Food and Drug Administration

10 Restaurant Meals That Will Make You the Fattest

On Tuesday we reported on two university studies that found that restaurant meals are really, really fattening. One meal, on average -- whether breakfast, lunch or dinner -- contains over half of the FDA's recommended daily calories for a healthy adult, as well as whopping amounts of salt and satura ... More >>

Restaurant Dishes: More Calories Than Fast Food?

The average meal at an average sit-down restaurant chain contains a belt-busting 1,128 calories -- more than half of the Food and Drug Administration's recommended 2,000 calories a day for a healthy adult, according to a study by University of Toronto researchers. In contrast, the average fast food ... More >>

10 Million Pounds of Frozen Snacks Recalled

Ten million pounds of frozen pizza and other snacks have been recalled due to contamination with a rare strain of E. coli, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rich Products Corp. is recalling all items produced by at its Waycross, Ga. plant with "Best By" dates rangi ... More >>

Brain-Cooling Human Trials at Cedars-Sinai Help Prevent Crippling Brain Damage and Paralysis from Strokes

A groundbreaking clinical trial to prevent paralysis and death right after a stroke by cooling the brain is underway, led by Cedars Sinai, that researchers say could change everything.The trial has been boosted from 50 to 400 patients with FDA approval, and used both "controlled hypothermia" and a " ... More >>

FTC Orders POM Wonderful to Stop Making Health Claims

POM Wonderful pomegranate juice is made from the Wonderful variety of the fruit, but that doesn't make it some wonder drug. The Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission have had enough of the company making medical claims such as that its products help reduce cholesterol, aid with ... More >>

Anais Fournier: Alleged Monster Energy Drink Death Leads To SoCal Lawsuit

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been made aware of as many as six deaths and 18 hospitalizations that might be linked to drinking the high-caffeine energy drink Monster, which has its corporate offices in Corona. (Monster disputes any links). It turns out one of those deaths involved a 14 ... More >>

Consumer Reports Warns of Arsenic in Rice

Rice, seemingly so bland and innocuous, harbors the same deadly poison beloved by Victorian mystery writers. In a new study, Consumer Reports has found varying levels of arsenic in more than 60 rices and rice products. Among the consumer goods that contained "worrisome levels" of arsenic were organi ... More >>

[Updated] Mexican Mangoes Recalled Due to Salmonella Romaine Recalled Due to Listeria

Updated: Aug. 31, 3:17 p.m.: Mango distributor Splendid Foods has expanded their recall to as many as 1 million mangoes that may carry Salmonella bacteria, UPI reports. The FDA says the mangoes are likely to blame for a multistate cluster of salmonella, as well as cases in Canada. Splendid said the ... More >>

Another Cantaloupe Outbreak Kills 2, Sickens 141

In a fatal rerun of the 2011 outbreak, two people have died and 141 have been sickened since July 7 after eating cantaloupes, the Wall Street Journal reports. But unlike last year's Listeria outbreak in cantaloupes, this year's deadly melons contain Salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease C ... More >>

Rates of Foodborne Illnesses Rising, CDC Reports

In the wake of the massive Trader Joe's salad recall comes a new government report that says the U.S. is falling short of its goals to reduce foodborne illness outbreaks, Bloomberg reports. According to preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data for 2011, the foodborne pathogens Sal ... More >>

75: Porcetto at Sotto

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 75: Porcetto at Sotto. Porchetta is one of those dishes that, once you've tried it, tends to feature prominently in recurrent dreams. The same genre of dream a ... More >>

Black Licorice Found to Fight Diabetes

The cure for diabetes might be ... candy? Scientists have discovered that licorice root, the raw material for licorice candy, may be effective in treating type 2 diabetes, The Atlantic reports. A research team at the Max Plank Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, Germany, has identified a ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Food Fraud, Defining "Gluten-Free" Starbucks as Third Largest U.S. Chain

Huffington Post: Olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice are among the most-adulterated food products. With this kind of food fraud, even careful label-reading won't help. The Washington Post: What is truly "gluten-free?" The FDA has been trying to decide for seven yea ... More >>

