Convenience foods and snacks

Singapore chain to roll out 100 cooked-crab vending machines by March

08-Feb-2017 By RJ Whitehead

A chain of seafood restaurants in Singapore has opened what appears to be the world’s first cooked-crab vending machine, which come piping hot in three flavours and vacuum sealed in under six minutes.

Australia

Healthy images could be used to rouse people from junk food obsession

02-Feb-2017 By RJ Whitehead

Billboards pointing out healthy food options could be enough to pull people out of their junk-food obsession, early Australian research suggests.

Singapore identifies scope for continued food manufacturing growth as e-commerce and innovation increases

31-Jan-2017 By Millette Burgos

E-Commerce and innovation is driving the growth of Singapore’s food manufacturing and food services industries - but firm's need to quicken the pace of technological change, according to the government body responsible for boosting enterprise. 

GCC fast-food boom sees two-thirds of diners eating at QSRs

25-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

The GCC’s fast-food segment was worth more than US$20bn last year, making it one of the 20 biggest quick-service markets in the world, and is expected to grow by nearly a further 50% by 2020.

India

Regulator to take first step to introduce junk food warning labels

25-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

India’s food regulator is expected to have formed a definition for “junk food” in the next two months, giving scope for possible new mandatory nutrition warnings for potato chips and samosas.

Ruparel Foods: Previously, only 1 in 8 rejected nuts were bad

25-Jan-2017 By Joseph James Whitworth

Ruparel Foods has said only one in eight nuts rejected by its previous sorting systems were actually bad, prompting a move to machines from Tomra Sorting Food.

Australia’s generations of fast-food fans

19-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

Generations Y and Z are still markedly more likely than their seniors to eat at big-name fast-food chains, though the rate they visit them is in slow decline—perhaps due to the rise of hipster hangouts.

Ready-to-mix market to see double-digit growth in wealthier India

18-Jan-2017 By Richard Whitehead

India ready-to-mix food market has been predicted to be worth as much as US$284m by 2020, an annualised increase of 15.7% fuelled largely by the increasing disposable income of a growing middle class.

South Asia radius

Fat tax on the cards for next month’s Budget

17-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

Budget watchers are predicting an increase to taxes on fast food and sugary drinks on February 1 after senior ministers put pressure on the prime minister to introduce a health levy.

McDonald’s divests most of its Chinese operation

17-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

McDonald’s will sell 80% of its mainland China and Hong Kong businesses for US$1.7bn to a Chinese state-owned conglomerate and an American private equity firm.

Christmas sparks boom in KFC sales in Japan

13-Jan-2017 By Kathryn Wortley

Japan's long-held tradition of celebrating Christmas with KFC has lifted poultry farmers after the industry culled half a million birds in November and December 2016 following a bird flu outbreak.

New pollution licences could spell danger for Chinese sweeteners firms

05-Jan-2017 By RJ Whitehead

The Chinese government’s drive to increase environmental protection by issuing so-called “pollutant discharge licences" stands to damage the local sweetener industry.

Australia-New Zealand

Fsanz calls for submissions on a raft of food-code proposals

16-Dec-2016 By RJ Whitehead

The antipodean regulator opened a public consultation on three potential changes to the food standards code in Australia and New Zealand.

MENA Millennials driving demand for bakery and snacks, says Golden Agri-Resources

07-Dec-2016 By Gill Hyslop

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is developing a taste for luxury products, especially premium bakery goods, snacks and confectionery.

Functional benefits remain white space in China’s snack market, Mintel

06-Dec-2016 By Douglas Yu

A Mintel report shows that the Chinese snack food sector is fragmented, with the top 10% companies accounting for only 11.7% of market share.

Chaucer sold to Japanese food firm in €122m deal

05-Dec-2016 By Louis Gore-Langton

British food firm Chaucer has been sold to Japanese manufacturer Nagatanien in a £102.8m (€122.8m) deal which the freeze-dried food manufacturer says will help it expand into the US and Asia.

Chinese confections and snacks compete for sweeter spot on e-commerce during Double 11

21-Nov-2016 By Douglas Yu

Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce platform, reached record sales of $15bn during Double 11 this year, prompting domestic confectionery and snack brands to step up their web strategies. 

