Food and Drug Administration

Pop Diner is a Big Bust

Closing time: You don't have to go home, but don't go here.

FDA Suddenly Cares About Caffeine Now That Wrigley is Putting It In Gum

Wrigley, the grande dame of the gum world, is getting a little edgier with the announcement of Alert Energy Caffeine Gum. It's about four cups of coffee edgier, since that's the amount of caffeine in a single pack -- eight pieces with 40 mg of caffeine apiece (a cup of coffee has around 80 mg). Gre ... More >>

FDA Holds Back Cheese Because of Cheese Mites

The FDA recently held a shipment of Mimolette, an aged French cheese that has been shipped to America for decades. The cheese has a round, wrinkled and tough exterior hiding a bright orange center. Fans compare it visually to cantaloupe. The FDA hold on the 1,100 pound shipment means it can no long ... More >>

A Big Fake Fish Is Swimming Our Way. Whole Foods, Aldi and Trader Joe's Say "No Thanks."

The biotechnology firm AquaBounty has spent years working on a genetically enhanced salmon that grows faster and bigger. USA Today reported the company has spent more than $67 million since 1991 trying to get this Chinook salmon spliced with DNA from a fast growing eel-like fish to market. Eating ... More >>

Whole Foods Announces GMO Labeling and Transparency Goal

Austin-based Whole Foods Market has announced that by 2018 all products in U.S. stores must be labeled to indicate if they contain any genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This move by the natural and organic foods retailer marks the biggest step in a growing movement led by consumers and various ... More >>

The Prometheus Project Aims To Educate Dallasites About Genetically Modified Food

A local chapter of the Institute for Responsible Technology is working to educate local consumers about the potential risks of consuming genetically modified foods. Named the The Prometheus Project, the group seeks to shine light on foods that are currently unlabeled in grocery stores while building ... More >>

Five Years Ago, a Dallas Compounding Pharmacy's Mistake Killed Three People. Now, They Get a Slap on the Wrist

On March 30, 2007, 57-year-old Margrit Long went to the Center for Integrative Medicine in Portland, Oregon. She was given an intravenous dose of colchicine, a drug developed to treat gout but commonly prescribed, as in Long's case, to treat neck and back pain. She'd been receiving the treatment f ... More >>

Heisted Kotex Tampons Were Supposed To Be Turned Into Fuel, Ended Up On the "Gray Market" Instead

Earlier this week, we all shuddered in unison upon learning that some Kotex Natural Balance tampons, possibly tainted with bacteria and "metallic particles," were stolen and fraudulently sold under shadowy circumstances. Kimberly-Clark, Kotex's Irving-based parent company, says they've received no r ... More >>

Kimberly-Clark Wants You to Know: There May Be Metal, Excessive Bacteria in Your Tampons

There are times when I'm particularly grateful I'm not a woman. Watching my wife give birth is one. Reading a consumer advisory about tainted tampons is another. Kimberly-Clark, the Dallas-based personal hygiene conglomerate, sent word yesterday that it is recalling large quantities of Kotex Natura ... More >>

FDA Says High-Fructose Corn Syrup is Not "Corn Sugar"

Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration denied the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) petition to rename high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as "corn sugar," a request they had made almost two years ago, arguing that sugar and HFCS were one in the same. The FDA reasoned the action would confuse consum ... More >>

The FDA Seems Pretty Meh on the Prospect of Actually Labeling Genetically Modified Food

As pink slime walks in shame to the doghouse this week, another important movement that transcends many aspects of the beef and processed-food industries met a milestone. Just Label It, a campaign initiated by Organic Voices, whose aim is to require labels on genetically modified foods, gathered one ... More >>

So A Few Hundred Restaurants Could Have Some Rats Running Around. Is That a Big Deal?

