The Juicy Bits
August and September flew by so fast I had to roll them into a double issue! If you were on vacation in late summer, here's some food news you may have missed:
California Restaurants Receive Three New Stars in Latest Michelin Guide
More Restaurants Set Table Time Limits To Get More Butts In Seats
America's Farmers Cite Evidence That Biosolids Have Poisoned Their Soil With "Forever Chemicals"
Makers Of Pringles And Snickers Merge In $36 Billion Deal, Creating Snack Company Behemoth
Older Adults Do Not Benefit From Moderate Drinking, Large Study Finds
Eating Red And Processed Meat Linked To Diabetes Risk, Study Suggests
Food Inflation Returns To Pre-Pandemic Levels
BBQ Expert Finds Best Texas-Style Joints Outside Of Texas
Banned South Korean Ramen Noodles Return To Denmark
Check out more recent headlines below!
—Dave Joachim
PS. As always, links go to reliable news sources WITHOUT a paywall.
Restaurants
The Backstory: Greed, Gluttony And The Crackup Of Red Lobster
Image Source: Lisa Sheehan
The fall of America's iconic seafood chain began in 2014 when parent company, Darden, sold it to private equity firm, Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate enriched its shareholders by leasing the restaurant real estate for $1.5 billion. That saddled location managers with high rent expenses. Revenues soon dipped, so Golden Gate sold a majority stake to Thai Union, one of the world's (and Red Lobster's) largest seafood suppliers. The chain continued to lose market share, and by the end of the pandemic, its customer count had plunged 30%. Thai Union threw a Hail Mary to enrich its own coffers by making Red Lobster's "Endless Shrimp" promotion a permanent fixture (selling the chain more shrimp). Diners swarmed, expenses skyrocketed, revenues tanked, and in May 2024, the chain filed for bankruptcy, closing 140 of its nearly 700 locations. In 2014, the chain had been valued at $2.1 billion. Greed and mismanagement devalued the brand so much that last month Red Lobster was sold to Manhattan's Fortress Investment Group for the bargain price of just $375 million. A sad fish tale, indeed.
More Restaurant News
Michelin Awards New Stars In Restaurant Guides To Washington DC, Colorado, And Toronto
BBQ Hot Spot
The World's Best Steakhouses, According To Michelin
Image Source: Gary He
Today's steakhouses push the envelope by experimenting with dry-aging, sourcing high-quality beef from international suppliers, celebrating global flavors, and centering live-fire cooking. Michelin has taken notice, but the company has deemed only eight of them “worthy of a stop,” such as New York's Cote (pictured above), San Francisco's Niku, Los Angeles's Gwen, and Singapore's Cut by Wolfgang Puck. Which Michelin-starred steakhouse are you most likely to visit?
Supply Chain
Japan's Worst Rice Shortage In Years Exacerbated By Sushi-Hungry Tourists
Image Source: Food Institute
Japan's rice stocks are at a 25-year low, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MFAA). Demand has outpaced production, and MFAA points the finger at Japanese consumers stockpiling rice ahead of typhoon season (and a major earthquake) as well as a summer influx of tourists hungry for sushi and other rice-based dishes. By August, prices had risen to an 11-year high of $111.24 per 60 kilograms, and supermarkets limited rice purchases to one bag per person. Japan's 2024 rice harvest should ease the squeeze but some analysts predict a supply-demand imbalance continuing through 2025. Rice fans take note: Prices may not come back down.
Health
Some Ultraprocessed Foods May Be Worse Than Others, Research Finds
Image Source: Scott Semler
Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are produced with multiple added ingredients using industrial processing that can't be replicated in a home kitchen. UPFs make up about 73% of the US food supply, account for 57% of the average adult's energy intake, including everything from sodas, candies and hot dogs to whole-grain breads, breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts and plant milks. Last month, one of the largest and longest studies on UPFs and heart health found that those who consumed the most UPFs were 23% more likely to develop coronary heart disease compared with the lowest consumers. Of the 10 UPF categories analyzed, two were clearly associated with greater risk: sugar-sweetened drinks (like soda and fruit punch) and processed meat, poultry and fish (like bacon, hot dogs, breaded fish, chicken sausages and salami sandwiches). Burgers or hot dogs? Burgers may be the healthier choice.
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Last Bite
World’s Oldest Cheese Found In China
Image Source: Wanjing Ping
About 20 years ago in the Tarim Basin of China's northwest Xinjiang region, researchers discovered three ancient mummies with strange off-white clumps around their necks. The clumps turned out to be chunks of preserved cheese, important artifacts revealing China's ancient culinary customs. Last month, scientists determined that the clumps were 3,600 years old, the oldest cheese ever discovered. They also found traces of cow and goat DNA as well bacteria and yeast DNA, all the ingredients needed to ferment a soft kefir cheese. While cheese and dairy products may not be the first foods that come to mind when you think of Chinese cuisine, China has been making them for thousands of years. In fact, today, China is the world's second-largest consumer and third-largest producer of dairy products.
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