News

In Episode 1 of Taste Radio Insider, a new podcast focused on news, trends and innovation in business of food and beverage, we’re joined by Eugene Kang, the co-founder and CEO of fast-growing meat snack brand Country Archer. In our interview, Kang explained how perseverance and thinking outside-the-box have paid huge dividends for the brand. We also discussed trends and innovation in notable beverage categories, including RTD coffee and alt-dairy, as seen at Natural Products Expo East 2018.

In this video, NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg and BevNET assistant editor Martin Caballero explore some of the major themes and trends from Expo East 2018 across food and beverage, including the rise of sparkling teas, the plant-based category’s maturation, and some of the most innovative products from this year’s show.

BevNET and NOSH present: The Cannabis Forum for Food and Beverage, a new half-day forum, hosted on Saturday, December 1st, the weekend between NOSH Live and BevNET Live. The forum will bring to entrepreneurs from across the CPG industry the opportunity to focus on the intersection of food and beverage companies with the fast-growing cannabis industry.

The FDA today announced it has issued a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register to solicit comments and feedback from the public to gain more insight into how consumers use plant-based alternatives and how they understand terms like “milk” or “cheese” when used to label plant-based products.

BuckWHAT! Foods founder Leeann Rybakov aims to be the “Buckwheat Queen” of the snacking industry. The ingredient is the star of her first product line, BuckWHAT! Noshes, which offers grab-and-go snacks that are gluten-free, plant-based and low glycemic.

Ingredient producer and bar brand ReGrained announced the close of a $2.5 million round of funding to help propel the brand into its next phase of growth as an ingredient supplier. Family-owned product development firm Griffith Foods led the round with Barilla Group’s venture fund BLU1877 and Telluric Foods also taking part. Roughly $700,000 of the round was also raised from 700 contributors via an equity crowdfunding round on Indiegogo.

During Natural Products Expo East, Better Bites Bakery founder Leah Lopez shared with NOSH how she thinks the company is positioned for success as new allergen-free brands enter the market, and why she believes a soon-to-come line of diabetic-friendly products fits with the brand’s ethos.

Marci Zaroff, who over the past three decades has helped change the way we dress, eat and live, joins the podcast this week. Hear why she’s urging companies to incorporate ethical sourcing and sustainability into their brand strategies, discussed the “perpetual yo-yo” of entrepreneurship, and shared her take on the budding business of cannabis.

No matter how good a product tastes, if its packaging doesn’t catch shoppers’ eyes, it’s unlikely to succeed. At Natural Products Expo East, the stakes were just as high. Here are eight new rebrands and redesigns that the NOSH team spotted from the show floor.

From a condiment maker working for over a year to gain B-Corp status, to new investment funds financing the evolving food industry, here are some of the top news stories from this week that you should know.