radiofree.asia

Category: Alt Protein

  • Chicken-Free Moment: Eat Just Sees Sales Boom Amidst ‘Great American Egg Shortage’

    eat just
    8 Mins Read

    Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick says soaring egg prices have driven up demand for its mung-bean-derived Just Egg, with sales hikes unlike what the firm has seen in the past.

    Eggs have never been more expensive in the US. According to consumer price index data released by the USDA last weekend, average retail Grade A egg prices reached $4.95 per dozen last month, surpassing the previous high recorded in January 2023.

    The new record came just as 23 million birds were culled in January due to this latest wave of avian flu (taking the total to nearly 160 million since February 2022). “It’s the most serious bird flu crisis in history,” says Josh Tetrick. “It’s spreading faster than ever before.”

    egg prices
    Courtesy: Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Tetrick is the co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, the company behind Just Egg that is very much meeting the moment. “Egg shelves are empty, except for one product, and it happens to be made from plants,” he tells Green Queen on a phone call. “It’s both an extraordinary and strange moment.”

    This is because millions of Americans are being exposed to a vegan egg for the very first time, he says, and his company takes up 99% of that market. “If they want eggs, they [only] have a few choices,” notes Tetrick. “One, don’t eat them. Two, you know, have applesauce. Or three, have Just Egg.”

    This time last year, the firm said it had sold the equivalent of half a billion chicken eggs since its launch in 2019. Now, with the egg shortage more dire than ever, Eat Just’s mung-bean-based version is “seeing increases in sales like we didn’t see in the past”.

    In January alone, Just Egg’s sales grew five times faster than in the past year, while 56% of shoppers have returned to buy more (a three-point increase from 2024). At one of the country’s largest retailers, its sales are up by 70% compared to the same week last year.

    The plant-based company makes a refrigerated liquid alternative, a frozen omelette-style folded product and a just-relaunched mayonnaise range.

    josh tetrick
    Courtesy: Just Egg

    “We have some of the largest chains in the country reaching out to us – on the foodservice side, the convenience store side – saying they don’t know when this is going to end, and they want to bring in something that’s more reliable and more permanent, i.e., what we’re doing,” says Tetrick.

    Restaurants are feeling the pinch, too. Popular breakfast chain Waffle House has introduced a temporary 50-cent surcharge per egg, and some bakeries are switching to vegan eggs. One local cafe in Philadelphia – 90% of whose menu depends on eggs – told the Guardian that a plate of bacon, eggs and toast with coffee now costs twice as much as it did last year.

    This, Tetrick feels, is a moment for the sustainable protein sector – to show that there’s a different, safer, healthier and more reliable way to produce eggs than farming birds in concentrated feeding operations: “This is a real moment in time for the plant-based industry to prove that it’s up to the challenge.”

    Eat Just offering free cases to restaurants and retailers

    just egg
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Eat Just is witnessing greater demand across retail and foodservice, including local diners and cafés, mom-and-pop stores, and caterers that supply to universities (like Sodexo). “People are wanting to order more because consumers are going through the product faster because there are fewer options – i.e. chicken eggs – available,” says Tetrick.

    Currently, more than 70% of its sales come from the retail channel, with the pourable liquid format its most popular product (followed by the foldable egg patty).

    To expand its uptake, though, Tetrick says Eat Just is incentivising restaurants and retailers by providing them with a free case of Just Egg and other discounts. This helps them bring the product in for the first time and ensure they have a supply of eggs, which they struggle to do “when they’re only relying on chickens”.

    While it’s hard to find eggs on supermarket shelves right now, Just Egg is available in over 40,000 stores today. “Almost every major retailer carries Just Egg. But we do have gaps, and we expect to fill more of those gaps in the next few months,” he says.

    egg shortage
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    The firm’s manufacturing facility in western Minnesota has enough capacity to double its production if needed – though it’ll need to be expanded if it needs to produce more than that. “Then we have partner facilities that we work with. We send the protein, and they have plenty of capacity also,” says Tetrick.

    He adds: “We are scheduling more days of production. We’re ordering more materials, like packaging, ahead of time to ensure that we’re prepared for even more orders than we might even anticipate.”

    Tetrick says that Just Egg is cheaper than chicken eggs in some parts of the country (its 16oz liquid egg carton, equivalent to about 10 eggs, retails for US$7.36 at Walmart) right now. In some places, consumers and restaurants are paying up to $7 per dozen for the latter, while wholesale prices of white-shell eggs now stand at $8 per dozen.

    Recently published research suggests that undercutting the cost of animal proteins is the most effective purchase driver for plant-based food, so Eat Just needs to find a way to continue to lower costs and stay cheaper beyond the current egg price hike caused by supply shortages.

    Tetrick says the company is working on it. To make its egg alternatives, Eat Just separates protein from mung beans, a process responsible for roughly half of the cost of production. “The more efficiently we can [do that], the lower our cost is,” Tetrick explains. “So we’re devising more and more processes to reduce the cost of protein, using techniques to yield up and having a higher throughput.”

    Chicken egg makers stuck in a cycle

    vegan eggs
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Nearly all Americans (94% of them) eat eggs. It’s by far the most widely consumed animal protein in the country. “I don’t remember a time in the United States when a major animal protein is literally not on shelves anymore, in many of the biggest grocery stores,” Tetrick points out. “People have a hard time finding it.”

    It’s not the first big wave of bird flu to hit the US egg industry in recent years. And when prices skyrocketed last time, they returned to normal levels in the months that followed. However, this wave appears worse.

    This time, the avian flu is “objectively” bigger, in terms of the number of birds affected, and the impact on egg prices and the supply chain. Tetrick believes this is happening because of the “inherent nature of the system”.

    just egg ingredients
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    “To make eggs for a country of 350 million people, it means one very basic thing: you have to pack lots of animals in small spaces. And when you do that, because basic biology is a thing, those animals will just get sick, and that’s going to keep happening,” he says.

    “The industry can’t get out of that cycle. Move them closer. They get sick. Then there’s avian flu, and then you’ve got to kill lots of them. And then the egg shelves are empty. And here we go again,” he adds. “More and more retailers are realising that that is a fact, and they’re beginning to think through what the world will look like when that continues to happen.”

    In Tetrick’s ideal world, you’ll have more pasture-raised eggs at higher prices, and a greater number of plant-based alternatives.

    He acknowledges that the current reality is far from his vision. “It’s quite different from what the egg shelves look like today, though,” he says.

    An inflection point for the plant-based industry

    egg crisis
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    To date, Eat Just has raised over $850M in venture capital, with existing investor VegInvest/Ahimsa Foundation pouring in $16M in the last publicly announced investment in 2023. At the time, there were suggestions that the company was facing a cash squeeze.

    But Tetrick confirms that the company has healthy cash flow and isn’t looking to fundraise at the moment: “We sell every Just Egg product at a positive margin, and it’s able to support the key functions of the company, so it can continue to grow faster.”

    Chicken-free eggs made up just 0.5% of the plant-based retail market in the US in 2023, having been bought by just 1% of households. However, with bird flu and soaring chicken egg prices, the category is set to expand faster now.

    According to Tetrick, Eat Just is the 17th largest egg company in the US today: “And we’re growing everywhere – retail, foodservice, everything.”

    just eggs
    Courtesy: Box Clever/Eat Just

    This is a moment for the sustainable protein sector to prove itself. “We have to prove that we can be in stock. We have to prove that we can make a nice omelette. We have to prove that we can continue to do it consistently,” he says. “And if we do that, we think this could be a real inflection point where millions of people move from a conventional egg to something that we think is a lot better. And it’s a broader statement about what plant-based can be.”

    Just Egg makes up “99.999% of our sales”, says Tetrick – the rest comes from its cultivated meat arm, Good Meat. “We are the reliable egg today, and we cannot let this moment pass,” he says. “We’ve got to deliver on time, and in full. We’ve got to make sure that we’re making sufficient product. We need to make sure that if there’s any out-of-stocks around the country that we even hear of anecdotally, we’re on top of it, within hours.

    “When we look back 20 years from now, I think it’ll be one of the most important moments in the plant-based industry. And I hope we meet it.”

    The post Chicken-Free Moment: Eat Just Sees Sales Boom Amidst ‘Great American Egg Shortage’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Aussie Government Invests in Cultivated Meat Startup with A$100K Grant

    magic valley
    4 Mins Read

    Magic Valley, a Melbourne-based producer of cultivated meat, has received A$100,000 in government funding to scale up production and drive down costs.

    Aussie food tech startup Magic Valley has secured A$100,000 ($62,800) from the national government to transition from research to commercial production of cultivated meat.

    The grant is part of the A$392M Industry Growth Program (IGP), which aligns with the government’s National Reconstruction Fund priorities, including agricultural value-adding and low-emissions technologies.

    The investment will help Magic Valley, which specialises in cultivated pork and lamb, accelerate production, optimise bioprocessing, and drive down costs, which it says are key steps on its path to market.

    How Magic Valley makes its cultivated meat

    lab grown meat australia
    Courtesy: Magic Valley

    Founded in 2020 by CEO Paul Bevan, Magic Valley unveiled a cultivated lamb product in 2022, targeting one of the most polluting products in the food system (it ranks only behind beef and dark chocolate). It then ventured into cultivated pork with a minced product, which the startup has indicated it can produce for A$8 per kg.

    Magic Valley’s technology doesn’t require fetal bovine serum, and taps into 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 company, its process can reduce its proteins’ emissions by 92%, land use by 95%, and water use by 78% compared to their conventional counterparts.

    In 2023, it collaborated with Washington-based Biocellion SPC to enhance its bioreactor design and optimise production, and expanded into a new pilot facility at bio-innovator and incubator Co-Labs. This plant can house bioreactors with a capacity of up to 3,000 litres, allowing it to potentially produce 150,000 kgs of cultivated meat annually.

    lab grown pork
    Courtesy: Magic Valley

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

    While cultivated lamb is a relatively niche category, there are several startups working on cultivated pork, including Meatable, Ivy Farm Technologies, Mission Barns, Fork & Good, Simple Planet, MyriaMeat, Mewery, and Meatiply.

    Banking on Australia’s tapered appetite for meat

    It was one of five startups to receive the latest round of grants under the IGP, which supports small and medium-sized businesses that play a crucial role in the economy but can find it difficult to come to market. The scheme focuses on several verticals, from renewables and medical science to defence and agriculture.

    IGP supports enterprises in commercialising their ideas, growing their operations, expanding to national and international markets, and better positioning themselves to secure future investment and scaling opportunities.

    lab grown meat australia
    Courtesy: Magic Valley

    “This funding turbocharges our ability to scale. We’re not just making meat – we’re creating the future of food. And this support from the Australian government signals that they believe in that future too,” said Bevan.

    It comes at a time when more and more Australians are cutting back on meat, with 42% now either reducing or not consuming animal protein at all. Last year alone, a quarter had lowered their meat intake, and another 14% were planning to do so too.

    However, 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 also shows that when it comes to alternative protein policies, Australia ranks bottom on the list of the 10 most supportive governments in Asia-Pacific. So investments like the one in Magic Valley are a welcome step.

    australia meat consumption
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    While Cass Materials, Infinite Bioworks, and Smart MCs are all developing products and services to help manufacturers make cultivated meat, the only two companies actively producing these proteins are Magic Valley and Vow.

    The latter is already selling its cultivated quail and foie gras in Singapore and Hong Kong, and is awaiting approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Magic Valley has indicated that it was working closely with the regulator on the compliance and safety of its cultivated pork, and previously suggested that it could commercially launch the product this year.

    The post Aussie Government Invests in Cultivated Meat Startup with A$100K Grant appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Heather Mills On Plant-Based: Sector Will Boom Again, Because It Has To

    heather mills
    4 Mins Read

    British vegan entrepreneur Heather Mills, founder of legacy brand VBites, on what’s going wrong for the plant-based industry – and how it can move forward.

    Having spent decades in the vegan food sector and collaborating with a small group of like-minded individuals to raise awareness about the urgent need to protect animals, the planet, and our health, we were delighted to witness the tremendous growth in this movement over the past five years.

    We would like to take credit for it – and we definitely should, as far as making the best products are concerned at VBites.

    However, the real reason for the growth was the sale of three vegan/vegetarian food companies for hundreds of millions of dollars: Quorn, Daiya, and then the IPO of Beyond Meat (which took its market cap to $12B at one point).

    At the time, I warned these companies that they should have their messaging ready for the pushback from the meat and dairy industry. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen and that huge $12B valuation dropped to under $500M for Beyond Meat.

    The meat and dairy industry became afraid because they did not have ownership and control of the vegan market and the boom, and put out dreadful products that turned people off going vegan.

    Investor interest must be retained

    vbites
    Courtesy: VBites

    In the UK, at VBites, we thought about this and got ahead of the game by replicating famous brands and manufacturing vegan alternates for them, such as Applewood vegan cheese, Domino’s pizza cheese, and numerous other supermarket labels of meat- and fish-free products.

    Had these companies that obtained hundreds of millions of dollars focused on working with meat and dairy companies to replicate their brands as white labels, as well as their own brand, the Gartner effect may not have happened.

    That’s why we created the first vegan burgers and cheese for McDonald’s and Burger King.

    Going forward, there is no other choice than to push the reduction of global warming, the cruelty of animals, and the improvement of health by going vegan.

    The most important thing is that greedy corporate investors stay invested in these companies for the long term, for the future of their own children, the planet, and the animals.

    It’s not just the profit – the sector will become very profitable – however, it needs time and investment, and it needs to be well spent. I find the big corporations waste so much money and that’s attributed to this downfall.

    It’s all about the people

    plant based meat sales
    Courtesy: Diana Papini

    Vegan startups mainly started with enthusiastic founders like myself. I had 30 years’ experience and made the same mistakes. However, I never had a huge investment.

    A lot of these founders also were really knowledgeable in tech and brand marketing, but did not think of the bigger picture or understand how difficult it is to scale up kitchen products into large-scale, manufacturing products.

    That requires a totally different expertise.

    At the time, I contacted them and said: “Let us do the manufacturing for you, as we have the world’s largest 100% vegan manufacturing facilities and have been the experts for decades.”

    They had no original IP and we suggested they get on with the genius of branding, but unfortunately, they ignored this and most of them went into administration.

    We at VBites went through a similar situation when we were invested in, because the investors thought they knew what they were doing and didn’t listen to how to run a small family business. Bottom line, it’s all about the people.

    However, I bought the whole thing back and turned it around within six months.

    We have our online supermarket called Alternative Stores, which is growing 55% per month. We have 2,200 products, including the most innovative boiled, fried and poached vegan eggs. We’ve also created an egg albumen to go into food application.

    To help the smaller family businesses that have been used for their innovations, then copied, private-labelled and dumped out of the supermarkets, we don’t charge for these brands to put their products on our website. This way, they can test the market without mortgaging their house and putting themselves into debt.

    We have turned our companies around by working directly on the factory floor with the people who have been with us for many decades. The problem with big corporates is that they sit in their ivory towers and most of them have never run a business from the ground up, so they need to listen to the founders.

    And if the founders are not experienced, they need to listen to the financial expertise of those who know what they’re doing. 

    I believe that there will be another plant-based boom because there has to be. There is no other option.

    The post Heather Mills On Plant-Based: Sector Will Boom Again, Because It Has To appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Allplants: Deliciously Ella Founders Rescue Vegan Ready Meal Brand in Anti-UPF Push

    vegan ready meals
    5 Mins Read

    Months after securing an exit for Deliciously Ella, founders Ella and Matthew Mills have acquired vegan ready meal leader Allplants out of administration under their revamped Plants brand.

    Less than three months after it entered administration, British ready meal startup Allplants is back on the market, having been rescued by the founders of fellow vegan business Deliciously Ella in their bid to drive the conversation away from “ultra-processed meat alternatives”.

    Ella and Matthew Mills, who sold Deliciously Ella to Hero Group in September, retained their Plants brand and restaurant in the multimillion-pound deal. While the Plants by DE eatery has since closed, the CPG label – launched as a sub-brand with Waitrose in 2022 – is now undergoing a refresh with the acquisition of Allplants.

    “We are absolutely thrilled to share that today we have acquired the Allplants brand name and associated brand assets out of administration,” Ella Mills said in a statement. “We will bring together Plants and all plants to create something truly special – a new, natural, plant-based powerhouse.”

    Instead of launching new products under the Allplants label, Plants will look to leverage the former’s social media following – it has nearly 200,000 followers across its accounts – to expand its reach.

    The refreshed business will be led by managing director Kerry Atack, who has worked with Deliciously Ella since 2020.

    Deliciously Ella founders tap into Allplants’s ‘enormous promise’

    allplants deliciously ella
    Courtesy: Plants

    Set up by brothers Alex and Jonathan Petrides, Allplants has been around since 2016, selling vegan ready meals online and via retailers. It capitalised on the meal delivery boom a few years later during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, and when it made its retail debut in November 2022, it sold six million meals within the first three months.

    Over the years, the company raised £67M from investors including professional footballers Chris Smalling and Kieran Gibbs. But in the background, it registered losses of nearly £10M in the seven months to March 2023, which Jonathan ascribed to inflation, post-Brexit supply chain disruptions, rising interest rate, and the shift from the growth stage to the pursuit of profitability.

    The business went into administration in November, making 65 employees redundant and working with Interpath to find a buyer. Now, it has become the latest in a line of plant-based companies that have been rescued from the brink, including Meatless Farm, VBites, Plant & Bean, and Mycorena.

    allplants
    Courtesy: Allplants

    “When we started cooking in 2016, fewer than 1% of Brits ate vegan. Today, that number is over 6%, with millions more flexing and shifting towards plant-based,” said Jonathan, who has left the business. “Allplants was always about sparking that curiosity, nudging habits, and helping people taste the future.”

    He added: “Putting so much goodness out into the world and being a part of this societal shift is something we can always be very proud of, and I feel privileged to have been involved in such an important movement – but there’s still a lot of progress to hopefully come.”

    In her statement, Mills said: “Having spent the past 12 years building Deliciously Ella and Plants, we have long admired the Allplants brand, and the brand name has built remarkable consumer awareness across the UK. Unfortunately, the business ran into significant financial difficulty, and we know that the resulting administration has been an incredibly difficult time for the community, customers, suppliers, team members and investors.”

    She added that Plants was “pleased to have signed an agreement” to acquire the brand name and assets: “We’re so excited to build an exciting future for this brand with such enormous promise.”

    Ella Mills slams UPFs ahead of Plants brand refresh

    plants by deliciously ella
    Courtesy: Plants/Green Queen

    Plants sells pantry staples like pasta, sauces, kombucha, soups, and frozen meals, which are available at Waitrose, Ocado, Whole Foods Market, and Zapp.

    The brand will announce a packaging refresh in April, with phrases like “Real food”, “Real flavour”, and “100% natural ingredients” forming part of a new direction that looks to shift the discourse away from ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

    These make up 57% of the average British diet, and while experts have warned against associating processing with nutrition, a backlash against UPFs has also led to plant-based meat products falling into disrepute.

    Retail sales for plant-based meat were down by 6% in the UK in 2023, with volumes plunging further by 13%, while the country’s largest meat-free company, Quorn, posted pre-tax losses of £63M that year, a fourfold increase from the £15M it lost in 2022, just as more youngsters are increasing their meat intake (19%) than reducing it (16%) in the UK. Vegan ready meals, meanwhile, saw a decline of 20%.

    The UPF pushback has given rise to whole foods like beans, tofu (now in 8% of British households, despite being a UPF too), and tempeh (with one tempeh maker the second-fastest growing meat-free brand last year).

    deliciously ella
    Courtesy: Deliciously Ella

    “The plant-based category should be synonymous with real, nourishing food, yet for too long it has been dominated by ultra-processed meat alternatives, a trend now in steep decline. We’re here to try and change that, and to reimagine the plant-based fixture with delicious, natural, quick wins for clever cooks,” said Mills.

    It’s the latest example of vegan brands themselves attacking plant-based meat for being ultra-processed. Phil Graves, CEO of mycelium meat maker Meati, recently told Green Queen that people shouldn’t have to choose between factory-farmed meat or “ultra-processed plant-based options that have a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce”.

    With the Allplants acquisition, Mills – who has built her empire on healthy eating – is looking to capitalise on the anti-UPF push.

    The post Allplants: Deliciously Ella Founders Rescue Vegan Ready Meal Brand in Anti-UPF Push appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The 50/50 Solution: Could Blended Proteins Win Over Meat Lovers?

    7 Mins Read

    Consumers are cutting back on meat due to health concerns, but plant-based alternatives fail to meet their taste expectations – a new study says blended proteins could offer a balance.

    Flavour, nutrition and affordability have long been thought to be the most influential factors driving food purchases. A new report from Food System Innovations (FSI) suggests that entrenched beliefs, familiarity concerns, and functional expectations are becoming increasingly important and are having an effect on people’s food choices.

    The future food non-profit says that while their data shows consumers’ appetite for meat is decreasing due to health concerns, plant-based alternatives are not meeting the moment either – and their acceptance hinges on taste improvements.

    FSI’s proposed solution? Blended meat – or, as they say, ‘Balanced Proteins’. The clue’s in the name. These products combine meat with plant-based ingredients, providing a better-for-you and better-for-the-planet solution without “changing the essence of what makes meat so beloved”.

