May 9/Prepared Foods’ May 2011 “Market Watch” -- One of the fears surrounding the efforts to reignite the troubled economy has been a rise in inflation, and with steady increases in commodity prices, it was only a matter of time before those prices were passed on to the consumer. That has now begun.

General Mills Inc. has indicated it expects inflation to accelerate and, in turn, will raise prices to keep pace. Noting higher costs for grains, meat and dairy, among other ingredients, the company believes inflation on those and other items will grow even more in the next fiscal year (beginning in May 2010) than the 4-5% rise it had forecast for the prior fiscal year.

Hershey Co. announced it will raise wholesale prices by 9.7%, effective immediately. pf

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* Gelnex North America’s headquarters has officially relocated to Chicago. * Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced several appointments in its Corn business unit: Dennis Riddle is senior advisor, Corn; Chris Cuddy is vice president and general manager, Sweeteners and Starches; and Alex Martinez is president, Almidones Mexicanos, SA de CV., a joint venture of Controladora ADM, SA de CV, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of ADM and Tate & Lyle. * Caravan Ingredients named Mary Bentley vice president, Marketing & Business Development, responsible for leading all marketing and business development activities for the organization. * Savoury Systems developed light and dark HVP replacers based on yeast extract.  * AnnMarie Kraszewski is now a food technologist with Wixon. *n Solae LLC has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2011 World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies, the second consecutive year Solae has been honored by Ethisphere for this award.   * Leatherhead Food Research has opened a new Nutrition Unit boasting state-of-the-art facilities designed to support the high demand for the complete range of human nutrition intervention studies from the food and drink industry. * Sargento Food Ingredients launched its new website at sargentofooodingredients.com. * Tate & Lyle named Karl Kramer, president, Innovation and Commercial Development, to the board of directors of The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. * Cosimo Trimigliozzi is now chief operating officer of WILD Flavors International GmbH, a newly formed Business Unit of the WILD Flavors GmbH.  * PureCircle amended its multi-year supply agreement with Merisant Company, to extend and expand the relationship between the two companies. PureCircle will meet all of Merisant’s Stevia ingredient requirements, and all Merisant tabletop products sweetened with Stevia extracts will carry PureCircle’s “Stevia PureCircle” trust mark.   * Sethness Greenleaf Flavors appointed McGill & Associates as broker representative in California, Arizona and Nevada. * Kalsec® Inc. appointed Aromati as the exclusive distributor for supplying its full line of natural ingredients to the Israeli market. * Synergy Flavors Inc. is establishing a new flavor innovation and manufacturing campus, less than a mile from its current facility in Wauconda, Ill., north of Chicago. Synergy’s new campus will sit on 15 acres of land and utilize an existing building that will be modified and expanded into a 125,000-square-foot facility. * Ocean Spray achieved the highest attainable SQF (Safe Quality Food) certification for food manufacturing and distribution, the only sweetened dried cranberry manufacturer to be awarded this distinction. The company’s four manufacturing sites, located in Markham, Wash., Tomah, Wisc., Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc. and Middleboro, Mass., were awarded  SQF 2000 Code Level III certification by NSF International in recognition of their “comprehensive food safety and quality management systems.” * Biothera announced that the Ministry of Health in China has authorized the use of the company’s Wellmune WGP® as a novel food ingredient, allowing for the immediate use of Wellmune WGP in foods and beverages throughout China. * Comax Flavors added Gary Long as southeastern regional sales manager and Alexis Dobrasz as Midwest account representative. *Innophos Holdings Inc. announced capacity expansions: at its Port Maitland, Ontario facility, the company expanded for the production of potassium phosphates; at its Chicago Heights, Ill., facility, the company announced plans for a 25% increase in tri-calcium phosphate capacity; and the company also confirmed that its previously announced expansion of CAL-RISE® capacity at its Nashville facility is on schedule to be completed in July of this year. * Ohly, an ABF Ingredients Company, announced the acquisition of specialty savory ingredients company Bakon Yeast Inc. * Brian Buck, senior vice president and general manager of Takasago Americas, announced the formation of a team of quality experts to ensure the region’s participation in achieving Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certification by June 2012. In order to accomplish this goal, Takasago Americas is aiming toward FSSC22000 certification. * SensoryEffects® Powder Systems acquired Dietrich’s Specialty Processing, a provider of customized spray-drying services. * Trygg Pharma Holding AS appointed Terje Bakken CEO, replacing Aaron Kramer, who headed the development activities that led to Trygg Pharma for more than two years as EVP Pharmaceuticals of Aker BioMarine. pf Press releases about personnel and company news may be sent to the Prepared Foods staff at: pfeditors@bnpmedia.com.