Each day at 5 p.m. we collect the five top food and supplement headlines of the day, making it easy for you to catch up on today's most important natural products industry news.

June 20, 2018

3 Min Read
5@5: Produce-preserving technology debuts on Costco avocados | Amazon not pushing private label grocery
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Millennials, rejoice! Costco is selling new avocados that stay ripe twice as long

Avocados—with their notoriously short window of perfect ripeness that’s made them the subject of many an internet meme—are the first target for a technology developed by Apeel Sciences to extend the shelf life of produce. It’s an undetectable layer of plant material that’s applied to the exterior of the fruit to “naturally reinforce the peel that’s already there,” CEO James Rogers says, by keeping water in and oxygen out. Although the technology adds an extra step to the distribution process, Apeel says consumers won’t see a higher price tag on these avocados, grown by the Del Rey Avocado Company, because there’s a value proposition to retailers to reduce their food loss due to spoilage. The technology is rolling out in Midwest Costco locations, and Rogers says Apeel has plans to move into citrus and asparagus next. Read more at Fortune…

 

Amazon still cultivating private label in grocery

The online retailer has nearly 7,000 private label products, but less than 2 percent of them—from brands Wickedly Prime and Happy Belly—are foods and beverages, according to a new analysis from Coresight Research. “Amazon’s private label offering in grocery categories such as food and household care remains limited, and in beauty and personal care, Amazon offers just two private-label products,” Coresight CEO Deborah Weinswig said in the report. Meanwhile, the company seems to be making a bigger push in apparel, footwear and accessories, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of its private label products. Read more at Supermarket News…

 

Why the U.S. desperately needs more millennial farmers

The cost of land continues to be one of the biggest barriers keeping younger generations from taking up farming. But also in play is a lag in technology that would make small farms more efficient to run. But there’s also myriad opportunities for young farmers to innovate in technology, to become part of a climate change solution and to earn a premium for in-demand organic produce. Read more at Mic…

 

‘Single-origin milk’ is for people who want to know their cows

A Dutch food tech company called TOP bv teamed up with a dairy farmer to develop a platform that will enable dairies to pasteurize, bottle and sell milk that’s traceable to a single cow. According to the firm, the flavor of milk varies from cow to cow, just as the flavor of wine grapes and coffee beans varies from different plants. Read more at Munchies…

 

The collapse of a $40 million nutrition science crusade

In 2012, author and journalist Gary Taubes and physician-researcher Peter Attia raised millions of dollars to reform nutrition science and fund new studies that they hoped would illuminate the root causes of obesity. Nutrition Science Initiative—NuSI, for short—initially funded four studies, one of which unraveled because of a disagreement between researchers and the organization. Its relationship with a key funder also wavered, leading to marching orders to downsize and, eventually, a parting of ways. Today the organization is in disarray, but Taubes hopes it’s just evolving into something more humble. Read more at Wired…

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