Missing Rice and Saucy M&As

Welcome back Food Junglers. The UK opens more doors for lab-grown meat, Health Secretary Kennedy pushes hard on the gas, and Big Food makes moves to consolidate its market position. Let’s dig in.

THE BREAKDOWN…

Indonesian Cooking Oil: Indonesia replaces cooking oil production for biodiesel as it uses its palm oil reserves to prioritise fuel for food.

Agricultural Freeze: Farmers and food organisations across the US are cutting staff, halting investments and missing key fundingamid a USDA freeze on a broad swath of grants initiated by President Trump.

Saucy Mergers: The sauces and condiments segment is witnessing a significant surge in merger and acquisition activity, reflecting a robust investor appetite and confidence in the sector's fundamentals.

Lab-Grown: Meat, dairy and sugar grown in a lab could be on sale in the UK for human consumption for the first time within two years, sooner than expected.

Lagging Business: McDonald’s CEO – Chris Kempczinski – asserted that the burger company needs to deploy new products and technology to restaurants faster and improve coordination with stores in order to help lagging sales.

Red Dye Ban: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called on top executives from Kraft Heinz Co., General Mills Inc. and other food companies to remove artificial dyes before the end of his term.

Food Labelling: Furthermore, Robert F Kennedy Jr has directed the country’s food regulator to close a ‘loophole’ that allows companies to self-affirm their ingredients as safe.

American Lunches: The USDA has slashed two programs that provided more than $1bn for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farms and ranchers.

Unilever Sell-Off: Unilever’s new CEO Fernando Fernandez expects to accelerate the company’s turnaround plans by selling a number of underperforming brands in the food segment.

Missing Rice: Japanese consumers are paying record prices for rice, sparking frustration, finger-pointing, and forcing the government to tap emergency supplies. No one knows where the rice has gone.

Mutant Banana: Researchers in the UK say they have a solution with the launch of a genetically engineered non-browning banana.

Dairy Dominance: Yeo Valley Production has acquired Epicurean Dairy (UK), the owner of premium yogurt brand The Collective, in a move that consolidates the UK dairy market amid growing competition.

PepsiCo Reshuffle: PepsiCo has implemented a significant restructuring of its executive leadership team signalling the company's strategic prioritisation of emerging markets.

Oreo Diplomacy: Mondelez International Inc. is asking regulators for permission to ignore a shareholder proposal that calls for greater transparency on the Oreo maker’s Russian operations.

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