US Chicken to Make Pilgrim-age to Russia
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, Greeley, Colorado, has received
formal approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to
resume exporting chicken products to Russia, after switching from
chlorinated water to peroxyacetic acid to sanitize its meat.
The company said USDA has approved exports...
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Aldi Co-Founder Theo Albrecht Dies at 88
As he was reclusive in life, Theo Albrecht was kept reclusive in
death. The co-founder of Germany's Aldi discount chain died July
24 at age 88, but the company didn't reveal his passing until
after the funeral four days later.
Theo Albrecht, together with his brother Karl, founded the
superma...
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Catfish Importer Goes to Jail
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," ran the theme song
of the TV show Baretta.
So Thomas George, former chief executive officer of Sterling
Seafood Coin prison for passing off pangasius fish from Vietnam
as catfish and evading over $60 million in federal tariffs, plus
selling over...
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France's Picard Swallowed by Lion
French frozen food retailer Picard Surgeles is being acquired
from BC Partners Ltd. by Lion Capital LLP for a reported 1.5
billion euros ($1.94 billion). Lion will be the chain's third
private-equity owner in 10 years.
"Despite a hard consumer environment in 2009, Picard continued to
gain mar...
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Thai Union Frozen Products Buys European Cannery Group
Thai Union Frozen Products is set to announce that it will buy
French canned seafood business MW Brands in a deal worth between
EUR 650 million and EUR 700 million, people familiar with the
situation told the Wall Street Journal.
MW Brands was put up for sale by New York-based business
Trilan...
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More R&R for Ice Cream Giant
The R&R Ice Cream Group has once again expanded its production
and sales capacity through an acquisition. Cartel authorities
have approved the takeover of Rolland SAS, France's third largest
ice cream producer. Rolland employs 520 persons and has two
production facilities in France turning out 6...
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Eliminate US Fancy Grade? Fancy that!
The US Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) wants to revise 18
grade standards for frozen vegetables issued on or before July
22, 1985, and is looking for public comments.
The main object of the AMS is to replace the two term system with
a single term to describe each quality level for its gr...
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Marine Harvest to Vote on Dividend
Marine Harvest ASA, Oslo, Norway, has called an extraordinary
general meeting foe August 23 to vote on a proposed dividend of
NOK .20 a share, to be charged against other equity according to
the Company's balance sheet as of 31 December 2009, and to be
paid out Sept. 2.
This comes after the ...
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Big Daddy Goes on Health Kick
Marshall, Minnesota, USA-based Schwan's Food Service, the largest
supplier of pizza to the National School Lunch Program, is making
great strides in reducing the salt content of the pizzas it
supplies to more than 70,000 schools.
Having earlier set a goal of reducing the sodium in its school
...
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Permira-Birds Eye Buys Italian Frozen Food Unit
Unilever, the world's second-biggest consumer goods maker, has
agreed to sell its Italian frozen foods unit to a group led by
Birds Eye Iglo for 805 million euros ($1.04 billion) as it
focuses on building international brands.
Birds Eye Iglo, which is owned by private-equity firm Permira
Advi...
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Delhaize Goes Sustainable in Seafood
Delhaize America, Salisbury, North Carolina, USA -- which
operates supermarkets under the Hannaford, Sweetbay, Bottom
Dollar Food, and Food Lion, Bloom, Harveys and Reid's banners --
has adopted a sustainable seafood sourcing program.
Its supermarkets will move to selling seafood from source...
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AFFI Backs Move to Allow Frozens in Schools
Kraig R. Naasz, president and ceo of the American Frozen Food
Institute, has applauded the US House of Representatives'
Education and Labor Committee for approving inclusion of frosen
fruits in the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act.
"This legislation reauthorizing federal childhoo...
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Ruiz Takes to Facebook to Promote Tornados
Ruiz Foods is running a Facebook-based promotion called Flavor
Challenge 2.0 , in which its Tornados brand's 130,000-plus fans
can submit flavor ideas in eight different categories. The top
flavor in each category wins a year's supply of Tornados and a
Tornados-wrapped microwave. One lucky entry...
