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Editor’s Stuff: Horsemeat in Europe: A saga becomes a massive scandal!
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In a few weeks the horsemeat scandal in Europe has evolved from a tainted-food story into a massive saga that’s spread across the Continent and is challenging the credulity of the whole food supply chain – and digging a big dent in consumer confidence. Today, for instance, the latest food & drink feed from The Guardian newspaper has 21 articles on the issue – and that’s just one paper.
Eleven of the UK’s biggest food suppliers have, while not apologising, declared they are “working around the clock to complete the most comprehensive testing of processed beef products ever undertaken, anywhere in the world. We will do whatever it takes to restore public confidence in the food they buy and eat.”
What a windfall for labs! Testing demand has rocketed and they are completely overwhelmed by the scale of work, so reports say. (For any SA producers concerned they may be victim, Swift Silliker is offering DNA testing out of its Italian office.)
 This week you can read several updates on the scandal, as well as some sage perspectives on what this means for the food industry, and the lessons it can learn.
Two companies embroiled in the horsemeat scandal have revealed they are ready to sue further down the supply chain, as the investigation spreads across Europe and a government minister has warned more contamination may be found in other food.
Bad jokes aside, the scandal about horsemeat in burgers should not be used to smear the entire food industry.
Though prices of raw materials are going up, penny-pinching consumers refuse to pay more for ready-meals. Retailers, equally unwilling to forgo profits, are putting relentless pressure on suppliers to cut costs. They in turn are frantically rejigging foodstuffs to be cheaper.
Horsemeat scandal should make us rethink how we eat So why the scandal over this case? … One factor is clearly cultural taboos over horsemeat. A more important one, though, is surely disgust and guilt at how the human food chain operates to satisfy our collective appetite for cheap meat.
Enjoy this week’s read!
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| Local News and Developments |
Well-known food safety expert and microbiologist, Dr Lucia Anelich, has been appointed Executive and Scientific Director of ILSI-South Africa. ILSI or the International Life Sciences Institute is a non-profit, worldwide organisation whose mission is to provide science that improves public health and well-being.
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What’s not to love about Amore – a South African food venture that’s offering consumers an interesting new take on convenience veggies/side dishes.
Nampak, Africa’s largest packaging group, has announced it is investing R1,6bn in two businesses that produce bottles and cans for the “growing” beverage market.
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Product of the Year 2013 results The top consumer goods, as voted for by South African customers, were recently announced in the annual Products of the Year survey. Products entered must be less than 18 months old. The final selection is based on an independent Nielsen survey of over 5 000 South African households across the country [only querying them on brands whose owners can afford the risk of winning ie R220K per winner!]
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The new R146 Labelling and Advertising Regulations having been part of our lives since March 1, 2012. Has it all been worth it? What is the practical impact? What happens next? Nigel Sunley, one of SA’s foremost labelling experts, gives his answers.
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International News & Developments
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Warren Buffett has agreed a $28bn (£18bn or R252bn) deal to buy the ketchup and baked beans giant, HJ Heinz, among the biggest ever takeover in the food-bev industry.
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Global food and drink companies are using techniques pioneered by the tobacco industry to undermine public-health policies designed to combat obesity, diabetes and alcohol-related illnesses, a new study claims.
Barclays ends food speculation Barclays chief executive officer Anthony Jenkins has announced the bank would stop speculating on food, as campaigners call for tougher regulations to prevent speculation that fuels price spikes, contributing to the global hunger crisis.
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New Zealand rejects health warnings on soda labels after woman dies A New Zealand food industry association has rejected a coroner’s call to add health warnings to soft-drink labels following the 2010 death of a woman who drank about 8 litres of Coca-Cola a day. But New Zealand Food & Grocery Council CE, Katherine Rich, said “there isn’t a labelling regime in the world” that could have prevented the death of somebody who chose to drink Coke in such large quantities.
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The American burger chain has taken France’s cherished Camembert cheese and stuck a ‘Mc’ in front of it.
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Don’t let the name fool you. Coca-Cola’s Simply Orange juice [a premium US brand] is anything but pick, squeeze, and pour. That cold glass of 100 percent liquid sunshine on the breakfast table is the product of a sophisticated industrial juice complex. Satellite imagery, complicated data algorithms, even a juice pipeline are all part of the recipe.
