Customer Reviews

Muir Glen Organic Tomato Paste, 6-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Muir Glen cans are lined in plastic and leach Bisphenol A. Too bad because this was a great product and was a standard in my household. My initial conversations with them they contradicted this fact, which to me was misleading. General Mills owns Cascadian Farms as well and now I don't buy there either.
Now we use BioNature in jars or Pomi products in Tetra Pak cartons. All canned tomato products use BPA and so do many of the lids of jars used in food containment.
Now I also just make from scratch which is made simple by chef Andrew Carmellini in Everyday Italian. Lydia Bastianich is another favorite chef that deserves mention for simple yet big flavors.
Boil, peel, freeze and store. Can manufacturing companies that I corresponded with said they were working on a solution for later this year or next year.

I purchased and received a case of these 6 oz items mid-March-2008. I used two cans then and in reflection remember one of them spewing some paste when first pierced by the opener. Tonight I've gone to open another can and this time it really projected out the paste when pierced with the opener. So I decide to check over the others and find 4 of them really BULGING - each end pouched outwards a centimeter or so. And another 8 cans showing 1 to 3 mm bulges at each end! This case has been in an A/C-ed home in a dark closet.

The case of small cans appears to come from 3 different lot numbers (OPJCS 6 ASHX24 1121, OPJCS 6 ASHX24 1122 AND OPJCS 6 ASHX24 1123) Note the 1121/1122/1123 code differs.

With just my visual inspection it appears all affected cans are 1122 but I will not be eating any of the remainders. I will be contacting the manufacturer ASAP to see if there has been a recall or known problem.

This tomato paste makes an excellent spaghetti sauce. Try it with Lawry's thick and rich spaghetti sauce. It is a bit more expensive than pate in the stores but does taste great and with Amazon prime you pay nothing to have it shipped to your door. Comes with 24 6oz cans perfect match up to the 24 packets of Lawry's spaghetti sauce packets. This also beats lugging lots of little cans back from the store.

I have bought this product regularly for over ten years but found out today that the inner lining of the cans contains the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA). I love the product but won't be purchasing it again until the company switches to cans that don't contain BPA, as at least one other manufacturer does.

I also purchased this product in March and within a couple of months 10 of the 48 cans I purchased were bulging severely (looks like they are about to burst), plus many others bulging slightly. I've contacted the manufacturer and they weren't very responsive at first, but have promised to give me a refund after I go through the hassle of peeling labels off every one of these cans and send them to them.
Note: the date code on my cans is A8KX24, same as the previous reviewer with this problem.

I use this as a thickener when I make marinara sauce. Nothing but the best, its organic (full of nutrients). Get this product you won't be disappointed.

Remember the better the ingredients, the better the sauce.

I contacted Muir Glen directly and asked whether or not their cans contained BPA. You can see their response below:

"Thank you for contacting Muir Glen about bisphenol-A or BPA.

Bisphenol-A is a component of protective coatings in metal food packaging, and provides an important food safety and quality function in canned foods. Scientific and governmental bodies worldwide have examined the science many times and have concluded that the weight of evidence supports the safety of BPA, including recent comprehensive assessments in Japan and in the European Union.

In January 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced another review of BPA. This review in expected to take 18-24 months, and Health Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO) will participate.

Most metal cans in the food industry utilize BPA in the can lining or can lid. Some of our products do, and many competitors' products do as well.

Muir Glen continues to believe BPA is safe. However, we know that some of our consumers have wanted us to pursue alternatives. We have been working with our can suppliers and can manufacturers to develop and test alternative linings that do not use BPA for some time.

One alternative has proven safe and viable in our processing of tomatoes - and Muir Glen is in the midst of transitioning to cans with liners that do not use BPA. It is an approved non-epoxy alternative. Can coatings used by Muir Glen also comply fully with all applicable U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements for safe use in food contact applications.

Your views are important to us. Again, thank you for contacting Muir Glen, and thank you for your support of our products.

Sincerely,

Consumer Services"

Because there are a couple of very low star reviews (defective cans..not the actual product), I wanted to make sure I reviewed this tomato paste and gave it a well-deserved positive review.

This is a great tomato paste - very rich and tomato-ey <--that can't be a word. It's just a plus that it's organic!

It tastes awesome. I don't even use it for cooking much; I just eat it with some olive oil on top. I wish it were not this expensive.

This is good tomato paste. It is thick and tastes good. If the cans were BPA-free then it would be about perfect.