Elaine Watson
FoodNavigator-USA
Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Contact Elaine
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Past articles by Elaine:
Solely claims industry first with pasta made from green banana flour
NEW PRODUCTS GALLERY: New launches this holiday season include 'animal-free' milk from Nestlé and Perfect Day, several low or no sugar offerings, and continued innovation in plant-based eggs, meat, and dairy. → Read More
WATCH: Environmental scientist: ‘Climate neutral' and 'climate positive' food does not exist… yet
Is there such a thing as ‘climate positive’ food, and can we compare products at a glance and determine which is the more environmentally-friendly choice based on claims made on pack? → Read More
‘Love wheat again…’ Revival Einkorn launches mission to make ‘easy to digest’ ancient grain a household name
Revival Einkorn – a new organic consumer brand dedicated to einkorn, a protein-packed ancient wheat variety with a gluten profile billed as ‘easier on the gut’ than modern wheat – is making its debut direct to consumer and in the pasta aisle at natural food stores across California. → Read More
Biden administration to explore voluntary targets for added sugar, develop front-of-pack nutrition labeling system
The Biden administration is exploring steps the federal government could take to reduce intake of added sugars “such as developing targets for categories of foods, similar to the voluntary targets FDA developed for sodium,” as part of a National Strategy released this morning ahead of tomorrow’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. → Read More
SPECIAL REPORT: Bioengineered food labeling: ‘They kind of shot in the middle and missed every constituency’
Advocates arguing for greater transparency about the use of GMOs in food scored a minor victory this month after a district court told USDA to re-work the digital disclosure portions of the bioengineered food labeling law, which came into effect in January. But what will this mean in practice, and is the law – as written – really serving any useful purpose? → Read More
Chobani drops IPO plans, for now: ‘Given the current market conditions, we have decided to withdraw’
Chobani has withdrawn its IPO proposal 14 months after filing a draft registration statement with the SEC, citing current market conditions. → Read More
Bernstein: ‘The alternative meat space is going through a shake-out period’
Having experienced an average +30% YoY growth in 2019 and 2020, the alternative meat category slowed to flat YoY growth in 2021, with industry leaders such as Beyond Meat seeing negative growth in measured channels. → Read More
HowGood: ‘We’ve created the world’s largest food sustainability database’
Food and beverage companies are under increasing pressure to measure, reduce, and accurately report their social and environmental impact, with the SEC recently outlining proposals* that would require all registrants to disclose their scope three greenhouse gas emissions, a new law** designed to stop firms importing goods produced with forced labor from Xinjiang, and the FTC set to update its… → Read More
Layoffs at Motif FoodWorks: ‘We’re pivoting our focus to key priorities that we know will return maximum ROI’
Boston-based foodtech firm Motif FoodWorks – which has raised $345m since spinning off from synthetic biology firm Ginkgo BioWorks in February 2019 – has just engaged in a round of layoffs, FoodNavigator-USA understands. → Read More
Phytolon raises $14.5m to expand fermentation-based food color platform: 'We don't want agricultural land to be exploited for production of colors'
Israeli tech firm Phytolon, which is biosynthesizing alternatives to synthetic food colors, has raised $14.5m in a series A funding round* led by DSM Venturing as it gears up to commercialize betalain pigments produced via fermentation of genetically engineered baker’s yeast. → Read More
Is the party over for meat alternatives? It’s just getting started, says ADM
US retail sales of frozen meat alternatives were up a solid +10.1% to $76m in May 2022 vs May 2021, with volumes fairly flat at -0.8%; but sales of refrigerated meat alternatives continued their precipitous slide last month, with dollar sales slumping -16.1% to $41.8m and volumes down -18.1% YoY, according to IRI data* crunched by 210 Analytics. So is the party over for alt meat, at least in the… → Read More
Protein in the dock: Labeling experts weigh in as Beyond Meat lawsuit shines light on protein content claims
With protein content claims in the spotlight after Beyond Meat was hit with two lawsuits filed in the space of one week alleging it overstates the protein in its plant-based burgers and other products, FoodNavigator-USA caught up with labeling experts to explore protein claims in more detail. → Read More
‘Proudly genetically modified…’ Moolec ‘molecular farming’ co gears up to launch meat proteins from GM crops
Moolec Science – which has developed a ‘molecular farming’ platform to produce plants that express animal proteins – is developing genetically engineered peas and beans containing bovine and porcine proteins that it claims can improve the taste, texture, nutrition, flavor, and color of meat alternatives. → Read More
‘Historic inflection point’ for cultivated meat: UPSIDE Foods closes $400m series C round to support commercial-scale plant with production capacity of tens of millions of pounds
Cultivated meat co UPSIDE Foods has closed a $400m series C round that brings its cumulative funding to $608m (giving it a valuation of >$1bn before it has launched a single product on the market), money that will help support a commercial-scale facility with an annual production capacity of “tens of millions of pounds.” → Read More
Keto in focus, part 1: From hardcore keto dieters to the ‘carb-conscious’
The high-fat, moderate protein, ultra-low carb ketogenic diet has its devotees and detractors. But what kind of impact is it having on the CPG industry, how big is the addressable market for keto or keto-friendly products, and is this a fad or a lasting trend? For part one of our new series, we caught up with Keto and Co, which sells keto products online and in around 4,000 stores nationwide. → Read More
WATCH: The a2 Milk Co... ‘There's been a realization that there is going to be a significant sub-segment of dairy that's A1-free’
Billed as friendlier on the gut, The a2 Milk Co's milk comes from cows that only produce A2 beta casein protein. But how much science is behind it, and what share could it ultimately take of the US fluid milk market? We caught up with Blake Waltrip, US CEO at The a2 Milk Co, at the Natural Products Expo West show. → Read More
SPECIAL REPORT: FDA doubles down on titanium dioxide safety as CSPI raises concerns; Skittles lawsuits dismissed
While the European Commission recently banned the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) in foods in the EU, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has just warned consumers to avoid it, the FDA tells us it has reviewed the scientific opinion from EFSA that prompted the EU ban and takes a different view. Separately, two high-profile lawsuits against Mars over TiO2 in Skittles have also… → Read More
'It still feels like magic a little bit…' Animal-free milk space heats up as Opalia churns out milk with 'all of the functional components of traditional dairy'
If churning out milk from lactating bovine mammary epithelial cells in a bioreactor seems a bit, well, unnatural, ask yourself what’s ‘natural’ about the life of a dairy cow in an industrial-scale dairy farming operation, says Opalia co-founder Jennifer Côté, who got into the emerging field of cell-cultured milk for ‘deeply personal’ reasons. → Read More
New report alleges ‘mass contamination’ of foods from use of glyphosate to dry crops
Pre-harvest spraying of glyphosate-based weedkillers to dry crops is “leading to the mass contamination of essential foods that form the base of our diet,” alleges a new report from The Detox Project, which highlights glyphosate residues on everything from Non GMO Project certified whole wheat sandwich bread from Whole Foods Market to Quaker oats, although some industry stakeholders have… → Read More
Waterdrop CEO outlines US ambitions: ‘We wanted to make something beautiful and easy to use like an Apple product’
Waterdrop – an Austrian startup that has gone from zero to $100m in revenue across 12 countries in five years with dissolvable plant- and vitamin-packed sugar-free cubes (‘micro-drinks’) you can drop into tap water – plans to aggressively ramp up its US presence this year after raising €60m ($70m) in a series B round, CEO Martin Murray tells FoodNavigator-USA. → Read More