"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Jack London, writer

 

Food bites . . . The unnatural truth about natural foods

"... natural, all natural and 100% natural are widely used terms that don’t mean much, but look good on packaging. It’s so complicated that the FDA has refused to define natural foods – citing other priorities. If our governing agencies cannot agree on what natural is, what are consumers to do? I have come to the conclusion that many foods packaged in a box, air-filled bag, or frozen food container are not natural – no matter what the label says."
Keely Gideon-Taylor, bloggist with PalmBeachPost.com

Editor's Stuff - Think green in the 2010s!

 
Welcome to the 2010's! I think the food industry, always interesting and dynamic, is starting to surf some very big waves that will shape its fortunes over this coming decade. If you're trend searching, do visit my new Trends-in-Brief page, a collation of all the trend articles highlighted in this newsletter over the past year.

The page, with an easy-to-search and read format of just a headline and link, covers consumer, food, beverage, health and nutrition, marketing and packaging - and most importantly, sustainability - trends and developments. In fact, if I was asked to name the two most significant trends du jour, it has become apparent that health and wellness, while still a major influence, has taken rear seat to the impact of the recession this past year. And sitting next to it is a loud green child in the passenger seat whose name is an enviro-eco-ethical-responsible-carbon-footprint-sustainability mouthful.

When I started this newsletter just over a year ago, green-focused articles were around but intermittent. Now, environmental issues are increasingly filling this newsletter, as you may well have noticed, with a section devoted to them most weeks. To quote my admired food industry guru and friend across the Atlantic, the sage Bob Messenger, who wrote in one of his Morning Cup newsletters this week: "From production to packaging to transportation, the pressure to sustain and save the planet will be overwhelming. I'll leave it to all of you to decide the good or bad of that, I'm just telling you environmental activism in 2010 is going to be tenfold more contentious than it was in 2009."

In SA, we're saved the eccentricities and pressures of the likes of PETA and other exreme lobby groups that have the agri-food industries foremost in their sights in the US and Europe, but pressure is starting to grow here. And not before time, too. 

So here's wishing you a successful and eco-conscious 2010 .... meanwhile this following story covers what has to be one of the most sensible bits of research ever! A brilliant no-brainer that could create a whole new and profitable beverage sector, but, sadly, is unlikely ever to be realised.

Enjoy this week's read!

Alcohol substitute in development: get the buzz without the hangover

An alcohol substitute that mimics its pleasant buzz without leading to drunkenness and hangovers is being developed by scientists. The new substance could have the added bonus of being "switched off" instantaneously with a pill, to allow drinkers to drive home or return to work. The synthetic alcohol, being developed from chemicals related to Valium, works like alcohol on nerves in the brain that provide a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation. Read more

Email Brenda Neall, editor and publisher: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

OVER 70 FOOD INDUSTRY JOBS ON OFFER! Click here . . .
technical sales reps, auditors, plant managers, key account managers, microbiologists etc

Afrikaans translation: To translate this page, go to http://interpret.co.za/, and simply paste the URL into the page translator module. The translation is by no means perfect, but is a help if you want to read in your home language.

Hindsight and foresight: trends, trends and more trends

100 things to watch in 2010

Every year, leading global ad agency, JWT, releases a "Things to Watch" report. Its 2009 report is a compilation that reflects broader shifts we’ve been following, from growing awareness and action around health and wellness and the environment to warp-speed developments in technology. It also shows how accelerating demographic, political and economic power shifts are manifesting in our everyday lives.

UK: 2030 Trends: intelligent ovens, eat at home and grow your own

The Future Laboratory, a British consultancy firm, has released a report predicting what the major food trends will be over the next two decades. It forecasts that some of the changes in behaviour caused by the recession will take a firm hold. Thrift will no longer become a money-saving exercise, but a serious way of life.

