• 🍪 SNAC Takes Industry’s Temperature
• 🧑‍🌾 Vertical Farming Embraces Automation
• 📈 Lifeway Keeps Growth Streak Alive
• 🍫 Ardent Mills Unveils Cocoa Replacer
• 🆕 What Else Is New?

A Dozen Cousins announced today it has been acquired by rice and bean manufacturer Verde Valle Foods, the U.S. subsidiary of Verde Valle.

Ibraheem Basir – the founder and CEO of the Creole, Caribbean and Latin American-inspired food brand – will continue to lead the brand and the business’ growth as general manager.

Sixteen-year old Verde Valle claims to be the first brand to introduce beans in a pouched format, making the business combination a natural fit for A Dozen Cousins’ lineup of ready-to-eat beans, rice and seasoning sauces.

• A spokesperson confirmed that Verde Valle has not previously supplied or manufactured A Dozen Cousins’ products. 

What Basir Said: “I couldn't be more excited to partner with the team at Verde Valle. They are trailblazers in the world of pouched meals, and they are going to dramatically strengthen the supply chain and make it easier to share our products with more people. At the same time, we will be able to invest more in innovation and marketing to continue building a brand that people love.”

Adding Another Cousin: Once it is integrated under third-generation, family-owned Verde’s wing, A Dozen Cousins will have some new company. Verde owns and operates its own CPG brand, Isadora, which sells ready-to-eat bean and Mexican meals and has been growing its reach beyond Mexico, into Hispanic markets in the U.S., in recent years. 

Insiders can access the full story for all of the deal details.

The snack category is growing on the back of better-for-you options, an expansion of snacking occasions and demand growing for high-protein and fiber-rich snacks for GLP-1s, per trade group SNAC International’s new 2025 State of the Industry Report.

😉 Snacking accounts for more than 50% of all eating occasions in the U.S., according to SNAC’s data, with consumers substituting three larger meals for a series of smaller, more convenient eating occasions.

🥨 The report emphasized that consumers are prioritizing better-for-you options in categories like pretzels, bars and pork rinds.

🛒 As tariffs and inflation weigh on buying behavior, consumers are seeking value options and shifting purchases to mass, club and ecommerce channels.

Glean all of the report highlights on Nosh.

Vertical farming is an expensive enterprise. A new partnership between Norwegian warehousing robotics business AutoStore and food technology company OnePointOne aims to address high costs with automation. 

🛒 Phoenix, Ariz.-based Opollo Farm is the first project between the two technology companies; its leafy greens and herbs are being sold to local Whole Foods stores under the Willo brand.

✂️ The 1,000 sq. ft. facility cuts labor costs while also maximizing the footprint with double-sided modular boxes, the company claims.

🥬 Opollo Farm can currently fit 1,000 AutoStore bins with the hydroponic closed-loop water system producing 3,000 to 4,000 lbs of vegetables per month.

Read the full story on Nosh to learn about the duo’s end goal of co-locating with food distributors.

Kefir and farmer cheese maker Lifeway Foods is keeping its growth streak going, marking its 22nd consecutive quarter of year-over-year gains during Q1 2025, per an earnings report this week.

🥛 Net sales were up 3.3% to $46.1 million the quarter, although headwinds included higher milk prices and promo and slotting fee costs related to increased distribution.

💉 CEO Julie Smolyansky said marketing around GLP-1 drug users has been promising for the brand and the company will continue to focus on positioning its products as helping to “naturally stimulate GLP-1 hormone production.”

📍 So far this year, Lifeway has secured commitments for over 2,000 new points of distribution across all its product lines.

Read the full story on Nosh.

Flour miller and ingredient supplier Ardent Mills today introduced Cocoa Replace, a wheat-based, clean label alternative to cocoa powder for baking applications.

🍪 The single-ingredient product – designed to replace up to a quarter of the cocoa powder in cakes, cookies, brownies and muffins – is vegan, kosher certified and non-GMO.

📈 ICYMI: Cocoa prices have soared by as much as 400% over the past decade and are expected to remain elevated due to continued climate-related supply chain shortages.

Go Deeper: Specialty Chocolate Consolidates As Cocoa Costs Keep Rising

​​It’s Hump Day! Here’s a taste of the new drops and activations from the first half of the week.

🥩 Should we call him MrBeef? Jack Link’s has teamed with social media personality (and Feastables founder) Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson to launch a co-branded line of meat snacks. 

🥬 C is for cookie… and cabbage: Gotham Greens is introducing limited-edition “Sesame Street” themed packaging for four lettuce varieties to motivate children to eat more vegetables.

🐟 Fishwife has partnered with sustainable footwear brand Chaco to bring its signature bold colors and whimsical designs to an exclusive sandal style.

🍑 Welch’s Fruit Snacks added Mango-Peach to its lineup. The tropical offering is available in select convenience stores and will soon roll out to grocery stores nationwide.

🥃 Golden West Food Group is deepening its licensing partnership with whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s with the launch of Jack Daniel’s Dinner Sausages – fully-cooked, artisanal links in a range of savory and spicy flavors. 

🍓 Nature’s Bakery is adding a pair of soft-baked snacks to its assortment: Oatmeal Crumble Raspberry Lemon Bars and Gluten Free Strawberry Fig Bars. 

Get more new product news on Nosh.