Seasoning and Dressing Manufacturing (U.S.)

NAICS 2022 code 31194. NAICS — the North American Industry Classification System — is the federal statistical system's standard grouping of businesses. This is a five-digit "industry" that sits one level up from its two component sub-industries, 311941 and 311942, and one level below the food-manufacturing subsector. This primer synthesizes the two child primers and our ground-truth federal statistics for the 31194 level.

1. Overview

This is the industry that makes the flavor layer of the American diet — everything you reach for to make plain food taste like something. Federal statistics split it into two halves of almost identical size: the wet, bottled half (mayonnaise, salad dressing, mustard, hot sauce, soy and Worcestershire sauce, marinades — NAICS 311941) and the dry half (spices, seasoning blends, flavoring extracts, natural food colors, and dry mixes — NAICS 311942). Together they are a roughly $30 billion-a-year U.S. manufacturing business [1] built on the same basic economic trick: cheap agricultural inputs (vegetable oil, vinegar, dried botanicals, salt) turned into branded, shelf-stable products that sell at a large premium to their cost.

Why an investor should care: this is a textbook consumer-staples category with strong brands and pricing power. People season and dress food in good times and bad, so volumes barely move with the economy, while a handful of brands (Hellmann's, Duke's, Hidden Valley, Frank's RedHot, French's, McCormick, Old Bay) command real loyalty. That combination — steady demand plus defensible brands — is why these assets trade and change hands at premium prices, and why the level is in the middle of a historic wave of mergers, capped by the pending McCormick–Unilever combination structured as a Reverse Morris Trust that would create a ~$20-billion-revenue flavor company spanning both halves [8].

The distinctive thing about looking at 31194 as a whole — rather than at either child alone — is the contrast between the two halves: they are the same size but are owned very differently. The wet side has no public pure-play and is dominated at the top by private-equity firms, family owners, and joint ventures; the dry side has one dominant public pure-play (McCormick) plus a specialist (Sensient), with the rest private. One company, McCormick, straddles the boundary — and that is the single most useful fact for an investor at this level. Tickers, yields, and valuations are reserved for Sections 4 and 10.

2. What's inside — the two child industries and how they differ

The level contains exactly two sub-industries. They are nearly twins in size and headcount but differ sharply in product, ownership, and how you can invest.

The connective tissue: McCormick. The single most important fact spanning the two children is that McCormick lives in both. Its dry spices, seasoning blends and French's line are 311942; its bottled sauces (Frank's RedHot, Cholula) are 311941. No other company bridges the halves at scale, and the pending McCormick–Unilever deal — which would fold in Hellmann's mayonnaise (311941) and Knorr (dry mixes, 311942) — is effectively a bet on the whole level, not one child [8].

Why the split matters for reading numbers. The boundary between the two children is about product form, not the aisle a shopper thinks in. A packet of dry ranch mix is 311942; the bottled ranch next to it is 311941. And several "sauce" names you'd expect here sit in other codes entirely — tomato-based sauces, ketchup and salsa are Fruit & Vegetable Canning (311421); gravies are Miscellaneous Food (311999); coffee extracts are 311920 [4][5]. Read the level as the branded flavor-manufacturing core, not the entire flavor economy.

3. How big it is

Ground-truth federal figures for the 31194 level (our ingested statistics):

A few things stand out. First, the two halves are remarkably balanced — near-even in receipts (~49% / 51%), near-identical in employment (~25,000 each) — so the level is genuinely two comparable businesses, not a giant plus a rounding error. Second, this is a capital-intensive, not labor-intensive sector: ~$30 billion of output from ~50,000 workers is roughly $590,000 of shipments per employee, far above a typical manufacturing line, because grinding, blending, emulsifying and bottling are highly automated. Third, the average plant is mid-sized (~59 workers), consistent with regional blending and bottling facilities rather than a few mega-factories.

