The 56-year-old chain made the filing late Sunday, days after shuttering dozens of restaurants.

“This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster. It allows us to address several financial and operational challenges and emerge stronger and re-focused on our growth,” said Red Lobster CEO Jonathan Tibus, a corporate restructuring expert who took the top post at the chain in March.

Red Lobster said it will use the bankruptcy proceedings to simplify its operations, close restaurants and pursue a sale. As part of the filings, Red Lobster has entered into a so-called “stalking horse” agreement, meaning it plans to sell its business to an entity formed and controlled by its lenders.

The Orlando, Florida-based chain was founded by Bill Darden, who wanted to make seafood restaurants more accessible and affordable for families. Darden sold Red Lobster to General Mills in 1970. General Mills later went on to form Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and other chains, and spun the company off in 1995.

In recent years, Red Lobster has been struggling with increasing competition from fast casual chains like Chipotle as well as rising lease and labor costs. Its all-you-can eat deals for shrimp and lobster also became increasingly expensive.

Last fall, Red Lobster lost millions of dollars on its Ultimate Endless Shrimp promotion, which charged $20 for all-you-can-eat shrimp deal.

“We knew the price was cheap, but the idea was to bring more traffic in the restaurants,” Ludovic Garnier, the chief financial officer of Thai Union Group, Red Lobster’s former co-owner, said in an earnings call with investors.

Garnier said the deal did work, and restaurant traffic increased. But more guests opted for the $20 deal than Red Lobster expected, Garnier said, adding “we don’t earn a lot of money at $20.” For the first nine months of 2023, Thai Union Group — which is one of the world’s largest seafood suppliers — reported a $19 million share of loss from Red Lobster.

In January, Thai Union Group announced its intention to exit its minority investment in Red Lobster. CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said the COVID-19 pandemic, industry headwinds and rising operating costs had hit the dining chain hard and caused “prolonged negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders.”

Thai Union Group first and upped its stake in 2020.

Restaurant liquidator TAGeX Brands announced last week that it would be auctioning off the equipment of over 50 Red Lobster locations that were recently closed. The store closures span across more than 20 states — reducing Red Lobster’s presence in Denver, San Antonio, Indianapolis and Sacramento, California.

The equipment auction listing includes three locations in Virginia: Colonial Heights, Newport ĂÛèÖAPP and Williamsburg.

The seafood restaurant chain said in a court filing that it has more than 100,000 creditors and estimated assets between $1 billion and $10 billion. The company’s estimated liabilities are between $1 billion and $10 billion.

Red Lobster operates 700 locations worldwide.

Previous reporting from ĂÛèÖAPP and Daily Press contributed to this report.

Target plans to cut prices on thousands of consumer basics this summer, from diapers to milk, as inflation cuts into household budgets and more Americans pay closer attention to their spending.

The price cuts, already applied to 1,500 items, will eventually include 5,000 food, drink and essential household goods. Target and other retailers are increasingly catering to customers who are struggling with higher prices for groceries, though . Many of them have switched to private label brands sold by Target and others big retailers, which are typically less expensive than well-known brands.

Target launched one such collection in January called Dealworthy which includes nearly 400 basic items, ranging from clothing to electronics, that can cost less than $1, with most items under $10.

Last week, said that it was planning to introduce a $5 meal deal in the U.S. next month to counter slowing sales and customer . posted strong quarterly sales last week driven by a influx of customers, including households with incomes of more than $100,000, looking for bargains.

Target is very cognizant of the spending pullback by shoppers and in March reported its first annual decline in sales in seven years.

Inflation has been unexpectedly high in the after having steadily dropped in the second half of 2023. The elevated readings in early 2024 had dimmed hopes that the worst bout of inflation in four decades was being tamed and raised concerns that prices could spike again.

The latest inflation reading released last week showed that those prices, at least last month, had begun to retreat again.

Target Corp. said Monday that the lower prices will roll out over the summer on national brands and its own house brands.

“These reductions are in addition to our everyday low prices, which we routinely adjust to be competitive in the market and make sure you enjoy great value every day,” the company said in a prepared statement.

Target is likely to offer more insight into what it thinks about customer behavior and how it’s addressing any changes when it releases its quarterly financial report Wednesday.

