Serving up food fraud

[admin]

But Gatorade’s got electrolytes! In what could be a scene straight out of Idiocracy, the makers of Gatorade decided to get creative and create a mobile video game called “Bolt!,” featuring a cartoon character of Olympic runner Usain Bolt. In the game, Bolt runs faster when he touches sugar-laden Gatorade icons and slower when he reaches plain ol’ wholesome water, with text reinforcing the message: “Keep your performance level high by avoiding water.” The game was heavily promoted to children and teens on social media. Eventually, its “misleading [water] statements” trickled down to California’s attorney general, who sued and reached a settlement with the company (to the tune of $300,000) for violating the state’s consumer protection laws and engaging in “beyond awful” advertising to children. The settlement also forbids the sports drink maker from talking smack about H20 in future ads. Made with love. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had to give a bakery the bad news that a human emotion cannot be a listed ingredient in a food product. Massachusetts-based Nashoba Brook Bakery got cutesy and added “love” as one of the ingredients in its granola. The company’s chief executive is describing the government’s subsequent cease-and-desist warning as Orwellian and accusing the cold-hearted regulators of failing to see how “nice” it is that an artisan bakery can claim a product is made with love. Unfortunately, Nashoba’s products might also be made with bugs (lovebugs?). The FDA’s inspection of its premises noted numerous health violations, including a “crawling insect” hanging out with the “focaccia breads, 7-Grain rolls, and brioche rolls.” Damaging more than your waistline. Decadent bacon double-cheeseburgers and banana cream pie shakes aren’t the only things SONIC, America’s Drive-In is serving up. If you’ve visited the chain recently you may have also bought yourself some identity theft. SONIC joins the disgraced ranks of Equifax, Yahoo and many other companies that have been impacted by massive data breaches. SONIC’s payment systems were hacked, resulting in up to five million credit and debit card accounts potentially being “peddled in shadowy underground cybercrime stores,” according to security site KrebsOnSecurity. If you’ve pulled up to SONIC’s drive-in, it’s time to pull up your credit and bank account statements to see if there’s been any illicit activity.