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

Like its consumers, Once Upon a Farm (OUAF) is growing up. The fresh-focused kids CPG brand is launching a new line of non-dairy yogurt and bottled protein smoothies, both moves aimed at helping the brand expand its appeal beyond babies to families. Co-founder and actress Jennifer Garner, herself a mother of an 8, 11 and 14 year old, has been eager for the brand to age-up and “help out the lunch box.”

Category enhancement and reinvention often comes into view through product innovations scheduled to be seen at Expo West. Here’s a look at the latest products that companies plan to use to redefine the chilled snack category.

Industry trade shows continue to face delays and cancellations due to the spread of COVID-19 (also known as the novel coronavirus.) Today, the upcoming SNAXPO convention, scheduled for March 22-24 in Charlotte, North Carolina, was cancelled, while Shoptalk was postponed until September.

Are you a founder or entrepreneur with a new brand premiere, package refresh, new product or line extension that was supposed to be announced at Expo West 2020 this week? We want to hear from you! Sign up now to take part in our Elevator Talk Livestream on Tuesday, March 10 at 3PM ET. It is free to participate and interviews will be conducted remotely.

Category enhancement and reinvention often comes into view through product innovations scheduled to be seen at Expo West. Here’s a look at the latest products that companies plan to use to redefine the breakfast category.

Just a few days after Natural Products Expo West, yesterday another trade show for the food industry was postponed. The Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing Expo North America conference and trade show, which was scheduled to be held in Boston March 15-17, was expected to bring 1,329 exhibitors from 49 countries for a total of more than 22,150 attendees to the city’s Seaport area.

With consumers hungry for low-sugar, protein-rich options — a trend that has recently migrated into cold cereals, of all places — brands are bringing bright ideas to other breakfast staples. Pasture-raised egg brand Handsome Brook Farm is launching egg yogurt under a new brand, Chikaraka, while superfood brand The Osso Good Company is launching nutrient-packed waffles made with bone broth.

Dogged by key cancellations from retailers and big brands, followed by social media protests before yesterday postponing Natural Products Expo West, New Hope Network today put the big question front and center: “What’s next?” That question, posed in a statement from New Hope at 5:30 today, is being asked by the event’s exhibitors, attendees and City of Anaheim partners, showing the ongoing chain of uncertainty that remains.

Expo West is known as the viewing ground for rebranding and refreshing existing products and product formats. NOSH will continue to provide a look at those brands who planned to use the show to reveal their new branding or an updated look and feel.

Prior to the postponement on Monday, as much as 60% of attendees had informed New Hope they planned to skip this week’s event. But many others — including early stage entrepreneurs — were surprised by New Hope’s late decision. For many, the news came after they had already arrived in Anaheim, and for some — such as Pillars Yogurt CEO Eric Bonin — mid-flight.

Despite the show being postponed, BevNET and NOSH will continue to bring to the industry the brand initiatives — new products, line extensions, branding changes, and company launches — that are going to flow through this Expo season.

Ben Van Leeuwen, co-founder & CEO of super-premium brand Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, spoke about how the brand has bucked the trend toward healthy eating, promoting brand pillars through packaging and the synergistic relationship between its stores and wholesale business.

After several days of community feedback, which included calls for cancellation or postponement, New Hope Network announced this evening that Natural Products Expo West 2020, scheduled for March 4-8 in Anaheim, California, is officially postponed.

Sunk costs. That’s what a lot of food and beverage companies facing the potential of a Coronavirus-reduced Natural Products Expo West show were regretting over the weekend as they wondered whether they could do enough business with the show’s drastically-reduced retailer contingent to justify the money they had already laid out.