We are happy to announce that today our new, and first, Director of Nutrition joined M Booth’s Better4You (http://mbooth.com/why-we-are-different/) team! Author and healthy-eating expert Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD, is the creator of the popular F-Factor Diet, and the first registered dietitian with a national line of branded high fiber foods. She will serve as a [...]

The latest attack on food marketers is a natural cause for alarm.  Some recent consumer lawsuits allege that food brands are abusing the “all natural” designation, and duping consumers.  Food policy expert Michele Simon told the Wall Street Journal: ‘The word hasn’t been defined well enough at all, so for years companies have been able [...]

Lawmakers seek tighter regulation of vitamins, herbs, weight-loss products and other dietary supplements.   Herbal companies are now facing a  newly introduced Dietary Supplement Labeling Act of 2011 that, if passed, would increase labeling requirements and require companies to register their products. Critics of the bill say Dietary Supplement Health Education Act [...]

A new USC study found that bad eating habits persist even when the food doesn’t taste good. In the experiment, movie-goers who said they typically ate popcorn at the movies were given a bucket of either stale or fresh popcorn.  They ate about the same amount of popcorn whether it was fresh or stale.  In [...]

Burger King  just announced that it is removing the king from its advertising and marketing.  Some interesting comments, can be found in this week’s PR Week, including from M Booth’s Better4You practice, on whether this fits with the new healthier menu. – Rich

 Cereal brands beware!  A study conducted by Yale researchers finds that moms and dads misinterpret health claims on children’s cereals and presume that they better for you than they actually are.  Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that parents typically think that sugary cereals are more nutritious than some alternatives when the packaging touts “whole grain,” “organic,” “supports [...]

More than half of food and beverage companies admit that they do not measure social media’s ROI, finds the trade media group Just Food.  Another 18% said they did not know whether ROI for these media is measured.    Part of the reason is the challenges in understanding the value of a Facebook fan or Twitter follower [...]

Now more than ever, food companies have an opportunity to tout their better4you brands to baby boomers  Boomers are more obese than other generations, a new poll finds, setting them up for unhealthy senior years.  And for all the talk of “60 is the new 50″ and active aging, even those who aren’t obese need [...]

New food products with an ethical or premium positioning are on the rise despite a challenging economic environment, finds Innova Market Insights . Consumer spending is trending up when it comes to value-added products positioned around ethical platforms.   Innova says that 6% of all new food product intros were ones with ethical positioning. That’s up from 3.7% in 2008.   ”Manufacturers must meet the demands [...]

As some of you may know, the annual BlogHer Food conference took place this past weekend in Atlanta, GA to talk about all things food.
To give you a bit of background on the conference, there were two days jam packed with sessions, sampling and speakers, and I bounced around like a ping pong ball trying [...]