News on Chips and Snacks from the Americas

January 10, 2010

Kettle Brand® Baked Potato Chips invites 'real resolutions'

Kettle Foods, maker of Kettle Brand® Baked Potato Chips, is kicking off the New Year by inviting fans to share their “Real Resolutions” for healthy eating and living. Kettle Brand® Baked Potato Chips, the only baked chip made from whole slices of re...

January 08, 2010

Three potato projects receive grants in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle announced that 11 agriculture innovators will share $225,500 in grants for projects that would strengthen, build or restore sectors of the Wisconsin agricultural industry.

January 06, 2010

Wal-mart cambia su sistema de compras para bajar costos

Wal-mart está lanzando una campaña este año para recortar miles de millones de dólares de costos de su cadena de abastecimiento combinando las compras de sus tiendas a través de las fronteras nacionales. Será una nueva etapa en la globalización de su n...

January 06, 2010

Kettle Brand potato chips launches new flavor: fully loaded baked potato

Inspired by fans’ love for the classic baked potato bar, Kettle Foods Chief Flavor Architect Carolyn Richards is piling on the flavor with the newest Kettle Brand® Potato Chip: Fully Loaded Baked Potato.Hitting store shelves in January for football par...

January 06, 2010

Popcorn: Diacetyl substitutes might be harmful for workers as well

Two years ago, Orville Redenbacher soared from the graveyard and announced in weeks of TV ads that his popcorn was now free of diacetyl. That's the chemical in artificial butter flavoring that has been blamed for sickening hundreds of workers, killing ...

January 06, 2010

CEO Interview With ConAgra's Gary Rodkin

It’s virtually impossible to get through a grocery store without buying one of Conagra Foods brands. Hebrew National hot dogs, Healthy Choice frozen foods, Orville Redenbacher popcorn—ConAgra makes those and about 1,500 other products found at the supe...

January 05, 2010

Potato growers converge in Orlando for second Potato Expo

Higher attendance marks the second year of Potato Expo in Orlando.In initial estimates, more than 1,100 potato industry people are converging in Florida for Potato Expo 2010, higher than the 900 that participated in last year’s event, said Hollee Alex...

January 05, 2010

Covered Bridge Potato chip company continues to gain market share

A year ago, Ryan Albright and his two business partners were hauling their product in the back of a Toyota Corolla, making deliveries in communities along the St. John River Valley. Today, one year after launching the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Compan...

January 04, 2010

Walmart to cut supply chain costs by buying directly from suppliers

The Financial Times reports Walmart plans to cut billions of dollars of supply chain costs by combining its store purchasing across borders and to move towards more global sourcing.The effort forms part of plans by the world's largest retailer to incre...

January 01, 2010

David Singer puts bite back in Lance

When David Singer took over at Lance Inc. in 2005, he found a sprawling manufacturing operation so decentralized that plants didn’t even buy cardboard boxes together. The information systems were in shambles, and a company that delivered snacks to tho...

December 21, 2009

Health Canada plan would put asparaginase in french fries, potato chips to fight acrylamide

Health Canada is proposing an unorthodox way of combatting acrylamide, a food ingredient suspected in some cancers: It wants to let manufacturers put small amounts of asparaginase - also used as a cancer-fighting drug - into potato chips and similar fo...

December 21, 2009

ConAgra Foods Reports Strong Second-Quarter EPS Driven by Excellent Consumer Foods Growth

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) one of North America’s leading packaged food companies, today reported results for the fiscal 2010 second quarter ended Nov. 29, 2009. Diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.55 compared with $0.38 a year ago. Cur...

December 16, 2009

Inauguran planta de papa frita

Con una inversión de US$ 15 millones y un plan de expansión que llevaría esa cifra a US$ 50 millones en tres años, Pepsico inauguró en Mar del Plata nuevas instalaciones que concentrarán buena parte de su fabricación de snacks, en particular, de papas ...

December 16, 2009

Kettle chips dismisses sales rumours

Wall Street rumours that the owners of Norwich-based Kettle Foods are preparing to put the business up for sale were dismissed yesterday as “speculation”.There were reports in the United States that Kettle's owner, London-based private-equity firm Lio...

December 11, 2009

Frito-Lay factory in Casa Grande First Existing Food Manufacturing Site to Achieve LEED EB Gold Certification

PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Casa Grande, Ariz., facility today became the nation’s first food manufacturing site to be awarded LEED® Existing Building (EB) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certi...

December 09, 2009

Kettle Foods for sale as M&A in CPG picks up

A new wave of deal making is occurring in the consumer aisle.November was the biggest month in over a year for deals involving consumer-products and food and drinks firms, with $12.54 billion in acquisitions.In recent weeks, a closely-held chip-maker, ...

Pepsico's Chief Scientific Officer Mehmood Khan at Yale

December 09, 2009

PepsiCo Opens New Haven Research Lab To Develop Healthier Products

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, today announced it will open a long-term research laboratory in New Haven with a focus on the development of healthier food and beverage products. The company also will fund a...

December 08, 2009

Why your chips bag is only half-full

It happens all the time: You open a snack bag, cereal box, or pill bottle and find a little bit of product and … lots of air. Consumer Reports dings such products with a Black Hole Award, and loyal readers are quick to send us nominees.