Here’s another one of FoodNavigator-USA’s collection of articles on single topics, this one on “healthy” snacks.  I’m putting “healthy” in quotes because these are all processed food products.  If you are trying to track snacking trends, here they are.

Special Edition: Healthy Snacks

Hartman Group says roughly half of the eating occasions in the US are now snacks, but if snacking is still about treating yourself, are we treating ourselves a little too much? How can manufacturers meet demand for fresher, healthier snacks that are also portable and convenient? In this FoodNavigator-USA special, we explore how manufacturers are adapting to changing eating patterns.

• Crunch time: Mushroom chip brand Mudlrk targets online retail next month: Mushroom chip brand Mudlrk (pronounced ‘mudlark’ – a term meaning a person who scavenges for objects of value) is aiming to begin online retail of its four SKUs at the end of July and hit brick & mortar stores later this year… Read

• What is a snack, and how are snacking habits evolving? Hartman Group, SnackNation, weigh in…  If roughly half of the eating occasions in the US are now snacks, are snacks still ‘treats’ or have they become something else?.. Read

• Messy Monkeys balances nutrition with affordability for US launch: Finding nutrient-dense snacks becomes more of a challenge for moms once they exit the baby aisle and right around the time ‘picky-eater syndrome’ sets in. To fill this gap, Messy Monkeys is positioning itself as an affordable and healthy snack for kids rolling out to stores this month… Read

• Ready to pig out (minus the bacon)? Outstanding Foods gears up for launch: Vegan jerky is picking up steam, but hasn’t set the world on fire, yet. And while bacon-flavored potato and corn chips are a staple in the salty snacks aisle, they don’t pretend to replicate the taste and texture of a strip of bacon. But what if you could create a plant-based snack so bacon-like that even meat lovers struggle to distinguish it from the real thing?.. Read

• Soup-to-Nuts Podcast: What is behind the overnight explosion of puffs?  Once considered simply a children’s snack that parents would sneak when no one was looking, puffs suddenly are everywhere – and for everyone – thanks to their better-for-you profile, new sophisticated flavors, increasingly diverse bases and playful shapes that encourage sharing… Listen now

• From snacks to mini meals: How consumers are satisfying their cravings: While consumers still respond to the convenience of popping open a bag of chips, their mindset around snacking has expanded to products that promise a sense culinary adventure, conscious-sourcing, unexpected ingredients, and satiating benefits… Read

• Salty snacks are evolving in the face of the better-for-you movement, Packaged Facts reports: Sales of salty snacks in the US continue to rise as consumers embrace smaller, more frequent eating occasions over three-square meals a day, but at the same time, rising health and wellness awareness is creating a significant competitive threat from better-for-you options, according to new research from Packaged Facts… Read

• Peatos exec: ‘Our mission is to make 90% of people eat 10% better, not 10% of people eat 90% better’: From roasted chickpeas and flash fried mung beans to extruded pea, chickpea, and edamame puffs, pulse-based snacks are gaining traction, says Snack it Forward CEO Nick Desai. But none of them have delivered the sheer sensory pleasure you experience from a bag of Cheetos… until now, he claims… Read

• Fresh Bar rebrands to ‘nomi’ seeking to direct families and kids to the ‘fridge instead of the pantry’: Refrigerated snack bar brand nomi, previously known as ‘Fresh Bar’, believes its new brand name will give it a strong foothold in the rapidly growing refrigerated bar space… Read

• NEW PRODUCTS GALLERY: From thinkKIDS protein bars to Teavana sparkling tea: Check out FoodNavigator-USA’s latest gallery of new products hitting US shelves, spanning new protein bars for kids and protein-packed snacks from upcycled chicken breast trim to the latest wave of reduced sugar beverages… Display

The Los Angeles Times reports that calls to California poison control centers about kids ingesting marijuana “edibles” are increasing.  There have already been about 400 calls this year.

California legalized marijuana in 2016.  Edibles are a big part of the cannabis market.  They are often packaged to look like regular candy, cookies, brownies, and other treats.