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Food Trends and Marketing
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The FRUIT LOGISTICA Innovation Award 2013 (FLIA) has been won by the “City Farming” system from the Staay Food Group, the Netherlands, a sustainable, environmentally-friendly method of producing healthy food for a rapidly growing global population.
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As everyone knows airline food is an oxymoron, with most of it more often endured than savoured. Airlines know this, and are coming up with new products to make dining and imbibing more palatable for passengers. The latest is from British Airways (BA), which has just unveiled a new tea bag developed specifically for use at 35 000 feet or 10 600 metres.
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Dawn has broken on on Kickstart, an entirely new sparkling juice beverage from PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew, presenting “a fresh alternative to the age old morning question of ‘coffee or juice’, by offering the best of all worlds.”
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Food Science, Technology and Ingredients Stuff
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New from Jungbunzlauer is sub4salt cure, a stable and ready to use substitute for curing salt. It combines the widely-known sub4salt with sodium nitrite to create a healthier choice for the meat industry without compromising taste, texture and microbiological stability.
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Resistant starch can replace flour in foods HI-MAIZE resistant starch (from Ingredion) may be used to increase the dietary fibre content of certain foods with minimal impact on sensory characteristics, according to a recent study published in the journal Food Science & Nutrition.
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In the past decade, scientists have discovered that mycotoxins on food crops can hide and slip past current detection methods used by food safety inspectors. Also scientists don’t know much about the toxicity of the derivatives.
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Health and Nutrition Stuff
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Think having sex or going to gym class drives weight loss, or that breastfeeding protects a child from obesity? In fact, these are among seven popular obesity myths, according to an article published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Such inaccurate, widespread beliefs, the authors argue, are leading to poor policy decisions, inaccurate public health recommendations and wasted resources.
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A new report out of the UK claims there is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that beer causes weight gain and has labelled the beer belly a myth.
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Imagine this: you’re an alcoholic who has tried everything to quit drinking. No luck. So you go to your doctor, who gives you a vaccine that could change your life. All of a sudden, you’re a new person. Every drink you try to take makes you nauseous – essentially, drinks now give you the equivalent of a horrific hangover. You’re no longer an alcoholic (physically, at least) as long as you go in every six months to get a new vaccine.
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Is the ‘there is no such thing as bad foods, only bad diets’ argument helpful? A new position statement from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) which can be paraphrased as ‘there is no such thing as good and bad foods, only good and bad diets’ is eminently sensible, but will play into the hands of ‘junk’ food companies opposed to any government intervention in their industry, claims one academic.
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The growing popularity of energy drinks — and deaths linked to those products — are fostering new concerns about how much caffeine people can safely consume, according to the a comprehensive article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
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Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff
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About a quarter of the population has an especially sensitive sense  of taste. What does it mean, and how can you find out if you’re one of them?
You don’t have to invent an iPad or a smart phone to be labelled a clever innovator. Some of the simplest, everyday items are being tweaked in new ways that just shout “No brainer – why didn’t I invent that!?” Just look at this new take on the humble tea mug – simply brilliant! Or not your cup of tea?
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Food bites…2013: Understanding how women and men shop
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 “THE biggest difference in how men and women view the shopping experience comes down to this fact: in virtually every society in the world, women have primary responsibility for both children and the elderly. They look at shopping as part of their care-giving role in the family and household.
“This means that women are buying on behalf of everyone in their lives, and as a result they are constantly considering the needs of others when they shop – even when they are shopping for themselves. If a mother is standing in a grocery aisle choosing ingredients to cook for dinner, she may think, ‘I’m going to go through a lot of trouble to make this, so it better be something everybody likes.’ Or if a woman is buying a shirt for her father’s birthday, she may think, ‘I hope it fits, because if he doesn’t, I’m the one who has to go back to the store to return it.’ They are constantly considering the implications of their purchases in terms of other people’s wants and needs.
“Generally speaking, men typically do not have the role of primary shopper for their households, and so they tend to view shopping in a more transactional manner.”
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