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Health remains a powerful growth driver in packaged food, but its meaning has evolved.

Consumers no longer define healthy primarily through restriction or calorie counting. Rather, it’s about balance, quality, satiety and functional benefits.

Kelli Howard, senior director of brand strategy at SPINS, highlighted how the next generation of consumers shops for healthy products during a presentation at Nosh Live earlier this month: 

• Consumers consistently prioritize ingredients, protein, fresh foods and low or no added sugar. Categories that deliver on these needs, like yogurt, continue to outperform. 
• Products with positive, benefit-led claims (“high protein,” “good source of fiber”) are growing faster than those relying only on “free-from” messaging.

What does this mean for packaged food startups? Howard offered some helpful hints.

Insiders can access all of the data and insight.

Once a shorthand for convenience and indulgence, snacks are now being evaluated like health risks. In From Buzz to Backlash: The New “No-Go” List, Brightfield Group uncovers how everyday categories – bars, chips, and grab-and-go snacks – have become ground zero for rising consumer anxiety around ultraprocessing, “forever chemicals,” and hidden health tradeoffs.

Insiders can read the full report.

Backed by a new investment partner, Laird Superfood has big plans for expansion. The Colorado-based brand is working with Nexus Capital, which now holds a 53.5% share in the business following the close of a $50 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction this week, to build a superfood platform.

Insiders can access the full story to understand why now.

Roughly seven months after its primary lender pulled two-thirds of the company’s available cash, mycelium-based alt-meat brand Meati has powered down its Thornton, Colo., plant.

Become an Insider for all of the details.

Here’s a look at leading headlines from around the food industry. Insiders get access to the full story.

1. The Year In Candy: Freeze-Dried Growth, Texture Play, Fruit-Forward Formulations and Dubai Chocolate
2. How Creator-Led Content Is Reshaping Food Marketing
3. With Believer Meats Shuttered, Cell-Cultured Protein Faces Inflection Point
4. Truly Indian’s Clean Label Push Meets Tariff Pressure
5. Why Fundamentals, Not Flash, Will Define the Next Generation of Packaged Food

Tired of chasing food, beverage, and beer reports across sites? The Nombase Data Hub, powered by BevNET, brings together consumer trends, category shifts, retail data, all in one searchable archive, powered by top research partners.

Insider-only access here.

In this replay of a 2023 Taste Radio interview with Poppi founders Allison and Stephen Ellsworth – recorded when the BFY soda brand was still firmly in disruptor mode – you’ll hear the blueprint for PepsiCo’s $1.95 billion acquisition years before it happened: a brand that tastes great, moves at the speed of culture, wins both online and in-store, and boldly reclaims the word “soda.”

Tune into the episode here. Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.