Welcome to Food Week January 26, 2024. It’s about the learning. For instance, It is better for the environment to re-use the disposable plastic bag than to carry groceries in a tote. Learning how to economize cookware and recipes. An alternative to Pappy. Microwaving your tea water. Knowing how to tip, for God’s sakes. And much more. Enjoy.
MACRO
- America is setting records in new business formation. And the US added an entire South Korea worth of GDP in 2023.
- About half of inflation was from increased corporate margins. Consolidation in may industries prevents competition from fixing this.
- No, young people with peanut allergies are not just weak. Mislabeled product kills a dancer.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Grocery prices projected to edge downward for the rest of 2024.
- Plastic bag bans have largely failed, we’ve learned. You need to re-use a bag 52 before you offset the environmental cost of producing a woven bag. micro=plastic are far mire likely to come from clothing paint and tires. And most of the plastic ocean waste comes from a few countries in Asia and not the West.
- Quaker’s salmonella outbreak is pretty bad, getting up to 40 items. And in case you missed it, the New York Times wrote an entire article about salmonella in your kitchen without mentioning eggs.
- Bud Light attempts a comeback.
- Costco offer transparency on big ticket items while its competitors do not.
- A short weird and funny rant on why you can buy reasonably priced, good cookware.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Starbuck’s sales crater in Q4.
- How much should you tip if for different bar service? Here is the fork pitch rule:
- Festival, stadium, place just opening cans – 2 bucks per.
- Restaurant/bar pouring beer – 20%
- Standard Cocktails – 25 -30% depending on complexity and quality
- Complex or custom cocktail – 30 – 35%
You are welcome.
- Bar patron hack, though with some risk: if you walk out without closing your tab, bars put auto 20% tip to close it. As the author admits, that is lower than she normally tips, so this is being frugal (?).
- Subway is struggling with slicers after decades of pre-cut meats. While we’re at it, a quickee duel over who has the best turkey sub: Subway, Jimmy John’s or Jersey Mike’s.
- While I suppose better than poultry processing, 432 violations of child labor laws by Wendy’s franchisee not great.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Panama isn’t the only global shipping problem – exporters struggling with Red Sea attacks, affecting produce.
- Illinois to ban 5 chemical additives in foods – same list CA did earlier.
- Do mosquito bed nets affect fisheries? Almost certainly not but billionaires have big microphones even when they are wrong.
- WIC shortfall could leave 2 million hungry.
- The fungus Fusarium strikes Cambodian bananas. Is this the beginning of the end for Cavendish bananas?
- Dystopia? Chickpeas are the future.
FOOD WEEK LAGNIAPPE
- Legendary chef Jacques Pepin – a very nice man – writes a cookbook with an eye towards economizing for families.
- For some reason pork brains and canned cheese are just not selling these days. List of the canned goods losers.
- If you aren’t in the ‘setting your money on fire’ kind of mood. Here is a list of Pappy Van Winkle alternatives.
- Speaking of recipes, ancient societies apparently didn’t share theirs with others. Little has changed.
- Old article – new to me: Microwaving your tea water is safer and better. Or it isn’t.