With 358 vendors showcasing their wares in more than 400 booths, supermarket giants and independent retailers sampled some of the best Tree of Life (St. Augustine, FL)-distributed products at this year’s Tree of Life International Show in Dallas, TX. In the evenings, guests were entertained by Jeff Foxworthy and a show-attendee-only concert by the Doobie Brothers.

“This was a great show for us,” said Badia Spices 'account manager' and Team Leader Kathy Riveira. “There were a lot of new opportunities, a lot of new customers and new products. It’s even inspired us to think of more creative ideas for our own line. The show is well worth it—we’ll definitely be back next year.”

Held at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, seminars by top industry experts included SPINS Senior Vice President – Business Development Kathryn Peters; Cheese and Food Technologist Dean Sommer from the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Tree of Life Category Managers Eduardo Castro, Phil Eddy and Howard Breitowich.  

Participants donated quite generously to one of Dallas’ local food banks after the show, with an estimated 50,000 pounds of food contributed by exhibitors.

Tree of Life has several trade shows throughout the year, including four upcoming regional Customer Appreciation shows this summer, the Summer Season Show this January in Minneapolis, and their annual Puerto Rico show. Plans are underway for next year’s International Show to be held in June at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas.

Odwalla (Half Moon Bay, CA) recently announced that it is sponsoring a group of individuals—led by big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton and appropriately named “Team Surfing USA”—and providing race enthusiasts with video and online updates throughout the Race Across America (RAAM). Team Surfing USA is riding to raise money for autism research, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and cystic fibrosis.
           
Hamilton, widely acknowledged as the world’s greatest big-wave surfer, is joined by the following teammates in hopes to set a new record for the cross-continent cycling marathon:

• Don Wildman, the 76-year-old founder of Bally Total Fitness
• Tim Commerford, bassist and founding member of the music group “Rage Against the Machine”
• Jason Winn, a fitness enthusiast, businessman and former college football player

ESM Technologies (Cathage, MO), a supplier of commercialized eggshell and eggshell membrane wellness ingredients, announced that a study evaluating its proprietary Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM®) material in patients with joint pain and stiffness has been published in Clinical Rheumatology.

Conducted in the US, the double-blind, placebo-controlled Osteoarthritis Pain Treatment IncorpOrating NEM (OPTION) Study, tested the effects of a 500mg daily dose of NEM on pain and stiffness associated with osteoarthritis of the knee. Sixty-seven subjects were enrolled in the study and were randomized to either the NEM treatment group or to a placebo. Subjects were evaluated at 10, 30 and 60 days for joint pain, stiffness and function using the WOMAC osteoarthritis index.

Compared to placebo, NEM produced an average 15 percent reduction in pain and an average 13 percent reduction in stiffness in 10 days. After 60 days, 32 percent of the NEM group experienced more than a 50 percent reduction in pain while stiffness continued to improve, registering an average of 27 percent reduction compared to placebo.

There were no serious adverse events reported during the trial and the treatment was reported to be well tolerated by study subjects.

For more information, call (866) 804-8034 or visit www.esmingredients.com.

Finding an appropriate balance between regulation and industry self-regulation on food safety is one of the keys to the success of China’s new food safety law, EAS reported.

Speaking about the new law, which became applicable in China last month, EAS Asia Adviser Jie Hu said that industry players’ careful food safety control and regulators’ effective audit could contribute largely to its implementation.  

“There have been a series of food safety scandals in recent years in China that have seriously undermined consumer confidence, and the new law aims to restore confidence from domestic consumers and international trade partners on the safety of the food products made in China,” said Hu. “The development of the law is a significant step, and improving food safety issues in China will be a long-term process.”

The new law has introduced a set of comprehensive monitoring and reporting procedures, stricter inspections and supervision on product quality. It aims to implement an integrated “farm-to-fork” approach on food safety control; cut down on regulatory overlaps and conflict among enforcement bodies; and increase the legal liability of food producers. It also places specific responsibilities for food safety on the food sector. 

“The food safety problems in the past have mostly been generated by some irresponsible producers who cheated the quality control and the inspection system to make a profit,” Hu continued. “It is unrealistic to think that this irresponsible behavior would disappear overnight with the implementation of the new law. It is equally unrealistic to expect that the government could inspect at all stages of the production process of all food producers.

“Having said that,” she added, “it is worth noting that it is the first time that industry’s role in safeguarding food safety is clarified in such fashion and China needs to go through the process of engaging and obliging the food sector to develop more effective self regulation in food safety management.”

Organic Valley Family of Farms (La Farge, WI) recently joined the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA’s) WasteWise Program, demonstrating its commitment to conserving natural resources and protecting the environment.
 
WasteWise encourages organizations to reduce municipal solid waste through waste prevention, recycling and buying or manufacturing recycled content products. The WasteWise program focuses on waste prevention—actions that minimize or eliminate the generation of waste before it is created—with the goal of decreasing the amount of material that must be managed through recycling or landfilling. WasteWise partners have saved millions of dollars in purchasing costs and waste disposal fees by reducing, reusing and recycling solid waste materials.
 
In 2008, through a general waste reduction program, including composting and recycling efforts at its headquarters, distribution center, butter creamery and cheese cut-and-wrap facilities, Organic Valley reduced waste by 25 percent by diverting more than 100,000 pounds of waste from landfills.
 
In addition, last year Organic Valley used 70 percent recycled fiber to ship its products and saved:

• 45,212,074 gallons of water
• 25,835,471 kWh of energy
• 109,801 trees
• 2,454,270 gallons of oil
• 19,377 cubic feet of landfill space

The amount of energy and oil that was saved is equivalent to 43,682 metric tons of carbon, which equals the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 8,000 passenger vehicles, the company said.
 
In 2009 through the WasteWise program, Organic Valley hopes to build upon the success of 2008 and further reduce waste by five percent.
 
For more information about WasteWise, visit www.epa.gov/wastewise. For more information about Organic Valley, call (888) 444-MILK or visit www.organicvalley.coop.

Albert’s Organics (Bridgeport, NJ) is expanding its operations with their eighth distribution center scheduled to open September 14, 2009. The new facility is strategically located in Charlotte, NC and will be servicing the southeastern United States including Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and southern Virginia.

The 43,000 square foot facility, located in the Logistics Pointe Distribution Center, will become the largest of the eight Albert’s distribution centers. With all new state-of-the-art refrigeration and a fleet of new trucks, Albert’s looks to continue to focus on providing its customers with the best care, handling and distribution of organic fresh foods.

Albert’s will continue its priority of working with local and regional growers and food manufacturers. According to Scott Dennis, vice president of new business development for Albert’s, “by setting up a focal point in Charlotte, we will cut back substantially on our business carbon footprint, which is a vital part of our larger mission. Working with local growers and food suppliers keeps our transportation footprint much smaller as does eliminating our need to service the Southeastern area from our New Jersey and Florida divisions. Our calculations show that Albert’s Organics trucks will travel over 400,000 less miles per year with the expansion of Albert’s Southeast.”

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