Friends & Family Pet Food Co. has partnered with cultivated seafood company Umami Bioworks to roll out treats and supplements for cats.
It’s a big week for cultivated pet food.
On Wednesday, London-based startup Meatly announced it had received regulatory approval to sell its cultivated chicken for pets in the UK, the first company to receive the greenlight anywhere in Europe.
The same day, in the US, a new alternative protein brand for cats and dogs has come on the horizon, and is hoping to bring cultivated seafood for pets to market next year.
San Francisco’s Friends & Family Pet Food Co. has partnered with Singaporean cultivated seafood producer Umami Bioworks to launch cat treats in both geographies by early 2025.
Part of ProVeg International’s 12th incubator, the pet food startup is the brainchild of CEO Joshua Errett – former VP at Cult Food Science – pet industry veteran COO Jonny Cruz, and veterinarian and chief science officer Sarah Dodd.
“Friends & Family is a brand for cultivated meat and fish, precision fermentation and any sustainable ingredient that can replace animal proteins,” says Errett, who is also the former co-founder of cultivated pet food startup BioCraft Pet Nutrition (previously Because Animals).
“We partner with top-tier startups and scientists making animal-free ingredients, and give them a path to market using our proprietary pet food platform,” he adds. “Umami Bioworks is our first and most important partnership, and we have some other big names in the pipeline.”
He continues: “My team and I have each been in the pet food space for a decade or more, so we have manufacturing, distribution and retail relationships in place. We have plans for treats, supplements and complete and balanced foods for both dogs and cats.”
“I have perhaps a childlike view that there are only two kinds of animals. Friends – wolves, sea bass, porcupines, pigs, giraffes, squirrels, and all the other wild and farmed animals – and family – the beloved animals that live with me, my cats,” Errett explains. “I want them both to live to their full potential. That’s the entire point of our company.”
Cultivated cat treats to contain white fish
Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Co.
The cat treats will be packaged as bars and in bags, and contain a white fish blend “similar to the fish meal that’s in commercial caught-fish pet foods today”, according to Errett.
“We are developing two white fish species,” says Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Bioworks, which recently merged with fellow Singaporean cultivated seafood player Shiok Meats.
“Both species have strong existing consumer awareness and market appeal. The rest of the formulation is a proprietary blend developed by Josh and his team to deliver excellent nutrition, health, and flavour.”
Errett says Friends & Family prefers minimally processed foods. “A huge problem in pet food, from my personal perspective, is high-heat extrusion, which produces kibble,” he notes. “For nutritional reasons, I don’t believe it should be a cat or dog’s everyday diet. So we will avoid that.”
Umami Bioworks, which recently established partnerships in India too, is currently scaling up its cultivated fish production in Malaysia, and establishing a pilot line at another site. “Our capacity is in the tens of kgs, but we are rapidly working towards ton-scale capacity for our pilot line,” says Pershad.
Friends & Family, which is now raising capital, enters a market that has seen major advancements recently. Both Meatly and BioCraft Pet Nutrition have slashed the costs of their innovations by reimagining culture media.
Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies, meanwhile, was the first cultivated meat startup to be listed on the EU’s feed register (which is different from regulatory approval for consumption), and showcased its product at the Interzoo trade fair in Nuremberg in May.
Regulatory clearance expected by end of 2024
Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Co.
Like most pet food, these cat treats won’t be 100% cultivated meat, instead being combined with plant-based ingredients and high-value microalgae. They’re said to contain all essential nutrients. “Few, if any, pet food companies will reveal how much meat is in their products. I think most consumers would be shocked at the actual meat inclusion in commercial pet food,” claims Errett.
“We’re building in public and transparency is a pillar for us, so I don’t mind saying we’re aiming for 25-30% cultivated fish inclusion. On the launch of this treat, it will be up to 10%, depending on regulations we’re working through.”
Speaking of which, Errett and Parshad both confirm that the startups are in talks with regulators in both the US and Singapore, which were – before this year – the only two countries where cultivated meat was cleared for sale.
“Both Umami and Friends & Family are working hard to secure our first approval before the end of 2024,” says Pershad. “Given the advanced stage of our discussions and our dossier preparation, we are confident in our Q1 2025 timeline for launch.”
Errett adds: We’ll have production spaces in both the US and southeast Asia, to service the San Francisco Bay Area and Singapore. Our capacity will be limited at launch, much like other cultivated meat production. We’ll be able to feed a lot of pets in our limited markets at launch, and then scale over time.”
An ‘antidote for the slowdown in alternative proteins’
Friends & Family Pet Food Co. founders Joshua Errett, Dr Sarah Dodd and Jonny Cruz | Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Co.
Errett has been in the alternative protein industry for a while. In 2016, he co-founded BioCraft Pet Nutrition with CEO Shannon Falconer. Then, he founded vegan dog treats brand Noochies, which was acquired by Cult Food Science, where he served as a VP until December 2023.
“Obviously, I’m a big believer in that brand,” Errett says of Noochies. “I’m still on all the Noochies packaging and site as its founder, and I consult with Cult weekly on pet food matters. But I am not involved with the day-to-day operations, or in any other way.”
Asked why he left Cult, he explains: “I am an entrepreneur at heart. I learned that over years [of] working in banking, government and venture capital – and over a few different startups in the pet space. I’ve worked with my co-founders Jonny Cruz and Dr Sarah Dodd for years, formulating successful products together over a couple [of] different companies now. So it made sense that we start our own venture.”
When Errett was at Cult Food Science, the company had partnered with Umami Bioworks to co-launch Marina Cat, a cultivated cat food brand. Friends & Family is a separate entity, and Errett confirms he is no longer involved in Marina Cat.
“Our solution will be, I think, the antidote for the slowdown in alternative proteins – we take cultivated and precision fermentation ingredients out of the lab and make commercially viable, profitable products for today’s pet food market,” he explains. “Our partners can get early revenue and product-market fit as they scale to become world-changing ingredient companies. The motto is [to] get to the consumer as fast as possible.”
The world’s largest meat and dairy producers are using tobacco industry tactics to hinder global climate action and influence policymakers and the public in their favour.
Political manipulation, twisted science, targeted ads and weak targets. These are just some of the ways meat and dairy companies have successfully influenced consumers and lobbied governments to derail and delay climate action.
These tactics are straight out of the fossil fuel and tobacco playbooks, and have left the fight against climate change in limbo, a large-scale analysis has found.
Published by the Changing Markets Foundation, the report – titled The New Merchants of Doubt – is a culmination of 18 months of investigation into 22 meat and dairy companies across four continents. These include Tyson Foods, JBS, Fonterra, Lactalis and Nestlé, among others.
The research shows how these companies and their trade groups have managed to distract consumers and block unfavourable policy shifts to protect their own interests, at the expense of the planet. “This report exposes the blatant hypocrisy of Big Meat and Dairy, which claim to be committed to climate solutions while employing deceptive tactics to distract, delay and derail meaningful action,” said Nusa Urbancic, CEO of the Changing Markets Foundation.
The food system is responsible for a third of all emissions, and 60% of this comes from meat alone. Overall, animal agriculture accounts for up to 20% of global emissions – for context, the airline sector contributes to 2% of emissions, and road transportation around 10%.
The New Merchants of Doubt report contains case studies and findings from freedom of information requests in the US, the UK, the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Italy.
Here are a few of the key takeaways.
Brands are greenwashing consumers, who will pay more for sustainability
Courtesy: Tyson Foods
The report found a host of instances where consumer brands engaged in blatant greenwashing. While companies are retracting their ‘carbon neutral’ claims in light of the EU’s clampdown on such marketing, others are taking a more subtle route.
Packaging depicts cows grazing in open, green fields even though these foods are industrially farmed, while words like ‘planet-friendly’ and ‘sustainable future’ populate dairy products. One company claimed to align with the Amazon climate-friendly pledge by removing some air from its (non-recyclable plastic) packaging of beef jerky, one of the most carbon-intensive foods.
But these tactics can be effective. The Changing Markets Foundation polled consumers through YouGov to find that nearly a third of Brits and Germans are willing to pay more for products with sustainability certifications, and over half would do so for animal welfare labels.
Mr Beast and Hot Ones in bed with dairy lobby to target Gen Z
Gen Z is a crucial demographic for meat and dairy producers, given that younger consumers tend to be more climate-conscious. To get to these consumers, companies have enlisted the likes of public relations firm Edelman, which has recently boasted of its success in deterring youngsters from plant-based dairy analogues.
In 2022, as part of a major digital campaign, Dairy Farmers of America collaborated with YouTuber Sean Evans – host of First We Feast’s Hot Ones, where guests eat spicy chicken wings – to promote milk as a safeguard for spicy foods that can “also help keep the planet from getting too hot”. Evans’ content also included a sponsored video on National Farmers Day to promote pro-milk facts.
Similarly, Dairy Management Inc tapped social media influencer Jimmy Donaldson – better known as MrBeast – to promote the National Dairy Checkoff’s #UndeniablyDairy campaign. He was chosen for his popularity with Gen Z to portray how dairy is a “wellness solution” produced in an “environmentally friendly” way.
“Besides social media campaigns to boost the image of meat and dairy, the industry is also funding misinformation that disparages alternative protein, which seems to be having an impact, with some of the largest plant-based meat alternative companies reporting reduced revenue projections in 2023 and falling sales,” Urbancic told Green Queen.
The meat and dairy industry has been targeting young people through schools and teachers to convince them that animal products are necessary for a healthy diet. Dairy groups have pushed educational materials and programs presenting milk as a healthy and necessary choice for students, following years of campaigns to make it an integral part of school meals.
Likewise, Big Beef has been creating and sponsoring educational materials. The American Farm Bureau Federation has been producing lesson plans, resources, in-person events and webinars for the last eight years to sway teachers into boosting beef’s reputation, out of fears that children would be exposed to “misinformation”, “propaganda” and “one-sided or inaccurate” information on the internet.
Net-zero strategies are weak
Courtesy: Nestlé
Of the 22 companies analysed, only 15 have or are working on a net-zero target – but none of these are in line with the standard set by the UN’s expert group on net-zero commitments (established in 2022).
While the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) is often touted as a gold standard for corporate climate action, the analysis found that the scheme was failing to accurately assess the companies’ ambitions. For example, Nestlé has SBTi-approved climate targets (with Danone the only other on the list), but other analyses have found that the CPG behemoth’s plans are far from being 1.5˚C compliant and have “low integrity”.
Regenerative agriculture is being misused
Courtesy: Common Table Creative
There are many good things about regenerative agriculture, particularly in terms of maintaining biodiversity, soil health and ecosystem preservation. But companies are jumping on this bandwagon to make bold claims to investors and consumers – 12 of the 22 producers talk about regenerative farming in their latest annual and sustainability reports, with Nestlé leading the pack.
The industry likes to talk about this practice in the context of carbon sequestration. But as Urbancic pointed out, the term is “vaguely defined – ‘outcome-based’ without any ‘prescribed practices’”. “This lack of definition has come under fire from investors, therefore companies started to work on their own weak definition of regenerative agriculture, through the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform’s ‘Regenerating Together’ initiative.”
But while this framework discusses the involvement of farmers, industry experts, civil societies and NGOs, all 33 of its founding members were large food companies. It also doesn’t mention any need to reduce livestock numbers or methane emissions, instead focusing on nitrogen and energy use.
“This signals that SAI will continue to support an industrial model of farming that prioritises productivity and the interests of Big Ag, while companies can continue to greenwash their polluting practices,” Urbancic said.
They don’t talk about methane
Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva
Speaking of, despite methane making up between 25-80% of livestock producers’ emissions, these companies don’t like talking about methane in their sustainability documents and net-zero strategies. Only Danone has a methane target – others prefer to to focus on less material concerns that are easier to fix.
And when methane emissions are mentioned, the spotlight is on fledgling technologies like feed additives, methane-reducing vaccines, selective breeding, and other innovations. None of t these techno-fixes are a guaranteed or proven solution to cutting methane emissions in the timescale required for climate action.
These practices resonate with fossil fuel companies’ promotion of carbon capture and storage and hydrogen, while failing to invest significantly in renewable energies that would ultimately displace coal, oil and gas.
Marketing spend outweighs investment in climate action
None of the 22 companies disclose how much they spend on methane or GHG reduction, but from the data that’s available, it was revealed that only 1% of their revenues goes into R&D (across all segments, not just sustainability). In several cases – such as Fonterra, Nestlé, and Arla – they’re spending more on advertising (portions of which are dedicated to greenwashing) than these efforts.
JBS’s yearly expenditure on R&D for its net-zero efforts equates to just 6.2% of its annual advertising budget, and a mere 0.03% of its 2022 annual revenue.
And instead of putting their own capital in, companies are asking for taxpayer money to foot the bill for emissions reduction and pay farmers for new technologies in this respect.
“The only way we can address this is through government regulation, obliging companies to have legally binding climate targets and to actually come up with credible implementation plans backed up by investments,” said Urbancic. “Voluntary approach has clearly failed.”
Big Ag decimated the EU’s Green Deal
Courtesy: Stockbyte via Canva
Much has been written about how the agricultural lobby garnered major influence in the EU through certain MEPs to take down its Green Deal, including the Farm to Fork strategy. Under the Common Agriculture Policy, 82% of public subsidies already go to livestock farmers. Between 2014 and 2020, livestock subsidies in the region were 1,200 times higher than what was invested into alternative proteins.
Seven of the 22 companies – Nestlé, Danone, Arla Foods, Lactalis, Cargill, Fonterra and FrieslandCampina – are spending between €1.8M and €2.4M a year to lobby the EU, while the other 15 are represented through other organisations via indirect lobbying.
Numerous MEPs have conflicts of interest in their policymaking, thanks to financial ties to meat and dairy production. Meanwhile, 25 of the most notable trade groups (whose members include Big Meat and Dairy), spend between €9.35M and €11.54M a year in lobbying, with 72 of these lobbyists having access passes to the EU Parliament and 447 top-level meetings with the EU Commission since November 2014.m
“We have seen a number of concessions made to the farm lobbies around the world – just before the elections,” said Urbancic. “But the biggest problem was the European Union, where almost all the policies around food and farming were derailed due to how the farm lobby instrumentalised farmers protests and used its allies inside the EU institutions to advocate for the axing of green policies.
Misinformation fuelled Italy’s cultivated meat ban
Courtesy: AP
In November, Italy became the first (and, so far, only) country to ban cultivated meat, with its far-right ruling party questioning its health credentials and suggesting it hurt culinary traditions. The opposition called the move “ideological propaganda”.
But the Changing Markets Foundation report reveals that this ban – which came alongside restrictions on plant-based labelling too – was built on a steady stream of social media misinformation. It undertook an analysis of online conversations between March 2023 and February 2024, a period covering the first discussions on the ban, the ban itself, and the farmers’ protests that took place in early 2024.
“We uncovered 240,000 misinformation posts during this timeframe, with 1.27 million engagements and 125,000 unique accounts contributing to the discussion,” she added. “Although industry lobby groups like Coldiretti, Italy’s largest farmers union, were very active and supportive of the ban (even calling its opponents “criminals”), our analysis uncovered that over 80% of misinfluencers on X [formerly Twitter] were not based in Italy, but in the US, the UK and Sweden – all predominantly posting in English.
“English-language posts circulated around conspiracy theories like the Great Reset, anti-health claims against cultivated meat, and encouraged other countries – particularly other European countries, the US, UK and Australia – to follow Italy’s example in the ‘fight against the global elite’.
“Conversely, when we examined the top 50 Italian posts by engagement, the narrative shifted noticeably: the emphasis on pro-tradition stands out, anti-health arguments and narratives of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”
Most of these posts also cited an oft-cited, non-peer-reviewed, livestock-lobby-backed study by UC Davis, which claimed that cultivated meat is 25% worse than beef. It was used in an official document of the European Council, which was submitted by Italy, Austria and France, and supported by 10 other countries. As Urbancic points out, now Hungary has started an offensive against novel foods as part of its presidency.
The US agriculture secretary is a livestock ally
Courtesy: Cottonbro Studios/Pexel, USDA/CC
There exists a revolving doors policy in both the EU and the US, where key policy experts come from the industry and return after the end of their stint in public office. Perhaps the most notable example of this is Tom Vilsack, the US agriculture secretary.
Vilsack was the agriculture secretary under Barack Obama’s administration (after being lobbied for by the dairy industry), then became president of lobby group the US Dairy Export Council when Donald Trump took office, and returned to the White House in his previous role under Joe Biden.
In the US, eight of the 22 companies – Tyson Foods, Cargill, Fonterra, JBS, Danone, Nestlé, Dairy Farmers of America, and WH Group – engaged in lobbying in 2022, spending $7.22M and hiring 15 lobby firms million lobbying the US in 2022 and hired a total of 15 lobby firms.
Additionally, extensive political donations, industry domination of official advisory groups, and the revolving doors have helped these companies influence some of the biggest policy actions affecting the sector, such as the Global Methane Pledge and the Inflation Reduction Act. These companies also rallied against an imaginary tax on cows, which was never actually proposed.
Governments should redirect livestock subsidies to plant-based
Courtesy: Kravcs/Getty Images/Green Queen
In its list of recommendations for governments, the Changing Markets Foundation calls for national methane action plans, the inclusion of food systems transformation in the next update of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the 1.5°C target, and mandating meat and dairy producers to establish science-based emissions targets (including scope 3).
Policymakers should also incorporate sustainability into national dietary guidelines, impose targets to reduce food waste and meat sales, redirect meat and dairy subsidies to support plant-based production, and promote R&D for the uptake of plant-based whole foods and meat and dairy analogues.
“[Misinformation] will be a difficult problem to solve, but I think we need much more awareness and analysis with regard to the extent and nature of misinformation in the food sector,” stated Urbancic. “Very little investigative work of journalists or philanthropy funding has gone towards exposing [the] topic.”
Speaking at the IFT First trade event this week, Bruce Friedrich, president of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute, said he expects the cultivated meat bans in Florida and Alabama to be “quietly repealed”, at least “before they’re meaningful”. He labelled it as “no big loss”, as companies don’t need to sell in these states anytime soon.
But Urbancic disagreed. “I think the Big Ag has only got started when it comes to bans and restrictions on its competition,” she said. “Without a very smart and well-resourced counteroffensive, the troubles for the alternative protein industry could continue.”
Big Meat and Dairy need to embrace alternative protein and methane reduction
Courtesy: Nestlé/Green Queen
Since companies are responsible for the lion’s share of the food system’s environmental impact, they need to significantly change their direction. The report recommends setting short- and long-term climate goals in line with 1.5°C, alongside an ambitious methane target. These plans should be centred on absolute emissions reduction, with a limited focus on carbon sequestration. Carbon offsetting, meanwhile, should be banned.
Companies must also disclose lobbying expenditures, and support progressive policies like methane and carbon taxes. Moreover, meat and dairy giants should set clear trajectories for reducing livestock numbers and shifting to lower animal production, instead investing in and producing more alternative proteins.
The public can hold companies to account
Courtesy: Viva
As for consumers, cutting back on meat and dairy on a personal level and shifting to healthier, plant-based foods will pay considerable dividends. Research has shown that even replacing half of your meat consumption with vegan analogues can cut emissions by 31%, while practically halting deforestation.
Members of the public can also support small organic farmers through produce box schemes to up fruit and vegetable consumption, reduce waste and enhance climate impact.
Finally, consumers must put pressure on food companies to implement robust climate targets, which include decreasing meat and dairy sales and offering more plant-based options. Write to companies, share petitions, and showcase your purchasing power to hold them to account.
London-based Meatly is now allowed to sell its cultivated meat for pets in the UK, marking Europe’s first approval for these proteins, and the world’s first for pet food.
Meatly has become the first company to be approved to sell cultivated meat in Europe, after UK regulators gave the green light to the startup earlier this month.
Following the decision by the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) on July 2, Meatly can supply its cultivated chicken to dog food manufacturers, marking the first time a cultivated pet food product is cleared for sale anywhere in the world.
It signals the end of Meatly’s 18-month-long consultation process with government bodies in the UK, which joins Singapore, the US and Israel as the fourth country to approve cultivated meat.
The startup plans to launch the first samples of its dog food before the end of the year, beyond which, it will focus on reducing costs. Having secured £3.6M in investment to date, Meatly is now targeting a Series A round, which will help it scale up production to reach industrial volumes in the next three years.
“We’re currently conducting product development and conducting feeding trials on dogs,” Meatly CEO Owen Ensor told Green Queen. “We’re primarily focused on wet pet food for now.”
“Meatly’s regulatory approval is a landmark event for the industry,” said Jim Mellon, founder of Agronomics, an investor in Meatly. “Through its technological innovation and close work with governing authorities, Meatly is helping prove that we can succeed in commercialising cultivated products for pets across the UK.”
“The UK is a world leader in developing cultivated meat and the approval of a cultivated pet food is an important milestone. It underscores the potential for new innovation to help reduce the negative impacts of intensive animal agriculture,” said Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager for alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe.
Meatly to focus on driving down costs
Courtesy: Meatly
Meatly’s approval comes after assessments from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the APHA. These government agencies ensured that it complied with all necessary regulations, with the startup’s technology passing the APHA’s rigorous inspection process.
The company has also registered as a feed business operator, and its production facility has been approved by Defra and APHA to produce and handle cultivated chicken.
In addition, it has prepared a comprehensive safety dossier and conducted extensive testing to demonstrate that cultivated chicken is safe and healthy for pets, and contains no GMOs, antibiotics, harmful pathogens, heavy metals and other impurities.
The regulatory approval follows Meatly’s breakthrough in slashing the costs involved with making its cultivated chicken. Culture media, a mix of nutrients that facilitate the growth of animal cells, account for the majority of the production costs. But in May, the startup developed a protein-free version that brought down the price tag from hundreds of pounds to just £1 ($1.25).
“Protein-free media in biopharma is not kind of new, but in cultivated meat is,” Helder Cruz, Meatly’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, told Green Queen in an interview earlier this month. “And it depends also on the type of cells on the species – some are a bit more challenging than others.”
He added that Meatly’s objective had always been to ensure that its processes are “realisable, cost-effective, and food-safe”. The chicken costs in the “double figures” in pounds sterling per kg,
“Currently, we’d price our pet food within the premium market, but we’re aiming to reduce this cost as we scale and develop our product,” Ensor told Green Queen. “One advantage of pet food is that mainstream pet foods are all combinations of meat and other ingredients, so we’re able to further reduce costs here by mixing the meat with other healthy plant-based ingredients.”
First cultivated chicken product will be hybrid meat
Courtesy: Meatly
While Meatly had previously floated cat food as its first product, it pivoted to dog food in recent months. It has already shipped some of its chicken to pet food manufacturers, who can run their own nutrition tests and try different formulations.
Ensor previously revealed to Green Queen that the company had partnered with “one of the UK’s leading dog food brands” for its first launch. Pressed on this, he said: “We’ll be announcing that after the feeding trials are conducted, but we’re actively working with several leading pet food manufacturers.”
But as he alluded to above, this won’t be 100% cultivated dog food. Instead, Meatly will be taking the hybrid meat approach, which involves combining cultivated cells with plant-based ingredients. This helps keep costs low and makes more sense with its current rate of production.
“What you find typically in pet foods, the meat content… depending on the brand, is typically in that 20-30% window. We’ll probably start slightly lower just because of limited supply,” Ensor has previously explained.
Asked how much of the cultivated meat would make it into the finished products, he said: “The final product will be decided by pet food manufacturers who will sell to. Most pet food on the market are combinations of meat and other plant-based ingredients, to create nutritionally balanced, complete pet food. Products made with Meatly Chicken will be similar.”
Even at lower inclusion rates, the chicken has a great palatability impact, according to the co-founder. “I’ve fed it to my cats several times and they love it! We’re now conducting comprehensive feeding trials on dogs as well and will be sharing the results once complete,” he siad.
One thing is certain: whenever Meatly’s products do come to market, they’ll roll out at Pets At Home, the UK’s leading pet retailer. It invested in the alternative protein startup’s last fundraising round, and represents the “pinnacle” for pet food companies, according to Ensor.
Brits are receptive to cultivated meat for pets
Courtesy: Meatly
Pet ownership is increasing, but so is the carbon footprint attached to feeding our furry friends. While experts disagree over the true emissions stemming from pet food, one study suggests that 20% of all meta produced is used for pet food.
