The answer to that question is easy – A LOT.
A family member does this little game with me and it happens over and over. After trying a bite of something that looks homemade, I say, “Mmm where did you get this from?” and she says, “Don’t worry, it’s from Trader Joe’s, so it’s organic.” The fact that people assume all products from Trader Joe’s are organic or healthy or better than what you would find elsewhere is an alarming misconception.
For the last several months, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Trader Joe’s. Many people are questioning the grocery store chain’s policies on genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs) and asking if I personally trust their statements about the use of GMOs in their store brand products – my short answer is no, I don’t.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE shopping at Trader Joe’s. It’s fun, the employees are super nice and helpful and it’s a pleasant experience. However, they won’t share any information with us and are completely cloaked in secrecy regarding their business practices, which makes my head want to explode.
Trader Joe’s Official GMO Statement:
Our approach to Genetically Modified Organisms is simple: we do not allow GMO ingredients in our private label products (anything with Trader Joe’s, Trader Jose’s, Trader Ming’s, etc. on the label).
Given what Trader Joe’s tells us about their GMO policy, we should trust them, right? Or are we trusting them just like many consumers trusted Naked Juice, Tostitos, Kashi, Gold Fish, Barbara’s Bakery, etc. who are or have been faced with lawsuits finding suspected GMOs in their so-called “natural” products?
During my research, I found out there is no regular independent third party certifier verifying their products are non-GMO on a regular basis at Trader Joe’s. It is completely up to Trader Joe’s product supply team to regulate GMOs from suppliers – not the Non-GMO Project or the USDA (for organics) that requires a high level of standards and third party testing before stating a product can be deemed free of GMOs. If there are complaints about a product, Trader Joe’s will conduct verification with a secret third party that they won’t disclose, but it’s completely up to the consumer to alert Trader Joe’s with a complaint.
In fact, Trader Joe’s stated that their products “don’t allow for auditing using the Non-GMO Project because there is an additional cost associated with that.” A representative from Trader Joe’s went on to say, “We tend to not label our products a whole lot, and won’t until there is a government regulation to understand what non-GMO even means, we aren’t going to label products that don’t have specific FDA guidelines.” So this begs the question – what does non-GMO mean to Trader Joe’s? Are they making up their own definition because they claim they don’t have direction from a governmental official?
I reached out to the Executive Director of the Non-GMO Project, Megan Westgate, to find why Trader Joe’s refuses to become Non-GMO certified. This is what she said:
“The Non-GMO Project has reached out to Trader Joe’s a number of times over the years, and we remain hopeful that at some point we will be able to forge a meaningful partnership with them. To date, it has been very difficult to ascertain the credibility of their non-GMO claims. We know that many consumers believe Trader Joe’s to be a GMO-free store, but without transparent standards or third-party verification this is impossible to confirm. Many other retailers–independent grocers, co-ops, and Whole Foods Market–are leading the way by requiring rigorous testing and labeling, and it would be great to see Trader Joe’s follow suit.”
Trader Joe’s says they review affidavits (the documents that prove an ingredient is not made or contaminated with GMOs) from their suppliers who make their store branded products, but there is no way to verify this. I asked Trader Joe’s if they would send me an affidavit showing proof of non-GMO corn or soy in at least one of their products that wasn’t labeled certified organic and they refused saying, “Unfortunately we don’t share those documents, they are confidential.” They wouldn’t even tell me what country some of the products were produced in either as they do not provide “country of origin” labeling.
I find the denial of my request maddening, considering I requested a similar affidavit from Honest Tea, who is owned by Coca Cola, and they completely complied and sent me the information with the confidential suppliers name blacked out. Heineken Beer also provided their affidavits when I asked them to prove to me they use no genetically modified ingredients in their beer.
Furthermore, when I reached out to the Director of the Cornucopia Institute (the top organic industry watchdog group), Mark Kastel, he stated:
“It is very hard to figure out sourcing with Trader Joe’s. They heavily depend on private label products which are based on secrecy. We have said that private-label organics is an “oxymoron.” Organic consumers want to know “the story behind their food.” They want to know where it was produced, how it was produced, how the animals and workers involved have been treated, etc. None of that is possible with Trader Joe’s. Unlike the majority of all responsible brand marketers in organics they have refused to participate in our research studies and are thus rated very poorly on our scorecards that critique dairy foods, eggs and soy foods (etc.)”
We have the right to know where our food comes from and what’s in it and Trader Joe’s is refusing to give us this information.
They don’t want us to know which suppliers they are using because it would upset consumers and their suppliers if we knew the truth. For example, Stoneyfield supplies yogurt for Trader Joe’s and Stacey’s (owned by Pepsi) supplies their pita chips. Because Trader Joe’s maintains a limited supply of products, they can buy many of the same items in bulk from different suppliers keeping costs low, which is fabulous, but this comes at a cost of not actually knowing who is manufacturing our food. They keep it secret because the companies they work with, like Stacey’s, don’t want you to know that you can buy their pita chips two dollars less at Trader Joe’s under a private label. This is how Trader Joe’s has become so successful, growing at a faster pace than Whole Foods.
There is another disappointing side effect of not knowing where your food comes from because if you are like me and boycott certain companies because of their business practices, it is extremely hard to vote with your dollars and know which products to buy and support. For this reason, if you want to REALLY vote with your dollars, you seriously need to consider what you are buying at Trader Joe’s.
I have a hard time trusting a company that is not willing to show their affadavits to a customer or prove that their products are in fact GMO free. Trader’s Joe’s won’t spend any of their 8 billion dollars in sales to test and prove their products safe. And they won’t tell us what companies they work with to develop their products or what countries their ingredients come from. Have you noticed that every single Trader Joe’s branded product has “DIST & SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY: TRADER JOE’S MONROVIA, CA 91016” written on the back? I hope we are smart enough to know the entire line of Trader Joe’s products aren’t all really from California.
Since Trader Joe’s does provide a price point that is unrivaled, I can see the financial benefit to shopping there, but not much else. Their fruits and vegetables are usually flown in from half way across the world, packaged in lots of plastic, providing little to no local produce (at least in my store here in Charlotte, NC). This means you could be eating nutritionally degraded produce. I have been a victim to this more than once when I bought produce that I didn’t know was less than stellar and it went bad super fast in my fridge compared to the local produce I get from my farmer or buy from other grocery stores.
Considering Trader Joe’s total lack of transparency, there’s only a limited list of products I would personally trust from Trader Joe’s, here’s what I would buy and not buy:
WHAT TO BUY AT TRADER JOE’S
- Certified organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds
- Certified organic branded Trader Joe’s products (USDA certified), for example their organic popcorn made with olive oil is a good choice
- Certified organic milk products
- Certified organic coffee and teas (like Yogi tea)
- Certified organic frozen goods like frozen berries
- Some conventional items on occasion (like kimchi) that do not have high-risk GMO crop ingredients like corn, soy, cottonseed, papaya, sugar, canola, zucchini/squash (here’s a full list of potential GMO ingredients)
- Paper products – they use environmentally friendly practices and recycled paper
WHAT NOT TO BUY AT TRADER JOE’S
- Charles Shaw Wine, otherwise known as “2 buck chuck” – It’s so poor in quality, some experts call this stuff “grape-flavored soda” and compare it to what “Ronald McDonald is to the cheeseburger.” This wine is not made in a winery rather, “this wine is made in a factory, with a lot of synthetic and concentrated products, like grape musk, added to manipulate the flavors from bad grapes.” (Stick to organic wine with no detected or added sulfites)
- Non-Trader Joe’s brands that likely contain GMO ingredients like Simply Lite, Reddi Egg, Dare, Orangina, The Laughing Cow, Morningstar, Toffutti, Think Thin Bars, Toblerone, Kashi, Barbara’s Bakery, Annie Chun’s and Power Crunch
- Trader Joe’s branded products or other processed products that contain high-risk GMO crop ingredients like corn, soy, cottonseed, papaya, sugar, canola, zucchini/squash (A majority of their products contain one or more of these ingredients, until they can be fully transparent, I would not trust them.)
- Pre-packaged meals like sandwiches, salads, and sushi – many of these items contain ingredients you definitely don’t want to be eating, like cellulose (wood pulp), or imitation crab meat. Additionally, there’s way too much sodium added to these meals and they can give you a serious case of water-weight bloat and bubble gut.
- Trader Joe’s branded dairy, yogurt, or eggs, because they are likely produced from animals fed GMO corn and soy and can contain antibiotics
- Non Trader Joe’s branded dairy, yogurt, or eggs because they could contain (cancer causing) rBST growth hormone, GMOs and antibiotics
- Non-organic meat or dairy, Trader Joe’s still allows antibiotics and other harmful chemicals – like autolyzed yeast extract (a hidden form of MSG) in their meat.
The most important thing to remember when shopping at Trader Joe’s or anywhere else for that matter, is to read the ingredient lists. Trader Joe’s still allows harmful petroleum- based artificial coloring, artificial flavors, carrageenan, and other questionable ingredients to creep into their stores via other brands and this is something to definitely watch out for.
If you know someone who shops at Trader Joe’s, please share this post with them. Making smart decisions together is the only way we are going to change the secretive practices of the food industry.
Keep Your Chin Up!
