A plastic shopping experience...update!
This is a product Damon found while doing some "emergency" shopping at a large supermarket chain locally. We found it again while emergency shopping again in Los Angeles.
If you go to the website for the company Progressive Produce, they have several potato products offered in microwaveable plastic including XL potatoes and sweet potatoes, they did not have photos of the organic products. They did offer some recipes 
.
Another plastic subject:
BPA aka Bisphenol-A is a widely used and controversial chemical that is used in plastics and is present in more products than you realize.
When we switched to glass jars instead of plastic ziplock (Ziploc and Saran brands are BPA free if you were wondering...though we still would be leery of heating anything in them) and glad food storage containers we felt we were doing a good thing. We know that plastic is not okay to microwave, and that putting warm food inside these plastic containers can release harmful gasses. Once you look into BPA, you find out that canned foods, baby bottles & plastic water bottles along with many other products all contain this harmful chemical. Much to our dismay, after researching, the Ball lids we are using on our jars, are also lined with BPA. (Note: there is an alternative to BPA, companies just don't choose it, we assume it's because it's more expensive).
After my last post and running I ran into a friend in town, we started discussing BPA and her unknowingly using BPA riddled jugs for her filtered water for the past 20 years. She was obviously bothered by the fact that she too thought she was choosing a healthy alternative to tap water by providing filtered water for her family, and come to find out, by storing it in BPA jugs may have done more harm than good.
Lucky for me she found the product that we have been looking for. BPA free lids for our glass jars! Tattler Re-usable Canning Jar Lids! I ordered a set immediately as our email to Jardan brands which simply asked if they planned on finding a BPA-free option for their products was rudely answered with a cut and pasted reply from their FAQ. I am anxiously waiting for my order, as soon as we try them out, we will review them here (and replace all of our lids). Even though we never cook our food that we store in jars, we will feel better about storing our foods free of BPA. If you do canning of any kind do yourself a favor and consider using these lids!
Consider what we are eating.... the companies that are producing our food are trying to make it easier for us.... not healthier. Learn to enjoy our time preparing meals again. Put a large sign on the fridge "We are what we eat". Why are we choosing plastic wrapped, microwaveable ready made meals that we rarely touch and surely have no idea where they came from? Grow a garden, even if it's just a couple of plants in pots. We vote with our forks...begin to take control!
I tried to take a photo, but for some reason Iost it, and the photo at their site at www.progressiverecipes.com did not have the organic option.... This photo was from their site, sorry it's so small, you just had to see it (if you haven't encountered one already).
Read the above package label carefully. It is a plastic wrapped microwavable (in the plastic) Organic Potato. They also included on this 2 x 1-1/2 inch label all of the "buzz" words and symbols that they could fit to make consumers believe this product is a healthy product.
"Produce of USA" was it grown in the USA, did it simply receive it's sanitation treatment and plastic armor here in the states or is it just a product that the USA commonly produces?
"Clean & Safe, Ozone washed, Chemical Free" with a quick trip to wikipedia I found this as the second sentence of the description of Ozone: Ozone in the lower atmosphere is an air pollutant with harmful effects on the respiratory systems of animals and will burn sensitive plants; however, the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is beneficial, preventing potentially damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the Earth's surface. That says to me that if they are using ozone to wash these potatoes, they are killing at least the outer layer of any "living" nutrients that we need from our food. The skin holds many minerals and nutrients (untreated). I also searched the FFDCA Act (the organization that is stated to have approved the wrap) for Ozone and this came up: Enhancement of the Microbiological Quality of Selected Ready-to-Eat Vegetables Disinfected by Chloramine, Chlorine, Ethanol, and Ozone. Use your own judgment. I am not an expert researcher, but what I read in the short amount of time while engrossed in this article, I found that plastic is bad, and ozone treatment isn't much better. "USDA, Organic symbol with Certified Organic by CCOF" CCOF is a third party organic certification service that does use USDA standards, if you look into that certification have a couple hours to read what is and isn't allowed.
"Net Wt 8 oz" If you've ever purchased a potato, as I'm sure everyone has, you know that they are all different shapes and sizes. How do they make all of the potatoes weigh 8 ounces each? If an individual weight were printed on the label I would feel better about how they manage that one for every potato!
What the package label does not mention is the plastic classification number. Why not? The information on the inside of the label states that the plastic is approved by the FFDCA Act and guaranteed for the microwave at high temperatures. The FFDCA Act is interesting to say the least, convoluted is more like it. The portion I read on Tolerances for Poisonous ingredients in food didn't offer me much hope as to the safety of the plastic used on this product (or the viability of the act itself)......
