NEWS

Mandatory Labeling Requirement of Juice Content, Only 10% or Above Can Be Called Juice (2006/05/26)

Some juice on market claimed to be “pure and natural” is actually not 100% single strength juice but with colors and flavors added. In order to assure the health of the public, effective from December 1, 2006, Taiwan’s Department of Health requests all packed juice has to be labeled with juice content obviously in the front side of the packing. Moreover, the words of “pure, natural juice” can’t be applied randomly.

According to the Department of Health, very often when consumers purchase juice on market that brags about being natural and pure, they don’t really know that how much juice content is inside the products. To ease the public, the Department of Health rules all juice products made of all kinds of fruits or vegetables should place its juice percentage in the obvious part on the front side, with text shall not be smaller than 2x2mm to let customers easily recognize during purchasing.

Only the juice squeezed from fresh mature fruit, stored below 7 ℃, and without either dilution, fermentation or sterilization can be labeled “fresh squeezed”. The expiry date and storage condition shall be clearly labeled as well. For the reconstituted juice, it shall be labeled “Reconstituted Juice” in the front.

As per the experts, only the juice squeezed from fresh mature fruit without dilution can be called natural juice. Packed juice shall content at least 10% of either natural or reconstituted juice; otherwise it can’t be counted as juice.

Grapefruit Can Affect Drug Absorption

Dr. Paul Watkins and his colleagues published a research in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, finding that a digestive enzyme named CYP3A in human body will destroy drugs absorption. Among all fruits, only grapefruit can interfere with CYP3A to avoid drugs from massive destruction and to benefit better drug absorption (the experiments prove that taking drugs with grapefruit juice together has the highest density of drugs in blood).

Dr. Watkins found that the substance in grapefruit juice that interferes with CYP3A is furanocoumarin. Grapefruit juice containing no furanocoumarins tastes less bitter.

There are three implications to the finding:

First, the grapefruit juice with furanocumrins removed can be offered specially for the patients who need to avoid grapefruit juice. Second, we can examine some new developing food containing furanocoumarins to know its possibility to interact with drugs. Third, furanocoumarins can be added to certain oral drugs which are difficult to absorb to boost entry of these drugs into the body. (2006/05/19)

World’s Top 10 Healthy Fruits

The USA magazine Reader’s Digest introduces 10 kinds of fruits that have most health benefits. Apple, among all, is listed the number one for its abundant fibers, which can supplement human body enough fibers, reduce the risk of heart attack, and help lose weight. Many Americans regard fruit as the necessary food for body slimming, dieting one day a week, called Apple Day, to eat apples only.

Apples are rich in nutrition and good for healthy body, diseases prevention and cure. Experiments prove that sour apples are good for diabetes patients; sweet apples are suitable for patients with cardiovascular diseases or obesity; cooked apple can be used to heal constipation. In addition, consuming fresh apples before going to bed can clear up the oral bacteria and improve the function of kidney, while the squeezed juice from apples can prevent cough and hoarse throat. Apple puree after warmed up is a great description of indigestion for children and elders.

Apricot is listed right after apples, then comes banana, blackberry, blueberry, sweet melon, cherry, cranberry, grapefruit and red grape.

No. 2: apricot, rich in β-carotene and beneficial for the absorption of Vitamin A.

No. 3: banana, high content of potassium, which advantages heart and muscle functions.

No. 4: blackberry, with three times more fiber content than other fruit at the same measuring weight, which is definitely very helpful to heart health.

No. 5: blueberry, a special fruit. More intakes of blueberries can eliminate the risk of infection of urinary tract.

No. 6: sweet melon, in plenty of Vitamin A and C, and an ideal food to supplement vitamins.

No. 7: cherry, beneficial to heart health.

No. 8: cranberry, helpful to reduce the risk of infection of urinary tract.

No. 9: grapefruit, high content of Vitamin C.

No. 10: red grape, containing flavonoids to provide multi-protections to the heart.(2006/05/08)

(2006/04/28)

Trend in China’s beverage market

The best beverage sellers in China last year in 2005 in order are carbonated beverages, water, fruit juice, tea drinks, and so on.

