"We're closing the gap between the kitchen and our plants," Denise M. Morrison, chief executive of Campbell, told the newspaper. “Before, when we talked about our business, we talked about how many cases we shipped,” Ms. Morrison said in an interview here in her office. "Today, we're talking about our food" — as in what's in it, where it comes from and what impact it has on the environment."  Update: Campbell's Is Rethinking Its Chicken Soup Recipe 
 
 Campbell Soup is changing the recipe of one of its chicken soups, but says it isn't quite ready to tinker with its classic chicken noodle version. Campbell Soup accounted for almost three-quarters of the $1.6 billion in condensed soup sales here last year, but its unit sales fell more than 5 percent, according to IRI, a data and research firm. “The biggest challenge was time,” said Jesse Fellows, a senior technologist for product development at Campbell, who was charged with simplifying chicken noodle soup. Mr. Fellows was asked for a more thorough overhaul aimed at getting rid of ingredients that are out of favor, things like monosodium glutamate, or MSG, and disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate, which enhance flavor, as well as things like vegetable oil and cornstarch. And working with Campbell’s chefs, he added and subtracted things like water and dehydrated chicken broth. They may be sent back to the drawing board if the new formulation adds cost to a product.
– Campbell's is tinkering with its chicken soup recipe to appeal to millennials, multicultural families, and same-sex parents—among others, the New York Times reports. The company is removing ingredients that have fallen out of favor with customers—potassium chloride, monosodium glutamate, disodium inosinate, and, um, celery, to name just a few—in an effort to shore up flagging sales. “We’re closing the gap between the kitchen and our plants,” Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison tells the Times. While most of the changes were made with an eye on more natural ingredients, celery apparently fell victim to child taste-testers. All told, the new recipe includes only 20 ingredients to the old recipe's 30. But don't worry if you're a fan of classic Campbell's chicken soup in all its disodium guanylate goodness. NPR reports the changes will only affect children's chicken soup containing noodles shaped like Star Wars and Frozen characters. After a minor change to the recipe in 2011, this more complete overhaul took Campbell's chefs two months of tinkering, according to the Times. NPR reports the company may or may not make similar changes with its classic chicken soup recipe. But company chefs are already attempting to remove high-fructose corn syrup from Campbell's tomato soup, according to the Times. “It’s a delicate balance because these products are beloved,” one Campbell Soup executive says. (If fewer ingredients can't save Campbell's, maybe instant soup pods can.)