One was a growing US debate about the possible requirement of caffeine content labelling and even a recommended daily caffeine intake cap of 400mg.

The other was a headline that “Caffeine proves vital ingredient in scientists’ human cloning breakthrough”.   Apparently, caffeine was needed to turn patient skin cells back into embryonic stem cells.

Coca-Cola has already invested $400 million in Florida over the past five years.  Now it has agreed to buy all the fruit produced by 25,000 acres of new orange trees for the next 20 years, representing a value of $2,000 million.

That’s a substantial pledge by any measure.

Zenith’s UK Soft Drinks Industry Conference last week had its highest ever attendance, despite companies generally cutting back on events. We had a tremendous programme, but were also extremely fortunate with our timing. The day coincided with important news from numerous speakers:

• Coca-Cola’s global commitment to new initiatives on tackling obesity
• The UK Government’s publication of evidence to support a soft drinks sustainability roadmap
• The British Soft Drinks Association’s publication of its 2013 UK Soft Drinks Report
• Innocent founder Richard Reed’s handover to a new team and offer to back other entrepreneurs through jamjar investments.

• $13,600 million for Thermo Fisher Scientific to buy Life Technologies, both based in the United States
• €7,500 million on Joh A Benckiser’s purchase of D E Master Blenders 1753, formerly known as Douwe Egberts
• $2,950 million for Archer Daniels Midland to acquire Australia’s GrainCorp
• €2,300 million sales for Refresco’s European soft drinks merger with Gerber Emig.

The sectors covered were very diverse with 11 transactions in alcohol, 7 in soft drinks, 6 in dairy, 4 in meat and 3 each in hot drinks, ingredients and packaging.

23 took place within national borders and 24 were international.  26 countries were involved overall.  As ever the United States featured in the most at 16, followed by France on 8, the United Kingdom on 7, the Netherlands on 5 and Germany on 4.

• 91% of bottled water consumers in Quebec drink tap water too.  They have tap water at home and bottled water on the go.

• Over 90% of Canada’s bottled water is from deep springs rather than municipal water.

• The average bottle travels 250 kilometres from source to shelf, compared to over 2,400 kilometres for fresh fruit and vegetables or most packaged consumer goods.

• 70% of plastic beverage containers in Quebec are recycled.

Three were economic and social – easy access, low tax and good healthcare.

Four were about natural resources – mineral waters, mineral springs, spa tradition and excellent climate.

I don’t suppose you guessed.  It was Bulgaria.

I like it because it summarises the state of the world in a single line.  The line shows overall global economic growth.

It was steady at +4% in the run up to 2007.  Then it fell to -3% in mid 2008, recovering remarkably quickly to +4% again by mid-2009.  Ever since, however, it has slipped progressively to just +2% by the end of 2012.

Here it is, with acknowledgement to The Economist magazine on 30th March 2013.

Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have all achieved rates above 90%.

The European Union average has topped 70% for the first time.

This is really good news from the European Glass Container Federation and the benefits are substantial:

• More than 7 million tonnes of CO₂ saved, equal to taking 4 million cars off the road.
• Over 11 million tonnes collected across Europe in 2011.
• 80% of glass collected goes back into new glass bottles.

Unfortunately, some countries’ recycling figures are still rubbish.  Cyprus has yet to beat 35%, Romania and Turkey are below 30% and Malta is reportedly under 10%.

Glass half full or glass half empty?

Apparently, if you replace 1 cup of coffee a day with tea, you could save 10,950 gallons a year; orange juice with water, 16,717 gallons; and milk with beer 15,582 gallons – though I doubt the realism or wisdom of that last example.

The March 2013 editorial of Health Club Management effectively says that people will never take enough exercise until the fitness industry shows some consistency.

It gives these strikingly different recent media headlines:

• ‘Four workouts a week may be better than six,’ New York Times

• ’10 minute workout’, Huffington Post

• ‘Get in shape with just two minutes of exercise a day’, Express

• ‘Long periods of gentle exercise are more beneficial than a high-intensity workout,’ Daily Mail

As the Editor says: “The fitness sector has, as yet, failed to cement a clear idea in people’s minds of how much and how often they should be exercising, and what sort of activity they should do.”  She does have a point.

