Newsletter 01 February 2013

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1 February 2013 | Your weekly food industry news and insights…                                                                 
SmartStuff:   “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
Malachy McCourt, Irish-American actor, writer and politician

Sensient Food Colors

 
Editor’s Stuff: Great SA trade expo opportunities in 2013 for all food industrialists!
 
Apart from specialist websites (such as FOODStuff SA!), exhibitions are a cost-effective way to reach a great number of decision makers in your specific target market in quick time. The food industry in SA is rather short-changed of such decent B2B marketing opportunities, but not this year! There are three to diarise:
Propak Africa 2013: In a must-do expo for those involved in food-beverage packaging and processing, one of SA’s most important trade expos, Propak Africa 2013 will again draw the crowds in March. It takes place at the Expo Centre, Nasrec, Jo’burg, 12-15 March.
 
In an exciting development, Specialised Exhibitions is also staging IFEA 2013 for the first time, the African version of one of the UK’s top food trade shows that’s held every two years in London.
 
IFEA 2013 will bring together global food & drink brands, local producers and leading African brands, to meet retail and food service buyers, importers, wholesalers and distributors from across the African continent. It runs from 18-20 September at the Sandton Convention Centre.
 
Thirdly, after a long break since it bust a gut hosting the brilliant IUFoST global congress in 2010, SAAFoST has announced details of its 2013 Congress and Expo. It’s dubbed Out of Africa: Global Food Science Solutions, and will be held CSIR International Conference Centre, Pretoria, 6-10 October.
 

Marking a successful first anniversary, the latest issue of SAAFoST’s FST magazine (SA Food Science &Technology) has been published and is on its way to members. Some highlights include:
  • Food labelling – what comes now?
  • African plant extracts and their commercial potential
  • Stevia and low-calorie reduction
  • The life cycle impacts of milk
  • Mapping out new territories for texture
  • Gelatine’s renaissance

The journal is not online, and thus a fine reason to subscribe and/or become a member of SAAFoST. Contact editor,

 

Brenda Neall: publisher & editor
 
PS Some new understanding of why SA is a FAT nation! A new study published in the Journal Psychological Science shows a direct link between eating patterns and depressing news items. It found that volunteers increased their food intake by 40 percent when they were bombarded by gloomy TV news bulletins. They also craved more calorie-dense unhealthy foods.
  FOODStuff SA is a hub for food-bev industry recruitment:
look for a job or advertise your company’s positions!
Click here!
 


Kerry Citrus

  Local News and Developments
 
A new-look Rainbow Chicken is taking shape amid enthusiasm from investors who have boosted its share price by a third since November. Driving the change is Rainbow’s R1-bn acquisition of Foodcorp and a R3,9-bn rights issue, setting the scene for more positive developments.
 
A Christian group that wants religious certification and signs on food packaging to be banned, faces an uphill battle against Muslims, Jews, Hindus and millions of members of Christian churches who are opposing the application in the Pretoria High Court.
 
Aquaculture has been one of the world’s big food success stories over the past two decades, but one in which SA has played an insignificant role. If the department of trade & industry (DTI) has its way, this will change.
 
Amarula has emerged as a favourite amongst the world’s best bars located in many of the trendiest cities… An international survey, polling the top 100 go-to glamour drinks spots, has placed the ‘Spirit of Africa’ on the top ten list of the most popular and talked about liqueur brands.
 
Last newsletter’s top headline:Is there horse in your wors? Not unlikely!
Can you trust the labels on processed meats – mince, sausages, deli meats and burgers? If a study conducted by Dr Donna Cawthorn, a food scientist with the University of Stellenbosch, is anything to go by, you can’t, reports IOL consumer columnist, Wendy Knowler.


 International News & Developments
 
Following Coca-Cola’s recent airing of obesity-themed ads on US television, the obesity police have come out blazing, turning a solvable problem into a needless war. The food-beverage industries have never been under more pressure from ever-shriller war cries. Here are some excellent, sane opinion pieces from Forbes on this hot topic.
 
“We set out to do something completely different by applying the science of one product to another,” says Keith Belling, CEO and co-founder of popchips, the omnipresent US snack food. He’s referring to his 2005 purchase and conversion of a rice-cake plant in LA, retooled to make a new kind of potato chip, applying the same heat-and-pressure process to spuds.
 
This could prove difficult for six major producers of the most widely consumed beverage, who decided last week to join forces without explaining exactly what they plan to do. India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Sri Lanka, which account for more than 80 percent of tea output, have agreed to form the International Tea Producers Forum.
 
Meet Viraj Puri, New York City’s only commercial farmer. His farm, Gotham Greens, comprises 15,000 square feet of rooftop greenhouse, yielding roughly the same as a traditional 6-acre farm. As the planet’s population swells, particularly in major cities, scientists and public officials believe urban farms will play an important role supplementing our food supply.
 
Fred Turner, the man who made McDonald’s, died on January 7th, aged 80. He’s a lesser known figure than the company’s founder, Ray Kroc, but he was as instrumental as his boss in creating the burger giant. A fascinating historical look at McDonald’s.

 Food Trends and Marketing
 
Leatherhead Food Research, a leading UK-based independent research organisation, has identified the key global issues that are likely to have an impact on the food and drink industry in the coming year.
 
