Remember when Cadbury had to recall a large number of candy bars in the UK earlier due to the discovery of traces of salmonella in their factory? It looks like Hershey's is now having a similar problem. The company voluntarily recalled several brands of chocolate chips, chocolate bars and candies, including Oh Henry!, Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Glosettes, that were manufactured its Smiths Falls, Ontario, factory. All totaled, there are 25 items included in the recall and they can be easily identified "by checking the back of the package for date codes, starting with four digits ranging from 6417 to 6455." The recall did not include any Halloween or Christmas candy, and company spokespeople said that most of the potentially contaminated products were still in warehouses and had not been distributed. The factory was closed last week after "after a routine quality control check detected an 'externally sourced ingredient' which could potentially cause salmonella" and will not reopen until the company can guarantee the safety of its products to consumers.

Fast Food News recently pointed out an interesting little article on the ways fast food companies produce their "grilled" chicken. The piece, which ran in Fast Company, details the process of how chicken breasts are flavored en masse in a "tumble marinator" before being cooked by jets of hot air and then sent under the hot branding wheels of machines like the CM-40 II Charmarker to get that fresh off the grill look (right). Then they're frozen and shipped. A Burger King chicken breast has over 30 ingredients and Panera's grilled chicken is flavored with beef extract, according to Fast Company. Coincidentally, Fast Food news had another funny post about using meat as a condiment.

A McCain potato-processing factory in England had to be evacuated when workers discovered a grenade amongst the potatoes as they were washing the spuds. The factory, which is the largest in Europe, imports many of its potatoes from other countries. It is not uncommon for debris from the first and second world wars to turn up amongst the spuds from Belgium and France, but in the past week the workers not only discovered the grenade, but a shell tip, as well. Following both discoveries, workers vacated the plant while the bomb squad came in and detonated the devices.

Worker safety is of paramount importance, and a company spokesman said that they would have to speak with their suppliers about checking the shipments more thoroughly, as "it is obviously not an efficient use of [the] staff's time if we have to keep evacuating the premises."

A recall of Coca-Cola brand soft drinks in Japan, originally issued last week, has been broadened to include an estimated 2.4 million bottles, according to BeverageDaily.com. Defective equipment at Japanese factory is believe to be responsible for iron powder in some bottles. Coca-Cola says that the iron powder does not present a health concern, according to a Forbes article. The number of drinks involved in the recall has risen from six to 27 and includes Coca-Cola and Fanta brands as well as local beverages including Qoo and Aquarius, Beverage Daily reported. MSN also reports on the initial recall.

Zurich-based chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut recently announced plans to open a new $20 million factory in Russia early next year, according to a company press release. The plant, to be built near Moscow, will employ about 70 people and have a production capacity of 25,000 tons. Barry Callebaut is already the largest chocolate importer to Russia, so putting a new factory there was a logical decision, according the chocolate-maker's CEO Patrick De Maeseneire. The company's press release goes on to predict that Russian chocolate consumption will top that of the U.K. by 2009. Barry Callebaut was formed 10 years ago through the partnership of Belgium's Callebaut and France's Cacao Barry. In 2003, the company also acquired American candy company Brach's Confections Holding, Inc.

Kids come up with some interesting ideas. How about a Blueberry Syrup Waffle Popsicle, or a Caramel Apple Carnival Pop? These are two of the winning flavor combinations from last year's Flavorologist contest.

If your son or daughter is between 6 and 12 and has his own ideas about what ice cream should taste like, he or she is eligible to enter this year's Nestle's Flavorologist contest. By submitting an original flavor combination for a frozen popsicle, a flavor name and description of the appearance of the popsicle, along with short "resume" describing their experience playing with foods, they could win a batch of custom popsicles! There are 10 winners and included in each prize package are a $1000 US savings bond and a school ice cream party. One grand prize winner will get a behind the scenes factory tour and an all-expenses paid trip for 4 to California.

It is perhaps every baker's dream to take a tour of the KitchenAid factory, but to do so by invitation is something that most bakers can only dream of. When you are the author of more than one wildly successful cookbook, though, it looks like the company will extend an invitation without even having to be asked. Food blogger, author and chef, the ex-pat American in Paris, David Lebovitz was lucky enough to get just such and invitation. He visited the factory in Greenville, Ohio, took a private tour and put on a demonstration of a few things, including rocky road and ice cream for other visitors. Yes- they do offer tours to non-professionals.

They generously allowed David to take photos along the way, so every photo in his post is an exclusive look inside the factory. He checked out some of the very first stand mixers, the assembly lines and the newest colors, like "Meyer Lemon, Martha Green (named after...), Caviar (black with silver flecks), a cheerful Green Apple, Olive, and colorfully-red Bing Cherry." According to David, each mixer takes one day to assemble and each employee assembles around 90 mixers per day. One of the things that I like about KitchenAid is that, in addition to the high quality of their products, nearly everything they sell is made in the United States, not overseas.

He said that it was one of the most fun tours he's taken, with interesting information and a very helpful staff. Be sure to drop in the next time you're passing near Cincinnati:

The KitchenAid Experience
423 South Broadway
Greenville, Ohio
Tel: 1-888-886-8318

Officials in Taipei have ordered the makers Taiwan Beer to reexamine their quality control measures after the most recent in what seems to be a string of complaints. A Banqiao man recently found an aluminum wrapper and a rusty staple in one of his unopened bottles of Taiwan Beer. New Party Taipei City Councilor Li Ching-yuan recently told the Taipei Times that this is not the first time the popular brew has raised such complaints. Li cited several other instances in which bottle caps, cigarette butts, insects both live and dead, and, get this, a "condom-like" object have been found in bottles of Taiwan Beer. A directory at Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, the brewery that produced roughly 280 million bottles of Taiwan Beer a year, apologized for the most recent incident and said that the factory would work on improving quality control.