Last year, the FDA released voluntary guidance for the pharmaceutical industry, which sells 80% of all antibiotics in the U.S. to farmers, primarily because they promote growth in animals. That guidance asked drug companies to please stop selling antibiotics for that purpose, but allows them to keep selling just as many drugs for “disease prevention,” even though it’s been proven that continuous, low-dose use of antibiotics renders their medical use less effective and contributes to the development of drug-resistant pathogens. Today, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology issued a report that some had hoped would recommend the FDA take a harder line on this issue. Those people are probably a bit disappointed. [More]
Food & Personal Care
This Taco Bell Now Closed Afternoons After Becoming High School Fight Club
By 9.18.14
If I ran a Taco Bell or any other fast food restaurant, I’d do anything to keep my doors open during the afternoon hours to make money from customers grabbing late lunches, early dinners, and mid-afternoon snacks. But one Bell eatery in California says it can’t be open in the afternoons thanks to local high school kids who have turned the franchise into a fight club. [More]
Pizza Hut Testing “Skinny Slice” Pies, Or “Thin Crust Pizza” As It’s Known Elsewhere
By 9.17.14
Remember when Pizza Hut invented the cookie cake in 2014? It’s now testing out a mysterious new pizza configuration called “Skinny Slice” pies, wherein each contains less dough and fewer toppings for the health conscious. Basically, it’s thin crust pizza, but don’t tell Pizza Hut that. [More]
Thieves Steal 1.4 Tons Of Cheese Contaminated With Listeria
By 9.17.14
Listen, if there’s anyone out there who understands the lure of wheel upon wheel of beautiful cheese, it’s me. Cheese is my significant other, so I get it. But thieves in Liechtenstein are barking up a very dangerous tree by swiping 1.4 tons of cheese contaminated with harmful bacteria. That cheese is sadly, meant for no one. [More]
Got $250? You Could Be Guzzling Surge On Friday
By 9.17.14
“I really hope we don’t see [cases] being flipped for $200 on eBay,” I mused in the comments of our post on the resurgence of Coca-Cola’s high-caffeine, carbo-loaded high-caffeine citrus soft drink from the ’90s, Surge. I don’t know what I was thinking. Now that cases of Surge have shipped out, early buyers are ready to flip their cases instead of guzzling them. [More]
Starbucks Now Testing Super Cute 10-Ounce Mini-Frappuccino
By 9.17.14
As a news outlet known for sharing news about record-shattering, vat-filling, massive frozen espresso drinks, it’s a cool and refreshing change of pace for us to share news about a new tiny Frappuccino. If you live near Houston or Denver and want a caffeinated confection with fewer calories, you can check out the test. [More]
Ground Black Pepper Recalled In All 50 States For Possible Salmonella Contamination
By 9.17.14
Nothing gives a meal the right kick quite like a little ground black pepper. That is, unless the spice comes with a little salmonella, in which case we want nothing to do with it because it’s being recalled by the case load. [More]
Pizza Shop Worker Admits It Was “Stupid” To Rub His Junk On Customer’s Pie
By 9.16.14
Today in Awful Things I’d Rather Not Know Happened But Well, Here We Are: A customer at a take-and-bake pizza shop has accused an 18-year-old worker of rubbing his downstairs bits on the pie as he got his order ready. The reason? He was allegedly annoyed at having to take the order right before the store closed for the night. [More]
Pizza Hut Australia Is Not Handing Out Free Hamsters With Purchase
By 9.16.14
Pets aren’t prizes. That’s why goldfish games have been disappearing from carnival midways, and why people around the world were horrified when they saw that a Pizza Hut restaurant in Australia was offering a free small pet with the purchase of ten pizzas. The in-store placard featured a photo of a guinea pig, and it was not an appetizer. Pizza Hut says this was all a huge misunderstanding. [More]
Report Shows Farmers’ Indiscriminate Use Of Antibiotics In Chicken Feed
By 9.15.14
While the medical community and public health advocates continue to call on the FDA to better regulate the widespread use of antibiotics in animal feed, farmers and pharmaceutical companies try to claim that these drugs are primarily being used for disease prevention and that their use doesn’t cross over into humans. But a new investigative report from Reuters calls into question a number of statements made by the nation’s largest poultry farmers. [More]
We Have Seen The Future, And It Serves Strawberry Dr Pepper
By 9.15.14
Last year, we brought you news that Pepsi finally had its answer to the Coke Freestyle super-fountain, and it was called the Pepsi Touch Tower. Over a year later, these machines finally made their way out into the wild, and have been renamed the Pepsi Spire. There aren’t many in operation: only 76 in the United States as of this writing. We were fortunate enough to encounter one while grabbing a slice of pizza. [More]
Woman Attacked For Keeping Taco Bell Customer From Getting Breakfast
By 9.15.14
If you show up at a Taco Bell with only a few minutes to go before the deadline for placing breakfast orders, don’t get mad if a delay in front of you prevents you from getting the food you crave. And, more importantly, don’t pursue and then assault the customer you blame for preventing you from ordering breakfast. [More]
Starbucks Might Allow Employees To Show Tattoos
By 9.12.14
In spite of Starbucks’ origins in tattoo-heavy Seattle and the fact that the coffee colossus employs thousands and thousands of younger adults with ink somewhere on their body, the company’s dress code has long been decidedly anti-tattoo. But in an acknowledgment of changed public attitudes toward tattoos, and an effort to retain its workers, Starbucks may be relaxing its stance on body art. [More]
Taco Bell Is Testing Tortilla Chip-Encrusted Fried Chicken––No, Really
By 9.11.14
Remember a few months ago when we shared the news that KFC in the Philippines is offering fried chicken covered in Clover Chips, a popular tapioca-based snack? We took the opportunity to wonder whether parent company Yum Brands might bring that concept to the United States, substituting Dorito crumbs for Clover Chips. Well, maybe the company was listening…just not necessarily KFC. [More]
Pumpkin Spice Oreos Are Real, Hit Stores September 24th
By 9.11.14
We had plenty of unofficial evidence and off-the-record confirmation of the existence of pumpkin spice Oreos, but couldn’t be definitively, publicly sure that they were official and real. Yes, the artificial flavor wizards over at Nabisco have given us Oreos flavored like limeade and cookies and creme Oreos, and everything else in the world already comes in pumpkin spice flavor, it’s not surprising. However, the news is official now. [Oreo Twitter] [More]
Burger King Japan Creates Black Cheese For Its Black Burger And I Don’t Know How To Feel
By 9.11.14
If the saying is true and we eat first with our eyes, hope you’re hungry for some garbage bags: Burger King Japan has introduced a new black cheese to match its black burgers. And while I normally applaud any iteration of cheese in general, chowing down on a melted piece of Darth Vader’s helmet isn’t exactly an appetizing thought. [More]
Pennsylvania Chipotle Workers Walk Out, Sign Alleges “Sweatshop Conditions”
By 9.10.14
It’s not clear what happened at the Chipotle restaurant in State College, Pennsylvania, but we do know some things. The restaurant was closed for several hours this morning and afternoon. At first, all that aspiring burrito-eaters knew was that the store was closed. A sign in the window claimed that most of the employees had quit in protest of “borderline sweatshop conditions,” so the shop had to close. [More]
This Is What Happens When Burger King Lists Your Number As Its Own
By 9.10.14
When someone calls you looking for a fast food restaurant, there are many ways you could react. “THIS IS NOT BURGER KING, FOOL!!!” is one, or “Sorry, you have the wrong number.” Neither of those are any fun, and neither reaction is what one prankster did after his phone number ended up listed online as a Burger King location. [More]
