The Holiday Feast By The Handful
You stroll away after all the goodbye hugs and handshakes, down a snowy driveway or street, smiling. Your spirit is light and your palate utterly enthralled by variety, sated by spice, by sweet, by richness…and by the warmth of shared food. Your stomach? Comfortable. Content. Ready to enjoy the memories of the party on the drive or the walk home, instead of surviving the aftermath.
Drinksgiving 2025 — Why the Night Before Thanksgiving Is America’s Biggest Reunion
Tomorrow, in America, if we’re lucky, we meet around groaning tables heavy with food and light with the spirit of loved ones and friends. Today, though…when the sun goes down, another ritual kicks in. Long before anyone named it, the night before Thanksgiving was already Drinksgiving.
Big Banks Just Stole Your ATM – What’s Next?
It’s not just grocery chains and food manufacturers squeezing households. When a big bank quietly rewrites the rules on accessing your own cash, the shock waves hit the dinner table too. For many families, that “something else” is grocery shopping, meal prep and the already–tight food budget. But there are alternatives, ways to stick it back to Big Bank.
Deep-Fried Turkey: Speed, Spectacle & Safety
We’re about a week out from the big day, which means you’ve still got time. The pros of deep frying are hard to ignore. A blistered, insanely crispy skin. THE moistest white meat that actually tastes like something; dark meat that stays silky instead of stringy and a wide-open oven for everything else — stuffing, pies, rolls, casseroles. And don’t forget the spectacle out in the yard! It’s an instant crowd magnet.
BREAKING: The First Crack In The Dam
One of the nation’s five largest food distributors is now quietly pulling back from the massive wholesale margin increases that helped drive the grocery inflation wave since 2021 — including the notorious “auto-padding” markup that insiders say added up to 30% to thousands of products. Is the dam finally cracking? And what does that mean for consumers?
Welcome To The New Normal
If you want the New Normal to end, stop shouting into the void and start shoving this data into the agencies that are supposed to protect you. Send this story — and the Mona Lisa Graph — to three places: the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau, your State Attorney General, and your U.S. Representative’s office. Tell them exactly what you now know: diesel prices collapsed, Big Food’s costs didn’t rise, and the CPI never came back down.
The Big Beef: WHAT WE HEARD ON AIR TODAY
This afternoon on Drive Time with DeRusha, University of Minnesota beef specialist Eric Mousel offered his explanation for why beef prices keep climbing. His reasons sounded neat, academic, and familiar: drought, aging ranchers, and the “two-year cow life cycle.”
There’s just one problem: none of these explain the price levels consumers are actually paying today.
And the parts where the real money is made — didn’t come up. Hmm.
When a $24 Burger Isn’t the Story: What Minnesota Media Keeps Missing About Food Inflation
On October 30th, Jason DeRusha — a longtime Twin Cities food personality and well-known WCCO Radio host — posted a nostalgic shout-out to a beloved Saint Dinette burger on his Facebook page.
The issue isn’t the post.
The issue is what he said next, after SpokenFood questioned the sanity behind why a burger and fries now costs $24 in Minnesota.
Trump Hits Meatpackers
President Trump on Friday ordered the DOJ to investigate the meatpacking industry, including JBS, the largest meatpacker in the world.
“Action must be taken immediately to protect Consumers, combat Illegal Monopolies, and ensure these Corporations are not criminally profiting at the expense of the American People,” Trump said.
Real Men Cook Every Day
It began as a lighthearted holiday — a once-a-year nudge for men to put down the remote, pick up a spatula, and prove they could manage more than the grill. But National Men Make Dinner Day, first cooked up in the early 2000s, lands a little differently depending on who you ask. For plenty of men, it’s not a novelty — it’s just Thursday, and a reminder that the kitchen has no gender, only heart.
The Mona Lisa Graph Returns
This isn’t a market correction. It’s a margin extraction — and the fingerprints are all over BigFood.
