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

Just a month after Israeli food technology company ZeroEgg made its U.S. debut, the company announced it has closed a $5 million round of funding to help accelerate its growth.

NOSH Live Winter 2020 will feature Designer Speed Dating on Tuesday, December 15. For this round, brands have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with CPG designers. Speed Dating provides a virtual platform for brands to receive feedback on their packaging and create partnerships to do business.

According to a 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the food system is responsible for about 21% to 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions — resulting from all parts of the production process from agriculture and land use to packaging, storage and transportation. Betting on consumers’ increased desire for transparency in the items they buy, some brands and marketplaces are working to help educate shoppers about the carbon impact of their purchases, providing clarity to a previously opaque part of the industry.

Next week NOSH’s Pitch Slam 9 will feature the founders of the hottest new food brands competing virtually for the title. The semifinalists have been chosen, as well as the expert judges, who will be providing feedback and ultimately choosing the winner. So let’s meet the players.

Latin American company NotCo, which earlier this fall raised $85 million, announced last week it was launching a new non-dairy milk in Whole Foods nationwide — part of the company’s strategy to enter the US market. NotCo also hopes to launch cheese and other meat replacements next year as well.

In this week’s Checkout, Election Day sees support for hemp advocates and legislation, the USDA expands SNAP access to online shopping to more retailers and B&G Foods reports its Q3 earnings and previews 2021 innovation.

In this episode of Market Share, host Carol Ortenberg, the editor of NOSH, will sit down with Nona Lim, CEO and founder of fresh focused Asian food brand, Nona Lim. We’ll discuss how Nona went about refining her product line, and in the process, developing a greater understanding of herself, learning when to push forward with what she felt was right.

You’re probably wondering what we’re going to show in this final episode, right? We already did the big reveal and showed you what the redesign actually looks like so what else could there be?

After a rebrand and expansion into savory snacks earlier this year, direct-to-consumer keto brand Schoolyard Snacks has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round from Lyra Growth Partners as it builds out a platform of “old school snacks made the new way.”

Ten years after launching, Quinn Snacks has a sweet new partner: The Hershey Company, which announced a minority investment in the snack company last week. Hershey will provide the brand with both strategic advice as well as capital, CEO and founder Kristy Lewis said.

Meat alternative startup Meati announced last week the close of a $28 million Series A round of funding, which the Colorado-based company will use to scale production of its fungi-based chicken and steak cuts. The goal, Meati CEO and co-founder Tyler Huggins said, is to reach price parity with traditional meats before a launch into retail and food service.

Check out the gallery for October’s notable releases, including Veggie Made Great’s partnership with Beyond Meat, Swiss Rosti’s rebrand and a limited edition flavor from SkinnyPop to celebrate the brand’s 10th anniversary.

Having sampled the food delivery market, strategic Nestlé is looking for a bigger bite. The global food producer announced today the acquisition of meal delivery service Freshly, which it previously invested in. The company acquired Freshly for $950 million, with the opportunity for potential earnouts valued at an additional $550 million.

In this week’s Checkout: Brands participate in initiatives to fuel voters at the polls, Kellogg’s and Kraft Heinz report third quarter earnings and KIND calls out Clif to promote its energy bar launch.