Grant Street, Chinatown, October 11, 2017

Emily E. LB. Twarog.  Politics of the Pantry: Housewives, Food, and Consumer Protest in Twentieth-Century America.  Oxford University Press, 2017.

I did a blurb for this book:

Who knew that American housewives were up in arms throughout the last century about rising food prices and misleading package information.  Twarog traces the history of how these movements developed, their connections to unions and women’s auxiliaries, and how twentieth-century politics systematically destroyed them.  Her book has much to teach us about what’s needed to preserve—and strengthen–today’s food movements.

I subscribe to GlobalMeatNews.com to keep me up on the international meat business.  It has just published a collection of its articles—on pork.

Special Edition: Pork

Pork is the most eaten meat in world and maintaining the position is anything but easy. In this special newsletter, GlobalMeatNews explores the breakthroughs, scandals and market trends that continue to kept traders on their toes.

• Russia’s Cherkizovo suspected of tax evasion: Russian law enforcement agencies have said they will conduct a detailed investigation into criminal allegations against Cherkizovo, Russia’s leading pork and poultry producer… Read
• Three Brazilian pork firms approved to sell to South Korea: Three Brazilian slaughterhouses in the southern state of Santa Catarina have been cleared to sell pork to South Korea, the world’s fourth-biggest importer of pig meat… Read
• ASF-infected meat detected in Russian plants: Meat products infected with African swine fever (ASF) have been detected on retail shelves in at least two Russian regions, Pskov Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai, according to Russian veterinary body Rosselkhoznadzor… Read
• Industry warned to ‘stop cutting pig price’: European pork processors have to stop cutting the price paid to pig suppliers, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has warned… Read
• Asian animal welfare puts world leaders to ‘shame’: A Thai pork producer’s decision to phase out pig cages within the next decade could have major repercussions around the world, an animal welfare advocate said… Read
• Danish Crown grows south-east Asia presence: With economic growth in south-east Asia continuing, the Danish Crown Group has announced that it is establishing a head office for the region… Read

When I give talks these days, I usually wear a pin—the O in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development GOals (SDGs).  These were authorized by the U.N. General Assembly in 2015 to be achieved by 2030.

Each goal has specific sub-goals.  These are listed here in interactive format.  Food comes up in several, but mainly in Goal 2 (End Hunger) and a bit in Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).  Here are the first three sub-goals for Goal 2:

The SDGs have sparked many organizations to take action.  The U.N. makes taking small actions easy for individuals by producing “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World“—things you can do from your couch, your home, or outside your home.

Here’s the U.N. report on how progress toward the goals looked in 2016.

I wish chronic disease prevention was more prominent in these goals, which would make food more prominent, but this is a start and well worth knowing about.

Food regulation is no trivial matter.  Every word on a food label has a Federal Register notice and Code of Federal Regulation section behind it.

Consequently, I was amused to learn that the FDA was not amused when it found the word “love” in the ingredient list of granola from Nashoba Brook Bakery.  The FDA issued a warning letter with this presumably non-ironic statement:

Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient “Love”. Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name [21 CFR 101.4(a)(1). “Love” is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient.

From its website, the bakery looks like it makes great stuff, but its owners must not be familiar with FDA’s byzantine regulatory requirements.  The warning letter also chided the bakery for a long list of food safety violations, among them:

• Approximately five flies in the ready-to-eat cooling area and processing area of the facility, all near or on food.
• One approximately 1″ long crawling insect underneath exposed ready-to-eat foods in the pastry area, including focaccia breads, 7-Grain rolls, and brioche rolls.
• The mixing employee was wearing a blue plastic bracelet while working with raw dough. The bracelet came into repeated contact with raw dough and dough varieties.
• A production employee wore a nose ring and earrings while handling and shaping raw dough.

I hope the bakery gets its regulatory and food safety act together right away.

Personally, I like a little love in my granola.

