February 15, 2005

To send feedback, forward to a friend or view archived newsletters please scroll down to the bottom of the page. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this newsletter use the link located below the buttons.

QSR Magazine takes a look at the the many national, regional and local companies vying for a share of the expanding premium coffee market. Starbucks is currently the number one coffee chain with 40% of the market. Many company's such as Caribou, P.J.'s Coffee and Port City Java are juggling for position. Full Story

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) are considering legislation that could require labeling on chocolate products guaranteeing they were not made with child labor. Meanwhile, industry representatives told the lawmakers they would miss a July 1 deadline for certification that children were not being exploited on West African cocoa-growing farms. The Chocolate Manufacturers Association says the industry to date has complied with every deadline in the 2001 agreement, and it has initiated a large-scale test of a cocoa farm labor monitoring program in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, reported USA Today. Full Story

The creator of "Two Buck Chuck," vintner Fred Franzia is campaigning to get restaurants to sell his Salmon Creek wine at around $10 a bottle, reported The Boston Globe. Full Story

Exxon hopes to double annual coffee sales of $34 million over the next three years, while more than doubling the number of its U.S. convenience stores to 1,700 over the next five years. It has already put $10 million into the effort, installing new brewing equipment and setting up brown-and-black "Bengal Traders" themed coffee bars at convenience stores that are built into many gas stations, reported ABC News. Full Story

Supermarkets rang up $40.2 billion is sales during January, up 3% from a year earlier, but down from December's $43.2 billion in sales. On the foodservice side, eating and drinking places saw sales jump 5.8% to $31.5 billion, according to exclusive Food Institute analysis of just-released government data. Full Story

Swiss Diet introduced Shugr, which it is touting as the world's first truly natural, zero-calorie, diabetic-safe sweetener. Shugr is made from a proprietary blend of erythritol, which occurs naturally in many fruits and vegetables, tagatose, and pre-biotic fiber to aid digestion. It will available at major health food and natural products stores in the U.S. starting in March. Full Story

Agriculture and public interest groups, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), added their voices to charges that the marketing campaign for Johnson & Johnson's Splenda sweetener is misleading the public. Full Story, CSPI Press Release

Asked about a long-rumored possibility of Dean & DeLuca opening in Orlando, FL, Dane Neller, president of Dean & DeLuca, told The Orlando Sentinel that nothing is in the pipeline.

House of Bread Franchising, a specialty bakery business in California, is adding organic bread to its existing lineup of baked goods. Full Story

Calcium can settle out of soy and rice beverages, forming a calcium build up at the bottom of the carton that does not always get ingested by the consumer, according to a study published in Nutrition Today. This means that the calcium actually available in some popular soy and rice drinks can be as much as 85% lower than the amount on the product label, reported USA Today. Full Story

President Bush nominated acting Commissioner Lester M. Crawford to head the FDA, reported The Seattle Times. Full Story

FDA's proposed budget for next year includes cuts to nearly all its inspection programs, including checks on imported food. If Congress approves, the number of domestic food safety inspections made next year would fall by 5%. Increases, however, are earmarked for several projects, including expansion of a network of labs to analyze food for bioterror agents, reported USA Today. Full Story

A New Jersey bill to raise the minimum wage $2.00 over a two-year period cleared both chambers despite warnings from business owners that additional labor costs could force them to close, reported nj.com. Full Story

A half-dozen states are considering food labeling laws for restaurants, reported STLtoday.com. Full Story

For information on advertising in NASFT's Specialty Food News, send an email to ads@foodinstitute.com.
Copyright©2005. The Food Institute. All Rights Reserved.