Is private label ripping you off?
New VC for early stage Central California, more with the FDA and GRAS, Geneva group chat might shut down, and GLP-1 Friendly could be your new innovation
3-min read
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Before we get started, a reminder of what this newsletter is and what it is not — I write on topics that help my readers with their businesses; brands, farmers, producers, and manufacturers get tips and insights to be better at what they do. Two things I’m not doing is trying to gotcha anybody, and I don’t do paid ads. I value your opinion so please write to me or in the comments. Thanks for reading.
I met up with Danny Bernstein, ex-Googler, ex-Microsoft, heading up Hawk Tower, a new VC for early stage tech in Central California. If you are pre-launch or early with innovation tackling food + ag (think up cycling, waste reduction, supply chain, food safety), and don’t mind relocating to Central California, look them up. Danny’s raising a $74m fund that is so far 1/4 raised, and commitments have already been made, most recently to a Fresno WET Center (Water, Energy & Technology) startup. Robotics startup Farm-ng from Watsonville received $1m from Hawk Tower. Average check sizes will be $500K for pre-seed on up through Series A — if you are in investor and interested in being a LP contact Danny at Hawk Tower.
Speaking of the central valley, I also caught up with Bob Rodriguez with the Fresno Bee who left the ag desk briefly to cover courts, and is now back on ag. He recently did extensive coverage of the Paine Schwartz liquidation of stone fruit grower Prima Wawona. If you have food + ag news in the valley, contact Bob at the Bee.
Food safety is in your hands, despite what the news says
Now that it’s been confirmed, … the recent ruling by the FDA on tara flour as not safe does not indicate the agency will be any more proactive on new ingredients in the near future, despite what Fast Company says. At the FDA, it’s business-as-usual.
When bringing in new ingredients: understand the FDA’s role vs your role. The FDA approves scant few new ingredients (like, less than 10 in the past 20 years), therefore almost anything new will be under the GRAS exemption (or not).
As is the case so often in entrepreneurship, you need to “trust but verify” everything about your business, including new ingredients, because an ingredient can be marketed and used in food as GRAS with no FDA evaluation. If that’s incredulous, I wrote more about it here.
The FDA mandates you do your quality assurance due diligence. Makes me wonder why action isn’t being taken against Smirks, the importer of the tara flour, who obviously skipped that part. 🤔
There is still time to launch your GLP-1 friendly line of products
What are GLP-1 friendly foods addressing? Dense nutrition. Because people on these weight loss drugs eat a lot less, absorb fewer nutrients, and lose muscle mass — they need protein, fiber, and nutrients in a small amount of food.
Nestle announced they are getting in the game but who knows when items will hit shelves. It still takes Big Food forever to launch new innovation.
There is currently no regulation around the use of “GLP-1 Companion" or “GLP-1 Friendly” claims. But any health claim needs to be supported.
You could support the claim like this —
Daily Harvest launched a line of “GLP-1 Companion” items and here’s what they say:
We believe that the path to sustainable weight loss is paved with the right nutrition, and our collection is here to support you every step of the way. A wholesome diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, legumes, nuts, and seeds can be a component of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3) These nutrient-dense foods provide the body with essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, promoting overall health and reducing disease risk. (Source 1, Source 2) The combination of healthy eating habits with GLP-1 medications can be an effective approach to achieving weight loss goals.
Dating app Bumble bought friends app Geneva, and sounds like they’ll be shuttering Geneva by year end (unconfirmed)
Geneva is a community app used by CPG brands to chat with fans and build exclusive Close Friends groups. Bumble’s been moving toward friendship groups so it’ll be interesting to see how the acquisition plays out.
Private label is getting a glow up and all kinds of fun new items that look just like yours (ahem, sprouted almonds) will be hitting shelves soon
Walmart’s new Bettergoods and CVS’s Well Market are doing what private label always does — rip off successful products. But now with cool branding. (If the name Bettergoods sounds close to brand Proper Good, it’s just you).
Remember store brands cannot compete with your premium positioning, omni-channel presence, transparent supply chain, customer loyalty, and customer experience.
As a brand you are much more than the food that’s inside.
All my best,
Jennifer
Stores aren’t even hiding that they’re investing heavily PL. submitted bites to Meijer for review and they wrote back that while so many great brands submitted, they decided to focus on their private label brand. So it sounds like they just did a mini R&D/checking the CPG landscape for what to add to their PL
this was a wonderful read!! thank you from Albanie @ KT :)