Deli / Prepared Foods

While students will soon don their backpacks, a majority will forgo a lunch box this year, according to new findings from The NPD Group.

Chia may be best known for growing comical pet-shaped plants, but the nutritious seed, which boasts five times the amount of calcium in milk and more omega-3 than salmon, in addition to being rich in antioxidants, protein, fiber and minerals, is also a bona fide superfood.

Colin Watts, chief innovation officer at Walgreens Corp., will be jury chair for the second annual Product of the Year USA Awards. On Product of the Year Jury Day (Sept. 30) at New York’s Gansevoort Hotel, Watts and the jury panel, consisting of industry leaders, influencers, and key stakeholders, will preview new consumer packaged goods in competition for the 2010 Product of the Year imprimatur from 100,000 American shoppers who will ultimately choose the winning products.

Aging boomers and diverse Gen Yers are finding new ways to fulfill their comfort food cravings, according to the Generational Comfort Food Culinary Trend Mapping Report co-published by the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) and Packaged Facts.

While in the midst of a nationwide debate over health care, Americans are giving a clear indication that one tool they can use to improve their health is food.

Consumers are continuing to purchase private label products at an increasing rate, per new research from The Nielsen Co.

In the latest example of the food industry’s close attention to health-and-wellness issues affecting consumers, the “Smart Choices Program” made its official debut last week, its green check mark symbol now appearing on of hundreds of products in supermarkets and other retailers across the United States.

Consumers will find many uses for Smith’s Chili Con Queso dip from Smith Dairy Products Co., an Orrville, Ohio-based regional manufacturer of dairy products, beverages and ice cream.