Category: Alt Protein

June 11, 2025

Everyone Who Tasted Cultivated Meat Opposed A Ban, Finds Tufts Study

4 Mins Read
A study of Upside Foods’ cultivated meat tasting shows what consumers want from these proteins and what they don’t want from their lawmakers.

On June 27, 2024, a California company took a stand against the state of Florida.

Upside Foods, the first startup to be approved to sell cultivated meat in the US, held a public tasting of its chicken at a rooftop in Miami. It was a precursor to what was to come four days later: a statewide ban on these proteins, championed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Since then, five more states have followed suit. Alabama, Mississippi, Montana, Indiana, and Nebraska have all outlawed the sale of cultivated meat, but the public doesn’t seem to be aligned with their leaders on this issue.

In an analysis of Upside Foods’s tasting event, researchers at Tufts University found that cultivated meat is viewed favourably both on a sensory and political scale. Every attendee who was interviewed opposed a ban on these foods, be it Democrats, Republicans, or those with another political inclination.

It comes during a year when the Food and Drug Administration has approved two additional companies to sell cultivated meat in the US, with Mission Barns now awaiting the greenlight from the Department of Agriculture for its pork fat, and Wildtype’s salmon already available in a Portland restaurant.

Courtesy: Upside Foods

How do Americans feel about cultivated meat?

Attendees lining up to taste the cultivated meat spanned all ages, and while most attendees were white or Latinx, people from other ethnic and racial backgrounds were also present. That said, there were roughly twice as many men as women.

They tasted the chicken as part of a tostada created by Caja Caliente owner and TV personality Mika Leon. The cultivated chicken was made a la Plancha con Sazón and accompanied by avocado, chipotle crema, beet sprouts, and fresh lime zest.

Of those interviewed, 73% had a favourable review of the taste, but an equal share called for sensory improvements, mostly in terms of the chicken’s texture. This split opinion. Some found the cultivated meat indistinguishable from conventional chicken, while others found it similar or inferior to plant-based alternatives.

Aside from complaints about a “rubbery” texture, one key concern was the use of fetal bovine serum, which led to “striking and sudden reversals” from acceptance to rejection. “I wish I’d known they use animal ingredients. If I had known, I wouldn’t have tried it. I wouldn’t have eaten it,” said one taster.

Courtesy: Kevin Martin Galante/Upside Foods

Yet others indicated that they’d like to see cultivated meat reach price parity, an effort being accelerated across the industry. These reasons are why, while 80% expressed a willingness to try it again, only a quarter said they would do so regularly, pending further product development.

Interestingly, many attendees wanted to try it in other formats and see if they could cook it themselves. “The skill of a celebrity chef cooking the food was highly salient for respondents and led to caution or hesitation when answering whether what they tried would influence future food decisions,” the study notes in the NPJ Science of Food journal, quoting one attendee who said: “This was definitely cooked by someone who knew what they were doing.”

Democrat or Republican, nobody wants a cultivated meat ban

While Floridians had some words of advice for cultivated meat manufacturers, they had stronger words for the politicians looking to ban the innovation.

“I support innovation and I’m usually a big DeSantis supporter. But I don’t support him on this. I would vote against the ban,” said one attendee. “I feel like the ban is an interesting choice for a state that allegedly supports smaller government,” added another.

For one taste-tester, the ban was “completely based on scare tactics and political nonsense” and set a “really terrible precedent”. “We don’t ban foods in America. That’s not who we are, that’s just not what we do,” they said. “There’s no science behind the ban. It’s nonsense.”

The divergence from traditional party positions, particularly for those identifying as Democratic or liberal (who typically do not oppose government intervention), suggests that cultivated meat “might create new political fault lines defying traditional party stances”, the researchers write.

Miami chef Mika Leon and Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti at the Freedom of Food tasting event in June 2024 | Courtesy: Kevin Martin Galante/Upside Foods

At the same time, the opposition to banning cultivated meat is non-partisan. “Self-identified Democrats, liberals, Libertarians and Republicans aligned on the belief that these technologies and foods should be allowed to progress and that government interference was overreach,” they explain.

“The ban violates ingrained values of freedom for Libertarians, free markets for Republicans, and signifies moving away from progress for societal benefit for Democrats and liberals.”

The study uncovered three theoretical pathways of acceptance: American identity, perceived sensory and cultural values, and the need for transparency and further innovation.

“Cultivated meat companies must prioritise transparent communication that dispels misconceptions and educates consumers about the production process, while avoiding marketing strategies that could provoke a backlash when setting unrealistic expectations,” says the study.

The post Everyone Who Tasted Cultivated Meat Opposed A Ban, Finds Tufts Study appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 11, 2025

Future Food Quick Bites: Oatly Lookbook, Kraft Heinz NotCo & McDonald’s Jackfruit Burger

6 Mins Read
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Oatly’s recipe lookbook, Villareal CF’s tofu seminar, and People Magazine’s plant-based awards.

New products and launches

Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has unveiled a lookbook for the Spring/Summer 2025 season, featuring a range of recipes using its products. Think a maple miso latte, a lacto-fermented blueberry matcha, and a salty banana split.

Courtesy: Oatly

Dutch alternative protein producer Schouten has launched three Taste of the World veggie burgers inspired by Mexican, Italian and Thai cuisines.

McDonald’s Netherlands has re-released the Meatless McKroket two years after it was first launched, with a jackfruit filling made from Fiber Foods‘s PrimeJack ingredient.

Swiss plant-based meat giant Planted has introduced ready-to-eat steak bites in select Coop stores across the nation.

Courtesy: Yellow Sunshine

Yellow Sunshine is a new Swiss brand established by the founders of vegan creamery New Roots, Alice Fauconnet and Freddy Hunziker. It makes lupin protein blocks in plain, garlic and herbs, and pepper-paprika flavours.

While Ferrero has just launched its vegan Nutella in the UK, a new competitor has already emerged. Pip & Nut has released a chocolate-hazelnut spread with a sixth of the sugar content. It retails at Sainsbury’s for £3.50 per 165g hat and £7.65 per 400g tub, before rolling out at Whole Foods Market, Ocado and Amazon.

Spanish football club Villareal CF and the Embassy of Japan in Spain partnered to host a tofu seminar with Somenoya Co, a 163-year-old tofu company from Tokyo.

Courtesy: Yellow Sunshine

In response to the high prices and market volatility of cocoa, German food giant Dr. Oetker has released a carob flour for consumers in Turkey to replace cocoa powder at home.

In more alt-cocoa news, US flour giant Ardent Mills has launched a wheat-based Cocoa Replace product. It can substitute 25% of cocoa powder in baking applications.

Kraft Heinz Not Company has unveiled the latest innovations in its US lineup: a NotMayo Chipotle Squeeze and Kraft NotMac & Cheese Cups.

Courtesy: Kraft Heinz Not Company/Green Queen

US breakfast foods company Purely Elizabeth has rolled out a Protein Oatmeal range in Apple Harvest Crumble, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread and Maple Cinnamon Roll. The vegan products have 10g of protein per serving and retail for $6.49 per 235g pack in supermarkets nationwide,

Also in the US, the Plant-Based Seafood Co‘s Mind Blown brand has reignited its partnership with PLNT Burger to offer its Maryland-style crab cake in a limited-edition Happy Crabby Sandwich for the third year in a row.

Häagen-Dazs Shops, meanwhile, has launched a summer blueberry collection featuring the brand’s first oat milk offering in the US. The Blueberry Lemon Non-Dairy Freeze drink combines its blueberry and lemon sorbet with oat milk and blueberry preserve.

Courtesy: Häagen-Dazs Shops

Plant-based ingredients maker Planteneers has introduced a methylcellulose-free texturiser blend with functional yeast protein for clean-label plant-based meat.

And Israeli startup Alfred’s Foodtech has released dairy-free Gouda slices with 18% protein under its new Alfred’s Deli brand. They come in original and pesto flavours.

Company and finance updates

Danish ingredients firm Feast Foods has ceased operations after failing to secure funding for its yeast extract replacer.

Also in the Nordics, Swedish dairy giant Valio has announced that it will close the Kauhava factory it took over from Raisio by the end of this year, relocating operations to its Joensuu site instead.

Courtesy: Valio

Online grocer Vegan Essentials has been acquired by Fake Meats owners Steven and Kim Skaff, who bought it from fellow retailer PlantX.

British cultivated meat firm Ivy Farm Technologies has appointed Rebecca Wright as chief legal officer, as part of its effort to work with regulators globally to bring its Wagyu beef to market.

US vegan fast-food chain Slutty Vegan has hired entrepreneur, investor and marketer Lauren Maillian as brand president.

Courtesy: Slutty Vegan/LinkedIn

The new owners of the Merit Functional Foods plant in Winnipeg, which went into receivership in March 2023, are not planning to restart it as a plant protein business.

But fellow Canadian company Burcon NutraScience has completed the first production run of its Peazazz C pea protein at its facility in Galesburg, Illinois.

Edinburgh’s Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s FlexBio facility is home to Scotland’s first open-access 300-litre fermenter, which was supported by an £847,000 grant from national agency Scottish Enterprise.

Courtesy: Blue Tribe Foods

As part of its 2025 sustainability initiative, Indian plant-based meat startup Blue Tribe Foods recycled 1,475 kg of plastic in the first quarter of 2025, building on the 2,333 kg it recycled last year.

A bankruptcy judge in Delaware has given vegan sushi chain Planta final approval to secure nearly $5M in financing after resolving comments from its debtor-in-possession.

Venture firm Nordic Foodtech VC has hit its first close of €40M as part of an €80M fund to invest in new technologies for the food and agriculture industry.

Policy, research and awards

Californian precision fermentation leader Perfect Day has asked a District of Columbia court to throw out a lawsuit alleging that it had misled consumers about its animal-free whey products.

Courtesy: Perfect Day

Scotland’s biotechnology sector is celebrating the launch of the country’s first open-access 300-litre fermenter, which has been installed thanks to an £847,000 grant from the national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise.

Also in Scotland, the University of Stirling has developed the Clean Food Consumerism scale to help manufacturers meet evolving consumer preferences for clean-label foods.

Ahead of its Singapore approval, French cultivated foie gras maker Gourmey has joined the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture.

Courtesy: Sherry Hack

In the Philippines, IHG Hotels & Resorts has committed to increasing its plant-based offerings to 30% of all menu items by 2027.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found a way to control the key amino acids responsible for flavour in a bid to get cultivated meat to taste closer to its conventional counterpart.

A study by the Federal University of São Paulo has revealed that 80% of these plant-based meat products in Brazil have good nutritional quality, based on the Nutri-Score indicator. Meanwhile, 73% of vegan alternatives were classed as ultra-processed, much lower than animal-derived meats (92%).

Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen

Beyond Meat, Califia Farms, Whole Moon, Jell-O and Pop & Bottle have won People Magazine‘s food awards for the best plant-based products in grocery stores in 2025.

Finally, animal rights charity Peta has named the 10 most vegan-friendly cities in the US for 2025. The winner is the home of deep-dish, Chicago.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

The post Future Food Quick Bites: Oatly Lookbook, Kraft Heinz NotCo & McDonald’s Jackfruit Burger appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 11, 2025

The 20 Things Plant-Based Brands Should Know About Ultra-Processed Foods

8 Mins Read
UPFs have become public enemy number one, and the plant-based meat sector has been caught in the media crossfire. Here’s everything CPG brands and founders need to know.

There are many explanations for why plant-based meat isn’t selling as well as it used to; among the chief reasons is the growing public concern surrounding ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

Part of the Nova classification developed by a Brazilian research team led by Prof Carlos Monteiro, UPFs are defined as products comprising industrial formulations and techniques like extrusion or pre-frying, and cosmetic substances such as high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils.

So everything from that tub of ice cream in your freezer to the canned soup in your drawer is a UPF. So are the chicken nuggets you eat at McDonald’s, and yes, the Beyond Burger you buy at supermarkets.

Courtesy: Springer

The discourse is shrouded in misleading information, and plant-based meat products have unfairly been categorised in the same group as Coca-Cola, Oreos, Corn Flakes, and Lay’s.

It has ushered in a new era for meat alternatives, as consumers become wary of their perceived negative health impacts simply because they’re UPFs. But as with most things in the food industry, there’s way more than meets the eye.

Here’s what plant-based brands and founders need to know to help navigate this new landscape.

Read Green Queen’s FAQ guide on ultra-processed foods and plant-based meat.

1. Many UPFs are linked to over 32 health conditions and diseases

One study has linked UPFs to 32 harmful health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, and early death. It linked high UPF consumption to a 50% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

2. …and too many people eat too many of them

Another review found that death rates are highest in countries where the population gets the largest percentage of energy calories from UPFs. In the US and the UK, where they make up around 60% of all calories consumed, the research linked 14% of all deaths to these foods.

Graphic by Green Queen

3. But not all UPFs are created equal

A 2023 study argued that some UPFs – like breads and cereals – can be good for you because of their fibre content. Plant-based meats typically contain a high amount of dietary fibre, are free of cholesterol, and are low in saturated fat, sugar and calories, and so are “not associated with risk of multimorbidity” (when someone has two life-threatening diseases at the same time).

4. Media coverage about UPFs vilifies plant-based meat

A widely cited and controversial study based on the UK Biobank linked UPFs to heart disease and early death, and headlines squarely blamed “fake meats” instead of the real culprits – cakes, sugary drinks, and processed meats. In reality, plant-based meat accounted for only 0.2% of all calories eaten in the study.

5. UPF research is misleading consumers about meat alternatives

One review of UPF research suggests that most studies overlook important nuances when it comes to plant-based meat, potentially misleading consumers about the health impact of the latter. “Plant-based meat has a very different nutritional profile from most UPFs, and these metrics do not generally apply to [it],” it said, calling on public health professionals to “challenge misconceptions on processing and plant-based meat”.

Courtesy: Physicians Association for Nutrition/GFI Europe

6. RFK Jr and the MAHA movement are deeply anti-UPF

As part of its Make America Healthy Again crusade, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has been highly critical of UPFs and what he calls “fake meat”. In 2022, he retweeted a story titled ‘The Fake Meat Scam’, which read: “Using strategies to position it as a healthy alternative for natural meat, the industry’s fake meat is just another name for ultra-processed food, full of GE and pesticide-laden ingredients designed to look as much like meat as possible.”

He had vowed to remove UPFs from school lunches if he became health secretary, though later said he wouldn’t call for a ban on these products.

7. Casey Means could spell trouble for UPFs

Wellness influencer and Levels co-founder Casey Means could become the next Surgeon General of the US. Many of her views are aligned with and championed by RFK Jr, including her stance on UPFs. She has advocated putting a warning label on UPFs, and called plant-based meat “toxic sludge”.

8. UPFs are a non-partisan issue in the US

It’s not just the right that has an issue with UPFs. California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order to crack down on these foods, looking into potential actions that can limit the harms associated with them, which could include the use of warning labels on packaging.

Courtesy: Food Integrity Collective/Non-GMO Project

9. There are now certification labels for products free from UPFs and seed oils

The folks at the Non-GMO Project have launched an on-pack Non-UPF Verified label to “address the pervasive dominance of ultra-processed food”. The organisation is conducting a pilot with over 20 brands, working on an initial draft of the label.

In a similar vein, the Seed Oil Free Alliance has rolled out a certification label for products that eschew these fats, just as beef tallow becomes resurgent, thanks to multiple endorsements by RFK Jr.

10. Consumers are wary of UPFs, and they’re voting with their wallets

In Europe, 65% of consumers believe UPFs are unhealthy, and that deters 54% of them from buying plant-based meat. And in the UK, ultra-processing is the second most pressing food concern (after inflation), with 77% of people saying so. Meanwhile, 85% of Americans wanted to avoid UPFs last year, but felt overwhelmed or unsupported in their desire to do so.

This has directly impacted the sales of plant-based meat, which fell by 7% in the US and 9% in the UK in 2024. Industry giant Beyond Meat suffered a blow in the first quarter of this year, with the firm blaming misinformation (among other things) on its 9% decline in revenue.

11. This has led to whole-food plant-based brands gaining market share in the US…

The UPF backlash has breathed life into the whole-food plant-based category. One of the biggest benefactors is Actual Veggies, the New York-based maker of veggie burgers. It raised $7M in a dire fundraising landscape for meat-free firms, doubled its distribution, and saw annual revenues grow by 125% in 2024. Then, it displaced a legacy meatless burger brand at the caterer for some of the biggest companies in the US.

Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

12. ..and in the UK, where CPGs are creating entirely new product formats

The renewed enthusiasm for whole foods has led to the creation of a new kind of plant-based product, blending plants in block-like formats to be used as an alternative to meat alternatives themselves. In the UK, this movement is led by Oh So Wholesome’s Veg’chop and THIS’s Super Superfood, which are taking on both animal proteins and tofu.

13. Plant-based meat brands are pushing back with online health hubs (Impossible Foods)…

To counter the anti-UPF narrative, Impossible Foods launched an online health hub to battle “misleading claims that are reductive, overly simplistic, and oftentimes just plain wrong”, highlighting detailed nutritional information about every ingredient used in its products, alongside side-by-side comparisons with conventional meat and an endorsement by the American Heart Association.

14. …and documentary shorts (Beyond Meat)

Beyond Meat, meanwhile, hit back at the livestock industry with a nine-minute documentary featuring leading medical and nutrition experts”, including Stanford professor Dr Christopher Gardner and renowned dietitian Joy Bauer. One section involved CEO Ethan Brown explaining how its products are made, directly responding to critics of UPFs.

15. Big Food is being sued by a teenager claiming UPFs are addictive

Bryce Martinez, an 18-year-old from Pennsylvania, has sued 11 food corporations – including Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz – for engineering ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to be as addictive as cigarettes. Martinez was diagnosed with fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes when he was 16, allegedly after consuming “harmful levels” of UPFs from these companies.

16. And it’s fighting back with its own content platform…

The Consumer Brands Association, which represents over 2,000 brands and over 60 CPG companies – including Nestlé, Danone, Coca-Cola, Danone, Ferrero, Pepsico, and Mondelēz International – has launched Food Processing Facts, a website designed to serve as a resource for “fact-based information and dispelling myths on food processing and safety”.

17. …and government lobbying

In the UK, the Food and Drink Federation has successfully lobbied against the government’s push to offer discounts on minimally processed and nutritious foods. The body represents Nestlé, Unilever, Mars, Mondelēz International, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Danone, among others.

Courtesy: Wageningen University & Research

18. The maker of Ozempic is swinging big in the UPF fight

Novo Nordisk Foundation, the controlling shareholder in the eponymous pharmaceutical giant, most famous for diabetes and obesity medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and NovoRapid, has funded a research effort to develop the “next generation” of the Nova classification. Experts have strongly criticised the move, raising concerns about a conflict of interest.

At the same time, Novo Nordisk Foundation has provided a grant worth 50 million kroner ($7.6M) to the University of Copenhagen to develop less processed plant-based proteins.

