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Homemade brioche

Imagine a world where people could sell food prepared in their own kitchens. Sounds like a pre-Industrial Revolution bake sale, but it could very well be the near future. That is, if the Cottage Food Bill passes. The California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616), which is currently in Congress, would make California the 33rd state to support cottage food.

The legislation, which was introduced in February, would allow those who get permits to cook and sell their homemade foods directly to consumers or at farmers markets -- but not just any items. Food must be "non-potentially hazardous food," in other words, foods such as baked goods, jam, granola, popcorn, herb and tea blends, nut mixes and dried fruit. Purveyors still must obtain permits and would be required to provide a list of all ingredients and, in some cases, an expiration date on the goods they sell.

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Darin Dines/Flickr

Foie gras doughnut at Umamicatessen

And the foie gras wars continue: According to Courthouse News, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and other animal-rights organizations filed a lawsuit this week against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for continuing to permit the sale of foie gras. The lawsuit claims that the federal agency's failure to ban the delicacy effectively violates the Poultry Products Inspection Act, which prohibits the sale of products derived from diseased poultry. In its press release, ALDF executive director Stephen Wells says, "The USDA is effectively exempting force-fed foie gras from the scrutiny required by federal law, allowing foie gras producers to market diseased organs as gourmet delicacies."

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Flickr/djjewelz

Foie Gras Croque-Monsieur at LudoBites 4.0

When the ban on foie gras takes effect on July 1, Californians with a taste for foie will be reduced to copping the creamy tan stuff in little, perfect slugs squeezed into wax paper packets like opium. They'll slip from hand-to-hand on public transportation. Liver-laden trucks will trundle from neighboring states with the goods. Turf wars over its distribution may break out from Beverly Hills to Bel Air. As reported in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, shaken by grim visions of this impending future, over 100 respected California chefs are petitioning the Legislature to reverse the ban, the nation's first state law prohibiting the sale of foie gras.

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Flickr/elisasizzle

A dab of Nutella on mini toast

Nutella isn't a health food? But it's made with hazelnuts -- nuts are good for you. And chocolate -- doesn't chocolate contain healthy antioxidants?

Two class-action lawsuits against Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, say the company's claims in a recent TV commercial that Nutella spread on toast makes a healthy breakfast for children went a little too far, according to the New York Daily News. (One suit was for California, where the suit originated, and the other was for hazelnut-spread victims in the rest of the country.)

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Muy Yum/Flickr

Huckleberry's fried egg sandwich

If you're an hourly employee who works more than five hours a day, you are entitled to a 30-minute lunch break -- but, as the California Supreme Court just ruled, it's up to you to make sure you exercise your legal right to do so.

The state Supreme Court's unanimous decision is a culmination of nine long years of litigation against defendant Brinker International, which owns and operates several major restaurant chains, including Chili's. The plaintiffs were or are hourly employees at various Brinker restaurants; they filed suit almost a decade ago, alleging that the company violated a number of California labor laws, including a failure to ensure employees stopped working during their mealtime breaks. Brinker, however, responded that its legal obligation was only to make such breaks available to employees. In a ruling issued yesterday, the California Supreme Court sided with Brinker.

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yapsnaps/flickr

Don't tread on my 4 Loko.

First they come for your guns. Then they stub out your smoldering joint. Next they want to stitch shut your bright expressive mouth, tell you to drive some hideous, tiny, "responsible" lawnmower of a car, and boss your genitals around to boot. Civil liberties are under assault in America, and now, if you ask the folks at Keep Food Legal, the battle has reached new turf: the plate.

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SF Weekly

SF Weekl's sales tax flowchart

While U.K. residents are embroiled in a debate over a potential tax on certain hot foods taken to go, Joe Eskenazi over at our sister publication, SF Weekly, reminds us that in California, we already have an inexplicably arcane tax scheme that imposes a sales tax on some foods taken to go, depending on various subjective factors like how and where the food is intended to be eaten. The upshot: an awful lot of lawyers in front of the state Board of Equalization making arguments that sound like Bill Clinton trying to parse the definition of "is." And, more significantly, a tax policy that effectively benefits the rich at the expense of the poor.

Under California law, foods eaten on the premise of an eatery is taxed while the same item taken to go is not: "Sales of food for human consumption are generally exempt from tax unless sold in a heated condition (except hot bakery items or hot beverages, such as coffee, sold for a separate price), served as meals, consumed at or on the seller's facilities, ordinarily sold for consumption on or near the seller's parking facility, or sold for consumption where there is an admission charge." Exactly which type of foods do and do not fall under the scope of this provision is the frustrating devil in the detail.

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plusgood/Flickr

A Cornish pasty

While we here in the States are embroiled in such mundane things like GhostwritingGate and ParkSlopeCo-OpGate and HealthCareGate, the raging debate across the pond in the United Kingdom involves something far more fascinating: Cornish pasties. Last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne presented his annual budget, which included a reduction in the top income tax rate and -- more importantly -- a proposed 20% value-added tax (VAT) on certain hot foods, including Cornish pasties and sausage rolls.

Pasties, empanada-like pastries stuffed with hearty chunks of beef, potatoes and other fillings, were staples for miners and farmers in the 17th century, and endure today as a popular, inexpensive snack. Which explains why the so-called "pasty tax" has erupted into a class war of sorts, with Osborne and his Conservative Party on one side, and the opposing Labour Party on the other.

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waferboard/Flickr

McDonald's coffee

Back a lifetime ago in 1994, McDonald's was sued over the temperature of its coffee when a woman accused the fast food chain of serving coffee so hot, it gave her third-degree burns when the cup spilled on her legs and groin. Now it's déjà vu all over again, as McDonald's is defending itself against yet more hot coffee lawsuits, this time filed by plaintiffs in Illinois.

According to the Chicago Tribune and Crain's Chicago Business, a 4-year-old girl asked a McDonald's employee to refill her grandmother's cup of coffee; the employee did so but failed to secure the lid. The girl spilled the coffee on herself, suffering second-degree burns and permanent scarring. The suit accuses McDonald's of violating its own policy against serving coffee to minors, failing to place the coffee in a holder and failing to warn the girl about the temperature of the coffee. The plaintiffs are requesting almost $4 million in total damages, including $2.5 million in punitive damages and $1 million for pain and suffering.

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Flickr/Ruthieki

Quorn Nuggets

Fake chicken products were the subject of a piece by Mark Bittman in this past Sunday's New York Times, in which he described one faux meat, known by the brand name Quorn, as "pretty appealing in some instances." While the name Quorn conjures up images of the charming English village for which it's named, some people have had some not-so-lovely reactions to the stuff. We're talking major body rebellions, with Quorn coming out of every orifice.
 
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nonprofit food-safety group, has been complaining to the FDA about Quorn since 2002, trying to get the product removed from grocery store shelves or, at the very least, have it come with strong warning labels.

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