• 🏡 Step Inside Wicked Kitchen’s New Home
• 📝 Report: Lead Found in Puffed Snacks
• 🤑 West Food Brands Up For Sale
• 🤝 Dohler, Apparo Announce Partnership

You’re not imagining it – ranch is having a moment. The quintessentially American flavor has blessed the likes of lip balm, snack nuts, cotton candy and more products launched this year alone.  

Lettuce tell you why (sorry, we couldn’t resist) product developers are so hot on this cool, creamy salad staple. For starters, consumers seek comfort foods during challenging and uncertain times, and ranch is a familiar favorite, ranking as the most popular topping per a 2017-18 study by The Association for Dressings and Sauces. 

The Taylor Swift “seemingly ranch” meme that emerged from a Kansas City Chiefs football game last year pushed the zesty dipper deeper into the zeitgeist, sparking a slew of marketing campaigns among packaged food, retail and restaurant companies. According to Tastewise, social conversations about ranch have increased by nearly 25% over the past year.

This object of Midwestern obsession (see below) lends a reliably tongue-coating tanginess to just about any savory dish, from pizza to hot wings to every conceivable preparation of potatoes. Its buttermilk base pairs well with spicy flavors like jalapeno, chipotle, sriracha, Buffalo and Nashville hot, but also is featured in mashups alongside such trending taste profiles like pickle, avocado, bacon and honey barbecue.

In recent years, ranch’s versatility has been demonstrated through countless collaborations between leading producer Hidden Valley and established and emerging brands alike – including Cheez-It, Truff, This Little Goat and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.

Just last week, meal kit company HelloFresh released a limited-edition Ranch Flight featuring GoGoGochujang Ranch (Gochujang), All Bay Long Ranch (Old Bay seasoning), Frankenranch (Frank’s RedHot powder), and Gaucho Rancho (Southwest seasoning) and an assortment of snackable accompaniments. According to data from a survey conducted on behalf of HelloFresh, 48% of Americans “can’t bear to live” without the condiment, and 37% have chugged it straight from the bottle. 

“Ranch continues to be a standout flavor trend that is deeply embedded in our culinary culture, so we’re excited to give ranch enthusiasts a fun new food experience," said Michelle Doll Olson, culinary development manager at HelloFresh US, in a press release. 

Despite all the hype, however, sales of ranch-flavored foods are – to borrow a term from Swifties – “seemingly” down. Data provided to Nosh by market researcher SPINS showed a 1.5% decline in dollar sales of ranch snack foods ($1.6 billion) and a 2.1% decrease in ranch grocery products ($700.9 million) in the 52 weeks ended May 19. 

So Midwesterners, sounds like it's time to buck up and buy some more bottles.

Weakened consumer demand, a downturn in investment funding and heightened competition have hindered the plant-based sector. The new owner of Wicked Kitchen and its associated alt-seafood brands is leading a “much-needed” consolidation effort across the category.

📈 In an interview with Nosh, Wicked Kitchen’s CEO Pete Speranza shared the company’s expansion plans under the recently established Ahimsa Companies (ICYMI: Wicked announced the transaction last week). 

🌱 Wicked Kitchen plans to expand its retail footprint, add foodservice offerings and invest in new product development in the U.S. and U.K. It expects to benefit from the synergies and scale created by additional acquisitions by the holding company.

Nosh Insiders can learn more about Speranza’s strategy to build Wicked Kitchen into a plant-based platform brand.

Some snack puff producers have turned to starches like cassava as base ingredients in part to avoid the high levels of arsenic found in snacks made with rice. But the alternative starch comes with its own problems; Consumer Reports (CR) detected “concerning” levels of lead in cassava-based puffs from LesserEvil and Serenity Kids. 

🔬 According to the report, LesserEvil’s Lil’ Puffs Intergalactic Voyager Veggie Blend Puffs contained more lead per serving than any of the 80 baby foods CR has tested since 2017. 

🛑 The other products with high levels of lead – LesserEvil’s Lil’ Puffs Sweet Potato Apple Asteroid and Serenity Kids’ Tomato & Herb, Bone Broth Puffs – have a limit of 1.5 servings per day, said CR experts. 

🤔 Despite the findings, both brands told CR that they regularly test their raw ingredients and that they stand behind the safety of their products. 

🌱 According to a plant and soil sciences expert cited in the article, lead can naturally occur in the soil and tends to accumulate in cassava’s (and other root vegetables’) root system. Processing cassava into flour to bake in snack foods can potentially concentrate the lead more than eating it fresh or what would be detected in the raw input. 

Family-owned West Food Brands is up for sale as the platform’s founder and CEO, Mario West, looks to shift focus to building a portfolio under holding company West Family Ventures. 

🍪 The CPG food brand platform was founded in 2022 and currently sells a 3-SKU line of baking mixes with two sugar cookie varieties – Apple Cinnamon and Banana Cinnamon – in addition to a Sweet Potato donut mix. The company also sells West Food Brands-branded apparel and accessories on its DTC site. 

💬 “The business deal will be listed online as an asset sale. The buyer will own the entire rights to West Food Brands including logo and Amazon storefront. We are listed at the top of our category on Amazon. The reason for selling to be completely transparent is for personal reasons,” West stated in a LinkedIn post. 

Plant protein ingredient company Apparo Inc. has announced a joint development agreement with global ingredient solutions provider Dohler to meet the “rapidly evolving demands of the food and beverage sector.”

👀 Apparo uses a Total Crop Utilization System to upcycle protein and other nutritional ingredients from food byproducts. As part of the agreement, Apparo will combine its proprietary approach and unique ingredients with Dohler’s pipeline of applications.

💭 “We are enthusiastic about working closely with Döhler, an established and innovative supplier to the food and nutrition industry. We look forward to the development of significant commercial opportunities,” said Ian Mackay, CEO of Apparo, in a statement.