Foodnavigator-usa Podcast

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.

Precision fermentation is emerging as one of the buzziest technologies in food, and even though it has been used safely for decades without raising eyebrows, new uses and broader awareness are prompting consumer questions that if left unanswered could threaten its full potential.

Organic rice grower Lundberg Family Farms is on a mission to certify all of its organic rice as regenerative organic by 2027 to better meet growing consumer demand for sustainable food and to “leave the land better.”

Change is inevitable, and for most it is uncomfortable – but it isn’t necessarily bad given it can be a catalyst for tremendous growth, deeper connections and betterment, which is good news for the consumer packaged goods industry considering research from Deloitte predicts the segment is facing “a once-in-a-century economic, social and technological transition.”

Since Project Potluck was founded in 2020 to support people of color in the CPG industry, the landscape and conversation around diversity and inclusion has changed dramatically, but according to the grassroots group turned non-profit a lot remains to be done to achieve equity – and it is ready to help on a larger scale in 2023 thanks to donations and support from like-minded industry players.

Alongside falling sales, volume and units, plant-based meat has slid into the trough of despair, also known as valley of disillusionment or sorrow, and while it is unclear if the category has hit bottom yet, many stakeholders already are looking for a way up the other side where the promise of full integration, success and fulfilment wait.

Most Americans think about food in terms of servings, but Johns Hopkins-trained cardiologist Elizabeth Klodas talks about the snack bars, pancake mix, granola-like sprinkles and packets of oatmeal she offers under her brand Step One Foods’ in terms of ‘doses.’

As frozen pierogi maker Mrs. T’s celebrates 70 years of tucking ‘the stuff you love’ into a soft pasta pockets shaped ‘like a smile,’ the founder’s son and now company president reflects on what it takes to not only survive but thrive for seven decades in the highly competitive food and beverage industry.

Born out of the pandemic when product availability was unpredictable or limited and when a premium was placed on immunity-boosting, consumers in 2023 increasingly are seeking positive nutrition – both for themselves but also for the planet and workers across the value chain.

The idea of food as medicine is as old as food itself, but only recently has the mainstream US health care system begun to take notice, and action, as community-directed efforts to prevent, manage and treat diet-related illnesses through nutrition education and more equitable access to healthy food generate positive health outcomes and reduced health costs.

While consumer spending remained strong through the holidays despite rising prices, the new year may bring a new level of financial scrutiny as more Americans consider budget limitations and what is essential – altering when, how and where they shop and what they buy.

After a scathing review published earlier this month by the Reagan-Udall Foundation criticized FDA for its scattered and inefficient approach to food safety and applied nutrition, the agency says it is committed to “building a world-class human foods program” that can “more quickly adapt to an ever-changing and evolving environment.”