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Irish considering reducing VAT on fruit in Vending Machines

Posted on by nigel

 

The Irish Health Minister James Reilly has again signalled that a tax on fatty and sugary foods may be on the cards.

Mr Reilly said he is considering a charge and has invited members of the food industry to meet him on the matter.

He made the comments at the launch of a report on obesity among children which found that a quarter of nine-year-olds are overweight.

Minister Reilly said there are other things under consideration, including a reduced VAT rate on vending machines that sell fruit.

Mr Reilly said: “The real key here is to make the right thing the easy thing to do.

“For instance, the vending machines in schools, instead of having snacks that are rich in calories, I would like to see an initaitive around that reduced VAT on machines that sell fresh fruit.”

Carrot Vending Machines!

Posted on by nigel

At the beginning of September last year, pupils at Mason High School in Cincinnati found something unusual in their canteen. Alongside the traditional vending machines that had been supplying them with chocolates, crisps and fizzy drinks for most of their formative years, was another machine – painted bright orange – selling nothing but carrots. Exactly the same size and shape as a conventional snack machine, the fresh produce on its shelves was packaged in small, opaque, crinkly bags similar to the sort of bags crisps come in. There were a number of different designs – one featured a weird orange alien creature on a green background, another had a black carrot-shaped object travelling through space – but inside all of the bags was the same thing: about three ounces of washed and peeled baby carrots, selling for 50 cents a bag.

Just in case the broad brush strokes on the packaging hadn’t got the message across, a strapline, in bold white lettering on the side of the machine, hammered the point home: “Baby carrots. Eat ‘em like junk food”.

The response was startling. Within an hour, pupils all over the school were walking around, munching on their new orangey treats. In the weeks that followed, the machine was emptied faster than the manufacturers could fill it.

“If they wanted a snack, they bought a bag of carrots,” recalls Tim Keeton, Mason’s assistant principal. “It easily got as much custom as our other vending machines which were selling the normal range of stuff; Sun Chips, Doritos, Cheetos and chocolate chip cookies.” The machine is no longer at the school. It was part of a six-month trial by one of the largest growers of carrots in the United States, Bolthouse Farms. But Bryan Reese, a graduate of the US Army’s West Point academy and the company’s head of marketing, believes the results of the test, which took place in schools and supermarkets in both Cincinnati and Syracuse, New York, herald the beginning of a new era in snack food.

Coffee perks up your feelings!

Posted on by nigel

A woman’s daily dose of coffee may do more than just keep her perky and awake; a couple of cups may even steer her away from depression.

According to a study of 50,000 female respondents that was recently published in the archives of Internal Medicin, women who drank two or more cups of coffee every day were less likely to be diagnosed with depression over a 10-year span compared to other women who did not drink as much coffee. Women who drank two to three cups of coffee were 15 percent less likely to be treated for depression, while those who drank four or more had a 20 percent lower risk.

While restricted to an observational study that may not produce any causality, it can be inferred from the study that women who are more sensitive to coffee and therefore drink less of it and are exposed to its stimulants less could be more likely to experience bouts of depression.

Go for skinny ‘pop’

Posted on by nigel

Some Americans are drinking a lot of the stuff, some Brits are not far behind. According to the data, one in 20 people guzzles the equivalent of more than four cans of sweetened carbonated drinks each day. Health officials say sweetened beverages should be limited to less than half a can.

What’s wrong with sweetened drinks? They’ve been linked to the U.S. explosion in obesity and related medical problems.

An american report – unsurprisingly, and Health officials have been urging people to cut back on soda for years. Some officials have proposed an extra soda tax and many schools have stopped selling soda or artificial juices. But advocates say those efforts are not enough, and on Wednesday a coalition of 100 organizations announced a new push.

The effort includes the American Heart Association and the some city health departments who plan to prod companies to stop the sale of sugary drinks on their property or providing them at business meetings – as Boston’s Carney Hospital did in April. There will also be new media campaigns, like one starting soon in Los Angeles that will ask “If you wouldn’t eat 22 packs of sugar, why are you drinking it?’

The CDC study is based on interviews of more than 17,000 people between 2005 and 2008. People were asked to recount everything they ate and drank in the previous day. Diet sodas, sweetened teas, flavored milks and 100 percent fruit juice did not count as sweetened beverages.

Healthy-eating recommendations call for people to limit sugary beverages to about 64 calories per day. That’s a little less than half of a 12-ounce can of regular Coca-Cola, which is 140 calories. In other terms: An average can of sugared soda or juice has 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar.

In a statement, the American Beverage Association on Wednesday said sales of full-calorie soft drinks have been declining, which they credited to soda makers offering more no-calorie and low-calorie options and improved calorie labeling on the front.

