Processed food manufacturers are finding themselves in a confounding situation. The processed food industry’s turnover from artificial to natural ingredients continues with a vengeance, and food additives are ground zero. Consumers’ preference for clean labels has continued to expand, and the food additives industry is running hard to keep up. For example, major industry R&D investment is driving the release of new naturally sourced colors applicable to a growing number of food categories. The i...
November 8, 2013U.S. consumers are increasingly seeking out foods that simply read as fresh and “real,” in addition to inherently healthier foods with positive nutritional qualities. From this perspective, extensive technical nutritional content information on packaged food and beverage products, whether in the mandatory Nutritional Facts Panel or in the currently contested front-of-package labeling schemes, is somewhat beside the point. Consumer interest in knowing as much as possible about the ingredients in ...
October 25, 2013American consumers have permanently changed their eating habits. The era of three square meals a day has gone the way of the typewriter and vacuum tube. More and more Americans eat smaller portions of food more frequently throughout the day, and there is universal agreement in the food industry that this megatrend is here to stay. Another cultural shift fueling the healthy-ingredient snacks market is the high priority placed by many consumers on making sure that the food they-and their kids-eat ...
October 11, 2013Nearly a third (31%) of U.S. adult have gardened in the last 12 months. Gardening has fallen off slightly since 2005, with participation rates dropping by a couple of percentage points. Despite this longer-term slight decline, the percentage of people gardening held firm during the recession--as way to reduce stress, grow food, gain more sense of control over one’s life, or simply because consumers were at home more or more practical-minded in their leisure spending. Gardeners tend to be 35 an...
October 8, 2013