FriendsEAT.com

Justice to Probe Monsanto Monopoly

2010-03-17T13:41:15Z

In January, the Justice Department launched a formal antitrust investigation of Monsanto’s genetically modified soybeans. In a follow-up move, on Friday, March 12, the Justice Department held the first of five so-called “workshops” in Ankeny, Iowa, to evaluate complaints about corporate monopoly in the seed, livestock and dairy industries by huge monoliths like Monsanto Co., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Dupont, and Tyson Foods Inc.

The remaining four workshops will be held at disclosed locations around the U.S, and will focus on poultry, dairy, livestock and discrepancies between farm and consumer prices.

Friday’s hearings — a standing-room-only gathering attended by farmers, academics, slaughterhouse workers, lobbyists, executives, corporate officials, labor and consumer groups — centered on Monsanto’s stranglehold on the seed industry and control of genetically engineered seed attributes inserted into virtually all U.S. crops. Farmers rightfully voiced concerns, claiming seed monopoly stifles competition, and has led to skyrocketing seed prices and crop price stagnation.

Four companies now process 80 percent of the beef consumed in the United States; Monsanto has unprecedented control of the corn and soybean market. Their Roundup Ready corn is now planted on nearly 80 percent of the farmland acreage in the U.S., and Monsanto’s soybeans, with their Roundup Ready gene, is in 93 percent of U.S. soybean seeds.

Also in attendance were Attorney General Eric Holder, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, and other Department of Justice and USDA officials. Varney recently filed a lawsuit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, challenging Dean Foods’ 2009 acquisition of Foremost Farms USA’s consumer Products Division.

Government officials pledged an in-depth examination of noncompetitive practices in agriculture that are driving small farmers out of business, and promised to aggressively enforce antitrust laws. But Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney told reporters at the workshop she didn’t want to link her investigations to the workshop itself. “Just becoming more knowledgeable about how an industry works can lead to action,” she said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Varney said she came up with the idea for the workshops a year ago during her nomination hearings, when Sen. Russ Feingold (D. Wis.) and other farm-state legislators complained the Bush administration permitted a merger wave among agricultural processors that undermined farmers. More than 15,000 people have submitted comments to the Justice Department on the workshops.

“We want everybody to have a fair shot,” said Holder. “Big is not necessarily bad, but big can be bad if power that comes from being big is misused. That is simply not something that this Department of Justice is going to stand for.”

“I’m here to tell you our current price discovery system for finished cattle and hogs is absolutely broken,” said Jim Foster, a hog producer from Montgomery city, Mo. “At least 90 percent of all market ready hogs are on the packer’s doorsteps with little competitive bidding.”

“What farmers need is opportunity that needs to be free of the corporations that control so much of the industry,” said Iowa farmer Ken Fawcett at the forum. “Corporations decide too much.”

American Antitrust Institute Vice President Diana Moss told Reuters there was no question that Monsanto enjoyed a monopoly in the seed business. “It is an inescapable fact,” Moss said, describing what she called an “illusion of choice.”

Monsanto and DuPont are suing each other over a biotech seed license, and both hired former Justice Department lawyers. “Monsanto’s seeds are so ubiquitous that they have become like AT&T’s telephone lines before the company’s 1984 breakup or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system in the 1990s,” said James P. Denvir, an attorney who represents DuPont.

While Monsanto has promised to allow generic versions of its products to emerge, Denvir said he is unconvinced that will happen without government intervention.

Because Monsanto will lose royalties, the company is desperate to lure seedmakers and growers to use the newer Roundup Ready 2 version before the Roundup Ready 1 patent expires in 2014. DuPont suggests Monsanto is using incentives and penalties to switch the industry to the new product to extend their Roundup Ready monopoly.

Here is a DOJ docuement on some of the history behind Monsanto’s rise to power:

More >>>

Related posts:
Monsanto Sues Germany Over GM Banned Corn

In 12 Days You’ll know What Monsanto & The FDA Don’t Want You To Know

Monsanto and Dole Join Forces on New Project

Monsanto VP May Run Food Safety Grp

Food, Lies, Monsanto — And The Food Safety Working Group

Restaurant Caught Serving Whale Sushi

2010-03-16T14:03:08Z

Whale meat for Sushi???

Remember that documentary film we talked about last time, The Cove? Well, it turns out that the people behind that movie are not yet through fighting oppression of poor water mammals. They tipped off the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the federal Customs and Border Protection agency that a Japanese restaurant in Santa Monica is serving whale meat along with their other exotic forms of sushi.

