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Five fire engines and a foam unit attended a fire at ethnic snackfood maker Imperial Snack Foods at the Culwell Trading Estate in Wolverhampton yesterday. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) The firm declined to comment on the nature of the blaze or its impact on production, but a spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the fire appeared to have been started in a cooking vat filled with oil. He added: “The units were called at... read more →

Health food group NBTY Europe has opened a new £14m factory in Burton on Trent to support its UK retail chains Holland & Barrett, Julian Graves and GNC. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) The 12,077m2 plant is next door to the site’s existing warehouse and distribution depot and can process 75m bags of dried fruit, nuts, snacks and seeds annually for the firm’s 1,000 European stores. New features include a bespoke chocolate coating machine, which the... read more →

Northern Irish firm Willowbrook Foods will open a new £5.5m factory site this summer that includes a cutting-edge food innovation centre. (Foodmanufacturing.co.uk) Active in the retail and foodservice sectors, Willowbrook produces fresh pre-packed vegetables, salads and mash products and employs around 200 staff across two sites in Newtownards and Killinchy in County Down. New product development kitchen Colin Ferguson, sales and new product development... read more →

While new Commission draft measures to boost monitoring of dioxin traces in the EU food chain are welcome, the use of a colour marker would be a more efficient way of curbing the illegal practice of mixing industrial fatty oils in animal feed, claims an MEP. (Foodproductiondaily.com) Speaking to FoodProductionDaily.com this morning, Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout echoed the comments he made during the environment committee debate on dioxin regulation in Brussels... read more →

Low-dose e-beam radiation under modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a viable alternative to chlorine to reduce microbes or eliminate Salmonella and Listeria from baby spinach, claims US research. (foodproductiondaily.com) The authors, writing in the Journal of Food Science, said the novel treatment improves the shelf life of minimally processed fruits and vegetables and results in a high level of microorganism inactivation using lower doses than the... read more →

BASF has obtained certification from the German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) for a new biodegradable adhesive used on flexible packaging applications like potato chips and chocolate wrappings. (Foodproductiondaily.com) The German chemical giant said its Epotal Eco adhesive is the first compostable water-based adhesive to be certified by the DIN Certco, a certification company of the TÜV. This means that the product is certified as a biodegradable... read more →

RockTenn has acquired fellow containerboard and corrugated packaging supplier Smurfit-Stone in a $3.5bn deal, months after Smurfit-Stone emerged from bankruptcy. (Foodproductiondaily.com) The acquisition will create a $9bn a year company with a total production capacity of seven million tons. That makes a combined company that is the second biggest North American containerboard producer and the number two global supplier of coated recycled board. Deal... read more →

Food industry packaging supplier Stora Enso will record a €21m negative non-recurring item (NRI) in its fourth quarter operating profits following a court decision over the company’s non-payment of rewards to workers who participated in strikes in 2006. (Foodproductiondaily.com) The Finnish Supreme Court issued a precedent ruling at the end of 2010 obliging the food packaging company to extend pay performance-based rewards to those employees who had... read more →