Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Hershey’s second-quarter net income fell 35% because of charges for restructuring and to write down the value of a joint venture in India. However, revenue still rose as the company sold more in terms of volume on the back of raised advertising spending.

The company has left its earnings outlook for the year unchanged. It earned $46.7 million, or 20 cents per share, for the three months ending July 4. That’s down from net income of $71.3 million, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company now plans to boost advertising levels by about 45 percent to 50 percent this year, up from its previous estimate of a 35 percent to 40 percent increase. But the additional increase in advertising won’t take place until late in the year, so the effect on sales won’t be felt until 2011. Some of that advertising budget will go toward growing Hershey’s business in international markets, where quarterly sales rose at a low double-digit rate..

The latest results included charges of 11 cents per share for a supply chain modernisation program and 20 cents to write down goodwill for the India venture,

“We will continue to apply our global confectionery know-how to India and other international markets, as well as to look for other opportunities in key geographies,” says chief executive David West in a conference call. He said Asia and Latin America were Hershey’s top priority in terms of acquisitions.

Companies confectionery, Hershey's

Lindt has expanded its bean-to-bar facility in Stratham, New Hampshire, US. It can produce 450 chocolate bars and 7,200 truffles per minute.

Chocolate has been produced here, at Swiss company Lindt & Sprungli’s sole manufacturing facility in the US, since 1989. But the plant didn’t have the capability to roast and grind beans to chocolate liquor and importing it became too expensive.
A five-year expansion culminated in the company’s inauguration of its new 40,000-square-foot bean roasting and cocoa liquor facility.

Lindt can produce 7,200 truffles and 450 bars per minute at the facility. The new roasting facility is the latest development of Lindt USA’s ongoing expansion efforts, which includes the addition of 350,000-square feet of production, packaging and distribution facility space over the last four years.

The company has also named a new vice president of operations. Robert Michalski will be based at the Lindt USA headquarters in Stratham and be responsible for all manufacturing, distribution, engineering, logistics and demand planning for Lindt USA.

Michalski has more than 25 years of experience in the food and beverage business. Prior to joining Lindt in June 2010, Michalski previously worked for M&M/Mars and Cadbury Italy.

Companies Chocolate, Chocolate Production Line, Lindt

The European Food Safety Authority has published its final guidance for data required to assess new food flavourings, and is looking to build on experience gained during evaluations to establish a positive list.

EFSA reassessing flavouring substances that are already in use in the EU, numbering around 2800 in all. However it has asked for more tests on some 530 substances, including some that have been assessed by bodies like the FAO/WHO’s JECFA committee. The list of flavouring substances needs to be adopted by the end of 2010, and will be included in the new flavouring regulation 334/2008 was adopted at the end of 2008.

New flavouring substances proposed for foods, however, will have to go through a risk assessment procedure, and petitioners will have to supply data to allow EFSA’s panel to form its opinion.

The draft guidance was published in November 2009 for public consultation, and some meetings have taken place between stakeholders, notably between the European Flavour Association (EFA) and EFSA.

The guidance document, was adopted on 20 May but only published this week.

EFSA said its panel considers it important to build on experience gained during the reassessment, and where possible new flavouring substances will be assigned to one of the existing flavouring group evaluations on the basis of structural and metabolic similarities.

For these groups, scientific principles and a group-based approach have already been drawn up. Data requirements for these chemically-defined substances are included in part A of the guidance.

The guidance will be particularly helpful for data submission on new flavourings that cannot be put into any existing group, however, as it sets out a procedure that will allow for individual evaluation. This is included in part B of the guidance.

Generally speaking, the panel will require data on:

• Identity of source materials
• Manufacturing process
• Specifications
• Assessment of dietary exposure
• Toxicological data

New regulation

EFFA president Heinrich Schaper said the main objectives of the new regulation are promoting the effective functioning of the internal market and giving high level of consumer protection.

One major change is the new and more detailed labelling requirements for natural flavours, and the reclassification of nature identical and artificial flavours as ‘flavouring substances’. These new requirements need to be on labels and in documentation by January 2011, but flavour firms’ regulatory and IT teams have been working on making sure the raw materials are classified for compliance for some time.

Food Safety EFSA, food flavourings, lavouring substances

Confectionery giant Cadbury is launching a new limited edition flavour of its Dairy Milk Bar of Plenty.

Money from the sales of the confectionery bar will go towards Help the Hospices, which offers care and support to the terminally ill.

The bars will be on sale in either Honey Flakes or Caramelised Pecans flavours, which are combined with creamy Dairy Milk chocolate.

Luciana Andreoni, brand manager for Cadbury Dairy Milk, said: “As with the current Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar of Plenty flavours, Honey Flakes and Caramelised Pecans were the result of our researchers going through hundreds of recipes until the tastiest combinations were found…We’re sure Cadbury Dairy Milk fans will love the flavour and really get behind this cause.”

Recently, it was reported by Inside Facebook that Cadbury would be launching a new music game on the social media site, which would be aimed at promoting the confectioner’s products in Australia.

Chocolate, Companies Cadbury, chocolate bar

Made from canola and sunflower seeds, the oils are said to have a ‘unique’ combination of high oleic and low linolenic fatty acids that delivers the benefits without oil performance or food taste.

Improved health, performance and flavor attributes are claimed for the new Omega-9 Oils Ingredient Solutions from Dow AgroSciences designed for use in baked goods, snacks and packaged foods. Dow’s David Dzisiak, commercial leader oils, said: “Omega-9 Oils have a healthier profile with zero trans fat, the lowest level of saturated fats among cooking oils, and are uniquely high in heart-healthy monounsaturated (omega-9) fat.”

A recent study by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) revealed that more US consumers (69 percent) are concerned by the types of fat they consume than are worried about the amount of fat they consume (67 percent).

Nutrition panels

According to a company statement the oils can “improve nutrition panels by reducing the bad fats and increasing the good fat” to help produce products that have the following nutrition label statements:

• Zero trans fat.
• Low (or significant reduction in) saturated fat.
• High heart-healthy monounsaturated (omega-9).

In addition to cleaner labels through simple ingredient lists, produced without hydrogenation, interesterification or additives, the oils maintain functional product qualities including flavor, texture, mouth-feel and shelf life, said Dzisiak.

Omega 9

“Because omega-3 shortening is naturally stable, it can provide equal or longer shelf life to products containing traditional, high saturated fat shortenings,” added Dzisiak. “This is achieved without the use of antioxidants preserving a cleaner product label that consumers want.”

Applications include spray oils, cooking oils and shortening for baked goods, snacks and packaged foods.

Breads and cakes

Food oil use in the US alone exceeds 22bn pounds per year. About 60 percent of food oil is used in packaged foods with the top four key uses being salad dressings and mayo, margarine, biscuit and crackers and breads and cakes.

About 30 percent of food oil is used in food service, primarily for use in frying foods with the remaining ten percent sold as cooking oil.

Meanwhile, the first US company to use Omega-9 Oils Ingredients Solutions is Weaver Popcorn, Noblesville, Indiana. The company’s new Pop Weaver microwavable popcorn has a more than 50 percent reduction in total fat including 60 percent less saturated fat.

“Other popcorn manufacturers were removing trans fats by using industry standard palm oil or coconut oil, both of which dramatically increase saturated or bad fats,” said Dzisiak. “Our Omega-9 Solutions Team helped Pop Weaver develop a smarter solution – one that maintained their signature taste while improving the health profile of the snack.”

Ingredients fatty acids, omega 9, trans fats