Food Babe
P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to get more info about what’s really in our food, personal updates from me and chances to win cool organic stuff.
Palm oil is also bad for our bodies, indirectly, because many acres of rainforest are destroyed to grow palms for palm oil. Trader Joe, please stop using palm oil in your products.
I agree! Check the labels on the cookies and cookie butter. Palm oil is in just about everything which is disturbing. Palm oil production is destroying the rain forests and the animal habitat for orangutangs. The destruction of the rain forests also adversely affects the climate and an entire ecosystem.
Read the labels. Joes Joes have palm oil, almond chocolate spread too, and that horrible cookie butter spread… Have you ever eaten the TJ chocolate truffles? Aren’t they delicious? They are mostly palm oil and butter. Every time you bite into one, you might as well be eating an orangutan.
Terrific job on reporting and fighting the good fight.
I know we all would like to shop without having to think or read too much, so I suspect most people blindly trust Whole Foods, Trader Joe, or whatever the latest trendy food vendor or restaurant has a positive image. Nothing could be more naive or foolish.
That is why we make, build, fix, or grow close to 90% of everything – I know its time consuming, and maybe a bit excessive, but now we know how to make yogurt, build a stone patio, and grow mesclun salad. Thanks again for this latest posting.
They raise a valid claim to a degree. Yes, we have to choose to trust Trader Joe’s unverified claim. However, the USDA organic label is a joke compared to pretty much any other organic label in the world. The Non-GMO Project will shut down the day the US government requires GMO labeling. They have to create situations like the one in the article above to give people the impression that they are relevant. But they are not on the side of American families. Just remember when they lauded Whole Foods because they want to have GMO labeling on all of the products in their stores by 2018. In 5 years? Why not now? Because the Non-GMO Project couldn’t make money if there was labeling right away. I am comparing the Non-GMO Project to Apple and Microsoft. Yes, they make life easier for us in a way, but their business ethics are backwards, horrible. They WANT deregulation so that they can hold a monopoly on labeling. They are the only GMO lableing company in the USA. How are we to trust their label without somebody checking their claims? Just saying, I won’t accept any company’s claim to be on my side if being on my side means I have to pay for them to be on my side. It doesn’t work that way. If they were honest, they would call BS on Whole Foods for waiting five years. If they were honest, they wouldn’t use cheap deceitful tactics to discredit places such as Trader Joe’s who at least acknowledge that there is an issue with food safety that other food companies simply deny.
interesting point about Non-GMO project….
This information is just so alarming and aggravating! It seems there is no integrity in the food industry. I just wish I could grow my own food, but for most of us that is very difficult or impossible to do. I greatly appreciate the work and information that you put out there to help us be more informed. Thanks!
This article is so disappointing because I love Trader Joe’s! Thank you for sharing and hopefully by disclosing this information about them it will encourage them to rethink their policies.
It does surprise me though that you weren’t able to get more information out of them. I emailed them last year about whether or not their tomatoes were were packaged in BPA free cans. The response I received from them was very detailed and straightforward. The person who responded gave me the details for not only their canned tomatoes but also every single other type of canned good that they sell. She even admitted to those canned goods where they hadn’t transitioned to BPA free as of yet but gave me a timeline for which their plan was for full transition.
My thoughts after reading your research is that they must have something to hide with the non-GMO claim if they weren’t as forthright with you as they were with me about their canned goods.
Kelly, giving you the information on their canned foods does not compromise their business. Giving you documentation on their product sourcing does. You can choose not to believe their published procedures to eliminate GMOs from their store brands, but that would mean you have to believe the family who owns the company are very stupid, greedy business people. Think how much of their faithful customer base (including me) is based on a significant level of trust. Your interaction with them getting can info is a good example.
Understand this: they cannot continue to exist as they are and provide the quality and pricing they do if they disclose their supply chain. Publicly documenting their GMO procedures and testing results would disclose elements of their supply chain.
Additionally, it would only take a random test or two by a competitor that detects GMOs to severely damage their business. They would have to be really, really stupid to not follow through absolutely with their published non-GMO policies.
http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates-responses.asp?i=4
Having worked in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry for many years, I agree with the above report. My former employer produced private label products and our “customers” the private labelees were legally prohibited from disclosing their sources. Why would anyone ever by a brand right next to the private label if they knew it was the same product.
I also agree that the Non-GMO project would be putting themselves out of work…you need to look at who is funding Non-GMO project to see where the money is coming from and who they seek to protect. It isn’t the consumer – sorry to say. I shop at TJs, Natural Grocer, etc…I buy organic and meat straight from the grass-fed-only sources. The point is, regardless of where you shop, read the lables, be informed – maltodextrin is MSG, so is hydrolized yeast extract and many other substances, so labeling something no-MSG is not genuine.
Be an informed consumer and understand food marketing. Private label providers (read here Trader Joe’s brand) CANNOT legally disclose their sourcing – if they did, they would NOT have any partners 🙂
Cynth –
MSG and maltodextrin are NOT the same thing. Both *may* contain a common ingredient – glutamic acid – but saying that they are the same thing is extremely misleading. It’s far more correct to say that if you’re sensitive to MSG, *maybe* it’s because of the glutamic acid, and here are some things you might want to avoid. All of this said, there isn’t any evidence that I find credible that supports the claim that maltodextrin contains glutamic acid.
I’m having trouble understanding why people need all of this white knighting by anyone. Thank goodness you’re fighting the good fight, Bryn. Keep up the good work.
Since it’s against “the rules” for TJ’s to disclose their sources for their name brand items, they could at least get them privately certified with the Non-GMO Project, within the spectrum of the partners’ agreement.
I am not at all surprised to hear this about Trader’s. You have confirmed why I don’t shop there and won’t until they provide the information you describe about. I really appreciate the hard work you do in advocating for us to know exactly what is in our food and where it comes from.
Channah, you will never shop at TJ’s. Accept it. They can only exist by keeping trade secrets. Their biggest trade secret is their supply chain. They will not share it with you. If they do they will cease to exist.
Sad but true
maybe it’s not so sad, Chanah. Those of us who boycott them will know what we’re eating. i can get local food 6 months a year. it tastes good and feels good to support local people.
What about their grass-fed beef??? Should we trust that!? With the large variety of food allergies that my family has I’ve always been one to read labels no matter what store I’m in, and have been aware that the non-organic TJ’s products have questionable ingredients in them but I still trusted them on some level, though this post is making me question more. I’ve switched over to Whole Foods for MOST of our foods but you just really can’t beat TJ’s prices and their grass-fed beef is muuuuch cheaper than Whole Foods. But now I’m wondering if it’s a totally bogus claim. 🙁
And their organic free range chicken is much cheaper than Whole Foods too… I always buy my chicken from TJ, can I trust that?
I would’t trust them on the beef unless you know the supply chain i.e. the property where the livestock was reared and then you would want to know if they were reared on pasture or grain. You really have to do your homework on this one. In England each beast has a passport. If the beast dies in the paddock a vet has to be called. The passport goes with the beast to sale and slaughter. Don’t ever trust them on organic beef. Organic lamb/mutton because of the cost of grain feeding is sometimes to expensive. The profit margin doesn’t improve that much with grain feeding. If you know chicken and have had good pasture fed chickens you would know a caged grain fed one by taste any day. Favour is crap.
Wow. What a witch hunt.
Does anyone else notice that eating non-gmo foods requires absolutely no sacrifice? For all the talk of “security of the food chain” and “protecting the environment” and such, you’d figure the Anti-gmo crowd would be vegans. They’re not. Instead, they’ve made it up to the grocery store and food producers to prove to them that they’re making food out of organisms that conform with their ideology.
I’d really prefer to see people in a twist about something that matters. I mean, really. Get off of your asses, folks. The world has actual problems.
Your point here isn’t clear.
This is a problem the world faces. We are screwing with nature with GMOs and it’s affecting the bees and our health. Get with it and educate yourself. Food is the most important thing other than water on this planet. Wake up.
Ignorance is bliss. Believe me when I say a “Food Revolution” in our country is real. We, as consumers, don’t need trade “secrets,” but need to know there is integrity and third party validation in our food chain.
The argument has been that we need these methods of farming to feed an expanding population. Not true. Politics keeps food from people. There is enough.
GMO seeds ARE a world problem. The contamination of the world’s food supply is causing havoc. The bees are disappearing, there’s a new breed of Superbugs that are dissimating whole harvests leaving poverty and pesticide ridden soils in their wake. Variety in crops is disappearing. The first step to stop GMO’s is to label them. Once folks know they’re there, they can stop buying them. Once GMO foods are not profitable, they will no longer be produced. It all starts with labeling and consumer knowledge.
One thing we need to remember that a lot of their products come from Europe, are made with European ingredients and are therefore by law GMO free since they are not allowed to use GMO in their food production. So I trust the European food sources a lot more then I would any US grown and manufactured food product including Organic. Not only are European ingredients GMO free but they also are sprayed much less and with less toxic sprays since many of the pesticides and herbicides used in the US agriculture are banned over there.
Just read the label and buy by country origin. they don’t have GMO Canola in Europe either…. not that I believe Canola is fit for human consumption, It’s really not.
Isabell, I agree completely with most of what you are saying. For those who are absolutists, however, it’s good to know that different countries have different definitions for “GMO-free”. There’s generally an allowance for a small percentage of GMO presence in even organic certified foods. This is true in the US organic certification also.
