Picking up more Costco Wholesale organics, H Mart sale items

My Costco Wholesale in Hackensack carries two canned salmons -- wild Alaskan sold under the Bear & Wolf name from Trident Seafoods Corp., above, and Kirkland Signature Atlantic Salmon, an artificially colored farmed product from Chile, below. Trident says its salmon is not processed in China.

The farmed salmon comes in 7-ounce cans. The wild pink salmon is in 6-ounce cans. The farmed product is $14.99, compared to $12.99 for the wild fish.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss the pricing of organic food at Costco Wholesale, and whether a canned Alaskan salmon sold in the warehouse store is processed in China.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today, I picked up organic extra-virgin olive oil for about $1.50 less per quart than the best buy at eight supermarkets shopped by Consumer Reports.

Kirkland Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a blend from Greece, Italy, Spain and two other countries that is delicious on salads, was $15.99 for 2 liters (2 quarts and 3.6 ounces).

In the May 2015 issue, Consumer Reports found the cheapest organic extra-virgin olive oil at a southern chain, Harris Teeter, for $9.01 a quart, compared to $7.57 per quart for the Costco EVOO.

Three half-gallons of Kirkland Signature Organic 1% Milk were $9.99 or $3.33 each, compared to $3.49 a half-gallon for organic milk at Safeway, the lowest price  the magazine's shoppers found.

I also picked up Coleman Organic Chicken Drumsticks for $1.99 a pound, and 1-pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix for $4.99.

Among non-organic items, I bought six 6-ounce cans of Bear & Wolf Pink Salmon, a wild fish from Alaska, for $12.99.

A 3-pound bag of U.S. No. 1 sodium-free raw Almonds, which I roast at home, was $16.89, a hike of nearly $1.

The Kirkland Signature farmed salmon is artificially colored. 

Processed in China?

This blog occasionally receives comments from readers who have "heard" that food sold in the United States was raised or processed in China, which has a terrible food-safety record. 

I just got this anonymous comment:

"I wonder if you've heard that Trident salmon in cans is processed in China? I just found the product in our new Costco and was totally disappointed at fish processing being done in factories overseas. Thank you."

The apparent reference is to the canned Bear & Wolf Premium Skinless and Boneless Pink Salmon, which is labeled as "Product of USA," that I purchased today at Costco.

The canned salmon is from Trident Seafoods Corp., which is based in Seattle, Wash.

But there is no evidence in the comment, besides what the person "heard."

I sent an email to the company's Consumer Affairs Department, and got this reply from a woman named Trev Foley:

Some, but not all, of our items do have initial processing done overseas, with final processing done in Washington State. Our canned salmon items, such as the Bear & Wolf Pink Salmon, do not have overseas processing. The salmon are harvested in the Pacific Ocean (Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, etc.) and canned in Alaska, within 24 hours of being caught. Please be assured, we maintain strict oversight of all of the fish we sell, from start to finish. For those items which have partial processing done overseas, the fish are processed in contracted facilities where we have on-site Trident Seafoods operations and quality assurance personnel insuring the safety of the food. Additionally, the facilities we use are inspected and certified to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

 In 2012, I opened a can of this same pink salmon from Costco, only to find mold on it. See:

Mold in Bear & Wolf canned salmon from Trident?

Coleman Organic Fresh Whole Young Chicken at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack was $2.49 a pound, meeting the lowest price for whole or cut up organic chicken at the Safeway chain in the Consumer Reports survey.

Basmati rice contains less arsenic than other kinds of rice, according to Consumer Reports. Costco Wholesale in Hackensack sells Deer-brand from "the foothills of the Himalayas" (India).

These are the shipping boxes for the low-quality but wildly popular 3-pound Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken sold for $4.99 at Costco. I could not make out the name of a producer or processor on the labels of the boxes, which were behind glass in the butcher department of the Hackensack warehouse store.

At H Mart in Englewood on Sunday, half-gallons of lactose-free milk were on sale for $1.99 or $2 off through April 13, the lowest price I've ever seen for this type of milk.

The Englewood H Mart also carries Earthbound Farm Organic Celery and Organic Carrots. Olivia's Organic Spring Mix in a 5-ounce tub was on sale for $2 or $1 off when you bought two.

At the Englewood H Mart, this package of kimbap, an addictive seaweed-and-rice roll, was labeled as weighing 1 pound, but on my kitchen scale, it weighed more than 29 ounces or nearly 2 pounds. The imitation crab is made from a fish called pollock. The roll comes with pickled radish and jalapeno peppers.

On Good Friday, whole wild-caught black sea bass were $5.99 a pound at the Englewood H Mart.

A large wild whole red snapper, which my wife poached in coconut milk, was $7.99 a pound at the Korean supermarket, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood (201-871-8822).

