Congratulations – you made it through the first month of the year. While it was freezing almost everywhere outside, inside the food industry, things have been heating up. A nearly endless stream of news – with a fair share being M&A-related – clearly marked the start of 2026 and the end of that slow, stagnating deal period that had been festering since sometime around 2022 (you know, when the post-pandemic era and all of its challenges truly began to settle in). From mid-sized mergers, to private equity handoffs, category specific combinations and the results of Big Food reshuffling, we’ve seen it all and more. Here’s a look back at who is moving and where they are headed. Let’s start with Big Food because, just this morning, Hain Celestial announced it would divest its North American snacks business. Keep scrolling through this newsletter for more, but the TLDR is that the sale, like many others, has been made to combat slumping sales. On the smaller scale (but just as notable) front, last month saw a unique founder-forward deal that remains an example of finding strength in building in tandem with others. A trio of women-owned CPG brands teamed up behind the Tuyyo Foods name (which translates to “you and me”). Cactus snack maker Nemi, seasoning brand Todo Verde and agua fresca maker Tuyyo threw their weight behind the latter name, bringing all three businesses, and founders together, to power their next phase of growth by combining resources and support. Besides Tuyyo, there was also a combination of cookie makers with parent of Highkey, Creations Foods, merging with REAL Cookies to create a value-aligned, better-for-you snacking powerhouse backed by some real manufacturing might spanning private label, contract manufacturing and a wide array of snack formats. And that just barely scratches the surface of all the merger and acquisition coverage that made it up on Nosh this past month… Punxsutawney Phil (a.k.a. the weather-forecasting groundhog) claims there will be six more weeks of winter. But if January is any indication, February will be a hot one for deals. Read the full story and analysis on Nosh | 