What is undisputed is that meat is the most carbon-intensive food group on Earth, making up 60% of the food system’s emissions (twice more than what’s generated by plant-based foods). In the UK, pets eat more per year than the entire population under 18, and labradors – the most popular pet dogs in the country – consume 70 million kg of meat annually, nearly 60% more than their owners.
The fact that Meatly is focusing on wet food is crucial, given that wet food can emit up to seven times more CO2e than dry pet food. Meanwhile, growing livestock and their feed take up 85% of the UK’s farmland. Meatly’s cultivated chicken, on the other hand, has been found to use up to 64% less land and 28% less water to produce.
And it seems that both farmers and consumers are becoming warmer to the idea of cultivated meat. Reserach by the Royal Agricultural University has found that farmers do recognise the potential benefits of these novel foods. And a 2022 study suggested that even if only a third of Brits would try cultivated meat themselves, nearly half (47%) would feed it to their pets.
The main concern that came out of the latter research was nutrition. “We’ve done a lot of nutritional analysis, safety analysis on the product,” Ensor said. “It shows us a very similar nutritional profile to chicken breast and has all of the essential amino acids, fatty acids, minerals and vitamins that cats and dogs need to thrive.”
Third approval for cultivated meat in 2024
Courtesy: Meatly
Meatly’s approval is a major breakthrough in Europe. For years, the UK has been following the EU’s novel food regulations, even after Brexit. The EU’s complicated framework – partly due to the sheer number of member states – has meant progress on approvals has been non-existent.
The FSA has been attempting to break away from the EU legislation and overhaul the UK’s regulatory process to gain a competitive advantage. Currently, companies face up to 36 months of waiting before they get the go-ahead. But there are concerns that the newly elected Labour government could jeopardise the proposals due to the initial costs involved.
“I think we’re still waiting for a clear perspective from the Labour government. Alternative proteins and biotechnology would seem to fit very well, however, with their push for a sustainable, innovative economy,” said Ensor.
For its part, the FSA said it “welcomes innovations by the animal feed sector” for using alternative proteins like cultivated meat in a safe manner. “The safety of such products, including pet food which is regulated as an animal feed, remains paramount and the FSA closely monitors any new product coming on to the market,” James Cooper, deputy director of food policy at the department, told the Financial Times.
This is the third regulatory approval for cultivated meat globally in 2024. The year began with Israel’s clearance of local cultivated beef producer Aleph Farms, with Australia’s Vow obtaining the go-ahead three months later in Singapore (it is currently under consideration in Australia and New Zealand as well).
Singapore – which was the first country to allow cultivated meat to be sold in 2020 – is also assessing dossiers from Dutch cultivated pork startup Meatly, and French cultivated chicken maker Vital Meat. These followed the US’s clearance of Upside Foods and Good Meat’s cultivated chicken products in June 2023.
Aleph Farms and Vital Meat have also filed applications in the UK, but given that their products are made for human consumption, the process is more complex and time-intensive. “If we’re to realise the full potential benefits of cultivated meat – from enhancing food security to supporting the expansion of regenerative farming – the government must invest in the research and infrastructure needed to make it delicious, affordable and accessible for people across the UK,” said GFI Europe’s Pardoe.
And while some governments – like Italy and the US states of Florida and Alabama – have banned cultivated meat, others have made advancements. South Korea is now accepting applications after developing a framework earlier this year, for example, while India is establishing guidance for approvals as well.
Project Eaden co-founder Jan Wilmking on why fibre-spinning technology can solve plant-based meat’s woes, the startup’s investment plans, and when it will come to market.
On the German morning show ZDF Morgenmagazin in 2017, Jamie Oliver declared Jörg Förstera, owner of Berlin butchery Kumpel & Keule, the best butcher in the country.
It was a stamp that echoed what many in the public felt as well. Kumpel & Keule prides itself on quality, noting that “only the best belongs in a good sausage”.
So when someone like Förstera endorses a plant-based meat product, it’s worth paying attention. After all, the only way animal-free meat producers will have an impact is by appealing to meat-eaters – and the people who sell and cook it for them.
“For me, the meats from Project Eaden are the first alternatives that get extremely close to the taste profile of animal meat,” says Förstera. “Really impressive.”
The German startup – founded in 2022 by Dr David Schmelzeisen, Hubertus Bessau, and Jan Wilmking – first made global headlines last year, when it came out of stealth to announce an oversubscribed €10.1M seed round, featuring EU food and climate VC stalwarts including Creandum, Atlantic Food Labs, Shio Capital and Mudcake.
Food tech social media was filled with photos of what is considered to be the holy grail of plant-based meat: whole-cut steak. The image of the company’s steak fillet (see below) made the rounds online, where commentators wondered if the photo was doctored. It was not.
The company’s original steak loin from their 2023 launch announcement | Courtesy: Project Eaden
In less than two years, the company has successfully used its technology to create a wide range of whole cuts including sausages, pork loin, and beef steaks, “a full meat range for everyday life” as the company puts it. But also, ham.
Ham: the other plant-based holy grail
As with steak, ham and deli meats are for some another holy grail of the meat alternative market, particularly for Europeans. Until recently, there have been almost no contenders for true ham lovers.
Last year, French plant-based meat startup La Vie debuted two cooked ham products (emulsified soy) to well-deserved fanfare and a small handful of US startups like Prime Roots (fermented koji base) and Unreal Deli offer American-style deli cuts but, unlike plant-based burgers and chicken nuggets, there is plenty of room for a new player like Project Eaden to disrupt the ham case.
For meat-eaters, taste and texture remain a major stumbling block when it comes to whole-cut meat analogues. Project Eaden says it is solving for both. The company says its tech results in “realistic optics and a realistic, heterogeneous chew experience.”
Fibre-spun meat attracts industry veterans
Courtesy: Project Eaden
So what makes Project Eaden’s meats “really impressive” to people like Förstera? To make the novel food, the startup leverages ancient textile technology. In Egypt, spindles were used to turn flax fibre into yarn. In 1665, the idea of producing synthetic threads through the spinning wheel was first floated. It was the 1930s that birthed the first spinning of fully synthetic fibre in the form of nylon and polyester.
Fibre-spinning changed the face of the fashion industry, and Project Eaden hopes to use the same technology to transform the food system.
The fibres produced by Project Eaden’s highly scalable tech can be designed to meet technical requirements like elasticity, water-binding ability and strength. Plant proteins are bundled into strands, and then unfolded in a solution to create a homogenous liquid. This is spun to form ultra-thin fibres, which get integrated into a compound to replicate the collagen-based connective tissues found in animals.
“Our technology essentially uses two main types of fibres to make delicious meat-like products,” explains Wilmking, the company’s managing director. “First, we use strong and thin fibres for connective tissue, which don’t stick together much, but help make the meat structure and bite experience feel real. Then, a large part of our product is made from a cheaper, juicier fibre that sticks together just enough to hold meat juice in small spaces, making it taste tender and yummy, like real meat.”
The technology has excited industry executives like Godo Röben, former managing director of German meat and plant-based giant Rügenwalder Mühle (Wilmking refers to Röben as the godfather of Germany’s plant-based industry). “When I heard about the idea for the first time, I thought: that can work. And I invested early in the seed round at a time when frankly, their prototypes were still very, very rough,” he tells Green Queen.
Röben came on as an advisor to the startup, galvanised by Project Eaden’s “team, tech and traction”. “I could see from early on that retailers, B2B and foodservice clients will want Project Eaden’s products,” he says.
Plant-based meat is a crowded space, but for Röben, this startup stands out because it’s “very fast and very professional at the same time.”
Triple threat: a founding team with commercial experience, tech expertise and food industry knowledge
Courtesy: Project Eaden
“The quality bar is really high. The pace is high. And finally, the products deliver taste and texture unseen in the market,” Röben says.
This isn’t the founding team’s first rodeo. Where plenty of food tech startups boast a technical founder, many lack founding teams with operational commercial experience, or a food industry background, Project Eaden’s founders each bring multiple careers worth of expertise.
After a stint at McKinsey and Harvard, Wilmking cut his teeth working for Rocket Internet’s Zalando, rising to be a senior VP. As anyone who has worked for the famed Samwar brothers knows, there is no better business school than running a Rocket company.
Bessau is a food industry insider, having co-founded cereal startup MyMuesli in 2007 and built it up to a multi-EU-country brand employing over 850 people.
Rounding out the team is Dr Schmelzeisen, who holds PhD in textile engineering focused on textile welding and production tech for smart textiles. He has previously supported research into smart textiles at RWTH Aachen University and developed electronic sensor systems to integrate into textiles at ETH Zurich.
Rounding out the team is Schmelzeisen, who holds PhD in textile engineering focused on textile welding and production tech for smart textiles. He has previously supported research into smart textiles at RWTH Aachen University and developed electronic sensor systems to integrate into textiles at ETH Zurich. Schmelzeisen is also a passionate and experienced hobby chef, which is how he first saw the connection between textile fibres and meat fibres.
Project Eaden is keeping things affordable
Courtesy: Project Eaden
Project Eaden suggests that its meats, however tech-forward, offer a much-needed solution to plant-based’s affordability problems. As the company explains: “Our technology platform is textile tech, which has been optimised for massive scale, low cost and low CAPEX for decades.”
According to Schmelzeisen, wet and rotary spinning processes are usually very expensive and can lead to slick fibres that don’t connect with each other. He says Project Eaden has solved this issue. “We have developed a new way of spinning proteins, which is cheap to run and creates meaty fibres. We still use wet spinning, but only selectively.”
This allows it to keep costs low. “Our tech has the benefit of being cheap to run, and cheap and fast to scale up in terms of equipment,” he says. “Our roots in the world of textile technology and mechanical engineering have paid off, as this angle has unlocked both low capital expenditure and cost of goods, especially low process cost and a high degree of automation.”
Massachuessets-based Tender Foods is another startup making fibre-spun meat analogues, likening its production process to spinning cotton candy. The company has raised a total of $23M since it launched in 2020, closing an $11M Series A round last month led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and Lowercarbon Capital, and it inked a deal with meat-free QSR chain Clover Food Lab to feature its fried chicken and pork as bowl toppings.
How does Project Eaden’s tech differ? Schmelzeisen says that where others are using a single-fibre approach, “we follow a multi-material approach: meat is muscle, and muscle is organic fibre compounds, made of different fibre types.”
The multi-fibre tech allows the team to replicate the mouthfeel of different types of meat that they say has not been achieved to date: “We replicate this logic and combine different fibre types to create the sensations of meat. Muscle fibres, connective tissue, adipose tissue. All made from plants, designed to match mechanical properties of meat fibres.”
To safeguard its IP, the company already has three patents pending, all of which are “focused on fibre spinning and fibre compound creation (i.e. meat creation), covering key aspects of process and end products”.
Project Eaden is developing its own, bespoke flavours
Courtesy: Project Eaden
So that’s the texture stuff. But in order to truly capture the market, companies need to address flavour, which has become the most important purchase driver for meat analogues.
For Project Eaden, the USP is “little to no off-taste”, according to Wilmking. “One thing that has a massive impact on flavour is the spinning process, which leads to a significant reduction of undesirable plant taste notes, aka off-taste,” he says.
“So our spinning process, rather than the exact selection of input materials, helps to generate a nearly blank canvas in terms of taste, which we can [project] our flavours on. No need for maskers, no need for massive seasonings.”
He adds that the company has been working with large flavour houses and developing its own reactive flavours, rather than opting for a pre-made blend. “This has really changed the game, and has created deeper, more complex meatiness and more realistic roasting aroma,” Wilmking says. “The combination of a blank flavour canvas with hardly any off-taste – and truly meaty taste notes on top – makes the products extremely tasty, without being too extreme or intense.”
The base ingredient for all its meat products is wheat protein, complemented with fava bean and/or pea protein. “We use blends of proteins depending on fibre and meat type,” he says.
“Generally, wheat protein can be sourced locally in high quality and provides a great base texture. But it is way too elastic on its own. Hence, we blend it with other protein types, which are great at holding water and releasing it when chewed (juicy mouthfeel), or which add brittleness and roughness for a realistic chew.”
Cooked ham will be the first retail product
Courtesy: Project Eaden
The technology also allows the startup to create a wide range of cuts, from Serrano and cooked ham, bratwurst, and bacon to chicken breast, pastrami, and beef and pork flank steaks. “From the start, one of our goals has been to build a highly versatile production platform,” he says. “One base process, one set of input materials, a large variety of end products – all created very efficiently in terms of COGS and with low CAPEX.”
He adds: “Today, we can see that it works. The portfolio of possible products ranges from pork and beef to chicken. And we’ve developed products for cold and warm applications on the same fibre tech platform.”
The cooked hams will come to market first. Wilmking explains it’s a product he and Schmelzeisen grew up with as a staple in their fridges. “We tested hams last summer and our early prototypes hit home with the team instantly,” he says. “Since then, we tested it with friends, family, and finally retailers and food service professionals and it got better and better. Now, we feel it’s ready for the ‘real stage’, called retail shelves. And it’s a pretty large market in and by itself, like nearly all segments in the world of meat.”
Project Eaden says its meats can add a fibrous texture to mycelium-based or cultivated versions (the latter being an example of hybrid meat). Would it be tempted to look into the evolving blended meat space (a mix of conventional meat with plant-based or fermented ingredients), which has attracted industry giants like Nestlé and Quorn?
“Slaughtered animal meat integrated with our meat is not on our agenda,” states Wilmking. “What we have explored and continue to do so is to collaborate with lab-grown meat and precision fermentation startups to test [the] integration of their materials into our meat technology.
“We can add texture to their materials, which by nature have no fibrous texture yet. We focus on plant-based now, however, given the ongoing regulatory challenges. So this is a longer-term exploration and initiative for us.”
An increasingly greater hurdle for consumers when it comes to plant-based is health and nutrition. But the numbers for Project Eaden are encouraging. Its cooked ham, for example, has 21g of protein, while the flank steaks boast 28g, both on par or higher than their conventional counterparts. Plus, the plant-based versions contain the all-important fibre, and zero cholesterol.
The company is raising a Series A ahead of a 2025 launch
Courtesy: Project Eaden
Unlike many others in the industry, Project Eaden is opting for a retail-first approach and has secured a listing with a leading supermarket chain in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region. The first products are slated for a launch in early 2025.
“It’s the fastest route to market for us. We have listings in DACH and can reach millions of people, with full control over product and brand experience,” says Wilmking. “We believe it creates everyday relevance fast and will open doors for B2B in a later stage.”
He notes that the feedback from retailers has been “very positive”: “The meatiness and real-like look and taste are really interesting across products, which is why they are not only interested in one product but a range from the start.”
As he alluded to, Project Eaden will enter B2B eventually. “One super interesting channel could be to feature our products as ingredients in convenience meals, which also touch the lives of many people every day, especially those of busy professionals and families,” he says. “From frozen ready meals to frozen pizza, meat is still a massive part of them and we see a big opportunity for partnerships.”
So far, the company has secured more than €12M in funding, with an additional €2M in public grants to add to their seed last year. “We are currently raising a Series A to scale up and service retail demand,” reveals Wilmking.
Raising capital is tough work in the current VC environment. Financing for plant-based companies fell by 24% in 2023, reaching $908M. And in the first quarter of 2024, the sector attracted just $58M. That coincided with faltering sales in some markets.
“There are only [a] few products consumers really love. It’s a ‘bestseller’ market rather than an even distribution of success,” suggests Röben. “I believe there is a lot of room to consolidate the current offer and substitute ‘so-so products’ with really good ones.”
He continues: “That’s good for consumers because overall quality and value for money will improve, and it’s good for retailers because repeat buys and rotation in the plant-based alternative shelves will increase.”
While some decry the plant-based market stagnation in geographies like the US, in Germany, the ecosystem is thriving, according to Röben, who tells Green Queen the vegan market has actually grown in the DACH region. In Germany alone, plant-based meat production was up by 17% last year, according to federal data. “The little slowdown we saw after the pandemic is over,” he says. “The market is hungry for better products that finally hold what they promise.”
As early as next year, then, you could be eating ham made the same as the clothes you’re wearing.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Ben & Jerry’s non-dairy ice cream tour, a cultivated seafood grant, and a trio of updates from India.
New products and launches
Unilever-owned ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s is promoting its revamped vegan lineup (now with oat milk) with a Dreamy Non-Dairy Tour. The brand is touring seven US cities, showcasing all 19 flavours through a dreamscape experience.
Courtesy: Ben & Jerry’s
Pea milk producer Ripple Foods has introduced a range of protein shakes for kids. Called Shake Ups, they come in chocolate and vanilla flavours, boast 13g of protein and 3g of fibre per 8oz bottle, and are available on its website and Amazon.
In more alt-dairy news, New York’s vegan bodega chain Plantega has partnered with Swedish vegan cheesemaker Stockeld Dreamery to add its fermented Cheddar slices on 18 menu items, including breakfast sandwiches, burritos, chopped cheese, and Philly cheesesteak.
In the UK, The Coconut Collab has rolled out Protein Yog, a coconut yoghurt packed with 10g of soy and almond protein, as well as Yog & Granola, an on-the-go snack featuring granola clusters.
Courtesy: The Coconut Collab
Nordic dairy giant Arla has announced it will launch a barista version of its Jörd oat milk in the UK this month, which has been developed in collaboration with coffee professionals.
Vegan confectioner Catherine’s Originals has debuted sharing formats of its plant-based chocolate, with its Selection Tin containing 81 chocolates and Selection Box comprising 31 in nine flavours.
In Italy, KFC has debuted meatless versions of its Classic Veggie sandwich, Twister Veggie wrap, and Tender Crispy meals. But these contain milk and egg derivatives, so they’re not vegan.
Indian vegetarian restaurant chain Spice Grill Flame has introduced a new vegan menu at select locations. It’s divided into two categories, Vegan (based on whole foods) and 100% Plant-Based Protein (addressing India’s protein problem).
Courtesy: Plantaway
Fellow Indian company Plantaway has launched vegan sausage and pepperoni SKUs containing 22g and 16g of protein per serving, respectively, weeks after it rolled out a chicken fillet.
Also in India, P A Footwear has partnered with the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology to develop Vegan Virya, a biodegradable leather alternative made from 95% plant-based materials (mainly sugarcane), including 60% agri-waste content.
Back in the US, botanical drinks maker Jubi Brands has unveiled a three-strong range of plant-based shots at several retailers in the Tri-State Area, targeting focus, energy and relaxation.
Meanwhile, mycelium meat producer Mush Foods continues to make waves with its 50Cut solution for blended meat. It has now partnered with luxury meat purveyor Dufour Gourmet, which is using its mushroom root meat in a bratwurst, breakfast sausage, Italian-style sausage, and chicken sausage.
Courtesy: Dufour Gourmet
And in New York City, Neat‘s Nolita location has launched a Hot Honey Sando with Mellody‘s bee-free honey.
Finance developments
Sweden’s Veg of Lund has now rebranded to Dug Foodtech, reflecting the name of its brand of potato milks.
Agrifood funding dropped by 12.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2024, according to data from AgFunder. But Innovative Food, a category mostly comprised of alternative proteins, was one of the strongest segments, garnering $828M in investments.
Courtesy: The Very Food Co
Speaking of which, French plant-based startup The Very Food Co – which makes vegan analogues like aquafaba and butter – has secured €850,000 in a funding round, taking total investment past €1M.
In similar news, Spain’s Vanetta Food, producer of seitan and soy-based meat, has raised €400,000 in its latest financing round.
Courtesy: University of Waterloo
Two students at Canada’s University of Waterloo have received over $700,000 in grants from the Good Food Institute, Mitacs and New Harvest to scale their AI-led research into developing cultivated seafood.
Company and event updates
At UK tempeh startupBetter Nature, co-founder Elin Roberts has moved from the role of chief marketing officer to co-CEO, sharing responsibilities with fellow co-founder Christopher Kong.
Courtesy: Better Nature
In its new impact report, Spanish plant-based meat startup Heura has announced that it reduced emissions by 23% per kg across its product lines between 2021 and 2023. It will soon bring out the fourth iteration of its packaging, which will cut transportation emissions by 31.5%.
South Korean cultivated meat ingredients producerSimple Planet‘s CEO Dominic Jeong has been named chairman of the Bio Future Food Industry Association under the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe has seen its membership expand by 150%, welcoming 12 new members in Q3, including Mewery (Czech Republic), BrunoCell (Italy), Re:meat (Sweden), and Cell4Food (Portugal), among others.
With a change of government, the UK’s plans to shake and speed up its regulatory process for novel foods like cultivated meat could be derailed.
Now that the Conservatives have finally been voted out of office after 14 years, climate activists in the UK have breathed a sigh of relief.
Rishi Sunak’s net-zero U-turns and vows to authorise oil projects in the North Sea were deeply unpopular. Sir Kier Starmer’s government has immediately laid down its climate vision – it plans to stop using fossil fuels for electricity by 2030, for starters.
However, the new Labour administration may yet have a negative impact on the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) plans to overhaul its regulatory framework for novel foods, which include cultivated meat and precision-fermented products.
The UK has retained the EU’s regulatory process post-Brexit, which has created a massive backlog and made it virtually impossible for companies to get their products on the market. The Conservative government had viewed a departure from EU red tape as a positive for post-Brexit Britain, and had backed the FSA’s moves to make wholesale changes.
But the election came just as the food safety body’s work got underway, and now, “competing priorities” and concerns over the initial costs could jeopardise the proposals, FSA chair Susan Jebb told a behind-closed-doors meeting, according to the Grocer.
How the FSA plans to revamp its novel foods framework
Courtesy: Vital Meat
Back in March, the FSA said it would create a new public register of regulated products, replacing the current system that requires the parliament to pass statutory instruments before they can be placed on the market.
The existing regulations added up to six months to the process, creating a huge backlog of over 470 applications for novel foods, facing up to a two-and-a-half-year waiting period. The FSA also sought to remove the requirement for products that have already been approved to reapply for clearance every 10 years.
Around the same time, it was revealed that the FSA was seeking £5M in government funding for labs to pilot a ‘sandbox’ testing project for novel proteins, and was in talks to collaborate with food companies and scientists for the same.
And by May, the department was also mulling a system of global cooperation that would involve a “sliding scale of international engagement” to clear the highly congested docket of applications and see cultivated meat and other foods be approved based on their track record in other markets, such as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
All these efforts were meant to fast-track approval for startups like those involved in alternative protein. An FSA-commissioned report by Deloitte in 2023 found that speeding up novel foods regulation could help the UK meet its carbon reduction plans (the country has earmarked 2050 as its net-zero target).
“The board has been clear that overhauling the way we authorise new foods is an opportunity for the FSA to drive benefits for consumers by enabling new and innovative products that we assess as being safe to come to market more quickly,” Jebb said in May.
But whether these sweeping changes will actually take place now depends on Starmer’s cabinet, with talks set to be held between Labour ministers and the FSA to persuade the government to go ahead with the plan. “I think there is a good case for it but they may have other priorities,” Jebb told the Grocer.
While the food safety body negotiates with the new government, a report that was due to be presented to the FSA’s board about the overhaul has now been postponed to September.
One major issue is the cost involved, according to Jebb. “Change often comes at a price initially, and whilst this may deliver us a better service in the long run, the cost of developing this at the same time as running the existing service should not be underestimated,” she said.
So far, three cultivated meat companies have publicly announced their submissions of dossiers for approval in the UK. Israel’s Aleph Farms was the first to do so last August for its cultivated beef (which has since been given the go-ahead in its home country), while France’s Vitalmeat applied for its cultivated chicken this May.
The only other dossier was for cultivated pet food. London-based Meatly has been in consultation with the FSA for 18 months for feed material registration, and with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for animal byproducts, legislation and facility treatment since August 2023. Its co-founders Owen Ensor and Helder Cruz revealed to Green Queen last month that the company will first launch cultivated chicken for dogs via a leading pet food brand in the UK, and expects approval by early August.
How the Labour government views the FSA’s move remains to be seen. But it’ll be a test of its pledges to work with businesses, support growth, and mitigate climate change. A report by think tank Green Alliance has suggested that, with the right combination of targeted investments and regulation, the UK’s alternative protein sector could be worth £6.8B annually and create 25,000 jobs by 2035.
Meanwhile, Defra has announced the Starmer government’s five key priorities for the climate, which involve cleaning up Britain’s water bodies, protecting communities from floods, ensuring nature’s recovery, creating a zero-waste economy, and supporting farmers to boost food security.