Costco tomato squeezer, Han Dynasty and ShopRite

Soup with Pickled Vegetable and Flounder at Han Dynasty in Manhattan, a branch of a Philadelphia restaurant known for its spicy, Sichuan-style Chinese food. The soup is rated 4 on a spice-level scale of 1 to 10. Servers wear black T-shirts with "(10)" printed on the back.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss an exchange with a Costco Wholesale shopper who was opening packages of Campari Tomatoes and squeezing them; a Sunday lunch at Han Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan popular with Asians; and a few sale items at the ShopRite in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor 

Before I spoke, I watched a man opening two or three plastic clam-shell packages of Campari Tomatoes at the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, squeezing the fruit and closing them.

"Do you mind my asking why you are touching all of those tomatoes," I said.

"I want to make sure they aren't soft," he replied.

Thinking the only "soft" thing was his head, I asked him if he would want other people touching the food he buys.

"Don't you think people touch the tomatoes when they put them into the packages?"

I said it is probably done by machine, but as he left, I noticed the big letters "EMT" on his jacket and hoped he shows better judgment in a medical emergency.

You don't have to touch Campari Tomatoes to see if they are soft. The redder they are, the riper and softer they are.

If you want a harder tomato, choose those that are a paler red. And they ripen when left out on your kitchen counter; refrigerating them destroys the rich, tomatoey flavor.

Then, because the beefsteak tomatoes didn't look that good, I took his place in front of the Campari Tomatoes and tried to find a 2-pound package with fruit he hadn't touched.

Organic chicken

My Hackensack warehouse store has added antibiotic-free Coleman Organic chicken drumsticks ($1.99 a pound) and thighs to the whole Coleman Organic chickens ($2.49 a pound) it has sold for the last few years.

They are in free-standing refrigerated cases near the produce section. As with all organic products, they contain no genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Costco Wholesale usually carries sweet potatoes only around the holidays, but I found these in a 6.5 pound bag at my Hackensack warehouse store on Friday for $5.99. A 10-pound bag of Earthbound Farm Organic Carrots was $7.99.

At Costco in Hackensack on Friday afternoon, my haul included 3 pounds of bananas ($1.39), 2 pounds of salted cod-fish fillets from Canada ($11.99),  and two loaves of Kirkland Signature All Natural Multigrain 100% Whole Grain Bread ($4.49). Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $4.79 (1 pound).

On Sunday afternoon, we had lunch at Han Dynasty, 90 3rd Ave. in Manhattan's East Village (212-390-8685), and many of the other customers were young Asian couples with big bowls of noodles in front of them.

Han Dynasty

Our lunch at Han Dynasty in Manhattan on Sunday started with the tasty fish soup that was part of my takeout order from the original in Philadelphia last year.

The mildly spicy Soup with Pickled Vegetable and Flounder (4) includes lots of fresh garlic and ginger ($9.95).

Our entree was a non-spicy Scallion Style Shrimp ($19.95), and we also ordered Peas Leaves with Garlic ($12.95).

Brown rice was $1 extra. The serving is generous, much larger than in other Chinese restaurants.

The food was terrific, but the restaurant was full and service was a bit slow. 

We were brought a pot of tea and glasses of ice water when we sat down. I had to ask twice for extra napkins and we never got the fork my wife wanted.

Luckily, the utensil with one end buried under the pea leaves turned out to be a fork.

Scallion Style Shrimp at Han Dynasty.

Pea Leaves with Garlic: A simple, delicious and healthy dish.

Paramus ShopRite

On Monday, I ran out of 1% lactose-free milk and stopped at the Shop Rite in Paramus, where half-gallons of the store brand were $3.29 each, a discount of 20 cents.

Two Golden Pineapples were on sale for $5, and a 5-pound bag of Golden Delicious Apples was $3.99.

The biggest surprise was a 15-ounce container of Smart Balance Original for $1.75 or about half-price.
The sale price was $3.20 with $1.45 off.

At the Englewood ShopRite on Sunday, my wife bought 15 ounces of Smart Balance Original with Flaxseed Oil "on sale" for $3.59.

 

Consumer Reports: Buy only antibiotic-free chicken

The February 2014 issue of Consumer Reports concludes "that most raw chicken breasts are contaminated with bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

An investigation by Consumer Reports magazine led to a startling conclusion:

"Ninety-seven percent of the [chicken] breasts we tested harbored bacteria that could make you sick."

"Consumer Reports' recent analysis of more than 300 raw chicken breasts purchased at stores across the U.S. found potentially harmful bacteria lurking in almost all of the chicken, including organic brands."

Chicken can kill

The magazine's February 2014 issue reports "more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity," according to an analysis of outbreaks from 1998 through 2008 by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 48 million people fall sick each year from eating tainted food.

Go drug free

"Still, there are good reasons for selecting chicken raised without the use of antibiotics," the magazine advises, adding:

"Buying those products supports farmers who keep their chickens off unnecessary drugs, and that's good for your health and preserves the effectiveness of antibiotics.

"'Chickens without antibiotic resistance to salmonella and other dangerous pathogens can't pass antibiotic-resistant bugs onto you,' says Dr. Robert Lawrence, a professor at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health."

The Costco Connection cover story on "making food safer from farm to table" includes an appetizing photo of cooked poultry, produce and wine.

Costco weighs in

The Costco Connection magazine takes a starkly different approach to its report on food safety.

