Indoor vertical-farming company Plenty Unlimited and fresh berry supplier Driscoll's have entered a joint development agreement to grow Driscoll's strawberries year-round in Plenty's vertical indoor farms.
Evergreen, an emerging Chicago-based frozen waffle brand made from recognizable pantry ingredients, is steadily increasing its availability in a category long dominated by big food brands.
The idea of “doing good” as a company is quickly evolving from “nice to have” to “must have” for fundraising food and beverage businesses as investors and industry strategics increasingly integrate and place more weight on environmental, social and governance...
A new slate of better-for-you, non-alcoholic beverage brands developed by Molson Coors and beverage incubator L.A. Libations launching over the next several months -- including a plant-based barley milk and a nootropic performance beverage -- will position...
Spiceology, Inc., a privately held, direct-to-consumer spice company, has closed a $4.7m round of financing led by retail and grocery executive Ty Bennett, with participation by the Cowles Company, Kickstart Funds III & IV, and angel investors to...
Americans may be exhausted from months of social distancing, balancing increased family responsibilities with work and navigating economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus, but fewer are reaching for energy drinks to keep them fueled during the pandemic...
With $2M in just-announced seed funding, a “junk free” promise and a bright, modern packaging that trades heavily in on-trend buzz words, recently launched Bellway aims to bring new life – and a younger generation – to the sleepy fiber segment.
Israeli fermentation-based technology firm Phytolon has secured $4.1m in funding from Millennium Food-Tech, EIT Food, Consensus Business Group (CBG), The Trendlines Group, Yossi Ackerman (former President and CEO of Elbit Systems), and the Israel Innovation...
Based in Massachusetts, Little Leaf Farms has doubled its hydroponic greenhouse-growing capacity to 10 acres of fields under glass capable of producing more than two million packages of lettuce each month, which will broaden the company's distribution...
Mars Inc. has hired Dr. Maria Velissariou as its new vice president of global corporate research & development and chief science officer to lead the company's quality and food safety, scientific & regulatory affairs and R&D strategy.
Retailers interested in attracting more Black shoppers, who Nielsen reports wield an annual buying power of $1.5 trillion and make more grocery trips per year than all other racial groups, need to stock and prominently highlight more products by Black-owned...
Launched in September 2019, Target’s newest private label line Good & Gather has generated more than $1bn in sales and will nearly double its line with 600 new items this fall.
What’s hot and what’s not in the world of sweeteners? FoodNavigator-USA caught up with Icon Foods, Cargill and Beneo to explore formulation trends as brands remain under pressure to reduce sugar and keep labels clean.
Roughly half of respondents in a recent study overstated the whole grain content of cereal, bread, and cracker products, said lead researchers at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and the...
What’s new in the world of food preservation? FoodNavigator-USA (FNU) caught up with Courtney Schwartz (CS), marketing director for Kemin Food Technologies, Americas, at the SHIFT20 virtual IFT show to fund out.
Plenty Unlimited Inc. will be entering 430 Albertsons stores across California with four SKUs of its leafy greens, further demonstrating the scalability of its indoor hydroponic vertical-farming operations, which use 99% less land and up to 95% less water...
Working from home, pantry and freezer stockpiling, and having more time to cook have had a massive impact on consumer shopping and eating behaviors, highlighting a consumer desire for healthy and affordable food, new research from Signal Analytics shows.
Foods and beverages sweetened with miraculin, brazzein and curculin - proteins found in exotic fruits that can be produced far more efficiently via microbial fermentation - could hit the US market in less than two years, offering formulators intriguing...
Ruckus and Co - a brand of ready-to-drink frozen smoothies for kids developed by the Mondelēz SnackFutures Innovation hub - was set to land in retail freezer sections in early May before the world took a turn, temporarily halting its distribution and...
After months of adapting to the roller coaster of shifting business priorities caused by the coronavirus pandemic, GoGo squeeZ is entering another period of uncertainty: the back-to-school shopping season, typically a peak sales time and marketing push...
Emerging Minneapolis-based brand Jajja Wellness is exposing consumers to under-the-radar, yet nutritionally-powerful ingredients, from baobab to spirulina, with its expanding line of ready-to-drink tonics available online and in local retailers.
Instead of hitting pause on its R&D work to focus on more basic ‘mission critical’ business functions (e.g. supply chain challenges) during the ongoing pandemic, better-for-you pancake and waffle mix brand Birch Benders has reinvigorated its approach...
While the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has exposed many vulnerabilities and inequities in the current food system, ranging from supply chain fragility to worker safety, it also is opening minds – and doors – to promising sustainability solutions brought...
A majority (81%) of consumers say transparency is ‘important’ or ‘extremely important’ to them when shopping online and in-store, according to a new report by The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Chicago-based Label Insight.
Stevia specialist SweeGen has started commercial production of Reb B, a lesser-known and “highly soluble” steviol glycoside (stevia sweetener) that it says works particularly well in beverages.
