From Whole Foods to Target, Retailers Shake Up Special Diet Sales

This week in our dairy-free Friday Bites, the dairy-free community says goodbye to a beloved product line at a major retailer, but hello to lower prices at another. Plus, we have a researcher in need of survey participants and a new line of dairy-free cheese alternatives!

Amazon Promises Big Price Cuts at Whole Foods, Starting Monday

In a press release this week, Amazon announced that its acquisition of Whole Foods Market will officially close on Monday August 28, 2017. And on that date, they will officially commit to making natural and organic food affordable for everyone.

According to Amazon, “starting Monday, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices on a selection of best-selling staples across its stores, with much more to come. Customers will enjoy lower prices on products like Whole Trade bananas, organic avocados, organic large brown eggs, organic responsibly-farmed salmon and tilapia, organic baby kale and baby lettuce, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, creamy and crunchy almond butter, organic Gala and Fuji apples, organic rotisserie chicken … and much more.”

And Amazon says the values will keep rolling out. Amazon Prime will become the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and they will “continuously lower prices.”

Target Discontinues Sales of Hampton Creek Products

Up until this week, Target carried about 20 dairy-free and vegan products from Hampton Creek. This included popular varieties of Just Mayo, Just Dressing, Just Cookies, and Just Cookie Dough. But Target is now severing their relationship with Hampton Creek.

According to Target, “We are not planning to bring Hampton Creek products back to Target and have openly communicated our decision with the Hampton Creek team,” Jenna Reck, a spokeswoman for Target, wrote in an email. “There were multiple reasons we terminated our relationship with Hampton Creek and all of the reasons were clearly communicated to Hampton Creek,” Reck said by phone.

Nonetheless, Hampton Creek products are still carried in about 20,000 retail outlets, including Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Amazon. According to the company, they’re also available at some elementary schools, universities and sports stadium.

So Delicious Stretches their Product Line into Dairy-Free Cheese

Despite the underwhelming release of their vegan “mac and cheese” last year, So Delicious is going all in on a new line of dairy-free cheese alternatives. The vegan shreds are available in Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Cheddar Jack, and are certified gluten-free and non-GMO verified. They also appear to be soy-free and tree nut-free. The Mozzarella shreds boast the following ingredients:

Organic Coconutmilk (Filtered Water, Organic Coconut Cream), Palm Oil, Modified Starches (Potato, Corn), Contains 2% Or Less Of: Salt, Potato Protein, Yeast Extract, Cultured Sugar (To Retain Freshness), Citric Acid, Cultures, Tapioca Dextrose, Natural Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Konjac Gum, Lactic Acid, Annatto Extract (Color), Cellulose (To Prevent Caking).

So Delicious shreds are rolling out to stores now, but there is no word on where they will land first.

Participants Needed in Research Survey on Food Allergies and Anxiety in Children

A doctoral candidate at Pace University in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program is conducting a research study on the relationship between food allergies and anxiety in children. If you have at least one child between the ages of 8 and 12, she would love to have your help. You do not need to have any children with food allergies in order to participate. Your anonymous participation and that of your child will only involve a small time commitment using your computer or mobile device. The study results will be shared via Go Dairy Free once released.

To participate, just go to the questionnaires. Feel free to email ashley.bogatch@pace.edu if you have any questions about my study. Thank you for contributing to this important research!