scam – That's Just Me

What? Quack Dr. Mercola Donates $800,000 to Benefit Prop 37 GMO Labeling

I was just reading the article over at Cornucopia about big food companies hiding behind the seemingly little organic food companies, while donating hundreds of thousands (and millions) to shut down Prop 37 in California, which would require all food labels to list if the ingredients are GMO (genetically modified).

So, as I’m reading, I’m shocked to learn that Dr Mercola from DrMercola.com donated a whopping $800,000.00 in favor of the new law.

What? Wow!

How much money does this swindling health-nut actually make, that he’s able to give almost a million away to the cause! It’s sad that he’s been profiting THAT much while taking advantage of so many vulnerable people.

I hope that Dr Mercola’s contributions to Prop 37, does not give him any legitimacy; it would be a horrible circumstance if he profits more from this exposure. Or maybe that is what he’s looking for! Hmm.

But on the other hand, I hope his association with Prop 37 doesn’t disgrace the blessing that this law could bring us. After all, if GMO labeling is required in California, then every other state would benefit!

French Pot? Try Again!

I was walking around BJ’s the other night and saw an enameled cast iron “french” pot and I joked to my husband that it was probably a french pot, made in China.

french pot from cuisine de france - made in china

I half-heartedly turned over the box, and I admit I was a tad bit surprised to see “made in China”, well not THAT surprised, but it did shock me a little.

french pot from cuisine de france - made in china

It still amazes me that companies are allowed to push the limits of fair & truthful marketing with their sneaky packaging and labels!

I suppose it’s too much to ask that something named “Cuisine de France” (which according to the manufacturers’ web site means “French Kitchen”) would actually have something to do with France except for the name on the box!

I know, I know, everything nowadays is “made in China”, but if you know about good cookware, you’d know there are still cast iron pots being manufactured in France (Le Creuset and Staub); in fact, one of the kitchen tools so many home cooks aspire to own, is a good-quality french enameled cast iron pot!

I really think Lifetime Brands took advantage of that fact by making it look like this could have been a french-made pot, when in fact it’s no better than any other cheap no-name import. At first glance, I admit I fell for it, and I bet a lot of other consumers did too.

Pink Fuel For the Cure From Connecticut’s Standard Oil

Okay, it’s bad enough that Yoplait has a pink ribbon campaign, but I was shocked to see a Connecticut oil company started promoting “Fuel For the Cure” with a pink oil truck.

Come on!

From Standard Oil’s web site:

Standard Oil has pledged $3 for every delivery The Pink Truck makes for the next 12 months. It is our plan to make somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 deliveries with The Pink Truck and make a donation of approximately $20,000

Hmm, why is it that companies can’t just make a freakin’ donation if they believe in the cause so much? No, they need to drum up sales first, then make a donation. It’s sickening.

And more importantly, how do we really know for sure that the oil refineries aren’t ultimately causing breast cancer?

Yeah, it looks like it has a hand in causing certain blood cancers, along with damaging our kidneys, liver, nervous system and causing blood pressure and blood clotting issues. And if that’s not enough, it’s poisoning our environment.

So, keep up the good work, Standard Oil.

And add one more “pink ribbon” fiasco to the Susan G. Komen organization. Maybe someday you’ll actually find a CURE for cancer with all that money that floats your way! Nah, I doubt it.

Links:
http://jezebel.com/5840564/the-breast-cancer-charity-scam

Cook This, Not That 350 Calorie Meals – Book Review

When I first started changing my lifestyle, one of the first books I borrowed from the library was “Eat This, Not That” and then the “Eat This, Not That: Supermarket Survival Guide.”

Yeah, these books get you thinking in the right direction (and they did help me initially), but truthfully, they are really just about eating better-quality junk food; at the end of the day, it’s still junk food.

The original ETNT book was published in late 2007, and since then, the authors/publishers have cultivated this “brand” into a huge franchise, publishing new, updated versions every year, and coming up with more titles, such as “Drink This, Not That” and their “Restaurant Survival Guide.” According to wikipedia, as of Sept, 2011, they’ve sold more than 8 million books!

Cook This, Not That

I was curious about the “Cook This, Not That – 350 Calorie Meals” version, so I borrowed it from the library.

