Last year it was peanut butter. Before that – tomatoes. It seems like every year there’s one major food recall that really shakes the system. Last week the FDA notified the public about another recall hurricane, this time for various products containing Hydrolized Vegetable Protein, an ingredient used in many processed foods:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to protect the public following the early identification of Salmonella Tennessee in one company’s supply of hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP). This is a common ingredient used most frequently as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods, including soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravies, seasoned snack foods, dips and dressings.

The manufacturer of the affected product is Basic Food Flavors Inc in Las Vegas, Nevada. Only HVP manufactured by Basic Food Flavors is involved in this recall. read more…

What you need to know:

HVP is a flavor enhancer used in a wide variety of processed food products, such as soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravies, seasoned snack foods, dips, and dressings. It is often blended with other spices to make seasonings that are used in or on foods.

As of late Saturday night, 92 products are on the recall list, including bouillon, dips, dip mixes, dressings, and snacks. Unfortunately the list will keep growing.

Fortunately, most of the products that use the tainted HVP have a “kill step” which requires heating them up, thus killing off the salmonella. So far, nobody has reported any illness as a result of the contamination.

Theoretically the shelves should be free of recalled products, but as each day passes new products are added to the list. Since many of them are non-perishable, there is a good chance you may already have them stocked in your pantry. To be on the safe side, check the ingredient list for Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein and then consult with the FDA website to see if the product is on the recall list.

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This is a guest blog post by Carol Harvey, director of nutrition labeling at Palate Works. She recently visited the San Francisco Fancy Food Show.

For 35 years, the Fancy Food Show has been the trade show of all things tasty, gourmet and upscale. Many food products are launched there, including an increasing number dished up as “healthy” or “better for you,” due to evolving consumer demand.

In fact, the “top 5 food trends” for 2010 just announced by NASFT (the trade association that produces the show) include “good-for-you foods”. This “trend,” brewing for most of the 20 years that I have been attending the show, has proven a smart business move for a number of brands.

Whether any of the 100,000+ exhibited products really nailed the “taste + nutrition” prize was my focus again this year in San Francisco. And once again, how a company uses nutrition claims separated those that know their nutrition and labeling from those that don’t. Here are three examples. Read more…

Every day, week, and month there’s a holiday somewhere in the world.

While most holidays have religious, historical or national connotations, there’s a new category of “marketing” holidays, embellishing whatever there is to be sold. Food is no exception, and just this week, for example, the country celebrated National Sandwich Day (Nov 3). The date was chosen to honor the birthday of Sir John Montag, a.k.a Earl of Sandwich, an 18th century Englishman who requested to have his lunch meat served between 2 pieces of bread so that he may continue playing cards with his buddies. This year Sara Lee and other bread manufacturers helped “celebrate” with PR pizazz.

Here’s a (very partial) list of a few more food festivities. In no particular order:

Get the day started right on National Eggs Benedict Day (April 16). And while we’re having breakfast, wouldn’t it make sense to unite National Pancake Day (Sept 26) and National Maple Syrup Day (Dec 17)?

Beverage Day is on May 6, but behemoth Coca Cola has it’s own very special Have a Coke Day 2 days later on May 8. too bad there’s no tap water day. For parents to messy toddlers there’s Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day (Feb 11).

There’s an entire month devoted to Hamburgers (May 1-31). Not to be outdone, Pizza has several holidays, depending on the toppings; our favorite is coming up next week – National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day (Nov 12).

Venerable vegetables have lots of special days – Does Eat Your Vegetables Day (June 17) drive up sales of broccoli? probably not. Do people get discount when signing up to become vegetarians on World Vegetarian Day (Oct 1)? Kick the New year off with legumes on Bean Day (Jan 6). And don’t forget America’s #1 vegetable on Potato Day (Aug 19). While the Spinach Festival(March 26) sounds interesting, the more interestingly named Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Night (Aug 8th) will have us awake in bed til the morning of August 9.

Why would anyone celebrate Poisoned Blackberries Day (Sept 29)?

The sweets have lots of partying with an entire National Dessert Month in October, a National Pumpkin Pie Day on Christmas, followed 2 days later by National Fruitcake Day (Dec 27), and in the heat of the summer a National Cheesecake Day (July 30).

Lest we forget our favorite snack on National Ice Cream Day (July 18) with gourmands looking forward to National Vanilla Ice Cream Day (July 23) celebrated less than a week later. FYI: We just celebrated National Chocolate Day last week (Oct 28).

Thank goodness February is short, as it is also National Snack Food Month. It’s followed by National Potato Chip Day (March 14) and then National Pretzel Day (April 26). Healthy snacking will have to wait till summertime with National Trail Mix Day (Aug 31).

National Soup Month comes in the dead of winter, lasting all of January. Canned Food Month (February) is followed by National Frozen Food Month in March. April gets off to a sticky-in-the-roof-of-my-mouth start with National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day (Apr 2) but then continues to a more solid Garlic Day (Apr 19) mid month.

But our favorite holiday, dedicated to all the unfortunate chefs who burn toasts and can’t seem to scramble an egg, is Kitchen Klutzes of America Day (June 13). We’ll be eating out that day, thank you.

Got any more interesting holidays we should know about? Comments welcome…

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Some shoppers may have noticed lately that packages of Frito-Lay brand potato chips, Doritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos are bigger than they used to be. It’s hard to miss, especially when the one on Tostitos says: ”Hey! There’s 20 percent more free fun to share in here!”

That’s 20% more calories, fat, and sodium too.

The price, though, hasn’t changed. Why would a manufacturer want to give us this gift?

