Walking down the baby food aisle of the supermarket brought back memories. Suddenly, my mind was filled with images of my face smeared with strained foods. That was followed by flashbacks of spitting up whatever was being chugga-chugga choo-chooed into my mouth on the spoon train. I contacted Bay Valley Foods, manufacturers of Nature’s Goodness [...]

There’s one thing about popcorn that annoys me. I wrote Weaver Popcorn Company to see if they had a solution… Dear Popcorn Poppers: I read that Weaver Popcorn Company produces over 30% of the world’s popcorn. Boy, you are just popping up everywhere! With all that clout, can’t you get movie theaters to sell Pop [...]

After Walmart announced plans to raise standards for beef safety, I tried getting them to raise their standards even higher… Dear Walmartians: Someone I know named C.C. alerted me to a news article. It said Wal-Mart Stores is implementing new process controls standards for beef to protect customers from foodborne illnesses. According to the article, [...]

There’s no question that product packaging is very important. But should the package ever get top billing over the product? It does with SunChips, so I contacted Frito-Lay to learn more about why… Dear SunChippers: Congratulations on creating the World’s First 100% Compostable Chip Package! How big is this news? Is it big enough to [...]

After reading that Nestlé Nutrition claims BOOST Nutritional Drink contains 300% more Vitamin E than Ensure Shake from Abbott Nutrition (in a chocolate flavor comparison), I wrote both manufacturers. Please read, “Round 1: BOOST vs. ENSURE” first, because if Round 2 were meant to be read first, I would have retitled it Round 1 and [...]

In a chocolate flavor comparison, Nestlé Nutrition claims that BOOST Nutritional Drink provides 100% more Vitamin C and 40% more Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid than Ensure Shake. But when I saw the percent difference of Vitamin E, I decided to shake things up myself and look into it further… Dear Those Who [...]

“Cheap Flights – Lowest European Fares, Low Cost Airline.” That’s one way Ryanair promotes itself. But will charging passengers for using toilets on flights be considered the lowest of lows? I wrote their Customer Service Department in Ireland to see if this idea will really lead them to a pot, or even a potty, of [...]

Chickpeas can be confusing because they often operate with an alias that is a bean. To fully understand chickpeas, you also need to have a palate for parentheses. I contacted Arrowhead Mills, a brand of The Hain Celestial Group, to try and sort this out… Dear Director of Pea & Bean Operations: As food experts [...]

A glycerine bar soap called Clearly Natural looked interesting, so I gave it a try. As the bar wore down, some things about it stood out. I contacted the manufacturer, Beaumont Products, to see if this was natural… Dear Soapologists: I’ve recently switched soap brands and now use Clearly Natural Soap. The last soap irritated [...]

There is a lot of upside to being a bird. However, my observations of birds got me thinking about the downside risks. Rather than take sides about something I know nothing about, I consulted American Bird Conservancy to get their side of the story related to the what-goes-up, must-come-down theory of bird flight… Dear American [...]