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

A California bill addressing the potential dangers of synthetic food dyes on children has passed, but with a major amendment.

Food fights are breaking out in court. HaloTop, Mars Inc, KerryGold and Chobani all found themselves in legal battles spanning trademark infringements to reports of assault over the past month. Here’s what we know so far about the cases, why they were filed, and what they could mean for the companies involved.

This week Venice Brands, a new consumer-focused VC fund, announced an investment in The Osso Good Company, a producer of frozen bone broths. In addition to putting dry powder behind the bone broth company, the deal marks the first investment for Venice, which was launched in January of this year and is an offshoot of Monogram Capital.

Five years after its launch, multi-million-dollar cookie dough brand Sweet Loren’s is taking on confectionary giants like Nestle and General Mills with a natural take on the take-and-bake cookie and expanding its line with, what the brand says, is the first gluten-free, vegan and nut-free take and bake cookie dough.

It’s crunch time for retailers. To attract new customers, retain current customers and plan for long-term, consistent sales growth, several retailers revealed new stores, marketing strategies and location plays over the last week.

The food industry has been making headlines for more than its profits this month as brands and retailers work to focus their missions and better exemplify their values. This week’s Press Clips highlights companies who are doing just that by standing up for their brand, their consumers and, yes, even a goose.

When Jason Cohen entered the business world as a life insurance salesman, he knew one thing: you’re only as good as the relationships you have with your clients. Now as a successful entrepreneur and investor, he’s capitalized on that knowledge, and added to it another rule: that to support that success you need a solid team and a product that appeals to the consumer. At NOSH Live on Monday, June 12 in Manhattan, Cohen will give attendees an inside look at his success in the industry.

This week, Unilever, PepsiCo Inc., The Hershey Company and Pinnacle Foods released their quarterly earning reports. But beyond sales numbers, the companies shared insights into their wins, losses and goals for the rest of 2017 that will help set trends across categories in the months to come. Here are the main strategic takeaways from these CPG giants’ quarterly earning reports.

Plant-based products are one of the hottest trends in food and beverage, and investors have taken note. Last week, several funds and venture capital firms came together to back Nutriati, a food technology company whose first products are a chickpea flour and chickpea protein concentrate.

From ice cream and chips to drinkable veggies and matcha, these NOSH brands are furthering their consumer reach with some newly expanded retail relationships.

Emphasizing environmental and nutritional transparency for the labels and ingredients in both its chocolate and snacking lineups, the confectionary giant announced a sweeping set of changes from sourcing to packaging that the company hopes will give consumers more choices.

Getting kids to eat their vegetables can be a tricky proposition, even for venture capitalists. Recognizing this challenge, some investors are betting on brands, like Kidfresh, that help parents make mealtime a little easier. Kidfresh announced Monday it’s taken in a roughly $10 million Series B equity round for its line of frozen foods with hidden vegetables.

Earth Day is observed each year on April 22 to raise awareness about climate issues spanning from technology and energy to agriculture and food. But for some companies, one day a year isn’t enough. These seven brands — like others in the industry — exemplify what Earth Day is about the other 364, too.

The Illinois-based brand introduced its new line of USDA organic powdered bone broth on Wednesday. The launch comes less than two weeks after the company announced its expansion into over 790 Vitamin Shoppes nationwide.