foodndrink.org Miniblog

Delivery Quietly Became The New Power Move In Restaurant Catering

Catering used to sit in the back booth, useful but easy to ignore. Not now. It’s moving faster than the wider restaurant trade, and the numbers have stopped being coy about it.

Monkey Catering Platform’s 2026 State of Catering report, built from more than 100 brands, 8,000 locations and over $1 billion in annual sales, reckons US catering will grow 5.3 per cent a year through 2032. The broader restaurant industry is expected to manage about 3 per cent in 2025. That gap matters.

The best operators aren’t merely keeping up. In the first quarter of 2026, brands with mature catering programmes posted year-on-year growth of 10 to 20 per cent. The trick is changing, though. Average order value hit roughly $416 in 2025, only 3 per cent above the year before, so the easy lift from inflation and fatter tickets is fading. More orders, not bigger ones, is the new hunt.

That shifts the spotlight to customer ownership. Marketplaces are sending more business, rising from 12.8 per cent of catering orders in 2021 to a projected 36 per cent in 2026, but those orders come in 6 to 8 per cent smaller on average and with thinner margins.

The real gold sits closer to home. First-party orders and repeat customers do the heavy lifting, with 60 per cent of orders coming from just 5 per cent of customers. Delivery tells the same story: in-house fulfilment climbed from 31 to 53 per cent since 2021, while specialist catering couriers rose from 4 to 21 per cent. Pickup, meanwhile, is slipping quietly out the side door.

Posted on 8 August 2026

Why Are Mocktails Winning Without Replacing Alcohol?

Mocktails are not marching in to evict alcohol. They are applying for joint tenancy.

That is the real story behind the category’s rise. In the US, non-alcoholic drinks sit inside a $260 billion alcohol market, and IWSR expects the alcohol-free segment to reach $4 billion by 2027. Beer still dominates, accounting for 85% of sales, but spirit alternatives and ready-to-drink serves are where the excitement is; NielsenIQ reports non-alcoholic RTD spirits grew 171% in a year.

The surprise is that abstainers are not the whole market. Far from it. Around 93% of people buying these alternatives also buy alcoholic wine, beer or spirits. They are not renouncing pleasure. They are editing it. A negroni on Saturday, a zero-proof paloma on Tuesday, sleep intact.

That helps explain why mocktails are winning. They answer a modern craving for choice, not purity. Adults want something more grown-up than cola in a nice glass. They want ceremony, flavour, occasion, but not always the fog afterwards.

Some brands mimic familiar spirits closely, like Ritual Zero Proof. Others lean into herbs, teas and botanicals, making drinks that echo whisky or red wine without impersonating them. It is less replacement than expansion: a bigger drinks menu for a more selective drinker.

Posted on 3 August 2026

The Airport Snack That Secretly Wrecks Your Flight

The real saboteur at the airport is often the innocent-looking snack pack: crisps, sweets, fizzy drink, maybe a coffee for courage. It feels practical. Your body disagrees.

Plane cabins are dry enough to turn a grape into a raisin. That low humidity, along with changes in pressure and oxygen, makes dehydration more likely. Then travellers make it worse by avoiding water to skip loo visits, or by leaning on booze and too much caffeine. The results are familiar: headache, fatigue, dizziness, dry skin, bloating, even cramps.

Salty and sugary snacks are especially sly. Salt ramps up thirst and can leave you puffy. A carb-heavy, ultra-processed snack gives you a quick lift, then drops you through the floor. Not ideal at 35,000 feet.

Better choices are almost boring, which is how you know they work: unsalted nuts, Greek yoghurt, cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs. Add water-rich foods such as grapes, watermelon, cucumber or celery. And water alone is not always enough; electrolytes help your body hang on to the fluid, so foods like bananas and avocado, or an electrolyte tablet in your bottle, can earn their keep.

One more thing: don’t fly on an empty stomach. A sensible meal before boarding beats fainting artist chic every time.

Posted on 29 July 2026

Why Does Rick Steves Trust A Handwritten Menu More Than A Five-Star Review?

Rick Steves trusts a handwritten menu because it usually tells you more truth than a glossy rating ever could. After 50 years of eating his way across Europe, the 71-year-old guidebook writer’s rule is simple: eat the food that belongs to that place, in that season, and preferably grew nearby.

His ideal meal is what he calls “zero kilometre” eating: regional produce, local wine, and dishes that make sense for the month. In Rome, that might mean zucchini flowers or fava beans in summer. The biggest clue is often the dish of the day. He once assumed specials were just sales patter; now he sees them as the kitchen’s freshest idea.

A short menu, written by hand and in one language, wins his trust quickly. To him, that suggests a place serving locals and cooking what the market offered that week. Rather than stand under a famous monument paying too much for mediocre pasta, he’d rather walk three blocks to a family-run spot where granny’s probably still peeling potatoes.