As expected, it was true to the franchise formula, offering recipes to home-cook a restaurant-style dish (eat this,) while claiming they could save the reader money and calories compared to the restaurant counterpart (not that.)

Big problem though. I found some, if not most, of the book examples weren’t fair comparisons.

For example, lasagna rolls (page 196) compares itself to Olive Garden’s Lasagna Rollata al Forno. The recipe calls for 6 oz of long thin lasagna noodles, to make a 6 serving recipe. That’s only 1 oz of pasta for each person, calculating a total of 380 calories for each serving.

Come on! Do they really think we’re going to be satisfied with only one serving? Compared to the size of the Olive Garden plate, I would venture a guess that you’d need at least TWO (or more) servings, totaling 760+, coming a lot closer to the Olive Garden’s 1170 calorie plate.

A second example, the California Pizza Kitchen Original BBQ Chicken Pizza (page 180) is calculated at 1136 calories for a whole pizza (web site states current calories are less at 1055). The recipe makes 2 pizzas divided into 4 servings, at 380 calories for half pizza. How is that fair? Eating the whole homemade pizza brings the calories up to 760. A little sneaky and misleading that they’re not comparing apples to apples and pizzas to pizzas!

Most recipes were pushed down to the 350 calorie mark, but don’t be fooled, because in order to reduce calories, they weren’t giving you complete meals. Most so-called meals were only proteins. No carbs, no vegetables.

For Example, 360 calories for Chicken Pizzaioli (page 222) is compared to 1090 calories for the Olive Garden’s Chicken Parmigiana. Well, they kind of left out the fact that their version gives you a much smaller portion of chicken and doesn’t include any pasta, so in reality, it’s really not such a mind-blowing difference, is it?

Same with Herb Roasted Turkey Breast (page 228) compared to Bob Evans Turkey and Dressing. The recipe just calculates the turkey at 140 calories, but remove the dressing and gravy from the Bob Evans plate, and I bet it comes in just about equally. Very sneaky!

Don’t Waste Your Time and Money on this Book

Don’t waste your time with “Cook This, Not That – 350 Calorie Meals“, you’ll only be disappointed; their low 350 calorie meals are unbalanced and incomplete. They will not fill you up, and you’ll be searching for something else to eat, adding more calories to your daily total.

When you need a special treat, isn’t it better to splurge on something decadent? No, living a healthy lifestyle shouldn’t include a visit to the Olive Garden or Wendy’s very often, but sometimes you just want a good plate of junk food from a chain restaurant. Don’t worry about calories for ONE crazy treat meal, just enjoy and savor it while it lasts! :)

Recommendations Instead of This Book

If you need help to cook healthy, satisfying meals at home, borrow a Jamie Oliver book from the library; I especially love to recommend Cook With Jamie.

Also highly recommended is Hallmark TV channel’s “Mad Hungry” with Lucinda Scala Quinn. I love her down-to-earth, simple recipes!

There are also countless amounts of instructional cooking videos on youtube, and even many cooking podcasts on iTunes.

These are all much better choices than anything offered from the Eat This, Not That franchise. Good luck!

Disclaimer:
I love reading cookbooks, like some people love reading novels! I am inspired by recipes, and enjoy learning ideas from cookbooks, which means I’d rather put my own spin on a recipe than follow it exactly. Please keep in mind that my opinions might be completely different from the other home cooks.

Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios – What’s Next General Mills?

Cheerios used to be thought of as one of the “good” cereals, but over the years, General Mills has capitalized on the Cheerios name to produce UN-healthier, alternative flavors like Dulce de Leche Cheerios and Chocolate Cheerios. And now Peanut Butter is part of the Cheerios flavor family!

Cheerios Multi-Grain Peanut Butter cereal ingredients:

Whole Grain Corn, Sugar, Peanut Butter (peanuts, monoglycerides), Whole Grain Oats, Whole Grain Sorghum, Whole Grain Barley, Whole Grain Rice, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Salt, Canola and/or Rice Bran Oil, Peanut Oil, Color Added, Vitamin E, and BHT. Vitamins and Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Zinc and Iron (Mineral Nutrients), Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate), a B Vitamin (Niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), a B Vitamin (Folic Acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3

Even though there are a lot of whole grains on the list, one small serving of Peanut Butter Cheerios offers only a paltry 2g of fiber, along with 9g of sugar (sugar, corn syrup & dextrose.)

