WASHINGTON – A diverse and complex set of factors – including biofuels production, high oil prices, a weak dollar and food consumption rates – are behind the sharply rising cost of food, according to an analysis by Purdue University agricultural economists released Wednesday.

The economists predict food prices will remain high as long as oil prices are also high and the dollar is weak.

“Lower oil and a strong dollar would bring pressure on commodity prices to fall,” said economist Wally Tyner, the report’s lead author.

He also said the full impact of higher corn and soybean prices haven’t shown up in grocery prices yet.

The cost of food has increased 7.5 percent since last year, according to the most recent government figures available. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the highest anticipated increases this year are in eggs, dairy and poultry.

The government’s explanations for the increases are similar to those identified by Purdue researchers: stronger global demand, increased exports caused by both the stronger demand and weaker dollar, weather-related production problems and the increased use of corn and other food commodities for bioenergy.

The Purdue researchers said the factors are too interrelated to be able to say how much of the price increase is caused by each factor.

But they did breakdown the impact on corn, which has tripled in price since 2004. The analysts estimated that about $1 of the $4 increase in a bushel of corn is due to the U.S. subsidies of the ethanol industry. The rest was caused by the increasing price of oil.

“There’s a link today between crude oil and corn that never existed in the past,” Tyner said, calling that a “revolution” in global agriculture.

“Even if all the subsidies go away tomorrow, corn prices will still be high unless we choose to ban the use of corn for ethanol,” Tyner said.

The biggest pull comes from increased demand for biofuels as gasoline becomes more expensive. That increases the demand for corn, as well as for petroleum-based items including fertilizer and diesel that are used to grow commodities.

And because oil and agricultural commodities are priced in dollars, the declining value of the dollar has made them cheaper for other nations, increasing the demand.

“The link between the U.S. dollar exchange rate and commodity prices is stronger and more important than many other studies imply,” said Purdue economist Phil Abbott. “Whatever impacts the dollar will influence food prices.”

In addition, the world has been consuming more food than it produced in eight of the last nine years.

The Food and Agricultural Organization, a United Nation’s group that addresses hunger, estimates that nearly 40 countries are facing food shortages that require international intervention.

But don’t blame such fast-growing countries as China and India, the Purdue analysts say.

“It’s countries who trade that set the price,” Tyner said. “China and India are agriculturally self-sufficient and largely do not trade agricultural commodities.”

But China and India do have a growing appetite for oil, which indirectly increases the price of food.

Because the increased world demand has diminished stocks, weather-related crop disruptions are more significant.

Last year’s drought and this year’s late planting and flooding will affect commodity prices, according to the report.

In the short term, Tyner, said, the government needs to focus on assistance programs such as subsidized school lunches, which help vulnerable populations while making sure producers are benefiting from the increased prices so they’ll keep up production.

Brad Lubben, an agriculture economist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that before policymakers start debating whether energy policy needs to be changed to lessen the impact on food prices, they should remember that just a few years ago, people were concerned that food was too cheap, leading to over-consumption and obesity.

“Two years ago, agriculture policy was the villain because food was too cheap. Today, agriculture policies are villains because food is too expensive,” Lubben said. “It’s fair enough to say that every policy we’ve had has distorted what would otherwise be supply and demand balance in the market place. But it’s also worthwhile to note this interesting shift over the last couple of years from a food surplus mentality to a food shortage mentality.”

NEW YORK – Customers at big fast-food chains in New York City are finally facing the facts about their meal choices. And for some, the truth may be hard to swallow – like 1,130 calories for a Big Mac, medium fries and a medium soda.

After months of resistance, the city’s chain restaurants have begun obeying a first-of-its-kind rule requiring them to post calorie counts right on the menu.

McDonald’s and Burger King were among the chains that unveiled new menu boards Friday at scores of locations throughout the city, taking calorie information that had long been available on Web sites and tray liners and putting it front-and-center above the cash register.

The new rules are part of an anti-obesity campaign that has also included a recent citywide ban on artificial trans fats in restaurant food. The regulation was first passed in 2006 but was redrafted after a court battle struck down the original version.

The calorie posting rule took effect in May. Legal action delayed enforcement until now. Starting Saturday, chains big enough to fall under the rule will face penalties of up to $2,000 per store for not disclosing calorie information in a prominent spot on their menus, preferably next to the price.

