A new mobile app enabling CPG companies to get instant feedback on new product concepts from target consumers while they are grocery shopping will slash the time and money spent on testing new ideas, claims consumer insights expert uSamp.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi says the company is positioning itself as the highest growth food and beverage manufacturer in a ‘relatively low growth’ US retail landscape where fresh food is trending strongly.
A mechanical engineer with a keen interest in semi-conductors, ips All Natural co-founder Sean Olson is not your typical food entrepreneur. But don’t let his résumé fool you. With an unusual product that taps into the protein trend, Olson reckons his...
Frito-Lay has been granted a US patent for its manufacturing process to bake snacks that maintain the taste and texture of a fried product using a hydration step.
Mexico announced last week that it was restricting television advertising on high-calorie food and soda in an effort to stem the rising tide of obesity. Registered dietitians weigh in on the impact of the measure, which is the farthest any country has...
Vermont has serious concerns over cost of defending GMO labeling law, claim CFS/VPIRG
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and anti-GMO activist group the Center for Food Safety (CFS) have formally asked for permission to help the state of Vermont defend its new GMO labeling law in the wake of a legal challenge from food...
The FDA’s proposed label changes would draw attention to a lot of issues worrying public health officials—from calories and added sugar to serving sizes and vitamin D. But one nutrient that won’t be mandated on labels, in spite of growing concern over...
The vast majority of sodium reduction activity in the US food industry is now being conducted by ‘stealth’ in order to avoid alienating shoppers, according to Tate & Lyle.
US retail sales of gluten-free products surged 47% in 2013, with a significant chunk of the growth coming from snacks, according to flour milling giant Ardent Mills.
As the US Food and Drug Administration prepares to issue voluntary sodium guidelines for food manufacturers and restaurants, US consumers are demonstrating less concern about sodium intake and seeking it out less on labels than in the past, according...
A new sustainable palm oil scheme has met with criticism from environmentalists claiming that it actually allows deforestation, rather than stopping it.
Consumers are tired of bars, says quinoa 'snack in a bottle' founder
While a scary percentage of new food & beverage brands end up quietly disappearing when their backers run out of cash, luck, or endurance, a small number succeed. But what distinguishes the winners from the losers?
Aiming for a lower cost way to boost flavor and mouthfeel of stevia extract, sweetener supplier Sweet Green Fields (SGF) launched Natrose I natural flavor at last month’s IFT 2014 show in New Orleans.
When consumers think about GMOs, they tend to contrast them with “some hypothetical alternative food that is pristine”, when in most cases, going ‘non-GMO’ just means returning to a food production system that is less efficient - and worse for the environment...
Fourteen years after Unilever spent $2.3bn (€1.7bn) to buy Slim-Fast, it has sold up for an undisclosed sum to a private equity player. Analyst and author Julian Mellentin tracks the decline of a mega-brand and considers what he sees as a category in...
General Mills - which has just unveiled a host of new protein-packed product launches - is seeking to patent a way of ensuring certain protein particulates can be incorporated into snacks containing moist fruit pastes but stay crunchy.
DIGGING INTO WHEAT TRENDS WITH ARDENT MILLS: PART II
The grain-based industry is late to the protein game and they need to catch up because opportunities are vast, says Ardent Mills’ director of consumer insights.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 26% of children with two copies of a high-risk variant in a specific group of genes develop an early sign of celiac disease called celiac disease autoimmunity (CDA) by age five.
H.U.M.A.N., the company behind better-for-you vending machines and healthy micro markets, has taken its business-to-business healthy snack distribution model into corporate offices with the launch of SnackNation.
The growth of the Non-GMO Project verification scheme has been nothing short of explosive over the past 18 months. But does the firm serving as its technical administrator have the resources to cope, and are competing certification schemes adopting the...
The US food and beverage industry anticipates continued sales growth in 2014 on the heels of strong performances the past two years, according to the second annual "US Food & Beverage Industry Study" from accounting, tax and advisory services...
Lackluster sales of packaged bread & ready-to-eat cereals might suggest that years of carb-bashing and changing lifestyles have finally driven some grain-based categories into terminal decline. However, flour milling giant Ardent Mills begs to differ.
