Food

PepsiCo pivots to fresh food as snack sales slow

PepsiCo is expanding into fresh and refrigerated foods as shoppers increasingly move away from heavily processed products. ©Image Credit: Wikicommons / puroticorico

PepsiCo built an empire on the kind of foods you grab when you are hungry but don't necessarily want to cook. Doritos, Cheetos, Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Now, as more shoppers start gravitating toward fresher and less processed options, the snack giant is looking beyond the center aisles of the grocery store.

Its new destination is the sections filled with fresh produce, prepared foods, dips, deli items, and other products that generally have not spent several months hanging out on a shelf. PepsiCo wants in there too.

Chasing the fresh-food crowd

Recent moves made by PepsiCo include launching Tostitos guacamole and bringing its Mediterranean-style chilled soup brand, Alvalle, to the U.S. The strategy might sound like a strange pivot for the company behind some of America's most recognizable processed snacks. But PepsiCo is following the shopping cart.

Around 61% of consumers consider freshness when making food purchases, according to data cited by the company. Meanwhile, seven in ten shoppers believe food sold around the perimeter of grocery stores is higher quality and worth paying more for.

Also, shoppers are spending more time around the edges. According to Numerator data, trips to the grocery store's perimeter grew 15% faster than visits to the center of the store in 2025. The broader fresh-food section also generates more than $271 billion in annual sales.

Why PepsiCo made Tostitos guacamole

The company noticed that people buying Tostitos chips were also eating guacamole. Groundbreaking? Maybe not. But it is potentially profitable.

So, it used that consumer behavior to launch Tostitos-branded guacamole, creating another opportunity to keep shoppers inside the PepsiCo world even after they have wandered away from the snack aisle. What a way to meet consumers where they are already eating rather than hoping they'll come back to the chip shelf.

Sabra gave PepsiCo a head start

PepsiCo did not make its pivot into the fresh-food business completely empty-handed. The company had partnered with hummus and guacamole brand Sabra for 17 years before buying the remaining half of the business it didn't already own in 2025.

Now, PepsiCo says it plans to grow its fresh-food presence through a combination of new products, acquisitions and existing brands that can expand into refrigerated sections. So, don't be surprised if more familiar PepsiCo logos start appearing next to your produce.

Source: FoodDive

Coca-Cola is launching a healthy version of Coke and Sprite

If you love the taste of soda but try to avoid it because of the negative health effects, you may be in luck. Coca-Cola has announced a "healthy version" of Coke and Sprite as it dips its toes into the functional beverage industry. A beverage with benefits

Target workers are furious over new uniform rules

Target takes aim at the employee dress code by implementing new rules, and so far it's caused a lot of waves. Many employees are speaking out, saying the new uniform not only looks silly, but also gets in the way of them doing their jobs. Is the dress

Amazon cuts corporate retail jobs right after Prime shopping event

Amazon has barely wrapped up its October Prime Big Deal Days sale, and some employees are already facing an unwelcome post-shopping surprise in the form of layoffs. The e-commerce giant is cutting fewer than 1,000 corporate employees, mainly in its Stores division, which oversees its main shopping

Education Department sued for damaging borrower credit scores

Imagine being told you no longer owe your student loans, only to discover that your credit report still says you do. That’s the problem at the center of a new class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, which allegedly kept reporting certain discharged student loans as