Branston shapes up

It’s the pickle that gives a Ploughman’s its piquancy. Yes, we’re talking about the Branston pickle, a crunchy, tangy vegetable and spice combination that has been the mainstay of the English cold collation for more than 100 years.

Last year Premier Foods acquired the Crosse & Blackwell brand, Branston’s parent, from Nestlé. The new owners have wasted no time expanding the range and putting it into a dressy new livery. The new range consists of pickled onions in Branston and malt vinegar, silverskin cocktail onions, baby and sliced beetroot, and piccalilli. The packaging retains the glass bottle, but this now has a slightly conical shape and large lid, which makes it easier to pick off a shelf compared to the old cylinder. (And they’re perfect for homemade pickles and jams…)

US NFPA rejects EU biotech labels
Innovate or die, but innovate and win
Toshiba to help monitor groundwater
Low growth ahead - Unilever
Actives, packaging boost cosmetics
Tiny bubbles store heat
Perfectly packed?
P&G to buy Colgate’s European soaps 
Lipoprotein size predicts longevity

Labels

US NFPA rejects EU biotech labels

“A serious barrier to trade” is how the US’s National Food Processing Association describes Europe’s insistence that food and feed made with genetically modified organisms be labelled as such.

NFPA president John Cady, who speaks for the $500bn US food processed industry, said “The EU has turned away from food science and food safety, and has established a serious trade barrier that will keep many US food products out of the European market.

"European consumers will see such labels on food products as 'warning labels.' However, there is no safety or nutrition issue associated with the products of agricultural biotechnology on the market, and there is no scientific basis for requiring the labelling of biotech foods. 

"Mandatory labelling should be based on the composition, intended use, and health and safety characteristics of a food product, not on the 'genetic process' from which it was derived. Moreover, the traceability requirements are a classic case of regulatory overkill, putting complex and detailed new requirements on food companies, with no benefit for consumers.”

Cady said the NFPA will ask the World Trade Organisation, through the US Trade Representative, to block the new label law.

If the action goes ahead, it will add another element to the simmering trade dispute over US steel and food imports. It also ignores European public opinion that is almost uniformly against unlabelled GM foods.

Innovation

Innovate or die, but innovate and win

You get out of it what you put into it; what’s more, you’ve got no choice but to innovate or die. But if you innovate, riches are yours.

That was the message to 650 delegates to the recent IGD Convention in London from Ramesys managing director Bill Donoghue. Donoghue was presenting the results of an in-depth independent study conducted amongst twelve leading food manufacturers. The study assessed the impact of innovation on business growth and showed that meeting real consumer needs still drives success.

Donoghue told delegates of a manufacturer who took the formal innovation process seriously and invested heavily in supporting technology. After following the process, it launched an innovative product based on canned beans. The proposition for customers was so attractive that they were happy to buy 5m the first year and 8m the next year at a price of 99p compared to the competitor’s generic product at 9p.

Noting that over 80% of new products are off the market within a year of launch, he said “A culture which embraces innovation combined with effective knowledge management, processes and the use of technology were common themes amongst those currently enjoying success."

Shorter lead times, shrinking consumer attention spans, price and margin pressure, clogged shelves, risk paranoia and the insistence on faster, higher returns on investment all indicate caution, he added.

Companies can manage the risks better if they collaborate up and down the supply chain. It is easier with a formal, embedded process to translate qualitative research and real consumer needs with appropriate resources and investment.

Another successful example Donoghue mentioned was a change in the packaging lifted the market share of a 30 year old brand from 47% to 55%. Cutting out additives and appeal to consumers’ health worries brought completely new customers to another.

Donoghue warned that fickle fashions meant that if you are not leading, you’d better be following closely. A good knowledge management system is essential for this, he added.

Research

Flair-Flow has three new free booklets covering Nutrition and Healthy Ageing, Diet and bone health; Food Quality Sensors; Functional Food Ingredients; and Genetic Modification and Food. Order them from British Nutrition Foundation High Holborn House 52-54 High Holborn London WC1V 6RQ or go to the Flair-Flow web site.

Toshiba to help monitor groundwater

Japanese electronics company Toshiba is to provide technical coordination to an international consortium of academic institutions and companies working to develop the Advanced Environmental Monitoring System (AEMS), a total solution for continuous, automated monitoring of groundwater pollutants. Toshiba will also provide "biosensor", the company's patent-pending technology for detecting different hazardous substances in groundwater, including pesticides and ions of heavy metals.

The project has 17 organisations in Canada, the US, Japan and Australia, including universities, private corporations and government-sponsored research laboratories, and aims to commercialise AEMS in 2007.

