5@5: Missouri weighs meat alternative labeling bill | Whole Foods faces criticism over restaurant name

Missouri considers nation’s first label for plant-based meat

A bill calling for makers of plant-based products to clearly note on their packaging that products don’t contain meat passed the Missouri House last week by a large margin and now heads to the state Senate. It’s part of an agriculture bill supported by the state’s cattle and pork producer trade groups. A similar measure was recently passed by legislators in France, and the U.S. beef industry has asked the federal government to consider similar action. Read more at US News & World Report…

Whole Foods is slammed over Yellow Fever restaurant. The owner says it’s not racist.

A build-your-own-bowl restaurant that opened in a Long Beach Whole Foods 365 store last week set social media ablaze with criticism that the name is insensitive and has racist undertones, and that Whole Foods’ partnership legitimizes the use of the name. Yellow fever is a virus transmitted by mosquitos, and also a slang phrase for a white man’s sexual preference for Asian women. The company’s executive chef and co-founder has said the name was intended to signify “an attraction or affinity of Asian people or Asian things,” and that it hasn't been a problem with its first two locations. Read more at The Washington Post…

EU member states support near-total neonicotinoids ban

A new ban on neonicotinoids—pesticides that are widely thought to harm bees and other pollinators—will completely prohibit their use outdoors in EU states by the end of the year. Current regulations ban use of Bayer CropScience’s imidacloprid, Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer Cropscience’s clothianidin, and Syngenta’s thiamethoxam on certain crops. Read more at BBC News…

How this founder followed her gut to create a bestselling line of natural foods

Katlin Smith started Simple Mills, which makes whole food-based baking mixes, cookies and crackers, as a side hustle while working as a management consultant for Deloitte. After landing her first Whole Foods account, she spent weekends in a rented kitchen making everything herself. Eventually, she hired a contract manufacturer, brightened up the packaging and brought on a few junior staffers. Today she has a team of 33 employees and distribution in 13,000 stores. Looking back, she considers her lack of experience in the food industry, which some might see as detrimental, as an advantage, as she only used ingredients from her home kitchen and “didn’t know all the places things might go wrong.” Customer feedback has also been important—it even inspired the company’s new line of frosting. But her biggest advice to entrepreneurs? Think big, because people can rally around a grand vision. Read more at Forbes…

Vitamins are trendy. Vitamin stores aren’t.

Supplement sales are growing. Yet GNC is closing stores. Vitamin Shoppe’s CEO recently stepped down amid slumping sales. And then there’s Vitamin World. Could it be that new, Instagram-friendly, millennial-focused supplement brands with aspirational marketing are capturing a big piece of the wellness pie? Read more at Racked…