FOOD TRENDS: R.I.P R&I; Retire Ronald McDonald; Wild blueberry pie; vegan lawsuit

Nibbles is a compendium of food, dining and beverage information from the U.S. and the world edited by John Lehndorff

- A sign of the times: “Restaurants & Institutions magazine has closed. No additional print issues will be published, and this web site will close on April 30, 2010.”

 - The Washington Post reports that a new website, RetireRonald.com, has been launched to blast McDonald’s clown for luring kids into unhealthy lifestyles.

-  CBS reports large insurers of health, disability and long term care are heavily invested in fast food chains, according to the American Journal of Public Health. Holland-based ING, an investment firm that also offers life and disability insurance, has total fast-food holdings of $406.1 million, including $12.3 million in Jack in the Box, $311 million in McDonald’s, and $82.1 million in Yum! Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell.

 - Foodnavigator.com reports that a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed last July against several hotdog makers by vegan advocacy group Cancer Project that claimed hotdogs should carry a cancer warning label.

 Reported by the BBC:

“Pleasure (in America) was, above all things, pie. Not steak and kidney, but fruit. And not just the proverbially patriotic apple, but the particular fruit of your own back country. Wild blueberry, tiny and intense in northern New England, picked when the pale bloom lies on the purple skin like a coating of light frost, luscious dripping peaches in the deep south. The pie emerges, fills the kitchen with benevolence and all is right with your corner of the world.”

Reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Flickr, the photo-sharing website, has seen the number of pictures tagged as “food” jump from about half a million in 2008 to more than 6 million today, according to company officials. In the group “I Ate This” on Flickr’s site, nearly 20,000 people have uploaded more than 307,000 images of their latest meals, from a 7-Eleven hot dog smeared with mustard to the butter dish at the Michelin three-star restaurant French Laundry in Yountville, Calif.

 John Lehndorff is a Boulder, Co.-based food trend researcher, food writer and consultant. He is a former newspaper food editor and restaurant critic, author of a restaurant guide book, and executive director of the American Pie Council. Contact: lehndorffj@aol.com. Visit: www.JohnLehndorff.com.

Lollipop pies; Medicinal fantasies; Paneer burrito; Steakhouse decine

A compendium of food, dining and beverage trend information from the U.S. and the world

http://luxirare.com/float/ has posted a visual recipe for making lollipop pies:

“After I’ve had a little view on one person’s blog, I move onto the next and the next. All different. All fast, all immediate gratification. Pies, they need to be the same. I want a couple of bites, and I want to be done with it. I want to pop open my bag when I’m hungry and taste a little sweetness. I don’t want commitment. I want to be promiscuous with my food. I want to eat pie, but I don’t want a whole slice- I want to try other flavors too, but for just a little, and move onto another. If I have one slice, I may have guilt hanging over me all day. I want little pies, yes, with more pie crust than filling. 50 calories or less, no guilt. Lolipop-Pies. Rotating flavors. Grab and go. In and out. Blackberry, pumpkin, apple, banana.” 

Reported by Health Magazine and ABC News:

Next time you’re wincing from a migraine, try thinking about rich, sweet chocolate. University of Wisconsin researchers found that people who fantasized about foods they love upped their pain threshold—they could bear more discomfort and anxiety.  Chocolate was the most common food fantasy, reported by 32 percent of the participants. Roast dinners were next (31 percent) followed by pasta (14 percent), pizza (8 percent) and fruit (4 percent.) According to Dr. Hamid Hekmat, lead author of the study:  “We found that food fantasies such as imagining eating your favorite ice cream, chocolate cake or meal had a strong pain-attenuating effect.” 

Reported by the Wall Street Journal:

Taco Bell is off to a promising start in India, with thousands of customers visiting the American fast-food chain’s first Indian outlet daily, even though most have never tasted a taco.  Yum Brands opened its first Taco Bell in Bangalore on March 16 attracteing an average of 2,000 to 2,500 customers each day since then. Taco Bell had to take all the beef out of its regular menu, using chicken instead, and it created many vegetarian options for Indian consumers. Its “Crunchy Taco—Potato” and “Paneer [cheese] and Potato Burritos” are attempts to give Indian consumers a Mexican fast-food experience without the meat.

Reported by Technomic:

Within Top 500 full-service restaurants, the steak category experienced a decline in sales in 2009 of 6.4%, a deeper decrease than the 0.7% decline seen in the prior year. This group continued to be affected by declining customer traffic and check averages, slowing unit expansion and closures. Seafood and Mexican categories also posted below-average results with sales declines of 4.2% and 4.0%, respectively.

Listen to Radio Nibbles, John Lehndorff’s weekly food conversation and  commentary program,  at 8:25 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU – 885 FM, 1390 AM, and online at  www.KGNU.org.

Comments: lehndorffj@aol.com

Visit: www.johnlehndorff.com

Eat In Eat Out: Food trend forecast 2010: http://americanforecaster.com/