19. Plant-based meat is healthier, according to multiple studies and research reviews…

A health analysis of the nutritional differences between conventional meat and plant-based versions in four European countries found that meat alternatives have lower calories and saturated fat, higher fibre, and largely an equivalent amount of protein.

Similarly, an 11-country study based on internationally recognised nutrition guidelines found that the average nutritional quality of all plant-based meat products analysed was slightly better than animal-derived meat.

20. …and many consumers know it.

Industry leaders like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have been doubling down on the health aspect of their products because they know that, despite all the misinformation, consumers are aware that plant-based food is healthy. It’s something that 50% of Americans believe, according to one survey.

Another recent poll found that 48% of US consumers feel vegan food is healthier, and 36% wanted to eat fewer animal proteins due to personal health concerns.

Amid all the furore over UPFs, there are clear opportunities for brands to showcase their nutritional and health attributes, especially if they deal with products using whole foods and fewer ingredients.

The post The 20 Things Plant-Based Brands Should Know About Ultra-Processed Foods appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 10, 2025

The Rise of Hybrid Dairy: Can It Follow in Blended Meat’s Footsteps?

6 Mins Read
From Kerry’s Smug Dairy lineup to a new Dutch-Danish range of ‘hybrid milks’, could blending cow’s milk with plant-based ingredients be a winning solution?

At Amsterdam’s World of Private Label International Trade Show this week, two companies joined forces to showcase a new range of milk that promises to be more sustainable, without compromising on the flavour of dairy.

Dutch firm Farm Dairy and Denmark’s PlanetDairy introduced a three-strong lineup of ‘hybrid milks’, combining cow’s milk with plant proteins to deliver a 20-30% reduction in emissions.

“Consumers are willing to prioritize sustainable food options, but they refuse to compromise on taste, nutrition, or price,” argued Jakob Skovgaard, co-founder and CEO of PlanetDairy, which entered the category last year through its Audu brand of blended cheese (which combines dairy with coconut oil, potato starch, and pea protein).

“We are targeting dairy lovers who are mindful about the environmental impact of traditional dairy,” Skovgaard added.

It is one of several efforts looking to blend dairy with plant-based ingredients to offer sustainability wins, with Kerry’s Smug Dairy range (combining milk with oats) perhaps the largest-scale example last year. This has dovetailed with the rise in blended meat, which omnivores have come to love and offer significant climate advantages over 100% meat.

Can hybrid dairy match the momentum, both in terms of consumer preference and planetary impact, of blended meat?

Why are brands revving up hybrid dairy?

Courtesy: Jacob Skovgaard/LinkedIn

Hybrid milks are by no means a new solution. Companies in Thailand, for example, have been selling soy milk with small amounts of dairy for years. Danish dairy giant Arla used to sell a dairy-oat milk hybrid at one point, while France’s Triballat Noyal retailed a Pâquerette & Compagnie line with 50% cow’s milk and 50% oats, almonds and hazelnuts. Live Real Milk also introduced 50-50 blends with oats or almonds. All of these have since been discontinued.

The rationale behind these products is threefold and interconnected. Consumers want an all-round nutritional profile with less saturated fat, and they’re concerned about the climate impact of dairy production; at the same time, they don’t universally love the taste of plant-based milk.

Blends seek to meet them halfway. “We expect that this range will become the standard for the ‘flexitarian’ group of consumers,” Arend Bouwer, managing director of Farm Dairy, said of the new hybrid milk offerings.

At the heart of the argument is that plant-based milk remains under-adopted. In the US, for example, only 40% of households purchased these alternatives last year, a four-point decrease from 2023. This trend is true elsewhere, too, with household penetration rates reaching 37% and 35% in Germany and the UK, respectively, Europe’s largest markets for vegan food.

Last year, a poll found that health ill effects were driving Americans to eat fewer animal products like meat and dairy, and many cut back on their purchases of plant-based alternatives because of taste (32%) and price (28%) concerns.

A recent global survey, meanwhile, suggested that among the 38% of people who don’t buy non-dairy products, 58% showcase the potential to switch if certain needs are met. The biggest problem was unsatisfactory taste or texture, which left 57% of consumers resistant to these products, followed by limited availability (55%) and high prices (37%).

At the same time, dairy is resurgent in markets like the UK and the US, with concerns around ultra-processing and nutrition playing a role too. How do consumers feel about hybrid dairy, though?

According to surveys by Mintel in 2022 and 2023, 42% of French consumers found the concept appealing, 56% of Irish respondents said they’d try hybrid cheese, and 26% of Thai citizens expressed interest in hybrid yoghurt.

Replicating blended meat ratios is crucial to hybrid dairy’s success

Courtesy: Smug Dairy

Would hybrid dairy as a concept work the same way as blended meat? The latter products have leveraged either plant proteins, vegetables and/or mushrooms to lower the content of beef and chicken in burgers and nuggets, respectively, with some brands outperforming 100% meat in the eyes of omnivores and flexitarians.

It’s an important lever of the protein transition. Almost all (96%) households that bought plant-based meat and seafood in 2024 also purchased conventional versions, putting flexitarians at the heart of the consumer base. Meanwhile, research shows that even replacing half of your meat consumption can reduce emissions by 31% and water use by 12%, while doubling climate benefits.

The key to these products’ winning mantra – both among consumers and for companies – is the meat-to-plant ratio and the pricing. Can hybrid dairy replicate those features while retaining the flavour?

Danone has found success here. Its Dairy & Plants Blend was described as an industry-first baby formula and, crucially, contains 60% plant protein. This indicates the importance of having a higher share of plants, which can offer better health outcomes.

All of this may turn out better for the future of the planet. Kerry’s Smug Dairy range largely focuses on dairy – its blended milk only contains 25% of plant-based ingredients, rising to 30% for its Cheddar and 25% for the block butter. The only offering with an equivalent amount of plants is its spreadable butter, which happens to be the range’s most climate-friendly product, offering 54% lower emissions than its conventional counterpart.

Dairy accounts for around 4% of global emissions, twice as high as the aviation industry. So minor cuts – like the 18% reduction achieved by the Smug Dairy milk – won’t do much to really move the needle.

Hybrid dairy isn’t more economical yet

Courtesy: Tesco

There’s another major barrier for hybrid dairy products: the price tag. The Smug Dairy butter retails for £9.38 per kg, higher than the £7 its Kerrymaid dairy spread costs in the UK. What’s even more striking is the cost difference with plant-based counterparts (which are often knocked for their high prices). The hybrid butter is more than twice as expensive as the dairy-free spreadable butter sold by Kerry’s Pure brand (for £4.30 per kg).

There isn’t much difference between Smug Dairy’s other products and their 100% vegan counterparts. Its hybrid Cheddar block is only 36p cheaper per kg than Cathedral City’s dairy-free version, and its oat-dairy milk costs only 5p less than Alpro’s oat milk (and 15p less than its barista milk).

For price-conscious consumers, this is hardly a win. So for hybrid dairy to succeed, undercutting the price significantly from fully plant-based products is the only way to justify the currently high ratios of dairy-to-plants.

Farm Dairy and PlanetDairy know this and are targeting price parity for their new range. “By offering a retail price and taste comparable to traditional dairy, we believe we can reach a wider consumer base,” said Skovgaard.

Product formats are important too. A recent poll found that consumers are most receptive to hybrid yoghurts and ice creams, and least interested in beverages and milk alternatives. Moreover, they prefer coconuts and cashews more than other plant-based ingredients for these applications, which are yet to make their way into brand portfolios.

Will consumers take to hybrid dairy the way they have blended meat? Only if it delivers more substantial benefits than it currently does – on their wallet, on the planet, and on their own health.

The post The Rise of Hybrid Dairy: Can It Follow in Blended Meat’s Footsteps? appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
June 10, 2025

Regulatory Approvals for Cultivated Meat Will Bring Investors Back, Predicts Simple Planet CEO

7 Mins Read
Along with its upcoming fundraise, Simple Planet is about to submit dossiers in South Korea and Singapore for regulatory approval – a feat its CEO says will make cultivated meat resurgent.

Despite continued declines in funding and escalating political challenges, regulatory progress shows that cultivated meat can weather the storm, according to the CEO of one major industry player.

Funding for cultivated meat startups shrunk by 75% in 2023, and another 40% last year, just as politicians in Italy, Florida, Alabama, and now Mississippi have banned the sale and production of these proteins. The industry, meanwhile, continues to face major headwinds due to high R&D costs, scaling difficulties, and the macroeconomic landscape.

“However, as more bio-food tech companies gradually receive regulatory approvals from various countries, we remain optimistic that the cultivated meat sector will continue to expand, leading to a resurgence in investment and funding,” says Dominic Jeong.

He is the co-founder and CEO of Simple Planet, a South Korean food tech startup that is taking a unique approach to cultivated meat. It produces cell-cultured ingredients like proteins (specifically, amino acids) in powder and paste formats, and omega-3 fatty acids in the form of an oil and a paste.

Graphic by Green Queen

The firm – which is prioritising beef, chicken, and fish from its suite of 13 cell lines – is preparing regulatory dossiers for food safety authorities in South Korea and Singapore, aiming to file them within the first half of this year. It means its products could come to market in 2026, given the timeline of approvals in each country.

“We are initially working on a muscle-derived cell line. This cell line will be submitted for regulatory approval upon completion of the necessary application data,” Jeong tells Green Queen.

Simple Planet also has an eye on Thailand and Indonesia, and is amplifying its presence in the Middle East and North America. These efforts will be helped by its upcoming bridge loan worth $10M, Jeong notes.

“It’s a complex time for cell-based food globally, particularly in funding and regulation,” Jeong says. “With investors becoming more cautious, having a clear path to market and a scalable business model is more important than ever. At Simple Planet, we’ve stayed focused on efficiency, partnerships, and long-term viability.”

The company has already raised $8M from investors, in addition to an $8M government grant it received as part of a food security project last year. The new funding, the CEO says, will primarily be used to drive commercialisation, establish an industrial production facility, and expand Simple Planet’s business operations.

Simple Planet’s multi-pronged path to market

Courtesy: Simple Planet

Simple Planet is producing a lyophilised cell powder with 16 times more protein than whey. “The powder has the potential to effectively substitute the whey protein currently used in Formula 75 (F-75) and Formula 100 (F-100), which are therapeutic milk formulations designed for the treatment of severe malnutrition,” explains Jeong.

“We are actively engaged in efforts to replace whey protein in these products to provide a reliable and effective source of protein nutrition.”

In addition to these ingredients, it has unveiled Balboa Kitchen, a healthy snacking brand featuring ready-to-eat granola, functional snacks, and “other clean-label products” made from the cell-based ingredients.

“We’re planning to enter global markets this year, starting with Southeast Asia and Japan, where demand for Korean-made healthy food continues to grow,” reveals Jeong.

Meanwhile, Simple Planet’s patented serum-free culture medium replaces fetal bovine serum with probiotic-derived metabolites, slashing costs by over 99.8% and addressing key ethical concerns. “Our serum-free culture media is aimed at research labs and biotech startups, particularly those working on cell-based food. We’re leveraging our network to support innovation across the industry,” he says.

Since its innovations are ingredients rather than fully formed products, a direct comparison with the cost of conventional meat is not an appropriate measure, Jeong argues. “However, the initial cost per kilogram is comparable to that of conventional meat, while the protein content per unit weight is significantly higher. As production scales up to industrial levels, the cost is expected to decrease significantly,” he explains.

“Our scale of production is using 1,000-litre bioreactors, and the capacity goal of ingredient production is a maximum of 3.2 tonnes per month,” he adds. “Our facility is currently in the process of obtaining GMP [Good Manufacturing Practice] certification, which will ensure that our production is conducted in a highly controlled, contaminant-free environment.”

Simple Planet is targeting CPG players with the cultivated protein and fat. “We aim to produce at scale and collaborate with food conglomerates to enhance the nutrition of their products. These ingredients are highly versatile and can be applied to snacks, beverages, ready meals, and more,” says Jeong.

“We’ve already completed successful proof-of-concepts with major Korean players like Nongshim and CJ, developing more nutritious versions of products like instant noodles and gyoza.”

Several projects underway to advance cultivated meat

Courtesy: Simple Planet

The purpose of the bridge funding is fourfold. Simple Planet will aim to set up a large-scale production plant, establish strategic partnerships for product integration with food and beverage companies, expand its presence in global markets while pursuing regulatory approval, and hire top biotech, food science, and commercialisation experts to help execute these goals.

In the meantime, it has embarked on several projects to advance its path to market. One of these is a proof-of-concept collaboration with a “global food conglomerate” to explore how its ingredients can enhance the taste and nutrition of its products across the food, beverage, supplement and wellness categories.

“We are also exploring ways to support Indonesia’s national priority programme for free nutritious meals, working with local partners to contribute to sustainable and accessible nutrition solutions,” says Jeong.

In February, Simple Planet announced it was collaborating with Chulalongkorn University’s Halal Research Center in Thailand to integrate Halal standards into its manufacturing practices. After the startup initiated discussions and shared data on its technology, the Korean Muslim Federation issued a fatwa confirming that cultivated meat can be consumed by Muslims if it meets certain criteria.

In addition, the company is working with the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and Thailand’s National Food Institute to advance the development of cell-cultured ingredients. And the startup has signed an MoU to partner with the newly announced cultivated meat research centre in Uiseong County.

“For Simple Planet, government approval and halal certification are top priorities,” says Jeong. “We work closely with halal authorities and food regulators to ensure our serum-free, halal-compliant cell culture medium meets industry standards.”

Cultivated meat needs ‘stronger government support’

Courtesy: GFI APAC

Simple Planet has been engaging with regulators across key markets, including the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (which established a novel food framework in 2024 and is expected to greenlight an application from local startup CellMeat soon). Further, it’s working with the Singapore Food Agency and the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) in Indonesia.

“In Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore, there is increasing interest in alternative proteins as part of national food security and sustainability initiatives,” says Jeong. “Singapore has led the way with a regulatory framework, while other countries are actively developing policies on food safety and halal compliance.”

He calls for “stronger government support” in regulation, research, and halal certification, which is crucial to unlocking the full potential of cultivated meat in mainstream markets.

So far, cultivated meat has been cleared to be sold in Singapore (from two startups), the US (four), Israel, the UK, Hong Kong, and (preliminarily) Australia and New Zealand (one each). Despite all the turmoil in the sector, three approval decisions have come this year. Regulators in the EU, Switzerland, Thailand and South Korea are assessing applications too.

“Regulatory progress varies widely – countries like Singapore and the US are moving forward, while others are still developing frameworks. This creates uncertainty, but also opportunities to help shape the conversation,” says Jeong.

“Europe remains cautious about the commercialisation of cell-based food, although some products have entered the market as pet food. This might be an early sign that Europe may gradually open up to cultivated meat in the future,” he adds. Even in Singapore and Israel, challenges remain in terms of standardisation, market access, and regulatory consistency.

But he indicates that the wave of approvals over the last 18 months is a sign of good things to come after a period of turbulence: “These hurdles appear to be part of the natural progression of introducing a new technology to consumers, and we believe they will be resolved in the near future.”

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June 9, 2025

Portugal’s PFx Biotech Raises €5M for Precision-Fermented Human Milk Proteins

4 Mins Read
Portuguese startup PFx Biotech has secured €2.5M in seed funding, matching a recent EU grant for its recombinant human milk proteins.

Making breast milk alternatives from yeast, Porto-based firm PFx Biotech has bagged €2.5M ($2.85M) in funding from investors, months after securing a €2.5M ($2.6M at the time) grant from the EU.

The round was led by Buenavista Equity Partners, alongside the EU food innovation body EIT Food and Beta Capital. They join early investors in the startup, such as Biotope Incubator, Big Idea Ventures, and Pascual InnoVentures.

It takes the food tech startup’s total raised to €5M, following the grant from the EIC Accelerator, which backed 71 companies in its latest cohort.

“We believe PFx Biotech is one of the few companies with the scientific depth, technical execution, and visionary leadership required to make precision fermentation commercially viable at scale,” said Bibi Sattar Marques, partner at Buenavista Equity Partners.

Making human lactoferrin from yeast

Courtesy: PFx Biotech

Founded in 2022 by CEO Ali Osman, COO Harry Barraza and R&D head Diana Oliveira, PFx Biotech uses precision fermentation to produce a range of human milk proteins for the advanced nutrition market. The technology combines traditional fermentation with the latest biotech advancements to produce compounds of interest.

To do so, it provides the genetic information of milk proteins to proprietary strains of microbes, developed to be capable of secreting high yields of the proteins. They’re then supplied with water, sugar and other nutrients in a bioreactor, where they produce high amounts of protein under the right conditions. These are then collected as pure proteins and sold as ingredients.

The proteins are structurally and functionally identical to those found in breast milk, and can be used across multiple applications. They can help reduce allergy risks and provide optimal nutrition to babies, boost immunity, bone health and muscle mass in elderly consumers, enhance performance and recovery in athletes, and offer nutraceutical benefits and general wellness across demographics.

PFx Biotech is starting with lactoferrin, a whey protein found in human milk and bovine colostrum. It’s an iron-regulating ingredient that strengthens the gut and possesses antibacterial and anti-carcinogenic properties. The protein is “key in human immune system regulation, from birth to death”, a company spokesperson explained.

However, lactoferrin isn’t easily available. It takes at least 10,000 litres of milk to produce just 1kg of purified lactoferrin, driving costs up to $750-$1,500 per kg in retail. It’s why a majority of the lactoferrin supply is reserved for the infant nutrition sector.

By producing it in bioreactors via a scalable and repeatable process, companies can overcome the supply bottleneck. And the high costs of conventional lactoferrin make what is otherwise an expensive technology more viable. It’s why a number of startups are using precision fermentation to produce either bovine or human lactoferrin, including TurtleTree, All G, Helaina, De Novo Foodlabs, Noumi and Triplebar.

Only the first two have received regulatory clearance to commercialise their animal-free lactoferrin: TurtleTree in the US, and All G in China and the US.

PFx Biotech working on other human milk proteins too

Courtesy: PFx Biotech

Human lactoferrin isn’t the only protein under development at PFx Biotech. The firm told Green Queen that its technology platform can be “adapted to produce” bovine lactoferrin as well. Additionally, it is working on alpha-lactalbumin and osteopontin.

The former accounts for up to a quarter of the protein content in breast milk and plays a key role in providing essential nutrients to the infant, including amino acids and bioactive peptides. The latter, meanwhile, boosts immunity, intestinal and brain development, and gut health in infants.

In adults, alpha-lactalbumin improves sleep, aids in cognitive resilience, and relieves stress, while osteopontin has been shown to bolster bone health and regulate the body’s inflammatory response.

PFx Biotech was the winner of the Most Innovative Nutraceutical Ingredient category at Vitafoods Europe 2025’s Startup Challenge last month, and with the latest capital injections, it’s aiming to accelerate its path to commercial readiness.

