4 ms·

Selling to jews and (probably moreso) Muslims. When you can't sell your HFCS confection to 25% of the world's population, you start to think about these things.

Selling to jews and (probably moreso) Muslims. When you can't sell your HFCS confection to 25% of the world's population, you start to think about these things. Edit: confabulation->confection

brianwawok 9y ago
Oreos still have HFCS and all kinds of unhealtly stuff. In fact more unhealthy than lard.
- R_haterade 9y ago
  This is about selling ice cream, though. Most of which had HFCS in it, especially in '97.
  - brianwawok 9y ago
    And so do oreos. I don't get the point.
- kbutler 9y ago
  HFCS and unhealthy was not the point. The non-kosher certification prevented sale to Jewish/Muslim populations, not degree of the unhealthiness.
- wavefunction 9y ago
  HFCS was just an incidental descriptor from what I can tell. HFCS is halal/kosher, whereas lard is not.
oh_sigh 9y ago
Not exactly it. Oreo just wanted to sell their Oreos to the creamery market, which was already kosher, so they had to make their product kosher in order to make the sale. Also, it doesn't even need to be 25% of the market, even a small but dedicated minority can impose standards on the rest. See Nassim Taleb's "The Most Intolerant Wins": https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...
- R_haterade 9y ago
  Excellent point--the pressure still came from religious dietary restrictions, but nabisco felt it from people who wanted to be in compliance with those.
  - ars 9y ago
    Nah, the strict Kosher market is too small for that. Companies want certification for marking reasons - it's a mark of quality and purity. You will even see kosher symbols on products that are inherently kosher and do not need certification. Yet companies ask for, and pay for, it anyways. So it's not about making the product available to those consumers - it's the mark itself that companies are looking for.
    - zwieback 9y ago
      Like gluten-free bottled water, etc.
- irrational 9y ago
  "Assume the smaller unit contains four people, a family of four. One of them is in the intransigent minority and eats only nonGMO food (which includes organic). The color of the box is pink and the others yellow . We “renormalize once” as we move up: the stubborn daughter manages to impose her rule on the four and the unit is now all pink, i.e. will opt for nonGMO. Now, step three, you have the family going to a barbecue party attended by three other families. As they are known to only eat nonGMO, the guests will cook only organic. The local grocery store realizing the neighborhood is only nonGMO switches to nonGMO to simplify life, which impacts the local wholesaler, and the stories continues and “renormalizes”." Yeah...no. I have kids like that. We just tell them tough, cook your own food if you want something different. Likewise, I have a brother and sister-in-law that are vegan. We invite them over for holiday meals, but we don't cook vegan. We tell them to bring something that they are willing to eat and if there happens to be other food that we are serving that they are willing to eat then good for them. And you know what? It's turns out that not changing what you cook for people's dietary needs is okay and everybody survives and still gets along just fine.

Selling to jews and (probably moreso) Muslims. When you can't sell your HFCS confection to 25% of the world's population, you start to think about these things. Edit: confabulation->confection

brianwawok 9y ago

Oreos still have HFCS and all kinds of unhealtly stuff. In fact more unhealthy than lard.

R_haterade 9y ago
This is about selling ice cream, though. Most of which had HFCS in it, especially in '97.
- brianwawok 9y ago
  And so do oreos. I don't get the point.
kbutler 9y ago
HFCS and unhealthy was not the point. The non-kosher certification prevented sale to Jewish/Muslim populations, not degree of the unhealthiness.
wavefunction 9y ago
HFCS was just an incidental descriptor from what I can tell. HFCS is halal/kosher, whereas lard is not.

oh_sigh 9y ago

Not exactly it. Oreo just wanted to sell their Oreos to the creamery market, which was already kosher, so they had to make their product kosher in order to make the sale. Also, it doesn't even need to be 25% of the market, even a small but dedicated minority can impose standards on the rest. See Nassim Taleb's "The Most Intolerant Wins": https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

R_haterade 9y ago
Excellent point--the pressure still came from religious dietary restrictions, but nabisco felt it from people who wanted to be in compliance with those.
- ars 9y ago
  Nah, the strict Kosher market is too small for that. Companies want certification for marking reasons - it's a mark of quality and purity. You will even see kosher symbols on products that are inherently kosher and do not need certification. Yet companies ask for, and pay for, it anyways. So it's not about making the product available to those consumers - it's the mark itself that companies are looking for.
  - zwieback 9y ago
    Like gluten-free bottled water, etc.
irrational 9y ago
"Assume the smaller unit contains four people, a family of four. One of them is in the intransigent minority and eats only nonGMO food (which includes organic). The color of the box is pink and the others yellow . We “renormalize once” as we move up: the stubborn daughter manages to impose her rule on the four and the unit is now all pink, i.e. will opt for nonGMO. Now, step three, you have the family going to a barbecue party attended by three other families. As they are known to only eat nonGMO, the guests will cook only organic. The local grocery store realizing the neighborhood is only nonGMO switches to nonGMO to simplify life, which impacts the local wholesaler, and the stories continues and “renormalizes”." Yeah...no. I have kids like that. We just tell them tough, cook your own food if you want something different. Likewise, I have a brother and sister-in-law that are vegan. We invite them over for holiday meals, but we don't cook vegan. We tell them to bring something that they are willing to eat and if there happens to be other food that we are serving that they are willing to eat then good for them. And you know what? It's turns out that not changing what you cook for people's dietary needs is okay and everybody survives and still gets along just fine.