Kennedy's MAHA Report Wasn't the Hammer Industries Feared
Hi, it's Damian in New York. US manufacturers had been bracing for fallout from a MAHA report. Now it looks like they can enjoy their long weekends. But before I tell you more ...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ascent to head of US health policy promised to bring about radical change by cleaning up foods, policing medicines and reining in the influence of corporate profiteers, all in the name of making America healthy again.
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Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cracker Recalls That Affected Millions
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Crackers have been around since time immemorial, albeit not in the same snackable form as we know them today. Dating back to ancient civilizations, crackers of that time were most likely flatbreads made from flour and water. The first modern crackers were introduced in 1792, which he later sold as Crown Pilot Crackers, a product that was only discontinued in 2008. While the recipes for commercially sold crackers vary, these bite-sized treats are characterized by a crispy texture and a savory flavor profile. However, regardless of their shape or flavor, crackers are not immune to mishaps. From mislabeling to contamination with foreign materials, even popular cracker brands like Ritz and Goldfish have been pulled off the shelves to protect consumers from injury, illness, or allergic reactions. On one occasion, crackers have even been withdrawn from the market after a trademark dispute. Curious about some of the biggest recalls in cracker history? Take a look at our roundup of the most significant safety scares that involved this popular snack! And if crackers aren't your thing, why not check out our article on some of the biggest chocolate recalls that affected millions. Read more: 6 Nuts To Stop Eating And 8 To Choose Instead Despite their evocative name, oyster crackers don't contain any shellfish. Instead, the small crackers got their name because they were often eaten alongside oyster stews and clam chowders. Today, the wheat-based crackers are still commonly enjoyed with soups and stews, as well as other warm and filling dishes like savory chili. Unfortunately, in February 2025, oyster crackers became the center of a food safety recall when Ohio-based Shearer's Foods pulled them from grocery store shelves due to fears of metal contamination. In total, over 15,000 cases of the crackers were recalled under a range of brand names, including Market Pantry, Great Value, Giant Eagle, and Vista. The products had been shipped to Walmart, Target, and Giant Eagle stores in 24 states. The FDA gave the Shearer's Foods oyster cracker recall a Class II designation, which applies to products that "may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote." It's unclear how the stainless steel wire metal fragments ended up in the crackers. TreeHouse Foods specializes in the manufacturing of private label foods and beverages. The company's products include coffee, pretzels, cookies, cheeses, powdered beverages, broths, stocks, and, of course, crackers. In August 2023, TreeHouse Foods' crackers faced negative publicity after fragments of metal were found in Trader Joe's-branded crackers with sunflower and flaxseeds. In total, the recall affected more than 13,000 cases — or close to 200,000 pounds — of the product. Luckily, no injuries were linked to the vegan snack at the time. Trader Joe's isn't new to recalls, with two other product withdrawals taking place just a month before the Multigrain Crackers with sunflower and flaxseeds incident. In July 2023 Trader Joe's recalled its Almond Windmill Cookies and Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies over concerns that the biscuits may contain rocks. The other recall that took place that same month involved Trader Joe's Broccoli Cheddar Soup due to the possibility that it may contain insects. To learn more about the chain's recalls, take a look at our article on the biggest recalls in Trader Joe's history. Featuring a range of cute animal shapes, Publix GreenWise Animal Crackers are a fun snack for both adults and kids. Considering how innocuous the product appeared, the 2022 announcement that it might be harboring an undeclared allergen took many consumers by surprise. More specifically, Toufayan Bakery's Publix GreenWise Animal Crackers were flagged due to the possibility that they contained coconut, an undeclared allergen that could have triggered severe health issues in sensitive individuals. Tree nuts are one of the FDA's nine major allergens, alongside milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. The mislabeled 8-ounce pouches of Publix GreenWise Animal Crackers had been sold at Publix Supermarkets in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. While it's not exactly clear how the coconut may have ended up in the product, the contamination was attributed to a "temporary breakdown in the production and packaging processes." Despite their advertised flavor profile, Back to Nature Cheddalicious Cheese Flavored Crackers contain no actual cheese or dairy-based ingredients. Instead, these crunchy bites are completely vegan, relying on plant-based ingredients to replicate the cheddar flavor so beloved by consumers. The crackers are also free of GMOs, artificial colors, artificial flavors, high-fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oils. In 2022, Back to Nature Cheddalicious Cheese Flavored Crackers came under scrutiny after