Costa Coffee, the UK's largest and fastest-growing coffee shop brand, announces today the opening of its first store in Beijing, days ahead of start of the 2008 Olympic games. The Costa store, located in the Shang Di Shopping Mall will be the first opened under a joint venture between Whitbread PLC and the Beijing Hualian Group. The joint venture intends to open 300 Costa coffee shops in Beijing and surrounding provinces in North East China, over the next few years. Shang Di Mall is based in the Haidian District of Beijing. It is the first major shopping mall opening in this area and is in the middle of Beijing's IT business district. Costa is located in the centre of the 60,000 sq Mall which serves upwards of 20,000 people a day from both residential and business areas. The Beijing Hualian Group is a leading retailer in China, with annual revenues in excess of £1.3 billion. The Group operates 70 hypermarkets and department stores along with 10 shopping centres. The Costa Coffee has been trading in Shanghai for 18 months, where it has opened 25 stores with the Yueda Group, this will be its second joint venture in China. Costa Managing Director John Derkach, commented: "This is another major milestone for Costa. Our strategy has always been to develop several different markets in China, to fully capitalise on the vast opportunity presented by China's continued economic growth and aspiring young consumers. Today's opening in China's capital city further enhances Costa's status as a major international brand."

A canned drink made by Japan Tobacco Inc and called "Unagi Nobori," or "Surging Eel," hit Japanese stores at the end of July just ahead of the country's annual eel-eating season. Japan Tobacco spokesman Kazunori Hayashi said: “It's the hottest season of the year in Japan, and that means it's eel season. So, bottom's up! "It's mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer's heat," Hayashi said of the beverage, believed to be the first mass-produced eel drink in Japan. The fizzy, yellow-coloured drink contains extracts from the head andbones of eel and five vitamins — A, B1, B2, D and E — contained in thefish. The distinctive bottle-can packaging evokes a traditional unagivendor. Many Japanese believe eating eel boosts stamina in hot weather. Unagi is traditionally eaten during the summer to boost stamina against the appetite-destroying heat, particularly on the midsummer days of the Ox - which fall on July 24 and Aug. 5 this year. Demand for eel is so high that Japan has been hit by scores of eel fraud cases, including a recent high-profile incident in which a government ministry publicly scolded two companies for mislabelling eels imported from China as being domestically grown. * Eel flavoured beer* Meanwhile, beer has long been regarded as “the official drink of the oppressively hot Japanese summer,” and the Miyashita Sake Brewery has created a tie-in with the traditional food of summer, unagi (eel). It has launched a “Suitable for Unagi” black beer which matches the colour and richness of the grilled eel coated in sticky and slightly sweet sauce. Click link below for picture.

Nestlé Waters North America President Kim Jeffery recently announced to beverage industry leaders in the United States that the company plans to reduce the weight of its 50cl PET bottle by another 15% to 10.5g in 2009. The move should help the business cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% and the energy to blow the bottle by a further 10%. At 12.5g, the current Eco-Shape bottle produced by the company for bottled water products is regarded as the lightest branded 50cl PET bottle in the US beverage industry. Packaging reportedly represents 55% of the company’s overall carbon footprint.

The accusations were made in The Telegraph recently, coinciding with Innocent’s annual music and comedy festival in London’s Regent’s Park, and just two days before the rollout of the smoothie maker’s first regular orange juice, launched to challenge PepsiCo’s market-leading Tropicana brand. The Telegraph noted that Innocent’s website told consumers its fruit 'always travels by boat or rail', using less fossil fuel than air or road transport. The website also said Innocent smoothies were produced 'in the countryside', implying they were made in the UK. The newspaper said: The Telegraph can reveal that the drinks are blended on the Continent before being driven in dozens of tanker lorries hundreds of miles across Europe for bottling in the UK. The report quoted Sam Chase of the environmental campaign group Rising Tide, who said, "We are drowning in a sea of corporate greenwash. Even companies which are supposed to have the highest ethical standards are at it now, and the major problem is that it encourages consumers to believe they do not have to make the changes that are necessary to combat global warming." Richard Reed, one of three Cambridge University graduates who founded Innocent in 1999, said there had been no deliberate attempt to mislead consumers. He admitted the company had not publicised the fact that its smoothies are now blended in the Netherlands. Commercial reasons "We are attempting to get the best quality drinks to our customers while generating the least amount of carbon," said Reed. “While it might sound strange, Rotterdam is the port that all the fruit comes into, so it makes sense to blend our drinks there. "It had been our policy not to talk about where our drinks are made for commercial reasons, but we now seek to tell our customers everything about the drinks and be completely open with them.” Reed agreed that Innocent’s website had included some out of date information, suggesting that fruit was transported only by sea and rail, but said this had now been corrected. Innocent dominates the £169m UK smoothie market with a share of more than 70%. But smoothies account for only 17% of the total UK juice market, which is worth almost £1bn. Innocent hopes to boost its turnover to new heights by breaking into the fresh orange juice market, currently dominated by PepsiCo’s Tropicana. The first cartons of Innocent Orange Juice go on sale 4 August in Tesco and Sainsbury’s, with a recommended price of £1.89 per litre. "We’re going in with a promise of taste, quality and ethics, while Pepsi is about cheaper prices," said Reed. "It gives us an opportunity to dramatically widen the demographics of the brand. A litre of smoothie is £2.99, a litre of orange juice will be £1.89. People can buy into the Innocent ideals at a lower price point."

