26 Jun UK: M&S to fortify all bread with vitamin D
Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced all of its bread is to be made using yeast fortified with vitamin D.
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26 Jun Functional food and drinks: “fortified” claims missing the target?
The "noughties" was very much the decade in which functional food rose to prominence. Subtle shifts in formulation and marketing began to emphasise what was added rather than reduced. Conventional wisdom is that consumers cannot get enough of fortification, but is that really the case,...
25 Jun Hershey’s to reformulate its classic chocolate bar
The iconic American Hershey milk chocolate bar is getting a makeover after 120 years. The confectionery giant is undergoing a multi-year plan to overhaul all of its products which will ultimately contain "simple and easy-to-understand" ingredients.
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25 Jun Nestlé Tex bar ain’t what it used to be
A recent ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) - largely SA consumers only point of effective redress despite the Consumper Protection Act - has uncovered another example of 'shrinkflation' so prevalent in the confectionery aisles.
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25 Jun Half-billion rand upgrade at Unilever’s Indonsa KZN savoury factory
Earlier this month, Unilever South Africa opened the R511-million expansion at its state-of-the-art Indonsa factory in Durban, making it the group's largest savoury factory by volume. The plant was only commissioned three years ago in December 2011.
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25 Jun General Mills nixes artificial colours and flavours
American food giant, General Mills, will strip artificial flavours and colours from the remaining 40% of its cereals that still contain them, the latest response by the US food industry to changing customer preferences.
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25 Jun Obesity, excess weight in US continue upswing
A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine shows that escalation in the number of those considered obese or overweight in the United States continues, signaling an ongoing upward swing in chronic health conditions as well.
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23 Jun India’s ‘Maggi-gate’: Is this the largest ever food recall?
Nestlé will destroy 400 million packets of its hugely popular Maggi noodles, following a ban imposed by India's food safety regulator. The company says it will take at least 40 days to destroy all the noodles at a cost of some $50m, probably more.
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23 Jun ‘Maggi-gate’: why India must face up to a bigger problem than instant noodles
Nestlé will destroy 400 million packets of its hugely popular Maggi noodles, following a ban imposed by India's food safety regulator. The 'Maggi-gate' saga is one thing, a massive thing for Nestlé, but this article argues that excess lead exposure from many sources is a...
19 Jun Noakes vs ADSA: The ongoing saga
The 'Tim Noakes trial' may have been postponed until November, but the story continues. His accuser, the Association of Dietetics in SA (ADSA) has issued a statement strongly denying accusations that it's acting as a proxy for Big Food by reporting Noakes to the HPCSA for unprofessional...
19 Jun US: FDA gives food industry 3 years to phase out artificial trans fats
Partially hydrogenated oils, those universally despised sources of trans fat, have finally been more or less banned by the FDA. This is less newsworthy than it first appears, though: manufacturers have been phasing them out for a while and they only remain in a handful...
18 Jun Nestlé’s scaling down in Africa: what it forgot to say
Five years ago, Nestlé announced its bold expansion plan for the sub-saharan Africa region. Now, in 2015, the tune has changed and Nestlé wants to scale down. Was this a misguided strategy, debates this article?
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18 Jun Tetra Pak Dairy Index 2015: innovate and communicate to revitalise milk
Consumers worldwide remain overwhelmingly positive about the goodness of milk, understand its nutritional value, but feel variety and convenience are not keeping pace with modern lifestyles and expectations, is a key finding of Tetra Pak's eighth Dairy Index report published June 17.
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18 Jun Nestlé layoffs in Africa ‘won’t affect SA’
Plans by the world's biggest food and drinks company, Nestlé, to reduce staff across the continent will not affect SA, its Bryanston-based unit has said.
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17 Jun Bull Brand adds Chicken to its iconic canned meat range
Bull Brand has introduced Corned Meat with Chicken to its iconic canned meat range.
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17 Jun Nkunzi deal approval lets Clover in at Woolies
Clover has got the green light from the competition authorities to acquire the fresh dairy business of Nkunzi Milkyway, allowing SA’s biggest dairy distributor to manufacture and pack Ayrshire organic milk and dairy products, including lactose-free yoghurt, for Woolworths. The approval was made in late...
17 Jun Why major food companies are hungry to acquire smaller brands
The practice unfolds largely the same across all industries: A larger, more established company swoops in to acquire a smaller, fast-growing company while costs are still low and before the smaller brand reaches its peak. These acquisitions are commonplace in food and beverage.
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17 Jun Fortunes of cheese at a turning point
Cheese is at Day 1 of a new era of opportunity. After 40 years of being demonised for its fat and salt content cheese stands at the threshold of a turnaround that will see it re-established as a natural and healthy whole food, like many...
17 Jun Premium foods in a new era of premium
Premiumisation of foods and beverages is an ongoing phenomenon in global food culture, and interpreting the “why” behind the trend is still a relatively new science. Several respected analysts have been giving attention to this trend, among them the Hartman Group.
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14 Jun Natural and artisanal food is a myth and here’s why…
The obsession with eating natural and artisanal is ahistorical. We should demand more high-quality industrial food, argues Rachel Laudan, a historian and philosopher of science and technology and author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History. [This astonishingly fine essay, a plea for culinary...