• Nearly half of last year’s calls involved children 5 and younger
• 64 were about toddlers who were a year old
• 38 calls were about children under 12 months old

Kids who eat them are brought to emergency rooms, and these visits too are increasing.

I’ve written about kids eating edibles before, in connection with legalization in Colorado.

Of this, Elise McDonough, former editor of High Times, and author of the High Times Cannabis Cookbook, says:

And keep edibles away from pets too.

While we are on this topic, here’s what pediatricians are saying about marijuana use during pregnancy, lactation, and early childhood. While waiting for further research,

Advice from medical professionals should be consistent: pregnant and lactating women should be advised to avoid cannabis use, and women (and men) caring for developing children also should be advised to maintain abstinence.

The FDA held a public meeting last week on lab-grown “meat,” meaning, in FDA-speak, “foods produced using animal cell culture technology.”  The meeting agenda is here.

At issue are:

• Basic questions about transparency, marketing, environmental sustainability (see report by Friends of the Earth).
• The safety of these products (Consumer Reports has questions about the safety of these products).
• Can these products be called meat?  (The Atlantic calls this issue “farcical”).
• Which agency, FDA or USDA, should regulate them and decide such questions?

The FDA’s announcement of the meeting, and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s statement staked FDA’s territory over these products.  Gottlieb said:

The FDA has a long history of ensuring food safety and applying our statutory framework while supporting rapidly evolving areas of technological innovation in food. The agency currently evaluates microbial, algal and fungal cells generated by large-scale culture and used as direct food ingredients. The agency administers safety assessment programs for a broad array of food ingredients, including foods derived from genetically engineered plants, and also manages safety issues associated with cell culture technology in therapeutic settings.

But if these foods are meat, then USDA is responsible for their regulation.  In a statement to Politico (behind paywall), a USDA spokesperson said:

According to federal law, meat and poultry inspections are the sole purview of USDA, so we expect any product marketed as ‘meat’ to be USDA’s responsibility. We look forward to working with FDA as we engage the public on this issue.”

Politico points out what’s at stake in the jurisdictional dispute.

There are at least 10 lab-grown meat companies across the globe that are furiously working to figure out how to get their products to market. Some of the startups are driven by a desire to reduce animal agriculture’s environmental footprint as developing countries increasingly drive demand for meat and dairy products. Major investors who’ve moved to get into the action include innovators like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Tyson Ventures, an investment arm of meat giant Tyson Foods.

The meat industry, as you might expect, does not want these foods to be called “meat.”  But the industry has not reached agreement on strategies (some meat companies have invested in lab-grown meat startups).

The US Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) in February asked federal government regulators to adopt a definition for meat that would exclude cell-cultured products (often called “clean meat“).  This week though, the more-powerful National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) asked the same regulatory agency to rule the opposite.

The NCBA wrote  a letter to USDA stating its position:

NCBA is alarmed by the growing number of flagrantly deceptive food product labels proliferating the marketplace. Consumers have the right to expect that the information on food labels is truthful and not misleading, just as all food products should expect to compete on a fair, level playing field…NCBA firmly believes that the term beef should only be applicable to products derived from actual livestock raised by farmers and ranchers.

Global Meat News has a good summary of the industry’s concerns.

Four members of Congress chided the FDA for jumping into this:

Cell-based food technologies and products are an emerging science, and both agencies should be working collaboratively on a scientific approach towards a framework to regulate these products.

Good luck with that.  The Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN) has a report on the FDA meeting.  I’m quoted:

Between the two agencies, I favor FDA…USDA’s primary role is to support and defend industrial agricultural production. The agency tolerates, but is unenthusiastic about organics. It will do the same for lab-based meat.

The FDA has opened questions about lab-grown meat for public comment.  File comments here.  The deadline is September 25.

Added comment

At a Politico Summit meeting today,

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said…that the agency is working closely with USDA on early efforts to establish a regulatory framework for lab-grown meat, or “cell-cultured foods,” the FDA’s preferred name for it.

We shall see.

By this time, you have no doubt heard about the Trump Administration’s attempts to stop the World Health Organization from promoting breastfeeding.  Incredible but true.

