I was in a rush and I needed to pick up a quick snack that I could eat during class. I chose these Nature Valley bars which said they had ten bars inside. What I failed to notice is the tiny print at the bottom where it says 5 x 2, i.e., 5 packets with two bars.
Lo and behold when I open a pack during a break, I find two bars inside. I didn’t want to eat two bars, just one. You can’t even just leave the other fucking bar inside because they create so MANY crumbs. How the fuck are you supposed to seal it???
Stupid-ass deceptive printing got the better of me. It’s not the end of the world, just mildly infuriating.
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I’ve had limited problems with nature Valley bars and crumbs.
That’s just weird… If they thought one bar wouldn’t be enough then why not just make the bars bigger? Is it still even a “healthy snack” if you have to cram them down 2 at a time? It reminds me of the time I was checking the info on the back of a packet of Top Ramen and it said it’s supposed to be like 2 or 3 servings. Like was I supposed to share it with someone? Lol
it’s supposed to be like 2 or 3 servings.
That’s so the sodium content seems reasonable.
That’s so the
sodiumsugar content seems reasonable.
The US has a lot of bullshit in their labeling requirements. My wife studied food science in university and some of her biggest complaints are:
- Serving sizes aren’t always the entire package*
- “Natural” has almost no meaning on a package, it is just a hand-waving word
- They can hide a lot of things in the ingredients under umbrella terms like “spices” and “flavorings”
- “Made with real juice” does not mean it was made with the juice on the label. For example, a pineapple fruit juice may be more apple juice than actually pineapple juice
- They can round down to 0 calories if the actual amount is below 5
The most egregious example I’ve seen lately was a jar of pickles I bought where the serving size is 1/3 of a pickle (now the website says 1/2). That’s just so that the sodium doesn’t get out of control and, in all likelihood, because an entire pickle may be more than the 5 Calories allowed to say it’s “0 Calories”.
*This is changing, slowly. Manufacturers now have to put servings for the entire container if it’s small enough
“Natural” has almost no meaning on a package, it is just a hand-waving word
That’s partially because it’s useless in general, of course it’s natural, where else would you get it from? Every atom from a particle accelerator colision?!
“Made with real juice” does not mean it was made with the juice on the label. For example, a pineapple fruit juice may be more apple juice than actually pineapple juice
This gave rise to an amusing misunderstanding in our house. My wife asked for “Cranberry Juice, but 100% juice, not the cocktail; that’s too sweet.” I dutifully went to our store and found the Cranberry Juice cocktail, and also the juice that was mostly apple and white grape juice, because that’s always what they use here when they can. I thought, surely this must be very nearly as sweet, and kept looking. I eventually found the small, expensive bottle of 100% cranberry juice with no other juices and no sugar added.
This was a mistake.
Pure cranberry juice is not popular as a casual beverage for a reason. It is nasty. It tastes like I imagine the least dangerous acid kept behind the counter at the chemistry lab supply company tastes: safe for human consumption, but just barely and definitely deserving to be there behind the counter.
I actually like the taste of pure cranberry juice, but it’s too expensive to buy just for drinking so I mostly end up drinking half the bottle while I cook holiday meals after I’ve started the cranberry sauce
Are you sure you didn’t get the concentrate?
Pretty sure. It was a 32 oz bottle on the same shelf as all the cocktails and blends.
Now, to be fair, some people do recommend cutting pure cranberry juice with seltzer or water, but it was not specifically a concentrate.
Possibly they can’t be made thicker due to the cooking process?
They’re pretty hard. I wouldn’t want to try to bite through a double thick one personally.
It wouldn’t necessarily have to be double thick, they could just make it longer or wider across or both
You’re eating them wrong obviously. Smash it with your fist, pour it out in a neat line, and snort it like you mean business. Bonus points if done in public.
Your failure was not getting the Sweet and Salty Peanut chewy granola bar. Damn good!
This is the type of complaint you would expect a granola bar eater to have.
Ha I once fell for this same issue with the exact same bars. To be fair they’re so darn tasty I’ve fallen for it again several times since!
What’s next count total number of crumbs?
Because these bars are. Always full of crumbs
They have always been packaged that way in the US. The peanut butter ones somewhat mitigate the crumb situation.
I don’t think it’s a problem that it’s 2 bars in each package, but it should say 5 packages rather than 10 bars. The company knows what they’re doing.
Not discounting your mild infuriation, but I am 100% certain that if they switched to being individually wrapped tomorrow, a complaint about excessive packaging would be one of the top posts here.
I’m not sure about Germany, but these have been sold in the US for decades now, and have always been 2 bars per wrapper as long as I can remember.
I am rather surprised that OP expected 10 “large” bars. He wanted to eat 1 large bar, but instead just acted like a child with 2 small bars (2 small bars = 1 large bar). Complaining for bullshit reasons.
I am also sure that 2 small bars would weigh less than 1 large bar.
To be fair, this post is pretty much the epitome of mildly infuriating.
I realize that my answer was wrong and ignorant. I also disregarded the fact that OP could be assuming 10 small individually wrapped bars.
… I am 100% certain that if they switched to being individually wrapped tomorrow, a complaint about excessive packaging would be one of the top posts here.
You’re undeniably right. The best situation would be to not have any wrapping at all… but with the crumb situation, that’d be another top post here :/
They sell it without individual wrappers, it’s just müsli.
I’m all for reduxcing packaging but…ewww I’m not eating these from an unsealed box. Bugs love the crumbs…I can imagine they’d love the full bars, too. Not to mention rodents.
The box would have to be fully resealable, too, or they’d be gross so they’d need to replace the cardboard with plastic
so like just put them in resealable plastic bags, that’s a better use of the plastic than 5 small packages and means you don’t need the cardboard either!
To make them not turn to dust in transit, they’d need to be in a hard shell sleeve wrapped in plastic like Oreos…and they’d still likely get crushed a bit.
I’m not a packaging engineer but that seems like more plastic with little added benefit
I hate weasel word bs like this
On the bright side, at least it wasn’t labeled as “up to 10 bars” like ISPs get away with.
Not yet anyways
The FCC seems to have grown a spine given they’ve reinstated net neutrality and rolled out the Broadband Labels that require ISPs to be upfront about all fees, so maybe they’ll tackle this eventually.
In Australia, ISPs have to advertise the “typical” or average speed during peak times. See the plans here for example: https://www.tpg.com.au/nbn. It’s still not a guaranteed speed, but listing an average speed during the most congested time (evenings, since everyone is streaming movies and TV shows) is significantly better than listing a maximum speed.
Outsmart them by breaking each bar in half. Now you have 20 bars without spending a penny more!
I would tell you to grow a pair BUT the fact that they go stale in like 15 minutes….
Lol this was one of the earlier nature valley bar, before their single packed one. They were around 15 years ago at least. Always been packed per 2 with the hope that you will just eat 2 at a time
For the rest of the box, break the bars in half (while still in the wrapper) and eat the two top halves for the equivalent of one bar. The you can wrap up the remaining halves more securely.
Every product that comes with individually wrapped pairs or triplets is like this. They tell you how many individual consumables are in the box in huge font, with clarification that it’s 2xX or 3xX in tiny unreadable font.
It’s shitty as fuck.
That packaging surely caused Doppel Trouble.
