Grocery Outlet Ethical Bargains

My local Grocery Outlet has several Morningstar Farms products on discount, so I took the opportunity to try some out. This is not the first time trying their products – Morningstar Farms bacon strips were a regular purchase at Trader Joe’s. So I bought some bacon strips ($4.49), breakfast links ($2.49) and jumbo breakfast sausage patties ($2.99). The jumbo sausage patties are vegan while the other two are vegetarian as they contain egg whites and milk protein. These two vegetarian products have confused/outraged some vegans who (understandably) assumed that plant-based means vegan. They should simply be labeled vegetarian to be clearer. Here’s a quick review of each:

Morningstar Farms bacon strips

These disappeared pretty fast. They are also very fast to cook – sauté for two or three minutes in a small amount of oil until a little crispy, or a lot crispy if you prefer. Great on toast, combined with avocado, tomato or breakfast links, or to add crunch in a sandwich. I’ve always marveled at how well bacon flavors can be reproduced in vegetarian or vegan products – I think these would satisfy most people’s craving for bacon. I’ve previously reviewed vegan bacon from Sweet Earth, which is also very bacon-like and meatier (rather than crispy) in texture. The Sweet Earth product is a bit more gourmet and healthy while the Morningstar Farms product is more like junk food (see below) and quite moreish.

Morningstar Farms breakfast links

These were disappointing compared to Beyond Meat breakfast sausages (also available the Grocery Outlet at the moment) but, then again, the Morningstar links are cheaper. Perhaps this is just the tradeoff here – the Morningstar Farms products are not the best in class but they are more affordable. Maybe if I could work out a better way to cook them I’d be happier with them – in a nonstick pan they don’t develop much flavor as they cook, but in a regular stainless steel pan all the flavorful crispiness gets stuck to the pan. They are a work in progress for me.

Jumbo breakfast sausage patties

These cooked up much better than the breakfast links but still didn’t have a great depth of flavor. However, I tried assembling two of them into a burger (ignoring their designation as a breakfast food) and this worked much better. Combined with typical burger fixings – tomato, greens, ketchup – they were almost as satisfying as my usual burger from Beyond Meat. So, perhaps the breakfast links would also work out better in a sandwich with mustard or ketchup to add flavor, rather than on their own, so I’ll try that next.

Morningstar Farms product ingredients

Here are the ingredient lists for the three Morningstar Farms products that I tried. In the typical style of Kellogg’s products, the first two are supplemented with vitamins and minerals – something that’s cheap for manufacturers to do but helpful, especially for vegans and vegetarians. But, besides that, the ingredient lists for Morningstar Farms bacon strips and breakfast links are not very appealing. The jumbo sausage patties, the vegan product of the three, looks better – less like a chemical inventory 🙂

Morningstar Farms bacon strips – Ingredients

Water, soybean oil, modified corn starch, egg whites, soy flour, wheat gluten, hydrolyzed corn protein, contains 2% or less of vegetable glycerin, salt, soy protein isolate, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, sugar, yeast, caramel color, natural and artificial flavors, monocalcium phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, malic acid, hydrolyzed soy protein, guar gum, lactic acid, hydrolyzed wheat protein, yeast extract, spice, locust bean gum, sodium sulfite (for freshness), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, carrageenan, red 3, nonfat milk, yellow 6, citric acid. Vitamins and minerals: Niacinamide, iron (ferrous sulfate), vitamin B1 (thiamin mononitrate), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12.

The bacon strips contain food coloring agents red 3 and yellow 6 to create the bacon-like appearance. Red 3 has recently been banned in the US, so I presume this will change. It’s a pretty junky ingredient list, with things like flavor enhancers disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. The vegan bacon from Sweet Earth that I reviewed here previously has a much better ingredient list, containing more food-based ingredients like organic beans and buckwheat groats.

Morningstar Farms breakfast links – Ingredients

Water, wheat gluten, corn oil, egg whites, soy protein concentrate, contains 2% or less of potato starch, salt, sodium caseinate, soy protein isolate, methylcellulose, sugar, canola oil, spices, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (soy, wheat, and corn), yeast extract, caramel color, guar gum, natural and artificial flavors, autolyzed yeast extract, onion powder, soy sauce powder (soy sauce [soybeans, salt, wheat], maltodextrin), disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, soybean oil, sunflower oil, xanthan gum, sesame oil. Vitamins and minerals: niacinamide, iron (ferrous sulfate), vitamin B1 (thiamin mononitrate), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12.

No artificial colors here, at least, but the breakfast links do contain the flavor enhancers, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. This is unfortunate as they are not very flavorful, so there’s not even a justification for the junky ingredients.

Jumbo breakfast sausage patties – Ingredients

Water, vegetable oil (corn, canola, and/or sunflower), soy protein concentrate, wheat gluten, soy protein isolate, potato starch, methylcellulose. Contains 2% or less of natural flavors, spices, cooked onion and carrot juice concentrate, salt, yeast extract, dextrose, sugar, potassium salt, sunflower lecithin, garlic powder, onion powder, yeast, citric acid.

This product looks like it’s from a different company, based on the ingredient list, which is much more reasonable. They are not supplemented with vitamins and minerals, but they also lack the junky ingredients of the other two products. And yet, they taste better than the breakfast links.

Jumbo breakfast sausage patties – Nutrition Facts

I’ll just show nutrition facts for the jumbo sausage patties – they are around 18% protein (similar to meat), providing 10 g per serving of one patty. Some ingredients are bioengineered – could be the soy or any of the oils (corn, canola, and sunflower). I’m not against bioengineering per se – products such as microbial rennet and insulin can be produced this way without harming animals. However, most bioengineered crops (soy, corn, etc.) are bundled with harmful tools of industrial agriculture such as neonics (pesticides that cause harm to bees and many other creatures).

