diff --git a/react/src/components/Products.jsx b/react/src/components/Products.jsx
index 4802e510a..565dae03b 100644
--- a/react/src/components/Products.jsx
+++ b/react/src/components/Products.jsx
@@ -134,11 +134,13 @@ function Products({ frontendSlowdown, backend, productsExtremelySlow, productsBe
     <div>
       <ul className="products-list">
         {products.map((product, i) => {
+          // Ensure reviews is an array and handle edge cases
+          const reviews = Array.isArray(product.reviews) ? product.reviews : [];
           const averageRating = (
-            product.reviews.reduce((a, b) => a + (b['rating'] || 0), 0) /
-            product.reviews.length
+            reviews.length > 0
+              ? reviews.reduce((a, b) => a + (b['rating'] || 0), 0) / reviews.length
+              : 0
           ).toFixed(1);
-
           let stars = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].map((index) => {
             if (index <= averageRating) {
               return (
diff --git a/ruby-on-rails/Gemfile b/ruby-on-rails/Gemfile
index 62140c826..44f79bb6e 100644
--- a/ruby-on-rails/Gemfile
+++ b/ruby-on-rails/Gemfile
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ gem 'nokogiri', '~>1.17.2'
 # Use Rack CORS for handling Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), making cross-origin AJAX possible
 gem 'rack-cors'
 gem 'pg'
+# Add serializer for proper JSON handling
+gem 'active_model_serializers', '~> 0.10.13'
 
 gem "stackprof"
 gem "sentry-ruby"
diff --git a/ruby-on-rails/app/controllers/api/v1/products_controller.rb b/ruby-on-rails/app/controllers/api/v1/products_controller.rb
index f85eb990a..ace441969 100644
--- a/ruby-on-rails/app/controllers/api/v1/products_controller.rb
+++ b/ruby-on-rails/app/controllers/api/v1/products_controller.rb
@@ -3,32 +3,18 @@ def index
     # get Sentry tags in application_controller.rb
     set_Sentry_tags
 
+
     transaction = Sentry.get_current_scope.get_transaction || Sentry.start_transaction(name: "custom transaction")
 
     span_products_db = transaction.start_child(op: "custom.products_db_call")
-    sleep 0.25
-    products = Products.select("id, title, description, descriptionfull, price, img, imgcropped, Null as pg_sleep, Null as reviews")
-    sleep 0.25
+    # Eager load reviews to prevent n+1 queries and ensure proper serialization
+    products = Products.includes(:reviews)
+      .select("id, title, description, descriptionfull, price, img, imgcropped")
     span_products_db.finish
     
-    # n+1 to db if done this way
-    products.each do |prod_slow|
-      span_products_slow_db = transaction.start_child(op: "custom.reviews_slow_db_call")
-      prod_slow["pg_sleep"] = ""
-      prod_slow["reviews"] = []
-      prod_slow["reviews"] = Reviews.select("id, productid, rating, customerid, description, created, Null as pg_sleep").where("productid="+prod_slow.id.to_s)
-      span_products_slow_db.finish
-    end
-
-    # fewer db calls this way -- done in products-join
-    # span_reviews_db = transaction.start_child(op: "custom.reviews_db_call")
-    # sleep 0.25
-    # reviews = Reviews.select("id, productid, rating, customerid, description, created, Null as pg_sleep")
-    # sleep 0.25
-    # span_reviews_db.finish
-
-    # span_response = transaction.start_child(op: "custom.construct_response_object")
-    # products.each do |prod|  
+    # Use the serializer to properly format the response
+    render json: products, each_serializer: ProductSerializer, status: 200
+  end
     #   prod["pg_sleep"] = ""
     #   reviews_arr = []
     #   reviews.each do |review|
diff --git a/ruby-on-rails/app/serializers/product_serializer.rb b/ruby-on-rails/app/serializers/product_serializer.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c068a2898
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ruby-on-rails/app/serializers/product_serializer.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+class ProductSerializer < ActiveModel::Serializer
+  attributes :id, :title, :description, :descriptionfull, :price, :img, :imgcropped, :pg_sleep, :reviews
+  
+  def reviews
+    reviews_relation = object.reviews.select("id, productid, rating, customerid, description, created")
+    reviews_relation.map do |review|
+      {
+        id: review.id,
+        productid: review.productid,
+        rating: review.rating,
+        customerid: review.customerid,
+        description: review.description,
+        created: review.created,
+        pg_sleep: nil
+      }
+    end
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file