Here are 3 recipes -- a Pasta with Yogurt, Korean-style Haddock and Kimchi Stew, and Monkfish with Spinach -- all from Victor's Healthy Kitchen on YouTube

 

Costco's rotisserie bird is glaring exception to Kirkland Signature label's quality claims

ADDED SALT, SUGAR AND SODIUM PHOSPHATE: The label of Costco Wholesale's wildly popular Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken, above, lists salt, sugar and sodium phosphate as ingredients. Sodium phosphate also is given to people undergoing a colonoscopy.

JUST OUT OF THE ROTISSERIE: A little after 9 a.m. on a Tuesday, when the Costco warehouse in Teterboro, N.J., opens for seniors, whole chickens fill shelves and rotisserie cases, above and below.

 

Story on private label omits

wildly popular low-quality chicken

 

Editor's note: This post includes a link describing Costco Wholesale's rotisserie chicken as good dog food, as well as more than 100 comments from Costco members describing their experiences eating the chicken and giving it to pets. 

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken is missing from a cover story in the Costco Connection magazine praising products sold under the warehouse giant's private label.

Writing about Kirkland Signature products in the September issue, Editorial Director Tim Talevich says:

"We stand behind the quality of an item, that we feel proud of it, that it's trustworthy."

But this past April, The Humane League reported:

"In 2020 alone, Costco sold more than 100 million of its rotisserie chickens. That’s close to 300,000 chickens, on average, every single day. Its suspiciously cheap price tag of just $4.99 tells a deeper story—one that would ruffle the feathers of anyone who is opposed to the abuse of animals—dog, cat, cow, or chicken. You see, behind the low cost of this cheap meat, is a big cost—the painful suffering of smart, cuddly, and curious chickens. These abuses are among the worst in the poultry industry."

Salty chicken

In August, Consumer Reports said:

"But while roasted rotisserie chickens are convenient, tasty, and easy on your wallet, they’re often not so good for your health. As CR previously reported, a salt solution is often injected into the cooked chickens to enhance flavor and tenderness. 

"Costco’s rotisserie chicken has 460 mg of sodium per 3-ounce serving. That’s one-fifth of the maximum amount of sodium adults should consume in a day (2,300 mg). ShopRite’s Bowl & Basket chicken has even more sodium, with 490 mg per 3-ounce serving."

Antibiotics?

The label on Costco's Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken doesn't mention whether the birds are raised on antibiotics that are harmful to humans or fed a vegetarian diet.

So, you can assume the worst -- that they are raised with antibiotics and fed animal by-products -- bits of dead animals.

One of the ingredients listed on the label is sodium phosphate, which is also used to treat constipation in humans and clean the bowels before a colonoscopy.

'A label of quality'

The cover story in the September issue of the Costco Connection lists many high quality items sold under the Kirkland Signature label, including wine from Italy, health and beauty products, and even the 18-inch pizza that goes for only $9.95 at Costco's food courts.

I am a big fan of Kirkland Signature French Champagne, available at the Costco warehouse in Wayne, N.J., for about half the price of French brands, as well as Kirkland Signature XO French Cognac.

Kirkland Signature Bath Soap and Kirkland Signature Moisturizing Shampoo produce more lather than competitive brands for less money.

Officials of Costco have never explained what prompted them to slap the respected Kirkland Signature label on a low-quality rotisserie chicken that makes great dog food, not good human food, as I reported in Do You Really Know What You're Eating?

My message to Costco: At least offer a better quality, healthier rotisserie chicken as an alternative at a higher price, one that is raised humanely.  

READ: Costco members see red

 in bloody, undercooked chickens

MORE FROM KIRKLAND SIGNATURE: You can find Kirkland Signature products throughout Costco, and the vast majority of them are better than competing national brands and are sold at a lower price, including organic quinoa, above; California almonds, organic brown eggs, Italian Basil Pesto and water filter cartridges (see photos below).

PRICE HIKE: Costco's Kirkland Signature Free Range Organic Brown Eggs are $6.49 for two dozen, the first price increase I've seen since they were introduced at $5.99 a couple of years ago.