___

AP retail writer Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

Surprising flavor combinations — think gravy-flavored Jones Soda or Sour Patch Kids Oreos — are showing up more frequently in grocery stores and restaurant chains. Hershey recently introduced pink lemonade-flavored Kit Kats, while IHOP and Lay’s brought out Rooty Tooty Fresh n’ Fruity potato chips, designed to taste like strawberry-topped pancakes with a hint of bacon.

While it’s tempting to pass off these as social media stunts, experts say there’s more to the story. Food companies are responding to the changing and expanding tastes of consumers while also trying to keep brands relevant and distinct to win space on crowded store shelves.

“We’re in a really exciting time of flavor development where consumers are not just one thing. You’re not just a sour lover or a sweet lover. You want a little of this and a little of that,” said Kristen Braun, the senior brand manager for Oreo innovation at Chicago-based food and beverage company . “Companies are finding the freedom to explore a little bit more and get more creative.”

Sour Patch Kids Oreos — vanilla cream-filled cookies speckled with colorful bites of the sour candies — are one of about a dozen limited-edition that Mondelez plans to release this year. Braun said it takes the company one or two years to develop such products, which stay on shelves for about nine weeks. She’s already thinking ahead to future flavors that blur the lines between sweet, salty and spicy.

Oddball pairings aren’t entirely new in the food and beverage industry. Hubba Bubba released a bubble gum-flavored soda in the late 1980s, for example. But manufacturers and their suppliers have gotten more sophisticated and efficient, making it easier to experiment and put out limited-editions more frequently, said Mark Lang, a food marketing expert and associate professor of marketing at the University of Tampa.

Kyle Shadix, who as the corporate executive research chef for PepsiCo, has worked on beverages like Maple Pepsi and a strawberry shortcake Pepsi sold in Japan, said the members of Generation Z are also fueling innovation. They’re diverse, adventurous and pick up on food trends quickly through social media, he said.

“They’re every chef’s dream to design for,” said Shadix, who is currently experimenting a lot with Mexican, Korean and Japanese flavors. “Gen Z is going to drive us faster. We’re going to start to see even more exploration quicker than in the past because they’re just so open to it.”

can boost brands in several ways. Sometimes they bring new customers to a brand. They might also nudge buyers to pick up the original flavor, Russell Zwanka, director of the food marketing program at Western Michigan University, said.

“Sour Patch Oreos sound interesting, but nobody wants to risk buying Oreos that don’t taste good, so people buy both,” Zwanka said.

When companies combine brands, they’re trying to build an association in consumers’ minds. Pepsi, which came out last year, sends the message that Pepsi is current and fun, Lang said. Mustard-flavored , which came out last summer, made the 104-year-old French’s brand seem playful.

Enter Kraft Heinz, which approached Van Leeuwen Ice Cream a few years ago about macaroni and cheese-flavored ice cream. Ben Van Leeuwen, the company’s co-founder and CEO, was doubtful at first but found that Kraft’s powder blended well with the Brooklyn-based company’s ice cream.

Van Leeuwen’s Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ice cream came out to rave reviews in 2021 and was re-released for a short time last fall.

“We will only do a shock flavor if we can make it good and distinct. We will not do a shock flavor where it’s just shock in name but taste like vanilla,” Van Leeuwen said.

But novel flavor combinations don’t always work. Van Leeuwen couldn’t eat more than a few bites of his company’s Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, which contained onion and garlic powders. And shock flavors typically don’t end up on the permanent menu because of their lower “eat-ability,” he said.

“I think you would taste our mac and cheese and you’d say, ‘Oh, that’s good,’ but do you want to take a pint of that mac and cheese from your freezer when you’re watching whatever show on Netflix and eat the entire thing? Probably not,” Van Leeuwen said.

Candy brand Brach’s ran into that issue with its Turkey Dinner Candy Corn, a 2021 limited-edition version of the fall staple that tasted like turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, apple pie and coffee. Katie Duffy, vice president and general manager of seasonal at Ferrara Candy Co., which owns Brach’s, acknowledged there was a “gross-out” factor.

“We have learned from consumers that we don’t want to have something where they eat a few pieces of candy and then they toss it because there’s some things that they don’t want to repeat,” Duffy said. “We want it to be a delicious flavor journey.”

