| In the United States, 32.2 percent of shoppers said they are currently buying more private-label brands, with only 6.6 percent of them saying they plan to return to name brands, according to a 2016 edition of “The Checkout” study. Results of the survey revealed 11.9 percent of respondents said they are buying fewer store brands, while 17.4 percent are buying more private labels and will keep on buying them. Also, 8.2 percent of respondents said they are buying more store labels and plan to buy even more. Data also revealed a decline in consumer perception of name brands as offering more new products, varieties, and innovations, from 56 percent of respondents in 2010 to 45 percent in 2015. Among African-American consumers, more are... More "New Checkout Study: Private Label", Shopper Culture, March 28, 2016
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 Chef Adam Leonti is testing recipes at the Brooklyn Bread Lab as he awaits the much-anticipated opening of the Williamsburg Hotel, which will house his new restaurant. Leonti is especially focused on grain at the Lab, a bakery that is shifting purpose into an experimental kitchen, café and educational facility. But Leonti has a somewhat hidden agenda. He also is determined to change public opinion on bread, especially the key protein ingredient in bread dough, gluten. Milling his own flour on site, he wants to prove at the Lab that gluten is not really an enemy as long as it is used with old-school techniques and proper ingredients, including seasonal grains like “Turkey” wheat from Kansas and other rare grains.
"Against the grain: Brooklyn Bread Lab's experimental baking is a real raising agent", Wallpaper, March 24, 2016
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 An article on the website GroundReport.com posts a list of restaurant trends as well as “fresh, healthy dishes” and ingredients that will gain popularity in 2016, including poke (“po-kay”), hot ice creams, seaweed, ube (purple yam), fermented foods, etc. Of special note, however, was the declaration that “the no-carb Atkins craze is over.” Ignoring the fact that the Atkins diet is actually more of a low-carb (especially low processed carb) plan than a no-carb plan, the article does have good news for the bread industry: “the triumphant return of bread is upon us.” Toasts, bagels and flatbreads featuring ancient grains and wholesome ingredients are all reasons for bread lovers to celebrate.
"Healthy Food Trends of 2016 That Will Influence Your Diet", Ground Report, March 24, 2016
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 A California lawmaker believes legislation he has proposed would help solve the food waste problem with one simple change. The bill would replace all the confusing expiration date phrases on food labels with two simpler notices. The confusing terminology – used by manufacturers and not regulated by the federal government – leads to waste of food that is still safely edible. Terms like "best by," "freshest by," and "sell by" would be replaced by ‘best if used by” and “expires on,” the latter indicating food should not be eaten after this date. Foods presenting a food safety problem would be determined by the California Department of Public Health.
"Food waste is target of legislation on expiration labels", SF Gate, March 24, 2016
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 Starbucks has been donating unsold pastries to charities since 2010 with the help of Food Donation Connection (FDC), a service provider that collects the food at the company’s 7,600 stores. Recently Starbucks announced a plan to donate ready-to-eat meals, including refrigerated perishables such as fruit cups and sandwiches, to food banks through its collaboration with FDC and a new partnership with Feeding America. In the first year, the Starbucks FoodShare program will provide nearly five million meals to individuals and families. The company will expand the program over the next five years to eventually rescue 100 percent of its food.
"Their Coffee Is Controversial, But Starbucks Gets Food Waste Policy Right", CityLab, March 24, 2016
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 InFarm partnered with retailer Metro to evaluate its modular self-contained farm in a supermarket in Berlin. According to InFarm, the indoor farming technology is efficient enough to make the cost of operating a vertical farm affordable on a micro scale. Designed to make the most of available space, the technology enables the growing of produce in a single area. Some of the advantages offered by the system include elimination of transportation, storage, and refrigeration costs, as well as reduction in water and fertilizer use.
"At This Supermarket, The Produce Section Grows Its Own Produce", Fast Company, March 23, 2016
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 A competitive New York City pastry chef has created and popularized, with the help of foodies on social media, yet another hybrid baked treat. The “Macaron Donut” – or “macaronut” – has been featured on TV, food blogs, and Instagram, driving it viral on the Internet. Chef Francois Payard did not stand by idly, waiting for the phenomenon to develop, however. He sent free samples to “online influencers.” The macaronut comprises a strawberries-and-cream filling sandwiched between a pink macaron shell and a strawberry dough bottom. Confetti sprinkles top it all off. The treat was officially launched this month at Payard’s city patisseries at $5 each.
"How one wacky NYC donut went viral", CNBC Make It., March 19, 2016
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 A legislative proposal to reduce Italy’s food waste – by a billion tons this year alone -- has passed the House and is likely to pass the Senate. The bill follows in the footsteps of a new law in France that makes it compulsory for large grocery stores and supermarkets to donate their unsold edible foods to charitable organizations for redistribution to the needy. The Italian version, however, uses a carrot rather than a stick in securing compliance. It provides large tax breaks for participants. The French law imposes stiff fines for discarding unsold food. A billion tons of food waste in 2016 would be twice the amount recovered in Italy last year.
"Italy to Rescue 1 Billion Tons of Food Waste a Year", Eat Drink Better, March 18, 2016
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 A Whole Foods Market employee with the title of “forager” recently toured a natural food products expo in California, discussing items that form the avant garde of food trends. Among the innovations – e.g., full-fat foods, veggie-flavored yogurts, organic kefir, etc. – were foods that promised to be “grain-free,” a new term that may supplant “gluten-free” and “Paleo” on packages. Sampling a grain-free granola made from bananas, cashew butter and seeds, Elly Truesdell said the term was better marketing and just plain “smart,” now that Paleo is “losing some steam.”
