Reducing food waste and increasing sustainability so that food and beverage manufacturers can make more with less are common goals and key attributes of the 10 finalist food, agriculture and tech companies selected to present at the FoodBytes! Boulder...
Marketers should promote the taste, flavor, and texture of whole grains more over their health benefits, experts suggested during the first day of Oldways' ‘Whole Grains Away From Home’ conference in Rosemont, IL.
PLMA quizzes 1,839 Millennials aged 20-29 on food and shopping habits
How do Millennials think about food, cooking, shopping and eating out? To find out, the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) commissioned Surveylab to conduct a nationwide online survey of 1,839 Americans (931 women, 908 men) aged between 20...
Most new food & beverage brands quietly disappear after their creators run out of cash or patience; while those that do make it often slog away for years before the major retailers pay them any attention. A rarefied few – such as Hippeas - hit the...
The first wave of entrepreneurial food companies selected by Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya to participate in Chobani's new food incubator scheme include chickpea pasta brand Banza and bone broth brand Kettle & Fire.
Field Trip - which burst onto the premium jerky scene in 2010 and is now in 30,000+ retail locations from Stop & Shop to Starbucks – is hoping it can strike CPG gold a second time around with a move into the meat sticks category.
The world will probably keep turning without another gluten-free cookie or cracker, but there is a ton of white space for allergy-friendly foods in other parts of the store, and untapped opportunities in c-stores, club stores, schools, and in Mexico,...
If you want to compete in the cut-throat world of online grocery retailing, you’ve got to find an incredible niche, or think very, very big. And David Hack, the serial entrepreneur behind online marketplace Direct Eats, is firmly in the second bracket: “This...
‘Grass-fed’ is a hot trend in the dairy aisle these days, but back when Dreaming Cow started in 2009, it wasn’t something co-founder and CEO Kyle Wehner even thought about calling out on pack, he recalls. “We used to talk about New Zealand style yogurt,...
Some fermented foods (beer and sauerkraut), have been around for years, while others (flavors, sweeteners, ‘animal-free’ dairy proteins) are pretty new. But what if you could use microbes to transform the flavor or nutrition of a host of agricultural...
Artisanal vegan cheese maker Miyoko’s Kitchen is moving into a new production facility in Petaluma, CA, more than five times the size of its original site in Fairfax, CA, to meet growing demand.
Most consumers are pre-disposed to eating more healthily, but they're not obsessed with the latest health trends, says Mindless Eating author Dr Brian Wansink. So how should food marketers talk to them?
Texas-based MALK Organics – which is carving out a niche at the premium end of the burgeoning nut milk category with its cold-pressed, clean-label organic pecan, cashew and almond milks – is rolling out nationwide at Kroger this fall.
We’re searching for trailblazing, entrepreneurial start-ups to present their red hot food and nutrition innovations at Food Vision USA in Chicago on November 9, 2016.
Through speeches, exhibitions, and a hackathon, the Global Open Data on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative’s summit this month addresses how sharing data can help end hunger.
Ironically, perhaps, just as open innovation is fostering a more open and collaborative culture in the notoriously secretive world of food R&D, consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of scientists ‘meddling’ with their food, says Cargill’s...
FoodNavigator-USA's latest pick of entrepreneurs to watch in the US food and beverage market features a clutch of firms spanning everything from animal-free milk and gelatin to cashew nut ‘cheese,’ brownies made with 40% chickpeas, paleo pancake...
Brooklyn-based pea protein chip pioneer Proformance Foods has closed a $1.2m financing round led by a leading CPG company, and changed its brand name from ProTings to Protes following a trademark dispute with B&G Foods, which owns the Original Tings...
Boulder-based spicy chai tea brand Bhakti has recruited CPG industry veteran Sarah Bird as its new CEO as it seeks to build its footprint in the conventional channel and take the mission-driven brand in new directions.
For boomers at ingredients suppliers seeking to engage with a new generation of Millennials within their customer base, b2b ad and marketing communications agency Anderson Partners Food Ingredient Marketing has come up with some tips designed to help...
Perfect Day, a new ‘animal-free’ milk scheduled to launch at the end of next year, contains all the same components as cow’s milk, including dairy proteins, but doesn’t use any animals in its production process. But will consumers embrace it as cruelty-free...
The word ‘disruptive’ is bandied around with wearying regularity in relation to food startups these days, but if anyone warrants this moniker, it's Perfect Day (formerly Muufri). Unlike the purveyors of nut- or legume-based ‘plant milks’, Ryan Pandya...
The refrigerated 'cold-pressed' baby food category is growing rapidly - albeit from a tiny base - but there is still time for new players to carve out some distinct territory, say the founders of The Latin Baby, a Florida-based brand targeting...
While the word ‘natural’ still appears on the label of 11% of new food and beverage introductions in the US according to Mintel data, brands that are part of the so-called natural foods industry need to embrace a new form of conscious capitalism if they...
Making a profit and promoting health are not mutually exclusive, and healthy food brands now generate some serious profits. But no business will willingly engage in initiatives that could damage sales of its biggest – and sometimes unhealthiest - legacy...
