Nine retailers, including CVS and Rite Aid, have recalled two flavors of store-branded children’s liquid cold medicine over a potential overdose risk. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Chipotle Sued For Not Disclosing Food Quality Control Problems To Stockholders
By 1.8.16
Customers don’t trust fast-casual Mexican-ish restaurant Chipotle very much right now, after a series of foodborne illness outbreaks in different parts of the country. The outbreaks of e. Coli, Salmonella, and norovirus were unrelated to each other, but demonstrated problems with the chain’s food-handling procedures. Now an investor has filed a lawsuit on behalf of shareholders who bought stock in the company in the last year, claiming that the company should have known about the problems with its food handling processes, and disclosed them. [More]
Woman Files Lawsuit Against Applebee’s Claiming She Found Bloody Fingertip In Her Salad
By 1.8.16
Unless it’s of the chicken tender variety, finding a finger in your food would no doubt be an unwelcome and highly unpleasant experience. Enough for one California woman to sue Applebee’s, after she says she found a bloody fingertip in her salad, after she’d already consumed some of the dish. [More]
CDC: Americans Are Eating Too Much Sodium And Food Companies Are Partly To Blame
By 1.8.16
Even if you’re not pouring mountains of salt over everything you eat, you still might be consuming more sodium than the recommended 2,300 milligrams per day. It’s easy to see why, the Centers for Disease Control says, when food companies and restaurants are pouring salt into their products. [More]
Campbell Soup To Label Products Containing GMOs, Supports Mandatory Labeling
By 1.8.16
While some large food producers contend that mandatory labeling of products containing genetically modified or genetically engineered ingredients would be a burdensome and unnecessary requirement, the folks at Campbell Soup Company have decided to not only voluntarily label their GMO-containing products but to publicly support mandatory GMO labeling. [More]
Blue Bell Working To Eliminate Possible Listeria Sources In Factories; Says Ice Cream Is Safe
By 1.8.16
Beloved ice cream brand Blue Bell is still expanding its distribution again after last year’s Listeria contamination and massive recalls. The company issued an update last night about its production facilities with some potentially frightening information: that because “Listeria is commonly found in the natural environment,” and “no manufacturer can ever assume it can be entirely eradicated,” Blue Bell has “identified locations where suspected Listeria species may be present” in its facility. However, they assure the ice cream-eating public that its ice cream isn’t contaminated. [More]
We May Never Know What Caused Chipotle’s E. Coli Outbreak
By 1.7.16
A month after an E. coli outbreak was linked to Chipotle restaurants in the Northwest, health officials believed the culprit was a vegetable of some kind. Now, nearly three months later, an exact cause still hasn’t been uncovered, and some analysts say it might never be. [More]
Walgreens “Nice!” Orange Slices Recalled Because Glass Shards Have No Nutritional Value
By 1.7.16
If you shop at Walgreens, you’re probably familiar with its “Nice!” line of house-brand products, which includes bottles of mandarin orange slices. Unfortunately, some of those bottles might contain something that isn’t very nice: pieces of glass. [More]
Taco Bell Teases New Menu Item By Not Providing Any Details On It
By 1.7.16
What’s the best way to get people trying to guess your secret? By telling them you’ve got a secret and leaving the rest to their imagination. That seems to be the tactic for Taco Bell’s latest plan to drum up hype for a new menu item.
[More]
Chipotle’s Sales Took A Deeper Dive Than Previously Expected Amid Food Safety Issues
By 1.6.16
It’s safe to say that Chipotle’s year is off to a rough start. Today, the company announced that it had received a subpoena from a grand jury looking into the circumstances surrounding a norovirus outbreak in California, and then it disclosed another bit of not-so-great news to investors: sales this quarter are down even more than analysts predicted in November. [More]
Report Finds That As E-Cigarette Ad Spending Increases So Does Teens’ Use Of The Devices
By 1.6.16
About 2.4 million teens smoked e-cigarettes last year, and that number is poised to rise, thanks in part to the tens of millions of dollars device manufactures have poured into advertisements for the products, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [More]
Grand Jury Subpoenas Chipotle Over California Norovirus Outbreak
By 1.6.16
A grand jury is investigating the circumstances surrounding a norovirus outbreak at Chipotle. Not the recent one in Boston that sickened more than 150 people, but the August outbreak in California that left more than 100 employees and customers ill. [More]
Man Claims Burger King Sandwich Was Covered In Ants
By 1.5.16
It wasn’t a dead mouse or a dishrag, but a Pittsburgh Burger King customer claims to have found something just as disgusting on his burger: ants.
[More]
Burger King Introduces 5-Item Value Meal For $4
By 1.4.16
In an effort to attract new customers and bring old ones back, fast-food restaurants are bringing back value menus. Don’t call them dollar menus, though, even when the items do cost a dollar each. Or, in the case of a new value meal deal from Burger King, 80¢ each. [More]
Dedicated Cheese Fan Drives 7 Hours To Make First Cut Into 1,000-Pound Provolone
By 1.4.16
Here at Consumerist, we respect and love cheese, and fans of cheese. So of course, by all the dairy that we hold dear, we couldn’t pass up the chance to call your attention to a story about a man who drove all the way to Canada from Connecticut so he could be the first one to cut into a 1,000-pound hunk of provolone. [More]
Pizza Hut Launches $5 Value Menu That Only Applies When You Order Two Or More Items From It
By 1.4.16
We’re only a few days into the new year and already, companies are showing off what they’ve been planning for 2016 in an effort to hook customers early on. Pizza Hut has a new “value-driven” category it’s calling the “$5 Flavor Menu” that offers a lower price for a variety of familiar items — but only if you order two or more of them. [More]
Starbucks Adds Latte Macchiato To Permanent Menu — So… What The Heck Is A Latte Macchiato?
By 1.4.16
Every now and then, Starbucks adds a new drink to its permanent menu and customers get all frothed up over it. But sometimes there’s a ton of buzz over something, and we’re left wondering if we even understand what everyone is so excited about. Case in point: Starbucks has announced it’s adding a Latte Macchiato to the menu Jan. 5. Okay, fine, but what exactly is a latte macchiato? [More]
Looking Ahead: 5 Big Issues To Follow For 2016
By 1.1.16
Now that 2015 is done and we finally learned that Luke Skywalker is actually Faye Dunaway’s daughter (and sister!), it’s time to take off the party hats, sweep up the confetti, and do the walk of shame forward into the uncharted territory of the year to come. [More]
