PressEthic

In trying to find thoughtful contributions to the blog I stumbled upon this goody in the New York Sun’s business section on Monday, September 12. Entitled Duncan Hines Decision on Cake Upsets Some Who Keep Kosher, the article dealt with a major blow to the Jewish community. Kosher Jews have been long time consumers of their popular cake mixes because Duncan Hines was the last major dessert conglomerate to make dairy free and meat free baking products. If those who follow Kosher had a dinner of meat, then a dairy-ridden dessert is off limits. The people at Duncan Hines blame their decision on their one factory. As the article by Betsy Schiffman states, “The dairy free cake mixes were made at the same plant where products that include dairy ingredients are being made, and there are safety concerns about dairy ingredients somehow making their way into the nondairy products.”

But Kosher eaters are refusing to go without their cake, launching an email campaign and lighting up the Kosher blogs that have surfaced on the web. One woman tells of a frenzied day at the supermarket, when she went to swipe all the dairy free boxes off the shelves before the ones filled with dairy arrived. She was greatly disappointed when she found the shelves cleared admitting, “looks like our rabbi’s wife cleared out the shelves.” While there are other cake mixes that do not include dairy in their ingredients, they often cost close to $5, almost double what one would have paid for a box of Duncan Hines.

I too feel the pain of those who keep kosher. I am allergic to flour, and would be pretty pissed off if suddenly my favorite ice cream or rice cakes decided to just stick some flour in their products because they were afraid of cross contamination. I mean I know it cost money to ensure stricter safety standards, but what ever happened to making the customers happy? Or how about sticking those labels on it saying, “Processed in a factory that also makes other products with milk”, kind of like the labels they stick on things processed in a factory that also processes nuts. To nix an entire product out of this laziness tends to support the whole money obsessed corporate world that have we have been reading so much about in The Cheating Culture. Maybe Duncan Hines could break the mold, and become the dessert brand that cared? While I know there is more important news out there today(people down in Louisiana probably won’t be eating cake for months) I thought it was an interesting read and was a nice recess from the depressing and more serious news floating around media circuits now.