This month's articles

Fish firm turns to Beckham and omega-3 in bid to score with mothers

May/June 2010 – Convenient, frozen fish products, marketed for their high omega-3 content, have become a success story in the UK market – as elsewhere – delivering value growth of around 15% in 2009, even as the frozen fish category declined.

Nestlé to double its nutrition education efforts

May/June 2010 – Nestlé is fast-tracking a global programme to improve nutrition and physical activity levels around the world and plans to have its Healthy Kids Program rolled out in all local markets where it has direct operations by the end of next year.

Drinks start-up aims to create ‘cool’ water

May/June 2010 – Heavy use of social media, provocative marketing messages, campaigning style and intense cultivation of a heavy dose of “attitude” and “cool” are getting the Wat-aah! kids’ water brand attention and growing its sales and distribution.

New product launches have much to tell us

May/June 2010 – It can be hazardous to infer too much about trends just from counting the number of new product launches – and it’s a trap that many companies and market analysts fall into.

How fish won the omega-3 war

May/June 2010 – When – 10 years ago – suppliers of omega-3 oils began to market their ingredients to the food and beverage industry for use in kids’ products that were to be marketed with a “brain development” benefit, their aim was to get omega-3 widely used to fortify yoghurts, juices, breads and other products.

Will making friends online benefit your business?

May/June 2010 – Social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like – may have passed the tipping point. It is already transforming the way kids’ brands compete and the case study on page 7 on kids’ water brand Wat-aah! illustrates the extent to which the most forward-looking brands are now relying on social media to build their brand.

DanActive reduces infections in daycare kids

May/June 2010 –Any parent with kids in daycare knows how prevalent colds and illnesses are – and would no doubt be very interested in new findings that the probiotic yogurt-like drink DanActive reduced the rate of common sicknesses such as ear infections, sinusitis, the flu and diarrhea in daycare children.

Probiotic helps cut hospital infections in kids

May/June 2010 – Researchers who studied 742 hospitalised children have concluded that giving them Lactobacillus GG (LGG) “can be recommended as a valid measure for decreasing the risk for nosocomial gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections in pediatric facilities”.

Formula with DHA and ARA protects against allergy?

May/June 2010 – A review of the health records of 89 children concludes that formula supplemented with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) was associated with delayed onset and reduced incidence of upper respiratory infections (URIs) and common allergic diseases up to three years of age.

Understanding the relationship between bacteria and obesity

May/June 2010 – Research presented on May 26th at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology sheds new light on the role bacteria in the digestive tract may play in obesity – and paints a picture that may be more complex than originally thought.

Call for routine vitamin D testing

May/June 2010 – In a sample of 113 urban African-American (AA) youth with persistent asthma, most were vitamin D deficient or insufficient, leading study authors to urge for routine vitamin D testing for this group.

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Last month's articles

Europe’s health claim regulator sets itself up as ultimate arbiter of science

March/April 2010 – The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has made it clear since June 2009 that it regards controlled clinical studies as the “gold standard” of evidence that companies must provide if their health claim petitions are to have any chance of success.

Regulators crack down on nutrient content claims on children’s products

March/April 2010 – The US FDA’s recent batch of warning letters to 17 companies signals the arrival of a change in policy that will lead to stricter regulation of nutrition and health claims – and kids’ products appear to be the ones most in the spotlight.

First lady lends weight to efforts to beat child obesity

March/April 2010 – So far America’s childhood obesity problem has proved impossible to shift, but First Lady Michelle Obama is hoping her Let’s Move campaign will drive lasting change in grocery stores, in restaurant and school canteen menus and in food company policies. By Dale Buss.

Chocolate milk enjoying new image as a healthier choice

March/April 2010 – The dairy industry is renewing its efforts to keep chocolate milk in schools at a time when sodas, juices and higher-fat milks are being taken off the school menu. With the guidance of two dairy industry groups, many dairies have “made over” their drinks to be lower in fat and sugar, and some are making the most of new scientific research that suggests chocolate milk is an ideal sports recovery drink, better even than isotonic drinks like Gatorade. By Dale Buss.

Ella’s Kitchen builds on UK success with forays into Scandinavia and US

March/April 2010 – By keeping its consumer top-of-mind – babies and toddlers, that is – Ella’s Kitchen has become the fastest-growing food brand in the UK. Now the company is taking its organic snacks and meals in innovative packaging to Scandinavia and the US. By Richard Clarke.

BabyDeli takes baby food into the foodservice sector

March/April 2010 – Channelling her frustration at the lack of organic, just-like-homemade options on the market five years ago, UK mother Louise Duerr created a range of frozen organic baby food. But she didn’t stop there, tackling another perceived problem – a lack of healthy options for babies when she was out-and-about – by getting her products into foodservice outlets. By Richard Clarke.

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Airline meals inspire kids’ lunch-in-a-box

March/April 2010 –They’re all-natural, need no refrigeration, adhere to school nutrition guidelines, and come in a portable box. MightyMunch kids meals are the brainchild of Julia Stamberg, a spin-off from the convenient, shelf-stable meals she developed for the airline industry. A mixture of branded snacks and components Stamberg has had to create because she couldn’t find them in as healthy a form as she wanted, the meals address free-from and other special dietary needs. By Dale Buss.

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