No, 9 grams isn’t earth shattering, but do you know how small a serving of 3/4 cup is? Pretty small. My guess is, most consumers will go for 2 servings, which brings the sugar up to 18 grams.

It’s even sadder that regular Cheerios now has ingredients like “modified corn starch” and “wheat starch” – Do you think these highly-processed ingredients were part of the package years ago when Cheerios were first produced? I doubt it.

Consumers don’t realize that highly processed grains (like in commercial cereals) do not offer the same qualities and benefits as fresh whole grains. Plus, there’s the issue of GMO corn and soy, along with sugars, unnecessary oils & emulsifiers (monoglycerides), preservatives, and colors.

And why all the extra added vitamins?

I’m so sick of Big Food adding a few synthetic vitamins and declaring their product a health food. (WhoNu, anyone?)

Let’s just keep the vitamins in our fruits and vegetables, and stop the sneaky marketing!

BEWARE! Peanut Allergies

And one more BIG strike against General Mills is that this is going to cause a lot of peanut allergy issues due to the similarity to regular cheerios!

It’s especially disconcerting since the packaging for both the multi-grain peanut butter and plain multi-grain look very similar. Plus the actual cereal pieces are virtually identical as well.

multi-grain peanut butter cheerios multi-grain cheerios

It’s been reported that a parent accidentally brought home a box of the peanut butter cereal and thankfully his wife caught the error before serving it to their allergic child.

Links:

So What’s Next General Mills?

So what’s next General Mills? Will you come out with Birthday Cake flavored Cheerios? How about Bacon flavored Cheerios?

Maybe someday, consumers will stop falling for Big Food’s cute clever marketing, but then what would Big Pharma do if the world was free of obesity, cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure?

Some Local Farmers Markets Are Turning Into Commercial Marketplaces

Yesterday, I was reading the online vendor list for a Farmers Market located at a nearby Agway store, and I noticed this week they were also allowing Girl Scout Cookies for sale.

Sorry, a Farmers Market is not the place to sell high-sugar junk-food made with partially hydrogenated oils, I don’t care what the organization is!

This same market is also allowing multi-level-marketing vendors selling “so-called natural” skin-care products and over-priced cookware. Disgraceful!

Farmers Markets Are “In” and Integrity Is “Out”

In the past couple of years, there has been a lot of buzz about Farmers Markets; it’s the current “in” thing to do, with one popping up in virtually every town in my area.

I’m really happy that we have so many choices locally, but unfortunately, with more popularity, there is now a tempting opportunity to exploit the public’s trust! :(

Similar to how most local New England country fairs have turned into commercial marketplaces offering slicer-dicers, t-shirts, and crappy jewelery, it’s a shame that some winter Farmers Markets in our area have slowly turned to the same direction.

Besides the Agway Farmer’s Market referenced above, I took a closer look at another local garden store’s cleverly named Winter ”Farmers-plus” Market, and was surprised to find a local butcher was participating.

No, this butcher does not sell meat from local farms, or even antibiotic/hormone-free meat. Will consumers realize that? Or will they quickly make assumptions about the quality of their meat based primarily on the fact that this business was allowed to participate?

Allowing vendors like this cheapens the idea behind Farmers Markets and takes advantage of the public’s trust. Just as the food marketing labels “natural” and “free range” have been abused beyond recognition, I am hoping our beloved farmers markets are not heading down a similar path.

Yes, I understand that market organizers need to cover their costs, and could feel pressure to minimize their standards during the winter because there are not many New England farms that offer winter produce.

But the issues I’ve seen, seem to be with markets held at established businesses, (like garden centers), so it really makes no sense…their store is open anyway, what extra expense is there? Even if there were only a handful of reputable vendors, they are still benefiting because potential customers are gathering in the store. Why compromise their character and allow inappropriate vendors to participate? Hmm, I can’t even guess $$$ – hehee

Thankfully, there are still a few independent New England winter markets in the area that successfully retain their high standards throughout the year without compromise!

What can consumers do to protect themselves against irresponsible Farmers Market organizations?

