"Always do what you are afraid to do."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, philosopher, essayist

 

Food bites . . . The salt saga

"The question ... is whether the beneficial hypotensive effects of sodium restriction will outweigh its hazards. Unfortunately, few data link sodium intake to health outcomes, and that which is available is inconsistent. Without knowledge of the sum of the multiple effects of a reduced sodium diet, no single universal prescription for sodium intake can be scientifically justified."

Editor's Stuff - Food, nutrition & health in 2010!

Business is all about networking, and one connection I particularly value is with Julian Mellentin, the gobally-esteemed commentator and analyst on the health, nutrition and functional foods arenas. He is the founder and CEO of New Nutrition Business, an international research and consulting business that is arguably the foremost expert in this all-important arena of the food and ingredients industries.

This year again Julian has given me - and you - privileged access to what is subscription-only material from his annual flagship report: Ten Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health. This 98-page document details the important trends which will shape the business of food and health not only in the next 12 months but for many years beyond - trends which they believe every company ust take into account in developing a food and nutrition strategy.

The focus is not on short-term fads but on the underlying key drivers for our industry. There’s a big difference between a trend and a fad. Many of the forecasts made for functional foods and beverages in recent years have proven to be wrong – such as the booming market for beauty foods that were promised, or claims that eye health would be big. Both have turned out to be no-go areas and are likely to stay that way for a long time to come.

What have emerged instead are some consistent, long-term trends, each of which presents opportunities for companies to carve out a place for themselves. The 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health for 2010
are.... Read more

SPECIAL OFFER FOR FOODSTUFF SA!

What's more, New Nutrition Business doesn't believe astute insights have to cost a fortune, but even better for South African readers of FOODStuff SA, this report is available at a 50% discount of only €100. To see more about the report and order your copy, click here.

WIN A COPY OF "TEN KEY TRENDS IN FOOD, NUTRITION & HEALTH"!

FOODStuff SA is giving away THREE reports in a lucky draw. Entry is simple.... Just click here to stake your claim to this fantastic document valued at over R2000!

Enjoy this week's read!

Email Brenda Neall, editor and publisher: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

PS Did you know FOODStuff SA features on page one of Google (co.za) for the search term "food industry". All the more reason for your company, products, services and achievements to have a presence on it!

PLENTY OF NEW FOOD INDUSTRY JOBS ON OFFER! Click here . . .
technical sales reps, auditors, plant managers, key account managers, microbiologists etc

Afrikaans translation: To translate this page, go to http://interpret.co.za/, and simply paste the URL into the page translator module. The translation is by no means perfect, but is a help if you want to read in your home language.

SA Industry News

Tiger on R600m expansion trail 

SA's largest food company, Tiger Brands, has budgeted R600m for capital expenditure locally and is planning to make further investments  in the rest of Africa to add to operations in Cameroon and Kenya. Read more

SA retailers: who has the biggest share?

The recent standoff between retail giants Pick n Pay and Shoprite over which group has the bigger market share has been cleared up by new information released by research firm Nielsen, revealing Pick n Pay as the market leader with 34.7%. Read more

Brisk business for local brew  

While the rest of the world faces tea shortages that could spill over to 2011, South African tea estates are up and running to ensure future supplies locally. A rebound in production in Africa, Sri Lanka and India trails the growth in global demand. The shortfall could reach as much as 130 million kilograms by April, compared with the 110 million kilograms forecast in September. Read more

Private equity fund buys stake in KwaZulu-Natal diary  

Agri-Vie, a private equity fund focused on agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa, has bought a 26% stake in Fairfield Dairy, giving the KwaZulu-Natal-based dairy producer the scope to expand. Read more

New look Foodmarket from Woolworths

Woolworths' new brand identity for its Foodmarket was rolled out in time for the festive season at its refurbished store at Constantia Village. The new look will be rolled out across the business over time. "We've really tried to put the 'market' back into Foodmarket," says Woolworths' divisional director of foods, Julian Novak. Read more   

Local olive oil voted World’s Best

SA's Willow Creek Olive Estate has once again stolen the international limelight, taking top honours in one of the world’s most illustrious olive oil competitions, the L’Orciolo d’Oro in Gradara, Italy. Read more

Food Industry News

In boost to Kraft, Ferrero out of Cadbury race

Italy's Ferrero has decided not to bid for Cadbury, further strengthening the case of Kraft Foods in its 10.5 billion pound ($17 billion) takeover bid for the British chocolatier. Quoting sources, Reuters reports that Ferrero would not proceed with a bid and that it had ceased talking with Hershey, a potential partner in a rival bid.

