Ready or not, Gen Z, is upon us with the oldest members of this cohort about to turn 21 and move out on their own and the younger ones holding increasingly more sway over what ends up in their families’ grocery carts.

As consumers become more comfortable buying groceries online they are becoming less tolerant of imperfections in e-commerce platforms and of insufficient product information – effectively raising the bar for retailers and brands to offer a seamless ordering and delivery or pickup experience.

As the dog days of summer drag on, people nationwide are reaching for frozen desserts to help stay cool, but unlike in the past when the promise of providing a moment’s respite from the heat in the form of a sweet treat was enough to land a product in someone’s shopping cart, now consumers are looking for more.

To beat of the competition or determine whether a new product idea will succeed, food and beverage companies need to stay ahead of consumers quickly changing whims – a task that has never been easy, but which is becoming more difficult as shoppers take increasingly divergent paths to the plate.

The US Dietary Guidelines, which are updated every five years, were created more than 40 years ago as a way to help all Americans eat healthier based on current scientific data, but since its inception a large and vulnerable group has been left out – infants and toddlers under the age of 2 years.

Given that only 2% of food and beverage sales currently are generated online and that shipping perishable, fragile and heavy CPGs can take a substantial bite out of already tight margins, it may be tempting to skip ecommerce.

Venture capital funding flooding the food and beverage industries in recent years has helped grease the wheels for many startups, but according to one investor a significant funding gap between pre-seed and subsequent early growth-stage rounds is holding back entrepreneurs in the space from reaching their full potential.

Starting or running a business is undeniably hard – for everyone. Even if someone appears to be strolling down easy street, chances are they still wake up panicked in the middle of the night, check their work email on their phones in the bathroom and stress over balancing budgets just like everyone else.

While online purchases of food and beverage currently account for only a small fraction of the categories’ total sales, consumers are embracing online grocery shopping at an exponential rate – making it a channel where industry players need to be for the long term success of their brands.

At IFT earlier this month, banana fosters flavor was everywhere – on popcorn, in cookies, even in coffee – but according to the ingredient company Virginia Dare its star power status at the show wasn’t just because it is a traditional dish of the conference’s host city of New Orleans.