The article that you sent was understandably appalling and so I decided to share my consumer opinion with the source. I doubt that it has really been of much help, but it made me feel slightly better. Note that my letter to them was entered on one of their web forms, oh and the bolding is mine, as it is my favorite sentence in the whole letter.
RE: Tropicana Healthy Heart
I’m speechless. I understand the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids and take Flax seed oil capsules every day. My husband and I are vegetarians and it is horrifying that we have to check the label on ORANGE JUICE to make sure there are no animal products included. Why not flax? I drink Tropicana every day, and I realize (hopefully) that this is just in ONE of your products, but this decision makes me want to boycott all Pepsi products. Please explain the rationale behind anchovies in my orange juice!
EMAIL*MESSAGE*END
Tammy:
We’re sorry the presence of ingredients sourced from fish in Tropicana Pure Premium Healthy Heart Orange Juice with Omega-3’s causes you concern. Clearly you were upset about this, and we are sorry.
Your well being and the reputation of our products for quality and safety are of the utmost importance to us. Please be assured that we take your concerns seriously and have forwarded your comments and concerns to our product development and management teams for review.
Healthy Heart is the only Tropicana product containing fish; fish based Omega-3s are the only two that are approved to use the FDA’s qualified heart health claim. Over 75% of Americans don’t get enough Omega-3’s in their diet. That’s why Tropicana created Healthy Heart with Omega-3. It’s an excellent source of Omega-3 EPA & DHA, with Potassium, Folate and Vitamin C.
You may be interested to know that in addition to listing fish in the ingredients, there is also a kosher symbol (circle K, F) on the front lower left hand corner of the carton; the letter “F” stands for fish.
We understand that consumers are concerned about various ingredients and always try to consider these concerns when developing our products. We’d like you to know, many of our juices don’t contain ingredients sourced from animals, such as our Pure Premium No Pulp Orange Juice.
We’ve mailed you a coupon in the hopes that you’ll consider purchasing one of our other varieties of juices; your coupon should arrive in about a week.
Please be assured that your feedback is important to us, Tammy, and we appreciate having your comments on file. We thank you for your business and hope you will continue to be a valued Tropicana consumer.
Margie
Tropicana Consumer Relations
Tropicana’s 514 railcars utilize environmentally-friendly refrigerants to keep our products tasting fresh.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, what a load of Big Food Biz jargon and crap!Thanks for sending this update, Tammy, it is pretty funny. I also liked the line you put in boldface from their response. It is nice to know that many Tropicana juices don’t contain animals.Handy they explained the F on the Kosher symbol. Yet another thing to look out for in supposedly “safe” foods.
P.S. I read a bit of your post to Andy. When I noted that they were sending you a coupon he commented, “Nice, now they’re trying to bribe her!”