Having recently returned from Shanghai we were excited to read

“Easier said than done…Emerging Market Consumers are Hard to Reach” (Economist April 17-23^rd, 2010). 

Multi-national companies servicing these consumers have learned the hard way that existing Western business models and brands simply need to be adjusted to service the fluid and dynamic needs of ever-changing, increasingly segmented and brand disloyal customers.

The first lesson was “think global but act local”. Existing brands & business models have been adapted in ever more creative ways to ensure the needs of the market are serviced correctly. In Shanghai, one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative cites, Unilever’s mid-town concept centre is one way of connecting with consumer needs. Bored housewives and those seeking employment relax in the kitchen or get pampered in the hair salon whilst encountering many of the new concepts Unilever hopes to introduce to the Chinese market….. All under the discreet gaze of market researchers and product developers from behind one-way mirrors.  Gathering insights such as these has lead Unilever to create for example, soaps and shampoos that are “foamier” than their Western Counterparts (foaming perhaps being indicative of cleansing ability). Similarly, PepsiCo’s range of cooling snack flavours for summer, taps into the traditional Chinese construct of  “heating & cooling foods”. You’ll find Coca-Cola is sweeter & fizzier, and exciting fusions of Western brands with traditional Chinese products (such as Spritea, a blend of Sprite and Green Tea). Yum have completely repositioned its business to comfortable dining for the middle classes rather than fast-food.

All very well for consumers in Shanghai and the modern urban areas. But what about those 54% of the population who live in rural areas at the bottom of the income pyramid? The second lesson is in fact that many of the rural population are today non-consumers.  In response, companies such as P & G “embed” marketers with rural families and using ethnographic research and observational studies analyse their day-to-day lives, understand their latent and unmet needs and shape new products, tastes and habits accordingly.

The third lesson therefore is that one must creatively adapt existing consumer insight methods & challenge the conventional wisdom in order to understand & respond to these consumer needs. The result: Creation of brands that are useful, cost-effective and of course, aspirational.

The Flemish Primitives was this year again a truly engaging event where culinary and food industries inspired each other with their new, creative innovations.

An incredible number of talented chefs (nearly 30 Michelin stars all together), scientists, artists and show-biz personalities took the stage on a long day (nearly a 12 hour agenda plus break-out sessions) of gastronomy and innovation aiming to explore and discover new tastes.

After the first edition dedicated to Food Pairing, this year event was focused on technology and creativity with the presentation of 5 new technologies and concepts.

Impregnating seafood by using ultra high pressure
By applying pressure, equal to 60 km of water (6.000 bar) flavours can be impregnated into food products such as oysters. This technology was developed and patented by Sense for Taste.

Insight: This technology really gives sea food a unique consistency and an extremely intense taste plus the advantage of extended shelf life. Everyone was given a box with 4 shells to taste, 1300 participants were eating raw shells which were fished 7 days before! They had a real, pure intense taste and a rich and perfect texture. Something absolutely unique!!

Smart tableware
In cooperation with the University of Louvain, division Mebios, a technology was created to move drops around on a plate. The advantage of this is that essences can be used in their pure form, without the need for any binding agent. This allows the chef to add flavours to a dish instantly at the customer’s table in a very theatrical way. This invention was patented by LRD (KU Leuven Research and Development).

Insight: Maybe a bit too complex. Technically there is not much difference between adding droplets directly into food and having them move from the outside of the plate into the food which is located in the centre of the plate. The choreography was very nice, but taste wise not a breakthrough

Crycotüv
Chef Kristof Coppens and Messer/Cretel created a new technology that allows chefs to deep freeze products without any loss of texture and taste. This allows the chef to create new structures by combining liquid nitrogen and vacuum.

Insight: This is definitely a great innovation because it allows deepfreezing of the product, preserving its freshness without any lost in structure, colour and flavour.

