Food News
Dutch authorities begin testing chicken meat as contaminated eggs scandal widens
Independent | Posted on August 15, 2017Dutch authorities have reportedly started testing chicken meat originating from farms found to have produced eggs contaminated with insecticide. “We are currently testing chicken meat in the poultry farms where eggs were infected to determine whether the meat is contaminated as well,” Tjitte Mastenbroek, spokesperson for food security agency NVWA, told the AFP news agency. Mr Mastenbroek said the probe centres on “a few dozen” farms that produce both eggs and chicken meat. Scientists are testing the meat for fipronil, a pesticide which can be harmful to humans if ingested.
Walmart Moves Into The Dairy Business Even As Milk Consumption Drops
Forbes | Posted on August 15, 2017Walmart announced its intent to build a dairy processing plant to supply its own store-brand milks back in March 2016; as a result, Dean Foods stock dropped 12 percent. Today, on reports that the Walmart plant, which is estimated to serve 600 stores (out of its 4,100+ stores in the US), will open soon, Dean Foods' stock price took another hit, declining a bit over 20%. However to give you the sense of how steep the decline has been, according to USDA and the Economic Research Service, in 1975 per capita availability was 247 pounds (the measurement used by the USDA) and as of June 2017 declined to 155 pounds almost a 38% difference. So we have to wonder why Walmart is entering this business and what is the impact of losing business from the largest grocer on companies like Dean Foods.
Inside the Secret World of Global Food Spies
Bloomberg | Posted on August 15, 2017In demand by multinational retailers and food producers, Inscatech and its agents scour supply chains around the world hunting for evidence of food industry fraud and malpractice. In the eight years since he founded the New York-based firm, Weinberg, 52, says China continues to be a key growth area for fraudsters as well as those developing technologies trying to counter them. “Statistically we’re uncovering fraud about 70 percent of the time, but in China it’s very close to 100 percent,” he said. “It’s pervasive, it’s across food groups, and it’s anything you can possibly imagine.” Weinberg’s company is developing molecular markers and genetic fingerprints to help authenticate natural products and sort genuine foodstuffs from the fakes. Another approach companies are pursuing uses digital technology to track and record the provenance of food from farm to plate. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, was one of the first to get on board, just completing a trial using blockchain technology to track pork in China, where it has more than 400 stores. The time taken to track the meat’s supply chain was cut from 26 hours to just seconds using blockchain, and the scope of the project is being widened to other products, said Frank Yiannas, Wal-Mart’s vice president for food safety
Fieldale Farms chicken price fixing settlement could be good news for others
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on August 9, 2017Chicken processor Fieldale Farms has proposed to pay $2.25 million to settle its part in a lawsuit involving 14 chicken processors, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Illinois. Attorneys from law firms representing Maplevale Farms of Falconer, N.Y., said at the time that companies including Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Perdue Farms, Sanderson Farms and several others worked together to artificially reduce broiler chicken supplies in the U.S. marketplace knowing that supply reductions would boost prices. The 14 processors named in the suit were accused of sharing confidential information, including news on plant closings, hatching egg export levels and destroying breeder hens, according to the suit. The $2.25 million settlement implies a lower than expected litigation exposure for Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride and Sanderson Farms.
Amid farm-to-table movement, Colorado agriculture attempts to shape perceptions of farming
Denver Post | Posted on August 8, 2017Younger generations want to know where their food comes from, but communicating that information might be harder than it seems. Younger generations are leading the charge on demanding locally sourced food. They’re starting farm-to-table restaurants, making farmers markets trendy and paying a premium for locally sourced food. But getting the most accurate message out to consumers about where their food comes from and how it is grown is easier said than done.As part of Colorado Proud month – as proclaimed by Gov. John Hickenlooper and celebrated with a campaign theme each year – partners in Colorado’s agricultural industry will tour the state this month to show the faces of agriculture. The Colorado Proud program provides a guarantee to consumers that their food was grown, raised or processed in the state. The program started in 1999, but its purple-and-yellow mountain symbol is becoming more powerful. This year’s Colorado Proud survey results suggested that consumers want to “feel more connected” to farmers and food sources.
Lost in the supermarket
Strongtowns | Posted on August 6, 2017On November 9, 2012, Mayor Jim Cahill led a ribbon-cutting at the Fresh Grocer, a 50,000 square foot supermarket in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was the city’s first new full-service supermarket in a generation, the latest nine-figure project spearheaded by the New Brunswick Development Corporation.“We’re not just a supermarket. It’s some ways, we’re a community center,” explained the Fresh Grocer CEO Pat Burns, taking pride in his company’s ability to work with low-income residents in urban communities to help create a supermarket that best serves their needs. To that end, the New Brunswick location would provide ethnic foods that cater to the city’s minority communities, partner with a local non-profit to sell food created by New Brunswick residents, offer a free shuttle service for those who shopped there, and provide job training and nutrition programs for employees.With the cut of a ribbon, New Brunswick was no longer a food desert.A year and a half later, the Fresh Grocer abruptly closed.
Sugar companies to launch GMO education campaign
Capital Press | Posted on August 3, 2017Two of the nation’s sugar companies will launch a $4 million online campaign this fall aimed at educating consumers about GMO crops and changing their perceptions of the technology.
Bowing to pressure, a Berkeley butcher shop makes a deal with vegan protesters
The Washington Post | Posted on August 3, 2017The protests were intense: People dripping with fake blood, tightly bound in plastic wrap as if they were cuts of meat. Singing, shouting, lecturing customers. It’s what Direct Action Everywhere, an animal rights group, would do every time the Local Butcher Shop would host its butchering classes in its Berkeley, Calif., store. But after four months, the protests have finally slowed down, and for an unlikely reason: After receiving a list of demands from the group, which also goes by DXE, the butcher shop capitulated. Although the Local Butcher Shop touts its farms’ humane practices on its website, owners agreed to hang a sign in their window that reads “Attention: Animals lives are their right. Killing them is violent and unjust, no matter how it’s done.”
Love food and small biz? There’s an app for that
USA Today | Posted on August 3, 2017Now, there’s a new app that helps food-related small businesses improve their cash flow and nurture customers at the same time, “Credibles.” The San Francisco-based start-up aims to help small food businesses by letting customers pre-pay from a growing number of small food companies, essentially setting up a prepaid tab. The businesses then have that money to use without having to take out loans.“It’s easier to put money into Monsanto and McDonald’s than invest in the bakery down the street,” said Credibles’ founder Arno Hesse.That’s because you can buy stock in large food companies. But how do avid fans help insure the survival of their favorite coffee shop or cheese maker? With Credibles, they exchange their money for food, not shares.
The Bill Gates-backed veggie burger that 'bleeds' has raised another $75 million — see how it's made
Business Insider | Posted on August 3, 2017Silicon Valley is rallying around a startup that wants to disrupt the meat aisle. Impossible Foods sells burgers made from plants that sizzle on the grill and "bleed" juices like real beef. The company aims to make meat derived from animals the exception, not the rule.On August 1, the startup announced it had raised a $75 million investment from Singapore-based venture fund Temasek, Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures, and others. The new round brings the company's total funding to over $250 million and will likely serve its plans for expansion.