Latest news with #JennyBurns
Associated Press
08-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Justin's Expands its Portfolio of Organic Chocolate Treats with Candy Bars that Meet Consumer Demand for Mindful Options
Justin's new Dark and Milk Chocolate Candy Bars will hit store shelves nationally this summer at Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market and will be on display for other retailers to discover next week at Sweets & Snacks Expo BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Justin's, a category leader known for crafting delicious, real-food products that contribute to the world in a positive and meaningful way, today is celebrating its newest confections innovation – Justin's® Peanut Caramel Nougat Chocolate Candy Bars – offering consumers a nostalgic, organic chocolate treat made with simple ingredients. The candy bars are USDA-certified organic and Non-GMO Project Verified, and will be available in two varieties, Dark Chocolate Peanut Caramel Nougat and Milk Chocolate Peanut Caramel Nougat. There to satisfy all cravings no matter when they arise - from a moment of relaxation to crunch time - the new candy bars will be offered in both a 1.4 ounce single-serve format with an MSRP of $2.49-$2.79, and 4.2 ounce multi-serve pouches containing six individually-wrapped, mini-size bars with an MSRP of $6.79-$7.49. The candy bars will hit shelves this summer at Sprouts Farmers Market, with additional retailers following throughout the year, including Whole Foods Market in August. 'As consumer demand for simple ingredient treats grows, we're delighted to provide both new and loyal fans alike with a new way to enjoy Justin's® organic chocolate treats in nostalgic and beloved formats,' said Jenny Burns, senior director of brand equity at Justin's. 'We've seen strong retailer interest for thecandy bars from our long-time retail partners like Sprouts and Whole Foods, and are looking forward to partnering with them and others to offer shoppers another permissible indulgence they've been craving.' Between 2021 and 2024, the percentage of self-described health-conscious snackers in the U.S. has grown by more than 14%.1 Additionally, one in four consumers report they are snacking on healthier food items.2 These trends together provided Justin's with the inspiration needed to expand its portfolio of confections to offer consumers delicious candy bars made with simple, mindfully-sourced organic ingredients they can feel good about. Justin's full line of confections now includes a variety of nut butter cups, chocolate candy pieces and the new candy bars, providing permissible indulgences no matter the occasion or craving. 'As a mom of four and a trusted nutrition expert, I keep a running list of mindful snacks and treats for my own family, as well as for consumers, and the new Justin's® Candy Bars are now at the top of my list,' said Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, nutrition expert, author of Everyday Snack Tray and Justin's partner. 'They hit the mark on my standards for high-quality ingredients and have just 8 grams of sugar per mini-size bar.' Justin's® Peanut Caramel Nougat Chocolate Candy Bars will be on display at the 2025 Sweets & Snacks Expo in Indianapolis from May 13-14, 2025, at booth 6308, providing show attendees the opportunity to taste and learn more about the newest way Justin's is leveling up the candy aisle. As the candy bars hit store shelves, consumers will be able to find the bars near them at About Justin's Justin's spreads goodness everywhere it goes with delicious nut butters and USDA-certified organic chocolate treats made from simple, mindfully-sourced ingredients that are so irresistible, it's nuts. From the iconic squeeze packs that fuel active lifestyles with convenient nutrition, to the one-of-a-kind grind that makes its nut butters unlike any other, Justin's works to help support a food system that makes each day and each bite better, one nut at a time. Learn more at and 1 Source: YouGov 2024 US Healthy Snackers Report 2024 2 Source: Technomic Consumer Trend Reports 2025 US Snacking March 2025 MEDIA CONTACT: Emma Feeney SchroderHaus (224) 545-7699 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Justin's
Euronews
10-04-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Scientists produce complex map of mouse's brain that could unravel mystery of how ours work
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks to a mouse watching clips from 'The Matrix,' scientists have created the largest functional map of a brain to date – a diagram of the wiring connecting 84,000 neurons as they fire off messages. Using a piece of that mouse's brain about the size of a poppy seed, the researchers identified those neurons and traced how they communicated via branch-like fibres through a surprising 500 million junctions called synapses. The massive dataset, published on Wednesday by the journal Nature, marks a step toward unraveling the mystery of how our brains work. Related Scientists shed light on the many ways women's brains change during pregnancy The data, assembled in a 3D reconstruction colored to delineate different brain circuitry, is open to scientists worldwide for additional research – and for the simply curious to take a peek. "It definitely inspires a sense of awe, just like looking at pictures of the galaxies," said Forrest Collman of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in the United States, one of the project's leading researchers. "You get a sense of how complicated you are. We're looking at one tiny part... of a mouse's brain and the beauty and complexity that you can see in these actual neurons and the hundreds of millions of connections between them". Scientists review neuron reconstructions for the Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks project in December 2024, in Seattle, Washington. Jenny Burns/AP How we think, feel, see, talk, and move are due to neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain – how they're activated and send messages to each other. Scientists have long known those signals move from one neuron along fibres called axons and dendrites, using synapses to jump to the next neuron. But there's less known about the networks of neurons that perform certain tasks and how disruptions of that wiring could play a role in Alzheimer's , autism, or other disorders. With the new project, a global team of more than 150 researchers mapped neural connections that Collman compares to tangled pieces of spaghetti winding through part of the mouse brain responsible for vision. Related Scientists produce first and largest brain map of a dead fruit fly How scientists mapped the brain The first step: show a mouse video snippets of sci-fi movies, sports, animation, and nature. A team at Baylor College of Medicine in the US did just that, using a mouse engineered with a gene that makes its neurons glow when they're active. The researchers used a laser-powered microscope to record how individual cells in the animal's visual cortex lit up as they processed the images flashing by. Next, scientists at the Allen Institute analysed that small piece of brain tissue, using a special tool to shave it into more than 25,000 layers and take nearly 100 million high-resolution images using electron microscopes. They then painstakingly reassembled the data in 3D. Finally, scientists from Princeton University in the US used artificial intelligence (AI) to trace all that wiring and "paint each of the individual wires a different colour so that we can identify them individually," Collman said. ADVERTISEMENT They estimated that microscopic wiring, if laid out, would measure more than 5 km. Related An experimental brain-computer implant is helping a stroke survivor speak again Implications for human health Could this kind of mapping help scientists eventually find treatments for brain diseases? The researchers call it a foundational step, like how the Human Genome Project that provided the first gene mapping eventually led to gene-based treatments. Mapping a full mouse brain is one next goal. ADVERTISEMENT "The technologies developed by this project will give us our first chance to really identify some kind of abnormal pattern of connectivity that gives rise to a disorder," said Sebastian Seung, Princeton neuroscientist and computer scientist and another of the project's leading researchers. The work "marks a major leap forwards and offers an invaluable community resource for future discoveries," wrote Harvard neuroscientists Mariela Petkova and Gregor Schuhknecht, who weren't involved in the project. The huge and publicly shared data "will help to unravel the complex neural networks underlying cognition and behaviour," they added.
