Tag Archives | Fast Food

Texas Man Fires Gun, Engages In Motel-Room Police Standoff Over Taco Bell Price Increase

By on March 25, 2011 in News 59

www.mysanantonio.comIn all seriousness, what is it about chain-restaurant fast food that so often drives Americans into insane, violent rages? San Antonio Express-News reports on local mayhem:

The price of the Beefy Crunch Burrito had gone up from 99 cents to $1.49 and the man at the Rigsby Road Taco Bell drive-thru had just ordered seven.

The fast food customer was so disgruntled by the price hike he shot an air gun at the manager, displayed an assault rifle and pistol while in the restaurant’s parking lot, fled as police were called, and pointed one of his weapons at three officers who pulled him over. Fleeing when they opened fire, he barricaded himself in his hotel room — all over $3.50 plus additional tax. All three of his weapons were found to be air-powered and not firearms.

The final incident in the burrito-triggered spree happened Sunday afternoon at the Rodeway Inn on North W.W.

… Read the rest

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Subway Passes McDonald’s As Dominant Global Fast Food Empire

By on March 8, 2011 in News 16

4391792054_68563dfe0aIn the grim future years to come, we will be mandated daily to eat not a McDonald’s burger, but a Subway sandwich. Some credit for Subway’s ascension goes to the chain’s willingness to expand fast food franchising to nontraditional locations such as schools, churches, and bodies of water. CNNMoney introduces our new corporate overlords:

Subway has surpassed McDonald’s to become the world’s largest restaurant chain in terms of units, the sandwich company confirmed Monday.

Subway had 33,749 restaurants around the globe at the end of 2010, said company spokesman Les Winograd. McDonald’s had 32,737 at year end, according to a February regulatory filing from the burger giant.

“Last year was actually pretty average for us, growth-wise,” Winograd said. “We aim to open between 1,000 and 2,000 locations globally each year.”

About half of the company’s unit growth is overseas, Winograd said. Subway now has more than 1,000 locations in Asia, and it just opened its first store in Vietnam.

… Read the rest

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Does Eating Junk Food Make Children Dumber?

By on February 11, 2011 in News 17

happymeal13Tragically, when kids are fed junk food, their developing brains may suffer as a result. (Thus producing dim-minded adults who gobble more junk food, in an endless cycle?)

After controlling for every socioeconomic factor they could think of, researchers found that young children with diets heavy in processed foods grew to have lower IQs than similar children who ate more healthily, The Week writes:

Researchers at England’s University of Bristol found that a child’s eating habits at age 3 may influence his cognitive abilities at age 8. Toddler diets high in fat and sugar were associated with lower IQ scores, while healthier eating was tied to higher scores. The report, which appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, is being billed as “the first study to suggest a direct link between the diet of young children and their brainpower” years later.

The researchers examined data on nearly 4,000 children born in the early 1990s, including detailed information from parents on what the kids ate and drank at specific ages.

… Read the rest

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Ronald McDonald Kidnapped – Ransom Demanded

By on February 7, 2011 in News 21

A group calling themselves the Food Liberation Army has kidnapped Ronald McDonald and has a list of demands from McDonald’s. If the fast food megacorp fails to meet the demands god only knows what the ruthless Finns will do to him…

We are the Food Liberation Army, and we hope that this extreme action will take us towards a better and safer food future.

Two days ago we kidnapped Ronald McDonald from a McDonald’s Restaurant. If you do not answer all the questions we will execute Ronald on Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:30PM EET.

We love burgers, fries and McDonald’s, but we can no longer watch silent when the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference. Because of your short-sightedness your burgers have become nearly inedible…

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Fake Steak, Not-Much-Meat Tacos, And More On Chain Food Menus

By on February 7, 2011 in News 15

The lawsuit against Taco Bell for selling meat tacos that contain only 35% beef has opened up, excuse the expression, a can of worms in the kitchens of chain restaurants. ABC News‘s Alan Farnham finds that’s only the beginning of the deceptions being perpetrated by corporate purveyors of “meat”:

beef products

…Kantha Shelke, chief science officer of Corvus Blue LLC, a Chicago food science and nutrition research firm, says it’s frankly impossible for a consumer to know how much meat is in a food item at Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King or any other fast food restaurant. That’s because such disclosure is not required. Even when an item is touted as being “all-beef,” it may be only 70 percent meat and not run afoul of regulations.

