Food Roundup: Starbucks Drops Decaf, MoonPie Adds Peanut Butter, and More

Starbucks decaf to be by request only — The coffee chain announced it will stop automatically brewing decaffeinated coffee after noon. The demand for decaf is much lower in the afternoon, a spokesperson said, and a lot was being wasted. Customers will still be able to order decaf later in the day, but they will have to wait four minutes for a fresh pot to brew. [Source: coffee business strategies]

New peanut butter MoonPie launched — In the midst of the peanut butter salmonella scare, Chattanooga Bakery released MoonPie Peanut Butter — the company’s first product launch in decades. It seems a daring time to release a new peanut butter product, but the company insists its peanut butter does not come from any suppliers implicated in the current scandal. [Source: Just-Food]

Wrongful death suit filed over peanut butter deaths — A Minnesota food safety lawyer has filed the first wrongful death suit against Peanut Corporation of America on behalf of the heirs of a 72-year-old woman who died in a Brainerd, Minn. nursing home, allegedly because of salmonella-contaminated peanut butter. The lawsuit also names King Nut Companies, which distributed the peanut butter. [Source: Business Wire]

Kraft and Frito-Lay buyers plead guilty to accepting bribes — Two former purchasers, one at Kraft and one at Frito-Lay, admitted to accepting more than $150,000 in bribes to help SK Foods get inflated prices from the two companies for its processed tomato products. At least two SK Foods employees have also pleaded guilty, and buyers at other companies may be under investigation as well. Kraft and Frito-Lay said they are cooperating fully and are not themselves under any suspicion. [Source: AP]

FAO: food production must double by 2050 — The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, said that to combat mass hunger, the world must double the amount of food it produces by the year 2050. The food crisis forced 40 million into hunger last year, bringing the total of undernourished people in the world to 973 million, Diouf said Monday at an international food safety conference. [Source: AFP]