Record organic sales of $49.5 billion last year are overshadowed by a slowdown of organic dairy and egg sales, which the Organic Trade Association attributes partly to USDA’s abrupt withdrawal of a widely popular rule that would have strengthened animal...
An infusion of $12 million in Series B funding will help better-for-you snack delivery service SnackNation connect emerging CPG brands with more of their key consumers “at their most engaged moments” by expanding its distribution and fine-tuning its insights...
The US Department of Agriculture has launched a comprehensive and aggressive three-prong approach to detect and prevent fraud in the organic industry, after the discovery last year that some imports from Eastern Europe were falsely labeled as organic,...
In the complex palm oil supply chain, Cargill's competitors, customers and suppliers are sometimes the same organisation. "As a fundamental approach, our objective is to transition the entire industry into a sustainable one,” says the supplier's...
Starting next month, a small but diverse group of organic stakeholders from across the supply chain will test-drive a rigorous set of fraud prevention, detection and mitigation strategies that once fine-tuned will become subject to the annual inspection...
Members of the Organic Trade Association went on the defensive last week when they met with Congressional leaders and their staff on Capitol Hill to lay out their legislative priorities for the coming year, and to ask for help protecting the integrity...
“It’s critical to encourage more people to use olive oil, not to intimidate them by thinking they can’t afford it or they’re not going to get the real deal. That’s why we continue working to strengthen our standards and educate consumers,” says Joseph...
The FDA has made it clear it wants to remove all PHOs (partially hydrogenated oils) from the US food supply and has shot down the Grocery Manufacturers Association’s (GMA) petition seeking to allow specific and limited uses of PHOs.
An egg a day may reduce risk of stroke by 26%, and eating up to 12 per week does not negatively impact cholesterol for people with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, according to a couple of new studies.
There has been a recent growth in interest in enzymatic interesterification (EIE) as more formulators deploy the technology to replace partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) in some challenging applications as the June 18 deadline* to phase them out approaches,...
World-renowned chef Thomas Keller once said, ‘Food should be fun.’ But to those who make the products we eat and drink, there is nothing fun about food and beverage labeling litigation.
For years ready-to-eat cereal has suffered sleepy sales and battled nightmarish consumer perceptions around poor nutrition and lack of convenience, but several natural and organic manufacturers are hoping the reawaken the category with better-for-you...
Olive oil is routinely ranked by consumers as the healthiest fat, says Cargill. But other oils also high in healthy mono- and poly-unsaturated fats – soybean, corn, and canola oil – all rank lower than coconut oil (which is high in saturated fat), while...
RangeMe – an online matchmaker connecting CPG buyers and suppliers – is fast becoming the ‘Google of CPG’ and the first port of call for retailers looking to research new products and identify new suppliers, says the firm, which has attracted 125,000+...
Startups that balance the health of consumers and the planet, as well as consider how their product impacts others up and down the supply chain are catching the attention of investors, according to industry insiders.
The World Health Organization’s draft recommendation that adults and children reduce trans-fatty acid intake to less than 1% of total energy and industrially produced trans-fatty acids be removed from the global supply chain leaves both public health...
If the first wave of comments to its proposed rule on GMO labeling is anything to go by, USDA’s agricultural marketing service faces a daunting task as it seeks to nail down its national bioengineered food disclosure standard, with early feedback revealing...
To win the battle of the bulge and “fix the food system,” advocates for health and nutrition need to work with “disparate allies” that have a stake in the fight against obesity but are not currently on the front lines, according to Dariush Mozaffarian,...
Can we as a society eat our way to health by consuming fewer high-yield, mass-produced foods such as modern wheat? That’s the position taken by Bob Quinn, Ph.D., an organic farmer and founder of Kamut International – a producer of the ancient grain, khorasan...
Do you ever feel like you are in mortal combat with your business? Like either you are killing it, and orders are rolling in, sales are up and margins are wide – or it is killing you, and there are packing delays, profits are down and you can’t sleep...
Based on emerging consumer concerns about their health and that of the planet, the future of packaged food must be both healthier for people and sustainable for the planet to succeed, according to the founder of the conceptual grocery store The Future...
Portion control may be the best chance – and biggest challenge – at turning around the current obesity epidemic, according to industry experts at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit in Washington, DC, this month.
Manufacturers and public health advocates hoping to inspire children to eat more healthily will have better luck if they partner with kids to deliver the message rather than adults who could be perceived as talking down to the target audience, delegates...
