Chef Report

HONOLULU (AP) _ The state health department says nine people on Maui have suffered food poisoning since last month after eating spam musubi.

The state says the nine got sick after eating the rice-spam-and-seaweed treats from several vendors.

So far, the poisoning has affected mostly young children between the ages of 3 and 9. Two were taken to the hospital emergency room.

The state is now investigating places that sell and make spam musubi on Maui.

Sanitation inspectors on the island are also conducting random checks of retailers to make sure they are storing musubi at proper temperatures. more…

Sugary cupcakes, cookies, and muffins will be forbidden in Haverhill’s schools from now on. Beverly is banning all home-baked goods from school fund-raisers. And in Revere, officials are proposing food-free classroom parties and celebrations.

When students across the region head back to school this week and next, they will encounter new rules aimed at promoting healthier nutrition and more exercise. The change is prompted by a federal mandate that requires every school district that receives funding for lunch programs — and the vast majority do — to have a wellness policy in place by the first day of school or risk losing federal school lunch funding.

“When our parents hear about this, we are going to have an outcry,” said Raleigh Buchanan, superintendent of Haverhill’s public schools. The district is still finalizing sections of its wellness policy dealing with bake sales and classroom parties.

“In the history of schools in America, bake sales have been the staple of raising money,” Buchanan said. “And now bake sales have to have sugar-free cookies and muffins because of sugar content.”

The federal rule governing the changes, formally known as the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, requires that school policies include nutrition guidelines for all food available at school, including vending machines and bake sales, and directs school officials to develop plans for evaluating implementation of the policies. It also mandates that a cross-section of each community — including parents, students, the school board, and the public — craft the policies. more…

Birthdays are becoming lessons in counting calories along with candles for thousands of kids heading back to school this fall.A growing number of schools nationwide are curtailing or cutting out birthday sweets in the name of nutrition and weight control. Others are concerned about food allergies and contamination. Some also argue that birthday parties eat up class time.

It’s a controversial topic, as local districts debate whether such policies protect the health of their children or if they needlessly destroy a longtime childhood ritual.

“There’s no question that it’s an issue out there,” says Erik Peterson, a spokesman for the School Nutrition Association, a national group of school-food directors. “ …But no one wants to be the food police.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in six school-age children is overweight, triple the proportion in 1980. The agency has projected that one in three children born in 2000 will eventually develop a form of diabetes linked to being overweight.

One recent study says school snack fests may play a role: A survey of 3,000 Minneapolis-area eighth-graders found that their average body-mass index — a common gauge of weight appropriateness — rose 10 percent with every form of noshing a school allowed, from fundraising bake sales to congratulatory pizza parties. more…

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The dead mouse a teenager says he found in his salad at a Spartanburg Ruby Tuesday appears to be the result of a prank, the restaurant chain said Tuesday.

“After a very thorough and patient review of findings, we have concluded that our company, its restaurant, and our many hardworking team members are the victims of a hoax,” the Maryville, Tenn., company said in a release.

On July 30, 17-year-old Edward Viehman said he found a mouse in his spring mix salad. Since the incident, the restaurant, which gets ready-to-eat salad items from a distributor, has said it was not to blame.

An examination of the mouse, which Ruby Tuesday said was 6 1/2 inches in length, has shown that there were no rodent hairs or fecal matter present in the salad mix. No salad was not found in the mouse’s stomach.

Those factors indicate that the mouse couldn’t have entered the restaurant in the salad bag and had not been in the salad mix for a long time.

The report also concluded that the mouse was not captured at the Ruby Tuesday in Spartanburg because of its clean record on previous pest and health inspections. Health officials have said the restaurant scored a 98 out of a possible 100 on its last two surprise inspections, including a visit two weeks before the incident. A spokesman for the chain also said the location was sprayed for pests just days before.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control shut down the popular salad bar after the incident, but did not find any evidence of mice infestation. In its own report, DHEC recommended the restaurant “examine the product more closely during hydration and placement on the salad bar for customer service.” more…

Related story 

The mouse a teenager says he found in his salad at a Ruby Tuesday in Spartanburg may have been put there as a prank, a spokesman for the restaurant chain said Friday.”That would seem to be one of the distinct possibilities, maybe even the most likely,” said Rick Johnson, a spokesman for the Maryville, Tenn.-based company.

Edward Viehman, 17, said Sunday that he found a mouse in his “spring mix” salad. Since the incident, the restaurant, which is supplied ready-to-eat salad items from a distributor, has said it was not to blame for the rodent. more…

This is a follow-up story. 

