Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers ate at home more often during the past year — and many of them baked and cooked up a storm, too. That reality translated into rosy sales at retail for a number of cultured dairy categories.

Conversations tied to dairy processor sustainability typically focus on plant-level efforts such as wastewater reduction or reuse, energy-efficiency-minded improvements and recyclable product packaging.

Cultured dairy products, dairy products fermented with lactic acid bacteria, have been around for absolutely ages. The COVID-19 pandemic and a bit of innovation on the part of dairy processors, however, have combined to build consumer demand in a number of cultured dairy segments during the past year or so.

Back in 2016, FDA announced an update to the Nutrition Facts label. As part of that update, the agency called for food and beverage manufacturers to list "added sugars" instead of only "total sugars."

The past year saw reduced demand for cheese on the foodservice side, thanks to widespread pandemic-related restaurant closures and indoor dining bans. However, the picture was much brighter on the retail cheese side.

For many cheese producers, sourcing milk from farms within a small radius, often 100 miles or so, is very important. Doing so not only boosts sustainability by slashing transport miles, but also helps to ensure freshness.

The first thing most visitors see as they draw near to the fresh cheese plant operated by Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese LLC is a colorful, hand-painted 52-square-foot mural depicting the unique farm-to-consumer journey of the family-run company's products.

Almost two decades ago, marketing companies, news outlets and market research firms across the country issued a warning to American marketers and employers: The oldest millennials soon would be coming of age, and the rest of us had better prepare for it.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has many consumers reaching for small indulgences to brighten their days. That reality has been a boon to the frozen novelties category, which Chicago-based market research firm IRI breaks into three subcategories: frozen novelties, ice cream/ice milk desserts and ice pop novelties.

The ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee and tea segment is decidedly no longer a niche market within the United States. The segment racked up retail sales of almost $7 billion during the 52 weeks ending Aug. 9, 2020, according to data from Chicago-based market research firm IRI.