To me, peanut butter is an essential. It’s a daily part of my life, and has been since I can remember. I love the creaminess, the crunchiness, the salty peanut flavor. I love the way it mixes perfectly with jam or nutella, or even with yogurt and oatmeal. As a college athlete, I depend on peanut butter as a delicious and nutritious part of my diet to ensure I get proper protein.
Peanut butter actually dates back to the Aztecs, although it certainly tasted and looked much different than what we think of today. Modern peanut butter was created in 1922 when chemist Joseph Rosefield discovered a way to partially hydrogenate vegetable oil, making the product creamier and easier to spread (Huff Post 2012). He called his product Skippy and thus was born the multi-million dollar industry which has found its way into the hearts and lunchboxes of children across the world.
Watch this fun video to learn more about peanut butter and where peanuts come from:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Nuts-About-Peanuts-516987576
II. Skippy vs. Teddie, the 411.
I thought that Skippy, as the first official peanut butter brand would be interesting to investigate. Teddie, the brand I grew up eating, differs from Skippy in a variety of ways and therefore, provides an interesting comparison and contrast to Skippy.
TEDDIE is a New England based company whose peanut butter products date back to 1897. It is a family owned and run business with 2nd and 3rd generation family members involved in the daily operations. The family created the Leavitt Corporation in 1924 to run Teddie and River Queen Nuts companies (teddie.com). Their sole factory is located in Everett, MA.
(Google Maps)
Teddie peanut butter is high demand in the Northeastern United States and across the nation. Last year it began shipping overseas to places like Hawaii and Turkey (Coffey 2011). It will be interesting to see in coming years if the internationalization of this product changes the integrity of how it is produced and distributed.
My attempts to contact Mark Hintlian, president of the Leavitt Corp. and grandson of the found Michael Hintlian, were unsuccessful (I did talk to Chris Hayes, Distribution Director) however I found an interview conducted by North Shore Magazine, in which Hintlian opens up about the company that his family has nurtured for over 100 years.
Hintlian’s dedication to the product shines through in this interview in which he proudly discusses how his grandfather, an Armenian immigrant, created this company which now is one of the top 10 processors and distributors of peanut butter and nuts in the United States. He declares that growth for the Teddie All-Natural brand is “off the chart”, significantly outselling its top competitor in the Northeast, Smucker’s Natural, “by a factor of five” (Coffey 2011). Such a personal and tangible commitment to ones product, passed down through the generations is lovely to see from the people who produce what we eat. It is encouraging to know that real people are connected to this enterprise and that they make themselves available to the consumers of their product. In fact, while Hintlian said the company had not utilized marketing since 1974 with the show "Boomtown" (Coffey 2011), interviews such are available online are an even better publicity tool and make me want to buy his product more than ever.
Hintlian’s dedication to the product shines through in this interview in which he proudly discusses how his grandfather, an Armenian immigrant, created this company which now is one of the top 10 processors and distributors of peanut butter and nuts in the United States. He declares that growth for the Teddie All-Natural brand is “off the chart”, significantly outselling its top competitor in the Northeast, Smucker’s Natural, “by a factor of five” (Coffey 2011). Such a personal and tangible commitment to ones product, passed down through the generations is lovely to see from the people who produce what we eat. It is encouraging to know that real people are connected to this enterprise and that they make themselves available to the consumers of their product. In fact, while Hintlian said the company had not utilized marketing since 1974 with the show "Boomtown" (Coffey 2011), interviews such are available online are an even better publicity tool and make me want to buy his product more than ever.
SKIPPY was the first peanut butter company in the United States and is now a brand within the British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company Unilever (along with numerous other famous brands such as Dove, Lipton, Ben & Jerrys, Promise, AXE, Vaseline and Breyers). It was created by Josephy L. Rosefield and first sold on February 1, 1933. Skippy, unlike Teddie, is produced in various plants across North America, however only one plant remains in the United States and that is in Little Rock, Arkansas (Skippy website: peanutbutter.com). Information on the other North American plants is unavailable, all searches led me back to Little Rock, but no where else. It is suspicious that these other plants would be unsearchable and makes me wonder who is running them, who is employed and why consumers are not able to know.
(Google Maps)
In my searches for information on Skippy, I was often redirected to Unilever's policies. While interesting, this did not give me a complete sense of what practice Skippy may or may not be undertaking. Unilever has a full statement on its GMO policy, which does not actually say much beyond acknowledging that some people take issue with such products and that Unilever leaves the decision to use such ingredients to the local and regional levels of production. However, it does provide much information on its animal welfare policy and attempts to reduce testing. It states that "the vast majority of Unilever products are not animal tested" and that the corporation has invested 3million Euro into alternative research methods. See: http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/consumer/welfare/.
It is encouraging to see such information available from Unilever on a global scale, but I was looking for Skippy-specific details, and those, Unilever does not provide.
Given the information I uncovered about each company and my personal appeal towards smaller business and family run operations I would lean towards supporting Teddie. I like how accessible the president has made himself and the integrity that appears to come along with producing Teddie products.
