THIS SECTION IS FOR NEWS AND INTERESTING STORIES RELATED TO FOOD, NUTRITION AND FOOD PROCESSING. THEY ARE NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO KOSHER BUT MAY BE OF INTEREST TO THE KOSHER CONSUMER, MANUFACTURER OR MASHGIACH.
February 20, 2020 from Food Ingredients 1st:
This article alerts people that "vegan" on a product albel does not show anything about how and where the product is processed. The article specifically says that "egan” does not indicate “allergen-free" including dairy. For kosher consumers this also means that the processing plant can be processing meat which is not a required to declare allergen and so does not need to be listed.
February 19, 2020 - from CPSC in conjunction with Healthy Canada:
Contigo Kids Cleanable Water Bottles have been recalled because the water bottle’s clear silicone spout can detach, posing a choking hazard to children.
This recall involves Contigo Kids Cleanable water bottles and replacement lids that were given to consumers as part of the August 2019 recall of this product. The base and cover of the clear silicone spout will always be BLACK. Only black colored spout base and spout cover models are included in this recall. Contigo is printed on the rim and along the front near the bottom of the bottle. The water bottles come in three sizes (13 ounce, 14 ounce and 20 ounce) and four colors (solid color, graphics, stainless steel and stainless steel solid colors). The water bottles were sold individually as well as in two-packs and three-packs.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled water bottles and the replacement lids provided in the previous recall, take them away from children, and contact Contigo for a free water bottle. Consumers who received replacement lids in the previous recall should contact Contigo for the new water bottle.
Incidents/Injuries: Contigo has received a total of 427 reports of the spout detaching including 27 spouts found in children’s mouths.
Sold At: Costco, Walmart, Target and other stores nationwide and online on various websites from April 2018 through February 7, 2020 for between $9 and $24.
Consumer Contact: Contigo toll-free at 888-262-0622 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or online at www.gocontigo.com/recall or www.gocontigo.com and click on Recalls at the bottom of the page for more information.
February 12, 2020 from Jerusalem Kosher News:
"'The Shuk', a.k.a. 'Machane Yehuda' in Jerusalem, is rapidly becoming Jerusalem's Soho neighborhood offering a variety of eateries and entertainment venues. It is not my place to lecture readers as to the suitability of The Shuk during nighttime hours, but I do feel responsible to point out that not every restaurant, pub or food stand has a hashgacha and one must be alert and look for a valid teudat hechsher."
"A valid hechsher must display the name and address of the store and it must match the sign displayed at that store. It must also display a valid date. All too often some unscrupulous individuals will conveniently cover the expiration date on the certificate with a sign, commonly the ones announcing Shabbos candle lighting time or a photo of a dead Torah giant. Baba Sali ZT"L and the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZT"L are favorites, commonly displayed by shuk vendors."
"In addition, one may see a business selling an item but the teudat kashrus displays an address from another branch of the business. This is not valid as another teudat kashrus is issued with a correct address if the certificate is authentic for that location. A photocopy is a non-starter."
February 7, 2020 from Las Vegas Review-Journal:
"The one-time kosher restaurant Sababa Grille, on Durango Drive at Desert Inn Road, has closed its doors and will be replaced with an oyster bar."
"A visit this week to the former Sababa location found renovations underway on the interior and a sign on the door advertising that a new concept, The Legends Oyster Bar & Grill, is coming soon."
February 11, 2020 from United Airlines:
United Airlines is "introducing a variety of new options for customers traveling between the U.S. and Tel Aviv, from the airline's Newark / New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. / Dulles based hubs. "
"Partnering with New Jersey-based fresh food provider Fresko, meals on the Newark to Tel Aviv flight will feature an entirely new menu. Options will include dishes such as fresh bagels, a cheese omelet, blintzes, chicken marsala, a kale quinoa burger and traditional bakery items like rugelach and black and white cookies. "
"As part of the introduction of these new dining options, United is also testing a menu offering for its youngest customers – a Kosher child's meal in all cabins between Tel Aviv, Newark and San Francisco. If the testing is successful, the airline will roll out the meal selection on additional Tel Aviv routes."
"For those customers traveling in Polaris and United Premium Plus, additional dining enhancements can be found in the all Kosher snack choices for mid-flight enjoyment. The new offerings include Deep River Potato Chips, Cheez-It® crackers, Drizzilicious Cinnamon Swirl crisps, Madi K's Almonds and M&M'S®."