For the past two months, SpokenFood has been dissecting what we’ve called the Price Gouging Conspiracy — a coordinated silence among major producers, distributors, and retailers who continue inflating prices under the pretense of “supply-chain recovery.” In truth, their supply chains recovered long ago.
The Incredible, Edible (Deviled) Egg!
The humble deviled egg has been stirring appetites—and debates—since the ancient Romans served up boiled eggs seasoned with spicy sauces at lavish banquets.
The great chef, Jacques Pepin, offers a very unique spin on the standard deviled egg – his mother Jeannette’s recipe!
Is Sandy Douglas a Wizard?
UNFI CEO Sandy Douglas – formally, J. Alexander Douglas – once presided over Staples…and proceeded to turn it into retail obsolescence. His transfer to UNFI and its massive revenue increases smacks of something quite wrong, but certainly in keeping with his overall track record. Read why UNFI wants nothing to do with an FTC investigation.
WalletGate: A 2nd Swing
The President of the United States, Richard Nixon, once conspired to lie to the American people about a political cover-up called Watergate.
Since the end of 2022–we at SpokenFood have uncovered an even more disturbing trend with massive national effect, and possible direct government involvement.
We’re calling it WalletGate. Remember the name.
C&S / SpartanNash Merger Tightens the Noose
Let’s do the math. If C&S touches roughly 7,500 stores pre-merger and SpartanNash’s wholesale network spans another 2,500, that’s about 10,000 retail outlets whose shelf pricing can be influenced by a single procurement ecosystem. Add in 60 distribution centers, unified freight contracts, centralized purchasing power, and national vendor terms, and you’ve created something close to a food-supply monopoly in everything but name.
National Greasy Foods Day? No, Thanks.
A SpokenFood Commentary Okay, some of these “National Food Days” are harmless fun — a nod to culinary craft, a tip of the glass to wine or champagne, a celebration of the humble meat loaf or the noble French fry or an honoring the national fruit of America: the apple. We go through our culinary […]
Whistleblowers Say ‘30% Margin’ Is Automatic
Between 2020 and 2025, Sysco’s profits surged, UNFI’s revenues jumped, PNG revenues tripled – this information comes from our archived stories. Meanwhile, diesel prices fell nearly 30% from their 2022 peak.
The math doesn’t lie. Somebody’s banking the difference — and it’s not the farmers or the families at checkout.
This UNFI source says the 30% standard has been internal knowledge “for years.” We’re working to verify supporting data and will provide all findings to the proper authorities – which we’ll divulge soon – before publishing specific documentation.
Best Recipes – Pizza Dough
Pizza. One word. So many positive thoughts, memories and images. Do you have a favorite pizza spot? Some low-key joint or a shiny pizzeria that serves the best pizza in the world? You walk in and that beautiful smell “punches you right in the nose”–that’s a SpokenFood shout-out to Mark Iacono, who happens to make the best pizza in NYC at Lucali in Carol Gardens in Brooklyn.
Whether Neapolitan-style dough is your thing, or if you love the crackly bite of a thin crust or tavern style ‘za (there’s a difference), pizza is one of the greatest
Chobani’s $650 Million Cash Grab Is Pure Crap
Chobani just pocketed $650 million in “growth capital” from unnamed “industry thought leaders,” according to Food Dive. The problem? Those “leaders” aren’t visionaries — they’re Lexington Partners, Blackstone, and Norges Bank, the same private-equity machinery fattening half of America’s processed-food sector. While Food Dive printed the press release and called it journalism, SpokenFood followed the money — and found a health-halo brand expanding on the same synthetic sugar and financial spin that define the very system it claims to reform.
BTW…We sent this story asking for comment to Chobani, Food Dive and the New York Times.
Avocado-based “Cottage “Bread”
Move over, sourdough. This quick, high-protein avocado “bread” bakes up bready yet creamy on the inside, crisp at the edges, and feels indulgent while being a good source of clean protein for you.