Brach’s recently introduced Easter Brunch-flavored jelly beans, and they hit that mark, she said. The candy beans mimicked the flavors of blueberry maple pancakes, chocolate doughnuts, caramel cold brew, cinnamon rolls, berry smoothies and mimosa cocktails.

Shannon Weiner, senior director of insights and analytics at Ferrara, said the company closely tracks social media to see what flavors are trending. People are increasingly looking for dessert and dairy-flavored candies, she said. They’re also seeking more international flavors like Tajin, a brand of chile-lime spice from Mexico that recently did a collaboration with Pop Tarts.

Lang thinks the more time people spend in restaurants or trying out new foods, the more they seek out unusual flavors.

“We are variety-seeking animals. We constantly are seeking something new and different; it’s in our wiring,” he said. “We like to experiment.”

“Being 6 years old at the time, those things stick out in my mind,” he said.

McCombs, now an Outer Banks resident, was on hand for a community preview Wednesday, a day ahead of Wawa opening its first store in ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina at 1900 N. Croatan Highway. He said he was shocked when he returned from the Vietnam War and saw the Wawa dairy in Folsom, Pennsylvania, had become a Wawa Food Market.

Today, the family- and employee-owned Wawa chain operates 1,050 stores in seven states and in Washington. The closest store to the Outer Banks was in Chesapeake.

The Kill Devil Hills Wawa, at the corner of Fourth Street and U.S. 158, begins a 10-year expansion into ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina that will include 90 stores across the state.

By the end of 2024, Wawa will have 10 stores in Kill Devil Hills, Rocky Mount, Elizabeth City, Greenville, Wilson, Goldsboro and Lumberton, said Jay Ratcliffe, the company’s area manager for northeastern ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina.

Next year, Wawa plans to open 11 stores in additional counties, including Robeson, Pitt, Cumberland, Onslow, Johnston, Pender, Nash, Brunswick and New Hanover.

Over the next eight to 10 years, Wawa plans to build and open six to eight stores per year reaching a total of 90 in the state. Wawa will invest more than $7 million per store and employ, on average, 140 contractors, the company said in a news release.

“It’s an aggressive build plan,” Ratcliffe said.

Once open, each store will employ an average of 35 associates with Wawa expecting to create more than 3,000 long-term jobs in ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina.

Wawa chose the Outer Banks for the first ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina store because of its proximity to Virginia, as well as the local “sense of community,” said Kim Dowgielewicz, director of store operations.

The 6,000-square-foot store has eight gas pumps, 52 parking spaces and two underground tanks. It is set to open at 8 a.m. Thursday with free shirts for the first 250 customers, a hoagie building contest between local first responders and charities and a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m.

The chain got its name from the town where it opened its first dairy operation — Wawa, Pennsylvania — in 1902. Wawa is said to be a Native American word for Canada goose, and company officials played on that connection for the new store about a mile from the Wright Brothers National Memorial, where Wilbur and Orville made their famous first flight.

Thursday’s grand opening festivities will include a flight over the store in a nod to the area’s aviation history, Ratcliffe said.

What’s happened?

Earlier this month, major supermarket chains Hy-Vee and Schnucks announced recalls of select cream cheese products after fears arose that those products could be contaminated with salmonella.

Now, two other grocery store chains are recalling select cream cheese products as well: Aldi and Hornbacher’s.

Both chains have issued recall alerts “out of an abundance of caution” for select products after cheese and yogurt product maker Schreiber Foods, Inc. issued a voluntary recall for its select products due to potential salmonella contamination.

___

What products are being recalled?

According to a notice posted by Aldi, the following Happy Farms products are being recalled:

• Whipped Cream Cheese Spread, 8 oz. cup, with a UPC code of 4099100101881 and “Sell By Date” of 08/30/2024, 08/31/2024, 09/01/2024, 09/03/2024, 09/04/2024.
• Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread, 8 oz. cup, with a UPC code of 4099100101751, and a “Sell By Date” of 09/13/2024, 09/22/2024.
• Cream Cheese Spread, 8 oz. cup, with a UPC code of 4099100101737, and a “Sell By Date” of 09/01/2024, 09/08/2024, 09/15/2024.
• Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread, 8 oz. cup, with a UPC code of 4099100101744, and a “Sell By Date” of  09/08/2024, 09/15/2024.