Morningstar Farms owners – from Kellogg’s to Kellanova to Mars, Inc.

Morningstar Farms was a pioneer in introducing soy-based meat substitutes to the US, around 1974. It was acquired by Kellogg’s, the Corn Flake people, in 1999. The company we know as Kellogg’s began in 1906 as the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company and was subsequently called the Kellogg Company for just over a century, from 1922 to 2023. In 2023, the Kellogg Company was split into two companies, with WK Kellogg Co running the cereal business and Kellanova taking over the snack brands such as Pringles, Pop Tarts, and Morningstar Farms. Things changed again in 2024 when Mars Inc., agreed to buy Kellanova for around $35 billion and is expected to take over the company (including Morningstar Farms) in the first half of 2025.

Ethical ratings for Kellogg’s and Mars

My first instinct on Kellogg’s (or Kellanova to use the new name) and Mars, Inc., based on what I’ve read over the years, is that they are roughly similar in terms of ethical rating. As far as large multinational food corporations go, I prefer them both to Nestlé, Mondelēz, Hershey, and Unilever. But that’s not to say that they are without problems.

Reading a summary of Kellogg’s ups and downs over the last 25 years it’s a mixed bag. Props to the company for urging Trump in 2016 to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, cancelling ads in Breitbart News, and calling for an end to glyphosate (which is often used, ridiculously, as a drying agent for harvested grain). On the other hand, Amnesty International reported child labor and forced labor by palm oil company, Wilmar, which supplied Kellogg’s, Unilever and Nestlé. Nothing new there – most companies of that size have unethical palm oil problems. 

Mars, Inc., has come under fire for child labor, slave labor, and deforestation in its cocoa supply chain – again that’s nothing new and it applies (even more so, I believe) to Nestlé, Mondelēz, Hershey, and Unilever. Mars seemed to be making a genuine effort to do better on sourcing and this is reflected in a higher rating than Nestlé, etc., on the chocolate scorecard. Mars also reacted to Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement by launching a $1 billion sustainability plan in 2017. In 2021 Mars linked executive pay to their performance on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully these companies (and others) will also take a stand this time around.

So, the bottom line is that I’d rate these two parent corporations as a little better than many of the other giant food corporations. As I’ve argued on the Green Stars Project, I support plant-based products from mediocre corporations, or even corporations that are worse than mediocre. For example, I rated Sweet Earth 4/5 Green Stars, despite being owned by Nestlé. When one of these corporations starts to sell more ethical products then I think it’s better to support that change than to boycott the products because we don’t like the company.

Ethical rating for Morningstar Farms products

I’m rating these Morningstar Farms products as follows:

Bacon strips and breakfast links: 2/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact.

Jumbo breakfast sausage patties: 3.5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact.

The main reason for the difference in ethical rating is the eggs. The jumbo sausage patties are vegan while the other two products contain eggs (and small amounts of milk protein). I’ll get back to the eggs in a bit, but otherwise here are some points that apply to all three products:

• Some ingredients are from bioengineered crops. I’ve no issue with bioengineering but don’t support engineered crops that are bundled with tools of industrial agriculture that reduce biodiversity.
• That said, plant-based food is better than meat on every major environmental metric, however the plants are grown (within reason).
• Obviously, the vegan Morningstar products get a higher Green Stars rating than those that are vegetarian (containing eggs and milk products). Especially so, considering Kellogg’s track record on egg sourcing (see below).
• Morningstar Farms has a useful calculator that shows how a switch from the equivalent meat product in terms of three environmental footprints: carbon, land, and water. It’s based on numbers from a Carbon Trust report that looks reasonable.
• Kellogg’s (Kellanova) is perhaps a little better than the average giant food corp., with most of its product portfolio based on plants. It does a reasonably good job at communicating on sustainability but leans a little too much towards future promises – everything will be great by 2030!
• Here’s what Kellanova says about soy protein, the major ingredient for Morningstar Farms products: “In 2021, 93% of Kellogg Company soy ingredients were sourced from markets with low deforestation risk, such as the United States. For the remaining volumes (7%) we continue to work with our suppliers to mitigate environmental risks.” This sounds OK at first, but actually isn’t great – 7% is sourced from markets that do pose a deforestation risk. There’s also a statement that Kellogg’s joined the Amazon Soy Moratorium in 2017 – this is actually very late as the Moratorium was set up in 2006. Also, bioengineered soy grown in the US (or Brazil) is almost certainly treated with neonics.
• Packaging is fairly typical for a frozen food product.

Kellanova Egg sourcing for Morningstar Farms products

I recently looked at the various environmental impacts of different foods and found that eggs actually have significantly smaller environmental footprints, compared to cheese. I found that information useful as a vegetarian choosing which foods to include. However, there is also a humane angle and Kellogg’s performance on switching to cage-free eggs has been disappointing. A decade ago, the company was proud to announce that 100% of eggs will be cage-free by 2025, but only 14% of eggs were cage-free by the end of 2023. That’s some pretty lame progress. I guess they won’t have to worry about it now as it’ll become Mars Inc.’s problem once the takeover is complete. 

Even though I do enjoy the bacon strips, I’m not going to be seeking them out, unless Mars Inc. makes some changes.

Summary scores (out of 5) for Morningstar Farms products:

Morningstar bacon strips

• 3.5 gold stars for quality and value
• 2 Green Stars for social and environmental impact.

Morningstar breakfast links

• 2 gold stars for quality and value
• 2 Green Stars for social and environmental impact.

Morningstar jumbo breakfast patties

• 4 gold stars for quality and value
• 3.5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact.

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