Redleaf, Canada's ultra-premium bottled water, has announced that Albertsons is the first national US grocer to offer Redleaf Water in its stores.

"Redleaf is the bottled water that health- and eco-conscious consumers have been waiting for, and we're excited that Albertsons has taken the US lead in offering our ultra-premium water," said Dave Hillis, chief operating officer, Redleaf Water.

Source: Redleaf Water

American Dairy Inc in China has announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 2009.

Revenue decreased 45% to $44.0m in the fourth quarter of 2009 from $79.6m in the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenue from milk powder products, which consist primarily of the company's higher margin infant formula products, was $20.7m, or 47.2% of total sales, down from $59.3m, or 74.5% of total sales, in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Revenue from raw milk powder was $18.9m, compared to $16.7m in the fourth quarter of 2008 and up substantially to 43.0% of total revenue compared to 20.9% of total revenue in the prior year's period.

Read the full American Dairy release here.

Source: American Dairy

Food Bev Media is pleased to announce Tate & Lyle as Associate Sponsor for the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards.

The IDF Dairy Innovation Awards is a partnership initiative between The International Dairy Federation and FoodBev Media’s Dairy Innovation magazine. Tate & Lyle is a leading ingredients company, serving a global market from more than 45 production facilities in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

“Tate & Lyle is a perfect associate for the inaugural IDF Dairy Innovation Awards,” said FoodBev Media group editorial director, Bill Bruce. “Tate & Lyle’s ingredients add taste, texture, nutrition and increased functionality to products that millions of people around the world use or consumer every day. That makes the company a good match for an awards scheme design to celebrate excellence in the global dairy industry.”

Tate & Lyle has a proud heritage with its world leading brands and continuous drive to add value through innovation. Being well known as key partners to the dairy industry through its Single Ingredients and Food Systems businesses, Tate & Lyle gives its dairy customers the edge in fast-tracking products from concept to mass production. The company’s ingredients platforms are centred on nutritive and high intensity sweeteners, texturant starches and include nutritionally beneficial fibres to meet evolving dietary trends.

The main focus of Tate & Lyle’s extensive portfolio of food stabiliser systems is to stabilise texture, enhance and extend product properties in various aspects, and to help bring new food products to market quickly and successfully.

From the most indulgent pudding brands, through light ranges of milk drinks or ice creams, to the latest fibre enriched yogurt creations – Tate & Lyle brings the ideas, solutions and ingredients needed to deliver an excellent taste, texture and nutrition profile.

Entries close for the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards on 19 March. For further information, visit www.idfdairyinnovationawards.com

All entries will feature in a special IDF Dairy Innovation Awards Showcase Magazine, which will be read by all delegates at the Global Dairy Congress in Salzburg in April, the IDF World Dairy Summit in Auckland in November, all readers of Dairy Innovation magazine and available as a digital edition online at FoodBev.com throughout 2010.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has set aggressive three-year global environmental goals as part of its 'Better World' commitment, including a water usage goal for plants of 3.5 hectolitres of water for each hectolitre of production by the end of 2012.

Achieving this goal would establish AB InBev as the most water-efficient global brewer in the world. The new usage level will represent a 30% reduction per unit of production in the company's water usage worldwide since 2007, saving enough water to fill 25,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

In 2007, water use in AB InBev's plants was 5.03 hectolitres per hectolitre of production. In 2009, water use was 4.3 hectolitres per hectolitre of production.

In addition, the company has set the ambitious global environmental goal of achieving a 99% recycling and reuse rate by the end of 2012 – up from 97.2% in 2007 and 98% in 2009.

It will also achieve a 10% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and energy use for every hectolitre of production. Since 2007, the company has reduced energy use per hectolitre by 10.9%.

Source: AB InBev

PepsiCo is raising prices and shrinking its Tropicana orange juice pack size because of the deep freeze that has hurt much of Florida's citrus crop.

PepsiCo is shrinking Tropicana’s most popular size by about 8%, while maintaining its price. The 64oz container of orange juice will shrink to 59oz, while the suggested retail price remains $3.59.

