31 Mar Issue 79: 2 April 2010
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
John Quincy Adams, the 6th US president
Food bites… The snacking craze
“Part of this enormous shift [to snacking] has to do with a more positive view of in-between meal eating, an adaptation to lifestyles in which daily meal-crafting is often impractical. It is also an extension of our American obsession with self-improvement. If being hungry lowers productivity and enjoyment of life, then hunger must be banished. And, the only way to get through the day without feeling hungry is to snack.
The food industry itself rushed to meet this emerging cultural need to banish hunger from our everyday lives and has supported the virtual ubiquity of snackable foods in modern America… Some of the most interesting incremental growth opportunities lie in the snacking margins of our everyday food culture.”
E
ditor’s Stuff – Those Easter eggs are good for you!
Some newsworthy and notable local food industry stories hit my desk this week – rather at odds with the typical feeling of slowdown that washes the Easter holiday period. Read more below on the publishing of SA’s new draft regulations for trans fats; on Woolies raising the bar again with an announcement that it’s removing all azo dyes from its private label foods; and on the stylish packaging facelift Cadbury’s has given its best-loved choc, Dairymilk.
But on the eve of the Easter weekend, there’s no story more apt to highlight than this – the headlines just get better and better for chocolate!
Researchers link chocolate to heart health
In a study, people who ate an average of 7.5 grams of chocolate a day had lower blood pressure and a 39% lower risk of heart attack than those who ate an average of 1.7 grams. The flavanols in cocoa seem to be responsible for the health benefits, the lead researcher said.
The study published in the European Heart Journal looked at the chocolate consumption of middle-aged men and women over eight years. It compared the health of those who ate the most and least chocolate. The difference between these two groups was just 6g a day, equivalent to one small square of chocolate a day.
The lead author, Brian Buijsse, from the German Institute of Human Nutrition, Nuthetal, said Our hypothesis was that because chocolate appears to have a pronounced effect on blood pressure, therefore chocolate consumption would lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks, with a stronger effect being seen for stroke.
This is, in fact, what the study found. Those who ate more chocolate cut their risk of heart attacks by around a quarter, and of stroke by nearly half, compared with those who ate the least. But Buijsse warned that it was important people ensured that eating chocolate did not increase their overall intake of calories or reduce their consumption of healthy foods.
The researchers believe that flavanols in cocoa may be the reason why chocolate seems to be good for peoples blood pressure and heart health. And since there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, dark chocolate may have a greater effect. Read more here and you can access the journal abstract here
Bon weekend and enjoy this week’s read!
Email Brenda Neall, editor and publisher: [email protected]
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SA Food Industry Stuff
Draft regulations on trans fat published
The Department of Health has published its promised regulations (in the Government Gazette of 30 March 2010) to ban trans fat from South African foods – Regulation 249 of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act (54/1972): Trans fat in foodstuffs. The regulations prohibit a trans fat content in excess of 2g per 100g of end product foodstuff. Products that claim to be “free of trans fat” must contain less than (or equal to) 0.01g per 100g of the end product foodstuff. Read more
Woolworths removes azo dyes from its own-brand food
From April 2010 Woolworths-branded foods will no longer contain azo dyes, a type of artificial colourant frequently used to colour sweets and other brightly coloured foodstuffs. Its the latest step on what Woolworths refers to as its Good Food Journey, and follows the removal of the artificial sweeteners aspartame, saccharin and cyclamate last year. Read more
[Woolies won’t be able to sing about this on its labels – under the new food labelling regulations, all colourants and flavourants are deemed to have been processed or engineered in some way and no distinction is permitted between artificial or natural types. Bummer! Ed]
Global new look and feel for SAs favourite chocolate
South Africas best-loved chocolate Cadbury Dairy Milk has introduced a bold new look consistent with the brands global identity. The iconic brand, which is produced in four continents and sold in over 30 countries worldwide, will now have one recognisable look throughout the world. Read more
SA consumers want more choice – Heineken CEO
Heineken CEO Jean-Francois Van Boxmeer has hailed the opening of the firm’s brewery with Diageo in South Africa as a victory for consumer choice. Heineken and Diageo will make the new Sedibeng brewery in Gauteng the centrepiece of their plan to take on SABMiller in its home country. At an opening ceremony last week, Van Boxmeer said: “There is room for competition in the country and that is what we want to bring to [South Africa]. That is the adventure we are engaged in and we believe that South African people want to discover new things.