He’ll splash out, but usually on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand places, not the starred temples. Better value, less fuss. He also recommends bakery lunches, department store cafeterias such as Tibits in Switzerland, and eating late. At 7, tourists. At 9, locals. Near closing time, if you’re lucky, the chef might tell you where to eat tomorrow.

Posted on 24 July 2026

Plant-Based, Protein, Baby Formula: The Food Niches AI Can Quietly Sway Most

Some food searches are little more than a spark and a reaching hand. A person wants a snack, a drink, a takeaway, an ingredient for tonight’s supper. They search, glance, choose, buy. In that brief passage from want to purchase, automated search summaries now sit close to the decision itself, quietly nudging attention and trust.

Food and drink stand apart because speed matters. People often do not spend days comparing options. They move in minutes. That makes these summaries unusually powerful at the precise moment choice is still soft.

Yet not all food buying is hurried. Plant-based products, protein and sports nutrition, and baby formula ask more of the shopper. Here people tend to pause over ingredients, nutritional value, safety, and the standing of the brand. A short, confident summary beside a search result can shape first impressions before a product page is even opened.

That is the quiet sway. Not loud persuasion, but framing: which features seem important, which brands appear credible, which sources feel trustworthy.

For food brands, the lesson is plain. Product details need to be clear, accurate, and consistent wherever they appear online. Strong specifications, tidy content, and citations on respected third-party sites improve the chances of showing up in these summaries. As search changes, the brands most likely to win attention are the ones that make themselves easy to understand at speed.

Posted on 14 July 2026

Why Independents Could Outplay The Big Chains This World Cup Summer

The chains will do what chains do in a World Cup summer: print posters, chill lager, and hope the tills begin to sound like maracas. But independents may have the sharper chance.

New analysis from money.co.uk suggests the 2026 World Cup could add £4.2bn to UK food and drink sales, with revenue from May to July running 9.3% above a normal non-tournament year. That is not a polite nudge. That is a proper shove.

The obvious winners are pubs, hospitality venues and restaurants, especially those with decent footfall and a habit of putting football on screens rather than treating it like an unfortunate rash. Late kick-offs should bunch spending into the evening, which suits smaller operators rather well. They can be quicker on their feet: one-off menus, sharper booking offers, local promotion, and a room that feels like a crowd rather than a waiting area with condiments.

There is also the shared-experience factor. People do not merely buy a pint on match night; they buy atmosphere, noise, tribal nonsense and something fried at half-time. Independents tend to be better at that sort of thing because they trade on personality, not uniformity.

The wider picture matters too. Accommodation could see a £3.5bn uplift, while rail and transport may gain another £1.8bn, as people travel for screenings and gatherings. The big chains will get their share. But for independents, this could be the summer to nick the ball and keep it.

Posted on 6 July 2026

Dunkin’s Eagle Cup Turns a Bicentennial Tie-In Into a Retail Rush

As America edges toward its 250th birthday, Dunkin has discovered that a commemorative vessel can generate more excitement than the drink it carries. On June 29, the chain introduced a limited-edition Eagle Cup across the country: a clear, eagle-shaped container sold for $10.99, bundled with a free medium beverage.

The real inducement may be hidden inside. Each cup includes a code that can be activated by July 31, 2026, unlocking one $3 medium Refresher or Dunkin’ Zero per day for 30 days, so long as redemption also happens by that date.

The cup itself is gloriously overdone: spread wings, an eagle-head lid, and a pink-and-orange straw. That was quite enough to set off a scramble. Some stores ran out within hours, with demand described as unusually strong.

Online, the object promptly became a tiny national pageant. Dunkin’s Instagram compared the cup with an actual bald eagle, noting that one comes with a straw while the other can stretch beyond six feet and dive at about 100 miles per hour; both, it added, count as protected national symbols. The joke landed. A Snackolator Reel drew more than 280,000 views, and an X post from @thedealsguy_ passed 620,000.

The release sits alongside Dunkin’s Fourth of July menu and merchandise collection, which includes themed drinks, doughnuts, tees, swimsuits, totes, and other summer Americana. Posted on 2 July 2026

Britain’s Cocktail Habit Has Shrunk to Can Size

Britain appears to be trading the romance of the bottle for the brisk efficiency of the can. New WSTA data in its Sip 2 report shows UK off-trade ready-to-drink sales reached £704 million last year, with volume up 12% and value up 17%, making RTDs one of the few alcohol segments still expanding.

That growth has come as traditional spirits soften. In the three months to January 2026, off-trade spirits sales were down nearly £40 million year on year. Gin, vodka and whisky, once the darlings of the home bar boom, are now losing spend to pre-mixed descendants; the WSTA estimates 44% of RTD growth comes from drinkers moving money out of spirits.

