Flavors and colors

Can prebiotics and probiotics beverages grow together? Brew Dr. CEO says yes

24-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

Oregon-based organic kombucha brand Brew Dr. is going "a little bit bolder, a little bit bigger" with its new branding and flavors as the company looks to expand household penetration amidst a growing competitive landscape in the functional...

Plant-based meat has more to offer: Stakeholders share strategies for success

23-Mar-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

It is too soon to give up on the plant-based meat segment, which has seen sales and household penetration slip in the past year, but which is evolving to meet demand for products that are healthier, tastier and more convenient, argued industry stakeholders...

HOP WTR taps into functional benefits, alcohol moderation to grow brand

22-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

Non-alcoholic beverage brand HOP WTR is leaning on functional ingredients like ashwagandha and L-Theanine to provide consumers with added mood management benefits, as the brand looks to sustain interest and repeat purchase following a spike in sales from...

McCormick freshens up red-cap business with new look, bottle

20-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

After nearly 40 years with the same look, McCormick’s red-cap business of spices and herbs is getting a shake-up with a new bottle and packaging, as the company tries to tap into consumer demand for freshness and more sustainable products, Nikki French...

Natural Products Expo West

Uncle Matt’s looks to functional innovation in face of “most challenging season” for citrus sourcing

20-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

With the increasing demand for functional beverages, Uncle Matt's is preparing for a year of product innovation in the organic juice space at the same time that it navigates another challenging season for citrus sourcing, as brand CEO and founder...

WhatIF targets ‘climate anxious Gen Z’ with bambara groundnut plant-based milk, noodles

17-Mar-2023 By Lauren Nardella

Singapore-based WhatIF Foods looks to bring its line of products derived from the bambara groundnut to a wider audience in the coming year, focusing on educating consumers about the legume’s benefits and appealing to the “climate anxious GenZ consumer,”...

Eat the Change expands Just Ice Tea line, aims to recapture Honest Tea market

16-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

Eat the Change co-founder Seth Goldman is continuing to fill the gap left behind by The Coca-Cola Co.'s decision to discontinue Honest Tea by creating a “rhyming copy” of the beloved ready-to-drink brand under his new company, which recently released...

Tostitos triples up on cheese in expansion of its chip line

15-Mar-2023 By Ryan Daily

With the launch of its latest Tostitos flavor — Mexican Style Three Cheese — PepsiCo is advancing its proposition to elevate its chips beyond a side to the center of the plate.

Expo West Trendspotting: From beverages bursting with boba to munchable mochi and plant-based beyond meat and dairy

13-Mar-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Emerging and maturing trends revealed at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim last week ranged from dips delivering delightful dinners, mochi moving into multiple day parts, plant-based expanding beyond analogues, and beverages brimming with better-for-you...

Register today for FoodNavigator-USA’s webinar Plant-Based Meat: Beyond The Honeymoon Period

02-Mar-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

As dollar and unit sales of frozen and refrigerated plant-based meat at retail continue to slide and grocers cut back on their selections of refrigerated meat alternatives, many stakeholders are wondering if the honeymoon period for the category has ended,...

Symrise report finds global flavor mash-ups key trend to watch in food, beverage in 2023

27-Feb-2023 By Ryan Daily

From Polish to Korean flavor mashups to low-alcoholic beverages, these are a few areas that CPG companies and tastemakers should be on the lookout for in 2023, according to a recent consumer trends report from flavor house Symrise.

Coca-Cola rebuilds portfolio with a ‘higher bar for innovation,’ eye on larger market

24-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

After The Coca-Cola Co. halved its brands during the pandemic, the beverage giant is ready to strategically rebuild its product portfolio with “consumers at the center,” a new marketing model, a higher bar for innovation and an eye on a much larger prize...

Exclusive: Frozen Chinese food brand XCJ rebrands as MiLa as it expands its portfolio, distribution

23-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Xiao Chi Jie (XCJ), the modern Chinese food brand that helped put authentic soup dumplings on the US map by cultivating a cult-like direct-to-consumer following during the pandemic is ready to expand into brick and mortar stores this April with a new...

