Food Industry Archive

Pilgrim’s Retention of former Execs as Consultants in Question A U.S. bankruptcy judge said this week that chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride may be violating federal bankruptcy rules by keeping its former CEO and COO on as consultants and paying them fees that, given the company’s circumstances, are eye-popping. A hearing on the matter will be held February 3. CEO Clint Rivers...

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The Associated Press in an exclusive report says that an international shipment of peanuts from the same plant where the salmonella outbreak had its origins was returned to the United States in April because it contained “a filthy, putrid or decomposed substance.” The shipment, destined for Canada, was logged by the Food and Drug Administration, but federal inspectors never tested...

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It’s worse than we thought. According to the FDA investigation, the Peanut Corporation of America plant was processing our country’s peanuts in disturbingly filthy conditions. Inspectors found cockroaches - dead and alive - a leaky roof; brown and black slime; mold on ceilings and walls; gaping holes large enough for vermin to enter, and failure to maintain hygienic utensils in a...

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Caribou courts decaf drinkers — The Starbucks rival announced it would give away free decaf tomorrow after 12pm, in a ploy to pick up disgruntled Starbucks customers. Yesterday Starbucks announced it would stop keeping decaf on hand after that time because it was too wasteful. But Caribou says, “Decaf drinkers deserve better!” [Source: PR Newswire] Regional fast food brands...

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No one’s surprised when food safety groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest say the Food and Drug Administration is “woefully inadequate” when it comes to protecting our food supply. But when industry itself starts begging the government for more regulation, you know things are bad. Last Friday, a coalition of ten major food industry groups sent a letter to...

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Starbucks plans to brew less decaf coffee each afternoon, as part of an effort to save $400 million between now and Labor Day. It’s one of several cost-cutting moves the coffee king announced today in the wake of posting a $140 million drop in earnings for the most-recent quarter. Among the other moves: Starbucks will close another 300 stores worldwide (200 of them in the United States)...

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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...

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Peanut Corporation of America shipped peanut butter despite test results in 2007 and 2008 showing that salmonella was present, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday. “There were no steps taken” by the company to deal with the contamination, said Michael Rogers, director of the FDA’s division of field investigations. But were there any steps taken by the FDA or other...

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A lot of employees will be listening closely tomorrow when Starbucks presents its quarterly earnings report. Rumors have been swirling around Seattle — and indeed all around the coffee universe — that a 1,000-person job cut is in the offing this week. According to a report by a Seattle-based stock analyst, there won’t be cuts at the store level. Instead, most would come from...

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For Tom Philpott of the environmental news site Grist, high fructose corn syrup is “at best a highly processed, lavishly subsidized, calorie-heavy, nutritional vacuum.” At worst, Philpott wrote on Monday, HFCS is possibly poisonous. According to a study published by the journal Environmental Health, the “natural” sweetener (the FDA recently said that HFCS makers can all...

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