The European Food Safety Association says more than half of consumers of plant sterols belong to the intended target group, particularly at sustained levels of intake. Thus more than 60 percent of the consumers of food products with added plant sterols had high blood cholesterol levels and a large majority belonged to the over 45 age group. However, there is some leakage with whole families consuming the products without belonging to the target group, including a few children.
(1 July 2008) “What exactly do consumers want?” It would be pure folly to try and tackle this question in the short space of an editor’s note. But this being my precious last column in AFJ, I m...
(1 June 2008) Cyclical market trends and price swings are nothing new. But when the affected sector is as basic to daily survival as food, the implications of a worldwide price spiral can be dev...
(1 June 2008) Thomas Bauer, head of strategic advisory and research for South-east Asia, shares in an exclusive interview with AFJ where the niches lie in Asia’s food production and Rabobank’s a...
(1 April 2008) Scientists at Europe’s food safety watchdog have completed an assessment of a recent study on the effect of two mixtures of certain food colors and the preservative sodium benzoate...
(1 April 2008) More than 50 percent of Americans, ages 18-44, are ready to dine on Singaporean staples like Singapore chili crab, Hainanese chicken rice, and laksa noodles. These finding are base...
(1 April 2008) The confectionery market in Vietnam is on the upwards climb. Datamonitor forecasts that it will be worth $707 million in 2011. By the end of 2011, the sugar-confectionery category ...
(1 April 2008) Frozen-food packaging in the US is expected to soar to $6.4 billion in 2011, due to an increase in demand for convenience foods. Smaller household sizes, an aging population and mo...
(1 March 2008) By 2006, Coca-Cola looked as though it was finally succumbing to the blows of its arch rival PepsiCo, which had attained a similar market value of around $100 billion. Ten years ea...
Chains such as Safeway, Whole Foods Markets and Wal-Mart, are pushing solar panel installation projects to gain a 30% tax credit. Kathy Loftus from Whole Foods Market, commented: "We're hoping that our purchases along with some other retailers will help bring the technology costs."
After X5 announced that all new hypermarkets will be opened under the Karusel brand, Russia's largest food retailer, gained 3.2% in London trading. The retailer aims to add as much as 160,000 sq m of space this year as economic growth in Russia enables more people to buy higher-priced foods and shop in stores rather than at open markets.
Wal-Mart has announced plans to invest around USD 1 billion in Brazil and open 80 to 90 new stores, in all its formats, in 2009. It will be the largest investment the retailer has made in Brazil since it opened its first operation in Sao Paulo in 1995.
Although sales are up by 17% for Fresh & Wild Ltd, the UK unit of Whole Foods Market, the company has reported ₤7 million loss for the year to September 30, 2007. Some analysts feel that there is too much working against Whole Foods for it to really get off the ground.
Carrefour has been keeping its entry into Iran low-key, as both the retailer and Tehran's government suspect that the foreign presence may cause some excitement. It is not clear yet how feasible it will be for Carrefour to maintain supply in the face of financial restrictions on trade with Iran as a result of US sanctions.
The sale of 107 Somerfield stores, purchased last month by the Co-operative Group, is being handled by Credit Suisse which has requested that potential bidders offer up proposals before 22 August.
