A trio of beverage reports out this week all come from different sources, and consider different questions — but there’s a common thread that ties all of them together: obesity.

Two of the studies focus on carbonated soft drinks and other sugary beverages in our nation’s schools. The first compares deliveries of soda and full-sugar beverages to schools in 2004 to those this year. The numbers are down a whopping 95%. The ongoing initiative — headed up by the American Beverage Association (and big manufactures like Coke and Pepsi), the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association — has stressed 100% juice drinks, teas and flavored waters (though high school-age kids can additionally opt for diet drinks).

The program was introduced formally in 2006, in response to data showing that two-thirds of all Americans, including one in three children, have serious weight problems.

Against that backdrop, a second report unveiled at a heart disease convention this week shows that the increase in full-sugar beverage consumption has brought about 130,000 cases of diabetes and 14,000 cases of heart disease over the past decade.

The study’s lead author says that the greatest risk right now is to younger people, age 35 years and under.

“No one argues that these drinks are not fine in moderation, but over the past decade their consumption has been on the rise, while consumption of other beverages has declined,” Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, senior study author and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, was quoted as saying in a Reuters story. more

Forget 2009. Really. I know it’s February, but the bad news — in the form of studies, annual reports and the like — just keep rolling in.

Case in point: The international product intelligence firm, Mintel, found that last year was dismal for new product introductions in the United States, down 30% from 2008.

“In the last decade, [Mintel] has only tracked occasional, small declines in new product introductions for the U.S. market, never a decline as strong as this,” notes Lynn Dornblaser, the firm’s leading new product expert.

The stats were just as grim in health and wellness. Natural and organic products, which saw large increases in 2008, took a few steps back in 2009 due to their higher price points. Food and drink introductions with an all-natural claim decreased from 15% of all launches in 2008 to 13% in 2009. Organic claims showed a similar decline of 12% to 10% in the same timeframe, according to Mintel.

Well, folks, I am happy to say that 2010 (and this is the part I want to write about) is already shaping up to be interesting, with large and small companies introducing new products or services in the wellness channel. If the first weeks of this year are any indication, I think we’re in pretty good shape.

FOOD: Snyder’s of Hanover, the snack food company, has introduced a line of whole grain, gluten-free, fiber-rich all-natural snacks that also promote the company’s contributions to The Nature Conservancy. There are seven products in the line, called Eatsmart. The products are also available in 100-calorie packs. more

It’s no secret that the snack food market isn’t just about greasy potato chips and candy bars anymore. With the growth of the natural and better-for-you industries, people now have the option of choosing pita chips, fruit-and-nut bars, and other baked, low-sodium, all-natural versions of the munchies they love.

Supermarket checkout aisles have seen the change as $4 organic chocolate bars compete alongside Milky Ways, and now there’s another platform for this next generation of snack foods.

Healthy vending machines — sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Well, that’s what folks are calling the new outposts cropping up at hospitals, college campuses and health clubs across the country. Capitalizing off consumers’ desire to eat better without sacrificing snacking, companies have come out with eye-catching new machines that hold products like 100% juice, dried fruit and rice cakes. There are also organic and all-natural varieties of indulgent favorites, too, like sandwich cookies and gummi bears.

So maybe “healthy” doesn’t apply across the board, since sugar and calories can still be found en masse in some products. But hey, that’s the business these days. Putting apples and oranges behind Plexiglas isn’t going to generate sales, and it won’t drive awareness. You have to meet consumers half way.

And sales have been good lately for companies like Vend Natural, based in Ventura, California. Formerly involved in the traditional vending industry, president Gil Sanchez made the transition a couple years ago and now has more than 350 machines across the country. more

With $5.5 billion in sales and representing 1.6% of store profits, the front end isn’t something health and wellness marketers should ignore. The problem is, how do you incorporate better-for-you products into an area typically reserved for anything but?

