Reddit reviews Viana Sausages, Mild Jumbos, 1.76 Ounce (Pack of 30)

There's many great suggestions here already, but here's a different approach.

Here's a link to an article + short video on how Slim Jim's are made.

>It’s ground and mixed with mechanically separated chicken, which is the chicken equivalent of “pink slime” (even though the production process is different), essentially puréed chicken bones, nerves, blood vessels, skin, and a small amount of meat. Sugar, spices, additional flavorings, and a whole lot of salt (one-sixth the daily recommended intake) are then added, along with corn and wheat protein (for texture), and hydrolyzed gluten (which gives it an MSG-like savoriness).

I would have a heart to heart with my wife if she ate these, and fed these to our daughter. Even if you put animal welfare and environmental impact aside, it looks like there isn't any nutritional benefit to eating these, let alone the impulse buying it preys upon. This is not a brand I recommend supporting with dollars.

Speaking of which, we can also ask ourselves who would end up with our dollars. This could even be a fun investigative online sleuthing mission you and your daughter can embark upon.

A quick search shows the Slim Jim brand is owned by Conagra Brands. The Wikipedia page on the company has a section for "criticism", including the following listings:

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>Conagra has been criticized for its lack of response to global climate change. A 2006 report by Ceres, a non-profit organization that works to address global climate change and other sustainability issues, entitled "Corporate Governance and Climate Change: Making the Connection", measures how 100 leading global companies are responding to global warming. Companies in the report were evaluated on a 0 to 100 scale. ConAgra scored a total of 4 points, the lowest of any of the food companies rated.[18]

>The company's Greeley, Colorado, plant had been cited almost 10 times from 1999 to 2002 for violating worker safety.[26]

>In 1997, Conagra pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that its Peavey Grain unit illegally sprayed water on stored grain to increase its weight and value and also bribed federal inspectors.

>Multinational Monitor, a corporate watchdog organization, named Conagra one of the 'Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s'.[29]

>In 1988, Conagra threatened to relocate from Omaha to Denver, Chicago or Minneapolis if the city didn't help find a new location for its headquarters. Charles Harper, the chief executive of Conagra at the time, requested that the city of Omaha demolish a historic site, one of the largest on the National Register of Historic Places.

>Conagra recalled 19 million pounds of ground beef in July 2002 with E. coli bacterial contamination. It was the third-largest recall up to that time.

>In February 2007, Conagra recalled jars of Peter Pan and Great Value brand peanut butter with the product code "2111" on the lid, because they were linked to a Salmonella outbreak. Ultimately, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) documented more than 628 individuals who were stricken with Salmonella poisoning in 47 states that could be traced back to Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter.

>In May 2015, the company agreed to plead guilty to knowingly releasing products tainted with Salmonella into interstate commerce.

>On October 11, 2007, Conagra asked stores to pull the Banquet and generic brand chicken and turkey pot pies due to 152 cases of Salmonella poisoning in 31 states being linked to the consumption of Conagra pot pies, with 20 people hospitalized. ... From January 1 through December 31, 2007, the CDC identified a total of 401 cases in 41 states.[44]

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There was also an explosion at a Slim Jim plant, killing several and wounding dozens, but I didn't research too deeply to see if this was also a result of horrid labor conditions.

Now, most umbrella companies, even those owning vegan brands, will probably have a list of controversies on WikiPedia. We can try to boycott the worst offenders, but we also have to realize that when consumers increasingly buy their vegan brands, instead of their meat brands, these companies have an incentive to shift their future investments towards the vegan brands.

In essence, every time we spend a dollar, we are voting. We are telling companies what we like, and where they should invest. Our kids have tremendous power with their spending behaviour, and with tremendous power comes, tremendous responsibility! (Go Spidey!)


Anyway, after everything you and your daughter can learn about Slim Jim's, you could surprise her with one of these and do some sleuthing on this "Viana" brand. Perhaps it doesn't taste quite as good as a Slim Jim (debatable!), but perhaps it makes her feel a LOT better about eating it, after learning about how it's made, and who benefits from their consumption.

If not, show her how pink slime is made. ;)