KRAFT KAVES! Maker of Oreos to Revamp Products: Cites Obesity

Associated Press -- "Kraft to Revamp Products: Cites Obesity" ^ | July 1, 2003 | Deborah Cohen

[L.N. Smithee]

By Deborah Cohen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Kraft Foods Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of processed foods, on Tuesday said it would cap portion sizes, eliminate marketing in schools and reformulate some products as the food industry faces increasing legal blame for obesity and unhealthy eating trends.

The maker of Oreo cookies and Velveeta cheese spreads said this year it will develop a range of standards to improve the overall nutritional content of its products and the way it sells them. It will begin making changes to the way it manufactures and markets foods beginning next year.

The cost of the measures, which are sweeping, could not be estimated, according to a spokesman for the company, based in the Chicago suburb of Northfield, Illinois.

Critics are quick to point out that Kraft may be on the defensive at a time of heightened criticism over the role big food companies play in contributing to growing health problems in the United States. No. 1 fast-food chain McDonald's Corp. has already been the target of a highly publicized lawsuit linking its burgers to obesity in children.

"This is sort of a preemptive move to stave off the lawyers and the critics," said Henry Anhalt, an endocrinologist and director of the "Kids Weight Down" program at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

"What I think is going on is that the soothsayers are saying that coming down the pike are going to be large lawsuits, class action suits looking at cardiovascular disease, premature death, diabetes, and they're going to turn to the food industry and lay it on their feet," he said.

Still, he applauded Kraft for making changes that he believes will make a difference. Kraft could set standards that other major food companies could follow.

Obesity among adults in the United States has doubled since 1980, and tripled among adolescents, according to the U.S. surgeon general.

Kraft acknowledged that the moves may in part help indemnify the company against potential lawsuits.

"We're making these commitments first and foremost because we think it is the right thing to do for the people who use our products and for our business, but if it also discourages a plaintiff's attorney or unfair legislation, that's fine with us." said Michael Mudd, a Kraft spokesman.

GLOBAL EFFORTS

Kraft said its efforts would be global, focusing on product nutrition, marketing practices, information for consumers and public advocacy. It is forming an advisory council to help develop standards for the company's approach to health issues.

Marketing fatty and sugar-laden foods to children has been a hot-button in the news. Last week, New York City's school system decided to remove candy, soda and sweet snacks from school vending machines.

Last month, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) said that agency plans to push for expanded nutritional labeling on food products.

Kraft said the changes it will make will include advertising and marketing to children to encourage appropriate eating behaviors and active lifestyles.

The company, which used to promote its products on Channel One, a news channel played in secondary schools, will now cease all in-school marketing.

Other big food industry players are also taking defensive measures. McDonald's in March announced worldwide initiatives to help promote healthy lifestyles and provide consumers with expanded product information. It has also assembled an advisory council.

"This is an ongoing battle," said Keith Patriquin, a buy-side analyst with Loomis Sayles, which holds shares of Kraft and other big food names. "Trial lawyers ... are looking for the next big thing."

Earlier this year, a lawsuit was filed in California seeking to ban Kraft's Oreo cookies. The suit, which drew criticism in legal circles for potentially abusing the U.S. court system, was withdrawn less than two weeks later.

Shares of Kraft, which is majority owned by tobacco giant Altria Group Inc., were off 25 cents at $34.30 in mid-morning New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) trading. (With reporting by Brad Dorfman in Chicago)

[honeygrl]

"Is it me or do McDonalds fries suck now that they've changed them? "

Try Burger King fries. They changed theirs a few years ago and added some sort of coating that gives them a really good flavor and they are usually crispy. I think the coating must have salt in it too because you rarely need to salt them.

[Shooter 2.5]

I have the motivation to do what you're doing. The rest of my class hasn't lost any weight. My over weight doctor was concerned that I was losing weight because he thought it was a symptom of something else. I just like the idea of eating more chinese food and veggies. I know enough to stay away from the shrimp. I didn't know it was high in cholestral.

See, that's it. It isn't just fat. It's knowing what's high in Cholestral, salt and the hidden danger of T-Fat. I left McDonald's because I don't like their salads. Jack-in-the-box has a superior salad and so does Wendy's. I just have to watch out for the dressing.

It also takes a while for your intestinal tract to get used to all of this.

I also had to tell my cardiologist that I didn't have high blood pressure. He didn't believe me so he gave me some pills.

My blood pressure for a month afterwards was 87/57. It was probably a good thing while the artery on my heart healed from the cuts that were made from the angioplasy. That's new. The balloon had little razor blades that cut while it expanded and cut the vein on the inside so it could bulge around the blockage.

[searchandrecovery]

My, you write alot. Let me respond to you...

I have the motivation to do what you're doing. The rest of my class hasn't lost any weight. My over weight doctor was concerned that I was losing weight because he thought it was a symptom of something else. I just like the idea of eating more chinese food and veggies. I know enough to stay away from the shrimp. I didn't know it was high in cholestral.
Let me go out on a limb here and make a recommendation - make as much of your own food as you can, don't eat out much. You KNOW what's in there if you do it yourself (no suprises). If you eat chinese, you don't know how much or what type of oil they're using (although it might be ok).

