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

The battle to see who will be the category leader in plant-based “meat” continues. Less than two weeks after Beyond Meat launched a successful initial public offering (IPO), beef-substitute Impossible Foods announced today the close of a $300M round of funding.

Utz Quality Foods announced a $1.25 million settlement of a class action labeling lawsuit; Whole Foods is moving its Northeast headquarters; Nestle will move its ice cream and frozen pizza businesses from a DSD network to a warehouse model.

In this episode, Patagonia Provisions managing director Birgit Cameron spoke about the origins and development of the brand, a food and beverage offshoot of outdoor apparel giant Patagonia. She also discussed the opportunities and challenges of being aligned with its parent company and why its uncommon innovation strategy is critical to its overarching mission.

We’re releasing the first look at the official agenda for the NOSH Live Summer 2019 conference, taking place in just 30 days at the Metropolitan West in New York City. The agenda is designed to provide the natural food ecosystem and its supporting partners insight into the industry’s future and takeaways to grow their own businesses.

Maine is already known for its lobsters, but Ocean Approved wants the state to be known for another ocean crop: kelp. Led by new CEO Briana Warner, the company is launching a line of products under the Atlantic Sea Farms brand to bring awareness to this briny delicacy and has new investors and supply chain strategy to support this growth.

Candi Haas is the co-founder of Core + Rind, a company that has developed shelf-stable and clean label plant-based cashew cheesy sauce. As culinary nutrition experts, the founders are focused on serving healthy, all-natural foods to their target market of millennial women.

For the first time small companies with revenues under $1 billion make up more than half of IRI’s New Product Pacesetters report, which was released yesterday. The research firm’s 23rd annual Pacesetters report lists 2018’s most successful new food and beverage product launches in both major retail and convenience stores, as well as non-food by multi-outlet dollar sales.

Hummus maker Sabra named Jason Levine, former North America CMO for Mondelez International, as CMO last month.

As part of a wide-ranging interview, Mamma Chia founder/CEO Janie Hoffman spoke about the origins of her brand and how she created a foundation for its rapid ascent. She also discussed a painful lesson about hiring for experience versus cultural fit, explained her belief that “you can’t teach attitude” and why everyday happiness starts with a joyful spirit.

During its recent 2019 annual shareowners’ meeting and its 2019 first quarter earnings call, Kellogg, the largest cereal company in the U.S., shared details of its financial performance following a challenging year for the category.

Make your decisions about developing cannabis-infused products well-informed ones. At the Cannabis Forum for Food and Beverage presented by BevNET and NOSH, John Kagia, the Chief Knowledge Officer of New Frontier Data, will dive into the market and consumer data you need to grow your cannabusiness.

Governmental agencies made several new announcements this week that could impact how brands and suppliers approach food safety.

Yesterday plant-based meat brand Beyond Meat faced the heat and emerged sizzling. The popular protein play began trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol BYND and served up the year’s best IPO debut. However, the question remains, what does the company have to do next in order run alongside fellow protein players and move beyond its current market position?

The consumer craze with cauliflower shows no sign of slowing down. Today, frozen food and snack brand Cali’flour announced the close of a round of capital led by Sunrise Strategic and a leadership transition in an effort to more heavily move the business into retail.