July 07, 2008
IFDA News
Final development of more than 40 educational sessions is underway
for the 2008 Foodservice Distribution Conference & Expo, taking place
October 12-14 in Pittsburgh, PA - the "City of Bridges." The conference,
themed "Bridges to Success," addresses key issues surrounding efficiency,
technology, and collaboration in foodservice distribution. More than
1,200 executives attended the 2007 event. Tracks for education sessions
include distribution center operations, transportation, human resources,
information technology, and supply chain. Foodservice manufacturer logistics
executives are also invited to the conference to cultivate dialogue
with their distributor counterparts. In addition, a special set of sessions
focuses on issues in the growing convenience store distribution sector.
Full
Story
Operator News
Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. will open five Einstein
Bros. Bagels restaurants in the Memphis market within three to
five years, reported Memphis Business Journal. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Coffee house chain Daily Grind plans to open nine locations
in Central Florida during the next five years, giving it a total of
12 local sites, reported Orlando Business Journal. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Bars and taverns in Washington saw a more than 20% increase in gross
income in 2007, compared with 0.3% in 2006, due to smoking bans.
Kennewick saw the biggest increase, nearly 36%. "We're not totally surprised
because experience in other states is similar," stated department spokesman
Mike Gowrylow, reported the Tri-City Herald. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Chicagoans are some of highest tippers in the country, averaging
about 19.1% on food bills. Nationally, tips averaged 19% in the
survey, suggesting that the longtime standard 15% tip is outdated, according
to Zagat's 2008-2009 Chicago Restaurants survey, reported Chicago
Sun-Times. Full
Story
Retail News
U.S. store closings and cutbacks turned the second quarter into
the worst for strip mall owners in 30 years, as budget-conscious consumers
flocked to low-cost warehouse-style grocery centers, according to
a report by real estate research firm Reis. Strip malls saw average
vacancies spike 0.5 percentage points to 8.2%, a level unseen since
1995, reported Reuters. Full
Story
Bunnell Hill Development opened two Big Mike's Gas N'
Go locations, and plans at least 15 stores in the Ohio area. The
company will expand through acquisitions of existing convenience stores
and building some from the ground up, reported Dayton Business Journal.
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Industry News
Sales in the U.S. health and wellness sector increased 15% in 2007
and broached the $100 billion mark for the first time, according
to the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI). Sales are projected to reach
$170 billion by 2012, noted NMI, reported NutraIngredients-USA.com.
Full
Story
The market for gluten-free food products is growing. The
Los Angeles Times attributes that growth to a number of reasons,
from consumers with celiac disease to others simply looking for a more
healthy diet. Nielsen Co., reports that the gluten-free sector increased
20% in the 12-month period ending June 14, to $1.75 billion from $1.46
billion a year ago. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
UK sales of dark chocolate increased 96% to 85 million pounds ($168.5
million) between 2005 and 2007 as health-conscious Britons switched
from the milk-chocolate option, according to Mintel. Total sales
increased 10% by value as consumers bought more expensive brands, compared
with 1% growth in the two years before. Sales may grow 5% this year,
for a market of 2.23 billion pounds, reported Bloomberg.com.
Full
Story
BreadTalk Group Ltd. has revolutionized the way many people in Asia
eat and think about bread, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company plans to roll out more than 100 new varieties of buns this
year alone, from its 73 bakeries in Singapore; Shanghai; Beijing; Bangkok;
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and elsewhere. It has also franchised nearly
100 bakeries in Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Kuwait, Dubai and
Taiwan and has plans to ramp this up to 1,000 outlets globally in the
next five years. Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required)
Britons must stop wasting food in an effort to help combat rising
living costs, advises Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The PM claimed
that "unnecessary" purchases were contributing to price rises, and urged
people to plan meals in advance and store food properly. A government
study shows that the UK wastes four million tons of food every year,
adding £420 to a family's shopping bills, reported BBC News.
Full
Story
Health News
Artichoke leaf extract (ALE) can reduce
cholesterol levels in healthy adults, according to UK research.
Levels dropped 6% in those with raised cholesterol between a group given
1,280 mg of ALE per day and a control group taking a placebo, reported
Food Production Daily. Full
Story
Pomegranate
juice, red wine, Concord grape
juice, and blueberry juice are
among the 10 healthiest beverages,
reported Health.
