Refresh

With the new year, comes new challenges for mainstream retailers I work with. In 2009, one of the things I am urging them to do is to get reacquainted with the at-home chef.

Analysts throughout the food industry are pointing to a resurgence in home cooking as consumers forgo restaurants in favor of cheaper make-your-own meals. The trend has reportedly led to increased purchases of basic cooking tools, cookbooks and basic ingredients.

A 2009 trend survey conducted by Mambo Sprouts showed 61% of natural and organic consumers are cooking more meals at home. These same shoppers are also increasing their use of coupons (81%) and stocking up on sale items (73%) in order to stretch their grocery dollars.

Not surprisingly, they’re also spending less money in gourmet shops and focusing more on price and in-store specials when deciding where to shop.

Given these economizing trends, supermarkets have a solid opportunity to build customer affinity by integrating affordable home cooking resources into their marketing and merchandising.

Basic strategies include offering recipes in print marketing and in-store displays. Take this tactic further by managing sales based on these recipe ingredients. Or, follow the lead of frugal-cooking magazines and calculate each recipe’s cost-per-serving to highlight money-saving meals.

Finally, just because people are cutting back in the gourmet food stores doesn’t mean they’re giving up entirely on specialty foods. Saving money by cooking at home means shoppers can justify a few of these special treats.

After four years of waiting, the supplement industry is finally getting direction from the Food and Drug Administration on the amount, type and quality of evidence manufacturers should have if they intend to make health claims on the label.

The milestone is important — not just because of the guidance itself, but because the FDA’s “non-binding recommendations” seem to be aligned with the standards used by the Federal Trade Commission, which made a mint last year prosecuting supplement makers for misleading advertising claims.

I called Daniel Fabricant, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Natural Products Association, and asked him what we can expect from this coordinated approach being taken by the feds.

“Now, whether it’s an FDA labeling issue or an FTC advertising issue, you’re essentially going to be measured by the same standard,” he told me.

Wellness-minded consumers have made vitamins, minerals and dietary supplements a big part of their daily health regimen. As the formulas grow more sophisticated and condition-specific (arthritis relief, heart health and everything in between), consumers and retailers alike will benefit from more consistent rules covering both labels and advertising.

Because let’s face it. Most times, the label is the ad.

The day after Christmas, we left the sweaters, gloves and scarves in their gift boxes under the tree and fled the frigid Northeast for the palm-shaded warmth of Marco Island in Florida.

Now in shorts and T-shirts, we stopped in at the local Winn-Dixie, store #729, remodeled in early 2008. I have to say the layout, aisle flow and color scheme were a big improvement over the salmon- and aqua-hued stores I visited in the Orlando area, before the chain went through a series of senior management changes, and bankruptcy, from which it emerged in late 2006 with Albertsons’ veteran Peter Lynch at the helm (currently president, CEO and chairman).

I was curious to see what the retailer was doing in health and wellness, and didn’t have to flip-flop far until I spied a mini section of items in the “Nutrition Center” just adjacent to produce. A tiered shelf group offered a little of everything, including some HBC products and a floor merchandiser of organic wine. All the major natural/organic players were there, with the set well-positioned to intercept shoppers (that’s me being intercepted in the photo, in fact) moving from produce into the fresh power aisle of deli/meals and bakery.

The company is presently enjoying some success. According to the latest financials, net sales in the first quarter were $1.7 billion, an increase of $55 million, or 3.4%, compared to the prior year period. First-year store remodels (including this Marco store) have exceeded 10% identical store sales lifts, according to the retailer.

The only thing missing from the wellness selection was W-D’s own private label. The chain does offer a select number of organic items (milk, green tea, cage-free eggs, sweet corn and salted butter, among others), but we didn’t find a single label in the Nutrition Center at the Marco store. We understand that the company is planning to complete redesigns and updates of all of its approximately 3,000 private label products, by the end of calendar 2009.

Let’s hope some of them are destined for the Nutrition Center sections. Wellness consumers dealing with the recession have been turning to natural/organic private label as a way to maintain their lifestyles, and every retailer - including Winn-Dixie - needs to have a visible presence here.

