Category: Food Industry News

Breaking food industry news covering major food companies, regulatory updates, labeling changes and developments impacting consumers and manufacturers,

One more danger from salt — kiss your memory goodbye

Salt causes our bodies all sorts of problems like high blood pressure and bloating but here’s a new one. Salt can contribute to memory loss, according to new research from Australia.

“Dr Samantha Gardener, a research fellow at Edith Cowan University’s McCusker Alzheimer’s Research Foundation in Australia, found that higher sodium consumption may reduce episodic memory, the type used to recall personal experiences and specific events such as where you put your keys or parked your car,” reports The Times of London.

“Looking at the sodium intake and cognitive decline of 1,208 participants over a six-year period, Gardener and her team showed that men who ate the most salt showed a faster decline in episodic recall,” the story reports.

So there’s one more reason to put down the salt shaker and read food labels before you buy packaged foods — if you can remember.

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If you must have salty snacks, pick these

Our edamame at Crave was a nice appetizer.

Salt has been a great demon in my life, routinely impacting my blood pressure and heart health. So I avoid it whenever and wherever I can. But some people insist they have to eat some salty snacks to satisfy occasional cravings.

If you’re in that group, at least opt for low-calorie, lower-salt snacks, such as those on this list from LoseIt!.

Edamame is on here, but I normally ask for that with no salt in restaurants. When you buy it pre-packaged in food stores, you normally get salt.

Another option here I like is Babybel low-fat cheese which comes in little rounds.

“Babybel’s mini cheese wheels are just 70 calories and provide 140 mg of calcium (10 percent of the Daily Value) per serving. Cheese also helps to balance blood sugar levels because it contains protein and fat,” LoseIt! reports.

I’m a little shocked to see beef jerky on the list. Whenever I sample that at Costco, I am flooded with salt.

Once you start cutting back on salt, you’ll taste it in the extreme when you do get food drenched in it.

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$6 beer? We’re a long way from the 1930s

The U.S. average cost for a beer at a restaurant or bar has reached $6.52! Wow, that tells me how long it’s been since I went out drinking.

“The most expensive city to buy a beer in is New York, at an average price of $9.16, and the most expensive states are New York, Hawaii, and California.

“The most affordable city to buy a beer in is San Antonio, and the places with the highest cost growth are New Mexico, at 4.8%, and Philadelphia at 3.3%,” The Food Institute recounts about findings by Toast.

Following the end of Prohibition in the early 1930s, nickel beer became common across the country. Often, in those tough times, free food came with the beer.

My dad would talk with joy about the free sandwiches. We even once went to an old bar in the pre-gentrified Washington, D.C. that still had that perk in the 1970s.

Those days are long gone now. I suppose the only upside to expensive beer is that it’s much tougher to get drunk on beer now than it was when I was in college in Milwaukee, the original beer town, where we were served free beer on campus once a year.

If you plan to belly up to the bar now, be sure your wallet is full first.

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AHA vs. Federal Guidelines: Meat Consumption Debate

While the federal government is pushing red meat consumption these days, the American Heart Association remains committed to recommending limited meat consumption, according to its newly polished food guidelines.

The federal guidelines highlight animal sources like eggs, dairy, poultry, seafood, and meat as “safe and high-quality options,” offered alongside plant proteins. The AHA, on the other hand, recommends shifting from meat to plant sources (legumes and nuts) and seafood, with guidance to limit red meat and choose lean cuts if consumed,” reports Mindbodygreen.com.

Two other major areas of disagreement emerge as well, Mindbodygreen.com reports.

Continue reading “AHA vs. Federal Guidelines: Meat Consumption Debate” →
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Maximize Savings: CVS vs Walgreens Couponing Tips

With food prices continuing higher, looking for deals, coupons, sales, etc. is even more important now than in years past. I’ve written about seeking out supermarket deals. But a lot of us turn to drug stores for personal care items. So you need to work every available deal in those as well.

The two national chains, CVS and Walgreens, each have extensive couponing programs. But after trying both, using tips I found online from extreme couponers, CVS is the clear winner in offering deals to consumers.

The Walgreen’s program has more conditions, fine print and road blocks than does CVS. It really seems designed to be a bait-and-switch system, luring you to shop at Walgreens but then forcing you to spend more than you expected.