Starting with the spring mix, 17-year-old Edward Viehman added a couple other items to his salad before topping it off with honey mustard dressing. Sitting down, though, he found something that was hard to swallow.

A mouse.

“He took a bite, and the next thing I know he was spitting gobs of salad out of his mouth,” Alexis Garrett said. “He got up and ran to the bathroom. It was a dead mouse — fully formed, dead, wet, probably at least 7 inches long. We called (the state Department of Health and Environmental Control), and tried to do all the proper things.” more…

Also..

Eek! A mouse! Ruby Tuesday diner gets surprise at salad bar

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina teenager says he found a mouse in his salad at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant, but state health department officials said Tuesday initial indications are the Maryville-based restaurant is not to blame.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control shut down the popular salad bar after the incident Sunday but did not find any evidence of mice infestation or droppings.

That was little consolation to rising high school senior Edward Viehman, who said he noticed the mouse on his plate just after his first bite. more…

(Burlington, Vermont-NBC) July 27, 2006 - A nightmare has come true for a Burlington, Vermont woman.

Bridget Zurn says she recently opened up a Lean Cuisine salmon basil meal and found a mouse in it.

Zurn says she knew something was wrong after opening the package and smelling a rotten odor. That’s when she saw the head of a mouse, including its teeth and hair.

“As I’m poking at the salmon, I see three hairs sticking up on the side of the dish,” said Zurn. more…

Students in Rochester will have a tough time finding sugary treats or fatty snacks in their schools this fall.

The Rochester School Board is creating new guidelines for nutrition and physical activity in the schools — one that calls for student vending machines to be loaded only with milk, juice, water and diet soda.

It would also require that 80 percent of food in vending machines be healthy, low-calorie options.

Rochester isn’t the only school that’s going to have to make sure students get healthy choices. A federal law is requiring that all schools that participate in the federally subsidized school lunch program develop some kind of similar policy for the upcoming 2006-2007 school year. more…

The county Board of Education has approved a ban on junk food, but backed off from a more stringent nutrition policy that would have banned many homemade foods from class.

The new rules that passed unanimously at a recent school board meeting forbid candy, soda and other so-called foods of minimal nutritional value from being sold or given out until the end of the school day.

But homemade sauces, meats and other food that can spoil will be allowed in the classroom after parents protested a move to ban many meals that weren’t bought in stores. more…

Also…

Rochester schools clamping down on junk food

With the MLB season in full swing, fans from Seattle to St. Louis and from Philadelphia to Phoenix are enjoying delicious, healthy food choices at the ballpark this summer. PETA’s “Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks” list examines the concessions at each of the 30 MLB stadiums and ranks them based on the variety and quality of vegetarian foods offered.Grabbing the top honor for the second year in a row is AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Giants fans can enjoy Gardenburgers, veggie hot dogs, vegetarian sushi, edamame (boiled soybeans in the pod—a regional favorite), soup (tomato or minestrone), grilled vegetable kebabs, and a grilled veggie baguette.

Coming in second this year, Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field offers such hits as veggie burgers, a vegetarian burrito, black beans and rice, pasta dishes, a fruit cup, and PB&J for kids. more…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Seven astronauts are in space, and their lives depend on the good work of thousands of people on the ground.The WESH 2 I-Team has investigated a major federal lawsuit questioning whether those NASA employees are at risk.We’re not talking about working conditions at the Kennedy Space Center. We are talking about bad or rotten food.
…Vargas worked at the headquarters cafeteria for three years. She claimed that her superiors would force her and others to put food out on the cafeteria line that was old and past its due date — food that sometimes would be spoiled.

“We have three racks of raw chicken. Two days later it’s still sitting there,” Vargas said. “I said, ‘That chicken is smelling. That chicken is no good.’ It was rank,” she said.WESH 2 I-Team reporter Stephen Stock asked Vargas what they did with the meat and if they served it.”They cooked it,” Vargas said. “Yes. And served it.” more…

“We are offering fast food consumers what they truly want,” announced Hardee’s last January. That’s when the fast-food chain started switching “to an entirely new menu focused on 1/3-pound, 1/2-pound, and 2/3-pound Angus beef burgers, called Thickburgers.”

“Thick” is right…and it doesn’t apply only to the burgers.

The smallest (1/3-pound) Thickburger has 740 calories and 16 grams of saturated fat. That’s roughly double what you’d get in a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, which is missing the Thickburger’s mayo and cheese (and some of its meat).

