NPD

P&G’s new soap opera

Procter & Gamble is using microemulsions to boost the cleaning power of its new Dawn Direct Foam dishwashing liquid 10-fold compared to competitive products.

Dawn Direct Foam, which has just become a billion dollar brand for the CPG giant, encapsulates grease particles so that they aren’t transferred from dish to dish.

The dishwasher uses a high performance microemulsion technology with special solvents to absorb significant amounts of grease. A microemulsion is a thermodynamically stable dispersion of oil in water. Micro droplets of oil have ultra-high surface area and are capable of absorbing significant amounts of grease, locking it into the foam. The grease actually becomes part of the foam (much like sugar dissolved in coffee) and cannot be removed, says Ernesto Levy, Dawn marketing director.

Once trapped, grease washes away cleanly, so the sponge stays clean and no greasy residue remains on the dishes. Traditional dishwashing liquids simply lift and surround grease, and may redeposit it onto dishes, says P&G.

50k up for grabs

Wanted: a dirty dozen

Ten trends to surf to $3.2tr food market

Study backs CAP reform

JV for better food tests

Innovation

€50k up for grabs

Innovact 2005, the 10th European forum for innovative growth companies, is offering €50,000 will be awarded to the most innovative projects.

The event takes place at the Centre des Congrès in Reims on 4 and 5 October 2005, when more than 200 start-ups and developers of innovative projects will meet 4,000 professional participants from 18 countries to discuss finance, technology transfers, consultancy services, and to find business partners and sales outlets. Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research, will chair the awards.

The programme of debates and workshops is organised around three themes: Enterprise & Innovation; Sustainable Development (including round-tables on agriculture and developments in biotechnology); and Materials & Innovation.

More details from www.innovact.com.

Research

Wanted: a dirty dozen

Here’s a call one never expected to see: someone is looking for 12 overweight but otherwise healthy men aged 50-plus—they want to see how their brains respond when they lose weight on high protein, low carbohydrate, Atkins-type diets.

With the recent collapse of Atkins Nutritionals, this project may be shutting the door after the low-carb horse has disappeared. However, many scientists now accept that people feel fuller quicker on high-protein, low-carb diets, and eat less and so lose weight, says Dr Alex Johnstone from the Rowett Institute, who is leading the study. 

So the researchers will take positron scans of subjects’ brains during the nine-week residential course to see what’s happening in the appetite-controlling areas of the brain.

To joint the queue call Rowett Research Institute’s Dr Sue Bird on +44 (0)1224 716-668 or +44 (0)7711 093-417

Market research

Ten trends to surf to $3.2tr food market

Market researcher Datamonitor has spotted 10 trends it says will drive the growth of the global food business to $3.2 trillion.

They are: age complexity, gender complexity, life stage complexity and income complexity, convenience, health, sensory intensity, individualism, homing and connectivity.

Growing economic wealth and changing values and attitudes are driving the egalitarianism of spending, says the firm. This is leading to increased income complexity with well-off consumers spending on anti-luxury and less well-off consumers seeking luxury on a budget.

Post-materialist values have led to a rising demand for products that people can tailor to make them uniquely personal. And consumers want a lifestyle rich in relationships and belonging experiences as societies have become more individualistic.

Regulation

Study backs CAP reform

A new study says rich countries will scoop most of the 90 billion euros to be distributed under the present Common Agricultural Plan (CAP), leading to greater inequalities between rich and poor EU members.

Researchers at the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Aberdeen found that Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands are collectively taking a greater slice than poorer, peripheral regions in Spain, Italy, Poland and southern and eastern Europe, even after the CAP reforms agreed in 2003-04.

The results of the two year study, the first serious analysis of the reforms are published in CAP and the Regions: The Territorial Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy, by Mark Shucksmith, Ken Thomson, and Deb Roberts. Their findings are expected to boost UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s call to reform the CAP, and divert money from farming production towards technology and research.

Currently, CAP subsidies are awarded from two pots, Pillar One and Pillar Two. Pillar One, worth 90bn euros per year (about £60 billion, or £131 per man, woman and child), is made up of direct subsidies paid to farmers and the cost of supporting market prices. This means consumers pay more for farm products. “This overwhelmingly favours the prosperous, core regions with large farms that produce grain, milk and beef, rather than poorer peripheral regions with smaller farms and products like olive oil and wine,” say the authors.

Pillar Two, the newer and much smaller rural development measures worth 4.6bn euros per year (about £3 billion, or £10 per head), supports environmental farming and “Less Favoured Areas” such as hills and mountains. But most of this also goes to the richer EU members. This is mainly because these measures are more used by the rich countries of North West Europe, who are more able to exploit the relevant Regulation.

The authors want to speed up the shift in funding from Pillar One to Pillar Two, and to change the distribution criteria so that poorer nations have more money to boost their rural economies.

Shucksmith says “The EU’s regional policy is intended to build up the poorest regions but the CAP is doing the opposite, not only through its still-substantial expenditures but also through much less transparent import barriers.”

Test&Measurement

JV for better food tests

DuPont Qualicon has teamed up with Applied Biosystems Group to jointly develop and market new BAX system applications for the food industry.

The BAX system already uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect microorganisms in food. Innovations in DNA technology from Applied Biosystems will provide extra capabilities, such as quantitation, strain discrimination and other benefits.

“This alliance will bring real value to our food customers by translating unique DNA technology improvements into new applications, especially in the area of food quality testing," said Kevin Huttman, president of DuPont Qualicon.

Food companies use the automated BAX system to detect pathogens or other organisms in raw ingredients, finished products and environmental samples.

DuPont Qualicon also markets the patented RiboPrinter system, the world's only automated DNA fingerprinting instrument to track and trend bacterial contamination in pharmaceuticals, personal care products and food.