Source: Shutterstock

As much as you try your hardest to always pack your lunch, it’s only inevitable that you will find yourself inside a fast food chain at some point. Fast food is simple, very affordable, and, well, fast makes it a top option for people on the go.

Does your mouth just water at the thought of a juicy burger and fries? Hold the mayo people, because too much bad food can really do your body harm. There’s obesity, heart disease, and so many other preventable issues that come with the regular indulgence of fast food.

It’s good to know there are healthier options at an affordable price. Whether you make substitutions to your meal or opt for something different, the littlest of changes can go a long way.

This is what the Burger King Twitter page looked like after the hack. via LA Times

While you were hanging out on President’s Day, Burger King’s Twitter account was getting hacked. The online assailants changed the page to look like the McDonald’s page (complete with McNuggets) and, according to the PC Magazine, tweets posted on the account were laced with obscenities and racial epithets.

The account was taken down, but is now live again. The most recent tweet was posted yesterday and says, “Interesting day here at BURGER KING®, but we’re back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!” The only image is the BK logo.

The company later issued a statement to the AP that read, in part, “We apologize to our loyal fans and followers, whom might have received unauthorized tweets from our account. We are pleased to announce that the account is now active again.”

The Los Angeles Times says the hacker group LulzSec takes responsibility for the incident. The group has targeted other companies in the past, including Sony. It seems to be a little unclear why the group targeted Burger King.

Mashable collected a few funny responses. Our favorite from @flibblesan: “Somebody needs to tell Burgerking that ‘whopper123′ isn’t a secure password.”

But the question always is whether these sorts of mishaps damage a company’s reputation. In this case, it happened on a holiday and it was caught and corrected rather quickly. But now Burger King’s task will be to beef up its security to avoid this sort of thing. One hacking can happen, but two shows incompetence.

Eva Longoria and chef Michael Symon at the New York Stock Exchange with the new Lay’s flavors. Photo by Diane Bondareff/Invision for Frito-Lay/AP Images

Food companies have been getting very creative with their product offerings in the hopes of spurring business.

Frito-Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” contest was actually a search for a new potato chip flavor. It garnered over 3.8 million submissions and has led to three interesting new flavors: Cheesy Garlic Bread, Chicken and Waffles, and Sriracha. All three new flavors were released this week and, according to Fast Company, in May one of these flavors will become a permanent item on the Frito-Lay chip list. The person who submitted the idea for the flavor could win $1 million or more.

Another company that is planning to add a new item is Taco Bell. With the success of the nacho-flavored Doritos Locos taco, Taco Bell has now decided to add on the Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos. USA Today reports that the original Dorito Locos taco sold over 350 million in less than a year becoming the taco chain’s most successful product and one of the best selling items in fast food history.

Burger King is shaking up its menu as well, and teaming up with Seattle’s Best Coffee (owned by Starbucks) to expand its coffee product offerings to 10 and become a lager competitor with McDonalds’ McCafe menu. Joining forces with Seattle’s Best will gain more attention and credibility in the coffee space while reducing costs. The Wall Street Journal noted that Burger King is fighting to get to back to the number two fast food chain spot after being bumped out by Wendy’s.

The creation of new products and the addition of new items is just another sign of the times in the food industry. Many companies that offer high-calorie products have been experiencing a slowdown in sales as people become more health conscious.

Will you be giving any of these new flavors a try?

AP Photo/Carlsbad Current-Argus, Natalie Gross

According the CNN Money, Burger King announced Thursday that it has terminated its relationship with European supplier Silvercrest Foods after the discovery of “very small trace levels of equine DNA.” In other words, Burger King found out that one of the companies that provides it with its “100% Beef” burgers also had horse meat in its midst. Burger King stands by its claims that the tainted food never made it to restaurants or was sold to customers.

The Guardian has a statement from the burger chain:

“Our independent DNA test results on product taken from restaurants were negative for any equine DNA. However, four samples recently taken from the Silvercrest plant have shown the presence of very small trace levels of equine DNA. Within the last 36 hours, we have established that Silvercrest used a small percentage of beef imported from a non-approved supplier in Poland. They promised to deliver 100% British and Irish beef patties and have not done so. This is a clear violation of our specifications, and we have terminated our relationship with them.”

