Food and Drink Matters

 Cartons account for around 75 per cent of the market, but they have started to lose market share. Pouches and PET bottles are becoming more popular, a trend that will continue over the next five years, it says.

• There are over 11,000 operational aseptic filling systems worldwide and more than 30 companies supply aseptic filling systems.
• The largest regional markets for aseptic packaging are in West Europe and Asia.
• In West Europe there has been particular growth in aseptic filling of PET bottles for beverages.
• Demand is increasing for new aseptic fillers of bottles and plastic pots for added value dairy products, both ambient and chilled. By 2013 Zenith and Warrick estimate that the world market will reach 113 billion litres using 265 billion packs.

A new website, funkylunch.com, aims to help parents make sandwiches and other food which are often shunned by kids more interesting and eatable by creating characters and animals from the ingredients.

The website contains a gallery of pictures with sandwich ideas ranging from the Loch NessMonster and an Alligator to favouritecartoon characters such as Sponge Bob Square Pants and Hello Kitty. Funky Lunch has already created a range of merchandise, including a lunch box and apron and will shortly publish a booklet with instructions on how to make the various sandwich designs posted on its gallery. So expect an explosion of creativity in the school dining room as kids compare their latest funky food designs and the competition for new ideas hots up! The ultimate challenge maybe: Can you make a Transformer out of bananas and kiwi fruit?

Pork is benefiting as consumers come up with strategies to beat the recession. Domestic consumption is up by 6 per cent with retail value sales up 9 per cent in the year to March 2009.

That is one of the findings in a new report published recently by the British Pig Executive, (BPEX) - ‘Pork and the credit crunch: How consumers are responding to the economic downturn'.

While meat generally has become more expensive over the past year, demand has remained constant. Consumers have, though, been changing their repertoire of meats with the result that pork has benefited. In addition, research shows that the recession appears to have enhanced the image of pork. Prices per kilo dead weight for UK pork peaked at 155.1p during July, higher than during the BSE crisis. EU prices are more mixed, although most are showing increases year on year. But the UK is now the most expensive for pig meat.

The report shows how consumers are generally shopping smarter as a result of the current economic downturn. Switching retailers, taking advantage of promotions and trading down on some products are just some of the strategies being used. Consumers are limiting their spend increases to 5 per cent when grocery price inflation is running at 8.7 per cent.

The House of Commons International Development Committee has published recommendations to the UK Government in its report on ‘Sustainable Development in a Changing Climate'.

The Chairman of the committee, Malcolm Bruce MP, commented: "There is a danger that steps taken by consumers in the UK to reduce their contribution to carbon emissions may lead them to avoid buying produce from developing countries in the belief that air-freighted food and flowers necessarily have a higher carbon footprint. This is not true. The CO2 emissions from Kenyan flowers flown to the UK are nearly six times lower than those from Dutch flowers grown in heated greenhouses." Around 60 per cent of fruit and vegetables are imported into the UK, providing us with produce outside of the UK season as well as varieties which simply cannot be grown in this country. Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium said, "Total air freighted imports of fruit and vegetables account for a mere 0.2 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions. There is no evidence that fewer aircraft would fly if consumption of imported fruit and vegetables was reduced. At least 60 per cent of air freighted fresh produce is brought to the UK in the belly hold of passenger aircraft".

Another survey, conducted in the UK by Verdict Research, part of Datamonitor, re-enforces the PLMA's findings with news that sales of ‘own label' groceries topped 40 per cent in July 2009, up nearly 3 per cent on 2008.

Some highlights of the Yearbook's statistics include:  

United Kingdom: Market share for all types of private label products is poised to climb above 50 per cent as the rivalry between discounters and supermarkets intensifies.

Germany: In the home of the large discounters, market share for retailer brands moved above the 40 per cent level.

Spain: The largest gains for private label were recorded here, climbing more than 3 points to 39 per cent.

Switzerland: This country still holds the highest market share in Europe, standing at 54 per cent.

In Central and Eastern Europe increases were seen in all countries. Market share moved to 30 per cent and above in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and advanced to 28 per cent in Hungary and 21 per cent in Poland.