Even green beans can be strategic in the continuing struggle by QSR brands to come up with better-for-you options that are appealing to kids and yet acceptable to nutrition scolds.

KFC made green beans the default option in its new Li'l Bucket kids meal, which is joined in the $3.99 package by a Kentucky Grilled Chicken drumstick, an applesauce pouch from GoGo squeeZ and a Capri Sun Roarin' Water. The new repast aimed at kids also appeals to parents with robust infotainment options such as puzzle games that are attached to the bottom of the bucket lid.

"Green beans are one of the more popular green vegetables with kids," Cynthia Koplos, KFC's senior director of marketing, told brandchannel. "They're already available at almost all of our restaurants." Parents also can choose mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese as side items in the Li'l Bucket, in place of green beans.Continue reading...

Reuters editor faces charges of helping "Anonymous" hack site when he was with Tribune.

McKee Foods picks up Drakes brand from Hostess.

Chevy chooses McCann for global advertising account.

Boeing strongly defends Dreamliner.

Center for Science in the Public Interest blasts Nickelodeon for airing junk food ads.

Coke seeks world peace via vending machines.

Disney develops unique approach to India.Continue reading...

Sodium reduction is the cause du jour among nutritionists and policymakers who want to keep pushing the American diet in a better-for-you direction. The latest federal guidelines call for huge reductions in sodium content across the food chain to help battle hypertension and other maladies, and implicitly to make food taste less appealing -- and thereby to curb consumption.

Boston Market has just struck the latest in what is sure to become a growing list of blows against sodium input by crowing about plans to remove salt shakers from the guest tables at all 476 of its locations; you'll have to go to the beverage areas to get a shaker. It's also unveiling plans to cut sodium in signature dishes.

Clearing salt shakers from tables is a largely symbolic gesture, since relatively little of the salt that Americans consume comes right out of the shaker. Still, food-regulating interests hailed Boston Market's gambit. "I haven't heard of any other restaurant doing that," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, presumingly approvingly, to USA Today. Continue reading...

When the news came out of the state of California a year ago that the stuff that makes your cola beverage brown has been linked to cancer, there were a number of consumers that likely didn’t put their change into the vending machine that day.

The amount of that compound (4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI) in soda would cause the state to need to put warning labels on all of its cans, NPR reports. This, in turn, led to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to lobby the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “ban ammonia-sulfite caramel color,” according to NPR. Coke Clear, anyone?

While the cola companies and caramel manufacturers are obviously stating that there is no validity to these claims, the FDA is also chiming in that this could be much ado about not much. In any event, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which account for almost 90% of the U.S. soda market, have tweaked their formulas in compliance with the Californian law — averting the need to add a cancer warning label.Continue reading...

POM Wonderful wasn't the only edible brand that got caught in the crosshairs of the health claims wars today.

Ben & Jerry's is removing the phrase "All Natural" from its packaging as a result of a request from a health advocacy group.

The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest announced that the Vermont-based ice cream-maker, which is owned by Unilever, has agreed to remove the words “All Natural” from all its ice creams and frozen yogurts "that contain alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, or other ingredients that aren’t natural."

The move "amicably" resolves a dispute arising from a letter that the Center for Science in the Public Interest sent last month to Unilever. The letter said that at least 48 Ben & Jerry's products were "improperly labeled."

Ben & Jerry's responded to an inquiry from AP it won't change any recipes, but will remove the disputed phrase gradually from all packaging.Continue reading...