Kraft Heinz reaches ‘inflection point’ in transformation with bold goal to capture $2b in sales with innovation in three years

22-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Kraft Heinz is entering the final stage of its transformation in which it plans to capture $2b in incremental net sales from innovation through 2027 after the company has systematically rebuilt itself following the dramatic fallout of an aggressive cost-cutting...

Devil’s Foot Beverage Co. is ‘doing more good, less harm’ with its Full Fruit Life Program

16-Feb-2023 By Ryan Daily

Devil’s Foot Beverage Company has a simple philosophy: do more good and less harm -- and with its Full Fruit Life Program, the brand is doing just that by maximizing the use of its raw ingredients while providing a byproduct to local brands, company co-found...

Sweet but healthy? Cargill finds unmet demand for healthier sweet baked goods

13-Feb-2023 By Ryan Daily

While consumers often look to the sweet bakery category for sugary fixes and chocolatey crunches, CPG companies might have an opportunity to innovate a new — healthier — path forward for the space, according to a recent survey and analysis from food ingredient...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: What does plant-based protein need to cross the trough of despair?

13-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Alongside falling sales, volume and units, plant-based meat has slid into the trough of despair, also known as valley of disillusionment or sorrow, and while it is unclear if the category has hit bottom yet, many stakeholders already are looking for a...

Tabasco spices up salads with TikTok-influenced, LTO hot sauce dressing

10-Feb-2023 By Ryan Daily

With a new product collaboration with TikTok influencer Tinx, Tabasco is looking to “normalize hot sauce as dressing,” as Lee Susen, chief sales and marketing officer at McIlhenny Company (Tabasco’s parent company), told FoodNavigator-USA.

PepsiCo leans on new flavors, double-digit marketing to enhance consumers’ value perception, justify price increases

10-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Through a combination of new flavor and product launches, boosting advertising and marketing, and integrating purpose throughout the organization, PepsiCo expects to build on a strong fourth quarter and deliver upwards of 6% organic revenue growth in...

Hooray Foods’ plant-based bacon bucks declines in overall meat alternatives

09-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Against the grim backdrop of tumbling sales, units and volume for fresh and frozen alternative proteins, plant-based bacon is emerging as a bright spot – with sales inching up, thanks in part to innovative production techniques, like those championed...

Could USDA limit the provision of flavored milk in US schools?

06-Feb-2023 By Teodora Lyubomirova

In a bid to provide healthier meals and reduce the amount of sugar and salt consumed by school kids, the USDA has proposed several updates to the school nutrition standards, with flavored milk potentially excluded from some kids' menus.

FDA will not object to limited health claims regarding cocoa flavanols and cardiovascular disease

06-Feb-2023 By Lauren Nardella

FDA will allow a very narrow set of claims linking cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease following a petition from Switzerland-based chocolate and cocoa product manufacturer Barry Callebaut AG.

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Step One Foods directs consumers, healthcare professionals down food as medicine path

06-Feb-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Most Americans think about food in terms of servings, but Johns Hopkins-trained cardiologist Elizabeth Klodas talks about the snack bars, pancake mix, granola-like sprinkles and packets of oatmeal she offers under her brand Step One Foods’ in terms of...

US Snack Index reveals consumers' fear of running out of snacks during the Super Bowl

03-Feb-2023 By Gill Hyslop

Shockingly – in the run up to the country’s biggest watched sporting event – Frito-Lay’s latest Snack Index found that almost half the country’s Super Bowl fans would rather see their team lose than have to sit through the game without snacks.

Kerry’s 2023 Taste & Nutrition charts explore sriracha’s rise & guava, sesame, dulce de leche growth

01-Feb-2023 By Ryan Daily

After nearly two decades of first appearing in fast-food restaurants across the US and becoming a go-to favorite for spicy aficionados, sriracha today is not only an established flavor that many consumers love, but according to Kerry’s Taste & Nutrition...

SimpliiGood, Haifa tie-up will be 'transformative' for sustainable spirulina

01-Feb-2023 By Katy Askew

SimpliiGood by AlgaeCore Technologies is teaming up with international plant nutrition giant Haifa Group to optimize the Israeli food tech innovator’s spirulina supply chain. The partnership shows ‘the maturity and potential of the entire sector’, according...

