During lunch last week, I asked trend guru Bob Messenger, a former editor of Food Processing, if wellness is a long-lasting trend or just a great marketing tool. After all, one would think with all the foods promising wellness -- from heart health to better digestion -- hitting the market, articles in the media about the desire of American consumers to eat healthier and pressure from government agencies and nannies to fight the obesity epidemic and stop touting so-called unhealthy foods to children, that functional and nutraceutical foods would be toppling over each other in mom's shopping car ...

Children saw 25 percent fewer food, beverage and restaurant ads during kids’ shows in 2007 than they did in 2004, according to a Georgetown Economic Services (GES) study based on Nielsen Media Research ratings, commissioned by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).  

Swiss food group Nestle and Hershey, Pa.-based Hershey are reportedly in talks involving either a merger or a stake sale, reports the Telegraph. Nestle plans to purchase 25 percent of Hershey, Pa.-based Hershey now and the remaining 75 percent within two years.

Rumor on the Street is that Hershey is working with J.P. Morgan to make it happen. At a time when the confectionery industry is consolidating globally, UK-based Cadbury will be the loser, according to the newspaper. This year, Wrigley was acquired by Mars for $23 billion, pushing Cadbury from its top spot in confectionery production. C ...

While it's certainly not news that high prices and economic fears are causing consumers to cut back, a new study of 500 consumers from Cramer-Krasselt finds that behaviors are shifting in ways few marketers may have expected, reports Marketing Daily.

“This downturn is like no other in generations, not because of its severity, but because it has given rise to a new set of consumer beliefs,” says CEO Peter Krivcovich.  It isn't just that people are frustrated (as 50 percent of respondents are), worried (48 percent) or annoyed (29 percent). It isn't even that the sense of financial security is s ...

On Sept. 22, Kraft Foods (KFT) will be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing troubled insurance giant American International Group (AIG), leaving the Dow underweighted in financial stocks, reports MarketWatch.

It’s notable that shares of Kraft and other food makers have performed better than the overall market. In fact, the Dow Jones Food Products Index is down 6 percent for the year, compared with a 19 percent decline for the Dow.

News of Kraft’s inclusion in the DJIA yesterday caused a small uptick in its shares. Kraft is halfway through a turnaround program led by CEO Irene ...

A 2008 USDA survey found that 67 percent of primary eating occurs in the home. Mom is the traditional nutritional gatekeeper, so the Canned Food Alliance commissioned researchers at Rutgers University to survey moms of young children across New Jersey -- a diversely populated state that reflects national demographics – to determine how they make food decisions that affect the entire family’s intake.

Moms form four distinct groups according to their food-related attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors, the survey found. They include: Busy Izzy - These Working, Convenience-Driven Moms are interes ...

Although it’s always a temptation to stay in bed on Monday morning, I’m sure many individuals wish they were able to erase this morning from their memory. Six months after the collapse of Bear Stearns, Wall Street awoke to a dramatically changed world as two more storied names -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and Merrill Lynch & Co. -- fatalities of the U.S. housing crisis and global credit crunch, bit the dust.

Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing rocked investors and pulled down financial stocks around the globe, reports MarketWatch. Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection ended Lehm ...

Rolling out this year, the WebDiet smartphone-based service offers dietary recommendations sent throughout the day to suit the users' diet goals, reports Decision News Media. Using mobile phone technology, it will tell you if you have had enough fiber or Omega-3s, how many calories you’ve consumed, how much fat you’ve imbibed, the amount of salt you’ve taken in and so on based on what you’ve already eaten.  Meanwhile, Weight Watchers has just announced the launch of its own mobile service offering online subscribers “free access to the same weight loss planning and tracking tools that help the ...

 Kellogg has sufficient evidence to support its Frosted Flakes Gold cereal "long-lasting energy" claim, according to the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), an investigative unit under the National Advertising Review Council, who set out to substantiate those claims, reports Brandweek.
 
CARU ruled that Kellogg, which introduced Frosted Flakes Gold as a ready-to-eat cereal product with a complex carbohydrate mix (17 grams of complex carbs, 10 of which come from whole grain corn and whole grain wheat), adequately backed such claims.

 "Following its review, CARU determined that Kellogg p ...

In a bid to raise public awareness about global warming, Japan is planning to label a range of consumer goods with their carbon footprints – or how much gas responsible for global warming has been emitted through production and delivery, reports AFP. The ministry plans to launch the project during the next fiscal year, which starts in April 2009. Although the exact number of products that will carry the labels is yet to be decided, more than 30 companies are part of the initiative. Such labels have been introduced in other developed countries such as Britain and France, and it’s likely you wil ...