Milk-based nutrition drinks for kids from Bears Nutrition has earned first place and $250,000 in the California Milk Advisory Board's first accelerator competition. Eight other finalists won $25,000 each, including Good Citizens' line of collagen milk lattes and WheyUp's creamy high-protein, whey-based kefir.

Nexira's Thixogum G, winner of the best ingredient category at the World Beverage Innovation Awards, is a clean-label beverage stabilizer that improves quality of plant-based alternatives, says marketing manager Julie Imperato. "Thixogum G delivers excellent stabilization and suspension of insoluble ingredients across challenging temperature and storage conditions, while maintaining low viscosity," explains Imperato.

Nestle will launch a color-coded nutritional rating system called Nutri-Score on product packaging next year in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland. The company has announced more than 5,000 products from brands such as Nescafe, Garden Gourmet and Nesquik will feature a letter score based on their nutritional value.

Brands that rely on influencers to help them capture their fair share of consumer holiday ad spend have pushed up their launch efforts prior to Black Friday to amplifying messaging, writes Nat Ives, which he calls the new "holiday ad creep." Influencers concur they were approached earlier this year, and execs at Mavrck influencer platform say they've run 40% more promotions in the fourth quarter through Nov. 18 than during the same period in 2018.

People are already in the festive mood, judging from the more than 3.5 million mentions of holiday shopping on Facebook and Instagram so far this month, with popular terms including "ugly sweater" and "advent calendar." Facebook said purchases doubled last year on the big post-Thanksgiving shopping days and could do so again.

Even as e-commerce in food retail evolves, 72% of online grocery shoppers say they still do most of their shopping in stores, according to a Valassis report. Shoppers are using online for specialty items and holiday buying, especially during crowded times, a ServiceChannel study finds.

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In observance of Thanksgiving in the US, SmartBrief will not publish Thursday and Friday. Publication will resume Monday.