Instead of slathering yourself with messy sunscreen, wouldn’t it be a lot easier if you could just drink a magic potion that would protect you from harmful UV rays? One product says it can do just that, but the state of Iowa alleges that such claims are not only unproven, but dangerous. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Breakfast Burritos Sold At Trader Joe’s Recalled For Plastic Pieces
By 3.17.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
What goes in a breakfast burrito? According to the label on the store-brand breakfast burritos sold at Trader Joe’s, the ingredients include eggs, potatoes, cheese, and turkey bacon on their labels. The label does not mention clear plastic pieces, but at least three TJ’s customers have turned up this unwanted surprise ingredient. [More]
Nestlé, Mars Commit To Using Seafood That Avoids Overfishing And Human Trafficking
By 3.16.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
With brands like Fancy Feast, Friskies, Sheba, and Whiskas, Nestlé and Mars are two of the biggest producers of cat food. Both companies have faced criticism for importing seafood from Thailand, where the fishing industry has been accused of human trafficking and other rights abuses. Now the two packaged food giants say they are halting the use of a practice linked to these alleged human rights violations. [More]
Why Do So Many Men Get Vasectomies During March Madness?
By 3.16.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Maybe you’re watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on a small window on your work computer, or on your strategically placed smartphone at your desk. There’s also a higher than usual chance that you’re enjoying March Madness while recovering from your very recent vasectomy. [More]
6 Things Consumers Should Know About The White House’s Proposed ‘Skinny’ Budget
By 3.16.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
The Trump White House has released its first big-picture public proposal on federal spending for 2018. This initial pass — the so-called “skinny” budget — is basically an outline that doesn’t get into the finer details. However, the changes that are described in the document are nonetheless wide-sweeping, recommending significant cuts or culling of a number of programs you may currently take for granted. [More]
Recall: 21,220 Pounds Of Supreme Pizza Sold At Walmart For Potential Listeria
By 3.16.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Did you recently pick up an extra large supreme frozen pizza at Walmart, and stash it in your freezer? Did you pick one up in the last few weeks for your family pizza night? If so, you’ll want to check your freezer or monitor your family members for illness: Those pizzas may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. [More]
Amazon Prime Expanding Beer, Wine Delivery Service
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Hate putting on real pants to go buy beer or wine? Some Ohio residents will have another option now that Amazon is expanding its Prime Now beer and wine delivery to customers in certain cities. [More]
McDonald’s Worker Jumps Through Drive-Thru Window To Help Unconscious Cop
By 3.15.17
We’ve heard stories of things that are not food unexpectedly going through a fast food restaurant’s drive-thru window — alligators and sacks full of money, for example — but in Florida this week, it was a human being jumping through the opening in an attempt to help an unconscious off-duty police officer. [More]
Company Says It Can Grow Real Chicken Meat In A Lab. Would You Eat It?
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
If chicken is on the menu for tonight’s dinner, you probably know it came from an actual chicken. But in the future, that piece of meat might have been grown in a lab. [More]
Monsanto May Have Ghostwritten Parts Of Reports Concluding That Roundup Is Safe
By 3.15.17
Glyphosate, the main chemical in the weed-killer Roundup, is one of the most popular herbicides on the planet, but newly unsealed court documents suggest that Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto, may have written at least some of an academic research paper used to demonstrate glyphosate’s safety. [More]
7 Things We Learned About The Improbable Comeback Of Domino’s
By 3.15.17
Domino’s committed sins against food, but now the chain has atoned for them, and the market has rewarded the chain. It has improved its pizza and come out with ordering and delivery innovations that are mostly gimmicks for publicity, but they do their job and gain publicity. [More]
Celebrate Pi Day With These Deals On Pies And Pizzas
By 3.14.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Happy Pi Day! March 14, or 3/14, represents the first three digits of pi, an essential constant in math that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This has important meaning even to those of us who aren’t math geeks: Restaurants and retailers mark the occasion with promotions featuring special prices on pies or on pizzas. You know, pizza pies, but they’re also both round foods. [More]
Whole Food Recalls Cheeses Linked To Two Listeria-Related Deaths
By 3.14.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Whole Foods has expanded a recent recall of Vulto Creamery cheese products potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes after health officials linked two deaths and four illnesses to the cheese made from unpasteurized raw milk. [More]
Ruby Tuesday Seeking Buyer, Merger Partner After Continued Declining Sales
By 3.14.17
Last summer, Ruby Tuesday revealed plans to close nearly 100 underperforming stores as part of the chain’s “Fresh Start Initiative” that aimed to turn around slumping sales. Those efforts apparently haven’t been as successful as the restaurant brand would have liked, and now it’s looking to sell itself instead. [More]
Budweiser Marketing Lime-A-Rita Solely To Women
By 3.13.17
Budweiser’s Lime-A-Rita is a strange product. It’s a fruit-flavored malt beverage from a company known for its beer-like substances, and the product’s name implies margaritas, but it contains neither beer nor tequila. As malt beverage sales are falling, though, Budweiser parent AB InBev is going to market the Lime-A-Rita line solely to women. [More]
Caribou Coffee Cutting Artificial Ingredients From Beverages
By 3.13.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Weeks after Dunkin’ Donuts said it would ditch artificial colors over the next two years, fellow coffee shop chain Caribou Coffee has already established a so-called “clean label standard” for its beverages, eliminating artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. [More]
We Still Don’t Know Who Made The E. Coli-Contaminated Soynut Butter
By 3.13.17
So far, 16 people sick from E. coli have had their illnesses officially linked to recalled soy butter from the brand I.M. Healthy. Half of the infected have been hospitalized, and 14 of them are children. Yet there’s one piece of information about the recall hasn’t been made public: The company has not released the name of the contract manufacturer that made the products originally. [More]