    According to a 2,000-person nationally representative survey of US omnivores and flexitarians, FSI conducted with YouGov, a 50:50 blend is the “sweet spot”. Since 37% of Americans prefer products with 1-49% of plant-based ingredients, and a third favour a 51-99% ratio, brands offering 50:50 blends – like the Both Burger, Fable Foods, and the Duo Burger – stand to win.

    “This is an intuitive heuristic that people gravitate towards and helps them understand the category,” suggests Tim Dale, category innovation director at FSI.

    Balancing health, taste and price concerns

    Gen Zers have been labelled as the group spearheading the protein transition. Studies suggest that they are likely to reduce meat consumption based on factors like the environment, and the same goes for millennials.

    According to FSI’s data, these two demographics also find the blended meat category more appealing than other age groups – 38% of Gen Z and 34% of millennial Americans were interested in the concept, compared to just 8-21% of the rest.

    blended meat
    Courtesy: Food Systems Innovation

    That being said, the widespread adoption of balanced proteins – as well as plant-based meat – is faced with a major barrier: taste. Nearly two-thirds of consumers who tried vegan alternatives rated their flavour as ‘okay’, ‘not so good’, or ‘terrible’, no doubt contributing to the 71% of respondents who said they’re unlikely to buy meat-free products in the next six months.

    Even with blended meat, 63% said they wouldn’t purchase these products in the ensuing months. Asked why, 38% cited flavour and 29% texture.

    At the same time, just over half of Americans who have reduced or intend to reduce their meat intake cite health and price as the biggest reasons. And for people who find blended meat appealing, having it be the same price or cheaper than conventional meat would influence at least 20% of those surveyed to buy these products.

    So how do you balance the health and affordability concerns around meat with the taste dissatisfaction with alternatives? Dale proposes splitting the concept of taste into “perceived taste” and “actual taste”.

    “Balanced proteins face a challenge with perceived taste, which is currently poor due to factors like familiarity, trust, and the role of meat and plant-based ingredients in consumers’ diets,” he says.

    Indeed, 44% of those who find blended meat appealing say they’re “not someone who would eat this”, and cite it as a reason why they wouldn’t buy it for their loved ones.

    hybrid meat
    Courtesy: Food Systems Innovation

    “However, the actual taste of several brands has been shown to surpass leading conventional products in categories like burgers and chicken nuggets. This suggests that once consumers try these products, their initial taste scepticism may diminish,” notes Dale.

    “Overcoming the perceived taste barrier will take time and will depend on more people trying products that provide new value to the consumer diets and consistently deliver on taste,” he adds.

    Choose ‘functionality’ over ‘nutrition’ as processing fears persist

    Curiosity drives the demand for blended meat more than factors like health or sustainability, and for Gen Zers, ease of preparation ranks just as high as nutrition on their list of priorities.

    Speaking of which, most Americans who are turned off by blended meat aren’t worried about the nutrition aspect (only 18% expressed this concern) – instead, a third are worried about the way these products are manufactured. It’s a nod to the debate around ultra-processed foods, and how plant-based meat has been targeted across the media and criticised as being overly processed, unfairly so according to some.

    food systems innovation
    Courtesy: Food Systems Innovation

    “Consumers are particularly concerned about processing in novel meat categories, even though ingredient and processing concerns are less prominent in their overall diet,” says Dale. The fact that this doesn’t impact their nutritional perception of blended meat shows that “while they may dislike the means, they accept the ends”.

    He points to the “tension” of trying something new as a reason for the pushback against processing: “Consumers must overcome habitual purchases and anxieties when trying a new product. For balanced proteins to succeed, they need to clearly communicate a compelling benefit that outweighs the perceived risk of change.”

    This lack of familiarity and trust gives people “an easy reason to dismiss” novel products, since they look for information that reinforces their preexisting concerns. “To overcome these barriers, balanced proteins should lean into distinct advantages – ideally tied to plant-based ingredient inclusion – that address different consumer pain points,” Dale explains.

    “While consumer education and cleaner ingredient strategies can help, the most effective way to move past UPF concerns is by delivering benefits that consumers actively desire. I think Perdue Plus [which uses plant-based ingredients from The Better Meat Co] is a great example – getting children to enjoy eating vegetables.”

    perdue chicken plus
    Courtesy: Perdue

    He notes that many blended meat formats are competing on the same value proposition as conventional meat, which has high consumer ratings for taste and value: “To win in these categories, balanced proteins must far exceed conventional options, not just match them.”

    Dale also prefers using “functionality” over terms like “health” or “nutrition”, which may not be effective drivers. “While nutritional benefits matter, brands need to recognise how consumers perceive their conventional meat competition – if they don’t see a problem, nutrition alone won’t drive adoption,” he says.

    How can brands tap into the blended meat opportunity?

    Overall, only a quarter of respondents to the YouGov poll found blended meat appealing, in stark contrast to the 67% of omnivores who expressed interest in buying these products in a 2024 survey by FSI’s Nectar initiative.

    Dale argues that the Nectar study likely setup the increased products’ appeal. People completed the survey immediately after tasting the product and were unaware whether they had eaten a blended or conventional version.

    The methodology used in the YouGov poll, however, likely reduced appeal. “The category was described in the abstract rather than with images or real products, which may have limited familiarity,” explains Dale. The wording used to describe blended meat suggested that conventional proteins aren’t widely perceived as needing nutritional improvement and sustainability remains a niche driver.

    Regardless, Dale advises brands to find their white space based on consumer needs and desires. “It is easier to solve an existing consumer problem rather than a created one,” he says.

    Moreover, these products must be seen as approachable, and finding a balance between familiarity with meat and a differentiated value proposition from plant-based ingredients is crucial too.

    phil's finest shark tank
    Courtesy: Anisha Sisodia/Phil’s Finest

    “Don’t let the pursuit of perfect clean labels or niche positioning overshadow the fundamentals – taste, value, familiarity, and functionality,” he says. “Engage consumers early and often to develop a clear, realistic understanding of their taste perceptions and preferences.”

    He adds that brands should lean into innovative formats, experimenting with products that break down barriers to improve accessibility and appeal – think smaller pack sizes or family-friendly options for shared meals. Moreover, lowering the barriers to trial is important. “Address key friction points – such as taste scepticism and price sensitivity – to make trying and switching easier for consumers,” says Dale.

    He recommends businesses measure the results of marketing campaigns in the long run: “A new category with new benefits requires sustained communication. Prioritise long-term brand building and consumer education to drive lasting adoption.”

    The post The 50/50 Solution: Could Blended Proteins Win Over Meat Lovers? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • This AI-Led Startup is Growing Dairy Proteins in Potatoes

    finally foods
    4 Mins Read

    Israel’s Finally Foods has announced its first field trial for potatoes containing casein, less than a year after the molecular farming startup launched.

    In what it describes as “record time”, AI-driven molecular farming startup Finally Foods will begin its first field trial for potatoes that contain dairy proteins in Israel next week.

    The move comes just 10 months after the Israeli firm emerged from stealth, marking a “major milestone” in its path to commercialisation. The field trial, which will last three to four months, will be a validation point of the company’s technology, which essentially modifies potatoes into bioreactors that can produce casein in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

    It will allow the company to assess the yield scalability and protein yield of its potato crops. The trial “transitions our technology from controlled greenhouse conditions to real-world agricultural settings, testing how our casein-producing potatoes perform in open-field environments”, explains Dafna Gabbay, co-founder and CEO of Finally Foods.

    “One of the key challenges in molecular farming is the lengthy time-to-market, but Finally Foods is demonstrating that molecular farming can efficiently produce high-value proteins at scale in record time by drastically reducing the trial-and-error time,” she adds.

    Molecular farming helping produce multiple casein formulations

    molecular farming
    Courtesy: Finally Foods

    Gabbay established the startup with CTO Basia J Vinocur, who was formerly the VP of R&D at biotech firm Evogene. Finally Foods has an exclusive license for Evogene’s GeneRator AI technology, which it uses to optimise its production process by enabling short R&D cycles, more efficient extractions, and faster commercialisation plans.

    Evogene holds around a 40% stake in the company, with the rest of the ownership divided between the co-founders and state-backed investor The Kitchen FoodTech Hub.

    Finally Foods chose to use potatoes because they met several efficiency parameters, including high yields and effective protein extraction. The company has designed the potato as an optimised “expression system” that can formulate multiple variations of casein.

    “We’re currently expressing multiple formulations of casein in our plants, with a primary focus on developing versatile formulations that can be used across a broad range of dairy applications,” says Gabbay.

    Casein is the most common protein found in cow’s milk, making up 80% of its protein content, and is a key emulsifier that prevents water and fat from separating and gives cheese its melty and stretchy attributes.

    There are four kinds of casein proteins found in milk, which fold into a spherical structure known as a micelle, where they are suspended in a highly hydrated solution and bound together with minerals like calcium. This is key to casein’s functional attributes, and Gabbay has previously indicated that her team plans to express all four sub-units in one plant.

    potato protein
    Courtesy: Finally Foods

    The startup is one of several companies working with molecular farming to produce animal proteins, including Moolec, Alpine Bio, Mozza, Miruku, PoLoPo, and Veloz Bio. A market set to double in value by 2029, molecular farming has been identified as a more viable and affordable way to replicate animal proteins than cell cultivation or precision fermentation.

    This technology relies upon genetically engineering plants to produce proteins, which can be harvested from leaves or other tissues. This forgoes the need for expensive fermentation tanks, since plants themselves are the natural bioreactors here.

    Finally Foods in talks with dairy producers

    “This trial is a necessary step toward large-scale protein extraction, paving the way for efficient and cost-effective production at scale,” says Gabbay.

    One of the major challenges faced by molecular farming is regulation – companies require approval to both grow genetically modified plants and then sell them for use in human food.

    “Field trials are an essential step for regulatory approval, allowing us to gather key agronomic data and validate environmental impact assessments,” she adds.

    This field trial follows the completion of a greenhouse gas trial, which confirmed that the potatoes grow and behave like non-transgenic potatoes and showcase no abnormal characteristics. “This is essential for regulatory approvals and to ensure the plant’s viability for large-scale agricultural production,” notes Gabbay.

    “Also, the potatoes we harvested from the greenhouse enable us to extract and analyse casein from different lines expressing different formulations. This step is key for optimising protein yield, functionality, and extraction efficiency.”

    casein protein
    Courtesy: Finally Foods

    Integrating AI into the process has allowed Finally Foods to accelerate development and get high yields of functional casein within potatoes, while keeping costs low. More and more alternative porten companies are leveraging AI, including Shiru which has an AI-powered protein discovery platform; Climax Foods, which employs machine learning to reverse-engineer what makes cheese taste good; and NotCo, whose AI platform matches thousands of plant-based ingredients to find the combinations best suited to replace animal proteins.

    Finally Foods is “in ongoing discussions with several dairy companies to start developing applications” with its casein formulations this year. To support its progress, it is currently securing an extension to the pre-seed round it raised last year, and expects to open a seed funding round in the months to come.

    “This next phase of funding will support scaling our production, advancing regulatory approvals, and expanding commercial partnerships, as we continue to drive innovation in molecular farming and plant-based casein production,” Gabbay says.

    The post This AI-Led Startup is Growing Dairy Proteins in Potatoes appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Beyond x NBA, Corn Milk & Carbon Crackers

    beyond meat nba
    5 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Beyond Meat’s new products and cookbook, the US’s first corn milk brand, and a cultivated seafood tasting.

    New products and launches

    Plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat has expanded its steak lineup with Chimichurri and Korean BBQ-Style flavours, which are available at Sprouts Farmers Market. It has also launched a Go Beyond the BUzzer cookbook with the National Basketball Players Association, with recipes from current NBA players like Cade Cunningham, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.

    beyond steak
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    German alt-seafood startup Koralo is expanding into the US, and looking to partner with clients for its co-fermented microalgae- and mycelium-based Wellness New F!sh fillet and functional food ingredients.

    Speaking of seafood, Canadian firm Konscious Foods has partnered with New York-based seafood purveyor Acme Smoked Fish, which will distribute its plant-based smoked salmon to delis, restaurants, bagel shops, and more.

    Fellow Canadian food tech player The Cultivated B has launched multi-channel biosensors to monitor the growth and metabolism of cell culture and fermentation processes. The tech combines continuous tracking with AI-enabled real-time analytics to help enhance accuracy and speed.

    Also in Canada, Odd Burger has secured a retail listing with Calgary Co-op, making its vegan frozen food lineup available at all 22 locations in Alberta.

    maizly corn milk
    Courtesy: Maïzly

    Based in one of the US’s major corn producers, Indianapolis startup Maïzly has debuted a category-first corn milk, which it offers in original and chocolate flavours. Free from seed, nut or vegetable oils, it packs 8g of fibre per cup, and is available on its website, Amazon and select retailers.

    Sweden’s Veg of Lund has secured a listing for its Dug potato milk product at 150 Carrefour stores in Spain, marking its debut in the country.

    In Spain, supermarket chain Eroski, catering company Ausolan, mycelium firm Innomy, and the Leartiker Technology Centre have created desserts and snack bars made from fungal protein as part of the Delifungus project.

    Iceland’s ORF Genetics and South Korea’s CellMeat hosted a public tasting for cultivated shellfish meat at the Iceland Ocean Cluster, in an event attended by First Gentleman Björn Skúlason and agrifood minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson.

    solein protein
    Courtesy: Solar Foods

    Italian algae startup KelpEat has launched high-protein crackers using Solein, the gas protein produced by Finnish firm Solar Foods. It was showcased at the Pitti Taste show in Florence this week.

    Company and finance updates

    Solar Foods has also reached a step closer to bringing its air-based protein to the EU market, after addressing inquiries from the European Food Safety Authority regarding the scientific opinion on its novel food application.

    heura plant based
    Courtesy: Heura

    Spanish plant-based meat leader Heura has improved its B Corp rating by 18%, now scoring 111 points and securing the top spot for CPG food businesses with a turnover of over €1M.

    NoPalm Ingredients, a Dutch producer of fermentation-derived oils and fats from upcycled agricultural sidestreams, has become the first company to scale such ingredients to industrial levels of 120,000 litres.

    Israeli food tech startup SuperMeat has teamed up with Argentinian biomanufacturing firm Stämm to expand production of the former’s cultivated meat, which it says can be produced for $11.79 per pound. The partnership is supported by mutual investor Varana Capital.

    supermeat
    Courtesy: Dror Varshavski

    Canadian plant protein manufacturer Burcon Nutrascience has agreed to acquire a commercial-scale facility in Galesburg, Illinois, and will begin production in the first half of this year.

    In the US, YC-backed blended meat startup Choppy (formerly Paul’s Table) has ceased operations nearly three years after it was established.

    Californian alt-honey startup MeliBio earned $15,000 after winning Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition‘s NGT3 pitch slam contest for its precision-fermented honey. 

    Research, policy and awards

    MeliBio‘s European vegan honey distribution deal with Narayan Foods is on the backburner, but the business is aiming to become profitable by the end of the year.

    plant based universities
    Courtesy: Imperial College London

    In the UK, the University of Bristol and Imperial College London have voted to support the transition towards plant-based catering menus, joining a host of other institutes in the Plant-Based Universities movement.

    Can targeted menu modifications ‘nudge’ people into picking plant-based items in restaurants? A new study by Bryant Research explores this question, based on trials run at Mumbai restaurant Gracias Granny.

    South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs has unveiled its 2025 Agri-Food Fund Operation Plan, committing ₩55B ($38M) towards smart agriculture and food tech.

    gander food waste
    Courtesy: Gander

    Food waste app Gander has been nominated for Prince William‘s Earthshot Prize 2025. The app operates in UK, Ireland, Australia and Brazil, and has saved about 40 million items of food from ending up in the trash.

    Finally, the Freedom Food Alliance (FFA) has launched FoodFacts.org, a fact-checking platform powered by an AI chatbot and expert-backed nutritional and health content. Disclaimer: Green Queem Media founder Sonalie Figueiras is an advisor at FFA.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Beyond x NBA, Corn Milk & Carbon Crackers appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Trend Report: As Egg Prices Skyrocket, Dozens of Startups Are Hatching Chicken-Free Solutions

    vegan eggs
    8 Mins Read

    With egg prices returning to sky-high levels in the US, it brings a major opportunity for plant-based and fermentation-derived alternatives. Can these companies capitalise on the moment?

    You know things are serious when Waffle House starts upcharging you for every egg.

    The all-day breakfast chain serves 272 million eggs every year; it has now added a temporary 50-cent per-egg surcharge on orders due to the bird-flu-induced national shortage.

    The current wave of avian flu – in its third year now – killed more than 40 million chickens in the US in 2024, causing major supply problems and subsequently driving up prices. The peak may have been January 2023, when a dozen eggs set you back $4.82 in the supermarket – though current costs are agonisingly close.

    The crisis is showing no signs of abatement – the number of chickens affected by the flu per month tripled in December, and increased further last month. That leaves an egg-shaped hole in grocery baskets and restaurant orders.

    This is an opportunity made for sustainable egg protein startups, which are making egg alternatives with plant-based ingredients, as well as recombinant egg proteins from fermentation.

    The egg market in numbers

    egg prices
    Courtesy: CNBC
    • Retail chicken egg prices in the US reached $4.15 per dozen in December 2024, a 65% hike from 12 months prior, with consumers and restaurants paying up to $7.
    • Egg prices are projected to rise by another 20% in 2025, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
    • The cost of eggs wholesale has already reached an all-time high. White shell eggs now cost $8 a dozen, obliterating the previous record of $5.46 in December 2022.
    • Inventories of shell eggs are roughly 15-16% below the five-year average, as per the USDA.
    • In the US, nearly 27.5 million chickens have been affected by the bird flu in 2025 alone.
    • It’s not just the US – since 2019, egg prices have doubled in South Africa, and grown by 50-90% in Europe, Russia, Japan, India and Brazil.
    • In Australia, 1.8 million hens were culled last year as a result of the country’s largest avian flu outbreak. While that was eradicated, a new strain of the virus has appeared.
    plant based eggs
    Courtesy: GFI
    • Plant-based eggs are a nascent market, making up just 0.5% of retail sales of vegan food in 2023. This amounted to $43M in dollar sales, a 5% decrease from 2022. Unit sales also dropped by 13%.
    • In the longer term, retail sales of plant-based eggs grew by 11% between 2021 and 2023, and unit sales were up by 8%. In comparison, unit sales of conventional eggs fell by 4% in this period.
    • Only 1% of US households buy vegan eggs; repeat rates have continued to increase, from 38% in 2020 to nearly half (48%) in 2023.
    egg substitute
    Courtesy: GFI
    • While the price gap between chicken-free and conventional eggs shrunk in 2022, a slight stabilisation in the latter’s supply widened it in 2023, with plant-based eggs costing over $8 higher per dozen. This disparity is set to narrow again as avian flu rages on.
    • One research firm suggests that in Europe, the plant-based egg market is expected to grow by 40% annually to reach $3.88B in 2031, showcasing the potential for these products.
    • In Asia, this market is set to expand even faster (73% annually) to reach $850M in 2028, led by China and India.
    vegan egg market
    Courtesy: Data Bridge Market Research

    The problem: Why egg prices are high

    • A long-running flu: At the root of the issue is H5N1, the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza that has led to the culling of nearly 158 million birds since 2022. This wave has been ongoing for much longer than usual – in the past, bird flu waves have only lasted for a season or so. Meanwhile, high animal feed prices (initially originating from Russia’s war on Ukraine) have contributed too.
    • Refreshing flocks is not a quick process: More than 1,550 commercial and backyard flocks have been affected by H5N1 in the last three years. Disinfecting and verifying the safety of a farm can be a lengthy process – and even when it’s deemed safe, it takes a new flock up to 16 weeks to start laying eggs.
    • Logistical challenges: The egg supply chain has not been spared by the logistical crises that have hit the global food industry. Transportation costs – especially for refrigerated items – have soared amid a shortage of truck drivers in the US and a hike in long-haul truck rates.
    eu caged farming ban
    Courtesy: Getty Images via Canva
    • Cage-free policies: Almost a dozen states in the US – including California, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Washington – have introduced cage-free egg policies. Such anti-cruelty legislation sets minimum space requirements for hens, which reduces producers’ overall capacity.
    • Political pressure: Eggs have been a talking point in the US political sphere over the last year, with President Donald Trump criticising former President Joe Biden’s administration for failing to control the price hikes and promising to get them back to normal when he took over – in actuality, things have only gotten worse since the start of his second term.
    • Low supply, high demand: While supply has dwindled, Americans’ demand for protein-packed foods like eggs has increased. These consumers are increasingly swapping red meat for poultry and eggs, and 71% have named protein as the macronutrient they’re most interested in consuming.

    What are chicken-free egg makers trying to solve?

    Direct swaps for classics

    Several startups offer liquid eggs or ready-to-eat versions of classic egg dishes that can be used as a 1:1 swap, and these tend to target CPG consumers who use eggs as part of their meals at home.

    Perhaps the largest name is Eat Just, whose Just Egg comes in pourable and toaster formats and uses mung bean as a base – it can be used to make scrambles, omelettes and even baked goods, though it does come with a steep price tag.

    As of late 2023, Eat Just indicated that its egg alternative captured 99% of the US vegan egg market and that by February 2024 it had sold the equivalent of half a billion eggs. The startup faces competition from brands like Zero Egg and Simply Eggless in the US, and international players such as Crack’d, Oggs, Perfeggt and Vegge.

    just egg
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Others, meanwhile, are moving past pourable formats to offer more novel options. Yo Egg, for example, makes vegan sunny-side-up and poached eggs with runny yolks, which can be boiled or fried. BeLeaf also makes hen-free fried eggs. And under it WunderEggs brand, Crafty Counter turns almonds and cashews into egg patties, boiled eggs, and deviled eggs.

