From the challenges of sourcing organic milk, to the threat 'alternatives' milks pose to the dairy sector and the 'scary' promotional dynamics of the yogurt category, the FoodNavigator-USA Dairy Innovation Forum covered a lot of ground....
To boldly go... where no food conference has gone before? Space food is on the menu at Food Vision USA (we've lined up NASA on day three), but we're just as concerned about what we're eating here on earth, and whether food retailers are...
“Applegate’s mission is to change the meat we eat and we believe we can help them to do that."
When Applegate - the #1 brand in natural and organic prepared meats – got into bed with Hormel Foods, which owns Spam and Stagg, some diehard fans were not happy. But selling up does not mean selling out, insists Hormel.
Dave Lefkow: 'You’d be amazed how many people are obsessed with bacon...'
The Eureka moment came on a business trip in 2007 when Dave Lefkow’s co-worker Justin Esch casually observed that bacon flavored salt might taste pretty good. The cash to make it happen came from Lefkow’s three-year old son, who propelled a baseball into...
No self-respecting food conference would be complete these days without a session on edible insects. But are they a gimmick or a serious source of alternative protein? FoodNavigator-USA editor Elaine Watson headed to the 2015 IFT show in Chicago to find...
The Sparkling ICE brand notched up sales of more than $500m in 2014, is on course to top $600m in 2015, and has a fighting chance of reaching its well-publicized target of $1bn in 2018, assuming it can secure the shelf space it deserves, says Kevin Klock,...
From the purveyors of toasted coconut chips to hemp bars, high-protein gelato, cricket powder, chickpea snacks and portable nut butter, here's FoodNavigator-USA's latest pick of entrepreneurs to watch in the US food and beverage market.
The inaugural Healthy & Natural Show will offer an ‘extraordinary opportunity’ for product manufacturers and marketers offering healthy and natural products, and for retailers looking to better understand this high growth set of categories.
US social enterprise Project7 is carving a niche for itself in the highly consolidated chewing gum market with novel flavors such as birthday cake and sour caramel apple.
PepsiCo has announced a series of appointments, including one to address the importance of digitally connected consumers and e-commerce distribution channel.
Boulder Brands – the firm behind EVOL Foods, Udi’s Gluten Free and Smart Balance – has reduced its salaried headcount by 15% and integrated its sales, marketing and innovation functions as part of a restructure following the departure of CEO Steve Hughes.
A great product, deep pockets, and entrepreneurial zeal are critical to the success of any food start-up, but there’s always an element of luck, says Dang Foods’ founder Vincent Kitirattragarn, who impressed his first major customer with his toasted coconut...
While turmeric is still a novel ingredient to many Americans, it’s only a matter of time before it moves from the niche to the mainstream of US food culture, predicts Temple Turmeric founder Daniel Sullivan, who has set his sights on conquering the conventional...
Pope Francis has weighed into the debate over GM crops, arguing that while he doesn’t believe there is any “conclusive proof that GM cereals are harmful to human beings”, he worries about their effects on the ecosystem, and argues that they have resulted...
What are the hottest new trends in dairy? Grass-fed everything? A whole milk renaissance? High-protein kefir? Quark? And what’s next after Greek yogurt?
Check out who’s moving onwards and upwards at Unilever, Campbell Soup, McCormick, Runa, Barry Callebaut, IFF and ADM in FoodNavigator-USA’s latest round-up of new hires in food and beverage.
An injection of capital from private equity firm Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG) will help Way Better Snacks accelerate its nationwide distribution and raise awareness about the benefits of sprouted grains, founder and CEO Jim Breen told FoodNavigator-USA.
If Justin’s made consumers think differently about nut butter with its novel flavor combos and single-serve sachets, YumButter is on a mission to disrupt the category all over again with its YumButter GO pouches, promising an even more convenient way...
Shares in Boulder Brands – the firm behind EVOL Foods, Udi’s Gluten Free and Smart Balance – plummeted this morning after CEO Steve Hughes resigned and the firm warned that second-quarter sales would likely be 5-7% lower than they were in Q2, 2014, chiefly...
There have been some hairy moments during Neal Gottlieb’s decade at the helm of Three Twins organic ice cream, from maxed out credit cards to sleepless nights trying to secure capital at the height of the recession. But his tenacity paid off and his quirky...
Winston Lee: 'We're caramelizing milk and sugar together and then culturing it'
When Winston Lee started pitching Tarte Asian Yogurt to retailers three years ago, the market had already hit peak Greek, he says: “Buyers were already looking at what's next after Greek. If you weren't already a brand on the shelf, you had...
According to Nielsen data, 85% of new consumer packaged goods fail within two years, and big firms are no better - and often far worse - at picking winners than smaller ones, despite their deep pockets.
It may not have hit prime time yet, but it’s only a matter of time before hemp is as big as chia in the US food and beverage market, predicts the co-founder of one snacking company determined to put the protein-packed seed on the map.
'We have retained a cult-like following even as we have gone mass market'
When Julie Smolyansky became president and CEO of kefir market leader Lifeway Foods in 2002 after the sudden death of her father (its founder), the stock went into freefall as investors feared the 27-year old wasn’t ready to run a public company. They...
With an eight-year stint in sales and brand management at PepsiCo on his resume, David Luks knew a fair bit about the beverages market when he launched Honeydrop in 2009. But it quickly became clear that selling Diet Pepsi and selling a product no one...
