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

From Walmart embracing a vegan meat alternative to brands playing with trendy ingredients seeing new retail pickup, here are some of the newest wins in retail for brands.

Former Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong joined us for an intriguing interview about his current career as a podcaster and investor, whose portfolio includes a stake in cold brew brand High Brew Coffee.

A battle over the facts — nutrition facts that is — has come to a close. This week better-for-you snack producer Lenny & Larry’s agreed to settle a lawsuit over whether its cookies contained the advertised amount of protein.

This week several major strategics held their third quarter earnings calls. Although certainly on a different scale than the average food company’s quarterly recap, the calls provide a look inside to how some of the biggest companies in the industry are thinking about key topics such as acquisitions and new category focuses.

How CBD became the hottest ingredient in food and beverage and the factors affecting its future; A conversation with international businessman and investor David Yeung whose global platform, Green Monday, is influencing how governments and corporations consider plant-based food.

In 2016, Target launched emerging frozen brand Yummy Spoonfuls nationwide into almost every store, and in doing so, was one of the first retailers to focus on reinvigorating the baby food category. Now, two years later, after a series of strategic decisions, the brand has relaunched nationwide with a new focus on toddler nutrition.

Here’s your first chance to look at the official agenda for the NOSH Live conference coming up in Santa Monica on Nov. 29 and 30 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Carefully assembled to give the universe of food entrepreneurs and their partners a look into strategies for growth, problem-solving and connection, a look at the program highlights the following key areas.

Allyson Straka, the Founder and CEO of Frozen Garden LLC, is focused on making high quality, nutrient dense food convenient. Her ready-to-blend frozen green smoothies source ingredients from local farmers, allowing the company to go from ground to freezer in the same day, maximizing nutrient retention and improving taste.

This morning, soft drink and snack giant Pepsi announced that it was buying Health Warrior, an upstart snack bar company that is best known for its use of chia — and other nutritional seeds and nuts — in its plant-based products.

BevNET and NOSH will host a special panel to kick off The Cannabis Forum for Food and Beverage at the inaugural event, which will be held on Dec. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif. Bringing together entrepreneurs from both the food and beverage world and the fast-evolving legal cannabis business, the first talk of the day, “Cannabis and CPG at the Crossroads: Creating a Cooperative Industry” will explore the opportunities located at the intersection of these two growth industries.

Forget omnichannel. Investment fund VMG is ready to help brands become “omni-nation.” At least, that’s the plan according to Kara Roell, the managing director and co-founder of the California-based consumer products investor. VMG and Asian venture firm Hillhouse Capital announced today that the two firms will each allocate $100 million of capital to co-invest in consumer brands that hope to expand their global outreach — particularly in China.

Sausage and hot dog brand Teton Waters Ranch (TWR) is in the business of beef. So it’s a bit of an anomaly that the company’s latest innovation aims to inspire its consumers to eat less of its core product.

With Halloween less then a week away, candy manufacturers are ready for their busiest season. According to new research, Halloween sales in particular should be fairly sweet for producers. And while “clean” products may be the future of the meat category, this week government officials and innovators gathered together to discuss how this emerging category should be regulated. Here’s the news you need to know from this week.

Yesterday’s model for CPG brands is no longer effective. Today they must consider the caliber and sourcing of the ingredients they use, what their investors want, and the myriad ways consumers are shopping for products. In a new report, investment research firm CB Insights outlined ideas for what brands must do in order to stay top of mind.