By Barney Wallace, associate partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants
Bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to achieving international success, argues Barney Wallace from OC&C Strategy Consultants in this guest article.
Bread and milk have always been natural indicators for what is happening inside the average household. Both are reliable dietary staples and both have the ability to inspire passion and excitement on a marketable level.
By Steve Spice, head of regulatory affairs at Campden BRI
The Provision of Food Information to Consumers Regulation (FIC) is fast approaching the key date in December 2014, after which the majority of its provisions start to take effect. In this guest article, Campden BRI expert Steve Spice addresses some of...
The EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) put many health-related product marketeers noses out of joint. But having survived two years since legislative enforcement, are we now witnessing a positive and unpredicted consequence? argues Pegasus's...
Fourteen years after Unilever spent $2.3bn (€1.7bn) to buy Slim-Fast, it has sold up for an undisclosed sum to a private equity player. Analyst and author Julian Mellentin tracks the decline of a mega-brand and considers what he sees as a category in...
Draft guidance on the Food Information for Consumers Regulation 2014 was issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) last month.
Manufacturers should look to reduce overall use and reliance on sugar and not focus on replacing fructose with glucose, while concerns over HFCS should start to disperse as newer research invalidates current thinking, says Laura Jones of Mintel.
If the European Court redefines obesity as a disability, the rules of responsibility could shift horribly away from the parties involved - including the food industry.
The sensationalist media coverage around so called ‘stealth halal’ is only fuelled by the lack of certification harmonisation, Food Navigator’s Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn argues.
Consensus was real innovation was difficult to perceive with the naked eye at Vitafoods Europe this year. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, says Healthy Marketing Team president and expert consultant, Peter Wennstrom, in this guest article.
By Han De Groot, executive director at UTZ Certified,
Chocolate could become a small and expensive niche product unless we all do more to help cocoa farmers escape poverty, writes UTZ Certified executive director Han De Groot.
Using stevia to reformulate just 20% of carbonated soft drinks could slash more than 6,000 calories per year from the diet of consumers, says Diana Cowland of Euromonitor International.
‘The Food Information for Consumers Regulation (EU 1169/2011 – also known as ‘FIC’), which will start to be enforced in December this year, will have a big impact on all those involved in the supply and sale of food and drink products.
By Han De Groot, executive director at UTZ Certified and Liza Murphy, senior relationships manager at UTZ certified.
Traceability is here to stay – and it is industry’s responsibility to put efficient and reliable traceability systems in place to provide real information for consumers.
By Winnie Byanyima, executive director, Oxfam International
Food and drink companies can have a big influence over sustainability and ethical issues in their supply chains - and have the power to change them rapidly. One year on from Oxfam's first Behind the Brands sustainability scorecard, nine of the ten...
Dr Patrick Moore – Greenpeace founding member and GM defector – represents a fear that lurks in the heart of all ideologists: Am I on the right side of the fence? Am I the goodie or the baddie?
Before we take out our crystal balls in January and look ahead to 2014, let’s take a moment to ask, how accurate was our forecast for the past year? FoodNavigator takes a look back on its predictions for 2013.
A new sector-specific engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK aims to tackle the current skills gap in food engineering, with the first students starting next year.In this guest article, director of employment and skills at the Food...
Increasing intakes of soy and other plant-based foods and supplements can reduce environmental burdens – but does the political will exist to do it? Not really, says the chair of the 10-year-old European Natural Soyfood Manufacturers Association (ENSA).
Writing up an article on Kellogg’s World Food Day initiative yesterday, that age old question seemed to buzz through: is there really such a thing as a selfless good deed? And what about, dare we ask, on a corporate level?
In this guest article, Lauren LaFronz at Triple Point Technology looks at the role that mobile technologies can play in the fast-moving and increasingly volatile agri-food sector.
Thousands of nutritionists gathered in Granada, Spain, last week for the 20th International Congress of Nutrition. It was a huge event with eight simultaneous streams of seminars over a full week.
Palm oil production is a major cause of deforestation, loss of habitat and – let’s not forget – dismal working conditions for people in growing areas, mainly in Southeast Asia. But Europe needs palm oil and palm oil producers need European consumers to...