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Leggo My Pizza!
And now... breakfast pizza. Under the Eggo brand familiar from
frozen waffles, Kellogg Frozen Foods has rolled out Real Fruit
Pizzas that combine breakfast staples such as fruit and granola.
Eggo Real Fruit Pizzas are an all-in-one combination of fruit and
warm toasted granola on an oven-baked...
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Partner Logistics Enters British Fenlands
The UK's largest frozen food logistics facility, operated at
Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, by Netherlands-based Partner Logistics,
was formally opened July 9 by Mayor Nick Meekins of Wisbech and
company CEO Bram Hage.
Situated in the 1,500 square mile agricultural Fenlands region
for grains a...
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Private Label? Sobey It!
More than 80% of Canadian grocery shoppers say they purchase
private label brands such as Sobeys' leading Compliments line, a
new public opinion survey reveals. Some 58% buy private label
frequently,
Private label frozen foods in private label are favored by 54%
of frequent shoppers, acco...
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Red Lobster for the Seafood Farmer in You?
They've been selling them for more than 40 years. But now the
Orlando, Florida-based owner of Red Lobster restaurants is trying
to do something no one has ever done on a large commercial scale:
grow them.
Lobster farming won't be easy, if it can be done at all. Lobsters
are tough to raise in...
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Fish Prices May Fly on Chinese Tilapia
Chinese tilapia prices are likely to rise come October as total
production could be down by at least 20%, warns a report by the
China Aquatic Product Processing and Marketing Association (CAPPMA).
CAPPMA, which issued a similar warning in May, says the shortfall
in production already begun in ...
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Brasil Foods and the Anti-Trust Samba
Brasil Foods SA, world's largest poultry exporter, has taken a
tumble on the stock market after a government agency recommended
it sell assets before winning antitrust approval for the takeover
of its biggest rival.
Brasil Foods, formerly known as Perdigao SA, ran afoul of the
antitrust arm o...
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EC May Derail Gravy Train for Farms and Fisheries
Farm and fishing subsidies may be cut off to any of the 27
European Union members running excessive budget deficits, under
an austerity plan proposed by the European Commission.
Long before they became an issue in the deficit crisis, such
subsidies had come under fire as trade barriers against ...
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France's Picard up for Grabs
Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC, which in December raised a $5
billion fund for leveraged buyouts, is among at least five
private equity firms considering a bid for BC Partners Ltd.'s
French frozen-food retailer, Picard Surgeles, according to inside
sources, Bloomberg News has reported.
CVC Capit...
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Hot Potato Thrown into Court
Here's a hot potato for you: potato growers in the United States
and several other groups and companies are accused in a new
lawsuit by an upstate New York produce dealer and garden center
of conspiring to control potato supplies and fix prices at
artificially high levels.
The United Potato G...
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Shrimp and Oil Don't Mix
As the Gulf Coast oil spill continues to gush, US seafood
suppliers are turning to Asia to ensure Americans have enough
shrimp for their barbies or whatever this summer, but some of
those overseas cupboards are low themselves.
Several countries in the world's top shrimp-producing region are
s...
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FRoSTA Gains in Sales, Stalls in Profits
Despite a five percent increase in sales, which surpassed 400
million euros for the first time in 2009, profits for Germanys
FRoSTA AG remained only at the previous year's level of 12.0
million euros after taxes.
Shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Bremerhaven were
told that the...
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Ruiz Rules the Frozen Mexican Roost
Ruiz Foods, Dinuba, California, has become the largest frozen
Mexican food manufacturer in the United States, according to the
June 2010 issue of Hispanic Business Magazine, The maker of the
El Monterey and Tornados brands, is also ranked:
" first among the top 10 U.S. Hispanic-owned manufactu...
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Farstad Leaving Marine Harvest
Thomas Farstad, acting ceo and director of group operations for
Canada, Scotland and Others at Marine Harvest ASA, Oslo, Norway,
has decided to leave Marine Harvest later this year and join Aker
Seafoods ASA as ceo.
