Countries all over the world must step up and increase efforts to shift food production systems to more sustainable methods that can mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, warns the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation director-general.
By Han De Groot, executive director at UTZ Certified,
Chocolate could become a small and expensive niche product unless we all do more to help cocoa farmers escape poverty, writes UTZ Certified executive director Han De Groot.
Sangria has a ‘golden opportunity’ to shed its image as a cheap party drink and go upmarket, says Mintel analyst Jonny Forsyth, who sees exciting growth prospects in the US, Europe and China.
Austerity bites in to consumers ability to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables
Austerity and rising food prices have hit healthy eating habits hard in the UK, with one in four Brits revealing they have not bought any fresh fruit or vegetables in the last week.
Fear is a major roadblock to many food companies getting it right when it comes to social media, according to business mentor and entrepreneur Mike Greene.
Food manufacturers should leave no stone unturned as they search for ways to decrease waste and increase the value of manufacturing waste streams, says Steve Osborn of Leatherhead Food Research.
Food and drink manufacturers need to make their products appear to be an effortless choice for consumers operating on autopilot and stop over rationalising their habits, advises leading behavioural scientist Dr Nick Southgate.
Industry needs to ‘dramatically innovate’ if it is to come up with sustainable solutions to feed the world, says James Bauly of DSM, as he summarises his take away messages from the event.
Testing the consumer liking of a new product may be an overrated idea that ‘breeds mediocrity’ and means products fail to differentiate themselves against the competition, according to David Howlett of MMR Research.
High-protein bread will be a functional niche of the future if manufacturers can play up the satiety angle and get the taste right, says a health and wellness expert.
UTZ Certified has begun a three-year initiative to develop a certified sustainable hazelnut supply in Turkey, which accounts for 70% of global production.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is expanding its sustainability standard beyond wild-capture fish and invertebrate fisheries to include wild seaweed for the first time.
Chocolate purists may turn to alternative vegetable fats amid escalating cocoa butter prices, but taste and regulatory stumbling blocks remain, according to an analyst.
Welsh farmer turned entrepreneur Laurence Harris tells BeverageDaily.com about his nationwide distribution ambition for the UK’s first organic flavored milk brand Daioni.
Food and drinks manufacturers could be missing out on ground-breaking new product development opportunities by making too many small adaptations to existing products, a leading consultant has warned.
Food manufacturers should protect themselves against political instability – such as the Ukraine crisis – and extreme weather by planning contractual protection, warns food law firm Roythornes.
INNOBEV GLOBAL SOFT DRINKS CONGRESS: FINAL THOUGHTS
What is the future of food? Simple communication of complex advances will be crucial, as well as picking up the pace amid a global population boom to feed the world nutritiously and sustainably, according to FoodNavigator and NutraIngredients senior editors.
Consumers don’t really want more nutritional information, they want an easy life, according to a behavioural economist talking at a conference in Brussels.
Reluctance to adopt technologies, like automation is in part driven by ‘endless squeezing’ of supplier margins by the major multiple retailers, says the PPMA Group (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association).
European Sugar Users (CIUS) has called on the European Commission to implement temporary market measures should sugar end stocks fall below a certain threshold amid uncertainly in the EU sugar supply.
2014 SPECIAL EDITION: DRIVING UP QUALITY, DRIVING DOWN COST
Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI) believes that the use of cost-cutting dairy ingredients "should not be seen as a negative," despite acknowledging that quality risks "certainly do exist."
The average consumer’s desire for simplicity and the average journalist’s desire for a good headline is driving public perception of sweeteners, according to participants of a debate in Brussels.
A slowdown in global packaged food markets is expected over the next five years as supply in developed countries reaches saturation point combined with insufficient opportunities elsewhere, but health and Asia offer hope.
Food manufacturers have pampered to health-conscious Europeans with a raft of new fruit-based product launches in 2013, with overall fruit ingredient launches up 22% over the preceding year, according to Innova Market Insights.
Global food and drink firms will launch new products designed to release the untapped potential of multi-sensory experiences based on sound and vision, a leading cognitive neuroscientist has revealed.
The use of mobile technologies and social media to connect with real consumers can help manufacturers gain better innovation insights for today and tomorrow, says Chris Cornyn.
Private and public sectors actions must take ‘coordinated and forceful’ actions to help to reduce supply chain waste and change consumer behaviours, say FAO officials.
Food firms must woo celebrity chefs and other ‘foodies’ more to help consumers understand the industry’s use of science, including biotechnology and nanotechnology, experts from the sector have argued.
There are large supplies of cereal and record trade levels set for 2014, but world wheat production will drop by 2%, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Unfavourable weather conditions in the Asia, Brazil and the US, coupled with increased political tension in the Black Sea region have led to a steep increase in world food prices, says the FAO.
Mascots on breakfast cereals that gaze directly into a consumer’s line of vision can spark trust; findings that researchers say could be used to fuel growth of better-for-you lines.
Pea protein may be moving in from the food and beverage fringes, however formulating with the fast-growing ingredient is 'no picnic' according to functional confectionery firm Carmit.
Reducing meat and dairy consumption is crucial to bringing down agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and meeting UN climate change targets, according to new research.
Consumers are baffled by ambiguous messages about healthy eating and need help to unravel the labelling conundrum, warns the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing.
The consequences of the horsemeat crisis, filling the yawning skills gap, lean and green manufacturing and social media were just some of the topics tackled by the Food Manufacture Group at Foodex 2014, at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham...
In a world where retail shelves are already overflowing with options, food manufacturers must already know which products consumers will be giving up before buying their new offering, says David Howlett of MMR Research.
Attending a series of sessions on sugar reduction during the Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) 2014 Wellness conference, a few common themes kept resurfacing: that obesity remains a big problem, and that—like it or not—the sugar industry is assuming...
Consumption of fresh food was strongest in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific in 2013, while the market for fresh food in Western Europe declined slightly, according to Euromonitor International.
Now that the mania about fat in the diet is mostly over the story has become that some fats are good. And as far as fat-rich tree nuts go, the story is: They’re all good. But walnuts have a leg up on their tree nut competitors in that they are the only...
It is not in the interests of major infant manufacturers, such as Nestlé or Danone, to purposely violate breast-milk substitute marketing regulations, last week's Zenith International Infant Nutrition Conference heard.
Private label products have continued to grow in market share despite the UK economic recovery, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel that suggests the trend for own-brand goods may be here to stay.