“Inevitably Labour’s approach to the issue of novel food is different to the previous government. That said, I do think the initiative very much fits into the Labour growth agenda, and I have heard from reliable sources that Keir Starmer is aware of the initiative,” a source told The Grocer.
But they warned that the FSA may have to look beyond state investment to support parts of its plan. “Obviously, getting the funds to make these changes is nonetheless a significant barrier in the current climate.”
UK manufacturer Pets Choice has agreed to acquire vegan dog food maker Hownd for an undisclosed sum, in what is described as a “positive” deal for the brand.
Power Pet Brands, the parent company of Hownd, has agreed to sell the vegan dog food startup to legacy manufacturer Pets Choice.
The deal will see Hownd co-founders Jo Amit and Mark Hirschel exit the business, with Pets Choice taking over operations from August 5.
As a manufacturer of branded and white-label pet food, Pets Choice has an extensive portfolio with brands dating back to 1881, including Davies, Webbox, Bob Martin, Felight, TastyBone and Vet’s Kitchen.
Hirschel, who described the move as a “strategic milestone”, declined to comment when asked about the financials involved, but did confirm that Pets Choice will own 100% of the Hownd brand following the completion of the deal.
Pets Choice CEO Tony Raeburn suggested the acquisition will bolster its drive into product premiumisation, with Hownd helping the company enter the $14B vegan dog food sector. “We look forward to leveraging Hownd’s established market presence and extensive and loyal customer base, further solidifying our position as a leader in the pet care industry,” he said.
Why Hownd was sold to Pets Choice
Courtesy: Hownd
First established in 2013 as Butch & Bess, Hownd rebranded to its current name two years later, and has become known for its hypoallergenic dog food range – which includes kibble as well as canned porridge, dal and casserole – and wellness treats targeting different functions and ages. It also offers pet care in the form of shampoos, conditioners, skincare and sunscreen.
The startup has built its reputation as an ethical brand, topping the environmental impact, animal welfare, and public record categories in the Good Shopping Guide 2024, which ranks ethical businesses around the world. Its nutritionally complete dog food has also been recognised in Forward Fooding’s FoodTech 500 list of food innovators for two years running.
But these successes have come against a backdrop of faltering sales in the larger plant-based industry, with investors becoming more cautious with their capital in the post-pandemic landscape. In 2023, investment in vegan startups was down by 24% globally, reaching $908M. This year, only $58M was pumped into the sector in the first quarter.
In light of this, Hirschel explained that the decision to sell was influenced both by Hownd’s success as well as the industry’s headwinds. “Market conditions are tough, they have been for a while now. It’s not just plant-based companies – I see struggles across many different industries,” he said.
“But cash is king, as we all know, and it does take deep pockets to launch into the pet food space across multiple distribution channels. Hownd is a well-respected brand brought to the market in 2013 with loads of growth potential, but as business owners, it’s important to know when the future success is best in someone else’s hands, and for us, the time is now.”
Co-founders to leave the startup
Courtesy: Hownd
Hirschel said the deal would have a positive effect on Hownd’s portfolio and distribution: “The buyers are extremely well-established, managing a portfolio of brands and shipping globally. They will be putting both time and investment into scaling the brand and its distribution channels, and will be able to do this much faster and more efficiently than we would be able to on our own.”
Hownd’s employees will be subject to the UK’s Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations, which protect workers when they’re transferred to a new employer.
But it does mean that both Hirschel and Amit will leave their roles and the business they founded over a decade ago. “I’d like to think that we will both take on other employment for the time being, as we have a non-compete [clause] built into the sale, with regards to vegan pet food [or pet care],” explained Hirschel.
“Whether that’s together or separately is anyone’s best guess right now, but we’re both well-connected with lots of experience, so let’s just see what happens,” he added. “And who knows what happens a bit further down the road? We both love looking at opportunities and have plenty of ideas up our sleeves.”
Amit said she’s exploring “purely purpose-driven roles”, helping create and launch new brands and products in a new, but related sector. “I’m passionate about all forms of animal welfare and environmental sustainability, including rewilding projects,” she told Green Queen. “These areas resonate deeply with my values, and I am eager to contribute more significantly to these causes.”
Some have suggested that this is a reflection of the tough macroeconomic conditions and cooling consumer interest in certain products and categories. While Hirschel noted that it’s common to see M&As increase during tough times, he said he doesn’t believe consolidation is crucial.
But he added: “It’s early days with regards to growth in the vegan pet space, and sometimes consolidation can be the driving force between creating a successful brand and a struggling one. There are loads of new players entering the category and we know that not all will survive, so deal-making at the right time can be instrumental to a brand’s success.”
So why are brands finding it hard to survive? For vegan pet food makers, the biggest challenge is consumer adoption, he said: “We’ve had decades of marketing and media telling us that dogs need meat, and this just isn’t true. So it takes time for consumers to trust a different way of thinking and see the benefits of a plant-based diet first-hand.
“Lots and lots of education and marketing are needed, and this can be challenging. There’s also a general belief that plant-based is not enticing enough for dogs – but again, this is just not true, and many dogs are choosing the taste of plant-based over other meat alternatives.
“And finally, there is price… Generally speaking, it’s more expensive to make a premium plant-based recipe than a meat-based one – this is mostly down to government livestock farming subsidies and also [the fact] that production costs are higher at factories, as more prep is required to flush and clean the equipment to avoid cross-contamination.”
So what’s next for Hownd, which has raised over £300,000 ($389,000) in funding? “The new owners will be investing into Hownd [by] adding more breadth and depth to the product assortment and pushing the brand through more distribution channels,” said Hirschel.
“The Hownd brand is already well-loved and respected, so now it’s about driving that competitive edge in the marketplace, increasing exposure and bringing in loads of new customers.”
Europe’s supermarkets are increasingly pledging more plant protein offerings, spearheaded by Lidl and Ahold Delhaize. A mass transition is still far away, though.
While each of Europe’s 15 largest supermarkets has set targets to reduce emissions from their food sales, only five have made commitments to increase their sales of plant proteins, according to research by Madre Brava.
This is despite meat and dairy driving nearly half (47%) of all emissions from food retailers in Europe. Germany’s Lidl and the Netherlands’ Ahold Delhaize lead the race, vying to be the world’s first retailers to align their protein offerings with climate targets.
It means that even though food is the main source of Europe’s consumption-based emissions, two-thirds of the continent’s biggest retailers aren’t doing enough to lower their impact. But a faster transition towards plant-rich diets is needed for “health, climate and affordability” reasons, says Nico Muzi, managing director of Madre Brava.
“First, the transition helps rebalance protein sales to meet health goals in line with the most advanced dietary guidelines in the EU. Second, supermarkets can’t meet climate goals without rebalancing their protein sales. Third, supermarkets can make legumes and plant-based alternatives cheaper and more accessible, especially for low-income families,” he tells Green Queen.
A 2023 study by Profundo for Madre Brave found that if Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, Lidl and Tesco replaced half their meat sales with plant proteins by 2030, they’d save emissions equivalent to taking 22 million cars off the road, land the size of Portugal, and water equivalent to 228,000 Olympic-size swimming pools every year.
Lidl and Albert Heijn aim to be ‘leaders, not laggards’
Courtesy: Madre Brava
Only three retailers in the analysis have set targets for splitting animal and plant protein sales. Lidl is working towards public targets across its locations – it has published such goals in six countries, and others will soon follow suit. “Doing so within this year could potentially turn Lidl into the first supermarket chain to publicly commit to align their protein offerings with human and planetary health goals,” says Madre Brava.
Meanwhile, Albert Heijn – a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize – has agreed to make 60% of all protein sales plant-based by 2030, as part of a larger commitment by Dutch retailers. And by the end of this year, all of its food retail brands will set targets to sell a greater share of plant proteins and fewer animal-sourced foods.
One of the main factors behind Lidl and Ahold Delhaize’s progress is the fact that they’re headquartered in countries “at the forefront of the protein transition globally”, says Muzi (more on that later). There’s the climate imperative too. “Since meat and dairy are the largest sources of emissions in a supermarket’s operations, targets to rebalance protein sales are a critical move to achieving net-zero climate goals too,” he explains.
He cites Carrefour’s statement to Madre Brava, which acknowledged that a shift from animal to plant proteins will be necessary to achieve its scope 3 emissions targets. “Some food retailers – because of their own ambition and market size – want to position themselves as leaders, not laggards. It seems Lidl and Ahold Delhaize want to lead the protein transition race,” he says.
“Having said that, they need to go further: Lidl and Ahold Delhaize need to set public targets to rebalance their protein sales to achieve [a] 60% plant, 40% animal protein split by 2030 across all the countries they operate in. And they need to do so by lowering the price of both whole foods and plant-based meat and dairy alternatives to help consumers follow healthier, more sustainable diets.”
Aldi Nord – which operates in northern, eastern and west Germany plus seven other EU countries, and is the parent company of Trader Joe’s in the US – has also committed to a 60/40 protein transition target by 2030, but only in the Netherlands.
Elsewhere, Carrefour and Tesco have set goals to increase their plant-based sales, but these don’t target a reduction in animal products. In November 2022, Carrefour aimed to boost plant protein purchases by 65% by 2026, but it exceeded the goal within a year, reaching €514M. Now, it has revised this to over €650M, and committed to providing annual updates on this metric. And in the UK, Tesco wants to triple its plant-based sales by 2025 (compared to 2018).
So what’s stopping the rest? “This is a new field of action for retailers: the race just started,” explains Muzi. “As in other transitions, you have leaders who are willing to move first and laggards who follow.
“Given that plant/animal protein split targets are beginning to deliver on their promise to help consumers buy more plant protein products at affordable prices and reduce their meat and dairy purchases, more and more supermarkets will follow. And as demand increases for plant-based meat and dairy products and legumes, supply will get better and cheaper.”
Why the Netherlands and Germany lead the protein transition
Courtesy: Lidl Nederland
Despite Lidl and Albert Heijn’s commitments, none of the 15 retailers have published protein split targets at a group level across all geographies. “This begs the question of whether Aldi customers in Spain, Lidl shoppers in France, or Delhaize shoppers in Belgium deserve less than their counterparts in the Netherlands,” the report notes.
Indeed, the Netherlands is at the forefront of this movement, with 11 local supermarkets having committed to a 60/40 target by 2030. Apart from Albert Heijn and Lidl, this includes Aldi Nord, Jumbo, and Plus, among others.
The increase in demand for plant-based foods has also led to a reduction in animal-based purchases, with meat sales dropping by 16.4% in Dutch supermarkets from 2020-23.
Similarly, the flexitarian land of Germany – where plant-based meat production grew by 17% last year – has seen meat consumption dip too. Leading food retailers and manufacturers have been riding this wave through innovative moves. Lidl Germany, for example, lowered the prices of its own-label plant-based analogues to match or be cheaper than meat and dairy. Its sister brand Kaufland and operations in several other countries followed suit, as did fellow retailers Penny, Aldi Süd, Jumbo and Billa.
“It’s no coincidence that the biggest drops in meat consumption in Europe are [being seen] in Germany and the Netherlands,” says Muzi. “These two countries have consistently shown high levels of environmental awareness amongst the public, coupled with robust work from civil society to expose the environmental, health and animal welfare impacts of animal agriculture.”
He adds: “After years of consumer awareness campaigns about the health, environmental and animal welfare benefits of a shift to plant-rich diets, Dutch and German consumers – especially the younger generations such as Gen Z – have realised that it’s good for their own health and that of the planet to eat more plants and less meat and dairy.
“And young people put their money where their mouth is. In fact, the protein transition is a good business opportunity for volume businesses like food retailers to grow market share via attracting new customers such as young people.”
Public and corporate policies need to change
Courtesy: Pixelshot via Canva
For supermarkets to align with the 1.5°C goal, Madre Brava is asking all food retailers to publicly disclose their plant-animal protein splits at the group level, and commit to making 60% of sales plant-based by 2030. Around 40% of all protein sales are already plant-based in the Netherlands, where all retailers disclose this ratio.
The report also calls on retailers to present a clearly defined pathway of how they will achieve their scope 3 emissions reduction targets, where dietary shifts need to be given a major role. But a just transition for farmers is vital too – a transition to diets aligned with the EAT-Lancet Commission’s recommendations could increase farm income by 71% in Europe by 2050.
Supporting consumers is equally important. Slashing the prices of vegan products to match meat and dairy products, and displaying them next to each other – as Lidl did in the Netherlands – are highly effective actions.
“Lidl took the risk of cutting their margins on their private-label plant-based products by 21% so as to offer price parity between conventional meat and dairy products and plant-based alternatives,” states Muzi. “The result was impressive: A 30% revenue (sales) increase six months later. They now have proven that it pays out. This could be a powerful incentive for other retailers to follow suit.”
He suggests that levelling the playing field between plant and animal proteins is important: “From a health, climate, water, deforestation and biodiversity viewpoint, it’s very hard to justify that EU taxpayers’ money supports beef production to the tune of €1.4 per kg and vegetables with just €0.4 per kg.”
Touching upon the potential of policy intervention, he says aligning public procurement with planetary health goals is crucial too: “Public canteens paid for by taxpayers’ money should offer the most sustainable and healthy food in the market at affordable prices.”
But the spotlight should really be on retailers and foodservice operators, because they sell most of the food Europeans eat. “A no-regrets policy is for the EU to introduce legal requirements on large companies in the food retail and foodservice sectors, to ensure the ready-made meals they sell to EU consumers are healthy and sustainable,” says Muzi.
“Ready-made meals constitute one-sixth (17%) of the EU’s total calorie intake. This is also part of an upward trend – people in Italy, Germany and Spain have been eating between 40% and 60% more ready meals over the past 15 years. This underscores the urgent need for regulatory action in this sector.”
Popular plant-based chain Slutty Vegan has begun construction for its forthcoming location at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is set to open by the end of the year.
Pinky Cole’s Slutty Vegan is coming to the world’s busiest airport. Passengers travelling through the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be able to dine at the plant-based fast-food eatery by the end of 2024.
The restaurant chain – which is also headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia – has begun construction on what looks like a large site at the airport’s Concourse B, Cole announced last week on Instagram.
“I literally started in a shared kitchen 6 years ago and now Slutty Vegan will be the FIRST EVER vegan restaurant in the busiest airport in the world,” she wrote. “Slutty Vegan and a full bar in CONCOURSE B sounds like flights will be missed.”
Slutty Vegan’s Atlanta airport location fills a large hole
The new location will also feature a bar, and was first teased in September last year. Cole announced the move on Instagram after winning a bid for the site at the international airport.
“I have the most ICONIC announcement of my professional career,” wrote Cole. “Slutty Vegan will be a PERMANENT LOCATION in Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport! WE JUST WON THE BID.”
She added: “Y’all, this is the busiest airport in America, and my restaurant will be there!”
Hartsfield-Jackson has been the busiest airport every year since 1998 (barring the pandemic-hit 2020), and welcomes over 104.6 million passengers annually. But while it has restaurants that offer vegan-friendly food, including P.F. Chang’s, Lottafrutta and Grindhouse Killer Burgers, this will be the first time it will have a fully plant-based restaurant.
Slutty Vegan’s outpost will also become one of the only 100% vegan eateries at airports across the world. Los Angeles International Airport previously had a Real Food Daily location, but it has now closed.
“Given that Atlanta Airport is the busiest airport in the country, with high foot traffic, we expect it to be one of our busiest locations,” Slutty Vegan founding partner and chief revenue officer Jason Crain told Food Chain Magazine in February. “We are thrilled to be at the forefront and showcase what Atlanta has to offer through our vegan menu.”
While having a location at an airport has its challenges, it’s a shrewd move on Slutty Vegan’s part. Most travellers are routinely disappointed at the lack of diversity and quality of meat-free options at airports, yet everybody eats during their journeys. A 9,000-person global survey this year found that only 2% of passengers never eat or drink at the airport.
It also revealed that the popularity of sit-down dining and bar options has increased, with 41% preferring this option. That bodes well for Slutty Vegan and its bar.
Cole, a former TV producer, first founded Slutty Vegan in 2018 as a food truck, two years after her previous restaurant in Harlem, New York was destroyed by a fire. Her first brick-and-mortar location opened its doors just outside of Atlanta in 2019, and in the years since, she has built it into one of America’s most popular vegan chains.
In 2022, the business raised $25M at a $100M valuation, led by Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments and Essence Ventures CEO Richelieu Dennis’ New Voice Fund. The capital was to be used for Slutty Vegan’s expansion to 20 locations – at the time, it had five restaurants, and it now has 11 currently in operation.
The eatery chain is known for its extensive social media marketing and brand partnerships. It hosts residencies in different cities throughout the year, and announced two collaborations in the last week alone. Along with Bar Vegan, its sister bar chain, Slutty Vegan teamed up with whole-cut meat producer Chunk Foods to add a brisket sandwich and 4oz steak entrée to the menu at some of its locations.
Additionally, it extended its ongoing link-up with shoe designer Angela Simmons, bringing Vegan Fried Oreos to select locations, featuring a mix from their original collaboration, Angela’s Cakes.
Slutty Vegan – known for menu items like the One Night Stand bacon cheeseburger, Hollywood Hooker cheesesteak and fries with its signature Slut Dust seasoning – has made a name for itself through provocative and highly effective marketing.
“You want to be able to tell a story to the people who are watching. Telling their story will make people come into your business and support it. That’s the reason why we get people to come through the doors and support our brand,” Cole told Forbes in May.
This approach is what has made the chain stand out where others have failed. For example, despite being the world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonald’s said its McPlant trial had failed in the US, blaming a lack of demand. But some have argued that its marketing and rollout left a lot to be desired.
“The McPlant is at best, boring. At worse, worthy. Let’s remember the average American has never heard the term ‘plant-based’,” Jennifer Woollford, founder of marketing community Neon Leaders, who has held executive roles at Mars and Perfect Day, told Green Queen last month.
“So what are they expected to feel about a McPlant, especially one with a green leaf on the box? Compare [this] to Slutty Vegan – full of energy, excitement and building an experience out of eating plants.”
Farmers have always been pitted against cultivated meat, but a new report suggests that despite concerns, they recognise the opportunities presented by these proteins.
When Italy, Florida and Alabama announced their respective bans on cultivated meat over the last eight months, the dominant rhetoric was that of protecting farmers and the cattle industry. Florida governor Ron DeSantis was very on-the-nose about it, standing behind a banner reading ‘Save Our Beef’ when signing the bill.
But critics quickly called out such moves as “protectionist” policies that served “entrenched interests”. They also pointed out the hypocritical nature of the farmer-friendly messaging used to justify the bans.
“This legislation has always been about one thing – helping one industry, Big Ag, avoid accountability and competition,” Tom Rossmeissl, head of global marketing at Eat Just, one of only two companies approved to sell cultivated meat in the US, told Green Queen after Florida’s ban became official. “Today, these multinational corporations and their lobbyists won.”
While you could argue that this response is expected from a company with interests in this novel food sector, what would you say if you found out that farmers – the very people these legislators claim to want to protect – themselves exhibited a similar concern?
In the UK, at least, farmers seem to be more worried about social issues brought on by cultivated meat – like Big Food controlling the market or the knock-on effects on rural communities – than its impact on the bottom line. And when pitted against changing weather patterns and global commodity markets, the threat of competition from cultivated meat feels like a “slow burn” to them.
This is according to research led by the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), which discussed cultivated meat with 80 farmers and nine farms to explore how they’d need to adapt their businesses in a future with cultivated meat.
Backed by the Transforming UK Food Systems’s Strategic Priorities Fund (under the government body UK Research and Innovation), the takeaway was a potential win for the alternative protein industry, suggesting that farmers could help the sector grow and lower its environmental impact – and vice-versa.
“They certainly had a lot of concerns, but were also mostly willing to engage in discussion about potential opportunities,” acknowledged study lead Tom MacMillan, who is the Elizabeth Creak Chair in rural policy and strategy at the RAU.
“The message from our research is not [that] farmers are unconcerned, but that this doesn’t have to be a polarised debate, and there is potential for cultured meat businesses, farmers and other stakeholders to find synergies and shape the direction of this technology together,” he told Green Queen.
What are farmers’ biggest concerns about cultivated meat?
Courtesy: Royal Agricultural University
Most of the farmers RAU spoke to reacted first as customers instead of producers, echoing public concerns over whether cultivated meat is safe, natural and healthy, who is in control, and who really benefits from it.
But looking at it through a business lens, there were several worries. The industry’s future is shrouded in uncertainty, with farmers raising questions about cost competitiveness, quality and timeline to market launch, as well as whether it is meant to compete with processed or premium meats, or supplement meat-eating.
British farmers further expressed apprehension about the unreliability of data on the technical viability, economics, and climate and health impacts of cultivated meat, calling for impartial, more transparent information. There were also concerns about the unintended effects on their business or the local community, and the overall impact of these foods.
Some called cultivated meat an unrealistic proposition, citing a lack of attention on the supply chain and on how the “assumed effects on diets or land use” would be realised practically. Others echoed the rhetoric of lawmakers questioning the authenticity and naturalness of these meats, calling it “Frankenstein food”.
Additionally, a common concern related to the beneficiaries of cultivated meat. Does this really support farmers and the public, or just line the pockets of Big Food companies? The fear was that this could intensify the industrialisation and ‘Americanisation’ of food production.
“I do wonder if [with] the production of more… cultured protein, there are going to be much larger companies that are going to… be pushing for this and they will own the intellectual property, they will own the rights to that, they will own the formulations, and that’s something which reinforces a sort of a hegemonic position,” one farmer said.
“The farmers who spoke to us were most concerned about the wider social implications – for example, corporate concentration in food systems, health, and food culture,” said MacMillan. “However, they also highlighted potential unintended consequences that were thrown into relief by their direct experiences of food production.”
How cultivated meat could open up opportunities for farmers
“The nine UK farmers we spoke to in most detail had misgivings about cultured meat, but also faced other bigger challenges or felt fairly resilient, so the technology was not seen as a major business risk by most,” recalled MacMillan. “Several were interested in potential opportunities.”
These are wide-ranging, from supplying inputs and valorising waste streams to building supply chain relationships and harnessing private investment.
For example, farms can supply animal cells as well as food-grade ingredients (like glucose, amino acids and growth factors) for cultivated meat production. And they could do so by repurposing existing crops – such as feed wheat for glucose, rapeseed oil meal for amino acids, and plant extracts for 3D scaffolds – or incorporating new ones into rotation.
Even slaughterhouse byproducts like blood, hooves and horns contain elements that can be used as growth factors and media. This is an important consideration given that “hardly anyone” the RAU spoke to said they’d give up caring for their livestock altogether and make cultivated meat their sole business.
Embracing cultivated meat gives farmers a chance to review their agreements with intermediaries and overhaul the unfair distribution of power found in dairy and poultry supply chains. Plus, they can develop farmer cooperatives to supply ingredients, and even use private investment to produce cultivated meat. On-farm production could present options for direct sale and open up new markets and supply chains.
“The potential opportunities depended heavily on the type and location of a farm and its current business,” explained MacMillan. “Crop and fruit farmers were interested in new markets supplying raw materials. Some livestock farmers saw [the] potential to have higher-value, lower-volume sales, or to repurpose buildings or renewable energy for on-farm cultured meat production.”
The nine farms in focus were asked what they think their businesses would be like in 10 years if they continued business as usual, and if they incorporated cultivated meat. Across metrics like income, jobs, production, waste, biodiversity and climate, most had similar responses to both scenarios – and with cultivated meat, some aspects could be improved upon.
It’s significant because it means farmers don’t think cultivated meat would necessarily make things worse in the longer term. MacMillan, however, cautioned against viewing this pragmatism as a suggestion that farmers think cultivated meat would play a “substantial positive role” in maintaining or improving their businesses. “It is more that some [are] curious, and all have bigger worries,” he stated.
Building common ground with farmers and cultivated meat companies
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
The RAU highlights the importance of moving away from the polarised debate around cultivated meat to find common ground between the industry and farmers.
There are multiple ways to do this. Much of the polarisation is fuelled by hype and sweeping statements about a radical shift in eating patterns and farming practices, but producers would appreciate a more nuanced conversation that acknowledges uncertainty and champions farm innovation.
Both sides have accused the other of making biased claims for or against cultivated meat using favourable studies. But if research were commissioned by groups including both agricultural and alternative protein organisations, it can breed more trust. Plus, using an ‘all or nothing’ approach can often paint farmers as the enemy, so it’s vital to explore synergies between cultivated meat and farmers.
