Most winemakers will tell you that it is not possible to make good wine without sulphur dioxide. This is not entirely true, but the risks are such that very few winemakers are prepared to take them.

KWV launches world first ‘natural’ Pinotage using patented
preservation technology

Tiger Brand’s released its full year results this week for the year ended 30 September 2014. They weren’t pretty. Here veteran business journalist, Alec Hogg, questions the group’s CE, Peter Matlare, on the shortcomings and accountability of the massive loss incurred with its Nigerian Dangote Flour investment.

Making front page, lead story headlines today in the Cape Times... A family-run jam and preserves producer in Montague, Western Cape, has found itself in a David and Goliath-like legal pickle – it is being taken on by internationally renowned confectioner Ferrero over its trademark, Roscherr’s, which is the surname of the owner.

Chicken producers have cut back on volumes over the past two years as pressure on disposable incomes and strikes have forced some consumers to switch to other proteins such as polony and beans.

FoodSure, the Jo’burg-based food label verification company, has expanded its service offering, from its original stand-alone service of food verification to now assist retailers and manufacturers in closing the operational gaps in quality and safety.

The biggest ever Propak Cape, incorporating FoodPro, Pro-Plas Expo, Print Expo and Pro-Label Cape, took place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) from October 21-23 and was a winner with 6 113 visitors who attended it over the three days.

SAAFoST (SA Association for Food Science & Technology) has announced the dates and details of its biennial congress, taking place next year in Durban. An event to diarise for all local food industrialists.

Mark your calendar: January 1, 2020. As this future year unfolds, the gap between how much cocoa the world wants to consume and how much it can produce will swell to one million metric tons, according to Mars and Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate maker. By 2030, the predicted shortfall will grow to 2 million tons. And so on.

A big-money war is brewing over the meaning of America’s best-selling condiment: mayonnaise. The maker of Hellmann’s mayo, food giant Unilever, has sued the San Francisco start-up behind Just Mayo, an egg-less, mayonnaise-like sandwich spread giving Big Mayo a run for its money.

Tucked away near Lake Geneva, a handful of Nestlé SA scientists are quietly working on realising every couch potato’s dream: exercise that comes in a bottle.

A potato genetically engineered to reduce the amounts of acrylamide, a potentially harmful ingredient in French fries and potato chips, has been approved for commercial planting, the USDA has announced.

The growing interest in insects as a mainstream source of protein has seen some commercial realisation in Europe recently, with launches in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In 2014, $300-million was wiped off breakfast cereal sales in the US. But this money didn’t disappear. Instead, $70-million of it was diverted to increase the sales of one of the biggest disruptive innovations in the breakfast category, Belvita breakfast biscuits. The rest went to a host of high-growth challenger brands.

Brazil, like most developing nations, is facing the blight of obesity thanks to changing eating habits and a rush to convenience foods. The country has published new dietary guidelines aimed at countering these trends, but they are based on foods, food patterns, and meals, not nutrients – an approach that is being hailed as ‘revolutionary’ by some industry commentators.

The growing interest in eating healthy can at times have unhealthy consequences. Some doctors and registered dietitians say they are increasingly seeing people whose desire to eat pure or “clean” food—becomes an all-consuming obsession and leads to ill health.

Arla Foods Ingredients has developed a whey protein for creating ‘sports yoghurts’ – yoghurt-based sports nutrition products that will appeal to active consumers who prefer not to use traditional gels and shakes.

Butternut squash is a South African and global favourite, but peeling it is hard work – trying to slice through the squash and peel the skin off is so darn difficult. Here’s a solution that may change this butternut squash dilemma for you – forever.

The SAB Foundation has named local innovation, Bee-Pak, a compact bee farming system, as the R1-million prize winner in its 4th Annual Social Innovation Awards.

“From Clean to Clear Label” and “Convenience for Foodies” lead the Innova Market Insights food and beverage ”Top 10 Trends” list for 2015.

Here’s a snapshot of what The Hartman Group sees happening to food culture on a wide scale. It goes far beyond food fads to some of the most meaningful shifts the US has seen in decades.

Consumer demand for products gluten-free products is rising rapidly. Sales of gluten-free food and drink there have surged from $5.4 billion to $8.8 billion over the past two years…

UK-based Polymer Logistics has globally launched the world’s first wood-effect crate, perfect for stores to boost their fresh produce aisles.

3D food printing holds exciting potential for future food applications – and one that”s close to commercialisation in Europe is for the elderly or ill who have difficulity in chewing…

If you ban ads, the world will be a healthier and better place, or so the government seems to think… Wrong! writes veteran SA marketing and advertising commentator, Chris Moerdyk.

Scottish Leader, one of the world’s favourite blended Scotch whiskies, sold in 60 countries, is revitalising with a new look, an enhanced recipe and the introduction of an additional, premium Signature blend. The brand is now owned by Distell after its purchase of Burn Stewart Distillers in April 2013.

New on the South African beverage market is Über Flavour, an all-natural ingredients brew that is made using 100% fresh fruit juice and rooibos tea.

When word got out a fortnight ago that PepsiCo was testing Doritos-flavoured Mountain Dew, the Internet had a brief but intense freakout—online hysteria erupting as if from a shaken bottle of soda. PepsiCo brands have had no reservations about tweaking signature flavours, often to gross effect but extraordinary marketing kudos.

We all know what it’s like to open a bottle of cheap wine and immediately wish we’d spent a bit more money. Instead of throwing the bottle in the bin or using it for cooking, however, a new device promises to make a young or lesser wine taste like a classic vintage within minutes.

This article comes with a WARNING! Because it may well be the last time you drink a take-out coffee with your innocence intact….

Swedish cider company, Rekorderlig, which entered the South African market last month, is looking to tap into the same trend which is buoying craft beer producers — changing consumer palates in favour of “new and different” beverages.

KWV has unveiled SA’s first and only XO Cognac produced under a South African brand name, the KWV Héritage XO Cognac, and KWV Nexus 30 year old brandy, the world’s first commercially available 30 year old brandy containing potstill up to 42 years old.

Dietary cocoa flavanols—naturally occurring bioactives found in cocoa—reversed age-related memory decline in healthy older adults, according to a study led by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists.

Bio-engineering of food ingredients is one of the hottest topics in the food industry, and a new turn in this evolving science belongs to a Silicon Valley-based biotech startup that”s hoping genetically engineered yeast will produce a dairy alternative as good or better than the cow version.