It was an operation worthy of a Mission Impossible movie, or so we’d like to think. Undercover agents and environmental advocates visited the Hump restaurant in the guise of being sushi-loving patrons and slipped the meat into their pockets instead of their mouths. These were then analyzed and all involved groups concluded that it was made up of [insert hair-raising theme song here] – the endangered Sei whale! The horror!

Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against the restaurant for violating the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The complaint charges the restaurant’s parent company, Typhoon Restaurant Inc. and its chef, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, with the illegal sale of a marine mammal product for an unauthorized purpose, a misdemeanor offense that carries a maximum statutory penalty of one year in federal prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 for an individual and $200,000 for an organization.The Hump’s lawyer Gary Lincenberg has issued a statement that the restaurant accepted responsibility for the wrongdoing and would agree to pay a fine and resolve the matter in court.

Meanwhile, one of the “good guys,” the United States attorney, André Birotte Jr. has this to say: “Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species.” Enough said.

[Source]

Interview with Chef Josh Ziskin of La Morra

2010-03-16T13:17:48Z

La Morra is one of Brookline’s favorite restaurant and is known for outstanding food. This is a direct result of having a husband and wife team working together to create an impeccable dining experience. Josh and Jen have a long history of working in the restaurant industry and took their passion one step further by moving to Italy. There they learned local techniques and dishes that they have brought back to Brookline to create a menu that pleases all. We recently had a chance to interview him to find out about his success.

FriendsEAT: Did you grow up cooking?

Chef Josh Ziskin: I started working in the restaurant industry when I was 15. It wasn’t until I lived on my own in college, that I truly developed my passion for cooking.

FE: Who in your life influenced your cooking the most?

CJZ: My mother is an amazing home cook, so I would have to say, she was my greatest influence.

FE: What made you decide to become a chef?

CJZ: After I graduated from Denver University’s Hotel and Restaurant management program, I worked in the front of the house at many Boston restaurants. I decided to go to culinary school and it was then, that I knew I belonged in the kitchen.

FE: What is the biggest misconceptions people have when coming into the field?

CJZ: They think that they will be a super star chef in 2 years.

FE: What tip would you give a novice?

CJZ: Season your food properly throughout cooking.

FE: What are your three favorite cooking tools?

CJZ: Truffle slicer, fish spatula, micro plane.

FE: What’s the funniest thing to happen in your kitchen?

CJZ: When one of the cooks was walking through the dining room with a bowl of whipped cream on a stack of plates. As he was walking, he tripped and the bowl fell on top of a party of four. The whipped cream covered the guests like a pie in the face.

FE: What is your favorite food to cook with?

CJZ: Seafood.

FE: And when you are at home, what do you like to eat?

CJZ: Roast Chicken

FE: Do you have a favorite cookbook?

CJZ: The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kaspe

FE: Is there a specific etiquette in your kitchen that you are specially proud of?

CJZ: Checking every dish before it goes out.

FE: We’d like to thank Chef Ziskin for his time and for sharing his scrumptious recipe:

Chef Josh Ziskin’s Polpette (Tuscan Meatballs)

Serves 8 to 10 as appetizer

Josh Ziskin, La Morra

INGREDIENTS:

5 LBS. Ground Beef

½ Loaf Bread (Cut in large cubes)

3 Cups Milk

2 Cups Parmigiano

4 Eggs

1 ½ Cups Dried Porcini Mushrooms

1/4 # Proscuitto (Thickly sliced and diced)

3 Cups White Wine

3 Cups Flour

PREPARATION:

Soak bread in milk until it is fully absorbed. Soak porcini mushrooms in water until hydrated and clean. Remove and chop. Mix all other ingredients and then add mushrooms and bread. Mix well. Roll onto desired size ball. Flour ball, and shake off the extra flour. Sear in a pan on all sides until lite brown. Add wine until it is ½ up the side of the meatball. Put in oven and bake at 400 degrees, until cooked through. Approximately 15 minutes.

Interview with Chef Thomas Marr of Pete’s New Haven Style APizza

2010-03-15T19:18:29Z

Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza recently made our list of the Top 100 restaurants Using Twitter. Since we already knew how they were using social media to build relationships with their client, we figured we should ask their Chef: Thomas Marr about the more important thing; food. You should know that this is no ordinary pizza place. Chef Marr is CIA trained and has worked at some fabulous places including National Gallery of Art – Washington DC; Flying Fish Café – Orlando, FL; Spiaggia – Chicago, Il and the Kenton House Hotel – London, England. Curious…read on.

