Michael Jacobson, director of CSPI, makes some strong suggestions for food brands in today’s NYT and Huffington Post about how labels should more clearly communicate better for you and not so better for you ingredients.  Among his suggestions, he urges more prominent display for calorie content; sugar info should include only refined sugars added [...]

Food marketers who are targeting families with a nutrition message should focus more on the kids than the adults, says the results of a new survey by IFIC.   Parents concentrate on nutrition and health needs of their children but are less likely to think about their health, say the findings.  The IFIC Foundation’s 2012 Food [...]

The New York Times Magazine focused on all things food this past Sunday.  One article discusses what the ideal food label would look like?  Writer Mark Bittman suggests labeling foods using traffic light signals to indicate the ideal level of health.   By “ideal,” he means from the perspective of   consumers, [...]

Are licensing vehicles a good idea for brands to get kids to eat better for you foods?  Apparently so.  Adding a cartoon face on a healthy snack may make those choices more appealing, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.  The researchers found that when kids were offered apples [...]

Is gluten free just another fad?  Gluten-free products are flying off grocery shelves, and restaurants are boasting of meals with no gluten. Celebrities on TV talk shows chat about the digestive discomfort they blame on the wheat protein they now shun. Some churches even offer gluten-free Communion wafers. “I don’t know [...]

There’s a new fruit for betterforyou brands to consider partnering up with .  And it’s pretty cute!   The Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Jordan reports that the seedless, mandarin and clementine “Cuties” may be the first produce ever to be successfully branded and marketed by name (and convenience).   The Cuties’ is being marketed based on the [...]

Better4you brand managers should be more app-centric in the year ahead.   Mashable reports that, due to the growing popularity of food and drink-related apps, Apple is adding a dedicated section for the category to its App Store. Apple lists the Food Network app as its top paid app, followed by Allrecipes.com, Fast Paeleo and [...]

Getting consumers to notice a better4you brand in a supermarket filled with thousands of products  is big business.   A few major CPG companies are combining three-dimensional computer simulations of product designs and store layout.  Vastly improved technology in the past few years has helped them actually track retinas to get a true fix on [...]

Sales of artificial sweeteners continue to rise and are now an estimated $1.5-billion-a-year market.  A New York Times article by Kenneth Chang talks about whether they are safe or not.   “Based on conventional food safety considerations, the scientific community feels that these have been very adequately tested for any potential toxicities,” said Dr. [...]

The average number of items in a supermarket is 38,718.   That’s more than a 200% increase from 35 years ago.   Any idea of how many would fit in the better4you category?  Here are a few tips on shopping healthy:  1. Buy fresh food.  2. Shop the perimeter of the store. 3. Think of the [...]