Food Industry Additive

Do you feel appreciated as a Food Technologist?

This is in response to a comment left about an earlier post (thanks for the feedback!).

here in the US the industry does NOT appreciate the value of a food scientist. The marketers demand what they want and will not hear otherwise.

As an ex food tech myself I'm interested to see what others in the industry think about the role of the food scientist and if regionally the view changes. Send a comment on this or if you want to submit a post send that and if we get a few good ones with differing views I'll put them on the site and credit (if you want) the author of course.

Back to the Blog...

It's been a little slow in getting posts out this last few weeks but I really hope to get back on track. Alot of my time has been spent working on a new daily newsletter that launched on the 19th March . (you can subscribe using the link on the blog) It's available to anyone so if you like it please let your colleagues know.

I'm trying to find a range of news from around the world so if you see it becoming North American or European biased please send me a note by using the contact button on the newsletter - also feel free to send through any press releases or news your company may be releasing and I'll be happy to include this at the earliest opportunity.

A to Z...

Every week I'll add a short post about something to do with the food industry, it could be an ingredient, machine, industry term...

I chose to use the word 'additive' in the Blog title so I  thought I'd start with that. 

additives (food additives) -

Any natural or synthetic material, other than the basic raw ingredients, used in the production of a food item to enhance the final product. Any substance that may affect the characteristics of any food, including those used in the production, processing, treatment, packaging, transportation or storage of food.

Definition source : www.ific.org

Trade Shows...what future?

After attending alot of shows as both exhibitor and attendee in Europe and North America I wonder with the ever increasing march of technology will they last?

It's been said that companies were virtually handcuffed into maintaining a presence at annual shows and when some didn't exhibit then whispers of 'Are they struggling?', 'It's a mistake not being here' were heard.

It was the major route to meet customers in the past with a chance to overlap geographical boundaries and access new markets - with the internet becoming the primary source for information globally, alot of money has been spent creating awareness and accessibility.

Many sites have appeared to try and connect suppliers with manufacturers through directories (usually limited to product lines and contact details), B2B trading (E auctions etc) and search engines such as The Food Cybrary (Obvious plug but why not! ) that gives the user free access to 'behind firewall' information from food suppliers as well as the ability to connect directly to suppliers

How do you think the exhibitions will look and work in 5 or 10 years?  Will we still get the  large  booths from the major players and will it still give the same value as it has in the past? - Post your comments below and I'll put together a future post with your views.

Skill shortages in the UK Food Industry

When I first came across this I thought yes, I know there's a skill shortage. But looking into this further I was shocked to read some of the statistics that face the UK Food industry.

The UK employs over half a million people in the industry and turnover is approx 74 billion GBP. Sounds ok, but when you consider that the food and drink manufacturing sector is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, and the ONLY manufacturing sector that is growing the following statistics are worrying.

The National Skills Academy states that 28% of employees have basic skills (can only read/write/count to the level of a 10 year old!), and 1 in 4 food scientist roles are vacant. Why the lack of food scientist's in the industry, I don't know if anyone from Reading or Manchester etc reads this but are your courses full?

To help counter this the NSA has been set up to try and address the problem and stem the flow of manufacturing jobs to other parts of the world.  I hope the funding and will is sufficient to deal with this, from my viewpoint anyone wanting to get into manufacturing should see the food industry as one of the few sectors that has to succeed. Everyone's got to eat and population is growing giving more chance of job stability than other areas.

I also wondered what's changing the views of technologists in the industry. From my experience I have seen a switch in the sales people employed in the industry over the last 20 years. When I started out in technical the sales people were not generally from a technical background and more 'out and out' sales people. The trend certainly moved (as did I) from starting in R&D and then moving on to sales as the role / market adapted to one where customers wanted someone who could deal with technical and sales questions.

It could also just be down to cash...does the industry appreciate the true value of  a food scientist?

Summer is coming, that's extra tomato's in my salad please!

We all know fruit and vegetable's are good for us but now the Lycored people have received IP protection in Australia for a natural tomato carotenoid that when taken orally can help to protect your skin from the sun's rays.

Anything, that can help to stem the tide of skin cancer is good and it's always nice to hear that the 'evil food industry' (not me, the media) has some great news. Who will find a reason to complain about this development, no-one I hope but also let's hope manufacturer's don't have to put big labels on everything to accommodate the litigious world we live in 'I had my sun screen drink, capsule but after a whole day on the beach...shock result, I still got burnt and it's not my fault'. As with all things in the food arena the industry has to protect itself from consumers who are not willing to use common sense in things.

Let's spread the word that not all things bad come from the food industry - you can get fat, you can stay thin - you can even still get sunburnt, it's everyone's choice as to what we put into our own mouths and more importantly how much of it!

Read More...

Nonetheless, summers coming round the corner (in the Northern Hemisphere) and I'll be adding that extra tomato on my plate.

Aloe Aloe...

Not the great BBC comedy, but Aloe Vera appears to be making a surge in the ingredients market. We only used to see it in moisturizers, burn treatments or the health food shop but with more studies taking place it's extra benefits are being seen. Results indicate that it aids in the absorption of Vitamins C and E and may help with diabetic people in reducing blood glucose levels.As I have friends with Diabetes (I'm sure most of us have) it will be interesting to see how this and who know's what other natural ingredients are able to make a positive impact on them.

Related links to this are:

www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2008/030.html

www.aloecorp.com/back.php?name=Specs

An opportunity for Ingredient Branding?

A new proposal in the EU for the 'small print' to be larger on packs of food appears to have the manufacturers unhappy as it could necessitate larger packaging being used to include all the required information or less room devoted to the Branding.

The proposal would require manufacturers to have the smallest text on pack at 3mm - this sounded quite small to me but when it highlights instances where information is less the 1mm on some major brands it's a big leap.

I have to admit that on some items I have had to make sure the item is in the correct light, right angle and squint somewhat to see the finer detail - this is especially true on drink cans so I'd be happy to see some increase, but I think a 3mm minimum would make some items look cluttered.

There is the issue that any redesign requires extra cost which will need to be passed onto the consumers and of course more pressure on the suppliers to yet again try and squeeze out any remaining costs on margins that have been shrinking for many years.

Maybe if it does go through could the suppliers ingredients get some sort of branding?

It will be interesting to see if any consumer lobby group takes this up and hit's it on the 'green' agenda.

Sensory Irritants?

Reading an excerpt from the 'Food Flavors and Ingredients Outlook 2008*' I was interested to see that that 2008 is expected to see 'Umami' become a household name - I'm sure I talked about that back in the early 90's (How time flies in the Food Industry). More of interest however was the statement that both Coffee and Wasabi are flavors that are expected to cross to additional categories and the use of 'sensory irritants' such as pepper are going to increase to provide more unique characters.

www.packagedfacts.com

Cloning, where do you stand?

The recent Cloning articles with the US FDA approving and most of the world banning is sure to fan the flames of debate. Is this going a step too far and what will the consequences be?
As with all these things, my initial reaction is 'What do we know about long term effects?', and can we actually do anything about it?
The GMO issue flared up strong feelings (and still is) with opposite sides of the Atlantic coming down with 'broadly' the opposing views. The US consumer was said to be OK with it whereas, the EU consumer was reportedly ready to burn down the doors of Monsanto. Over time however, the EU has slowly allowed more tests, more products onto the market and the consumers fears of not being able to block the advance are coming true.
My own view is delay the gate being opened to allow more studies into possible