Amy Zitelman

California just banned sell-by dates and will be enforcing standardized language going forward. That's a huge food sustainability win. "By requiring manufacturers to use the same phrases for date labels across products, ReFED estimates that in California alone, this law will annually save 70,000 tons of food from going to waste, saving consumers $300 million.” "The changes will take effect starting on July 1, 2026, and impact all manufacturers, processors, and retailers of food for human consumption." The impact potential of small changes -- especially when they are properly informed by both data and common sense -- can't be underestimated. #food #sustainability #leadership #climateaction Kudos to ReFED for your leadership!

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Statista provides a great "wake up" for foodies in the US, where "local" often appears to be all the rage.....except that it matters more in most other countries! In the U.S. we can get a little myopic about consumer trends and interests, an understandable consequence of living and working in the world's most studied consumer marketplace...which means the most news stories about new studies and findings, and rarely compare the US to other markets https://lnkd.in/gPbf--8Q

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Curious how your food bank can benefit from PLANETARIANS? - High prices and inflation  - Limited purchasing power - Cultural and dietary needs How do food bank's procurement teams cope?! Check insights from Chris Costanzo in Food Bank News (TLDR: Planetarians made plant-based proteins more affordable than chicken) And come to our webinar to learn more: - Tue, Oct 15, 2024, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST Webinar Link https://lnkd.in/gJs2Kp9T #affordable #sustainable #protein for #foodsecurity #climatechange

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Sorel Liqueur: The Ultimate Modifier Alcohol has a problem no one in the spirits industry talks about: alcohol doesn't taste good. This is by design. Taste (like most of our senses) doubles as a defensive mechanism: our body rejects things that are (or might be) poison. Pure alcohol, by definition, is poison: that's why every bottle of alcohol sold comes with a warning label; why it's a controlled substance. This has in no way diminished human desire to consume alcohol. Humans discovered the effects alcohol has on the body (both good and bad) and have spent thousands of years desperately trying to minimize the impact so we can enjoy the effect. Ancient Egyptians soaked botanicals in alcohol to make tinctures. The Celts began the practice of aging spirits in wood. Water, sugar, fruits; all things people have added over the millennia to make spirits more potable. Big liquor solves this problem by adding flavor to alcohol. This is why things like cinnamon flavored whiskey, blueberry flavored vodka, and jalapeño flavored tequila exist. At Sorel Liqueur we reverse the logic. Everyone else starts with alcohol and adds flavor: We start with flavor and add alcohol. The end result isn't just objectively delicious. It's also infinitely flexible. The combination of botanicals in Sorel effectively masks the flavor of ethanol. Practically, this means not only will it combine with any base spirit, it compliments the base by suppressing the flavor of ethanol, thus enhancing flavors. Gins have more botanical notes. Aged liquors (rum or whisky) have more barrel notes. Agave bases (tequila or mezcal) show more fruit and smoke. Don't believe me? Try mixing your favorite base 1:1 with Sorel. I've got a restaurant in Northern KY who's serving equal parts Sorel and Chartreuse. A spot in DC is serving equal parts Sorel and Sake. A dive bar in ATL is serving equal parts Sorel and peanut butter whisky (it's a perfect PBJ shot). And then there's this conversation from a decade ago, from my friend Matthew Sheinberg: Sorel and Laphroaig. Given modern drink trends, you may not need a base spirit at all in your favorite Sorel cocktail. Add a bit of Sorel to your favorite carbonated beverage, alc or non-alc. Top off your sparkling wine with Sorel instead of wasting your orange juice in a mimosa. Add Sorel to your seltzer with a spritz of lime. Ginger beer and Sorel makes a hibiscus mule that absolutely crushes summer drink menus. Or just drink it neat. The ultimate modifier requires no modification. #Caribbean #BlackOwned #ForTheCulture #DrinkSorel

