SEATTLE >> Chipotle closed 43 of its Pacific Northwest locations after the chain’s third foodborne illness this year sickened about two dozen people, prompting renewed scrutiny of a company that touts its use of fresh ingredients and farm-sourced fare.
Cases of the bacterial illness were traced to six of the casual Mexican food restaurants, but the company voluntarily closed down all of its locations in Washington and the Portland, Ore., area as a precaution as an investigation continues. Chipotle has faced other recent foodborne outbreaks: Salmonella linked to tomatoes sickened dozens of people in Minnesota beginning in August, and in California norovirus sickened nearly 100 customers and employees at a Chipotle restaurant in Simi Valley in mid-August.
VW to cooperate amid latest allegation
WASHINGTON >> Volkswagen cheated a second time on emissions tests, programming about 10,000 cars with larger diesel engines to emit fewer pollutants during tests than in real-world driving, according to the U.S. government.
The latest charges follow VW’s admission in September that it rigged emissions tests for four-cylinder diesel engines on 11 million cars worldwide. In a notice of violation sent to VW, EPA officials said the automaker “knew or should have known” that by employing the software, the cars were not in compliance with Clean Air Act emission standards. The company says no software was installed in the six-cylinder diesel engines that would change the emissions values “in any impermissible way.”
Visa to buy Visa Europe in $23B deal
NEW YORK >> Payment processing giant Visa announced plans Monday to buy its sister company, Visa Europe, in a deal that could be worth more than $23 billion and would consolidate all of Visa’s operations worldwide.
The deal would make the world’s largest payment processing company even larger. The two companies have more than 2.9 billion cards issued on its combined network, processing roughly 88 billion individual transactions a year.
Federal jury to settle sweeteners’ battle
LOS ANGELES >> Big Sugar and Big Corn face off in court this week in a bitter, multibillion-dollar battle of sweeteners that boils down to a mix of science, semantics and marketing. Jurors in the case between sugar processors and corn manufacturers will take up one of nutrition’s most vexing debates and confront a choice common among some consumers: sugar or high-fructose corn syrup?
The trial, starting today in federal court, grew out of efforts by the Corn Refiners Association to re-brand its high-fructose corn syrup as “corn sugar” to reverse damaging publicity that associated it with diabetes and obesity.
California settles JPMorgan Chase suit
SACRAMENTO, Calif. >> One of the nation’s largest banks will pay $100 million to settle a California lawsuit alleging it used illegal methods to collect debts from more than 125,000 credit card holders, the state’s attorney general announced Monday.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay an estimated $10 million to consumers in California as part of a previously announced $50 million national agreement, and will pay another $50 million in penalties to the state to settle a 2013 lawsuit. It is agreeing to change practices that the state says violated California law and led the company to file thousands of debt collection lawsuits between 2008 and 2011. They include collecting incorrect amounts, selling bad credit card debt and running what Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office calls a debt collection mill that “robo-signed” court documents.
ConAgra selling unit to TreeHouse Foods
ConAgra Foods Inc. is selling most of its private-label operations to TreeHouse Foods Inc. for about $2.7 billion as part its plan to focus more on name brands including Chef Boyardee and Slim Jim.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. TreeHouse Foods, which already focuses on store-brand food products, said it expects the newly acquired operations to boost its annual sales to nearly $7 billion.
ON THE MOVE
Honolulu Magazine has named Catherine Toth Fox its food and dining editor. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, including serving as a freelancer for Honolulu Magazine for many years as well as a writer, columnist and blogger at Thecq Honolulu Advertiser, journalism instructor for Kapiolani Community College for 10 years, and founder of and major contributor to Nonstop Honolulu, an online entertainment site re-branded as Frolic Hawaii.
Case Properties International’s team as well as Patricia “Patty” Case have joined Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties. Case is the new vice president and previewscq property specialist for the firm’s Honolulu office. She was previously Case Properties International’s president and principal broker. Case started her career in real estate in 1990 and helped to form Case Properties International in 1992. She was inducted into Hawaii Business magazine’s hall of fame, having placed in the publication’s Top 100 Realtors nine years in a row.
