Archives
Peering Into Brown Sauce
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Friday, February 27, 2009 - 2:04pm
What the hell is "brown sauce," and why would anyone want to eat it?
That's one question posed by footnoted.org's Michelle Leder on Friday. McDonald's in the United Kingdom serves its Bacon Roll with a choice of ketchup (OK) or brown sauce (eww).
Cheap Chic Backfires for Target
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009 - 2:14pm
Target is planning a major expansion of its food offerings—adding many more perishable items like fresh meat and produce—as a way to compete better with Wal-Mart and to increase the number of trips each customer makes to its stores.
Food Biz Still Cooking
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, February 25, 2009 - 1:59pm
After Kraft's and Sara Lee's recent disappointing results, it may have appeared that even food companies can't escape the recession.
But a look at the earnings reports of several food companies this week shows that Kraft's and Sara Lee's problems are mainly internal. For the most part, the food business is, as usual, recession-resistant.
Foodies Cheer USDA Prime Choice
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Tuesday, February 24, 2009 - 2:04pm
Among "sustainable food" advocates, the reaction to President Obama's choice of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture has been tepid at best.
But as Tom Philpott of Grist noted on Tuesday, it's the deputy secretary "who typically gets things done and sets the tone for the department."
The Value of Variety
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Monday, February 23, 2009 - 2:13pm
I learned the other day that you can get Procter & Gamble's Bounce fabric softener sheets in any one of five "scent levels," from unscented "Level 0" to, I presume, gag-inducing Level 4. But the variations don't stop there. There is Bounce with Febreze, Bounce Pure Essentials, and a new product called Bounce Awakenings.
Wine Industry Escapes Glut
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Friday, February 20, 2009 - 2:14pm
California's wine glut is apparently over, which comes as a huge relief to an industry whose sales are falling along with prices.
Michael Eisner's Candy Nipples
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 3:12pm
Margo G. Wootan has a message for former Disney chief Michael Eisner. "I think I speak for millions of parents," she wrote to him in an open letter, "when I say: Mr. Eisner, please keep your candy nipples out of our children's mouths."
Baby Bottle Pop candy
There Is No "McDonald's America" and "Starbucks America"
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 1:58pm
We are constantly confronted by false choices: Are you conservative or liberal? Do you prefer Letterman or Leno? You either shop at Barnes & Noble or at an indie bookshop. "Free trade" is either an unalloyed good or destroying society. You must take sides, whether or not there really are two "sides" to any particular question, which there usually aren't.
The Fall of Milk
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 12:33pm
You may enjoy the reverse sticker shock you experience when you buy milk these days. Prices are way down. But that falling price indicates pretty much the same thing as the falling Dow: economic mayhem. Sorry for the buzz-kill.
Starbucks Goes Instant
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Friday, February 13, 2009 - 2:27pm
Much of the media reaction to Via, Starbucks' forthcoming instant-coffee product, has tended to characterize the introduction as an example of Starbucks slumming it, trying to attract or retain price-conscious consumers.
The Chicken Coop Mortgage Bubble
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 12:45pm
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday examined a mortgage bubble that until now hasn't gotten much attention: the once-booming market for chicken housing. As the market for chicken has imploded, putting top producer Pilgrim's Pride into bankruptcy, many chicken farmers find themselves unable to pay their mortgages, which can run into the high six figures.
Jarred Peanut Butter Punished
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 4:47pm
The tomato business lost about $500 million last year after the Food and Drug Administration mistakenly fingered it as the source of the last big salmonella outbreak. It turned out that Mexican peppers were to blame. The tomato business still hasn't completely recovered.
Peanut Corp. Owner Takes the Fifth
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 1:33pm
Stewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corp. of America, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in refusing to testify before the House energy and commerce committee on Wednesday during a hearing on the salmonella outbreak. Plant manager Sammy Lightsey also took the Fifth.
Here Come Lower Grocery Prices
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 2:08pm
Grocers, faced on one hand with consumers demanding lower retail prices and on the other hand with suppliers hesitating to reduce wholesale prices, have embarked on a "price war" that threatens to do big damage to many of them.
The Exploding Sugar Disaster
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Friday, February 6, 2009 - 1:43pm
As members of the Senate agriculture committee spent Thursday decrying the fact that the Food and Drug Administration is apparently unable to keep us safe from diseased peanut butter, the anniversary of another disaster, also caused in part by toothless regulatory agencies, was fact approaching.
Social Media Saves Lives
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 11:34am
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is getting all Web 2.0 on us with a "Social Media Page" that provides all kinds of tools—ranging from highly useful to quite silly—for tracking information about the peanut recalls.
A Better Way To Recall
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - 1:22pm
Here's a good idea: The Center for Science in the Public Interest thinks that supermarkets should use the data they collect through discount cards to alert consumers that they may have purchased tainted food.
The cards are used for all kinds of marketing purposes. Adding customer notification to the mix shouldn't be very expensive, and it could actually save lives.
Texas Defies Restaurant Recession
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Tuesday, February 3, 2009 - 2:35pm
Nationally, the restaurant business is swooning, with industrywide performance hitting a record low last month. But in Texas, sales at restaurants are expected to rise 4 percent this year.
Inspectors, Rats, and Roaches
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Monday, February 2, 2009 - 12:24pm
The trouble with the Food and Drug Administration's policy of leaving enforcement of its regulations to the states is that the agency really has no control over how inspections are carried out, or by whom.
The Associated Press sent reporters Kate Brumback and Greg Bluestein to Blakely, Ga., the site of the peanut-processing plant that is the origin of the salmonella outbreak that has killed several people and sickened hundreds of others. Here's what they learned:
