While sales of plant-based products across the board continue to slide, consumer data from Evergi shows at least one segment is bucking the trend – frozen meals and bowls – an area into which the fast-growing vegan brand Strong Roots is eagerly expanding...
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential election win in Brazil will make it easier for food and beverage companies to comply with their zero-deforestation commitments, it has been claimed.
San Diego-based cell-cultured seafood company BlueNalu has set up a scientific advisory board bringing together experts in consumer research, sensory science, product development, bio-engineering, and systems biology to accelerate its commercialization...
Sustainability has rapidly evolved from a check box exercise for many food companies to something that impacts decision making throughout the supply chain. But how are firms measuring sustainability, how reliable is industry data in this respect, and...
Beverage giants champion the circular model of recycling plastic bottles and using recycled content in new bottles as a way to reduce plastic waste and use of virgin plastic. But a new report from Greenpeace USA criticizes this model: calling for an industry-wide...
Will a large percentage of flavors, colors and sweeteners be made in bioreactors by 2050 or are the costs and challenges associated with precision fermentation technology such that it only makes sense to produce a handful of high-value ingredients in...
Mondelēz International is investing an additional $600m by 2030 in its cocoa sustainability program, Cocoa Life, for a total investment of $1bn since the start of the program 10 years ago.
The 45 startups selected to participate in the FoodBytes! By Rabobank food and ag innovation program in 2022 provide a neat snapshot into trending topics in food and agriculture, from personalized nutrition and upcycling to robotics and farm biologics.
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.
Indoor farming company Local Bounti has secured a $23.3m private investment in public equity (PIPE) investment to scale up its proprietary Stack & Flow Technology, which the company argues leads to improved superior unit economics.
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...
The Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) has launched a new consortium of industry and nonprofit members to support research and development in the burgeoning field of cellular agriculture.
While US retail sales of fluid milk have been stubbornly declining despite a brief covid-fueled boost in 2020, we’re still just scratching the surface of the grass-fed dairy opportunity, says Jim Hau, the new president at 100% grass-fed organic dairy...
The 100+ Accelerator wants to help sustainably-focused start-ups make a real difference in the supply chain. Representatives from AB InBev and Coca-Cola explain how in this Rabobank Liquid Assets Podcast.
From avocado oil “going mainstream” in packaged foods, to date sweeteners and Yaupon tea, Whole Foods has just unveiled its annual list of 10 trends to watch in the year ahead.
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...
Kraft Heinz is making progress towards several of its environmental and sustainability goals including cutting the amount of waste sent to landfill by 15% in 2021 and converting 84% of its global packaging portfolio to fully recyclable materials.
Could ‘carbon neutral’ claims land food & beverage brands in legal hot water, even where they are certified by a third party such as the Carbon Trust? FoodNavigator-USA asked attorneys to weigh in after Danone Waters America found itself at the receiving...
Organic sales continue to reach unprecedented highs as consumers gravitate to options they perceive as healthier for them and the planet, but the segment faces significant headwinds that are slowing growth and will demand ongoing flexibility, innovation...
While consumers today are exploring more money-saving strategies such as choosing lower-cost items and cooking from scratch, their personal values around health and well-being and the planet have not wavered, according to research from Innova Market Insights.
Nature’s Fynd - a startup growing protein-packed food from microbes with a fraction of the environmental footprint of meat or dairy – is rolling out dairy-free cream cheeses to Sprouts nationwide.
Indoor farming company Revol Greens is doubling its romaine lettuce production footprint by 2023, supported by its recent expansion at its Texas growing facility, making it the largest greenhouse lettuce grower in North America.
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...
Researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have found eight new sweetness-enhancing compounds in 11 citrus cultivars that could offer improved palatability and lower sugar content in food and beverage...
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...
San Diego-based BlueNalu has outlined plans for a large-scale cell-cultured seafood plant it anticipates will be operational in 2027. This will deploys technology it claims can “unlock the path to significant profitability” and enable a projected 75%...
