Foodnavigator-usa Podcast

The 2023 holiday season is around the corner and this year promises more good cheer – or at last more spending – than last year, but the higher inflation that will buoy sales is a double edged sword that simultaneously threatens volume and must be considered when crafting marketing campaigns for the next four months.

Inflation may finally be cooling, but prices at the shelf remain significantly higher for most products than a year ago, and certainly since pre-pandemic – leading to widespread food insecurity in the US and prompting consumers, retailers and brands to make difficult decisions about purchasing, merchandising and marketing.

The grocery industry is at an inflection point as retailers and manufacturers grapple with dramatic changes in how food is produced and sold and an increasingly diverse consumer base that is no longer willing to settle for the one-size-fits-all, supply-driven business model that has dominated the segment for decades.

Even though plant-based protein sales continued to slide in July, prompting retailers to slim down and shift offerings from the more premium placement in the refrigerated section to the freezer aisle, startup TiNDLE Foods still sees significant opportunity in the segment that it plans to seize with a full line-up of cross-category launches.

With roughly 2 billion people overweight, nearly a billion people suffering from hunger and a third of all food produced lost or waste – the current food system is “too unbalanced, too wasteful and too vulnerable,” according to Unilever, which is why the CPG giant’s nutrition division is on a mission to be “Boldly Healthier” for people and the planet.

Offering an abundant selection of fresh, high-quality, diverse fruits and vegetables is a top priority for most grocers given the produce section is often a key driver for overall store foot traffic – but according to a recent survey staying stocked is also a top pain point for many retailers.

While regulators, legislators and industry stakeholders debate whether whole, 2% and flavored milks should be offered alongside plain, low-fat and fat-free options as a required component of school meals, a growing number of students are raising concerns – and their voices – about a lack of plant-based options.

Between climate change’s negative impact on food production and ongoing supply chain challenges that threaten access to high quality nutrition, ensuring the growing population has enough to eat without further compromising the planet’s health will require significant innovation, technological advancements and funding – all of which investment and mentoring firm Techstars says its sixth Farm to Fork Accelerator program brings together.

At the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City late last month emerging and established brands were going back to basics with simplified ingredients, streamlined packaging, clear cut benefits and natural – if not always familiar – flavor profiles.

Under a new CEO and with peak-pandemic receding farther into the background, the Consumer Brands Association is “going back to the future” to focus on core values that, while still priorities in recent years, took a backseat during the chaos of COVID and rising geo-political tensions.

Despite efforts to upcycle ingredients, promote so-called ugly produce and educate retailers and consumers about how to sell and use food before it spoils, food waste in the US remains at a stubborn 30%, in part due to inaccuracies predicting consumer demand.

While the cultivated meat industry has overcome significant upstream processing and regulatory hurdles in the past year, new market research suggests startups still face notable downstream food manufacturing challenges that could place them – along with investors and consumers – in a dangerous position.

Fresh and frozen retail seafood in the US has been on a rollercoaster the past three years with shifting shopping and eating habits during the pandemic sending sales and volumes to dramatic highs and then rising inflation in the past year causing unit sales to plummet while dollar sales have barely held on thanks to price hikes.

Between consumer desire for a more sustainable food system, growing momentum behind extended producer responsibility legislation and – of course – a desire to do the right thing, many CPG manufacturers are exploring more environmentally friendly packaging.

As a new anti-ESG era emerges, food and beverage businesses that set ambitious goals to reduce their environmental footprint, improve worker livelihoods, diversify leadership or enhance accountability could find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

After three years of innovation-stifling supply chain and labor challenges paired with record high inflation and a trying economy that has discouraged both investors and adventurous shoppers, food and beverage manufacturers are finally ready to prioritize new product development again, but this time many are taking a different approach, according to new research by TraceGains.

Millets may be relatively little known in the Global North currently, but the small, nutrient dense and drought-resistant grains (well, technically seeds), could be poised to become the next quinoa with the power to turbo-charge sales of CPGs featuring them, thanks to the Food and Agriculture Organization and UN declaring 2023 the International Year of Millets.

The dreaded question of what to cook for dinner or what to eat next isn’t just challenging for consumers, it is high stakes for retailers, which risk shopper loyalty, lost sales, food waste and more if they predict the wrong answer and fail to stock the right items.

At Natural Products Expo West this year, walking down an aisle without seeing a callout for prebiotics or probiotics was nearly impossible as more players race to meet consumer demand for each, which research from Coefficient Capital shows is climbing fast.

As consumers look for foods and beverages to do more for them and the planet they are becoming more sophisticated and skeptical of unverified claims – demanding proof that products and companies can deliver what they promise.