The shift has an obvious logic. After lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 turned kitchens into amateur cocktail bars, the cost-of-living squeeze made the whole ritual feel expensive and faintly theatrical. Canned cocktails kept the occasion but trimmed the fuss and the bill. Duty changes helped: spirits duty saw its steepest rise in almost 50 years in August 2023, followed by inflation-linked increases.

What looked temporary now seems embedded. Mintel’s 2026 UK Vodka, Gin and RTDs Market Report found 57% of buyers purchased gin, vodka or RTDs for at-home gatherings in late 2025. Premium spirit-based cans, including espresso martinis, margaritas, mojitos and pornstar martinis, have lifted quality expectations. Online sales are accelerating too, with Grand View Research forecasting 15.6% annual growth in the UK RTD cocktail market through 2033.

Posted on 28 June 2026

A World Cup of Goals, and Concessions at a Premium

At this World Cup, the ticket is only the first tollgate. In the stadiums of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, food and drink have become a second spectacle, sometimes comic, sometimes punishing.

Miami offers perhaps the clearest emblem: $75 “Fancy AF Tots” — really three fried hash-brown patties with caviar, crème fraîche and chives — while caviar alone is $70. There is also a 5-pound chicken-and-cheese Empanada Mundial for $40, plus pan con lechon on a full Cuban loaf. Los Angeles contributes a $22 Twinkie cheeseburger, topped not with dessert but with a bacon-wrapped jalapeño stuffed with brisket and cream cheese. Guadalajara lists rib-eye tacos at $8. Vancouver leans local with short rib poutine and a maple bacon smokie.

Yet beer has drawn the sharper resentment. In Toronto, German engineer Thomas Schüller paid 24.25 Canadian dollars, about $17 or 15 euros, and still admitted he would buy it anyway. In Europe, many fans are used to paying nearer 4 or 5 euros. In Mexico City, some beers ran from 299 to 310 pesos, near the city’s 315.04-peso daily minimum wage.

Prices vary widely. In Atlanta, Arthur Blank’s low-cost policy held: $3 pizza, $4 32-ounce sodas, $5 cheeseburgers, $6 chicken tenders with fries, and beers from $8. Jonathan Arango said a family order there came to about $50.

Posted on 23 June 2026

Where Pattaya Gets Cheap, and Real

Pattaya sells an image first: the beachfront table, the late-night neon, the international menu with prices calibrated for visitors who do not plan to ask questions. It is easy, arriving there, to mistake performance for cost of living.

But the city’s more telling secret is practical. Eat a little off-script, where residents eat, and Pattaya becomes markedly cheaper. Local Thai restaurants, noodle stalls, and food courts outside the main tourist strips serve meals that are both more rooted in everyday Thailand and far less expensive than the places designed for passing trade.

Along Tepprasit Road, family-run noodle shops turn out large bowls of soup, stir-fries, and rice dishes for about 50 to 80 baht. The rooms are often plain, almost incidental, but the food is fresh, full of flavour, and difficult to fault on value.

The same logic holds inside shopping centres. Food courts in Big C stores are a local standby, with Thai staples at prices that undercut many resort-area restaurants. A Massaman curry with rice can cost around 70 baht, and pad kra pao, fried rice, curries, and noodle soups generally stay in the same affordable range.

For longer stays, the arithmetic becomes obvious: three solid meals from neighbourhood places can cost less than one dinner at a beachfront restaurant. In Pattaya, thrift and authenticity often sit at the same table.

Posted on 20 June 2026

Atlanta’s Strange World Cup Luxury: Affordable Stadium Food

World Cup stadium food pricing in North America is mostly a lesson in resignation. At New York/New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, a four-tender combo with fries and Coke is $19 before 6 per cent tax; fries alone are $8, a hot dog $8.50, water $5, and alcohol runs from $16 for a 16-ounce canned beer to $19 for seltzer or a canned cocktail. At Los Angeles Stadium, beef-loaded nachos are $19.75 before 9.75 per cent tax, a bean-and-cheese burrito $16.50, premium beer $18.50, water $5.25. Dallas charges $8.25 for water.

Elsewhere, Monterrey sells Michelob Ultra for 310 MXN and Corona for 299 MXN, with water at 80 MXN and fries at 200 MXN. Toronto is slightly gentler on beer: 16.75 CAD for the cheapest 16-ounce option, though water is 9 CAD.

Then there is Atlanta, behaving almost suspiciously reasonably. At Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports and Entertainment keeps permanent fan-first pricing in place regardless of event, including this World Cup. Chicken tenders with fries cost $6 before Atlanta’s 9 per cent tax; pizza slices are $3, a cheeseburger $5, a grilled chicken sandwich $6, water $3, and the cheapest 20-ounce draft beer $9.

Blank’s logic is simple: no price gouging, and no exceptions. The policy stayed intact for the 2019 Super Bowl and, after discussion with FIFA, remained untouched for the World Cup too.

