The Juicy Bits
September brought in the rankings with Southern Living's 50 Top BBQ Spots In the South and the World's 50 Best Restaurants inaugural North America list for 2025. Both lists highlight culinary innovation, so be sure to peruse. Creativity is brewing in the science world, too, as Penn State researchers use CRISPR to create disease-resistant cacao plants, which could create more sustainable crop yields—and hopefully lower chocolate prices. Speaking of sustainability, Ikea has partnered up with Vanguard Renewables to launch a program that converts their restaurants' food waste into natural gas. Meanwhile in the beverage industry, a new spicy tamarind liqueur has captured national attention. It tastes just like traditional Mexican tamarind candies. In the attention economy, recent TikTok clips of home cooks using salt to fry food have been going viral. The technique is actually centuries old. And it's cheaper than using oil. Finally, farmers along the U.S. east coast are struggling to access relief funding and crop insurance as floods pose serious issues for the agriculture industry. Federal staff cuts aren't helping.
Happy Scrolling!
—Maddox Joachim
Restaurants
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Releases 2025 List for North America
Image Source: Atomix / The World's 50 Best
This past June, the World's 50 Best Restaurants global list was released, and last month in Las Vegas the organization held its inaugural ceremony for restaurants exclusively in North America, covering the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. The North America winners for 2025 include Atomix (NYC) in the number one spot, followed by Mon Lapin (Montreal), Restaurant Pearl Morissette (Lincoln), Smyth (Chicago), and Tanière 3 (Quebec City). Atomix also appeared on the global list (in spot #12), while the other top five North American restaurants are new to the list.
Beverages
Spicy Tamarind Liqueur Captures U.S. Imagination
Illustration Source: Danielle Grinberg / VinePair
Gran Malo, a new tequila-based, tamarind-flavored liqueur launched in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas this year after initial success in Southern California last year. The 30% ABV liqueur mimics traditional tamarind-flavored Mexican candies and was released in partnership with Casa Lumbre, the same company responsible for Ancho Reyes and Montelobos Mezcal. Gran Malo and E&J Gallo have partnered to bring the liqueur nationwide, focusing on the Mexican American and Hispanic demographics of the U.S.
BBQ Hot Spot
Southern Living Announces Top 50 BBQ Spots In The South
Image Source: Peter Frank Edwards / Southern Living
Southern Living's list of the top 50 BBQ spots in the South is back. City Limits Barbecue in South Carolina took the number one spot on the list, followed by Snow's BBQ in Texas, and Fresh Air Bar-B-Que in Georgia. Robert Moss, the magazine's editor and list creator, uses an "elaborate, sophisticated, and completely empirical algorithm" to compile the list. "If I could eat right now at just one of these places, which would I choose? These are not easy decisions to make, especially considering the rich diversity of styles and techniques found across the South. How do you compare an old-school whole hog joint in the Carolinas with a creative, beef-centric new joint in Texas? At some point, you’ve got to just make the call and stand by it," he says.
Cooking
Ancient Cooking Technique Of Salt-Frying Gets New Life
Image Source: Getty Images / Food & Wine
While recent TikTok clips of home cooks frying foods in a salt bath have gained attention, the technique itself dates back centuries. Salt frying, or sand frying, is a process in which salt or sand is heated in a vessel like a cast-iron skillet to evenly distribute heat throughout submerged food products like popcorn or potato starch to achieve the same effects as frying in oil. "Sand frying is what is done all over India… Indians even make popcorn on the streets this way. It’s commonly used all over Northern India in winters to roast sweet potatoes. It’s incredibly cost-effective and a very controllable process," says culinary anthropologist Kurush F. Dalal. Salt is cheaper than oil, and sand is even less expensive.
Supply Chain
U.S. Tariffs Disrupt Indian Shrimp Industry
Image Source: Diaa Hadid / NPR
Indian shrimp exports to the U.S. totaled over $2.5 billion from 2023 to 2024. This year, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization reports extreme declines in Asan shrimp exports. Since 25% tariffs were instated in August, shrimp farm sales across India sank by 90%. As demand slows down, the industry is experiencing the effects. Layoffs are underway in the region, where other types of work are scarce for the average citizen. Over 1 million people work across 450 shrimp hatcheries and 100,000 shrimp farms to fuel the business, while many others are employed by processing plants.