SpokenFood tests a weekday lunch winner and a weekend breakfast sandwich buddy.
Premium Meat Loaf: The Ultimate Comfort Food
Every great meatloaf starts long before the beef hits the bowl. It begins in the pan — with bacon and a slow-simmered mirepoix coaxed into submission by a splash of wine. The trick? Don’t purée it into baby food — think fine relish, soft enough to disappear, yet vivid enough to leave its fingerprint.
Farmers Are Heroes: The True Start of the Food Chain
Farm prices are set by commodity markets (corn, soy, wheat, pork, beef, poultry, etc.) through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other market mechanisms around the world. The husband-and-wife team in California or Iowa or Georgia or Santorini or Shandong province in China…they all absorb the brunt of input costs (fuel, seed, fertilizer, machinery, labor), and they sell into their respective markets where margins are not only razor-thin, but they are also dictated by global supply and demand and political considerations.
Here’s how that trickle-up (and then trickle-down) dynamic looks in the “WalletGate” framework. Let’s start the snowball.
UNFI’s Revenue Jumps 20% – Fuels Gouging Concerns
United Natural Foods, Inc. — better known as UNFI — is one of the silent powerhouses behind many of the products stacked on supermarket shelves. The company supplies everything from organic produce to household staples to grocery giant hubs and independent retailers alike. If you’ve ever filled a cart at Whole Foods or a co-op in the Midwest, odds are, UNFI’s trucks made that possible.
In 2020, amid pandemic disruptions, UNFI reported whopping revenues of $26.55 billion. That was a year of strained supply chains, rising logistics costs, and consumer uncertainty, and it still represented a 19% increase over 2019.
Performance Food Group Revenues TRIPLE
In 2020, PFG reported revenues of $25.1 billion — already a significant footprint.
By 2024, that number had exploded to $62.3 billion. There’s the $37 BIL joyride.
That’s not a recovery. That’s TRIPLE – an astonishing 148% increase in just four years.
It gets even stickier – PFG and US FOODS are in merger talks. In mid-September 2025, PFG announced that it agreed to share confidential financial information with US Foods under a “clean team” process — a common early step in merger talks.
Trust us – there ain’t nothin’ “clean” about any of this.
The Simplest One-Egg Omelette Ever!
Never before have we come across something so simple and fast, we had to share it here. It’s a one-egg omelette, served in a ramekin. Our source? Who else but that worldwide food influencer and chef-extraordinaire, Jose Andres.
I’ve seen omelette creations for eons, and I’m so set in my technique, it’s simply automatic to me.
US Foods Revenues Surge 66% — While Consumers Pay the Price
In 2020, US Foods reported revenues of $22.8 billion — down from $25.94 billion in 2019 due to pandemic disruptions. Fair enough. But what followed is what should raise every consumer’s eyebrow.
By 2025, just five years later, the company’s annual revenues skyrocketed to $37.877 billion.
That’s not a rebound — that’s a whopping 66% increase. Let that sink in.
While small restaurants shuttered, supply chains “tightened,” and consumers were told price hikes were due to “inflation” and “diesel costs,” US Foods quietly stacked over $15 billion in new annual revenue.
Their primary phone number is (847) 720-8000. Their CEO is David Flitman.
Exposed: Are Food Distributors Jacking America?
2025 needs to be the year someone finally exposes the big distributors in the American grocery industry for raising grocery prices beyond a ridiculous level.
Here at SpokenFood, we’re calling it for what we (and most Americans) believe it is: Price Gouging. We’ve left messages for some of the largest distributors in the U.S. food supply chain and we asked hard questions. Senior Food Analyst, Miles Kincaid, shows why the food industry supply chain’s unspoken policies may very well be taking money from you at the grocery counter–money that rightfully belongs to you and no one else.
We’re not seeking answers this time–we’re getting them.
