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Welcome to Food Week March 8, 2024. Tonight is a trip to Kumiko, renowned cocktail bar and Monday heading to Expo West. So a breezy version exposing you to new things like chlormequat, grocery store deep fakes, glutenin, AI in the drive thru, Huanglongbing, giostra dalcol and much more. Enjoy!
MACRO
- Economy added 275,000 jobs in February but unemployment rate ticked up as more people join the work force.
- World food prices continue to fall.
- Moving the clock takes more out of you than you think.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Trader Joe’s struggling with a spate of recalls. Latest is 62k lbs. of shrimp dumplings. Other retailers finding lead in cinnamon.
- Is the Kroger Albertson’s merger a dead man walking? One can hope.
- Aldi to reach 800 stores in 4 years.
- Nescafe kinda sucks, even compared to other instant coffees
- A deep fake grocery store grows in Brooklyn.
- Did you ever show up way late to a party and all the fun is over? Kraft Heinz rolls out two new plant based proteins.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Loss of a Hooter’s devastates West Virginia community.
- Outback closing a lot of restaurants.
- Using AI to make drive thru work.
- Burger King trolls Wendy’s after the dynamic pricing fiasco.
- A restaurant in Toronto is now adding a carbon fee to checks.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Biden Administration now tackling meat industry consolidation.
- Older hens, hanging on after Avian Influenza, are laying eggs with more fragile shells, leading to more chipping and breaking.
- Regenerative agriculture is the flavor of the month.
- Can glutenin save alt-protein? Maybe growth factors?
- Why Chlormequat – a banned additive – is ending up in oats.
- Consumers and suppliers want certification for things like organic. But for smaller states – New Hampshire in this case – it is hard to make them economical.
- The risk to coffee of climate change. Greek olives are already facing the music.
DRINK CORNER
- The giostra dalcol is a cocktail with cheese and chocolate, fitting into that special category often called ‘dessert’.
- Hendrick’s – the king of the gin and tonic – has a new limited release called Grand Cabaret, exploiting the flavors of stone fruits.
- Cream of coconut and coconut cream are two different things and they can have profoundly different outcomes for your cocktails.
- The hip lingo bartenders are using. Doesn’t include the words ‘hip’ or ‘lingo.’
FOOD WEEK MARCH 8 LAGNIAPPE
- The traditional Catholic fish fry for Lent. While you are at it, sardines are pretty close to a super food.
- Dietician recommends we eat 30 different vegetables every week for gut health. That seems like an OCD safari, not like an actual shopping list.
- Wasabi as an archaeological preservative?
- Do not use ball whisks for making sauces. Over and out.
- Huanglongbing is a disease that slowly kills orange trees. Researchers may have a solution and end up with sweeter fruit as well. And what is a cara cara orange?
- A super easy, 4 ingredient baguette recipe.