• 💗 Gopuff Sizes Up
• 🌊 Atlantic Sea Farms Restructures
• 📉 WK Kellogg Lowers 2025 Guidance
• 💰 Grüns Nets $25 Million
• 🥤 Katie Lee Biegel Is Changing The Way We Drink

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been battered by staff cuts since the Trump Administration took office. 

Just look at the news on Monday for evidence: A cohort of attorneys general from 19 states and Washington D.C. filed suit over the risk arising from staff reductions and, later in the day, one of the FDA’s lead inspectors, Michael Rogers, resigned citing similar sentiments. Things aren’t looking so secure when it comes to food safety, they say. 

Jim Jones – the former FDA Human Foods Deputy Commissioner who took an “early retirement” due to the firings back in February – shared all of his thoughts about the state of the agency and where it is heading last week at the Institute for Food Technologists (IFT) Food Policy Impact 2025 meeting in Washington, D.C.

“I think that what I expected was going to happen, has happened,” he asserted. 

Jones said that the cuts will “degrade [the agency’s] ability to function,” citing an instance from right before his departure – after DOGE orders were imposed on both staffing and budgets – where “highly trained lab technicians” were having to spend time writing up justifications “for why they needed to spend $150 to buy reagents to run a sample.” 

“You have your most skilled health people working on things that a lower-graded person with less education [could be doing],” he said. “That will take time before this begins to play itself out… you won't see that overnight, but it will over time.”

Insiders can access the full story to hear directly from Jones.

Gopuff is going big – so to speak. The ecommerce grocery platform launched GoXL this week, a new line of multipack and bulk items available for home delivery via the company’s app.

• GoXL features over 300 items including private label Basically branded products (such as toilet paper) as well as branded food and beverages like Chobani Nonfat Greek Yogurt, Smucker’s Uncrustables and Bareballs Protein Bars.
• Gopuff tied the launch to heightened economic uncertainty and a rising interest from consumers in value products, per the announcement.
• The items are touted as a way for consumers to save – for example, a 10-pack of Uncrustables will sell for around $10 at $0.99 per sandwich, compared to $1.99 for a single-serve sandwich.

Insiders can read more about GoXL on Nosh.

Atlantic Sea Farms (ASF) is pausing operations of its CPG division to focus exclusively on kelp ingredient supplies and research, according to a LinkedIn comment by former sales director Zoë Croft. The move includes a restructuring of the organization, with layoffs across several departments. 

🗣️ A handful of ex-employees, including former brand manager Kiera Foti and former manager of culinary and quality Matthew Haight shared the news of the layoffs on LinkedIn. According to Foti, ASF is “scaling back and restructuring.” 

💭 “Our sales, marketing and production teams have accomplished a lot since our inception. We brought domestically farmed kelp to thousands of grocery stores across the country and launched several first-to-market products, building a strong and wide-reaching distribution network along the way,” wrote Croft in a LinkedIn post. 

🚫 Mikel Durham, who was appointed interim CEO of ASF in January, is no longer in that role, reported Undercurrent News. 

Catch Up: Atlantic Sea Farms Adds Funding, New CEO

Like a host of other packaged food companies, WK Kellogg is cutting its 2025 sales guidance due to soft consumer demand and the potential impact of tariffs, per its Q1 earnings report this morning. Here are some key numbers: 

• Reported net sales fell 6.2% year-over-year to $663 million. 
• Organic net sales decreased 5.6%.
• Reported net income decreased 45.5%. 
• Adjusted EBITDA fell 4%. 

💭 “Despite the lower-than-expected first quarter performance, which resulted in revising our 2025 outlook, we continue to make great progress on our strategic priorities, including the supply chain modernization initiative,” said Gary Pilnick, chairman and CEO, in a prepared statement. 

🔮 WK Kellogg expects full-year organic net sales to decrease between 2% and 3% (previously 1%) and adjusted EBITDA to be between flat and down 2%. The EBITDA guidance reflects current tariff exposure, with the company expecting the impact to be between $2 million and $4 million. 

Glean additional insight from the books of top CPGs on Nosh.

Celebrity-backed nutrition gummy maker Grüns has closed a $25 million Series B, reaching a valuation of $500 million, reported Fitt Insider. 

🤝 The round was led by venture capital firm Headline, with additional participation from Selva Ventures, Able Partners, Joe Burrow, Anna Kendrick, Shaun White and Klay Thompson. The fresh funds will be used to bring production in-house, as reported by Inc. 

🛒 Founded by Chad Janis in 2023, Grüns is available in nearly 5,000 stores nationwide, including Target and Sprouts. The brand recently landed four SKUs in 1,900 Walmart stores. 

Bestselling author and TV personality Katie Lee Biegel discusses her journey into the organic wine business as the co-founder of Kind of Wild. She reflects on the evolution of the food and beverage industry, the power of in-person and digital consumer engagement, and why authenticity – not the “celebrity chef” label – is at the heart of her approach to food, wine, and business.