Despite online grocery taking off in recent months, CPG brands may be leaving millions of dollars of missed revenue on the table by not highlighting key product attributes when they present their brands online, according to a report by Label Insight.
Danone North America has teamed up with Brightseed – a San Francisco-based startup using AI to analyze hundreds of thousands of phytonutrients for potential health benefits – to probe key plant sources to identify “previously unknown health and nutrition...
The IRI New Product Pacesetters List of the top 100 CPG brand launches of 2019 saw a resurgence of $100m brands which accounted for 33% of Pacesetter dollar sales in 2019.
The National Advertising Division has ruled that GSK must stop calling some of its Benefiber prebiotic supplements ‘100% natural.’ It’s a ruling that could be viewed as troublesome for other prebiotic ingredients.
The FDA, USDA and EPA have launched ‘Feed Your Mind’, a new Agricultural Biotechnology Education and Outreach Initiative that aims to increase consumer awareness and understanding of genetically engineered foods (GMOs).
Crop improvement company Benson Hill has contracted 30,000 acres of land in the US to grow its non-GMO ultra-high protein soybeans, which it claims deliver high nutrient density while maintaining competitive yields.
Global ingredient supplier Ingredion expects continued strong demand for ingredients that go into packaged foods through the first half of the year, partially offsetting volume declines the company is experiencing in foodservice, which represents between...
Coronavirus is impacting the lead time for natural color and flavor suppliers with some trying to process as much raw material as possible to build up inventory while others are transferring production to other factories.
Global ingredients giant Ingredion has struck a deal to acquire a controlling (75%) stake in stevia supplier PureCircle, which has been going through a period of extreme turbulence in recent months, prompting the suspension of its shares and the installation...
Last week, FoodNavigator-USA held its Beverage Trends webinar where we quizzed a panel of beverage industry insiders on what the future holds for the beverage market, especially amid a public health crisis such as coronavirus, which has no firm end date...
Plant-based brand Upton's Naturals has launched bite-size jerky pieces made from wheat protein. We caught up with its CEO to find out more about the clean label formulation process.
NutteeBean, which was recently selected for PepsiCo's Greenhouse accelerator, says its high protein and fiber fava bean snacks are making healthy eating easier. "Snacks do not have to be junk food," says its CEO.
Less than a month after launching its private label line offering customers custom ratios of CBD and other minor cannabinoids, Socati is targeting the hot beverage market with a line of CBD-infused coffee additive products.
Chris Miller, founder and CEO of nootropics brand Koios, believes that brain health has the potential to become an even bigger category in functional beverages than gut health.
Consumers are increasingly incorporating functional beverages into their day-to-day, looking to their daily beverage to help manage stress, promote relaxation, and improve mood, says global flavor and fragrance company Givaudan.
The number of class action filings against food and beverage companies rose 8% to 177 in 2019, with firms vulnerable to legal action on a host of fronts, from animal welfare claims and CBD to vanilla labeling, says law firm Perkins Coie.
A high-profile lawsuit* accusing LaCroix of falsely advertising its wares as 100% natural has been dropped with both parties agreeing to cover their own costs after the plaintiff retracted her allegations. A second lawsuit** vs LaCroix over the same issue...
When demand for “clean label” first burst on the scene several years ago, it was all about removing “chemical-sounding,” “unnatural” and unnecessary ingredients from products, but as shoppers learn more about food, how it is made and its impact on their...
Pipcorn has grown into a full-fledged snack brand with an expanding product portfolio that now includes popcorn, corn dippers, cheeseballs, and coming soon, crackers made from the corn flour byproduct leftover after the extrusion process for its cheeseballs....
Nearly anyone would agree that eating fruits and vegetables is crucial to maintaining a healthy diet, but for many, eating healthy is also a source of stress and worry, according to a survey of 1,000 US consumers published by Del Monte Foods.
With more and more products flooding the market, it's getting harder for CBD brands to achieve a competitive advantage, which is why Socati has created a one-stop shop where brands can select custom ratios of CBD, CBG, CBN, and other minor cannabinoids...
Popular among vegan circles, plant-based cheese brand Violife is breaking into mainstream US grocery channels where it can go head to head with the likes of Daiya Foods and Kite Hill.
BrightFarms, supplier of locally grown salads for supermarkets, opened its largest greenhouse yesterday in Pennsylvania. The new 280,000 sq. ft. farm in Selinsgrove, Pa. will deliver over 2 million pounds of fresh, local produce year-round in Pennsylvania...
Natural and organic cereal pioneer Barbara’s, which makes the popular Puffins line, is breaking free of the “dull … white and neutral tones” that dominate packaging in its category, with a bold redesign that favors oversaturated colors and “a more minimalist...
A new study, analyzing National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, found that infant grain consumption was generally associated with higher nutrient intakes across a broader set of food categories.
