Food bites... More food science required

“Food producers and processors in industrialized and developing nations alike require science and technology to ensure a sustainable supply of safe, nutritious, and affordable food and satisfy a rapidly growing demand. Agriculture, regardless if it is traditional or modern, sustainable or organic, will need more science, not less. And people’s food, be it fast or slow, local or global, whole, natural, fresh or processed, industrial or not, will require more food science and technology, not less.”

John Floros, PhD, Professor & Head, Department of Food Science, Penn State University

Editor's Stuff - Putting food science in perspective

Echoing the theme in this week's Food Bites, the growing interest by consumers in “fresh”, “whole”, “organic”, and “natural” foods, as well as in food production practices that are less harmful to the environment, is changing the way consumers look at food and make food choices. At the ridiculous extreme, natural equals "good", while processed equals "bad".

Foods that are “processed” are constantly criticised in the media, and opinion leaders - from trendy chefs, ill-informed journalists and dubious nutritionists - seem to be the only voice that consumers listen to as they advise that we limit or avoid these foods.

If only they would take some time out to truly understand the impact and importance of food science; how modern food technology and food processing has allowed for the development of a safer, more plentiful, and more sustainable food supply than ever before, and both fresh and processed foods can be safe, nutritious, and environmentally responsible choices. That without it, we simply wouldn't enjoy the longest lifespan humanity has ever reached.

If you're ever under pressure from consumers and customers to explain and even defend your product, there's a great resource you can access on www.foodinsight.org, the home of IFIC or the International Food Information Council Foundation, that offers a vast amount of sage, science-based advice on every food topic imaginable. In this regard, it has published a three-part series call "From Farm to Fork" which covers "What the Experts Say About Modern Food Production", "Questions and Answers About Modern Food Production" and "What the Farmers Say About Modern Food Production" . In fact, the whole site is worth browsing through and bookmarking.

Enjoy this week's read!

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

10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health for 2010: SPECIAL OFFER FOR FOODSTUFF SA!

Brilliant insights don't have to cost a fortune! New Nutrition Business is offering South African readers of FOODStuff SA their annual flagship report at a 50% discount of only €100. To see more about the report and order your copy, click here.

LAST CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF "TEN KEY TRENDS IN FOOD, NUTRITION & HEALTH"!

FOODStuff SA is giving away THREE reports in a lucky draw. Entry is simple.... Just click here to stake your claim to this fantastic document valued at over R2000!

PS Did you know? FOODStuff SA features on page one of Google (co.za) for the search term "food industry". All the more reason for your company, products, services and achievements to have a presence on it!

THERE ARE MANY NEW FOOD INDUSTRY JOBS ADVERTISED THIS WEEK!
Click here .... and here and here .... technical sales reps, auditors, plant managers, key account managers, QC/QA 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.

SA Industry News

Heineken Gauteng brewery in production

The new Heineken-Diageo brewery in Sedibeng, Gauteng, started production about a month ago, FOODStuff SA has just learnt.

Reuters quotes Diageo's Africa region managing director, Nick Blazquez, as saying that it has started brewing Heineken and Windhoek beers at the new brewery late last year and that it is bringing forward an extra €36m of investment in packaging as it takes market share off SABMiller. The greenfield brewery cost €272m to build by the 75:25 Heineken-Diageo venture. Read more

Pioneer Foods to spend R900m

Western Cape-based consumer brands giant Pioneer Foods will spend more than R900m in capital expenditure in the year to end September 2010 to "facilitate the next level of earnings ability".

Writing in the recently-released annual report, Pioneer chairperson Boy Blanckenberg said the company's main focus was expanding and improving production facilities in the white maize meal, biscuit, rice and non-alcoholic beverage categories. Read more

The Soy Innovation Africa Symposium

The symposium is being organised by Soyatech LLC in collaboration with the World Soy Foundation, Soy in Southern Africa and the National Soybean Research Laboratory, and key discussion topics by local and international speakers include:

* What is the potential for profitable large- and small-scale soybean production in Africa.
* How can emerging market food processors maximise new technological tools?
* How can food manufacturers integrate nutritious soybean ingredients into locally acceptable foods?
* What is the potential demand for soy-based animal feed and biofuels in emerging markets?

