Carol Ortenberg

Daily Harvest is breaking out of the cup. Last week the brand launched a new product line that strays from its core cup packaging and subscription model for the first time. The brand also opens a new interactive retail space this week. Founder and CEO Rachel Drori told NOSH that the new products were “co-created” with the brand’s customers.

This week a retailer decided to make it a little harder to get your sugar fix, while another may have had an interesting connection to the midterm elections. And in product news, Beyond Meat may see new competition in retail.

Although there are increasingly more and more new brands in the ice cream category, two leaders — Nestle and Unilever — own over one third of the market share. But leaders can fall if they don’t stay ahead of the curve. In response to these changing dynamics, last month Unilever launched Culture Republick, its first new ice cream brand in 16 years, with the aim of drawing in shoppers with an offering that incorporates both probiotics and purpose.

From Walmart embracing a vegan meat alternative to brands playing with trendy ingredients seeing new retail pickup, here are some of the newest wins in retail for brands.

A battle over the facts — nutrition facts that is — has come to a close. This week better-for-you snack producer Lenny & Larry’s agreed to settle a lawsuit over whether its cookies contained the advertised amount of protein.

This week several major strategics held their third quarter earnings calls. Although certainly on a different scale than the average food company’s quarterly recap, the calls provide a look inside to how some of the biggest companies in the industry are thinking about key topics such as acquisitions and new category focuses.

In 2016, Target launched emerging frozen brand Yummy Spoonfuls nationwide into almost every store, and in doing so, was one of the first retailers to focus on reinvigorating the baby food category. Now, two years later, after a series of strategic decisions, the brand has relaunched nationwide with a new focus on toddler nutrition.

Forget omnichannel. Investment fund VMG is ready to help brands become “omni-nation.” At least, that’s the plan according to Kara Roell, the managing director and co-founder of the California-based consumer products investor. VMG and Asian venture firm Hillhouse Capital announced today that the two firms will each allocate $100 million of capital to co-invest in consumer brands that hope to expand their global outreach — particularly in China.

Sausage and hot dog brand Teton Waters Ranch (TWR) is in the business of beef. So it’s a bit of an anomaly that the company’s latest innovation aims to inspire its consumers to eat less of its core product.