Show season is upon us, with the opening of winter edition of Fancy Food Show at SF's Moscone Center on Sun for 3-day run. Coming down pike after that are USA CBD Expo from Las Vegas running Feb 13-15 and then the giant Natural Products Expo West, held at Anaheim Convention Center in Southern Calif from Mar 3-7. BBI hopes to bring extensive coverage from Fancy Food Show. Details here.

"Losing patience with FDA," as New Hope Network put it, bipartisan group of House members intro'd legislation this week that would allow CBD items to be marketed in foods/bevs and dietary supplements. The bill, HB 5587, intro'd by House Ag Committee chmn Collin Peterson (D-Minn), would create an exception for CBD to a "prohibited act" in Section 301(ll) of Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDCA), which essentially bars intro into interstate commerce of a food (including a dietary supplement ingredient) that was first studied as a pharmaceutical drug, New Hope reported. That's been clause continually cited by FDA as reason it can't declare hemp-based CBD to be a legal dietary ingredient. But passage is by no means assured, as "members of Congress may be reticent to interfere with FDA, which has raised growing concerns and unanswered questions about the safety of CBD," report noted . . . Canopy Growth said it's encountered some snags in its bev development process since winning production license in late Nov and will take a little longer to get to market. In the 7 weeks since receiving license, CGC "has made meaningful progress towards scaling the production process for its cannabis beverages from lab scale to commercial scale," but "the scaling process is not complete, and the Company is extending its to-market date while the internal teams complete the final steps," it announced this morning. "In order to deliver products that meet our customer's high standards we are electing to revise the launch date while we work through the final details," said ceo David Klein, without offering specific timeframe for when launch will occur, tho Smiths Falls, Ontario, co doesn't expect delay to have material impact on its 2020 financial performance. It will offer further update when it releases fiscal Q3 results in coming weeks.

Tulane University table tennis player who missed the cane water of his native India while living in sweltering New Orleans has created packaged line for himself, offering trio of HPP entries under Bhoomi brand name. Now relocated to Austin, Bhoomi founder Arpit Bhopalkar said he decided to recreate Indian street staple as simple, low-glycemic natural hydrator in synch with where consumers' heads and stomachs are these days. He's been building brand gradually in Louisiana and Texas so far, but will be exhibiting for first time at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif, in a few weeks' time seeking West Coast partners. We'd approached him after spotting brand at Wheatsville Co-op natural food store in Austin last month.

Alkaline Water said today that it's taking its flagship Alkaline88 brand into aluminum format with addition of resealable 500-ml bottle that offers alternative to eco-conscious customers seeking to ease single-use plastic out of their mix. A few hours later rival Aquahydrate brand - which is in process of merging with Alkaline Water - confirmed that it's entering aluminum format, too, this spring, in this case with 750-ml bottle that we flagged here last month (BBI, Dec 20). For both brands, format should boost appeal to c-store channel, a high priority for A88 and a longtime base of Aquahydrate's business. Prexy/ceo Ricky Wright termed addition "another step . . . toward a more renewable future." And Aquahydrate's acting prexy, Matthew Howison, said his entry was response to "feedback from our customers and our extensive social media base who overwhelmingly wanted to see an environmentally sound package." Raz Inserra, AH's dir of brand & innovation, told us that future partners are still operating independently but coordinating aluminum strategy, with AH opting for larger, sturdier bottle in keeping with its more elevated positioning. WTER has been responding to SEC inquiries about deal in preparation for setting date for shareholder vote to ratify deal . . . American Bev Assn said that Dallas/Ft Worth metro has been chosen as first area where Every Bottle Back plastic-bottle recycling initiative announced in Oct will be deployed. As part of effort, Balcones Material Recovery Facility will receive $2 mil investment in enhancements such as optical sorters and robotic arms, while multifamily complexes housing 50K residents will get upgraded recycling vehicles and bins. All told, including commns efforts, $3 mil will be invested, ABA said.

The riverboat gamblers at PepsiCo are leaving themselves open to 1-in-4 chance of buying everyone in America a Pepsi Zero Sugar with Super Bowl gambit that promises refund if either team ends up with final score ending in zero. "America Wins Zero" promises refund for any single can purchased that weekend keyed to game outcome that's occurred in 25% of the 53 earlier Bowl games, tho there's been more of a drought in recent years, per stats cited by PEP. Host city Miami will be plastered with images of Pepsi Zero's stark black can over weekend, too. Promo hits as extension has won commitments to be served on JetBlue flights and poured at all 546 Regal cinemas starting this spring.

It wasn't long ago that Yanni Hufnagel was vowing his everlasting devotion to refrigeration as the only way to protect the efficacy of his buzz-generating hydration play, Lemon Perfect Cold Pressed Lemon Water. Just last Jun the LA-based entrepreneur was insisting that pivot he was being urged by prospective partners to make from cold-chain to shelf-stable recipe was non-negotiable, vowing that he intended "to be there (in the cold box) and be authentic about it."

Put that Pineapple Kiwi down, Gal Gadot! Smartwater's push into flavors heralded via ad starring Wonder Woman lead has hit a temporary snag: 2 of 4 flavors that just entered the market contain such off-notes flavor-wise that parent Coca-Cola has decided to recall them rather than alienating consumers. We're hearing that KO has requested retailers to pull from their shelves the brand's Pineapple Kiwi and Strawberry Blackberry flavors and to pull down all POS materials erected to flag 4-flavor line. There's no safety issue, we've been assured, just flavor issue, but pullback is sure to take some steam out of what Coke has flagged as biggest investment ever behind Smartwater brand. As reported, noncarb extensions are part of broader effort topped by TV ad featuring Gadot taking a restorative sip of her Pineapple Kiwi Smartwater on clamorous Manhattan street (BBI, Jan 8). The other newly launched flavors are Cucumber Lime and Watermelon Mint, joining earlier antioxidant and alkaline extensions intended to seed brand in key growth hotspots.