Burger King spokeswoman Kristen Hauser said in an email that Burger King’s U.S. restaurants don’t use meat from Silvercrest. However, the issue of horse meat making its way into beef products via Silvercrest is a big one overseas.

“We have stringent and overlapping controls to ensure that the products we sell to our customers meet our strict quality standards,” she said.

Ireland’s Food and Safety Authority noted that the products in question don’t pose a safety risk and that from its own tests of Polish-imported Silvercrest meat used for burger production, about four percent contained traces of horse.

There are people around the world (and throughout history) who have enjoyed horsemeat. But ewwww. I’m not quite sure what horse tastes like, but with all the processed food most people eat now a days I don’t’ know if anyone would have been the wiser.

Image: V & J Foods

Founding V & J Foods in 1982 — with the help of her brother John Daniels’ financial backing — the first franchise under the operation of Valerie Daniels-Carter opened in 1984. A year later, V & J Foods expanded with an additional site, paving a road of accomplishment that many in the food and franchise industry aspire to travel.

Today, the largest female-owned franchise operator in the country, V & J Foods hosts 127 units in the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin and Ohio.

“It was a continual kind of growth pattern. We went through the application process, which was very long. After that… the market we were interested in, Wisconsin, was available,” says CEO Daniels-Carter, speaking on the initial steps that she and her brother took to own their first Burger King restaurant.

Under various franchisees (V & J National Enterprises, V & J United Enterprises), V & J Foods operates several Häagen-Dazs, Coffee Beanery and Pizza Hut restaurants in addition to Burger King. There are also more than two dozen Auntie Anne’s pretzel shops that V&J Foods owns through VJ and O’Neal Enterprises, a joint venture with former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal founded in 2006.

“Everyday is different. I get up, I have my devotion, either I’m traveling to business meetings or I’m in the office,” says Daniels-Carter who is heavily involved in her church and community.

“One day you may find me in a restaurant greeting customers or you may find me sitting in the White House talking to the President about what it is to be a successful businessperson. There is no structured day for me,” she says.

The Road to Business

According to Daniels-Carter, a successful franchise business must have great people, individuals who are committed to superior results, a great location and a product that people are willing to pay for. Most important is the owner’s responsibility for equipping those committed individuals with the tools that make them successful.

Source: Necole Bitchie

From NecoleBitchie.com

Mary J. Blige has released a new music video for her latest single ‘Don’t Mind’ off her album ‘My Life II: The Journey Continues, Act 1.’ The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul decided to ditch the background dancers and fancy storylines for the majority of the video, instead opting to sing and groove from a chair.

If the song sounds a little familiar, Mary used the same track for her infamous Burger King commercial where she changed up the lyrics and sang about crispy chicken wraps. The commercial may have been snatched down as quickly as it made it’s way through the internet, but it seems like Mary’s moving past it and has given us a love jam about being down for your boo, even if you fuss and fight.

Check out the video at NecoleBitchie.com

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Source: Syracuse.com

Burger King could be in serious trouble soon if allegations against one of its Virgina restaurants turn out to be true. Christopher Peña, 35, a former manager and seven-year Burger King veteran, says he was unfairly let go from the company last September, three months after he disclosed his HIV status to a supervisor.

Burger King’s official reasoning for firing Christopher on September 19, 2011 was “poor work performance” despite the manager’s claim of not having ever been disciplined before disclosing his HIV status. After though, Christoper said he received disciplinary action, along with several critical emails after one of the nine restaurants he oversaw failed an audit and others had service problems. Christopher and his lawyers claim his dismissal violates the Americans with Disabilities Act which prohibits discrimination based on disability and covers people who are HIV positive.

Burger King did not respond to The Huffington Post’s requests for comment and the company has not yet filed a response in court to the manager’s complaint. Victor Viramontes, a lawyer for Christopher and senior counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said discrimination against Latinos who are HIV-positive is a serious problem in the workplace.

“When they’re fired from their job, they frequently lose their healthcare with it,” he said.

