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Kraft Foods Inc. intends to create two independent public companies: a global snacks business with estimated revenue of approximately $32 billion and a North American grocery business with estimated revenue of approximately $16 billion. The company expects to create these companies through a tax-free spin-off of the North American grocery business to Kraft Foods shareholders. The current target is to launch the new companies before year-end 2012. Full Story

Visits to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s U.S. locations open at least a year dropped 2.6% from February through June, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. Those Wal-Mart stores had 82.8 million fewer visits through the first five months of the company's fiscal year than a year earlier, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story Wal-Mart Stores "needs to better address the demands of its shopper today in order to regain relevance," stated the CEO of WSL/Strategic Retail, which published the How America Shops report. About 86% of Walmart shoppers surveyed no longer believe that Walmart has the lowest prices, and are finding better shopping at dollar stores, supermarkets and other mass merchants. Full Story

View Today! Moms and their media habits are probed in the Aug. 4 edition of the Lempert Report, hosted by Phil Lempert. Click here to view.

Smart Balance, Inc. acquired 100% of the equity interest of Importations DE-RO-MA, which owns Glutino Food Group, for $66.3 million, from investment firm Claridge. Glutino is a manufacturer and marketer of premium-priced, gluten-free foods sold under the Glutino and Gluten Free Pantry brands. Full Story

PepsiCo is testing its summer school food program in Chicago and Dallas, aiming to develop a model it can take nationwide. Dubbed "Food for Good," the program began in Dallas in 2009, offering breakfast. Breakfast is Quaker Life cereal or a granola bar, milk and Tropicana apple or orange juice. Lunch includes a sandwich such as turkey and cheese, Tropicana juice, milk and carrot sticks or an orange, reported Chicago Tribune. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Dunkin' Brands Group Inc. plans to rejuvenate the Baskin-Robbins brand, introducing new technology to franchisees' operations and cutting the fields of operations managers to 50 stores each instead of 120. Executives also expect to take another price increase at Baskin-Robbins by the end of September with ice cream production costs rising more than 17%. Dunkin' Brands also plans to expand the Dunkin' Donuts brand beyond the company's current focus in Asia into Europe, beyond the company's base of Germany, Russia and Spain, reported MSNBC.com. Full Story

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Americans are much more aware of the health benefits of specific "functional" foods than they were a decade ago, according to the 2011 IFIC Functional Foods/Foods for Health Survey from the International Food Information Council. The foods and food components Americans look to the most to help improve or maintain their health are fruits and vegetables, fish/fish oil, dairy, whole grains and herbs & spices. Full Story

Average retail seafood prices increased 3.5% in the 52 weeks ending Mar. 26 compared to the previous year, driving down dollars 2% and volume down 5.3%. Trends in the scallop subcategory followed the overall department trends. Nationally, pricing on scallops increased 10.8% from the previous year, the largest increase in average retail price in the mollusk category, according to Perishables Group, reported Seafood Business Magazine. Full Story

New Product News: popchips inc. introduced jalapeno popchips. Full Story ... Meals to Live introduced a grocery store line of frozen meals created specifically for diabetics. Full Story ... Unilever North America launched Knorr Homestyle Stock. Full Story ... Navitas Naturals launched Navitas Power Snacks in two varieties. Full Story ... Vita Coco launched Vita Coco Tropical Fruit. Full Story

The Krystal Company is looking for a buyer for its Krystal burger brand, reported ABC News. Full Story

Weis Markets will purchase more than 24 million-lbs. of local produce this year from approximately 150 farmers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. The company launched a local produce campaign, Your Neighbors, Our Farmers, which highlights the long-term contributions of 13 farmers and their families who supply Weis Markets' stores. Full Story

Retail Roundup: Marsh Supermarkets is partnering with MyWebGrocer to offer customers an integrated digital platform across web, mobile and social media channels. Full Story ... Casey's General Stores Inc. expanded its pizza delivery service to include convenience stores in Waverly, Adel, Carroll, Eldridge and Nevada, IA, reported The Des Moines Register. Further expansion is planned. Full Story

Dried food products wholesaler Woodland Foods launched a Culinary Services Department, led by corporate executive chef Jeffrey Troiola. Chef Troiola will work with Woodland Foods' customers to introduce new products and reinforce staple products. Full Story

Restaurant Roundup: Firehouse Subs launched Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains in all of its 437 restaurants. Full Story ... Daphne's California Greek introduced four new salads. Full Story ... The HoneyBaked Ham Company is expanding its franchise operations into the Des Moines, IA and Evansville, IN markets.