Posted on 16 June 2026

McDonald’s Finds Growth at the Top While Gas Prices Squeeze Its Budget Diners

McDonald’s is making more money, but the customers with the least slack in their budgets are still getting body-slammed by gas prices.

On its first-quarter 2026 earnings call in Chicago, the company said low-income traffic remains under pressure even after rolling out cheaper menu options. Management tied much of that strain to elevated fuel costs and inflation, which are hitting lower-income consumers harder. Higher-income customers, meanwhile, are still spending steadily, helping McDonald’s gain share.

For the quarter ended March 31, net income rose 6% to $1.98 billion, or $2.78 a share, from $1.86 billion, or $2.60 a year earlier. Revenue climbed 9% to $6.5 billion from $5.95 billion. U.S. comparable sales increased 3.9%, reversing a 3.6% decline a year ago, largely on higher check averages. Global comparable sales also rose 3.9%, versus a 1% decline last year.

The company expanded its value push in April with McValue, adding an under-$3 lineup that includes a $2.50 McDouble and a $1.50 Sausage McMuffin, alongside a $4 breakfast deal, a $5 McChicken meal, and a $6 McDouble meal.

McDonald’s is also leaning harder into beverages and chicken. After closing CosMc’s last year, it launched McCafé refreshers and crafted sodas, with Red Bull drinks due later in 2026. With beef prices still historically high, chicken is gaining appeal, and the chain says it has added about two share points in that category.

Posted on 9 June 2026

UK Food Makers Brace for Higher Prices, Job Cuts as Energy Shock Bites

Britain’s food and drink manufacturers, confronted by costs that rise like a soufflé in a draught, are preparing a distinctly uncomfortable menu of responses: dearer products, fewer jobs, thinner marketing budgets and postponed investment.

A first-quarter survey by the Food and Drink Federation found 82% of UK food and drink businesses expect to increase prices, while 33% are considering restructuring or reducing headcount. The poll covered manufacturers of varying sizes.

The immediate prod came from the Iran conflict and the energy shock that followed. Repeating its April outlook, the FDF said UK inflation for food and non-alcoholic drinks is likely to hit 9% to 10% by December. Drawing on International Energy Agency analysis, it described the Iran war as having triggered the worst energy crisis on record, exceeding the combined shocks of 1973, 1979 and 2022.

For manufacturers, the trouble is expense rather than supply scarcity. Businesses reported shifting procurement, trimming marketing and shelving capital projects; only 21% plan to improve production energy efficiency.

Confidence, meanwhile, has dropped through the floorboards. The FDF’s net confidence measure slid to -64% in Q1 from -31% in Q4 2025. Some 67% said conditions worsened quarter on quarter, and the Q2 outlook registered -51%, the weakest since early 2022.

Energy support topped the wish list for 69%. For 51%, energy makes up 5% to 9% of costs; for 8%, 20% to 24%. Rising labour costs are also spurring automation, squeezing bonuses and widening pay pressures.

Posted on 8 June 2026

Belgium’s Most Intriguing New Tables, Treats and Bottles

Belgium’s food map currently glitters in four very different places. In Brussels, Chaga hides above Avenue Marnix inside the Faubourg 21 hotel, near the European quarter and unusually alone there as a true gastronomic address. After a drink at Bar 21, Amar Hennebert’s domain, dinner rises to Kevin Lejeune’s fourth-floor dining room, where the former La Paix and La Canne en Ville chef, Gault & Millau’s 2021 Revelation, uses a robata grill to give fish and meat smoke without fat. Japanese inflections, citrus, texture contrasts and Vincent Wynant’s wine or non-alcoholic pairings carry through to petits fours and a parting homemade cake.

Elsewhere, Boudin de Liège gained PGI status in November 2025 after ten years of talks. The city’s white sausage, documented since at least the 18th century, is two-thirds lean pork, one-third cheek fat, plus milk-soaked bread and exactly 3g of whole marjoram leaves per kilo. Marjoram was revived in 2014 on the citadel slopes; dried for three years, it can reach €150 a kilo. About 12 butchers make around 60kg weekly, more at Christmas.

Wittamer’s revived Cavell tearoom in Uccle pairs a redesigned 2022 interior with mille-feuille, savouries, Chant d’Eole and chocolates by Christophe Museur, around €2 each.

In Ghent, Michel Moortgat’s Dada Chapel turns a restored 17th-century building into a distillery of vodka, Brhum, three 2024 gins, a negroni, iris-root spritz, coffee liqueur and Black Fuel whisky with Channel Zero. Posted on 6 June 2026

Domino’s Eyes Protein as Pizza Chains Chase Health-Halo Demand

Domino’s may yet decide that the path to modern healthfulness is not through fewer calories, but through the ancient and noble art of adding more things to bread.

