John Foraker

https://lnkd.in/guWHQbA6 - Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13) has introduced what would be a paradigm-shifting legislative package intended to improve the dietary health of Americans by banning high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and certain color additives in foods produced in the U.S. The legislative package includes two distinct acts: the Stop Spoonfuls of Fake Sugar Act and the Do or Dye Act. The Do or Dye Act targets toxic food dyes like Red No. 40 and Yellow Nos. 5 and 6. There is already mounting pressure to place further scrutiny on these chemicals, some of which have been restricted in the EU and elsewhere. The primary focus of the Stop Spoonfuls of Fake Sugar Act is to restrict the use of HFCS, which is often alleged to promote obesity and other chronic health issues. Does this go to far in the fight against #addedsugar - or not far enough?

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Going Seed Oil Free will be a significant movement in the health-conscious food space over the next decade. Julia Mills, Mintel's analyst for U.S. Food and Drink Reports, notes a 150% increase in "made with olive oil" claims and an 825% surge in "made with avocado oil" claims from 2019 to 2023. However, studies from the FDA and UC Davis reveal that over 25% of extra virgin olive oil and nearly 70% of avocado oil in the US supply chain are adulterated with cheaper seed oils (https://lnkd.in/ev57JBuy) like soybean, corn, or canola, underscoring widespread cooking oil fraud. As the food industry evolves and more brands and consumers are choosing premium oils, The Seed Oil Free Alliance will ensure this shift is transparent and verified through rigorous independent lab testing, auditing, and more. #seedoilfreecertified #cookingoils #ingredient #integrity

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If you're in the food or ag business.  If that business has any connection to nuts whatsoever. Then you need to join us, July 11, 2:00 Est for the 6 Seeds Intelligence on nut consumption. We'll cover: → Consumer Preferences → New Product Development → Industry Challenges Secure your spot: https://lnkd.in/dzdJMC9A #foodinnovation #futureoffood #fooddevelopment #foodtrends

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UNFI just reported a surprisingly good Q3. Everyone in our industry should be celebrating. Their earnings call outlined how their larger Natural/Organic/Specialty accounts (WFM/TFM/GFH) are performing well. It’s a good thing, that these accounts are continuing to perform well and showing consumer resilience against persistently high pricing. This opens more innovation into more doors, and allows for the transfer of market share from Big CPG to emerging brands. It’s also a good thing their simplified fee structure (SSA) is paying off and producing more sustainable EBITDA rates for them because the stability of their supply chain network is important for retailers. There’s a nascent cottage industry built around helping small brands navigate UNFI’s “deduction” process. It’s important to understand that this 7% “Inside Income” forms the basis of their core profitability model. Nobody is going to “outsmart” or “outhustle” that 7% model long-term. Every brand signs the Policies and Procedures document and the details are all in the minutiae there. It’s important to understand that UNFI does not make its profits selling product…they earn more than 100% of their EBITDA by BUYING product. Their fees aren’t “predatory” they are just optimized for mature, larger brands who make up more than 80% of their sales. If you want a simplified no deduction model, and you don’t want to have to patchwork together 5-10 smaller distributors to reach national scale, you should work with us instead. We only make money when we sell product and we only work with emerging, growth brands. ALL of our fees are posted on our website, and we explain them to every brand that onboards with us in a 30 minute call. We can onboard you by the end of the day today if you want. Otherwise, UNFI is a very competent incumbent, and they are here to stay. Pod Foods #innovation #unfi #grocery

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Interesting take on the battle for consumers during months like Sober October and Dry January from Stephanie Cain 👇 Her commentary below with link in comments 🍻🥂🍹 The wine industry has launched an assault on #SoberOctober and non-alcoholic beverages as if the sole existence of the booze-less category is to put a hit against wine. With its new campaign, Come Over October, wine folks are declaring you should grab a glass instead of going sober, because wine brings people together. Instead, #wine should really be looking at their core messaging because that's why wine is declining. At the #ComeOverOctober kick-off party, I had a conversation with a salesperson of a wine distributor. He attempted to be ok with the evolution of wine by explaining that ready-to-drink, single-serve wine brand, BeatBox, marketed to the 21 to 25-year-old set, was crushing the market. He was all for it. While the brand has wacky flavors like blueberry lemonade wine, he felt that every wine consumer “starts somewhere.” It was promising to him because he said they would “continue their wine journey” and start “drinking real wine.” So many problems here but here is the big one: They don’t often continue the wine journey. News flash, wine people! Consumers don’t have time. We don’t desire it. We want to build connections, not spend the evening only discussing what we want to drink. We have jobs and travel and bills to pay and kids and dogs and aging parents and hell, we just want to buy a house. We have no job security. We have been hit with recession after recession. Right now, inflation is making our groceries cost some 40% more. You really think we are jumping at the time-consuming task of learning about wine? Get real. We’ll grab a #Martini. And start ranting. Which is exactly what I'm doing in today's The Mad Ones 👇 Link in comments. #health #wellness #marketing #alcohol #alcoholfree

