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April 4, 2005 12:07 AM
Broken: Apple sauce label
Ted submits this apple sauce label to the Department of Redundancy Department here at TIB. He writes, "Imagine my surprise to find that my Apples with Caramel treat may contain Apples and Caramel."
[I know, I know, it's not broken, because the label is legally required, etc. etc. Keep those letters coming :) -mh]
Heh, the headline in my rss reader only showed "this is broken - Apple s..." , so my initial thought was "here we go again, jealous Windows-types slamming Apple..." :-)
What IS broken is the fact that they say MAY contain this and such, when in reality it's SUPPOSED to! Like the package of peanuts that says MAY contain peanuts. Well, duh. Okay, some people are allergic, the warning is needed and good. Cracker packages say MAY conatin peanuts cause they're processed in the same plant, you don't expect crackers to contain peanuts, so it's important to have the warning. But this apples and caramel should say CONTAINS apples and caramel, not MAY contain apples and caramel! Definitely broken..govt bureaucracy at it's finest - by law you must state the obvious! {good grief}
Actually, if you read carefully, you can see why the label is required: The product may contain apples and *Carmel*. I'd certainly want to know if something I was going to eat might contain a small California city. Heck, there might even be a bit of Clint Eastwood in there ...
I don't think this is broken.
Remember: one factor of usability is meeting what the user *expects*. No intelligent user expects that the *name* of a product equals the sum-total of its *ingredients*.
Consider: What if that label *weren't* there? If you picked this product up, and wanted to know what it contained, would you be satisfied that, because it was called Apples and Carmel, that this is all it contained?
Consider the number of substances (that we would otherwise expect to find in a processed, packaged product) that it explicitly does NOT contain...
They dont list the ingredients for the caramel and the uh... apple... so i actually am still in the dark to what is in the package...
whats wrong with this isnt the fact that the ingredients are the same as the name of the product. whats wrong with this is the word "may".
may contain apples and carmel....as in maybe it has apples and carmel, maybe it doesnt.
maybe it has apples, but not carmel?
maybe it has carmel, but no apples?
maybe it doesnt contain either?
i would sort of expect my "apples w/ carmel dip" to contain apples for sure, not maybe contain apples.
i guess you could argue that they say it may contain such and such because they always could substitute in artificial ingredients, but artificial apples?
oh and is this just me being a big stupid, or should it be "caramel" and not "carmel"?
or is carmel some kind of new thing goin round the streets?
Completely broken. I don't care about the fact that a product called apples and caramel list its ingredients as precisely that, apples and caramel. It assures me that no other ingredients are to be found in the product. But saying that it "MAY" contain apples and caramel, it's stupid. Secondly, the misspelling of caramel as CARMEL, is simply beyond any logic.
it also caught my attention the legend that says that the product should be kept at 37°F. That is, obviously, close to the freezing point, but a regular fridge is usually at 40° Farenheit and manufacturers do it that way to prevent slight changes that might end up freezing the contents in the refrigerator. So, I wonder where should I keep my apples and caramel, because if I put them in my Fridge, at $=|F, it will be too warm them, but if I put them in the freezer (usually at 27°F) it will be too cold.
Broken label, broken product.
XD Reminds me of something my friend told me:
"I was on my way back from the Phillipenes, and the flight assistants were handing out peanuts. I decided to eat it later, so I started to read the back. The thing that stood out: 'CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN PEANUTS'"
Actually it contains neither one. What it contains is a jillion mix flavored with fruit juices and artificial flavorings. However some times there is a minute amount of the actual fruit in the juice flavoring, but this happens very rarely.
Howdy all, this is Ted the submitter. Thought I’d clear some things up. What I had was a container of a few slices of apple, with a small dipping container of caramel.
As for the date, I ate them before the expiration date, the package just knocked around for a while.
Seen on a pack of pepper:
Ingredients: Black Pepper
Plus, we know that it's carmel, not some weird substitute.
But California isn't the only place that has a Carmel. Can someone name the other(s)?
...Pardon the digression.
You had 30 seconds to come up with the answer and didn't. So here it is: you could substitute some Carmel from Indiana &/or Israel.
according to a dictionary on the word carmel, (dictionary.com heh) carmel is circmized lamb.. or something like that.. i wouldnt want to eat that..
Im thinking that this is the package from a package of caramel apples.. they are usually sold around the timeframe and consist of whole apples dipped in caramel..still broken.. but about as much so cans of almonds that due to government bureaucity must include the words.. Peanut Free. May Contain other Tree Nuts.. I sure as heck hope it contains Almonds at the very least...
I have these things at school, and I don't believe it has honest-to-goodness caramel, rather it has something like it made of high fructose corn syrup. By the way, the igrediants for the caramel dip is on the packaging of the dip, and it isn't just caramel, although the apples are just apples.
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It's still broken; it's just *legally required* to be broken..
Posted by: Mungojelly at April 4, 2005 12:57 AM