What's in a Name?
"I apologize for lying to you. I promise I won't deceive you except in matters of this sort."--Spiro T. Agnew
I hate the feeling of being duped. I blogged about my truffle oil-laced popcorn the other day, which prompted this question from Al Dente reader Bryan: "I'm not hep to truffle oil. What is it, and what can it do for me? Thanks in advance." In my quest to answer Bryan properly, I was surprised to find this New York Times article which contains this revealing tidbit: "Most commercial truffle oils are concocted by mixing olive oil with one or more compounds like 2,4-dithiapentane (the most prominent of the hundreds of aromatic molecules that make the flavor of white truffles so exciting) that have been created in a laboratory." This is crushing news, and has left me slightly melancholy. I might have to break up with truffle oil. We were only starting to get to know each other.
This came on the heels of another disappointing discovery this week. Upon close inspection of the label on my Genova Tonno can, I noticed that it's distributed by Tri Union Seafoods out of San Diego. There is no mention of Italy anywhere on the package besides allusion via the name of the product. You may be familiar with the Tri Union Seafood products marketed as Chicken of the Sea. An e-mail to Consumer Affairs via the Chicken of the Sea website resulted in this prompt reply: "The tuna used in Chicken of the Sea products is caught in the open seas in western part of North Pacific and South Pacific Oceans. This product was packed in American Samoa. Domestically packed product does not state the country of origin. We hope this helps. If we can be of further assistance, you may review our 'go fish' information at www.chickenofthesea.com or contact us again."
Thank you Consumer Affairs. It does, indeed, help. From now on I will stick with my preferred brand of tuna, Flott. In spite of it's non-Italian sounding name, Flott tuna is caught and packaged in Sicily. It's salty, and rich, and packed in olive oil. You can even purchase it in a glass jar instead of a tin can. It's more expensive than your run-of-the mill tuna, but once you try it, you'll never go back. It's so good, you can eat it straight out of the jar.
Have you been duped by product labeling lately? I'd love to hear about it. Or, if there's a product you'd like to know more about hit me up. I can do the research for you.
Photo credit (chemistry set): Tony Cenicola, New York Times
--StellaCadente*
Follow me on Twitter @pomodorista
andy on March 06, 2010 at 01:27 AM
thanks :)
Joan on March 06, 2010 at 06:08 AM
But it tastes good and it's packed in olive oil! I've tried the few brands available in local groceries and Genova Tonno is the only one that works...I'll look for Flot but for a reasonable price and good flavor, Genova is my go to tuna. thanks for the info!
Luis Antezana on March 06, 2010 at 11:26 AM
I was duped into thinking Girl Scout cookies would be wholesome. Read the ingredients and you'll be disappointed in all the fake/processed ingredients. Super lame.
StellaCadente* on March 06, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Joan--Try the Flott, and let me know what you think.
Luis--Re: Girl Scout cookies, I know! It's one of the instances I am willing to overlook. Big Macs would be another (though those have never been advertised as wholesome! I just *know* they aren't.)
Dandapani on March 07, 2010 at 06:20 AM
I've had a recent revelation that my beloved lunch-sized package mandarin orange fruit cups, no matter where packed, all contain CHINESE oranges. I was shocked and dismayed. No more lead based food products for me. I'm sticking with genuine USA pineapple fruit cups.
DSmith on March 07, 2010 at 06:40 AM
Almost all marketing is dupery. That's what it's for.
Texas Pete on March 07, 2010 at 07:15 AM
Another prominent label-doppelganger is Sriracha sauce, the wildly popular "Thai" hot sauce that comes in the red plastic bottles with the rooster label. The label has a deliberate "cheap Asian" look and feel, contrasting with parent company Huy Fong Foods' Los Angeles birthplace and headquarters.
Still, Sriracha is great stuff used by chefs all over in almost every type of cuisine.
Clint9KC on March 07, 2010 at 07:23 AM
Ah, yes, we have seen, in my lifetime, Disraeli's list of the "Three Great Untruths," namely (1) Lies, (2) Damned Lies, and (3) Statistics, supplemented by the Fourth Great Untruth: Marketing.
