Leading chocolate and confectionery companies are taking an offensive position in the ongoing war on sugar by together committing to reduce calories in single serve products and increase transparency with clear front-of-pack calorie labels.
According to former President Bill Clinton bugs could hold the answer to fighting the childhood obesity epidemic and to stemming the rising tide of Americans developing type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases related to poor nutrition.
Corner stores, bodegas and gas stations have a bad reputation when it comes to the healthfulness of the foods and beverages they offer, but the National Association of Convenience Stores and Cumberland Farms hope to change that by teaming up with Partnership...
Through a collaboration with non-profit Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), PepsiCo has unveiled plans to “transform its product portfolio and offer healthier options” by 2025.
Requests to delay the implementation of the updated Nutrition Facts panel, which includes a line to indicate added sugar and makes calories more visible, and a last-minute delay of menu labeling regulations are insulting to consumers, suggests Former...
Incubators provide startups with more than access to heavy-duty machinery and production space at a reduced price, they also plug entrepreneurs into an active network of professionals, suppliers and potential investors who can help accelerate a company’s...
Serving sizes of packaged food can affect a consumer’s health perception and intended consumption, according to a new study in the Journal of Business Research.
A legacy brand in the natural channel since its 2002 launch with organic sparkling green tea, Steaz is now enjoying the momentum of low-sugar, plant-based waters, and recently expanded distribution of its cactus water line with Sprouts, Pharmaca, and...
The clean label movement may have started as industry’s response to consumers who wanted foods and beverages made without artificial or “chemical” sounding ingredients, but overtime as brands continued to one-up each other, the concept morphed and metastasized...
Researchers baked cookies using Versafibe 1490, a branded resistant starch by Ingredion, and another batch without it. Then they had 28 healthy participants eat either one cookie to compare Versafibe’s effect on postprandial blood glucose levels, and...
Assuming FDA does not delay the deadline for the new Nutrition Fact label as requested by industry, then large companies have slightly more than a year left to overcome challenges associated with added sugar, the new definition of dietary fiber, changes...
The volume of sugar sweetened beverages sold in Berkeley declined by 9.6% in the year following implementation of a soda tax, showing the tax is ‘working as intended’, according to the authors of a new study.
It was a record-breaking year for in-store convenience store sales, which hit $233bn in calendar year 2016, data from the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) 2016 indicated. Among the top performers were non-alcoholic beverages and sweet...
Congressional pressure on federal agencies to back down from nutrition policies created under the Obama Administration continues to mount with the standards for school meals now in the cross-hairs.
The number of class action cases filed against food and beverage companies continues to surge with the number of cases brought last year alone reaching a staggering 170, compared to a mere 20 cases in 2008, according to new research released earlier this...
Multinationals are investing in – or snapping up - smaller, more entrepreneurial brands in the natural and organic food and beverage space faster than you can say ‘because that’s where the growth is’. So will Spindrift – which is on a mission to disrupt...
Israeli start-up DouxMatok - which has developed patented technology which effectively makes sugar taste sweeter – has struck a series of joint development agreements with leading food manufacturers and says the first products containing its enhanced...
The world is getting fatter and unhealthier - are smaller portions and diet drinks really going to help when they sit next to full-sugar, supersized products? Is it time to tax or is industry doing enough? Catch the highlights from our live debate.
As debate around juice's high sugar content slowly pushes the category out of fashion, brands are testing the waters with vegetable soups. Chicago-based Skinny Souping is one of them.
As carbonated soft drinks’ long supreme reign over the beverage industry continues to slip amid fears of consuming too much sugar, sales and distribution of healthy, better-for-you and functional alternatives are gaining traction to fill the void.
No Denial Foods Founder Debbie Wood has had a front-seat view of the packaged food sector as a sugar-conscious shopper, having been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 9 and then celiac disease at age 32.
Startup Misfit Juicery is taking a two prong approach to the growing threat to the juice category posed by consumers’ increasing concern about sugar, and in doing so is setting itself apart from the competition.
Twenty-four public health advocates and organizations are calling on the Canadian government to levy a significant tax on manufacturers of sugary drinks to discourage consumption and help fund healthy living initiatives.
“When consumers are asked an open-ended question, ‘What are you trying to avoid,’ the top three out of four answers are related to a sweetener,” Andy Ohmes, global director of high intensity sweeteners at Cargill, told FoodNavigator-USA.
California-based B’BOX Group claims to have developed a proprietary technique for producing clean-tasting, high-purity stevia extracts that is so fast and cost-efficient that it says leading CPG manufacturers are considering buying the technology and...
Success of allulose in Mexico shows what’s possible in the US if added sugar labeling rules change, says Tate & Lyle
Allulose – an ultra low-calorie sugar found naturally in jackfruit and figs that Tate & Lyle is making in commercial quantities from corn using enzymes – has got some high profile advocates including Quest Nutrition, but would gain significantly more...
