• 🆕 This Week's New Products
• 🍄 FDA Has ‘No Questions’ On Mycoprotein
• 🚚 KeHE CEO: Private Label is Rising 
• 🤩 Happy Day Brands Goes Plastic-free
• 🎣 Big Idea’s Plant-Based Seafood Venture
• 🧁 THC Sugar Sweetens Baked Goods 

Lil Bucks is having a big year. 

The sprouted buckwheat brand landed national distribution at Whole Foods Market and Target, while expanding its foodservice business and building the country’s first certified regenerative organic supply chain for its superstar seed.

All that growing led the six-year-old startup to seek some new supporters. Lil Bucks founder and CEO Emily Griffith has tapped fellow Chicago entrepreneur Kailey Donewald as the brand’s new chief operating officer to help bring the business through this next stage.

Donewald previously founded and led plant-based frozen dessert brand Sacred Serve, which she shuttered this spring due to challenging market conditions. Griffith said Donewald’s expertise in finance and logistics complements her marketing and sales skills. Additionally, the pair share a passion for sustainability and regenerative agriculture.

“Emily has built an insane foundation,” Donewald said. “I really was blown away when I came in and started poking behind the scenes on all the spreadsheets and everything she has as a self-proclaimed ‘not ops’ person.”

Lil Bucks offers a line of crunchy snacks and toppings featuring buckwheat, a soil-healthy crop that is rich in protein, fiber and magnesium. The brand’s grain-free granola clusters line – dubbed Clusterbucks – features organic ingredients like honey or maple syrup, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, coconut sugar, coconut oil and coconut shreds. Flavors include Blueberry Crisp, Birthday Cake, Bucks ‘n Honey, Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Sea Salt.

Griffith has single-handedly scaled the brand’s retail footprint to 2,300 doors, including Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Harmons, H-E-B, Shaws and various independent and specialty grocers. Clusterbucks rolled out nationwide with Whole Foods in March and Target in April – notably “without any venture funding, which is absurd,” Griffith said.

Nosh Insiders can access the full story to learn more about Lil Bucks’ foodservice goals, Donewald’s new role and what they believe the future holds for buckwheat.

It's Friday, 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:

🥒  Pickles and cupcakes. Claussen and Baked By Melissa are releasing a co-branded tart-sweet bite-sized treat, rolling out to the bakery’s locations and online. It includes a pickle-infused cake topped with pickle buttercream and red and white sprinkles. 

😋 Sour Patch Kids has teamed up with Snapple on a product with slightly more appeal. The sweet-and-sour candies come in three familiar Snapple flavors: Mango Madness, Kiwi Strawberry and Fruit Punch.

🍓Vertical farmed berry producer Oishii has linked up with Jacobsen Salt Co. for a Koyo berry-flavored salt that might be the perfect addition to a summer sundae.

🍨 A match made in frozen treat heaven: McConnell’s Ice Cream has collaborated with See’s candy. The two California-based brands have released a line of four-flavors to satisfy that sweet tooth.

Check out the full new products gallery on Nosh.

The Better Meat Co. announced this week it received a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to declaring its mycoprotein ingredient as generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

🥩 Better Meat’s Rhiza ingredient is used as a meat replacer and enhancer. It is made from the filamentous mycelium of the fungi genus Neurospora and has all essential amino acids. 

• Previously, Quorn, Enough and Nature’s Fynd have received “no questions” letters for mycoprotein strains within the Fusarium genus. 

👍 Also this week, oil and fats manufacturer AAK said it received a “no questions” letter from the FDA in response to its GRAS notification for shea stearin, a plant-based fat that can be used in a variety of applications and has a “considerably lower saturated fat content than coconut oil,” according to the company.

As the country slowly climbs out of the post-pandemic inflationary era, KeHE CEO and president Deb Conklin said during the distributor’s 2024 Holiday Show last month that it is seeing a rapid change to consumer behavior: from high-income families shopping at Walmart to an estimate that as much as 40% of CPG product consumption could be from private label within the next five years.

🎤 Conklin’s keynote also touched on topics including her own surprise that the economy avoided a recessionary sink and consumer’s growing embrace of natural and organic products.

👷 She cautioned that as baby boomers retire en masse, the industry needs to be more adaptable to changing attitudes and flexibility from younger individuals entering the workforce, even as labor participation rises.

Organic and gluten-free products maker Happy Day Brands announced it is well on its way to moving into compostable packs. The company has rolled out fully compostable stand-up pouches to its foodservice accounts nationwide and will transition over its retail line this October. 

♻️ The new packaging can be composted commercially or at home; all components, including films, laminates and valves, will break down.

🍝 Happy Day sells a range of pantry staples including pasta, oats, flours, coffee, baking mixes and protein powder. 

🗓️ According to co-founder and CEO Mark Priddy, the project has been over a year in the making and the company’s full product line will be transitioned to the new eco-friendly packs over the next 12 months. 

Agrifood tech investment operation Big Idea Ventures announced the launch of a new plant-based seafood company, Bayou Best Foods, using IP acquired from the now-defunct alt-shrimp business New Wave Foods. 

🦐 Bayou is funded by Big Idea’s Generation Food Rural Partners Fund and will focus on bringing plant-based shrimp alternatives to retail consumers initially; it also has plans to eventually move into adjacent categories.

🙋🏼‍♀️ Kelli Wilson has been appointed Bayou Best Foods CEO. She comes to the company with a slew of operational experience from Beyond Meat and MycoWorks and also served as a VP at both Partake Foods and Blue Apron.

💭 “Bayou Best is positioned to be a leader in animal-free seafood manufacturing and distribution, with a strong focus on delivering an eating experience that mimics, in taste and texture, animal based seafood items,” Wilson said in a statement.

Baking just got a whole lot sweeter. Today, cannabis lifestyle brand Old Pal announced it has teamed up with “culinary sensation” Babish to release a new THC-infused sugar product. Old Pal and Babish are now inviting consumers to "Get Baked with Babish."

🍪 The extract-based infused sugar includes 100 mg of THC per container; one teaspoon works out to contain 5 mg of THC, according to the company.

🪴 The product is rolling out to dispensaries across New York and Curaleaf stores in Arizona. It will also be available in dispensaries in Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Colorado later this year. 

🗣️ "With Babish's culinary expertise, community, and our shared commitment to creating memorable experiences, we believe 'Old Pal x Babish THC-Infused Sugar' will redefine the possibilities of cannabis-infused baking and beverages," said Rusty Wilenkin, co-founder and CEO at Old Pal.

It’s a “buy or sell” episode as the hosts opine about the future of online grocery shopping, fish sticks, and whether kombucha can recapture some of its magic (and sales). They also discuss Athletic Brewing Co.’s recent $50 million financing round and highlight a few fizzy and spicy new products.

Listen to the full episode now.