Homestyle Scam - Where's the Cheese?

Hello, Friends.

I wanted to share with you an experience I had with this product that I usually purchase once a month so that I have a quick meal that I can make if I've had a busy day.   The product is good, though not great, so expectations are always limited and I usually doctor up the product to give it more flavor.

With that said, the product has always come with a bag of pasta, two cans of sauce, one that is usually sauce and one that has (or had) lots of sausage in it, and a bag of the usual industrial kind of parm cheese - the really powered stuff that may or may not actually be a cheese product to begin with.   I have bought this product enough to know what comes in the box so when I pulled the pasta bag out first and then the two cans, I always now that there is a packet of cheese in a white packet.   Tonight I made the product following the directions and always leave the parm cheese for the last thing after pulling it out of the oven.    I usually add my own mozzarella cheese toward the end of the bake cycle and then top with the parm cheese when serving.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed there was no parm cheese packet in the box!    Like many things in life, this is a small thing overall, but when dealing with big multi-national companies you have to watch their continual tactics to cheat customers.    I've experienced this first hand when Campbell's destroyed their Beef soup (condensed) by switching the recipe.   It usually had lots of beef (for a soup in a can) and was a thicker product with barley that was actually good.   I used to use less water to make the soup thicker.   I just loved that product.   But Campbell's changed the recipe and keep the label - the product had less beef and was considerably thinner and it was not a tasty product.    I complained and got about five coupons.    I never used them.   I resent being tricked by huge companies.   Even over $1 can of soup.

This problem with the cheese could have been a production error (they could have missed putting the cheese packet) but this excuse was eliminated when I checked the directions that used to have mention of the cheese packet and that was missing now.   Ingredients no longer list the pseudo-cheese so what we have here is a corporate scam.    Same price.   Missing ingredients to cut the costs of the product - no consumer disclosure - and now we have a product that is no more "lasagna" than a can of re-fried beans.     Even before it was basically only lasagna because it had sauce, meat, noodles (not real lasagna ones), and pseudo-cheese.   Now it is merely a pasta bake which I can make for less buying the ingredients separately.

I offer this announcement so that you visitors are warned to avoid buying Banquet products because if they've focked with one product removing an ingredient without disclosing this, they've likely done something to cheat you without your knowledge.   Please do not buy any of their products again - whether one of the "Homestyle Bakes" or their frozen shit.    As Banquet is owned by the huge multi-national "ConAgra", I'd ask that you boycott all ConAgra products with me.   It is time that consumers start paying these dishonest companies back by refusing to buy another one of their products again.

And yes, I have emailed Banquet through their website about this product.  I'll update this post once I hear back from them with their sorry ass excuse.

Update 1:   Did a google on this product and Walmart's site is listed - this is where I bought the product - the box I have in my paws says "33.9 ounces" and the one I used to buy is over 35 ounces!   And cheese is listed on the Walmart ingredient facts - so I am not making up that cheese used to be included - even the box cover picture is different - the one I used to buy clearly shows cheese and the one in my hands has what appears to be just a touch of cheese - you'd not notice it if you weren't looking for it!

Update 2 (6/03/2012) - Banquet emailed me - said they "reformulated" the recipe based on customer feedback and they'll be sending me coupons to try it again.   Unless the shit is free, Banquet won't get a dime out of me ever again.   Reformulate this, batches!

Update 3 (6/11/2012) - Received two coupons for my inconvenience - Get 1 Free ConAgra item with enough "excludes" to make the coupon virtually worthless and then a "generous" 50 cents off some other purchase of a ConAgra product with no excludes.   Consider me overwhelmed by this generosity for a company that decontented its product without even saying "NOW WITHOUT CHEESE!"   Fock you!