US Food Industry Research Articles

North American considerations, strategies, and practices in reducing the sodium content in processed foods.

Most Americans exceed the recommended limit for sodium in their diet, a risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Efforts have been made by the food industry and government agencies to reduce the sodium content in foods and encourage the consumption of lower sodium diets. Such efforts, however, are not successful in improving public health when consumers do not accept and consume lower sodium foods. This review article provides an overview of the strategies that have been used by the US food industry to reduce and replace sodium in consumer packaged goods, as well as future sodium reduction strategies and approaches for replacing sodium with potassium salts. Challenges in consumer acceptance regarding the reduction of sodium in foods are also discussed. Because of the widespread consumption of numerous sodium-containing consumer packaged goods, implementing future strategies in various aspects of salt reduction and potassium replacement in foods should have a profound impact on the health of Americans. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: New information is provided herein as it discusses the most current and collective perspectives of major food industry successes and challenges, as well as government strategies to decrease sodium intake. The information provided also addresses future strategies for reducing sodium content in foods, increasing potassium intake, and consumer acceptance of lower sodium foods.

Leave the Milk for the Calf and Spread the Word: Exploring Factors Determining US Consumers’ Willingness to Try Plant-Based Milk Alternatives and Their Word-of-Mouth Sharing about Plant-Based Milk Alternatives

Plant-based milk alternatives are important beverages in US consumer markets. Sustainability, consumer awareness, lifestyle changes, and other value-based reasons are why these beverages are increasing in popularity. The present study is focused on plant-based milk alternatives. It builds on an online consumer survey that explores the factors explaining US consumers’ willingness to try plant-based milk alternatives and their word-of-mouth sharing about these beverages. Animal welfare concerns, environmental concerns, health consciousness, and dairy preferences are the factors under investigation. Results show that animal welfare, dairy preference, environmental concerns, and plant-based milk enthusiasm are significant predictors for willingness to try plant-based milk alternatives. Dairy preferences, environmental concerns, and plant-based milk enthusiasm predict the word-of-mouth factors. Overall, plant-based milk enthusiasm is the strongest driver for both consumer behaviours. Best practice recommendations address marketers in the US food and beverage industry and provide suggestions on how to target different consumer groups based on nutritional preferences and needs and on value-based product characteristics.

Using Social Media as a Source of Real-World Data for Pharmaceutical Drug Development and Regulatory Decision Making.

While pharmaceutical companies aim to leverage real-world data (RWD) to bridge the gap between clinical drug development and real-world patient outcomes, extant research has mainly focused on the use of social media in a post-approval safety-surveillance setting. Recent regulatory and technological developments indicate that social media may serve as a rich source to expand the evidence base to pre-approval and drug development activities. However, use cases related to drug development have been largely omitted, thereby missing some of the benefits of RWD. In addition, an applied end-to-end understanding of RWD rooted in both industry and regulations is lacking. We aimed to investigate how social media can be used as a source of RWD to support regulatory decision making and drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. We aimed to specifically explore the data pipeline and examine how social-media derived RWD can align with regulatory guidance from the US Food and Drug Administration and industry needs. A machine learning pipeline was developed to extract patient insights related to anticoagulants from X (Twitter) data. These findings were then analysed from an industry perspective, and complemented by interviews with professionals from a pharmaceutical company. The analysis reveals several use cases where RWD derived from social media can be beneficial, particularly in generating hypotheses around patient and therapeutic area needs. We also note certain limitations of social media data, particularly around inferring causality. Social media display considerable potential as a source of RWD for guiding efforts in pharmaceutical drug development and pre-approval settings. Although further regulatory guidance on the use of social media for RWD is needed to encourage its use, regulatory and technological developments are suggested to warrant at least exploratory uses for drug development.

The Reinforcing Natures of Hyper-Palatable Foods: Behavioral Evidence for Their Reinforcing Properties and the Role of the US Food Industry in Promoting Their Availability

The Reinforcing Natures of Hyper-Palatable Foods: Behavioral Evidence for Their Reinforcing Properties and the Role of the US Food Industry in Promoting Their Availability

US Food Industry Progress Toward Salt Reduction, 2009-2018.