Farstad has been working with Marine Harvest since 2003. He has
been part of...
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Sepp's Acquired by Ralcorp
Ralcorp Holdings, St. Louis, Missouri. has purchased Sepp's
Gourmet Foods Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of frozen breakfast
foods such as waffles, pancakes, filled pancakes and French Toast.
Ralcorp said Sepp's frozen bakery products will complement its
own line of frozen baked goods. Sepp's i...
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Russia Lifts US Poultry Ban
Russia has agreed to lift its long-running ban on U.S. poultry
over the use of chlorine for pathogen reduction, President Barack
Obama said at a joint press conference in Washington June 24 with
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
According to US trade officials, the two sides have signed a
le...
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Krill Certification by MSC Draws Fire
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which has been certifying
sustainable fisheries for 15 years, has come under attack for
approving operations of a Norwegian company that makes dietary
supplements from Antarctic krill.
Krill, tiny pink shrimplike organisms that dwell in vast schools,
are...
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Seneca Foods Expands Frozen Presence
Seneca Foods, Marion, New York, USA, has signed a letter of
intent to acquire Unilink and its affiliated company, Lebanon
Valley Cold Storage, which sell frozen fruits and vegetables in
the packaged private label retail and food service channels.
One of the largest US processors of canned fru...
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Nesrlé Expands Again in Russia
Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland, is to build its 14th production
site in Russia following an investment of CHF60m ($52.7
million). It will be situated at a greenfield site in the
Vyazniki district of the Vladimir region, around 300 kilometers
east of Moscow,
The new factory will produce a...
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Brazil's Marfrig Acquires Keystone
Marfrig Alimentos SA, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Latin America's
second-largest beef producer, has agreed to pay $1.26 billion for
Keystone Foods LLC, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, USA, the
world's first company to mass produce boneless chicken nuggets.
Buying Keystone gives Marfrig access to a sup...
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Hi, Hi, American Pie!
ConAgra Foods, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, has agreed to acquire the
assets of American Pie, LLC, based in Woodbury, New York.
American Pie manufactures frozen fruit pies, thaw and serve
pies, fruit cobblers and pie crusts under the licensed Marie
Callender's and Claim Jumper trade names, as wel...
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Black Eye for Chinese "Organic" Certification
Are "organic" products from China like frozen broccoli REALLY
organic? The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has been
relying on third-party inspectors, is banning one of them because
of an alleged conflict of interest.
The ban, formally announced June 14, is likely to propel consumer...
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Sustainable Fish Farming, Sustainable Profits
Marine Harvest ASA, Oslo, Norway, is in the business of farming
fish. But the point of that business is farming capital over the
long term, and thus sustainably making money for its investors.
That was the message from Jergen K. Anderssen, chief financial
officer of the company, at the Annual...
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Brakes Breaks Records
UK Foodservice supplier Brakes, Ashford, Kent, has swept the
board at the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) awards,
claiming 12 titles.
Brakes collected five gold, four silver and two bronze awards in
starter, main course, vegetarian, multi portion and bakery
categories. It also took the ...
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Ardo Buys Out Ploegmakers
As of May 31, Ardo N.V., Ardooie, Begium, took over the
Ploegmakers Food Ingredients B.V., Veghel, the Netherlands,
Ploegmakers' activities, procedures and company culture are said
correspond closely with those of the Ardo group. But the company
will continue to operate under its present name ...
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Northern Foods Unfolds Pizza Fairy Tale
Will a Pizza Fairy boost the profits of Northern Foods, which
makes Goodfella's pizza? That's what the Leeds, England-based
company hopes for from a £5 million ($7.2 million) brand relaunch
that began on British television.
The company ran its TV campaign for Goodfella's Everyday Thin,
Everyd...
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Cargill Gets Chicken Leg Up in Russia
Cargill, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, has announced plans to
build a chicken processing facility at Yefremov in Russia --
which has lately been making it tough for American companies to
export chicken there.
The plant represents an investment of $30 million at the
company's existing industri...
