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PepsiCo will sell its Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice in clear bottles, not the familiar coated-paper cartons, as it tries to take back market share from the Coca-Cola Co. brand Simply Orange.
Tropicana, the largest U.S. orange juice brand, said on Wednesday that clear plastic bottles will replace most of the cartons it has long sold bearing a picture of an orange with a straw stuck in it. Get the full story »
Dominick’s parent Safeway is launching a labeling system Wednesday that highlights certain foods based on a 22 ingredients including whole grains or nutritional benefits such as reduced sodium.
Dubbed SimpleNutrition, the program uses green shelf tags to highlight 15 to 20 percent of a store’s food products, based on a variety of criteria. Get the full story »
Freezing weather across the South and Mexico recently damaged such crops as tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers, leading to shortages and price increases. It’s left some restaurants scrambling to revamp such staples as sandwiches and salads.
“It’s sort of like the perfect storm — Florida, Texas and Mexico all get hit with unseasonably cold weather, which decreased the yields of tomatoes and cucumbers,” said Gary Karp, executive vice president for Technomic, a food market-research firm. “It’s going to take about 60 days or so before new tomatoes and other replacement products can come to market.” Get the full story »
Starbucks announced Tuesday that it will partner with St. Louis-based Courtesy Products to provide its ground coffee in 500,000 hotel rooms in the U.S. and promised that more single-serve news to come.
The announcement follows rampant speculation as to which partner the Seattle-based coffee giant would select for its push into the single-serve coffee market, following a Chicago Tribune report on Sunday. Get the full story »
Beef cuts on display at a supermarket in New York in January. (Emanual Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
With more Americans tightening their belts, demand for cheaper cuts of U.S. beef has actually pushed the price of select-grade beef higher than the generally more expensive choice cuts.
For the first time in nearly two years, select-grade beef prices are above those for better-quality choice grade, according to U.S. government data.
The data showed that demand for select has grown while supplies have declined. Get the full story »
Starbucks Corp. and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are in partnership negotiations, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Monday, sending Green Mountain shares surging.
Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, wants to be a big player in the fast-growing single-serve coffee segment that Green Mountain dominates with its Keurig one-cup brewers. Get the full story »
TribLocal | The Hooters in Crystal Lake closed abruptly on Monday with some employees offered jobs in the chain’s Schaumburg restaurant.
A woman sued McDonald’s Corp , Friday, saying she was injured after chewing on a “large shard of glass” inside her spicy McChicken sandwich.
Vjollca Lecaj said she suffered severe and permanent oral injuries, as well as “great pain and anguish,” after biting into and chewing the glass last Aug. 5 at a McDonald’s in Oak Lawn, Illinois, near Chicago. Get the full story »
Diet Pepsi has introduced a new “skinny” can for Fashion Week, but some critics are giving it a big, fat “no.”
The can is a “taller, sassier” version of the traditional can that the company says was made in “celebration of beautiful, confident women.” Some say Pepsi’s approach only reinforces dangerous stereotypes about women and body image. Get the full story »
Northfield-based Kraft Foods Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings down 24 percent to $540 million. The company’s operating earnings, at 46 cents per share was in line with Wall Street expectations, but full-year earnings per share of $2.02 missed expectations by a penny.
The company’s shares fell 2.1 percent to $30.45 in after-hours trading. Get the full story »
Kraft Foods Inc. says the U.S. District Court should reverse its decision to allow Starbucks Corp. to take over distribution of Starbucks’ branded packaged coffee March 1.
The packaged-food giant filed a brief late Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, arguing that Kraft will “suffer loss of customer good will, loss of a unique product line and competitive harm if Starbucks is allowed to unilaterally terminate the contract,” the brief says. Get the full story »
MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the United States, posted a 38 percent rise in fourth-quarter net income, as cost savings and better trends for its premium light brands offset soft industry volumes. Get the full story »
The girlfriend of former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV died at his home after accidentally overdosing on the painkiller oxycodone, the St. Louis County medical examiner said Wednesday. Get the full story »
The largest McDonald’s franchisee globally is planning a U.S. listing that could raise as much as $1 billion, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.
Arcos Dorados might file for an initial public offering within days and could start trading in New York in April, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. Get the full story »
Sara Lee's Ball Park franks on display at a grocery story, Jan. 28, 2011. The company is splitting into two public ones. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
On the same day that Sara Lee Corp. reported second-quarter earnings, its executives attempted to clarify an announcement made in January that Sara Lee plans to split into two publicly traded companies early next year. The company’s shares rose 2 percent in midday trading.
The Downers Grove-based maker of cheesecake, Jimmy Dean sausages and other food products reported net income of $880 million, or $1.37 per share, for the quarter that ended on Jan. 1, up from $371 million, or 53 cents per share, a year earlier.
Last month, Sara Lee announced that its North American Retail and North American Foodservice business would be spun off, keeping the company’s name and remaining in Downers Grove. The International Beverage and International Bakery divisions will constitute a second company under the working name of CoffeeCo. CoffeeCo is expected to remain in the U.S. at first because of tax considerations. Get the full story »