On Friday, the numbers at some restaurants could be hard to read, and many places only offered calorie counts for a few top-selling items. A few chains still appeared to be ignoring the rule, perhaps holding out hope that a court would block the plan, the first of its kind in any U.S. city. An industry lawsuit is pending.

Other chains, including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Wendy’s have been phasing in calorie information, store by store, for several months.

Half of consumers change eating, buying habits

WASHINGTON – The tomato scare may be over, but it has taken a toll – it’s cost the industry an estimated $100 million and left millions of people with a new wariness about the safety of everyday foods.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll finds that nearly half of consumers have changed their eating and buying habits in the past six months because they’re afraid they could get sick by eating contaminated food.

They also overwhelmingly support setting up a better system to trace produce in an outbreak back to the source, the poll found.

The people who feel that way include the growers.

Virginia’s East Coast Produce, one of the largest tomato growers in the country, has been hammered by slumping demand and falling prices, although Virginia tomatoes were cleared early on, said sales manager Batista Madonia III. He said he’s frustrated by the government’s inability to find the root cause of the outbreak despite a nearly two-month long investigation.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states since the first cases were seen in April.

Although federal officials lifted the tomato warning Thursday, the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. Hot peppers are under suspicion, and tomatoes have not been cleared everywhere.

While the poll found that 3 in 4 people remain confident about the overall safety of food, 46 percent said they were worried they might get sick from eating contaminated products.

The poll found that 80 percent of Americans said they would support new federal standards for fresh produce. Meat and poultry have long been subject to enforceable federal safeguards, but fruits and vegetables are not, although produce increasingly is being implicated in outbreaks.

In addition to the salmonella outbreak, this year has seen the largest ground beef recall in history, raising consumer concerns reflected in the poll.

The survey found gender, racial and economic gaps on attitudes about food safety.

Women, who do most of the shopping, were more concerned than men. For example, 39 percent of men said they were “very confident” that the food they buy is safe, but only 23 percent of women said they felt that way. However, men and women agreed on the need for better federal oversight.

The survey was conducted by telephone July 10-14 with 1,000 adults and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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This June 10, 2008 file photo shows Canadian Hot House Tomatoes at a produce seller at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. The FDA declared on Thursday it's OK to eat tomatoes again, lifting its salmonella warning as the outbreak slows.

Federal officials said Thursday that all tomatoes on the U.S. market are safe to eat but they still don’t know what’s causing a salmonella outbreak that’s sickened thousands over the past three months.

Jalapeno and serrano peppers remain the focus of the Food and Drug Administration’s investigation. The FDA repeated warnings that consumers at high risk, such as the very young and old, avoid eating them.

FDA inspectors are examining a pepper-packing shed in Mexico, which gets peppers from numerous farms in Mexico, FDA officials said. However, the shed has not been implicated in the outbreak.

Mexico is a major supplier of jalapenos and serranos to the U.S. Since late June, shipments of Mexican hot peppers have been tested for salmonella at U.S. border checkpoints before the FDA clears them to be sold.

Based on reports from sick consumers, tomatoes were identified in early June as the likely source of what’s become the largest foodborne illness outbreak in the past 10 years. The FDA didn’t absolve tomatoes Thursday, but it said none on the market now could be responsible.

David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, said it’s possible tomatoes caused some illnesses and that it’s impossible to prove that they didn’t cause any.

The tomato warning, issued for some varieties of raw, fresh tomatoes, likely cost the industry millions of dollars, trade associations say.

Demand has picked up recently as the probe shifted to peppers, but demand for red round tomatoes, the best seller in the fresh market, is still off 30 percent to 40 percent, growers say.

Prices are down 50 percent from before the warning, says Ed Beckman, president of the California Tomato Farmers. Florida, which lost much of its harvest to the early warning, produces the most fresh tomatoes and California ranks second.

California grower Tim Horwath welcomed the FDA’s announcement, but he says some consumers will still avoid tomatoes. “The FDA should say it’s made a mistake,” says the president of Gonzales Packing.

