Adapting To The Sober-Curious, Ozempic-Friendly Consumer

0:10Hello, and thanks for tuning in to Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food and beverage. I'm BevNet founder and CEO John Craven, and I'm joined by my co-hosts and colleagues, Jackie Burgliera and Monica Watrous. How was that for a Ray impersonation? I feel like it could be a little livelier, but it sounded great to me. Ray's just so dynamic. He's like, I swear he does that like in his sleep or whatever, but a hundred percent. Yeah, Ray and Mike are off, well, as Ray told me, at an undisclosed location. Not together. So they're not both in jail together. They're not both in jail together.

0:52We don't know. I know Mike's, I think, on Cape Cod or whatever sort of thing he likes to do. Somewhere probably boogie boarding or body surfing or in the waves. And Monica, this is apparently your second appearance on Taste Radio. Yeah, this is my annual visit to the studio here. There you go. Welcome back. Thank you. For listeners who don't know, Monica's the managing editor of NOSH, our BevNet sister publication, I guess should we call it? I call it that. Yeah. And also the host of our CPG Week podcast. So not new to podcasting either. Yeah, it's great to be back here. What's going on over in CPG Week nowadays?

1:34Well, we've recently changed our format to be a little bit more straightforward and streamlined. and it seems to be resonating. I'd always likened this podcast to CPG Meets NPR. And I think it has a little bit more of a straightforward news tone where we highlight the top four to five stories of each week and give folks a quick rundown of the hottest and most important things happening in food and beverage. All the news trends and whatever else is happening that week, right? That's right. Nice. Cool. So it sounds like, you know, listen to Taste Radio, then jump over to CPG Week, get your headlines, and you're filled in for the week.

2:13That's right. There you go. Just listen to all of our podcasts. Like, don't do work is basically what we preach over here. Or you could be working with the podcast in the background. Yeah, something like that. That's the great thing about podcasting. You can, everyone, multitasks. Well, the beauty of CPG Week is it's never more than 15 minutes long. So if you can't knock that out in a commute, then you live too close to work or something. Right. It takes me multiple days. Let's put it that way. With my one mile commute. But anyway, and you're about to head off to Newtopia, right? That's right.

2:46Yes. And by the time this airs, I will have been there. You've been there and done that. So I guess no tease to look out for Monica. Just look out for our coverage on NOSH and BevNet. And where's that, Denver? Yes, it is. For the second year in a row. Nice. So good luck there. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything you're looking forward to? Anything you see in the future? Yeah, I expect it to be a continuation of some of the trends we've seen at Expo West and Summer Fancy Food this year. So call outs to no seed oils, protein everywhere in places you wouldn't expect to find protein. Last year, one of my favorite discoveries at Newtopia was the pasta sauce that contains 10 grams of protein per serving or 40 grams of protein per jar.

3:32It's called Sturdy Sauce. And I'm expecting to see a little bit more of that kind of product at this show. One thing that's nice about Newtopia is that it is a really, it's a more intimate and slower paced counterpart to Expo West. So you can have meaningful conversations on the show floor. It's not as chaotic and frenzied as Expo. And from the conversations that I had with exhibitors last year, they really appreciated that pace and that opportunity to have more face time with retail buyers. Well, everything's slower compared to Expo West, right? True. I feel like sometimes being in an airport is more low-key and relaxed.

4:17You're not wrong. No, not wrong. Not knocking on the show. I mean, amazing, of course, that we get everyone into one convention center once a year. So, you know, it's what it is. I guess Ray told me to talk about Taste Radio Chicago. It feels kind of weird because Ray and Mike, who were there with me, aren't here. So I guess I have to talk about it by myself. Yeah, you just got to give us the whole rundown. What happened? God, that makes it sound like it was a crime or something. That explains where Mike and Ray are this week. Got it. Got it. Got it out of hand. Got it out of hand. No, seriously, it was really great.

4:52It was last Wednesday at Host Cocktails in Chicago. A special thanks to Jordan for hosting us there, Jordan Tepper. And, you know, had about 100 people that turned out. Chicago community, I feel like, you know, it's an area that, you know, there aren't a lot of sort of CPG events that go there. Obviously, there's like a naturally chapter and whatnot. But, you know, some really cool folks there. And I don't know, just cool city. Was glad to get there when it wasn't 100 degrees. Ray really packed it in with interviews. You know, he sat down with Rashida Lee from Chomps and Molly Santuli from Springdale Ventures, which also, oddly, we had a big bunch of investors who showed up at the event, which was kind of cool.

