Food Business News - August 16, 2011 - 14

Cargill recalls 36 million lbs of ground turkey
suspended ground turkey production at our Arkansas facility until the source can be pinpointed and actions to address it are taken. Public health and the safety of consumers cannot be compromised. It is regrettable that people may have become ill from eating our ground turkey products and for anyone who did, we are truly sorry. We go to great lengths to ensure the food we produce is safe, and we fully understand that people expect to be able to consume safe food each serving, every time. “Suspending production until we can determine the source of the Salmonella Heidelberg at our Arkansas facility and take corrective action is the right thing to do. We are closely examining every aspect of our production process and have identiﬁed enhancements to our procedures in our efforts to ensure safe food. Eliminating food-borne illness is always our goal.” The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a public health alert for ground turkey products on July 29 after reports of an estimated 77 illnesses, one of which has resulted in death, in 26 states between March 1 and Aug. 1. Michigan and Ohio have reported the highest number of illnesses with 10 each, and Texas has reported 9. The speciﬁc products in question include ground turkey chubs with a use- or freeze-by date of Feb. 20 through Aug. 23, 85% ground turkey with a use- or freeze-by date of Feb. 20 through Aug. 23, 95% ground turkey with a use or freeze-by date of Feb. 20 through Aug. 23, ground patties, and frozen ground turkey with production dates of Feb. 20 through Aug. 2. FBN

Investment group partnering with Kettle Cuisine
CHELSEA, MASS. — The Arlon food and agriculture investment program has entered a partnership with Kettle Cuisine under which Arlon will provide ﬁnancial resources and business insights to help Kettle deliver products and services on a larger scale. Kettle is a maker of refrigerated and frozen all natural soups, producing more than 50 food service varieties and 10 consumer varieties that are distributed throughout the United States and Canada. “Our partnership with Arlon will provide us the ﬁnancial resources and business insights we need to expand our products and services on a larger national scale, all while maintaining our commitment to cooking and delivering premium quality, all natural soups,” said Jerry Shaﬁr, who will maintain ownership in Kettle and continue as the company’s chief executive ofﬁcer. “With our expansion into new markets, we believe this is the perfect time to bolster our resources and further enhance service offerings to our customers.” The Arlon food and agriculture investment program invests in middle market companies across various stages of the food and agriculture supply chain, including production, processing, distribution, food service and retail. Other companies in which Arlon has a stake include Excelline Food Products L.L.C. and K-Mac Holdings Corp. FBN

WICHITA KAS. WICHITA, KAS — As the result of an outbreak of food-borne illness, Cargill Value Added Meats Retail, a business unit of Cargill, issued a voluntary recall of about 36 million lbs of fresh and frozen ground turkey on Aug. 3 due to possible contamination from Salmonella Heidelberg. The products in question were produced at the company’s facility in Springdale, Ark., between Feb. 20 and Aug. 2. “While facts continue to be gathered and currently there is no conclusive answer regarding the source of Salmonella Heidelberg contamination, given our concern for what has happened and our desire to do what is right for our consumers and customers we are voluntarily removing our ground turkey products from the marketplace,” said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill’s turkey processing business. “Additionally, we have

Consumers more concerned with fat, calories than HFCS
CHICAGO — Consumers are more concerned with fat and calorie intake than sugar or highfructose corn syrup content, according to a study conducted by the Mintel Research Consultancy. “When reading ingredient labels, shoppers are more focused on fat content and calories than the amount or type of added sugar,” said Erin Murray, senior analyst with Mintel Research Consultancy. “We found that nearly 4 in 10 label readers seek information on fat or calories compared to just 3% who look speciﬁcally for HFCS and 25% who seek information on sugar content.” Consumers also are more likely to be limiting fat and calories than sugar and sweeteners. Thirty-seven per cent of consumers said they limited or avoided calories in the past six months and 20% limited or avoided fats and oils. Only 17% reported cutting back on foods with sugar or added sugar and 4% said they actively limited or avoided HFCS. “We sought to ﬁnd out how cognizant consumers are of HFCS, what they’ve heard about HFCS and what efforts they’re making to reduce or limit their intake of HFCS and other sweeteners,” Ms. Murray said. “Sugar and sweeteners in general seem to be a bigger concern than HFCS.” FBN

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August 16, 2011

Food Business News - August 16, 2011

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