You can't wash it, you can't poke holes in it, and I'm sure there should be a burn warning for children (or the childlike) regarding the scalding temperature of the steaming russet with the surely latex like skin. You do know you don't need to wrap the potato in anything in a microwave, better yet, wash it, rub it down with coconut oil and bake it for 45 mins for the best potato you've eaten in years (if you've been microwaving them in the past). Nathan likes them with coconut butter and nutritional yeast instead of dairy and cheese!
Read the above package label carefully. It is a plastic wrapped microwavable (in the plastic) Organic Potato. They also included on this 2 x 1-1/2 inch label all of the "buzz" words and symbols that they could fit to make consumers believe this product is a healthy product.
"Produce of USA" was it grown in the USA, did it simply receive it's sanitation treatment and plastic armor here in the states or is it just a product that the USA commonly produces?
"Clean & Safe, Ozone washed, Chemical Free" with a quick trip to wikipedia I found this as the second sentence of the description of Ozone: Ozone in the lower atmosphere is an air pollutant with harmful effects on the respiratory systems of animals and will burn sensitive plants; however, the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is beneficial, preventing potentially damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the Earth's surface. That says to me that if they are using ozone to wash these potatoes, they are killing at least the outer layer of any "living" nutrients that we need from our food. The skin holds many minerals and nutrients (untreated). I also searched the FFDCA Act (the organization that is stated to have approved the wrap) for Ozone and this came up: Enhancement of the Microbiological Quality of Selected Ready-to-Eat Vegetables Disinfected by Chloramine, Chlorine, Ethanol, and Ozone. Use your own judgment. I am not an expert researcher, but what I read in the short amount of time while engrossed in this article, I found that plastic is bad, and ozone treatment isn't much better. "USDA, Organic symbol with Certified Organic by CCOF" CCOF is a third party organic certification service that does use USDA standards, if you look into that certification have a couple hours to read what is and isn't allowed.
"Net Wt 8 oz" If you've ever purchased a potato, as I'm sure everyone has, you know that they are all different shapes and sizes. How do they make all of the potatoes weigh 8 ounces each? If an individual weight were printed on the label I would feel better about how they manage that one for every potato!
What the package label does not mention is the plastic classification number. Why not? The information on the inside of the label states that the plastic is approved by the FFDCA Act and guaranteed for the microwave at high temperatures. The FFDCA Act is interesting to say the least, convoluted is more like it. The portion I read on Tolerances for Poisonous ingredients in food didn't offer me much hope as to the safety of the plastic used on this product (or the viability of the act itself)......
You can't wash it, you can't poke holes in it, and I'm sure there should be a burn warning for children (or the childlike) regarding the scalding temperature of the steaming russet with the surely latex like skin. You do know you don't need to wrap the potato in anything in a microwave, better yet, wash it, rub it down with coconut oil and bake it for 45 mins for the best potato you've eaten in years (if you've been microwaving them in the past). Nathan likes them with coconut butter and nutritional yeast instead of dairy and cheese!
.Another plastic subject:
BPA aka Bisphenol-A is a widely used and controversial chemical that is used in plastics and is present in more products than you realize.
When we switched to glass jars instead of plastic ziplock (Ziploc and Saran brands are BPA free if you were wondering...though we still would be leery of heating anything in them) and glad food storage containers we felt we were doing a good thing. We know that plastic is not okay to microwave, and that putting warm food inside these plastic containers can release harmful gasses. Once you look into BPA, you find out that canned foods, baby bottles & plastic water bottles along with many other products all contain this harmful chemical. Much to our dismay, after researching, the Ball lids we are using on our jars, are also lined with BPA. (Note: there is an alternative to BPA, companies just don't choose it, we assume it's because it's more expensive).
After my last post and running I ran into a friend in town, we started discussing BPA and her unknowingly using BPA riddled jugs for her filtered water for the past 20 years. She was obviously bothered by the fact that she too thought she was choosing a healthy alternative to tap water by providing filtered water for her family, and come to find out, by storing it in BPA jugs may have done more harm than good.
Lucky for me she found the product that we have been looking for. BPA free lids for our glass jars! Tattler Re-usable Canning Jar Lids! I ordered a set immediately as our email to Jardan brands which simply asked if they planned on finding a BPA-free option for their products was rudely answered with a cut and pasted reply from their FAQ. I am anxiously waiting for my order, as soon as we try them out, we will review them here (and replace all of our lids). Even though we never cook our food that we store in jars, we will feel better about storing our foods free of BPA. If you do canning of any kind do yourself a favor and consider using these lids!
Consider what we are eating.... the companies that are producing our food are trying to make it easier for us.... not healthier. Learn to enjoy our time preparing meals again. Put a large sign on the fridge "We are what we eat". Why are we choosing plastic wrapped, microwaveable ready made meals that we rarely touch and surely have no idea where they came from? Grow a garden, even if it's just a couple of plants in pots. We vote with our forks...begin to take control!
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