“This is a defining moment for PFx Biotech,” said Osman. “We’re proud to be backed by mission-aligned investors to help us unlock the potential of lactoferrin in a more sustainable nutrition model.”

He added: “As we enter this new growth stage, we are actively exploring strategic collaborations across R&D, scale-up, and go-to-market opportunities.”

Other precision fermentation players working on human milk proteins include All G, Helaina, Better Dairy, Yali Bio and The Live Green Co.

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June 9, 2025

A Quarter of Americans Are Limiting Meat – But Plant Proteins Still Don’t Do It for Them

5 Mins Read
In the US, 24% of consumers are cutting back on meat this year, but enthusiasm for plant-based alternatives remains low – here’s why.

Americans may have spent more on meat last year than ever before, but nearly a quarter (24%) of them are limiting their intake this year.

While this share is lower than the 29% who were cutting out meat in 2022, it still represents a two-point increase from 2024. The shift is being led by women, baby boomers, and low-income Americans, according to a survey of over 1,500 consumers.

In a report published in collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America, Food for Climate League, and the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, research firm Dataessential found that men, Gen Zers and millennials are among the demographics least likely to put less beef on their plates.

Courtesy: Dataessential

While interest in plant-based eating remains, it has largely dipped from 2023 levels. Only 19% will intentionally choose animal-free dishes when dining out this year (versus 27% in 2023), for example. Instead, the focus is more on reduction over complete replacement – 37% of Americans plan to order meat dishes mixed with plants from restaurants (think a burger made from beef and mushrooms).

People are also much more likely to order meals with whole ingredients like beans and legumes (28%) than those with vegan meat alternatives (17%), though both these options are less appealing than they were two years ago.

“Consumers overwhelmingly trust whole foods – nuts, legumes, and grains – over processed plant-based meat alternatives,” the 2025 edition of the Plant-Forward Opportunity report reads. And while red meat is losing ground, animal protein sources are still rated by most Americans as “the highest-quality sources of protein”.

Plant proteins low on Americans’ priority list

Courtesy: Dataessential

The research shows that Americans are enamoured by protein, especially poultry, which is consumed by 90% of the population. Dairy and eggs aren’t far behind, while red meat intake is also high at 86%. In contrast, the most consumed plant-based protein sources are nuts and seeds (77%), followed by whole grains (62%) and legumes (57%).

Plant-based meat is way down the list, with only 23% of Americans eating products like the Impossible Burger. Even fewer (21%) eat tofu and tempeh, and seitan is at the bottom of the list, appearing on the table of only one in eight Americans.

Men are significantly more likely to be eating red meat and protein supplements, but also vegan meat alternatives and tofu. Plant proteins are most appealing to millennials, but Gen Z is the least likely generation to regularly consume poultry, seafood, legumes, nuts, or meat analogues.

Interestingly, those who limit meat are really only cutting back on red meat. And here, too, plant-based foods are much less popular than animal protein. Around 60% of meat reducers eat tofu, tempeh and meat alternatives at least weekly, compared to 86% who say the same for poultry.

There’s one simple reason for this: Americans think animal proteins are the best way to pump up their macros. Between 85% and 90% rate beef, eggs and chicken as high-quality protein sources, much higher than tofu (41%) and plant-based meat (36%).

The data highlights a gap in consumer education here, given that many Americans have a “misguided” perception that vegetables contain more protein than whole grains, legumes, soy, and meat analogues.

Familiarity and taste the biggest plant-based opportunities for restaurants

Courtesy: Dataessential

According to Dataessential, many consumers still hesitate to order plant-forward meals at restaurants. And while there are a number of roadblocks, by far, how they taste is at the top of the list, with 45% of Americans dissatisfied with the flavour of such dishes.

Satiety is also high on the list, as 28% report feeling hungry just two to three hours later. A similar share of diners (27%) don’t think vegetables and plant-based ingredients are worth the money they pay. For a quarter of consumers, not getting enough protein was a major concern too.

Meanwhile, around one in five feel plant-based foods are too processed and that restaurants don’t have enough exciting meat-free options.

“Among consumers who do express some level of concern about plant-based restaurant dining, boomers are held back primarily on the taste of plant-based offerings, while Gen Z and millennials are more likely to express a wider variety of concerns, from protein content and energy provision to cost and visual appeal,” the report states. That said, younger consumers are also the most open to being swayed, as there are many strategies to do so.

Courtesy: Dataessential

Restaurants that highlight familiar flavours or offer samples of plant-forward dishes stand to gain the most ground, as these would sway 44% and 38% of consumers, respectively. Likewise, 30% of Americans would try these options if they were in dishes they know or love, or in a familiar format (like pizzas, sandwiches or burritos).

If they knew all the ingredients, or if the ingredients used were simple, a quarter would find plant-based dishes on the menu appealing. Cost is another factor, especially relative to animal proteins – 21% of Americans would choose plant-forward meals if they’re cheaper or offered at a discount to meat-based dishes. However, its importance is down by five points compared to 2023.

“While craveable, well-loved flavours remain the most effective way to drive plant-forward ordering, consumers in 2025 are increasingly motivated by value and service-driven strategies – and less by sustainability or local sourcing messages compared to 2023,” the report suggests.

“Operators should instead highlight what diners gain from choosing plant-forward options – whether it’s added value through combos and meal deals, familiar and satisfying formats like pizza or burritos, or trusted cues like chef and server recommendations. The key is to make plant-forward feel like the better, more exciting choice, not just the cheapest one,” it adds.

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June 6, 2025

Vegdog: German Plant-Based Dog Food Firm Raises $10M After Sales Grow by 66%

4 Mins Read

Munich-based vegan pet food startup Vegdog has raised €9M ($10.2M) in Series A funding to expand its European presence, after seeing sales hike by 66% in 2024.

While startups working on alternative proteins for humans continue to face fundraising hurdles, those targeting our furry friends are enjoying more success.

Vegdog, known for its wide range of vegan dog food and supplements, has secured €9M ($10.2M) in a Series A round led by the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF VC) and existing investor the Green Generation Fund.

Angel investors Dominique Locher, Attollo SA, and Andrea Skersies, financing platform Select Alternative Investments, and existing shareholder SFO also participated in the round, which took the decade-old company’s total raised to $13.7M.

The investment will be used to expand Vegdog’s footprint across Europe, and comes on the back of a highly successful year for the business, where it reached €10M ($11.4M) in sales in 2024 (a 66% rise from the previous year). Now, it is aiming to achieve a growth rate of up to 80% in the coming years.

Vegdog looks to conquer Europe with the fresh capital

Courtesy: Vegdog

Founded by Tessa Zaune-Figlar and Valerie Henssen, Vegdog’s lineup includes both dry and wet food, snacks, and dietary supplements, which use ingredients like pea protein, lentils, and vegetables. They’re developed in collaboration with veterinarians to ensure high nutritional quality.

Last year, it teamed up with fellow German food tech startup MicroHarvest to roll out Pure Bites, a line of dog treats made from the latter’s biomass-fermented microbial protein.

Its products are available via its website and Amazon in Germany and Austria, as well as Futterhaus, Zoo&Co, and DM Drogerie stores. During Veganuary, they were listed in Aldi Suisse and Hofer in Austria too.

This year, Vegdog is planning to double its workforce, as part of its planned expansion into the entire German, Austrian and Swiss region, as well as the Netherlands. It has a wider European rollout earmarked for 2026.

“Our vision is a world in which healthy dog nutrition is no longer at the expense of other animals or the environment. This financing round enables us to accelerate innovation and growth,” said Henssen, who is co-CEO of the company alongside Zaune-Figlar. “The bigger Vegdog is, the greater our impact on dog health and animal welfare.”

Vegdog says it will use the capital to refine its production process, scale its operations across Europe, and explore new blends that address diverse dietary needs across different canine breeds and life stages.

“As consumer demand for ethical and environmentally friendly products rises, VEGDOG is well-positioned to challenge the status quo for the European pet food industry,” said Mathias Brink Lorenz, investment director at ECBF.

Pet food bucks the alternative protein trend

Courtesy: Vegdog

The investment in Vegdog contrasts with what has otherwise been a tough landscape for plant-based food companies, which raised 64% less money in 2024 than the year before.

That said, alternative pet food has enjoyed a fruitful 12 months. The British Veterinary Association has ended its long-standing objection to plant-based dog food, while studies have shown that vegan food is the most effective measure to cut the climate footprint of cats and dogs.

Meanwhile, the UK became the first country where consumers could buy cultivated meat for their cats and dogs off the shelves, while Germany’s Marsapet rolled out a kibble product for dogs using Calysta’s gas-fermented FeedKind protein in Europe.

British vegan pet food maker The Pack was acquired by Prefera Petfood, and fellow London-based startup Omni saw sales shoot up by 130% with 20,000 new customers in the three months after securing an investment from Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden on Dragons’ Den.

Elsewhere, one US startup has conducted feeding trials in pursuit of regulatory approval in the US, and California’s Friends & Family Pet Food Co has inked two deals to launch stateside and in Singapore.

And last month, Meatly made several breakthroughs to dramatically lower the costs of its cultivated chicken for pets, and BioCraft Pet Food revealed that its mouse meat generates 92% fewer emissions than conventional beef.

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June 6, 2025

Australian Lawmakers Get A Taste of the Future at Cultivated Meat Tasting in Parliament

4 Mins Read
Australian cultivated meat startup Magic Valley held a tasting for politicians in the New South Wales parliament last week.

Just months before cultivated meat makes it onto restaurant menus in Australia, some of the country’s policymakers got a taste of it themselves.

In the New South Wales parliament last week, politicians were treated to cultivated lamb meatballs and pork dumplings from Melbourne startup Magic Valley. And they were impressed.

“It was delicious,” said Alex Greenwich, an independent representative for Sydney. “This type of meat is guilt-free: no animal cruelty, no deforestation, and saves water and CO2 emissions,” he added, a nod to lamb’s status as the third most polluting food product (after beef and dark chocolate).

The tasting event came months after the firm received an A$100,000 ($63,000) injection from the federal government to transition from research to commercial production of its cultivated meat.

Cultivated meat as an economic opportunity for Australia

Courtesy: Magic Valley

The tasting was held at the parliament’s Rooftop Garden, attended by 17 politicians and ministers, including state treasurer Daniel Mookhey and innovation minister Anoulack Chanthivong. The dumplings were served with chilli oil and chilli crisp, and the meatballs featured a classic marinara sauce.

Magic Valley’s technology eschews fetal bovine serum and leverages induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). It takes a small sample of skin cells from a living animal, which are expanded and turned into iPSCs, which in turn can be converted into muscle and fat.

The cells are grown in a bioreactor, in a mixture of water, amino acids, and other nutrients. They’re harvested after a few weeks and turned into meat products. These can be made over and over again from the original cell sample, since the iPSCs can grow in an unlimited way.

According to the startup, its process can reduce emissions by 92%, land use by 95%, and water use by 78% compared to conventional meat.

The event came a year after it held a public tasting for its cultivated pork, serving it as part of baos at John Gorilla Café in Brunswick, Victoria. Magic Valley has also hosted a televised tasting on Australia’s Channel 7 network and appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Australia.

Highlighting why it was important for politicians to try it, founder and CEO Paul Bevan said that the event was about more than just food. “It’s about jobs, technology, and positioning Australia as a leader in one of the world’s fastest-growing industries,” he said.

Emma Hurst, a representative of the Animal Justice Party who hosted the tasting, concurred: “There is a real economic opportunity for New South Wales and indeed Australia to become a leader in the production, sale and export of cellular agriculture and to be part of this worldwide shift in the food system.”

Government support is critical ahead of cultivated meat debut

Courtesy: Magic Valley

Magic Valley expanded into a new pilot facility at bio-innovator and incubator Co-Labs in 2023, which can house bioreactors with a capacity of up to 3,000 litres, allowing it to potentially produce 150,000 kgs of cultivated meat annually.

As of now, it is raising capital to build its first manufacturing facility in the country, an effort backed by the A$100M grant from the government’s Industry Growth Program. The company is eligible for up to $5M in funding through the initiative.

“With support from both government and private investors, we can build advanced facilities, create regional employment, and export high-tech protein to the world,” said Bevan.

New South Wales is already home to one of the world’s leading cultivated meat startups. Vow, based in Sydney, makes cultured quail and foie gras, which have been on the market in Singapore since last year.

In April, the firm received preliminary approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) for its quail product. With the final green light from ministers expected in June, Vow will debut its cultivated meat at “high-end restaurants and elevated fast-casual concepts” in Australia, before rolling out in retail later in the year.

These developments coincide with a decline in meat consumption among Australians, 42% of whom are either reducing or not eating animal protein at all. But a 2023 survey of Australians and New Zealanders found that 74% weren’t familiar with cultivated meat, while only 24% would readily incorporate it into their diets (and 48% said they wouldn’t do so).

Research has also found that when it comes to alternative protein policies, Australia ranks bottom of the list of the 10 most supportive governments in Asia-Pacific. So public tasting events and government support are key to building awareness and advancing the industry.

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June 6, 2025

Arkeon, A Startup Turning CO2 Into Protein, Files for Insolvency

4 Mins Read
Austrian biotech firm Arkeon, known for its gas fermentation technology to make proteins from air, has filed for insolvency.

Vienna-based gas fermentation firm Arkeon has filed for insolvency, a marker of the investment and financial challenges facing the alternative protein sector.

The startup upcycled carbon into amino acids, helping industries decarbonise while producing valuable proteins that aren’t a threat to the planet.

In a LinkedIn post this week, co-founder and CEO Gregor Tegl confirmed that the firm had formally filed for insolvency. “While this is a difficult moment, I am incredibly grateful for everyone who believed in our vision for sustainable protein production via gas fermentation,” he wrote.

An expensive technology with high investment needs

Courtesy: Arkeon

Gas fermentation involves feeding microbes on gases like carbon dioxide instead of sugars to produce high-value ingredients, such as fuels, proteins, and chemicals.

Arkeon, founded in 2021 by Tegl, Simon Rittmann and Günther Bochmann, lowered the excess levels of CO2 in the atmosphere by capturing the gas from industrial emissions. It converted the gas into food using archaea, microorganisms said to be highly efficient and capable of producing viable and variable proteins.

The microbial fermentation results in the secretion of all 20 proteinogenic amino acids to power what the company described as “carbon-negative, clean-label functional ingredients”.

The process eschews the need for agriculture, land or animals, reduces waste gases, decarbonises heavy industries, and can play a part in tackling food security. That said, the technology, equipment and raw materials aren’t cheap, and the process isn’t easy to scale.

Arkeon opened a pilot plant in Seestadt in July 2023, and has secured more than $13M from investors including Square One Foods, Synthesis Capital, ICL, and ReGen Ventures. But this is a fraction of the capital raised by other companies turning gases into food or feed.

For example, Air Protein (a spinoff of California’s Kiverdi) has attracted $107M to date, Calysta has brought in around $172M, NovoNutrients has secured $27M, and Finland’s Solar Foods has received $79M (with additional government funding for its facilities).

Most of this capital was raised before 2023, when money was cheaper and investors more interested in alternative protein technologies. The sector suffered from a 44% dip in funding in 2023, followed by a further 27% fall last year. Investment in the overall climate tech sector also declined by 38% in 2024, as venture capitalists flocked to artificial intelligence instead.

Graphic by Green Queen

Alternative protein businesses in a whirlwind

These challenges have hit future food companies hard. Over the last year, seafood burger company Akua, plant-based startup Sunfed Meats, vegan cheesemaker Willicroft, cultivated meat firm SciFi Foods, and animal-free heme maker Motif Foodworks have all ceased operations.

Fermentation player Mycorena, meanwhile, filed for bankruptcy before being rescued by Naplasol, and plant-based ready meal maker Allplants sold off its assets to Grubby and the founders of Deliciously Ella. Mark Cuban-backed vegan pet food startup Wild Earth has also filed for bankruptcy.

Mycelium meat leader Meati, meanwhile, last month filed documents suggesting that it’s set to be sold for $4M weeks after a bank unexpectedly swept most of its cash reserves due to a technical default. The firm has raised $450M to date and was valued at $650M in 2022.

Even giants like Beyond Meat and Oatly have struggled. The former suffered a “disappointing” Q1 where sales slipped by 9%, shortly after it suspended its operations in China (it did receive a $100M loan to help wipe off its debt). The latter shut its Singapore factory in late 2024 after a few years of turbulence.

Courtesy: Beyond Meat

And last week, the co-founder of French plant-based meat maker Swap stepped down as CEO after the company reportedly posted a turnover of just €1M ($1.1M) in 2024. It is now being helmed by former Mondelēz and Pierre Martinet executive Hervé Salomon, who would need to spearhead its efforts to raise €9M ($10.2M) by year-end, and nearly €30M ($34.1M) by the end of 2026.

All of this to say, it isn’t easy being a future food founder or company in 2025. Still, Arkeon’s Tegl remains optimistic. “Although Arkeon’s journey has come to an end, my belief in the potential of sustainable biotechnologies remains as strong as ever,” he said.

“Every failure teaches us something new, and the lessons we’ve learned about scaling our technology, engaging with stakeholders, and navigating regulatory landscapes will stay with me as I move forward.”

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June 6, 2025

California Sets Up Special Committee to Drive Alternative Protein Innovation

4 Mins Read
Home to a host of leading future food startups, California has established a special committee to advance innovation in the alternative protein sector.

While several states in the US are banning (or hoping to ban) cultivated meat from being sold within their borders, some are doubling down on their commitment to supercharge the future food industry.

Among those is California, which last month established the Assembly Select Committee on Alternative Protein Innovation to boost the state’s position as a leader in sustainable food systems.

The special committee is being chaired by Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San José, who was instrumental in California’s $5M investment in alternative protein research in 2022.

Why California is betting on alternative proteins

Beyond Meat is one of a number of alternative protein leaders hailing from California | Courtesy: Beyond Meat

In the US, select committees are established by the Senate for a limited time, and tend to be investigative rather than legislative in nature. These committees may or may not be given the authority to report legislation to the chamber.

California’s alternative protein committee will focus on efforts to support all pillars of the alternative protein sector, including plant-based proteins, fermentation-derived foods, and cultivated meat.

It will begin by organising information hearings to determine how California can expand its alternative protein economy while aligning with its climate and sustainability goals. “This committee is about more than just boosting a promising sector of our economy,” Kalra said. “It’s about investing in climate-smart food solutions that meet the needs of a growing population.”

In 2022, the state unveiled what it claimed was the world’s first detailed climate neutrality pathway, aiming to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 48% in 2030 and 85% by the target year of 2045. It also aims to save $200B in healthcare costs related to pollution.

California is also working to redirect 20% of food from being sent to landfills by this year, and reduce methane emissions by 40% (below 2013 levels) by the end of this decade. Targeting meat and dairy production is a key tenet of this latter target, considering that livestock is responsible for half of the state’s methane footprint.

In fact, animal agriculture is responsible for 70% of California’s total emissions from the food system, and takes up a third of its land area. Expanding its alternative protein ecosystem is therefore a critical step towards decarbonisation.