Gels without added gelling agents
By using naturally present enzymes in fruits and vegetables in combination with a splitstream process, chef Jean-Yves Wilmot created a gel created without any additives.

Insight: Interesting technology for the culinary industry who crave natural solutions butwas not explained in enough detail.

Emulsionfire
Chef Roger van Damme cooperated with the University of Leuven to create a new way of making emulsions (mayonnaise) by using magnets. The advantage of this process is that new textures can be created or that existing structures can be created in less time and can be preserved for a longer period.

Insight: Wonderful innovation that allows the creation of very smooth and delicate textures in less time and with a longer shelf-life.

The ultimate goal of these research and techniques is achieving an exceptional taste experience with attention delivering a multi-sensory experience for the consumer 

The common theme of this event was the search for harmony and the sensory enhancement derived from the creation of new and unique textures and tastes, used to deliver optimised sensory expriences for new product innovations.

Chowder bay, on Sydney's middle harbour was the idyllic setting for this years' New Zealand/Australia Sensory and Consumer Science Symposium. A steal, at $420 AU $, the concept of the meeting is to allow for the relaxed networking of  Oceanic professionals in the field, as well as introducing relevant topics in the Food Industry today. Rosires Deliza presented an insightful workshop on Day 1 into consumer science methodologies. This faciliitated robust and productive discussions amongst the professionals present (including industry, academia and the CSIRO) in relation to choice of best method, advantages and disadvantages, and the overall conculsion that there is in fact no one "best" method, but each has to be carefully selected according to the type of project. In addition to the extended lunch break and the chance to paddle in the crystal blue waters, the opportunity to meet new people and refresh aquaintances with practitioners in the field was truly brilliant.

Day 2 started with a series of presentations, with topics ranging from "How to measure of childrens' liking for foods" (Gie Liem, Deakin University), "Describing Australian flavours" (delivered in a delightful way by Heather Smyth, Department of Employment, Queensland) and even a new tool for recall of alcoholic beverages (David Cox, CSIRO). The afternoons' business got down to the serious and controversial topic of salt in the food industry. Professor Bruce Neal presented the impressive case for salt reduction (in his role as president of AWASH), and Dr Geoffrey Annison from the Australian Food and Grocery Council showed how the food industry has already proactively addressed excess salt in food products such as bread and snackfoods. The case for regulation was discussed, however there is no clear solution for this challenge and it seemed evident both parties above did not favour this approach. Dialogue between the food industry and those concerned about salt intakes is clearly of paramount importance. Dr Ingrid Appleqvist discussed some of the technologies the CSIRO has been working on the help reduce salt content of bread, which was a fantastic way to wrap up the session. A yahoo group is in existence for those interested in following these and other sensory and consumer science topics in Oceania

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/nzozsensory/

Well done to all the organisers. Next stop for this meeting is Christchurch in New Zealand, 2011. We can't wait !

Lcafe is the latest creation by the ever-creative Japanese to market new food and drink products. Japanese advertisers, increasingly questioning the effectiveness of mass marketing, and now turning the targeted promotions such as new product sampling using the Lcafe. The concept is simple, to provide young, trendy and open-minded  women with the opportunity to try new products, based on their purchases made while enjoying a breather from the daily grind of shopping. These can include pretzel sticks flavoured with cheese, apple or tomato, vitamin infused drinks or even assorted skin care products. Based on the principal that women take the initiative in shopping and spark trends, the idea is proving viral. After being open for less than 2 months, the cafe already has more than 2000 registered members. Targeted pitching of these new products to the affluent Japanese consumer is already proving its worth!

Stazione Leopolda, Florence, Italy was the fabulous venue for the 8th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, http://www.pangborn2009.com/, THE calendar event of choice for most sensory and consumer scientists around the world. Despite a dissapointing number of delegates  from the Australasia and Asia Pacific region, it was obvious the event is still gaining ground on the world stage.

