Bolthouse Farms

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Bolthouse Farms, founded in 1915, is a vertically-integrated farm company located in California's San Joaquin Valley and headquartered in Bakersfield, California. According to the business research company Hoover's, Bolthouse Farms is one of the United States's leading producers of carrots.[1] The company is also a leading producer of super premium refrigerated products.

Contents

[edit] Products

The company produces numerous all-natural premium refrigerated beverages including four 100% juices, 3 lemonades, five smoothies, and three protein drinks.[2] They also have a Bolthouse do Brasil section, which produces three açaí berry juices.[3]

The beverages are available in the large 1 liter size (33.8 fl oz) bottles, and the smaller, 450 mL (15.2 fl oz) bottles. Their acai juices come in the 340 mL size (11.5 fl oz).

[edit] "Juices"

[edit] "Lemonades"

[edit] Smoothies

[edit] Protein drinks

The large Perfectly Protein bottles are labeled as having 42 grams of protein, and the smaller ones labeled as having 19 grams.

[edit] Bom Dia antioxidant rich juice

These açaí drinks are distributed only in the smaller, 340 mL (11.5 fl oz) bottles, which contain two servings of fruit. These bottles have a chart of the relative levels of antioxidants in several fruit, depicting açaí as having 472 ORAC units per gram of edible fruit, the second highest shown being cranberry, at 95.[3]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] William Bolthouse and the Bolthouse Foundation

Bolthouse Farms company profits are not used to support the The Bolthouse Foundation,[4] a group that supports Evangelical Christian organizations.[5]

Controversy surrounds the foundation as it, along with figures such as Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince, are major donors for the Alliance Defense Fund that has itself been criticized for their perceived legal team offense against Separation of church and state (as defined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution), their stance against homosexuality, their focus on proselytism, as well as their opposition to birth control and sex education amongst other reasons.[5][6] In June 2008, William Bolthouse was reported as donating $100,000 to an initiative aiming to fight gay marriage.[7]

The controversy surrounding the company has led some Bolthouse consumers to boycott Bolthouse Farms products.[8]

[edit] Carrot botulism outbreak

In September 2006, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered a voluntarily recall on the Bolthouse Farms "100 per cent Carrot Juice" and other Bolthouse Farms products due to several cases of botulism resulting from consumption of the products. On September 29, 2006 the United States Food and Drug Administration recommended that Georgia residents not purchase Bolthouse Farms carrot juice and, the same day, warned consumers not to purchase Bolthouse Farms products dated November 11, 2006 or earlier.[9]

The warning and recalls were due to reported cases of consumption of the beverages resulting in six cases of botulism in the United States and Canada. Two cases in Toronto, Canada resulted in paralysis; three cases recorded in Georgia, United States resulted in respiratory failure, with the patients requiring ventilators; one case recorded in Florida resulted in hospitalization. The patient in Florida was last reported to be unresponsive since mid-September of 2006.[10]

In response, Bolthouse Farms claimed that the illness was the fault of the consumers who had failed to properly refrigerate the products.[9] The US Food and Drug Administration cited that this may not be the case and an investigation continues.[11] Bolthouse Farms has subsequently released an FAQ regarding the event.[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hoover's report is available online at Google Finance: [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Bolthouse Farms "Juices"
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bom Dia Antioxidant Rich Acai Juice - Acai Berry with Pomegranate Juice, Acai Berry with Mangosteen Juice, Acai Berry with Cacao
  4. ^ The Bolthouse Foundation's official website can be found here: [2]
  5. ^ a b Posner, Sarah. "The Legal Muscle Leading the Fight to End the Separation of Church and State" April 1, 2007, Washington Spectator Online
  6. ^ "Going Courtin’: Religious Right Fat Cats Bankroll Alliance Defense Fund’s Legal Crusade" Americans United, April 3rd 2007.
  7. ^ Bakersfield.com, "Local carrot farmer donates $100,000 to fight gay marriage." Online: [3]
  8. ^ "Boycott Bolthouse Farms," online: [4]
  9. ^ a b "Consumers to blame for botulism outbreak, juice maker says" CBC News, Wednesday, October 11, 2006. Online: [5]
  10. ^ "Toxic carrot juice paralyzes 2 in Toronto" CBC News, Monday, October 9, 2006. Online: [6]
  11. ^ Botulism Associated with Commercial Carrot Juice --- Georgia and Florida, September 2006 from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
  12. ^ The Bolthouse Farms Carrot Botulism FAQ is available online here: [7]

[edit] External links