Research

In recent studies, research firm Nielsen looked at lunchtime and snacking trends to find what shoppers are purchasing for their family’s lunchboxes and why. Nielsen found that along with healthier options, products with natural and organic claims are posting double digit growth.

While at the Sweets and Snacks Conference in Chicago, Illinois, IRI snack industry expert Sally Lyons Wyatt reported on the “state of snack,” sharing the group’s latest research on 2016 category performances and marketplace predictions for 2017. Here are five noteworthy takeaways from her report.

At this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois, Nathan Rigby, One Click Retail’s Vice President of E-Commerce, led a presentation about Amazon’s purchasing power. Data shows that one of the largest growth opportunities for the online retailer is in the candy and snack space.

This month, The Food Corridor, an online database for food and beverage businesses to connect with commercial assets, and the Network for Incubator and Commissary Kitchens surveyed 38 kitchens, representing over 1,000 businesses. About 66 percent of those participants said their business areas do not have a standardized definition for shared-use kitchens

Early-stage investor group CircleUp found that some of the industry’s biggest CPGs spend up to six times more on marketing and advertising of old products than they do on innovation of new products. This old-school way of business is now costing large companies market share.

An annual health and wellness progress report conducted by Consumer Goods Forum found that 66 percent of reporting companies reformulated products in 2016. But of those companies, roughly 27 percent made their policies regarding nutrition and product formulation public.

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.

Applied Food Sciences (AFS) is going “back to the very beginning” — the beginning of food before genetic modification, that is. In January, the Austin, Texas-based ingredient supplier opened a research and development center at the University of Iowa’s BioVentures Center to use plant-based science to examine how the evolution of food shapes the current and future food supply.

Using ingredient data from Label Insight, Nielsen’s Product Insider tool found that the curly green vegetable has expanded beyond more traditional savory categories such as pasta sauce, prepared foods and side dishes to yogurt, breakfast and even frozen sweets. Some brands debuting new items during last week’s Natural Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., are chasing this leafy pot of gold.

Consumers may be increasingly demanding cleaner labels and better-for-you food options, but a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report is suggesting that those same shoppers may not be putting their mouth where their money is.