The New York Times explains:

Think of your food packages like an economic barometer: Times are tough, so costs are low and packages are bigger. When times are good, costs are high and packages, to compensate, get smaller.

Tough times also mean consumers have less money to spend, so they want those bigger packages. Experts say this is a promotional tool that helps branded food companies steer shoppers back to their products and away from less expensive, store-brand alternatives.

What you need to know:

Last year, as commodity prices were going through the roof, manufacturers had a dilemma – should they raise prices to remain profitable? The answer was no. Instead, they sneakily reduced the amount of product and employed a grocery shrink ray to reduce the package size. Packaged items from Red Bull to chicken wings to peanut butter were secretly shrunk, and consumers were unknowingly paying more per ounce of food / beverage.

Now that commodity prices are way down and consumers are pinching pennies, it’s time to reverse the shrink ray and start to buff up those packages. Lowering prices would be great for us, but food companies are afraid that it would devalue their brand and cause problems in the future when they’ll want to raise prices again.

While last year’s shrink ray was hush hush, this year’s good deeds of package growth should not go unheard right? You betcha, and that’s why all the XYZ-os are labeled with the “20% more” marketing message.

Thanks food manufacturers, for being dishonest with us last year, and for stuffing us with even more of you unhealthy snacks this year.

At least one thing hasn’t changed – the serving size – a laughable 11 chips. Yes, that’s right, what people wolf down between opening the bag to pouring its contents into a serving bowl. But we’ll talk about serving sizes in another post.

What to do at the supermarket:

Some supermarkets let you easily compare product prices by reading shelf tags with price per oz / fl oz. This is a very helpful tool.

But even more helpful to you will be to cut down on the amount of processed snacks you purchase, and direct the savings to more natural options like fresh fruits, dried fruits, and nuts.

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We recently reviewed several healthy snack options,  fruit leathers, and freeze dried fruit. Today, a look at another option – Bear Fruit Bars. We’d like to thank reader Sarah S, a Fooducate Product Tester, for her feedback.

Bear Fruit Bars are manufactured by a small company called Mountain Organic Foods and come in four flavors – Organic Apple, Organic Apple Cherry, Organic Apple Raspberry, Organic Apple Blueberry. As you can see, the main motive here is apples. The Bear guys operate an organic  orchard in the Hood River Valley in Oregon.

So how did these organic snacks stack up?
Read more…

Once upon a time, a snack was something to fill in a grumbling stomach in between meals. Lately though, snacks have gone on to replace meals. So says “Snack Foods Culinary Trend Mapping Report” from the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) and Packaged Facts:

The study shows time-crunched Americans now turn to snacks as meal stand-ins, to fuel on-the-go lifestyles and stave off energy crashes. And as snacks grow in importance, consumers want bigger bang for their snacking buck, such as vivid flavor, quality ingredients and pumped-up nutrition.

“Snacks are less and less the hunger-soothing bridge between formal meals,” said CCD CEO Kimberly Egan. “They have become valuable gastronomical events in their own right, especially as consumers demand more from their snacks.”

read more…

What you need to know:

Be vary wary of “healthy” snacks. If you want a sweet candy or some chips for a snack, that’s OK. Don’t justify the calories, sugar, fat, and sodium by pointing to some vitamin fortification. Don’t fool yourself to think that snacks can replace real meals. Nor that they are much healthier than the traditional snacks you’ve come to love.

What to do at the supermarket:

The snack aisles can be brutal on your health as well as your pocketbook, so go in with a predefined limit (3 items only) and then choose the tastiest snack you like, irregardless of health claims. YES, you read right. It’s fine to enjoy an occasional treat, and as there is not much nutritional difference between your favorite snack and something similar claiming to be healthy, go for what you like the best.

But remember, this is for an occasional treat, not a meal replacement or a daily habit.

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Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo has figured out just the thing women need more of.

Not fruit, not exercise, not water.

You guessed it – snacks:

Last month the US firm launched its first snack – Smartfood Popcorn Clusters – targeted specifically at women.

Following their premise that the majority of women snack more than men, [PepsiCo] said at the time of the roll out that it seeks to cash in on an estimated $650m in additional sales from women consumers.

John Compton, CEO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, presented the ’smartfood popcorn clusters’ in the context of PepsiCo’s move to ‘Introduce new products for her’.

Listed by PepsiCo in the general criteria for ‘new products for her’ are: make it convenient/portable, ‘help me control my portions’, ‘take away the guilt’, ‘take out the negatives’, make it nutritious, and make it taste ‘great’.

Read more…

What you need to know:

We took a look at the nutrition label of the Cranberry Almond SmartFood Popcorn Clusters to see how smart this snack is.

First, the ingredient list: Cranberries are listed as the #10 ingredient in the list, and almonds are #3, although their placement on the packaging is much more prominent. The #1 ingredient is Brown Rice Syrup – a type of sugar. Popcorn is only the 4th ingredient, just ahead of – sugar! Wasn’t the rice syrup enough?

The nutrition panel is actually OK. Each serving is only 120 calories, and packs 5 grams of fiber through the addition of chicory root to the fiber in popcorn. The 10 grams of sugar are equivalent to 2 teaspoons of sugar, and contribute only 40 calories. And, squarely aiming at women, this product has 20% of the daily value for calcium.

All in all, this snack seems reasonable compared to other greasier, sweeter, fattening alternatives that PepsiCo manufactures.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you have tried out this new snack, we’d love to hear your take on it. Is such a small serving filling enough? How does it taste? Would kids and men like it too?

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