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| Editor’s Stuff: The shifting nutritional paradigm |
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Last night the Cape Branch of SAAFoST (Assoc of Food Science & Technology) hosted Prof Tim Noakes who gave a great lecture expanding on his much-publicised backing of high-protein/high-fat diets and trashing of high-carb regimens that are so much part of mainstream nutritional guidelines, better known as the “prudent diet” – and which he believes is killing us.
That the branch had to put a full-house notice on the event mirrors the interest and buzz he has created in middle-class South Africans concerned about their weight and morbidity.
Prof Noakes is an engaging and informed speaker, as well as a respected scientist. Many have pointed fingers at him for being maverick, in the early stages of dementia and, I believe, he’s even been reported to our professional health regulator. But he’s clearly unafraid to take on the Establishment and he did, and won, on the issue of over-hydration in athletes.
 While the man is evangelical about his new nutrition “truths” (actually, he says they’re as old as mankind!), they are finding more and more scientific rediscovery and credence and are worthy of close consideration by anyone concerned about personal and public health.
Will this “fad” become tomorrow’s truth? I think I know where I’ll be placing my bets – I see this as another arm of the over-arching global health trend. The ramifications, long-term, for those involved in making and marketing carbo-loaded foods could be challenging.
I’ve been following this shifting nutritional paradigm for a while now… and here are several links to pertinent articles.
Enjoy this week’s read!
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| Local News and Developments |
With their quirky design and superior contents, new yoghurt and fruit juice ranges launched recently by Sonnendal Diaries have added new zip to our dairy shelves – and they taste as good as they look.
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In a presentation to delegates at the recent SAAFoST Salt/Sodium Reduction Workshops, Dr Edelweiss Wentzel-Viljoen of NWU explained the contribution of different food to salt intake in SA, and how this data was used by the Department of Health to select the categories of processed food targeted for proposed stepwise reductions over a five-year period.
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What sort of mincemeat do you buy? Lean, extra lean? Do you know what those descriptors actually mean? Well, it seems they mean different things to different vendors, as top consumer journalist, Wendy Knowler, investigated recently.
Afriplex, the Paarl-based botanical ingredient and flavour group that is now ISO22000 certified, reports it is offering additional services in the field of product stability testing for the food-beverage and pharmaceutical industries.
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BMI has released it annual quantification of the tea market covering four categories black tea, iced tea, rooibos and speciality tea. The mainstay of the market remains with black tea which commands a 58.3% share of overall market volumes, but watch out for rooibos and speciality teas.
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| International News & Stuff |
The US FDA has rejected a request from the Corn Refiners Association to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup.
Britain’s most public and famous entrepreneur, Sir Richard B  ranson, has extended his Virgin brand name from record shop ands airlines, to mobile phones, space and deep sea travel, hotels and cheeky health clubs, among several others. Now Brits will soon be finding the Virgin brand on another product: drinking water systems.
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Paul Polman isn’t afraid to shake things up. Since taking over as CEO of Unilever, in 2009, he has transformed the Anglo-Dutch multinational into one of the world’s most innovative corporations. He did away with earnings guidance and quarterly reporting, and tells hedge funds they aren’t welcome as investors. And last year he launched an ambitious plan to double revenue by 2020 while halving the company’s environmental impact.
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Mayor Bloomberg’s heavy-handed efforts to promote healthy living are nothing new. Now he has revealed plans to ban the sale of cups or bottles of sweetened drinks larger than 16oz (448ml) at restaurants, movie theaters, street carts, and sports venues.
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Wal-Mart launching “Goodies” food service Wal-Mart Stores will soon launch a monthly mail subscription service called “Goodies” that will allow customers to sample new foods not found in stores run by the world’s biggest retailer.
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 Shareholders of Kraft Foods have overwhelmingly approved Mondelez International as the name of the $35 billion snack foods company that will be created when the company finally splits sometime later this year.
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Food Marketing, Trends and Innovation
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Food and beverage companies around the world – from the largest to the smallest – are experimenting with new ways to reach consumers, to bypass supermarkets and keep more margin.
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The UK’s changing breakfast preferences, the impact of shifting diets, and the great British takeaway are three key food trends to emerge from Mintel’s first survey charting consumers’ changing food choices between 1972 and 2012.
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Huhtamaki Group’s Cyclero beverage pouch that looks like a can but weighs but one-tenth, has finally hit commercialisation for the first time after five years in development with a new product launch in Thailand.
