Not Tots Too
The quirky film “Napoleon Dynamite” contains a few scenes with memorable lines tied to that unique food item, tater tots. In one scene, when a classmate tries to take his tots, Napoleon bristles and says, “No, go find your own!” It was memorable enough that in connection with the 20th anniversary of the film’s release recently, Ore-Ida included the actor and character touting “Ore-Ida Tot-Protecting Pants”—to keep your tater tots from being crushed, of course.
Looks like instead of keeping them from being crushed, Ore-Ida might have wanted to make sure foreign substances didn’t get molded into the tots themselves.
An FDA recall of frozen tater tots has expanded…some 648,000 pounds of the treat have been recalled because they might contain “clear, hard plastic fragments,” posing a choking risk or injuries to the mouth or throat when eaten. On the bright side, no injuries have been reported…and further, the tots were not distributed in Iowa. Most were sent to food service vendors for restaurants and schools, as opposed to retail sale at your grocery store…so the tots in your freezer at home should be fine.
I’m a fan of the “eat real food” effort, and I think it’s great that companies are now thinking twice about adding dyes or petroleum products to the food we eat.
But you know how bad things have gotten when even the tasty tater tots are under suspicion. “Clear, hard plastic fragments” are not the kind of filler we need in those. Is no casserole now safe?
