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Industry
News
While
family farms continue to decline across the country,
the number of community-supported agriculture (C.S.A.)
businesses increased from 50 in 1990 to more than 2,000
in 2008, according to www.localharvest.org, an internet
guide to organic and local food, reported The New
York Times on the Web. C.S.A.'s are so popular that
many in Connecticut and New Jersey have waiting lists.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Meanwhile,
more
school districts nationwide are signing on to the burgeoning
"farm-to-school" movement. While that can be more
expensive and may involve more work, food directors
claim it pays dividends in fresher, better-tasting produce
that more kids eat. In past years, the biggest obstacle
to the go-local movement was the federal government,
whose regulations restricted schools from "geographic
preferences" in procuring food, reported The Wall
Street Journal. Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required)
As
demand for premium chocolate soars, new high-tech confectioners
are changing the industry with Silicon Valley-style
innovation, antique German equipment, and a focus on
the cocoa bean. For example, San Francisco, CA-based
TCHO is seeking to improve the quality of chocolate
through scientific experimentation with flavors and
does not classify bars by cacoa content or origin. The
company currently sells its chocolate only online in
brown packets labeled "beta," and solicits feedback
and reaches out to customers through social media outlets
like YouTube, reported CNN. Full
Story
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PACK
EXPO International 2008
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Foods
claiming to deliver energy are finding a distinct place
in the marketplace as consumers are looking beyond
energy drinks for an added boost, according to Mintel.
Mintel's Global New Products Database picked up a number
of ‘energy' ingredients moving into foods, including
ginseng, guarana and taurine, which are already popular
in energy drinks and now appear in snacks, reported
Market Watch. Full
Story
Latest
sales & earnings for food related companies
(Updated Daily)
Following
a similar move made by Ralphs earlier this summer, Vons
will only double coupons up to $1, reported The
Orange County Register. Full
Story
In
the coming months, Argo Tea plans to expand to the
East Coast with the opening of five new corporate stores.
Within the past five years, the tea café evolved into
a chain of 10 company-owned stores, all in the Chicago
area. The cafés serve up "teappuccinos," green
tea ginger twists, yerba mate lattes, and other proprietary
blends. The menu features more than 30 hot and chilled
beverages, reported QSR Magazine. Full
Story
Denny's
is introducing an all-night Rockstar menu, featuring
menu items created by popular bands such as Taking Back
Sunday. The 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. menu includes Taking Back
Bacon Burger Fries, Plain White Shake, Heart on a Plate,
and The All American S.O.S, reported QSR Magazine.
Full
Story
 Natural
Harmony Foods, Inc.'s new breakfast lineup of SoLean
grab-n-go products will be available in all Kehe
Natural Foods warehouses. Full
Story
Winn-Dixie
Stores, Inc.'s current phase of its ‘Good ‘Til' program,
which offers customers reduced pricing on over 1,000
products, will receive increased focus in its weekly
circular. ‘Good ‘Til Fall' runs through Oct. 8 and gives
shoppers the opportunity to take advantage of discounts
throughout the store when they use their Customer Reward
Card. Full
Story
Acosta
Sales & Marketing Co. acquired Top Line Food Sales & Marketing,
a bakery sales and marketing agency serving the
New England and Eastern Great Lakes markets. The Top Line
acquisition allows Acosta to continue to build its fresh
foods platform and to strengthen its bakery presence.
Full
Story
International News
Russia could cut poultry
and pork import quotas by hundreds of thousands of tons,
according to Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev. Any
substantial cuts would likely make an impact on U.S.
poultry producers, such as Sanderson Farms Inc. and
Pilgrim's Pride Corp., for whom Russia is the biggest
market, reported The Associated Press. Full
Story
Scientists
from Newcastle University teamed up with Tesco
to open the UK's first "pensioner-friendly"
supermarket, complete
with magnifying glasses and seats on trolleys, anti-slip
flooring, and extra-wide aisles. If given the go-ahead,
the store will be built in Newcastle, reported The
Daily Mail. Full
Story
The
Waste Resources Action Programme asked the European
dairy industry to develop more cost effective labels
and adhesives for milk containers, as it seeks to
meet EU requirements on waste reduction. Current labels
and adhesives on high-density polyethylene milk bottles
leak into the plastic polymers, decreasing the total
amount of the bottle that can be recycled in packaging,
reported Food Production Daily. Full
Story
The
cause of the deadly listeria contamination at a Maple
Leaf Foods Toronto meat plant may never be known,
according to president Michael McCain. So far, 29 cases
of listeria are confirmed, including 15 deaths: 12 in
Ontario and one each in British Columbia, Saskatchewan,
and Quebec, reported The Globe and Mail. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Deere
& Company will invest approximately $80 million in its
agricultural manufacturing and parts distribution operations
in Brazil to increase manufacturing capacity for
both tractors and combines as well as to improve service
to customers. Full
Story
 Müller
is launching a limited-edition black cherry and dark
chocolate Fruit Corner yogurt next month. The new
flavor, the first to incorporate chocolate, will be
the first in a series of limited-edition Corner lines
planned for the UK market, reported Just-Food.com.
Full
Story
Good
Life China Corporation signed a Letter of Intent to
acquire an unnamed Chinese-based agriculture company
of similar size and financial stature to the company's
current operations. Full
Story
Mengniu
Diary will use light-coated linerboard produced by China
Sunshine Paper Holdings Company Limited for
certain products as the top layer of the container boxes.
