Remove Shell Before Eating

Crab shells may one day preserve fruit from rotting. A researcher at Queen’s University, Belfast, reports that she and her colleagues have developed a preservative gel called chitosan, made from chitin, the material that makes crab and lobster shells hard. Apples coated with chitosan have stayed fresh for six months and longer.

On Dasher, On Dancer, On Toast

The USDA has just given Alaska Sausage Co. permission to ship its sausage across state lines. Now anybody can buy the company’s Polish and link sausages made with reindeer meat.

Dangerous Hole Container

Life Saver Holes, the little bitty candies that are machined to fit into the hole in a Life Saver (in case you wanted to do that) have been pulled from the market until summer while their package is redesigned. Several teen-agers have accidentally swallowed--or gagged on--the old containers’ plastic flip top. Life Saver Holes themselves have not proved life-threatening.

Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

Well over half of all restaurants (well, the kind that have waiters) will arrange alternative transportation for intoxicated guests, reports the National Restaurant Assn. The percentage goes from 54% of the places with $8 entrees to 81% of the places with entrees higher than $25.

Rocky and/or Blue Ridge Mountain High

Coors is dropping the label claim “brewed with pure Rocky Mountain Spring water” from its cans in many markets. All Coors is still brewed in Golden, Colo., but it seems some Coors concentrate is shipped to Elkton, Va., where carbonation and non-Rocky Mountain water are added.

New Triumph of California Cuisine

Mickey’s Kitchen, a restaurant heretofore limited to the vicinity of the Disney Store in Montclair Plaza, has made a tentative move toward chainhood. Goofy Burgers, “Lady and the Tramp” spaghetti, Supercalifragi-Chicken Salad and the rest will now be available in Chicago.

Gunning for the Gator

Among the drink manufacturers eyeing the Gatorade market are Dr. Pepper, which has tested an isotonic drink called Nautilus, and Royal Crown, which is bringing out a salt-free isotonic-type drink called Lift. (Oddly, nobody yet seems to have thought of marketing a tonic called Iso.)