 "If you don’t pursue what you think will be most meaningful, you will regret it. Life is long. There is always time for Plan B. But don’t begin with it.”
Drew Faust, Harvard president
Food for thought . . . Cost compromise has a price!
“As food manufacturers, we must not lose sight of the importance of integrity and the hidden costs associated with using so-called ‘cheaper’ ingredients. When vetting new vendors or renegotiating with current vendors, we never lose sight that no amount of savings is worth sacrificing quality. Instead, we try to work in partnership with vendors to make sure we’re ‘buying smart’.” Nicole Dawes, president of Late July Organic Snacks, US
Editor's Stuff - 'Clean' labels' obsession diverts attention from real issues
I have a really eclectic selection of news and reviews for you this week; from bad old food inflation and the peanut bummer saga in the US which just runs and runs, to PepsiCo's plans to target female snackers, to sage advice on how to get better bang for your ingredient buck, to a tough look at the bushmeat trade, and a fabulous lament about the 'underwhelmingness' of restaurant eating, one of my personal bugbears.
 In my weekly news-gathering trawl around the internet, I am constantly amazed by the amount of stuff that's written about food and the food industry. And it's always a fillip to find some new opinion on an old issue, as I did in an article in the UK's Food Manufacture magazine, where the British Nutrition Foundation argues that the obsession with ridding food labels of additives risks diverting time and resources from addressing more serious nutritional challenges.
While there was nothing wrong with using more 'natural' colours, flavours or preservatives, too great a focus on avoiding 'nasties' (perfectly legitimate, approved and useful ingredients) could "detract from the major challenges in child nutrition: avoiding obesity, achieving adequate intakes of essential nutrients and avoiding excessive intakes of fat, salt and sugars", says the foundation's director general, Judy Buttriss.
Her comments come as recent research from Mintel revealed that 'all natural' or 'no artificial ...' claims were the most significant drivers of new product development in 2008, featuring on almost a quarter (23%) of food and drink launches. Buttriss says: "When it comes to prioritising the attributes of foods, their content of essential nutrients and whether they are high in nutrients we need to cut down on, are far more relevant considerations than 'clean' labels."
Retailers, the article continues, routinely list commitments to cut additives in the 'healthy eating' sections of their websites. However, there was no compelling evidence to suggest that cleaner meant healthier, and consumers were in many cases being duped by 'no nasties' pledges. Good stuff! You can read the article here.
Enjoy this week's read. All correspondence is welcome.
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PS Thanks to all who entered our Nando's Peri Deli Give Away. Winners will be announced next week.
PPS Hmm, this week I upset Clover Danone's sensibilities with the Activia photograph I used in last week's newsletter. I took it to be a legitimate brand image and thought it would certainly catch the eye and it did, for better or worse. But as a one-person business I'm not about to take on a huge corporate, so I apologised and removed it from the website.
Again, my apologies if I offended anyone else, but a beautiful female breast is surely something totally natural, desirable, to be celebrated, and isn't that what we're all after in these gloomy days? And hey, I bet Activia got a whole lot more close attention than it's had in a long time!
Funny how when you do something 'wrong' you get jumped on immediately. Do some 'good' and it goes unnoticed. Wouldn't it be great, a month later, if someone at Clover had noticed that it's Great Taste, No Fat milk was voted by FOODStuff SA readers as the 'Product of 2008'?
GUEST COMMENTARY - Bob Messenger
  At the risk of offending Oprah's fans again, I wonder if she ever stops to think what she is doing when she embarks on one of her jaw-flapping, destructive industry rants.
A few weeks ago she had finance guru Suze Ormond as a guest on her show, and the two of them implored Oprah's audience and the world to eat at home and "don't go to restaurants for a month." Oh gee, Oprah, that will sure boost the economy. What, you two think more calories are consumed in restaurants than at home? There is no law against being ignorant, but these two have no clue what they are doing to America's restaurant industry when they spew such garbage. Hey, O, how would you like it if America tuned you and your advertisers out for a month?
Bob Messenger is the renowned publisher of The Morning Cup, a daily food industry e-zine that's read by many thousands of food industrialists in the US and the world.