On a typically dry, hot, Mediterranean Sunday afternoon the conference kicked off with a keynote by Emilio Monteleone, discussing the contribution of sensory science in several priority areas of the food industry. 1. The development of tasty food for the overweight population; 2. Consumer responses to alternative production techniques, necessary for societal change; 3. Identification and testing of cross-cultural foods; 4. The development of the food service sector for creation of total meal concepts; 5. The development of foods from alternative or novel materials. Of course, progress in these areas is advancing, but we still have a long way to go.

Salt was also a hot topic. We were impressed by the statistical extrapolation involved in this presentation by Gary Beauchamp. That is, if sodium intake was reduced by 50%, an average decline of 5mm Hg in mean systolic blood pressure would save 150,000 lives annually in the US. Impressive, until the alternative hypothesis was suggested; that populations have historically always had elevated salt intakes and populations will always revert to that level. Whatever your opinion, there is no doubt added salt levels in food needs to be adjusted slowly over time eliciting change in population "salt thresholds".

Here are some (not an exhaustive list) of just some of the highlights we experienced over 6 sensational days in Florence:-

• Learning about Napping® (a consumer mapping technique for similarity or dissimilarity of samples) from the Scientists at Kelloggs
• Finally getting the validation (from the team at Compusense) that rotation of choices, as well as samples is required in consumer &  research. To prevent, (and we love the term) "Donkey Voting"
• Attending the HOO-HAA sensorimix from the team at Eurosyn. What a fab team of guys!
• The presentations of Dag Piper (Sound of Citrus; Symrise) and Stan Knoops (Unilever) at the above inspiring event
• MMR's magnificent evening, walking around Florence, eating and drinking....AND
• The poster on "Creating a global formulation that wins across several countries" presented by Coca Cola and MMR.
• RapidLink: Kraft's method for reducing idea to market time by 75%, using the delightful example of the "Magic Apple"
• The workshop on techniques to measure emotions, there is no doubt, consumers = emotion!
• The workshop on Umami and Glutamate, such an important area in Asia
• Understanding how far, and in what direction we can push the boundaries of familiarity in innovation. Perception innovation, a new era is born (Conor Delahunty, CSIRO)
• Finally learning about which senses are responsible for freshness in soft drinks
• The amazing advances in the application of sensory techniques in non- foods. Margaret Everitt's example from Ponsietta plants was incredible (and a great poster too!)

We would still love to see more applied uses of sensory and consumer science, and see the number of abstracts reduced in the book (it's costing us a fortune in excess baggage). Luckily (for us), the 9th Pangborn will be held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2011. Until then, we need to get to work!

If anyone would like to know more, please mail us at jane@insight2market.com or antonella@insight2market.com.

Have you heard about the miracle fruit? It’s not a new product, having being relentlessly explored commercially since the 1970’s. However, we have heard of an intriguing new application for this delightful red African berry. FLAVOUR TRIPPING parties are the latest fad for foodies showcasing their prowess of all things culinary. Instead of being greeted by the usual zesty cocktail or glass of Sav. Blanc, party guests are invited to sample the miracle fruit, followed by a series of robust, sour and pungent flavours. Sucking on slices of lemon, morphs into a rush of candy lemonade in the mouth, balsamic vinegar fills the senses with a smooth and sweet sensation…..even Guinness reportedly transforms into a decadent, creamy chocolate milkshake

The natural source of miracle fruit, Richadella dulcifica, was first documented by the French explorer Chevalier des Marchais over 300 years ago. Today, following a recent avalanche of publicity, chefs are experimenting with Miraculin “Blumenthal style”, and as if by magic can turn apricots  into golden syrup and plain natural yoghurt into a luxurious double whipped cream, but, and here is the trick…its minus the calories

While a commercial application has to date proven elusive, scientists in Japan say they are getting closer. Until then, why not order some miracle fruit (available online as berries, tablets or even grow your own trees) and throw a party for your colleagues to experience the wonder of this sensory miracle!

