Flavors and colors

FDA issues long-awaited voluntary short-term sodium reduction targets, but stops short of finalizing tougher 10-year targets

13-Oct-2021 By Elaine Watson

The FDA has issued long-awaited final guidance for the food industry outlining voluntary, short-term (2.5 year) sodium reduction targets for 163 categories of packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods.

‘We will become the number 2 global player in natural colours’: Givaudan talks DDW acquisition

13-Oct-2021 By Katy Askew

Swiss flavours and fragrances giant Givaudan has announced plans to acquire DDW, The Color House, in a deal that will make it a ‘global leader’ in the natural colours space.

FDA tackles rising childhood obesity by 'helping industry improve the underlying healthfulness of the food supply'

07-Oct-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

As part of a broad effort to reverse an alarming and profound increase in childhood obesity in the US during the pandemic, FDA is seeking to improve children’s diets, and is also taking steps to limit exposure to toxic elements in baby food and reduce...

Sweegen to launch high intensity sweetener brazzein in 2022

04-Oct-2021 By Elaine Watson

Sweegen will expand its high-intensity sweeteners portfolio early next year with the addition of brazzein, an ultra-sweet tasting protein found in small quantities in the fruit of a West African plant called oubli, that can be produced on a commercial...

News In Brief

McCormick shares slump in face of inflation, supply chain challenges despite ‘remarkable’ sales growth

01-Oct-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Spice maker McCormick & Co.’s shares fell 3.2% yesterday despite beating third-quarter profit estimates and posting a “remarkable” 8% sales increase in the period over strong results for the same time last year when pantry-stocking caused consumer...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Killer Creamery finds sweet-spot in sugar-free ice cream, frozen novelties

27-Sep-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Not many companies would be satisfied with or even strive to produce a food or beverage that tastes ‘normal,’ but the founder of the better-for-you frozen dessert company Killer Creamery couldn’t be happier that the taste of brand’s new ice cream sandwich...

Kraft Heinz to acquire Brazilian condiments and sauces company Hemmer

23-Sep-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Kraft Heinz has entered into an agreement to acquire Brazilian condiments and sauces company Companhia Hemmer Indústria e Comércio (a.k.a. 'Hemmer').

Tofurky teams up with Triton Algae Innovations for algae-fueled ‘meat innovations’ set to launch in Q1, 2022

22-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

Plant based meat brand Tofurky has teamed up with San Diego-based Triton Algae Innovations to commercialize new ‘algae-based meat innovations’ featuring Triton’s protein-rich Non-GMO ‘essential red' algae for retail launch in Q1, 2022.

'Our priority is innovation...' Sophie’s Kitchen raises $5.6m to expand plant-based seafood category

17-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

Sophie’s Kitchen has secured a $5.6m investment led by venture capital firm Billy Goat Brands to help it expand its plant-based seafood empire, which now extends into multiple categories including ‘toona,’ crab cakes, fish filets, smoked salmon, and shrimp....

‘A gamechanger for flavor in meat alternatives…’ Motif FoodWorks to launch heme-binding protein delivering ‘flavor and aroma of real meat’

17-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

Motif FoodWorks has submitted a GRAS notification for myoglobin, a heme-binding protein found in the muscle tissue of cows that Motif is expressing in a genetically engineered yeast strain. The protein – which the Boston-based firm reckons could be a...

Diverse investor base behind $3.8 m fundraise will help Asian American food startup immi go mainstream

16-Sep-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

For the co-founders of the better-for-you Asian American food startup immi, the most exciting part of closing their seed fundraise wasn’t the $3.8m that will help them relaunch an improved version of their low-carb, high-protein, plant-based instant ramen...

Introducing the FoodNavigator-USA broadcast series: Disrupting the meat and dairy case -- from plant-based bacon to ‘real’ cheese (minus the cows)

16-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

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...

Givaudan, Bühler and Migros launch tie-up to accelerate cultured meat sector

16-Sep-2021 By Katy Askew

Givaudan, Bühler and Migros have formed a new company, The Cultured Food Innovation Hub, with the aim of accelerating the development and market penetration of cellular agriculture.

