ConAgra is Ruining Our Favorite Foods

The ConAgra con job is counterproductive.

Opinion page by Duane Alan Hahn.

Every product my family used to like that is owned by ConAgra tastes terrible now. It has become obvious to anyone with a sufficient number of taste buds that ConAgra has been lowering the quality of their foods in recent years. We started to notice a major change in the first few years of the new millennium. It's as if ConAgra is trying to ruin every food they can get their hands on. From now on, before we buy anything, we make sure that the ConAgra name isn't on it. ConAgra no longer has the brands we trust. We used to trust many of the brands they own, but we can't anymore.

I don't have any brand loyalty. If a product no longer tastes good, I will not keep buying it, no matter how good their commercials are or how long my family has trusted that brand. Below is a list of food that we used to eat regularly or occasionally that we cannot eat anymore because ConAgra has ruined the flavor.

ACT II Microwave Popcorn

Microwave popcorn hasn't tasted good since companies stopped using the old oil they used to, but this is ridiculous. Act II was never the greatest popcorn in the world, but we ended up eating it sometimes because it was cheap. ConAgra has managed to take something that wasn't that good to begin with and make it even worse.

Banquet Crispy Chicken (Original)

I used to eat Banquet chicken once in a while, but ConAgra is now putting so much MSG in it that I can't eat it anymore without feeling like I'm going to die. Whether it's original or skinless, it's just ruined. Not only is there too much MSG in it, but it also looks worse than it ever did. The pieces don't look like they're in the condition they used to be in.

Crunch 'n Munch

Another ruined product. Not long ago, it was one of the best of its kind out there. Now it's one of the worst.

DAVID Sunflower Seeds

I didn't think ConAgra could ruin these since it's just roasted seeds and salt, but they did. DAVID Sunflower Seeds were the best, with a great, unique salty flavor, but now, since at least late 2003, even the salt that they use tastes different. I don't know if they changed the salt or changed how the seeds are roasted or if they're using inferior seeds or all of the above, but I'll never buy them again.

Hostess Canned Ham

It never was the greatest ham in the world, but it at least tasted like ham before and had the consistency of real ham. Now it tastes like (and feels squishy like) Spam or Treet and just has a few visible pieces of real ham thrown in.

Hunt's Ketchup

This was my family's favorite ketchup for years, but some time in 2003, ConAgra changed the flavor. One more product we will never buy again. I wonder if other Hunt's products have also been ruined? I guess we'll never know since we won't buy any more Hunt's products.

Slim Jim (mild)

I think it's funny that I avoided Slim Jims for years and just when I tried the sticks and thought they were pretty good, a few months later, it seemed like ConAgra added more fat and orange goo to them so they just taste nasty now.

I could list more products that ConAgra has ruined, but that should be enough for now. I'm sick of the con job that ConAgra seems to be pulling on all of us. ConAgra is an appropriate name. This company needs to be stopped before they ruin more of our favorite foods. ConAgra reminds me of a swarm of locusts or a hard to cure flesh-eating virus. Maybe if we all stop buying their products, they'll be forced to restore the quality of our favorite products. Until that day comes, do your best to avoid ConAgra products whenever possible if you are sick and tired of huge companies destroying the quality of our favorite foods.

If you are one of the people who can't taste the difference between a turd and a tomato (a non-taster), you may not understand this page and will wonder what the big deal is. Well, for medium-tasters and super-tasters, it is a big deal. It seems ConAgra has decided that many people are non-tasters, so why should they keep the quality high when they can add more fat or throw in more MSG in place of real ingredients or do some other equally horrible thing. I guess ConAgra figures the unwashed masses won't know the difference, so why not save money and make more profit. Our favorite brands are quickly losing their long-standing reputations. Our favorite foods are being ruined, one after the other. That is not good for any of us, including non-tasters.

Related E-mail

(April 28, 2004)

I just read the page regarding the ruination of many major food brands since they have been acquired by ConAgra. As a regional distributor of Hebrew National deli products in the NYC metro area, I can attest to the fact that ConAgra's micromanaging of the entire production and distribution of the Hebrew National line has been an outright disaster.

Their arrogance and ignorance of a market that has successfully existed for nearly a century has kosher retailers in the region up in arms. It is nearly enough to label their actions anti-Semitic, beginning with their failure to recognize that their distribution system in the area does not consist of shipping everything to Super Walmarts.

The lifeblood of supply to the region to the hundreds of small delis, butcher shops, bagel shops and independent grocers comes from several small distributors who deliver fresh food daily to these customers. ConAgra has steadily cut back on the days product is shipped, credit lines cut from 21 to 7 days, requires orders to be placed up to a week in advance (this is FOOD we're talking about here!) and doesn't care about keeping delivery appointments as much as they care about being paid for products that haven't been received yet. For example, several suppliers were kept waiting recently for a daily supply shipment due in at 2AM local time. The trailer didn't arrive until 12:30PM that afternoon. While this may seem like only a minor inconvenience, the fact that it occurred on the first day of Passover and arrived too late for any of our waiting customers to receive it before closing for 8 days seems to not have registered with the rubes in Omaha as a faux pas.

This complete lack of understanding the marketplace and how it operates is typical of their apparent mantra: "if it ain’t broke, we'll fix it so it is." I am waiting to see if they can branch out into India so they can offer the Hindi their expertise on beef products. Furthermore, when attempting to find out who in creation is responsible for the continued moronic decisions being made at the corporate level, customers are being told it is "out of our control." So apparently this is the world's only self-running enterprise, with no human input whatsoever. One of my clients compares ConAgra to his first science lesson. He recalls being told the Brontosaurus was the largest creature on Earth, and had a brain the size of a walnut. That may be an exaggeration in ConAgra's case.