Dairy-based ingredients

FDA aims to publish voluntary sodium reduction goals, draft guidance on labeling of plant-based milk alternatives by mid-2022

30-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

The FDA is aiming to release long-awaited voluntary sodium reduction goals and draft guidance on the labeling of plant-based milk alternatives in the next 12 months.

Real dairy proteins... minus the cows: Industry-funded consumer study shows openness to 'animal-free' cheese

29-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

A global consumer study* funded by ‘animal-free’ dairy startup Formo (previously LegenDairy) suggests consumers are surprisingly open to trying and buying cheese featuring dairy proteins made via microbes instead of cows after reading a detailed description...

Keto, a long-lasting trend? New keto product launches double in past year

28-Jun-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Now a few years on the mainstream diet scene, the keto market continues to grow with an uptick in new product launches in the past year, according to Mintel data.

Despite improvement in infant formula marketing, ‘major gaps’ persist threatening level playing field, children’s health

24-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

While several major baby food and infant formula manufacturers have pulled back or altered their advertising and lobbying practices significantly in recent years to reduce the risk of discouraging breastfeeding, many companies continue to fall woefully...

More fruit, creamier taste, new look: Danone North America targets Millennials with refreshed Oikos blended line

17-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

Danone North America is refreshing its Oikos Greek yogurt blended line in a bid to revitalize flagging sales and appeal to a younger demographic, adding 50% more fruit, deploying new cultures for a creamier taste, and replacing its signature blue packaging...

Animal-free dairy co Change Foods closes $2.1m seed round, gears up for 2023 launch

16-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

San Francisco-based Change Foods – one of a new breed of startups making 'animal-free' dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows – has closed an oversubscribed $2.1m seed funding round,* and plans to launch its first consumer products...

IRI 2020 New Product Pacesetters: Who made the list?

14-Jun-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

From emerging keto ice cream brand, Rebel, and Beyond Meat's plant-based sausage, to big food's permissibly indulgent takes on legacy brands (Reese's Thins and Zero Sugar Mountain Dew), one theme rang true in IRI's 2020 New Product...

‘We’ve done something truly disruptive...’ Chobani launches zero sugar yogurts, an industry first

14-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

Chobani has launched an industry first – a nationally-distributed line of dairy yogurts with zero grams of sugar – to meet growing demand from consumers that want to reduce sugar without feeling like they’re eating ‘diet’ products or compromising on taste...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: What do consumers consider ‘healthy’ and how does that stack up to the truth?

14-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

While the pandemic shined a light on the role of diet and nutrition in health and wellness, it also revealed that most consumers don’t have a firm – or even loose – idea of what constitutes healthy – underscoring a need for more research and better education...

Animal-free dairy category heats up, with mainstream dairy companies exploring partnerships, says Imagindairy

14-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

“Global and local” dairy companies have approached Imagindairy - one of a clutch of startups using microbes (not cows) to produce milk proteins – about developing ‘animal-free’ dairy milks and other products, says the Israeli company, which lags some...

IFIC: Dairy consumers show category-specific purchase behaviors for non-dairy alternatives

11-Jun-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Despite recent rapid growth in non-dairy options, dairy consumers are still more frequently opting for dairy products over their plant-based counterparts, with plant-based cheese facing the biggest consumer acceptance challenges among dairy buyers, according...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Juice sales rise during pandemic, but how long will the category’s growth last?

07-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

After years of slow but steady declines, juice sales in the US are rebounding in a trend that may have originated with consumers seeking wellness-enhancing products and moments of intentional indulgence during the pandemic, but which industry insiders,...

Coca-Cola: Brands with heavy or perishable items can still leverage e-commerce

04-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Brands with heavy, bulky and perishable products that are difficult or expensive to ship direct-to-consumer need not write-off e-commerce as cost prohibitive or lag behind competitors in other consumer categories when it comes to online sales penetration,...