After a recent investor call with CFO Sandeep Reddy, Bernstein analysts outlined several menu ideas they believe could be in Domino’s longer-term development pipeline: a protein-boosted pizza, an updated chicken platform, and tweaks to familiar formats such as deep dish or new stuffed-crust variations. Reddy did not identify any specific upcoming product.

The notion fits a wider restaurant trend. Maeve Webster, president of Vermont-based Menu Matters, said protein remains unusually persuasive because consumers grasp it instantly. In her view, people generally treat added protein as an uncomplicated health upgrade, whether or not nutrition is quite that tidy.

That instinct matters commercially. Protein gives indulgent foods a sort of halo, softening guilt while preserving pleasure. Webster also pointed to the spread of GLP-1 drugs as one force behind the obsession.

There is, however, a small nutritional comedy in the background: fiber is beginning to rival protein as the macro nutrient of the moment, and the need for more fiber is arguably greater. But protein, by all appearances, has better publicity. It sounds vigorous, tastes agreeable, and can make an extra slice of bacon seem less like surrender than strategy.

Posted on 4 June 2026

From 43p to £4.79: McDonald’s UK Prices Then and Now

McDonald’s in Britain has pulled off a neat trick: it still sells familiarity, even though the numbers on the board now look like they’ve been through therapy.

In 1986, the chain was still in growth mode across the UK. That year brought Happy Meals to British customers, added more drive-thru sites and marked the opening of its 200th restaurant in the country. The menu was leaner too, long before today’s ecosystem of wraps, coffees, vegetarian choices, delivery and app deals.

The Big Mac is the cleanest measuring stick. When McDonald’s entered the UK in 1974, one cost 43p. By 1986, it was about £1. In 2026, a standard Big Mac is typically around £4.79, while a medium Big Mac meal averages roughly £7.60.

Other staples tell the same story. Small fries, once priced in mere pence, now usually sit around £1.79 to £1.99. A Happy Meal generally comes in above £4.00.

That sounds like a dramatic jump, and in cash terms it is. But inflation complicates the outrage. A 1974 Big Mac priced at 43p works out to about £3.91 in today’s money, and some analysts argue that several core items have broadly moved in line with inflation rather than wildly outpacing it.

So the menu has swollen, the costs have climbed, and the promise is basically unchanged: quick, recognisable, relatively affordable food. Posted on 3 June 2026

Soft Shell Crab’s Brief, Glorious Visit to San Diego

There are delicacies which owe half their charm to rarity, and the soft shell crab must be counted among them. Its season in San Diego is now underway, though only for a brief acquaintance. A soft shell crab is not a separate species, but a blue crab caught in the tender interval after shedding its old armor and before the new shell hardens. Recalcification begins within 2 to 3 hours, and even with proper storage there are only about 24 to 28 hours between capture and table.

The romance of the first full moon in May is only partly deserved. Blue crabs from the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia, and from warmer Gulf waters in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, molt according to climate: southern harvests may begin in March, while the colder northern Atlantic can continue into September. This year, Water Grill and King’s Fish House began serving live Chesapeake Bay blue crabs on May 3, two days after the full moon.

At Herb & Sea, Aidan Owens planned ahead for a fried soft shell crab with späetzle, gribiche, and local greens, likely through the first week in June. Brian Okada devised four versions this year: at King’s Fish House, a Southern-style plate with corn succotash and fried green tomato, and a piccata preparation with Israeli couscous, lemon butter, and capers. At Water Grill, the first dish is Thai-leaning, later changing to one with watermelon, cucumber, and brown butter-soy ginger sauce. La Corriente keeps a soft shell crab taco as long as possible; Ironside Fish & Oyster expects a crispy battered version with ramps soon.

Posted on 1 June 2026

Gilroy Gardens Brings Back Its Award-Winning Cherry Jubilee for a Month of Fruit-Fueled Absurdity

About 90 minutes south of San Francisco, Gilroy Gardens is once again doing the sensible thing and devoting a full month to cherries.

From June 5 to July 5, 2026, the produce-themed amusement park will revive Cherry Jubilee, the festival it introduced last year and which subsequently collected an IAAPA Brass Ring Award for Best New Food & Beverage Event. Evidently, the amusement-park industry looked upon an avalanche of cherry-flavored invention and decided this was progress.

This year’s edition expands the edible ambition: more than 50 cherry-infused food and drink options are planned, including 30 new recipes. On the menu are cherry teriyaki skewers, turkey legs glazed in cherry barbecue sauce, cherry-seasoned fries, fruity cocktails, and deep-fried cheesecake finished with cherry sauce, which feels like the sort of idea that should either be banned or celebrated.

