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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Food Gardenburger Mystery

Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 4:18 PM

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What's happened to the Gardenburger supply? You ask, I investigate. It's clear that there has been shortage of Gardenburgers (as well as their meatless patty cousins) across the United States, but there isn't an Amber Alert system for missing grocery items, which means I had to call on the shadowy figures of media relations. Dun dun Duuuuuun.

Here's what I found out:

In November of last year, Kellogg's bought Gardenburger Inc. and subsequently began work to improve the only Gardenburger plant in the U.S., located in Clearview, Utah. Sometime in May of this year, grocers and vedors, like Burgerville, began noticing abnormalities in texture and shape in the Gardenburgers they were recieving. This prompted Kellogg's to issue a voluntary recall of Gardenburger product. According to reports, construction at the Utah plant may have affected the quality of the patties, but there were no apparent safety concerns from consuming the irregular product. After the recall, the plant was taken off-line to improve product quality.

This "quality" issue and voluntary recall spooked some grocers. Fred Meyer was one of a few grocery stores to actually pull Gardenburger stock from the shelves, just in case. The lack of Gardenburgers meant that a meatless patty void needed to be filled and folks like Kraft Foods that produce Boca Burgers just have not been able to keep up with demand.

Exacerbating the whole thing, there is speculation that Gardenburger Inc. may have slowed Gardenburger production due to the impending sale to Kellogg's.

Currently, Kellogg's has the Utah plant up and running, fresh Gardenburgers should be rolling off the line as we speak. There is no telling when the Gardenburger supply will be stabilized.

 

Commenting was not available when this article was originally published.

Comments (11) RSS

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1
Any idea on when Burgerville will have them again? I don't want just Gardenburgers. I want Gardenburgers from Burgerville!
Posted by a.d. on July 23, 2008 at 4:46 PM · Report
2
Amy's California burgers are delicious. Very similar to Gardenburgers.

I highly recommend them...and they're even VEGAN.

Which makes them better than everyone. Thing! I mean everything.
Posted by kiala on July 23, 2008 at 5:14 PM · Report
3
Costco has awesome frozen gardenburgs....try 'em bitches
Posted by mizzzz on July 23, 2008 at 8:12 PM · Report
4
You "vegans" are stupid. BEEF, IT'S WHATS FOR DINNER!
Posted by BEEF = YUM! on July 23, 2008 at 11:59 PM · Report
5
How do people feel about that new, locally produced Burgerville Harvest Burger? I want to like it but don't.
Posted by Cary Clarke on July 24, 2008 at 1:00 AM · Report
6
Ha! Give you a pass on this one, old chap. The word "vegan" is funny in its own right, and the topic is pure self-satire.

Will not count on next week's tally.

Next!
Posted by Int'l. Assoc. of Satirists on July 24, 2008 at 9:20 AM · Report
7
I personally like the Harvest Burger better. Good stuff.
Posted by tk. on July 24, 2008 at 10:02 AM · Report
8
I don't like the texture of the new vegetarian burgers at Burgerville as much as the old one, but they do taste pretty good. I like the bean burger better than the veggie one.
Posted by botey on July 24, 2008 at 2:22 PM · Report
9
Can't take the Boca burgers, and live too far away to try Burgerville's own. My bowl of raisin bran is going to taste a little less sweet tonight (despite its two scoops), knowing that Kellogg's screwed the pooch in this acquisition. But then Kellogg's is also the company that substituted a prefabricated visitor center for actual factory tours, and then had the gall to post a framed photograph of the mile-long line of visitors on the last day of tours in 1986. It was so great people would stand in line for hours, and here's a picture to show you what we can't do!
Posted by sonar on August 7, 2008 at 7:19 PM · Report
10
Though the article was informative I am curious why the author or editor didn't use spellcheck before posting this article. Unless vendors are now going by "vedors" or the rules on "i" before "e" EXCEPT after "c" have changed?
Posted by KJ on September 27, 2008 at 9:54 AM · Report
11
Don't worry, I'm sure they'll correct they typos promptly. Oh, wait ...
Posted by Jarbe on May 13, 2009 at 10:27 AM · Report

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