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

While Fashion Week New York just ended, several food brands are debuting new packaging “collections” of their own at this year’s Expo West. We’ve gotten some advance looks at these design revamps and have noticed a shift towards cleaner, graphic-oriented packaging that embodies the busy, modern millennial lifestyle.

RangeMe, an online platform that connects CPG producers with retail buyers, has expanded to the U.S. The site has seen recent success signing up major retailers (such as Target and Jet.com) and suppliers have followed.

At this week’s Consumer Analysts Group New York (CAGNY) conference several of the top publicly traded consumer brands announced their plans for growth in 2016. The presentations gave insight into two key areas that established, publicly traded players in the food and beverage industry will be focusing on: establishing natural bona fides and increasing snacking or on-the-go options.

Phenomenal Foods, the maker of Nomva, a new food brand that merges current trends in cold-pressed juice and on-the-go snacks, today announced the closing of a $3 million round of funding. Nomva markets a line of high pressure processed (HPP), organic fruit and vegetable blends that are infused with probiotics and packaged in 6 oz. pouches.

Consumer attitudes towards snacking are slowly shifting, and brands are taking note. Producers including HalfPops, Way Better Snacks and Cabo Chips have all released new snack options that attempt to offer consumers healthier ways to snack.

It’s been a busy week for Whole Foods, as the natural products retailer juggled fourth quarter earnings announcements, several interviews with its CEO and news about its new millennial-focused “365 by Whole Foods Market” stores.

Yesterday private equity firm KarpReilly’s acquired food and beverage company Zola. A brand pivot in 2012 enabled growth, noted CEO Chris Cuvelier.

Bobo’s Oat Bars have always stood out for its quaint, homespun look and clean ingredients. And while the 10-year old brand may not have gotten the press of its brethren, it turns out it’s been quietly building sales of $8 million in 2015 alone. With new investment and employees, the company believes it’s ready to be the breakout bar of 2016.

Food and beverage accelerator and investor AccelFoods today announced a new $20 million fund as well as a new class of portfolio companies.

Designed to give new and growing food and beverage companies a fast and comprehensive look at the challenges facing startups, BevNET Boot Camp leverages experts’ insights, successful entrepreneurs’ experiences, and a healthy dose of networking into an inspirational day of education and connection.

In this NOSH Voices piece, guest author Adam Spriggs, founder of Nucleus Maximus, looks at food products’ packaging and analyzes how brands talk to consumers.

As consumers become more open to international flavor profiles, manufacturers are moving past nacho, ranch and lime. Instead far flung flavors such as lemongrass, fish sauce, kaffir lime and thai bird’s eye chili peppers are sneaking into the grocery aisles as accents for products ranging from chips to sauces to jerky. At the 2016 Winter Fancy Food Show, Project NOSH spoke with five early-stage food companies, each of which markets internationally inspired concepts for packaged food.

In 2014, when co-founders Zoe Sakoutis and Erica Huss moved on from Blueprint, the healthy juice company they had sold to Hain Celestial, they, like many other young professional women, found conversations kept turning to one topic: pregnancy, and the way nutrition affects both the mother and unborn child. Hence, in November, 2015, the pair gave birth to a new company, Ezro Foods.

When Winston Stona founded Caribbean gourmet food company Busha Browne’s over 25 years ago, Caribbean cuisine was still unfamiliar to many cooks, consumers and shoppers. But as consumers’ preference for new, innovative, and flavorful products has increased, so too has demand for the company’s sauces, chutneys and jellies. Stona shares his journey in a video interview with Project NOSH.