Manufacturing Sector

What's the Truth Behind a Label? A Story of Texas Butter Nostalgia.

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream ... But, was it local cream? And did the cows eat organic grass? And who owns the dairy? Tell us, mice. People have question about their food these days. Recently I spotted a Texas butter called Falfurrias at the grocery store. The yellow package proclaims ... More >>

Congressman Steve Stockman to Gunmakers: Come Check Out Texas

U.S. Representative Steve Stockman is not a subtle man. We could go so far as to say he has a flair for the dramatic. He is, after all, the man who brought Ted Nugent as his plus-one to the State of the Union address, and compared the Earth to a sort of fuel-filled water balloon. And even further ba ... More >>

A North Texas Lawmaker Wants to Exempt "Made in Texas" Guns From Federal Law

According to statistics kept by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, there are several dozen licensed gun manufacturers in the state of Texas. Most of those are small-scale operations, individuals or mom-and-pop-style shops that produce one or two pistols or rifles in a year. A ... More >>

Texas' War on behalf of the Incandescent Light Bulb Dies a Quiet, Predictable Death

In 2011, state lawmakers took a break from slashing school funding, dreaming up new abortion restrictions and fighting against the encroachment of Islamic law to do battle with a new enemy: the compact fluorescent light bulb. More and more, those tightly coiled tubes were replacing Edison's good ol ... More >>

Frito-Lay Is Outsourcing Flavors. We Have Some Ideas.

Maybe you've seen the commercial. It's up there. Michael Symon, the smiliest chef ever, is bouncing his bald head all over the television for Frito-Lay's newest ad campaign/contest. Eva Longoria is even taking time out of her... um... schedule to tout Frito-Lay's flavor outsourcing endeavor! Frito-L ... More >>

Old Records Are Outselling New Ones For the First Time

by Chris Kornelis See also: All of the arguments about digital music, summarized In the two decades since Nielsen Soundscan started to keep track of U.S. album sales in 1991, the company has seen the industry fold in half, digital sales catch up to physical, and vinyl mount a resurgence. But unti ... More >>

What Ice Cream and Fracking Have in Common And Why Your Dessert Has Become So Pricey

The food industry has for decades leaned on an inexpensive and natural thickening agent: guar gum. It builds viscosity in ice cream, dressing, baked goods, and other foods you've likely eaten it in the past week (as well as makeup, explosives, and other things you probably haven't eaten, ever). In ... More >>

Ben & Jerry's Scoops Free Ice Cream Today to Benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation

Ben & Jerry's annual Free Cone Day was scheduled for April 3, but tornadoes forced some local shops to play a make-up game, and that making up goes down today. Three local shops are partaking in the festivities: Plano, McKinney and the Shops of Highland Village. The Plano store has lined up some ... More >>

Another Texas Icon's Caught Between Dublin Bottling Works, Plano-Based Dr Pepper: Big Red

The set-up at Maple & Motor. For now.​Ever since Jack Perkins got his Dublin Bottling Works soda fountain at Maple & Motor, well, let's say I've had way too many cane-sugar soft drinks in recent weeks. (May I recommend mixing the Tart-N-Sweet Lemonade, Cherry Limeade and Dublin Lemon-Lime ... More >>

At Central Market, Everything You Need to Know About Cheese, And Then Some

​Since October is National Cheese Month, it's fine time to "Meet the Cheeses" at Central Market, where, in addition to their standard vast collection, they're hosting a few classes. For the industrious cheese devotee, Allison Hooper is in town to host a class this Thursday, October 13, from ... More >>

Conservative Moms Claim They Don't Like Schweddy Balls in Their Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's​Recently we told you all about Ben & Jerry's new ice cream Schweddy Balls, which is based on the SNL skit featuring Alec Baldwin. Well, One Million Moms, a project of the American Family Association, which promotes "the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary e ... More >>

nib chocolate's Stephen Smith on the Sweet Life

​Here's some hopeful news for all you C students out there: At the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Paris, Stephen Smith's "worst subject of everything was chocolate." Apparently, he got better. In fact, he got good enough to operate his own wholesale chocolate business, nib cho ... More >>

Tasti D-Lite to Open 25 Stores in DFW

​The area developer for Tasti D-Lite, the frozen dessert chain that became a low-cal sensation when it opened in New York 23 years ago, says he isn't worried about opening stores in a city dominated by yogurt shops. "Let me tell you something," says Francisco Gomez-Palacio, a former telecom e ... More >>

Military Appreciation Cook-Off Needs More Participants, Natsumi Kitchen Opens at Farmers Market, Wine and Cheese Pairing Class, and More

​Just because summer is over doesn't mean barbecues and cookouts are no more until next summer. We mean, come on, this is Texas, any time is barbecue time. On October 2, The Dave Kenoly Show on CNN Radio 1190 AM, will be host its First Annual Military Appreciation Cook-Off to -- obviously -- ... More >>

Mozzarella Company Slices
Through Cheese Competition

A chile-filled winner from Mozzarella Company​Paula Lambert's Mozzarella Company had another strong showing at this year's American Cheese Society competition, the artisanal cheese industry's version of the Academy Awards. Nearly 1,500 cheeses were entered in the annual competition, which inc ... More >>

The Key to Good Cheese? You Gotta Love Your Goats. (No. Not That Way.)