Confirmed illnesses linked to the outbreak number 1,220 in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. As is typically the case, health officials suspect many other cases have gone unreported. New cases are still being found, but the rate has slowed, said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WASHINGTON – The tomato scare may be over, but it has taken a toll — it’s cost the industry an estimated $100 million and left millions of people with a new wariness about the safety of everyday foods.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll finds that nearly half of consumers have changed their eating and buying habits in the past six months because they’re afraid they could get sick by eating contaminated food.

They also overwhelmingly support setting up a better system to trace produce in an outbreak back to the source, the poll found.

The people who feel that way include the growers.

Virginia’s East Coast Brokers, one of the largest tomato growers in the country, has been hammered by slumping demand and falling prices, although Virginia tomatoes were cleared early on, said sales manager Batista Madonia III. He said he’s frustrated by the government’s inability to find the root cause of the outbreak despite a nearly two-month long investigation.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states since the first cases were seen in April.

“I guarantee in that time frame, more than 1,000 people were injured slipping on a banana peel,” said Madonia.

Although federal officials lifted the tomato warning Thursday, the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. Hot peppers are under suspicion, and tomatoes have not been cleared everywhere.

While the poll found that three in four people remain confident about the overall safety of food, 46 percent said they were worried they might get sick from eating contaminated products. The same percentage said that because of safety warnings, they have avoided items they normally would have purchased.

Christy Taylor, a first-grade teacher from Sacramento, Calif., said she has all but given up on supermarket produce and is buying most of her fresh fruits and vegetables at the local farmers’ market instead.

“I see the same farmers every single week,” said Taylor, 30, the mother of 2-year-old twin girls. “You meet the people and you see where the (produce) is coming from.”

Her twins love tomatoes, she said, and chomp on them as if they were apples. But until the mystery of the tainted food is solved, “I feel a little bit more comfortable, a little more safe, doing the local farmers’ market,” she said.

Eighty-six percent in the poll said produce should be labeled so it can be tracked through layers of processors, packers and shippers, all the way back to the farm. The lack of such a system frustrated disease detectives working on the salmonella outbreak. However, the industry is divided over mandatory tracing technology, and Congress is running out of time to act on any major food safety changes before the election.

The poll found that 80 percent of Americans said they would support new federal standards for fresh produce. Meat and poultry have long been subject to enforceable federal safeguards, but fruits and vegetables are not, although produce increasingly is being implicated in outbreaks.

The high level of uneasiness should not be taken lightly, said Michael R. Taylor, a former senior federal food safety official who now teaches at George Washington University.

“When you have almost half the population avoiding certain foods because of safety concerns, that’s very significant from the standpoint of economic impact for the people selling the food, and from the standpoint of peace of mind for consumers,” said Taylor.

In addition to the salmonella outbreak, this year has seen the largest ground beef recall in history, raising consumer concerns reflected in the poll.

The survey found gender, racial and economic gaps on attitudes about food safety.

Women, who do most of the shopping, were more concerned than men. For example, 39 percent of men said they were “very confident” that the food they buy is safe, but only 23 percent of women said they felt that way. However, men and women agreed on the need for better federal oversight.

In Congress, a leading advocate of food safety reforms said the industry would do well to listen to consumers on the need for tracing.

“We live in an age of technology where you can bar-code a banana,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. “We’ve got to work this through with the industry and come up with something that’s reasonable. The more confidence consumers have, the more goods they will purchase.”

Associated Press polling director Michael Mokrzycki and AP writers Christine Simmons in Washington,and Steve Szkotak in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

CINCINNATI – The Kroger Co. expanded its voluntary recall of some ground beef products beyond stores in Michigan and parts of Ohio to its stores in more than 20 states on Wednesday.

The nation’s biggest traditional grocer also urged customers to check the ground beef in their refrigerators and freezers for the date by which the product must be sold.

Meat obtained from one of Kroger’s suppliers, Nebraska Beef Ltd., has been linked to illness reported in Michigan and Ohio between May 31 and June 8 caused by the E. coli bacteria.

Nebraska Beef has recalled from wholesalers and other processing companies nearly 532,000 pounds of ground beef produced on five dates between May 16 and June 24.

Kroger said Wednesday that as a precaution it had removed ground beef supplied by Nebraska Beef from its stores, and is expanding the recall to its stores in more than 20 states.

