What is (really) old is new again as the latest craze sweeping the food industry worldwide is ancient grains. Packaged food and beverage markets are seeing a growing influx of new products featuring grains that were favoured by civilizations thousands of years ago.

According to a new report, some 515 new food and beverage products were introduced worldwide in 2007 featuring ancient grains like quinoa, spelt, kamut, amaranth and chia. This represents a doubling of the 257 new products featuring these grains in 2005 and a nearly five-fold increase over the 112 new products that used these grains in 2004.
Continue reading “Ancient Grains Make a Come-back” »

Despite consumers making active attempts to eat healthier, the threat of obesity shows no sign of slowing down. Once confined to high income countries and households, obesity is now just as much of a problem as malnutrition in developing countries. A new report explores the contradiction between attempts to eat healthier and rising obesity levels. Ultimately, food choice is determined by sensory attributes such as taste and pleasure, and consumers will not sacrifice these attributes in favour of nutritional goodness. Furthermore, changes in people’s lifestyles mean that they find it difficult to exercise on a daily basis. As a result, shoppers are consuming more ‘bad’ nutrients and are exercising less.

Continue reading “Rising Obesity Levels Contradict Consumer Attempts to Eat Healthier” »

Despite the evidence that major world economies are heading for trouble, the vast majority of wealth managers seem unconcerned. Only five of the 65 wealth managers Datamonitor surveyed across the globe say that a potential recession most worries them. This will be to their detriment, and to the advantage of those banks that do take action now. Three new reports foresee a sustained economic downturn in 2008–09 that will have a significant negative impact on money managers. Despite this, as late as September 2007 most of these companies did not believe there would be a downturn, putting them at risk of losing both their clients and their investment returns.

Continue reading “Money Managers may be Sleepwalking Through a Significant Market Downturn” »