Potato Chips, Artificials, and MAHA: Politics Indeed Creates Strange Bedfellows!

I recently read in the news that Lays was removing all of their artificial colors and flavors by end of 2025.  Having worked at PepsiCo and other CPG companies for most of my career, this was an interesting development and welcome surprise.  However, I'm probably not the first to say "there are artificial colors and flavors in potato chips??"

How did we get here and what does the future look like for CPG food manufacturers?

Much of our food supply we have taken for granted in 2025. Many of us have learned that there are two main sections of the store - 1) the Perimeter: where fresh vegetables, dairy, and bakery live and 2) the center - aisles filled with pre-packaged, canned, bottled, or frozen items. Countless health and wellness thought leaders have given the advice to shop the perimeter and skip the center to avoid artificials, preservatives, and ultra processed foods.  Indeed some estimates put the American diet composed of 70-80% ultra processed foods.  We're still coming to terms with the long term health impacts of ultra processed foods, but the journey of how we got here remains long.

Early last century, food safety wasn't a throwaway issue.  As detailed in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle unsanitary meatpacking practices were dangerous and created an outcry which laid the foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, as well as pasteurization and canning.  However it was WWII that really accelerated advances in food preservation - freezing technologies, dehydration, irradiation, and vacuum-packing for shelf stable foods.  For the time this was a breakthrough - food could be preserved much longer and it set the stage for massive CPG food companies to operate.

Once large CPG companies started to industrialize food production, corporations did what they do best - find ways to extract cost out of the process via processing ingredient.  Ingredient were processed to make them more uniform and predictable for manufacturing.  Real flavors were variable in consistency so they were swapped out for the predictable, processed ones.

While working in innovation at PepsiCo I saw this first-hand.  I was paired up with a talented entrepreneur to create an all natural, organic Overnight Oats product.  This entrepreneur had a recipe that he had developed in his kitchen combining organic dried fruits and spices to create some really delicious breakfast options - just add milk!  The challenge came when we tried to recreate the recipes for scaled manufacturing within the PepsiCo system.  PepsiCo had optimized it ingredients and suppliers over decades - carefully selecting suppliers based on the consistency of their products and how well it worked within the PepsiCo system.  And it worked just great…for what they were already producing.  However for this new Overnight Oats product, the ingredients were not in the PepsiCo system.  Where the recipe called for organic cherries, the supplier network only had non-organic cherries that were coated in dextrose (a sugar) for easier processing.  Using that ingredient would not work for us, but when we tried to get a new supplier approved who actually sold the ingredient we were looking for, the PepsiCo vetting process for a new ingredient would take about 12 months.

The problem was that starting in the 1970s with the establishment of the organic food movement to early 2000s, consumers became much more savvy about where their food came from and started to prioritize Organic and local farming, GMO free, and eventually farm-to-fork traceability.  Consumers wanted MORE information about where their food came from, how it was grown, and how it was processed.  In recent years, that trend has continued with the emerging awareness of the health issues of ultraprocessed foods.  As a result CPG food manufacturers have found themselves heavily invested in ingredient sourcing and processing that is becoming more and more irrelevant from a consumer standpoint.  Their solution in the face of these trends has been to make token changes - maybe have an organic variety of cookie (which is more expensive) alongside the standard variety (which is less expensive).  Meanwhile their loyal consumer base starts to erode and shrink.  The corporation feels like it has done its best to address consumer trends while maintaining the status quo and their profits.  Never has consumer health and wellness entered the conversation.

So here's where it gets a bit weird.  Now the MAHA movement spearheaded by Robert Kennedy Jr. has put artificials, sugar, and ultraprocessing in the crosshairs of the US government.  Suddenly we're seeing companies independently getting ahead of any future regulation by "cleaning up" their ingredient lists and moving away from processing.  As a Health and Wellness enthusiast, I'm really torn.  I love the focus on cleaning up ingredient lists - it really puts CPG companies more in step with consumer preferences and inches the US toward a healthier food system.  On the other hand there are a number of additional policies that the MAHA team is pursuing which (in my opinion) do not further our country's health and wellness

So for the moment, I love seeing the headlines of large food companies making well-needed changes to de-industrialize the food we eat on a daily basis - even if it means that we have an increase of suspect advice around things like vaccines, Tylenol, etc.

What do you think?  Is the improvement in our food system worth the increase of conspiracy theories? Let me know your thoughts!!

