Now lawyers have filed a class-action lawsuit against yogurt maker Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of "probiotic" yogurts, saying the claims of a health benefit dupe consumers. The company's Activia and DanActive line of yogurt products contain live bacteria and claim to help regulate digestion and boost the immune system. The suit, filed in United States District Court in California, seeks redress for consumers who purchased the yogurt products based on what it says are "bogus claims."

From the Dannon website "Specialists at Dannon selected Bifidus Regularis for Activia because it survives passage through the digestive tract, arriving in the colon as a living culture. Once there, it plays a beneficial role in your intestinal ecosystem"

Gregor Reid, a scientist who runs the nonprofit Canadian Research and Development Center for Probiotics, said there's a "huge amount" of research done on the strains cited by Dannon - and their benefits are clear.

For the suit to contend Dannon's claims are unfounded, Reid said, is like saying "the New England Patriots aren't in the Super Bowl." 

The rules for what a manufacturer can claim seem to be almost as confusing to many consumers.

The real lesson from the latest white bread debate is that consumers need to pay attention to bread labels, which are notoriously misleading. Often, breads with hearty-sounding words like "7 grains," "cracked wheat" and "multi-grain" on the label are made with bleached flour and brown food coloring rather than healthful whole grains. Some bread packages use terms like "100 percent wheat," which gives many shoppers the wrong impression they are buying 100 percent whole wheat bread.

Read more:

The New York Times - Controversy in the Bread Aisle 

The Center for Science in the Public Interest

USDA

Whole Grains Council

"Americans are taught from an early age that there are four basic tastes - sweet, salty, sour and bitter. But what describes the taste of chicken soup?

To an increasing number of chefs and food-industry insiders, the answer is "umami," dubbed "the fifth taste." First identified by a Japanese scientist a century ago, umami has long been an obscure culinary concept. Hard to describe, it is usually defined as a meaty, savory, satisfying taste."

I have been familiar with the term for a couple of years now but honestly would have been hard pressed to explain umami to someone if asked. So I turned to Google, How Stuff Works and Wikipedia to better understand this so-called fifth taste.

Umami was first identified as a taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth. He found that kombu, a type of edible seaweed, had a different taste than most foods.

Ikeda that found that the high concentration of glutamate in kombu was what made it so tasty. From there, he crystallized and began commercial distribution of MSG products. Soon monosodium glutamate (MSG), the seasoning that would become popular the world over.

Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness  - specifically, to the detection of glutamates, which are especially common in meats, cheese and other protein heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "heartier".

September is whole grains month. Eating better is not an all-or-nothing choice; every little improvement you make in your food helps. Recent surveys show that few adults and even fewer children are eating enough whole grain foods. Whole grains are an important source of dietary fiber and other nutrients.

Choosing whole grain products can be very confusing. I found several websites with helpful information which are listed below.

So let's start today; print and post this list from the Whole Grains Council of "baby-steps" on your fridge, and try as many as possible this month:

1. Try different loaves of whole-grain bread to see which one you like best.

2. Serve bulgur or brown rice instead of potatoes with dinner one night this month.

3. Look for the Whole Grain Stamp when you shop.

4. Try a new breakfast cereal with at least 16 grams of whole grain per serving.

5. Purchase whole-wheat pasta and try it.

6. Visit the health food store or a major grocery and look at all the different grains in bins.

7. Make pizza for the kids with whole wheat pita as the crust.

8. Make your favorite cookies using whole wheat flour instead of white flour.

9. Serve hamburgers on whole wheat buns.

Read more:
The Food Network
Whole Grains Council
American Dietetic Association - EatRight.org
Wikipedia
Mayo Clinic

Question: What does the "use-by" date mean on a package of fresh produce?

Answer: A "Best If Used By (or Before)" date is the last date recommended for peak quality as determined by the manufacturer of the product.

Dates are printed on many food products. Different dates on food products mean different things.

Question: After the date expires, must you discard that food?

Answer: Not in most cases. A calendar date may be stamped on a product's package to help the store determine how long to display the product for sale. It is not a safety date.

Product dating is not required by Federal regulations although dating of some foods is required by 15 states. Calendar dates are found primarily on perishable foods such as dairy products, eggs, meat and poultry. Coded dates might appear on shelf-stable products such as cans and boxes of food.