See, that's it. It isn't just fat. It's knowing what's high in Cholestral, salt and the hidden danger of T-Fat. I left McDonald's because I don't like their salads. Jack-in-the-box has a superior salad and so does Wendy's. I just have to watch out for the dressing.
YES! There's a learning curve on food. I know I wasn't taught good eating/cooking habits in High School. So, you need to somehow get a handle on basics (calories, cholesterol, fat content, etc.). Not easy, but worth it.

It also takes a while for your intestinal tract to get used to all of this.
Yep.

I also had to tell my cardiologist that I didn't have high blood pressure. He didn't believe me so he gave me some pills.
Ok.

My blood pressure for a month afterwards was 87/57. It was probably a good thing while the artery on my heart healed from the cuts that were made from the angioplasy. That's new. The balloon had little razor blades that cut while it expanded and cut the vein on the inside so it could bulge around the blockage.
Ok, ouch. How long did it hurt/take to heal?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Juries.

[Shooter 2.5]

I didn't have a lot to do tonight so I thought I would give out as much information as I could.

The Angiograph didn't hurt at all. But then they showed my heart to me and where it was blocked. It was at a junction where they couldn't put a stint. The stints block up before and aft later on and they were afraid of blocking the tributary.

They told me that they had to use the newer balloon but they didn't have one. They had to call another hospital. They told me they were going to do it the next day but I couldn't move my leg at all or I would tear something. At 11 that night, The Searchers was on so I had a chance to watch one of the John Wayne movies I had never seen.

At one they asked if I needed any pain meds and I was OK, but I had pulled my back. At 2, they gave me my first morphine. At 4, they gave me some more. At 6, they gave some more. At 6:30 they gave me my bedbath in preperation for the procedure that was at 11. It actually made me feel better. The rest of the morning I was feeling better but they had to call the pharmacy because I used everything. About 9, I moved the bed pad and found out that was the reason my back was pulled out of shape. All I had to do was move it six inches and I would have been fine.

I think that's where I had pulled all of those muscles. After the procedure with is like three tiny twinges in your heart, they shoved in the plug which was like shoving a steel rod from your front to the back of your hip. Very, very, uncomfortable.

All in all, it's not a bad experience as long as they have the part to do it with and they warn you what putting in the plug is like. I now have a hernia which doesn't really bother me as much as the chest. That feels like someone had punched me in the chest three hours ago. It used to feel just like someone stuck an IV between your ribs.

I had it done May 1st. One of these days, I hope to sleep through the night without pain. Last week, I had three days of no bad pain until I cut the grass and it started all over again.

[Calpernia]

>>>"This is an ongoing battle," said Keith Patriquin, a buy-side analyst with Loomis Sayles, which holds shares of Kraft and other big food names. "Trial lawyers ... are looking for the next big thing."
Well they have to bill someone.

The courts are a venue for legal robbery, extortion, and slavery.

---

Investors Business Daily, June 25, 2003
Hard copy - Issues and Insights

Feeding Frenzy

Tort Reform: Big Tobacco was just the start. Lawyers and activists now have their sights trained on Big Food, and it's not a sure thing that they would lose.

Not so long ago, few would have dreamed that restaurants or food processors would be targeted, tobacco style, by trial lawyers looking for their next big payday.

In Fact, the satirical newspaper the Onion - as a joke- ran anarticle 3 years ago announcing a $135 billion judgment against Hershey's for making Americans fat. Everyone knew it was a put-on. But that was then, in a slightly more sensible time.

In the intervening years, leaders of the tobacco attack have turned their attention to what is sometimes called (not in jest) Big Food.

A number of them got together over the weekend in a Boston event, fittingly called the First Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic. John Banzhaf III, a George Washington University professor and much-quoted anti-smoking activist, was a speaker. Another leader in teh tobacco wars, Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard, was one of the conference organizers.

As news reports noted, the conference focused on finding legal strategies against the fast food and snack food industries and the tobacco analogy was a leading theme. That is, find a way to persuade juries, judges and the public that McDonalds or Kraft Foods is knowingly selling unhealthy substances that make people fat-like sugary snacks or fatty fries.

Banzhaf also brought up the addiction angle. According to the Washington Times, he cited a study published in the New Scientist suggesting that foods with fat or sugar share some similarities with addictive drugs in the way they act on the brain.

Don't snicker. The addiction argument can be quite seductive in a legal culture that tends to play down the importance of personal choices. Besides the food fighters don't have to win any big cases in court. They just need to scare highly risk-averse corporations into settling the suits for handsome sums, which amount to a new litigation tax on the food companies and of course, their customers.

Americans might not end up any thinner or healthier as a result; after all, they can still choose to eat too much. But it's a safe guess that unless limits are placed on lawsuits, perhaps such as those in a bill proposed by Rep. Ric Keller, R-FLA, lawyer's wallets will fatten.


Sorry if there are typos. Just transcribed.