“Crops grown on certified organic operation may be sold, labeled and represented as organic, even with the inadvertent presence of GMOs, provided that all organic requirements under 7 CFR Part 205 have been followed.”
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5096493
Interestingly, TJ’s policy and procedures for GMO-free sourcing do not have these exceptions. It’s a reasonable conclusion that TJ’s branded prepared foods are more consistently and completely GMO-free than organically labeled prepared foods.
This goes applies to all supermarkets. WE THE SHOPPERS, ALL NEED TO READ LABELS AND SIDESTEP PROCESSED, PREPARED (PACKAGED) FOODS AND FOODS CONTAINING SATURATED FAT AND UNHEALTHY OILS.
Similarly many people seem to think margarine or Crisco is healthier than butter. Butter is a natural product. Margarines and Crisco are science projects. What do you want to feed your family, something natural or a science project?
Peanut butter as well…. Peanut butters that come with oil on the top are usually all-natural containing only peanuts, and oil from peanuts. However, many popular brands add sugar, sodium, unhealthy fats such as partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed and rapeseed oil.
The list goes on and on. Educate yourself and READ LABELS BEFORE BUYING FOOD!! OK I am off my soapbox.
I have always known and never trusted trader joes practices when it comes to all there foods. They have a countless number of food items that come in boxes with their own name on it that contains at least one gmo or more on their labels.
Robert, where have you seen a GMO ingredient listed on a TJ’s branded product? They have publicly stated that none of them are.
@ Bryn
Are you serious omg! soy lecithin, canola oil, soybean oil, food dyes, BHA, Sodium nitrates. parabens, hydrolized vegetable proteins just to name a few in addition to this article. Here are 8 that I have seen at one time or another from this article here at http://www.antigmofoods.com/2013/08/8-ingredients-you-never-want-to-see-on.html
You just really need to pay more close attention when reading your labels to uncover the truth as the Food Babe says in this story.
Robert, I’m pretty sure I was reading labels before you were born. I started reading at 3 and was raised by two of the original hippies, communes and all. What TJ’s branded food products have you found to have artificial flavors, colors or preservatives in them? I will personally send you a $20 bill if you can show me one example.
As Sarah pointed out, you seem to be confused with the difference between “most” and “all”. By your logic, all products with soybean or canola oil in them anywhere labeled “organic” would be a lie.
@Bryn
I didn’t mean to say most or all have artificial flavors or colors, but corn and soy yes I have. Especially in all the boxed up foods like your cereal boxes have either some kind of corn or soy in them. I can take a picture of one of them showing you exactly what I’m all upset about. I have an allergy to soy and have expressed my disappointment in it many times as I know it to be the main culprit in our society that is contributing to the decline of mens testosterone levels as they get older.
Robert, you’re 110% right about the soy problems. As a matter of fact, about 1-2 years after I eliminated non-fermented soy from my diet my hair started filling back in on top. I’ve got about 20% of it back now and should have a full head of hair by about 87. 😉
My girlfriend is also significantly allergic to soy and has a 2 day reaction from 1/2 grain of rice’s worth of soy mayonnaise. I know EXACTLY the difficulties you face every day in trying to figure out where and what you can eat. Five Guys burgers is a good bet, avoiding their buns, of course. Also avoid their sauteed mushroom and onion toppings because they come pre-packaged. Their fries are cooked in pure peanut oil, though which is pure bliss for a fried-food starved soy avoider. It happens to be the best tasting oil for fries too.
I have to say, though, that we have found a much better variety of soy-free choices at TJ’s than anywhere else. I still see most products that are organic including soy protein or oil when they can to lower costs. This is very rare in TJ’s, in my experience.
Robert, do you think that all corn, soy, canola is GMO? If so, you are confused.
OpThank you Bryn for responding to all the people on her who just dont know what they’re talking about. Ive read over and over people saying,”I read the label and it has gmo ingredients in it”. Just because something has corn, soy, canola, or any other high risk crop in it does NOT mean it is gmo people! You can go to their website and read their non gmo gaurantee. They source their ingredients from non gmo crops and explain exactly the process in which they verify that they are non gmo. Foodbabe has left that part out of the article for some reason, but you can easily find it on their website. I absolutely think this article was misleading and didnt give all the information it should have. Im a little dissapointed foodbabe!
@Sarah
I would be very interested in seeing where this statement is made at.and what non-gmo organizations or organic companies have been able to back up this TJ claim that you are stating that they have made. Just cus one reads something on someones website does not necessarily mean its true unless they can back up their claim with references and organizations that back them up.
http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates-responses.asp?i=4
I don’t understand why this information was not part of the original article. They have never shown to be untrustworthy in my book, and I will continue to trust that they stand behind their philosophy until someone proves otherwise. This is just a witch hunt if you ask me, its sad that people are feeling so frustrated over the “loss” of TJ’s being a wise choice. IT IS A GREAT CHOICE for the average American family. It has great choices for a family on a budget and I feel confident knowing GMO chances are slim to none. I shop a lot of TJ’s organic options, but if I cant find something organic or cant afford it, TJ’s private label is the next best thing in my opinion. No artificial colors, trans fat, GMO…much better than what you find at other chain stores and a heck of a lot more affordable than Earthfare or Whole Foods. Most mothers I know don’t have the time or energy to be perfectionists when feeding their families, I do the best I can with what I have.
I was at Trader Joe’s today when my kids saw the sign that said they did not sell foods with GMO’s. So I questioned them because last time they told me that, I bought some cheese spread and one of the ingredients SAYS : MODIFIED CORN STARCH!!!! YES IT IS LABELED! AND I FOUND SOME OTHER PRODUCTS WITH THE SAME LABEL’MODIFIED CORN’ They told me that their corn and everything is grown far from where gmo’s are being used , and they told me that it’s grown on their own farms!!!! I trusted them because i believed they wouldn’t lie being that they were the head people in charge there! Then i come home and read this!
My understanding is that Trader Joes gets a lot of their products and source their ingredients from other countries. Isnt the major GMO crops in America? So doesn’t it make sense that they probably don’t come from GMO crops? I wouldn’t buy into this witch hunt, Trader Joes is one of the leaders in providing safer foods for our families, and haven’t given us any reason not to trust them. Of course they are keeping trade secrets, they are able to keep their prices low because of it!
Modified corn starch is totally different from GMO foods. Someone else would be able to explain to you better but I have noticed that food babe does NOT highlight modified corn starch as a food to look out for when grocery shopping.
Food babe can you explain why again please!
This was a great article!! It’s funny, I had planned on going to Trader Joe’s today because I wanted to switch up from going to Whole Foods. Now I’m on “aware mode”!!
There is so much to learn about what we’re eating (Organic, Non-GMO Project, USDA Certified, Certified Organic), but I’m definitely learning & following you. I truly TRUST your hard work getting out there talking and investigating this food industry. I admire your strength and tenacity and getting the job done on helping everyone eat and live better. Thanks for all you do Food Babe!! 🙂
By the way, did you hire someone for the position you posted about a week ago?
I shop at Trader Joe’s as my main grocery store. This is so sad to hear! I have stopped purchasing some of their items already after I read the labels. Because I am not able to have a garden and grow my own food. What grocery store would you suggest to shop at that has integrity? I live in eastern PA near Philly 🙂 Thanks for all the research you do. I also appreciate your blog posts!
I shop regularly at TJs and I still look at their labels. They sell a brand of soda(forget the brand , but not their own) that contains sucralose. But i usually mostly stick to buying their organic products.
trish, i lived in various michigan cities most of my life, and in each of them there are multiple choices, as i’m sure there are near philly. food co-ops are one choice, member buying clubs are another. For produce there are community supported agriculture memberships and city/farm markets. buying clubs are organized by private people, sometimes through schools, churches or just random folks. as far back as 1987 when moving to a new city, I asked a woman at our day care where she got organic food and she introduced me to her food club. since then, i’ve learned they’re everywhere. Find out who the main natural/organic food distributor is in your area. Call them or go on their website and you can find out which buying clubs are in your area. typically, clubs meet once a month to unload a truck and distribute foods amongst it’s members. they are different in terms of how they order/rules for ordering. i’ve done this in a church hall, garages and members homes. You get the foods that are on the shelf at places like whole foods for about 10% over wholesale cost or nearly 1/2 the retail price. it’s a great deal, you can make new friends and learn about new foods.
Thanks for all your investigating, Vani!!! I appreciate all your hard work!
I do not have a Trader Joe’s close to where we live, but like to shop there once a year or so. Now I know what to look out for.
By the way, speaking of carrageenan, it is an ingredient in Now XyliWhite Refreshmint Toothpaste Gel. I am assuming that that is not good, right? Please let me know as my family uses that toothpaste, & I have been wondering whether or not it is a bad ingredient if it is in toothpaste.
Trader Joe’s and Aldi are owned by the same company. Makes me wonder if many of the products are the same but with different labels. I like Trader Joe’s but agree with you on buying only the products that are organic and/or without gmos.
80% of everything in the store has NO GMOs in it. What is wrong with you people??! Well, it doesn’t matter much. I’ll be shocked if this article isn’t pulled shortly and FB hit with a lawsuit for libel. There’s only so far you can push German reticence before they finally smack you.