Full
Story Washington News
The House Agriculture Committee is hosting hearings this week to
examine the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the rapidly growing
$5 trillion futures market for oil and other commodities and so called
"swap" markets. Last month, the House of Representatives
passed a bill requiring the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
to utilize all its authority, including emergency powers, to take steps
to curb excessive speculation in the energy futures markets. Meanwhile,
the CFTC is collecting data from Wall Street firms to rethink the question
of whether a speculative rush into commodities is causing a bubble and
plans a report by September, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Full
Story (WSJ Subscription Required)
Mexico's Agriculture Department is denying reports that the U.S.
will close its borders to some Mexican produce. The department says
it knows of no U.S. plan to stop imports of Mexican cilantro and jalapeno
peppers, contrary to U.S. media reports, according to The Associated
Press. Full
Story
Recent research touting the benefit of vitamin D for an array of
health problems has prompted a debate over whether the federal guidelines
for vitamin D should be redrawn. Several professional societies,
including the American Medical Association (AMA), are asking for new
recommendations, reported The Washington Post. Full
Story (Free Registration Required), AMA
Statement
The Coca-Cola Co. agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder
lawsuit that claimed company officials misrepresented or omitted information
in public statements, causing the company's stock price to be inflated,
reported CNNMoney. Full
Story
USDA issued disaster declarations for Alameda, Sonoma, and Yuba
counties in California due to losses caused by drought and abnormal
cold weather. USDA
Release, USDA
Release
Ahold USA-owned chains Giant Food Stores and Martin's Food Markets
removed private label Nature's Promise 90% lean fresh ground beef patties
from the meat case, due to potential E. coli contamination, in connection
with the widening recall of product from Nebraska Beef, Ltd., reported
Progressive Grocer. Full
Story
Market News
U.S. farmers have adopted genetically engineered (GE) crops widely
since their introduction in 1996, notwithstanding uncertainty
about consumer acceptance and economic and environmental impacts,
notes USDA. Soybeans and cotton genetically engineered with herbicide-tolerant
traits have been the most widely and rapidly adopted GE crops in the
U.S., followed by insect-resistant cotton and corn. A new data series
from USDA summarizes the extent of adoption of herbicide-tolerant and
insect-resistant crops since their introduction in 1996, showing how
rapidly these crops have grown. Full
Story
Tomato farmers nationwide are plowing under their fields and leaving
their crop to rot in packinghouses in the wake of the nationwide salmonella
outbreak. Farmers, packers, and shippers fear it could take months
to rebuild the $1.3 billion market for fresh tomatoes, reported The
Associated Press. Full
Story
Cocoa bean crop yields are declining all across the plantations
of West Africa, where two-thirds of the world's supply is grown, as
soils are degraded and the area able to support the crop retreats,
reported CNN.com. Full
Story
Beekeepers expect annual winter die-offs of 5%-25% due to
colony collapse disorder, but some will lose most or even all of their
bees. So far, the disorder cannot be traced to a single parasite,
virus or experience, but most say it is likely a combination, reported
Memphis Business Journal. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Vegetable and melon net returns are being eroded by rapidly escalating
input prices, particularly for fuel and fertilizer. Average input
prices paid by vegetable and melon growers increased 7% in 2006, 8%
in 2007, and are currently running 14% above a year earlier so far in
2008. At the same time, average prices received by commercial vegetable
growers have not kept pace and are currently running below a year earlier.
USDA
Report
The west side of California's San Joaquin Valley is being hit hard
by water shortages. A grower-packer-shipper of melons and other produce,
Fordel, is selling its Mendota facility after more than two decades.
It is not harvesting or packing a crop this year. Weather and pest challenges,
along with abandoned acreage, are cutting processing-tomato production
for Fresno County, the state's top grower, by as much as 400,000 tons,
reported The Modesto Bee. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Safflower plants are thriving in California's dry weather, as tomatoes,
corn, and other crops are withering. Acreage planted in safflower
has doubled in California to about 100,000 acres this year. The safflower
grown in California produces a vegetable oil that serves as an alternative
to corn, sunflower, olive, canola or soybean oil, reported The Associated
Press. Full
Story
Agricultural Research Service scientists are studying new sanitizing
methods to enhance the safety of leafy greens. The scientists first
focused on reformulating a new sanitizer that works better than chlorine
as a wash-solution ingredient. Chlorine solutions have been used by
the food industry to help control microbes on fresh-cut greens, such
as lettuce, but chlorine does not eliminate all the organisms that can
be present. There has been testing of combining the use of several sanitizers,
with ultrasound as a means to enhance the efficiency of sanitization
prior to bagging. Full
Story
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