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From chickpea snacks to Japanese barbecue sauce, innovative products from emerging brands are attracting investor interest as brands look to enter their next growth phases by increasing production, growing their retail footprints and expanding their teams.

Hormel Foods announced today that its venture arm, 199 Ventures, has entered into an exclusive partnership with alternative protein producer The Better Meat Co. In a release, the two companies stated they plan to bring new mycoprotein offerings to market, working to commercialize alternative protein products made from The Better Meat Co’s Rhiza mycoprotein ingredient.

Baby food manufacturers are under fire once again. A new staff report from the House Oversight Committee found additional infant and baby food products that contain high levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury and that product recalls following a February congressional report disclosing the category’s toxic levels of heavy metals were insufficient.

When the onset of COVID-19 forced the majority of its independent retail partners to temporarily shut their doors last year, functional snack maker SMPL used the lull as an opportunity to rethink its product, ultimately discontinuing its line of bites at the end of 2020. Now, the brand is relaunching this month with a new bar line, fresh look, and the confidence it can now reach more consumers with a more approachable and affordable product line.

The Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2021 was reintroduced to Congress last month and proposed sweeping changes to how nutritional information is displayed on food labels. Among the most significant would be a list of demands for the FDA including issuing guidance on a standardized symbol for calorie information on the front-of-pack and definitions for common terms such as “natural,” “healthy,” “artificial” and “synthetic.”

Food tech company Perfect Day is again rethinking its recipe for success. The company announced last week it had raised $350 million to execute a new strategy that will see it adopt a three-pronged approach to revenue: selling ingredients to other food and beverage companies, selling finished CPG products in retail and foodservice, and offering food tech development services to other companies.

Cannabis sales in the U.S. are predicted to surpass $24 billion this year, a growth of 38% compared to 2020, according to BDS Analytics (BDSA), a Colorado-based global cannabis market research firm.

Cell-cultured meat companies are catching the eyes of investors with new form factors and taste and texture more closely aligned to traditional meat. While yet to gain regulatory approval in the U.S., the USDA and FDA announced last month its plans to establish labeling requirements for these products, and companies are gearing up for potential commercial launches as soon as next year, pending approval.

After a year of pandemic-induced pantry loading, the fresh food market saw sales increase more than 10% while the frozen food category grew 21% over the same period, according to the third edition of Deloitte’s annual Future of Fresh series. The data suggests the previously negative stigma toward frozen food may be thawing, which may come at a good time as industry experts are wary as to whether the supply chain for fresh food can sustain this increase in demand.

In this week’s Checkout, Sauer Brands acquires Mateo’s Gourmet Salsa; Ardent Mills expands its gluten-free production capabilities with acquisition of Firebird Artisan Mills; and Jensen Meat Co. officially opens its plant-based division.