FDA Problems Strangely Don’t Impact My Desire For Egg Rolls

For the last month, I’ve been having problems finding my usual Chung vegetable egg rolls at any of the Targets I’ve gone to. I thought Target was just having problems, because they’ve been having problems in other areas (poor stocking times, always being out of at least a couple of products I regularly buy, bad produce conditions, old dairy items, a new policy where they won’t go get something from the back if they haven’t finished stocking it in the aisles yet, and so on). However, I finally looked online to see if there was a recall or anything and found out there was at least some kind of issue.

As it turns out, there was some kind of FDA thing that had been going on over their shrimp line (no recall, just safety and packaging issues apparently regarding seafood that the FDA wanted Chung to implement). It was only about a month ago that a judge (see the above link) had lifted an ordered production halt related to noncompliance with FDA seafood orders. Note, the production halt was lifted around the time I started having trouble finding the product at Target, but I suppose these things take some time to filter through the system.

However, FDA problems and all, I didn’t stop wanting my vegetable egg rolls. I eat about two of these a day. I’ve been eating them for somewhere around twenty years now (unless I’m confused and there was just a similar egg roll back then that wasn’t Chungs, but I don’t think so since I’ve tried others when I couldn’t get Chung and wasn’t satisfied). I just kept looking at other grocery stores (Safeway only carried the chicken variety) until I finally found them at Albertsons. Then I bought all they had.

Is it surprising that I was still willing to go for my Chung vegetable egg rolls despite the FDA problems? Is it weird that I still went on the hunt for them despite the potential issues? Mind you, I really dig the Chung vegetable egg rolls.

Also, though an FDA issue like this is concerning, it looked like this was mainly related to improving packaging techniques and cooking instructions for seafood safety. Further, though all production had been halted as an apparently punitive measure, it had been allowed to resume as of April 10 and really had only concerned shrimp anyway. My vegetable egg rolls apparently had never been the center of any argument with the FDA. Really, it doesn’t seem like anything big to worry about.

Apparently, though, Target was more upset about the issue. I don’t know if the order had caused a break in availability and Target just stopped dealing with them for that. Target could have also stopped ordering Chung when there was the first hint of any problem out of an abundance of caution. Maybe this is just a temporary thing with not being able to get Chung at Target, or maybe it is permanent. Maybe it isn’t even related. I’m not sure, and any of these are within Target’s rights to do. However, even if any of these are prudent on their part, I have to say that my final conclusion is to be pissed at Target because they haven’t had one of my most regular food items. I usually always do my food shopping at Target, but I may end up switching to Albertsons if this situation doesn’t change. I got to have my Chung vegetable egg rolls, and I hate having to go to multiple places.

Bottom line, I love Chung vegetable egg rolls. Nothing about this seems to rise to a level (or even really relate to my particular product, ignoring the fact for the moment that the halt has been lifted and apparently Chung is complying with FDA directions regarding safety) that really concerns me. I’m sticking with my Chung vegetable egg rolls.