Food Industry Archive

Sara Lee announced plans to close its kosher meat-processing facility in Chicago by the end of January, 2009, and to discontinue its kosher meat brands, Best’s Kosher, Sinai Kosher, Shofar and Wilno. The company has been shedding brands lately to concentrate on its most profitable divisions. “The Kosher meat business is really a smaller, niche business for us, so it’s not...

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Burger King’s move to promote food combinations that have fewer than 650 calories is “a minor, temporary gesture,” that is “not a meaningful way to encourage people to make smarter choices,” according to Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. Well, maybe. On the other hand, Burger King could offer...

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InBev completes deal — The Belgian brewer finally completed its $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch Tuesday, after numerous hurdles. This makes Anheuser-Busch InBev the biggest brewing company in the world. [Source: Forbes] FDA opens office in China — The Food and Drug Administration opened its first foreign office in Beijing on Wednesday after numerous problems with Chinese...

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Healthy Dining works with restaurants to identify and promote their healthiest menu items. A group of nutritionists started the group in San Diego in 1990, but in 2005 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gave them a grant to expand and create a nationwide service online. More than 60,000 restaurants are involved with the program, ranging from local gourmet establishments to national chains...

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As in all recessions, there has been a spike in sales of private-label, or store-brand, grocery items. And as long as the products maintain their quality, the trend should translate into higher sales even when the economy improves. Private-label products increased to a record $80 billion in the year ended in September, up from $73 billion in the previous year, according to the Private Label...

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Target has been expanding its food offerings, and seems poised to expand them further. On Monday, as they released their horrifying earnings report, Target executives may have been wishing they started earlier. The discounter reported a 24 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings, and same-store sales declines of 3.3 percent. The problem, given current economic trends, is the product mix....

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For those times when it’s too inconvenient to order pizza online or via text message, Domino’s now lets Tivo subscribers fill out their orders using nothing more than a remote control. “This is the first time in history that the ‘on-demand’ generation will be able to fully experience couch commerce by ordering pizza directly through their television set,” Rob...

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ConAgra this week launched a painfully unfunny online comedy show called “The Working Lunch.” In each thirteen-minute episode, the characters have an office meeting on a particular topic — determined by user votes — while eating Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers. It seems the 1950s tradition of branded entertainment might be making a comeback in the food industry, adjusted for...

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There’s one small hitch in the Justice Department’s approval of the InBev-Anheuser Busch merger: InBev must unload its Labatt USA subsidiary. That’s nothing, really. The Canadian brews Labatt Blue and Labatt Blue Light make up less than 1 percent of the beer market in the United States. The Associated Press notes, however, that both are big in upstate New York, where they are...

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Apparently, people aren’t cutting back much on junk food just yet. Sales volumes are down, but only slightly, and companies have been able to boost prices by enough to more than make up for the decline, the Associated Press reported Thursday. That marks something of a reversal. In the past month, sales declined by less than they had in most months overthe previous year. Big companies...

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