Mmm, listeria! Last week, Reser’s Fine Foods recalled 109,000 cases of refrigerated ready-to-eat salads, dips, slaws, and other items that you generally serve cold and don’t reheat enough to kill off all bacteria. Now they’ve expanded that recall to include meat-containing products like chicken and ham salad and baked beans with beef. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Stranger Pays For Family’s Dinner At Pizza Hut Because Parenting Ain’t Easy
By 10.28.13
While not every parent can come prepared with things like goodie bags to apologize in advance for any bad behavior their kids may exhibit, that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to try their best to make sure their children don’t act out in public. One single mom was rewarded for the not always easy effort of parenting when a stranger visited a random act of kindness upon her family. [More]
50 Ducks Walked Into A CVS… There’s No Punchline, Just 50 Ducks In A CVS
By 10.28.13
Do ducks prepare for the winter by gathering supplies from nearby retail outlets? No, they don’t, so it’s not really clear why about fifty ducks reportedly wandered into a CVS drugstore in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and wouldn’t leave until an employee coaxed them out with popcorn. [More]
Your Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich Should Not Be Served Medium Rare
By 10.25.13
A frequent knock against fast food chicken is that it’s dry and overcooked. But a leathery slab of chicken would be preferable to this pink-in-the-middle sandwich some unlucky Wendy’s customer bit into. [More]
FDA Suggests Tightening Access To Painkillers Like Vicodin
By 10.25.13
Yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that the rules regarding drugs with hydrocodone, which is often in painkillers like vicodin, be a lot tighter. It suggests that the drug be reclassified along the level of other opioid painkillers like oxycodone and morphine. [More]
Should An FDA Advisory Committee Chair Be Giving Drug Companies Tips On How To Get Approved?
By 10.24.13
It would be generous to label federal regulatory approval processes as merely byzantine, as some agencies require multiple layers of vetting, along with years of sitting around and waiting. Knowing how to navigate these waters is helpful information for anyone hoping to make it through in a timely fashion. But should those currently working for a federal agency like the FDA be actively giving advice to businesses about the best way to work the approval system? [More]
Starbucks Set To Open Its First Teavana Bar In NYC (But Don’t Ask For Coffee)
By 10.23.13
Of course you can buy a cup of tea at a Starbucks, it’s a cafe after all. But don’t even think about ordering up a cappucino or other coffee item at Starbucks’ new Teavana Bar in NYC, set to open tomorrow. Nope — it’s floor-to-ceiling tea madness all day, every day. Coffee beans, begone! [More]
We Are In The Era Of “Nightmare” Bacteria And Nobody Seems To Care
By 10.22.13 — Updated: 7.17.14
On March 5, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control issued a press released titled “Lethal, Drug Resistant Bacteria Spreading in U.S. Healthcare Facilities.” The warning that followed was dire. Drug-resistant organisms called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, were not only spreading more rapidly through U.S. hospitals, they were becoming more resistant to so-called “last-resort” antibiotics. “CRE are nightmare bacteria,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. How nightmarish? According to data from the CDC, 1 in 2 patients who contract a bloodstream CRE infection will die. That’s an ominous statistic, but it might not even be the scariest fact about CRE. [More]
Cantaloupe Farmers Plead Guilty To Charges Linked To Listeria Outbreak
By 10.22.13
Despite an earlier plan to plead not guilty in federal court, two Colorado farmers whose cantaloupes were linked to the 2011 listeria outbreak that killed 33 people pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor charges. [Associated Press] [More]
FDA Needs Help Solving Outbreak Linked To Jerky Treats That’s Sickened Thousands Of Pets
By 10.22.13
There’s been a recent spate of pet deaths and illnesses connected to jerky treats made in China in the last few years — with almost 600 pets killed and 3,600 more sickened as of now — but federal animal health officials say they’re puzzled over exactly what’s actually causing the illnesses. [More]
Taco Bell Worker Gets 3-Month Sentence For Groping Drive-Thru Customers
By 10.22.13
Back in June we told you about the Taco Bell Groper of North Dakota (as opposed to the Taco Bell Licker of California) who was arrested and accused of grabbing the breasts of drive-thru customers. Yesterday, the grabby guy was sentenced to three months in jail. [More]
Create Your Own Hideous Jack O’Lantern Pizza Abominations At Home Thanks To Papa Murphy’s
By 10.22.13
Papa Murphy’s is a chain where you pick up your pizza, then take it home and bake it yourself. If this seems like it is beside the point of getting takeout pizza, well, maybe it is. In the case of their jack o’lantern pizza, though, it might be secretly brilliant, since it puts responsibility for screwing up the pepperoni happy face squarely on the pizza-baking consumer. [More]
Was McDonald’s Worker Who Served Up Raw Burger Targeting Cop Or Just Incompetent?
By 10.18.13
A police officer in New Hampshire visited the drive-thru window at his local McDonald’s while working the night shift. He ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese, and a photo he took shows a gross uncooked or undercooked bottom patty. He says that he became ill a few hours later. Those are the facts that no one is really disputing. The question is: did the worker preparing his burger deliberately give him gross food because he’s a cop? [More]
Police: Chipotle Employee Hospitalized After Customer’s Hot Sauce Attack
By 10.18.13
In what plane of existence would a simple “good night!” prompt a person to hurt another? Apparently this one we live on, where a 25-year-old Chipotle employee received a bash in the face with a bottle of hot sauce for wishing a departing customer a good evening. Sigh. [More]
A Simple Tip That All Pizza Delivery Drivers Should Heed To Avoid Messes Like This
By 10.16.13
Have you ever had a pizza delivered that looked like the box had been tilted at a 45-degree angle the entire ride, causing the cheese and all the toppings to slide off to one side? It’s probably due to the pizza being piping hot and the angle of the driver’s car seat. But there are some simple ways for a delivery driver to level out his or her pizza parcels. [More]
Study: Low-Paid Fast-Food Employees Cost Taxpayers $3.8 Billion A Year
By 10.16.13
As McDonald’s own suggested employee budgets indicate, it’s not easy to support yourself or a family on just a job behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant. And a new study claims that the 52% of non-management fast-food workers who take home some sort of federal subsidy are costing taxpayers around $4 billion a year. [More]
Subway Falafel Sandwich Points Toward Future Of Dry Vegetarian Food On Every Corner
By 10.16.13
In the fast food universe, a “vegetarian” entrée is often just one of the chain’s regular entrées without meat in it. Well, no more: maybe chains are finally getting the message that tasty meatless meals can be more than just regular meals with the meat taken out. [More]
Why Did California Costco Customers Get Salmonella From Cooked Chicken?
By 10.16.13
Consumers know the drill, or should by now: you can prevent food-borne illnesses by cooking your meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. So how did a Costco customer end up ill from salmonella after eating a fully-cooked rotisserie chicken? The warehouse chain isn’t sure, but has recalled 40,000 pounds of chicken products sold at a single store in California. [More]