Hain Celestial has added to its New Covent Garden Soup Co offering in the UK with the launch of a “new generation” of fresh soup products – dubbed Fresh Bowls, a range of chilled soups in a “bespoke” microwaveable pack format.
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Kraft-owned Cadbury has expanded its “sharing bag” portfolio with a chocolate-coated toffee popcorn product, in a bid to claim some of the UK’s burgeoning £42m (€52.46m) popcorn market, but four years after it exited the sector.
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Last week’s top headline: MIT’s freaky non-stick coating keeps ketchup flowing
A team of very clever scientists at MIT, America’s foremost science university, have developed an amazing new nano-based lubricant that makes the inside of bottles so slippery, nothing is left inside. Absolutely nothing!
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Food Science, Safety and Ingredients Stuff
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Latest pesticide residue data on fresh produce and other foods in the US have confirmed that the residues do not pose safety concerns, according the US Department of Agriculture.
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Researchers at Oregon State University have made some fundamental discoveries about how people taste, smell and detect flavour, and why they love some foods much more than others. The findings could lead to the Holy Grail of nutrition – helping people learn to really LIKE vegetables.
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The tomato genome sequence – both the domesticated type and its wild ancestor, Solanum pimpinellifolium – has been sequenced for the first time by a large international team of scientists.
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Health and Nutrition Stuff
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We’re all familiar now with the idea of “good fats” and “bad fats”, with fish oils in the role of “good” and saturated animal fats the “bad”. The progress of nutrition science is now taking this idea a step further. It’s not only challenging the scientific basis of the idea that “low-fat diets are best” but providing evidence for the idea (a heresy to health professionals) that fat is, in fact, good for you.
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Bananas have long been a favourite source of energy for endurance and recreational athletes. Bananas are a rich source of potassium and other nutrients, and are easy for cyclists, runners or hikers to carry. A new US study shows they’re better than sports beverages.
Over the last decade, America’s war on obesity has targeted some fairly obvious culprits, including fast food, pastries, fried foods and soda. But recent scientific studies and a new government-sponsored documentary, “Weight of the Nation”, that aired last week on the HBO channel, have identified a new, less obvious enemy: fruit juice.
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Researchers at the University of California at Davis are teaming up with a herd of goats to attack the world’s second leading cause of childhood death. The target: diarrhoea. The weapon: goat’s milk.
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Sugar is one of the substances and objects that are carving new patterns of addictive behaviour in a disorientated world. This behaviour is the subject of new book, The Fix: How Addiction is Invading Our Lives and Taking Over Your World.
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Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff
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It’s the perfect antidote for our diet-obsessed culture – a food show celebrating everything we shouldn’t eat, but secretly wish we could. And it’s taking YouTube by storm – one of the Epic Meal Time videos has more than 14 million views! The show creates the most unhealthy meals imaginable…
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A “space drink” originally concocted by NASA to protect astronauts from radiation is having out-of-this-world results on battling wrinkles, blemishes and other skin damage from the sun.
A London store is flogging a new range of gourmet salts, extracted from human tears….!?
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Food bites… Fragmentation and change on the food landscape…
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“As is often the case with significant new market shifts, the leadership and the best pointers towards success are coming from entrepreneurial companies, rather than from global giants.
“Management at the biggest companies has expectations of high sales, rapid growth – and a self-damaging impatience with anything that fails to get past their perception of being ‘too weird’ or ‘too niche’. There are too many senior executives who have failed to appreciate two significant shifts in the world of food that are both creating opportunities – while also threatening to slowly erode established business models.”
Editorial in New Nutrition Business, on new food distribution success stories
read more
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Behind Sonnendal’s splashy new dairy presence
Beefing about mince
Last week’s top headline: 
No new name for high-fructose corn syrup
Captain Planet: an interview with Unilever CEO Paul Polman
Muesli with a mouseclick: new approaches to successful direct-to-consumer business
First commercial launch of the pouch that’s a can
UK: Cadbury gets into the “popping” popcorn market
USDA says pesticide residues not a food safety concern
Tomato genome gets fully sequenced
Bananas more beneficial than sports drinks, study suggests
Last week’s top headlines: 
Creating the most unhealthy foods – a massive YouTube hit!
‘Space drink’ concocted by NASA helps reduce wrinkles