    In Singapore, Float Foods has developed a range of plant-based eggs for different applications, including poached, yolks, and XL omelette wraps, under its OnlyEg brand. Poached eggs are also a feature of Germany’s Neggst, as are sunny-side-ups, boiled eggs, and patties.

    vegan eggs
    Courtesy: Le Papondu

    French brand Le Papondu, meanwhile, is looking to take things a step further. While it has gone to market with egg patties, it’s working on a crackable whole egg in the background.

    A bang for your buck

    Most of these pre-prepared or pourable egg alternatives don’t actually undercut the cost of eggs, contributing to the price gap between plant-based and conventional versions. This is where powdered alternatives come in.

    It’s the original egg substitute format and it continues to enjoy popularity, as illustrated by the number of brands in this space. As dried products that shoppers add water to, they are much more wallet-friendly, they can be packaged more minimally and they don’t require refrigerated transportation.

    egg substitute
    Courtesy: Acremade

    Powdered vegan eggs are an ideal alternative for cash-strapped consumers in the egg-flation era. Brands like Peggs, Acremade, Orgran, Bob’s Red Mill, Vegg, and Sol Natural are filling this gap.

    Like-for-like functionality

    Some companies are targeting the bakery and CPG sectors with alternatives that perform like eggs in different products—estimates suggest that up to 40% of all eggs are used as ingredients in foodservice and food manufacturing.

    For example, Follow Your Heart, Fabalish, and Eat Just all make egg-free, plant-based mayonnaise, and companies like Orgran, Oggs, and Egg’n’Up all offer substitutes for use in baked goods.

    just mayo
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Others, including Revyve and ProteinDistillery, are using waste ingredients like spent brewer’s yeast – a byproduct of the beer industry – as fermentation feedstocks for microbes to produce egg protein alternatives for use in baked goods and meat analogues.

    Meanwhile, some startups are using precision fermentation to make bio-identical versions of egg proteins without chickens. The Every Company makes EggWhite (which contains an ovalbumin equivalent), a transparent glycoprotein, and a whole egg; the startup has been granted three ‘no further questions’ letters from the FDA in the US and has applied for regulatory approval in the UK and the EU as well.

    precision fermentation egg
    Courtesy: The Every Company

    The startup’s protein has been used in smoothies, macarons, canned cocktails, and ready-to-drink beverage powders, and was the centrepiece of a special dinner at vegan Michelin-starred eatery Eleven Madison Park.

    Finland’s Onego Bio is using the same technology to produce its recombinant ovalbumin, Bioalbumen, and is awaiting FDA approval this year.

    onego bio
    Courtesy: Onego Bio

    Belgium’s Otro is also working on egg white proteins made via precision fermentation. And Germany’s Formo is set to launch a precision-fermented egg alternative (though their version isn’t bioidentical). Elsewhere, Israeli startups PoLoPo and Finally Foods are growing egg proteins inside potatoes via molecular farming.

    While it’s still early days for many of these startups, there is a clear opportunity amidst what looks like continued supply, quality and price volatility for the global chicken-egg industry.

    The post Trend Report: As Egg Prices Skyrocket, Dozens of Startups Are Hatching Chicken-Free Solutions appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Health First, Planet Second: New Data Shows Sustainability Slipping Down European Food Priorities

    lab grown meat europe
    5 Mins Read

    The number of Europeans who say they eat sustainably has dropped to 46%, despite calls for the bloc’s citizens to cut back on meat and dairy.

    Over the last year, several countries in Europe have revised their national dietary guidelines to recommend people eat more plants and fewer animals. This, policymakers have noted, is crucial to safeguard both public and planetary health.

    But that advice seems to be falling on deaf ears if a 19,500-person survey of consumers in 18 European countries (including the UK) is anything to go by.

    The EIT Food Consumer Observatory’s annual Food Trust Report – backed by the EU – finds that people are prioritising health over sustainability in their food choices, and that too by a considerable margin.

    When asked what they’d like to change most about their diets, more than half (51%) of Europeans said they wanted to eat healthier food, while 12% were looking for more affordable options.

    Less than one in 10 (9%) of respondents said they wanted to prioritise sustainability, a concerning finding for a demographic that has tended to be more climate-literate than their counterparts in the US or Asia.

    “While we can see a desire by consumers to eat more healthily, we’re not seeing the same desire to prioritise sustainability through dietary changes. But linked to this, we’re also seeing consumers struggle with gauging reliability of information about food,” said Sofia Kuhn, director of public insights and engagement at EIT Food. “How can we expect consumers to change their behaviour if they can’t access the information they need to do so?”

    Less than one in five Europeans is avoiding meat or dairy

    Europeans eat twice as much meat as the global average and what’s recommended by Eat Lancet’s Planetary Health Diet. However, 63% of them are satisfied with their current diets, and only 15% would like to make changes to the way they eat.

    Of those who are unsatisfied, 65% mention healthier diets as the priority improvement, and just 5% point to sustainability. However, the importance of the latter increases importance among those happy with their current eating patterns, 12% of whom call it a priority.

    “This means that consumers first want to maximise the healthiness of their diets and pay attention to the planetary impact of their diet when they are satisfied with the healthiness,” the report notes.

    But the intention to live sustainably has been on the decline since 2020, when 78% of Europeans said they wanted to be more eco-friendly, compared to 70% today – this is despite climate change wreaking havoc on the continent and killing 45,000 people annually.

    This translates to diet too. The share of Europeans who say they eat sustainably has reduced from 51% in 2020 to 46% in 2024. And despite meat and dairy being highly polluting foods – they account for 84% of EU agricultural emissions, despite providing only 35% of its calories – less than one in five (18%) say they avoid animal products.

    In contrast, 40% of respondents say they actively avoid processed foods, highlighting the conundrum faced by plant-based meat makers. Seasonal and local eating are the major dietary considerations when it comes to sustainability, though just 30% try to eat foods with the “least impact on the environment”.

    Knowledge gap key to sustainability interest

    Over half of Europeans would like to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables, in line with dietary recommendations. That said even though they’re overconsuming protein, 30% would like to eat more of this macronutrient. In contrast, only 38% want to increase fibre consumption, despite most Europeans being fibre-deficient.

    In terms of future dietary changes, about 60% of survey respondents say they’d like to avoid processed foods, but only a quarter say the same for animal-based foods. In fact, 12% would like to increase their intake of meat and dairy, leaving the net percentage of people who want to eat more plant-forward at 13%.

    “Despite the fact that this is probably the most sustainable behaviour on the list and the attention given to this change in diets, very few consumers are planning to shift their intake of animal-based products to more plant-based options,” the report found.

    Going forward, 44% of Europeans would like to decrease the environmental impact of their diets, an improvement on current trends. In a blow to regenerative agriculture, only 26% of people want to eat more foods grown this way.

    One reason for the low interest in planet-friendly eating could be a knowledge gap. Only 46% of Europeans feel they have enough knowledge about the sustainability of food, and just 41% can determine just how eco-friendly a food is.

    This is directly linked with trust in the food chain – those who trust various food system actors feel more knowledgeable about sustainability. The problem EIT’s research has uncovered is that not enough people have faith in the food chain. Only around a quarter of Europeans trust retailers and regulatory authorities on sustainability, and even the most trusted actors – farmers – fall short here.

    Lack of support for cultivated meat and animal-free dairy

    One way to improve the European diet is through food innovation. However, consumer enthusiasm for this has already been low and dropped from 34% in 2023 to 28% last year. This is also associated with trust in the food system – 38% of those who have faith in the food chain are open to innovation, versus 16% who don’t.

    Foods that support emotional well-being are the most popular form of new tech among Europeans, followed by personalised nutrition, indoor farming, and algae-based foods. Only a third support animal-free dairy products made from precision fermentation, while an equal number of Europeans are in opposition.

    The most disliked innovation is insect protein (rejected by 62% of Europeans), although 3D-printed food and genetically-altered foods aren’t far behind (58% and 57%, respectively).

    As for cultivated meat, more people are opposed to it (45%) than in favour (29%). This comes against the backdrop of Italy’s ban on cultivated meat, and similar (though so far unsuccessful) efforts by countries like France, Romania, and Hungary. At the same time, the European region is an emerging leader in the novel foods space, with several homegrown companies undergoing regulatory checks in other countries, and one startup selling cultivated chicken for pets beginning last week.

    EIT’s results contradict other polls conducted among Europeans, which show that 52% have made climate-friendly dietary shifts over the last two years, with 29% cutting back on meat, and more than half of respondents supporting the sale of cultivated meat in most surveyed EU member states.

    The EIT Food Trust Report also comes amid calls by doctors, climate experts, food giants, and even farmers to accelerate the protein transition in the EU and spotlight sustainability in the European Council’s upcoming agrifood vision.

    “Across the board, we’re seeing a lack of trust in food systems actors to put consumers’ best interests at heart, and provide accurate information about food, health and sustainability,” said Kuhn.

    “As food systems professionals, we have a major opportunity to transform the way consumers perceive the bodies that produce, process, market and regulate the food they eat. Collaboration will be key as we move towards greater transparency and accountability.”

    The post Health First, Planet Second: New Data Shows Sustainability Slipping Down European Food Priorities appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Food & Climate Tech Funding: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities

    food tech investment
    9 Mins Read

    Food and climate tech investors remained cautious with their cash in 2024, as funding for alternative protein dipped, investments failed to align with emissions impact, and women founders were sidelined yet again.

    The venture sector is experiencing a crunch overall, with 2024 being a disappointing 12 months for those looking for funding. GlobalData’s Deals Database suggests that early-stage rounds – which remain key for the growth of the wider climate tech ecosystem – were down 14.2% last year, while growth, expansion, and late-stage funding rounds decreased by 2.7%.

    Moreover, fewer firms are deploying less, as US-headquartered funds dropped from 8,315 to 6,175 in 2024. The Financial Times reported that this trend concentrates “power among a small group of mega-firms”, leaving “smaller VCs in a fight for survival”. Further, it thins out “funding options for smaller companies”.

    Businesses in the food tech world may have hoped for an investment reset last year, after a tough 2023 forced downsizing, M&As, and in some cases, closures. But venture capitalists continued to be cautious in 2024, with food tech funding shrinking, and investment in alternative protein players declining for a third consecutive year.

    This is reflective of the broader 38% dip in climate tech venture funding, from $52B to $32B last year, according to BloombergNEF research, which in turn was the result of a shift in investor interest towards artificial intelligence (AI), where financing crossed $100B.

    Layoffs, mergers and takeovers are part of a trend that’s likely to continue this year, according to Sharyn Murray, senior manager of investor engagement and financing at the Good Food Institute, an alternative protein think tank.

    “While challenging for individual companies, such consolidation is a natural phase of industry maturation and can accelerate technological and operational progress for those that remain,” she says.

    Speaking of trends, there are several to pick out from 2024 data on food tech funding – let’s just say it was a win for AI, fermentation, and men.

    The emissions-funding mismatch

    sightline climate funding
    Courtesy: Sightline Climate

    According to climate tech data platform Sightline Climate‘s 2024 investment report, the “still-high interest rates, delayed IRA funding rollouts, and political uncertainties created headwinds” for investors, blocking any restart the “2023 ‘wait-and-see’ crowd had hoped” for.

    Nevertheless, the authors note the sector did settle down, as venture funding in climate tech fell by 14% to $30B in 2024, much less than the 24% drop it experienced 12 months earlier. Average deal size similarly dipped by 14%, while the value of growth rounds was down by 48%.

    food tech funding
    Courtesy: Sightline Climate

    The average deal size in the food and land use vertical – which includes alternative proteins – was 6% lower in 2024 ($15M), though it is now the second most populated climate tech sector (behind energy) in terms of deal numbers, with more than 250 new companies raising money last year.

    While food and land use had the second-highest number of funding deals (768), the total dollars poured into the vertical is disproportionate to the impact it has on the climate. The report suggests that this sector accounts for 22% of global emissions while receiving only 18.5% of climate tech capital ($29.3M) last year.

    In its State of Climate Tech Funding 2024 report, PWC writes that “higher borrowing costs and uncertain economic conditions weighed on the broader deal-making market”, which resulted in a climate tech funding decline. The authors found that sector investments decreased “by 29%, from $79B, between Q4 2022 and Q3 2023, to $56B in the ensuing four quarters” and venture capital and private equity flows came down from $799B to $673B, contracting from 9.9% to 8.3%, with transaction volumes way down too as “investors and start-ups are finding it tougher than ever to make deals”.

    Europe making gains, Asia not so much

    food tech investments
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    The geographical makeup of the climate and food funding landscape has changed over the past few years with some regions gaining on others.

    In the first half of 2024, while no region was spared from the investment declines of the previous years, Europe was “slightly less affected” by the challenges, according to analysis by Paris-based food tech consultancy DigitalFoodLab. This echoes previous data illustrating that Europe overtook the US in funding for the first time in 2023, making up 58% of global investments.

    “Europe had been ignored for some time, maybe due to the old continent being slow to structure its innovation ecosystem (incubators, business angels, etc.),” Matthieu Vincent, co-founder and partner at DigitalFoodLab, told Green Queen in September. But the emergence of large delivery startups with an international focus “definitely helped put the continent on the global food tech map”.

    Within the alternative protein world, too, 50% of all investments between Q1 and Q3 2024 came from Europe, garnering $528M. North America was second with a 38% share, and Asia a distant third at 10%.

    Vincent ascribed the decline to the 80% fall in China, which in turn was a result of a shift away from delivery startups. Food science and alternative protein companies dominated investment (36% of the share), while in the second half of the year, analysts didn’t “observe a bounce back or even a plateau as investments keep declining”.

    Source: AgFunder

    Numbers shared by data analytics firm MAGNiTT in its 2024 Emerging Markets Venture Capital Report show that total venture funding in Southeast Asia was down 45%, with both exits and the number of deals decreasing by more than 30% and 20% respectively. While Singapore – a hub for food tech in the Asia-Pacific region – continues to be the most active emerging market for VC, climate tech is not on the menu, with fintech dominating deal flow.

    A January 2025 Deal Street Asia report depicts a similar picture. The data outlines that total deal volume in the region last year decreased by 10.3% (633 deals) compared to 2023, while deal value fell by 41.7% to $4.56B, less than half of the capital raised in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, revelations of fraud at one of the agrifood darlings of the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem have sent chills across the region’s investment community.

    That said, a report by AgFunder about APAC agrifood tech sector funding found that “while was still lower than 2020 levels in terms of dollar amounts, the number of deals in the first three quarters of 2024 (616) has already surpassed the full-year totals of each of the last three years, indicating that VCs remain interested in the category, but are more cautious in doling out larger amounts to single companies”.

    AgFunder’s research also underscored some positive trends for alternative food, which falls under the report’s ‘Innovative Food’ category. The latter “attracted $204M by the end of October, an 85% increase from the same period in 2023, with deal count also growing from 49 to 59.”

    Funding for fermentation proteins grows as investors quit plant-based and cultivated meat

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    Funding for alternative proteins continued to decline in 2024, dropping by 27% from the previous year. This was driven by VCs abandoning the plant-based protein vertical (a 64% decrease) and the cultivated meat space (down 40%). Worryingly, the latter only saw $6M in financing in the second half of 2024.

    Plant-based meat was hit by the ultra-processed food debate, with misinformation from lobby groups causing consumers to question how healthy these products are. Meanwhile, in the US, lawmakers in more than a dozen states brought legal actions against cell-cultured beef. Two states (Florida and Alabama) went ahead with a ban, and several other states look likely this year.

    The bright spot was fermentation. Companies working in this vertical attracted 43% more investment last year than in 2023 and made up four of the five largest alternative protein funding rounds. Even governments – from the US to the Netherlands – are getting involved with grant-based financial support.

    Helene Grosshans, infrastructure investment manager at GFI Europe, wrote in August about why investors are increasingly attracted to fermentation-based proteins. “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.”

    James Petrie, CEO of fermentation startup Nourish Ingredients concurs. “The food tech sector, particularly in plant-based and precision fermentation, is experiencing a significant correction. We’re seeing companies that once commanded huge valuations facing massive down rounds or recapitalisation,” he wrote in an op-ed for Green Queen last month.

    Women founders were let down – again

    rebellyous chicken
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods founder Christie Lagally

    Analysis based on Pitchbook data shared by Trellis showed that women-founded businesses received just 0.4% ($135.8M ) of the $33.5B invested in US climate tech startups in the first nine months of 2024, compared to $2.45B secured by mixed-gender-led startups.

    Part of this is a problem of underrepresentation within the VC world itself – Pitchbook data from 2022 exposed that only 16% of VC decision-makers in the US are women, while 96% of VC firms have a majority male population of decision-makers.

    This is despite the fact that startups founded by women offer investors a much better return – 78 cents for every dollar, compared to 31 cents for male-founded businesses – and provide a 34% better return on equity than companies with minimal or no women in leadership. Female-founded startups also exit faster (7.2 years versus 8.1 years for the overall average).

    Continued uncertainty amidst global tariffs, though investors face attractive entry points

    donald trump food tech
    Courtesy: Bloomberg via Getty Images

    “2024 wasn’t the launchpad [climate tech] investors had hoped for. The slow rollout of Inflation Reduction Act funds and guidance meant a lot of projects stayed stalled. Political uncertainty in Europe and the US stunted investment as investors continued to wait and see,” Sightline Climate co-founders Kim Zou and Mark Taylor write in their report.

    While Zou and Taylor contend that “the uncertainty is mostly over” saying that “while the US may back away from climate commitments, markets anticipating higher EU carbon prices will be transformative for hard-to-abate sectors,” others are not so sure.

    Fortune spoke to a handful of generalist venture capitalists about President Donald Trump’s tariffs and looming trade war(s), who pointed out uncertainty will almost certainly lower valuations, decrease exits and give investors pause in terms of deployment. While the investors were speaking broadly, it stands to reason that climate tech and food tech are worried too.

    Still, some founders remain hopeful. Nourish Ingredients’ Petrie drew on historical parallels to point to a brighter future: “Every transformative industry has gone through periods of correction and consolidation. Current valuations, while challenging, create attractive entry points for new investors.”

    “The days of raising significant capital on potential alone are behind us. That is not necessarily a bad thing for a sector that badly needs to mature. Investors have shifted their focus from promises of transformational products toward clear, tangible paths to revenue and offtake deals,” he added.

    “This creates a particular challenge for companies that have blown their wad on CapEx before firming up customer demand, but this simultaneously creates opportunities for those willing to be patient and strategic.”

    The post Food & Climate Tech Funding: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Can Vegan Pioneer Miyoko Schinner Shake Up the Food System with UC Berkeley Plant-Based Course?

    plant futures
    9 Mins Read

    After revolutionising vegan cheese, Miyoko Schinner is leveraging her decades-long experience to teach everything plant-based at all nine University of California campuses.

    Longtime animal rights activist, vegan dairy entrepreneur and plant-based chef Miyoko Schinner wants to change the food system. The whole darned thing.

    “We are on the precipice of redefining what the food system could look like, and in order to understand that, we have to really dive deep into the current food system and understand every aspect,” she says.

    “Not just the problem with animal agriculture, but the consolidation, the distribution system, the inequities around the world. Not just food deserts, but what food companies here are doing to impact food choices in developing countries,” she continues.

    “As we try to redefine what a better food system could look like based on plants, we can’t just swap out the products. We have to really examine it from every angle and not repeat the mistakes that we’ve made in the past. And students are going to be the stewards of the future.”

    Schinner is speaking to Green Queen from Berkeley, where she serves as a co-instructor on a new plant-based course at the University of California. Together with Brittany Sartor, who founded the programme, she is helping students advance the transformation to a plant-forward food system.

    And where better do it than Berkeley, the hub of nouvelle American cuisine, and home to Alice Waters’s pioneering farm-to-table eatery Chez Panisse, which spearheaded the locavore food movement in the US.

    “If you want to call Berkeley the birthplace for that type of movement, you can call Brittany the mother of this class, because she dreamed up this entire course and wrote the syllabus, and I’ve just joined at the last minute to help put some padding into it,” says Schinner.

    The makings of University of California’s plant-based course

    The University of California, Berkeley has a programme called Decals, a set of courses created and taught by students, covering topics not traditionally found in the institute’s coursework. When Sartor was a student at the Haas School of Business, she had an a-ha moment when she realised that “we’re not talking about plant-based alternatives” enough.

    As she put together a syllabus for the class, she was on the hunt for a faculty sponsor. “I eventually connected with Will Rosenzweig, who teaches edible education,” she recalls. Rosenzweig had just happened to connect with a master’s student, Samantha Derrick, who was developing a course covering the public health aspects of plant-based foods.

    “And he said: ‘You guys should just join forces create this multidisciplinary course that covers all aspects of the food system: public health, climate, environment, animal welfare,’” says Sartor, who describes herself as a “long-term vegan”.

    She and Derrick combined to introduce two courses under the Plant Futures programme, one of which was a single-unit crash course called Introduction to Plant-Centric Food Systems. The class hosted dozens of guest speakers – Schinner among them – and has now evolved into the new three-unit course available to all nine University of California campuses.

    The online-only course, funded by the Office of the President, already has around 55 students enrolled. It covers several critical modules, spanning Climate & Environment, Health & Nutrition, Animal Welfare, Social Impacts, Innovation, Policy & Law, Behavioral Change, Media, and Plant-Forward Cooking.