Producing foods from plant-based ingredients, microbes or cellular agriculture uses a tiny share of the land and water that animal proteins do, while emitting a fraction of the greenhouse gases as well.

The Golden State is already a leader in alternative protein

Courtesy: Wildtype

“Our state is a leader in alternative protein innovation and home to the first major plant-based protein companies, the first-ever cultivated meat startups, and numerous inventive fermentation food companies,” said Kalra.

Indeed, California is the birthplace of modern-day plant-based giants Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, and a host of leading cultivated meat startups. In fact, all four companies approved to sell cultivated proteins in the US – Eat Just, Upside Foods, Mission Barns, and Wildtype – hail from the Golden State.

It is also home to the Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein. Opened last year at the University of California, Davis, it is conducting research on speeding up these future foods’ path to market.

California also made the single-largest alternative protein R&D investment of any state back three years ago, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing a budget bill that provided $5M to UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UCLA. As mentioned above, this effort was facilitated by Kalra.

Courtesy: UC Davis

“I look forward to holding informational hearings on the topic of growing this new economy and how it can support California’s climate and food sustainability goals,” the senator said.

Other states that have championed alternative proteins in recent years include Illinois, which poured in $680M in the iFAB Tech Hub to advance precision fermentation research and its biomanufacturing capabilities. Massachusetts, meanwhile, is home to Tufts University and its Center for Cellular Agriculture, and passed an economic development bill that pledged investment in the sector.

The state has pledged $10M for local companies and to match grants supporting these proteins, and another $115M for an infrastucture programme to support job growth in key tech sectors, including plant-based, fermented and cultivated foods with “sensory characteristics that are consistent with conventional meat and dairy”.

“I think it’s incumbent on us lawmakers to think long-term,” Senator Barry Finegold, chairperson of Massachusetts’s economic development and emerging tech committee, told Green Queen last year. “If we’re concerned about climate change, if we’re concerned about people’s health, then I think we have to take science seriously.”

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June 5, 2025

5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Siddhi Capital’s Steven Finn
3 Mins Read
In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

Steven Finn is the Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at Siddhi Capital.

What future food technologies most excite you?

I am focused on those that can create actual businesses instead of save-the-world, pie-in-the-sky science projects. That usually translates to an interest in the technologies and ingredients that are positioned to improve taste and price, and can go into food products that are genuinely craveable by the mass market. It also means businesses that can be staged and not rely long-term on fickle capital markets.

What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?
- Shared infrastructure, particularly around precision fermentation.
- Low-inclusion ingredients with borderline pharma-level health claims, many of these being around gut microbiome optimisation.
- Replacement ingredients for those with troubled agricultural supply chains or impending supply shocks. Think eggs, cocoa, and whatever the next disasters are.
What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

Probably the approval and sales of cultivated meat products. I’ve tried most of them, and they have been a bit hit or miss – but the good ones are good, and the fact that they exist and are okay to sell is still an incredible achievement.

If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

Make it taste like (or better than!) meat and cost less. As long as I have the magic wand, I’d probably also use Men in Black-style memory-erasing tech on everyone who’s tried the mainstream plant-based options, so they come back at it through a lens of excitement and wonder again, instead of with jaded disappointment.

What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

Scrappiness. This boils down to capital efficiency; the ability to do more with less; the ability to pivot when necessary, no matter how far down a path they are; and the ability to see alternative uses for work they’ve already done to expand markets.

The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?

Series B of a well-known new-wave soda company. The valuation seemed like it was near a peak and we wouldn’t hit our return targets from there. I was wrong, and I drink it every day.

What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

Ask me in five years. We’ve got some will-be winners in our portfolio.

What has been your most disappointing investment so far?

All losers hurt, but the ones that have hurt the most have been those that raised stupid money from generalist tourist capital, and have run for the hills and left cap tables so messy, nobody could pick up the pieces. It’s what started me on a path to deeply understand cap table mechanics, which has become my speciality.

What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

At least for me, I expect to be wrong most of the time. Going in with that understanding, when I’m right, I need to be very right. I just hope to not be wrong all the time.

Also, when we invest, it’s because we believe in the product, market, and team at a point in time. When that shifts, we are not obligated to invest again.

What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

Cookies made with Plantible’s Rubisco protein instead of eggs. I never would have known in a blind taste test.

Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

BlueNalu’s cultivated bluefin tuna nigiri, in their offices only (for now). Next up, the world!

What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

I love and have always loved food. I want to be a part of the ecosystem and an enabler of great food for others. Most importantly, I want to make money for my investors (and myself and my team) in a way that doesn’t leave the world worse than I found it.

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June 5, 2025

Leading Islamic Authority Approves Consumption of Cultivated Meat for Muslims
4 Mins Read
In its latest conference in Doha, the International Islamic Fiqh Academy ruled that Muslims can consume cultivated meat if certain conditions are met.

The world’s two billion Muslims can eat cultivated meat, according to a fatwa by a leading Islamic authority.

At the 26th International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA) Conference in Doha this month, scholars deliberated on the consumption of cultivated meat and genetically modified food under Islamic law.

They approved the marketing and consumption of these foods, so long as they meet certain specific requirements, opening up the novel food market to a quarter of the global population.

What conditions does cultivated meat need to meet?

Courtesy: Aleph Farms

Operating under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the IIFA is one of the world’s leading legal authorities on Islam. Its members include Muslim jurists, scholars and intellectuals with expertise in various fields, who provide guidance on how Islamic principles apply to contemporary issues in science, medicine, economics, and technology.

Its latest conference was held in Doha in early May, with 230 experts from over 60 countries attending. Among the issues discussed were artificial intelligence, video games, genetically modified foods, and cultivated meat.

On the latter, the IIFA laid out several conditions that need to be met before Muslims can consume cultivated meat:
- The source cells must come from animals permissible to eat and be slaughtered according to Islamic law – so pork products are prohibited.
- The animal cells must be cultured in a medium free from prohibited substances like blood. It means products can’t be produced with fetal bovine serum, which is derived from the blood of unborn calves.
- The products must be developed under trustworthy regulatory supervision.
Additionally, the Academy stressed the need for full consumer transparency and adherence to food safety standards, noting that cultivated meat should complement – not replace – conventional sources of meat.

Meanwhile, the IIFA permitted the consumption of genetically modified foods when sourced from animals permissible to eat, processed in a safe manner, and compliant with Sharia law. It underscored the importance of disclosing relevant information about these foods and their preparation methods.

Growing recognition for cultivated meat under Islamic law

Courtesy: International Islamic Fiqh Academy

The IIFA ruling is the third fatwa in favour of Muslims’ consumption of cultivated meat. A fatwa is a non-binding legal opinion based on Sharia law, and is an important guideline for Muslims on matters not specifically defined in the Quran.

In 2024, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore issued a fatwa recognising these proteins as halal, a decision replicated by the Korean Muslim Federation earlier this year.

These were followed by similar conclusions by three leading Shariah scholars in Saudi Arabia in 2023, who told cultivated chicken maker Good Meat that cultivated meat can be considered halal, and the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America in 2022, who adjudged it as provisionally permissible by default, provided Halal criteria are followed.

Halal diets refer to food consumption in accordance with Islamic law. When it comes to meat, it means animals must be slaughtered in a prescribed way, and certain types of meat and byproducts – including pork and blood products – are prohibited. Globally, the Halal meat market is estimated to grow by 7% annually to reach $1.6T by 2032.

Cultivated meat producers understand the opportunity. A 44-company survey in 2023 revealed that complying with halal requirements was a priority for 87% of the firms. A lack of resources outlining how products can adhere to such religious certifications remained a significant entry barrier, the study added.

“Ultimately, this decision marks a major step forward in aligning food innovation with cultural and religious values, a crucial ingredient in creating a world where alternative proteins are no longer alternative,” said the Good Food Institute APAC, an alternative protein think tank.

“It also clarifies religious guidelines for Asia-Pacific companies developing such products, opens doors for regulatory collaboration and halal certification frameworks across the region, and encourages Muslim organisations in other countries to follow in the footsteps of Singapore and South Korea,” it added.

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June 4, 2025

Dutch Poultry Giant Plukon Acquires Meat-Free Startup Vega Insiders

4 Mins Read
Plukon Food Group, a Dutch poultry producer, has snapped up local meat-free startup Vega Insiders to strengthen its alternative protein portfolio.

Netherlands-based poultry giant Plukon Food Group has acquired Vega Insiders, a producer of meat-free kebabs, bacon and falafels.

The terms of the deal were undisclosed, but Plukon confirmed that Vega Insiders will continue to operate under its own name and retain all its employees.

The move is part of Plukon’s growth strategy in alternative proteins, and will allow it to accelerate the integration of plant-based product development knowledge and expertise within the business.

Courtesy: Vega Insiders

Why Plukon decided to buy Vega Insiders

Founded in 2020 by the Zilverwerf Group, Vega Insiders makes a range of vegan and vegetarian products for foodservice and retail channels. It makes plant-based bacon from fava beans and rice starch, which is sold under its Grunchy brand as slices, strips, and pre-cooked streaky bacon.

In addition, it makes plant-based versions of mince, kebabs and falafel, combining a range of protein sources. Plus, it has a line of vegetarian meat alternatives, such as meatballs, chicken pieces, and ham pieces, which use egg and/or dairy.

The company has a production facility in Udenhout, as well as an Experience Center to give potential clients a taste of its offerings and to help other brands with their own meat-free product development.

Courtesy: Vega Insiders

“After years of building Vega Insiders, I was looking for a sustainable future for the company,” said Mart Beniers, founder of Vega Insiders and owner of Zilverwerf Group. “In Plukon, I found a partner with the same mindset: entrepreneurial, pragmatic, and knowledgeable about the market. We had an immediate connection, which gives me full confidence that Vega Insiders is in good hands.”

Plukon’s sells poultry products, meals and salads, as well as alternative proteins in Europe. It is present in six countries and has over 10,000 employees, and posted a turnover of €3.1B in 2023.

“This acquisition fits perfectly within our strategy. Plukon has been working on alternative protein concepts for years. This strengthens both our product diversity and our innovation capacity in the field of complementary proteins,” said Plukon CEO Kees Kraijenoord.

“For some time, Plukon has aspired to have a dedicated vegetarian/vegan production site. With this acquisition, that ambition becomes reality, and we can now scale up in a fully plant-based environment.”

Courtesy: Oscar Timmers

Meat giants continue to invest in plant-based market

Although sales of meat alternatives fell by 2.5% in 2023, these products still account for the largest slice of the plant-based pie in Dutch retail. Globally, meanwhile, sales of vegan meat analogues rose by 4% in 2024.

Meat giants have therefore continued to invest in and acquire alternative protein brands to diversify their protein portfolio while lowering their overall climate impact. In Germany, meat processor Tönnies Group invested in Nosh.bio to co-create a single-ingredient mycelium product, and poultry giant PHW Group participated in a funding round for mycoprotein startup Kynda.

In Italy, meanwhile, Gruppo Tonazzo shuttered its meat business after 136 years to focus solely on plant-based food. And earlier this year, Unilever agreed to sell Dutch meat-free leader The Vegetarian Butcher to Vivera, which is owned by JBS, the world’s largest meat producer.

These deals come during a time of rampant M&A activity in the rapidly-consolidating animal-free food sector. In the US, dairy-free formula maker Kate Farms was acquired by Danone and frozen ready meal maker Daily Harvest was snapped up by yoghurt leader Chobani last month. Wicked Kitchen, Nuggs, and Blackbird Foods were all taken over by Ahimsa Companies last year, while vegan cheesemaker Vertage was purchased by Misha’s Inc this January.

In Europe, Allplants’s assets were separately acquired by Grubby and the founders of Deliciously Ella, which itself was bought by Switzerland’s Hero Group months earlier. And VFC evolved into the Vegan Food Group to become a holding company that now includes Meatless Farm, Clive’s Purely Plants and Tofutown.

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June 4, 2025

Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan RXBar, NotMilk Avena, Pre-Frozen Tofu

5 Mins Read
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Kellanova’s plant-based RXBars, Vivera’s pre-frozen tofu, and a cultivated seafood tasting event.

New products and launches

Kellanova (formerly Kellogg’s) has launched RXBar High Protein, a plant-based line of its famous clean-label bars. The peanut butter bars come in strawberry and vanilla flavours, and are packed with 18g of protein and only six ingredients.

Courtesy: Kellanova/Valerii Evlakhov/Getty Images

US wellness startup Happy Aging has launched a plant protein powder called Lean Muscle Formula. It contains 20g of pea and pumpkin seed protein and 5g of creatine monohydrate per 100g, and comes in vanilla and chocolate flavours. The product is available on its website for $55 per 725g pouch.

Israeli food tech startup Meala has partnered with DSM-Firmenich to launch a texturising pea protein called Vertis PB Pea. The ingredient is designed to replace modified binders like hydrocolloids to make cleaner-label meat alternatives, and is available in Europe.

Also in Israel, Efishient Protein has introduced a plant-based grouper fillet. It is working on a cultivated tilapia in the background.

Courtesy: Oshi

Speaking of alternative seafood, plant-based firm Oshi has begun direct-to-consumer sales of its vegan salmon, expanding from its foodservice-only model.

In more seafood news, Austrian mycoprotein startup Revo Foods has unveiled a BBQ flavour of its flagship product, The FIlet – Inspired by Salmon.

Chilean food tech firm NotCo has released the newest iteration of its AI-powered NotMilk, with a focus on a clean-label formulation. The NotMilk Avena SKU contains just oats, coconut butter, chicory fibre, and water, and is available in Chile and Brazil. It will soon roll out in Mexico too.

Courtesy: NotCo

French dairy-free brand Atelier Dessy has introduced a plant-based alternative to Icelandic skyr in raspberry and mango-passionfruit flavours.

Dutch vegan giant Vivera has introduced a pre-frozen firm tofu that absorbs marinades more quickly, responding to a TikTok trend of freezing the protein to make it spongier. It will be available in UK supermarkets from June 9 for £2.75 per 200g pack.

British food tech firm Myco, known for its oyster-mushroom-based burgers, has signed a deal to provide its Hooba ingredient to Teesside University as part of a blended meat range.

Courtesy: Treets/Candy Kittens

Planet A Foods‘s cocoa-free ChoViva chocolate is part of Candy Kittens and Treets‘s Crunchy Corn, Crispy, and Salted Peanuts dragées in the UK. They’re available online and at retailers including Boots.

South Korean food giant Pulmuone has revamped its dairy-free ice cream brand Planto with new packaging and label descriptors like ‘reduced sugar’ and ‘high dietary fibre’. The new products come in 90ml strawberry-raspberry and chocolate brownie packs, and will primarily be available online and through B2B channels, including Kurly, Coupang, and Shop Pulmuone.

Company and finance updates

Singaporean cultivated meat firm Umami Bioworks held a public tasting for its white fish (served in a fish-and-chips format) and caviar (served plain and in canapé-style) at London’s Underground Cookery School.

Courtesy: Vivici/Liberation Bioindustries

Ahead of opening its large-scale precision fermentation facility, US biomanufacturer Liberation Labs has rebranded to Liberation Bioindustries.

Likewise, plant-based firm Simply Better Brands – which makes vegan protein powders and bars – has rebranded to Trubar.

Dutch fermentation startup The Protein Brewery has appointed former Cousin executive Thijs Bosch as its new CEO. He succeeds Sue Garfitt, who will transition into a non-executive role.

Courtesy: cReal

Swedish food tech firm cReal Food has opened a zero-waste oat milk powder facility in Bjuv, backed by a 300 million kronor ($31.3M) investment by Lindéngruppen and other investors.

Finnish startup Enifer has partnered with Brazilian ethanol producer FS to produce its Pekilo mycoprotein in Latin America, using thin stillage derived from corn ethanol as feedstock.

Research and policy developments

The Spanish city of Parla has become the country’s first city (and the world’s 40th) to sign the call for an international Plant-Based Treaty.

Vegans and vegetarians should receive special rations if the UK is hit with a major disaster, according to Prof Tim Lang, an emeritus professor of food policy at the University of London and an adviser to the National Preparedness Commission.

Courtesy: Beyond Meat

With BBQ season upon us, a survey by Beyond Meat has found that 42% of Brits eat less meat during the week now than two years ago, and 47% say having plant-based options on the menu is important to them.

Two new studies show that the plant-based Portfolio Diet can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, and improve heart health across diverse demographics.

A landmark study by the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture has revealed that the region can produce significantly more food with less money and fewer resources with regenerative agriculture systems.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

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June 4, 2025

Wildtype Cultivated Salmon Gets FDA Approval, Now on US Menus

6 Mins Read
San Francisco startup Wildtype has become the world’s first startup to get US regulatory approved to sell cultivated seafood, with its salmon now on the menu at Kann in Portland, Oregon.

Cultivated seafood has cruised to become a reality.

US startup Wildtype has received regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell its sushi-grade cultivated salmon in the country. It is now available at Kann, James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet’s live-fire Haitian restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

“We have no questions at this time about Wildtype’s conclusion that foods comprising or containing cultured coho salmon cell material resulting from the production process defined in [its application] are as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods,” the FDA said in a scientific memo.

It concludes a process that began three summers ago and required eight amendments as the startup’s process evolved and the regulator worked to confirm the safety of cell-cultured salmon.

“Cultivated seafood, apart from catfish, is regulated solely by the FDA; there is no subsequent USDA step as there is for chicken and beef,” Wildtype co-founders Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck told Green Queen in an email.

Wildtype’s salmon at Kann in Portland, Oregon | Courtesy: Wildtype

That cleared the way for Wildtype to begin offering its salmon to restaurants immediately. “Regarding the timing of our Kann launch, Wildtype salmon is on the menu now,” the founders confirmed. “It is available on Thursdays in June, and every day starting July.”

Backed by the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos, the startup is preparing launches with four other restaurants over the next four months. “Our plans for retail launch will follow our launch in foodservice,” they revealed.

It is the fourth cultivated protein firm to be allowed to sell in the US, and the third with full approval. Fellow Californian startup Mission Barns secured the FDA letter for its cultivated pork fat in March, though it is still awaiting USDA authorisation for its pilot plant and product labelling.

How Wildtype makes its cultivated salmon

Wildtype co-founders Justin Kolbeck and Aryé Elfenbein | Courtesy: Wildtype

Elfenbein and Kolbeck founded Wildtype nearly a decade ago, working to commercialise cultivated coho salmon saku, the most expensive part of the fish. Some populations of this species are either threatened or endangered, necessitating innovations like cellular agriculture.

Wildtype obtains living cells from Pacific salmon, which are adapted to suspension culture. They are grown in tanks similar to those used to make beer or kombucha, under temperature and pH conditions that wild fish thrive in, alongside a nutrient mix containing proteins, sugar, fat, salt, and minerals like iron and zinc.

