With lead times on ingredient changes and product development being measured in months at a minimum, correctly identifying when trends have legs is critical.

Consumers want clean labels with preservatives and antimicrobials that they can recognize and understand: like vinegar, ascorbic acid, rosemary or chemicals derived from organic or natural substances.

Solve For Food wants to lead the industry into a new age of food processing. The company is seeking financing for its first Food Innovation Center, which will provide processors concept-to-consumption food production and innovation services using MATS.

As with anything in the food industry, it is the consumer who ultimately drives trends that retailers pass back up the chain to processors.

New packaging equipment can now provide more capabilities in modified atmosphere packaging.

A petition on Change.org received 348,000 signatures, but Kraft says the decision is unrelated.

Only one in six adults expressed having a "great deal" of confidence in food safety, compared to one in four in 2008.