It’s really hard to close the barn door AFTER the cow has left, but that is what the FTC is trying to do. The Federal Trade Commission accidentally disclosed confidential trade secrets of Whole Foods yesterday in a court filing.

At issue was that in trying to protect competitive secrets, court officials didn’t sufficiently “black out” redacted portions of the court filings – and thereby the information could still be read.

Among the inadvertent disclosures was that Whole Foods prohibits its suppliers from doing business directly with Wal-Mart as Whole Foods “wants Wal-Mart to have to go through distributors because that raises Wal-Mart’s costs.”

The Rocky Mountain News has the best piece on what was supposed to be secret.

Commentary: Someone needs to get a better black magic marker.