The Grocery Store Blacklist: 12 Food Companies to Avoid (and 95 Sneaky Aliases)

Thank you for a rather comprehensive list! I stopped buying items such as Pepperidge Farms, V-8, Kashi, Celestial Seasonings, and bottled lemon juice. They didn’t taste “right,” and items such as the lemon juice has “cloud” in it to make it look like lemon juice. If I want lemon juice to look like lemon juice, I will buy lemons. I have also made my own “ginger/lemon tea,” buy using organic ground ginger and real lemon juice. It becomes a challenge to find a better substitute for those things we loved. We found that if a substitute was not possible, it probably was best to eliminate that food.

I started buying organic and simple foods and there was a dramatic difference. My adult children notice the difference as well.

This doesn’t mean that fresh produce is perfect, either. It isn’t 1959 any longer, although additives were being added without our knowledge, compared to today, the food tasted better.

I also noticed the seafood, especially the packaged frozen kind, is adulterated. I was perusing the frozen seafood packages one day and was reading the labels. I found an additive that I had never read before and decided to call my daughter at work. She works in food science. It turned out that this ingredient was also used in drywall! I did not buy it.

My motto has always been, when reading a package that is labeled, “natural,” is that “Arsenic is natural.” Imagine my shock when I found that they were using arsenic in chicken feed! It has historically been used agriculture for a long time. And political poisoning, but I digress.

Purchasing anything from the grocery store is an obstacle course. The choices are becoming more narrow. It takes diligence, determination and time. We are investing in our health. You are what you eat.

Great article Daisy! OMG…I have a lot of re-educating to do! Thank God I have always cooked from “scratch”, but sure have used lots of those products on the “do not use list” too….. Thanx again, CC.

Hi Daisy,
I recently read a version of this article in eatlocalgrown.com. Thank you, it is quite informative.

I’m very confused about Silk. I stopped buying it several years ago, I thought because they used GMO almonds but it may have been because they didn’t support GMO labeling.

Anyhoo, I recently read that they were using non-GMO almonds so I went to their facebook page to thank them and tell them I was going to start buying their almond milk again. But, some people had posted the link to your article at eatlocalgrown.com so I went there and read it, and left them a different message saying I wouldn’t buy their products until they started supporting GMO labeling. This was their response:

“We’re sorry to hear there’s still a lot of outdated or misinformation out there about us. Silk is owned by WhiteWave Foods and our spin-off from Dean Foods was completed earlier this year. We are now a stand-alone, publicly traded company and neither Silk nor WhiteWave have ever donated to oppose GMO labeling. On the contrary, as a corporation, we’ve donated nearly $1 million to support GMO labeling initiatives such as Just Label It! and the Non-GMO Project. On top of that, we voluntarily enrolled all of our products in the Non-GMO Project’s extensive verification process and proudly carry their seal right on the front of our cartons to help educate and inform consumers. We hope this helps better explain our current position as it’s a topic that’s very close to our hearts.”

Do you know if what they’ve said here is true? I would love to start drinking their almond milk again, but only if they really have changed their ways.

Thank you for any additional info you may be able to provide.

Numi Teas!

Thanks for the great info! Does anyone have an update on the gmo labeling law efforts in Washington? There are ads running in the Portland Oregon area against it labeling & wondered who was financing them this go-round……

Love this post and love your writings! I agree with so much!

Back in high school, I remember reading a news article about how most products on the shelves of major supermarkets are made by only a handful of companies. At the time, I didn’t see an issue with that claim because I simply assumed large companies were more competitive than smaller companies due to economies of scale. Now having read a bit more over the topic, I’m far more inclined these days to assume that, rather than by performance or economy of scale, large companies fare better than smaller competition because they have the political clout to unscrupulously manipulate the business environment so that it unfairly favors them over their competitors (as well as having the financial clout to fund non-value-adding activities [for the consumer], such as massive marketing campaigns or researching consumer behavior).

I went back to search for that article today, which, unsurprisingly, I did not find (over a decade later). However, I did find this chart, aptly captioned “The illusion of choice.”

http://i.imgur.com/k0pv0.jpg

I’m not sure how up to date or inclusive it is. (Off the bat, I don’t see Naked listed under Pepsi Co or Odwalla listed under Coca-Cola.) Nevertheless, I was much relieved to see that that I’ve been able to unconsciously avoid the vast majority of these brands simply because most of them are attached to overly processed foods or frivolous, potentially toxic personal care products.

Indeed, for the past several years now, I’ve been progressively shifting my purchases toward organic, low-toxicity, environmentally-sustainable goods. More recently though, it’s become increasingly important for me to purchase these products from small businesses that follow ethical practices.

At a time when the trend of mergers and acquisitions are leading to a greater share of sales being controlled by fewer businesses, it comes as little surprise that, even during our long-going economic struggles, the rich have gotten richer while those who aren’t rich have gotten poorer.

After all, M&As reduce competition so that more business is controlled by fewer hands. When business is controlled by fewer hands, power is controlled fewer hands, which also means that money is controlled by fewer hands.

Take, for example, a company like Colgate-Palmolive, which hold a 45% global market share with its flagship toothpaste line. Of course, a small suite of elite executives whose decisions direct a business that controls almost half of all toothpaste sold worldwide command more earning power than the impoverished farm workers who burn down rainforests to make room for oil palm plantations that supply Colgate. And, of course, this type of infrastructure leads to gross income inequality.

To be fair though, I do empathize with people struggling financially and trying to save a buck or two by purchasing, for example, cheaper Palmolive dish soap from Walmart, but I just wish they understood why it’s not actually cheaper for them to be supporting the status quo.

For example, have you read any of the articles detailing how taxpayers subsidize Walmart’s employees because it doesn’t pay its employees living wages? Or corporations (e.g. AT&T, Boeing, Citigroup, Duke Energy and Ford) that not only don’t pay federal income taxes despite making billions of dollars but also claim millions of dollars in refunds? Or the fact that when you support the business of fewer, larger conglomerates, you support the type of increasing income inequality that results in making the 1% increasingly rich at the expense of the remaining 99%?

FYI Buycott is also available for Android at the google play store.

Thank you for such great info! I’ll be printing this list and taking it to the store with me.

Would you please update this article, I would like to share it on social media. 🙂

This whole article is very poorly written. After reading it I still don’t know who the bad GMO guys are. So I guess I’ll just buy nothing but fresh from Whole Foods.