ConAgra Foods' buying spree has continued with the acquisition of Wisconsin-based Kangaroo Brands’ private label pita chips business - its fourth deal in the 2012 fiscal year.
Many Americans claim that the reason they choose less healthy foods is because it costs more to eat healthily, but a new analysis from the Department of Agriculture claims that healthier foods are actually cheaper than junk foods – it all depends on how...
Belgian firm Nutrilab NV is preparing to introduce low-calorie, low glycemic bulk sweetener Tagatose to North and South America later this year, six years after dairy giant Arla Foods pulled the plug on the ingredient claiming it was not commercially...
Americans are getting fatter – and it’s not just the individual that needs a health check, according to a new IOM report. Like it or not, this health crisis has plenty of implications for the food industry.
Dispatches from the 6th Annual Food Technology & Innovation Forum, 2012, Chicago
If you didn’t make it to Chicago for the Food Technology and Innovation Forum last week – or were too busy speed-dating with suppliers in the exhibition hall to attend the conference - we’ve rounded up some of the best bits…
Changing children’s snacking intentions and behavior could be crucial in reducing childhood obesity rates, as US children consume about a quarter of their daily calories from snacks, according to a new study published in International Quarterly of Community...
Smaller portion sizes, curbing food marketing to children, cutting sugary drink intake and boosting availability of healthy foods are among policy recommendations in a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
From stevia to monk fruit, oats, agave nectar and coconut palm sugar. In the second of our spring special editions, we look at what’s next for natural sweeteners.
Eating for pleasure may stimulate the brain’s reward centers and lead to overeating in a way that eating to satisfy hunger does not, according to findings from a small study published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &...
What’s on the menu for 2012? Traditional fruits, Thai and Indian cuisine, freshness, different varieties of chili, plant proteins, smoke flavors, more part-prepared foods and Asian and Latin American flavors, predict trendwatchers…
While pink slime continued to garner column inches, April also saw the re-opening of Tate & Lyle’s sucralose plant in Alabama, the first hints that Pepsi’s latest attempt to corner the mid-calorie cola market might just have worked - and another deal...
Sales of new mid-calorie cola Pepsi NEXT are ahead of expectations, while early feedback suggests it is attracting new consumers - as well as lapsed cola drinkers - into the cola category, PepsiCo has revealed.
Florida-based ATM Metabolics is in advanced negotiations with some of the biggest food and beverage brands in the US and Europe about incorporating Emulin - the insulin-mimicking active ingredient in GNC’s top-selling glucose control supplement GC7X -...
US children would have to consume an average of 161 calories fewer each day to reach the government’s failed 2010 goal of reducing childhood obesity prevalence to less than 5%, and current trends point to a continued increase, according to a new study.
A nutrient powerhouse to rival baobab, Moringa oleifera is starting to attract growing interest in the US dietary supplement and food industry, with a segment due to air on Dr Oz tonight predicted to prompt a surge in demand.
For a long time, Tate & Lyle had the sucralose market to itself. It discovered it, patented it to the hilt, and perfected the manufacturing process at plants capable of producing it on an industrial scale.
Interview, James Blunt, senior VP, product management and marketing, Tate & Lyle
It’s not as sexy as stevia, and not as cheap as aspartame, but sucralose continues to press food formulators’ buttons, and demand is still growing – fast - says market leader Tate & Lyle.
In spring 2009, employees at Tate & Lyle’s sucralose factory in McIntosh, Alabama, got some grim news. The site – the first in the world to produce sucralose on an industrial scale - was being mothballed, with production shifting to T&L’s new...
McIntosh, Alabama. It's hot, sweaty, and historic... For history buffs, it's where former vice president Aaron Burr was arrested for treason back in 1807... For food scientists, it's where sucralose was first manufactured on an industrial...
While US firms using inulin and oligofructose are still primarily interested in adding fiber or reducing fat and sugar, they are starting to move beyond generic fiber claims into discussing more specific health benefits, says Cargill.
While the food bar market has traditionally been split into two distinct categories: cereal/granola bars and energy/nutrition bars; the boundaries between them are becoming increasingly blurred, according to a new report.
PepsiCo is facing another class action lawsuit in California – this time accusing it of making a nutrient content claim (0 grams trans fat) on Frito-Lay snacks, without adhering to the legal conditions of use for such claims.
