NOOOOOOOO!!!! Trader Joe's Chips Going Dairy

PinkFridge

Wed, May 16 2012, 8:32 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

Personally, I liked the Kroger as much if not more. But Kroger is now milchig Sad

Hope they stay totally pareve. I'll eat DE but not bake with it as my baking keilim are pareve.

ceo

Wed, May 16 2012, 8:39 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

It's not so much the actual taste, it's the quality. For example, I have a brownie recipe that calls for chocolate chips as the chocolate (vs. cocoa powder or a bar). Both my husband and I notice a big difference when I make this recipe with other chocolate chips vs. trader joes. And belive me, my HUSBAND and I are both no mavens when it comes to this kind of stuff. My husband is very into prishus and all that (I don't even think he would notice if I served sardines for dessert..... Very Happy

) but do blind taste test of brownies made with TJ chips vs. other pareve brand chips.....and my husband can tell.

imasinger

Wed, May 16 2012, 8:42 pm

4Sisters wrote:

Online petition:
http://www.change.org/petition.....reve#

That, friends, is the power of imamother. After reading about it here, I posted about this on a Boston Jewish site, and one of the people who read it created that petition.

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, May 16 2012, 8:51 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

Personally, I liked the Kroger as much if not more. But Kroger is now milchig Sad

Hope they stay totally pareve. I'll eat DE but not bake with it as my baking keilim are pareve.

Yeah, I grew up with Krogers...now my family uses Meijers, but I'm not sure if that went milchig too.

4Sisters

Wed, May 16 2012, 9:38 pm

imasinger wrote:

4Sisters wrote:

Online petition:
http://www.change.org/petition.....reve#

That, friends, is the power of imamother. After reading about it here, I posted about this on a Boston Jewish site, and one of the people who read it created that petition.

Hi, neighbor!!!!

p.s. edited to add that I think it's absolutely fascinating to see how quickly the signatures are coming in, as well as how it's spread from the initial posters, who were all from Boston. I'm sure Imamother helped the spread, as well as the "share on Facebook" option one gets after signing the petition.

Last edited by 4Sisters on Wed, May 16 2012, 9:40 pm; edited 1 time in total

PinkFridge

Wed, May 16 2012, 9:39 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

Personally, I liked the Kroger as much if not more. But Kroger is now milchig Sad

Hope they stay totally pareve. I'll eat DE but not bake with it as my baking keilim are pareve.

Yeah, I grew up with Krogers...now my family uses Meijers, but I'm not sure if that went milchig too.

AFAIK Meijers has been milchig for years.

And Ceo, I like what you mentioned about your husband and chocolate. There is something qualitatively different about chocolate and other forms of gashmiyus, perhaps some level of ruchniyus and mai'ain olom haba that you don't readily find in the physical. That must surely explain it.

ceo

Wed, May 16 2012, 9:48 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

Personally, I liked the Kroger as much if not more. But Kroger is now milchig Sad

Hope they stay totally pareve. I'll eat DE but not bake with it as my baking keilim are pareve.

Yeah, I grew up with Krogers...now my family uses Meijers, but I'm not sure if that went milchig too.

LOL.

I was just trying to illustrate the point.... the TJ chips are just very high quality! Leavana Kirshenbaum said in one of her cooking interviews in a magazine: if you want to have a good finished product, you need to start with high quality ingredients. (paraphrased)

Hashem_Yaazor

Wed, May 16 2012, 10:25 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

PinkFridge wrote:

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

Personally, I liked the Kroger as much if not more. But Kroger is now milchig Sad

Hope they stay totally pareve. I'll eat DE but not bake with it as my baking keilim are pareve.

Yeah, I grew up with Krogers...now my family uses Meijers, but I'm not sure if that went milchig too.

AFAIK Meijers has been milchig for years.

I thought I vaguely remembered that. I've been out of the midwest for 10 years now.

ceo

Thu, May 17 2012, 8:06 am

Tova wrote:

[Am I the only one who thinks there is a more aidel (for lack of a better word) way to protest this and convey to the company how much the collective we love their product?]

The aidelkeit point aside (I did not sign the petition), based on what I was told by customer service, it wasn't the choice of Trader Joe's to change anything regarding the production or ingredients of the chips. The person from the supervising agency made the choice with the TJ supplier.

TJ does not have their own chocolate chip factory. There is a factory somewhere that makes a run x number of times per day/per week/per month of chocolate chips that are packaged in a trader joe's bag and sent to TJ warehouses and stores. TJ has little control over what happens at that factory, and they have even less control over what the supervising agency decides.

My guess is that the OK will not change their decision based on public pressure. My guess is that if TJ can't work something out that satisfies the OK's need for completely pareve chocolate chips, they will either 1)have chips marked OK-D OR 2)switch to a new hashgocha.

But yes, I think that rather than signing a petition (that indicates this was a choice from TJ corporate or somethng), call them up, and ask them, basically, to put pressure on their supplier to work out a solution with the OK to keep the chips pareve.

chavamom

Thu, May 17 2012, 9:35 am

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

There are plenty of pareve chocolate chips on the market...Shoprite makes for example. I think the difference is in taste (honestly, I've never tested Trader Joes, so I don't know).

In a lot of place, no. These are the only parve choc. chips available here except for the (expensive, not so tasty) ones available at the kosher market. Oh, and the vegan ones at Whole Foods (also pricey). My daughter tells me in Denver people have to order them from out of town b/c there are none available locally.

Rubber Ducky

Thu, May 17 2012, 10:00 am

ceo wrote:

...TJ does not have their own chocolate chip factory. There is a factory somewhere that makes a run x number of times per day/per week/per month of chocolate chips that are packaged in a trader joe's bag and sent to TJ warehouses and stores. TJ has little control over what happens at that factory, and they have even less control over what the supervising agency decides.

My guess is that the OK will not change their decision based on public pressure. My guess is that if TJ can't work something out that satisfies the OK's need for completely pareve chocolate chips, they will either 1)have chips marked OK-D OR 2)switch to a new hashgocha.

But yes, I think that rather than signing a petition (that indicates this was a choice from TJ corporate or somethng), call them up, and ask them, basically, to put pressure on their supplier to work out a solution with the OK to keep the chips pareve.

Right, Trader Joe's contracts with a chocolate chip factory but TJ's can choose to switch to another factory. TJ's is a major buyer of the chips, so it is in the best interest of the factory to keep TJ's happy and it is in the best interest of TJ's to keep consumers (that's us) happy. So yes, right now the best course of action is to let Trader Joe's know how important it is to us that the chocolate chips remain pareve.

emhabanim

Thu, May 17 2012, 2:53 pm

Was at TJ today... no chips available, stores are ordering cases of them and they are quickly disappearing and some stores are even putting cases on hold so they never go on the shelf to be sold.
TJ has had a ton of complaints, and many non orthodox who keep kosher are complaining that they will not be pareve. The company informed its stores today that the chips will "remain pareve but under a lower kosher agency." I guess they heard the complaint about the pareve, but don't understand that a "k" or similar kosher symbol is useless. Call them and let them know that this solution doesn't work.

emhabanim

Thu, May 17 2012, 4:01 pm

I understand the issue, TJ does not. They think that since a different kosher agency will say it is pareve, then we will all be happy and fine. What TJ doesn't understand is that having a simple k or an unreliable hasghacha write it is kosher and pareve will not make us accept the food as pareve, forget kosher.

We need to call and write and complain until TJ understands that now these chips are now totally unacceptable to us in the orthodox community as they are now not viewed as kosher at all... forget kosher and dairy!