F&N of the future: Singapore ‘smart factory’ and innovation centre to focus on health and sustainability
F&N’s new Singapore-based facility will house both its ‘future-ready’ factory and its product innovation centre, with a focus on expanding its range of health and wellness-focused products in a sustainable manner.
The facility is expected to be ready by late 2021, and will cost F&N some S$80mn (US$58.8mn).
In terms of production, the facility has been designed to incorporate modern infrastructures and optimise manufacturing to deliver ‘leaner production, increased productivity with reduced human intervention and vertical integration and connectivity within supply chain’ upon completion.
“The plant is designed with a state-of-the-art Automated Storage and Retrieval System and will boast improved vertical integration and connectivity within the supply chain,” F&N Foods Managing Director Jennifer See told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“The new facility is also designed to be the product innovation centre of the F&N Group. It will further strengthen F&N’s research and development capabilities to expand its offerings of health and wellness beverages with sustainable packaging solutions."
No green bottles for Sprite anymore: Coca-Cola seeks to increase PET recyclability in SEA
Coca-Cola has opted to increase the recyclability of its Sprite bottles in the South East Asian region by converting all new bottles from green to clear.
The firm says this is line with its objectives of increasing PET plastic use in a sustainable manner.
Since Sprite was first launched in the ASEAN region in Philippines back in 1968, it has been retailed in green-coloured bottles, even when sold in its classic glass packaging.
At the recent United Nations environmental programme SEA of Solutions in Bangkok, Coca-Cola emphasised its commitment to recyclability and particularly its interest in highlighting PET as a ‘sustainable solution’.
“A PET bottle actually has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the equivalent amount of aluminium and glass, which gets reduced even further when recycled content is included. A recycled PET bottle has even less of a carbon footprint,”Coca-Cola Asia Pacific Leads for Communications, Sustainability and Public Affairs Matt Echols told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“So, for the beverage sector, it’s important that we work to get to a closed-loop circular economy especially for high-value, 100% recyclable plastics like PET.”
Generation gap: Mondelez highlights differing snack preferences between age groups in Australia
Mondelez Australia has revealed widely differing factors driving snack choice between different generations in Australia, although convenience and quality still stand out as major reasons for snacking across all age groups.
According to the firm’s recently-released State of Snacking report, snacking is a rapidly growing industry worldwide with some 60% of adults overall, and 70% of millennials in particular, expressing a preference for ‘many small meals’ as opposed to ‘a few large meals’ in a day.
Australians were revealed to snack significantly earlier in the day than snackers from the United States and United Kingdom, but later than consumers in China, India and Canada.
“What the research shows is that mid-afternoon is the peak time for Aussies [2.41pm] to enjoy a snack, which suggests we’re looking for that pick-me-up to get us through the day,” Mondelez Australia Managing Director Nigel Parsons said to FoodNavigator-Asia.
“Earlier this year, we announced our new SnackFutures Hub for ANZ based in Melbourne, and the team are working hard to identify new products that address emerging snacking trends such as functional and wellbeing needs."
Health is wealth: Younger Chinese consumers make up 60% of bird’s nest purchases on JD.com
Younger consumers in China aged between 16 to 35 made up more than half of bird nest purchases on e-commerce giant JD.com from July 2018 to June 2019.
According to data collected by JD, these consumers contributed 60% of purchases on the platform, revealing that consumption of bird’s nest was growing fast among this group of highly educated younger generation.
The data also found that the average annual growth rate of bird’s nest sales on JD.com grew at more than 50% over the past five years.
Big names, big stories: The top 10 most read food and beverage brands stories of 2019
We reveal the top 10 most viewed brands stories from the food and beverage industry in 2019, featuring Nestle, Coca-Cola, Fonterra and many more.
