Premier Foods-owned Cadbury cakes has expanded its celebration and whole cake portfolio with two new cake flavours – Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Layer Cake and Cadbury Crunchie Celebration Cake. The latest duo of products has been created to appeal to consumers seeking cakes suitable for large groups and sharing occasions. Mathew Bird, brand director at Premier Foods, commented: “Consumers are demanding constant flavour innovation within the whole cake category. These launches provide an opportunity for retailers to bring the whole cake category to life and respond to the latest shopper demands for added value and celebration treats from brands they recognise and trust.” The Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Layer Cake and Cadbury Crunchie Celebration Cake are now available in UK stores. The Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Layer Cake has an MSRP of £4 and serves eight while the Crunchie Celebration Cake has an MSRP of £13.50 and serves 14.

PepsiCo says it is finalising an investment proposal of approximately $40 million to expand its Senselet snacks business in Ethiopia. The company is also considering further investments in the country to expand its portfolio beyond snacks. Established in 2015 by Veris Investments, Senselet produces chips under the brand name Sun Chips, which are sold across approximately 10,000 outlets in Ethiopia. Senselet's potato processing site was constructed in 2017. Since its establishment, Sunselet has generated more than 300 jobs, as well as initial exports to two neighbouring countries. The investment will fund the creation of another potato chip product, among other snacks, in line with its production facility. Chris Wijnterp, general manager of PepsiCo’s foods unit in Ethiopia, said: “The investment is further proof of the confidence that PepsiCo has in the potential of the country for economic growth. This cash injection will allow us to increase our production capacity for snacks tenfold. This also allows us to further leverage PepsiCo’s expertise to help accelerate the growth of Senselet in Ethiopia by boosting its potato sourcing programmes, as well as its manufacturing and go-to-market capabilities." He continued: “This forms part of our efforts under the PepsiCo Positive strategy to help build a more sustainable food system in Ethiopia – one that can meet human needs and continue to drive global economic and social development, within the planet’s natural boundaries”. The company says it hopes to “contribute to food security in Ethiopia by developing the production of potatoes locally, increasing farmers’ income and building a more stable potato value chain”. Wijnterp explained: “In addition, it allowed for the procurement of potatoes from several thousand smallholder farmers, which subsequently doubled their respective income via improved yields and prices”. Ethiopian investment commissioner, Lelise Neme, added: “This announcement is testament to the work the Ethiopian government has done in creating a conducive investment environment for foreign companies. We look forward to witnessing the growth of PepsiCo in Ethiopia and the subsequent benefit to our economy, communities and agricultural sector.” The final investment is pending applicable licenses and investment benefits.

Israel-based Better Juice has launched its first full-capacity manufacturing plant, as it scales up the production of its sugar-reducing immobilised enzymes. The food tech start-up has entered into commitments with a number of juice companies to reduce the amount of sugar in their products. The new facility will enable Better Juice to fulfil current orders and respond to anticipated new demand. The launch marks the latest milestone for the company as it scales towards full commercial production. The plant will have the capacity to support sugar reduction of 250 million litres of juice every year. Better Juice co-founder and co-CEO, Gali Yarom, said: “This move marks a major leap forward in our commercialisation efforts. We project that the new plant will accommodate our production needs for the next four years. As interest and demand in our technology continue to flourish in the global fruit juice sphere, we will expand our production capabilities outside of Israel as well.” Better Juice’s technology produces beads composed of non-GMO microorganisms that naturally convert juice’s fruit sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose) into prebiotic and non-digestible fibres. The company’s technology can reduce up to 80% of the simple sugar content in a range of products, including juices, jams, yogurts, ice creams and sorbets, without any degradation of naturally occurring nutrients. The technology does not dilute the flavour, while “only gently reducing the sweetness,” according to Better Juice. The new site is located in the Nes Ziona science park and features an industrial-scale fermenter and immobilisation processor – specialised equipment used for growing and harvesting the beaded microorganisms. The site also houses pilot labs and Better Juice’s new headquarters. “We had to design and construct specialised systems from scratch to support our unique production processes while taking environmental considerations into account and adhering to the strictest requirements for waste treatment, water recycling and energy efficiency,” commented Henry Elkoby, chief engineer at Better Juice. The company says that biodegradable polymer beads used in the production phase will subsequently be rechanneled to livestock feed. Meanwhile, the bioreactors only require a small amount of energy to activate and can be controlled remotely, reducing the need for travel to the site.

Valeo Snackfoods has announced the launch of a new, travel-inspired snack brand, Seven Continents, which offers worldwide flavours. Seven Continents is available in four flavours: British-inspired salt and vinegar ridged crisps; Thai-inspired sweet chilli hand-cooked crisps; Peking-inspired spare rib crispy rolls; and Mexican-inspired chilli tortilla chips. Russell Tanner, marketing director at Valeo Snackfoods, said: “With flavours inspired by cuisines from across the globe, we’re confident Seven Continents will tap into consumers’ sense of adventure and intrigue. We are bringing a world full of flavour to our customers.” Seven Continents is available at Poundland stores for an RRP of £1 per sharing pack.