The report suggests joint research and innovation can help bridge this gap. This would entail looking into waste valorisation, developing fairer supply chains for cultivated meat, and trialling decentralised production on farms – akin to what RESPECTfarms is doing in the Netherlands.
Some farmers were keen to engage further with cultivated meat producers, so developing mechanisms for dialogue is key. RAU is working with the UK Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub) to build a platform to connect farmers with businesses and researchers, and will create a neutral guide to cultivated meat for farmers.
Moreover, investors are urged to require companies to commit to a ‘just transition’ for farmers within their ESG commitments, while startups are encouraged to engage farmers in their governance. “The main thing at this point is to make sure farmers are engaged in helping figure that out on an ongoing basis, so that’s something we recommend to companies and investors working in this space,” outlined MacMillan.
“Moving beyond the polarised debate we’ve seen in some countries over recent years could provide a ‘win-win’ – not only benefitting the cultivated meat sector but farmers themselves,” said Linus Pardoe, head of UK policy at the Good Food Institute Europe. “I welcome the report’s call for companies to find meaningful ways of engaging and collaborating with farmers, while remaining sensitive to the uncertainties some farmers have about cultivated meat.”
Many have drawn parallels between alternative proteins and electric vehicles, but their disruption of conventional industries is far from the same. So how can the former learn from the latter?
“Elon Musk says they would have failed twice, if not for long-term low-interest government loans. There is no solar industry, there is no EV industry, there is no biopharma industry, if not for governments helping the companies that can’t qualify for standard bank loans, giving them long-term low-interest loans.”
That was Bruce Friedrich, president of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI), speaking at the cellular agriculture innovation day at Tufts University in January. He was comparing cultivated meat to the electric vehicles (EV) industry. “If the government gets the industry started, then the private sector can take over, just like electric vehicles,” he stated.
Friedrich’s statement has been echoed by many experts and stakeholders in the future food industry. And you can see why. Both are hoping to decarbonise highly polluting sectors – fossil fuels are the worst offenders, agriculture is second on that list.
EVs tackle a road transport industry that generates around 10% of global emissions. Alternative proteins go even further, aiming to displace an animal agriculture sector that produces between 11-20% of all emissions. But the disparity between the two sector’s impact to date is stark.
Between 2012 and 2023, the sales share of EVs went from 0.2% to 18%. But plant-based meat, which began its current wave around a decade ago too, still only accounts for 0.9% of the entire meat market (plant-based milks, at 14.5%, fare better).
Courtesy: Boston Consulting Group
People were apprehensive about both technologies in the beginning, but only EVs lit up investors’ eyes. The sector received $106B in private sector capital from 2017-23 – that’s more than the GDP of many countries, and over eight times what the alternative proteins sector got in the same period ($13B).
The trend is similar across public investment too. In 2022, EVs received $40B in direct purchase subsidies, but governments only pumped $635M into the novel protein sector.
Change is needed, and fast. “Alternative proteins are one of the most effective technologies we have to reduce the environmental costs of our food systems. Unfortunately, this area is not moving at the speed necessary to combat climate change, and is far behind advances in the energy sector,” says Hannah Ritchie, deputy editor of Our World in Data.
So what lessons can alternative protein companies take from their EV counterparts? It’s a question explored by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), GFI, and Synthesis Capital in a new report. Here’s what it suggests.
Price parity is paramount
Courtesy: Boston Consulting Group
EV manufacturers have used the capital to make better and cheaper models – the cost of lithium-ion batteries was slashed by 67% from 2015 levels in just six years. Alternative proteins have a huge gap to fill here.
Cultivated meat is still years away from being cost-effective, but even with plant-based meat, the product that comes closest to its animal counterpart is beef. Still, plant-based beef is 20% more expensive, according to GFI. Overall, vegan meat analogues cost consumers 77% more on average, while plant-based milks have a 104% markup.
Granted, EVs are a high-cost investment usually made once every few years. In contrast, people have “hundreds of opportunities each year” to choose their preferred food at supermarkets and restaurants. But what EV makers have done well is to sell sustainability as an “and” instead of “or”, by making their cars competitive on cost, range and models.
Courtesy: GFI
The novel protein industry needs to do the same. Companies need to appeal not just on the sustainability front, but also speak to people’s core food needs. It means prioritising taste and texture just as much as price and convenience. “The goal is to make alternative proteins a choice rather than a compromise. This way, sustainability becomes a sweetener, not a sacrifice,” the report argues.
This is exactly what initiatives like the Bezos Earth Fund are trying to tackle. It has committed $1B to the future of food, $100M of which is going to three alternative protein research centres, two of which are already live in the US and the UK.
Andy Jarvis, the fund’s food programme director, told Green Queen earlier this month: “You’ll have no sustainability impact, unless the price and the taste are on parity – that’s an absolute necessity… What we need is something that is going to be attractive as a value proposition to carnivores. For that, it needs to cost the same or less, then it needs to taste just as good or better. That’s the bottom line.”
Just like successful EV companies have delivered great cars with unique-to-them features, low ownership costs, and advanced software and safety tech, alternative protein producers will need to close the taste and price gap, and then “out-innovate existing food companies”.
Technology will help, giving this sector a competitive advantage over animal-derived meat – think products with enhanced nutrition or functional ingredients. Companies can bring flavours unavailable to consumers at present, and personalise products to address allergies, health conditions and other dietary needs.
Governments need to back alternative proteins more
Courtesy: Boston Consulting Group
Public sector support has been crucial to the rise of new technologies like clean energy and EVs. The report points to a four-stage framework adopted by governments, which includes setting ambitious targets, stimulating supply, driving demand, and addressing scale-up challenges.
Take the EU, for example. Its Fit for 55 standards mandate a 55% emissions reduction from cars by 2030 (from 1990 levels), and that new models need to be zero-emission by 2035. Governments have created some goals for alternative proteins, but the authors say much larger commitments are needed.
One instance of such ambitious target-setting comes from Denmark, which recently approved the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture. It will cost the average farmer about $100 a year for each cow. And while this directly addresses livestock emissions only, the country last year also became the first to adopt a national action plan to promote plant-based foods.
Courtesy: Kravcs/Getty Images/Green Queen
Then there’s China’s stricter emissions standards and dual-credit policy, which financially rewarded carmakers that met their EV quotas. In contrast, government investment into alternative proteins has been modest, though much of the $180M allocated for R&D in 2022 went to publicly accessible research grants. Funding open-access research that helps producers can enable them to scale up.
Also in China, lawmakers offered purchase credits and streamlined licenced plate registration for EVs during Covid-19 to drive demand. Governments can do the same with cultivated meat through regulations that help bring novel proteins to market.
“As the industry grows and applications for market approval increase, governments must be prepared to evaluate alternative products quickly,” the report states. Additionally, most research focuses on taste, texture and price, but more work is needed to address other concerns, including health and variety.
In the US, the EV industry received $7.5B of public capital in 2022 to build more charging stations. In a similar vein, governments can help alternative protein startups build more labs and add capacity, which will keep countries competitive in the food system transition.
Public and private investment must increase
Courtesy: GFI
“The success of electric vehicles shows how fast public and private investment can catalyze green innovation. Forward-thinking governments and food companies now have the opportunity to replicate that success for alternative proteins,” said Lewis Bollard, programme director for Open Philanthropy.
VC funding for alternative proteins was down by 44% last year, and even the $635M that governments invested in 2022 is a fraction of what the industry really needs. BCG analysis has previously suggested that nearly $30B and $11B billion are required just to build the critical bioreactors and extrusion capacity, respectively, to produce sausage links, patties, and other products affordably.
“Just as EV makers needed to invest heavily in tooling, software development, and emerging battery technologies to succeed, alternative protein companies require funding to continue researching new food technologies, including cell cultures and precision fermentation,” the report reads.
Alternative protein companies need support across the value chain, helping them identify, develop and build industrial-scale manufacturing processes and facilities for texturising, extruding, and 3D-printing proteins.
Courtesy: Boston Consulting Group
Businesses themselves need to invest in the full spectrum of activities, from early research and infrastructure support to ingredient sourcing and consumer sales, to cut costs, overcome bottlenecks and increase access to their foods.
Looking to China once more, its government doubled down on credits and tax breaks between 2009 and 2022 to become the global EV leader. Such investments can attract private funding, and a dual public-private approach also builds market confidence.
State-backed research institutes could collaborate with alternative protein startups on R&D projects, or more public-private partnerships could fund infrastructure to support production and distribution.
What’s next for alternative proteins?
The alternative protein sector has had its fair share of criticism over the last two years. Parts of the media have blasted it, and some legislators have restricted progress by putting bans on product labelling and cultivated meat altogether.
“It is worth noting that the field has seen more technological advancements and cost reductions than most other disruptive technologies over the same duration of time,” counters Viknish Krishnan-Kutty, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Cellivate Technologies.
The report asks governments to build supportive policies that leverage the four-step framework, help companies fund R&D, secure raw materials, and build infrastructure – all of this will help move the affordability needle.
VCs must channel their dollars across the entire value chain and encourage companies to devote sufficient resources to R&D to cut the gap with conventional proteins.
If you’re an existing food company, innovating early can help you get a competitive advantage, allowing you to set industry standards and reset consumer expectations. And as for alternative protein startups, launch products that deliver “excellent taste, desirable texture, competitive prices, and utmost convenience”.
Courtesy: Upside Foods
The report suggests that replacing half of our meat and dairy consumption with alternative proteins can cut five gigatons of CO2e annually, the equivalent of taking half of all gas-fuelled cars off the road.
Emma Ignaszewski, senior associate director of industry intelligence and initiatives at GFI, and one of the report’s authors, sums up the EV-alternative protein relationship best. “Electric vehicles are a powerful climate solution that doesn’t require consumers to make significant behavioural changes. They simply offer a more sustainable swap-in for gas-powered cars,” she says.
“Alternative proteins offer a strikingly similar promise: enjoy your burger, but produced with far lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional meat,” she adds. “Competing on these drivers of consumer choice is the blueprint for alternative proteins to help decarbonise the food sector, just as electric vehicles can help decarbonise the transportation sector.”
US alternative protein startup NovoNutrients has raised $18M in a Series A funding round ahead of opening its pilot facility, with a renewed focus on humans and pets.
The $18M Series A round was led by Australia’s Woodside Energy and China’s CM Venture Capital, as reported by TechCrunch. It brings all-time investment into NovoNutrients to $27M.
The Californian startup uses microbial fermentation to turn carbon dioxide and hydrogen into protein. While it was initially targeting livestock and fish feed, the company has since added human nutrition to its scope of work as well. And now, it’s moving into the pet space too.
Pilot facility will serve as testbed for gas protein tech
Courtesy: NovoNutrients
Founded in 2017, NovoNutrients uses tailored microbial strains and feeds them on waste streams with different gas mixes. While it can use synthetic biology to improve the microorganisms’ stability and efficient for some products, for more natural offerings, it uses evolution instead.
“Our most relevant strain development is actually the fact that we are able to tailor the strains through natural, non-GMO means to the specific mixed gases that will be available at a particular partner site,” co-founder and CEO David Tze told TechCrunch.
NovoNutrients is among a number of gas fermentation companies, including Finland’s Solar Foods, California-based Air Protein, and Dutch startup Farmless.
But unlike these players, NovoNutrients isn’t using a big tank akin to those found in breweries. It instead relies on thinner looped cylinders, which lowers the amount of energy needed to mix the gases.
Operating a B2B model, NovoNutrients is currently building a pilot plant in the Bay Area, which will use much of the same equipment as a commercial-scale facility in the future. This would make it an important testing ground for its designs and microbial strains.
Expanding on the business model, Tze explained that the company’s financial plan relies on selling microbes as well as licences to build, operate and maintain the facilities. “We would also do marketing and business development for the products,” he added.
Tze believes the pilot facility can produce the data needed to convince investors that a commercial-scale fermenter is worth their money, with the goal of following a “capital-light” approach.
NovoNutrients taps into expanding pet food space
Courtesy: David Tze/LinkedIn
NovoNutrients has been in discussions with pet food manufacturers over the last year, opening up a new potential market for the startup.
“In part, this has been a reaction to the widespread, decreased confidence and interest in alternative proteins for people,” said Tze. “On the other hand, it’s that the pet food sector has been faster to recognise the benefits of alternative protein.”
A five-country survey of 2,500 pet owners this year found that 80% of respondents factor in sustainability when choosing food for their pets, and over half considering plant-based proteins for their climate credentials.
“There are parts of the market where there’s a significant willingness to pay for ingredients including, but not limited to, hypoallergenic,” added Tze.
Alternative pet food has been making the waves recently, whether it’s in the form of positive health studies, funding rounds or regulatory progress. For example, UK startup Meatly is expecting to put its cultivated chicken for cats on shelves imminently.
“Everyone kind of wants to move to a more sustainable food system. Everyone wants healthy food for themselves and their pets. And I think the trends in alternative proteins – and cultivated meat in particular – fit with that perfectly,” Meatly CEO Owen Ensor told Green Queen in a recent interview.
Touching upon the challenges of the alternative pet food sector, The Pack co-founder and CEO Damien Clarkson suggested that the investment decline in the plant-based sector has “made accessing capital for the vast majority of plant-based pet food startups more challenging”. “This is despite all the big pet food companies having a huge commitment to sustainability and a diversification of protein sources,” he told Green Queen.
Explaining how players in this space can succeed, he added: “Alt-protein pet food companies need to operate more like pet food businesses, and less like challenger plant-based startup brands.”
Food tech investor Big Idea Ventures has launched a new vegan seafood company that utilises intellectual property from New Wave Foods, which shut down last year.
Big Idea Ventures (BIV) has incorporated Bayou Best Foods, a new plant-based seafood company that uses IP from the now-defunct New Wave Foods.
The eighth investment out of BIV’s Generation Food Rural Partners (GFRP) Fund, Bayou Bets aims to commercialise the IP with an initial focus on shrimp (slated for a market launch by the end of the year). It plans to extend into other categories in the future as well.
BIV has appointed former Conagra, Perdue Farms and Beyond Meat exec Kelli Wilson as the company’s CEO. “Bayou Best is positioned to be a leader in animal-free seafood manufacturing and distribution, with a strong focus on delivering an eating experience that mimics, in taste and texture, animal-based seafood items,” she said.
Why New Wave Foods ceased operations
Courtesy: New Wave Foods
In November, San Francisco-based New Wave Foods entered into a voluntary assignment for the benefit of the creditors (ABC), an alternative to formal bankruptcy proceedings that involves transferring assets from a debtor to a trust to liquidate them and distribute the proceeds. In effect, the company was “indebted to various creditors” and “unable to pay its debts in full”.
The startup had rolled out its vegan shrimp in US foodservice through a partnership with Dot Foods in 2021, months after closing an $18M Series A fundraiser. “Although we were gaining momentum in 2023 and had secured a major customer for 2024 sales, we couldn’t outrun industry headwinds,” co-founder and CEO Michelle Wolf told AgFunderNews at the time.
Speaking to the publication now, BIV chief investment officer Tom Mastrobuoni said there wasn’t “any one thing” to blame for New Wave Foods’ collapse, but rather “a confluence of events”.
“I think we’ve learned a ton of lessons, which is why we’re bringing in someone with Kelli’s experience to run Bayou Best Foods. At the end of the day, you’re still running a food company, not a tech company that makes food,” he said.
The acquired IP includes “formulations and specific production techniques”, but not any production facilities. To support its market entry, Bayou Best Foods will use co-packers to manufacture its vegan shrimp. “We’re working very closely with BIV partners on innovation and pilot trials and then we will scale up with contract manufacturers,” Wilson told AgFunderNews.
She added: “We’re not using expensive technologies such as twin-screw extrusion; we’re using simple blending and heating and forming followed by freezing and packaging for ready-to-heat products. New Wave’s latest iteration was using mung bean protein [combined with seaweed extracts], but we’re looking at other high-quality protein sources.”
A sea of problems
Courtesy: The Environmental Justice Foundation
In a statement, Wilson outlined the Bayou Best Foods’ mission to “provide a product that can replace shrimp in any traditional menu or dish”, and cater to consumers with seafood allergies and those who are cutting back on shrimp due to health concerns.
A survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) this year found that 66% of seafood consumers prioritise nutrition and health, with frequent eaters showing an even higher inclination (78%). But ill health effects from shrimp farming have been under the spotlight, thanks to a combination of overcrowded aquaculture systems, overuse of disinfectants and high susceptibility to diseases stemming from monocultures.
Microplastic pollution, toxic chemical runoff, antibiotic and pesticide use, sea lice, mercury, and overfishing are among a host of issues that are leading to the collapse of global fisheries. Crustaceans like shrimp, meanwhile, account for 22% of the total carbon emissions from fishing, despite making up just 6% of all the tonnage landed.
The species has been vastly affected by climate change too, suffering from population declines, with spawning population only an eighth of what it was in 1908. There has been a collapse in Atlantic shrimp numbers too, thanks to ocean warming. And in the Gulf of Mexico, pink shrimp stand to lose 70% of their habitats by the end of the century.
Meanwhile, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing of shrimp and prawns amounted to potential economic losses of about $47M annually between 2015 and 2021. In fact, 26.4% of all shrimp fishing activities were potentially illegal and unregulated between 2016 and 2021.
A large global survey by the Marine Stewardship Council recently revealed that 30% of consumers have been eating less seafood in the last two years, with almost half (48%) concerned about overfishing and 35% worried about climate change impacts. More than 80% of people have changed their dietary habits in this period, with 43% doing so for sustainability reasons – it highlights the need for more sustainable alternatives to animal proteins like shrimp.
Bayou Best Foods to license IP as well
Bayou Best Foods CEO Kelli Wilson | Courtesy: Summit Art Creations/New Wave Foods
Mastrobuoni said Bayou Best Foods is primarily focused on foodservice since that’s where the majority of seafood is consumed in the US, “mainly because consumers are afraid of it and don’t really know how to cook it”, and “chefs understand how to work with it”.
“We’re also going to develop a portfolio of products across different species as we want to build a platform company that can leverage multiple technologies in this space, so we’ll also be looking to license IP being developed in universities we’re working with,” he added. “Single-product companies are interesting science projects, but they are not good companies. Companies need differentiated revenue.”
Speaking of revenue, the plant-based meat and seafood industry saw retail sales drop by 12% in 2023, while prices also increased by 9% (compared to a 3% rise for conventional meat and seafood). And within the plant-based analogue world, vegan seafood only makes up 1% of the market share.
“Despite challenging times for the category, there is no denying that we are in a climate emergency and that our oceans are in peril,” Marissa Bronfman, founder of alternative seafood association Future Ocean Foods, told Green Queen in February. “We must ensure that the international venture community continues to fund alternative seafood across plant-based, fermentation and cultivated, if we are to protect our oceans and feed 10 billion people by 2050.”
Bayou Best Foods joins a number of other players developing or selling plant-based shrimp, including HAPPIEE! (Singapore), Vegan Zeastar (the Netherlands), Plant-Based Seafood Co., Aqua Cultured Foods (both US), Boldly Foods (Australia), Thai Union (Thailand), and Steakholder Foods (Israel).
“There are significant environmental, human rights, and fraud issues in the seafood industry. Bayou Best’s products align with the growing demand for sustainable protein options, driven by consumer concerns about seafood sustainability and a desire for animal-free alternatives,” said Emily Linett, director of strategic partnerships of the GFRP Fund.
GFRP is an inception-stage agrifood venture fund backed by members of the Farm Credit System, which partners with leading universities to launch new companies based on IP, brings strategic support from inception, and provides seed-stage and follow-on capital. Its portfolio startups include microbial tech company PlantSustain, cultivated meat solutions developer Nexture Bio, and sustainable active ingredient maker BioCloak, among others.
“This investment furthers GFRP’s mission of launching innovative companies while creating living wage jobs in rural communities,” said Linett.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Aldi’s zero-waste pineapples, a Charli XCX-inspired marketing drive, and an open letter to Florida’s policymakers.
New products and launches
In its bid to cut food waste, German discount retailer Aldi is trialling a crownless pineapple in the UK’s Midlands, Yorkshire and North East. The crowns will be used to cultivate next year’s crop or converted into animal feed, saving around 1,4000 tonnes of food manually if rolled out across all stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Field Roast
US plant-based meat brand Field Roast has kicked off a new marketing campaign inspired by Charli XCX‘s new album Brat. The company posted a photo of its sausages in a wrapper modelled after the album cover, asking the singer if this is what she meant when she said it’s a brat summer.
Mycelium meat maker Mush Foods, whose 50Cut innovation is used in blended meat applications, has partnered with New York-based fast-casual chain Fieldtrip for the latter’s new Jerk Meatball Bowl. It combines the mushroom root meat with ground turkey, served over a bed of rice, alongside vegetables and coconut yoghurt.
Californian vegan seafood producer ProFillet has created a prototype of a whole-cut plant-based whitefish that is on par with the nutritional credentials of its conventional counterpart.
Courtesy: Doug McNish/LinkedIn
Following a successful launch in Europe last year, global food giant Bunge has released its BeLeaf PlantBetter butter for food manufacturers and bakers in North America. The spread is made from coconut oil, cocoa butter, rapeseed oil and lecithins.
Meanwhile, dairy-free artisanal cheesemaker Climax Foods‘ blue cheese is now available online grocer Good Eggs.
Also in the alt-dairy sector, US startup Credo Foods has introduced what it claims is the world’s first oat milk spray cheese, which is available on its website (and soon at HEB and Wegmans) in Cheddar and Smoky flavours.
Courtesy: Väcka/Ditaly
Spanish vegan cheese producer Väcka, meanwhile, has teamed up with local pizzeria chain Ditaly for its new La Gazpacha pizza, which uses the former’s melon seed Mözza and nut-based Fraïs with Basil offerings.
In Japan, Misola Foods has launched what it calls the country’s first oat milk, which is suitable for both adults and children, given it matches conventional dairy on calcium (110mg per 100g). It comes in 196g cartons made from recyclable paper, with no straws included. A 24-pack costs ¥5,400 ($33.50).
Fellow Japanese company Spiber – fresh from a $65M fundraise – has inked supply chain partnerships and project deals with Italian mills Marzotto, RD Gruppo Florence, and Filatura Papi Fabio to make materials from its fermentation-derived Brewed Protein.
Courtesy: The Moonbeam Co.
And Singaporean upcycled food startup The Moonbeam Co. has rolled out Kopi Siew Dai Chocolate Chip Cookies made from spent coffee grounds exclusively at the Changi Airport‘s SATS Premier Lounge.
Finance and company updates
The Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (iFAB) Tech Hub, which uses precision fermentation to turn corn and soy into high-value products, has secured a $51M Phase 2 implementation grant via the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. It follows the $680M it received from public and private entities upon its establishment in March.
Denmark’s KMC, which makes potato-based food ingredients, has inaugurated a $14.5M, 5,000 sq m innovation centre to supply ingredients for plant-based foods.
Courtesy: MATR Foods
Fellow Danish company Novo Holdings, the holding company that owns Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk, has made an initial investment in Dutch fungi-based meat company MATR Foods to support its scale-up efforts.
Speaking of Dutch meat analogue makers, there’s change at the helm at The Vegetarian Butcher, with CEO Hugo Verkuil taking a sabbatical. Global commercial director Rutger Rozendaal has been promoted to the top job at the Unilever-owned company.
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher
British entrepreneur Heather Mills, who owns VBites, has acquired plant-based marketplace Alternative Stores, which lists a multitude of vegan products and supports family businesses in launching their own brands.
In more acquisition news, Ahimsa Companies – which recently acquired Wicked Kitchen, the parent company of Good Catch Foods – has bought a plant-based production facility from Gathered Foods, the former owner of Good Catch Foods.
Pulse protein manufacturer Australian Plant Proteins has gone into voluntary administration, with local organisation Food Frontier suggesting that this is a result of a lack of government support for plant proteins, as opposed to an individual company’s failure.
Policy and research developments
Boston-based biotech startup Foray Bioscience, which uses plant cell cultures to make ‘plantless plants’, has closed a $3M seed funding round led by Australia’s ReGen Ventures to expand its predictive platform for plant cell diversity, develop new products, and expand its team.
