Pearl attended the 2019 Grocery Innovations Canada Tradeshow in Toronto on Oct 22-23 to check out the new products entering the market and to understand food and beverage trends. Below are Pearl’s top innovation themes and product picks from this year’s show. Wholesome. The word “wholesome” made an appearance in numerous ways as consumers continue to look for healthy snacks that feature a short [...]
Chicken sandwiches have been in the news lately, with the hype of Popeye’s limited time offering in the U.S. and the launch of the first Chik-fil-A location in Canada. Our team of tasters tried 6 of the most popular chicken sandwiches at quick service restaurants in Toronto, and here is what they thought. This is the 2nd part of a two-part blog series. Read part 1 here. Chick-fil-A Chick [...]
Chicken sandwiches have been in the news lately, with the hype of Popeye’s offering in the U.S. and the launch of the first Chik-fil-a location in Canada. Our team of tasters tried 6 of the most popular chicken sandwiches at quick service restaurants in Toronto, and here is what they thought. This is the 1st blog of a two part series. McDonald’s – Mc Chicken - $5.99 The Mc Chicken sandwi [...]
Design Thinking, simply put, is a “human centered” methodology or approach to innovation. At its very core it is about developing empathy for the end user of a product or service so you understand them and designing a solution that will solve a problem. Anyone can do Design Thinking. Here are some of the tools and techniques to help get you started. Photo Elicitation Select your target group. A [...]
There are many ways technology is bringing innovation to the cannabis market, ranging from the extraction and measurement of active ingredients, to recipe development of new food and beverage products. We explored some of the innovative technology applications taking place in cannabis and summarized them below: Customisation In the future, cannabis product ratios could be altered to meet partic [...]
Pearl reviewed the vendors in attendance at the Canadian Health Food Association Eastern Tradeshow held on Sept 12-15 in Toronto. Below are our top picks from this years show: Sproos Sproos promotes collagen as being a key component for the maintenance of healthy skin, gut and joints. They offer a variety of supplements and snacks targeted in these areas. For example, their Sproos Up Your Gut c [...]
We reviewed Euromonitor’s “How to become a sustainable brand” and pulled out the key points in bite-sized infographics outlining important trends and formulas you can integrate into building your organization’s sustainability strategy. Below are statistics provided by Euromonitor that show the importance of building a sustainable brand not only to consumers, but especially among industry profes [...]
Alternative proteins are hot as a summer BBQ grill! Consumer adoption of alternative protein continues to grow for a variety of reasons - health, environment and animal welfare. In Pearl’s 2019 Health & Wellness Study three-quarters (75%) of Canadians had either consumed or were interested in trying plant-based meat alternatives! Just under half of Canadians (43%) had consumed plant-based m [...]
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