NEW PRODUCTS GALLERY: From 'Oddly Good' plant-based yogurt to oatmeal in a ball and chickpea tofu

15-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

In FoodNavigator-USA's latest roundup of new product launches, we include an eclectic mix of new products, from Chobani's first foray into peanut butter, to Hershey's new 'Oat Made' bars, an interesting new twist on tofu, and...

Campbell Soup Co. gains share in soup thanks to innovation, continued life at home, even as sales cool from pandemic highs

15-Sep-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

With soup sales beginning to cool closer to pre-pandemic levels in the last quarter of fiscal 2021, Campbell Soup Co. is heating up the category, literally and figuratively, with innovations across its Pacific, Well Yes! and namesake soup brands to maintain...

‘A major milestone for the food industry …’ FDA approves Sensient’s ‘exceptionally heat-stable’ natural blue food color from butterfly pea flower

08-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

The FDA has approved an aqueous extract of the blue petals of butterfly pea flower (Clitoria ternatea) – a plant native to Southeast Asia – as a color additive exempt from certification following a petition from Sensient Technologies, which described...

‘Alternative proteins are moving in all directions… it’s becoming like a jungle out there’: Givaudan discusses its new Protein Hub launch

07-Sep-2021 By Oliver Morrison

The Swiss company’s new Protein Hub aims to provide experts and technology to accelerate alternative protein development, Thomas Ullram, Innovation Director Savoury Europe at Givaudan Taste & Wellbeing Division, tells FoodNavigator.

Provectus Algae to start producing 'high-performance' red food coloring from algae to support the alternative protein market

02-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

Provectus Algae – an Australian startup developing an automated growing platform it claims can unlock algae’s potential as a source of high-value ingredients – is building a large-scale manufacturing facility in Noosaville, Australia, that will start...

Once Upon a Farm co-founder Ari Raz joins The Coconut Cult as CEO: ‘Its core following is really unmatched for a company of this size’

01-Sep-2021 By Elaine Watson

Ari Raz - who helped introduce Americans to fresh baby food via the Once Upon a Farm brand – has taken the helm at The Coconut Cult, another California-based startup attempting to carve out a new category in grocery.

Investing in the Future of Food

Chocolate minus cocoa? Peanut butter minus peanuts? Voyage Foods wants to ‘decouple’ food from its source material to ease negative environmental, social implications

01-Sep-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Climate change, labor shortages, inflation and strained supply chains threaten manufacturers’ and suppliers’ ability to ethically source, safely produce and efficiently deliver the foods consumers want at prices they can afford -- but what if there was...

Poppi closes $13.5m funding round led by CAVU Ventures and backed by celebrity investors: 'Poppi is the modern soda for the next generation'

30-Aug-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Poppi, an emerging prebiotic soda brand, has closed a $13.5m funding round led by CAVU Ventures and further backed by a star-studded investor pool including Ellie Goulding, Halsey, Kevin Love, and Olivia Munn, which will go towards supporting the company's...

Quest Nutrition CMO: ‘Higher protein, lower sugar, lower carb snacking, is not a fad, it’s here to stay’

27-Aug-2021 By Elaine Watson

While Quest Nutrition may not have achieved its founders’ somewhat lofty goal of ‘ending metabolic disease’ just yet, the high-protein, low-carb, low-sugar positioning of the company – one of the runaway CPG success stories of the past decade – is continuing...

FOOD FOR KIDS: Balchem develops kids-focused products that help promote a healthy relationship with food

26-Aug-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Specialty ingredients supplier Balchem has developed several product concepts for the kids snacking market addressing specific nutrition areas of increasing importance to parents and families of young children.

Bhoomi positions sugarcane water as healthy for people, the planet & Black farmers economically

24-Aug-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Sugar and healthy usually occupy opposite ends of the spectrum, but startup Bhoomi wants to bring them together in a line of cold-pressed cane water elixirs featuring traditional Ayurvedic ingredients and a compelling mission to “balance health, equitable...

Mars Advanced Research Institute: ‘We're looking at those truly next generation technology solutions’

20-Aug-2021 By Katy Askew

The Mars Advanced Research Institute (MARI) is a division of Mars examining how developments in science and technology are going to shape the future food system. Dr Abi Stevenson, Mars VP of MARI, told us her unit is ‘looking at those truly next generation...