(One reconciliation note: the child firm counts sum to 808 while the level shows 800 [1][4][5]. The difference is that a firm operating in both sub-industries — McCormick being the obvious case — is counted once at the aggregated level. The establishment, employment and receipts totals, which don't double-count, add up cleanly.)

Undercount caveat. This is an employer-based manufacturing sector, so the Census captures the factories well — it is not heavily undercounted the way farm or sole-proprietor sectors are. But the $29.8 billion figure understates the true "flavor economy" for three reasons. (a) Boundary: the closely related product a normal person calls "sauce" or "seasoning" — ketchup, salsa, barbecue and pasta sauce, gravies, dry soup, coffee extracts — sits in adjacent codes and holds billions more [4][5]. (b) In-house production: a large volume of dressing, sauce and house seasoning is made inside restaurants, foodservice kitchens and grocery delis and never counts as manufacturing output at all. (c) The small/new tail: hundreds of craft hot-sauce makers and direct-to-consumer spice startups are either too small or too recently founded to register cleanly [5][6]. Treat $29.8 billion as an honest, real number for the branded manufacturing core of a materially larger flavor market.

4. The investable universe — where value concentrates across the two halves

The defining feature of this level is an asymmetry in how you can own the two halves.

• The dry half (311942) has the cleaner public window. McCormick is a genuine, large, listed category leader — a rarity in food — with ~$13 billion of market value and $6.84 billion of FY2025 global sales [6]. Sensient (~$4.2 billion market cap, ~$1.6 billion in sales) offers focused exposure to the extracts-and-natural-colors corner, with its Flavors & Extracts group running a 12.8% operating margin [9]. Almost everyone else on the dry side — global sourcers, custom-blend houses, cooperatives, vanilla specialists — is private.
• The wet half (311941) has no pure-play at all. The closest is The Marzetti Company (Nasdaq: MZTI, formerly Lancaster Colony), a debt-light, dividend-paying dressings-and-sauces specialist (~$1.9 billion FY2025 revenue), though even there frozen breads, pasta, and dips remain material [7]. The strongest sauce brands are either one line inside a much larger public food company, or are outright private/PE-owned: Duke's, Ken's, Ventura Foods and Litehouse are all off-market.

So public-market value at this level concentrates in a short list of companies that mostly touch the category rather than embody it — with McCormick the one large exception. Private-market value, by contrast, is broad and deep: much of the industry's growth energy, especially on the wet side and at the craft edge, is owned privately. Specific tickers, scale and where each name sits are treated in Section 10.

The practical takeaway: an investor who wants "the seasoning-and-dressing category" is really choosing between (1) McCormick as the closest single embodiment of the whole level, (2) a scattering of conglomerates that each hold one prized brand, and (3) private/PE vehicles for the many assets that never list.

5. How the money works

Owners across both halves make money the same fundamental way — volume × price, minus a commodity-heavy recipe — with the gap between a strong brand and a store brand determining the margin. But the two halves lean on slightly different engines and run different margin structures.