The health concept has been constantly paid more attentions by the public. However, although the market of carbonated beverages is not as good as it used to be, being entering market earlier as well as the much higher budgets for advertisements and promotions than other beverage sectors, the public acceptance of carbonated beverages is relatively high. Besides, with large money put in packages and campaigns to attract consumers, carbonated beverages have grabbed a certain ratio of consumer groups.

The prospects of tea and fruit juice drinks, following the increasing health consciousness and the changing customer tastes, are looking better and better. The leading manufacturers of each brand all concentrate their firepower on the market that still have a lot of space to grow. It’s believed that this year in 2006 there will be many new brands to involve with tea beverage market. The leading seller, Coca-Cola, even strengthen their development of fruit juice market.

The popularity of lactic acid beverage is probably because of the compulsive regulation by the authority on the adding percentage of protein in lactic acid beverages, which makes a healthy impression on the consumers. Furthermore, the taste of lactic acid beverage, healthy and tasty, fits customer tastes very well, no wonder lactic acid beverages become popular and loved by the mass.

The total sales volume of lactic acid beverages has been keeping growing in the past three years, and the related products have developed to over twenty items from only three, four in the beginning. Lactic acid beverages, a product worthy to look forward to, may bring new changes for the beverage market! (2006/04/07)

The Age of High Sugar Prices

Taiwan’s sugar price has been risen up for 8 times in the terms of end of last year to late February, from NTD13/kg to NTD19/kg. The international price of raw sugar has been also increased from US$380/MT to US$430/MT FOB, exclusive of freight and tax, no mention the international price of white sugar has been up to US$470/MT.

The drastic increase of international sugar prices in the short term is blamed on high crude oil prices and the world’s biggest sugar supplier, Brazil, moved sugarcanes for the use of alcohol fuel material. It’s estimated that this year the supply of Brazilian sugar will be short of 3 million tonnes. So price of sugar is believed to be keeping going up.

Taiwan’s sugar price is NTD19.1/kg, higher than Hong Kong and Singapore’s 15.6/kg and China’s 18.8/kg, but lower than Korea’s 20.3/kg and Japan’s 41.6/kg. If the international prices of sugar continue to soar, the domestic sugar price will inevitably be affected to adjust.

It’s worthy to mention that Taiwan Sugar Co. imports most raw sugar from Brazil. But with less supply of Brazilian raw sugar, unless Taiwan Sugar Co. increases sugarcane plantations, price of sugar will certainly raise again. Although the import of sugar is opened, the quality of imported sugar is not as good as Taiwan Sugar Co’s. If customers pursue sugar in good quality, then they will have to pay more for it in short terms.(2006/03/31)

Red wine

The biggest enemy of women is nothing better than fleck, wrinkle, loose skin, and fat, which all relate to slow metabolism, a phenomenon connected to the reactive oxygen.

Diet with wine can achieve the weight-reducing purpose. Under the same type of high fatty diet, unlike American, France has less over-weighted people. In addition, nearly all the Mediterranean people have a healthy and long life. The Mediterranean diet, presented in a Pyramid type, is high intakes of pastas, breads, rice, and grains with fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, and proper amounts of olive oil, yogurts, cheese and other daily products daily. Fish, chicken, and eggs are eaten 2~3 times per week and lean meat 2~3 times per month, cooperating with a proper amount of wine in meals as well as an appropriate amount of exercises.

The weight-reducing effect of wine is believed from its anti-oxidation activity, furthering the metabolism that would have been decreased by ages. So, form a habit to drink wine with meals and offer yourself comfortable and plenty of time to enjoy the fun of meals, which can stimulate the satiety center of the brain to avoid over-eating.Moreover, the slow-rising alcohol content in the blood can also benefit pressure release and inhibit over-eating and over-drinking in response to stress. (2006-03-23)

Raspberry – the new favorite healthy drink

Raspberries, one kind of aggregate berries, can present in different colors of red, yellow, black and brown. With the pleasant flavor and distinctive mouth feel, raspberries become popular in Europe, USA in Japan, gaining a good fame of “golden fruit” and having high nutritional and medical value.