A trucking company and a bottled water maker, DS Waters, recently agreed to pay thousands of dollars for violating air quality standards in California. DS Waters, an Atlanta-based bottled water company, did not inspect its diesel truck fleet for emissions or document those inspections, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) fleet audit discovered. California requires heavy-duty vehicles to be inspected. According to the Board, the violations occurred in 21 California cities. The trucking company, Don E. Keith Transportation, was fined $9,750 for diesel truck emission violations that occurred in 2005. The majority of the settlement funds – $55,687.50 – will go to the California Air Pollution Control Fund. The remainder will go to the Peralta Community College District, which funds the statewide diesel technology education training program. In addition to the fine, DS Waters will require all staff responsible for compliance to attend diesel emissions education courses and provide compliance reports for the next four years. “Shrewd business owners carry out regular inspections and ensure employees are up-to-speed on clean air requirements,” CARB Chairman Mary Nichols said in a written statement. “The penalties for not doing so can cost a business money and their reputation.”

Fonterra’s New Zealand manufacturing sites and offices have recycled more than 5,000 tons of plastic, cardboard and paper, and cut total waste by 20% over the past year. Eco-efficiency Programme Manager Spring Humphreys said the savings bring Fonterra’s total reduction in waste sent to landfill over the past five years to 84%. He said the savings, achieved through the company’s nationwide Eco-efficiency Programme in 2007/08, equate to more than 85,000 trees or about 2,700 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Humphreys said recycling was an important part of Fonterra’s Eco-efficiency Programme, but the focus was also on reducing the amount of waste across all the company’s operations and offices. “On top of the 5,274 tonnes of recycling this year, a good chunk of our 20% reduction in waste came from reprocessing dairy products into stockfood and reusing many of our wooden pallets.” Fonterra’s Eco-efficiency Programme was established in 2003 and set a nationwide target of reducing 90% of waste sent to landfill by 2009. To date, around 84% of waste sent to landfill has been eliminated. Humphreys added he was confident of hitting next year’s target with the strong support of staff who have played a key role in the success of the Eco-efficiency Programme. “It is driven throughout the company, but at a site level our staff are responsible for finding new ways to recycle waste, reuse non-recyclable materials and change the way we do things to reduce our waste altogether.” All sites are linked by an ‘eco-efficiency champion’ who run the programme on each site. Through this ‘champion’, staff help identify in their everyday roles how waste streams can be eliminated, reduced or recycled in ways that benefit the business. Some examples of the waste initiatives adopted include: * Introducing a new milk sample container which uses a reusable electronic chip rather than a plastic label for tagging milk samples. This has reduced more than 100 tonnes of plastic every year. * Cheese cartons have been replaced by a vacuum sealed bag, which enables 7,500 bags to be packed on a pallet rather than the 5,000 cartons. This has resulted in huge transport and logistical efficiencies, quality control and cost savings. * New systems have reduced Fonterra’s milk docket printing requirements by 22 reams of paper a day.