• The brand-premium engine (both halves). Raw inputs are cheap relative to the shelf price — vegetable oil, vinegar and eggs on the wet side; dried botanicals and salt on the dry side. A leading jar of mayo or a tin of a branded spice sells at a large premium to a chemically similar private-label product, and that premium — protected by taste loyalty, marketing and shelf position — is the whole game. Gross margins reflect it: McCormick's Consumer segment runs an 18.6% operating margin on nearly $4 billion of retail sales [6], while the cleanest wet-side proxy, Marzetti, runs a 23.9% gross margin and 11.5% operating margin overall, with retail at 21.1% operating margin versus foodservice at 12.3% [7].
• Two revenue models, especially on the dry side. The dry half has a large business-to-business (B2B) leg — selling custom seasonings, extracts and natural colors to food manufacturers and restaurant chains. Once a seasoning is designed into a customer's snack or entrée it is costly to switch, so that revenue is sticky and recurring; McCormick's Flavor Solutions segment generated $2.89 billion at a 12.4% operating margin in FY2025 [6]. The wet half's equivalent is foodservice — bulk jugs and pouches sold to restaurants and institutions — which is lower-margin but high-volume and stubbornly loyal; in 2024, food away from home accounted for 58.9% of total U.S. food expenditures [14].
• Channel mix drives margin. Across both children the hierarchy is the same: branded retail (highest margin) > foodservice/B2B (thinner but stickier) > private label / co-packing (thinnest, but it fills a plant's lines). Mix, more than volume, moves the margin line.
• Scale and procurement. These are high-throughput plants; keeping lines full spreads fixed cost, and scale buys cheaper oil, eggs, botanicals and packaging plus the ability to hedge — a structural edge for the big players over the long tail.
• Cyclicality lives in the margin, not the top line. Volumes are defensive; margins are cyclical with commodity prices (soybean/vegetable oil and eggs on the wet side; pepper, vanilla, chili and other botanicals on the dry side). Soybean oil hit $0.87 per pound in May 2022 [15]; eggs spiked to ~$6.22 a dozen in early 2025 before falling back [17]; for the twelve months through June 2025, BLS reported commercial-size pepper and spices up 18.7% even as the overall 311942 producer-price index rose just 2.4% [16]. The category's calm, staple top line hides a bumpier margin line underneath — the recurring quarter-to-quarter swing factor at this level.

6. What drives demand

Demand drivers are strikingly common across both halves, which is part of why they're grouped:

• Heat and global flavor — the shared growth engine. Spicy and international flavor is the clearest growth story on both sides: hot honey, chili crisp, Korean, Mexican and Middle Eastern profiles pull dry spice/blend volume and wet hot-sauce volume alike. The U.S. hot-sauce market alone is estimated around $3.3 billion and growing high-single-digits, far faster than classic mayo or table pepper [13].
• Premium and better-for-you. Avocado- and olive-oil mayo, clean-label dressings, organic and single-origin spices — the premium edge is where innovation dollars and pricing flow on both sides.
• Restaurant licensing into retail. Restaurant brands increasingly license recognizable sauces into retail; Marzetti's portfolio includes licensed Chick-fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Olive Garden, Subway, Arby's, and Texas Roadhouse products [7].
• Natural colors replacing synthetic dyes (dry-side tailwind). Regulatory and retailer pressure to strip synthetic food dyes is pushing manufacturers toward botanical color extracts — a structural growth driver specific to the extract/natural-color part of 311942, and Sensient's stated growth engine [9].
• Eating occasions and foodservice. More meals — at home and out — mean more condiment and seasoning volume; away-from-home dining drives the large foodservice/B2B leg.
• Value-seeking and private label. When budgets tighten, shoppers trade down to store brands. That is a demand shift, not a demand loss — a tailwind for co-packers even as it pressures branded volume.
• The mature core. Traditional mayo, classic dressings and everyday table spices are large but roughly flat; the aggregate level grows slowly, with most real growth at the spicy, premium and natural-color edges.

7. Regulation

Both halves are food-safety and labeling-regulated, not price- or entry-regulated, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the primary regulator for each — so regulation at this level is a single, coherent regime.

