Not so long ago, an organic beverage brand boasting ‘adaptogenic super-herbs’ would have had a fairly niche audience. Today, it’s a very different story, says Sheryl O’Loughlin, former CEO of Clif Bar and co-founder of Plum Organics, who has just moved...
The egg industry is undergoing a “renaissance” as consumers increasingly turn their backs to conventional eggs from caged hens and reach instead for those from chickens raised with space to move and access to outdoors, claims the co-owner of Handsome...
Union Kitchen: Inside a food and beverage incubator
Transparent advertising is essential for reaching modern consumers, but as the maker of Element [Shrub] discovered – knowing which facts to emphasize first is key to driving initial trial.
Union Kitchen: Inside a food and beverage incubator
Heinz Tomato Ketchup has been an iconic staple in American diners and homes for more than 130 years, but Washington, DC-area startup ’Chups believes the condiment is long overdue for an update and that it is just the company to do it.
Union Kitchen: Inside a food and beverage incubator
Fermented foods and beverages are growing in popularity as consumers learn more about their health benefits – in turn opening the door for entrepreneurs like The Sweet Farm, which sells fresh sauerkraut and is developing a line of cultured sodas and probiotic...
Pasta is a low fat, low-sodium, low glycemic, complex carbohydrate, and a good source of thiamin, folic acid, iron, riboflavin, and niacin. So why do many consumers – and some health professionals – still see it as a source of ‘empty carbs’ to be avoided,...
'Tis the season for giving and La Brea Bakery is getting into the spirit (and onto consumers’ radars) with two campaigns focused on feeding those in need and those who serve their communities.
Just weeks after announcing its intention to sell its private label business to TreeHouse Foods, ConAgra Foods has unveiled plans to re-engineer itself again, this time by separating into independent public companies: one comprising its consumer brands...
Union Kitchen: Inside a food and beverage incubator
To make it in the highly competitive food and beverage segment, startups need to listen to consumers and evolve to meet changing demands – even if that means letting go of their “baby,” says the founder of Momme Meals.
Big food companies are consistently trusted less than small, entrepreneurial ones, even though their scale and resources arguably mean they are able to produce products more safely, efficiently and sustainably than their smaller, sexier, counterparts,...
Health-Ade Kombucha has defended its wares after being targeted in a false advertising lawsuit alleging it significantly understated the sugar content in its products.
Award winning Australian olive oil manufacturer Cobram Estate in February will extend its reach into the competitive US market, which it says suffers a dearth of high quality, extra virgin olive oils.
Union Kitchen: Inside a food and beverage incubator
Launching a new food or beverage company requires a lot of passion, but it also requires a business plan, regulatory knowledge, access to equipment, distribution and exposure – which is a lot for any startup to fully grasp out of the gate.
'We’re selling products you won’t find in big box retail stores or on Amazon'
Consumers are increasingly enthusiastic about discovering ‘small-batch’ foods from artisanal producers, while growing numbers of small producers are looking for other avenues beyond traditional retailers to get their wares to market. Hatchery – an online...
General Mills coughed up a cool $820m to buy Annie’s last year. But it has also signaled its intention to invest in brands at an earlier stage in their development via its 301 Inc venturing arm and a recent tie up with equity crowdfunding site CircleUp....
With volumes flat or declining in many CPG categories, and dollar growth coming primarily from price increases, manufacturers are increasingly relying on promotions to drive engagement, but find they are becoming less and less effective, according to...
Mobile shopping tech company Grability is reinventing online grocery shopping to make the experience more user-friendly, enhance manufacturers’ marketing results and increase overall basket size for retailers, according to the firm’s CEO.
In an effort to maintain the current Dietary Guideline recommendation to restrict cholesterol intake, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Nutrition has launched an aggressive public health campaign against eggs, which it says are the primary source...
Online retail of food and beverage may be small now, but it is slowly gaining traction in the US – providing start-ups struggling to get their foot in the door another option for reaching consumers, according to the CEO of online subscription snack service...
Clear windows on packaged foods and beverages seem to be all the rage right now as manufacturers try to literally meet consumer desire for transparency and authenticity – but a well-placed photograph sometimes is a more effective marketing tool, branding...
Becoming non-GMO certified can help brands attract new consumers and boost sales, but it also could alienate existing shoppers if manufacturers are not careful, cautions Asian sauce maker San-J.
While only a small portion of people currently buy food online, the expansion of digital shopping is eroding consumer loyalty to retailers – forcing them to rethink how best to approach consumers, according to an industry consultant.
High-pressure-processing (HPP) – which gave birth to the super-premium juice category – will also play a disruptive role in the baby food market in the next five years, predict the founders of Once Upon a Farm, a new baby food brand in a pouch that will...
Demand for more plant-based, vegetable-forward food has been growing the past few years, but the trend will hit new heights in 2016 – taking over the center of the plate and more often than before fully replacing animal protein, predicts trend tracker...
Quest Nutrition has a somewhat ambitious mission statement (“Our goal is to end metabolic disease,” says president Tom Bilyeu). But while it may be some time before the El Segundo-based firm can tick this particular goal off its checklist, its progress...
WhiteWave Foods’ efforts to expand the plant-based dairy alternative category beyond beverage and outside of the natural channel already is paying off for the company, and it holds significant promise for the larger category’s and retailers’ future, executives...
If services such as Blue Apron target people that love to cook and prepare meals, but don’t always have the time or energy for meal planning and grocery shopping, TableRunner appeals to people that want restaurant quality meals at home but don’t have...
What is 'natural'? FDA finally weighs into the debate
Having studiously avoided this food labeling minefield for years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has surprised many in the trade by seeking comments on the definition of a word that has launched a thousand class action lawsuits (well almost):...
Eating healthy shouldn’t be hard, but all too often it is – in part because superfoods frequently are sold in large containers and inconvenient formats that can be daunting to category newcomers, according to a health food industry veteran.
JM Smucker has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of misleading shoppers by labeling selected Crisco cooking oil as ‘all natural’, according to court papers filed in New York.
The recently formed Kraft Heinz company is off to a rocky start with sliding profits and more layoffs and facility closures recently announced, but the company has a three-prong plan for future growth, executives said Nov. 5 during the firm’s third-quarter...
Demonizing unhealthy food as the primary cause of weight gain may be off-track, suggest researchers who found consumption of fast food, sweets and salty snacks alone may not be the harbinger of obesity it often is made out to be.
Building more supermarkets is not the only way to reduce food deserts, suggests new research that found corner stores are stocking more healthy foods and beverages now than almost 10 years ago.
Hella Bitters' explosive growth in the last three years has been a dream come true for the founders, but it easily could have been a nightmare if the young company had not had in a place a viable finance plan it could access quickly.
KIND LLC will significantly reduce added sugar in some of its snack bars in spring 2016, which will make its label more appealing to health conscious shoppers, especially if FDA’s proposal to include added sugar in the Nutrition Facts box becomes a reality.
Two relatively small, but high-profile snack categories are merging with the Nov. 4 launch of Exo’s savory meal bars with alternative protein from crickets.
Collaborative innovation between retailers and manufacturers can jumpstart product development, generate substantial cost-savings and improve the success of a launch more effectively than either partner likely could achieve on its own, a senior director...
301 Inc, the business development and venturing unit at General Mills, has launched a multi-million dollar capital fund through the CircleUp platform to seed emerging consumer food brands.
Kellogg’s beleaguered cereal sales in the US appear to be stabilizing – at least for now – but that isn’t enough to buoy the firm’s overall profits, which fell again during the firm’s third quarter announced Nov. 3.
KonaRed – the Hawaii-based company on a mission to make coffee fruit the next big thing in functional foods and beverages – has similar challenges to those POM Wonderful faced when it first got started, but has the potential to be equally successful,...
Protein is hot in food formulation right now. But is this a sustainable trend or a passing fad? How much is enough, and do the next generation of proteins, from rice and pea to algae and insects, deliver in the same way that soy and whey do? And how should...
A month after telling shoppers it was “embarrassed and truly sorry” after an undeclared allergen (wheat) was detected in selected boxes of gluten-free Cheerios, General Mills has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it violated several consumer...
Americans increasingly want fresh, healthy food, but they don’t always have the extra time it takes to plan and prepare those ingredients – creating a white space in the market for enterprising manufacturers.
Press’d – an Arabica coffee liquid concentrate in a pocket-sized squeezable bottle – says it sees a gap in the market for a better quality convenience option.