Here is a brief timeline of how this story got out.

May 25   Lucy Sullivan, executive director o 1000 Days (the first 1000 days of life are critical to an infant’s survival) sent out a tweet warning of a battle brewing over breastfeeding at WHO’s World Health Assembly, where countries are negotiating a resolution on infant and young child feeding.

June 7   Amruta Byatnal writes about “A Moment of Reckoning for Nutrition Advocates at the WHA” [World Health Assembly: “Nutrition advocates have accused the U.S. of siding with private sector interests, sparking a controversy over what they assumed would be a routine effort to provide advice on breastfeeding and the use of breast milk substitutes.”

July 8  The New York Times takes the story national: “Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World Health Officials.”  The Guardian also publishes an account.   These make it clear that the Trump Administration threatened Ecuador to drop its support of breastfeeding.  As the Times put it,

The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced….The confrontation was the latest example of the Trump administration siding with corporate interests on numerous public health and environmental issues.

Ironically, Russia stepped in and introduced the measure, which passed despite US attempts to block it.

July 9  President Trump sends out a tweet:

July 9  Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, also sends out a tweet, supporting the President: “America has a long history of supporting mothers and breastfeeding around the world and is the largest bilateral donor of such foreign assistance programs. Those unable to breastfeed shouldn’t be stigmatized; they should be equally supported with info and access to alternatives.”

July 9  The New York Times publishes an editorial: “Why Breast-Feeding Scares Donald Trump.”  Its answer: “It comes down to public health abroad could hurt American companies’ profits.”

What this is about

Infant formula works for babies, but breastfeeding is demonstrably better.  This is especially true for women who cannot afford formula, do not have clean water to dilute the powder properly, or lack refrigeration to store formula properly.

But breastfeeding has a serious political problem: it does not make money for formula companies.  As I explained in Waht to Eat:

Infant formulas cause controversy and are endlessly contentious for three important reasons.  Formulas are (1) largely unnecessary (most mothers can breast feed their infants), (2) not as perfect as breast milk for feeding babies, and (3) more expensive than breast feeding.  Breast milk is nutritionally superior to formula, but from a marketing standpoint it has one serious disadvantage: it is free.   Beyond one-time purchases of breast pumps, storage bottles, or special clothing, nobody makes money from it.

Formula companies are happy to pay lip service to “breast is best,” as long as policies do not promote breastfeeding over formula.

This is not the first time the US has taken this position.  In 1981, when the United Nations developed the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, all of its member countries agreed to abide by the Code except for the United States and South Africa.  Eventually, South Africa signed on.  The U.S. was the last hold out and did not agree to abide by the Code until 1994.  Why not?  Because the Code could set a precedent that might adversely affect U.S. corporations.

The Washington Post (“US efforts”) and The Atlantic (“epic battle”) review this history.

The formula industry’s problem

As I also explained in What to Eat, only about 4 million babies are born in the US each year, meaning that the formula market is limited and static.  That is why formula companies work so hard to convince mothers that breastfeeding is too difficult, unsanitary, inefficient, and ineffective to continue, and that they would be better off switching to formulas and staying on formulas long past the time when babies should be eating solid foods.

The reactions

My favorites are from

• Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association (in an interview with Food Chemical News).

• From the American Public Health Association
• From medical experts interviewed in the New York Times
• From Vox

Add this to the growing list of ways the Trump Administration favors corporate interests over public health. Alas.

Additions

Maplight reports:

Three of the largest infant formula companies — U.S.-based Abbott Laboratories, Swiss-based Nestle, and U.K.-based Reckitt Benckiser — have spent $60.7 million lobbying U.S. lawmakers and officials during the last decade….While the New York Times reported that the formula manufacturers didn’t play a visible role in the debate over the WHO resolution, lobbying records show they have a significant Capitol Hill presence that often extends beyond infant nutrition.

Stephen Colbert’s take

 

As I posted last week, the New York Times has a handy guide to how to participate in politics.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) also has a guide, Speak for Health, specifically focused on lobbying on behalf of health.