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Chef Terri's Tip # 225: How to create a successful, made-in-the-USA, plant-based CPG food brand & company. Embrace the spirit of the energizer bunny and keep moving forward, no matter the obstacles. Be like the energizer bunny and keep going and going and going. #Motivation #KeepGoing #EnergizerBunny #StayPositive #NeverGiveUp California will introduce a new bill in 2025 called the Mirena IUD Brain Tumor Act. This evil medical device will eventually be recalled in the USA. Shame on you, team Bayer. You know the truth and have covered it so your company can remain profitable. We are not pawns in your game of chess. We are mothers with families who love us. Our lives matter. The research proves it deteriorates organs, specifically our eyes and brains. Now, the Mirena IUD is linked to breast cancer in women. Your company must hate women. Why else would you hide the truth from us? "Thousands of women nationwide sued Bayer Pharmaceuticals over Mirena birth control after they say it perforated the uterus, damaged organs, and caused pseudotumor cerebri — an abnormal fluid buildup in the skull. These women said Mirena's complications led to diminished quality of life, and they live in fear of future complications." -Drugwatch.com https://lnkd.in/gJS3Y-YU

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"How to accelerate your startup journey in a crowded marketplace" 16-Apr-2024 By FoodNavigator BeyondSKU Accelerator is calling for innovative New Yorkers to apply to its upcoming fall cohort. "We can’t believe how accelerated our growth has been since participating in Cohort 4 of BeyondSKU," said Daniel Auld, co-founder of Kekoa Foods. "The mentors are seasoned CPG leaders who encouraged us to share our biggest pain points so they could offer their insight, expertise and connections to help us develop a solid growth plan over an 18-month period." Read more below and deadline for companies to apply is June 15. If YOU are a founder interested in joining us, please visit www.beyondSKU.org ! #cpg #foodandbeverage #cpgindustry #entrepreneur #innovation #mentors #cpgleaders #cpgexpert #accelerator #beyondsku #newyorkcity BeyondBrands

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If you are curious about the nutritional quality of plant proteins, check out our expert panel tomorrow! Registration info in the post below. Plants are such a great source of essential amino acids. I know that nutrition science has evolved a lot since I played college sports (which was at this point a LONG time ago!!!!) but we still have a ways to go to overcoming some myths about plant proteins, especially in performance nutrition. Excited to see what this panel has to say!!

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Consumers are so confused. Food companies, as Kevin 🚲 Lehmann puts it, are not purveyors of health. And the FDA’s role is not to make us healthy. The FDA’s role in food & bev is two-fold*: (1) regulate food safety and (2) oversee labeling to make sure it’s transparent. Raw milk falls under #1. But raw milk is only illegal in interstate sales. Intrastate, it’s up to your local government. Why? Bacteria grows faster when milk is not pasteurized. It comes from an animal. If you keep it 34-38 F, it’ll last 7-10 days. But between production, transportation and retail distribution this is harder than most think. You add long trucking distances and an ABSOLUTE DEARTH of US Refrigerated Cold Storage, and it’ll become really hard to keep people from getting sick. This is why we don’t have raw juice either. We do have HPP processed juice and it’s expensive. I wonder if anyone has tried it with milk and how much added shelf life we could get. Anyway, just trying to help what seems like a misguided conversation. *- it’s a little more complex than this but this summarizes what the FDA does.

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Two days ago I proposed writing a guide to starting a CPG brand and the interest was overwhelming… so I’m doing it. Here’s my initial outline: CREATING YOUR PRODUCT Product Development Category Norms Product Packaging Types Pricing BUILING A BRAND What is a Brand? Positioning Statement Values Mission Statement Tagline Packaging Design Brand Identify Elements FINANCING How much money will you need? Cashflow Debt Angels / V MANUFACTURING Self Manufacturing Co-manufacturing Finding a co-manufacturer SUPPLIERS Ingredient Suppliers Packaging Suppliers SALES CHAMNELS Farmer’s Markets E-commerce Grocery and Retail Club Foodservice DISTRIBUTORS How distributors work National distributors Regional distributors Distributor watch outs MARKETING Digital Marketing Retail Marketing Other Marketing RETAIL SUPPORT Merchandising Brokers Sales Agencies What do you think? What’s missing? #cpg