This event will take place on August 26-27, 2010 at The Westin Grand Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, just after the 15th World Congress of Food Science and Technology (August 22-26, 2010 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre). More information about that conference can be found at www.iufost2010.org.za.

Food Industry News

Fairtrade KitKat goes on sale across Britain

Nearly 20 million Fairtrade KitKats hit the shelves across the UK this week. Nestlé said it had experienced an overwhelmingly positive response from retailers and customers since it announced late last year that its best-selling chocolate bar was to be certified as Fairtrade. David Rennie, MD of Nestlé Confectionery, seen here, launched the Fairtrade Kit Kat at a Co-op supermarket in York. Read more

Frugal shoppers fuel boom in out-of-date grocery trade

With food prices on the rise and consumers looking for ways to save money, a thriving trade is being done online by websites selling discounted groceries past their official shelf lives.

Following on from the success of the freecycle movement which allows members swap unwanted household goods, sites offering clearance, short-dated and out-of-date food and drink have become the latest way to both cut costs and reduce waste. One website, approvedfood.co.uk, this week reported a 500% year on year increase in sales in the last week of December, while another, foodbargains.co.uk, is running an apology on its website over backlogged orders due to high demand. Read more 

Starbucks' restores its fortunes 

Starbucks signalled a revival in its fortunes this week as it reported a more than tripling of group profits. The world's largest coffee chain has seen recovery pick up pace across the group, with earnings leaping to $241.5m in the quarter.

The Seattle-based company is opening cafes across the US, after a tough couple of years that saw it shut swathes of outlets and lay off workers to cut costs. Starbucks now has a record number of customers visiting its UK cafes – more than two million a week. Read more 

Starbuck's CEO on its turnaround

Howard Schultz, who turned the coffee chain into a global giant, has restored its fortunes by halting aggressive expansion and redesigning stores for local communities.

A key part of the strategy can be seen in London's Conduit Street in the West End, where a new kind of Starbucks has opened. With blond wood, distressed cabinets and second-hand mid-century modern furniture, it is a marked difference, even though the corporate hand behind the shabby chic is still evident. The idea is to individually design each store to fit in with its local area so that no two Starbucks will look exactly alike, a remarkable rethink for a company that has been so closely linked with the idea of the corporate giant leaving its homogenous mark on every high street. Read more 

Danisco enters niche probiotic juice category 

Beverage manufacturers seeking to extend their health and wellness portfolio can now incorporate a clinical dose of an immune boosting probiotic strain to their refrigerated fruit juice range while keeping their all- natural positioning, reports Danisco.

Danisco said great tasting juices with scientifically documented effects on consumer's health have great commercial potential and that the probiotic strain, Howaru Bifido (Bifidobacterium lactis HN019) is specifically selected for its immune modulating properties, with its benefits supported by clinical studies. Read more 

Another one bites the dust Cadbury goes American. Is this healthy for British manufacturing?

Why can’t Britain hang on to ownership of iconic brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover, the Mini, Rowntree, the Times and now Cadbury, purveyor of chocolate to children of the British empire?

The emotions roused by the fight for the chocolate-maker go far beyond the business specifics, however. Two sensitive themes are intertwined. The first is that foreigners are buying up Britain’s most famous firms, and weak sterling may exacerbate the trend. The second is the long, slow erosion of Britain’s manufacturing base. Read more

OPINION: Cheesed off! jingoism takes the spoils in the Cadbury battle

"Cadbury is not the crown jewels or Buckingham Palace, and surely does not represent God, Queen and country – it is a maker of chocolate, when I last looked"

Predictions of the demise of Cadbury following the approval of Kraft’s offer are premature and are flawed by knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Indeed some commentators seem to be at risk of becoming Fruit and Nut cases following the Cadbury board’s backing for the Kraft deal. Read more 

Food Trends

Mintel: US food and drink product launches plummet in 2009

Companies shied away from NPD in 2009 as the number of new food and drink products to hit US shelves dropped 30%, according to Mintel's Global New Product Database (GNPD), the biggest decline the tracking system has ever recorded in the food and drink sector.

