It's nice to see someone we wrote about early on succeed in this competitive food business world.

Baby food company Happy Family, launched on Mother’s Day 2006, announced on Mother's Day 2013 that Groupe Danone acquired 92 percent ownership of the company "for hundreds of millions of dollars," as the Wall Street Journal put it.

Food Processing reader, and self-processed 'Ramen Rater' Hans Lienesch recently visited the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Ore. to find out the production process – from ingredients to finished product – for the globally popular instant noodle. Lienesch shared the process on his website www.theramenrater.com and outlined not only the process but also best practices as provided by Dr. Gary Hou, an expert in the production of wheat noodles like ramen and yakisoba.

Snack foods from Boulder Canyon Natural Foods recently joined a worldwide roster of more than 10,000 food products authorized to bear the certified gluten-free seal from the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, Auburn, Wash.

Whether it's seizing an opportunity or trying to seize back a position that briefly disappeared and got replaced, the Gulf Coast Seafood Coalition wants to put genuine Gulf of Mexico-harvested seafood of every type back on restaurant menus. . .and to have you ask for it by name.

That is, American Gulf of Mexico seafood, not Mexican. All five states on the gulf (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas) are participating with funds from their states, the federal government and, indirectly at least, BP Plc.

Efforts to reduce workplace injuries and fatalities, as well as related costs to businesses, have stalled, with food and beverage manufacturing standing out as one of the most risky employment sectors, several reports from industry and government suggest.

With Chobani's massive new facility in Twin Falls, Ida., now in production, the need for westward distribution of yogurt produced in New York State likely will ease in 2013. Nonetheless, the popularity of Greek yogurt and, in particular, the New Berlin, NY-based Chobani brand, helped vault the Empire State into the No. 1 position in yogurt production in 2012, according to a report in the April 18 edition of the New York Times.

While homeowners can cheer the plummeting costs of natural gas, food processors who hoped to harvest methane from their waste streams have had to rethink renewable energy projects. Each year has brought another precipitous drop in value: the spot price of natural gas averaged $8.86 per million Btus in 2008, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports, and was selling for half that in 2010. Last year, the average spot price was $2.75/MMBtu.

When I heard the Dos Equis radio spot in early April, I chuckled when I heard the latest tales of the World's Most Interesting Man's triumphs. You know WMIM, the debonaire cross between Papa Hemingway and George Hamilton who slakes his taste for something malty with double-X Mexican beer?

"His guacamole," the announcer intoned, "inspired the phrase, holy guacamole." That WMIM, what a scamp! I thought, and when the spot aired again, I told my wife, "Listen to this." But the reference was gone!

Favorites are personal, but nothing beats the hard reality of sales figures. IRI last week revealed its annual New Product Pacesetters, the best-selling new products of 2012. It’s always difficult to throw a ring around this group, to come up with just a trend or two to explain what always is a disparate collection of stars. But I see a lot of novelty in there – frozen cocktails in pouches, water-flavoring drops, self-inflating popcorn bowls, K-cups and – are you tired of it yet? – Greek yogurt.

I was munching a mouthful of oatmeal one morning this week when my tongue felt something hard. “An uncooked kernel?” I thought, and I considered swallowing, then thought better of it. To my surprise, it was a jagged piece of glass, 5/16 in. long and 3/16 in. at its highest point.