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Why is the CPG journey from inception to consumer so freaking difficult?? So many hurdles to overcome and battle through... The system is broken and we have been trying to figure out how to build some kind of a road map that allows founders to at least have an idea of what is coming. After talking to 100's of founders and industry experts we have compiled the beginnings of what we feel should be able to help, we are calling it SKU Trails. This info is straight from the source and from our own experiences. We simply laid it out in a way that we feel can at least start to shed some light on the journey of CPG products. We've worked on this layout with a few founders and their brands already (including our own) and its been invaluable. Gonna start sharing the madness and we encourage any and all feedback as we do. The ULTIMATE goal is to help the ecosystem and improve the chance of brand success! Jonny Boyarsky Tim Xenos Catapult Commercialization Services Trevor Davis #cpg #founder #journey

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Great article and thanks for the FABID mention Deena Shanker. The reset will benefit the industry long term.

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Big Heart Tea Co. Minty Blue was just featured on Whole Foods Market 2025 Trend Report! And I can’t even begin to tell you what this means to me, but I’ll try. In 2016, I was at a real crossroads with my tea business. Back then, it was still called Retrailer Tea (horrible name in hindsight, but hey, we sold tea out of a trailer, so it made sense to nobody but me). The world felt so divided, my social feeds were filled with negativity, and on top of that, I had a 2-year-old at home. Farmers markets weren’t cutting it anymore as a revenue stream, and I saw two options—close the business or go big. That’s when I saw Whole Foods’ 2017 Market Trend Report featuring tulsi and turmeric—two key ingredients in our Cup of Sunshine blend. I thought, “We’re on trend. Maybe I know what I’m doing.” So, I began crafting a plan to take my small, local tea company national. I renamed the company Big Heart because of tea’s natural power to bring people together and started doing some very DIY market research—literally hanging out in the tea aisle at Whole Foods. I spent hours observing the brands on the shelves and quickly realized that while all the teas were high-quality and value-based, none of the packaging spoke to me as a millennial who loves beautiful branding. So, I decided to create a tea company that spoke directly to its customers through both the quality of its ingredients and the design of its packaging. Here’s where the doubts came in. I told all my friends and family that our value prop was brand, and while they supported me, nobody fully understood what I meant. They couldn’t quite see the vision, but that was okay, because I did. I went all in, and in March 2017, we launched Big Heart Tea Co. Almost immediately, we started filling orders from early market adopters, specialty retailers, and small businesses. In a crowded tea market, our brand set us apart. Buyers constantly complimented our packaging, which got their attention first, but once they tasted the tea—simple blends made with whole, natural ingredients—they’d say, “And it tastes good, too!” Dare I say, we became the total package. As the company grew, we onboarded national accounts that further validated our position in the market. Every year, I reviewed Whole Foods’ market trend reports for continued validation and inspiration. For us, that report became a North Star, since the Whole Foods customer was always our target. Many of the herbs, flowers, and spices we use have been featured over the years. Now, to be featured in the 2025 report with our Minty Blue tea feels like a full-circle moment. I’m so honored and proud of what we’ve built—a company that has so much of my heart and soul wrapped up in it. Thank you for seeing us, the little Big Heart that could.

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If you're a CPG brand or if you don't have a CPG brand and want to be featured on our monthly newsletter please message me directly. We have a few hundred subscribers now, and I wanted to highlight people and their products and services that fits my newsletter audience. This allows people to get their name out there to the world about what they do. This is free of charge for a limited time. I have only 4 brands I will be adding to the newsletter each month. Send me pictures of your products/ services with a brief description. I will make sure you're featured in the next article if slots are available. Let's support and help each other grow. #community #engagement #newsletter #support #cpg #business #branding #audience #networking #entrepreneurship #affiliatemarketing #smallbusiness