AeroShot's Huff-Worthy Caffeine Powder Could Be Next Big Rave Drug Thanks to Sen. Charles Schumer

Okay, ravers: You got your Ecstasy. You got your special K. You have GHB. Some of you even have PMMA (aka paramethoxymethamphetamine or Doctor Death -- nice). But just in case you didn't know, you can now huff powdered caffeine. Yeah, the product AeroShot gives you a large cup of coffee's worth of ... More >>

FDA May Ban Orange Juice Imports From Brazil

Flickr/manwithfaceAmericans love their orange juice.​The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking into banning all orange juice imports from Brazil after an illegal fungicide was found in a sample, Reuters reports. Brazil is the world's top grower of oranges for juice, accounting for more ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 12/26-12/30

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "I am imagining six years as an ABD in Dumpling Science, and my fear smells a lot like goose noodle soup. Or is that what's simmering downstairs on the stove?" The World in Dumplings: Or, Not Livin ... More >>

Trent Arsenault, Sperm Donor Extraordinaire, Also Happens to be One-Man Porn Star

XtubeTrent.​We tried to stay away from the story of Trent Arsenault. We really did. With both hands. It's an icky tale. He's the Bay Area guy who mass-donates sperm to women and couples who want to have children. He does so on his own, outside the white coats of sperm labs. And so he was rece ... More >>

Arsenic Levels in Fruit Juice Cause Concern

Flickr/Ben Garney​Thanks a lot, Mott's. Dr. Oz threw down the gauntlet a couple months ago when he commissioned a study that found that 10 of three dozen apple juice samples had a total arsenic level exceeding federal safety standards of 10 parts per billion (ppb). Now a new study from Consume ... More >>

Listeria Hysteria: Romaine Lettuce Recalled Over Contamination Fears

Flickr/MuffetCalifornia's True Leaf farms has recalled their romaine​ Stop! Put down that salad fork! No, not because you're using the wrong fork. California's True Leaf farms is recalling 2,498 cartons of chopped romaine lettuce because it may be contaminated with listeria bacteria, although ... More >>

Raw Milk Rover: The Revolution Will Be Animated

Whether you think the recent raids on raw milk pushers Rawesome Foods and Healthy Family Farms were noble, absurd, callous or simply a by-product of the government's conspiracy to force-feed chemicals to citizens, you will agree that this cartoon is stupid. Then again, with all the drama over a l ... More >>

Mexican Papayas Recalled Due to Salmonella

Flickr/janineomg​ Agromod Produce of McAllen, Texas, is recalling all of its papayas because the tropical fruit may be infected with Salmonella, the Food and Drug Administration announced July 23. The papayas were imported from Mexico and are possibly linked to 97 reported cases of Salmonella ... More >>

Pesticides: Apples and Celery Top the List of Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

​Remember the poisoned apple that Snow White eagerly gobbled down? In today's world, that apple would not need to be dipped in a cauldron of venom. It would come from the supermarket. That's right, according to federal data, nearly 98 percent of apples are contaminated by pesticides, topping ... More >>

Tomato Recall Alert: Grape Tomatoes in California Packaged Salads

Flickr/smcgeegrape tomatoes​ Your food recall alert of the day. (Getting tired of these yet? Right.) A specific lot of grape tomatoes grown by a Florida grower has been recalled by the FDA for possible salmonella contamination, prompting a larger recall of packaged salads. Six L's of Immokale ... More >>

Ruminations on the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Very Large Poultry

Warning: May Cause the Cure for Cancer

Ban on Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages (Like Four Loko -- Last Year) Proposed by Valley State Sen. Alex Padilla

La vida Loko.​Long after the FDA pressured the makers of Four Loko to make the alcoholic beverage a little less loco, San Fernando Valley state Sen. Alex Padilla is attempting to put the brakes on similar drinks in the Golden State. As part of a flurry of last-minute bills in Sacramento this ... More >>

OC Teens Chelsea Taylor and Aaron Saenz Found Dead in Empty Apartment -- Next to Can of Four Loko

MySpaceAaron Saenz' profile picture​Updated after the jump: Four Loko apologizes. Over a month after the FDA banned Four Loko in its most toxic form -- a mix of alcohol, caffeine, guarana and taurine -- the "blackout in a can" apparently isn't done doing its damage. On Friday morning at abou ... More >>

