Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: food industry

food industry stories: 27 news summaries

1 - 20 of 27 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

Switch to grid view »

OPINION

Pollan's 'Rules to Eat By' Hard to Swallow

'Wise ancestors' Pollan advises emulating would have loved a Whopper

Oct 15, 09 4:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Food industry critic Michael Pollan is compiling a book of "Rules to Eat By"—like "If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry"—but his advice that you rely on your ancestors' wisdom for your eating decisions tastes a little off to... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food • nutrition • fast food • supermarket • Michael Pollan • food industry



 Starbucks 
 Goes Instant 

Company has high hopes for new $1 powdered coffee

Sep 29, 09 6:59 AM CDT
(Newser) - Following a three-city test run, Starbucks is rolling out its new Via coffee across the country today, offering java-fiends an instant brew that costs less than a buck—and is purported to taste just as good as the real thing. The recession-hit coffee chain is selling the powder in Target... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Howard Schultz • Starbucks • Costco • coffee • United Airlines • Target • food industry

Nestle Buys Milk From Farms Mugabe Seized

Zimbabwean leader's wife sells 265K gallons a year to food giant

Sep 28, 09 4:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - Nestle is buying up to 265,000 gallons of milk a year from a Zimbabwean farm seized from white landowners and now owned by the wife of Robert Mugabe. Grace Mugabe has taken over at least six of the country's most valuable farms, reports the Telegraph. As a Swiss... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Zimbabwe • Robert Mugabe • milk • Nestle • food industry • Grace Mugabe

OPINION

 To Cut Health Costs,  
 Fix the Food Industry 

Obesity 'accounts for nearly a tenth' of health-care spending

Sep 10, 09 1:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - There’s an “elephant in the room” when it comes to health care reform: American health care costs a bundle in large part because we’re so fat, writes Michael Pollan for the New York Times. President Obama has touched on the issue, but the country hasn’t, and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • food • health care costs • health insurance • diabetes • obesity epidemic • public health • health care reform • Michael Pollan • food industry

 Cadbury Shoots Down 
 $16.7B Kraft Takeover Bid  

Watchers suspect undervalued bid could be sweetened

Sep 7, 09 11:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Cadbury today rejected a $16.73 billion takeover bid from food giant Kraft, the Wall Street Journal reports. The candy maker has recently undergone restructuring and divestment that it says make it more valuable—and more attractive to suitors like Kraft. The Cadbury board says the offer “fundamentally... More »

MORE ABOUT:
mergers and acquisitions • Kraft Foods • takeover bid • food industry • conglomerate • candy company • Cadbury

OPINION

 Modern Farming Has 
 Lost Its Soul 

Family farms have a magic all their own—and can compete

Aug 23, 09 10:56 AM CDT
(Newser) - We know today’s food industry cranks out “unhealthy food, mishandles waste, and overuses antibiotics,” writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, but the heart of the matter is that today’s industrial farms have “no soul.” In a visit back to his old stomping... More »

MORE ABOUT:
agriculture • farming • farm • food industry • Nicholas Kristof • factory farm

Big Food Battles Big Sugar
to Cut Import Prices

Food firms warn of shortages if cheap foreign sugar blocked

Aug 13, 09 1:21 AM CDT
(Newser) - America could "virtually run out of sugar" if more cheap foreign imports aren't allowed in, some of the nation's biggest food companies warned Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack in a recent letter. The firms—which pay around twice the world market price for sugar because of tariffs to protect... More »

MORE ABOUT:
imports • tariffs • sugar • imported food • food industry

After E. Coli Outbreaks, Food Industry Looks to Tracing Tech

Labeling system would pinpoint the source

Aug 3, 09 1:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - In the wake of health scares like the 2006 E. coli outbreak traced to tainted spinach, the food industry is scrambling to reassure the public—and hoping to head off a congressional response, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Voluntary efforts are under way to make tracing easier. For example,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
E. coli • FDA • spinach • produce • food industry • HarvestMark

(Newser) - The FDA would gain broad new powers to oversee food safety under a far-reaching bill passed by the House yesterday, the Washington Post reports. The measure—representing the first major changes to food safety laws since the 1930s—would give the agency vastly increased oversight of the nation's food chain... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Congress • FDA • food contamination • House of Representatives • food safety • food industry

OPINION

Let's Do to Big Food
What We Did to Big Tobacco

'Big Food' and 'Big Tobacco' have a lot in common

Jul 24, 09 11:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - After decades of anti-smoking campaigns, Big Tobacco has been brought low and ashtrays have “gone the way of spittoons,” writes Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. It’s high time we gave Big Food the same treatment. “Now that two-thirds of Americans are overweight, the lethal... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • food • obesity epidemic • cigarettes • fast food industry • food industry • Big Tobacco

