If you count on a Soylent nutrition bar to keep the hunger at bay during your long work day, you might want to find an alternative. That’s because the meal replacement startup has halted sales of the bars – which debuted earlier this fall – after receiving reports from customers who became ill after consuming the snack. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Soylent Stops Sales Of Nutritional “Food Bars” After Customers Report Becoming Violently Ill
By 10.13.16
Switzerland’s Cheese Purists Are Not Impressed By Microwave Fondue
By 10.13.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Come, dear readers, and gather round for a tale of a land far away where the the people eat seven times more cheese than the rest of the world on average. In that magical-sounding, yet very real place, getting people to eat more cheese — when the country is already at peak cheese — is a very real problem for the industry. [More]
U.S. Farmers Have Dumped 43 Million Gallons Of Milk So Far In 2016
By 10.12.16
Whether it’s in your coffee, cereal, dessert bowl, cheese sandwich, or straight up in a chilled glass, most Americans consume milk in some form on a pretty regular basis. But with a glut of cheap white stuff on the market, farmers have reportedly spilled some 43 million gallons of milk through just the first eight months of 2016. [More]
Kirin Expanding Craft Beer Efforts With Minority Stake In Brooklyn Brewery
By 10.12.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Craft beer: it’s not just for American hipsters anymore. In a move that signals Japanese breweries’ interest in attracting customers with new kinds of brews, Kirin Brewery Co., the country’s second-biggest brewer, is acquiring an approximately 25% stake in Brooklyn Brewery. [More]
USDA Announces Plans To Buy $20M Of Country’s Surplus Cheddar Cheese
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Having an excess of cheese on your hands might sound like a dairy lover’s dream come true, but when an entire nation has a surplus of the stuff, things get a lot trickier. [More]
Chick-Fil-A Reintroducing Original BBQ Sauce After Smokehouse Backlash
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Change: it can be a terrifying, unsavory experience for dedicated folks who already know what they like. That’s why Chick-fil-A is bringing its classic BBQ sauce out of retirement, after replacing it with a “Smokehouse” version this summer that failed to please some loyal customers.. [More]
NYC Pharmacy Instituting 7% “Man Tax” To Highlight Gender Pricing Discrimination
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
In an effort to bring awareness to discrimination in gender pricing — for example, charging a so-called “pink tax” on feminine hygiene products — one New York pharmacy has a new rule: male customers have to pay a 7% tax on items for men. [More]
Tyson Foods Buys Stake In Vegan Company Beyond Meat
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
When you think of Tyson Foods, you probably think, “chicken.” As in, an animal that a vegetarian probably won’t want to eat. That’s why Tyson has shelled out some major dough to buy a stake in Beyond Meat, a vegan startup that sells a plant-based protein that purportedly “looks, feels, tastes and acts like chicken without the cluck.” [More]
Amazon Will Charge $15 Monthly Fee For Prime Fresh, Not $299 Yearly Fee
By 10.7.16
Amazon is definitely looking to expand its grocery delivery business. After experimenting with different pricing models in a few different markets, the company has settled on one scheme for the whole country, and it’s a lower barrier to entry than the previous $299 up-front annual fee. Now customers who want grocery delivery will only pay $14.99 per month… on top of their Prime subscription. [More]
7 Things We Learned About The Rapid Expansion Of Meal Kit Service Blue Apron
By 10.3.16
If you haven’t yet tried the meal kit service Blue Apron, you’ve probably read about it somewhere, or seen one of its many, many ads online or on TV. Yet who is on the other end of the transaction, making sure that you have your tiny bag of cilantro and packing the ice with your catfish filets? An army of blue-collar workers in one of three chilly warehouses make these meal boxes happen. [More]
Sonic Drive-In Fires Worker Over Receipts With Offensive Language
By 10.3.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
A Sonic Drive-In in Fort Worth has fired an employee after two customers said their lunch receipts included offensive language. [More]
Tyson Recalls 66 Tons Of Chicken Nuggets That May Contain Plastic Pieces
By 9.27.16
What’s supposed to be in chicken nuggets? Pretty much just chicken, yet pieces of plastic or other foreign substances turn up in nuggets with frightening frequency. This time, it happened at chicken giant Tyson Foods, and the affected product was the panko-breaded nuggets that come in 5-pound bags from the frozen food department at Costco. [More]
Progresso Pledges To Use Only Antibiotic-Free Chickens For Its Soups
By 9.26.16
Did you know that there’s a “soup season?” According to canned soup company Progresso, soup season is a thing, and it starts approximately when all of the pumpkin spice foodstuffs hit store shelves. To kick off this year’s soup season, which we’ll pretend is an actual thing, Progresso announced from its agrarian paradise in New Jersey that it has switched to chicken raised without antibiotics. [More]
Black Forest Ham Sold At Sam’s Club, Costco Recalled For Possible Rubber Fragments
By 9.21.16
A customer who bought a pre-cooked ham at a warehouse club noticed something chewy that wasn’t supposed to be there, and reported “various sized pieces of what appeared to be rubber material” embedded in the ham. That’s not supposed to be a thing, and the company that packed the hams, which were sold to Costco and Sam’s Club, has announced a recall. [More]
Did Target Stop Selling Miracle Whip? Depends On Where You Live
By 9.19.16
Reader Krystal went to her local Target store to look for a pretty mundane grocery item: Miracle Whip, the “salad dressing” that many Americans sub in for mayonnaise. Employees told her that Target was no longer selling it at all, and she turned to Consumerist for help, wondering what Target had against Miracle Whip. “Why would they discontinue selling a pantry staple?” she asked. It’s more complicated than that, but Target hasn’t ditched the spread chain-wide. [More]
Restaurant Customers Uninterested In Sit-Down Chains, Still Hungry
By 9.16.16
When you go out to eat, where do you go? Restaurant-watchers are noticing that business at sit-down establishments is dropping, while convenience stores, restaurants that deliver, and even supermarkets with ready-to-eat food are all increasing their business. [More]
Ramen Makers Do The Unthinkable: Package Noodles With Less Salt
By 9.16.16
Cup noodles have traditionally been a cheap, filling way to suddenly get a huge amount of salt in your system. Right? Do they actually do anything else? As Americans look for snack foods that are at least nominally healthier and that have fewer additives, even the makers of cup noodles are cutting back on sodium and artificial flavors. [More]
Activist Investor Takes 9.9% Stake In Chipotle, But Will It Help Business?
By 9.7.16
As we’ve seen with Olive Garden, where activist investors mocked the menu and accused staff of wasting breadsticks before claiming seats on the board, a brash stakeholder with big ideas can bring about change in a slumping company. Could a similarly vocal new investor in Chipotle provide the jolt the burrito chain needs to get over the sagging sales that followed a rash of food-borne illnesses? [More]