A unique partnership between four of Ireland's leading dairy companies to research how the natural properties of milk can be extracted and used to deliver health benefits for consumers has received €20m in funding from Enterprise Ireland. Infant formula, dairy spreads, yogurts and cheese are some of the products that will be enhanced to help maintain health and alleviate conditions associated with serious diseases. Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said: "This is a significant development in the Irish food sector. The State's investment of €20m in the new National Functional Foods Research Centre will lead to the delivery of new high-value, innovative food products for the health conscious consumer. The dairy sector has a tremendous opportunity to capitalise on this research, entering new markets and increasing exports and employment in the sector. "Enterprise Ireland worked extensively with the four dairy companies involved- Dairygold Food Ingredients, Glanbia Nutritionals, Carbery and Kerry Ingredients Ireland, to develop a medium to long term strategy for their sector based around maximising the commercial value of their common raw material – milk,” Coughlan added. A consortium of research institutions will tackle the research agenda agreed between the dairy companies. Dr Paul Roben from Enterprise Ireland said: "It is encouraging to see the progress already made by the dairy companies collaborating in this research centre. By agreeing to work together to develop a strategy for their sector, these companies have identified a range of high value products that when brought to the international marketplace will lead to increased exports and create employment in the food sector.” The four companies involved have committed to making a financial contribution to the centre each year for five years, bringing the total funding for the NFFRC to over €22 million. It is expected that 50 people will be trained and employed by the companies over the five years of the research programme.

SoBe Life Water has launched a follow-up television advertisement to the sensational Super Bowl TV spot which featured supermodel Naomi Campbell dancing to the Michael Jackson song ‘Thriller’, broadcast at the Super Bowl in February. The latest 30-second advert brings the trademark animated lizards back to the dance floor. This time the soundtrack for the campaign is ‘Black Magic Woman’ by Carlos Santana and besides dancing with the lizards, Naomi Campbell also kisses one of them. The campaign introduces three new flavours of SoBe Life Water: agave lemonade, yuzu black currant and goji melon. SoBe Vice President of Marketing Jeff Dubiel said the SoBe Life Water lizards have become pop culture personalities and have developed a following. The marketing chief highlighted that SoBe Life Water is making strides against its strongest competition in the US vitamin enhanced segment: glacéau vitaminwater owned by Coca-Cola. SoBe Life Water’s volume was up 144% last year, but overall sales are still more than 14 times less than its Coke rival.

With a recently updated bottle design, the zero calories, zero carbs and caffeine infused spring water beverage known as Fyxx Hybrid Energy Drink recently co-sponsored an album release party featuring the launch of Donna Summer’s new album entitled Crayons. The private concert featured selections from her new CD as well as Summer classics. Top executives from Sony and celebrities were at the event held at the posh ‘Mansion’ night spot in Manhattan, where Fyxx Hybrid was the beverage of choice. Consumers can purchase Fyxx Hybrid in stores across New York and New Jersey or online.

**PepsiCo and Whole Earth Sweetener Company follow the lead of competitors Coca-Cola and Cargill in announcing their new sweetener made from the stevia plant. **The trademarked PureVia will debut in a new PepsiCo beverage called 'SoBe Life' to be launched in Latin America, starting with Peru. The sweetener will be launched in the United States this autumn before expanding into drink and food products around the world where it will initially be available in three SoBe Life flavour blends: tropical pomegranate, strawberry kiwi and orange tangerine. Coca-Cola and Cargill announced the launch of Truvia, a sweetener also made from the stevia plant, earlier in July. In May, Whole Earth Sweetener Company, a subsidiary of Merisant Company, submitted a notification and supporting scientific data to the FDA that the ingredient is generally recognized as safe for use in beverages, foods and tabletop sweeteners. PepsiCo intends to market PureVia in beverages and foods while Whole Earth Sweetener Company will market the brand as a tabletop sweetener. The stevia derived sweetener has yet to be approved for use as a food ingredient in Europe. “Consumers have always been looking for a beverage that is natural, tastes great and has no calories, and SoBe Life with PureVia answers the call,” said Massimo d’Amore, CEO of PepsiCo Americas Beverages. “This will have great appeal to health-conscious people who are looking for hydration and natural ingredients.” “The introduction of PureVia represents the culmination of four years of research and development to bring this revolutionary new product to market and satisfy consumer demand for great tasting, all-natural, zero-calorie sweeteners,” said Paul Block, CEO of Merisant and Whole Earth Sweetener Company. “What’s unique about PureVia is that we’ve identified a way to extract the purest part of the stevia leaf to reveal the cleanest and most consistent taste.” “This is a potential game-changer among zero-calorie sweeteners,” said Senior Vice President Lou Imbrogno, of Pepsi Worldwide Technical Operations. “PureVia is all natural. It’s extracted from the stevia plant leaf and not synthetically produced. We’ve got ample supply and we look forward to bringing PureVia to consumers around the world.” As a tabletop sweetener PureVia can be used in place of sugar in both hot and cold beverages, as well as sprinkled on cereal and fruit. It will be available for purchase at food and grocery stores across the United States and at <1> later this autumn in 40-stick cartons. The active sweetener in PureVia is Reb A, or rebiana, a purified component of the South American stevia plant – long known for its extraordinary sweetness. Stevia is approximately 200 times as sweet as sugar, and Reb A is the sweetest, purest part of the stevia leaf. Other forms of stevia, which typically are less pure than PureVia, are currently sold in the United States as dietary supplements and have been used for years by consumers in countries such as Brazil, Japan and South Korea. PepsiCo and Whole Earth Sweetener Company have agreed to buy the natural sweetener from PureCircle, a leading supplier of pure Reb A, which also will have the exclusive license to market Reb A under the PureVia brand in certain categories. The global production of stevia leaves is estimated at about 40,000 metric tonnes, of which 80% is grown in China. <1>: http://www.PureVia.com