Both statements are true and are drawn from a Nielsen survey of 29,000 internet respondents across 58 countries.

Perhaps even less likely, only 8% of Europeans on average consume their 5 a day, from 18% of Irish and 14% of Swiss to 1% of Polish and Portuguese, with Croations rounded down to 0%.

This is the main conclusion from another study published recently in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  It was conducted in France and based on the diets of nearly 2,000 adults, whose consumption was divided into almost 400 food and drink categories, each of which was assessed for greenhouse gas emissions.

As expected, red meat was found to account for three times the emissions of fruit and vegetables per 100 kcal.  But confectionery and snacks had some of the lowest emissions per 100 kcal, due to ease of transportation and storage as well as lack of waste.

Among the other observations I noted:

• Dairy products, poultry, eggs and pork have similar emissions per 100 kcal to fruit and vegetables.

• It is necessary to eat far more low energy food to meet daily energy needs.

• The healthiest diets – those high in fruit, vegetables and fish – account for similar emissions to the least healthy diets.

Overall, the “results seem to contradict the widely held view that diets that are good for health are also good for the planet.”

• Cargill, ConAgra and CHS joined forces to form Ardent Mills with $4,300 million sales.
• Rhone Capital paid $1,050 million for CSM’s bakery supplies business.

Out of the 34 March transactions recorded on the bevblog.net database, 9 were in alcohol, 7 in soft drinks, 6 in ingredients, 2 in dairy and 2 in meat.

Most took place within national borders – 12 in the United States and 4 in the United Kingdom.

Among the international transfers, France made 4 sales, the Netherlands 3 and the United States 2.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has endorsed a new method of protein quality measurement, called the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score or DIAAS.

This scores dairy protein 10-30% higher than the highest refined soy isolate, supporting those who always believed in the stronger bio-availability of dairy protein compared with plant protein.

More specifically, whole milk powder comes out at 1.22, compared with peas at 0.64 and wheat at 0.40.

The findings have immediately been championed by the International Dairy Federation and Global Dairy Platform.  It seems that science is continuing to move back in favour of dairy.

• Its attention to good nutrition as well as obesity.
• Its backing by the Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and financial institutions managing over $2,600 billion in funds.
• Its awarding Danone a score of 6.3 out of 10.

All companies will want to aim higher, but they have very varied portfolios and this is a campaigning index.

It was disappointing, but not surprising, that only Unilever and Nestlé also scored over 6.

The next three were PepsiCo, Kraft and Mexico’s Bimbo. I imagined Barilla and Campbell would have come higher than 12=. I did not expect Lactalis and FrieslandCampina to lag behind Mars and Hershey.

Yet even in the United States, it seems, there could be risks lurking in your glass.

A recent academic study of 67 lemons from 21 restaurants sampled during 43 visits found that 70% were contaminated with a total of 25 microbial species. Health code regulations require staff to use tongs or gloves, but apparently they rarely do.

It so happens that I very seldom have any drink with ice or lemon and certainly not a sparkling mineral water. Just as well.

For more information about the research, go to aloving@pccc.edu.

A realistic and healthy diet using 52 out of 82 food groups for an adult woman aged between 19 and 50 “can be achieved without eliminating meat or dairy products or increasing the cost to the consumer.”

This is all the more important because food production accounts for 18-20% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions.

The latest figures from the National Association for PET Container Resources show that 38.6% of single-serve plastic water bottles in the United States were recycled in 2011, a commendable 20% increase on the 32.2% achieved in 2010 and double the rate of seven years before.

Also of significance, the average weight of a standard size 50cl PET bottle has fallen below 10 grams for the first time, 47.8% less than in 2000, according to Beverage Marketing Corporation.

If you can bear another statistic, PET for bottled water accounts for under 1% of all plastic produced in the United States and only one third of 1% of all US waste, reports the US Environment Protection Agency. Oh, that’s two statistics. Better be accurate. Sorry.

Intermarché alone opened 300 collect by car outlets last year. Leclerc ‘drives’ made sales worth 940 million euros.

17% of ‘drive’ customers make all their beverage purchases through them.