-Bryant

Here's the original article about the changes to Lay's

https://www.allrecipes.com/lays-change-october-2025-11826319?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

Everyone wants speed. few know how to enable it

As I speak to colleagues and mentors in the @cpg, @food and beverage and @wellness space, once we get through talking about AI, one topic eventually comes up: speed. 

Speed for creation - how can we get that new product launched faster, how can we get that video created sooner.  Speed for execution: How can we get from idea to execution faster? How can a 12 week project get executed in 4 weeks? Speed for competitive advantage: How can we react quickly to movements in the market by competitors?

As a marketer who has worked across industries - from beauty to wellness to CPG to food and beverage - this is a common theme.  More, better, faster.  However when I've sat down with partners and clients to unpack what are the barriers to speed, very few marketers feel that they are equipped to skip over the barriers and roadblocks that are placed in their way to enable speed.  Everyone wants speed, but so few know how to enable it within their organization.

What are the enablers to speed?  From working in Fortune 50 to startups, agency side to client side, here are my observations on the barriers to speed and ways to enable speed in your business.

1. Risk Tolerance.  This is by far the biggest barrier to speed and probably the top reason that Fortune 50 companies are perceived to be slow.  The internal tolerance for risk (or lack thereof) drives for certainty in execution and low tolerance of failure.  To be more certain, you need to do your testing and learning behind closed doors before it's released to the world.  The core rationale is that the marketing investment to launch is high, so certainty needs to be high as well.  The dirty secret is that many products that test well internally fail in the market.  Startups, who lack the resources to do extensive internal testing, have a higher tolerance for risk and as a result are naturally faster to market.  So what do you do about this?  Get your organization comfortable with the risk.  Highlight the opportunity cost of not taking the risk.  Create a "burning platform" internally which focuses on action over risk.

2. A culture of NO vs. a culture of YES.  Like you, I have been in organizations that have been cultures of NO.  Whatever great idea people come up with, the default attitude is "prove it to me" and the default answer is NO.  Many middle managers feel like their doing their job by asking searing, penetrating questions the answers to which their team may not have.  So the team goes back to work, addressing the questions and adding weeks onto the process.  In an organization where there is a culture of YES, managers prioritize action over perfection. That doesn't mean these managers don't ask questions.  However the questions are less "prove it to me" and more "keep going, but consider this as well".   Its amazing to work within an organization with a "culture of yes".  You see rank and file employees who are always curious --  taking initiative and ownership knowing their management will support them.  Conversely in an organization with a culture of NO, you have employees that punch the clock.  You only need to get shut down a couple of times to realize that its just easier to do the obvious and easy things.

1. Understand the rules before you begin - This is particularly important in highly regulated categories, but it is also key for any business looking to move quickly. Doing your homework to understand where the legal and regulatory guardrails allows you to create a MVP that at the very least won't get shut down by internal legal or the FDA when you're looking to scale.  There are times to challenge convention and intentionally break rules that need to be broken to drive disruption in the market.  However, to enable speed, it helps to know where the potholes are before the race begins

2. Make scale work for you, not against you - When I was working with the business school professor and entrepreneur Barry Nalebuff on an overnight oats project at PepsiCo, we quickly ran into the dark side of scale.  While we were looking for organic blackberries, the procurement team was telling us there were not enough blackberries in the world to supply our initiative.  What?  What the procurement person meant is that they didn't have a preferred supplier of organic blackberries and to validate a new supplier would take about a year.  A great example of scale working against you.  However, what if because of your scale you can talk to partners that smaller companies would only dream of partnering with?  At PepsiCo, I was guaranteed to be able to get a meeting with just about anybody - partners like Fair Trade USA, media organizations, NGOs were all eager to talk with us because of the scale we represented. No matter your size, you are always bigger than someone else and can link up to drive programs faster.

3. Technology reduces friction and gets you a head start - So much ink has been spilt around AI that I hesitate to add it to this discussion but no discussion around speed is complete without talking about how AI and emerging technology can help businesses to move quickly.  AI technology can turn a competitive assessment around in seconds not days.  AI can scrape Tik Tok and within seconds tell you the top trends in your category.  However, many believe the starting point is the finish line.  Using AI to scrape trends is not the answer - why?  Because your competitors are doing the same thing.  AI output is a starting point to inspire, generate ideas and highlight potential vectors that may not have been considered at the outset.  It's up to the human in the machine to assess output and generate new ideas or new directions that are novel to the business.  Thinking about #2 in the above list (a culture of NO) AI output can help you to structure your business case, and ideally lend you credibility and get you further down the development path than brainpower alone.

