Kraft to follow Subway’s footsteps?

Perhaps we are reaching a turning point for food manufacturers: in addition to Subway’s declaring its intention to remove a potentially dangerous chemical agent from its bread, Kraft has recently announced that it will also be taking artificial additives from its product.

In this case, the item in question is the well-known line of individually wrapped “Kraft Singles.” The Associated Press reports that the ingredient getting the ax is “sorbic acid,” a preservative common in fast food and mass-produced consumer items.

Kraft is accompanying this removal with food labels that advertise the lack of artificial ingredients, front and center. Gavin Schmidt, an R&D manager at the company, told the AP source that the new labeling signals possible improvement in this area and is increasingly valuable on the consumer front.

“Consumers are looking for those less artificial cues and messages,” he said. “Those messages are more meaningful to consumers than they have been in the past.”

The specific singles that will be affected are the “white American” and “full-fat American” brands, and the sorbic acid will be replaced by an additive called “natamycin,” said to be a more “natural” ingredient.

A press release from the company claims that “480  packages of Kraft Singles are sold every minute,” indicating the importance of this product to the Kraft’s overall brand image.

The way that these changes are implemented can involve new or existing label creation systems within your companies. Should you make a completely new sticker or just layer a design onto the one you already use? If, like Kraft, your company has made big new changes, this decision could prove to be an important one.