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

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.

Sustainable packaged food and gardening company Back to the Roots announced that it has grown one step closer to its goal becoming the “Pixar of Foods” after raising a $5 million seed round. The Berkeley, Calif. based company plans to use the money to fertilize its growth plan within K-12 schools as well as traditional grocery retailers.

It’s hard to say what the fanciest food was at the Fancy Foods Show that recently wound up in San Francisco, especially with many new brands showing less dressed-up products that intentionally range from raw or minimally processed to “I dare you to eat that” kind of ingredients like bugs and kelp. Editor-in-Chief Jeff Klineman and Founder/CEO John Craven cover what they saw at this year’s show.

Austin, Boulder, San Francisco, Brooklyn — these are the places that have yielded some of the most prolific and innovative food companies and entrepreneurs in the country. With the announcement of his departure from KRAVE jerky, Jonathan Sebastiani wants to add another to the list: Sonoma. The wine and meat snack entrepreneur started 2016 with the news that he would be departing from Hershey (which purchased KRAVE in 2015) to start Sonoma Brands.

Wu, who has shown the skills of a master networker and trendspotter, serves on the boards of food brands Babyganics, Justin’s and Perfect Bar. He joined VMG in 2008 as an associate in what was the firm’s first “non-founder” hire, arriving after serving as the CFO of Thomason Autogroup.

The Project NOSH team was at the Winter Fancy Food Show to document some of the most interesting new products and trends — but also to take the chance to chow down.

Icelandic Provisions, a new dairy startup, believes they have the recipe for success in the yogurt category by using skyr to target consumer needs for higher protein and lower sugar cultured dairy. The company leadership recently closed an investment of $11 million dollars led by healthcare and technology VC Polaris Ventures.