Many ancient medical scholars have been expressing their own theories about the functions of raspberries. And in the modern Chinese medicine’s point of view, raspberries, mild and tender, have the functions of quenching thirst, reducing phlegm, releasing poison and improving beauty and have a good effect on curing gout, erysipelas and emission.

According to the modern technological study, raspberries are rich in amino acids necessary for human, vitamins, organic acids, mineral elements and SOD (to clear superoxide free radicals) as well as anti-cancer materials (ellagic acid to inhibit the growth of cancer cells). Among them, the content of natural plant SOD and vitamin E in raspberries is on top of all kinds of fruits.

Japanese scientists found that, the raspberry ketone extracted from red raspberries can effectively burn fat, an effect 3 times greater than capsaicin. The diet products mainly made of raspberry ketone have become a hit in Japan. While from the research of US scientists, raspberries contain the most ellagic acids they have found in food, so they can effectively prevent cancer. What’s worthy of mention is that, all the raspberry processed products can be effectively reserved of the original color, flavor, nutrition and active existing in fresh raspberries. As per the specialists, the scarce raspberries and the natural processed products in the market will be greatly popular with the healthy-food consumers.

Raspberry wine, belonging to the non-food, low alcohol wine with great color, flavor and note, has always been the premium fruit wine in the western countries. The industry predicates that raspberry wine will become the new favorite for the people who worship health.

Sri Lanka’s Tea Leaves Exports Lead the World

Despite Sri Lanka’s tea leaves exports reached to 290 thousand tonnes in 2004, it’s still less than Kenya’s 326 thousand tonnes. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka remains the lead in the world’s tea leaves exports.

According to the Bulletin for Statistics, Kanya, who has been taking the second position after Sri Lanka in the world’s tea leaves exports for 10 years long, exported tea leaves exports rising drastically by 21% in 2004. Kanya exported tea leaves at 270 thousand tonnes in terms of January to September in 2005, while African total tea leaves production is at 236 thousand tonnes.

Kenya’s Mombasa is the main exporting port for African tea leaves. In the trading center in Mombasa, there gather tea leaves from Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and other small African countries that produce tea leaves. So, it is possible that the tea leaves produced by these countries would be compiled statistics into Kenya’s tea leaves exports. Another tea leaves trading center is in Limbe City in Malawi

Sri Lanka’s tea leaves exports is at 225 thousand tonnes during the period of 2005 January to September, with tea leaves production at 239 thousand tonnes. At the same period, Sri Lanka also imported 719 thousand kilograms,3% in their tea leaves output), mainly for blending and re-exports. Sri Lanka’s tea leaves industry has a 130-year history and the marketing information is more transparent. On the other hand, the tea leaves industries in other African countries are relatively shorter, so very few statistics about African tea leaves is well-known.

Sri Lanka’s domestic tea leaves consumption is at around 20 thousand tonnes. Kenya has more population than Sri Lanka, so it is assumable their domestic consumption is greater than Sri Lanka’s.Being the world’s third-largest tea leaves exporting country, India’s output of tea leaves in terms of 2005 January to August is at 533 thousand tonnes. According to the Bulletin of Statistics, India, domestically consuming a lot tea leaves, exported tea leaves at 103 thousand tonnes during 2005 January to August.

The New Food Regulations in EU and Japan

On January 01, 2006, the （Regulation (EU) No. 183/2005 of The European Parliament and Council of 12 January 2005 : Laying down Requirement for Feed Hygiene）＊ is effective officially.

In June 2006, Japan will implement a positive list system to pesticide and chemical residuals in foods, according to the amended Food Sanitation Law.

The new food regulations adopted by EU and Japan will definitely have big effect on the world’s agricultural exports, increasing the difficulty and risk in export.

According to understanding, EU stipulates this strict food regulation is owing to the following three considerations. The first is to provide more safety foods to EU customers; the second is to simplify and reinforce the current food monitoring system; the third is to legally give EU Parliament and Council a brand new management approach to ensure the implementation of a higher food safety standard in EU.