• Food-safety law. Both children operate under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which requires hazard analysis and validated preventive controls. The specific hazards differ: egg-based mayo carries salmonella risk if mishandled, while imported dried spices are a notably higher-risk input — an FDA risk profile found ~6.6% of imported spice shipments salmonella-positive, roughly twice the rate of other imported foods, making steam/heat treatment a core control; FDA permits irradiation of dry spices up to 30 kGy [18].
• Standards of identity. The FDA defines what may legally be called certain products. On the wet side, "mayonnaise" must contain at least 65% vegetable oil plus egg and an acid (21 CFR — Code of Federal Regulations — 169.140), which is why Miracle Whip is a "dressing," not mayo [19]; the FDA revoked the 70-year-old French-dressing standard in 2022 [20]. On the dry side, "pure vanilla extract" carries its own minimum-bean-and-alcohol standard.
• Labeling and allergens. Nutrition Facts, added-sugar and sodium disclosure, and allergen labeling apply across both. Eggs and soy are major allergens; sesame became the 9th federally recognized allergen in 2023, affecting tahini- and sesame-containing dressings [21]. USDA organic certification applies to organic lines on both sides.
• Ingredient-integrity and adulteration. The dry half has a distinct fraud problem — dilution, fake oregano and saffron, and lead-chromate adulteration of turmeric — policed partly through industry self-regulation by the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) [18].
• Health-policy pressure (rising, and it cuts across the level). FDA voluntary sodium-reduction targets, the updated "healthy" claim rule, and federal "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) scrutiny of seed oils, synthetic dyes and ultra-processed foods are now live variables — a demand/reformulation risk for the wet side (seed oils) and, on dyes, an opportunity for the dry side's natural-color makers [22].

8. Consolidation

At the raw manufacturing level, 31194 looks fragmented and unconcentrated. The four largest firms make about 24% of shipments, the top eight about 34%, the top 20 about 51%, and the top 50 about 71% [1]. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI, the standard concentration gauge, where under ~1,000–1,500 is treated as "unconcentrated") is just 216 [1] — even lower than either child alone (454 and 370), because combining two already-fragmented industries dilutes measured concentration further. On paper, nobody dominates.

That national number is misleading in the same way for both halves: competition happens inside narrow shelf categories, and there concentration is intense. One brand (Hidden Valley) holds roughly half of all ranch [10]; a few names own most of mayonnaise; and on the dry side McCormick both sells the leading branded line and supplies much of the private-label spice that competes with it. Brand equity in a specific subcategory is the real moat — which the level-wide HHI cannot see.

The level is in a broad consolidation wave, and the same buyers are active across both children:

• McCormick + Unilever's food business (announced March 2026). A Reverse Morris Trust combination folding most of Unilever's foods arm (Hellmann's mayo, Knorr) into McCormick; the deal contemplates $15.7 billion of cash consideration and will leave existing McCormick shareholders with ~35% of the combined company, creating a ~$20-billion-revenue flavor giant spanning both halves with ~$600 million of targeted cost synergies; expected close ~mid-2027, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. It is a pending transaction, not a closed one [8].
• Brand-led acquisitions on the dry side. McCormick's earlier deals — RB Foods (French's, Frank's RedHot, ~$4.2 billion, 2017) and Cholula (2020) — are the template; B&G bought the ACH spice brands (Spice Islands, Tone's, Durkee) in 2016 [23].
• Private equity on the wet side. Advent International bought Duke's-maker Sauer Brands in early 2025 [12]; PE treats branded condiments as durable, cash-generative assets worth paying up for. Family owners (Ken's) and joint ventures (Ventura Foods) round out the private top tier [11].
• Strategic acquisitions of emerging brands. Marzetti completed its acquisition of Bachan's Japanese barbecue sauce in May 2026 for $400 million — roughly 4.6× trailing sales — illustrating both the exit route for emerging flavor brands and the valuations credible growth brands can command [24].
• Corporate reshaping. Kraft Heinz moved to split into two companies, but the board paused that work in February 2026, so KHC remains conglomerate exposure [25]; Lancaster Colony renamed itself The Marzetti Company in 2025 to foreground its dressings-and-sauces core [7].

Competitive threats to incumbents come from the same two directions in both halves: challenger brands that win on taste or health positioning (Duke's, Primal Kitchen, Bachan's; DTC spice startups), and retailer private label, which uses the fragmented co-packer base to undercut brands on price.

