Posts

Nationwide Recall over Everyday Food

/0 Comments/in , /by

Utz® Quality Foods, LLC, is voluntarily recalling select expiration dates of some Golden Flake, Good Health, Utz and Weis Brand Tortilla Chip items due to potential contamination of undeclared milk allergen. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products . . .

The recall affects products sold in retail outlets in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia are all included in the recall.

The other states affected are Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia . . .

Consumers are urged NOT to eat the products subject to this recall. Consumers who purchased the recalled product may return it to the store where it was purchased for a full refund or exchange, or they may simply discard it. (Read more from “Nationwide Recall over Everyday Food” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Senate Confirms Trump’s Nominee to Lead Food and Drug Administration

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Senate confirmed Dr. Scott Gottlieb to lead the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday, filling in the list of presidential appointments at the Department of Health and Human Services.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for commissioner of food and drugs was confirmed by a vote of 57-42.

As commissioner of the FDA, Gottlieb, a physician, will report to Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and oversee the regulatory and approval process for new drugs.

Gottlieb was a senior FDA administrator under former President George W. Bush, and has advised the Department of Health and Human Services on health IT policy. He has written extensively on drug and health reform topics for a variety of journals and newspapers, and practiced internal medicine for many years.

Like other Trump nominees, Gottlieb has criticized the agency he will now lead. He once decried the “harmful culture” as damaging to the agency’s core mission. (For more from the author of “Senate Confirms Trump’s Nominee to Lead Food and Drug Administration” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

FDA Admits That Nearly 70% of U.S. Chickens Contain Cancer Causing Arsenic

/0 Comments/in , /by

(Editor’s note: Snopes contests this MSN article’s conclusion, stating that at one time chicken contained arsenic but that the sale of the arsenic-laced food additive was discontinued by Pfizer in 2011) I don’t know about the rest of you, but lately my poultry purchases at my local market have become more and more of a ‘hit-and-miss’ situation, with more ‘misses’ if I’m being honest. As I bite into my homemade chicken nuggets or Coq au Vin (when I’m feeling fancy) I can’t help but feel that the chicken just tastes weird, stringy, just…funny. So a few days ago when I turned on the tube and saw the news headlines stating that the FDA has finally confirmed that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, my head, and stomach, nearly hit the roof. This cancer-causing toxic chemical, that in high doses could kill you, is actually being added to chicken feed on purpose, giving store-bought chicken the illusion of healthy coloring and plump appearance. Shockingly, this is the case with more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens! That is just awful! . . .

So, the next time you’re out buying chicken (if you’re not totally put off by it at this point) make sure you look out for the following:

-If the chicken meat is bright pink in color, like in an unnatural way, avoid it at all costs.

-Make sure that the fat content on the chicken is white to deep yellow, not gray or pasty.

(Read more from “FDA Admits That Nearly 70% of U.S. Chickens Contain Cancer-Causing Arsenic” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

This Is the Disgusting Thing Your Vegetarian Hot Dog May Contain

/0 Comments/in , /by

Think you’re making the healthy choice by picking a vegetarian hot dog? Check the brand you’re buying: A new report found that 10 percent of the vegetarian hot dogs tested contained meat, including chicken in a vegetarian breakfast sausage and pork in a vegetarian hot dog.

But that’s not all. Clear Food, a company that genetically tests food products, looked at 345 hot dog samples from 75 brands, including meat-based and meat-free franks. Of those 345 hot dogs, 14.4 percent had some sort of issue, be it a labeling inaccuracy or hygiene problem . . .

Even grosser: 2 percent of all samples were found to have traces of human DNA in them. Veggie dogs were the worst off, accounting for 67 percent of the hygiene issues and two-thirds of the human DNA found.

The good news: As bad as some brands were found to be, there are some trustworthy options out there. The report lists the soy chorizo and meatless corn dogs at Trader Joe’s as safe picks for vegetarians, and Taveritte’s, Whole Foods’ 365 brand, Aidell’s, Hebrew National, Ball Park, Oscar Mayer, and Johnsonville for meat eaters. (Read more from “This Is the Disgusting Thing Your Vegetarian Hot Dog May Contain” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

You’ll Never Guess What Burger King’s Halloween Burger Does to You

/4 Comments/in , /by

The scariest part of Burger King’s Halloween Whopper doesn’t happen until after you eat it.

Something in the burger’s pitch-black bun turns eaters’ poop a ghastly bright green — sometimes for as long as three days . . .

Not everybody was amused by the frightening after-effects of the Halloween treat, with some even vowing to never eat the burger again.