Christopher wrestled with the decision of whether to tell his superiors about his status once he found out he was HIV-positive in April 2011. He said he eventually told one manager in June 2011 because he felt they should know in case side effects from his medicine caused him to need time off work. He said he was hoping for support, especially since he knew other managers in corporate restaurants, not franchises, who had the same issues with the stores they oversaw.

“It was a very personal decision that I thought about before I did it,” Christopher said. “I was looking more for guidance and support, and that’s why I did it.”

“After I disclosed, I was not the only person in my position who had these types of incidents occur in their restaurants, and I was the only one who was being treated this way.”

Christopher remains unemployed despite going on several interviews since his firing. His lawyer said his office took up Chris’s case particularly because of his long history of good-standing with Burger King.

“The fact pattern is very troubling, particularly against a large corporate entity like Burger King,” he said. “We wanted to step in and send a message to employers that this is inappropriate.”

Do you think Christopher will win this suit?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: Eater.com

It’s not quite crispy chicken with fresh lettuce, three cheeses, and french dressing wrapped up in a tasty flour tortilla (I’ll never be able to get that song out of my head by the way) but I’m going to consider Burger King’s new bacon sundae it’s second fail of the month. Note, it’s only the 11th.

I knew there were some people that really believed bacon goes with anything but I never thought a major corporation would buy into it. I think BK is willing to try anything these days, because the fast food chain is testing out an ice cream sundae topped with chocolate and caramel sauce and what appears to be bacon bits with a whole slice of processed pork in Nashville.

According to Grubgrade, this is one of several new items being rolled out at a special Nashville store. Sweet Potato Fries, BBQ sammies (burger, grilled chicken, and pulled pork varieties) and Frozen Lemonades could also be coming our way soon. Those items don’t sound so bad, but this sundae, I just don’t know. I guess that whole healthy fast food movement is done.

Would you try a bacon sundae from Burger King?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Scrolling the MSN homepage this weekend, I came across a teaser that read something like “racist BK ad pulled.” I stopped and thought, I know they are not referring to Mary J. Blige’s chicken commercial controversy, and sure enough they were. I can think of several “r” words to describe Mary’s chicken wrap advertisement, like ratchet or ridiculous, but racist would not be one of them. And since we know white folks only use the “r” word when someone else puts it in their head, we have to take responsibility for the monster we’ve created when it comes to this ad spot and all the other non-mothereffin’ racial factors we’ve made a fuss over.

I first realized we had an issue with being too quick to deem things racist sometime last year when that silly planking craze reached it’s peak. From somewhere beneath the ashes of a pimped out ride, Xzibit resurrected himself to say the Internet photo craze was racist because it reminded him of how slaves were transported in ships across the middle passage. Reading quotes from that man on the topic, all I could think was, no this negro didn’t. He was so past the point of no return with that comment that all I could do was pray it would die as quickly as his career, and for the most part it did.

That hasn’t stopped black people from highlighting a slew of other incidents that, though they may raise brows, cause a few side-eyes, and make you think twice because they deal with black people and are a bit touchy, are not actually racist. Controversial and racist are not interchangeable words, no more than stereotypical and racist are. I believe the Mary J. Blige situation is the latest glaring example of that. I don’t doubt that Burger King execs were intentional in their use of a black hip-hop soul singer like Mary to sing in their advertisement because, like McDonald’s, they think you can only get through to black people by singing an R&B jingle about chicken. Is it stereotypical? Yes. Racist? No.

The thing is, there are enough examples of actual racism that we don’t have to exaggerate examples that aren’t. Burger King’s commercial was a fail for a zillion reasons—most of which reflect on Mary’s career as a singer, not necessarily the black community as a whole. She signed up for that foolishness, if you want answers from anybody it should be her. She wasn’t sleep when they filmed that dream sequence, no one snuck a racist agenda in on her. She said the words, she sang the song, she thought it was OK, she was irresponsible. If we wouldn’t consider her a racist, the ad execs aren’t either.