The bio-mimetic biosensor consists of two layers of artificial lipid membranes that evaluate the toxicity of chemicals in the groundwater. The membranes generate specific responses to different types of organic compounds in pollutants, allowing identification of hazardous substances. The biosensor is now capable of detecting substances such as trichloroethylene and nonylphenol in concentrations as low as one part per billion.

Business

Low growth ahead - Unilever

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods firm Unilever said it expects margins to improve from restructuring and better buying, but that market growth of its leading brands now expected to be below 3%.

Brand investment will be steady and support key innovations and trade promotion. Only two launches (both in Spreads and Cooking Products) were delayed - one awaiting regulatory clearance and the other as the roll-out phasing is adapted to optimise product formulations.

Market research

Actives, packaging boost cosmetics

The arms race in the cosmetics and toiletries industry is heating up. Mass-market and direct-marketing companies are joining prestige and professional skin care marketers in using specialty actives and alternate delivery systems to increase market share, to extend existing lines, and to fend off encroaching dermatologist brands.

Speciality research house Kline & Co estimates the market for specialty active ingredients, compounds that provide a demonstrable therapeutic effect on the skin or hair, and the systems that deliver them, at more than $300 million at the manufacturers' level and is still on the rise.

The US market for anti-ageing skin care products is valued at more than $1.3 billion at the retail level and is growing at double-digit rates, says Kline.

This is helping to push up demand for cosmetic and toiletry containers by 2.6 percent per year to 23 billion units in 2007, says packaging researcher Freedonia.

New launches and a wider choice for the male, teen and younger adult markets will also drive growth. Hair care, oral hygiene and skin care are the three largest markets, together accounting for nearly two-thirds of unit demand in 2002. The strongest prospects are in the skin care and liquid soap markets. Skin care product container demand will benefit from healthy expansion in the over-45 population, which is fuelling rapid sales of skin creams and lotions as well as non-drying skin cleansers. Liquid soap container advances will benefit from the rising presence of formulations offering skin benefits like moisturizing and exfoliation.

Plastics, the dominant container material in most cosmetic and toiletry markets, will continue to represent the growth segment of the industry. While plastics will displace glass, metal and paperboard, expansion will arise primarily from cost advantages, as well as new product introductions and relaunches of existing products that use new packaging designs.

Among plastic containers, tubes have the best prospects, with above average growth for squeeze tubes, which will continue to score against plastic bottles in a variety of markets because of performance and aesthetic attributes, along with expanded usage in prestige brands. Paperboard container demand will be restrained because there will be less secondary packaging and more competition from plastic boxes and blister packs. Glass cosmetic and toiletry container prospects will remain weak as the development of resins that can be formulated to resemble glass results in further losses. Lower cost plastics will hamper metal cosmetic and toiletry container advances.

Innovation

Tiny bubbles store heat

Microcapsules developed by German chemicals company BASF sparkle like jewels, but as latent heat stores, they keep temperatures constant and smooth out peaks. The plastic microcapsules – 6 to 10 micrometers across – contain a storage medium such as paraffin. When the contents melt, heat is taken up and is given out again when the material solidifies.

They can be used in paints or plaster board, the heat-storage capsules help even out the room temperature, and are already  incorporated in the yarn or in a layer of the garment, for example in breathable clothing, socks or gloves.

Packaging

Perfectly packed?

US packaging firm Appleton has launched MoistureBloc folding carton barrier packaging, a substrate that provides “superior protection from moisture vapour damage for consumer dry goods like detergents, powdered milk, rice, potato flakes and baby cereal.

MoistureBloc uses an FDA-approved interior barrier coating to stop water vapour. It claims to provide an “exceptional” outside print surface to increase shelf appeal, but is also easy to print and convert on conventional equipment. Appleton says it is recyclable and repulpable, which makes it more environmentally friendly and cost-effective than product packaging that is overwrapped or laminated with plastic or metalised films.

M&A

P&G to buy Colgate’s European soaps

US personal care products maker Colgate-Palmolive is to sell its European laundry detergent brands in France, Italy and Scandinavia, to Procter & Gamble. The deal is to let Colgate concentrate on its “high margin, fast growing oral and personal care businesses."

Age research

Lipoprotein size predicts longevity

A US study has found a link between the number and size of lipoproteins and longevity.

The study, Unique Lipoprotein Phenotype and Genotype Associated With Exceptional Longevity, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The lead researcher, of the Institute for Aging Research, sought to understand why certain individuals live exceptionally long lives.

In comparing long-lived Ashkenazi Jews and their offspring with control subjects, Dr Nir Barzilai found long life was associated with larger size lipoprotein particles. Also, long-lived subjects had a significantly lower number of LDL particles compared to the control group.

Other studies have shown that the number of lipoprotein particles is more significantly associated with stroke, fatal or non-fatal heart attack than standard cholesterol measures.