Produce / Floral

Store brands have built momentum during the recession. Will consumers stick with private label frozen when better days arrive? Or will they return to the national brands they used previously?

As a way to celebrate its 25th anniversary of doing business, BJ’s Wholesale Club is asking the communities in which it operates clubs to amass 25 tons of groceries to help feed area needy families.

The latest way to better digestive health from Boulder, Colo.-based NextFoods is GoodBelly BigShot 50, a supercharged dose of 50 billion live and active cultures that features the powerful probiotic strain Lactobacillus Plantarum 299v (Lp299v).

According to its maker, The Healthy Beverage Co., the Steaz Zero Calorie Sparkling Green Tea product line is the first certified-organic, all-natural zero-calorie carbonated soft drink on the market.

POM Wonderful’s pomegranate harvest is currently under way, which means that grocers can showcase the seasonal fruit in stores from now until January.

According to the “Beverage Trends: Culinary Trend Mapping Report” from the San Francisco-based Center for Culinary Development and Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Facts, the sweet spot in the U.S. beverage market, long dominated by a handful of major brand lines, is shifting to niche products that target a diverse set of consumer needs driven by healthy attributes.

Recent studies indicate that Americans of all ages are failing to get their daily recommended servings of fruits and veggies — despite the fact that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers (State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables, 2009).

It would be hard to think of a new dimension the nutrition navigation system idea, various versions of which are currently being employed by retailers, CPG companies, private label product vendors and others, but a new initiative has done just that: The Affordable Nutrition Index (ANI), a food-rating program that analyzes both nutrition and cost value of food, made its official debut yesterday at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Denver.