|
|
Editor’s Stuff: How ready are you for R146?
|
THERE ARE ONLY NINE MONTHS to go to March 2012 and D-day for the inplementation of R146, also known as SA’s new food labelling regulations. Yesterday I attended an outstanding labelling workshop, organised by SAAFoST and presented by our best fundis on the issue: Nigel Sunley and Jane Badham, who have joined forces as Consulting in Food Labelling.
This was the first opportunity I’ve had to explore the new regs in detail – and came to a simple conclusion: they’re a minefield! Unless you have a really non-complex product, but one plain SKU, I don’t know how any manufacturer could confidently relook and change their labels without professional and qualified input.
If you’re not yet looking at your new labelling, best you start moving. As Jane made clear: “Every food label in SA will have to change!” And R146 also applies to imported products.
 It had to happen sooner rather than later. Health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi has begun a salt crusade, telling Parliament this week that he’s planning “very, very soon” to introduce legislation to lower the salt content of processed food.
It has drawn a storm of reaction already, and we can expect zesty debate in the months ahead. I’ll leave you with this quote from Michael Alderman, editor of the American Journal of Hypertension:
“The question … is whether the beneficial hypotensive effects of sodium restriction will outweigh its hazards. Unfortunately, few data link sodium intake to health outcomes, and that which is available is inconsistent. Without knowledge of the sum of the multiple effects of a reduced sodium diet, no single universal prescription for sodium intake can be scientifically justified.”
Brenda Neall: publisher & editor
PS: Last weekend I spent four fabulous hours at the Good Food & Wine Show at Cape Town’s CTICC. It was a great showcase of local culinary/foodie/gourmet innovation and interaction – I was blown away by the sophistication and quality of the fare and food. We can be truly proud of our smaller food entrepreneurs.
FOODStuff SA is a hub for food industry recruitment….Click here!
|
|
|
| Local Food Industry Stuff |
|
Massmart Holdings plans on opening 50 to 100 new stores over the next three years and about 20 new Cambridge stores a year. After Walmart International received approval to take control of the local group on Tuesday, the focus would now be on opening additional branches of stores, said Massmart chief executive Grant Pattison.
|
Announcing an acquisition that will strengthen its ability to offer solutions for food production, Tetra Pak has bought Chaswill Process Technology, a leading process engineering company, based in Cape Town.
|
With a range of nutritional challenges facing South Africa today, Woolworths, in co-operation with the Sports Science Institute, has launched dietician-led ‘Moms Tours’ to give parents the opportunity to learn about healthy eating habits, good food options, balanced lunch boxes and smart snacking ideas.
|
Lowell Jooste, owner of Klein Constantia, has sold the historic wine estate for €20m to two investment bankers, Zdeněk Bakala and Charles Harman, both affiliated with the Dutch-based BXR Group. KC was purchased in 1980 by his father Duggie, erstwhile importer of Bell’s Whisky, for the right old sum of R3 million.
Louis Wolthers has been appointed managing director of McCain SA, effective from May 2011.
|
|
|
|
|
International Food Industry News
|
|
Farewell, food pyramid. US government officials are dishing out nutritional advice to the nation on a more appetizing platter… The USDA has unveiled a replacement to its much-maligned food pyramid: a simple, plate-shaped symbol, sliced into wedges for the basic food groups and half-filled with fruits and vegetables.
|
|
The E. coli epidemic in Europe is caused by a new, highly infectious and toxic strain of bacteria that carries genes giving it resistance to a few classes of antibiotics, researchers and public health experts believe.
|
|
After days of recriminations that threatened new inter-European trade wars, German authorities have conceded that contaminated Spanish cucumbers are not, after all, to blame for the E coli outbreak thas has killed at least 17 people and infected more than 1 500 others. The outbreak raises questions about what risks the infection continues to pose and what fallout it will cause.
|
|
Millions more people across the world will be locked into a cycle of hunger and food crisis unless governments tackle a “broken” production system which is being exploited by speculators and will cause a doubling in basic foodstuff prices in the next 20 years, leading aid agency, Oxfam, has warned.
|
|
|
|
Food Trends, Marketing and NPD
|
The seventh annual Sunday Times Generation Next 2011 Brand Survey Awards was recently published. The survey is a font of knowledge for those looking to maintain their finger on the pulse of the local youth market (between the ages of 8 and 22) – dubbed Generation Y… several food-bev categories are included…
|
BMI Research has published bites of data from its various and latest annual reports into SA’s confectionery and chocolate sectors…
|
American confectioners are thinking outside the box when it comes to cake. Hence the latest trend in portable pastry: shift aside cupcakes, here come cakes on a stick, also called Cake Pops and Lollibakes…
|
Campbell Soup is expanding its V8 franchise by entering the energy drink category with two new products: V8 V-Fusion+ Energy drinks and the V8 Energy Shot.
Downsizing pack sizes is a marked food-bev industry trend in these recessionary times, and now Distell is doing it with one of SA’s best-known Méthode Cap Classique wines, Pongrácz, that’s been launched in a petite 375ml bottle.
|
|
American wine marketer, Pierre LaBarge IV, established Indulge Wines for two reasons; his love of nature and the outdoors and his love of fine wine. For years a proponent of environmentally sound living, LaBarge has opted for the AstraPouch, a recyclable pouch developed in South Africa.
|
|
|
|
|
| Health and Nutrition Stuff |
A University of Missouri researcher has found that eating a healthy breakfast, especially one high in protein, increases satiety and reduces hunger throughout the day. In addition, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the researchers found that eating a protein-rich breakfast reduces the brain signals controlling food motivation and reward-driven eating behaviour.
|
Parents are are making their children fat and ruining their teeth by buying them sports or energy drinks and should give them water instead, notes a new study published in the journal, Pediatrics.
|
Childhood obesity is a real problem and, no pun intended, growing worse all the time. However, who really is at fault? Nutritionists and public health advocates want to blame fast food, sugared soft drinks, and junk food. Some cities have even gone so far as to enact bans on things such as McDonald’s Happy Meals, believing that marketing unhealthy foods to children is one of the reasons kids choose to eat such products and have become overweight.
|
|
| Food Science, Safety and Ingredients |
That could be pork’s new slogan after the USDA recently lowered its safe cooking temperature to 62 C (145 F), from the longtime standard of 71 C (160 F). The new recommendation is in line with what many cookbook authors and chefs have been saying for years.
|
ADM cocoa powder cuts bakers’ costs with “less is more” approach A new dark cocoa powder aims to deliver an indulgent rich taste for bakery goods, but also cut costs by reducing the product’s overall cocoa content, claims ADM. Recently soaring cocoa prices have prompted ingredients companies to develop cost effective cocoa alternatives for bakery applications which deliver flavour and quality but containing less chocolate.
|
|
| Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff |
A dietary recommendation for servicemen in the 1940s led to modern-day nutrition labels and the five-second rule may not be a safe bet when it comes to food on the floor…
|
Plastics have freed us from the confines of the natural world, from the material constraints and limited supplies that had long bounded human activity. That new elasticity unfixed social boundaries as well. The arrival of these malleable and versatile materials gave producers the ability to create a treasure trove of new products while expanding opportunities for people of modest means to become consumers. Plastics held out the promise of a new material and cultural democracy.
|
It had to happen sooner rather than later. Health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi has begun a salt crusade, telling Parliament this week that he’s planning “very, very soon” to introduce legislation to lower the salt content of processed food. 
US: Campbell’s expands drink line with new energy drinks, shots
FOODStuff SA is published and edited by Brenda Neall.