639 articles
Akshaya Patra Foundation
The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) is a Bengaluru-headquartered NGO, founded in 2000 by Madhu Pandit Dasa and Chanchalapathi Dasa with ISKCON roots, that implements India's PM POSHAN mid-day meal programme, serving over 2.35 million children daily from kitchens across 16 states and 3 union territories.
Albert Heijn
Albert Heijn, founded 1887 in Oostzaan, is the Netherlands' largest supermarket chain and Ahold Delhaize flagship, with 1,288 Dutch-Flemish stores, a 38.2% market share, and formats from AH to go to online delivery.
Albertsons
Albertsons Companies (ACI), a Boise, Idaho-based American grocery retailer running 22 banners including Safeway, Vons, and Jewel-Osco across 35 states; formed via the 2013 Cerberus buyout and 2015 Safeway merger; its $24.6 billion Kroger merger was blocked and abandoned in December 2024.
Alcohol law
Alcohol law: legislation and regulation of alcoholic beverages (also alcohol policy, alcohol control). Covers licensing, purchase ages, taxation, drink-driving limits, advertising restrictions; history from temperance to US Prohibition (1920-1933) and WHO SAFER framework.
Alcohol laws in Germany
Alcohol laws in Germany (Alkoholgesetzgebung): JuSchG minimum ages (16 for beer and wine, 18 for spirits), GastG licensing and sales bans, advertising limits under MStV and JMStV, alcohol taxation, and public health context.
Alcohol laws of Australia
Alcohol laws of Australia: the national and state/territory rules on alcohol. Key facts: drinking age 18, BAC limit 0.05, eight separate liquor licensing regimes, dual federal tax (excise plus 29% WET), harm minimisation framework.
Alcohol laws of India
Alcohol laws of India: state-level regulation under the Constitution's State List, with no national drinking age (18–25), prohibition in Gujarat, Bihar, Mizoram, Nagaland, parts of Manipur, and Lakshadweep, state excise licensing, and the Bihar 2016 ban's studied effects.
Alcohol laws of Missouri
Alcohol laws of Missouri, the Liquor Control Law (Chapter 311 RSMo), govern licensing, three-tier distribution, and sale of beverages above 0.5% ABV, administered by the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control since 1934.
Alcohol laws of New York
The alcohol laws of New York center on the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law and the State Liquor Authority: a license-state three-tier system with defined sale hours, a 21-year minimum age, local option dry towns, and a history from the 1709 excise tax through Prohibition repeal.
Alcohol laws of Pennsylvania
Alcohol laws of Pennsylvania: the 1951 Liquor Code and PLCB rules. A control state selling wine and spirits in state stores, licensing beer, with 192-ounce limits, Sunday permits, and about 675 partially dry municipalities.
Alcohol laws of Texas
Alcohol laws of Texas: the Alcoholic Beverage Code and TABC rules governing licensing, hours, and local option wet/dry elections. Liquor sales run 10 a.m.–9 p.m. except Sundays and holidays; 60 counties fully wet, 3 fully dry as of 2025.
Alcohol laws of Utah
Alcohol laws of Utah: state statutes and DABS rules making Utah a control state with state-run liquor stores, 5% ABV grocery beer cap, 0.05% DUI limit, 1.5 oz pour limits, and a 100% ID check law from January 1, 2026.
Alcohol licensing laws of the United Kingdom
UK alcohol licensing laws: the Licensing Act 2003 in England and Wales, separate Scottish and Northern Irish systems, licence types (premises, personal, club, TEN), mandatory conditions, fees, and density controls such as cumulative impact areas.
Alcohol prohibition in India
Alcohol prohibition in India: state-level bans on alcohol under Article 47. Dry states include Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Lakshadweep; Bihar's 2016 ban cut frequent drinking but shows underreporting and bootlegging.
Alcoholic beverage control state
Alcoholic beverage control state (control state, ABC state): a U.S. state whose government monopolizes wholesale and sometimes retail alcohol sales, chiefly spirits, under post-21st Amendment authority. 17 such states exist, versus license states that merely permit private sellers.