At $88.3bn in 2013, the size of the US specialty food prize is already mouthwatering, and if current trends continue (sales grew 9.6% in 2012 and 8% in 2013), it will blast through the $100bn barrier in 2015. But which categories are growing most rapidly?
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi says she didn’t want a short-term ‘cut, slash and burn’ policy that would have seen the company make enormous earnings from 2006 despite the upset her long-term nutritional foods focus caused some investors.
If you wash chia seeds after you harvest them, they turn into a gelatinous goo. Which can be a problem if you are trying to tackle salmonella, contamination with which is currently causing some big issues in the trade.
The concept of “energy” is a multifaceted one, to be sure: it can come in bursts or slowly; via beverages, shots, biscuits or bars; with appeal that spans sports nutrition, weight management and even kids.
Women, protein blends, and the ‘anti-wasting’ market are all areas of significant opportunity in sports nutrition, says Jeff Hilton, co-founder and CMO of BrandHive.
While the food industry has been reducing partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) for years, Illinois-based Columbus Vegetable Oils still had a few panicky phone calls when the FDA “dropped the PHO bomb” (by proposing to revoke their GRAS status) last November,...
On the face of it, the FDA’s proposal to revoke the GRAS status of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) - the source of most of the ‘artificial’ trans fats in the US food supply - seems like a no-brainer. But there are other ways to crack down on trans...
If the cover of TIME magazine earlier this month (headline: Eat Butter) is anything to go by, it would seem that the conversation about fat, and saturated fat in particular, is changing, at least in the media. But are policymakers sitting up and taking...
Snacking is becoming more of a lifestyle than simply a between-meal indulgence for time-strapped US consumers, which means more opportunity to innovate in flavor, nutrition and delivery formats for snack food manufacturers like Snyder’s-Lance Inc.
Food and beverage manufacturers are holding their collective breath in anticipation of the proposed changes to the Nutrition Facts panel put forth by the Food and Drug Administration and likely to be finalized next year.
The number of Americans aged 65+ will double in the next 25 years. But manufacturers of products that could have strong appeal to this demographic (Greek yogurt, protein bars) are not doing enough to target them, says IRI.
Growing consumer interest in positive nutrition, demographic shifts, new eating patterns, recent scientific findings, and the recommendations from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans all point to a bright future for protein-rich foods and beverages,...
Can anything top protein? What’s a “silver consumer” and why should we care? Would salty caramel work in a soft drink? Innova Market Insights teased a very full agenda of trendwatching presentations at next week’s Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT)...
Cargill has unveiled IngreVita, a proprietary blend of high oleic canola oil, antioxidants and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) from fish oil that it claims will take omega-3 food and beverage fortification from the niche to the mainstream.
Alpha-linolenic acid-rich canola oil, in combination with a low glycemic index diet, may help improve blood sugar control and other measures of heart health, says a new study from Canada.
“My background is in sales, so I’m used to dealing with disappointment,” observes the founder of quinoa-based snacking brand eatKeenwa. But for every door that’s been shut in Blake Niemann’s face in the past 18 months, another one has opened. And his...
Savory snacks are a perfect fit for the World Cup and industry has injected huge efforts into flavor development, pack design and marketing campaigns to draw the punters in, says the director general of the European Snacks Association (ESA).
Nearly 3% of global food and beverage launches and 6% of US food/bev launches were marketed on a ‘high-protein’ or ‘source-of-protein’ positioning in the year ending March 31, 2014, according to data from Innova Market Insights.
Merchandizing gaps in convenience stores need to be plugged and snack makers must collaborate to drive progress forward, says the category development head at General Mills Convenience as it launches Nature Valley c-store tailored products.
The US ready-to-eat popcorn category has been “growing in the double-digits for the past 3-4 years” and is now worth “north of $600m in annual [retail] sales”, according to Diamond Foods CEO Brain Driscoll, who says new launches under the Kettle and Pop...
Nestlé has filed a patent for high-carb and high-protein bite-size dough snacks for athletes and health-conscious consumers looking to manage nutritional intake before and during exercise.
Three months after a federal judge in California gave the preliminary thumbs up to a $3.4m settlement of a class action lawsuit accusing Trader Joe’s of falsely advertising products as ‘all natural’, a fellow judge has allowed most claims in a similar...
DIGGING INTO INNOVATION AND NPD WITH DATAMONITOR CONSUMER