Hershey has struggled to assemble a bid for Cadbury and the Ferrero decision cast greater doubt on its ability to make an offer. Ferrero's decision came as Cadbury made its final case against the Kraft bid, delivering higher margins and promising a raised dividend, but the US food group may still succeed by slightly improving its offer. Read more

Hershey might not be such a white knight

Here comes Hershey. Well, maybe. Putting a fully funded offer for Cadbury on the table by the end of next week still looks a very tall order. But assume Hershey does turn up. Should Cadbury's shareholders simply cheer the appearance of a white knight that is deemed to be a better fit, culturally and commercially, than Kraft? The size of any offer, naturally, will largely dictate the investors' response. But they should also ask a few questions... Read more

Cadbury takeover likely to be a 'disaster', Brit MPs warned     

A takeover of Cadbury by Kraft would probably be a disaster and lead to widespread job losses, MPs were warned thsi week. Professor Chris Bones, dean of Henley business school said, "Their cultures are so different and their ways of operating are so different that this cannot be anything but a potential disaster more than it can be a potential success..." Read more

New York seeks national effort to curtail salt use     

First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt ... “We all consume way too much salt, and most of the salt we consume is in the food when we buy it,” said Dr Thomas Farley, the city health commissioner.  Read more

The shaky science underlying New York's salt assault

Even if it does not become legally mandatory, the city's salt assault is astonishingly presumptuous. Because it requires the participation of restaurant chains and food manufacturers, it will, if successful, affect the diet of the entire country. Such a nationwide shift is not justified even by the standards of "public health" paternalism, since it could do more harm than good. Read more    

US: Peanut Corp of America still goes unpunished for massive food poisoning outbreak

Over a year after the outbreak of Salmonella in peanut butter that sickened hundreds and caused the deaths of at least nine, criminal prosecution of the responsible parties has yet to begin. Marler Clark, who represents more than 45 of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) victims, is assisting them in an effort to hold PCA president Stewart Parnell (pictured) accountable for his actions. Says Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark, “In 17 years of litigating every major foodborne illness outbreak in the US, I have not seen a clearer situation that demanded criminal prosecution,” he said. “If not this case, when?” Read more

Callebaut confident in face of flat chocolate market

The worst of the global economic crisis on chocolate is over but global market volumes will remain flat throughout 2010, predicts Barry Callebaut – which itself is expecting to outperform the market. Read more

Chocoholics unite as chocolate sales worldwide defy recession

Callebaut's cautious outlook above on the chocolate market seems at odds with a recent Mintel report outlining how chocolate sales around the world have busted through the recession... Read more

UK: Nampak’s recycling initiative reaches major milestone

Nampak Plastics is set to reach a milestone in 2010, when every HDPE milk bottle it produces will include up to 10% recycled HDPE (rHDPE). Read more

Wal-Mart, the US retailer taking over the world by stealth

It hardly shrieks of billion-dollar glamour. The US nerve centre of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, consists of a collection of low-slung prefabricated buildings along a four-lane highway in north-western Arkansas. Wal-Mart's head office is hundreds of miles from the nearest big city. It isn't even handy for the state capital, Little Rock, which is three and half hours' drive away ... The pressure group China Labour Watch estimates that if it were a country, Wal-Mart would rank as China's seventh largest trading partner, just ahead of the UK, spending more than $18bn annually on Chinese goods. Read more

Food Science Stuff

A role for calcium in taste perception 

Calcium may not come to mind when you think of tasty foods, but Japanese researchers have provided the first demonstration that calcium channels on the tongue are the targets of compounds that can enhance taste. Read more

