Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Vow’s retail debut of cultivated meat, Beyond Meat’s new European packaging, and India’s plant-based dairy launches.
New products and launches
Australian cultured meat firm Vow has announced the retail debut of its smoked Japanese quail spread under the Forged brand. It will be available to order online from October 30 in Sydney, marking only the second time consumers can buy cultivated meat for at-home use (on Saturday, Mission Barns will join the list in the US).
In a week full of meme stock frenzy and a Walmart expansion, plant-based giant Beyond Meat has now gained even more distribution in the US, with its signature beef mince and burger landing at celeb-favourite retailer Erewhon Market.
Across the Atlantic, Beyond Meat has unveiled new-look packaging for its entire product range in Europe. The light-green packs now use fewer materials for labelling and have more recycled content, while the trays use 35% less plastic and are recyclable. They’ve already begun rolling out, starting with the Netherlands, followed by the UK in November.
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
British player Squeaky Bean has launched Salmon Style Flakes in a Sweet Chilli Marinade at Sainsbury’s stores, with each 125g pack priced at £3.25.
UK plant-based milk brand Plenish, owned by Carlsberg Britvic, has introduced an oil- and additive-free oat milk with zero sugar, using a process that does away with breaking down the oats into natural sugars. It’s available at Waitrose for £2.35 per litre.
Courtesy: Plenish
And Indian plant-based dairy startup 1.5 Degrees has expanded its range with cafe-style beverages, frozen sundaes, a collection of kulfis, and popsicles and sorbets.
Company and finance developments
US fermentation biomanufacturer Cellibre has received funding from German chemicals firm Symrise, which will focus on the scalable production of high-value ingredients across food, cosmetics and neutracuticals, starting with taste solutions and cosmetic actives.
Courtesy: Norwegian Mycelium
NoMy Japan, the Hokkaido-based subsidiary of Norwegian Mycelium, has partnered with local food processor Kagome Co to explore the technical feasibility, sensory characteristics, and commercial viability of developing products with its koji-derived protein.
Portuguese-New Zealand company Nutrition from Water, known for its Marine Whey line of proteins, has received a €446,000 grant via the Algarve Recruitment of Highly Qualified Human Resources by Companies initiative, as part of the government’s Portugal 2030 plan.
Courtesy: Imágenes de Patricio Daniel Nahuelhual Obreque
Big Idea Ventures, Mars Petcare, AAK, Bühler, and Givaudan have selected three companies for the 2025 Next Generation Pet Food Program: Canadian microalgae nutrition startup Alt-Pro Advantage, Swedish fungi-based aquafeed producer Seaqure Labs, and Indian upcycled fermented ingredient maker Terramatter.
Research, policy and awards
Canadian government cluster Protein Industries Canada has appointed Tyler Groeneveld as its new CEO. He was previously the board chairman.
Courtesy: Josh Bruneski/Overtime Marketing
Also in Canada, Jennifer Côté, co-founder and CEO of cell-based dairy startupOpalia, has been named the Clean Tech Young Entrepreneur of the Year in an event hosted by the League of Innovators Accelerator and Manitoba Innovates.
In New Zealand, the share of citizens identifying as vegan or vegetarian collectively dropped by 12% in 2023 to 8% in 2024, with the gap even wider among Gen Z. In fact, only 22% of people said they want to reduce meat consumption, compared to 25% the year before.
Courtesy: Anatoly Michaello
Finally, Israeli cultivated seafood firmForsea Foods has filed a patent with the European Patent Office covering a method to isolate fish embryonic stem cells and grow them into 3D organoids that can form both muscle and fat tissue, giving a glimpse into consistent, scalable production.
By failing to invest and innovate in plant-based foods, global food giants including Nestlé, Unilever and Walmart risk losing out on the protein race.
Political sensitivities, a lack of research, and low specialised expertise are driving the plant-based innovation gap and putting the global food system under increased pressure, according to a new report by a $90B-backed investor network.
The FAIRR Initiative’s protein diversification report pulls the curtain back on investor engagement with 20 of the world’s largest food retailers and manufacturers, outlining how a declining corporate investment into alternative proteins is creating supply chain, climate, and public health risks.
Almost all companies in the report – including Nestlé, Ahold Delhaize, Unilever, Walmart, Tesco, Kraft Heinz, and Amazon – overlook the supply chain implications of protein diversification. And only 40% have assessed the transition risks of failing to meet evolving consumer preferences for plant-based products and the climate impact of livestock-heavy portfolios.
For instance, 90% of companies continue to launch and promote new plant-based products, but 77% said concerns over taste, cost and nutrition are hindering consumer uptake.
Yet, just 60% of companies are working to improve access and affordability of these proteins. In fact, only 40% have dedicated resources to increase product innovation in 2025 (versus 45% last year).
Dana Wilson, research and engagement manager for protein diversification at FAIRR, argues that most companies struggle to understand their consumer base and preferences well enough to address plant-based product concerns.
