Despite frequent calls from government leaders, researchers and advocacy groups to ban bisphenol A, demand for the chemical (frequently found in food packaging) continues to rise.
A new study showing a correlation between high dietary phosphorus intakes and increased all-cause mortality has reignited the debate over the extensive use of phosphorus additives in packaged foods.
Acute ingestion of polyphenols from coffee may improve the function of the cells lining blood vessels (endothelial cells), says a new study from Japan that supports the heart health benefits of coffee constituents.
UK retailer Marks & Spencer is shaking-up its wine aisle and insists consumers don’t want ‘education’ but instead want to be transported, inspired and affirmed during the purchase experience.
Marketing consultant Paul Henry, Wine Hero, says the main thing that keeps him up at night is a retail world for wine focused on three attributes – fast, good, cheap – with the latter cause for concern.
BRAND CELEBRATES FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF COKE INVESTMENT
The CEO of Core Power – the first US dairy brand Coke invested in directly – says his firm is selling the ‘sex appeal of vitality’ with its high protein shakes, and plans further product launches.
Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes will close its Moscow brewery in January 2014 blaming a 20% slide in beer sales over the past five years due to tighter regulations that have led to excess capacity.
Soft drink marketeers may need to reconsider their targeted advertising and replace volleyball-playing, festival-going twentysomethings with canasta-playing, arts-loving, Australians in their 40s, new research shows.
DIGITAL DISPATCHES FROM E-BEV 2013, OCTOBER 23-25, DENVER
We caught up with Jim Beam’s social content manager Jason Miller to ask how ‘sexy’ spirits speak to different social media channels and the Beam Inc. bourbon brand’s successes in this space.
Nestlé has rubbished suggestions by a Colombian trade union that it has been complicit in "acts of violence" against striking workers, following the murder of an employee from its Bugalagrande condensed milk plant.
Carlsberg says the Russian beer market is ‘difficult’ and admits it misjudged the impact of kiosk closures and the blow this dealt its Baltika 7 brand in particular.
Hain Celestial has been targeted in a first-if-its-kind putative class action lawsuit alleging that it falsely advertised Celestial Seasoning teas as 100% natural when they in fact contain “potentially dangerous” levels of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides,...
The Hong Kong government’s decision to scrap wine duty in 2008 has contributed to a 187% increase in the value of wine imports into Hong Kong since then.
Starbucks has been rocked by news it must pay Kraft a whopping $2.23bn in damages after ending its supply arrangement with the FMCG giant in 2010, but insists it has adequate liquidity to foot the bill.
Indra Nooyi says people should forget PepsiCo’s Coke rivalry in India and welcome both firms’ $10.5bn investment in the country, where the middle class will exceed that of the US, UK and France together in five years.
Samuel Adams has launched the world’s first ever cigar seasoned with beer – notably its special edition 28% ABV Utopia brew that is finished in port and single-use bourbon casks.
San-Diego-based flavor innovator Senomyx says the first products arising from a collaboration with PepsiCo using a novel sweet taste modifier called S617 should hit shelves next year - contingent upon a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) determination.
BUT CONSUMER EDGE INSIGHT SURVEY SHOWS CHALLENGES FOR BEER
The US beer market is losing ground to spirits and wine among its core consumer groups but fruit-flavored brands such as AB InBev’s Bud Light Lime-a-Rita are attracting new female drinkers into the category.
Boulder Brands believes the future is bright for high pressure processing (HPP) treated fruit juice after snapping up an $8.8m stake in Californian juice brand Suja.
DIGITAL DISPATCHES FROM E-BEV 2013, OCTOBER 23-25, DENVER
Anheuser-Busch says Facebook now beats any US broadcast network in terms of consumer reach when marketing brands such as Budweiser and Bud Light, with one key driver rapid smartphone uptake.
Monster continues to outperform rivals in the energy drink sector; while recent launches Muscle Monster energy shakes, zero calorie Monster Ultra Blue, and the latest variant of 10-calorie line Monster Rehab (tea + pink lemonade + energy), have “exceeded...
Coke’s today vowed to ‘engage’ with key sugar suppliers Tate & Lyle Sugars, Trapiche and Bunge after a powerful Oxfam report raised concerns about the land rights of poor rural communities.
Mintel analyst Jonny Forsyth believes that trendy coconut water brands – Vita Coco, Zico, O.N.E etc. – have quite a lot of cost management ‘wriggle room’ due to their high margins, despite fears of a global coconut shortage.
Simon McMurtie from Direct Wines group believes that ageing populations are the wine world’s biggest opportunity, since the drink coincides with older consumers’ desire to enjoy life.
BREWER ISSUES 'UNRESERVED APOLOGY' FOR CONCERN AND EMBARRASSMENT
Heineken-owned brand Bulmers admits it scored an advertising own goal by mistakenly using a picture of a teetotal Welsh Methodist minister instead of its founder's father to promote the cider.
Symington Family Estates joint MD Paul Symington insists it’s no good just talking about the 300 years of sweat that has gone into the firm’s stone terraces, it must adapt a traditional product to the modern world.
Molson Coors surprised the Street with its poor Q3 performance in Canada due to a high single-digit sales slump for Coors Light, but is the issue for such premium light beers secular rather than economic or climatic?
Hangover supplement start-up Alcotox, known in the UK as Vital X, exemplifies holes in theoretically unified health claims regulation within the EU, legal hounds say.
TECHNOLOGY ALSO CHILLS NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN CANS AND PET
Enviro-Cool has developed a device that chills drinks cans and bottles from room temperature to 4C in 45 seconds, using 80%+ less energy than standard front drinks chillers in grocery stores.
Sidel has installed a Combi PET bottling line at Harris International, which produces mineral water, still and carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) in Uganda.
The best way to stand out in the highly fragmented, albeit growing, kids’ beverage market is to establish clear branding and messaging, a mantra that led Atlanta-based healthy children’s beverage maker In Zone Brands to rebrand its TummyTickler Tots,...
Once-surging demand has slowed among Australian consumers over the last quarter, according to Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), the maker of Coke in the country.
WINE INSTITUTE 'STRONGLY OPPOSES' CANADA'S POSSIBLE WINE PENALTY
Canada's minister of argiculture and agri-food warns that his country may impose retaliatory tariffs on US wines if the country does not revise or revoke controversial country of origin (COOL) labeling laws.
LONDON WINE CONFERENCE WILL HELP YOU THINK ‘OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE’
The organizer of Wine Vision says the conference has attracted top speakers including Miguel Torres and Dan Jago to help delegates think about the business of wine outside the bottle.
Coca-Cola Company chief technology officer, Guy Wollaert, believes that beverages tailored to our individual genetic makeup will be available in the near future.
A 20% tax on sugary soft drinks could reduce the prevalence of obesity in the UK by 1.3%, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.
AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito admits the firm is suffering in Central and Eastern Europe because of an historic focus on high volume, value brands, but notes strong growth for Budweiser in Russia.
US wine drinkers who blame headaches on sulfites will pay a significant premium for bottles without them, according to a study hinting at access to a ‘substantial niche’ in the $32bn market.
Total has teamed up with Husky and Sidel to develop and demonstrate two-step high density polyethylene (HDPE) injection stretch blow molding (ISBM) technology.
Australians are forsaking domestic beer for foreign imports, according to new research of the beer segment that highlights how the public’s alcohol preferences have been changing quickly.
