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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Pepsi

Pepsi Launches “Dig In” Platform + Consultancy Program to Support Black-Owned Restaurants

PepsiCo recently announced the launch of “Dig In“, a consumer-facing platform aimed to highlight the importance of supporting Black-owned restaurants throughout the U.S. The platform will offer increased visibility, business support, training, and mentorship to restaurants.

Over the next five years, Pepsi aims to raise $100 million for local restaurants through these different support channels. The platform was formally introduced with a commercial on the NFL Network Media during playoffs, with the four restaurants 7th + Grove, Off the Bone Barbeque, The Breakfast Klub, and Kitchen Cray being highlighted.

Part of the platform that is especially relevant to restaurants’ success during the pandemic is Black Restaurants Deliver. The eight-week consultancy program is free of charge and offers assistance in developing online ordering and delivery for restaurants. A pilot of 40 restaurants in Washington D.C. was recently trialed and was enough of a success that the program will now assist 400 restaurants with these services during the next five years.

One of the first restaurants to undergo this program was Off the Bone Barbeque. Pepsi assisted the Dallas-based restaurant in increasing its online presence through an updated website, improved online ordering through the Toast TakeOut app, and marketing support. It is currently unclear if all restaurants participating in the program will go through the same exact process.

With restaurants having an incredibly challenging year in 2020 and the systematic barriers that Black-owned businesses face coming to light, restaurant accelerators and assistance programs such as this can help provide support and guidance to keep restaurants afloat. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that there was a 41% decline of black business owners from February to April in 2020, which is disproportionate compared to the 17% decrease of white-owned businesses during this same period.

Elsewhere, the Melon Kitchen Food Entrepreneurship Accelerator is opening a culinary program in mid-January for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. This particular program aims to build “pandemic proof” restaurants through the use of ghost kitchens and DoorDash delivery. The National Urban League actually partnered with PepsiCo in October 2020 to form the Black Restaurant Accelerator Program. PepsiCo provided a $10 million grant to the program in order to provide training, mentorship, capital, and other services to 500 Black-owned businesses over the next five years.

Food Tech News: A New Potato Preserving Technology, Zomato Closes $660M Round

If you need a break from COVID-19 and vaccine-related news, you’re in the right place. In this week’s Food Tech News, we rounded up pieces on a new technology that helps preserve potatoes, Zomato’s latest funding round, a holiday Pepsi flavor, and carbon-neutral oat milk.

Funding for potato preserving technology

Hazel Technologies received an undisclosed amount in grant money this week from the USDA for its new potato preserving technology. The technology is called Hazel Root, which looks like a small package and is placed in a bin of potatoes after harvesting. The small package emits an undisclosed active ingredient that prevents potatoes from prematurely sprouting. Prior to this new development, Hazel Technologies focused on preserving fresh fruits for longer and has received a total of $900,000 in grant money. Last year, the company also raised $13 million in funding in an oversubscribed series B round.

Zomato closes $660M series J funding round

Indian delivery service Zomato closed its series J funding round this week, totaling $660 million USD. The recent round saw participation from Kora, Tiger Global, Luxor, Fidelity, D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Mirae, and Steadview. Zomato is currently valued at $3.9 billion USD, and Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, shared that the company may launch its IPO sometime in the first half of next year.

Cocoa Cola for Christmas

On Twitter this week, PepsiCo announced that a new flavor is in the works: “Cocoa Cola.” Pepsi said if its tweet reached 2,021 reposts, the company would begin production of the new flavor. As of now, that tweet has been reposted 4,400 times so far, so it’s safe to say the new drink will go into production. It will have tasting notes of chocolate, marshmallow, and the classic cola flavor, and is expected to reach stores sometime this winter. Near Thanksgiving this year, PepsiCo also released a holiday flavor: a limited batch of apple pie-flavored soda.

Carbon neutral oat milk

Minor Figures, a London-based company that produces oat milk, announced this week it has become carbon neutral. The company partnered with EcoFye, a firm that helps companies lower their carbon footprint and purchase carbon credit for carbon offsetting projects. Becoming carbon-neutral has been quite the buzzword this year, with major companies like Starbucks, Amazon, and Microsoft also making the pledge.

