"If money is all that a man makes, then he will be poor. Poor in happiness and poor in all that makes life worth living."

Herbert Casson, Canadian journalist and author

 

Food bites... The future is science

"What will surely enhance everyone's focus on science is the imperative to provide energy and food for a world population destined to rise to nine billion by mid-century. This challenge will be aggravated by climate change – so climate science needs better data, and modelling that can reliably predict regional impacts. And sustainable agriculture, in a world of water shortages and climate change, requires new technologies – genetic modification among them. We also need to preserve biodiversity and prevent a 'sixth extinction'."

Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, and president of the Royal Society

Editor's Stuff - Pass [on] the salt! 

Salt, salt everywhere! It's astonishing how the whole salt saga in the past few weeks has moved right to the top of the global food industry agenda, particularly in North America and the UK. Just like much processed food, the internet is overdosed with articles about salt - every media, scientific and popular, is feeding off this tasty issue right now. In fact, it has not gotten to a point of tedium for this dedicated food website scourer!

Here are but a selection of the salt-related articles that I came across this week:

Consumers' tastes make it difficult to dash salt from diets

16 companies join NYC-led salt-reduction program, including Heinz, Kraft, Starbucks and Subway

There's no doubt about the health dangers of salt - so why are efforts to cut dietary salt being met with fierce resistance?

Why you HAVE to be at it! EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ENDS 31 MAY!

The salt saga, like most hot topics in the food/health game, is highly confusing with convincing arguments for and against. And like most hot topics, the absolute truth, if there ever is such a thing, gets lost between conflicting political, scientific and commercial agendas. What's perfectly clear, however, is that salt is but one aspect of the health-and-nutrition momentum that's been building for years, and with the food industry slow to meet its challenges, sluggish in fixing health issues from inside, that is giving ever more powerful voice and arm to the food police.

We may be a way behind food trends that unfold in the developed world, but they get here eventually, some rather quickly, notably the recent publishing of draft regulations to outlaw trans fats in this country. With SA's shocking metabolic syndrome statistics - obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer - I'd reckon it's a safe wager that salt is going to become a much bigger regulatory target in the not too distant future. Buckle up!

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

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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 Food Industry Stuff

CANSA endorses Blossom Canola margarines

An analysis by the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) of 40 margarines in South Africa has revealed that Blossom Canola and Blossom Canola Light, top the list of margarines, when listed from a low to high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids.

The low saturated fat – less than 10% (less than 10 grams per 100 grams margarine) combined with the high omega-3 fatty acid content and low omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio, as well as the less than 1% (one gram per 100 grams margarine) content of trans fats, resulted in CANSA endorsing the Blossom Canola margarine range with the CANSA ‘Smart Choice’ Seal of Recognition. Both margarines are manufactured by Epic Foods.

This study also uncovered good news when it comes to the trans fat content of local margarines. Read more

Margarine myths debunked

Margarine is much in the news with the recent airing of a Carte Blanche Medical Monday show [19 April 2010] which set out to debunk the myths of margarine. This statement is from leading margaring producer Unilever, which won double accolades recently with two of its margarine communication campaigns being selected as SA finalists for the IUFoST 2010 Global Food Awards. Read more and click here for more on the IUFoST 2010 Global Food Awards.

SABMiller plans $34m brewery on rival Nambrew's turf

SABMiller has announced it would take its battle for market share to the heart of local rival Namibian Breweries (Nambrew) by building a 220 000-hectolitre brewery in Okahandja, 70km north of Windhoek.The London-based company said the $34m investment would expand what it claims is a 22% share of an 860 000-hectolitre market. Read more

"Win as number one by thinking like number two inside view" - by SAB's Norman Adami

As South Africa becomes increasingly integrated into the global economy, the nature of competition within our nation is evolving significantly. . . That dynamic can be seen clearly in the South African beer industry, where the emergence of a strong, well-funded alliance of two global powerhouses has created serious competition for the first time since the 1970s. At SAB, our expansion into other parts of the world has provided us with important insights that should prove helpful here in our home market. Indeed, our experience as the number two player in the US as the Miller Brewing Company has provided us with seven key lessons for SAB in South Africa, underpinned by the conviction that we must think and act like a number two if we are going to show proper leadership as a number one. Read more

No-name goods enjoy continuing sales rise

Private labels and no-name goods had been a specific focus area for the management of retailers Pick n Pay and Clicks in the past year, as both groups witnessed a significant boost in sales for this category. Despite a host of challenges that affected Pick n Pay's trading profit margin in the year to February, the retail giant saw large gains in its private-label strategy. Read more

