It’s been a while since I’ve had a Food news wrap up –

1) Whole Foods reported earnings yesterday (beat the street, had higher store comps, but lower net margins due to new store openings.) Interesting that they finally admitted that Trader Joe’s is their toughest competitor. You can see that in full effect here in Madison. After Trader Joe’s opened last fall I started seeing more and more price drops on basics at WFs (and items that are well placed at Trader Joe’s.) Heck our shopping habits have totally changed and now we only hit Whole Foods when we need key items that either Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry or do well. Produce & fresh meat come to mind immediately. Of course it doesn't hurt that TJ's is 3 blocks from our house.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an excellent article on the subject

2) In the Eat More Wisconsin Ginger file, the state of California has issued a warning to not eat Chinese Ginger. Big surprise there, huh? Maybe this will give a good shot in the arm to the Wisconsin ginger industry which has been devasted by knockoff Chinese ginger that is advertised by distributors and Asian grocery stores as Wisconsin ginger.

The Link

3) Good news for drunks who don’t want to waste time by drinking low alcohol beer. The Treasury Dept is considering a ruling that beer have the alcoholic content listed on the bottles. Now you can drink that imperial stout with the knowledge of it being 7%. Now if we could just have country of origin listed on our meat we'd get somewhere.

The Link

4) In fake flavor news, Burger King is introducing chips in Ketchup & Fries and Flame-Broiled burger flavors. Ok if you really want ketchup & fries AND you’re at burger king, perhaps you might just want to order the fries. No that couldn’t make sense.

Yum yum link

5) Last but not least, "China's space food set to land in supermarkets." This article is so good that I just had to post the whole thing. This kind of wacky stuff is why I love traveling to China.

"Ordinary Chinese may soon be able to have a taste of the astronaut life when food designed for China's taikonauts lands in supermarkers.

The Scientific Research and TrainingCenter for Chinese Astronauts and a Shanghai food company had developed chocolate and desserts for taikonauts and the products would be on the shelves by the end of the year, said Chen Bin, head of the center's food and nutrition branch.

"The two items will also been added to the space menu for the next manned space flight Shenzhou VII, the third in China's manned space program in 2008," said Chen, who calls himself "the space chef".

Chen's center has developed more than 60 space dishes, including staple foods, meat and vegetable dishes, fruit and desserts and it began cooperation with food companies on mass production in 2006.

"Following our technology and quality standards, the companies produce food at their workshops with their equipment. The production was supervised by our nutritionists," said Chen.

Chen was confident of the market prospects of the space food, which boast high standards on quality and nutrition, and are convenient to carry.

The food eaten daily by China's first three astronauts during missions in 2003 and 2005 weighed around 1.75 kilograms with packaging, less than two thirds of an average adult's daily food consumption, but enough to provide 2,400 calories of energy required by an astronaut.

"They are especially suitable for outdoor activities, such as polar region expeditions, mountain climbing and traveling," said Chen.

He said the center had adopted a series of "strict" criteria in ingredient selection and processing to ensure food safety, which would be another attraction for consumers after a spate of recent food scandals."

The Link

photo of Chinese ginger taken by CP in Shanghai, 2006