Carol Ortenberg

Functional food brand Good Day Chocolate announced last week it would be entering the CBD fray with the launch of three new CBD-enhanced chocolate bites. The launch follows the close of $3 million in investment this summer and the addition of a new Chief Growth Officer with experience in the segment.

The past few weeks have seen multiple investments in the red hot CBD space from existing CPG investment firms, as well as deal news in other trending categories such as alternative protein and the frozen food aisle.

Christina Tosi, founder of the whimsical New York City-based bakery Milk Bar, attributes visiting the grocery store as a child as what “ignited her imagination” and encouraged her to pursue a career in food. So she’s going back. The award-winning pastry chef and Master Chef judge will try to inspire the next generation of chefs when she launches a line of brands based on Milk Bar into retail stores next year, helped by an investment from Sonoma Brands and the firm’s CEO and founder Jon Sebastiani.

After investing close to $100 million over the past few years, the Reum brothers aren’t going to have to look for partners on an investment-by-investment bases anymore. Their investment firm, M13, has raised $175 million for a second fund, this time with capital committed from a pool of limited partners.

Leading food and beverage fund VMG is moving from investor to operator with the launch of a new corporate entity that will acquire, run, and create snack brands. Velocity Snack Brands (VSB) kicks off today with the acquisition of salty snack brand Popchips; the company will be led by Amit Pandhi, the former CEO of frozen treat brand Arctic Zero.

Ocean Spray may be almost 90 years old, but the cranberry cooperative is determined to act like a younger startup. Last week the company announced a new model for innovation, known as the Lighthouse Incubator, which will focus on rapid innovation and bring the company into new categories beyond beverage.

Much has changed since Harbinger Ventures launched with its first fund of $1.8 million in 2016. Over the past three years the firm, which invests in early-stage companies that are led by female or “mixed-gender” founder teams, has seen interest in its investment thesis grow exponentially. Perhaps the best indication of the changing sentiment: this week the firm announced the close of its second fund, worth $21.7 million — roughly 12 times larger than its first fund.

Just over a month ago, global snacking and confection company The Hershey Company announced its acquisition of low-sugar, high-protein nutrition bar company One Brands. In this video, NOSH Editor Carol Ortenberg sat down with One Brands CEO Peter Burns to discuss the acquisition and what made the two brands a sweet pairing.

It’s time to learn how the sausage gets made. To offer consumers a means to consume more vegetables, while also positively impacting climate change, Misfit Foods has pivoted away from its signature juice line — and the use of imperfect produce — and into the meat counter with the launch of a new line of veggie and meat sausages.

Seven years ago, Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest helped steward a snacking revolution, introducing consumers to better-for-you, more sustainably raised meat snacks through their brand Epic Provisions and in 2016, the company was sold to General Mills. Now the duo, joined by former Epic CFO/COO Robert Sansom, are ready to bring transparency and sustainability to what they say is one of the last frontiers of the grocery store, the meat counter.