AvidBiotics, Ecolab team up to develop new technology for food safety in meat

AvidBiotics and Ecolab have entered into an agreement to develop a new technology to reduce the presence of the dangerous pathogen E coli O157:H7 in red meat products. Their motive is to commercialise AvidBiotics' proprietary protein-based antibacterial technology, which can be targeted against specific bacterial pathogens with E Coli frist on the list. Both companies believe this approach could yield a versatile food processing aid that is non-chemical and non-toxic. Read more

Thyme oil can inhibit COX2 and suppress inflammation

Researchers have found that six essential oils - from thyme, clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel and bergamot - can suppress the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, in a manner similar to resveratrol, the chemical linked with the health benefits of red wine. They also identified that the chemical carvacrol was primarily responsible for this suppressive activity. Read more

New salt reduction solution for meat

Brussels-based Galactic is introducing a new ingredient to enable reduced salt in processed meat products, but without impairing the functional characteristics. Read more

UK's FSA seeks views on Wrigley’s magnolia bark

Magnolia bark extract could be used in chewing gum and mint confectionery to enhance their breath-freshening action, believes Wrigley, which has filed for novel foods approval in the EU. Read more

US: Neotame seeks a slice of the saccharine market

NutraSweet is positioning its neotame sweetener as a better-tasting alternative to saccharine, and expects it to compete with the world’s most used sweetener on cost.

The US-based company announced last week that its neotame sweetener has received approval in the EU. It is the last sweetener to have been approved under the outgoing regulation 94/35/EC.Craig Petray, CEO of NutraSweet, says his vision is to sell neotame for a cheaper price than saccharine. “The more we sell, the more the cost will go down,” he said, adding that cost saving is a big driver in the food and beverage sector. Read more

Health and Nutrition

Benefits of added fibre not yet clear

Fibre that is added to products may not be as beneficial as fibre that occurs naturally in foods. While studies have shown that naturally occurring fibre,  called dietary fibre, confers many health benefits, the same research has not been performed for fibre that is manufactured and then added to products. Read more

US obesity rate leveling off, at about one-third of adults

The percentage of adults who are obese hasn't increased much over the past 10 years after several decades of skyrocketing growth, an indication that America's obesity epidemic is finally starting to level off, according to a landmark government analysis released this week.

About 34% of U.S. adults — almost 73 million people — were obese (roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight) in 2008, up from 31% in 1999. "The obesity trend appears to be slowing down, but the prevalence remains high and continues to be a critical national health concern," says Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Read more

Big Fat America: smoking vs obesity

Though activists might try to tackle obesity the way they tackled smoking, the issues are quite different and passions run higher. Without the second-hand smoke issue, the anti-smoking crowd would never have been able to convince anyone that smoking was anything but a purely voluntary activity. Skydiving is dangerous, too, but it's not my business to tell people not to do it. Aside from the oozing of tubby people over the armrests in coach airline seats, there's not much call for activists to interfere with others on this. Read more

OPINION: Behind the label: chewing gum

Opinion by Pat Thomas, The Ecologist — Lovers chew it to keep their teeth white and their breath kissing fresh. Kids chew it to look cool and - if they're young enough - practice blowing bubbles. Some people even chew for medicinal purposes - for instance as a substitute for smoking or to get a caffeine 'energy' hit. Humans have chewed gum for millennia but it's only recently that it has become the hi-tech plastic, minty 'treat' choc full of preservatives that it is today ... When a market is this profitable, regulators tend to look the other way and questions about long-term safety can get pushed to the bottom of the agenda. Read more  

Erythritol may boost whey-sports drink formulation

Adding common ingredients to whey-based sports beverages may improve the clarity of the finished product and allow greater consumer acceptance of this type of sports beverages, says a new study. Despite significant innovation in sports drink formulation, beverages that contain whey protein often have poor clarity or the presence of a white precipitate that consumers perceive as undesirable, according to a new study in the Journal of Food Science.

New findings indicate that adding sugar alcohols such as erythritol, sorbitol, and xylitol may reduce this undesirable turbidity. In addition, maintaining the pH of the solution below pH 3.6 also improved the clarity of the beverages. Read more

Ginkgo for memory: don't bother ...

