Client Highlight: Banza

By the time we met Banza in early 2020, the company was already a much-loved national brand, best known for its popular line of chickpea-based pasta, rice, and mac & cheese. In the spring, Banza came to Foodwit for support as it prepared for another exciting launch: pizza! While Banza already had foundational experience in food processing and packaging, launching several pizza SKUs meant introducing new formulations, ingredient types, manufacturing processes and a new cold-chain distribution model - each with an array of complex quality and regulatory considerations. While preparing to launch its pizza product, the Banza team was also continuing work on other product development projects. It needed the right partner to help manage the complex regulatory and quality challenges that come with quickly growing a CPG brand.

Scope & Approach

We partnered with Team Banza to support the pizza go-to-market process while continuing to prioritize the protection of the company’s flagship pasta line throughout the busy launch.  

As Banza’s innovation teams sprinted towards launch, delivering deep technical expertise with flexibility and speed was key. 

As an extension of the Company’s Technical R&D and Quality teams, Foodwit worked with Banza to: 

• Support New Innovation from a Regulatory and Food Safety Perspective:  Developing a new product and reformulating existing SKUs brought up regulatory questions at every turn.  How would adding or subtracting ingredients affect technical elements like serving size and ingredient declarations?  How would protein content and calculations be affected?  For each technical change, we worked with the team to identify the right substantiation and compliance strategy. 
• Establish Regulatory Compliance: To ensure that all teams were working towards the same finish line, it was essential to provide draft recommendations for FDA labeling and claims compliance early in the innovation process.  Foodwit supported by working through formulation and labeling updates, developing technical content, and conducting final checks before approved artwork went to print.
• Review Quality & Food Safety Programming: With a growing brand reputation for premium, top-quality products, Foodwit understood how important it was for Banza to maintain best-in-class quality programming for the completely new product line.  We did so by supporting shelf life, product quality, and customer experience topics. For the line of frozen pizza products, we supported the design of a risk-based approach to monitoring and maintaining temperature requirements during shipping and handling and after delivery, and Foodwit was on standby to help diagnose and investigate any inquiries.  
  

Results

Foodwit’s managed Regulatory & Food Safety services gave Banza immediate flexibility to focus on internal innovation plus full support for leading and guiding programs as an extension of Banza’s existing technical team.  With the confidence of an expert team, and time to focus on innovation,  Banza was able to successfully launch its pizza line through direct to consumer and retail channels while upholding the high Brand standards expected by Banza customers.

“Foodwit was an invaluable resource as we worked to launch a new product line and build out our brand new cold-chain logistics. The Foodwit team provided ongoing, prompt and thorough regulatory guidance, which informed critical decisions tied to packaging, quality and food safety programming. Foodwit continues to be an incredible resource as our company grows and our regulatory and compliance needs continue to evolve and grow.”

– VP of Product, Banza