Welcome to Food Week May 3, 2024. The Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo back to back for your weekend. If you can spare a moment, delight in our update. With stories about nutrution labels, bird flu, Aldi, Johnnie Walker, food delivery, old clams, rare pasta and restaurants you literally can not get a reservation for. And more. Enjoy
MACRO
- Job growth slows; Fed keeps interest rates at current levels
- The bill banning the production and sale of lab grown meat is signed by Florida governor. Freedom!
- What did people eat at the first Kentucky Derby? … scrambled hog’s brains with drawn butter, calf’s head a la Toulouse, broiled squirrels…Eww
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- New bill looks to move the nutrition information to the front of consumer packaging. THis is going to be momentous for brand design if it comes to pass.
- Food Inflation down considerably YOY.
- Walmart rolls out a new brand – plant based, culinary, clean label – to take on Aldi, Trader Joe’s. Label doesn’t look particularly like a store brand. But Aldi’s don’t either and they are thriving.
- UNFI – one of the largest grocery distributors – sees its stock value plunge because of low margins.
- In addition to forever chemicals, food packaging can contain chemials that affect metabolism and hormones.
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- Soaring food delivery costs have attracted sudy and the attention of Congress. Some restaurants are now restricitng the hours they will do delivery and take out. And delivery workers experiencing higher rates of injuries due to the apps.
- Are TikTok influencers the best place to get restaurant recommendations? Surprisingly no.
- Is the oldest Chinese restaurant in America located just outside Sacramento? Maybe
- Americans are beginning to reduce their spending on fast food.
- I have had great, I mean great, hot dogs at Home Depot. Do they have that in other cities than Chicago?
- Starbucks operationally struggling with mobile orders. Many consumer quit before finishing order if items are not available or wait times are too long.
- Japanese restaurants with a no ‘first time ‘ customer policy. You can get in with a regular as a guest and then, assuming you are acceptable, may be able to get a reservation.
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Bilbo has thoughts about alt-proteins and veganism. The long term trend for meat substiutes is not good. But perhaps a Whole Food deal will keep Impossible Foods alive.
- Believe it or not, it was legal to sell poultry even if you knew it had salmonella. No longer.
- Fertilizer runoff is polluting drinking water. This is partucularly problematic in acricultural communities. Iowa spent a quarter billion dollars on a plant to diversify sourcing of fertilizer. It lasted a decade and then got acquired Koch. The industry is more consolidated than ever and farmers have little choice about where to buy.
- Olive Oil industry struggling badly, mostly due to excessive heat in Southern Europe
- After the milk scares, other dairy products tested for Avian Influenza (AI); pasteurization works. New AI tests available for livesock and people. Which is important because heightened exposure for workers brings risk.
DRINK CORNER
- Cachaca – it’s not just for the Caipirinha anymore. Introducing the Batida.
- Europe experiencing worst wine growing season in decades. And the climate is getting any better.
- Is it a cocktail if you are only using onme ingredient? Introducing the Shakerato, acheived by violently emulsifying amaro.
- The amount of ethanol (alcohol) taste you get in a drink varies by the type of drink it is. This is due to ingredients interacting with ethanol structures. This might be used to make low alcohol beverages taste ‘boozier’.
- I am not a fan of Johnnie Walker but if you are, here is a guide to their various labels. And now there is Johnnie Walker umami.
FOOD WEEK MAY 3 LAGNIAPPE
- Dry aging fish and the restaurants embracing it.
- Converting ranch land to forest in the Amazon.
- The Golden Temperature. The right temp for roasting your vegetables is 425F
- The world’s rarest pasta. And a clam born in 1499.
- What is Queer Food?
- This week I learned the expression ‘crab bucket mentality‘ and will use it frequently in the future