Will tea replace 100% juice in your child's lunchbox? And what's the next $1bn beverage brand? Find out what our panel of beverage entrepreneurs thinks at our free-to-attend online forum kicking off at 11.30am EDT tomorrow.
Mexico announced last week that it was restricting television advertising on high-calorie food and soda in an effort to stem the rising tide of obesity. Registered dietitians weigh in on the impact of the measure, which is the farthest any country has...
Walmart cranberry pomegranate juice is mostly grape & apple juice, says lawsuit
Six weeks after the Supreme Court gave POM Wonderful the green light to sue Coca-Cola over its juice labels, Walmart has been targeted in a consumer class action lawsuit making near-identical allegations.
Vermont has serious concerns over cost of defending GMO labeling law, claim CFS/VPIRG
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and anti-GMO activist group the Center for Food Safety (CFS) have formally asked for permission to help the state of Vermont defend its new GMO labeling law in the wake of a legal challenge from food...
'WE WILL FIGHT TO DEFEND OURSELVES AGAINST CIVIL INTIMIDATION': 5-HOUR ENERGY
Washington state attorneys insist that 5-Hour Energy wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for its caffeine content in a fierce attack on the credibility of America’s top-selling shot.
Allegations concerning the sale of expired meat by American-owned Shanghai Husi Food to the Chinese operations of McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut have forced the fast food chains to suspend orders while the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration investigates.
FDA proposals to change the way serving sizes are calculated to better reflect real-life eating behavior could encourage some people to eat even more unless the wording is changed or the move is accompanied by strong consumer education, behavioral science...
Proposals don't consider a product's overall nutritional value, says professor
FDA proposals to overhaul the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels are “strong” and “likely to make an important contribution”, says former FDA commissioner David Kessler, M.D. “But I believe they don't go far enough.”
Policy efforts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption across the developed world have resulted in modest gains and increased awareness (most notably among children), yet largely they’ve fallen short in impacting long-term consumption behavior, according...
Organic dairy Stonyfield believes its newly developed Petite Crème sweet fresh cheese range will appeal to US consumers that find Greek yogurt "too thick and bitter."
Researchers claim they have developed proteins that could help bring a wider variety of low-fat foods to market without compromising on texture and taste.
Makers of raw ground beef products could be forced to keep records in order to further protect consumers, if proposals by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are approved.
The market price of Chinese sucralose has dropped 30-50% in 12 months
Not so long ago, Tate & Lyle had the sucralose market to itself. In recent years, however, the Chinese have emerged as serious rivals. But while demand for the zero-calorie sweetener is rising, new capacity in China has been added even more rapidly,...
The FDA’s proposed label changes would draw attention to a lot of issues worrying public health officials—from calories and added sugar to serving sizes and vitamin D. But one nutrient that won’t be mandated on labels, in spite of growing concern over...
Obviously taste rules when it comes to any food or beverage. But many consumers are also looking for indications that what they’re eating has been minimally “messed with”—hence the growing incidence of “all natural” and related terms on product labels.
Abbott Laboratories' CEO believes the company has “recovered about as well" as it could have in the year since the Fonterra WPC botulism scare that led it to recall infant formula in China, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia.
Bottled water, energy and iced tea are expected to win big in 2014 as C-store operators predict a ‘banner year’ in packaged beverages led by brands including Sparkling Ice, Monster and Lipton.
CytoSport has developed an organic variation of its popular, high-protein Muscle Milk RTD to meet increasing US consumer demand for organically-certified products.
JBS Foods has signed a deal with Brazilian poultry firm Céu Azul Alimentos to acquire two processing plants in Guapiaçu and Itapetininga, Paulo, for approximately BRL$246m ($110m).
Although the US private label market has a ways to go in catching up with Europe, a shifting consumer landscape has more consumers than ever examining products’ origins, paving the way for private label manufacturers to seize on those looking to shop...
The vast majority of sodium reduction activity in the US food industry is now being conducted by ‘stealth’ in order to avoid alienating shoppers, according to Tate & Lyle.
US retail sales of gluten-free products surged 47% in 2013, with a significant chunk of the growth coming from snacks, according to flour milling giant Ardent Mills.
As the US Food and Drug Administration prepares to issue voluntary sodium guidelines for food manufacturers and restaurants, US consumers are demonstrating less concern about sodium intake and seeking it out less on labels than in the past, according...