SA: Geoff Whyte to leave Cadbury

Geoff Whyte, Commercial Director Cadbury Africa, Middle East, has announced that he will be leaving the company at the end of April 2010, following the recent takeover of the company by Kraft Foods. Whyte, who joined Cadbury in 2006 as Group Marketing Director, is credited with leading a renaissance that saw the company become a driving force in South African marketing. During his tenure, the company set successive all-time market share highs in every category in which they operate – chocolate, candy and chewing gum. Read more

Cadbury's white top deck: BMF in chocolate catfight

The Black Management Forum (BMF) has taken a swipe at Kraft Foods and Cadbury: in a statement, BMF managing director Gaba Tabane said that following Kraft Foods' recent takeover of Cadbury, the announcement of the South African and sub-Saharan Africa boards of the united entity showed that members were "lily white", save for two Indian expatriates, "which hardly qualifies as being pro-transformation". Read more  

Ceres joins 2010 festivities with flavours of south africa

Ceres, South Africa’s premium fruit juice brand, has launched a limited edition Flavours of South Africa variant that combines two uniquely home-grown flavours – Marula and Rooibos - to join in the 2010 soccer festivities. Read more

Hot Stuff

Additives: it's time to look on the bright side

Could E numbers actually be good for us? In this article, Simon Usborne tries to find the truth behind the food labels.

The "E" in E number stands for Europe but it may as well be "evil" in the minds of a population force-fed scare stories about what we eat. "E numbers should be banned in food and drink, say MPs." That was the headline for a 2008 report of an inquiry by a parliamentary food forum, which wanted to restrict use of "substances of no nutritional value as foods or as ingredients of foods".

When we see a string of codes on a list of ingredients, we know they represent additives. And so we assume they are unhealthy, possibly harmful impostors – the Frankenstein creations of white-coated lab technicians. But how many of us know the real names of, for example, E941, E948, and E290? Try the air we breathe (they are, respectively, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide). E300? That's vitamin C. Read more

Breeding a chicken to avoid 'cannibalism' on egg farms

A Purdue researcher has developed "peaceful" chickens to reduce "cannibalism" in factory farm pens ... As more US states move to ban restrictive livestock cages, the campaign to free egg-laying hens from cramped cages and shift them to pens that animal rights advocates deem more humane could be poised to unintentionally boost deaths among those birds.

Researchers say decades of breeding to make the white leghorn hens that lay most of the nation's eggs more productive have also boosted the birds' territorial instincts, making them prone to pecking attacks so fierce they're often called "cannibalism". Read more

Food Science & Technology Stuff

Analytical chemists devise methods to confirm foods are what they claim to be

When you uncork a bottle of wine, do you ever wonder whether it contains what the label claims? And when you stir a spice into your cooking, does it occur to you that it might include adulterants? These are far from esoteric questions. In late February, the world’s second largest winery, E&J Gallo, in Modesto, California, and its suppliers were sued for selling 18 million bottles of wine labelled as Pinot Noir that actually contained wine made from cheaper Merlot and Syrah grapes. Gallo blamed its suppliers, who have already been convicted for the fraud in France.

As a result of economic and safety concerns, “there is a lot of interest right now in trying to develop analytical methods to authenticate food and wine,” says Susan Ebeler, a chemist in the viticulture and enology department at the University of California, Davis. Researchers are looking for chemical markers that can answer questions about the purity and source of foods and beverages. Read more

Amazing diet foods developed from algae

The vanilla drink is the color of new butter and tastes almost as good — creamy and sweet, like a liquid pudding. Next I try a pair of golden cookies, lightly touched with sugar — they're soft, chewy and filling. Last is a mustard yellow dipping sauce, tangy, that coats a handful of pretzels with a pleasant honeyed zing.

