The buzz may have begun with the butter board trend, a rise of exotic flavors or simply premium $11 Les Pres Sales Sea Salt Camargue butter and refrigerated ghee sticks – it's tough to pinpoint. 

Either way, there’s been some excitement coming out of the solid cooking fats category, but calling butter, ghee, margarine and other plant-based spreads a hot space that’s ripe for disruption may be a bit of an overstep. While a handful of brands have been doing the hard work of bringing consumers to new form factors, they’ve done so amid an already difficult backdrop.

Start with the complex and constrained U.S. dairy market as the base. Now, layer in rising wholesale prices, a strong private label presence and a handful of well-established category leaders. Those dynamics have pointed the startup butter business to increasingly lean into premiumization. What does that look like?

Micheal Taschman, founder and CEO of flavored compound butter brand Churn, believes consumers are still seeking out culinary experiences at home, and thinks that his product can enable that. He’s worked to lock in distribution in natural and specialty stores where at-home cooks and “foodies” shop for items to experiment with, but at $9.99 per 6.5 oz butter tub, it can still be a hard sell. 

Adding to the price tag challenges, salted and unsalted remain the two leading flavors across all butter formats, and most consumers are fine with those options alone, emphasized Max Dichter, CEO of ghee brand 4th & Heart. 

The ghee brand has taken those two popular flavors and, after many years of R&D, built them into blocks. Its an innovation strategy that has helped the brand bring in more consumers to grow the ghee category.

“The [sticks] have been on-shelf less than a year but have shown tremendous improvement in velocity,” Dichter said. “Velocity in the sticks has been growing without any degradation to velocity in the jar product… it's basically proving this thesis that we can bring new consumers into this category and grow [it] long term.”

Read the full story for a deeper understanding of the category and the strategies of those working to disrupt it.

The Kraft Heinz Company and Unilever today announced they will receive up to $170 million and $20.9 million, respectively, from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the industrial sector contributes nearly one-third of the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. 

🏭 The projects are part of the Biden administration’s $6 billion plan to cut industrial emissions by 77% by allocating funds to 33 projects across 20 states. 

⏩ Kraft Heinz will use the funds to install new tech like heat pumps, electric heaters, electric boilers, anaerobic digestors, and solar thermal at 10 selected facilities. By 2030, it’s estimated that the project will reduce electrification and on-site generation by 23%, natural gas use by 97%, and total water consumption by 3%.

Step aside, Hailey Bieber. Model Winnie Harlow is the latest influencer to launch a co-branded smoothie with Los Angeles-based cult grocer Erewhon, named the Island Glow Smoothie. 

🤝 The new offering was crafted with an Organic Dragon Fruit Smoothie Pack from Pitaya Foods. The Caribbean-inspired smoothie also features Steens Raw Manuka Honey and Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen Peptides.

💵 The 20 oz. smoothie comes with a $22 price tag, though a portion of the proceeds will go to charitable organizations such as A Place Called Home and Women’s Centre of Jamaica. 

👀 Erewhon’s Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie also features collabs with CPG brands, such as Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen and Driscoll’s Organic Strawberry Glaze. Just last week plant-protein brand Mikuna became the smoothie bar’s go-to protein option. 

What brands will capitalize on this unique co-branding opportunity next? Only time will tell. 

Although New Jersey might not be the first place to come to mind when thinking about maple syrup, the Garden State is looking into making the sweet sap part of its agricultural repertoire. Stockton University received about $1 million in federal grants to cultivate both red maples (more native to the southern region) and sugar maples on its 1,600-acre main campus.

👨🏿‍🌾 The Maple Project began in February 2021 on the the small, Atlantic City adjacent public university, and has tapped (literally and figuratively) local residents with maple trees to cultivate New Jersey-made maple products.

🤤 The three-year program includes a team of Stockton faculty members as well as educational workshops for the community and local K through 12 public schools.

🍁 It might seem strange but New Jersey has a history of maple sugaring despite being overshadowed by its northerly New England neighbors. The NJ Department of Agriculture reported it produced 1,817 gallons in 2022.

Though summer may still be a few months away, Arizona Iced Tea is already looking to help consumers cool down with the launch of new Ice Pops in three of the brand’s most popular flavors – Much Mango, Fruit Punch and Watermelon.

🥭 The dairy-free, naturally flavored pops contain 50 calories each and are now rolling out to retailers nationwide with a SRP of $4.99 per 4-count box. 

⏪ The new launch continues on the increased focus of frozen novelty we saw earlier this month at Expo West 2024. Frozen pop players exhibited a variety of non-dairy, whole fruit and vegetable-focused innovation; Mauna Loa, Daily Harvest and others showed off new plant-based pop lines.