Battle of the Vegan Manufacturers: Who Will Be Featured on New Present Hosted by Meals Community Star?

There’s a brand new present giving viewers an inside look into the making of their favourite vegan merchandise, from plant-based seafood to vegan entire eggs and extra. Created by new media community Higher for You Media, Behind the Wrapper takes viewers behind the scenes of established and up-and-coming meals and beverage manufacturers. Viewers be part of host Marc Summers—a longtime Meals Community and Nickelodeon game-show host—for an intimate journey with model founders to study in regards to the origins of their favourite merchandise and for a behind-the-scenes look into manufacturing. 

Established earlier this 12 months, Higher for You Media will produce and create authentic content material centered on meals, well being, and wellness. The worldwide community finally goals to raise present, wellness-focused manufacturers of shopper packaged items (CPG) and additional join them to shoppers and funding alternatives. “American better-for-you manufacturers drive world wellness developments,” Summers mentioned in a ready assertion. “We’ve got recognized a number of the most promising, which we are going to function on Behind the Wrapper. Our episodic ‘Bourdain-like’ manufacturing will speed up consciousness in a giant manner.” Higher for You Media plans to start airing the brand new present throughout the vacation season, and the corporate has its sights set on Discovery and Meals Community. 

GT’s Dwelling Meals

Behind the Wrapper kicks off its first season with an inside look into kombucha large GT’s Dwelling Meals. Summers might be joined by George Thomas “GT” Dave, the model’s founder, to point out viewers how one of many main kombucha manufacturers within the nation is made and bottled. Extra importantly, longtime followers of GT’s Dwelling Meals’ kombucha will learn the way Dave was motivated to start brewing the fermented beverage after his mother was identified with breast most cancers in 1994. “I used to be a younger, homosexual boy [who] was bullied in highschool, had no sense of goal, and impulsively, I had a goal: to assist my mother together with her breast most cancers,” Dave says within the premiere episode trailer. “The one factor she might preserve down was the kombucha.”  

Battle of the manufacturers 

And whereas Behind the Wrapper will function each vegan and non-vegan manufacturers, there’s a lot of plant-based pioneers who’re vying for airtime. At the moment, manufacturers chosen by Higher for You Media are competing in Battle of the Manufacturers, a web based, multi-round competitors the place followers vote for the model they’d prefer to see featured on Behind the Wrapper. As an added perk, followers are entered to win a 12 months’s provide of the successful model in each spherical they vote. 

“Model choice is a crucial a part of our components,” Peter Groverman, founding father of Higher for You Media, tells VegNews. “At first we’re in search of an excellent founder story, or no less than a compelling narrative the corporate has constructed and grown.” Manufacturers chosen to compete in Battle of the Manufacturers, shares Groverman, have additionally been chosen because of the projected potential progress of their retail classes. And at last, the chosen manufacturers should additionally showcase a robust fanbase or social media following and should prioritize simple, open communication with shoppers throughout social, e-mail, and ecommerce platforms. “Manufacturers with these attributes are the very best candidates for Behind the Wrapper and really make Battle of the Manufacturers the ‘final snackdown,’” says Groverman. 

Milkadamia

Behind the Wrapper produces quick movies about every model to assist followers make their choice. To date, eight, week-long rounds have been accomplished. In spherical one, vegan-friendly snack model Mid-Day Squares proved victorious over Lemon Excellent, makers of bottled lemon water. Spherical two noticed vegan-friendly snack model Lesser Evil face off towards plant-based Tosi Snacks, with the latter claiming victory. Rounds three and 4 noticed vegan favorites Large Mountain Meals and Dandies Vegan Marshmallows lose to Cleveland Kitchen (makers of dressings, kimchi, and pickles) and Sunny Tradition (which produces plant-based, probiotic drinks), respectively. Date model Joolies beat out sweet model Zolli Sweet in spherical 5, and vegan dairy model Milkadamia proved victorious in spherical six. At the moment, votes for spherical eight—which noticed pasta model 3 Farm Daughters tackle coconut condiment model Large Tree Farms—are being tallied.

Spherical seven, nevertheless, shook up the plant-based world.

Vegan seafood vs vegan entire eggs

Vegan seafood model Thoughts Blown Plant Primarily based Seafood Co went head-to-head with Artful Counter—makers of the modern vegan entire egg WunderEgg—in spherical seven. In the end, the spherical was declared a tie when each corporations drew in the identical variety of votes. “It was a fierce battle,” Monica Talbert, co-founder and CEO of Thoughts Blown, tells VegNews. 

Thoughts Blown Plant Primarily based Seafood Co

The ladies-led, family-owned firm has roots within the seafood business. However after witnessing “unacceptable and generally hidden practices” that result in a rise in overfishing and different damaging practices, the seafood veterans determined to supply plant-based alternate options. 

“The final hour of voting, our workplace seemed like a conflict room. It was a phone-a-thon, all people was calling previous highschool pals we hadn’t talked to in years. It was neck and neck,” says Talbert. “Once we each got here out victorious, we couldn’t be something however elated […] Understanding that Artful Counter and Hema each received, I used to be elated for her entire staff.”

Artful Counter

Hema Reddy, Artful Counter founder and CEO, echoes Talbert’s sentiments. “Being a mission-driven firm, you all the time put goal above all else,” Reddy tells VegNews. “For us to go on TV with one other model, and each get nationwide recognition, that could be a celebration. We’re right here to win, but when we will share this victory with one other model that’s additionally making a distinction on the identical mission we’re on, there isn’t something extra lovely than that.”

For Reddy, this victory isn’t only a celebration of plant-based manufacturers, it’s additionally elevating women-led corporations and proving that the vegan egg sector is poised to make historical past.

Collectively, six vegan manufacturers might be featured on Higher for You Media’s Behind the Wrapper. Whereas the present is at present centered on spotlighting wellness-oriented CPG meals and beverage manufacturers, there are plans to develop into different high-growth wellness classes comparable to cosmetics, house items, and companion animal meals. 

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Jocelyn Martinez is an Affiliate Editor at VegNews dwelling in Los Angeles, CA.