Euromonitor cracks the lid on canned seafood TikTok craze

30-Jan-2023 By Ryan Daily

What’s old is new … or so the saying goes. And for canned seafood products, they might be the newest/oldest thing on the block, with sales increasing 9.7% to $2.7 billion in 2022, as Euromonitor International senior research analyst Miri Eliyahu recently...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Frozen pierogi maker Mrs. T’s shares the secret for surviving – and thriving – 70 years

30-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

As frozen pierogi maker Mrs. T’s celebrates 70 years of tucking ‘the stuff you love’ into a soft pasta pockets shaped ‘like a smile,’ the founder’s son and now company president reflects on what it takes to not only survive but thrive for seven decades...

What’s next in RTD coffee?

25-Jan-2023 By Rachel Arthur

Gen Z consumers are more likely to drink RTD coffee than hot coffee – and as brands respond, the category is expanding and developing. We explore what’s trending in RTD coffee – and where the category could go next.

Westrock Coffee’s investment in RTD, cold coffee beverages could help triple profit

24-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Private labeler Westrock Coffee expects to triple its profitability over the next three years as it aggressively builds out its flavors, extractions and ingredients business and finishes renovating what will be its largest production facility following...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Emerging demand for positive nutrition must balance functional benefits, taste, sustainability and convenience

23-Jan-2023 By Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Emerging demand for positive nutrition must balance functional benefits, taste, sustainability and convenience

Born out of the pandemic when product availability was unpredictable or limited and when a premium was placed on immunity-boosting, consumers in 2023 increasingly are seeking positive nutrition – both for themselves but also for the planet and workers...

Monster gains sales with price hike, leans on innovation to recover units in 2023

23-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Monster Beverage Corporation executives predict that sales growth across its energy drink portfolio will pick up and continue to outpace overall category growth in the coming months following a long-delayed and category-leading price increase that went...

AI-powered startup The Live Green Co – a tech ‘enabler’ for broader food industry - unveils precision fermentation division

16-Jan-2023 By Elaine Watson

The Live Green Co – a startup deploying an artificial intelligence platform called 'Charaka' to mine databases of plants in search of replacements for animal-based ingredients, synthetic, or highly-processed ingredients from BHA to methylcellulose...

PepsiCo reformulates Pepsi Zero Sugar, replaces Sierra Mist with STARRY in New Year shake-up

13-Jan-2023 By Ryan Daily

To kick start 2023, PepsiCo this week freshened up its beverage line-up, unveiling a new formulation for Pepsi Zero Sugar and releasing STARRY, a lemon lime-flavored soda that is replacing Sierra Mist.

Unilever drives market share up 10pp by pruning innovation pipeline, product portfolio to do more with less

13-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Unilever is steadily gaining market share, boosting sales in fast-growing categories, lowering the cost of experimentation and improving its consumer engagement by doing more with less, CEO Alan Jope touted during the company’s investor day last month....

Unilever rethinks formulation strategy, noting: ‘Just taste is no longer enough’ to win

11-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Taste may be considered king by most food and beverage makers, but at Unilever it no longer reigns supreme after the CPG giant adopted a new ‘holistically superior’ product testing framework and ‘boldly healthier’ food commitments for 2025 – a move that...

Snack and bakery items growing beyond inflation lean on adventurous, sophisticated flavors

09-Jan-2023 By Elizabeth Crawford

Like most grocery categories, sales of snack and bakery products are up over the last year in line with inflation, but units are down slightly across omni channel and brick and mortar as consumers look to hold their grocery budgets in check in the face...

Meat-free: Kinoko harnesses solid state fermentation to offer high-protein, minimally processed center-of-the plate options

01-Jan-2023 By Elaine Watson

While several firms are growing fungi in fermentation tanks to make meat analogs, Israeli startup Kinoko is ditching the stainless steel vessels, adding fungi strains to legumes and grains in stacked trays, and letting them work their magic in a solid...

