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

Kettle Cuisine, a New England-based producer of refrigerated and frozen, natural soups, sauces and entrees, announced this week its acquisition of Harry’s Fresh Foods, an Oregon-based custom food manufacturing company.

KIND Snacks is calling out the snack industry’s — and a choice rival’s — sweet tooth by taking aim at products’ sugar content with its new Sweeteners Uncovered initiative. The goal, the brand claims, is to provide more transparency to the types and amounts of sweeteners and sugar sources used in popular snacks, such as Clif Bar, its recent Twitter sparring partner.

Latin-inspired food manufacturer Teasdale Latin Foods, which says it had about $20 million in retail sales last year, is trying to rethink its offerings for the next generation of shoppers and bring more differentiation to a typically commodity-priced category.

Jeanne David is the Founder and CEO of Outer Aisle Gourmet, a plant-forward company that has developed pizza crust and sandwich thins with just 3 key ingredients: cauliflower, eggs and parmesan cheese. The brand aims to transform the American diet with its low carb, low glycemic and gluten-free products.

Magic Spoon cereal co-founders Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz hope to do for cereal what Halo Top did for ice cream: revamp an “outdated” indulgence product type with engaging branding and a strong macronutrient profile. Magic Spoon will initially be sold online for roughly $10 a box, with a four-box minimum order.

Sisson is the founder of Primal Kitchen, a Paleo-centric brand of condiments that Kraft Heinz acquired in 2018 for $200 million. Although Primal Kitchen was on the market for just three years when it was acquired, the brand, which was born out of Sisson’s popular blog, was decades in the making.

Hal’s New York is moving beyond beverage. Last week the brand, which is backed by and distributed through New York DSD powerhouse Big Geyser, launched a line of bagged kettle chips and popcorn.

While the appetite for investment in meat snacks may be waning somewhat, investors are still hog wild for innovative brands in the category. Yesterday meat snack brand 4505 Meats announced the close of a round of funding led by Encore Capital, with investment firm CircleUp also taking part.

This week Evolv Ventures, Kraft Heinz’s $100 million venture fund, announced its first investment: GrubMarket, a platform that sources local food directly from producers and delivers it to businesses and consumers. Additionally, Ben & Jerry’s announced its launch into a new product category and Whole Foods Market tested a new store format.

In this episode, we examine brand-building and retail strategies for center store grocery in interviews with the founders of two category-leading brands: Katlin Smith, the founder and CEO of fast-growing baking mix and snack brand Simple Mills, and David Eben, the founder of Carrington Farms, a brand of organic seeds, grains and oils.

Maria Manning is the founder & CEO of South & Spoon Pudding Co., makers of old-fashioned pudding mixes with all natural ingredients. The customizable mixes allow consumers to create a pudding that fits their dietary lifestyle.

Your packaging needs to tell a story ‘beyond the box’ — and you’d better tell the consumer how to recycle that box as well. Those are key findings from research firm Mintel, which just released its 2019 Global Packaging Trends report.

Last year John Roulac, the former CEO and founder of superfood brand Nutiva, started a CBD business as a “hobby.” Now RE Botanicals is in 150 doors with commitment for another 850, has 10 employees and as of today, a backer with money. The company announced today the close of a $2 million round of funding, with $1 million of the investment from firm BIGR Ventures.

Outgoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Scott Gottlieb today announced new steps towards clarifying and constructing a legal framework around cannabis and cannabis-derived products, including the formation of an exploratory group examining CBD supplements and foods, and a public hearing for “stakeholders to share their experiences and challenges with these products.”