“In the last decade, Mintel GNPD has only tracked occasional, small declines in new product introductions for the US market, never a decline as strong as this,” said Mintel analyst Lynn Dornblaser. Read more.

Yoghurt: the US product of the decade

Yoghurt, a food which, depending on the source, has a history that is several millennia long, has a lot going for it. Harry Balzer, vice president with the market research firm NPD Group, who recently bestowed the food of the decade title on yoghurt, noted during a recent media interview that the versatile dairy product “really does define what I think America wants from its food supply.” And what might that be? Read more

Study tips pouches to double beverage market share

Pouches are tipped to more than double their share of the US beverage packaging market over the next decade as manufacturers look for greener options. This is one of the key market opportunities identified in a new drinks packaging study carried out by Proactive Worldwide on behalf of Pack Expo organisers PMMI.

The report, “Beverage Packaging Market Assessment - A Benchmark Study,” said pouch containers are expected to show the greatest percentage growth of all packaging formats for drinks over the next 10 years. It predicts that the size of the pouch segment to more than double from its current value of $545m. Read more

British pie eating at 30-year high

The humble pie has made a remarkable come back, as consumers ditch pizzas and burgers in favour of the great British staple. Sales of the pastry and potato-topped dishes have hit a 30-year high with retailers across the country reporting sales of an extra 17 million pies over the past two years, according to Nielsen, the market research company.

This pie market has grown by 16 per cent to £229 million since the start of 2008, the company said, as recession-hit Britons recreated pub and restaurant dishes at home and food manufacturers started making gourmet varieties. Read more 

Brits bowled over by breakfast cereals

New research from Mintel’s Global Market Navigator (GMN) reveals British consumers are a nation bowled over by breakfast cereal, spending a healthy £28 per head (or a total of £1.8 billion) on breakfast cereal in the last year alone, up from £1.7 billion in 2008 and a figure Mintel estimates will grow to a massive £2.2 billion by 2014.

Mintel’s latest research on the cereal market shows some 87% adults in the UK eat cold breakfast cereal on at least a daily basis. In addition, for 6% adults in the UK, cereal is more than purely a breakfast staple: it is an easy, quick and nutritious meal substitute that is a regular and core food choice. And it is not just packet cereal which is doing well... Read more

US: First wine, then beer; now the spirits are going micro

Boutique booze — formally called artisanal spirits — is a big trend in the bar business. Just as the market for craft beers and wines boomed during the past two decades, the audience has similarly grown for small-scale booze that is high quality and often higher priced. “Why is this better? Because it’s not produced for 10 million people; it’s produced for 5,000 people,” said Bill Owens of the American Distilling Institute. He estimated the number of small distilleries at a little more than 200 and growing by about 20 to 30 a year. They have sprouted up in more than three dozen states recently, with Oregon, California, Colorado, Michigan and New York the main players. Read more

Health & Nutrition Stuff

Do supplements really do any good?

If vitamins are useful for anything, it's probably for tapping into our old friend the placebo effect. In a 2008 survey, 38 percent of doctors confessed to recommending vitamins because they believed the pills could promote health purely through the power of positive expectations... That would be reason enough to pop a supplement—there are worse things than deceiving yourself into better health—if it weren't for the emerging evidence that the pills might be capable of causing real harm. Read more

Foods fortified with extra vitamins could prove costly

There can be a downside to getting too much of some food supplements. These days, it's not difficult to consume 600% of your daily recommended value of B vitamins or 2,000% of the recommended amount of vitamin C -- all before lunchtime, witn many energy bars, juices and other products crammed with sky-high levels of vitamins.

