Welcome to Food Week October 10. More food consolidation, this time with the retailers themselves. This week, we have the obvious – packaging bananas according to ripeness, the composition of black coffee and a high fiber diet causing gastric distress. And we have the less obvious – secret menus, the right way to stock your refrigerator and a billion missing crabs. Enjoy.
MACRO
- Inflation high, food higher.
- But maybe the Fed is going about this wrong way.
- Just a reminder, we have the equivalent of a September 11 every 10 days in this country. But the pandemic is over
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Tofurkey will no longer be able to use terms like burger and sausage if a ruling from a U.S. Court in Arkansas has its way.
- Kroger (number 2 grocer) trying to buy Albertson’s (#4) as supermarkets consolidate further. A $24.6 billion deal . With Wal Mart and Costco, the top 3 would represent more than 50% of total market.
- No more plastic bags at Wegman’s.
- In Korea, some retailers pack bananas in sequential ripeness, which only makes sense:
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Inflation helps Domino’s recover from the pandemic.
- Latest Starbucks/barista/TikTok viral outrage is about the definition of black coffee.
- Secret menus and hacks make workers at Starbucks and other places, difficult.
- The relationship between wages and tips still not sorted out.
- Burger King overdoing it on the Ghost Pepper Whopper?
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Worst Avian Influenza outbreak ever?
- Cattle and environment stuff:
- Ranching and other farming not only causing de-forestation but contributing to extinctions.
- Brazilian cattle farmers selling off animals early because of a lack of rainfall.
- Google is starting to track carbon emissions in recipes and cattle industry isn’t happy with that.
- 1.35 million cases of salmonella illness per year in US. The USDA wants to decrease that number.
- Forecast for Florida oranges is a reduction of 33%.
- New sensor can tell whether products have been previously frozen.
- A billion (an estimate) snow crabs have disappeared from the Bering Sea. Warm water to blame but high prices at least in the meantime.
FOOD WEEK OCTOBER 10 LAGNIAPPE
- Micro-plastics found in human breast milk which is really not good.
- Coconut oil is not a cure-all.
- You are doing it wrong: Martha Stewart tells you how to stock your fridge.
- A Pumpkin the size of a Prius.
- New diet – F factor – causing gastric distress and other ailments. Users suing becuase a high-fiber diet causing gas.
- More Pappy van Winkle this year?