Be a Nouri Detective: Starbucks Fresh Blueberries and Oatmeal

Thanks to athletic-minded traveler for the breakdown on oatmeal available on the go; scroll down about two-thirds down the page for a comparison between the oatmeal served at Starbucks, Panera Bread, Jamba Juice, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s, Au Bon Pain, and Corner Bakery. I can’t say that I would ever recommend Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s as a source for nouri at any time. The athletic-minde traveler oatmeal post was written in Januray 2013. There is a new oatmeal on the go to consider, but hasn’t made its way into large chains yet (that I know of )… it’s Organic Superfood Oat-based Cereal by Vigilant Eats. It’s packed with superfoods from goji berries to cacoa, it’s all organic, and really tasty. Ask your favorite chains to carry it… and let’s start with Starbucks since we are on the subject of Starbucks.

I ordered a classic oatmeal with fresh blueberries at Starbucks the other day. The fresh blueberries intrigued me. Before I even opened the packaged I noticed that the blueberries were perfectly round and unusually plump and shiny. I grow my own berries, and have bought many fresh blueberries in my lifetime directly from growers and from the grocery store, and I have never seen blueberries so perfectly round, plump and shiny. Made me wonder if they were pumped with air. When you see women with unusually plump cheeks or lips, botox or silicone injections are usually the reason. Why were these blueberries so “perfect”? I looked at the package and it said:

Product of Chile
Expiration Date Dec 6, 2014 (I bought them on December 4)
Pack Date Nov 14, 2014 (they were unusually firm and plump for being three weeks old).

Manufactured for:
Starbucks Coffee Company
2401 Utah Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134 USA

I did not take the picture above. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me that day. I got this picture from a blog post announcing Starbucks’ fresh blueberries.

Fresh blueberries usually last 2-3 days if left out on the counter, 5-10 in the refrigerator, and 6-8 months in the freezer. I presume “fresh” blueberries means they have not been frozen. Even if they were frozen still seemed incredulously plump for three week old blueberries.

I’m a stickler for language. I know there are manufacturers and suppliers of blueberries from Chile. But why would blueberries be manufactured? Why wouldn’t they be grown for, or packaged for Starbucks instead of manufactured for Starbucks?

I am raising questions here. I don’t have any answers, and have not done any investigating to date. I will leave that to food watch investigators like Vani Hari, aka Foodbabe. Until I know more, I will probably order the oatmeal without the fresh blueberries the next time I’m at a Starbucks.