• 🌒 Brands Embracing Eclipse-Inspired LTOs
• 🍝 Tolerant Foods Closes Up Shop
• 🆕  From Shelf-stable Bacon To Pop-Tart Snacks
• 📺  Is The DoorDash Business Model Doomed?

It appears David Chang’s Momofuku empire thinks it has cornered the market on the term “chili crunch” and is claiming various other CPG brands making a chili crisp condiment infringed on its trademark. 

⏪ The newfound obsession with crunchy, chili-spiked garlic spreads has shown legs among U.S. consumers with a number of brands from both Asian and Latin American culinary backgrounds getting into the game.

Yet, Momofuku has sent cease-and-desist letters to food makers using the specific terms “chile crunch” and “chili crunch.” Malaysian food company Homiah and frozen Chinese street food brand MìLà are among brands that have received letters in the last month, according to a report in The Guardian.

💬 “Chili Crunch has a history that long predates Momofuku’s product (which was first released in 2020) and is culturally common throughout a variety of cuisines from China to Korea to Malaysia, where I grew up. In fact, Homiah’s Sambal Chili Crunch is based on a family recipe, dating back at least five generations in the Nyonya (Straits Chinese) heritage of Penang, Malaysia,” Homiah founder Michelle Tew told Nosh in an email. 

⛔ While Momofuku Goods doesn’t currently have a registered trademark for “chili crunch,” it began the filing process last week. Chang’s food company does own the trademark rights to “chile crunch” (mind the “e” which is the Spanish spelling of chili) which it acquired after a six-figure legal settlement last year with Denver-based Chile Colonial, LLC. But Tew believes the mark is “immensely weak” and “should never have been approved in the first place.” 

Nevertheless, this is not the first time Chang's Momofuku brand has gone to the mattresses over a fairly ubiquitous culinary name. The company has tried to trademark its Ssam Sauce more than once.

At least five brands have received virtually identical cease-and-desist letters, Tew reported, and several have responded to Momofuku saying they intend to comply. In essence, the letters have succeeded in intimidating smaller brands due to a resource-power imbalance, Tew said.

Check out the full story on Nosh to read how the industry has reacted.

Ahead of a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, several brands have released limited-edition products to celebrate the rare celestial event. 

🍨 The new Punk Stargonaut collection from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams includes four pints – Nebula Berry, Cosmic Bloom, Purple Star Born and Supermoon – alongside a special Space Dust topping featuring fizzy popping candies. 

🌛 The self-proclaimed “official sponsor” of the solar eclipse, MoonPie is offering solar eclipse survival kits that include mini versions of the brand’s signature marshmallow sandwich in chocolate, vanilla and banana flavors. 

☀️ Frito-Lay’s SunChips is selling a super-limited-edition Spicy Gouda and Pineapple Habanero flavor at SunChipsSolarEclipse.com during the roughly four-and-a-half-minute duration of the total eclipse.

Barilla-owned legume-based pasta maker Tolerant Foods announced in an Instagram post on Thursday that it has halted production and will begin to wind down the brand and business. The Canadian startup, founded in 2013 by Tom Friedmann, was acquired by the Barilla Group in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.

📦 The company said it expects products to be available in retail through May and potentially beyond that time with ecommerce and retail stock likely to be depleted by early summer.

💚 Tolerant made a 8-SKU line of organic pastas with shapes including Elbows, Rotini, Penne and Spaghetti. The pastas were positioned around their single-ingredient bases which range from chickpeas to green lentils and red lentils and sold for an SRP of $4.49 per 8 oz. box.

💬 “This decision was not made lightly, and we want to extend our deepest gratitude to each and every one of you who has supported us throughout our journey,” the post reads.

Read the full story on Nosh.

Fiery pistachio flavors, crunchy Pop-Tarts and fully-cooked, shelf-stable bacon. This week’s edition of Nosh’s New Products is full of surprises. Here’s a brief overview: 

🥓Applegate Farms introduced its latest innovation, Applegate Naturals Fully Cooked Sunday Bacon. Made with 100% humanely raised pork, the new offering features the same quality and taste as the brand’s traditional bacon but is fully cooked and shelf-stable, prior to being opened.

👀 Pop-Tarts launched Crunchy Poppers in two varieties – Frosted Strawberry Crunch and Frosted Brownie Crunch. The snack offering is  a “pop-in-your-mouth twist” on Pop-Tarts with a crunchy exterior.

🔥Wonderful Pistachios unveiled its newest fiery flavor, Jalapeño Lime. The “spicy-but-not-too-spicy” pistachios join Wonderful’s No Shells lineup in Canada and are now rolling out in retailers nationwide.

Check out the full gallery on Nosh.

From the pandemic-driven boom for delivery app businesses, to the lingering issues with making them profitable, John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” segment gives a comprehensive overview of the challenges still facing gig-economy-reliant companies. 

💸 Restaurants often see the vast majority of their sales through the apps absorbed into fees while delivery drivers feel as if they are pawns to the flawed algorithms that dictate inefficient routes. 

⭐ Oliver concludes that in the most ironic sense, the tech world’s attempt at modernizing food delivery may have created one of the first businesses whose sole beneficiary is the customers themselves. So tonight, before you order a single slice of pizza and leave your DoorDasher a 3-star review… check out the full segment.