5:37But yeah, it was a super fun time. And I guess as we've talked about on here, again, we're not done with Taste Radio meetups. Maybe I'll let you, Jackie, tell the listeners what's left. Yeah, we actually have a lot left in the year. I feel like as soon as we get into September, it's kind of like, whoa, we're at the end of the year. But we still have our San Diego meetup on September 16. We have our San Francisco meetup on September 18. And then we have our Taste Radio meetup in London, which is October 2. And all of those can be found at taste radio.com slash meetups. Go there, check out the information.

6:15All of them run from 5 to 7pm. So you can catch it after work. We'll have food samples, networking, bringing the whole CPG community in that region together to chat. So yeah, check that out. We are really bad at kicking people out at the end. So probably we go after seven. We don't encourage it. I don't even know why we say five to seven. I think most of them have ended at like 830 or something. I know. I think it's just people want to talk and we have the interviews and then everyone gets like so excited and they want to talk about what was talked about in the interview and continue to connect.

6:51And then people are hoarding samples. There's just like a lot going on. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's what we're trying to do, right? Just make a chill environment, some networking and hopefully some tasty food. We had Chicago Italian beef sandwiches at the Chicago one that was a little nuts, but But people ate every last one, I think. Wow, they're hungry. I want to know when you all are doing a Kansas City meetup. Is that scheduled for next year? We got to work on that. I think it's got to happen. You guys could just do it at my house. I'll cater some barbecue. We'll get all of the CPG community from Kansas City in my house.

7:31That would be a first for a BevNet event. I do not think we've ever had one at someone's house. But there it is. it's being recorded. We'll figure that one out, but we should definitely, definitely do that. I think we, you know, we are looking at next year already. And, you know, I think what we've been trying to do each year is go to a mix of familiar places like San Diego, where we have an office, for example, and also mix it up with some new locations. So always happy to hear ideas from listeners. Yeah. And we're still looking for partners for our upcoming events, looking for partners for next year, looking for locations.

8:10So if you have anything that you want to throw into the mix or you want to participate and get involved, just hit us up at ask at taste radio.com. Perfect. So Ray in his production brief for this episode, also, you know, he just feeds us these little nuggets because he assumes that if he didn't do that, I don't know what we would be doing on here. We'd be off the rails. He doesn't trust us. Just be dead air. But, But, you know, one of the things Ray suggested we talk about is this new Gallup survey that now says that the percentage of Americans who consume alcohol has hit its lowest point, 54 percent in the history of their survey.

8:50And obviously, I don't know, we talk about this a lot on Taste Radio and just in general across our publications that, you know, there's a lot going on in the NA world, a lot of alternatives, be it cannabis, be it just zero alcohol products. And Ray, again, is asking, are we in just a cyclical trend or is this some sort of true decline crisis for BevAlk? So I'll put that out there since I read all that. What are your thoughts? And from my perspective, my personal alcohol consumption has only increased over the last year. So I can't really relate to what's happening in this survey, but. I don't think it's a crisis.

9:36I think that like people are just diversifying what they're drinking and maybe like drinking a little bit less. They're alternating. Like you said, cannabis has become more of a player in this space where you still get some sort of like functional, like maybe head high or something. You're getting that relaxation. I know kava has been around forever, but that's popping up more in beverages. You're seeing kana, which is supposed to be like nature's, I don't even know. It's like nature's molly. Wow, you're selling that one. But micro-dosed, I think that's the thing. Like a lot of these things are getting micro-dosed now, even magic mushrooms.

10:17I know all of these things aren't necessarily legal yet or they are becoming legal, but there's so many more options for people or they can just drink, you know, a hop water and get the hoppy effect and be able to alternate. I guess I would kind of agree with Monica of maybe alcohol consumption has gone up. No, that's not true really for me. I think COVID was sort of the peak, but it was like, what else was there to do? Let's be honest. Maybe this is like we swung one way during COVID and we're just like swinging a little bit the other way. I feel like there's also just so many options out there that even consumers who aren't looking for full sobriety are seeing interesting and unique NA options or Canabevs.

