The weekend and time to lighten up the posts.

Today’s edition is about the food we eat…..

The big news….as the Halloween season approaches Hersey has issued a statement…..

Halloween could be haunted by candy shortages this year, Hershey warned Thursday. The company said supply chain issues including shortages of raw materials like cocoa meant it would fall short of meeting demand over Halloween—its busiest time of year—and the holiday season, reports Reuters. Chief executive Michele Buck said the issues affecting the supply chain include the war in Ukraine, which has disrupted energy supplies to Germany (which provides Hershey with some of its equipment and supplies), the BBC reports. The company’s products include Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Kit Kat bars, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Halloween production kicks off in the spring each year, and uses the same production lines as its everyday candy. When asked why Hershey hadn’t taken an “all hands on deck” approach to producing a Halloween stockpile, Buck said the company had decided to focus on keeping store shelves stocked now, the Washington Post reports. “It was a tough decision to balance that with the seasons, but we thought that was really important,” she said. Hershey said Thursday that second-quarter sales had grown 19% year-over-year. The company raised its profit forecast, with most of the growth expected to come from higher prices, Reuters notes.

A candy shortage?  Does that mean the sale of toilet paper will go up?

It is the age of Mountain Dew, a gamers favorite beverage, looks like Europe and Japan will have to do without the drink of choice….

“Mountain Dew’ll tickle yer innards, cuz there’s a bang in every bottle!” That’s what the hillbilly spokesmascot for the carbonated beverage used to say in this old TV commercial for the “Sof’ Drink.”

I thought the “bang” was the added caffeine (54 mg per 12 oz ounce serving as compared to 34 mg for the same amount of Coca-Cola) but it turns out to be brominated vegetable oil, which contains bromine.

According to NewsNation, bromine is “the element found in brominated flame retardants, which can build up in the body and potentially lead to memory loss, as well as skin and nerve problems.”

Sadly, our friends in Japan and the EU can no longer enjoy Moutain Dew or the equally delicious Fresca, because food containing bromine is banned in those places.

Mountain Dew and Fresca banned in EU and Japan because they contain an ingredient that can lead to memory loss

I live on the Gulf Coast and seafood is all the rage….one of those favs is crab….crab cakes, crab gumbo, crab salad et etc…..but these days the prices of crab meat is almost prohibited for most people…..about $10 a pint…..so many are switching to ‘imitation crab’…..what the Hell is that?

While it may seem like fake, processed food, indicative of modern cuisine, the roots of imitation crab go back hundreds of years to a substance called surimi. Surimi is a paste made from minced and washed mild white fish—typically pollock, but sometimes cod or tilapia—with additives to extend its shelf life. The main ingredient is usually Alaskan pollock or another type of white fish.

Japanese chefs originally created surimi to make use of extra or leftover fish fillets. It has been considered a delicacy for more than 900 years, and it’s still used in many popular Asian dishes, such as fish cakes. Chefs eventually stabilized the recipe and introduced it to other countries in the 1970s and ’80s, when it gained popularity in the United States as the foundational ingredient for imitation crab.

You’ll find surimi products clearly labeled as imitation or as a “processed seafood” or “fish protein,” per FDA policies. When dining out, be sure to ask waiters or other service staff if you’re getting the real deal or not. While it’s not the fresh, unprocessed original and will never taste exactly like real crab, many diners find that imitation crab is a satisfying, versatile and low-cost alternative.

What Is Imitation Crab Meat, Exactly?

Finally this report may be a bit yukky….and could make one leary of the food we eat…..

Among all the creepy-crawly creatures in the world, cockroaches are the creepy crawliest, according to many. These hearty insects live on nearly every continent and tend to build their homes in all sorts of nooks and crannies — and, in the view of the cockroach, the dirtier and more unappealing that place is, the better (via the BBC). In some parts of the world, though, cockroaches are on the menu, although that buggy diet has yet to catch on everywhere, as U.S. News & World Report notes. Even though roaches may yet to be served at a restaurant near you, far more people eat bits and pieces of insects — including cockroaches — than they realize, and the U.S. Government says it’s okay.

This makes some sense because insects are among the most plentiful and industrious living things on the planet, with nearly a million species so far identified, according to the World Atlas. What’s more, new orders of insects are discovered consistently, even today, as Scientific American goes on to report. Given the ubiquity of insects in every climate — and especially in and around our agricultural operations where food is grown and where what we eat gets processed and packaged — is it really reasonable to expect that no insect parts at all will make it into our food supply? Not according to the FDA’s Food Defect Levels Handbook.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/900980/you-might-be-eating-cockroaches-without-knowing-it

EEEEEEEW!  Well there goes my appetite for this morning.

Finally…..back in the day I was addicted to Altoid’s sour tangerine drops….and then one day they disappeared much to my chagrin….there are other foods food miss and would like to see them return…..

BuzzFeed posted the 40 discontinued foods that the world wants back…..and surprise my Altoids are on that list…….

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/discontinued-snacks-foods-childhood

Any thoughts?

Enjoy your Saturday and do not eat too much.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”