Milling & Baking News - August 2, 2016 - 10

Business X
baked foods in the post-World War II era,
Yamazaki Baking acquires artisan
when most of Japan was still experiencing
food shortages. In the ensuing years,
baker, bagel maker Bakewise Brands severe
the company has expanded its offerings,
SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS -Yamazaki Baking Co., Japan's largest baking company, has acquired bagel maker and distributor Bakewise Brands from Ancor
Capital Partners and Merit Capital Partners. Financial terms of the transaction
were not disclosed.
Based in Macedon, N.Y., Bakewise
Brands was established by Merit and
Ancor in 2010 as the corporate identity
for Fleischer's Bagels, Inc., which they
acquired in 2005, and Tom Cat Bakery,
which they acquired in 2008. Fleischer's,
based in Macedon, was founded in 1971,
and Tom Cat, operating in Long Island
City, N.Y., was established in 1987.
"We have enjoyed a long relationship
with the Bakewise team, and we are extremely proud of the culture established
and embraced by the management team
and employees," said Ray Kingsbury,

managing director at Ancor. "Bakewise
Brands today offers a portfolio of 400 products and 65 years of combined bakery experience, and it is a trusted bakery solutions
provider offering a variety of branded and
private label programs to premier retail
and food service operators throughout the
United States, Canada and Caribbean."
Terry Shipp, managing director of
Merit Capital, said the company's emphasis on product quality, food safety
and rapid new product development has
been a positive differentiator of Bakewise Brands' products in the market.
The company's products include fresh,
refrigerated and frozen baked foods such
as Fleischer's bagels, Blue Rooster breakfast sandwiches and Tom Cat Bakery artisan bread.
Founded in 1948 by Tojuro Iijima, Tokyobased Yamazaki began as a provider of

General Mills expands flour recall
following new illnesses
MINNEAPOLIS - General Mills, Inc.
has added flour production dates to a
previously announced U.S. retail flour
recall after the confirmation of four new
illnesses. The illnesses reported to health
officials continue to be connected with
consumers reporting that they ate or handled uncooked dough or ate uncooked
batter made with raw flour, General Mills
said, adding that no illnesses have been

connected with flour that has been properly baked, cooked or handled.
"The addition of new flour production
dates is the result of General Mills conducting proactive flour testing and new information from health officials who are using
new whole genome sequencing techniques
to trace illnesses," the company said. "E.
coli (several sub-types) has been detected
in a small number of General Mills flour

Missouri governor visits AB Mauri
bakingHUB in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS - Missouri Governor Jay Nixon stopped by the AB Mauri North America region offices on July 21 to visit the company's bakingHUB and sample some
artisanal bread. AB Mauri, a supplier of yeast and other ingredients to the food
and baking industries, last year relocated its company headquarters to the Cortex
Innovation Community in metropolitan St. Louis.
The 5,000-square-foot bakingHUB and pilot fermentation facility is a research and
development center where the
company's food scientists and
customers are able to develop
and produce finished baked
foods for trial and testing. The
bakingHUB is capable of producing a range of products, including pan bread, artisan ba- From left: Mark Prendergast, president of AB Mauri North
guettes, various sweet goods, America; Missouri Governor Jay Nixon; Marie Thomas,
pizza, flour and corn tortillas, vice-president of bakery ingredient innovation, AB Mauri;
donuts and bagels. MBN
and Scott Wise, innovation scientist, AB Mauri.
10 / August 2, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

introducing bread and other products from
around the world into the Japanese market and contributing to the enhancement
of Japanese lifestyles and dietary culture.
Today, the company has a lineup that includes bread, sweet buns, Japanese-style
confectionery, Western-style confectionery,
processed bread and prepared rice and side
dishes, as well as jam, desserts and prepared foods in retort pouches.
In the United States, Yamazaki's principal business is Vie de France Yamazaki,
based in Vienna, Va. Yamazaki acquired
the Vie de France business in 1991.
In the year ended Dec. 31, 2015,
Yamazaki had net income of 11,095 million yen ($105 million), which compared
with 12,048 million yen in fiscal 2014. Net
sales during fiscal 2015 totaled 1,027,199
million yen ($9,682 million), up from
995,011 million yen a year ago. MBN
samples, and some have been linked to
new patient illnesses that fell outside of the
previously recalled dates."
General Mills, which originally announced the recall on May 31, said it is
unknown whether the industry is experiencing a higher prevalence of E. coli in
flour than normal, if this is an issue isolated to General Mills' flour, or if this is an
issue across the flour industry. The newer
detection and genome sequencing tools
also possibly are making a connection
to flour that may have always existed at
these levels, the company said.
"As a leader in flour production for
150 years, General Mills is committed to
convening experts to work with government officials to learn more and create
new protocols, if needed," said Jeff Harmening, president and chief operating officer of General Mills. "Most importantly,
we want all the avid home bakers out
there to have peace of mind and know the
most important thing they can do to keep
safe is to not eat uncooked flour."
Previously announced recalled flour
production dates ranged from Nov. 4,
2015, through Dec. 4, 2015. The expansion announced July 25 includes select
production dates through Feb. 10, 2016.
The flour recall at General Mills began
May 31 and involved Gold Medal Flour
and Gold Medal Wondra. Initially affecting 10 million lbs of flour, an expansion of
the recall on July 1 increased the affected
amount to 30 million lbs, and the latest recall brings the total to 45 million lbs. The
full list of recalled products is available at
www.generalmills.com/flour. MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.generalmills.com/flour http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - August 2, 2016

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