Food Industry News
 SA: Food prices keep inflation on the boil
Stubbornly high food prices are keeping consumer inflation unexpectedly high, despite the fact that at the agricultural level food prices are falling. Read more
 SA: Draft melamine regulations published for comment
SA regulations relating to maximum levels for melamine in foodstuffs have been published in the Government Gazette and are now open for public comment. Read more
 UK: Cadbury sticks to forecasts as candy defies recession
Cadbury plc, the world’s largest confectionery maker, saya revenue growth this year will meet the lower end of its forecast and kept its goal for higher profit margins as chocolate and gum sales defy the global recession. Read more
 UK: Diageo acquires global rights for Windhoek beer
Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks business, has announced that it has reached an agreement with Namibia Breweries which gives Diageo the right to brew and distribute Windhoek globally except for certain African markets, for an initial term of 10 years at a nil initial consideration. Read more
EU: Nestlé bearish on bottled water business Nestlé is cutting investment in bottled water as it suffers from the economic downturn and environmental concerns, but will push the health benefits to help the business rebound, it says. The world's biggest bottler of water with brands including Perrier and Poland Spring, said last week that its water business was the only one to record falling sales in 2008 down 1.6%. Read more
 US: Organic growth freezes but will thaw, says Mintel
The number of consumers buying environmentally-friendly products has slowed with the economy but is still expected to increase over the next five years, according to new research from Mintel. The consumer survey showed that the number of consumers who habitually buy green products – including organic food – remains unchanged on last year at 36%, despite having tripled the year before, from just 12% in 2007. Read more
 EU: France takes step to greener farming policy
After 46 years of shovelling farm subsidies to its richer, more polluting farmers, France has taken a historic step towards a greener and fairer European agriculture policy, with President Sarkozy announcing that over 20% of the billions of euros of European taxpayers’ money paid to its ranch-like cereals farms and divert the cash to hill farmers, grazing land, shepherds and organic agriculture. Read more
 US: FDA consolidates at former navy site
The Food and Drug Administration will consolidate its previously scattered labs and offices into a sprawling, $1.15-billion compound in suburban Washington. Read more
 US: Peanut Corp tells all customers to stop distribution
The peanut processor at the center of the ongoing salmonella outbreak has instructed all its customers to stop any distribution of any of its product in a yet further expansion of one of the nation's biggest food recalls. Read more
 US: The salmonella outbreak count hits 666 people sickened; nine dead
The peanut butter salmonella food poisoning saga has sickened 666 people and is continuing despite one of the biggest food recalls in US history, health officials said this week. More than 2,100 products in 17 categories have been voluntarily recalled by more than 200 companies. Read more
 UK: Munch crunch: Britain's restaurant crisis
Last month alone, more than 100 British restaurants went out of business. And it's not just the Michelin brigade who are in hot water. Martin Hickman and Tim Walker report on a simmering kitchen nightmare.
Gordon Ramsay's (above) global restaurant chain has a reported overdraft of £10.5m. It has closed two outlets in London, but says business is good.
AFRICA: 'Super cassava' to enter field trials An ambitious attempt to bioengineer cassava into a "complete meal" took a step forward this month with the approval of field trials for the plant by Nigeria's National Biosafety Committee.
The GM cassava contains 30 times as much beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, as its normal counterpart. Ultimately it is hoped the cassava will contain increased levels of iron, protein, zinc and vitamin E that will meet the minimum daily allowance in a 500 gram meal.
Some 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa — and 800 million people globally — rely on cassava as their main source of energy. But it is low in nutrients, vulnerable to plant viruses, and it lasts only two days without processing. Read more
Health & Nutrition
UK: NHS resources threatened as diabetes cases soar 70% A dramatic increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in middle age has been documented by a study exposing the scale of the epidemic that threatens to overwhelm the NHS in the coming decades.
New cases of diabetes in Britain soared by 74% between 1997 and 2003, according to the study, suggesting that poor diet and rising levels of obesity are behind the increase in the hormonal illness, which almost doubles the risk of premature death. Read more
Cancer deaths 'to double in next 40 years' Cancer cases are now rising at such a rate in Britain and the rest of the world that the disease poses a threat to humanity comparable to climate change, warns Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London.