Food Tech News: New Growth Medium for Cultured Meat, Pepsi’s Plastic-Free Promise

As winter quickly approaches, COVID-19 restrictions resurge and stay-at-home orders seem like they’re in the near future. If you’re like me, you might be trying to decide which new kitchen project you want to take on. I perfected my kombucha process in March and even experimented with alcoholic booch (it was terrible). Should I try my hand at vegan donuts or croissants this time around? Sauerkraut or kimchi?

With many of us being stuck indoors once again, it might be a perfect time to catch up on some Food Tech News. This week we have news on the development of a new growth medium for cultured meat cells, sustainable Pepsi bottle packaging, Good Catch’s expansion into Europe, and Subway’s new online catering platform.

Innovate UK funds development of new growth medium for cultured meat

Centre for Process Innovation and 3D Bio-Tissues, a start-up from Newcastle University, have partnered and received grant money from Innovate UK to make cultured meat animal-free while simultaneously reducing the cost of developing it. The project aims to replace the most common growth media used to culture animal cells, called fetal bovine serum (FBS). There is a morality issue with FBS, as it is extracted from slaughtered pregnant cows in the meat and dairy industry. The new serum will likely be developed from agro-industrial byproducts, which would then remove the use of animals and then solve the ethical issue that FBS poses.

Pepsi to go 100 percent plastic-free in several European markets by 2022

PepsiCo announced this week that it will be transitioning to use recycled post-consumer plastics for its Pepsi bottles in several European countries. By 2021, Spain, Greece, Poland, Germany, and Romania will have 100% rPET(recycled polyethylene terephthalate) Pepsi bottles. France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Great Britain will make the switch by 2022. The company estimates that this change will save around 70,000 tons of single-use plastic a year.

Good Catch expands to Europe

Good Catch, producers of plant-based seafood, expanded its products into the European countries of Spain and the Netherlands this week. The company’s vegan tuna, fish burgers, and crab cakes are now available in 70 different stores throughout the Netherlands and in the specialty chain Sanchez Romero in Madrid. This news follows Good Catch’s recent expansion into Canada in October and the launch of the company’s D2C platform last month.

Subway launches online catering platform

Subway announced the launch of its new online catering platform that is provided by ezCater, an online marketplace for business catering. The new platform aims to offer a convenient way to place large orders for employee lunches and company events. This new feature is now available at every Subway located in the US.

Food Tech News: $45M Raised for Mycelium Leather, Pistachio Milk Launches in U.S.

With COVID-19 cases spiking once again and winter creeping in, today might be the perfect time to get cozy and catch up on some Food Tech News. This week we have stories on mycelium leather, pistachio milk, a seasonal Pepsi flavor, and a line of formal wear created by your favorite stuffing brand.

MycoWorks raises $45m Series B round

MycoWorks raised a $45m Series B funding round this week, led by WTT Investment and DCVC Bio. New investors include two celebrities, John Legend and Natalie Portman, as well as Valor Equity Partners, Humboldt Fund, and Gruss & Co. MycoWorks makes an animal-free leather from mycelium, which is essentially the root system of mushrooms. In addition to the funding news, the company announced the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Emeryville, California. This funding round will be used to open several more manufacturing plant locations.

Táche launches “first true” pistachio milk

Táche, a New York-based startup, made its pistachio milk available for purchase this week. The milk is the first to be made purely from pistachio nuts and is free of other nuts and added oils; the milk also comes in a sweetened and unsweetened version. During the past few months, the company has raised $1.1 million through angel investors and friends, with one notable investor being the former CEO of Stonyfield Farms. A 32-ounce carton of Táche’s pistachio milk costs $7.99, and customers can purchase a six-pack of the milk on the company’s website. The milk is also available in some coffee shops and cafes in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California.