FriendsEAT: Chef Marr, can you tell us a little more about the restaurant?

Chef Thomas Marr: We’re an Italian pizzeria and we use all-natural ingredients, locally sourced whenever possible. Our pizzas are large and fresh, made in the New Haven style (crust that is crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, with a balance of black and tan, spread out by hand – not roller – to preserve tiny air pockets, which become those wonderful black bubbles ringing the top of the crust). Desserts are developed and made in-house by a CIA-trained pastry chef, and in May we will begin making our own gelato in the store.

FE: Did you cook growing up?

CTM: Definitely! At about ten years old, I began helping with family dinners, starting some of the cooking even before my parents got home from work. It was a big part of my growing up.

FE: Who in your life has influenced your cooking the most?

CTM: I don’t think there is any single greatest influence for me. No doubt, I’ve been influenced by some great chefs: by working for them, and with them, and of course eating at their restaurants. I also developed much of my sensibility as a chef from visiting some of the simplest places: small chef-driven restaurants that put an emphasis on making the best use of what is immediately available.
I have also absorbed a great deal from my culinary travels in England, France and Italy, where I make it a point to find the small, family-owned places whose menus are filled with wholesome, locally developed items, and aren’t plated for style over substance.

FE: What made you decide you would become a professional cook?

CTM: I entered college expecting to study the law and eventually become a lawyer. But like a lot of young people starting out in college, two things were going on: One, I began to realize that my chosen field was not right for me. And two, I worked in restaurants to support myself, as I had done while in high
school. Fortunately for me, the chef I was working for at the time saw some potential and encouraged me to go to cooking school. I looked into several schools, eventually deciding on The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), which set me on the course of my career as a chef.

FE: What misconceptions do people have coming into the field?

CTM: Here’s a Washington DC answer to your question: It’s like the recent college graduate who gets an internship at the State Department and expects that they will some day be Secretary of State. Entering the field of professional cooking, many people believe that they’re going to become a celebrity
chef, establishing a nationally known restaurant, making appearances on television and writing books. Now, I don’t have anything against celebrity chefs; they’ve done a great deal to bring attention to the field and raise hopes and standards in kitchens across the country, from one-chef restaurants to large
institutional kitchens like the one that I ran at the National Gallery. But the reality on the ground is much more sobering. Most highly talented people who get into this business will never see the front end of a television camera. Celebrity chefs are the public face for an industry that includes many millions of very talented, hard-working men and women. Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Mario Batali and the other celebrity chefs spent many years cooking in the trenches before even becoming a leader in a kitchen, and many more still before achieving fame on television. New chefs should aspire to win the acclaim of their customers and the support of their community. Fame beyond that is gravy.

FE: Best cooking tip for a novice?

CTM: Use good pans and sharp knives. How simple is that!?

FE: Which three cooking tools or gadgets are your favorites?

CTM: Mandoline, silpats and my 10″ Wusthof Culinar.

FE: Funniest kitchen incident?

CTM: We’re entirely humorless in our kitchen. Just kidding.

FE: I’m sure you got plenty of funny stories…we’ll keep those to ourselves. And your favorite food to cook with?

CTM: Scallops. While we don’t use them at Pete’s, as a chef I’ve always loved developing menu items using scallops because they’re by far the most versatile food item you can build a dish around. You can use them in an appetizer or an entrée, prepare them cold or hot, and with a multitude of different ingredients to create widely differing dishes (citrus on the lighter side, or heavier ingredients like mushroom, truffle). When I’m looking to develop a great app or even an entrée, it’s my go-to.

FE: Mmmm, scallops, and when at home, what do you like to eat?

CTM: Admittedly, since we opened the restaurant, I’ve spent much less time in my kitchen at home than I would like. But we do love to grill out in the warmer weather. Bonus: my kids love to help with grilling! We grill pretty much everything, so I couldn’t pick one item. But I know my 6-year-old son Xander would say STEAK.

FE: Your favorite cookbook?

CTM: Le Guide Culinaire by August Escoffier.

FE: Is there a specific etiquette in your kitchen that you pride yourself in?

CTM: I just find it important to use products that I know are good for people.

FE: Can you share a recipe with our community?