Each of the experimental food items I'm trying at a laboratory in South San Francisco has a nutritional profile that puts its supermarket counterpart to shame. The vanilla drink has 20% fewer calories and 75% less saturated fat than regular milk, while the dipping sauce has 74% fewer calories and 85% less overall fat than your average honey mustard dip. These are diet foods that taste sinfully good. But the most unexpected thing about these foods is their secret ingredient: all-natural algae. Read more

How to formulate healthier snacks for kids

Although First Lady Michelle Obama praised members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association for reducing calories and salt in food, she challenged food manufacturers to work faster to reformulate food so it is healthier for kids. Giving children the best nutritional start in life is front and centre for the food industry. Key initiatives have been to remove excess fat and needless calories while adding healthy nutrients – antioxidants, omega-3s and DHA for brain health, calcium, vitamin D and magnesium for bones, plus probiotics, prebiotics and fiber. Oils are one of the basic ingredients to consider when formulating healthier snacks. Read more

Symrise develops a new generation of molecularly distilled citrus oils

Symrise introduces a new generation of molecularly distilled citrus oils. The oils, which are part of the company’s NATURALLY CITRUS! brand, have been significantly improved in terms of flavour intensity and authenticity. Read more

Erythritol cookies pass taste tests

Formulating cookies with erythritol may allow for partial replacement of sugar without the consumer tasting a difference, says new research from Taiwan. Up to 50% of the sugar content of Danish cookies was replaced with the low-calorie sweetener without noticeable changes to colour, sweetness, hardness, flavour and overall liking, according to findings published in the Journal of Food Quality. Read more

 Sustainability Stuff

Wrigley set to replace foil with paper in gum wraps

US-based Wrigley is set to switch from foil wrappers to paper for the packaging of its five leading chewing-gum brands. The company said the packaging initiative will save about 850 tons of foil, keeping the equivalent of 60 million cans a year out of landfills. The switch to foil will be seen across the Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Wrigley's Spearmint, Winterfresh and Big Red ranges. Read more 

Seattle takes on fast food packaging

Seattle is getting ready to become the first city in the country to eliminate fast-food packaging from the landfill - starting July 1, most of the wrappers, cups and packaging that comes with a restaurant meal will have to be recyclable or compostable. Seattle Public Utilities analysts predict this will keep a minimum 6,000 tons of waste out of the landfill each year. Read more  

Voicing and marketing your ethical stance

A green glow underneath the golden arches logo outside McDonald’s European restaurants is supposed to promote that the fast-food chain is an eco-friendly company. But is this enough to convince consumers that it is a sustainable brand? “While the chain has been doing a hell of a lot behind the scenes, it hasn’t gained enough credit for what it is doing in the consumer landscape,” warns Marie Ridgley, managing director of agency Added Value UK. She argues in this article that sustainability communications and marketing are arts that many major brands like McDonald’s are failing to get right – even if they are working hard to implement sustainability practices. Read more

Packaging is leading the ‘green’ agenda for consumers

Getting packaging right can help convince a cynical consumer that a product’s ethical claims are real, according to new research from Datamonitor. A new study from the independent business analyst has found that, although over half of consumers globally reported that protecting the environment is significantly more important to them now than two years ago, this doesn’t translate into their grocery purchasing behaviour except when it comes to packaging. Read more

M&S supplier to be powered by food waste

Marks & Spencer ready meals supplier RF Brookes will be powered by energy produced from its own food waste next year following the installation of a £5m anaerobic digestion facility at its site in Rogerstone, Newport. Read more

BV Dairy looks to take a lead on anaerobic digestion

A dairy processor in the UK is installing an anaerobic digestion (AD) system to convert waste into energy as the government considers how best to encourage others to follow suit. Read more

Trends and NPD

US: PepsiCo launches Gatorade's G Series

 PepsiCo is calling its new G Series sports beverages  "the biggest innovation news in its history". The lineup of three drinks are designed for consumption before, during and after athletic activity. As one ad says Gatorade "changed the game" in 1965 and is "changing the game again." Read more 

UK: Steaming sales of hot tinned meat and baked beans

While recent years have seen food snobs protest about their usage in modern day recipes, new research from Mintel finds hot canned meat is well and truly back on the menu, as Britain rediscovers the joys of this store cupboard staple. Sales of hot canned meats - and baked beans - are steaming. In the last two years alone, sales have grown by a hearty 12%, compared to cold canned meats which grew just 4%. Read more

UK: Taking on Red Bull with ‘one-shot’ beetroot juice

UK healthy beverage producer, James White Drinks, is about to launch a ‘one-shot’ 70ml version its popular beetroot juice to provide a healthy alternative to drinks such as Red Bull Energy Shots and Lucozade Alert Plus. The concentrated version will contain the same amount of nitrate – the active ingredient – as the larger packs on sale in selected British retailers. Read more

Stevia revolution in EU beverage market still a long way off

Data on the market penetration of stevia in beverages outside Europe suggests that anticipated EU approval may be only the first step for the natural sweetener on a long road to commercial significance. The FDA gave beverage manufacturers the freedom to start formulating with Rebaudioside A [one of the best-known steviol glycosides] back in late 2008, but despite this regulatory green light, stevia has dripped rather than flooded onto the drinks market. According to Mintel, only 24 beverage products were launched with stevia in North America in 2009. Read more

Health & Nutrition Stuff

Refined carbohydrates, not fats, threaten the heart

 Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the US government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer.