11:02And some of their dollars, at least for right now, are going to these other categories where, you know, maybe they'll come back. There's also, I would imagine, some component of this that's just Gen Z that, you know, the ones that are at what historically was the drinking age, 21 or under, I guess, whatever it was, are just choosing alcohol later. It's not that they're not going to. Now, they might drink less than millennials did or something like that. But it does seem like some of this has to rebound. But I guess time will tell. and I'm sure we're just going to keep talking about it on here and covering it and every step of the way.

11:42I think it's, I don't know, it really is pretty remarkable how many brands have managed to get signal and make a dent in these categories that, you know, I know we've talked about like brewing a lot, but I mean, I think NA beer was one where like it just was viewed as like never going to work. And now there's just tons and tons of options. So it should be interesting. Since we have Monica on here who focuses on food, I think, you know, and also in that industry, there's a whole sort of Maha and the GLP-1 concerns that have been a part of our coverage there. You know, just curious if there's anything off the cuff that maybe stands out or just in general where that whole trend stands?

12:30Well, from the big food level, we've seen a handful of conglomerates pledging to remove synthetic dyes from their portfolios in the U.S. over the next two years in alignment with the RFK directive to do so. It's not a law or a ban, but it is a strong voluntary phase out that's being reflected in some of these commitments that companies are making. On the smaller CPG level, we're seeing a number of brands that have been doing this for a while and are now making their efforts more vocal with call-outs on front of pack indicating made with avocado oil or no seed oils, or we're seeing growing adoption of new certifications like seed oil free.

13:19So that's been a big symbol of this Maha movement. With GLP-1 drugs, we've seen the impact of this on both sides of the spectrum as well, as far as big companies like Nestle and ConAgra, who have been developing frozen meals or badges that go on products. In the case of ConAgra, it had developed a GLP-1 friendly badge that goes on its healthy choice products to indicate that these are options for those that are using weight loss drugs marketed under names like Ozempic, Manjaro, Wigovi, and Zetbound. And these products tend to be higher in protein and a little bit more nutritionally balanced, as that's what people who are on appetite-suppressing drugs are looking for, something that's going to help them maintain muscle mass, if they are consuming fewer calories.

14:14Both of these trends, if you want to call them, you know, Maha and GLP-1 have been influencing companies from startups to multinationals for the past year. I expect we'll continue to see more and more action as product developers keep pace with how this is affecting the American population. Well, I think, you know, at the big sort of food company, big CPG level, where I guess, you know, probably the majority of ultra processed packaged foods are created anyway. It certainly makes sense that there would be a noticeable effect from both of those. But I guess that like the emerging CPG level, you know, the folks that are already trying to make better for you kind of, I don't know, the Whole Foods, Air One type products, like what's the impact at that level?

15:04Were they doing stuff that conflicts with either the RFK directives or, you know, someone who's seeking GLP-1 friendly foods? Well, it's interesting because I think that you can almost see a bifurcation in some cases of how brands are approaching these trends, because in some cases, GLP-1 is at odds with Maha. If you look at David as sort of the classic example of a product that isn't Maha friendly, but would definitely be considered GLP-1 friendly. When I talk about David, I don't think that listeners of this podcast are unfamiliar with this brand, but... Oh, we've talked about it. Yes, I do.

15:39I know. But this is the protein bar company that Peter Rahal, the founder of RX Bar, started last year. And they tout having an unparalleled protein to calorie ratio. So 28 grams of protein for 150 calories. But they use artificial ingredients, sweeteners, flavors. And one of the ingredients that has really put them on the map more recently is EPG, which is a modified plant fat. That was the source of some recent lawsuits as... I thought you were going to say cod, but... Oh, I'll get there. Sorry. But this modified plant fat that has enabled that lower calorie formulation with its high protein content, the cod thing, which I know you also talked about on previous episodes, but that was intended as a clapback to people who were protesting or criticizing, I should say, the artificial ingredient deck that David is known for, I suppose.

16:38Yeah, pretty interesting to see how that company for sure has navigated all of this, where it seems like clearly they just, they're doing what they're going to do and they don't care. But also putting out that COD sort of clapback was, I don't know, one of the funnier sort of responses I've ever seen and that it was an actual real product too. And I ordered it. I saw, I saw. I ate the cod. But no, and I think the credit for that campaign goes to Dayjob, which is the marketing agency that branded David as well as Hornbulls Chornbulls and some other memorable CPG products that have launched in the past couple of years.