There are several types of dates:

1. "Sell-by" date - tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires. This means the manufacturer recommends that a store sell the product by that date; this date does not mean the product must be eaten by that date. The "sell-by' date takes into consideration the product will be stored in your home for a period of time before it is used. Therefore, a "sell-by" date would be reached sooner than a "best-if-used-by" date.

2. "Best if Used By (or Before)" - recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. This date means that the manufacturer recommends using the product by this date for the best flavor or quality. This date is NOT a food safety date. At some point after the "best-if-used-by" date, a product may change very gradually in taste, color, texture, or nutrient content. But, the product may be wholesome and safe long after that date.

3. 'Use-By" - the last date recommended for the use of product while at peak quality. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.

4. "Closed or Coded Dates" - packing numbers for use by the manufacturer in tracking their products. This enables manufacturers to rotate their stock as well as locate their products in the event of a recall.

Baby Food
Do not buy or use infant formula and baby food past its "use-by" date. Federal regulations require a date on those products.

Expired Dates
As long as a product is wholesome, a retailer may legally sell fresh or processed meat and poultry products beyond the expiration date on the package.

Read more: USDA Food Safety
Food Marketing Institute

Chocolatey, crunchy tubes for milk-sippin' fun or the Froot Loops Cereal Straws for fruity, crunchy for milk-sippin' fun! These new products were the most searched grocery items last week on GroceryGuide.com.

So for those of you that have not tried this innovative product we at GroceryGuide.com decided to head to the grocery stores, buy some Kellogg's Cereal Straws and let the GroceryGuide staff try them. While the following would not qualify as quality research or focus group activity it at least represents the opinions of our staff.

The concept:
Everyone loved the novelty of the product. The serving size is 3 straws and most users had a hard time stopping at 3 straws. Kids are going to love Cereal Straws because they don't have to use a spoon to eat their cereal. Personal observation however is that most kids use their hands with Froot Loops anyway.

The taste:
The Cocoa Krispies Cereal Straws kind of reminded me of an indulgent Pepperidge Farms treat, Pirouette Rolled Wafers. Crisp wafer, rich, filling! Oh I better get back on point. They taste great and all testers agreed. Whether you use them to sip on a glass of milk or take your morning coffee, it just makes breakfast fun.

Overall our participants gave this one a solid thumbs up. Novel, tasty and nutritious at least for variety I think consumers young and old will agree it's something new for breakfast and they are delightful with a dish of ice cream or a cup of coffee.

Product information: Kellogg's Cereal Straws
Trademarks and image property of Kellogg's

Milk
There are more than 9,000,000 dairy cows spread across all 50 states.

Approximately 65,000 working dairy farms (99 percent of them family-owned) provide the U.S. and many other countries with billions of pounds of dairy products each year.

Starbucks uses 2% of the nation's milk in their growing coffee drink business.

PayDay Pro bars use 15 million pounds of milk annually.

Turn your glass of milk into a flavor with the new Sipahh milk flavoring straws. The milk is sucked through flavor beads and a filter to create a new taste when it reaches your mouth.

It takes more than 21 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter.

The natural yellow color of butter comes mainly from the beta-carotene found in the grass cows eat.

More than 1,000 new dairy products are introduced every year.

The largest share of milk products is sold through retail supermarkets, followed by dairy and convenience stores.

The percentage of milk sold in paper containers continues to decline, while 82% of milk was sold in plastic in 2001 (the latest data available).

The U.S. exports more than 9 percent of its milk production annually. (Solids basis, 2006)

It takes 3 to 3 1/2 cups of broccoli to equal the calcium in one cup of milk. Milk and dairy products are the most readily available sources of calcium, providing about 73 percent of the calcium in our food supply.

Culver's saw skyrocketing sales of both chocolate and white milk since the introduction of single serve milk in plastic bottles debuted in 2006.

One cow produces about 350,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

It takes all the milk from 330,000 cows each year to fill the fluid milk needs of Wal-Mart.

About 700,000 cows are needed to make all the dairy items sold through the Wal-Mart chain.

Cheese
People crave cheese more than any other food.

More than 10 pounds of milk go into one pound of cheese.

