5 things: The great Pepsi food fight is over

The Carrefour fight in France comes to an end: Carrefour stores in France are stocking Pepsi and Cheetos on shelves once more, ending a three-month impasse over grocery prices between one of the world’s biggest CPG companies and one of Europe’s largest grocers. On Wednesday, Carrefour and PepsiCo said they had reached a deal for PepsiCo products come back once more to stores in France. However, negotiations on returning PepsiCo brands to Carrefour stores in four other countries are ongoing, the Wall Street Journal reports. The “food fight” first started in early January, when Carrefour said it would no longer carry Doritos, Lay’s potato chips and other PepsiCo products because of what the grocer described as “unacceptable price increases.” While we don’t know the exact details of the settlement, Carrefour said the new agreement “is in the interest of shoppers.” We’ll see what the shoppers think about that. —Chloe Riley

Got a receipt for that meat? Australian grocery chain Drakes Supermarkets is fed up with the amount of unpaid for meat regularly leaving its stores, so much so that the grocer has slapped GPS tags on each individual package in case any shoppers are tempted to grab and go the illegal way. The devices look similar to the ones attached to apparel or electronics. John Paul Drake, the director at Drakes, said meat apparently comes with an invisible “Steal Me” sticker only special shoppers can see. He said Drakes reports an astonishing $12 million worth of meat stolen each year. The GPS tags are being tested within several stores…so far, nobody has been sentenced to meat jail. —Bill Wilson

SPAM honors The Aloha State: Nobody loves SPAM more than the people of Hawaii, who consume more than 7 million cans of the brand’s products each year—more than any other U.S. state, according to parent company Hormel Foods. To honor these devoted fans, the company has developed a special limited-edition SPAM Hawaiian Collectors Edition can, in partnership with Hawaiian artist Kamea Hadar. The can, available in Hawaii and online, features illustrations of several Hawaiian flowers, including an image of the Lokelani rose, the official island flower of Maui, shown in full bloom on the back of the can to represent the ongoing recovery from last year’s massive wildfire. Hormel had previously donated $1 million in cash and product to the recovery efforts. Aloha to that! —Mark Hamstra

A new way to recycle? By 2025, Nestle promises not to use any plastic in its products that isn’t recyclable. And by 2030, Procter & Gamble says it will cut its use of virgin plastic resin made from petroleum in half. To get there, these companies and others say they’re leaving into a new type of recycling plants, called “advanced” or “chemical” recycling, that promise to recycle many more products than can be recycled today, writes the New York Times. The new technology is being hailed by the plastics industry as a solution to a global waste crisis. But so far, it looks like advanced recycling is struggling to make good on its claims. —CR

Not so fast: New York City officials want food delivery companies to slow down. Literally. In 2022, a city measure was introduced that made the advertisement of 15-minute deliveries illegal. That measure, which has since stalled, was in response to accidents involving delivery drivers and riders with pedestrians. But there’s renewed interest in the measure with Gopuff’s recent announcement about 20-minute deliveries. The company said innovation at the front end of the process helps shave the time off orders. DoorDash abandoned fast deliveries last summer, and so Gopuff is the last one standing in New York City when it comes to service with a serious zip. Ahh for the quaint times of food delivery in the 1980s and 90s, when you only had Domino’s Pizza trying to make it to your door in 30 minutes or less. Those were the good ole days. —BW