Kraft Foods

Sugar is toxic, and possibly as addictive as cocaine . Meat is laced with antibiotics . “Pink slime” is unappetizing , as is its dubious and fishy counterpart, “ pink slime of the sea .”  And the plastic packaging that food comes in is just as worrisome. But never mind the evidence that, as a country, we are eating ourselves to death. It's a free country, and we have the right to be our own worst enemy. Plenty of people have suggested regulating the junk we consume, specifically sodas.

Sugar is toxic, and possibly as addictive as cocaine . Meat is laced with antibiotics . “Pink slime” is unappetizing , as is its dubious and fishy counterpart, “ pink slime of the sea .”  And the plastic packaging that food comes in is just as worrisome. But never mind the evidence that, as a country, we are eating ourselves to death. It's a free country, and we have the right to be our own worst enemy. Plenty of people have suggested regulating the junk we consume, specifically sodas.

Step up to the vending machine, undergo a facial screening, and get a free Jell-O sample. Kraft Foods Inc. is testing a high-tech vending machine in Chicago and New York that could soon roll out in grocery stores to dispense samples of everything from Oscar Mayer deli meat to Oreos. The current offer is for Temptations by Jell-O, the brand's first product designed specifically for adults. The machine is equipped with technology to determine the age of the person requesting a sample.

Kraft Foods, one of the country's most recognizable company names and owner of brands such as Oreo, Ritz and Trident, will try on a new corporate moniker: Mondelez International Inc. The name, which means "delicious world," will replace the Kraft handle when the company spins off its global snacking division later this year. That is, assuming the name is popular enough with shareholders, who will vote on it in May. The company seems optimistic, though - it's already reserved the MDLZ stock ticker symbol.

CHICAGO -- After four months of dismissing Kraft Foods buyout overture as a low-ball affair, Cadbury PLC on Tuesday agreed to a greatly sweetened $19.4 billion offer, creating the world's biggest chocolate company. Great Britain-based Cadbury had steadfastly rejected Kraft's early offer of around $17 billion, but the Northfield, Ill.,-based company -- facing a Tuesday deadline to up its bid or hold steady -- did the former, turning a hostile pursuit into a friendly deal. Kraft, maker of everything from Velveeta processed cheese to Oreo cookies, still has to persuade a majority of Cadbury shareholders to accept the deal, and the door remains open until 7 a.m. Monday for The Hershey Co. to jump in with a rival bid. But Hershey, a considerably smaller company than Kraft, might have a tough time getting the financing to top Kraft's bid. Kraft, with $42 billion in annual revenue, is a collection of brands and foods, from Oscar Mayer meats to Oreos to chocolate candy in Europe.

Packaged goods giant Kraft Foods plans to cut 1,600 jobs in North America this year as it splits into two separate public companies focusing on snacks and groceries. About 40% of the layoffs will come from sales departments, with many of the rest stemming from Kraft's corporate and business units. The company said about 20% of those positions are unfilled. Workers at manufacturing facilities are safe for now, Kraft said. Kraft is in the process of creating a $31 billion global snacking company that will include brands such as Oscar Mayer and Planters as well as a $17 billion North American grocery arm focusing on brands such as Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates and Trident gum. “When we announced our decision to create two world-class companies last August, we said both would be leaner, more competitive organizations,” said Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld in a statement.

Kraft Foods recalled white chocolate distributed in the United States because of possible salmonella contamination. Kraft said consumers who purchased its 6-ounce Baker's Premium White Chocolate Baking Squares should discard the product. The recalled product was distributed nationally and has the UPC Code 0043000252200 and "for best when used by" dates of March 31, April 1, April 2 and April 3, 2008.

Kraft Foods Inc. said it had increased the price of its Maxwell House roast and ground coffee by 12% for a 13-ounce can to cover rising raw material costs. On Friday, Procter & Gamble Co. boosted prices for its Folgers ground coffee, also citing the need to cover the higher cost of green, or unroasted, coffee beans. The suggested list price of the Maxwell House 13-ounce can was raised Saturday from $2.29 to $2.57. Retailers determine the prices charged at stores.

Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's largest food company and the maker of Velveeta cheese, Ritz crackers and Oscar Mayer hot dogs, plans to raise as much as $5 billion by selling its stock to the public for the first time. The proposed initial public offering of the food and beverage unit of the tobacco heavyweight Philip Morris Cos. could be among the largest ever in the United States.

Kraft Foods Inc. unveiled a strategic plan Tuesday that includes developing products that combine many of its best-known food brands, ramping up marketing spending and becoming more effective in its cost-cutting efforts. But the company's shares fell 3.1% as underwhelmed analysts said the plan from Irene Rosenfeld, a longtime Kraft employee who returned to the company as chief executive in June after a stint at PepsiCo Inc., failed to inspire much enthusiasm.