    Students from all diets, all over the world

    plant based course
    Courtesy: Plant Futures

    The Plant Futures programme is part of a growing trend of apprenticeships and university courses focusing on plant-based food and alternative proteins. This summer, for example, the Austrian government will launch a vegan and vegetarian culinary apprenticeship, as part of its green economy plan. Schinner herself has been teaching an online vegan cheesemaking course too.

    The plant-based course at the University of California was partly born out of growing student demand, with interest in these foods on the rise across generations. Sartor believes sustainability and the climate argument hold the most weight with the youth, while the older generations are in it for health or animal welfare reasons.

    “Not everyone’s vegan or vegetarian either,” notes Schinner. “It is an incredibly international group of students. We have students from all over the world – people from Asia, Africa, just everywhere.”

    The team has partnered with over 60 organisations and brands, including Grener by Default, Mercy for Animals, Califia Farms, Tofurky, and Beyond Meat.

    “Thankfully, there’s a ton of amazing non-profits that have been working in this space for a while. And so there are great partnerships there. In terms of startups, we really want them to be mission-aligned,” says Schinner. This could involve a non-vegan company working to develop a plant-based product.

    For example, one of the projects students have worked on was to help Bel Group reformulate its iconic Babybel cheese through a dairy-free formulation, making it less grainy and more colour-identical to the original.

    The expansion of the course to all campuses also coincides with the introduction of the Plant-Forward Cooking module. It’s also an evolution of the mini-cooking sessions from the one-unit class. “We got course feedback from the students that that was one of the most valuable things. They never – in their high school or college classes – learned how to cook.

    “And I think especially with like, plant-based cooking, people are just like hesitant. They think it’s going to be harder, and so I’m excited for that throughout the course.”

    Sartor likened it to the “documentary effect”, referring to popular films like Cowspiracy and The Game Changers, which influence people to give up meat or dairy. “Some people look at documentaries maybe as being biased or not reputable, where I think being part of an accredited curriculum at a university has an added layer of reputation to it.”

    Trump administration will ‘create a landscape we haven’t witnessed’

    trump rfk food health
    Courtesy: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC

    We’re talking about food systems transformation at a time when it is perhaps more polarising than ever before. Scientists the world over have said we need to grow and eat less meat to lower emissions, land and water use, and food insecurity.

    Animal protein has become part of a culture war in the US of late. Carnivore diets and raw milk have become major points of discussion, Elon Musk has sung the praises of beef on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and lobby groups and mostly Republican lawmakers have attacked alternative proteins as ultra-processed foods that should be banned.

    The impact? Sales have continued to slow over the last two years, as has investment in startups. Venture capital flowing into the sector was down by 27% last year, with cultivated meat – the target of legislation in more than a dozen states – witnessing a 40% dip.

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    “The industry is in a period of self-examination right now, trying to figure out what’s going on,” says Schinner, who built one of the sector’s most successful companies in Miyoko’s Creamery, subsequently exiting in 2023. “What is the direction we should be going in? Are we making the right products? Are we addressing the right audience, and is this something that should be sold with huge money or not?”

    On Donald Trump, she says: “It’s hard to know where the current administration is going to be with this. But, we can only guess that there are going to be limitations to certain initiatives. I think anything that’s technologically based that’s going to threaten potential industrial animal agriculture is going to be seen as a threat.”

    She adds: “That’s going to create a whole new landscape that we hadn’t previously witnessed as much […] and we’re going to have to dive deep into how we can get the industry to grow in this landscape.”

    Products aren’t the be-all and end-all

    plant futures lab
    Courtesy: Plant Futures

    Schinner believes we “can’t conflate products with the future” of the plant-based sector. “We’re just focused on the sales of products that we’re making, and that doesn’t reflect the entire picture,” she explains.

    “The whole world’s not going to go vegan because there’s Beyond Burger, right? But they might go vegan if we promote a plant-rich diet,” she says. “We put all our eggs in that basket and threw a lot of money at it and assumed that that was what was going to create conversion. I’m not convinced of that.

    “We have to change food culture,” she adds. “You can’t just change what we put on the shelf […] So the evolution of the human being has to go along with it if we’re going to make that change.”

    I ask Schinner what mistakes the food system has made historically. “I’m going to say white saviour mentality,” Schinner responds. “What we did in developing countries, with protein in Africa, with formula, patented GMO seeds that went into places like India and robbed communities of food sovereignty.”

    “That’s when the food system is focused on profits rather than actually feeding people. And so I wonder, as the plant-based industry is focused just as much on growth, IP protection and consolidation, whether or not we could be making the same mistakes that could jeopardise the health and the wealth of people in other parts of the world, as well as here in the US.”

    Sartor notes that our food system has changed rapidly, even just in the last century or two and suggests it can change again. “There’s definitely a chance that it will change rapidly over the next 200 [years],” she says.

    “I don’t think it’s probably feasible to say everyone will go vegan, but I do think that people are going to realise that how we’re doing animal agriculture right now is not sustainable. It’s literally just not sustainable for even the farmers themselves.

    “Inevitably, there’s going to be a shift away from as many animal products as our population grows, because it’s just… it has to.”

    Upcoming cookbook takes ‘whole new approach’ to vegan cheese

    miyoko schinner cookbook
    Courtesy: Celeste Noche

    Schinner is the original vegan dairy queen. She made her name as the chef-owner of Now and Zen, an all-vegan eatery in San Francisco in the late 1980s, and the founder of plant-based dairy startup Miyoko’s Creamery, whose products are available in over 20,000 retail doors.

    But legal disputes over trade secrets and IP led to her departure from the company in 2022 – she no longer has any involvement in the business, which installed Stuart Kronauge as its new CEO in 2023.

    Schinner has been focusing on Rancho Compasión, the animal sanctuary she opened a decade ago, which educates about 50 kids each week about humanity and the food system. A prolific author, she is about to release her seventh cookbook, The Vegan Creamery, this September.

    “I’m really excited about it, because it’s a whole new approach to making everything from milk to cheese to ice cream using all kinds of ingredients that I know,” she says. It’s not just all cashews – there are cheeses made from watermelon seeds, or a vegan halloumi from mung beans.

    “I have recipes in the book where I actually coagulate the plant milks, separate the whey, and then the curds are pressed and over time, they melt into one smooth cheese,” she reveals. “So there’s some techniques in there that are unique, haven’t been seen before, and I am not applying for patents.

    “I am sharing the recipes with the world, hoping that it will encourage more people to embark on this path. Hopefully, it will be the book that launches 10,000 vegan cheese companies.”

    The post Can Vegan Pioneer Miyoko Schinner Shake Up the Food System with UC Berkeley Plant-Based Course? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Climate-Smart Pet Food Startup Bags £75K Investment on Dragons’ Den

    dragons den vegan
    5 Mins Read

    The founders of London-based startup Omni – which makes plant-based pet food – bagged £75,000 from two investors on Dragons’ Den UK last night.

    Plant-based food continues to succeed on the small screen, with dog food maker Omni becoming the latest vegan company to win over investors on TV.

    Guy Sandelowsky and Shiv Sivakumar, who founded the pet nutrition startup in 2020, appeared on the UK edition of Dragons’ Den on Thursday night and struck a joint deal with Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett.

    The famous investors agreed to pour £75,000 into the startup in exchange for a collective 2.5% equity stake, valuing the vegan dog food business at £3M.

    “I had already been looking for a healthy, balanced alternative to processed-meat dog food, so when Guy and Shiv presented Omni and its credentials as a highly nutritional, vet-formulated choice, I was bound to invest. Trust in a product is hugely important to dog owners,” said Meaden.

    “The big test came, though, after the den, when I offered the food and treats to my pack of dogs, and they literally woofed them down – that certainly sealed the deal,” she added.

    Omni’s pet food pitch on Dragons’ Den

    omni dragons den
    Courtesy: BBC

    Omni sells a range of vet-formulated foods and supplements for dogs, such as No-Chicken Pot Pie, No-Beef Casserole, breath supplements, and Training Treats for physical and mental health. The products are catered to pets with sensitivities, allergies, anxiety, and gut issues, among others.

    Sandelowsky and Sivakumar began thier pitch asking for £75,000 for a 1% stake in Omni. “I’m a small-animal vet that’s been in practice for just shy of 10 years, and I’ve seen a number of nutrition-related diseases in our pets,” Sandelowsky explained.

    “At Omni, we believe that novel proteins – like those derived from yeast, pules, algae, and soon lab-grown meat – can be healthy and as delicious as traditional meat-based diets,” he added.

    The company generated over £2.5M in sales in 2022 and 2023, and 80% of its 30,000-strong customer base are subscribers. It has delivered more than five million meals to pets globally.

    Peter Jones questioned the £7.5M valuation set by Omni’s founders, and Sivakumar responded by laying out the business’s forecast for the upcoming 12 months, when it expects to become profitable. He added that the startup had recently secured £2M in VC funding at a valuation of £10M. But Jones was still unconvinced and exited the discussions.

    The entrepreneurs were met with similar scepticism by Touker Suleyman, who wanted a stake of 30%. “You’re delusional about what this is really worth,” he said. “So I’m out.”

    Another Dragon, Sara Davies, praised the founders and their pitch, and didn’t feel the valuation was outlandish. But she wasn’t sold on the project enough at the terms being asked of the investors, and took herself out of the running.

    ‘Wealth and experience’ of Dragons worthwhile

    vegan dog food
    Courtesy: Omni

    But Meaden and Bartlett were impressed by Omni’s lifetime value of customers – while their cost of acquisition is around £40, repeat rates have meant its customers spent £400 each in just two years.

    Meaden made the first offer, asking for 3% of the business – which was matched by Bartlett. The founders then went to discuss, whispering: “That’s basically the two dragons that we wanted.”

    Sandelowsky and Sivakumar asked if the two investors would like to join forces and come in at a 2.5% stake. After some deliberation, the Dragons agreed to the deal.

    “Through the jubilation of hearing a Dragon say: ‘I believe in you,’ there’s an undercurrent of feeling that you have to now give away a large part of your business – something that we have spent years building, only to give away quite a substantial portion of it after a couple of minutes in the Den,” Sivakumar said.

    “Ultimately, we felt the wealth of expertise and guidance brought by the Dragons was definitely worthwhile,” he added. “The experience, to us, really affirmed how much we complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, both driven by a passion to really revolutionise pet nutrition.”

    Speaking to the Daily Express, Sandelowsky said: “We were happy with the result, the number that we arrived at, I think it could potentially be one of the highest valuations for a pet food business.”

    Cultivated meat and ‘Ozempic for dogs’

    omni lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Meatly/Omni

    The pitch also revealed Omni’s plans for the future – the founders are targetng an exit in the next three to five years, the hope being that it is acquired by a bigger pet food company for around £150M.

    The startup has also hinted that it’s developing a natural weight loss powder for dogs, which it has teased as “Ozempic for dogs” – this effort would be helped by the involvement of Bartlett, who has a stake in several health and wellness companies, including peronalised nutrition app Zoe.

    The episode aired the same day news broke that Brits can buy cultivated chicken for their pets starting Friday, with food tech startup Meatly joining forces with vegan pet food maker The Pack to launch dog treats with hybrid meat.

    But a year ago, Meatly had teamed up with Omni to co-develop cat food too, prototypes of which were showcased on Dragons’ Den. It remains to be seen whether this partnership will materialise in the market.

    Either way, it is a big moment for cultivated pet food across the globe, with multiple companies eyeing regulatory approval for thier novel proteins in the US and Singapore.

    Omni’s investment on Dragons’ Den also comes as more and more future food startups find success on the show and its sister programmes across the world. In the last year, for example, Meat the Mushroom and Finneato Fysh Foods have both won deals on Shark Tank US for their plant-based meat and seafood, respectively, while vegan bakery brand The Cinnamon Kitchen found success on Shark Tank India.

    The post Climate-Smart Pet Food Startup Bags £75K Investment on Dragons’ Den appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Plant-Based Sector Central to Canada’s Food Tech Economy – But Funding Gap & Trump Tariffs Threaten Progress

    canada food tech
    5 Mins Read

    Unlike its rivals, Canada’s agrifood tech sector is built on public investment, which leaves a “venture capital gap” – and Trump tariffs threaten to further complicate things.

    Plant proteins, functional foods, and food waste solutions are the top domains in Canada’s agrifood tech ecosystem, but despite “notable growth”, a lack of private sector funding has left the country “significantly behind” global competitors like the US and Canada, a new analysis has found.

    Canada is home to 320 agrifood tech startups and scale-up companies, which have collectively raised $2.9B since 2014 – but puts the nation 13th globally in terms of investment.

    And despite food tech firms comprising 75% of the sector, they have only received 56% of the investment share in the last decade, much lower than the global average of 83%.

    The report by the Canadian Food Innovation Network ascribes this to “limited private capital” – venture capital backs only 40% of food tech rounds in Canada (compared to 60% in the UK and the US), while government grants take up a 30% share, much higher than in the UK (5%) and the US (8%).

    Finding the balance between public and private funding “will be key to unlocking the full potential of Canada’s food tech sector” and making the country a global leader, said Cam Crowder, founding general partner at Redstick Ventures.

    The inaugural Foodtech in Canada 2025 Ecosystem Report analysed data from food tech ecosystem platform Forward Fooding, covering over 9,950 companies across the world over a 10-year period.

    Venture capital gaps have ‘profound implications’

    canada food tech funding
    Courtesy: Canadian Food Innovation Network

    Since 2018, agrifood tech startups in Canada attracted $1.6B in funding from both private and public investors – but this is a far cry from the $8.8B their counterparts secured in the UK, and the $86.6B raised in the US.

    One of the issues is the size of larger funding rounds. At pre-seed and seed levels, investment sums in Canada align closely with those of the US and the UK. But the gap widens with Series A and Series B rounds, whose sizes are about half as big in Canada. Series C rounds, meanwhile, are only a third of the size seen stateside.

    “This discrepancy may represent a significant barrier for Canadian food tech startups seeking access to growth capital,” the report notes. “These gaps carry profound implications, including challenges in scaling operations, building supply chains, meeting regulatory requirements, and achieving strong exit opportunities.”

    This is compounded by the multi-pronged challenges facing the agrifood tech ecosystem in Canada, which include lagging productivity, labour shortages, supply chain complexities, and climate change.

    “Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and shifting precipitation patterns are already hampering agricultural production, disrupting supply chains, and impacting food quality,” reads the report.

    “These challenges increase costs for producers and heighten vulnerabilities across the sector, demanding greater investment in climate-resilient practices and technologies to ensure long-term sustainability and food security.”

    Plant-based sector a bright spot

    canada plant based protein
    Courtesy: Canadian Food Innovation Network

    Despite the obstacles, Canada’s agrifood tech sector has “significant untapped potential”, which could be unlocked with a greater focus on sustainable foods.

    Outside of on-farm innovation, the plant-based sector is “central to the country’s broader food tech ecosystem”. Valued at $1.7B in 2023, this category represents 26% of all food tech firms in Canada, greater than the 14% proportion globally.

    Firms making plant-based meat, seafood, dairy and other ingredients have commanded 12% of food tech funding to date in Canada. The country’s landscape provides B2B opportunities for innovation with functional ingredients like pea and soy proteins, the two most popular ingredients for meat analogues.

    But the presence of B2C operators remains limited, as they’re often less capital-efficient and represent a greater risk for investors.

    These companies face a host of challenges that could impact the sector’s growth trajectory. For example, plant-based foods are often more expensive to produce, with meat alternatives priced at least 30% higher due to high production costs, specialised ingredients, and smaller-scale processing.

    Taste and texture also continue to be a barrier for Canadian consumers, which is why the report calls for further product innovation to alleviate these concerns. Moreover, varying labelling requirements and a complex regulatory landscape complicate market entry and consumer understanding.

    If these issues are addressed, Canada’s plant-based sector “can strengthen its position both domestically and as an exporter, aligning with consumer demand and supporting sustainable growth in food tech”.

    In addition to plant-based foods, biotech-enabled functional ingredients, upcycled foods, and food waste solutions are the strongest verticals in Canada’s food tech industry.

    Trump tariffs a threat to Canada’s food tech ecosystem

    trump food policy
    Courtesy: Trump White House/Flickr/CC

    The Canadian government has led the way in terms of support for plant-based food. Protein Industries Canada, a public-private partnership for alternative proteins and one of the country’s economic clusters, has invested more than $105M into projects that promote sustainable protein production and innovation, encouraging collaboration across the value chain.

    Speaking of the government, the tussle with President Donald Trump’s administration over tariffs could have major implications for Canada’s food tech sector.

    Trump announced a 25% tariff on imports from Canada, before the latter’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with his own 25% tariffs on products sourced from its neighbour. The dispute is currently on hold, with Trump delaying the move by at least 30 days.

    But the US is Canada’s largest export market, taking up over 77% of the share, so any tariffs would hit both countries’ economies hard. In the agrifood tech context, it would make meat alternatives and plant-based dairy products from brands like Gardein, Daiya or Bettermoo(d) more expensive for Americans. This, in turn, could hurt the bottom line of Canadian firms – and the opposite is true too if Trudeau’s retaliatory tariffs come into effect.

    With more than 60 companies specialising in plant-based foods in the country, any such tariffs from the two neighbours would be a blow to Canada’s largest food tech category.

    The post Plant-Based Sector Central to Canada’s Food Tech Economy – But Funding Gap & Trump Tariffs Threaten Progress appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ‘Lowest Price Ever’: Meat-Free Startup Debuts Ultra-Realistic Marbled Lamb with 34g of Protein

    juicy marbles lamb
    4 Mins Read

    Juicy Marbles, known for its plant-based whole cuts, has released Meaty Meat, a high-protein, high-fibre lamb analogue in the US.

    Slovenian plant-based meat maker Juicy Marbles is building on its North American launch with a new marbled lamb product that features nearly 70% of the dairy recommended intake of protein, and 40% of fibre.

    Marketed as Meaty Meat, the lamb is currently only available in the US and Canada, and is sold in 180g packs of two. It contains 26% soy protein concentrate, complemented with sunflower oil, natural flavours, red beet juice, and minimal amounts of pea protein concentrate, apple extract, salt, and vitamins and minerals.

    It’s the startup’s first launch since the initial introduction of its Baby Ribs with edible bones, and is a marker of its expansion plans in North America, where it plans to roll out its whole cuts in retail this year.

    juicy marbles
    Courtesy: Juicy Marbles

    Giving Americans what they want

    Founded in 2019 by Luka Sinček, Maj Hrovat, Tilen Travnik and Vladimir Mićković, Juicy Marbles began with whole-cut beef steaks made using patent-pending ‘reverse grinder’ tech that mimics the muscle texture and marbling of conventional steak.

    It layers plant protein fibres on top of each other to replicate animal tissue, helped by deposits of hardened sunflower oil. The effort aims to solve two of plant-based meat’s biggest pain points: taste and texture.

    Research shows that most vegan analogues fall short of meat-eaters’ taste expectations. And among the Americans either likely to buy meat alternatives or still undecided, their taste and texture would only convince 16% to drive to the supermarket to purchase them.

    Known for its quirky marketing, Juicy Marbles describes the Meaty Meat as a “cosy, sensual, hearty, and whimsical” product that will transport eaters to a place far away. “Take a whiff, and you’re gambling with a band of spice traders in a smokey yurt on the steppes of Mongolia. Take another, and retreat to the candle-lit warmth of a snowy inn where the barmaid, Helga, is cooking a mean shepherd’s pie,” the brand says on its website.

    juicy marbles meaty meat
    Courtesy: Juicy Marbles

    Each lamb cut is packed with 34g of plant protein and 11g of fibre – two of the most sought-after macronutrients in the US, with 71% of Americans interested in consuming more protein and 64% more fibre. The latter is also in the spotlight thanks to the rise of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs.

    And in October, a report by 84.51° (the market research division of Kroger) showed that high-protein is the most prized nutritional attribute in food products for its shoppers, with clean ingredients another major priority – Juicy Marbles is making a play here too, highlighting that the new vegan lamb contains “no thickeners, binders, or preservatives”.

    Juicy Marbles’s cheapest product yet

    Juicy Marbles first came to market in 2021, and has since expanded to 3,500 European stores, with listings in Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Waitrose, Whole Foods Market, Billa, Migros and more.

    Its product lineup includes a whole-cut lion, a thick-cut filet, and bone-in ribs, and have impressed consumers and expert panels globally. The ribs were anointed the Most Innovative Vegan Product at PETA’s 2023 Vegan Food Awards, and the brand was named Champion in the plant-based meat category at The Grocer’s 2023 Food and Packaging Awards. And last year, its sales jumped after a mention on Netflix’s You Are What You Eat documentary.

    The new lamb is designed to be versatile – it can be pulled apart for tacos and wraps, sliced into strips for salads and sandwiches, or cut into chunks for rice bowls and noodles. It cooks in eight minutes and, according to the company, “opens up an entirely new world of cuisine to home chefs who’ve grown weary of beef, chicken, and pork alternatives”.

    plant based lamb
    Courtesy: Juicy Marbles

    Meaty Meat is also Juicy Marbles’s cheapest product yet, costing 26% less per ounce than its other offerings – this will be key to attracting more consumers, since the affordability of plant proteins is becoming more and more important for Americans. For some, it even trumps flavour.

    2025 is also a key year for the company, which has only raised $7M from investors. It aimed to reach profitability by the end of last year, a major success in an industry where sales have dwindled amid fears around ultra-processed foods and misinformation from Big Meat.