The guide explains how to be effective in reaching lawmakers and their staff.  It suggests how you can:

• Meet with your members of Congress or their staff, or invite them to visit you.
• Attend a public forum and ask a question.
• Submit an op-ed to your local paper. Email APHA for a template letter or technical assistance.
• Use Facebook or Twitter to engage your members of Congress. Make sure to use #SpeakForHealth!
• Email or call your members of Congress. Use an APHA action alert as a phone script or email message. It’s quick and easy.

These ideas work for agriculture, food, and nutrition issues too.  Use them.

Fat remains in the news.  Which ones are health, and which not?  FoodNavigator-USA collects its articles on the topic.  My thoughts:  Beyond that, food fats are mixtures of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fatty acids, of the omega-3, -6, and -9 varieties.  And then there are the hydrogenated trans-fats.  These variations make fats complicated.

One attribute of fats is not complicated: fat has 9 calories/gram compared to 4 for protein and carbohydrate.  A tablespoon of oil, butter, lard, or tallow has about 100 calories.  If you are concerned about energy balance, watch out for fat calories (and the other ones count too).

FoodNavigator’s Special Edition: Healthy fats
Fat – we are told – is back. But what kind of fat, and can you have too much of a good thing? Is the science changing on saturated fats? Is whole milk a better choice, or should we stick to low fat dairy? Is coconut oil as healthy as some marketers make out, and is the pressure off to reduce fat now all eyes are on added sugar?  Get the lowdown on fat in this special edition…

• Chewing the fat: Need help navigating the healthy fats minefield?:   Fats are often classed into good, bad and ugly categories. But do we know for sure which are which, and are consumers, food marketers, and health professionals all on the same page on this? Is the science really changing on saturated fats? And is the keto diet backed by sound science?.. Read
• Which fats do consumers think are healthiest (and are they on the same page as nutrition scientists)?  Olive oil is routinely ranked by consumers as the healthiest fat, says Cargill. But other oils also high in healthy mono- and poly-unsaturated fats – soybean, corn, and canola oil – all rank lower than coconut oil (which is high in saturated fat), while perceptions of lard and tallow are also improving, highlighting a disconnect between what consumers think about fats, and what nutritional scientists are telling them… Read
• What’s trending in the oils and fats aisle? From ghee to pumpkin seed oil: Ghee – a ‘clarified butter’ produced by boiling butter and pouring off the butterfat, leaving milk sugar (lactose) and protein (casein and whey) behind – is very high in saturated fat, but it’s gaining traction among shoppers looking for something new in the butters and spreads aisle, says specialty oils brand Carrington Farms… Read
• Is saturated fat really ‘back?’ In short, no, argue experts at ICVN 2018:“So the ketogenic diet, sure, it will cause you to lose weight in the short term. So would cholera, or a cocaine binge, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,” observed Dr David Katz at the 7th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition (ICVN) this week. “There is more than one way to eat badly and the American public is committed to exploring them all.”.. Watch now
• Replacing partially hydrogenated oils: In conversation with Qualisoy: With the June 18 deadline to drop partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) fast approaching, most food manufacturers have found alternatives, from palm oil, to liquid oils blended with palm fractions. But R&D work on interesterified high oleic oils that perform even better in some challenging applications than first and second wave solutions is ongoing, says soy industry expert Qualisoy… Read
• Has coconut oil lost its luster? New data from SPINS shows sharp sales declines in 2017: US retail sales of culinary coconut oil – a category demonstrating explosive growth in recent years – have continued to decline, according to new data from SPINS, with the strongest reversal of fortunes in the conventional (MULO) channel, where sales soared by 38.8% in 2015, but fell 5.2% in 2016, and sank 25.9% in 2017… Read
• Limit trans-fats and saturated fats to reduce CVD risk – WHO: The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a public consultation on draft guidelines for intake of saturated fats and trans-fats… Read
• Enzymatically interesterified oils in focus as PHO replacement deadline looms: There has been a recent growth in interest in enzymatic interesterification (EIE) as more formulators deploy the technology to replace partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) in some challenging applications as the June 18 deadline* to phase them out approaches, says one leading enzyme supplier… Read
• Omega-3s from plants: ‘This technology is going to have a massive impact on the industry’: As demand for omega-3s continues to rise, alternative sources are being explored, with many think that genetically engineered oil seed crops could have a massive impact on easing pressure on fish stocks… Read
• NAOOA strengthens olive oil quality standards to boost consumer confidence and sales: “It’s critical to encourage more people to use olive oil, not to intimidate them by thinking they can’t afford it or they’re not going to get the real deal. That’s why we continue working to strengthen our standards and educate consumers,” says Joseph Profaci, executive director, North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA)… Read
• FDA Commissioner: Removing PHOs from the food supply is a ‘significant public health achievement’:The FDA has made it clear it wants to remove all PHOs (partially hydrogenated oils) from the US food supply and has shot down the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA) petition seeking to allow specific and limited uses of PHOs… Read
• WHO pushes to remove artificial trans fat from diet and reduce overall trans fat intake: The World Health Organization’s draft recommendation that adults and children reduce trans-fatty acid intake to less than 1% of total energy and industrially produced trans-fatty acids be removed from the global supply chain leaves both public health and consumer rights advocates wanting more… Read
• ‘The lifestyle of including fat in your diet is here to stay’, says CoreFX CEO: The low-fat diet that was popular in past decades is an experiment that failed leading to a new relationship consumers have developed with food, particularly with “healthy fats”, says CoreFX Ingredients CEO, Denis Neville… Read
• FBOMB macadamia nut butter: ‘We’re very entrenched with the whole keto crowd right now’: While common when sitting at home on the couch, eating nut butters straight from the jar before hopping on a plane (if TSA didn’t confiscate) or during a rigorous workout can be a clumsy, messy experience, but FBOMB’s redesigned, single-serve pouches of macadamia nut butter solves for this pain point… Read
• ‘Don’t hold back’: Studies support eggs for heart health and prediabetics: An egg a day may reduce risk of stroke by 26%, and eating up to 12 per week does not negatively impact cholesterol for people with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, according to a couple of new studies… Read

