Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Stouffer’s

Stouffer’s / NestlĂ© USA Consumer Services Center
P.O. Box 2178
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18703

Dear Nestle,

I am writing to you in regard to Stouffer’s stuffed peppers.

Generally, I think the product is very good. The sauce is very tasty, and the beef and rice mixture is adequate if not good. However, there is one major issue with this product. When cooked (at least in the microwave), the skin of the pepper becomes an inedibe almost plastic-like substance. It is impossible to separate the rest of the pepper from the outer skin without causing an absolute mess, and I am frequently left to discard the entire pepper portion of the dinner without eating it. One time I even pureed the entire dish in a food processor and still found the pieces of this layer of skin unpalatable, gag-inducing and difficult to swallow.

This is a shame for several reasons. First of all, I want to eat the pepper since I paid for it. Secondly, it is a shameful waste of food. Now, recently my girlfriend made a homemade stuffed pepper dinner from scratch and the result was quite different from this. Perhaps if cooked in a conventional oven, the product does not have this issue. I haven’t tried it, so I couldn’t say. But the product is advertised as being able to be cooked in the microwave. I must say, if the pepper is considered to be a portion of the meal rather than a decorative platter for the beef rice mixture, this is not the case.

I do not wish to be a naysayer about this product. I would love to have the experience Stouffer’s wants me to have. I would urge you to please look into this and find a way to improve this product. This was not an isolated incident. This is a persistent issue with the product. I hope you can find a way to resolve this issue (perhaps finding a way to remove the outer layer of skin entirely, cooking it less, or cooking it separately from the beef and rice mixture). Should you require any additional information, please contact me. Otherwise, best of luck in resolving this issue.

Sincerely,