But apparently that’s just a snack to those Hardee’s customers who “truly want” the 1,090 calories and 29 grams of sat fat in the 2/3-pound Thickburger. more…

What if the next burger you ate was created in a warm, nutrient-enriched soup swirling within a bioreactor?

Edible, lab-grown ground chuck that smells and tastes just like the real thing might take a place next to Quorn at supermarkets in just a few years, thanks to some determined meat researchers. Scientists routinely grow small quantities of muscle cells in petri dishes for experiments, but now for the first time a concentrated effort is under way to mass-produce meat in this manner.

Henk Haagsman, a professor of meat sciences at Utrecht University, and his Dutch colleagues are working on growing artificial pork meat out of pig stem cells. They hope to grow a form of minced meat suitable for burgers, sausages and pizza toppings within the next few years. more…

A sample of muscle grown without an artificial scaffold.

New Kraft “It’s Pasta Anytime” Loaded With Fat & SodiumYou don’t have to take the time to boil water to prepare Kraft’s new shelf-stable It’s Pasta Anytime pasta. But you should take the time to read the nutrition labels, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has designated the cheesiest of these microwaveable pasta meals Food Porn for the month of December.

It’s Pasta Anytime’s Rotini with Three Cheese Sauce, Rotini with Mild Cheddar Cheese Sauce, and Fettuccine with Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce average 600 calories, 15 grams of saturated fat, and 2,100 milligrams of sodium. They each consist of a microwave-safe plastic tray of pasta and a plastic pouch of sauce enclosed in a paperboard box. more…

Rob Schneider was back on the set of his directorial debut film a day after collapsing from heat exhaustion and food poisoning, his spokeswoman said on Friday.

Schneider, a former “Saturday Night Live” player and star of such films as “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” was taken to the San Joaquin General Hospital in central California on Wednesday after he fell ill on the set of “Big Stan,” spokeswoman Shara Koplowitz said.

“Rob had a slight case of food poisoning and the 107 (41 Celsius) heat brought on nausea,” Koplowitz said. “He went to the hospital, was treated for nausea and released the same day.” more…

Comedian Rob Schneider is recovering from heatstroke and food poisoning after reportedly fainting on the set of his new movie. more…

The pop diva is convinced mauve-coloured foods like red grapes and plums - known for their anti-ageing benefits - will stop her developing wrinkles.
The songstress, who devised the diet with her nutritionist, now munches purple meals three days a week.
A source is quoted in Britain’s The Sun newspaper as saying: “It sounds off-the-wall but it’s a huge injection of healthy food in one go. Purple products are nature’s best weapons in the battle against ageing. There’s a saying that ‘a plum a day keeps a facelift away’.” “Purple food can prevent breakdown of collagen and slow the wasting of muscles.” It isn’t the first time Mariah has tried a bizarre diet. more…

The Ravioli with Montrachet and Herbs is finished with cream and chives and costs less than $5. The Stuffed Sole with Red Pepper Coulis and Lime Gremolata gets fewer than a third of its calories from fat. Other selections on any given day could include Moroccan Chicken Tangine or Blackened Salmon with Apple Bourbon Chutney. It’s easy to find these and similar entrees in Clark County for an average of $5.50 per dish. Just head on down to the hospital.

Vancouver’s Ron and Carole Obert say they’ve been eating about twice a week at Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital since it opened in August. more…

Lead cook David White, left, consults with corporate chef Paul Bosch in the Southwest Washington Medical Center kitchen. Bosch oversees food production and presentation for the hospital’s patient and retail meals. (JANET L. MATHEWS/The Columbian)

Fast-food chains focus on what people want to eat, not what is healthy

ST. LOUIS - In the past few months, McDonald’s Corp. announced it would push healthy meals like salads while Wendy’s International Inc. said it would fry foods in a healthier oil with less trans fats.

And what did CKE Restaurants Inc. do? The operator of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. unveiled a jumbo-sized cheeseburger smothered in sliced steak. more…
Hardee’s turnaround has pivoted on the Thickburger. The fast-food chain’s strategy has helped it cash in on young male customers who want burgers instead of Asian salads, said analyst Mark Smith.

SAUGET, Ill. — Fast food restaurants may soon notice burger lovers with a sweet tooth, and it’s all thanks to a minor league team’s unhealthy but tasty creation.An independent baseball league in Sauget, Ill., has begun to sell what they refer to as “baseball’s best burger.” more…

Newswise — “Food is related to just about every single challenge people have living on this planet,” is the perspective of Alton Brown, television personality and author of the popular book, I’m Just Here For The Food, who spoke Sunday at the opening of the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting + FOOD EXPO®, the world’s largest annual scientific forum and exposition on food.