Early this week, NBC 5 DFW reported that hundreds of Dallas restaurants have not been evaluated by city inspectors. The story cited an understaffed department, mismanagement and budget concerns for the failure. Specifically, 241 restaurants that fall in the inspection department's jurisdiction have ... More >>

Genetically Modified Salmon Coming to a Store Near You (Although You May Never Know It)

Short of earning a Ph.D in bio-tech science, making sense of genetically modified (GM) or engineered (GE) ingredients in America's food chain is almost impossible. Primarily because by law GM foods aren't required to be labeled as such. So you literally need that degree along with a boatload of data ... More >>

Rick Perry, Stem Cell Therapy and the Battle Between Medical Freedom and Opportunism

​The Texas Medical Board is putting off until April a vote on how to regulate adult stem cell therapy, which involves using tissues from one's own body rather than controversial stem cells cultivated from human embryos. We don't blame 'em. This issue is thornier than a Texas mesquite thicket, ... More >>

Do Melatonin Brownies Actually Do Anything? An Unfair Park Special Report.

No pot references here, no sir.​"You're going to eat that now?" the guy at the head shop asked. He looked worried. "That's not a good idea. I don't take 'em in the daytime. It renders me non-functional."Well, shit. It was Friday afternoon, and I was about to drug my co-workers.A little background, ... More >>

Of Gluttony, Hot Meat, Luscious Tomatoes and Dirty Chocolate: A Sinful Week in Food News

flickr user advencapGratuitous tomato porn.​ The FDA is under scrutiny in The New York Times this week. Looks like the serving sizes listed on nutrition labels may be getting a new look and Observer Editor Joe Tone will have a new and legitimate excuse to Hoover down ice cream by the pint. I ... More >>

Unnatural Umami: How Soy Sauce Took a Shortcut Past Organic

​Several years ago, the discovery of the carcinogenic compound 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol in soy sauce was generating concern throughout parts of Europe and Asia. A United Kingdom study directed attention to the matter in 2001.It turned out that low levels of 3-MCPD had been present in processe ... More >>

Bake Sale Bandits

Local Movement Fights for Cottage Food Bill.

So You Want to Participate in UT-Dallas's Tinnitus Trials? The Good News and Bad News.

​Almost as soon as we published that very popular post about University of Texas at Dallas researchers' efforts to silence that high-pitched problem known as tinnitus, readers began leaving comments and sending e-mails in which they all asked the same question: How can I  participate in the f ... More >>

Beers Of The Year

Don't criticize it.​Overall, it's been another great year for beer, at least from my perspective here in North Texas. If I didn't suspect reader list burnout, I could probably do another top 10 piece on the best developments of the past year, and even another on things I'm most looking forward to ... More >>

Turnips, Happy Meals and Tainted Eggs: The Year's 10 Biggest National Food Stories

​Food lovers must talk with their mouths full, since there was plenty of discussion of many, many food-related topics in 2010. But a few national stories struck us as most important. Let us know what you think. 1. The food safety bill The massive food safety bill had been left for dead when the ... More >>

Trendsetters: Five Foods and Drinks That Had (Mostly) a Good Year

Man, we are so sick of eating all that kamut.​2010 was supposed to be kamut's year. Industry watchers in 2009 predicted the wheat-like grain associated with King Tut would ride a celiac wave to greatness this year, sharing American pantries with papadum and coconut-milk pancake mix. The big n ... More >>

Four Rare, Retro Culinary Price is Right Clips

​Now in its seventh season, Top Chef is still breaking enough ground to have scored an Emmy this weekend in the "Outstanding Reality-Competition Program" category. (Then again, the award may not be a fair gauge of innovation: The Amazing Race has won it seven years in a row.) But a few elements o ... More >>

Foods the FDA Should Recall

Andrea GrimesVegan Activists Protested Factory Farms In Egg-streme Heat​The recent food recalls of eggs and beef (and their subsequent protests) got us thinking about food recalls that would better serve humanity. Herein, we provide a list of foods that should be taken off the market. One is worse ... More >>

Goya Foods Recalls Frozen Mamey Packages Linked to Salmonella Typhi

​Secaucus, New Jersey-based Goya Foods Inc., the dominant Latin American foods company, has recalled all its 14-ounce packages of frozen mamey pulp. The product is used to make milkshakes and smoothies. The packages were distributed in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, ... More >>

FDA Warning: Tons of Contaminated Cheese Sold in Florida, Texas, California, New York

