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Fresh & Easy complaint letter

Thursday, July 1, 2010

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

I am writing to request an explanation for the following complaint:

Recently I used two of your Fresh & Easy brand 14.5oz cans of “ORGANIC Italian style diced tomatoes” with about one pound of ground beef to make a typical “ragu” or “bolognese” pasta sauce.

On the label of your product it reads: “Our diced Cali tomatoes are blended with garlic, oregano and basil.”

I wish it also read, “Plus an INSANE amount of added sugar.”

When I tasted this meat sauce, it was SWEET.

Yes, sweet.

WHY!?!!

I had to look at the Nutrition Facts label, AND do some fancy arithmetic, to discover to my dismay that I had added a whopping THIRTEEN+ TEASPOONS (56g) of sugar to my sauce simply because I used two small cans of your flavored and SUGARED tomatoes.

No chef in his or her right mind would add that huge quantity of sugar to a savory meal.

I am writing to request an explanation for this, and to request that you PLEASE reduce the sugar level in this product to a more sensible level.

In any case, I will never use it again, nor do I trust your products any longer.

This is an absurdly, ridiculously high level of sugar, and the fact that you disguise it by saying there are 8g of sugar per serving, and 3.5 servings per can (really?!?) just makes my blood boil. There are NOT “3.5 servings per can” – everybody will use at least one if not two cans per meal. This is immorally misleading.

So sneaky, so unhealthy and so very, very wrong.

I look forward to a detailed explanation addressing this complaint.

Does anyone else feel the same fury I do about hidden levels of sugar in their food?!

I’ve also sent this letter to their HQ. I’ll be sure to post again with their response.

By MaxMillion (see more of her posts). Max Million is the nom de 'net of Pauline Adamek. Born in Sydney, Australia, Pauline has lived in Los Angeles for the past thirteen years and finds it agrees with her. She has been reviewing films and filing celebrity-based interview articles since 1991, and has filed stories from various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. She completed a family cookbook and has also written novels for 8-12 year olds. She is the creator and host of ArtsBeatLA.