Carol Ortenberg

Perfect Fuel, a functional chocolate brand, quietly announced this week that it had closed an initial seed round of funding. This most recent round will be used to launch their products more widely, as well as test out new line extensions.

Whole Foods Market announced several key items that will impact producers of products sold in their eponymous stores as well as its new retail chain of 365 by Whole Foods Market locations.

Chickpea pasta producer Banza announced this week that the company had completed its first seed round of a $1.3 million dollar raise from institutional and angel investors. Project NOSH spoke with co-founder Brian Rudolph to find out what the funds will be used for and details of the raise.

Faced with the “normalization” of superfoods such as chia and hemp, innovative producers are turning to new exotic parts of the globe for functional ingredients. Moringa is fast becoming a top option, found in several products that are new or about to come to market.

A look at recent news stories covering packaged food products including: What Back to the Future got right and wrong, how Kale wants to take over Hollywood and leadership at top CPG and food related companies

General Mills’ 301 INC incubator pivoted loudly yesterday, announcing that it would begin focusing primarily on investing in early-stage food startups to help them grow. Project NOSH spoke with John Haugen, VP and General Manager, about what food and beverage entrepreneurs can expect to see from 301 and why the unit shifted strategies.

It’s the entrepreneurial food brand that has turned into the firmament of its category, but Chobani, now a staple of many a shopping list, might even be targeted for purchase by strategic investors, as well.

Changing consumer values, new brand aesthetics, and overall disenchantment with many of the brands owned by those big food companies have been creating changes in the retailing world for several years now — but a series of surveys reviewed by Project NOSH indicates just how drastically those changes, many driven by the 50-million-plus millennial demographic, have manifested.

Dwight Richmond, the Global Grocery Purchasing Coordinator for Whole Foods for the past six years, is leaving the company.