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

After the holiday season winds down, consumers approach the new year filled with good intentions and New Year’s resolutions centered around healthy eating, personal growth, and financial goals around savings. This year, retailers including Aldi, Whole Foods Market and Earth Fare have approached January with their own resolutions around similar topics.

This year’s Winter Fancy Food Show in San Fransisco, Calif. saw crowds of CPG entrepreneurs, retailers, and distributors descend on the Moscone Center for three days of sampling, deal making and networking. The Project NOSH team walked the show floor and to find the newest products that embody the trends happening in the food industry.

Matcha has long found its way into Japanese sweets from macarons to mochi, cakes to cookies, and even chocolate bars, but during this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show (WFFS) in San Francisco, it was clear the traditional ceremonial tea powder has moved beyond the teacup and into the North American snack market, too.

This week specialty food purveyors across categories headed to San Fransisco for the Winter Fancy Foods Show. While there were many familiar faces on display, some brands were showing off new rebrands.

Jacqueline Claudia always dreamed of being a marine biologist so she could save the world “one fish at a time.” So now, when the all-grown-up co-founder and CEO of Love The Wild Seafood was presented with an opportunity to work with Aqua-Spark, the first investment fund focused exclusively on sustainable aquaculture, she headed straight for the bait.

Matthew Parry, COO of ABC North America LLC, told NOSH that feedback from The Good Crisp Company’s first nine months on shelves showed that U.S. consumers and retailers were not connecting with the brand’s original name, Mamee.

This past weekend The Good Food Awards and Mercantile took over the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California to highlight “food crafters” from around the country.

Over the past year, numerous big CPG firms have announced the formation of internal venture capital arms to work with and embrace entrepreneurial brands. And while Campbell Soup has launched such a division, Acre Venture Partners, the company’s other divisions haven’t lost the entrepreneurial spirit, either.

In early 2016 coconut and onion chip brand Dang Foods received a minority investment from investment and incubation group Sonoma Brands in order to help the company scale. Apparently, some of it went toward innovation, as well, as the brand is launching a new look and a new line: sticky-rice chips.

With the increasing demand for healthier, alternative snacks, brands made from fruit and vegetables have been growing in popularity. And not just with consumers, but with investors, as well — two growing companies have announced new financing rounds this week alone.

Keeping dairy in the barnyard rather than out among the crops, the proposed bill, the Dairy Pride Act, declares that dairy foods should be made from the secretions of hoofed animals only.

Project NOSH is taking Manhattan. When we raise the curtain on our second New York-based strategy, growth and networking conference for entrepreneurial food businesses, we’ll do so at the Metropolitan Pavilion West, at 639 W 46th Street, on Monday, June 12. An afternoon “Boot Camp” for early-stage entrepreneurs will be offered the day before at a different location.

Primal Kitchen Restaurant’s first franchise in Los Angeles is expected to open this April.

Last week saw a pair of changes in Whole Foods global leadership team, as well as a spate of new hires in supplier companies and food brands alike.