Yuck!
Most of the time, I use Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat pasta, but sometimes you just want something that tastes like good old fashioned white pasta, so I also keep Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta in the pantry.
I just finished off a box, and glanced at the ingredients list before I tossed it into recycling. What? Something is very wrong here! BHA & BHT along with Fractionated Coconut Oil?? I know I would never have purchased a product with those kind of ingredients! What happened?
I looked at another box, and those ingredients were not listed! The only difference between both boxes was it was now listing “Now With Vitamin D” – so to include Vitamin D, they have to also add icky toxic preservatives and Fractionated Coconut Oil*?! Not happy Ronzoni!
The reason I am not happy about “fractionated” coconut oil is because it’s refined with heat, not cold pressed. I like coconut oil, but it’s gotta be extra virgin for me to consume it!
Here is a full list of both the old and new versions:
Older without Vitamin D:
Semolina (Wheat), Durum Flour (Wheat), Modified Wheat Starch, Calcium Phosphate, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate), Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid
New with added Vitamin D (highlighted bold text signifies a new ingredient)
Semolina (Wheat), Durum Flour (Wheat), Modified Wheat Starch, Dicalcium Phosphate, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate), Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Food Starch Modified, Vitamin D3, BHA & BHT perservatives, Fractionated Coconut Oil
Out of protest, I will not be purchasing ANY Ronzoni products! It’s sneaky and deceitful how they dramatically changed the product like that! Once the cupboard needs a pasta refill, I will switch to a more reputable brand!
Note: Their parent company is New World Pasta
Brands include Healthy Harvest®, Ronzoni®, Smart Choice®, San Giorgio®, Creamette®, American Beauty®, Skinner®, Prince®, Catelli® and Lancia®.
In 2006, the Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ebro Puleva, S.A., one of the world’s leading food companies. Ebro Puleva’s other subsidiary in the United States, Riviana Foods Inc., has such well-known brands as Mahatma®, Carolina®, Success®, Minute® and Gourmet House®.
So, needless to say, I will also be staying away from their other products as well, not that I buy any of them now, but I surely won’t in the future!
Ronzoni stinks! :P Blah!
UPDATE May 12, 2010:
I happened to be at the grocery store the other day, and I noticed the Smart Taste pasta. I was curious, so I took a look at the ingredients again.
Wow! No more BHA & BHT perservatives, Fractionated Coconut Oil. Amazing!
I still don’t trust them, since they added these ingredients in the first place without warning, so I am still staying away from their products. They really never should have added these bad ingredients, but it’s nice to see them taking them out of their pasta!
by princesspea
21 May 2010 at 11:59
It is nice that you have shared the covert operations of Ronzini. I appreciate as much information as possible. What has happened in the gum industry (adding ace-k and aspertame) is equally disturbing to me….The warning you expect, however, is that supposed to be a certified letter, a billboard announcing their “improvement”. As a matter of being helpful, have you ever made your own pasta, with flour and egg?