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

Serial food and beverage executive, founder, investor and advisor Tom First has departed First Beverage Group, where he was a managing partner, to join Castanea Partners and develop the fund’s food and beverage practice.

After a decade of going it alone, Whole Foods Market is returning to cooperator status, a move that will empower its manufacturer supplier partners to provide more sophisticated insight back to the retailer, and help Whole Foods make more informed decisions accounting for broader market dynamics.

Over the past years, yogurt brands have tried to expand the day-parts where yogurt is consumed and shift the category from being seen as just as a breakfast option to that of a snack. In pursuit of this goal, Chobani, one of the pioneers of greek yogurt, is launching a line of savory, vegetable “Meze Dips”

The deal will nearly double the size of Danone’s North America footprint, increasing it from 12 to 22 percent of the company’s total portfolio and align it with several fast-growing brands focused on healthy and sustainable lifestyles.

It’s a new era in Vermont, and it started on July 1, when Vermont Act 120 went into effect. The Act requires labeling of food produced with genetic engineering (“GE” or “GMO”). But before you start to pack your picnics with disclaimers, a few considerations are worth keeping in mind.

At this year’s Summer Fancy Foods Show there were numerous product trends spotted on the floor. We polled some of the industry’s leading experts to check in about what they saw (and didn’t see) on the show floor.

This week the news cycle was sweetened by the announcement of Mondelez International’s roughly $23 billion bid for the Hershey Company, and the latter’s subsequent rejection of the deal. Earlier this summer Project NOSH had a look into Hershey’s plan for the company’s growth in the snack industry when VP of Global Snacks, Tony Tyrell, presented at Project NOSH Brooklyn.

At this past week’s Summer Fancy Food Show, there were speciality foods of all shapes, flavors and dietary needs. But among the all the brands, certain trends stood out to the Project NOSH team. While “spreads” at this show have always been prevalent, they’re now taking different form factors and moving beyond the basic jams and caramels of years past.

In just a few years, “Mikey’s” baked goods (formerly Mikey’s Muffins) have ice stormed the frozen bread set. The line is in over 2,000 stores, including numerous independent retailers, natural grocers (such as Whole Foods Market and Sprouts) and conventional outlets (including Kroger, Shaws and Walmart).

Sonoma Brands, the incubation and investment firm from KRAVE Jerky founder Jon Sebastiani, has launched the first of its internally incubated product lines – Züpa Noma, a line of six chilled soups and gazpachos.

This week The Kellogg Company announced the launch of Eighteen94 (1894) Capital, an internal venture capital fund with roughly $100 million to invest in entrepreneurial brands. Managing Director Simon Burton told NOSH that the group is keeping initial investment criteria broad.

This month, several young brands saw distribution gains for their better-for-you, more sustainable offerings. Retailers have been looking for more options to fill the consumer demand for cleaner products in their favorite categories.

This week natural products retailer Whole Foods Market received a warning letter from the FDA for numerous “serious violations” of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations for manufacturing, packing or holding food.

Last week, Healthy Skoop, which produces plant-based nutrition powders, announced a $1.1 million dollar raise from new investment group Seurat Capital (a division of CPG consulting brand The Seurat Group). Skoop, which was founded in 2013, is the brainchild of beverage entrepreneurs Dr. James Rouse and Greg Stroh.