Regulatory

Despite the Administration’s assertion it will rein in the ultraprocessed foods prevalent within American’s diets, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., claims there won’t be any new regulations imposed in order to do so.

This week on the podcast, Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporter Lukas Southard tackle the recent controversy surrounding cage-free egg producer Vital Farms, the latest updates affecting the hemp beverage industry, and a beverage maker’s strategic expansion into functional gummy supplements. The hosts also highlight several recent funding announcements.

“Eat real food.” That is the central message projected by the Trump Administration’s new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The USDA will be required to revise parts of its National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard after judges in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated several “loopholes” that plaintiffs argued would have misled consumers.

This week on the podcast, Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporter Brad Avery discuss a spate of funding news for a hot sauce brand, a hummus startup and a functional beverage company. The hosts also chat about what an executive order to reschedule cannabis could mean for the hemp drink market.

This year will go down in the history books as one marked by an unprecedented federal focus on the food industry, sparking strategic overhauls of, and a bit of panic within, Big Food operations; a flurry of state-level action against a plethora of synthetic ingredients; and the adoption of some new acronyms – UPFs and MAHA, just to name a few.

The uncertainty surrounding the future cannabis regulations could impact the amount of hemp farmers plant in the coming year.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday directing the U.S. Attorney General to move cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substance, marking a watershed moment in the history of U.S. marijuana policy and a significant step forward for the nascent THC-infused beverage industry.

PepsiCo allegedly created a soft drink “price gap” with Walmart, creating a system that allowed the world’s largest retail to obtain preferential promotional payments, while those same payments were reduced for Walmart’s competitors, according to court documents unsealed last week.

The USDA this week unveiled the Regenerative Pilot Program, an initiative to put $700 million toward assisting American farmers in the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices.