While e-commerce impulse buys are evolving, in-store purchases are still critical in capturing snack and candy consumers—with the self-checkout lane offering tremendous potential growth for both brands and retailers, Kathy Risch, senior vice president,...
Despite inflationary pressures, consumers at all life stages continue to treat themselves both in-store and online with candy and snacks, Acosta Group's Kathy Risch shares in this first story in the two part series about consumers' candy and...
A lack of transparency around 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee members' affiliation with industry trade groups and multinational brands sparked scrutiny by public health advocates after last week's committee meeting.
While most consumers are willing to buy animal-free dairy made with precision-fermentation, a sizeable portion are either unsure or unwilling to try it – revealing a potential stumbling block that if left unaddressed could be just as damning for the nascent...
Iconic cheesemaker Bel Group and biotech startup Climax Foods are teaming up to create the next generation of “best in class” plant-based cheese that they say will be indistinguishable from their dairy counterparts with “zero-compromise” on taste, texture...
Bunge Loders Croklaan – a global producer and supplier of plant-based lipids – is bringing its novel NuliGo molecule to the US market to support muscle health in the trending sports nutrition and active aging categories.
As CPG brands look to innovate in the plant-based meats category, they often meet a host of formulation challenges, including ensuring products have a similar taste, texture, and appearance as their animal-based counterparts. At Natural Products Expo...
Saturated fatty acid chain length should be taken into consideration when assessing the impact on heart health, a new study suggests, indicating an opening for food marketers to differentiate the types of saturated fats used in their products and for...
Ahead of schedule and in partnership with like-minded plant-based protein brand Aloha, California-based Terviva’s much-anticipated, “ultra-sustainable” Ponova oil is debuting in its first commercially available food – a limited edition bar that celebrates...
Estonian start-up ÄIO joins the ranks of those brewing solutions to replace palm oil, coconut oil and animal fats with sustainable and healthier alternatives.
Against the grim backdrop of tumbling sales, units and volume for fresh and frozen alternative proteins, plant-based bacon is emerging as a bright spot – with sales inching up, thanks in part to innovative production techniques, like those championed...
Achieving pre-market authorisation to put cultivated meat on people’s plates is no easy feat. With different geographies handling the regulatory process in their own unique ways, we dissect how it works in the EU and Israel, and ask how these systems...
Research shows school meals are the healthiest source of nutrition for most students in the US, but the US Department of Agriculture thinks they can be healthier, which is why it is proposing stricter standards that would reduce added sugars, fat and...
With this month’s acquisitions of an additional domestic manufacturing facility and an FDA-registered packaging and blending facility, infant formula company ByHeart successfully consolidated its supply chain and significantly boosted its production capacity...
After leading Filippo Berio to become the No. 1 brand for olive oil, pesto and vinegar in more than 20 countries across Central and Eastern Europe and in Russia, Dusan Kaljevic hopes to work his magic again in the US where this month he assumed the position...
A study published in the journal Nature Food outlining key production metrics at cultivated meat co Believer Meats, “shatters” some of the assumptions made in a high-profile article in The Counter, which argued that cell-cultured meat faced “intractable”...
Taste may be considered king by most food and beverage makers, but at Unilever it no longer reigns supreme after the CPG giant adopted a new ‘holistically superior’ product testing framework and ‘boldly healthier’ food commitments for 2025 – a move that...
San Diego-based Seminal Biosciences – one of a growing number of startups deploying precision fermentation to produce specialty fats – is aiming to get its first product, a cocoa butter alternative, to market next year in a dark chocolate bar, with additional...
While the alternative cheese market remains relatively small and the focus of a niche consumer-base of vegan and lactose-intolerant consumers, a partnership between cheesemaker Bel Brands USA and animal-free dairy protein innovator Perfect Day seeks to...
The German ingredients supplier is investing in UK-based Clean Food Group (CFG) – a start-up developing a bio-equivalent cultivated alternative to palm oil – via its investment arm, Doehler Ventures.
Utilized in everything from lipsticks and moisturizers to baked goods and confectionery, palm oil comes with environmental and societal costs – displacing tropical forests across Asia, Latin America and West Africa, and destroying the habitats of endangered...
While most adults are aware of the importance of fruits and vegetables in their diets, many individuals overestimate the quality of their daily diets, new research from the American Heart Association has found.
Two US-based precision fermentation startups making real dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows have announced significant developments as they gear up to launch next year in the emerging ‘animal-free dairy’ category.
Terviva – a California-based firm commercializing ingredients from low-input, high-yielding pongamia trees – has teamed up with food ingredient supplier Ciranda to launch the first commercial supplies of ‘Ponova’ oil by mid-2023.
