U.S. Department of Agriculture

SIUE Backs Off Controversial Plan To Capture, Kill Canada Geese After Campus Backlash

The geese that roam the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville can be aggressive and threatening -- and sometimes even attack humans. At least this is the case according to some campus officials, who announced yesterday morning in an e-mail to students a plan to gather up geese on campu ... More >>

Louisiana Firm Recalls 468,000 Pounds of Meat for Listeria Risk

Well, hello there, When Food Attacks. We haven't visited with you in a while. But we return to your clammy, off-smelling embrace with a doozy of a recall: Manda Packing Company of Baker, Louisiana, has recalled 468,000 pounds of its meat products over the risk of listeria contamination. And before ... More >>

Applegate Organics Chicken and Apple Sausage Recalled

Sadly, this week we made it only till Tuesday morning before coming across news of another food recalled because of foreign material. Schmalz's European Provisions has recalled its Applegates Organics Chicken and Apple Sausage because of the possible presence of small pieces of plastic. See Also: ... More >>

Small Glass Fragments in Lean Cuisine Ravioli, Plastic in Fast Classics Country-Fried Steaks

We have a When Food Attacks two-fer this morning. First, Nestle Prepared Foods Company on Friday announced (via the FDA) a voluntary recall of its Lean Cuisine Culinary Collection Mushroom Mezzaluna Ravioli -- no, really, that's the product's full name -- after three customers complained that the ra ... More >>

More Metal in Your Food: Chicken-Fried Chicken Breasts Recalled

Some days, everything goes well at work, and you return home to a well deserved hug from your loved ones and an ice-cold beer. Other days, you drop a hand tool into a grinder, and small pieces of metal end up in a package of Fast Classics Chicken Fried Chicken Breasts. And so Advance Pierre Foods ... More >>

Recall Roundup: E. Coli Beef Trim, Listeria Spinach, Mangos Salmonella

We have news of multiple food recalls this week via the FDA and the USDA. None of them impact the St. Louis area directly yet, but all bear watching... - The USDA yesterday announced a recall of raw boneless beef trim products from the Canadian company XL Foods Inc., for possible E. coli contaminat ... More >>

Recalls: A Pen in the Sausage, Milk in the Sea Salt

Labor Day is in the rearview mirror, but the summer of strange recalls continues. On Thursday, August 31, Klement Sausage Company Inc. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recalled 2,920 pounds of frozen bratwurst patties because they might contain...wait for it...pieces of a plastic pen. According to the USD ... More >>

BlackFinn American Grille: An imperfect harmony

Horse Meat Is On the Menu?

It's not just for cats and dogs anymore.​Unified Equine is a Wyoming-based company that wants to open its first horse-meat processing plant -- for human consumption, mind you -- just outside Mountain Grove, Missouri, an Ozark community about 70 miles east of Springfield. Unified Equine and its chi ... More >>

Beware the Killer Chitlins!

File under: "Things You Were Already Afraid Of But For Other, More, Shall We Say...Visceral Reasons ." This just in from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service: Undercook those holiday chitlins at your peril. (Or, more precisely, at the peril of Grandma, Gramps and ... More >>

Eating Roadkill's Okay. Organic Picnics Aren't.

Wikimedia CommonsRoadkill's good eats. Organic picnics aren't. ​Missouri's deer season started on Saturday, meaning the critters are on the run from the riflemen and ripe for the car-wrecking and eating. Last week NPR's food blog, The Salt, examined the laws pertaining to eating roadkill aro ... More >>

Stephen Colbert's Ode to Tater Tots, "Food"

​On last night's episode of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert presented another in his always entertaining "Thought for Food" series.This time, he begins with the news that the USDA is looking to restrict the amount of potatoes served in school lunches, which prompts an inspiring ode to ... More >>

E. Coli Prompts Beef Recall

Image viaOrder me well done if you're worried.​Are you looking for inspiration to partake in "Meatless Monday"? How about this news: Dodge City, Kansas-based National Beef Packing Co. has recalled 60,424 pounds of ground beef that was processed at a plant in Ohio. The ground beef might be contamin ... More >>

Summer Treats and Meats Recalled

fda.govDole Italian Blend salad recalled for possible contamination.​It's been a busy few days at the FDA and USDA, recalling lots of potentially contaminated goods. It's salad season! Unless you've got a potentially-tainted bag of salad in your fridge. Some 2,880 cases of Dole Italian Blend ... More >>

Bans Help People Too Stupid to Feed Their Kids, Themselves

Wikimedia Commons​ It's not just Jamie Oliver trying to save American kids from their parents. The Law is getting involved. Again. Reuters reports today that the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agricultu ... More >>

Prime 1000 steakhouse is batting a thousand in the loft district

Tyson Foods Visionary Dies.

Donald J. Tyson, who turned his father's Arkansas chicken business into one of the largest meat producers in the world, died yesterday. He was 80 years old. The New York Times has his obituary, featuring the story of Tyson Foods' massive growth under Mr. Tyson. He retired in 1994, but not before fin ... More >>

Hawker of Elderberries -- Missouri's New Superfruit -- Gets Sued for Consumer Fraud

Image viaElderberries -- curing AIDS and cancer?​Just as Brazilian açaí once rose to prominence as a faddish "superfruit," the elderberry may be The Next Big Thing in health food circles, and Missouri farmers are hoping to cash in: the biggest elderberry farm in the whole country sits in Hartsbu ... More >>

Undercover Video Footage: Biggest Dogfighting Bust in U.S. History

illustration by Brian Stauffer​At 6 a.m. on July 9, 2009, agents from the FBI, the USDA, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service and myriad local police departments raided 29 properties in 8 states, including Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa. They sei ... More >>

Jesse and Latonya Robinson: Washington Park Couple Allegedly Stole Money Intended for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Anyone who has ever driven through Washington Park knows that the place looks like it was recently hit by a hurricane. Save for the strip clubs, the tiny village next East St. Louis is full of buildings that are burned down, boarded up and falling over.But while some of the residents probably should ... More >>

Pork Belly Shortage! Bacon Prices Rise! Panic!

Image viaTake a long look. This might be the last pork belly you see for a while.​Bacon. Bacon on everything. Bacon salt. Bacon shoes. Bacon bras. The Bacon Explosion.Deep down, you knew this day was coming:According to the Des Moines Register, there is a shortage of pork bellies nationwide. The p ... More >>

Dept. of Agriculture Chooses Best Amateur Photos, Gives Us Break from Endless Cynicism

Image via​We LOVE ridiculing stuff, but here's some quiet rural dignity that Daily RFT finds kinda moving. The state recently held a photo contest, and above you'll see the winning shot. It shows octogenarian farmer Roy Porter finishing up with milking his cows, which he's been doing every morning ... More >>

Is the steak house at the new River City Casino worth the price of admission? Bet on it.

The Morning Brew: 6.15

Almost ten years after "Fast Food Nation", author Eric Schlosser's fighting for food safety reform. He recently answered some questions from Food Safety News about the FDA, the USDA, and how the American food system favors commerce over safety. Yesterday we looked at the crazy amount of junk food ... More >>

Is Emeril Legasse a Big Fat Corn-Fed Hypocrite? Bam!