they failed to deliver on their dairy-free promise. More precisely, it was discovered that certain batches of the crackers contained both undeclared milk and eggs. The mislabeled products had been shipped to Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Luckily, no adverse health issues were linked to the products at the time, with the recall issued "out of an abundance of caution." Undeclared allergens are one of the most common reasons for food being pulled off supermarket shelves in the U.S. Whether it's peanuts, wheat, milk, or soybeans, even trace amounts of some ingredients can have disastrous consequences for individuals suffering from severe food allergies. This is why proper and transparent labeling is so critical. One case of mislabeling that could have proven fatal took place in 2021, when Simple Mills, a brand known for its gluten-free and nutrition-conscious snacks, announced a recall of its Fine Ground Sea Salt Almond Flour Crackers. The issue arose when boxes of the product were mislabled and accidentally filled with Farmhouse Cheddar Almond Flour Crackers, which contain milk. Simple Mills was alerted about the mix-up by a consumer who discovered the blunder. Fortunately, only one individual reported experiencing mild symptoms after eating the mislabeled product. Introduced by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) — today a subsidiary of Mondelēz Global — in 1934, Ritz crackers were marketed as a budget-friendly luxury snack during the Great Depression. It wasn't long before the buttery, slightly flaky biscuits became a hit with consumers, taking the spot as the top selling cracker globally by the end of the 1930s. Building on this success, today Ritz offers a wide range of cracker flavors and format choices like hot honey, zesty herb, and sour cream and onion. One of the Ritz variants is the Ritz Cheese Cracker Sandwiches, which combines two buttery crackers with a cheese filling. In 2020, the popular product drew public attention after Mondelēz Global was forced to pull it off the shelves due to the possible presence of an undeclared allergen. The issue arose due to mispackaging. More specifically, some boxes labeled as Ritz Cheese Cracker Sandwiches actually contained Ritz Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers. Peanut butter is a known allergen that can trigger potentially life-threatening reactions in those sensitive to the ingredient. No adverse health issues had been linked to the product at the time — perhaps because the packaging featured a label warning that the so-called cheese crackers "may contain peanuts." Launched by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), now under the umbrella of Mondelēz Global, in 1955, Cheese Nips Baked Snack Crackers were invented to compete with Sunshine Biscuits' Cheez-It crackers, which had been on the market since 1921. Known for their crunchy texture and rich cheddar flavor, the Nabisco snack did reasonably well until 2019, when it became the subject of a nationwide recall. Mondelēz Global issued the product recall due to fears of possible plastic contamination. To be more precise, it was discovered that some of the Cheese Nips may have been tainted with "food-grade yellow plastic pieces" that had dislodged from the dough scraper used in their manufacturing process. No injuries or adverse health effects had been connected to the product at the time of the recall. If you would like to find out more about some of this company's other blunders, take a look at our roundup of Nabisco recalls that affected millions. The founder of Pepperidge Farm, Margaret Rudkin, was a force to be reckoned with. Not only did she teach herself to bake nutritious, preservative-free bread after her son started to develop food allergies, but she turned what she learned into a thriving business. She also authored a 1963 "Pepperidge Farm Cookbook" and was the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the Campbell Soup Company after it acquired Pepperidge Farm in 1961. Rudkin was also the business mind behind the launch of Goldfish Crackers in the U.S. in 1962, after she discovered them on her vacation in Switzerland. Today Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish Crackers come in a range of flavor variants. Unfortunately, four of these had to be recalled in 2018 due to potential contamination with salmonella. The pulled flavors included Flavor Blasted Xtra Cheddar, Flavor Blasted Sour Cream & Onion, Goldfish Baked with Whole Grain Xtra Cheddar, and Goldfish Mix Xtra Cheddar + Pretzel. Pepperidge Farm issued the recall after learning that the whey powder, which was used to season the crackers, may have been contaminated when it was manufactured at Associated Milk Producers. One suspect ingredient can taint a range of products — including ones made by completely different companies. That is precisely what happened in 2018, when Mondelēz Global joined Pepperidge Farm in issuing a recall after being alerted to the possible salmonella contamination in the whey powder supplied by Associated Milk Producers. The suspect ingredient was used to season a range of the company's Ritz Bitz and Ritz Cracker Sandwiches. The precautionary recall took place in the U.S., as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Salmonella can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. While healthy adults usually recover without complications, the impact of the bacterial infection can be much more serious for certain individuals. For instance, children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are