In conclusion, for as many companies are advocating and incenting speed, without a considered examination of their current decision structure, they will forever be frustrated with how long things take to get executed.  Remove barriers.  Change your approach.  Get comfortable with risk.  There is no free lunch to enable speed in your organization.

The Existential Risk Of Losing Your Way: Whole Foods Considers Selling Mass Brands

Stop me if you've heard this one before.  You're making your weekly grocery list and you get to the point where you decide which store to visit.  You look at the items on the list - fruit, vegetables, meat, snacks. I'm not convinced of the quality of fruit, veggies and meat at my local store so Whole Foods looks like the obvious choice.  But wait.  What about snacks.  Not just any snack, though - Triscuits.  They're healthy-ish and I like a good Triscuit with cheese.  However, I've tried the Whole Foods version of this cracker type and it's…meh.

So what do I do?  Do I scrap my trip to Whole Foods to ensure that I can get my Triscuits at the local grocery store?  Do I make a second trip AFTER Whole Foods?  Or do I just forget about the Triscuits for now and pick them up during a fill trip at my local store in the middle of the week.

Honestly, I do all three - just depends on how much I'm craving Triscuits.  Apparently, Whole Foods has been doing some consumer research on people like me - people who want the promise of eating healthy, without Ultra-Processed Foods - but who also have some Ultra-Processed habits like Triscuits.  It makes sense to think about capturing that one extra purchase from that consumer.  They're already in your store, just capture that one more product.

For most retailers, I would say that this is a tried and true strategy - getting current consumers to buy more.  Capturing more of their "share of requirements" - which means if consumer spend 50% of their money at one retailer like Whole Foods, how can I get them to spend 51% of their money at Whole Foods.  It is a classic revenue growth tactic for brands and retailers.

There is another revenue growth tactic that Whole Foods has been leveraging for years - basket building and upselling.  For consumers coming into your store, how do you get them to buy that delicious apple pie in addition to their staples.  How can they get you to buy the premium ice cream instead of the value ice cream.  This has been successful for Whole Foods for one core reason - they understand their consumers.  They know that their consumers are looking to snack and indulge like everyone else - but in a less processed, healthier way.  And they also know that their consumers are distrustful of the large multi-national food companies and shun which is why they don't stock their products.  This has given rise to a startup-friendly environment where Whole Foods delights its consumers by bringing in brands that are high on authenticity & story and low on GMOs & UPFs.  The result is Justin's not Jiffy.  Poppi not Pepsi.

So that's why today's article in the Wall Street Journal is so perplexing: https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/whole-foods-brand-identity-amazon-9953d8a0?st=2xWHdq&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The upshot is that Whole Foods is trialing a way to sell multi-national food companies' product - in either a "hidden" way (ShopBots fetching your Doritos from the back) or in a "store in store" kind of way - keeping the Doritos in a dedicated section of the store away from the other snacks.

I'll pause here for effect.  Pay attention to what's going through your mind right now.  Likely that feeling is cognitive dissonance which goes something like, "Wait, doesn't Whole Foods have a mission to sell wholesome, natural foods?  Aren't they my food curator, making sure that anything I buy has a stamp of that mission?  So, how can they sell Doritos which seems to be the exact opposite of wholesome and natural - and can barely be registered as food."

This is a classic case of a brand or business departing from the mission and values which brought them success to chase new revenue streams or growth.  It may seem like I'm a brand purist, pearl clutching at the very practical moves of a business which needs to deliver growth, but I don't see it that way.  With a move like this Whole Foods risks:

1. Losing their relevance in the value proposition:  If Whole Foods is closer to Kroger, it means that shoppers who are looking for their curated selection of naturally vetted products lose trust that Whole Foods can deliver on that mission rather than chasing increased sales

2. Opening up their core point of difference to competitors: Sprouts, Natural Market are just salivating to claim the crown of natural/organic retailers from Whole Foods.  This move opens up a crack to competitors to de-position Whole Foods as just another pawn of Amazon

Lastly, it should be noted that a move like this also ignores their consumer. The wellness and natural foods consumer has left mass brands and retailers for a reason, and the distrust of large mechanized food is real.  For their core consumer, this is akin to "selling out" their original mission.  Once you've lost the consumer who has brought you success then you erode the very foundation of your brand and revenue stream.