Fifty years ago, Fred DeLuca was an entrepreneurial Connecticut teenager who wanted to earn money for college, and didn’t actually know anything about restaurants or about sandwiches. He asked a family friend, Peter Buck to loan him $1,000, and opened up a sandwich shop called Pete’s Super Submarines. (Co-founder Buck came up with the concept.) Nine years later, the first franchise opened, and 50 years later there are more than 44,000 restaurants worldwide. [More]
Food & Personal Care
RJ Reynolds Ordered To Stop Selling 4 Cigarette Brands
By 9.15.15
The nation’s top cigarette manufacturer must stop selling four products after federal regulators determined RJ Reynolds failed to show the brands did not pose increased health risks compared to items already on the market. [More]
Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, 17 Others Earn “F” Grades For Antibiotics Policies
By 9.15.15
While recent moves by McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A to reduce the use of antibiotics in the meat they serve may indicate a shift in the industry’s attitude about drugged-up cows and chickens, the overwhelming majority of large fast food and family restaurant chains continue to source beef and poultry raised on unnecessary antibiotics that could result in the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. [More]
You Can Now Make Your Own Pepsi At Home With A SodaStream
By 9.11.15
SodaStream recently said it’d be focusing more on sparkling waters than on competing with traditional sodas, but it seems now that even if it did want to beat Big Soda, it’d rather just join’em, instead: after a limited trial run of Pepsi-flavored caps in Florida last year, SodaStream is expanding the partnership to offer the caps filled with Pepsi and Sierra Mist flavors to everyone. [More]
Starbucks To Roll Out Mobile Ordering Nationwide, Accept Android Pay By End Of Month
By 9.11.15
Android users – and those living in areas of the country where mobile ordering isn’t available at their local Starbucks – can soon order and pay for their morning cup of coffee straight from the comfort of their phones with little human contact, as the coffee chain announced today that it would expedite the rollout of its mobile ordering feature to all U.S. stores by the end of the month. [More]
Salmonella Outbreak In Minnesota Linked To At Least 17 Chipotle Restaurants
By 9.11.15
A salmonella outbreak in Minnesota that’s sickened 45 people and sent five to the hospital has been linked to at least 17 Chipotle restaurants, say investigators with the state’s Department of Health. Officials believe that the contaminated ingredient has already been removed from all Chipotle restaurants in Minnesota. [More]
Sbarro To Open New Standalone Stores In Neither Malls Nor Airports
By 9.10.15
Imagine picking up the phone and calling your local chain pizzeria for delivery. No, not Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, or Dominos: you call up Sbarro, even if you don’t live inside a food court. Sbarro? Out in the real world? Next month, the eatery opens a new restaurant in the town where its headquarters is: Columbus, Ohio. [More]
Supplement-Maker Who Diluted Products With Other Powders Sentenced To 40 Months In Prison
By 9.9.15
When you buy a food product or a dietary supplement, you should be confident that the product’s ingredients are listed on the label, and that you’re getting what you paid for. Federal prosecutors say that one dietary supplement wholesaler in New Jersey spent four years selling products diluted with products like maltodextrin or rice flour, increasing profits but defrauding customers. The company’s owner now must forfeit $1 million in profits and has been sentenced to 40 months in prison and one year of supervised release. [More]
Niman Ranch: New Perdue Ownership Doesn’t Mean Animal Welfare Standards Will Change
By 9.9.15
Upon the news that Niman Ranch had been bought by poultry giant Perdue, some customers of the specialty meats business have expressed fears that the company they know and love for its animal welfare standards will change its act under the new ownership. Those concerns have prompted Perdue and Niman Ranch, along with one of its biggest customers, Chipotle, to reassure customers that they’ve got nothing to worry about. [More]
Lawmakers Call On USDA To Reduce Farmers’ Reliance On Antibiotics In Chickens
By 9.8.15
Following a 17-month outbreak of salmonella poisoning that sickened at least 600 people around the country, a Dept. of Agriculture advisory committee will meet tomorrow discuss strategies for effectively controlling the spread of salmonella in poultry. In advance of that meeting, two members of Congress are calling on the USDA to take a three-pronged approach to fighting drug-resistant bacteria. [More]
Costco’s Online Photo Services Back Up After Breach, Customers’ Cards May Have Been Compromised
By 9.8.15
If you like viewing and ordering prints of your digital photos from the comfort of your own home and then traipsing to the local Costco to pick up your memories, then we’ve got good news: Costco has finally relaunched its online photo services website after taking the site down upon discovering a breach in July. But there’s also a bit of bad news: some customers’ credit card information may have been captured in the year-long hack. [More]
Wendy’s Brings Back Pulled Pork Sandwich To Close Out Summer Of Fast-Food Pulled Pork
By 9.4.15
For a while, it looks like this might be the Summer of Pulled Pork. Or like pulled pork would be the new bacon. There would be some very headline-friendly thing that would happen with pulled pork. Some regional chains picked up the trend, but now Wendy’s is only jumping on the porkwagon at the end of the traditional barbecue season, bringing back their pulled pork sandwich and fries. Yes, fries. [More]
Kraft Adds 335K More Cases Of Cheese Singles To Recall Over Packaging Choking Hazard
By 9.4.15
After recalling 36,000 cases of Kraft Singles out of concern that consumers could choke on parts of the film covering individual slices, Kraft Heinz has expanded the recall to include 335,000 more cases of cheese for the same packaging reason. [More]
CVS Claims That Booting Tobacco From Stores Has Made Us All Healthier
By 9.3.15
Today marks the one-year anniversary of CVS removing tobacco products from its pharmacies. How’s that working out for them? The company reports that sales of non-drug items were down slightly in the last year, but tobacco isn’t a very profitable item. Parent company CVS Health is celebrating the anniversary with a study that it says shows that its decision decreased total cigarette sales nationwide. [More]
90,000 Pounds Of Johnsonville Grillers Recalled Because Pieces Of Metal In Your Pork Can Ruin The Barbecue
By 9.3.15
If your Labor Day plans included throwing a few pre-made pork burgers on the grill you might want to check your brand of choice. That’s because, just in time for the holiday weekend, Johnsonville announced a recall of pork patties that may contain decidedly untasty metal fragments. [More]
Taco Bell Testing Taco Shells Made Out Of Fried Chicken Because Why Not?
By 9.2.15
Everyone who’s anyone in the fast food world knows that fried chicken is hot right now (pun intended), prompting chains that might not be known for serving it to jump on the chicken bandwagon. To wit: Taco Bell is exploring its poultry side with the “Naked Crispy Chicken Taco” — basically, a taco that has a shell made out of fried chicken. [More]
Burger King Planning Peace Burger With Denny’s, Wayback, Others; Still Not Giving Up On McD’s
By 9.2.15
Burger King is quite ready to give up hope that McDonald’s will see the light and agree to squash the beef in the name of peace. But while the King continues to wait, it is moving forward with offers of collaboration from other restaurant chains. [More]
Following Deaths, FDA Warns Makers Of Powdered Caffeine That Their Products Are Dangerous
By 9.1.15
Last summer, two young adults died after ingesting powdered caffeine, leading the Food and Drug Administration to warn consumers of the potential hazards of the popular stimulant while public health advocates called for a ban on the powdered product. Now the FDA is taking things to the next level and warning caffeine manufacturers that their products are “dangerous and present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.” [More]
