Food

A maker of organic granola bars and cereals in Blaine, Wash., has been fined $22,000 for water quality violations, mostly by releasing acidic wastewater into a city sewer system, the state Department of Ecology announced. Nature’s Path Foods, based in Richmond, British Columbia, violated its wastewater permit 39 times over a two-year period that ended in July, according to Ecology.  The company violated permit conditions for flow, dissolved oxygen levels and suspended solids, according to Ecology. The agency, however, singled out acidic wastewater as the primary problem. [node:read-more:link]

Small amounts of damage to salad leaves in bagged salads encourage the presence of Salmonella enterica, new research has found. Juices released from damaged leaves also enhance the pathogen’s ability to attach to the salad’s plastic container. [node:read-more:link]

Hormel Foods Corp. today reported record net income in the fourth quarter and all of fiscal 2016 and told industry analysts that it is working on a goal to post overall annual margins of as much as 19 percent by 2020. [node:read-more:link]

The Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas, a McDonald’s shareholder, is wanting directors at McDonald’s to eliminate the use of antibiotics also used in human medicine in its global poultry supply chain. McDonald’s already has adopted that policy for the chicken served in its U.S. restaurants, with the company revealing on August 1 that it had achieved its goal of removing such antibiotics from its U.S. poultry supply chain. [node:read-more:link]

In the vast and complicated U.S. economy, it is rare for an individual to exert much control over the price of a major commodity. But then there is Arty G. Schronce and the price of chicken. As director of a bulletin from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Schronce makes a weekly calculation that gives supermarkets around the country the going rate for a pound of chicken. [node:read-more:link]

Seafood mislabelling can actually lead consumers to eat more sustainably, concluded scientists from the University of Washington (UW) broadly examining the ecological and financial impacts of the issue. These scientists found that the substituted fish is often more plentiful and of a better conservation status than the fish on the label or in the restaurant menu. [node:read-more:link]

hildren who drink full fat milk are slimmer than those who drank semi-skimmed milk. Researchers think that the blue cap milk left kids feeling more full so were less likely to snack on unhealthy foods. The researchers also found that the children had higher levels of Vitamin D – the 'sunshine vitamin.' Because vitamin D is soluble in fat rather than water, the higher fat content in full milk means it carries more of the vitamin.

  [node:read-more:link]

It's not a clear choice which of the possible living conditions for egg-laying hens -- enriched cages, cage-free systems, free-range setups -- serve them the best. The philosophical question of whether animals deserve any kind of moral consideration has been debated at least since the ancient Greeks. Cage-free and free-range systems clearly do a better job of allowing hens to express behaviorsthat are similar to those of wild jungle fowl. They can move around, and they have better opportunities for scratching, dust bathing and foraging. [node:read-more:link]

Nearly a quarter of the food businesses in Oregon from groceries to dairies are overdue for safety inspections, according to an audit from the Secretary of State's office.The 2,841 companies are at least three months' past due, the audit said. [node:read-more:link]

Women over the age of 50 who follow a high-protein diet could be at higher risk for heart failure, especially if much of their protein comes from meat, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016. [node:read-more:link]