18 Aug 2014 Weekly NewsWrap – 21 August 2014
We hunt down the latest food-drinks news and
trends so you don’t have to!
Our weekly cherry-picking trawl through the global food-drinks worlds…
Latest food science, technology & ingredient news…
New worldwide food safety report
Global food source monitoring company, Food Sentry published a report showing which countries had the most food safety violations in the year 2013. There were over 3,400 reported and verified incidents were food safety was violated in 2013 across the globe. These violations were associated with products that were exported from 117 countries. The data was taken from many different sources and regulatory bodies operating within Europe, the United States and Japan. The number of incidents for each country were then categorized to show which countries were the worst offenders. Read more
Synthetic biology making a better-tasting vanilla bean
Like many novel technologies, synthetic biology—synbio for short—floats on a sea of hype. One of its founding scientists, Boston University biomedical engineer James Collins, has called it “genetic engineering on steroids”. Whereas garden-variety genetic engineers busy themselves moving genes from one organism into another—to create tomatoes that don’t bruise easily, for example—synthetic biologists generate new DNA sequences the way programmers write code, creating new life-forms. It may sound like science fiction, but synbio companies have already performed modest miracles ….. While synbio likely won’t sort out our climate and health woes anytime soon, it just might transform our…ice cream. Read more
Fast-food workers could face robot ‘Armageddon’
For three decades now, the idea that robots will replace fast-food workers has been more of a pipe dream of tightwad business owners than a reality. But a group of engineers claims to have finally found a way to get rid of pesky humans once and for all. Momentum Machines of San Francisco has invented a fully-automated contraption that can grind meat, slice tomatoes, grill patties, wrap fully cooked burgers and do pretty much anything else human fast-food workers can do. The machine is capable of cranking out 360 burgers per hour, according to Momentum Machines’ website. Read more
Doehler offers alternatives for carmine, caramel colouring
With the trend towards naturalness and clean labelling, was well as legal changes and specialised consumer requirements, there’s increasing demand for colouring concentrates, Doehler offers a broad and constantly expanding portfolio of natural colour alternatives for various applications. Read more
Fighting e coli outbreaks with cinnamon
For centuries, cinnamon has been used to enhance the flavor of foods, but new research shows that the spice could also help make foods safer. According to a study by Meijun Zhu and Lina Sheng, food safety scientists at Washington State University in Pullman, the ancient cooking spice could help prevent some of the most serious foodborne illnesses caused by pathogenic bacteria ….. The cassia cinnamon oil successfully killed several strains of E. coli that produce a substance called the Shiga toxin. These Shiga-toxin-producing varieties of E. coli causes approximately 110,000 cases of foodborne illness each year in the United States. Read more
Soft drinks responsible for one-fifth of stevia market
Sales still look sweet for stevia as the natural sweetener continues to benefit from consumers’ desire for “naturalness,” as well as expanding regulatory approval. According to Innova Market Insights, food and drink launches featuring stevia rose a further 50% in 2013. Stevia products now account for 1% of all products that Innova Market Insights tracks (including non-sweetener products), up from just 0.6% a year earlier. North America—mainly the United States—is responsible for a dominant 40% of total global launches featuring stevia. Europe is in second place, at 27%. Read more
Making stevia a mainstream sweetener
PureCircle claims to be the global leader in the production and marketing of high purity stevia ingredients. The company works with the natural sweetener stevia on a huge scale and the stevia plant is grown for the company across.. Read more
Orange, lime and lemon coming to more drinks
Citrus flavours are already trending in beverages, and the 2013 New Product Development Survey found that lemon flavours will see especially strong growth in beverage launches this year. Bergamot, an exotic citrus fruit, will also surge in popularity. “The uniquely appealing properties of natural bergamot oil and organic bergamot oil make it a key ingredient in a wide variety of products,” said Joe Raimondo, president of Artiste. Read more
More sweet applications for ginger
The use of ginger as an ingredient and flavor has surged recently, with global product launch data from Innova Market Insights revealing a 22% increase in tracked product launches containing ginger in 2013 from 2012, with further growth … Read more
Forget genetically modified, here’s to genetically edited
Recent advances that allow the precise editing of genomes have raised the possibility that fruit and other crops might be genetically improved without the need to introduce foreign genes, according to researchers. Read more
How to reduce energy (and save money) in your beverage plant
Effective energy reduction in a beverage plant is as much to do with the company management as it is new technologies. Claire Rowan talks to Matt Harris, head of energy and compliance at energy saving specialist EECO2, about his experiences in the field. Read more
innovation…
How America fell out of love with canned tuna
Long a staple of the American diet, canned tuna has fallen on hard times. Last year, canned seafood sales, of which tuna is far and away the leading variety, fell to their lowest level in more than 15 years, according to Euromonitor. Meanwhile, per capita canned tuna consumption tumbled by nearly 30 percent over the same period, according to data from the USDA. The fall of America’s appetite for canned tuna is the story of Americans’ changing diets and relationship to food. Read more
Trending: Are broccoli stalks the next kale?
