Nosh Staff

From plant-based sushi to salsa starter pouches to fish jerky crunch snacks, there was something for every consumer type at this week’s Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas. The show also saw Bobo’s making its first foray into the protein bar set, Savannah Bee Company and Runamok jumping on the hot honey trend and Wonder Monday launching a single-serve, better-for-you iteration of a classic dessert.

Tara Bosch, the founder of better-for-you candy brand SmartSweets, explained how prioritizing a lean business model in its early development enabled the company to be nimble and outpace its competitors, why its growth strategy is built around “patient urgency” and how the brand’s highly effective social media strategy drives consumers to its retailers.

Gluten-free frozen empanada maker COCINA 54 has been acquired by Los Angeles-based food manufacturer Pensieve Foods, founder and CEO Cecilia Panichelli announced in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In this week’s new products roundup, Little Spoon and OSMO Salt celebrate Valentine’s Day early, Partake teams up with Ben & Jerry’s and Pure Organic makes its first foray into the cracker set.

The NOSH Team considers what food products should truly be called food technology. Later, Lukas interviews Elohi Strategic Advisors founder Stephanie Lind to discuss the successes and failures of plant-based brands in foodservice.

KeHE Distributors last week unveiled its management succession plan, in which current CEO and 15-year company veteran Brandon Barnholt will transition to executive chairman of the board, effective April 1, with current board member Deb Conklin taking over the top executive role.

This week, a cross-section of public and private companies from across industries is meeting in Orlando, Florida for the 25th edition of the annual ICR conference. The invitation-only event featured a full-slate of daily presentations from publicly traded companies on its opening day today.

In this week’s roundup of notable new products, Tom’s Perfect 10 releases a dessert-inspired granola, Sambazon unveils shaker bottle-friendly smoothie cubes and Chobani expands its yogurt lineup with zero sugar offerings.

The NOSH team looks back on the big stories of 2022 and how macro trends over the past year may provide insight as to what to expect in 2023 and talks to Coefficient Capital investor Natalie Borowski and Editor-in-Chief of The New Consumer Dan Frommer about the most recent release of their ongoing Consumer Trends report.

This special edition of the podcast features highlights from interviews with six founders, creators and innovators who joined us on the show during the second half of 2022. Our guests include Alison Cayne, the founder and CEO of Haven’s Kitchen; Dan Lourenco and Ryan Hughes, the co-founders of Ghost; Anna-Lena Kamenetzky, the founder and CEO of Touch Capital; Ibraheem Basir, the founder and CEO of A Dozen Cousins; Chitra Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Brooklyn Delhi; and Maxime Pouvreau, the founder of Petit Pot.