Last year, I met with Jonathan Grayer, the new controlling shareholder of Organic Avenue, and one of the things that we discussed was the quality of food at his company. Much to my surprise, he was incredibly forthcoming and acknowledged that several of Organic Avenue’s items were not up to par.

He told me that his goal was to offer raw and cooked vegan food that would appeal to a mainstream audience and that also tasted really, really good.

Aside from already having revamped the salads, which are now excellent, Organic Avenue recently launched its first line of quinoa bowls, and I have been beyond impressed.

The three red quinoa bowls are the following:

SWEET YAM & CELERY

Very hearty and filling. The sweetness of the yams ties everything together really well. When I am hungry, this is what I go for. Read more »

Yesterday at Natural Products Expo West, the biggest organic trade show of the year, Whole Foods made a HUGE announcement.

The company said that by 2018, all products in its U.S. and Canadian stores must be labeled to indicate whether they contain genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).

The importance of this announcement cannot be underestimated. Why? Read more »

I interact with a countless number of early-stage, organic food companies and I can tell you one thing – running these businesses is not an easy task.

Aside from the tight profit margins, increasing food costs, and extensive paperwork dealing with organic certification, raising investment dollars is a very challenging endeavor.

These are not high-flying technology companies, which attract the lion’s share of angel investment money. Furthermore, most investors don’t understand the intricacies of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

Fortunately, a San Francisco-based start-up called CircleUp is helping to address this fundraising problem. Read more »

When I found out the other day that New York City-based Organic Avenue became USDA certified organic, I got pretty excited. (Yes, these things seem to excite me.) But why was I so happy?

There are several reasons.

– As far as I know, there is no other company in the U.S. that sells unprocessed, unpasteurized, pressed juice that is USDA certified organic. So, this is the first of its kind. Read more »

I was at the Tribeca Whole Foods in New York City this morning to hear a presentation by John Mackey, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the company.

The crux of what John Mackey discussed was healthy eating and how the overarching philosophy of Whole Foods is to improve people’s health by emphasizing a plant-based diet.

He also talked about some other very interesting initiatives, including opening stores in inner cities and a status update on the Wellness Clubs. Read more »

As part of its year-long “Know Your Food” campaign, Stonyfield has launched The Great Food Find, an interactive online scavenger hunt that takes food lovers on a journey to find organic foods around the web.

For each action that a person takes on The Great Food Find (capped at 50 actions – an action would be answering questions, finding a product and adding it to the virtual tote bag, Tweeting something, Liking something on Facebook, etc), he or she will be added to the drawing to win a $15,000 kitchen makeover.

Also, the first 50,000 people who finish the entire online scavenger hunt, which ends May 21st, will receive coupons from Stonyfield and partner companies such as Annie’s Homegrown, Nature’s Path, Sambazon, Woodstock Farms, Organic Valley, Applegate Farms, Honest Tea and more. Read more »

I see a lot of products in the organic food world but there is a buzz about Harmless Harvest and its coconut water that I have never seen before.

This tends to happen when you are in a super-hot category and you are the best tasting, healthiest product in that category.

Harmless Harvest’s raw organic coconut water is made by using a technology called high pressure pasteurization (HPP), which I named one of my top 5 organic food trends for 2012. Read more »