San Francisco-based Change Foods – one of a small group of startups making 'animal-free' dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows - plans to launch its first consumer products (cheese) in 2023. FoodNavigator-USA got into the weeds with...
Beginning at conception and continuing through first bites to afterschool snacks and beyond, nutrition plays a pivotal role in children’s brain development, emotional lives, and long-term health – but all too often they aren’t getting all the nutrients...
BIOMILQ – a North Carolina-based startup culturing human mammary cells that lactate – has closed an oversubscribed $21m series A round to support its ambitions to bring cell-cultured human milk to market.
A consumer study funded by Israeli startup Future Meat Technologies suggests US consumers are surprisingly open to cell-cultured or ‘cultivated’ meat (from animal cells grown outside an animal), although the firm acknowledges the true test will come when...
Albertsons’ “surgical approach” to pricing to offset rising inflation coupled with its ability to quickly offer alternatives to out-of-stocks due to ongoing supply chain and labor challenges helped it deliver better-than-expected margins in its second...
What will be trending in 2022? According to Whole Foods' annual food trends report, consumers are seeking products that contribute to their personal definition of wellbeing, whether it be less-boozy beverages, leafy greens grown locally, or ice cream...
The tide appears to be turning for direct-to-consumer subscription boxes, including for food and beverage, with consumer interest dropping dramatically in 2021 compared to last year when the pandemic pushed many people to try the services as a safe and...
A Bill (AB 45) explicitly legalizing the sale of foods, beverages and supplements containing hemp-derived CBD in California has been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
“The potential growth and beneficial impacts of cell-cultured meat and seafood are significant,” but only if the public can have confidence that these products are produced sustainably and safely, which will require ongoing scrutiny of environmental claims,...
Cauliflower-fueled startup Outer Aisle Gourmet has accused bakery giant Bimbo Bakeries USA of a “behind-the-scenes ambush,” which it claims prompted Amazon to delist its fast-growing cauliflower sandwich thins just as Bimbo was preparing to launch its...
Square Baby, a direct-to-consumer baby food company offering veggie-forward meal solutions, is making the leap from a regional brand serving the West Coast to a full-blown national operation, a milestone that couldn't have been achieved without a...
Two-thirds of US adults say the pandemic has caused them to re-evaluate their life priorities and has had the most profound impact on where and how they eat, according to Mintel research.
MeliBio, a startup developing honey without bees, has unveiled its first products at a tasting in Berkeley, California, as it gears up for a soft launch supplying food service and CPG companies with its animal-free/vegan honey as a branded ingredient...
When I began studying organic food consumption in the early 2000s, I remember one of the first problems I encountered was a misperception among prominent public firm executives.
Interest and demand for products that support the immune system increased since the pandemic began and according to a new survey, the dialogue has ushered in consumer knowledge of the strong interrelationship between digestive and immune function.
Seven months after releasing a report alleging “dangerous” levels of heavy metals in top baby food brands, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi's subcommittee on economic and consumer policy has released a follow-up report alleging that the industry “consistently...
Shares of United Natural Foods skyrocketed yesterday after the natural and organic food wholesaler’s fourth quarter earnings beat industry expectations, and executives laid out an optimistic outlook for 2022 with concrete plans to make the best of lingering...
New Age Meats has raised $25m in series A round* led by Hanwha Solutions of South Korea that will allow it to begin manufacturing sausage products combining cell-cultured and plant-based meat at a 20,000-square-foot pilot facility in Alameda, California,...
Demand for immunity-boosting products may have driven an initial double-digit surge of natural and organic product sales early in the pandemic, but many category newcomers have stayed – and more have flocked to the segment in 2021 – even as the threat...
Now that fall has officially arrived, immune health is front and center, with 75% of consumers saying they’re relying on some type of supplement. So where do probiotics stand? Danone conducted a survey recently to find out.
While many parents say that their family has eaten more healthily since the start of the pandemic, one in five parents reports relying more heavily on fast food as a quick fix family meal option, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott...
Interested in meat, dairy, and seafood alternatives? Is all the hype - and the wads of cash - truly justified? Are some formulations (think plant-based cheese and yogurt) really ready for prime time? Are the purchase drivers for plant-based seafood the...
While it has the same number of calories per gram as regular sugar, the tooth-friendly ‘slow-carb’ isomaltulose is metabolized very differently to sucrose, and like allulose, should not have to count towards grams of total or added sugar on food labels,...
Mondelez International and a union representing more than 1,000 Nabisco employees have reached a tentative agreement that could end a strike at three bakeries and three sales distribution facilities across the country that began early last month.
Full Sail IP Partners, a Warburg Pincus-backed investment firm set up to acquire brands, has bought the Odwalla juice and smoothie brand from Coca-Cola - which discontinued it last year - for an undisclosed sum.
By Hannah Crum, president, Kombucha Brewers International
The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on the US economy, but one industry that has continued to see growth-- and even increased demand, with the renewed interest in health brought on by the crisis-- is kombucha.
