While 2015 didn’t smash as many records for “terrible things that can happen to consumers in a single event” as 2014 — what with last year’s GM recall, Sony hack, and the like — we still had rather a lot go on in the last 365 days. Here’s a run-down of the numbers from 2015. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Subway Promises To Use Only Cage-Free Eggs In North American Restaurants By 2025
By 12.28.15
The cage-free bandwagon is getting so loaded, it might as well be a bandtrain at this point: joining fellow restaurants like Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Panera Bread in pledging to use only cage-free eggs will be Subway, which says it will complete the change by 2025. [More]
Analysts Predict Chipotle Sales Slump To Continue Into Late 2016 Amid Food Safety Issues
By 12.28.15
Back in November when Chipotle’s woes centered solely on a six-state E. coli outbreak, stock analysts predicted the company’s sales would be down for the fourth quarter. Now, with the addition of another rare strain of E. coli sickening five customers in two additional states and more than 150 students sick from norovirus in Boston, analysts are anticipating declining sales for the fast casual restaurant until at least September 2016. [More]
FDA Recalls Several Weight Loss Supplements Containing Unsafe Ingredients
By 12.23.15
Earlier this year, the owner of a dietary supplement company was sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling “all natural” products that secretly contained harmful active ingredients that shouldn’t even be available to U.S. consumers. Today, the FDA announced recalls for more than a dozen additional products containing these same, unsafe ingredients. [More]
Chipotle Changing Cooking Methods In Wake Of E. Coli, Norovirus Outbreaks
By 12.23.15
Weeks after Chipotle CEO Steve Ells proclaimed that the fast casual restaurant would be the “safest place to eat,” the company appears to be getting the ball rolling with a slew of new cooking methods aimed at preventing future E. coli and norovirus outbreaks that have recently sickened more than 200 customers in the U.S. [More]
Walgreens Is Selling Hot Dog Flavored Pringles For Some Reason
By 12.23.15
“Try ’em,” the cardboard shelves on this Pringles display whisper to passing shoppers. The display promotes a new Walgreens-exclusive, limited-edition flavor: “Hot Diggity Dog,” which tastes like hot dogs. Probably. Maybe just salt that tastes like beef and mustard. [More]
Chipotle Manager Fired After 153 People Get Sick With Norovirus
By 12.22.15
What and who exactly is to blame for the norovirus outbreak that sickened more than 150 people who ate at a Boston Chipotle? We can’t say exactly, but there’s one person who is being hit with some of the blame. [More]
Health Officials Investigating Chipotle For Different E.Coli Strain, Five Illnesses
By 12.21.15
While Chipotle CEO Steven Ells was busy riding the apology train, issuing regrets for a recent E.coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people in nine states and a norovirus outbreak in Boston involving 140 students, the fast casual chain was being linked to five separate illnesses in three more states. [More]
FDA Ends Across-The-Board Ban On Blood Donations From Gay, Bisexual Men
By 12.21.15
Exactly a year ago this week, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it was going to eventually change its guidance on blood donations that had barred any man who had been intimate with another male at any time in the previous three decades from donating. Today, the FDA finalized that change, which still requires that all male donors abstain from same-sex intimacy for a year before donating. [More]
Chipotle Facing First Lawsuit Linked To Boston Norovirus Outbreak That Sickened 140 People
By 12.18.15
It was bound to happen: the first lawsuit has been fired — er, filed against Chipotle in connection with the recent norovirus outbreak that sickened 140 people who ate at one of the chain’s Boston locations. [More]
McDonald’s Testing Mac & Cheese Cups In Happy Meals
By 12.18.15
Would you like a cup of mac and cheese with your burger? That may not sound appealing to you, but the pasta dish is a major food group for small children, and the idea is getting a limited-time test in Cleveland. The cups would probably be pre-prepared, so frazzled franchisees wouldn’t have much to complain about regarding the new menu item. [More]
Dairy Crisis Averted: Advertising Group Weighs In On String Cheese War
By 12.17.15
When there’s a cheese war raging, who’re you gonna call to settle things? If it’s a fight over whether or not a product is being incorrectly advertised, The National Advertising Division (an offshoot of the Council of Better Business Bureaus) often weighs in. This time, it’s addressing a string cheese dispute between two different companies, in the hopes that we can all just relax and enjoy some cheese. [More]
Hampton Creek: FDA Grants Condiment Dispensation, Eggless “Just Mayo” Can Keep Its Name
By 12.17.15
An ongoing battle about the nature of mayonnaise that began in November 2014 seems to have finally reached a peaceful resolution: the Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow Just Mayo, sold by Hampton Creek, call itself “mayo,” even though the vegan, eggless product technically isn’t mayonnaise, according to the government’s definition. [More]
Papa John’s Promises To Go Antibiotic-Free For Its Chicken Toppings, Poppers
By 12.16.15
We’ve never really understood the appeal of chicken on pizza, but hey — some people really like it. So this should be good news for them, as Papa John’s has announced plans to only source chickens raised on vegetarian diets and without antibiotics. [More]
Chipotle Takes Out A Full-Page Ad To Continue The Apology Parade
By 12.16.15
Chipotle co-CEO and founder Steve Ells has been riding a great big apology train around the news circuit lately, issuing a mea culpa on TV last week and mentioning again this week how “deeply sorry” he is that the chain has been linked to a nine-state E. coli outbreak that’s sickened more than 50 people and a major norovirus incident in Boston involving 140 students. He’s not done yet, either: the company took out a full-page ad in 61 newspapers around the country on Wednesday to continue apologizing to customers. [More]
Pizza Hut Latest Company Offering To Help Send Employees To College
By 12.16.15
What do a car manufacturer, a coffee chain, a health insurance giant, and a pizza joint have in common? They all offer to foot the bill — or at least some of it — so their employees can further their education by obtaining a college degree. [More]
Chipotle CEO Promises New Safety Standards Won’t Mean Higher Prices
By 12.16.15
After Chipotle CEO Steve Ells pledged that new safety standards would be going into effect at the chain’s restaurants across the U.S., promising it would soon be “the safest place to eat,” some customers might have wondered whether the cost of that initiative would hit them right where it hurts most, the wallet. But Ells says customers don’t need to worry about the price of their (hopefully) E. coli-free burritos and tacos going up. [More]