Virtual Natural Products Expo West

Functional beverage sales rise, but not all ingredients, benefits gain equally as consumer interest shifts

03-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Sales of functional beverages are bouncing back after slowing early in the pandemic when fewer people bought on-the-go products, reflecting increased consumer mobility, rising interest in food as medicine and innovation that resonates with health-focused...

Where next for ice cream? 'Frozen treat brands will need to speak to indulgences differently'

02-Jun-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

The US ice cream and frozen novelties category experienced a significant rise in sales in 2020 (+16.3% vs. 2019) as consumers sought out comfort eating while confined to their homes. However, in 2021 and into 2022, the category will be challenged as consumers...

Animal-free dairy: New Culture plans 2023 launch of Mozzarella – minus the cows

01-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

New Culture – one of a cluster of startups in the emerging ‘animal-free’ dairy space* engineering microbes to produce dairy milk proteins, without cows – is aiming to launch animal-free Mozzarella in late 2023.

Virtual Natural Products Expo West

SPINS data shines light on why ‘consumers returned to real dairy in droves during the pandemic’

01-Jun-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

During the pandemic, sales of dairy and animal protein grew off strong foundations, but many of the claims that traditionally drove consumer interest in the categories slowed or performed unevenly – revealing shifting priorities that could influence future...

Cell-cultured human milk will be nutritional gamechanger for infant formula, says BIOMILQ, ‘but it’s not bio-identical to mother’s milk’

01-Jun-2021 By Elaine Watson

BIOMILQ – a North Carolina-based startup culturing human mammary cells that lactate – says new tests show its milk is not bio-identical to breastmilk, but is significantly closer to it than any infant formula currently on the market.

Defy Foods: Keto dieters want healthy options with high-quality ingredients, good fats and fewer sugar alcohols

27-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Despite significant unmet demand for convenient keto products across categories, consumers who follow the diet are becoming more selective and less willing to settle for options that use low-quality or unhealthy ingredients to meet the diet’s strict macro...

Virtual Expo West

‘Diet’ is no longer about preparing for swimsuit season, it is ‘a tool for well-being … to achieve broader goals of feeling healthy and high-functioning’

27-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

As consumers adopt a more flexible and holistic approach to ‘dieting,’ brands have more room to innovate at the ingredient-level through “mindful omissions and swaps” to create products that appeal to shoppers’ lifestyles, according to new research from...

Investing in the Future of Food

Innovations highlighting milk’s functional benefits could score $650,000 in prizes from Real California Milk Excelerator

26-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

While most Americans know dairy milk can help growing children build strong bones and healthy bodies, they may not realize it also can help athletes and everyday people of all ages perform better and recover faster – something the California Milk Advisory...

News In Brief

Retail sales of organic food & beverages rose 12.8% in 2020, with sales of organic flour and baked goods up 30%

25-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Consumer shifts in cooking and eating habits during the pandemic more than doubled the growth rate of organic sales in 2020 compared to before the coronavirus outbreak, helping to drive up retail sales of organic products 12.4% to $61.9bn, according to...

‘Doing the right thing is always good for business…’ Chobani president on industry-first Fair Trade certification for dairy

17-May-2021 By Elaine Watson

From grim footage of workers mistreating cows to environmental concerns, consumer perceptions of the dairy industry are not universally positive, acknowledges Chobani president Peter McGuinness. But adding dairy to the sectors covered by Fair Trade certification...

“Carbon score is the next big thing,” predicts CGC co-head, industry experts gathered by FoodBytes!

13-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Carbon labeling for food and beverage may be coming faster than originally predicted, and soon may hold more sway with consumers than other popular certifications as the ongoing pandemic accelerates consumer interest in sustainable diets, predict industry...

Private label growth falls behind branded food for first time in a decade – driving need for new strategies

06-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Despite historically enjoying rapid gains during economically challenging periods, like the pandemic, private label growth fell behind branded products in all but a few niche food and beverage categories during the past year – a role reversal that hasn’t...