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Politics and Tilapia
The Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MOAF) has
exercised its rights under World Trade Organization rules to
suspend imports of cheap tilapia from South East Asia, over
concerns that imports have not been meeting sanitary and
phyto-sanitary standards.
Dr. Marc Panton, chief tech...
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Politics and Catfish
Arkansas' Blanche Lincoln, chairman of the US Senate Agriculture
Committee who is in a tough re-election battle, is pressing the
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to begin regulating catfish, in
order to help catfish farmers in her state compete with a flood
of imports from Southeast Asia.
A c...
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Moy Park Becoming UK Poultry Giant
Northern Ireland's Moy Park is about to become king of the roost,
the largest poultry firm in the United Kingdom, with the pending
acquisition of rival O'Kane Poultry. The firms' combined
turnover is close to £1 billion.
"The poultry markets of the UK and Europe are growing. By
bringing the ...
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Falling Euro Felling Bangladesh Exports
The free-faling euro is death on the export industries in Bangladesh.
"Our exports and earnings have already hit the rock-bottom. The
plummeting euro will just kill us," said Musa Meah, President
of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters' Association (BFFEA), a
trade group.
Frozen food shipme...
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Organics: Not Good for You, Not Bad for You
What's it all mean, Mr. Natural? Nothing much, according to a
review of published research literature that finds no evidence of
organic foods being either helpful or harmful to health.
The review, published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, is an examination of peer-reviewed liter...
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Nash Finch Expands Ohio Frozen Food Facility
Nash Finch Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota-based national food
distributor, has completed a major expansion of its distribution
center in Lima, Ohio, effectively doubling the freezer capacity
there.
We are very excited to announce the completion of this expansion
at our Lima distribution cen...
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Original Rangoon Company = ORC Foods
The Original Rangoon Company, Needham, Massachusetts,
manufacturer of frozen appetizers and other products, has changed
its name to ORC Foods, Inc., hired the founders' brother to run
the show, and launched a new line of products.
"As our product range has branched out beyond rangoons and othe...
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Lamb Weston/Meijer, RWA. to Share Austrian Processor
Lamb Weston-Meijer (LW/M), Kruningen, the Netherlands, has
acquired a 74% interest in Frisch & Frost Nahrungsmittel GmbH
(F&F), Hollabrunn, Austria, from Vienna-based Raiffeisen Ware
Austria (RWA).
F&F, which operates a potato products plant and two dough
producing facilities in Austria with...
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ConAgra Looks to Sweet Potato Boom
Maybe they're Popeye's second-favorite food ("I yam what I yam")
and, unlike spinach, they can be made into fries. But the trick
is to grow sweet potatoes with a more predictable shape and sugar
content, so that they can be processed as readily as russet potatoes.
ConAgra Foods-Lamb Weston, wh...
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France's Picard May Be Up for Grabs
Picard Surgeles, the French frozen food retailer, may be up for
sale. BC Partners Ltd., manager of a 5.8 billion-euro ($7.2
billion) private equity fund that acquired the chain six years
ago, is said to have hired Rothschild to look into the matter.
Insiders sat BC, which paid 1.3 billion euro...
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US Consumers Keeping Heads Down, Cooking More at Home
Americans forced into the kitchen by the recession aren't in any
hurry to get back out of it, even if the economy continues to
improve, according to a survey by ConAgra Foods taken in March
among 509 men and an equal number of women.
While many economic pundits are saying that the recession is...
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US Keeps Penalties on Imported Shrimp
If the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico gets any worse, there may
not be a domestic shrimp industry for the United States to
protect any more. But the US Department of Commerce aims to keep
antidumping duties in place for shipments of warmwater shrimp
from China, Thailand, India and Brazil.
"A...
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Oetker Gets International Pizza the Action
Despite the recession Dr. Oetker Pizza had a successful year
internationally in 2009. Managing Director Dr. Richard Oetker
told its annual press conference that the firm had an
international turnover of 1.79 billion euros, an increase of 5.5%
over 2008.
Though the turnover in Germany was dow...
