I’m very careful when I buy nut products, always checking to find the country of origin. A lot of nuts (organic and conventional) like cashews are grown in Asia and I rather spend a little more and buy nuts labeled as grown in the USA.
Peanuts are no exception.
Recently, I have been learning that conventional peanuts are very bad for us. A lot of pesticides are used when growing conventional peanuts, and there is even talk of GMO peanuts being grown to help with allergies. Ugh.
So, we’ve been eating almond butter, which is yummy. I’ve been buying Trader Joe’s almond butter. It’s not organic, but it’s delicious with no added oils or salt.
This week Teddie brand organic peanut butter was on sale for $3.99.
I love Teddie peanut butter; it tastes fresh and delicious, and it’s offered in glass containers. A lot of peanut butter is sold in plastic.
Funny, I distinctly remember disliking Teddie peanut butter as a child, it didn’t taste like the normal salt/sugar-laden Skippy and Jif because it was “all natural” – probably the ONLY all natural peanut butter available at that time. I remember my mom buying it in a large tub.
Anyway, Teddie peanut butter is made by a local company here in Massachusetts and the label for their regular natural peanut butter states that the peanuts have been grown in the USA. All good, right?
Well the label on their organic peanut butter is missing any information on country of origin. I checked their web site, and they state:
We are proud to note that our products are market leaders in the areas we serve. Teddie Old Fashioned Peanut Butter, the Number 1 selling natural peanut butter in the Northeast, contains 100% fresh roasted and ground, USA grown peanuts providing the most wholesome peanut butter available.
It made me curious that they didn’t specifically state that “all their peanut butter…” so I phoned Leavitt Corp this morning and she was very adamant that ALL their products were made with peanuts grown in the USA.
After I hung up, I was happy, but then my paranoia set in again. Why didn’t their organic peanut butter label state USA grown? What if the person I spoke to didn’t really know, and was only stating what she thought was fact?
I viewed their web site again, and noticed the caption at the top left of their peanut butter page:
For over 100 years, we at Leavitt Corp, purveyors of Teddie peanut butter, have devoted ourselves to providing our customers with premium peanut butter made from only the highest grade USA grown peanuts that will consistently deliver great taste. Nothing less.
That makes me feel a lot better, but I still wonder about their organic label.
For now, I only purchased one jar of Teddie organic peanut butter.
We’ll continue to use peanut butter once in awhile, but I think we’ll also concentrate on other nut butters, like almond butter, hazelnut butter, sunflower butter.
I need to find a way to make almond butter at home. I tried once in my food processor, and it was a failure. More googling is needed, but maybe I need to roast the almonds prior to grinding.
This is interesting, Debbie!
I only buy organic peanut butter these days (“natural” alone doesn’t cut it), but have never seen this brand. I find it funny that it’s a big brand in the East, but I live in Washington, where it is manufactured, and I haven’t seen it! Going to look more specfically next time I’m at a non-Trader Joe’s.
Peanuts are a landmine, unfortunately, so I do eat mostly almond butter, but sometimes, it just has to be peanut butter!
I think the label might be hard to read from my photo. It’s Everett, MA not WA. Easy to mis-read though.
I don’t know if you can find it in the West, it looks like it’s only a Northeast product.
They do sell it online
http://www.buyteddieonline.com/
and I think I’ve seen it on amazon.com too.
They say they’ve been around for 100 years, and as I mentioned I remember it specifically when I was very young.
I’m still doing research on organic vs conventional nuts, and some say that the nut shells are enough to protect from pesticides, but then I don’t know.
Because peanut shells are not “hard” like true nuts, they can absorb the pesticides PLUS I also heard they are grown on cotton fields, where there’s tremendous pesticide residue in the soil.
ugh. I just love how they take a wonderfully healthy food and just destroy it.
thanks Angela!
Hi Debbie,
I have the same concerns you note above about peanut butter. I looked up the website today and it no longer apparently statues they use US grown peanuts for all of their PB products. At the bottom of the PB products page, there is now this statement:
“*Due to limited supply of USA organic peanuts we occasionally source USDA approved organic peanuts from South America. – See more at: http://teddie.com/products/peanut-butter/#sthash.aupIV5PI.dpuf”
To me, this means “organic” peanuts that may or may not actually be organic, since there are a lot of ways to cheat between their place of origin and the store where I would buy the PB. I avoid all organic products if they are from outside the US for this reason. I too love PB and have probably eaten a ton of it as a child and young adult. I really miss it but buy it only rarely now. I hope at some time it becomes profitable again for US producers to grown peanuts organically.
I contacted another PB manufacturer, the Woodstock company, and someone named Tracy told me by email that all peanut butter of theirs in glass jars is from US grown peanuts (all PB in plastic jars is made from Chinese peanuts). However, there is no statement in writing, either on the website or the jar itself, declaring this, so I feel uncomfortable assuming this is all accurate. You would think putting “made from peanuts grown in the USA” on the label would be such a positive marketing tool that they would do it if they could.
Wow thanks for your comment, Bob! I appreciate the additional information. How scary that it’s so difficult to find USA grown peanut butter. And I would especially expect a company like Woodstock to offer only USA grown. That is so disappointing.
I usually keep a close eye on labels but sometimes I don’t check when it’s a label that I have previously trusted. Ugh. Can’t let your guard down ever!