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

Plant-based ice cream is a rising category and HumanCo wants to take a scoop. The holding company announced today that it had acquired the majority of plant-based ice cream company Coconut Bliss.

The FDA has “a new mindset” for managing the food system and on Monday released its New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint. In an update last month, the FDA outlined the initiative, noting it had been tweaked based on the food supply chain’s challenges during the pandemic.

Moving from supplying brands to also helping create them, vegan “dairy” ingredient supplier Perfect Day announced an agreement in which it is investing in new brand The Urgent Company.

The seventeenth round of Elevator Talk Livestream features leaders from ReGrained, ENOF, SOUND, Aura Bora and Fruitbelt. This week’s special co-host is Jennifer Palmer, CEO of Gerber Finance, who will share her thoughts, questions and feedback with the participants.

In a deal that values the company at nearly $2 billion, Swedish oat milk producer Oatly has secured $200 million in new equity funding in a round led by Blackstone Growth.

On this week’s Office Hours, BevNET managing editor Martin Caballero is joined by Alisa Williams, Partner at VMG, and Matt Thomas, founder and CEO of Brew Dr. Kombucha, for a discussion exploring the roles that CPG entrepreneurs and brand leaders can play in supporting a more diverse, equitable and inclusive industry.

To convince consumers to switch to plant-based foods, you have to make the move sacrifice-free, according to Outstanding Foods CEO and founder Bill Glaser. He believes that’s been the key to the success of competitor brands Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, and with an additional $5 million in funding and a new product line, Glaser believes it’s Outstanding Foods’ time to step on the gas and achieve similar goals in the snack aisle.

To prove it can feed the demand for sustainability and transparency, agricultural technology company Indigo Agriculture recently completed a year-long pilot run of its Indigo Marketplace, which funneled 2.2 million bushels of sustainably-grown rice to beer company Anheuser-Busch.

After several attempts at repositioning over its 15 years on the market, snack brand LesserEvil has finally found a brand identity with “legs behind it.” Less than a year after rolling out its latest iteration focused on “snacking as a vessel for mindful moments,” the brand is now entering new categories, launching innovative popcorn flavors and making major distribution gains.

Ethical food company Vital Farms filed paperwork yesterday to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering (IPO). The Austin-based company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol VITL.

In this week’s Checkout, the FDA plans to resume on-site inspections, Perfect Day raises $160 million, extending its Series C round to $300 million, and Uber launches grocery delivery.

The SFA and Mintel predict that due to increased financial constraints on consumers, conventional food sales may outpace specialty in 2020 for the first time in 15 years. Their annual State of the Specialty Food Industry report, reviewed sales data from the past three years, 35 category forecasts and a consumer trend survey to help explore the future of specialty food.

We’re excited to present episode one of SprintToSuccess, a video series focused on demystifying the branding process for entrepreneurs with an entrepreneur! In this first episode, we hit the ground running—you’ll meet our selected entrepreneur, Melissa Martinelli, who rose to the top from a pool of 106 applicants.

Today incubator and investment firm Sonoma Brands announced the acquisition of premium jerky brand Chef’s Cut. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.