9. Risks

The two children share most risks, with a couple of half-specific ones:

• Input-cost volatility (shared, different commodities). Margins swing with soybean/vegetable oil and eggs on the wet side and with pepper, vanilla, chili, turmeric and garlic on the dry side. The 2022–2025 avian-influenza (HPAI — highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreaks pushed eggs to about $6.22 a dozen in early 2025 before falling back [17]; soybean oil hit $0.87 per pound in May 2022 [15]; vanilla and other botanicals swing on weather and geopolitics in a handful of sourcing countries. Bird flu is now endemic and spice sourcing is import-dependent, so these are recurring, not one-time, hazards.
• The seed-oil backlash (wet-side signature risk). Mayonnaise and most dressings are mostly soybean/canola oil by weight, so the MAHA-driven scrutiny of seed oils and rising consumer avoidance (about 1 in 5 shoppers) is a genuine structural threat to the core recipe — and an opening for avocado-/olive-oil challengers [22].
• Food-safety and adulteration recalls (dry-side signature risk). Salmonella, lead and economically motivated adulteration carry reputational and regulatory cost and can trigger expensive recalls [18].
• Private-label share gains (shared). Value-seeking trade-down compresses branded volume and pricing power in commoditized mayo, Italian dressing and everyday spices.
• Customer concentration. Heavy reliance on a few large retailers and foodservice accounts creates bargaining-power imbalance; McCormick's two largest customers represent ~24% of its consolidated sales [6], and Walmart alone accounts for 19% of Marzetti's consolidated sales [7].
• Broader health and consumption pressure. Scrutiny of ultra-processed foods, added sugar and sodium, plus GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) weight-loss drugs that curb appetite, could weigh on calorie-dense products over time.
• Trade and tariffs. Both halves rely on imported inputs and packaging; the dry half is especially exposed because the U.S. imports nearly all its raw spice — many commercially important spices require tropical growing conditions and have no realistic U.S. supply response, making tariffs closer to an input tax than an incentive for domestic cultivation [26]. Shifting 2025–2026 tariff policy raises input cost directly.
• Integration and deal risk. The mega-mergers reshaping the top carry execution, antitrust and debt risk; a blocked or botched McCormick–Unilever combination would reset expectations across the entire level [8].

10. How to invest and the outlook

Public routes — a short menu, weighted toward the dry half.

• McCormick (NYSE: MKC) is the closest single embodiment of the whole level — the only large listed pure-play (~$13 billion market cap, $6.84 billion FY2025 sales), a defensive consumer-staple and dividend aristocrat (~3% yield, 40 straight annual raises) that straddles both children and would become far larger and more diversified if the Unilever combination closes [6][8].
• The Marzetti Company (Nasdaq: MZTI), formerly Lancaster Colony, is the most direct listed bet on the wet half — a debt-light, dividend-paying dressings-and-sauces specialist (~$1.9 billion FY2025 revenue), though it trades at a premium reflecting that scarcity [7].
• Sensient (NYSE: SXT) is the cleanest listed play on the dry half's extracts-and-natural-colors corner (~$4.2 billion market cap), with direct leverage to the synthetic-dye phase-out [9].
• Diversified conglomerates give oblique, higher-yield, value-priced exposure with the category as one line among many: Kraft Heinz (KHC) and Conagra (CAG) (mayo/dressings), Clorox (CLX) (the #1 ranch brand inside a cleaning company [10]), and B&G Foods (BGS) (small, higher-risk, spices and condiments; its Spices & Flavor Solutions segment generated ~$396 million in FY2025 [23]). Broad packaged-food and consumer-staples index funds capture the level diffusely. None of this is advice — yields, valuations and leverage vary widely and should be checked at purchase.

Private routes — where most of the level actually lives. The wet half's energy is in PE build-and-flip (Advent/Duke's), family owners (Ken's) and joint ventures (Ventura Foods); the dry half's is in global sourcers (ofi/Olam, Döhler), natural-extract specialists (Kalsec), custom-blend and coating houses (Griffith, Newly Weds, Fuchs), cooperatives (Frontier) and vanilla specialists. At the small end, venture and angel capital is chasing direct-to-consumer spice and craft hot-sauce brands. The playbook is the same on both sides: build around a differentiated brand (premium, spicy, clean-label) or a foodservice/co-packing platform, then sell to a strategic acquirer or a larger sponsor. Marzetti's acquisition of Bachan's for $400 million (~4.6× trailing sales) demonstrates the valuations credible emerging brands can command [24].

