There's a lot of hype around 'big data' and 'data analytics', but how can you cut through the noise to distill these buzzwords down into something that is useful to your startup or established company?
Big food manufacturers have increasingly recognized that their scale and robust supply chains aren’t enough to stay competitive and turn around years of little to no growth, and are refocusing their efforts on restoring consumer trust, says Rabobank.
The term ‘clean’ is popping up more and more in food branding and in consumer vernacular, but its definition is as foggy as ‘natural’ and ‘healthy,' according to Mintel.
Sustainably produced and packed with protein and vitamins, microalgae holds significant promise to help feed the growing population without exhausting the Earth’s limited resources, but its strong flavor has stopped many manufacturers from using it –...
While sales of plain dairy milk have been declining for years, and US yogurt production has dropped off after peaking in 2014, new data shows the continued growth of cheese, butter, and ready-to-drink coffee, yogurt drinks and protein beverages featuring...
Cold pressed juices helped put HPP (High Pressure Processing) on the map. Now the technology is gaining consumer acceptance and understanding in other categories including meat, seafood, and ready-to-eat, prepared food items.
While consumers still respond to the convenience of popping open a bag of chips, their mindset around snacking has expanded to products that promise a sense of culinary adventure, conscious-sourcing, unexpected ingredients, and satiating benefits.
Mushroom chip brand Mudlrk (pronounced ‘mudlark’ – a term meaning a person who scavenges for objects of value) is aiming to begin online retail of its four SKUs at the end of July and hit brick & mortar stores later this year.
Urban Remedy – a brand specializing in ‘ultra-fresh’ organic ready-to-eat meals, snacks, and cold pressed juices – grew sales by nearly 100% vs the previous quarter in the first quarter of 2018, driven by the rapid expansion of its ‘store within a store’...
At the intersection of the crowded cold-brew coffee category and the highly competitive energy drink segment, the founders of startup Bold Brew Coffee saw an opportunity to bring something new to each space.
After more than a decade of explosive overall growth, year-over-year sales of gluten-free products are starting to slow, according to some consumer data, but industry insiders suggest manufacturers could breathe new life into the segment by pairing gluten-free...
‘I’m astounded people consider ghee to be healthy’
Are clean labels, minimal processing, and cultural traditions more important than nutrition in the oils and fats aisle for consumers? And do consumers trust the health ‘experts’? Checkout our gallery of highlights from our June 20 webinar, Chewing the...
It’s easy to look at the Annie’s brand now – which achieved double-digit household penetration during former president and CEO John Foraker’s tenure – and think the company never took a wrong turn on its path to center-store ubiquity.
Plant-based food options continue to win over Americans’ share of stomach and wallets accounting for nearly 20% of food and beverage dollars spent last year, according to a new report by Nielsen.
Following on from the success of its French-style yogurt Oui, General Mills has unveiled YQ by Yoplait, a 99% lactose-free yogurt made with ultra-filtered milk (milk filtered to concentrate the protein and reduce the lactose/milk sugar) that “delivers...
FORTO Coffee Shots, a two-ounce, single-serve coffee drink brand, is migrating from check-out counters populated by other energy shot brands and into the coffee aisles of 3,700 Walmart stores beginning this month.
For many consumers the idea of instant tea evokes nose-wrinkling rejection due to its extensive processing, long ingredient lists and a flavor unlike a freshly brewed cup, but startup Cusa Tea wants to change this with a version made in an all-new way...
Check out FoodNavigator-USA’s latest gallery of new products hitting US shelves, spanning new protein bars for kids and protein-packed snacks from upcycled chicken breast trim to the latest wave of reduced sugar beverages.
While the US beverage industry is “fundamentally strong” with double-digit sales growth in the last five years, it also is experiencing “big swings” that are reordering the leaderboard as consumers revamp their daily routines to focus more on their health...
Which cooking oils are growing most strongly and why? Is ghee trending and has coconut oil lost some of its luster? Is butter outperforming vegetable-oil-based spreads?
Dr Lustig: 'Despite the food industry's propaganda, people now understand that 'a calorie is not a calorie...'
Dr Robert Lustig’s mantra – that not all calories were created equal - appears to be resonating with more US consumers, with one third (33%) of Americans believing that sugars are the ‘source of calories most likely to cause weight gain’ compared with...
'It’s more about a lifestyle and philosophy of eating ...'
If some of the trends Soozy’s is tapping into – Paleo, gluten-free, grain-free – lack universal appeal, its broader philosophy of “clean eating,” minimally processed foods with “ingredients you can pronounce” and no “fillers, stabilizers and additives,”...
Label Insight has worked with the American Heart Association (AHA) to provide a new data-driven Heart Check Standard Certification Industry View to help brands, retailers, government agencies, and researchers better understand which products are heart...
The CPG industry registered a sluggish start for Q1 2018 despite the expectation that the Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed at the end of 2017 would result in extra income from lower withholdings and encourage spending, said Susan Viamari, VP of Thought Leadership...
Americans’ obsession with dieting is nothing new, but which diets are in and which ones are out is constantly shifting – creating a marketing nightmare for food and beverage brands that want to link their products to consumers’ desired outcomes.
Similar to Maine lobster or New York bagels, the credibility of these foods lie within their name and origin, which is part of the reason behind Cleveland Kraut’s success, a Midwest sauerkraut brand that has grown its presence from farmers markets to...
Kumana, a Los Angeles-based, Venezuelan-inspired company, making a line of avocado sauces is targeting national distribution through Safeway to inject some exotic innovation into the condiments space.
Demand for local food is climbing, yet our modern food distribution system is ill-equipped to handle small supply from local independent farmers, according to the founder of Foodshed.io, a new app using blockchain technology to solve for inefficiencies...
The promise of culinary adventure and convenience has inspired many consumers to order online meal kits for home delivery, but the services’ low retention rates suggest the concept is falling short in several ways that the iconic seasoning brand Knorr...
With newly minted branding centered on nourishment and a range of new products launching, Pacific Foods is angling to claim as its own the burgeoning bone broth category as well as secure a larger share of the booming plant-based milk segment, according...
Despite consumers spending more time and money online, more than three-quarters (78%) are wary of the freshness and 63% have food safety concerns for items that they buy online, according to Mintel.
The FDA has made it clear it wants to remove all PHOs (partially hydrogenated oils) from the US food supply and has shot down the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA) petition seeking to allow specific and limited uses of PHOs.
High Brew Coffee of Austin, Texas, closed a $20m funding round led by investment firm Charles Street Partners, marking its third and largest investment since launching in 2014.
Bright Foods has brought added innovation to the emerging refrigerated bar space with the recent launch of Bright Bars – chilled whole food bars made via high pressure processing (HPP) – available in select Whole Foods stores in Southern California.
As a food or beverage startup, it’s natural to want to expand very quickly, but brands should take a moment to revel in their small-scale existence and take advantage of their ability to be nimble, says Poppilu founder Melanie Kahn.
For years ready-to-eat cereal has suffered sleepy sales and battled nightmarish consumer perceptions around poor nutrition and lack of convenience, but several natural and organic manufacturers are hoping the reawaken the category with better-for-you...
Olive oil is routinely ranked by consumers as the healthiest fat, says Cargill. But other oils also high in healthy mono- and poly-unsaturated fats – soybean, corn, and canola oil – all rank lower than coconut oil (which is high in saturated fat), while...
Clean label seems to be as commonplace of a term as the contentious ‘natural’ moniker with many food and beverages retooling their ingredient formulations to conform to this vague industry expectation. According to Flavorchem, one thing is very clear,...
Kemin has developed a “consumer-friendly” plant-based shelf life extension solution, NaturFORT RSGT, for ambient products such as salad dressings and sauces, using a blend of rosemary, spearmint, and green tea extracts.
South African BOS Brands’ vibrantly colored slim cans in hues of violet, turquoise, and lightening yellow, may not look like a better-for-you RTD iced rooibos tea at first glance, but despite its playful image, it makes no comprise on taste and health...
The World Health Organization’s draft recommendation that adults and children reduce trans-fatty acid intake to less than 1% of total energy and industrially produced trans-fatty acids be removed from the global supply chain leaves both public health...
Terms such as ‘streamlining overheads’ and ‘footprint optimization’ conjure up images of job cuts and factory closures, but IFF’s $7.1bn megadeal to acquire Israeli flavors and natural ingredients firm Frutarom is “all about growth, not cost savings at...
What's in your lunchbox? Healthy meals, snacks and drinks for children
Almost one in three American children is overweight or obese, and one in every 13 has a food allergy.* So how can retailers, packaged food brands and the foodservice industry address these concerns, and develop nutritious and delicious meals, snacks,...
Childhood obesity: 'Are we making progress or has progress stalled?'
New data suggesting childhood obesity in the US is on the rise again may not tell the full story, but nevertheless serves as a call for manufacturers and public health advocates to redouble their efforts to improve the diet and health of young Americans,...
Consumers aren’t shopping for seafood the same way they shop for other fresh category products, and it shows, with overall seafood sales remaining sluggish mainly due to unique barriers that don’t exist in other fresh food areas.
On the surface, consumer demand for global flavors and desire to eat locally appear to contradict, but Chicago-based startup Departure Snacks has found a way to combine the two – creating a synergistic sales model and allowing consumers to have their...
Offering lunchbox products for school children is a natural starting point for companies serving those with allergies because this is one of the most challenging meals and environments, but it also is only a small part of the much-larger problem, according...
Contrary to popular belief, the center of the grocery store is not dead, but rather, when well-curated, is an emerging destination for shoppers seeking innovative brands that cater to their specific health and lifestyle goals, according to new research...
Ready-to-eat popcorn is a posterchild of the better-for-you snack movement, but the co-founders of start-up Taali Foods think they can do even better with launch of a line of popped and roasted water lily seeds, which pack more protein and nutrients than...