Pepsi releases limited addtion apple pie flavor

Pepsi’s release of this seasonal special aims to emulate all of the goods things in a fresh-baked apple pie: cinnamon, a buttery crust, and warm apples. The company wanted to provide an option for those who don’t have baking skills but want to enjoy the flavors of an apple pie. However, there is a catch; not everyone can get their hands on a bottle of this limited-edition soda. In order to enter for a chance to receive a free 2-liter bottle, participants must share a photo of their baking fails on Twitter or TikTok with the hashtag #PepsiApplePieChallenge.

Stove Top creates a line of formal wear for Thanksgiving

Stove Top, a brand of Kraft Heinz known for it’s packaged stuffing mixes, created a line of formal wear for Thanksgiving. The line includes items such as “Stufflinks” (featured above), a stuffing-print shawl, and a headband. Surprisingly, many of the items have sold out already, with the exception of the $30 crushed velvet jacket with a stuffing print lining. The line of formal wear can be found on LetsGetStuffy.com.

Anova Launches New Line of Plastic Neutral Vacuum Sealer Bags

Sous vide specialist Anova announced they had launched a new line of plastic neutral vacuum seal bags through a partnership with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise focused on reducing the amount of plastic entering the waste stream. Companies within the Plastic Bank program become plastic neutral goal through the purchase of plastic reduction offset credits from the Plastic Bank, which use the funds to reclaim ocean-bound plastic and recycle it. Anova’s new bags also feature an accelerated degradation additive so they break down faster when exposed to air and light.

Pepsi and Diageo Will Launch Paper Bottles in 2021

Spirits company Diageo, best known for the Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Smirnoff brands, announced this week that it’s created the world’s first plastic-free, paper-based bottle. Along with Monday’s announcement, Diageo also said it has partnered with venture management firm Pilot Lite to launch a sustainable packaging tech company called Puplex Limited.

First, the bottle. Puplex Limited designed and developed a bottle made from what the press release calls “sustainably sourced pulp” that is 100 percent free of plastic and also food safe and recyclable. The bottle will debut in 2021 with Johnnie Walker scotch whiskey.  

Scotch won’t be the only beverage available via these new bottles. Puplex Limited created a consortium of companies that includes PepsiCo and Unilever to further develop these bottles and launch their own branded versions in 2021, based on Puplex’s designs and tech.

More than 1 million plastic bottles are sold globally every single minute, and each of of those takes about 450 years to completely degrade. When it comes to recycling said bottles, the U.S., certainly wouldn’t win any prizes, unless they’re for not recycling: in 2017, just 8 percent of plastics were recycled, according to data from the EPA.

Given our broken recycling system, major beverage companies (among others) are now under pressure to reduce their overall reliance on plastic. For example, in 2019, PepsiCo teamed up with Coca-Cola and Keurig-Dr. Pepper for the Every Bottle Back program, which aims to reduce plastic use as well as invest in the improvement of the recycling of plastic bottles. 

So far, developing alt-packaging for the plastic bottles has proved challenging. It seems Diageo has made something of a breakthrough with its product announced this week. How scalable that breakthrough is across the entire beverage industry remains to be seen. 

PepsiCo Launches Two Sites to Deliver All the Snacks to Your Doorstep

With quarantine keeping us all at home and near our pantries, we’re buying more food staples online — and snacking more, too. So it’s no surprise that PepsiCo announced today that it’s launching two ways that people can buy snacks (and other pantry items) directly.

On PantryShop.com, consumers can order curated bundles of popular PepsiCo products with names like “Family Favorites,” “Workout & Recovery,” or, of course, “Snacking.” These bundles have goods from PepsiCo brands like Gatorade, Cap’n Crunch, and Quaker. The Standard Size for the packs costs $29.95, while the larger Family Size is $49.95.

PepsiCo also launched Snacks.com, which is even more snack-specialized. On the site people can order crackers, nuts, and dips, as well as a whole litany of chips from Lays, Cheetos, Ruffles, and more. Orders over $15 ship free.