As shoppers increasingly seek out cheaper deals, the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (Europe) reported recently that the share of private label markets has reached as high as 48% in traditional retailers and 94% in discounters.

Within the Australasia market, private label value share in supermar­kets has now surpassed 22 per cent, according to Paul O’Brien, Private Label Manufactur­ers Association (PLMA) Member Services for Australia and New Zealand. Five years ago it was a little over 12 per cent. This is unprecedented growth by any measure.

Moving forward, value innovation is the key to success in private label brands. Copy cat products have traditionally been the driver of growth in this category. However, this increasingly has changed to a new futuristic model of designing products which incorporate consumer insight and advantage over big branded products such as taste superiority, differentiation on quality and new packaging formats.

There is little doubt, private label is entering an important era as value conscious shoppers look to maximize their discretionary spending.

Pre-economic crisis the London Business School Centre for marketing predicted that "the last century belonged to large brand owners, the next hundred years will belong to large retailers". In light of the global recession one can only imagine the acceleration of this trend in the next 2-5 years.  Food for thought indeed.

Yes you did hear us correctly. According to Mintel, Cactus comes in at number 4 of the top FLAVOUR trends for 2009. Already a beloved flavour in Latin America, Cactus and Cactus fruit ingredients are galloping towards success.....the perfect blend of novelty and health! 

The top picks from the innovative TRENDS business MINTEL include:-

1. Persimmon. Expect to see this exotic fruit blended with white peach and apricot

2. Starfruit. Visually, sensorially and conceptually tantalising. The perfect beverage or confectionary flavour!

3. Lavender. Beyond home and personal care, Lindt recently launched a lavender and lemon dream chocolate

4. CACTUS!

5. Chimichurri. Another saucy number from Latin America!

6. Peri-Peri. Already popularised by fast-food restaurants, but can we expect to see more in retail?

7. Masala. Everything Indian is hot right now, and we don't just mean spicy!

Until the next time.................

A short and smelly blog entry today...

Published in Chemical Senses recently.....Firmenich have discovered that the armpit sweat of men and women hve distinctly different aromas! Sweat samples, taken from 24 Females and 25 Males revealed that "men smell of cheese and women smell of grapefruit or onion" (Christian Starkenmann, Firmenich)......

Simply sensational…that’s the verdict on the first Flemish Primitives event focused on food pairing in Brugge/Bruges (Belgium), Jan 5, 2009 which Antonella attended.   A feast for the senses, the conference fused science and gourmet creativity, creating a charged atmosphere of excitement and energy amongst the 1100 delegates and top chefs present.

Food Pairing is an interesting concept, & appears to be an evolving discipline. When Heston Blumethal (of The Fat Duck in England) created a dish containing white chocolate and caviar he was surprised to find they combined perfectly together. Being curious, Heston contacted François Benzi (working for Firmenich -  the largest private flavour house in the world) to get a scientific point of view  on this remarkable combination  Analysis of both products revealed that they had common flavour (chemical)  ingredients. Thus, the major scientific theory behind food pairing started to crystallize:

“Food products combine well together when they have major flavour components (chemicals) in common”

In principal it’s a sensible theory. During the conference, the chefs created some wonderful, weird and wacky combinations of foods and flavours including:-

• rye bread, blue cheese and pineapple
• cucumber, salmon confit, orange and soy milk
• almond thins, mozzarella, figs and ham
• potato cream, coffee, vanilla and cheese

At first glance, these concepts seem “not mainstream” enough for everyday inspiration in the food industry. But take a closer look. Cheese and pineapple have been used for decades on pizza, cucumber and salmon are almost always served together, cheese is very often served with fruit and ham. So, it might seem that the rationale behind food pairing is not as novel as it first appears.

