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Editor’s Stuff: New broom sweeping clean at Pioneer Foods!
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BY ALL accounts, there are upheavals aplenty at SA’s third-largest food group, Pioneer Foods.
 As one report has it… “A whirlwind has gone through the town of Paarl and it’s likely that diversified foods company Pioneer will never be the same again. The whirlwind comes in the form of new CEO Phil Roux (left), ex Tiger Brands, who is just short of completing his first 100 days in the job.
“He arrived with a mandate from the board to drive top line sales; improve the margins, profitability and the return on invested capital. Considering that on all of these metrics the company is performing sub-optimally, he has a big task ahead.
“‘We are talking about transformational change,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t given a mandate to tinker.'”
No doubt Roux’s changes are cause for elation in some and despair in others, as they are sure to result in sizeable ‘right-sizing’ job cuts and realignments. All in the industry will be looking on with great interest as this plays itself out.
The SA food industry will be getting together in October for SAAFoST’s 20th Biennial Congress to be held at the CSIR Conference Centre in Pretoria. The Association (for Food Science and Technology) has issued a list of speakers who, so far, have confirmed their participation in the event, that runs from 7 to 10 October 2013. Early bird registration has also been extended.
Understanding how consumers respond to content aesthetics, as a result of how they interpret content through their senses, which greatly benefits the food stylist, ultimately influencing the marketing of food.
Enjoy this week’s read…
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| Local News and Developments |
Rainbow Chicken, South Africa’s largest processor and marketer of chicken, said this week it planned to change its name to RCL Foods. A general meeting of shareholders would be held on August 2 to authorise this.
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King Pie has announced that it will be introducing one of South Africa’s leading pie brands to the retail market with the launch of a select range of its premium, oven-ready savoury pies and sausage rolls, as well as its renowned puff pastry.
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BM Foods getting back to business
BM Food Manufacturers, producers of the Bettafresh and Mediterranean Delicacies brands, suffered a major setback last March when its main Lanseria factory burnt down. Stretching its supply capacity via its Cape Town factory in the interim, its rebuilt R35m Lanseria facility officially starts operations in early August.
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How much does a bottle of wine really cost? Very few wine estate owners acknowledge the real costs of membership to the (relatively) exclusive club of wine estate proprietors – though several former proprietors would repeat the adage of yacht owners that they were only happy twice since joining the club: the day they bought the farm, and the day they sold it.
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Rhodes Food Group has bought iconic canned meat brand, Bull Brand, from KAP Industrial Holdings.
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International News and Developments
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An Australian farmer who found a use for some leftover lemons launched the alcopop industry 20 years ago – a boon for the alcoholic drinks industry but a cause for consternation and controversy over how it has influenced youthful drinking.
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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched its “Smart Snacks in Schools” nutrition standards, which will affect the kind of foods allowed to be sold in vending machines or other a la carte settings in US schools.
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Waste and sustainability are key trends and points of focus for the food and drinks industry for 2013 and beyond. Steve Osborn, Leatherhead RA’s Business Innovation Manager, argues that the food industry can learn much from sport, especially cycling, in taking waste management and beneficiation further.
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India introduces new food subsidy to help 800 million people India’s cabinet has cleared a policy aimed at providing subsidised food to two thirds of the population. The new food security law will provide five kilos of cheap grain every month to nearly 800 million Indians. It is arguably one of the world’s biggest welfare schemes.
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Coca-Cola has announced the immediate launch of a mid-calorie variety of its iconic soda in Argentina, sweetened with a mix of sugar and stevia. Called Coca-Cola Life, it will have half the calories of regular Coca-Cola.
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Food Science, Technology and Ingredients Stuff
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Foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMO) are called a lot of things, but “healthier” is not usually one of them. Prevailing consumer attitudes toward GM foods range from outright hostility to, at best, apathy. This may well change when, in the near future, genetically-modified food might actually be healthier for us.