Some RSPO members are ‘first-class hypocrites’: The scathing personal view of palm oil boss (who also happens to be the organisation’s co-chair)

09-Nov-2016 By Gary Scattergood

RSPO co-chair and boss of Malaysia’s United Plantations Berhad, Dato’ Carl Bek-Nielsen gave a measured address at the opening of the organisation's RT14 conference in Bangkok.

India

Maharashtra looks at fast-food fat tax to curb obesity

08-Nov-2016 By RJ Whitehead

The state of Maharashtra is considering imposing a so-called “fat tax” on fast food in a bid to push residents into eating more healthily. 

Dubai’s kebab makers in shawarma drama following rule changes

02-Nov-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Dubai authorities are believed to have closed almost half of all the emirate’s shawarma stands after new food safety and hygiene regulations came into effect at the start of this month.

Edita boss praises officials' ‘personal attention’ after sugar seizure

02-Nov-2016 By RJ Whitehead

A face-off between Egyptian authorities and the country’s biggest food company ended last week after Edita Foods Industries’ sugar supply was returned following confiscation by officials.

Holista CollTech sets out to develop world’s first low-GI noodles

31-Oct-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Malaysian-Australian collagen-based ingredients specialist Holista CollTech will conduct joint research with Wing’s Food Products, a major Canadian noodle manufacturer, to develop the world’s first low-GI noodles.

Snapshot from Malaysia

‘Hot dog’ name ban shows officials’ desire to take offence

25-Oct-2016 By RJ Whitehead

In conversation with an Uber driver in Kuala Lumpur, it will never be long before he mentions hot dogs. They are a subject on everyone’s lips now, after Malaysian religious authorities denied halal certification to an American fast-food chain partly because,...

Despite recent surge, halal market still has huge long-term potential

19-Oct-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Global sales of halal products have surged in recent years, yet the potential for further growth, both in Islamic and non-Islamic countries, remains vast.

Yum! doing well in India by providing local offerings

13-Oct-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Yum! Brands’ Indian operation has reported a significant improvement in current business, with Pizza Hut indicating a rise of 6% and KFC doubling that performance with a 13% improvement, with new menus and promotions driving sales.

Good palm oil is possible. This is what it looks like, says Palm Done Right CEO

07-Oct-2016 By Niamh Michail

At a time when the conversation around palm oil centres on deforestation, fires and habitat loss – and global demand shows no signs of abating – several companies have come together to create Palm Done Right, a new standard for ethical palm oil production....

This week Down Under

Choice names Shonky winners: Three F&B brands receive awards

06-Oct-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Choice, the Australian consumer advocacy group, has taken its pick for this year’s Shonky awards, with three food and beverage brands and one diet taking their places among the annual brand booby prizes.

Malaysia

PureCircle begins work to double stevia production capacity

29-Sep-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Natural sweetener major PureCircle will build a new processing plant that will double its capacity to produce a proprietary stevia leaf extract. 

This week Down Under

Courts gag campaigner after ‘toxic’ Capilano honey remarks

28-Sep-2016 By RJ Whitehead

A victorian beekeeper who accused a leading Queensland honey manufacturer of selling “toxic” foreign products has been gagged by the courts ahead of legal action.

Busy Aussies don’t leave breakfast drinks just for brekkie

22-Sep-2016 By RJ Whitehead

The meal that is widely considered to be the most important of the day is regularly missed by almost a quarter of Australians—though few have time for breakfast-in-the-bottle alternatives.

International Sweeteners Association fights back against highly-critical research review

22-Sep-2016 By Gary Scattergood

The International Sweeteners Association (ISA) has hit back at what it claims are the “misleading conclusions” of a review into sweetener industry-funded research which alleged widespread bias.

Reformulation of discretionary products would have limited impact

21-Sep-2016 By Gary Scattergood

Reformulating products such as biscuits, confectionary and sugar-sweetened beverages would have only a “small to moderate” impact on the diets of Australians, while simply telling people to eat less is “unsustainable”, an international diabetes conference...

India

Minister: India’s food processing industry could treble in size

20-Sep-2016 By RJ Whitehead

India’s food processing industry is likely to treble in size over the coming years, with international manufacturers starting to see the Asian giant as a “global food factory”.

