After decades of using aspartame as the sweetener for its Diet Pepsi cola, PepsiCo made the switch to sucralose (aka Splenda) in August. Early feedback has not been positive on social media and sales have not turned around, but the company says to remain calm and keep drinking. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Starbucks, KFC, Chili’s, And Delta Start Accepting Apple Pay For Almost No One To Use
By 10.9.15
Mobile wallets still aren’t catching on with Americans, even a year after the introduction of Apple Pay and a month after the introduction of Android Pay. There are hundreds of millions of capable phones in consumers’ purses and pockets, so it’s not due to technical restraints. Maybe the answer is to make the system available in more stores? Yesterday, an Apple executive announced that three more large chains will accept their payment system. [More]
Group Suing FDA For Failing To Cut Excess Sodium In The Food Supply
By 10.8.15
A nonprofit food safety and nutrition watchdog group is taking the Food and Drug Administration to federal court, claiming the agency hasn’t reduced sodium in packaged and other foods. This puts Americans at risk for stroke, heart disease and other health problems, the lawsuit claims. [More]
Walgreens Shoplifter Walks Out Of Store With $100K In Prescription Drugs
By 10.7.15
In the past, Walgreens has been a target for ne’er-do-wells: there were the three people caught with more than 125 stolen credit cards, and before that, the shoplifting ring accused of stealing more than $15,000 in merchandise. But those cases pale in comparison to a brazen robbery in Florida this week in which a man forced open the pharmacy department door and made off with $100,000 in prescription drugs. [More]
Customers Claiming Burger King’s New Black Burger Bun Is Coming Out Green On The Other End
By 10.6.15
Sure, changing the color of your product up is sure to garner some attention. But you know what else will get people talking? When that new hue causes something else to change color: Burger King customers are airing their bathroom business on the Internet, claiming that the chain’s black Whopper bun for Halloween is turning their poop green. [More]
CVS Will Experiment With Selling Glasses And Hearing Aids In Some Stores
By 10.5.15
Would you like to be able to take care of even more of your health care during a visit to CVS? The drugstore chain announced today that it will experiment with adding two new services to its retail stores, piloting hearing aids in some stores and optical clinics in others. The clinics will have audiologists and optometrists on staff respectively. [More]
Pepsi Selling “Pepsi Perfect” Collectible Soda On The Date Marty McFly Visited 2015 In ‘Back To The Future: Part II’
By 10.5.15
As it turns out, having your product featured in a major motion picture doesn’t only pay off when the movie first heads to theaters, but it can reap promotional gold for years to come, if you play it right. To that end, Pepsi announced it’s offering a limited quantity of Pepsi Perfect on the day Marty McFly orders a Pepsi in Back to the Future: Part II — Oct. 21, 2015. [More]
Starbucks Shrinks Redemption Time For Birthday Reward To 4 Days
By 10.5.15
It’s lots of fun to spend your birthday scooping up your favorite rewards from restaurants and stores, and some are even kind enough to give you a longer deadline to redeem them. Watch out, though: as of the end of September, Starbucks shrank the redemption window from one week around your birthday to just four days. [More]
Aspen Foods Recalls 561,000 More Pounds Of Stuffed Chicken Breasts
By 10.5.15
After what we’re guessing were a fraught couple of weeks of discussions between Aspen Foods and the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the government agency warned consumers not to eat the company’s products, stuffed chicken breasts produced since August have officially been recalled. This recall of 561,000 pounds of chicken breasts follows the recall of almost 2 million pounds earlier this year. [More]
Unconfirmed: Cupcake-Flavored Oreos Are Coming
By 10.2.15
Nabisco vowed to stop the Oreo flavor leaks, but it looks like they’re back! This flavor appears to be… chocolate and creme filling. That’s not actually a flavor, but the theme is a filled chocolate cupcake. The leaker says that it’s due out in January 2016. As always, we’ll check with Nabisco, and they probably won’t answer. [Instagram]
Chuck E. Cheese Trying To Woo Parents By Tweaking Its Food, Expanding Beer & Wine Options
By 10.2.15
After getting new owners last year, animatronic pizza wonderland Chuck E. Cheese is trying to lift flagging sales by aiming at a new — albeit very familiar — target demographic. We’ll give you a guess — it starts with an “M” and rhymes with “shmillennials.” [More]
How Drug Companies Use “Product Hopping” To Fight Off Affordable Generic Drugs
By 10.1.15 — Updated: 2.7.17
You’re probably used to the idea of your doctor prescribing you a brand-name drug and your pharmacist automatically substituting a lower-cost generic equivalent that saves you, the drugstore, and your insurer money. But there’s a practice in the industry known as “product hopping” that brand-name drug makers can use to repeatedly delay generic versions from reaching consumers. [More]
Two More Peanut Company Employees Sentenced To Prison For Deadly Salmonella Outbreak
By 10.1.15
A week after a court sentenced the former owner of Peanut Corporation of America to 28 years behind bars for knowingly distributing salmonella-tainted food products tied to nine deaths and potentially thousands of illnesses, two more PCA staffers have received federal prison sentences for their part in the conspiracy to defraud and sicken consumers. [More]
Man Hacks Amazon Dash Button To Order Pizza Whenever He Wants
By 9.28.15
When in the mood for the piping hot, cheesy deliciousness that is pizza, there seems to be endless options to satisfy your needs: calling the store, ordering online or even sending a pizza emoji via text or Twitter. One man has created yet another way to have that circle of love delivered straight from your door, simply by hacking an Amazon Dash button. [More]
Rejoice, Pork Lovers: Chipotle Says 90% Of Restaurants Now Serving Carnitas
By 9.28.15
Sound the pork bell and toot the meat horn: if you’re a fan of pork in your tacos and burritos, you’ll be glad to hear that Chipotle is declaring an impending end to the carnitas shortage that started back in January. The other white meat is now available at 90% of its 1,500 restaurants, the chain announced today. [More]
Local Authorities Warn Public Not To Eat Cheese From Overturned Truck On The Highway
By 9.28.15
Listen. I know how tempting free cheese is — grocery stores put away their samples when I come sniffing around — but no matter how badly you want to save cheese from the horrible fate of going uneaten, don’t do it. Officials in Alabama had to warn local residents not to scoop up cheese strewn across the road after a truck overturned on the highway. [More]
Cinnamon Bun Flavored Oreos Are Coming Soon
By 9.28.15
If you love frosting-laden cinnamon sweets and Oreos, the time is at hand: news about the next exotic Oreos flavor is out, and the lucky theme food is…cinnamon buns! The package promises cinnamon cookies with “cinnamon bun flavored creme.” That’s better than icing-flavored creme, which would just be… really solid icing. [More]
Taco Bell Rolls Out New Website For Online Ordering Without The App
By 9.28.15
Upon hearing the news that Taco Bell customers can now order and pay for food online by way of a new website, you might have some questions: Doesn’t Taco Bell already have an app for ordering and paying ahead? And doesn’t it already have a website? Yes and yes, but now the two things have become one. [More]
