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Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of this week’s top headlines.
The recent ruling by the World Health Organization (WHO) labeling aspartame as a “possible carcinogen” has sparked a heated reaction from the industry. While global health standards have raised concerns about the popular sweetener, domestic experts argue that it is not sufficient cause for immediate reformulation. In a separate development, an investor group managing or advising on a staggering $15.2 trillion of assets is now demanding changes from fast-food companies regarding their use of antibiotics, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The push for change comes as concerns mount over the misuse of antibiotics in the food industry.
In other news, we’ve wrapped the first season of our podcast in partnership with AgFunder: New Food Order, a nuanced investigation into the business of tackling our climate and social crises through food and agriculture. Read all about why we launched the podcast, and be sure to subscribe and share!
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Popular sweetener aspartame has been dubbed a “possible carcinogen” by global health standards, but domestic experts don’t believe it’s cause enough to begin reformulating just yet.
Firms managing or advising on $15.2t of assets are pushing fast-food companies to make changes.
Post-pandemic restaurants grapple with tech: QR codes decline, automation rises, and balancing high-touch service with high-tech tools is key.
Bobbie was founded to provide a European style of infant formula. The company previously raised $50m in early 2022 and has since grown to serve over 5% of the non-WIC market.
Each of the nine entities, including the beverage giant, contributed about $15m to the initiative. It will focus on five areas, including packaging, distribution and supply chain.
Perfect Day has laid off roughly 15% of its workforce as it moves to exit its consumer-facing business, The Urgent Company, in order to focus solely on its B2B ingredient sales and nth bio “consulting” precision fermentation business.
The agency is seeking to better monitor greenhouse gases released through farming, which is responsible for about 10% of national emissions.
The Department of Commerce and NOAA are launching the Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerators program, a $60m investment in coastal resilience and American small businesses through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.
Silo will use the Series C funding and new bank partnership to advance its workflow automation and fintech platform for the produce industry.
The collaborative robot prototype is being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, California.
This post originally appeared on TechToday.