Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Hotel Chocolat, the 42-store luxury chocolatier, has revealed that its underlying sales rocketed by 14 per cent in the second half of 2009 and that it will open its first stores in the Middle East next month.

Angus Thirlwell, the co-founder and chief executive of Hotel Chocolat, said the sales uplift had been driven by a sharper focus on buying and merchandising, as well as “product innovation”. He added that its H2 sales momentum had been maintained throughout the crucial festive trading months of November and December. The chain will open two stores in Kuwait and Bahrain in February, followed by a further store in Dubai in March, all through its franchise operator Jawad Business Group.

Mr Thirlwell also said that Hotel Chocolat, which has two stores in Boston, US, sees an opportunity to tout its UK manufacturing credentials in the wake of Kraft’s successful take-over approach for Cadbury. He said: “We plan to tap into the heightened interest in British chocolate, following the Kraft bid for Cadbury.”

The majority of Hotel Chocolat’s chocolate is manufactured at its factory in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where it has created 500 jobs over the past three years. While it developed the phrase before Kraft formally kicked off its bid for Cadbury in September, Hotel Chocolat is pushing its tag line – British cocoa grower and chocolatier – underneath its logo on products.

Chocolate, Companies Hotel Chocolat, luxury chocolatier

vitamin d

A petition to amend US food additive regulations by increasing the safe limit of vitamin D in yeast-raised baked foods was reported by the Food and Drug Administration in The Federal Register of 17 December. Lallemand, Inc., Montreal, QB, filed the application “on behalf of the US baking industry” to raise the safe limit to 400 IU of vitamin D per 100 g of yeast-raised baked foods. The petition’s full text is available at www.lallemand.com/VitaminD/petition.pdf.

The petition addresses the fact that consumption of vitamin D by many consumers is below Adequate Intake (AI). It goes on to request the safe use of vitamin D2 yeast for baked foods be set at levels higher than the current 90 IU vitamin D per 100 g food.

“Upon approval by FDA, bakers will have the opportunity to achieve the levels of vitamin D necessary to make ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ source claims, giving them one more tool at their disposal to reinforce the contribution bread can make to a healthy diet,” said Gary Edwards, president of Lallemand/American Yeast.

Lee Sanders, senior vice-president, government relations and public affairs, American Bakers Association, noted support from ABA and thorough discussion of the topic within its Food Technical Regulatory Affairs Committee (FTRAC) prior to submission. “This will be good for the American public and for the baking industry,” she said. “While Lallemand was the sole petitioner, the idea is grounded in science as well as studies that indicate average consumers do not consume sufficient quantities of vitamin D in their diets.”

Scientists urge the availability of more food sources of vitamin D, according to Lallemand. The US Department of Agriculture stated that approximately 69% of the population is not meeting their AI for vitamin D. “Considering the widespread deficiency and that vitamin D plays a critical role in bone health, as well as new information indicating that it could potentially play a significant role in strengthening the body’s defenses against chronic and immune diseases, one can realize the importance of improving the vitamin D content of the food supply so that the status of vitamin D improves,” said Wendy Dahl, PhD, assistant professor of nutrition at University of Florida, Gainesville.

Based on consumer surveys made by Angus Reid and TNS Global, milk is perceived to be the most important dietary source of vitamin D. “While fortified milk has been recognized as an important source of vitamin D, there are many in the population who choose not to consume this food,” said Dr. Dahl. “Thus, non-milk drinkers are placed at an increased risk for deficiency. Were there more foods containing vitamin D, especially foods that are consumed by persons of different ages and different ethnicities such as baked foods, this would go a long way to improve vitamin D intakes.”

Bakery, Health adequate intake, baked foods, Vitamin D

Now held every two years, Europain, the international bakery and confectionery exhibition, will take place 6 to 10 March, 2010, in Paris, France. The show will be held at the Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Center in conjunction with the Intersuc exhibition (Sugar and Chocolate or Sucre et Chocolat) making the event an International Bakery, Pastry, Ice Cream, Chocolate & Confectionery Exhibition.

The 2008 show featured 80,000-sq-m (861,000-sq-ft) of exhibition space. More than 86,000 visitors from 133 countries attended the show, and 642 companies exhibited during the 5-day event. Organizers expect similar attendance at the 2010 show.

Exhibitors are arranged by sector throughout the four halls of the exhibition center. The sectors include traditional bakery, industrial bakery, pastry, Intersuc (sugar and chocolate), ice cream, La Rue des Escoles (featuring 25 training centers) and the shop. The show floor will be open from 0930 to 1830 (9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.) each day.

An additional area of the exhibition floor space is reserved for the display of the Europain and Intersuc Innovation Award winners. These awards will honor the most innovative products and materials that fulfill at least one of the following criteria:

• Innovative nature.

• Originality favoring professional creativity.

• Technical performance relating to time savings for staff, better productivity and/or better safety.