17:15The thing with David, I feel like it's an exemplary example of like these two paths to how Americans view healthfulness in that you're either looking at clean label and wholesome ingredients, or you're looking at calories and protein. And there really isn't a lot of crossover. And, you know, again, when I talk about the tension between Maha and GLP-1, I think that's really illustrated in this, you know, what's going on and how people are eating and viewing what healthy eating looks like today. Definitely. Well, I'm sure this Maha, GLP-1, and also the alcohol consumption theme will for sure be prevalent at our LA conferences that are coming up.

17:55Jackie, want to give everyone the rundown? Yeah. So we have Nosh Live, which Monica will be on stage for December 4th and 5th. We then have BevNet Live focused on obviously beverage and spirits and Nawn Elk on December 7th through 9th. And then we have BrewBound Live, which is focused on beer and beyond and the gray area now within beer and Nawn Elk for December 10th and 11th. And these are all happening in Marina Del Rey at the Marriott. Yeah, it's kind of like going to be like our year end summit for CEOs, executives throughout the CPG industry to come together, talk about these themes, talk about other things that are happening in the market, connect, set yourself up for kind of success in 2026 and get the ball rolling early as you plan for the following year.

18:42And we have a lot of really cool things going on. I mean, we obviously have stage content. We're going to be talking about, you know, what's happening in the industry. We also are bringing back our one-to-ones, which are kind of speed dating style meetings. In the past, we've really focused on retail one-to-ones, but we're actually expanding that to also include peer one-to-ones. So between executives like Jing Gao from Fly by Jing will be at Nosh Live and Jenny's from Jenny's Ice Cream and Eric's Gay from Carbon Foods. they're going to all be at Nosh Live to have one-to-one meetings with their peers and with other founders and executives.

19:20Those are some cool things happening. And we will also have sampling of innovative products, lots of networking opportunities. And we've got lots of great brands signed up for all three already. So don't delay or something like that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the sooner you sign up, the sooner you can lock down your hotel room, which usually does sell out, especially for BevNet Live, and also sign up for these one-to-ones. So the sooner you get in, you know, the first in, first approved, because all these meetings are going to be approved. So you want to make sure you register early. There you go. End of shameless plug, at least for this episode.

19:57We'll do it again next time. Yes. And go to BevNet.com slash events to find all of these. Quick break. If this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage, explore BevNet and Nosh Insider, our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. All right, so before we wrap up, we've got to do the usual of who's got interesting products. I unfortunately am awaiting some UPS deliveries, so I'll let you guys go. All right. Well, I have something from the fire department coffee company. It was kind of fun. They send a little fire hydrant, like mug, and they have instant espresso coffee now.

20:43So stick packs. These are going to be great for when I go hiking or camping. But I do really like their mission. It's veteran founded. It's also founded by firefighters and some of their proceeds to go back to support firefighters. And the branding's pretty on point. Definitely captures your eye. Do you have anything, Monica? So the product that I discovered recently or was actually sent to me, I didn't really just discover it, but the brand is called Crisp Power and they're doing what many brands are doing, which is bringing protein into traditional snack categories. So they have a line of protein pretzels and this is their newest SKU.

21:20It's cheddar. And this is 25 grams of protein per bag and six grams of net carbs. It's made with a combination of wheat protein and carob seed protein as well as soy protein, which I thought was an interesting combination. You usually see milk protein isolate in these kinds of products. And it tastes really good. It's a baked snack and it has a good crunch, great flavor. It doesn't have that kind of fake cheesy taste that some enhanced. Cheese with a Z. Exactly. I love cheese with a Z. Right. Yeah. So yeah. And then the other Perskews are everything, seasoning, sesame seed, and sea salt. And I think all four are fantastic, but the protein content is pretty impressive.

22:0525 grams for a bag. That is pretty intense for like a savory snack. For real. And you don't taste it. I mean, again, a lot of products that have added protein, sometimes you get like the beanie off notes or the texture is compromised, but I wouldn't say that's true of this product. Yum. Nice. Yeah. that big call out right there. It's like, you can't miss the 25. It's right there front and center. I mean, if you're going to be a high protein product and you don't put the grams of protein on the front, like what's even the point? Right. Well, and I will say like what I respect about this is that it is the whole serving of protein versus, you know, sometimes you see on front of pack a protein call out, but it's kind of tricky because it's per package and not per serving.

22:51In this case, it is per serving. So there's no deception here. It's what you see is what you get. Nice. Looks tasty. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cratchy. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smirlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice.

23:31Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is BevNetTasteRadio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at tasteradio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time. Thank you.