Works

New data from Kantar suggests small brands grow faster through depth of connection than breadth of reach. Here’s what that means for founders deciding where to spend.

There’s an opinion piece moving through nutrition science right now, and it’s worth talking about.

Caffeine has never been freely addable to food in this country. The Code’s general prohibitions already stop you from using it as a food additive or a nutritive substance, and permitted flavouring substances are permitted at GMP, with caffeine expressly carved out. The only meaningful permissions sit with cola-type drinks and formulated caffeinated beverages.

Queensland’s procurement policy sets a whole-of-government target of sourcing 30% of procurement spend by value from Queensland small and medium enterprises. It took effect at the start of 2026, it applies across the state’s annual spend, and it is a figure agencies are measured against rather than a vague nod to backing local business.

Right now, shoppers are switching supermarkets based on whoever’s cheapest that week. Consumer confidence is down, the cost of living is biting, and people are dropping brands they’ve bought for years the moment a competitor looks like better value.

A new report has mapped out where flavour innovation is heading, and it reads like a list of commercial opportunities. Comfort. Discovery. Authenticity. Sensory experience. All of it live, all of it fundable, all of it landing in product briefs right now.

For years, matcha has been the flavour everyone wanted a piece of. There’s a new contender quietly coming for its crown, and it’s called hojicha.

The non-alcoholic drinks industry has published a consumer guide to exactly what to check on a drink label. If you sell a drink product, you should know what it says.

For years, protein got all the attention. Every second product on the shelf was reformulated, repackaged and relaunched around a protein hit.

But there’s a quieter ingredient about to have its moment. Fibre.

We’re over halfway through 2026, so it’s worth asking where food innovation is actually heading. The answer isn’t novelty. The products gaining ground this year aren’t the loudest or the newest – they’re the ones built around purpose.

Three of the biggest names in dairy made the same move inside four months. Danone bought Huel. Lactalis bought Protein Works. Nestlé took full ownership of Yfood. Three separate boardrooms, three separate cheques, one shared conviction about where food is heading.

Poppi, the prebiotic soda that built a cult following on the promise of a healthier gut, has agreed to pay US$8.9 million to settle a class action over those exact claims. The brand denied any wrongdoing. The number still stands.

“Made with real fruit.” It’s one of the most reassuring phrases a parent can read on a lunchbox snack, and it still runs across shelves of fruit straps, bars and pouches today. It also sits behind one of the most instructive marketing cases in Australian food regulation.

Walk into almost any Australian health food store, and you’ll find lion’s mane staring back at you, in mushroom coffees, focus powders, and “brain” gummies, usually wrapped in language about memory and clarity. The marketing is everywhere. The legal basis for selling it as food is not.

The prediction was simple. GLP-1 drugs would suppress appetite, people would stop reaching for sweets, and the chocolate industry would quietly bleed out. Analysts modelled it. Confectionery was meant to be one of the first casualties of the Ozempic era.

If you’re selling a mushroom supplement in Australia, this is the post you didn’t know you needed to read.

2SM Radio x Dr Courtney Stewart

For more than a decade, the Health Star Rating system has been a voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling tool in Australia and New Zealand. Brands could choose to display the rating, calculate it themselves, and decide which of their products carried it. That voluntary era may be ending.

The line between confectionery and sports nutrition is disappearing, and it is happening at a pace that should have every food brand paying attention, not just to the commercial opportunity, but to the regulatory exposure that comes with it.

2SM Radio x Dr Courtney Stewart

Sleep is quietly becoming one of the most contested spaces in food marketing.

A significant change is underway in the global food industry, and it’s centred on something most consumers never think twice about: the colour of their food.

2SM Radio x Dr Courtney Stewart

The European Union just passed a ban on certain meat-related terms for plant-based products.

No more plant-based steak. No more vegan bacon. Words like beef, chicken, pork and steak are now off the table for products that contain no meat.

But here’s where it gets interesting: burger, sausage and nuggets are exempt.

A product launch from one of the world’s largest food companies rarely goes unnoticed, but Nestlé’s new Vital range is worth more than a passing glance, particularly if you are building or managing a food brand with any kind of functional positioning.

