Arm & Hammer Responds To Baking Soda Controversy With Complete Nonsense
Widge at Needcoffee.com wrote a similar post about Arm & Hammer's new "30 day" baking soda and got a response from Arm & Hammer PR. We're being kind when we say that reason consumers are being told to buy 3 times as much baking soda is nonsense. We're sure there are more colorful words that would be just as accurate.
From Needcoffee:
I work for Arm & Hammer and wanted to quickly clarify the new 30-day messaging on the Arm & Hammer Fridge-N-Freezer box. I'm sure you know that Arm & Hammer Baking Soda has 100s of uses- from polishing silver to deodorizing your stinky gym shoes, but it is most commonly used to deodorize the fridge.
So first up I'm already on the defensive, because I'm trying to figure out how the hell they know about my gym shoes. But that's another issue.
We are telling consumers to change the box every 30 days because we've found that baking soda helps prevent taste-transfer in your refrigerator, meaning it helps keep the foods in your fridge tasting fresher longer when it is replaced each month.
When you have garlic cloves in your fridge and, say, mozzarella cheese, the garlic can overtake the mozzarella, making it taste like the garlic. But, when you place the Fridge-N-Freezer box in your refrigerator, it keeps those flavors separate from each other- preventing the taste transfer and keeping your refrigerated foods tasting the way they should.
Fair enough--further research has shown that garlicky cheese can be prevented if you buy three times the amount of our product that you did previously.
That sounds vaguely reasonable until you actually start thinking about it. Thankfully, we don't have to because Widge has done it for us.
So what Arm & Hammer is saying here is that after approximately a hundred years of having the product on the shelf, they've learned in the past few months that it helps with taste transfer but only if you buy it once a month. This is new news to them and a new application of the product and hey, a benefit to the consumer. I can buy that, no problem.
Although...it would kind of make the entire thing pointless if I were to find a press release from 1999 that said that "taste-transfer" was an issue, even back in those halcyon days of yore. And wait, here's a website quoting what the Arm & Hammer site used to say, that "We recommend that you replace the ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda in your fridge and freezer every 3 months to keep them smelling fresh and to prevent any taste transfer between stored foods. We can even send you a reminder via E-Mail--just check out our Reminder page."
So basically we're right back where we started. One of three things has occurred.
A) Arm & Hammer's product has gotten weaker so you need to buy three times the amount that you previously needed to avoid taste transfer
2) Food odors have somehow gotten stronger, probably due to global warming
III) Arm & Hammer (not the publicist, who was very nice and I'd like to make it clear I'm not picking on them since they were giving me Arm & Hammer's story and that's their job--but this is my job) just wants to sell three times the amount of baking soda they did in the past and figured out a way to try and do so.
You make the call.
Arm & Hammer Responds [Need Coffee]
The Baking Soda Crop Was Especially Weak This Season [Need Coffee]
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Comments:
First- Who's keeping garlic in the fridge?
Second- If it's shredded mozz., it's probably in a sealed bag. If it's fresh, it's probably in a sealed tub of water.
Third- Garlic doesn't really smell until you peel and/or chop it. So stop keeping peeled and/or chopped garlic in your fridge, weirdos.
I still call time shrink ray on this one.
Is it just me, or does the logo remind anyone of Trogdor?
And this, my friends, is why I don't trust just about any large company. Not the trogdor thing, but the subject of the post thing.
So how many boxes are needed for your shoes? And how often should they be changed?
@samurailynn: I wouldn't do it, if I were you. Smell it. It will smell like ALL of the foods that passed through your refrigerator. Unless you want to add ''special flavor'' to your cooking.
@Victo: That's what I thought... which is why my baking soda is in the cupboard and my 'fridge is stinky. I could buy a second box of baking soda... or I could just clean my 'fridge.
It is my understanding that baking soda does little to eliminate refrigerator odors. Activated charcoal will do a much better job.
Also known to prevent the dreaded 'taste transfer' are reusable food containers and cleaning your friggin fridge!
