The nation's restaurant industry is being threatened by a complacent
workforce and the perception that the food services industry is
not the place to make a lifetime career, according to Lloyd L. Hill,
chairman of the board of Applebee's International Inc., at a lecture
sponsored by the University of South Florida's School of Hotel and
Restaurant Management, reported Bradenton Herald. »
Full Story
Last year's
level of restaurant innovation exceeded prior reports.
New beverage menus exhibited heightened activity, salads remained
one of the most innovative meal parts, and limited service operators
created a bevy of new side orders, according to Technomic's Menu
Clips Annual Review. »
Full Story
BJ's Wholesale Club
Inc. plans to revamp merchandise and pricing, after reporting
a 77% plunge in fourth-quarter profits. The retailer will reduce
the number of brands and sizes it carries for many items to open
up shelf space for additional product lines, and will emphasize
highly profitable items. It also plans to draw shoppers to items
available temporarily at bargain prices, according to The Associated
Press.»
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Latest
sales & earnings for food related companies
(Updated Daily)
Friendship
Dairies agreed to be purchased by Dean Foods for $130 million,
including costs of the acquisition. Long Island, NY-based Friendship,
which has a production plant in Friendship, NY, makes products including
yogurt, cottage cheese and sour cream, and sells them in eight states,
according to The Buffalo News.»
Full Story

Express Scripts
Inc. raised its $26.1 billion takeover offer for Caremark RX Inc.,
as U.S. antitrust regulators prepared a equest for more information
on the proposal, reported Bloomberg.com.»
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Kraft Foods Inc.
purchased approximately 1.4 million shares of its stock from parent
Altria Group Inc. for $46.5 million, reported Forbes.com.»
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Kroger Co. plans
to open a series of mega-sized Kroger Marketplace stores in the
Louisville market within the next two years. A typical Marketplace
store has 112,000 - 126,000-sq. ft. of space, or about 60% larger
than a traditional Kroger, and have expanded sections for organic
and natural foods, wine and specialty cheeses, reported The Courier-Journal.
»
Full Story
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Schreiber
Foods International, Inc.
For
over 26 years, Schreiber Foods International has been importing
canned and preserved fruits, vegetables, tuna and specialty
foods for the Foodservice, Industrial, and Salad Bar-Deli/App.
trades. Schreiber Foods services its accounts through multiple
warehouses and most ports of entry. Ramsey, NJ-based Schreiber
Foods sources products from over 20 countries and has them
in stock all times. Schreiber Foods has earned an enviable
position for reliability and quality for their Ambrosia brand
products, as well as the other fine brands they import. Schreiber
Foods supports distributors sales forces with timely information
that is easily found in their web site newsletter.
To learn more about this 10-year Food Institute member visit:
www.ambrosia-foods.com.
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A proposal
for a New York City Wholesale Farmers' Market was initiated
by Gourmet Garage founder Andy Arons, reported Progressive Grocer.
A private focus group will discuss issues such as the types of local
products they would want at such a market, the amounts they would
expect to buy, how they would use the market, access, and site planning.
In addition to Gourmet Garage, scheduled participants in the focus
group are Dean & DeLuca, Balducci's, Garden of Eden, The Food Emporium,
Blue Apron Foods, The Park Slope Food Coop, and Commodities.»
Full Story
7-Eleven
Inc. began selling franchises to Texans. It is the first time
that the Dallas-based company is making the offer in the state,
reported Dallas Business Journal.»
Full Story
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Did
you know that two ethnic groups are especially considered
heavy quick-service restaurant patrons?
In
fact, one group is 20% more likely than the general
population to be heavy QSR diners. A
brand new Food Institute webinar on March 19,
featuring Scarborough Research's Josh Chasin,
will identify these groups and a bevy of other findings
about quick serve restaurant patrons. Click
Here for details!
|
|
High Life
Sales Co. officially completed its purchase of Big Sky Distributors,
and the companies are now doing business as Central States Beverage
Co. The company will distribute more than 60 domestic and imported
brands, including products from Miller, Coors, Boulevard Brewing
Co., Pabst, Diageo-Guinness and Samuel Adams, reported The Business
Journal of Kansas.»
Full Story
(Free Registration Required)
Dreyer's Grand Ice
Cream launched Dreyer's/Edy's Dibs bite-sized ice cream snacks
in two new favors - Coffee and Rocky Road. The new additions expand
the line of portable ice cream to 11 flavors, reported Convenience
Store News.»
Full
Story
Lean
Cuisine expanded its Spa
Cuisine product line to include, five new entrees
that offer twice as many vegetables as their average entrees.»
Full
Story

Most of the attention within the processed tuna industry is on
the albacore market, which after falling steadily over the past
few months, is predicted to have stabled at $2,175 per metric ton.
In the skipjack market, fishermen are starting to return from Chinese
New Year celebrations and the market should start to stabilize at
more normal levels after hitting a high of $1,100 per metric ton
in January, according to the March 5 FOOD INSTITUTE REPORT.
»
Full
Story (Food Institute Membership Required)