The marketers of a cactus drink have agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle false advertising charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission. Such charges could be levied against many companies, said Denver-based attorney Justin Prochnow.
Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and its marketing arm Dairy Marketing Services (DMS) have agreed to pay a total of US$50m (€37m) to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged a conspiracy to drive down raw milk prices in the Northeast United States.
A new sustainable palm oil scheme has met with criticism from environmentalists claiming that it actually allows deforestation, rather than stopping it.
A proposed rule to modernise the system for US poultry inspection has been sent from the United Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs...
Big Interview: Drazil Kids Tea founder Christine Wheeler
The CEO of Drazil Kids Tea thinks this unusually named (lizard spelled backwards!), ready-to-drink tea brand has what it takes to become the industry leader in the growing tea for kids segment.
Hormel & Virun help ease omega-3 F&B fortification headaches
While food & beverage manufacturers have been fortifying their wares with omega-3 fatty acids EPA + DHA for years, few have been able to include anywhere close to the efficacious doses contained in many supplements without running into technical or...
A probiotic isolated from switchgrass is one of the newest competitors in the robustness claims sweepstakes. Developed by biotech firm Imagilin Technology and marketed by New Jersey-based A&B Ingredients, the new ingredient is based on a proprietary...
Volumes in US gum market have slumped 20% in past five years
It’s well known that the American love affair with soda has hit a pretty significant rough patch, but a new report from Rabobank suggests the nation has also been steadily falling out of love with gum, with US volumes dropping a staggering 20% in the...
Despite tight margins and even tighter competition, it’s a great time to be in the food and beverage industry—and an even better time to be a seller, according to New York accountant and advisory firm, Anchin, Block & Anchin.
Consumers are tired of bars, says quinoa 'snack in a bottle' founder
While a scary percentage of new food & beverage brands end up quietly disappearing when their backers run out of cash, luck, or endurance, a small number succeed. But what distinguishes the winners from the losers?
Aiming for a lower cost way to boost flavor and mouthfeel of stevia extract, sweetener supplier Sweet Green Fields (SGF) launched Natrose I natural flavor at last month’s IFT 2014 show in New Orleans.
Cargill has weathered a potential media storm concerning its functional ingredient Trehalose. The ingredient, a glucose dissaccharide, was one of the potentially ‘scary’ food ingredients seized upon for its use by a well known fast food chain.
As part of its ongoing effort to influence the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the American Herbal Products Association has submitted 30 pages of comments on the way FSMA calls for mitigation strategies aimed at preventing intentional...
When consumers think about GMOs, they tend to contrast them with “some hypothetical alternative food that is pristine”, when in most cases, going ‘non-GMO’ just means returning to a food production system that is less efficient - and worse for the environment...
The terms “local” and “organic” have become increasingly coveted characteristics for packaged foods and beverage in the North American market, as evidenced by a growing number of marketing campaigns touting local and organic foods—not to mention the impressive...
FoodNavigator-USA takes you through the latest and greatest in new product launches, from affordable healthy snacks and chia energy drinks to all-purpose stevia and dairy-free desserts.
Trader Joe's 'purposefully railroaded business relationships', alleges lawsuit
Trader Joe’s move to ditch a broker and a vendor it had been working with for years and deal directly with key suppliers of ice cream and other dairy products left the pair “high & dry”, says a lawsuit accusing the retailer of “systematically eliminating...
The GRAS process as it stands in the United States is vulnerable to criticism based on possible conflicts of interest and low-quality safety work, said Claire Kruger, PhD, president of Spherix Consulting, a division of ChromaDex.
Fourteen years after Unilever spent $2.3bn (€1.7bn) to buy Slim-Fast, it has sold up for an undisclosed sum to a private equity player. Analyst and author Julian Mellentin tracks the decline of a mega-brand and considers what he sees as a category in...
In the latest installment of FoodNavigator-USA’s What do you do series, we talked with Kai Sacher, head of global product development at leading yogurt manufacturer Chobani, about his roots on Austrian dairy farms, the importance of timing in new product...
Crumbs' closure could spell trouble for the cupcake category
The struggling retail cupcake chain Crumbs Bake Shop closed its doors for good this week as it mulls filing for bankruptcy. Analysts from market research firm NPD Group weigh in on what went wrong, and whether this signals the end of the cupcake’s reign.
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Hain Celestial over the marketing of its BluePrint high-pressure-processed (HPP) juices on the grounds that the plaintiff derailed his own case by submitting scientific papers to the court which contradicted his...