    Alternative protein firms are taking one of two routes to win back consumers: they’re either reformulating products to include more whole foods and lean into health, or they’re going all-in on flavour, texture and meatiness with whole cuts. Juicy Marbles belongs to the latter category, as do innovators like Chunk Foods, Prime Roots, Redefine Meat, Project Eaden, Meati Foods, and Planted.

    The post ‘Lowest Price Ever’: Meat-Free Startup Debuts Ultra-Realistic Marbled Lamb with 34g of Protein appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • UK Govt Has Poured £75M Into Sustainable Proteins – But the Job is Only Half Done

    lab grown meat uk
    5 Mins Read

    The UK is no longer at risk of falling behind other countries in the protein transition, thanks to a collective outlay of £75M in future food innovation. But more can be done in the upcoming food strategy.

    As the Labour government begins work on a food strategy, a new analysis shows that the UK has injected £75M towards the development of sustainable proteins.

    This sum represents 60% of the £125M investment recommended by Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy in 2021, which noted that alternative proteins could help the UK cut emissions by lowering meat consumption, and boost the economy via the creation of 10,000 manufacturing jobs.

    There were fears that without government support, the UK would risk falling behind its European counterparts in the protein transition – but that’s no longer the case, according to alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, which carried out the analysis.

    Food and environment secretary Steve Reed has indicated that he is “interested in building on the work that Henry Dimbleby started” and pledged to work with the food sector to develop the new national food strategy in the first half of the year.

    This is crucial too, with the UK off track for its net-zero target, and a new report urging food policy overhaul to battle climate change and global insecurity.

    “Ministers should use the forthcoming national food strategy as a springboard to build on the impressive work that has already taken place and develop the policy, regulatory, scientific and commercial landscape needed to accelerate protein diversification over the rest of the decade,” Linus Pardoe, senior UK policy manager at GFI Europe, tells Green Queen.

    New research centres a ‘major step forward’

    bezos centre for sustainable protein
    Courtesy: Imperial College London

    The 2021 strategy advised the government to invest in homegrown scientists and startups developing plant-based foods, cultivated meat and fermentation-derived ingredients. It suggested pouring £50M into an innovation cluster, and £75M in grants for startups.

    Boris Johnson, who was prime minister at the time, heeded the recommendation in the 2022 Government Food Strategy, committing to innovation funding, regulatory guidance, and a revamp of the novel food framework.

    Following this, two UK Research and Innovation Council bodies jointly pledged at least £20M for alternative protein R&D. And since 2023, four major research centres have cropped up – the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub, the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre, the Microbial Food Hub, and Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centre for Sustainable Protein have collectively been backed by over £60M in public and philanthropic funding.

    While “it would be a stretch” to call these centres a cluster, their establishment is a “major step forward” and provides much-needed coordination of the UK’s alternative protein research and innovation ecosystem, according to GFI Europe.

    uk food strategy
    Courtesy: GFI Europe

    “Our recent analysis found that across Europe, the UK fell only behind the EU institutions and Denmark in terms of public and philanthropic funding for alternative protein research, while UK researchers have published more work in this area than those from anywhere else in the region,” says Pardoe.

    He adds that the launch of the research centres is “an excellent start”, though “there is room for growth” to ensure UK scientists stay ahead of the curve. “Targeted public investments in key overlooked areas – such as optimising ingredients and developing locally-grown crops for plant-based meat and dairy products – is now needed to make sure the UK remains internationally competitive,” he explains.

    Dimbleby’s strategy also proposed that any food business with over 250 employees must report on a range of health and sustainability metrics, including how much of their protein sales come from plant-based sources. But only 17% of major food companies voluntarily do so, with only Lidl GB breaking down its protein sales while setting a target to increase plant-based offerings.

    Regulatory progress is commendable, but slow

    is kier starmer vegetarian
    UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, a pescetarian, and his vegetarian wife Victoria | Courtesy: Number 10/Flickr/CC

    The UK last year made several moves to break away from pre-Brexit novel food regulations, with the government investing £1.6M to create a new regulatory sandbox for cultivated meat, which is expected to help fast-track market approval for these proteins. The Food Safety Authority (FSA) also plans to set up a system of international cooperation, which would see the UK greenlight cultivated meat products approved in other countries.

    Additionally, the FSA is creating a new public register to replace the existing system of requiring a statutory instrument (which adds up to six months to the assessment process), and removing the need for renewals of approvals every 10 years.

    The progress has been positive yet slow. “The FSA’s announcement of a regulatory sandbox is an exciting sign that the UK government wants to capitalise on the strong investments made in cultivated meat research, by bringing products to market in a way that upholds Britain’s gold standard safety regulations,” says Pardoe.

    “But while the sandbox is a welcome measure, other challenges still remain. The FSA has been under-resourced for a number of years – resulting in lengthy delays for product approvals – and the detailed guidelines for alternative protein startups first proposed in 2022 have yet to be published, meaning some companies lack the clarity needed when preparing dossiers,” he adds.

    “The UK has also not yet introduced a modern approach to holding safe, limited taste testing for novel foods, similar to the protocol introduced by the Netherlands – another area that could enable startups to demonstrate progress and engage with consumers as they develop their products.”

    lab grown meat pet food
    Courtesy: Meatly

    That said, the UK is about to be the first European country to offer cultivated meat to customers, with London startups Meatly and The Pack co-launching dog treats made from cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients at Pets at Home starting tomorrow (February 7).

    Israel’s Aleph Farms, French startups Vital Meat and Gourmey, and British player Ivy Farm Technologies are all awaiting approval from the FSA too.

    However, Pardoe says the job is only half done: “As the food strategy process progresses throughout 2025, we will develop key proposals to make sure the UK continues to grasp its status as a European alternative protein leader, enabling Britain to reap the potential of these foods to deliver green economic growth, boost food security and improve public health.”

    The post UK Govt Has Poured £75M Into Sustainable Proteins – But the Job is Only Half Done appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Big Idea Ventures’s Andrew D Ive

    big idea ventures
    2 Mins Read

    In our new 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.

    Andrew D Ive is the General Managing Partner at Big Idea Ventures.

    What future food technologies most excite you?

    1. Cultured meat and dairy: I’m still excited by this technology, the current scale-up phase and finding ways to work with the traditional protein industry to enhance protein production overall.
    2. Precision fermentation: This is the second candidate in the race that can unlock a more sustainable food future.
    3. Scaling Technology: Though not a specific technology, scaling presents challenges that require innovative solutions and approaches.

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

    1. Food and biology.
    2. Agriculture and nature: Enhancing agriculture’s interaction with nature and biodiversity, and collaborating with top universities.
    3. Food production technologies: Boosting food production and utilising waste to develop bio-materials, bio-surfaces, and sustainable packaging.

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

    Investors have been supporting remarkable future food companies across various sectors, discovering what’s possible with cutting-edge technologies. The next focus is scaling these technologies to benefit the food system sustainably.

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

    Enhance taste and texture, lower costs through scalable methods, and improve nutritional profiles to meet or surpass traditional meat.

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

    Tenacity: the perseverance to navigate challenging times.

    ‘The One That Got Away’: tell us about the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t.

    The jury is still out.

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

    Too many great investments to choose just one. We have 20+ companies that have the potential for global impact in our portfolios.

    What do you consider your most disappointing future food investment?

    I am disappointed when a company that is growing well and has found product market fit fails because the founders fall out and don’t want to move forward as a team. This scenario is the most disappointing investment.

    What do people get wrong most about VC?

    VC is often not all about the money. Many of us are focused on finding and working with great founders and companies who have the potential to make an enormous difference in our world.

    What is the most ‘future food’ dish or ingredient you have eaten this month?

    Plant-based shrimp salad from Bayou Best Foods. Delicious!

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

    Did I mention the plant-based shrimp salad from Bayou Best Foods?

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

    I believe founders, scientists and engineers have the ability to solve many of our greatest challenges and we need to do everything we can to help them to achieve their visions. Time is pressing.

    The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Big Idea Ventures’s Andrew D Ive appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Mosa Meat: Cultivated Burger Pioneer Hits €1.5M Crowdfunding Target in 24 Minutes

    mosa meat crowdfunding

    4 Mins Read

    Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat surpassed its crowdfunding goal of €1.5M ($1.56M) just 24 minutes after launch, with the total sum continuing to rise.

    It took less than half an hour.

    Mosa Meat, the company known for producing the world’s first cultivated beef burger, has demonstrated Europeans’ appetite for novel foods, reaching its target of raising €1.5M ($1.56M) via crowdfunding at breakneck speed.

    The Dutch startup hit the goal 24 minutes after the investment opportunity went live, and the total has kept on climbing – less than two days later, Mosa Meat has been overfunded at nearly 175% of its target, raising €2.62M ($2.7M) from almost 1,050 investors.

    The largest investment so far is valued at €1M ($1M). The campaign on Crowdcube remains open until February 25, unless it reaches the maximum funding limit of €13M (combined in the EU and the UK) before then.

    The investment adds to Mosa Meat’s €40M ($42.4M) round last April, which took its total funding to $135M. Among its backers are big names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sergey Brin, Chris Sacca, and the Mitsubishi Corporation.

    “We are very excited that after receiving support from institutional investors, governments, meat producers and regulators, we can now also offer more consumers to join us on our mission,” Mosa Meat CEO Maarten Bosch said in a statement.

    Why Mosa Meat took the crowdfunding route

    lab grown beef
    Courtesy: Mosa Meat

    Asked why Mosa Meat decided to open up to crowd investors, Bosch told Green Queen: “Ever since Mosa Meat was founded, we’ve had consumers reach out to us that asked if they could help further our mission by investing. With the progress that we have been making, getting closer to market introductions, we thought this was a good moment to start involving consumers and retail investors.”

    He added that the startup will use the funds to “speed up final R&D before restaurant sales can start. We’ll also fund marketing for the first product launch, and the production of the first burgers intended for sale”.

    Bosch noted that “the sheer volume of investment requests” Mosa Meat received after it submitted its regulatory dossier in the EU two weeks ago was “astounding”. “This campaign is about inclusivity; allowing those who support us to help shape the future of food alongside us,” he said.

    The startup has filed for approval to sell a cultivated beef fat for use in blended meat products. The EU Commission and the European Food Safety Authority’s assessment is expected to take 18 months, and if successful, Mosa Meat would be able to sell the ingredient in all 27 member states and the three EEA countries.

    It is also awaiting approval from the Singapore Food Agency and plans to apply in several other geographies, including the UK and possibly Switzerland.

    French startup Gourmey is the only other startup that has applied for EU clearance. But several others – like Meatable, Vital Meat and Aleph Farms – are vying for the greenlight in Singapore. The UK has also seen applications from Vital Meat and Aleph Farms. The latter, which is already approved in Israel, is pursuing clearance in Thailand and Switzerland too.

    Vow, meanwhile, is awaiting the go-ahead from Food Standards Australia New Zealand, having launched in Singapore and Hong Kong last year.

    ‘A clear sign’ that consumers want better options

    mosa meat funding
    Courtesy: Mosa Meat

    Venture capitalists have been deserting the cultivated meat sector in the past 12-18 months lately- investment dropped by 75% in 2023, followed by another steep decline in 2024., leading to the demise of some startups and forcing others to restructure and conduct layoffs.

    Mosa Meat is one of the outliers, evidenced by its €40M raise last year, and the instant success of the crowdfunding campaign. “The overwhelming response to our crowdfunding campaign shows just how strong the demand for cultivated meat remains, even in a challenging VC environment,” Bosch told Green Queen.

    “Despite the situation in capital markets, we’re still seeing unwavering support from consumers, governments, established meat producers, regulators and other partners. It’s a clear sign that people want better options, without giving up what they love,” he added.

    Bosch said the introduction of Mosa Meat’s burgers depends on where it first receives approval, as well as its production costs and volumes. “We can currently produce our burgers at restaurant price levels, and that’s where we’ll start introducing them. One of the options around introductions is to involve the people that participated in this crowdfunding,” he explained.

    The Crowdcube campaign listed several rewards for backers based on the amount invested, from €750 all the way to €250,000. “There are options to get free burgers, skip the line once we get an approval, or even join our founders in Maastricht for an exclusive tasting event this year,” said Bosch.

    Mosa Meat held a public tasting for cattle farmers, product developers and other industry representatives at its headquarters in Maastricht in July, where it dished out hybrid beef burgers.

    Where can you taste it next? “We are currently creating our next-generation products and are preparing to submit tasting approvals for those this year,” said Bosch.

    Other alternative protein startups that have successfully taken the crowdfunding approach include fellow cultivated meat company SuperMeat and plant-based meat players THIS, Heura and La Vie. The Pack, a vegan pet food player that just debuted dog treats blended with Meatly’s cultivated chicken, has also pursued crowdfunding.

    The post Mosa Meat: Cultivated Burger Pioneer Hits €1.5M Crowdfunding Target in 24 Minutes appeared first on Green Queen.

  • A Global First: Cultivated Dog Treats Hit UK Shelves As Consumers Seek Sustainable Pet Food

    lab grown meat pet food
    5 Mins Read

    London-based Meatly’s cultivated chicken has debuted at Pets At Home in the UK, as part of a hybrid dog treat made by vegan pet food startup The Pack.

    British pet owners can now buy cultivated chicken for their furry friends, in what is a global first for the alternative protein industry.

    Starting February 7, leading pet retailer Pets at Home’s Brentford store will stock dog treats made from a blend of Meatly’s cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients from The Pack.

    Called Chick Bites, the oven-baked treats come in 50g pouches and cost £3.49, and the limited run means around 750 units will be available initially.

    The launch has been eagerly anticipated ever since Meatly received approval from UK regulators to sell its cultivated meat for pets last July. The startup had revealed last year that it would enter the market through Pets at Home – one of Meatly’s largest investors – while vegan pet food maker The Pack had hinted at a move into cultivated meat months earlier.

    Chick Bites ‘a giant leap forward’

    lab grown pet food
    Courtesy: Meatly/Pets at Home

    Meatly’s innovation is derived from a single sample of chicken cells, which – combined with its technology – can produce enough meat “to feed pets forever”, according to the food tech startup. The cells are fed on a mix of nutrients that facilitate their growth, and nurtured in a container that controls temperature and acidity.

    The resulting cultivated chicken breast contains all essential amino acids, critical fatty acids, vitamins and minerals needed for pet health, while being more sustainable and just as palatable.

    Feeding trials carried out by the company have shown that half of the dogs who ate its meat continued to lick the bowl after finishing it, and three-quarters of pet owners reported higher enjoyment than their dogs’ baseline diet.

    “Just two years ago, this felt like a moonshot. Today, we take off,” Meatly co-founder and CEO Owen Ensor said of the launch. “It’s a giant leap forward – toward a significant market for meat, which is healthy, sustainable and kind to our planet and other animals.”

    Pets at Home, which is the UK’s largest pet retailer with over 450 stores, said its investment in Meatly demonstrates its commitment to the planet. “We’re always looking to the future of pet care, and to make sure we’re developing and providing the products that matter to our customers,” said COO Anja Madsen Madsen.

    Meeting the demand for sustainable pet food

    meatly lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Meatly/Pets at Home

    “This innovation has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of pet food and will be a game-changer for the industry,” Madsen added.

    Meatly – which has signed up to the newly released C-Label certification – has previously cited research suggesting that pets account for 22% of the UK’s meat consumption, which is more than what British children eat every year. Meanwhile, labradors – the most popular pet dogs in the country – consume 70 million kg of meat annually, nearly 60% more than their owners.

    Cultivated chicken presents consumers with a more planet-friendly option to feed their four-legged friends. Global polling has shown that 51% of consumers have switched brands or products due to environmental worries – a number that rises to 56% for millennials and 58% for Gen Zers.

    When it comes to pet food, 58% of consumers across age groups switch items or companies out of sustainability concerns, and 54% are happy to pay a premium on eco-friendly products for their pets. This sentiment has deepened over the last few years, with over a third (36%) of consumers saying they were more likely to pay more for sustainable pet food in 2024 than three years prior.

    Meatly plans fundraise to scale up production

    cultivated pet food
    The Pack CEO Damien Clarkson, Pets at Home COO Anja Madsen, and Meatly CEO Owne Ensor | Courtesy: Meatly/Pets at Home

    Meatly indicates that its launch with The Pack and Pets at Home is just a start. “We’ll scale our production and make products more widely available to consumers,” said Ensor.

    The company recently secured an undisclosed sum of funding to add to the £3.6M it had already raised to date, and now plans to attract more investment to help scale up production. “Despite only raising 1% of total European cultivated meat investment, we are the first company to sell cultivated meat in both the UK and EU,” noted the CEO. “We’re proving the potential of cultivated meat, and that there is an efficient and cost-effective route to market.”

    Meatly is planning further small releases before expanding production to make the chicken more broadly available in the next three to five years, and has further collaborations planned with both Pets at Home and The Pack.

    “Cultivated meat offers a tasty, low-carbon, and healthy protein source, which has the potential to eliminate farmed animals from the pet food industry,” said The Pack co-founder and CEO Damien Clarkson, who called the release of the Chick Bites a “watershed moment”.

    Meatly has previously partnered with Omni to market its cultivated chicken for cats, before it pivoted to the dog food focus. “I’ve fed it to my cats several times and they love it,” Ensor told Green Queen in July. The company is now looking to conduct feeding trials for felines as well.

    The cultivated pet food sector has made headlines of late. Cult Food Science conducted feeding trials in the US in pursuit of regulatory approval for its Noochies! brand, Friends & Family Pet Food Co inked two deals to launch stateside and in Singapore, BioCraft Pet Nutrition slashed the cost of its growth media, and Bene Meat Technologies released a life-cycle assessment proving cultivated meat’s superiority to beef.

    The post A Global First: Cultivated Dog Treats Hit UK Shelves As Consumers Seek Sustainable Pet Food appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Hot Honey, Dairy-Free February & Earthshot Prize

    vegan hot honey
    5 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Eleven Madison Park’s new vegan hot honey, Beyond Meat’s new steaks, and Kite Hill’s post-Veganuary dairy-free campaign.

    New products and launches

    Famed New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park has released a private-label version of MeliBio‘s Mellody plant-based honey. Launched under the Eleven Madison Home label, the hot honey is made from plant extracts and red habanero chillies, and is available on its website for $28 per 375g jar.

    beyond steak
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Beyond Meat has expanded its vegan steak lineup with chimichurri and Korean-style BBQ flavours, which are available at Sprouts Farmers Market.

    In the UK, Singapore-headquartered HAPPIEE! is taking on McDonald’s with its plant-based alternatives, launching a new truck with HAPPIEE Meals featuring its vegan scampi right in front of the Golden Arches.

    US alt-dairy producer Califia Farms has brought its Simple & Organic range of three-ingredient plant-based milks to the UK, starting with almond and oat milk in Waitrose.

    califia farms organic
    Courtesy: Califia Farms

    Now owned by Oddlygood, British plant milk brand Rude Health has introduced a chilled soy milk with added calcium. Available from February in Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco, the four-ingredient offering contains 120mg of calcium (or 15% of the daily recommended intake) per 100ml.

    Meanwhile, TiNDLE Foods has brought its vegan chicken to all Call a Pizza locations in Germany, where it will be part of menu items like crispy tenders and juicy burgers.

    In the Netherlands, Unilever-owned meat-free brand The Vegetarian Butcher has revamped its beef mince, rolled out tender beef stripes, and relaunched its Cordon Blij and Little Willies SKUs at Albert Heijn.

    the vegetarian butcher
    Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher

    And agrifood firm Jaouda has launched Nabatlé, Morocco’s first homegrown plant-based milk brand. It’s available in three varieties: oat, almond, and coconut.

    Company and finance updates

    Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize has set a ‘protein split’ target to achieve 50% of its protein sales from plant-based foods across its European operations by 2030.

    Also in the Netherlands, AI-led food waste scanner startup OneThird has raised €3.5M ($3.6M) in Series A funding and appointed Henrike Langbroek as CEO.

    onethird scanner
    Courtesy: OneThird

    Danish biotech firm Enduro Genetics has secured €12M ($12.4M) in a Series A round to expand its “synthetic addiction” technology to boost yields and lower costs of microbial bioproduction across industries like alternative proteins, green fuels, bioplastics, and specialty chemicals.

    British cocoa-free chocolate company Win-Win has named Mark Golder as its new CEO. He has previously worked at Bosh!, Ripple Foods, and Rhythm 108.

    European firm The New Originals Company has acquired Dutch tofu maker SoFine Foods and its production facility in Landgraaf.

    sofine tofu
    Courtesy: SoFine Foods

    Now that Veganuary is over, plant-based dairy brand Kite Hill has launched a Dairy-Free February campaign, after a survey found that 36% of Americans would consider trying more plant-based products if they had more information about their health benefits.

    North Carolina startup Biomilq, which specialises in cell-based breast milk bioactives, has filed for bankruptcy amid a protracted IP dispute.

    Speaking of legal battles, precision fermentation leader Perfect Day has ended its dispute with co-manufacturer Olon, with the case voluntarily dismissed and each entity paying its own legal fees. It’s now on the hunt for a new CEO, following the exit of interim chief Narayan TM.

    perfect day whey
    Courtesy: Perfect Day

    Positioning cultivated meat as a direct alternative rather than a substitute, German cultivated meat startup MyriaMeat has developed pig muscle tissues from pluripotent stem cells that exhibit spontaneous contractions.

