Flavor and spice behemoth McCormick & Company’s ambitious goal to increase sales 4% to 6% in local currency in 2015 hinges on increased consumer demand for bold flavors and healthier foods, product innovation, increased marketing and “customer intimacy,”...
Jon Sebastiani: 'It was always going to be a bittersweet moment'
The day when any entrepreneur decides to sell his business is “always bittersweet” KRAVE jerky founder Jon Sebastiani tells FoodNavigator-USA. But joining a company with the horsepower of Hershey will enable it to lead, rather than follow, the renaissance...
You can make money out of online grocery shopping if you have a scalable business model, a targeted range of high quality fresh foods, and the tools to help you build meaningful relationships with consumers, says Door to Door Organics, which has proved...
Dietary sugars intakes are decreasing or stable in most countries, according to a data review of ten European countries, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
More consumers are seeking healthy foods and beverages at convenience stores, creating an opportunity in a previously often overlooked channel for manufacturers of these products to expand their reach, according to new market research from Technomic.
Trendwatchers at Sensient Flavors have identified eight up-and-coming flavor trends for 2015 using the company's proprietary ‘Trends to Taste’ program, a predictive process that filters trends from the broad, consumer, macro level down to finished...
Latest trends on beverages, gluten-free, clean-label, snacks
From the perils of putting ‘all-natural’ on your label to what beverage execs really think about plummeting sales of diet soda, FoodNavigator-USA’s online discussion forums and face to face events tackle some of the hottest topics in food and beverage,...
Thanks to traditional plant breeding techniques, a fourth generation farmer in Kentucky is successfully growing chia in the U.S. for the first time – creating a new valuable crop opportunity for farmers and a reliable, traceable – and local – supply of...
A recent FDA warning letter to a New York company points again to the danger of mixing metaphors when positioning a product as either a beverage or a liquid dietary supplement.
Technology is reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate and select food – creating dichotomies to which manufacturers must adapt their marketing and product positioning, a recently released white paper evaluating consumer trends in 2015 by Euromonitor...
Private label penetration rates have not budged since 2011
Dollar sales of foods and beverages edged up a modest 2.1% to $470bn in the US retail market in 2014, but unit sales (an indication of volumes) were pretty flat (up just 0.9%), according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI.
Field Roast Grain Meat Co. expands its portfolio into the retail vegan cheese category with the Jan. 1 launch of Chao Slices, which it claims are “revolutionary” because they do not try to mimic dairy cheese like other players in the segment.
BioHarvest, an Israeli company harvesting dietary supplement ingredients from plants grown via a unique hydroponic method, has launched a “biofood” ingredient called VINIA Red Grape Powder, said to offer the benefits of drinking red wine without the sugar,...
Acai Roots hopes its new fruit bar will entice back to the frozen dessert aisle consumers who have given the category the cold shoulder in recent years because they perceive it as filled with unhealthy treats.
Minor changes in how packaged foods are presented could help them reclaim sales lost when consumers began favoring fresh and less-processed foods that they perceive as healthier and closer to nature, according to a wellness trend expert.
With buyers from Whole Foods, Kroger, KeHE, Compass Group, Dean & DeLuca and hundreds of other retailers and foodservice chains walking the floor looking for innovative new products, the Winter Fancy Food Show has helped to launch scores of high-profile...
Positive health claims, such as those touting the benefits of a food, diet or quality, more effectively motivate the general public than negative or fear-based claims that attempt to scare people into action, according to a recently published study in...
The crowdfunding website Kickstarter helped the beverage company Genki-Su raise nearly twice as much money as necessary to pay for the first round of bottling for its concentrated Japanese drinking vinegar, but company co-founder Judy Tan acknowledged...
The FDA has written to Solazyme to say it has no objections to the firm’s GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) determination for its AlgaVia whole algal protein, a move which the microalgae specialist claims will “pave the way for mainstream adoption...
Entrepreneurs need to stay healthy in order to ensure the long-term success and health of their start-up, advises a top executive at TumericALIVE, a young beverage company dedicated to making elixirs packed with turmeric to rejuvenate, restore and re-energize...
