If you are what you eat then you should watch how you shop. Signaling a shift away from packaged foods and meat, consumers are jettisoning Cheez It for Chia seeds.
The American diet is changing and it's moving away from supermarket aisles. And the packaged food industry (think: cereal, snacks, readymade soups etc.), as well as big grocers are feeling this pinch. According to Wall Street Journal's analysis, over the past two years, at least 16 major CEOs of packaged-food and beverage companies including Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup and Irene Rosenfeld of Mondelez International have stepped down.
Not only that, top 25 food and beverage companies in the U.S. including General Mills and Kraft Foods have been losing market share, averaging annual sales growth of 2% from 2012 through 2016, compared with 6% for the rest of the industry.
Conversely, private-label goods and prepared meal-kits are leading this movement of change. A decade ago, subscribing to fresh food online was probably scoffed at. Compare that to last year, when the fresh food meal-kit market was valued at $4.65 billion and is expected to touch $11.6 billion by 2022.
The meal-kit market is not restricted to star startups like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh. In fact, quite the opposite -- there is a slew of emerging local startups in different markets trying to grab their slice of the pie.
Let's look at Boston, which is not new to food innovation. Boston is home to ezCater, which was founded in 2007 and is now a nationwide marketplace for corporate catering. There is also Toast, which raised a total of $134 million for its restaurant point of sale and management system, Drizly, touted as “Amazon for liquor,” which started when two Boston College students were curious why they couldn’t get beer delivered via app.
Apart from these, there are a bunch of emerging food startups in Boston ranging from Chef Dazzer, an app that allow customers to book the services of local chefs for private events or Food For All, which works to reduce food waste by allowing users to buy (at discounted prices) excess food that restaurants didn’t sell. If you are looking for a list of food startups in the area, we got you.
Not only that, we also have a food startup accelerator, The Food Loft that offers mentoring, investments and a coworking space for fledgling food companies and Chew Innovation, Chef Adam Melonas’s new innovation lab that is overhauling the way big food companies create snacks, breakfast foods, and juices.
If you have a company or even just an idea, BranchFood might be the place for you. It provides networking programs, office space and seeks to promote food entrepreneurship and support the community of founders launching and scaling local food ventures.
With so many colleges around, one would assume that innovation in food technology comes naturally to Boston -- and one would not be wrong. Remember when some MIT researchers devised a way to figure out recipes for the delectable meals on Instagram, just by analyzing a picture of the food? Or when Squadle, a Cambridge-based startup used IoT sensors to prevent food safety incidents? Don't forget Spyce, a fast-casual restaurant where robots make your food.
Also, this year's Harvard Summer Venture Incubation program has a bunch of promising early-stage food startups. Want Tinder for food? Don't worry, Crave heard you.
There is a confluence of factors pushing people toward healthier food choices and availability is a major one. And Boston food startups are on a mission to upend what, when and how we eat it.
