Trends

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) – Feel like a cup of tea, but don’t have the time to brew one up? Pop a “tea pill” instead.

Indian tea scientists have produced a tea-flavoured pill that can be chewed or quickly dissolved in hot or cold water.

The brownish tablet weighs 0.3 grams and consists of 80 percent tea and 20 percent other flavours — a combination the inventors at the Tocklai tea research centre in Assam say peps you up just like a traditional cuppa.

“You can suck it, chew it or dissolve it in water the way you like to have it and still feel the taste of a real cup of tea,” said the centre’s director, Mridul Hazarika.

“As the liquid tea refreshes, this tea pill will also refresh the people because it contains pure tea ingredients.”

Hazarika said the centre had applied for a patent and the pill, with a bit more fine tuning, should hit the market in six months.

Indians drink a lot of tea but in recent years its tea business, the world’s largest, has faced growing competition from soft drinks.

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VinoVenue home page

In England more people are employed by Indian restaurants than in steelmaking, coal mining, and ship building combined!

Tom Peters

White Wheat. A different kind of flour that tastes more like bleached but has “all the nutrition and fiber of whole-wheat” stands to gain popularity as Americans try to get more whole grains into their diets, reports Elizabeth Weise in USA Today. The flour is known as “white wheat.” It is “a naturally occurring albino variety” that is free of the “tannins and phenolic acid” that can give the usual whole-wheat flour (made from “red” wheat) its bitter taste. “When you cut it open, it has a more golden color rather than the harsh red color,” says Gerry Newman of Albemarle Baking Company. “People are sure there must be honey in there.” Adds Charles Walker, a “professor of bakery science” at Kansas State University: “It tastes sweet in comparison.”

Tim Manners, reveries

Purple carrots and black tomatoes may seem like a marketing gimmick, but the real reason behind their development is biofortification, the process of adding extra nutrients to foods. But how are such products developed? And how will consumers react? Patrick McGuigan investigates.

Crimson carrots and black tomatoes may sound like something from a modern art still life. But scientists are developing this kind of unusually coloured produce, using traditional breeding techniques, because certain pigments contain nutrients and anti-oxidants that have been shown to fight various health problems.

And the process of boosting nutrients in fruit and vegetables, known as biofortification, may be beginning to capture the imaginations of supermarkets, which appreciate the marketing benefits of eye-catching, better-for-you produce. Wacky coloured vegetables may appeal in particular to children, who are notoriously reluctant to eat their greens, but might be tempted to eat their reds or purples.

Just-Food

CHICAGO (January 27, 2005) – Food and beverage products that support healthy diets, weight loss, and on-the-go lifestyles are among the world’s fastest growing, according to a new global study from ACNielsen, based here. Specifically, soy-based drinks, drinkable yogurts and eggs were the top growth categories, reporting revenue growth increases of 31%, 19% and 16%, respectively, from 2003 to 2004, the report showed. Soy-based drinks and drinkable yogurts were among the fastest growing in a similar study conducted in 2002. The new findings are contained in ACNielsen’s report, “What’s Hot Around the Globe – Insights on Growth in Food and Beverages 2004.”

Supermarketnews

Restaurant menus will undergo profound and rapid change over the next two decades, reflecting the convergence of two significant factors. One is the power exerted by huge Generation Y as its members become autonomous restaurant-goers.

The other is the demands of diners of all ages who want menus to cater to their health, nutrition and weight concerns.

That’s the meta-message of Flavor & the Menu, an industry quarterly that tracks trends and makes predictions for the future of restaurateuring.

Miami Herald

Signs that the public’s enthusiasm for low-carb dieting is waning are everywhere. According to U.S. studies, up to 10 per cent of Americans have tried low-carb diets in recent years, but almost half have given them up. Books like Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution and The Zone, which monopolized bestseller lists for much of 2003, have quietly bowed out of the Top 10. And sales of the thousands of newly launched low-carb food products have stalled. It appears that for a growing number of people, the diets heralded by celebrities as the key to boundless energy and a bodacious bod have proven to be a massive disappointment.Mcleans