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🤩 The new Foodbevy website is launching and I need your help choosing what layout we should use for our home page. Could you help me decide? Over the past few years we've helped thousands of CPG founders with inspiration, education, and partnership as they grow food and beverage businesses. We've created some really valuable content, but our original website was stale, and information was hard to find. So we gave it a face lift to put our content front and center. Here's where I need your help. Would you prefer to have the home page categorized by each media type (CPG news, articles, podcast, and webinar)? or would you prefer a running feed with everything together? Check out the two live links and let me know which version you prefer in the comments and why! Organized by Media Type: www.foodbevy.com Organized by Running Feed: https://lnkd.in/g6yYeH-v #CPG

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There are many ways to transform food. You can cure it, marinate it, pickle it, or #brine it. So what’s the difference between these terms? Here's a simple breakdown: 🍽️ A classic brine is a solution of #salt and water, used to flavor and preserve meats, vegetables, fish, and fruits. It enhances meat’s juiciness by disrupting muscle fibers, allowing it to absorb more liquid, and prevents proteins from coagulating, resulting in tender meat. 🍽️ There are two #PicklingMethods: fermentation using salt and water, or quick pickling with water and acid, such as vinegar or lemon juice. 🍽️ #Marinating often does not include salt but uses acids like vinegar, wine, fruit juice, or buttermilk to add flavor and help the ingredient retain moisture during cooking. 🍽️ Curing is a more general term encompassing these methods and can include any technique that uses salt and other ingredients to season and preserve food. #SeaSaltSuperstore #CookingMethods

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"Starting your dream company? Here’s the blueprint: A clear vision, a meaningful mission, and a stellar team. 💡 Before diving in, having 60% clarity on your idea is key in today’s fast-paced world—where speed and adaptability reign supreme. It’s about being ready to invest your time and passion wisely, ensuring your foundation is strong enough to weather any storm. 🚀 Remember, success isn’t just about the idea; it’s about execution and resilience. Take the leap when your vision aligns with purpose, and your team is ready to conquer challenges together. Start strong, stay focused, and pave the way for your startup journey. 💪 #StartupSuccess #Entrepreneurship #VisionaryLeadership #MissionDriven #DreamBig #TeamBuilding #InnovationFirst #ExecuteYourVision #StartupJourney

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The global hot honey market is valued at over 100 million dollars. Swicy, the trend of combining sweet and spicy flavors in food and drinks, is burning up North America! Here's the gist: Growing Popularity: This isn't a flash in the pan. Consumers are increasingly drawn to bold flavor profiles, with spice being a big player. Research shows a rise in demand for "swicy" products across categories, from snacks to beverages. Hot & Sweet Harmony: Swicy is all about creating a flavor explosion by marrying the sweet with the heat. Think chili chocolate, hot honey-glazed chicken, or spicy fruit drinks. Driving Force: Millennials, Gen Z, and even Gen Alpha are leading the swicy charge. Their adventurous palates crave new taste experiences. Examples Everywhere: Major brands are jumping on board. We've seen spicy lemonades at Starbucks, Coca-Cola releasing a spiced cola, and the continued popularity of Flamin' Hot snacks. Inspiration from Abroad: The rise of Korean cuisine in North America is contributing to the swicy trend. Korean food often features sweet and spicy combinations, like gochujang (Korean chili paste) used in sauces or glazes. Overall, swicy is a trend with staying power, fueled by adventurous taste buds and creative culinary minds. So, get ready for a taste bud adventure that's both sweet and spicy! Now Origo Brands has launched the first of its kind, Hot Agave. Beautiful blend of Chile De Arbol and USDA Organic, Wild Heirloom Agave. Perfect behind the bar, in dressings or in hot applications. You’ll fall in love with this better for you sweetener that adds just the right amount of heat.

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These fortune 500 companies need more decentralization having hundreds and thousands of people with MBAs and education sit in a cubicle but can't create a single innovative product is ironic. Believe it or not you as an new food entrepreneur have the skills to surpass many food brands because they lack innovation. It's time for change in the industry for sure. I took this picture a year ago while working with the amazing Lisa Thorson. The CPG industry is monopoly no doubt about it. We must push innovation and change and support each other. #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #capital #growth #branding #packaging #sales #marketing #community #fooddevelopment #recipe #foodandbeverage #emergingbrands #cpg #branding #innovation

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