Martín Caballero

If you were at this year’s Institute of Food Technology (IFT) show, held this week at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas, you likely caught a glimpse of the future. The venue hosted over 20,000 attendees and 1,200 exhibitors showcasing a range of ingredients, flavorings, colorings, sweeteners and everything in between, painting a broad portrait of the current state of the industry and pointing the way towards further developments and innovations that are only just beginning to emerge.

During the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) 2017 show this week, BevNET spoke with analysts from leading market research firms Mintel and Innova Food Insights about their observations on the macro-trends in this space that are helping shape the next wave of consumer food and beverage products.

A list compiled by market research firm CB Insights of the 15 most well-funded venture capital-backed food and beverage startups reveals the increasing value placed on brands that are offering healthier choices and disrupting established categories like meat and dairy and innovating with plant-based offerings.

The San Francisco-based Full Harvest, founded by Christine Moseley, a former head of business development at Organic Avenue, has raised $2.35 million thus far, having brought in $350,000 from The Impact Engine, Astia and Wilson last May.

Corporate transparency, restorative agriculture and the rise of nut butters as a snack were among several emerging trends from Natural Products Expo West 2017 that were highlighted in a webinar from market research firm SPINS on Thursday.

Along with record levels of funding from both private and corporate entities, the rise of plant-based protein and new products and services that combine convenience and health were identified as two of the major disruptive trends reshaping the food and beverage space during strategic data analytics firm CB Insights’ “Dining on Disruption” webinar on Tuesday.

Food and beverage incubator AccelFoods today announced a $15 million expansion of its second fund, and new investment in several emerging brands.

After six years helping develop nascent natural food and beverage brands in New York City, Michael Schwartz, founder of Organic Food Incubator (OFI), is hoping a recent move to a new location in northern New Jersey signals a new chapter for the company and its clients.

The anonymous survey, conducted in September and October, asked participants to answer 15 questions about HPP safety, quality and efficacy, and to compare HPP to other pasteurization methods.

At Project NOSH LA this week, Steve Hughes, Sunrise Strategic Partners CEO & co-founder, charts how volume declines and loss of earnings experienced by “Big CPG” firms have left them at a crossroads, as projections predict that upwards of $50 billion could shift away from those firms to smaller companies by 2020.