    Israel’s Vanilla Vida has completed the first scaled harvest of vanilla plants grown via an indoor farming system, which cuts the growing time in half and delivers higher yields than vanillin.

    Finnish precision fermentation startup Onego Bio has completed a successful large-scale bakery run with its animal-free egg protein, producing cookies, muffins and cakes.

    onego bio
    Courtesy: Halle Redfearn/LinkedIn

    Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has announced a plan to readjust the ratio of its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) – instead of one ADR representing one ordinary share, the change would see each ADR represent 20 ordinary shares.

    In more news from Sweden, dairy giant Valio has teamed up with food tech startup Melt&Marble to use its precision-fermented fats in a variety of “next-generation plant-based products”.

    Policy, research and awards

    Environmental action charity WRAP and the International Food Waste Coalition have joined forces to launch WRAP EU in an effort to tackle food waste in Europe.

    wrap eu
    Courtesy: WRAP EU

    As part of the WIDERA ERA Talents call, the EU has invested €3M in a project to develop new types of plant-based proteins from Turkish staple crops like chickpeas, lentils, and other legumes. The four-year APRISE project is led by the Middle East Technical University, and the investment falls under the Horizon Europe scheme.

    In Canada, the government of Nova Scotia has invested over C$1M to expand the Verschuren Centre, a precision fermentation facility in Cape Breton. The capital will create skilled biomanufacturing jobs, help enhance automation, and increase its client capacity.

    Replacing meat with plant-based and fungal alternatives can reduce total cholesterol by 6%, LDL cholesterol by 11%, and body weight by 1% in eight weeks or less, a new study has found.

    senara
    Courtesy: Senara

    German cultivated milk producer Senara has been shortlisted for the 2025 edition of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, after being nominated by the WWF.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Hot Honey, Dairy-Free February & Earthshot Prize appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • People Don’t Want Vegan Alternatives to Taste Like Meat – They Just Want Them to Be Cheaper

    vegan meat price
    4 Mins Read

    A new study suggests that plant-based meat analogues are more attractive to consumers when they’re cheaper than conventional options – taste may not matter as much.

    Americans prefer beef, falafel and veggie burgers over plant-based analogues, but the latter become much more attractive if companies can offer them at a cheaper cost than meat.

    These are the results of a two-part study conducted by researchers from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Humboldt University Berlin and Georg August University Göttingen. They analysed the preferences of over 2,100 Americans to find out what factors influence their protein choices.

    The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, asked participants to choose between a conventional beef burger, a plant-based meat analogue, a veggie burger (which imitates the appearance but not the taste or texture of meat), and a falafel burger. The researchers then analysed how price changes influence consumer preferences.

    They found that beef was by far the most popular option, chosen by 75% of respondents. But this was followed by falafels (34%) and veggie burgers (7%) – meat analogues ranked the lowest, selected by just 6% of participants.

    If a conventional meat option was taken off the table, a majority of consumers (69%) would choose to remain in the market with one of the alternatives – but here, too, the uptake of plant-based meat would be the lowest (15%).

    “This contradicts the widespread assumption that meat substitutes are only competitive if they are as close as possible to the original,” said lead author Steffen Jahn.

    Price parity no longer enough

    plant based price parity
    Courtesy: GFI

    In the US, beef is 20% cheaper than plant-based meat on average, but this gap expands to 77% for the overall meat market. Experts have long held the view that price parity is crucial for meat analogues to compete in the market.

    “However, we found that price parity has no real effect on people’s choices,” said Jahn.

    The real impact, it seems, lies in undercutting the cost of meat. Making vegan analogues cheaper than animal proteins would significantly increase their popularity among Americans, according to the research.

    On the other hand, if plant-based alternatives are more expensive than meat, their preference falls below 20%, and if they’re priced equally, this increases to 21%.

    But if plant-based alternatives cost about half of the conventional meat burger, the number of people choosing the vegan options would double. And lowering the price of the meat analogue burger by 10% would result in a 14% increase in sales.

    Meanwhile, men are more dedicated meat-eaters, but an attractive price point would make them more willing than women to change their consumption habits. If plant-based alternatives are priced at half the price of meat, their choice share increases to 50% among men. And even those who never tried a meat substitute before would opt for it.

    “Restaurants and food manufacturers might actually be able to increase their sales of vegetarian or vegan alternatives if they offered meat substitutes at lower prices than the meat options,” said Jahn.

    He suggested that “a truly faithful imitation is not the goal” for plant-based meat. “Maybe it’s because many people associate them with ultra-processed foods, which have a bad reputation,” he said, referencing a debate that has heated up in the last year.

    Policy support can help businesses lower prices

    plant based price parity
    Courtesy: Lidl

    Over the years, there have been numerous studies that point to health and taste as the most important factors behind plant-based meat consumption. But recently, affordability has crept up as a crucial point of influence, as inflation continues to squeeze consumers’ wallets.

    “Our findings challenge the notion that plant-based meat alternatives will naturally replace meat, instead aligning with recent findings that meat and meat analogues may sometimes complement each other rather than serve as substitutes,” read the study.

    “However, this dynamic could shift dramatically with more competitive plant-based meat alternative pricing, potentially turning these products into true meat substitutes. This is particularly true for analogues, which appear to benefit the most from increased affordability.”

    The researchers believe there is a pathway for vegan meat producers to bring their prices lower than animal protein. “If these higher prices are related to processing costs, there is optimism that as economies of scale are realised, the reduced production cost will equalise the playing field between PBMAs and their meat counterparts,” they wrote.

    Policy interventions could also help here. Meat taxes, while difficult to implement, can exert significant steering effects on consumers – Denmark was the first country to announce such a levy last year, which will come into effect in 2030. Other measures could involve redirecting tax revenues towards subsidising plant-based foods.

    American companies can learn from their counterparts in Germany, the largest market for vegan food outside the US. Supermarkets have led the way here, with the likes of Lidl and sister retailer Kaufland, Aldi Süd, and Rewe Group-owned Penny and Billa all lowering the prices of their own-label plant-based alternatives to match or undercut the cost of meat and dairy. Outside retail, Burger King has followed suit, making all its vegan items cheaper than meat in Germany.

    The post People Don’t Want Vegan Alternatives to Taste Like Meat – They Just Want Them to Be Cheaper appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Meat Eaters More Likely To Choose Plant-Based Meal Kits with ‘Moral’ Nudge

    vegan meal choices
    5 Mins Read

    By Sophie Attwood, Sebastian Isbanner and David Fechner

    New research: targeted messaging can encourage both plant-based and meat eaters to select more plant-based meals on online food ordering platforms.

    One of the first facts drilled into all students of human behavior is the power of past behavior to predict our future actions. Despite our desire to see ourselves as agents of free choice, much of what we do is habitual and, as a result, highly predictable.

    While this insight may feel fatalistic, it’s incredibly useful for behavioral psychologists, whose job is to influence others’ actions. Like ripples in a pond, if we can influence a person’s habits in one area of their lives – be it their diet, finances, or work – there’s a strong probability that this shift will spill over into related behaviors.

    This carry-over effect is vital because making a one-off change is rarely enough to achieve concrete progress toward the goals we care about most. Like many of our good intentions – losing weight, saving money, or managing excess workload – all require consistent, directed effort over time and across contexts.

    Going in circles

    Substantial research has already explored how spillover effects modify peoples’ pro-environmental behavior. For example, researchers have studied whether encouraging people to recycle their cans or avoid plastic bags will eventually transfer to more important decisions, like driving less, taking fewer flights, or reducing ruminant meat consumption. The hope here is that inducing smaller shifts in behavior might act as gateways to larger, more impactful changes.

    Yet, with sustainable food choices in particular, there are some lingering concerns that compensation behaviors might kick in before this positive transfer can happen. A salad at lunch could leave you feeling deprived and craving a bigger burger at dinner time. Given that the ‘big picture’ for most sustainable diet change is to create an overall reduction – in either carbon emissions, damage to biodiversity, or excess water or land use – compensatory behaviors must be prevented so they don’t cancel out any initial hard-won gains.

    plant based nudges
    Courtesy: Appetite

    Reinforcing good behavior

    So, what’s to be done? How can we ensure behavioral spillover works in our favor, and, more importantly – how do we intercept that past-behavior-future-behavior loop in the first place? These were two questions that we recently explored in a study of people’s food choices when ordering online, with the goal of seeing if we could leverage past food ordering tendencies to promote more environmentally friendly meal choices in the future.

    We asked our study participants, which excluded vegans and vegetarians, to enter an online food delivery platform and order meal kits for the coming week and select their preferred lunch and dinner. While our ‘control’ group received a generic message about the success of online meal delivery services, our ‘intervention’ group received a short pop-up message just after selecting their daily lunch, which encouraged them to opt for a tasty plant-based dinner and read as follows:

    Did you know that by opting for a plant-based dish, you could save greenhouse gas emissions equal to the energy needed to power your phone for two years? Choosing plant-based reflects a commitment to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
    Example of a short pop-up message shown to ‘intervention’ group

    We were interested in how this short paragraph might influence our participants differently depending on whether their original lunch choice – i.e. their past behavior – was meat-based or plant-based. Published in the Appetite journal, our results for those who initially selected a plant-based lunch were as expected. The pop-up message led to a 51% increase in the number of plant-based dinners subsequently ordered.

    When we explored exactly how this short message was working, our data showed that it reinforced our plant-based lunch choosers’ self-identity. The pop-up highlighted how their actions aligned with their desired sense of self as an ‘environmentally friendly’ (i.e. ‘morally good’) person.

    plant based university
    Courtesy: Lehigh University

    Dealing with dissonance

    Perhaps more interesting, however, was the impact of our message on the meat-based lunch eaters. For those who originally preferred chicken or beef, we were interested in whether these past preferences would carry through to dinner or whether our message would influence choices in a different direction.

    Our data showed that we can, to some extent, untether people’s future choices from their past habits. While those who opted for a meat-based lunch still selected more meat dinners (their preferences were consistent over time), our pop-up led to a significant increase in the number who switched to a plant-based dinner instead.

    The message still seemed to influence participants’ self-identity, but this time in a slightly different way. Rather than providing a flattering mirror to their ‘good’ past behavior, the message emphasized the discrepancy between our meat-based lunch choosers’ current actions and the positive identity described in the message – of being someone committed to helping the environment.

    Becoming aware of this gap between actual behavior and perceived self-image as a morally good person induced a sense of cognitive dissonance – a feeling of mental discomfort – that was sufficiently strong to motivate a 27% swing away from meat. With the US meal kit sector generating around US$5.65bn in 2024, a weekly shift of this magnitude is no small deal.

    behavior science plant based
    Courtesy: Appetite

    Future you is a click away

    As with all other behaviors, our past actions matter when it comes to food. People who are open to choosing plant-based meals can be encouraged to maintain and extend this habit simply by highlighting their existing positive actions and reinforcing these with a short, flattering message.

    Yet, as our study shows, our future choices are also not inevitabilities. Meat eaters can still be encouraged to select meat-free options if we push the right influence buttons. Our data shows that a message reinforcing a desired self-identity can play a valuable role, especially in the context of online food ordering platforms where changing our behavior to align to a desired, positive self-image is just a button click away.

    No coercion or criticism is needed; just a short reminder that you can become the type of person you want to be.

    The post Meat Eaters More Likely To Choose Plant-Based Meal Kits with ‘Moral’ Nudge appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 50% of Europeans Changing Diet for the Climate, With One Third Reducing Meat

    europe meat consumption
    5 Mins Read

    Contrary to recent polls about a disconnect between sustainability and dietary change, a new survey has found that 52% of Europeans are changing the way they eat for the climate.

    More than half (52%) of consumers in Europe have made dietary shifts over the last two years to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle, with 29% reducing the amount of meat they eat, a new survey has found.

    The poll – covering 10,400 people from 13 European countries, including the UK and Turkey – was carried out by FMCG Gurus, and didn’t identify a primary reason for dietary change among these consumers.

    However, while health concerns and animal welfare continue to be important factors, the fact that environmental awareness has driven half of respondents to reconsider what they eat is notable amid growing mistrust in food and sustainability among Europeans.

    An EU-backed study last year found that only 36% of consumers believe the region’s food is sustainable, while the number of Europeans who want to live sustainably has dropped in recent years. Meanwhile, in another survey, 57% of respondents said plant-based meat products are worse for the environment than animal proteins, contrary to the evidence.

    Livestock farming takes up 71% of the EU’s agricultural land and contributes to 84% of its food system emissions, but meat and dairy only provide 35% of calories and 65% of proteins in the region.

    So the FMCG Gurus survey’s results – which suggest that 42% of Europeans are exploring plant proteins and meat analogues – are encouraging.

    “Despite the scepticism, there is more and more awareness of the state of the environment – in media, new climate-related activities from governments, and companies,” Martin Ranninger, co-director of V-Label International, told Green Queen. “The interest in plant-based foods is of course not driven only by sustainability concerns, but coupled with other factors,” he added, outlining that climate concerns are contributing to the overall shift.

    Brands can win (and lose) big with sustainability

    europe plant based market
    Courtesy: V-Label

    Sustainability was the central theme of the survey, and V-Label analysed the findings to find that plant-based proteins present a unique opportunity for brands. “Sustainability is no longer a niche concern. It’s a priority for the majority of consumers with 71.3% saying brands should do more to more to protect the planet,” said Ranninger.

    Around six in 10 Europeans list global warming, deforestation and carbon emissions as their leading worries. And 45% believe the damage to the environment is irreversible, and many feel a sense of urgency to act.

    But the appeal of sustainability extends beyond just the environment, suggests V-Label, explaining how many consumers link sustainable actions like reducing waste or consuming organic produce with enhanced personal health.

    Brands that traverse the health-climate nexus stand to gain here – communicating how plant-based diets can support not just greenhouse gas emission reductions, but also a healthier lifestyle, can deeply resonate with customers.

    In fact, companies play an important role in influencing green behaviours, as evidenced by the 69% of consumers who want brands to educate them about sustainability. At the same time, if businesses don’t make the shift, they could lose their customer base.

    For example, 38% of Europeans have chosen one product over another because the former is more eco-friendly, while 35% have made greater efforts to find greener brands. And over a quarter have changed retailers to one that is kinder to the planet.

    Transparent marketing, authentic sustainability claims, and accompanying certifications can help enhance brand credibility, according to V-Label. “62% of consumers would like to see information about sustainability available on the product packaging and 44% at the point of purchase,” said Ranninger.

    To better educate customers about green living, businesses can highlight the importance of more plant-based food in their communications, outreach, and packaging. “In some cases, they don’t necessarily have to talk about their products, but about the whole category – or better yet, about the food system in general,” he told Green Queen.

    Addressing the barriers to plant-based consumption

    europe plant based survey
    Courtesy: V-Label

    Despite the interest in plant proteins, the survey found several barriers that limit more widespread adoption. For many, these products compromise on flavour and texture, and are viewed as more expensive, despite efforts from retailers to match their prices with animal proteins.

    Moreover, terms like ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’, and ‘plant-based’ are often used inconsistently, which breeds mistrust. And, the survey found, there’s a lack of diversity in the plant-based options found at supermarkets or restaurants.

    To that end, V-Label advises brands to expand the accessibility of vegan products in both rural and urban areas, use clear, consistent labelling and certifications to build consumer trust, and emphasise the health and climate benefits of plant-based diets.

    Businesses should also develop campaigns that inform consumers about sustainability and the impact of their choices, and continue to innovate by exploring new ingredients and production methods.

    Ranninger added that to overcome the awareness gap, brands should “implement educational campaigns, host cooking demonstrations and sampling, and collaborate with influencers”. Additionally, they should attempt to bring down the cost by offering promotions and discounts.

    Europe is home to the largest plant-based market outside the US, with Germany making up 40% of the region’s share, racking up €2.2B in sales. And a 2024 YouGov survey based on products using the V-Label found that 46% of Germans are reducing their meat intake, and 22% find plant-based alternatives to be on par with dairy (a six-point increase from 2023). Sales of plant-based food also increased by 10%, outpacing the growth of the overall fast-moving consumer goods category.

    “Manufacturers who turn to the plant-based market stand to gain a lot: new customers, greater reputation, and impressive key figures,” said V-Label Germany head Cornelia Contini. “The better companies understand their customer segment, the more courage they have to take new paths.”=

    The post 50% of Europeans Changing Diet for the Climate, With One Third Reducing Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Meet the Asian Students Taking on the Future of Food with Global Industry Giants

    proveg food innovation challenge
    6 Mins Read

    Self-heating vegan Hanwoo beef, plant-based octopus legs and Beyond Lamb were among the winners of the 2025 ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge.

    Student-led teams across Asia-Pacific have won big at the fifth edition of the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge, working in conjunction with some of the world’s leading future food companies.

    This year’s winners have explored uncharted territory, creating innovations like plant-based lamb for Beyond Meat and Hanwoo beef for CJ Foods using local and innovative ingredients such as mung beans, konjac, rice bran, microalgae, duckweed, and wolffia.

    The contest involved Unilever, Mars, Beyond Meat, CJ Foods, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), DaChan, Monde Nissin, and Thai Union, which presented the innovation topics students needed to address with their products. The first prize winner received $3,000, with those coming in second earning $1,500 and third getting $1,000.

    Already the world’s largest market, Asia is set to be home to half the world’s population by 2050. The region is a culinary trendsetter, but as part of the Global South, it is much more adversely impacted by the climate crisis.

    The continent will likely account for half of the global increase in beef and poultry consumption by the end of the decade, and 70% of global fish intake. To keep up with this demand, farms will need to increase their output by 60-70% versus a decade ago, a task growing harder by the day, thanks to the expansive land use and high emission of animal protein production.

    Experts have identified alternative proteins as crucial to decarbonising Asia’s agrifood sector, free up land, and drastically reduce water and resource consumption. They will also be key in addressing hunger and food insecurity in Asia-Pacific, which already impacts 800 million (or 10% of the global population) of its inhabitants.

    In Southeast Asia, research suggests a major knowledge gap around plant-based meat, with nearly half (44%) having never heard of it. But there are clear opportunities for the sector – particularly if these products were more affordable, nutritious and tasty than conventional meat. In China alone, 98% of poll respondents say they’re willing to add more vegan food to their diets once told their health benefits.

    Asia-Pacific is also home to over 200 alternative protein startups, but with younger consumers leading the demand for low-carbon foods, Gen Z and Alpha are poised to disrupt the sector with novel offerings. Pairing them with proven industry successes – as the ProVeg competition had – is a marker of the collaboration needed to propel the future food economy.

    Hanbap

    Position: First Prize
    Partner company: CJ Foods
    Universities: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands)

    vegan hanwoo beef
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    Hanbap answered CJ Foods’s call to create premium vegan meals inspired by Koran classics, which satisfied local tastes and the demand for healthier food.

    This team of students developed a self-heating lunch box featuring vegan Hanwoo beef – an animal-free version of one of the rarest and more expensive beef cuts (due to its high marbling) – rice, and local vegetables, with a wooden spoon.

    The beef was created with texturised pea proteins, oleogels and red microalgae, and made use of precision fermentation technology.

    Burstatic

    Position: Second Prize
    Partner company: Thai Union
    University: Institut Pertanian Bogor University (Indonesia)

    thai union vegan
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    Based in Bogor, Indonesia, the four-strong team of Burstatic created Bomb Bites!, an innovative ready-to-eat plant-based product.

    This was in response to Thai Union’s call for convenience meals targeted to young urban Asian consumers, using its vegan seafood products – like tuna, shrimp or crab – as the base ingredients.

    VegVenture

    Position: Second Prize
    Partner company: CPF
    Universities: AgroParisTech (France), University of Newcastle Australia, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia)

    vegan peking duck
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    A modern twist on a Chinese classic, VegVenture’s team created a plant-based Peking Duck Wrap Kit with a durian filling, dubbing it Bao Bei Duck.

    Working with CPF’s brief to develop a range of healthy and nutritious vegan ready meals to be sold in convenience stores, these students blended crispy plant-based duck with “bold flavours” in a format they said is convenient, sustainable, and ideal for busy, health-conscious consumers.

    VeggieAlgaeSeafusion Sauce

    Position: Second Prize
    Partner company: Unilever
    Universities: Ocean University of China, New York University (US)

    unilever vegan
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    One of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, Unilever is also the parent organisation of meat-free leader The Vegetarian Butcher (for now). It tasked students to create a new generation of products for the brand.

    The final winner of the $1,500 prize, the team at VeggieAlgaeSeafusion Sauce used microalgae as a raw material. It added savoury peptides extracted from a Chinese seaweed called Porphyra, alongside a seafood flavour to develop a rice dressing.

    They also used bursting purls to lock in the flavour substances and provide a unique sensory experience to diners.

    Baa-yonders

    Position: Third Prize
    Partner company: Beyond Meat
    University: National University of Singapore

    beyond meat lamb
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    Working with a brief from one of the world’s largest plant-based meat makers, students at the National University of Singapore created a new product for Beyond Meat.

    This is based on the concept of ‘light eating’, and tailored to meet the taste preferences and use cases unique to Asian consumers.

    Baa-yonders’s answer was a marbled plant-based lamb, created with duckweed and Asian-inspired ingredients. It is aimed at flexitarians and Gen Zers, bridging the gap in vegan lamb options while addressing its high carbon footprint.

    Natugi

    Position: Third Prize
    Partner company: Thai Union
    University: Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (Vietnam), University of Hohenheim (Germany)

    thai union plant based
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    Another team following Thai Union’s innovation topic was Natugi, developing a convenient, vegan sticky rice meal with the company’s fish-free tuna and shrimp products.

