Food and Beverage

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Burger King is petitioning the Russian government’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to ban It from showing in theaters because they argue that the Stephen King reboot could potentially hurt its business.

Apparently, Burger King is afraid that audiences will watch an evil clown terrorize a bunch of children for two hours and get inspired to give their business to another similarly red-haired clown. It’s basically the opposite argument that all those hardworking clowns made when they feared that IT would wreck their birthday party business, but whatever.

Food giant Nestle on Tuesday set a formal margin target and confirmed it wants to return to mid-single-digit organic sales growth by 2020.

“The company will detail how it will reach its mid-single digit organic growth target by 2020, and will announce an underlying trading operating profit margin target of 17.5-18.5 percent by 2020,” the Swiss maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nespresso portioned coffee said ahead of a highly anticipated investor seminar, the first time its new chief executive will lay out his strategy for Europe’s largest company.

Nestle India on Wednesday said it has inaugurated the first Nestle Food Safety Institute (NFSI) in the country at its Research and Development (R&D) Centre in Manesar to develop a collaborative approach towards ensuring safe food.

According to the company, NFSI India, an integral part of Nestle R&D Centre India will work closely with the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As if you needed any more justification, the case for eating cheese just got stronger. Granted the study was carried out on worms, but researchers at Korea University in Seoul have found a link between cheese and longevity.

Emmentaler – a.k.a. Swiss cheese (cow’s milk cheese with cherry-sized holes) – contains the bacterium Propionibacterium freudenreichii. According to Metro News, it’s this bacterium in particular that the scientists examined, finding that it decreases inflammation and by extension, promotes longevity.

Online catering marketplace, Caterwings, have conducted a study regarding the global price of basic food items, as preliminary research ahead of their expansion into foreign markets. The research highlighted in particular that the cost of meat around the world is remarkably varied. To share these insights, Caterwings have released the 2017 Meat Price Index, which details the cost of meat in over 50 countries worldwide. The study revealed that Switzerland has the highest meat prices, at 141.9% more expensive than the average cost worldwide, followed by Norway (63.7% more expensive) and Hong Kong (61% more expensive), while Ukraine has the least expensive meat prices, at 52.3% less expensive than the average cost, closely followed by Malaysia (50.3% less expensive).

Heineken’s £403million takeover of Punch Taverns received the grreen light by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) after the competition watchdog accepted plans to sell off some the almost 1,900 newly-acquired pubs to allay fears it could reduce competition.

Heineken announced last December that it was teaming up with Patron Capital, the private equity firm, to buy Punch for £409m (€305m), or £1.78bn once Punch’s debt is taken into account.

Swiss dairy group Emmi is selling its 24% stake in Italian cheese specialist Venchiaredo to focus on markets and sectors with "growth potential".

Emmi, which acquired the holding in 2010, is looking to focus its Italian business on desserts, cheese exports from Switzerland and its 25% stake in cheese trader Ambrosi, according to a statement.

Nestle has acquired a minority stake in US online meal-kit service Freshly, the latest investment a packaged food major has made in the category.

The world’s largest food maker did not disclose the size of stake it has bought in Freshly but said it was "the lead investor in the $77mln round of new funding" that was announced by Freshly on Monday.