5@5: Eco-friendly packaging hits personal care | Instacart adds e-commerce tools with acquisition

Each day at 5 p.m. we collect the five top food and supplement headlines of the day, making it easy for you to catch up on today's most important natural products industry news.

January 17, 2018

2 Min Read
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The story behind the beauty industry’s most eco-friendly packaging

Julie Corbett and her company, Ecologic Brands, knew they were on to something when the recycled paper bottles they developed caught the attention of brands like Seventh Generation and Nestle, which wanted to package their household and personal care products in them. But the company had a hard time scaling; it struggled to refine its manufacturing process, which relied too heavily on manual labor. That’s when Seed Phytonutrients entered the picture with a proposal. The startup personal care brand, which focuses on supporting small-scale organic farmers, was being incubated by L’Oreal. It wanted a recyclable and compostable shampoo bottle that would hold up in the shower and was willing to provide an up-front influx of capital for Ecologic to develop it. What resulted was a water-resistant paper bottle that uses an interlocking design instead of glue, so that it can be composted. Its inner liner, made from recycled food-grade plastic, is 60 percent thinner than traditional packaging and can be shipped nested. Seed Phytonutrients, according to its website, has a full assortment of products coming this year. Read more at Modern Farmer…

 

Instacart acquires coupon and voice-shopping startup Unata

In a deal reported to be worth about $65 million, Instacart has acquired Toronto-based Unata Inc., which focuses on making and tracking digital coupons and circulars. That will equip Instacart, which has deals with grocers including Albertsons and Kroger, with new tools and a path to accelerate growth in Canada. Read more at Bloomberg Technology…

 

Health-conscious Nestle sells U.S. candy to Ferrero for $2.8 billion

In new CEO Mark Schneider’s first big sale, Nestle’s U.S. confectionery business will go to Italy’s Ferrero, which will become the third biggest chocolate company in the U.S. Nestle is working on shifting its business to focus more on health and wellness; in December, it paid $2.3 billion to acquire supplement company Atrium InnovationsRead more at Reuters…

 

Health Canada says processed food makers aren’t cutting enough salt

The voluntary guidelines that Health Canada came up with in 2012 with the hopes of reducing Canadians’ daily sodium intake by more than 30 percent have not been fruitful, according to a new agency report. Nearly half of the categories of processed foods that it targeted didn’t make any progress toward sodium reduction, while only 14 percent of categories met the final target for reducing sodium. Read more at CBC…

 

Erewhon to open in downtown Los Angeles

The natural grocer’s fifth store, a 9,500-square-foot space in a historic building in downtown LA, will be complete with a tonic, juice and coffee bar, pizza oven and a variety of organic foods. Read more at Gourmet Retailer…

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