The last bite: How a Minneapolis brand innovated on the mini corndog

Welcome to “the last bite,” an end-of-week food and ag roundup from the Minnesota Star Tribune. Reach out to business reporter Brooks Johnson at brooks.johnson@startribune.com to share your news, tips and what’s growing in your garden this year.

Mini corndogs are a perfect food.*

*At least that’s what the lack of innovation in that particular corner of the freezer aisle has communicated through the decades.

Finally, a visionary has emerged in the Twin Cities to try to improve the kids-menu staple. Replace the corn-based batter with a tater tot, and ditch the wiener inside for a chicken frank: Behold, TotDogs.

The Minneapolis-based brand launched in Target last fall with original and chili cheese flavors. It lands on Walmart shelves next month.

“This is a category within retailers that is mature, no innovation, nobody is spending any money on these brands. It’s just there,” co-founder Doug Kinneberg said. “And the reception we’ve gotten from retailers is, ‘You’re the only thing we’re seeing new in this category and, frankly, have seen in years.’”

By day, Kinneberg runs a firm that connects brands with major retailers. He’s learned a bit about what consumers, and retailers, are looking for. Namely, the “better-for-you” trend.

“This is not a salad,” Kinneberg said, “but we have significantly less sugar than other corn dog brands out there.”

JonnyPops now has $100 million in annual sales, according to a Forbes estimate. That’s double what it was four years ago. What’s more, the 13-year-old Minnesota-based frozen-treat company could fetch $300 million if the founders decided to sell, according to the recent writeup.

But the duo behind the business, which recently bought an office building for a research and development complex in Plymouth, say they are sticking with it.

While Cargill pulls back on its turkey business, the Minnetonka-based food giant is all-in on beef. The company is spending $90 million on automation and other upgrades at a Colorado plant and recently bought out a joint beef venture in Australia.

More than half of all U.S. grocery dollars spent on meat go to beef, and as part of its recent reorganization, Cargill is focusing on areas where it can find strong growth.

Cooperative Ventures, a partnership between CHS and Growmark, recently led a Series A investment into Canadian farm tech company Precision AI. The company makes drones with field-scanning tech. The latest versions, which can also spray fields, do not look like the kinds hobbyists fly — more like a wheeled hovercraft with a parachute.

David Black, chief information officer at Inver Grove Heights-based CHS, said in a statement Precision AI can help equip the co-ops’ “owners and customers to run their operations with a focus on efficiency and profitability.” 

Ag industry groups, fast-food restaurants and major grocers including Target are stopping by the White House this month to talk all angles of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), according to Politico food and ag policy reporter (and former Star Tribune business intern) Grace Yarrow.

While General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening was among the food executives who met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year, Coke and Pepsi are the only packaged-food companies invited this time.

The MAHA movement struck a nerve with its initial report, exposing the mounting friction between public health goals and the food and ag industry’s status quo. Whether the report leads to action remains undetermined; the MAHA Commission will offer some policy recommendations later this summer.