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

Office Hours is returning on Tuesday, May 12 at 3 p.m. ET. Industry veterans Alan Murray and Brad Barnhorn will use examples derived from years of working with brands as board members and operators to offer advice on forecast planning, organizational strategy and leadership during the pandemic, while fielding questions from viewers at home.

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Tessa Wanders is the founder and CEO of Hey Frida, a San Francisco-based food startup offering low-carb, functional snack bars. The brand has two SKUs, Beauty Bar featuring collagen and Relax Bar featuring collagen and L-theanine.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems many Americans are strapping on their aprons and marching to the oven with a goal of learning to bake. But why have sourdough breads, brownies and chocolate chip cookies captivated the nation? And is the “made from scratch” ethos similarly powering the baking mix brands that allow kitchen dwellers to cut out a few steps?

While production issues currently plague the meat industry, plant-based meat companies are growing. In their respective quarterly earnings calls this week, executives from meat company Tyson and plant-based brand Beyond Meat discussed powering through a pandemic — and trying to develop future strategies despite looming uncertainty.

The tenth round of Elevator Talk Livestream includes leaders from DiNoci, LiveKuna, lil’gourmets, IWON Organics, Craize Corn, Superseedz, Alta Goods and more. This week’s special co-host is Megan Bent, the founder and managing partner of Harbinger Ventures, who will offer feedback for each brand.

Nature’s Fynd thinks the plant-based market is ripe for disruption — and that the answer lies inside a volcano. Previously known as Sustainable Bioproducts, the company recently rebranded as Nature’s Fynd to turn its fermented protein — found in Yellowstone National Park’s ancient ‘supervolcano’ — into everyday plant-based food and drink products.

This week’s edition of Office Hours explores COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions to the review and reset process for categories and products, and the steps brands can consider when reaching out to retail buyers.

From Milk Bar cookies to Yasso and Coconut Bliss frozen desserts to chocolate from Goodio and Kosterina, April’s new product releases offered consumers plenty of sweet treats. View the gallery for April’s notable releases, including new bars from Premier Protein and Quest and plant-based condiments from Greenjoy and Follow Your Heart.

Maybe the old saying is wrong: You can go home again. Today Sonoma Brands, the holding company and investment group for snack brands started by Jon Sebastiani, announced the acquisition of KRAVE — the artisanal jerky and meat snack brand Sebastiani built and subsequently sold to The Hershey Company in 2015.

Investors are banking on a plant-based ingredient that behaves like egg whites — with potential use across a broad range of food and beverage categories. B2B food tech startup Plantible announced this week the close of a $4.6M seed round.

In a webinar hosted by the Hirshberg Institute on Wednesday, three leaders in the natural grocery space discussed how distributors and retailers are responding to the fast-changing environment and what brands can do to stay on top of the crisis.

BevNET and NOSH’s interactive streaming video series, Office Hours, is returning on Tuesday, May 5 at 3 p.m. ET. This edition will focus on the COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions to the review and reset process for categories and products, and the steps brands can consider when reaching out to retail buyers.

Benjamin Bartley is the founder of Chum Fruit Snacks, a company with a mission to make good food that’s good for the planet. The brand’s bites are made from slow baked fruit, delivering an all-natural and clean ingredient snack for kids.