SPINS research examining the natural and organic products industry in conventional food, drug and mass retailers showed that while the current economic environment is applying downward pressures on growth, the outlook remains positive. Key success determiners for both manufacturers and retailers included a continued commitment to the authenticity of the products, to the core consumer and to the underlying drivers of the industry, SPINS reported. These drivers included aspects of sustainability, a growing personal awareness of the environment and the direct affects of purchase decisions on the environment and health.

According to the study, the natural products industry posted sales of $13.4 billion on growth of 12.2 percent within conventional food, drug and mass retailers over the 52 weeks ending October 4, 2008. Body care, general merchandise and frozen and refrigerated products continued to post double-digit growth rates. Organic products also continued to out-perform the natural products with growth of over 13 percent over the previous year. While the industry momentum has slowed in conventional retailers over recent weeks, the organic growth continues to be solid at seven percent in the recent 12 weeks.

According to SPINS, authenticity is perhaps one of the most dominant themes of success in the industry. Brands most heavily associated with the roots of the industry remain the dominant drivers of both sales and growth. Penetration of US consumers also continues to increase across the majority of the product categories, indicating continued opportunities for product and shelf expansion. In addition, SPINS cited the “beyond organic” and health concerns segments as some of the strongest performing areas, including fair trade, raw foods and gluten-free.

Vitamin Angels hosted its annual fundraising gala, Celebration of Angels, in Boston this year, coinciding with the Natural Products Expo East. The event took place at the Harvard Club and allowed the over 350 executives in attendance to see the world through the eyes of one of the malnourished children Vitamin Angels helps. In addition, special guests and supporters, Tom Tolworthy, president and CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe (North Bergen, NJ), and Michael Funk, chairman of United Natural Foods Incorporated (UNFI, Dayville, CT) were on stage to support the charity in raising over $1.1 million.

“Vitamin Angels' passion is knowing that vital nutrients save lives," said Howard Schiffer, founder and president of Vitamin Angels, the primary focus of which is to save children around the world from going blind due to vitamin A deficiency. "We chose the call to action 'Be an Angel, Save a Life' not as a hopeful goal, but as a literal reality. We are saving lives every day by connecting essential nutrients with the children who need them most."

Three years ago, Vitamin Angels launched its Operation 20/20 campaign, which has an end goal of eradicating childhood blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency worldwide by the year 2020. Its initial goal was to reach 4.5 million children, yet to date has helped seven million, and hopes by next year to reach 10 million.

Next year's Celebration of Angels will again be held during Expo East in Boston. For more information visit www.vitaminangels.org.

The winners of the Rosell Probiotic Challenge were announced during the Fifth International Symposium on Probiotics, Cross Talk Now! in Quebec City, November 6-7. Open to university students in North and South America, Rosell’s Probiotic Challenge aims to encourage awareness and education regarding probiotics.

First prize was awarded to Jean-François Daudelin, whose project evaluated the potential and mode of action of probiotics bacteria and yeast in the prevention of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) infection in piglets. Piglet infection post-weaning is an important financial burden in pig farming. Moreover, the massive use of antibiotics in animal production has been implicated in the emergence of antibiotic resistant pathogens, an important public health concern.

The second prize went to Stéphanie-Anne Girard. Girard is working on her master’s thesis in the laboratory of Guy Rousseau, at the University of Montreal. Her project examined the effects of a probiotic preparation (Probio’Stick™, Institut Rosell-Lallemand) in an animal model of myocardial infarction. The probiotic formulation was shown to diminish apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in certain parts of the brain (the limbic system). It was hypothesized that this effect was linked to the probiotic’s impact on the inflammatory balance. Since the limbic system is implicated in emotions such as depression, this probiotic could potentially diminish post-myocardial infarction depression, opening the way to new directions of research for probiotics, the company said.

For more information call (800) 452-4364 or visit www.institut-rosell.com.

AppleBoost Products Inc. (Churubusco, NY) has successfully completed the requirements of the NSF Athletic Banned Substances Certification Program, Certified for Sport™, which is dedicated to reducing the risk that a dietary or sports supplement contain banned substances. The NSF Certification program was developed in response to growing demands by athletes, coaches, team owners and others concerned about finding banned substances in sports nutrition products.

AppleBoost is built around the patented process of making dried apple peel powder (DAPP™), which converts the most nutritious part of the apple, the peel, into a fortifying food ingredient.

To achieve certification, NSF evaluated AppleBoost to verify that the information appearing on the label matches the content of the product and that no banned substances were present.

For meeting the requirements of the program, AppleBoost Products Inc. will bear the NSF Certified for Sport Mark on its label of AppleBoost Sport, an encapsulated product made purely of DAPP.

For more information call (877) 326-6780 or visit www.appleboost.com.

The USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) voted at a meeting on November 19 to make changes to its standards for carrying its organic label for fish. The vote concerned recommendations for organic fish production and, according to Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, there exist a number of loopholes and inconsistencies in the new NOSB recommendations. They allow:
• Fish to be fed food other than 100 percent organic feed—the gold standard that must be met by other USDA-certified organic livestock;
• Fishmeal used to feed farmed fish from wild fish—which has the potential to carry mercury and PCBs; and
• Open net cages to be used—which flush pollution, disease and parasites from open net fish farms directly into the ocean, adversely impacting wild fish supply, sustainability and the health of the oceans.

"To slap an 'organic' label on this fish is deceptive and undermines the entire organic program," said Urvashi Rangan, PhD, senior scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union. "If enacted, this gutting of the organic standards will not only allow sub-par organic fish to be sold with a premium, but will undermine consumer confidence in the entire organic marketplace."

Collectively, Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety and Food & Water
Watch gathered nearly 30,000 signatures in favor of maintaining strong standards for the organic label for fish.

Consumers Union called upon the NOSB to reject this recommendation and draw the line so only fish that eat 100 percent organic feed and are produced in closed, controlled production systems where waste is not flushed into the environment, should be eligible to be certified as organic.

An advisory board, the NOSB will bring their recommendations to the
USDA for consideration on organic standards and there will be a period for public comment.

“We’re concerned that the NOSB staff seems to have a pro-aquaculture attitude, so we’re going to be keeping an eye on this,” said Patty Lovera, assistant director with Food & Water Watch.

Frontier Natural Products Co-op (Norway, IA) is expanding its midday meal program in India, the latest initiative of its Well Earth global sourcing program, which aims to improve the lives of impoverished communities around the world. Frontier has partnered with Akshaya Patra, a charitable program that feeds a nutritious lunch to more than one million children every day as they attend school, which has reduced the dropout rate by half to less than 10 percent in three regions and less than three percent in two other regions. In addition, Frontier purchased a food-delivery truck for Akshaya Patra that helps transport the meals to remote schools in the south-central region of India.

Furthering its help to the area, Frontier donated $30,000 in conjunction with Well Earth to fund an organic training program for 750 farmers in the state of Kerala, India. Frontier Vice President of Sustainability Kathy Larson and Kai Stark, Frontier's organic spice commodity manager, will travel to that region during the first week of December to observe the training classes and meet with the farmers to evaluate the programs’ success. As part of the Well Earth certification process, Larson and Stark will also travel to Sri Lanka, where they’ll meet with growers to inspect production facilities and fields of organic cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and white pepper.

For more information call (800) 669-3275 or visit www.frontiercoop.com.