*Diet Coke’s new 'Win a Diamond a Day' promotion will see silver shrink sleeves by CCL Decorative Sleeves gracing shelves in Ireland, where the promotion is running. * The full body shrink sleeve carrying promotional details is featured on the 50cl PET Diet Coke bottle. Printed in a bright silver lustre with diamond graphics, the sleeve has been designed to create maximum visibility. It also protects the competition’s integrity as the win/lose text and rules are printed on the inside of the sleeve on a tear strip, and cannot be read by the consumer until after purchase when the outer jacket can be removed. Strict security procedures have been put in place to ensure that the audited number of winning sleeves is provided. The fact that the sleeve can be fully removed is also a benefit, as it aids the recyclability of the bottle. Manufactured in 50 micron, low temperature, high-shrink PET film, the sleeve is applied to the bottle on line after filling by steam shrink. The quality of the print ensures that the sleeve still maintains its lustre even after the heat shrinking process. “We chose to work with CCL Decorative Sleeves because we knew that the company would be able to deliver the important combination of promotional impact and security for this key promotion,” said Brand Manager of Coca-Cola Bottlers Ireland & Ulster, Nora Torpey. “We are delighted with the end result.”

Meat processors such as Butterball reveal that a cooperative engineering effort and 3D modelling 'bends' the process to the exacting requirements of the final product. Producers of ready-to-eat meat and poultry are incorporating infrared (IR) food processing technologies to ensure food safety as well as optimising colour, taste and cooking efficiencies. IR pasteurisation equipment is bolstering efforts to combat the hazards of Listeria and other pathogens on products ranging from hams and briskets to deli loaves. The use of quick IR surface treatment of such pre-cooked products can provide a log reduction of three or better. By combining short, medium and long wave high-response IR emitters, a process can be fine-tuned to maximise product safety while also achieving the required surface finish, including colour and texture of meats as well as topping products such as cheese. Yet, too often, such equipment is only available "off the shelf" and isn't readily adaptable to the existing process. As a result, food processors find that the end product has to adapt to the limitations of the equipment and this can affect the colour, texture, flavour, processing time, throughput, and safety (along with other factors). Fortunately, there is an alternative. Major food processors such as Butterball are now determined to "bend" the equipment to meet the exacting safety and food quality needs of the product through a new paradigm: cooperative engineering and innovative 3D modelling with the equipment manufacturer to streamline and improve the process. At Butterball LLC, IR pasteurisation was recently added to the lines at the Jonesboro, AR and Longmont, CO plants. Both 3D design and equipment customisation were major contributors to the success of this project. "Although we were primarily interested in the food safety benefits of IR pasteurisation as well as protecting our brand, we also felt there was an opportunity to optimise the equipment in terms of human safety and ease of maintenance," says Steve Valesko, Butterball Vice President of Engineering. "We also sought to incorporate automation features that would monitor equipment status and notify the operator if the IR pasteuriser was approaching a need of service." The trial run – standard equipment Valesko, a long-time veteran of the industry, says that although he anticipated the need to customise the new IR equipment to Butterball's specification, the engineering and production groups began the move to the new pasteurisation equipment by trying standard equipment offered by Unitherm Food Systems (Bristow, OK). "They're a major supplier of equipment to our industry, and we were assured that they would work with us to tailor the new equipment to meet our requirements," Valesko says, "so we felt that 'test-driving' the standard equipment would both facilitate and expedite that process." Unitherm is recognised for its abilities to meet regulatory as well as engineering requirements, and its capabilities in customising equipment. The firm describes this as 'bending' the design of its cooking and chilling equipment to ensure an optimum fit with the advanced features wanted on the production lines of many of the food industry's biggest players. "There's a tremendous need in the food processing industry to have access to customised equipment," explains David Howard, Unitherm CEO. "For instance, there is certainly a selection of standard IR equipment available, but in order to get the results needed for food preparation safety and other features, it's usually a good idea to engineer the equipment to best fit the customer's needs and provide the highest quality and yield of products." "That demands a cooperative engineering effort where feedback can be turned into appropriate and beneficial design modifications that meet the needs of the end product," adds Howard. "We ran the initial equipment for about a month," Valesko says. "Although it was quite evident that we would need to make