    The team said that many urban Vietnamese students skip breakfast due to time and budget constraints, so its offering could help provide balanced nutrition and a sustainable food option for busy youngsters.

    Teamo

    Position: Third Prize
    Partner company: Mars
    University: Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia)

    mars sustainability
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    Confectionery giant Mars had issued a call for a new vegan snack product lineup that leveraged abundant plant resources and crops well-known to Asian consumers, which would be launched under an existing brand or a new label that advances its chocolate, snack and ice cream portfolio.

    The all-Indonesian group of Teamo came up with a winning solution, creating a chocolate made from the whole cacao fruit, filled with okara (the pulp from tofu production), tempeh, and chocolate paste.

    With a proposed price of $2 per 50g bar, it’s aimed at health-conscious women, featuring 30% of the daily recommended value of iron and fibre in Indonesia, and 35% of protein.

    World Peacemakers

    Position: Third Prize
    Partner company: CPF
    University: Jiangnan University (China)

    vegan octopus legs
    Courtesy: ProVeg International

    The final third-prize winner of this year’s challenge was a team called World Peacemakers, which worked on CPF’s call for healthy, convenient vegan ready-meals.

    The Chinese team leveraged microalgae protein, plant polysaccharides and 3D-printing technology to create plant-based, high-protein octopus legs, providing what they called a “nutritious, tasty and sustainable alternative to seafood”.

    The post Meet the Asian Students Taking on the Future of Food with Global Industry Giants appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Are the FDA’s Proposed Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels Good for Plant-Based Meat?

    fda front of package labeling
    4 Mins Read

    The FDA has proposed new front-of-pack labelling rules for packaged foods, which would highlight saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars – could it be a boon for plant-based meat?

    Would a “high saturated fat” label deter you from buying a food product?

    It’s what the US Food and Drug Administration is banking on in its latest proposal, which would require a front-of-package nutrition label on packaged foods that provides “at-a-glance nutrition information” to help Americans make more informed choices about their diets and health.

    The proposed Nutrition Info box is designed to complement the FDA’s back-of-pack Nutrition Facts label, and would focus on three problematic nutrition measures: saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. Alongside a numerical percentage of the daily recommended value, the label will also show whether the food has low (5% or less of the daily value), medium (6-19%) or high levels (20% or higher) of these nutrients.

    When consumed in excess, salt, sugar and saturated fat are directly linked with increased chronic disease risk, which is why the federal dietary guidelines advise Americans to limit these nutrients. And while calories aren’t mandated on the Nutrition Info box, manufacturers can choose to declare them voluntarily.

    Why is the FDA proposing the Nutrition Info box?

    The Nutrition Info box is part of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, which aims to reduce diet-induced diseases by 2030.

    Three in five Americans have at least one chronic disease, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes – these are the leading cause of disability and death in the US, and rack up $4.5T in annual healthcare costs.

    In 2023, the FDA conducted a study of nearly 10,000 American adults to determine their response to three different types of front-of-pack labels, and found that the black-and-white Nutrition Info scheme with the daily value in percentage performs best in helping participants identify healthier food options.

    “Nearly everyone knows or cares for someone with a chronic disease that is due, in part, to the food we eat,” said FDA commissioner Robert M Califf. “It is time we make it easier for consumers to glance, grab and go. Adding front-of-package nutrition labeling to most packaged foods would do that.

    “We are fully committed to pulling all the levers available to the FDA to make nutrition information readily accessible as part of our efforts to promote public health.”

    The FDA also highlighted that these nutrients are found in foods commonly considered ultra-processed, of which there has been a proliferation in recent years. These products are increasingly coming under political fire.

    Is this a win for plant-based meat?

    impossible burger vs beef
    Courtesy: Impossible Foods

    Plant-based meat brands don’t need to worry about the added sugar content, seeing as most products have a negligible amount of free sugars.

    Where meat analogues would outshine their animal counterparts is on the saturated fat content. For example, a Beyond Burger patty, with 10% of the daily recommended value, would feature a medium rating, while a regular hamburger with 25% of the value would have a high rating.

    Similarly, a serving of regular bacon would have a medium rating, while MorningStar Farms’s vegan bacon would retain a low rating on the front-of-package label. Daring’s vegan chicken, meanwhile, has zero unsaturated fat, compared to 2.7g for conventional chicken, which would put it in the medium category.

    Meat alternatives could also suffer from the Nutrition Info box with the sodium label, given that this has long been a point of criticism against vegan products.

    Take Impossible Beef, for example, which has nearly five times as much sodium as conventional 80/20 beef mince. A mycelium steak from Meati will take up 28% of your daily sodium budget.

    This is the case with many popular plant-based meat offerings. However, these products are pre-seasoned, unlike most of the conventional meats they’re compared to.

    It’s an argument nutritionists make regularly in defence of plant-based meats, not least Dr Michael Greger, author of How Not to Die. In a recent seminar, he suggested that when comparing like-for-like, the saltiest plant-based meatballs have been found to be lower in sodium than the least salty conventional meatballs.

    The FDA’s Nutrition Info label’s current suggested design means plant-based meat may be penalized by consumers on the sodium front, with most products receiving a high rating on the front of the packaging.

    What happens next?

    fda definition healthy
    Courtesy: FDA

    The FDA has opened the proposal up to public comments, which can be submitted until May 16. If finalised, the rule would require manufacturers to add a Nutrition Info box to products three years after its effective date for businesses with annual food sales of $10M or higher, and four years after for companies with sales under $10M.

    This is one of several measures the FDA has taken to reduce diet-related diseases in the US – it has worked to develop a ‘healthy’ symbol on packaging, drafted an update to sodium reduction targets, and updated its ‘healthy’ claim on food labels.

    “Food should be a vehicle for wellness, not a contributor of chronic disease,” said Jim Jones, FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods. “In addition to our goal of providing information to consumers, it’s possible we’ll see manufacturers reformulate products to be healthier in response to front-of-package nutrition labeling.”

    “Together, we hope the FDA’s efforts, alongside those of our federal partners, will start stemming the tide of the chronic disease crisis in our country.”

    The post Are the FDA’s Proposed Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels Good for Plant-Based Meat? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: E Squared VC’s Stephanie Dorsey

    stephanie dorsey
    6 Mins Read

    In our new 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.

    Stephanie Dorsey is a Founding Partner at E Squared VC.

    What future food technologies most excite you?

    I’m really excited about how AI can improve agriculture and food systems, especially in agtech. One of the biggest problems in agtech right now is that different software systems don’t work well together. This creates a lot of headaches—like having to enter the same data multiple times or not being able to share information easily. But new AI capabilities like LLMs, could help fix this. These tools can understand messy, unstructured data like photos or handwritten notes and make it easier to build connections between different systems.

    Imagine if farmers or agribusinesses could just type a question into a chat box and get the answers they need, instead of clicking through confusing menus that don’t quite work. LLMs could make software faster to build and easier to use, helping companies focus on creating new features instead of just fixing old problems. For farmers and ag professionals, this means smoother, more intuitive tools that save time and effort.

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

    SAAS solutions across the value chain, supply chain tech, and cybersecurity.

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

    From my perspective, the most significant achievement in food tech has been the rapid advancement and scaling of precision fermentation technology for creating animal protein alternatives. This technology has allowed companies to produce real milk proteins, egg proteins, and other animal-derived molecules without animals, leading to products that are virtually indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts. The breakthrough wasn’t just in the science, but in bringing production costs down dramatically from hundreds of dollars per kilogram to just a few dollars in many cases.

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

    If I could wave a magic wand to fix plant-based meat, I’d address the misinformation campaign orchestrated by the animal agriculture industry. But at the present moment, the plant-based industry isn’t just fighting for market share–they are fighting for the truth. For quite some time now, the animal agriculture lobby has been waging a strategic war of misleading nutrition claims and anti-competitive legal tactics designed to slow plant-based innovation.

    The reality is that plant-based meats offer significant health and environmental advantages: lower saturated fat, zero cholesterol, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically lower water usage. These products aren’t just alternatives; they are solutions to some of our most critical global challenges. 

    I would use the wand to cut through the noise and let the products speak for themselves. 

    By clearing away baseless legal and marketing barriers, companies could redirect resources from defence to development, accelerating innovation, improving product quality, and offering consumers real choices that benefit both personal and planetary health.

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

    I’m looking for a true entrepreneur – a founder with a compelling vision, the mental strength to push boundaries, and the tenacity to see opportunities where others see roadblocks. I call it having a “healthy disregard for the impossible”. They imagine solutions to real problems, creating what the world needs but doesn’t yet have, and they stop at nothing to turn that vision into reality, no matter the obstacles. They possess the sheer force of will to persist, pivot, and push forward where others would give up.

    This type of founder is self-aware, humble, and acts on facts rather than emotions. They have rigour in their reasoning. They have good decision-making hygiene that helps them reduce the noise and bias around the decisions they make. They’ve done the inner work to understand themselves and others, which enables them to read people and opportunities with precision. They understand their gaps and blind spots, and actively seek feedback and weigh options carefully. They deeply understand human nature, and therefore have the ability to inspire their team with purpose and focus, while also staying adaptable and laser-focused on what truly matters. This type of founder is obsessed with optimizing their time and energy and has the ability to cut off low-ROI distractions without hesitation. 

    The best founders are contrarians – they think differently, challenge assumptions, and question conventional wisdom. They don’t follow the herd. They take bold, calculated risks and are unafraid of being misunderstood or making unpopular choices. They don’t cling to conventional wisdom or traditions. Most importantly, they question their social conditioning, the truths that ordinary people cling to, and the hardwired biological defaults we’re all subject to.

    ‘The One That Got Away’: tell us about the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t.

    It’s still too early to say – we invest at the early stages, and it usually takes eight to 10 years for companies to go public or reach their full potential. Ask me again in a few years, and I’ll let you know.

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

    Vori is emerging as a revolutionary force in the $1 trillion grocery industry, positioning itself as the vanguard of vertical AI in a massive, legacy sector. The company’s innovative VoriOS is an all-in-one, AI-powered operating system for supermarkets, combining a cloud-based point-of-sale system with a supplier-integrated back office suite. This platform is designed to level the playing field for independent grocers, empowering them to compete against retail giants in an increasingly challenging market.

    Vori’s solution addresses critical issues such as inventory management, pricing optimisation, and supply chain efficiency, while also tackling broader industry challenges like food waste. With its cutting-edge technology and a world-class diverse team described as the “avengers of software, hardware, and fintech,” Vori is poised to transform the entire food supply chain. The company’s rapid growth and expansion into major US cities signal its potential to become a market-defining force in grocery tech.

    What do people get wrong most about VC?

    People don’t understand that our default is to say no. Venture capital involves saying no far more than yes – it’s just the math of the business. When a VC passes on your company, it’s not personal, even though it can feel that way at the moment. Our decisions are based on a mix of factors, from market fit to timing, and a “no” doesn’t mean your idea isn’t great or that you won’t succeed elsewhere. It just means it wasn’t the right fit for us at that time.

    What is the most ‘future food’ dish or ingredient you have eaten this month?

    For me, it’s been Prime Roots’ pepperoni! It doesn’t taste like a substitute at all – it’s just as good, if not better, than traditional pepperoni. Prime Roots uses this amazing ingredient called koji, which is basically a fungus that’s been used for centuries in Japanese cuisine to make things like sake, miso, and soy sauce. But Prime Roots has figured out how to use it to create these incredibly realistic deli meats and pâté. It’s a perfect showcase of how food innovation is rewriting the rules, turning something ancient like koji into the cornerstone of what could be the future of meat.

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

    Breads on Oak in New Orleans—it’s truly in a league of its own. From their organic sourdough artisan bread to their premium plant-based desserts, every dish is thoughtfully crafted with the planet in mind and absolutely mind-blowing in taste. Their plant-based sausage biscuit (the “Biscuit Tower”) is, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever had—truly a perfect blend of comfort food and innovative culinary craft. 

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

    This isn’t just a job or career to me. I really love the art of investing. I am obsessed with food, health, animals, and nature. So, I feel incredibly lucky that I get to merge these personal interests with my professional life, and work on the most pressing challenges of our lifetime: the health of people and the planet.

    The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: E Squared VC’s Stephanie Dorsey appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Upside Foods Eyes Approval For Sale of New Shredded Chicken Products at US Restaurants by End 2025

    upside foods

    8 Mins Read

    Californian cultivated meat pioneer Upside Foods is aiming to launch chicken shreds – its second product – in the US by year-end.

    Despite its legal battle against Florida’s leaders and an uncertain political landscape around alternative proteins, Upside Foods is looking to move forward.

    While the Californian startup is cleared to sell its cultivated chicken fillet – containing 99% chicken cells – it stopped selling this at restaurants last year with the product is in relatively tight supply. The company says it doesn’t intend to bring this back to market either, prioritising its use for marketing and advocacy purposes.

    What it is hoping to commercialise are its chicken shreds, which are produced differently and require separate authorisation from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company is hopeful that it can bring these to restaurants stateside by the end of 2025.

    The shreds are made using suspension technology, instead of the tissue process used for the fillet. “Because the cells are grown in suspension, they don’t have anything to grip on. So after we harvest the cells, we are removing moisture – the suspension fluid – as much as we can,” says Melissa Musiker, head of communications at Upside Foods.

    According to Musiker, this second innovation has been in the works for a long time and was the basis of Upside’s $400M Series C raise in 2022. The shreds will be used to make blended meat products – a combination of cultivated chicken and plant-based ingredients.

    Still in R&D, the current version includes soy protein, wheat gluten (Upside says it is working to remove the latter) and a plant-based oil, in addition to the protein and fat from the chicken cells.

    While the inclusion rate of the cultivated chicken is yet to be determined, Musiker confirms that it will be the predominant ingredient on the label. “It’s a differentiator in the industry at this point. Because some of these other products have relatively low inclusion rates. Our goal is to have it be the predominant ingredient on a label,” she says.

    Upside Taps Distributor That ‘Put Impossible Foods On The Map’

    lab grown chicken
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    Musiker is speaking to me a fortnight after Upside Foods held a tasting in collaboration with meat purveyor Pat LaFreida in New York City, one of several such events it has hosted since hitting pause on its restaurant plans last year.

    The startup’s chefs prepared the shreds in various formats, including a yoghurt-marinated chicken shawarma-taco, a breakfast sausage, empanadas, and a fried version – a first for the startup. “It was delicious. I personally hadn’t had it that way before,” says Musiker. 

    “We’re partnering with different people and groups, leveraging their relationships and their validation to bring more people into the room and get them to try the product for the first time,” she explains.

    She clarifies that there’s no official partnership with the meat purveyor yet, but adds that Upside Foods is “looking forward to opportunities to formalise something in the future”.

    Musiker says LaFreida has a great deal of experience introducing new alternative ingredients to the market, and his support has helped inform its decision to start in B2B for the chicken shreds.

    “Pat and his team are so supportive of what we’re doing. They are pioneers in bringing alternative proteins to the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. They were the first distributor of Impossible Foods and really helped put them on the map,” she says.

    “We just feel Pat gets it. He and his team really understand the issues that are going on and the reasons why this kind of product can be appealing, and we’re especially gratified just how much they like it.”

    Eventually, Upside Foods wants to bring its product to supermarket shelves too, but given the production scale-up this requires, it remains “several years away”.

    Speaking of which, Upside Foods signed a lease on a 187,000 sq ft facility in Illinois in 2023, which would have been able to produce 30 million lbs of cultivated meat a year. However, financial challenges and strategic pivots saw the company put the project on hold.

    “We’re currently renovating our production facility in Emeryville, EPIC, to expand capacity and make it fit-for-purpose, to produce a commercial volume of the suspension [chicken],” reveals Musiker.

    In its current form, this plant is designed to produce 50,000 lbs of cultivated meat per year, with the ability to expand up to 400,000 lbs. But with the renovation, this capacity will be significantly upgraded. Upside Foods has conducted dozens of production runs at a 2,000-litre scale, tech transferred multiple processes into the facility, and produced enough cells to make thousands of lbs of its shredded chicken in the last few months.

    ‘Not ready to throw in the towel’ with cultivated meat bans

    lab grown meat ban
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    Cultivated meat has been part of a culture war in the US, where states like Florida and Alabama have banned it and a dozen others have attempted to do the same.

    Upside Foods is in the heat of it all, suing Florida for its law, although a judge has denied the company a preliminary injunction that would have allowed it to serve cultivated chicken at trade shows.

    “We knew that this was going to take time,” Musiker says of the lawsuit. “This is going forward exactly the way we thought it would. [But] we’re hopeful that the constitution’s on our side.

    Musiker acknowledges that the legislative attacks are a disappointing distraction, but she calls these hurdles “part of the reality” the industry has to operate in though the company is committed to bringing cultivated meat to all Americans.

    “We’re not ready to write off potential consumers in Florida and Alabama or any of the other states that are contemplating this ban. We think they have a right to buy it and try it and see if they like it. If they don’t want to buy it and try it, don’t.”

    Upside applied for regulatory approval for shredded chicken a year ago

    Upside Foods submitted a dossier for the shredded chicken over a year ago, and has been in what Musiker calls a “productive process”.

    With Donald Trump back as president, the industry’s short-term future is full of uncertainty. And with Robert F Kennedy Jr in line to be health secretary, there have been suggestions that the regulatory pathway for novel foods could become much more complicated.

    Musiker wouldn’t be drawn on the political discourse, but did note that “most of the work that we did to get the fillet approved was under the first Trump administration”.

    “This is bigger than us, right? There are precedents that are beyond just what’s happening in cultivated meat. And that’s part of why we’re committing resources to move this through the process, as opposed to just saying: ‘Fine, we won’t sell it in these states and we’ll give up.’ We’re not ready to throw in the towel yet.”

    Is Upside Foods not worried? “We are always worried – we were worried before and will remain worried,” she suggests. “It would be wrong for us to take anything for granted… We’re doing everything the same today as we were on November 4.”

    She adds: “We’re gonna continue moving forward, and we remain optimistic that we’ll be able to do a commercial launch in 2025.”

    ‘Making smart decision to maintain runway’

    lab grown meat tasting
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    Investors seem to be distancing themselves from the cultivated meat category, pouring in just half as much money in the first nine months of 2024 than they did in all of 2023, and hundreds of millions less than in the boom years of 2020-2022.

    Upside Foods has had its share of financial challenges too, citing “political, regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds” behind its decision to lay off 26 employees last summer.

    “Our focus must now narrow to a tighter set of priorities that pave the way for our product launches in the next two years,” co-founder and CEO Uma Valeti wrote in an email to employees last July. “We need to deliver on the work that remains, especially on critical milestones that are yet to be hit or are delayed.”

    Asked about the company’s financial health, Musker says: “We know we’re in a privileged position. We’re making smart decisions to maintain runway for what we need to get done at this phase. We are just being thoughtful about how we spend money and what we invest in, who we hire and when we hire them.”

    She acknowledges that there are other companies in much more constrained circumstances, which could run out of funds before they reach approval. “That’s scary for the industry. So we’re hopeful that there won’t be additional hurdles placed on companies,” she says.

    Clearing these obstacles would “be consistent with the principles and some of the messaging coming out of the administration about minimising barriers to innovation and regulatory hurdles”, she adds.

    Tasting is believing

    Upside Foods is planning more tasting events in the months ahead. “Tasting is believing,” says Musker. “When they try it, they like it, and it minimises whatever mental barriers they might have had, And then they start to see the potential of it, they start to think past: ‘Oh, this is going to be expensive or different,’ or: ‘How am I going to explain this to my customers?’”

    She highlights that tastings can be beneficial for not just chefs and restaurants, but also policymakers and regulators. “Obviously, we want people to sign up and be a commercial partner. But the secondary goal that we have is to just get people to try it for the first time,” she says. “It’s much less intimidating when you’ve tried it.

    “It’s literally just a chicken nugget. Who would be afraid of a chicken nugget?”

    The post Upside Foods Eyes Approval For Sale of New Shredded Chicken Products at US Restaurants by End 2025 appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Coffee Creamers, Vegan Mayo & Cultivated Meat Legislation

    arla jord
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers two new dairy-free coffee creamers, Hellmann’s social media prank, and Oato’s launch of fresh oat milks at Sainsbury’s.

    New products and launches

    Alt-dairy giant Violife has made a foray into coffee creamers, which use lentils as their base and don’t separate or curdle, according to the brand. They’re available in Tempting Vanilla, Seductive Caramel, and Boldly Original flavours at Walmart stores nationwide for $4.88.

    violife creamer
    Courtesy: Heura

    More news from the coffee creamer space: Organic Valley has introduced its oat-based lineup, with flavours like vanilla, caramel, oatmeal cookie, and cinnamon spice.

    A week after partnering with Moonburger, vegan cultured Cheddar maker Stockled Dreamery will now be the “headline cheese” at all 13 locations of plant-based fast-food chain PLNT Burger.

    Unilever-owned Hellmann’s has launched a new social-media-led campaign for its Plant-Based Mayo, which sees chef Matthew Ravenscroft trick his friends into making dishes with the product to prove there’s no difference in taste compared to the original version.

    At the Scientific Kick-off Event for Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London last week, Californian precision-fermented fat startup Yali Bio showcased its designer cocoa butter alternative.

    Fellow Californian company Beyond Meat has brought its vegan steak and chicken ranges to foodservice operators in France via Metro, Costco, Creta Gel, SDV, and other distributors.

