Industry News

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. Full Story

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 request for more information on the proposal, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story

Kraft Foods Inc. purchased approximately 1.4 million shares of its stock from parent Altria Group Inc. for $46.5 million, reported Forbes.com. Full Story

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

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

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)

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

TwinCities.com takes a look at Barleywine, a beer that often bears a flavorful similarity to complex red wines or even to sherry or port. Barleywines were the strongest ales made by British brewers. In the U.S., licensing laws require them to be labeled "barleywine ale" or "barleywine-style ale." Full Story (Free Registration Required)

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International News

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)

Health News

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

Washington News

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 , EEOC Press Release

Congress is seeking information about a salmonella outbreak traced to peanut butter made by ConAgra Foods. The inquiry by the House Committee 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

Market News

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