OXO and Costco may rhyme, but they are worlds apart on excellent customer service

If you find the expensive OXO Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker isn't your cup of tea, the company will make you pay around $30 in postage to return it, then force you to jump through many hoops to get a refund. OXO is in effect saying, "How dare you dislike our product."

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I just got off the phone after talking to a woman named Dee who assured me she would look into why I haven't received a refund for an OXO coffee maker I returned more than 6 weeks ago.

The coffee maker, which has a retail price of $199.99, arrived at OXO International in South Haven, Miss., on Dec. 26, 2020, the post office said.

Dee said she would send an email, presumably to a supervisor, with all the details of my request.

I had asked to talk to a supervisor, but was told all of them are "in a meeting."

She is probably the fourth or fifth woman I've talked to at 1-800-545-4411 since I returned the coffee maker, and she asked me for a tracking number to confirm once again that the coffee maker I returned actually arrived.

Bad service

So far, I've received terrible customer service from OXO, even though the company's guarantee promises:

"If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

The terrible customer service from OXO just highlights the great customer service available at other retailers, especially Costco Wholesale, Amazon and Lands' End.

Full refund plus $20

For example, I ordered a Valentine's Day bouquet and vase for my wife from Costco Wholesale (Costco.com), and delivery was promised for Feb. 13, the day before the holiday.

But bad weather delayed the package until Feb. 15.

On Feb. 13, I received an email from Costco.com, offering an apology and promising a full refund of the $54.99 purchase price, plus a $20 Costco cash card.

Last summer, I purchased a beautiful hammock fashioned from laminated wood from Costco.com for $599.99, plus tax.

Besides manufacturing flaws that made assembling the hammock difficult, the layers of wood began to separate after a couple of months of use, and my wife asked me to return it.

Costco provided free shipping for the return and refunded the full purchase price.

I could go on and on about all of the hassle-free returns and full refunds at the warehouse and on Costco.com I've experienced as a Costco member for more than 20 years, but you get the idea.

Flawed coffee maker

I was excited by news that OXO was offering a 9-cup coffee maker in addition to the 8-cup version, and that I could avoid having hot water coming in contact with plastic.

But the single button-and-dial control on OXO's stylish machine (made of stainless steel, glass and silicone) was difficult to fathom for this older American, and I could never set the time.

There were bigger problems:

If you wanted to pour a cup of Joe before the brewing process was complete, the coffee wasn't hot enough, and the spring used was too weak to prevent hot water from dripping onto the hotplate for the stainless-steel carafe.

Finally, 9 cups were simply not enough for our family.

Back to a percolator

After I shipped the OXO coffee maker back to the company, I returned to making our coffee in a 12-cup Farberware Superfast Automatic Percolator my parents used about 30 years ago.

I bought the OXO coffee maker online on Nov. 27, 2020, and got a good deal, paying only $102.35 after Black Friday and other discounts, plus free shipping.

Now, 6 weeks after I returned it, I'm still chasing a refund of the purchase price, but have no hope of getting back the $30 in postage OXO forced me to pay.

OXO guarantee

—

Here is the full guarantee from the OXO website: 

"At OXO, we believe in better – better design, better functionality, better experience – and that’s exactly how we make our products. For more than two decades, we’ve made tools that delight and exceed expectations. Our curiosity drives us. 

"Your satisfaction inspires us. And we hope our attention to detail is why you’ll reach for our products again and again. If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

Don't choke on your coffee.

Where the millions of plastic bags recycled at ShopRite go and what becomes of them

RECYCLED INTO WHAT? My cart at the ShopRite in Paramus, N.J., is nearly filled with plastic shopping bags that are stuffed with more bags and lots of plastic food wrapping and plastic film destined for a recycling plant in Elizabeth, N.J. 

PLASTIC BAG BAN: After Paramus banned single-use plastic bags, ShopRite, Whole Foods Market and other supermarkets in the borough began bagging food purchases in paper, above. ShopRite's paper bag contains 60% recycled content and is itself recyclable.