According to Hornbacher’s, the following product is being recalled:

• Essential Everyday Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese Spread – 8oz, with a UPC code of 41303006252, and a “Best By Date” of 09/01/24.

___

What states are the products being recalled in?

According to Aldi, the recalled products were sold in select stores in the following states:

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
ĂÛèÖAPP Carolina
ĂÛèÖAPP Dakota,
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin.

According to Hornbacher’s, the affected product was sold at all Hornbacher’s locations. Hornbacher’s has stores in Minnesota and ĂÛèÖAPP Dakota, according to its store locator.

___

What is salmonella and what symptoms does it cause?

It’s a bacterium that can make a person sick if consumed. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, which can be bloody. The agency says that a salmonella infection can be serious or deadly, especially if the person is elderly, frail, has a weakened immune system, or is a young child.

___

What do I do if I have a recalled product?

Do not consume it. Instead, discard it or return it to its place of purchase for a refund. Full information about the recalls can be found on Aldi’s notice here and Hornbacher’s notice here.

Fast Company © 2024 Mansueto Ventures, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

But Americans, and their appetites, had other plans.

The beloved yet beleaguered pillar of casual dining abruptly shuttered dozens of locations this week, heightening speculation that the chain is careening toward bankruptcy.

Although its dire financial situation isn’t the result of a single misstep, executives at the company that owns a large stake in the chain, as well as industry experts, said that miscalculations over the popularity of the all-you-can-eat shrimp special accelerated the company’s downward spiral.

The closures were announced in Monday by Neal Sherman, the chief executive of a liquidation firm called TAGeX Brands, which is auctioning off surplus restaurant equipment from the shuttered locations.

Representatives for Red Lobster did not respond to a request for comment about the closures, which were listed on its website as temporary, or whether it planned to file for bankruptcy.

But company executives have been vocal about the misguided gamble with shrimp and how they misjudged just how hungry Americans would be for a deal on the crustaceans.

In an effort to boost foot traffic and ease the sales slump that swept through the restaurant industry during the pandemic, Red Lobster executives last year decided to relaunch a popular marketing ploy from years past to lure customers: For $20 they could eat as much shrimp as they wanted.

Eager for a deal during an era of stubbornly high inflation, many consumers eagerly embraced the offer as a challenge. People to brag about how many of the pink morsels they could put down in a single sitting — boasted she’d consumed 108 shrimp over the course of a 4-hour meal.

“In the current environment, consumers are looking to find value and stretch budgets where they can,” said Jim Salera, a research analyst at Stephens, who tracks the restaurant industry. “At $20, it’s very possible for a consumer to eat well past the very thin profit margin.”

During about sales from the third quarter of last year, Ludovic Garnier, the chief financial officer of Thai Union Group, a seafood conglomerate that has been Red Lobster’s largest shareholder since 2020, cited the endless shrimp deal as a key reason the chain had an operating loss of about $11 million during that time frame.

“The price point was $20,” Garnier said.

He paused.

“Twenty dollars,” he repeated with a tinge of regret in his voice. “And you can eat as much as you want.”

Red Lobster shutters nearly 50 locations, including 2 in Hampton Roads

Although the promotion boosted traffic by a few percentage points, Garnier said, the number of people taking advantage of the all-you-can-eat offer far exceeded the company’s projections. In response, they adjusted the price to $22 and then $25.

All-you-can-eat offers can be effective marketing strategies to get people in the door in the competitive world of casual dining — Applebee’s offers $1 margaritas dubbed the Dollarita, buffet chains such as Golden Corral and Sizzler promise abundance at a flat rate, and Olive Garden, one of Red Lobster’s main competitors, has long lured customers with unlimited salad and bread sticks.

But Red Lobster made a few crucial missteps with the shrimp deal, said Eric Chiang, an economics professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a self-proclaimed buffet aficionado.

The company not only started with a low price point, but offered a prized and pricey menu item that can serve as an entire meal — not many customers at Olive Garden, he noted, are going to stock up on bread sticks and salad alone.

