Artisana nut butters made with IMPORTED nuts & seeds

[Katc8910]

For all of you mamas out there who are trying to provide organic and local (at least US-grown) foods to your families, you may be surprised to learn that most of the Artisana brand nut & seed butters are made with imported nuts/seeds even though the jars say "Product of USA."

I have been purchasing Artisana nut butters for a long time. They are more expensive than other brands, but I was willing to pay more for what I believed was a superior product. They taste great and are organic. But what really attracted me was the fact that based on their packaging/labeling, I believed they were made with US grown nuts & seeds. The label on all of their nut butters says "Product of USA." That's what I assumed until I purchased the coconut butter & realized that organic coconuts are not grown commercially in the US, yet the jar says "Product of USA." So I contacted the company directly and asked them where the nuts & seeds that are made into their butters are grown. It took 3 e-mails to finally receive an answer (the first 2 responses were very evasive) and I was shocked at the answer I finally received. Below is the response I received (verbatim).

I believe that Artisana's labeling of their nut butters as "Product of USA" is quite misleading to say the least. How can they label a product as from the US when all the ingredients are imported? I guarantee that most consumers assume that when they see Artisana's jars that say "Product of USA," it means that the ingredients are grown in the US. How is it even legal to have imported products labeled "Product of USA"? Even if this is not illegal, I believe this is fraudulent advertising intended to mislead the consumers who try to avoid imported foods for environmental or food-safety reasons or because they want to support US farmers. I feel completely deceived by Artisana & regret having purchased so many of their products based on their false advertising.

I wanted to share this with all of you because I feel very passionate about this issue & I thought that there may be other mamas out there who feel the same.

Kathy


"Hi Katherine,

Much of the information about which specific region and country we are purchasing our nuts and seeds from is actually confidential proprietary information. Certified organic nuts that are grown under our specifications are not easy to find so we do this so competitors don't find out and buy up our supply. The Southeast Asian coconut supply for example is a tiny country... and there is only ONE organic coconut cooperative... so if I were to publish that information, it would risk our supply and our ability to continue in business if another company went in with that information. So although I can't tell you which exact country they are grown in, I can tell you the general region.

Artisana Organic Raw Almond Butter - California
Artisana Organic Raw Cashew Butter - Southeast Asia
Artisana Organic Raw Coconut Butter - Southeast Asia
Artisana Organic Raw Macadamia Cashew Butter- Africa and S. America
Artisana Organic Raw Pecan Butter - United States
Artisana Organic Raw Tahini - Central America
Artisana Organic Raw Walnut Butter - United States
Cacao Bliss - Southeast Asia
Exta-Virgin Coconut Oil - Never Heated - Southeast Asia

Thanks for your questions and concerns! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Best,
Cole Meeker
Artisana
cell: 510.731.8770"

[noobmom]

Thanks for sharing. I'm guessing it qualifies as a product of the US because it's made into nut butter here (even though the ingredients are imported).