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Despite the challenges of the last three years, there are commercial and economic opportunities presented by the plant-based sector as does the environmental, health and societal imperative to diversify our protein supply with more familiar and convenient alternatives. This report provides quite a detailed in-depth explanation of the plant based sector in Australia in both retail and foodservice. The Australian foodservice sector presents the most immediate opportunity for plant-based meat manufacturers to continue to grow in coming years. Wiith relatively small penetration of plant- based meat in just a few segments of the foodservice category, such as in QSRs and fast casual outlets, a large share of the foodservice market remains untapped for the plant-based meat industry with the potential to generate sustained and long-term growth across the next decade. Thanks to the team Food Frontier for this detailed analysis of the Australian market. https://lnkd.in/ggQ9r4Rb FoodFrontier-2023-State-of-the-Industry-report

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Is your business targeting #GenZ coffee consumers? "Recent analyses, including insights from The Economist, have highlighted that Gen Z have a higher income than its predecessors, the #babyboomers and #millennials.  The article reports that a typical 25-year-old Gen Z-er (or Zoomer) has an annual household income of over $40,000, more than 50% above baby-boomers at the same age. While factoring in inflation and current cost of living might make these numbers less sensational, they still demonstrate that Gen Z holds considerable #economicpower." Check out today's article at Coffee Intelligence. Sarah Eleanor Charles spoke with William Dunaway about the preferences of Gen Z and millennial coffee consumers, as well as their priorities such as sustainability, community, brand building, and fun and exciting products. https://lnkd.in/e9NMCTqn

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“Growing a CPG company, especially in the food and beverage space, ‘is astronomically harder today,’. ” Paul Voge you said it, man. So many truth bombs dropped in this article about the challenges and difficulties growing and scaling a CPG brand in today’s world. The cruel reality is that it takes a whole lot of money or a whole lot of time (and most times both) along with a fair amount of luck to have a chance at making it. If you dont have a ton of money then you better have a ton of time, some good fortune, and a product that can withstand many changes of the seasons (and "trends"). For most emerging brands today its all about survival and just finding a way.  There are lots of traps out there– lots of shiny objects– lots of vanity metrics hoping to be noticed and cared about–but at the end of the day sometimes its just about living to see another one. Here’s to all you day-to-dayers and week-to-weekers out there that are all just finding a way. Keep finding it.

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The American People Are Hungry for a New Farm Bill By Grant Colvin Executive Director of the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   As lawmakers return to Washington after a month back home with their constituents, they have a golden opportunity to address the top voter priority of lowering food costs by passing a bipartisan farm bill.   Extensive ongoing coverage and polling prove that Americans are frustrated with stubbornly high grocery bills. The fact that both presidential campaigns have placed food prices at the center of their economic policy proposals speaks to the potency of this issue for voters in all corners of the country and across the political spectrum.    How can the sugar program be reformed to lower food costs? In short, our outdated sugar program restricts domestic sugar production and imports, which in turn creates unnecessary ingredient shortages and cost increases for American food manufacturers. Given the prevalence of sugar as an ingredient in many grocery store staples—peanut butter, pasta sauce, bread, yogurt, and so many more—these same outdated policies also weigh down the budgets of families and small businesses.   This bipartisan, problem-solving action by Congressional agriculture leaders is commendable and should be recognized as the most promising momentum for sugar program modernization in decades. Notably, the emerging consensus on this package of reforms is backed by both sugar producers and food manufacturers. With that key support locked in, lawmakers are now positioned to land a defining blow in the country’s fight against high food costs. But they need to pass the farm bill in the weeks ahead.   That’s why food manufacturers and farm groups from across the country have been imploring lawmakers to pass a farm bill that delivers targeted reforms and provides relief for consumers. Manufacturers, small businesses, and families deserve the certainty of a five-year farm bill reauthorization, rather than falling back on yet another short-term extension that falls short on much-needed changes to the sugar program and other key areas.   Days may be running short for the 118th Congress, but there’s still time for lawmakers to bring food price relief to the overwhelming number of Americans yearning for Washington to come together and focus on this issue. To do so, let’s get the farm bill over the finish line.   Grant Colvin is the executive director of the Alliance for Fair Sugar Policy, a large coalition of food companies, trade associations, consumer groups, free market organizations, and many others united in pursuit of a fairer, simpler U.S. sugar program.  