Belgium has produced a new food guide “pyramid,” upside down.  Its advice:

• Drink water
• Eat more fruits, vegetables, and grains
• Eat less dairy and meat, particularly those high in fat
• Eat a lot less junk food, sugary drinks, and alcohol

Nothing new here, really, except for making the advice so graphically clear.

As Quartz puts it, “the new food pyramid in Belgium sticks meat next to candy and pizza.”

USDA: take note.

HLPE [High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition]. Nutrition and food systems. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome, 2017.

This report takes a food systems approach to recommendations for reducing the double burden of malnutrition—obesity in the presence of widespread hunger and its consequences.

This report aims to analyse how food systems influence diets and nutrition. It offers three significant additions to previous frameworks. First, it emphasizes the role of diets as a core link between food systems and their health and nutrition outcomes. Second, it highlights the central role of the food environment in facilitating healthy and sustainable consumer food choices. Third, it takes into account the impacts of agriculture and food systems on sustainability in its three dimensions (economic, social and environmental). 2. A food system gathers all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes. This report pays specific attention to nutrition and health outcomes of food systems. It identifies three constituent elements of food systems, as entry and exit points for nutrition: food supply chains; food environments; and consumer behaviour.

Protein occurs in most foods but is especially abundant in meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds.  Most of us get more than twice the amount we need on a daily basis.

But protein comes with a health aura.  It sells.

Hence: the food industry’s great interest in developing protein ingredients for food products.

FoodNavigator-USA, ever on top of current food trends, summarizes recent developments.

Special Edition: Protein in focus

While Americans typically get enough, there is no sign that the protein trend is going away, with growing numbers of food and beverage brands seeking to add additional protein to their wares or highlight the protein that’s always been there. We take a closer look…

