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State of the Food Industry
Product Development Processes
Recipe Development
Starting A Business
Marketing and Promotion
Laws and Regulations
Trends Introduction
Resources
| How has the Food Industry Changed? How do I find out about these changes? | to Top |
The food industry is in a constant state of flux and change. Two possible ways to plot the change of the industry is certainly to read historical perspective and text books. Another indicator of change is to review the history of food product introductions and of regulations. During the 1980s, the USDA put together a historical and national perspective on food research. The book on the "Great American Brands" by David Cleary is another interesting historical perspective. These are just a historical perspective.
Determining the current state of the industry can only be gotten from a review of annual reports from individual companies, sales, commerce data, and current trade journals. This is difficult and somewhat tenuous in relation to accuracy. It is not an investigation that the faint of heart undertakes. This website should give you some inkling of potential resources.
One of the first steps to looking at the overall state of the industry might be to review the top 100 companies. Although this is generally somewhat behind in ananlysis, Food Processing (Ennen, S. 2000May. The 2000 Top 100 Food Companies. Food Processing61(5): 21.) does publish figures. Most recently The top companies in their listing of 100 food companies was Philip Morris Cos., Inc.; ConAgra inc.; PepsiCo. Inc.; Cargill Inc.; Cocoa-Cola Co.; Mars; Archer Daniels Midland Co; IBP Inc.; Anheuser-Busch Inc.; Sara Lee Corp; H.J. Heinz Co.; Bestfoods Co.; Nabisco Holdings Corp.; Nestle USA Inc.; Tyson Foods Inc.; Dairy Farme3rs of America; Kellogg Co.; Campbell Soup Co.; General Mills; and The Pillsburg Co.
Even more important to look at the state and trends of the industry might be to review where a company is spending their R&D dollars. This was reported in Food Processing (Best, D. 2000September).
| REFERENCES | to Top |
Best, D. 2000September. The 2000 Top 100 R&D Survey. Food Processing 61(9): 18.
Cleary, David Powers. 1981. Great American brands The Success Formulas that Made Them Famous. Fairchild Publications, New York.
Craig, H.T. 1944June. The history of home economics. Practical Home Economics :245-276.
Craig, H.T. 1944July-August. The history of home economics. Part II. Early literature on Home Economics. Practical Home Ecohomics :279-305.
Craig, H.T. 1944October. The history of home Economics. Part IV. The Lake Placid Conferences. Practical Home Economics :405-434.
Craig, H.T. 1944November. The history of home economics. Part V. Summary of Growth. Practical Home Economics :471-504.
Craig, H.T. 1944December. The history of home economics. Part Vi. Home Economics in education. Practical Home Economics 533-555.
Ennen, S. 2000May. The 2000 Top 100 Food Companies. Food Processing61(5): 21.
Updated: Monday, August 27, 2007.
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