Near-term drivers to watch (forward-looking). Three swing factors dominate the level. (1) The McCormick–Unilever merger (targeted mid-2027) will redraw the competitive map across both children — its approval or failure is the single biggest structural event [8]. (2) The seed-oil debate is the biggest demand risk to the wet half's core recipe; expect accelerated reformulation toward avocado/olive oils if avoidance keeps rising [22], while the synthetic-dye phase-out is a genuine tailwind for the dry half's natural-color makers [9]. (3) Commodity prices — oil and eggs on one side, botanicals like vanilla (currently in a multi-year trough that aids margins [27]) on the other — will keep dictating margins quarter to quarter. The structural winners are likely to remain the spicy, global and premium corners of both halves, with private label taking share whenever budgets are stretched. Net: a defensive, cash-generative staple at its base, with the growth — and the risk — concentrated at the edges.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census — Concentration Ratios and Shipments, NAICS 31194 (receipts ~$29.83B; 800 firms; CR4 23.6%, CR8 33.8%, CR20 51.2%, CR50 70.8%; HHI 216). Our ingested ground-truth statistics. https://data.census.gov/
2. U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns, 2023 — NAICS 31194 (849 establishments; 50,398 employees; ~$3.60B annual payroll; ~$928M first-quarter payroll). Our ingested ground-truth statistics. https://data.census.gov/
3. U.S. Small Business Administration. Table of Small Business Size Standards Matched to NAICS Codes (311941 = 850 employees; 311942 = 650 employees). 2023. https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards
4. U.S. Census Bureau. 2022 Economic Census and NAICS Definition — 311941 Mayonnaise, Dressing, and Other Prepared Sauce Manufacturing (receipts ~$14.7B; 361 firms; 376 plants; CR4 ~34%; HHI 454; scope and exclusions). 2022–2025. https://data.census.gov/
5. U.S. Census Bureau / NAICS Association. 2022 Economic Census and NAICS Definition — 311942 Spice and Extract Manufacturing (receipts ~$15.1B; 447 firms; 473 plants; CR4 ~30%; HHI 370; scope and exclusions). 2022–2025. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/economic-census.html
6. McCormick & Company. Form 10-K for Fiscal Year 2025 (net sales $6.84B; Consumer segment $3.95B / 18.6% operating margin; Flavor Solutions $2.89B / 12.4% margin; top two customers ~24% of sales; 40-year dividend-increase streak). 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/63754/000006375426000037/mkc-20251130.htm
7. The Marzetti Company (formerly Lancaster Colony Corp.). Fiscal Year 2025 Form 10-K (revenue ~$1.9B; gross margin 23.9%; operating margin 11.5%; retail segment 21.1% operating margin vs. foodservice 12.3%; Walmart 19% of consolidated sales). 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/57515/000005751525000020/mzti-20250630.htm
8. CNBC / McCormick & Company. "McCormick to Combine with Unilever's Foods Business" (Reverse Morris Trust; $15.7B cash consideration; McCormick shareholders ~35% of combined company; ~$20B combined revenue; ~$600M synergies; announced March 31, 2026; expected close mid-2027). 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/31/mccormick-buys-unilever-food-business.html
9. Sensient Technologies Corp. Form 10-K for Fiscal Year 2025 (Flavors & Extracts $786.9M revenue, 12.8% operating margin; natural-color growth driver from synthetic-dye removal). 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/310142/000114036126005311/ef20060630_10k.htm
10. Wikipedia. "Hidden Valley Ranch" (Clorox ownership; ~half of the U.S. ranch category; best-selling U.S. salad dressing). Accessed 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Valley_Ranch
11. Ventura Foods / Ken's Foods. Who We Are (CHS / Mitsui joint venture; dressings, mayonnaise, sauces); Ken's Foods (family-owned, #3 U.S. salad dressing). Accessed 2026. https://www.venturafoods.com/who-we-are/
