When you want to grab a quick dinner, where do you go? An increasing number of Americans go to their local supermarket, not to a restaurant, to buy fresh prepared food to take home. This is a profitable business for grocery and big-box stores, but also leads to problems: serving ready-to-eat food means that they risk serving ready-to-eat pathogens, too. [More]
whole foods
Grassfields Farms Cheese Sold At Whole Foods Recalled For Possible E. Coli
By 8.4.16
Cheese is one of our favorite foods here at Consumerist, but its creamy deliciousness doesn’t make it immune to some very unappetizing foodborne pathogens. Grassfields Cheese, a small producer in Michigan, has announced a recall of all cheeses produced between December 2015 and August 2016 because they have been linked to E. coli infections. [More]
USPTO: Whole Foods Can’t Prove It’s The “World’s Healthiest Grocery Store”
By 7.28.16
If you want to go around telling everyone you’re the best cheese-eater this side of the Mississippi, well, that’s one thing. But if you’re a major grocery chain, you can’t just claim to be the world’s healthiest without the proof to back that up. [More]
Why Are Millennials Flocking To Aldi Over Whole Foods?
By 6.21.16
Despite opening a new, hipper version of its typical stores, Whole Foods doesn’t appear to be making much headway in turning around its slumping sales. In fact, customers are actually heading to discount retailer Aldi. But why? [More]
Customer Who Claimed Whole Foods Cake Featured Anti-Gay Slur Apologizes, Drops Lawsuit
By 5.16.16
A Texas pastor who had accused Whole Foods workers of adding an anti-gay message on a cake he ordered has dropped his lawsuit against the grocery chain, and offered up an apology for the apparent hoax. [More]
FBI Nabs Guy Suspected Of Spraying Mouse Poison On Food At Several Michigan Stores
By 5.4.16
Police in Michigan and the FBI say they’ve got a man in custody who admitted to spraying a mixture of mouse poison, hand cleaner, and water on produce and other unpackaged food at several grocery stores. [More]
FBI Looking For Guy Seen Sprinkling Mystery Liquid On Food At Michigan Whole Foods
By 5.2.16
If you’ve been walking around at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor, MI and sprinkling some kind of liquid on the food, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would like a word. [More]
Whole Foods Countersuing Customer Who Claimed Cake Featured Anti-Gay Slur
By 4.20.16
Earlier this week, a Texas pastor sued Whole Foods, claiming that a cake he bought from one of the chain’s locations bore an anti-gay slur on the top. Whole Foods is flipping the situation around now, and has filed a countersuit accusing the customer of perpetrating a hoax. [More]
Whole Foods’ First 365 Store Opening May 25 In California
By 4.7.16
Nearly a year after Whole Foods announced the five cities that would become home to its new line of lower-cost stores, the company has revealed just when the first of those stores will open: next month. [More]
Whole Foods Shopper Says He Found Animal Bone In Trail Mix
By 3.23.16
A New Jersey man who bought trail mix from Whole Foods says his snack came with an extra, unexpected crunch: the bone of an animal mixed in with the dried fruit and nuts. [More]
Whole Foods Asks Judge To Put The Kibosh On Lawsuit Over “Natural” Label On Baked Goods
By 3.11.16
When it comes to products with labels reading “all natural,” are you willing to pay more than you would otherwise? Whole Foods customers who have filed lawsuits against the grocery chain said they paid a premium price for baked goods that were falsely labeled as natural, as they actually contained synthetic ingredients. [More]
Whole Foods Installing Rooftop Solar Panels At Up To 100 Stores
By 3.8.16
Whole Foods has seen the light, and it’s getting soaked up by solar panels. The grocery chain says it’s installing solar units at up to 100 stores and distribution centers in nine states. [More]
Maytag Blue Cheese Recall Expands To Cover Hy-Vee Supermarkets
By 3.3.16
The recall of potentially listeria contaminated Maytag Raw Milk Blue Cheese expanded Thursday, as Hy-Vee announced it would voluntarily recall the product and remove it from shelves in 240 stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The cheese, produced by Maytag Dairy Farms, was sold in packages of crumbles, whole wheels, or cuts, and re-packaged in foil or clear plastic wrap with scale labels in various weights. The potential for contamination was discovered after testing by the state of Iowa revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in two lots of product. [FDA] [More]
Whole Foods’ New 365 Stores Might Include Tattoo Parlors Because Millennials
By 2.11.16
Everyone knows how annoying it is when all you want is a bunch of carrots, some celery, crusty bread, and body art that will never come off your skin without an expensive, painful removal process, and you just can’t find a one-stop shop for it all. Here comes Whole Foods with its new “365 by Whole Foods Market” stores, which may include in-house tattoo parlors, because that makes complete and total sense. [More]
Shoppers Still Think Whole Foods Is Too Expensive, Not Worth It
By 1.26.16
With more competitors in the market for healthy and organic foods, the grocery chain Whole Foods has had to lower its prices. The company is both planning a lower-priced offshoot chain and lowering prices in its current stores. According to a recent survey of their customers, that effort really isn’t paying off: customers still think that the chain is expensive and not worth the extra cost. [More]
Whole Foods Recalling Frozen Pork Pepperoni Pizzas For Masquerading As Beef Pepperoni Pizzas In New England
By 1.26.16
Labels are very important when it comes to food, considering most of us do not have X-ray vision that allows us to scan products with our eyes and know exactly what ingredients those items contain. That’s why Whole Foods is recalling a bunch of frozen pizzas on the East Coast: some pies labeled as containing “uncured beef pepperoni” are actually covered in pork pepperoni. [More]
Whole Foods Will Pay $500,000 Settlement To NYC, Submit To Audits
By 12.28.15
For the last half of 2015, Whole Foods has been coping with the fallout from admitting that yes, its stores in New York City priced some items that were packaged and weighed in the store incorrectly. After paying an $800,000 settlement last year in California for pretty much the same thing, Whole Foods has will pay the penalty and submit to quarterly audits. [More]
Here’s Why Costco And Whole Foods Made Consumer Reports’ 2015 Naughty List
By 11.23.15
Every year, Santa Claus makes a master list of which children have been naughty or nice in the preceding year, and rewards them accordingly. Our sibling publication, Consumer Reports, makes its own list of judgement, deciding whether companies, not individuals, have behaved themselves in the past year. The list isn’t an overall evaluation of the company’s products or practices, but a way to call out out specific examples of admirable or deplorable behavior from the last year. [More]
