Carol Ortenberg

This week online retailer Amazon announced the launch of its newest private label brand, Aplenty, which will focus on offering consumers better-for-you takes on center store categories.

Former juice brand Forager Project this week announced it would launch plant-based ice cream — the next step in the company’s goal to become a plant-based “creamery.”

Last week condiment and beverage brand Acid League announced it had closed $4.75 million in funding — capital the brand says will help it expand its omnichannel sales and marketing strategy as well as continue the company’s push into new categories.

Despite sustainability being a fairly standard aspiration for progressive food and beverage brands, there are times when the implementation of environmentally friendly measures can still be an arduous process. With the launch of the working group Band of Brands, Quinn Snacks founder and CEO Kristy Lewis hopes she can ease some of this burden and help food and beverage companies have a bigger impact on the supply chain.

After leaving its imprint in the pizza category, Caulipower is looking to grab cauliflower-curious consumers of another favorite food type: pasta. It’s the first salvo in what the company’s CEO said will be a year of innovation.

Looking to straddle the confection and nutritional bar categories, bar brand Mid-Day Squares announced this week the closing of a $4 million funding round that will allow the outspoken Canadian company to expand further into the U.S. market. The four-year-old company expects to have $10 million in revenue for 2021, its co-founders said.

Having already made the jump from operational consulting to investing, the principals behind Siddhi Capital this week filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a proposed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

From pho to penne, this month during our Category Closeup: Product Showcase we’re exploring innovation and growth strategies for a group of rising noodle brands. Speaking with executives from brands producing shelf stable, fresh and frozen products, we’ll hear the views of the entrepreneurs who are currently shaping this broad set of categories.

Given the plethora of pasta options available, it can be daunting to think about how a brand can add incremental value to the set or best appeal to shoppers. In this month’s Category Closeup: Expert Analysis, we’ll hear from a group of industry leaders about these quandaries and more, exploring the market dynamics facing pasta brands as well as how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted consumer shopping behaviors.

The last year has caused upheaval to many aspects of the food and beverage industry. But one element that doesn’t seem to be impacted is investing, with business analytics firm CB Insights finding that funding to the sector is on the rise.