Edamame are baby soybeans which are picked when young and tender before the soybeans inside are fully mature. They are steamed or boiled and usually eaten as an appetizer or snack.
You’ll find them in Japanese and Asian restaurants where they are usually served salted and at room temperature. Typically, you eat the beans inside and discard the pods. Check your grocery or specialty foods store – they can sometimes be found in the frozen foods aisle.
In Chinese, young soybeans in the pod are known as maodoujia which …

When times are tough, super-markets know vigilant shoppers notice even tiny changes in the price of foods like milk, cereal, bread and cheese. In fact, there are about 500 such products, and stores raise prices on these staples at their own peril.
So how do markets deal with rising food costs? They tinker with the price of the roughly 45,000 items people don’t buy regularly enough to have a fixed idea of their cost—tacking on 3 to 4 percent to specialty products like, say, gourmet pasta sauce or fresh-squeezed juices, without …

Falling food costs and a prolonged recession may tempt restaurant chains into a wave of discounts next year, leaving potential profits on the table.
With prices for many food items and fuel hitting record highs this summer, restaurants were forced to raise the prices of their dishes beyond historical norms, producing a bitter proposition for customers watching the values of their homes and investment portfolios shrink.
Now, with food inflation expected to ease next year and the price of oil already in freefall, analysts will be watching whether restaurants can hold onto …

COLLINGSWOOD, N.J., Dec 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Mambo Sprouts Marketing Survey Forecasts 2009 Buying Trends; Organic Still Important but Cost Consciousness On the Rise During Recession
Despite the economic recession, consumers are likely to hold steady and maintain natural and organic grocery purchasing in 2009. That’s according to a recent MamboTrack(TM) study by Mambo Sprouts Marketing, the leader in natural and organic product marketing and promotions, which surveyed the buying habits of 1,066 natural and organic (N&O) consumers and their outlook for N&O purchasing for the coming year.
Even with …

Store brands have come a long way, and they’re paying off for grocers. There are a myriad of reasons for the store-brand offensive. First, supermarkets reap higher gross profit margins on their own brands compared with name brands — about 8 to 10 percentage points higher, said Jim Hertel, a managing partner with food retailing consultant Willard Bishop.
Additionally, because private-label products are less expensive, a robust private-label program can improve a traditional grocer’s “price image” to cost-conscious shoppers, Hertel said.
“Consumers are worried about their financial state,” Hale said. “They’re worried …