About seven million people die from cancer worldwide each year, according to the most recent estimate by the World Cancer Research Fund, expected to rise to more than 10 million by 2020. The estimated number of new cases annually is set to increase from 10 million now to 16 million by 2020. Overall the toll is predicted to double in the next 40 years.
Just as global warming requires a quick and concerted international response, so Marmot believes that cancer now requires intervention on a similar scale. Read more
No winner in major diet study For people who are trying to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if you are counting carbs, protein or fat. All that matters is that you’re counting something. That’s the finding of the largest-ever controlled study of weight loss methods, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read more
'Joy of Cooking' or 'Joy of Obesity'? The classic cookbook, published since 1931, has done some girth-expanding along with its many current fans, a study has found. Published as a letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the report examined 18 classic recipes found in seven editions of the book from 1936 to 2006. It found that calorie counts for 14 of the recipes have ballooned by an average of 928 calories, or 44%, per recipe. And serving sizes have grown as well. Read more
New Product Development US: PepsiCo targets women with snack launch PepsiCo is to launch Smartfood popcorn clusters in the US next month, low-fat, low-sugar, sweet and salty popcorn snacks as part of PepsiCo's attempt to target the US$650m in sales that it sees from female consumption of snacks. At 120 calories a-piece, the clusters are presented in a white box with a swish of purple for the details.
"In March, Frito-Lay will introduce our first truly-targeted women's snack," John Compton, CEO of PepsiCo America Foods, told the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference in Florida last week. Compton said the impetus for PepsiCo's move to target female consumers came from the company's female chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi (left).
"She strongly encouraged us to think about women completely different," Compton said. PepsiCo commissioned a study into female consumption habits, which led the group to launch a product targeted at women.
"The study told us that if we developed products that truly met women's needs and if we communicated to them on their terms, in a compelling way, that there was a potential market just in the US alone of $650m. That got our attention."
Among other measures, Compton said PepsiCo is revamping the in-store displays it uses to sell its products to highlight healthier snacks for women, who do the majority of shopping. Read more
Hail the ultimate super berry?  Denver-based Synaura International is launching a new juice/liquid supplement boasting what's claimed to be the 'superest' of the super fruits: maqui (Aristotelia Chilensisa).
Indigenous to Patagonia, the purple berry has more antioxidants than acai, mangosteen, goji, noni or even chocolate. Synaura says independent studies show that this purple and tasty little berry boasts the highest Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) value of any botanical. Read more  Angry OJ fans force Tropicana to discontinue new packaging
PepsiCo is bowing to public demand and scrapping the packaging changes made to a flagship product, Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice. As one analyst has noted it 'went down like can of New Coke'. Read more
Starbucks launches Via Ready Brew instant coffee We gave much coverage last week to Starbucks' new VIA Ready Brew, its "transformational" instant coffee that replicates the body and flavour of Starbucks coffee in an instant form. The brew is 100% natural roasted coffee, made without preservatives. It's the work of proprietary, patent-pending technology that's said to preserve the coffee’s taste, quality and freshness. Here's the product pic and another take on the development. Read more
NPD consideration: if it's hard to say, it must be risky We all have different criteria for what we consider risky. However, numerous studies have suggested that we tend to perceive familiar products and activities as being less risky and hazardous than unfamiliar ones.
If something is familiar, the thinking goes, it is comfortable and safe. But how do we know if something is familiar? We often rely on a simple shortcut: If it is easy to perceive, remember or pronounce, we have probably seen it before. If so, will a product's name and how easy it is to pronounce, affect how we view the product? Read more
Food Safety
UK: Hope over peanut allergy 'cure' Gradual exposure to peanut may put an end to peanut allergy, if results of a small study from Cambridge are followed by similar positive results. A team from Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital exposed four children to peanuts over a six-month period, gradually building up their tolerance. By the end the children were eating the equivalent of five peanuts a day.