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"For years, industry stakeholders like the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) have warned of a “price crisis” in #coffee. Since 2019, the SCA’s Price Crisis Response Initiative has sought to address the disparity between producer costs and market #prices. Now that that prices finally are up, it remains to be seen how the industry –and long-term advocates for higher prices – will react when faced with challenging supply chain-wide realities. " - Coffee Intelligence Sarah Charles speaks with Albert Scalla, Senir Vice President of Trading at StoneX Group Inc., and Thiago Marques Cazarini, Owner of Cazarini Trading Company who share key industry insights on the recent coffee prices surge and the impacts these will have across the value chain from producers to consumers. https://lnkd.in/eSTYdsE4

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Deep breaths are needed with the current coffee price market. If you haven't been paying attention to it, please start now. Green coffee prices are at 47-year highs. As someone who lived through the skyrocketing prices in 1977, I can tell you to take a deep breath. Was it easy? Heck no! Did we come out the other side better? Absolutely. Start engaging your clients today. The sooner you start the better. Engage with your roaster partners. Find out what they foresee their plan to be. Can you still lock in at lower pricing. They might have contracts that you can add yourself to. Talk with industry experts who have lived this and can offer you solid advise. Look at the opportunity and not get hung up on the "what ifs". You must pass the pricing on or you won't be able to sustain your business. I'm happy to chat if you feel that I offer solutions. #coffee #prices #coffeeprices #consulting https://lnkd.in/dJQ-dAqX

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The danger of generalization and lumping in natural foods with the overall food industry. It's true that UNFI is struggling and as I've said in previous posts I understand they have to grab for margin where they can. But this perspective is uninformed of the true breadth and complexity of chargebacks. I've always believed that execution can overcome competition and opex challenges. But UNFI/Kehe are the PRIMARY distributors for center-store small company natural foods, which encompasses Better-For-You products. Small brands would lose 80% of their distribution if they pulled out of these distributors. I saw someone say 'well would you rather have $1MM of profitable business vs $5MM of unprofitable business?' Seems obvious, but losing 80% of distribution would drive the cost of the other 20% up to unprofitable levels as well. I don't have the answers and will continue to execute and look for the right path, but I do think people should be aware of the situation. The pioneers of improving the food system, I think, no longer have good choices for growth without major equity funding. You have to be wicked-sharp, extremely disciplined, and maybe require great mentors or prior experience. Things will shake out and the system will find a balance. We're just not there yet.

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California just banned sell-by dates and will be enforcing standardized language going forward. That's a huge food sustainability win. "By requiring manufacturers to use the same phrases for date labels across products, ReFED estimates that in California alone, this law will annually save 70,000 tons of food from going to waste, saving consumers $300 million.” "The changes will take effect starting on July 1, 2026, and impact all manufacturers, processors, and retailers of food for human consumption." The impact potential of small changes -- especially when they are properly informed by both data and common sense -- can't be underestimated. #food #sustainability #leadership #climateaction Kudos to ReFED for your leadership!

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Statista provides a great "wake up" for foodies in the US, where "local" often appears to be all the rage.....except that it matters more in most other countries! In the U.S. we can get a little myopic about consumer trends and interests, an understandable consequence of living and working in the world's most studied consumer marketplace...which means the most news stories about new studies and findings, and rarely compare the US to other markets https://lnkd.in/gPbf--8Q

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Kefir-- a fermented dairy beverage-- is rising in popularity. I weigh in on this good-for-you drink in this article via Layla Khoury-Hanold via Food Network where it takes about: --What is kefir? --How is kefir made? --What does kefir taste like? --Health benefits --The difference between kefir and yogurt --And of course, HOW to pronounce it!