“Ground beef in stores today comes from other suppliers not involved in the recall,” Kroger spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said Wednesday.

The Cincinnati-based company advised customers to look for “sell buy” dates from mid-May through early July on most ground beef products they have previously purchased from its stores and return them.

Kroger initiated the recall June 25 for Kroger stores in Michigan and in central and northern Ohio. The expanded recall includes ground beef sold at Fred Meyer, QFC, Ralphs, Smith’s, Baker’s, King Soopers, City Markets, Hilander, Owen’s, Pay Less and Scott’s in more than 20 states as well.

In some stores, the recall includes products in Styrofoam tray packages wrapped in clear cellophane or purchased from an in-store service counter. It does not include ground beef sold in sealed tubes in one, three or five-pound packages and frozen ground beef patties sold in the frozen food section of its stores.

Kroger is notifying customers about the expanded recall by placing signs in stores in meat departments. It also is using its register receipt notification system.

Symptoms of E. coli infection can include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Most people recover within 5 to 7 days.

Health officials urge people to thoroughly cook hamburger and, if possible, use a digital thermometer to make sure meat has been heated to at least 160 degrees.

They also recommend that people wash their hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.

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ON THE WEB

Consumers who have questions about the recall may contact Kroger toll-free at (800) 632-6900 or online at www.kroger.com/recalls.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service: www.fsis.usda.gov

U.S. Centers for Disease Control E. coli site: http://cdc.gov/ecoli

MEXICO CITY – Officials say Mexican guava growers plan to export their tropical fruit to the United States by year’s end.

Mexico’s Agriculture Department says Washington has given guava exports a green light after determining the fruit does not present any risks, although U.S. authorities say the shipments still must meet safety standards.

Mexican authorities said Tuesday guava exports could earn US$80 million in the first year and eventually reach US$400 million annually.

Mexico now produces 265,000 tons of guava a year.

OAK BROOK, Ill. — McDonald’s said Monday it has stopped serving sliced tomatoes in its U.S. restaurants over concerns about salmonella food poisoning linked to some uncooked varieties.

The grocer Winn-Dixie Stores said it was also taking some tomatoes off its shelves. Other restaurant and supermarket chains reportedly halted some tomato sales as federal health officials worked to trace the source of the outbreak.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest hamburger chain, stopped serving sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches as a precaution until the source of the salmonella is known, according to a statement Monday from spokeswoman Danya Proud.

McDonald’s will continue serving grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety, Proud said.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. said it was voluntarily taking tomatoes involved in a Food and Drug Administration warning off its shelves. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based retailer operates 521 stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses in at least 16 states has not been pinpointed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said at least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

The FDA is investigating the source of the outbreak, FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said in an e-mail. The FDA said Saturday the outbreak was linked to certain varieties of raw tomatoes including red plum, red Roma and red round.

In Pittsburgh, KDKA-TV reported that Giant Eagle supermarkets have removed several kinds of tomatoes from their shelves.

Fast-food chains Taco Bell Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. also have halted serving tomatoes, the Los Angeles Times reported. And supermarket chains Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have stopped the selling red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes cited by the FDA, the newspaper said.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – McDonald’s said Monday it has stopped serving sliced tomatoes in its U.S. restaurants over concerns about salmonella food poisoning linked to some uncooked varieties.

The grocer Winn-Dixie Stores said it was also taking some tomatoes off its shelves. Other restaurant and supermarket chains reportedly halted some tomato sales as federal health officials worked to trace the source of the outbreak.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest hamburger chain, stopped serving sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches as a precaution until the source of the salmonella is known, according to a statement Monday from spokeswoman Danya Proud.

McDonald’s will continue serving grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety, Proud said.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. said it was voluntarily taking tomatoes involved in a Food and Drug Administration warning off its shelves. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based retailer operates 521 stores in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.

The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses in at least 16 states has not been pinpointed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said at least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

The FDA is investigating the source of the outbreak, FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said in an e-mail. The FDA said Saturday the outbreak was linked to certain varieties of raw tomatoes including red plum, red Roma and red round.

In Pittsburgh, KDKA-TV reported that Giant Eagle supermarkets have removed several kinds of tomatoes from their shelves.

