Food and Beverage Top Stories

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Circana research takes a comprehensive look at consumer snacking habits and patterns, in both retail and foodservice. Here, I want to focus on the three biggest takeaways we found on the retail side of snacking.

These challenges already have caused lower cocoa yield and supply instability, leading in turn to quality and safety concerns, with heavy metal and pesticide contamination from archaic farming and handling practices. Meanwhile social and environmental issues including child labor, economic inequity, and high-carbon-emission transportation methods tied to unsustainable farming practices are compounding these interconnected issues. 

2025 will signal a marked acceleration of AI in marketing as companies move past pilot purgatory and can scale models that create highly personalized consumer interactions, automate processes, and provide predictive data and analytics strategies.

Following Circana’s forecast for 2024 from a year ago and the recent midyear update, the market has mainly trended as predicted. Overall, dollar sales have grown by 2.6%, price/mix by 1.6% and volume sales by 1.1% in 2024.

Nearly two thirds of respondents (64%) said they believed that food and beverage products made with the help of AI technology should not be described as ‘natural’ – with 12% disagreeing with this. There was also strong support for regulation, with 78% of respondents agreeing that the Government should introduce laws controlling the ways food and drink companies can use AI technology to design and manufacture their products. Just 6% disagreed with this.

US consumers certainly lead the world in snacking! A solid majority of consumers we surveyed in the US say that they snack at least once a day and frequent snackers in the US far exceed the global average. 

In any industry, you rely on data to help you make the next bold business move. 
Whether you are a retail store, manufacturer, ingredient supplier, or a foodservice operator looking to capitalize on the next food or beverage trend, having relevant data allows you to make better decisions that affect your bottom line. 
So you gather all the data.

To meet the demand, culinary experts and registered dietitians from Chartwells K12 used their insights from serving 2.2 million meals a day to students at 4,500 schools across the country to identify the top 10 food trends for kids in 2025, proving that when it comes to food, kids are ready to think outside the lunchbox.

Prepared Foods talks with Atomo Coffee Founder & CEO Andy Kleitsch about Atomo’s upcycled beanless coffee.

In this episode of Reasoned Opinion, Executive Editor–Technical David Feder’s editorial series on trends in the food beverage, nutrition, and ingredient industries, he subjectively discusses half a dozen trending whiskey spirits and what they bring to holiday tables. And, of course, he reminds those involved with the consumption of alcohol beverages to encourage responsible drinking.