at a particular risk, with the pathogen possibly even leading to hospitalization and death. May Flower International is a distributor of Asian food products, including snacks, pickles, sauces, seasoning, flour and rice noodles, and frozen food. In 2018, the New York-based company recalled 4.4-ounce packages of 3+2 Soda Crackers due to the risk that they could contain undeclared milk. Just like their name suggests, 3+2 Soda Crackers consist of three layers of soda crackers separated by two layers of filling. Once imported to the U.S., the 3+2 Soda Crackers were distributed nationally, making the recall more complex, as the mislabeled products could be found in grocery stores across a wide area. The presence of milk — an ingredient not listed on the packaging — was discovered after routine testing by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Food Inspectors. While there were no reports of any consumers being sickened by the crackers at the time, the product could have had disastrous consequences for individuals allergic to dairy. Just some of the symptoms of a milk allergy include vomiting, diarrhea, and rash. In the worst case scenario, a severe allergic reaction to the product can even lead to anaphylactic shock. Mars Chocolate North America — which merged into Mars Wrigley Confectionery in 2017 — is best known for its Mars chocolate bars. The popular caramel, nougat, and milk chocolate confection was launched in 1932 in the U.K, and has since become a staple grocery item around the globe. The 2016 recall had nothing to do with Mars Bars, instead centering on cracker-based snacks, including Combos Cheddar Cheese Pretzel, Cheddar Cheese Cracker, Pizzeria Pretzel, Sweet and Salty Caramel Pretzel, Pepperoni Cracker, and Buffalo Pretzel. The products were pulled off the shelves due to potential contamination with peanuts, a known allergen that can trigger potentially life-threatening reactions in sensitive individuals. Mars Chocolate North America raised the alarm after one of its suppliers, Grain Craft, issued a recall of the wheat flour used in the products, warning that it was likely to contain traces of peanuts. The products had been distributed nationwide, as well as in the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Antigua, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Unlike most other recalls, which involve product contamination or undeclared allergens, the 1998 Nabisco recall of the company's Cheese Nips CatDog crackers centered around a legal issue. Manufactured as a part of the promotion of Nickelodeon's animated TV show "CatDog," the snack featured fish-shaped Cheese Nips crackers, which Pepperidge Farm claimed looked too much like its trademarked Goldfish Crackers. Pepperidge Farm initiated a lawsuit over this similarity, claiming that Nabisco infringed on its trademark fish-shaped cracker brand. The judge sided with Pepperidge Farm, ordering Nabisco to stop production and recall any Cheese Nips CatDog crackers that may have already found their way onto grocery store shelves. The judge also instructed Pepperidge Farm to post a $3.55 million bond to safeguard Nabisco against any potential losses if the decision was overturned. While the ruling threw a wrench into Nickelodeon's promotional plan with Nabisco, the network continued its "CatDog" advertising with other partners, including Kraft Foods and Burger King. For more food and drink goodness, join The Takeout's newsletter. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more! Read the original article on The Takeout.
CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
I'm a Bad Sleeper, but This Hidden iPhone Hack Has Helped Me Catch Zs for the Past 5 Years
I always joke that one of my hobbies is sleeping, but I'm not really kidding. I dealt with insomnia as a teenager and now, as an adult, I struggle to fall asleep, so I've spent most of my life trying to be a better sleeper. Fortunately, my personal interest in sleep quality aligns nicely with my work as a wellness writer. Though technology has made health advice easy to access, sometimes this information can be untrustworthy. It's my job to provide readers with trusted, tested and expert-backed advice for making informed decisions about their health. That's why I'm always on the alert for new wellness tips that are accessible, actually work and might make life easier for everyone who wants to improve their health. Recently, I took the time to consider what has made the biggest impact on my sleep quality over the past few years. The first "sleep trick" that came to mind was an iPhone hack I've been using for over five years. In fact, it's come to the point where I can't sleep without it, so I'm glad it's built into my iPhone and isn't a sleep device I have to buy and lug around separately. What are iPhone Background Sounds? You can use the iPhone's Background Sounds feature to play ambient soundscapes when you want to rest or focus. These include ocean (my favorite), rain, stream, night, fire, balanced noise, bright noise and dark noise. It's basically a built-in white noise machine. You can enable Background Sounds to play all the time, even when other media is playing, and adjust the volume accordingly. You can also set up a feature that lets you easily turn it off by locking your iPhone. I've never tried this, though, as I only turn on Background Sounds at night for sleep. Background Sounds is the icon with the three music notes on the bottom right. Anna Gragert/CNET How to turn your iPhone's Background Sounds on To add Background Sounds to your