January 25th - Jan. 31st, 2009.
Peanut Butter Recall Keeps Growing.
This peanut recall business is getting out of hand. FDA has found numerous violations at the Georgia plant of Peanut Corporation of America AFTER a full scale recall was already in effect. And since PCA has expanded the recall to include peanut butter it produced from January 2007, MANY more products have been recalled. A full list of products impacted can be seen at the FDA website.

Testing, Testing, Testing. Kellogg's is test marketing shorter space saving, and more eco-friendly cereal boxes. And, is this a new packaging format for Healthy Choice Complete Meals? No word yet from HC, but we spotted it on supermarket shelves.

HFCS and Mercury. Two research articles made public this week were about mercury levels and HFCS. In one study by the US Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), they claim mercury was detected in nearly one-third of 55 brand name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labelled ingredient, including, it claims, products by Quaker, Hershey's, Kraft and Smucker's. A look at the study shows this was found in levels of "parts per trillion" whereas, FDA limits are at parts per billion (not to mention that the leap that this was from HFCS is a big one because there are other ingredients in the food - and it could have come from the process).

In a separate study published in Environmental Health (which was actually done in 2005), mercury was found in nearly 50 per cent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Response from the Corn Refiners Association (CRA), said that the study in Environmental Health is misleading.

"The study appears to be based on outdated information since the corn industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years."

New Products (and Try SOme Old Ones for FREE). Diet Dr. Pepper wants you to give them a chance by offering free soda. And Quaker wants you to give rice cakes a chance. We have a few new products we're looking forward to trying. Actually, we already made the Quaker Oatmeal pancakes and they're delicious!

Reviews Galore. This past week was What's For Dinner" Review Week, with a new review everyday. We found a new product ,Healthy Choice Fire Roasted Tomato Chicken which was really good. The lowest rated products this week were Weight Watchers Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables and Hamburger Helper Wholesome Classics Stroganoff.

Next week is Organic & Natural Reviews Week. Stay tuned!