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No more horsing around The meat scandal that rocked South Africa in March showed food-labelling standards were not up to scratch, and more worryingly, that not all regulatory requirements were met. The Consumer Protection Act is now an invaluable avenue for shoppers to educate themselves and challenge retailers who compromise on food safety. So what can suppliers and retailers do to ensure they are not implicated?
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HACCP: The Space Program’s contribution to food safety In the years since man landed on the Moon, there been one solution whenever there has been a true food safety crisis on Earth… The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, or just plain old “HASSUP” for short, is the fix to restore confidence in food safety when consumers and politicians have just about lost it.
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Most people obsess over the flavour of everything from ice cream to chocolate – but the professionals, food scientists and chefs alike, know that crispiness, creaminess and chewiness is just as important.
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Radical Waters International recently added a new patent to its patent portfolio, one for new “Activated Granular Carbon”- a progressive step in extending its ECA systems (electrochemically-activated water), a non-traditional “chemical-free CIP” that has been widely adopted by the beverage and other food industry markets.
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Africa and EU see rising level of antibiotic-resistant salmonella Strains of one increasingly antibiotic-resistant Salmonella serotype, Salmonella Kentucky, first isolated in 2002 in a French tourist who had visited Egypt, has now “spread at an astonishing rate throughout Africa and the Middle East in the space of only a few years,” claims a new study.
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Many experiments have shown that people can’t tell plonk from grand cru. Now one US winemaker has proven that even experts can’t judge wine accurately. What’s the science behind the taste?
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Marketing, Trends, Innovation and NPD
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After all the pink slime and horse meat fiascos that have angered and concerned consumers in many countries, it appears the word “meat” just isn’t working up the appetite like it used to. One euphemism we might see more of is “protein”.
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Flavours for health, such as herbs and spices, honey and new generation superfruits will be the next hits in the global beverages market, according to Innova Market Insights.
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Crisps made from beetroot, parsnip, sweet potato and even carrot are now old hat but, in a British innovation, the latest vegetable to be sliced up, cooked in oil and served as a snack is asparagus.
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Health and Nutrition
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“To not be able to taste, the world is so empty. I’m not myself. The idea of not looking forward to really appreciating eating, to just eat to get by, was horrifying to me.” The words of UK food writer, Marlena Spieler, who has lost her sense of taste. Taste, and more importantly, smell, are integral to eating, personal safety and mental well-being – this article investigates what it’s like to lose one or both.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association recommend that children drink skim or low-fat milk after age two. But that may not help them to avoid obesity.
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Silver makes antibiotics thousands of times more effective Like werewolves and vampires, bacteria have a weakness: silver. The precious metal has been used to fight infection for thousands of years — Hippocrates first described its antimicrobial properties in 400BC — but how it works has been a mystery.
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Google recently added a new feature to its search capabilities: in-depth and accurate nutrition information.
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Food bites…2013: Chastising Big Food, Big Soda, Big Alcohol!
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 “UNLIKE in previous centuries, improving socio-economic conditions are now creating conditions that increase disease – including type-2 diabetes and other obesity-related illnesses. Preventing these illnesses goes against the business interests of powerful economic operators.
“It is not just Big Tobacco anymore. Public health must also contend with Big Food, Big Soda and Big Alcohol. All of these industries fear regulation, and protect themselves by using the same tactics… self-regulation, front groups, lawsuits, political lobbying, contributions to worthy causes, and industry-funded research [that serve to] confuse the evidence and keep the public in doubt….
“This is formidable opposition. Market power readily translates into political power. Few governments prioritise health over big business. As we learned from experience with the tobacco industry, a powerful corporation can sell the public just about anything.
“Let me remind you. Not one single country has managed to turn around its obesity epidemic in all age groups. This is not a failure of individual will-power. This is a failure of political will to take on big business.”
Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO, speaking in Helsinki at a global health promotion conference last month
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