Health organizations in Canada are calling for a sugary drinks levy, with new research suggesting the measure would save 13,000 lives over the next 25 years. But the Canadian Beverage Association questions the data used by the research: and says that...
As the technology around producing steviol glycosides continues to evolve, transparency in labeling will be critical if consumer trust in ‘natural’ sweeteners is to be retained, says PureCircle, which claims to be the “clear market leader in terms of...
It's impossible to distill a show this size into a handful of slides, but we did see some consistent themes from a macronutrient perspective (protein is hot, sugar is not and fats are back), while digestive health was also a big trend. Checkout our...
With a goal to become “the Little Debbie of the natural snacks industry,” Nature’s Bakery is expanding its portfolio beyond its flagship Fig Bar line, and overhauling its branding to ensure the company name isn’t lost among the multiplying stock-keeping...
Chicken soup may be good for the soul, but hot cereal can fill it, and those who are food insecure, at least if it comes from The Soulfull Project – a startup that launched this summer with a mission to wipe hunger off the map.
KIND Snacks expands into the children’s food segment for the first time with a riff on fruit snacks that directly tackles many parents’ complaints about the category.
Herbal industry experts were quick to laud the accomplishments of stevia pioneer Jim May, founder of Wisdom Natural Brands, who died this week at the age of 80.
Baltimore-based Mobtown Fermentation wants to make kombucha – known for its sharp flavor profile and inconsistent texture – “more approachable to the general consumer,” starting with a more familiar shaped bottle, as well as a smoother taste, according...
If high purity Reb A used to be the only game in town when it comes to stevia, the game has become a lot more sophisticated in the past couple of years as suppliers compete to provide the best-tasting combinations of steviol glycosides, and products become...
For years, carbonated soft drinks were the go-to choice for Americans to quench their thirst and boost their energy, but in recent years the category has begun to falter – creating an opening for a bevy of innovative beverage brands to emerge, according...
LIVE Beverages founder and CEO Trevor Ross sees great potential for the drinking vinegar category. He started the brand by launching a line of kombucha back in 2013, what he saw would “become a pretty crowded category.”
Two California state senate bills would mandate controversial warnings on some foods and beverages, and if enacted could start a domino effect among other like-minded states, potentially creating a patchwork of laws and compliance headache for national...
Check out FoodNavigator-USA’s latest gallery of new products hitting US shelves, where we see plant-based protein creeping into everything from hot cereal to shakes, bars, chips and bites; coupled with ongoing interest in whole milk.
Prohibiting the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages and other “unhealthy” foods and beverages with SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, likely would not discourage their consumption, but would be costly and difficult for retailers to implement,...
The trend towards continuous grazing throughout the day will create new ‘multi-temperature’ snacking opportunities for manufacturers as a ‘tapas-style’ approach to eating gains momentum, predicted panelists at the FoodNavigator-USA/BakeryandSnacks snacking...
Pea protein-fueled brand Ripple has weighed into plant-based ‘milk’ debate with a provocative new media campaign that challenges the nutritional and environmental credentials of dairy milk, but also brands almond milk a ‘sham,’ and argues that when it...
Yogurt manufacturers continue to expand and evolve their portfolios with healthier and more convenient options that meet consumers’ growing demand for products that are lower in sugar, high in flavor and easy to eat.
Kevin Klock: ‘Now we have created a real brand identity’
Talking Rain Beverage Co has unveiled a $37m national ad campaign that president Kevin Klock says will give Sparkling ICE a stronger brand identity – something it has historically lacked, despite its meteoric growth (estimated retail sales have surged...
As the concept of clean label continues to evolve and transition from an industry term to one consumers understand and seek, companies should take a more sophisticated approach to the trend by accounting for how different generations prioritize and interpret...
Pasta Chips, Bow Ties, on course to generate revenues of $15m in 2017
Snack brands that want to break through the $2-3m revenue barrier have to appeal to mainstream shoppers as well as trend-setters in New York or L.A. says serial snacking entrepreneur and CPG veteran Jerry Bello, who says his latest innovations – Pasta...
Perhaps not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless to environmental, health and nutrition advocates is new research that ranks the US dead last, or very near the bottom, out of 25 countries on a long list of food sustainability indicators, including...
Food and beverage brands of all sizes and across categories are scrambling to reduce sugar in their products before FDA regulations mandating they indicate added and total sugar on the Nutrition Facts panel goes into effect in July 2018, according to...
If 50% of eating occasions are now snacks,* do we have to rethink what a snack is? An occasional treat or an everyday healthy indulgence? A fresh mini-meal? A quick energy boost? And when it comes to snacks, what new formats, flavors, label claims and...