A new study of the checkout aisle sheds some much-needed light on the subject. The report, funded by a group that includes Masterfoods USA (Mars), the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company (which recently completed a merger with Mars) and others, outlined best practices that might help change the rules a bit.

First off, researchers from Dechert-Hampe & Co. make the point that the front end is the one location in the store that everyone passes. What’s more, consumers typically spend 5-7 minutes on line at the checkout. In other words, there is plenty of time for the impulse itch to get scratched (as evidenced by the lines at a Costco, pictured here). The study concludes that improvements in merchandising could yield retailers an additional $2 billion in sales.

What role could health and wellness play in a successful front end? Take a look at the current top sellers purchased by the study sample over the past year: Gum/Mints (63%), Candy (58%), Magazines (34%) and Soft Drinks (29%).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, health-minded items like nutrition bars, lip care and oral care were pegged as “low penetration/low frequency purchases.” more

What’s more important to consumers: the safety of their food or the purity of it? That’s an important question, and one that doesn’t often get answered directly. Raw milk is the exception. It’s as straight-from-nature as you can get, yet it can contain harmful bacteria like salmonella and listeriosis. There’s been considerable tension between the two sides on the issue, and now the stakes have grown.

By some estimates, a million people in the U.S. regularly consume raw milk. That’s come off increasing demand over the past several years for whole, unprocessed foods, which advocates say possess vital nutrients that safety procedures like pasteurization eliminate. Raw milk has something of a reputation as a miracle healer, too. Parents have stories of how raw milk cured their child’s asthma, autism, Crohn’s disease, and cleared up their allergies.

For dairy farmers, this growing demand has created an alternative to the shamefully low prices offered for conventional and organic milk. According to a recent New York Times story, raw milk producers receive up to five or six times as much money per gallon — a real life-saver for struggling farmers. Methods of sale vary across the 23 states that allow the sale of raw milk. In California, you can find it in the grocery store, while in Virginia you can only drink it from a cow you own. more

The appeal of caffeinated alcoholic beverages is pretty limited. Federal officials said as much when they announced this morning that the Food and Drug Administration was cracking down on these drinks, which combines malt base in the 6%-8% by-volume range, with roughly 100 milligrams of caffeine (about the same as a cup of coffee) and guarana, taurine and other additives. The agency has sent letters to nearly 30 manufacturers asking them to prove the safety of these drinks.

In comments announcing the move, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, pointed out that the products have been targeted specifically at young people attending college.

“The increasing popularity of consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages by college students and reports of potential health and safety issues necessitates that we look seriously at the scientific evidence as soon as possible,” he said.

No one likes a hyper-alert drunk, particularly when they’re so inebriated they become a genuine danger to themselves and others. To the average person, the addition of caffeine seems to serve no other purpose than to keep a person awake, and alert, long enough to purchase or consume another beverage.

The nation’s two largest brewers, MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch have already agreed to discontinue their popular caffeinated alcoholic beverages, Tilt and Bud Extra, and Sparks and promised the FDA they would make none down the road. The companies being questioned now are include not only beer makers, but Diageo North America, makers of Smirnoff Raw Tea Malt Beverage, Constellation Brands
Products, with its Wide Eye label, and other manufacturers who offer caffeinated malt-based drinks. more

Say what you will about the economy, employment and consumer spending, but I remain impressed with the way the health and wellness market continues to adapt. Last week we wrote about aspirin pods shaped liked hearts and mellow ceiling lights that induce drowsiness.

This week, we have raw water from Maine and dry cranberries harvested by an Indian tribe in Oregon. What qualifies these products as interesting are their niche-iness. No one is going to make a billion dollars out of these endeavours, but they are differentiated enough and fill a growing demand for raw foods, a topic we’ve written about before, both on this blog and in the print issue of SN Whole Health.

Raw Water is the result of a waiver granted by Maine authorities for the Summit Spring bottled water company, based in Harrison, Maine, to sell spring water that has not undergone any filtration or treatment, and has not traveled through any pumps or boreholes. It’s raw, with microscopic algae, potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium all going into the bottle.