Fast-food chains Taco Bell Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. also have halted serving tomatoes, the Los Angeles Times reported. And supermarket chains Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons have stopped the selling red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes cited by the FDA, the newspaper said.

CINCINNATI – The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that some of his ashes have been buried in one of the iconic cans.

Fredric J. Baur, of Cincinnati, died May 4 in Cincinnati, his family said. He was 89. Baur’s children said they honored his request to bury him in one of the cans by placing part of his cremated remains in a Pringles container in his grave. The rest of his remains were placed in an urn buried along with the can.

Proceed with caution at the grocery store. Tips for saving money include bringing a shopping list and leaving the kids at home.

OK, so the economy is tanking, unemployment is rising, and Americans love to spend.

Remember that old idea of Yankee ingenuity? Thrift?

The more industrious among us, from Depression-era seniors to families living on single incomes, say a little pre-planning, a little creativity and a little bit of reflection before a purchase can go a long way in saving money.

So tuck away your credit cards and take note:

“Make do and mend.”

That’s what 83-year-old Gillian Paterson’s mother taught her as a girl growing up in London during World War II.

Paterson still remembers the weekly, per-person rations list: 4 ounces bacon or ham; 8 ounces sugar; 2 ounces tea; 8 ounces meat; 2 ounces cheese; 2 ounces butter; 4 ounces margarine; 2 ounces cooking fat; 1 egg every other week; 1 packet dried eggs every four weeks; 2 1/2 pints of milk a week.

“We did eat a lot of bread and vegetables and potatoes,” said Paterson, who now lives in Cape Coral, Fla.

Her mother would stretch the rations by making stews and shepherd’s pies and casseroles. They grew what vegetables they could in their garden and bought what they couldn’t at local farmers’ markets.

Clothes? Wool was rationed, so Paterson unraveled old sweaters and reknit them, turned a second-hand blanket into a dressing gown and made her lingerie out of an old silk parachute.

“Of course, nowadays it’s fashionable to have rips in your blue jeans,” she quipped.

She’s not advocating going back to such meager times, but Paterson would like to see young people cut back on “excessive consumption,” as she calls it, and maybe encourage more schools to adopt uniforms – a definite money-saver for pinched families.

“I learned to butcher meats from my father and economize from my mother.”

There isn’t much in Maria Groneman’s Cape Coral home that doesn’t have her mark of thrift on it.

Let’s start in the kitchen, where she makes three meals a day, seven days a week for her family of five.

Instead of buying deli meat at $8 a pound, she buys a 10-pound turkey breast for $22.58, slices it on a 30-year-old slicer and freezes what won’t be immediately eaten. She buys butcher-sized cuts of meat from wholesalers and chops them into roasts and stew meats and whatever else the family might enjoy.

She’ll let you in on a little grocery secret, too: Save the weekly fliers and ask store managers to match their competitors’ prices. It works, she insisted.

“We don’t call her ‘frugal,”‘ confided friend Shelley Roggio. “We call her ‘cheap.”‘

Groneman just nodded. You can’t counter that when your used freezer bags are hanging to dry inside the garage until future reuse.

The curtains in her daughter’s room? Created out of an unused bedsheet.

The dining room chairs? Salvaged from a garage sale, repainted and recovered in seashell-themed fabric that match the handmade valance.

The handsome suits her 16-year-old wore to a leadership conference? Found at a thrift store and adjusted to fit.

“I get what I can get, and I alter what I can alter,” Groneman said.

Her frugality comes out of necessity. A back injury forced Groneman out of the workplace, and she learned to make do instead of do without.

“A dollar or two adds up after a while.”

Janet Jones and her husband Don, of Alva, Fla., scrutinize just about everything.

Like sharing a plate when the pair go out to eat, carrying water from home on shopping trips, looking for low-cost services such as dental care from the local community college, buying foods that are in season, tending a garden and consolidating trips to save gas.

The couple looks beyond the obvious. They hired an inspector to audit their home to measure its structural soundness. Their homeowners insurance dropped from $1,600 to $600 with the inspector’s report.

If the couple notices a scratch on a new appliance, they ask for a discount. If they’re not happy with the price of merchandise, they’ll barter. If they believe their property tax bill is too high, they call an appraiser and then, depending on the appraisal, ask the county to adjust it.

