"I've been eating at KFC the last few days, could that be a problem?" ("前几天刚吃了肯德基会有问题吗") asked one Weibo user.

The coming week could be a nightmare for KFC in China. Depending on developments in an outbreak of a new strain of avian flu called H7N9, KFC could see its business decimated by another chicken scare just months after a previous one.

KFC is not the only brand worried. Tyson chicken is already rolling out damage control.Continue reading...

And here we thought Yahoo's Carol Bartz was a pioneer among female CEOs using salty language.

Only, Denise Morrison isn't yet CEO of the Campbell Soup Company — she moves into the C-suite on August 1st — and she isn't hurling expletives, but addressing the issue of actual salt: as in, exactly how much salt do Campbell’s customers want in their soups, and in which soups?

As president of Campbell USA, Morrison, who is taking over from CEO Doug Conant, was one of the company’s biggest proponents of its healthy eating commitment and full-court sodium-reduction strategy of the last few years.

That gained Campbell some props from food activists and gave the company lots of “new and improved” products to market on a better-for-you basis. But it hasn’t done a lot for sales: Campbell reported a 7% decline in soup revenue for the quarter that ended May 1st.Continue reading...

Though PepsiCo has been one of the most innovative mainstream CPG companies in the industry’s drive to provide better-for-you products, the company has come up against at least a couple of major frustrations in at least one segment of the growing healthful-foods genre: salty snacks.

Frito-Lay has been a leader in terms of substituting “good” cooking oils for bad, for instance, and in introducing lower-calorie baked varieties of its Lays potato chips and other brands. It also has succeeded by acquiring startup healthy-snack brands such as Stacy’s pita chips.

But when Frito-Lay initiates a better-for-you brand, watch out.Continue reading...

Tragically, the video clip you see above is not far enough from the truth. It's from Toxic America, a CNN special that will air on June 2 and 3. If you care about public and environmental health and America's future, it’s must-see TV.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts the two-part program, revealing devastating results from a year-long investigation that particularly resonates with current concerns over the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

CNN's investigators focus on a community perched on the Gulf: Mossville, Louisiana, a formerly rural, African-American community now surrounded by 14 chemical plants that continually leak toxic chemicals – proven cancer-causing chemicals – into the air and environs.

For forty years, the residents of Mossville have complained to the oil industry, state and federal agencies about the damage to their health, even as the personal trail of proof keeps mounting.Continue reading...

Call it Nightmare on Main Street.

While the movie remake Nightmare on Elm Street was terrifying movie-lovers this weekend, Johnson & Johnson was dealing with a nightmare of its own: the recall of seven products, including children's Tylenol. The recall was prompted by "manufacturing deficiencies" that could lead to "potency, purity or quality" problems, according to the Food and Drug Administration announcement on Saturday.

Consumers with a long memory can't help but relate the current recall to the infamous Tylenol crisis in 1982. Several people died after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide, before it was discovered that tampering caused the tragedy. Johnson & Johnson, though not at fault, was lauded for its quick reaction.

The company spent over $100 million to remove all Tylenol from store shelves and create a new tamper-proof bottle, an industry first which created a standard for pharmaceutical packaging. Consumer confidence eventually recovered and Tylenol regained its market share. This time, it seems, Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, who makes children's Tylenol, has been less responsive.Continue reading...

Kraft Foods is bringing Crystal Light Pure Fitness to market. It is being touted as “the first nationally available low-calorie fitness beverage,” as it uses a new ingredient, truvia, first cousin of stevia.

The sugar substitute, from a plant harvested in Asia and South America, is already used by Coca-Cola in Sprite Green and Odwalla. Since the FDA approved stevia two years ago, the market for foods enhanced by the sweetener has hit the $100 million, and projections are a $2 billion market by 2011 (Mintel).

The new beverage is targeted towards a person who is “very health minded, is looking to avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible,” says Roxanne Bernstein, Kraft marketing director.Continue reading...

A recent deal to market cactus-based products nationwide in China is the latest example of the nascent, yet fast-growing boom in health care products across the country.

Cactus grower and product developer China Kangtai Cactus Biotech recently inked an agreement with Yongkangmen Health and Drug Chain Store Group to market their patented cactus nutraceuticals, health food, and energy drinks in more than 3,000 drugstores throughout China. China Kangtai is cashing in on a trend that only has room to, ahem, grow.

Many Chinese people have health care on their minds due to concerns over exponentially rising costs; those concerns have been further exacerbated by a spate of food safety scandals. Also, an emphasis on traditional medicines that are largely herbal and preventative have the Chinese populous very aware of the long-term health benefits of organic properties found in plants such as the cactus. And now, with rising incomes in urban areas, many can afford products that promise a safe, natural boost to the body’s functioning.

Funny what a few good decisions can do for a brand that’s struggling.

In the case of Celsius, the calorie-burning beverage, recent shifts on market positioning, advertising endorsements and distribution methods have reignited growth and led to a quadrupling of first-quarter revenues – and a seemingly brighter future in a market crowded with better-for-you beverages.

Celsius has reams of scientific studies which demonstrate that its proprietary formula, which includes green tea and chromium, actually burns calories to promote weight loss. For a few years, the Delray Beach, Fla.-based startup was in a market scrum with Enviga. But lately Celsius has acquired the momentum in that battle.Continue reading...