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| Editor’s Stuff: Burger King coming to SA! |
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 Let the burger wars begin! Whopping news this week is that Burger King, the world’s second-largest fast-food chain, is coming to SA, starting in Cape Town.
Capetonians will be able to experience Burger King’s legendary Whopper hamburgers some time next year when the first outlet opens in the city, local partners announced yesterday, setting up a new battleground in the war with rival McDonald’s – and Spur, Steers, Wimpy et al. Burger King Worldwide has entered into a new joint venture agreement for South Africa with JSE-listed Grand Parade Investments (GPI) with a focus on aggressively expanding the Burger King brand presence in this high-growth emerging market.
Why Grand Parade wanted the Burger King deal GPI’s announcement that it is to launch the Burger King franchise in SA is the beginning of a bigger investment in the fast food sector. The company has registered a company called Grand Foods and plans to expand into the pizza and pasta market and potentially the chicken market too.
My story of the week is this, though – take a look at this ingenius invention that will be a boon to all those who suffer from serious tremors and debilitating neural or joint disease.
Briton Chris Peacock may not have reinvented the wheel, but he’s definitely reinvented the cup. The inventor has created handSteady, an ergonomic cup to help people with health conditions (such as tremor, joint pain and Parkinson’s disease) to have their drinks without undergoing a nerve-wracking, socially-awkward challenge. It’s simply brilliant!
Enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Job of the Week! R&D Manager at Entyce Foods!
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Click here!
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| Local News and Developments |
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Bidvest Food SA recently unveiled a brand new, state-of-the-art Centre of Innovation, Design and Technology in Cape with the aim of offering customers the very best in product design, research and development.
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It took a big jolt in life to thrust Sally J’Arlette-Joy into the world of entrepreneurship in 1996. “I was newly divorced and had R5000 to my name,” says J’Arlette-Joy, founder of Sandwich Baron, SA’s largest sandwich franchise business.
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If you thought Pick n Pay wasn’t looking too confident, you’d be mistaken when visiting its new flagship store on the West Rand.
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Food crisis plagues Lesotho South Africa’s landlocked neighbour Lesotho is currently experiencing a food crisis of epic proportions. BDFM visited the worst-hit areas of the country to get a first-hand account of the situation
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Last week’s top headlines:
Six years on after launching its first ESL milk, Clover has upped the ESL game in South Africa with the launch of a 30-day shelf life product.
The Majority Report, the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing’s recently-released research on South Africa’s mass market looks in-depth at the “Survivors”, the 21.5 million adults and 14.5 million children who live in households earning R5000 or less a month.
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International News & Developments
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In Tuesday’s US elections, California voters rejected Prop 37, which would have required retailers and food companies to label products made with genetically modified ingredients.
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A consistent system of front-of-pack food labelling will be introduced in the UK next year, as the government attempts to curb growing rates of obesity. The scheme will be voluntary, but government is confident it has the food industry on board.
How research could help food labelling dilemmas
The UK government is attempting to enforce a voluntary consistent system of front-of-pack food labelling next year. But within the food industry – and particularly among manufacturers rather than the supermarkets themselves – there is still grumbling. This article investigates if research techniques can help solve some of the inherent dilemmas in such a scheme.
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Rampant nutrition business acquirer, Royal DSM, has splashed the cash for the ninth time in two years – this time to the tune of $634m on US-based multinational nutrient blending giant, Fortitech. Recent innovations from Fortitech include the PowerCap delivery system, which will be presented at HiE next week.
And just last week DSM confirmed the acquisition of Cargill’s enzyme’s business. |
Kraft, Mondelez Dilemma: Which brands to trim, which brands to boost Both newly independent entities are pursuing something of the same strategy to tap into their separate growth opportunities: paring back non-performing, small or relatively insignificant brands, and applying innovation resources and expansion ambitions to brands that have a chance to make the most of them.
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With smoking and drinking killing 900 000 people a year in Russia, Vladimir Putin is waging the biggest public health drive with a renewed crackdown on tobacco and drink.
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Food is ‘too cheap’ and encourages consumer waste “Half of the food that is purchased in the city of London is never eaten, and consumers and catering firms do not put enough value on the food that they buy… A big factor in why we waste so much food is that food has become too cheap. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t waste so much of it…” Comments at a recent conference by Jan Kees Vis, the global director for sustainable sourcing development at Unilever.