“It doesn’t cost you anything to ask for a discount,” Jones said.

TIPS TO SAVE MONEY

Anybody who shops for groceries these days can see that the prices have gone up at an alarming rate on just about everything.

The price of food increased nearly 5 percent in 2007, its largest increase in almost 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index

To help offset that rise, here are some money-saving tips:

• Make your comparisons based on price per ounce or per unit. At some stores you may need to consult your calculator, but others post unit prices on the shelf.

• Use coupons to the max. In addition to coupons from your local newspaper, make the most of grocers’ Web sites, manufacturers’ Web sites and sites such as www.coupon mom.com, www.thegrocerygame.com and www.mygrocerydeals.com. Get friends to share coupons and increase the coupon usage with already on-sale items.

• Double coupon/triple coupon. Use your 55- and 60-cent coupons at stores that honor coupons up to 60 cents instead of wasting them at stores that go only to 50 cents for the doubling. Watch for triple-off coupon offers.

• Ask the butcher when the store routinely slashes prices, and stock up on the marked-down meat. Store it in the freezer.

• Stock up when the price is right on items you use a lot, such as paper towels and canned goods.

• Look for marked-down seasonal items such as holiday candy, or torn bags of dog food or charcoal. There is usually a bin of damaged or marked-down items.

• Use store brands. But still compare prices because sometimes the national brands will offer special promotions and coupons.

• Know what programs the store offers, such as senior discounts, double coupons or free coffee.

• Watch for scanner errors. If it rings up incorrectly at some stores, you get the item free. But you have to watch the register item by item and know what the items cost.

• Buy-one, get-one-free can be a good deal and many stores do not require you to actually buy two. Instead, it rings up half price at the register. But be sure that prices haven’t been raised to offset the sale.

• Compare the salad bar per-pound price for items such as mushrooms and strawberries to prices elsewhere in the store. The salad bar can be useful if you’re making something, such as a pizza, that requires only small amounts of ingredients.

• Check the package sizes. Big is not always better or cheaper.

• Make sure the produce you buy is fresh and that you are not buying so much that some of it may go bad before you eat it. The same goes for buying milk or other refrigerated items – choose the one with the latest expiration date.

• Weigh all produce. Bags of potatoes and already packaged mushrooms can differ in terms of weight even though they have the same price. Get the one with the most in it.

• Ask for a sample in the deli. You sometimes can get a large enough sample to make a small sandwich.

• Keep an organized pantry so you know what you already have.

• Look for recipes that use inexpensive ingredients.

• Use a list. Even if you depart from it, it helps to curb impulse buys. Unplanned purchases make up a third of the food items bought by 50 percent of all shoppers surveyed, according to “Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half, Supermarket Survival,” (Acropolis Books, $9.85).

• Be flexible and buy what’s on sale. If they have buy-one, get-one-free chicken breasts, it’s a good week to have chicken.

• Keep use of convenience foods and junk foods to an absolute minimum.

• Don’t shop on an empty stomach.

• Try to shop alone. When I shopped with my children, they added dollars to the total bill, with one item here and one item there.

• Shop as infrequently as possible and make your shopping trip as quick as possible. The longer you stay in the store, the more you spend.

Make your own

• Grate your own cheese instead of buying the grated packages.

• Don’t buy chocolate milk. Add chocolate to your milk.

• Buy extra macaroni to add to macaroni and cheese. Most packages have too much cheese anyway, and you can get two or maybe three meals from one box with some extra macaroni.

• Make your own salad dressing. But watch for deals because sometimes a special sale coupled with a coupon will make the prepared dressings cheaper than you could make it.

• Use broth made from bouillon cubes instead of canned chicken broth.

• Buy frozen concentrated juices and add water instead of buying them already made.

Americans may be getting another helping of food inflation, and it seems likely to come from higher prices for chicken and pork.

Overall food inflation could double this year, lifted by the rising costs of fuel, corn and soybeans, some analysts predict.

Food inflation hit 4 percent last year, up from 2.4 percent in 2006. While beef prices were already high, chicken and pork prices didn’t reflect record costs for feed and fuel. That’s poised to change as chicken and pig producers who have been losing money slaughter more animals to decrease the supply and raise the prices they can charge.