South
Korea will lower its quarantine standards this month over banned
bone fragments in American beef shipments,
initiating the resumption of U.S. beef imports. South Korea, once
America's third-largest overseas beef market, notified the U.S.
of the plan during negotiations in Washington DC, reported The
Associated Press.»
Full
Story
Tim Hortons
Inc. alleges its brand has been damaged by "false and misleading"
news coverage of its franchise serving Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.
The company is suing CanWest Global Communications Corp., Standard
Radio Inc. and broadcaster Bill Carroll for C$105-million in general
and punitive damages, over reports that Tim Hortons received almost
C$4-million in Canadian government subsidies to set up the Kandahar
outlet, according to The Globe and Mail.»
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)

Thousands of food
service workers in eateries across Los Angeles might be vaccinated
for hepatitis A
because of a series of outbreaks of the disease. Last month, a cook
at the Wolfgang Puck catering company was diagnosed with hepatitis
A. Health officials issued warnings to 3,500 people who attended
more than a dozen events catered by the company, reported The
Associated Press.»
Full
Story
Food scientists
at Ohio State University grew a special variety of orange tomatoes
that may be healthier than garden-variety red tomatoes. The orange
tomatoes contain a type of lycopene that is more readily used by
the body than the type found in red tomatoes, reported Reuters.
»
Full
Story

Congress is considering
legislation that would require USDA to update school nutrition standards
to extend to vending machines and
school stores. A report by Congress' investigative arm, the
Government Accountability Office, found that 83% of elementary schools
and 99% of high schools sell unhealthy foods such as candy and soft
drinks inside and outside the cafeteria, according to The Washington
Times.»
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
The
United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued
Walgreens, claiming that the company discriminated against thousands
of African American employees by
denying promotions and assigning workers to low-performing stores.
On a given year, the EEOC handles over 300 cases but the Walgreen
lawsuit is the largest discrimination case in the last six years,
reported Forbes.com. »Full
Story
Congress
is seeking information about a salmonella outbreak traced to peanut
butter made by ConAgra Foods. The inquiry by the HouseCommittee
on Energy and Commerce is part of a broader look at food safety
after recent problems nationwide, including E. coli and salmonella
outbreaks linked to raw vegetables, reported Omaha-World Herald.»
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
FDA
warned consumers not to drink certain brands of mineral water imported
from Armenia due to the risk of exposure to arsenic, a toxic
substance and known cause of cancer in humans. »
Full
Story
A
growing decline in citrus supplies nationwide is increasing prices
for products including
fresh oranges, orange juice and smoothies. Grocers in Colorado
say prices for oranges and orange juice are steadily rising, while
many juice and smoothie retailers have implemented surcharges ranging
from 25 to 65 cents on some items to offset the rising cost of oranges,
reported The Denver Post.»
Full
Story
Egg
production during the year ending Nov. 30, 2006 totaled a record
high 90.9 billion eggs, up 1% from 2005. Table egg production,
at 78.0 billion eggs, was up 1% from the previous year, while hatching
egg production, at 12.9 billion eggs, was down 2% from 2005, according
to USDA's Chickens and Eggs report. »
View Report
Following two small U.S. crops in the past three seasons there are
not many dried plums in inventory, so farmers are hoping for
favorable weather this season. Prune orchards have started to bloom
throughout the Central Valley, with full bloom expected later this
month, reported California Farm Bureau Federation.
California's
largest dairy cooperative, California Dairy Inc., will effectively
ban use of growth hormones to satisfy consumers, even though
the practice is safe. Use of the hormone rBST to boost milk production
was banned in Canada and drew criticism from some consumer groups
in the U.S., reported The Fresno Bee.»
Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
California-based
Straus Family Creamery will be the first certified organic dairy
manufacturer in the U.S. to verify that all
of its products are not contaminated by previously undetected
genetically modified organisms (GMO).»
Full
Story
Monsanto and The
Solae Company agreed to develop and market Omega-3 products
for a market that could grow to as much as $7 billion by 2011. The
collaboration brings together research that the companies have been
conducting independently on soybeans, as well as work on stabilizing
oil for food applications.»
Full
Story
National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) reallocated the projected unused
amount of Pacific cod from vessels using jig gear to catcher
vessels less than 60-ft. in length overall using pot or hook-and-line
gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area.»
Full
Notice
NMFS
proposed a rule that would establish the 2007 second and third
trimester season quotas for large coastal sharks, small coastal
sharks, and pelagic sharks based on over- or underharvests from
the 2006 second and third trimester seasons.»
Full
Notice
USDA offers to purchase
frozen apricots. Offers are due 1:00 p.m. (CT), Mar. 21.»
View
Details
USDA purchased frozen
beef.»
View
Details
USDA purchased dried
cherries.»
View
Details
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