How do you know? Did you investigate the issues? Did you dig deep into Joe’s marketing? Probably not, ALL of these companies have DEEP violations because it is all based on profit not the consumer. I am a researcher and I see all of the violations, FIRST HAND, in the population that is suffering from the disease that these poisons cause.
Action Jackson
I “know” because I have been a weekly customer for over 20 years. You can tell what management of any company is like by interacting with their employees and seeing how much latitude they have been given to solve problems. How they are treated in terms of moral, wages and benefits says huge amounts about the ethics and values of the owners and managers of a company. 1,000+ visits to TJ’s stores all over the country is a pretty good data sample.
I “know” because I possess logic, critical thinking and a basic understanding of business. For them to not only adhere to every letter of their GMO policy, but, in today’s climate, TRIPLE their due-diligence and random testing measures would be so monumentally stupid that it isn’t worth worrying about. If it’s all about the money you can trust them implicitly on this matter.
Not all companies are based on profit at the expense of the consumer, I agree that nearly all publicly held US companies and possibly all multi-nationals can accurately be described that way, but there’s no reason to assume the same of TJ’s which is owned by a guy in Germany. How is it you know his ethics, or lack thereof? What poisons are you referring to that TJ’s sells? What is a private individuals motivation, who is one of the 3 richest men in all of Germany, to squeeze every last penny out of every customer they can by lying to them and deceiving them? Certainly there are many people like that around the world, but what leads you to believe this guy is one of them?
OK Folks. Over 90% of the soy grown in this country is GMO and a similar percentage of corn. You have to be pretty alert to find any that is not contaminated, even though it says organic. The research says that 30% of organic soy and corn is contaminated with GMO’s. If you have allergies, stop eating corn and soy all together for a couple of months and see if it makes a difference.
Where does that leave you? I would say you should get on the horn and do some anti-GMO activism if you want your food supply to last and your gut to carry you into old age. Write to your favorite grocers and tell them they must label, or tell them you will no longer shop there unless they choose organics. This GMO thing has to stop. They are pulling out of Europe and focussing on us because they see people here being very complacent and very uninformed about this issue. Get busy! Educate yourselves. Read Jeffrey Smith’s books. He’s been studying this for 30 years or more.
Is it okay to tear up at your posts, Foodbabe? I am so thankful for you and proud of all of your hard work. Some posts give me chills. You are bold and fearless. I just want to stand and shout YOU GO GIRL!!!!
I always knew I did NOT like Trader Joes. Thanks for confirming it with actual FACTS.
What are those facts again?
“Trader’s Joe’s won’t spend any of their 8 billion dollars in sales to test and prove their products safe.”
And this is the line right here that should make you consider a lawyer. You don’t know it. They say they do. If they can prove it, that would be libel.
Not to mention that sales figures mean nothing with respect to cash that a company has on hand to spend on testing. It’s profits that matter, but nothing in FB’s post shows that she has any understanding of business.
Well, in a pinch at least NICE people work at Trader Joe’s. Why not go after Whole Foods who are horrible offenders in health as well and the workers there are equally as nasty. If you complain the managers get defensive, not apologetic. Workers at Whole Foods have ZERO social skills. And almost everything in Whole Foods has chemicals and sugar. And more than once I’ve purchased their vegetarian products only to find chicken in them! Ew.
Trader Joe’s has PLENTY of organic stuff. I always have a good experience in the store and will continue to support them.
My experiences at Whole Foods are not like this. Seems you are pushing the Trader Joe’s agenda too much.
I’m not pushing Trader Joe’s at all. My favorite health food store is Dean’s. I just can’t get over this article — YEARS after Whole Foods was doing the same thing. It’s kind of irrelevant.
I completely agree with this. I dread going into Whole Foods because the majority of their employees are incompetent, anti-social weirdos. At least Trader Joe’s hires quality workers with good attitudes. EVERY store sells some questionable items. If you question an item’s integrity, don’t purchase it. It’s not TJ’s fault people neglect to read labels and inform themselves about potential GMO ingredients. I will continue to shop at Trader Joe’s because I have been a loyal customer for nearly 30 years and they’ve NEVER ONCE let me down.
Not really sure what the point of Trader Joe’s is. Their price point is similar to y local co-op, which is waaaay better.
Thank you Vani, for this, and all the work you do. We should orchestrate a letter writing campaign to strongly encourage Trader Joe’s to change their practices to be more transparent, whether it’s with the sourcing, or third-party verification that their products are indeed GMO free as they claim. I asked once when I was in the Bellingham, WA store: they did follow-up, but not to the degree I was expecting.
Regards,
Darren from Vancouver BC
SO happy to see this article. Thank you a whole lot. Trader Joe’s is not transparent. Early this year when I went in to my local TJ’s to talk to them about this issue and my questions as a consumer they basically just laughed at me.
First the manager said he “didn’t know what GMO’s were.” (! RIGHT.?!) Then he said “Don’t you know about our great work environment? Don’t you know how great we treat our employees?” I said “I don’t get what that has to do with whether or not you have GMO ingredients in your food.” Then he spouted basically the same party line you have printed in your article here. Bla bla bla no FDA regulations, they don’t have any GMO’s in their products bla bla bla.
I am just a consumer but I do not buy non-organic and that has reduced the amount of what I buy at Traders to a very small handful of items – the VAST MAJORITY of what they sell is what my husband calls “in-organic”.
So, I shop there less and less as the last actual national chain I even go into for any food at all – but this article makes it clear to me that I am really okay with being done with them. Half the time lately the signs for organic lemons, avocados, limes and most of their other produce are all sitting in front of produce that is NOT organic – and they don’t even bother to take the signs down when they are out of the organic produce item. I’ve lost all respect for this chain; and I used to love them. It’s too bad; but it’s a changing world and they are not keeping up with it.
I am not interested in supporting a company that does not support sustainable and transparent food practices; and I particularly don’t like being treated with less than a respectful attitude when I am talking to someone who sells me food I put in my body. No thanks TJ’s – you failed the test. See ya see ya. as the saying goes.
I used to shop TJ in NY and Atlanta; It has definitely changed for the worse. I currently shop at a recently opened store in FL. I shop there every week for about a dozen products. You can not take anything for granted; you MUST read each and every label! Many products now contain soybean, canola, and corn oil, i.e. just read the ingredients on a majority of their frozen foods, breads, and baked items. The chicken found in the frozen meals and prepared refrigerated foods contains steroids/anti-biotics. They do however carry Organic chicken in the meat dpt. They used to carry a lot more Organic items and private label was about 70%; it’s more like 90% now. The produce is disappointing or inconsistent, i.e. I’ve given up on their Organic apples and the Romaine lettuce is much better quality at the Publix Grocery with their Greenwise Organic.
The Organic yogurt is a good value, especially since Stoneyfield dropped their points program in April. Surprisingly, their employees are clueless about their own products and who makes them.
They have a good variety of organic coffee, olive oil, beans, sprouted breads, teas(their Unsweetened tea with Blueberry/Pomegranate is really good), soaps, laundry detergeant. The nuts are good, but many have canola(con-ola) oil. Make sure you read those labels carefully, i.e. dry roasted mixed nuts have no added oils, but the roasted nuts have canola! And there are way too many candy-like sweet items covered in chocolate, as well as that Huge wine selection that makes it feel like a licquor store sometimes! Unfortunately, there is no one store where you can buy all of your groceries. Trader Joe’s has many good products, so spend time reading the labels and understanding exactly what you are buying!
I think the “NO GMO” crowd would be better served if they would simply go to the organic grocery store and buy food labeled USDA certified organic and proven to be GMO free. Trashing Trader Joe’s and attempting to force them to change just isn’t fair. I don’t care much one way or the other about GMO, but absolutely don’t want to pay an extra 50 cents for a bag of chips just to satisfy somebody else’s fear of GMO.
As a matter of fact if you see anything on a food label with the words cottonseed, corn, canola or soy. I would throw it out out your pantry right now and avoid buying anything with those ingredients like the black plague. They are all well known gmo’s that over a long period of time ingesting them will wind up giving you some type of illness or disease when you get older and sometime sooner than you least expected.
Why does nearly every product on the market require SOY LECITHIN? I try to eat mostly whole foods, but I do buy a few packaged items, and this stuff seems to be in everything! Trader Joes & all other “healthy” food manufacturers, please get this stuff out of our food. I don’t trust that non-organic foods at TJs use GMO-free soy lecithin. Heck, I barely trust the organic labels to be GMO-soy free.
Renee, I have shared your concern about soy lecithin. To answer the “why”, it’s an emulsifier. It allows different materials (fat and water, primarily) to blend smoothly together and not separate. It’s almost always soy based because there is just so much soy, and the lecithin is a by-product of the oil and protein production. That said, my girlfriend has severe gastric and even histamine reactions to soy oil, and soy lecithin doesn’t bother her at all. A bit of soy mayonnaise 1/2 rice grain sized has given her severe stomach pain for 2 days. As an emulsifier it’s always used in very small percentages of whatever it is added to. We don’t worry about it regardless, but I would put money down that TJ’s soy lecithin in their house brand products would test GMO-free.
Thank you, Bryn, for taking the time to respond. The story about your girlfriend’s reactions to soy oil, and lack of reaction to soy lecithin, is very telling and reassuring.
