"food news" news and stories

This year was certainly a big year in food: food recalls, new food web sites launching, products being revamped, and plenty more. It was tough to keep up with it all.

So test your food-news savvy with YumSugar's Real or Fake Quiz: The Year in Food. Ask yourself: Did Baskin-Robbins really retire the French Vanilla flavor? We can admit we only anwered 9 out of 11 questions correctly.

Take the quiz: 2010 Headlines: Real or Fake?

Yesterday, nearing the approach of its fifth birthday, internet news giant The Huffington Post introduced its new Food vertical. Hot off the digital press, HuffPost Food is ready for web consumption, stocked with original articles, columns, polls and slideshows, and, as always with newspaper/blog hybrid, partner content and aggregates of the best of the rest of food news. Though currently national in scope, HuffPost Food will eventually be integrated into the New York, Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago channels, allowing the site to more narrowly and thoroughly tap into local food scenes, restaurants news and the like.

Vegemite -- the yeast-based savory spread that is a distant cousin of Marmite, and beloved by Kiwis and Aussies -- is getting a makeover for the first time in 85 years, the Times Online reports.

Kraft Foods surveyed hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and Australians to find out how they took their morning dose of Vegemite, and found that many wished it was more easily spreadable, or paired it with cream cheese on toast. Thus, the new incarnation incorporates cream cheese and one other secret ingredient.

It remains to be seen whether those who love it will appreciate this new incarnation -- early indicators say "no" -- but the company is cleverly reaching out to those who love it to give this new Vegemite product a new name. Early submissions include "I Just Mite," indicating that rabid fans might just adopt this newcomer.

[Via Times Online]

Just how tumultuous a year was 2008 when it comes to food news? In November, a man in India died at a company-sponsored pastry eating contest. That same month a couple sued McDonald's. For what? Philip Sherman left his cell phone at a McDonald's in Fayette, Arkansas, and he claims that employees found naked pictures of his wife Tina and posted them online.

Alright, what's so new about McDonald's being sued? Fair enough. Perhaps, one of the craziest news in food for 2008 is the world's largest fruit mosaic created by over 1,000 students from Pingyuan Middle School in China. The mosaic consists of 349,200 navel oranges, 18,172 apples and 5,153 pomelos. And, it made the Guinness World Record being 60 m (196 ft 10 in) long and 37 m (121 ft 4 in) wide, with a total area of 2,220 m² (23895 ft²).

This past summer, CNN posted a story online of the world's priciest foods. And, apparently gold is an edible mineral. Companies, such as Fancy Flours, are selling edible gold leaves for approximately $15,000 per pound. Now, one of my favorite food stories from 2008 comes from Wacky Archives: creative food sculptures. These adorable and insane food creatures are hilarious, especially the one of the egg shell transformed into a baby carriage carrying its yolk. And, there's the anthropomorphized roll of bread, seen above, biting onto its knife.

What are some of your favorite crazy food moments from 2008?

Coca-Cola will begin selling products made with Stevia, a zero-calorie sweetener derived from an herb that's gained a following in the heath food community despite not yet being approved by the FDA. Three flavors of Odwalla juice sweetened with a Stevia product called Rebiana are expected to hit the market this week.

Pepsi also has two Stevia-sweetened drinks ready for the market, but they say they won't start selling them until FDA gives Stevia the official OK. The FDA is expected to approve Stevia as "generally regarded as safe" any time now.

Coke hopes that Stevia, which is often described as "all natural" (whatever that means), will help reverse the decline in sales of soft drinks.

I've had Stevia sweetener before, and it didn't taste a whole lot different to me than other artificial sweeteners. But then, I'm a die-hard Diet Coke drinker, so I may not be the target audience.

Has anyone else tasted Stevia? Thoughts?

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