• 🆕 This Week’s Notable New Products
• 💰 JPalmer Collective's $72M Raise

• ☃️ Fancy Food Show Debuts 'First Taste'

• 🤑 Liberation Labs Raises $3.5M
• 🧀 Canada’s Plant-Based Cheese Ambition
• 📰 What We’re Reading: Battles for Shelf Space, Chicken Farmers’ Struggles to Feed Flocks

It's not even Halloween, and Whole Foods has already moved past the holiday season and on to the New Year. 

This week, the natural grocer’s Trend Council dropped its 10th annual Food and Beverage Trend forecast for 2025. While some of the upcoming expectations show an evolution of past popular product types, the forecast also put a spotlight on novel and unique attributes subtly influencing new food innovations, including the “texture of the moment” and “sourdough stepping up”.  

“This year, we’re especially excited to celebrate how far we’ve come by spotlighting trends for 2025 that not only reflect growing consumer preferences but also push the boundaries of what’s possible for the world of food,” said Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Whole Foods Market. 

The trend list was developed by a cohort of over 50 Whole Foods Market team members. Here’s a look at what Whole Foods believes is coming:

International Snacking: While a demand for global flavors has been on the menu since pandemic times, this trend is working to meet the moment… the economic moment, that is. With consumers feeling the pinch at checkout, snacks offering unique and exciting flavors can garner “mass appeal” while enticing “consumers to try something new” without too high of a price tag. Items including Daily Crunch’s Sprouted Cashews collab with Fly By Jing or Confusion Snacks’ line of Indian-inspired popcorn hit the trend head on.   

Ever-Adaptable Dumpling: There’s something about a dumpling that can do it all. Clean convenience is increasingly being touted among this set and while dumplings are the main format highlighted by Whole Foods – including Laoban’s new Bao Buns – the natural retailer has also recently added other cultural takes on the filled-dough food group including Maspanadas’ line of frozen empanadas and Jaju’s polish pierogi. 

Crunch: Texture of the Moment. We won’t lie, calling out ‘crunch’ as its own trend gave us a shiver, but these trend experts may be on to something. It’s clear consumers are seeking exciting food experiences and crunch is showing up across all aisle and eating occasions. From dehydrated and freeze dried fruits and candies to the chokehold of chili crisp – the perfect crunch seems to be key to capturing consumers. 

Sourdough Stepped Up: Once again, popular pandemic food trends have stuck around and seeped into new products and formats. That sourdough starter you traded during the early days of lockdown has found its way into new foods, such as Bionaturae’s sourdough spaghetti or Pinsa Love's Artisan frozen Roman-style pizzas. 

What Else? Whole Foods’ trend council also pointed to the continued prominence of plant-based aquatic ingredients (think everything from seaweed-based snacks to algae cooking oils), protein powering up (see Chobani’s latest innovation or the positioning David for proof) as well as beverage trends such as heightened hydration and tea as both an innovation platform and flavor.

Check out the full report rundown from a beverage point of view.

It's Friday, folks, and that means it's time to round up all of this week’s new product creations and brand collaborations. Here’s a sample of what’s in store:

🧀 Treasure Cave is seeking to help “blue-curious” consumers ease into the classic blue cheese flavor profile with its newest product, Mild Blue Cheese. The new offering – available in both wedges and crumbles – features a rich, silky texture and a toned-down blue cheese flavor.

🍪 Myna Snacks, the brainchild of CPG veteran Darcey Macken and Twitch streamer Pokimane, is dropping three limited batch cookie flavors inspired by its community: Lemon Yuzu, Blueberry Bliss and Rice Crispy Crunch.

🍦 GoodPop has expanded its portfolio with the addition of Creamy Ice Cream Bars. Offered in two flavors at launch – Strawberry Shortcake and Cookies n’ Cream – the gluten-free treats are made with grass-fed organic dairy, fair trade cocoa and organic berries.

Check out the full roundup of new products on Nosh for more details.

Asset-based lending company JPalmer Collective, created to fund high-growth, women-led and natural product companies, announced a raise of $72 million. The new capital will be used to accelerate growth and fund new loans to JPC borrower clients.

💸 The raise consists of a combination of financing, including a senior revolving credit facility provided by Texas Capital Bank, a mezzanine credit facility from an unnamed New York-based institutional alternative asset manager and an infusion of common equity, according to the announcement.

👀 The transactions mark the first time JPC has raised outside capital since its founding in 2023 by ABL-industry veteran Jennifer Palmer. 

The Specialty Food Association (SFA) announced new features for the upcoming 49th Winter Fancy Food Show, taking place in Las Vegas from January 19-21, and will bring new ways to sample the latest innovations and experience emerging food trends. 

🆕 This year, the show will feature a First Taste Experience meaning that one hall will feature the “newest products in the market;” each day of the show the theme of the hall and all of the products will rotate including Global Flavors, Holiday and Top Trends of 2025. 

✨ The show will also feature a new educational center dubbed Spark Showcase, an Ask the Experts space for small group and 1:1 discussions, co-location with the Tastemaker Conference and more. 

🗣️ What they said: "Every year, the Winter Fancy Food Show helps kickstart the trends, connections, and ideas that shape the year in food—and in 2025, we're going to take some of the most impactful aspects of the Show and make them even better through these new experiences." – Bill Lynch, SFA President 

Precision fermentation technology company Liberation Labs has secured new capital from a $2 million promissory note from previous investor Agronomics and $1.39 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense. The promissory note pays interest at 10% per year and matures in October 2027.

🏭 The funding will help finance the on-going construction of Liberation Labs’ Richmond, Ind., facility where it will have a 600,000 liter capacity to produce alt-dairy and proteins.

🤔 The company initially reported that its new production facility will be 30% to 50% more cost-effective than current precision fermentation ingredient producers and would be online by the end of 2024.

💵 Liberation Labs closed a $20 million seed round in December 2022 led by Agronomics and Siddhi Capital. Agronomics has invested $19.6 million in Liberation Labs including $10 million about six months ago.

Protein Industries Canada announced a new project that will bring the combined efforts of Daiya Foods, Ingredion, Ingredion Plant Based Protein Specialties and Lovingly Made Flour Mills to develop new pea and fava bean based plant-based cheeses.

💰 A total of $16 million has been invested into the project, with Protein Industries Canada committing $5.8 million; the project is part of the Global Innovation Clusters that intends to harness the $25 billion opportunity of ingredient manufacturing and food processing in the country.

💬 “By leveraging technology and Canadian crops, this project is helping to increase the appeal, diversity and accessibility of plant-based cheeses and dairy alternatives for consumers, both at home and abroad,” said Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Honorable François-Philippe Champagne.

🛒 ‘Stress on Shelves’— the Battle for Space in Store Aisles: As grocers continue trimming the number of items they stock and their overall physical footprint, the battle over shelf space between brands and private label items is heating up, according to a recent deep dive in the WSJ. 

🥛What a Crackdown on Immigration Could Mean for Cheap Milk: The New York Times interviewed a dairy owner in Idaho who revealed that the productivity of his operation – and of almost every successful dairy in America – now depends overwhelmingly on immigrants. The cost of labor is one of the inputs a company can control, but with a serious crackdown on undocumented immigrants, cheap dairy may become a thing of the past. 

🐔 Midwest Chicken Farmers Struggle To Feed Flocks: Dozens of farmers across Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are struggling to feed their flocks after broiler chicken producer Pure Prairie Poultry abruptly closed its processing facility and filed for bankruptcy. The event has caused a serious hardship for nearby poultry farmers and others, the Associated Press reported.