Welcome to our blog! Please keep an eye on this area for all the latest news at TheVegetarianSite.com
Now you can follow us on Twitter too -- August 7th, 2010
Yes, we have a brand new Twitter account. So if you're interested in keeping up to date on everything from veg-related news to special 24-Hour Sales at our online store, just follow us on Twitter.
Why is Tofutti still pushing trans fats? -- July 22nd, 2010
Trans fats are widely known to be even more detrimental to human health than the saturated fat in pure animal lard or butterfat. That's why trans fats have been banned in some US cities. So a visit to the Tofutti.com website is a rather surreal experience. Under their Products section, you can read about their Better Than Cream Cheese product, where they state among other things, "Now, you have a healthy alternative that contains no dairy! The Better for you Cream Cheese!" But read the product label online and you'll find that the second ingredient (after water) is partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is loaded with trans fat. However, you wouldn't know it by their online nutritional label, which shows 0 grams of trans fat per 2 tablespoon serving! Just what is going on here? We wanted to find out, so we contacted them by telephone a couple of years ago. We were told that, yes, 6 of their 7 cream cheese substitute products do contain trans fats, and that the 0 grams shown on their website site is incorrect. They made very clear that they were aware of the "problem." We contacted them again this year and received a similar statement. So is Tofutti purposely deceiving the public into believing that this very unhealthy product of theirs is actually healthy? Maybe they're confusing the supermarkets as well: Some mainstream stores, such as Safeway, display this trans fat-laden product in their special natural foods section! Trader Joe's carries it too. Perhaps Tofutti needs many more phone calls from the public -- or a call from the FDA -- to make the website change. Tofutti's annual revenues are close to $20 Million, so they certainly should have the resources to make some quick website corrections, if it's really just a mistake. Right?
Our Vegetarian Quote Contest is well underway -- July 13th, 2010
We've been receiving a steady stream of excellent quotes for our 2010 Vegetarian Quote Contest, including entries from a number of well-known figures in the vegan and animal rights movement. But don't let that deter you from entering! It's the quote that matters, not the prominence of the individual who created it. One thing is for sure: it's already obvious to us that choosing the winners is going to be a more difficult task than we anticipated.
Saying goodbye to Clif's award-winning Nectar Bars -- June 26th, 2010
Clif Bar has pulled the plug on its Clif Nectar Bar line of vegan fruit & nut bars. According to the company, these bars started out strong a number of years ago -- they even won a Top Pick award from Health.com -- but sales have been fading for a while. We still have some flavors in stock, so rush over to our online store if you like these bars!
The demise of another fair labor sneaker factory -- June 19th, 2010
We just heard the bad news from Ethical Wares that the Italian sneaker factory that makes their high quality men's and women's Motion Sneakers has shut down. Ethical Wares had contracted with that fair labor factory for 15 years. Committed to ethically made footwear, they are currently searching for another European factory to produce all their sneakers. The prevalence of high-volume, low-wage Chinese sneaker factories, used by many brands that masquerade as socially responsible or forward thinking (such as Simple, Macbeth, IPath, People's Shoe, and others) has taken its toll on fair labor factories worldwide.
What? You didn't receive last month's email newsletter? -- June 8th, 2010
If you're already subscribed, but you didn't receive our May 2010 email newsletter, then you probably need to give us a different email address. According to Website Magazine, only 77% of bona fide email newsletters actually reach their intended destination. 7% end up in bulk/spam folders and 16% are blocked by overzealous (or overwhelmed) email service providers. That's not a real surprise given the enormous amount of unsolicited junk email that is constantly bombarding all of us. Do you have a Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com email address? Both have occasionally given us some trouble in the past, as have some smaller providers. Whatever the case, check your bulk/spam folder. If our newsletter appears there, make sure you label it as 'not spam' and also add us to your friends list. That way our next newsletter should go directly to your inbox. But if there is no sign at all of our May 2010 newsletter, the only solution may be for you to offer us a different email address of yours altogether. Just send it to: subscribe@TheVegetarianSite.com. Our privacy policy is very simple: We will never sell, trade, or give your email address to anyone. And if you're not yet familiar with our newsletter, it offers recipes, news articles, upcoming events info, special features, new products offerings, and sale updates. Subscribe today, it's free!
Get ready for summertime vegan ice cream -- your own! -- June 4th, 2010
Is there any better hot weather treat than a cold bowl of sweet vegan ice cream? Whether you like vanilla or Fair Trade chocolate, stock up on your Temptation vegan home ice cream mix so that you'll have it when you need it. Quick and easy with absolutely no cooking required. All you need is your blender and home ice cream maker. Visit our online store for more info.
Some customers asking about cold packs -- June 3rd, 2010
We've had a few customers ask why we don't offer cold/ice packs for shipping food orders. As an eco-friendly company, we have made the conscious choice not to use these disposable packs. Although they're dirt cheap these days (a case of 96 3-oz. units is $22 at ULINE), these chemical-gel refrigerant packs quickly end up in the landfill. As an obvious corollary to this eco-philosophy, we have chosen not to stock any commercial foods that would require continuous energy for their refrigeration. Instead, all food items that we stock are shelf stable at room temperature.