We were impressed when we learned that 450 Starbucks customers in Connecticut paid for the order of the next person in line in a multiple-day chain of generosity. Today, we learned that the chain ultimately continued for a thousand more drive-thru customers, spanning a few days after Christmas. [More]
Food & Personal Care
450 Starbucks Drive-Thru Patrons Pay For The Next Customer’s Order
By 12.26.13
At a Starbucks in Connecticut, almost 450 drive-thru customers set off a chain reaction of caffeine and generosity over Christmas. A mysterious customer started the chain early on Tuesday, and it kept going until this morning. The store opened with $45 in the pay-it-forward fund this morning. [More]
At Subway, You Can Have Any Soup As Long As It’s Broccoli Cheddar
By 12.26.13
“Still waiting for the third version to complete this fuel pump trifecta,” writes Taylor. Actually, my question was this: if there were a third broccoli cheddar soup sign, would that one have 190 per calories per serving? The calorie count is increasing from left to right, so it would make sense. [More]
CVS Has Everything For The Busy Time-Traveling Mother In Your Life
By 12.23.13
I vaguely remember that day planners are what people once used to organize their lives before they used smartphones for that kind of thing. Apparently, no one in Jim’s town has had any need for one since 2009, so no one has noticed that they still have planners in stock from 2009. [More]
Nobody Needs A Taco Hat From Taco Bell’s “Live Más” Store
By 12.23.13
If you’re a fan of a band or a TV show, you want branded merchandise that shows your support. Why shouldn’t it be the case for fast food? In recent years, White Castle brought us their shop, with a Snuggie-sleeping bag hybrid designed for hardcore vegetation. Now Taco Bell has opened a store to spread their message of “Live Más,” if “Más” means wearing Taco Bell jewelry and hats. [More]
Is Your Food Genetically Modified? Senator Asks President To Change Rules So You’ll Know
By 12.20.13
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California today urged the Obama administration to change FDA food labeling regulations to include a provision for indicating when foods or ingredients come from a genetically modified source. [More]
Driving Backwards Through A Taco Bell Drive-Thru Might Give Police A Reason To Search Your Car
By 12.20.13
If you’ve got drugs in your car, you probably don’t want to do very much to draw the attention of the authorities. Just ask the Pennsylvania man who was arrested for marijuana possession after police watched him drive backwards while trying to order food from the Taco Bell drive-thru. [More]
McDonald’s Has 10 Million Pounds Of Frozen Unsold Mighty Wings
By 12.19.13
Mighty Wings, McDonalds’ attempt at fast-food wingage, didn’t go over well with consumers. Maybe it was the pricing, well above sports bars and other wing outlets at about $1 per wing, in a restaurant that offers actual burgers for a dollar. The product didn’t take flight, and now McDonald’s is stuck with 10 million pounds of wings. [More]
“Organic” Chicken Is Different Than “Antibiotic-Free” And “Natural” Means Nothing
By 12.19.13 — Updated: 12.19.16
Once upon a time, not very long ago, you went to the grocery store — not a big box store, or a warehouse club or online — and bought “chicken.” Now the poultry section can be a confusing mish-mash of labels that may not mean what consumers think they mean, or may not mean anything at all. [More]
Consumer Reports Finds Potentially Harmful Bacteria All Over Chicken Breasts
By 12.19.13
While hundreds of people around the country were getting sick from the recent salmonella outbreak, our co-workers at Consumer Reports just happened to be looking into the tiny life forms clinging to that popular poultry offering, the chicken breast. The results — that potentially harmful bacteria are lurking on and in almost every single chicken breast for sale at the supermarket — may not shock you, but they do highlight the growing concern over everything from what chickens are fed to how their meat is handled and prepared. [More]
Chipotle Bets On Pizza, But It Won’t Be Putting Pepperoni In Your Burrito Bowl
By 12.18.13
Everybody likes pizza. It says so in the Constitution (at least the one I wrote for a class project when I was 9). Chipotle is banking on this widespread adoration for things pizza-like, but not by adding a line of bean/meat/cheese-covered pies to its menu. Instead, the company has decided to back an upstart, upscale pizza chain in Colorado. [More]
FDA Proposal Gives Makers Of Antibacterial Soap A Year To Prove Their Products Are Safe
By 12.16.13
The Food and Drug Administration has been under pressure for some time now to take a closer look at antibacterial soap to see whether we should actually be slathering the stuff all of over our hands and bodies every day. And now it’s proposing a one-year period for manufacturers to prove that yes, the soap is safe for everyday use and in the long-term. [More]
Big Meat & Big Pharma Pleased As Punch With FDA’s Pointless New Antibiotic Guidelines
By 12.13.13
Yesterday, the FDA came out swinging (with a Wiffle ball bat) against the medically unnecessary use of antibiotics in animal feed (by politely asking the drug companies that make piles of cash off these drugs to please stop selling so many of them to farmers just to encourage tissue growth). To demonstrate just how weak this (in)action is, one need look no further than the enthusiastic response from the nation’s huge meat and drug companies. [More]
International Fast Food Offers Winter Whopperland, Pizzas Topped With Pizzas
By 12.13.13
Looking at the offerings of American fast-food eateries abroad is a double-edged sword. It’s fascinating. Some of these items might show up on menus stateside, and others might never come here. [More]
So Who Actually Came Up With The Idea Of The Dorito-Shell Taco?
By 12.13.13
The answer to the question posed in the headline is probably “every somewhat buzzed college kid in the last 30 years,” but while many of us likely pondered the combination of tacos and Doritos, we all somehow failed to get around to pitching the idea to Taco Bell. And though the recently departed Todd Mills has been credited with pushing the company to make this dream a reality, a writing instructor at the University of Chicago claims he was part of the first group to actually pitch the notion to Taco Bell — in 1995. [More]
The Thought Of Dorito-Covered Hot Wings Convinces Buffalo Wild Wings To Switch From Coke To Pepsi
By 12.12.13
Restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings is ditching Coca-Cola as its soft drink supplier and switching to Pepsi. But what’s most fascinating about this change is how the folks at PepsiCo convinced BWW to jump ship. [More]
FDA Politely Asks Drug Companies To Voluntarily Stop Providing Antibiotics For Animal Feed
By 12.11.13
In the face of numerous reports indicating that the practice of using medically unnecessary antibiotics to bulk up farm animals is leading to millions of people getting sick each year from drug-resistant pathogens, the Food & Drug Administration drew a line in the sand today and put an end to the practi– oh wait, I meant that the FDA has politely asked drug companies to voluntarily phase out sales of these drugs to farmers. [More]
New 23andMe Customers Will Only Have Access To Hereditary Information
By 12.6.13
Two weeks after being told by the FDA that it needed to stop marketing its at-home genetic testing kits, and several days after it stopped marketing the disease-diagnosing aspects of the product, Google-backed 23andMe is finally letting customers who had paid for the $99 kit know what is going on. [More]