 

LUCOZADE SPORT LITE ADDS CHERRY FLAVOUR TO ITS RANGE

Posted on by nigel

 

Lucozade Sport Lite is adding a new cherry variant to the range.

The launch hopes to drive incremental sales for the £17m brand and the £923 million sports and energy category as a whole.

Lucozade Sport Lite Cherry is expected to be a hit with every day exercisers and drive incremental sales for retailers.

Research shows the new Cherry flavour will attract new consumers to the Lucozade Sport Lite brand as well as encourage existing shoppers to purchase in addition to their usual shop.

The Lucozade brand has already experienced considerable sales success with its cherry flavours.

Lucozade Energy Cherry was the number one soft drinks NPD launch in 2009, and Lucozade Sport Cherry, launched earlier this year, is already the best selling cherry flavoured sports drink in the market.

Stocking the new Lucozade Sport Lite Cherry variant in addition to the existing Lemon & Lime and Orange flavours will prove to be a profitable new addition for retailers.

Shona Hughes, Lucozade Sport Lite Senior Brand Manager, said:

“Lucozade Sport Lite was the biggest NPD launch in the sports and energy category in 2010 and has continued to enjoy significant growth throughout this year.

“We have supported the brand with the hugely successful YES campaign which included the Louder TV advertising campaign this summer which created a real buzz with consumers.

“The launch of New Lucozade Sport Lite Cherry variant will help to maintain this momentum and attract even more consumers to the brand.”

Pouchlink Vending Machine

Posted on by nigel

 

The  eco-friendly vending machine from The Green Drinks Company, which offers substantial energy savings and the lowest carbon footprint of any cold drinks vending machine in the world, is continuing to attract interest from healthy minded consumers in all walks of life.

The Pouchlink™ Machine is 80 per cent more energy efficient than a conventional cold drinks vending system. It achieves this by taking water out of the supply chain and making and packaging soft drinks in the vending machine itself rather than selling bulky bottles which have been transported from the factories they were filled in miles away.

The system filters mains water, momentarily flash chills it, mixing it with fresh fruit concentrate before packaging the drink in a flat-packed flexible pouch. The flash chill facility uses £200 a year less electricity than a traditional vending machine as it does away with the need for constant refrigeration, whilst its 1,000 pouch capacity means it needs less frequent re-stocking.

Schools, where the machine is welcomed as it ticks all the boxes for selling drinks in the school environment can choose from a selection of schools compliant water-based fruit drinks, which are free of sugar, artificial colours and artificial flavours and can also offer the One Water charity brand. Independent schools can additionally vend Vimto, Bottlegreen, Sunkist and Pomegreat brands.

Chicken Vending Machine

Posted on by nigel

During Easter an animal rights group in Germany called NOAH created a vending machine to raise awareness of battery farm chickens.

The machine placed 16 chickens inside small compartments in a mock vending machine that sold fresh eggs to raise awareness of conditions that battery farms store their chickens and make them work like a ‘machine’.

The vending machine was placed in the middle of a busy public square for passers by to see the conditions the chickens were being kept in. The demonstration chickens were only kept in the machine for 2 hours and were then returned back to their free range farm.

Salt down, wholegrain servings up as PepsiCo UK reports on health pledges

Posted on by nigel

Salt down, wholegrain servings up as PepsiCo UK reports on health pledges
PepsiCo UK – makers of Walkers, Tropicana, Pepsi, Quaker and Copella – announced today that it has reduced salt levels in its Walkers Crisps by a further 10%.

01 July 2011

The promise to reduce salt in its savoury snacks is just one of 27 health pledges PepsiCo made in its 2010 Health Report – a document outlining the company’s ambition to drive future business growth through healthier products.
Since the report was launched in March last year, PepsiCo has:

Further reduced salt in Walkers crisps by 11.7%, meaning Walkers are now 55% lower in salt than in 2005
Exceeded its target to deliver 1.7 billion servings of wholegrain, by delivering 1.9 billion servings, helped in particular through a 30% increase in sales of its Oat So Simple range
Invested in healthier ranges to broaden their appeal, such as Sunbites, which has recently benefitted from a multimillion pound advertising campaign featuring Rebecca Ferguson
Widened the distribution of healthier ranges, such as Tropicana which is now available in an additional 3,500 quick serve restaurants, thereby providing healthier alternatives for consumers on the go
Increased the proportion of its crisps and savoury snacks that are below 160 Calories per single serve from 71.8% to 73.3%.
Seen total retail sales of no-sugar Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max reach 66% of cola sales, almost doubling that of regular Pepsi, meaning PepsiCo has fulfilled its 2015 pledge four years ahead of schedule and continues to invest all advertising on no-sugar colas
Signed up to the Department of Health Responsibility Deal.

