Nestle Makes the … Well, a Lot of Stuff

Nestle Makes … a Lot of Things

I was listening to a commercial for Edy’s Slow-churned Ice Cream and, at the end, it said something about it being a product of Nestle.  That got me to thinking how companies diversify now and own a lot of different things.

We have a Nestle factory (kinda new) about 20 miles away from here; I pass it whenever I go to the movies in Indy.  I think they just make chocolate there, but I am not certain.  Anyway, I went to Google and looked for companies owned by Nestle.  The first find told me more of the products they own.  The site mentioned that there were close to 8,000 brands owned (made) by Nestle and companies it owns!

Here are some I really didn’t know:

1)       Cheerios

2)      Cookie Crisp

3)      Golden Grahams

4)      International Roast (Coffee)

5)      Taster’s Choice (Coffee)

6)      Poland Spring (Bottled Water)

7)      Juicy Juice

8)      Coffee Mate (non-dairy creamer)

9)      Edy’s (Ice Cream)

10)   Haagen-Dazs (Ice Cream)

11)   Oreo (Ice Cream – Canada)

12)   Skinny Cow (Ice Cream)

13)   Cerelac (Infant Food)

14)   Gerber (Infant Food)

15)   Power Bar

16)   Optifast

17)   Stouffer’s (Frozen Foods)

18)   Lean Cuisine

19)   Hot Pockets

20)   Tombstone Pizza

21)   Jack’s Pizza

22)   DiGiorno Pizza

23)   Baby Ruth (Candy)

24)   Oh Henry (Candy)

25)   Smarties (Candy)

26)   Wonka Bars (and a lot of other Wonka products)

27)   Goobers (Candy)

28)   Kit Kat Bars

29)   Rolo (outside US)

30)   Raisinets (Candy)

31)   Alpo (Pet Care)

32)   Cat Chow

33)   Dog Chow

34)   Fancy Feast

35)   Friskies

36)   Mighty Dog

37)   Pro Plan

38)   Purina

39)   Tidy Cat

40)   Nestlé owns 30% of the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company L’Oréal and its brands including Garnier, Maybelline, and Lancôme as well as The Body Shop stores.

41)   Nestlé owned 100% of Alcon. In 2008 Nestlé sold 24.8% of Alcon shares to the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. In 2010 Nestlé sold another 52% of Alcon to Novartis. Novartis paid a total of 39.1 bn US$.

***Info from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nestl%C3%A9_brands

Just for fun, here’s a brief history of Nestle; it is fascinating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9

If you want another eye-opener, look closely at this picture representation of a huge number of products and who, really, owns them:

Also, if you click on the pic above, that article is beyond fascinating.

I am not picking on Nestle; all the big names have done this.  I really don’t see anything wrong with it; it just surprised me.

How about you?

Did this surprise you?

How do you feel about it?

Namaste,

Scott

A Baker’s Dozen

I enjoy cooking.  I have gotten back to doing it a bit more as of late.  Recently, my idea has been to make low carb cookies.  “Chips Ahoy” brand are only 7 per cookie.  That’s reasonably low.  But, I have been trying out my own recipe based on the Nestle’s Semi Sweet Morsels one on the back of the package.  I have been shooting for 4 carbs per cookie.  I took the basic recipe, which is quite simple and easy, and swapped some things out.

I switched “Splenda” cooking sweetener for the sugar and left out the chocolate chips.  I added cinnamon and cocoa and peanut butter.  I also added one egg for more moistness.  I then used soy flour instead of white flour (much less carbs).  The result were cookies that had a little less than 4 carbs per cookie – and no taste.  They also had a rough and more solid texture, so they remained in the ball-like shape and did not flatten out.

I don’t know what did all this as I didn’t add much solid and did add a bit of liquid (the egg).  It should have, at least, kept the texture.  I will now go to the Internet for help.

But, I would also ask all of you for your thoughts and ideas.  Just remember very low carbs and taste.  I have managed it with pumpkin pie and, so far, everyone has loved it.  Now, for the cookies.

Namaste,

Scott