Materials collected at supermarkets

turned into community playgrounds

Editor's note: This post has been updated with ShopRite recycling statistics, and a photo of Costco's recycled plastic carton that prevents the breakage of 9 million eggs a year.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The massive recycling effort at the hundreds of ShopRite supermarkets in New Jersey and nearby states yields new community playgrounds.

You can learn about the many tons of plastic and cardboard ShopRites recycle in a 2-minute video on "sustainability" from the Wakefern Food Corp.

Wakefern is the retailers' cooperative that owns and operates 344 retail supermarkets (see a link to the video below).

Recycling them into new plastic bags doesn't make sense as more towns and cities ban those bags, and as alarms are raised over microplastics poisoning our food and water supply.

What are microplastics? Here are 2 paragraphs from "How to Eat Less Plastic," the June 2020 cover story in Consumer Reports magazine:

"Cracking open a brand new plastic bottle or tearing a wrapper off a sandwich releases fragments of plastic that we might end up ingesting.

"Reliable research now shows that tiny bits of plastic -- called microplastics -- are in our food, drinking water, the air we breathe, and, yes, inside our bodies."  

ShopRite statistics 

Here are some of the recycling statistics for Wakefern's Elizabeth, N. J., processing plant:

1. Recycled more than 2.6 million tons since the 1970s.
2. In 2019, recycling totals include 135,873 tons of cardboard, 4,667 tons of plastic, 428 tons of newspaper and 762 tons of office paper.
3. In 2019, the plant composted more than 11,000 tons of food waste, and donated more than 5,000 tons of food to food banks.

Can more be done?

Although ShopRite, Whole Foods, H Mart and other supermarkets in Paramus provide paper bags to shoppers who don't bring reusable ones for their purchases, Tous les Jours, the bakery concession inside the Korean supermarket on Route 17, charges 30 cents for each paper bag.

And Aldi supermarkets in New Jersey have never provided plastic or paper bags to customers, but you can purchase a reusable bag for 10 cents.

A LOT OF YOLKS: Costco Wholesale officials say cartons made from 100% recycled plastic prevent breakage, saving more than 9 million eggs a year from landfills.

Recycling at Costco

Sustainability programs at Costco Wholesale, a global retailer, also are impressive.

"In some cases, we've been able to eliminate plastic altogether," Sheri Flies, Costco vice president of global sustainability and compliance, wrote in the May 2020 Costco Connection magazine.

For example, Costco swapped plastic for paperboard in sheet-cake trays, removed plastic hangers in some clothes and replaced plastic bags with compostable ones.

"If we can't eliminate plastic, we try to use less of it, through redesign," Flies said. "We reduced our plastic packaging by 6 million pounds in 2019."

Another goal is to use recycled plastic in plastic packaging, "such as increasing the recycled content in our Kirkland Signature 16-ounce water bottles to 50% in the U.S."

When plastic makes sense

"Kirkland Signature egg cartons ... reduce food waste, also a priority for us," Flies said, adding:

"These plastic cartons prevent breakage, saving over 9 million eggs a year from landfills and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"They use 100% recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which makes them 40% lighter than pulp cartons.

"These lighter weight and sturdier cartons enable our shipper to pack 50% more cartons on a truck, reducing truck trips from the farms to our locations and therefore reducing carbon emissions."

Read: How To Eat Less Plastic

Watch: ShopRite's Recycling

 and Composting Programs 

Watch: Plastic Wars from FRONTLINE

Monotony of 150 days in quarantine leaves me bored to tears, fearing long food lines

EXCUSE TO LEAVE THE HOUSE: To break the monotony of staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic, I pack up all of the plastic bags and food wrapping we accumulate and take them for recycling at the ShopRite in Paramus, a few miles from my home.

Plastic in our food and water

 adds to worry over coronavirus

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- As an older American, I know the quarantine is blurring time when I have to check my pill organizer to know what day it is.

The Covid-19 death toll continues to climb, but all my family and I can do is try to eat healthy, stay safe and limit our trips outside our home.