The R3.5bn brewery began operations late last year, but strong early demand for the firms’ premium beers means that they have decided to raise capacity by a third, to 4m hectolitres, by September 2010. Heineken says its share of the local beer market grew by 2 percentage points to about 11% during 2009. Read more here and another angle here
I&J steps out the box with these two new launches
Adding a nice touch of variety to the sausages available in our supermarkets, I&J has launched I&J Chicken Bangers, and we can only wonder why it took its NPD team so long to come up with ostrich burgers. Read more
Don’t mess with the food chain
The ANC is not stupid. Some of its people may do really stupid things, from singing hateful songs to driving in bus lanes in a display of non-sobriety. But it knows its historical facts. One of them is: Don’t mess with the food-chain.
Many revolutions have been started by an increase in the price of basic foodstuffs. The one that started it all came about when Louis XVI allowed there to be a scarcity of grain and bread prices rose. So the ANC knows even they have to tread carefully when it comes to land. Read more
COURSE: Food Technology for non-Technologists
This three-day short course, being run by the Agrifood Technology Station of CPUT and FIRI Consulting in Cape Town in May, is aimed at up-skilling, re-skilling and building morale among staff within the food industry. Read more
Food Trends & NPD Stuff
Innova: Global surge in gluten free new product activity
The number of products marketed as gluten-free is continuing to rise globally, with a further double-digit growth recorded in 2009 to take the total number recorded on the Innova Database to more than double the level in 2007.
This is partly due to improved labelling regulations, but also to rising health concerns and awareness of gluten intolerance in the diet and the search for more mainstream and good-tasting gluten-free products across a range of food and drinks sectors. Read more
Pepsi attempts to wean itself off sugar, salt and fat
Coca-Cola once famously defined its market as throat share, meaning its stake in the entire liquid intake of all humanity. Not to be outdone, Indra Nooyi, the boss of Cokes arch-rival, PepsiCo, wants her firm to be seen as one of the defining companies of the first half of the 21st century, a model of how to conduct business in the modern world. More specifically, she argues that Pepsi, which makes crisps and other fatty, salty snacks as well as sugary drinks, should be part of the solution, not the cause, of one of the worlds biggest public-health challenges, a challenge fundamentally linked to our industry: obesity. To that end, she recently unveiled a series of targets to improve the healthiness of Pepsis wares. [Excellent article from The Economist] Read more
The death of high fructose corn syrup
The back-to-back, double whammy announcements that PepsiCo is ditching high fructose corn syrup in Gatorade along with the results of a scathing new [and dubious] study from researchers at Princeton make it official allies of the controversial sweetener have lost the war.
For years, the Corn Refiners Association, a trade group consisting of companies like Cargill and ADM (ADM), has been hammering away at the bad press gushing out about high fructose corn syrup. In ads, in the press and online, they argue that the sweetener is a perfectly natural product and that it is no worse for you than regular old sugar. To which consumers have responded with a collective Yeah, right. Read more
US: Sports drinks suffer sales volume slump in US
Sports drinks appear to have suffered a severe reversal of fortune in the US with volumes going through the floor in 2009. According to fresh data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC), sales of sports drinks slumped 12.3% last year in volume terms while the US soft drinks market as a whole contracted 3.1%. The decline in the popularity of sports drinks was only matched by a 12.5% fall in value-added water sales. The next worst performer last year was ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee volumes of which were down 12.3% on 2008. Read more
US: Subway joins cage-free crowd
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) scored a big victory this week when it announced a commitment from Subway to eventually use 100% cage-free eggs. The commitment comes on the heels of Subway’s announcement that it will roll out a breakfast menu … Read more
Can new Guinness lager live up to the legendary name?
It’s Guinness but not as you know it. The Irish brewing giant has launched an ambitious new product which is being trialled in Northern Ireland Guinness Black Lager.
