New Food Drying Technology?

Is this really a new technology? too often I’ve read about the next new drying technology but the changes haven’t been significant for many years. At the end of the day that cost is a major issue where many new technologies have failed.

 

from: Food Production Daily
(click image for full story online)

 

This seems to work on a combination of microwave heating and pressure to control the structure of the material in some kind of “black box” technology.

However the claims of the manufacturer EnWave Corporation of Canada that

compared with the industry standard, freeze drying technology, the new equipment cuts processing time to minutes rather than hours or days, cuts energy use by one third and capital costs by one sixth

make the equipment interesting.

The fact that the equipment is sold with a royalty income stream is also indicative of the company’s commitment to the technology.

 

Agribusiness Information – West Africa Trade Hub

I always feel good when I see what looks like real useful information that is available to African entrepreneurs for free!

 

from: West Africa Trade Hub
(click image for full story online)

 

The West Africa Trade Hub is funded through and managed by the USAID Regional Mission for West Africa.

This is packed with useful information from trade directories to export and business guides, country and sector analyses to product reports and transport analyses to conferences and workshops.

There are two other hubs for East and Southern Africa, but these do not yet have the breadth of information presented by the West African Hub.

What I would like would be to hear from people who have used the West Africa Hub – is it as good as it seems? Leave a comment or email me here.

If so I think we could start to support and encourage USAID, the main funder of the hubs, to speed up the development of the other hubs.

Some Africa Relevant Food Processing News Links – 3

This post is a periodic one, that simply lists interesting Food Processing stories that I feel are relevant to Africa. The link will take you to an original article which will acknowledge my source of the story.

Solutions abound for polyphenol-fortified milk: study – while adding sufficient polyphenol to milk to give it anti oxidant benefits equivalent to an apple gives it an unacceptable taste. Research has found that adding fruit flavours and cyclodextrins can mask these flavours. What about just eating the apple?

Healthy and fun drive ice cream innovation at new Unilever centre – Unilever are looking for innovation to increase their market share, focussing on natural ingredients, shape, packaging, freezing and the value chain.

High pressure processing kit wins IFT science award – Seems like high pressure processing is suceeding – possibly too equipment intensive for small processors.

Ingredients round up: refreshing sweets and cost cutting alternatives – some new ingredient news including a fresh flavour that works in a different way to the normal ones which are citric acid, peppermint and menthol.

Some Africa Relevant Food Processing News – 2

This post is a periodic one, that simply lists interesting Food Processing stories that I feel are relevant to Africa. The link will take you to an original article which will acknowledge my source of the story.

Organic chocolate fans unlikely to switch to cheaper options – In recent years organic confectionery products have become increasingly popular but, are consumers going to stick by their principals in the face of rising food prices or will they turn towards a cheaper alternative?.

Sodium benzoate removed from Diet Coke – Coca-Cola is phasing out the use of the controversial additive sodium benzoate in Diet Coke on the back of consumer demand for more natural products..

Heinz to use potato peels to help cut energy costs – US-based food producer Heinz has unveiled ambitious plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2015 by using energy generated from potato peel.

Introduction of a new natural sweetener – the sweetener extracted from Stevia was introduced by Cargill and Coke and reflects the pressure consumers are putting on coke for more natural ingredients (see previous post)

Renovating for energy efficiency – in the USA food processing companies are starting to feel the pressure to be greener through retailer demands, but also see cost savings opportunities in running more sustainable processes when the modify their plant.

Some Africa Relevant Food Processing News – 1

This post is a periodic one, that simply lists interesting Food Processing stories that I feel are relevant to Africa. The link will take you to an original article which will acknowledge my source of the story.

News briefs: healthy and premium chocolate launches- Omega 3 enriched and chocolates of origin launched to try and grow market for premium chocolates!

Vitamin and mineral foods markets to flower in Africa? – Claims to have identified a trend for vitamin enriched foods in Uganda?

New anti-theft tag for food packaging – A new Radio Frequency anti-theft tag can be inserted into the packaging of moist, fresh products such as cheese and meat.

Smoothies cause rift between dieticians and dentists – The nutritionists like the contribution to fruit consumption while dentists say the sugar and acid has a negative effect compared to the fresh fruit.

Italy seeks protection for world’s most costly spice – Italy hopes to have Safron from Sardinia given Protected designation of origin (PDO) status, improving its income market share

New Food Products – USA

The Nielsen Company monitors and analyses the launch and growth of new products, including food, in the USA Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market. Their report for 2007 is out and shows that there were more than 122 000 new Stock Taking Units (STK) in the year.

from: The Nielsen Company
(click image for full story online)

 

The interesting thing is that of these only 3% of these were able to generate $ 1 million turnover a year, a very small “success rate”. From the other viewpoint, new food & beverage products did generate $ 9.8 billion of new sales in a sector turning over $ 600 billion / year.

The report notes that 9 of the top 10 products were “brand extensions” ie products that although they were new and different were linked to an already established brand.

More Food Trends

A previous post looked at consumer food trends from a British source and noted the lack of such a list from Africa.

Now another view on Food Trends, this time American

from: FoodProcessing.com
(click image for full story online)

 

Comparing the two is informative

 

Organic and Health are of interest to both while the environment is of no interest to the Americans (while Bush rules anyway) and Portion control is on no interest to the British.

Maybe the biggest difference which is reflected in the focus on taste based trend in Britian – maybe the Americans food taste matches their beer taste which is sad!

Growing Snack Market

The snack food market is predicted by Global Industry Analysis (GIA) to grow during the next few years, contradicting a feeling that consumers would eat less of these unhealthy food.

from: Food Navigator

(click image for full story online)

 

The reasons for this appear to be the introduction of healthier snacks by many manufacturers and growing markets in for example Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America

Natural Flavour Enhancer & More

Croatian Food Scientists have identified Trehalose, a sugar found naturally in mushrooms, honey, lobster and shrimp as a potential food additive. As well as enhancing aroma in processed strawberries it appear to improve the colour, aroma, and the anthocyanin content of the finished fillings.

from: Food Navigator Europe

 

Since aroma is so closely related to food taste and assuming that this will result if further work focussed on natural food additives, maybe we can look forward to fewer synthetic food additives. I for one, being allergic to MSG, look forward to this.

Seed Production Facility – Uganda

from: Voice of America

 

A new factory in Uganda promises to help provide small farmers with seeds for more than 55 crops, including vegetables as well as groundnuts, soybeans, maize, rice and other grains. The new privately owned plant comes as the government is encouraging business to play a larger role in the production, processing and marketing of seeds and fertilizers. Voice of America English to Africa Service’s Machrine Birungi in Kampala reports.