Still, with our quarantine nearing 150 days, the monotony, broken mostly by food shopping, is getting to us.

Our days and nights at home have a sameness to them -- punctuated only by horrifying news of the devastation and death caused by the coronavirus.

The United States has passed 5 million confirmed cases of the virus, more than any other country, The New York Times reported.

Food shopping

I've developed an unnatural fear of lines.

Lines that double, triple and quadruple, such as those I saw in mid-April at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

Or, even the long, single line of masked shoppers I once stood on at the H Mart in Ridgefield, a Korean supermarket offering a large selection of fresh, wild-caught fish for our Sunday dinner.

Now, I go to the smaller H Mart in Paramus, where there is never a line to get in on weekends, but lately a short line to check out with my fresh fish and prepared dishes like stewed tofu or pollock with sweet and hot peppers.

I've encountered other long lines, especially for returns, at Lowe's and Kohl's, both in Paramus.

Weight gain and loss

In the 5th month of the quarantine, food shopping -- my only form of exercise -- has become a chore instead of something I delight in.

Still, I am trying to buy more and more organic and non-GMO food that is free of pesticides for my family of 4, not only at Whole Foods Market, ShopRite and H Mart, but at Costco Wholesale, where an increasingly large variety of organic products and produce are available.

In the first few months of the quarantine, I gained 6 pounds, but I've been able to lose them and a couple of more by eating only breakfast and an early dinner, and watching my carbs. 

MAY 24, 2020: The line to get into the H Mart in Ridgefield, above, brought wartime rationing to mind. The line continued inside the store, below. 

PROTECTION: The H Marts in Ridgefield and Paramus consistently provide disposable plastic gloves to customers.

APRIL 23, 2020: Customers of Whole Foods in Paramus lining up to enter the supermarket after the hour reserved for shoppers who are 60 years old or older.

Shame on news media

Having spent nearly 40 years as a reporter, copy editor or food writer for 3 daily newspapers, including The Record of Hackensack, I've been so ashamed of the news media's surrender to President Trump.

In only the last month or so, it seems, reporters who cover the White House have started pushing back against Trump's endless stream of lies about the pandemic, the Obama administration, the environment, and Joe Biden, the Democrat who is running for president.

Meanwhile, Biden put his foot in his mouth a couple of times last week, including when he referred to CBS correspondent Errol Barnett, who is black, as "man." 

He also compared the reporter's  question about the candidate taking a cognitive test to asking Barnett if he "used cocaine." 

"Are you a junkie?" Biden said.

So, it's best to focus not on the candidate, but on what he stands for, and I'll take Biden's progressive platform over Trump's destruction of our democracy -- fueled by racism and greed.

A cartoon about President Trump by Steve Sack of the Star Tribune in Minnesota was among the most popular of the week (Aug. 1-8) on Cagle.com.

Plastic and food

After reading the June cover story in Consumer Reports magazine -- "How To Eat Less Plastic" -- I've replaced all of our plastic food-storage containers with glass, and stopped using a cheap coffee maker made mostly of plastic.

Now, I brew coffee in a Farberware Superfast Fully Automatic Percolator that my mother used about 30 years ago in our old Brooklyn home.

If Covid-19 doesn't get you, microplastic in our food and water likely will.

To make matters worse, the vast majority of plastic with a recycling symbol never gets recycled -- it ends up in garbage dumps, leaching into our reservoirs, or pollutes the ocean, where it is consumed by fish and other seafood.

The widespread notion most plastic is recycled is false, part of an elaborate, multi-million dollar ad campaign by the same petrochemical industry that pollutes our air and profits from the widespread use of plastic to bottle water and wrap food.

Watch: "Plastic Wars" from FRONTLINE

TWO MENUS: I'm a pescatarian, but the 3 other members of my family are dedicated meat and poultry eaters, so our food bills are unusually high. And we always have leftovers, such as this Atlantic Halibut Filet from Costco Wholesale I poached in Roasted Chipotle Salsa, and had for breakfast over leftover organic quinoa.

