Triple ENTENDRE

Prepared Foods, March, 2000

1-1-00, 1-10-00. As I wrote certain dates on checks at the beginning of this year, their appearance struck me. Bytes, the language of computers, are represented by a binary system of zeros and ones.

How fitting that the first dates of this century resemble how information is encoded and transferred: a century in which information technology will continue to drive paradigm-shifting ways we communicate and conduct business. And how fitting that Prepared Foods' increased focus on ingredients for nutraceuticals and functional foods should manifest itself first on the Web, as NutraSolutions.com, rather than in this more traditional print version.

Why "NutraSolutions" at all? The name was conceived well over a year ago. It attests to its mission of providing work solutions to formulators and marketers of nutritional products. A Cahners group publisher with a pharmaceutical background blessed the name and noted it suggested laboratory biochemical solutions. A double entendre for sure, as it reflects our strong science-based niche beyond nutritional business and marketing publications.

Then, as I attended Dr. Stephen DeFelice's conference a few weeks ago, Paul Lachance from Rutgers University hinted that NutraSolutions had yet another meaning. As I sat through presentations, the term "nutritional solutions" kept popping up. Consumers, tired of mixed nutritional messages and the plethora of product forms, simply want nutritional solutions. Happily, that concept fits as well. Whether a component appears in api11, soup or yogurt, NutraSolutions.com's focus will be on the ingredients themselves.

So Prepared Foods, a publication with a 150+ year history, humbly introduces a new member to its Reed Elsevier family...a family comprised of industry leaders such as Lexis Nexis, The Lancet medical journal and FDC Reports' Tan Sheet.

We have a long way to go, but we're backed by Prepared Foods' audited and enhanced circulation of formulators and marketers at companies ranging from Abbot Labs and Leiner Health Products to General Mills. We also intend to make our mark with our daily changing Web presence. Hope to see you there. 10-100-010...