The shift in food consumption towards the home in the early weeks and months of the coronavirus pandemic has been well-documented, with many packaged food products experiencing a noticeable uplift. But have things since returned to 'normal,'...
Bay area startup Clara Foods has teamed up with ZX Ventures, the innovation arm of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev - which knows a thing or two about large-scale fermentation - to help realize its dream of making ‘animal-free’ egg proteins using microbes...
Oatly posted a net loss of $60m in 2020 on sales up 106.5% year-on-year to $421.4m, reflecting its continued investment as it ramps up production and aggressively expands into new markets, according to a prospectus published ahead of its initial public...
DouxMatok, the Israeli firm behind patented technology that makes regular sugar taste sweeter, has launched limited-edition chocolate spreads in the US with half the sugar of leading brands to give consumers the chance to taste products made with its...
Despite the interruption in civil litigation prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, “more new class action lawsuits were filed against the food and beverage industry—220* cases [+23% vs 2019]—than in any other year of the past decade,” according to an analysis...
After finetuning a diverse range of plant-based meat and seafood that goes far beyond the burger- and sausage-heavy offerings of today, Hungry Planet is ready to ramp up production and distribution of all nine of its proteins across retail, foodservice...
After being demonized for decades and hitting a 30-year low in 2019, per capita flour consumption is on the rise again thanks in part to consumers’ increasingly sophisticated understanding of diet and health and their duel desire to fill their plates...
Meati Foods and Atlast Food Co - two fungi-fueled startups blazing a trail in the alternative meat market with ‘whole cut’ products made from mycelium, the fibrous root structure of mushrooms – have both announced significant funding this week as they...
Buyers on online discovery platform RangeMe - which is used by retailers from Whole Foods to Walmart to identify new products and suppliers - are increasingly using it as a tool to identify brands that align with corporate social responsibility goals,...
Compliance with the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) – which requires firms with annual sales of >$2.5m to label ‘bioengineered’ foods, beverages, and supplements – is mandatory from January 1, 2022. So is the industry up to...
Territory Foods, a fresh-prepared direct-to-consumer (DTC) meal delivery service that partners with local chefs to create flavorful nutritionist-designed dishes, has closed a $22m funding round led by US Venture Partners.
Steve Turner, the former global executive creative director for Apple's Media Arts Labs (where he worked with Steve Jobs to launch a number of iconic Apple products), has been appointed as chief experience officer at Impossible Foods, where he will...
Still benefiting from a sustained consumer shift to at-home eating over a year past the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Conagra has registered a nearly 10% increase in organic net sales for Q3 2021 compared to the same period last year.
Applications are now open for Rabobank’s FoodBytes! Pitch 2021 program, which is seeking emerging CPG, food tech, and ag tech brands to pitch their innovations and network (virtually) with corporate leaders and investors.
Impossible Foods is exploring going public through an IPO (initial public offering) or a merger with a SPAC* (special purpose acquisition company) in the next 12 months, according to Reuters, which quotes sources familiar with the matter.
With VC-backed food tech startups deploying molecular biologists and astrophysicists now competing for shelf space in the red-hot meat and dairy alternatives market with equally deep-pocketed multinational meat and CPG companies, where do independent...
Under pressure to act in the wake of the recent congressional report into heavy metals in baby food, the FDA has unveiled a new action plan - ‘Closer to Zero – setting forth its approach to reducing exposure to toxic elements in foods commonly eaten by...
A recent paper claims FDA is in the dark as to how many new ingredients have come onto the market via the GRAS process. Only limited progress has been made in the decade since a Congressional report first raised the issue and directed the Agency to make...
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....
Beyond Meat has opened its first end-to-end manufacturing facility outside the US in the Jiaxing Economic & Technological Development Zone (JXEDZ) near Shanghai.
Ag-food tech company Moolec Science is expanding its alternative protein platform to cater to plant-based bakery and beverage categories. “Moving into egg and dairy alternatives was a natural next step for our roadmap,” explained CEO and co-founder Gastón...
The companies have tasked start-ups, via the next Future Food-Tech innovation challenge, to make products that can mimic whole meat cuts and deliver newer gastronomic experiences to consumers.
Startup Alchemy FoodTech is arming manufacturers of baked goods, pasta, rice and other products high in refined-carbs with a new weapon in the war against carbs led by advocates of the keto, paleo and other low-carb diets.
Sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products - including meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, condiments and meals containing plant-based alternatives - grew by 27% to $7bn in measured channels in the year to December 27, 2020, according to...
