Danone – owner of dairy-free brands Alpro, Silk, and So Delicious Dairy Free - is expanding its presence in the burgeoning plant-based segment with a deal to acquire California-based Earth Island (owner of the Follow Your Heart brand) for an undisclosed...
The ice cream aisle used to be a lot less complicated. There were national brands, regional brands, a couple of super-premium players, and a smattering of dairy-free. Today, shoppers are presented with a bewildering array of options from lactose-free,...
Hydroponic lettuce grower Little Leaf Farms has raised $90m in a recent funding round led by Equilibrium Capital to fully fund its East Coast expansion and build out new greenhouse sites in the region.
The functional beverage consumer and their purchase motivations are just as diverse as the functional beverage category itself, which encompasses everything from sports drinks and energy drinks to ionized/alkaline water and nutrient-infused coffee, says...
The co-founders of the fast-growing banana-based Hakuna Banana and oat-milk based Totes Oats nice-cream brands are bringing their better-for-you pints and bars under the new umbrella brand Must Love to better communicate the company’s core values, leverage...
Nature’s Fynd - a Chicago-based startup growing protein from a micro-organism with origins in the geothermal springs of Yellowstone National Park – is giving consumers a first taste of the novel ingredient via dairy-free cream cheese and meatless breakfast...
Rule Breaker Snacks, an allergy-friendly snack brand featuring chickpeas as its star ingredient, has secured a minority investment from Bimbo Ventures, the venture capital arm of global baking company Grupo Bimbo.
Plant-based milk is growing at an impressive clip, although not every subsegment is gaining momentum and not every new entrant has struck CPG gold. Barleymilk, however, has the potential to be a major player, and is every bit as exciting as current category...
Whether or not you believe in climate change or the food industry’s contribution to the greenhouse gasses wrapping the earth and changing weather patterns, plenty of consumers do, and they increasingly are buying products based on their environmental...
Hain Celestial is in the market for acquisitions to “bulk up in the categories that we prioritize,” even as it continues to shed underperforming brands and those with less mainstream consumer appeal, CEO Mark Schiller told analysts this week.
Plant-based based ingredient supplier PURIS Holdings and LIVEKINDLY Collective have entered two joint ventures to create a path towards affordable and accessible plant-based food products.
Mondelēz SnackFutures – the company's innovation and venture hub – has launched CoLab, a "startup engagement" program, targeting snack brands in the wellness space as the global snacking giant digs deeper into the startup community.
Investors appear skeptical of Unilever’s ambitious five-prong plan to drive sales growth of 3-5% in the coming years after it saw only a 1.9% increase in sales in 2020 and a 5.8% decline in underlying profits in a year when many CPG companies saw significantly...
Cerebelly has received The Clean Label Project Purity Award -- which independently test products for over 400 contaminants including heavy metals, chemicals, plastics, pesticides, and other toxins -- for its full line of shelf-stable pureed baby food...
Consumer goods giant Unilever set out its stall for future growth last week when the company delivered a ‘strategy refresh’ alongside its full-year results. The outcome? An increased focus on ‘high growth segments’ including functional nutrition and plant-based...
Even though the coronavirus vaccine is slowly, albeit a bit unsteadily, rolling out, a recently published survey of dietitians predicts Americans in 2021 will continue to seek protection from COVID-19 and its rapidly spreading variants from food and beverages...
While consumers rate plant-based beef more favorably than its bovine counterpart on fiber, fat, saturated fat and cholesterol; they rate it less favorably on taste, protein, iron, and overall nutrition, according to survey data contained in a new report...
Stressed by COVID-19 and its financial and emotional ripple effects, consumers have turned to functional food as a stress-reducing and health-boosting tool to get through the pandemic, recent consumer insights from market research firm Brightfield Group...
‘Animal-free dairy’ ice cream brand Brave Robot – which launched in July 2020 - will be in 5,000 stores across the US by Earth Day 2021 (April 22), says brand owner The Urgent Company.
Right now, you can extract collagen proteins from animal skin, bones, and connective tissue, or you can produce them via microbial fermentation, without slaughtering animals (engineering bacteria to produce the target proteins). But there’s also a third...
Despite spirulina's “superfood” status, its popularity has been dampened by its dark green color, reputation for tasting like the sea and sometimes overwhelming bioavailability, but the co-founders of SNACK Brand Inc. hope to introduce to modern...
New York City-based vertical farming company, Bowery Farming, has appointed former Google Internet of Things (IoT) VP and general manager, Injong Rhee, as its new chief technology officer (CTO) responsible for accelerating the integration of proprietary...
Moku, an emerging mushroom jerky brand, is laying down the foundation to build a highly-scalable, clean label meat alternative platform under a strategic partnership with Siddhi Capital, say co-founders Matt Feldman and Melissa Facchina.
