Inside these posts: Beef

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Lawsuit challenging Taco Bell beef dropped

Attorneys this week dropped a lawsuit that alleged that Taco Bell’s beef was mostly not beef, both sides of the once-contentious legal battle said.

Alabama-based law firm Beasley Allen brought the class-action lawsuit in January and claimed that lab tests had shown that the eatery’s beef was actually only 35 percent beef. The plaintiffs said they wanted the fast food restaurant to stop referring to its products as beef. Get the full story »

Study: 25% of meat has drug-resistant bacteria

A shopper at a Cub Foods grocery store in Burnsville, Minn. (AP/Jayme Halbritter)

A sampling of grocery store meat in five U.S. cities has shown a type of drug-resistant bacteria is contained in about one quarter of beef, chicken, pork and turkey for sale, a study said Friday.

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that can cause skin infections, pneumonia, sepsis or endocarditis in people with weak hearts, was found in 47 percent of samples, said the study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Get the full story »

Americans on budgets push up price of ‘cheap’ beef

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 »

Notebook: Canning’s son opens grocery store

In 2006, Madison Dearborn Partners LLC Chairman John Canning told the Tribune that he’d love to see his son, then a chef in Boston, return to Chicago to start his own business.

The private equity executive has gotten his wish.

Tim Canning, 34, has opened Lemon Tree Grocer about 100 yards from the Metra stop in Downers Grove. The high-end market has more than 40 full- and part-time workers, including a butcher that can work his way through a whole cattle and explain cuts of beef. It’s the first business that the younger Canning has started. Get the full story »

Tyson puts up some beefy profit numbers

Meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, but shares fell 4 percent on doubts the results can be sustained and that chicken prices may fall.

Tyson’s beef unit had a 5.6 percent profit margin versus 2.4 percent a year ago, while pork margins rose to 10 percent from 3 percent, helped by price increases because of a constricted meat supply. Get the full story »