You made it through the COVID summer! Grab your beverage of choice and enjoy a fork pitch collection of articles and commentary on things of interest in the food business. Among other things this week, we dove into CRISPR and GMOs, learned about using UV light to kill micro-organisms on surfaces, how saving fisheries can save fishermen and bird poop coffee.
Macro
- Jobless claims down but still no stimulus agreed upon in Congress.
- Retail is just okay; restaurants not.
- Hurricane Laura did more agricultural damage than Katrina and Rita combined and fisheries damage hasn’t even been included yet.
- FDA can no longer issues rules, including those for food safety. The authority is now in the hands of Secretary of HHS.
Retail and Consumer
- While there has been a lot of disinfectant theater performed during COVID, the use of UV lights to kill viruses and bacteria on surfaces makes a lot of sense in grocery stores. Restaurants should be next.
- Pepsi launching a water to help you fall asleep. Drinking water before bed though…
- The Albrecht family is fighting. They own Aldi and Trader Joe’s.
- Using CRISPR gene editing technology, the start up Pairwise seeks to make nutritious foods more palatable. It will interesting how consumer reacts to this. My thoughts here.
Restaurants and Foodservice
Food Supply
- Reasons to be Cheerful. A great story form a great site about how science and local fishermen worked to not only save fishing grounds from depletion, but actually improved the lot of the fishermen themselves.
- Cell based Salmon from Wildtype. Grown in brewery like conditions from salmon cells.
- Potatoes and who produces them. Peru, birthplace of the spud, really doesn’t rate.
Lagniappe
- Just sitting here thinking about have a nice hot cup of bird poop coffee. And paying through the …nose for it at $50 an ounce
- I lurve homemade hummous. I’ve never had a garbonzo, um, that cooked quickly and it turns out I was doing it wrong and worse, wasting time. Here is a fun review of the prep methods for dried beans.