Germany’s federal court of justice, the Bundesgerichtshof, has ruled that confectionery company Katjes can’t call its fruit gummies ‘climate neutral’. The greenwashing ruling is expected to have a wider impact on food labelling and advertising, with businesses not allowed to use such terms without explaining why.
Courtesy: Katjes
The Vegan Society of Aotearoa and the NZ Vegetarian Society have jointly petitioned the New Zealand government to implement more stringent labelling regulations to prevent confusion stemming from the use of terms like ‘plant-based’ and ‘less dairy’ on products that contain animal ingredients.
How can cultivated meat become more sustainable? The answer may lie in using microalgae as a culture medium to provide glucose, instead of grains like corn and wheat, according to researchers at Tokyo Women’s Medical University‘s Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science.
Austria is doubling down on its anti-cultivated-meat stance, railing against the innovation using a study commissioned by the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry in the Carinthia region finding that 90% of respondents don’t want to eat these proteins, and 82% would support a ban.
Courtesy: Alexander Tengg/Kleine Zeitung
Ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris later this month, welfare group Animal Equality has launched a petition calling for foie gras to be removed from the menu, which has gained over 42,000 signatures. At this year’s event, 60% of food is set to be meat-free.
Finally, with Florida having officially banned cultivated meat last week, Canadian cellular agriculture investor Cult Food Science has written an open letter to the state’s leaders, stating that the “harmful” move relies on “misinformation and trying to slant the public discourse in a negative way”.
NatWest has scaled back its dietary recommendations to users of its banking app after months of lobbying pressure from livestock farmers.
UK bank NatWest has made changes to the carbon footprint tracker on its app, which previously recommended users eat less beef and dairy, after facing backlash from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).
The app advised Brits to “swap out beef” and “swap to plant-based milk” to lessen their climate impact, but NatWest has now removed these recommendations, instead adding a suggestion to “buy local, British and seasonal produce”.
This is thanks to pressure from the NFU, which welcomed the changes but still expressed disappointment over what it labelled “oversimplified messages” that “do not support British agriculture”.
NFU argument goes against multiple studies
Courtesy: NatWest
The emissions tracker was added to the NatWest app in 2021. But last November, the NFU raised concerns about the diet-related recommendations. Users received a personalised carbon footprint score each month, with the bank (correctly) noting that cutting out red meat and replacing dairy with plant-based milk can help lower their CO2e emissions by 12kg and 6kg, respectively.
Research has shown that a vegan diet can reduce emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to a meat-rich diet. Even if we replace just half of our meat and dairy intake with plant-based analogues, the result would be a 31% reduction in agricultural emissions, 12% decrease in land use, and effectively an end to deforestation.
The NFU, however, argues that the country’s meat and dairy are “among the most sustainable in the world, with UK beef emissions less than half the global average”. However, this fails to accommodate its methane emissions, 48% of which comes from agriculture. The gas – 80 times more potent than carbon – is a byproduct of enteric fermentation from livestock farming, and the decomposition of manure under anaerobic conditions.
“Purely focusing on GHG emissions overlooks these benefits entirely and oversimplifies a nuanced topic,” said David Barton, chair of the NFU’s livestock board. The association specifically asked NatWest to add the recommendation to “buy local, British and seasonal produce”, perpetuating the misconception that locally produced meat is somehow sustainable.
Farm and land use emissions from producing these animal foods are the main culprits – transportation makes up only a fraction of the total. Analysis by Our World in Data shows how buying imported beef from Central America in the UK versus buying local makes barely any difference.
A study by think tank the Green Alliance found that 63% of the UK’s farmland is used to grow food for livestock, but suggested that if significant policy shifts are undertaken to replace over two-thirds of meat and dairy sales with alternative proteins by 2050, it would free up 57% of the UK’s agriculture area.
Additionally, a 2022 report by the WWF asserted that UK farmers must reduce their meat and dairy production by a third in the next decade to meet climate goals. The country has fallen behind on its path to net zero by 2050, although hopes are that the new Labour government will accelerate the transition.
Farmers’ union ‘disappointed’ at remaining plant-forward advice
Courtesy: NatWest
The NFU said red meat and dairy are “recognised as an essential part of a healthy diet”, being rich in protein and calcium, and providing nutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
This (alongside the sustainability argument) echoes the rhetoric of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which falls under the wing of the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and has been promoting local beef, lamb and dairy at the expense of plant-based foods.
But British doctors have hit back at these claims, labelling them “disingenuous” and “at odds with established scientific evidence on healthy and sustainable diets”. In an open letter, they noted how the WHO classifies red meat as a possible carcinogen, underscored its links with type 2 diabetes, and outlined how it could save the National Health Service millions.
While NatWest removed the beef and dairy recommendations as measures to reduce emissions, it has retained several others that promote a plant-forward diet. This includes “veggie Mondays’, “choosing vegetarian at home”, and “choosing (mostly) plant-based”. It also suggests its users add tofu and lentils as substitutes for meat.
This has left the NFU disappointed. “We understand that the NatWest app is primarily focusing on GHG emissions, but the reality is that when making diet-related recommendations, other factors such as nutrition, environment, and biodiversity must be presented,” said Barton.
“We are continuing our conversations with the bank about the nutritional and biodiversity benefits eating meat provides as currently the app’s tracker only focuses primarily on greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.
“Despite this disappointment, I am pleased to see some changes being made to the ‘carbon tracker’ on its personal banking app, following NFU engagement with NatWest at a senior level over several months.”
NatWest highlights its role as an agricultural lender
Courtesy: Elphège Barthe/NatWest
NatWest’s own climate goals aim for net zero by 2050, with the bank achieving a 23% reduction in scope 3 emissions last year, compared to 2019 levels. But its in-app U-turn should come as no surprise. In its own words, the bank is “one of the largest lenders” to the agriculture sector, where subsidies are directed heavily in favour of livestock farmers.
The UK spends £3B on farming subsidies annually, at least half of which goes to livestock. In the EU, the animal agriculture industry received 1,200 times more public funding than alternative protein startups between 2014 and 2020, with cattle farmers making half their money through these funds, according to a study by Stanford University. “It’s clear that powerful vested interests have exerted political influence to maintain the animal-farming system status quo,” said co-author Eric Lambin.
But it’s not just governments; the private sector has been heavily supportive of the livestock industry. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, banks and private financiers have provided $615B in credits to the world’s 55 largest livestock companies.
While NatWest says it has committed “£6.7B of funding to support farmers to fund climate and sustainability-related projects”, it has also previously published a ‘myth-busting’ article on its website that includes inputs from meat farmers arguing that livestock is, in fact, sustainable.
The World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, has also provided at least $1.6B to industrial livestock farming projects since 2017. But in a landmark report in May, the global bank asked countries to redirect subsidies from red meat and dairy to lower-emission foods like fruits, vegetables and poultry. It further encouraged greater adoption of alternative proteins, which represent a low-cost, highly effective solution in mitigating climate change.
“The transition to a low-carbon economy is a topic of interest to many customers and sectors, including farming and agriculture,” NatWest said in a statement. “We will continue to support our customers in their sustainability journeys. The carbon tracker is an optional feature that customers have told us is valuable, but we always listen to stakeholder feedback and continue to look for ways to improve.”
Reinstating its meat and dairy recommendations would be a start.
Singapore’s Umami Bioworks has partnered with two Indian entities as it aims to advance R&D and reach commercial-scale production for its cultivated seafood.
Months after its merger with Shiok Meats, Umami Bioworks is looking to advance the scale-up efforts for its cultivated seafood through two collaborations with organisations in India.
The Singapore-based startup has teamed up with the IKP Knowledge Park’s newly established Centre for Smart Protein and Sustainable Material Innovation in Bengaluru, India, which will be aimed at accelerating research and scalability for its cultivated seafood.
Additionally, it is set to collaborate with the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai to set up an R&D facility at the university’s campus.
“India has a wealth of experienced talent in biomanufacturing and steel production. We saw this combination as among the best-in-class globally, and given the relative proximity to Singapore, it was an obvious choice,” Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Bioworks, told Green Queen.
IKP partnership to validate and transfer Umami Bioworks’ tech
Courtesy: Umami Bioworks
As part of the incubation collaboration with the IKP’s alternative protein centre, Umami Bioworks’ India-based team will lead the engineering and validation of its plug-and-play manufacturing hardware, supporting the tech transfer from the demonstration line to customer sites.
“IKP provides a hub for our team to work on this scale-up R&D, including meeting and lab space, and a facilitator to help us connect with the supply chain partners that will enable us to deliver a complete production solution,” explained Pershad.
“The partnership is initially scoped for a year, with opportunities to extend and expand over time. Our end goal is to successfully deliver a production-ready manufacturing system, led by our team in India, that is ready for deployment to customer sites around the world,” he added.
“We are excited about the novel technology platform that they bring to our community of entrepreneurs and founders in their pursuit of growth in the smart protein sector,” IKP Knowledge Park chairman and CEO Deepanwita Chattopadhyay said of Umami Bioworks. “This collaboration will not only accelerate Umami’s growth in India, but will also propel the smart protein ecosystem that we are building in the country.”
The Centre for Smart Protein and Sustainable Material Innovation was established in May, born out of an MoU between IKP Knowledge Park and alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) India. The facility aims to support startups with incubation and product development via access to state-of-the-art equipment, and expert mentorship on the technical, IP, regulatory, marketing and business strategy domains.
“This landmark partnership between Umami Bioworks and IKP’s newly launched centre is a prime example of how India’s booming biotech industry and growing smart protein ecosystem are attracting global players,” said Aiyanna Belliappa, senior innovation and entrepreneurship specialist at GFI India.
“We are confident that this collaboration will pave the way for further innovation and investment in India, ultimately contributing to a safe, secure, and just future for food.”
South India leads the country’s cultivated seafood scene
Courtesy: Umami Bioworks
The partnership comes the same week researchers at the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology developed prototypes of cultivated seafood using milkfish, grouper, red snapper and tilapia cells. The university is also partnering Umami Bioworks, with Sheela Rani, the institute’s director, telling The New Indian Express that the startup will help “set up a full-fledged facility at the campus to develop more cultures and push for commercial-scale production”.
“We are establishing a collaboration with Sathyabama University to expand our pipeline of marine species cell lines in partnership with their newly established National Facility for Coastal and Marine Research,” Pershad told Green Queen.
“We will be doing collaborative research to establish cell lines from new fish, crustaceans, and other species. This work will include seeking [a] deeper understanding of the fundamental biology of these species to enable first-ever cell lines to be established for some species,” he added.
Sathyabama University has earned authentication from the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, meaning its cultivated meat has no recombinant DNA. It will now pursue statutory approvals from the National Biodiversity Authority, the environment ministry, and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The latter, in fact, has been working to establish a regulatory framework for cultivated meat and seafood companies to file dossiers for approval. In a regulatory conclave held in New Delhi in April, the FSSAI confirmed its willingness to work with the government’s Department of Biotechnology and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council to set up a framework.
“The FSSAI can institute a working group on cultivated meat. This working group will be able to recommend strategic priorities for cultivated meat (and inputs such as culture media and cell lines) for the FSSAI to consider for regulatory interventions and a strategy for a dynamic regulatory framework,” wrote Astha Gaur, regulatory policy specialist at GFI India. “Ultimately, instituting a scientific panel on novel smart proteins would ensure progressive rule-making and risk management.”
Umami Bioworks’ partnerships symbolise the fast-growing cultivated meat sector in South India. In January, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (based in Kochi, Kerela) inked a deal with biotech startup Neat Meatt to develop cultivated fish.
Having raised $2.4M to date, Umami Bioworks has previously outlined its plans of submitting regulatory dossiers in several countries this year. Its merger with Shiok Meats will see it bring cultivated unagi (eel) and white fish (grouper) to the market via hybrid applications.
“We are now in active review with the Singapore Food Agency, including regular engagements to review data and address any questions that arise during their review,” revealed Pershad. “We are also making rapid progress in two other geographies and anticipate being able to share an update in the near future.”
Nestlé has introduced Maggi Rindecarne, a plant-based meat product meant to be blended with conventional beef, in Chile.
The blended meat category continues to expand, with the world’s largest food company now jumping onto the trend with a plant-based ‘meat extender’.
Launched under its Maggi brand, Nestlé’s new innovation is called Rindecarne, and is essentially seasoned soy protein that comes in minced form to pair with animal-derived meat.
Unlike other blended meat products – which lead with taste credentials – Nestlé’s pitch for this offering is affordability. This is outlined by the fact that this meat extender is currently available in Chile, where the wealth gap has been a major contributor to social inequality for years.
Turning two servings into four
Courtesy: Nestlé
The Maggie Rindecarne has a base of soy protein, soy and wheat flours, and sodium glutamate, with natural flavours and other taste agents like garlic, beetroot, paprika, sugar, pepper, salt, and citric acid. It also has canola oil and natural caramel colouring.
Nestlé says the mix of soy and spices allows for a seamless blend of Rindecarne with minced beef in a range of dishes, doubling the amount of servings “at an affordable price”. This message has headlined its marketing around the product too, with social media posts showing how the blended meat can turn two burger patties and two bowls of spaghetti Bolognese into four each.
But while it is doubling down on the affordability aspect, Nestlé isn’t ignoring the importance of taste and health either, noting how a dish prepared with Maggi Rindecarne “retains its nutritional value without compromising on taste”.
Each serving has 5.2g of protein and only 0.4g of fat (with a minimal amount being saturated). The product is described as “versatile and customisable”, and can be used in a range of dishes like burgers, kebabs, meatballs, pastel de choclo and German meat pies, as well as meat toppers and fillings in lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese, and tacos.
“Our team of experts and chefs developed a tailored solution which brings an equivalent amount of protein in an affordable way to consumers in Latin America,” said Swen Rabe, head of Nestlé’s Product and Technology Center for Food.
As Rindecarne is a dried product, it needs to be reconstituted by soaking in water for 15 minutes, and then being added to ground beef. “Our innovation ensures the familiar taste and texture of mincemeat, is shelf-stable and easy to use,” added Rabe.
This isn’t Nestlé’s first innovation that combines plant and animal proteins. In 2022, it piloted a shelf-stable plant protein blend to complement egg dishes in Latin America. And last year, the company developed a blended milk beverage with dairy and soy milk for Central and West Africa.
Blended meat gathers steam
Courtesy: Nestlé
Nestlé’s decision to introduce blended meat in Chile is a shrewd one. The country’s citizens are reducing their animal intake, mainly due to health and cost concerns.
An Ipsos survey in collaboration with local organisation Fundación Veg (formerly Vegetarianos Hoy) found that 75% of Chileans reduced their consumption of red meat last year. Among those who were cutting back on animal products, 31% cited health reasons and 14% blamed high prices.
The importance of the latter has grown over the last few years, with 14% of respondents who haven’t reduced their animal intake saying they’d consider doing so because of their cost, a six-point increase from 2021.
Another poll by the two organisations found that 73% of Chileans would eat plant-based products if they are equal to or better than their animal counterparts on the nutrition front. Likewise, 72% would buy vegan analogues that have similar or lower prices.
Blended meat is being touted as a game-changer for meat reduction efforts. A sensory analysis published last month showed that most plant-based products don’t satisfy omnivores, but the only product that came within one point in average liking of a conventional burger was the Both Burger by 50/50 Foods, which blends beef with an equal amount of vegetables.
The Both Burger’s success can be underlined by the fact that it is now available in Disneyland. It’s among a host of companies offering blended meat: Phil’s Finest has been doing well ever since it found success on Shark Tank (as Misfit Foods), and Mush Foods’ mycelium-based 50Cut is now part of a blended burger by meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda. Perdue Farms’ Chicken Plus range, which combines chicken with The Better Meat Co‘s mycelium meat, has been one of the most successful stories in the space.
The category’s potential has attracted plant-based companies too. Australia’s Harvest B launched its blended meat lineup in April, while UK meat-free market leader Quorn announced last month that it will offer its mycoprotein to foodservice and hospital caterers across the country for use in blended pork and beef dishes.
“Once upon a time, we were effectively competing with the meat industry – only making products that were alternatives to theirs, and encouraging people to switch,” Quorn CEO Marco Bertacca told Green Queen. “We now find ourselves collaborating to offer less-meat options to consumers who are looking to reduce meat consumption, but not eat vegetarian or vegan meals.”
He added: “This represents the majority of people, and so it is a massive opportunity to decarbonise part of the food system and improve public health.”
German discount retailer Lidl has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to conserve biodiversity, promote planet-friendly diets, and reduce food waste across 31 countries.
One of the world’s largest retailers, Lidl, has entered a five-year, 31-country partnership with global conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to speed up its sustainability efforts.
The collaboration will focus on making Lidl’s entire value chain more planet-friendly, ensuring greater consumer access to sustainable choices, and building nature-positive business models. The two entities will do so through efforts to create deforestation-free supply chains, engage in advocacy for sustainable diets, and reduce food waste.
“In our role as one of the largest food retailers, we are aware of our responsibility and our influence,” said Christoph Pohl, chief purchasing officer at Lidl International. “We take responsibility with the aim of doing business within planetary boundaries.”
Kirsten Schuijt, director-general of WWF International, added: “Lidl has enormous international leverage to drive sustainable change in the food and retail industry. WWF is proud to accompany Lidl on this journey on which we will both support and challenge the retailer.”
Responsible sourcing on the agenda with EU deforestation laws
Courtesy: Lidl
The link-up comes a year after Lidl GB became the first discount supermarket to sign the WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, which is an industry-wide agreement designed to have the climate impact of British shopping baskets by 2030 (from a 2019 baseline).
“The way we produce and consume food and energy is one of the leading drivers of nature loss and climate change,” said Schuijt. “In order to halt and reverse what is the biggest crisis facing humanity today, we need bold and urgent actions towards changing our food and energy systems, and the food and retail sector has a big role to play in driving this change.”
Lidl has been working with the conservation group across individual markets like Austria and Switzerland, and the new partnership is looking to expand the scope of this work globally, with a common goal of enabling shoppers to make more planet-friendly choices.
The partnership will focus on several areas, including conversation and promotion of biodiversity, responsible management of water sources, and environmental protection through science-based climate targets.
Courtesy: Lidl
Responsible sourcing is a major highlight. Working with the WWF, Lidl plans to build and expand traceable, deforestation-free and conversion-free supply chains – this will be key as policymakers begin to clamp down on deforestation, most notably the EU from next year.
Lidl wants to ensure responsible sourcing of “critical raw materials” like palm oil, soy, cocoa, tea, coffee, wood, and paper products – all commodities that fall under the EU’s upcoming legislation, which prohibits imports of any of these items that have links to deforestation. Additionally, fish and seafood are part of the sourcing focus too, as is the safeguarding of fishing grounds and stocks.
“Sustainable management is not only a question of attitude, but also the basis for the future viability of our business model,” said Pohl. “With the support and expertise of WWF, we will now take our commitment to sustainability to the next level. We can only overcome major global challenges such as climate change and nature loss by working together.”
Lidl hones in on dietary shift and food waste goals
Courtesy: Lidl Nederland
Outlined in the agreement are two areas that Lidl has made a lot of progress on and set long-term goals for: sustainable diets and food waste.
The retailer wants to advocate for “more conscious, sustainable diets and consumption” and cut food waste, which are two key tenets of the global fight against the climate crisis. The food system accounts for a third of all emissions, 60% of which comes from meat production. In parallel, food waste is responsible for 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions, with a majority of that coming from households.
Lidl is well on track to meet its target of halving food waste by 2030 (from 2016 levels), having already reduced it by 43% by 2023. Meanwhile, plant-based foods – which emit half the emissions of meat and dairy – are becoming a more prominent fixture on the retailer’s shelves.
In the UK and Ireland, plant proteins are slowly encroaching upon the share of animal proteins sold, with whole foods and meat analogues making up 15.3% of all proteins sold in 2022/23 (up from 14.4% the year before. Likewise, dairy alternatives went up a percentage point to reach 7.4% of overall dairy sales.
This is part of Lidl GB’s larger effort to increase sales of its private-label meat-free and plant-based milk ranges – under the Vemondo brand – by 400% by the end of the decade, compared to 2020 levels.
Courtesy: Lidl
In the Netherlands, it is one of 11 supermarkets that have pledged to have at least 60% of all proteins sold be plant-based by 2030. Also in this country, it boosted the sales of its own-label meat analogues by 7% after placing them in the meat aisle for six months.
It made the same move in its home market too, with all 3,250 Lidl stores in Germany featuring plant-based dairy and meat next to their conventional counterparts. To encourage further adoption, it lowered the price of all vegan analogues to match animal-derived meat and dairy. The price shift was also carried out in Belgium.
These are major moves from a company that employs over 376,000 employees across 31 countries, and whose parent, the Schwarz Group, made €167.2B in 2023. For Lidl, the WWF partnership will only aim to accelerate its goal to cut scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions – excluding forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) – by 90% by 2050, and FLAG emissions by 72%.
Redefine Meat has released its 3D-printed vegan flank steak in retail stores in the UK and Switzerland, with the Netherlands soon to follow.
Israeli food tech startup Redefine Meat has brought its 3D-printed flank steak to retail locations in Europe, starting with the UK and Switzerland.
It follows a successful foodservice rollout in over nine countries, with the plant-based meat now available at Ocado in the UK and Coop in Switzerland. People in the Netherlands will also be able to buy the flank steak shortly in Jumbo, Albert Heijn and Crisp, while Germany and Italy are set to adopt it too.
“We’ve expanded our Redefine Meat offering to Ocado customers by launching the first premium-quality plant-based steak in the Ocado range,” said Zee Ahmad, senior buyer of frozen food at Ocado. “We’ve been pleased with the performance since the launch in late 2023 and are really happy with the glowing shopper reviews.”
A patented process to deliver superior taste and texture
Courtesy: Redefine Meat/Green Queen
One of Redefine Meat’s flagship products, the whole-cut beef flank steak is positioned as a premium, chef-led product that the brand claims has won plaudits from both industry professionals and consumers of all dietary preferences.
It is part of the Rehovot-based startup’s ‘new-meat’ range, a moniker it uses to differentiate the average plant-based meat from its more high-end version. Launched in 2021, the products are now available in more than 4,000 foodservice locations across Europe, as well as in British, Swiss, French and Dutch retail.
The Redefine Meat Flank Steak is made from a base of wheat, soy and potato protein, complemented by soy and wheat flours, rapeseed oil, cornstarch, natural flavourings, maltodextrin, barley malt, salt, and colourings.
The company employs a patented additive manufacturing process – more commonly known as 3D printing – at its factory in the Netherlands. The technology gives it a meatier flavour and lends the fibrous texture so devoured by meat-eaters.
It has termed the process ‘Plant-Based Tissue Engineering’, a nod to how it disintegrates textured vegetable protein (TVP) into fibres and blends them with a dough made from soy or pea protein isolates. “This approach allows the projection of the meat-like texture of TVP, but in a flexible manner, and in a scalable manner,” the startup explained in a white paper released earlier this year.
“The muscle component is reassembled to mimic the anisotropic fibrous structure of beef, while the fat component is engineered through lipid encapsulation within a hydrocolloid matrix,” it added.
Doing so plays into consumer demand for better taste and texture in plant-based meat. The steak has been endorsed by leading chefs like Marco Pierre-White and Ron Blaauw, while a 10-country survey last year found that taste is the most important aspect of vegan analogues for 53% of Europeans. Globally, the texture of plant-based meat is as important as their conventional counterparts for 75% of consumers, but only about 60% are actually satisfied with it.
Alleviating health and climate concerns
Courtesy: Redefine Meat
Redefine Meat’s steak also speaks to a growing consciousness around health and nutrition. A survey released this week shows that while a pleasurable sensory experience is the top driver of food choices in Europe (chosen by 87% of respondents), health isn’t too far behind (81%). This is the main reason behind Europeans eating less meat too.
The 3D-printed steak is packed with 25g of protein per serving (100g), has 3g of fibre and zero cholesterol. It has a Nutri-Score rating of A, something that is important to many European shoppers. And as plant-based meats go, it also has a relatively clean label.
Plus, there’s the environmental benefit. Over 80% of global consumers say they’ve changed their diet in the last two years, with 43% doing so because of climate concerns. The most common change was a cutback in red meat intake, reported by 39% of people.
Beef is the most polluting food on the planet. But a life-cycle assessment has shown that Redefine Meat’s steak consumes up to 96% less water, uses 98% less use, and emits 91% fewer emissions than a conventional burger.