Plant-based brands have blasted the latest wave of bills proposing restrictions on the use of terms such as ‘milk’ and ‘meat’ in states including New York and Texas as “a solution in search of a problem,” but say more work is needed to persuade legislators...
A new business model developed by Milwaukee-based startup Agricycle that combines a vertically-integrated supply chain with a portfolio of upcycled brands is proving that with a little imagination and basic resources small growers can have an outsized...
Geltor – which has developed a computational biology platform to create a range of ‘designer’ functional proteins via microbial fermentation - is gearing up for the commercial launch of the world’s first ingestible ‘animal-free’ vegan collagen for the...
Hot on the heels of price cuts to foodservice distributors, Impossible Foods is cutting prices to US grocery stores and supermarkets, taking suggested retail prices for two patty packs down 20% to $5.49, and 12oz bricks down to $6.99.
Rising consumer concern about the long-term detrimental impact on children’s health and palate development from baby food overly-sweetened or predominately packed with fruit is opening the door for a new cohort of entrepreneurs promoting vegetable- and...
Nutritional Growth Solutions, Ltd. (NGS), parent company of Healthy Height kids protein shake mixes, has acquired nutritional shake brand KidzShake and has announced plans to enter the US medical market.
US investors can now buy and trade stocks of Eat Beyond Global Holdings and its growing portfolio of alternative protein brands from plant-based ingredients firms to cell-based agriculture companies, under the ticker symbol EATBF.
In the next 12 to 18 months, cultivated meat could become available to the masses, according to some industry players raising funds to scale production of technological and scientific advances that will allow for lower production costs and a lower consumer...
Recognizing that breakthrough technologies that could transform the global food supply chain often originate in academia, Big Idea Ventures has launched a $125m fund to commercialize IP from some of the nation’s leading universities and fuel economic...
Soylent and DuPont Nutrition and Biosciences are participating in a pilot program to highlight the sustainability credentials of US-grown soy by road-testing a new ‘Sustainably Grown U.S. Soy’ logo developed by the United Soybean Board (USB). So what’s...
SimplyProtein – a snacking brand acquired from The Simply Good Foods Company by Toronto-based Wellness Natural last September – is generating double digit growth in the US market and has the potential to grow from a $20m to a $100m brand within five years,...
Despite parents' best efforts and new products coming to the market promising critical nutrients from vegetables, the fact remains that the vast majority of children are simply not eating enough vegetables. This reality is the primary motivating...
Ingredient supplier Kerry has introduced a web-based tool designed to help food and beverage manufacturers with their plant-based product formulation challenges.
Millie Gram -- the latest brand innovation to come out of Mondelēz SnackFutures -- combines nut butters with powdered mushroom blends (cordyceps, shiitake, maitake, reishi, and lion's mane) and is currently testing its market appeal with consumers...
What are the primary purchase drivers for plant-based foods? Should humans drink cow’s milk? Why don’t the Dietary Guidelines address sustainability? And could tapping into consumer interest in the microbiome help make fiber the go-to functional ingredient...
Post Holdings has dipped its toes into the fast-growing plant-based meat category with an investment in St Louis-based startup Hungry Planet, which makes soy- and wheat-based beef, port, chicken, crab and chorizo for foodservice and retail markets.
PepsiCo and Beyond Meat will form The PLANeT Partnership to develop, produce and market beverages and snacks made from plant-based protein. PepsiCo says plant-based protein offers ‘a new frontier’ in its efforts to build a more sustainable food system,...
As the pandemic expands consumers’ definition of wellness to include not just physical fitness but also emotional welfare, they increasingly are seeking snacks that balance both – opening the door for products that are nostalgic and indulgent as well...
Spanish start-up Novameat has developed what it claims to be the biggest cell-based meat prototype in the world. FoodNavigator catches up with founder and CEO Giuseppe Scionti to talk R&D, investment, and collaborating with Michelin-starred Disfrutar.
JUST Egg, in partnership with sous vide foods manufacturer and distributor Cuisine Solutions, has expanded its plant-based egg portfolio with the launch of frozen sous vide egg bites rolling out to select grocery stores in March.
If high-tech reverse engineering has enabled a second generation of meat analogs that precisely mimic their animal-based counterparts, a third wave of plant-based innovation will meet demand for less processed, more culinary-inspired products featuring...
Vancouver, Canada-based Eat Beyond Global Holdings has completed an investment in Above Food Inc.– a distributor of plant-based ingredients and finished products – adding the company to its publicly-traded portfolio of emerging alternative protein companies.
Private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners has made a majority growth investment into Dr. Praeger's Sensible Foods, which makes a range of frozen and refrigerated vegan and vegetarian burgers, sausages and nuggets, appetizers, and snacks.
