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Search 31.309 producers and exporters of Foods, beverages and agriculture productsThe big spring clean
Lynda SearbyUnder pressure from retailers, food manufacturers are on a mission to clean up their labels
The fall from grace of Procter & Gamble’s Sunny Delight is one of the most high profile examples of how consumers react when they feel they’ve been duped by the food industry.
Launched in 1998, Sunny Delight fast became the biggest selling soft drink in the UK behind Coke and Pepsi, as mums fell in love with its child-friendly image.
Then it all went wrong. The drink’s low-juice/high-sugar content attracted criticism from UK watchdog The Food Commission, as did its placement in chiller cabinets alongside pure juices.
Consumers began to lose faith in the product, and the much-hyped case of the toddler that allegedly turned orange after consuming Sunny Delight in large quantities didn’t help P&G’s cause. Sales slumped.
Besides serving as a warning to fellow manufacturers, the Sunny Delight episode fuelled consumer suspicions about what mysterious ingredients could be lurking in their food.
The SHAPE of things to come
Claire RowanAs the market place for food and beverage products becomes increasingly competitive,
manufacturers are turning to packaging suppliers to optimise their product propositions, and the experts in canning technology are rising keenly to this challenge.
The past year has seen leading can manufacturers launch innovations in shapes, texture, colour and print finish to boost the shelf appeal of brands throughout Europe and further afield.
In The Netherlands, Heinz worked with Impress to perfect the new shaped can for the relaunch of its Karvan Cévitam brand of fruit syrups that replaces the brand’s original
straight walled cans. The attractive distortionprinted three piece cans are produced from
fine stone finished steel, and pneumatic blow forming tooling was specially designed to
create a shaped can that is both full of impact on-shelf and easy to grip. The syrups have
been relaunched with improved recipes containing 70% fruit.
Evolution in chocolate technology
By Claire Rowan
Today’s traditional and much loved chocolate products continue to be created using more and more sophisticated technology
Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter as far back as 1875 and many of the best selling brands such as Nestlé’s KitKat and Masterfoods’ Mars Bar were developed more than 70 years ago, yet the need for technological advances remains great.
According to expert teams at ZDS Solingen, the Central College of the German Confectionery Industry, the need for further development work encompasses every stage of production from ensuring that cocoa remains a sustainable crop to new tempering techniques.
Much of the cocoa grown today is susceptible to destruction by pests and diseases, according to ZDS, which highlights that work remains to be done in finding environmentally acceptable and affordable methods of overcoming these problems, as well as developing methods of boosting the flavour of the finished chocolate through optimising the cocoa growing and processing conditions.
Environmental Initiatives from the Food and Drink Industry
Claire Rowan
Environmental initiatives are key to future success for food and beverage manufacturers as they impact not only on consumer perception and legislative fulfilment but also on profitability
As can be seen in the pages of this dedicated Supplement, suppliers are rising to the increasing demands from the industry and investing heavily in finding solutions to manufacturers’ environmental and energy-saving challenges.
Meanwhile, food and drink manufacturers themselves are making considerable strides in reducing their impact on the environment.
Pressure from retailers to boost their ‘green’ credentials in the eyes of consumers is having a knock-on effect throughout the whole food chain. Leading UK retailer Tesco has recently launched a new Greener Living product range to sit alongside its existing Finest, Value and Healthy Living ranges in a bid, it claims, to help consumers reduce the energy they use (and hence their carbon footprint), reduce the waste they generate, and reduce their impact on the environment.
This initiative will force suppliers to look even harder at their own environmental performance and offerings.
INDUSTRIA MARTÍN CUBERO S.A.
The Food WorldINDUSTRIA MARTÍN CUBERO S.A. is a company owned by Grupo Martín, which was founded in Mexico in 1966 and settled in Argentina in 1991. It deals with growing, harvesting, manufacturing and selling high-oleic peanut.
Our Argentine plant is located within a highly strategic place, such as the province of Córdoba, more specifically on one of the main national and international transit road paths and next to a railway, all of which contributes value added to the product in terms of logistics and distribution.
