Betterland Foods, Manufacturer of Animal-Free Candy and Milk on Wheels, Wants to Sell
NOTE: A spokesperson for Betterland reached The Spoon with the following statement:
“Betterland foods™ is not closed. It is currently being prepared for sale and is negotiating with several CPG brands. After seeing the proof of concept with the success of both WOO and betterland milk, and after looking at the current market and retail situation, betterland foods decided to combine brands and sell to a large CPG to achieve the success of its products and provide more information about its production. think!® to Glanbia, he (founder Lizanne Falsetto) he believes this is the best way.“
It looks like Betterland Foods, a startup that launched last year to make milk and chocolate using Perfect Day’s precision animal-free whey, has closed its doors.
Sources close to the company told The Spoon that Betterland closed earlier this year. The Betterland Foods dairy and Woo Bars websites are no longer active.
The company got off to a flying start in early 2022, touting the impressive background of its better-for-you industry founder Lizanne Falsetto. Falsetto, who helped establish the bar food category with the creation of thickThin products, has come out of retirement to launch a new company, expressing his concern about the price of traditional animals that continues in the world.
“I am concerned about the increase in global food production, and I have been looking closely at the development of climate-friendly proteins,” Falsetto wrote on LinkedIn. “I liked the health benefits and the naturalness of cow-free protein, but more than that, I started to have an idea.”
Betterland Foods and Woo were two of the first in a growing list of external partners to market Perfect Day for its animal-free dairy proteins. The maker of precision fermented milk products has diversified its strategy of introducing internally developed products through outsourcing companies such as Brave Robot and started working with external partners a few years ago. Betterland and Woo, which are still listed as product partners on the company’s website, appear to be the first of the foreign partner companies to exit the market.
While Falsetto’s experience launching a better-for-you brand in thickThin (which he sold to Glanbia in 2015) was a promising sign Betterland could help create a new category using animal-free protein, the results a year later show that even a strong relaunch is no guarantee in a noisy, saturated market. Both milk and candy are highly competitive categories where consumers tend to be loyal to brands they know and love. With precise fermentation, this difficulty is compounded by the fact that sending unique messages and the benefits of animal-free inputs-but the same is complex, something we have seen as the Perfect Day itself has worked in a different framework as it pushes its products to the market.
Personally speaking, it’s surprising to see Woo and Betterland disappear. I tried the Woo chocolate bar and thought it tasted good, and while I’ve never had a chance to try Betterland milk, I’ve had Perfect Day’s animal-free protein milk and thought it was some of the best milk I’ve ever had.
I’ve reached out to both Perfect Day and Betterland for comment and will update this story when we hear back.
