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Editor’s Stuff: Nothing as controversial as food! |
“I’ve covered wars and natural disasters, but I’ve never covered anything as controversial as food.” So said Michael Specter, New Yorker staff writer in his keynote lecture at last year’s IFT annual meeting and expo in the US.
He wasn’t wrong, and that’s why I’m bringing this valuable series of articles to your attention.
As the writer, Dave Fusaro, chief editor of Food Processing magazine notes, “From obesity to cancer to Taliban terrorism, the food and beverage industry seems to get blamed for all of this world’s ills. OK, maybe not the Taliban, but for just about everything else, the modern diet and processed foods are fingered as the culprits.”
 On the likes of obesity, food safety, ‘questionable’ ingredients and so on, these articles are essential reading for anyone producing and marketing food. In a nutshell, they outline how the industry can do a better job of tactfully defending itself – and the key is transparency.
Enjoy this week’s read!
Brenda Neall: publisher & editor
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Many interesting career opportunities are posted up on FOODStuff SA’s Jobs pages! Click here!
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Local News and Developments |
The chicken market has been in the headlines this week over alleged dumping by Brazilian producers, at a value of up to 60 percent less than in their respective markets. SARS has imposed a provisional levy on Brazilian imports…
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British beef set to return to SA shelves
A UK trade mission is hoping to convince South Africans to once again serve up British beef on their plates, after a 15-year ban on its products was lifted at the end of last year.
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Upmarket retailer Woolworths will try to woo its well-heeled customers into buying more than just meat and fresh produce from its stores by introducing more categories and bulk value buys in its new full-line supermarkets.
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Branded foods and beverages company, Clover, recently launched the “Way Better” campaign to communicate its new brand positioning statement to consumers. Clover’s Brands and Marketing Executive, Dr Chris Lerm, talks about it.
Stellen Fine Wines has entered the competitive cider market with the launch of a new cider, Tell’s. Cider is SA’s fastest-growing alcoholic beverage, outpacing the growth in beer, wines, spirits and flavoured alcoholic beverages.
The Fore Good Group has been selected to distribute brands from the leading UK FMCG group, Premier Foods, in South Africa.
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International News and Developments |
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The cereals giant Kellogg hopes to add some more snap, crackle and pop to its financial results with the acquisition of Pringles for $2.7bn.
Mars, the maker of Snickers and Twix candy bars, will stop selling chocolate products with more than 250 calories (1 047kj) in them by the end of next year, a spokeswoman said this week.
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Preparing for the worst under the European Union’s uber-strict health claims regime, a Danone spokesman says the company may have to concede defeat and that the world’s highest-selling functional food category could disappear altogether.
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5-Hour Energy, the two-ounce (60ml) caffeine and vitamin elixir that purports to keep you alert without crashing. In eight years 5-Hour has gone from nowhere to $1 billion in retail sales. Truckers swear by it. So do the traders in Oliver Stone’s 2010 sequel to Wall Street. So do hungover students. It’s $3 a bottle, and it has made its founder a fortune.
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Red Bull has received approval from Brazil’s state development council for the installation of a soft drinks plant in the country, the first plant in the world to be fully owned by the Austrian energy drinks maker.
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A new group chief brewer has been appointed at SABMiller to replace the present one, Barry Axcell, who plans to retire in July, the company reports.
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Food Marketing, NPD and Innovation |
The winners (and finalists) of the FoodBev.com Awards 2011 have been announced …. they include some very interesting concepts from around the world that are worth investigating for those interested in product innovation in food, beverage, functional food and online and social media marketing.
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McCain Foods, the frozen food manufacturer, has embarked on an appropriately winter-warming outdoor campaign for its new baked potatoes – tempting UK consumers with the smell of baked potatoes at ten bus stops around the country as part of its £1.4m push for Ready Made Jackets.
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Soda sales are flat and the beverage industry is looking for its next big thing. Increasingly, it is turning to the coconut. Touted as a natural sports drink that helps tired bodies rehydrate, coconut water retail sales rose to as much as $400 million last year in the US.
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The market for ‘free from’ foods shows strong growth in the US and Western Europe according to new research from Leatherhead Food Research, a leading UK-based independent research organisation.
US: PepsiCo adds water to Tropicana PepsiCo has a strategy to sell more Tropicana brand OJ: Add water to its new products. Some consumers prefer orange juice that’s less thick. Others want juice with the “goodness” of oranges and fewer calories, said PepsiCo Global Beverages Chief Massimo D’Amore. And consumers will pay the same – or more – for such versions.
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Food Science, Safety and Ingredients Stuff |
We all know that you have to cook pork until it’s grey, that you can’t leave anything with mayonnaise out for too long, and that a quick whiff tells you if food’s gone bad. Except that each of those ‘facts’ is wrong. Food safety experts to pull together a list of consumers’ most common food safety myths.
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Upcoming Webinars
Ingredient Trends: The influential Hartman Group is hosting a free 20-minute webinar on February 29 – an in-depth look at how cultural shifts in health and wellness impact ingredients in many of today’s and tomorrow’s foods and beverages. Gain a better understanding on what shapes consumer perceptions of “healthy food” from organic and natural to functional foods.
Solutions for Salt & Sodium Optimisation: Aslo on February 29, Food Processing’s experts will discuss the rapidly changing environment surrounding sodium levels in foods: dietary guidelines, menu and labeling legislation and technical solutions for salt and sodium optimisation.
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Health and Nutrition Stuff |
What is RRSHS? And why is it so bad for you? RRSHS refers to Relative Risk Scary Headline Syndrome: why bore people with a sober assessment of how likely something is to kill them when you can scream a terrifying figure at them instead? RRSHS, asserts this article, is exactly the case behind the UK government’s latest “bizarre claims about booze” – ie that consuming two large glasses of wine or two strong pints of beer a day triples their risk of developing mouth cancer.
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Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff
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Even if wine has become more and more demystified and accessible over the past several years — there are still a few lingering myths out there. This article debunks some of the common ones…
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Food bites… In praise of prepared food!
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“If American eating habits are really going to change in the coming decades, it will be because of innovations in chain restaurants and grocery stores, not because everyone is making their own chicken stock. The trends toward less time, less cooking, and broader availability of premade foods is irreversible, and efforts to fight against it are doomed, in most cases, to fail.
“But premade foods can become healthier, and semi-prepared foods — like the pre-cut vegetables that now dot many supermarket produce aisles — can make cooking easier. It’s great to cook food from scratch, but it’s not, as so many suggest, a necessary prerequisite for eating healthily.”
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