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

BevNET and NOSH have deepened their coverage of fast-evolving food and beverage categories with the premiere of Category Close-Up, a new, two-part video offering this month. To kick off the series on NOSH, Editor Carol Ortenberg will be joined by a panel to examine the plant-based protein space — a rapidly growing category that has kept brands, consumers and retailers across channels on their toes.

Whether it’s in the form of a powder, beverage or snack bar, “Huel is food,” according to founder Julian Hearn. The meal replacement product brand, which seeks to be “lifestyle” oriented rather than just a quick bite, is now expanding beyond sweet offerings into its first savory item, Huel Hot & Savory.

Over his career, Fred Haberman has founded a PR firm, an aquaponic farm, and even the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. Now he’s setting his sights on grocery store shelves with the launch of Freak Flag Organics. In this video, Haberman details why he wanted to take on the project of “manifesting vision into products,” and the lessons he’s learned in the process.

In this week’s Checkout, GFI studies plant-based retail trends, Kraft Heinz sells its natural cheese business and aims to focus its portfolio, and Beyond Meat rolls out meatballs while Impossible Foods grows further into retail.

Raaka is looking for the right ingredients to reach its next stage. The company, known for single-origin, Fair Trade chocolate bars, this week released a line of baking chocolate, cacao powder and nibs. Looking ahead, the company is hiring a new CEO to lead the charge of growing the brand’s retail footprint.

Citing ongoing growth in the natural CPG market, asset-based lending company Gerber Finance this week announced it would launch a dedicated natural food and beverage products division.

This month, the New York-based yogurt company is expanding its portfolio of pili nut-based products with the Whole Foods exclusive launch of plant milks in Unsweetened and Chocolate varieties, as well as an unsweetened plant creamer.

Nutrition platform brand Bulletproof 360 today announced a $13 million capital raise to fund the brand’s omnichannel expansion and the development of products in new and existing categories. The raise was led by Beliv, the Latin America-based business unit of multinational beverage corporation the CBC Group, and Rocana Ventures along with existing investors CAVU Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures.

Financial services firm Barclays’ annual Global Consumer Staples Conference was held online from Wednesday to Friday last week, giving big CPG producers a chance to provide business updates and insights. During the event, company executives discussed plans to evolve their respective portfolios and channel strategies in the coming months while reflecting on recent hurdles experienced during the pandemic.

As special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) targeting the CPG sector have experienced a sudden surge in interest this year, Clayton Christopher is the latest food and beverage industry veteran to join the party.

A panel of six food and beverage entrepreneurs from across the country joined up with BevNET Editor in Chief Jeff Klineman to discuss the challenges that the summer of 2020 — and the ongoing struggle with a global pandemic — brought them. Speakers addressed ways they are overcoming challenges around production, financing, sales and marketing, offering support and advice to each other.

Soozy’s is looking to grow the grain-free category. This summer the brand launched frozen bread and bagels as well as shelf-stable cookies into Whole Food Market stores nationally, expanding its retail footprint to 2,000 stores.

Dip and salad dressing brand Litehouse Foods is ready to expand beyond the produce section after announcing today that it had completed the acquisition of pasta alternative company Veggiecraft Farms in July. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In this week’s Checkout, Kroger reports Q2 results, OSHA fines Smithfield for COVID-19-related issues and hemp advocacy and natural product associations support new CBD supplement bill.