“Most people will also order the Taste of Italy,” he said, “or something that gives you meat and pasta.”

Chiang said the most effective loss leaders, a term for products that aren’t profitable but bring in enough new customers or lead to the sale of enough other items to make the offer worthwhile, use cheap ingredients. A good example is 7-Eleven’s Free Slurpee Day, he said, as the company gives away about 15 cents of ice and syrup to customers who then pay to fill up their gas tanks.

Consumers are especially drawn to all-you-can-eat deals and buffets during tighter economic times, Chiang said.

“This is a story of inflation,” he said. “All you can eat for $15? That gives customers a sense of control. Like we’re not being gouged, not being nickel and dimed for every dessert.”

Red Lobster, it turns out, has been in trouble for a while.

In 2003, the chain, which at the time was owned by Darden Restaurants, the company that owns Olive Garden, offered all-you-eat crab special for around $23.

So many people came back for seconds, thirds and even fourths, executives said at the time, that it cut into profit margins. Before long, the company’s then-president stepped down.

In 2014, after a period of disappointing sales and less foot traffic, to San Francisco private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for more than $2 billion, a stake that was eventually taken over by Thai Union.

Despite the turmoil, the company, which until this week touted about 700 locations, remained a brand so beloved that it earned in which she describes post-coital trips to Red Lobster.

After the song’s release, the company said it saw a 33% jump in sales, but that glow was short lived and had faded long before the ill-fated shrimp deal was brought back last year.

“You have to be pretty close to the edge for one promotion to tip you over the edge,” said Sara Senatore, a senior analyst at Bank of America, who follows the restaurant industry.

In January, Thai Union Group — citing a combination of financial struggles it pinned to the pandemic, high labor and material costs and the oft-cited buzzword of industry “headwinds” — announced plans to dump its stake in the company, which was founded in 1968 in Lakeland, Fla.

During a presentation to investors in February, Thiraphong Chansiri, the chief executive of Thai Union, expressed frustration with the situation surrounding Red Lobster, saying it had left a “big scar” on him.

“Other people stop eating beef,” he said. “I’m going to stop eating lobster.”

This story

So the couple combined their love for both and put down roots in Norfolk for their business, Potted. The all-in-one plant shop and tea café opened Tuesday as an incubator business in Selden Market, operated by the Downtown Norfolk Council.

Berkhimer, who cares for more than 200 houseplants in their Norfolk home, handles everything greenery-related at the business, including the pots and array of plants for sale from succulents to tropical. She’s responsible for the soil bar for repotting and green-thumb guidance.

Working every day with and among plants is a dream come true, she said.

“My dad and grandmother maintained a garden in our backyard and I’ve helped since I was in diapers,” she said. “My mom maintained houseplants and one of my chores was to water them, but it wasn’t a chore because it was always something I enjoyed doing.”

DiPerna is in charge of the tea menu at Potted, which features an assortment of handcrafted hot and cold bubble teas. He also lines up a featured drink of the day.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a Navy veteran, DiPerna said he always visited unique cafés during his travels. It was a trip last year to Denver with Berkhimer that unexpectedly brought them to a plant and coffee shop, spurring the idea to open their own in Hampton Roads.

“We decided we needed to bring that back home to the community,” she said.

They started their road to entrepreneurship last fall with a mobile espresso cart and plant shop. Hosts of followers quickly shared their love for the idea, drawn to their pop-up markets throughout South Hampton Roads.

They were elated at the opportunity to move their business into a brick-and-mortar so quickly, DiPerna said. But they haven’t retired their mobile cart just yet. They plan to continue with pop-ups in the future and want to incorporate catering.

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in it will evaluate the automated driving system developed by Zoox.

Both crashes involved Toyota Highlander SUVs with autonomous driving technology. They happened during daytime hours, and the agency confirmed that each of the Amazon vehicles was operating in autonomous mode leading up to the crashes. In one crash a motorcyclist suffered minor injuries, and a Zoox driver reported minor injuries in the other, according to reports. Both happened last month, one in San Francisco and the other in Spring Valley, Nevada.

