Knott's Berry Farm jams discontinued

[Brian Lutz]

https://www.today.com/food/news/knotts- ... rcna135353

The Knott's Berry Farm brand of jams has quietly been discontinued by the JM Smucker Company. The cookies sold under the same brand name are licensed to a different company, and are still being produced. In the meantime, the original Knott's Berry Farm continues to sell products under its own Berry Market brand through its website. Knott's Berry Farm (which is now operated as a Cedar Fair theme park) sold the rights to the brand to ConAgra foods in 1995 when they had expanded their theme park to the point that there was little space to grow berries on the property, and the rights were later sold on to the JM Smucker company.

[storewanderer]

This feels like a bit of a dying product category to me. I am seeing more and more imported products in these items and fewer and fewer options in general.

Too many of these products have high fructose corn syrup when they probably should not, yet also have a pretty high price tag. I expect cleaner labels for what most of these cost.

The Knotts label has been discontinued in some of the major chains even in CA for quite some time.

[rwsandiego]

Anymore I buy either the Whole Foods or Signature Select fruit spread. It is every bit as good (sometimes even better than) as the name-brands, which tend to have limited offerings of anything other than jellies and jams. If enough people do the same as me (and I suspect they do, given the amount of shelf space given to the house brands) the name brands will shrink.

[storewanderer]

Anymore I buy either the Whole Foods or Signature Select fruit spread. It is every bit as good (sometimes even better than) as the name-brands, which tend to have limited offerings of anything other than jellies and jams. If enough people do the same as me (and I suspect they do, given the amount of shelf space given to the house brands) the name brands will shrink.

Watch ingredient lists. Many brands including name brands and entry level private labels have high fructose corn syrup.

The old pre-Albertsons Signature Select jelly/preserves product was a lot better when it was manufactured by a Safeway plant and actually a premium quality item (came in smaller jars, black lids) and was excellent quality- it did not contain high fructose corn syrup (the entry level Safeway brand jelly/preserves did). Albertsons stopped manufacturing jelly/preserves (the plant still does salsa and pasta sauce) for some reason and the current item is just a generic private label jelly/preserves that can be obtained at just about any other retailer. Kroger brand jelly/preserves are made at some Kroger plant (have high fructose corn syrup) and the PS ones have changed direction so many times I gave up on buying them (at one time most were all Northwest sourced fruits- then they started to import from Belgium- then they started weird combo flavors- not sure what they are doing now- stopped even looking). I have been very satisfied with multiple of the Full Circle Organic Preserves; I think they are a Product of Canada.

[Romr123]

The sugar cane cartel here in the US is the big reason for the migration to foreign jams/jellies (together with the HFCS use).

There is a big processor in Canada which seems to have a lot of the "natural-ish" market sewn up---the formulas and labeling requirements for US products made by Canadian processors don't line up neatly with their domestic products. "Spread" is often used as a descriptor on the Canadian-manufactured jams/jellies (having to do with sugar/fruit content or ratios). Doesn't mean they're bad, just that they don't exactly match.

[buckguy]

This feels like a bit of a dying product category to me. I am seeing more and more imported products in these items and fewer and fewer options in general.

Too many of these products have high fructose corn syrup when they probably should not, yet also have a pretty high price tag. I expect cleaner labels for what most of these cost.

The Knotts label has been discontinued in some of the major chains even in CA for quite some time.

Jams and jellies seem to have less shelf space than in the past and they're often more difficult to find, although Giant is rather intuitive, by putting them near the bread, English muffins, etc. as well as the margarine/butter, although it's not very prominent. I don't think people don't buy as much packaged bread, either (no great loss nutritionally).

I noticed that even Smuckers, which used to be among the better of the major brands, has high fructose corn syrup now. I actually buy this kind of stuff from a place in Michigan. It's expensive but so much better than anything in the supermarket. I just wait until they have a deal on shipping.

Knott's Berry Farm used to turn up a lot in restaurants and diners as a side for toast and bagels. I think they usually got more space outside of chain super markets for the full size jars than in the chains. Beyond the institutional trade, Smuckers probably wasn't sure how to market them.

[ClownLoach]

This feels like a bit of a dying product category to me. I am seeing more and more imported products in these items and fewer and fewer options in general.

Too many of these products have high fructose corn syrup when they probably should not, yet also have a pretty high price tag. I expect cleaner labels for what most of these cost.

The Knotts label has been discontinued in some of the major chains even in CA for quite some time.

Jams and jellies seem to have less shelf space than in the past and they're often more difficult to find, although Giant is rather intuitive, by putting them near the bread, English muffins, etc. as well as the margarine/butter, although it's not very prominent. I don't think people don't buy as much packaged bread, either (no great loss nutritionally).

I noticed that even Smuckers, which used to be among the better of the major brands, has high fructose corn syrup now. I actually buy this kind of stuff from a place in Michigan. It's expensive but so much better than anything in the supermarket. I just wait until they have a deal on shipping.

Knott's Berry Farm used to turn up a lot in restaurants and diners as a side for toast and bagels. I think they usually got more space outside of chain super markets for the full size jars than in the chains. Beyond the institutional trade, Smuckers probably wasn't sure how to market them.

Knott's sells their own brand, Knott's Berry Market, at the park and the marketplace out in front. It doesn't use high fructose corn syrup, and is a great product. Especially the signature boysenberry. Superior to the Smuckers made junk. I wonder if the newly merged Cedar Fair/Six Flags entity that owns Knott's (the theme park) will purchase the rights to the name back for product use. Then Knott's Berry Farm can sell... Knott's Berry Farm again.

[storewanderer]

This feels like a bit of a dying product category to me. I am seeing more and more imported products in these items and fewer and fewer options in general.

Too many of these products have high fructose corn syrup when they probably should not, yet also have a pretty high price tag. I expect cleaner labels for what most of these cost.

The Knotts label has been discontinued in some of the major chains even in CA for quite some time.

Jams and jellies seem to have less shelf space than in the past and they're often more difficult to find, although Giant is rather intuitive, by putting them near the bread, English muffins, etc. as well as the margarine/butter, although it's not very prominent. I don't think people don't buy as much packaged bread, either (no great loss nutritionally).

I noticed that even Smuckers, which used to be among the better of the major brands, has high fructose corn syrup now. I actually buy this kind of stuff from a place in Michigan. It's expensive but so much better than anything in the supermarket. I just wait until they have a deal on shipping.

Knott's Berry Farm used to turn up a lot in restaurants and diners as a side for toast and bagels. I think they usually got more space outside of chain super markets for the full size jars than in the chains. Beyond the institutional trade, Smuckers probably wasn't sure how to market them.

Smucker's was running a "Simply" line for some time that did not have have the high fructose corn syrup. I think it may be gone or scaled back significantly. The standard Smuckers has had high fructose corn syrup for quite some time and based on my previous perception of the brand as a "better" product, it surprises me they did that.

On the ice cream topping area same issue where the fruit based Smucker products like Strawberry or Pineapple topping have that high fructose corn syrup.

What is interesting is over at Chickfila they have as a condiment packets of strawberry/grape jelly and these packets are "Smuckers Natural" and do not contain high fructose corn syrup.