News in brief

Ingredion to buy fruit and vegetable concentrates maker Kerr Concentrates in $100m deal

Sweeteners and starches giant Ingredion is expanding its portfolio of clean-label ingredients via a $100m deal to buy fruit and vegetable juice concentrates maker Kerr Concentrates.

Boulder Brands slashes salaried headcount by 15%; unveils more ‘streamlined’ structure

Boulder Brands – the firm behind EVOL Foods, Udi’s Gluten Free and Smart Balance – has reduced its salaried headcount by 15% and integrated its sales, marketing and innovation functions...

DIC Corp unveils state of the art spirulina extraction plant to meet growing demand for natural blue food color

Tokyo-based DIC Corporation - which claims to be the world’s largest producer of spirulina – has finished building a $10m state-of-the-art extraction plant for the blue-green algae in southern California to...

Patent Watch

Puffed nut future? Frito-Lay files patent for expansion method

Frito-Lay has developed a method to puff nuts and legumes for enhanced-texture snacks.

General Mills CEO: Retailers want cereal innovation – think gluten-free, protein and granola

US cereal sales continue to decline, but retailers know the category is still important and want innovation around prevalent consumer trends, says the CEO of General Mills.

Whole grains 101: Highlights from the 2015 Whole Grain Summit

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans say half of our grains should be whole. So how are we doing? FoodNavigator-USA headed to Portland, Oregon, for the 2015 Whole Grain Summit...

Online grocery shoppers are upping their spending online, but remain wary of buying fresh produce, says new survey

More than half (54%) of online grocery shoppers say they have upped their spending over the past year, although some are still reluctant to buy fresh foods online, according to...

Your guide to IFT 2015: From cultured meat, 3D printing, and novel proteins to feeding your hungry microbiome...

News in brief

US ‘specialty gourmet’ channel has 1,000 stores and revenues topping $18bn, says SPINS

The US ‘specialty gourmet’ retail channel – led by retailers such as The Fresh Market and Mariano’s - has 1,000 stores and revenues topping $18bn, according to market researcher SPINS.

DISPATCHES FROM ZENITH GLOBAL DAIRY CONGRESS 2015

Mercy for Animals undercover animal cruelty video 'contrived': DFA

Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) has taken a further swipe at Mercy for Animals, branding a recent undercover investigation by the organization "contrived."

Selling complex carbs in a post Grain Brain world: Do grains really make us fat and sick?

Grains, according to the author of best-selling book Grain Brain, are “silent killers”. Not only are they making us fat, says Dr David Perlmutter, “but even healthy ones like whole...

News in brief

Tech incubator offering $250,000 in seed funding to startups in cultured meat, eggs, milk

San Francisco-based seed stage biotech accelerator Indie Bio is offering up to $250k in seed funding for scientists and entrepreneurs developing cultured meat, milk, and egg products. 

Kraft-Heinz merger gets thumbs up from Kraft shareholders

The Kraft-Heinz merger got the thumbs up from Kraft shareholders this morning, with 98% voting ‘YES’ to the deal.

Unilever becomes first company to report on human rights using UN guidelines

Unilever has become the first company to report on its own human rights record using UN guidelines, drawing praise from Oxfam - but much remains to be done, says the...

Healthier RTE cereals exist but consumers aren’t eating them: Study

Consumers are gravitating towards less healthy ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal products and it has nothing to do with price or availability, find researchers.

'Sprouted grains have long term potential to be very big...' Ardent Mills

Sprouted grains: The next big opportunity for the grain chain?

Sprouted whole grains could give the grain industry a real opportunity to claw back the initiative in the debate sparked by books like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly by tapping into demand for more...

Canadian firm to debut blended solution for vegetarian protein, fiber fortification

Canadian supplier Dealers Ingredients plans to debut its Profi one-stop solution for vegetarian protein and fiber fortification at the upcoming Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) trade show in Chicago....

ConAgra Foods in private label u-turn: ‘The time and energy we’re devoting to private brands is a suboptimal use of our resources’

ConAgra Foods has unveiled plans to divest its private label business less than three years after buying it via a $5bn mega-deal to acquire Ralcorp – a move it described...

JUNE 2015 NEWS QUIZ: Are you up to speed with the latest food & beverage industry news?

Do you know how long the FDA has given the industry to phase out partially hydrogenated oils? Or who has agreed to settle a lawsuit over natural claims for $3.99m?...

New products gallery: From Nello’s biodynamic pasta sauce & Hormel's 'game-changing' snacks to 'detoxifying' hot cereal

Cargill on Trehalose: The biggest challenge is limited awareness but every new product is helping

One year on from the ‘Taco Bell affair’ and Cargill is continuing to see growth in demand for its Trehalose additive, but the biggest challenge continues to be limited awareness...

patent watch

Nestlé files patent for pregnancy probiotic

Nestlé has filed a patent for probiotics to be taken during pregnancy and lactation, which it says help reduce the risk of allergies for the infant. 

Sports nutrition expert's advice: Sample the sweat and don't skip the stomach

Exercise physiologist Allen Lim, PhD, the founder of sports nutrition brand Skratch Labs, learned what works to fuel athletes in the crucible of one of the most challenging endurance events...

A medicated patch & hypoallergenic peanuts reduce the nut’s allergy threat

Two new treatments – one for people and one for peanuts – could significantly reduce the potentially life-threatening risk the legumes pose to the 2.8 million Americans who are allergic to them. 

Nutrinsic has long term plan to enter food, supplement markets with protein produced from waste steams

Nutrinsic, a company that uses microbes to produce protein from food production waste streams, has a long term plan to enter the food and supplement markets with its product it...