The major problem with throwing the “r” word around so causally is when there is an actual incident of racism, we won’t be taken seriously. Remember the story of the boy who cried wolf? That’s essentially what we’re dealing with now. When we point out obvious and indisputable examples of racism, the understanding response it should warrant is usually replaced with an attitude of “there they go crying racism again,” because it’s happening too often. Not that racist things don’t happen everyday, but it’s almost like you some people wake up waiting to make something a racial issue that isn’t. And then we look at situations like the one involving Trayvon Martin where the racism involved should be obvious, people still have their doubts. Then we go and put a chicken commercial on that same level? We have to know the difference and put our energy into efforts that count.

Instances of racism should never be swept under the rug but everything controversial that involves black people is not racist. If we don’t figure out how to distinguish between the two our concerns are just going to keep getting overlooked and dismissed as bogus and outlandish rather than inciting people to corrective action. Remember being taught to choose your battles? That’s something we have to do when it comes to non-racist, stereotypical behaviors or else it will all get thrown in the junk pile and no one will hear the real cries.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Source: mycolumbuspower.com

A while ago, I heard a story (I forgot who told me or in what context it was told) about a parent, whose child was preparing to be in some sort of play, through one of those art-related summer camp programs.  The play was one of those tales with talking animals and the likes. Anyway, the listed characters included a sun, a tree, some other boring animals and a monkey.

Naturally, all the kids, including this parent’s child, wanted to play the monkey. Not only did the monkey have more lines but it also meant that these young children could jump around, acts crazy and makes funny noises. But to the bewilderment of the child, the mother adamantly refused her son the opportunity to play a monkey. Instead, he played the motionless sun, which only had a couple of lines.

It broke the mother’s heart to see her child reduce to tears. I mean what good mother would intentionally deprive her child of the experience to something that he really wanted to do?  However in the mother’s mind, she had very good reason, one that ranked higher than the wants and desires of her child. You see her child was black. And the play was being conducted through a summer camp, where the primary attendees were white children. The mother’s contention was that as much as she would have loved to see her child twirl around on stage, there was no way in Hell she was going to allow her child to be ridiculed because he was a black child in a monkey suit.

As trivial as it is, this is the perfect example of the psychological effects that racism has had on us a people. Without ever having to face direct racism at that moment, perceived or the anticipation of racism creates enough fear, stress and anxiety for many Black folks to constantly question if a particular action might result in being judged – at worse – not by the merit of your deeds but the color of your skin. For many Black folks, this can be debilitating and may increase the potential for one to adopt negative coping strategies including internalized racism and disassociation with anything remotely stereotypical.

I thought of that story yesterday as I began to read through all outrage over Mary J. Blige’s Burger King commercial. In the spot, which premiered this week, Blige sings soulfully about a new “crispy” chicken sandwich, which is smothered in cheese and ranch dressing and wrapped in a flour tortilla wrap. Many in the Black community called fowl (pun intended) over the commercial for depicting stereotypical images, including Renay Alize of Madame Noire, who penned an open letter to the Queen of Hip Hop Soul denouncing the commercial as buffoonery. Yesterday, the company pulled the ad, contending that music licensing issues were the source of their decision and not the criticism of the ad. Yet that hasn’t stopped folks from being outraged over the ad for what they consider to be offensive advertising.  But why is the commercial offensive?

The first time I saw the commercial I failed to see what exactly I was supposed to be mad at. This is unusual for me considering that, if you couldn’t tell by now by a number of my posts, I’m always cued into racial subtleties and nuances. I reluctantly watched the spot several more times and thought well her hairstyle kind of resembles Chanticleer the rooster from Rock A Doodle so maybe there is a correlation there. But admittedly, I’m stretching and trying to find something to be offended about.

For me, it lacked the racial overtones and references you would expect from usual lot of racist images. There were no shuffling of feet, teethy grins and or even references to Blackness in the ad.  In fact, Mary wasn’t even holding a piece of chicken. Instead, we have Mary, standing in front of a microphone, singing a stupid jingle about the ingredients in a fake soft taco. And last I checked, I don’t remember tacos being the stereotypical staple of the Black American diet. If anything, if we should be offended by anything, it is about the fact that she is singing about processed junk food and not fruits and vegetables.  But again, we weren’t mad when tons of rappers appeared in Sprite commercials or Lebron James took a big bite out of that heart attack on a bun, so why are we outraged now?