Weekly Round-Up… 4 September, 2018

By Publications Checkout
Weekly Round-Up… 4 September, 2018

General Mills will be forced to drop the ‘100% Natural’ label from its Nature Valley granola bars in order to settle a lawsuit against the group. A complaint filed in 2016 claims that the bars, which carry the label "Made with 100% Natural Whole Grain Oats," contain a chemical called glyphosate, a key weed killer ingredient linked to cancer.

Edmond Scanlon, CEO of Kerry Foods, highlighted a growing trend in plant-based proteins. Scanlon said that the proteins are ‘finding their way’ into multiple applications, especially in developed markets where “authenticity and healthfulness are important factors”.

Amazon.com Inc will begin selling food and drinks online in Mexico, including snacks, sweets, and wines, it said on Thursday, a move that could intensify its competition with Wal Mart de Mexico to claim shoppers in a nascent e-commerce market. Amazon views food and drinks sales as key to growth, eyeing regular purchases to stock pantries as a way to generate other types of sales, but has yet to dominate the category.

Farmers' cooperative Arla Foods, one of the world's biggest dairy firms, plans to pay out its entire 2018 net profit of up to €310 million ($363 million) to its members after one of the hottest and driest summers on record. The firm, owned by 11,200 farmers in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, traditionally pays only a part of its profit to owners, but said it would make an exception this year due to the drought.

Danone, the maker of Evian and Volvic, is investing in a German company developing a purifier that will enable households to turn tap water into mineral water, as the French group seeks ways to adapt to growing demand for healthier food and drink. Berlin-based Mitte told Reuters it has raised $10.6 million in a financing round led by Danone Manifesto Ventures, a New-York-based fund set up in 2016 to invest in companies responding to changing consumer tastes for food and drink produced in ways that protect the environment.

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French wine production should recover this year after a weather-ravaged 2017 campaign, forecasts on Friday showed, with a scorching summer boosting grape growth and allowing a very early harvest in eastern regions like Champagne and Alsace. But fresh headaches for growers, notably the widespread cases of fungal crop disease mildew, could limit the rebound, while producers worry climate change is putting a ceiling on longer-term output.

© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition. 

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