heart Advantage.”  It is an 81 mg aspirin combined with an ingredient that can lower your cholesterol.

With about 50 million Americans taking daily aspirin therapy to reduce the risk of heart disease, what a great idea (seemingly) to incorporate an ingredient that can also lower cholesterol.

Bayer

There is just one little problem with this little pill.

*MOUSE PRINT:  At the bottom of the ad, in fine print, (magnified below) is this advisory:

Bayer

Translation: In order to get the cholesterol lowering benefits of this pill, you need to take two of these 81 mg pills a day – twice the typically recommended 81 mg. dose of aspirin. (The most common dosage for daily aspirin therapy is 81 mg. because larger doses can cause internal bleeding, and are no more effective.)

A spokesperson for Bayer confirmed the necessity of taking two caplets in order to receive the cholesterol lowering benefits promised, but said,

… 162 mg is well within the accepted low dose range of aspirin therapy of from 50 to 325 mg … We advise patients to ask their physician before they start Bayer Heart Advantage…

One only has to wonder how many people will grab this product, take their regular single 81 mg pill as usual thinking they were getting “more heart protection” when they are not. Why didn’t Bayer just put the full 800 mg of phytosterols necessary to get a heart advantage in a single 81 mg aspirin caplet and thus avoid mis-dosing?

“The FDA claim specifies that ‘the daily dietary intake of plant sterol or stanol esters should be consumed in two servings eaten at different times of the day with other foods.’ The health claim also says that dietary supplements or food containing at least 400mg per serving of free phytosterols, eaten twice a day with meals for a daily total intake of at least 800mg, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol.” — Bayer spokesperson.

To emphasize that the dosing is different for this product, Bayer should put a conspicuous disclosure on the front panel that says “Take one twice a day,” and not merely rely on the fine print instructions on the back.

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Free Sample: No Obligation to Buy?

pain cream smallWho doesn’t like free samples, right? So when this offer of a free sample of PainVanish pain relieving cream arrived, a Mouse Print* reader was anxious to give it a try.

It promised to bring “freedom from your aches and pains.” And all you have to do is cut out the little “I want relief” sticker and place it on the free sample coupon for mailing back to the company.

There is small print repeated multiple times that says the free sample is just “for trying our ‘No-Obligations-To-Buy’ Service”. While one might reasonably conclude that the sample you are going to get is the way this company will try to induce you to place future orders if you like the product, they have something else planned. This disclosure is on the back of the brochure, not the back of the tear off coupon:

*MOUSE PRINT:

pain cream string

Translation: This is really a “pain cream of the month” club. If you don’t tell them to cancel, a month after your free sample arrives, you will first get a two ounce tube of cream for $14.99 plus unspecified shipping and handling charges, and then every month thereafter you will get a four ounce tube for $24.99 plus shipping and handling. You are not just getting a simple free sample by replying to this offer.

Negative option plans such as this are required to clearly and conspicuously disclose the continuing nature of the offer and to get you to affirmatively agree to it. Whether this disclosure meets that test is for a judge to decide.

This pain relief offer may turn out to be a pain itself if you didn’t read the fine print.