Noon International: Food Trading Import Export

Fresh is best, or is it?

I recently found an interesting website from Australia that compares the nutrient value of frozen, canned and fresh vegetables.  They went to the Coles and Woolworths stores and bought the best fresh vegetables, and the top selling frozen and canned brands.  The test covered the following vegetables - corn, green beans, carrots, spinach, broccoli and tomatoes.  The fresh and frozen vegetables were steamed for 10 minutes and the canned was heated before testing.  They tested for Vitamin C, beta-carotene and lycopene (tomatoes only).  The tomatoes were only tested for canned and fresh.

The results are all over the place.  Frozen was best for green beans, and spinach.  Corn was a toss up with convience perhaps the deciding factor.  Carrots all three had about the same level of vitamin C but fresh and canned were the clear winners for beta-carotene.  That leaves broccoli were fresh was the clear winner with frozen having 92% less vitamin C then fresh.

This is only one small sample test done in Australia and is cannot be consider conclusive.  The results are interesting and I would like to see more testing for the same nutrients and more.

Enjoy the article click here to get all the details.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, frozen, fresh, canned, vegetables, broccoli 

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The China CIQ has now announced new regulations to go into effect on December 1, 2007. In addition to the CIQ sticker on the outer cartons the new regulation requires that the inner poly be stamped. The stamp would have the format of factory name presented in a code format, year (last digit ie. 2007 = 7), month (A=Jan, B=Feb, ….) and the lot number. This will provide better tracking for the ultimate consumer because not only will they have the best before date but also the production date as well as the factory code. The new information will be stamped below or in very close proximity to the best before date on the polybags.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, China, CIQ

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Happy Thanksgiving from Noon International.  Be thankful for all we have and help those in need. 

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Japan Tobacco has announced its interest in acquiring frozen  food maker Katokichi for about $1 billion (US) dollars.  After completion Japan Tobacco and Nissan would be folded into Katokichi.  See the complete article in Bloomberg.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, Japan Tobacco, Katokichi, frozen food

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and most will have the traditional turkey but what  about vegetables?  Some  of the best vegetables one can have for Thanksgiving are sweet potatoes, cranberries, pumpkin and acorn  squash all good cancer fighting vegetables (check out the ACS website, click here).  All the above vegetables are good year round and the sweet potato is loaded with extra good nutrients. 

Remember to enjoy your vegetables this Thanksgiving.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, vegetables, cancer

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It was not long ago that everybody was taking  about the impact of ethanol on the food chain as many farmers started to produce corn for ethanol production.  It had an immediate impact on supplies and perhaps today we still hear about the impact it is having on the dfood supply.   Will the food inflation from reduced acreage be short  lived? 

Todays article in Bloomberg is quite interesting and worth a read (Ethanol Bust Makes Loser of Bush, Gates, Archer Daniels Midland ).  It seems nobody knows if the  ethanol production  is gain for energy or a loss for energy.  What ever one thinks it looks like it is a loser for the moment.

Let’s hope to see lower food cost in the future.

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A bill is in congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to safety for food and drugs imported into the United States (H.R. 3610 introduced by John D. Dingell D - Mich.).

Of key interest to U.S. importers of frozen vegetables are:

If passed it would go into effect not later than 2 years from enactment of this section.
Persons importing would voluntarily agree to abide by the new standards.
 
Guidelines:

  Develop guidelines for food safety programs
  Documentation of processing (in essence mirror of a HACCP program).
  Certification of facilities
  User fees for imported product
  Restrict FDA regulated products to only enter ports with FDA labs

These are a few of the main points of the proposed bill.  (See The Library Of Congress THOMAS for the bill introduced in September 2007 and search for - hr 3610)

Developing guidelines for food safety should be easy because it would most likely replicate a HACCP program.  Certification of facilities will be a cumbersome task.  Who will do it?  Will it be outsourced?  How long would this take?  Just looking at China their would be over 1.5 million facilities for food and drug.  User fees are just another form of taxation on importers and will be viewed as a barrier to free trade.  Restricting the ports will be another difficult task, of the 300 ports only 13 have FDA labs which only 4 of those are equipped to process food.  This too will be considered a barrier to trade.  How much will this cost you and I the consumer?

Is this a step in the right direction?  Yes and no.  Food safety is of critical importance for us and all people of the world.  If the importers are working with facilities that have programs in place and have 3rd party audits performed, then is it necessary to pass legislation?  We have always stated, that as importers you must know your supplier. 

Will the same restrictions apply to domestic facilities?

Technorati Tags: Noon International, H.R. 3610, FDA, food safety

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As an importer of China frozen vegetables we understand the problems that China is currently facing.  Labor cost is rising, energy cost is rising and this last year China has been plagued by weather related problems from typhoons, to draught, to abnormal rain fall.  Needless to say that with the gradual appreciating of the RMB (Chinese currency) all things point to higher pricing.  How is it that our customers think that pricing should be the same as last year?  Oh yes, I understand they want last years pricing but it is not realistic given the current situation. 

I just read on Bloomberg today that China food inflation for vegetables is up nearly 30%, pork prices have increased by 55% and 3 people were killed in Chongqing stampeding for cooking oil.  (You can read the article here).  Food inflation is now impacting other areas in China with overall inflation at 6.5% matching a decade high.

In the past, often we would see our customers delay and delay until pricing came down as suppliers began to panic.  This year I believe the opposite is the wise thing to do.  Contract now, before the season starts, for your requirements and needs.  Those who delay may face the consequences of not getting any product.  The choice is yours.

Yes food inflation is reality.

Technorati Tags: Noon International, frozen, vegetables, food, inflation

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This is an interesting site to visit http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/fit.nation/obesity.map/, an obesity map that shows the changes from  1985 through 2006.  Just click on the tab for the year and you check the various years out to illustrate the magnitude  of the problem. 

Now is the time for us all to reflect upon what we eat and reverse this horrific map “The Fit Nation“.  Vegetables are delicious but often overlooked for high fat foods,  foods that contribute little or no nutritional value.  We need to go back to the basics.  As Momma often said “eat up your vegetables” is more true today then ever before.

 We all know the value of vegetables and all it takes  is a small shift in our thinking and eating habits.  How easy is it to eat an apple a day?  It’s that simple!

Technorati Tags: Noon International, vegetables, nutritional

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Lily Noon of Noon International presented her speech on China past, present and future on October 16, 2007 in Cologne, Germany.  http://www.noon-intl.com/blog/anuga-speech-by-lily-noon-oct-16-2007-presented-at-crystal-ice-awards/

Technorati Tags: Noon International, China, food safety

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