As we mentioned back in April, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration had launched an investigation into the cause of fires in two Chevy Cruze vehicles. Today, General Motors announced a recall of more than 475,000 Cruze cars for safety modifications intended to prevent engine fires. [More]
Quality & Safety
Remember, Folks: Don’t Leave Your Kids In Hot Cars This Summer
By 6.20.12
People in many areas of the country are already talking about how hot it is right now, so why not take a few minutes to stress safety in such a heat wave?: We’re sure most of you know that leaving any living, breathing being locked inside a car on a hot day is a bad idea. But even so, accidents do happen. Even if you’re in a hurry, leaving your child in the car “just for a minute” is totally unacceptable. [More]
Big Pizza: Calorie-Count Menu Boards Make No Sense For Our Product
By 6.20.12
With the FDA still fiddling with rule changes that require chain restaurants to post calorie information for the products on their in-store menu, the country’s largest pizza chains have stopped fighting each other and banded together to fight federal regulators. [More]
Samsonite Pulls Suitcase Line As Luggage Shouldn’t Be Possibly Harmful To Your Health
By 6.18.12
While Samsonite says its “Tokyo Chic” line of luggage is perfectly safe, it’s pulling the bags from Hong Kong stores after a consumer group said it found high levels of possible carcinogens in the handles on three of its suitcases. No one wants to pull something around that could cause cancer, after all. [More]
Cooked Squid Leaves Behind A Little Bit Of Itself Embedded In Woman’s Mouth
By 6.18.12
A Korean woman had an unfortunate experience that we’re sure is probably one of the weirdest, most unpleasant things we’ve read about in the realm of things: After eating a cooked squid, she felt a “severe pain” and a “pricking, foreign-body sensation in her mouth.” A visit to the doctor revealed “twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms” in the inside of her mouth, which were identified as squid spermatophores. [More]
June Recall Roundup: Mac ‘N’ Cheese ‘N’ Metal Shards
By 6.15.12
Pull up a stepstool, park your kid’s stroller, and let’s sit down with some Trader Joe’s chicken breasts and Walmart mac and cheese, with Sienna Bakery macademia nut cookies: it’s time for the Recall Roundup. Oh. All of those things have been recalled, really? [More]
Why The Math On Your Soda Bottles & Cans Doesn’t Always Add Up
By 6.15.12 — Updated: 6.3.14
In the two years since we first covered the complicated rounding involved with soda bottle nutrition labels, some changes have been made with the goal of clearing up things like calorie count and serving size. But some questions still keep popping up, so it’s probably time for a refresher course. [More]
Man Sentenced To Two Years Of Probation For Selling Fake Vermont Maple Syrup
By 6.13.12
As we’ve written before, the people of Vermont take their maple syrup very seriously. Just ask the Rhode Island man who has been sentenced to two years of probation for selling plain old cane sugar syrup as authentic stuff from the Green Mountain State. [More]
Introvale Birth Control Pills Recalled For Shuffled Pill Order
By 6.11.12
The short description on the Food & Drug Administration website says that the contraceptive pill Introvale is being recalled due to a “packaging flaw.” Well, that’s true, but that flaw is that the pills are in the wrong order. A three-month pack contains 84 “active” pills and seven placebo or “hey, it’s time for your period” pills. Some packs have the placebo pills in week 9 instead of week 13. Manufacturer Sandoz is recalling the affected lots, but since the pills are different colors, it’s not hard to tell whether your pills have been scrambled. [More]
One In Three Teens Admits To Texting Or E-Mailing While Driving
By 6.7.12
As the evidence piles up showing that teens are still distracted behind the wheel to an unsafe degree, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has introduced a new initiative aimed at ending the dangerous habits of texting or emailing while driving. [More]
Holy Crap, Aerosol Sunscreen Can Set People On Fire
By 6.7.12
They’re two staples of a summer day in the Northeast: a backyard grill and a bottle of sunscreen. Why not reapply some sunscreen before you prepare for a long session cooking some meats? It’s not such a good idea if your sunscreen is the spray-on kind. Sure, the can says “flammable,” but it didn’t occur to a Massachusetts man that this statement is also true after the sunscreen is on your skin, for several minutes after application. He applied some Banana Boat Sport aerosol sunscreen, walked over to his charcoal grill, and was engulfed in flames. He ended up with second-degree burns on his upper body. Way more painful than a sunburn…but no excuse to skip putting on sunscreen. [More]
Study Says FDA Could Be Doing Better At Publicizing Drug Recalls
By 6.5.12
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalls drugs that could be harmful around once a month, a new study says the agency has room for improvement when it comes to publicizing those recalls and informing doctors and patients about them. [More]
Big Corn Still Believes We Are All So Very Confused About HFCS
By 5.31.12
Yesterday, the FDA concluded its 20-month review of a petition by the Corn Refiners Association to change the name of high fructose corn syrup to “corn sugar,” with a pretty solid “no.” Not surprisingly, the CRA says regulators have done you, the American consumer, a disservice by denying the petition. [More]
FDA: High Fructose Corn Syrup Isn't "Corn Sugar"
By 5.30.12
Dealing what is surely a mighty blow to those in the corn industry hoping to improve the image of high fructose corn syrup, the Food and Drug Administration has denied the Corn Refiners Association’s petition to rename HFCS as “corn sugar.” [More]
New Tide Pods Box Will Aim To Keep Kids From Feeding On Detergent
By 5.25.12 — Updated: 5.15.15
It looks like 2012 is the year of Tide. First, it was revealed that the detergent is being heisted for use as currency by unseemly folks. Now the makers of Tide are having to change their packaging for Tide Pods because kids want to put the colorful, shiny detergent packs in their mouth. [More]
9-Year-Old Shames School Into Healthier Food With Blog About Its Lacking Lunches
By 5.24.12
Here at Consumerist, we know a little something about publicly shaming big, bad companies into doing right by customers. But apparently, it works on other levels as well — say, a 9-year-old girl blogging about her terrible lunches at her school in Scotland. [More]
FDA Still Not Sure Why Chinese Jerky Made 1,000 Dogs Sick
By 5.23.12
Pet owners think that we’re doing our pets a favor by purchasing treats for them that are just pure dried meat: no flour, no soy, no additives, just meat. But these treats may not be as healthy as they seem. Many dog owners claim that these treats have made their pets ill with problems ranging from diarrhea to kidney failure, and many animals have died. The Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate, even sending inspectors to the production facilities in China, but can’t determine what causes the illnesses. [More]
For Some Reason The Idea Of Cat Tongue Candy Is Less Than Appetizing
By 5.16.12
How about biting into a nice chocolatey piece of candy resembling a rough cat tongue suitable for licking up hair and dirt from a furry pelt? Yum? We’re always amazed at what companies come up with that somehow made it first into the “Yes!” bin of ideas and then end up on store shelves. Cat Tongue candy, you might be the weirdest thing yet. [More]