ABC News x Dr Courtney Stewart

2SM Radio x Dr Courtney Stewart

One of the world’s largest snack companies just announced a significant shift in its product strategy and the implications reach well beyond PepsiCo’s own portfolio.

A reel and commentary about ultra-processed foods has been circulating widely on social media, and it has sparked exactly the kind of conversation the food industry needs to be having – even if the conversation itself is more complicated than most posts acknowledge.

Most food brands assume compliance risk sits in the label.

AIFST x Dr Courtney Stewart

Nutrition research does not always produce neat, consistent answers.

Across supermarket shelves, the language of health has become almost impossible to avoid.

2SM Radio x Dr Courtney Stewart

ABC News x Dr Courtney Stewart

When it comes to functional foods, one number tends to dominate: how many milligrams per serve?

When food brands think about compliance, they focus on wording. Is the claim permitted? Does it meet the NPSC? Is the phrasing technically correct?

NewsWire x Dr Courtney Stewart

Reformulation is often treated as a silver bullet. Lower the sugar. Cut the fat. Reduce the sodium. Healthier product, right?

When food brands ask whether they have “enough evidence” to support a nutrition or health claim, the answer is rarely straightforward.

“High fibre” is one of the most familiar and most misunderstood claims on food packaging.

“Gut health” has become one of the most overused and least clearly defined concepts in nutrition and food marketing.

If you’ve ever thought “there’s a study that supports this claim – why isn’t that enough?” you’re not alone.

Health and nutrition claims are powerful marketing tools, yet many brands make critical mistakes before products even reach development.

Roulston, M., Thompson, C., Pelly, F., Cave, D.

The House of Wellness x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council (GLNC) x Dr Courtney Stewart

Burstow, A., Witt, BG., Thompson, C.

The House of Wellness x Dr Courtney Stewart

Cleary, A., Thompson, C., Villani, A., Swanepoel, L.

Onya Magazine x Dr Courtney Stewart

Nicholson, M., Thompson, C., Poulus, D., Pavey, T., Robergs, R., Kelly, V., McNulty, C.

Dietitian Connection x Dr Courtney Thompson, NPR Consulting

Supported by: Sanitarium and GLNC

Kiddipedia x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

The House of Wellness x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Thompson, C.

Thompson, C., Holmes, M., Horsey, B., Vidgen, H.A.

Cushii x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Thompson, C., Byrne, R., Adams, J., Vidgen, H.A.

Comollo, E., Thompson, C., Vidgen, H.A.

Dairy Australia x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Food Navigator x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Supported by: Dairy Australia

Dairy Australia x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Dairy Australia x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Thompson, C., Byrne, R., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A

Thompson, C., & Vidgen, H.A.

Sydney Morning Herald x Dr Courtney (Thompson) Stewart

Supported by: Dairy Australia

Thompson, C., Adams, J., Byrne, R., Vidgen, H.A

Russell, C., Schram, A., Salmon, L., Carrad, A., Barbour, L., Lacy-Nichols, J., Huse, O., Machado, P., Gilbert, J., Zorbas, C., Thompson, C.

Thompson, C., Byrne, R., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A.

Thompson, C., Byrne, R., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A.

Thompson, C., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A

Thompson, C., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A

Thompson, C., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A.

Thompson, C., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A.

A systematic scoping review of its use in the academic literature (1998–2019)

Thompson, C., Adams, J., & Vidgen, H.A.

Fingland, D., Thompson, C., & Vidgen H.A.

Naumann, F., Schumacher, U., Stuckey, A., Love, A., Thompson, C., Tunny, R., & Nash, R.

Thompson, C.

Thompson, C. & Vidgen, H.A

Thompson, C. & Vidgen, H.A.

Thompson, C., Vidgen, H. A., Gallegos, D., & Hannan-Jones, M.

Thompson, C., Vidgen, H. A., Gallegos, D., & Hannan-Jones, M.

Thompson, C., & Vidgen, H. A.

Thompson, C., Vidgen, H.A., Gallegos, D., & Hannan-Jones, M.

Thompson, C., Vidgen, H. A., Gallegos, D., & Hannan-Jones, M.