If you didn't make it to Chicago in October for FoodNavigator-USA's inaugural Food Vision USA event, you missed a truly awesome ensemble of industry experts covering everything from our nutritional needs on a manned mission to Mars to the challenges...
Nearly three-quarters of US consumers will host a meal or a party this holiday season, and to ensure their guests leave jolly and full 57% of shoppers say they will spend more on groceries during this season than last, according to a new study by Acosta.
With sales already heading into the stratosphere after a successful roll-out in chains from Starbucks to Kroger, That’s It fruit bars upped the ante this week after being cleared by NASA as a snack for astronauts to munch on as they work at the International...
Fresh produce provider Dole Food Co. hopes to boost Americans' fruit and veggie intake by expanding its “Get Up and Grow” healthy eating initiative and launching three new products, including “less stringy” celery.
Development of products tapping the paleo diet trend has spread out from the US to other parts of the globe in the past year, according to new research.
US retail sales of Greek yogurt have been picking up strongly over the past year, according to the latest Nielsen data*, with year-on-year (YoY) percentage growth up from 4.6% in the latest 52 weeks, to 6.1% in the latest 26 weeks, 7.4% in the latest...
PureCircle has developed a new family of stevia-based sweeteners designed to shine in low to zero-calorie formulations, an application area that has proved particularly challenging as formulators seek to retain a ‘clean, sugar-like’ taste at higher dosage...
Brands, like celebrities and artists, have to stay true to their core essence to retain their integrity, but must also “change and shed personas” from time to time to stay relevant, says Campbell Soup’s beverage VP Kelli McCusker.
'We’ll be incubating our own brands and investing in other early stage brands'
KRAVE Jerky founder Jon Sebastiani - who sold his business to Hershey in January – is going back to his entrepreneurial roots next year with the launch of a CPG incubator he hopes can recreate the magic he felt in KRAVE’s early days with groundbreaking...
Minnesota-based Suntava Corporation – which is best-known for its anthocyanin-packed purple corn – has been acquired by Healthy Food Ingredients, LLC, the parent company of SK Food International and Hesco/Dakota Organic Products.
'It’s not the first or the second purchase order that really counts, it’s the third'
It won't happen overnight, but the future of babyfood is in the chiller, predicts one Texas-based entrepreneur pioneering the application of high pressure processing (HPP) in a category she claims is ripe for disruption.
HPP (high pressure processed) juice pioneer Suja is moving into new territory next year with the launch of a line of enhanced waters with organic fruit & veg and probiotics that will debut at Target stores nationwide in February.
America’s love affair with spicy flavors will continue in 2016, but with an evolutionary twist that also will open the door for more multicultural flavors, predicts McCormick & Co. in it is annual flavor forecast.
Three years ago, Chef Jeannine Sacco was cooking Jambalaya, discovered she was out of rice, ransacked her cupboard for a substitute, and found a packet of whole grain steel cut oats. The results blew her mind; the entrepreneurial juices started flowing;...
Lancaster, PA-based Neat Foods – a small, but rapidly-growing player in the plant-based foods category – has been acquired by Atlantic Natural Foods LLC, which makes canned vegetarian products under the Meatless Select and Caroline’s brands.
Most juices – even the super-premium high pressure processed (HPP) ones – don’t contain a ton of fiber, says Juiceology founder & CEO Felipe d’Avila, who has carved out some white space in the category with flash-pasteurized, aseptically-filled refrigerated...
Parabel – a new entrant to the burgeoning plant-based protein market - has signed a lease for 450 acres of land in Fellsmere, Florida, where it plans to build a $10m production facility for its water-lentil-based proteins.
Food and beverage manufacturers and suppliers are rising to meet the increasing consumer demand for humanely produced animal products – a trend which the American Humane Association celebrated last week on Capitol Hill in Washington.
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...
Unit sales of diet soda are still falling at an alarming rate in the US retail market, with the latest Nielsen data (all channels including grocery, drug, mass, and c-stores) showing an 8.2% decline in the four weeks to October 31 vs the same period a...
'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...
