An alert appearing on Yelp that discloses San Francisco health inspection scores may “improve the functioning of markets” and help consumers make “better decisions," but critics reportedly say the posted scores illustrate the failures of the city's food-safety inspection system. Two researchers, who authored “Digitizing Disclosures: The Case of Restaurant Hygiene Scores,” previously helped Yelp design the alert boxes, which appear on pages for about five percent of San Francisco restaurants. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the alert boxes reduced Yelp users’ “intention to visit” by 21 percent, despite the intention of the alerts to be a system of accountability rather than a warning of deterrence. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA) told the Chronicle that the scores are based on routine inspections conducted every six to 18 months. If restaurants earn a low inspection score, they have a week to correct the violations or face closure. “If you see [a low…
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With companies creating plant-based foods that look and taste like real meat—and even getting product placement in grocery meat cases—USA Today reports that U.S. cattle ranchers are disputing the categories of the products developed and sold by these companies, including Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. The United States Cattlemen’s Association has filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for the agency to establish beef labeling that would limit the use of the terms “beef” and “meat” to products derived from animal sources and inform consumers about the difference between such products and “alternative protein sources.” The petition is reportedly aimed not only at “plant-based meat” substitutes such as tofu but also at “clean meat” grown in a lab from animal stem cells. The firm Allied Market Research reportedly predicts that plant-based meat businesses could sell $5.2 billion worth of products by 2020. About 60 percent of…
Amazon has opened Amazon Go, a grocery store using artificial intelligence (AI), prompting speculation about its potential effects on the labor market, worries about consumer privacy and skepticism about how well it will work. Shoppers scan a smartphone app at a turnstile as they enter, then items are added to a virtual shopping cart as shoppers pull them off the shelf. If the shopper puts the item back on a shelf, the item is deleted from the cart. When shoppers leave the store, their credit cards are charged for the total. The store reportedly uses machine learning algorithms and computer-vision image processing along with weight sensors, camera-friendly bar codes and infrared sensors to track products as they leave shelves and the store. The store's technology hit speed bumps before its unveiling. Amazon Go’s opening was delayed by a year as the company fine-tuned and tested the technology; among early bugs was…
From the rise in food allergies to the changing economics of agriculture and animal husbandry, documentary series “Rotten” examines a range of factors that affect the food and beverage industry. Episodes include "Lawyers, Guns & Honey," which explores how foreign honey enters the U.S. market; "Big Bird," which documents the effects of JBS' purchase of Pilgrim's Pride on U.S. poultry farmers; and "Milk Money," which examines the benefits and risks linked to the sale of raw milk. The final episode, "Cod is Dead," details the effects of catch limits on commercial fisheries and reviews the case of Carlos Rafael, the "Codfather." Since the release of "Rotten," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reportedly sought to prevent Rafael and his businesses from reentering the fishing industry after he is released from prison.
An increasing number of companies are selling "raw water," or "unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water," according to the New York Times. The companies target consumers seeking to leave the country's water infrastructure over concerns about treatments the water undergoes and the lead pipes that sometimes carry it to its destinations. One "water consciousness movement" start-up offers "fluoride-free," "chlorine-free" and "mineral electrolyte alkaline" options, while another sells a system that pulls moisture from the air to collect water. The founder of Live Water, which sells 2.5-gallon jugs of raw water for about $37 each, told the Times that "real water" should expire: "It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery," he is quoted as saying. "If it sits around too long, it'll turn green. People don't even realize that because all their water's dead, so they never see it turn green." "By convincing people to drink untreated water, the proponents of the raw…
Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and former Indiana governor, argues in a Washington Post op-ed that the anti-GMO campaign is “cruel,” “heartless,” “inhumane” and “immoral.” With no credible scientific evidence and no record of adverse effects on human health or the environment to support it, Daniels asserts, the anti-GMO lobby is blocking “lifesaving” advances made by modern science that could help developing countries feed the globe’s rapidly expanding population. “[A] concerted, deep-pockets campaign, as relentless as it is baseless, has persuaded a high percentage of Americans and Europeans to avoid GMO products, and to pay premium prices for ‘non-GMO’ or ‘organic’ foods that may in some cases be less safe and less nutritious,” Daniels writes. “This is the kind of foolishness that rich societies can afford to indulge. But when they attempt to inflict their superstitions on the poor and hungry peoples of the planet, the cost shifts from affordable to dangerous…
In a December 2017 series of articles, Financial Times explored issues projected to affect the global food and beverage industry in the future. The Update's previous coverage of the issues examined can provide additional context to these evolving subjects. Genetically Modified (GM) Crops. Experts reportedly anticipate an increase in GM crop cultivation, which currently covers 185 million hectares worldwide. Makers of GM crops have faced opposition from a number of areas as use of their products has spread, sometimes inadvertently. In the United States, multiple jurisdictions have banned GM crops, but courts have invalidated some bans on the grounds of preemption. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided guidance on voluntary labeling of foods derived from GM crops, and Congress has directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a standard for mandatory disclosure. Europe has largely resisted GM crop cultivation; in April 2017, a majority of EU countries…
Responding to pressure from health groups, the government and consumer demand, food companies have been reducing levels of sugar and salt in their foods, the Washington Post reports, but levels of saturated fats in the updated recipes for these reduced-salt or -sugar foods have surged. The Post cites a November 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that purportedly found a significant rise in saturated fats in four of the five food categories examined—cereals, yogurts, snacks and frozen/refrigerated meals showed increases, although candy did not—while the same categories largely showed decreases in salt and sugar. Food scientists who formulate products with reduced sugar and salt told the Post that decreasing one nutrient often results in increases for others to account for the weight and volume lost, especially when less of the replacement ingredient is required, such as the use of stevia to replace sugar. The author of the USDA report speculated that the rise…
A website that allows individuals to report food poisoning incidents may help health officials identify outbreaks of foodborne illness, according to NPR. Developed by Patrick Quade, iwaspoisoned.com has reportedly handled more than 75,000 user posts from 46 states and 90 countries since its launch. After a cluster of reports, the website notifies local health officials; the site has correctly identified the source of four outbreaks before health officials did. Officials reportedly praise the site’s ability to identify norovirus outbreaks, which are often underreported. Officials have previously used Yelp to curate reports of foodborne illness.
Aaron Carroll, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, argues in a New York Times editorial that “panic-du-jour” about unhealthy foods encourages people to unnecessarily live “in terror or struggling to avoid certain foods altogether." Carroll asserts that the repeated condemnation of various food ingredients—including fat, cholesterol, meat, monosodium glutamate, genetically modified organisms and gluten—“shows how susceptible we are to misinterpreting scientific research and how slow we are to update our thinking when better research becomes available.” For example, fewer than one percent of Americans have a wheat allergy or celiac disease, Carroll states, but at least one in five regularly chooses gluten-free foods. “Gluten-free diets can lead to deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin B, folate and iron. Compared with regular bagels, gluten-free ones can have a quarter more calories, two and a half times the fat, half the fiber and twice the sugar. They also cost more,” he…