CTM: Here is a pasta dish that has been quite popular for us at Pete’s:

Chef Thomas Marr’s Penne pasta with eggplant and tomatoes
FRESH PENNE 3 OZ
PLUM TOMATOES, DICED 3 OZ
ITALIAN EGGPLANT 3 OZ
FRESH MOZZARELLA 1.5 OZ
GARLIC, CHOPPED 1 CLOVE
OLIVE OIL 0.125 OZ
CHILI PEPPER .5 TSP
BASIL, CUT INTO STRIPS 4 LEAVES

Cut the eggplant into cubes, fry in canola oil on high heat until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Over medium high heat, cook garlic and chile pepper in oil for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Meanwhile cook the fresh penne in boiling salted water until al dente, about 3 minutes. In the pan with the tomatoes add the eggplant, mozzarella, pasta and toss together until cheese just starts to melt. Season to taste, at this point I usually add a little of the pasta water as well (a couple tablespoons). Arrange in a bowl and garnish with basil.

Note: I really love fresh pasta but I know it is not always available so feel free to use dry pasta.

Feeling hungry? Why not give Chef Marr a visit?

1400 Irving Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20010
(202) 332-7383

Support U.S. Fisherman – Purchase Wild American Shrimp

2010-03-15T15:28:26Z

Shrimps to help US Fishermen

Most of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. is imported from other countries. According to some estimates, only 10 percent of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. is caught or raised domestically.

Thailand alone accounts for more than 30 percent of the shrimp imported to the U.S, while the rest is gleaned from Central America, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. Despite the U.S. being one of the top five seafood exporters in the world, America recently surpassed Japan as the world’s largest seafood importer.

As a result, generations of U.S. shrimpers face financial ruin because of cheap, frozen imported shrimp glutting the American market. Foreign shrimp fisherman aren’t restrained from the bycatch laws American shrimp fishermen are required to follow, so unwanted marine creatures like turtles die needlessly in their fishing nets; American shrimp fishermen are required to use Turtle Exclusion Devices to stop turtles from being caught in the nets.

Additionally, American shrimp are free of the toxins contained in imported farmed shrimp which is full of antibiotics and pesticides.

Over the past decade, illegal fishing and decreasing rainfall in Central America has decimated shrimp and lobster populations. Mario Gonzalez, the regional director of the Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) claims underreported catches compound the problem. “You can say that in Central America 50 percent of our (fishing) production goes undeclared or not reported, not only by private fishermen but also by large fisheries.”

Gonzalez adds that “of the total amount delivered to fish processing plants, approximately 20 to 30 percent is illegal or undersized.”

El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama have recently banned lobster fishing from March 1 to June 30. The four-month ban is recognized by the Regional Ordinance for the fishing grounds of Caribbean Lobster, a regulation developed by the Central American Fishing and Aquaculture Organization (OSPESCA) and signed by Central American governments in May 2009.

Wild American Shrimp Inc., a nonprofit corporation, was created to help educate the food industry and consumers about the benefits of naturally raised domestic shrimp. “Buying wild shrimp will help preserve a way of life for the many Southerners who work in the industry. Shrimp is the key to the fisheries in the Southeast,” notes executive director Eddie Gordon. “If you take it away, you’re going to have whole communities collapsing.”

Gordon says farm-raised shrimp has a bland, non-taste to it while wild is sweeter and has a crisper bite. “Our wild shrimp is the shrimp most of us grew up eating. It comes from ‘God’s natural pond’ – the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf – and is lower in fat and cholesterol, and higher in protein and healthful omega-3 fatty acids than farm-raised shrimp.”

Look for a Wild American Shrimp certification mark on shrimp packages and restaurant menus, indicating that the shellfish come from the Gulf of Mexico or South Atlantic waters. “We hope to make this a trademark for quality and consistency similar to the name recognition associated with Angus beef, Vidalia onions and wild Alaskan salmon,” says Gordon. “We are optimistic that this program will wake the consumer up and get them to start asking questions.”

Food Editor Carole Kotkin, an accomplished chef, cooking teacher and author points out: “Globally, there are nine families of shrimp, comprising almost 1,600 individual species, with each offering a different flavor profile and texture composition. Best known are four categories of domestic warm water shrimp: white (actually pale gray in color), wild-caught off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida; wild-caught pinks from Key West and the Tortugas (they obtain their pretty color from the coral they eat); and wild brown-shelled with purple-colored tails from coastal regions along the Gulf of Mexico. Imported farm-raised shrimp are either black tigers (so-called because of their stripes) or white shrimp grown primarily in Asian countries.”