SPINS data shared with FoodNavigator-USA ahead of our Futureproofing the Food System virtual summit (Nov 15-17) shows a mixed picture for US retail sales of plant-based cheese, with overall dollar sales down -2.3% to $218.94m and unit sales down -3.6%...
The long-term imperative behind reducing our reliance on animal agriculture seems fairly compelling: The planet can’t sustain it. But with less engaged consumers dipping in and then out of the meat alternatives category as budgets tighten, and a subsegment...
Nourish Ingredients – one of a new breed of startups deploying synthetic biology to program microbes to produce more animal-like fats - has raised $28.6m in a series A round led by Horizons Ventures and supported by Main Sequence Ventures and Hostplus...
The EU’s recent approval of its controversial deforestation regulation is expected to drive up the cost of palm oil and other affected commodities, and thus food and beverage prices, amid ongoing inflationary pressures that have already affected a majority...
Natural Products Expo East may not be as big as its West Coast counterpart, but the 18,500 registered attendees and more than 1,200 exhibitors who convened in Philadelphia earlier this month for the annual conference were just as enthusiastic and the...
As the brand name suggests, none too subtly, SlimFast is a brand you tend to think of when you want to lose weight, fast. But in a food culture where ‘wellness’ is in, ‘dieting’ is out, and even the word ‘slimming’ can make you sound like an ‘80s throwback,...
Kerry has introduced Puremul, an acacia-based emulsifying ingredient that serves as an alternative to sunflower lecithin and mono- and diglycerides, responding to ongoing global sunflower supply challenges and manufacturers' need for a viable replacement.
The FDA has issued a proposed rule updating the criteria for the ‘healthy’ nutrient content claim on food labels that for the first time restricts the amount of added sugar firms can include in products bearing the claim.
After years of a slow build, Dewey's Bakery is entering national retail accounts where it can reach consumers in search of permissibly indulgent snacks with its line of thin crispy cookies that deliver on taste without breaking the caloric bank.
Advocates arguing for greater transparency about the use of GMOs in food scored a minor victory this month after a district court told USDA to re-work the digital disclosure portions of the bioengineered food labeling law, which came into effect in January....
A study exploring the connection between ultra-processed foods (UPF) consumption and reported adverse mental health symptoms found that participants who had a diet high in UPF were more likely to report instances of 'mentally unhealthy' and...
While weakening retail sales and grim quarterly earnings from some publicly listed players have prompted intense debate about the future of meat alternatives, the “crisis of confidence” this has prompted has overshadowed the fact that amid all this noise,...
“It has been clear for a while that plant-based analogs will not displace meat,” says the CEO of Israeli cell-cultured (a.k.a. ‘cultivated’) meat co Aleph Farms. “The addressable market is larger for cultivated meat than for plant-based because the products...
The acute health threat of COVID-19 may be ebbing for most Americans, but the desire it instilled in many to bolster their physical and mental wellbeing continues to push consumers to seek food as medicine, according to industry insiders.
In another sign that inflation may be peaking, wholesale prices fell month-over-month for the first time in July since April 2020, but commodities remain significantly higher than last year, suggesting it may be well into next year before food manufacturers...
As consumers become more familiar with plant-based alternatives to animal products they are becoming more sophisticated in how they evaluate their options and less willing to compromise on nutrition, taste, texture and variety – pushing industry to find...
Fresh off closing a $3.9m seed funding round* led by Unovis Asset Management, Paragon Pure is debuting its OléPBM alternative fat technology made from rice bran oil, which it claims outperforms palm and coconut oils in plant-based meat products.
Boston-based food tech firm Motif FoodWorks has promoted its CTO Dr Michael Leonard to the role of CEO, effective immediately, as current CEO Jonathan McIntyre moves to an advisory role in the company.
The IFT First 2022 show floor was abundant with companies touting their upcycled ingredients and other exhibitors highlighting plant-based meat and dairy innovation. Take a look at some of the trends highlighted at the show this year.
Bay area startup Zero Acre Farms - which is deploying microbial fermentation to produce oils and fats it claims can outperform rivals in the nutrition and sustainability stakes – has launched direct to consumer with a ‘cultured’ cooking oil boasting a...
Israeli start-up Gavan Technologies has developed a novel continuous extraction method that utilises the entire plant. FoodNavigator caught up with CEO Itai Cohen to learn more.
Two incompatible trends – increasing interest in seafood and climate change – are opening the door for the alternative seafood market, but for this emerging segment to reach its full potential, stakeholders must better align their go-to ingredients with...
As noted in the opening session of the IFT FIRST conference in Chicago last week, the food that brought us together during the pandemic and which fuels us everyday is in a crisis as climate change intensifies – pushing companies to weave sustainability...
While still a growing $7.4bn industry, plant-based foods have some significant hurdles to overcome around formulation especially in the area of fat content, according to Mintel.