    Germany’s GoodMills Innovation has launched GoWell Tasty Protein, a new plant protein blend for baked goods, made from faba beans, yellow peas, sunflower seeds and wheat. It has a protein content of 60% and a well-rounded amino acid profile.

    British fresh oat milk maker Oato has gained a listing at Sainsbury’s. Its one-litre and one-pint bottles – which are non-UHT – will be available in the chilled aisle at over 370 stores nationwide.

    Speaking of plant-based milk, fellow UK startup MYOM has launched its powdered oat milk at Whole Foods Market stores, one of “many grocery listings” planned for 2025.

    Company and finance updates

    US precision fermentation startup The Every Company has named Evan Geisert as its new CFO. He was formerly the finance chief at Smart Wires and Kairos Aerospace.

    Spanish plant-based meat startup Heura was present at the Faculty of Medicine in Barcelona during the country’s Medical Residency Entrance Exam to spread awareness about the health benefits of a vegan diet to the doctors of the future.

    heura
    Courtesy: Heura

    French hemp fermentation startup Auralip has raised €500,000 ($521,000) from Business Angels Grandes Ecoles, Femmes BA, Yes Invest, and others, which could be matched by a loan from state investor Bpifrance.

    Czechia’s Ministry of Agriculture has decided against introducing stricter labelling regulations for plant-based meat and dairy after considering the feedback to the proposal, a big win for the vegan sector.

    jord oat milk
    Courtesy: Arla

    Danish dairy giant Arla has withdrawn its Jörd plant-based milk brand from UK supermarkets, with the range already unavailable at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda.

    Research and policy developments

    In the UK, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, the Microbial Food Hub, the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub, and the National Alternative Protein Centre (NAPIC) have signed an MoU to work together and address alternative protein challenges like cost reduction, scalability, and consumer acceptance.

    NAPIC has also opened applications for five fully funded PhD studentships for alternative proteins, covering subjects like allergenicity and processing, the gut-brain axis, colloidal performance, nutritional equivalence, and microbubble stabilisation.

    national alternative protein innovation centre
    Courtesy: NAPIC

    Across the Atlantic, anti-cultivated meat legislation remains popular. In South Carolina, SB 103 aims to restrict “misleading or deceptive” labelling of these foods.

    US-cultivated meat startup Orbillion Bio has won the Salesforce DreamPitch event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Coffee Creamers, Vegan Mayo & Cultivated Meat Legislation appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Biden’s Final Food Push: US Government Releases Close to $10M in Sustainable Protein Grants

    alternative protein grants
    4 Mins Read

    The US Department of Energy has invested $9.7M in three alternative protein projects to decarbonise the food sector and improve industrial productivity.

    Microbial proteins, fibre-spun vegan meat, and animal-free lactoferrin all became winners of grants totalling $9.7M from the US Department of Energy (DOE) this month.

    In its drive to support R&D of future-facing technologies that can reduce energy demand and boost productivity in key industries, the DOE announced an injection of $136M in 66 projects as part of the Technologies for Industrial Emissions Reduction Development (TIEReD) programme.

    These sectors – ranging from fuel, iron and building to forest products and food and beverage – represent 75% of America’s industrial energy demand, employ nearly 8% of its workforce, and contribute to $27M of its GDP.

    A total of 10 food projects secured funding for novel technologies and process optimisation by the DOE in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency, and three of them focused specifically on alternative proteins.

    Ginkgo Bioworks

    Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
    Funding amount: $2.42M

    ginkgo bioworks lactoferrin
    Courtesy: Tanya Kim/Shutterstock

    NYSE-listed synbio firm Ginkgo Bioworks and partners (including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) received $2.42M to develop human lactoferrin via precision fermentation.

    A whey protein found in bovine colostrum and human breast milk just after birth, it’s an iron-rich ingredient with a host of functional health benefits – but it doesn’t come cheap, and so its use is largely restricted to infant nutrition and supplements. Lactoferrin is becoming central to the plans of several precision fermentation companies now.

    Ginkgo Bioworks’s project plans to produce human lactoferrin through a novel yeast strain that can utilise low-carbon sources for bioproduction. Derived from waste feedstocks, the ingredient could replace bovine lactoferrin, providing a more efficient supplement and robust supply chain for infant nutrition, while valorising sidestreams and lowering the protein’s carbon footprint.

    Tender Food

    Headquarters: Somerville, Massachusetts
    Funding amount: $5.4M

    tender food funding
    Courtesy: Tender Food

    One of the very few companies leveraging fibre-spinning technology to make plant-based meat—Germany’s Project Eaden being the other major player—Tender Food bagged $5.4M from the DOE to design and assemble a pilot-scale fibre-spinning system with high production volumes.

    The firm likens its manufacturing process to spinning cotton candy, which can replicate animal muscle fibres to create vegan analogues to beef short rib, pulled pork, chicken breast, and crab. Its proposed research plan to the DOE involves producing whole-cut meats through a method that requires lower energy and carbon intensity than conventional methods.

    Advancing the tech would help lower costs and enable price parity with animal-derived meat, as well as lead to a decrease in carbon and energy intensity.

    “This grant is a huge validation [of] our technology’s potential to unlock innovation and efficiency in food manufacturing, and we’re excited to partner with the DOE to scale our impact and support industrial decarbonisation,” said Rick Marquardt, head of strategy and corporate development at Tender Food.

    Michigan State University

    Headquarters: East Lansing, Michigan
    Funding amount: $1.83M

    michigan state university
    Courtesy: Michigan State University

    A team at Michigan State University won $1.8M to develop a plant protein production platform that leverages microbial processes to replace alkaline extraction (which is chemical- and energy-intensive), and recycles processing residues to generate renewable energy and lower emissions.

    The project plans to optimise ultrasound-assisted fermentation and would demonstrate the utility of flexible and scalable microbial processes to extract plant protein from various crops, yielding a protein with high solubility and improved functionality.

    Michigan State University is looking to create a plant protein circular economy to decarbonise food production, reduce the carbon intensity of protein isolates, slash water use, and cut waste.

    Support for future foods may dwindle under Trump

    The DOE’s investment into these future food efforts was among the last instances of federal finance flowing into the sector under the Biden-Harris administration. With Donald Trump back in office, such developments could stall now.

    Alternative proteins like cultivated meat have been the target of attacking legislation in states across the US, and these efforts will only ramp up now that a climate sceptic is in the White House. Vice-president JD Vance has already made his disdain for “fake meat” clear, which he called “disgusting”.

    Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the president’s mega-donor best friend has been spreading misinformation about the environmental impact of meat and alternative proteins on The Joe Rogan Experience, America’s most popular podcast.

    And Robert F Kennedy, who could soon be confirmed as the new health secretary, has likened these products to the ultra-processed foods he despises.

    Trump has already withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, which are crucial in protecting public and planetary health, respectively. While he hasn’t said much about alternative proteins, given that even Biden’s Department of Defense was forced to back down from funding cultivated meat by the livestock lobby, government investment into this sector could be rare over the next four years.

    The post Biden’s Final Food Push: US Government Releases Close to $10M in Sustainable Protein Grants appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Trumping America: Which Countries Stand to Win From Cultivated Meat Bans in the US?

    lab grown meat banned
    9 Mins Read

    With Donald Trump having returned to office, 2025 could be a bumper year for cultivated meat bans in the US – here are the countries that could benefit from these policies.

    Within a day of returning to the presidency, Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement yet again, promised to “drill, baby, drill” by invoking a national energy emergency (despite being the world’s largest oil and gas producer), promised to end the Green New Deal, and ordered the elimination of government offices that protect vulnerable communities from pollution.

    None of this was unexpected, though for many around the world, it was jarring. After an administration that pumped more money into dealing with climate change than ever before, Trump’s complete one-eighty on day one is a harbinger of dark times to come in the climate fight.

    One climate-related issue that has sparked a culture war in the country is meat-eating. Americans eat way more meat than recommended, and 99% of it comes from factory farms. Despite that, the backlash against novel proteins like cultivated meat is incendiary.

    The states of Florida and Alabama have both officially banned cultivated meat, while lawmakers in a dozen others – including Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas – have attempted to do the same.

    Trump hasn’t been shy about his love for meat, nor has his infamous mega donor Elon Musk. Vice-president JD Vance has previously gone on a tirade about “disgusting fake meat”, calling it “highly processed garbage”, and Robert F Kennedy Jr – who could become the next US health secretary – has likened it to the ultra-processed food that he hates.

    There are rumours that RFK Jr might ban cultivated meat, though he’s actually more likely to just make it harder for companies to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture to sell these products in the country.

    If Kennedy puts up those barriers, and more states succeed in banning cultivated meat, it would force cultivated meat companies to look away from the US and towards more receptive countries.

    The US was the second nation to greenlight these products for sale, with California’s Upside Foods and Eat Just both receiving approval for their cultivated chicken products in 2023. That feels like a long time ago, and it’s worth wondering whether it was an outlier.

    The new US administration’s distaste for cultivated meat could bring significant opportunities for other countries that would look to capitalise by offering a friendly regulatory environment for alternative protein producers.

    For example, in a recent newsletter, alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute APAC predicted that 2025 would likely “go in the history books as the year that cultivated meat went from being an exotic dish only available in business hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong, to an emerging technology explored by innovators across Asia-Pacific”.

    “Our experts are optimistic that this year will include the first-ever market approvals in South Korea and Australia/New Zealand (which share a regulatory body). It’s possible that Thailand could follow suit,” the think tank suggested.

    Here are the nations that could be the biggest winners.

    Singapore

    lab grown meat singapore
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Widely recognised as a future food leader, Singapore was the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat back in 2020 (for Eat Just) and has since granted clearance to cultured quail and foie gras from Australia’s Vow. It’s also assessing applications from a host of other startups, including Mosa Meat, Meatable, Vital Meat, and Aleph Farms.

    The city-state’s leadership in this sector has drawn the attention of other countries too, which have floated the idea of using Singapore’s approval as a benchmark to greenlight products within their own borders (the way Hong Kong has done with Vow).

    Cultivated meat producers are taking note of this, with Meatable telling Green Queen that it hoped to use this system of international cooperation to obtain approval in five to six countries by the end of the year.

    The country’s new Food Safety and Security Bill officially describes novel foods and codifies the existing regulatory framework to make it easier for producers to commercialise. Expect more companies to look to Singapore in the wake of any anti-cultivated-meat legislation in the US.

    UK

    lab grown meat uk
    Courtesy: Ivy Farm Technologies

    Long been bound by EU regulations, the UK took major strides last year to break away from pre-Brexit rules and establish itself as a regulatory leader in the sector. The Food Standards Agency has suggested it would establish the international cooperation framework too, working with not just Singapore, but also the likes of Australia, New Zealand and potentially others.

    In October, the government poured £1.6M into the FSA to create a first-of-its-kind regulatory ‘sandbox’ for cultivated meat producers, which is built to speed up the timeline and lower the costs related to regulatory clearance.

    This year, the FSA will create a new public register for novel food approvals to replace the existing system of requiring a statutory instrument, which adds up to six months to a process that already takes over two and a half years. It will also do away with the need for renewals of approvals every 10 years, which currently add to the agency’s crowded backlog.

    The UK also became the first European country to approve cultivated meat, greenlighting Meatly’s pet food. Gourmey (cultivated foie gras), Vital Meat (cultivated chicken), Ivy Farm Technologies and Aleph Farms (both cultivated beef) have all applied too.

    European Union

    lab grown meat eu
    Courtesy: Romain Buisson/Gourmey

    The EU has been a frustrating market for cultivated meat players. Its novel food regulations – among the strictest and most complex globally – have deterred companies from filing dossiers. Morever, startups have told us that they want to make sure they get their dossier right because timelines are so long. In terms of political and cultural buy-in, the bloc is a bit of a mixed bag. While the world’s first cultivated meat product was born in the EU (Dutch startup Mosa Meat’s 2013 burger), it is home to the first national ban on cultivated meat (in Italy), and has faced several other attempts from the likes of France, Romania and Hungary.

    Homegrown companies have usually looked to places like Singapore or the US for market entry, but could the developments in the latter finally accelerate progress in the EU? Gourmey became the first to apply for regulatory approval from the European Food Safety Authority in July, and this week, Mosa Meat did so too.

    Meanwhile, the EU Commission has rejected Hungary’s argument justifying a ban on cultivated meat, alongside member states like Czechia, Lithuania, Sweden, and the Netherlands – signalling a slightly more positive state of affairs for novel foods in the region.

    Israel

    lab grown meat israel
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    After Singapore and the US, Israel was the third country to approve cultivated meat, giving the go-ahead to Aleph Farms in December 2023. The nation has been adjudged to be one of the global hotbeds of alternative protein innovation – it’s home to over 70 future food startups, accounted for 10% of investment in the industry in 2023, and is set to generate 10,000 new jobs and $2.5B in economic benefits by 2030.

    While progress has been halted due to the current war in Gaza, which is still ongoing, the ceasefire has brought respite and hopes of an end to the long-running dispute. While there’s still a long way to go, it could potentially spark a regulatory revival in Israel for novel foods.

    China

    lab grown meat china
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Many US politicians have already taken aim at China as one of its major rivals, but the country’s dominance in sectors like manufacturing, electric mobility, and biotechnology has left even Republicans – famously against cultivated meat – wondering whether it’s time to embrace these novel proteins.

    Cultivated meat companies benefit from much lower production costs in the East Asian country, compared to Europe or the US, as well as friendly policies. China’s five-year agricultural plan (running until 2026) calls for research into proteins like cultivated meat, while the 2020 Green Biological Manufacturing initiative set aside ¥20M ($3M at the time) in funding for plant-based and cultivated meat research.

    This hasn’t gone unnoticed in the US. Nearly a dozen Republican Congress members sent a letter to the director of national intelligence and the USDA’s director of homeland security a few months ago, asking them to analyse the potential impact of China’s advancements on the global food system, and urging the US to take action to maintain leadership and resilience in the biotech sector.

    Thailand

    lab grown meat thailand
    Courtesy: Sakchai Lalit/AP

    While it may fly under the radar for some, Thailand has been steadily building its cultivated meat ecosystem over the years. Over the last three decades, meat consumption in Thailand has skyrocketed by 180%, doubling the amount of land used for livestock farming, but two-thirds of locals are looking to put less meat on their plates, primarily for health reasons.

    And while research suggests that just a quarter of Thailand’s population is aware of cultivated meat, one poll found that 97% of Thai consumers want to try these proteins.

    Aleph Farms is already building the country’s first manufacturing facility for cultivated meat and recently held a tasting event for industry professionals in Bangkok. The startup also worked with seafood giant Thai Union to submit a regulatory dossier to the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in December.

    South Korea

    lab grown meat korea
    Courtesy: Simple Planet

    Policy support for cultivated meat has come a long way in South Korea. A year after the opening of the $7M North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety established a framework for regulatory approval of these proteins.

    The government also created a regulation-free special zone for the development of cultivated foods. The ₩20B ($14M) project harbours 10 companies working to commercialise these proteins. And the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is investing ₩29B ($21M) in research funding for plant-based and cultivated seafood technologies.

    With 90% of Koreans willing to try cultivated meat, and two in five in favour of it being sold at supermarkets and restaurants, the potential for this industry in South Korea is high. Seoul-based startup Simple Planet has indicated that it aims to obtain the regulatory greenlight for its cultivated meat this year.

    Australia and New Zealand

    vow cultured meat
    Courtesy: Vow

    Another regulatory assessing Vow’s application is Food Standards Australia New Zealand. While the process started in early 2023 and has been protracted, the joint regulator closed a second round of public consultation for its filing just before Christmas, proposing a new standards-based approach. At this stage, it won’t be a surprise if the agency gives the greenlight within the year.

    Fellow Australian startup Magic Valley is also working closely with the Antipodean regulator on the compliance and safety of its cultivated pork, and has previously suggested that it could commercially launch the product this year.

    These innovations would appeal to the 21% of Australians who describe themselves as ‘meat reducers’. Four in 10 say they are cutting back on meat, or have reduced or eliminated it altogether. And another survey shows that more than half of these consumers are open to trying culrivated meat.

    The post Trumping America: Which Countries Stand to Win From Cultivated Meat Bans in the US? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Replace Animals with Plants: How Supermarkets Can Save Money and Hit Climate Targets

    plant based price parity
    5 Mins Read

    Rebalancing protein offerings to support plant-based diets can help supermarkets reach their climate goals quickly and inexpensively.

    A plant-rich food system, more sustainable agricultural practices, and low food waste are the most cost-effective pathways for retailers to meet their emissions targets, a new analysis has found.

    Green consultancy Quantis and climate advocacy group Madre Brava looked at 27 separate interventions in these three strategic areas, and selected a mix of nine measures that can help supermarkets in Germany save money in pursuit of their climate goals.

    By far, the most impactful strategy is for retailers to replace 30% of their meat and dairy offerings with plant-based alternatives, which use less land, water and resources, and can be sourced at a lower cost.

    The Biggest Bang for the Buck report assessed the scope 3 forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) emissions for 64% of German food retail, and revealed that the sector needs to reduce emissions by nearly 74% to meet their targets under the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi) by 2030.

    “The Big Four – Edeka, Rewe, Lidl and Aldi – account for 75% of the market in our country. Shifts from these retailers will have a huge impact on the sector’s emissions as a whole, and help drive our food system towards greater sustainability,” said Florian Wall, a senior associate for Madre Brava in Germany.

    “Our analysis is good news for them. It gives them the clearest picture yet of how to meet their emissions reduction targets and the basket of measures we have selected will not only allow them to reduce emissions but also save money,” he added.

    Why a plant protein transition is the best climate measure

    plant based supermarkets
    Courtesy: Madre Brava

    The report looked at two plant-rich food scenarios. The first, an accelerated pathway, assumed a linear continuation of the trend of meat reduction in Germany, with the decline slightly accelerating to a 15% reduction by 2030 (for both meat and milk).

    The transformative scenario, meanwhile, doubles the pace of that shift, assuming an “ambitious yet realistic” 30% decrease in meat and milk consumption by 2030, compared to 2023 levels.

    For both pathways, the consumption was offset by a 1:1 increase in plant-based alternatives. In both cases, the shift to a plant-forward food system was the “most impactful single intervention” in the retail climate playbook, while bringing more cost savings than any other intervention.

    The transformative pathway was found to slash emissions by 16 million tonnes, representing two-thirds of the FLAG target under the SBTi. It would also save €156 per tonne of CO2e, totalling €2.5B in cost reductions.

    net zero supermarket
    Courtesy: Madre Brava

    But rebalancing protein alone won’t be enough to achieve the sector’s climate goals. Supporting farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices is another important measure. The report analysed 18 interventions for livestock and crop production, from crop protection products, reduced and varied fertiliser use, and heat street management, to enhanced animal health, electrifying farm machinery, and nitrification inhibitors.

    When all 18 measures are combined, the emissions reduction potential comes to 17 million tonnes of CO2e, at a cost of just under €1.4B.

    The third lever of change is food waste and loss, specifically from the meat and milk sectors. Germany threw away 11 million tonnes of food in 2021, but the report only shows limited potential for impact here.

    “Consumer education, integrated demand and inventory management promise higher impact in a cost-efficient way, whereas interventions such as new packaging technologies could support at an elevated marginal cost,” it states, outlining that across seven measures to cut food waste, only 340,000 tonnes of emissions are saved, with a cost of €27.2M.

    Promote plant proteins with price parity and placement

    The nine most effective interventions Madre Brava selected form a “cost-optimum basket” that can help Germany’s supermarkets deliver on their FLAG emissions targets. This basket can cut emissions by 24.4 million tonnes, leading to financial savings of around €2.5B.

    These interventions are crucial, too. Meat and dairy alone make up nearly half (47%) of all scope 3 emissions of a food retailer. And with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive now making it mandatory for supermarkets to publish annual sustainability reports, “strong, plausible and realistic climate transition plans” are critical to meet these requirements and avoid investor scrutiny.

    The German government itself plans to reach net zero by 2045, and the new national dietary guidelines encourage a shift away from meat and dairy, recommending that plant-based foods make up at least 75% of citizens’ diets.

    supermarket scope 3 emissions
    Courtesy: Madre Brava

    In any case, retailers are eager to lower emissions to make their supply chains and business models more climate-resilient, the report says. And leaders like Lidl are already making big moves to rebalance their protein offerings, pricing plant-based meat and dairy on par with their conventional counterparts, and pledging to increase its ratio of plant protein sales.

    To accelerate their climate efforts, retailers must set and prioritise a protein transition strategy, given its benefits for both emissions cuts and cost savings. Setting protein split targets – as Lidl has done – is also a key action, Madre Brava said.

    “The food retail sector should also support consumers to adopt plant-rich diets through enabling measures such as price parity, promotions, and placement of alternative products next to animal products,” the report noted, outlining how these strategies have driven greater sales of plant protein for retailers.

    Improving agricultural practices holds long-term potential too, but requires substantial investment. “For fast adoption of effective measures, food retailers must support farmers financially and clearly commit to specific interventions. By doing so, they will not only align with global climate goals but also enhance the resilience and competitiveness of the agrifood system in Germany,” it added.

    “Food retail must also drive further improvements in the reduction of food loss and waste by fostering supply chain innovation, educating consumers, and integrating efficient inventory management.”

    The post Replace Animals with Plants: How Supermarkets Can Save Money and Hit Climate Targets appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.