🗽 Another Summer Fancy Food Show Dispatch

Still hungry for more news from the Specialty Food Association’s summer show? We just published another round of fresh insights from our team’s time in New York City this week. Here’s a sample:

Ultra-processed food – the often vilified, rarely defined food category – remains a hot button issue among better-for-you food industry proponents, market researchers and federal regulators. Let’s take a look at the sentiments currently dominating this discussion.

🏛️ From FDA: During the Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum yesterday, deputy commissioner Jim Jones shared insight on the agency's upcoming nutrition-based initiatives (more on Nosh later today). But when pressed about its stance on ultra-processed foods, Jones evaded, saying it's not a specific focus for the agency, but offering up that it has tracked “a massive overlap” between products high in saturated fat, sodium and added sugar (a.k.a. key pillars to upcoming front-of-pack labeling schemes) and what many deem to be ultra-processed. 

📊 From the market researchers: The definition matters, according to Innova Market Insights. The F&B market intelligence firm published a report last week that found U.S. consumers “hugely underestimate” their consumption of ultra-processed foods, citing that 44% view this category as only fast food. The vast majority (50% of Gen Z and 60% of Gen X and Boomers) believe ultra-processed foods are under-regulated and said a scoring system for classification would be useful. 

🥜 From the peanut gallery: Earlier this month, a new study made headlines for pointing out a supposed link between plant-based diets and heart disease as well as other chronic health conditions. However, within the finer print, the plant-based diets consumed by participants include plenty of products that most wouldn’t necessarily consider vegan fare, but rather just plain old ultra-processed items – like fries, cookies and soft drinks. 

• Is this the end of sub-$100 cookout costs?
• A recap of The Simply Good Foods Company latest earnings
• News of a PE firm investing in private label frozen foods

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