The cells are harvested using bowl centrifugation, washed three times with a water and sugar solution, rapidly cooled using blast chillers, and stored frozen. They’re mixed with certain plant-based ingredients to replicate the structure and texture of conventional salmon, and the resulting product is used in raw sushi preparations like sashimi and maki.

“The composition of Wildtype salmon has always included cells as the primary ingredient after water,” Elfenbein and Kolbeck said, but did not confirm which other ingredients are used.

Wildtype’s cultvated salmon can be used in raw sushi applications | Courtesy: Wildtype

In 2021, Wildtype opened a pilot-scale Fishery in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighbourhood. At the time, it had the ability to produce 50,000 lbs of seafood per year, which could be expanded to 200,000 lbs at maximum capacity.

The firm has held numerous tasting events for its coho salmon across the US, teaming up with chefs like José Andrés, Rose Ha, and Adam Tortosa to rave reviews.

“You would have to tell someone that the Wildtype lox wasn’t conventional for them to suspect it was anything different,” suggested Brian Cooley, a technology expert who spent nearly three decades as CNET’s tech editor.

He tried the salmon as part of a $24 bagel at a pop-up event at Loveski Deli in Marin County, California earlier this year. “I think it’s actually better than conventional lox because it doesn’t have the occasional gristle or silverskin you find in conventional products,” he told Green Queen.

A ‘watershed moment’ for seafood and cultivated proteins

Wildtype’s salmon will debut at chef Gregory Gourdet’s Kann restaurant | Courtesy: Wildtype

At Kann, Wildtype’s salmon is paired in a summery dish with pickled strawberry, spiced tomato, strawberry juice, and an epis rice cracker.

“We take pride in the ingredients we utilise,” said Gourdet. “Introducing Wildtype’s cultivated salmon to our menu hits the elevated and sustainable marks we want our menu to offer guests who share a similar value system to ours.”

It is a milestone for the alternative seafood industry, which has long been an afterthought to beef, chicken, and pork analogues. There are several startups working on cultivated seafood, including BlueNalu and Umami Bioworks; Wildtype’s approval will likely usher them to advance their commercialisation efforts.

It has become the seventh cultivated protein company to have received some form of regulatory clearance. That list comprises Eat Just‘s Good Meat (in Singapore and the US), Upside Foods and Mission Barns (both in the US), Aleph Farms (in Israel), Vow (in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand), and Meatly (in the UK). Regulators in the EU, Switzerland, Australia and Thailand are evaluating applications too, and judging from its inventory, the US FDA seems to have received at least four others.

Graphic by Green Queen

It comes at a time when cultivated meat faces both financial and political upheaval. After VCs pumped $1.3B into the category in 2021, investment has dipped dramatically. In 2023, funding fell by 75%, followed by another 40% drop in 2024, reaching just $139M. It means that in the last three years, this sector has cumulatively raised less money than it did in 2021 alone.

Wildtype itself has raised $120M, most of which came in a $100M Series B round in 2022. But its founders did not respond to a question about its fundraising plans now.

Meanwhile, a host of legislative efforts to ban or restrict cultivated meat in the US and Europe are ongoing. Italy decided to ban these proteins in 2023 (before other EU attempts were thwarted), as have six states in the US, including Florida, Alabama and Nebraska. Several other states have floated similar bills in the current legislative session.

Wildtype’s cultivated salmon | Courtesy: Wildtype

“Wildtype’s achievement is a watershed moment for domestic seafood production and for the cultivated protein industry overall,” said Dr Suzi Gerber, executive director of the Association for Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Innovation, a cellular agriculture trade group.

“The thoughtful, evidence-driven review proves that innovative food technologies meet the highest safety standards, and can play a vital role in healthy American diets, while strengthening our food system’s domestic production and resilience, supporting the president’s executive order to expand seafood production in the US,” she added.

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June 3, 2025

Green Rebel x 7-Eleven Philippines: Southeast Asian Startup Expands Meat-Free Meals to 2,000+ Stores

4 Mins Read

Indonesian plant-based meat pioneer Green Rebel Foods has rolled out two products at 7-Eleven Philippines, both as retail offerings and as part of in-store meals.

While sales of meat alternatives are falling in certain markets, global retailers are being urged to offer a higher share of plant proteins to battle climate change, improve public health, and safeguard food security.

Several supermarkets in Europe – including Lidl, Ahold Delhaize and Rewe Group – are answering that call with ‘protein split’ sales targets and price parity for vegan alternatives. That momentum is now shifting to Asia too.

In the Philippines, convenience store chain 7-Eleven is now offering products and meals featuring plant-based meat and fish from Indonesia’s Green Rebel Foods.

While the partnership started as a promotion for the Catholic fasting Lenten season, it has now been expanded to over 2,000 stores across the country, keying into Filipinos’ openness to plant-based meat. A 2024 survey by alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, found that these consumers held the most positive perceptions of plant-based meat in the region (alongside Indonesians).

7-Eleven continues to champion meat-free eating

Courtesy: 7-Eleven Philippines

7-Eleven first announced the partnership in late March, adding two Green Rebel products on dishes for its Lenten Specials menu.

The first, a Chick’n Salad with Green Rebel’s vegan fried chicken, is made from soy and wheat protein and contains lettuce, walnuts, mandarins, and an Oriental-style dressing.

The second dish, a Beefless Tapsilog, was part of the retailer’s Rice Meal Express series, putting a spin on a local breakfast favourite. Traditionally, the dish combines sweet and salty peppery beef with crunchy garlic fried rice and a fried egg.

7-Eleven’s version made use of Green Rebel’s beef mince, made primarily from soy flour, and paired it with garlic rice and an omelette.

The success of the activation has led to an extension of the partnership, with the meals available at over 2,000 7-Eleven stores across the Philippines following the end of the Lenten Season.

In addition, the retailer is offering packaged versions of the plant-based fried chicken and mince for consumers to cook at home, delivering a win for Green Rebel, which only entered the Philippines a year ago via a deal with local condiment manufacturer and distributor NutriAsia.

This isn’t the first time 7-Eleven has championed plant proteins. It has a history of offering vegan products at its convenience stores globally, whether they’re private-label meals or branded products. The retailer was a gateway for Impossible Foods in Singapore, and has previously partnered with OmniPork and Unlimeat to offer plant-based meals at its Hong Kong locations.

Next month, it will begin stocking Odd Burger’s crispy chicken, burgers, and breakfast sausages at over 500 of its locations in Canada. It comes four years after it teamed up with Lightlife to offer its meat-free chicken tenders at more than 600 stores in the country.

Green Rebel bet on Philippines’ appetite for plants

Courtesy: Green Rebel

Founded in Indonesia in 2020, Green Rebel offers a range of plant-based meats (including whole cuts), cheeses and meals. They leverage its proprietary Rebel Emulsion Technology, which helps recreate the mouthfeel of animal protein via an emulsion of coconut oil, water and natural plant-based seasonings.

They’re available in over 1,200 foodservice locations and more than 300 retail stores across Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The 7-Eleven partnership is part of a growing list of landmark partnerships for the brand, which include deals with Starbucks, AirAsia, Tous Le Jours, NTUC FairPrice and Annam Gourmet.

The company says its products need 80% less energy and 67% less water than animal-derived meat, and reduced 48,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions between 2022 and 2024.

It linked up with NutriAsia last year to enter a country with high potential for plant-based eating. The GFI APAC survey found that 24% of Filipinos were looking to reduce their meat consumption in 2024, and 55% aimed to increase their intake of plant-based meat, with health being the primary driver.

Three-quarters of consumers think vegan meat analogues are healthier, and 49% say more nutritious offerings would encourage them to increase their consumption of these products. In fact, health is by far the top factor that would influence Filipinos to choose plant-based meats over their conventional counterparts, with 66% citing this.

Green Rebel’s products are high in protein and fibre, and contain up to 50% less saturated fat, 30% fewer calories, and zero cholesterol, compared to conventional meats. This will appeal to people in the Philippines, 75% of whom hadn’t tried plant-based meat but said they’d likely do so last year.

“NutriAsia is the leading sauce and condiment manufacturer in the Philippines, while Green Rebel focuses on Asian-flavoured plant-based meat and dairy-free cheeses. This also opens a product collaboration opportunity, targeted for Filipino consumers,” Green Rebel co-founder and CEO Helga Angelina told Green Queen last year.

“Crafting delicious, sustainable food isn’t just our passion; it’s our commitment to redefining the future of dining,” she added. “Every dish we create at Green Rebel is a testament to our belief that flavour, and sustainability go hand in hand, offering a tantalizing glimpse into a world where every meal nourishes both body and planet.”

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June 3, 2025

Cultivated Meat Generates 92% Fewer Emissions Than Beef Byproducts in Pet Food

5 Mins Read
While pet food brands tout the use of animal byproducts as sustainable, a new analysis shows that products made with cultivated meat generate a fraction of the emissions.

Producing meat from cellular agriculture instead of conventional farming can drastically lower the climate impact of pet food producers, according to a new analysis.

Many believe pet food to be a sustainable product due to the use of animal byproducts, since this is waste from the production of meat for human use that would otherwise be discarded. In fact, some use this argument to suggest that pet food actually offsets the impact of the human food industry.

In reality, these products aren’t emission-free, and to highlight the true reduction potential for pet food, Austrian-American food tech startup BioCraft Pet Nutrition commissioned a carbon footprint analysis of its cultivated mouse meat and the conventional beef byproducts used in the industry.

Conducted by corporate environmental consultancy ClimatePartner, the assessment showed that the firm’s BioCrafted Meat emits one-twelfth of the carbon dioxide of beef byproducts.

BioCraft co-founder and CEO Dr Shannon Falconer ascribed the difference to the startup’s “unique production process, which harvests the full contents of the bioreactor, which also makes it quite different from cultivated meat production”.

Byproducts don’t make pet food as sustainable as you think

Courtesy: BioCraft Pet Nutrition/ClimatePartner

The analysis was based on internationally recognised methodologies, including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (GHG Protocol), and used emissions factors from databases like Ecoinvent and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

BioCraft’s emissions were calculated based on its ingredients being produced with mixed energy in Europe, considering all relevant greenhouse gases and calculating their values as CO2 equivalents.

ClimatePartner’s analysis revealed that, based on standard EU beef production processes, beef byproducts emit 21.28kg of CO2 per kg. In comparison, BioCraft’s cultivated mouse meat produces just 1.73kg of CO2 for the same amount, offering manufacturers a 92% reduction.

While the use of offal, bones, blood, and fat instead of prime beef cuts makes many consumers regard byproducts as low-impact alternatives, that isn’t necessarily the case. “The environmental impacts of raising cattle are caused by the entire animal, not merely the portions used in the human food supply,” said Falconer.

Research shows that only around a quarter of animal byproducts produced in wealthy nations go towards the pet food industry, which competes for these ingredients with the likes of the livestock, energy and pharma sectors.

Some studies have contended that byproducts actually have a worse environmental impact because of their poor nutritional content. “For dog food, using animal byproducts rather than human-grade meat requires 1.4 times more livestock carcasses, and for cat food, 1.9 times more,” a recent analysis found.

“Hence, animal byproducts are less efficient to produce than human-grade meat. Their production requires significantly more livestock carcasses. This has the potential to increase the number of livestock animals required, and the associated environmental impacts,” its authors explained.

Courtesy: BioCraft Pet Nutrition

Cultivated meat presents climate wins as alternative pet food heats up

BioCraft’s unstructured ingredient is grown from cultured mouse cells and doesn’t require additional downstream processing. It’s also cost-effective. Typically, animal-derived growth media – the mix of proteins, sugar and nutrients that feed animal cells in a bioreactor – cost hundreds of dollars per litre.

BioCraft has developed a plant-based growth medium formulated to provide a nutritious boost to the end product, allowing its pet food ingredient to be priced at $2-2.50 per pound.

Importantly, the carbon footprint analysis looked at manufacturer-driven life-cycle stages – from raw material extraction and pre-processing to packaging, delivery, and disposal. It didn’t take into account the emissions from the manufacturing of final products or consumer use, since BioCraft solely operates as a B2B supplier of raw materials.

Still, this gives a glimpse of the emissions reduction potential for pet food producers that swap beef byproducts with cultivated meat. BioCraft’s ingredient has a comparable consistency and nutritional profile to conventional slurry, and so can be used as a one-to-one replacement in wet or dry pet food at similar inclusion levels.

Courtesy: BioCraft Pet Nutrition

The firm recently received registration from Austrian authorities to use Category 3 animal byproducts (ABPs) in the EU, allowing it to sell the cultivated mouse meat to pet food producers in the region. It is already working with Partner in Pet Food and Prefera Petfood to bring the ingredient to market, having earmarked early 2026 for its debut.

Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies was the first to register cultivated pet food as an EU feed material back in 2023, although it did so under the fermentation category instead of as an ABP. It claims that its cultivated meat generates 84-95% fewer emissions than beef, though this analysis did not focus specifically on byproducts.

It is a ripe time for alternative pet food. The UK became the first country where consumers could buy cultivated meat for their cats and dogs off the shelves this year, while Germany’s Marsapet rolled out a kibble product for dogs using Calysta’s gas-fermented FeedKind protein in Europe.

Meanwhile, British vegan pet food maker The Pack was acquired by Prefera Petfood, and fellow London-based startup Omni saw sales shoot up by 130% with 20,000 new customers in the three months after securing an investment from Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden on Dragons’ Den.

Elsewhere, one US startup has conducted feeding trials in pursuit of regulatory approval in the US, and Bene Meat has filed for approval there too. Meanwhile, California’s Friends & Family Pet Food Co has inked two deals to launch stateside and in Singapore.

The post Cultivated Meat Generates 92% Fewer Emissions Than Beef Byproducts in Pet Food appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 30, 2025

What Do 2025’s Investment Trends So Far Tell Us About Alternative Proteins?

8 Mins Read
After a decline in alternative protein investments in 2024, funding further fell by 28% in Q1 2025 compared to the same period a year ago. Analysts blame AI, high costs, and low sales.

There’s no other way to put it: 2024 was a bleak year for food tech. Post-Covid geopolitical tensions and higher living costs continued to threaten both shoppers’ wallets and investor sentiment, and startups aiming to futureproof the food system bore the brunt of the impact.

It hasn’t gotten any easier, with 2025 bringing its own set of headwinds. President Donald Trump’s tariff war, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s attack on ultra-processed food and regulatory pathways, more bans on cultivated meat, a resurgence of beef and dairy both stateside and in Europe, and continued sales declines in several markets have all contributed to the storm engulfing the alternative protein industry.

Graphic by Green Queen

After a 44% drop in 2023, VC investments in plant-based food, fermentation-derived ingredients, and cultivated meat fell by a further 27% in 2024, according to Net Zero Insights data crunched by the Good Food Institute (GFI)

Q1 2025 investments in the sector declined by 28% YoY, falling to $235M. Fermentation startups capture the bulk of this, attracting $146M, while plant-based ($54M) and cultivated protein firms ($35M) continued to falter.

So who – or what – is to blame? And are there any bright spots for alternative protein?

Fermentation continues to thrive

Looking at the figures for both 2024 and early 2025, one segment sticks out: fermentation. It was the only alternative protein pillar to witness an increase in investment last year (by 43%), against decreases for both plant-based food (-64%) and cultivated meat (-40%).

In Q1 2025, fermentation startups attracted half of all funding flowing into the sector, with precision fermentation particularly piquing investor interest. This tech vertical was responsible for the three largest rounds of the quarter: Formo’s $36M venture debt loan from the European Investment Bank, Vivici’s $33.8M Series A round, and Liberation Labs’s $31.5M investment.

The only other investment round above $25M in this period was for Israeli cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms, which secured $29M as part of a larger fundraise in the coming months.

Courtesy: GFI

“Many of the fermentation companies that received large investments are focused on leveraging agricultural and food industry sidestreams as a sustainable feed source, helping produce food more efficiently and affordably – both of which are attractive propositions for investors,” Helene Grosshans, infrastructure investment manager at GFI Europe, wrote last year about the success of fermentation.

Still, fermentation investment totals fell year-over-year in Q1 2025, according to Daniel Gertner, lead economic and industry analyst for the organisation, yet ranked in the top half of the 10 most recent quarters.

So while alternative protein funding remained subdued in the first quarter of this year, he warns that “few meaningful trends can be identified in a single quarter”.

Can Europe keep up its momentum?

Alongside fermentation, European startups showed promising signs, collectively raising $509M in 2024 (a 23% annual increase). This included a record year for Germany, where alternative protein firms attracted $145M (although $61M of that came from Formo’s Series B round).

Here, too, fermentation shone. Biomass fermentation startups saw a 10% hike in investment in 2024, while those working on precision fermentation bagged more than thrice the funding totals of 2023. As mentioned above, that trend has continued this year, thanks to Vivici and Formo’s latest rounds.

Courtesy: GFI Europe

While at first glance it may seem that plant-based and cultivated meat startups performed miserably, context is crucial. As GFI Europe’s Grosshans points out, the decline for the former category is due to Oatly’s large $425M raise over two deals; if you discount publicly traded companies, privately held plant-based firms in Europe actually saw investment grow by 37% last year.

Similarly, two relatively large deals for Mosa Meat and Meatable, totalling $53.3M, skewed the data for cultivated meat, too, where funding dipped by 59%. These two Dutch startups are preparing to enter the market soon, so they’re not reflective of where most of the sector is.

AI has wrecked the investment landscape for everyone else

In 2024, there was a 38% dip in climate tech venture funding, thanks to a shift in investor interest towards artificial intelligence (AI), where financing crossed $100B.

In the first 12 weeks of this year, AI propelled global venture financing to its highest quarterly levels in nearly three years. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, raised $40B – that’s with a ‘B’ – which led AI to account for 58% of VC deal value in Q1 2025.

Non-AI sectors, however, experienced their weakest deal activity in a decade, notes Gertner. “Recent growth in overall venture funding has largely been driven by surges in AI investments, which have likely redirected capital flows from other industries,” he tells Green Queen.

“Alternative protein funding has slowed amid this increased investor focus on AI, while elevated interest rates, high production costs, and topline sales declines have also weighed on investment activity,” he adds. “Alternative proteins are not alone in this trend: adjacent industries like climate tech and consumer packaged goods have experienced similar investment slowdowns.”

Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

Indeed, the wider food tech sector’s $2.2B funding in Q1 2025 was the worst quarterly performance in years. Matthieu Vincent, co-founder of strategy consultancy firm DigitalFoodLab, ascribes this to contextual reasons, as opposed to structural factors like the VC ecosystem being unsuited to long-term innovation.

The Q1 decline is linked to “the current economic uncertainties, notably on tariffs and their impact on the overall agrifood industries”, he explained in his newsletter.

Trump’s tariffs have already had investors worried, with Grey Silo Ventures’s investment manager, Matteo Leonardi, telling Green Queen last month: “As we are dealing with an industry that is already fighting to survive on the slightest of margins – and at industrial scale, let alone at pilot scale – US tariffs could result in a complete erosion of those already-thin margins.”

