Food News
Walmart Great Value milk going bad before expiration date
WANE | Posted on August 9, 2018Many local customers have had it with Walmart's Great Value brand of milk going bad before the expiration date on the container. Cynthia Flanagan told NewsChannel 15 that she has had 3 cartons of milk go bad before the expiration date in the last 5 weeks. Her daughter has had 2 cartons expire early as well.Flanagan said that when she tried to pour her most recent carton over her cereal that clumpy expired milk came out, 5 days before the expiration date."They have a lot of dedicated Walmart shoppers and they've taken the choice away as well.. my main goal would be to find out what the problem is and clean it up." Flanagan said about her social media post. Her post has over 150 shares, and about 150 comments of people sharing similar stories.
With plenty of meat supply, prices continue to decrease
Meat + Poultry | Posted on August 9, 2018The US Dept. of Agriculture, in its July Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook, forecast higher pork and beef production and lower prices for hogs and cattle in 2018 than in 2017. Previously, the USDA estimated July 1 cattle-on-feed up 4 percent from a year earlier and the highest since the data series began 22 years ago, and the June 1 US total hog inventory up 3 percent from a year ago and the highest since records began in 1964. Exports of pork and beef were forecast to increase from 2017, but tenuous trade relationships with some major export destinations add a level of uncertainty. As a result, there is no shortage of red meat.
Meat consumption in a declining economy — ours
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on August 9, 2018But what happens to meat consumption, and to eating patterns in general, when wealth across a population declines? Especially if the economy in question is a meat-loving culture with traditionally plenty of wealth. According to “The Demographics of Wealth: 2018 Series,” an in-depth study conducted by the Center for Household Financial Stability (CFS) of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, families whose head of household was born in 1960 or later have yet to regain the economic footing (in terms of median wealth — a measure of net income and net worth) they had before the Great Recession began in 2008. By 2016 (the latest year for which data was available), 30 years’ worth of families, as measured by the head of household’s year of birth, were poorer in terms of assets and sometimes income than economists would have predicted before the recession began.And the discrepancies increase as the age of the head of household decreases. CFS researchers calculated that families whose head of household was born in the 1980s had accumulated median wealth that was 34 percent below what pre-recession measures would have predicted.Families whose head of household was born in the 1970s came up 18 percent short of predicted median wealth, and those born in the 1960s were 11 percent shy of projections. Baby boomers and older consumers are moving into slow-growth categories simply by virtue of their life stage. If successive generations don’t feel they can afford to spend the way their parents did, the long-term implications for the meat category are also weak.
The value of a name driving intense debate over what is milk, meat or a G.M.O.
Food Business News | Posted on August 8, 2018The ongoing debate over what products like almond milk and meat created through cellular generation may be labeled and commercially called has tremendous financial stakes. Like the value of an established brand, the value of an established product name is significant, and food industry regulators must balance the potential of innovative and emerging technologies with the need to prevent confusion in the marketplace. The debate over what may be called “milk” is not new. Dairy producers have been fighting for decades for the Food and Drug Administration to enforce milk’s standard of identity. They argue that the standard of identity for milk is clear, and the makers of plant-based beverages must stop describing their products as milk.The makers of soy milk and almond milk respond by noting the nomenclature does not violate the regulations because the name incorporates additional qualifying language. Calling such products soy milk and almond milk clearly differentiates them from regular milk.
Lawsuit alleges Nestle misled consumers about GMOs in its food products
CBS | Posted on August 8, 2018Nestle is facing a federal class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles alleging it sold products labeled as having "No GMO Ingredients" with genetically modified organisms. The corporate parent behind such food brands as Stouffer's frozen dinners, Buitoni pasta, and Haagen Dazs ice cream also is accused on designing a seal on its product packaging with the intention to trick consumers into thinking that its products were certified by the non-profit Non-GMO Project. According to an 18-page court filing, Nestle's "No GMO Ingredients" label was developed by the Switzerland-based company to mimic the appearance of the Non-GMO Project seal, which is on more than 43,000 products. The suit also alleges that Nestle sold dairy from cows fed GMO grain, a violation of the non-profit's standards for its Product Verification Program. Nestle described the allegations as "baseless" and denied that it had broken the law."Our product labels that declare the absence of GMO ingredients are accurate, comply with FDA and USDA regulations and provide consumers with information to help them make informed purchasing decisions."