It is the first time a food allergy has been desensitised in such a way, although a longer-term follow up is now needed to confirm the findings. Read more
EU: Chemical under review after showing up in foodMigration of a chemical from external cereal cardboard packaging into the food has prompted the European Commission to request a risk assessment on the substance from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The German authorities alerted the Commission through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) regarding the migration of 4-methylbenzophenone, a component of the inks used in the food packaging. The agency said that it intends to publish its advice by 3 March. Read more
 Chr Hansen acquires novel anti-bacterial technology for cattle and poultry
Chr Hansen has acquired a technology to fight E coli, salmonella and campylobacter in cattle and poultry. The technology meets an increasing demand for maximum food and human safety from consumers worldwide. The technology builds on bacteriophages, one of nature’s own weapons against bacteria. They are choosy and ideal for eliminating unwanted bacteria more efficiently than antibiotics and without unwanted side effects. Read more
US: General Mills and Dannon say no to rBST
 Consumer concerns about rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin), a synthetic hormone that promotes milk production in cows, have prompted two leading food producers in the US – General Mills and Dannon – to reformulate their dairy product lines.
It is a decision that will have immediate implications on the dairy market as a whole, but could also mark a turning point in the use of new technologies in food production in general. Read more
Food Science Stuff
FDA accepts NCFST food-sterilisation process The FDA has approved The National Center for Food Safety and Technology’s new pressure-assisted thermal sterilisation (PATS) food-sterilisation process, an innovative and promising technique for the production of low-acid foods. It significantly improves the quality of thermally-processed foods while simultaneously eliminating the food-safety risks associated with dangerous bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum and its toxins.
This federal 'tick' is the result of a seven-year, multimillion-dollar collaborative research initiative involving scientists and engineers from NCFST, Avure Technologies, US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (RDEC), Baxter Health Care, ConAgra Foods, Hormel Foods, General Mills, Basic American Foods, ilever and Mars Co.
New enzymes on track for commercially-viable cellulosic ethanol Novozymes reports that it's on track to deliver next year second-generation enzymes that will enable the commercial success of cellulosic ethanol, something of a holy grail in the search for sustainable energy sources.
Cellulosic ethanol is derived from enzymes breaking down cellulosic waste materials such as corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, and wood chips into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Novozymes’ newest enzyme product family has proven to work on many different feedstock types. Read more
Ingredient cost control – at what cost? You can’t very well leave the fruit out of your fruit bar or the chocolate out of your chocolate chip cookies. Yet with the prices of some ingredients more than double what they were last year, you have to do something.
Processors and ingredient companies might seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to controlling ingredient costs. But it might surprise you just how in synch the two halves of the food processing coin are when it comes to keeping the costs of manufacturing down.
Processors and ingredient companies share their strategies for helping to control today’s high cost of ingredients – without impacting quality or safety. Read more
Time to go back to the future on useful technologies? An uncoordinated approach, inadequate communication, limited understanding of the benefits of innovation and resistance to change often impede progress in the food industry. Solutions are written off without a thorough cost-benefit analysis and where less expensive uses of technology are subsequently found, they continue to be shunned.
In turn, firms miss the benefits of other advances because they spark a storm of media-driven controversy and are quietly shelved. That's why it's vital for researchers, engineers, trade groups, government and processors to work together to distinguish the snakes from the ladders and capitalise on the best ideas to address future needs. Read more [Excellent, thought-provoking article, especially pertinent with the food industry today facing the massive challenges of recession and food safety. Ed]
Miscellany A hard look at the illegal bushmeat trade The Independent has published a rather hard-to-stomach video report on the illegal bushmeat trade out of Africa that is a serious threat to African wildlife and human health, both in Kenya and the UK. According to the report, up to 10 tons of the illegal meat is being imported into London markets every day.
Prompted by the rise in poverty, a range of wild animals are snared by poachers, butchered, and then transported across the globe as part of a widespread commercial trade. Desperate to make money for their families, independent poachers ensnare wild animals such as gorillas, zebras and even elephants. Organised criminals also poach, often hundreds of animals at a time.
The Kenyan government, which condemns the practice as strictly illegal, is desperately trying to eradicate the trade. Animal rights charity, Born Free, has teamed up with Land Rover to educate Kenyans about the extreme danger to both wildlife and humans that the bushmeat trade represents. To see the innovative way in which they hope to accomplish this, view more here
UK: Rhodes tastes defeat in his 'misleading' Flora claims A TV advert in which the celebrity chef Gary Rhodes claimed that a best-selling margarine was more popular than a rival's butter blend has been banned for misleading viewers. The Advertising Standards Authority said Unilever had insufficient evidence that people preferred the taste of Flora Buttery to a Lurpak spread.