One recent example I ran into — I bought something there that offered me a $5 register cash reward. Walgreens register rewards are printed coupons that normally come with the restriction they must be used in seven days. So they basically draw you back, likely before you need to shop there again otherwise.

But the coupon I got was even more convoluted. It was for $5 off a future purchase. But it was only activated after I shopped there again and spent a certain amount (I think it was $20). Only then would it be activated — and for my next trip!

So I would need to make three shipping trips to get that $5; the first one, the second to activate it and the third to spend it! It’s an insult to shoppers, really. Shame on you Walgreens.

Continue reading “Maximize Savings: CVS vs Walgreens Couponing Tips” →
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2026 Food Shortages: Key Fruits and Vegetables Harder to Find

Target 93% lean ground beef

Nutritionists constantly encourage us to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. But some of those healthy picks will be harder to find this year, as will some other foods like domestically raised beef, reports Tasting Table, mostly because of lower production.

For one though, cottage cheese, increased demand is creating shortages.

Continue reading “2026 Food Shortages: Key Fruits and Vegetables Harder to Find” →
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Why Coca-Cola is Ending Minute Maid Frozen Concentrate

Breakfast takes on a light tone when you opt for low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar options. Pictured here is fat-free yogurt (regular and Greek), low-sodium English muffins, low-sugar orange juice, jams, fresh figs and Smart Balance instead of butter.
Orange juice is more likely to be in bottles on American tables these days, to in frozen cans.

Coca-Cola is dropping its iconic (at least for old people) Minute Maid frozen concentrate in the United States and Canada after a nearly 80-year run.

When it was first introduced, concentrate, essentially orange bits frozen in a can, was the height of convenience. Most people squeezed oranges for juice 80 years ago (it’s true, look it up).

With a can of concentrate, you took it from the freezer and dumped it in a pitcher of water, stirred and drank the stuff.

Today, though, people think nothing of buying big cartons or bottles of OJ and lugging it home.

Plus, I would guess with fewer people eating breakfast at home, home consumption is down as well. So Coke is concentrating on other, more profitable lines.

Coke and Pepsi are both scrambling to stay relevant for consumers who aren’t drinking their main soda offerings as much as in the past.

Pepsi just announced price cuts for some of its snack offerings, for example, worried that more people are gulping weight-loss drugs and turning away from snacks in the process.

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Halfway measures won’t get you to your fiber-eating goal

I had to laugh at a recent New York Times piece titled 4 Easy Ways to Eat More Fiber. These might be easy for some, but they’ll also be distasteful to others and they won’t get you to your fiber-eating goals.

I resolved to eat more fiber years ago and went all-in with a fiber-rich breakfast. I eat Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal every morning, even taking it with me when I travel. Two-thirds of a cup has 9 grams of fiber. I eat an entire cup each morning, so roughly 13 grams of fiber.

That puts me well on my way to the daily recommendation of 25 grams. I also eat nothing but whole wheat bread and pastas and I grab whole fruit whenever possible, adding still more fiber.

Back to the Times piece and its recs. I don;t do smoothies, so blending fiber into smoothies won’t help me. I also don;t snack on trail mix or seeds or whatever, so that’s two of the four that don’t help. And I don;t believe in making gradual changes, the first recommendation. At almost 73, I don;t have time left for doing anything gradually.

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Wendy’s hops on the thin mints bandwagon

Wendy’s is bringing back the thin mint Frosty in partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA which sell thin mint cookies this time of year.

Wendy’s will launch it thin mint Frosty, with either vanilla or chocolate soft-serve topped with thin mint sauce. The non-heart-healthy offering (sorry, I had to remind you) debuts Feb. 16, two days after Valentine’s Day.

Wendy’s also will be allowing Girl Scout cookie sales at its outlets.

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Gold Star Food Recall: Over 2,000 Products Affected

A major food recall, this time from a distributor rather than a processor, is underway. More than 2,000 products are involved.

Minneapolis-based Gold Star Distribution Inc. has recalled food items, pet foods, beauty products and drugs that it distributes in three states, the Food and Drug Administration has announced.

First issued in December, the recall was recently classified as Class II by the FDA. Class II is used for products that “may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote,” according to the FDA’s site.

Among the products recalled are Pringles, Nutella and Cheerios. The original recall was issued in December due to “the presence of rodent and avian contamination,” the company said. Products had been distributed in Minnesota, Indiana and North Dakota.

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