According to an email sent to The Spoon, the majority of orders placed on PantryShop.com or Snacks.com will arrive within two business days. Obviously that’s not going to sate any chip cravings happening right now, but in a time when finding a grocery delivery spot is almost as hard as finding the golden ticket, two days is actually not that long. And considering everything that PepsiCo is sending is shelf-stable, speed is not exactly of the essence.

Considering the meteoric growth of online grocery since the coronavirus pandemic began, it’s no surprise that PepsiCo is trying to take advantage by launching its own direct sales platforms. With Instacart orders, PepsiCo is competing with other brands to get in your cart. By taking the process onto their own site, they own your purchase 100 percent.

That is, if consumers will go for it. There may be increased interest in online grocery shopping, but I’m not sure if consumers are willing to add another marketplace to their digital purchasing habits. Do people have enough loyalty to PepsiCo brands to place an entirely separate snack order on Snacks.com, as opposed to just adding a few bags of Hot Cheetos to their regular online order?

I suppose, like so many things right now, we’ll have to wait and see. If PepsiCo does see some healthy interest you can bet we’ll see other Big Food brands like Coca-Cola or Nestlé following suit with their own online marketplaces. What better to go with your PepsiCo Snack Pack then a Coca-Cola Soda Pack to wash it all down?

Pepsi’s Greenhouse Accelerator Now Taking Applications for Its Second North American Cohort

Big food continues to seek big innovation by inviting younger, leaner startups to participate in food- and beverage-focused accelerator and incubator programs. This week, PepsiCo announced it will be holding a second North American cohort for its Greenhouse accelerator program, which works with small CPGs operating out of the U.S. and Canada.

According to the press announcement, Pepsi will choose 10 startups to participate in the six-month program. Selected companies will receive $20,000 in funding and work with PepsiCo personnel on product development, supply chain management, media relations, and sales and distribution, among other areas early-stage startups must address. At the end of the program, one company will be awarded an additional $100,000 in funding.

To be eligible for the program, companies must be based out of the U.S. or Canada, have a product or service currently available in the market, and have more than $1 million in annual revenue, according to the Greenhouse Accelerator website.

Pepsi says is also looking for what it calls “purpose-driven” brands — i.e., companies whose products or services address issues in the food system, such as plant-based protein, sustainable packaging, and finding more natural ingredients for food and beverage products. 

Greenhouse is one of a growing number of food-focused accelerator and incubator programs run by major CPGs, including those by Chobani, Barilla, Mars, and many others. Part of the motivation behind this trend is that programs such as these are simple ways for large food companies to access new products, service, and technologies without spending huge amounts of money on R&D — an area they typically only allocate about 1 to 2 percent of their budget to.

Pepsi launched Greenhouse in 2017 in Europe before expanding the program to North America in 2018. Past participants of the program include Hapi Drinks, who makes sugar-free kids’ beverages to fight childhood obesity; YoFit, a plant-based beverage company that makes high-protein “milk” out of chickpeas; and alt-seafood company Sophie’s Kitchen.

Applications for the Greenhouse Accelerator are open until January 6, 2020.

Amazon Starts Testing Autonomous Delivery Bot Scout in California

Scout, Amazon’s autonomous wheeled delivery bot, will start delivering packages today in Irvine, California, according to a blog post published by Amazon.

Scout bots will operate “Monday through Friday, during daylight hours,” according to the blog post. Customers in Irvine will order their packages as normal, including options for same-day delivery for Prime members. The cooler-sized, six-wheeled bots will autonomously follow their delivery route and, for now at least, be accompanied by a human being who can take over in the event of a problem.

Back in January, when Scout debuted near Amazon’s Washington State headquarters, my colleague Chris Albrecht noted that, “If Scout’s trial proves successful, Amazon’s involvement in the space will certainly light a fire under the existing competition and accelerate robot delivery.”

Today’s post from Amazon didn’t specifically mention food delivery, but it’s a realm in which Amazon operates and where, if Scout does indeed prove successful, the Seattle giant would certainly give the competition something to worry about.