McCormick & Company expands 'Grown for Good' sustainability standard

16-Aug-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

McCormick & Company is advancing its third-party verified sustainability standard, 'Grown for Good', for suppliers in the herbs and spices industry.

Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging ‘slightly sweet’ claims on Coca-Cola’s Gold Peak tea

13-Aug-2021 By Elaine Watson

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.

Impossible Sausage hits retail market: ‘Everything we’ve brought to market in retail so far has been wildly well received’

11-Aug-2021 By Elaine Watson

Impossible Sausage made from plants – a soy-based ground sausage product in savory and spicy variants – will make its retail debut this month and should be in 13,000 stores by the year end, says Impossible Foods, which says retailers have been encouraged...

‘No brand to date has really nailed Greek in plant-based yogurt, until now….’ Danone unveils Silk Greek-style

10-Aug-2021 By Elaine Watson

Danone is hoping to make a splash in the small but rapidly growing plant-based yogurt segment with a Greek-style product under its Silk brand boasting 10g of protein from peas and a thick, creamy texture from coconut cream it claims will be a game changer...

Kraft Heinz tracking ‘well above pre-pandemic levels’ gaining 2 million new households in two years, says CEO

04-Aug-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Closing out the first half of 2021 and using pre-pandemic 2019 as a measuring stick for its growth, Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio says it has made fundamental progress in its transformation agenda.

GALLERY: Food ingredients startups to watch, from rare sugars and prebiotic fibers to 'cell-free' biomanufacturing

31-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

From San Diego-based Debut Biotech, which is developing a range of high-value ingredients via a novel ‘cell-free’ biomanufacturing platform, to Virginia-based Bonumose, which has patented technology it claims could enable the “mass market adoption” of...

‘The competition is incredible…’ Planterra Foods (JBS) moves into the frozen aisle with OZO as plant-based meat category heats up

30-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Planterra Foods, the plant-based division of meat giant JBS - which debuted in the refrigerated aisle last summer under the OZO brand – has moved into the frozen aisle, expanded its relationship with Boulder-based fungi tech co MycoTechnology, and is...

The New Primal lands $15m Series B funding: 'We very much see ourselves as a clean eating platform brand at this point,' says CEO

30-Jul-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Once a brand focused solely on meat snacks, The New Primal has extended into a number of adjacent categories in the past three years including sauces and marinades, condiments, salad dressings, and dry seasonings, making it a bonafide platform brand,...

Debut Biotech teams up with DIC to explore novel, ‘cell-free’ approach to biomanufacturing natural food colors

29-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Fine chemicals co DIC has teamed up with San Diego-based startup Debut Biotech to develop color ingredients via a novel ‘cell-free’ biomanufacturing platform, which it claims could enable the biosynthesis of colors that are “hard to find or even inaccessible...

Soylent now profitable, firing on all cylinders, says CEO after rollercoaster year: ‘We had to make dramatic changes or we would have run out of cash…’

28-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

A brand described as “only slightly more appealing than an IV bag” by one uncharitable observer when it first gained a cult following among Silicon Valley programmers as a powdered meal replacement, Soylent has steadily evolved its format, product line...

Celestial Seasonings sustains double-digit growth in packaged tea: ‘It’s flavor-forward, it’s global, it's better for you’

28-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

US retail sales of packaged tea have been sluggish in recent years, with Nielsen data* showing a flat market until 2020, when covid prompted a 16.8% surge, before everything slowed back down again. Celestial Seasonings, however, has maintained double-digit...

SPECIAL REPORT: Plant-based meat formulation in focus, from Beyond Meat to Motif FoodWorks, Roquette, and Cargill: ‘The meat alternative space has the fastest iteration cycles out there’

27-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

If you look at the ingredients lists of most plant-based burgers, they’re not wildly different – a combination of extruded plant proteins, hard and liquid fats, natural flavors, yeast, methylcellulose, starch, seasonings and perhaps added vitamins and...