＊Remark: The above-mentioned regulation was submitted by European Commission to European Parliament in February 2005 and was approved and decided to implement from January 1, 2006 by the European Parliament hold in March 2005.
(For full content, please see the attached)

Japan

In June 2005, Japan has announced their draft bill of positive list system formally to WTO’s members. Japan will, according to the amended Food Sanitation Law, officially implement a positive list system to pesticide and chemical residuals in foods in June 2006. The draft clearly stipulates nearly 50, 000 temporary standards for 734 pesticides, veterinary medicines and feed additives which may possibly exist in the importing foods and agricultural products. The same stipulation is also effective to the pesticides with no standards or reference standards in Europe or USA, extremely lifting the entry level of agricultural products import.

As per the relevant specialists, Japan’s positive list will result in a huge effect on the agricultural products like tealeaves, fruits and vegetables.

Among them, the adoption of same standards effective to the pesticides not listing in the draft will greatly increase the ratio of finding pesticide residuals in China’s exporting tealeaves. Because of the increasing possibility of being investigated on violations, China’s tealeaves exporting to Japan will be dramatically affected.
(For full content, please see the attached)

Japan is the biggest export country for Chinese agricultural products. Once the new regulation takes effect, Chinese agricultural and food products exporting to Japan will be affected. Especially for some big agricultural provinces in China, this regulation will have devastating effect on their agricultural exports.

The industry deems the new regulations by EU and Japan are both focusing on the source control. As a result, China’s export costs and risks will be rising accordingly and the most affected enterprises will be the ones in medium-small size. The relative enterprises, therefore, should closely know well in time of EU and Japan’s new standards and requirements on the importing food residuals. They should communicate with inspection organizations aggressively, organize related experts to proceed researches for earlier response as well as carry out a standard production system in accordance with the new standards to eliminate the influence from agricultural products and food trade exporting to EU and Japan as great as possible.

China, with a surface area of 9.6 million km2 and a population over 1.3 billion, is one of the most progress developing countries around the world. The government’s open policies, abundance in fruit resources and the huge potential in consuming market have attracted numerous investments into the juice processing industry.In 2003, China’s total beverage production was 23.744 million tonnes, 16.84% higher than last year, and the sales revenue was 77.442 billion dollars, 40.41% more than last year. Among them, the fruit & vegetable beverage, with a total production of 3.108 million tones, up by 35.11% on last year and a sales revenue of 11.523 billion dollars up by 27.82% on last year, was the fastest growing item.

The import export trade of Apple Juice Concentrate (AJC) and Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice (FCOJ) in China’s beverage market is growing very quickly.

1993-2004 Chinese FCOJ imports

According to the experts, Chinese consumers’ demands on FCOJ are increasing dramatically. Although China’s emerging FCOJ processing output is rising steeply, still it can’t meet the rapidly growing consumption for orange juice. Consequently, it is estimated that China will remain a net FCOJ importing country before 2003 and this condition will last for a long time very likely.

Nevertheless, the development of China’s citrus industry is just from these recent five years. Up to now, China’s own FCOJ production per year is 500 thousand tonnes only.

So far among the total production of raw fruit material, 800 thousand tonnes are citrus for industrial processing and the varieties harvested during seasons account for 80% of them.

The current planted citruses include, Hamlin, Jincheng, Trovita, Xinhguocheng (high brix), Valencia and the other varieties.

Cranberry, belonging to the family Ericaceae, is a specialty natively from North America. Due to the special conditions of growing environment and climate requests, with only global planting area less than 40,000 acres, cranberry is admiringly called “Ruby”.

According to scientific researches, cranberry containing the ingredients of natural anthocyanins, tannins and phenolic compounds is good for women’s physical health. Moreover, the high contents of unsaturated fatty acid and tocotrienols in cranberry, normally existing in fish oil and rarely found in plants, is a great news for vegetarians.