Objectives. To determine the extent to which reductions in sodium during the National Salt Reduction Initiative (NSRI) target-setting period (2009-2014) continued after 2014. Methods. We used the NSRI Packaged Food Database, which links products in the top 80% of US packaged food sales to nutrition information, to assess the proportion of products meeting the NSRI targets and the sales-weighted mean sodium density (mg/100 g) of 54 packaged food categories between 2009 and 2018. Results. There was an 8.5% sales-weighted mean reduction in sodium between 2009 and 2018. Most change occurred between 2009 and 2012, with little change in subsequent years. The proportion of packaged foods meeting the 2012 and 2014 targets increased 48% and 45%, respectively, from 2009 to 2012, with no additional improvements through 2018. Conclusions. Food manufacturers reduced sodium in the early years of the NSRI, but progress slowed after 2012. Public Health Implications. The US Food and Drug Administration just released 2.5-year voluntary sodium targets for packaged and restaurant food. Continued assessment of industry progress and further target setting by the Food and Drug Administration is crucial to reducing sodium in the food supply.

The Issue of Overusing Antibiotics in Cattle in the US Food Industry

The misuse of antibiotics in cattle production in the United States deserves more public recognition and regulatory intervention. Antibiotics are used by cattle farmers not just for treating cattle illnesses, but mostly to increase profits and earnings. Antibiotic abuse is not unique in the United States. It has already happened on a global scale, with the United States being one classical example. To deal with overusing antibiotics in cattle, one way is to settle limitation requirements by federal agencies. The other approach is to impose taxes on antibiotics applied in cattle production. Advantages and disadvantages are identified for the two solutions respectively. The best option is determined by the event’s timing and character, as well as the country’s specific conditions.

Portion Sizes of Ultra-Processed Foods in the United States, 2002 to 2021.

Objectives. To assess the US food industry's response to calls from public health authorities to reduce portion sizes by comparing current with past sizes of selected examples of single-serve ultra-processed packaged and fast foods. Methods. We obtained manufacturers' information about current portion sizes and compared it with sizes when first introduced and in 2002. Results. Few companies in our sample reduced portion sizes since 2002; all still sold portions of ultra-processed foods in up to 5-times-larger sizes than when first introduced. Conclusions. Policies and practices focused on reducing portion size could help discourage the consumption of excessive amounts of ultra-processed foods. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(12):2223-2226. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306513).

Meeting Report: N-Nitrosamine Impurity Control Strategies in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industries

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC) Community hosted a virtual panel discussion on December 9, 2020, to provide a forum to discuss N-nitrosamine control strategies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The panel included staff from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and industry subject matter experts. Meeting topics included acceptable intake levels for nitrosamine impurities, definitions of "acceptable level of risk," water as a contributor in nitrosamine risk assessments, nitrosamine impurity control strategies based upon fate/purge data, early vs. late development assessment expectations, application to oncology programs developed under ICH S9, and Drug Master File (DMF) regulatory expectations. During the meeting, divergence in global health authority expectations was additionally discussed. One of the most important outputs from this AAPS panel discussion was the criticality of continued dialog between industry and health authorities to help understand actual versus perceived risks and provide pragmatic, scientifically justified solutions to ensure patients are provided with an uninterrupted supply of safe medicines based on globally harmonized requirements.

Corporate social responsibility and dynamic productivity change in the US food and beverage manufacturing industry

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and dynamic productivity change of each input employed and investment undertaken in the US food and beverage manufacturing industry. We compute input‐ and investment‐specific dynamic Luenberger indicators and decompose them into the contributions of input‐ and investment‐specific dynamic technical inefficiency changes and dynamic technological changes. We then relate these indicators to an overall CSR measure and aspect‐specific CSR measures (governance, environment, and social). Our results confirm that the association between CSR and productivity change has different signs and effects on specific inputs or investments. We also find that only certain aspects of CSR participate in the association between CSR and dynamic productivity change and its components. [EconLit citations: C61, D24, L66, M14].

Media influences on consumption trends: Effects of the film Food, Inc. on organic food sales in the U.S.

