The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has urged the European commissioner for health and food safety to practice caution when making ‘adjustments’ to health claim and botanical rules.
Many fruit snacks aimed at children contain more sugar than confectionery – but could be misconstrued as ‘healthy’ because of their association with real fruit, according to pressure group Action on Sugar.
Researchers from the Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Arizona Western College (AWC) concluded that dark chocolate confections containing only moderate amounts (60%) of cacao have an acute stimulating effect on the human brain and vasoconstrictive...
The food industry – the most water-intensive business on earth - is unprepared for global water shortages, according to a report which ranks the best and worst offending companies for their water management.
Brazilian confectionery makers are turning their sights to increasingly attractive foreign markets, as the country’s economic growth has rapidly decelerated in recent years.
Chewing gum may have been responsible for the death of a 19-year old girl – but there is little evidence to suggest artificial sweeteners were at fault, a UK inquest found yesterday.
The chocolate industry can curtail extreme poverty in the cocoa sector by implementing higher prices that can be passed from consumers to farmers, says Puratos Grand-Place.
Katjes International has issued a public offering and private placement to raise up to €60m ($67m) to pay off a previous bond and to bankroll acquisitions in Italy and Spain.
The German confectionery industry has slammed plans for a 19% tax proposal on sugar aimed at reducing obesity - but the social democrat party denies that such a 'sin tax' is on the cards.
Mondelēz International has continued to grow below the overall chocolate market in first quarter of 2015 after it was the first to raise wholesale prices last year. However, it expects its chocolate business to rebound in H2.
Special Edition: Beyond 2020 - The future of sustainable cocoa
The chocolate industry must ramp up support for good agricultural practices on existing cocoa farmland or else rainforest will be chopped down to make way for new plantations and it may face supply constraints, say stakeholders.
Special edition: Beyond 2020 - The future of sustainable cocoa
Rising temperatures could seriously change where cocoa is grown in the next half-century and global output could be threatened if the chocolate industry does nothing to protect its key crop.
The feeling of moral satisfaction that consumers get from eating ethical food change their taste experience for the better - and means they are willing to pay more, according to a European survey.
Italy’s confectionery major Ferrero has purchased almost 700 hectares of fertile agricultural land controlled by Serbian agricultural company Aleksa Santic for €7.95m ($8.64m).
Food and drink trade increased in most of Europe last year – though production in a few member states could have been better, said a representative at FoodDrinkEurope.
Wackaging – using cute and quirky language on a product’s packaging – seems to be everywhere. But with consumers becoming increasingly cynical, should manufacturers stop trying to be cool?
Front-of-pack labelling can be useful but health policy-makers are naïve if they think that this alone will result in healthier food choices, say researchers - environment, motivation and psychology must be actively influenced too.
More needs to be done by the European Commission to remove misconceptions about TTIP, a representative from FoodDrinkEurope has said, following the recent public backlash in Germany.
Nestlé has reported a better than expected sales jump of 4.4% with sales totalling CHF 20.9bn (€20.25bn), boosted by sales of bottled water and chocolate.
The Japanese diet can rival the Mediterranean diet for both health benefits and consumer pulling-power – with the added bonus of 'undiscovered' ingredients waiting to be developed by Western food manufacturers.
Unilever share prices surged more than 4% within a few hours of the company announcing that its first quarter sales had risen 12.3% to €12.8bn, exceeding expectations.
Nestlé could net up to €300m from the sale of Davigel, as the world’s biggest food company continues to refocus its business activities in to higher value areas, an industry analyst has said.
The European Commission will consider action on industrially produced trans fats in foods following a high-level debate, said a spokesperson at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
The combined use of TV brand placements with advertising could increase the effect on children's brand awareness and behaviour towards junk food, a new study has said.
Growing demand for natural food colourings by manufacturers and consumers will continue to drive the Western European market in the near future, according to a new report by Future Market Insights.
France's Solina Group will acquire the industrial flavouring division of Paulig to increase its presence in Nordic countries and Russia, the company has said.
Taste is much more complex than the experience of basic flavours on the tongue – it also encompasses our other senses to a larger degree than most people realise, according to Professor Charles Spence.
Some of the best and brightest innovation in the food and drink industry comes from start-ups – so how do they approach NPD? And what can companies of all sizes learn from their approach?
Smaller plates may not encourage overweight teenage girls to reduce portion sizes because they may be less attentive to visual cues, according to a study.
Small-to-medium sized confectioners making their first moves into export markets must be clued up on local regulations, consider temperate changes and pick distributors carefully to avoid mishaps, says UK firm Lauden Chocolate.
There is little evidence to prove natural sweetener xylitol prevents tooth decay in children and adults despite an EFSA-backed health claim, says a Cochrane review.
Manufacturers need to be innovative and clever if costs to reformulate food products are to be kept low, says Cindy Beeren at Leatherhead Food Research.
As sugar has become one of the most maligned ingredients within food, Euromonitor International research analyst Jack Skelly says the future may prove trickyfor manufacturers.
European food companies are illegally grabbing land from smallhold farmers in Africa as part of the G8 New Alliance project, says an Action Aid report published this month.
![Information about the food's ethicality often bears little or no implications for its nutritional and gustatory quality but [the ethical label] may positively influence taste, say the researchers.](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/9/3/4/6/1896439-1-eng-GB/Organic-fairtrade-taste-better-because-consumers-feel-morally-superior.jpg)
![IRI retail expert: 'It’s reasonable to assume that [retailers] could have done a lot better this year if they hadn’t sold out of eggs!'](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/9/1/7/8/1918719-1-eng-GB/UK-retailers-missed-5.2m-Easter-confectionery.jpg)