The agency said the probe will focus on the performance of the company’s automated driving system during the crashes, as well as how it behaves in crosswalks around pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

In a statement, Zoox said it is committed to working with NHTSA to answer its questions. “Transparency and collaboration with regulators is of utmost importance,” the company said. Zoox said the vehicles had human safety drivers on board.

Zoox reported the crashes under an order to automated vehicle companies issued in 2021.

Amazon for a price that analysts pegged at over $1 billion. In 2023 the Foster City, California, company said one of its funky-looking four-person shuttles on public roads on a mile-long (1.6 kilometer) route between two Zoox buildings.

The company has launched a shuttle service exclusively for its employees. Analysts say they expect Amazon to use the Zoox system for autonomous deliveries.

Zoox shuttles don’t have a steering wheel or pedals. The carriage-style interior of the vehicle has two benches that face each other. It measures just under 12 feet (3.7 meters) long, about a foot (a third of a meter) shorter than a standard Mini Cooper. It is capable of going up to 75 mph (121 kilometers per hour), although it started running on public roads at up to 35 mph, the company said.

Zoox . In March of 2022 the agency began looking into the company’s certification that its vehicle met federal safety standards for motor vehicles.

The agency said at the time that it would look into whether Zoox used its own test procedures to determine that certain federal standards weren’t applicable because of the robotaxi’s unique configuration.

The car, launched last year by Chinese automaker BYD, sells for around $12,000 in China, but drives well and is put together with craftsmanship that rivals U.S. electric vehicles that cost three times as much. A shorter-range version costs under $10,000.

Tariffs on imported Chinese vehicles will keep the Seagull out of America for now, and it likely would sell for more than 12 grand if imported.

But the rapid emergence of low-priced EVs from China could shake up the global auto industry in ways not seen since Japanese makers arrived during the oil crises of the 1970s. BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams,” could be a nightmare for the U.S. auto industry.

“Any car company that’s not paying attention to them as a competitor is going to be lost when they hit their market,” said Sam Fiorani, a vice president at AutoForecast Solutions near Philadelphia. “BYD’s entry into the U.S. market isn’t an if. It’s a when.”

U.S. politicians and manufacturers already see Chinese EVs as a serious threat. The Biden administration on Tuesday is expected to on electric vehicles imported from China, saying they pose a threat to U.S. jobs and national security.

says in a paper that government subsidized Chinese EVs “could end up being an extinction-level event for the U.S. auto sector.”

Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Chinese EVs are so good that without trade barriers, “they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.”

Outside of China, EVs are often pricey, aimed at higher-income buyers. But Chinese brands offer affordable options for the masses — just as many governments are encouraging a shift away from gasoline vehicles to fight climate change.

Inside a huge garage near Detroit, a company called Caresoft Global tore apart and reassembled a bright green Seagull that its China office purchased and shipped to the U.S.

Company President Terry Woychowski, a former chief engineer on General Motors’ pickup trucks, said the car is a “clarion call” for the U.S. industry, which is years behind China in designing low-cost EVs.

After the teardown, Woychowski said he was left wondering if U.S. automakers can adjust. “Things will have to change in some radical ways in order to be able to compete,” he said.

There’s no single miracle that explains how BYD can manufacture the Seagull for so little. Instead, Woychowski said the entire car, which can go 252 miles (405 kilometers) per charge, is “an exercise in efficiency.”

Higher U.S. labor costs are a part of the equation. BYD also can keep costs down because of its battery-making expertise — largely lithium iron phosphate chemistry used in consumer products. The batteries cost less but have lower range than most current lithium-ion batteries.

Americans are still learning to make cheaper batteries, Woychowski said.

BYD also makes many of its own parts, including electric motors, dashboards, and bodies, using its huge scale — 3 million vehicles sold worldwide last year — for cost savings.

It designs vehicles with cost and efficiency in mind, he said. For instance, the Seagull has only one windshield wiper, eliminating one motor and one arm, saving on weight, cost and labor to install.

U.S. automakers don’t often design vehicles this way and incur excess engineering costs, Woychowski said.

The efficiency means weight savings that add up, allowing the Seagull to travel farther per charge on a smaller battery.

So Detroit needs to quickly re-learn a lot of design and engineering to keep up while shedding practices from a century of building vehicles, Woychowski said.

