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One Cool Job

MPS: Yuba City, CA, USA: On a recent visit to the Yubba Dubba Peanut Butter factory in Yuba City, this reporter discovered one of the coolest jobs in this area.

The visit was originally intended to report on the improved sanitary conditions which gained the Yubba Dubba Peanut Butter factory an increased rating from the California Health Authority. Yubba Dubba Peanut Butter jars now display the coveted "A+++" Star Label issued by the Health Authority.

While touring the factory this reporter observed several people eating the peanut butter. I asked factory manager James ("Jimmy") Carter if employees were allowed to eat the peanut butter at will. "Oh, no," he replied, "Those are our official tasters. We want to be absolutely certain our peanut butter maintains its pure peanut taste. We have several levels of tasters. The basic taster scoops a sample from the line every fifteen minutes and tastes it. It must meet our strict standards for taste and viscosity"

"Wow", I responded, "eating peanut butter is great , but for eight hours a day! How do they keep from getting bored?"

"Our tasters are rotated every hour. Our basic taster also takes a spoonful of lemon curd to clean his palate after each taste of peanut butter. When the basic taster is rotated he will go to one of the bread sampling rooms where we taste the peanut butter with every brand and type of bread. In his next rotation he will move to the mixture tasting room. There he will taste our peanut butter with different flavored jams, jellies, and preserves on the various breads previously tested. After which he will move to what we like to call the "Exotic" room in which he will taste peanut butter with bananas, raisins, marshmallows, chocolate, and many of the other things someone might add to a peanut butter sandwich."

"They must love their jobs," I injected.

"Yes they do," said Mr. Carter, "they really enjoy several aspects of their work. Most of them are especially fond of the peanut butter and banana sandwiches."

"Are there any that they don't like?" I asked.

"yes indeed," he replied. It is almost unanimous that they dislike peanut butter and pickled pig's feet."

"I can understand that." I said. "You seem to have a lot of tasters," I observed.

"Yes, we have three shifts of 144 tasters. A total of 432 dedicated workers which compromises 60% of our employees. We taste 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said."

That is a lot of tasters." I said.

"It is. But, we find it's worth it to produce a superior quality peanut butter. Which is why we can stand behind our slogan," he said, while pointing to an almost peanut butter colored sign hanging on his office wall."

The sign read: "Any peanut butter can stick to the roof of your mouth. Yubba Dubba Peanut Butter sticks to your heart."

The Yubba Dubba Slogan Sign

The fearsome pig's foot and peanut butter on pumpernickel sandwich.