Carol Ortenberg

Plant-based food and beverage company The Planting Hope Company has acquired Betterer Foods, the producer of legume-based rice alternative RightRice, for $7 million.

Last Friday, industry event marketer New Hope held a virtual town hall meeting to discuss its plans for this year’s Natural Products Expo West trade show scheduled to be held March 8-12 in Anaheim, California, the first in-person version of the event since 2019.

Having just secured $80 million in funding from venture firm Stride Consumer, meat snack brand Chomps is planning to use the capital to broaden its product assortment and make a move into convenience retail, said CEO and co-founder Peter Maldonado today.

Meat stick producer Chomps announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Stride Consumer Partners to finance the next phase of its growth.

Over the past five years several new brands have come to the bread aisle (and freezers), looking to capitalize on the keto and low-carb movements. Unbun, Hero Bread, Carbonaut and Better Brands all believe that by creating brand identities and innovation strategies around low-carb breads, bagels and rolls, they can cater to rising consumer interest.

Fast delivery service Gopuff announced yesterday the launch of Basically, the retailer’s first private label product line.

Instacart announced yesterday it would launch a service selling ready-to-make meals. The move is intended to help the platform better compete with food delivery services, which have increasingly diversified to offer grocery delivery.

Rollin Greens announced this week it is discontinuing its flagship line of Millet Tots, a better-for-you take on tater tots, in order to shift focus towards offering plant-based meat alternatives.

Snack brand Opopop launched with a “flavor wrapping” technology that it said would shake up microwave popcorn. Now the brand is eschewing that concept in order to launch a lower priced offering, debuting next week a line of “Peel and Pour” single-serve popcorn cups.

FoxTrot thinks convenience stores and corner markets need a makeover, and now it’s got more cash to make that a reality. The retailer announced today that it has raised $100M to help expand into new markets and to invest into its ecommerce business.