Our monthly Recall Roundups have grown so expansive that we’ve had to separate them into two separate roundups: one for consumer goods, and one for consumables. In this edition of the Food and Drug roundup, dangers lurk everywhere, from uneviscerated herring to “all-natural male enhancement supplements” that are pretty much just Viagra. Yes, again. [More]
food
April Food And Drug Recall Roundup – Potato Chips With Salt And Vinegar And Metal Fragments
By 4.9.13
There Is Always A Best Way To Cook A Frozen Pizza
By 3.26.13 — Updated: 5.20.15
Looking to get the best culinary experience out of your frozen pizza? That’s not an oxymoron. The smell of tomato sauce and cheese is drifting down the hall from our colleagues at Consumer Reports, who compared the same pizza when cooked in a conventional oven and a microwave oven. Their goal was to figure out the best way to cook frozen pizzas for optimal texture and tastiness. [More]
The Difference Between Family Size And Party Size Doritos: One Ounce
By 3.14.13
Grocery shopping recently, reader Joseph noticed something interesting: there were two different types of Doritos bags on the shelf that were very close in size, but the same price. The Grocery Shrink Ray is nothing new, but the bags came in two varieties: the positively economical seventeen-ounce “Family Size,” then the small and portable sixteen-ounce “Party Size.” Wait, what? [More]
February Food And Drug Recall Roundup – Antibiotic Pig Ear Edition
By 2.28.13
Chewy pig skins, chia seed treats, brownie mix, and herbal supplements that are a little too close to actual drugs: it’s all here, in the Food and Drug Edition of the Recall Roundup. [More]
Celeste Hawaiian Pizzas Add Some Pineapple, Still Have Sparse Toppings
By 12.27.12
Anh shares my inexplicable love of that cheap freezer case staple, the Celeste pizza-for-one. The just-spicy-enough sauce! The crunchy crust that the likely-carcinogenic microwaving disc provides! The $1 price point! It’s not wood-fired oven pizza, but it’s one of the most edible things that comes out of a box and gets cooked in the microwave. The current line of “limited edition” pizzas tempted Anh, and he opened up a Hawaiian pizza only to find that the toppings were sparse. And it made him sad. Mama Celeste had finally steered him wrong. [More]
Gird Your Stomachs For A World Where Eating Ground-Up Mealworms Could Be The Norm
By 12.21.12
How do you prefer your burgers? Beef, cooked medium rare with a nice slice of cheese and avocado? How about with lettuce, tomato and a patty made from ground-up mealworms? Yeah, we know. But researchers say the global demand for animal protein is rising, even as using 70% of the world’s farmland for livestock is damaging the planet. And getting it from beetle larvae might just be our best, most sustainable bet. [More]
Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Cheese-Making Operation, Turophiles Rejoice
By 12.13.12
If you’ve ever read any other posts by yours truly on this site, you may have noticed I’ve got quite a thing for cheese (glorious cheese). Which is why I’m happy to report that scientists have finally found the source of so much joy for turophiles* everywhere— the oldest cheese-making operation in the world, dating back 7,500 years. [More]
Healthy Choice Lasagna Disappoints Hungry Office Worker
By 12.7.12 — Updated: 1.31.13
Amanda keeps some frozen meals stashed in her office freezer for emergency healthy lunch options. Her latest Healthy Choice meal isn’t really so “healthy,” and more “icky. Not that she expects her meal to look like the expertly-styled one on the box, but she does expect it to look and taste edible. That’s an unreasonable expectation, as it turns out. [More]
Court: Texas Roadhouse Doesn’t Owe Customer $150K For Hair-Stuffed Steak
By 12.7.12
A customer at a Wisconsin Texas Roadhouse restaurant complained that his steak was overcooked, and a spiteful staffer who thought he was lying to scam free food stuffed pieces of his facial hair inside the meat. The same employee later claimed to have stuffed a steak with pubic hair. This story may sound familiar to old-school Consumerist fans: we posted it in 2008, and it appeared on our list of all-time grossest food stories. The hairy steaks are in the news again. What’s happened in the intervening four years? Lawsuits. [More]
Guilt Makes For A Delicious Addition To Forbidden Foods When You’re On A Diet