In this paper, we empirically investigate the effect of Food, Inc. – an influential documentary film on the US food industry – on organic food sales. We use a novel dataset of Google search volume to measure the influence of the film. Organic food sales are measured using store-level data for three categories in 33 major US markets. For two out of the three studied categories – yogurt and peanut butter – we find that areas with more Google searches for the film experienced a greater increase in the share of organic sales subsequent to the film's release. The effect of the film is more pronounced for the yogurt category, which is closer to the farm and more relevant to animal welfare — one of the key issues featured in the film. The effects are economically significant: ceteris paribus, a one standard deviation increase in our Google search stock measure translates into a 0.66% increase in organic market share for the yogurt and a 0.15% increase for the peanut butter category. In addition, we provide a measure of the decay of the film's effect by deriving the 90% duration interval of the focal search stock variable. We find that, for both categories, the film's effect on organic shares faded within six months.

Rotten meat and bottled formaldehyde: fighting for food safety

Felicity Lawrence extols two chronicles on the ongoing battle to regulate the US food industry. Felicity Lawrence extols two chronicles on the ongoing battle to regulate the US food industry.

Zdolność konkurencyjna przemysłu spożywczego krajów UE, USA i Kanady na rynku światowym

Celem artykułu była ocena zdolności konkurencyjnej głównych branż przemysłu spożywczego UE, USA i Kanady na rynku światowym, z wykorzystaniem wybranych wskaźników ekonomicznych i handlowych. Zakres czasowy analiz objął lata 2007-2016. W badaniach wykorzystano dane urzędów i agencji statystycznych UE (Eurostat), USA (US Census Bureau, FAS/USDA) i Kanady (Agriculture and Agri-food Canada). Na podstawie przeprowadzonych analiz można stwierdzić, że poprawa pozycji konkurencyjnej branż unijnego przemysłu spożywczego w większym stopniu była determinowana skalą aktywności w handlu światowym (rosnącymi udziałami w globalnym eksporcie), natomiast o przewagach konkurencyjnych przemysłu spożywczego USA i Kanady decydowały przewagi o charakterze ekonomicznym, związane z poprawą ekonomicznych wyników działalności przedsiębiorstw danej branży, jej udziału w tworzeniu realnej wartości dodanej przemysłu spożywczego oraz produktywności pracy.

The relationship between price and retail concentration: evidence from the US food industry

The relationship between price and retail concentration: evidence from the US food industry

Collusion-enhancing effects of the own- and cross-price demand elasticities in merging multiproduct food industries: The case of chicken and red meat in the United States

The recent wave of megamergers sweeping the US food industry has raised significant concerns regarding “conglomerate” market power. Beef processors have been merging with pork and/or poultry processors (and vice versa). Concurrently, consumers have changed their attitude toward diet and health. The poultry industry has been more responsive to the changes in consumers’ lifestyles than the red meat industry by providing products which address health concerns. As a consequence, consumers exhibit stronger preference for chicken and are more willing to substitute chicken for red meat. The objective of this study is to examine the sustainability of collusion between multiproduct meat processing firms, under different values of the own-price demand flexibility of chicken as well as cross-price elasticities of demand between the markets of chicken and red meat. The findings indicate that the less (more) responsive demand for chicken gets to changes in its own price (price of red meat), the easier it gets for firms to sustain collusion.

Standard sensations: the production of objective experience from industrial technique

Sensory evaluation is the food-science discipline that “comprises a set of techniques for accurate measurement of human responses to foods”. In lay terms, sensory evaluation seeks to objectively describe the nominally subjective sensory properties of food without using physical measurements. However, the techniques used by sensory scientists in pursuit of accurate measurements of subjectivity are largely contingent on the assumptions and goals of the food industry. Food-industry needs implicitly define which foods have “true” tastes, and what those tastes are. This paper examines one way in which the US food industry defines and delimits food sensations through a focus on Descriptive Analysis (DA), which sensory-analysis experts Lawless and Heymann call “the most sophisticated tools in the [sensory scientist’s] arsenal” – and in particular the form of DA called “Spectrum”. I argue that Spectrum panel-members are trained into a particular subjectivity stemming from (literal) food-industry standards: whenever possible, these standards are branded, industrially produced foods, which are assumed to have objectifiable, invariant sensory properties. I document these practices and their implications, demonstrating that the reification of subjective experience in the lab has ramifications not only for personal experience, but social and economic structures.