Consumers who buy organic dairy and meat like to think that the livestock these products come from are raised outdoors, roaming free across rolling hills and grassland. That’s not always the case, however, and one of the main reasons has been the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “access to pasture” rule, which leaves a barn-sized loophole that has allowed some manufacturers to confine their animals year-round.

To close this gap, the USDA recently proposed regulations that would require cows to graze on pasture for at least 120 days a year, and receive 30% of their feed this way. That would solve problems relating to confinement and grain usage, and it’d also significantly shake up two of the fastest growing categories in the supermarket.

Interestingly, both large-scale operators and organic purists argue that the new rules are too strict. Here’s why: In addition to stipulating the number of days spent grazing, the USDA says that organic farmers will have to keep their livestock outdoors all year long, moving them to “sacrificial pasture” during colder months, when the grazing season is over. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Albert Straus of Straus Family Creamery in Marshall, California argued that in some areas of the country it’s too cold, too wet, or unsanitary (or all of the above) to keep animals outdoors all the time.

“Tragically, the USDA’s one-size-fits-all solution ignores significant regional variations in climate, rainfall, availability of water and other factors that directly affect a dairy farmer’s ability to care for the soil, water and the well-being of the animals,” he wrote.

Straus and more than 30 other dairy farms in California have opposed the new regulations, which ended their comment period last week.

I recently attended a party where I overheard a group of folks talking excitedly about “apps.” Being in the food business (apps, appys, starters, appetizers — all the same to my ear), my first thought was to look around for a unique dumpling or an exquisite puff pastry — something that would explain their eagerness. They had even mentioned the word “pod.”

Hmm.

Then it hit me. Akk! These are iPhone users! Apps is tech-speak for the applications that can be downloaded onto their phones (from the Apps Store, I think). I grabbed a handful of redskin peanuts and moved on. Apps, apps, apps. Get a life!

Then I saw today’s news about Kraft launching its iFood Assistant, and I stand corrected. The nation’s second-largest food company is telling me that Apps are a part of life, even if it’s not mine (yet).

For a 99-cent fee, the Kraft Foods program helps iPhone and iPod touch users find recipes, create shopping lists and even locate the nearest supermarket with a GPS feature. The service has an option that groups ingredients by aisle to save time in the store; and a demo feature that provides cooking guidance using video.

We’ve written about this type of mobile assistance before. Dieters can enter nutrition information into their phones to get a read-out on proper portion sizes; lists of sustainable seafood choices or in-season organic produce are also available, at the touch of a button.

Health and wellness seem to be very large components of these programs, so I better broaden my definition of “apps.” They’re not just something you eat. They can also show us how to eat.

The ongoing drama that is the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger has sucked in some unwilling participants, who want no part of the retailer’s ongoing antitrust battle with the Federal Trade Commission.

The problem is that WFM has been issuing subpoenas as part of its defense that the merger will not create a monopoly. The supernatural chain has sent more than 90 supermarket operators and suppliers a nine-question document asking for, among other proprietary tidbits, two years’ worth of store sales records and marketing plans covering the next 12 months.

In this group of industry bystanders, one has emerged as a feisty opponent to this sharing of information. New Seasons Market, the Portland, Ore.-based chain, was the first company to file a legal challenge, and even though it was just ordered this week by a judge to comply with the subpoena, New Seasons says it will appeal. The CEO, Brian Rohter, told The Oregonian that he doesn’t buy WFM’s arguments.

“Based on past actions we’ve seen Whole Foods take, we’re concerned that this legal issue may be turned into a competitive advantage for them,” he said (check out his blog comments here).

New Seasons is not alone. According to Whole Foods, only 50 of the 93 companies called on to submit information have actually done so, and then, some only partially.

Who can blame them? With razor-thin margins, a recession going on and an aggressive, arrogant competitor demanding your secrets, it’s surprising not more of the “Subpoenaed 93” don’t resist.