A decade ago, you were more likely to see kale lining a butcher’s case than headlining a menu. Back then, the notion of its becoming the next hot ingredient was, frankly, ludicrous. According to David Sax, author of The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue, food trends come from all sorts of directions. “They’re far less predictable than they once were.” And there’s no guessing how long they’ll last….. Look at olive oil,” Sax offered. “It probably peaked as a trend sometime in the late ’90s, but extra-virgin olive oil is now the oil everyone has in the cupboard. The novelty has worn off, and it has become part of the culture.” Read more
Chocolate bar trends: Candymakers continue to raise the “bar”
These days you can grab a chocolate bar with almost anything inside. In the past year companies have introduced flavours ranging from marshmallows to ginger to hemp seeds. Taking a step back though, chocolate bars are only as good as the chocolate industry as a whole. And the good news is, it seems to be a good time to be a chocolatier. US chocolate sales increased again in 2013, according to a report from Mintel. Overall, they grew 24 percent from 2008-2013. As for the future, Mintel forecasts that chocolate sales will increase another 14 percent from 2013-2018. Read more
What does America have for breakfast?
Imagine an American breakfast and what comes to mind? Ham and eggs, with hash browns? Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon? The reality tends to be simpler. Cereal and fruit juice have been breakfast staples for generations – though that now seems to be changing ….. Two pillars of the everyday American breakfast, seen for decades as part of a well-rounded morning meal, seem to be slowly losing their appeal to US consumers. But what foods are Americans turning to instead? Read more
Why don’t Americans like breakfast cereal anymore?
Seeing as breakfast cereals sit in over 90 percent of our homes, why do so many of us want nothing to do with it? As it turns out, there are many answers to that question, and none of them are very encouraging for the cereal industry. Eating cereal used to be as American as apple pie and baseball. ….. Cereal is still a $7.7 billion business in America (and one that pays for somewhere around 1.3 million TV spots annually) but clearly the product’s best days are behind it. Read more.
US: For many small farmers, being certified ‘organic’ isn’t worth the trouble
When Jennifer LaMonica first started the Sea Salt CSA, part of B&B Farms in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, she had fewer than two acres of land. Over two years, the farm grew to nearly 20 acres, and LaMonica filed for an organic certification. The application process was daunting, but she reasoned that the label would bring in more customers with its guarantee that growing conditions were monitored and her produce was free from pesticides and other chemicals. After only two years with the title—and its arduous standards—LaMonica dropped it. She didn’t lose a single buyer. Read more
US orange-juice sales fall to record low
US orange-juice retail sales fell to the lowest level on record as the formerly popular American breakfast beverage continued to fall out of favour with consumers. Sales of 34.96 million gallons of orange juice in the four weeks ended Aug 2, down 9.2% from a similar period a year ago, according to Nielsen data published Monday by the Florida Department of Citrus. A greater variety of beverages, including more exotic fruit juices such as pomegranate, energy drinks and ready-to-drink coffee, have taken market share away from orange juice, analysts and traders say. Higher prices for orange juice on grocery-store shelves also have discouraged consumers. Read more
A box of mini Oreos for some of America’s smallest towns
Residents in 50 small towns across the US will be the recipients of a direct-sampling campaign for Mondelez International’s new mini-Oreos. Every resident will receive a 5cm square package containing a mini-Oreo and a note extolling the product. “We think OREO Mini is the perfect token for celebrating the little things in life that can have a big impact,” said Janda Lukin, senior director of Oreo. Read more
Study: UK ‘foodie’ growth fuels boom in independent food stores
New research shows that independent businesses in the UK have been cashing in on Britons’ growing interest in food – particularly in the areas of natural, healthy, regional and quality produce. The study, by insurance firm Simply Business, shows that there are now 27% more independent food stores than 12 months ago, with bakeries and fishmongers topping the list of new businesses. Read more
Japan: ‘Gentle menu’ set to appeal to Japan’s geriatric market
Back in 1960, Japan’s Kewpie Corp began selling canned baby food, sensing a chance to catch a wave of young families raising kids in an economy roaring back to growth after the devastation of World War Two. Almost 55 years later, the Tokyo-based company sees a new opportunity opening up in rapidly ageing Japan as parents who brought kids up on Kewpie approach their sunset years – what it calls “nursing care food” for the elderly. Kewpie says it’s on the brink of turning a profit on a range of stewed or pureed ready-to-eat meals called “Gentle Menu”, currently sold in specialist sections of drugstores and a small number of supermarkets. Read more
How millennials are making their mark on food packaging