The idea — much like the one that propelled the artisan salt category — is that Raw Water is a “nutrient rich; ‘living’ spring water” that has not been stripped of naturally occurring elements. Each one-liter bottle is wrapped in a recycled-content brown paper bag lined with wax, to protect it from decomposition and to protect the taste. more

The bottled water industry has faced growing criticism over the past couple years, and now it seems the fight has reached full pitch.

It’s a fight that encompasses numerous concerns, from food safety to money to the environment. Two weeks ago the Government Accountability Office issued a report stating that bottled water, which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, receives less stringent safety oversight than does tap water, which is regularly tested and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. This coincided with a congressional hearing that called in representatives from the FDA, the International Bottled Water Association, and the Environmental Working Group, which found chemical contaminants in bottled water samples it recently tested.

Many consumers and environmental groups, meanwhile, argue that all those discarded water bottles create unnecessary waste. Sure, they can be recycled, but that’s not good enough, since items can’t be recycled indefinitely, and it’s certainly not stopping the assembly lines. Still, Bloomberg reported last week, Evian has inked a deal to source more recycled plastic bottles to counteract negative sentiment.

These are all criticisms the bottled water industry has faced before — but never with this much mainstream force. Ultimately, people are fed up with spending a dollar or more for something that’s been deemed more wasteful, and possibly not as safe and well regulated as tap water, which comes at a miniscule price. more

A federal judge in Colorado has thrown out more than a dozen class-action lawsuits filed in 2007 and 2008 against a group of defendants that included Aurora Organic Dairy, several retailers including Safeway, Wal-Mart and others who sold Aurora products, and one of the dairy’s organic certifiers.

The case alleged that Aurora and its co-defendants were committing fraud — selling milk that was not organic — after federal investigators found “willful” violations involving a number of organic regulations. The USDA ordered probation and strict remedies, but the dairy was allowed to retain its organic certification.

That probe in 2007 was the result of complaints filed by the Cornucopia Institute, the small-farm advocacy group that has been coordinating the fight against Big Dairy, which includes Aurora, the nation’s largest supplier of private-label milk products. As of today, the organization says it will work with the plaintiffs to appeal the judge’s ruling.

I am not going to debate whether Aurora set out deliberately to cut corners (remember this was around 2007, a boom year for organics, and for organic dairy in particular). The feds allowed the processor to retain its certification and to keep making milk, and that’s what the judge cited in his ruling: more

The economy may be down, but it hasn’t killed people’s festive spirit. They’re entertaining at home more, and they’re looking for the snacks, drinks and accompaniments needed to keep the party going.

One category that’s benefiting from the trend is natural and organic drink mixers. Having people over means breaking out the booze, and for more and more people, it’s top-shelf stuff. Recent data from Nielsen shows that alcohol consumption is up 4.2% from a year ago, and high-end spirits saw an 11% increase. Mixers like those made by modmix, Q Tonic and others are rolling out. Many include exotic ingredients, like organic agave and hand-picked quinine.

Some gourmet and whole health splurges like this are weathering the economy. But for most retailers, which serve increasingly cost-conscious shoppers, selling non-essentials like gadgets and home decorations can be tricky.

In most cases, the winners will be those “green” products that offer quality and efficiency that translate into savings over time. If it’s a scented candle, it needs to last longer and smell better than the conventional alternative. If it’s a kitchen appliance, it should save on water and electricity.

“If it’s something green, it also has to save money,” said Mark Delaney, director of the NPD Group’s home segment, based in Port Washington, NY, in a recent interview.

Getting people to think about long-term savings isn’t as hard as it used to be. Heck, just look at the success of the compact fluorescent light bulb — which lasts for up to eight years and can save up to $30 in electric bills over its lifetime — and you’ll see what I mean.