"From Kefir to ‘Cucamelons,’ Sampling the Next Wave of Natural Foods", The New York Times, March 18, 2016
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 A food scientist in Singapore pondered some of the nutritional and health drawbacks of white bread. It digests too fast, for one thing, causing a spike in blood sugar. Its starch content is also digested too rapidly, leaving people hungry for more. All of this links white bread to obesity and related health issues. Zhou Weibiao’s solution to this problem was to add anthocyanin extract derived from black rice. A chemical reaction with the starch enzymes turns the bread purple, but the anthocyanins also slow digestion speed by 20 percent and are rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants. And the bread is made entirely of natural compounds.
"Purple bread: A new superfood?", CNN, March 18, 2016
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 USDA food scientists who experimented with the ancient grain amaranth, blending it with oats, whole wheat and chia seeds, say they’ve come up with more healthful, yet still tasty, sugar cookies. Both amaranth and chia contain the essential amino acid lysine. Blending amaranth with beta-glucan-rich oats results in a cookie that could help lower blood cholesterol. Blending an oat bran concentrate and whole wheat flour with finely ground chia may prove even more beneficial. Because chai seeds are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, baked goods made with the chia-oats-wheat mixture not only have improved texture, they could help lower blood cholesterol and prevent coronary heart disease.
"Ancient Grains Make Healthful, Tasty Cookies", News release, USDA, March 16, 2016
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 A Swiss company that started in 2012 hopes to launch its one product – a “Keurig-like machine” for making tortillas – sometime next year. In the meantime Flatev is raising money, and getting its manufacturing and distribution ducks in a row. The basic mission, according to founder Carlos Ruiz, is to merge the “delicious taste of Mexico with the immediacy of technology.” The product is similar to a single-serve coffee machine except that it uses pods of dough with a 60-day shelf-life made from purely organic, non-GMO dough flour, no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors. It creates “the perfect tortilla” with all of the goodness of the homemade variety, the company says.
"Interview: Flatev to offer fresh tortillas at the push of a button", FoodBev Media, March 14, 2016
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|  Six months after the USDA and EPA spearheaded an initiative to reduce food loss and waste by half within 15 years, a nonprofit and corporate collaboration known as ReFED has joined the fight. The group has put forth a 27-step roadmap for the U.S. to reduce food waste 20 percent by 2026. The roadmap suggests eliminating sell-by dates and changing the composition of animal feed. Focusing heavily on prevention, the plan urges food companies, for example, to adjust packaging to discourage waste, selling smaller portions and designing packages to prevent food spoilage. The plan, which ReFED says would create thousands of jobs and save consumers billions of dollars, has the support of 30 organizations, including the Natural Resources... More "This Could Be the Best Way to Solve America’s Food Waste Problem", Time, March 09, 2016
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 Danish supermarket WeFood has come up with a unique solution to the food waste problem that is particularly severe in developed countries because of aesthetic or food safety concerns. The store only stocks food that is past its expiration date, is misshapen or has other imperfections, or has damaged packaging. Food prices are 30 to 50 percent cheaper than at other stores. To accomplish its mission, WeFood has formed partnerships with local supermarkets and butchers, produce importers and manufacturers of organic granola bars. It also has the support of the government, which says Denmark has reduced food waste by 25 percent in five years.
"Past-prime food finds new life in new store", The Washington Post, February 27, 2016
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|  A Kansas grocery store that sells only salvage foods and beverages at discount has proved beneficial to the local community, but has had some unique problems to overcome. The Bargain Barn’s shelves are filled with overstock items and products close to or a little past their expiration date that might otherwise end up in a landfill. So to keep its certification, the store must be inspected regularly by the state to make sure the food is safe. But that eases the concerns of some shoppers who worry that salvage food means spoiled food. In addition to inspections, the store faces the challenge of obtaining its food supply through bidding or contracting. State regulations prohibit buying locally produced goods, like eggs. But otherwise... More "Store sells salvage, discount food", Parsons (Kansas) Sun, February 17, 2016
|  The French annually discard 7.1 million tons of food. Two-thirds of that is from consumers, the rest from restaurants and grocery stores. A new law tackles part of the problem, at least, requiring grocery stores to donate unsold food to charitable organizations for redistribution. The U.S. has a similar food waste problem, though on a much larger scale: 21.5 million tons of food go uneaten while 14 percent of Americans “lack reliable access to food.” Though there are laws on the books to encourage food donation, there is nothing comparable to the new French law, and there may never be. A USDA official said such a law in the U.S. would create “a really expensive system to recover marginal amounts of food,” and “that’s not good for... More "Why the US May Never Pass a Food Waste Law Like France", Gizmodo, February 05, 2016
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 An Irish tech entrepreneur who is passionate about food waste developed a smartphone app and organization that links businesses that have surplus food with charities that will then redistribute it to the needy. Restaurants and grocery stores can upload the details of their donation on the Foodcloud.net app, which then sends a text message to organizations telling them where to pick up the food. Foodcloud has distributed almost 1.5 million meals since it was created, and is now facilitating distribution of a ton of food daily. In 2014, the FoodCloud partnered with Tesco to give all surplus food from its 146 stores to charities across Ireland.
"Irish entrepreneur's app solves waste of food by redistributing it to those most in need", Irish Examiner, January 08, 2016
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