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.
For the makers of Fire Cider, an apple cider vinegar-based supplement and drink concentrate, keeping the Earth healthy is just as important as helping people stay healthy.
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.
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...
Restaurants in 2015 will act locally when it comes to sourcing ingredients, but think globally when incorporating flavors into new dishes, the National Restaurant Association’s annual What’s Hot culinary forecast reveals.
A high-profile lawsuit* filed by Unilever accusing Hampton Creek Foods of falsely advertising its flagship product ‘Just Mayo’ has not, it seems, dented Silicon Valley’s enthusiasm for the plant-based foods pioneer, which has just raised another $90m...
Wegmans Food Markets is partnering with local farmers and businesses based in the New York state region to meet consumers’ growing demand for more fresh, organic options, according to a top executive.
By thinking inside the box and packaging water in cartons instead of plastic containers, Benjamin Gott identified a way that consumers who know bottled water is wasteful but who buy it anyway for convenience can live more environmentally-friendly lives.
Shopping for coffee and chocolate is becoming almost as interesting - and at times as intimidating - as buying wine. So why not inject some of that excitement into the tea category, says Toronto-based start-up Tea of the People, which has just launched...
Agri commodity process will trend lower or remain stable in 2015, predicts Rabobank, which says favorable growing season conditions through 2014 coupled with moderate consumption growth have improved stocks of crops including soybeans, corn and cocoa.
Plant-derived foods have been suggested as preferable to those of animal origin from an environmental perspective as well as for health – but nutrient density must be taken into account, suggests a new study.
What’s for dinner tonight? And could Watson - the IBM computer that trounced its human rivals at Jeopardy - have the answer? FoodNavigator-USA headed to the reThinkFood conference - a collaboration between the Culinary Institute of America and the MIT...
Consumers underestimate calorie counts for, and consume more of, foods from companies with positive corporate responsibility programmes, say researchers.
Start-up Green Sheep Water hopes that using aluminum bottles to package its recently launched water will reduce the nearly 990 plastic bottles that Americans use every second that end up in the landfill or ocean.
Mainstream retailers that have been slow to take up the natural and organic product mantle now are realizing the trend is not a flash-in-the-pan and are scrambling to stock more healthy options, which is good news for Hain Celestial, company executives...
Attorney: Unilever needs to prove 'Just Mayo' misleads reasonable consumer
UPDATED: Unilever has filed a lawsuit against Hampton Creek Foods accusing it of falsely advertising its egg-free Just Mayo spread and causing “irreparable harm” to Unilever's Hellmann’s mayonnaise brand and the category as a whole.
Solazyme’s AlgaVia whole algal flour is now being used in eight commercially available products in the US from non-dairy creamers and powdered beverages to gluten-free baked goods, while the company is also in “late stage commercial tests with major national...
Consumer interest in meat alternatives as a source for protein is growing – especially among younger consumers with less money and time to spend buying and preparing meat – but lingering confusion about whether sufficient protein can be obtained from...
The rising tide of food intolerances and allergic reactions bodes well for Pascha Chocolate, a brand that is founded on an allergen-free positioning. But co-founder Courtenay Vuchnich said the real message is purity, with allergen-free coming along for...
CEO Henry Miller had a vision for his company, Henry’s Humdingers, when he founded it. He wanted to give consumers a new take on honey and at the same time help bring light to the plight of honey bees, beset by threats. That was when he was 12.
By Dan Glickman, senior advisor at APCO Worldwide; former U.S. secretary of agriculture; former congressman from Kansas; vice president, The Aspen Institute
The food and agriculture industries are incredibly important parts of the U.S. and world economies. Food and agriculture exports are critical to farm incomes in the United States and in many parts of the developing world. Open markets for agriculture...
Whole Foods Markets has decided to go big, with a national TV ad campaign that kicked off during a recent World Series game. The message is one of “values,” talking about the natural grocery store chain’s commitment to sustainability and transparency.
From hop-free ales with lavender or elderflowers to ‘advanced Asian’ cuisine, Sterling-Rice Group (SRG) looks at the top 10 culinary trends it predicts will inspire the packaged food and foodservice industry in 2015.
A voluntary framework for sustainable cocoa that could help align industry efforts will be introduced by the end of 2016, say those behind the standard.
Farming infrastructure in the wheat sector is critically important for bakers but there are a number issues threatening it, says the president and CEO of the American Bakers Association.
Ebola is a huge humanitarian concern for the cocoa and chocolate industry, but contrary to some reports it is not yet having a major business impact for big chocolate players like Mars and Mondelēz.
The IFT's FutureFood 2050 initiative has started a fascinating conversation about what we might be eating in the future. But what will food shopping be like? Will supermarkets as we know them today still exist or will we get all of our groceries...
New research led by Du Pont Industrial Biosciences concludes that enzyme technology currently used with maize and wheat could be applied far more widely to cassava root starch to produce sweeteners such as glucose, fructose and maltose.
Most business administration graduates dream of starting their own business. And most end up working for someone else’s, at least in the short term. Not many of them start a bottled water company. But that doesn’t make Ryan Emmons crazy.
Chobani is working with Green America (formerly Co-op America) to “discuss realistic and viable” ways to secure more milk from cows fed non-GMO animal feed.
Nestlé and Kellogg have partnered with companies including General Mills and Unilever by joining Ceres' Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP).
What will we be eating in 2050? Insect bars, 3D printed food, lab meat and personalized nutrition bars? No one knows for sure. But with a growing population and a changing climate, food systems - and diets - will have to adapt to survive, say 11 thought-leaders...
Conversations about maple water typically start with what it isn't, says Vertical Water co-founder Valentina Cugnasca. It's not ‘watered-down’ maple syrup (quite the opposite in fact - maple syrup is made by boiling up maple water); it’s not...
Tata Global Beverages, Taylors of Harrogate, and Typhoo support Assam programme
The notion that defining ‘natural’ is just too hard - either for the FDA or for the food industry - and that we therefore shouldn’t even bother to attempt it, is defeatist and “disingenuous”, says the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
In part one of our coverage of FoodNavigator-USA’s natural & clean label panel debate we looked at whether the FDA - or industry stakeholders - should define ‘natural’. In part two, we look at all-natural lawsuits, and whether consumers understand...
Six months after resolving an IP fight with a competitor turned collaborator, KonaRed Corporation has made rapid progress in moving its coffee fruit beverage into nationwide distribution.
Dispatches from Euro Fed Lipid Congress, Montpellier
Certified Sustainable Palm Oil could remain a niche product unless it gains importance in India and China, according to former RSPO director Jan Kees Vis.
After a years long pilot process, the new label Food Justice Certified is ready for market. The new designation aims to do what the USDA Organic Certification does not, and that is to verify that in every link of the food chain there is fair treatment...
What’s more sustainable? Using acres of land, water and energy to grow plants that produce minuscule quantities of natural flavors, sweeteners or phytonutrients; or making them via a fermentation process using baker’s yeast that’s been engineered to produce...
UPDATED: WhiteWave Foods has struck a deal to buy SO Delicious Dairy Free for $195m in cash in a bid to expand its presence in the fast-growing plant-based foods category.
In a sign of how much American palates have changed, Ocean’s Halo Seaweed Chip is building on the success of its original seaweed chip line with a reformulated organic version that will launch at this week’s Expo East trade show in Baltimore.
Hershey has partnered with its supplier Cargill to bring its cocoa sustainability program to the Côte d’Ivoire, helping farmers achieve UTZ certification.
Beyond Meat - the California-based firm that claims to have unlocked the secret to making ‘near-perfect’ replicas of meat from plants - is preparing to launch its latest innovation: The Beast, a pea-protein-based burger for meat-lovers.
Eggs are just the beginning; we're also looking at food dyes, trans fats, and even sugar
Plant-based foods trail-blazer Hampton Creek Foods has hired one of its Silicon Valley-based investors - Ali Partovi (founder of LinkExchange and Code.org, and early advisor at Facebook & Dropbox), as its new chief strategy officer, just weeks after...