A lot of things have put the food & beverage industry on the ropes lately. Ultraprocessed foods in general, and the seven petroleum-based colors in particular. Mega mergers that aren’t working out. Some plants using undocumented immigrants; some that not too long ago were using children on the overnight shift.
The anxiety is only building as we all await the second Make America Healthy Again report. While there are plenty of reasons to be defensive, maybe it’s time to go on the offensive.
I recently stumbled onto a stack of old magazines, two companion magazines that were bundled with Food Processing back in the early 2000s: Wellness Foods and Food Creation. Does anyone besides me remember them?
Each was started just before I got to Food Processing, at a time when food & beverage processors seemed especially proud of the job they were doing. And aggressively developing truly novel products.
True to its name, Wellness Foods focused on then-nascent efforts to make foods and beverages healthier – not just removing or replacing problematic ingredients but adding ones that could impart health. FDA-certified health claims were relatively new back then – most came into being in the 1990s and early 2000s – so many processors and ingredient suppliers were pursuing a claim.
Food Creation acknowledged the ascent of research chefs who were creating gold-standard products and challenging their product development teams to replicate them – and at that time, healthier dishes were very much on the minds of R&D chefs.
“Soy isoflavones impart health” read one of the headlines in Wellness Foods. “Flaxseed may slow certain cancers.” “Juices may delay Alzheimer’s.” Every issue had stories linking ingredients to health, as well as processors who were adopting those ingredients and proudly staking a health claim.
Stories told of General Mills making all its cereals with whole grains, Quaker Oats developing an instant oatmeal with 50% more fiber for heart-health, Odwalla adding a bevy of antioxidants to its Mo’Beta beverage. Even a Wrigley probiotic gum.
More headlines: Functional beverages booming. Focus on eye health. The calcium-vitamin D duet. Berries pack a powerful antioxidant and vitamins punch. Resistant starches reduce carbs, add cancer-fighting potential.
It was a time of adding ingredients to improve health, not just removing things deemed “bad.” Which would you rather have: a breakfast bar that can lower your cholesterol and blood pressure, sharpen your kid’s focus in school and improve everybody’s gut health or a duller-red M&M?
There was a lot of pride and creativity back in the Wellness Foods days. Nowadays it seems R&D teams are busier finding ways to reduce the cost of ingredients, to replace synthetic color additives and to remove added sugars. Those are all necessary pursuits these days, but it’s backpedaling, apologizing, fixing things that somebody decided were broken. It’s not swinging for the fences, nor creating products that will impart health.
As we start football season, I look to my own beloved Pittsburgh Steelers for metaphors. They've always had a great defense that can help them win games, but it's the offense that does win games.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.