On the soy lecithin subject I will say that TJ’s organic chocolate bars don’t have it, which is the reason that I buy them… I don’t get a lot there, but there’s a few big bargains like their organic chocolate…
Another brand of chocolate that is (soy) lecithin free is Alter Eco. It’s not cheap, unless you can find it in a Grocery Outlet as I have from time to time. I HIGHLY recommend the Dark Velvet. It’s a rich, dark, non-bittersweet bar that has an amazing quality that it actually tastes better and better as it dissolves on your tongue right to the last trace. I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced that with another food.
Trader Joe’s is straight-up shady. My list of “buyable” TJ items was already short, but it recently got shorter. I wanted to explode when I discovered that the organic, low-sodium chicken stock I’d been buying there contains autolyzed yeast extract. Normally a hyper-aware shopper who reads all the labels, this is a prime example of (stupidly) putting blind faith in an “organic” label and assuming that the packaging alone gave the product inside the “all clear.”
I literally threw away the beginnings of that recipe and started over. One more TJ’s product on my blacklist. My family is tired of shopping with me because it’s a constant “nope, nope, nope we can’t buy that.” I’m tired of shopping with me because 75% of my expendable income goes to the organic/non-gmo alternative to the cheap and cruddy stuff. Boo industrial food complex.
Sarah, you’d be well advised never to travel to Australia or New Zealand. If you do, you might not want to mention your bias against autolyzed yeast extract. You realize that is what Vegemite is 100% made of, right? 😉
Sarah, are you possibly confusing autolyzed yeast extract with hydrolyzed yeast extract? I was just looking them up and realized I didn’t know there was difference. Autolyzed is naturally grown and allowed to die in the normal yeast life cycle. Hydrolyzed is processed with enzymes or acids. I think the one you want to be concerned about is Hydrolyzed, unless you are severely sensitive to MSG, since there is a natural occurrence of that or something very much like it within the autolyzed yeast. I hope this helps.
Good job. I am a GM-Free activist here in Australia and I know how much work would have gone into your Trader Joe’s article. In many ways we are luckier here in Australia than in America (no guns and global healthcare), we as yet don’t have zucchini or squash or papaya (?) as GMO products. Supposedly if we did they would have to be labelled. Go to a supermarket here though and try and spot the label, they are few and far between. Our food authority FSANZ (Food Standard Australia New Zealand) still believes the Monsanto et al version of testing so still thinks it safe. At this stage it is still about avoiding the known GM ingredients and as a meat eater buying certified organic and knowing which chickens to eat, eating out is a bit trickier, especially if one likes chips! Keep up the good work.
PS I came upon your site when researching a low-histamine diet, thinking I had an allergy or worse lupus (that’s what the specialist said!), turns out I had undiagnosed scabies after all, so can go back to my regular healthy diet with a few new recipes in hand.
Anna – Welcome, love my readers from Australia, I’m assuming there is no TJ’s there 🙂
Im surprised to see you respond..I noticed you weren’t in the discussion about TJ’s after you posted the article. Don’t you care to further discuss it with the people on your blog? Surely you have responses to the things being said.
This article is very informative, especially to the lay person. For a person who wants to minimize their risk of consuming GMOs the lists of what to buy and what to avoid at TJ’s are very useful.
It would be great if Trader Joe’s, widely considered a “natural foods market” by the public, followed the lead other retailers have taken such as Whole Foods like implementing policies non-GMO labeled products must be verified; and even though retailers are exempt from getting “certified organic” by the USDA (as long as the food is sold to them and/or labeled as certified organic) getting all their stores inspected every year anyway to ensure organic practices are maintained, such as to ensure organic products are not mixed with non-organic or contaminated with non-complaint materials in the store.
I don’t understand how anyone could not understand that Trader Joe’s is not a private label store, even if they don’t know immediately understand was a “private label” is. When you walk into store, you’ll notice right away most of products are sold at their stores at TJ’s branded — and if you think about it for about 30 seconds you’ll realize that it would not be cost-effective maintain all their own facilities to make all of those different products? They even say proudly in their ads (radio and their monthly “flyer”) that their buyers SEEK OUT SUPPLIERS to get you a high quality product at a low price. A consumer can quite easily deduce the products they see on the shelves were not, in fact, made by Trader Joe’s, simply labeled with a TJ’s brand.
Some products sold under a TJ’s brand are certified organic – as you can see by the “certified organic by …” statement & possibly use of USDA organic logo on labels or other front-pabel organic claims. What this means is even though Trader Joe’s retail stores (unlike Whole Foods) aren’t individually inspected each year, their private labeling organic system plan is inspected on an annual basis to ensure only certified organic products are labeled/sold by as organic under the TJ’s brand and that the labeling of these products is compliant. The specific manufacturer of each product is not identified on the packaging (decreasing transparency) but that’s simply want private labeling is & it’s ubiquitous within the industry.
The purpose of their private label certification is to ensure whatever manufacturer applied the TJ’s organic branded label applied to the product was “certified organic” meaning the facility, product/ingredients, and labels (private or otherwise) has been inspected annually for compliance with USDA organic requirements. USDA certified organic producers and manufacturers take great lengths to ensure their goods are not contaminated with GMOs.
Bottom line – If YOU were to trace the ingredients in any TJ’s “certified organic” in any product down the supply chain you will find they were produced, manufactured, labeled, and sold to TJ’s in conformance with USDA organic requirements. But YOU can’t – TJ’s can (and apparently will) keep that information confidential from the public. That’s where 3rd party certification/verification comes in. TJ’s – if they want to keep selling their branded products with “certified organic” claims – is required by federal law to supply all relevant information to their organic certifier. So is everyone else down the supply chain that produced to product, all the way back to the farm(s) that grew the ingredients in order to ensure the integrity of the products sold with organic claims – private-label or otherwise
Since TJ’s is unwilling at this time to engage in non-GMO verification, purchasing a certified organic product at TJ’s is your best bet for minimizing risk of consuming GMOs or GMO ingredients. And you the added benefit of the ingredients being grown organically (non-GMO verfied can be nonorganic they just can’t be contaminated by GMOs). If you don’t know the specific manufacturer (and you won’t if the product is branded with a TJ’s private label), you still can be highly confident that is “really is” organic and that there are not GMOs in it.
The idea that “private label organics is an oxymoron” is absurd in my opinion. Private labels work because it allows retailers to sell the same product at a lower price than the manufacturer or producer’s “brand name”. In a regular grocery store (like one that carries private labels but is less specialized in TJs in their brand offerings), look at the price difference between a gallon of “Horizon” brand organic milk and the same quantity of Safeway’s “O Organics” private label – not only will you see that the store brand is cheaper, it’s right next shelved right to the “brand name” product and is the EXACT SAME MILK. This is a less than perfect example b/c suppliers to the Horizon brand got into some trouble with the USDA a few years back for not adequately implementing all organic requirements for livestock (cows), particularly pasture and manure management (the federal livestock standard for organic has since been amended to clarify and identify additional practices to ensure compliance). But this story is otherwise virtually analogous to all “name brand” vs. “private label” (organic or NOT) products – the private label is cheaper than the brand name one due to economic efficiencies. If more people can afford organic products since they are available at lower price, WHY NOT encourage private labeling in the organic sector so more people can buy and feed themselves and their families with a more environmentally-friendly alternative?
USDA Certified Organic sets a reputable baseline standard for the crops, livestock and the processing/distribution of products with these claims. The USDA organic standard is not perfect. Decades of research conducted at the Rodale Institute demonstrates organic can produce crop yields on par with conventional with less negative environmental impacts. Again, that is not to say organic is perfect: it doesn’t guarantee what you are buying is “local”, 100% non-GMO (that requires non-GMO product verification), or currently cover worker’s rights. To err is to be human, and that includes organic inspectors. As noted above in the Horizon fiasco, sometimes standards need to be updated in order to meet a reputable baseline for organic production.
People who come into TJs (notorious for selling packaged products right down down to their produce) probably just want high quality, safe food at a good price. If they choose to avoid GMOs, I recommend purchasing organic only or products with ingredients for which there is no GMO variety … whatever brand they buy including the TJs private label.
While many conscious consumers DO want to know exactly what where it came from, how the animals were raised, and the “full story behind their food” … that is what farmer’s markets & growing your own food is for. Or if you have any sense of humour, just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErRHJlE4PGI
“This article is very informative, especially to the lay person.”
Fayble, how does that statement make sense within the context of the actual statement of TJ’s policy regarding screening GMOs being left out of the article completely?
Let’s assume for a moment that TJ’s is run by Satan and Satan loves money. If so you can as good as guarantee that every line of that GMO policy is strictly adhered to. That’s the only risk/reward that makes the slightest bit of sense. What doesn’t make any sense is FB omitting this policy paper from her “investigation”.
By any measure of logic, common sense, or even business greed, we can be more certain of the absence of GMOs in all TJ’s house branded products than we can in organically certified products (they are allowed to have indefinitely repeated GMO trace contamination) or GMO-Free Project labeled products (you can get the label before thorough testing of your actual crops).
I suppose I intended to mean that the food industry can be complicated and that the lists “what to buy at Trader Joe’s” and “what not to buy at Trader Joe’s” could be helpful for some consumers?
