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For a vast number of chocolate makers, this year has been anything but sweet. Amidst surging cocoa prices – which are still on a wild roller coaster ride – conglomerates like The Hershey Company and Mondelēz International have resorted to passing price hikes on to consumers to reduce the impact on their balance sheets, while investors have expressed increased interest in high-tech startups producing alt-cocoa products with methods like fermentation and plant cell culture.

Get ready for our December Community Calls! This month, dive into key regulatory issues affecting CPG and unique paths to funding. Our December calls are free and open to the public—just register in advance and mark your calendar.

Mesquite may be best known for barbecue, but the plant also produces nutritious pods that can stand in for cocoa beans in chocolate recipes. Enter Mez Foods, a Chicago-based startup that is championing the ingredient in a line of premium tablet bars that are made with mesquite bean flour, plus illipe butter, chufa flour, pea and rice protein fermented by shiitake mycelium, sugar, carob powder and oat fiber.

Amid a significant period of growth, Sunnie is working to recover from supply chain shifts that resulted in lower product standards, a production model reversal and a plethora of learnings on how to scale the business for its co-founders.

In this week’s notable new products roundup, Cedar’s unveils a sweet new limited-edition flavor, Snak Club heats up its product portfolio in partnership with Tajin, and Alouette joins forces with Gopuff to deliver Emergen-Cheese kits to consumers’ doors.

The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies this week terminated the proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement that was initially announced more than two years ago, after a federal judge sided with the Federal Trade Commission suing to block the deal and Washington and Oregon state courts put permanent injunctions in place to halt the transaction.

History has repeated itself as Hershey’s controlling owner yesterday rejected a preliminary takeover offer from candy and snacking rival Mondelēz International, according to a Bloomberg News report citing people familiar with the matter.The Hershey Trust – which holds approximately 80% of the voting power at the company – labeled the offer as too low.

TikTok Shop is outpacing category leaders, consumers still think they need more protein all the while Americans believe food prices are rising and the country is in a recession, according to The New Consumer and Coefficient Capital’s fifth annual Consumer Trends report.

On this episode of CPG Week podcast, the team talks about the Pitch Slam, the speakers, the good vibes, new tattoos and expensive smoothies.

UNFI reported a net loss of $21 million despite increasing sales 4.2% year-over-year in its first-quarter earnings to $7.9 billion with adjusted EBITDA increasing 14.5% to $134 million.