What's in your lunchbox? Healthy meals, snacks and drinks for children
Almost one in three American children is overweight or obese, and one in every 13 has a food allergy.* So how can retailers, packaged food brands and the foodservice industry address these concerns, and develop nutritious and delicious meals, snacks,...
More often than not, better-for-you products are more expensive than their traditional counterparts – limiting their accessibility to those who can afford higher prices. But online grocer Brandless believes everyone deserves better and to make that possible...
As rivals Plated and Chef’d have embraced an omni-channel strategy, Blue Apron has unveiled plans to expand the rollout of branded meal kits at Costco in a bid to woo consumers that buy into the meal kit concept, but don’t want to commit to a subscription.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a long-awaited proposed rule to establish GMO labeling standards (the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard), but still leaves most of the key questions – including how to interpret its...
'Some of them have no intention of filing a lawsuit. The only intention is to line their pockets...'
You can’t beat a good courtroom drama, but if you’re monitoring the food litigation scene these days, you’re highly unlikely to get one, observed experts at a recent legal conference, who claimed that a small number of law firms targeting food brands...
Companies that want to win over shoppers seeking a healthier life must do more than simply offer better for you brands – they also must clear up the widespread confusion about nutrition that holds consumers back from making meaningful dietary changes,...
Walmart has joined a growing number of food retailers and manufacturers backing a citizen’s petition from NuTek Food Science asking the FDA to allow ‘potassium salt’ as an alternate name for potassium chloride on food labels.
Offering lunchbox products for school children is a natural starting point for companies serving those with allergies because this is one of the most challenging meals and environments, but it also is only a small part of the much-larger problem, according...
Contrary to popular belief, the center of the grocery store is not dead, but rather, when well-curated, is an emerging destination for shoppers seeking innovative brands that cater to their specific health and lifestyle goals, according to new research...
As public enemy No. 1, sugar often is portrayed online as “toxic” or as “poisoning our bodies,” but this characterization is “a complete … web myth,” that oversimplifies the cause of diet related chronic diseases and doesn’t take into account the benefits...
Once considered simply a children’s snack that parents would sneak when no one was looking, puffs suddenly are everywhere – and for everyone – thanks to their better-for-you profile, new sophisticated flavors, increasingly diverse bases and playful shapes...
Novozymes, a global producer of enzymes that controls roughly 48% of the market, is seeing its focus on food and beverage solutions and innovation pay off in 2018.
New research showing low-income, older Americans want to eat well to improve their health, but face additional barriers to doing so compared to their wealthier counterparts also reveals a marketing opportunity for better-for-you and wellness-oriented...
The grocery website Peapod continues to push the boundaries of how to sell food and beverage online with a new multi-prong price reduction model that leverages unique aspects of ecommerce to profile products in innovative ways that brick and mortar stores...
With one in five Americans suffering from an auto immune disease and looking for ways to manage their conditions through diet, the market potential for foods and beverage that comply with the auto immune protocol is “huge,” and yet relatively untapped,...
Proposed research questions for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines that continue to focus on consumption in relation to nutrient adequacy are “disappointing,” and a better use of resources would be to look at the impact of food groups on disease endpoints, argues...
The high bar set by the companies honored late last week at Whole Foods Market’s annual supplier awards ceremony represents not only what it takes to earn a coveted spot on the retailer’s shelves, but also in the baskets of consumers who increasingly...
More Americans say they are cutting back on sugar as their collective awareness rises about the prevalence and potential health impact of the ingredient, but those who still want something sweet are not clear on what the best option is, according to new...
With only one shot to make a first impression, it is essential that images and messages on product packaging clearly communicate companies’ principles and meet consumers’ evolving values.
For all the effort that goes into crafting the US dietary guidelines, including the multi-year process of reviewing the science and sifting through stakeholders’ conflicting opinions and wishes, the final product will all be for naught if it is not trusted...
Consumer demand for natural, plant-based ingredients combined with their desire to cut back on sugar without sacrificing taste is creating a perfect storm for stevia sales to grow exponentially, according to the International Stevia Council.
Annie’s recent launch for Earth month of two limited edition products that are made with ingredients sourced from regenerative agriculture farmers is only the beginning of how the brand plans to build on its iconic organic values to restore degraded soil...
Hemp advocacy group Vote Hemp has welcomed a new bill - introduced Thursday by Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - that if passed, will remove federal roadblocks to the cultivation of industrial hemp.
