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Editor’s Stuff: The Trends Issue!
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LOOKING at the articles I’ve collected for you this week, there’s no option but to call this newsletter, The Trends Issue. Trendspotting goes with this time of year – as every media, thinktank, research company and so on adds their predictions and insights to the pile.
I love trends – they put the world, the consumer and the industry in perspective and suggest the future. Indeed, us humans seem genetically wired with deep curiosity about what the future holds, something which makes evolutionary sense, too.
There are heaps of food, beverage and health trends to uncover this week, and I’ll leave you with this pithy quote from The Hartman Group: “Trends … some scoff, some worship, but everybody watches them to some extent with curiosity, concern and even fear. No one wants to be left behind and, certainly, not behind the competition.”
Enjoy this week’s read!
Brenda Neall : publisher & editor
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Local News and Developments |
BOS enters sports drink market with new BOS SPORT
Fast-track BOS Brands has entered the sports drink arena with the launch of rooibos-based BOS Sport. The product reinforces its philosophy of creating healthy, colourant free and preservative free beverages – using only natural flavours and premium ingredients. Read more
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Tapiocoa tea bubbles up on Jo’burg
Jo’burg has a new and its first bubble tea franchise called ‘Happy.me’ – recently founded by entrepreneur Jan Roode. “Happy.me is the next generation of beverages,” he says. Read more
food & drink technology Africa 2014 expo’s conference programme
The conference programme for food & drink technology Africa has been scheduled. The new event, organised by Messe München International and its subsidiary MMI South Africa, will premier in Johannesburg on March 18 and 19, 2014 at Gallagher Convention Centre. Read more
OPINION: Reflecting of a special CEO, Graham Mackay
Graham Mackay used to say his performance review as CEO of SABMiller was simple, and available for everyone to examine: the company’s share price, which grew from R50 in early 2003, to R537 in early 2014. Journalist, David Williams, pays tribute. Read more
SA’s black middle class plays catch-up
Since at least the 1960s, the prospects for growth of the black middle class have animated commentators and marketers alike. Yet, time and again, they have been surprised by the substantial differences in the consumer behaviour of white and black members of the middle class. Why? And what do these differences mean for the prospects for growth of the market for particularly high-end goods? Read more
Tough times ahead for the SA consumer
Local consumers who are expected to face a tough year as food, electricity and petrol costs continue to soar. While the upper-income bracket would be able to weather the storm, middle-to-low-income earners would feel the burn of rising food costs. Read more
Retailers in a tight corner?
Increasing demands on consumers’ discretionary income would put retailers in a tight spot this year, analysts have agreed. Read more
ICYMI: New-shape Pioneer Foods looking ready for growth?
The recent merger of Pioneer’s consumer brands segments, Bokomo Foods and Ceres Beverages (CB), should fatten margins. Read more
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International Developments
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US: FDA revising the 20-year-old food nutrition labels
With new knowledge about nutrition and more evidence that people actually consult the labels of food packages, the US FDA is finally giving the 20-year-old American nutrition label an update. A process that’s been ten years in the making, new guidelines for the label have been sent to the White House for review. Read more
PepsiCo and Nestle pump billions into Mexico despite new food taxes
PepsiCo and Nestle have announced plans to invest $6-billion in Mexico as the lure of faster growth in Latin America’s second-largest economy trumps higher taxes on their products from soft drinks to pet food. Read more
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Cold pasteurised producer Suja Juice tops ‘Most Promising’ list
Affirming the potential of high pressure juice processing in the US, the Suja Juice Co, the US’s leading producer, has been named third among Forbes Magazine’s 2014 list of America’s Top 100 Most Promising Companies. Suja is also the only consumer packaged goods company within the top 25. Read more
US: As brewing giants push craft beer, Bud and Miller suffer
The world’s biggest brewers are aggressively rolling out products designed to appeal to fans of craft beer. But they’re not putting the microbrewers who started the movement out of business. Read more
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Trends, Marketing and NPD |
JWT’s 100 Things to Watch in 2014
 Edible packaging, savoury yoghurt, babyfood home deliveries, tofu as fast food – these are some of the food-related items from JWTIntelligence’s annual list of 100 Things to Watch for the year ahead, a report that always delivers fascinating and accurate insights, and is one of the best annual Trends reads. Read more |
Euromonitor’s Top 10 Global Consumer Trends for 2014
 Market Research Company Euromonitor International has released a new white paper report identifying the top 10 consumer trends for 2014 with a focus on consumer behaviours and beliefs going into the new year. It’s free to download, but here are its kernals… Read more |
Leatherhead’s Top Trends for 2014
Leading UK food research organisation, Leatherhead Food RA has published these five key trends that it believes will be prominent for the industry in 2014, among them consumer scepticism and a growing focus on the supply chain. Read more |
Food(ie) trends in 2014: from savoury yoghurts to burger bots
The future of food includes kale ice lollies, smart knives and egg-white crisps, according to trend analysts. But will savoury yoghurt and edible soil ever catch on? The Guardian takes us on a weird, whacky and wonderful tour of some cutting-edge, food and foodie trends and developments. Read more |
Top 2014 specialty food trends unveiled at Winter Fancy Food Show
 The specialty food industry is once again leading the charge in new trends and flavours, all on display at the recent US Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. Chocolate teas, seaweed chips, and truffle ketchup were all part of a larger trend towards thoughtful indulgence. Sriracha, the fiery Thai chilli sauce, was one of the biggest flavour trends – showing up in snacks, chocolates and jams. Read more |
‘Meat Atlas’ charts a changing world of meat eaters