Packaged goods giant Kraft Foods plans to cut 1,600 jobs in North America this year as it splits into two separate public companies focusing on snacks and groceries. About 40% of the layoffs will come from sales departments, with many of the rest stemming from Kraft's corporate and business units. The company said about 20% of those positions are unfilled. Workers at manufacturing facilities are safe for now, Kraft said. Kraft is in the process of creating a $31 billion global snacking company that will include brands such as Oscar Mayer and Planters as well as a $17 billion North American grocery arm focusing on brands such as Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates and Trident gum. “When we announced our decision to create two world-class companies last August, we said both would be leaner, more competitive organizations,” said Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld in a statement.

This month, some of the most popular brands in grocery store aisles will feature new offerings that try to appeal to consumers' growing preferences for healthy foods, premium varieties and global flavors. Kraft Foods Inc. has more than 70 new products planned for 2012. Many of them are billed as “better-for-you” options, including Philadelphia Cooking Crème offshoots such as Reduced Fat Italian Cheese & Herb and Reduced Fat Savory Garlic. There's also more fruit in Lunchables Lunch Combinations, with pineapple bits paired with the BBQ Chicken Dippers and applesauce with the Turkey + Cheddar Flatbread Sandwiches as well as with the Ham + American Flatbread Sandwich.

Step up to the vending machine, undergo a facial screening, and get a free Jell-O sample. Kraft Foods Inc. is testing a high-tech vending machine in Chicago and New York that could soon roll out in grocery stores to dispense samples of everything from Oscar Mayer deli meat to Oreos. The current offer is for Temptations by Jell-O, the brand's first product designed specifically for adults. The machine is equipped with technology to determine the age of the person requesting a sample.

Just 18 months after acquiring Cadbury, Kraft Foods is breaking up. The Northfield, Ill.-based conglomerate, the world's second-largest food company, said it will divide itself into two publicly-traded companies next year: a $16 billion North American grocery business, and a $32 billion global snacking business. Both companies are expected to be based in Chicago. The division would establish Kraft's North American grocery business as a separate company, with brands like Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Maxwell House coffee and Oscar Mayer hot dogs and meats.

In an effort to forestall proposed government regulation of food and beverage products that can be advertised to children, some of the biggest companies in the industry have put forth their own, self-imposed measures. The industry's plan targets a number of food types, including juices, dairy products, grains, soups and meals. It holds companies to limits on the amount of calories, sugar, sodium and saturated fat allowed in foods promoted to children. The self-imposed regulations, announced Thursday, would give companies time to make adjustments.

Tough times call for some serious comfort food, and macaroni and cheese is a staple of that category. That's added up to a nice payday for manufacturers. As a whole, macaroni and cheese sales are up 25% over the last four years, to $802 million. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner accounts for the vast majority of category growth, which likely means more parents, willingly or not, have joined their kids in more bright-orange dinners. There are much smaller but also growing competitors, such as Annie's Inc. of Napa, Calif.

Kraft Foods Inc. said Tuesday that slower sales, lower retail food prices and the comparison with a gain a year ago helped cut its third-quarter profit 40%, but the company raised its forecast for the year. The Northfield, Ill., company said it remained interested in a possible offer for British candy company Cadbury but did not disclose a time frame or price. Kraft, the nation's largest food maker, earned $824 million, or 55 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $1.36 billion, or 91 cents, a year earlier, when the results included the Post Cereal business that it has since sold.

Kraft Foods, one of the country's most recognizable company names and owner of brands such as Oreo, Ritz and Trident, will try on a new corporate moniker: Mondelez International Inc. The name, which means "delicious world," will replace the Kraft handle when the company spins off its global snacking division later this year. That is, assuming the name is popular enough with shareholders, who will vote on it in May. The company seems optimistic, though - it's already reserved the MDLZ stock ticker symbol.

The glob a Florida woman found in her daughter's Capri Sun juice pouch was not human tissue. It wasn't a frog, a cow eyeball or anything else quite as gross. It was mold, formed after air got into a damaged package, and it wasn't harmful, according to Kraft Foods Inc., maker of the drink. The unpleasant finding by Melissa Wiegand Brown went viral after she posted photographs of the oval, skin-like mass on her Facebook page, representing the power of the Internet. Reports of the monster mold spread via blogs and began to dominate Kraft's Facebook page, where some posters expressed not just horror at the photos but also outrage at what they perceived to be the company's slow response to the Memorial Day weekend issue.

Remember Tang? Astronauts drank it, so it got a lot of ink in the 1960s and 1970s. Nowadays, it gets about as much notice as the space program, holding just a small slice of the U.S. powdered-drinks market. But in developing markets from Brazil to China, Kraft Foods Inc. has turned its Tang brand into an international juggernaut with $750 million in annual sales. Kraft's boxed macaroni and cheese, on the other hand, dominates its market in the U.S. But in developing markets, it's mostly an afterthought for Kraft.