Paul A'Barge on March 07, 2010 at 07:29 AM
Oh dear. Where to begin?
Ok, I'm with you on the truffle oil. I really wish that you had quit there. But then you had to careen off into a rant about clearly undeceptive tuna. And good grief, careen you did.
(1) From where on the Genova package did you get the idea that the Genova product was from Italy? Have you never heard of Italian-Americans? You saw an Italian name on a can and thought that the product originated in Italy? Good grief.
(2) So you promptly went back to your foreign-packed product. Why? Because you think American products are inferior? What kind of America-hating, elitist snobbery must run rampant through your head for you to find this a motivation? Have you never been to Portland, OR or Seattle, WA and eaten the canned single-hook caught tuna? Packed in American olive oil, I might add? Maybe you should give some a try. Good grief, are you so sold on "foreign products" that you would like an automaton give preference to products made somewhere else while you participate in putting Americans out of business?
(3) "You may be familiar with the Tri Union Seafood products marketed as Chicken of the Sea." So what? Are you saying that the quality of the product in the Genova can is equivalent to Chicken of the Sea? Are you saying that a product you appear to have enjoyed all of a sudden tastes mass-produced now you know the origin is a company that makes a different product you despise? Or are you saying that like every other knee-jerk America-hating, big-business hater that you were previously not able to distinguish quality in a product until you did your immature detective work?
(4) One thing you forgot to make note of: the honesty of the company that packs Genova. You sent them an email. One can only imagine how your email read. They replied promptly. Not only with the truth but with a good deal of information making you a better and informed consumer. And your reaction? To ditch their product and hop down to your snobby corner market to spend you dollars on foreign products that put Americans out of a job. During one of the worst economic crises in history.
Nice. Nice piece of work you are.
Well, Stella Cardente. Welcome to my personal shun list. Good luck getting off.
jim on March 07, 2010 at 07:45 AM
Most people who read a blog like this are 'foodie' enough to read labels. I've used "Genova Tonno" for years, always knew it wasn't from Italy, but you know what? The stuff is good and affordable.
Your readers will also NOT be shocked--shocked!--to learn that their blue box of Barilla pasta comes from the USA, not the big Barilla factory outside Parma.
Wacky Hermit on March 07, 2010 at 07:46 AM
I stopped buying Girl Scout cookies after I discovered they weren't made out of real Girl Scouts. ;)
Doug on March 07, 2010 at 07:55 AM
Paul A., I think if you click on Stella's profile link (just under this post's title), you'll understand that she has a preference for all things Italian-if they're from Italy, that is.
As to whether Flott really is better than Tonno Genova, I personally have no preference. I've never heard of either.
Vanilin on March 07, 2010 at 08:03 AM
Why does the name matter if you like the product? There are reasons to know where a product comes from for health reasons like China because of weird chemicals they may add to stuff, I can add Ukraine to the list because of higher levels of radiation. But otherwise don't you judge a product by taste and quality? Perhaps the problem with trufel oil (fake oil fake name?) is that it's too expensive, may be if they had it for $1 like vanilin it would be more honest.
James R. Rummel on March 07, 2010 at 08:12 AM
I'm going to have to echo Paul A'Barge on this.
You had no problem whatsoever with the taste or quality of Genova tuna before finding out that the company is based in the US, and the tuna isn't packaged in Italy. But, now that you are informed, it is crap you will avoid like road kill.
So what changed? How did the quality plummet all of a sudden?
And it is puzzling to me that your tuna just has to be caught and packaged in the waters around Sicily. Is there a taint to fish that is caught in the open ocean, a thousand miles away from human habitation? Or do the Sicilian sewage treatment plants add a little zest to the tuna caught there?
Buy what you want. It is, after all, your money. But to reject a product that served you well in the past just because you found out the company is American is the worst kind of racism. ("I can't eat it anymore because THOSE people touched it!")
And if you reject my conclusion that you are racist, how are you not? If someone absolutely refused to use tuna that came from Sicily only because it came from Sicily, then it would certainly be fair to claim that They are racist!
Gumlegs on March 07, 2010 at 08:25 AM
I have it on good authority that most French fries sold in this country are not imported from France.
