Kevin Spratt has been promoted to president, US-Canada region and David Faturos has been promoted to executive vice president, chief financial officer. Dave Cowperthwait will join the executive team as executive vice president, chief supply chain officer, a newly created role at Rich’s. 

On a continuing growth path, CuliNex, a clean label food product consultancy, has recruited two industry veterans to accelerate business development and marketing activities.

Tate & Lyle PLC, a global provider of food and beverage solutions and ingredients, and Nutriati, an ingredient technology company developing solutions from one of the industry’s most functional plant-based ingredients, have signed an exclusive five-year partnership for Tate & Lyle to distribute high quality, sustainable chickpea protein and flour.

Sweet treats with functional benefits took home the four finalist spots this week in the Real California Milk Excelerator product innovation competition created by the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) and VentureFuel.

Nexira, a leader in acacia fiber and natural plant-based ingredients for the food, nutrition and health industries, announced its acquisition of the Swiss company UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG, a specialist and leader in natural hydrocolloids and premium ingredients. 

Deerland Probiotics & Enzymes is a trusted global provider of probiotic and dietary supplements using probiotic, prebiotic, and enzyme technology, including 12 branded product lines serving customers in areas including digestive health, immune health, women’s health, food intolerance, sports nutrition, cellular repair, and systemic and cardiovascular health. 

In 2018, Coca-Cola initially acquired a 15% stake in BODYARMOR with a path to full ownership, based on a pre-determined discount. Coca-Cola is paying $5.6 billion in cash for the remaining 85% of the company.

The company's patent-pending discovery platform combines machine-learning algorithms and a precision biofermentation process. The result is a spectrum of novel plant-based ingredients that require a small fraction of the land, energy, and water footprint of animal-derived eggs, meat, milk, and gelatins. 

Food tech startup Aqua Cultured Foods announced it has closed an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of $2.1 million, a high-water mark in the category of seafood alternatives, and one of the largest pre-seed rounds for companies using fermentation for alt-proteins.