That's not necessarily good. At some point, the upsides of added vitamins disappear -- and may even about- face into downsides. When it comes to vitamin consumption, "some is good, but more is not necessarily better," says Joan Salge Blake, a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University. Read more 

Bugs inside: What happens when the microbes that keep us healthy disappear?

The human body has more microbial than human cells, but this rich diversity of micro-helpers that has evolved along with us is undergoing a rapid shift--one that may have very macro health consequences. Bacteria, viruses and fungi have been primarily cast as the villains in the battle for better human health. But a growing community of researchers is sounding the warning that many of these microscopic guests are really ancient allies.

Having evolved along with the human species, most of the miniscule beasties that live in and on us are actually helping to keep us healthy, just as our well-being promotes theirs. In fact, some researchers think of our bodies as superorganisms, rather than one organism teeming with hordes of subordinate invertebrates.

The human body has some 10 trillion human cells—but 10 times that number of microbial cells. So what happens when such an important part of our bodies goes missing? Read more 

Obesity's hazards and mysteries

It's no secret that being overweight is unhealthy. But weight gain and loss are complicated processes, not just about diet and exercise.

Americans are fatter than ever and it's seriously harming our health. More than 72 million adults are obese, and that figure is expected to soar to 103 million by 2018. The problem is so bad that it could even cause life expectancy to start to decline, according to some demographers. The good news is that basic research is helping scientists understand why we eat too much and how we can best lose weight. Read more 

OPINION: After the war on salt, the battle against butter

Healthy-living killjoys now even want to ban the yellow creamy stuff that makes food so tasty and enjoyable.

‘By banning butter and replacing it with a healthy spread, the average daily sat-fat intake would be reduced by eight grams. This would save thousands of lives each year and help to protect them from cardiovascular disease - the UK’s biggest killer.’ So said London-based heart surgeon Shyam Kolvekar last week.

He, along with many others, is offering us out-of-date advice that would rob us of one of life’s great pleasures. If it’s not butter that’s going to kill us, apparently it will be salt or bacon or anything else that actually tastes of something. Time and again the evidence for these assertions turns out to be as feeble as the flavour of the salad we’re supposed to be munching instead. It’s all reminiscent of an old joke. A doctor advises his patient to stop smoking, drinking or eating rich foods. ‘Will this mean I’ll live longer?’, asks the patient. ‘No, but it’ll seem longer’, came the reply.  Read more 

Antioxidant uptake from coffee unaffected by milk: Nestlé study 

Drinking instant coffee with or without milk produced the same uptake levels of coffee’s antioxidants, including caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and isoferulic acid, according to findings of a study with nine people published in The Journal of Nutrition.

“Up until now there has been very little known about how proteins, especially from milk, influence the bioavailability and efficacy of coffee antioxidants,” said lead author Mathieu Renouf from Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne. “Our study is the first to show that coffee antioxidants are just as bioavailable in coffee with milk, as they are in black coffee.” Read more 

Tea compounds may boost attention span: Unilever

The tea compounds L-theanine and caffeine at levels obtained in a single cup of tea may improve attention, says a new study from Unilever. A combination of 97 milligrams of L-theanine and 40 milligrams of caffeine was associated with improvements in attention.

Publication of the study comes a year after EFSA turned down Unilever-submitted health claims linking black tea consumption and improved mental focus. The European scientific assessor said in January 2009 that the dossier failed to demonstrate causality. The new study supports the association between tea and attention, although it did not report any benefits for alertness. The findings of the randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind, cross-over study in the journal Appetite. Read more

Food Science Stuff

Everything you need to know about sucralose

Announcing the latest nutrition and weight management resource from the International Food Information Council Foundation. In addition to discussing the potential weight management benefits of sucralose, this new printable online brochure contains the most up-to-date scientific information on other relevant nutrition and health issues, including low-calorie sweetener safety, use by pregnant women, children, and people with diabetes, and benefits for dental health. It also includes tips on how to incorporate sucralose into cooking and baking.