A day after we published the news about Coca-Cola and Cargill moving forward with its stevia-based sweetener TruVia — ahead of an FDA re-evaluation of the herb’s safety — the agency issued a issued a “no objection letter” with respect to the stevia extract developed by them, as well a similar product created by Whole Earth Sweetener Company and Pepsi, the team behind a competing stevia-based sweetener, called PureVia.

Now, onto the former Iowa governor and an earlier opponent of president-elect Barack Obama. Obama named Tom Vilsack to be his Secretary of Agriculture, and already there are calls for him to re-evaluate the nation’s ethanol policy, which has played havoc on feed and food prices, as well as ongoing controversies surrounding the inactive Farm Bill passed in June, food safety and animal welfare.

“We’re hopeful that Governor Vilsack will take an objective look at the volatility corn ethanol has imposed on the food and fuel system, and its adverse impact on the environment,” Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, the Washington-based advocacy group, told Bloomberg News.

Vilsack comes on board knowing Obama plans to make alternative energy sources a foundation of his domestic policy, and biofuels will likely play a key role. It’s wise to remember Vilsack was an avid supporter of ethanol programs when he was governor of his corn-rich state.

Sure, it’s important to play up value and low prices in these tough times, but wellness marketers should also make sure they don’t forget about their biggest fans — those affluent, in-the-know consumers for whom organic and free-range aren’t just impulse purchases (and who may very well have their own blog).

They need to make sure they’re catering to the foodies.

According to a recent Packaged Facts report, 31 million adults in the U.S. (14% of the population) classify themselves as such. That’s a sizeable chunk of the shopping populace who, according to the report, has a sophisticated knowledge of food and the food industry. On the one hand, this means they are loyal to the products they love and truly appreciate when something is low in sodium or free of artificial colorings. It also means, however, that they hold the retailers they shop to a high standard. Label apples from three states away as local, and they may walk.

What’s most important about this category of shopper, according to the report, is that their tastes represent the future of the American palate. This means retailers should not only stock the gourmet, healthy products that foodies are looking for — they should give them an opportunity to provide feedback.

Foodies are an opinionated bunch, so it’s likely they’ll open right up. And what they say could give a much-needed edge to the retailer who listens.

Here we go! Coca Cola and Cargill are ready to move forward with stevia, after working in tandem for six years to create a sweetener based on the South American herb. This summer Cargill released a tabletop version called Truvia, while Coke will soon release three Truvia-sweetened flavors of its Odwalla brand juice line.

So, Coke beats Pepsi in this particular race, since the latter has also been tooling around in the lab, developing (with partner Merisant) its own stevia-inspired sugar substitute called PureVia.

What’s notable here is that Coke/Cargill has declared stevia GRAS, even though the Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue its decision on the safety of stevia. Currently, the agency classifies the herb as a dietary supplement, and therefore, subject to oversight.

Coke and Cargill’s self-certfication of stevia’s safety is a gutsy, rare move, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out in the coming months, as the FDA weighs in and products actually hit the market. If nothing else, it just demonstrates the intense interest beverage companies have in finding the Next Big Thing.

Since 2004, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have advised women who are pregnant, nursing or of childbearing age, as well as young children, to stick to 12 ounces or less of certain fish per week to avoid exposure to harmful amounts of mercury.

This advice has been widely regarded as solid as a can of albacore tuna, but now the FDA has decided to go against it. In a draft report forwarded to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and obtained by The Washington Post , the agency argues that women and children stand to benefit more than they might risk from increasing their intake of fish. One particularly dubious assertion states that brain-friendly nutrients and fatty acids found in fish could raise a child’s IQ score by as much as three points.

The EPA, in response, stated that the report is “scientifically flawed and inaccurate.” The agency’s former lead mercury scientist told the newspaper that the FDA took an “oversimplified approach” in drafting its conclusions.

Why FDA is seeking the change at this late hour is anyone’s guess. Environmental groups suspect the reversal represents last minute maneuvering to benefit the Bush White House. There’s the potential the FDA under a new Obama Administration could rescind the proposal. No matter what, the end result is a confused consumer and a sense that something politically fishy has occurred — never a good thing where public health policy is concerned.