The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Innovation Summit keynoter David Robertson, MIT senior lecturer, consultant and student of innovation, explained the big power of little ideas and the concept of a “third way” of innovating that’s not inside the box, not outside the box, but around the box. It’s the credo behind his approach to innovation… read more
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. is celebrating its 50th anniversary by taking a tiny-sized store to the streets of New York before it launches its first sponsorship of a float in Thursday’s annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “As we celebrate our golden anniversary, this is a big moment for Cracker Barrel, and we wanted… read more
KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is launching a second one-day test of plant-based chicken. New meatless popcorn chicken and fried chicken sandwiches will be available at a Mississauga, Ont., location on Nov. 27. KFC tested Beyond Meat nuggets and boneless wings at an Atlanta store in August, becoming the first major U.S. fast-food… read more
Olive Garden has lived by this creed for the better part of a year: Give up traffic, but make decisions with the long-term health of the business in mind. And it boils down to the state of the industry, Darden CEO Gene Lee said during the company’s latest quarterly review. The luxury to plan ahead… read more
There are two ways to look at any pain point, and that’s the case with Darden and labor. First, the rough side, which is a sounding-board subject for restaurants: Regulation by outside parties, perhaps not invested in the success of the business, are putting up costly roadblocks that make it difficult to create more and… read more
Smokey Bones appointed longtime restaurateur James O’Reilly as its new chief executive officer. O’Reilly joins Smokey Bones from Long John Silver’s, where he served as CEO for four years. He was selected by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners for his track record of leadership, brand building, and value creation. O’Reilly’s plans are to improve… read more
The global scope of the clean label trend was on display on the opening day of Food Ingredients Europe, taking place Nov. 28 – Nov. 30 in Frankfurt. It is clear the trend has gone mainstream globally and is beginning to move into ingredient and finished product processing techniques. Processing techniques that may be perceived… read more
Leading consumer packaged goods companies are continuing to reformulate food and beverage products with an eye toward appealing to consumer interest in foodstuffs that are perceived as “clean” or “authentic.” The trend is now emanating out of the center-of-the-store, shelf-stable product categories to processed meat items. A challenge many processed meat product formulators face is… read more
Clean label concerns may ebb and flow. Perhaps a sharp consumer focus may switch from avoiding azodicarbonamide to avoiding aspartame. Yet one category keeps riding a constant wave of sales growth. U.S. organic food sales reached $45.2 billion in 2017, a 6.4% increase from 2016, according to the Organic Trade Association, Washington. U.S. organic food… read more
The definition of clean label may vary from consumer to consumer, as well as from food company to food company and from retailer to retailer. Among the range of definitions, certain characteristics remain constant: products void of artificial preservatives, colors or flavors. Ingredient suppliers responding to this trend continue to offer innovations in natural alternatives,… read more