This is an ideal resource for a number of audiences, ranging from health professionals looking for information to give to their patients and/or clients, to the nutrition-conscious consumer. Read more

Sucralose degradation in baked goods

Common thickener may mask polyphenol bitterness

Formulating foods with the common hydrocolloid carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) may mask the bitter flavour of health-boosting polyphenols, says new research. The perception of astringent flavors of polyphenolic extracts of chokeberry, green tea and walnut significantly was significantly reduced by CMC, according to new findings published in Food Quality and Preference. Read more 

Three reasons why your low-sodium formulations are not performing — and what to do about it

Salt is the key ingredient in most processed meat formulations. However, low-sodium products are an important and growing market segment. To understand why low-sodium formulations may not perform, it is important to know the functional role of traditional salt (sodium chloride) in meat processing. Salt has several functions in processed meat. Read more

Food Safety and Quality

Food safety management system - the buck stops at the top!

It is likely that the development of your food safety management system is in response to external pressure - normally from a customer either local or overseas. Research has shown that external pressure is not sufficient to sustain a food safety management system. The internal pressures of the company business objectives are far more effective. I think we can agree that most food safety management systems start off as a “grudge purchase” but if that attitude continues, no employee at the company will ever take food safety seriously – particularly if this attitude prevails among senior managers. Read more 

US: Dramatically extending the shelf life of freshfruits and vegetables

A simple little sachet thrown into a fruit or vegetable bin can extend the life of fresh produce. It’s a product that has been used by the commercial grocers and transporters for over 30 years and is now being made available to the public for the first time.

Produce Freshies, launched in the US, consists of small sachets that absorb ethylene gas that are simply dropped into the vegetable or fruit bins in your refrigerator. They can also be placed in a fruit bowl on a kitchen counter as well as placed amongst the greenery in your floral arrangements.  Each powerful sachet lasts at least three months. Read more

Sustainability

Keep climate change hoopla in perspective

News this week that Himalayan glaciers are not receding as quickly as claimed shows we need new ways to assess the evidence. Fear - and particularly environmental fear - is just about the one ‘big idea’ that the political establishment can find any purchase with today in order to justify its policies and existence. Indeed, two things now live in parallel: the real, open, provisional and tentative science of climate change - which suggests we may have some substantial climatic problems to deal with in the future - and The Science, a closed, certain, often fantastical set of conclusions based on moralism and politics rather than temperature measurements and atmospheric physics. Read more from http://www.spiked-online.com, an "independent website dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms".

Campaign to save tropical forests failed by food giants

Western food manufacturers are buying so little sustainable palm oil that the system set up to limit damage to tropical forests caused by the world's cheapest vegetable oil is in danger of collapse. Palm-oil producers say the industry may quit the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) because so few firms are financially backing the scheme.

The first certified RSPO supplies arrived in Europe in November 2008, yet only 27% of present supply has been sold, leading to claims of hypocrisy among Western buyers. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Allied Bakeries and even Unilever did not buy any separate certified RSPO oil last year, though Tesco and Asda "offset" small quantities by buying GreenPalm certificates for RSPO production elsewhere. Read more

Miscellany

A banquet for Louis XIV, monumental recreation at the Palace of Versailles

Twenty or more not-so-dainty dishes would have been a typical evening repast for Louis XIV of France. To celebrate a show of the Sun King's art collection at the Palace of Versailles, one chef worked for a year to stage a recreation of a royal belt-buster. Hosting a historic meal for 40 is one thing, holding it in France’s most prized palace is another.

'We decided to recreate the Sun King’s Table at Versailles as a tribute to the cultural heritage that witnessed the birth of both champagne and luxury,’ said Richard Geoffroy, Chef de Cave – the chief wine­maker – of the champagne house Dom Pérignon. 'This is the first time anything like this has happened, and it probably won’t happen again.’ Read more

A toast, please, to my breakfast gadget

The toaster with windows allows you to watch your bread brown is a hot new "must have" in the UK. Magimix’s new see-through toaster brings some refreshment to the technology of toast-making that has hardly changed since 1909, when the first commercially successful electric toaster was patented by General Electric. Read more

That's all for this week, folks