It predicts lean times for the catering industry as more people cook for themselves and their friends. A new word "gastroentertainment" will enter the language with the home becoming the place where people will discover new foods. Read more

Reading the tea leaves for 2010

The next year will likely open with a solution to the Kraft Foods-Cadbury takeover battle. General Mills plans to expand through a joint venture with Nestlé. Retailers to watch include Tesco and Waitrose. And sustainability efforts will continue to be in the forefront. This view from Just-Food.com Read more

State of the food & beverage industry

The food & beverage industry really is a collection of reasonably disparate yet surprisingly interconnected food categories. As distinct as milk may appear, dairy as an ingredient permeates many other categories. While fruits and vegetables may seem synonymous with fresh produce, they’re components in many other categories ... So, to get a handle on the year ahead for the whole food & beverage industry, we’re going to break it down into nine discrete units and look backward and ahead at each. What emerges is a quilt of opportunities but also challenges for everyone in this business of food. Read more 

2010 Consumer Trends Forecast: The new SHEconomy ...

SHE is highly educated and working hard, both at home and at the office. SHE is worried about climate change globally and the environment in her own backyard. SHE is worried about children's diets and health. SHE is not indulging in much, in order to reduce expenses. SHE is making most of the purchasing decisions for her family, and SHE is reshaping commerce and culture as we know it. It is the new SHEconomy. Oh, and SHE is tired. Read more

UK: Spuds back big on consumers' menus

They have been attacked for their less than exciting image, ignored by low carb dieters and ostracised from the five a day allowance, but new research from Mintel finds that the fortunes of the humble spud have turned as today, potatoes are eaten by 97% of the British population.

Valued at £1.7 billion in 2009, sales of potatoes have grown a smashing 27% since 2004. And the future is set to be equally as steamy for the simple spud, with volume sales forecast to increase by 6% in the next five years to reach 2.3 million tonnes. Meanwhile, value sales of potatoes will increase a further 23% in the next five years. Read more

Chocoholics unite as chocolate sales worldwide defy recession

Just in time for seasonal festivities, Mintel reports that chocolate sales around the world have busted through the recession... In China and the Ukraine — two countries not necessarily recognised for their rampant chocoholic populations — chocolate confectionery sales rose 18% and 12%, respectively, this year. Each country has seen steady sales increases since 2005 and Mintel predicts continued growth through 2013. Other countries have also seen chocolate bars, bags and boxes flying off the shelves, albeit at lower rates. Read more

10 food trends of the future

Food is like fashion: full of trends that are hot plates one moment and cold leftovers the next. Sure, there are fundamentals that will never go out of style, like a well-cooked steak or a creamy bisque. But then there are fads - Chilean sea bass, sous vide, molecular gastronomy. Like fashion's flashes in the pan, some are gaudy extravaganzas meant to attract attention and instant gratification. On the other hand, some become classics passed down through generations to come. No one can truly predict what the public will embrace, either in the short or long term.

Food Industry News

Raising dough: Kraft sells pizza business to Nestlé to fund Cadbury offer

Kraft has sold its frozen pizza business to Nestlé to help fund its offer for Cadbury after Nestlé pulled out of the bidding for the British confectioner. Kraft has said that it intends to use the net proceeds from the $3.7bn sale to sweeten its offer to Cadbury shareholders, saying that many have expressed a wish for more of the deal to be in cash rather than Kraft shares. Read more

The Nestle Perspective: This frozen pizza business provides a new strategic pillar to Nestlé’s frozen food portfolio in the US and Canada. The acquisition brings leadership in the frozen pizza category, where Nestlé only had a minor presence until now, and builds on Nestlé’s existing pizza know-how and operations in Europe. Read more

The Kraft Perspective: Why has Kraft sold a cash cow to Nestle? Why does Kraft want to trade pizza for chocolate? The main reason is that pizza has more limited global potential than confectionery, with Kraft looking to focus on products where it can bring global scale. Read more

Oh-oh, Buffett votes against Kraft bid for Cadbury

Kraft's biggest shareholder isn't sweet on the food giant's hostile bid for candy maker Cadbury. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett (pictured) has voted against Kraft's plan to issue new shares for the approximately $16 billion cash and stock offer.

Buffett said the merger - which has been opposed by Cadbury's board - would hurt Kraft shareholders. Buffett is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 138 million Kraft shares. That gives it a 9.4% stake in Kraft, making it Kraft's largest shareholder ...  Read more

Nestlé opens global R&D centre to develop new generation of biscuits

The development of new technologies at R&D Santiago will help to further reduce sugar and fat levels to make biscuits lighter, without compromising taste or texture. Read more

Confectioners to adjust to soaring cocoa prices

As cocoa prices reach their highest levels in 30 years, confectioners are expected to adjust their strategies by offering smaller bars, more milk chocolate and alternative ingredients. The recent shift toward dark chocolate, which has higher cocoa content and is perceived as having health benefits, is expected to recede in favour of milk chocolate, which uses less cocoa. Read more  

Tea shortage to widen as rising demand exceeds supply

A global tea shortage may widen this year and extend into 2011 as a rebound in production in Africa, Sri Lanka and India trails demand growth, the world’s biggest tea-plantation company said. The deficit may reach as much as 130 million kilograms by April, compared with the 110 million kilograms forecast in September, and prices may rise to a record again this year as shortages persist, Aditya Khaitan, MD of McLeod Russel India Ltd, said in an interview. The deficit was estimated at 100 million kilograms last year. Read more

Nestlé resumes production after Mugabe spat

Swiss food manufacturer Nestlé resumed operations in Zimbabwe Monday, after closing down late last month over a milk supply spat with President Robert Mugabe. The company had come under pressure from the authorities, and supporters of the Zimbabwean leader, after it abruptly cancelled a milk supply contract with Mugabe in protest over a farm he seized from a white farmer under his government's controversial land reforms. Read more

Food Marketing

The 7 Universal Brand-Management Truths ...

Coca-Cola today has a market capitalisation in excess of $100 billion because the perceived value of its brand is significantly higher than the sum total of all the assets of the company. In my years with Procter & Gamble and Heinz, I have come to realise that no matter what the product or service, the key principles for building a great brand remain the same. By staying true to these seven principles, a marketer can weather economic highs and lows while building an iconic brand for target consumers. Read more  

China: Kraft Food thrives by catering to Chinese consumers

For years Oreo cookies were a hard sell in China. Consumers found the traditional US version of the Kraft Foods cookie too sweet and too expensive. The package was too big for small Chinese families. Like many global companies, Kraft had to dress a signature product differently to gain acceptance in the world's most populous market, with notable success. The snack-size (and less sugary) Oreo accounted for 7.3% of the Chinese cookie market for the 12 months through September. Read more

Custom candy spurs innovation at Mars

The idea for creating M&Ms printed with words or images chosen by consumers originated in 2000, but required innovations in printing technology and marketing. The idea took shape at Mars' Pioneer Week, which gives selected teams a budget and 90 days to create a trial production line for a potential product. Read more

Getting ahead in the juice industry

In some markets, juices and smoothies have been the success story of this decade. In others, they have suffered complete rejection by consumers. The GM of American success story, Naked Juice, Mikel Durham, talks about the secrets of getting ahead in the juice industry. Read more

The best in beverages, 2009

Claire Phoenix, editor of Beverage Innovation magazine, reveals her favourite drinks of 2009, including energy shots, tea, soda and more. Read more

Food Science Stuff

Safety of beef processing method is questioned

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella. Read more

Beef recall sparks tenderisation debate

A multi-state beef recall in the US has led to renewed focus on mechanical tenderisation as a possible cause of increased E coli risk in beef and pork products.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) recalled 248,000 pounds of mechanically tenderised beef products from Oklahoma-based National Steak and Poultry on December 24 after they were linked to 21 illnesses across 16 states. Mechanical tenderisation involves inserting hundreds of tiny needles into tougher beef products to physically break up muscle fibres, and it is also used to inject marinades into pork. It is alleged that the process could transfer any E coli bacteria that may be on the surface of meat into its core, meaning that consumers would need to heat the product to at least 71°C to ensure the bacteria are killed. Read more

How McDonald's makes sure its burgers are safe

The hamburger you buy at McDonald's may look just like the hamburger you cook at home. But, in terms of safety, the two burgers are not close... McDonald's is considered one of the best, if not the best, company in the United States when it comes to food safety. "They're the top of the top," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director of the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, DC. Read more

The science hehind corn sweeteners

Corn syrups likely date to the 1811 discovery by G.S.C. Kirchoff that starch—a non-sweet polymer found largely in cereal grains where glucose monomers are bonded together—when boiled with diluted acid, produces sweet-tasting syrup. The initial syrups made in Europe from wheat starch used poorly controlled processes to hydrolyze the starch mostly to glucose, and served initially as a substitute for scarce sugar resulting from the British blockade of Europe against Napoleon.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the bountiful US corn crop, with its high starch content, was recognised as an excellent starting material for a whole host of starch-based products. This evolved into the present day corn wet milling industry. Read more  

Health and Nutrition Stuff

Obesity is now just as much of a drag on health as smoking

In case anyone needs a reminder to stick to that New Year's resolution to slim down or kick the cigarette habit, researchers have confirmed that obesity and smoking are still the country's leading contributors to preventable deaths and illnesses. In fact, the new findings, from a 16-year survey of more than 3.5 million adults, reveal that being overweight has taken the lead as contributing the most to preventable poor health in the US. Read more

Obesogenic culture could lead to first American generation not to outlive parents

The chronic rate of obesity in America has reached such epidemic proportions that it has led demographic experts to coin a new term to describe our culture: obesogenic. The term signifies our rising consumption of unhealthy foods and greatly reduced physical activity. The resulting impact of our obesogenic society is jaw-dropping, especially among our youth: childhood obesity ...

The childhood obesity epidemic has prompted not only medical professionals, but also policy leaders, to roll up their sleeves. One of those public leaders is President Bill Clinton. After suffering a heart attack, Clinton decided to make reducing childhood obesity a mission in his post-presidency William J. Clinton Foundation by joining forces with the American Heart Association to establish The Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Read more  

Study: Link is "unclear" between sugar-sweetened drinks and obesity

A five-year study involving 2,294 US teens failed to establish a clear link between drinking sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain. The study demonstrated that the reported link may be "weaker than we have been led to believe by individual high-profile studies," said one of the study's authors. Read more

The acai berry myth

Have you heard? There is a new wonder berry in town. The acai berry has gained popularity as the newest miracle ingredient. Touting numerous health-promoting properties and reputed to have anti-cancer, anti-aging and other miraculous powers, it sounds like a modern day cure-all. So, is all the hype about acai well-founded? The best guess is anybody's guess ... Acai berries are marketed in multiple forms - as juice, smoothies, tablets and instant drinks. Acai enjoyed a taste of fame recently, when Dr Nicholas Perricone proclaimed the berry a "super food" on the Oprah Winfrey show. This opened the flood gates for the deluge of even greater health claims that supplement makers love to dream up. Read more

Unilever explores vegetarian iron for fortification

Iron compounds from vegetable origin that mimic iron from animal sources may enhance the bioavailability of the mineral and boost fortification programs, says a new study from Unilever. Sodium iron chlorophyllin obtained from mulberries was found to be as bioavailable as heme iron, scientists from Unilever R&D Vlaardingen in the Netherlands report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Read more

Sustainability & Green Stuff

Is Fido the new Hummer?

Dog lovers are howling over a new book called "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living". The book claims that "the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle." The book's authors, Robert and Brenda Vale, sustainable living experts at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, estimate that a medium-sized dog's annual diet - about 360 pounds of meat and 200 pounds of grains - requires roughly double the resources it would take to drive an SUV 6,200 miles a year ... Read more

GM wheat is on its way

Wheat is a critical staple crop, supplying much of the world's dietary protein. In 2007 world production was 607m tonnes, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice. The grain is used to make breads, biscuits, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, and couscous, and for fermentation to make beer, vodka, and grain alcohol. Up to now, wheat has not benefited from the application of modern genetic engineering that has revolutionised the farming of maize, cotton, canola and soy. But that is about to change.

Five years after scrapping its trials, Monsanto calculates that the time is now ripe for GM wheat to make a comeback. Read more  

Britain must launch GM food revolution, says chief scientist

Britain must embrace genetically modified crops and cutting-edge developments such as nanotechnology to avoid catastrophic food shortages and future climate change, the government's chief scientist will warn today.

In the clearest public signal yet that the government wants a hi-tech farming revolution, Professor John Beddington will say UK scientists need to urgently d evelop "a new and greener revolution" to increase food production in a world changed by global warming and expected to have an extra 3 billion people to feed by 2040. Read more

Can modern Japan cling onto its ancient rice culture?

Among the many rice-growing nations of Asia, there is none so rich, efficient and modern as Japan. Among grains, few are so steeped in tradition and mystique as rice. Despite a rush to modernity, Japan still clings to its ancient rice culture as if losing it would destroy its soul. Yet its farmers, the keepers of the grain, are literally dying out. Almost half of them are over 65. If they take rice’s rich heritage to the grave, what will that do to Japan? Read more

10:10 food: How to green your eating habits

When it comes to doing the right thing for the planet, the thorniest dilemmas are often about what we eat. Leo Hickman of The Guardian tackles ten of them. Read more

Sorry, vegans: Brussels sprouts like to live, too

Plants no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my Christmas clay pot. This is not meant as a trite argument or a chuckled aside. Plants are lively and seek to keep it that way.

The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds. Read more  

Drop that burger

Patrick Brown, a Stanford University biochemist, has changed science twice by giving stuff away. In the early 1990s Brown invented the DNA microarray, a tool that measures how cells make use of their DNA; he then showed researchers how to make their own, transforming genetic research. In 2000 he was one of three scientists who launched a free, online scientific journal called the Public Library of Science (PLOS); it has already broken the stranglehold of $200-a-year scientific publications like Science and Nature.

Now he is tackling an even bigger foe. Over the next 18 months Brown, 55, will take a break from his normal scientific work (finding out how a small number of genes are translated into a much larger number of proteins) in order to change the way the world farms and eats. He wants to put an end to animal farming, or at least put a significant dent in our global hunger for cows, pigs and chickens. Read more  

Packaging Stuff

How green is your pack?

With concerns about sustainability becoming more prevalent throughout the supply chain, from consumers and retailers up to packaging converters, designers, manufacturers and brand owners, comes news of CalcuLess, an environmental impact analyser for packaging. Read more

SA: Dairycap débuts award-winning convenience cup

The SpoonPot, an award-winning packaging concept developed by Italian company, dipileg, is now available in South Africa. The concept hit the packaging headlines in Europe last year when it was named winner of FoodBevMedia's 2008 Dairy Awards.

The exclusive Southern African agency has now been acquired by Dairycap, a leading supplier of creative aluminium foil and PET lidding, largely to the dairy and juice sectors. SpoonPot's novelty lies in a spoon or fork that's incorporated into the pack. Peel back the label, slip out the spoon from the base, lever the handle into a locked position (with no hand contamination) and you have a great point of consumer convenience and differentiation for to-go eating, including desserts, yoghurts, jellies, ice cream, pre-cut fruit and savoury snack dishes. Read more

SA: Marefa turns ten: forging a name in filling and bottling

When the going gets tough, the tough get going – this may be a tired adage but it's entirely fresh and appropriate for Etienne le Roux, founder and MD of Marefa. His Paarl-based bottling equipment company is celebrating a decade in business and a brand name that has quickly become synonymous with value, quality and reliability. Brenda Neall caught up with Etienne and fellow director, Peter Vermaak. Read more

Punchy packaging for on-shelf brand appeal

The three most common errors processors make with vacuum packaging

Miscellany

Happy birthday drinking straw!

On 3 January 1888, Marvin Chester Stone of Washington DC patented the drinking straw, which was made of hand-rolled paper covered in paraffin (lovely!). His timing was excellent, as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola had just come along.

Before Stone’s patent, people used stalks of rye grain as straws. By 1906, machines took over the hand-winding process. Today, the technology produces spiral-wound coverings for many industries, including electronics, automobiles and medical packaging. And drinking straws are still big business. [No link]

That's all for this week, folks