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.

July 20, 2018

2 Min Read
5@5: Meal kit maker Chef'd shuts down | Court says cereals don't need cancer warnings
Campbell

Demise of Chef’d points to stark choice for meal kit companies: Get acquired or die

In August, Chef’d announced a $35 million funding round that included Campbell Soup, and last month it rolled out a partnership to sell its meal kits in New York City Walgreens and Duane Reade stores. On Monday, Founder and CEO Kyle Ransford announced to employees that the company was suspending operations immediately. The high cost of customer acquisition, supply chain and logistics is the Achilles heel of the meal kit industry, and despite an influx of capital from investors over the last several years, many companies have struggled to sustain themselves. Industry strategist Brittain Ladd suggests that the smartest move for these companies is to pursue a strategy of being acquired by a grocery, rather than partnering with one or trying to go it alone. Read more at Forbes…

 

Breakfast cereals don’t need cancer warnings, California court rules

A state appeals court says Cheerios and other cereals that contain acrylamide—a chemical that can form in foods during high-temperature cooking processes—don’t require a cancer-warning label under California’s Proposition 65. Such a label, the court says, could dissuade customers from purchasing whole-grain products, and requiring cereals to be labeled would mean other healthy foods containing acrylamide, like whole wheat bread and peanut butter, would need to be labeled also. Acrylamide was added to the Prop. 65 list in 1990. Read more at San Francisco Chronicle…

 

Cost of Amazon Prime Day glitches: lost sales, soured relationships and wasted ad dollars

Some customers were unable to purchase items in their cart, or even access many pages on Amazon’s website, during the first few hours of Prime Day earlier this week. But shoppers weren’t the only ones who were bummed—some brands’ promotional dollars may have been wasted. Some, for example, paid hundreds of dollars to advertise “Lightning Deals” during a four-hour window, and others spent thousands on placements and deals through Vendor Central. Seller Central and Amazon Marketing Service were also temporarily unavailable. Read more at Forbes…

 

Can an algae supplement turn around a struggling Hawaii startup?

Biotech company Cardax has poured some $58 million and 12 years into developing and commercializing a synthetic version of a compound found in algae. Now, in a new deal to sell its anti-inflammatory supplement ZanthoSyn in 3,000 GNC stores, the company is hoping it’s on its way to profit. Read more at Honolulu Civil Beat…

 

PepsiCo reveals startups for second year of Nutrition Greenhouse program

As part of its European incubator initiative, Pepsi will finance 10 food and beverage companies and give them six months of mentorship to grow their business. Products made by participating companies include low-carb chocolate and ice cream, non-alcoholic wine free of fermentation, preservatives and sulphites, and ready-to-eat nondairy smoothie bowls. Read more at European Supermarket Magazine…

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