6-09-2025 4:18am

HUNT VALLEY'S McCORMICK

McCormick & Co. sees MAHA opportunity

PARIS — The Trump administration’s “make America healthy again” (MAHA) initiative has intensified focus on the use of ingredients perceived as artificial in products and prompted many companies to reformulate. Executives at McCormick & Co. said they see those reformulation efforts as opportunities.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank dbAccess Global Consumer Conference June 3, Brendan Foley, chairman, president and chief executive officer of McCormick & Co., said reformulation efforts to clean up ingredient panels aren’t new, but present “opportunity areas” for his company.

“… When we look at this current period of time, I think this is going to be another one of those moments, where you kind of go through and a lot of innovation is going to really start to address what the consumer is looking for here,” he said.

A report published by the MAHA Commission May 22 targeted ultra-processed foods and specific ingredients like sugar, “unhealthy fats,” refined grains, emulsifiers, binders, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives as contributing to the poor overall health of American children.

“… We’re really quite involved in that,” Foley said. “We’re also really well positioned, I think, up against what the consumer is looking for today. Overall, we have just a very deep-seated expertise and capability when you think about where we start is we do everything from natural ingredients. That’s kind of how we approach things as a flavor company overall. And that’s one of the ways in which flavor companies are trying to address these issues.”

He added that the current reformulation efforts will “create a lot of incremental opportunity” for McCormick & Co.

“So, we do think that this is an area which McCormick will participate, quite heavily,” he said.

Larger center store CPG brands are seeing softer consumption trends, according to McCormick & Co.

| Photo: ©WALTER CICCHETTI – STOCK.ADOBE.COM

The company’s operating structure consists of two business units — Consumer and Flavor Solutions. The Consumer segment consists of products sold at retail under McCormick’s brands while Flavor Solutions includes products and ingredients sold to other food manufacturers and foodservice operators.

While the Consumer segment is benefiting from more consumers cooking at home, Flavor Solutions is seeing softer trends, especially among larger brands, Foley said.

“At the same time, we’re seeing pockets of growth with very fast-growing emerging brands, also emerging categories overall,” he said. “And it tends to be in the areas where you’re seeing a lot of health and wellness … sort of benefit focus. It could be hydration, functional food with functional food benefits.

“You’re seeing it with a focus on proteins — there’s a lot of focus around proteins, and all of that needs flavor. And, so, we see a lot of opportunity there, and then we see that in our trends overall.

“And that’s helping to take the edge off, if you will, what we’re seeing in terms of performance of some of those larger brands and overall volumes. So, that’s kind of our outlook when we think about our (Flavor Solutions) business is we’re seeing some offsets to that.”