Carole Kotkin’s Shrimp Tips

- When buying shrimp, in addition to asking the fishmonger about appellation and harvesting method, be certain that it smells fresh with no off odors, especially ammonia or iodine. Also check the shells for yellowing, black spots or dry patches that indicate freezer burn.

- For the best flavor, buy shrimp that has not been pre-peeled. Peel them yourself and use the shells to make a shrimp broth. If you are grilling, leave the shells on to prevent the flesh from drying out.

- The intestinal vein should be removed because it can impart a bitter taste.

- Cook shrimp over low to moderate heat. They are usually done when they turn pink, about 1 to 2 minutes per side, based on size. Cut into one to make sure. – CK

Ready to cook, here are some delicious shrimp recipes.

Catch Them While You Still Can – Pop Up Restaurants

2010-03-15T14:24:25Z

Pop-up restaurants on the street

When recession struck last year, pay cuts and retrenchments became the trend. But good things can still be born out of devastation, like mushrooms can be produced out of fungus. So aspiring entrepreneurs and chefs who were searching for ways to conduct feasibility studies on new business ideas or gain exposure with what little they could scrape together invented the concept of pop-up restaurants. These are eateries that just popped out of nowhere, sprouting all over New York, and are in danger of disappearing in a poof of smoke anytime soon, so you had better try it now, folks!

There is something about the word “limited” that makes people want to buy something even if they wouldn’t have done so under normal circumstances. Like it’s telling you “I won’t be around for long, so better grab me while you still can.” It instills a “now or never” vibe, the same thing you feel when you go shopping abroad – you know you have to buy that thing you like because you can’t go back for it later and you certainly don’t want to regret not buying it when you’re already back home. This is one of the reasons why these pop-ups are such a huge hit.

Another reason is its exclusivity – not everyone knows about it and yet you stumbled upon it like an unexpected treasure. It’s that same feeling you get when a friend shares a secret with you, prefacing it with the words “you’re the only one I told this to” and you feel pleased that you know something that no one else does and you feel so smug about it until you find out from a common friend that he had also been told the same thing.

But then again, finding out about a juicy secret is also a great feeling, so if you want to know where the latest pop-ups are, you gotta stay attuned to Twitter.

Some notables of the pop-up kind that we discovered thanks to LA Times:

AsiaDog, at Trophy Bar, 351 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (347) 227-8515; asiadognyc.com. 7-11 p.m. Tuesdays starting about the first week of May. In the summertime, AsiaDog takes over Trophy Bar, a neighborhood watering hole in Williamsburg, on Tuesday evenings. It serves hot dogs topped with Asian-influenced condiments. One slathered with Japanese curry and housemade kimchi apples is popular, as is the bánh mi-style hot dog and the bulgogi-inspired burger. The atmosphere is low-key, like a casual backyard barbecue.

Bep at Simple Café, 346 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn; (718) 218-7067; beprestaurant.blogspot.com. Year-round on Monday, Thursday and Friday nights. At a little more than a year old, this Vietnamese restaurant operates out of an unassuming French coffee shop, Simple Café. Bep now takes over Simple Café three days a week. The menu is filled with fresh Vietnamese classics. Although the food is tasty, the allure, of course, is that it’s not really a restaurant. There’s no sign on the door announcing that it serves Vietnamese food.

Sandwiched, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., N.Y.; (212) 570-3600, www.whitney.org .The pop-up is open through May 30. Danny Meyer, one of the city’s biggest restaurateurs, has launched a pop-up restaurant at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial exhibition. For the duration of the exhibit — which runs until May 30 — the temporary restaurant is open inside the museum. Chefs from Meyer’s empire, such as Floyd Cardoz of Tabla and Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, have designed sandwiches for the menu, and pastry chefs from the restaurants have created sweets for the dessert list.

Do you know of any other must-try delicious mushrooms secrets pop-up restaurants? Please let us know in the comments section.

List of items in HVP Recall

2010-03-12T16:28:02Z

Trader Joe's is on the list

The FDA has compiled a list of the products involved in the 2010 Basic Food Flavors, Inc. HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein) recall. We’ll keep you updated as more items come to light. This list was the latest available at the time from the FDA website. We recommend to check FoodSafety.gov often for updates, we are certain that this list will keep growing.

So far there have been no reports of people being sickened from salmonella from Basic Food Flavor’s HVP. It looks like the FDA caught the problem before anyone got sick.

Most of us have not heard of HVP even though it is in most products found on supermarket shelves. HVP is short for hydrolyzed vegetable protein. It is used to add flavor to a great number of processed foods including but not limited to soups, hot dogs, chilis, stews, dips, salad dressings, gravies, frozen dinners, and lots of snack foods.

