Edible Garden AG Incorporated is expanding its Garden Starters pallet display program through a new midsummer promotional event at participating ShopRite locations. The initiative, led by Wakefern Food Corp., aims to meet continued consumer demand for fresh, living herbs and encourage home gardening during the summer months. This expansion follows a strong customer response to the program during the spring season.

The Garden Starters program features a broad assortment of USDA Organic Certified living herb plants. These are merchandised on convenient, eye-catching pallet displays designed to create an engaging shopping experience. The strategy helps retailers maximize seasonal sales opportunities by leveraging high-visibility product placement.

"Our Garden Starters program has resonated with consumers looking for fresh, flavorful ingredients they can enjoy right at home," said Jim Kras, Chief Executive Officer of Edible Garden. "We are excited that Wakefern and ShopRite are expanding the program into a midsummer event, reinforcing the strength of our partnership and the growing consumer demand for fresh, locally grown living herbs."

Program Features

The promotional event is designed to sustain the momentum generated in the spring, focusing on the summer period which is typically associated with outdoor entertaining and gardening activities. Edible Garden continues to invest in innovative retail merchandising solutions that complement its sustainable growing practices and proprietary GreenThumb 2.0 technology, helping retailers maximize productivity while reducing food waste throughout the supply chain.

Edible Garden AG Incorporated has successfully completed a clean-label ready-to-drink (RTD) prototype production run at Tetra Pak's New Product Development Center. This milestone validates the company's proprietary formulations under commercial processing conditions, marking a significant advancement in the commercialization of its Farm-to-Formula® strategy. The achievement supports process optimization and manufacturing readiness as Edible Garden advances toward full-scale production at its planned Prairie Hills facility in Webster City, Iowa.

The company utilized proprietary clean-label formulations, high-quality protein ingredients, and advanced Tetra Pak processing technologies to produce beverages representative of planned commercial manufacturing. Edible Garden expects to leverage insights gained from this run to continue product development, customer sampling, and commercial readiness activities in preparation for market launch. The platform is designed to address growing consumer demand for shelf-stable nutritional beverages across categories such as sports nutrition, functional wellness, meal replacement, and protein beverages.

"Successfully completing this prototype production run validates our formulation and manufacturing approach under commercial processing conditions and moves us another meaningful step closer to commercial production," said Jim Kras, Chief Executive Officer of Edible Garden. He emphasized that the achievement reinforces confidence in transitioning from product development to commercial manufacturing while preserving quality, functionality, and clean-label standards.

Project Details

The Prairie Hills facility remains a key component of Edible Garden's strategy, designed to produce more than 100 million beverage units annually. The company has previously engaged E2 Building Group to oversee construction of the 400,000-square-foot site, which will serve as a large-scale clean nutrition manufacturing hub using Tetra Pak technologies.

Strategic Impact

The facility aims to provide a scalable manufacturing platform for both branded and private-label customers. By validating its formulations through the recent prototype run, Edible Garden intends to position itself for long-term growth in the clean nutrition and RTD markets. The company continues to focus on product optimization and commercial readiness as it moves toward full-scale manufacturing.