I think garlic mozzarella would taste great. I was going to add them together in a delicious pizza anyway.
Most commonly used to deodorize the fridge? I always thought that baking soda's most common use was, you know, baking.
Very true. Another thing you can do is put a bowl of good quality cat litter in your fridge. That and activated charcoal will do far more for odors than baking soda can.
@samurailynn: I do keep my minced garlic (the kind in the jar) in the fridge - and it happens to be next to the A&H baking soda.
I'm now on month FOUR...yes, FOUR...of the same box and none of the stuff in my fridge smells like garlic OR the Chinese food that's been in there for 4 days.
Hm.
*To Do list...*
Am I abnormal (hey - don't answer so quick). I have never noticed a problem with fridge or freezer odor or 'taste transfer'.
Me thinks this is a manufactured problem that has been around so long, we all accept it as fact.
I have to go now and by some eyelid deodorant, as I want to make sure my lashes are 'Winking Fresh!'.
Wait a second, aren't you supposed to use baking powder, not baking soda in recipes? Are they the same thing? Anyway, I prefer all the tastes to cross-contiminate, it makes choosing food out of the fridge all the more easy. Hmmm, I'll have a "garlicmilkorangelomeinpizzafish pie"!
I thought the only time you needed to change the baking soda in the fridge was each time you moved.
Going on 14 months with my current box and no indication whatsoever of "taste transfer", then again I wait until my fridge is empty to go grocery shopping, only buy enough food for a week and usually clean the fridge out before I stock it up again, and, oh yeah, use reusable containers to seal everything in.
I call it what it is. A massive case of "bullshittery".
ha, nothing worse than that not so fresh feeling when you wink at your significant other.
@samurailynn:
Victo is right, your food would taste a little off. But, you can still use it to clean!
I vote for 2) "Food odors have somehow gotten stronger, probably due to global warming"
Damn you Al gore!!
I don't think the baking soda that my mom uses in the fridge has been changed since I was born...then again, she also keep everything in tupperware & ziplocks
@hamsangwich: They are two different things and can both be used in baking. Just don't use the baking soda from your fridge.
Keep the baking soda near the fan and/or thermal control. What it does is soak up the volatile esters and oils that produce smells, but it cannot do it if there is no specific airflow to drag it into the box.
Think *very* passive odor control.
Also, once or twice a year, it doesn't hurt to scrub the walls, bins and shelves of your refrigerator with a paste made from baking soda or with a bleach rinse. Even if you are diligent or have enamel coated liners, the esters and oils can cling to the surfaces, and some can even contribute to mold.
I think there was some tast tranfer from my gym shoes to my fromunda cheese.
Ima play it safe and replace the box every 28 days, just in case moon cycles or menstruation also have something to do with it.
Unclean! Unclean!
Okay, Let's take the guy at his word and swap every 30 days. With store brands that are about 1/3 less...
I live life on the edge...I'm going to use it pass their due dates :P
@hamsangwich:
Yes, they are nearly interchangeable in recipes. Both products are actually variations of the same substance, baekeng, which comes from an Eastern herb. It was originally exported as the same product by two old family companies, Poudur and Sodeh, but in the early 1900's they had a falling out regarding the standard dose required to sterilize their herds of bull aardvarks before Hannukah. During this feud the product potency diverged. This difference means that when substituting, in recipe's calling for baking powder you should instead use 25% more baking soda.
-The answer man
What this means is that they couldn't figure a way to make an ULTRA version of baking soda which would be supposedly 1/2 the amount to do twice the job. Yeah Right!
A&H are probably trying to be like those liquid dish soap folks who reduced size of their bottles for ULTRA, put a smaller diameter squirt orifice on the bottle cap for an initial run and ad campaign "so you don't need to use more" and then switched back to the larger diameter hole after exhausting the "so you don't need to use more" labels. So you would in fact, use more...
@hamsangwich: Recipes will call for one, or the other, or both. In particular, if you have a recipe with a high amount of acid, they may call for baking soda to neutralize that acidity and create leavening the process.