For some background on the HVP food recall story go here >>

Below is the list of products that are affected:

Soup/Soup Mix and Dip/Dip Mix Products

Johnny’s Fine Foods

French Dip Powder Au Jus in 6oz bottle and 1.1oz foil packets

T. Marzetti

Southwest Ranch Veggie Dip

Fat Free Southwest Ranch Veggie Dip

Spinach Veggie Dip

Spinach Veggie Dip, Epinards, Trempette A Legumes

Southwest Ranch Veggie Dip, Ranch style sud-ouest americain

Trempette A Legumes

Oak Lake Farms

French Onion Chip Dip

Great Value

Ranch Chip Dip

Castella

Chicken Soup Base 1 lb. plastic jar

Chicken Soup Base 25 lb. white bucket

Homemade Gourmet

Tortilla Soup Mix 1.96 oz packages

Tortilla Soup Mix 1.96 oz (55.6 g) pouch part of Let’s Make Dinner Collection

Tortilla Soup Mix 1.96 oz (55.6 g) pouch

Follow Your Heart

Beef Al Jus

Reser’s

Creamy Ranch Dip

Clam Dip

French Onion Dip

Cheese and Bacon Dip

Creamy Ranch Dip 8lb carton and 4oz plastic cup

Ranch Dip

Concord Foods

Foods Vegetable Dip Seasoning – Homestyle

McCormick

French Onion Dip Mix

Vegetable Dip Mix

Delicioso

Spinach Dip

De la Casa

Spinach Dip

Rojo’s

Garden Fresh Spinach Dip

Fresh Food Concepts

Garden Fresh Spinach Dip

Fresh Food Concepts

Spinach Dip with Real Yogurt

Healthwise

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Dean’s

Creamy Taco Dip

Green Onion Dip

Ranch Dip

Guacamole Dip in 12oz & 18 oz

Zesty Guacamole Dip in 12oz & 18 oz

French Onion Dip in 8oz & 16 oz

French Onion w/Bacon Dip in 8oz & 16 oz

Publix

Beef Flavored Stew Mix

Kroger

Onion Soup & Dip Mix

Beefy Onion Soup & Dip Mix

Mrs. Gerry’s

Crab Creole Spread

Old Fashioned Spinach Dip in 12/12oz & 2.5lb plastic container

Old Home Spinach Dip

Snack and Snack Mix

Hawaiian

Kettle Style Potato Chips – Sweet Maui Onion in 1, 1.5, 2, 5, 8, 18 & 32 ounce bags

Kettle Style Potato Chips – Sweet Maui Onion in 2 ounce, 15 pack

Kettle Style Potato Chips – Sweet Maui Onion in 70, 210 & 908 grams bag

Sweet Maui Onion Rings in 1.5, & 4 ounce bags

Sweet Maui Onion Rings

HK Anderson

Honey Mustard Pretzel Bites

CVS

Honey Mustard Pretzel Bites

President’s Choice

Honey Mustard Onion Pretzel Bite

Safeway

Honey Mustard Onion Nugget

Sunflower Markets

Honey Mustard Nugget

National Pretzel Company

Honey Mustard Onion Pretzel Bites

Whole Grain Honey Mustard Nuggets

Great Nut Supply

Honey Mustard Pretzels

Bar Mix

Spec’s Wines & Fine Foods

Honey Mustard Pretzels

Bar Mix

Honey Cheddar Mix

Rouses Louisiana’s Best

Bar Mix

Herr’s

Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Flavored Kettle Style Potato Chips