“When we founded Redefine Meat six years ago, we had a bold and seemingly impossible target of launching a premium-quality steak for mass consumers to buy and cook at home,” said Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, co-founder and CEO of the company.
“Having focused much of our journey to date on refining our products to meet the quality standards of the highest echelons of the culinary world, we’re proud to bring the fruits of this labour directly to consumers through our best-in-class retail partners,” he added.
The retail debut for the flank steak comes months after the company brought its products to 650 new restaurants during Veganuary across Europe, as part of an accelerated expansion drive. Last month, it introduced its lamb kofta mix, pulled beef, pulled pork, burgers, beef mince and bratwurst in German retail via e-tailer Velivery.
Panda Express has brought back the vegan version of its flagship orange chicken with Beyond Meat, a welcome move for the latter’s foodservice struggles.
It took over 7,200 signatures on a 16-month-long petition for Panda Express to realise that enough people wanted its plant-based orange chicken back.
So finally, three years after what became one of the fast-food chain’s most successful regional launches ever, the Beyond Original Orange Chicken has returned to its US menu.
The vegan dish will be available at around 300 Panda Express locations nationwide. Like the first time, this rollout is on a limited-edition basis, although the companies suggest that “if consumer enthusiasm continues, there’s potential for expansion into additional Panda Express restaurants”.
Why Panda Express brought the Beyond Orange chicken back
Courtesy: Panda Express
“Panda Express have discontinued serving the Beyond Meat orange chicken, the only vegan/vegetarian entree option. They have said this was due to the entree being a limited-time item, but the popularity should make them change their minds. Now, millions of people will not be able to have a full meal other than sides at Panda Express. The people are outraged,” read the Change.org petition.
A little history lesson: the orange chicken was first launched at Panda Express in 1987 and quickly became a favourite. It now makes up roughly a third of the chain’s business. Think about that. That’s one dish.
So when the Beyond Original Orange Chicken was introduced, there was a frenzy. On launch day, Panda Express sold 1,300 lbs of the dish in New York City and Southern California. Stores in the latter area actually sold out of the initial rollout within two weeks.
After a national rollout to over 2,300 locations, Panda Express finally ran out of the stock and gradually ended the offering. People were not happy.
“I am vegetarian and I am addicted to this chicken I have been craving it like crazy and it is madness that they don’t have it on the menu anymore,” one fan said on the petition. Another added: “IM VEGAN AND WANT ORANGE CHICKEN.”
“We’ve never received so many social media comments for guests begging for us to bring a dish back,” a Panda Express spokesperson told Fast Company. “It’s our #1 most requested dish on social media.”
Beyond Meat and its foodservice record
Courtesy: Panda Express
The return of the Beyond orange chicken is a certain win for the plant-based meat company. Both the business and the industry it’s in have taken their fair share of knocks in the last couple of years: Beyond Meat has had eight consecutive quarters of losses, while retail sales of plant-based meat fell by 12% in the US last year.
For Beyond Meat, foodservice has always been tricky. We’re here a week after McDonald’s US president said the company had no plans to bring back the McPlant – which uses Beyond Beef – after a trial run failed in “two very different markets” in San Francisco and Dallas.
In 2021, Beyond Meat announced a deal with Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell. It developed vegan chicken nuggets that were trialled and taken off the menu after a couple of months (they returned for another temporary period).
Del Taco took off Beyond Meat from its menu last spring after four years, citing “low sales” (though the partnership has been retained and new options are being explored). Carl’s Jr has also pulled back the number of stores it offers Beyond Meat options in.
So Panda Express’s move is important for Beyond Meat – whose US foodservice sales took a 16% hit last quarter – and encouraging for the plant-based sector, which is going through a consolidation period, according to Andy Jarvis, director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, which is pouring $100M into research centres for alternative proteins.
“We’re in this for the long term, to make this succeed over the next two decades,” he told Green Queen in an interview this week. “It’s a tough time for the sector. But it’ll pull through.”
Andy Jarvis, director of the Bezos Earth Fund’s Future of Food programme, talks alternative protein, Asian centre, government bans, VC investments, and stepping away from the us-versus-them mentality.
Since announcing the $1B Future of Food fund at COP28, the Bezos Earth Fund has been in a hurry. It began with a $57M commitment in grants that will help tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and food security, followed by a $100M investment earmarked for three alternative protein centres.
In less than 30 days, it has already opened two of these Centers for Sustainable Protein – one at North Carolina State University, and another at Imperial College London (each received a cash injection of $30M). A third one is set to open in southeast Asia, as reported by Green Queen, in just a few weeks.
The rapid pace of investment has been intentional. Bezos Earth Fund has cited the world’s growing population – a projected 10 billion by 2050 – as an immediate challenge to the food system. Taking action now is critical. “Later is dangerously too late,” as Andy Jarvis, director of the fund’s food programme, has put it.
So, as the Earth Fund continues to pump in tens of millions towards a more resilient food system, Jarvis speaks to Green Queen in a wide-ranging interview to discuss how the team chooses which universities to partner with, alternative protein’s biggest problems, the role of governments in the protein transition, and the involvement of the fund’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and vice-chair Lauren Sánchez.
This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Courtesy: Rocío Lower/Bezos Earth Fund
Green Queen: How did you choose the specific universities in the US and the UK? Was there a tender process?
Andy Jarvis: We worked with the Good Food Institute. We started out with dozens of universities on a long list, and we applied a few criteria and landed on 14, from whom we invited proposals. And then we had a pretty rigorous evaluation committee that went through all of those proposals on set criteria that we’d agreed on and gave us recommendations.
Based on those recommendations, we’ve been deploying these grants. So far, the ones that have been announced [are] North Carolina… in the US, Imperial in Europe, and we’ll have a third one in southeast Asia.
GQ: Will the centres be collaborating with each other? How would that work?
AJ: Each of them is designed to stand up on their own in the first place, but at the same time, we are looking to integrate these three [centres]. So, they’re getting to know each other – they didn’t develop these proposals together, but right now… we’re having monthly integration calls, where we’ve put in their hard-wired collaborative efforts that are going to make sure that those centres are talking to each other and responding to emerging opportunities in an integrated way.
The centres will work as both individual centres in their domain in their geography… but at the same time, they’ll be responding to global issues and working together. So if in Europe, we have X demand for something, and we have that capacity in the US, then we’ll link that up as well. So yeah, the idea is that they are going to be very much working as a cluster.
Courtesy: Imperial College
GQ: Are they going to be working with startups too?
AJ: Actually, this is a note for the third centre – we didn’t make as much of a point of this, but for example, in Imperial, there’s $30M from us, but there’s an additional $20M of co-funding coming in from both the university itself, but also from a diverse array of partners and companies around the university.
Everything from 20 to 40 startups, companies, other universities, research institutions, NGOs [are] in the sphere of the centres. Each centre has that quite diverse ecosystem of collaborators.
GQ: What is the ultimate goal? Do you want to create ingredients for manufacturers, and products for the end consumer, or is it primarily a research focus?
AJ: The companies and startups, they’re the ones that develop products, and do all of that heavy lifting. What we want to do is a combination of two things…
[The first is to] move the pre-competitive lineup. What we’ve identified is so many startups are doing duplicative research, they’re doing the same thing with very precious R&D money. You’ll have 20 of these companies doing the same thing. It’s not gonna give them a competitive edge, but it’s a cost. So we want to move the pre-competitive lineup with good open-access research that is going to solve some of those basic problems.
The second is looking at the breakthrough science: what are going to be some of the breakthroughs that will drive our ultimate goal, which is to reduce the price, boost the taste and texture… and improve the health and nutritional benefits. The idea is that this will be managed in a way that’s going to maximise societal benefit. So we default to open-access, so that any company then can license that IP and use it.
That’s the process of what the research will be doing. It needs to be responding to the demand coming from the sector, the sector should be saying: “These are our problems, this is what’s driving costs too high, or this is where we’re struggling with taste or texture,” and the universities go after those problems.
The ultimate aim for us is to reduce price, boost deliciousness, and improve the health benefits. The way we see this, if you do that, you’re driving their market share. So what we’re looking for is that this takes 10-20% of global market share over the next decade or so. And if you have 10% or 20% market share, you’re having planetary-level impacts.
Courtesy: Rocío Lower/Bezos Earth Fund
GQ: You’ve talked about hitting the taste, nutrition and price touchpoints – which do you think is the most important, and why?
AJ: I think [Leon co-founder and government advisor] Henry Dimbleby put it perfectly. He said as a professional restauranteur, it’s very hard to convince someone to purchase something that is more expensive and tastes worse. That’s a very hard value proposition for a consumer.
So the way we see it is, you have to hit all of these things. And obviously, we’re interested in the sustainability angle of this, but you’ll have no sustainability impact, unless the price and the taste are on parity – that’s an absolute necessity. Otherwise, it’s just more products for vegetarians and vegans. What we need is something that is going to be attractive as a value proposition to carnivores. For that, it needs to cost the same or less, then it needs to taste just as good or better. That’s the bottom line.
GQ: Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness has talked about how plant-based was launched incorrectly, and that the climate argument no longer resonates with consumers. Do you think there’s still room for companies to lead with the climate?
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
AJ: Climate is an impact that you will have, but it’s not the primary one. And it’s certainly not the one that is going to sell a product – people won’t buy based on sustainability. All of the poll data globally shows the first concern is price… and up there equally is deliciousness. Third is health and nutrition, and perceived impacts on that… and somewhere along the long tail of other things is sustainability.
Yes, there’s a portion of the population that is interested in that and it’s smaller – the vast majority of people are not looking at that. And so, you nail the first three, right? That’s what we’re trying to do.
GQ: Can you talk more about how you are allocating the $100M commitment? Any particular organisations you are supporting?
AJ: The $100M is our current commitment we have, and we’re staying true to that and delivering it. The two announcements so far, take us to $60M of that, and you can do the maths, there’s another one coming. And there’s another [ancillary] grant we haven’t announced yet, but basically, over the next three months, you’ll see the whole $100M committed. It’s all focused on these Centers for Sustainable Protein.
GQ: Bezos Earth Fund has heavily invested in alternative proteins at a time when VCs have largely deserted the sector. Why do you think funding has declined, and what has made you keep faith?
Courtesy: GFI
AJ: I think it was a boom and bust cycle. The expectations on the sector were just way too high. And it was too much, too fast, the venture capital that flowed into the sector. Time will tell how good it was for the sector, but I think the expectations that were provided for that – that we’re going to have products on the shelves that these serial carnivores will be buying in the next five years – haven’t checked out.
There was a little bit too much ‘hopium’ on the menu there. This is early in the journey, right? I always just bring it down to the ground – in all time, $16B has flowed into the sector. It sounds like a big number. But it’s a tiny number. For example, if you look at agricultural subsidies around the world, it’s $700B. $200B goes into animal agriculture subsidies. That’s every year – and $16B of investment into alternative proteins is just a tiny amount. Really.
So yes, venture capital went in probably with unreal expectations in terms of time and profit, and right now, it’s pulling out because the promises weren’t kept, the companies haven’t delivered, and consumers haven’t been buying.
We see that as a flash in the pan, though… What we’ve identified is that venture capital helped create a lot of buzz and progress on certain things, but the sector skipped the beat and didn’t invest in foundational R&D and knowledge, which is going to be a much stronger base upon which to build a real industry.
That’s why we’ve gone back to basics a little bit. Let’s get that open-access R&D in place. And if you look at any major innovation around the world – look at the curves of solar panels and investment and penetration. They go through these big growth periods, and then they go through consolidation. We’re just in a consolidation [period for alternative proteins]. We’re in this for the long term, to make this succeed over the next two decades. It’s a tough time for the sector. But it’ll pull through.
GQ: Since you brought up subsidies, I want to talk a little about alternative protein policy. Upside Foods just held a tasting in Miami before Florida banned it. What’s your view on these bans, and how do you think they hurt the industry? Do you think more of these are going to happen, or it’s going to flatline after the election?
Courtesy: Upside Foods
AJ: Predicting politics is a dangerous game. But first of all, this is an innovation area of enormous potential and new economic opportunity, and [this] should have open innovation. The second instance, though, is that this topic has become very polarised in debates about cultivated meat.
I put some of the blame in the hyperbole that was created during the pandemic, that this is going to displace livestock, this is going to end industrial farming, and you won’t have any cows on the planet in 10 years’ time – you know, that kind of talk has been very dangerous and damaging for the sector, and it’s exactly what we should not be saying.
We’re heading towards 10 billion people, we have 50% growth in demand, and if you can complement animal-sourced foods with a double-digit percentage of the market with alternative proteins, you’re having enormous impacts. So we shouldn’t be talking about displacing.
And all of this policy response that’s coming, for example, in Florida, is protectionism. It’s a measure to protect what they perceive as a threat to farming. And it’s a non-threat, it just shouldn’t be seen as that… What we need is for farmers to be producing sustainably. We invest also in livestock – there are enormous opportunities to reduce emissions to produce animals in a high-welfare state, and to be sustainable. That should be supported and encouraged, and we should be looking at alternatives.
If you depolarise this conversation, then there’s no need for these kinds of legislative actions. That’s the way we see it: you need open innovation, and you need to recognise that 10 billion people is a huge market, and there’s space for multiple options in delivering that.
Courtesy: Rebecca Kirkland/Bezos Earth Fund
GQ: How do you depolarise when these legislations and proposals are built on misinformation and unawareness? And is that going to be part of your research focus?
AJ: We’re not investing in dealing with misinformation. We’re investing in building evidence and science and delivering the innovation, and letting that speak for itself.
I think there’s a story to be told about how plant-based meats are all produced by farmers – that ‘plant base’ is grown by someone, and those people are farmers. Fermented products – whether it’s precision fermentation, biomass fermentation, you name it – they’re using sugars and all sorts of inputs that are farmed products.
Even cultivated [meat] – everyone gets kind of very nervous about cultivated, that it’s lab-grown thinking, that it’s completely detached from farming. Well, the [culture] media are sugars, and all sorts of minerals and things that are coming from crops, and they’re farm goods.
So this is not an anti-farmer sector; this is a sector that is using foreign products in new ways. And generally using farmed products that are more profitable and highly sustainable in the way they’re produced – many legumes and things like that. This is not an either-or, this is not farmers, or non-farmed products: these are all farmed products, and they’re just produced by different means.
That’s the narrative we need to be having – creating a bit more of a nuance, [and] stepping back from this ‘you or us’ mentality. There is an enormous demand for protein in the future. 50% growth – there is no way we can deliver that with a business-as-usual approach. So we need to think about making livestock more sustainable and the things we need to do there. And we need to be thinking about how these alternative proteins are complementary proteins that can also play their role.
Courtesy: International Conservation Caucus Foundation
GQ: How important do you think policy is, and what can governments do to accelerate the protein transition?
AJ: Policy is obviously enormously important. The regulatory environment for many of these things is also make-or-break. That needs to be worked out.
We’ve talked about the venture capital, and that going away – what we want is for governments to step up and support the sector, and give it a chance. The level of funding coming from governments into the sector is not at all representative of the importance that [alternative proteins] have in the future.
Many governments are interested in it and would like to do things, but the polarisation makes it a political issue, and it shouldn’t be a political issue. This should be an issue about ensuring the long-term future of food security and food prices and availability of healthy, delicious, nutritious options. Governments needs to step up. They should be supporting research, and enabling the regulatory environment.
We also need the private sector to step up… For example, Lidl Netherlands’ [growth in plant-based meat sales after putting them in the meat aisle] is an example of leadership coming from the private sector, and it just shows when you do actually start levelling the playing field, the results happen. That’s our call, to level the playing field. If you’re providing enormous subsidies for animal agriculture, provide subsidies and government support to the alternative protein sector as well.
GQ: You told Green Queen that your third location will be in Southeast Asia. Can you tell us anything else about it?
AJ: The only thing that’s out there is [it’s in] southeast Asia. We’re looking at potentially saying something about it sometime end of August or early September.
And just to say about the two sensors that we’ve already launched: NC State was kind of a focus on biomanufacturing, Imperial is looking at engineering biology. We’re looking for each of these centres to take on its own kind of flavour of approach and focus, and be complementary. So you can expect something complementary in the next one.
GQ: It’s called the Bezos Earth Fund. How involved is Jeff Bezos, and how involved is [Bezos’ fiancée and the fund’s vice-chair] Lauren Sanchéz?
AJ: Super engaged. You’ve seen them on stage. You can see all of these interviews that they’ve done, and speeches. Obviously, this is a new-ish area for Jeff, we’re still young and on this journey. They’re incredibly engaged in exploring this domain of work.
Courtesy: Bezos Earth Fund
GQ: Finally, this is a $1B commitment. What other food system verticals are you looking at?
AJ: Our marching orders at the moment are to accelerate and focus on sustainable protein. The way we see it, you can’t fix climate without looking at food, and you can’t fix food without looking at protein.
So we’re laser-focused on sustainable protein at the moment. We may, between now and 2030, look at some other topics. And we continue to work very actively in the sector as a whole, advocating for the transformation of food systems, and the broad changes that are needed. It’s not only going to be fixed with sustainable protein, it’s going to be fixed with many different things.
We were instrumental in a lot of the work in Dubai on food at COP28, the Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, all these kinds of things. We see that as the global architecture of food system transformation that needs to be enabled. But then I think, you know, every foundation, every philanthropy, every organisation, every NGO needs to play a role in their domain to deliver that. And so right now, sustainable protein is where we’re putting the grants and putting our focus.
Meatly CEO Owen Ensor and CSO Helder Cruz take us behind the scenes of the UK’s regulatory process for cultivated meat, and reveal that it will start with dog food first.
As the UK speeds up its novel foods regulation process, Meatly is on the brink of what would be the first regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat in all of Europe.
But the London-based startup isn’t making food for humans – instead, it’s producing cultivated chicken for pets. In March, it was reported that the company was expecting to get the greenlight in about three months with tinned cat food co-created with fellow British company Omni.
Meatly (formerly Good Dog Food) has since changed direction for its first product launch, as its co-founders Owen Ensor and Helder Cruz tell me in a wide-ranging conversation.
Ahead of the company’s debut on UK shelves, its team goes behind the scenes of the regulatory process, explains why a protein-free culture medium is the key to affordable cultivated meat, outlines the importance of humanising cultivated meat, and illustrates why hybrid meat is the way to go.
How the UK’s regulatory process works
Courtesy: Meatly
Since its inception in 2022, most of the time has been spent on R&D and getting operations running. But one thing that was important to Meatly engaging with the regulatory authorities right from the beginning “to explain to them what we’re doing, and what approaches might make [the] most sense”.
“The pathway wasn’t entirely clear. And we’ve helped kind of clarify that and work with regulators to establish that,” says CEO Ensor.
He explains that there are two different phases for novel food approvals in the UK. “There’s the stage with the Food Standards Agency, where you need to understand whether this’ll be an additive or feed material. And then there’s a process with Defra, which is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,” he says. “And with that, it’s about animal byproducts, legislation, which risk category this is in, and how your facility should be treated.
Meatly has been in consultation with the FSA for 18 months, and clarified that its pet food ingredient is a feed material with no genetic modification. As for the animal byproducts approval from Defra, that dossier was filed in August 2023.
There was a bit of controversy about feed materials after Czech cultivated pet food startup Bene Meat had listed its product on the EU Feed Materials Register in November. It was initially misconstrued as an official regulatory approval, but what it meant was that the startup’s product was now officially classified as a feed material.
The FSA’s regulatory overhaul and upcoming UK election
Courtesy: Food Standards Agency
The UK retained EU regulations post-Brexit, but is now finally breaking away and speeding up its own process. The FSA is now set to announce a sliding-scale mechanism for novel foods approval that will take into account products’ track record internationally.
“We’ve been engaging the FSA very closely, with a big scientific contingent in the FSA coming and visiting our lab. And they’re very supportive of what we’re doing and other people in the industry are doing,” says Ensor.
“They’re looking to create this sandbox – so get central government funding to really commit to a cultivated meat pathway. I think that will really help. I think they’re being very intentional and careful about how they legislate and regulate cultivated meat, which is great to see them putting that thought in.
“I think all the cultivated meat for human food companies are just kind of waiting for a clear pathway. And it might still take a bit of time for them to establish that. But it’s great to see how engaged and enthusiastic they are being about it… You see biotech as a key strand in the UK government’s economic strategy, and so I think that will continue.”
On that subject, the UK this Thursday will head to the ballots to vote in its national election, with the Labour Party expected to form a government for the first time in 14 years. Does the election impact Meatly’s regulatory process at all?
“I don’t think so. I think we’re far enough down the line that the pathway has been established. And we’re now in the more nitty gritty aspects of site inspections and that kind of stuff,” Ensore suggests. “I think the long-term trends transcend daily politics. Everyone kind of wants to move to a more sustainable food system. Everyone wants healthy food for themselves and their pets.
“And I think the trends in alternative proteins – and cultivated meat in particular – fit with that perfectly. And so I don’t expect any major hiccups.”
When pressed on the timeline for approval, then, Ensor says Meatly hoped to be cleared around the election, whether that’s “weeks before or weeks after”. “I have a strong confidence level [that] it will be this summer… whether it’s July, whether it strays into early August, I hope it doesn’t go beyond that. But I think that’s the window,” he tells me.
A protein-free media for cheaper cultivated meat
Courtesy: Harriet Constable/Meatly
One of the major bottlenecks of cultivated meat is the cost associated with producing it. Meatly claimed to have slashed this significantly by developing a protein-free culture medium for its pet food. While these media usually costs hundreds of pound (and make up the most expensive part of cultivated meat production), the British company brought it down to £1 ($1.25).
“Protein-free media in biopharma is not kind of new, but in cultivated meat is,” says Cruz, who is Meatly’s chief scientific officer. “And it depends also on the type of cells on the species – some are a bit more challenging than others.” From the beginning, Meatly had an objective to ensure that everything it does is “realisable, cost-effective, and food-safe.
“We had the experience of working with protein-free media before, although – I don’t want to be negative – there’s lots of noise around the media and the cells and so on. But depending on the cell types and the species, you can grow them very well, without any protein.”
He adds that growth factors aren’t going to become 1,000 times cheaper to make cultivated meat really affordable, which is what prompted Meatly to take this approach.
This has lots of advantages when it comes to cost and quality controls, explains Cruz. “But in the composition of the cells, not so much,” he adds, touching upon the nutrition aspect. “Of course, we can always play with some nutrients, but not necessarily proteins, to finetune the composition – like fatty acids, some amino acids and so on.”
But the functions of proteins that are absent from the medium can be replaced by small molecules that are safe and affordable, he says.
“We’ve done a lot of nutritional analysis, safety analysis on the product,” Onser chimes in. “It shows as a very similar nutritional profile to chicken breast and has all of the essential amino acids, fatty acids, minerals and vitamins that cats and dogs need to thrive.”
Meatly to begin with cultivated dog food
Courtesy: Meatly
Asked if the new culture medium could open up a potential revenue stream as a licensor, Ensor said: Media is notoriously challenging to patent and protect from an IP perspective, because it’s very difficult to prove someone’s using the same media and quite easy to circumnavigate, which are two challenging aspects.
“We have other kinds of key IP pillars that we might look to licence sooner than the media. Down the line, we’ll look to licence a full factory solution, using ourselves and the equipment and processes that we’ve developed.”
Does changing the growth media also affect how quickly cultivated meat can be made? “When you start developing media, cells sometimes slow down a little bit, but you need to adapt them. So it’s all about the execution. And the time it takes at the end, the performance is the same as in expensive media,” says Cruz.
Meatly is now solely producing with the protein-free media in its bioreactors. Currently, it’s producing between five to 10 kgs per month – this capacity is 50 times what it was 18 months ago. And although still not mass-production level, this is enough to begin testing the cultivated chicken in pet food formulations.
While the startup has already shipped samples to partners who are creating prototypes and conducting initial production runs with the previous culture medium, any fresh biomass created for Meatly’s product launch will be with the protein-free version.
Currently, it has cells of one species, which can be an ingredient for both cat and dog food. “We’re seeing very good results, very similar performance,” says Ensor. Speaking of which, when Meatly’s impending approval was first announced, it was meant to be a cat food product that would cost £1.50 per 150g can. But now, the company will first roll out dog food instead.
