• 🍚 Stoked Oats Expands Into Alt-Rice
• 🤑 Mezcla Unveils New Look
• 🐣 Cal-Maine's Q1 Results 
• 🍩 SnackFutures Invests In Doughnut Co.
• 👀 Walmart Sees Affluent Shopper Boost
• 📖 Jeff Church’s Tale Of Two Brands. Why Suja Soared And Rowdy Energy Crashed.

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With a majority of its nearly year-long reorganization efforts now complete, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is ushering in a new era. 

The reorganization, which effectively created a distinct Human Foods Program (HFP), was approved in May and went into effect on Tuesday; the overhaul was executed to help the agency better address the importance of nutrition, reduce diet-related diseases, strengthen state partnerships and embrace innovative food and agricultural technologies. In practice, this will allow the FDA to more effectively regulate and uphold the safety of the nation’s food supply. 

As part of these efforts, the agency has restructured and renamed the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) to the Office of Inspections and Investigations (OII); it will now (as its name indicates) focus on inspections, investigations and imports and create an enterprise-wide structure to enhance collaboration between FDA field investigators and other subject matter experts throughout the agency. 

Additionally, the HFP is piloting a new, streamlined approach for processing complaints, including whistleblower complaints. The public will be able to direct complaints about foods and dietary supplements to HFP via the FDA’s new online reporting forms. 

Until this week, phone complaints were directed to consumer complaints coordinators (CCCs) under ORA. As of Oct. 1, the phone numbers associated with CCCs are no longer in service and consumers should instead call 1-888-SAFEFOOD. 

“[These reorganization efforts] will enable us to zero in on those issues where intervention has the greatest opportunity for the prevention of disease and for the prevention of wellness,” said Robert Califf, U.S. FDA Commissioner, in a statement. “We are confident that the new Human Foods Program will better protect and support consumers and improve our employees’ ability to carry out the FDA’s public mission.” 

And while the FDA is getting its house in order, elsewhere in D.C., lawmakers have still not come to an agreement on how to fund future nutrition and agricultural programs. The one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill expired this week, marking the second year in a row that Congress has failed to pass the legislation, which has supported the U.S. agricultural sector and food aid programs for nearly a century. 

Ahead of its expiration, earlier this month more than 300 U.S. farm and commodity groups sent a letter asking Congress to pass the spending bill before the end of the year, as farmers face a possible dip in income. 

“Failing to reauthorize a farm bill without meaningful investments in commodity programs and crop insurance, or settling for a simple extension of current law, would leave thousands of family farms with no options to continue producing for this nation in 2025 and beyond,” reads the letter.

Catch Up on Recent Regulatory News: Did Boar’s Head Ignore Red Flags?

Stoked Oats announced it is moving beyond the breakfast aisle for the first time this week with the launch of Stoked OatRice, an alternative rice product made from unprocessed oats grown in Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) fields in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana.

🔍 This new innovation utilizes the oat groat, which co-founder and CEO Simon Donato claims is similar in size and shape to a short rice grain and offers a similar taste when cooked.

✨ Brands such as RightRice, Banza and Kaizen Food Company sell their own iterations of rice alternatives; notably all of those items include a combination or base of beans and legumes.

🔊 “We don’t feel that we are fitting a round peg into a square hole with this product, as some other rice alternatives seem to be doing,” said Donato.

Check out the full story for a complete understanding of how oats fit into the alt-rice category.

Nosh’s annual "Best Of" Awards commend companies, brands, individuals, products, ideas and trends from across the ever-changing packaged food industry. Submit nominations for yourself or others through November 1st.

Protein bar maker Mezcla yesterday unveiled a new visual identity on the heels of a recent funding round that brought its total backing to $8 million since its launch four years ago.

🎨 The refreshed packaging has a “fun and bold edge” that “stays loyal to the artisanal vibe” of the brand, according to founder and CEO Griffin Spolansky.

⏩ Additionally, the plant-based bars are headed to more retail shelves by the end of the year, adding eight Albertsons divisions, Giant and Harris Teeter stores.

Nosh Insiders can read the full story to see which investors are betting on Mezcla.

Shell egg producer and distributor Cal-Maine Foods announced its first-quarter 2025 earnings this morning with net sales and profit elevated from the same period last year despite supply chain challenges related to outbreaks of avian flu. The company experienced outbreaks at its facilities in Kansas and Texas, resulting in total depopulation of approximately 3.1 million laying hens. Here’s a look at the numbers:

• Net sales were $785.9 million compared with $459.3 million in Q1 2024
• Net income was $149.9 million versus $926,000 in the previous period last year.
• Cal-Maine sold 199 million conventional dozen shell eggs and 109 million specialty dozen shell eggs.

🥚 The company also announced last month it had made a strategic investment in egg-based wrap maker Crepini and formed a new company that will make value-added egg products like protein pancakes, crepes and wraps.

The better-for-you donut space has never looked sweeter. Today, Mondelēz’s SnackFutures Ventures announced it has taken a minority stake in air-fried, low sugar doughnut brand Urban Legend.

🧁 The U.K.-based doughnut and pastry business currently sells 12 varieties – including products with creamy fillings, icings and frostings – in 200 stores throughout the country; the brand is merchandised  in its own standalone bakery cabinets.

🍳 The products are made via a “custom designed and patented air frying technology” that creates a doughnut lower in sugar, fat and calories than the traditional version by between 35% to 75%, Urban Legend claims.

💬 What they said: “We’re excited about the brand’s growth potential, focus on ‘mindful indulgence,’ and opportunity to help Mondelēz build capability in the fast-growing ‘better-for-you’ fresh bakery space.” - Richie Gray, global head of SnackFutures Ventures

Although lower-income households remain Walmart’s core online grocery customer, a growing base of affluent shoppers fueled the retail chain’s growth in the first half of 2024, according to the latest edition of Profiling the Online Shopper: eGrocery Purchase Patterns in the U.S. from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus.  

💵 In the first half of 2024, households making less than $50,000 annually accounted for 41% of Walmart’s average monthly active users (aMAUs) compared to 36% for hard discount stores, 30% for supermarkets and 28% for Target, per the report. 

📈 However, Walmart’s most affluent segment (households with $200k+ in annual income) expanded to 8%, growing faster than the retailer’s overall MAU base. On average, affluent households that shop online for groceries at Walmart spend 1.5x more each month than households in the lowest income bracket. 

💭 “Walmart’s growth in households making $200,000+ per year shows that the ‘flight to value’ has even affected how this income group shops for groceries,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click, in the report. 

Serial entrepreneur Jeff Church talks about how he navigated Suja’s early development and rapid growth and what he believes was the most impactful decision in determining the brand’s success. He also discussed the failure of Rowdy Energy, which launched in 2020 and shut down less than four years later.

Listen to the episode now.