In more food recall news, this time frozen vegetables are being pulled from shelves and consumers are warned to review the items in their homes to return for refund. The voluntary recall by Pictsweet Co., reports CNN.com, was not prompted by any injury reports, only a preventative step. These frozen vegetables may have glass fragments in the packages. 
Important Recall Details:
- Store-brand frozen vegetables: Kroger brand and Great Value brand
- Frozen vegetables sold in Kroger and Wal-Mart stores nationwide
- May contain glass fragments
- Return recalled packages to retailer for full refund
Recalled Products:
- Kroger 12-ounce Green Peas (UPC 11110 89736). Production Codes of 1440BU, 1440BV, 1440BW, and 1600BD.
- Kroger 12-ounce Peas and Carrots (UPC 11110 89741). Production Codes of 1960BD and 1960BE.
- Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Sweet Peas (UPC 78742 08369). Best by dates of July 20, 2012; July 21, 2012.
- Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Mixed Vegetables (UPC 78742 08026). Best by date of July 15, 2012.
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Have you ever seen one of those dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and wondered, how do they do that? I personally imagined some kind of cookie-cutter shaped blade on a big machine.
Wrong. Apparently, this is what chicken nuggets look like before they’re cooked. The chicken is mechanically separated and de-boned, then the remaining meat is ground-down into this unappetizing paste. According to Michael Kindt, the goop is then disinfected, re-flavored and bleached back to the whitish color we all associate with cooked chicken breast. And of course, shaped along the way.
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UPDATE 10/14/10: To date, this campaign, which challenges the establishment’s dominance over snacking culture, has been a wild success. Now carrot farmers are looking to add to the success this Halloween by creating “Scarrots”. Scarrots are 1.7 ounce single-serve bags of baby carrots, offered in a master bag containing 25 servings in 3 unique designs. Also included is a sealed pouch containing 25 temporary glow-in-the-dark tattoos of masquerading baby carrot characters.
If you are a food company that sells baby carrots, how do you get kids interested in your healthy product, when what they really want are those Fruit Roll-Ups, or some other snack with a flashy cartoon character and brightly colored logos?
As they say, if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.
It’s back-to-school time, so there’s no better time than now to make a bold move to be the choice snack for kids’ brown bag lunches. So, basically the entire baby carrot industry is making radical changes to their presentation, mimicking the junk food packaging that is so successful.
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Now that Americans, food manufacturers and restaurant chains have made trans-fats part of their every day vernacular and a daily avoidance in their diets, enter a new unhealthy fat also found in processed foods: Interesterified fat.
A bit more difficult to pronounce than “trans fatty acids,” but equally dangerous, interesterified fats are liquid oils, rather than a semi-solid fat, like the now taboo, trans fats.
To get a jump on this new addition to the health dictionary, read on to learn where this additive may be lurking in your kitchen and how it might be hurting your health.
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In 2007, several major outbreaks of food-borne illness prompted the FDA to come up with a new strategy for intercepting contaminated foods. In an effort to step up food safety surveillance, the agency developed a website where potentially hazardous foods could be immediately reported. The Reportable Food Registry site launched in September of 2009, requiring manufacturers, processors, packers and distributors to report any contaminated food, animal feed and per food that could pose a health threat.
Although it is too soon to compare the effectiveness of the site to prior years, the site appears to have positive results. Between the site’s launch in 2009 and March 2010, 125 reports were filed by both domestic and foreign sources. Once report resulted in the recall of hydrolyzed vegetable protein that had been contaminated with salmonella. The product is a flavor enhancer that is used in hundreds of foods like dressings and dips. The recall prevented any incidents of illness.
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