The festival is also stocking its calendar with live performances from the Merry Cherry Bunch, plus storytime, slapstick, STEM activities built around baking and math, and Cherry Dome games such as roller skating and pitch ’n’ win. A Fourth of July all-you-can-eat barbecue is also scheduled.

Gilroy Gardens, which opened in 2001 as Bonfante Gardens, spans 536 acres and is better described as a botanical garden that accidentally acquired rides. Its 10,000-plus trees, six garden areas, gentle attractions, water features, and famous Circus Trees make it especially suited to families with younger children.
Posted on 30 May 2026

WK Kellogg Tries to Reintroduce Cereal as a Sensible Breakfast

WK Kellogg is attempting a modest but pointed act of reputation repair: explaining cereal to people standing in front of the shelf wondering whether they’ve accidentally wandered into the confectionery aisle.

Its new on-pack system, SPOONS, will appear on the back of U.S. boxes from now into next year, starting with familiar names including Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, All-Bran and Frosted Mini-Wheats. The acronym flags simple ingredients, protein, outstanding fiber, other nutritious foods, nutrients you need and single-digit sugars.

The idea is to make cereal’s case quickly: many shoppers now scrutinise sugar, processing, fiber and protein, while regulators and industry groups push clearer nutrition information. The FDA proposed front-of-pack labels last year, and the Consumer Brands Association already offers SmartLabel via QR code.

Cereal has had a rougher cultural ride than it once enjoyed. Consumers increasingly see it as overly processed, too sugary and nutritionally thin, while hurried breakfasts have shifted toward bars and other grab-and-go options. WK Kellogg, acquired by Ferrero for $3.1 billion, is betting that some of cereal’s problem is simply poor communication.

Its research found many users do not realise cereal can naturally provide fiber and other essential nutrients, or that many varieties are made from relatively few ingredients and contain less added sugar than assumed. A serving of Raisin Bran, for example, delivers 7 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. Posted on 29 May 2026

Soda Wants to Fix Your Gut Now

The soda aisle is having a wellness rebrand, which is either progress or the final triumph of millennial self-optimization. For years, soft drinks were mostly sugar delivery systems with mascots. Now the industry is being reorganized around beverages that promise to do something besides taste good.

Functional drinks, a broad category that includes probiotic and prebiotic sodas, hydration products, energy drinks, and beverages fortified with vitamins, minerals, or adaptogens, are gaining ground because shoppers increasingly treat drinks as part of a daily health routine. Flavor still matters, but so do digestion, immunity, hydration, and the comforting idea that your can of fizz might also be your life coach.

The hottest fight is in prebiotic and probiotic soda. Brands built around gut health and lower sugar have moved from niche curiosity to serious threat, especially with younger consumers who scrutinize ingredients and nutrition more closely than previous generations.

Big beverage companies have noticed. Instead of waiting for the trend to pass, they are trying to buy or build their way in. Coca-Cola recently launched Simply Pop, entering the prebiotic soda market with a product tied to digestive-health messaging. PepsiCo went even bigger, acquiring Poppi for nearly $2 billion, one of the clearest signs yet that functional beverages are being treated as the industry’s next major growth engine.

Hydration drinks are rising too, marketed around electrolytes, performance, and everyday wellness. The result is a beverage business increasingly shaped by health claims, convenience, and lifestyle branding. Posted on 28 May 2026

Tomatoes Lead a Sharper Spring Rise in Grocery Prices

The grocery bill, that petty extortionist waiting at the end of every aisle, grew sharper teeth in April.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show food-at-home prices were 2.9% higher than a year earlier, the fastest annual grocery inflation since August 2023, when the rate was 3%. Month to month, grocery prices jumped 0.7% from March, after a mild dip the month before. In March, annual grocery inflation had been 1.9%, meaning April delivered the biggest one-month acceleration since May 2022.

The broad inflation rate reached 3.8% in April, the highest since May 2023. The BLS did not publish most category-level figures for October 2025 because of the federal government shutdown.

The starring villain was the tomato. Prices climbed nearly 40% from April 2025, the steepest increase among food-at-home items tracked by the BLS. Fresh vegetables rose 11.5%, helping push fruit and vegetable prices up about 6%.

Meat kept up its familiar campaign against household budgets. Uncooked beef roasts cost almost 18% more than a year earlier, steaks rose just over 16%, and ground beef increased 14.5%.

Coffee, that morning necessity masquerading as a personality trait, was nearly 20% more expensive than a year ago.

Not everything misbehaved. Poultry prices rose less than 1%, fresh whole chickens fell nearly 2%, and egg prices dropped more than 39% after last year’s spike.

Posted on 26 May 2026

Celebrity Drinks Turn Star Power Into Shelf Space

Fame has found a new cupholder. From the Kardashians to George Clooney, celebrities are attaching their names to drinks in a market so crowded it practically needs traffic control.