Four Loko To Be Turned into Ethanol: From Fueling Frat Parties to Fueling Your Car

Flickr/Darby RoseFour loco, etc.​ You may remember the relative chaos over Four Loko, the energy drink that contains up to 12% alcohol, which debuted in US markets in 2005 and provoked a warning letter from the FDA this past November. The FDA called the caffeine and alcohol combination an "un ... More >>

Bum On Skid Row: 'Two White Men' Gave Us Four Loko Surplus, But 'I'd Rather Be Cold Than Drink That Shit'

Uptown AlmanacOther bums -- particularly, the kind who live in dorms -- can't resist the stuff​Bet you were wondering what happened to all those glorious old Lokos that had to be recalled after the FDA banned alcoholic energy drinks from U.S. shelves earlier this month. (Well, aside from the 5 ... More >>

Get Your Stem-Cell Treatement Started Right Here In L.A: Korean Company RNL Opens Outpost In K-Town

udayton.eduFile photo of a woman probably not working with stem cells.​A South Korean company that offers to send clients overseas for controversial stem-cell treatments has opened an outpost in L.A.'s Koreantown -- the first such office in the area, the Los Angeles Business Journal reports. ... More >>

New Spirits Releases: White Dog, Absinthe, Grapevine and Root Beer Liqueurs

Art in the AgeRoot hot chocolate​In the spirits world, you can count on a new flavored Smirnoff vodka (mango and peach) and Bacardi rum ("torched cherry") every few Happy Hours. And then there's the new stuff you actually would like to taste. Tried any good new spirits lately? Leave us your ta ... More >>

Top 10 Kitchen Safety Tips (Excluding: "Don't Be a Moron")

Flickr user Photography_1O1Is your meat being stored at the appropriate temperature?​ It is National Food Safety Education Month, because everyone knows that the best way to deal with a serious issue is to give it its own month. We also love giving out National Days (yesterday was National Cr ... More >>

Froot Loops, Other Kellogg Cereals Recalled

Flickr/ZanastardustConsumers have complained of a waxy, metallic or soapy odor and taste. ​ Do not open that box of Apple Jacks. According to a report Friday in the Christian Science Monitor, Kellogg Co. is recalling the apple-cinnamon-flavored cereal along with Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Hone ... More >>

Fresh Express Recalls Salad Because Of Possible E. Coli Contamination

​Salad production company Fresh Express recalled nearly twenty varieties of Romaine lettuce-based salad products Wednesday over fears of E. coli contamination. The salad mixes were sold throughout California and have a "use-by" dates of July 8-12 with a "S" in the product code. According to t ... More >>

The Food Illuminati: GMO Labeling and the Codex Alimentarius

Codex AlimentariusPage 1 of 108 of a Codex publication​ What is the Codex? More Michael Pollan and less Dan Brown--we hope. The little-known Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1963 under the joint auspices of the United Nations and the World Health Organization to devise universa ... More >>

Father-Daughter Team Charged For Allegedly Selling Fake Viagra

​A father-daughter duo from Orange County has been charged on suspicion of selling a "misbranded" drug that contains an untested chemical analog of a key ingredient in Viagra. The pills, called Vitalex and sourced from compounds made in China, were allegedly marketed as "all-natural" sexual en ... More >>

The Wednesday Edition: A Roundup of Today's Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections on Wednesday. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is ... More >>

We Have Ways of Making You Not Talk

Song of the Whistleblower

The Hallucinogenic Way of Dying

Can psilocybin reduce death anxiety in end-stage cancer patients?

The Back Story

Our Bodies, Their Solutions

The rise and fall of one more fad diet

Seeds of Wrath

Silencing debate on biotech foods

Frankenfoods

Should genetically modified produce frighten you?

Mr. Happy Does the Dew

Frankenfoods

Ecstasy-in-a-Can

Poppycock

Viagra to your door via the Internet

Weapons of Mass Distraction

U.S. arms dealing leads Project Censored’s list of the Top 10 underreported stories of 1997