'We are actively looking at all major animal-protein categories...' NotCo raises $235m in series D to expand its global plant-based meat, dairy empire

26-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Santiago-based food tech company NotCo has raised $235m in a Series D round led by Tiger Global and supported by DFJ Growth Fund, ZOMA Lab, athletes Lewis Hamilton and Roger Federer, and musician and DJ Questlove, taking its cumulative funding to $350m...

IFT FIRST: From botanicals & florals to amped up hot sauce to nostalgic comebacks – which pandemic trends have staying power?

23-Jul-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The emotional and physical toll taken by the pandemic has reshaped Americans’ palates – pushing them to try more adventurous flavor profiles, including more floral and earthy botanicals that were once niche in the US, embrace yuzu and step-up their heat...

Zevia CEO on the IPO, stevia, and margins: ‘Our business model offers attractive profitability…’

23-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

While a recent probe into Oatly’s accounting practices and a flood of tech money going into food has raised questions about valuations in the space, zero-sugar soda brand Zevia has a solid track record of growth, a clear consumer proposition (great taste,...

Zevia starts trading on NYSE: 'Consumers are increasingly averse to added sugars...'

22-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Shares in stevia-sweetened zero-calorie beverage brand Zevia – which first hit the market in 2007 – started trading on the New York Stock Exchange this morning (ticker symbol ZVIA).

Crafty Counter gears up for launch of Wundereggs, billed as the first plant-based RTE boiled eggs

22-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Plant-based brand Crafty Counter, best-known for its frozen lentil- and bean-based bites – has developed what it claims is an industry first: ready-to-eat plant-based boiled eggs, which it hopes to launch late this year or early next year.

Coca-Cola Co. leverages ‘disciplined’ innovation, increases marketing to build on strong Q2 results

22-Jul-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The Coca-Cola Co. plans to build on the strong momentum in its second quarter that allowed it to raise its full-year guidance by intensifying the amount and efficacy of promotions going forward and continuing to innovate with a ‘disciplined approach to...

Sensient Technologies acquires assets of Flavor Solutions Inc.

19-Jul-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Sensient Technologies has acquired the assets of New Jersey-based Flavor Solutions, a custom product and flavor development company serving the food, beverage, and nutraceutical industries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Plant-based chicken space heats up as Impossible Foods enters fray with nuggets

16-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

The plant-based chicken category is heating up with Impossible Foods unveiling plans to enter the market in the fall with soy-based nuggets, going head to head with rival Beyond Meat, which has just launched pea-, and faba bean-based tenders.

‘The most sustainable option in the food industry…’ Noblegen opens CAD$500m Series C round to commercialize suite of ingredients from ancient microbe euglena gracilis

15-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Canadian startup Noblegen has opened a CAD$500m Series C capital raise as it seeks to commercialize a suite of products from the ‘ancient microorganism’ euglena gracilis, which can produce everything from proteins that behave like animal proteins, to...

Flow Beverage Corp debuts on Toronto Stock Exchange, posts 97% surge in revenues in first half

14-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Common shares in naturally alkaline spring water Flow Beverage Corp. began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange today (ticker symbol 'FLOW'), following the company’s reverse takeover transaction via a three cornered amalgamation with RG One...

NuSkool Snacks finds growth in recovering snack and nutrition bar category: 'Our retail numbers are off the charts'

12-Jul-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Despite overall declines of the snack and nutrition bar category over the past year, NuSkool Snacks (formerly MCTco) saw demand for its brand – and other low-sugar bar products like it increase – reports founder and CEO Joe Christensen.

ROAR Organic repositions from sports drink to all-day hydration solution: 'We changed the entire identity of our product,' says CEO

08-Jul-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

If you took the best of Bai, the best of Vitaminwater, and the best of Gatorade, and made it organic, you would have ROAR, says CEO Alex Galindez, who is applying a new distribution and marketing playbook to the five-year-old brand.

‘If we can control the light, we can control the DNA…’ Provectus Algae unlocks algae’s potential as an industrial platform for high-value ingredients

06-Jul-2021 By Elaine Watson

Algae is potentially a hugely exciting food source. But with a couple of notable exceptions, it has yet to set the food industry on fire, says Provectus Algae, a startup developing an automated growing platform it claims can unlock algae’s potential as...