The Seagull still has a quality feel. Doors close solidly. The gray synthetic leather seats have stitching that matches the body color, a feature usually found in more expensive cars. The Seagull tested by Caresoft has six air bags and electronic stability control.

A brief drive through some connected parking lots by a reporter showed that it runs quietly and handles curves and bumps as well as more costly EVs

While acceleration isn’t head-snapping like other EVs, the Seagull is peppy and would have no problems entering a freeway.

BYD would have to modify its cars to meet U.S. safety standards, which are more stringent than in China. Woychowski says Caresoft hasn’t done crash tests, but he estimated that would add $2,000 to the cost.

BYD sells the Seagull, also called the Dolphin Mini, in four Latin American countries for about $21,000. The higher price includes transportation and reflects higher profits possible in less cutthroat markets than China.

BYD told the AP last year it is “still in the process” of deciding whether to sell autos in the U.S. It is weighing factory sites in Mexico for the Mexican market.

The company isn’t selling cars in the U.S. largely due to 27.5% tariffs on the sale price of Chinese vehicles when they arrive. Donald Trump slapped on the bulk of the tariff, 25%, when he was president, and it was kept in place under Joe Biden. Trump contends that the rise of EVs backed by Biden will cost U.S. factory jobs, sending the work to China.

The Biden administration has backed legislation and policies to build a U.S. EV manufacturing base.

Some members of Congress are urging Biden to ban imports of Chinese vehicles altogether, including those made in Mexico by Chinese companies that now would come in largely without tariffs.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, has seen Caresoft’s work on the Seagull and BYD’s rapid growth, especially in Europe. He’s moving to change his company. A small “skunkworks” team is designing a new, small EV to keep costs down and quality high, he said earlier this year.

Chinese makers, Farley said, sold almost no EVs in Europe two years ago, but now have 10% of the EV market. It’s likely they’ll export around the globe and possibly sell in the U.S.

Ford is preparing to counter that. “Don’t take anything for granted,” Farley said. “This CEO doesn’t.”

____

Associated Press writers Paul Wiseman and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report. Moritsugu reported from Beijing.

At issue is not just whether people are using enough sunscreen, but what ingredients are in it.

The Food and Drug Administration’s ability to approve the chemical filters in sunscreens that are sold in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and France is hamstrung by a 1938 U.S. law that requires sunscreens to be tested on animals and classified as drugs, rather than as cosmetics as they are in much of the world. So Americans are not likely to get those better sunscreens — which block the ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer and lead to wrinkles — in time for this summer, or even the next.

Sunscreen makers say that requirement is unfair because companies including BASF Corp. and L’OrĂ©al, which make the newer sunscreen chemicals, submitted safety data on sunscreen chemicals to the European Union authorities some 20 years ago.

Steven Goldberg, a retired vice president of BASF, said companies are wary of the FDA process because of the cost and their fear that additional animal testing could ignite a consumer backlash in the European Union, which bans animal testing of cosmetics, including sunscreen. The companies are asking Congress to change the testing requirements before they take steps to enter the U.S. marketplace.

In a rare example of bipartisanship last summer, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, thanked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for urging the FDA to speed up approvals of new, more effective sunscreen ingredients. Now a bipartisan bill is pending in the House that would require the FDA to allow non-animal testing.

“It goes back to sunscreens being classified as over-the-counter drugs,” said Carl D’Ruiz, a senior manager at DSM-Firmenich, a Switzerland-based maker of sunscreen chemicals. “It’s really about giving the U.S. consumer something that the rest of the world has. People aren’t dying from using sunscreen. They’re dying from melanoma.”

Every hour, at least two people die of skin cancer in the United States. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in America, and 6.1 million adults are treated each year for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nation’s second-most-common cancer, breast cancer, is diagnosed about 300,000 times annually, though it is far more deadly.

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Dermatologists offer tips to keep skin safe and healthy

• Stay in the shade during peak sunlight hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daylight time.
• Wear hats and sunglasses.
• Use UV-blocking sun umbrellas and clothing.
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours. You can order overseas versions of sunscreens from online pharmacies such as Cocooncenter in France. Keep in mind that the same brands may have different ingredients if sold in U.S. stores. But importing your sunscreen may not be affordable or practical. “The best sunscreen is the one that you will use over and over again,” said Jane Yoo, a New York City dermatologist.