alterations to our final IR pasteurisation equipment design, that trial period with the off-the-shelf equipment was highly beneficial. It permitted us to see the equipment in action and redesign it with Unitherm to meet the needs of both our process and our products." The preliminary trials, held at Butterball's Jonesboro plant, entailed full production runs, checking product temperatures and ensuring that the IR pasteurisation performed the proper amount of log reduction of food-borne bacteria. "Our basic concern was to ensure the wholesomeness of our product," Valesko says, "which entailed the necessary protection of our deli products prior to sealing in the bag." He adds that some of Butterball's deli customers, including major supermarket chains, have begun to request IR pasteurisation as an assurance of safety for the meat and poultry products that they slice and sell. 3D for validation and further improvement After the trial run, Butterball engineers and process people decided on several upgrades for the IR pasteurising equipment, either to meet their food safety goals or to better integrate with the process. "What we didn't want was to change the way the equipment operated," Valesko explains. "Yet, there were specific alterations that we knew would make the system much better for our operations." Most of the alterations Butterball requested were aimed at improving human safety and ease of maintenance. They specified a change in the way the equipment hood opens and closes, so that it's more user friendly. The outside of trial pasteuriser would get hot, so Butterball stipulated that it be made cool to the touch. The Butterball project team also requested that the belt could be cleaned more easily. The key to making those changes was the collaborative effort between the equipment design engineers along with Butterball's engineers and process managers. Among the most noteworthy tools to facilitate that collaboration was a 3D modelling program that Unitherm uses so that every nut and bolt of a system can be portrayed, reviewed and approved (or further modified). "The 3D modelling was one of the beautiful parts of this project," Valesko explains. "It allowed us to see exactly what the machine was going to look like. And from highly detailed 3D images, we were able to make further alterations, including structural changes to the frame of the machine." Valesko adds that the 3D illustrations helped Unitherm to cooperate fully in adapting or bending its equipment design to meet Butterball's production and quality requirements. "We worked very well together on the project," he says. Now, we feel assured that the equipment has been designed to accomplish what we've set out to do." He says that although Butterball was responsible for the redesign of the IR pasteurisation system, nothing about the final concept is considered proprietary. "The improvements that we made had to do with food safety and human safety issues. Those are concerns that are shared by the entire industry," Valesko says. "So, for the betterment of the industry, we're willing to share information about our own improvements in those areas." 3D design helps IR cook Other IR-based cooking applications, gas infrared ovens, also benefit from the highly interactive process of 3D design. Replacing the popular impingement and spiral ovens, gas IR is quickly becoming the gold standard of control of colour, shape and moisture of ready-to-eat foods such as the breakfast sausages served by fast food restaurants. Lopez Foods, which supplies breakfast sausages to McDonald's, decided in 2007 to upgrade its seven sausage lines to improve efficiency and save on energy while ensuring product quality. By using 3D modelling, Unitherm was able to work hand in hand with the food producer and refine the design to eliminate daily operational concerns that affected the lines. "We redesigned the extraction hood system to reduce cleaning time by 84%," explains David Howard, Unitherm CEO. "With our customer's input, we designed the water flow system and transfer decks to eliminate charring on the stainless steel surfaces. This also reduced cleaning time. But the biggest obstacle was developing a new emitter that had no reliance on ceramics." As a measure of the 3D modelling approach, as well as a commitment to innovation, Unitherm developed a cast burner head featuring a stainless steel sponge material that could be used to create the infrared emitter. "The success of this head took the fragility out of the line, making it 1,000-fold more reliable," Howard says. Howard adds that, until recently, equipment manufacturers were putting 2D drawings in front of their customers' engineers. Because those drawings were flat and a challenge to read, it was difficult to visualise what the finished equipment was really going to look like. "The 3D model shows engineers and other members of a development team a fully designed piece of equipment that they can interact with," Howard says. "This enables them to become part of the process, and the functionality enables them to provide us with an end-user point of view. Although we're experts at developing equipment and systems, there may be some aspects of equipment design that can be improved by the user; the personnel who work with the machine every day." Ed Sullivan is a technical writer based in Hermosa Beach, California