Claussen Pickles Bitter

Question

I have been buying Claussen Pickles for years and never have had a problem with them. For some reason this jar of pickles has a bitter taste. I don't know if its a problem with the batch of cucumbers they used, or if they weren't refrigerated at some point before we bought them. They were in the refrigerated section of the store, but who knows what could happen to them in transport. My question would be is their being bitter a sign of poor refrigeration or just a bad batch of cucumbers? Also who would I report this too ?

Answer 1

I love Claussen pickles too, and I know from my childhood in South Asia that cukes can be bitter, and it was frequent enough that we had few "tricks" to reduce the bitterness, which i believe do not work much :)

Agricultural seed in the western world are pretty standardized and removes the "undesired" characteristics, but they still occur from time to time, and I am guessing this is the reason for bitter pickles.

Claussen is owned by Kraft now, you can call them/fill up a contact form: https://www.myfoodandfamily.com/contact_us

Answer 2

The cucumber itself might be bitter because of larger than normal amounts of cucurbitacin. Increased amounts can't be detected except by tasting the cucumber.