Agriculture
Federal Cuts Dampen Support For U.S. Farmers As Crops Flood
Image Source: Ray McCormick / Civil Eats
Farmers are accustomed to flooding that over-hydrates fields and lowers crop yields. Climate-related challenges are often resolved through crop insurance payments, paid for by taxpayers and farmer premiums. Accessing these funds as a farmer is a different story. According to an Environmental Working Group study, the USDA doled out $11 billion from 2017 to 2024 to the Mississippi River Critical Conservation Area for crop yield losses due to flooding and heavy precipitation. Yet the agency only spent $745 million on climate resilient measures. Due to USDA staffing cuts, farmers are struggling to access funds from the federal budget reconciliation bill passed this July, which guaranteed $56 billion in conservation spending over a 10-year span. The crop insurance payments along have not gone far enough to cover farmer losses.
Regulations
Brazilian Beef Importers Suspend Buys Due To Food Safety Questions
Image Source: Etienne Girardet / Unsplash
Brazil is a world-leading beef exporter, but tensions over food safety are reducing imports in the U.S. President Donald Trump pushed for a 76% tariff on imported Brazilian goods in the name of accountability. Meanwhile, Senators Mike Rounds and Jon Tester sponsored a bipartisan bill to suspend Brazilian beef imports all together. “Producers' livelihoods are being compromised by Brazilian beef imports that fail to meet our country’s food safety and animal health standards, as Brazil has a history of failing to report, in a timely and accurate manner, diseases found in their herds,” said Senator Rounds.
Food Processing
Ikea Debuts Food Scrap Recycling Program
Image Source: Ruel Del Jamorol / Unsplash
Last month, Ikea and Vanguard Renewables, an organic recycling company, announced a partnership to reduce Ikea's organic food waste output to zero in the U.S. by 2030. In the pilot program, Vanguard Renewables collects food waste from Ikea restaurants to convert to renewable energy through natural gas and low-carbon fertilizer for farmers. The program launched at 5 U.S. Ikea stores so far, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Wisconsin. "This innovative pilot is about embracing creative solutions that turn waste into value," said Ikea U.S. CEO Javier Quinones. "By recycling food scraps into energy and nutrients, we can minimize our environmental footprint while maximizing the impact of every meal served."
Health
UNICEF Report: Global Obesity Among Children Has Surpassed Those Underweight
Image Source: Abdulai Sayni / Unsplash
According to recent UNICEF data, underweight children aged 5-19 have declined overall since 2000, from nearly 13% to 9.2%, while childhood obesity rates have risen from 3% to 9.4%. Collected from over 190 countries, the data indicates that obesity has officially surpassed underweight in children globally. The UNICEF report warns that without preventions against childhood obesity, countries could face lifetime lasting impacts on economies and overall health. “Obesity is a growing concern that can impact the health and development of children. Ultra-processed food is increasingly replacing fruits, vegetables and protein at a time when nutrition plays a critical role in children’s growth, cognitive development and mental health,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
Help DigestThis.news Continue With Only $3/month
Like what you're reading? Help keep DigestThis.news going by supporting it here. Thanks!
Science
Penn State Researchers Develop Disease-Resistant Cacao Plants With Gene Editing
Image Source: Mark Guiltinan / Penn State
Chocolate prices are rising in part due to crop losses caused by a pathogen called phytophthora. The disease causes cacao yield losses of up to 30% worldwide on a $135 billion-a-year industry. A research team at Penn State University offers hope. The scientists successfully developed a disease-resistant cacao plant using CRISPR-Cas9, a form of gene-editing technology. “We're not just creating better cacao plants, we’re exploring how modern biotechnology can work within existing regulatory frameworks to address real-world agricultural challenges,” said Mark Guiltinan, professor of plant molecular biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "Many genetic modification approaches are met with stigma because foreign DNA is left in the final product. Our approach could solve both of those problems,” said Guiltinan.
Last Bite
Jerry Of Ben & Jerry's Steps Down After Dispute With Parent Company
Image Source: Susan Wals / AP Photo
After 47 years of involvement, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Jerry Greenfield has stepped down from his role in the company. The move comes after disagreements between the parent company of Ben & Jerry's, Unilever, and the original owners' commitment to freedom of expression in the ice cream's branding. A letter posted to social media on Greenfield's behalf states, "For more than 20 years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry’s stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world. It’s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.”
Your Ad Here!
To reach nearly 40,000 engaged readers across the food and cooking industries, place a Classified ad in an upcoming issue. Classifieds are inexpensive and easy to book with a few clicks.