• 🥩 Beyond Meat Introduces New ‘Beyond IV’ Platform
• 🍝 CAGNY: General Mills Seizing The Low-Carb Opportunity
• 🍄 Smallhold’s CEO Resigns As Company Files for Bankruptcy
• 🥩 Meati Names New CEO, Lays Off 10% of Workforce

Today, Thrive Market announced it has become the first online grocery retailer to receive USDA approval to accept SNAP EBT payments. Thrive, which focuses on selling healthy, affordable and sustainable products, has been advocating for nearly a decade to secure this approval, according to the announcement.

The payment process will be orchestrated through a partnership with Forage, a payment company built specifically to allow online merchants to accept SNAP EBT payments. Forage’s partners thus far include small local grocers and nonprofits fighting food insecurity – meaning Thrive has become the only national platform where consumers can buy food online with their benefits. 

Starting today, California SNAP EBT cardholders can purchase groceries on Thrive’s platform; beginning February 26, SNAP recipients across the U.S. will be able to use their EBT cards to pay on the platform. EBT cardholders who are new to Thrive will also receive a free membership (which typically costs $59.95 per year). 

“Nearly 85 percent of people who live at or below the poverty line have internet access,” Sasha Siddhartha, Thrive Market’s co-founder and CTO highlighted. But one in five SNAP recipients are on disability and more than 17 million live in food deserts, the announcement cites. 

“This acceptance breaks down the barrier for the people who need it most,” emphasized Siddhartha.

But accepting payments is one thing. Funding a robust food stamp program by way of the Farm Bill is another, particularly since it already accounts for nearly 80% of the budget. With the Farm Bill renewal extended until September, lawmakers must now grapple with setting spending limits so that it both accounts for expected SNAP membership declines, and continued high food prices due to inflation.

Just last week, Kraft Heinz reported that retail sales dropped 1.6% in the last quarter and attributed the decline to cutbacks in pandemic-related food stamp benefits. The drop primarily stemmed from categories where it over-indexes to SNAP customers, like its boxed mac and cheese. 

“Frankly, it’s a business that is driven disproportionately by our SNAP exposure,” said Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera on a call with investors.

Given that dynamic, it could be possible that realigning the SNAP program (maybe alongside some of those food-as-medicine initiatives Washington lawmakers keep talking about) would have a significant, positive impact on what – and now how – Americans access healthy food.

Beyond Meat today announced the launch of its new retail-exclusive Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef products as part of the company’s Beyond IV platform. 

🧑‍🔬 The Beyond IV products, the company’s fourth product iteration, is the result of a multi-year research effort in collaboration with medical and nutrition experts “designed to meet the standards of top health organizations.” 

🥑 One of the most notable changes to the company’s recipe is a shift to avocado oil, reducing the saturated fat in the products by 60% to just 2 grams per serving. Additionally, the new iteration brought a 20% sodium reduction and added nutrient-dense ingredients such as red lentil and faba bean protein. 

🛒 The new Beyond Beef and Beyond Beef products, which provide 21 grams of protein per serving, are slated to roll out at retailers nationwide this spring.

A small team within General Mills, now operating as a startup, incubated a new high fiber, low-carb, wheat pasta brand, Carbe Diem, that will debut next month at Natural Products Expo West.

🧱 Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening highlighted Carbe Diem during a presentation yesterday at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York annual conference, stating it is a part of General Mills’ “build, invest and acquire” approach to enter new spaces.

🥇 The product line is the latest project to launch out of Gold Medal Ventures, the Minneapolis company’s “disruptive innovation” arm that housed a range of brands including dairy-free Bold Cultr, constipation snack bar Doolies and “blood sugar-friendly” snack Good Measure.  

💰 Gold Medal Ventures was formed three years ago by combining venture capital fund 301 INC and internal incubator G-Works. The company also operates a growth equity fund to acquire and scale businesses for potential “future integration into our core portfolio,” Harmening said.

🌾 Made with modified wheat starch, semolina wheat and vital wheat gluten, Carbe Diem products are sold in Costco stores throughout Northern California.

Indoor agricultural mushroom company Smallhold filed for bankruptcy last week. The move came just days after co-founder and CEO Andrew Carter announced his resignation in a LinkedIn post. 

⏪ Founded in 2017, Smallhold operates indoor organic mushroom farming facilities in Brooklyn, N.Y., Buda, Texas and Vernon, Calif and sells to over 1,100 stores nationwide including Whole Foods Market, Erewhon, Sprouts, and Safeway, among others. 

📝 “[The] current business model revealed that Smallhold was in substantially worse shape than previously disclosed. Accordingly, the debtor determined that it was no longer feasible to keep all of its farms open,” court documents read. 

🧑‍🌾 Debtors have begun shutting down the New York and Texas farms but the Los Angeles location will remain operational as a bridge to Smallhold’s interim business strategy. According to the filings, the company hopes to build connections and negotiate competitive shipping and packaging costs as well as long-term contracts with partner farmers. 

🌱 The industry has seen a handful of indoor agricultural companies filing for bankruptcy including New Jersey-based Aero Farms, which has since emerged “fully funded” from Chapter 11 protections, and Kentucky-based AppHarvest. 

Former Patagonia exec Phil Graves has been named the new CEO of Mycelium root-based protein company Meati. The appointment comes only two weeks after Graves joined Meati as CFO. 

🤝 “This was a joint decision with Phil, the Board and [founder] Tyler [Huggins] to leverage Phil's success in scaling mission-driven organizations,” said a spokesperson for Meati.

⛔ Alongside the new executive leadership, Meati also announced it would lay off 13% of its employees as Graves looks to “right size” the company’s workforce in an effort to project near-term profitability.

📊 The company expects to be EBITDA positive within the next 12 months, according to a spokesperson. 

Check out the full story on Nosh for more details.

Jason Burke, founder/CEO of clean ingredient meat snack and sauce brands The New Primal and Noble Made, spoke about how he navigates constant shifts in how retailers measure traction and determine metrics for success, and how to demonstrate incremental value during pitch meetings.

Listen to the full episode of Taste Radio