Food News

After a Pennsylvania woman reported finding pills inside her frozen fish fillets, Gorton's Seafood announced a recall. According to the company, there has been just this one case of contaminated fish reported, and that no illness had resulted. Nevertheless, the Gloucester, MA. company said they were recalling the fillets as a precaution.

Gorton's Seafood announced a recall of frozen fish fillets after a Pennsylvania woman reported finding pills inside them.

The affected product is Gorton's 6 Crispy Battered Fish Fillets with the UPC code 4440015770 and date code 7289G1. The product was distributed to stores in California, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas, and are now being removed from store shelves.

Consumers who have bought the product may arrange for a refund by sending the empty box to Gorton's Recall Center, PO Box 6075, Englewood, NJ 07631-0075.

Playboy Enterprises has launched a new energy drink designed to compete with the likes of Red Bull. Featuring a sleek, 8.4oz black can with the iconic Playboy bunny, the Playboy Energy Drink promises to give "customers a taste of the lifestyle that has always been associated with the Playboy brand."

The drink contains both ginseng and guarana extract, with "subtle notes of fruit and vanilla."

Upon its initially launch, the Playboy Energy Drink will only be available in Boston. Soon, the drink will make its way to other cities across the U.S., including Miami and Las Vegas. Other cities are also set to pick up the drink, but it's not yet clear when.

The United States Department of Agriculture issued the country's largest recall of beef products on Sunday, a recall affecting 143 million pounds of beef. Much of the frozen beef was supplied to school lunch programs.

Products affected date back to February 1, 2006, and came from the Chino, California based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

The USDA had begun investigating the Hallmark/Westland plant earlier this month when the Humane Society of the U.S. turned over a videotape which showed employees treating cattle to extreme cruelty prior to slaughter. The USDA's investigation revealed that plant employees were allowing non-ambulatory or "downer" cattle to go to slaughter, violating USDA rules designed to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) from entering the human food supply.

All of the questionable cattle had apparently passed USDA veterinary inspectors before becoming non-ambulatory, which is why this recall is being classified as a Class II, or lower level priority recall. According to the USDA, "there is a very, very remote possibility of anyone suffering health consequences from the consumption of this product."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning and recall of potentially contaminated cheeses manufactured by Grassy Meadows Dairy Co. in Howe, Indiana. Consumers in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan are affected by the recall.

Routine surveillence by the Indiana Board of Animal Health's Dairy Division revealed high levels of staphylococcus aureus in several varieties of the company's raw milk cheeses.

Columbus based fast food chain Wendy's has scrapped their 'That's Right' advertising campaign that featured men wearing a red wig with braided pigtails.

'It was a love it or hate it kind of spot,' said Bob Holtcamp, Wendy's vice president explained.

The new campaign for Wendy's will be 'It's waaaay better than fast food. It's Wendy's.'

If you thought you were getting the last view of the pigtails there is bad news to report. They are staying for this advertising campaign.

According to a new study reported this month in the journal "Circulation", people who eat two or more servings of red meat a day are far more likely to develop conditions leading to heart disease and diabetes. Researchers also found that eating large quantities of red meat increased one's risk of suffering from a cluster of factors known as metabolic syndrome by 25%.

Symptoms of metabolic syndrome include high cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and excessive fat around the waist.

Interestingly, the study also found that the consumption of diet soda was also linked to the elevated risk of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers were surprised with the diet soda link, but believe that it may be associated with individuals compensating for eating higher calorie food. "People may say, 'I can eat this cookie because I am drinking this diet soda,'" said researchers.

The study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Instituted, examined the diets of 9,514 people. Most of the participants were aged 45 to 64.

Participants were given a 66-item food frequency questionaire, which researchers then used to put the volunteers into two groups: those with a "western pattern diet" (heavy on processed meat, fried foods, red meat) and a "prudent pattern" diet (more fruits & veggies, small amounts of fish and poultry).

The New York City Board of Health is set to vote tomorrow on adding calorie data to fast food menus in the city. If passed, such as rule would be the first of its kind in the nation, and would mandate restaurants with more than 15 locations print complete calorie information for all items on their menu.

Not unsurprisingly, the restaurant lobby has been vehemently opposed to the measure, and have been campaigning against it.

NYC's plan to add calorie information to fast food menus first made waves last year, when it would have applied to approximately 10% of the city's 23,000 eateries. But that move was struck down when the NY State Restaurant Association sued, and a judge ruled that it applied to too few restaurants.

The city rewrote the plan, which would now affect 10,000 restaurants in the city. It is unclear whether the Restaurant Association will take the new plan to court, but it wouldn't come as any surprise if they did.

The next time you want to order food in, but can't bear to choke down another greasy pizza, there's a new option available - Quiznos!

Started recently, Quiznos now offers a home delivery service at participating locations. To get started, simply visit the Quiznos Delivery website and place your order online. Your local Quiznos store will then get your order ready, and deliver it to your home or business.

It's a refreshing alternative to the standard pizza and Chinese food delivery, and it's worth checking out. To see if there's a Quiznos near you that delivers, click here.

Griffith Park Sparkling Rosé may be cheap, but according to judges at the renowned Effervescents du Monde competition, it certainly doesn't lack in taste or quality. Griffith's champagne was up against some stiff (and pricey) competition, and ultimately took home a gold medal and place in the top ten.

The Effervescents du Monde competition is now in its fifth year, and aims to find the best sparkling wines in the world. For the 2007 competition, it attracted 408 entries from 24 countries.

Griffith Park Sparkling Rosé was not only the cheapest wine to make the top ten (snagging the #7 spot), but it was also the only Australian wine to place. The other nine wines in the top ten were dominated by those from France. Judges said Griffith's was the "perfect party sparkler."

The Effervescents du Monde competition was held in November in Dijon, France. A panel of 60 international experts judged the wines, and made sure that they underwent rigorous testing processes. Some of the qualities the judges looked for were diversity, quality, and high standards.

In all, 34 gold medals and 102 silver medals were awarded. Half of all the winners were French.