2025 R&D Teams of the Year: Campbell’s V8 Group

How do you keep a 92-year-old young? Maybe even trendy?

Somehow, the V8 product development team at Campbell’s Co. has done just that, moving the iconic vegetable juice into veggie-fruit blends, canned energy drinks and, most recently, energy drink mixes.

That’s a lot of innovation for a 92-year-old … which makes Campbell’s V8 group one of our R&D Teams of the Year, garnering the most votes in the large-company category. Kudos to our runners-up in that category, who made it a close race: Tyson Foods and Grupo Jumex’s Odwalla beverage team.

V8 had a lot going for it. “The product has 97% brand awareness. It’s a trusted brand. It’s perceived as healthy, natural, nutritious,” says Amit Pal, director of R&D-beverage at Campbell’s. In 17 years at Campbell’s, he’s been devoted to the V8 brand the past five years.

“The brand had been quiet on innovation for a very long time. You can see what has come out in recent years. And with new flavors and formats, we’re just getting started.” 

V8 was founded in 1933 by William G. Peacock to provide affordable vegetable nutrition during the Great Depression. Originally called Vege-min, Peacock renamed it V8 Cocktail Juice in 1947. Campbell Soup Co. acquired the brand a year later.

Peacock created a unique blend of eight vegetables: tomatoes, celery, beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach, watercress, and parsley. The same eight vegetables are in each glass of V8 Original today. The brand accounted for more than 1.6 billion servings of vegetables and more than 1.7 billion combined servings of veggies and fruit last year alone.

Today’s V8 is much more than that. The recent innovations “recognize that consumers are evolving their needs, also their drinking moments,” says Pal.

Our other 2025 R&D Teams of the Year:

Small-company R&D Team of the Year: Bitchin' Sauce

Medium-company R&D Team of the Year: Dole Packaged Foods

“We now have Blends, a fruit and vegetable mix, which takes the flavor to the sweeter side and still delivers a full serving of vegetables and at least a half serving of fruit. Followed by V8 Energy, which has been a rock star for us. It lets us play a unique role in the ‘better for you’ energy drinks segment as it contains a single serving of vegetables.”

While V8 Energy has been in the market since May 2011, powdered V8 Energy drink mixes were just launched this summer. While the liquid juices are an evolution of the original product – which remains a solid seller – the powdered energy drinks were a bold development, Pal says.

“It’s unique in the sense that it delivers steady energy & supports focus in delicious, fruit-forward flavors. It contains 80mg of caffeine from black and green tea, is an excellent source of B vitamins and has no added sugar.”

The energy drink mixes are offered in strawberry-lemonade, pomegranate-blueberry and peach-mango. Consumers can choose how to use the drink mixes, which are single-serve stick packs sold in 10ct cartons. They can add one to a water bottle or a glass of water.

The V8 portfolio also has seen innovative flavor expansions, including additions such as Spicy Chipotle and Hot Honey in the V8 Original line; Deliciously Green, strawberry-banana, mixed berry acai, and peach-mango in Blends; pomegranate-blueberry and Tropical Passionfruit Orange Guava in the Energy line.

There’s even a V8 Grillo’s Dill Pickle Bloody Mary Mix. And just this month they launched V8 Pineapple Jalapeno, delivering “the sweetness of pineapple with the heat of jalapeno.”

Pal is proud of last year’s launch of V8 Grillo’s Dill Pickle Bloody Mary Mix. V8 already had a bloody mary mix, but, “as we were scouting emerging trends using AI tools to analyze social media and restaurant and bar menu mentions, we identified consumers were adding pickle to their bloody mary drinks at home. It was a great way to extend the product and flavor.”

Reaching new consumers and occasions has inspired our innovation and portfolio expansion,” Pal says, “new demographics, new age groups, new functions.”

The V8 R&D team is made up of 12 members—including food scientists, process and packaging engineers, sensory specialists, and chefs—who refer to themselves as product designers. Their backgrounds are in food science, nutrition, or several disciplines of engineering. “We also get to leverage other functions and assets of Campbell’s full R&D team with expertise in ingredients, flavors, regulatory, nutrition, and process safety,” says Pal.

A dedicated beverage development lab—aptly named the 'Sip Lab'—is housed at Campbell’s headquarters in Camden, N.J. So is a pilot facility.

“We draw inspiration from various sources, starting with the consumer,” Pal continues. “What need or demand of theirs are we trying to solve for them? The right science and the right consumer insights, when they are married together, that’s where the magic happens.”

The V8 team uses a stage gate process, “but I think essential in this process is the pre-work we do to stay immersed in the world of beverage, from trend treks to competition analysis, something we call ‘Mind the gap’ tastings we hold as we see new and interesting products hit the market globally and begin developing flavor banks.”

“Once a project is gated, we leverage trend-based flavor bank ideas, technical scouting or vendor partners to kickstart the development.” Ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers and packaging suppliers are consulted along the way.

While Campbell’s does use some contract manufacturers, most of the V8 products are made in the same plant that came with the V8 acquisition: Campbell’s Napoleon, Ohio, facility.

“Being recognized with an award like this means a lot to our team,” Pal says. “We’re passionate about our products, and I think this R&D team of beverage enthusiasts has the talent to keep this innovation engine going.”