The 'college diet': Soup sales surge as shoppers seek affordable meals and comfort

21-Dec-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Soup season is in full swing as temperatures across the country drop and cold and flu cases rise. But staying warm and reinforcing their reserves when sick aren’t the only reasons sales of soup are up significantly this year over last, according to new...

Nestlé’s budget-friendly innovation strategy: ‘We are faster now than many of the startups”

21-Dec-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

No longer a lumbering giant when it comes to R&D, Nestlé significantly increased its number of new product launches and number of patents in priority areas by simplifying its innovation process, fostering an entrepreneurial culture and collaborating...

SPECIAL REPORT: Plant-based dairy and meat by numbers; declining trends continue, but pockets of growth remain

16-Dec-2022 By Elaine Watson

New data from IRI and SPINS shows continued steep declines in sales of refrigerated meat alternatives but pockets of growth in frozen products and some plant-based milk, cheese, and yogurt subcategories, which do not all behave in the same way (spoiler...

Nestlé expands premium coffee options under Nescafe, Nespresso and Starbucks to win at in- and out-of-home

14-Dec-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Already a dominant player in coffee with 22% of the nearly $108bn global retail market, Nestlé wants to capture additional share and drive growth in- and out-of-home in the coming years as consumption across both continues to rebalance post-pandemic with...

Flavor Flash: T. Hasegawa highlights dairy trends for 2023

13-Dec-2022 By Asia Sherman

Dairy should focus on reclaiming its functional food identity and infusing excitement through flavor innovation, according to experts from food and beverage flavor company T. Hasegawa.

Danone’s International Delight creamer targets next generation of coffee drinkers with whimsical, nostalgic flavors and partnerships

13-Dec-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

Danone North America, the maker of International Delight creamers, wants to entice the next generation of coffee drinkers who are just establishing their daily rituals with a line-up of flavors launching this holiday season and throughout the new year...

SPECIAL REPORT: FDA doubles down on titanium dioxide safety as CSPI raises concerns; Skittles lawsuits dismissed

12-Dec-2022 By Elaine Watson

While the European Commission recently banned the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) in foods in the EU, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has just warned consumers to avoid it, the FDA tells us it has reviewed the scientific opinion...

Novozymes, Chr. Hansen merger: ‘The combination…will show the world the true power of biosolutions’

12-Dec-2022 By Katy Askew

Danish enzyme and cultures suppliers Novozymes and Chr. Hansen plan to merge their businesses in a move they say will create a ‘leading global biosolutions partner’.

Bel Brands, Perfect Day launch animal-free cream cheese to expand exposure, appeal of dairy alternatives to mainstream shoppers

09-Dec-2022 By Elizabeth Crawford

While the alternative cheese market remains relatively small and the focus of a niche consumer-base of vegan and lactose-intolerant consumers, a partnership between cheesemaker Bel Brands USA and animal-free dairy protein innovator Perfect Day seeks to...

Impossible Foods EU patent revoked; US IP dispute with Motif FoodWorks ramps up: 'If Impossible wins, it means no one else can experiment with heme in the plant-based industry.'

07-Dec-2022 By Elaine Watson

Motif FoodWorks has filed a suite of new petitions with the US Patent and Trademark Office challenging US patents held by Impossible Foods over the use of heme proteins in meat alternatives as it defends itself against accusations of IP infringement....

STARTUP NATION PART ONE: Israeli food startups to watch, from a flavor revolution with solid state fermentation to boozy shelf-stable creams

06-Dec-2022 By Elaine Watson

It's got a population of under nine million, but in the food innovation stakes, Israel punches way above its weight. FoodNavigator-USA headed to Tel Aviv for the Food Tech IL annual innovation event organized by The Strauss Group’s The Kitchen FoodTech...

Firmenich’s flavor of the year for 2023 is… dragon fruit: ‘Light, refreshing, sweet, and delicious…’

05-Dec-2022 By Elaine Watson

Dragon fruit is making the shift from niche to mainstream, says flavors giant Firmenich, which has selected the fruit as its flavor of the year for 2023 after it exhibited “one of the fastest growth rates of any ingredient we’ve tracked in recent years.”