Adam Bergman, managing director of EcoTech Capital, predicted the downturn to continue in 2026. “I expect that over 70% of agtech and food tech companies will either go bankrupt, cease operations, or be liquidated in a fire sale. It is likely that a similar percentage of the capital invested in these companies will never be recouped,” he wrote.

The way forward for alternative protein

“As AI dominates investor attention, alternative protein companies are either developing novel applications of AI for alternative proteins or choosing to compete for a smaller slice of non-AI capital,” Gertner wrote in a recent newsletter, signalling the pivots this sector may need to make to survive.

Leading companies also need to turn their sales around, and fast. Addressing misinformation about meat, dairy, and plant-based alternatives is a crucial step.

“Instead of creating more noise, we have been systematically engaging with registered and renowned dietitians, nutritionists and key opinion leaders, arming them with science-based facts about our category and our products, so they can be advocates for the truth,” said Daniel Ordonez, COO of Oatly, which recorded a 0.8% year-on-year decline in revenue in Q1 2025, but cut its losses by 73%.

Courtesy: Oatly

Beyond Meat’s fortunes worsened in Q1 after two quarters of revenue hikes, with sales dipping by 9% in the first three months of this year, with its founder and CEO Ethan Brown suggesting misinformation played a big part. Like Oatly, he added that the “truth is starting to come out” now, and that the meat alternative maker has “made it through that really intense pressure cooker”.

Despite its disappointing sales, it did receive $100M in debt financing from Unprocessed Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, proving that investors still have an appetite for plant-based burgers. “The overall macro environment is challenging for alt-protein, but we are confident of the leadership and the outlook,” Ahimsa Foundation president Shaleen Shah told Bloomberg News.

The volatility of the market was highlighted by Meati’s $4M sale this month. Once valued at $650M, its $100M Series C round was the largest alternative protein investment of 2024, but a technical default led its lender to unexpectedly sweep two-thirds of its cash reserves, leading to the sale at the paltry valuation.

One of the issues in alternative protein is that there aren’t enough exits for startups, though there has been a rapid wave of M&A in the sector of late, from Danone and Chobani’s acquistions of Kate Farms and Daily Harvest, respectively, this month, to Ahimsa Foundation’s takeover of Wicked Kitchen, Simulate and Blackbird Foods in the last year. But exits like Meati’s don’t fill venture capitalists with confidence.

It’s worth noting that despite the VC decline, public sector investment was still strong in 2024, reaching $510M, in line with the year before.

Courtesy: GFI

“Going forward, the companies demonstrating clear competitive advantages, unique value propositions, and strong business models will have the best chance of securing funding,” Gertner tells Green Queen.

“However, venture capital is only one piece of the investment puzzle,” he adds, outlining the importance of additional avenues for companies pursuing investment, like equipment leasing, strategic partnerships, sovereign wealth funds, blended finance, and government programmes.

“Alternative protein companies and founders should continue exploring these creative and multipronged funding strategies to support growth,” he says.

The post What Do 2025’s Investment Trends So Far Tell Us About Alternative Proteins? appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 29, 2025

While Plant-Based Meat Sales Are Faltering, Blended Proteins Are Back in Vogue

5 Mins Read
Discount retailer Aldi Nord has become the latest company to hop on the blended meat bandwagon with a burger made from 60% beef and 40% plant proteins in the Netherlands.

As part of its move towards shifting protein sales in favour of plants, Aldi Nord has quietly released a blended meat burger in its Dutch locations.

The discount supermarket’s newest burger contains 60% beef and 40% plant-based ingredients, and it is clearly labelled as a product blending animal and plant proteins.

The product is priced at €2.50 per 300g pack, or €8.33 per kg. This makes it a more affordable option than several conventional meat options at Aldi Nord, including half-and-half mince (€10.83 per kg), ground beef (€14.15), and lean ground beef (€9.99).

The move is part of its climate strategy. Lowering the amount of animal protein in a product and replacing it with low-carbon alternatives is an effective strategy to slash the emissions of a product.

Aldi Netherlands has set a target of obtaining 50% of all protein sales from plant-based foods by this year, working towards a larger ‘protein split’ goal of 60% plant proteins by 2030. In 2023, these products made up 37% of its protein sales, but their share reached 40% last year.

Crucially, it aims to maintain the amount of protein sold, so it would need to achieve this by actively replacing meat with animal-free products. To fast-track the transition, it rolled out its My Vay private-label brand last year, starting with dairy alternatives before diversifying into plant-based meat in the autumn.

Courtesy: Green Protein Alliance/ProVeg Netherlands

Can blended meat fill the plant-based gap?

Aldi’s blended meat offering follows a similar launch at Lidl Netherlands, which last year rolled out a minced meat mix with 60% beef and 40% pea protein that was cheaper and far more friendly to the environment than conventional beef.

Research shows that swapping just half of our meat consumption with plant-based proteins can lower agricultural emissions by 31% and land use by 12%, and halt deforestation.

Blended meat, or balanced proteins as they are called by US-based sustainable food advocacy non-profit Food Systems Innovations (FSI), is a key lever for doing this, especially as the uptake of plant-based meat products slows down. Dutch retail group Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of Albert Heijn, announced a plant protein strategy at the start of the year, but has since admitted that sales of these products have been disappointing.

The retailer aimed to raise the share of plant proteins sold to 47% in 2024, 50% in 2025, and 60% by the end of the decade. However, the ratio failed to increase in favour of plants last year, instead falling slightly from 44.5% in 2023 to 44.2% last year.

A major barrier is the discourse around plant-based meat and ultra-processing. A survey of nearly 20,000 Europeans this year found that 60% would like to avoid processed foods in the future, while only a quarter say the same for animal-based foods. In fact, 12% would like to increase their intake of meat and dairy.

With blended meat, consumers can have their beef and eat it too. It does away with concerns around the taste of plant-based burgers, and efforts like Aldi’s and Lidl’s ensure that there are no complaints about price either. The climate benefit is almost an added bonus for consumers, whereas for the retailer, it is a driving force of the decision.

Aldi is one of nine supermarkets that have committed to the 50-50 protein split goal for 2030, though as of last year, its share of meat alternatives (12%) was the lowest on the list. The new My Vay label and its blended meat offering will help it get closer to the goal.

Courtesy: Madre Brava

Aldi looks to redeem its blended meat legacy

This isn’t the first time Aldi has dabbled with blended meat. In 2019, it brought out a BBQ Flexitarian Burger made from a mix of beef and beans in the UK, but it was widely panned. Other supermarkets have had missteps too – Tesco introduced a Lean & Greens range that combined chicken with vegetables in 2021, and discontinued it soon after.

In the past, blended meat products haven’t been commercially successful, especially from private-label brands. In 2025, it’s a growing category. Companies like Nestlé, Purdue Farms, Quorn and even Disneyland have entered this space now.

Sensory testing shows that these products are more likely to appeal to meat-eaters and flexitarians than plant-based alternatives. In some cases, they even outperform 100% meat products. Nectar, a non-profit initiative focused on accelerating the protein transition through taste, found four blended meat products that matched or surpassed conventional meat on taste.

Courtesy: Nectar

These products can deliver financial wins for shrewd brands. Fable Food, whose Shiitake Infusion product is blended with meat and is one of the four aforementioned products, achieved a 50% year-on-year growth last year and expects to further improve this year.

“Taste is the gatekeeper for sustainable dietary change. These products represent a real breakthrough – where the more sustainable choice is also the more delicious one,” Tim Dale, category innovation director at FSI, Nectar’s parent organisation, told Green Queen. “Consumers don’t want to be convinced to love ‘better meat’. They want the meat they love to simply be made better.”

Courtesy: Madre Brava

It’s not just the Netherlands where Aldi has launched a blended meat product – it has also introduced a BBQ burger with 70% beef and 30% plants in Germany. It comes on the back of research suggesting that the best way for German retailers to meet their climate targets without breaking the bank is to replace 30% of their meat and dairy offerings with plant-based alternatives.

The largest market for plant-based food in Europe, retailers in Germany are leading the protein transition race. Lidl has announced a protein split target, while Rewe Group has unveiled a plant protein strategy. Now, Aldi has brought blended meat to the market, and the time is ripe for it to redeem its original attempt in the UK all those years ago.

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This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 29, 2025

5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Thia Ventures’s Mirasbek Kuterbekov

2 Mins Read
In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

Mirasbek Kuterbekov is the Principal at Thia Ventures.

What future food technologies most excite you?

I see huge potential in abiotic technologies such as cell-free manufacturing and chemical synthesis to unlock much better unit economics, beyond what is currently achievable with fermentation or cultivation.

What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?

The broader category of food as health, which encompasses several verticals from healthier ingredients to supplements, is top of mind for us.

What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

Giving consumers lots of choices to consume more fibre without sacrificing taste, texture, or convenience, best exemplified by probiotic sodas.

If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

Remove all subsidies from farmed meat.

What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

Obsessiveness, both with the problem they are addressing and the niche they operate in.

The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?

Spore.bio. They are leveraging computer vision to streamline quality control across industries, including food. We missed their pre-seed round and, unfortunately for us, also their Series A. Kudos to the team!

What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

Switch Bioworks gives me a lot of hope in our ability to displace synthetic fertilisers from our fields.

What has been your most disappointing investment so far?

I became an investor only two years ago, so I haven’t yet made a disappointing one so far. But time will surely change that, as bold bets necessarily carry risk.

What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

Most generous checks at the highest valuation don’t mean a particular VC is the best partner for you.

What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

Not this month, but a few weeks ago, I tried alternative chickpea-based coffee from Koppie, a Belgian startup.

Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

I will instead highlight my favourite ingredient: buckwheat, a hardy grain used to make delicious kasha and tasty galettes.

What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

Climate change is the biggest threat and opportunity for my generation.

The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Thia Ventures’s Mirasbek Kuterbekov appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 29, 2025

Meatly ‘Proves Critics Wrong’ with Dramatic Cost Reductions for Cultivated Pet Food

6 Mins Read
British pet food startup Meatly has announced a wave of breakthroughs that significantly slash the cost of cultivated meat, bringing it closer to price parity with chicken.

Food tech innovators are continuing to make advancements that close the price gap between cultivated meat and conventional animal proteins.

In the UK, Meatly has made waves over the last year after becoming the first company to be approved to sell cultivated meat in Europe, debuting cultivated treats for dogs on shelves in February.

That limited-edition, co-branded product – titled Chick Bites – was priced at £3.49 per 50g pouch – or £69.80 per kg. And that only contained 4% of cultivated meat. In comparison, an oven-baked chicken treat by Good Boy is priced at £23.08 per kg. Conventional dog food can be three times cheaper than cultivated meat right now, but that may be about to change.

Meatly has announced several tech breakthroughs in its production process, including the development of a new bioreactor and the optimisation of its protein-free culture medium, which allow the startup to inch closer to price parity with conventional chicken.

“Many have cast doubt that the industry would ever reach this point – but we’re pleased to prove these critics wrong,” says Meatly co-founder and chief scientific officer Helder Cruz. “We are showing the world that we can produce meat in a kinder, better way, and we can make it at a price which makes it easy for brands to incorporate Meatly Chicken as an affordable ingredient in their existing product range.”

Meatly breaks away from pharma bioreactors

A rendering of Meatly’s future cultivated meat facility | Courtesy: Meatly

According to consultancy giant McKinsey, to meet the industry’s growth demands, cultivated meat firms would need up to 22 times more fermentation capacity than currently exists in the global pharmaceutical sector.

But it’s not just the capacity. Much of the biotechnology created to make pharmaceuticals isn’t purpose-built for cultivated meat. The per-tonne demand for cultivated meat is seven times higher than for biopharma drugs produced from mammalian cell cultures.

There’s also a perception problem. People have more concerns about GMOs in food than in medicines, while the accepted ideal costs for biopharma drugs are between $500,000 and $1M. For cultivated meat, this is as low as $5-10 per kg.

It necessitates the need for more modern, purpose-built bioreactors. Meatly has successfully built and conducted a first cell growth run in a custom-designed, pilot-scale bioreactor with a capacity of 320 litres. It has the biocompatibility, longevity, scalability and overall performance to meet the cell culture requirements of an industrial-scale facility with multiple 20,000-litre bioreactors.

Meatly intends to develop tanks with the latter capacity as part of its next funding stage, but its new 320-litre equipment costs just £12,500 ($16,900), making it 95% cheaper than traditional fermenters, which can cost up to £250,000 ($338,000).

It is one of several companies that have announced bioreactor breakthroughs. US startup Mission Barns, whose cultivated pork was approved for sale in the country this year, has developed a novel bioreactor that makes a departure from the single-cell suspension tanks of the biopharma sector, making cultivated meat production more efficient, easier to scale, and cheaper.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Ever After Foods is working with Bühler Group to build a commercial-scale system that can produce cultivated meat using equipment at least 10 times smaller than the industry standard.

Culture media wins will enable price parity at scale

Courtesy: Meatly

Meatly’s second crucial advancement concerns its culture medium, a mix of nutrients that facilitate the growth of animal cells. Typically, culture media cost hundreds of pounds per litre and account for the majority of the costs involved in the entire process.

But last year, the London-based startup created a protein-free medium that contains no serum or animal-derived components, steroids, hormones, antibiotics or growth factors. The startup’s innovation is food-safe and used in its suspension culture bioreactors without microcarriers, which are typically needed to help cells proliferate and enhance their density.

This has lots of advantages when it comes to cost and quality controls. “But in the composition of the cells, not so much,” Cruz told Green Queen last year. “Of course, we can always play with some nutrients, but not necessarily proteins, to fine-tune the composition – like fatty acids, some amino acids and so on.”

Then, this culture medium cost £1 ($1.25 at the time) per litre. But now, it has further reduced this price to 22p (30 cents) per litre, which will further reduce to 1.5p (two cents) at industrial scale.

“We’ve achieved this reduction by successfully replacing costly components such as albumin, transferrin, insulin, and all growth factors in our culture media – an industry first,” Meatly co-founder and CEO Owen Ensor tells Green Queen.

“Additionally, we’ve managed to replicate performance using food-grade ingredients. This breakthrough has significantly lowered costs and improved supply chain resilience.”

Additionally, the medium is now capable of supporting cell growth for over 175 doublings, a substantial improvement on historical media performance. It will allow Meatly’s cultivated chicken to be priced competitively with average EU chicken breast prices once scaled.

Meatly confident in fundraising despite industry-wide downturn

Courtesy: Meatly

“Our continued development of this protein-free culture medium marks a significant milestone for both Meatly and the broader cultivated meat sector,” says Ensor. “By setting a new cost benchmark, we’re addressing one of the industry’s most persistent challenges – bringing production costs down to make cultivated meat commercially viable and reach price parity with traditional products.”

The company, which has raised £5M to date, is now kickstarting a funding round for a low-cost industrial facility to profitably scale production of its cultivated meat.

“We’re confident in securing the capital we need. While we’re not disclosing the exact target publicly at this stage, we have a healthy runway in place and are actively engaged with several interested partners,” says Ensor.

Convincing investors to bet on cultivated meat today is a tall order – the sector saw funding decline by 75% in 2023, and a further 40% in 2024. In fact, in the last three years, this sector has cumulatively raised less money than it did in 2021 alone.

Graphic by Green Queen

“We recognise that the current investment climate is more cautious, particularly within the cultivated meat sector, so we’re taking a measured approach. That said, we’re well-positioned to scale quickly once funding is secured. Updates like the ones we’re making today show how Meatly is focused on continuing to prove there is a fast, efficient way to scale cultivated meat,” says Ensor.

Fellow cultivated pet food startup BioCraft Pet Nutrition has also developed a plant-based growth medium that reduces the cost of its ingredient to $2-2.50 per lb. And in Israel, SuperMeat has made several breakthroughs to produce its cultivated chicken for $12 per lb, while Believer Meats has described how its continuous process can potentially produce cultivated chicken for $6 per lb at scale.

As for Meatly, Ensor notes that the Chick Bites were a “one-off” product launch. “We’re now working on providing our Meatly Chicken for additional products in the near future,” he says, without going into any specifics. He teases more information on new products “in the coming months”.

Its costs advancements are vital for the mainstream adoption of cultivated meat. According to a recent 4,000-person survey in Europe, three in five consumers feel cultivated meat will only be successful if it’s affordable for everyone. In fact, nearly half expect it to be cheaper than conventional meat, and only 15% would buy it if it’s more expensive (versus 60% who wouldn’t).

“By reaching price parity, it then becomes a simple and easy choice for consumers to buy better meat for their pets,” says Cruz.

The post Meatly ‘Proves Critics Wrong’ with Dramatic Cost Reductions for Cultivated Pet Food appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 28, 2025

Ahead of Singapore Approval, Gourmey Teases Cultivated Meat That Costs $3.40 Per Pound

6 Mins Read
A techno-economic analysis has found that French cultivated meat startup Gourmey’s bioreactor system can reach production costs of $3.43 per lb.

When you remove the politics of it all, people aren’t as resistant to cultivated meat as some would have you believe.

In a 16-country survey last year, support for the sale of these foods – if they pass regulatory assessments – ranged from 48-69% in Europe. Those who backed a ban on cultivated meat, meanwhile, were largely in the minority.

One of the most influential barriers to any potential intake of cultivated meat isn’t cultural, as Italy’s ban seems to suggest. Instead, it has to do with the price tag.

According to a 4,000-person survey in Europe, three in five consumers feel cultivated meat will only be successful if it’s affordable for everyone. In fact, nearly half expect it to be cheaper than conventional meat, and only 15% would buy it if it’s more expensive (versus 60% who wouldn’t).

While the cost of producing meat by culturing animal cells in bioreactors has long been prohibitive, things are changing quickly.

Among the companies spearheading the price shift is Gourmey, a French startup culturing duck cells to produce cultivated foie gras (and working on cultivated chicken and turkey too). It is pursuing approval in six markets, and was the first to file an application in the EU.

Courtesy: Sherry Hack

A techno-economic analysis by consulting firm Arthur D Little has revealed that the firm’s production model can dramatically lower costs, allowing it to potentially manufacture cultivated meat for as little as $3.43 per lb.

The assessment validates the economic viability of Gourmey’s 5,000-litre bioreactor system, and confirms that it can reach these costs without relying on speculative technologies or mega-scale infrastructure.

Gourmey CEO Nicolas Morin-Forest explains that the analysis was conducted on a finished product containing about half cultivated cells, with the rest made up of plant-based ingredients like fats or proteins. “This approach can hence apply to a very wide range of cultivated products,” he tells Green Queen.

How Gourmey keeps cultivated meat cost-effective

Founded in 2019 by Morin-Forest, Jérôme Caron and Antoine Davydoff, Gourmey’s platform is built around a “second-generation” technology stack that replaces legacy biopharma techniques with food-grade, cost-effective, scalable processes. It combines continuous production, undifferentiated cell biomass, and suspension-based cell cultures to support efficiency and consistency.

