NEWS & ANALYSIS
NEWS OF INDUSTRY
Cargill forms two joint ventures
Cargill Incorporated, Minneapolis, Minn., formed a joint venture with The Hudson Companies of Troy, Ala., to acquire the assets and business of Fontina Foods, Inc., Port St. Lucie, Fla. Fontina Foods’ founder, Michael Buscaino, will serve as General Manager of the joint venture.
In a separate transaction, Cargill and Florida-based SunPure signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture to combine their North American citrus processing businesses. Cargill will be the general partner of the venture and will be responsible for day-to-day management. Cargill’s North American operations include a processing plant in Frostproof, Fla., and a juice terminal in Elizabeth, N.J. SunPure’s operations include a citrus processing plant in Avon Park, Fla., and a grapefruit processing plant in Fort Pierce, Fla. About 400 fulltime and seasonal employees will be employed at the combined facilities.
General Mills installs Web-based Empriva system to manage packaging data
General Mills, Minneapolis, Minn., and Empriva Technologies, Kansas City, Mo., a developer of Web-based tools for the packaging industry, announce the selection of Empriva’s SMA/RT (Specification Management Application/Real Time) system to manage General Mills’ packaging data online.
The system is expected to allow General Mills to integrate information into a single package that includes specifications, supplier information, CAD files, graphics, artwork, pallet configurations, and supporting data.
Nutrinova and Opta sign distribution agreement
Nutrinova Nutrition Specialties & Food Ingredients, GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Celanese AG headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, has signed an international distribution agreement to sell the fiber, bran, and EverFresh® products of Opta Food Ingredients, Inc.,Bedford, Mass. Under the terms of the agreement, Nutrinova will sell Opta’s products worldwide, excluding the United States, Israel, and Canada.
Extru-Tech spins off three new Crosswinds manufacturing companies
The recent acquisition of Extru-Tech, Inc. by Wenger Manufacturing has resulted in the purchase of Crosswind Foods, Star-Tech, Inc., and a third unnamed plant by Ken Watson, former president and founder of Extru-Tech. Watson has formed a parent corporation, Crosswind Industries, Inc., to operate its three manufacturing plants as individual wholly owned subsidiary corporations:
Crosswind Foods, Inc.; Crosswind Petfoods, Inc. (formerly Star-Tech); and Crosswind Specialties, Inc.
Canadian food processor expands into Saskatchewan
Centennial Food Corp, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has established a partnership with Crown Investments Corporation to expand its operations into Saskatchewan with a $34.4 million project that includes the building and equipping of a world class food processing plant in Saskatoon that will employ up to 190 people. The plant, which is expected to be up and running by November 2001, will manufacture ground meat products and market them throughout Canada and the U.S.
Company News in Brief
• The French companies Air Liquide and Gemplus have launched a joint subsidiary, Athélia Solutions, to market traceability solutions to meet the growing needs of the agro-food, electronics, and health care industries. The service, based on the use of electronic tags, makes it possible to track mobile objects within and outside a company. For more information, call Ms. Severine Percetti, Gemplus, at +33-4-42-36-67-67; fax +33-4-42-32-50-90; Web site: www.gemplus.com. Intelligent labels, products of Gemplus
• Archer Daniels Midland Company, Decatur, Ill., is closing its cottonseed processing plants in Montgomery, Ala., North Little Rock, Ark., and Levelland and Sweetwater, Tex. The last two facilities will operate as cottonseed gathering stations and will maintain small work forces.
• Cadbury Schweppes, London, England, has agreed to acquire the Snapple Beverage Group from Triarc Companies, thus significantly expanding the company’s portfolio into the U.S. soft drinks market. The transaction, valued at $1.45 billion, includes soft-drink brands Snapple, Mistic, Stewart’s, and Royal Crown Cola.
• Custom Packaging Systems, Inc., operating from three sites near Manistee, Mich., has been acquired by the Scholle Corporation, Northlake, Ill. Custom Packaging manufactures large, custom-designed bags for liquid and dry packaging applications.
• Grower cooperative Diamond of California, Stockton, Calif., a processor of walnuts and marketer of culinary nuts, has acquired the Berner Nut Company, a supplier of inshell nuts with facilities in Lemont, Ill., and Robertsdale, Ala.
• The Herman Goelitz Candy Company, Fairfield, Calif., and Goelitz Confectionery Company of North Chicago, Ill., makers of Jelly Belly® jelly beans, have merged the two companies into one corporation. The Fairfield and North Chicago manufacturing plants will remain open for production and distribution, while construction of a new distribution and retail center in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., is targeted for completion in April 2001.
• The Flavor Division of Harmann & Reimer, Teterboro, N.J., has constructed a new pilot plant for sample and pilot-scale production of fruit fillings. The new plant features five dual agitation scraped surfaced kettles ranging in size from 5 to 400 gallons, with production runs from lab-scale batches up to 3,500 lbs.
• International Filler Corporation and Fiber Sales & Development, producers of fibers, powders, fillers, and blended products, have merged operations and formed a new company, International Fiber Corporation, headquartered in North Tonawanda, N.Y. The company will maintain manufacturing facilities in North Tonawanda; Nitro, W.Va.; Urbana, Ohio; and Temse, Belgium. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.ifcfiber.com.
