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.
- Microplastics harm your level and mess with your blood sugar
- Most people get enough protein. Most people think they don’t..