Carol Ortenberg

The food and beverage industry hasn’t been one to shy away from crowdfunding models to date, either via donations on sites like Kickstarter or investment platforms like CircleUp.

Any food or beverage company will tell you that the day a Food and Drug Agency (FDA) warning letter shows up in the mail is, in the politest terms, nerve-wracking. But it seems you can sometimes fight City Hall. Despite what some believe is pressure from Big Food to keep with the status quo, it seems the FDA has realized it needs to start pulling some of its punches in the case of certain claims or claims used for specific functions.

Field Trip Jerky which was founded in 2010 by three friends who pooled together $11,000, announced today that it has closed its second round of funding. The brand last year alone grew 250 percent and moved from being sold in 5,000 retailers to over 30,000.

During an external quarterly earnings call and an internal memo posted to team members, Whole Foods has opened up with some more information about its soon-to-debut 365 by Whole Foods Market stores as well as new tactics to reduce inefficiencies at its flagship stores.

RangeMe, an online platform to streamline the communication and discovery process between retail buyers and CPG brands, has announced the closing of a $4 million seed round.

Yesterday may have been May Day, but rather than celebrating the start of Spring, several CPG groups were celebrating an influx of cash. No sooner had we hit our collective seats this morning than a few million dollars had flowed out of investors’ wallets and into entrepreneurial coffers.

In this interview with Project NOSH, Jeff Lichtenstein the CEO and founder of Gourmet Guru provides his candid thoughts about what he’s witnessed in the industry, what he’s proud of as he celebrates the company’s 20th anniversary, and where he sees the industry moving.

Chef’s Cut Real Jerky has landed $6 million in Series B investment, a round co-led by CAVU Venture Partners and Clearlake Capital, NOSH has learned. For its part, CAVU — whose co-founder Rohan Oza was already an early private investor in the fast-growing Chef’s Cut brand — has committed $2 million from its own $150 million fund.

For bags of broken chocolate bars, Hershey broke the bank. The massive chocolate company announced today that it had acquired the Ripple Collective, which produces fast-growing snacking chocolate line barkTHINS. Hershey has been diversifying its business from being solely confection-focused to offer more healthy snacking options through acquisition and innovation.