Definitely worth watching, but ‘drives’ appear less conducive to innovation.

• Calcium and vitamin D supplements can reduce hip fractures by almost 40%, according to new findings from the US Women’s Health Initiative and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• High calcium intakes from food and supplements double the risk of heart disease death in women, says new Swedish research published in the British Medical Journal.

• High calcium intakes from supplements increase the risk of heart disease in men and not women, argues a team from the US National Cancer Institute at Bethesda and published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Is it any wonder consumers are confused about what to believe on the best diet for good health?

The biggest was the $28,000 million takeover of Heinz by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazil’s 3G. The other was a $2,900 million deal between Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch InBev in order to satisfy US regulatory authorities about the previously announced $20,100 million Anheuser-Busch InBev purchase of Modelo in Mexico.

Amongst February’s total of 30, 9 were in alcohol, 5 in equipment and packaging, 4 in dairy, 3 in soft drinks and 3 in ingredients.

17 countries participated, led as ever by the United States on 16 and followed by the United Kingdom on 4, then Canada, France and Italy on 3 each.

In February it purchased a 20.19% stake in AeroMexico, the national airline.

Let’s hope the shift in focus from off-take to take-off proves uplifting.

• Drink plenty of water
• Consume more dairy
• Exercise for at least 60 minutes per day.

The UK track record has been undeniably weak and late.

• Weak, with more than 50% of UK local authorities still failing to provide kerbside collection.
• Late, with any collected cartons still being sent to Italy, Spain or Sweden for recycling.

Fortunately, change is now on the way, with the first UK carton recycling plant due to come on stream this summer.

Once again, it’s the industry which is driving the change. Next, it’s for local government to provide better support on kerbside collection.

• 44% of consumers exercise less than once a week, more than half of those doing no exercise at all.
• Coca-Cola has reduced the calorie content of Fanta by 30%, Lilt by 56% and Oasis by 35% since 2007.
• PepsiCo has not advertised regular Pepsi since 2005.
• Sainsbury’s removed 600 million calories from shopping baskets in a year.
• More than 60% of British soft drinks contain no added sugar.
• Consumption of soft drinks with added sugar fell by 10% in the past decade, while obesity rose by 15%.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

“It is really unbelievable that, when we have insufficient food in our world, we give it to cars …  I plead very openly, no food for fuel.”

He was speaking at the recent Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin.

He does have a point.

Current subsidies for biofuels also push food prices up.

“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.”

My thanks to Laozi via the American Beverage Association SmartBrief.

Recent research shows there are essentially two key shifts in US drinks consumption patterns over the past 20 years.

• One is a direct switch in non-alcoholic beverages between those with calories and those without.  Bottled water has risen, while sodas and juices have fallen.

• The other is a direct switch in alcoholic beverages between beer and wines/spirits.  Spirits sales have recovered strongly since a self-imposed industry advertising ban was reversed in 1996.

OK, it’s nothing like as straightforward as this, but everything else is of less consequence.

The biggest was ThaiBev’s $11,200 million purchase of Singapore’s Fraser & Neave.

Then came three large Coca-Cola bottler mergers:
• €3,000 million sales from the long heralded merger of 7 Spanish bottlers
• $2,940 million sales from the merger of 3 Brazilian bottlers
• $700 million value for Mexico’s Yoli in merging with Coca-Cola Femsa.

There was also:
• $1,700 million for Ardagh’s packaging purchase of Verallia North America from Saint-Gobain
• $700 million for Hormel to buy US Skippy peanut butter from Unilever
• $500 million for CCL’s packaging takeover of two divisions from Avery Dennison
• plus the French dairy operations merger between Agrial and Eurial.

Among the 50, 10 were in alcohol, 7 in soft drinks, 7 in dairy, 5 in ingredients and 4 in packaging.

22 were inside individual countries and 28 across borders, affecting 28 countries in all. The US was active in 20, the United Kingdom in 9 and the Netherlands in 6. 5 countries were active in 4 each – Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

The Netherlands made 5 international sales without any purchases. Canada made 4 international purchases without any sales.

Apparently, Canada’s import duty on yogurt is 237.5%.  Can that be right ?  Can that be reasonable ?