Food and Drug Administration

Zagat Likes Vegan Junk and the FDA Says Meat is Grody

​ Kite Hill vegan cheese is here! Laura Beck has the lowdown over at Vegansaurus (a site for which I write). I want to try! Photo from Kite Hill's Facebook page. See also: Talking Sausages, Killer Salami, and Vegan Perogies in Oakland Chocolate Salami, Dairy Pushes Aspartame, and Justin Timbe ... More >>

City Attorney Dennis Herrera Calls for Stricter Federal Regulations on Energy Drinks

There is less waiting these days. Cross the country in six hours. Exchange correspondence within seconds. Buy the new Jordan's with a click from the couch. The few stretches of waiting -- 20 seconds on the elevator, three minutes at the taco truck, an hour at the DMV -- turn into stretches, via sm ... More >>

GE Salmon is Close to Being Approved: Let the FDA Know Your Thoughts

Over the holidays, the U.S. Food and Drink Administration took one step closer to approving genetically engineered salmon for public sale. The agency released a report saying that the fish wasn't likely to pose a threat to the environment or to the people who eat it. These GE salmon, called AquAdvan ... More >>

Washed Up: Pushing Triclosan Out of Our Soaps and Cells

Environmentalists Demand FDA Lower Mercury Rates in Seafood

Put the chopsticks down; you might want to curb your sashimi-binging habits after you read this.We've all seen the signs when we've gone out to eat sushi -- the ones that the Food and Drug Administration require all food establishments to show that warn of the dangers of mercury poisoning that can c ... More >>

FDA Approves Drug That Reduces the Spread of HIV

Truvada, the first drug shown to drastically reduce the spread of HIV, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration today as a successful preventative measure for people at high risk of contracting the virus. Produced by Foster City-based biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc., Truvada h ... More >>

Free-Market Biological Warfare

Trent Arsenault, Bay Area Man Flooded with Sperm Requests, in New York for Media Blitz

Is network TV ready for this?​The national news just can't get enough of the Bay Area's one man sperm-donor, Trent Arsenault. The 36-year-old, who claims to have fathered 14 offspring with his super-potent sperm he ejaculates during porn movies (yes, they are available online), told SF Weekly that ... More >>

Five Things to Do in 2012 That Aren't
Radical Weight-Loss Surgery

An acquaintance traveled to Los Angeles recently and saw the ubiquitous 1-800-GET-THIN billboards. "It was like, 'Welcome to LA ... You're fat!'" said Jennifer Yendes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took note of the notorious billboards in early December. Regulators officially told marketing ... More >>

One in Four Packages of Meat Is Contaminated With Antibiotic-Resistant Bugs

​Mark Bittman, who has segued from being the New York Times' alpha recipe writer to being its alpha food-politics writer, ran a blistering opinion piece this week on the FDA's failure to check antibiotic use on farms. So many farmers have been feeding antibiotics to their livestock that the FDA be ... More >>

Sperm Donor Smack-Down: Trent Arsenault vs. the Gay-Hating Bill Johnson

You, too, can have a Trent Arsenault baby.​The SF Weekly newsroom boasts the strange distinction of sitting above a fertility clinic. That means the morning elevator ride is often shared with anxious females gripping the hand of their nervous sperm donor/partner. It also means that in dull mo ... More >>

FDA Orders Cease-and-Desist on Silicon Valley Man's Sperm

The FDA is a real boner killer ​There's plenty of opportunities to help the 99 percent. For Trent Arsenault, a Fremont resident and Silicon Valley security expert, he prefers giving away his sperm -- for free -- to help those in need. Arsenault, 36, has been donating his sperm online to couples si ... More >>

Contaminated Cantaloupes Killed 23 People. Why Not More?

llubomir / Shutterstock​According to an article yesterday in the Huffington Post, the Jensen Farms listeria outbreak has now killed 23 people and sent 116 to the hospital, making it America's deadliest case of foodborne illness in several decades. While the FDA investigates the farm to find out e ... More >>

Sugar Sues Corn Syrup for False Advertising. No Joke.

Sugar: going on the offensive. Yesterday the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles began hearing arguments over an odd lawsuit filed by a group of sugar producers against a group of producers and marketers of high-fructose corn syrup. The charge? False advertising. Big Sugar is mad that Big HFCS -- u ... More >>

Congress Attempting to Stop the Frankenfish

This is not AquaBounty's GM salmon. It is also not PhotoShopped. Good god.​For years, SFoodie has been hearing about the development of AquaBounty's AquAdvantage giant farmed salmon, which are bred to produce growth hormone continuously throughout their lives so they reach market weight much faste ... More >>

The FDA Wants Your Gluten-Free Cookies to Actually Be Gluten-Free

Mariposa Baking's cinnamon rolls: actually gluten-free, actually good.​There are three kinds of people who buy gluten-free products: a) People whose doctor has told them celiac disease is what's making them miserable; b) people whose naturopath has told them they're probably gluten-intolerant; c) ... More >>

How Much Should We Believe in Activia? How Much Do You Throw in the Tip Jar?