Nutrition and health bars are stealing market share from the category leading snack and cereal bars in part because they tie into the health and wellness trend dominating many consumers’ purchasing decisions in a way snack and cereal bars don’t, according...
Peeled Snacks: If you don’t take time to understand retail buyers, why should they take time to understand you?
Which retail channel is right for your brand? Natural? Club? Convenience? And once you’ve jumped through all the buyers’ hoops, will you still be able to make any money? It all depends on whether you’ve done your homework, one snacking sales expert told...
Companies hoping to appeal to consumers interested in the heart health benefits of dark chocolate now have another marketing tool at their disposal: the percentage of cocoa labeled on their bars.
New consumers continue to enter the organic category for the first time, but the health halo cast by the US Department of Agriculture’s certification is dimming as it becomes more mainstream and as shoppers’ interpretation of the standard evolves.
Understanding how products' sensory characteristics and packaging both individually and synergistically provoke emotions in consumers can help manufacturers to design and optimise products, say researchers.
Consumers’ shifting preference for snacks as meals are changing how retailers, restaurants and packaged food manufacturers market food, according to data from Packaged Facts and Dupont Nutrition & Health.
Despite popular resolutions to eat healthier, manufacturers do not need to fear a drop in sales of less healthy foods at the start of the New Year compared to during the holidays when many people indulge, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE.
A few years ago, chia seeds were virtually unheard of in the U.S., but now they are available across food categories and retail channels in a plethora of finished consumer goods and as an ingredient, thanks largely to long-range planning by The Chia Co.
Authentic street foods with international roots that were traditionally eaten outside as make shift meals by laborers are coming inside and appealing to a wider variety of people as more consumers favor fast food over home cooking, according to Packaged...
A new competitor has arrived on the plant-based omega-3s scene with the announcement of FDA no-objection GRAS status for Ahiflower oil, an ingredient from Technology Crops International. The oil offers a balance of omega-3, -6 and -9, according to the...
Mandatory GMO labels will be seen as 'warning labels', warns GMA
Supporters and opponents of GMO labeling will square up in a courtroom in Burlington, Vermont, today (Jan 7) to present oral arguments over the merits of Act 120, which will require mandatory labeling of foods produced with genetic engineering.
Two-year time frame 'would almost certainly drive an increase in food prices'
The two-year time frame in which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expects the food industry to switch to new-look Nutrition Facts labels is unrealistic, and “would almost certainly drive an increase in prices of food products”, claims Kroger.
Seeds and nuts will usurp kale and coconut as the top two superfoods in 2015 as consumers look for on-the-go, nutrient dense foods, according to a survey of 500 registered dietitians conducted by the trade magazine Today’s Dietitian and the public relations...
Start-up meal kit delivery service Chef’d is able to raise much-needed capital to launch and at the same time work out the kinks in its operations, production and delivery by working with the crowd-funding website Indiegogo.
The rise of grocerants, or in-grocery-store dining, is helping supermarkets – and by extension food-based consumer packaged goods – hold their own against restaurants, drive-thrus, food trucks and take-out joints as consumer spending on food at home loses...
A recent study linking children’s fast food consumption with lower standardized test scores in reading, math and science adds to the growing body of research suggesting nutrition significantly influences academic success.
Weight management, heart health, and digestive health are the top opportunities for functional food and beverage formulators, with growth in the sector driven by increasingly health-conscious consumers, says a new report from Packaged Facts.
GLG Life Tech Corporation has announced another milestone in its effort to breed new cultivars of the stevia plant. The company has developed a variety that expresses higher levels of Rebaudioside A, or Reb A, the most commercially important stevia fraction...
It’s time to get out our crystal balls and predict the hottest trends in the European food and drink sector for the year ahead. What’s in store for 2015?
Consumer interest in health and wellness and on-the-go food continue to fuel growth in the nutritional drink category, but manufacturers could take sales even higher by targeting older and non-athletic consumers, according to Synergy Flavors and market...
Fruit & veg powders can make snacks and prepared foods appear more nutritious, but owing to the rigors of the production process, by the time we eat them, they have lost most of their nutritional punch, says South Carolina-based NutriFusion, which...
The absence of clean labels and fast energy from New Nutrition Business’ list of top 10 food, nutrition and health trends for 2015 is just as important as what made the cut.
