The Healthy Brands Collective Corp. has acquired Living Harvest Foods, a hemp products company that makes a leading brand of hemp milk, Tempt.

On the eve of the Natural Products Expo East trade show, investment bank Silverwood Partners has released a detailed analysis and deal review of the natural products industry. In its assessment, Silverwood cited continued reports of sales and volume growth of natural products “at rates far exceeding those of the conventional consumer market.”

BevNET’s New Product Insider service, which delivers new product alerts as soon as we find them (translation — before they hit the site), is your ticket to being on top…

The distinction between beverages and dietary supplements has become harder more difficult to discern. Walking down the “beverage” aisle of any grocery store or supermarket, one may see similar-looking products sitting side-by-side; yet, a closer look reveals that some of the products are labeled and sold as dietary supplements, while others are labeled and sold as beverages. How can this be?

On the heels of New York City’s landmark beverage ban, one intended to curb rising rates of obesity in the city, a new article published in the International Journal of Obesity indicates that beverages produced with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) should not be singled out as less healthy than their sugar-sweetened counterparts.

As sales of carbonated beverages continue to tumble, manufacturers remain aggressive in pricing, according to Nielsen scanner data culled from its new AOC (All Outlets Combined) database. In addition to sales information from grocery, drug and mass merchant channels, Nielsen now captures data from a broader range of retailers and channels including Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, dollar stores and military outlets.

Marketing whiz Matthew Kahn, who worked closely with Glaceau marketing chief Rohan Oza in the key growth years immediately preceding the company's eventual sale to the Coca-Cola Co., Inc., is moving into a similar role at Heineken, where he will be the new VP of Marketing for Portfolio Brands.

One day after New York City’s Board of Health issued a landmark ruling that will ban the sale of many sugar-sweetened beverages in the city, supporters and critics of the plan expressed a wide range of opinions ranging from relief and approval to anger and indignation.

Talk about piling on. During the same week that the New York City Board of Health passed its ban on serving jumbo sodas, a pair of developments in two other closely watched social and environmental causes are affecting the Coca-Cola Co., including calorie counts in fast food chains and a battle over Genetically Modified Organisms.