iPhone's Control Center for easy access, make sure you have iOS 15 or later. You can also add it to iPadOS 15 or later. Swipe down from your screen's top-right corner. Tap the "+" symbol at the top left and then "Add a Control" at the bottom. Scroll down to the Hearing Accessibility section and click "Background Sounds." You can also search for it in the bar at the top. Click "Add a Control" to add another feature to the Control Center. Anna Gragert/CNET Once you add Background Sounds, it will be available in your Control Center. To access the sounds, simply hold down the Background Sounds icon with three music notes, select your sound and adjust the volume. The ocean sound is my longtime go-to, as I like its steady volume and repetitious waves. You can pick from sounds like dark noise, night and rain. Anna Gragert/CNET After opening Background Sounds in your Control Center, you can also click "Background Sounds Settings" at the bottom of the screen. Here, you can enable the sound to play all the time or when other media is playing on your iPhone. You can also have it so that Background Sounds turns off when your phone is locked. You can have your Background Sounds play all the time, even when watching or listening to other media. Anna Gragert/CNET Background Sounds cons While I love Background Sounds and have been using it every night for the last five years, I've noticed one issue. I used to have it set so that when my phone was in Sleep mode, only certain people were allowed to call me in case of an emergency. However, this feature didn't work. Even when I'd get a scam call in the middle of the night, my soundscape would stop playing and wake me up. Then, I'd have to wait for the caller to leave a voicemail or hang up before I could turn the soundscape back on, making it difficult to fall back asleep. I went through a stretch where scam calls disrupted my sleep almost every night. So, I set my iPhone to silence all calls during Sleep mode and told my emergency contacts to reach out to my partner instead -- he's up earlier anyway, so it works out. When Background Sounds comes in handy I use Background Sounds every night to drown out outside noises, but it has especially come in handy when I'm traveling and can't control the sounds around me as much. I've used the feature in every single hotel and friend's house I've stayed at in the past few years to drown out noisy neighbors, loud music, dogs barking, cars driving by, birds chirping and even a particularly buzzy streetlamp. I imagine it would also be great on a plane, train or boat (a full-on sensory experience for the Ocean sounds). The best part is that it's all right on my phone, which means I don't have to purchase a white noise machine or rely on a hotel or host to have one. It's essentially like having a mini white noise machine in your pocket at all times -- because who knows when or where you'll want to transport yourself to a cozy fireside or babbling brook to catch some extra Zs?
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Some workers are job hopping for fertility benefits. Employers are trying to keep up.
Laura Muller started looking for a new job in 2023 to give her dream of starting a family a fighting chance. A 38-year-old licensed veterinary technician, Muller loved the field but was willing to take just about any job that would cover in vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatment, be it Starbucks or Tractor Supply. In job interviews, she said, one of the first questions she'd ask was: 'Tell me more about your fertility coverage.' She landed a job as an emergency veterinary nurse, and after four rounds of intrauterine insemination − a fertility treatment that places prepared sperm in a uterus − and four egg retrievals, Muller's first embryo transfer was a success. She's expecting a boy in June. 'I'm just thankful we were able to get here,' said Muller, who lives in Philadelphia. 'I feel like it was a Herculean effort, but it was definitely worth it.' As baby boomers retire and a new generation of workers takes center stage in the workforce, employers are reconsidering what it means to care for their employees' well-being. Fertility care coverage and child care benefits are among the most expensive for companies. But they're also some of the most sought-after perks for millennials, who represent the largest segment of the U.S. workforce, and employers are noticing. Maven Clinic, a virtual clinic for women's and family health, recently surveyed more than 1,500 human resources leaders and nearly 4,000 full-time employees and found 69% of employees have taken, considered or might take a new job for better reproductive and family benefits. The same percentage of employers plan to increase their family health benefits vendors in the next two to three years. Gallagher, an insurance and employee benefits consulting company, produced similar findings in its own report, when 63% of the nearly 700 employees surveyed said they would change jobs for better benefits. Among millennials, nearly 40% identify as parents and prioritize family-forming benefits, child care and education support. Overall employee interest in pregnancy and fertility resources jumped from 5% in 2022 to 13% in 2024. It's not just women who need access to fertility care, Maven Clinic CEO Kate Ryder said. Her company started providing at-home sperm analysis kits last year, and she said they've been hugely popular. The definition of family, and how adults are starting ones of their own, is evolving, said Kathleen Schulz, Gallagher's global innovation leader for organizational well-being. There are single parents, blended families, adopted children and surrogates who need care, too. 