The bottle is packaged in the trademark dark brown which is synonymous with Guinness. The lager keeps the black colour of stout and has a white head when poured. Apart from the initial distinctive taste of a pale beer, what is very evident is an overwhelmingly familiar taste of Guinness, though it lacks the thick creaminess that you’ll get with a pint of the draught stout. Read more
UK: ‘White strawberry’ that tastes like pineapple to go on sale
A new summer berry that looks like a white strawberry but tastes like a pineapple has gone on sale in Waitrose. The pineberry is white and covered in red pips and has the same genetic make-up as the common strawberry but with a flavour and ”extraordinary” smell closer to that of the pineapple. Read more
CHINA: Coca-Cola gets into tea with Spritea
Global but thinking local, Coca-Cola has launched a new innovative tea-flavoured beverage in China to enhance its product portfolio and further tap the huge beverage market. Coca-Cola’s Sprite brand has launched Spritea, a carbonated blend of local green tea flavours. Read more
Mutant crops could radically boost food production
A hybrid tomato plant that gives a bumper crop of sweeter tomatoes has been created by scientists, by cross-breeding from two parent plants. The hybrid produces about 60% more tomatoes than the average tomato plant, and the sugar content of the fruit is also higher than normal, the scientists said. It carries a mutation in a single gene that controls the timing of flower formation.
The discovery could be applied to other valuable food crops such as potatoes, peppers and aubergines, the geneticists hope. The crop-boosting mutation is seen as a potentially valuable tool to increase global food production in the coming decades. Read more
Health and Nutrition Stuff
UK: FSA’s new recommendations on cutting fat and sugar
Chocolate makers selling products in the UK will have to cut the saturated fat in their filled bars by 10% by the end of 2012, according to recommendations set out by the country’s food watchdog. The UK’s Food Standards Agency’s newly published guyidelines also call for more smaller single-portion sizes available in “junk foods” such as biscuits, cakes, buns, soft drinks and confectionery. Read more
More fat, fewer carbs at breakfast could keep you healthy
Most obesity research focuses on what kinds of foods people eat and how much. But a news study from the University of Alabama suggests that timing may be equally important when it comes maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding metabolic syndrome.
Published in the International Journal of Obesity, the study examined the influence exerted by the type of foods and specific timing of intake on the development of metabolic syndrome characteristics in mice. The research revealed that mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles. Read more
Flaxseed lowers high cholesterol in men, study suggests
A new study may give men a way to combat high cholesterol without drugs — if they don’t mind sprinkling some flaxseed into their daily diet. Read more
Fatty foods may cause cocaine-like addiction
Scientists have finally confirmed what many have suspected for years: bacon, cheesecake, and other delicious yet fattening foods may be addictive. A new study in rats suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. When rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction, the study found. Doing drugs such as cocaine and eating too much junk food both gradually overload the so-called pleasure centers in the brain . . . Read more
Scientists claim fat-free milk could relieve constipation
Full-fat milk may be associated with constipation but new research suggests that drinking fat-free milk could be a way of solving irregularity problems. Writing in Nutrition a group of Turkish scientists investigated the effects of fat-free milk supplementation on constipation and levels of motilin and ghrelin both of which affect intestinal mobility. Read more
Eight reasons our waistlines are expanding
If obesity is a disease, like cancer or heart disease, as researchers stress, it is time to stop blaming lack of willpower for the extra poundage and ask – non-judgmentally – why are we so fat? From better hygiene to foods that mimic drugs, the answers may surprise you. Read more
Peanut skins: the next fountain of youth?
Traditionally considered a waste product, peanut skins are making a name for themselves as the next anti-aging compound thanks to their high levels of phenolic compounds. A researcher at North Carolina State University’s food science program is examining peanut skins in search of anti-aging chemical compounds, including resveratrol and flavonoids, traditionally associated with grapes and red wine. Read more
Jamie Oliver’s better dinners improve pupils’ results
Jamie Oliver’s healthy school dinners have produced a marked improvement in national curriculum test results, according to the first-ever research into their impact on standards published this week. A study by the Royal Economic Society shows youngsters reared on the healthier dinners that the TV chef introduced into schools did far better in tests for 11-year-olds. Read more
COMMENT: Jamie Oliver has got it right on school dinners
However much it pains me to concede it, Jamie Oliver was right to bang on about school dinners the way he did – and now he has the results to prove it. Read more
Packaging Stuff
Bar codes could be next to check out
Lines at the grocery store might become as obsolete as milkmen, if a new tag that seeks to replace bar codes becomes commonplace. Researchers in South Korea and Houston have built a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that can be printed directly onto cereal boxes and potato chip bags. The tag uses ink laced with carbon nanotubes to print electronics on paper or plastic that could instantly transmit information about a cart full of groceries. You could run your cart by a detector and it tells you instantly whats in the cart, says James M. Tour of Rice University, whose research group invented the ink. No more lines, you just walk out with your stuff. Read more