Pringles

Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger

Family Faves Taco Night

Quaker

Snack Mix Baked Cheddar

Ready-to-Eat Meal

Follow Your Heart

BBQ Braised Tofu

Cheezy Garlic Pasta

Curried Tofu

Curried Tofu with Rice

Heartsmart Burger

Kung Pao Tofu

Kung Pao Tofu with Rice

Savory Tofu Saute

Smoked “Chicken” Pasta

Sweet & Sour Tofu

Thai Peanut Tofu

Thai Peanut Tofu Wrap

Thai Peanut Braised Tofu

Texas Tofu

Veggie Burrito with Cheese

Low Fat Veggie Burrito

Dressing and Dressing Mix

Follow Your Heart

Organic Creamy Ranch Dressing

Trader Joe’s

Organic Creamy Ranch Dressing & Dip

Reser’s

Ranch House Dressing

Prepared Salad

Reser’s

Redskin Potato Safeway

Potato RedSkin Walmart

Redskin Potato

Bouillon/Stuffing/Marinades/Mixes

Herbox

Beef Bouillon

Chicken Bouillon

Vegetable Bouillon

Gravy Mix

McCormick

Onion Gravy Mix

Publix

Mushroom Gravy Mix

McCormick

Corn Bread Stuffing

Sauce and Marinade Mix

French’s

Thick Spaghetti Sauce Mix

Durkee

Thick and Rich Spaghetti Sauce Mix

Grill Creations Marinade Mix Italian Herb

Weber

Grill Creations Italian Herb Marinade Mix

Flavoring Base and Seasoning

Garden Harvest

Special Blend Seasoning

Minor’s

Bacon Base

Publix

Meatloaf Seasoning

Frozen Food

Tornados

Ranchero Beef & Cheese

Giant Eagle

Steak Taquitos

Jose Ole

Taquitos–Shredded Steak Rolled in Corn Tortillas

Beef Taquitos

El Pasado

Beef Taquitos

Shredded Beef Mini Taquitos

Grilled Chicken Quesadillas Grilled White Meat Chicken, Cheese & Salsa Folded in a Flour Tortilla

Casa Solana

Shredded Beef Mini Taquitos

E-Z Eats!

Beef Taquitos

Posada

Taquitos Corn Shredded Beef

Prepare for what may the largest food recall in North American history

2010-03-12T22:33:39Z

Be careful on what you eat, HVP alert!

**Update** : Here is the list of the HVP Salmonella Tainted Foods >>

A large batch of the flavor enhancer known as hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HVP, supplied by Basic Food Flavors, a North Las Vegas food ingredient company, was found to be laced with salmonella. Thus far, over one hundred products containing the ingredient have been recalled in both the U.S. and Canada. The company produces about 20 million pounds of the food additive annually.

Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union, the advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, told Bloomberg that this case may trigger the recall of as many as 10,000 products. To be sure, HVP is used in virtually everything that is packaged or canned — 10,000 products may be a conservative estimate.

Canwest News reports that in Canada, consumers could be exposed to the contaminated batch through imported pre-packaged foods or items manufactured north of the border using the ingredient.

Michael Armstrong, a quality management specialist at Brock University’s faculty of business said this case is particularly challenging because the raw material is likely considered a generic commodity. This means a food manufacturer might buy HVP from many different suppliers over time, wherever it is cheapest, and store it all together without establishing an efficient trace-back system to a particular source or batch. “It’s the kind of ingredient that’s the hardest to trace,” said Armstrong.

The FDA claims they began discussions with Basic Food Flavors regarding the firm’s intentions to conduct a voluntary recall of the HVP the company had made on or after September 17. On Feb. 26, 2010, Basic Food Flavors began notifying its customers that it was recalling all of the HVP product made since September 17.

On March 4, 2010, Basic Food Flavors — who offers the food industry 120 varieties of hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HVP — announced a recall of its entire production dating to September 17, 2009. The Food and Drug Administration is continuously updating the recall list at www.foodsafety.gov.

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) is an MSG-like flavor enhancer that is mixed in with other spices, and added to thousands of processed foods, including chips, dip mixes, salad dressings, sauces, hotdogs, soups, frozen dinners, bouillons, gravy mixes, snacks, and ready-to-eat foods. And unless HVP is part of a flavor mix, HVP may not be listed as an ingredient on a food package.

Among some of the brand name items recalled are Quaker Crispy Minis rice cakes in tomato and basil, Family’s Best smokey bacon potato chips, Healthwise Cream of Mushroom Soup, two flavors of Pringles potato crips, kettle-style chips, and honey mustard/onion pretzels. According to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Anna Taylor, Wal-Mart’s Great Value Ranch Chip Dip, manufactured by T. Marzetti Co. of Columbus, Ohio, has been pulled from their shelves.

Two most recently added items are 1.7 million pounds of ready-to-eat beef taquito and chicken quesadilla products from a Houston firm, and 115,700 pounds of Tornados Ranchero Beef & Cheese roll-ups, made by Ruiz Foods of Denison, Texas.

Bloomberg reports that PepsiCo Inc. voluntarily recalled about 275,000 packages of Quaker Snack Mix Baked Cheddar in the U.S. And PepsiCo has joined Procter & Gamble Co., Nestle SA and McCormick & Co. in recalling products that contained HVPthe flavor protein, says Bloomberg.