Full
Story
Health News
Olive
leaf extracts may help reduce cholesterol and blood
pressure levels, according
to a study funded by Frutarom. A daily 1000mg supplement
of olive leaf extract reduced cholesterol levels as
well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure over eight
weeks, according to researchers, reported Food Navigator
Europe. Full
Story
Milk can assist muscle recuperation
after exercise, helping to minimize exercise-induced
muscle damage from resistance weight training, according
to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology,
Nutrition and Metabolism. Certain proteins and carbohydrates
in milk were found to be responsible, and the drink
also functions as an effective rehydrator, reported
Food Navigator USA. Full
Story
Washington News
USDA's Food Safety & Inspection
Service needs to strengthen its controls over the reinspection
of imported meat and poultry items at U.S. ports and
strengthen its methodology for selecting foreign establishments
for review, according to a followup report by USDA's
Office of the Inspector General, Controls Over Imported
Meat and Poultry Products. Full
Report
In a move that could lead to the
use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
by U.S. issuers beginning in 2014, the Securities and
Exchange Commission will publish a "Roadmap"
for doing so, noting that more than 100 countries around
the world, including all of Europe, currently require
or permit IFRS reporting. The proposed multi-year plan
sets out several milestones that, if achieved, could
lead to the use of IFRS by U.S. issuers in their filings
with the Commission. The SEC estimates at least 110
U.S. companies would qualify based on their market capitalization,
among other factors. Full
Release
Reversing a prior decision, the California
Assembly approved a bill that would limit the amount
of a chemical that was linked to cancer and is used
in food packaging. The measure would allow no more than
10 parts per billion of a compound known as PFOA in
fast-food wrappers, pizza boxes, beverage containers,
and other food packaging, reported The Modesto Bee.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
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ECONOMIC
DOWNTURN PRESENTS OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES
FOR RETAILERS
The
future of food retailing for the next three
to five years will be dramatically affected
by two major trends: food inflation and
the emergence of small format stores, according
to the annual Future of Food Retailing
webinar presented by The Food Institute
and Willard Bishop, which examined the state
of the food and consumables retail industry
in 2007 and beyond. Food price inflation
will exceed current "conventional wisdom,"
and be a factor for three or more years,
predicted Willard Bishop during the webinar.
In fact, predictions about the rate of inflation
have generally been underestimated. However,
this food price inflation can benefit food
retailers with winning shopper value equations
and solid plans to take advantage. If
you missed The Future of Food
Retailing webinar and would like to
purchase a recording, click
here.
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Los Angeles County's hundreds of
taco trucks will be allowed to conduct business from
set locations, a judge determined, eliminating a
law requiring that the trucks move every hour, reported
The Modesto Bee. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
USDA wants to remove the requirement
that Chilean grape producers eradicate mites with
methyl bromide. Instead, Chilean producers would follow
a new system of registration and inspections, reported
The Fresno Bee. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
FDA was praised for issuing a final
rule allowing fresh lettuce and spinach to be irradiated
in its ongoing efforts to reduce foodborne illnesses
in both The New York Times on the Web Full
Editorial (Free Registration Required) and The
Wall Street Journal. Full
Editorial (WSJ Subscription Required)
Market News
There are about 1.1 million hired
workers in the U.S. and half
of those lack legal authorization to work in the country,
according to an updated profile of farmworkers. Most
are located in the Southwest, with California and Texas
accounting for almost one-third of the $22 billion spent
in 2002 on hired farm labor, reported AZCentral.com.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
China's apple production should increase
15% for the 2008 season, according to an estimate
provided by Joyce Cui to the U.S. Apple Association's
2008 Apple Crop and Marketing Conference. Ms. Cui claims
China's 2007 crop was down about 10% from normal on
average. China's shortfall, combined with a crop cut
short by frost in Poland, sparked higher prices for
apple juice concentrate in the 2007-08 season, reported
The Packer Online. Full
Story (Subscription Required)
Caused by lower-than-usual temperatures
in the spring, a natural flowering phenomenon reduced
the late summer supplies of pineapples. Prices are
up as much as 50% compared to f.o.b.s a year ago, and
they could go higher, reported The Packer Online.
Full
Story (Subscription Required)
The 2008 Idaho potato harvest began,
according to Frank Muir, president of the Idaho Potato
Commission. Shippers went through the 2007 crop faster
than anticipated, so there is not much product in the
marketplace. Added to that is the fact that the crop,
delayed by cool, wet weather in the early spring, is
running a little later than normal, reported The
Produce News. Full
Story
A small but rising
number of newcomers are attempting to grow hops on a
commercial scale outside the Pacific Northwest.
The growers aim to capitalize on hop prices that are
as much as sixfold higher than a few years ago, as well
as the nation's boom in small-batch "craft" brewers,
reported The Wall Street Journal. Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required)
Alcan Packaging Food Americas introduced
sustainable, high-barrier packaging solutions with
Ceramis-PLA biodegradable barrier films. Made from the
annually renewable resource corn starch, Ceramis polyactic
acid (PLA) structures are fully biodegradable and compostable
to meet the market's increasing demand for environmentally
responsible packaging, reported PackagingNetwork.com.
Full
Story
USDA invited some states to
submit an Application for Federal Assistance and
to enter into a Cooperative Agreement with the Agricultural
Marketing Service for the Allocation of Organic Certification
Cost-Share Funds. The states are Connecticut, Delaware,
Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Full
Notice
USDA proposed to amend the fruits
and vegetables regulations to allow the importation,
under certain conditions, of sweet oranges and grapefruit
from Chile into the continental U.S. Full
Notice
FSIS will conform its regulations
to the Agricultural Marketing Service regulations,
entitled, "Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling
of Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Goat Meat, Perishable
Agricultural Commodities, Peanuts, Pecans, Ginseng,
and Macademia Nuts." Full
Notice
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