Food News: Taco Bell Drops Kids' Meals, Stays "Edgy"
This week, amidst a summer lull in food news, Taco Bell dropped kids meals and toys from its menu, but not to appease those health-conscious parents worried about unhealthy food marketing to children. Instead the company claimed the kids meals didn't fit in with its "edgy twenty-something brand."
Whatever the reason, the move is sure to please health advocates — including First Lady Michelle Obama — who are continuing to put pressure on fast food companies to cease marketing to kids. In a recent speech to the National Council of La Raza, Michelle Obama resumed her campaign to curb junk food marketing to children (seemingly dormant for the last few years) calling on consumers to make a demand for healthier products and for companies to reevaluate their marketing strategies.
Meanwhile, Campbell's Soup is returning to "taste and brand-driven innovation" soup varieties (a.k.a fattier and cheesier) to improve sales. And soda companies are seeing revenues drop as consumers avoid both full-calorie sodas and diet drinks artificially sweetened by aspartame.
In other news this week:
- Restaurants grapple with how to implement "Obamacare" even with a new year-long extension.
- The government is extending its review of Shuanghui International's buyout of Smithfield Pork, which would make it the largest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company to date.
- Brazil is now home of the $30 dollar cheese pizza.
- And a New York Times op-ed argues that the U.S. will face a food crisis if new farming techniques aren't put in place in the increasingly hot Southwest.