News on Health and Nutrition from the United States

December 18, 2007

Orville Redenbacher's and Act II microwave popcorn brands now free of diacetyl

ConAgra Foods today announced that it has reformulated its Orville Redenbacher’s and ACT II microwave popcorn brands with a new butter flavoring that has no added diacetyl. These newly reformulated products are arriving on store shelves now. “Microwav...

December 14, 2007

Snyder's of Hanover Adds Two MultiGrain Items To 100 Calorie Pack Offerings

Snyder's of Hanover announced the addition of two new MultiGrain items to its 100 Calorie pack offerings. Health-conscious consumers can enjoy our new Sunflower Chips which are all-natural with 0 grams of trans fat, contain 6 grams per serving of Wh...

Low fat chips Kettle bakes now in 100-calorie pack

December 11, 2007

Kettle™ Brand Bakes now available in 100-Calorie Pack

Kettle Foods is giving potato chips, America’s number one salty snack, a makeover with new 100-calorie bags of its award-winning Kettle™ brand Bakes Lightly Salted Potato Chips. Named “Best Chips” in Health Magazine’s May 2006 Best New Foods for Busy...

December 10, 2007

Texas: Frito-Lay recalls mispackaged chips

Frito-Lay announced on Monday a voluntary recall of 41 cases of mispackaged potato chips that could pose a risk to people with milk allergies.

December 08, 2007

McDonald's PR blunder: Advertising on School Report Cards (video)

McDonalds prints coupons on report cards that reward young children for getting good grades. As childhood obesity rates soar, the controversy is growing about this potentially harmful partnership between fast food companies and public schools.

December 06, 2007

Three million pounds of sodium cut from ConAgra food

ConAgra Foods has said it has removed nearly three million pounds of sodium from a range of products without affecting taste.The firm said it will continue to look at ways of cutting down salt, and said it has already managed to remove up to 20 per cen...

November 23, 2007

Hardee's pushes back conversion to canola

Hardee's is expected to complete the transition to zero trans fat cooking oil by the end of 2008, its parent company CKE Restaurants Inc. said Wednesday. CKE originally thought the conversion would be completed in Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants...

November 15, 2007

ARS develops extrusion method for tasty lentil snacks

Researchers from the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) claim to have stabilised a process of using extrusion technology to make healthy and tasty snacks out of legumes.

November 13, 2007

Orville Redenbacher's(R) SmartPop!(R), Now With 30% Less Sodium

More than 90 percent of Americans surveyed are quick to identify high blood pressure as one of their biggest health concerns related to sodium intake. However, according to a recent survey conducted by Orville Redenbacher's(R) Gourmet(R) Popping Corn(1...

November 10, 2007

Are french fries in the US QSR chains now trans fat free?

The check. For each of the chains, we bought and analyzed fries from five to nine restaurants in five states.CR's take. In our sampling, Wendy's still missed its mark. So did Burger King. McDonald's fries claim a high 8 g for most locations and 0 g fo...

October 31, 2007

Popcorn Workers Lung Victims Granted Big Victory class action lawsuit

Popcorn Workers Lung victims involved in a class action lawsuit got some good news from a New York appeals court yesterday. The court ruled that if the former Missouri popcorn plant workers successfully prove their claims that diacetyl exposure cause...

October 30, 2007

CDC: US Obesity levels have not risen last year

Obesity rates did not rise last year for the first time in 25 years, a study has said, but are still too high and will continue to dominate public health agenda. The findings for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that while 34 p...

October 28, 2007

By confessing its sins and introducing healthier snacks, the fast food industry is booming again

A few years ago it looked as though the odd crumbling monument in hick, southern towns would be all that remained of the fast-food industry. The obesity epidemic, class-action lawsuits and the stomach-churning revelations in Eric Schlosser’s book Fast...

October 27, 2007

Bringing Calories Out of Hiding

There’s no telling how many calories the restaurant industry has expended running away from New York’s pioneering attempt to improve the city’s health by requiring chain eateries to prominently display calorie information. Fortunately, the city health...

October 25, 2007

New York City Reintroduces Calorie Rule

The Bloomberg administration, in its continuing fight against obesity, reintroduced a measure yesterday to force chain restaurants to display calorie information on their menus or menu boards, after a federal judge struck down a similar measure last m...

October 18, 2007

First NYC restaurants fined for trans fat violations

Four Queens restaurants were recently slapped with fines for trans fat violations during routine inspections, placing them among the first establishments to be punished under new laws that require city eateries to switch to alternative oils, margarin...

October 12, 2007

New legislation would protect popcorn workers

Workers exposed to the butter-flavoring chemical, diacetyl, may get a reprieve. Exposure to diacetyl has been linked to a severe, potentially lethal form of lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans. Despite calls for action by unions, health-care provide...

October 01, 2007

How Frito-Lay is re-engineering its munchies to make healthier snacks

Perhaps no company has more at stake than chip-giant Frito-Lay, the world's biggest producer of snack foods, with $10 billion-plus in annual sales. Home of Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos and Tostitos, Frito-Lay represents 36 percent of parent company Pepsi...