Meyn wins RusPrix Award 2015

Meyn Food Processing Technology is winner of the RusPrix Award 2015. The honor is given as recognition of the outstanding projects Meyn has executed in Russia for top poultry processors like GAP Resource, Prioskolye, Velskaya, Miratorg and Healthy Farms.
The award is an initiative of the Russian Embassy in The Netherlands as an incentive for Dutch companies, organizations or individuals that promote business and cultural relations with Russia. The award has been granted to Meyn for the outstanding contribution to the development of Russian-Dutch economic relations in general and for the best results achieved by a Dutch company on the Russian market in particular.
His excellency R. Kolodkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation in The Netherlands, handed over the award to Dennis Groesbeek, Regional Director Russia & Surroundings of Meyn Food Processing Technology B.V., and Ronald de Groot, Project Manager of Meyn. “This prize is a reward for our efforts to help developing the Russian poultry processing industry," says Groesbeek.

WH Group sells Campofrio stake to Alfa for US$354 million

China-based pig producer and pork processor WH Group has sold its entire equity interest in European processor Campofrio to Mexican company Alfa for $354 million in cash. The sale represents approximately 37 percent of the entire issued share capital of Campofrio.
WH Group Chairman and CEO Wan Long said: "The transaction will further strengthen WH Group's financial fundamentals and improve our capital structure. This will lay a solid foundation for our future development and global expansion."
"We will uphold our global expansion strategy to further strengthen our leadership in the global pork industry. With the European Union remaining a strategic focus, we will tap growth from the ongoing development of our existing platform there, as well as from continuing to identify potential strategic acquisitions."
C. Larry Pope, president and CEO of WH Group subsidiary Smithfield Foods, added: "This transaction reflects Smithfield's commitment to continually review our portfolio and generate cash to support our long term priorities. It is aligned with our strategic initiative to strengthen our balance sheet and reduce our financing costs."
European operations for Smithfield Foods include businesses in hog production, meat processing and packaged meats in both Poland and Romania. These operations achieved record highs in their financial results in the latest reporting period.

West Liberty Foods adding HPP system, ups capacity at plant

West Liberty Foods plans to install an additional high-pressure processing technology system in its Bolingbrook, Illinois, facility. The Hiperbaric 525 High-Pressure Pasteurization System (HPP) will be the fifth unit for the company with installation set for January.
This machine will support increased volumes for clean label products, and at capacity will process up to 20 million pounds per year. The increase in capacity is anticipated to create approximately 20 additional jobs.
High-pressure pasteurization is an all-natural, environmentally friendly, cutting-edge technology that uses water under very high hydrostatic pressure to destroy harmful bacteria in foods. This process provides enhanced food safety, a longer shelf life and a reduced dependence on preservatives while maintaining flavor and nutritional value. There is growing consumer demand for clean label food products that are minimally processed with simple ingredient listings and free from chemical additives.
“We are committed to the highest standards in food safety and food quality,” said Ed Garrett, President and CEO of West Liberty Foods. “With the addition of the newest high-pressure pasteurization machine to Bolingbrook, it will allow us to stay at the forefront of our customer’s needs, and lead the industry’s best practices for clean label products in the marketplace.”
Currently, West Liberty Foods has HPP units at their Tremonton, Utah, and Mount Pleasant, Iowa, facilities that were installed in early 2013. The company acquired a fourth machine with the recent purchase of the Bolingbrook, Illinois, facility in 2014.
“We are very proud to partner with West Liberty Foods and see them becoming our largest customer globally,” said Jaime Nicolas-Correa, vice president of global sales and director of hiperbaric in North America.
West Liberty Foods has a strong history of dedication to food safety. In 2010 they received a Clean Room Food Processing Systems, Methods, and Structures patent for their manufacturing facilities. The company is headquartered in West Liberty, Iowa, and employs over 2,000 team members company-wide with four manufacturing locations in West Liberty, Mount Pleasant, Tremonton and Bolingbrook.