I have no glaring objections to Skippy, the website was easily navigable and even provided a page to ask questions of the company, something teddie.com did not provide. Outwardly Skippy appears to be an accessible company, but really the answers to posed questions are limited, for instance, stating only that the peanuts often come from Georgia or providing a link to Unilever's policy on GMOs. This is not specific enough for me.
However, ultimately, I turn to the ingredients to determine which product is for me....
III. Ingredients
Both brands produce homogenized and natural peanut butter. Homogenized peanut butter contains a portion of hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is cheaper than having entirely peanuts. The process of hydrogenation is what creates trans fat. Adding hydrogen to vegetable oil helps the product stay fresh longer, giving it a longer shelf life. It also makes the end product easier to spread and is thicker than peanut oil, creating a product that does not need to be stirred (Mayo Clinic).
The FDA guidelines for peanut butter ingredients give some leeway in what may be added to the finished product, an allowance, I discovered, of which Skippy has taken full advantage. In the FDA’s code of regulations- Title 21 (21 CFR 164.150) it delineates that there “may be added safe and suitable seasoning and stabilizing … but such seasoning and stabilizing ingredients do not in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food.” Therefore at least 90% of the product must be peanuts, and that is exactly the percentage that Skippy uses. The guidelines also state that, “artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners, chemical preservatives, and color additives are not suitable ingredients” and that “oil products used as optional stabilizing ingredients shall be hydrogenated vegetable oils” (21 CFR 164.150).
Teddie does offer one homogenized option, but most of Teddie’s peanut butter products are natural, meaning they are not homogenized, that they do not contain hydrogenated vegetable oil. As the Leavitt Corporation states, the peanut butter is created from “100% fresh roasted and ground peanuts”. Likely in response to the modern natural foods movement, in 2005, Skippy launched a natural peanut butter product – “Skippy Natural Creamy” and later, “Skippy Natural Super Chunk”. While both Skippy and Teddie natural products contain 100% peanuts, Teddie’s only other ingredient is salt, while Skippy includes salt, sugar and palm oil. I am not sure where palm oil fits into the FDA’s definition of “seasoning and stabilizing ingredients” or “homogenization”, but Skippy claims natural.
The FDA guidelines for peanut butter ingredients give some leeway in what may be added to the finished product, an allowance, I discovered, of which Skippy has taken full advantage. In the FDA’s code of regulations- Title 21 (21 CFR 164.150) it delineates that there “may be added safe and suitable seasoning and stabilizing … but such seasoning and stabilizing ingredients do not in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food.” Therefore at least 90% of the product must be peanuts, and that is exactly the percentage that Skippy uses. The guidelines also state that, “artificial flavorings, artificial sweeteners, chemical preservatives, and color additives are not suitable ingredients” and that “oil products used as optional stabilizing ingredients shall be hydrogenated vegetable oils” (21 CFR 164.150).
Teddie does offer one homogenized option, but most of Teddie’s peanut butter products are natural, meaning they are not homogenized, that they do not contain hydrogenated vegetable oil. As the Leavitt Corporation states, the peanut butter is created from “100% fresh roasted and ground peanuts”. Likely in response to the modern natural foods movement, in 2005, Skippy launched a natural peanut butter product – “Skippy Natural Creamy” and later, “Skippy Natural Super Chunk”. While both Skippy and Teddie natural products contain 100% peanuts, Teddie’s only other ingredient is salt, while Skippy includes salt, sugar and palm oil. I am not sure where palm oil fits into the FDA’s definition of “seasoning and stabilizing ingredients” or “homogenization”, but Skippy claims natural.
A second FDA regulation of peanut butter states that if products do not conform to 164.150 guidelines of no more than 10% of the product including additives, then the product must be labeled as a “peanut spread”. (21 CFR 102.23).
Interestingly, Skippy Reduced Fat and Natural products are labeled as “peanut butter spread”. I am not sure what this word choice indicates and was unable to learn more about it through my attempted conversations with the company. Perhaps it is simple terminology or perhaps it is in line with FDA guidelines on labeling, however that would mean that natural Skippy peanut butter is not, in fact, natural. I would certainly like to know!
Teddie Peanut Butter Products:
Skippy Peanut Butter Products:
When I was younger my father and I used to play a game every morning while eating our cereal in which we would compare the nutrition facts of our respective cereals. Whoever had the higher percentage would win. He might win in saturated fat and I might win in sugars.
Comparing nutrition facts side by side can be very helping in determining which food you would rather be putting in your body. Lets take a look at Skippy and Teddie!
The differences are not staggering. Both products appear to have the same number of calories: 190. Teddie has slightly less sodium and sugar and slightly more protein.
Given the nature of a smaller family run business such as Teddie, one would expect that employees are treated fairly and with respect. As far as I could find, this is exactly the case. Mark Hintlian spoke in a caring fashion about his employees, who number at 60, more than half of whom have been with the company for over 20 years (Coffey 2011). The North Shore Magazine reports that Hintlian greets every employee by name as he does his rounds on the manufacturing floor, and all employees interviewed agreed Teddie provided a "positive environment". In my telephone discussion with Chris Hayes, Distribution Director, he expressed happiness with his job, saying "I love working here." It certainly speaks volumes about the company to 1. be able to speak directly to an employee, and 2. to hear only positive things.
