• 🛡️ Marketing: Ore-Ida’s Tot-Protecting Pants
• 🚚 UNFI Up For Sale?
• 🍗 Pilgrim’s Progress: New Look For Chicken Brand
• ⛔ FDA Issues Warning To Dollar Tree 
• 📊 CPI: Food Prices Rise
• ⚽ Once Upon A Farm Partners with Angel City Football Club

🥔 To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the beloved tater tot-loving film character Napoleon Dynamite, Ore-Ida has unveiled its new Tot-Protecting Pants created in partnership with Searchlight Pictures. The limited -edition pants – which pay homage to the joggers Dynamite wears in the 2004 film – feature a protective “tot pocket” and come in a dark gray crocodile-print pattern. 

🛒 With its new “Perfect Impostor” campaign, Perfect Snacks is aiming to help shoppers simplify grocery store navigation when searching for the perfect foods. The brand’s latest creative video centers around a lookalike protein bar, complete with its own GPS, that guides customers “to where the freshest products live – the fridge.”  

🥜 Planters has announced its newest class of Peanutters. These individuals – Jessie Carl, Katie Krupinski and Ryan Connors – will have the honor of cruising around the country in the 26-foot NUTmobile. This week, the trio began piloting the vehicle on a year-long, east-to-west nut-crackin’ fest. 

🪞 Coinciding with its Functional Smoothie Bowl line launch, Pitaya Foods launched its inaugural national media and advertising campaign, “Bite Into Bright.” The new ad spot showcases the effect that the brand’s superfruits have on transforming “you into the person you want to see in the mirror.”

It's been a rocky past few fiscal years for United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI). As profits remain in the red, the broadline distributor has tried a few tactics to get its balance sheet back on track – including reorganizing its corporate structure, remapping service regions and implementing new programs intended to help boost margins.

🤔 But this past week, a report in Supermarket News sparked rumors that the publicly traded company may be heading for a buyout that would take it back out of the public’s (read: shareholder’s) watchful eye and aims to smoothe out challenges from its 2018 acquisition of SuperValu.

❌ UNFI CEO Sandy Douglas countered, telling the publication that the company is not for sale; however that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from churning with other unnamed sources claiming UNFI has been approached by numerous consulting firms seeking information for potential buyers. 

UNFI suppliers, what have you heard? Send us tips at adeluca@bevnet.com.

Poultry producer Pilgrim’s has unveiled a refreshed “bold and imaginative” brand identity alongside a new “flavor-forward” line of chicken nuggets.

🐔 Chicken nuggets represent more than 40% of the frozen cooked chicken market, yet the set lacks innovation beyond new pack sizes, the company claimed, citing Circana data.

🧀 New products include Pilgrim’s Loaded Nuggets, available in Chicken Pot Pie and Cheesy Jalapeño flavors; Pilgrim’s Ultimate Nuggets, which are described as “dangerously crispy and perfectly seasoned”; and Pilgrim’s Mini Nuggets in Zesty Ranch, Buttery and Original varieties.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning letter to Dollar Tree after the company failed to adequately respond to a recall of WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches late last year. 

🍎 Public health official reports cite that the recalled products were continually seen on the retailer’s shelves in the weeks and months following the recall notice. 

📝 The warning letter aims to address Dollar Tree’s ability to respond to food recalls. The company has 15 days to respond with a specific plan to address the violations and prevent them from reoccurring. 

🔔 The FDA has also placed Negasmart, the cinnamon supplier responsible for the tainted products, on Import Alert; that means any future products imported from the Ecuadorian company will be flagged and reviewed by the FDA prior to distribution.

May’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers are in and have shown a slight increase in food prices (+0.1%) compared to unchanged prices last month. According to the CPI, prices for the unadjusted 12-month period rose 2.1%. 

• The food-at-home index for May was flat, and food-away-from-home notched up to 0.4% compared to 0.3% in April.
• All categories in food-at-home rose in the last year with the exception of dairy and related products, which fell 1% over the year.
• The most substantial increases were in meats, poultry, fish, and eggs (+2.4%) and nonalcoholic beverages (+1.3%) over the last 12 months.
• The index for limited-service meals rose 4.5% in the last year and full-service meals rose 3.5% showing that dining out is still a more expensive prospect than it used to be.

Once Upon A Farm has inked a multi-year deal with Angel City Football Club in Los Angeles to promote healthy eating for families, marking the organic brand’s debut sports sponsorship.

🍎 As the club’s “exclusive Healthy Kids Snacks Partner,” the company will distribute its products at youth soccer program gatherings. 

💬 Jennifer Garner, co-founder and chief brand officer, is an investor in the soccer club and noted its mission “to support healthy lifestyles for families and young athletes, which is an important foundation pillar at Once Upon a Farm.”