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

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.

In this interview with Errol Schweizer, a strategic advisor for natural product companies and new member of the Board of Directors for Demeter, Project NOSH explores the growing popularity of biodynamic products. Schweizer discusses why he joined the organization (which is the U.S. certifying body for biodynamic farms and products), why he wants to see more biodynamic products and what challenges the movement faces.

At the Project NOSH event in Brooklyn next week, growing entrepreneurial food brands will have the opportunity to consider all manner of investment partnerships, as well as the merits of avoiding them altogether.

At this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, both natural and conventional brands highlighted their natural, organic, sustainable or healthy confections.

At this year’s Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago, there certainly was a bonanza of candy, confections and chocolate to be had. But the other half of the equation, the snack industry and brands, weren’t about to take a backseat. While there certainly was a sweet bent to many of the snack products, salty had its place as well. Click through to see some of the snacks we crunched our way through at the expo.

A key part of Project NOSH Brooklyn is that attendees are harvesting a rich opportunity for networking with speakers, fellow entrepreneurs and suppliers, which is why we’ve teamed up with our friends at Food Force to add a cocktail reception at the end of the day.

As the summer picks up, several natural, organic, sustainable and healthy brands have been picked up by major retailers to round out their sets and appeal to consumers seeking cleaner options.