Mike Hohnen

Dairy divisions at Nestle and Danone report significant sales growth in
so-called functional foods, including probiotic yogurt drinks and powdered
milk fortified with omega-3 fatty acids and calcium. Nestle’s CEO says the
company will focus more on developing health-oriented products; its
“added-value” dairy products outperformed overall first-quarter growth at
the firm.   FoodNavigator (4/23)

How to Eat Sushi (April 21, 2004)

WHAT is great sushi? Of course, said Seki, the chef and owner of Sushi Seki on First Avenue, great sushi needs great fish. But, he continued, great fish is not enough.

“Sushi is so simple that each element must be perfect, and all the elements must be balanced,” he said. “Like pizza.”

Like pizza, sushi can be downed as a quick lunch or dwelt upon obsessively for a lifetime. Once your sushi consciousness has been raised, it becomes a pleasure to appreciate its subtle distinctions: the rice should be warm, so that the chilled fish begins to approach body temperature before the piece goes into your mouth; nori, seaweed sheets used for rolling maki, should be thin and crisp, instead of tough and leathery; the wasabi and gari (pickled ginger) should be freshly made Read the rest of this entry »

TWO years ago, the announcement that a well-known winery, or a little-known winery for that matter, was switching to screw caps for its bottles was news. Winemakers were divided on the subject. “Right on,” said the younger vintners. “Waste of time,” said older and presumably wiser types. Or “Money down the drain.” Or, more often, “The consumer will never accept it.”

Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — People who say they are addicted to chocolate or pizza may not be exaggerating, U.S.-based scientists said Tuesday.

A brain scan study of normal, hungry people showed their brains lit up when they saw and smelled their favorite foods in much the same way as the brains of cocaine addicts when they think about their next snort.

“Food presentation significantly increased metabolism in the whole brain (by 24 percent) and these changes were largest in superior temporal, anterior insula, and orbitofrontal cortices,” they wrote.

These areas are associated with addiction. Read the rest of this entry »

http://just-food.com/features_detail.asp?art=849&lk=rss

High-melatonin milk is an emerging wellness market that could be worth US$400m. It’s a market that is being developed by small dairy companies, one of them an organic dairy, who are enjoying healthy sales growth and high price premiums to regular milk. Julian Mellentin reports.

The recent launch of the UK’s second “night time milk” brand – selling at a 150% price premium to regular milk – shows the potential for this new niche that makes the most of one of milk’s intrinsic health benefits.