World food prices down 3.7 % in July
Reuters | Posted on August 7, 2018World food prices fell 3.7 percent in July from the month before, the sharpest monthly drop since last December, with declines seen across all crop types, the United Nations food agency said. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 168.8 points last month, against an upwardly revised 175.3 in June.
Ex-Marine files suit over E. coli in ground beef
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on August 2, 2018A former U.S. Marine has filed a lawsuit against Sodexo for serving E. coli-tainted ground beef at a Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, according to documents filed in the Southern District Court of California. Vincent Grano suffered permanent brain and kidney damage and developed epilepsy as a result of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) caused by eating E. coli O151:H7-tainted ground beef, according to the lawsuit. Sodexo provides food and facility management services for the U.S. Marine Corps Depot in San Diego.
Why antibiotics still work for Sanderson and the importance of story
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on August 2, 2018While many major poultry companies are moving away from antibiotics use in their chickens, Sanderson Farms has taken a stand on continuing their use, and that strategy is working well. Sanderson Farms President Lampkin Butts told attendees at the Chicken Marketing Summit here the company continues to expand production, including a new plant now under construction that will open next year. The reason for Sanderson’s success, he notes, is that most consumers are focused on taste, food safety and price. Also, the company can find no research that ties the type of antibiotics use the company practices (prevention and treatment, not for growth promotion) to antibiotics resistance in humans.
Bioproducts industry using waste plastics for fuels, sneakers and algae based packaging
Biofuels Digest | Posted on August 2, 2018The pace of invention and change is just too strong, we’ve realized, to highlight annual or even quarterly or monthly rankings and summaries of significant product and service advances. some examples 1) Adidas to use only recycled plastic by 2024 2) Bolt Threads Launches Biobased Knife from bioengineered spide silk. 3) Neste, a global leading producer of renewable diesel, is now exploring ways to introduce liquefied waste plastic as a future raw material for fossil refining. 4) JUST, a plant-based egg and clean meat company, announced a distribution deal with Eurovo to bring Just Egg to consumers across Europe. Just Egg, made from the mung bean, cooks and tastes like conventional chicken eggs and is currently launching nationally in the United States. 5) Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a plant-based composite material for 3D printing. Using waste lignin from biofuel manufacturing and rubber, carbon fiber, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, ORNL has developed a material with 100% improved weld strength between layers compared to ABS alone. 6) a 100% biobased and biodegradable grill originally developed in Denmark has officially launched in the US market.
The one-time-use grill, dubbed CasusGrill, is made from cardboard, bamboo, and lava stone. It disintegrates on its own or can be burned in a campfire after use. 7) A consortium is trialing the use of seaweed sachets for fast food condiments. 8) In Georgia, researchers have created a flexible plastic alternative for food packaging using crab shells and cellulose.
Survey: Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Oppose Cuts to SNAP Program
John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health | Posted on July 31, 2018A majority of registered voters oppose recent efforts to scale back Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits and believe the government should be doing more to meet the needs of people facing food insecurity and other challenges. The survey, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research from June 5 to June 12, explores voter attitudes on several key farm bill issues, including conservation programs designed to protect U.S. land, water and food supply. The farm bill, when passed, will replace the Farm Act of 2014, which expires this year. In addition to support for SNAP, a majority of survey respondents would like to see increased environmental regulations for the agricultural industry. The nationwide survey conducted by phone included 1,005 registered voters.Among survey respondents, almost two-thirds (61 percent) said that they were opposed to reducing funding for SNAP, more commonly known as Food Stamps. Among those opposed, over 73 percent said that they were “strongly opposed” to cuts. Registered voters are more divided on whether to cap the number of SNAP recipients in a single household.The survey also found that 85 percent of respondents support increased opportunities for beginning, socially disadvantaged, and veteran farmers and ranchers to participate in government support programs, and 57 percent support increased funding for small- and mid-sized farms.