Brad Avery

Publicly traded consumer products company Starco Brands, Inc. has acquired plant-based food and beverage maker Soylent, completing the brand’s evolution from red hot food-tech startup to cross-category CPG platform.

Looking to meet demand for clean label sports nutrition products, Boston-based food innovation lab Chew announced this month the launch of its first in-house brand, Fastfood.

Less than a year after it bought out its former investment partner, the company is rapidly scaling operations, introducing fresh innovation and entering new channels as it projects to grow sales 5x this year.

Kellogg Co. chairman and CEO Steven Cahillane told investors and analysts during an earnings call today that the company had reassessed its outlook on its Morningstar Farms brand.

The Hain Celestial Group bested analysts’ expectations in its Q2 earnings report today, as the company saw net sales decline just -4.8% while growing its snack business and expanding distribution.

In this week’s news roundup, actress Anne Hathaway has invested in food tech company The EVERY Co., Brazilian frozen foods brand Brazi Bites has named La Porteña Foods as the winner of its first Latino Entrepreneur Accelerator Program, and The Hershey Company reports Q4 and FY 2022 earnings.

A new generation of AAPI owned and operated startup brands have launched online and in-store recently, sporting premium and better-for-you versions of products that look to reclaim the heritage of and rebuke stereotypes about Asian cultures and Asian foods. With vibrant, modern branding and messaging and an emphasis on authentic flavor, brands have emerged to sell new takes on classics.

This weekend, the animal-free meat manufacturer took out a full page ad in the New York Times and issued an online statement responding to a critical Bloomberg Businessweek cover story which labeled the “fake meat” category as “just another food fad” that had failed to deliver on its promise to revolutionize the meat industry.

With consumers spending more time at home since the beginning of the pandemic and the pain of inflation cutting into meal budgets, snacking has become an even more important part of consumers’ routines and one that increasingly serves as a meal replacement, according to Mondelez International’s latest State of Snacking report, released last week.

Since introducing its line of dairy-free Cheese Balls last year, vegan snacks company Outstanding Foods has seen sales accelerate. Now, new president Bobbie Turco says the brand is looking to make 2023 its breakout year.