For example, a lot of people who want to avoid GMOs know that corn/soy and their derivatives are high risk, so they don’t buy things that contain those ingredients. Fewer people know about things like papaya, squash, and canola (rapeseed) oil are high risk. Or, presuming TJ’s is a “natural food store”, some might not realize products – like the licorice mentioned in the article – contain artificial flavors.
My response was to article directly not the “position paper” to which you refer, which as I understand per your comments was “left out of the article”. I apologize if having better knowledge of that paper could have better informed my statements.
I used TJ’s “Official GMO Statement” – “Our approach to Genetically Modified Organisms is simple: we do not allow GMO ingredients in our private label products” as quoted in the article.
Since they do not engage in 3rd party (as quoted in the article by Ms. Westgate) or federally regulated non-GMO product assurance (such regulation does not currently exist in the USA), I concurred the conclusion that Trader Joe’s cannot really back that claim up with confidence, especially for conventional products that contain ingredients for which GMO crop varieties exist.
I honestly cannot tell if you are critiquing me for being too lax or to stringent on the issue.
To summarize my original post:
– the lists of “what to” and “what not to” buy could be be useful for a consumer already shopping at TJ’s if they want to avoid certain ingredients
– if a product is USDA certified organic, even though organic regulations require significant precautions be implemented to to avoid contamination by GMOs (an “excluded method” under federal law), this certification minimizes but does NOT completely eliminate the risk of GMO contamination
– 3rd party certification or verification is a way to help ensure consumers the label claims are accurate and traceable to the producer (grower), even though companies are not required to provide this information to the public
– USDA organic certification is not perfect as it does not address certain concerns such as workers rights and must occasionally be amended (e.g. the livestock management updates) in order to sustain a reputable baseline standard for what an “organic” product is and how to label it accurately
– if one is concerned about the specific farmer that grew their food, the way the animals and workers were treated, where the product was manufactured (i.e. local) or other specific guarantees outside the scope of existing regulations – shopping private labels at Trader Joe’s is simply not for you …
BUT
– the efficiencies of private label production generally allow these products (such as Trader Joe’s) to be sold at a cheaper price than house brand products, thereby increasing the availability of organic products to lower income consumers
Please feel free to reply if you have additional information that would support or contradict my comments or if you have any other info you would like me to clarify any additional information in my original post.
I am always open to additional perspectives and enjoy dialouge centered around “sustainable” food systems and discussions about their continuous improvement.
Thanks again,
Fayble aka FB xoxo
I was critiquing you for being just as lazy as FB and not checking her work before forming an opinion of what’s in TJ’s food and giving people advice of how to shop there. The “Official GMO Statement” you refer to is just a hand-painted (apparently) sign you will see when you walk into a Trader Joe’s store. That seems to be the bulk of all the “hard work” everyone is complimenting FB on by producing this article; she walked into a TJ’s and read a sign.
TJ’s actual official position statement is easily found on their website:
http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates-responses.asp?i=4
It quite clearly states that all their suppliers’ foods are tested at the outset and on an ongoing basis by independent 3rd party labs.
You didn’t verify the accuracy of the article before adding your opinion.
You didn’t verify/disprove the accuracy of any of the statements disputing the information of the article before adding your opinion.
If you can’t be bothered to do the slightest bit of critical thinking or basic verification before opining, why are you opining? All you’re doing is providing useless, flawed information to people. You should stop.
Ohhh…FoodBabe. I am not a regular on this site. Facebook? Fayble? No, I did not do my research on Facebook … or FoodBabe …
I have extensive professional knowledge of the food processing industry (no conflict of interest with any Trader Joe’s brands, their owner[s], or any of its suppliers), and I simply commented my personal opinion about statements made in this blog.
All I meant was that a person already shopping at Trader Joe’s who wants to be EXTRA cautious about avoiding “nonnatural” ingredients (for whatever reason they feel like) might find the lists published in this blog could useful. Or not. I’m sure plenty of Trader Joe’s shoppers just want tasty stuff at good prices and don’t care that much or at all if there are GMOs in it.
This blog clearly laments a lack of transparency in private labeling (in this blog, focusing on Trader Joe’s brands), but I specifically contradicted the quote in the blog article about private label organics, noting efficiencies of scale can permit Trader Joe’s (and other private labels like Safeway’s “O”) to sell certified organic products at lower prices so that this OPTION can be economically feasible to a person where a “brand name” product might not.
As for the 1st person Trader Joe’s policy statement on GMOs you linked (your research, I presume) – the majority of their response IS reasonable but my point was never to say TJ’s is trying to dupe their customers about their due diligence in their non-GMO sourcing strategies – they could not take the legal risk of making these statements if they were not doing the things they say the are doing (like testing random samples at 3rd party labels), but won’t risk the liability of labeling a specific product as such in the absence of federal labeling requirements for GMOs.
Yet this blog is critiquing the transparency of these claims; and if a consumer feels like being “extra careful”, or “apply the precautionary principle” or whatever to avoid GMOs why not use the lists to supplement their purchasing decisions within the store they are already shopping in?
In all fairness, their policy statement does specifically state “Organic products, regardless of brand, are by definition non-GMO”. GMOs are an “excluded method” per USDA organic requirements. Ergo, “by definition” organic products are “non-GMO” so the statement is (technically) legally correct.
However, you specifically state “organically certified products (they are allowed to have indefinitely repeated GMO trace contamination)” and I referenced this exact problem with organic certification in my own comments; thus by our own admission we agree organic certification does not an absolute guarantee with regard to the actual presence of GMO ingredients of “certified organic” products on the shelf. So if the exact same policy statement contains information you do not trust, is it not remotely possible that TJ’s own policy statement about their non-GMO sourcing strategies for might be (technically) legally accurate but not actually reflect the reality of the presence of GMO ingredients private label products on the shelf?
– Buying certified organic products reduces the risk of GMO contamination but does not provide a 100% guarantee that a single given finished product was not contaminated with GMOs.
– A due diligence statement by Trader Joe’s about their private label products reduces the risk of GMO contamination but does not provide a 100% guarantee that a single given finished product was not contaminated with GMOs.
Absolutely none of this matters unless the TJ’s shopper wants to be extra cautious about avoiding GMOs: each person can make their own decision about whether or not to use them, the degree to which they care about non-organic, artificial, or GMO ingredients being in their food and what they are willing to accept as evidence that their food doesn’t contain something they don’t like. A blog can only bring awareness and I simply added my personal comments about how transparency in the supply chains could influence both the individual products and increase market availability to customers who (again) WISH to purchase such items.
The end.
I got upset as I was reading this because I LOVE Trader Joe’s. And then I got to the end and realized I usually only buy their organic products, beauty products and paper products anyways. And their organic grocery and meats are WAY cheaper than organic products anywhere else. Same with HBC…Bronner’s for 9.99? It goes for $18 at my health food store. Their tea tree HBC products are Desert Essence and at least 40% cheaper than anywhere else by me. Don’t get me started on how expensive organic juices are at my local store compared to TJ’s. So I will still shop there. I mean if you’re buying their candy, and cookies, and crap junk foods with 1000 ingredients you really aren’t concerned about healthy eating anyways and probably don’t care if it is GMO….and if you do care than you are naive. But their organic selection is way better and cheaper than anywhere else by far, at least where I live.
I am having a hard time believing that Trader Joe’s would be foolish enough to lie to such a loyal customer base about something so huge and think for a second that they would get away with it.
So, even though there have been no complaints that they’re using GMO products in their private label foods, we’re to assume that they are using GMO’s? I agree 100% that labeling is necessary and must be the law, but I understand TJ’s choice not to disclose their private suppliers until it is law. I appreciate TJ’s prices and believe their commitment to non-GMO ingredients. This is different than Naked juice and their “natural” claim, this is in essence a mission statement, a business practice, they are committed to supplying consumers GMO free food for low prices, and I believe them. There’s enough to worry about regarding our food without inventing problems with no proof.
This is all STILL commonsense stuff. I shop at TJs a ll the time and read the labels. I have never assumed their food is all GMO free…or organic. Read the labels!!!
Hi Nancy – their policy is that all TJ brands are non-GMO so yes I was assuming (hoping) that was true without looking at labels.
Hi Vani – this is very annoying and I can understand your anger as I can match it. I deliberately shop at TJs, Sprouts and Walmart (not for food though mostly). I shiver wondering if you are going to do an expose on Sprouts also – that’s my main shop for raw foods now that Whole Foods have been shown to be less than stellar in the non-GMO/organic arena also.
I feel like never eating again after reading these sort of articles. How the hell can we trust any company any more, particularly if the government is so useless at regulating food production it might as well not exist.
ARRRRGGGGH! Not that it’s a huge amount better in Ireland (where I’m from), but there is a lot more transparency. I despair over America – it cannot continue!
Thanks for the hard work – we really appreciate it!
“Personally, I think the GMO scare is a distraction from far more important issues going on in the food industry”
“When genetic engineering is used to decrease pesticide use, to add nutrients to crops in malnourished countries, and otherwise improve the quality of our food products, then it’s a valuable tool that can contribute to a safe and healthy food supply.”
Read: A Liberal’s Defense of GMOs: https://medium.com/editors-picks/4595ca2fcda
I’d LOVE to see Food Babe go toe to toe with this guy, who actually knows more about the GMO issue than she does.
