Who Makes Trader Joe's Food?: A Taste Test

Who Makes Trader Joe's Food?: A Taste Test

It's no secret that Trader Joe's sells marked-down name-brand products disguised under its own label. What is a secret is which big brands Trader Joe's carries -- when it comes to publicizing that information, TJ's remains mum. The price difference between the Trader Joe's and big brand products is sometimes so big ($2.99 vs. $5.49 for the same box of cereal?!) that it sparked our curiosity. Now, we're on a quest to discover who's hiding under those TJ's labels.

First things first: How is Trader Joe's able to sell its product so cheaply? A major factor is the company's refusal to bother with advertising or couponing, both of which cost most supermarkets a large chunk of money. (If you've never heard of Trader Joe's till now, that's why.) Score one for TJ's. Secondly, Trader Joe's buys its product directly from the supplier whenever possible, saving even further cost.

You may be wondering why big brands are okay with Trader Joe's marking down their products so drastically and selling it under a different name. It's actually pretty simple: If you were General Mills, would you want your customers finding out they can buy the same box of $4.99 Cheerios at Trader Joe's for $1.99? We didn't think so. The secrecy prevents the big brands' customers from fleeing traditional supermarkets in favor of buying the cheaper Trader Joe's version. And thus, the big brands are willing to operate under Trader Joe's cloak of secrecy, under which the "vendor shall not publicize its business relationship with TJ's in any manner."

And so our taste test begins. This week, we selected 10 Trader Joe's products and their rumored big-brand matches and tasted them with a panel of judges. We conducted a double-blind tasting -- not blind, because it's important to note visual differences in the products, in this case -- and tried our hardest to detect any similarities and differences. Then, we came up with a final verdict.

Here's the main thing we can't get over, and the moral of the story. For the major price difference between TJ's and its big brand matches, the difference in taste and quality is so slight that it's almost nonexistent. We're reeling with regret over all the money we've spent on the big brands in the past.