Though skin cancer treatment success rates are excellent, 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by age 70. The disease costs the health care system $8.9 billion a year, according to CDC researchers. One study found that the annual cost of treating skin cancer in the United States more than doubled from 2002 to 2011, while the average annual cost for all other cancers increased by just 25%. And unlike many other cancers, most forms of skin cancer can largely be prevented — by using sunscreens and taking other precautions.

But a heavy dose of misinformation has permeated the sunscreen debate, and some people question the safety of sunscreens sold in the United States, which they deride as “chemical” sunscreens. These sunscreen opponents prefer “physical” or “mineral” sunscreens, such as zinc oxide, even though all sunscreen ingredients are chemicals.

“It’s an artificial categorization,” said E. Dennis Bashaw, a retired FDA official who ran the agency’s clinical pharmacology division that studies sunscreens.

Still, such concerns were partly fed by the FDA itself after it published a study that said some sunscreen ingredients had been found in trace amounts in human bloodstreams. When the FDA said in 2019, and then again two years later, that older sunscreen ingredients needed to be studied more to see if they were safe, sunscreen opponents saw an opening, said Nadim Shaath, president of Alpha Research & Development, which imports chemicals used in cosmetics.

“That’s why we have extreme groups and people who aren’t well informed thinking that something penetrating the skin is the end of the world,” Shaath said. “Anything you put on your skin or eat is absorbed.”

Adamson, the Austin dermatologist, said some sunscreen ingredients have been used for 30 years without any population-level evidence that they have harmed anyone. “The issue for me isn’t the safety of the sunscreens we have,” he said. “It’s that some of the chemical sunscreens aren’t as broad spectrum as they could be, meaning they do not block UVA as well. This could be alleviated by the FDA allowing new ingredients.”

Ultraviolet radiation falls between X-rays and visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum. Most of the UV rays that people come in contact with are UVA rays that can penetrate the middle layer of the skin and that cause up to 90% of skin aging, along with a smaller amount of UVB rays that are responsible for sunburns.

The sun protection factor, or SPF, rating on American sunscreen bottles denotes only a sunscreen’s ability to block UVB rays. Although American sunscreens labeled “broad spectrum” should, in theory, block UVA light, some studies have shown they fail to meet the European Union’s higher UVA-blocking standards.

“It looks like a number of these newer chemicals have a better safety profile in addition to better UVA protection,” said David Andrews, deputy director of Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that researches the ingredients in consumer products. “We have asked the FDA to consider allowing market access.”

The FDA defends its review process and its call for tests of the sunscreens sold in American stores as a way to ensure the safety of products that many people use daily, rather than just a few times a year at the beach.

“Many Americans today rely on sunscreens as a key part of their skin cancer prevention strategy, which makes satisfactory evidence of both safety and effectiveness of these products critical for public health,” Cherie Duvall-Jones, an FDA spokesperson, wrote in an email.

D’Ruiz’s company, DSM-Firmenich, is the only one currently seeking to have a new over-the-counter sunscreen ingredient approved in the United States. The company has spent the past 20 years trying to gain approval for bemotrizinol, a process D’Ruiz said has cost $18 million and has advanced fitfully, despite attempts by Congress in 2014 and 2020 to speed along applications for new UV filters.

Bemotrizinol is the bedrock ingredient in nearly all European and Asian sunscreens, including those by the South Korean brand Beauty of Joseon and Bioré, a Japanese brand.

D’Ruiz said bemotrizinol could secure FDA approval by the end of 2025. If it does, he said, bemotrizinol would be the most vetted and safest sunscreen ingredient on the market, outperforming even the safety profiles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

As Congress and the FDA debate, many Americans have taken to importing their own sunscreens from Asia or Europe, despite the risk of fake products.

“The sunscreen issue has gotten people to see that you can be unsafe if you’re too slow,” said Alex Tabarrok, a professor of economics at George Mason University. “The FDA is just incredibly slow. They’ve been looking at this now literally for 40 years. Congress has ordered them to do it, and they still haven’t done it.”

KFF Health ĂÛèÖAPP is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.