Healthy aging and increasing coverage by the mainstream media could help drive demand for products addressing inflammation over the next few years, say experts.
Solazyme is aiming to launch the latest addition to its micro-algae-based ingredients portfolio in early 2016 - an algae butter - which it says could replace hard fats such as palm oil or partially hydrogenated oils in a variety of applications spanning...
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...
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...
EXCLUSIVE: Minute Maid Sparkling 'will offer a unique proposition to the category'
Coca-Cola is to axe Glaceau fruitwater following disappointing sales and replace it in March 2016 with a 6% juice product called Minute Maid Sparkling, FoodNavigator-USA has learned.
FOOD VISION USA: How to maintain a challenger brand mentality as a mainstream player
Chobani’s Flip ‘mix-in’ platform is operating at a run rate of $300-$350m and could be the next one billion dollar brand in yogurt, says Chobani, which is planning to take the brand into savory territory next year with the launch of novel sweet and spicy...
San Francisco-based microalgae pioneer Solazyme has expand its joint venture with oils expert Bunge to develop a “range of breakthrough oils for food and products for animal nutrition”.
Whether consumers opt for savory or sweet snacks is typically determined by the time of day, with savory snack consumption peaking at noon and sweet snack consumption peaking at 8pm, whereas better-for-you snack consumption is predicated more by place,...
While 3D printing might still seem a bit like a technology searching for an application when it comes to food, the co-creator of the Foodini printer insists her machines won’t end up gathering dust at the back of your cupboard once the novelty wears off.
With growth in fresh perimeter grocery departments outpacing that of the center of the store, Portland, OR-based The Better Bean Co. saw a void for a high-quality alternative to canned beans that could become part of people’s weekly cooking routines.
Big brands have always sought to convince us that by purchasing their mass-produced wares we are expressing ourselves (although it’s hard to argue that buying a Coke – even with your name on it - is a bold expression of individualism). But how can food...
Target has embarked on a multi-year collaboration with MIT’s Media Lab and design firm IDEO that will explore areas such as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health.
In the hyper-competitive beverage world, it’s hard to imagine a brand pioneering a new beverage category using a mission-driven business model aimed at restoring the rainforest would still be around 20 years later, let alone growing at an average rate...
An advertising campaign that focusses on the transformative nature of cooking insects is more effective than 'entomophagy education', says a US-based researcher.
As demand for local food grows, so too does consumers’ willingness to pay more for it, but manufacturers and retailers must clearly label local products to reap their full sales potential, suggests new research.
Stressed, time poor and short of culinary inspiration, but feeling guilty about ordering pizza again? Sun Basket – the latest entrant to the burgeoning home meal delivery market – gives you the tools to cook restaurant-quality meals at home, without having...
A high profile lawsuit vs WhiteWave Foods and Blue Diamond over how much almond should be in almond milk is still proceeding through the courts, but much of the wind was taken from the plaintiffs’ sails this week after a New York federal judge said they...
In recent years, sugar has replaced fat and sodium as public enemy No. 1 in the nation’s fight against obesity and diabetes – prompting consumers to shun the ingredient and manufacturers to seek alternative sweeteners.
The ‘healthier’ snacks market is awash with non-GMO, gluten-free, and ‘no artificial’ claims, while corn syrup is out and ‘real’ (cane) sugar, coconut sugar, and agave syrup are in. But are these products really delivering in the nutritional stakes, given...
VEGA Coffee is based on a simple – but surprisingly novel – concept, says founder Noushin Ketabi: What if the farmers who grow coffee, actually roasted and packaged it as well, and then sold their ‘farm-roasted’ product directly to US consumers via an...
When Dr Lior Lewensztain first started pitching That’s it fruit bars to retailers, pretty much everyone he talked to wanted in. Three and a half years later he is in tens of thousands of locations nationwide from Starbucks to 7-Eleven, and sales are still...
From savory yogurt and coffee fruit infusions, to switchel – apple cider vinegar-based concoctions that offer a modern twist on a centuries-old tradition - Sterling-Rice Group (SRG) highlights 10 culinary trends it predicts will inspire packaged foods...
