Harish Manwani, Unilever chairman and president for Asia, Africa, and East and Central Europe, said, in a long and wide-ranging interview, that his company plans to increase emerging market share of Unilever’s total revenues from 53% to 70%. Unilever views developing and emerging (D&E) markets as mission critical for its future growth and plans to allocate more than 60% of research and development (R&D) and brand-development resources in D&E countries. India has emerged as one of the most important D&E markets for Unilever. At the same time, the country provides the company with a large pool of managerial talent, with some 140 Indian managers currently working in senior positions worldwide. Brazil is an equally important market at the moment, but Russia and China remain among the countries where the company is "relatively under-represented", although they are now the company’s fastest growing markets.  Aside from growing its business, Unilever also intends to cut its environmental footprint by half by ensuring that 100% of its raw materials, such as palm oil and tea, come from sustainable sources. Manwani also identifies innovation as key to continuous market development but also highlighted the need to strip out costs as far as possible in order to mitigate the impact of rising commodity prices. 

Unilever has partnered with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to support the development and management of Unilever's manufacturing facilities worldwide. From its headquarters in Singapore, the partnership - Unilever Engineering Services (UEnS) - will assist in Unilever's expansion plans by improving project delivery, cost management, speed to market, as well as operations and sustainability. Unilever's expansion plans will focus mainly on developing markets, which the company expects to account for 70–75% of its long-term growth. The partnership will also coordinate with Unilever's supply chain groups to support faster time to market and smaller environmental footprints for its manufacturing plants.

In 2009, Health Canada determined there would be some "safety and consumer confusion" issues arising from a 2005 compromise giving manufacturers of food and beverages, including junk food, discretion to fortify their products with nutrients. According to the memo written by a senior adviser to the director general of Health Canada's food directorate, the agency needed to address some issues about food companies' use of a loophole in the regulations to sell fortified food and drinks as natural health products. These concerns include the risk of too much intake of individual nutrients, which in the case of vitamin A in the retinol form might lead to liver diseases and, in cases of pregnant women, birth defects. Newly released documents also revealed that food companies are divided over how to go about food fortification, while the government has yet to propose new regulations.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) estimates that the contribution of modern retail in India was 10% in 2010, from just 5% three years before. In the major cities, the share could be as high as 30%, and it highlights the changing consumer landscape in the country. Companies like HUL tend to gauge brand performance on their shares within modern retail, even if they continue to hold strong positions in general trade. HUL set up a dedicated modern trade account management team in 2003, one of the first FMCG companies in the country to do so.  The move to modern retail shopping is being seen also beyond the big metros, in the tier-2 and tier-3 towns. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates the Indian retailing industry at some $350 billion, and should begin a new growth trajectory as household consumption rises and global retailers arrive to meet demand, encouraged by more liberal conditions for foreign companies seeking joint ventures with domestic companies.

Ready meals just got even easier. Tesco will launch in June 2011 a new range of chilled microwave ready-meal Indian curry dishes that whistle when cooked. You don’t have to pierce the lid before use or stir halfway through. Manufactured by S&R Foods under the East End brand, the meals use built-in pasteurization cooking process and will have a shelf life of 30 days without the need for preservatives. Based on a Swedish technology, the meal packs use a valve in the film lid to form a vacuum, sealing in "nutrients, textures, and flavors and keeping out bacteria. The makers of the technology claim a Michelin-starred chef is using it in Sweden.

An analysis of U.S. consumer goods companies find that brand stewardship and brand portfolio strategy lie behind their enduring success, underscoring the multi-billion dollar valuations given to brands. Brand diversification is seen as a core success strategy along with the ability of companies to leverage brand strength in distribution and other fields. The list of companies studied includes  Procter & Gamble, which controls 48 ‘major brands’ including Gillette, Tide, and Pampers; Johnson & Johnson, with 35 major brands, including Band-Aid and Tylenol; PepsiCo, which owns 34, including Pepsi and Frito-Lay, and Mars, which owns 26, including M&M's, Snickers, and Orbit.

Researchers have found that polysaccharopeptide (PSP), an active component extracted from the Turkey tail (Coriolus versicolor) mushroom, can be used to target prostate cancer stem/progenitor cells (CSC). Treatment of prostate cancer cell line PC-3 with PSP reduced CSC markers CD133 and CD44 depending on treatment duration and dosage. PSP treatment limited PC-3 cells' ability to form prostaspheres "under non-adherent culture conditions," and inhibited their tumorigenicity in vivo. Researchers fed transgenic mice that spontaneously develop prostate tumors with PSP for 20 weeks. None of these mice developed tumors, while 100% of mice fed with water only developed prostate cancers.