Higher food inflation would further challenge shoppers who are already limiting themselves to sale items and store brands as they contend with the worst food inflation since 1990.

U.S. shoppers spent 5.8 percent of their income on food in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture – a lower proportion than any other nation. In the United Kingdom, consumers spent 8.7 percent of their income on food, and in most of the world it’s at least 10 percent.

But the U.S. portion seems certain to rise, as chicken and pig producers say prices have to go up as feed costs increase.

“American consumers are only just beginning to feel the impact of sharply higher food prices,” said Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. Chief Executive Clint Rivers. The nation’s largest chicken producer posted a wider quarterly loss Monday as it paid more for feed and took a restructuring charge.

“I think food inflation has got to go up,” said C. Larry Pope, president and chief executive of Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s largest pork producer, in a recent speech. “Everything that uses wheat, everything that uses corn, everything that uses corn syrup has got to go up.”

The exception may be beef, as already high beef prices may not see the increases that chicken and pork could, said Jim Hilker, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University. “I’m not sure beef prices will go up a lot, but they won’t come back down.”

While much of the airline industry has trimmed creature comforts in the name of cutting costs, Delta Air Lines says it’s gradually trying to provide passengers better food, pillows and other amenities.

Delta, which is merging with Northwest Airlines, has slowly been reintroducing meals into coach since fall, after years of offering just snacks. Delta’s EATS program offers coach passengers on trips more than 1,025 miles – or about three or more hours – five entree options by celebrity chef Todd English. The new fare will be priced between $4 and $9 per item.

Delta’s upgrades come at a time when passengers are looking for more distractions on their flights.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported in March that the average domestic flight in 2007 was 79.9 percent full and the average international flight was 80 percent full. Despite more passengers, airlines have been slow to add seating so they can maintain pricing power and contain costs.

Delta’s research found that passengers would be willing to pay for the food if it provided quality, said Jake Frank, Delta’s managing director of global product development and delivery.

“Back in the day when airlines offered free food in coach, they weren’t known as premium offerings,” he said. “What our customers told us is they’d rather pay for better food than get free food that wasn’t very good.”

Among items on the menu: freshly made hummus with veggies; a chicken parmesan sandwich; a cheddar, turkey bacon and apple butter croissant; and a chicken bistro salad.

The airline still offers free snacks for coach passengers, depending on the duration of the flight.

Delta always has offered food in first-class sections, but the company has recently introduced a new menu by celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein.

Those offerings are available on all mainline flights and in first class on regional subsidiary Comair.

Delta is making additional upgrades for first-class passengers. Last fall, the airline brought back metal cutlery. In May, it will update its china with a modern square design that can be packed more efficiently.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America, the world’s largest coffee trade association, is on a quest for the best coffee of the year during the upcoming 2008 Roasters Guild Coffee of the Year Competition.

Expert SCAA cuppers will evaluate and rank the world’s finest specialty coffees. More than 120 producers throughout the globe will compete in the annual event for an opportunity to earn a Gold Award for producing the world’s best specialty coffee.

The three-day competition begins May 3 at SCAA’s 20th annual conference in Minneapolis. Judges will determine the winner of the event after the final cupping, or tasting, May 5.

Mendell

WASHINGTON – The head of the southern California slaughterhouse that produced 143 million pounds of recalled beef acknowledged Wednesday that cows too sick to stand at his plant were apparently forced into the nation’s food supply in violation of federal rules.

Steve Mendell, president of Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., made the admission after a congressional panel forced him to watch gruesome undercover video of abuses at his slaughterhouse. Mendell watched, red-faced and grim, sometimes resting his head on his hand, as cows were dragged by chains, sprayed in the nostrils with water, shocked and harshly prodded with forklifts to get them into the box where they would be slaughtered.

Afterward, Mendell backed away from claims he’d made in written testimony that no ill cows had entered the food supply. So-called “downer” cattle have been barred from the food supply since a mad-cow disease scare in 2003.

Asked about the discrepancy with his written testimony, Mendell said, “I had not seen what I saw here today.” He said the Agriculture Department had not shown him some of the undercover video shot by the Humane Society.

The Agriculture Department said much of the beef went to school lunches. No illnesses have been reported.

“Our company is ruined,” Mendell said. “We cannot continue.”