Sabrina Hu
Economics Intern
15 articles on The Pie
Industry InsightsJourney Foods × MongoDB Atlas: Bring Your Own Database, Connect in Minutes — a self-serve integration announcement for developers connecting Journey Foods to their own MongoDB Atlas deployment
If your team already runs MongoDB Atlas, you can now connect it to Journey Foods without a sales call, a provisioning ticket, or a three-week email chain. You authenticate, you configure, you sync. That's the whole story — but the context behind it matters.
News & EventsJourney Foods Partners: Kroger, NASA, SAP, and the World Economic Forum — What These Collaborations Say About Ingredient Intelligence
When a food-tech platform counts NASA, the World Economic Forum, Kroger, and SAP among its named collaborators, that's not a marketing slide. That's a signal worth reading carefully.
IngredientsWhat Are Doritos Actually Made Of? Ingredient-by-Ingredient Breakdown for Curious Readers
Most people glance at a Doritos bag and move on. That's a missed opportunity — whether you're a curious consumer or a CPG formulator trying to understand how one of the best-selling snack brands in the world actually builds its flavor profile. This breakdown goes line by line through the Nacho Cheese variety, the original and still dominant SKU, and explains what each ingredient is actually doing.
IngredientsSex Coffee: What Is It, What's in It, and What Formulators Can Learn From the Trend
Sex coffee is having a moment. The name is provocative by design — but the formulation logic behind it is worth taking seriously, especially if you're an R&D lead tracking functional beverage trends and trying to separate signal from noise.
IngredientsWhat the 2026 Food Recall Surge Reveals About Ingredient Risk — And How CPG Teams Can Get Ahead of It
Quick Answer: Recalls in 2026 are fewer in number but far larger in scale. A single contaminated ingredient source can now trigger a recall across dozens of SKUs simultaneously. For CPG R&D and procurement teams, the question isn't whether a supplier issue will happen — it's how fast you can trace it, contain it, and act.
Industry InsightsJourney Foods for Beverage CPG: How the Platform Handles Liquid Formulations and Ingredient Scoring
Beverage formulation is not food formulation with more water. The variables are different — solubility windows, pH stability, flavor masking, emulsification, preservative interactions. These aren't footnotes. They are the formulation. And most general-purpose ingredient management tools treat them exactly like footnotes.
Formulation & R&DFood Formulation Software: What the Market Looks Like in 2026 and How to Choose
The food formulation software market in 2026 looks nothing like it did five years ago. What started as a narrow category of nutrition calculators and label generators has grown into a genuinely competitive space, with platforms claiming to handle everything from ingredient sourcing to AI-powered reformulation. For R&D and procurement teams evaluating options, that expansion creates a real problem: more tools, more overlap, and a much harder time figuring out which one actually solves your problem.
Formulation & R&DFrom Pineapple Cakes to Dubai Chocolate: A Century of Viral Foods and the Economics Behind the Trends
The phenomenon of viral food trends isn't something new. Nowadays, thanks to social media, they’re just faster, louder, and more globally influential today than a century ago. From
Industry InsightsFAO Food Price Index: What the May 2025 Dip Tells Us About Global Food Markets and the Future of AI-Driven Supply Chains
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its latest monthly Food Price Index , painting a nuanced picture of global food markets. While prices for cereal, sugar, and
Formulation & R&DGenerative AI in the Supply Chain: How Industry Giants Are Shaving Days Off Delivery Times
Recently, Amazon revealed the next phase of its supply chain transformation: a suite of generative AI-powered technologies that promise to cut delivery times by an entire day. The
Formulation & R&DSmart Pallets but Smarter Supply Chains: How AI Is Driving Circular Innovation in the $80B Pallet Industry
As sustainability increasingly gains importance amongst consumers and producers and becomes a cornerstone of industrial logistics, the pallet industry follows suit. Once considered
Formulation & R&DHormones vs. Health: The “Beef” Between the US and EU
As trade talks intensify between the United States and the European Union, a new friction point has re-emerged: meat. The Trump administration has recently pushed for increased U.S
News & EventsHow Proposed SNAP Cuts Could Reshape America’s Food Economy and Why AI-Powered Solutions Matter Now More than Ever
The Trump-aligned Republican administration announced its intention to significantly cut federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As a pillar of th
Industry InsightsThe Snack Slowdown: What Consumer Trends Signal About the Economy and the Future of Food
Over the past several months, a subtle yet powerful shift in consumer behaviors has begun silently reshaping the food industry: Americans are snacking less. What might sound like a
Industry InsightsHow a Viral Chocolate Trend Disrupted Global Pistachio Supply Chains
In the age of TikTok and Instagram Reels, virality doesn't just stay online, it can’t help but spill over into the real world, which can bring along some unexpected economic conseq