Food Industry Archive

The Russian government has now identified the 19 U.S. poultry plants from which it will not accept exports. As I wrote Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the ban is based on “health and safety” grounds, but it’s quite clearly payback for the federal government’s excoriation of Russia’s recent actions in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Russia is...

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Just what the chicken industry needed right now: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday told CNN that he’s

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Always beware of superlatives. Whenever anyone says “all” or “always,” that’s a good time to turn on your BS detector. But it also works with what I’ll call “sub-superlatives” – what are often called “weasel words.” This is when somebody says or writes that “many observers say..” or “most of the time…”....

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In the short term, the recent salmonella outbreak was bad for the tomato business. Real bad. But in the long run, things should even out. That’s according to the people interviewed by Stephanie Bloyd of Food Business News who examined the outbreak in the context of earlier food recalls. “Looking back to what has happened with other commodities recalls, the impact should be short...

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Portillo’s, a Chicago-based chain of casual eateries, opened its first outlet in southern California three years ago. Last year, it opened another. Bad timing. At first, things looked good for the new outlet, according to a report in Nation’s Restaurant News. The weekly gross was about $150,000. Now, it’s less than half that, and owner Dick Portillo says he has no plans to open...

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Yesterday, I noted the blowup over a blogger’s tricking Wine Spectator into giving an award to a fake restaurant. The stunt revealed that the magazine’s “Award of Excellence,” given to more than 4,000 restaurants every year, is less than meets the eye. Today, the Los Angeles Times reported that it talked to Wine Spectator executive editor Thomas Matthews and found out...

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I don’t remember where I first saw the link to the blog entry that started all the controversy today about how a blogger managed to trick Wine Spectator into giving an award to a fake restaurant. But it said something like “Blogger sends in $250 entry fee and wins award for restaurant that doesn’t exist.” As is often the case, it’s a lot more complicated than that....

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You know, I’m as sick of hearing from and about Michael Phelps as anyone, and I’m all for promoting healthy eating for kids, but this pile-on over his endorsement of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes is a bit much. Nutritionists have sounded their requisite hues and issued their obligatory cries. A couple of things wrong with this. First, and probably foremost, Frosted Flakes may be...

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A current TV spot for Boston Market was already pretty…shall we say, produced inexpensively. Just two guys, supposedly twins, sitting on barstools telling the camera about the restaurant chain’s “cheap” food. But at $5.99, the “meal size deals” weren’t cheap enough, apparently. So rather than re-film the whole thing, Boston Market apparently overdubbed one...

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To fully understand the machinations behind corporate dealmaking, you often have to wait until well after a deal is reached, as the details start coming out. One piece of the puzzle behind InBev’s acquisition of Anheuser Busch may have been provided in a filing late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. August Busch IV, the CEO of Busch, will get $10.4 million after the...

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