June 4, 2014 NACS Online If passed in the State Assembly, the law would make California the first state to require such labeling. ​SACRAMENTO – Last week, a bill requiring sugary soft drinks to carry labels warning of obesity, diabetes and tooth decay passed the California Senate. As described in a related Reuters article, this labeling law is the latest legislative move aimed at persuading people to drink less soda. The legislation next goes to the state Assembly, where it is likely to face an ongoing tug-of-war battle between the food and beverage industry, and public health officials, who have lobbied for the measure. California Governor Jerry Brown would then have to sign it into law. If implemented, the measure would put California, which banned sodas and junk food from public schools in 2005, in the vanguard of a growing national movement to curb the consumption of high-calorie beverages that…

The Guardian A new analysis from the University of Southern California finds that sodas in the US are potentially a bigger risk for obesity than assumed, because of the high fructose levels they contain The battle over high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in sodas in the US is likely to intensify following the publication today of a new study from the Childhood Obesity Research Center at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. A team led by Michael Goran, its director, has found that hugely popular soft drinks sweetened with HFCS, including Coca Cola, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and Sprite, contain more fructose than most people know. Goran’s paper, published in the journal Nutrition, shows that the drinks – as sold on the streets – contain 50% more fructose than glucose. The ratio, it says, is 60:40 and not 50:50 as it is in regular…

5 June 2014 The Guardian Chief executive Philip Clarke is under pressure amid worst sales fall he can remember in 30 years at supermarket giant The pressure has increased on Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke after he revealed the supermarket’s worst sales performance in decades, despite spending over £1bn on store revamps and price cuts in a fightback against discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. Tesco’s sales fell by 3.8% in the three months to 24 May on a like-for-like basis, an acceleration of the 3% slide in the previous quarter. Several analysts noted that the fall would have been 4% if Tesco had used the same standards used by most retailers, which exclude fuel, VAT and sales paid for with vouchers. Clarke admitted the sales decline was the worst he could remember in a more than 30-year career at the supermarket group, where he first started working as a…

MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM JUNE 4, 2014 The New York Times New York City’s battle over sugary drinks is entering its endgame. But much more than soda is at stake. A plan to limit the sale of large, high-calorie beverages, a marquee effort by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, will go before the State Court of Appeals on Wednesday, the city’s final recourse after a Supreme Court judge struck down the proposal last year. But health advocates say they are less concerned about the fate of two-liter Coca-Cola bottles than something more consequential: the future ability of New York City to remain a pioneer in the field of public health. The American soft-drink industry, in suing to stop the plan, contended that the city’s Board of Health — which has enacted limits on cigarettes and trans fats — went beyond its powers in trying to regulate sugary products, saying the board…

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN Financial Review The recent Wesfarmers presentation to shareholders confirms that the two supermarket giants, Woolworths and Coles, have adopted different strategies in the retail growth sector, online shopping. Almost certainly one of them is going to be wrong and the chain that gets it wrong will suffer well into the decade. Shareholders will be disappointed and heads will roll. Woolworths clearly believes that online trading is going to grow by very significant proportions given what is happening overseas, and that a large proportion of that trade will be ordered online but, rather than delivered to the home, will be picked up by customers. So a significant part of Woolworths’ so-called ‘Mercury Two’ plan is to revamp its distribution system so that customers in, say, supermarkets pick up their online ordered goods at Big W, Masters and Dan Murphy’s. In effect, every type of Woolworths store is a collection…

Olivia Goldhill The Telegraph As scientists discover that the secret to a perfect cup of coffee may lie in your tap water minerals, your order may reveal more than you realise Coffee lovers don’t just have to worry about the type of beans and method of making coffee – researchers have discovered that water can spoil your cup, too. But what does your choice of coffee order say about your personality? Mocha You hate coffee but feel the pressure to prove your adulthood and so, as a compromise, you sweeten the hit with a dose of chocolate. Slightly insecure but desperate not to let anyone know, you’re also likely to order steak tartare only to push the raw mush around your plate, and to grimace your way through a handful of olives. Espresso You’ve just had a delicious and/or expensive meal and want to pretend you’re a sophisticated Italian. Wash…