“We’ll see whether we want to launch additional products after that,” he says. “We might just stick with the dog food.” Asked about the cat food product, he adds: “It depends on the manufacturing capacity… That’s part of the product development and prototyping we’re doing at the moment, deciding which we launch with, and how much emphasis we put on either of them, or both.”
This will likely feature a different partner than Omni, and while the CEO wouldn’t be drawn on a name, it is “one of the UK’s leading dog food brands”, he offers.
Hybrid meat shows a lot of promise
Courtesy: Annette Shaff
Currently, most cultivated meat that has been served to customers or taste-testers has been a hybrid product combining cultivated animal cells and plant-based ingredients, in an effort to tackle the scale-up challenges and lower the costs.
This was illustrated best by Eat Just (the world’s first startup to be allowed to sell cultivated meat), which debuted a new version of its Good Meat chicken in retail in Singapore. This edition had 3% cultivated cells, compared to 60-70% for its previous chicken (which was sold in foodservice).
Meatly’s cultivated dog food will be hybrid too. “What you find typically in pet foods, the meat content… depending on the brand, is typically in that 20-30% window. We’ll probably start slightly lower just because of limited supply,” suggests Ensor.
“But even at lower inclusion rates, that has a great palatability impact. So acceptance of the food is increased, it adds some of those key nutrients, and we can advertise it as having chicken in the recipe.”
One of Meatly’s key partners has been Pets At Home, the UK’s leading pet retailer, which invested in its last fundraising round. “They’re incredibly forward-thinking and focused on what the future of this industry looks like,” Ensor explains. “We’re not currently looking for other retail partnerships in the UK, because Pets At Home is the pinnacle.”
Looking internationally, the brand is exploring collaborations in North America too, currently conducting R&D with a pet food manufacturer there. It may look at retail agreements too, but Meatly doesn’t expect to launch in the region at least for the next 18 months, mainly due to production reasons. “We’re just kind of building those R&D relationships where we can have strategic players that we might want to work with in the future,” says Ensor.
Alongside North America, the EU is another market Meatly is keeping an eye on, but where it heads next will be “largely dictated by regulatory barriers”. “North America is likely to be most attractive – so both Canada and the US – to probably go there next, and then come back across to the EU. Once hopefully, there’s a bit more of a streamlined process established there.”
Meatly to close Series A fundraise soon
Courtesy: Meatly/Canva AI/Green Queen
Meatly has raised £3.6M to date, much lower than many of its counterparts across the world. The startup is now raising a Series A round – but it comes after a year where investment in cultivated meat dipped by 74%. And in the first quarter of 2024, only $12M was injected into startups in this sector.
“We’ll be closing [the Series A] the summer,” says Ensor. But it won’t be a huge raise. “We want to continue to show that there is a low capex, fast way to commercialise profitable cultivated meat, and so we’re not looking at monster fundraisers.
“We’ll use that to continue our R&D efforts. And really, you know, there’s a lot of information out there about cultivated meat. But when you boil it down, there are a couple of key factors, which are your media cost, your yield, and your capex costs. This additional capital will continue to focus on those and basically minimising the cost base as much as possible before we start scaling up.
“As we look at the industry, that’s kind of what we describe as ‘wave one’ companies, which are those that raise a lot of capital, went very hard on scaling fast, but have hit roadblocks with that. And then ‘wave two’ companies, like Vow, us, who have raised less capital and found creative routes to find a low-cost, fast way to scale.”
Tackling consumer acceptance
Courtesy: MDPI
Ensor notes that while surveys have shown consumers to have an interest in cultivated meat – a third of Brits were open to trying it even in 2022 – there are some hurdles to overcome.
“No one has ever really explained to a consumer what this is, how it’s made and what the benefits are. There is an education step and an explanation step,” he says. “Whenever we’ve explained to people that this is a safe, healthy, sustainable and kind way of feeding us and our pets, and [that] we don’t use antibiotics or steroids or hormones, there’s no contamination risk, there’s no GMOs involved – that goes a long way to providing people reassurance.”
Ensor continues: “We’re not going to convince everyone [from] day one. It is a process, but we have all the information, we can make clearly make those points to people, and I hope that they will be receptive to that. And again, I think these trends of wanting to move to a healthy, sustainable and kind food system transcend people’s politics or perspectives.”
Is the consumer messaging something Meatly will be focusing on with the new capital and its packaging “We’re not gonna have significant capital towards that. We’re a B2B player, so the specific packaging and messaging will depend on the manufacturer,” outlines Ensor. “But certainly, we’ll want to emphasise those points.”
He points to how cultivated meat has become part of the culture wars in the US (where two states have banned it), with politicians painting a picture of people in lab coats and talking about the “global elite”.
Ensor says: “One of the other things we’re thinking about doing is just humanising cultivated me more… from an individual perspective and why we’re passionate and excited about it.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers 7Up’s new vegan sauces, a bunch of plant-based milk facilities, and layoffs at Ginkgo Bioworks.
New products and launches
Soft-drink brand 7Up has introduced a three-strong lineup of vegan BBQ sauces in the UK: a Zesty Mayo, a Zesty Hot Sauce, and a Tangy Salad Dressing. The limited-edition range is only available at several pop-up locations across the country.
Courtesy: 7Up
UK natural foods company Kallø has added three organic tomato-based dips to its portfolio in lentil, olive and spicy variants, which are available on Ocado for £3 per 135g jar,
Indonesian plant-based meat leader Green Rebel has launched Korean BBQ slices in its home market, as well as Malaysia. The frozen product contains zero trans fat, and is made from a base of soy and wheat protein.
Indian vegan startup Plantaway has unveiled a chicken fillet SKU made with pea protein. It boasts 19g of protein per pack of two, and is available on its e-store and Swiggy and Zomato in select cities for ₹399 ($4.78).
Courtesy: Plantaway
In the US, Crafty Counter has launched its vegan Deviled WunderEggs at Whole Foods locations nationwide. Each pack comes with a ready-to-mix filling sachet made with Fabalish Foods‘ aquafaba mayo.
In Healdsburg, California, chefs Kyle Connaughton and Daniel Humm of three-Michelin-starred restaurants SingleThread and Eleven Madison Park, respectively, will host a 10-course, fully plant-based dinner featuring local produce. Reservations start at an eye-popping $486 per person.
Oatly has inked a multi-year sponsorship deal with US cycling team EF Pro Cycling, which will see the oat milk giant become the Official Performance Partner of the women’s and men’s teams, as well as the title sponsor of the former (which will be known as EF-Oatly-Cannondale). The training camps of the team – which is currently at the Tour de France – will now be called Oatly Performance Camps.
Courtesy: Violife
Meanwhile, vegan cheese giant Violife has released what it says is Canada’s first dairy-free cream cheese block. The Creamy Block is available at retailers nationwide, including Save-On-Foods and Longo’s, and will continue to be rolled out at select Loblaws banner stores.
Chilean food tech startup NotCo has introduced a line of vegan protein shakes in Brazil, with flavours including banana pancakes with cinnamon, strawberry with dates, as well as chocolate, coffee caramel, and vanilla with coconut.
And in Europe, Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat maker Juicy Marbles has secured a foodservice listing with MTNV in Germany for a revamped version of its controversial ribs (which feature edible bones).
Finance and company updates
Two years after announcing the move, Lactalis – the world’s largest dairy company – has reopened a former dairy manufacturing plant in Sudbury, Canada as a plant-based milk factory for its new brandEnjoy.
Courtesy: Enjoy
SunOpta – the food supplier behind plant-based milk dairy brands Dream, Sown and West Life – has invested $26M in a new oat milk facility in Modesto, California. The second-largest expansion in company history, it will allow SunOpta to increase the production of oat milk bases for milk, yoghurts and ice creams by 60%.
In more manufacturing news, New Zealand oat milk maker Otis has opened a purpose-built facility in East Auckland, allowing the company to finally move production locally after five years of operations in Sweden.
Following a 37 million kroner ($5.3M) grant – which includes state funding – Danish food company Palsgaard is seeking partners to participate in its Plant-based Ingredients for Egg Replacers (PIER) project to develop vegan alternatives to fresh and dried egg ingredients, in partnership with Aarhus University and R&D firm Nexus.
Courtesy: Palsgaard
The UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) has received a two-year grant worth $800,000 from Open Philanthropy, which will support programmes under its Alternative Meats Lab, where student researchers will explore sustainable food solutions.
NASDAQ-listed synthetic biology firm Ginkgo Bioworks – the parent company of Motif Foodworks – has initiated a round of layoffs, with 35% of its workforce expected to be let go by June 2025. The move is expected to cost the company $12M, and it further plans to consolidate its facilities.
Speaking of public listings, Canada’s Above Food is now trading on the NASDAQ following a merger with Bite Acquisition Corp, days after it acquired Spanish plant-based meat brand Brotalia (trading as Foody’s).
Courtesy: Sant’Anna School
In Italy, the Sant’Anna School and its Institute of Plant Sciences will contribute to an ongoing two-year-long project funded by the Ministry of University and Research-European Union to boost the production of plant proteins like beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, etc.
In Singapore, Cellivate Technologies – a startup making cell-based solutions for cultivated meat, leather and cosmetics – nabbed the biggest investment on Channel News Asia‘s reality show The Big Spark, with S$4.15M ($3.05M) in potential funding from five VCs.
Policy and research developments
A judge in Oklahoma has ruled that the Plant Based Foods Association has no standing to challenge a vegan meat labelling law, stating that the organisation failed to show that its members – including Tofurky – face a credible prosecution threat, because the Meat Consumer Protection Act only applies to those who sell meat.
Meanwhile, following a change in consumption taxes this April, plant-based milk sales declined by 7% in the Netherlands. The new law increased the VAT on milk alternatives, but not conventional milk, which meant the former has become 12 cents more expensive, while the latter is now four cents cheaper.
Graphic by Green Queen
Also in the Netherlands, two more supermarkets – SPAR and Picnic – have joined animal rights organisation Wakker Dier‘s pledge to have half of all proteins sold be plant-based by 2025, with the share increasing to 60% by the end of the decade.
A YouGovsurvey on behalf of the Good Food Institute Europe has revealed that 68% of Italians believe plant-based companies should be able to use meat-related terms on product packaging. It follows Italy’s announcement that it was reconsidering its labelling ban, which was imposed alongside its cultivated meat ban in November.
Finally, after all the brouhaha about plant-based meat, UPFs and heart health recently, a new review has found that when directly compared to animal-based meat, vegan analogues consistently lower cardiovascular disease risks.
Californian cultivated chicken maker Upside Foods has conducted a round of layoffs as it looks to overcome financial and legislative obstacles.
Leading cultivated meat company Upside Foods – one of only two to be approved for sale in the US – has made some cutbacks to its workforce, citing “political, regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds”.
First reported by Wired, Upside Foods co-founder and CEO Uma Valeti told employees in an email that 26 people would depart the startup, and that the executive and leadership teams would be restructured to “reduce top-heavy structures”.
“Our focus must now narrow to a tighter set of priorities that pave the way for our product launches in the next two years,” Valeti wrote. “We need to deliver on the work that remains, especially on critical milestones that are yet to be hit or are delayed.”
The development comes days after Upside Foods held a public tasting for its cultivated chicken in Miami, in response to Florida’s then-impending ban on cultivated meat within state borders. The legislation came into effect on Monday, making it a second-degree misdemeanour to manufacture, transport, commercialise or sell these proteins.
The event featured a “public offer to engage with the governor and the government of Florida to learn about and experience cultivated meat at a place of their choice”, according to Valeti.
“Uncertainty related to political, regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds requires us to be even more deliberate and conscious with our focus and resources,” Valeti wrote in the email. A host of US states are considering restrictions on cultivated meat – a week after Florida’s ban, Alabama followed through with its own.
A rollercoaster year for Upside Foods
Courtesy: Upside Foods
This is the second round of layoffs made by Upside Foods this year, with the Californian startup making “selective role eliminations” and “other changes” impacting 16 people in February.
“Upside is focused on our next chapter of scale and commercialisation. To stay agile in the face of an uncertain macroeconomic environment and preserve the resources needed to reach our milestones, we made the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions,” interim head of communications Melissa Musiker told Wired.
“We’re deeply grateful for the hard work, commitment, and dedication of our departing team members and remain steadfast in our mission to bring cultivated meat to the world,” she added.
The last 12 months have been a rollercoaster period for Upside Foods, which is among the best-funded startups in the cultivated meat industry, having raised $608M to date. The company became the first to serve cultivated meat in the US through a partnership with Bar Crenn in California – that partnership has since ended, but Upside Foods is now focusing on serving its chicken at public events.
The company broke ground on a commercial-scale facility in September last year, but decided to pause construction in February to focus on its existing pilot plant instead.
Courtesy: Upside Foods
It has also been the subject of a swarm of negative press, most notably in Bloomberg, which published a scathing story about Upside Foods and the cultivated meat sector, but made a number of misleading and inaccurate claims and failed to address a lot of the progress made by the industry.
In response, the alternative protein startup outlined how Bloomberg “ignored our repeated requests (and blog post)” that stated its whole-textured tissue is not ready to scale in the near term. The company’s debut product was a whole-cut chicken, but it is now focusing on commercialising suspension products, which include chicken nuggets, pâtés and other ground meats.
But Upside Foods’ move to adjust its strategy is a good sign, according to Steve Molino, principal at impact investment firm Clear Current Capital (which is not an investor in Upside Foods). “Too often we see companies wait until it’s too late to make difficult changes,” he told Wired.
In a statement sent to Green Queen, Valeti said: “We are being proactive, as Steve Molino said. We are laser-focused on getting to scale. I am happy my statements were written there without twisting them.”
Cultivated meat rocked by financial and political trials
Courtesy: GFI
The latest round of layoffs follows similar trends across the cultivated meat industry. Last month, it was reported that Israel’s Aleph Farms – another leading startup that has been approved to sell cultivated meat – let go of 30% of its local workforce.
“As we transition towards larger-scale production and commercialisation, we are maintaining R&D and production in Israel while expanding globally through co-manufacturers, in line with our capital-efficient and asset-light approach. We are adapting our organisation to align with this next growth phase,” an Aleph Farms spokesperson told Green Queen, reflecting Upside Foods’ reasons for the layoffs.
In California, cultivated seafood producer Finless Foods had similarly carried out two rounds of layoffs in less than 12 months, while Omeat stripped back its employee count by 80%, with its founder stepping down as CEO amid allegations of creating a hostile work culture.
This all comes amid a sharp decline in the venture capital flowing into cultivated meat. Last year, investments were down by 75%, as part of a wider dip in food tech and overall VC funding. The sector hasn’t recovered yet, with the first quarter of this year seeing only $12M being pumped into cultivated meat startups (5% of the $226M invested last year).
This is why AgFunder has earmarked cultivated meat as a “category to watch” this year. This has been exacerbated by the legislative challenges in a critical political year when half the world will vote – before Florida, Italy banned cultivated meat, with France and other European countries mulling similar laws.
With the far-right gains in the EU elections (and now France), and the recent boosts to climate-sceptic Donald Trump’s US presidential candidacy, the impact of policy on alternative proteins may yet cut deeper. Upside Foods itself fought back with its Miami tasting – but even there, the meat lobby was out to keep up its misinformation campaign. Valeti described it as a “protest truck parked outside unsuccessfully trying to detour folks in line”.
And of course the shills are right outside to make sure their competition is strangled in the cradle. pic.twitter.com/QEq2NNPPKa
These hurdles have also forced some companies to cease operations. Cultivated pork startup New Age Eats shut down in March 2023, and hybrid meat startup SciFi Foods began selling off its assets last month.
“The funding environment is as closed as I’ve ever seen, so only a select few in the cultivated space will be able to keep pushing for progress,” warned Molino, suggesting that there could be more closures in the sector this year
Crowdfunding backers of UK plant-based meat maker THIS have reacted furiously to a significant drop in the business’s valuation, following its £20M Series C round last month.
In 2022, when THIS closed its Series B fundraise, it was valued at £150M. But its Series C round – which saw private equity firm Planet First Partners invest a further £20M in the business – decreased this valuation 67% to £50M.
As part of the deal, £12M was set aside for THIS’s growth, while the remaining £8M was taken off the table by founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman, as well as some of its earliest shareholders.
This has angered crowd investors who have injected £13.4M into the company over three rounds, who criticised the move on a Seedrs discussion board, according to the Grocer. They said the plant-based meat manufacturer wasn’t allowing them to trade shares publicly on the crowdfunding platform’s secondary market.
THIS, which claims to be the UK’s fastest-growing meat analogue company, announced the details of the financials in a letter sent to crowd investors by Shovel, Sharman and new CEO Mark Cuddigan.
It revealed that the share price negotiated for the Series C round was £28.73, representing a 71% dip from the £98.63 price before the latest raise. To date, the company has secured £50M in funding from institutional and crowdfunding investors, including BGF, Backed VC, FiveSeasons Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Manta RayVentures, Seedcamp, ITV and footballer Chris Smalling (among others).
THIS’s valuation suffers from ‘extremely difficult’ investment market
Courtesy: THIS/Green Queen
On Seeders, THIS’s indicative valuation – based on the company’s share price – stood at £171.6M before the Series C round. This was an increase from the £150M valuation set when THIS raised £8M from over 3,000 crowd backers in 2022 (as part of its Series B round).
In anticipation of the Series C, crowd investors pumped in another £1.4M in a convertible round earlier this year, with loan notes converting to equity. But the letter to Seedrs investors confirmed that now, the pre-money valuation is £50M, which, “on the face of it, isn’t great for those investors who participated in those [earlier] rounds”.
“Our earliest investors and founders did sell some shares at this round at a significant discount versus the ‘primary’ money that went into the company, to lower the overall entry price of our lead investor without increasing the dilution for all existing shareholders,” Shovel told the Grocer.
“To be clear, if the business had been able to take the full total as a ‘primary’ investment into the company, all existing shareholders would have experienced significantly more dilution. Therefore, we believe that selling some discounted secondary was the best option for shareholders, as well as our incoming investor, whilst importantly setting the company up for the next exciting stage of growth.”
The letter pointed to an “extremely difficult” investment market for food and drink businesses to explain why the valuation was lower. Food tech financing nosedived by 61% in 2023, amid a wider dip in VC funding – for plant-based companies, this fell by 24%. And across the UK, overall Series C valuations were down. by 77% year-on-year, with plant-based startups faring even worse and some forced to shut down before being sold for “virtually nothing”, the letter stated.
THIS’s executive team argued that the Series C was a positive development for all shareholders, since the company is now “really well capitalised”. “We have enough cash to take us all the way to net profit in a year or so,” they wrote in the letter. While gross margins were 0% until recently, they’re now “growing strongly”, with plans to reach 30% or more in the next 12 months.
“In spite of us kicking off the fundraise in very good time, it took far longer than expected to find the investment, so our cash runway was running quite low. We had around two to three months before we would have had worryingly low cash reserves, at the time of closing this round.”
THIS co-founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman | Courtesy: THIS
Despite the letter’s arguments, crowd investors complained about the deal. “Shockingly bad human behaviour” was one backer’s consensus. “This doesn’t happen with private companies that raise money directly from investors as the founders have more accountability and less autonomy. Andy and Pete should be really ashamed,” they wrote.
In response, Shovel said the valuation was decided upon after a “quite long and thorough” process involving hundreds of investors. “Once we entered into negotiations with Planet First Partners, the valuation was negotiated on for some time, but given the tough fundraising market, there was not that much competitive pressure to drive the price up,” he said.
Shovel and Sharman have retained an 18% stake in the business they founded in 2019. Since then, they have invested £100,000 of their savings into THIS.
“There is zero chance of us ever trying to shortchange our crowd investors, many (really a lot) of our friends and family are investors across multiple Seedrs rounds, and, in any case, Seedrs investors are aligned in terms of share class with various large institutional investors,” said Shovel. “So, there are various checks and balances in place to ensure that the Seedrs investors’ interests are looked after.”
He added: “Our £50m pre-money valuation is a symptom of how much interest (or lack of) the investment market had in our company at this investment round – not poor financial governance. We are unfortunately unable to influence the macro-economic factors, which have led to an average of 77% decline in Series C valuations across growth-stage companies in the UK.”
“As it stands, we have made sure that the company is well funded and can support its growth in the coming years, and we’ve installed a top-tier management team, have achieved outstanding growth from £0 to £20m+ annual sales in four-and-a-half years, and are now closing in on net profitability. I’m hoping that we have governed the company responsibly and effectively, based on that progress.”
With a superfood in the pipeline, THIS aims for profitability in 2025
Courtesy: THIS
Addressing the £8M of secondary funding, Shovel said this only arose because Planet First would agree to a very low valuation for THIS at first, and so the team’s investment bankers advised offering the secondary sale at around an 18% discount to lower the entry price and keep the headline valuation at £50M.
“Whilst the earliest investors are okay with selling some of their shares at that valuation, Pete and I weren’t thrilled about offloading c.35% of our shares at such a low valuation,” said Shovel. “But on balance, we’ve been working for the best part of a decade, and it was definitely beneficial for the company and its other shareholders for us to go ahead with it, so we did.”
He continued: “The idea that it’s some money-making ruse for us is absurd. It’s the lowest valuation the company has seen in years.”
Shovel added that offering shares on the Seedrs secondary market could have affected the employee share scheme valuation in the eyes of HMRC (the UK’s revenue and customs office). “Any of us who are annoyed by the lower valuation simply hasn’t had any exposure to what’s gone on in the growth-stage investment market since 2022. It’s just tough out there,” he said.
“I would finally stress that funding round valuations may go up or down and serve up less or more dilution for us all, but the only valuation that really counts as far as I’m concerned is the one at a potential exit event in the future.”
“Either way, I strongly refute any nonsense claims that Pete or I have acted without integrity at any point. Thankfully, it seems that most investors on Seedrs have comprehended that the lower valuation is a symptom of a changed funding environment.”
Targeting profitability by 2025, THIS is the third-largest meat analogue company in the UK, with revenues up by nearly 50% last year, reaching £19M. The company has streamlined its operations, consolidating its production from 17 sites to just three.
Cuddigan – who Shovel endorsed as an “outstanding” person to lead THIS to over £100M in profitable sales in the future – has hinted at the company’s product development plans, telling Sifted that it was working on a tofu-life plant-based superfood that can be used as an ingredient in several ways, and has more nutritional value than anything currently available on the market.~
An often insurmountable price barrier is keeping many people from buying plant-based alternatives to beef, pork, and chicken.
By Ayurella Horn-Muller
Isobelle McClements was 13 when she came home from school and told her parents she was going vegan. Reading one book that delved into meat processing was all it took to convince her it was time for a lifestyle upheaval. The logistics of seamlessly feeding a family is a big reason her parents followed suit.
That was a decade ago. Nowadays, the freezer often stocks plant-based meatballs, sausages, or nuggets. When dining out, a faux burger sometimes makes the cut. Her father, David Julian McClements, is a food scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies how to make such things healthier and tastier.
Still, everyone in the family prefers to prepare meat-free fare using fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, and other ingredients. They can afford the more planet-friendly options now common in grocery stores, but have the time and means to make them from scratch. Most people, of course, can’t do either of those things, which presents an impediment to broader adoption of beef, pork, and chicken alternatives that could help the nation hit its climate targets.
“Finding good quality ingredients [and] being able to bring them all together and combine them into something that tastes great but is also affordable, healthy, and sustainable is very, very challenging,” McClements said.
Pound for pound, plant-based mock meats cost an average 77 percent more than their conventional counterparts. These proteins are typically heavily processed as they’re manufactured from things like soy and pea protein. “That’s partly why it’s so expensive.”
Who buys plant-based meat?
Courtesy: PBFA
When thinking about who is buying these pricey proteins, an affluent, urban, Tesla-driving white woman who has sworn off all animal products might come to mind. The high tax bracket often rings true, but the rest of that mental picture is a trite misconception. Even the idea that it’s only vegans or vegetarians buying these products isn’t entirely the case.
Young and non-white consumers are the most likely to eat plant-based meats, according to a May 2024 survey commissioned by alt-meat advocacy nonprofit the Good Food Institute. Roughly 38 percent of Gen Z and 35 percent of Millennials report dining on such alternatives at least once a month, which is around twice the number of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers doing so. About one-third of Black and Latino consumers regularly eat meat substitutes, compared to one-fourth of white consumers. And just 2.79 percent of households toss only plant-based proteins into the shopping cart. Almost 95 percent of them buy the real deal as well.