Biena dry roasted chickpea snacks are about to roll out nationally at Target
When Poorvi Patodia first started pitching roasted chickpeas to retail buyers in 2012, not everyone was convinced they could be a mainstream hit. Today, they are gracing shelves in 3,000+ stores from Sprouts to Stop & Shop and are about to go into...
Meet execs from Sparkling ICE, Chobani, Tio Gazpacho, NASA
Imagine a place where you can meet the entrepreneurs behind new food & beverage categories and retail channels; pioneers in the field of nutrigenomics, edible insects, and 3D printing; food law attorneys; investment bankers; and number crunchers who...
Check out who’s moving onwards and upwards at Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Jelly Belly, Smithfield Foods, Nestlé, Mondelez, Hershey, Vita Coco, Campbell Soup and KeVita in FoodNavigator-USA’s latest round-up of new hires in food and beverage.
'We’re confident that with this change, consumers will come back into the Diet Pepsi franchise'
To those arguing that replacing one artificial sweetener (aspartame) with another (sucralose) won’t arrest flagging sales of Diet Pepsi, PepsiCo SVP Seth Kaufman told FoodNavigator-USA that consumer research had singled out aspartame – rather that artificial...
Europe needs to talk about moving down the food chain to feed people more efficiently and beat climate change, says renowned US economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin.
'70% of the products labeled as extra virgin olive oil are not extra virgin at all'
Claims that much of the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) sold in US supermarkets is not ‘extra virgin’ at all are hardly new. But the fact that many retail buyers are effectively turning a blind eye to such widespread fraud is immensely frustrating for companies...
Millennials have a general distrust of big companies and a different set of priorities than baby boomers
While working at sexy new food & beverage companies such as Hampton Creek or Suja Juice sounds like a pretty exciting way to earn a living, the most talented people coming out of business school today are still more likely to pick technology or investment...
Dr Pepper Snapple Group has invested $15m in a minority stake in Bai Brands, which has generated explosive growth in multiple retail channels with its 'antioxidant infusion' low-calorie Bai5 beverages.
Steve Hughes: 'You'd be surprised how fast brands can scale now.'
As the rapid growth of brands such as Suja Juice and Just Mayo demonstrates, new, on-trend brands originating in the natural, gourmet or organic space can now ‘cross over’ into the mass market at record speed, such that companies we have never heard of...
Fewer than one-fifth of India’s farmers are insured, a practice that exposes the vast majority of pastoralists to the vagaries of weather as was the case this year with vast damage caused to the spring harvest this year.
From the purveyors of banana flour to chickpea pasta, barrel-aged tea, chilled nutrition bars, gourmet oatmeal and upmarket cottage cheese, here's FoodNavigator-USA's latest pick of entrepreneurs to watch in the US food and beverage market.
While their sophisticated flavor profile and branding might seem a natural fit for Whole Foods Market, Brewla gourmet ice pops – made from brewed tea, coffee and root beer – are also on sale at Walmart, proving that the brand has broad appeal, say co-founders...
60-second interview: Mark Singleton, outgoing chairman of the Snack Food Association; vice president of sales & marketing, Rudolph Foods
According to the March 2015 report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, most Americans now consume two or three snacks a day - news that came as no surprise to the outgoing chairman of the Snack Food Association, Mark Singleton. Elaine Watson...
Big CPG firms are not nimble enough to innovate and align with changing consumer tastes, says TABS Group founder
The impending marriage of Heinz and Kraft Foods Group will create a $29bn consumer packaged goods powerhouse. But is bigger always better, or are megadeals like this more about making money for lawyers and shareholders than delighting consumers and driving...
While it’s taken a while to convince retail buyers that stocking protein bars next to kombucha in the refrigerator makes sense, the strategy has paid off big time for Perfect Bar, in no small part due to the tenacity of founder Bill Keith, who took ‘bootstrapping’...
Ready-to-eat popcorn sales surged 60% to $750m between 2012 and 2014, while microwave popcorn sales dropped 8% to $830m, so what lessons can we learn from all this?
From all-day grazing to the 20% YoY growth in meat-based snacks, the merits of cricket flour, when and how to raise capital, nutrient density and guerrilla marketing, the FoodNavigator-USA Snacking Trends Forum covered a lot of ground. Here are some of...
One out of 13 children in North America has food allergies today compared with one in 50 in 1990, and in the next couple of years, it’s going to be about one in 10, according to allergen-friendly foods brand Enjoy Life Foods.
While retail sales of packaged bread have been pretty sluggish in recent years, one company that’s bucking the trend is Oregon-based Dave’s Killer Bread.
Digestive issues after drinking milk are often attributed to milk protein allergy (which can be severe) or intolerance to lactose (milk sugars). But what if both of these have been ruled out and you are still experiencing mild digestive discomfort?
FoodNavigator-USA editor Elaine Watson talked to three players in the emerging 'plant waters' category at the 2015 Natural Products Expo West trade show to find out whether they have what it takes to claw back some shelf space from coconut water...
'I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question that we could be a public company'
Multinationals are snapping up smaller, more entrepreneurial brands in the natural or organic food and beverage space faster than you can say ‘because that’s where the growth is’. So will Zevia – one of the fastest-growing non-alcoholic brands in the...
Lisa Rowland Brasher will become the fifth generation of the Goeltiz Rowland family to lead Jelly Belly as president Bob Simpson announces his retirement.
The meat snacks market has become considerably more dynamic lately, with new entrants piling in and existing players revamping their offer, but there’s still room for new players that can bring a fresh twist to the category, says the boss of a brand that...
