Ozempathy will change product, price and packs

Also, the solution to Chobani's reformulation troubles, more MAHA takes, and more on farmworker legal status

If you’ve never heard of Ozempathy it’s because I made it up just now. I’m noticing a second-order effect of GLP-1 use where partners of users lose weight too, when not on the drug themselves.

Also in this post:

• More takes on MAHA

• Chobani blew it with barista oat milk reformulation, and I’m handing them the fix for FREE

• Cottage cheese darling Good Culture has been OOS

• ICE farmworker update

• Scorned Bitchin’ Sauce brothers strike back

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“I’m down 10 pounds—and I’m not even on the drug”

Ever heard of sympathetic weight gain? Ozempathy is the reverse (I made this up). Brands should understand how pervasive this is, and cater to households — not just individuals — that eat less often, with more clarity of purpose.

Consumer research platforms like 1Q have GLP-1 ready panels for surveys, and I bet they can easily get panels of GLP-1 user households to verify this anecdotal evidence. Because we might be entering a new paradigm with which to structure product offerings for what may soon become 1 in 5 households.

Price/value positioning where high volume + low price = value, is out of date

I remember my boomer mother-in-law would buy Skinny Cow 90-calorie fudgsicles and eat 3 at a time. I was like, that’s not how it works. She thought it was a great value.

The price-per-calorie value proposition flips in our new paradigm. Today, nutrient density and digestibility, in ritual formats (everyday foods) will command higher price per ounce.

I’m going to be watching how challenger brands and legacy CPG’s converge when Big Food moves to reformat product, price and packs.

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This was one of the more stupid critiques I’ve read about the MAHA agenda

The editors at SELF magazine must not be doing the grocery shopping in their households because their article acts like natural foods stopped evolving in 2005.

Quoted in the piece, from an associate prof of sociology at Rutgers:

“Women do a disproportionate share of the kind of work that the MAHA movement is asking people to do, which is to grow their own food, to prepare all of their food from scratch, and to avoid processed food and even packaged foods,”

I’m taking an offense for all of you founders and brands with accessible, natural, ready-to-eat / ready-to-prepare foods that are not hard to find—from Whole Foods to Walmart—making it easier and more affordable for everyone to eat better.

SELF goes on to say the MAHA movement “demonizes the current food supply—without providing feasible or equitable alternatives.” But it’s precisely because of increased demand for cleaner ingredients at scale that we now have such widespread access to these kinds of foods. And it’s this audience that has called for increased government regulation in food (i.e. school lunch nutrition requirements), and now that they are doing so, it’s not fair!

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➡️ In other news

🥣 What Chobani’s CEO Just Admitted About Ingredient Changes

"Yesterday, I got a consumer complaint," he said. "It said, 'My oat milk is not foaming as good as it used to.'" Men’s Journal

Hamdi said it took them two years to remove dipotassium phosphate from their oat milk, and it doesn’t perform like before.

Clean label foaming for plant based beverage already exists — Goodmylk makes oil free/dipotassium phosphate free Oat mylk and Almond mylk barista solutions. Chobani get in touch !

Good Culture cottage cheese has been out of stock all over town

There isn’t enough cottage cheese manufacturing capacity to fulfill demand. I don’t know if that’s why they are OOS or if it’s a result of UNFI getting hacked a few weeks ago. Cottage cheese was up $250m in a $3.5b market YOY making it the 6th top driver of dairy growth with yogurt being #1.

🧊 ICE raid update

On June 20 in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump discussed giving employers responsibility regarding legal status of farmworkers. This was after he resumed ICE raids. Like I mentioned last week, it is currently not allowed that employers investigate or question documents about a worker’s legal status. Trump said this the same day he said he’d give Iran 2 weeks to come to the table, so who knows.

Before we can fix the employer part of this we need better laws. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA) is one of the most serious efforts in decades to align immigration law with agricultural labor reality, but Congress’s political dysfunction has made even a carefully negotiated, bipartisan bill impossible to pass.

This sample pack is intense

The scorned brothers of Bitchin’ Sauce founder Starr Edwards started their own brand called JeeSauce (don’t love the name) but all these dips flavors are very tasty and texture is great. You can get samples for the cost of shipping only. The ingredients are avocado oil first then organic almonds. I don’t know why they aren’t using almond oil. I have messaged them to find out.

All my best,

Jennifer