I’d love to see your guy go toe-to-toe with Rachel Parent. Actually, I’d just feel sorry for him. 🙂
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/video-rachel-parent-takes-kevin-o-leary-gmo-foods-article-1.1420366
Sorry, but I don’t trust women over men when it comes to science. It’s proven that women’s brains just don’t have the same capacity to understand science…and GMOs are all about science! Women are great for other things, mostly in the cultural and social realms (and I say this as a woman myself). But I just don’t think that any woman like Rachel Parent can ever fully convince me. She’s so shrill too….we women can’t talk about anything important without getting all emotional and stuff.
Ashley, I don’t know what video you looked at, but it certainly doesn’t sound like the one I linked.
Rachel Parent is a 14 year old girl who took on researching GMOs as a school paper and has since founded her own youth-oriented organization on the subject.
– She is not “shrill” by any measure.
– She out-debated the pushiest, most egocentric self-made millionaire on the TV show “Sharks”.
– She had also done her research better than him and detailed where he was using false information in the discussion.
So you think someone must be a scientist to have an informed opinion about whether or not GMOs have received enough testing to determine if they can be considered safe? That’s kinda sad. What about all those scientists that are paid by Monsanto and company who do all the testing of GMOs that is used to determine the FDA approval on Monsanto and company’s products? You are more confident in their opinions than a smart 14 year old girl’s who thinks for herself? That’s really sad.
btw – it’s no secret that you’re just a troll. You’re welcome. 😉
I’m not a troll at all. I’ve left other constructive comments related to this TJ’s post. I’m just stating my opinion, which is that I do not believe women to be the best at scientific thought or conversation. Call me conservative, antiquated, sexist…whatever. But my opinion will not change.
And yes, I will take the opinions of university educated scientists, Monsanto or not, over the “research” of a 14 year old who’s education on the topic is the mere result of her great googling skillz. What’s really sad is that we’re looking to kids to inform our understanding on this topic.
5 years ago I shopped at trader joes twice. I noticed they allow food dyes, preservatives, etc. whole foods market is just as close and they do not sell artificial products. I am glad I never went back!
M, not only do they have a written promise not to allow any GMOs in their house branded products, they have also had a written promise that none of those products contain artificial flavors, colors or preservatives for even longer. I’m guessing the product(s) you were looking at did not have a TJ’s store label on them but were a product readily available in other markets, correct? Whole Foods has a much larger selection of products available with artificial colors and preservatives in their store than TJ’s does.
So I’m like a lot of you all so , so frustrated with the food industry.
But I’ve been working on eating better for now about 8 years.
I know sounds like a long time. But little by little I made changes.
If I had a larger budget I’d probably go to a grocery store once a
month if necessary and just source my food locally, online and
other places. But that’s not where my budget is and so I do the
best that I can do. Which is a good point just do the very best
you can possibly do and make tiny lasting changes.
I do shop at Trader joes but I only buy organic items and so it’s a
pretty fast and routine exercise going through the store.
Visualizing a trip to Trader Joe’s goes like this:
Walk in and look at produce
pick up and buy
tomatoes
cucumbers
sometimes apples
potatos
garlic
carrots
bananas
lemons & limes
and a few other organic fruits and vegies
bronners pepperment soap
tea tree oil
organic eggs
organic butter
organic frozen peas, blueberries, raspberries, green beans
once and while stoop to the level of buying organic corn chips
That’s about it at trader Joe’s.
We rarely buy canned or bottled or boxed items
they just have to many bad chemicals in them.
My experience is similar at Whole Foods but
there is much more of a selection of organic
items. But again I make my own organic gluten
free bread and we buy nothing that is in a box
or can or bottle.
Trying to do as much as I can at home.
My next project is to some how grow
as much of my produce as I can and
a lot will be in pots.
P.S. To better times in our world with food!
What I don’t understand is why I keep reading for years these vilifying articles of particular stores like Whole food, Trader Joe and…..boycott Whole Foods, actions like going to Trader Joe buy food and dump it in protest outside……stores that even they are not perfect are on the right path! While I never read any articles pointing the fingers at Albertson, Kruger, Safeway, Walmart or any other big corporate stores that have the largest crap of so called ‘food’ on their store shelves and their organic lines are highly suspicious, that have Cafo meat and label it natural, repack rotten meat, spray it with chemicals so it looks fresh…..the list could go on and on.
It’s like, why point at the really bad stores? NO we need to put down the stores that try harder to give us more organic and better food, that support sustainable seafood choices, that treat their employees better then any of these other stores. Why? Because they are not there yet, they are not 100% better, so we need to put them down, damage their reputation never mentioning the other stores, the ones most Americans get their food from, ignoring the horrible, processed food….’gosh I hate to call their stuff food’ that is pushed on especially all the poor people, people with limited resources because they don’t have a Trader Joe in their neighborhood.
Why is that?
We should support the stores that at least try, by making educated choices, by buying what we think is right, by voting for the right people, sign petitions, contact our representatives, call the white House, writing letters to the stores, polite letters asking for better food, products we want to see instead waving our fingers at them and shouting, vilifying them, hurting their business. We need them on our side, it’s the only way the industry will consider giving us non-GMO products, if they can sell them in large quantities. Your neighborhood mom & pop stores won’t have that buying power to support the large food producers.
Be an informed shopper….it worked for Germans. They didn’t want excess packaging in the late 80’s so they stopped buying thing in excess packages, guess what, it went away, new laws regulated packaging. They didn’t want to eat GMO…..so they didn’t buy it, so now it’s almost gone from the store shelves.
I am very engaged in the Non-GMO movement, I go to protests, I write letters, I get involved, I learn and I shop wisely. But I will never vilify any stores like Whole foods or Trader Joe and I will never support a movement that will do that because I see them as a partner in our fight against GMO’s not as an enemy.
And frankly you really believe your little neighborhood Natural Foodstore, that probably pays minimum wage to their employers, part time employers that is, won’t have foods with GMO ingredients on their shelves?
They ALL DO! Because nobody really knows, aside it’s certified Non-GMO (and I am not 100% convinced by that) where the GMO’s are hidden…….WE don’t have GMO labeling in the US!
And the USDA organic label……let me chuckle about that untrustworthy Organic label!
I don’t necessarily think that it is Trader Joe’s responsibility to show us proof of all this. If we are really concerned about the foods we eat, then we should make our food ourselves. That is truly the only way to ensure that we are eating what we want without anything we don’t want. I only shop for produce at Trader Joe’s, and only specific things I can’t find elsewhere.
I shop at TJs all the time and I’m not going to stop. And yes, as somebody who has suffered multiple debilitating food allergies, I care very much about the GMO issue and what’s in the food I consume.
The food supply in this country is broken. The general attitude regarding food additives is ignorant and thoroughly depressing. I’ve had to accept that unless you shop solely from local farmers, there is no fabulous place to shop. Yes, there are abundant amounts of junk in natural food stores. So don’t buy it. Pick natural, minimally processed items without added junk. If you want to be sure you’re buying GMO free, buy certified organic – that’s what I do when buying one of things Monsanto might have modfied, like zucchini.
My life literally used to depend on my avoidance of soy, and TJs has been a wonderful resource. Canned tuna in pure WATER, not soy broth – do you know how RARE that is for less than four bucks a can? Grass fed beef. Coconut oil. Additive free mustard. Organic onions, avocados, squash, apples, pumpkin. Thanks to that store, I eat a very, very clean, nutrient-dense, mostly paleo diet, which I would certainly not be able to afford if I bought solely from local farmers.
The fact that Trader Joe’s makes this possible for a young,nearly broke single woman is incredible, and for this reason I will continue to happily give them my business. If you want GMO free, clean food, don’t buy the processed foods containing maltodextrin and soybean oil. It’s that simple. Health food stores offer that junk because people buy it. Want to vote with your dollars? That’s the way, unless you’re willing to raise and grow everything you eat yourself or are lucky enough to live next to Farmer John. I’m not. I can’t boycott every single grocery store. And while generally I enjoy and appreciate Food Babe`s research, I do not think that attacking the places that provide better-than-average options is helpful. At best, It’s nitpicky. At worst, it’s blaming companies for a flawed cultural attitude. You CAN avoid cheap ingredients, even though this country makes it hard. You don’t need chips and granola bars to live. So either forgo grocery stores – all of them will sell SOME sort of junk – or buy only clean food when you go.
i understand the concerns presented here. it is a common question while working at trader joe’s (i no longer work there). to fully asses what you are willing to ut in your mouth in this situation, i think it wise to consider trader joe’s record for integrity. they use their lack of bureaucracy to be agile when it comes to oversight. a couple of customers have a problem, and the ceo is involved. they were the 1st ones to pull the peanut butter last summer- that story effected 106 stores, including whole foods and target, but trader joe was the only one mentioned night after night on corporate news. i would also point to trader joe’s reluctance to sell endangered fish like orange roughy. they set a standard here that most big companies can not reach because they buy their food with cash from the people who make it….. .unlike large grocers who rent shelves to 3rd parties. lastly, trader joe’s had a goal of being gmo free before most knew what gmo’s were. they continue to offer private label brands right next to popular gmo items like morninstar veggie burgers because they want their customers to have good choices. so don’t be so suprised when tj’s doesn’t have a or firm to call you back and make you happy. their focus is price and their brand, from where i stand, is head of class.
thanks so much for this post! i am an avid label reader and have been suspicious of trader joe’s for years. I feel like Debby Downer bringing this up to friends, because everyone is so excited to get “gourmet” foods at rock bottom prices. Much of their stock isn’t organic, and i do not trust an unsubstantiated no gmo “policy”. I have many questions about their labor practices, too. When perusing their coffee choices a couple of years ago i didn’t see fair trade identified anywhere. I don’t shop there at all, now, but since everyone else does, i’m still interested in learning where they find such inexpensive food, and how the people who grow and harvest it are treated. I’m grateful you’re bringing up the issue and look forward to more information on the secretive folks at trader joe’s.