Brave new ‘animal-free’ world: When animal products are no longer made from animals, what do we call them? (And are they vegan?)

05-May-2021 By Elaine Watson

Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, with the right set of instructions, an army of microscopic little food factories (yeast, fungi, bacteria, algae etc) can now make animal proteins without animals, from collagen and egg albumin to whey protein if...

Pete and Gerry’s Organics sells to Butterfly to better serve rising demand for ethically produced eggs

05-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Pete and Gerry’s Organics’ decision announced yesterday to sell a majority stake of the family-owned free-range and pasture-raised egg business to the private equity firm Butterfly may be “unsettling” to some, acknowledges the CEO, but he says it will...

Demand for premium rises: ‘It’s not just wealthy people who are buying more expensive stuff,’ IRI says

04-May-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

While only a small percentage of consumers qualify as “cooking enthusiasts” and an even smaller number could be considered “confident cooks,” these two groups represent an outsized opportunity for retailers, meat processors and CPG brands looking to hold...

Epicurious drops beef going forward in favor of more plant-based recipes – but is the move ‘elitist’ or ‘one of the best decisions’?

27-Apr-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The popular recipe and home cooking platform Epicurious is dropping beef from its repertoire going forward in favor of more plant-based options to amplify the conversation about sustainable diets, stem the steady uptick in beef sales in the US and give...

Where next for dairy milk? Value-added products drive future of the category, says DMI

23-Apr-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

While fluid milk consumption has been declining since the 1970s, US retail sales rose 7.1% last year (52-weeks ending Jan 2, 2021, according to NielsenIQ Total U.S. xAOC data). However, is this trend indicative of an actual revitalization of the $15.1bn...

USDA undertakes ‘top to bottom assessment’ to identify, repair ‘supply chain-bottlenecks and vulnerabilities”

22-Apr-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The US Department of Agriculture is asking for help conducting a “top to bottom assessment” of the US food system in an effort to avoid the empty store shelves, food waste at farms and destruction for animals due to broken supply chains experienced in...

Wow no cow! Leonardo DiCaprio hails Perfect Day’s ‘forward-looking vision’ as lifecycle assessment shows non-animal whey protein has far lower environmental impact

19-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

Berkeley-based startup Perfect Day has underscored its sustainability credentials with the release of a lifecycle assessment suggesting its ‘non-animal’ whey protein - produced by microbes - produces up to 97% fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than...

PBFA slams ‘anti-competitive, anti-free market’ Wisconsin bills targeting plant-based dairy and meat

08-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

The Plant Based Foods Association has slammed bills proposing restrictions on the use of terms such as ‘milk’ and ‘meat’ on food labels and restaurant menus in Wisconsin, while state lawmakers insist they are urgently required to prevent consumer confusion....

Got (first) milk? Bovine colostrum firm targets food & beverage as immunity trend gathers pace

07-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

Immunity claims on new product launches have surged during the pandemic as companies sprinkle in everything from vitamin C and D to zinc, probiotics, postbiotics, elderberry and Cordyceps to their wares to tap into the trend. But what else is in the immune...

Clio Snacks debuts snackable parfait bars: ‘The bar category will continue to grow if innovation is injected into it’

07-Apr-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Fresh snacking brand Clio Snacks – known for its chocolate covered Greek yogurt bars – had a breakout year in 2020, says VP of marketing Rachel Moore. This year, the company is ramping brand awareness and customer trial with its newest product innovation:...

As Horizon Organic blazes a trail to carbon positive it invites consumers, industry players on journey

01-Apr-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Recognizing “time is not on our side when it comes to climate change” and that “what is good for the planet is good for our brand,” Horizon Organic is bringing consumers along on its ambitious five-year journey to become the first carbon positive dairy...

Ingredion expands texture, stabilization capabilities, with acquisition of KaTech

01-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

Ingredion has acquired KaTech - a privately held company headquartered in Lübeck, Germany that provides advanced texture and stabilization solutions to the food and beverage industry - for an undisclosed sum.

