The ‘shroom boom: Will trendy medicinal mushrooms go mainstream in 2018?

The boom in functional foods and beverages has enabled several young brands in the U.S. to popularize mushrooms that have long been treasured in other cultures for their health-promoting properties, like lion’s mane, chaga, reishi and cordyceps. Lifehouse Tonics, for example, is a Los Angeles-based café that whips up ‘shroom-ful tonics, elixirs and shots. Four Sigmatic Foods is working them into coffees and teas and has a coffee café called The Shroom Room in Venice Beach. The next step in this trend going mainstream may just be science—at least a few studies are currently being conducted to investigate the effects of these mushrooms. Read more at Fast Company…

How Nestlé USA is innovating like a startup

When it comes to the quickly evolving culinary demand of consumers, big companies realize they must “either meet them where they are or watch them walk away,” writes Nestlé’s Chief Strategy Officer Rui Barbas. The company is starting by reinvigorating some of its core products and brands, including the introduction of new plant-based creamers under the Coffee-mate brand. It’s also launched an “internal startup” program where employees can quickly design, prototype and test new product lines, and is collaborating with Rabobank and RocketSpace on an accelerator program. Read more at Medium…

B.C. entrepreneurs pump up Canada’s supplements market

Here’s how two former GNC employees and fitness buffs put their heads together back in 2002 to launch a top-selling sports nutrition company, Nutrabolics, at a time when Canada’s strict import and export regulations kept many big-name brands out of the game. Read more at Business in Vancouver…

Part health store, part café, Cherry’s Natural Foods makes its drinks, dishes and ambiance a wholesome treat

The husband and wife team behind Cherry’s Natural Foods, a small natural food market in South Jersey, opened their store in May 2017 to bring healthy products to a place where such items are often hard to get a hold of. But they soon realized that they couldn’t compete with the big-box stores that are expanding their own organic sections and quickly made adjustments. They ended up transforming the store into a natural foods café. Read more at The Press of Atlantic City…

McDonald’s tests new burger with ingredient fans have been asking for

What’s the magic ingredient? It’s—gasp—FRESH beef. That’s right; the fast-food chain is making headlines for using real, actual fresh beef in a new burger it’s testing in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For decades, McD’s has relied on frozen patties for its products, but last year it began a similar test using fresh beef for Quarter Pounders , which it says it will roll out in most of its restaurants by mid-year. Read more at NBC Chicago…