Drinking cranberry juice has significant benefits on cardiovascular system and stomach ulcers. As per the latest studies, after drinking cranberry juice, experimenter’s urine not only cam inhibit general bacteria and the ones with drug resistance from adhering to the walls of the urinary tract but also can lower or prevent the risk of urinary tract infection efficiently, as well as reduce the use of antibiotics. The benefit of cranberry juice can be seen two hours later after intake, and its effect can last in the urine for 10 hours long. Researches find that, comparing to a daily consumption of a glass of cranberry juice only drinking a glass of cranberry juice day and night respectively has more effects to prevent bacteria from adhering to the body.

One reminder, cranberry juice is a food, not a medicine and can’t be replaced medicine. You should go to see a doctor immediately if you doubt on yourself to get bacteria infected. Cranberry juice is not a treatment but a health protection to prevent over infection.

Wine, a product of full or part of alcoholic fermentation of broken or unbroken fresh grapes or grape juice, is a delicate alcohol beverage. Generally speak, different varieties, origins, climates and winemaking methods will result in distinct flavors, also creating the characters to the wines.

We supply the following wine grape juice concentrate (and other items are increasing):

• CabernetSauvignon－ This variety produces deep colored, high tannic wines with the aroma of green peppers. These wines age well.

• Merlot－ This variety gives a full-bodied, supple wine which matures more quickly than Cabernet wines.

• Syrah－ This variety yields a deep-colored wine with an intense nose of violets, changing with time to hints of pepper and game

Vinification method of red wine:

• Selecting – Each grape variety contributes its own flavors and aromas to the wine. Also besides the pest controls after harvest, the grapes have to be strictly selected on the maturity.
• Crushing and destemming – Crusting is to release the juice and pulps from grape berries. Grapes are usually conveyed into a stemmer or a stalker where they are destemmed or destalked, unless the winemaker desires additional tannin in the wine.
• Alcoholic fermentation and maceration – No matter the fermentation vats are oak barrels or thermometric stainless steel tanks, the most important factor is temperature control in the fermentation stage, which converts sugar and yeast naturally existed in the grapes into alcohol, CO2 and energy. The process to extract tannic elements and color in the grape skin diffusing into the fermenting juice is called maceration.
• Draining and press the marc – To end the maceration process, the wine is racked or drained to separate it from its solids (marc). The marc is drawn off from the vat and pressed in order to extract whatever additional wine retaining. The press wine is richer in color and tannic but with more astringent flavor.
• Malolactic fermentation – During this secondary fermentation, the harsh malic acid in the wine is converted into the more supple and stable lactic acid by lactic bacteria naturally present in the wine. After this process, the wine then moves into its aging phase.

It’s been proved by modern medicine that aloe vera contains aloin and many kinds of proteins which works like a natural killer of bacteria and viruses. Aloe vera benefits include killing bateria, strengthening blood vessels, improving digestion, and fortifying immune system. Aloe vera also has the certain treatment effects on stomach disorder, liver disease, diabetes, hypertensive disease as well as on heart function enhancement and cholesterol reduction. Furthermore, aloe vera can remove the harmful body toxins, so it can be called a natural diet drug. With the good sweet and smooth mouth feels, aloe vera can function to stop thirsty, raise the lungs and refresh our body.

From Chinese medicine’s point of view, aloe belongs to the classification of “cold” food material; as a result, the people in cold-blooded body should avoid eating it. Particularly, according to an animal research contributed by medical field in China, eating aloe in long term, especially the aloin in aloe skins, will likely cause stomach cancer; therefore, it’s strongly suggested to unpeel the skin first when eating aloe. Moreover, UK’s Daily Telegraphonce pointed out that because aloin has the impact to clear stomach and intestines, it could at the same time result in miscarriage and gastrointestinal disorder. Women who are pregnant should be forbidden to eat aloe to prevent any negative result.

How to identify when the best production time of aloe vera dices is? It may be inferred by the texture. In general, aloe vera crop would be affected by the weather quietly and resulted in different textures. In Thailand, for example, the better texture is in the summer crop (Nov. ~ next Feb.), while less in the winter crop (Mar. ~ June). The worse dice texture is in the rain season (July ~ Oct.)