Companies including Kraft Foods increasingly are running online ads that focus less on pitching their products than promoting their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. The ads, which have menu tabs and increasingly resemble mini-websites themselves, allow users to click within the ad to see a brand's Twitter messages or Facebook wall posts in real time, or to watch a brand's video content from YouTube - all without leaving the web page where the ad appears, reported The New York Times on the Web. Full Story (NYT Subscription Required)

Now Available in PDF! Print orders being accepted. The Food Institute's Almanac of Canning, Freezing, Preserving Industries 2010/2011, a 1,000+ page compilation of essential information, will save you time, put current facts and figures at your fingertips and answer your questions fast. The Almanac contains valuable information for businesses to reference quickly and conveniently and includes complete coverage of topics including: FDA Laws and Regulations; Associations and Meetings; USDA Quality Grades; Labeling Laws and Regulations; Raw Product Standards; FDA Product Standards; and USDA Meat Canning Regulations. To learn more and purchase, click here.

Barry Callebaut plans to upgrade grinding capacity at its Ivory Coast cocoa processing plant to 175,000 metric tons a year from 105,000 metric tons, reported Reuters. Full Story

Numerous fast food companies are targeting Russia as residents tend to have a large portion of their money for discretionary spending. McDonald's now operates 279 restaurants in the country. Burger King opened 22 restaurants, mostly in mall food courts, in two years. Carl's Jr. has 17 restaurants in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Wendy's opened two restaurants and plans for 180 by 2020. Subway opened about 200 shops, working through several franchisees. Yum! Brands has about 350 restaurants, reported The New York Times on the Web. Full Story (NYT Subscription Required)

Russian hypermarkets are gaining back their positions in terms of brand equity, shopper loyalty and basket size. Consumers did not perceive discounters as providing their key communicated value best prices for all goods, according to Nielsen's ShopperTrends 2011 study. About 43% of survey respondents in Moscow and 54% of respondents in St-Petersburg seldom change stores based on promotions, but actively look for promotions in stores where they usually shop. Full Story

American Dairy Queen Corp.'s Dairy Queen is expanding into Guatemala, signing an agreement with franchisee Grupo Buen Rollo to open 15 locations throughout the country by 2015. The first kiosk Dairy Queen store is scheduled to open in Guatemala City in October and a second in-line store is slated to open by the end of the year. Full Story

KFC halted operations in Fiji, amid a dispute over imports of the ingredients to make its flavored crumb coating. The company has three restaurants in Fiji, reported BBC News. Full Story

Implementing the "My Plate" recommended nutritional guidelines will cost Americans at least $7.28 a week extra in grocery spending, according to a study published in Health Affairs. To reach the recommended amount of potassium a day, an adult would have to spend an extra $1.04 a day, or $380 a year. To boost levels of dietary fiber and vitamin D, adults have to spend about 35 cents extra a day for each of the two nutrients, reported MSNBC.com. Full Story

Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation issued a voluntary recall of approximately 36 million-lbs. of ground turkey products because the products have the potential to be contaminated with a multi-drug resistant strain of Salmonella Heidelberg. Full Story Cargill suspended production of ground turkey products at its Springdale, AR facility until it is able to determine the source of the Salmonella Heidelberg and take corrective actions. Full Story

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine granted approval to Diamond Foods, Inc. for its pending acquisition of the Pringles business from The Procter & Gamble Company. Diamond has now received all antitrust clearances required for the transaction. Full Story

A federal judge backed New York's kosher food-labeling law. The revised law attempted to overcome problems with an earlier kosher-labeling law, which was thrown out when a judge found it created "excessive" entanglements between synagogue and state, reported Reuters. Full Story

Notices of filing of petitions for food additives and color additives that are published in accordance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act will now be published in the "Proposed Rules" section of the Federal Register. Notices of filing historically were published in the "Notices" section. Full Notice

The National Restaurant Association's multi-industry Depreciation Fairness Coalition is pressing Congress to enact a permanent 15-year schedule for depreciating the cost of new restaurant construction and improvements. Full Story

USDA issued a $25 million grant to North Carolina State University to study human noroviruses in an effort to design effective control measures across the food supply chain and reduce the number of food-borne illnesses caused by viruses. Full Story

Birko acquired Chad Co., a manufacturer of automated washing cabinets and pasteurizing systems for meat processing operations. Chad will become Chad Equipment LLC, a Birko company. Birko is a provider in food-safety solutions to the protein processing, food and beverage industries, reported Meat & Poultry. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

The Department of Commerce is partially rescinding an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen fish fillets from Vietnam with respect to the following companies: Agifish; Nam Viet; Nam Viet Corporation and SAMEFICO. The department is also rescinding this review with respect to Cadovimex II. Full Notice

USDA offers to purchase frozen Alaska pollock. Offers are due by 1:00 p.m. (CT), Aug. 5. View Details