“One of the main reasons we can keep costs low is that we use stem cells with natural, endless self-renewal capabilities. These cells can be cultivated for very long periods, allowing us to continuously apply selective pressure and adapt them to the most efficient cell feed formulations, all while maximising yields,” explains Morin-Forest.

“Our stem cells are extremely robust and grow very quickly, doubling in less than 16 hours, which lets us reach exceptionally high cell densities,” he adds, outlining how this has enabled the breakthrough of its proprietary cell culture medium.

Courtesy: Sherry Hack

“Because our cells thrive without proteins or growth factors, we can bring our food-safe feed price down to around 20 cents per litre, just a fraction of what’s typical in the industry,” he says. “The stability and performance of our stem cells also make them ideally suited for continuous manufacturing, and we’re able to avoid traditional scale-up bottlenecks like scaffolding and micro-carriers to drive costs down even further.”

Arthur D Little’s analysis finds that Gourmey’s modular and repeatable platform can enable it to keep capital expenditure under €35M per facility, with an output of 1,700 tonnes using just six 5,000-litre bioreactors. These benchmarks can be met via “achievable and clearly defined process optimisations”, the startup says.

“The main levers are about relentlessly increasing cell densities by refining our proprietary, food-safe cell feed to reduce its cost while maintaining performance,” says Morin-Forest. “One of the industry’s challenges is minimising waste and making sure that every single compound in the cell feed is genuinely used for cell growth. We’re speeding up these developments with advanced modelling that predicts cellular behaviour, so we can cut iteration time.”

He adds: “Ultimately, much of the cost reduction comes from trivialities: scaling out by adding more bioreactors and unlocking economies of scale as we ramp up cell feed purchases, just like in any industry.”

Courtesy: Sherry Hack

Gourmey expects Singapore approval soon, hints at broader portfolio

Gourmey currently operates an innovation centre and a pilot facility in central Paris, where its team runs multiple 400L bioreactors. “In addition, we have a dedicated setup with a 5,000L bioreactor, the largest bioreactor for cultivated meat in Europe to our knowledge,” says Morin-Forest.

“Most of the scale effects on production cost are already delivered at the 5,000L scale, allowing us to reach $3.43/lb, or €7/kg in a commercial setup, without the need for even larger, unproven bioreactors.

Gourney”s approach keeps operational complexity, industrial risk, and capital needs much lower. Our production process is so efficient that scaling beyond 5,000 litres simply isn’t necessary.”

The company has so far raised €65M via public and private investments: when asked about future fundraising plans, it declined to comment. No other cultivated meat company has filed regulatory dossiers in as many markets as Gourmey, which is awaiting approval in the US, Singapore, the UK, Switzerland, the EU, and another undisclosed region.

“We expect our first approval in Singapore soon,” Morin-Forest reveals.

It has been gearing up for launch over the last year, forming an advisory board with Michelin-starred chefs Claude Le Tohic (One65), Rasmus Munk (Alchemist), and Daniel Calvert (Sézanne), holding talks with major protein producers, and securing deals with premium foodservice and distribution partners.

Three-Michelin-starrd chef and One65 owner Claude Le Tohic | Courtesy: Sherry Hack

Its cultivated foie gras is a high-margin product that takes on an industry marred in controversy. More than a dozen countries have banned the prized delicacy out of animal welfare concerns (geese and ducks are traditionally force-fed to fatten their liver). Gourmey’s version “significantly lowers the environmental footprint” and does away with the cruelty.

It is not the only company making cultivated foie gras. Australia’s Vow unveiled its innovation last year under its Forged brand and has rolled it out to restaurants in Singapore. It will launch in its home country later this year, following final ministerial approval.

As for Gourmey, the demand for their product is already outpacing its supply. “We’re a B2B company and our first customers are premium food wholesalers serving the world’s best tables,” says Morin-Forest. “Demand from premium food service and distribution partners now exceeds our planned production capacity.”

And it isn’t stopping here. “Cultivated foie gras is our launchpad for a broader portfolio, including additional poultry proteins and other species,” he says.

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May 28, 2025

Future Food Quick Bites: Quorn x Tom Cruise, Impossible Chicken & Cultivated Meat at Indy 500

5 Mins Read
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Impossible Foods’ new vegan chicken, Quorn’s Mission: Impossible collab, and a new kind of tempeh.

New products and launches

Mycoprotein pioneer Quorn has launched a summer marketing campaign with Paramount Pictures to align with the launch of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The brand hired a Tom Cruise lookalike to sign autographs in London’s West End while eating its Cocktail Sausages, and also has a Mission Snack Swap ad campaign featuring its farm animal puppets.

Courtesy: Quorn

British oat milk brand Minor Figures has teamed up with Nigo‘s lifestyle label Human Made on a clothing and accessory collection, featuring a sweatshirt, apron, milk bottle, milk sleeve, an art toy, and more. It will be featured at a pop-up at StandBy in Harajuku, Tokyo this weekend (May 31 to June 1).

Also in the UK, vegan meal kit maker Grubby has launched an eight-recipe menu featuring Symplicity Foods‘s plant-based meat alternatives. It includes a BBQ Smash Burger with Carrot Slaw, Hoi Sin Garlic Chilli Noodles, and Symplicity Schnitzel with Curried Potato Salad.

Courtesy: Impossible Foods

Plant-based meat leader Impossible Foods teased its new Crispy Chicken Fillets at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. It has 17g of protein and half as much saturated fat compared to conventional fillets, and will roll out at restaurants soon.

US startup LiveComplete will soon launch a new protein powder made using its NutriMatch technology, which blends plant proteins in a way that mirrors human muscles.

Courtesy: Upside Foods

To protest Indiana’s upcoming ban on cultivated meat (which comes into effect on July 1), Upside Foods served cultured chicken sandwiches at the Indianapolis 500 race on Memorial Day weekend.

Canadian vegan fast-food chain Odd Burger has earned an exclusive listing at 7-Eleven for four of its retail products. The Crispy ChickUn Fillet, Chickpea Burger, Smash Burger and Breakfast Sausage will be available at over 500 locations, with select stores stocking them from next month.

Courtesy: Daiya

Fellow Canadian plant-based company Daiya has introduced a single-serve cream cheese featuring its fermented oat cream. The 1oz packs are aimed at foodservice operators. It will soon also launch a dairy-free cheese sauce.

Danish biosolutions giant Novonesis has rolled out Vertera Velvet, an ingredient aimed at tackling weak foam and curdling in plant-based barista milks, with a specific focus on oat, pea and blended milks.

Courtesy: Umami Bioworks

And Singaporean food tech startup Umami Bioworks has partnered with Japanese seafood firm Maruha Nichiro to co-develop and commercialise cultivated tuna.

Company and finance updates

German retailer Rewe Group has joined Food Fermentation Europe, a trade association representing the fermentation-derived food sector.

Courtesy: Kind Kones

Singaporean vegan ice cream maker Kind Kones has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from female-led firm Epic Angels. It will use the capital to expand its presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, specifically Dubai.

Australian precision fermentation firm All G has filed a patent application for an infant formula innovation that includes all five major human breast milk proteins.

Courtesy: Solar Foods

Finnish gas protein firm Solar Foods has verified its pilot production parameters at an industrial scale at its first facility, confirming that the company’s upcoming Factory 02 will be profitable and enabling the production of its Solein protein in the US.

Fellow Nordic fermentation startup Norwegian Mycelium (or NoMy) has received €1.25M in a funding round led by Nippon Beet Sugar Manufacturing Co (Nitten), listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It comes months after the company set up a subsidiary in Japan.

Courtesy: NoMy

In the three months since its appearance on Dragons’ Den, where it earned €75,000 from investors Deborah Madden and Steven Bartlett, UK vegan dog food maker Omni has added 20,000 new customers with a 130% growth in sales. It is now approaching £10M in annualised revenue.

Research, policy and events

Drive-thru coffee chain 7 Brew has scrapped the dairy-free milk surcharge at all its 360 locations across the US.

Dutch cultivated pork startup Meatable will join the Alternative Proteins mission at the Dutch Pavilion at World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, next month to outline its optimisations in cell feed, which have helped reduce its preparation time from several days to just 30 minutes.

Courtesy: Meatable

Yet more research has come out proving the environmental superiority of plant-based eating. Focused on Iceland, the study found that vegan diets generate just half the emissions of an omnivore diet, and are overall more compliant with macronutrient recommendations.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one researcher is looking to develop a new kind of tempeh with peas and chickpeas. Backed by a four-year, $387,000 USDA Pulse Crop Health Initiative grant, the protein could help counteract health risks associated with the Western diet, like obesity, fatty liver, and diabetes.

Courtesy: Vivici

Finally, biotech startups Agrobiomics and Vivici have won the Feike Sijbesma Sustainable Innovation Award 2025 for their work in climate-resilient farming and precision-fermented protein production at the F&A Next conference in Wageningen. Each received a $12,500 prize.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

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May 27, 2025

Swap: French Plant-Based Chicken Startup Replaces SEO, Seeks Emergency Funding

4 Mins Read
The co-founder of French plant-based chicken startup Swap (ex-Umiami) has been forced to step down as CEO amid weak sales, with the firm reportedly needing $10M by the end of this year.

Swap, the Parisian vegan chicken firm formerly known as Umiami, is reportedly in financial trouble amid the wider slowdown of the plant-based meat category.

According to French financial news outlet L’Informé, the startup is looking to renegotiate its debts with its creditors after recording a turnover of just €1M ($1.1M) in 2024 and running into issues scaling up production and delayed commercial development.

The troubles have led to co-founder Tristan Maurel stepping down as CEO, moving to the role of board chairman. He has been replaced by former Mondelēz and Pierre Martinet executive Hervé Salomon.

Swap, which has raised $107M since being founded in 2019, is reportedly in need of immediate funding to stay afloat. According to L’Informé, the company requires €9M ($10.2M) by year-end, and nearly €30M ($34.1M) by the end of 2026.

Swap’s bet on international expansion

Courtesy: Swap

Maurel, Clémence Pedraza and Martin Habfast founded the startup as Umiami, built on its ‘Umisation’ texturising platform for producing whole-muscle replicas of conventional fillets like chicken and fish.

This involves a technique that transforms plant proteins into structured fibres without high heat or pressure. The tech was touted as a key reason why the company was able to produce plant-based meat with a handful of ingredients; Swap’s chicken features eight ingredients and no artificial flavours, colourants or texturisers.

The firm opened a 14,000 sq m facility in the Alsace region last year, backed by a €38M ($41.3M) investment with support from local and federal governments. It says it can produce 7,500 tonnes of plant-based meat annually, eventually rising to 20,000 tonnes.

In October, the company rebranded to Swap and launched into the US foodservice sector, targeting flexitarians via Chicago restaurants like Spirit Elephant, Soul Veg City, Majani, and Clucker’s Charcoal Chicken.

The brand refresh was positioned as a call to action to encourage “consumers to make a positive choice for themselves and for the planet”, and allowed Swap to expand beyond chicken fillets to all kinds of meat and fish analogues, broadening its future product development plans.

In April, Swap teamed up with Spain’s Heura Foods to launch a whole-cut chicken breast in over 3,000 stores in France, Spain and Portugal, with each firm labelling it a “turning point” for its European ambitions.

Plant-based meat’s struggles continue

Graphic by Green Queen

Despite these moves, Swap has not been immune to the larger headwinds of the alternative protein sector, especially in the US. Retail sales of plant-based meat fell by 7% in 2024, while in foodservice, these products have suffered a 10% annualised decline since 2022.

That has come amid a renewed appetite for meat, whose sales reached record highs in the US last year, compounded by growing consumer concerns about ultra-processed food. As a result, investors have remained cautious with their money, with financing in alternative protein startups falling by 27% in 2024. Plant-based startups were hit hardest, raising only $309M, a sharp 64% fall from the year before.

Swap’s troubles come despite its chicken being the recipient of a Tasty Award by sensory-based research firm Nectar, signalling that more than half of taste-testing omnivores found it to taste the same or better than conventional chicken.

Courtesy: Swap

It’s not alone, though. Beyond Meat, which also received a Tasty Award, posted a 9% decline in revenues in Q1 2025, with founder and CEO Ethan Brown labelling it a “disappointing” quarter reflecting “broader macroeconomic concerns and reduced consumer confidence”. The company received a $100M loan boost as it continues to evaluate further deals to address its $1.1M debt.

Swap’s troubles echo those of US-based clean-label mycelium meat startup Meati, which filed documents earlier this month that suggest it’s set to be sold for $4M two months after a bank unexpectedly swept most of its cash reserves due to a technical default. The firm has raised $450M to date and was valued at $650M in 2022.

Since 2024, several plant-based companies globally have been forced to cease operations or declare bankruptcy before being rescued, including Akua, Sunfed Meats, Willicroft, Mycorena, Allplants, and Wild Earth.

Others have been acquired by larger companies and investment firms: Wicked Kitchen, Nuggs, and Blackbird Foods were all taken over by Ahimsa Companies last year. In recent weeks, dairy giant Danone bought dairy-free kids nutrition brand Kate Farms, and yoghurt leader Chobani snapped up frozen ready meal maker Daily Harvest.

Back in Swap’s homeland, consumers are now more focused on whole foods like beans and grains, with their dietary habits driven by a health-first approach. The government has sought to ban meat-related terms on vegan packaging labels too, although top courts in the country and the EU rejected that attempt.

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May 27, 2025

GLP-1: Does Ozempic Make You Dislike Beef?

4 Mins Read
A recent survey found that people taking GLP-1 drugs reduce their consumption of certain foods, including beef – but the demand remains, which gives vegan food producers a leg up.

Can GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro be a boon for the plant-based category?

Previous research has already shown that consumers taking weight-loss medications have cut back on several food categories, like snacks, baked goods, salad dressings, and cheese.

According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Arkansas, GLP-1 users also drastically reduce their intake of beef, Coke, and processed foods. But while the latter may feel like a bad omen for meat analogues, they were among the categories with the lowest decline in consumption.

“Our study shows that adoption of GLP-1 agonists changes both the amount and types of food people eat,” said Jayson Lusk, dean of the university’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. “These results have important implications for the food industry.”

Here’s why: one in eight Americans has already injected a GLP-1 drug at some point. The number of regular users could rise to anywhere between 10 and 70 million by 2028, boosting the national GDP by 1%. And by the end of the decade, these medications are expected to command a $105B market.

Ozempic cuts beef intake in half – plant-based alternatives fare much better

Courtesy: Food Quality and Preference

The study, published in the Food Quality and Preferences journal, surveyed nearly 2,000 consumers, split between people who had either previously taken a GLP-1 drug, were currently using it, were planning to take it, or had never taken one and didn’t intend to start.

Processed foods suffered the biggest decrease in consumption after Ozempic, with around 65% of former and current users lowering their consumption of these products. Sodas and refined grains weren’t far behind, with approximately 50% cutting their intake.

Around 45% of Americans on GLP-1 drugs said they eat less beef now, which rises to half for those who used to inject them previously. Meanwhile, two in five current users also report reducing their pork consumption, while another 30% say the same for cow’s milk.

In contrast, the food groups that faced the lowest declines were plant-based meat and dairy, and whole foods. Meat analogues only saw around a 5% decrease among both current and former users, and represented the lowest drop in consumption among the latter. It shows that GLP-1 users’ aversion to processed foods didn’t affect vegan alternatives much.

Whole grains were on a similar path, though the post-Ozempic drop reached around 10%. For oat, almond and non-dairy milks, there was a negligible dip in consumption during the GLP-1 course, which grew to 10% after people stopped taking the drugs.

Meanwhile, around a sixth of consumers start eating more fruits when taking a weight-loss medication. That rises to about a third of Americans when it comes to leafy greens, and around 60% for water.

“If adoption of GLP-1s continues to increase, food companies will be challenged as demand for processed foods falls, but will have opportunities as demand for fruits and vegetables increases,” said Lusk.

Opportunities abound for plant-based companies

Courtesy: Actual Veggies

The findings have some interesting insights for food companies. The demand for processed foods and beef doesn’t reduce – to the contrary, GLP-1 users continued to desire these foods – but their consumption still declines anyway. One of the reasons is satiety. These drugs make you feel full and “reduce pleasure responses to fatty foods”, the researchers said.

There’s also the ‘Ozempic tongue’, which refers to a mechanism where people’s taste receptors react differently to foods than they did before GLP-1 use. “We know GLP-1s lessen the dopamine hit from food, making the experience less enjoyable, which could be why tastes start to shift,” Dr Daniel Rosen, an obesity specialist, told the Daily Mail.

“Think of seeing a photo of a juicy burger on a menu, and that first bite with the explosion of flavour in your mouth and juices dripping down to your chin,” he said. “If all of that is dampened or turned off in the brain because of the GLP-1 medications, you can see why someone would say food tastes different or that things don’t taste the same.”

Rosena added that he has seen meat-eaters stop eating steaks and sausages because they find them to have a “metallic” taste after taking Ozempic.

It represents a major opportunity for plant-based food producers. Beef consumption is going down among GLP-1 users, but the demand hasn’t gone anywhere. Meat-free companies have the advantage of fine-tuning the flavour properties of their products to satisfy people’s new taste buds, which conventional beef can’t do.

Similarly, plant-based milk companies can capitalise on the dairy decline by offering better-tasting, low-fat, and clean-label products. In fact, this was the category facing the greatest demand among respondents who were planning to start taking GLP-1s.

Still, the biggest winners could perhaps be whole-food-focused startups like Actual Veggies, which champions beans, greens and whole grains in their veggie burgers.

“We serve people who want to see and taste the vegetables in their burger. Our customers scrutinise ingredient labels, prioritise nutrition, and actually get excited about quinoa and beets,” Actual Veggies co-founder and co-CEO Jason Rosenbaum told Green Queen in February. “We’re building for the growing segment that wants their food minimally processed and their vegetables front and centre.”

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May 26, 2025

Tofu Emerges As Bright Spot in Embattled US Plant-Based Category

6 Mins Read
US sales of plant-based food fell by 4% and 5% in retail and foodservice last year, respectively, but they held steady above the $8B mark for the third year in a row.

Despite widespread sales declines across the plant-based category, more Americans now like the taste of these foods, while health concerns continue to drive many away from animal proteins.

The slowdown of the vegan food sector has been well-documented over the last couple of years, though there are several caveats to it: some segments are more popular than others, household penetration remains strong (59%, with a 79% repeat rate), and the industry is better off now than it was in 2020 (at least in term of sales).

For instance, Americans spent 4% less on these foods in supermarkets last year, while foodservice sales were down by 5%. At $8.1B, retail purchases were still up by 14% compared to the beginning of the pandemic, with foodservice seeing a 19% increase ($289M).

“Given the enormous diversity of the plant ingredients that make up its products, the unique and compelling opportunities to foster customer loyalty and generate substantial incremental sales are essentially boundless,” notes the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA) in its 2024 State of the Marketplace report.