Doug Santo on March 07, 2010 at 08:47 AM
Tuna packed in olive oil is oily and smells like fish. I see no difference between tuna caught in the Mediterranean and Tuna caught in the Pacific. My guess is that in a blind taste test of Mediterranean tuna vs. Pacific tuna processed and packed in the same way the author would be unable to distinguish one from the other and if the testing was done 100 times the result would be roughly 50-50.
I recently started buying Target brand solid white tuna, albacore in water. I cannot tell the difference between Target and Bumble Bee which used to be the brand I bought. I switched because of price.
Brand preferences described in the article appear to have more to do with preconceived notions of what is "cool" than with actual taste.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
bkw on March 07, 2010 at 08:49 AM
RE: truffle oil. So ... it's synthetic? I can see the objections a organic foodie would have with that. For the rest of us, what's the problem? Does it taste good? Does it have any adverse side effects? No? Then what's the rub, bub?
John Skookum on March 07, 2010 at 09:06 AM
Paul, James and Doug are right. You are an insufferable snob. You are every bit as mindless and conformist as those who automatically assume everything American is superior. I bet you drive a Volvo, too. Sheep.
Miriam on March 07, 2010 at 09:40 AM
Not a foodie - loving all the sharp humor on this site, though.
Btw, a question. I'm a truffle virgin. What would be the best way to taste it for the first time?
Thanks.
HMI on March 07, 2010 at 09:47 AM
1) I buy both tuna from Italy and the Genova, well aware of where each is from.
2) Much Italian tuna is markedly superior. Get some of the Pasquale Pastorino Porto Scuso, if money is no object.
3) With that in mind, I use these different tuna for different things. For a top-flight pasta salad or vitello tonnato, or anything where the taste of the tuna has to stand on its own, get a good Italian can or jar. For a tuna salad sandwich, the Genova is fine. I also make a tuna sauce for pasta that adds both sauteed garlic and tomato—again, the Genova is more than OK.
4) Paul, James, Doug, and John are right about preconceived notions of the superiority of imported vs. American, but I invite them to actually set up and take that blind taste test. I think they will be surprised.
5) BTW: there exists genuine truffle oil. But people have been counterfeiting it almost since the moment it appeared, at least 20 years ago. Moral: know your supplier.
dorkafork on March 07, 2010 at 10:15 AM
I once had a salsa that was made in New York City. New York City?!
vb on March 07, 2010 at 10:17 AM
HMI: The point is that Genova was fine till the author learned that it wasn't from Italy. That is snobbery pure and simple. Anyone who assumes that all authentic foreign foods are superior hasn't checked out supermarkets in average neighborhoods abroad.
Buford Gooch on March 07, 2010 at 11:42 AM
McDonald's french fries are a major taste treat. Unless, of course, you are a food snob. I find it highly amusing that people can't judge food by taste, texture, and presentation, but have to judge it by the "cool" factor. If it's good, eat it. If it's not good, no amount of labeling will make it good. Still, food snobs will pay large amounts of money for crappy food, and swear that it's wonderful.
Faith+1 on March 07, 2010 at 11:52 AM
Never have I seen such blatant proof that most chefs care more about the pretentiousness of their ingredients than the actual ingredients. This article is going to be exhibit one in my next class that purchasing based on branding is simply mindless herd following and has nothing to do with cooking.
HMI on March 07, 2010 at 12:14 PM
VB: I agree, and said so. But you should still check out a supermarket in any "average" neighborhood in Italy (a country I know well). Overall, they get better foodstuffs precisely because consumers demand higher food quality. For aisle after aisle of "porcheria" (crap), you have to shop in America and England, countries where the tastebuds have been steadily debased for multiple generations now.
B Gooch: McDonald's fries are only a taste treat for someone who doesn't know what really good, fresh fries from really good potatoes taste like. McDonald's suborns the taste buds by spraying their pre-cut frozen fries with sugar, a shortcut to crisp texture and, well, who doesn't like sugar? To know the difference between The Real Thing and A Cheap Thrill has nothing to do with snobbishness. Just to pick one inexpensive, far-from-upscale source, I'd take the fresh-made fries at In-N-Out Burger (CA chain) as generally way superior to McD's most any day of the week.