First and foremost, you must check the integrity of the farmers market. Do they have a mission statement? And if so, do they have specific standards that each participating vendor must adhere to before they are accepted?
Do not be afraid to ask questions. Get to know the vendors at the markets. Ask them specifically about their products and do not feel pressured to purchase from them if they do not meet your standards.
Do not assume that just because they are a vendor at a Farmer’s Market that they offer a sustainable, quality product.

Paula Deen Diabetes Announcement – Just Take Your Medicine, Ya’all

As predicted, Paula Deen made the official announcement that she is diabetic. Even though she was diagnosed 3 years ago, her reason for coming forward now is that she wants to help others.

In reality, she’s coming forward with a profitable new partnership with drug maker Novo Nordisk, marketing a new “helpful” web site called Diabetes in a New Light, which should really be called “pulling the wool over your diabetic eyes so you can’t see the true light.”

Let’s Turn Off the “Diabetes in a New Light”

So I checked out the Diabetes in a New Light web site, and uh, seriously, someone should turn off that light before it hurts someone. :(

The site is financed by Novo Nordisk, a Diabetes DRUG company, so right there, that’s a HUGE conflict of interest.
There is nothing on the site that mentions PREVENTION of diabetes, only what to do if you’ve already diagnosed. Hmm, why prevent diabetes when there is so much money to be made.
There’s nothing about trying to reverse it with diet/exercise. Again, Big Pharma can’t make millions if we can reverse it on our own with natural means. (Novo Nordisk’s drug Victoza, had global sales of $734 million in their first 3 quarters of 2011)
Victoza’s list of scary cautions & warnings on every page should be enough to make anyone think twice about taking this drug.

Basically all the web site accomplishes is regurgitating common-sense diabetes advice while tricking you into giving them your personal information in order to sign up for a newsletter. Why do they need your mailing address for an email newsletter?

hmm….the answer is at the bottom of the form, Novo Nordisk want your permission to bombard you with marketing materials from them and their “affiliates or vendors.” What do you get in return? Oh some delicious, diabetic-friendly recipes. Worth it, right?

SHAMEFUL!

If Paula Deen truly cared about people then she would be giving her re-worked recipes and tips for free, without making you sign away your privacy to a drug company!

It’s Just Entertainment, Ya’all

I watched the Paula Deen interview on the Today show, and she tried so hard to convince us that all she wants to do is help people, but at the same time she skirts around the question if she’ll change the way she cooks and eats.

Her eventual answer was that she NEVER ate like that every day, it’s just entertainment, ya’all, and that she’s always been about moderation. Since when, Paula?

Perhaps she should have mentioned more about moderation during her “butter is beautiful” or “add another cup o’ sugar” shows on Food Network. Ugh. Yeah, what a great role model. It’s just for entertainment!

Wouldn’t it have been refreshing if Paula came forward and admitted that she was wrong, and that she made a lot of big mistakes with her health?

There’s no money in mistakes. Don’t change your life, just take some meds.

Farms Don’t Pay For Endorsements

This situation angers me the most because she didn’t go public with her illness until she secured a lucrative deal, and since the local farm-fresh industry is not paying for endorsements, why promote a change in lifestyle for free, when a top-bidding Big Pharma company will pay you millions to promote their drugs!

And the topper is Novo Nordisk is actually claiming that when they came to her to be a partner, they didn’t know she was diagnosed with diabetes. wink wink. Yeah, the National Enquirer knew, but no one else did? Makes me sick. I think I’ll eat some butter.

More links:
mercurynews.com/celebrities/

Yoplait Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Scam

yoplait yogurt pink lid breast cancer scam

It drives me crazy every October when I see the Yoplait Yogurt ads for their “Pink Ribbon/Lids Breast Cancer” marketing ploy.

My biggest problem with Yoplait’s Pink Lid promotion, besides the obvious trick to gain more sales, is that highly processed, highly sugary food products like Yoplait Yogurt could possibly be one of the factors that increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer in the first place!

So to reiterate, they want you to buy (and consume) more of their sugary, chemical laden yogurts, just so they can send out (up to) $2 million for a cure for the same cancer that they possibly could be causing! It makes me crazy when I think about it!

Yoplait, why don’t you keep that $2 million and IMPROVE your own products so they are not loaded with sweeteners (including artificial) and unpronounceable chemicals and other highly processed junk!