By 12.4.12
When all you want, all you need is just a bite of smooth, creamy, calorie-laden chocolate ice cream and you’re not supposed to have it for whatever reason (dieting, it doesn’t belong to you), giving in to that impulse feel so guilty. And it’s so tasty, partly because it is forbidden, says a new study. Guilt makes for quite a heady addition to your favorite foods. Hence, guilty pleasures. [More]
Stockpiling Groceries Saves Money And Doesn’t Mean You’re A Crazy Person
By 11.29.12
When you hear someone mention that stockpiling food and toiletries might be a good idea, it’s not just because they’re watching a “Doomsday Preppers” marathon. I mean, they might be, but that’s not why creating your own grocery stockpile is a good idea. Building your own stash of food and toiletries keeps you prepared for natural disasters and financial crises, and lets you take advantage of stores’ normal sale cycles. [More]
Campbell’s Opens Pop-Up Hipster Soup Kitchens To Promote Soulless $3 Soup Pouches
By 11.14.12
Millennials, an age group roughly defined as “people who make the Consumerist editors feel old,” are a tough demographic to market to. How to reach them? “Free food” is usually a safe answer. That’s why Campbell’s is holding free soup events in big cities to promote their few products, $3 microwaveable soup pouches filled with the flavors foodies were crazy about in 2008. [More]
Sign At Denny’s Says It Won’t Honor Veterans Day Giveaway. Restaurant Says It Has No Idea How Sign Got There
By 11.12.12
There’s scandal and mystery surrounding the Denny’s in North Pekin, IL, today after a sign appeared on the restaurant’s door saying it wouldn’t be honoring the previously advertised pancake giveaway for Veterans Day. But the restaurant says it has no idea who put that sign on the door. [More]
Walmart Redesigns 5.3 Ounces Right Out Of Great Value Mashed Potato Box
By 11.8.12 — Updated: 11.9.12
An anonymous Walmart shopper stopped by to show us how a nice-looking redesign of the mega-retailer’s house-brand mashed potato flakes masks some shrinkage. Wally World took advantage of the packaging change to shave off 5.3 ounces of dehydrated potato goodness. Of course, the box looks the same size from the outside. It’s still a great value. Just a little less great than before, perhaps. [More]
Now At Walmart: Gingerbread Oreos
By 11.2.12 — Updated: 5.9.16
Here’s one bit of early Christmas merchandise that we’re not going to complain about. For once. Hitting shelves now, only at Walmart, introducing… gingerbread-flavored Oreos. [More]
Why Isn’t Jif’s Natural Peanut Butter Spread Labeled Just ‘Peanut Butter?’
By 10.18.12 — Updated: 9.26.13
Kate was confused at the grocery store. Side by side on the shelf were regular old Jif peanut butter and Jif’s “natural” peanut butter. Only the “natural” stuff was labeled “peanut butter spread,” while the standard, presumably less natural, Jif got to call itself peanut butter. “It makes me wonder, what about ‘natural’ makes it less than true peanut butter?” she wrote to us. “Why does it need to be called ‘peanut butter spread’, when traditional, sugar filled, [Jif] can be called ‘peanut butter’? Shouldn’t the natural product version be truer to the genuine article?” That would be the intuitive answer, wouldn’t it? It’s the requirements of the Food and Drug Administration that keep the “natural” variety of Jif from being declared plain old peanut butter. Here’s the relevant part of the FDA standards for peanut butter: [More]
Science Totally Ruins Things For Everyone By Saying The 5-Second Rule Isn’t Really True
By 10.18.12
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dropped food — on the floor at home mostly, maybe sometimes in the street — and depending on what kind of substance it was, shrugged, cited the “five-second rule” and picked it back up. I’ve never gotten sick from doing so, but now science has cracked that whole way of life wide open and said that actually, germs can totally stick to food within five seconds. Nooo! [More]
Tuna Cannery Worker Cooked To Death In Massive Steam Oven
By 10.15.12
The family of a 62-year-old employee of Bumble Bee Foods wants people to remember how hard he worked to support his family and the pride he took in his lawn, and not the tragic and horrible way that he died on the job. That’s completely understandable, but it’s hard to ignore the man’s death, an industrial nightmare. [More]