U.S. cheese consumption reached a new record high of 31.3 pounds per capita in 2005. Greeks eat the most cheese, an average of 54 pounds each year.

Cheddar is the most popular natural cheese in the U.S. (Cheddar accounts for 9.39 pounds per capita or 27 percent pound share.)

A cheese maker kneads mozzarella cheese with his hands, like a baker making bread, until he obtains a smooth, shiny paste, a strand of which he pulls out and lops off, forming the individual mozzarella.

The fastest growing flavor of cheese is Havarti with a 12.55 percent growth from 2004 to 2005.

Super Bowl Sunday rates as the No. 1 day for pizza consumption. Wednesday before Thanksgiving is in second place, using huge amounts of cheese.

The United States' largest importer of cheese is Mexico. (21,400 metric tons, about $65 million dollars.)

Cheese making dates back more than 4,000 years.

The concept of mozzarella sticks has its origins in the 14th century. A recipe for fried cheese sticks; referred to as pipefarces (which means stuffed straws) dated 1393 was found in a French work, entitled Le Me'nagier de Paris. These sticks were "Munster sticks" as opposed to Mozzarella sticks.

Travelers from Asia are believed to have brought the art of cheese making to Europe, improved by the monks of many European monasteries.

The Pilgrims included cheese in the supplies on board the Mayflower.

The first U.S. cheese factory was established in Oneida County, New York, in 1851.

The average buyer purchases cheese 15 times each year at retail.

More than one-third of all milk produced each year in the U.S. is used to manufacture cheese.

About 300 varieties of cheese are sold in the United States.

Enjoying steady growth in demand, Mozzarella is the dominant type of Italian cheese produced in the U.S. The fastest growing variety of cheese produced in the U.S. is Hispanic-style soft cheeses.

Ice Cream
It takes 12 pounds of whole milk to make one gallon of ice cream.

Vanilla is America's favorite ice cream flavor.

Ice cream's origins go back as farm as the second century B.C. Historians estimate that ice cream evolved from flavoring frozen snow with fruit juices to what we now know as ice cream somewhere around the 16th century.

Until 1800, ice cream was a rare and exotic dessert when insulated icehouses were invented. Ice cream manufacturing then became an industry.

Federal regulations say that ice cream must have at least 10 percent milk fat. Gourmet or premium ice cream has at least 12 percent milk fat.

Ice cream lovers drive U.S. production to 1.6 billion gallons of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and other related products.

Two states; California and Indiana account for more than 22 percent of all the regular ice cream produced in the U.S. Other large ice cream producing states include Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Minnesota.

Ice cream novelties such as ice cream on a stick and ice cream bars were introduced in the 1920’s.

More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week

First Lady Dolly Madison created a sensation by serving ice cream as a dessert at an inaugural ball.

Foodservices
Approximately 40 percent of all cheese is served in the food service channel.

Domino's delivers nearly 1,000,000 pizzas each day, covering nine million miles each week in the U.S. alone (that’s 37.5 round trips to the moon every week!).

If all the cows it takes to produce Pizza Hut cheese stood end to end, they would span the distance between the international space station and Earth at its point closest to the planet (333 kilometers or 207 miles).

McDonald's uses approximately 4 million gallons of low fat vanilla yogurt each year in its Fruit'n Yogurt Parfait.

Moo River: a lake containing all the milk used annually to make Pizza Hut cheese would cover 1,130 acres at a depth of about one foot.

Calling all cows: it takes more cows to produce milk annually for Pizza Hut cheese (about 170,000) than there are people living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Domino's delivers nearly 1,000,000 pizzas each day, covering nine million miles each week in the U.S. alone (that’s 37.5 round trips to the moon every week!)

Each man, woman and child in America eats an average of 46 slices (23 pounds) of pizza a year.

General
The 3-A-Day of Dairy logo is recognized by 74 percent of moms.

Celebrity Naomi Campbell launched the Milk Mustache campaign in November of 1994.

Americans love their yogurt, helping to drive a 7.1 percent increase this past year in yogurt production. (52 weeks ending 3/26/06)

Each year 77 percent of households purchase refrigerated yogurt. Drinkable yogurts are gaining in popularity; but, only 26 percent of households purchased yogurt drinks.

Source: Midwest Dairy Association
National Dairy Council