Consumer Confidential: GM goes wireless, gas goes Loko, tamales are recalled
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Here’s your le-freak Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:
-- Some new General Motors vehicles, including the electric Chevy Volt, will allow you to charge your cellphone wirelessly. GM says it will use technology from a company called Powermat. The idea is that drivers and passengers can charge their electronic gadgets by placing the devices on a ‘shelf’ or ‘mat’ in the car. The next big step, of course, will be technology that allows Volt drivers to park their car on one of these mats and charge up without jacking a cord into the vehicle. You just know that’s what GM and other automakers are heading toward.
-- Caffeinated alcohol drinks such as Four Loko may actually have a good use after all -- in people’s gas tanks. Four Loko has been banned in many places because its potent mix of caffeine and alcohol has dangerous side effects, such as blacking out. So now excess inventories of the drinks are being turned into ethanol at facilities that are able to extract the alcohol and blend it into gasoline. Wholesalers are now selling truckloads of the beverages to various recycling facilities for conversion to fuel. I guess you could say Four Loko gas can give your car a real kick.
-- Heads up: A San Francisco pasta company is pulling thousands of pounds of frozen meat and poultry tamale products from stores because they contain an allergen that’s not listed on the label. Homestead Pasta Co. is recalling approximately 144,633 pounds of the frozen meat and poultry products because they contain allergen whey, a known dairy allergen. The products were produced from April 2010 until January 2011 and shipped for retail sales in California, Oregon and Washington, and for institutional use in California. The recall includes products sold in cases under the names of Garibaldi Beef Tamale, Garibaldi Turkey Tamale, Golden West Traditional Beef Tamale With Sauce in Husk, Golden West Traditional Turkey Tamale With Sauce in Husk, Casper Homestead Pasta Company Beef Tamale and Casper Homestead Pasta Company Chicken Tamale.
-- David Lazarus