'The way that we think about family now, it's different than the way that we thought about it 20 years ago,' Schulz said. 'And employers kind of need to lean into that in a more inclusive way. The struggle is that the way that an employer may want to define family may be a little bit different than the regulatory bodies that are defining families." More: 'You never catch up.' How caring for their family widens the pay gap for women Barbara Collura, CEO and president of the infertility advocacy organization Resolve, said the organization 'absolutely' sees people switching companies, moving states or taking on a second job to access fertility benefits. 'If you are struggling to build your family, and you have been told that the only option for you to have a chance at having children is a medical treatment that is going to be, out of pocket, $15,000 to $25,000 for one cycle ... that's a tall order,' Collura said. Mercer, another consulting firm, also found more employers are covering IVF and other family benefits like paid parental leave. Mercer's survey of 630 U.S. organizations found 62% now offer bereavement leave for pregnancy loss, and 58% offer bereavement leave for miscarriage. Taylor Capuano, who co-founded Cakes Body, a bra alternative brand, with her sister, said offering women- and family-focused benefits is a top priority for their company, which has grown in the past year from 10 to 30 employees. A video of the sisters announcing full child care coverage for employees with kids too young to go to school went viral in May. Women who responded to the video were emotional, Capuano said. It proved to her that most women don't feel seen or heard by their employers. She knows she didn't when she worked in corporate America. 'I just remember looking at my expenses, being like: 'Wait a minute. I don't think I'm going to be able to make sense of staying in the workforce.' Because I was pretty much breaking even on working versus paying for my child care," she said. More: 'No mute button for a toddler': How thousands of parents juggle remote work and parenting 'It was always a goal of mine to be able to create an environment where I, personally, could afford to live and be a mom. But I never really expected to have employees.' Capuano said she and her sister are still trying to figure out best practices for creating conducive working environments for parents. They encourage flexible work hours so parents can schedule work around family responsibilities. They also offer four months of full-paid parental leave, which is a rarity. And Cakes Body's new child care stipend policy covers up to $3,000 a month, which is enough to support two kids' child care in most states. Cakes Body doesn't have fertility care coverage yet, Capuano said, but she and her sister 'want to do more' for women and parents. Fertility treatment coverage is becoming increasingly common: IVF was covered by 47% of large employers with at least 500 employees in 2024, up two percentage points from the year before, according to a Mercer survey of more than 2,000 employers. Of the largest companies – those with 20,000 or more employees – 70% cover IVF. 'Some of it has to do with attraction and retention,' said Lindsay Bower, senior principal in Mercer's health and benefits team. 'Especially in industries that are really competing for talent.' The most common reason why employers don't provide fertility care coverage, according to Gallagher's report, is cost. Maven Clinic's report also found the financial burden of fertility care has reached a breaking point. Employers who already provide fertility care coverage are concerned about rising costs, and 28% of employees pursuing fertility treatment incurred debt to cover the cost. Christina Parker understands the eye-popping cost of IVF all too well. After an endocervical cancer diagnosis in 2021 resulted in the loss of her fallopian tubes, Parker knew the more affordable intrauterine insemination would no longer be an option; she and her wife would have to pay up for IVF so they could carry a child. Parker worried out-of-pocket costs would be out of her price range. The fertility treatment – in which eggs are collected from an ovary, fertilized by sperm in a lab and then transferred to a uterus – can run more than $10,000 a cycle, and some patients require multiple cycles for a successful birth. After some digging, she learned pharmacy chain Walgreens offers fertility coverage, and there was a location 10 minutes from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, that was hiring. The pharmacy technician role paid $6 less an hour than her hotel job and Parker had no industry experience, but she decided to give it a shot. It worked. Parker was hired and started IVF in 2022, and after two unsuccessful rounds, she gave birth to a son in May 2023. Parker, 29, estimates she and her wife spent about $7,000 out of pocket for three IVF cycles, including preimplantation genetic testing. An estimated $75,000 was covered by insurance. Now, she said, she looks to see if potential employers have fertility benefits or maternity care before applying. 'If you don't, chances are I'm not going to.' Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach Madeline at memitchell@ and @maddiemitch_ on X. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fertility, child care benefits top of mind for millennial workers Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
