Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development - Europe

Dispatches from SIAL

Gourmet Pidy edible spoon targets baking sophistication

21-Oct-2008 - Surviving, and thriving, in a pressing economic climate will dominate the modus operandi for bakers and pastry makers active in today's, and tomorrow's, market and innovative concepts that can ramp up underlying growth are essential, such as the award-winning edible spoons from Belgian firm Gourmet Pidy.

Dispatches from SIAL

PCB Creation plugs firmly into chocolate design innovation

21-Oct-2008 - When the going gets tough, the tough innovate. So is the message underpinning this year's food trade exhibition SIAL, with swathes of new product designs potentially injecting innovative ideas into the portfolio of confectionery firms operating in today's testing economic climate.

Cadbury’s Olympic game draws criticism from campaigners

21-Oct-2008 - The announcement that Cadbury is to be a sponsor of the 2012 London Olympic Games has re-opened rifts over the role that food companies that market less-healthy foods should play in sporting events.

Weekly comment

Banks’ rescue package points the way for food crisis remedies

20-Oct-2008 - Question: When is a crisis not a crisis? Answer: When it’s a food crisis. Compare the two responses to failures in the food system and financial markets.

Eco factors top of the list for French and Spanish consumers: survey

20-Oct-2008 - Environmental concerns have a huge influence on the food shopping habits of Spanish and French consumers, a new survey has found.

Dispatches from SIAL

Innovation in food products essential to weather economic storm

20-Oct-2008 - Food makers confronted by today's challenging economic times must continue to invest hard in innovation to beat the downturn. This year's SIAL, which opened yesterday in Paris, is a showcase of new ideas that could help to boost margins and weather the economic storm.

Friesland Kievit launches creamers with low saturated fat

17-Oct-2008 - Friesland Foods Kievit is launching a new range of savoury creamers based on non-hydrogenated fat (HVO), its first to contain up to 80 per cent less saturated fatty acids than other creamers.

World Food Day

Rescue efforts for food 'should parallel bank bail-out'

17-Oct-2008 - The scale of the global food crisis merits the same swift fund-raising as the banking crisis, says Egypt’s first lady, as it emerges that just ten per cent of the help pledged this year has materialised so far.

News in brief

Suiker Unie to sell sugar factory site

17-Oct-2008 - Suiker Unie is at an advanced stage of negotiating the sale of the site of its sugar factory in Puttershoek to investor and developer DHVG. Suiker Unie is no longer using the factory.

Symrise moves on authenticity, bringing new trends on board

17-Oct-2008 - Symrise is putting strategic emphasis on restaurant-driven trends and home-cooked flavours, and is working on its meat, fish and vegetable flavour offerings to make them more authentic.

Maltesers “less than 11 calories” ad misleading, says watchdog

17-Oct-2008 - Raising the benchmark for the confectionery sector regarding nutrition claims, a UK watchdog has concluded a Maltesers advert from confectionery giant Mars misled the public by implying they were a low calorie snack.

Low cost, high purity fish protein isolate hits global market

16-Oct-2008 - Advances with membrane technology means lower price protein from fish are available to food manufacturers globally, with potential to not only replace whey proteins in some applications, but offer a base protein ingredient.

World Food Day

Spotlight on climate change’s effect on food security, safety

16-Oct-2008 - The message blasting out from World Food Day events is ‘adapt now, or the consequences will be grave’. While the world’s poorest will bear the brunt, food safety could be affected everywhere.

New system to save energy in baking process

16-Oct-2008 - MIWE has developed a heat recovery system which could provide bakers with significant energy savings by converting up to 25 per cent of energy used in baking back into hot water.

Symrise invests to understand Russian tastes

16-Oct-2008 - Flavour firm Symrise has added new development labs and a sensory and consumer research centre to its site in Moscow, as it aims to increase understanding of Russian tastes.

Taking starch into the future

15-Oct-2008 - Cargill gives an insight into evolution of the starch market, and trends that are driving the development of new technologies.

Europe looking beyond recycling in drink sustainability push

15-Oct-2008 - As groups like Coca-Cola push ahead with new consumer-targeted recycling schemes in the US, their European counterparts claim to favour a different approach to help ensure environmental sustainability.

Rousselot to increase prices for gelatins and hydrolysed collagens

15-Oct-2008 - European gelatin company Rousselot has announced that it is increasing prices for all its gelatin and hydrolysed collagen products.

European shoppers do not steer clear of GM labels, says study

15-Oct-2008 - European consumers do buy GM foods when they are available in supermarkets, an EU survey has concluded – despite shoppers’ protestations that they would avoid products bearing a GM label.

Hochdorf takes lupin ingredient into new food types

14-Oct-2008 - Hochdorf Nutrifood is extending the application possibilities for its lupin seed-derived ingredient, introducing it as a fat replacer for meat and bakery products as well as a milk and lactose alternative in confectionery.

Children less exposed to junk food advertising on TV, says DoH

14-Oct-2008 - The UK Department of Health (DoH) says that measures taken to combat the promotion of junk food to children seem to be taking effect – at least in terms of television advertising.

News in brief

Supermarkets, manufacturers told to pay on time

14-Oct-2008 - UK environment secretary Hilary Benn has warned that just one late payment can make the difference between survival and going out of business for a small supplier, according to The Guardian.

Milk farmer concerns persist over processor payouts

14-Oct-2008 - As a leading UK Dairy Processor prepares to increase payouts for their milk supplies from next month, the issue of sustainable pricing for supplies looks far from resolved.

Solae, Novozymes soluble soy protein gets closer to market

14-Oct-2008 - Solae and Novozymes are expecting the publication of some patents related to the joint development of new soluble protein isolates, brining the products one step closer to commercialization.