SYSCO FOODS: THE PROFITS TELL THE STORY
Sysco Foods, one of America’s largest food suppliers, reported $55.3 billion in revenue for 2024, up from $36.7 billion in 2020. That’s roughly a 50% jump in just five years.
Now look at profit: in 2020, Sysco’s gross profit was $1.9 billion. By 2025, it had soared to $10.8 billion.
That’s a 468% increase.
Revenue: $36.7B (2020) → $55.3B (2024) — 50% increase
Gross profit: $1.9B (2020) → $10.8B (2025) — 468% increase
And yet, the cost of food keeps rising. Meanwhile, diesel prices have fallen since their 2022 peak. This makes NO sense.
Yeah… they’re not price-gouging. Sure.
The Best Smokeless Lox Salmon
When it comes to weekend mornings, nothing beats freshly smoked lox. Imagine a toasted bagel, loaded with lox salmon, freshly sliced tomato, thinly shaved red onion, capers and a healthy shmear of cream cheese, dotted with a handful of briny capers. Flavor, crunch, richness and smoky protein, all stacked up like a winning breakfast prize, and you hold the ticket.
This is Why It’s Called WALLETGATE
For eighteen straight days, SpokenFood hammered the Federal Trade Commission with evidence of rampant grocery price gouging.
We showed them graphs, data, receipts and hard questions that deserved hard answers. You’ve been paying 30-40% more for your groceries ever since “the new normal” after Covid. Gas prices went down, food costs have never stopped surging upward.
Four separate messages went into the FTC’s Office of Public Affairs inbox. Four separate times, we asked the same thing: Why are American families being gutted at the checkout line while food distributors post record profits?
Restaurant Review – Jersey Mike’s Subs
Way back before SpokenFood.com there was a blog site called ‘JackBlogsFood’. This is one of our original reviews from 2014. The Jersey Mike’s store in Woodbury, MN liked it so much, they laminated it and taped it to the wall in the back, so JM employees could see they were appreciated. And so it goes to this day.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Is America’s #1 Nutrition and Health SCOURGE
Is it any wonder why Americans are ballooning (and growing unhealthier by the year)? HFCS is in everything! Kudos to Tyson Foods, though, for recently declaring their removal of high fructose corn syrup from their products, beginning in 2026.
How many enormous people do you see when you’re out and about every day? Answer: you can’t swing a bag of nutritious apples and NOT hit somebody who sports a BMI of 40 or more.
Food Plant Fires Are Suspect
In all of 2021, there were approximately 10 plant fires or destructive “incidents.” In 2022, that number jumped to 87. EIGHTY-SEVEN!
That’s a grand total of 97 food manufacturing facilities destroyed by fire in 2021-2022 alone.
Were the majority of these plants–a full 85-90%–destroyed intentionally?
I don’t have to don my Nancy Drew hat to riddle that one. Every year, there are roughly six to 12 food manufacturing “destruction events” that take place. It’s just the nature of the steel beast in manufacturing. Think about it: High voltage electricity, concentrated tanks of ammonia for cooling/freezing, gas lines everywhere, fork trucks that run on propane and for the ones that run on batteries, those bad boys weigh upwards of 1/2 ton apiece and when they explode, you will pray to your personal savior to spare you.
Danger abounds, which is why OSHA and plant safety managers have a job.
BigFood: Who’s Talking?!
As the old story goes in news circles, when you hear something once, you dismiss it. Hear it twice, you keep your ear to the ground. Three times and you’re digging with a shovel.
BigFood wants this kept on the down-low and just like that secret organization you hear so often about in movies, the food supply chain industry has sent a quiet, clandestine warning to everyone involved: “Keep your (insert expletive here) mouth shut.”
What we’ve proven in the past month, speaking to dozens of sources in BigFood, is that nearly everyone is price-gouging and those who might not be know who is doing it.
…and no one is opening a mouth about it.
Think the Mafia has anything on BigFood? Read on.
Food Cartels in America
“The food industry is just full of cartels. And that’s what cartels do…they gouge.”