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African economies are growing. Almost every continental analysis leads with impressive data: economic growth rates hover at an impressive 6%; combined GDP will hit $2.6-trillion by 2020; foreign direct investment is flocking in to areas that were once no-go zones for the average international investor. It’s a compelling, feel-good story – and it just might be true.
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Food Trends and Marketing
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Sales of Kombucha, a traditional Asian fermented beverage, are surging, both in its original form and those modified to better suit Western tastes. Despite super-premium pricing, US sales of kombucha leapt by 22% to $327 million in the year to April 2012, driven by the positive health halo around anything that has “live and active” bacteria. Could kombucha be the next coconut water, asks New Nutrition Business.
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A range of gluten-free bread has rocketed in just three years to become the UK’s ninth largest bread brand overall, with 11% annual growth, and an eye on international expansion. This case study is from New Nutrition Business, August 2012.
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Knorr, the Unilever-owned food brand, has launched a new product, jelly format gravy pots, following on the huge success of Knorr Stock Pots.
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Super grains gain marketing momentum Marketing buzz has begun to focus on “super grains,” and it shows some similarity to how “super fruits” were marketed about five years ago, says Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director for Datamonitor. Super grains are showing up in new products in such categories as breakfast cereal, bread, rolls and cookies, says Datamonitor.
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McDonald’s Canada has gambled with a frank question-and-answer-driven social media campaign that has gone on to earn huge publicity and positive reviews. The CMO behind the campaign explains how and why the transparent approach worked.
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The first 2013 trends report has been released from Innova. Two of the key trends for 2013 are ‘The Aware Shopper’ and ‘Natural” Cracks Emerge’.
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Food Science, Technology and Ingredients Stuff
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Tate & Lyle, the global ingredients and food solutions provider, had globally launched what it describes as a “ground-breaking, new salt reduction ingredient, SODA-LO Salt Microspheres, that tastes, labels and functions like salt because it is salt”.
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EU: ‘Probiotics’ term to go after December 14, 2012? The probiotics sector is at different stages of readiness, and embracing different approaches, to EU health claim laws that appear to rule the very word ‘probiotic’ a non-authorised, implied health claim from next month.
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Foodborne illness: What does the public have a right to know Deciding when to release public health information over a potential food safety scare is a government responsibility fraught with competing interests. Does it name the source of an outbreak after it’s over at the risk of hurting a business, when no public health threat remains? Does it announce a suspected outbreak source even if it’s not yet certain what this is?
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| New technologies for pest control
Dinnermates has introduced two new pest control devices, ensuring an ecological, hygienic, efficient and safe way to control unwanted pests.
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Health and Nutrition Stuff
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Happiness, an age-old pursuit and a subject tackled by philosophers, theologians and artists, is increasingly coming to be seen as a core component of health and wellness. JWT Intelligence’s free trend report takes a look at the rising notion that a healthier person is a happier person — and, in turn, a happier person is a healthier person.
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Women who went to university consume more alcohol than their less-highly-educated counterparts, a major study has found.Those with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem.
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Scientists from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Switzerland’s University of Bern have recently made a discovery that should stop severe allergic reactions within seconds – the reaction by some and the consequent anaphylactic shock that results from exposure to allergens such as peanuts or bee venom.
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Weird, Whacky and Wonderful Stuff
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It had to happen. The steamy mega-hit book 50 Shades of Grey has spawned several me-toos, and now there’s a parody cookbook: 50 Shades of Chicken. It’s being released next week, according to Amazon, and its author is none other than FL Fowler. It’s bound (pun intended) to be a huge Christmas success!
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What if instead if reeking from last night’s garlicky pizza you could smell as sweet as an air freshener? Well, now you can with Deo Perfume Candy that has been creating some global foodie headlines with its debut in the US.
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Food bites…2012: Food transparency is important and resonates… but…
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“In 2012, the Food Temperance Movement counted on Californians not being able to read and they counted on the idea that they could spin the effort against them as being funded by evil, greedy out-of-state corporations while hiding the fact that evil, greedy, out-of-state corporations were behind the measure in the first place.
“Instead, Californians were puzzled as to why GMOs were not banned if they are harmful. And why, if they are so risky they need warning labels, are restaurants excluded? And alcohol? ….
“The argument that food transparency is important resonates with Californians – this flawed measure still got 47% of the vote, even as badly written and unscientific as it was – and policymakers need to take that into account. But food transparency should be for all products. “And no one is afraid of full disclosure about food like Big Organic. The minute organic food has to disclose its dozens of synthetic ingredients and any genetic modification and any pesticide used, they are out of business.”
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