MiniMart 12/4: The fight against ultraprocessed food

Plus: Ahold Dehaize Edge updates

December 04, 2025

San Francisco just dropped a lawsuit against Big Food - calling out Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, and others for knowingly designing products that are "making us sick" and comparing them to Big Tobacco.

Ultraprocessed foods now make up 70% of our food supply, and SF’s City Attorney David Chiu is done watching Americans pay the price. It’s about time.

This is validation for what so many of us in better-for-you have been saying: The grocery store shouldn't feel like a minefield where consumers have to decode which products won't harm their families. As Chiu said, Americans want to avoid these products - but we're inundated with them.

At Veriti, we've built our entire business on the belief that everyone deserves access to food that actually nourishes them. When 70% of what's available is ultraprocessed, we're not talking about personal responsibility anymore - we're talking about a system that's fundamentally broken.

The tide is (finally) turning. This lawsuit adds fuel to the fire we're already seeing - Walmart removing 30+ artificial ingredients, emerging brands outpacing legacy at shelf.

For better-for-you brands, this is your moment. While Big Food scrambles to defend their formulations, you can double down on what makes you different: real ingredients, transparent sourcing, and products that actually nourish families, not just fill shelves.

Now, onto this week in retail media and shopper marketing →

The snacks + sips hitting our grocery carts this week

Carbone’s Cacciatore Simmer Sauce

Carbone’s new Simmer Sauces (available on their site!) have made mealtime so much simpler in my household. They pack in a ton of flavor, so all you need to do is add your protein (like chicken for their Cacciatore), simmer away, and there’s a restaurant-quality meal at the ready. Love seeing innovations like this made with great ingredients and even better flavors.

Del Real Foods

Del Real has become another mom hack for me! These fully cooked meals just need to be reheated, and they’re ready to serve. Made with simple ingredients, nothing funky, and full of robust Hispanic flavors, I’ve tried and loved multiple Del Real meals.

Pro Tip: I also love pairing these meals with V&V Supremo’s Queso Chihuahua (chihuahua cheese) to make quesadillas!

Featured retailer marketing updates, trends, tips, and more!

Ahold’s Edge: Transition to Managed Service (+ Veriti’s Beta Access!)

In a previous Minimart, I shared that Ahold Dehaize is launching its own ad tech platform, Edge, in January 2026, bringing your advertising across AD banners into one platform. But we just got some crucial new info on this transition:

1) AD will be pausing SPA and Onsite Banner campaigns 1/3-1/5.
2) When it relaunches as Edge on 1/5, it will be launching exclusively as a managed service SPA platform (until self-service capabilities return in March 2026).

In other words, all campaigns will be fully paused for the weekend of 1/3-1/5, and all self-service capabilities will be removed until March 2026. Upon launch, you will still have access to the platform to review campaign performance, but will not be able to manage your campaigns hands-on-keys - unless you are one of the five agencies selected to beta test Edge’s self-service capabilities.

We’re grateful (and honored!) to report that Veriti is one of those five agencies, so we will be continuing to offer hands-on-keys campaigns on Edge. Please let us know if you have any questions about the platform before it officially goes live in March!

Thanks for reading!

— Eleanor