Pepsi and Hummus?

PepsiCo and Strauss Group Announce North American Joint Venture

Monday December 10, 5:30 am ET

Sabra Joint Venture Highlights Frito-Lay North America's Commitment to Fresh Dips and Spreads and Expands Its Role in Providing Healthier Snack Options

PURCHASE, N.Y., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo and Strauss Group announced today the signing of an agreement to form a joint venture partnership to operate Sabra, the top-selling and fastest-growing maker of hummus, with sales approaching approximately $56 million through September of this year. Last year, total U.S. sales of hummus grew to $180 million.

The Sabra joint venture will produce and sell fresh dips and spreads in the U.S. and Canada, while drawing on both Strauss Group and Frito-Lay North America's (FLNA) marketplace expertise to continue building this growing business. Sabra will expand FLNA's role in providing healthier snack options and highlights the company's commitment to the on-trend fresh category. PepsiCo's FLNA division and Strauss will each own 50% of the business.

The joint venture will leverage Sabra, the number one brand of hummus in the U.S. True to its Mediterranean heritage, Sabra's hummus is made with healthier oils and has no trans fat or cholesterol. Sabra products also include eggplant dips, babaganoush spreads, and Mediterranean salsa available in individual and family packs. These products, which have a strong presence in the Northeastern U.S. and Florida, are currently distributed through a combination of independent sales brokers and distributors and its own refrigerated direct-store-delivery system.

"Sabra is a wonderful opportunity to expand PepsiCo's role in providing healthier options in snacking and the joint venture fits perfectly with PepsiCo's 'Performance with Purpose' agenda by demonstrating our commitment to fresh dips and spreads," said Al Carey, president and chief executive officer of Frito-Lay North America. "Sabra is already the leader in hummus, and I anticipate other Sabra fresh dips and spreads to make a similar positive impact on consumers. Sabra products are a perfect complement to Stacy's pita chips for any dipping occasion."

"Thanks to its experience and know-how in the development, manufacturing and marketing of fresh food products, Strauss Group has been developing a new food experience in the U.S. by identifying the potential in the fresh dips and spreads business. I am convinced that the partnership between FLNA and Strauss will create a complementary set of competencies and expertise that will allow Sabra to lead the fresh dip category and offer consumers in North America a range of fresh dips that meets their desire for healthier, fresh foods," said Erez Vigodman, president and chief executive officer of Strauss Group. "Sabra will lead the freshness 'revolution' in the United States and Canada, consistent with notable emerging consumer trends in the world today."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to be finalized in early 2008.

Nutraceuticals - Food working for you...

December 10, 2007 10:30 AM PST
The cheese that kills, and other nutraceuticals

Posted by Michael Kanellos

It will be delicious, nutritious, and kill tapeworms.

TyraTech, a green technology incubator, is developing a cheese that will be as nutritious as regular food but also kill intestinal parasites, according to CFO Keith Bigsby. The company has signed a deal with Kraft Foods to bring these functional foods to market. Kraft will pay the company engineering fees and, if products come out, royalties from sales. TyraTech is going to try to send me a glass of a drink they are working on for a taste test.

If you are reading this, you probably don't have a tapeworm, but nematodes and other worms remain a major health problem for 2 billion people living in rural Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
TyraTech's product is part of a wave of what some people call nutraceuticals. Basically, these companies produce foods that can provide enhanced nutrition or medicinal properties, according to according to Laurie Yoler, a partner at investment bank GrowthPoint Technology Partners, which recently started to work with companies in the field. While these products will likely be sold as foodstuffs and medical products in the emerging world, they will be largely be marketed as lifestyle products to people in Palo Alto.

Attune Foods, for instance, has come out with a shelf-stable energy bar containing probiotics, the healthy active cultures found in yogurt and acidophilus. Probiotics are big in Europe and Japan and have begun to penetrate the United States. Attune's CEO is Rob Hurlbut, who used to be the CEO of Niman Ranch, the famed producer of natural beef (i.e. no injections).

Attune wellness bars go down easier than suppositories.(Credit: Mike Kanellos/CNET Networks)

A chocolate bar with more active cultures than yogurt that costs less than $2? There are a hundred neurotic parents I can name that will line up to buy it now that they know it exists. It actually tastes good, too. After taking the picture at left, I wolfed down the company's cool mint chocolate wellness bar. There's a slightly different aftertaste than regular chocolate, but otherwise it goes down like regular chocolate. Ilya Nykin of Prolog Ventures, which invested in Attune, calls these products functional foods.

TyraTech is also working on biopesticides, which are natural pesticides made from microbes. Organic farmers, and a growing number of conventional farmers, spray these on their crops rather than chemical fertilizer. The organic pesticides are safer for humans, advocates say, and can be sprayed closer to the time of harvest than conventional pesticides. Biopesticides also tend to be safer for field workers.

In the past, biopesticides were often snake oil solutions, according to people in the industry. But the killing power and effectiveness of these mixtures has greatly increased over the years while the price has come down. Other companies in biopesticides include AgraQuest and Marrone Organics.

Read the article here

Bugs in the food...good for you!

Bugs in baby food? Microbes in your milkshake? Relax, this is not the latest tainted food scare — it's a growing trend in foods designed to boost health, not make you sick.

These products contain probiotics, or "friendly" bacteria similar to those found in the human digestive system.

There are supplement pills, yogurts, smoothies, snack bars and cereals, even baby formula and chocolate. Sold by major names like Dannon and Kraft, they're spreading like germs on grocery store shelves and in supermarket dairy cases.

And they come with vague health claims of "regulating your digestive health" or "strengthening your body's defenses."

Experts say probiotics are generally safe, and in some cases might be helpful. More research is needed, and it's a hot new area, reflecting a growing understanding of the role that naturally occurring intestinal bacteria play in health. This week, the National Institutes of Health is hosting a conference where top scientists will discuss recent advances.

In the meantime, the market is ahead of the science. It's all part of a burgeoning effort to capitalize on an obsession with health foods. Probiotics are already popular in Europe, Asia and South America.

And there are "prebiotics," too, which contain fiber and other nutrients that feed probiotic bacteria.

So far this year, more than 150 probiotic and prebiotic commercial food products have been introduced in the U.S., compared with about 100 last year and just 40 in 2005, said Tom Vierhile of Datamonitor, a market research firm.

"It is definitely a growing trend," Vierhile said.

To read more - see the article here