Lamex Food Group launches European protein division

International food import and export company Lamex Food Group has announced the merger of four of its trading offices in the U.K., Northern Ireland, Holland and Switzerland. The merger will form a new division called Lamex Foods Europe, responsible for the global trading of around US$665 million worth of frozen and chilled meat and poultry annually.
The rebrand as Lamex Foods Europe reflects the integrated working relationship that the offices have enjoyed in recent years.  Branding under one European umbrella will streamline account management and accounting for customers as well as giving access to increased product and technical support, the company stated. While the principal partners of each office will remain the same, ensuring customer and supplier confidence, customers will now have access to the wider product offering and knowledge base offered from across the new division.
One of the world’s largest privately owned frozen and chilled foods importers and exporters, with a turnover of more than $1.4 billion, Lamex Food Group sources meat, seafood, vegetables, fruit and honey for the global food industry via an experienced team of product specific experts, backed up by technical assurance. While poultry is the cornerstone of the Lamex Group business, the company also operates within numerous international meat markets sourcing from all major meat production centers, in line with niche farming standards, plant accreditation and feed schemes.
Mark Ryder, director of Lamex Food Group, said: “Sourcing on a global basis is now an integral part of today’s food business.  Lamex Foods works in partnership with its customers and trusted suppliers to ensure that quality products, backed by industry recognised assurance standards and industry-leading technical advice are standard. The launch of Lamex Foods Europe was a logical step forward for the group and will give customers access to more products and services accessible as well as the end to end supply chain management that buyers now demand.”

Hillshire Brands to acquire Van’s Natural Foods

The Hillshire Brands Company and Catterton Partners, the leading consumer-focused private equity firm, have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Catterton portfolio company Van’s Natural Foods. Van’s is a leading brand offering multiple product lines in frozen breakfast and snack foods.
Hillshire Brands -- a leading U.S. turkey processor and parent company to brands like Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, State Fair, and Sara Lee -- will pay $165 million for Van’s, which is expected to have net revenues of approximately $60 million in calendar year 2014. The Van’s Natural Foods acquisition is expected to close in May of 2014, pending regulatory clearance.
“The Van’s brand is a terrific addition to our portfolio,” said Sean Connolly, president and chief executive officer, The Hillshire Brands Company. “Not only does it expand our presence in the frozen category, it also gives us a proven health and wellness brand with extendability beyond frozen.”
Van’s Natural Foods will become part of Hillshire Brands’ Retail segment, pairing with Hillshire’s other well-known brands. Van’s Natural Foods’ management will continue to lead the business.
“As a leader in branded foods including breakfast products, Hillshire Brands is an ideal strategic partner for Van’s,” said Eric Kufel, CEO, Van’s Natural Foods. “Our positioning in the large and growing wellness consumer lifestyle segment is a perfect complement to Hillshire Brands’ product portfolio. We are pleased to have worked with Catterton, which helped drive our significant growth and market expansion into multiple new categories. I am truly excited to be joining with Hillshire and beginning the next phase of Van’s growth journey.”
Van’s Natural Foods is based in Phoenix and is a leading simple/clean ingredient food brand in frozen breakfast and snack foods including waffles, pancakes, cereal, crackers and snack bars. Van’s frozen breakfast and snack foods are available at grocery stores, mass merchandise stores and natural food retailers nationwide.
Marc Magliacano, a partner at Catterton, said, “We are proud of the brand and distinctive market positioning that we and the Van’s management team have created over the past few years. This transaction is a win for all parties involved and we are confident and excited that under Hillshire's ownership Van’s will continue to experience significant growth and capitalize on new opportunities.”
Centerview Partners served as financial advisor and Stinson Leonard Street served as legal advisor to Hillshire Brands. Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher served as legal advisor to Van’s in connection with the transaction.

Avure Technologies honored for role in Hormel Foods processing

High pressure processing (HPP) leaderAvure Technologies has been honored with a 2013 Spirit of Excellence Award fromHormel Foods Corp. The award recognizes the significant role the HPP equipment supplier played in Hormel Foods’ continuous improvement process throughout the past year.
Spirit of Excellence recipients “truly go above and beyond in helping us achieve our goals,” saidTyler Hulsebus, Hormel director of purchasing. According to Dave Fuller, Avure director of services, the recognition is closely tied to the world-class HPP equipment services and support (ESS) platform the company introduced in October 2014. The new program is designed to help customers take advantage of opportunities to boost productivity and profitability.
“It is an honor to be included in Hormel’s elite group of suppliers, who must meet high standards in conformance, scheduling, price, documentation, and communication,” Fuller said. “We were evaluated for performance in areas like system productivity, throughput, and on-time parts shipment, all of which are enhanced by the ESS commitment to help our customers experience the full benefits of their HPP deployment.”
Based on new service agreements, Hormel and Avure are now actively engaged in a partnership effort to drive down operating costs, generate greater productivity, and streamline knowledge transfer.
“Like Hormel, Avure is dedicated to continuous improvement,” says Matt Rutherford, senior vice president of business development and global sales. “Our new ESS platform, which reflects the full breadth of our 50-plus years in the production of ultra-high pressure presses, is a value-added tool to maximize uptime, reduce risk, optimize productivity, and accelerate customer return on investment.”
Headquartered in Austin, Minn., Hormel Foods is a highly respected multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer-branded food and meat products. The company itself was recently honored as one of “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens” by Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
HPP is the post-packaging lethality treatment that uses ultra-high pressure instead of heat to inactivate foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms in products as diverse as raw and RTE proteins, deli meats and salads, fresh fruit and vegetable beverages, and seafood. The non-thermal, all-natural pasteurization process is increasingly applied around the globe to enhance safety, extend shelf life, enable innovation, and improve the nutritional value of food. Hormel Foods has successfully implemented HPP programs to its brands for offering customers all-natural, clean-label premium products.

