Breaking News on the Food and Drink Manufacturing Sector

Headlines > NPD

Teenagers’ sausage goes on sale in 50 Waitrose stores

21-May-2013 - Waitrose is launching a sausage designed by food technology students in 50 of its stores today (May 21).

BLT is Britain’s favourite sandwich

14-May-2013 - BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) tops a somewhat conservative list of Britons’ favourite sandwich fillings, with prawn mayo and ham and cheese featuring highly on the glamour-free list.

UK in-home food market could top £100bn by 2017

29-Apr-2013 - The UK in-home food market is predicted to rocket in value by 20% by 2017, with a ‘best-case’ scenario seeing it break through the £100bn barrier that year, according to market research specialist Mintel.

Process as vital as products to improve NPD success

23-Apr-2013 - Food and drink companies are failing to give their new products the best chance of success by paying too much attention to products and not enough to the practicalities of the manufacturing processes, according to food specialist management consultancy Coriolis.

News in brief

New tool to cut the salt from DSM

09-Apr-2013 - In the wake of the Department of Health’s (DH’s) new Salt Strategy, which was launched on March 12, the launch of DSM’s new sodium reduction toolbox couldn’t be more timely.

Puratos's big plans for innovation

02-Apr-2013 - Ingredients firm Puratos has officially laid the first stone of its new global research and development (R&D) centre at its headquarters in Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium.

News in brief

Bacon-flavoured condom firm hopes to taste success

28-Mar-2013 - An American firm is inviting its male customers to ‘make your meat look like meat’ with its launch of the world’s first bacon-flavoured condoms.

Young’s: stop seeking NPD silver bullet

14-Mar-2013 - Frozen food manufacturers should not concentrate on finding “a single new product development [NPD] silver bullet” to increase sales but, instead, segment their offerings to particular types of shoppers.

Nanotech unearths iron-enriched potatoes to tackle anaemia

30-Jan-2013 - Pioneering nanotechnology research to enrich the iron content of potatoes could result in a range of fortified crops, according to researchers at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology.

UK’s first bid in Dragons’ Den style food contest

04-Jan-2013 - The UK is taking part in its first pan-European food innovation competition to promote new developments, creativity and sustainability to students pursuing a career in the food sector.

GM could give flatulence-free sprouts for Christmas

21-Dec-2012 - Genetic modification (GM) could be used to produce flatulence-free sprouts, according to Rothamsted Research centre in Hertfordshire.

Cheaper alginate on the horizon for food manufacturers

26-Nov-2012 - Food manufacturers could benefit from cheaper supplies of dried sodium alginate, after scientists developed new technology to process the food gelling agent from seaweed extracts.

Nestlé boosts confectionery R&D with technology centre

21-Nov-2012 - Global food giant Nestlé is aiming to boost confectionery research and development with the inauguration of its newly extended Product Technology Centre (PTC) for confectionery in York.

Lucrative seniors market ripe for new food products

15-Nov-2012 - Food firms are failing to exploit the lucrative ‘seniors’ market and are instead focusing on new products launches for the cash-strapped under 35s.

Egg replacers' million-pound benefits

31-Oct-2012 - Arla Foods Ingredients claims cake and pastry manufacturers could save more than one million pounds by using egg replacers - and has developed a calculator to prove it.

From fish waste to yeast

31-Oct-2012 - A Norwegian government initiative is investigating the commercial viability of extracting peptones from marine by-products and developing them for use in the production of high-value nutrition products.

Tesco rolls out 15-year-old student’s ready meal idea

24-Oct-2012 - Tesco bosses were so impressed with a 15-year-old work experience student’s idea for a ready meal that they decided to roll it out across their supermarkets as part of their Home Bake ready meal range.

News in brief

Food manufacturers can put technology on trial

08-Oct-2012 - Food manufacturers will be able to test the next generation of technology to drive forward new product development (NPD) and better product quality, following the establishment of Leatherhead Food Research's (LFR's) Emerging Technologies Working Group.

Food firms miss the patent IP protection boat

05-Oct-2012 - Many food and drink firms are missing the commercial opportunity of intellectual property (IP) because they do not patent the innovative work they carry out, a patent expert has advised.

Labour Party Conference

Food manufacturers should share research: Shadow DEFRA minister

03-Oct-2012 - The food and drink industry received its fair share of attention - and plaudits - at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester this week. It was held up as rare success story in tricky economic times by shadow secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mary Creagh. But there were also calls for food manufacturers to share research.

Government invests to help food manufacturers innovate

28-Sep-2012 - A new scheme offering vouchers worth £5,000 each to help start-up companies in the agrifood sector to innovate has been launched.

Mars Chocolate unveils new £6M R&D facility

26-Sep-2012 - Mars Chocolate’s new £6M research and development (R&D) facility will attract “world class expertise”, says business and enterprise minister Michael Fallon.

Dragons’ Den winners aim to be ‘the Chinese Levi Roots’

26-Sep-2012 - After winning a £50,000 investment on BBC TV’s Dragons’ Den, entrepreneurial sisters Lisa and Helen Tse have ambitions to make their Chinese sauces as big as Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae brand.

Food manufacturers who cut R&D are “short-sighted”: Pepsi boss

20-Sep-2012 - It was "short-sighted" for food manufacturers to cut research and development (R&D), even during an economic downturn, claims a senior manager at PepsiCo.

Communication key to nanotech’s future in food & drink

17-Sep-2012 - British consumers would accept the use of nanotechnology in the production of food and drink if the benefits were more clearly explained by people they trust, new research has revealed.

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