New Product Watch: Warm Ice Cream and Caffeinated Beef Jerky

(MoneyWatch)  Unilever says it's not working on ice cream that can be sold at room temperature, despite what the Times of London reported yesterday. According to the article, scientists from Cambridge were using Unilever's own laboratories to develop an ice cream product that would not need to be frozen until after it was purchased, thus saving energy costs during transportation and storage.

The original article quoted several Unilever executives, but a company spokesperson apparently contacted foodnavigator.com to deny the company was actively developing such a product. Other sources that linked to the original story, however, such as a Wall Street Journal blog, have reported no such retractions. Very mysterious.

But not as mysterious as the launch of a new product by the Performance Enhancing Meat Snack Company: a caffeinated beef jerky snack. The company spent two years working on perfecting the flavor of its new Perky Jerky while still making sure the product had the same amount of caffeine as two energy drinks.

This company is not denying its product launch. I call it mysterious only because I can't imagine what possibly compelled this self-proclaimed "group of savvy brand building veterans" to think to themselves, "Hey, you know what the snack industry is missing? Insanely caffeinated beef jerky. Let's get right on that."