The Kardashian orbit remains especially active: Kim Kardashian joined the energy drink brand Update, while Kylie Jenner pushed her vodka soda label into hydration powder. Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila has drawn enough attention that Sazerac bought a stake in it. The company also invested in Sipmargs, tied to influencer Alix Earle.

Actors are doing their part to keep the liquor cabinet well stocked. Clooney moved into nonalcoholic beer, and Breaking Bad co-stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul expanded into tequila. Ben Stiller entered soda with Stiller’s Soda, offering Shirley Temple, lemon lime and root beer.

It may sound like a punchline, but the business logic is real. Celebrity association lowers the barrier for shoppers considering an unfamiliar brand and gives a newcomer a better shot at being noticed in a cooler full of lookalikes. That effect appears particularly strong with younger consumers.

Alcohol has long been celebrity territory, but the action now stretches well beyond spirits. Hydration mixes, sodas, energy drinks and nonalcoholic products are all getting the star treatment.

The big beverage players have noticed. When conglomerates start buying stakes, the cameo has become a business model.

Posted on 25 May 2026

Ferrero and Netflix Reopen the Wonka Factory

Like an old magician hauled back onto the stage, Wonka is returning, this time with Netflix as its glittery accomplice and Ferrero working the machinery backstage.

Ferrero Group, which acquired Wonka from Nestlé in 2018 as part of its $2.8 billion purchase of Nestlé’s U.S. candy business, plans to launch 10 fall products tied to the brand. They will be seasonal or limited-run items spanning chocolate, sugar candy, ice cream and cereal, and will reach the U.S. plus select European markets: the U.K., France, Italy and Germany.

The timing is not accidental. Netflix is preparing both a Willy Wonka reality competition series and an animated film, extending the Roald Dahl universe it gained greater control over after buying the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021. Consumer products are part of that wider push.

Wonka has had a wandering corporate life. The 1971 film was famously backed by Quaker Oats, which wanted the candy rights and a starring role for the sweets themselves. Sunmark Corporation, creator of Pixy Stix, later owned the brand before Nestlé bought it in 1988. In 2015, as Nestlé retreated from food, Wonka was folded into Nestlé Candy Shop.

Ferrero has already revived former Nestlé brands, most notably turning Nerds Gummy Clusters into a breakout hit. Now it is using Wonka to chase the lucrative seasonal aisle and begin a longer-term experiential marketing partnership with Netflix.
Posted on 24 May 2026

Once Upon a Farm Grows as Parents Keep Buying Healthier Kids’ Food

Inflation is making people flinch at grocery prices, but apparently not when the purchase says good parent in smoothie form. Once Upon a Farm, launched in 2015, is gaining speed as millennial and Gen Z parents keep paying for kids’ food made without added sugar, preservatives, or artificial ingredients.

The company sells refrigerated pouches, oat bars, frozen meals, pantry snacks, and now smoothies plus meat and bone broth pouches aimed at babies, toddlers, and children. Some of the newer items lean into the same health obsessions adults love—protein and probiotics—because toddler branding and wellness branding are now basically neighbors.

CEO and co-founder John Foraker, formerly Annie’s chief executive before its sale to General Mills, says demand for healthier food has stayed strong through the economic pressure. He reports no meaningful consumer retreat across income groups and says the business strengthened as the quarter went on.

That confidence showed up in the numbers. Once Upon a Farm, which also lists Jennifer Garner as a co-founder and went public in February, posted first-quarter sales growth of 44% year over year. It also lifted its 2026 net sales forecast to $313 million to $323 million, up from $302 million to $310 million.

The broader opening is clear: kids’ diets are slowly moving away from ultraprocessed food, and lunchboxes remain full of opportunities. Even adults may be next. Posted on 23 May 2026

The Quiet Laws of Korean Pairing

Korean meals often move by quiet laws: heat answered by coolness, grease met by acid, fermentation steadied by starch. Seoul-born writer Yun Sun Park, who often returns to South Korea, maps those rules for travellers hoping to eat less like tourists and more like locals.

At bunshik stalls near schools, markets and pocha, tteokbokki’s sweet-fire gochujang sauce finds its truest companion in soondae, the blood sausage filled with meat and glass noodles; steamed liver and lung are dipped there too. Chimaek—fried chicken with beer—rose to national obsession during the 2002 South Korea-Japan Fifa World Cup. The chicken comes with tangy mu, and the usual beers are light draught Terra or Cass. Koreans call alcohol-friendly food anju.

Rain invites jeon and makgeolli: savoury pancakes, soy-dipped, with gently fizzy rice wine poured from kettle to bowl. Summer asks for galbi with naengmyeon, whether icy mul naengmyeon or gochujang-bright bibim; hwe naengmyeon adds raw pollack or skate.