 Tough Times 
 Push Chains to 
 Try New Fare 

McDonald's classy coffee, grilled KFC widen menus

May 27, 09 10:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - Desperate times are driving chain restaurants to desperate measures—straying from their bread-and-butter dishes and diversifying the menu. KFC now sells grilled chicken, Domino’s offers subs, and McDonald’s dips into the world of espresso coffee, USA Today reports. “This is a defining moment for the industry,"... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Pizza Hut • Domino's Pizza • fast food industry • KFC • chain stores • menu • food industry • Arby's • Boston Market • restaurant industry • National Restaurant Association

Sugar Makes Comeback on Corn Syrup's Bad Rep

Nutritionists slam food makers' efforts to sell sugar as the healthy choice

Mar 21, 09 5:50 AM CDT
(Newser) - Sugar, once a nutritional outcast, is back in fashion as American consumers start to turn away from high-fructose corn syrup, the New York Times reports. Manufacturers are rushing to replace the syrup—used in everything from soft drinks to spaghetti sauces—with sugar, and selling the switch as a move... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • sweetener • sugar • sugar substitutes • corn syrup • food industry

 Food Hazards Elude 
 Private Inspectors 

Food poisoning outbreaks traced back to dangers cut-price auditors missed

Mar 6, 09 6:43 AM CST
(Newser) - The job of monitoring America's food plants is falling more and more to private inspectors who often miss hazards, a New York Times investigation finds. Plants hire such auditors to reassure customers and reduce liability, but the companies often pick the cheapest and least rigorous audits available. Some of the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food poisoning • FDA • food contamination • food safety • salmonella • inspection • food industry • Peanut Corporation of America

 Mercury Found in Corn Syrup 

Researchers believe contamination comes from corn syrup

Jan 27, 09 8:11 AM CST
(Newser) - A test of some of America's most popular processed foods has turned up trace amounts of mercury, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. Researchers believe that the mercury, found in levels far lower than in seafood, comes from plants that use caustic soda laced with mercury to produce high-fructose corn syrup, widely... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food contamination • food safety • mercury • corn syrup • food industry • contaminants

 Calorie Counting 
 Makes a Comeback 

Get ready for sticker shock, as nutrition info hits menus

Oct 29, 08 11:25 AM CDT
(Newser) - Thanks to new laws, calorie counting is back in vogue and bigger than ever, writes the New York Times. After decades of diets that focused on the balance of fat, protein, and carbs, “More and more, people are looking at calories in, and calories out,” a doc tells... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obesity • food • diet • restaurant • calories • food industry • calorie-posting law

 Eat Less, Or the Icecaps Melt 

Meat a big climate change contributor, study finds

Sep 30, 08 1:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - To avoid catastrophic global warming, people need to cut way down on their meat and dairy consumption, a new report on climate change says. Four modest servings of meat and about a quart of milk a week are all we should be consuming, the Guardian reports. And the report urges... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • food • meat • dairy products • food industry • carbon emissions • food production

ANALYSIS

 As Food Prices Rise,
 Lobster Treads Water

In Maine at least, local economies dodge the perils of globalization

Aug 20, 08 12:43 PM CDT
(Newser) - As global demand drives food prices to new highs, there’s one high-end food item whose price is in decline, Daniel Gross points out in Slate: lobster. In Portland, Maine, a pound of lobster costs slightly more than a gallon of gasoline, a ratio that historically was more like 4-to-1.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food prices • speculation • supply and demand • food industry • lobster • global food crisis

Glossies

 Bluefin Tuna Tricked
 Into Spawning

Australian aims to overcome fish shortage by simulating breeding grounds

Aug 17, 08 7:22 AM CDT
(Newser) - A seafood entrepreneur thinks he can solve the world's bluefin tuna shortage by making the fish feel frisky, Time reports. German ex-pat Hagen Stehr, the baron of a $230-million Australian seafood empire, is simulating the tuna's breeding grounds in a hatchery—a "fishy virtual reality" with 14 hours of... More »

MORE ABOUT:
endangered species • environmentalism • tuna • fishing • sushi • food industry • overfishing

 Bankruptcy Shutters 
 Bennigan's, Steak & Ale 

Chapter 7 filings mean corporate-owned locations unlikely to reopen

Jul 29, 08 2:33 PM CDT
(Newser) - In a move that has hundreds of restaurants closed and thousands of workers laid off, casual-dining chains Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale filed for bankruptcy today, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources say the restaurants’ parent company—which violated a lending agreement this year—had put off declaring bankruptcy... More »

MORE ABOUT:
bankruptcy • restaurant • food industry • Bennigan's • Steak & Ale • Metromedia Restaurant Group • casual dining

'Whole Grain' Lawsuit Hits
at Truth About Health Food

Food industry accused of labeling products with only a grain of truth

Jul 23, 08 11:05 AM CDT
(Newser) - The food industry is coming under pressure to start telling the whole truth about whole grain products, BusinessWeek reports. Sara Lee, facing a lawsuit from a consumer advocacy group, has agreed to change the labels on its Soft & Smooth bread to reflect that it's made from just 30% whole... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food • nutrition • bread • food company • whole grains • food industry

1 - 20 of 27 Stories | 1 2 Next >>


from our news partners