Taking the idea further, we checked out the concept on www.foodpairing.be. What should we be eating with Champagne?  According to the chart, not strawberries! Once on the website, you simply type in the food of interest into the section “what goes well with..” and a chart appears (such as that below) to demonstrate which foods should be paired together! 

 So, what applications are evident for food pairing? The possibilities seem endless...

Through the food pairing concept, chefs, product developers and flavourists can create new taste combinations that complement one another, providing innovative solutions & inspiration to tantalize the ever discerning consumer.

In addition to the concept of food pairing, the event also showcased the mechanism by which multi-sensory stimulation impacts an audience (with the premise the same will happen to consumers).

We hear a lot about sensory branding, and use of sensory touch points on every aspect of food and drink development. Without doubt, this is the major opportunity for the future. It would be wonderful to see more concrete research and real-life applications for the food industry in this exciting area.

Finally, special mention has to go to The Flavour Bible (Karen Page, Andrew Dorenburg) which showcases food fashions and flavour pairings of the future. A must for those involved in the cooking, creative and food innovation process!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=9X3epPSvhts

Antonella attended the amazing food pairing conference in Brugge this week, and even got to meet the charming and effusive Heston Blumenthal of "Fat Duck" fame. Check out Antonella's full report on the conference here shortly.

Meanwhile the link below explains the concept of food pairing. Enjoy..

http://www.theflemishprimitives.com/

We would like to thank all our valued customers who have entrusted us with their projects and given us so much freedom to deliver solutions.

2008 was a wonderful year for us, our first year of business, and it has been amazing to work with so many different sectors in our industry.

We wish you all a relaxing holiday and much success for 2009,

Best Wishes

Jane & Antonella

It's been an exciting year in the food and drink industry, not least due to the economic challenges facing most businesses today. Despite this, it is often quoted the best companies in the world are formed during recession. In surviving the crisis, we must  become smarter, quicker and more relevant to our customers. The key word here is relevance.

We loved a recent interview in the Financial Times (7/12/2008), where AG (Alan George) Lafley (Chief Executive of Procter & Gamble) does lunch at HQ in Cincinnati. AG has presided over the conglomerate during a period that has tranformed P&G from a $40bn (US) co. in 2000 to one with sales over $80 bn (US) today. More than half the worlds population use a P&G product every day!

So what's the secret of this success? For once, the answer is simple. AG tells the story in his book called "The Game Changer". Cutting through management speak their insight delivers remarkable clarity:-

"Observe people going about their daily lives, identify their unmet needs, and come up with new products"

Connect with consumers, discover their needs and create a product that meets these.  AG believes, as we do, that if you don't truly deliver something that improves peoples' lives, then you don't truly deserve commercial success.

In 2009, consumers will demand value innovation. Creating advantage in consumers' lives and value for their pockets, should be top of the priority list for the coming year.

After 10 years of positive economic growth, which quite frankly we have all enjoyed, the party is officially over! September's annilation of the US stockmarket saw only one company survive the carnage....Campbells soup. Ideally placed to weather the storm, in times of doom and gloom consumers turn to comfort foods, which are gentle on the purse and satisying on the senses....

Cost reduction of products and formula's as well as creating new innovations which offer value to consumers is the number one priority for most food manufacturers at the moment. High commodity prices had already squeezed food businesses, and now confounded by the credit crunch, everyone is doing it tough.

Do you need to know more about how to weather the storm? Contact us ....

The Consumer Emotional Intelligence Scale (www.ceis-research.com) has been developed and validated to help us understand why some consumers make high quality decisions, whilst others make low quality decisions, despite equally high levels of (for example) nutrition knowledge. The scale includes 18 items related to percieving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotions

Respondents in this research were given a scenario (JCS, 35,1,08) in which their goal was to decide what foods to eat for a day from the menu at a fictitious restaurant, providing a huge range of healthy and unhealthy foods. The performance measure used in the test was total calorie intake associated with the participants' food choices. The findings reveal that those participants who had high EI were more effective in restricting their calorie intake. In addition, EI predicted total calories consumed beyond cognitive ability, suggesting that an understanding (or consideration) of how one might feel after consuming a delicous but highly unhealthy meal, helped respondents to to control impulses toward unhealthy items.