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. Food as Medicine. The New York Times ran a great article yesterday about the increase in foods marketing themselves for their health benefits. The FDA, finding some of these claims ... More >>

Food Costs, Diet Drinking, and Buying the Right Fish

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. Pain at the Cart. At the New York Times, Kim Severson surveys the rising costs of food -- beef up 12%, tomatoes up 11%, milk up 7% -- and then puts it in in perspective: Globally, ... More >>

E-Cigarettes: How Long Before San Francisco Bans Them?

e-addictions can be regulated, too ​It wasn't enough to restrict smokers so much so that about the only place they can light up now is in the path of oncoming traffic. San Francisco is now looking at tossing out electronic smokers from their local bar.The FDA ruled today that e-cigarettes are in f ... More >>

Clean Cheese, Ginger Ale, and the Mighty Subway

Madame Fromage/FlickrSally Jackson's amazing cheese, now lost to the world after an FDA crackdown.​A new daily column: Notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other miscellanea dredged up from the food media.1. Cheese makers under attack? San Francisco diners haven't felt the i ... More >>

Valentine's Day Gift for Her: Female Condom (VIDEO)

Female condom: putting the "party" back into party bus. ​Health Department Tries Hand At Public Service Announcement Porn. Best. Video. Ever.The wait has been long. It has been curious. And now the Female Condom 2 will finally launch in San Francisco on Valentine's Day. The motto: "The FC2, For Wh ... More >>

New Questions Raised About State's Imported Lethal Injection Drugs

​Newly released documents raise questions about the quality of drugs imported from abroad by state corrections officials to carry out lethal injections, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.The documents, obtained by the ACLU through Freedom of Information Act (FO ... More >>

Government lets fraudulent drug companies deal with Medicare

State Claims Chiropractor Is Crooked

Ben Altadonna, seen here with Ed McMahon amazingly enough, is not the state's favorite chiropractor​Bent out of shape by the alleged actions of chiropractor Benjamin Altadonna, the state of California has filed suit, claiming the health practitioner is deeply crooked. In a case filed in Alameda Co ... More >>

More Loving in the Inner Sunset, Baking for Critters, Brunch on the Farm

​SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats. Exciting news, there's a new Loving Hut coming to the Inner Sunset! Loving Hut is a Supreme Master Ching Hai joint, meaning it may or may not be run by a cult. I mainly don't care as I have a steady resolve when ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Our weekly roundup of SFoodie news

On Finding Real Apple Cider

Jonathan KauffmanRainbow Orchards' cider: $4/quart at the Inner Sunset Farmers Market.​ Fall in Indiana began with the start of school. Then came the heavy jackets, the leaf mounds and rake-blistered hands, and the weekly trips to the orchard to fill up our jugs with fresh-pressed cider. For two o ... More >>

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Seeks New Name: 'Corn Sugar'

Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Ever since Fast Food Nation went bathroom-reading bestseller, high-fructose corn syrup has left a sour taste with shoppers at or above the level of Safeway basic. Today, reports the Associated Press, the Corn Refiners Association is seeking to change that, not ... More >>

Gay Blood Not Welcome in San Bruno Relief Effort

All blood is not created equally, according to the federal government​Blood Centers of the Pacific is reporting that community response to the San Bruno explosion and fire has been outstanding. So outstanding, in fact, that donors are urged to not give blood. They have enough. Come in and give nex ... More >>

New Female Condom Campaign Targets Gay Men in San Francisco. You Read That Right.

The female condom is awkward. ​Cheaper female condoms! Come get yer cheaper female condoms!Yeah. That's really what's up. A newer, cheaper female condom,  FC2, as in, Female Condom 2 (wildly creative, right?) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009. It costs about 65 per ... More >>

Interpol, World Anti-Doping Agency Launch Investigations of Lance Armstrong

No, no, not that way. This way...​At this point, who isn't investigating Lance Armstrong? The World Anti-Doping Agency has joined the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Attorney's office to look into allegations that directors of Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team conducted ... More >>

Is the Government Caving to Pressure Over Regulating Sodium?

A public interest group first asked FDA to intervene in 1978.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Salt politics: At Food Politics, Marion Nestle considers the on-one-minute, gone-the-next rumor that FDA has plans to regulate the salt content in processed foods. She lays out the simple timelin ... More >>

Quaker Oat Man a Liar, Lawsuit Claims

Who can we trust if not this wholesome corporate symbol? ​With low-hanging fruit such as Froot Loops and Crunchberries already targets of litigation accusing cereal makers of making exaggerated health claims, a Bay Area lawsuit now takes on Quaker granola bars, an oily, sugary concoction touted as ... More >>

The Monster in the Covers

Just in Time for Halloween: The World's Deadliest Foods

Think last night's burrito made you sick? Even the worst food poisoning from the grubbiest taqueria is nothing compared to what might happen if you chow down on these really deadly foods.​8. FuguEating fugu, or Japanese pufferfish, is always a life-or-death gamble. Considered a delicacy, the rathe ... More >>

A Squishable Feast

Stem-cell stalemate: The push for cures may produce only disappointment - or worse

Don't mix raw oysters and antacids!

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The New Defenders

An explosion of federal funding has Bay Area researchers at the forefront of America's counter-terrorism program. Will the money make us safer - or just make science a military secret?

The New Economy

The road to Punta Abreojos is paved with hollow intentions

Mulch

A Wasting of Time

An existing drug offers hope for AIDS wasting syndrome -- if you can get it

Dog Bites

Letters

Drug Story (Part I)

Discovered by brain researchers in the early '60s and resurrected by bodybuilders in the late '80s, the semi-illicit compound GHB is now marketed on the club and smart-drug circuits as a sexy wonder drug. But beware GHB's knockout punch.

Drug Story (Part II)

Discovered by brain researchers in the early '60s and resurrected by bodybuilders in the late '80s, the semi-illict compound GHB is now marketed on the club and smart-drug circuits as a sexy wonder drug. But beware GHB's knockout punch.

Topic of Cancer

South San Francisco biotech firm Genentech just says no to women battling breast cancer

As They Lay Dying

Breast cancer activists rage at Genentech for withholding an experimental drug

Hepatitis A-B-Cs: (source: American Liver Foundation)