FoodNavigator-USA Podcast

Food and beverage industry stakeholders and consumer advocates are lauding FDA’s commitment to enhance its post-market assessment of chemicals in food, but they worry the agency’s proposed process is “thin on details,” including lacking sufficient transparency about how it would select ingredients for review, how it will assess their safety and the extent to which the public can contribute.

As US consumers embrace a wider variety of seasonings to flavor their food they increasingly want to know where spices come from, their safety profile and environmental and social impact – prompting the industry stakeholders to rethink spice supply chains, which historically have been purposefully opaque to hide widespread inequity and exploitation.

Food and beverage CPG startups can set themselves up for long-term business success by slowly and strategically growing their retail footprint, focusing first on product-market fit, unique branding and wisely allocating marketing dollars to build loyalty with customers, Jordan Buckner, founder of online CPG food and beverage community Foodbevy, shared on a recent episode of FoodNavigator-USA’s Founders’ Fundamental podcast.

More Americans – especially younger generations – are drinking tea and herbal tisanes more regularly as brands lean into the beverages’ innate functional health benefits and positive sustainability story as well as enhance accessibility with innovative packaging with appealing flavor combinations.

Nutrient dense dairy often is positioned as a posterchild for tackling malnutrition and feeding the world, but it also can have a significant impact on climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and biodiversity loss among other factors depending on how it is produced, transported and used – creating a difficult dichotomy for a healthy future.

Nutrient dense dairy often is positioned as a posterchild for tackling malnutrition and feeding the world, but it also can have a significant impact on climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and biodiversity loss among other factors depending on how it is produced, transported and used – creating a difficult dichotomy for a healthy future.

After three years of double-digit declines in volume and dollars in plant-based meat alternatives, the hemorrhaging in the category is steadily slowing, according to data from Circana – tentatively giving credence to claims by segment stalwarts that the best days are ahead for alternative protein.

To create a sustainable business, early-stage CPG companies must be prudent in how they spend their limited capital — being cautious on how much they pay in slotting fees — and ensure they maintain authenticity and their disruptor mentality when hitting financial milestones, Managing Director at Greenwich Capital Group, Andrew Dickow, shared during the third episode of the Founders’ Fundamentals Podcast.

With Red dye No. 3 soon to be banned in California and potentially in other states, and Red dye No. 40 along with the whitener titanium dioxide also in the crosshairs of some legislators and public health activists, food and beverage companies that rely on the colors are searching for alternatives that will deliver vibrancy without significantly impacting taste or driving up costs.

Between ongoing inflation, rising fears about climate change’s impact on the food system, and increasing physical and mental health concerns turbo-charged by the pandemic, consumers have been through a lot in recent years, and in response, new data from Cargill shows they want a lot in return.