My guide for changing out the baking soda is "when the fridge smells bad". Sometimes it seems to happen much sooner than others, but when you put some chinese or other fish-sauce based food in there and the whole thing reeks the next day, its time for new baking soda.
Mmm garlic cheese.
I hear baking soda is used to cut cocaine and it makes it weaker. Perhaps Arm and Hammer got it mixed up and are cutting their baking soda with cocaine and therefore making it weaker.
@ludwigk: the old stinky baking soda from the fridge is still good to use to neutralize car battery acid for anyone with a mechanic in the house...
I just use it in my soda. It makes it fizzier.
@legwork: also, too bad we don't have commies ala gawker. yours would be so good, it could land the vault on its knees and still get a win. just like the chinese pig-woman.
@FijianTribe: Well, unless you're worried about one shoe's taste transferring to another, it seems like you'd get your full 3 months' use out of it. But, if you're worried about that, you'd probably be better off finding a better eating plan.
Kudos for bothering to leave a response, A&H... but, wth is up with all that corporate-speak BS? If you're going to go to all the effort of responding to criticism, at least make sure that you know what you're talking about and that you are not trying to take decade-old marketing and apply it as a reason for why your product appears to be less effective than it was a decade ago.
I don't use baking soda; my fridge smells fine, and my mozzerela cheese tastes like mozzerela cheese.
Use the old box down the drain with vinegar-it still fizzes just fine.
That "Grocery Suck Ray" tag is golden. :D
I'm with the people who wonder why garlic would be in the fridge.
On the other hand, garlic mozzarella sounds pretty tasty...
Still, the response given doesn't really say anything at all. What kind of answer was that?
Well as long as my milk isn't tasting like bacon.
Hold on, that would be awesome!
Anyone who thinks this is any other than a lame attempt to sell more baking soda needs some help.
The only time we ever used baking soda in a fridge was in a rental, the fridge had a disgusting mystery smell that even cleaning wouldn't remove.
Power cleaning the fridge about every 4 months plus keeping things in decent sealed containers seems to be working fine.
i have never had a stinky fridge. perhaps the better solution is eat what's in it before buying new food?
YAY Widge!
Now if only he could come up with new information on No Extra Day from Fitts.
This is just like how they try to rip you off by telling you to have your oil changed every 5000 miles...
I'm going on 25,000 miles without so much as adding a drop of fresh oil and my car runs fine!
When we first moved into our current apartment, the refrigerator had the scent of death inside of it. Death bathed in bleach. It was quite horrific.
We tossed those boxes of baking soda in there and both the refrigerator and the freezer were smelling fresh in no time.
I think that was... geez... Over two years ago? Those two boxes are still there, in the back. But we don't have any funky odors.
Maybe we have magic baking soda!
Although, my gut tells me it's due more to the fact that we don't keep things that smell like death or bleach in refrigerator.
Baking Soda - Great for a lot of things! Not needed as much as marketing tells you. No surprise there, I must say.
I buy the store brand. Works great, costs less.
replace baking soda monthly = lather, rinse, repeat
IOW, a ploy to get you to spend more money. Up yers, Arm & Hammer.
[b]Science Warning![/b]
I don't have a box of Arm & Hammer handy (I guess I just like garlicky mozzarella?) but it's [b]NaHCO3[/b] - baking soda, as previously mentioned in this thread.
The only thing that could make this weaker is if they introduced some kind neutral agent to 'cut' it - but if they did that, it would throw every other 'recipe' scribed in the last hundred and some odd years off.
Verdict - A&H just wants people who don't know any better to buy three times as much... again, as intimated by the article.
I for one will be a good mindless consombie and go ahead with their plan. Three times none is... let's see... carry the zero...
Taste transfer issues aside... do people normally keep garlic in the 'fridge? I thought it was a 'store at room temperature' item myself.
Also, if you keep baking soda in the 'fridge, is it still usable in recipes?