- CPG Weekly News
This Week in CPG 07/27/2026
🛒 Retail Rollouts
🍓 Amara Expands Functional Snacks
Amara, founded by Jess Sturzenegger, is expanding its functional Superfood Smoothie Melts to Whole Foods Market with its Brain variety and new Strawberry Pineapple Gut Health flavor following a successful Target launch. The Whole Foods rollout marks the next stage of growth for Amara’s functional kids snack line, which includes Protein, Brain and Immunity varieties. The new Gut Health Superfood Smoothie Melts are made with fiber-rich whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, seeds and legumes, and use the brand’s proprietary food technology to support healthy digestion in a convenient snack format.
🥗 Terry Ho’s Expands at Food Lion
Terry Ho’s Yum Yum Sauce, founded by Terry Ho, is launching Yum Yum Ranch and Ginger Dressing at all Food Lion locations in July, expanding the brand’s restaurant-inspired condiment lineup across its more than 35,000 retail doors. Yum Yum Ranch combines the creamy and tangy qualities of traditional ranch with a touch of sweetness, while Ginger Dressing features naturally brewed soy sauce and fresh ginger. The nationwide Food Lion launch gives shoppers more ways to bring familiar Japanese restaurant-inspired flavors to salads, pizza and other everyday meals.
🍜 A-Sha Foods Adds Single Packs
A-Sha Foods, founded by Young Chang, has expanded at Sprouts Farmers Market nationwide with four $3.49 single-serve varieties featuring its air-dried, never-fried noodles in Garlic Soy, Spicy Dan Dan, Spicy Mala and Chili Crisp flavors. The new individual packs offer shoppers a convenient alternative to the brand’s existing four-pack boxes while maintaining its signature air-dried noodle format. The lineup includes Garlic Soy Thin Street Noodles, Spicy Dan Dan Meteor Noodles, Spicy Mala Meteor Noodles and plant-based Chili Crisp Squiggly Noodles, with each variety designed for an easy meal at home, at work or on the go.
🍜 Maruchan Grows Flamin’ Hot Availability
Maruchan has expanded availability of its Instant Lunch Flamin’ Hot Flavored Chicken Flavor to Amazon in 12-packs following its initial Walmart rollout, extending the bold-flavored ramen’s reach through e-commerce. The Amazon launch gives consumers another way to purchase the spicy Instant Lunch variety as ramen continues to inspire loaded bowls, recipes and flavor hacks across social media. The expansion also pairs a familiar pantry staple with bold flavor innovation and broader online availability.
🌶️ Tierra Negra Lands at Wegmans
Tierra Negra, founded by Ivan M. Gutierrez, has launched its Dark Salsa at Wegmans Food Markets across the Northeast, marking a major retail milestone for the differentiated salsa brand. The rollout follows two years of building awareness for a product concept that had not traditionally appeared on grocery shelves. After extensive travel, trade shows, production work and consumer conversations, the Wegmans launch brings Tierra Negra’s Dark Salsa to a wider regional audience and represents a significant step in the brand’s retail growth.
🥤 Halfday Iced Tea Launches at Target
Halfday Iced Tea, co-founded by Kayvon Jahanbakhsh and Mike Lombardo, is launching an exclusive slim-can line in more than 1,400 Target stores nationwide with four flavors, including the new Strawberry Half & Half. The cans will appear in Target’s chilled beverage set in Strawberry Half & Half, Peach Tea, Classic Half & Half and Tropical Tea, with the new strawberry variety exclusive to the retailer. Target is also featuring the brand as part of its Q3 Newness Campaign, supporting Halfday’s mission to bring prebiotic fiber to more consumers through a non-carbonated gut-health beverage.
🚀 New Product Launch
🧂 DIME Introduces Scallion Ranch
DIME, founded by Jenn Ko, has launched its new Scallion Ranch MSG seasoning across direct-to-consumer, Amazon, Faire and select Bay Area retailers while expanding into all Luke’s Local locations and Berkeley Bowl. The new blend combines scallion, garlic, sweetness and savory umami in a ranch-inspired seasoning designed for pizza, popcorn, dips and grilled chicken. It joins The OG, Korean Chili and seasonal Yuzu Lemon Pepper in DIME’s lineup, with MSG positioned as the hero ingredient across each blend.
🍛 The Cumin Club Launches Chana Masala
The Cumin Club, co-founded by Ragoth Bala, Harish Visweswaran and Kiru Rajagopal, has launched its freeze-dried Chana Masala direct-to-consumer with slow-cooked chickpeas, warm spices and a traditional dash of tea extract. Developed by an expert chef in India and approved by a panel of local taste-testers, the recipe combines chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic and black cardamom. The dish is freeze-dried at the source to help preserve its flavor, texture and nutritional qualities while offering consumers a convenient version of the Punjabi staple.
🎉 News to Celebrate
💊 Astadaily Earns Halal Certification
Astadaily by Iconthin Biotech Corp., founded by Dr. Alvin Cheng, has earned Halal certification for its Astaxanthin Pure – Vegan supplement, broadening access to its natural astaxanthin products for Halal-conscious consumers. The certification expands the product’s accessibility among consumers seeking Halal-certified wellness options. It also supports Astadaily’s focus on offering a vegan, science-backed astaxanthin supplement to a broader global community.
⚡ UPDATE Launches Growth Campaign
UPDATE, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, has launched its first omnichannel campaign while celebrating expansion into 13,000 retail locations nationwide and bringing the campaign to life through an immersive Los Angeles Focus Lab activation. The digital-first campaign features Kardashian in a hero film centered on sustained focus, productivity and performance, and was developed by OBB Bolded with director Daniel Sachon. To support its retail expansion through early Q4, the paraxanthine-powered energy brand also transformed a Melrose Avenue space into the UPDATE Focus Lab, offering merchandise, giveaways, photo opportunities and product sampling.
🥜 Soom Foods Nears 8,000 Doors
Soom Foods, co-founded by Amy Zitelman, Shelby Zitelman and Jackie Zitelman, is approaching 8,000 retail doors after growing from its first independent placement in 2013 to national distribution through retailers including Whole Foods Market, Publix and Wegmans. The milestone reflects more than a decade of growth that began with direct store servicing between Washington, D.C., and New York. Following an expansion with Whole Foods Market Mid-Atlantic and a national Whole Foods launch in 2022, Soom continued building distribution through retailers such as MOM’s Organic Market, Publix and Wegmans as it works toward reaching 9,000 doors by the end of 2027.
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