• Land O’Lakes, Arden Hills, Minn., has acquired a cheese plant in Gustine, Calif., from the Beatrice Group unit of ConAgra, Inc., Omaha, Neb., to add to its mozzarella and cream cheese business. Under the terms of the sale, Land O’Lakes will enter a co-packaging agreement for cream cheese with Beatrice.
The 70,000-sq-ft plant in Gustine has 169 employees.
• McCain Foods USA, Oak Brook, Ill., has announced plans to build a new $80–100 million potato processing plant in Aroostook County, Maine. The new French fry facility, when completed in the Fall of 2001, is expected to use another four million hundredweight of potatoes and require 200 new employees.
In Memoriam
Raymond H. Binstead, Emeritus Member, died August 27, 2000, in Kent, England. He was 88.
Binstead, who joined IFT in 1946, was the first member of IFT in England. He founded the British Section before World War II and served for 27 years as Honorary Secretary. He was instrumental in the success of the British Section. He also funded the Binsted Lecture, given each year in London on a topical subject concerning food science and technology and usually featuring the current president of IFT as the featured speaker. IFT President Mary K. Schmidl spoke at this year’s Binsted Lecture held September 5 in London on the topic “Trends and Directions in the Food Industry.”
Binsted was educated at the Woodbridge School in Suffolk, then joined his father’s publishing company. In October 1931, he left to begin a new journal, called Food Canning, Preserving and Packing, a title that changed several times in the next few years and eventually became Food Trade Review. It was a time of drastic change and experimentation in the food industry, and Binsted’s journal, at the forefront of reporting such innovations, grew in size and stature, eventually forming a separate company to sell American books on food technology topics.
Raymond Binsted gave 45 years of service to the food industry and to IFT before retiring from Food Trade Review in1975. In addition to IFT, he was a member of the Food Group and the Food Engineering Group of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). In the 1960s, he helped found the Institute of Food Science and Technology (UK), an English organization patterned after IFT. He was an IFST Fellow and, in 1976, was named a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists.
David M. Strietelmeier, Professional Member, died September 17, 2000, in Park Forest, Ill. He was 66.
Strietelmeier earned a B.S. in agricultural education and an M.S. in food technology from Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. Upon graduation, he went to work as a Research Coordinator at QMC Food and Container Institute, then joined Morton Salt Company in Chicago, Ill., in 1961 as a technical service food technologist. He remained at Morton Salt, a Rohm and Haas Co., most recently as Technical Director, for the remainder of his career.
He joined IFT as a Student Member in 1958, becoming a Professional Member in 1965, and was active through the years at both the national and section levels. At the national level, Strietelmeier served eight terms as National Councilor and as a member of the following committees or subcommittees: International Technical Assistance (1964–67), Qualifications (1973), Babcock-Hart (1971–80), Finance (1986–89), Ad Hoc Salary (1990), Ad Hoc Student (1977–78), and the Exhibitor Advisory Subcommittee (1994–97). Currently, he was serving as a member of IFT’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
A member of the Chicago Section, he founded and served as Supplier Night Chair (1991-94), Section Chair (1988–89), Tanner Lecture Committee (Chair, 1999–2000) and various terms on the By-Laws, Education, House, and Program Committees. He was also a member of the IFT Biotechnology Division. He received the Chicago Section Service award in 1993 and the 1978 Technical Award from the Association of Dressings and Sauces.
Strietelmeier was also a member of the American Association of Cereal Chemists and the American Water Works Association.
Death Notices
· Margaret J. Andrew, Emeritus Member. Died September 5, 2000, age 92. Retired 1971 from the Frigidaire Division of General Motors. Joined IFT in 1953; founding member of the Ohio Valley Section of IFT (1949), of which she served as Chair in 1963-64.
· George Christianson, Emeritus Member. Died March 22, 2000, age 82. Retired 1983 from General Mills, Inc. Joined IFT as a Student Member in 1953; member of the Minnesota Section.
· Carl F. Dunker, Emeritus Charter Member of IFT, died September 15, 2000, in Chicago, Ill. He was 86.
· Winfield W. Foster, Emeritus Member. Died August 15, 1998, age 87. Retired 1980 from the Quaker Oats Company, Rockford, Ill. Joined IFT in 1964; member of the Chicago Section.
· Guillermo Rodriguez, IFT Member. Died September 1, 2000, in Caracas, Venezuela. He was 53. Part owner of Chemicadel C.A. in Caracas. Joined IFT in 1997.
· Ruth H. Matthews, Emeritus Member. Died January 5, 2000, age 73. Retired 1996 from the Nutritional Data Lab, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Joined IFT in 1955, member of the Washington, D.C. Section.
· Grace McCormack, Emeritus Member. Died September 1999, age 91. Retired from Monroe Community College, Rochester, N.Y. Joined IFT in 1950; member of the Western New York Section.
· Juan-R. Mor, Professional Member. Died February 21, 2000, age 56. Employed by Givaudan Research Co., Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland. Member of IFT since 1980.
· C. Reed Sutherland, Emeritus Member. Died May 2000, age 87. Retired 1978 from General Foods Corporation, Winter Haven, Fla. Joined IFT in 1941; member of the Florida Section (Chair, 1967-68).
by BETSY BAIRD
Assistant Editor