"New beverage options will include Kosher wine provided by Royal Wine, another New Jersey-based company, which includes Herzog Lineage Cabernet Sauvignon and Herzog Lineage Sauvignon Blanc throughout the Polaris cabin. Additionally, building on the airline's partnership with Illy coffee, United is upgrading its Kosher coffee to provide both regular and decaf Illy coffee within all cabins over the next several months."
"Part of the Kosher expansion includes the airport experience where United is testing the addition of a hot Kosher à la carte meal option in the Newark Polaris Lounge to complement the already featured Kosher wines. Additionally, at both the Polaris lounge and United Clubs in Newark and LaGuardia Airports the offerings will include Kosher packaged snacks upon request. "
February 10, 2020 from SF Eater:
California "state regulators say that Miyoko’s Creamery can’t use dairy-related words or photos for its plant-based butter and cheese." Miyoko's Kitchen is "squaring off against California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, saying that the agency is attempting to stifle their freedom of speech."
"At issue are words like “butter,” which Miyoko’s uses to describe their non-dairy goods. In a letter sent by the Food and Agriculture Department and reported on by the East Bay Times, the agency said of Miyoko’s spread that “the product is not butter,” as butter “is made exclusively from milk or cream and must contain at least 80 percent milk fat.” Also a problem for the agency are words like “lactose free,” the Chron reports, and photos of cows that Miyoko’s uses in its marketing, as “dairy-related imagery can’t be used to promote non-dairy goods that resemble dairy products,” the EBT reports."
"Miyoko’s is suing the agency, claiming that it is attempting to restrict the plant-based company’s First Amendment right to free speech. “Products like peanut butter and apple butter, and all sorts of other fruit and nut butters have used the term ‘butter’ for well over a hundred years without any hint of consumers confusing them for butter from cow’s milk."
"According to Miyoko’s, to remove all the dairy-style verbiage from their packaging could cost them about a million dollars. But founder and CEO Miyoko Schinner already has a plan should her company lose their suit against the state regulators, telling the Chron that Miyoko’s will then rebrand their plant-based spread as 'They Say We Can’t Call it Butter.'"
posted February 6, 2020 from RethinkX:
"RethinkX projects collapse of dairy & cattle industries by 2030 as animal meat is replaced by cheaper, higher quality food made from precision fermentation protein."
"The fastest, deepest, most consequential disruption of food and agriculture in history, driven by technology and new business models, is underway. By 2030, modern food products will be higher quality and cost less than half the price of the animal- derived foods they replace, the dairy and cattle industries will have collapsed, and the rest of the livestock industry will follow. That’s according to a new report, “Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030 -- The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock Farming,” released by RethinkX, an independent think tank that analyzes and forecasts the scope, speed and scale of technology-driven disruption and its implications across society. "
"Precision fermentation (PF) is a process that enables the programming of micro-organisms to produce almost any complex organic molecule. Its costs are dropping exponentially because of rapid improvements in underlying biological and information technologies. The cost to produce a single molecule using PF has fallen from $1 million per kilogram in 2000, to about $100 today. Assuming existing technologies and using well-established cost curves, the report projects that these costs will fall below $10 per kilogram by 2025, and that these proteins will be five times cheaper than traditional animal proteins by 2030 and 10 times cheaper by 2035.
"By 2030, modern food products will cost less than half as much to produce as the animal-derived products they replace. At the same time, this new production system has the potential to spur competition and fast iteration of products that are ever cheaper and ever better: more nutritious, healthier, better tasting, more convenient, and more varied, as long as open markets and nutritional standards are protected."
"The report details the way different parts of the cow (collagen, milk, meat and leather) and the markets they serve will be disrupted separately and concurrently by different technologies and business-model innovations that overlap, reinforce and accelerate each other. "
"The report analyzes the way technology and new models of production flip the current food production system on its head. Instead of growing a whole cow to break it down into products, PF designs and customizes individual molecules to build products. Development is done in a manner similar to the software industry: companies and individuals will build components within layers of the equivalent of a software stack that can be used according to individual needs. The food developer is like an app developer, using the stack that is most appropriate according to market needs. "
"Highlights of the report findings include:
"or policymakers, the report identifies critical choices that can accelerate or slow down disruption or impede its size and scale, and can expand or contract its benefits. "
January 31, 2020 from Food Dive:
"FCF closed on its acquisition of Bumble Bee's North American assets for $928 million."
"This pending bankruptcy reorganization and sale" "may be the only way the tuna company can envision advancing from its myriad legal and financial woes."
