Basil Street to roll out pizza vending machines
Basil Street, a high-tech pizza vending machine company, has closed a $10 million priced round of funding, setting the stage for a multi-city pilot program rollout launching in April across the United States. The machines use “state-of-the-art robotics technology, a groundbreaking cooking process and the freshest ingredients,” the company said in a news release. Locations for the pilot program are still being confirmed, but target regions include Texas, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina and Southern California, where Basil Street is based. Basil Street machines feature three 10-inch Italian style, thin crust pizza offerings: four-cheese, pepperoni and a “Pizza of the Month” selling between $6.95-$11.95.
JBS USA recognized for sustainability
JBS USA earlier this year became the first beef company to achieve recognition across the cow-calf, feedyard and processing segments of the supply chain for alignment to the U.S. Beef Industry Sustainability Framework, which outlines key areas of sustainability and opportunities for improvement across the beef value chain. The recognition applies to JBS USA’s nine beef production facilities in Cactus, Tex., Grand Island, Neb., Greeley, Colo., Green Bay, Wisc., Hyrum, Utah, Omaha, Neb., Plainwell, Mich., Souderton, Penn. and Tolleson, Ariz.
Hormel ups its pepperoni game
Hormel has launched the Pepperoni Cup N’ Crisp, a premium pizza topping designed to “cup and crisp” for homemade pizzas the way “high-quality restaurant” pepperoni does, the company said in a news release. Upon cooking, Hormel Pepperoni Cup N’ Crisp curls into a bowl shape and crisps up, rather than remain flat on the pizza.
UConn course takes on the science, policy of meat as food
A new course debuted at the University of Connecticut this spring semester called “Science and Policy Considerations for Meat as Food,” according to a report in the school’s The Daily Campus newspaper.
The course is taught by Prof. Cameron Faustman, Animal Science professor at the University of Connecticut-Storrs campus. The focus is on the health and environmental concerns around meat, the role it has in the human diet, “and how science and policy may change how we look at these issues,” the report said.
As for the seemingly much-discussed ethics of eating meat, Faustman said, “We are ignoring that issue. I want the students to move forward and look at the issues surrounding these industries.
“An individual cannot appreciate the complexity of a debate that can ensue unless they understand the totality of science and policy,” Faustman was quoted as saying.
HSUS issues audit
The Humane Society of the United States released a Food Industry Scorecard, the result, it said in a news release, of a year-long audit that examined nearly 100 of the nation’s largest food companies’ progress toward implementing what HSUS considers humane animal handling policies in their supply chains. The report ranks the companies and compares a company’s stated goals on animal handling issues with its accomplishments, according to the release. HSUS said Whole Foods Market, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Bon Appetit Management Co. and Unilever earned “an A+ grade” while McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Walmart and Tyson Foods “failed” the audit.
Belcampo Meat Co. opens restaurant
Belcampo Meat Co., a processor of “hyper-sustainable” organic, grass-fed and -finished, Certified Humane meats, broths and jerky, has opened a new restaurant in San Mateo, Calif. The company already operates nine other restaurants, also called Belcampo, in New York, and Northern and Southern California. Belcampo describes its meat as “produced with humane and regenerative farming practices.”