Fast-food chains lead the way in contributing to India’s CO2 emissions

19-Sep-2016 By RJ Whitehead

A report by an international NGO which has studied some of the fastest growing multinational fast-food chains in India has warned that just eight of the companies combined could contribute the equivalent of nearly 1m more tonnes of carbon emissions by...

Indian ingredient firm Roha opens German base

15-Sep-2016 By Gary Scattergood

Indian-based ingredient firm Roha has continued its global expansion by opening a German office to increase technical and consumer support in Europe. 

Controlled-release gelatin film could help put tea polyphenols in to finished foods

14-Sep-2016 By Nathan Gray

The controlled release of tea polyphenols into finished food products could help create new functional foods and reduce oxidation without the need for synthetic antioxidants, say researchers.

Indian police have beef with biriyani

07-Sep-2016 By Oscar Rousseau

The north Indian state of Haryana has the second-highest number of complaints reported to the police, but authorities have bizarrely been tasked with sniffing out beef-laced biriyani. 

Singapore and Malaysia lead the way with voluntary GDA labelling roll-out

05-Sep-2016 By Gary Scattergood

‘Significant progress’ has been made in rolling-out voluntary Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) nutrition labelling in Asia over the past four years, but more work is needed to educate consumers and emphasise their benefits to small and medium-sized enterprises...

Natural ingredients in India: The four hurdles facing suppliers and manufacturers

24-Aug-2016 By Gary Scattergood

Indian food manufacturers face four fundamental hurdles when it comes to expanding their use of natural ingredients, in addition to the extra cost that they can incur.

India’s food trends: What’s hot and what's not

23-Aug-2016 By Gary Scattergood

Indian consumers are increasingly aware that all fats are not bad, are demanding more products that offer “complete wellness” and are becoming increasingly opening to exploring alternative proteins and natural sugars.

Logistics the biggest headache for India’s food and drink SMEs

21-Aug-2016 By Gary Scattergood

Logistics infrastructure is the major stumbling block hampering the efforts of India’s food and beverage SMEs as they seek to expand and tap into growing consumer demand, business leaders have warned.

Mondelēz warns multinationals to reposition during China’s economic slowdown

17-Aug-2016 By Douglas Yu

Multinational companies should reconsider their business strategies amid China’s economic slowdown, Mondelēz China president Stephen Maher told the audience at the recent Food and Beverage Innovation Forum in Shanghai.

Mondelēz appoints ex-Wrigley boss as India MD

03-Aug-2016 By Oliver Nieburg

Mondelēz International has named the managing director for its India business months after inaugurating a chocolate plant in Andhra Pradesh that will be its largest Asia Pacific plant.

Kraft brings Planters Peanuts to China’s competitive snacking nuts market

28-Jul-2016 By Douglas Yu

Kraft Foods has officially introduced its Planters Peanuts brand to China for the first time. 

Qatar could see ‘sin tax’ once VAT is introduced

27-Jul-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Qatar could see the introduction of “sin taxes” as the government seeks new ways to fund spending over the next three years, according to a ministerial report.

Gulf multinationals commit to phase out trans fats by 2019

27-Jul-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Several Gulf-based global food and beverage companies have have embraced a commitment to phase-out trans-fat in their Middle East products.

South Asia radius

FSSAI increases scientific panels as charm offensive continues

26-Jul-2016 By RJ Whitehead

India’s food regulator has increased the number of scientific panels that inform it, and boosted the frequency of their meetings in the wake of the Maggi instant noodles controversy that hit the packaged food industry last year.

Taiwan reviews safety of two flour additives

26-Jul-2016 By RJ Whitehead

Taiwan’s food safety authorities are evaluating whether regulations governing the use of two additives to flour products should be amended.

General Mills: 1,100 jobs under threat from plans to axe lines in Brazil, China and US

25-Jul-2016 By Douglas Yu

General Mills is set to close production lines in Brazil, China and the US - with the potential loss of almost 1,100 jobs - as part of plans to improve operational efficiency.

Australia

Multiple cereal benefits uncovered in first-of-its-kind study

18-Jul-2016 By RJ Whitehead

A first-ever scientific analysis of different types of breakfast cereals and their impact on the health of Australians has found positive benefits for body weight and nutrition, regardless of the type of cereal and its sugar content.