Food & Drink

Ryan Ostrom was named CMO of Jack in the Box JACK in late January 2021 when the dust was still settling from one of the most tumultuous years in the industry’s history. It also happened to be about two months after the 2,100-unit chain settled a lingering lawsuit with franchisees over its marketing fund and remodeling

Most of the U.S. may not have heard of Portillo’s, given that it only exists in nine states. But chances are likely they will soon. The 67-unit, Chicago-based hot dog restaurant chain made its debut on the NASDAQ NDAQ market Thursday, and jumped more than 50% within hours. What has investors so excited–especially after a

I still remember how relieved I was when I found the public document stuck in a rarely-used Alaskan government database that gave me the proof I needed. It was 2017 and I was investigating Chuck Bundrant. Specifically, I was trying to find out how much he owned of Trident Seafoods, the largest fishing operation in

Topline Shares of plant-based food maker Beyond Meat plunged nearly 13% on Friday—to their lowest point in almost a year—after the company issued a dour third-quarter revenue outlook amid slowing growth and increased competition from other brands. Key Facts Beyond Meat, which reports earnings on November 10, issued a warning on Friday that it expects

Through much of the course of her career, Chicagoan Liz Garibay struggled to convince her superiors to let her work on her greatest area of interest. They just didn’t deem it worthy of serious research. But after years of persuasion, the PhD and former curator at several of Chicago’s top cultural institutions finally managed to

It turns out that the Salmonella Oranienburg outbreak from a previously unknown food source actually has an onion ring to it. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcement today, fresh whole red, white, and yellow onions are the likely source of an outbreak that has left at least 652 people sick

The slowdown of the hard seltzer market reared its head today in the Boston Beer Company’s earnings call. While they reported third-quarter depletions increased 11%, and their third-quarter shipments increased 11.2% compared to the prior year, they still reported a net loss of $139.2 million due to slower than anticipated hard seltzer growth. “The unexpected

I have written of my desire to see more focus by the food and agriculture technology innovation ecosystem on solving today’s problems. I would like to offer the concept of collective impact as an effective approach to problem-solving that I hope can be deployed more broadly to tackle the food system’s urgent and wide-ranging challenges.

Just when you think there’s nothing new under the sun, leave it to an innovative Napa winemaker to create a unique offering that focuses on the vessel that houses his wines as much as the wines themselves. Lawrence Fairchild, a Nebraska farm boy, studied soil science and bought his first small vineyard in 1999, which

The ever-competitive alcoholic beverage space in America just got a little more crowded and complicated with the recent release of Five Trail Blended American Whiskey from the newly founded Coors Whiskey Co. As the first full-strength spirit released by Molson Coors Beverage Company (MCBC), it helps to blur further the once-solid lines that used to

Remember all that chatter about hard seltzer falling flat? According to a new study by drinks market analysis firm IWSR, volume shares of the overall ready-to-drink category are set to double in the next five years. This growth will give the category command of 8% of total beverage alcohol by 2025, up from the current

Before you gobble down any turkey products, first make sure that they aren’t part of the Butterball recall. Some consumers have found pieces of blue plastic in their raw ground turkey from Butterball, LLC. This has prompted the Mount Olive, North Carolina-based company to recall ground turkey products that were produced on September 28, according

Chuck Bundrant, the titan of the fishing industry who commercialized pollock at fast food chains around the world and spent six decades trawling northern seas, died on Sunday at the age of 79. Bundrant quietly ran America’s largest seafood company, Trident Seafoods, from Seattle, with a fleet of 40 vessels and 16 processing plants, mainly

Tucked away in the northern limits of wine grape growing ability, in the acclaimed region of Champagne, France, an adolescent young man is crushed seeing how much of his family’s grapes were decimated by hail as it was the second hail storm within two months. It was a tough growing season – frost during the

Anheuser-Busch is among the biggest names in beer, worldwide. Its parent company (ABI) raked in nearly $47 billion dollars in sales last year alone. Now it’s getting into the hard liquor game by way of the rapidly expanding ready-to-drink segment. In fact, RTDs are the fastest growing alcohol category in the US. And yet they

Centenarian, Cephas Jack, leans in to speak with United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) Communications Officer, Carla Alleyne, his face hidden away by an oversized white mask and cap. In the vicinity of the whitewashed walls that surround him, are remnants of the devastating eruption of the La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent and

It’s been more than 10 years since President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The Act gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) increased authority to regulate the way foods are grown and processed in the US and in countries that export foods to the US. The objective of FSMA was to make

One of the world’s largest chocolate and cocoa product manufacturers and suppliers, Barry Callebaut, has officially expanded into the functional beverages market with its launch of Elix, a nutraceutical drink made with whole cacao fruit that aims to promote circulatory health by helping people maintain the elasticity of their blood vessels. The product, which was

In the crowded water bottle market, HydroJug stands out by giving consumers exactly what they are looking for. Instead of fancy colors or an abundance of features, HydroJug created a simple, 73 ounce water jug made for people who just need a lot of water. I sat down with co-founders and brothers, Jake and Hayden Wadsworth to

Goose Island Beer Co, makers of the famed Bourbon County Stout, is taking its love for bourbon a step further by launching its very own line of ready-to-drink craft cocktails. “We like to say that our team is just as much bourbon drinkers as we are beer drinkers,” says Todd Ahsmann, President, Goose Island Beer