Aldi
Aldi (Albrecht-Diskont) is the shared brand of German discount grocers ALDI Nord and ALDI SÜD, split in 1961 by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht; over 90% private label, €112 billion 2023 revenue, stores across Europe, the US, and Australia.
Alimentation Couche-Tard
Alimentation Couche-Tard, also called ACT, is a Canadian convenience store and fuel retailer founded in 1980 in Laval, Quebec, by Alain Bouchard; it owns Circle K, operates about 17,200 stores in 27 countries, and withdrew a $46 billion bid for 7-Eleven owner Seven & i in 2025.
Allura Red AC
Allura Red AC (FD&C Red No. 40, E129, C.I. Food Red 17, CAS 25956-17-6) is a synthetic monoazo red dye used in foods, drugs, and cosmetics, with an ADI of 7 mg/kg body weight and FDA ban announcement in April 2025.
Altoids
Altoids: British strong breath mints created in the 1780s by Smith Kendon, sold in iconic rectangular tins under the 'Curiously Strong' tagline; now Mars Wrigley-owned and US-made in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Amazon Go
Amazon Go was Amazon's cashierless convenience-store chain, announced 2016, opened to the public in Seattle in 2018, using Just Walk Out computer-vision technology; all 15 stores closed in early 2026.
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), French military pharmacist and agronomist, promoter of the potato in France after Prussian captivity; Sablons 1786 trial, 1789 Traité, bread reform, Institut 1795; guarded-field theft story is a debunked legend.
Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) is a Philadelphia-based food and facilities services company, formed as ARA in 1959 and renamed Aramark in 1994. It earned $18.5 billion in fiscal 2025, employs about 270,000 people, and ranks third behind Compass Group and Sodexo in contract catering.
Argon in food packaging
Argon in food packaging: use of the noble gas argon (E 938, CAS 7440-37-1) as a modified-atmosphere packaging gas. FDA GRAS notice GRN 57 (2000); EU E 938; denser than nitrogen, displaces oxygen, extends shelf-life.
Arizona Beverage Company
Arizona Beverage Company (AriZona, AriZona Tea), founded by Ferolito and Vultaggio, launched 1992 in New York; family-owned maker of 99-cent 23.5-oz ready-to-drink iced teas, lemonades, and juices.
Armour and Company
Armour and Company (Armour & Co.) was a Chicago meatpacking firm founded by the Armour brothers in 1867; led by Philip Danforth Armour from 1875, it pioneered by-products processing and refrigerated distribution, became one of the Big Five packers, and lost family control in the early 1920s.
Asda
Asda (Asda Stores Ltd) is a British supermarket retailer founded in 1965 from the Asquith brothers' Queens supermarkets and Associated Dairies, headquartered in Leeds, owned since 2024 mainly by TDR Capital, with about 11.5% UK grocery market share.
Aseptic processing
Aseptic processing sterilizes food or drugs and their packaging separately, then fills and seals them in a sterile environment; UHT at 135–150 °C gives shelf-stable products lasting up to a year without refrigeration, distinct from retort canning.
Aspartame
Aspartame (E 951), also called NutraSweet or Equal, is an artificial dipeptide sweetener about 200 times sweeter than sugar, first FDA-approved in 1974; IARC classed it Group 2B in 2023 while JECFA and EFSA reaffirmed its 40 mg/kg ADI.
Aspartame controversy
Aspartame controversy: the decades-long safety dispute over the artificial sweetener (E 951, NutraSweet), covering its suspended 1974 US approval, Ramazzini cancer studies, the 2023 IARC Group 2B classification versus JECFA's reaffirmed 40 mg/kg ADI, and ongoing calls for an EU ban.
Associated British Foods
Associated British Foods plc (ABF), British diversified food, ingredients and retail group founded 1935 by Garfield Weston; owns Primark, Twinings, British Sugar. £19.5bn revenue, 138,000 employees, 56 countries; Primark demerger planned by end 2027.