FriendsEAT.com

Celebrity Cast Iron Cookware Recalled

Cookware manufactured in China and sold under the Paula Deen brand name through the online retailer QVC, is being recalled.  The cast iron products, which include 11-inch grill and griddle pans, are being voluntarily recalled because the pans can crack or shatter, posing burn and laceration hazards to consumers, something particularly dangerous when the pans [...]

Quality, Price, Nutrition: What’s Most Important to Consumers When Purchasing Food?

It seems that researchers are always finding new ways to study the same things over and over, with results that end up wildly contradictory.  Take coffee, for example.  It seems that hardly a month goes by without some new report that either hails coffee as beneficial or damns it as a potential killer. One study [...]

Snacking Predicted to Increase in the next Decade

The NPD Group has released its latest report on what Americans will be eating in the future, and according to their crystal ball, it looks like the next decade will bring on increased amounts of snacking.
The startling results in A Look into The Future of Eating shows double digit increases in the amount of snacking [...]

Chinese Farmer Creates Cute Fruit to look like Kids

Rules formerly in place in Europe, which prevented stores from selling odd-shaped or sized fruits and vegetables to consumers, were officially lifted in July.  This means that curvy cucumbers, knobby carrots and two dozen other types of produce may now be sold in groceries and supermarkets, even if they are not picture perfect.   The rule, [...]

Nestlé’s Toll House Cookies the Latest on Food Product Recall List

Nestlé’s Toll House refrigerated cookie dough is the latest on the list of tainted food product recalls.  The Food and Drug Administration in a June 19 press release , urged consumers to throw away any packages of the raw cookie dough, since it may be contaminated with E.coli, a bacterium that causes food borne illness.  [...]

Get Ready For Higher Food Prices

If the ethanol industry gets its way, consumers will be paying more for staple foods like meat, milk, eggs, and bread at their local supermarket. The industry wants to raise the allowable levels of ethanol (up to 10 percent) in U.S. gasoline to 12-15 percent, which would increase prices of corn, grains, meat and dairy.
Bill [...]

10-year old “Too Tall” for Half-Price Chinese Buffet

The next time you take your kids to an all-you-can-eat buffet, make sure you check the restaurant’s policy.  That’s what Gareth Gardner should have done, before taking his 10-year old son Ben to the Angel Chef Chinese restaurant in Gloucester, England.  Instead of being charged for a child’s meal, they charged him full price, saying [...]

Costco To Honor Food Stamps – 2 NY Stores

Despite several huge food retailers like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart, all accepting food stamps, Costco had insisted on stranding weary consumers hit hard by the economic recession by refusing to accept food stamps.
Now, under pressure from civic-minded lawmakers, Costco — citing the very same economic recession — has announced that next month it [...]

How To I.D. Genetically Modified Food at the Supermarket

Image via Wikipedia

Not many consumers realize that the FDA does not require genetically modified food to be labeled. That’s because the FDA has decided that you, dear consumer, don’t care if the tomato you’re eating has been cross bred with frog genes to render the tomato more resistant to cold weather. Some consumers may not [...]

Food Packages Getting Fatter – At Least Temporarily

Hmmm.  Something strange is happening.
Remember those incredible shrinking food packages?  (Check out the FriendsEAT.com blog, Our Incredible, Edible, Shrinking Food Packages from February 9).  Well, the bad news is that many of them are still shrinking, but we’ll save that update for another time.
The good news, however, is that a few major food manufacturers are [...]

The Controversial Tipping Caper

To Insure Prompt Service

My apologies in advance to the hardworking and dedicated restaurant servers reading this.  Your work is appreciated and you have the power to make a lasting impression of a dining out experience.
* * *
Tipping has always been an annoying afterthought that one has to deal with at the end of a meal.  Somehow, plunking down [...]

Alfalfa Sprouts the Latest Salmonella-Tainted Product

For the second time in three months, alfalfa sprouts are on the list of foods that may be contaminated with salmonella.  The latest warning issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautions consumers against eating raw alfalfa sprouts, after more than 30 cases of salmonella were [...]