Nestle recall in US jolt for convenience meal revamp

Bloomberg

Nestle SA recalled 12 types of products under the DiGiorno, Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s brands in the US because they may contain small pieces of glass, a setback for brands that the Swiss food company has been trying to revitalise.
No injuries have been reported, according to the Vevey, Switzerland-based company, which announced the recall of a “limited” number of products. Nestle also recalled two types of Delissio pizzas in Canada.
“This is not good,” said Alain Oberhuber, an analyst at MainFirst Bank AG in Zurich. “The pizza business especially suffers from strong competition. Why buy an expensive premium pizza if the retail private label is safer?”
Lean Cuisine underwent the biggest overhaul in its 35-year history last year as Nestle invested millions in turning around the ailing convenience-meal brand. The company introduced healthier options, such as organic and high-protein meals, as prepared-meals were increasingly perceived as unhealthy. Lean Cuisine has shown signs of improvement, helping sales in the Americas climb 5.5 percent last year.
Nestle SA is a Swiss transnational food and beverage company headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world measured by revenues, and ranked 72 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2014.
Nestle’s products include baby food, medical food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, confectionery,dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, and snacks. Twenty-nine of Nestle’s brands have annual sales of over CHF1billion (about US$1.1 billion). Nestle has 447 factories, operates in 194 countries, and employs around 339,000 people.