Carol Ortenberg

Having built a significant portfolio of meat-alternative offerings, Tofurky is now looking to tackle the dairy set, announcing today that sub-brand Moocho will be spun off into a more clearly independent line. To further build out Moocho’s presence on shelf, the company will also launch new dairy-free cheese shreds and dairy-free cream cheese spreads under the brand.

To-date, the plant-based meat world has been largely dominated by sausage, burger and ground beef alternatives — Alpha Foods, however, sees a future in faux fowl. Investors are supporting this outlook, with the brand announcing today the close of a $28 million round of investment.

At the Winter Fancy Food Show, Aylon Steinhart, co-founder of plant-based dairy brand Eclipse, discussed the company’s path to market, having launched its soft serve ice cream bases and packed ice cream drums into San Francisco and New York restaurants and scoop shops in 2019.

Frozen dessert producer The Mochi Company, producer of My/Mo Mochi, was acquired today by an investment fund managed by Lakeview Capital, Inc, a Michigan-based family office. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

At last week’s Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, High Road Craft Ice Cream CEO Keith Schroeder discussed his patient approach to growing the brand and his decision to eschew category trends such as plant-based and keto. He also shared how the brand plans to take on larger players this year in an effort to become “the country’s next generation leading ice cream company.”

Two brands in the bean-based snacking segment — Beanitos and The Good Bean — revealed last week that they had struck a deal to go into 2020 as a unified company after The Good Bean acquired Beanitos’ assets in December. Beanitos investors, L Catterton, 2x Consumer Products Growth Partners, and BFY Capital are now each minority shareholders in The Good Bean.

At the Winter Fancy Food Show, two Colorado-based food brands known for their indulgent taste profiles debuted functional food plays designed to attract more discerning health-aware consumers.

The plant-based movement has resulted in the evolution of categories from burgers to baking mixes. Now chip brand Beanfields wants to ride the wave further afield into the snack set by launching a line of plant-based pork rind analogs called Cracklins.

Gathered Foods, the makers of Good Catch vegan seafood, announced yesterday that the alternative protein play had raised a series B round of $32.3 million, $10M of which was closed last year as a convertible note. The capital will be used to bring a new production facility online, which, in turn, will allow for international expansion of the Good Catch brand, food service opportunities and the opening of co-packing and R&D facilities for other food brands.

You can’t find a hotter buzzword than “plant-based” as a signifier for innovation in the meat and dairy categories — or in center store, as the following product launches indicate. Read on for three new traditional products that have been plantified.