Food Industry Gossip: America Invades British Shores

America Invades British Shores—That was the headline on ABC news in 2010. Well, an invasion of sorts. You see, Kraft Foods had just announced the purchase of England’s Cadbury chocolates and the British people yelled treason.

Insider Secrets: Famous Food Products & What You Should Know If You are Considering Entering the Industry.

If you’ve ever had an American chocolate bar (versus English chocolates) you would understand British concern. The manufacturing formulas differ significantly and there is a great fear that there will be tampering with a traditional homegrown product.

I’ve just received a candy shipment from Canadian Favorite Foods and munched my way through a foreign version of M&Ms called Smarties;  a coffee and chocolate-covered wafer (thumbs way up), and a peppermint-covered confection sampled (merely for research purposes, you understand).

Wow! The taste of the chocolate is completely different; it’s hard to describe so I’ll just keep munching until I can come up with the correct adjectives. I also ordered Kerrs clear mints reportedly prized by choir members in this country because they clear the throat and enable one to belt out a tune more clearly. I don’t know about that and my neighbors will probably be gratified that I won’t test in that area.

Meanwhile, did you know that the Special K cereal produced in theUnited Statestastes completely different from the Canadian version? Exactly what the difference is unclear because the recipes are a trade secret.

The U.S. version of Coke is made with corn syrup but in Canada it’s made from sugar, and if you have ever had the latter you wouldn’t want to drink the former.

Heinz ketchup is manufactured from tomato paste stateside but the Canadian version is produced using fresh tomatoes. Boy, are we being gypped!

Food formulas differ from country to country and change all the time; at a mind boggling rate. If you’re planning on starting a food-based business that depends on the addition of a product already produced by other company refer to the first sentence in this paragraph. Many times the taste of the altered product is completely different. In Finding Your Niche, the chapter entitled Great Idea Now What? mentions this issue and gives examples of problems that have cropped up.

Finally, I have figured out how to describe my samples: the taste is pure, clear and sharp. Presumably it’s the absence of artificial ingredients. I have just learned that Laura Secord has an exclusive license to market chocolates created for the four Sex and the City 2 characters outside the U.S.
I don’t watch the show but a have a hunch that I’ll be doing more research overseas.

Update: If manufacturing is driven by labor costs and low prices for ingredients what changes have taken place since this post was first written?

References

Canadian Favourites.com
 http://www.canadianfavourites.com/

Canadian Favorite Lifesavers
http://tinyurl.com/ln33h7s

Life Savers takes business to Canada over sugar costs
Chicago Tribune
http://tinyurl.com/ljxuo8x
Comment – 9/3/2010
“The manufacturing formulas differ significantly and there is a great fear that there will be tampering with a traditional homegrown product.”
I have to agree that the manufacturing processes in America is way different to those in the UK which may be a concern to loyal patrons of Cadbury foods.