Headlines

With the summer months approaching, brands are gearing up for warm weather and school vacations with frozen offerings like Tillamook’s new custard line and kid-friendly on-the-go snacks from Hippeas and LesserEvil. Check out the gallery for May’s notable new product launches, including new granolas from 88 Acres and Purely Elizabeth and protein bars from No Cow, Lovely Day and Obvi.

Over the weekend meat producer JBS USA announced it had been the target of a cyber security attack with some of the servers supporting its North American and Australian businesses being taken offline. Over the past year meat supply chains have already been strained by the Covid-19 pandemic, so the cost of yet another interruption may be high, particularly for meat snack brands where margin has already been a struggle.

Lezlie Karls Saltarelli, Nick Saltarelli and Jake Karls, the co-founders of Mid-Day Squares, a brand of hybrid chocolate and protein bars, spoke about how the company has achieved its rapid start, the keys to its unique and compelling social strategy, how consistent communication with the brand’s consumers gave the brand a solid foundation on which to build and why a business therapist has been vital to their development.

Whether it’s taste or growing costs, consumers have long had to consider sacrifices in order to protect the environment. Now a brand is sacrificing precious label space for the same goal, even minimizing its own brand name and other front-of-pack callouts to promote sustainability. With its bold new packaging for its plant-based burger hitting retailers this month, alt-protein brand Tofurky is effectively putting its branding on the line to ask sustainability-minded consumers to take the next step beyond plant-based purchases, encouraging environmental advocacy through civic engagement.

Iowa-based BLK & Bold Coffee has announced a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to support the company’s “5% For Our Youth” charitable initiative through the release of a new roast, called The Warm Up.

In this week’s Checkout, keto-friendly bar brand Keto Krisp closes a funding round and adds an RXBAR alum to its team; Instacart charts international expansion and looks back at shopper trends over the past year; and Whole Foods releases its first ever plant-based trend predictions.

We’re featuring innovative brands that produce frozen entrees during our Product Showcase portion of Category Close-Up, examining the trends and news — as well as evolving product strategies — that are currently shaping the category.

Waste from single-use shipping packaging continues to be one of the most notable barriers in the CPG industry’s push toward sustainability, and the recent pandemic-driven ecommerce boom has only made the problem more urgent as demand for and cost of cardboard boxes surge. While taking on this challenge may seem like a “crazy idea,” with a new round of funding for support, reusable shipping box maker Boox believes it has what it takes to give corrugated cardboard boxes a run for their money.

Though jerky brand Krave helped create the meat snacks craze, in the years since its launch in 2009 the brand lost some of its cache and faced increased competition. Now rejoined with its original owner, the company announced today new packaging and product innovations designed to hopefully reclaim its premium positioning.

In this month’s Category Closeup: Expert Analysis, we’ll hear from a group of industry leaders about the tactics, trends and efforts successful frozen food brands must embrace, exploring both the unique dynamics of the frozen entree set as well as the opportunities within the category.