It’s food products from companies like Yoplait that are making American’s obese and ill! When are we going to open our eyes to these huge marketing scams and just SAY NO!

WhoNu? Cookies – Scam or Nutrition?

I just heard about the WhoNu brand of cookies, claiming to be “nutrition rich” compared to the other leading brands. Yes, they actually use the words “nutrition rich” in their marketing!

whoNu cookies marketing logo

So, I immediately thought okay, nutritious cookies must mean whole grains like oatmeal and lower sugar content, right? So I googled, and found their web site. Oh Lord, it’s virtually the same crappy highly processed cookie, but with a multi-vitamin and a little fiber thrown in for good measure.

Are WhoNu Cookies Nutritious?

Calories, sugar, & fat are all the same as the other “brands” they are comparing themselves to! What kind of a scam are they running here? They market this product to be “nutritious” but they are far Far FAR away from anything nutritious! Ugh. How are they allowed to get away with this?

That’s WhuNu’s nutritional info on the left, and the Oreos brand on the right.

whoNu chocolate cookies nutritional data comparing whoNu cookies to oreo cookie nutritional data

Quote from their About Us page:

How come tasty treats are nothing but empty calories? Why can’t they be filled with healthy nutrition and still taste yummy? That’s what the people at Suncore Products wondered.

Thus, a new challenge was born – to create a delicious, nutritious snack moms and dads can give their kids, without an ounce of guilt.

Processed sugary foods like this are still “empty calories” no matter how you try to package them. What is the difference between their cookie and a original Oreo taken with a multi-vitamin? Nothing! You are better off eating the original version (bought on sale) and save yourself the marketing hype and extra markup price.

Parents should feel VERY guilty feeding this crap to their children! And it’s this kind of marketing that is making us fat because unfortunately parents are believing the hype without actually checking the facts or ingredients!

Ingredients?? Where are they Hiding the WhoNu Cookie ingredients?

Did anyone else notice that they are not listing any ingredient data on their web site!? If they are so proud of their product, then why hide any details? Sneaky sneaky!

So, I did some googling, and found a few other pissed off people offering screen shots of cookie packages.

Thanks to Hippie Health Nut for her screen shot!

Here are the ingredients for the WhoNu chocolate (oreo-like) cookies:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oils (Canola, Palm, Palm Kernel Oil, Soybean Oil And Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed And Coconut Oil), Cocoa, Dextrose, Polydextrose, Yellow Corn Flour, Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Monoglycerides, Vanilla Extract.

Vitamins & Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin C (Asorbic Acid), Iron Orthophosphate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Oxide, Manganese Gluconate, Iodine, Chromium Chloride, Vitamin E (Tocopherol Acetate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), Biotin, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid), Vitamin D3, Vitamin K (Phytonadione), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid.

and here are the ingredients from Oreo’s web site (ha! They didn’t try to hide their data!)

Sugar, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), High Oleic Canola Oil And/or Palm Oil And/or Canola Oil, And/or Soybean Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cornstarch, Leavening (Baking Soda And/or Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Vanillin – An Artificial Flavor, Chocolate.

Not much different, eh? White flour, tons and tons of sugar, unhealthy oils, artificial flavors, and lots of GMO corn & soy. Actually, it’s funny that the WhoNu people kind of sneak in a few more sugary sources, like dextrose, perhaps to confuse & fool parents into thinking their ingredients are better.

Sad Promotion on So Many Mommy Blogs

While googling for WhoNu ingredients, I was shocked and saddened to see so many “mommy” bloggers are promoting these cookies. Google “WhoNu cookie mommy” and you’ll find pages of “give aways” from supposedly reputable mommy bloggers. Very sad.

Yes, I understand that children need a treat once in awhile, heck, adults need treats too! But we MUST learn the difference between a healthy and unhealthy treat, and WhoNu is trying to blur the lines way too much!

Stay far away from WhoNu cookies! Don’t reward profits to a company that is trying to mislead the public with their damaging exaggerated marketing ploys!

Don’t Fall for Perdue Chicken’s Bogus USDA Process Verification

perdue receives new usda process verification

I just saw the new {misleading} Perdue chicken TV commercial making a big fuss about their new USDA Process Verification.

I’ve only seen the commercial once so far, so I’m going on what I remember, details are fuzzy. I’ll update when I can review the commercial again.

