How big food brands are trying to blunt start-ups

From Amy's Soup to Justin's Peanut Butter, increasingly health-conscious consumers are eyeing upstarts that may have little to do with branding, and more to do with trust. Health conscious companies, such as Jessica Alba's The Honest Company, have been rewarded with consumer loyalty and stratospheric valuations. After only a few years in existence, The Honest Company is already valued at nearly $2 billion. According to Hari, organic and non-GMO food is one of the food market's segments that continues to increase in a straight line, and big brands are taking notice. Within the last year, companies such as Tyson Food, McDonald's, General Mills, Panera Bread and Campbell's, among others, "have announced major changes to the ingredients in their food," she said. Yet Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst for NPD Group, said it will take time for some legacy consumer brands to regain trust. "They've had a reputation for so long, for being a certain way, so it will take time for them to rebrand themselves," he said. "For marketers, it's not that consumers are rejecting [their] brands, it just might take five to 10 years," he added. In the meantime, consumers are flocking to alternative brands that embody both health and trust, such as Aloha. The company is a wellness brand that creates and sells products — like green juice powder, plant-based protein, trail mix, and protein bars — that make eating healthy affordable. "I'd repeatedly found that it was way too complicated to figure out what was or wasn't healthy," Constanin Bisanz, the founder and CEO of Aloha, told CNBC. "We're exposed to too many false claims, conflicting health advice, and misleading advertising, and so many products get called 'healthy,' when on a true wellness level they're actually bad for us." Bisanz says the idea for his business came as a result of trying to make a healthy lifestyle more accessible to everyone. "I knew that there had to be a better and more trustworthy solution to leaving a long-lasting and positive impact on people's bodies and minds," he added.