News
Heinz has offer for seafood unit
Heinz has received an offer for its European Seafood operations, including the John West, Petit Navire and Mareblu brands, and four processing facilities. The unit has 5,000 employees and annual sales of £400 million. It produces more than 400 million cans of seafood products per year. The factories are based in the Seychelles, Ghana, France […]
Pecan Deluxe ups production
Yorkshire-based Pecan Deluxe Candy is completing a major investment programme in new facilities that will provide more streamlined production. The latest investment will provide a self-contained nut production zone, a fifth nut production line, an increased capacity bakery operation, and a large storage area for finished products. Nut production is now segregated from other areas […]
Rich invests in UK sites
Following its acquisition of David Powell Bakeries last year, Rich Products is spending around £1 million (£1.45m) to increase production at both its Worcestershire and Fareham bakeries. At Fareham, in addition to relocating the bread bakery and refurbishing all the ovens, the investment covers the purchase of new bread chillers and provers and the installation […]
Coke to build new site in Ireland
Coca-Cola has been granted planning permission for a major new development in Northern Ireland. The site at Knockmore Hill was chosen ahead of 60 other locations across Ireland and will provide an all-Ireland plant to replace existing facilities north and south of the border. The franchise company, Coca-Cola Bottlers, says the new plant will have […]
Blueberry Ribena
A blueberry version of Ribena is being launched this summer. Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline says women aged between 18 and 30 will be the key market for the new squash. A blueberry version of Ribena is being launched this summer. Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline says women aged between 18 and 30 will be the key market for the new […]
Pasta recall
Various Italian semi-fresh pasta products have been recalled due to contamination with Bacillus cereus. The products, Tortelloni Prosciuto 250g, Italian Semi Fresh Tortelloni Cheese and Spinach 250g and Italian Semi Fresh Ravioli Funghi 250g, have various best before dates up to January 2006.
Rare cheese in E. coli alert
A rare cheese was withdrawn from sale when environmental health experts identified unacceptable levels of the bacteria E. coli. The Italian cheese known as Taleggio, is only available in the UK from specialists IJ Mellis Cheesemongers. The company has three shops and a wholesaler’s in Edinburgh and one shop in Glasgow. Environmental health officers taking […]
Confectioner’s sweet reflections
Glisten, a fast-growing confectionery group making chocolate and sugar-based decorations, announced double turnover and good progress on current trading at its recent AGM. Chairman, Jeremy Hamer, said “Glisten has had a very good start to the current year with overall turnover for the first four months more than double last year and, on a like-for-like […]
Brits urged to shed island mentality
Britain’s ‘UK-centric’ food manufacturers are being urged to widen their outlook to overseas markets as a means for growth in 2006. This call comes at a time when the UK food and drink export market is experiencing strong growth to both established and emerging markets, up 3.1% to £4.65 billion (£6.89bn) in January to June […]
Lack of trust puts consumers off functional food
A new report from independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals that sales of functional foods have rocketed across Europe, and were worth £4 billion last year. But many consumers are still deterred from buying these expensive products because they simply do not trust the makers. In the UK, where sales reached £419 million in 2004, over […]
Little effect from longer licensing hours
The new British alcohol licensing laws, which became effective in November, are deemed to make little difference to the drinks industry. Consumers are shifting from on-trade to off-trade drinking, motivated by the lower price and greater comfort of drinking at home. Few venues will move regular closing times by more than an hour and the […]
Award for Belgian researcher
A £5,000 international research prize has been won by a 35-year old Dr Chantal Smout, a researcher from Belgium. The award, announced by stabiliser systems supplier G. C. Hahn in Lübeck, Germany, was for“Structure engineering of fruit and vegetable products by controlling the enzymatic activity of endogenous and exogenous pectinases. Anne-Christiane Thomsen, general manager, believed […]
Printing precautions taken by Tetra Pak
Following the recent recall of baby formula products tainted with ink in Italy, packaging company Tetra Pak announced that it had switched to printing processes using non UV inks. This decision was taken as a precautionary measure and in absence of any scientific evidence indicating a health risk. The company says the identified substance (ITX), […]
Health emissaries bring up school meals
School meals were at the centre of a European Food Industry debate in Brussels recently. Talks were held on the current European health crisis and the impact to food and beverage manufacturers. Representatives from leading companies attended the event, including Cadbury Schweppes, Kraft, Ajinomoto, Nestle, Carrefour, Group Danone, Coca-Cola, and European Food & Drink Trade […]