SALT & SUGAR REDUCTION – HEALTH AND TASTE GO HAND IN HAND
CMPAmsterdam, 9 April 2008 – Obesity is one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century, while cardiovascular disease remains the biggest cause of death in both the developed and developing world – killing around 12.7 million people each year. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the prevalence of obesity has tripled in many European countries since the 1980s, and the number of those affected continues to rise at an alarming rate. Raised blood pressure, WHO reports, is the biggest single cause of cardiovascular disease and the current high intake of salt is the major determinant of this.
Little wonder that the Salt and Sugar Reduction Symposium 2008, organized by CMPi, attracted such a strong attendance. Some 120 delegates from 22 countries travelled to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, at the beginning of April to learn about the latest developments in food reformulation to reduce or replace sugar and salt, with speakers drawn from both the public and private sectors.
The strongest Link
Linda Searby
Supply chain software can benefit a food manufacturer’s relationships with customers and suppliers as well as its bottom line
Being a supplier to the major grocery retailers has never been tougher. Food manufacturers today are expected to respond to a growing list of stringent demands, from improving on-shelf availability to reacting to shorter lead times, ensuring order accuracy and guaranteeing full traceability.
While some manufacturers bemoan such expectations as unrealistic and unfair, others have risen gamely to the challenge, investing in new software or technology that not only allows them to keep their customers happy, but also makes their own warehousing, distribution, inventory, ordering and production processes more efficient and
cost-effective.
Seachill, a UK fish processor and private label supplier to UK retailer Tesco, falls into the second camp. In early 2006, customer demands for reduced lead times and faster shipping turnaround prompted Seachill to seek out a system that would enable it to automate its shipping and dispatching processes.
The Feelgood Factor
Maureen Byrne
Feeling good, looking good, and living a long and healthy life are firmly on consumers’‘wish list’; but what role can food and drink play in helping to achieve these aspirations?
Apart from perhaps a few hypochondriacs who might enjoy being ill, the vast majority of people want to feel happy, healthy, and energised in their day to day lives. The food and drink industry has realised that there are great opportunities for developing products
that go beyond basic nutrition, and can not only help with keeping consumers healthy, but also play a role in cognitive function, mood and even help to slow the ageing process.
There has been a significant shift recently in focus from disease prevention to ‘positive health’ or ‘wellbeing’. The inherent goodness of foods such as chocolate is increasingly being analysed and promoted, and ingredients such as GABA are being developed for adding to foods to create ‘the feelgood factor’.
ProWein 2008 16. – 18.03. 2008 Düsseldorf, Germany
ProWein
Internacional Trade Fair Wines and Spirits
Many New, Enhanced Events, Presentations & A New Look Mark the Show
ProWein, the International Wine & Spirits Trade Show held annually at the Duesseldorf Messe Fairgrounds, Rhine-side here, is looking forward “To another great year”, with an even larger international offering featuring wines from newcomer nations including China, Israel and Peru.
An expanded tasting program will now offer for the first time organic wines and an expanded version of last year’s new program, Wine’s Best Friends - the pairing of specifically-selected delicatessen foods to match the appropriate wines will be an-other major attraction for ProWein 2008, which is almost totally booked-out.
Alimentaria ´08, Internacional Food and Beverages Exhibition, Barcelona 10-14 March
The Food World
Over 5,000 exhibitors and 155,000 visitors in Alimentaria 2008
This past Alimentaria, which took place from 6 to 10 March 2006 in Barcelona, marked the exhibition's 30th anniversary. By this time, it had already reached second place in the international fairs' league table for the industry through steady growth based on the twin concepts of a comprehensive macro-exhibition in partnership with the industry and maximum sectorial specialisation keeping a watchful eye on every detail of the market.
The success of its tradeshow led Alimentaria to occupy the entire space at both Fira Barcelona's fairgrounds: Montjuïc and Gran Via. 130,000 square metres of exhibition and activities space in all, 10% more than in 2004.
Nearly 5,000 of the leading food and drinks manufacturers and distributors from 70 countries showed their products at Alimentaria, turning Barcelona into the world's food capital for a week. 155,000 professionals, 33,000 of them from abroad, visited the fair.