Richard Evans, President of PepsiCo UK and Ireland said:

“Today we report good progress on the 27 health commitments we made in March 2010. We’re delivering on our promise to reformulate our core products and we’re delivering on our promise to reshape our portfolio; today 54% of PepsiCo products are classed as healthier*.

“Our 2011 Health Update demonstrates that PepsiCo will play its part in finding solutions to improve public health. If we are going to balance the energy in/energy out challenge that we all face in modern life, we need to work together and find a multi-faceted solution.

“PepsiCo is a company that makes great apple and orange juice, wholesome porridge oats and boosted-smoothies as well as savoury snacks that are now lower in salt and increasingly popular no-sugar colas. It is also a company that will work to strengthen efforts to achieve public health goals and turn its vision of being a business whose future profit and growth is driven by healthier products into action.”

PepsiCo also recently announced a global partnership with Ferran Adrià, Chef of the El Bullirestaurant in Spain restaurant that has been named best in the world five times by Restaurant Magazine. The partnership brings together PepsiCo’s R&D teams and Mr Adrià and his chefs to create new flavours and food textures in order to develop healthier products with the great taste and quality consumers expect. Their work will focus on new snackable foods, breakfast options and convenience alternatives. Previously PepsiCo has worked with Mr Adrià to create new flavours for Spain’s Alvalle brand of chilled vegetable soups, and Lay’s Artesanas – 100% olive oil potato crisps.

PepsiCo to stop selling full-sugar drinks in schools by 2012

Posted on by nigel

PepsiCo to stop selling full-sugar drinks in schools by 2012

PepsiCo says it is voluntarily adopting a new global policy to stop sales of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools by 2012.

The industry leading policy establishes for the first time a consistent global approach to the sale of beverages to schools by a major beverage company.

The policy applies in all countries outside the US and is generally consistent with the company’s existing US policy, which remains unchanged.

PepsiCo chairman and CEO, Indra Nooyi, said: “We have long advocated for school settings to be made as conducive as possible to promoting the health of students, and we have programmes under way with school authorities in several countries to do that. This includes restoring or expanding physical education and promoting nutrition education. This global policy will serve as an important part of that mission, by expanding our offerings of low-calorie and nutritious beverages.”

Details of the PepsiCo policy were drawn up following discussions with the World Heart Federation in Geneva. The World Heart Federation is the premier non-governmental organisation recognised by the World Health Organization as its leading partner in the prevention and control of cardiovascular disease.
“The World Heart Federation welcomes PepsiCo’s announcement that it will launch a new policy on stopping the sale of sugary beverages to schools globally,” said Pekka Puska, president of the World Heart Federation. “The soft drinks industry has voluntarily removed full-calorie carbonated beverages from schools in certain countries. The World Heart Federation has been leading discussions with industry for such a policy at a global level and is pleased that PepsiCo is leading the way within the beverage industry.”

PepsiCo will work with its bottlers, vending companies and third-party distributors – in collaboration with parents, community leaders and schools officials around the world – to offer low-calorie beverages for primary and secondary schools.

The global school beverage policy continues to advance PepsiCo’s commitment to reducing calories in schools by offering students a wider range of low-calorie and nutritious beverages in appropriate portions. Should you wish to know more please contact us via email at -

info@thirstlink.co.uk >

PepsiCo plans 25% cut in salt content in its products

Posted on by nigel

PepsiCo plans 25% cut in salt content in its products

PepsiCo has announced plans to reduce the levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats in its products, according to reports.

The food company, which owns Quaker Oats and Walker’s Crisps, plans to cut a quarter of the salt in its products that existed in 2006 by 2015. It also wants to cut sugar and saturated fat by a quarter by 2020, the Financial Times reported.

“We believe that a healthier future for all people and our planet means a more successful future for PepsiCo,” Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and chief executive officer, said. “These commitments are shared by all of our businesses and reflect our focus on profitable, long-term growth and will guide us as we continue to build a portfolio of enjoyable and wholesome foods and beverages for consumers around the world.”

The move follows a pledge last week that PepsiCo would remove full-calorie soft drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by 2020, as threats of legislation and lobbying by the World Heart Federation have their effect.

Similar steps have been taken recently by other US food companies such as ConAgra Foods Inc, Kraft Foods Inc and Campbell Soup Co. Last week, PepsiCo said it would to stop sales of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools on a global scale by 2012. Should you wish to know more please contact us via email at -

sally.pearce@thirstlink.co.uk >