Yum Foods losing sales

Here are some of the highlights from this weeks issue of FOOD BUSINESS NEWS.

Why are Americans so complacent, so uncaring, so stupid?  Well why on earth would I even say such a thing you ask.  Because over in China, that wonderful country where we all laugh and talk about how they all work in sweat shops, for pennies a day.  The country where a billion people live and they eat rice because they can't afford real food.  Yeah, that country.  Yum! foods international has a few KFC chicken outlets in China, and they are growing at an alarming rate with sales of 1,597 million in 2012 up from 1,319 million in 2011.  That's dollars, not yen.  The thing is, sales took a nose dive in mid-December when the media in China reported that chickens used by KFC and the other Yum! Foods brand outlets, are fed antibiotics to combat the huge infection rate of the chickens raised in CAFO's.  Chinese consumers responded to this news the same way that I did, I quite going to KFC and I quit eating ANY commercially raised chicken. 

Why don't Americans stop going to KFC?  Those people that Amerikans beleive to be poor, stupid slave laborers living in poverty and slum conditions in overcrowded filthy cities in the most populous country in the world.  So much for perceptions.  The Chinese have shown themselves to be intelligent, well informed and cognizant of a big corporation attempting to make huge profits by serving them unsafe cheap CAFO meat tainted with bacterial residues and high concentrations of residual antibiotics.  The Chinese do not want the American phenomena of antibiotic resistant bacteria to come to their country and be responsible for a hundred thousand deaths a year as it is here.

They don't seem to be so poor or stupid to me. 

Yum! Foods other entity, Taco Bell is actually doing quite well.  They have introduced their Doritos based flavored tacos.  Hmmmm, to me it sounds a lot like Hollywood, they can't come up with anything new on their own so they, like Hollywood, remake past winners and losers, and take the best of others and use it for their own. 

Starbucks is redefining marketing strategies for the entire food industry.  This is a one page article about Starbucks and their move into new products and highlighting their brand name.  And it is true, as a lifetime coffee drinker I am continually amazed how this company got so big selling less than mediocre products at higher than premium prices.  It is indeed the American dream. 

In legal news, General Mills agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over YoPlus brand yogurt.  They claimed that the product had digestive benefits.  The problem is, they made that claim without ANY research or scientific studies done to support the claim.  They got into some trouble over that.  If you bought a four pack of the stuff, you can get four bucks back from GM.  The question is, do you think that they, or any other food manufacturer will learn anything from this?  Naw, no way.  Way way way too much money to be made by deceiving consumers.

And the last comment from me today is about Post Foods LLC.  Their Honey Bunches of Oats cereal brand is getting a new member in the lineup.  GREEK.  Yep, they are adding Greek yogurt to the mix.  the stuff still has more sugar than protein and fiber combined, but it has Greek yogurt now!