This administration’s tariffs on steel and other imports have induced the affected countries to retaliate, particularly by targeting agricultural products.

China has already targeted pork products (see previous post).

Canada has Here is this impressive list (scroll down to Table 3).

Mexico’s list includes port, cheeses, apples, sausages, frozen potatoes, frozen cranberries, orange juice and whiskey.

Fortune Magazine explains in one graph what’s at stake for U.S. agriculture:

 

 

Pork.  I love the term.  It reeks of politics.

Pork’s Trade Problem

I’ve been following the pork industry’s problem with the Trump Administration’s trade policies with much interest.

We imposed tariffs on steel and other such things.  Countries are retaliating by imposing their own tariffs—with pork high on the list.

Japan, China, and Mexico are our biggest markets for pork.  Oops.  They are now looking to Europe as the source.

The USDA’s livestock, dairy and poultry outlook report predicts a big drop in hog prices.

Pork’s With-Friends-Like-These Problem

And then there’s IRep. Steve King (R-Iowa).  In a Breitbart News radio interview, he says he doesn’t want Somalis working in meat-packing plants: “I don’t want people doing my pork that won’t eat it, let alone hope I go to hell for eating pork chops,” he concluded.

This follows a tweet he sent recently.

I suspect there are less confrontational and more effective ways to defend his home-state’s industry.  I wish them luck.

Pork’s Price-Fixing Problem

A lawsuit alleges that Hormel and other pork companies colluded to raise pork prices.  It was the lawsuit filed last week that attracted plenty of headlines.  They did this using Agri Stats, an information system accused of rigging the poultry industry.

Hormel Foods issued a statement denying the allegations:

Hormel Foods is a 127-year-old global branded food company with a reputation as one of the most respected companies in the food industry…We are confident that any allegations such as these are completely without merit. We intend to vigorously defend this lawsuit.

Pork’s Environmental Legal Problem

The courts are beginning to rule against Big Pork in cases where communities are complaining about odor and environmental contamination.  Smithfield, now owned by China, just lost a case.

Expect more such cases to follow.