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8 AUGUST 2014 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com N E W S F R O M A C R O S S T H E F O O D S U P P LY C H A I N SUPPLY SCAN China Cracks Down Hard On Expired Meat Amid growing fears about the quality of food sold at fast-food outlets in China, a regulatory body visited nearly 600 restaurants and businesses suspected of using expired meat from Shanghai Husi Food, a local arm of Illinois-based OSI Group, according to The International Business Times. The Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration said it visited 581 food-related businesses as part of its investigation and had dispatched 875 personnel to conduct inspections, adding that Chinese police, local governments and prosecutors are involved in the case. The government had suspended operations at Shanghai Husi after media reported that the company was selling chicken and beef beyond the expiration date. The latest developments follow the arrest of five people, including the head of Shanghai Husi Food and its quality manager after an investigation into the food scandal uncovered that it had affected many global brands, such as McDonald's Corp., Yum! Brands, and Starbucks Corp. Kroger Co. To Buy Online Retailer Vitacost.com The Kroger Co. and Vitacost. com, Inc., an online retailer of healthy living products, announced a merger agreement under which Kroger will purchase all outstand- ing shares of Vitacost.com for $8.00 per share in cash, or approxi- mately $280 million. Vitacost.com brings to Kroger its strong position as one of the largest e-commerce companies in the nutrition and healthy living market, a team with extensive e-commerce experience, and a platform that includes tech- nology and ship-to-home fulfill- ment centers to serve customers in all 50 states and internation- ally. Vitacost.com offers more than 45,000 products, including vitamins, minerals, herbs, supple- ments, sports nutrition, beauty care products, and natural and organic foods to approximately 2.3 million active customers. The company has more than 800 associates and operates distribution centers in Lexington, N.C. and Las Vegas, Nev., and a customer service center in Lexington, N.C. Vitacost.com will operate as a subsidiary of The Kroger Co. and continue to operate its facilities in Boca Raton, Fla., Lexington, N.C. and Las Vegas, Nev. Google Glasses Advance Warehouse Productivity Google Glasses promises a new method of filtering the world through a computer screen. Smart glasses maker Vuzix and enterprise software firm SAP are marketing an augmented reality solution designed for distribution centers. In a video, a forklift operator sees and hears picking instructions through his smart glasses. He's directed to pick a product in a specific aisle and row. As he nears the pick location, a green rectangle appears to highlight his destina- tion. When he picks the item, the built-in scanner verifies that the operator has the right package, then directs him to the next pick or the loading dock. For information, visit www. vuzix.com. India And Sub Saharan Africa Set To Post Caloric Gains India and sub-Saharan Africa will be playing a bigger role in the emerging-market diets, overturn- ing what has been a China-centric narrative, according to Morning- star, the Chicago-based financial research firm. Analysts expect caloric gains in India in the next decade to exceed China's growth of the past decade. The outlook is even better for sub-Saharan Africa, where caloric intake is set to grow by nearly the total caloric intake of the U.S. Source: Zepol, www.zepol.com