Geno has entered the functional foods and beverages market with the launch of its new functional ingredient, Avela natural (R)-1,3-Butanediol. Made from plant sugars using a fermentation process, the plant-based ingredient provides a source of natural energy and is free of caffeine, gluten and salt. The novel, sugar-free ingredient offers a fast and simple way to raise beta- hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketone levels, an energy source made in the body during ketosis and can be used to formulate a broad range of keto-friendly products across a variety of categories. Geno's senior vice president, specialty products, Damien Perriman, said: “As a longstanding sustainability leader, we are well-positioned to disrupt the keto industry in ways not possible until now. Geno's safe and sustainable fermentation processes have revolutionised some of the largest industries in the world, and we're excited to bring this leading-edge technology to the functional foods and beverages market.”

Ferrero North America has broken ground on a new $214.4 million Kinder Bueno production site in Bloomington, Illinois. Plans for the facility were announced in June and, upon completion, will generate 200 new jobs, with the expansion marking the first time Kinder products will be made in North America. Alanna Cotton, president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, said: “This investment will fuel our momentum in North America, a strategic growth area for Ferrero. Enhancing our manufacturing capabilities in the market is key to driving our innovation agenda.” The company’s North American footprint reaches more than 4,400 employees, in eight offices and 12 plants and warehouses in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. US Senator, Dick Durbin, said: “Ferrero's expansion here shows why Illinois is the hub of America's food and confection industry. Our incredible workers and world-class infrastructure are fueling innovation and growth. We thank Ferrero for making our state their chocolate manufacturing home in America – these investments are playing an important role in Illinois' continued economic success.” Bloomington Mayor, Mboka Mwilambwe, added: "This groundbreaking is a logical step in what has been a series of transformational investments by Ferrero in our community. Beyond providing jobs, Ferrero has been a wonderful community partner, supporting community events and organisations. We look forward to a prosperous future together." The new facility will increase Ferrero's existing manufacturing campus in Bloomington by 169,000 square feet and is expected to open in 2024. The company also plans to open a new innovation centre for its cookies, cones and crusts brand teams in Chicago in 2023.

Diageo has announced its acquisition of American single malt whisky producer Balcones Distilling. Founded in 2008 in Waco, Texas, Balcones provides a diverse portfolio of "super-premium and above" whiskies. Its products include Texas '1' American Single Malt, Lineage American Single Malt and Baby Blue Corn Whisky. Claudia Schubert, president of Diageo North America, said: “We are delighted to welcome Balcones Distilling into Diageo. The Balcones team are true innovators and pioneers in the emerging American Single Malt and Texas whisk(e)y movements, and their super premium plus whiskies are highly complementary to our whisk(e)y portfolio." “This acquisition is in line with our strategy to acquire high-growth brands in fast-growing segments, such as super-premium whisk(e)y, and we look forward to working with the Balcones team to support further growth for these world-class whiskies.” Greg Allen, chairman of Balcones Distilling, added: “Balcones started with an idea driven by an innovative spirit and passion to create something original and authentic in the heart of Texas. Now, we couldn’t be prouder to have created these award-winning American Single Malt and Texas whiskies but also to have helped initiate an exciting new era of whisk(e)y in Texas." The deal was financed through Diageo's existing cash resources. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Russia has agreed to rejoin a UN-backed initiative to allow grain shipments from Ukraine, resuming today. President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said: “Following our discussion with Mr Putin yesterday, the Russian defence minister, Mr Shoigu, called our national defence minister, Mr Hulusi Akar, and informed him that the grain shipments will continue from 12pm today as planned before". Erdogan said that the deal will enable the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. He commented that it would prioritise shipments of grain to African countries, such as Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. He also said the deal also recognises Russia's concerns that most of the grain exported since the agreement, first reached in July, was being shipped to wealthier nations. The news comes after the European Union urged Russia to reverse its decision to withdraw from the deal. On Saturday, Moscow announced it was suspending participation in response to what it said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on its fleet in Crimea. Vladimir Putin on the country’s decision to withdraw at the time stated: “We are not saying that we are terminating our participation in this operation, we are saying that we are suspending". Putin continued: “Ukraine must ensure that there will be no threats to civilian courts and to Russian support vessels. This underwater vehicle is six metres long… If it gets there, there will be nothing left of the grain or the ship.”