The most innovative minds belong in food production

When it comes to the latest breakthroughs in technology, none are more important than those discovered in the agriculture sector. In order to feed a continually growing world population, the most creative and innovative minds need to be involved, said James Borel, executive vice president of DuPont.
"Science can provide universal answers, but we need to find local solutions. We need to ensure that the best minds and the brightest thinkers of the next generation are fully engaged in addressing food security locally," Borel said during the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association's World Forum and Symposium on June 19. "
With the global population at 7 billion now and forecast to reach 9 billion in 40 years, there is urgency in creating a globally integrated food system that's efficient, transparent, barrier-free and consistent across borders and cultures, Borel said. That can be achieved if the great thinkers of the world involved in science and technology, transportation and government work together to address the challenges that result in hunger.
Borel said when many people are asked what they view as a world-changing piece of technology, they will hold up an iPhone. Borel disagrees.
"There's as much technology and there's even more human ingenuity in a modern kernel of seed corn. That corn has something that no iPhone will ever possess. It can feed the world, it can bring the world out of poverty and it can create a better world for all of us," said Borel. "There's so much need for creativity, and as much need for startling world-changing innovation in how we feed the world as there ever could be in the digital world. Food is the great challenge of the 21st century. And make no mistake about it, good ideas and useful innovations travel at the speed of human enthusiasm. We need bright young people to understand how much they can contribute and how rewarding it can be." 

Visys, Key Technology announce merger

Key Technology Inc. and Visys NV, a provider of chute-fed in-air sorters used by food processors and waste recyclers, have entered into a merger agreement. The combination of Key Technology and Visys will create a complete source of high-performance, digital sorting technologies available for food processing and other industrial markets, according to the companies.
“We’re well positioned to improve customers’ operational efficiencies and maximize their competitive advantages," said Jack Ehren, president and CEO of Key Technology. "Furthermore, by consolidating our intellectual property and innovations, we expect to accelerate the development of next-generation sorting technology.”
Visys will continue to operate in Hasselt, Belgium, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Key Technology. Frank Zwerts will assume the position of president of EMEIA for Key Technology and will play a prominent role in Key’s global strategy and corporate development.
“With this merger, the combined entity is at the forefront of vision inspection technology, analytics and intelligence," said Zwerts. “The Visys team believes in the holistic benefits of combining the two companies, and we are excited to work with Key to accelerate our potential and growth prospects.”
The strengths of Key and Visys are complementary on multiple levels, according to the companies. Visys adds field-proven chute-fed in-air sorters to Key’s family of belt-fed sorters. Plus, Visys has developed advanced laser technology and hyperspectral-based BioPrint sorting, while Key excels with camera/laser sorting and the integration of conveying and other processing systems. Visys will add a culture of innovation to Key’s 65 years as a trusted supplier, an established global sales and service organization, the financial health and integrity associated with publicly-traded companies, and a culture of strong customer relationships and support.

Indiana building network of university, commercial ag researchers

Indiana’s agriculture department is planning a push into the science behind food production by trying to build a network of university and commercial researchers for what's being called an Agriculture Innovation Corridor.
Governor Mike Pence included the initiative in his State of the State speech, and Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann said she has started talking with leaders from Purdue University and elsewhere about its prospects.
The concept comes from a report released last summer by BioCrossroads, an Indianapolis-based life sciences investment and development group supported by numerous companies and foundations. That report, according to The Associated Press, highlighted what the group believes is an opportunity for Indiana to attract and encourage companies developing agriculture innovations. It points to the agriculture-related research being done at Purdue, along with existing companies such as Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences and Eli Lilly and Co.'s Elanco Animal Health.
The state hopes to boost the agriculture research initiatives while continuing its traditional promotion of farming and crop and livestock markets, said Ellspermann, who also heads Indiana's agriculture agency. Ellspermann said some sources of state money would already be available if needed to help spur certain ventures.

