Wholesale food prices declined for the fifth consecutive month in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and averaging by the National Restaurant Association, leaving the Producer Price Index for food 0.5% lower than in March a year ago. It’s the first time the index has run negative for a 12-month period since…

Consumer sentiment rose in the preliminary April reading, according to the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers, exceeding analysts’ expectations. The UM Sentiment Index reached 95.9 mid-month, up from a final March reading of 93. The indexes for current conditions and consumer expectations also rose more than analysts had expected. Consumer sentiment has been running…

The Canadian foodservice market has been outperforming many other developed foodservice markets around the globe. Two major groups forecasting the market, the national foodservice association Restaurants Canada and U.S.-based Technomic Inc., see another year of decent growth in 2015. Technomic’s recently released 2015 forecast has nominal growth for the industry up slightly to 4.1% from…

BARREL FRESH WINE ON TAPEach winery that’s a certified Barrel Fresh partner fills 9-l. U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved flexcases with an approved TORR filler. The 9-l. bags then are placed into small cardboard boxes and shipped through a regular distributor channel to restaurants. Onsite, a bartender places each bag into a TORR Keg and…

Donald Camacho Jr., a second-generation manufacturers’ rep, died suddenly April 19 at his home in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. He was 64. The Chicago native was self-employed in Zion, Ill., as the owner/operator of Don Camacho & Associates. He had worked with his father, Donald Sr., representing a wide range of foodservice equipment companies. The company…

The French burger chain Big Fernand has debuted in London less than a month after opening its first international location in Hong Kong. Big Fernand, which would be classified as a “better burger” concept in the U.S., serves a homemade version of what it calls un hamburgé. With the May opening of an outlet in…

Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest QSR chain in the Philippines, will open its first Jollibee store in Canada this year. Jollibee CFO Ysmael Baysa said the company expects to launch first in Toronto. The chain also plans to add more stores in the Middle East and open its first units in Japan and some parts…

The two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo will have more pizza options by the end of the year. Borneo Oil Bhd, the master licensee for the takeaway pizza chain Pezzo in Sabah and Sarawak, expects to open at least 15 Pezzo kiosks in Sabah and Sarawak by December. The Singapore-based chain has more…

The Guatemalan chicken chain, already operating in a dozen countries, is seeing strong sales in Texas and will expand its footprint from two to five stores in Houston, which has the third largest Latino population in the U.S. More than a third of the city’s metro-area population is Latino, and 13% of those are Central…