GOOGLE THE LOCAL
If the idea of navigating through city
streets only using specific street
names makes you break out in
hives, Google has the ideal solution.
Instead of telling you to ‘turn right
down Main St in 300m’, New York
users of Google Maps will now get
directions using nearby landmarks
as points of reference. And if that
happens to be the closest KFC or
McDonalds, then that’s the direction
you’ll get. Google hasn’t yet announced
if it will be rolled out more
widely, but the change could be relatively
straightforward thanks to the
Google Place Search API, which lets
users find nearby stores, services
and points of interest anywhere in
the world.
EU IN TIZZY OVER QUALITY
Fish fingers, baby food and biscuits
are among the foods at the centre
of a heated debate about European
food quality testing. New EU
food quality tests need to be strict
enough to stop manufacturers
selling some brands with inferior
ingredients in ex-communist
countries, and Croatain MEP Biljana
Borzan is worried that quality is not
defined in legislation. Last year, the
prime ministers of the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia
told their EU partners that it was
“unacceptable that our consumers
are treated differently and in a discriminatory
way.” Bulgaria prime
minister Boyko Borisov says the
problem is “food apartheid” in the
EU, likening it to the former racism
of South Africa. Food producers
however argue that they tailor their
brands to suit local tastes, and that
is why the ingredients sometimes
differ.
KEEPING IT
CANADIAN
Canadian winemakers have been
prohibited from using the statement
‘cellared in Canada’ after a campaign
by KEDGE Business School jolted the
government into a nationwide ban.
The label, which has
sparked controversy on
the Canadian market for
years, has been a major source
of “considerable confusion for
consumers,” KEDGE Business
School director general Jose
Milano says. It had been used
on the labels of wine bottled in
Canada, but with wines mainly
or completely produced abroad,
since 1995. Milano says the bottles
have been displayed on ‘national
shelves’ and sold in liquor
stores as Canadian products,
despite being almost entirely
foreign wine. “They created
real confusion for consumers,”
he says. “The stakes were very
high because ‘CIC’ wines generated
considerable profits for
production companies. These
wines, which were often sold
for less than CASN$10, made
up around two-thirds of sales
in volume of ‘national’ wine
on the Canadian market.” The
rapid rise in the import of bulk
wine to Canada – which today
counts among the top ten global
importers of products from
Australia, Chile and Spain – can
be explained by the popularity
of these wines sold in original
1.5 litre and larger formats,”
Milano says. Bordeaux-based
KEDGE and the university have
worked for several years on the
issue of positioning Canadian
wine on the international market.
“This collaboration with the
University of British Columbia
demonstrated KEDGE’s ability
to use its expertise to serve
international players,” he says.
The bottles will now feature the
label ‘international blend from
imported and domestic wines’
for blended wines with 51% of
more imported content, and ‘international
blend from domestic
and imported wines’ for blended
wines with 51% or more domestic
content. KEDGE director and
Wine & Spirits Academy investigator
Jacques-Olivier Pesme
says after more than 20 years of
status quo, the new regulations
herald greater transparency in
terms of labelling, and brings
Canada closer to international
standards. kedge.edu
www.foodtechnology.co.nz 37
/kedge.edu
/www.foodtechnology.co.nz