Non-meat ingredients in meat items include ones that add flavor or promote consistency, and binders. “American consumers think they’re being cheated out of their money when they hear that term,” says Shelke.

… Read the rest

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Taco Bell Reponds: 88% Defensiveness and 12% Self Pity

By on January 29, 2011 in News 25

In addition to threatening to countersue the lawyers of the class action lawsuit against them, Taco Bell has embarked on a media counter-offensive.  George Stephanopoulos reports for ABC:

‘Thank You For Suing Us’

That’s the headline on full-page ads Taco Bell is taking out in newspapers across the country today, and this morning Taco Bell’s president gave us an exclusive interview on “GMA” to press his case.

“I think when someone sullies your reputation you have to be swift and you have to be decisive. And we think our reputation has been sullied and we wanted to put out a headline that certainly drew attention and enables us to tell the story about our beef which is…88% USDA inspected…

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Taco Bell ‘Meat’ Contains Only 35% Beef

By on January 26, 2011 in News 70

Taco Bell in Wausau, Wisconsin

Fox News reports:

You’ll have to pardon the puns, but…

Taco Bell might want to change it’s “Think Outside the Bun” campaign to “What’s Really in That Taco?” after a class-action lawsuit filed against the fast-food giant claimed its taco filler doesn’t, um, “meat” federal standards.

The suit against the YUM-brands chain also has a “beef” with the company’s advertising, charging its claims of using “seasoned ground beef” or “seasoned beef” in its food products is false.

According to the suit filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, the YUM-brands owned chain is using a meat mixture that contains binders and extenders, and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as “beef.”

Attorney Dee Miles said the meat mixture contained just 35 percent beef, with the remaining 65 percent containing water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch…

For more information, see original article.… Read the rest

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New Years Resolution, Diets And Obesity

By on January 3, 2011 in News 0

AA50Facts

New Years is a celebration of starting over, the time when many people make resolutions to improve the following year. The most popular resolution in America is to lose weight and be more healthy. According to disinformation‘s book 50 Facts That Should Change the USA, written by Stephen Fender, it is also the least kept resolution. With Fact #40: 65% of American adults are overweight, 30% are obese, and these proportions are growing, Americans should reconsider how they keep their resolutions throughout the whole year:

65% of American Adults Are Overweight, 30% Are Obese, And These Proportions Are Growing

“I myself am very well in body, mind spirits, quite stout,” an immigrant wrote from Pittsburgh to his brother back in Manchester, England in 1837. “I weigh 182 lbs so you may think how I am, a man of my size. Am very corpulent.” Those were the days—when fat was a sign of success and prosperity.

… Read the rest

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Chemicals in Fast Food Wrappers Show Up in Human Blood

By on November 12, 2010 in News 7
Microwave popcorn bad. Photo: Howcheng (CC)

Microwave popcorn bag. Photo: Howcheng (CC)

From Environment News Service:

Chemicals used to keep grease from leaking through fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food, being ingested by people and showing up as contaminants in blood, according to new research at the University of Toronto.

The contaminants are perfluoroalkyls, stable, synthetic chemicals that repel oil, grease, and water. They are used in surface protection products such as carpet and clothing treatments and coating for paper and cardboard packaging.

Earlier research by University of Toronto environmental chemists Scott Mabury and Jessica D’eon, established in 2007 that the wrappers are a source of these chemicals in human blood. Their new study shows that perfluorinated chemicals can migrate from wrappers into food.

The specific chemicals studied are polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters, or PAPs, breakdown products of the perfluorinated carboxylic acids, or PFCAs, which are used in coating the food wrappers.

… Read the rest

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