The ruling is the latest in the fierce battle between traditional butter companies and margarine giants for the £975m-a-year "yellow fats" market in which the focus is on creating hybrid products that are creamier than margarine but spread more easily than butter. Read more
Why can't I get a decent meal out these days? Do you find restaurants almost unfailingly underwhelming? If you're one who often feels cheated by inferior food, poor service and outrageous bills, then don't miss this wonderful article by The Independent columnist, Janet Street-Porter.
An extract: "While skilled chefs such as Anthony Worrall Thompson and Tom Aikens are high-profile casualties of the recession, another kind of cuisine is flourishing – cheap fast food. Offers that customers can download from the internet have enabled chains such as Pizza Hut, Strada and Pizza Express to thrive. KFC plan to open 250 new estaurants employing 9,000 people. Subway is creating 7,000 new jobs in 600 outlets in the UK and Ireland.
None of these new career opportunities involve a high level of cooking skill or the ability to come up with what I would call real food. Is this what our much-hyped British dining renaissance has come down to? The crisis facing the industry is huge – 45% of the businesses that failed in the hospitality sector at the end of last year were restaurants, a rise of 32% on the previous 12 months. This week, dozens more will be facing bankruptcy. But I won't mourn them." Read more
 Kit Kat takes a break through its website
In an effort to encourage people to "have a break", Kit Kat launched a website with nearly zero activity on it and very simple graphics. Rather than reams of text, images, tabs, video content and flash animation, the site simply carries the text "The first worldwide site where nothing happens" along with the "Have a break" strapline.
See www.thefirstworldwidewebsitewherenothinghappens.com
UK ends BSc courses in homeopathy Can a blog force a university to close a degree course? David Colquhoun, the University College London pharmacology professor behind the "Improbable science" blog would like to think so. Since 2003, Colquhoun has used his blog, along with freedom of information requests, to draw attention to universities running courses in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
He argues that the treatments are unproven, degree courses unscientific, and universities wrong to award students bachelor's or master's of science qualifications. Read more
Gene could give you perfect gnashers The days of whining drills and shrieking patients that can make a trip to the dentist an experience to dread may be numbered. Researchers studying tooth development have singled out a gene that controls the growth of enamel, the hard outer layer of teeth, which cannot grow back naturally once it is damaged by tooth decay. The discovery sheds fresh light on the way teeth form and could pave the way, down the line, for new dental treatments. Read more
Last Word Apt aptronyms An aptronym is a name aptly suited to its owner's occupation, with one of the most famous being Thomas Crapper, the manufacturer of Victorian toilets (although the word 'crap' predates Mr Crapper).
Thanks to Susan Featherstone of Nampak R&D who pointed out from one of last week's articles that the executive director of the Peanut Producers Board in Texas is, yes, really called Shelly Nutt!
 Here's another good one uncovered of late, but firstly, you need to learn the word 'snarge'. It's the bird goo that's wiped off an aircraft after it hits a bird. Snarge analysis is the work of the feather-identification lab at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The lab gets about 4 000 such samples each year, with feathers from bird strikes yielding a lot of information about the birds, and knowing which birds planes hit is an important tool in aviation safety. The team of snarge scientists is headed, yes, by one Carla Dove.
Do you eat off the floor? Well, you'd be safer eating off a toilet seat!  A recent national survey in the US found that nearly 60% of Americans admit to eating food that has fallen on the floor. Obviously they had not seen statistics showing that a typical home carpet has up to 4,000 times more bacteria particles – even after vacuuming – than toilet seats. These findings come from a comprehensive health survey of 1,000 American adults conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of a carpet cleaning company (take this as you will).
Using one-square-inch samples, here’s the total number of bacteria particles independent tests from the University of Arizona found on different household surfaces:
* Toilet seat: 49
* Kitchen counter: 1,686
* Kitchen tile: 2,546
* Bathroom floor: 18,025
* Carpet: more than 200,000
That's it for this week, folks! |
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