News Roundup: Bar Brand This Saves Lives Acquired; Square Roots Co-Locates With UNFI

Kristen Bell’s This Saves Lives Bar Brand Acquired By Upworthy Parent Company

GOOD Worldwide, the parent company of media company Upworthy, announced its acquisition of snack brand This Saves Lives on Thursday. The move will see the brand join GOOD Worldwide’s portfolio of brands “dedicated to activating people around global issues,” and bring the snack maker’s goal of alleviating global childhood hunger to the forefront of GOOD’s mission.

“It’s a beautiful thing when two companies share the same DNA,” said Kristen Bell, This Saves Lives co-founder, actress, and philanthropist, in a press release. “It’s even more impactful when they can make a real difference in some of the world’s most devastating issues. I could not be more excited for the future of This Saves Lives as a GOOD Worldwide company.”

This Saves Lives was founded by Bell and fellow actors Ryan Devlin, Todd Grinnell and Ravi Patel in 2013. The CPG platform has since extended beyond kid-focused granola bars to include a range of products like oatmeal and rice crispy treats. For every product purchased, This Saves Lives donates “life-saving packets of food” to children in need. The brand’s lineup is sold nationwide at retailers including Kroger, Whole Foods, HEB, Rite Aid, Stop & Shop, Hannaford Brothers and more.

Per terms of the deal, Jeff Goldberg has been appointed interim CEO, replacing Jensen Thome who will now serve as a Sr. Advisor to GOOD. Goldberg has held various senior business executive roles and sits on the board of Banza.

“GOOD Worldwide is proud to bring This Saves Lives into our brand family, uniting under the mission to end child hunger,” said GOOD CEO Max Schorr in a press release. “This Saves Lives shares our core purpose to do good and extends this purpose to products where every purchase creates a positive impact. We are excited to combine forces and envision a future where every child is safe, happy, and healthy.”

Vertical Farm Square Roots To Co-locate Facilities With UNFI Distro Centers

Indoor farming operation Square Roots and natural food distributor UNFI announced a new partnership that will bring vertical farms on-site to select UNFI distribution centers across the country. The first farm, a 20,000 sq ft. operation, is set to open at UNFI’s Prescott, Wisconsin facility in 2023.

Square Roots packages its produce inside the growing facilities meaning that — in the face of rising consumer demand for locally-grown food and continued labor and transportation shortages creating supply chain delays — the agreement will provide a consistent and stable supply of salad greens and other produce to UNFI partner stores.

“Our relationship with Square Roots and their innovative indoor farming model not only strengthens our supply chain and gives back days of freshness to consumers, but also furthers our ambitious ESG initiatives and helps UNFI make progress toward our goals to reduce waste, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and advance sustainable agriculture and operations,” said Dorn Wenninger, SVP of produce at UNFI, in a press release.

Square Roots hydroponic farms have the capacity to grow leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs and are pesticide-free and Non-GMO Project verified. The farms are completely managed by a proprietary cloud-based technology that monitors growing, production and plant health.

“Whether we’re learning lessons from COVID-19, or considering the future impact of climate change, it’s clear that we need more resilience in our food system,” said Kimbal Musk, Square Roots co-founder and executive chairman, in a press release. “With this partnership we can now bring local food, grown by local farmers, to UNFI’s network of retail customers, and their shoppers, consistently and reliably, all year round. We can’t wait to get started.”

FDA Publishes Finalize Rule On Food Traceability

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the final rule to track food through the supply chain this week with the goal of more effectively handling food borne illness outbreaks when they occur.

The rule aims to monitor “high-risk” foods and food ingredients listed in the FDA’s recently published Food Traceability List (FTL) which includes eggs, select cheeses, nut butters, cucumbers, leafy greens, tomatoes, melons and numerous other items. Data such as coordinates relative to the food’s origin, names of all transporters who handled the item and warehouse locations it travels through, among other metrics, will be recorded and synthesized within the product’s traceability lot code, according to the FDA’s website.

This rule implements Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) which was reintroduced to congress last year. The new rule comes amid heightened criticism of the FDA for its slow response rate to food-related issues, guidance and regulations. That criticism continues to increase with each food borne illness outbreak like the Cronobacteria outbreak that sparked a national infant formula shortage earlier this year, listeria outbreaks at multiple ice cream facilities and a recall on listeria-infected deli meats and cheeses earlier this week.

Food Brands Form Fungi Protein Association

Eight plant-based meat makers including Quorn, MycoTechnology, Prime Roots, Mush Foods, MyForest Foods, Nature’s Fynd, The Better Meat Co., Aqua Cultured Foods as well as nonprofit group the Good Food Institute (GFI) joined forces to create the Fungi Protein Association according to numerous reports this week.

The group aims to be an advocate for other mushroom-focused, plant-based food companies in the space and will take an active role in policy making and regulations around methods to create fungi proteins. The group also plans to use the platform to raise consumer awareness to the benefits of mushroom-based alt-protein products.