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New Leadership for IARW and WFLO
Mark Blanchard, president and ceo of New Orleans Cold Storage,
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, has been elected as the 2010-2011
chairman of International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses
(IARW).
Michael McClendon, president of Richmond Cold Storage Co.,
Richmond, Virginia, USA has been el...
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Kosher Chicken Marriage
Empire Kosher Poultry, Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, will take over
production of the Kosher Valley, said to be the first brand of
certified kosher antibiotic-free (ABF), vegetarian fed and
humanely raised all-natural branded chicken and turkey products.
Rights to the brand are being sold by Hain P...
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Oil's Well for Thai Shrimp Exports
Thai shrimp shipments are expected to rise by at least eight
percent this year, spurred by the outbreak of infectious
myonecrosis virus in shrimp farms in Indonesia and Brazil, and a
lower catch in the United States due to the oil spill off Louisiana.
As an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico near...
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Marine Harvest Has Good Quarter
Marine Harvest ASA, Oslo, Norway, reported operating revenues of
NOK 3 431 million, up four percent from NOK 3 298 million, for
the first quarter of 2010. Higher prices more than compensated
for a four percent drop in harvest volumes from 76,177 to 73,061
tons. Net earnings in the period were NO...
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Pinguin-Lutosa Sales Picking Up
PinguinLutosa recorded consolidated sales of 111.9 million euros,
an increase of 4.68%, for the first three months of 2010, the
Westrozebeke, Belgium-headquartered company reported.
Sales for the frozen vegetable division were up 4.25% to 59.8
million euros, and those of the potato division 5....
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New Shrimp Initiative in Vietnam
With the help of feed supplier Qualasa Pte, Ltd., Vietnam's
Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang plans to become one of the
world's major shrimp producers by meeting the highest standards
for sustainability and traceability of products.
The official announcement came at sustainability conference...
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Chinese Put Double Whammy on US Chicken
China has dropped the other shoe and imposed a second set of
tariffs on US chicken products in less than three months, this
time claiming that feed subsidies give US chicken producers an
unfair advantage.
US companies will face additional import duties of between 3.8%
and 31.4%, the Ministry ...
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ConAgra Rolls Out Side Dish Line
Alexia Select Sides, a line of all-natural, easy-to-prepare
roasted potato and vegetable side dishes for skillet preparation
that go from freezer to plate in 10 to 12 minutes, has been
introduced by ConAgra Foods.
They are said to contain all the ingredients needed to prepare a
nutritious, mu...
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Northern Foods to Shut Wales Plant
Northern Foods is closing down its A Swansea, Wales-based
chilled ready meal manufacturer Ethnic Cuisine, with the loss of
234 jobs,
Northern Foods said its subsidiary was no longer economically
viable, having been unable to strike a more favorable supply
contract with Sainsburys for its ...
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Down, Down, Down for Japanese Supermarket Sales
Supermarket sales in Japan fell 4.4% in fiscal 2009 on a same
store basis for the 13th consecutive year of decline, an
industry body said Thursday.
Total supermarket sales before adjustment for number of stores
came to ¥12.70 trillion in the fiscal year ended March 31,
falling below ¥13 t...
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Racing with Tornados
Tornados, a brand of frozen hand-held Mexican roller grill snacks
produced by Ruiz Foods, Dinuba, California, is running a summer
on-pack consumer racing promotion featuring the No. 39 Tornados
Chevrolet driven by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman. ((
Beginning May 1 and continuing t...
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Ash Clouds Good News for Culimer
The volcanic eruption in Iceland that sent ash clouds over much
of Europe may have been bad news for a lot of business, but it
was good news for Culimer B.V., Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which
saw demand for its super frozen tuna more than double in a couple
of days.
The eruption of the Eyjaf...
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P.F. Chang's Brings Asian Entrees Home
If Boston Market can do it, why not P.J. Chang's China Bistro?
That's the logic behind the introduction of the P.F. Chang's Home
Menu line of frozen entrees for those who long at home for the
signature Asian cuisine of restaurant chain.
Created with the expert chefs at P.F. Chang's the line i...
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