The global COVID-19 pandemic had a marked impact on consumers’ attitudes toward health. COVID took a heavy toll on people in poor health and consumers looked for quick ways to boost their health as a defense against the disease.
Award will grant $100,000 annually to food system changemakers in honor of plant-based visionary Greg Steltenpohl’s lifelong mission
September 27, 2022
The Greg Steltenpohl Pragmatic Visionary Award, honoring natural products pioneer and plant-based visionary Greg Steltenpohl, is officially accepting entries for its first annual $100,000 grant for early-stage ventures in the food space. The founder of Odwalla and Califia Farms, who died in March 2021, devoted his life to changing the food system through business.
The start-up engagement program was created to bring "big and small" together to drive mutual growth
September 23, 2022
SnackFutures, the Mondelēz International, Inc. innovation and venture hub, opened applications for CoLab 2023. This is the third year of the start-up engagement program which was created to bring ‘big and small’ together to drive mutual growth.
New shopper trends and behavioral analytics are based on real-time insight surveys from September 2022
September 21, 2022
In a fall from last month, 46% of shoppers are feeling uncomfortable with their finances while 64% still report looking for sales, deals or coupons. Fifty-four percent
are cutting back on non-essentials and 63% are cutting back on areas besides groceries, such as clothing and entertainment. Customers are still making changes to avoid price increases.
For the past few years, the Innova Market Insights list of Top 10 Trends has included a plant-centric trend. This acknowledges the growing presence of plant-based foods and beverages, as well as alternatives to traditional animal-based products.
The firm is also expanding a vision to invest in consumer technology, service and enablement companies that put human and planetary life at the center of business
September 13, 2022
PPV Fund III will continue to invest in consumer-facing brands that are better for people and the planet and will focus solely on growth stage companies. PPV Fund III will invest between $15 million and $40 million in target companies as active, primarily minority, investors.
Prepared Foods’ New Products Conference takes place Sept. 12-13 in Philadelphia
September 7, 2022
Prepared Foods’ New Products Conference delivers the industry’s most focused look at food & beverage innovation—from consumer insights, product and packaging trends to the new tastes and latest technologies (e-commerce, artificial intelligence, etc) impacting R&D.
Cultivated meat startup is fast-tracking meat-making biotechnology
September 2, 2022
Costs for lab-grown meat products are currently higher than those of their conventional counterparts, but with increased volumes, production costs will ultimately be lower than those of factory farming. Clever Carnivore is uniquely positioned to streamline and scale up the cultivated meat production process due to the team’s background in low-cost cell culture media optimization.
IRI and NPD report that at- and away-from-home food market is forecast to grow 8% in 2022
August 24, 2022
The nearly $1.5 trillion at- and away-from-home food market is forecast to grow around 8% in 2022, with at-home food (8.7% sales growth versus a year ago) outpacing away-from-home (6% versus a year ago), according to IRI’s and NPD’s inaugural joint research.
Under inflationary constraints, consumers turn to frozen and shelf-stable foods, as well as private label brands
August 17, 2022
According to NPD, lower-income households under $75K eat 89% of their meals and snacks at home. These households eat more frozen foods, like frozen pot pies or breakfast sandwiches, and shelf-stable foods, like canned pasta or ramen noodles, than on average.