Jim Perdue is having a press conference about the fact that Perdue chicken is the first to receive the USDA Process Verification. I remember hearing buzz words/phrases like “cage free”, “vegetarian fed”, “no growth hormones”! And then he closes the barn door, and there’s chickens sitting at little make-up tables with lights around the mirror, giving the impression that the chickens are superstars!

Here’s the REAL STORY.

What Does the USDA Process Verification Actually Mean?

At first, the pessimistic in me is thinking okay, Perdue pressured the USDA to create this verification process and applied even more pressure to make sure they were the first. Just sayin LOL

But here’s their official USDA Process Verification:

All Vegetarian Fed – Chickens are fed a high quality vegetarian diet, with no animal by-products.
Raised Cage Free – Perdue chickens are free to roam within the chicken houses.

So, what does the verification mean? From Perdue’s press release:

“We feed our birds the finest natural grain products, including corn, soybeans and marigolds, with no animal byproducts,” says Perdue. Products carrying the Raised Cage Free claim are verified to come from birds that are free to move about within temperature-controlled chicken houses.

Big deal!

The official-sounding verification really means nothing in terms of humane treatment of animals, but I am sure that it won’t matter to consumers. People hear the phrases cage free and vegetarian fed, and they think they are doing a good thing by buying. I know, because I fell for it myself in the past!

They feed their chickens cheap GMO {Genetically modified} soy and corn and their chickens don’t live in cages. They still can be cramped together (like poor cage free egg layers), and there is no stipulation for fresh air, outdoor access, lighting, etc.

Oh and they feed marigolds so the chicken skin turns a nice yellow color! But it does evoke a lovely scene of chickens roaming freely through fields of yellow flowers doesn’t it?

Sorry, but if Perdue is the first and only USDA Process Verified company, then I am sorry, but that just leads me to believe the whole verification process is bogus bull crap, actually make that bogus chicken crap.

Perdue’s Web Site Claims

Let’s take a look at some further details stated on their web site about this prestigious recognition (insert smirk):

We’ve always known our PERDUE® chicken was good, but with our new USDA Process Verified seal, now we know it’s VERIFIABLY GOOD. Perdue is the FIRST poultry company to have a Process Verified seal. The seal verifies that the chickens have been raised without cages and fed an all-vegetarian diet. This means you can have full confidence in the way we raise our chickens. In taste tests,** we’ve also found that this means consumers prefer the taste of Perdue USDA Process Verified Chicken.

Boy that is a lot of congratulatory self-praise, a casual reader could possibly miss the actual verification details. Did you catch it?

The seal verifies that the chickens have been raised without cages and fed an all-vegetarian diet.

If you keep scanning down the web page, the content becomes even more misleading.

They list all these great USDA Defined Terms including “organic”, “Free range free roaming”, “No antibiotics”, “No hormones”, but why? Their verification has NOTHING to do with organic, free range, hormones or antibiotics, so why are these words being listed on this page? To perhaps confuse and mislead the public?

Anti-biotics vs Hormones and Steroids

Sometimes people misunderstand the words hormones and anti-biotics, thinking they are one in the same. I know I have been misled in the past when looking at labels.

Here is what Perdue states on their FAQ page about anti-biotic usage:

Perdue does not use antibiotics for growth promotion in our chickens. We use antibiotics as directed by our company’s team of veterinarians, all of whom are board-certified by the American College of Poultry Veterinarians. The antibiotics are used in stringent accordance with FDA and USDA guidelines. All PERDUE® products are free of harmful residues as determined by routine onsite USDA sampling.

They will always need to administer anti-biotics because their poor chickens are crammed together in small spaces, which means they are stressed, which means they will get sick!

I love the line

“All PERDUE® products are free of harmful residues as determined by routine onsite USDA sampling.”

Does the USDA think anti-biotics are harmful? Does this mean that any and all anti-biotic residues are acceptable because they are determined as safe?

PS: Perdue’s consistent claim for non-usage of hormones is bogus, because the USDA forbids usage in poultry and pork. But they still try to mislead the public whenever they can get away with it.

So, please when choosing products for your family’s table, don’t fall for silly verifications like this, even if it does come from the USDA. It’s just a load of chicken sh*t!