The first products in the US to be co-branded with a heart- and gut-friendly oat beta glucan soluble fiber called PromOat have been launched under the Oatworks brand.
Weight management is more far more complex than cutting out a few ‘bad’ foods or balancing energy in and energy out, according to a new consensus paper.
Once the preserve of sweaty men pumping iron, protein has emerged from an image overhaul as the ingredient of choice for food developers targeting consumers of all ages and both genders keen to battle the bulge and stay strong, according to one trends...
Knowing more about the nutritional value of foods does not equate to increases in healthy eating and reductions in obesity, according to the findings of new research.
With lean finely textured beef (LFTB) now off the menu at some of the nation’s biggest retailers and fast food chains, recriminations are flying thick and fast over who is to blame for the whole sorry, pink, slimy mess currently engulfing the food industry.
Taste issues and high cost repeatedly have been raised as possible obstacles to widespread acceptance of stevia-derived sweeteners, but one of the many new suppliers entering the market claims that these are no longer the hurdles they once were.
People who consume chocolate frequently may have lower body mass index (BMI) values, suggests ‘intriguing’ data from the University of California, San Diego.
A controversial government proposal designed to curb the marketing of junk food to kids is not high up the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) priority list, it has emerged.
Attorneys for the Sugar Association and the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) went head to head at federal judge Consuelo Marshall's courtroom in Los Angeles at noon today as the dispute over the CRA’s right to describe high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)...
It might not have garnered as much publicity as stevia, but monk fruit (luo han guo) “has found a niche within the all-natural market but will hit mass market sooner than stevia in this space”, according to one leading supplier.
The momentum behind Greek yogurt in the US is showing no signs of slowing down, according to the company that first introduced US consumers to the product.
Leading US nutrition expert Professor Marion Nestle says that PepsiCo’s decision to invest around $500m on marketing ‘megabrands’ she describes as unhealthy was a ‘crass commercial decision’, but the firm insisted that ‘health and wellness’ was crucial...
The American Beverage Association (ABA) has questioned the validity of a new US study suggesting that guzzling drinks flavoured with sugar could have an adverse effect upon heart disease risk.
American eating habits can be categorized into five distinct patterns strongly correlated with factors like age, race, gender, and region, according to researchers who presented their findings at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in San Diego...
Snacks provide about one-third of all ‘empty’ calories for both men and women in the United States, according to new research from the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
Plant protein, ‘clean’ sports products, melt-in-the-mouth supplements, algal-omegas-3s.... and a very sweaty man with a skipping rope. Elaine Watson brings you the highlights from Engredea and Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim.
A UN food expert has charged the food industry with playing a key role in global obesity, saying that unhealthy food products, harmful marketing, and misguided agricultural subsidies have led to a public health disaster.
PepsiCo is aiming strike back at Coca-Cola with it mid-calorie ‘NEXT’ cola launch at the end of March, after the latter’s Diet Coke brand pulled ahead of Pepsi-Cola in 2010, but the move carries risks, according to a Datamonitor analyst.
Flavour ingredients house Senomyx has hinted at PepsiCo’s interest in its work on developing an enhancer to reduce high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) levels in beverages and foods by up to 33%.
General Mills has filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing it of presenting products that were “little better than candy” as “healthful and nutritious”.
The inventor of 'breathable' caffeine shot AeroShot Energy says he has barely scratched the surface when it comes to potential applications for the novel delivery format.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aiming to publish a proposed rule to reform the Nutrition Facts panel and related rules by the end of this year, somewhat later than originally expected.
Clarisoy, the invisible protein developed by Burcon and commercialized by ADM, will be available in commercial quantities by the summer, ADM has revealed.
A combination of soy milk with guar gum, xanthan gum and select emulsifiers could produce low-fat, low-cholesterol mayonnaise that ‘closely matches’ commercial full-fat alternatives, suggests new research.
Most Americans do not support taxes on sugar-sweetened drinks, according to the results of a new survey published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.
Industry groups have reiterated their position that sugar is fine in moderation, after a provocative commentary in the journal Nature this week called for regulating sugar like alcohol or cigarettes, arguing that it is just as toxic for the body.
