Headlines

This week on the podcast, Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporter Lukas Southard discuss WILDE Brands’ expansion into crackers made with chicken breast, the discontinuation of Lionel Messi’s sports drink brand, a functional beverage startup tackling menstrual symptoms, and David Protein’s sequel to last year’s seafood stunt.

With the upcoming launch of its Snackmode protein fruit snack line, kid-focused snack brand BloxSnacks is betting that protein will help define the next generation of better-for-you lunchbox treats.

Consumers are shifting toward the perimeter of the store, in search of snackable, fresh and accessible offerings. After closing a $150 million Series C earlier this month, Oishii is working to meet that need.

Rising cocoa costs and concerns about long-term supply resilience are accelerating interest in alternative chocolate ingredients. Manufacturer Barry Callebaut put the issue front and center at the Sweets & Snacks Expo last week through its expanding partnership with German foodtech startup Planet A Foods.

Cookie brand Fields Good is targeting different day parts and use occasions for its functional indulgence products.

At the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Las Vegas last week, new offerings from brands like Awake, Buzz Bomb and Alert Pop underscored just how far the caffeine category is stretching beyond the beverage aisle.

Campo Grande is betting American consumers are ready to rethink pork – not as the “other white meat” as it’s been pitched in the past, but as a premium, chef-driven protein more akin to Wagyu beef.

Israeli biotechnology company Phytolon has nabbed $23.6 million in fresh funding to commercialize its fermentation-based natural color solutions in the U.S. amid growing demand for alternatives to synthetic dyes.

WILDE Brands, known for its chips made with chicken breast, egg whites and bone broth, is hatching a plan to create a much broader protein snacking platform.

This week, we’re investigating the messy middle from $2M to $20M revenue, baking up a storm as an English muffin insurgent takes on the segment incumbent, and dry heaving over a can of rocket pop beans. Hey, what more could you ask for?