Food Week March 1, 2024

Welcome to Food Week March 1. This week, things that seem contradictory. Onions and peanut butter. Savory and cocktails. Health and potato chips. Dollar Stores and food deserts. Rum and peanuts. Lead and applesauce. Ramen and nutrition. And much more. Enjoy.

MACRO

• The Fed says inflation still hasn’t fallen enough to allow a rate drop.

• Will semaglutides (weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy) actually boost the economy? Probably not.

• Macro trends in raw and ingredients for 2024 in food: koji, ube, astragulas, allulose and choline.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• The other shoe drops: Federal Trade Commission sues to block Kroger Albertson’s merger.

• The Venn diagram between Dollar Stores and urban food deserts is essentially a circle. And the warehouses are worse: Family Dollar hit with a 42 million dollar fine over rodent infestation.

• Consumers resisting further price increases.

• Oat milk bad for you? Well, it’s complicated, like everything else. And the quest for a healthier potato chip.

• Beyond Meat is the one alt-protein that seems to be doing okay, shares jumping 84% in a day.

• Boiling tap water will make nano-plastics harmless. But will people really start boiling their water?

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Wendy’s announces surge pricing. This really comes back to elasticity of demand. Uber gets away with it because at peak times because even alternatives are unavailable/higher priced. Prices become very elastic. But there are plenty of alternatives to Wendy’s. And a few days later they reconsidered.

• Fast Food wages in CA go to $20…except for Panera which managed to get an exception carved out for restaurants that bake their own bread. No seriously. Governor Newsom had some role in getting this for his buddy the franchisee.

• Starbucks elects to engage its unions. Will the movement spread to other chains?

• How Guinness ended up being associated with world records.

• WcDonalds is a mainstay meme in Anime culture. McDonald’s has decided to embrace it.

• Why does everything have to be in a bowl?

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• It’s not just for sodium anymore: using Ramen to boost nutrition

• Understanding the politics with SNAP & WIC.

• NY Times investigation into the scandal over lead in applesauce. And arsenic found in rice heading to Haiti.

• Corn and Soy futures are at an all-time low. El Nino conditions have led to bumper crops in countries like Argentina, but surpluses are driving the price downward. Even price supports not helping.

• Mexico City may be just a few months away from running out of water as growth has outstripped the infrastructure..

• New York Attorney General files lawsuit against JBS for false clams regarding greenhouse gases.

• Killing your neighbors crops: dicamba drift.

• Ingredient bans by individual states make selling product nationally more difficult. However doesn’t it speak to the ineffectiveness of having 3 different agencies (FDA, USDA, FTC) regulate food? But state movement has led to the removal of PFAs (forever chemicals) from food packaging. And scientists are trying out new techniques to remove them as well.

DRINK CORNER

• Just last night I was at a pretty good cocktail bar and began to feel – not for the first time – a little hemmed in by sweet and citrusy cocktails. Here are 7 savory cocktails that I wish I had known about. (I think we will do a little thing on fat washing with egg yolks in the near future)

• Collectors will pay big money for lost, very old or forgotten bottles of spirits: called ‘dusty.’

• Furthermore, if you want to pay a lot of money for booze, Beverly Hills has just the place.

• I admit rum soaked peanuts sound intriguing, but are they a cure for diabetes?

• We recently wrote about crazy expensive martinis in SF. It’s not just there. Here is a recipe for a lesser key martini which sounds interesting but I will never make because of the obscurity of all the ingredients. Pistachio fat-washed rum?? Plantain eau de vie?

• Beer keeps longer cold. That is all.

FOOD WEEK MARCH 1 LAGNIAPPE

• At first the thought of an onion stuffed with peanut butter makes teh great Depression sound even worse. But the description of the preparation – particularly the caramelizing the onion -makes it seems like it might work.

• I don’t like sourdough much. I prefer bread that tastes like bread. But its fans like to promote it as better for you. Is is marginal at best.

• There is a tradition of Chinese Mexican fusion cuisine along the border.

• Have you heard of the Intangible Cultural Heritage list? No, me either. But apparently Peru’s ceviche is on the list.

• Oprah disconnects from the Weight Watchers sinking ship.

• New help for food allergies.

• Flâneuserie – the scandal of not using digital information to find your next meal.

• Uncovering viticulture in ancient Rome. And Archestratus, the ancient Greek food writer.