Sounds like a post-Easter statistic, but it isn’t.  On February 1, more than one million hard-boiled eggs were recalled from 34 states because lab tests indicated that some may be contaminated with Listeria monocytegenes bacteria.  The business issuing the recall is Michael Foods, a Minnesota-based food company.  The states affected by this recall are listed toward the end of this article.

None of these eggs were sold directly to retailers or consumers.  However, they were purchased by food distributors and manufacturers who used some in products sold to retail grocery stores and food service outlets.  As a result, there have been additional recalls by these stores selling ready-made salads containing hard-boiled eggs from Michael Foods: Wegman’s Food Markets; GH Foods in Houston, Texas and Sacramento, California; Greencore USA in Cincinnati, Ohio; Allison’s Gourmet Kitchen in Moore, Oklahoma, and Bost Distributing Company (doing business as Harold Food Company) in Bear Creek, North Carolina.  Links to each of these recalls are at the end of this article.  The only Wegmans stores involved are those in the following locations: Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Canandaigua, Newark, Geneva, Corning, Elmira, Geneseo, and Hornell.

The news first came out in late September, 2011 (in the Archives of Internal Medicine), but websites, medical newsletters, and the popular press are still writing about this new benefit of coffee-drinking:  in a long-term study that included more than 50,000 women, coffee was found to lower the rate of depression.  Caffeine, the abstract of the research results points out, “is the world’s most widely used central nervous system stimulant, with approximately 80% consumed in the form of coffee.”

The research results indicated that compared to those who drank little or no caffeinated coffee, women who drank 4 cups a day were 20% less likely to become depressed, and those who drank 3 cups a day were 15% less likely to suffer from depression.   This is just one more possible benefit of coffee-drinking which can be added to many others already known.  However, there are also many disadvantages and harmful effects attributed to too much caffeine.  Let’s dig a bit deeper into the significance of this study and other scientific data about coffee-drinking.

Online and hard copy food trend predictions are everywhere, but Shelf Life Advice wouldn’t dare try to forecast your dining table future.  Instead, we’ll let you in on what others are guessing.  Some of these prognostications are based upon surveys, and some are based upon on a look at new cookbooks bound to be influential.  Others are, we suspect, wishful thinking.  For example, one online commentator declares that her favorite dish, which she hopes and anticipates will be more readily available, is free food.  (Tell us where.) Meanwhile, let’s find out what else might be on the burner for the coming year.

From a variety of sources, we’ve culled seven surprising bits of information. Some are funny; most are useful. To find out more about each, click on the link if there is one.  If not, try googling either the publication and article title or the topic. 

The danger of dining on armadillo:  If armadillo meat is on your grocery list for today, cross it off.  There is a possibility that these animals can transmit leprosy. Of the 150 new cases of leprosy in the U.S. annually, about 1/3 result from direct contact with armadillos. According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine Health After 50 newsletter, cases of armadillo-to-human transmission have occurred in these states: Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, where the animals carry a strain of leprosy-causing bacterium.  Therefore, health officials have warned against touching, cooking, and consuming armadillo meat, no matter how delicious it may be.  (We don’t know anyone who could confirm just how irresistible this dish is.)