The price of Tropicana's gallon container of Pure Premium orange juice will rise between 5-8%.

Citrus growers in Florida – the nation's top orange producer – lost more than 4% of their orange crop because of freezing weather in January.

Cyber-Duck, a digital media agency, has received the 'Best In Class' award at the Interactive Media Awards for Vinifera Boutique, an online wine store.

Cyber-Duck beat off some strong competition to win the award, including Starbucks, Waitrose, Cornetto, Pepsi, Carte D'Or, Pizza Hut, Iceland and Magnum.

"This is a great accolade and we take great pride in beating such strong competition," said Oscar Majurin, founder of Vinifera Boutique. "From the early consultancy stage through to quality assurance, it was clear that Cyber-Duck's professional approach would result in a high-quality, award-winning product."

Source: Vinifera Boutique

Norwegian natural glacial mineral water brand, Isklar, has attracted new investment through the sale of a 50% stake to a global conglomerate, the India-based Siva Group, for $22m.

The transaction creates a 50:50 joint venture between Siva Group and founding shareholders, Sabco Group, a Middle Eastern business group with a premier bottled water brand in Oman, and Jova Holdings, whose owners are also involved in a major Norwegian shipping and logistics company.

“We're delighted by this investment which reflects continued success for Isklar on the international stage,” said Isklar CEO, Peter Krogh. “The Siva Group has always believed in spotting business opportunities ahead of time so this is a significant vote of confidence in our growing brand.”

Source: Isklar

Caffrey's Irish Ale has unveiled a new brand campaign and a reduced ABV to help add more value for customers to the on-trade ale category.

Despite declining volumes in recent years, the on-trade ales market is big, accounting for 1 in 3 beers sold, delivering five million barrels a year and is worth £3.5bn to the UK on-trade.

From 15 March 2010, the ABV of Caffrey's Draught will be reduced from 4.2% to 3.8%. The change in ABV will be supported by in-outlet activity to drive incremental sales and repeat visits to pubs with a 'Buy 3 and get a free one next time you're in' mechanic, activated in outlet via a collector card scheme.

In addition, a new visibility kit and point of sale will be available to help communicate the new ABV in-outlet, and help attract more customers to try the Caffrey's brand.

Source: Caffrey's

Through its Swedish division Saba Fresh Cuts AB, Dole Europe has acquired a 25% stake in Green Vision AB.

"Within Dole Europe, Saba Fresh Cuts has experienced a real development in recent years," said Stefan Grahn, MD at Saba Fresh Cuts. "Now through its participation in Green Vision, the division wants to extend its expertise and offer access to a larger range of fresh-cut produce to its retail and foodservice customers."

"This collaboration will develop a new leadership in fresh-cut fruit focused on high-quality services and production all over Europe," said Jean-Christophe Juilliard, Dole Europe president.

Source: Dole Europe

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) has filed a lawsuit against Zero Water Technologies LLC, the seller of at-home water filtration devices, for 'repeatedly engaging in false, misleading and unsubstantiated advertising designed to confuse consumers about its products and about how they compare to bottled water products'.

IBWA's complaint, which was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, notes that Zero Water has improperly disparaged the quality, safety and cost effectiveness of bottled water in comparison with its own products, and has made false and unsubstantiated claims about the capabilities of its products.

Zero Water claims that its products 'remove 100% of detectable dissolved solids' and falsely suggests that the absence of all total dissolved solids (TDS) creates a healthier, cleaner, tastier water.

In its lawsuit, IBWA points out that TDS is not an indicator of water quality or contamination, as Zero Water insinuates. Rather, it is an innocuous collection of minerals commonly found in water.

According to IBWA president, Joe Doss, "Total Dissolved Solids mainly affect the taste of water and have not been shown to produce adverse physical health effects. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that certain concentrations of TDS may even have beneficial health effects."

Read the full IBWA statement here.

Source: International Bottled Water Association