So, yes, food is emotional. Yes, emotions are difficult to control. However, is awareness of our emotions the first step in this difficult journey for many consumers and the food industry today?

It's a sometime overwhelming challenge to understand fickle and unpredictable consumer perception, especially in the food and drink arena where many complex factors intertwine to confuse, baffle and frustrate us.... branding, packaging, taste, texture and colour (to name but a few..)

This fascinating piece of research (Journal of Sensory Studies, Tomasik-Krotki and Strojny, 2008) attempts to convert our taste and smell perception (notoriously difficult to measure!) into physical measurements of colour and sound, which can be expressed in units of a clear physical nature...

So, does taste and smell have a colour? It appears so.... This multi-country study asked respondents how they link the colours (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue and Violet) to the tastes Bitter, Sweet, Umami, Sour and Salty. * Table 1.

The immediate application in food and drink points to packaging-taste synergy. It is frequently noted that where there is congruence between these, the product & brand communication to consumers is stronger. Interesting to note that my delightful salt of choice (Saxa) comes in a red packaging whereas my sugar (CSR) come in blue!

In a second questionnaire they were asked to associate Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Greenish-Blue, Blue and Violet to a range of odours * Table 2. Again, some obvious (peppermint=green) and not so obvious relationships were evident

Transposition of these tastes and odours to sound is available after conversion of sounds to colour within one octave following the fundamental Newton assumption that C, D, E, F, G, A, H(B) tones correspond to the colours red, orange, yellow, green, greenish-blue, blue and violet respectively.

So let us introduce the new players in our team. Mniams (colour/taste units) and Fooys (colour/smell units). The authors offer the application example of whether using the colour red, sound C and/or floral fragrance could reduce consumer demand for sugar or other sweeteners in foods?

May we suggest blue salt and red sugar packaging to start with............

The new American probe "Phoenix" successfully landed on Mars yesterday, heralding a new frontier in the search for life on Mars. Our world of food is also reaching out to the new undiscovered frontiers of Molecular Gastronomy.  There is no doubt: if you are searching around for food trends, you will definitely be bombarded with this term.....…wow! I know it sounds amazingly complicated but bear with us while we explain.......

Molecular Gastronomy is all about culinary eccentricity. It is an elite and pioneering movement, unlike no other in the cooking world. Imagine a stratosphere inhabited with dishes like carbonated watermelon, gelatin spheres with liquid centres, broths and sauces whipped into foams, hot frozen gin fizz. It really sounds out of this world....but our investigations lead us to discover that  molecular gastronomy shares fundamental principals with some of our more well known science disciplines.

The term “molecular gastronomy” was coined in 1988 by French scientist Hervé This and Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti. It is a science that studies the chemical and physical processes taking place during cooking. In other words, why a soufflé rises, what happens during bread baking, why milk boils over or why fruit turns brown when we cut it.

Of course, food scientists have already been studying food "technology" in laboratories for many years. But now, the trend of Chef's from the kitchen starting to explore the scientific principals of food in the lab  has opened up new horizons as their understanding of physics and chemistry, combined with their natural creativity deliver amazing and innovative dishes direct to our plates.

Chefs can create very unusual food concoctions: a non-sweet sugar,  fruit caviar, produce leathery sheets of milk or build grean pea spaghetti....  and of course, every bite comes with the element of surprise that make people think and experience the food a totally new dimension.

The trend seems to be catching on, too – besides Heston Blumenthal of "The Fat Duck" fame in England, such notable chefs as Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Roasa, Spain and Frenchman Pierre Gagnaire in Paris have made molecular cuisine their signature, and a molecular menu can be found at top restaurants all over the world.