System dynamic modeling of energy savings in the US food industry

In the United States, the food industry alone accounts for approximately 19% of the total energy consumed. The objective of this study is to forecast the food-related energy consumption and evaluate policy alternatives for reducing food related energy consumption in the medium and long term. Influential factors of energy consumption in the food industry include population growth rate, GDP, agriculture's share of GDP, food waste, technologies, and agricultural investment. Based on the life cycle of the food industry, five life stages were considered: agricultural production, industrial processing and packaging, transportation, wholesale and retail, and household. In this study, based on the causal relationships and feedback loops between these factors and the energy consumed for each life stage, a system dynamics (SD) model was designed to simulate the situation for the US food industry. Policy options of reducing waste percentage and improving industrial energy productivity are incorporated for building the energy use mitigation scenarios. By implementing the integrated mitigation scenarios, a 9.43% reduction in total food system energy consumption can be attained in 2030.

Using Formal Concept Analysis to Examine Water Disclosure in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports

AbstractCorporate social responsibility (CSR) water disclosures vary in content, leading to concern about the quality and extent of such disclosures. This paper employs formal concept analysis (FCA) to examine water reporting of selected companies in the US food and beverage industry that have followed the water guidelines set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and in the disclosure guidelines of the CEO Water Mandate. Assessments of water consumption and water withdrawal were cited more often in our sample firms' CSR reports. FCA results also identify the major focus of our sample firms as setting sustainable water management goals and water quality strategy. Other important issues included leadership, partnership, and employee involvement. While the FCA text mining tool is demonstrated using water‐related behaviors here, it can be used to identify continuous improvement opportunities and examine many other issues of interest to corporate stakeholders in other industries and communities worldwide. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Using a Formal Concept Analysis to Examine Water Disclosure in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) water disclosures vary in content, leading to concern about the quality and extent of such disclosures. This paper employs formal concept analysis (FCA) to examine water reporting of selected companies in the US food and beverage industry that have followed the water guidelines set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and in the disclosure guidelines of the CEO Water Mandate. Assessments of water consumption and water withdrawal were cited more often in our sample firms' CSR reports. The FCA results also identify the major focus of our sample firms as setting sustainable water management goals and water quality strategy. Other important issues included leadership, partnership, and employee involvement. While the FCA text mining tool is demonstrated using water-related behaviors here, it can be used to identify continuous improvement opportunities and examine many other issues of interest to corporate stakeholders in other industries and communities worldwide.

The Impact of Shortages on Medication Prices: Implications for Shortage Prevention.

Medication shortages are frequent and have clinical and financial ramifications; however, their effect on drug prices remains unknown. To examine price progression of medications affected by a shortage. We collected prices of medications covered under Medicare Part B, reflective of general market prices, and data on clinically relevant shortages for the period 2005-16. We used linear mixed-effects models to examine the price growth of affected medications. Shortage medications demonstrated a quarterly price growth of -0.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] -1.6, 0.6) in the period preceding a shortage, 4.3% (95% CI 3.6, 4.5) during a shortage, and 4.1% (95% CI 2.6, 5.5) in the post-shortage period. Medications not affected by a shortage had a quarterly price growth of 0.2% (95% CI -0.3, 0.6). Medication shortages are associated with price increases, and these increases are likely reactive to the low profitability of the affected medications and thus, proactive collaboration between the US Food and Drug Administration and industry can serve to identify low-profit drugs and evaluate measures to ensure continued production.

US Food Industry Progress During the National Salt Reduction Initiative: 2009–2014

To assess the US packaged food industry's progress from 2009 to 2014, when the National Salt Reduction Initiative had voluntary, category-specific sodium targets with the goal of reducing sodium in packaged and restaurant foods by 25% over 5 years. Using the National Salt Reduction Initiative Packaged Food Database, we assessed target achievement and change in sales-weighted mean sodium density in top-selling products in 61 food categories in 2009 (n = 6336), 2012 (n = 6898), and 2014 (n = 7396). In 2009, when the targets were established, no categories met National Salt Reduction Initiative 2012 or 2014 targets. By 2014, 26% of categories met 2012 targets and 3% met 2014 targets. From 2009 to 2014, the sales-weighted mean sodium density declined significantly in almost half of all food categories (43%; 26/61 categories). Overall, sales-weighted mean sodium density declined significantly (by 6.8%; P < .001). National target setting with monitoring through a partnership of local, state, and national health organizations proved feasible, but industry progress was modest. The US Food and Drug Administration's proposed voluntary targets will be an important step in achieving more substantial sodium reductions.