Income is where the most striking disparities lie. US households with an income approaching $100,000 are most likely to purchase plant-based alternatives, but most of those making less than $45,000 rarely do. One reason is federal assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, often provides too little financial help to make them affordable.
“It’s just a question of cost, and if that is going to be feasible for them, to make sure they make it through the month,” said Parker Gilkesson Davis, a senior analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy who studies nutrition and poverty.
About 12.5 percent of Americans are enrolled in SNAP, which provides a monthly benefit based on income, family size and certain expenses. In April 2023, the average benefit was $181.72 for a single person or $343 for a household. Making that last is a challenge when food prices have climbed 25 percent in four years. Those who work to reduce hunger argue that safety nets like SNAP have failed to keep pace with inflation, dietary shifts, and all the ways climate change impacts the food supply chain. When low-income residents struggle to purchase meat with food stamps, it reinforces the fact that costlier plant-based alternatives are only for the affluent.
“SNAP has already fallen short in terms of supporting traditional diets, so adding other non-traditional items may be even more difficult,” she said. “There are a lot of lower-income people who do want to consider non-traditional protein products or meats, but these products are more expensive, and so we have to account for that.”
Lower volumes don’t help the price tag
Courtesy: GFI
Of the plant-based meats, beef substitutes have the smallest premium at 20 percent more per pound than the real thing. That’s because they have been around the longest, relatively speaking — hamburger analogues arrived about 15 years ago. Beef also tends to cost more than other meats (and has been getting pricier as climate change impacts herd sizes), which makes the financial jump to its plant-based versions smaller.
And yet even those who can afford the alternatives seem to be cooling on them amid concerns about their sustainability, nutritional value, and even their taste and texture. The $8.1 billion fake meat industry, which experienced soaring sales during the pandemic as the supply chain for conventional meats collapsed, struggled last year. The industry’s sales volumes dropped 9 percent between 2022 and 2023, with a 2 percent decline in revenue.
Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, manages the Meat Demand Monitor, a database that surveys the meat-buying habits of consumers monthly. The trend he’s seeing suggests that changing eating habits might have something to do with the market decline. In May, plant-based patties held 2 percent of the retail market and 4 percent of the food service market, which is respectively half and a quarter of the market portion they controlled in May of 2021, Tonsor said.
Dwindling volumes don’t help prices, either. Conventional meats are commodities that have been sold at a vast scale for more than a century through a well-established and robust supply chain, with the benefit of government subsidies. All of that keeps costs down.
“Right now, plant-based meat products are not commodities, so that means that plant-based brands tend to sell lower volumes,” said Daniel Gertner, a business analyst at Good Food Institute. “They might, with those lower volumes, in certain cases make higher net profits, but then much of that profit is reinvested into things like overhead, research and development, [and] marketing. With any nascent category, there’s this need to just build the infrastructure from the ground up.”
“The food we’re eating is one-third of global emissions. And if you look at where that comes from, half of it is coming from animal-sourced foods, from livestock. So it’s a huge piece of the emissions puzzle,” said Andy Jarvis, director at the fund.
In an effort to solve that puzzle, the fund has earmarked $100 million toward the creation of three research centers — the first of which opened last month at North Carolina State University — focused on sustainable protein alternatives like plant-based products, precision fermentation, and cultivated meat.
But the largest hurdle to making plant-based proteins a more viable alternative for everyone is the U.S. government’s deep investment in the status quo. Washington spends up to $38 billion subsidizing the meat and dairy industries each year, a move that keeps prices artificially low. Meanwhile, nations around the world have invested a grand total of little more than $1 billion in the alternative protein industry.
“There’s no surprise that it’s not at price parity, when you certainly don’t have a level playing field on the government support,” said Jarvis.
Barring a major federal intervention, one akin to the financial support that catalyzed explosive growth in renewable energy, getting plant-based meats to a point where they can compete with conventional counterparts will take quite some time. Until that happens, it won’t matter if plant-based chicken tastes just like the real thing. Only when it’s more affordable will more people be able to make a major lifestyle change, much like the McClements household once did.
This article by Ayurella Horn-Muller was originally published on Grist. It is republished here as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.
In three days, selling cultivated meat will be a felony in Florida – to celebrate food freedom, though, Upside Foods served its chicken at a pre-ban party in Miami.
On Thursday evening, at a rooftop in Miami, Upside Foods served customers some forbidden chicken.
Forbidden, that is, from Monday, July 1, when Florida’s ban on cultivated meat comes into effect. Announced in May by the liberal-elite-hating mayor Ron DeSantis, the law will make a second-degree misdemeanour to manufacture, transport, commercialise or sell cultivated meat.
“Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere. We’re not doing that in the state of Florida,” said DeSantis.
But just to show Floridians what their state is forcing them to miss out on, Upside Foods took its meat straight to its capital. The pre-ban event featured recipes from Miami chef, restauranteur and TV personality Mika Leon, with drinks from mixologist Gio Gutierrez.
Courtesy: Upside Foods
The tasting was free of charge, which Upside Foods said was the first time cultivated meat has been offered to the public at no cost. This was deliberate. “We wanted to give as many people as possible the opportunity to taste cultivated meat in Florida before it’s banned,” the company’s COO, Amy Chen, told Green Queen.
The first-come, first-served event fed cultivated chicken to around 100 people, giving them the last “taste of freedom” before these novel proteins are officially prohibited in the state.
“The goal of this pop-up event is to provide Floridians with the opportunity to taste cultivated meat before it’s banned,” said Chen. “What’s more, we strongly believe that cultivated meat is an important part of our food future in Miami, Florida, and beyond. This event aims to celebrate and advocate for food freedom, innovation, and Florida’s potential to contribute to a growing industry and help shape the future of food.”
So how did Upside Foods present its chicken? Leon cooked up tostadas with the chicken made a la Plancha con Sazón, topping a corn tostada and accompanying avocado, chipotle crema, beet sprouts, and fresh lime zest.
“Chef Mika leans heavily into her Cuban roots and Miami culinary favourites to create beautiful, delicious, seasonal dishes and honour Caribbean traditions,” said Chen. “For our event, she used that lens to create a variety of vegetarian offerings in addition to her UPSIDE Chicken Tostada with house-made Sazón, avocado, and crema.”
Additionally, her restaurant Caje Caliente also catered some dishes. “Having had the opportunity to work with UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken, I can attest that their products are delicious,” said Leon.
“From appearance to aroma and taste, their products provide the same experience you’d expect from chicken. As a chef, I love the idea of preserving the foods we love while using innovation to figure out ways to create a better future of food,” she added.
What’s next for Upside Foods?
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods/Canva AI/Green Queen
The event was co-hosted by the Brick and Timber Collective, a leading real estate company with properties in Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles. “The state’s ban on cultivated meat is short-sighted and damaging to its tech ecosystem,” said Jesse Feldman, a partner at the firm.
“This policy not only affects cultivated meat but also stifles progress in biotech, life sciences, and other innovative industries that can thrive here. Opposing such policies is crucial to protect Florida and Miami as vibrant tech hubs,” he added.
Upside Foods co-founder and CEO Uma Valeti agreed. “This law disregards food safety experts, limits consumer choice, and stifles American innovation. It’s a setback for progress, job creation, and Florida’s potential in a new industry,” he said. “We believe in a future where everyone has access to delicious food options, and this event is our way of showcasing what’s possible.”
Courtesy: Upside Foods
A host of other states are deliberating restrictions on cultivated meat, from Arizona, Texas and Tennessee in the south, to Nebraska in the midwest and Wisconsin in the Great Lakes. Chen noted that any legislation that “discriminates against cultivated meat” is “disappointing”, whether it’s a ban, defamatory labelling (calling it ‘lab-grown meat’, for example), or research limitations.
“We hope that the Florida legislature will revisit and reverse this legislation in their next session. Either way, these bans are unconstitutional, and we’re confident that the courts will ultimately restore food freedom for Floridians,” she said.
A week after DeSantis signed the bill in Florida, Alabama followed through with its own ban, threatening $500 in fines and up to three months in jail if you manufacture, sell or distribute cultivated meat. This will take effect on October 1. Asked if Upside Foods intends to host a similar public tasting in Alabama, Chen said: “Nothing is planned at the moment.”
Apart from the legislative mess, cultivated meat has also had its fair share of financial challenges, following a steep 75% dip in investment, reaching $226M in 2023. As of Q1 2024, startups in the space have only raised $12M. Upside Foods itself decided to pause construction on the commercial-scale facility it announced in September, laying off some employees to double investment in its existing pilot plant instead.
“The next chapter for us is focused on scale and commercialisation,” Chen said. Hinting at the future, she added: “We’re looking forward to bringing our next-generation products to market, pending regulatory clearance, and are excited that more consumers will have the chance to experience the future of food.”
A group of lawmakers have reintroduced the REAL Meat Act, this time targeting federal investment in the cultivated meat industry.
In the House Representatives, a group of politicians have co-sponsored a bill that would prohibit the US government from investing in cultivated meat.
It is the latest version of the Real Marketing Edible Artificials Truthfully Act – or the REAL Meat Act – which has been introduced by Ohio representative Warren Davidson.
The draft legislation targets cultivated meat, specifically federal support of these proteins. “Fake cell-cultured meat not only poses a health risk to the human body, but it also threatens the livelihoods of America’s hard-working ranchers, livestock farmers, and butchers,” Davidson said in a statement, invoking a familiar rhetoric and escalating the misinformation about the health credentials of cultivated meat.
“Congress must act to ensure US taxpayers are not footing the bill for this inferior, experimental product,” he added.
Bill would prohibit low-income families from accessing cultivated meat
Courtesy: John Minchillo/AP
The REAL Meat Act was first introduced in 2019 by Nebraska senator Deb Fischer, which aimed to mandate the use of the word ‘imitation’ on plant-based meat labels, alongside a statement that indicated the products don’t contain meat. A companion bill was brought in the House by Kansas’s Roger Marshall.
Those bills went nowhere, but the act was reintroduced by Fischer last year. It has since been read twice by the Senate and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Now, Davidson has reintroduced the Real Meat Act in the House, which is controlled by the Republican Party. HR 8757 is supported by eight other lawmakers in the House, all of whom belong to the GOP: Kevin Hern, Matt Rosendale, Greg Steube, Harriet Hageman, Jim Baird, Ronny Jackson, Thomas Massie and Keith Self.
The bill aims to prohibit federal funding for the research and advancement, promotion, advertisement, and production of cultivated meat. If passed, the legislation would also prevent these foods from being part of federal nutrition programmes like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for low-income families.
The REAL Meat Act of 2024 has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture now. It is reminiscent of the Fair and Accurate Ingredient Representation on Labels Act introduced by Marshall earlier this year, which seeks to restrict how alternative protein products are labelled.
Cultivated meat in the election-year culture wars
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods/Canva AI
Davidson’s bill is the latest in a series of legislations and proposals designed to curtail the progress of cultivated meat in the US, which was approved for sale last year after rigorous food safety testing by the FDA and the USDA.
Only last month, Florida became the first state to ban the production and sale of cultivated meat within its borders, a move that was swiftly followed by Alabama a week later. Similar proposals are being debated in Arizona, Wisconsin, Texas, Nebraska and Tennessee.
The general messaging around most of these bills has been one of protecting farmers, though it really serves to protect the interests of the industrial meat sector. It is smallholder farmers that stand to face the most severe impacts of climate change, a global issue foods like cultivated meat – whose emissions, water consumption and land use are fractional compared to conventional meat – are trying to curtail.
These attacks against cultivated meat have ramped up over the last few months, and the timing doesn’t feel coincidental. We’re just over four months from the national election, and alternative protein has become part of the culture wars in American political discourse. The rhetoric surrounding cultivated meat builds on the fact that 15% of US citizens don’t believe climate change is real, and that 74% don’t associate meat with global heating.
The White House has been supportive of cultivated meat. The Biden-Harris administration signed an executive order in 2022 to promote biomanufacturing and biotech, which involved “cultivating alternative food sources”. And last year, alternative proteins were included in chapters from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy in a national biotech report. The USDA, meanwhile, poured in $10M in grants to open the National Institute of Cellular Agriculture at Tufts University.
Even the meat industry has been against bans like the ones issued by Florida and Alabama. The North American Meat Institute, the country’s oldest and largest trade association (representing 95% of the US’s meat output, has argued that such legislation “limits consumer choice” and denies people “access to food options”.
“Some of America’s largest meat companies have been early investors in cultivated meat,” Sean Edgett, chief legal officer at Upside Foods – one of two companies who have commercialised cultivated chicken in the US – told Green Queen after Florida’s ban, calling it a “protectionist policy for entrenched interests” that “violates free market principles and limits consumer choice”.
He suggested Florida’s bill “ignores food safety experts and science, stifles consumer choice, and hinders American innovation”. The same could be said of the REAL Meat Act.
Quorn Foods is entering the blended meat category as part of foodservice and hospital offerings – its CEO Marco Bertacca explains why the mycoprotein giant is doing so.
British meat-free leader Quorn Foods’ mycoprotein will be mixed with conventional meat as part of a new line of blended meat products for foodservice operators, including at the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.
The supplier will provide its fungi-based protein to catering companies, which will combine it with beef and pork to develop staples like burgers and sausages. As part of Quorn’s evolution from a business that sought to “help a few people eat no meat” to one that “helps everyone eat less meat”, the blended meat products will be available before the end of the year.
As first reported by the Grocer, neither the finished products nor the menus will feature the Quorn brand name, instead containing a reference to the use of mycoprotein. The Monde Nissin-owned alternative protein giant’s involvement ends at the supply stage.
Blended meat has been around for a while, and its popularity has risen sharply over the last 12 months, with a host of startups coming up with their own products or providing plant- or fungi-based ingredients to established players in the meat industry.
However, this marks a major shift in the space: Quorn is a legacy brand and the market leader in the UK’s meatless category, but its sales – like the wider industry – have been suffering. To diversify and rejuvenate its offerings, the company launched its Marlow Ingredients division last year to supply mycoprotein to makers of meat and dairy analogues.
Now, it is taking a step further with the blended meat move, aiming straight for the UK’s burgeoning flexitarian population, which accounts for between 14-25% of the total. “If we can bring new people on the meat reduction journey with us, no matter which way they join, then that is only a good thing for the health of people and the planet,” Quorn CEO Marco Bertacca tells Green Queen.
“To create the change the planet needs, we have to find new ways to reduce meat consumption,” he adds, noting that the new blended meat products are “about providing solutions for everyone”.
Quorn’s blended meat holds multi-pronged benefits for the NHS
Courtesy: Department of Health and Social Care
Bertacca argues that the reduction in meat and dairy isn’t happening fast enough, or with enough scale. The UK’s Climate Change Committee says animal consumption needs to be cut by 20% by 2030, although activists are urging as much as a 70% decline.
“Our mycoprotein can help solve two global problems – climate change and human obesity,” he says, suggesting that blended meat is just one example of Quorn’s updated mandate. The idea is to replace 100% core meat items on the menu with the mycoprotein blends.
“We are still in the development stages of our catering partnerships, but we are working with one of the largest catering companies in the world and their production partners, and the opportunity will see us feed millions of consumers every day with these options,” says Bertacca.
A major example is the NHS, the UK’s biggest employer, and one that feeds thousands of patients every day. “The multiple benefits this will deliver: fewer carbon emissions going into the atmosphere, as well as less saturated fat, less cholesterol, and more fibre going into their patients’ and employees’ diets,” he explains. “It is vital that we offer the right choices to patients and staff within a healthcare setting, serving great, nutritious food.”
One modelling study shows that a ‘plant-based by default’ approach could save the NHS £74M annually, with significant household savings too if patients are supported in making dietary shifts. Similar research by the Office of Health Economics estimated that if England were to adopt a completely plant-based diet, the NHS would see a net benefit of up to £18.8B a year.
Targeting flexitarians and contending with the climate
Courtesy: Nectar
A sensory analysis published earlier this week showed that most plant-based products don’t satisfy omnivores (or flexitarians), except for chicken nuggets. But the only product that came within one point in average liking of a conventional burger was the Both Burger by 50/50 Foods, which blends beef with an equal amount of vegetables.
“Taste is a primary purchase driver for all food products. If blended meats can offer better taste profiles for omnivores today, they have a significant role to play in the protein transition,” Caroline Cotto, director of Nectar – which carried out the research – told Green Queen.
“Once upon a time, we were effectively competing with the meat industry – only making products that were alternatives to theirs, and encouraging people to switch. Of course, we still offer these products, but as human knowledge has evolved, businesses are evolving, including ours,” says Quorn’s Bertacca.
“We now find ourselves collaborating to offer less-meat options to consumers who are looking to reduce meat consumption, but not eat vegetarian or vegan meals. This represents the majority of people, and so it is a massive opportunity to decarbonise part of the food system and improve public health,” he adds.
Blended meats can have a sizeable impact on emissions reduction. Research shows that replacing just half of our meat consumption with plant-based can lower agricultural and land use emissions by 31%, and effectively halt deforestation. Australian startup Harvest B, which unveiled its blended meat lineup in April, says its products have a 46% lower carbon footprint than conventional meat.
Quorn says its mycoprotein generates 55 times fewer emisisons than beef, and 13 times fewer than pork. “Serving food to millions of people every day means the scale of the opportunity is huge. This will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of their menus, and so help them achieve their climate targets,” states Bertacca.
“The potential is huge for our customers. We are supporting them by providing Quorn to create lower environmental impact menus than they currently serve.”
Taste credentials could help blended meat – and alternative proteins
Courtesy: Quorn
Earlier attempts – like Tyson Foods’ Raised & Rooted or Aldi’s BBQ Flexitarian Burger – failed to put blended meat on the map. There were multiple reasons behind this: the labelling was all wrong, the taste wasn’t satisfactory enough, and the timing just wasn’t right.
Recent innovations are looking more promising. 50/50 Foods’ Both Burger is now on the menu at Disneyland, Phil’s Finest has been progressing well for years, after finding success on Shark Tank (under its former name Misfit Foods), and Mush Foods’ mycelium-based 50Cut is now part of a blended burger developed by meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda.
One of the most successful products in this space is Perdue Farms’ Chicken Plus range, which combines chicken with The Better Meat Co‘s mycelium meat. “When you look at Perdue’s offering, it talks about getting kids to eat veggies without having to sneak it in. They are clear on their target market – parents who are dying to figure out how to get their kids to eat vegetables – state a clear value proposition, and stay true to the format and offering their target market wants and needs,” Steve Molino, principal at Florida VC firm Clear Current Capital, told Green Queen last year.
Even McDonald’s chicken nuggets technically fall under the blended meat category. “Assuming that blended companies can create products that taste good, it will simply come down to traditional food business fundamentals,” Molino added.
This is what Bertacca alludes to as well. “There have been attempts to make products like burgers and sausages with a blend of meat and plant-based ingredients like soya and pea protein, but the products have not delivered,” he says. “The partners we are working with tell us that Quorn is by far the best meat alternative for this application, because of our unique mycoprotein and its meat-like texture.”
Alternative proteins have had it tough in the last couple of years, with a downturn in investment, a decline in sales, and an uptick in misinformation. Could blended meat renew enthusiasm for the category, and push more people to eat less meat, and eventually more plant-based? That would certainly be Quorn’s goal.
“Yes, the category, like many others, has seen a slowdown, but we must not forget that comes against the backdrop of many consecutive years of incredible growth in meat-free eating,” Bertacca points out.
“Now is the time to start talking about the solutions we can achieve together as an industry, rather than focusing on the challenges.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Little Spoon’s partnership with Oatly, a spate of government investments into alternative proteins, and a Ted Talk about cultivated meat.
New products and launches
US vegan startup Brooklyn Delhi, which makes vegan Indian pantry staples, has debuted at Whole Foods nationwide with four of its products: sweet potato coconut dal, red bean rajma masala, black bean butter masala, and chickpea tikka masala.
Courtesy: Brooklyn Delhi
New York startup Blackbird Foods has released has expanded its range of vegan wings with two new flavours – tangy and smoky Texas BBQ and sweet and spicy Thai Chili.
Also based in New York, kids nutrition brand Little Spoon has unveiled two limited-edition smoothies in partnership with Oatly. The Apple Cinnamon Swirl and Peach Berry Bliss flavours will debut on June 25 on the former’s website.
Califia Farms has launched Complete Kids, a multi-ingredient milk for children featuring 8g of protein per serving from peas, chickpeas and fava beans. It’s available at Target for $5.99.
In more alt-dairy news, Elmhurst 1925 has rolled out a line of cashew creamers, which it describes as an industry-first. Available in sweet cream, cinnamon churro, caramel brûlée and unsweetened flavours, they can be used for coffee as well as cooking applications, and are available on its website and at Sprouts.
Courtesy: Elmhurst 1925
UK vegan artisanal cheese brand Julienne Bruno has launched into Ocado’s flash delivery service Zoom, shortly after its Superstraccia won Gold at the Free From Food awards.
On July 2, US vegan restaurant chain Plant Powered Fast Food will launch a limited-edition American BBQ rib sandwich, The Ribby, across its 10 locations. It features a jackfruit meat patty, BBQ sauce, onions and pickles.
Germany’s Endori has announced that its vegan Chicken Natural product has now been permanently added to the menu of Italian restaurant chain L’Osteria. It means customers can choose to use the pea protein and broad bean chicken as a topping across its 170 restaurants in nine countries.
Fellow German company Rügenwalder Mühle has reformulated its vegan Mühlen Salami, and updated the recipes of its entire salami range to remove methylcellulose.
Courtesy: Made With Plants
And Australian vegan startup Made With Plants has expanded distribution for its plant-based bacon, chicken, ham, and grated mozzarella into more than 500 Coles stores nationwide.
Policy and finance developments
Canadian economic cluster Protein Industries Canada has announced a new project to optimise and use locally grown pea and fava bean protein ingredients, in partnership with Lovingly Made Flour Mills, TMRW Foods and Dutton Farms.
The government of Brussels has awarded a €400,000 ($429,000) subsidy to Maastricht-based plant protein producer Dutch Structuring Technologies, which will use the capital to quintuple production capacity to 1,000 kg per hour.
The Israeli Innovation Authority has invested nearly 1.5M shekels (about $400,000) into microalgae protein maker Brevel, which will support its R&D efforts on its next product, functional lipids for food applications.
Courtesy: Brevel
Another microalgae tech company, France’s Fermentalg, has raised €12.8M ($13.7M) to accelerate sales of its natural colourants and omega-3 ingredients and development of its alternative protein and lipid products., with European precision fermentation leader HuvePharma becoming a reference shareholder.
In more precision fermentation news, Singapore’s National Research Foundation has awarded a $14.8M grant to the city-state’s Illinois Advanced Research Center, an affiliate centre of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US, to develop a Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability.
South African biotech startup Immobazyme has secured R24.5M ($1.35M) to scale up its production capacity for precision-fermented proteins.
UK vegan company Allplants has raised £1.8M ($2.3M) and launched its frozen meals into foodservice through a partnership with leading wholesaler Bidfood.
In Australia, member of parliament Lisa Baker has released a new report recommending the Western Australia government create a working group for food systems transformation, with a focus on supporting alternative proteins through investment, policies and regulation.
Courtesy: Algae Cooking Club
Over in the US, five months since launch, Algae Cooking Club has slashed the price of its algal cooking oil by 20%. It has made its way into over 150 retail stores and experienced sales growth of 50% month-over-month.
Research and manufacturing updates
Cultivated steaks, burgers, tuna and lobsters could replace Sunday roasts and fish and chips on British plates by 2054, according to research by FixOurFood and the University of York for UK grocer The Co-op‘s Responsible Retailing Report.
French extrusion specialist Clextral has introduced a patented Galaxy Texturisation Technology for plant protein extrusion, which can produce softer, more flexible textures for whole-cut meat analogues.
Courtesy: Clextral
Sproudz is new innovation hub established in Bern, Switzerland, which offers startups space and facilities for rent to develop plant-based products. Vegan companies BakeryBakery and Outlawz Food – which helped develop the concept – are already on board.
The Good Food Institute India has released the fourth report in its series of guides for alternative protein companies to navigate the country’s regulatory landscape. This edition focuses on the labelling and display requirements for pre-packaged foods.
Finally, is cultivated meat the future of food? That’s the question Upside Foods co-founder Uma Valeti explores in his Ted Talk for the Ted Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series.
