Food Industry News, Insights, and Education for the CPG Community

In this distribution roundup: Starday rolls out its Gooey Snacks brand to Kroger nationwide; Beckon doubles its conventional channel store count through Walmart and Kroger partnerships; Future Farm named the official plant-based meat brand of The Golden State Warriors; No Evil launches new product at Sprouts; Laoban expands retail presence and more.

Nurture Brands, the London-based food and beverage portfolio company behind the plant-based Myracle Kitchen brand, announced this week that it has closed a £2.5 million (around $3.3 million) funding round that will support its North American expansion. According to general manager Adam Draper, the new funding is primarily working capital as the company seeks to… Read more »

After expanding operations to Los Angeles last month, e-commerce grocery delivery company Good Eggs has restructured its buying team, a move marked by the apparent layoffs of several buyers and the departure of longtime VP of assortment Jamie Nessel.

In this week’s Checkout: OneRare introduces a Foodverse of celebrity chefs, food brands and virtual restaurants, Conscious Foods creates gene-edited salad greens, Blue Apron adds breakfast, Instacart launches a new platform for grocery retailers and The EVERY Co. makes animal-free macrons.

In this video, shot at Expo West, BevNET and NOSH Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman talked with Daniella Hunter, who co-founded SANA Foods, a fast-growing brand of coconut-based tortillas that has expanded its line to include Paleo-diet friendly vegan frozen burritos, and also a set of smaller street taco-sized tortillas.

This week’s new food launches saw brands creating better-for-you fruity treats and new plant-based dairy alternatives. While Halo Top entered the sorbet category, CHKP Foods debuted its first-ever lineup of chickpea-based yogurt alternatives.

In this video, shot at Natural Products Expo West, SOMOS co-founders Daniel Lubetzky and Miguel Leal share their motivations for starting the better-for-you Mexican food line and how they aim to be both authentic and accessible.

New York-based coffee brand Wandering Bear announced this week that it has raised a $5 million funding round backed by existing investors. The new capital arrives as the company seeks to scale its online ecommerce business, which has become its main focus following a post-pandemic pivot. Speaking with BevNET today, Wandering Bear co-founder and CEO… Read more »

Our pitch competition for the natural food industry returns to NOSH Live Summer 2022 on June 13 + 14. The NOSH Pitch Slam places emerging natural food brands in the spotlight while showcasing the latest products and trends in the industry.

Food makers are reimagining the classic cereal bowl to bring higher protein and lower sugar levels to an aisle that has often overlooked its resident products’ nutritional value. This year’s Expo West saw two brands – Love Grown and Magic Spoon – aiming to capitalize on consumer interests while taking an omnichannel approach to draw in new consumers. Here is how one established and one emerging brand are each approaching the category.

Breakfast foods, including cereal and yogurt, are leading growth across General Mills’ portfolio, with sales increasing 4% during FY Q3 2021, according to an earnings report released today. During a call with investors and analysts, the global food giant highlighted its “solid execution in a highly volatile environment,” reporting that net sales growth has remained virtually flat at $4.5 billion, while organic net sales were up 4%.

In this video, recorded at Natural Products Expo West 2022, Orro founder Shaun Neff and partner Tabitha Brown discuss how the product is being positioned within the beverage market as well as how they believe brands can stand out in the competitive plant-based space.

Spindrift founder and CEO Bill Creelman drops in to chat about topics including crisis leadership, distribution, online marketing, platform expansion and other issues in a wide-ranging interview.

Trade shows have long been a launching ground for brands to show off new packaging and branding. At this year’s Natural Products Expo West, food makers arrived armed with new looks to help their products continue to pop on-shelf as consumer shopping habits shift between in-store and online. Here are some notable packaging redesigns we saw on the show floor.