Welcome to Food Week February 28, 2025. Late. Short but punchy. Heading to the Natural Product Show in Anaheim. Tariffs about to kick in, economy is floundering and eggs are still a disaster. Otherwise everything is great. Enjoy.
MACRO
- The Yield Curve for government bonds has inverted, which is often a sign of an impending recession.
- At least 90 people have been caught smuggling eggs across the border in El Paso.
RETAIL AND CONSUMER
- Kroger comes up with a clever promotion; a kit to help people get past the daylight savings change next week.
- Albertson’s on the other hand, is struggling with its finances since the failed merger.
- The orange juice train wreck continues: Tropicana in trouble.
- Keep your chin up, kids. even Costco fails sometimes.
- Storing coffee, at least according to Folgers
RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE
- McDonald’s, still reeling from eColi outbreak last year, flexes on eggs, offers an Egg McMuffin $1 deal.
- Sustaining restaurant quality for over 4 decades in Napa Valley.
- You can barely walk down the street in San Sebastien without running into a Michelin starred restaurant.
- Will we achieve the $50 shrimp cocktail? I think it is inevitable
FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
- Polystyrene is a especially bad plastic, California banned it as of January 1, But the fight may not be over.
- Vertical farm can grow 4 million pounds of strawberries on one acre
- Soil scientists find breakthrough to reduce the amount of phosphate and nitrate fertilizers
- Cattle Gallstones (!?) are apparently greatly in demand fro Eastern medicine and highly valuable
DRINKS
- Stump your friends with this question: What is the highest selling spirit in the world? Answer: Baijiu
- If you only have one vessel for measuring out your drinks, you can still make these equal parts cocktails.
- The differences between Scotch and Irish whisky. Also, what is the technical definition of small batch? There isn’t one.
FOOD WEEK February 28 LAGNIAPPE
- Juice cleanses are actually terrible for gut health. TL:DR: full of sugar, no fiber. Also, Milk good, cheese bad for your gut biome.
- Sanjay Gupta isn’t as bad as Dr. Oz but he misleads with this headline claiming 71% of US diet is ultraprocessed foods. Reading is a skill but I guess sensationalism is too.
- If you want your sandwich to last, send it to the bottom of the ocean. This is funny but it has implications for carbon sequester and climate change.
- Similarly, the world’s oldest bread was found, not at the bottom of the ocean.