• Compliance with demands of sustainable development.

The bakery sector of the trade fair will introduce a new competition at the 2010 event — Masters de la Boulangerie (Bakery Masters). Twenty-four entrants from 17 countries will compete in the Bread, Viennoiserie and Artistic Creation cateogories (8 individuals in each category). Following the competition, three world bakery champions will be recognized.

The show will also feature the Mondial des Arts Sucres (International Confectionery Arts Competition), in addition to the Coup de France des Escoles (French Schools Cup), which is designed to encourage young professionals in the bakery and patisserie fields.

For more information about exhibiting at or attending the 2010 Europain and Intersuc show, go to the show’s Web site at www.europain.com, call (+33) 0 1 40 16 44 48 or e-mail infos@europain.com

Bakery, Events bakery sector, Europain 2010, Intersuc

British confectioner Cadbury is likely to have a positive future under Kraft, according to a UK member of parliament.

In comments made to the Birmingham Post, Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, said that Kraft’s eagerness to secure a deal with the company meant the firm was “optimistic about the future of Cadbury”.

Kraft sold its American frozen pizza business to Nestle earlier in the month in order to improve its offer for Cadbury, which stands at over £11 billion. The current offer is thought to be worth around 850p per share.

Mr Clarke told the newspaper that if the deal goes through the UK government will then focus on saving jobs and the Cadbury factory at Bourneville, near Birmingham.

He said: “There comes a point when there is no point in reminiscing about the Quaker foundations of Cadbury, nor even getting too worked up about whether they should have been sold or not.”

One major shareholder of Cadbury Legal and General has already criticised the decision of Cadbury’s management to recommend the Kraft offer stating that it “fails to fully reflect the long-term value of the company.”

Companies Cadbury, Kraft

Advanced Enzymes produces a range of enzyme products suitable for use in baking and fruit juice processing.

Enzymes are globular proteins that serve as catalysts for a range of biological and chemical reactions and have a variety of applications.

Advanced Enzymes’s baking products include the SEBake range of enzymes, which have different effects on specific baked goods and consist of SEBamyl X 50 P, SEBake GFD, SEBake HM, SEBake PR, SEBake PP, SEBake SW, SEBake SB, SEBake Cake Gel, SEBake Premix and SEBake Soft.

Its fruit juice processing enzyme solutions include Pectazyme, Starch Clear and Mashzyme.

Properties

The enzymes produced by Advanced Enzymes each have a specialist function and are safe to use.

Each product is eco-friendly and saves energy, as well as being totally biodegradable. Enzymes aid the chemical transformation process by promoting very fast reaction rates under mild conditions.

They are available in liquid or solid forms and only a small amount is needed to prompt the desired effect.

Some of the main types of reactions that enzymes are involved in include oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, isomerases and ligases.

In terms of baked goods, enzymes can improve colour, texture, softness, bite and fermentation time.

For fruit juice processing, enzymes can negate some of the properties of naturally occurring pectin – which is responsible for making juice cloudy – to make drinks clearer and easier to produce, as well as improve yield.

Ingredient applications

Advanced Enzymes’s SEBake range of enzymes is specifically geared towards use in baking and baked products.

These enzymes can be used to:

* Enhance the colour of bread crusts and promote extra loaf volume

* Boost production of sweet biscuits and glucose

* Improve the quality of crackers

* Promote biscuit volume and bite

* Enhance the shelf life, colour, volume and texture of sandwich bread

* Improve sweet and milk breads, as well as eggless and egg-containing cake

In the fruit juice processing segment, Advanced Enzymes’s products help to improve the appearance and quality of fruit juice drinks.

These enzymes are mainly used in a wide range of fruit juices, especially apple juice, which can become particularly cloudy if processed using non-enzyme methods.

History

L C Rathi, the founder of Advanced Enzymes, first pioneered the production of papaya-derived vegetable enzyme Papain in 1958.

He also set up the first natural enzyme plant in India in the same year.

Since 1989, the company has produced a wide range of enzymes based on the original research by L C Rathi, including plant, vegetable, bacterial and fungal enzymes.

Company information

Advanced Enzymes was founded in 1989 as a biotechnology company.

Its manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001:2000 and WHO cGMP-certified and the firm produces more than $100 million worth of probiotics and enzymes every year.

As well as products for the baked goods and fruit juice processing sectors, Advanced Enzymes also makes solutions for animal healthcare and nutrition, brewing and distilling, environment protection, leather processing, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and the processing of starch, tea and textiles.

The company sells its products in more than 30 countries around the world and has clients in over 25 different industries.

Advanced Enzymes is based in Mumbai, India and has its main manufacturing plant in Nasik. Its workforce includes chemical engineers, food technologists, microbiologists, biochemists and biotechnologists.

Its sister company, Specialty Enzymes and Biochemicals, is headquartered in California in the US.

Companies, Ingredients Advanced Enzymes, baked products, Food enzymes