05 October 2009

teenage spinach?


Okay, now I swear I'm not making this up, but the other day I was buying bagged spinach in the regular old grocery store and there I found not just plain spinach and the ubiquitous baby spinach but a new kind of spinach: teenage spinach. I've tried to find out what this means, really, and I've had very little success. What on earth is teenage spinach? I managed to find a site that describes what it is in contrast to baby spinach:
NSF categorized spinach into two sizes, “baby” and “teen,” although no products were marketed as “teen” spinach. There are no regulatory standards for the term “baby” and “teen” spinach. The difference between baby and teen spinach was based solely on the size of the leaf, otherwise the products were handled the same. . . . baby and teen spinach may have been used interchangeably in processing if demand made it necessary. A bag labeled, “baby spinach” manufactured at NSF, was not necessarily composed of baby spinach under the firm’s specifications.

I took this text from a State of California Public Health web site that had a report on the tainted spinach scandal of 2006. Anyway, of course it's out of context, but it is revealing. I got the photo from a British produce firm. I'm going to take a picture of the actual bag of "teenage" spinach and I will post it as soon as I can.

1 comment:

Vickie, aka Jack Schitt said...

Thank You! I was checking my receipt after shopping and saw "teenage spinach" for the bag I bought. I thought it was a clerk pulling a prank because the bag was near expiration date. Decided to check on it, found you, and now I can share the joke, with an explanation, after they stop laughing!