Hanna RaskinHow could you not love a face like this?​ When a dish transcends its components, its circumstances and a critic's expectations, it's almost invariably described as "made with love." The treacly sentiment may or may not hold true in the kitchen, but a recent tour of goat dairies in ... More >>

Art Attack: PETA's Planning to Protest Outside Dean Foods Meeting at DMA Tomorrow

​Just a heads-up: A few minutes ago, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent word and posted this press release noting that tomorrow morning, it's planning to picket the Dean Foods shareholders meeting at the Dallas Museum of Art -- and picket it hard.As in: Sure, they're bringing signs ( ... More >>

Days Gone Bite: Frito Bandito

​I had a Frito Bandito eraser. I can still hear that leering, gravely voice. And the song--oh, I remember the song.At least I remember the second version. Frito-Lay introduced the animated Mexican bandit to advertise Fritos in 1967. He wore a sombrero and a couple of six-shooters, sported a gold t ... More >>

Monday's Unverified Fact About Philadelphia

Michael Stern/Roadfood​The 'Boys host la fee verte on Sunday afternoon. A "fact" about the team from "foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia":During road trips, the Eagles play Scrapple--a game where they identify bits of snout, intestine, ear, trotter and tail in their breakfast dish. Th ... More >>

First Look: Creme De La Cookie

The food biz is risky. Dallas is an incredibly competitive market when it comes to restaurants, and given the current economy, it's tougher than ever before to make a go of a place while everyone is cutting back on pretty much everything. Starting a new food business requires much in the way of wi ... More >>

Eye Candy

Food For Thought 4.28.09

"This is a journey, and we still have work to do, but expanding our sourcing of beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and partnering with the Gates Foundation represents significant steps." (Steve Yucknut, vice president of sustainability, announcing Kraft's intention to increase coffee be ... 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 >>

Food For Thought 3.24.09

"We're going to chew them up on corporate brands. And we're just going to keep driving corporate brands." (Steven Burd, president of Safeway--parent of Tom Thumb and Randalls--speaking on the importance of store brands as leverage against the large food companies. Some grocery chains have been cutti ... More >>

Food For Thought 3.09.09

"The contribution of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education." (Mansour Samadpour, a Seattle-based food safety consultant, commenting on the fact that, with government inspectors under greater pressure due to cutbacks and other issue ... More >>

Food For Thought 2.17.09

Bill Kennedy, Cleveland Plain Dealer"The burden is on the company to make sure they are complying with any local, state and federal regulations that apply to food manufacturing. Naturally, that's not reassuring to the public. But we don't have people driving up and down roads looking for places like ... 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 >>

Food For Thought...

"A lot of people have left the category. Also a lot of young people have not entered the category, so these ads may help Coke both recruit new, young consumers and recruit some lapsed consumers." (Beverage Digest editor John Sicher, clearly excited over the soft drink company's new marketing campai ... More >>

Cultured Bites

Prep for Puccini with Paula

GM CEO Rick Wagoner's Visit to Dallas in July Just Got Much More Interesting

Boning Up in Fort Worth, Baby

Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming in Highland Park

Baby, You Can't Drive Their Car

Sam Coats' Concrete Problem

Wherein Mark Stuertz Asks Paula Lambert: "What's Your Stinkiest Cheese?"

Next Big Things

The five biggest attention-getters at E3.

Richie Rich Round-Up

Fair Park is the New Baltic Avenue

Best Radio DJ

Skip Cheatham, KKDA-FM (104.5)

Best (Men's and Women's) Shoe Store

Nordstrom at the Galleria

Down by the Old Mill

A band of East Texas environmentalists takes on a polluting paper plant and proves that might doesn't always make right, even in a company town

Best Place to See Pets Run Wild

Off-Leash Dog Park at Mockingbird Point

Mojave 3 / Joe Pernice

Excuses for Travellers (4AD/Beggars Banquet) / Big Tobacco (Ashmont/Spunk Records)

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Did a business deal with Bell Helicopter doom a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide?

Software and hard time

Texas prisons take a byte out of crime with a computer rehab program

Fooling with Mother Nature

Plano-based Frito-Lay finds it's better to be safe than sorry with genetically modified foods

Put your ears on

Disney hopes its upstart kids radio network will be more than just a Mickey Mouse effort

Pay up?

Dan Morales' pal faces questions over his demand for millions in tobacco-suit fees

Damage control

A deadly accident in a pit at Texas Instruments sent lawyers and flacks scurrying, but the company's response may put it deeper in the hole

Blind-sided, again

Al Lipscomb assures us that he has no idea what's going on