From food allergies to food waste, the EU injects millions of euros
into five new research projects that are set to bring a range of
benefits to the food industry.
The EU fines for member states exceeding their milk production
quotas highlight a problem in the system, but there are more
pressing issues for now, says the director general of Dairy UK to
DairyReporter.com
Dairy alternatives have continued to soar this year thanks to
private label and consumer health trends, but their market share is
not yet a huge cause for concern in the dairy industry.
Knowledge gained from modern physics will help food scientists
construct the rational design of complex food materials for new
food products, say Nestle scientists.
The US is on its way to lowering processing times for Parmesan
cheese - a move bound to inflame producers in Italy, threaten their
sales and encourage further battles over rights to the name.
Nutrition profiling proposals from the UK's food watchdog would put
milk in the same health bracket as diet coke and make breast milk
unsuitable for children, claims a dairy industry body critical of
the scheme.
The UK government will announce plans to ban junk food in the
nation's schools, bringing an end to the sale of crisps, chocolate
and fizzy drinks in school vending machines.
Feeding cows sunflower oil more than doubled levels of conjugated
linoleic acids in cheese made from their milk, says new research,
improving the fatty acids' potential in functional dairy
development.
There is nothing so redolent of a corporate mid-life crisis as the
strategic equivalent of a new car, new girl and new image, set
firmly on the shoulders of the same old idea. McDonald's, it seems,
is firmly in the throes of...
Danisco has announced the next phase in its global cultures
expansion programme, investing €3m in ramping up production
capacity of freeze-dried cultures at its plant in Sassenge.
Schools in the UK could soon be buzzing with Mootone, a ringtone
devised by the dairy industry to get kids back into milk and
encourage them to think about the white stuff's benefits.
France's largest dairy processor, Lactalis, wants the industry to
introduce fixed prices for dairy products in order to cope with
unstable markets and insulate against cuts to EU export subsidies.
Australia has lifted its ban on France's famous Roquefort cheese
after more than 10 years of safety worries, offering hope of a
change in fortunes for speciality cheese down-under.
More clinical studies using humans are needed to better understand
the effects of conjugated linoleic acids, found naturally in dairy
and meat, on weight loss and other aspects of consumers' health.
Infants whose parents suffer from food allergies have less chance
of developing them themselves if they are fed hydrolyzed casein or
whey formulas in place of cow's milk based formulas when
breast-feeding is not possible or inadequate,...
Juices containing probiotic bacteria will see increasing interest
from drinks and dairy producers looking to add value, predicts
Finnish functional dairy innovator Valio.
Too many producers are falsely labelling their products as
probiotic and could present a stumbling block to the sector's
expansion, says the marketing head of leading innovator Valio at
Drinktec 2005.
Novis, the publisher of DairyReporter, 22 other business news
websites and more than 50 specialist e-newsletters, is changing its
name to Decision News Media, to convey the editorial ethos that has
made the group's news services...
The UK dairy industry is losing ground to other European countries
in crucial added value markets, jeopardising future prosperity
because it has failed to innovate at a fast enough rate, says a new
report.
Plant extracts and a more imaginative use of whey are two major
factors with the potential to take the functional dairy drinks
sector forward, according to one eminent scientist at Drinktec
2005.
The firm will focus on new technologies for dairy, beverages and
prepared food at the WWFE expo next month, showing exactly where
the industry is targeting its resources.
Price increases for raw materials, packaging and transport led to a
fall in operating profit of seven per cent in the first half of
2005 for Dutch dairy producer Royal Friesland Foods.
Cheese and low-lactose are where it's at in dairy enzyme
development, says a new report, with Chr Hansen and DSM stealing an
early lead in the race to add value to the sector.
The competition in the European cheese market just increased as a
Latvian producer has ramped up production with the installation of
a modern processing line.
Europe's food risk assessment body has issued its opinion on
nutrition claims for products containing omega-3 fatty acids, which
will be used in forthcoming laws on nutrition and health claims.
Allowing employees to keep more flexible working times has resulted
in better relationships between employer and staff and in some
cases increased operational efficiency according to a new report.
Opportunities in the mature enzyme market lie in developments,
driven by biotechnology, that provide food and beverage makers with
the right tools to meet consumer trends, claims a new report.
Danish company Chr Hansen has shored up its lead in the dairy
cultures business after doubling capacity at its plant in France,
now said to be the world's largest.
Praise where praise is due. And it is certainly due for one
small-time drinks firm in southern Britain, which is spear-heading
answers to global water shortages that threaten to wreak havoc on
food producers everywhere.
People following advice to cut calories and increase physical
activity to lose weight will see greater benefits if their diet is
rich in protein, reveals a new study.
International experts in nutrition and genomics will meet in
California to discuss the progress of research into links between
the genetic make-up of milk and human health.
Henry Ford's famous aphorism that if he had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said faster horses, provides food makers
with a lesson they must learn.
Ten mega trends stretching from age to individualism will determine
the success and shape of any new products to hit the market in the
near future, claims market analysts Datamonitor.
In among the hollers about obesity and the concerns over nutrition,
food companies now need to work hard to ensure they clinch public
trust, as a matter of insurance. This means more than compliance on
traceability and labeling. This...
Food processors can expect the higher raw material costs hitting
packagers to be passed on soon depending on their contracts. This
means that, depending on contractural obligations, cosmetics and
toiletry producers can expect the...
More than 700 food brands in the UK are using the government's
'5-a-day' logo on packaging or marketing material to promote the
health benefits of their fruit or vegetable-based products.
Sensitivity to changing regional tastes, exotic flavour mixes,
labelling and packaging will determine how successful processors
are in attacking Western Europe's stagnant ice cream market.
Water, we save. Energy, we conserve. But food, it seems, we can
waste, junk and bin and no-one cares. Except one crusader, whose
20-year project has proven what should have been obvious in the
first place: our attitude to food is...
There is evidence to support the putative link between consumption
of milk products and ovarian cancer risk, finds a new meta-analysis
of epidemiological studies, but the case is far from cut and dried.
A team of UK scientists will analyse and demonstrate how
bioinformatics could help food companies improve their products,
from pin-pointing allergy-causing proteins to identifying the cause
of batch spoilage.
The demand outlook for the EU's meat and dairy processors is
increasingly positive, but with tight supplies processors will have
to increasingly rely on more expensive sources, reports Ahmed
ElAmin.
Fortifying milk with folic acid offers an accessible source of the
vitamin, report Dutch researchers who tested bioavailability of the
nutrient in a clinical trial.
Food officials in the UK have developed a model that ranks the
health status of foods according to the sum of their nutrients,
reports Dominique Patton.
Emerging dairy markets in Eastern Europe have shown dynamic growth
thanks to innovation drives and the development of retail networks,
providing big opportunities for value-added products, writes
Chris Mercer.