Great article. Thank you so much. Big fan of Trader Joe’s. I will adjust my purchases. What’s your thought on non-organic pistachios, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds? How about white vinegar?
I was at Trader Joe’s today when my kids saw the sign that said they did not sell foods with GMO’s. So I questioned them because last time they told me that, I bought some cheese spread and one of the ingredients SAYS : MODIFIED CORN STARCH!!!! YES IT IS LABELED! AND I FOUND SOME OTHER PRODUCTS WITH THE SAME LABEL’MODIFIED CORN’ They told me that their corn and everything is grown far from where gmo’s are being used , and they told me that it’s grown on their own farms!!!! I trusted them because i believed they wouldn’t lie being that they were the head people in charge there! Then i come home and read this!
I live in California, and it’s a state law that every product has to have a country of origin. And while the labels may say “Sold and Dist in CA’, it doesn’t say it’s grown in CA.
I work at Trader Joe’s, so I have to say I’m surprised that this many people who supposedly care about where there food comes from could be so ignorant about our products. No employee would ever say that everything in the store is organic, just like we are also trained within the first five minutes not to guarantee that our products contain absolutely no GMO’s. It is awesome if you want to eat completely natural, organic foods, and if that is the case, the only way you know for sure where your food is coming from is to grow it yourself. of course, most of you are far too busy patting yourselves on the back on websites like this to actually do that. The other thing I would mention is that we have a lot of people on food stamps that shop at our store because we are the cheapest, healthiest store that accepts EBT. Many people that shop at our store are fine buying meat with anti-biotics because they can’t afford to pay four times as much for organic meat. We provide the option. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Stop trying to appoint yourselves the voice of the people by taking away the options that the majority of the people that walk through our doors choose. We are more than happy to provide all the information that we are contractually able to, including countries of origin, which are clearly posted on a large number of our products, unlike what this article said. If you choose not to shop at our stores, we’re okay with that. I can’t help thinking, though, that “food babe” just wanted to stoke the fire with her brand of “journalism” after Trader Joe’s being voted the most popular retailer in the country. She’s using our name recognition to get more subscribers to her blog. Make up your own mind instead of hopping in with the angry mob.
Holy crap… I only shop at TJ thinking that it was ‘healthy’ and the right way to go. Thanks for this eye-opener.
I really appreciate what you do Food Babe!
this is bull shit. Learn your facts, you freak. I thought the same things about trader joes, did A LOT more research and found out you have no argument. ALSO i guess youre just an ignorant idiot because EVERYONE knows trader joes sells other brands under their own label to sell them for a better price, and you sound ridiculous pointing it out like youve found the cure for cancer.
Thank you for confirming the rumors/cautions I’ve heard ever since Trader Joe’s first came to Charlotte. I would like to know what you think of their Silver Coho Salmon Portions Deboned Skiness “Natural Wild Salmon” – product of Canada – found in the frozen food section. Also, please comment on their extensive supply of nuts – everything from almonds to walnuts – as I consume a lot of nuts in my diet based on a preference over eating meat. As always, thank you for assisting us in making wise food choices!
Thank you! Finally someone brave enough to go against this ‘healthy chain’! I shop there regularly and carefully choose what I buy, I try to stick with organic because I don’t trust them. But it annoys me that many people do and always say “don’t worry, it’s from Trader Joe’s!”, my own in-laws and parents included. It’s so frustrating!
I am backing you up all the way to demand the truth from them and to demand that they lead the way in GMO labeling or I WILL STOP SHOPPING THERE. I’ve already changed a lot of our shopping to buying meat from a local farmer (beef, pork) and I only get organic chicken from TJs.
I really need to blog about this too, but it would probably be short and sweet. May I link to your blog post so my readers can get more info?
A, how is putting a GMO-free policy and procedure in place in 2001 not ‘leading the way’? Are you even listening to yourself?? Did you even know what a GMO was or what you might be eating that contained it in 2001?
TJ’s GMO labeling is here:
http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates-responses.asp?i=4
Well, it’s nice that you take their claim at face value. I don’t think you read the article above. They have no proof there are no GMOs in products they sell and NO ACCOUNTABILITY to anyone. Essentially, they can say whatever they want and nobody will know because everything is secret. I’ve already seen the page you’re linking to and just like you I believed it at first. Until I see third party testing of their products I can’t trust them.
You will never see the supply chain(s) or the verification of 3rd party testing. If you don’t understand why, read my other comments on here.
There’s no big secret here. Their accountability is that anyone with a few bucks and a shopping bag can go buy a pile of their food and have it tested. Do you really believe that’s not already happening? With the instant 100’s of millions of shopping dollars that would walk in the doors of Whole Foods if TJ’s broke the trust of their customers, do you really think this testing hasn’t been going on for sometime to try and catch them out?
What would be their motivation for not doing exactly as they say? They would save the costs of the random sample testing and risk a huge drop in their sales at all stores. Have you ever heard the terms “risk/reward”, or “ROI” (return on investment)?
I suggest you never start your own business. With an understanding of how it works as you appear to have, it would be a constant nightmare only ending when you are broke and living out of a cardboard box.
I heard a lot of good things about Trader Joe’s. I went and found misleading advertising. A large island full of oranges with a banner across the entire island that read “Organic Oranges” I marveled at how beautiful and perfect the oranges were. They seemed to be too perfect to be organic. Then my wife looked at the food code number on the orange and discovered it was not organic. I went back to the island and found a small sign above a narrow row labeled organic. Out of an eight foot, four sided island only two feet were actually organic. Many of their other products in the store have packaging to appear to be “all natural” and healthy, but the ingredient list tells a different story.
Food labels with 4 digits are produced with normal farming practices. Food labels with 5 numbers starting with 9 are organic. Watch out for Food labels with 5 numbers beginning with 8 they are GMO. Learn how to read food ingredient labels; you will be astonished at the chemicals in your food and the effect they have on your body. I learned from Dee McCaffrey’s website. Way to go Food Babe!
I have never shopped at these stores just because I have never trusted them. To me, they spell the same as a regular grocery store, but profess to be “healthy” while all the while, just charging higher prices. You are doing such great work – really digging – what others don’t have time to do. For people that believe these types of stores are really good, you will open their eyes.
Elaine, you’re suffering from a common misconception among those who have never actually shopped at TJ’s. I can’t tell you how many times over the years that friends and acquaintances have told me they never shopped there because they either didn’t eat many “fancy, gourmet” foods or because “that kind of food is too expensive” for them.
The reality in the store is completely different. They have MANY products that are not only a higher quality than you can buy at any average grocery store but are as cheap and can even be cheaper than a deep discount grocery store.
I’ll give you one example: pasta. The standard TJ’s pasta is imported from Italy and is the best packaged dry pasta I have ever had (not including specialty boutique pastas, but they usually cost $3-4/lb and up). TJ’s pastas cost $.69/lb bag. The organic pasta is $1.29/lb bag. Seriously, you can barely find a nasty, pasty, cheap American made past for that price. Cooked up, the difference is huge. The quality, flavor and texture of TJ’s pastas is night and day to any regular American brand.
There are 100’s of similar examples all over the store. One of their direct contract beers, for instance, is $3.99/six pack (Simpler Times Lager/Pilsner). This is slightly cheaper than a discounted pack of Bud, PBR, etc. in Oregon. It tastes immensely better and when I called the brewery in WI that produces it, the brewmaster spent over 1/2 hour on the phone answering my questions about the ingredients and pleasantly chatting. I don’t know about you, but I WANT to be shopping at a place that has suppliers as helpful and friendly as that to some random stranger calling them from across the country about some $3.99 six of beer that they sold to TJ’s for a fraction of that price.
Try finding grass-fed cheddar somewhere else for $4.99/lb. I dare you. 🙂
First of all trusting The USDA or FDA is foolish most of these guys work for or have worked for Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Bayer, BASF or Synerga or one of it’s Subsidiaries. It’s like The Fox guarding the Hen House. How do you think they mass produce at that cost? Wake up it’s simple economics with a scam that the consumer assumes it’s higher quality.
Considering thr USDA said it was ok to eat margarine and HFCS, I’d say they are a poor sourse of information with regard to the current topic.
The reason you won’t find $4.99 grassfed cheese in other stores, is because the $4.99 ‘grassfed” cheese probably isn’t grassfed. Unless it’s certified by the American Grassfed Association, you don’t know what you are getting, since the USDA allows almost anyone to use the term grassfed. Trader Joe’s “private label” is almost as bad as Krogers simple truth.