Between ice cream, smoothies, hummus, more ice cream, spinach, spinach ravioli, spinach lasagna, and caramel apples, we’ve seen a lot of recalls in recent months for tainted food — and that’s just listeria, one of many pathogens that could make you ill after eating. Now the U.S. Dept. of Justice is letting food producers know that poisoning consumers could result in more than just having to issue a few recalls. [More]
unacceptable food
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Shuts Down Again Over Listeria Contamination
By 6.12.15
That didn’t last long. About a month ago, Ohio-based Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams was reopening its scoop shops following an April recall of all of its products for listeria contamination. But this morning, the company’s CEO announced some bad news. [More]
Foster Farms, Company Behind Salmonella Outbreak, To Cut Down On Antibiotics It Shoves Down Chickens’ Throats
By 6.1.15
Foster Farms is one of the country’s largest poultry, cranking out millions of birds each week. It’s also the company behind a recent outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella that sickened more than 600 people in 29 states. Today, the company has changed its antibiotics policies so that its chickens will no longer be fed medically unnecessary drugs. [More]
Dear Sonic: Please Don’t Store Any More Hamburger & Hot Dog Buns Next To The Toilet
By 5.29.15
Imagine you’re at a fast food joint and you’re taking your young child to the bathroom. Of all the possible things you could find in the lavatory, one of the least-expected would probably be whole trays of buns for hamburgers and hot dogs. [More]
ConAgra To Pay $11M, Plead Guilty To Criminal Charge In Peter Pan Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak
By 5.20.15
Back in 2006 and 2007, ConAgra shipped out batches of Peter Pan peanut butter tainted with salmonella, sickening more than 700 people in nearly every state. Today, the company has agreed to enter a guilty plea to criminal charges associated with the outbreak and to pay $11.2 million. [More]
Burger King Settles Suit Filed By Soldier Who Says He Found Needles In Triple Stacker
By 2.12.15
For more than three years, a now-retired Army sergeant has been fighting a legal battle against both Burger King and the military, alleging the kitchen at an on-base BK served him a Triple Stacker that contained needles. Part of the case has been brought to an end now that the fast food giant has settled, though the complaint against the military looks like it may be headed to trial. [More]
Customer Sues Domino’s Because Intestine-Piercing Wire Bristles Are Not A Pizza Topping
By 12.4.14
If you’ve ordered enough pizzas, you’ve probably come across a few with a stray topping that shouldn’t be there. In most cases, the worst that can happen is you eat some green pepper, sausage, or mushroom that you hadn’t intended on consuming. But one Washington state man claims he didn’t realize until it was too late — and he was having emergency surgery — that he’d eaten some Domino’s Pizza topped with wire bristles. [More]
4.5 Years Later, Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty To Serving Whale Meat
By 11.18.14
Way back in March 2010, we brought you the story of The Hump, a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles charged with violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by serving the meat of the Sei Whale. The eatery has since closed, but the case against its owner has lingered, until yesterday, when he entered a guilty plea in federal court. [More]
Golden Corral Customer Claims His Chili Came With A Free Rat
By 10.21.14
Warning: If you want to make sure your breakfast/any food you’ve eaten recently stays put, you probably won’t want to click over and watch any videos that I’m about to link to. Because I already had to go through that for you, and don’t want you to suffer. To that end, a guy in Florida says he found a rat head in his chili at a Golden Corral restaurant. [More]
Food Industry Initiative Highlights How Little The FDA Knows About What’s In Our Food
By 8.28.14
For decades, the food industry has been able to use ingredients that are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) without approval from the FDA. When first used in the ’50s, this was intended to apply to ingredients, like vegetable oils and vinegars, where an additive’s safety is common knowledge, but in 1997, a backlogged FDA allowed food companies to merely submit their GRAS findings instead of the supporting data, creating a loophole the food industry has exploited to include a vast number of chemical ingredients that manufacturers claim are safe but which don’t go through a rigorous approval process. Feeling pressure from the public to pull back the veil on the GRAS process and its ingredients, the food industry announced a transparency initiative yesterday that may be a step in the right direction, but highlights just how little the FDA seems to care about the “F” part of its name. [More]
Frozen Pizza With Cookie Layer Is What Pizza Hut Only Aspires To
By 8.5.14
Sure, Pizza Hut thinks it’s being all revolutionary with its cookie pizzas, and infinite variations on stuffed crusts but the chain isn’t taking things nearly far enough. Have they tried putting an entire cookie pizza layer on top of a pizza? They have not. Yet. One brave man, Michael J. Hudson, has tried such a feat. The result looks horrifying. And amazing. And horrifying. [More]
Appeals Court Allows Farmers To Keep Feeding Unnecessary Antibiotics To Animals
By 7.24.14
More than 35 years ago, the FDA acknowledged that feeding medically unnecessary antibiotics to farm animals may encourage the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which poses a huge health risk to humans. In 2012, a federal court ruled that the FDA is required by law to hold hearings in which the drug makers would need to prove the safety of non-medical use of these antibiotics. But today, a the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling, saying it’s up to the FDA to decide if it wants to hold such hearings. [More]
From Bread Crumbs To Worcestershire Sauce: How Long Will All That Stuff In Your Pantry Last?
By 7.20.14
Regular readers of Consumerist likely know there’s a big difference between the “use-by” date and the “sell-by” date on food labels. But while most people take note of this information on highly perishable items like meat, eggs, and dairy, we often ignore those dry goods stashed in our pantries. And these unrefrigerated items are often allowed to sit around until we go to use them and realize, “Oh no… that went bad back when Bush — the first one — was president.” [More]
Subway Worker Claims She Was Forced To Make Sandwiches While Throwing Up
By 7.17.14
While people, especially those who get paid by the hour, might be tempted to play down an illness in order to make it through a shift, anyone in food service who is throwing up because of a stomach virus should be kept far away from the kitchen. But one former Subway worker in Texas claims her boss forced her to work through her illness. [More]
How Loophole In Tainted Food Recalls Bit Chicken Company In The Butt
By 7.10.14
For more than a year, chicken producer Foster Farms has been tied to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people, resulted in the shutdown of a Foster plant and the destruction of more than a million pounds of meat. But a loophole in USDA guidelines meant that that the company didn’t issue any recalls until just last week. Now it’s that same loophole that appears to be coming back to bite Foster in the derriere. [More]
Supermarket Sued For Selling Inedible Bull Penis For Human Consumption
By 6.13.14
While bull penis, or pizzle, is often sold as something for dogs to gnaw on, and it can be — and sometimes is — eaten by humans, it’s not cool to take something out of a package that’s labeled as unfit for human consumption and then sell it to people. [More]
Wegmans Recalls Bagged Ice Because Metal Machine Fragments Aren’t Great For Cooling Beverages
By 6.12.14
In what may be a first for us, we bring you the news of a supermarket chain — specifically Alec Baldwin fave Wegmans — recalling thousands of pounds of bagged ice that may contain little bits of metal from the machine that produces the frozen water. [More]
Researchers Say “Best Before” Dates Result In Massive Amounts Of Wasted Food
By 5.16.14
If you’re a regular reader of Consumerist, you’re likely aware that there’s a big difference between a “use by” and a “best before” date; the former is a sign that the food may be unsafe to eat after a certain date (though even that’s not always true) while the latter is an indicator that the item might not taste its best after that date, but is still safe to eat. However, many people don’t understand this distinction — and tons of food is wasted every year as a result. [More]
