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Beer battle of bad taste: Carlsberg out shocks Heineken
Carlsberg UK has bent the bad taste envelope further still with an 'edgy' new online video that sees the drink’s fans phone their friends in the early hours and persuade them to visit a gambling den staffed by sinister characters or ‘actors’ to pay off their debts.
Acrylamide: A scandal in the making
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.
Pharma seeks bigger dose of booming nutra sector
In just a few years the global health and wellness (H&W) products sector will be worth $1 trillion dollars – that’s a lot of billion dollar blockbuster drugs.
Smell a rat? Flawed GM cancer study highlights flawed media approach
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.
Coke won’t kick the can in Bolivia, but must dance diplomatic can-can...
Bolivian officials have swiftly moved to play down reported remarks by the nation’s flamboyant foreign minister that the government would kick Coca-Cola out of the country by the end of the year.
Vitafoods: EU nutra space wriggles into new health claims clothes
Vitafoods celebrates its 15th birthday next week. It’ll be my 11th consecutive May visit to Geneva for the jamboree and promises to be one of the most intriguing chapters with the (partial and belated) resolution of years of ambiguity regarding health claims in Europe.
Lobbyists, start your engines: Can a new health claims formula be won in the European Parliament?
Five years ago the European Union nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) became law. Around the bloc, hopeful EU healthy foods and supplements stakeholders submitted more than 44,000 health claim applications.
EU researchers revolted as EFSA clears health claims vault
The European Food Safety Authority last week delivered the fifth batch of article 13, general function health claim opinions bringing the total issued to 2723. There are just 35 to go – to be published next month in a final mini-batch that will conclude the task begun in August 2008.
Risk, rationality and that schizophrenic beast called the food industry
If the food industry wants journalists and consumers to get real about risk, then it has to get real too.
Sodium vs. salt: Let’s agree to disagree
The United States lists sodium on nutrition labels while salt is more common in the European Union. Salt and sodium are not the same, and a standardized term would only cause confusion.
Novel foods progress may mean removing clones
All is not well down on the novel foods farm. If food innovation in Europe is to thrive anew, MEPs and the Council need to get past the recriminations over the failed talks and remove the troublesome question of cloned foods from the negotiating table.
Too early to start praising PepsiCo for new plant bottle
The new PepsiCo plant bottle appears to tick all the “green” boxes for a disposable drinks bottle but the innovation should not be taken too seriously until it arrives on shelves.
Women. The most wasted resource in food production
Today is Pancake Day. It is also International Women’s Day. An important date, then, not just for food lovers in countries where Mardi Gras is a big deal, but a day to consider the role – and the potential – of women involved in food provision all over the world.
The balancing act of allergen labelling
The food industry has a responsibility to label allergenic ingredients as big and bold as they can – but also not to over-egg the slimmest of slim possibilities that a trace amount of an allergen may have slipped into a product.
Arab Revolt underlines the need for action to remedy high food prices
When Tunisian street vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi chose to end his life in fiery suicide, no one could have foreseen the firestorm his death would unleash across the Arab world. But, two months later, as the Arab Revolt shows no sign of fading, the lessons to be drawn about food security are becoming abundantly clear.
Why local foods systems are an opportunity for industry
The food industry should not rage against the idea of professionalised local food systems, nor unleash its lobbying force to uproot them before their green shoots can reach maturity. Rather, it should explore ways to benefit from local foods and, in turn, foster their development.
Sugar: regulatory sweet nothings leave food and drink makers in limbo
Jazz singer Nina Simone’s plaintive, “I want a little sugar in my bowl”, will strike the right note with Europe’s beleaguered sugar industry.
The naked truth about kids’ food advertising
It was an Emperor’s New Clothes moment for the US food industry last week, when it was revealed that a major initiative touting its responsible advertising to kids actually allows promotion of many unhealthy foods. Is anyone really surprised?
EC complacency on dioxins weakens Europe’s food safety standing
The complacency being exhibited by Brussels over the ongoing dioxin contamination incident is every bit as concerning as the carcinogenic chemical that has found its way into the food and feed chains since the end of last year.
Healthy food vouchers are no golden ticket
Change4Life healthy food vouchers are just the ticket for food industry marketers. But changing eating habits requires consistent, co-ordinated policy – not hand-outs to ease the population’s post-Christmas conscience.
The food industry in 2010: A retrospective
As 2010 draws to a close, our journalists look back at the issues that have topped agendas across the food, beverage and dietary supplements industries in the last 12 months. Commodity prices, Bisphenol A, obesity, health claims, safety regulations, and more…
PepsiCo pays a high price for a gamble in Russian dairy
When PepsiCo put up $5.4bn last week to acquire Wimm-Bill-Dann, it was seduced by the promise of high revenue growth but like any high-yield investment the Russian deal does not come without risks.
EU food safety left rudderless by Commission move on BPA
The hand on the tiller that is food safety in Europe has been left somewhat unsteady by the recent regulatory actions taken by the European Commission on BPA and food colours – moves that are pandering to consumer fear and showing contempt for the food safety agency it created.
For front-of-pack labels, smart choices take time
Uh-oh, surely not another industry-sponsored front-of-pack nutrition label! Food industry engagement is welcome, but let’s take it slowly – no one benefits until we figure out a system that works.
Regulatory clarity for nutricosmetics proves elusive
Somewhere, in some time, there exists a land of beauty and promise for nutricosmetics products, where beauty supplements, foods and drinks can frolic, happy in the knowledge of their justifiable claims.The problem is that getting to this promised land appears to be somewhat complex.