And there’s plenty of competition to go around. Postmates’ Serve bot already, eh, serves Los Angeles, Miami, NYC, Chicago, and Phoenix. Kiwi and Starship are available on a growing number of college campuses, and Kiwi also just expanded its program to the city of Sacramento. Pepsi, too, has bots on campus in the form of an autonomous roving device by San Francisco-based company Robby.

Of course, both campuses and city streets contain obstacles for bots, which Amazon said in its blog post it has been testing Scout against for some time: “All the while, the devices have safely and autonomously navigated the many obstacles you find in residential neighborhoods—trashcans, skateboards, lawn chairs, the occasional snow blower, and more.”

Now they have to navigate an even tougher test than a snow blower: the human beings who will be both interacting with the bots as they accept packages and getting used to seeing the wheeled devices roving about the block. How that reception goes will give us a good idea of where Scout is headed — literally and figuratively — in the near future.

Pepsi Launches Flavored Seltzer Machine for Offices to Reduce Plastic Waste (and an Earth Day Tie-in)

PepsiCo announced today — Earth Day — the launch of a new mega SodaStream-like “hydration platform” that will dispense flavored still and seltzer water and hopefully reduce people’s use of plastic bottles.

Details are slim (the system doesn’t even appear to have a name), but this “hydration platform” has three parts. First there is a freestanding or countertop dispenser with a touchscreen, which lets you adjust the flavor, temperature and carbonation levels of your drink. The dispenser connects with a mobile app to let you know how much water you’ve been drinking (and how many bottles you’ve saved). And there are QR code stickers for reusable bottles that the dispenser can recognize and use to automatically bring up drink preferences.

Since the press announcement was light on specifics, we followed up via email with PepsiCo. In the company’s response it referred to the device as “Water Station,” but none of the announcement materials did, so that could be a working title. The company said the dispenser connects to a regular water line for installation and uses CO2 canisters for carbonation.

PepsiCo also said that the pricing is yet to be determined and may vary depending on the customer. The Water Station will roll out to “select workplaces and college and university campuses” starting this summer.

Aside from the Earth Day tie-in, it makes sense that PepsiCo is launching such a product. Traditional sugary soda sales are in a slump while sales of flavored waters and seltzers have been on the rise. Plus, this hydration station follows Pepsi’s $3.2 billion acquisition of home seltzer making system, SodaStream, in August of last year.

It’s always hard to gauge exactly how sincere giant companies are about wanting to reduce waste, but Pepsi has made other moves to cut down on its plastic use. The company is testing out selling its Tropicana orange juice in reusable glass bottles as part of the Loop program. And last year it launched its Drinkfinity flavored water system that uses recyclable flavor pods.

No word yet if there will be a home version of this hydration platform, but given the amount of flavored soda water I drink (Spindrift FTW!), I’d love to see one on my countertop.

Pepsi Bulks Up, Buys Maker of Muscle Milk

Do you even acquire major protein shake brands, bro? Pepsi announced today that it has bought the CytoSport brand from Hormel for an undisclosed sum (hat tip to Food Business News). The move is another step for Pepsi to diversify beyond its sugary soda roots.

CytoSport makes Muscle Milk, the fun-to-say line of protein drinks, bars and powders, as well as the Evolve brand of vegan protein products. Hormel purchased CytoSport in 2014 for $450 million. According to Food Dive, CytoSport has faced issues in recent years, including a product recall in 2016, and a decline in sales last year.

Perhaps Pepsi, which owns Gatorade and understands the sports beverage business, will be a better fit for Muscle Milk than a meat company like Hormel.

For its part, this is another move by Pepsi to diversify beyond sodas, the sales of which have been on the decline as other, healthier drinks like La Croix have eclipsed them. In response to shifting tastes, Pepsi acquired SodaStream last year for $3.2 billion to become an immediate player in the seltzer market. The company has also launched Drinkfinity, it’s pod-based flavored water system last year.

Pepsi isn’t alone in its diversification efforts. Coca-Cola acquired the Costa Coffee chain last year, and led a $15 million investment in hipster water company, Dirty Lemon. Coca-Cola also owns Gatorade analog, Powerade, as well as Fairlife, which makes Core protein shakes.