Mondelēz International has reported an 8.1% rise in its third-quarter net revenue and raised its full-year outlook. The owner of Oreo posted net revenue of $7.76 billion. The rise in sales was driven by organic net revenue growth of 12.1% – which in turn reflected both volume and price increases – as well as incremental sales from the company's acquisitions of Clif Bar and Chipita. In Q3, Mondelēz’s emerging markets business delivered 19.7% net revenue growth. In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Mondelēz recorded 4.6% growth in net revenue, while in Latin America the chocolate giant witnessed a 21.6% rise, and in North America a 19.6% increase. However, Mondelēz’s Europe business recorded a 2.4% decrease in net revenue. Mondelēz chairman and CEO, Dirk Van de Put, said: "Our third-quarter performance demonstrates the resilience of our snacking categories, strength of our brands, broad-based net revenue growth of both our emerging and developed markets, effective execution of pricing and solid volume growth, enabling us to raise our full-year revenue and earnings outlook". "Despite ongoing macro volatility, we remain focused on executing against our strategy and delivering on items we can control, including supporting our brands and retaining healthy volumes, while continuing to deliver strong profit dollar growth and long-term share gains." Mondelēz now expects organic net revenue growth of more than 10%, versus its previous expectation of an over 8% increase.

Perrigo has announced a $170 million investment to “expand and strengthen” its US infant formula manufacturing capabilities. As part of this, Perrigo has purchased Nestlé’s Gateway infant nutrition plant in Wisconsin, as well as the US and Canadian rights to the Good Start baby formula brand. With the investment, the company says it hopes to bolster industry capacity, provide more choice to consumers and improve access to safe and affordable infant formula. Perrigo will invest $60 million of the total $170 million sum in expanding Gateway’s production capacity. Murray Kessler, Perrigo president and CEO, said: "Long before this year's infant formula shortage, we had been pursuing options to increase capacity to meet growing demand for our infant formula in the US". Kessler continued: "The purchase and expansion of Gateway is the first major initiative in our recently announced 'Supply Chain Reinvention' programme. It solidifies our long-term manufacturing supply of infant formula in the US, increases the availability of lower-priced, high-quality infant formula to consumers, and delivers value to Perrigo shareholders. "We are delighted to welcome the Wisconsin plant and Good Start brand teams to the Perrigo family and look forward to working with the world-class Nestlé organisation on a seamless transition."

Israel-based biotech start-up, BioRaptor, has announced a $3 million seed funding round to deliver artificial intelligence-generated insights to scientists. The round was led by Israeli seed fund Lool Ventures and CPT Capital, and was joined by a number of strategic angel investors. BioRaptor aims to help food tech and biotech companies to accelerate innovation by making AI-powered insights part of the workflow. Across areas including alt-protein foods and pharma products, BioRaptor plans to make it easier and more cost-effective for scientists to discover, develop and scale processes on the road to commercialisation. Ori Zakin, BioRaptor’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Scientists are spending so much time on manual analysis rather than focusing on planning and research. As a software engineer, I’ve experienced first-hand the shift in the past 15 years and we’ve come to take for granted the work that’s been offloaded from us via advanced tools. We want to bring that to biology.” With the funding, BioRaptor plans to accelerate development and onboard additional customers. “As experienced investors in alternative proteins, we have seen the challenges in bringing synthetic biology products to market. Under Ori and Yaron’s leadership, we believe the BioRaptor platform can play a critical role in enabling the world’s most disruptive and innovative companies to commercialise their products in a quicker, cost-effective manner,” commented Harry Kalms, investor at CPT Capital.

JBT-owned A&B Process Systems has launched a new technology for cultivated meat processors. ReadyGo Bioreactor is said to meet global standards for bio-processing and offers customers flexibility and customisation to suit their unique processes. The solution was designed to assist industry processors in addressing issues such as "scalability, lead time and capital expense" without adding unnecessary costs to production. According to the company, benefits from the ReadyGo Bioreactor include: "working volume ranges from 20 litres to 20,000 litres for cell-cultured materials and easy integration with JBT media preparation, harvest/hold and CIP/SIP systems, as well as protein preparation and packaging lines, allowing the quick implementation to configure the unit and minimising the time-to-market". Schoen Paschka, director of sales and marketing at A&B Process Systems, said: "As a vertically integrated supplier that controls its own supply chain, A&B is positioned to help the industry scale to the ever-growing demand for cell-based proteins. "We are doing so in a way that not only integrates into the customer’s preferred component suppliers' current system, but we are able to offer our recommendations based on tenured experience if those don’t exist. This results in quality and schedules our customers can rely on in this capital-intensive sector." Carlos Fernandez, JBT's EVP of customer sustainability and market development, added: "JBT and A&B Process Systems are committed to helping our customers achieve sustainable solutions to the emerging challenges within the food supply. As a global leader in both upstream and downstream processing solutions to the protein market, we view the success of the cultivated meat markets not only as strategic to our own success but to meet protein demand for a growing global population successfully.”