Earlier this week, a report broke that a Campbell’s Soup executive had been caught on audio trashing his company’s products.
Among other things, he said the company had “3-D” printed chicken in its products.
The outrage was immediate, and reports broke today that the executive is no longer with the company.
This audio came about when Robert Garza, a former cybersecurity analyst for Campbell's Soup, filed a suit against Martin Bally, the company’s vice president and chief information security officer, for making disparaging comments during a November 2024 meeting.
The meeting reportedly took place at a local restaurant, and Garza had recorded the conversation.
In the audio, Bally allegedly stated, "We have s--- for f---ing poor people. Who buys our s---? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore.
"Bioengineered meat -- I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.”
I have eaten Campbell’s Soup my entire life, and I have even toured the facilities in Camden, NJ (when I was in the hotel industry, they did significant business with our hotel, and I had come to know several of the executives in the company).
While I usually make my own soups now, I still keep a few cans in the pantry for emergency purposes.
The first thing I did when I read that story was to run and check the labels. And while Bally’s statement is slightly misleading, Campbell's does modify certain ingredients in their products.
I had several cans in my pantry that I checked, including chicken products and clam chowder. While the label did not say anything about 3-D printed proteins, it does state that “ingredients from corn and sugar in this product come from genetically modified crops.” That is on every can of soup I have.
Campbell’s Soup has now decided to cut ties with this executive, and who can blame them? If your top executive does not have faith in the product, he should not be there. In announcing his firing, the company called his comments “vulgar, offensive, and false.”
The statement continued, “We apologize for the hurt they have caused. This behavior does not reflect our values and the culture of our company, and we will not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances.”
The company concluded, “We’re thankful for the millions of people who buy and enjoy our products and we’re honored by the trust they put in us. We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use to provide consumers with good food at a good value.”
This is an American staple, and I would have been horrified to learn I was eating engineered proteins. But I would also say that the damage is usually done by the initial statement, with little impact coming from the apology or correction. My guess is that Campbell’s is going to take a big hit if they don’t do something to cut this off at the pass. So, we can probably expect a massive PR blitz by Campbell’s Soup, pushing the fact that they use real meat in their products.