Now the only question is, will protein even lift Pepsi’s bottom line, bro?

Pepsi and Nestlé to Trial Reusable Containers in Effort to Ditch Plastic

This summer, a group of 25 big name brands including Pepsi, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble will test out a new program that sells products in reusable containers in an effort to combat rampant plastic waste, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The new program, dubbed Loop, will be run by recycling company, TerraCycle, and will kick off in May, starting with 5,000 shoppers in New York and Paris. From there it will branch out to more locations like London, Toronto and Tokyo over the next year.

Some examples of the new packaging include Pepsi selling Tropicana orange juice in glass bottles, and Häagen-Dazs putting its ice cream in steel containers. The Journal writes that prices for these products will be roughly the same as their plastic counterparts, but there will be a deposit of $1 – $10 per container (plus shipping). Shoppers order items through a website for home delivery and when they are done, schedule a pickup for the containers which will be cleaned and reused.

It’s always good to be skeptical of big brands whenever they appear to be making some kind of altruistic move–they are in business to make money, not save the planet. But this trial is coming at a time when people are waking up to just how much plastic waste we’re generating. National Geographic reports that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been created over the past six decades and only 9 percent of it has been recycled. It gets worse, as U.S. plastic recycling was projected to decrease to just 4.4 percent last year.

The good news, though, is that a number of regulators, companies and startups are tackling the problem head on. Last year more than 60 countries introduced initiatives to ban single-use plastic. Companies like Starbucks and Disney and Hyatt are banning single use plastic straws. Vessel Works launched a reusable coffee cup program in Colorado. And zero waste grocery stores are starting to pop up.

Will all this activity move the needle for convenience-addicted shoppers (myself included) to ditch their old habits and try something new? The ease of buying the normal plastic containers will be a hard habit for a lot of people to break. Hopefully Pepsi, Nestlé and all the brands participating in this new trial will design a recycling program that works, stick with it and throw some of their considerable marketing muscle behind it to make it a success — and help make us move on from plastic.

Pepsi and Segway Enter the Increasingly Crowded Delivery Robot Space

One potential benefit of a city filled with people looking down at their phones is that they might be better able to see all the little delivery robots scurrying around on the ground. The sidewalks will be getting even more crowded as both Pepsi and Ninebot, Segway’s parent company, have announced separate delivery robot initiatives.

Pepsi is starting small, delivering snacks and drinks to students on the campus of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California using a robot built by Bay Area company, Robby. Students with a UoP email address can use the snackbot app to summon Pepsi brand drinks and snacks to be delivered between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to designated areas across campus via the autonomous rover-style robot.

The Pepsi/Robby partnership is reminiscent of Kiwi and Starship’s existing work. Both Kiwi and Starship make small cooler-sized, autonomous rover robots. Kiwi has been delivering food to the University of California at Berkeley, and recently expanded to the Westwood neighborhood of LA, where it is looking to start making deliveries at UCLA. Starship is focusing on academic and corporate campuses as well and is already making deliveries on Intuit’s Bay Area office complex.

Starship may be getting some competition on the corporate delivery front. At CES next week, Ninebot–Segway will show off its new Loomo delivery bot. It looks like a filing cabinet on wheels with a touchscreen and drawers that slide out. The company’s press announcement didn’t provide too many details, but did say “Loomo Delivery is designed to provide a comprehensive autonomous delivery solution for office buildings, shopping malls, and other destinations.”

From that description and accompanying pictures, the Loomo does not look that rugged, and perhaps is meant for indoor delivery only. If true, this indoor-only approach could either be extremely limiting for its adoption, or it could help Loomo stand out in the robot delivery space.

And that delivery space is getting crowded. Pepsi/Robby, Ninebot-Segway, Kiwi, Starship, Marble, Postmates, Woowa Bros., and Alibaba are just some of the big name players. And I expect we’ll see a few more show off their robotic stuff at CES next week. I’ll be keeping an eye underfoot for sure.