What Are Resilient Crops?

Shifts in weather patterns and harsh weather conditions are phenomena that humankind has been witnessing for many years. These occurrences can impact our day-to-day lives in many ways, particularly in the realms of agriculture, food production and food access. You’ve likely read about how climate change has been observed over decades, and how over these years the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—mainly carbon dioxide—has risen considerably. Additionally, we’ve written about how many environmental scientific experts agree that climate change is happening and that humans are the cause. While many industrial companies, public health stakeholders and members of the general public are employing climate-change mitigation strategies, utilizing different innovations, and changing their daily operations to lessen their impact on the environment, climate change is still present, and our growing population still needs to thrive and be fed. Thus, farmers have had to undertake new technologies to maintain food productivity. One of these new technologies is the development of resilient crops. Climate challenges There are three primary climate challenges that impact farming: seasonal shifts, ecological disturbances, and extreme weather and/or extreme weather events. All these occurrences impact the foundational needs of crops: water, sun and soil. They also affect the agricultural animals that survive and grow from crop consumption. Seasonal weather predictability is a cornerstone of farming, and non-seasonal weather variability can pose many agricultural challenges. Shifts in seasonal weather can cause several problems, such as increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, increased length of the frost-free season, increased nighttime temperatures, and earlier and faster snowmelt-driven runoff, which can result in reduced summer stream flows (water supplies). Ecological disturbances include incidents such as wildfires, landslides, flooding, windstorms and pest outbreaks. Disturbances often yield short-term landscape changes but can have very significant, longer-term ecosystem impacts. An ecosystem is an environmental area in which […]

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Bread Science and Black History: The Innovations of Joseph Lee

Bread is the proverbial stuff of life—a staple food in many households throughout ancient and modern history. Today, we encounter bread when we make a sandwich, eat a salad with croutons, or enjoy it as an accent on a delicious charcuterie board (we love a good baguette!). With the variety of breads that are now widely available in supermarkets, farmers’ markets, and bakeries, we can enjoy a plethora of tastes and textures to suit our day-to-day preferences. But if you’ve ever considered the bread-baking techniques that yield your desired loaf, you likely haven’t connected them with Black history. Let’s shed some light on a segment of rich history of Black food production innovators in the U.S.—in particular, the story of Joseph Lee, a bread-production pioneer and recently inducted member into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. It all started with a recipe—and kneading There are hundreds of different types of bread today, but most recipes have evolved to require four basic ingredients: flour (of which there are many different types), water, yeast, and salt. Joseph Lee, born in 1849 in Charleston, South Carolina, knew these ingredients well due to the many years he spent cooking and baking in restaurants and the hospitality industry in the late 1800s—which culminated in the opening of his own catering company and restaurant (a major feat for the son of former slaves). Over his many years of bread-baking, Lee observed the importance of kneading the dough to deliver consistent loaves at a large scale. Today’s researchers have observed that kneading dough promotes the “homogeneous mixing of all the ingredients, the hydration of the flour constituents, the phase transitions that involve proteins and amorphous starch, the development of the gluten network, and the inclusion of air bubbles, giving a viscoelastic dough as a result.” That may […]

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The Players & Pathways To Packaging Sustainability Wins

After years of working in the food production space, it’s clear that food producers and consumers alike want to know more about how their actions can contribute to—or compromise—our roles as environmental stewards. For years, U.S. consumers have heard the mantra “Reduce, reuse, recycle,” and many of us, no matter where we live, do our best to decrease litter and reduce waste. While we are considering our individual environmental sustainability actions, many of us also recognize the importance of efforts being enhanced within the domestic food production industry to improve rates of recycling food packaging and reduce the amount of materials needed to produce new packaging. When thinking about enhancing packaging sustainability efforts, both consumers and industry have a role to play. The Path To Packaging Recycling Wins To better understand the packaging recycling pathways and how we can increase our “wins” in packaging sustainability, we must recognize the roles of three key players. First, there are the companies that manufacture materials needed to make packaging. Next there are companies that produce foods and beverages and utilize those materials to hold their products. Then there’s the consumers who buy packaged goods, and who may or may not recycle that packaging. While the companies that manufacture packaging materials and produce our foods and beverages hold a great deal of power in helping us achieve sustainability wins, consumers play a key role in closing the sustainability loop by recycling or choosing their purchases. Consumer Insights Are Key To Making The Right Plays Over the past decade, the annual IFIC Food and Health Survey has shown that taste, price, and healthfulness are the top characteristics consumers care about when making a food or beverage purchase. While environmental sustainability has historically been a lower-ranked purchase driver, the past several years have shown a shift […]

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Everything You Need to Know About Sucralose

Download the Sucralose Fact Sheet for Consumers here Download the Sucralose Face Sheet for Health Professionals here WHAT IS SUCRALOSE? Sucralose is a no-calorie sweetener that can be used to lower one’s intake of added sugars while still providing satisfaction from enjoying the taste of something sweet. While some types of sweeteners in this category are considered low-calorie (e.g., aspartame) and others are no-calorie (e.g., sucralose, monk fruit sweeteners and stevia sweeteners), collectively they are often referred to as sugar substitutes, high-intensity sweeteners, nonnutritive sweeteners or low-calorie sweeteners. Like other no-calorie sweeteners, sucralose is intensely sweet. It is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, so only small amounts of sucralose are used to match the sweetness provided by sugar. Sucralose is permitted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as a general-purpose sweetener, meaning it can be used as an ingredient in any type of food or beverage. Sucralose is exceptionally stable, so foods and beverages sweetened with sucralose stay sweet under a wide range of conditions. This includes frozen foods like ice cream and other frozen desserts, as well as foods that need to be heated to high temperatures, like baked goods and foods that require sterilization. However, a recipe that uses sucralose in place of sugar may turn out slightly different because, in addition to sweetness, sugar plays several roles related to volume and texture in recipes but varies based on the type of recipe. Sucralose is also used in tabletop sweeteners. There are numerous brands of sucralose-based tabletop sweeteners. The most common brand in the U.S. is Splenda® Original. HOW IS SUCRALOSE PRODUCED? Sucralose is made from a process that begins with regular table sugar (sucrose); however, sucralose is not sugar. Three select hydroxyl groups on the sucrose molecule are replaced with three chlorine […]