"Bumble Bee still owes $17 million to the U.S. Department of Justice, according to its bankruptcy filing. Meanwhile, former CEO Christopher Lischewski pleaded not guilty last year to associated criminal charges, and his trial began in California federal court on Nov. 4, according to Bloomberg."
"The tuna industry has been challenged by shifting consumer trends and concerns about overfishing and ocean pollution. Continuing sales declines also continue to pose problems. According to market research firm IRI, tuna sales fell 4% by volume between 2013 and October 2018. Millennials aren't very interested in canned products, and some of them don't even own can openers."
"Tuna producers have responded by introducing more convenient pouched products and innovative flavors, but sustainability factors and plant-based competitors — such as Good Catch, Sophie's Kitchen, Ocean Hugger Foods and Atlantic Natural Foods — are making things tougher. "
January 21, 2020 from Undercurrent News:
"A filing to a US bankruptcy court for the district of Delaware has confirmed the "stalking horse" bid by Taiwanese tuna trader FCF Co for Bumble Bee Foods has been successful."
"The filing states the auction for Bumble Bee has been cancelled, and that the stalking horse bid has been successful."
"FCF has agreed to pay the $17m outstanding from the $25m fine from the DOJ as part of its $925.6m offer for Bumble Bee. However, the DOJ was set to get a total of $81.5m if Lion Capital sold the company within five years, so $56.5m more. No mention of this is made in the documents and Undercurrent understands it won’t be paid, if the sale goes ahead as proposed."
"FCF supplies Bumble Bee with "nearly all" of its albacore tuna and a "substantial majority" of the skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna it uses for light meat canned tuna. "
December 4, 2019 - from Fooddive:
"Tuna giants StarKist and Bumble Bee both pleaded guilty to federal charges of price fixing in the last three years. Bumble Bee's guilty plea came with a $25 million fine, while StarKist was sentenced to pay $100 million. Chicken of the Sea served as the whistleblower in the investigation and wasn't fined. "
"The tuna industry has struggled to recover from these accusations as consumer demand has shifted and sales have dropped. According to market research firm IRI, tuna sales fell 4% by volume between 2013 and October 2018."
"This latest verdict is a reminder that C-suite executives can be found personally responsible for their business's actions."
July 29, 2019 - from SeafoodSource:
"Bumble Bee still owes $17 million to the U.S. Department of Justice, according to its bankruptcy filing. Meanwhile, former CEO Christopher Lischewski pleaded not guilty last year to associated criminal charges, and his trial began in California federal court on Nov. 4, according to Bloomberg."
"The tuna industry has been challenged by shifting consumer trends and concerns about overfishing and ocean pollution. Continuing sales declines also continue to pose problems. According to market research firm IRI, tuna sales fell 4% by volume between 2013 and October 2018. Millennials aren't very interested in canned products, and some of them don't even own can openers."
"Tuna producers have responded by introducing more convenient pouched products and innovative flavors, but sustainability factors and plant-based competitors — such as Good Catch, Sophie's Kitchen, Ocean Hugger Foods and Atlantic Natural Foods — are making things tougher."
"It will take some time to see whether Bumble Bee can adequately resolve its problems through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization process and a sale of the company. FCF is a privately held global firm founded in 1972 and is Bumble Bee's largest creditor. One of its business lines is trading in frozen tuna for canning and sashimi, so there could be some synergies moving forward between FCF and Bumble Bee."
July 29, 2019 - from SeafoodSource:
"U.S.A.-based Bumble Bee Foods has defaulted on its major operating loan."
"Bumble Bee has been in technical default since the end of March 2019, but its lenders have agreed to a forbearance period, allowing the company to continue its efforts to restructure itself to regain its profitability."
"Bumble Bee has struggled to abide by the terms of the loan as it pays off a criminal fine and additional millions in civil settlements for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix the prices of canned tuna sold in the United States between 2011 and 2013. The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to lower the amount of the criminal fine to USD 25 million (EUR 22.8 million) to protect the company from insolvency."
"Bumble Bee refinanced 100 percent of its debt in August 2017, after its guilty plea in the criminal case. At the time, it held a five-year, USD 200 million (EUR 169 million) asset-based revolving credit facility with Wells Fargo Capital Finance acting as the administrative agent, as well as a six-year, USD 650 million (EUR 550 million) loan with Brookfield Principal Credit as the administrative agent."
"The company faces further financial constraints in the form of an agreement with the DOJ that its criminal fine will increase in the event it is sold. "
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