– Austin Frerick in his book, “Barons: Money, Power and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry.”
Austin Frerick was right. The food suppliers in this country are gouging. They know it and we know it. Everyone is talking about it, but no one seems to know what to do, who to turn to, who to blame. There was an article written almost a year ago where I first saw that phrase: Greedflation. It feels about as good to say as “Shrinkflation” or “WalletGate,” because they all mean the same thing.
Someone is robbing us in broad daylight and there’s nothing we can do about it. The cops won’t be answering this call. No one is coming to save the American consumer. Pure baloney.
“Food Giants Are Struggling”–PART II
Food is a necessity, not a luxury. Better yet, think of it as a utility, just like your water and light bill. So, what is an “adequate profit margin?” How much profit is sufficient? What determines a company’s ability to continue providing food to the American table–again, a necessity, not a luxury? The better answer, and one they’ll never tell you, is what are their respective, estimated profit margin percentages as determined by their annual budget forecasts? The reason they won’t tell you is because one thing is built into every company’s annual budget is EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION–all caps.
In most cases, it’s gross overcompensation. This is an issue that has gone on across American industry since we became a republic…so, how much is enough?
Take Kraft Foods and Heinz, for example.
Barron’s Headline: “Food Giants Are Struggling”
I nearly spit out my coffee. These multi-multi BILLION dollar companies are now claiming that they are struggling financially?
Writer Evie Liu of Barron’s states in her article, “The industry behemoths are scrambling to adapt—through mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, and asset sales. But it remains to be seen whether any of those efforts could rekindle growth and boost efficiency.”
Gee, maybe they should talk to BigFood–the very food suppliers SF has tried to contact, that feed these giant food manufacturers–and compel them to quit blaming gas and just lower their prices below the gouging level, and to a more reasonable profit margin. Maybe they could stay in business then? Good grief.
More to come. This is a BREAKING STORY. -MK
Write to Evie Liu at [email protected]
Will H.R. 4966 Stop Price Gouging?
Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan launched the bill in August to prohibit retail food stores from price gouging and engaging in surveillance-based price setting practices, and for other purposes. 17 other members of Congress co-sponsor of the bill, including Yvette Clark and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrat Reps out of New York. Normally, hearing AOC’s name mentioned brings to mind Kamala Harris’ failed attempt at a grocery bill mandate during her failed presidential bid, but fret not, for the bill also has Clark and both Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL) on the bill. Is this encouraging? Consider Nadler and AOC, vying for the spotlight on this one, and the question answers itself.
Restaurant-Quality Hash Browns
When it comes to certain dishes, nothing evokes satisfaction–be it at a comfy diner or in a fine steakhouse–like digging into a mounded round of perfectly balanced and seasoned hash browns. That first hefty forkful and bite of crispness, followed by a tender interior of potato, all combining in the mouth, makes the day go just a little bit easier–a hearty and fulfilling thing it is.
Every chef and cook on the internet have their own standard recipe and numerous websites trumpet the “true secret” to making great hash browns, like they’ve just found the Holy Grail. I’ve got a better method, discovered through years of trial-and-error in a search that captures what a true potato needs to be in a great hash brown.
BigFood Exposed: Silence IS Agreement
(Editor’s Note: Based upon last-minute discussions, Hy-Vee was offered an exclusive interview with SpokenFood today, before publication of this story. The company declined to participate–sort of. -SN)
Over the past two weeks, SpokenFood reached out to numerous wholesale food distributors representing retail grocery stores, namely the ones pictured above. We asked the question everyone in America has been wondering:
“Why do your food prices keep rising?”
SpokenFood recently researched ‘Food-At-Home’ costs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). We put their numbers side-by-side on a chart with updated diesel fuel prices. See that chart below. It jumps out at you.
In the course of reporting this story, SpokenFood contacted those four distributors. Their replies became a pattern—one of silence, delay, and even outright error-in-fact.