| Industry
News The blurring of channel lines and traditional
eating occasions created an opportunity to capitalize on dayparts,
with the multiple-daypart customer being a more loyal, higher-spend ring, according
to Michele Schmal, vice president for CREST product management at The NPD Group.
Snacking and and breakfast are two dayparts receiving a lot of focus, reported
CSP Daily News. Full
Story 
The
recently-launched Fast Casual Industry Council will serve as a model for the
development of similar groups in the future within the National Restaurant Association's
structure. The Fast Casual Council's will convene bi-annually, with senior executives
from fast casual restaurants nationwide discussing common concerns and advising
the National Restaurant Association on the impact of the overall industry's priority
issues on fast casual restaurants. Full
Story The
structure, size, and performance of local food supply chains were compared with
those of mainstream supply chains in an ERS report, Comparing the Structure,
Size, and Performance of Local and Mainstream Food Supply Chains. Full
Report A
growing number of regional chains are switching to national advertising. Measured
network cable TV spending by fast-food marketers increased nearly 50% over the
past four years to $738 million in 2009 from $506 million in 2006, according to
Kantar Media, reported Advertising Age. Full
Story (Free Registration Required) Publix
is No. 1 for market share in Atlanta, according to figures from The Shelby
Report of the Southeast. Publix has 143 Atlanta-area stores and roughly 27% of
the market share, versus 131 stores and a 26% share for Kroger. Walmart comes
in third with 58 stores and a 23%, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required) International
News Coca-Cola plans to invest $12 billion in Africa from
this year through 2020, a market that is "critically
important to us," stated Scott McCune, Coke's head of integrated marketing. Coke
provided World Cup gear to 1,000 South  African
restaurants and taverns as part of the company's largest marketing campaign, with
World Cup-themed events and advertising spanning 160 countries and as much as
$475 million spent on global World Cup marketing, according to IEG LLC, reported
The Wall Street Journal. Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required) Norway
and Denmark are the most expensive countries in the European region for food
and beverage products, while the least expensive is the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, according to Eurostat data, reported Food Navigator. Full
Story Health News Phenolic
components in olive oil modify genes that are involved in the inflammatory response,
according to ARS researchers. Full
Story Washington
News FDA
released a draft guidance, The Judicious Use of Medically
Important Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-Producing Animals, to inform the public
of FDA's current thinking on the subject. Calling the development of resistance
to antibiotics "a serious public health threat," the draft guidance
recommendations include phasing in measures such as limiting medically important
antimicrobial drugs to uses in food-producing animals that are considered necessary
for assuring animal health. Full
Notice, Draft
Guidance In response, The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) stated that
the FDA guidance was overly burdensome and that there was no scientific study
linking antibiotic food use in food animal production with antibiotic resistance.
NPPC
Press Release 
A
Seattle city ordinance will require every grocery store, restaurant and coffee
shop to recycle, compost and provide recyclable or compostable to-go packaging
by July 1, reported The Seattle Times. Full
Story (Free Registration Required) Additionally, Starbucks will process cups
used at its Chicago stores into Starbucks napkins this fall, part of a major push
by Starbucks to create a commercial market for its used cups, which include 1
billion plastic cups for cold drinks. Market
News U.S. seafood suppliers are turning to Asia to increase
shrimp imports, but several countries in the world's
top shrimp-producing region are struggling to meet demand for shrimp because of
disease, drought and the economic crisis. Thailand remained largely unaffected
by a virus that crippled stocks in Bangladesh and Indonesia, the second top supplier
to the U.S. last year, with U.S. imports for the January-April period of Indonesian
shrimp down 30% from a year earlier and up 17% from Thailand, reported The
Associated Press. Full
Story 
China
will emerge as the top foreign buyer of American almonds this year, more than
doubling its purchases from two years ago, according to data from the Almond Board
of California. Last year, China was the top foreign buyer of American walnuts,
and in 2007, it became the leading export market for pecans. Altogether, China
bought $737 million in tree nuts from the U.S. last year, up from $89 million
five years earlier, according to USDA, reported The New York Times on the Web.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required) | 