“Yesterday I had the Halloween Whopper,” added Daniel Rodriguez. “Today my poop is green. Yesterday was the last time I’ll have the Halloween Whopper.”

It is unclear what ingredients in the black Whopper turn stool such a haunting color, but a spokesperson for the fast food giant told ABC news that the bun contains less than 1% food dye. (Read more from “You’ll Never Guess What Burger King’s Halloween Burger Does to You” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Deemed Racist

/35 Comments/in , /by

Oh the times we live in where food can be deemed racist. In a move Oprah would be proud of, Principal Verenice Gutierrez, of the Harvey Scott K-8 School in Portland, has labeled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as racist.

Apparently, in a move distinguished by the superintendant of the school, an effort was made to, “improve education for students of color.”

Tell me, how does the lunch selection improve the implementation of education?

This is so far beyond politically correct it’s dumfounding. Gutierrez has determined that the fact that the PB&J is on bread, it leads to cultural sensitivity . . .

The principal states that certain students that belong to minorities, take for example, “Somali or Hispanic students,” may not have culturally eaten bread, but instead used things like torta, or pitas. (Read more from “Peanut Butter and Jelly Deemed Racist” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fabrizio Costantini for NYTSeeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

As the movement struggles to find pressure points in its quest for substantially higher wages for workers, organizers said strikes were planned for the first time in cities like Charleston, S.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Pittsburgh.

The protests have expanded greatly since November 2012, when 200 fast-food workers engaged in a one-day strike at more than 20 restaurants in New York City, the first such walkout in the history of the nation’s fast-food industry.

“There’s been pretty huge growth in one year,” said Kendall Fells, one of the movement’s main organizers. “People understand that a one-day strike is not going to get them there. They understand that this needs to continue to grow.”

The movement, which includes the groups Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, is part of a growing union-backed effort by low-paid workers — including many Walmart workers and workers for federal contractors — that seeks to focus attention on what the groups say are inadequate wages.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Dog-Eat-Dog World

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Vanderlei Almeida

If the package of dog food that you regularly purchase for your dog had a picture of a dead dog on the front accompanied by the words, “Fortified with 100 percent natural dog meat!” would you still buy it? Probably not. And yet this might very well be what you are scanning at the grocery store checkout and scooping into your dog’s bowl.

Dog food is made from many strange things, only a few of which are evident in the list of ingredients. The packaging tends to depict fat, healthy chickens; vegetables that look like they ought to win a ribbon at the county fair; and either thick, juicy steaks or sedate-looking cows. But at around $15 for a 15-pound bag of dry food, nobody is spending enough money to turn a T-bone into dog food. The stuff that ends up in dog food is material that can’t be sold as food for humans. We have different standards for what our animals eat from what we would put in our own mouths, but where should we draw the line?

Under Food and Drug Administration regulations, only about 50 percent of a cow can be sold for human consumption. The hide, bones, digestive system and it contents, brain, feces, udders, and various other undesirable parts are all left over after a cow is slaughtered and butchered. The stuff that can’t even go into hotdogs gets consolidated and shipped to rendering plants. Slaughterhouses that handle pigs and chickens also send their leftovers to rendering plants. So do many other facilities that find themselves with large volumes of otherwise unusable dead animal parts, including animal shelters and veterinary clinics that euthanize a lot of animals.

Read more from this story HERE.

Remote Alaska to Stockpile Food, Just in Case

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo credit: Christie 13

Alaska is known for pioneering, self-reliant residents who are accustomed to remote locations and harsh weather. Despite that, Gov. Sean Parnell worries a major earthquake or volcanic eruption could leave the state’s 720,000 residents stranded and cut off from food and supply lines. His answer: Build giant warehouses full of emergency food and supplies, just in case.

For some in the lower 48, it may seem like an extreme step. But Parnell says this is just Alaska.

In many ways, the state is no different than the rest of America. Most people buy their groceries at stores, and rely on a central grid for power and heat. But, unlike the rest of the lower 48, help isn’t a few miles away. When a fall storm cut off Nome from its final fuel supply last winter, a Russian tanker spent weeks breaking through thick ice to reach the remote town.

Weather isn’t the only thing that can wreak havoc in Alaska, where small planes are a preferred mode of transportation and the drive from Seattle to Juneau requires a ferry ride and 38 hours in a car. The state’s worst natural disaster was in 1964, when a magnitude-9.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami killed 131 people and disrupted electrical systems, water mains and communication lines in Anchorage and other cities.

“We have a different motivation to do this, because help is a long ways away,” said John Madden, Alaska’s emergency management director.

Read more from this story HERE.