HEALTHY TAKEOUT: Wild Salmon BBQ Turmeric style was one of the 5 meals I ordered from Planted Eats, a health-food cafe in Hackensack.

Daily routine

I'm usually up before 6 a.m. to brew a pot of coffee, then shower (and shave every two days) before putting on my summer outfit -- shorts and a T-shirt, plus flip-flops around the house or a pair of Vans, red to match my Tesla Model S.

Breakfast is leftovers or I'll make a stuffed egg-white omelet with grated Parmesan cheese, smoked wild salmon, Mexican-style salsa and organic arugula or baby spinach, cut into 3 pieces so my wife and mother-in-law can have some, too.

If I don't have food shopping to do, I go online to print out credit cards statements or buy something at AmazonSmile.com or another site (nearly every day, it has turned out), and monthly spending on my Amazon Prime credit card has doubled during the quarantine.

I'll putter around the house or snip fresh herbs from the garden, read leftover sections from The Sunday Times under an awning on our deck, then go upstairs for a nap in the early afternoon, with my phone in my pocket to count steps.

I can easily do a mile or more around the house.

In the early months of the quarantine, I tried to walk in my Fairmount neighborhood every day, but that ended when I tripped over an uneven sidewalk and cracked or broke a rib. 

Early dinner

One of us cooks dinner and when my wife does, I usually have leftover fish or prepare a large dinner salad with raisins, slivered almonds, pitted Greek olives and fresh fruit.

We've been eating dinner as early as 3:30 in the afternoon, then settling down in front of the TV, having tea, roasted almonds, fresh organic fruit and no-fat yogurt until 8:30 p.m., when my wife goes upstairs to sleep.

I usually try to stay up until after 10 p.m., but TV, Netflix and Amazon have become so boring I barely make it.

I did double our Netflix DVD plan to 2 discs out at one time, and movies like "1917" and "Bombshell" have helped.

During the night, I get up 3 times to go to the bathroom, and start all over again before 6 a.m.


What's ahead?

In June, we started picking up takeout food from restaurants, including Lotus Cafe and Art of Spice, both in Hackensack.

And we spent a delightful evening enjoying dinner with wine and a pair of cabaret singers on the patio outside the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn.

Also in June, we drove into Manhattan to visit public statues and sculptures.

But only a Covid-19 vaccine will start us back on the road to normalcy, and allow me to volunteer again at a major hospital twice a week, as well as return to the gym, both for more exercise and the social contact.

I can't wait, even though I've always felt the definition of a "volunteer" is an older American who has nothing better to do with his or her time.

Stay home, wash your hands, wear a mask, but what about a sudden loss of intimacy?

BIRDS AND BEES: Spring has sprung in Hackensack, N.J., but sexual intimacy is out of bounds during the Covid-19 pandemic, so I find myself spending more time waiting on line to get into Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, N.J., below, and other food stores. 

PANIC BUYING: Last week, I lined up behind other Costco members wearing masks and gloves to get into the warehouse during special senior hours, only to find shortages of some of my favorite items. So, are cooking and eating comfort food the only pleasures we have left? 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Before the Covid-19 pandemic altered my life and the lives of millions of other older Americans, I spent most of my time shopping for food and volunteering at a hospital.

After the hospital's Volunteer Office closed, I and millions of others were told to stay home, wash our hands frequently and not to touch our faces -- or, presumably, our wives' face.

So, I made sure to touch my wife only below her neck.

But as we spend so much more time together, are all forms of affection and sex out of bounds?

Are cunnilingus and fellatio safer than intercourse? 

If all forms of affection and sexual intimacy are dangerous, what is left?

Comfort food? 

Are cooking and eating too much all we have left as we try to stay safe from this killer virus?

Grocers give preference to older shoppers, but not all are ready for the early business

PROTECTING EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS: At the Whole Foods Market in Paramus this morning, employees arriving for work had to stop to have their temperature checked, one of the measures put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic.  

