While I’ve been known to enjoy the occasional hot dog with cheese, I’ve never quite understood the appeal of those hot dogs that come pre-loaded with cheese inside the wieners. And while I’d be a bit annoyed to find out that someone at the factory had goofed and put cheese dogs in the packaging of regular ol’ hot dogs, it would be a much bigger problem for those who are allergic to dairy. [More]
unacceptable food
Uncle Ben’s Rice Recalled Following Multiple Illnesses At Schools
By 2.10.14
The makers of Uncle Ben’s rice have recalled various versions of the product that were only sold on the wholesale market following multiple incidents where numerous people fell ill after eating the rice at school lunchrooms. [More]
New From Cadbury: Milk Chocolate Bar With Wasp
By 1.28.14
How does a wasp end up embedded in a chocolate bar? Cadbury isn’t sure, and neither is the person who allegedly found the insect in his snack. [More]
Ex Trader Joe’s President To Sell Food Past Its Sell-By Date, But Don’t Call It ‘Expired’
By 1.22.14
For months, grocery business watchers have been waiting for the eventual opening of The Daily Table, a store created by former Trader Joe’s president Doug Rauch that will offer food items beyond their “sell by” dates. The problem, says Rauch, isn’t getting the food, it’s convincing consumers that it’s safe to eat. [More]
Pret A Manger Customer Not Pleased With Free Frog In Her Salad
By 12.31.13
Isn’t it a good thing when you get a bonus item with your lunch? Not when that bonus item is a dead, uncooked frog hanging out in the middle of the bowl. That’s what a Wall Street Journal staffer allegedly found in her bowl at a Manhattan Pret-a-Manger. It was a tuna salad. Not a frog salad. We cannot emphasize this enough. [More]
Consumer Reports Finds Potentially Harmful Bacteria All Over Chicken Breasts
By 12.19.13
While hundreds of people around the country were getting sick from the recent salmonella outbreak, our co-workers at Consumer Reports just happened to be looking into the tiny life forms clinging to that popular poultry offering, the chicken breast. The results — that potentially harmful bacteria are lurking on and in almost every single chicken breast for sale at the supermarket — may not shock you, but they do highlight the growing concern over everything from what chickens are fed to how their meat is handled and prepared. [More]
Big Meat & Big Pharma Pleased As Punch With FDA’s Pointless New Antibiotic Guidelines
By 12.13.13
Yesterday, the FDA came out swinging (with a Wiffle ball bat) against the medically unnecessary use of antibiotics in animal feed (by politely asking the drug companies that make piles of cash off these drugs to please stop selling so many of them to farmers just to encourage tissue growth). To demonstrate just how weak this (in)action is, one need look no further than the enthusiastic response from the nation’s huge meat and drug companies. [More]
Your Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich Should Not Be Served Medium Rare
By 10.25.13
A frequent knock against fast food chicken is that it’s dry and overcooked. But a leathery slab of chicken would be preferable to this pink-in-the-middle sandwich some unlucky Wendy’s customer bit into. [More]
Was McDonald’s Worker Who Served Up Raw Burger Targeting Cop Or Just Incompetent?
By 10.18.13
A police officer in New Hampshire visited the drive-thru window at his local McDonald’s while working the night shift. He ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese, and a photo he took shows a gross uncooked or undercooked bottom patty. He says that he became ill a few hours later. Those are the facts that no one is really disputing. The question is: did the worker preparing his burger deliberately give him gross food because he’s a cop? [More]
Jury: No Damages For Allegedly Rat-Infested Lemonade
By 9.26.13
How does a dead, decomposing rat end up in a can of frozen lemonade? It doesn’t, argued Coca-Cola, parent company of Minute Maid, defending itself in a civil lawsuit in New Hampshire this week. A woman claimed that the frozen lemonade she bought for a party contained a rat with a side helping of maggots, and the experience has left her unable to buy frozen food. [More]
New Law Would Modernize Nutrition Labels, Clarify Terms Like “Healthy” & “Natural”
By 9.19.13
While food production has gotten more sophisticated and complex, and we now know much more about how the human body is affected by a wide variety of ingredients, there haven’t been any changes to the food labeling provisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act since 1990, and some sections of the law have not been updated since 1938. So in an effort to bring nutrition labeling into the 21st century, lawmakers in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would require clear front-of-package labeling while clarifying when companies can use marketing buzz words that may be misleading. [More]
CDC: 2 Million Americans Get Sick From Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Every Year
By 9.16.13
While livestock farmers around the country continue to feed medically unnecessary antibiotics to their animals for the sole purpose of encouraging growth, millions of Americans are falling ill — and thousands dying — every year from bacterial and fungal infections that are resistant to current medication, claims a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. [More]
Is Climate Change Making Oyster-Eaters Sick?
By 9.11.13
Climate change and global warming have been blamed for a lot of things, but one possible link between warming sea water and food-borne illnesses could be awfully depressing to folks who enjoy chowing down on raw oysters. [More]
Do Food Regulators Care If Foreign Farmers Use Veterinary Drugs Banned In The U.S.?
By 8.21.13
Later this week, the United Nations food standards agency will be meeting in Minneapolis to discuss, among other things, standards for ten veterinary drugs that are banned for use in the U.S. but not globally. Fearing that continued use of these drugs by farmers in other countries could result in these banned chemicals still reaching the American market, a group of consumer advocates have called on federal regulators to not only take a tougher stance, but to stop encouraging the use of these drugs elsewhere. [More]
McDonald’s Driver Texts Customer To Ask If His Spit-Filled Meal Was Tasty
By 8.20.13
Some people like it when they get a follow-up call or e-mail from a business asking if they were were satisfied with their experience. That’s not so true for the McDonald’s customer in South Korea who got a text from a McDonald’s delivery driver asking him if he’d enjoyed the extra helping of saliva on his food. [More]
FDA Finally Realizes Maybe It’s Time To Do A Better Job Of Improving The Safety Of Imported Foods
By 7.26.13
Perhaps your kitchen is only stocked with locally sourced organic food, but around 15% of what Americans eat — including half the fresh fruit, one-fifth of fresh veggies and 80% of fish — comes from around 150 different countries. So, finally getting around to implementing changes mandated by the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration has proposed a couple rules aimed at beefing up controls on imported edibles. [More]
Trader Joe’s Customers: We Don’t Want Drugs In Our Meat
By 7.25.13
While many grocery store chains carry meat from animals that have been fed unnecessary antibiotics purely for the purpose of encouraging growth, the results of a new survey show that a large majority of all supermarket shoppers — but especially Trader Joe’s customers — would rather that their favorite food store stop carrying the drugged-up beef, pork, and poultry. [More]
Subway Employee Admits To Touching Bread With Penis, Says Photo Was Taken At Home
By 7.22.13
If the Taco Bell taco-licker wasn’t enough to put you off fast food for a while, now comes a photo posted by a Subway employee of a man touching a loaf of dough with his penis. But not to worry because the employee says this was done in the privacy of his own home. [More]