Investing in the Future of Food: RCV Frontline sees potential for startups to fill innovation demand post-pandemic

31-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

A new early-stage venture capital fund sees significant upside for financing food and beverage startups that may be too small for many other VC investors, but which in a few years could help meet “pent up demand” for innovation from large CPG players...

Innovators, not imitators: Daymon discusses the rise of private label

30-Mar-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

No longer seen as the budget option by consumers, private label brands are continuing to differentiate themselves from national brands in quality and innovation, according to private label market research firm Daymon.

Soup-to-Nuts Podcast: What is the best way to reach consumers during and after the pandemic?

29-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

The coronavirus outbreak fundamentally changed how food and beverage brands are connecting with consumers – from abruptly halting live sampling and in-store promotions to altering the types of messaging consumers want to hear.

IFIC: Picky-eating, price & a disconnect about sources of sugar hinder children’s healthy eating

23-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

When it comes to feeding children, caregivers have a wealth of nutritional information at their fingertips that they say they understand, and yet most children fall short of the recommended intakes of fruit, vegetables and whole grains and consume too...

Functional Beverages Webinar Available On Demand Now

Rising demand for functional benefits will help beverage segment hit hard by pandemic to recover

19-Mar-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Shifting shopping habits and channel preferences due to the pandemic hit the non-alcoholic beverage industry hard last year, leading to an overall decline in volume and value, but rising consumer interest in functional options could be a key driver in...

GoodSport seeks to disrupt sports beverages category by ‘unlocking the power of milk’

12-Mar-2021 By Elaine Watson

It’s milk, but not as we know it, Jim… To be precise, GoodSport is dairy milk, but with the protein and fat removed via ultra-filtration, leaving a clear sugary fluid loaded with electrolytes and vitamins. But does this upcycled elixir (better known as...

Target launches premium, indulgent Favorite Day private label line

09-Mar-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

In early April, Target Corp. will introduce Favorite Day, its latest private label food line focused on affordable, sweet and savory indulgence.

Danone splits chairman and CEO functions, begins recruitment process for new CEO

03-Mar-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Danone's Board of Directors has confirmed a proposal from current chairman and CEO, Emmanuel Faber, to separate the functions of chairman and CEO in the near future, and has begun looking for a new CEO.

Dear Alice… We're more than just a Greek yogurt company: Chobani launches new ad campaign

01-Mar-2021 By Elaine Watson

Chobani has launched a new national ad campaign with animated stories highlighting its credentials as a “brand with values that stand for more than the food we make.”

Walmart bets big on automation and supply chain capabilities: ‘Our automation plan is now ready to scale’

19-Feb-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Walmart generated a record $152.1bn in sales, an increase of $10.4bn or +7.3%, in Q4 (13 weeks ended Jan. 29, 2021). Looking towards FY22, the retailer said it will be investing heavily in its “next generation business model” to fuel further growth.

Chocolate milk brand Slate Milk raises $1.7m, expands distribution to 3,000 stores

18-Feb-2021 By Elaine Watson

Boston-based startup Slate Milk – which gives adults permission to keep drinking chocolate milk by dialing down the sugar, increasing the protein and packaging it as a functional beverage in shelf-stable cans - has raised $1.7m in a seed round (taking...

Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Carbon labeling, promises to be carbon neutral, positive emerge as top trend

15-Feb-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

Whether or not you believe in climate change or the food industry’s contribution to the greenhouse gasses wrapping the earth and changing weather patterns, plenty of consumers do, and they increasingly are buying products based on their environmental...

Knowde launches food & nutrition online marketplace: ‘This is a massive market that is ripe for change’

10-Feb-2021 By Elaine Watson

San Jose-based Knowde – a b2b online marketplace for chemicals, ingredients and polymers - is moving into the food and nutrition industry, enabling R&D and procurement professionals to research and compare products, connect with suppliers, request...