Now a spate of new research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than fat does—a finding that has serious implications for new dietary guidelines expected this year. Read more

Phosphate 'dangers' uncovered in new study

High levels of phosphates may add more "pop" to sodas and processed foods than once thought. In a study on genetically-altered mice, researchers have found that the high levels of phosphates accelerate signs of aging. High phosphate levels may also increase the prevalence and severity of age-related complications, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular calcification, and can also induce severe muscle and skin atrophy. Read more

Phosphate-ageing study dismissed by industry

A study linking phosphate to premature ageing has been dismissed by a leading trade association as having no relevance to foods and soft drinks. Scientists from Harvard University and Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Japan reported this week that high levels of phosphate may accelerate the signs of ageing. Their findings, obtained using genetically engineered mice, are published in the FASEB Journal. Mainstream media outlets have picked up on the release and run articles with headlines like: “Drinking too much pop can speed up the ageing process” (UK’s Daily Mail). Read more

Dietician extols benefits of breakfast cereals

Contrary to much popular "wisdom", a dietician has advised people they should eat cereals for breakfast, suggesting they are a healthy choice. Claire Williamson, from the British Nutrition Foundation, said that while they tend to contain salt and sugar, most do not have excessive amounts in ... According to Williamson, they only contribute between six and seven per cent of total sugar intake and seven to nine per cent of total salt intake in children. She added: "It is certainly not possible to conclude that breakfast cereal consumption is in any way linked to rising levels of obesity." Read more

Why we get fat: Seeking clues in our cells

Losing weight can seem like an unwinnable war. You know you need to eat less and exercise more, but that's nearly impossible when everything in your life — from job stress to family crises to the temptation of fast and fatty foods — encourages you to do the opposite. A healthy diet and regular exercise are certainly the best weapons against weight gain, but the fact is that sometimes they aren't enough. And that's where science may someday be able to help. Read more [Excellent series of articles from Time on obesity issues. Ed]

Tea ‘healthier’ drink than water

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers. The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates. Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found. Read more

Study claims organic milk offers no nutritional advantages

A new study has suggested that there may be little nutritional difference between conventional and organic milk. Writing in the Journal of Dairy Science, scientists at Cornell University set out to compare the nutritional profile of organic and recombinant bST (rbST)-free milks in the US with that of conventional milks. Read more

Four unhealthy behaviours combine to increase death risk

Four unhealthy behaviours - smoking, lack of physical activity, poor diet and alcohol consumption - appear to be associated with a substantially increased risk of death when combined, according to a new report. Read more

How long could you survive without food or drink?

The longest recorded starvation was by the Irish hunger-striker Kieran Doherty in 1981, who died after fasting for 73 days. With a supply of vitamins and water, people have been known to survive over a year without eating. "It used to be a very fashionable way of losing weight around 30 years ago," says Powell-Tuck. With vitamins but without water, survival time is sharply reduced. Read more

Miscellany

History of the Kitchen: The Microwave

The Microwave. . .It's the journeyman of the kitchen, the appliance loved by moms and singles alike. It warms your coffee, heats your Woolies' takeout and explodes your potatoes. Read this interesting history of the humble microwave, a now ubiquitous and invaluable part of every modern kitchen. Read more

Genius idea: grow tomatoes upside down!

This bizarre idea has taken the world of amateur gardening by storm in America: the Topsy Turvy Upside Down Tomato Planter. The ingenious grow bag is suspended from above so you can grow tomatoes without needing to stake or weed. It's ideal for hanging above the patio and porch, and thanks to the innovative design the fruit even ripens nearly a month earlier than anyone else's! Pest problems, in particular cutworms, are reduced and as the plants hang down there's no need to bend or search for the fruit. Also ideal for growing cucumbers, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, herbs and even flowers.

More than 10 million of these devices have been sold in the US, and now they are coming over to Britain, where after just a few days of going on sale they have already sold thousands. Read more

India: A different way to merchandise fresh produce!

That's all the stuff for this week!