12. Advent International. "Sauer Brands completes acquisition by Advent" (Duke's Mayonnaise). 2025. https://www.adventinternational.com/news/sauer-brands-completes-acquisition-by-advent/
13. Fortune Business Insights. Hot Sauce Market Size, Share & Growth Analysis (U.S. market ~$3.3B, high-single-digit growth). 2024. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/hot-sauce-market-100495
14. USDA Economic Research Service. Food Service Industry — Market Segments (food away from home 58.9% of U.S. food expenditures, 2024). Accessed 2026. https://ers.usda.gov/topics/food-markets-prices/food-service-industry/market-segments
15. USDA Economic Research Service. "Examining Record Soybean Oil Prices in 2021–22" (benchmark $0.87/lb, May 2022). 2022. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2022/december/examining-record-soybean-oil-prices-in-2021-22
16. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Producer Price Indexes — June 2025 (NAICS 311942 overall +2.4%; commercial pepper/spices +18.7%; extracts/colors +0.6%; dry mixes +1.3%). 2025. https://www.bls.gov/ppi/detailed-report/ppi-detailed-report-june-2025.pdf
17. Fox Business. "Egg prices plunge as avian flu impact eases, but risks remain" (~$6.22/dozen peak, early 2025). 2025. https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/egg-prices-plunge-avian-flu-impact-eases-risks-remain
18. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Risk Profile: Pathogens and Filth in Spices" (~6.6% of imported spice shipments Salmonella-positive; turmeric lead-chromate adulteration; economically motivated adulteration; irradiation up to 30 kGy permitted) and FSMA preventive-controls guidance. 2013–2024. https://www.fda.gov/files/food/published/Risk-Profile--Pathogens-and-Filth-in-Spices.pdf
19. U.S. Food and Drug Administration / Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR 169.140 — Mayonnaise (standard of identity; ≥65% vegetable oil). Accessed 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-169/subpart-B/section-169.140
20. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "French Dressing; Revocation of a Standard of Identity," Federal Register. 2022. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/13/2022-00494/french-dressing-revocation-of-a-standard-of-identity
21. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FASTER Act — Sesame as the Ninth Major Food Allergen. Accessed 2026. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-allergies/faster-act-sesame-ninth-major-food-allergen
22. Farm Progress. "MAHA report on seed oils raises concerns for US agriculture" (seed-oil scrutiny; ~1 in 5 shoppers avoiding). 2025. https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-policy/the-big-fuss-about-banning-seed-oils
23. B&G Foods. Form 10-K for Fiscal Year 2025 (Spices & Flavor Solutions segment sales $395.7M; ACH acquisition 2016 including Spice Islands, Tone's, Durkee, Weber license). 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1278027/000110465926022961/bgs-20260103x10k.htm
24. The Marzetti Company. Form 8-K: Bachan's Acquisition ($400M; ~$87M trailing sales; May 2026). 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/57515/000119312526201554/d143601dex991.htm
25. Kraft Heinz Company. Form 10-Q, Q1 2026 (board paused split work, February 2026). 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1637459/000163745926000022/khc-20260328.htm
26. Associated Press / American Spice Trade Association. Tropical spices have no realistic U.S. supply response; tariffs function as input tax. 2025. https://apnews.com/article/af18fb3ed13aa12a9a11f86c2eead079
27. Cook Flavoring Co. Vanilla Market Report (Madagascar oversupply and historically low extract-bean prices, 2024–2025). 2025. https://cooksvanilla.com/blogs/news/vanilla-market-report-march-2025