NEWS BITES
of the largest producers and distributors of tortilla
products in the United States; Tarrier Foods Corp.
(Columbus, OH)—one of the country’s largest
producers and co-packers of
chopped candies, ice cream top-
pings and salad toppings; and The
Cheesecake Factory Bakery Incor-
porated (Calabasas Hills, CA)—bak-
ery for The Cheesecake Factory®
restaurants and leading foodservice
operators, retailers and distributors.
Now in its 7th year, these Awards began as an
effort to encourage the use of IPM and other environmentally friendly pest management practices.
Four companies were named 2010 Gold Medal IPM™ Partner Award winners by Orkin, The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Institute of North
America and NSF International for their outstanding commitment to IPM
partnerships. These four winners in the
food processing industry utilize Orkin’s
Gold Medal Protection, a comprehensive
IPM service that focuses on vigilant sanitation, prompt adherence to structural
pest management recommendations, diligent record keeping and staff participation
in IPM training sessions.
The 2010 Gold Medal TM
IPM Partner Award winners, selected from an elite group of approximately 40 nominees from
across the country, include the
following: Ice River Springs
(Kentland, IN)—bottler
and distributor of purified and spring water
products across the
United States and
Canada; Mission Foods
(Goldsboro, NC)—one
Ice River Springs Tarrier Foods Corp. The Cheesecake Factory Bakery
Mission Foods
2010 Gold Medal™ IPM Partner Award Winners Achieve Excellence
Front-of-pack Nutrition Labeling Initiative to Inform
Consumers and Combat Obesity
America’s leading food and beverage manufacturers and retailers have
joined forces in the fight against obesity and announced their commitment to develop a new front-of-package nutrition labeling system. The
unprecedented consumer initiative will make it easier for busy consumers
to make informed choices when they shop.
This program will add important nutrition information on calories and
other nutrients to the front of the packages of many of the country’s most
popular food and beverage products. To appeal to busy consumers, the
information will be presented in a fact-based, simple and easy-to-use format. In the coming months, the Grocery Manufacturers Association
(GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) will finalize the details of the
initiative, including the technical and design elements. In addition, details
will be finalized on how to provide consumers with information on nutrients needed to build a “nutrient-dense” diet and on “shortfall nutrients”
that are under-consumed in the diets of most Americans. GMA and FMI
will continue to consult stakeholders on these and other details in the
coming weeks.
“The food and beverage industry is committed to empowering con-
sumers by providing them with the products, tools and information they
need to achieve and maintain a healthy diet,” said GMA president and
CEO Pamela G. Bailey. “This initiative comes on top of the 20,000 health-
ier product choices we have developed, the re-
sponsible marketing practices we have
adopted and the tens of millions of dollars we
spend annually on healthy lifestyle promotion.”
“Thanks to this initiative and many other in-
novative industry programs, consumers will
now have access to more information about
their food than ever before,” said FMI president
and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin. “This unprece-
dented partnership with manufacturers will ex-
pand access to nutrition information for all
Americans and give shoppers a powerful tool
to assist them in selecting nutritious products.”
To build consumer awareness and promote
use of the new label, America’s food and bev-
erage manufacturers and retailers have agreed
to support the change to their product labels
with a $50 million consumer education cam-
paign. The campaign, to be launched in 2011,
will be aimed at parents who are primary
household shoppers.