“It’s a wake-up call for the food industry as a whole to be more thorough in evaluating the safety of ingredients,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. “Big companies are putting their trust in suppliers, which is their Achilles heel.”

Dan Flynn with Food Safely News claims the food ingredient company responsible, Basic Food Flavors, relocated to North Las Vegas after encountering too many regulatory obstacles in Pomona, California.

According to FDA inspection records, managers at Basic Food Flavors in Las Vegas learned on Jan. 21st that samples taken a week earlier from their Nevada facility tested positive for salmonella, but they continued shipping their product to foodmakers anyway.

The Washington Post reports Basic Food Flavors tested surfaces near food-processing equipment throughout its plant twice in January and once in February, and each time the samples showed salmonella contamination. The company continued to ship products and to make more HVP without cleaning the plant or the equipment in a way that would have minimized contamination, the FDA records said.

“The contamination is believed to date to September 2009, meaning millions of pounds of potentially tainted HVP — all of which the company has recalled — was shipped in bulk to foodmakers over five months. Many of those companies then sold their products to other clients, complicating the distribution chain and making it hard for federal officials to gauge the scope of the problem.”

FDA spokeswoman Meghan Scott says “The FDA is reviewing the evidence in association with the current inspection of Basic Food Flavors to determine the appropriate regulatory response.”

**Update** : Here is the list of the HVP Salmonella Tainted Foods >>

More >>

Ridiculous NY Salt Bill

2010-03-11T10:03:56Z

Under attack in NYC

I love that NYC is working on making it’s residents healthy but this is just ridiculous. Bill A10129 proposes that:

“No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant including food to be consumed on the premises of such restaurantor off such premises”

I can completely understand a tax on sugary drinks, I can understand the ban on trans fats…but a complete ban on salt? Seriously, maybe we’re taking things a bit too far.

The bill proposes a fine of $1,000 per violation

Drive Thru to Death

2010-03-10T17:20:30Z

What is the latest “in” thing today? No it’s not technology or cheating on spouses (*cough* Tiger Woods *cough*) or outrageous fashion, but speed. Letters that used to take days and even weeks to reach the intended recipient now take mere seconds. We have even cemented our contempt of that “antique method” by branding it “snail mail.” Information that used to take a lot of time and effort to gather from libraries and other sources can now be at our fingertips faster than you can say “Thank God for Google.”

Patience is a rare virtue for this generation who has gotten used to instant gratification, and it’s no surprise that the same need for speed is applied to food. Fewer and fewer people take the time to slave over or even wait for a decent meal to be cooked. They’d much rather zoom to the nearest drive-thru and pick up a quick meal so that they can have more time to do other more important things like, say, catch up on @aplusk’s latest tweets or play Farmville on Facebook. What they fail to realize is that by hastening their food preparation (if buying the damn things can even be considered that), they are hastening their life as well, as fast food is jam packed with unhealthy fats, sugars, carbs and sodium – the express way to heart problems, diabetes or cancer.

Thank goodness there are still a few health-conscious people left in this world and they decided to help out the rest of our in-danger-of-being-endangered species by putting together a list of the worst drive-thru foods in America. You’re supposed to avoid them like the plague and not seek them out, silly. Here’s a peek:

Worst Drive-Thru Meal in America:
Carl’s Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger
with Medium Natural cut Fries and 32 oz Coke
2618 Calories
144 g at (51.5 g saturated fat)
2892 mg sodium

Healthier alternative:
Famous Star
with Side Salad with Low Fat Balsamic Dressing and 32 oz Iced Tea
685 calories
38 g fat (10.5 g saturated fat)
1520 mg sodium

Worst Drive-Thru Kids Meal:
Burger King Kids Double Cheeseburger and Kids Fries with Small Coke
950 calories
42 g fat (17 g saturated fat, 4.5 g trans fats)
1,410 mg sodium

Healthier Alternative:
4-piece Chicken Tenders with Strawberry-Flavored Applesauce and unlimited water
280 calories
11 g fat (3 g saturated fat)
440 mg sodium

Worst “Healthy” Food:
Arby’s Roast Turkey and Swiss Market Fresh Sandwich
708 calories
29 g fat (8 g saturated fat)
1,676 mg sodium

Healthier Alternative:
Chicken Cordon Blue Sandwich (grilled)
488 calories
18 g fat (4 g saturated fat)
1,560 mg sodium

Check out the complete list here.

Worst fries in America (boingboing.net)

FriendsEAT.com

Justice to Probe Monsanto Monopoly

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