Brown brings the science of food chemistry to a broad audience as host of the Food Network program “Good Eats” and “Iron Chef America,” two food shows that Time magazine named as “worth their salt.” more…

Show host and author Alton Brown signs copies of his book in Orlando after his address at the IFT Annual Meeting Food Expo, the world’s largest annual scientific forum and exposition on food.

Recently, new media has reported a study showing the radiation from cell phones is so full of energy they can be used to cook eggs. In the experiment, researchers placed one egg in a porcelain cup (because it is easy to conduct heat), and put one cell phone on one side and another cell phone on the other. The researchers then called from one cell phone to another and kept the cell phones on after connecting. During the first 15 minutes, nothing changed. After 25 minutes, however, the egg shell started to become hot and at 40 minutes, the surface of the egg became hard and bristled. Researchers found the protein in the egg had become solid although the egg yolk was still in liquid form. After 65 minutes, the whole egg was well cooked. more…

The vegan artist filmed a clip for the Humane Society of the United States, addressing the state of factory farming in the U.S., which he calls “an abomination.”

Moby, a vegan and self-proclaimed animal-lover has filmed a clip for the Humane Society, addressing factory farming and animal welfare. Against shots of wide-eyed cows in pens, pigs stumbling in warehouses, and chickens writhing on dirty floors, Moby implores viewers to seek out ways to help reduce the suffering of animals raised for meat, eggs, and milk. “I’m a vegan because I love animals,” Moby said. “You have to make your own choices and I’m not going to tell you how to live, but could you look a cow in the eye and say that your appetite is more important than that cow’s life?” more…

Las Vegas (PRWEB) June 26, 2006 — Local entertaining magazine, Confetti Connection and culinary demonstration studio, Cheflive, are partnering up to produce, Cheflive Confetti Kids, an innovative and educational cooking show geared toward families. The monthly cooking show will showcase kid-friendly recipes, ideal for upcoming holidays and celebrations. (more…..)

A revised ban on junk food in elementary and middle school vending machines passed the State Board of Education on Thursday but next faces scrutiny by a legislative committee that rejected an earlier version of the ban in April.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which has final say over rule changes, wanted broader nutritional standards and more input from school districts and a legislative “school wellness” task force. more…

The world’s largest event on food ingredients, which will take place between June 24-28, will this year feature four major themes: food defense and bioterrorism; functional foods; globalization; and food allergens.

The trade show will be opened on Sunday morning with a keynote address by the Food Network’s ‘Good Eats’ guru, Alton Brown, known for his combination of science, history and culture in his approach to food. more…

You’d say you got treated well if your waitress kept your coffee cup full or put an extra dollop of whipped cream on your pie. But how about giving you a kidney? more…

It may soon be difficult to buy a bag of potato chips or candy bar on most public school campuses.Before next school year, school districts that are part of the federal school lunch program must have policies in place that promote healthy eating and exercise for students.

Furthermore, by July 2007, schools must implement a set of federal nutrition standards that meet certain requirements for fat, sugar and calorie content in foods sold on campuses. This means there will be stringent limitations on the types of sugary and deep-fried foods sold at schools. All public schools in California must also make sure they are meeting every one of the state’s new standards for physical education. more…

BERKELEY, Calif. - Eric Schlosser, investigative journalist and author of “Fast Food Nation'’ - the expose of the fast-food industry and how it manipulates customers to buy food that isn’t good for them - is speaking to his latest audience: preteens and teenagers.Schlosser’s new book, “Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food,'’ has just come out, and he and co-author Charles Wilson are giving a presentation to 600 kids at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley. more…

London, June 17 (IANS) Use of potassium-enriched salt in place of regular salt in everyday diet could cut the risk of several diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, a study has found. more…

CHICAGO (Reuters) - So long, Biggie. Hello, confusion? Wendy’s International Inc. (NYSE:WEN - News), the No. 3 U.S. hamburger chain, on Friday said it would remove the term “Biggie” from its french fries and drinks, switching to the well known terms small, medium and large.

… McDonald’s famously removed the “Super Size” option from its combo meals after the 2004 release of the film “Super Size Me” — a documentary in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s fare for a month and tracked his increasingly poor health. more…

(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) ADVERTS for junk food could be banned from newspapers, magazines, cinemas and websites as part of a radical drive to tackle the obesity crisis. more…