Welcome to Food Week August 9, 2024. It was a bad PR week for a lot of things: erythritol, Seine water quality, Banza & Boars Head, fake olive oil, food delivery, Casamigos & Johnnie Walker, Malort and home-made Ozempic. And more, Enjoy

MACRO

• The markets took a wild ride. Mortgage rates finally going down.

• Overdosing on home-made Ozempic. And the per capita capital of weight loss semaglutides? Bowling Green, Kentucky

• Indications are Erythritol can cause clots, heart diseaese.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• You probably know this but Costco olive oil is really good and really cheap.

• Target finding it hard to reduce virgin plastic.

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) coming after large grocers.

• Chicago may open its own grocery stores to combat food deserts

• Will Coca Cola help get rid of Seine bacteria in Olympians? (Hint: no).

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• NYT restaurant critic Pete Wells is retiring. Here reflects on the changes to fine dining. While we are at it, we can review restaurant etiquette.

• The economy may be slowing but it is not reflected in restaurant reservations.

• Relatedly even celebrities can get turned away if they don’t have a reservation.

• Trying to reform school lunches.

• It has not been a good Olympics for Sodexo, again, pr-wise.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• 3rd person dies from Listeria outbreak. A second lawsuit filed over 7 million pound Boar’s Head‘s ongoing disaster.

• Many limes and lemons are considred non-vegan beause of beeswax. Okay.

• EPA pulls weedkiller because of fetal damage.

• Does Banza pasta contain glysophates? Maybe, in trace amounts, but that doesn’t mean they can avoid a bad social media moment even if the levels are below regulations.

• Improving Mexican railway supply for produce.

• High prices and supply challenges in the olive oil industry have led to a fraudulent black market.

• Rocket fuel ingredient in fruit doesn’t sound good.

DRINK CORNER

• Vertical integration for whiskey ingredients finds it’s way to Japan. Up til now, while the results have been at times spectacular, the Japanese have outsourced several key ingredients.

• Johnnie Walker and Casamigos bleeding market share.

• There has been a worldwide Chartreuse shortage. Maybe the reason is that monks completely control its production and only 2 monks are allowed to see the recipe.

• Brew pub in trouble for infusing Malort with cicadas. As well they should be.

• Pairing tonics by gin. Or gins by tonic.

FOOD WEEK August 9 LAGNIAPPE

• Baking soda is hot right now as the big new supplement.

• Who says marketing doesn’t work: kids consumption of sugary drinks increased by a quarter since 1990.

• The glory that is Giardinera.

• Using eggs to create vaccines for flu can be problematic when that flu is from birds.

• The food delivery business has been really good at extrating money from foreign wealth funds, little else.

• Aunt Annie pretzel aroma is now a frangrance.