• MycoTech raises $35m to fuel vegan mushroom protein ambitions, strikes strategic partnership: Boulder-based MycoTechnology has raised $35m in a series B financing round from a flurry of high profile investors* from Kellogg’s Eighteen94 Capital to Bunge Ventures and inked a strategic partnership with a leading player in the natural products industry to take its PureTaste vegan mushroom protein to the mass market… Read
• Naturex strikes global distribution deal with Mycotech for vegan mushroom protein: ‘We could see they had something new’: Natural ingredients giant Naturex has struck a global distribution deal with MycoTechnology, the fungi-fueled start-up behind Pure Taste fermented shiitake vegetable protein: a high-profile new entrant to the ‘alternative’ protein market. .. Read
• Hampton Creek explores the potential of mung bean protein isolate: Mung bean protein has potential applications in everything from egg substitutes to pasta and ice cream, says Hampton Creek, which has just received a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA responding to its determination that its proprietary mung bean protein isolate is generally recognized as safe (GRAS)… Read
• Taste, texture, nutrition: Formulating with plant-based proteins: Plant-based proteins are creeping into a dizzying array of foods and beverages, from dairy-free ‘milks,’ ‘cheeses’ and ‘yogurts’ to protein bars, chips, powders and meat analogs. But what are they like to work with? FoodNavigator-USA caught up with experts at Cargill and Kerry to find out….. Read
• fairlife ultra-filtered milk sales surged 79% in 2016; Core Power and Yup! to be brought under fairlife brand umbrella: Dollar sales of Coca-Cola-backed high-protein milk fairlife grew 79% in 2016, as consumers continued to trade up in the fluid milk category… Read
• Carrington Farms unveils coconut protein blend: Carrington Farms has introduced a new vegan protein powder featuring organic coconut powder as the #1 ingredient, as consumers continue to embrace coconut-fueled products despite ongoing confusion about whether the saturated fat-packed fruits are as healthy as some marketers make out… Read
• Lightlife’s new Veggie Deli Slices eschew imitating animal proteins to celebrate vegetables: As flexitarian, vegetarian and vegan diets continue to gain traction, Lightlife is recasting plant-based protein from the lesser role of understudy or “alternate” to animal protein, and making it – and the fruits, vegetables and legumes it comes from – the star of the show with the launch of Veggie Deli Slices… Read
• Avocado oil specialist Chosen Foods explores move into refrigerated plant-based proteins: San Diego-based Chosen Foods – best known for its avocado oils and mayo – is considering a move into refrigerated plant-based protein foods and high-protein snacks as it sits down with its new owner, Mexican specialty oils and seeds supplier Sesajal, to decide how to allocate resources in the coming years… Read
• Atlantic Natural Foods seeks to disrupt sleepy shelf-stable plant-based protein category: The shelf-stable plant-based protein market is ripe for disruption, says Atlantic Natural Foods (ANF), which is hoping to bring incremental growth to the segment with a category-first: fully prepared vegetarian and vegan microwaveable meals in “healthy, portable, and affordable” pouches… Read
• Exo rebrands to play up the power of cricket in its snack bars, better connect with active consumers: As an early mover in the edible insect space, Exo initially downplayed the presence of crickets in its snack bars to help drive trial, but as the idea of eating bugs becomes more familiar to Americans the brand is more heavily featuring crickets in its new branding, packaging and marketing… Read
• Cargill and other ‘food industry giants’ join $17m funding round for clean meat co Memphis Meats: In another signal that traditional meat companies see cultured meat as an opportunity, rather than a threat, Cargill and other unnamed “food industry giants” have participated in a $17m funding round in clean meat firm Memphis Meats… Read
• Hampton Creek to enter clean meat market in 2018: ‘We are building a multi-species, multi-product platform’: The first commercial product from Hampton Creek’s new clean meat production platform “will likely be in the avian family,” director of cellular agriculture Eitan Fischer told FoodNavigator-USA as the company best known for its work on plant-based proteins unveiled ambitious plans to explore the animal variety… Read
• FOOD VISION USA 2017: Where is the plant-based movement heading (and will ‘clean’ meat give it a run for its money)? Growing interest in plant-based foods, ‘clean’ (aka cultured) meat, and grass-fed, humanely-raised meat and regenerative agriculture, stems from a desire to seek alternatives to industrialized animal production. But where will these emerging segments fit into the market, and are they a threat or an opportunity for traditional meat, egg and dairy companies?.. Read
• Animal-based protein tops consumer choice, but plant-based options are rising fast, Nielsen finds: When it comes to meeting consumers’ growing demand for protein, animal-based products continue to reign supreme in the US and Canada for now – but plant-based options are gaining traction and hold significant sales potential, according to the market research firm Nielsen. .. Read
• Ripple Foods seeks to disrupt plant-based yogurt category: ‘Let’s not mince words… some of these products are terrible’: Plant-based Greek-style yogurts from Ripple Foods – slated to hit the market by the end of this year – will have a higher protein content (12g/serving) and superior texture to brands currently on shelf, which have improved, but can still look “gelatinous” and “weird,” according to co-founder Dr Neil Renninger… Read
• IKEA backs Flying SpArk’s bet that fruit flies are the protein source of the future: Compared to crickets, grasshoppers and even meal worms, the fruit fly is minuscule, but according to the co-founders of Flying SpArk this tiniest of insects could prove to be a more bountiful, sustainable and efficient source of protein… Read
• Quorn moves into the refrigerated aisles with its fungi-based proteins: Meat-free brand Quorn – which has a big presence in the UK chilled food market, but has historically focused on the frozen segment in the US – has developed a new line of meat- and soy-free refrigerated sausages and chicken strips that will roll out across 1500 Kroger stores. .. Read
• TerraVia selects Corbion’s $20m stalking horse bid in auction: Algae-fueled company TerraVia has selected a $20m stalking horse bid from Dutch ingredients supplier Corbion in an auction for the bulk of its assets, according to documents filed with the bankruptcy court on Tuesday… Read