• 🥩 The True Price of Protein
• 🥛 TiNDLE Makes First Foray into Beverage
• 2️⃣ Cali’Flour Foods Founder Moves To Second Act
• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Momentous Makes Gains Via Humble Growth
• 🔔 UNFI Reports Profit Decline of 3.2%

Sea-sourced ingredients have continued to crop up in new innovations and enter the input pools of food brands that previously sourced solely from land. 

Last year, ahead of Natural Product Expo West, we dove into what was, at the time, an emerging trend. A year later and before the big show begins again, we are here to run through the new looks seaweed, kelp and other aquatic ingredients have taken on, and the new consumer trial some are trying to drive on the basis of taste.

Just last week, Snacks From The Sea brought a new kelp-based chip to the market. The snacks come in Zesty Pizza, Chipotle and Salt & Pepper flavors and were created to educate consumers about kelp’s benefits which includes vitamins, minerals, and nutrient fucoidan, according to a press release. During Expo next week, seaweed snack leader GimME will also show off a new Korean BBQ variety of its dried seaweed snacks. 

But the seaweed set, up until now, has been flush with plenty of snacks and sauces – in sum, naturally salty and savory foods. These innovations relied on an unmasked flavor and utilized easy to understand, low stakes formats or niche product positionings to help get consumers on-board. Take 12 Tides puffed kelp chips or Barnacle Food’s kelp-based chili crisp as prime examples. 

Some producers however have taken on a new challenge – cooking up foods that don’t offer organoleptic properties reminiscent of a mouthful of ocean water. 

This week, moringa-focused Kuli Kuli extended beyond its hero ingredient, launching four new products to debut at Expo, including a new superfood blend centered around spirulina (a freshwater-occurring superfood), kelp (you know where that one comes from) and marine minerals. 

“I would argue this is the best tasting kelp product on the market,” said founder and CEO Lisa Curtis. “We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the right blend of fruits and kelp to make it so it doesn't taste like you're drinking seawater… it's important to strike that balance.”

Another brand, Algae Cooking Club, recently made waves for its taste-less innovation. Launched earlier this month, the brand claims to have created an entirely flavorless cooking oil made solely from algae. How did they do it? Well, founder and CEO Kasra Saidi explained that the product is actually made from microalgae, which can be produced sans-seawater and instead, inside bioreactors. 

“One of the first questions we get is, ‘does it taste like the ocean,’” said Saidi. “Honestly, that's probably the biggest hurdle to try to get over. It doesn't taste like the ocean whatsoever, because it's not [from] a marine environment. It's not a seaweed. It's not a kelp. I love [both, but] we're like cousins…we're not exactly that.”

Sounds like it might be time for the Nosh team to host a few blind-taste tests (tide) pool-side…

Nosh’s Unofficial Guide to Expo West features health and hygiene hacks from seasoned badge holders to ensure a productive event. Arm yourself with our top tips for preventing “trade show gut,” achy feet and other common ailments that can occur at the so-called Super Bowl of the natural products industry.

What costs more – a pound of pea protein isolate, or a pound of beef protein? Well, if you strip away all the meat and actual food, it may be the beef. That’s the key finding of a new report by Green Circle Capital Advisors, which analyzed the true price of various proteins.

🌱 Although the meat alternatives produced by brands like Impossible and Beyond cost more on shelf, Green Circle argues that it’s not the proteins that are more expensive, but the overall manufacturing process. If you just used isolates, plant-based proteins on average provide more bang for their buck than their animal-based counterparts.

💲 This could be significant for future innovation and investment into plant-based foods, the report argues, if brands can produce alternatives with lower overall input costs.

🥓 Largely, Green Circle - which invests in plant based protein alternatives - hopes to reframe the conversation around protein, noting that too often it feels as though plant-based protein isolates are being compared to ready-to-cook slabs of meat.

Read the full story on Nosh.

Alt-meat maker TiNDLE (Booth #4905) has officially entered the beverage space with the introduction of its new Barista Oat Milk, set to debut at Natural Products Expo West next week. According to the announcement, the new offering was co-created with baristas around the globe to ensure proper steaming, frothing and blending. 

🍗 Also at the show, TiNDLE will showcase its Stuffed Chicken products in Chicken Parmigiana and Garlic & Herb varieties. SVP of business development and U.S. managing director, JJ Kass, previously told Nosh that the product is already on the market in Europe. 

🛒 The new retail-focused product additions come as TiNDLE ramps up its brick-and-mortar retail. Earlier this month, the company announced it had landed its Tenders and Wings in Price Chopper Supermarkets in the Northeast. 

💭 "By introducing more innovative foods into the mix, including our entry into the dairy category, we remain steadfast in our mission to transition towards a more sustainable food system. As a multi-category brand, our aim is to continue strengthening the sector,” said Timo Recker, CEO, co-founder, and executive chairman at TiNDLE Foods, in a statement.

Amy Lacey, founder of Cali’flour Foods, recently announced that she has started a new supplement business centered around superfood ingredient Soursop. Lacy left her first business in 2019; it was announced in August that the Cali'flour brand, including all property and assets, would be sold off at auction.   

🫐 The new brand, Soursop Nutrition, currently sells a Mixed Berry-flavored gummy product as well as four shake mixes in Soursop Surge, Chocolate, Apple and Pumpkin flavors. In addition to its namesake ingredient, the shakes also contain Irish sea moss and turmeric. 

💰 Lacey said in an Instagram post that she raised $1 million from an unnamed group of investors last year to get the brand off the ground.

💭 “I’ve been personally testing our products for the past 3 years and I have never experienced anything like the benefits of Soursop. I’m on a mission to bridge the gap between the world of western medicine and food-as-medicine,” Lacey said in the post. 

Supplement and nutrition company Momentous has a new backer: Humble Growth, the Nick Giannuzzi, Peter Rahal and Andrew Abraham-led investment firm that debuted its first fund at $312 million last September. The group took a minority stake in Momentous last week; the brand’s co-founders Jeff Byers and Erica Good are continuing as CEO and President, respectively.

💊 Co-founded by former NFL player Byers in 2018, Momentous seeks to offer “an expert-led and science-backed platform for supplementation and lifestyle optimization.” Next up for the brand: opening a new HQ in Los Angeles, hiring more staff and “driving innovation,” per a press release.

💰 This marks the first investment from Humble Growth’s Fund I, which is focused on minority-stake investments in “high-growth, disruptive companies operating in the food, beverage, beauty and personal care, health and wellness, pet, and household products space.”

United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) reported a 0.5% decrease in net sales during Q2 2024, according to an earnings report released this morning. CEO Sandy Douglas attributed the drop to unit volume declines. Here’s a rundown of the numbers:

• Gross profits dropped 3.2%, or $34 million to $1 billion
• Operating expenses, excluding business transformation costs, were $996 million, or 12.8% of net sales, the same as 
• Adjusted EPS was $0.07 for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 compared to $0.78 in the second quarter of fiscal 2023.
• Adjusted EBITDA decreased 29.3% to $128 million

Alongside the earnings announcement, the natural foods distributor named Giorgio “Matteo” Tarditi as its new President and CFO. Tarditi succeeds current CFO John Howard who will depart UNFI following the transition period. 

Stay tuned for the full earnings recap on Nosh later today.