If you've been contributing to the multimillion-dollar industry that's grown up around ginkgo's supposed memory-enhancing properties, a new study suggests you might have been wasting your money. "The longest prevention trial to date of ginkgo biloba has failed to show any benefit from the herbal supplement in reducing the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease," according to the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter. Read more

The secret ingredient

First identified in Japan a century ago, umami is a subtle flavour which makes certain savoury foods intensely satisfying. Umami - the so-called "fifth taste" (after the western traditional four: sweet, sour, salt and bitter) - is 100 years old this year [2009]. It is unlikely, however, that anyone will make an umami-flavoured cake to celebrate. But it is now starting to take Europe's kitchens by storm. Read more

Gimme an M ... gimme an S ... gimme a G

It's 100 years since Dr Kikunae Ikeda brought us 'umami'. Can we bring the MSG out of hiding now? Read more

Trends, Marketing and NPD Stuff

Opinion: Five marketing principles brands should embrace

Most of the marketing rules we lived by just five years ago are practically obsolete. The industry has faced more changes in the last five years than in the previous fifty. Let's face it, there's no point in improving broken legacy models. Since necessity is the mother of invention, let's not waste this recession and instead use it to rethink how we go about branding in this new decade ... It's critical that marketers realise that the product itself is the most powerful brand-building tool. We've all heard it before: "innovate or die." But today's hyper-connected society adds a sense of urgency to this broadly accepted mantra because mediocrity is getting extinguished with increasing speed via social networks. Here are five key ways... Read more  

US: For some, ‘Kosher’ food equals 'Pure' food     

In an era of heightened concern over food contamination, allergies and the provenance of ingredients, the market for kosher food among non-Jews is setting records. Only about 15% of people who buy kosher do it for religious reasons, according to Mintel ... The top reasons cited for buying kosher? Quality, followed by general healthfulness. Read more

Big Ideas and Things We Like (Plus Bacon)

This fantastic report from The Hartman Group in the US considers many of the threads and themes that guide our thinking on a daily basis. From frugality to backyard chicken farming to social media and beyond, this report covers it all. Best of all, it's free! Download the presentation here

Bolivia to introduce Coca Colla carbonated coca-leaf drink

Bolivian president Evo Morales has announced that his government is launching a carbonated drink called Coca Colla, made from coca leaves. Read more

Tired of lip balms with good taste? Japan has lip balms that taste good!

A collaborative venture between American breakfast cereal icon Kellogg's and  Japanese online retail design house Nut2Deco has brought forth a series of cereal-flavoured lip balms. On the inside, the balms are flavoured to match -  testers liken the tastes and fragrances to that of sweet milk and corn in the case of Corn Flakes. The colour of the balm may be tinted slightly to match the  brand; pink in the case of Froot Loops and brown for Cocoa Krispies to name two. Read more

Sustainability

The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

Ditch the dog; throw away (sorry, recycle) those takeaway menus; bin bottled water; get rid of that gas-guzzling car and forget flying to far-flung places.  These are just some of the sacrifices we in the West will need to make if we are to survive climate change.

The stark warning comes from the renowned Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based organisation regarded as the world's pre-eminent environmental  think tank. Its State of the World 2010 report published this week outlines a blueprint for changing our entire way of life. "Preventing the collapse of human civilisation requires nothing less than a wholesale transformation of dominant cultural patterns. This transformation would reject consumerism... and  establish in its place a new cultural framework centred on sustainability," states the report. Read more

Miscellany

Happy birthday, fish & chips! Celebrating 150 years of a great Great British institution

The Independent newspaper has just collated an article celebrating 150 years of fish & chips! It carries 150 facts about the UK's favourite dish... claiming that chips have a third less calories than other takeaways; that an average serving of chips contains more than double the fibre found in an average serving of brown rice or bowl of porridge and that eating fish on Fridays stems from the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays – especially during Lent. Read more

The Myth of Absinthe

I’ve got a bottle of absinthe, at the back of a shelf in our store-cupboard. Unopened this bottle of green uber-liquor languishes untested awaiting an appropriate occasion when a drink containing 70% alcohol (140 proof) is required. It’ll probably be the day our cat dies…

Anyway, while my bottle languishes, new research suggests that the psychedelic mythology surrounding this exotic green aperitif and its purported mind-altering effects are due to nothing more than the high concentration of alcohol, plain, old EtOH like you find in wine, beer, and spirits. Read more

That's all for this week, folks!