[sarcastic Colbert mode ON]
At first, I was wary that my boy Stephen Colbert was having an ice cream named after him by those liberal bear-huggers over at Ben & Jerry’s. I was even more miffed when my place of employment carried that pot-smoking tax dodger Willie Nelson’s ice cream over Stephen’s all-American waffle cone goodness (at least, I assume it is- although I haven’t given up ice cream for Lent like Stephen has, I still haven’t tasted his flavor yet). Now it turns out that the FDA has put the smackdown on Willie Nelson just like the IRS did: they and Ben and Jerry’s are recalling 250,000 pints of Willie Nelson’s Country Peach Cobbler because it contains, quote, “undeclared wheat.” I’m guessing they misspelled “weed.” Long live the Americone Dream and true, freedom-loving, law abiding Americans! You’re next, Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies!
[scm OFF]
What a waste. Why can’t they just send out labels for stores to put on the cartons, or signage? Why do thay have to throw it all away? It seems that it would be far cheaper to send out their reps to each location with new labels than to go through this whole recall mess. And I’m speaking as the aunt of a teen with gluten intolerance, who would surely question why something that claimed to have shortbread pieces in it didn’t list wheat flour on the label, and wouldn’t eat it, just in case. Since such a tiny segment of the population has celiac disease, and an even tinier percentage of them will even buy this ice cream (since the majority of ice creams seem to have some wheat in them, according to my niece) this seems like a major waste of our county’s resources.
I’ll gladly take the bullet and help to properly dispose of this ice cream … as long as it’s good.
A legal thing. Trying to prevent lawsuits.
It’s more than “lawsuits”. This is the FDA that’s forcing the recall, not Ben and Jerry’s, and the FDA couldn’t care less if a company gets sued. The requirement that all ingredients for a product be listed on the label is for safety. Leaving off something as relatively innocuous as “wheat” from the ingredient list on ice cream isn’t world shaking but I’d like having the FDA mandating accurate labeling on all food.
And it’s not “the country’s resources” that are being wasted here. Ben and Jerry’s broke the law by not labeling accurately and they’re the ones eating the cost.
I’m glad they’re recalling it. I had a pint two weeks ago and the stuff is dangerously good.
Some people are allergic to wheat.
It’s certain “world shaking” to people with wheat allergies.
Really, people with wheat insenstivities/allergies don’t bother to LOOK at the label for Ben and Jerry’s Peach Cobbler - there are some things you don’t bother with - ice cream with chunks of baked goods and cookies from the regular cookie aisle and bread from the bakery and pizza are all right out. (Pizza, I miss pizza - surprised me, but I miss pizza more than pretty much anything). When buying preprocessed, we tend to go for specific brands. Most gluten intolerant/wheat free folks I know do lots of coop shopping, and lots of home cooking.
Wheat can sneak up on you. It isn’t sneaking up on you in Ben and Jerry’s Peach Cobbler Ice Cream. Its sneaking up on you as the thickener in soups. I always forget things like soy sauce are made with wheat. (For me, this means getting gassy and visiting the bathroom more than normal).
However, the FDA has you list ingrediants, Ben and Jerry’s misprinted their label, they’ll need a recall. Recalls are a fairly normal part of doing business. Shame that all that ice cream will go to waste.
(Other than ice cream with bakery-type chunks, I haven’t seen wheat products used as a filler in ice cream. But I tend to buy ice cream with pretty simple labels - cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla)
Couldn’t they just run off a quarter-of-a-million stickers that promote “Now, with MORE WHEAT!!!” and stick 'em on? 
I think “weed ice cream” might be the closest man will ever come to making a perpetual motion machine.
I beg to differ. It is “the country’s resources”. Dairy products, peaches, the electricity that ran the plant, the fuel that was used to transport it to the stores…all gone to waste, when the fix of new labels is less wasteful than throwing it away. After all, it’s not like there is something harmful in it that will kill every person who eats it. The ice cream is perfectly fine. Just missing some ink on the label. I’ve seen many places post signs warning that their products are processed on machinery that processes allergens like wheat, nuts, shellfish. Certainly a new sticker or a hangtag or a shelf sign would satisfy the FDA. I understand about lawsuits…I understand why they have chosen this solution…I just think it’s wasteful. Don’t you?
Yeah, stickers seem to make a lot of more sense. And B&J can just correct the labeling on the next batch of cartons. Besides, Willie and the guys on his bus are gonna need lots of that ice cream for when they get the munchies!
Ha! This made me laugh, thank you!
Economically speaking - no. Ben and Jerry’s paid for those resources, its wasteful for them - but they stopped being “the country’s resources” when Ben and Jerry’s bought them. And stickers on frozen ice cream containers - not going to stick reliably enough to keep the FDA happy. Too much moisture and too many ice crystals on the packaging.
I used to work for Pillsbury, you don’t want to know how many pizzas we threw out because we didn’t get the marketing campaign released in time for the pizza ship date, how much ice cream we threw out because some minor mistake was made in processing and tons of Haagan Dazs weren’t up to quality standards. How many tons of Halloween cookies never made it to the grocery store in October. The food industry “wastes” an incredible amount of food during production, transport and sale.
Now that I’m in my non-Colbert mode, I wonder how much it would cost to send all of the cartons back, affix a sticker that reads “customers with food allergies: contains wheat” to them, and send them back to the stores. It would probably be more trouble than it’s worth.
Speaking of Colbert and mode [as in “a la”], has anybody seen his ice cream flavor in stores? I’ve looked for AmeriCone Dreams in a couple of stores and I can’t find it. I thought the stuff was rolling out around March 5.
When I buy a chicken pie made at the store up the street, the label says, “Ingredients: chicken meat, potatoes, gravy.”
Not only do they not tell us what’s in the gravy, they completely ignore the crust. . .
Willie is on Cobert tonite.