Food has come a long way from merely nourishment and it has become a multisensory experience. But what does that means for the future? Are we on our way to a world where even McDonald’s will offer a molecular menu? Well, given that 50 years ago the thought of landing on  Mars was ridiculous it doesn't seem like such a ludicrous thought now does it?

Non-stop talk about the green movement is a given today. Eco-warriors, carbon footprints and sinking fluffy polar bears ensure that the word "green" is never far from our minds. But what is Green??? Obviously green is a colour and of course the splendid, lush colour of mother nature. But what is a green taste? or smell? did you know that green is often used to describe taste and smell as well as colour?

Published this month in the Journal of Sensory Studies is a fascinating insight into the world of "green" smells (Hongsoongnern and Chambers). A highly trained sensory panel determined that "green" is not a single characteristic but can be described as "unripe", "peapod", "grassy/leafy", "viney", "fruity" or any combination of those. We find this research a relevant example of the detail required to develop successful products today, which convey the correct sensory profile to consumers. Imagine selection of the "wrong" green in an airfreshner. Ending up with a house smelling like peas as opposed to a tropical rainforest is a real possibility without the correct sensory insight! However, too often sensory research is conducted at the end of product development rather than at the concept development stage. 

As proponents of sensory optimisation, we applaud these researchers who undertake painstaking research to unlock the secrets of sensory perception. And encourage marketeers to use these findings to build more successful products for consumers.......

Research published recently in the Journal of Consumer research, revealed some fascinating insights into consumers' unconcious responses to brands. The study involved participants being presented with a subliminal "flash" (30 milliseconds) of equally liked brands in the same category. Once the exposure had taken place, they were asked to find creative uses for the humble brick. The results were amazing, with those respondents who had been exposed to the Apple logo, finding 15-30% more creative uses for the brick than those presented with the IBM logo. Similar responses were noted when participants were presented with the Disney and E!-channel logo's. Disney prompted more "honest" responses than E! What's interesting about this research is that it confirms what marketeers have always suspected, that is, that brands induce an emotional response  and can influence and change consumer behaviour

So, if you want a more creative workplace, ditch the dells and bring in the i-mac's (at least thats what 2/3 of the researchers on the study have allegedly done......) and if honesty is your thing, how about a Mickey mouse screen saver ?

On a lighter note today, we note research reported in todays' Sydney Morning Herald conducted at the University of Exeter, in the UK which aimed to determine whether mums' eating habits influenced the gender of her unborn child. For those who want a boy, get to the supermarket now! The research showed, firstly, a low energy diet is more likely to concieve a girl, and, secondly, that the odds of a boy went up "sharply for women who consumed at least one bowl of breakfast cereal daily, compared with those who ate less than or equal to one bowl a week"

Perhaps that finally explains edgy teenage girls' relentless dieting and lanky lads eating tommorow's  breakfast at 11pm.....

until next time

How ironic, is the food industry on a diet?

One thing that has caught our attention in amongst all the economic doom and gloom (not to mention Sydney's wettest April in 77 Years!) is the amount of coverage the food industry SQUEEZE is getting. There have been some very significant articles recently citing rising commodity prices as the driver for massive reformulation in the sector.

Most recently, in the economist, (April, 2008) the talk is of small companies that do not have the benefits of scale, and "posh" grocers as being the biggest losers. While amazingly, companies like Kraft have reformulated some of its major brands in the US. The company has changed the recipe of Miracle Whip, which now comes in a plastic jar as opposed to a glass one, and even has a wider opening that allows consumers to scrape out the very last glob! It also contains less soya oil which is both fattening and expensive with  water which is calorie free, and of course cheap....

Reformulation is every manufacturers nightmare. Countless sensory and consumer tests ensuring that products are still "acceptable", not to mention the amount of resource sucked up, which could be used for developing new products to drive growth. Nevertheless, as we know the food industry is resilient and fast paced!  and of course will weather the storm.