Broiler fecal contamination detection system under development

A system to identify miniscule traces of fecal contamination on chicken carcasses in abattoirs is being developed at the University of Aberystwyth, UK.
The Improved Safety Initiative aims to develop a natural additive for poultry feed that will result in ultra-violet fluorescence of feces. The additive, a water-soluble chlorophyll-based marker approved by the UK’s Food Standards Agency, would be fed to poultry during the last few days of finishing. When screened in abattoirs using fluorescence imaging, the markers would show up and identify contamination. The project builds on technology that is currently developing to detect fecal contamination of red meat.
“Worldwide, suppliers, consumers and public health officials remain concerned over the presence of pathogenic and spoilage micro-organisms in poultry meat and its by-products, which have resulted in large numbers of food poisoning attributed to poultry," said the university's Dr. Michael Lee. “This project will investigate and develop a system for screening poultry carcasses so that unseen fecal contaminants will be visualized. By doing so, any microbial contamination can be greatly reduced or removed completely, depending on the level of intervention.
According to Lee, the project will improve public health by reducing food poisoning outbreaks and may even lead to new products, processes and services, including new feeds formulated to contain the most fluorescent and stable marker and the development of a spectral imaging system for the detection of the marker.

Food production boost needed to stave off shortages

A boost in global food production is necessary to prevent significant agricultural supply shortages, according to Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings.
Currently, prices are being pushed higher as global demand for wheat and corn continue to outstrip production. Corn is currently 92% more expensive than the same time in 2010, while supplies drop to 47 days — the fewest since 1974, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wheat supplies are expected to drop to a three-year low of 184.26 million metric tons before the 2012 harvest, and output will remain lower than demand. “We’ve got to do something or we’re going to have no food at any price at times in the next few years,” said Rogers.

'Alliance to Feed the Future' launches to build understanding, promote benefits of modern food production

The Alliance to Feed the Future, a multi-sector group that includes members of professional societies, commodity groups, food industries and academia, has formed to build understanding and promote the benefits of modern food production, processing and technology.
The alliance, which is currently comprised of representatives for 52 different groups, wants to multiply the effects of members' individual and joint efforts to tell "the true story of modern food production."
“The more consumers understand how their food is produced, the more they can appreciate the role modern agriculture plays in providing safe, affordable and nutritious food,” said Dave Schmidt, president and CEO at the International Food Information Council, who coordinates the alliance. “The alliance will be a clearinghouse of resources to increase consumer understanding of this role.”
The newly launched Alliance to Feed the Future website is home to an assortment of resources and information regarding modern food production from farm to fork.  

Feeding the World in 2050: How agriculture can balance sustainability, consumer demand

Alltech will focus on the long-term challenges of agriculture with its 2011 North American Lecture Tour, "Feeding the World in 2050: Dinner for 9.3 Billion People."
The 21-stop tour, which will take place from Jan. 8 through Jan. 28, will explore how agriculture and the animal health industry can find the balance for sustainable food production, production of energy and protection of resources while satisfying consumer demands. “It is widely accepted that global food demand may double by 2050 as the worldwide population moves towards its expected apex,” said Alltech founder and president Dr. Pearse Lyons. “We in agriculture must think differently by adopting new technology at a faster pace and communicating in a way we never have."
Lecture topics include strategies for improving performance while satisfying the consumer and protecting the environment, the applications of Nutrigenomics, trace mineral nutrition, how the "farm of the future" will look and how agribusiness can sustain itself in the long-term.

Environmental, economic sustainability vital to future food production challenges

National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU) Vice President Gwyn Jones addressed the future of food production at the Inside Government Food Security Forum. His talk, "Farming Matters," focused on the necessity of both environmental and economic sustainability for agricultural success.
"We do have massive challenges ahead," said Jones. "We are on the brink of a second green revolution, with food production at its center, but we can’t just farm and be damned. On one hand we have population growth but on the other global warming; we have a rising demand for energy but depletion in fossil fuels. We see an increasing demand for food across the globe but a scarcity of water and other natural resources with which to produce it. And let’s not forget the constraints of the current economic situation."
According to Jones, those who want to be successful in the current evolving climate must focus on innovation and opportunities, finding ways to implement food production that produces more but impacts less. "Food production is now a national and international top priority," said Jones. "British farmers can and will play their part."

ADM named most admired food production company

Archer Daniels Midland Company was ranked the most admired company in the food production industry for the second year in a row by Fortune magazine. Fortune also ranked ADM at the top spot in the food production industry in seven of the nine categories by which companies are evaluated: innovation, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment and quality of products and services.
To compile the Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list, the magazine surveyed more than 4,000 executives, directors and analysts for their evaluations on nine criteria of 667 companies from 33 countries