Here are the key takeaways from the research:

While health is a critical lever, taste is gaining ground

Courtesy: PBFA

According to PBFA’s analysis of Kroger shopper data with the retailer’s insights firm, 84.51°, two in five Americans are reducing milk intake in favour of plant-based alternatives, and a quarter are doing the same for fresh meat.

Asked why they’re making the switch, nearly half (48%) said they felt vegan foods are healthier, and 36% wanted to eat fewer animal proteins due to personal health concerns.

Interestingly, though, the share of consumers motivated by health remained the same at the end of 2024 as it did six months prior, but rose across a number of other factors. Only 23% said they were shifting from animal- to plant-based foods because they liked the latter’s taste in May, and this grew to 36% in December.

Similarly, 36% agreed they’re better for the climate (versus 30% earlier in the year), and 29% were doing so out of animal welfare concerns (compared to 23% in May 2024).

When assessing how companies can attract more consumers, there was a clear winning factor: price promotions. Discounts and coupon offers would make it easier for 63% of Americans to buy plant-based foods, followed by more recipe ideas (34%) and greater education about these products (31%).

2024 saw the resurgence of coconut milk

Courtesy: PBFA

While sales of plant-based milk fell by 4% in 2024, at $2.8B, this is comfortably the largest segment in the sector, accounting for 35% of all sales.

Almond milk remains the dominant alternative (capturing 54% of the market), though Americans spent 7.5% less on it last year. Oat milk flatlined (-1%) and rice milk was down too (-9%). Soy milk, however, saw a minor increase (2%), and coconut milk enjoyed a growth of 14% (reaching $149M).

Despite the spate of new plant-based milks – from pistachios and pecans to sunflower seeds and bananas – these emerging products saw a 14% decrease in sales, as did products that blend multiple ingredients for their base (-7%).

However, plant-based milk did see a significant increase in dollar and unit sales in foodservice last year, outpacing the growth of conventional dairy.

Whole cuts represent a major opening for plant-based meat

Courtesy: PBFA

Meat and seafood analogues suffered from a 10% annualised decline between 2022 and 2024, reflecting the challenges facing the category’s poster-child segment.

That has come amid a renewed appetite for meat, which saw record sales in the US last year, as the manosphere and political shift changes the way Americans eat now. Vegan meat has also been plagued by the ultra-processed food tag, exacerbated by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. PBFA’s research shows that people who believe plant-based foods “contain excessive artificial ingredients” rose from 20% to 25% in the past year.

Vegan alternatives to meat and seafood only reached 13% of US households last year, though retained a strong repeat purchase rate of 63%. And not all products fell out of favour: shreds, chunks and strips saw sales grow by 8%.

Whole-cut analogues such as steaks, filets and cutlets – 60% of which are either chicken or seafood analogues – experienced an even larger increase (16%), outlining the opportunity for companies in this space.

Tofu takes over the US market

Courtesy: PBFA

The report mentions a “growing consumer preference for plant-forward foods that highlight plants and their application potential as distinct and limitless, rather than an industry confined to solely mimicking animal products”.

Indeed, as meat analogues falter, traditional plant proteins like tofu, tempeh and seitan are gaining ground. These products racked up $221M in dollar sales last year, a 7% increase from 2023 and unit sales were up 6.5%.

Unseasoned tofu performed “exceptionally well”, recording a 10% growth in dollar sales and capturing 78% of the tofu market. That said, these age-old products still only ended up in 7% of homes in 2024, although 59% returned to the store for more.

Other categories that experienced a significant retail boost in 2024 included protein powders and liquids (+11%), and baked goods (13%).

Further, tofu emerged as a star ingredient in foodservice, witnessing the largest (and in some cases, only) increases in this segment last year. Government catering services spent nearly 60% more on tofu in 2024, with business and industry operators coming close.

Courtesy: PBFA

Animal protein prices are on the rise – plants are not

One of the most common complaints about plant-based food is its still-significant price gap with meat, dairy and eggs. However, PBFA’s report shows that the supply chain volatilities of 2024 hit animal proteins harder.

The average retail price grew across all animal-based food categories, with eggs unsurprisingly registering the largest hike (6%), followed by butter (3%), creamer (3%), and cheese (2%).

At the same time, prices for four plant-based categories actually declined. Vegan butter and ice cream were 3% cheaper in 2024 than the year before, while the cost of non-dairy creamers and cheese fell by 1%. And while milk alternatives were 1% more expensive, their price hike was lower than the 2% experienced by cow’s milk.

Vegan yoghurt and plant-based meat were among the only categories whose prices rose faster than their conventional counterparts. While eggs were also shown to have an increase, previous research shows that data on unit sales and price changes here is somewhat skewed as the market-leading product shifted to a larger pack size and thus a comparably higher price point.

Courtesy: PBFA

“While interest in plant-based remains strong across categories, we’ve entered a new stage of the adoption curve: today’s consumers are motivated by different factors than before,” said Hunter White, plant-based category manager at KeHe Distributors. “Across our network, we see clear opportunities for clean-label products that align with broader food trends like high protein content, innovative global flavours, and gut health.”

He added: “The next wave of success will belong to those who evolve their products and sets with intention, tapping into these emerging consumer shifts.”

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May 26, 2025

A Quarter of Germans Would Eat 3D-Printed Cultivated Meat

4 Mins Read
In Germany, a quarter of consumers are open to trying cultivated meat made from a 3D printer, a much greater share than in 2019.

As Europe’s leading plant-based market, Germany has always shown openness to food tech innovation, especially its youth.

Last year, one survey found that young Germans trust food produced via new technologies and are willing to buy it three times more than older respondents, who worry about potential health risks.

Now, another poll shows similar results, with 24% of Germans open to trying cultivated meat produced in bioreactors and formed with a 3D printer, much higher than the 13% who said the same six years ago – but older generations seem the least likely to want to give such products a go.

Conducted by Bitkom Research, the survey covered 1,004 Germans aged 16 and over between March and April this year, who were asked if they could imagine eating 3D-printed cultivated meat, and what drove or kept them from doing so.

Cost remains a big concern for 3D-printed cultivated meat

Openness to novel food was greatest among 30- to 49-year-olds, 35% of whom expressed interest in trying 3D-printed meat. This was followed by the 16-29 age group (33%).

However, only 18% of 50- to 64-year-olds say they’d eat cultivated meat made this way, a number that falls to 16% among those aged 65 and over.

That said, about a third (31%) of consumers are convinced that cultivated meat from a 3D printer can contribute to a more sustainable food system. While that’s proof that Germans are aware of the climate benefits of these proteins, it highlights the need for further education.

Perhaps more crucial to consumers is the cost to their wallet, with only 7% willing to pay more for these foods. In fact, a sixth of them viewed 3D-printed food as purely a luxury product.

It’s reflective of a key bottleneck for the cultivated meat industry. Since it’s a new technology currently being produced on a small scale, these proteins are expensive. A lot of work has been done over the last decade to bring prices down – and dramatically so, in some cases. According to McKinsey, it will take until at least 2030 for cultivated meat to be cost-competitive with its conventional counterparts.

And in line with some expectations from the survey, some cultured meat startups have focused on high-value species and positioned them as premium products for the cost economics to make more sense. For example, BlueNalu is working on bluefin tuna toro, Forsea Foods on Japanese eel, and Vow on quail and foie gras.

Germans are also most likely to be introduced to these proteins through a foie gras product, with Parisian startup Gourmey submitting the EU’s first regulatory dossier for cultivated meat last year. Months later, Dutch firm Mosa Meat applied to the EU for its cultivated beef fat, which is mixed with plant-based ingredients to produce burgers and reduce overall costs.

Germans envision 3D-printers becoming mainstream

Courtesy: Steakholder Foods

“Food printers are currently still relatively expensive and rely on specialised ingredients. Therefore, they are not yet suitable for mass production, but are primarily used in the catering and food industry,” explained Margareta Maier, digital farming officer at Bitkom.

Still, 16% of Germans say they’d like to use a 3D printer to produce food tailored to their preferences and needs, and 15% believe they will become an integral kitchen equipment in the future.

“The process makes it possible to give products an appearance and texture similar to conventional meat – but with a significantly smaller ecological footprint,” Maier said. “More and more people are open to plant-based alternatives and innovative technologies – 3D-printed food could therefore become even more important in the future.”

Cultivated meat manufacturers often use 3D printing to build scaffolds that dictate how cells grow and differentiate. Israel’s Steakholder Foods, Believer Meats and Aleph Farms, and California’s Good Meat BlueNalu have all been known to leverage this tech.

3D printing is among a number of techniques used to make scaffolds, with manufacturers also able to use polymer spinning technologies (like electrospinning), decellularisation, hydrogels, and even mycelium.

Germans’ receptiveness to the tech, though, chimes with previous research. One survey found that nearly half (47%) of its citizens say they would eat cultivated meat, and that the government should support its development and help farmers capitalise on the opportunities. This comes at a time when more and more Germans are cutting back on meat; a third of its consumer want to reduce their meat consumption, and 38% want to replace it with plant-based food.

“From food tech in industry and gastronomy to smart farming in the field and in the stable, digital technologies play a central role in saving resources in food production and making agriculture more environmentally friendly, robust, and animal-friendly,” said Maier.

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May 23, 2025

Op-Ed: Ultra-Processed Foods Are A Health Issue… for the Planet

4 Mins Read
Dr Sarah Ison, global director of research at Madre Brava, argues that the ultra-processed food discourse is helping worsen climate change.

Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are dominating news sites, opinion pages and influencers’ social posts. They are a tempting subject for posts that have a fraction of a second to get your attention, given they relate to food and health, something we are all interested in to some extent.

But, beyond health, UPFs could also be a key climate and environment issue, and the lack of nuance in the debate swirling around them could be slowing progress in a vital area of climate action.

It’s not often arguing for balance is considered radical, but in the case of UPFs, attempts at nuance are increasingly difficult as the debate becomes ultra-polarised and ‘UPF’ becomes a dirty acronym. And this polarisation is eroding confidence in a type of food which can help reduce emissions from food.

Food generates around one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, with animal foods producing twice the emissions of plant foods, around 20% of all human-induced emissions. Animal agriculture also has a huge impact on wildlife decline and freshwater use. It contributes to an increased risk of future pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and can cause immense suffering to farmed animals.

Globally, 58% of protein comes from plants and 42% from animals. High-income countries get 65% from animals, compared with 20% in low-income countries. And in most nations, people consume more protein than health experts say they need.

Too much red and processed meat and not enough plants is stoking levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer. So dietary change, most importantly, protein diversification, can improve health, as well as tackle climate change and restore nature.

Plant-based meat alternatives, are a sustainable alternative to meat, in addition to whole plant protein foods such as legumes, nuts and seeds and minimally processed tofu and tempeh.

But there are signs that these products, which had soared in popularity, have started to fall victim to the polarising debate around UPFs.

Plant-based alternatives should be compared to meat

Courtesy: ProVeg International

The first, and most obvious, issue with the UPF label is that it doesn’t discriminate. Not all UPFs are created equal. There is a vast difference between cookies and sweets on the one hand and wholewheat breakfast cereals fortified with vitamins on the other, but they can fall into the same category in many people’s minds.

Looking at meat analogues, they are classified as ultra-processed due to the multiple types of ingredients they contain. This has led to concerns about their health credentials.

But we should not be comparing them to whole grains; we should be comparing them to their meat-based counterparts. When we do that, we see clearly that they have better nutrition profiles (higher fibre, less fat and saturated fat) and can equal the protein content of your ‘regular’ burger or sausage.

Expanding this to include soy milk, recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses demonstrate health benefits when substituting plant-based meats for conventional meat and soy for cow’s milk. For meat substitutes, key benefits were reductions in cholesterol and modest weight loss, with more pronounced benefits with mycoprotein-based products like Quorn. Soy milk substitution reduced bad and increased good cholesterol, as well as decreased blood pressure and a marker of inflammation.

Importantly, neither showed negative health impacts. For soy milk, these benefits were consistent regardless of whether products contained added sugars.

These findings suggest plant-based alternatives can play a positive role in cardiovascular health by reducing cholesterol, with soy milk offering additional benefits for blood pressure and inflammation, and meat substitutes for weight loss.

Read Green Queen’s FAQ guide on ultra-processed foods and plant-based meat.

The misinformation cycle has left consumers confused

Illustration by Green Queen

The evidence supports their inclusion in healthy diets, particularly given the need to address the climate, nature and human health crises by reducing meat and dairy.

Again, nuance is crucial here: inclusion in healthy diets. They are not designed to be a dominant part of one’s diet. More research is needed to understand why UPFs are linked to poor health – the mechanisms are still not clear.

Plant-based meat manufacturers should also be following the science. Keep added salt and sugar to a minimum, keep up with the evidence and adjust accordingly.

Finally, there are those who benefit from the lack of nuance in the conversation around meat alternatives. Questioning the health credentials of plant-based meat and milk, while ignoring the evidence about those of their animal-based counterparts, is becoming a tried and tested tactic, most spectacularly demonstrated in this 2020 Super Bowl advert.

So what are consumers supposed to do? People who want to introduce more plants to their plates could be forgiven for feeling confused by the avalanche of competing messages around plant-based meat.

Research in this area is exploding, so it is incumbent on all to act in the best interests of people’s health, and that of the planet, by contributing to high-quality information that helps us understand the effect of different foods and not seek to cherry-pick or weaponise individual studies.

After all, our health – and that of the planet – is at stake.

The post Op-Ed: Ultra-Processed Foods Are A Health Issue… for the Planet appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.
May 23, 2025

Amazon of Synbio? This E-Shop Wants to Sell Cultivated Meat Across Europe

5 Mins Read
Cultivated meat isn’t approved for sale in Europe yet – but that hasn’t stopped this entrepreneur from setting up an online shop for these proteins.

Forget Michelin-starred restaurants and famed butcheries. What if you could get cultivated meat delivered to your doorstep at the click of a button?

David Bell has taken that idea and run with it. An e-commerce and digital marketing expert by day, he has established an online store for cultivated meat in 18 European countries, even though regulatory approval for these novel foods is at least a year away in the EU.

“Everything starts before it’s ready. Waiting until products are on the shelf means playing catch-up,” Bell explains when asked why he decided to set up the e-store now.

“Launching now gives us time to build awareness and visibility, educate the public, earn search presence and digital momentum, and position ourselves as the natural home for cultivated products,” he adds. “This space is moving fast. We’re creating the infrastructure before it’s urgently needed.”

The website is CultivatedMeat.co.uk, and Bell aims to list a vast range of cultivated meat products (some, like crocodile, aren’t in development commercially, though Australian startup Vow has previously said it is working with the animal’s cells), as well as offering educational guides and a blog with science and industry news. “We’ve built a site that makes cultivated meat visible and tangible, even in concept,” he says.

He’s based in the UK, where cultivated meat briefly appeared on shelves earlier this year – albeit for pet food. “We’ve secured the cultivated meat domains in 18 other European countries, so local versions will roll out imminently,” Bell notes. “Each of these will be localised as approvals come through.”

Will an online shop work for cultivated meat?

Courtesy: CultivatedMeat

Bell has been vegan for 13 years, primarily for ethical reasons – the health benefits were a bonus. “Even so, I’ve always missed the taste and cultural aspects of meat. I just never thought there’d be an alternative that made sense to me,” he says. “Cultivated meat makes it possible to eat real meat again without causing suffering.”

The website has sections for a variety of species, from beef, chicken and pork to duck, seafood, and even kangaroo meat, each of which is displayed next to an image of the living animal. Aside from the shop, it has guides and blogs describing how cultivated meat is made, its environmental benefits, and how you can cook it at home.

So far, the few cultivated meat products that have made it to market have been launched into either high-end restaurants or premium butcher shops. In the US, Mission Barns’s cultivated pork products will be the first to debut in a supermarket when they roll out at Sprouts Farmers Market later this year.

“That’s normal at the start – small batches, tight control. But long-term, consumer access will be the game-changer,” says Bell, explaining the rationale behind an e-store.

“Early adopters will be looking online first. That’s always how new categories start,” he suggests, outlining the Internet’s capability to build “clustered interest, niche education, and targeted communities”.

“Even as cultivated meat moves into the mainstream, physical retailers won’t carry every product, but we will. This site becomes the long-tail destination for the full range of cultivated meat options,” he says. “An online store also allows controlled launches per country, direct-to-consumer storytelling, data feedback for producers, and a single point of discovery for all cultivated meat.”

Is ‘cultivated meat’ the best term to attract consumers? “Yes. It’s the most widely accepted term across media, policy, and industry. It avoids the baggage of ‘lab-grown’ while clearly describing what it is,” he contends. “Personally, as a long-time vegan, I see cultivated meat as a reconciliation of ethics, science, and taste. The word reflects that balance.”

As he waits for cultivated meat to be approved for human food in Europe, his platform is focused on building its email waitlist, publishing educational content, and developing partnerships. “It’s not just a shop – it’s a public front door for the cultivated meat movement from a consumer perspective,” he notes.

Courtesy: CultivatedMeat

Cultivated meat startups in talks with online store

Speaking of partnerships, Bell is already in talks with several cultivated meat firms, both in Europe and beyond. “We’re shaping what launch partnerships might look like,” he says.

He says he is in contact with several organisations across the ecosystem. “We bring the consumer front-end. That makes us a useful partner for groups focused on research, policy, or production,” he explains.

CultivatedMeat’s business model is flexible, both in terms of revenue and logistics. The platform will handle distribution in some cases, and pass it on to producers or third-party firms in others.

“We already have access to specialist cold chain partners for frozen and chilled delivery for when this is ready,” he notes. “Most early product rollouts will be closely managed, so logistics will be smaller-scale and controllable to begin with.”

As for the revenue stream, some partnerships might follow a classic buy-sell model, and others might be based on a margin, affiliate, or distribution partnership. “Longer term, revenue will come from retail markups or commissions, exclusive product collaborations, brand placement and launch support, sponsored content, and media visibility,” outlines Bell.

Courtesy: Romain Buisson/Gourmey

So far, only two cultivated meat companies have publicly filed for novel food approval in the EU: France’s Gourmey (for foie gras) and Dutch startup Mosa Meat (for beef fat). The process can take around 18 months, and Gourmey has indicated its plans to sell its product via restaurants by 2026.

Both these firms have applied in Switzerland and the UK, as has Israeli cultivated beef producer Aleph Farms. The latter country is a frontrunner in Europe – it has already approved Meatly’s chicken for pet food applications, and is assessing human-focused applications from Vital Meat and Ivy Farm Technologies too.

Bell is leveraging his online expertise to be ready for when these regulators eventually greenlight the products for sale. “As someone who’s worked in digital commerce for years, launching this platform felt like the most natural and meaningful thing I could do,” he says. “I’m just combining what I know about online ecosystems and ethical consumerism to help move this space forward.”

The post Amazon of Synbio? This E-Shop Wants to Sell Cultivated Meat Across Europe appeared first on Green Queen.

This post was originally published on Green Queen.