 Social and ethical concerns are a growing priority for consumers when it comes to eating meat. A new publication, the Meat Atlas aims to build awareness on the staggering number of animals humankind eats annually, and that what we put on our plates has political consequences. Read more |
US: Butter consumption at 40-year-high
 Butter’s growing popularity in the US — consumption has risen 25% in the last decade — coincides with more understanding about the health hazards of its processed counterparts. Read more |
ICYMI: Health & Wellness goes mainstream: living in a culture of well-being
Not so long ago, people just wanted more control over their health. Now the Hartman Group’s new analysis, A Culture of Wellness, makes clear that the drive toward health and wellness is now fully ingrained in consumers’ daily lives, part of the culture rather than a lifestyle choice or an alternative movement. Read more |
See all 2014 trends reports here! |
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Food Science, Technology and Ingredients |
“Rare sugar” commercialisation making waves in Japan
Kagawa University, Japan, researchers have developed a way to mass-produce a “rare sugar” that has 70 percent the sweetness of regular sugar but also prevents blood sugar and fat buildup. Read more
Monsanto is going organic in a quest for the perfect veggie
This Beneforté broccoli, compared with standard broccoli, is much healthier. It was developed by Monsanto. Changing the agricultural game is what Monsanto does. Here’s a look at how it is introducing novel strains of familiar food crops that are endowed with powers and abilities far beyond usual produce. Oh, but here’s the catch, none of these is GM. Read more
The new water technologies that could save the planet
 What are the new and emerging technologies that will help business overcome the scarcity of clean, fresh water? Read more |
Cinnamon sparks spicy debate in Denmark
News that too much cinnamon can cause liver damage and amount used in food must be limited gets a rise out of bakers in Denmark. Read more
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FDA re-studying caramel colouring in soda
The US FDA says it is conducting new studies of the safety of caramel colouring in soft drinks and other foods, even though previous research has shown no identifiable health risk. Caramel is the world’s most widely used food colourant. Read more
Packaging Perspectives – Innovative limited edition bottle designs
Personalisation in bottling has grown in popularity as consumers demand product individuality. But how can brands create packaging that is unique to each consumer and how is it produced? Read more
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Health and Nutrition |
Top diet trends for 2014
What fad diets are hot? What’s out? Which foods top the list? US PR group, Pollock Colmmunications partnered with Today’s Dietitian to conduct a survey of more than 500 registered dietitians and found that America’s demand for nutrition information is at an all-time high. [American in focus, but great insights. Ed] Read more
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Move over quinoa, Ethiopia’s teff poised to be next big super grain
Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries, well-known for its precarious food security situation. But it is also the native home of teff, a highly nutritious ancient grain increasingly finding its way into health-food shops and supermarkets in Europe and America. Read more
Quinoa well tolerated in patients with celiac disease
Adding quinoa to the gluten-free diet of patients with celiac disease is well-tolerated, and does not exacerbate the condition, according to new research published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Read more
Study: Obesity rates have surged in developing world
The world needs to go on diet…. There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of overweight or obese people in the past 30 years. Previously considered a problem in richer countries, the biggest rises are in middle income countries and the developing world. Read more
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Diet soda mixers make you drunker
 The dangers of mixing booze with diet soda could outweigh the caloric benefits – as it has been found that diet soda as a mixer can definitely can get you drunker than the same drink with a sugary mixer. Read more |
The rumour: Zapping food in a microwave leaches out key nutrients
 We’ve all heard about how microwaving food removes some nutritional value, but is it true? The verdict: If you do it right, cooking food in the microwave is one of the best ways to retain food’s vitamins and minerals. Read more |
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Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff |
Watermelon explosion in super slow motion
Using a high speed camera that films at 25,000 frames per second, Britons Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy, known as The Slow Mo Guys, have produced slow motion footage of a watermelon blowing up. The effect is mesmerising. Read more
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Just what exactly is in Froot Loops?
 Kellogg’s Froot Loops recently caused an online stir when it was revealed that the multicoloured ‘loops’ are all the same flavour. Shock, horror! Read more |
Novel way of keeping wine fresh
 Described as “the ultimate protection for wine lovers”, an American mother-son duo is hoping to raise enough interest and money to launch an interesting new way of keeping wine fresh, and with it a string of puns.. Read more
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Food bites…2014: Getting real!
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 “IMPERFECTION and even outright ugliness—the quirky, the messy and the flawed—are taking on new appeal, one of our 10 Trends for 2014. “With so many products and services mass-produced and engineered for perfection, consumers have been craving that which is more natural, original or interesting. These feel less cookie-cutter and more authentic, whether we’re talking about products (homemade-looking food) or people (unretouched images, models with clear imperfections, etc).
“MORE than ever, foodservice consumers are questioning the origin of their foods and they are demanding transparency not only in ingredient sourcing, but in general business practices, including the treatment of animals and employees. Consumers are interested in patronising restaurants and buying brands that reflect their own values.
“Concepts that understand this and offer more information about their green practices or the causes they support stand to reap the rewards of increased loyalty.”
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