NO LONGER A GATHERING PLACE: The seating area where the mandatory temperature checks are made once was filled with shoppers stopping for coffee or eating lunch from the prepared food buffets. Regulars included groups of elderly Korean-American men brought to the store in small buses from senior citizen centers.

Editor's note: This post has been edited to add material about the reopening of the Korean  supermarket in Ridgefield known as H Mart,  and one-way aisles at the ShopRite in Paramus. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Did you hear about the Whole Foods Market near Jupiter, Fla., where customers 60 years old and older are the only ones allowed to shop in the first hour the natural and organic food store is open?

After 9 a.m., the supermarket is empty -- given how few young people live in nearby retirement communities.

In New Jersey, however, there are plenty of younger customers at the Whole Foods in Paramus, where I shopped this morning starting at around 8:30 a.m.,during the hour devoted to older Americans.

A week ago, I waited on a long line of other shoppers like me who are 60 years old or older and who had been waiting -- 6 feet apart -- for the 8 a.m. store opening. 

Today, around 8:30, I just showed my I.D. to the employee outside the front doors, and walked in to get a cart and sanitary wipes.

Costco Wholesale in Teterboro, ShopRite supermarkets and the Korean supermarket chain known as H Mart also are giving preference to older shoppers in their first hour of business.

At the Costco Business Center in Hackensack, "senior hours" are 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Costco and other food stores also have changed their policies on returns, and most won't be accepting them during the pandemic.

The Paramus ShopRite's special hours for older Americans are 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. That sounds more like punishment than accommodation.

H Mart reopens

But I haven't seen any other supermarket outside of Whole Foods that checks the temperature of employees as soon as they walk in the front door.

On April 4, the large Korean supermarket known as H Mart in Ridgefield closed temporarily for cleaning and restocking after an employee came down with a "suspected" case of the coronavirus, according to a notice on the front door I saw last Sunday.

After the store reopened on April 16, only customers 60 years and older were given priority in the first 30 minutes the store is open.

Previously, shoppers "with disabilities, compromised immune systems and expectant mothers," as well as customers who are 60+, were able to shop by themselves in the first hour.

Signs of trouble

Today, as with my shopping trip to Whole Foods on a week earlier, I found missing or inaccurate price signs in produce and fresh seafood.

Besides apples, sweet potatoes and parsley -- all organic -- I picked up mangoes, clementines and a few pounds of boneless pork loin chops after I saw the chops were on sale for $5.99 a pound (normally $8.99 a pound).

But when I checked my receipt, I saw I wasn't given the discount for the chops or the extra 10% off for Amazon Prime Members.

I had to hunt down a customer service employee (no one was at the customer service desk). She took my receipt and went to the butcher section in the rear of the store, then returned to give me a credit of $15.59, including 1 pound free and my extra 10% Prime discount.

SAFETY BARRIER: Today, I saw large plexiglass barriers put up to separate the cashier from the customer at Whole Foods Market. Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and the Costco Business Center in Hackensack had similar barriers in place at the end of March. Another benefit is that Whole Foods customers no longer have to self-scan their Prime Member code on their smartphones, which was a ify proposition, because the new barrier blocks the scanner.

SOCIAL DISTANCING: This customer had a shopping cart full of produce and other items and packed them all by himself. But at Whole Foods, Costco and ShopRite, social distancing or keeping 6 feet away from other customers is difficult because of narrow aisles and shoppers who barge through store intersections with full shopping carts. Customers of the Paramus ShopRite largely ignore one-way aisles.

TODAY AT 9:20 A.M.: When I drove away from Whole Foods Market, I paused to look at the younger shoppers waiting on line to get into the store.

Covid-19 pandemic: Line up at food stores, eat too much, but repairmen come to me

PERSONAL PROTECTION: Just after 8 a.m. today, I found wipes and gloves inside the entrance to Whole Foods Market in Paramus. Since March 18, only shoppers 60 years old and older have been allowed into the supermarket between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. -- special hours for an "at-risk population," the natural-and-organic-foods company says.