The ageing population remains under-served in terms of functional food and drink products, says Euromonitor's Diana Cowland, despite 'elderlies' living longer and healthier than ever before.
The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) recent backing of folate’s (vitamin B9) ability to reduce the risk of spinal birth defects is a good thing for infant health and the vitamin industry – but is it actually a prohibited disease claim in disguise?...
I think everybody agrees that in vitro production of meat could have big potential in solving world hunger. But the technology will not be to everybody's tastes ... and until the technical challenges of flavour are addressed I imagine it will be...
There’s a marketing experiment going on in the yoghurt aisle. Two yoghurt brands recently have positioned themselves as ‘yoghurt for men’. Is ordinary yoghurt really so girly?
Insects are being touted as one answer to an upcoming global protein gap – in Europe, there’s just the niggling ‘disgust factor’ to get over. But why scuttle before we can walk? Let’s talk options.
Last week, the UK introduced a voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling system combining GDAs with traffic light colours. The European food industry is up in arms – but it has no good reason to be.
It’s boom time for makers of natural ingredients, from colours to flavours to hydrocolloids…or is it? Despite widespread demand for all things natural, some ‘natural’ ingredients still aren’t acceptable to consumers – so when does ‘clean label’ need to...
Now that the dust has settled on the health claims submission process we should all be very clear on the rules of engagement. Well kind of, says Nigel Baldwin, chief consultant in Intertek’s European office.
It doesn’t matter if you have the best intentions in the world if your customers think your intentions are rotten - and more and more often, consumers are saying they view Big Food in the same way as Big Tobacco.
"They are scientists performing a very difficult task, as instructed by EU law makers."
Last week NutraIngredients was one of 10 organisations invited to observe the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claims panel in action for a day at its Parma, Italy, base.
Whether you are ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ genetic engineering has become a divisive political issue, but remember that we are talking about technology; it shouldn’t be an ideology.
Can we feed nine billion people by 2050? Only if we embrace the principles of open innovation, says Jeff Bellairs, senior director of the General Mills Worldwide Innovation Network (G-WIN), in this exclusive article for Foodnavigator-USA.com and FoodNavigator.com.
By Hannah Arnold, nutrition and scientific affairs executive, IGD
Many food companies are promoting smaller portions and reducing the size of existing products as part of a plan to reduce overall calorie intake – but is this the most effective approach?
Acrylamide is a recognised carcinogen that we’ve known is in our food at dangerous levels for a decade. Today, the food industry has tools to mitigate it, but uptake is slow.Industry, beware. This is how scandals are made.
The much debated launch of a consistent ‘front-of-pack’ nutrition label is currently the talk of the food manufacturing and retail industry, writes Ian Pickett, joint founder of specialist recruitment agency Drayton Partners.
Europe’s new health claim laws are the strictest in the world, with only the most strongly backed nutrient-health associations permitted on-product and whole sectors enraged about stripped comms tools. But immunity claims have fared better than most,...
A French study on the effects of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) maize in rats has said little about the safety or otherwise of GM crops – but it has said plenty about how the media can be used to push an agenda.
Western breakfast brands don’t often work in China. They need manipulating to appeal to very different tastes, packaging and format preferences and, of course, another language.
Dealing with problems that may arise in the formulation of food and beverage products is vital for manufacturers. In the second part of his look at troubleshooting, Leatherhead Food Research’s Dr Wayne Morley applies his top tips to real case studies.
As foods become ever more complex, the need to be able to efficiently troubleshoot problems becomes even more critical. In this guest article, Wayne Morley, PhD, head of food innovation at Leatherhead Food Research, outlines his top 10 tips for efficient...
Yesterday a large scale scientific review revealed that organic produce may not be more nutritious than ‘conventionally’ produced goods. But since that isn’t the main reason people buy them, does it really even matter?
‘Fat tax’ is a neat thought, but like all simplistic ideas it falls down at the execution, as the progress of the policy in Denmark shows – it simply doesn’t work in practice.
