(WYTV) – Grab a jar of pickles and check the label. Anything missing?
If you’re holding a jar of Vlasic, Claussen or Mt. Olive pickles, chances are it’s missing the word “pickle.”
It’s the great pickle mystery that appeared on Tiktok and a few Reddit posts from 2017. The labels often describe what’s inside the jars such as “dills,” “spears” or “chips.”
What do the pickle companies say?
Despite avoiding the word “pickle” on most of their labels, Vlasic, Claussen and Mt. Olive all use the term on their websites and in ads.
But when asked why the word isn’t on the front of the jars, all three companies said the same thing: who needs it?
It’s a glass jar, anyone can see what it holds, it holds pickles. Mt. Olive claims it wants to focus on variety rather than the product.
All this pickle talk led to a long and serious discussion on pickle labels.
Some claim it shouldn’t say pickle at all but tell what’s really inside that jar: a small pickled cucumber.
They say pickle is a verb, not a noun. No, the Food and Drug Administration says stop it, there is such a thing as a pickle. In any case, many consumers on social media find it odd that a pickling company would omit “pickles” from its pickle jars.
But the major pickle makers have given consumers no reason to believe their products somehow aren’t real pickles.