[backslacker]

Kraft is owned by Philip Morris, which is already a financial basket case because the trial lawyers went after Big Tobacco. They can't survive a second wave of trial lawyer attacks on Big Food, so they're making a preemptive move to save themselves. Which is pretty funny, IMHO

Phillip Morris, now Altria, is anything but a financial basket case. It's more like a money machine. On top of the payments in the Master Settlement Agreement it signed during the Klintoon/Reno era, this stock just pumps out hordes of cash. Besides the payments to the states in the MSA, it pays out exorbitant excise taxes on the tobacco side and still has plenty of cash for a healthy dividend. The stock (NYSE:MO) is up something like 62% in two months, plus it kicks back a current annual dividend of $2.56.

Oh yeah, none of these trial lawyers have been sucessful against Altria.

[lonestar]

The company, which used to promote its products on Channel One, a news channel played in secondary schools, will now cease all in-school marketing.

I can see it now--"This program is brought to you by Fresh Squash and New Potatoes!"

[rwfromkansas]

I admire your willpower.

Thank goodness you caught it in time.

My dad was stunned a couple years ago when he found he had a blocked artery. He works outside a lot of the time and is an electrician, so he isn't some lazy guy.

It is just amazing that it hit him.

Needless to say, it does not bode well for me especially since I am shorter so I can't weigh as much for a healthy weight. If it hits him, it does worry me about the future. I am only 20 now, but that means in another 15 years, I will be at risk. It is scary stuff and I better start living right soon to form the good habits.

[rwfromkansas]

I admire your willpower.

Thank goodness you caught it in time.

My dad was stunned a couple years ago when he found he had a blocked artery. He works outside a lot of the time and is an electrician, so he isn't some lazy guy.

It is just amazing that it hit him.

Needless to say, it does not bode well for me especially since I am shorter so I can't weigh as much for a healthy weight. If it hits him, it does worry me about the future. I am only 20 now, but that means in another 15 years, I will be at risk. It is scary stuff and I better start living right soon to form the good habits.

[rwfromkansas]

sorry about double post

[WoofDog123]

"Besides the payments to the states in the MSA, it pays out exorbitant excise taxes on the tobacco side and still has plenty of cash for a healthy dividend. The stock (NYSE:MO) is up something like 62% in two months, plus it kicks back a current annual dividend of $2.56."

In all fairness, a lot of the recent rise in the stock is simply regaining what was lost when that huge appeal bond issue was pending. The stock is only up about 15% in the last 4 months, less than the S&P's approximate 20% gain since march 1.

[lawgirl]

Isn't Krispy Kreme based in the south, the last bastion of lard and good home cookin' no matter what the cost to your arteries? ;-D No one could cook like my southern mother in law and grandmother. I can still taste her Transparent Pie, which is all the things that make a pie taste good (eggs, sugar, vanilla.....)

[ladyinred]

ACH! I don't want them to change my oreos! Why do these companies cave into these nazis??? How can we stop this horrific injustice? Not my oreos Kraft, please NO!
Welcome to our free country folks.

[Shooter 2.5]

Well actually will power had nothing to do with it. It was more like I stopped hitting myself over the head with a hammer. I have to admit that I like this Mexican restaurant and they have some great Chicken Fajita Nachos. I just eat the the chicken and dab it in the Gaucomoli[sp] and the lettuce avoiding the cheese and a lot of the chips. It's great.

The doctor called and my cholestral is supposed to be 110. I may have heard them wrong. That sounds too low and healthy.

I'm retired so this is my new hobby. I said I was going to do everything I can so I can get ten more good years. I'm 52.

By the way, I have been going to the dentist for the last year and my gums were receeding. Gum disease is also connected to heart disease. There is an over the counter drug called L-Lysine. The Linus Pauling Foundation[do a search] thinks it solves hardening of the arteries. I mentioned it to my son's girl friend and her family uses it for cold sores. HMMMM?

[Dimensio]

I'm trying to avoid them also, as I'm trying to lose weight...and then Pikamax had to put up that picture!

[pttttt]

For some reason my dad likes diet coke, I have never been able to finish one.

Nutra Sweet (aspartame) is bad stuff. It's making people sick. See e.g. http://www.purehealthsystems.com/multiple-sclerosis.htm.

[zoyd]

Obesity among adults in the United States has doubled since 1980, and tripled among adolescents, according to the U.S. surgeon general.

This is not Kraft's problem. This is a parenting problem. If you're a fatty parent, you're probably less likely to worry about your kids getting fat. You probably secretly enjoy it, to take the glare off of your fat belly.

[Paulus Invictus]

Just when Oreos begin to do a little innovating, such as adding new fillings and such (the sweet peanut butter filling is habit-forming and should be banned!), now they want all of us cookie lovers to go on a diet! I'm on a diet now and my wife knows it, but she never fails to fill the cookie jar with Oreos. So far I resist them, but if they change them to no-cal, I won't miss them.

[Libertina]

When I first read "revamping" and before I read the article, I thought maybe Kraft had made the oreo middle a creamy chocolate brown so as not to be accused of racism. LOL