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I'm not sure how we suddenly found ourselves at the end of July, but here's my #fridayfive: 1. As the industry continues to explore alternative food production methods, here's a new one: CO2 butter. Backed by Bill Gates, Savor is focused on creating "real fats from carbon." All of these efforts are interesting, but what happens when the most fundamental thing that connects humans to the earth - eating real foods - ends? Is there such a thing as human terroir? https://lnkd.in/eDjTMd89 2. But while there is something to be said about the disconnection of humans from whole foods, there's also a strong case for how cultivated meats and other tech-based products can help address food insecurity and - as is the case with Singapore - national security. https://lnkd.in/e9R3mWCB 3. While some companies are looking to science and the future, others are pulling from our past. This article (https://lnkd.in/eZcwU8rW) details how Arthur Watkins' extraordinary seed bank, which was collected a hundred years ago, are helping scientists rediscover "lost" crop genetics which are, in turn, being used to create hardier and more nutritious varietals. 4. Speaking of historic, how about this Ellia Kassof began resurrecting discontinued products. I've got to say, and not to age myself, but I recognize - and enjoyed - a lot of these brands. In fact, we had a cat named Hydrox! https://lnkd.in/erFyexCR 5. Finally, move over cocaine bear because cocaine sharks are the new drug addled predator to avoid. And while this may seem like a throw away topic consider what this may mean if we need to be concerned not just about overfishing and heavy metal contamination but also the possibility that seafood and fish may be strung out on coke. How much more complicated can eating possibly get? https://lnkd.in/e9W8X2xg #innovation #trends2024 #consumerbehavior #foodservice #foodandbeverageindustry #restaurants #brands #technology #agriculture #cpg #consumerinsights #menumattersllc

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What leaders do you look up to the most? I'm preparing the next season of Future Food with Analisa Winther and looking to feature companies who have "how I built this" stories that you are dying to hear. Over 150 pioneering visionary Founders and executives from the food industry have appeared on Future Food so far sharing their entrepreneurial journey and how their work has led to transformation. Some of the most popular episodes have included the Founder of Oatly, Pasturebird, World's 50 Best Restaurant Leo, WWF, Tony's Chocolonely, Climate Farmers, and more. The show has a dedicated listener base of entrepreneurs, industry professionals, and enthusiasts who view food as a powerful vehicle for change. Listeners come from over 80 countries and the show is in the top 5% of most downloaded podcasts globally. 👇 Tag a leader you want to know about with 1-2 sentences about what makes their story amazing and how they're transforming the world through food. Your rec could get them featured on the show!

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The #coffee prosumer market is evolving. "#Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. In fact, in the National Coffee Association USA’s most recent 2024 National Coffee Data Trends report, 67% of US adults said they drank coffee the previous day – marking a 20-year high for #coffeeconsumption in the country. The report also found that US specialty coffee consumption was up by 7.5% on the previous year, with #espresso-based drinks leading the trend. So as the global specialty coffee market grows, so too does consumer knowledge and interest – especially alongside a huge focus on #consumereducation following the pandemic." This article has great insights and data you can't miss. Matthew Hill spoke with Josh Hockin, Head of Coffee at Eight Ounce Coffee Co to learn more about how the coffee prosumer market has changed and how it could evolve further. https://lnkd.in/e3gi-_J6

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It's #StopFoodWasteDay and Earth Week... what more can we say? Almost 50% of all fruits and vegetable produced is wasted every year globally which is equivalent to about 3.7 trillion apples. Wasted fruits and vegetables are actually the number one solid waste material sent to landfills 🤯 And yet, NINE in ten Americans don't get their daily servings of fruits, vegetables or fiber. Bridging this gap is our reason for being - and what motivates me personally as a founder. I've had the pleasure of visiting farms and manufacturing facilities across the country, and it's shocking how much latent value is left on the table across our food supply chain. Take a look behind the scenes in our manufacturing process, and how we turn the pulp, the peels, and other vegetable scraps from farms and manufacturers into craveable veggie chips that put organic vegetables at the front of the label: https://lnkd.in/g8fC3h_N Thank you to our crowd equity supporters who are helping us bring Trashy to life. We are just $38k away from our goal 🏃‍♀️ #foodwaste #upcycle #upcycled We are 'testing the waters' to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.

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