"kraft" news and stories

A health advocacy group is calling on the city of Irving, Texas, to back out of its deal with Kraft Foods, which paid $75,000 to sponsor next month's implosion of Texas Stadium.

"These are not food products government should promote," says Susan Levin, director of nutritional education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "The city says it's fighting childhood obesity, but it's taking money from the company that makes Velveeta."

Kraft plans to use the event to promote its new "Cheddar Explosion," a mac-and-cheese dinner billed as having "bigger shapes" and "more cheese sauce." The star of the hoopla will be the winner of an essay contest Kraft conducted to find a tween to press the detonation button.

"Because it's targeted to kids, it's especially egregious," Levin says. "I understand we all need financial support, but this is poor judgment."

Want a Snickers? There's an app for that.

The newest vending machines are interactive, utilizing iPhone technology touch screens and replicating iPhone apps. Instead of seeing physical packages of candy and other snacks, you get virtual images, the Washington Post reported.

When customers press one of the digital images, the animated snack gets larger and slowly rotates to reveal its ingredients and nutritional stats.

Kraft Foods' Diji-Touch was among the cutting-edge vending machines on display on Capitol Hill, where the National Automated Merchandising Association has been lobbying for jobs this week. Unemployment is a concern for the trade group because the country's widespread layoffs mean there are fewer office workers to buy snacks.

British chocolate maker Cadbury accepted a $19.5 billion buyout bid from American giant Kraft Foods in a move that will form the world's largest candy company, the Associated Press reported.

Both Kraft and Hershey were bidding for the U.K. chocolatier. Shareholders are expected to accept Kraft's bid.

Kraft, maker of Toblerone chocolate, Velveeta processed cheese and Oreo cookies, will gain ownership of products including Dairy Milk chocolates and Dentyne gum. Combined, Kraft and Cadbury would have 40 candy brands each with over $100 million in sales, AP reported.

I've never been a fan of frozen bagels. I don't care if you can toast them and they get all crunchy, I still like the bagels you get in the bread aisle, not frozen. They just taste better to me for some reason, and you can even eat them without toasting them.

So when I saw Kraft's new Bagel-fuls in the frozen food section, I was already thinking they might not be that great. But I bought them to see how they'd taste (for science and you readers, of course). First of all, if you store these bagel tubes filled with cream cheese in the freezer, you have to microwave them. You can't put them in the toaster unless they've already been thawed a bit, so if they're frozen you have to nuke them for 20 seconds.

How do they taste? They sorta taste like fried dough, not exactly bagel-ish. They're not bad, they'll do in a pinch I guess, but give me a regular bagel and I'll toast it and spread the cream cheese on myself.

A food recall involving chocolate? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Yup, Kraft food is recalling 24,000 cases of their Baker's Premium White Chocolate Baking Squares (6 oz.) because they might contain salmonella. The use by dates are March 31, April 1, April 2, and April 3 (all 2008), followed by the letters XCZ. The UPC code 0043000252200.

Kraft is advising that customers throw out the white chocolate. If you need more information about the recall, Kraft's phone number is 800-310-3704.