The information that appears on food packaging is under more scrutiny than ever as many people carefully count their calories and regulators research companies’ health claims. However, there’s one line on nearly every item of food that bamboozles both consumers and producers alike: the “sell by” date. Or should we say the “use by” date? Whatever name it goes by on a particular package of food, misunderstanding of its meaning causes Americans to toss out more than 40 percent of Continue reading
It’s a sad fact that nearly 49 million Americans live without health insurance while millions more scrape by with lackluster coverage. With the Affordable Care Act getting off to a rough start and months to go before its full implementation, the nation’s underinsured must often make due with the limited resources at their disposal. In fact, according to Consumer Reports one of the cheapest and most common ways for people to get the care they need is to barter Continue reading
Clocking in at 800 calories with 53 grams of fat and 2,430 milligrams of sodium, Burger King’s Suicide Burger certainly lives up to its name. This outrageous creation features four patties, four slices of cheese and loads of bacon all slathered in special sauce. The existence of this burger brings to mind many troubling questions, not least of which is, “Why would Burger King offer such an abomination to their customers?” Well, as strange as it may seem, they technically Continue reading
To many businesses the process of accounting is simple: keep track of costs and weigh them against revenue to determine profit. But some of the world’s largest companies prefer to figure out their financial well being by using a more complicated, predictive method. Known as fair value accounting, this technique measures a company’s assets by valuing them on estimates and projections rather than hard data. Its proponents argue that it makes accounting information more relevant for day-to-day operations. Critics of Continue reading
To most American beer drinkers, there’s only one Budweiser. Go to the Czech Republic, however, and you might be in for a bit of surprise. Since 1895 the brewing company Budejovicky Budvar has been making a beer called Budweiser. And no, they didn’t just rip the name off from the iconic AB Inbev brand. The brewery operates in a region of the Czech Republic called Budweiser, where people have been brewing beer since 1295. In fact, the region’s proud brewing Continue reading