Millennial consumers are having a noticeable effect on food and beverage brands, and their influence is increasingly being reflected in the products’ packaging. As the 21 million-strong generation wields its $1.3 trillion in direct spending power, brands have begun to take note of their product preferences and the trends that are driving their purchasing decisions. Read more
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Coke’s Monster deal underlines caution on a full-blown merger
Taking a minority stake instead of acquiring Monster outright gives Coke the opportunity to get the perks of being in a $27 billion global energy drinks market without taking on the financial and public relations risks that come with the controversial category, analysts said. If the deal closes as expected, Coke will distribute energy drinks but will not actually own them anymore ….. “A couple of billion is something that Coke could handle without much difficulty,” said Linda Montag, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service. Also, the gradualist approach allows Coke to sample at a distance a market in which it has a small presence and thus limited experience, with both the risks and rewards. Read more
Lager all ‘tastes the same’, report says
They may spend millions on branding, but a series of blind taste testings have revealed consumers struggle to distinguish between major beer brands. Using European pale lagers, researchers gave volunteers blind samples of Budvar, Heineken and Stella Artois but found they could not tell the difference. “They cannot distinguish between three major competing beer brands,” the report says. “Our results suggest that brand loyalty in this market is likely to be driven largely by marketing and packaging, and not by the underlying sensory properties of the competing products.” Read.
Inside the war to reinvent the soda fountain
With the battlefield deployment of three new fountain machines, PepsiCo is firing a shot across competitor Coca-Cola’s bow in the food service business. Fountain machines may be the latest front in an ongoing war between the two long-time antagonists, but this time the real competition is not so much each other as it is the 7-Eleven down the street from that Burger King or McDonald’s where PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are installing their new machines. As consumers gravitate to waters, teas, juices, and energy drinks, fast food restaurateurs have watched in despair as consumers take it upon themselves to find the drinks they want, instead of relying on the soda machines in the restaurants themselves. Read more
What about camel milk?
“Last weekend, I quenched my thirst during San Francisco’s delightful heat wave with a new product that could make dairy products a healthy option: Desert Farms camel milk. Camel milk tastes just like normal milk with an added dollop of peanut butter. It’s got a richer, nuttier aftertaste. The raw variety, at $18/bottle, puts is squarely in the camp of superfood startups aimed at a consumer who cares less about money than health … Camel milk has the potential to make some real inroads into the food industry, given how tasty dairy is to the human palate. In the Middle East, businesses have already started experimenting with camel milk ice-cream.” Read more
Health & Nutrition Stuff…
Study finds why polyunsaturated fats are brain food
A French research team conducted laboratory investigations and found that consuming polyunsaturated fats such as omega-3s is good for the brain because it makes the neurons malleable and receptive to proteins, a process called endocytosis. Researchers at the Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (CNRS/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis), the Unité Compartimentation et Dynamique Cellulaires (CNRS/Institut Curie/UPMC), INSERM and the Université de Poitiers were inspired by the knowledge that consuming omega-3s is good for the health and wanted to understand the process on a molecular level. Read more
Study: Eating fruit and veg helps people flourish
Regularly eating fruit and vegetables may help people feel engaged and that their life is purposeful and meaningful, a study from the British Journal of Psychology has indicated. Researchers at the University of Otago looked into whether frequent fruit and vegetable consumption can be linked with this state of mind – known as eudaemonic wellbeing. The study found there was a possible link between the two, with a healthy diet being related to “other aspects of human flourishing, beyond just feeling happy”. People who ate more fruit and veg were also found to display greater curiosity and more creativity during their day-to-day lives. Read more
Want to be happy? Cut down on consumption!
Are you working extra hard to earn more money with the hope that more spending power would make you happier? Think again! Pursuit of money and possessions takes time away from more personally fulfilling activities and social relationships, making you unhappier in the process, suggests researchers. “Cooling the consumption-driven economy, working less and consuming less are better for the environment and better for humans, too,” said Miriam Tatzel from Empire State College, State University of New York in the US. Read more
Majority of adults need to double fruit and vegetable intake
A serious shortfall in the consumption of fruit and vegetables worldwide means that most adults need to eat double their current amounts to meet WHO dietary recommendations, finds a new global study. Read more
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