Beyond Meat has won the latest round in its bitter four-year legal dispute* with former co-manufacturer Don Lee Farms triggered by the early termination of an exclusive five-year supply agreement between the two parties. But the case is far from over,...
Even as economies reopen and consumer mobility increases, demand for CPGs and food consumed at home remains elevated over pre-pandemic levels in many categories, and in some cases exceeds the high demand of the early pantry-stocking days, according to...
Food prices across categories are predicted to rise low- to mid-single digits this year and again next year – adding on to already higher prices in 2020 fueled in part by the pandemic and raising questions about how consumers will react in the long term,...
When COVID-19 hit, Amy’s Kitchen – best known for its frozen pizzas, burritos, entrees and shelf-stable soups – ticked all the right boxes for ‘pandemic cuisine,’ says chief customer and consumer officer Karen Jobb. It makes convenient, healthy, restaurant-quality...
Don Lee Farms has filed a motion to compel Beyond Meat to share text messages from CEO Ethan Brown in the latest installment of an increasingly acrimonious legal dispute* between the plant-based meat firm and former co-manufacturer Don Lee Farms triggered...
Meat, egg, and dairy ‘alternatives’ usually come with qualifying language (plant-based eggs; meatless nuggets, oatmilk). But what should we call next generation products that are not simply mimicking the real thing, but in many cases, are the ‘real’ thing,...
The pandemic’s impact on frontline workers, including farmers and food manufacturers, paired with recent high profile social justice movements and spectacular displays of climate change over the past 18 months is spurring more consumers to look for and...
While the topline data from General Mills’ yogurt business has made for grim reading in recent years, prompting headlines such as ‘General Mills loses the yogurt wars,’ the company has staged a recovery in its core Yoplait original line and is seeing...
Walmart is capturing “strong” market share gains in grocery as it continues to hold down prices at a time when other retailers are more aggressively passing through to consumers rising costs due to inflation – making it a formidable competitor but also...
Apeel Sciences – the Santa Barbara-based firm behind an invisible plant-based edible skin that can dramatically extend the shelf-life of fresh produce – has raised $250m in a series E funding round led by Temasek that takes its cumulative funding to $635m,...
Oatly’s fill rates – currently at around 70% on a global basis and lower than that in the US – should increase significantly over the next couple of quarters as new capacity comes online, says the oatmilk maker, which claims gross margins will also improve...
While following a climatarian diet that prioritizes foods and beverages made in a way that protects and restores the planet’s health may still be niche, the trend is gaining traction quickly with some researchers and brands predicting environmental sustainability...
Is it misleading to call iced tea containing 24g of added sugar per serving (48% of the daily value) ‘slightly sweet’? Not according to a New York judge, who has just dismissed a putative class action lawsuit vs Coca-Cola over Gold Peak Tea.
If the cultivated meat industry were to set the ambitious target of supplying 10% of the global meat market, how much product would be required? How many factories, containing how many bioreactors, would need to be built? And where?
Just as the term “all-natural” has lost much of its healthy-image luster over the years, the claim of “plant-based” also may be at risk of losing some of its better-for-you significance with consumers, according to Mintel research.
A judge handling a high-profile lawsuit* over the use of dairy terminology on plant-based products has ruled in favor of Miyoko’s Creamery in its legal spat with the State of California over its use of terms such as ‘butter’ on plant-based products, in...
“Current data indicates that neither food nor food packaging is a pathway for the spread of viruses causing respiratory illnesses, including SARS-CoV-2,” according to a new guidance document from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization...
AB 535, a California bill that would have prohibited any reference to California on olive oil bottles that did not contain 100% California-sourced olive oil, has been amended such that supporters and opponents say they can both live with it.
All of Kellogg’s 50+ factories around the world have been hit by supply shortages due to a range of disruptions, from a 10-day pandemic lockdown in Malaysia to civil unrest in South Africa, CEO Steve Cahillane told analysts on a conference call.
The Food Labeling Modernization Act - an updated version of a bill first introduced in 2018 that was designed to help consumers make more informed purchases – has been introduced to the House and the Senate.
UK-based startup The Supplant Company is targeting the US market with an intriguing new addition to the sugar-reduction toolbox in the form of ‘sugars from fiber,’ a new low-glycemic blend of sugars extracted from upcycled feedstocks that performs like...
Leading CPG companies including Unilever, Hershey, and General Mills have urged the FDA to look again at the way some sugars such as tagatose and isomaltulose are labeled on the Nutrition Facts panel in the wake of recent changes to the way allulose is...
Plant-based dairy brand Miyoko’s Creamery has raised $52m in a series C round led by PowerPlant Partners ($40m) that will help fund marketing and innovation at the firm, which generated a 70% increase in revenues in 2020, and is gearing up to launch an...
As the Delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across the US, Tyson Foods said Tuesday that it would require its 120,000 US workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November – making it the first major meat packer and largest food company so far to...
