We’re right on the tail end of the slow summer days, mentally preparing for back-to-school life and crisp fall air. But for now, join me in hanging onto this slow season with one more barbecue, one more camping trip, and one more dip in the lake.
In between summery activities, take a few minutes to catch up on this week’s food tech news. We’ve got stories on CBD beverages, plant-based meat in meal kits, healthy cookie dough delivery and more. Enjoy!
OLEO brew up $1.5 million for its CBD-infused drinks
CBD-infused beverage company OLEO announced this week that it had raised $1.5 million in a convertible note round (h/t BevNet). OLEO makes flavored drink mixes infused with CBD, the non-hallucinogenic chemical compound in cannabis, meant to be mixed with water. The funding news comes three years after the company closed its seed round. The Seattle-based startup said that it would use its new capital to scale distribution.
Photo: Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest debuts cookie dough bites
Daily Harvest, the D2C healthy frozen smoothie and meal delivery service, just launched a line of frozen cookie dough bites. They come in three flavors: Cacao Nib + Vanilla, Chocolate + Hazelnut, and Coconut + Lemon. Like Daily Harvest’s other products, the bites are delivered to consumer’s doorstops fully frozen and are meant to be kept in the freezer until consumed. They cost $6.99 per cup, each of which contains seven cookie dough bites.
Waitr unveils new app
This week online food delivery platform Waitr launched its new app for both Android and iOS. The new app has features like simplified group ordering, optimized checkout flow, and a new section that displays consumers’ most recent orders for easier reordering. Over the past year, the company has acquired third party delivery service Bite Squad and partnered with restaurant tech platform Olo. The company has also been caught up in controversy as of late: last month, restaurants in Baton Rouge, LA organized a protest of Waitr to voice concerns over the company’s new fee structure for restaurants. Not sure if an app will help with that…
Photo: Beyond Meat.
HelloFresh adds Beyond Meat to its meal kits
Meal kit company HelloFresh will begin adding the Beyond Burger to its U.S. menus in September. The plant-based meat is already included in select HelloFresh kits in Canada. This news comes a little more than a month after HelloFresh competitor Blue Apron began selling Beyond Meat burgers in its meal kits. Perhaps when Impossible Foods finally hits retail, we’ll start seeing that meatless meat pop up in meal kits as well.
Did we miss any food tech news stories? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech to fill us in!
While still new to the beverage scene, CBD drinks are growing in popularity as cannabis-infused products, including medical and recreational marijuana, face legalization across the country and the world. Within an American context, CBD’s popularity has been fueled by its increasing availability paired with a growing health trend, with more and more American consumers ditching sugary drinks for “better-for-you” alternatives. And because CBD is derived from a natural source, CBD-infused beverages of all kinds provide an excellent substitute, with health benefits to boot! I can also share a healthy juice recipe out of CBD https://biomdplus.com/cbd-oil/5-simple-cbd-juice-cleanse-recipes/