Impossible Foods has launched its first national advertising campaign targeting meat eaters who haven’t yet tried Impossible products, specifically its flagship product, the plant-based Impossible Burger.
As more consumers adopt a “research-online-buy-offline” approach, providing accurate, consistent product information across channels and on packaging is essential for driving discovery, initial trial and repeat purchases – and yet, most manufacturers...
Years before the coronavirus pandemic shined a harsh light on the fragility of long, global supply chains dominated by a handful of multinational companies, Kim Bryden founded Cureate to connect local food and beverage manufactures with large institutional...
As concerns about cultural appropriation and misrepresentation bubble up alongside the push for social equity, food and beverage industry stakeholders are delicately navigating consumers’ sometimes-conflicting demands for authenticity and innovation.
It’s well-known that the smaller the salt crystals, the saltier they taste, which means less is more, an enticing proposition for snack makers looking to reduce sodium. However, simply finely grinding table salt and sprinkling it on potato chips won’t...
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.
Unilever has some ambitious goals on food waste. The multinational wants to halve waste from its direct operations by 2025 and is working with suppliers and customers to reduce waste across the food chain. It also hopes to tackle one of the trickiest...
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...
MeliBio, the Berkeley-based startup claiming to make real honey without bees, has closed $850,000 in pre-seed funding as it gears up for a soft launch supplying food service companies with its vegan honey as a branded ingredient later this year.
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.
US retail sales of plant-based milk surged 21.9% to $2.542bn in measured channels in the year to Jan. 24, 2021, while sales of plant-based cheese and yogurt (far smaller categories) were up 43.6% to $233.9m and 16.4% to $346.2m respectively in the year...
The CBD/hemp markets, both in finished goods and on the supply side, are in a state of transition, attendees at an industry event learned on Friday. The message was that some growers and some finished product marketers are likely to fall by the wayside...
New Jersey-based Innovation Foods is building a $45m, 71,000-square-foot facility dedicated to producing aseptic and extended shelf-life (ESL) beverages for Oatly, which is projected to open in mid-2022.
The Baby Food Safety Act – just introduced to Congress in the wake of a House Subcommittee report alleging ‘dangerous’ levels of heavy metals in baby foods - sets maximum levels for lead, mercury, cadmium, and inorganic arsenic that are well below internal...
A new player is on the verge of entering the astaxanthin and other markets with the granting of a patent on a ‘dark fermentation’ process for cultivating Haematococcus pluvialis and other algae species.
Marking its largest single fundraise to date, Eat Just Inc. has closed $200m in new funding led by a group of global investors to drive growth and capacity of JUST Egg and GOOD Meat Cultured Chicken.
“By 2035, every tenth portion of meat, eggs, and dairy eaten around the globe is very likely to be alternative,” says a new report from Boston Consulting Group and Blue Horizon Corporation predicting alternative proteins could account for 11% ($290bn)...
As part of a “moonshot” to end hunger and eliminate food waste, The Kroger Co.’s Zero Hunger Zero Waste Foundation and seed stage funder Village Capital are offering $2.5 million in collective grants and development programming to 10 innovative startups...
Armies of microscopic single-celled microbial food factories (yeast, bacteria, fungi, algae) are now routinely deployed to produce high-value food ingredients more efficiently than plants or animals. But next-generation ‘cell-free’ biomanufacturing processes...
The US Departments of Agriculture and Education are making it easier for Americans suffering food insecurity due to the pandemic to put food on the table by temporarily increasing and expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as part...
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...
Plant-based tuna featuring protein-packed red algae from Triton Algae Innovations could hit the market by the end of the year, says the San Diego-based firm, which says the ingredient could add an exciting new dimension to the small – but fast-growing...
From keto-friendly ice cream, cereals, and snacks, to plant-based dairy and functional beverages, check out what's new on shelf in our spring gallery of new launches.
When former Annie’s president John Foraker joined fresh baby food startup Once Upon a Farm in 2017, it was doing less than a million dollars. Last year, revenues were north of $30m, he says, and while there have been some bumps along the road, the “brand...
Starting this month, PepsiCo will distribute selected Chobani products including the new high-protein lactose-free line Chobani Complete to convenience stores, colleges and universities in the northeastern part of the US through its chilled direct-to-store...
North Carolina-based Barvecue is significantly scaling up production of its plant-based pulled pork line, tapping into an underserved opportunity in the plant-based meat alternative space, says brand founder and CEO Lee Cooper.