Celebrity branding is nothing new in the food biz. Ever since Ettore Boiardi Americanized his name and slapped his image on a can of spaghetti, chefs have looked for ways to leverage their way into home kitchens. Hey, everybody needs to make a living, right? But with his "Emeril's Red Marble Steaks ... More >>

New York Times Reports on the Six "Ignored" Strains of E. Coli

Image viaE. coli, magnified.​A terrifying article in today's New York Times should jump to the top of your must-read list. The headline of William Neuman's piece really says it all: "In E. Coli Fight, Some Strains Are Largely Ignored."The most common strain of E. coli, responsible for most E. coli ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 5.11

USDA hold poultry to a higher standard. Business Week reports, "The new standards, which outline best practices for averting poisonings, lower the allowable percentage of positive tests for pathogens in birds processed by poultry companies such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride Corp. They are ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 5.11

USDA will hold poultry to a higher standard. Business Week reports, "The new standards, which outline best practices for averting poisonings, lower the allowable percentage of positive tests for pathogens in birds processed by poultry companies such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride Corp. The ... More >>

Analysis Argues KFC Double Down Unhealthier Than You Think

Ian Froeb​You can say many things about the KFC Double Down "sandwich" of bacon and cheese between two fried (or grilled) chicken-breast fillets -- Gut Check called it a triumph of marketing over substance, and we might have been kinder than the average response -- but at 540 calories, you can't s ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 3.19

​The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species vote against a fishing ban that might save the endangered bluefin tuna. (The Atlantic) The latest in hipster dining? Food stamps. Perfect for the poor graduate student who doesn't want to do the "living on ramen thing". (Salon.com) ... More >>

¡Ask A Mexican! The Mexican weighs in on the value of immigrant restaurant workers

The Morning Brew: 2.15

​ Renowned restaurant El Bulli to close and become a culinary academy. (New York Times)As planting season nears, Haitians face another potential food crisis. (Bloomberg Business Week)Agriculture Department narrows definition of "organic". (USA Today)Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert launch sat ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Monday, 2.1

Massive food distribution begins in Haiti. (CNN) ​ Salami recall expands to include Boar's Head products. Starbucks recalls reusable glass water bottles (Baltimore Sun)The eternal restaurant debate: What's more important? Price, ambiance, service or food?  (USDA, New York Times)Even when ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 11.3

​ Company recalls beef from stores, including Trader Joe's. (USDA)New study blames meat for half of greenhouse gases. (The Independent)Coffee sold in India claims to enhance virility. (Times of India)Man sues over turkey-tuna mix-up. Another sues over lack of fruit in Froot Loops. (Chicagob ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 9.17

​ Nobel Prize-winning agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug has passed. His crop innovations saved an estimated 245 million people from starvation. (The Times)Woman charged with criminal trespass for using coffee house WiFi without making a purchase. (Newark Advocate)USDA launches "Know Your ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 9.15

​ How did Slow Foods USA do with its Labor Day Lunch-Ins last week? (Grist.org)USDA redefines "natural" meat. (The Atlantic)Colorado's oldest microbrewery celebrates 30 years. (The Colorado Daily)Adventures in home cheese making. (Baltimore Sun)Butcher shop closes after 119 years. This is no ... More >>

Presidents & Food: Ronald Reagan

Wikimedia CommonsIn honor of Presidents' Day, Gut Check celebrates great moments in presidential food history.President Ronald Reagan inspired -- and continues to inspire -- extreme reactions. But today Gut Check isn't concerned with our presidents' politics, only their appetites.Our 40th president ... More >>

Pet Peeves: A Chesterfield pet store is dogged by accusations of selling mistreated puppies

The Morning Brew: Friday, 1.23

In today's news: the salmonella outbreak, country-of-labeling origin hits a road block, Tom Vilsack on healthy eating and Chinese New Year food shortages.

The Morning Brew: Monday, 7.14

The Morning Brew: Friday, 7.11

Ener-Gee Whiz: Steaz Energy (Lime)

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 4.17

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 2.19

Unreal News Challenge 2007

Week of December 27, 2007

Taste the Difference?

Cold Comfort, Part 2

Medium Well

Ian has a Legendary™ beef with Stoney River.

Letters

Week of August 11, 2004

Wildcat Strike

Board of a sanctuary for lions, cougars and tigers takes a walk because the owners let the animals breed