Why Target is fast-tracking food innovation

At the retailer's Future + Food coLab in Cambridge, Mass., entrepreneurs, data scientists and designers are working away to create solutions for the problems in the food system. Target sees food as a driver of foot traffic -- and, thus, sales -- in its stores, and sees an opportunity to improve transparency and quality. Read more at Fast Company...

Chipotle using games, brains and off-site cooks to turn corner

Armed with some new executives, a new PR firm and new tactics for ensuring food safety, the chain is looking for a rebound after sales for the first two months of the year were down 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Read more at Food Safety News...

ConAgra and Kellogg's join General Mills and Mars to label GMOs

They've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars combatting state GMO labeling initiatives, but now Big Food companies are announcing they will label products. Read more at EWG...

With bees in trouble, almond farmers try trees that don't need 'em

Independence almond trees, which are self-fertile and don't need bees to pollinate their flowers, have some traditional almond growers worried about their business, especially as bee populations decline. Read more at NPR...

Lasers help speed up detection of bacterial growth in packaged food

Researchers in China and Sweden are developing a fast, noninvasive way to detect pathogenic microbes based on a technique called tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. Read more at Science Daily...