Fresh fruit is not only the top snack food consumed in America, it is also one of the fastest growing, according to new snacking research from The NPD Group, a leading global information company. NPD’s recently released Snacking in America report finds that growing concerns about health and eating right are contributors to the increasing popularity of fruit as a snack.
 
How middle-class consumers manage’ sweetness is becoming increasingly a divided issue whereby on one hand consumers view sweetened products as an important part of their lifestyle while on the other hand they view it as a potential threat to their health. Under pressure from a variety of stakeholders, food and beverage manufacturers globally are responding to what amounts to be a societal focus on sugar. An excellent FREE white paper from the respected Hartman Group.
 
How America drinks: Water and wine surge, cheap beer and soda crash
It’s not the end of soda – yet. But soft drinks have peaked, while bottled water, energy drinks, and a considerable amount of premium alcohol are taking their place in Americans’ liquid diet.
 
Once upon a time, the kitchen was considered a mom’s domain, but research shows that today’s dads are taking a more active role in the kitchen, as well as with food shopping, menu planning and meal preparation.
 
Last newsletter’s top headline: Ideas in Food 2013 – A Cultural Perspective
What you won’t find in this free report, Ideas in Food – A Cultural Perspective, is a rehashing of tired old culinary trends. Rather it explores the themes shaping evolving food culture, including the future of traceability and if sugar will be the taboo ingredient of the new year. 

 Food Science, Technology and Ingredients Stuff

 

Foods sold under a healthy brand and marketing message are perceived to be tastier and more satisfying to consumers, according to new research findings.

 
A report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that leafy green vegetables are responsible for more foodborne illnesses than any other food. However, meat and poultry cause more deaths.
 
Campylobacter is smarter than scientists thought as it is able to alter its “swimming behaviour” inside human bodies to find food, according to new research by scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR). 
 
A Mississippi teenager is declaring victory following PepsiCo’s decision to pull brominated vegetable oil from its Gator­ade sports drink line. BVO is used to keep citrus flavours suspended in soft drinks. It is prohibited in some countries and the EU but allowed in the US and Latin America.
 

The chicken nugget is an iconic item of processed food, much loved and now increasingly reviled. Its genesis has been attributed to/blamed on McDonald’s, but that’s not the case. It was, in fact, the 1963 invention of Robert Baker, a Cornell University poultry savant who mastered two food-engineering challenges… alas, his contribution to fast food has been erased from the history books.

It’s largely about how it feels in the mouth. Once a piece of cheddar has been heated to around 65°C, its matrix of milk proteins begins to break down, and the cheese takes on an appealing creamy texture.
 
It has always been a simple question: tea or coffee? Now, after a scientific breakthrough that choice could become rather less straightforward. Tea brewed from the fruit and leaves of coffee plants could be a healthier option than either tea of coffee alone, according to new research.

 Health and Nutrition Stuff
 
The saga of adulterated ‘economy’ burgers in UK and Irish supermarkets has been much in the international food headlines. Now a new angle on the topic, outlining how such ‘budget’ foodstuffs contribute to the obesity blight of poor people in developed and developing nations.
 
Good news for breakfast lovers – another study has exonerated eggs from adding to the risk of heart disease. Old-time myths that eggs are just “cholesterol bombs” aimed squarely at our arteries aren’t borne out by facts.
 

It’s now conventional wisdom: If you skip breakfast, you’re going to have trouble losing weight, but a new study in the International Journal of Obesity takes the notion of timing and weight loss even further, claiming that when you eat meals throughout the day affects how easily you drop the kilos.

 
Last newsletter’s top headline: 18 reasons to start using more nuts
Acceptance of nuts by many consumers still is hindered by the fact that they are calorically dense, in spite of their having earned a reputation as a healthy food among nutritionists and health professionals.

 Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff
 

The recent scandal of horse meat found in beef burgers in the UK and Ireland is about food fraud, mislabelling and poor traceability, but the issue has given rise to an interesting question: why do the British, and those of us in its former colonies, have such a revulsion over the idea of eating horse meat?

 
A memorable TV ad that helped spur Diet Coke’s massive success was the Diet Coke Break. That was in 1994 where a builder gets his kit off for a team of female office workers at tea-time, to a sassy Etta James soundtrack. As Diet Coke turns 30 years old, a new version of the ad has just been released.

 Food bites…2013: Innovation is everyone’s business

“It’s important to recognise that everyone in the organisation is part of the innovation process. There is a great saying that ‘the marketing and sales organisations make the first sale and the manufacturing and the R&D organisations make every sale after that’.
   “The point is that getting a consumer to try a product once is critical, but it’s the experience that the consumer has after trial that will determine if the innovation is sustainable or not. Everyone in the company has a hand in the success of new product.”
Bob Gamgort, the CEO of Pinnacle Foods, USA: read more
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Totally Food Events
Brenda NeallPublished every Friday as part of www.foodstuffsa.co.za, this newsletter is a cherry-picking, agglomerating service for all food and beverage industrialists. It aims to be topical, insightful, provocative, intelligent… fast, fresh and full of additives!
 
FOODStuff SA, stuff about FMCG food-bev manufacture from farm gate to retail shelf, is published and edited by Brenda Neall. You can contact her at: [email protected]