For students, office workers and K-drama picnics by Hangang Park, instant ramyun belongs with gimbap, even keto versions made with egg. In joongshik, born in Incheon in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, jjajangmyeon or jjamppong nearly require shared tangsuyuk—sauce poured or dipped, eternally debated.

Hangovers call for bland seolleongtang sharpened with kkakdugi, whose brine can be stirred into the soup. And at Korean barbecue, the meal is unfinished without doenjang jjigae or kimchi jjigae, ideally with rice mixed in at the end. Posted on 22 May 2026

Starbucks Korea Chief Ousted After Promotion Echoed National Trauma

In South Korea, even a coffee promotion can discover history is the sort of thing that bites back.

Starbucks Korea’s chief executive, Son Jung-hyun, has been removed after a 18 May online event for the company’s “Tank” tumbler line set off anger and boycott calls. The campaign labelled 5/18 as “Tank Day”, a phrase many saw as recalling the armoured vehicles used in the 1980 Gwangju democratisation movement, 167 miles (270km) south-west of Seoul.

That uprising began on 18 May 1980, when paratroopers were sent against student-led demonstrations after martial law was imposed by Chun Doo-hwan. Over 10 days, troops used bayonets, batons and live ammunition on civilians; victims’ organisations say hundreds died.

The promotion also used “thwack on the desk”, a phrase inseparable from the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chul. Officials first claimed an officer had merely “hit the desk with a thwack”, and the exposed lie became a symbol of regime cruelty, helping drive the protests that won direct presidential elections.

Yonhap said Shinsegae Group chair Chung Yong-jin, whose Emart subsidiary holds the majority stake in the licensed Starbucks Korea operator, dismissed Son and ordered the firing of the executive behind the campaign. A Shinsegae official said: “as soon as Chairman Chung was reported on this matter, he ordered a strict and thorough internal investigation” and “considered this issue very serious and took the extreme measure of dismissing the CEO.”

The Gwangju-Jeonnam Memorial Coalition called it “clearly malicious mockery” and said: “We strongly suspect this is the result of management’s biased historical consciousness … being cunningly expressed through the mask of marketing.”

Starbucks Korea withdrew the event within hours and apologised, saying: “While unintentional, this should never have happened. We recognise the deep pain and offence this has caused, particularly to those who honour the victims, their families, and all who contributed to Korea’s democratisation.”

Posted on 20 May 2026

Yantai’s ‘Stir Fry CEO’ Serves Heat in a Business Suit

In Yantai, Shandong Province, the night market has found its own small legend: Xiao Lu, 19 years old, a street-food cook who works the wok in a sharp business suit. The internet dubbed him the “Stir Fry CEO,” and the name stuck like smoke to a jacket.

Lu took over the family stall at 17. His father handled ingredient prep; Lu did the cooking. Surrounded by vendors selling the same grilled, boiled, and wok-fired fare, he figured he needed an edge. First came a vest. Customers liked it. Before long, he was showing up in a full suit, looking less like a fry cook than a young executive who had wandered into the heat and decided to stay.

Chinese media say he starts at 5 pm and keeps going until about 11:30 pm, turning out roughly 200 servings a night. The family still cuts ingredients and readies sauces and broths, but Lu is the one people come to watch. On Douyin, his streams helped turn a local curiosity into a national draw, with visitors traveling across China to see him juggle multiple woks and plate a portion about every three minutes.

Some compare his style to Sanji, the elegant cook from Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. Lu shrugs off the spectacle. “People may come to buy out of curiosity, but what really keeps customers coming back is the taste,” he said. “I’m just doing what I love. If it can bring some positive energy, I’m very happy.”

Posted on 19 May 2026

The Luxury of Almost Nothing

In Sankt Petersburg, a tiny eatery has found a strange commercial advantage by removing nearly everything. Buterbrodik 66—literally “Sandwich 66”—offers the kind of stripped-down sandwiches many people grew up with: white bread and one plain filling, whether baloney, butter, cheese, or egg. Price: from 100 rubles, about $1.36.

There is no attempt at seduction. The sandwiches look almost aggressively unstyled, as if assembled in a student room with one eye on the clock. That, apparently, is the point. For some customers, they carry the force of memory; for others, they save the nuisance of buying an entire loaf, a pack of butter or sausage, and then making the thing yourself.

Owner Alexey Petrachev told PDM News that he and a friend began with a modest street stand, selling ultra-cheap sandwiches simply to lift people’s spirits. The idea thickened into a proper business, and now they have premises of their own—though “proper” should not be overread. The shop sits on the city’s edge, in a building few others want, which keeps costs survivable.

“At first, the prices were 50 rubles—people would come in and say, ‘Oh, what a rip-off,’ and leave. Then we raised the price to 100 rubles—everyone immediately felt OK,” Petrachev said. “Considering our location—we’re on the outskirts, in a building and a place no one wants—we have enough to cover the cost of this space.”

Posted on 17 May 2026