Longbenton Foods’ inability to raise enough money to complete its purchase of Northumberland Foods has left administrator Begbies Traynor with no option but to scrap its contract with Longbenton and sell the site’s assets to someone else, it has claimed. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) Begbies Traynor told FoodManufacture.co.uk: ”It is with regret that the administrators of Northumberland Foods Ltd and Amble Assets LLP have finally rescinded the... read more →
The European Commission (EC) has questioned the role played by the Polish authorities in Twinings’ application for a controversial €12m grant to build a factory that will see almost 400 UK jobs axed, but has not asked that the money be repaid. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) Twinings is consolidating its UK tea production facilities in Andover, Hampshire, with 129 jobs set to go at this site this spring, while the firm’s facility in North Shields faces... read more →
Premier Foods has struck a deal with Exponent Private Equity and Intermediate Capital Group to sell its meat-free business Quorn and Cauldron Foods in a £205m deal. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) Rumours that Premier was close to sealing the deal have been gaining momentum over the past few days, as revealed by FoodManufacture.co.uk yesterday . Premier, which acquired Quorn’s owner Marlow Foods in June 2005 for £172m rapidly followed by Cauldron in... read more →
A regulation formally laying down the implementation measures for the European Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) will come into force at the end of this month. (Foodproductiondaily.com) The new legislation comes almost nine years after the original measure setting up the current RASFF procedure was passed in February 2002 under Regulation (EC) 178/2002. The RASFF is a tool for exchanging information between food and feed control... read more →
Unilever is to create “green energy” at its Ben and Jerry’s ice cream factory in Holland by installing a bio-digester which converts natural waste products into gas. (Dairyreporter.com) The food giant, together with Paques, a producer of water and gas purification systems, has started the construction of a bio-digester at Unilever’s ice cream factory in Hellendoorn, the Netherlands. According to Paques, its bio-digester will cover 40 per cent of... read more →
A new economic study indicates that the abolition of milk quotas in the EU could have a significant negative impact on the profitability of organic dairy farming. (Dairyreporter.com) Writing in the Food Policy journal, scientists at the University of Kiel in Germany sought to establish how the removal of the EU milk quota regime in 2015 will affect the earning potential of organic farmers. Using a Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) model, they studied the accounts... read more →
US cheese companies have agreed to step up efforts to reduce the sodium content in cheese and educate consumers about the limits of sodium reduction. (Dairyreporter.com) At a meeting hosted by the Innovation Center for US Dairy 17 leading cheese firms, including the likes of Chr Hansen, Kraft Foods and Cargill, discussed the key challenges and opportunities related to sodium reduction. The companies are working pre-competitively on best practice to reduce... read more →
Availability at the leading supermarkets dropped to just 96.8% in December 2010 as wintery weather disrupted supplies, according to the latest ECR UK on-shelf availability survey. (foodmanufacturing.co.uk) This compared with a 97.5% availability rate in December 2009 and a 97.1% availability rate in October 2010, when the last survey was conducted. The top-performing category during the survey – conducted during 9-15 December – was fresh food... read more →