In a cover story in the January 2014 issue, Editor Tim Talevich asks whether government regulators are "making progress in the effort to make food safer?"

To answer this question, the editor met with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

He also asked Craig Wilson, who oversees "Costco's food safety and quality-assurance program, to explain how food safety is promoted within Costco,  from fresh meats prepared in warehouse meat departments to packaged foods that come from suppliers."

Costco poultry

The magazine doesn't discuss Costco Wholesale food products that are raised on animal antibiotics, growth hormones or both.

The vast majority of meat and poultry sold at my Costco Wholesale contain harmful animal antibiotics, and labels on farmed fish are silent on whether their feed contains antibiotics or preservatives.

That includes the wildly popular Kirkland Signature whole rotisserie chickens.

At the Hackenack Costco, I've seen two antibiotic-free poultry brands, Coleman Organic and Empire Kosher.  The store also carries organic ground beef.

The ShopRite and Stop & Shop supermarket chains also offer their own brands of antibiotic-free chicken, and I've seen Coleman Organic chicken parts in several North Jersey ShopRites.

Whole Foods Market pledges all of its farmed seafood is raised without antibiotics and preservatives.

Footnote

Consumer Reports could have done a better job of communicating that all chicken, including more expensive organic and antibiotic-free brands, can be contaminated with bacteria.

A heading in the index, repeated in a prominent headline on Page 30 of the February 2014 issue reads:

"The high cost of cheap chicken"

As consumers know, organic and antibiotic-free chicken are more expensive than such low-cost, low-quality brands as Perdue, Amick Farms and Tyson.

Also, chicken breasts aren't the only parts that harbor harmful bacteria.

The Consumer Reports article includes a photo and story about Richard Schiller, 51, of San Jose, Calif., who was sickened by a salmonella strain found in the Foster Farms chicken thighs he ate.

Costco Wholesale's rotisserie chicken makes great dog food

Seasoned rotisserie chickens at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. At only $4.99 for a 3-pound chicken, these birds fly out the door, but the quality is questionable.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm sure the editors of the Costco Connection came to praise the rotisserie chicken sold at the warehouse store, not to bury it.

In the latest issue of what is called "a lifestyle magazine for Costco members," customers who love the highly seasoned rotisserie chicken offer their ideas on how to best use leftovers.

However, the most prominent comment is in the voice of "Maggie the Labrador, owned by Will and Jill Mason" of Chandler, Ariz.

"The chicken's so-called leftovers (fat, trimmings and juices) are mixed in with my bowl of normally blase dog food, transforming my food into a weekly treat," the dog is quoted as saying.

That says it in a nutshell: This chicken makes great dog food, not good human food.

Costco puts the "Kirkland Signature" name on the label of the rotisserie chicken, but that is usually reserved for organic eggs, preservative-free smoked wild salmon and other high quality items.

Ingredients include water, salt, sugar, carrageenan, silicon dioxide and polysorbate 80.

Silent on antibiotics

The "Creative Cooking" article in the December 2012 issue doesn't mention harmful animal antibiotics that allow the chicken to achieve its 3-pound weight quickly (Pages 30-31).

The editors don't even say whether the chicken is fed an all-vegetable diet.

Costco sells about 50 million rotisserie chickens a year, the magazine reports.

I tried one of these chickens years ago, and didn't like how it tasted.

It was inferior to the rotisserie chickens I'd pick up at Fairway Market in Harlem, where customers have a choice between a conventional chicken and a Murray's free-roaming bird, which is raised without antibiotics.

A quiet day at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. The warehouse closed in October 2015, when a bigger Costco opened a few miles away in Teterboro, then reopened in March 2016 as a Costco Business Center.

On a Saturday in late June 2016 at the Teterboro warehouse, one Costco member couldn't wait to get his rotisserie chicken home.

Going natural at Whole Foods

Now, I buy the naturally raised rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods Market in Paramus for family members who eat meat and poultry.

On Tuesday, I asked the Costco employee at the rotisserie chicken stand in Hackensack if he knew which processor supplies the chickens.

He said he didn't, and that they arrive at the store already seasoned, so all he has to do is put them in the big rotisserie cases behind him and when they are fully cooked, pack them in black-and-clear-plastic takeout containers.   

I'm not sure why the Costco Connection is using a hard sell for this low-quality chicken.

The article begins:

"Costco's Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken has almost a cult following. It even has its own Facebook page."

Costco also sells whole, uncooked Coleman Organic chickens. 

Why not give customers who care what they are eating a choice and offer the organic chicken side-by-side with the mystery rotisserie chicken?

Even the headline used is offensive to fans of Charlie Parker, the late jazz alto saxophonist who was known as "Bird" for his soaring solos.

Costco Connection says:

"Bird is the word"

"Members flock to Costco's rotisserie chicken."

I say: Not if you know what's good for you. 

Related posts

Click on the following links:

Where to find better-quality rotisserie chickens

Costco's low-quality rotisserie bird costs more in Canada


Costco shoppers see red in undercooked chickens

Costco chicken fails Kirkland Signature quality test