Toronto-based Riot Foods is launching a line of organic vegan ‘dairy’ alternative products in early 2019. The brand was unveiled to the trade this week in the US and Canada at the 2018 Natural Products Expo East (#8188) and CHFA East (#1135) respectively.
It’s owned by Canada's GreenSpace Brands, a “brand ideation team that develops, markets and sells premium natural food products to consumers across Canada and the United States.”
Riot Eats is now the second plant-based brand that GreenSpace owns after it acquired Go Veggie in January, which produces vegan cheese alternatives. Riot Eats is entering the market with several new products across multiple categories including plant-based cheese alternatives, butter substitutes, and spreads.
Allison Houle, director of marketing at Riot Foods, told DairyReporter that GreenSpace decided to invest in more vegan food brands because of the impressive numbers that plant-based products have hit. According to Nielsen and the Plant Based Foods Association, sales in the category are rising 20% year-over-year, topping $3.3bn.
“The Riot Eats line right now consists of organic plant-based dairy products with plans to extend into other categories in the future,” she said.
Launch in early 2019
Riot Foods is reportedly the first shredded and sliced plant-based ‘cheese’ to be certified USDA Organic. The other brands that GreenSpace owns are Rolling Meadow Dairy, Love Child Organics, Central Roast, Kiju Organic, Cedar, Life Choices and Meatbar.
Matthew von Teichman, CEO of GreenSpace Brands, said "The launch of Riot Eats builds upon our mission to bring better to more. The goal of Riot Eats is to flip the script on plant-based eating being a sacrifice to being an exciting personal gain.”
“With high quality ingredients, unique category certifications, and great taste and performance, our products are perfect for anyone looking to defy category ‘norms’ and try something new."
Riot Eats will begin to rollout to both natural and conventional grocery channels in early 2019.
