On the surface, things looked reasonably peachy for J.M Smucker (NYSE:SJM) this quarter. But just like a peach, an appealing surface doesn't guarantee sweetness inside.

Sales were up 3% as reported, or 4% if you exclude the recently divested U.S. industrial business. Sales growth was fueled by decent performance in both the U.S. retail business (up 5%) and the special market business (up 4% if you exclude industrial). As reported. income from continuing operations rose 14%, and earnings per share were up 15%, after adjusting for certain items in both periods.

What concerns me, though, is the company's report of a favorable adjustment in its expected liability for trade merchandising programs. By changing its estimate, the company produced $6.7 million of extra sales and $4.3 million of extra after-tax income. Once you back that out, income apparently grew only about 3% for this quarter.

There isn't anything all that unusual about this, per se. As part of its marketing, Smucker reimburses customers for promotional activities and displays for its products. In other words, if you go to Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) or Albertsons (NYSE:ABS) and see a promotional display full of Smucker products, there's a good bet that the company is paying for that. From time to time, then, the company has to adjust its estimates to reflect what customers are doing and what the expenses will be.

However, this is one of those tricky areas were companies can play with the numbers to make earnings look better than they really are. While it seems pretty unusual to me to see a positive adjustment, specifically one like this, the company's open disclosure of it in the first paragraph makes me feel a bit better about it -- though investors should probably just adjust the reported earnings accordingly.

At the bottom line, this accounting item means basically nothing to me. It would suggest that the company actually missed the estimate (published estimates appear to be based on adjusted earnings) instead of beating it, but it's not as though I was really favorably inclined toward this stock to begin with. Want to find value in the food aisle? Check out the likes of Kellogg (NYSE:K) or Unilever (NYSE:UL), and leave Smucker on the shelf.

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).