Picture from Truesake.com​Yesterday Chuck Strouse over at our sister paper, Miami New Times reported on what may be one of the largest cheese busts in history: 85 tons of staph infected cheese were found festering in Miami's Lacteos Factory. The feds ordered the return of the cheese, and the U.S. ... More >>

Carter Albrecht's Dad Explains Why, Two Years Later, He and His Wife are Suing Pfizer

Carter Albrecht​Yesterday in Dallas federal court, Carter Albrecht's parents, Ken and Judy, finally sued Pfizer, claiming that its smoking-cessation drug Chantix played a "direct and proximate" role in Carter's shooting death almost two years ago to the day. The Albrechts have long considered suin ... More >>

Two Years After Albrecht's Death, FDA Forces "Mental Health Events" Chantix Warning

To this day, people still post comments to the September 4, 2007, Unfair Park item concerning the smoking-cessation drug Chantix and its troubling effect on users. Andrea Grimes wrote the piece because Sorta's Carter Albrecht and his girlfriend had begun using the Pfizer-made medicine shortly before ... More >>

Fear The Cookie Dough

Delfi's World [In Focus], via FlickrA couple of notable news items came across the desk this weekend while you were out grillin' with Dad. Time to play catch up:Last Friday, June 19th, Nestle USA announced a voluntary recall of nearly four dozen Toll House refrigerated dough products. The action ... More >>

Food For Thought 4.14.09

"Stevia is supposed to offer a non-dangerous natural alternative to sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, and that's why it's supposed to do well. It doesn't have the calorie punch of sugar; it doesn't have the bad image of HFCS." (Marcia Mogelonsky, senior research analyst with ... More >>

Food For Thought 3.25.09

"Because it sells, food companies are slapping it on anything. And consumers believe natural equals nutritious. Actually, it's a bit like Alice in Wonderland. It means what I want it to mean." (Julie Miller Jones, professor of food safety and nutrition at College of St. Catherine in Minnesota on th ... More >>

Chewing the Fat: Plastic People

The state of some food these days is enough to make a man go hungry rather than risk consuming the contents of many processed and pre-packaged items. If it's not salmonella-tainted peanuts, it's energy drinks that turn your blood into syrup. Health Canada recently found that 96 percent of sodas o ... More >>

Food For Thought...

"We don't have a good idea right now in terms of how much of that product is still out there; it may have largely been consumed." (Stephen Sundlof of the FDA after the government extended a recall of peanut products produced by the Peanut Corporation of America's Blakely, GA, plant to include the pa ... More >>

Haggis: Did It Gag Us?

Patrick MichelsAs per tradition, haggis is best plated on paper, beside a bottle of Belhaven.We see how it is. The Glenlivet reps come by the office to offer tastings of the company's 18 to 25 year-old Scotch and what do we who don't have our own offices get? Perhaps a dram of whisky? Just a taste? ... More >>

Is Fort Worth-Based BNSF Trying to "Intimidate Its Critics"?

Suicidal Tendencies: Or, a New York Writer Takes Chantix

Chantix "Increasing Likely" to Cause "Agitation" and "Suicidal Behavior"

The Clone Wars

FDA Makes It Official: It's Investigating Chantix and Its Side Effects

FDA Looking Into Carter Albrecht's "Case"

How Brad Pitt Gets His Ideas

Race With a Killer

A Dallas doctor believes he holds a miracle treatment for a disease that maims and kills children. Proving it will take another miracle.

The Next Breast Thing

Build a better fake boob, and women will beat a path to your door, along with the occasional lawsuit

A Jolt to the System

This small electrical device may be the last hope for the chronically depressed

Letters

Killer Raisin Stem, Church and State Pen, Still No. 3

Seeds of Discontent

Can growing protests stem the tide of genetically engineered crops?

Unacceptable Risk

Texas health officials say that mandatory childhood vaccinations against hepatitis B will prevent the spread of life-threatening illness. But which is riskier--the disease or the vaccine?

Getting fat off non-fat

A fat substitute with some unpleasant potential side effects pits junk food against junk science

True crime story

Forget the usual tales of rape and pillage--consider the sins of corporate America

Snakes in the grass

We're about to get bit again by deregulation