However, I did not have the opportunity to interview any lower level workers and thus am basing my assertion off of the knowledge I gained from limited sources. Further investigation is needed to be sure of the working conditions, hours and benefits. Granted, it is 100% more information than I was able to gather about Skippy employees and working conditions.
Despite investigation into many resources and phone calls to various telephone numbers, I was never successful in discovering the nature of Skippy peanut butter employees. The one remaining production plant in the United States is in Little Rock, Arkansas, but information is not readily available on the location of other plants. The Little Rock plant began production in 2007, but figures on staff employed or impact on the region are not available.
This discrepancy in available information on employees between the two different companies is telling. While Skippy may in fact have good working conditions and happy employees, the scaled up nature of their company makes it difficult to contact people who know any important details or are able to share. To me, it makes the product feel distant. I like the idea of a company like Teddie, in which the president knows the employees and, so far as I can tell, cares deeply about them and the product they are helping him produce.
V. Quality
With the modern food system, consumers have become increasingly concerned with contamination. Lets take a look at the quality of these two different products.
SKIPPY products have undergone multiple scares and in 2011 Skippy Reduced Fat Peanut Butter Spread Products underwent voluntary recall for possible contamination with Salmonella.
TEDDIE products have never undergone recall. President Mark Hintlian and Distribution Director Chris Hayes both state that is due to the elaborate food safety standards that the company abides by. It participates in the Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification program, which involves an audit of process and detailed attention to all factors affecting safety and quality (Coffey 2011). As the North Shore Magazine reports, Frederic Ricci, vice president of HR and manufacturing compliance said, "You have to live it and breathe it every hour, you can’t just get ready a week before the audit begins.” (Coffey 2011).
When I asked Chris Hayes similar questions, he responded proudly that the only way in which the Salmonella outbreak affected them was to dramatically raise sales. He said that the recent outbreak was certainly from poor control on the part of PCA (the Peanut Corporation of America), not fixing leaky roofs or doing proper inspections. Hayes acknowledged that people depend on Teddie for its quality, and that is something that is guaranteed!
Side by Side:
Teddie Natural=$3.99 | Skippy Natural=$3.99 | |
Where are the peanuts from? | Only the US. Mainly Georgia, Virginia, Texas | Only the US. Mainly Georgia. |
Number of peanuts per jar | 850 peanuts /16 oz jar | 772 peanuts / 16.3 oz jar |
Number of employees | 60, many have worked there for 20 yrs | unknown |
Interaction with community | -Donates to local groups that ship to soldiers oversees -Greater Boston Food Bank | Unilever works with America’s Second Harvest- a non-profit organization that distributes food to 200+ food banks across USA |
Container | Glass | Plastic |
Recall? | Never | -2011 Skippy Reduced Fat Recall |
Sponsorship | “Boomtown” 1956-1974 | - “You Asked For It” 1951 -“Dennis the Menace” 1960 - Norman Rockwell creates illustrations, 1963 - Annette Funicello represents the brand, 1979 - Olympic Champion speed skater Bonnie Blair appears in advertisements, 1994 - Derek Jeter named spokesperson, 1998 |
I learned so much from this project. It was extremely informative to compare two products that are ever-present in my life. I was most excited to get to talk to Chris Hayes, the Distribution Director at Teddie. His energy about the company and helpfulness solidified my commitment to the company. However, I did learn that there is a fairly insignificant difference between the two products if you compare Natural to Natural. They are both the same price. All peanuts come from the United States only. The nutritional facts are nearly the same. The only gaping hole in information regards employees- how many, what are the working conditions- and how far the products have to travel (since it is unknown where the other Skippy plants are located).
I would love to continue with this project and look into other products to keep the blog active. Perhaps jelly is next... as complement to peanut butter to create a full PB&J.
Works Cited:
“21 CFR 164.150- Peanut butter”. Code of Federal Regulation- Title 21: Food and Drugs. vLex. 2012. http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/164-150-peanut-butter-19705525
“21 CFR 102.23 – Peanut spreads”. Code of Federal Regulation- Title 21: Food and Drugs. vLex. http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/102-23-peanut-spreads-19705744
Coffey, Jeanne O’Brien. “North Shore’s Favorite Teddie”. North Shore Magazine. July 27, 2011. http://nshoremag.com/north-shores-favorite-teddie/
Chris Hayes. (interview, February 22, 2012, 11am). Telephone: 617.389.2600 ext. 33
Mayo Clinic staff. “Trans fat is double trouble for your health”. High Cholesterol. Mayo Clinic. May 6, 2011. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/trans-fat/CL00032
Suddath, Claire. “A Brief History of Peanut Butter”. Time Magazine. February 12, 2009.
Skippy Peanut Butter. www.peanutbutter.com. 2011 Unilever Corporation.
“The History of Peanut Butter”. Huffington Post Kitchen Daily. January 23, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22/peanut-butter-history_n_1222585.html
Teddie Peanut Butter. www.teddie.com The Leavitt Corporation. 2011
