Tweets, receipts and peloton riders: Foodmakers embrace Big Data

Some companies are grabbing cell-phone tracking info, scouring customers' grocery receipts and keeping tabs on how long it takes to clean up dinner

When a handful of teens took to social media to complain about the paltry size of their microwaveable mac and cheese, Big Food was paying attention.
 
At Kraft Heinz, the corporate behemoth that’s responsible for a lot of the items in your pantry right now, a “social listening team” picked up on that chatter in the summer of 2019. Months later — lightning speed in the food world — Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Big Bowls were on store shelves.
 
Tracking social media buzz is one of the newly honed tools in Kraft’s data collection toolbox, and both the