If you want to take a journey back in time on your next trip to the grocery store, go buy some pancake mix, says the co-founder of Birch Benders, a Boulder-based start-up seeking to shake up a sleepy category with fresh ideas, recipes and packaging to...
SMASHMALLOW – the latest innovation from food & beverage brand incubator Sonoma Brands – could herald the launch of a new confectionery category: gourmet snackable marshmallows, says founder Jon Sebastiani.
Pro-GMO blog a hit: 'Consumers appreciate that we’re not just blindly following a trend.'
After three years of focus on one product – enhanced with periodic upgrades – Soylent is expanding its portfolio with the launch of Coffiest, a caffeine-fueled version of its flagship Soylent 2.0 beverage (launching today), and Soylent Bar (appearing...
Health Warrior CEO to join CEO panel at Food Vision USA 2016
Chia-fueled brand Health Warrior will be unveiling new products next year that utilize other nutrient-dense whole foods, says CEO Shane Emmett, who is predicting a 40-60% rise in revenues in 2016 “depending on where certain orders land.”
Manufacturers have been ‘cleaning up’ food labels for years, but the pressure to oust 'unpronounceable' ingredients has now become so great that important vitamins and minerals (which often have chemical-sounding names) are also being ditched...
RUNA – a Brooklyn-based beverage brand utilizing the caffeine-rich Amazonian leaf guayusa – is on course to generate revenues of approximately $10m in 2016, up from around $6m in 2015.
What’s the next Just Mayo, KRAVE, or Sparkling ICE? If you’re looking for some entrepreneurs to watch over the next couple of years, check out CircleUp’s 2016 list of the 25 most innovative consumer brands of 2016, 15 of which are in food/beverage.
Is food marketing awash with bad science? If so, who is to blame?
There was plenty of handwringing at the IFT show this year about the lack of scientific literacy characterizing the debate around food and farming, backed up by scores of press clippings about ‘franken-foods.’ But is the media solely to blame, and what’s...
It’s a bold move given how highly-charged – and extremely polarized - the debate has become, but Los Angeles-based start-up Soylent has weighed into the conversation over genetically engineered food crops with a blog post entitled: 'Soylent: Proudly...
Sunrise Strategic Partners - a Colorado-based accelerator of emerging brands - has made a minority investment in Utah-based Kodiak Cakes, which makes high protein breakfast items from pancake mixes to flapjacks.
Terms like ‘foodstagramming’ ‘digital grazing’ and ‘food porn’ may have entered our lexicon recently but the phenomenon is far from new, say researchers - but could the sheer saturation of picture perfect food today be sparking unintended consequences?
Suja Juice is tapping into the trend for all things fermented with the launch of organic probiotic-infused drinking vinegars targeting Millennials, says the San Diego-based firm, which has seen retail sales surge 80% year-on-year in the latest 52 weeks...
While big ‘legacy’ food and beverage brands are laser focused on price, promotion and placement, no amount of financial or merchandising wizardry can mask the fact that smaller, sexier, more disruptive, brands are outpacing them. But should CPG’s biggest...
Many food & beverage brands hailed as category ‘disruptors’ – from Beyond Meat and Bai to KRAVE and EPIC– have been wildly successful, virtually straight out of the gate. Electrolyte-infused ‘ionized’ water Essentia, by contrast, ambled rather than...
Many protein-packed shakes have a loyal following, but they can also pack a hefty caloric punch if you’re sipping them at your desk rather than after a grueling workout, observes Casey Hoban, who says growing numbers of consumers are seeking beverages...
The explosive success of sriracha - a fiery sauce used in Asian cooking that became a cult hit in the US thanks to Huy Fong Foods – proved that some Americans like it hot. The more recent surge of interest in harissa – a staple in North African and Middle...
The Beyond Burger – the first refrigerated plant-based patty to sit in the meat counter - is set to roll out across Whole Foods in the coming months after wildly exceeding expectations in test markets, says brand owner Beyond Meat.
Chobani says it has been steadily increasing its share of the total US refrigerated spoonable yogurt market over the past 16 months, moving up from 16.5% in February 2015 to 20% in May 2016 according to the latest Nielsen data*, while Yoplait-brand owner...
Sheila G’s retains its “edge on brownies” and its competition with the launch of an organic Brownie Brittle line that launched this year despite initial formulation challenges and tighter product margins, according to the company’s founder and CEO Sheila...
In 2015, the top 25 food and beverage companies generated 45% of category sales in the US but drove just 3% of total category growth from 2011 to 2015, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 0.1%, according to Nielsen data. So if they are not...
Pure Genius brownies are moist, indulgent and satisfying. They also happen to contain 40% chickpeas (garbanzo beans are the #1 ingredient), flaxseed and oats, and half the calories of a regular brownie, coupled with a meaningful amount of fiber and protein.
The $8bn US wet soup category is “sleepy and ripe for disruption,” says the founder of Sonoma Brands, which is launching its first incubated brand in July: ZÜPA NOMA, an organic ready-to-drink chilled vegetable soup in a bottle debuting July 1 in around...
