Food Week June 6, 2025

Welcome to Food Week June 6, 2025. Breezy and late this week. Serious tomato recall and a fairly large recall of eggs. But sure, let’s cut USDA and FDA funding. Lot’s more too. Enjoy!

MACRO

• Signs point to a gradually slowing labor market.

• The USDA is more a commercial advocate than a regulator. But that hasn’t spared them from cuts in the billions .

• Door Dash bypasses TSA to deliver food to plane on tarmac at O’Hare

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Campbell’s soup sales soaring is a usually bad sign for the economy.

• Elephant goes shopping in Thai supermarket. It went about as well as you’d expect.

• More on the Market Basket drama.

• Workers vote unanimously to strike against Kroger & Albertson’s in WA state

• Millennials facing the march of time, at least in what they can still eat,

• The death of frozen concentrated orange juice.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Chipotle wants to be nicer.

• What state eats the most fast food per capita? Nope you are wrong.

• Turbot vanishingly rare on menus these days. Scarcity has driven the prices up.

• Pie and mash is a British working class restaurant tradition and is till beloved

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• What do you do with 6 million dead chickens?

• Class 1 (the highest) recall of tomatoes. Class 1 recalls warn of potentially fatal contamination. Also burgeoning salmonella recall from eggs in Pacific NW.

• Rice grown in the Southeast has high levels of heavy metals, especially arsenic.

• Vertical farming is become more complex while also becoming more efficient

• The Green Crab. Cockroach of the sea or delicious new seafood option? Yes.

DRINKS

• Does asparagus make a good gin? Somebody in MIchigan thinks so.

• Crazy expensive NYC cocktails

• The best over-aged rums.

• No THC drinks in KY bars. I doubt that this will be the last state to ban them.

• The Toronto. Jungle Bird(s). The Graddas Tamal. The Part Time Friend. The Reverse Manhattan. The Whiskey Daisy.

FOOD WEEK June 6 LAGNIAPPE

• Oleic acid in olive oil found to drive growth in fat cells

• Using green tea to lower blood pressure.

• Is there any thing better for your gut health than sauerkraut? Why yes, here’s 5. Plus 5 high fiber fruits.

• Korean cheese corn.

• Microplastics harm your level and mess with your blood sugar

• Most people get enough protein. Most people think they don’t..