July 9/Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week-- ConAgra Foods Inc. nnounced a new licensing and capabilities agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company that provides ConAgra Foods access to unique nutrition-enhancing food ingredients and packaging capabilities related to sustainability, ergonomics and design, as well as access to the vast amounts of research associated with those technologies. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, ConAgra Foods will be P&G's exclusive licensee for a variety of P&G food ingredient and processing technologies, including nutrition-enhancing ingredients like calcium citrate malate, trademarked Calsura. In addition, ConAgra Foods will receive access to various packaging capabilities and technologies owned by P&G. These food and packaging technologies will have application within a broad spectrum of current ConAgra Foods' branded products. Additionally, ConAgra Foods will have the option to purchase all rights to certain technologies covered by the license.

"P&G has a wealth of food technologies that we can use to deliver new and improved products that drive health and wellness and create unique competitive advantages for our business," said Al Bolles, executive vice president, Research, Quality & Innovation for ConAgra Foods. "In addition, ConAgra Foods gains access to P&G's packaging capabilities which will allow us to reduce costs and improve our sustainability efforts. We'll also receive P&G's full institutional knowledge and research for the licensed technologies and will leverage that expertise in a variety of different ways."

"P&G is a company of brands, and as a result we have technologies and core expertise in many categories and capabilities," said Jeff Weedman, vice president, External Business Development, P&G. "I'm really pleased that P&G's food technologies and packaging expertise will help power ConAgra Foods' brands, many of which are enjoyed by my own family. P&G looks forward to furthering its relationship with ConAgra Foods."

One of the nutrition-enhancing food ingredients included in the agreement is Calsura, the trademarked name for calcium citrate malate (CCM), a form of calcium that can be used to fortify a variety of foods and beverages. CCM is one of the most thoroughly studied supplemental forms of calcium, having been tested in numerous clinical trials involving children, teenagers, young adults, post-menopausal women and senior adults. These studies have shown that the calcium in Calsura is highly absorbable and builds stronger bones in both children and adults.

As part of the agreement, ConAgra Foods will be P&G's exclusive licensee for Calsura in a number of food categories and will be given access to all of P&G's research and clinical trials for this product. In addition, ConAgra Foods will be given a license to utilize the Calsura trademark in ConAgra Foods-owned branded products containing CCM.

From the July 21, 2008, Prepared Foods e-Flash