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IFIC Spotlight Survey: Americans’ Perceptions Of Protein

This report from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) contains results from two separate consumer surveys—the 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey and the July 2025 IFIC Spotlight Survey. Each survey’s methodology is briefly described below: July 2025 IFIC Spotlight Survey​ IFIC commissioned this online survey among U.S. consumers (n=1000) to measure knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about protein. One thousand adults ages 18 years and older completed the online survey from May 10-13, 2025, and were weighted to ensure proportional results. Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding. 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey​ IFIC commissions this survey annually among U.S. consumers (n=3000 since 2024, n=1000 in prior years), with 2025 marking the 20th consecutive year of the IFIC Food & Health Survey. Results were weighted to ensure that they are reflective of the American population ages 18 to 80 years, as seen in the 2024 Current Population Survey. Specifically, results were weighted by age, education, gender, race/ethnicity, and region. The 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey was fielded from March 13-27, 2025. Key findings include:

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2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey: A Focus On Dietary Guidance & Food Labeling

This report from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) contains results from two separate consumer surveys—the 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey and the August 2025 IFIC Spotlight Survey. Each survey’s methodology is briefly described below: 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey​ IFIC commissions this survey annually among U.S. consumers (n=3000 since 2024, n=1000 in prior years), with 2025 marking the 20th consecutive year of the IFIC Food & Health Survey. Results were weighted to ensure that they are reflective of the American population ages 18 to 80 years, as seen in the 2024 Current Population Survey. Specifically, results were weighted by age, education, gender, race/ethnicity, and region. Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding. The 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey was fielded from March 13-27, 2025. August 2025 IFIC Spotlight Survey​ IFIC commissioned this online survey among U.S. consumers (n=1000) to measure knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about dietary guidance and food labeling. One thousand adults ages 18 years and older completed the online survey from April 7-11, 2025. Data were weighted to ensure proportional results. Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.

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Public Confidence in U.S. Food Safety Declines Amid Concerns About Food Ingredients & Recalls, New IFIC Research Reveals 

(Washington, D.C.) — In an era of growing public scrutiny over what is in our food and how safe it is to consume, new data from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) reveals a striking gap between confidence in the safety of the foods and beverages they buy and trust in the safety of the broader U.S. food supply. As consumer concerns evolve, two new IFIC Spotlight Surveys provide a window into how Americans perceive food ingredient safety and food recalls, and what those perceptions mean for the future of food safety communication.   According to the 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey, just 55% of Americans express confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply—marking a historic low. Despite this, according to the newly released IFIC Spotlight Survey: Americans’ Perceptions Of The U.S. FDA GRAS Program, 72% are confident in the safety of ingredients in the foods and beverages they purchase. This contrast highlights an important disconnect: Americans feel more secure about the safety of what they choose for themselves than they do about the safety of the food supply overall.  “Trust in our food supply cannot be taken for granted—it must be continually earned,” said IFIC President & CEO Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN. “With growing consumer demand for transparency and accountability in how food is produced and regulated, we have a real opportunity to improve how we communicate about safety, from ingredients to recalls. With September marking National Food Safety Education Month, there’s no better time to elevate this conversation.”  A Spotlight On Food Ingredients  One area of concern for Americans is food ingredients and additives, especially how they are regulated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees roughly 80% of the national food supply, including through its Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) program, which allows […]

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The Healthy Dietary Patterns Highlighted in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

We recently summarized the 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), which were released in December 2020. In case you missed that article, here is a refresher: The DGA provide science-based advice on what to eat and drink to promote health, reduce the risk for chronic disease and meet daily nutrient needs. The DGA are the foundation of federal food, nutrition and health policies and programs, and they have been revised every five years since 1980. The 2020–2025 DGA provide four overarching guidelines that encourage healthy eating patterns at each stage of life, stressing that many individuals will need to make shifts in their food and beverage choices to achieve a healthy eating pattern: These guidelines are not intended to be overly prescriptive; rather, they are meant to be customized based on an individual’s personal preferences and needs. This article focuses on the first guideline—following a healthy eating pattern at every stage of life—and explores the three recommended eating patterns that are highlighted in the DGA. The Importance of Healthy Dietary Patterns A hallmark of the DGA is the importance placed on healthy dietary patterns as a whole—rather than on individual nutrients or foods in isolation. But what is a dietary pattern? A dietary pattern is the combination of foods and beverages consumed over the course of any given day, week, or year. As a result, dietary patterns can be more closely associated with overall health status and disease risk than consumption of individual foods or nutrients. According to the DGA, a healthy dietary pattern consists of nutrient-dense forms of foods and beverages across all food groups, in recommended amounts, and within calorie limits. As with the previous version, the 2020–2025 DGA provide examples of three dietary patterns that align with DGA recommendations; they are defined as Healthy U.S.-Style, Healthy Vegetarian […]

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