Published 15:00 IST, May 28th 2020
Fact Check: Do Birds Eye, Green Giant and Pictsweet source their produce from China?
Fact check: Claims making rounds on social media say that the produce used by canned food companies Birds Eye, Green Giant and Pictsweet are from China
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The coronavirus pandemic has led to the world turning upside down as people are trying their best to save themselves from the virus and win the war against it. The coronavirus started from Wuhan, China and slowly took its roots in almost every country in the world. Since then, there have been many groups of individuals who are personally shunning themselves from using any Chinese products, induced by dislike of the fact that the virus started there. A recent claim that is making rounds on social media is that Birds Eye and Green Giant, both frozen and canned food companies, get their vegetables from China.
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Origin:
The posts first started circulating on Facebook as people started posting about how they will not be buying products from Birds Eye and Green Giant. The reason given behind this was that the two companies get their vegetables from China. The posts also includes the fact that Picsweet is a place to go for U.S. products.
A news source reached out to Birds Eye to get some insight about their products and from where their source. A spokesperson of the company named Dan Hare revealed that approximately 5% of the vegetables that are used by the brand come from China, and those are primarily edamame. Edamame is a green colour pod vegetable that has immature soybeans inside. He added that the majority of the vegetables are sourced from farms in the U.S. The official site also claims that the vegetables are sourced from local farms. It can be said that the claim of Birds Eye vegetables from China are mostly false.
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Source: Birds Eye vegetables website
Who owns Birds Eye vegetables?
Birds Eye is a company that is owned by Conagra Food in the United States and Nomad Foods in Europe. The founder of the company was Clarence Birdseye. It was founded in the year 1923.
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Are Green Giant vegetables from China? Where are Green Giant Vegetables packaged?
Green Giant is yet another company that was said to have its frozen vegetables from China. The official website of the company has a section 'Where we grow'. Under that, they have given the information about where the food is being grown and where it is getting packed. Thus, Green Giant vegetables from China news is untrue. They write:
Our frozen vegetables are packaged in: Illinois, California, Minnesota, Idaho, Washington, and Mexico.
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Our canned vegetables also undergo the canning process near where they are grown: in Minnesota, Idaho, Wisconsin, New York, the Netherlands, and Peru.
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Image source: Green Giant vegetables website
Green Giant do not source their vegetables from China, while Birds Eye has only 5% of Chinese vegetables
Where are Pictsweet vegetables grown?
The claim has a third company name in its mix, but this time it is supportive. The claim states that Picsweet sources its vegetables from American farms and thus it is the best place to buy frozen and canned foods. The company hails from Tennessee, as per a source and it produces packaged vegetables such as corn, green beans, carrots, broccoli, peas, and squash, as well as frozen dinners, stews, and quick meals. However, the site of Pictsweet does not include any information about the origin of the vegetables. However, as per a news article in a leading daily, United Foods, which produces PictSweet frozen vegetables, said that they have no foreign produce in its products.
Google Trends Analysis
Google Trends show that many people searched for this piece of information. One can see that the searches reached a peak on May 26, 2020 at 4.30 PM. Here is the snippet:
15:00 IST, May 28th 2020