Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Crafty Counter’s protein buns, Too Good To Go’s Whole Foods partnership, and Space F’s cultivated meat tasting.
New products and launches
US vegan startup Crafty Counter, maker of Wunder Eggs, has launched plant-based protein buns in an initial egg and cheese flavour. The hemp scramble inside contains 40% more protein than a chicken egg, and each bun has 11g of protein and 4g of fibre. They’re available on its website for $49.99 per 12-pack.
Omaha-based firm AgVault has introduced a precision fermentation technology to produce a whole-cell yeast ingredient with 50% protein, higher essential amino acid and beta-glucan content, and up to 200% more probiotic content than competitors.
Continuing its nationwide rollout, Wildtype has brought its cultivated salmon to Arizona, by way of Tucson’s Kingfisher Bar & Grill. It’s served as a salmon crudo appetiser.
Surplus food app Too Good To Go has expanded its partnership with Whole Foods Market with the launch of seven Surprise Bag categories at more than 530 stores across the US, priced between $6.99 and $9.99 for baskets valued at $21-30.
Danish natural colouring giant Oterra has partnered with Sweden’s Seprify to launch a plant-based whitening ingredient that replaces titanium dioxide (TiO2) across food and beverage applications.
In Belgium, retail giant Colruyt Group has opened a high-tech pop-up store under its Okay brand at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which exclusively sells plant-based products. It will go on tour next year.
British plant-based brand THIS has expanded its whole-food offerings with a Christmas-special chestnut, mushroom and caramelised onion nut roast, which will be available exclusively in Tesco stores nationwide from December 8 for three weeks. It’s priced at £7.50 and serves four.
Company and finance updates
Finnish functional mushroom startup Kääpä Biotech has secured $9M in financing to scale operations, expand vertical integration, and accelerate the rollout of its NordRelease line of products.
Singapore startup Anomaly Bio has raised $2.6M in pre-seed funding to produce microbial ingredients for industries like crop protection, nutrition, and personal care.
Canadian performance nutrition brand Vegain has launched a crowdfunding campaign on FrontFundr to support its flagship product, Surge, a clear protein drink blending 25g of plant protein with electrolytes. It has nearly met its $500,000 target in just a week.
Along similar lines, French plant-based meat maker La Vie has closed its latest crowdfunding campaign, raising nearly €650,000 more and bringing its total number of investors to over 3,500.
Israeli cellular agriculture company Pluri has signed a number of commercial agreements with food and agtech leaders in Asia, Europe, and the US under its brands Ever After Foods (cultivated meat), Kokomodo (cell-based chocolate), and Coffesai (cell-cultured coffee).
Speaking of which, Korean startup Space F hosted a tasting event for its cultivated pork luncheon meat, showcasing both a 100% cultivated meat version and a hybrid option mixed with plant proteins.
British tempeh leader Better Nature has hired Victoria Harrison as its new marketing director in a maternity cover role. She has previously held senior roles at Ella’s Kitchen and Nurture Brands.
Policy and research developments
The European Food Safety Authority has published new, clearer guidance for companies seeking regulatory approval for novel fermentation-derived foods, outlining how to describe the microbes and the substances they produce, how to identify safety concerns, and what data is needed for risk assessment.
Noma, one of the world’s best eateries, and Novonesis (owned by Ozempic owner Novo Nordisk) have teamed up to develop bio-based products through fermentation for the former’s Noma Projects line, which is the latest iteration of the soon-to-be-closed restaurant.
The US Department of Agriculture has awarded $611,000 to Jiakai Lu, an associate food science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for a three-year project to create a computational framework to enhance the texture of plant-based meat.
The Spanish Association of Plant-Based Foods and Beverage Producers, or Vegetal/es, has presented a proposal to develop a national action plan for plant-based foods in its fourth annual summit.
The European Food Information Council has relaunched its Switch To Whole Grains campaign to plug the EU’s fibre gap, since diets low in whole grains are linked to 145,000 preventable deaths and 2.9 million years of healthy life lost across the region.
Finally, students at the University of Basel in Switzerland have voted to shift towards a fully vegan catering menu by 2030, with 53% of the 3,000-odd voting students saying yes to the change.
Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.
The post Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Protein Buns, Korean Cultivated Meat & Functional Mushrooms appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.