PATH, a sustainable aluminum bottled water company, has closed $30m in Series A funding to continue its mission of eliminating single-use plastic bottles from going into landfills and oceans with its 100% refillable aluminum water bottles.
The western diet – and the food system that underpins it – is becoming increasingly unsustainable, for the health of humans and the planet. So how do we futureproof the food system to deliver healthier, more sustainable products that nourish our bodies...
Plant-powered culinary brand Wicked Kitchen has raised $20m in bridge funding from backers including actor and vegan activist Woody Harrelson, Ahimsa VC, and NRPT (Thailand's leading food producer and innovator).
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.
What's behind the recent slow down of the plant-based meat category? According to new research from Deloitte, there are several factors at play including a more limited addressable market, the pressure from inflation, and questions around the products'...
Vanilla Vida – an Israeli startup addressing the huge mismatch between supply and demand in the natural vanilla market – is exploring locations in the US as it ramps up its indoor growing platform for vanilla planifolia plants with significantly higher...
Some commentators fear ‘regenerative’ could become the new ‘natural’ in food marketing – a buzzword without a clear definition enabling the industry’s biggest polluters to sustain an unsustainable status quo while presenting a more eco-friendly face via...
InnovaFeed, a French company with global ambitions in the edible insect arena, has raised $250m in a series D round* backed by agri-food giants including ADM and Cargill, and says it will break ground on a large-scale production facility to farm black...
Novozymes is increasing its investment into alternative proteins, specifically its portfolio of enzyme solutions that can be used for the production of alternative protein food and beverage products, which it is expecting to become a significant driver...
Plant-based meat alternatives continue their downward slide with sales, units and volume all dropping in July from a year ago – a trajectory that IRI data crunched by 210 Analytics shows was set in motion months ago, but which doesn't shake at least...
ADM and PepsiCo have entered a 7.5-year strategic commercial agreement to expand regenerative agriculture across its North American supply chains, reaching up to 2 million acres by 2030.
Where’s the smart money in food tech? Tackling food waste? Precision nutrition? Cell-cultured meat? And where can investors have the biggest impact on human and planetary health… and make a return? FoodNavigator-USA caught up with Nadav Berger and Yoni...
Equinom has partnered with AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. to bring commercial quantities of its non-GMO ultra-high protein yellow pea protein ingredients to market and co-create a portfolio of functional plant-based ingredients.
New York-based indoor farming firm Gotham Greens has raised $310m in a series E round* bringing its cumulative funding to $440m since 2009. While the sums are pretty jaw-dropping, the hydroponics firm has demonstrated it can make money and deploy its...
The long-term imperative driving meat alternatives is clear: We only have one planet, with a growing population and finite resources, and raising animals to feed them all just takes up too many of them, says Tom Mastrobuoni, chief investment officer at...
Nestlé is dipping a toe into the increasingly crowded but still highly fragmented and nascent animal-free dairy category by teaming with startup Perfect Day to use synthetic biology to create a milk-like beverage from genetically engineered microflora...
Panda Express is rolling out Beyond: The Original Orange Chicken – a “plant-powered” entrée co-developed with Beyond Meat – to 2,300+ US locations until November 30, while supplies last, following a successful small-scale trial in 2021.
Since the launch of its strategic ‘end-to-end’ transformation agenda, dubbed Pep+, the company has hit a number of milestones on topics ranging from regenerative agriculture to reformulation. FoodNavigator catches up with Katharina Stenholm, Chief Sustainability...
While many CPG companies understandably spent the last three years putting out fires, General Mills simultaneously prioritized introspection – taking on projects that CEO Jeff Harmening acknowledged are “hard to put in a spreadsheet and algorithm,” but...
Organic pasture-raised dairy co Neutral Foods – which is billing itself as a ‘carbon neutral’ brand through a combination of carbon reduction initiatives and offsets - has raised $12m in a series A round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
