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Having seen his share of the snack aisle, Rob Ehrlich (the founder of Pirate’s Booty and SexyPop) is ready to take on his greatest challenge yet – bringing vegan food to the masses. The “gourmet snack food visionary” has plans to take the stigma out of “vegan” with the launch of Vegan Rob’s, a plant-based snack line.

Goldberg, a former Wall Street executive, told our team all about his journey from antidepressants to clean-living organic foodie and media figure, with conversational stops along the way on the offerings at Expo East, the difference between Ripple Foods and almond milk, and, most importantly, what he’d do if faced with the choice of eating Arby’s or a bag of organic palm sugar.

Natural food investment keeps growing and the opportunity to meet a potential growth business is one of the biggest opportunities drawing private equity and strategics to events like Natural Products Expo East, which concluded last week. At the Baltimore show, Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman and Wellvest Capital’s David Thibodeau sat down at the show to discuss the progress of the natural and organic food business through the lens of decades, rather than years.

Over 14,000 CPG manufacturers, marketers and formulators will gather next week (October 4-8) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for SupplySide West 2016.

At this year’s Natural Products Expo East, there were salty, sweet, meat-based, plant-based, crunchy, creamy foods as far as the eye could see. Project NOSH walked the entire show floor, which included 1,450 exhibiting brands, and picked our favorite new products debuting at the show.

That gorilla grew fast! After just over two years in business, raw nuts and seeds snack brand Gorilly Goods) has sold a controlling stake of the company to cereal and snack company Nature’s Path.

Today, grocery delivery service FreshDirect announced it had closed a $189 million round led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management on behalf of its PEG Digital Growth Fund II L.P. Also investing in the round was second-time investor W Capital and AARP’s Innovation Fund.

To highlight its deep ties to Madagascar, Madecasse chocolate has launched an innovative new sampling program staffed solely with former Madagascar Peace Corps volunteers.

Now half a year into its new leadership, Bobo’s Oat Bars is making changes, trying to bring the fresh aura of the perimeter into the decidedly center store-bound nutrition bar category. A packaging redesign and strategy to pitch Bobo’s homemade feel as part of a “freshly baked” subcategory of the bar set are central elements of the idea.

Starting a company is a bit like having a child. Months of gestation, a lot of painful tooth-gnashing to get it out into the world, and then nights of sleeplessness hoping you’re doing everything right. Milkmakers and Anchor Bar Two (two brands that are still in their youth, and coincidentally catering largely to the mommy market) recently announced that they’ve moved on to the next phase of their development via acquisition.