MUST SHOW ID: As I was leaving the store a half-hour later, another 60+ shopper showed his identification -- a requirement -- to the Whole Foods employee at the entrance. Below, you have to read the sign carefully to learn the store hours haven't changed -- they're still 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., if you're 60 years old or older.

ORGANIC PRODUCE: On my shopping trip this morning, I found a good selection of organic produce, including apples, sweet potatoes, arugula and parsley, but no store brand of organic spaghetti or other long pasta. And there were no Prime Member Deals available in the butcher section with beef, pork and other meat.

N.J. governor orders all residents

to wear masks in grocery stores

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I'm doing less food shopping, but standing on lines a lot more, as supermarkets regulate the number of people allowed inside.

I'm cooking and eating more, but we still haven't ordered takeout or delivery from our favorite restaurants in or near Hackensack.

Since the Friday the 13th declaration of a national emergency to fight the coronavirus epidemic in March, our lives have become more sedentary, and that has led to weight gain, boredom and sleep disruptions.

But we're eating well, and trying to buy as much organic and non-GMO food as possible.

I shopped at Whole Foods Market in Paramus this morning, and later in the day Governor Murphy signed an executive order requiring all residents to wear masks in grocery stores "to try to decrease the spread of coronavirus in some of the only businesses that remain open," according to a news account.

Shortages

I've encountered lines and shortages at Costco Wholesale warehouses in Hackensack and Teterboro; Whole Foods and ShopRite -- the places where we spend most of our food dollars.

And do we spend: 

Our family of four has 3 meat eaters and 1 pescatarian (me). 

We often prepare two breakfasts and dinners -- one for my wife, son and mother-in-law, all of whom eat beef, pork and poultry; and a second one for me.

I favor wild-caught seafood, egg-white omelets stuffed with smoked salmon and spinach; big salads, organic pasta and produce, organic quinoa and reduced-fat cheese. I haven't eaten poultry, beef or lamb since 2010.

Victor's Healthy Kitchen

About 2 years ago, I began posting cooking videos at Victor's Healthy Kitchen on YouTube that reflect my love for healthy food, and I continue to do so.

Lately, the videos have shown the disruptions in daily life caused by the pandemic -- all a reminder of the many deaths in nearby hospitals, including the one where I served as a volunteer for 8 years before the program was suspended about a month ago.

See: Victor's Healthy Kitchen

I started writing about food in 1999, when I worked at The Record of Hackensack, and continued to do so after I left the newspaper, launching a food blog in 2009 to explore the evils of factory farms, harmful antibiotics in farm animals, and the widespread use of cancer-causing pesticides on produce.

See: Do You Really Know What You're Eating?

Lines everywhere

On Monday afternoon, I drove to the Costco Warehouse in Teterboro, and found other members lined up single file with shopping carts, and eventually, employees outside herded us into 4 lines.

The wait to get into the warehouse was only about 15 minutes, but I found shortages.

A Costco employee wiped down my shopping cart handle as I joined the line, and inside the store, masked and gloved employees at registers and exits were separated from shoppers by plexiglass, and social distancing signs were everywhere.

I was able to find fresh wild-caught Mahi-Mahi from Ecuador, and a 1-pound package of organic spinach, but there was no Organic Spring Mix from Earthbound Farm.

I used the Mahi-Mahi the next day prepare a large pot of Butterfly Pasta with 4 Fishes that all of us ate for dinner.

THE ZISAS: Hackensack High School teacher Anthony Zisa, left, and his father, Ken, the disgraced former Hackensack police chief and Democratic state assemblyman, waiting on line at the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro on March 31. Below, businesses in the Fairmount section of Hackensack have been closed temporarily by the pandemic.

MICROWAVE REPAIR: On Tuesday morning, a GE repairman came to our home to investigate a loud buzzing noise when the door of our 30-inch Advantium Microwave Oven is closed, and then ordered the parts to repair the appliance. He's due back to make the repair next week.

TESLA MOBILE SERVICE: Later Tuesday, an employee of Tesla Mobile Service came to our home to top up the windshield wiper fluid in my Model S, below, after a dashboard message alerted me the supply was low.