Clint Rainey | March 24, 2026
(Fast Company)
Recent surveys show that we are enjoying our food less. The ritual of eating is becoming something we hack, crusade against, or atone for. Last year alone, popular food trends admonished consumers from all sides: inject appetite-suppressing Ozempic, consume large amounts of fiber, purge all traces of seed oils. Yet studies show that delighting in the meals we eat not only promotes physical health, it also strengthens the bonds we share with others. This year’s list of the most innovative companies in food is made up of businesses that understood this simple truth. Food must nourish, but it should also be worth eating.
Several new brands have sprung up around this very principle. Ben Stiller launched a soda company now (maybe you’ve heard?!) framed as the antidote to the new glut of joyless sugar-free canned drinks out there—it’s called Stiller’s Soda. A new protein bar brand, David, emerged and conquered the competition partly by using a cheeky marketing stunt to sell products wrapped like Willy Wonka prizes. An L.A.-based startup, Shinkei Systems, is delivering sushi-grade fish via robots installed on fishing vessels that can perform a centuries-old Japanese technique, combining precision, humane welfare, and flavor preservation in a way that borders on ceremonial. Fruitist makes sure that plump and appetizing blueberries are always within reach.
Billion-dollar corporations got in on the action too. Responding to consumer worries about processed foods, Kraft Heinz made a Heinz ketchup that replaced the added sugar with just more regular tomatoes, boosting umami in the process. Sargento gave consumers a paradox in terms: the first entirely natural American cheese (it has typically been comprised of 50% other ingredients). The J.M. Smucker Company extended this pleasure principle to our four-legged friends, adding real Jif peanut butter to Milk-Bone dog treats, while Dole delivered a vitamin-packed pineapple developed through 15 years of careful agronomy that tastes like a piña colada, at a price point that won’t pucker the wallet.
Others beat the odds to ensure our food stayed flavorful. Against the backdrop of Trump’s tariffs, a display of supply chain resilience positioned Burlap & Barrel’s popular spice brand as a rare trade-policy success story.
[…]
4. Burlap & Barrel
For offering a spicy example of how to navigate tariffs, ethically and efficiently
Spices are nothing if not the history of trade. Today, no brand embodies the complexities of spice commerce more visibly than Burlap & Barrel.
Founded as a social enterprise by the political-activist duo behind Guerrilla Ice Cream—one a former chef with a master’s in violent conflict resolution—the company already knew how to leverage international development contacts to build direct ties to farmers, eliminating middlemen to pay suppliers up to 10 times more.
After the Trump administration announced “Liberation Day” in April 2025, the founders were suddenly viewed as trade experts, explaining to the media how they import a new Oaxacan chile or how they’d pulled off a “tariff sale” that spiked orders by 1,000%. Other adaptations included making blends that combined higher-tariffed goods like Vietnamese cinnamon with lower-tariffed spices—Guatemalan allspice, Grenadian nutmeg—for offerings like a toasted pepita pumpkin spice that sold out immediately.
Jars have earned culinary must-have status, visible in kitchens at Eleven Madison Park and chains like Sweetgreen and Cava, and even in the latest season of FX’s The Bear. This past year, limited editions included collaborations with Martha Stewart, the Jane Goodall Institute, Bon Appétit, and YouTube chef Sohla El-Waylly.
Burlap & Barrel imports spices from nearly three dozen countries, many unique heirloom varieties unavailable elsewhere. Labels tout their origins: chili from Kashmir, pine salt from Upstate New York, cumin from Badakhshan, Afghanistan—the sole location where this wild black mountain variety grows. A brand known for such thoughtful sourcing has become an unexpected leader in post-tariff trade diplomacy.
To read this article and its rankings in full, click here.
To learn more about our case, Burlap and Barrel, Inc. v. Trump, click here.