Last week, we shared the mildly disturbing news that four different people in three states had found a particular species of potentially toxic beetle in their organic salads. Those were just the people who found their way to a bug-identification community on Reddit: how many more beetles were out there lurking in America’s salads? The answer, we learned this weekend, is at least four. [More]
trader joe’s
59,203 Pounds Of Trader Joe’s And Al Fresco Chicken Sausage May Be Seasoned With Plastic Shards
By 4.21.15
A good chicken sausage is a nice mix of meat, seasonings, and the occasional vegetable in a casing. What is not supposed to be part of that blend of ingredients are shards of plastic, which are harmful to your teeth and don’t taste very good. Sausage sold under the Trader Joe’s house brand and the Al Fresco brand been recalled because it may have that problem. [More]
Watch Workers Replace A Retention Pond With A Trader Joe’s
By 3.20.15
The dilemma at a shopping center in Schaumburg, Illinois was a true modern one: Trader Joe’s wanted to build a store there, but there was no vacant space in which to build a store. The resourceful owners decided to make more space by covering an artificial pond with the store and its parking lot. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Several Brands Of Wine Contain “Very High” Levels Of Arsenic
By 3.20.15
Before you tip back a glass of your favorite wine to salute the glorious arrival of the weekend, you might want to consider how you feel about potentially drinking arsenic: A new lawsuit claims that some low-cost brands from various winemakers have “very high” levels of arsenic in their products. [More]
Trader Joe’s Recalls Walnuts Over Salmonella Concerns
By 3.17.15
If you’ve got some raw walnuts from Trader Joe’s sitting in your pantry, you should check the label because they might be among those nuts recalled for possible Salmonella contamination. [More]
Different Brands Of O-Shaped, Oat-Based Cereals Don’t Taste Alike
By 9.22.14
Are all oat-based, O-shaped cereals basically the same? Sure, they look pretty interchangeable, and their nutritional profiles are all basically the same. That doesn’t mean that they taste exactly alike, though, and our colleagues on Consumer Reports’ sensory panel recently turned their taste buds to Cheerios and its imitators. [More]
Organic Peanut And Almond Butters Recalled For Possible Salmonella
By 8.19.14
It’s time to head to the pantry and check your jars of almond and peanut butters. Products sold under the brands of Arrowhead Farms and Maranatha, and private-label products sold in Kroger, Safeway, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods stores may be contaminated with salmonella, and consumers should dispose of them and seek a refund or replacement. [More]
Full-Page Ads Thank Trader Joe’s For Giving Consumers The Choice To Eat Drugged-Up Meat
By 3.14.14
Freedom of choice is a pretty awesome thing. But for quite some time, consumers have had very little choice when it comes to buying beef, chicken, or pork that wasn’t fed a massive amount of medically unnecessary antibiotics. That’s one of the reasons why our cohorts at Consumers Union have been pushing supermarket chain Trader Joe’s to stop selling meat from these animals — so consumers could have an affordable, convenient way to get meat that wasn’t pumped full of penicillin. But according to a series of full-page newspaper ads, consumers apparently want hamburgers that are contributing to the spread of drug-resistant infections. [More]
Shoppers At Trader Joe’s Pick Up Granola, Cookie Butter, Potentially Measles
By 2.25.14
Shoppers at the Trader Joe’s store in Framingham, Massachusetts may have picked up more than green olive tapenade during the long President’s Day weekend. The state Department of Public Health reported that a customer who visited the grocery store and a nearby restaurant has a confirmed diagnosis of measles, and people who were there around the same time have been warned to watch for symptoms of the disease in themselves or their families. [More]
Save Money And Stay Focused With Grocery List Templates
By 2.6.14
While some people swear by grocery list apps, it’s hard for some people over 25 to get used to walking around the store staring at our phones. A written list is easy to consult quickly without having to unlock the screen, and easy to write on. Over at The Kitchn, Anjali Prasertong offers her technique: a list template made in Microsoft word and based on her regular purchases and the layout of her local Trader Joe’s. [More]
Ex Trader Joe’s President To Sell Food Past Its Sell-By Date, But Don’t Call It ‘Expired’
By 1.22.14
For months, grocery business watchers have been waiting for the eventual opening of The Daily Table, a store created by former Trader Joe’s president Doug Rauch that will offer food items beyond their “sell by” dates. The problem, says Rauch, isn’t getting the food, it’s convincing consumers that it’s safe to eat. [More]
December Food And Supplement Recall Roundup: Lurking Dairy And Sulfites
By 12.18.13
Sulfites and hidden milk are everywhere, but not as common as actual erectile dysfunction drugs and their analogues in “natural” supplements. Welcome to the December Recall Roundup for edible items. [More]
Trader Joe’s Loses Lawsuit Against Canadian Reseller Pirate Joe’s
By 10.7.13
Pirate Joe’s is a small retail store in Vancouver that sells only one line of merchandise: stuff purchased from Trader Joe’s and trucked across the border. People in Vancouver love Trader Joe’s, see, but the chain has no Canadian stores. Pirate Joe’s fills in the gaps for customers who don’t want to travel across the border but who really want pecan praline granola and chocolate-covered potato chips. [More]
Salmon From Costco, Trader Joe’s Beat Out Fancy, Expensive Fish In Taste Test
By 9.27.13
The Washington Post recently provided a top chef with a variety of wild and farmed salmon, ranging in price from $6/lb. to $20/lb., and had him prepare dishes for a table of food-snob judges. In the end, farmed salmon handily defeat the wild stuff and the Post concluded that you don’t always get what you pay for. [More]
Trader Joe’s Gets Rid Of Health Insurance Benefit For Part-Timers
By 9.13.13
At first glance, this story has a scary headline: Trader Joe’s is yanking health insurance away from many employees because of Obamacare. That is what’s happening, but leaves out that yes, workers are losing their coverage…because the Affordable Care Act means that adults whose jobs don’t provide health insurance but who are well above the poverty line will have access to reasonably priced insurance through state exchanges. [More]
Trader Joe’s Sues Owner Of Store In Canada That Sells Only Trader Joe’s Items
By 8.19.13
Trader Joe’s has made it known that they want one of their best customers to stay away. That’s because he isn’t buying thousands of dollars’ worth of gluten-free granola and chocolate-covered potato chips for his household in Canada: he’s hauling them across the border to sell at his own shop, called Pirate Joe’s, at higher prices. [More]
Trader Joe’s Customers: We Don’t Want Drugs In Our Meat
By 7.25.13
While many grocery store chains carry meat from animals that have been fed unnecessary antibiotics purely for the purpose of encouraging growth, the results of a new survey show that a large majority of all supermarket shoppers — but especially Trader Joe’s customers — would rather that their favorite food store stop carrying the drugged-up beef, pork, and poultry. [More]
When Anything Can Be A Container At Trader Joe’s, Serving Sizes Get Confusing
By 7.10.13
A container is something that contains, or holds something else. In the world of food, that seems like it should be pretty clear. But what if there’s a sort of container holding more containers? Consumerist reader Joe had to do a bit of puzzling and math to make heads or tails of a package of Trader Joe’s hummus, which consisted of a cardboard sleeve holding two snack packs of spread and pita chips. [More]
