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The French Farm
Crave Brothers
Urban Accents
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VOLUME 89 • NUMBER 3 MAY 2024 • $7.00 • Bark Adds Full Collection of Dog Treats To Its Global Consumables Business
N E W S P A P E R
• Food Industry Operators See Growth in ‘24, Inaugural Industry Economic Report Shows PAGE 5
• ALDI to Add 800 Stores, Completes Acquisition of Southeastern Grocers PAGE 6
• Study: Solutions in Catering Industry to Address Food Waste Lacking PAGE 8
• New Summertime Products Include Plenty of Flavorful Snacks, Beverages PAGE 10
• European Union Parliament Clamps Down On Environmental Marketing
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NJ Bakery Creates Avocado Bread, Inspired by Current Market Trends BY A.J. FLICK
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Bread is integral to global cultures, as proven in March with the discovery of what scientists call the world’s oldest known loaf of bread, dating back 8,600 years. Archaeologists found a palm-sized, “spongey” unbaked and fermented loaf of bread in the ruins of a mudbrick house in a site called Çatalhöyük in southern Turkey. “It has a finger pressed in the center, it has not been baked, but it has been fer-
mented and has survived to the present day with the starches inside,” archeologist Ali Umut Türkcan, head of the Excavation Delegation and an associate professor at Anadolu University in Turkey, told the Turkish state news outlet Anadolu Agency. “There is no similar example of something like this to date.” Scientists found that the bread
had been prepared next to an oven, with flour and water mixed in. “It is an exciting discovery for Turkey and the world,” said biologist Salih Kavak, a lecturer at Gaziantep University in Turkey. Who could have known that all these years later, people are still discovering new ways to make bread? Flash forward to 2022 and a half-world away from Çatalhöyük in Denville, N.J., 35 miles west of Manhattan, in a family-owned bakery called Anthony & Sons with a 65,000 square foot, state-of-the-art
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reached an important milestone in its efforts to produce cultivated meat at scale. Meatable is able to transform pluripotent stem cells into high quality fat and muscle tissue in a record four days, down from eight days, a faster process than any in the industry. This breakthrough will enable
BY A.J. FLICK
the company to produce cultivated meat significantly faster and at lower costs than industry norms, and is therefore an important step toward the commercialization of Meatable’s technology and large-scale production of cultivated meat products more broadly. The breakthrough, using Meatable’s core patented Opti-Ox technology, confronts the
Matt Beeson created Swamp Dragon hot sauce for those who love hot sauce but don't like the vinegary taste. Beeson invented the world’s first hot sauce made with liquor as a preservative, not vinegar. He put a lovable dragon cartoon on the label, so families would know it's still kid-friendly. Making Swamp Dragon, which is patented, and growing the brand has been a passion for Beeson. He’s been networking to find the resources to keep Louisianabased Swamp Dragon going, but has been unable to. Now, Beeson has made the heartbreaking decision to suspend operations. “Swamp Dragon is officially suspending operations,” Beeson wrote on his LinkedIn page, the company website and other social media, this time featuring a sad dragon. “We will continue filling web orders until inventory depletes (very soon, so go now if you care to), and then the company will remain idle until I fix things.” With his first venture into consumer product goods, Beeson and Swamp Dragon hit the market in 2018 to great success. His debut at the Summer Fancy drew
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Meatable Enables ‘Cell-to-Sausage’ Faster Than Others in Cultivated Meat Industry
Netherlands-based food technology company Meatable has
Swamp Dragon Struggling To Survive
Dynamic, Affordable QR Codes Set Digital World Buzzing Think QR codes belong in the tech graveyard? Think again! The digital world is buzzing over the dynamic QR revolution started by QR Code KIT. Dive into the heart of controversy where the old meets the new in a clash of digital titans. As the dust settles on the battleground of innovation, dynamic QR codes emerge as the undisputed
champions of marketing agility and efficiency. Gone are the days of static, one-dimensional QR codes that
lead to a dead end. QR Code KIT transforms how brands connect with their audience without breaking the bank. Once relegated to the annals of early 2000s technology, QR codes were nearly consigned to the digital dustbin, dismissed as a quaint relic of a bygone era. Launched into the tech cosmos in the 1990s, these pixelated squares were initially designed to track vehi-
cles during manufacturing. However, their journey from a niche tool to global ubiquity is anything but straightforward. In their infancy, QR codes promised a bridge between the physical and digital worlds, offering a quick scan solution to access content, websites and promotions. Yet, for years, they languished in the shadow of their potential, often criticized for their static nature and the lack of widespread adoption among consumers. Continued on PAGE 17