Helco Ltd. of Mount Vernon, VA has sold the Austria’s Finest Naturally trademark to Paris Gourmet of New York, based in Carlstadt, NJ.

Greek yogurt company Chobani, Norwich, NY, has opened its second domestic manufacturing plant in Twin Falls, ID. The $450-million, one million-square-foot plant, said to be the world’s largest yogurt facility, was built in under 11 months by more than 2,000 workers.

Boulder, CO-based snack company Snikiddy announced it has begun to use some non-GMO ingredients in its products, and that some products will be 100% non-GMO, such as All-Natural Cheese Puffs and All-Natural Baked Fries. New packaging referring to non-GMO ingredients began shipping at the start of 2013.

Sugar In The Raw, New York, NY, had its all-natural cane turbinado sugar awarded the 2012 Bon Appétit Seal of Approval in the category of Finishing Sugar. The Seal of Approval is the first such award the magazine has given in its 56-year history.

Choice Organic Teas of Seattle, WA was recently recognized at the North American Tea Championship. It won First Place for its Genmaicha tea in the Green Tea Blended/Flavored Tea category and Third Place for its Wild Forest Black tea in the Black Tea category.

Organic bottled tea company Honest Tea, Bethesda, MD, has released its 2012 mission report, “Keeping it Honest.” The company purchased 4.4 million lbs. of organic and Fair Trade ingredients in 2011, and conserved 354,322 lbs. of wood pulp and other resources by reducing the cardboard content of its Honest Kids carton by 0.56 oz.

Domino Foods, Inc., through its brand Domino Sugar, donated 30,200 lbs. of assorted Domino Sugar products to the American Red Cross for its Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Donations were distributed to local food drives through The Community Food Bank of New Jersey. The company owns a refinery on the Hudson River in New York, and has a sales office headquartered in New Jersey.

On January 2, Reed’s Inc., Los Angeles, CA, maker of all-natural sodas, was set to make a move from the NASDAQ Global Market (“NASDAQ”) to the NYSE Euronext’s NYSE MKT (“NYSE MKT”). The ticker symbol “REED” will continue to be used for the common stock in the company.

TV chef Sara Moulton featured Frontier Soups, Waukegan, IL, on her show “The Balancing Act” on Lifetime Television. South of the Border Tortilla Soup from the company’s Homemade-In-Minutes line was featured on the Everyday Gourmet segment of the show.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, February 2013