The Golden Arches are going premium. McDonald's today launched a 1/3 pound Angus burgers in all their stores. The new menu item has a high quality bun to go along with the choice cut of beef and will cost about $4. It is the first new burger to hit the menu at the fast food chain since 2001's Big and Tasty.

There are three different choices. The deluxe which has two slices of cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickle. Mushroom and Swiss which has two slices of swiss and an ample supply of sauteed mushrooms. Bacon and Cheese which has American cheese, bacon, onions, and pickles.

Nestle USA is voluntarily recalling its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after numerous illnesses were reported by consumers who ate the dough raw. According to the company, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are investigating reported E. coli illnesses that may be related to the consumption of the raw cookie dough.

Nestle warns that consumers should not eat raw cookie dough, and notes taht such a warning appears on its packaging.

The recall includes refrigerated cookie bar dough, cookie dough tub, cookie dough tubes, limited edition cookie dough items, seasonal cookie dough and Ultimates cookie bar dough. The recall does not affect any other Toll House products.

If you have purchased any of the products listed below, you should not consume them. Nestle is instead asking consumers to return them to their local grocer for a full refund. Any questions should be directed to Nestle Consumer Services at 1-800-559-5025.

A full list of the recalled products can be viewed here.

After traces of cocaine were found in samples of Red Bull Cola, the drink may be banned in Germany. Samples of the drink were examined by German food authorities, and were found to contain 0.4 micrograms of cocaine per litre, which was said to have been caused by the method used to process cocoa leaves.

Six German states have already ordered retailers to stop selling the beverage. More are expected to follow suit this week.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said that the cocaine levels found were too low to pose a health risk. A more detailed report is expected tomorrow.

Red Bull is currently available in 148 countries worldwide. It is banned in Denmark, Norway, Uruguay, and now German due to health fears.

On Thursday the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Valley Meats LLC of Coal Valley, Illinois began a recall of nearly 96,000 pounds of ground beef products after three people became sick from E. Coli in the Cleveland, Ohio area. The USDA said that illnesses related to the recalled meat have also been reported in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Last week the Ohio Department of Health alerted federal officials that three individuals - a 3-year-old girl, a 24-year-old man, and a 71-year-old man - with no connection to each other were ill from E. coli bacteria featuring the same genetic footprint. A spokesman says that two of the three were hospitalized and all are now recovered.

Officials from the Cleveland Health Department are also now investigating the death of a 7-year-old girl - a student at Westpark Community School on Lorain Road - who died as a result of E.coli. They are trying to determine if there is a link between the recalled beef and her death.

Most of the recalled meat is preformed patties under various brand names. For more information on the recalled products, please visit this USDA webpage.

Looking for a bargain and a sweet treat? Then head on down to your local Ben & Jerry's shop for Free Cone Day. Today only from noon until 8pm local time, customers get a free scoop of ice cream, in a cone of course.

It's Ben & Jerry's way of thanking customers for buying their ice cream for 31 years. For participating stores, check out the Ben & Jerry's website at benandjerrys.com.

First it was peanut butter and peanut paste, and now salmonella has been found in pistachios. The nation's second-largest pistachio processor on Monday significantly expanded its recall of the nuts after federal investigators found salmonella bacteria in "critical areas" of its California facility.

Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, CA is recalling all lots of roasted in-shell pistachios, roasted shell pistachios and raw shelled pistachios produced from nuts harvested in 2008. Last week Setton Pistachio recalled just a small portion of the 2008 harvest on a theory that it may have been contaminated by a sanitation mistake affecting only one or two production lines.

However, the FDA and California Dept. of Public Health investigated furter, taking hundreds of samples from the plant and its products for lab analysis. Government investigators revealed that they found salmonella in critical areas of the facility, but did not elaborate on the details.

Setton supplies 35 wholesalers and food manufacturers that repackage the nuts for retail sale, or use them as ingredients in other products. Therefore, federal officials say that it could be weeks before a full list of all affected products is available.

Heather Mills, the vegan ex-wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, has just signed a multi-million dollar contract with one of the vegan world's mortal enemies - Burger King. While she's been busy promoting the vegan diet to impoverished kids in the US, she's been blowing through her divorce money and isn't above taking some cash in exchange for promoting a burger joint. Alright, so she won't be pushing burgers or any other kind of once-living animal for BK - she'll be promoting their new vegetarian burger - but they do go against everything vegans stand for.

Mills has agreed to back the launch of the meat-free burger at the fast food chains 11,350 restaurants worldwide. News of Mills' deal comes just three months after Paul McCartney's announced plans to revamp his first wife Linda's vegetarian food line.

A friend of Mills told People:

“Heather is ecstatic. She believes she can change the eating habits of millions. She’s also being paid a lot of money and the deal will help boost her standing.”

However a source close to McCartney commented:

Miley Cyrus' Hannah Montana Chocolate Granola bars have been recalled due to a suspected salmonella contamination. The recall was issued in Canada last week after it was discovered that the granola bars contained peanut products that were a part of the massive peanut recall that happened earlier this year in both the U.S. and Canada.

Here are the specifics of the recall:

Disney Hannah Montana Peanut Chocolate Granola Bar Boxes of 6 or 18 bars, 22 g each with the UPC codes 0 53847 20587 9 *, 0 53847 24451 9 *, 0 53847 20610 4 *. 1H001 through 3H365; 1J001 through 3J365; 1K001 through 3K029.

There have so far been on confirmed illnesses in Canada associated with the consumption of the Hannah Montana Granola bars. Canadians are urged to call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).

Food that is contaminated by Salmonella may not look or smell spoiled. But the consumption of contaminated foods may cause salmonellosis. This may cause serious and sometimes deadly inflections in young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. Otherwise healthy people may experience high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

A nationwide recall on peanut butter produced by Peanut Corp. of America of Lynchburg, Va. was announced Wednesday after officials revealed two more deaths associated with a salmonella outbreak. One of their clients - Kellogg Co. - later asked stores to cease selling some of their peanut butter crackers.

Included in the Peanut Corp. of America was 21 lots of peanut butter made since July 1 at its plant in Blakely, Ga. They supply peanute paste to Kellogg.

On Wednesday Kellogg asked stores nationwide to pull peanut butter crackers sold under their Keebler and Austin brands. So far Kellogg has not received any complaints or found any problems, and are taking this action out of caution.

More than 430 people in 43 states have been sickened by the salmonella outbreak. In Ohio, 57 cases have been reported, 14 of whom were hospitalized.

Two deaths have been reported in Minnesota, one in Idaho, and two in Virginia in relation to the outbreak. All five were adults that had salmonella when they died, although the causes of death haven't yet been determiend.

How many of your Facebook friends are you actually really friends with? Not many, if you're like most people. So why exactly are they your "friend"? You probably don't have a good answer, except that it's cool to collect a bunch of buddies. Burger King, however, wants you to ditch the worthless friends and they're willing to bribe you to do it.

For every 10 friends you remove, the application will send a notification to the ex-friend via News Feed informing them that the user's love of Whoppers surpasses that of they're like for them. Ouch.

First BK began offering the "Flame" spray so we can all smell like burgers, now they're encouraging people to ditch friends by bribing them with fast food. Hmm... I wonder what they'll be up to next!