“Companies may have identified that consumers are dissatisfied with the taste of plant-based meat alternatives, for example, but not identified which specific aspects could improve product performance, such as mouthfeel, tenderness or removing specific off-flavours,” she tells Green Queen. “There is also not one type of consumer, and more detailed segmentation could help identify innovation priorities for the plant-based category.”
Wilson notes that 55% of companies are reliant on desk research to find general consumer trends (like the boom in health and nutrition), and only 25% have conducted surveys to tailor their product and marketing approaches. “The remaining 15% of companies are yet to utilise consumer research related to either healthy diets or alternative protein sources to target marketing efforts,” she says.
Misguided UPF fear has pushed consumers to whole foods
Courtesy: FAIRR
FAIRR’s research found that two of the companies analysed have already discontinued new plant-based products launched in the last 12 months, citing low sales.
“The products that have been discontinued are in the processed meat alternative category and did not cater to current consumer preferences for less processed products with shorter lists of more familiar ingredients,” says Wilson.
“The definition of ultra-processed foods remains under contention without a universally recognised standard, so the ambiguous narrative has caused confusion and concern among consumers about their food choices,” Wilson highlights.
“Foods high in nutrients such as salt, sugar and saturated fat, or additives known to be harmful, can be less healthy. However, food processing levels do not necessarily correlate with nutritional value, as some processes, such as pasteurisation, canning, freezing or vitamin fortification, can have public health benefits. Overall, there is increasing academic consensus that some processing of foods is essential to ensure food safety.
“Although most animal-sourced foods are also processed, news and social media outlets have focused disproportionately on processing levels of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, leading to consumer wariness around the healthiness of these products.”
The consumer focus has swiftly shifted to whole foods, just as 88% of global dietary guidelines advise people to eat more fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. Over half of the companies in FAIRR’s engagement cohort see an opportunity in whole-food plant-based products, and 60% have launched at least one such offering in the past year. This, however, falls to just 38% among brand manufacturers (which tend to favour more processed alternatives).
“Although health and nutrition trends are increasing consumer interest in whole foods, there are also other factors influencing actual consumer purchasing behaviour, such as convenience, price and taste,” says Wilson.
Companies need to put more resources into product innovation
Courtesy: FAIRR
“While 60% of companies in FAIRR’s engagement are dedicating resources to increasing the accessibility and affordability of their alternative protein portfolios, through initiatives such as multi-buy offers, discounts, loyalty cards, ceiling prices, and collaboration with government nutritional programmes, many of these efforts are short-term,” Wilson notes.
According to the companies in the report, traditional plant-based proteins more familiar to consumers, such as tofu and legumes, are the strongest-performing. “Plant-based dairy products are also a popular category, although the performance of individual products has varied between companies and regions,” she says.
“Companies that allocate more resources to product innovation to improve performance and conduct consumer research to effectively meet their needs and market a value proposition, such as a nutritional benefit, tend to perform better in the segment.”
French retailer Carrefour exceeded its target of reaching €500M in plant-based sales two years ahead of the 2026 timeline by focusing on plant-based whole foods (it has since extended the goal to €650M). And in the Netherlands, Ahold Delhaize pledged to achieve 50% plant-based protein sales across all its European supermarkets by 2030.
“Both companies incentivise their boards to deliver their Scope 3 emission reduction targets through linked executive compensation metrics,” notes Wilson. “They have also undertaken consumer research related to alternative protein sources and healthy diets to understand their customer base, and have taken actions to promote plant-based products, such as through dedicated marketing campaigns, events, product tastings, shelf markings, partnerships, recipe inspirations and social media content.”
In terms of innovation, Danone has dug deep into health and wellness with a focus on fibre, gut health and protein in its plant-based dairy expansion this year. “The company utilises reformulation and blended products to improve the nutritional profile of plant-based options,” says Wilson. “It has also invested in the Biotech Open Platform, in partnership with Michelin, Crédit Agricole and DMC Biotechnologies, to help scale manufacturing in the precision fermentation sector.”
Despite the evidence, food giants fail to grasp protein diversification’s potential
Courtesy: FAIRR
The report comes weeks after the Eat-Lancet Commission reinforced the Planetary Health Diet to safeguard the food system, suggesting that plant-rich eating patterns can prevent 15 million premature deaths and reduce emissions by 15% by 2050.
With plant protein’s potential more and more evident, why is the food industry failing to recognise it? “Companies are primarily approaching protein diversification as a business opportunity, but consumer demand is variable, and product launches do not always reflect their preferences,” says Wilson.
Most are unaware of how it can support their climate goals.”The number of companies setting 1.5°C-aligned Scope 3 emission reduction targets that include FLAG emissions has increased, from 35% in 2024 to 55% in 2025. However, it is unclear how most companies will meet these targets, as only 25% have developed clear roadmaps quantifying the emissions mitigation potential of their decarbonisation interventions,” she explains.
“Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour, Danone, Nestlé, and Unilever are the only companies that have developed roadmaps quantifying the carbon mitigation potential of their chosen decarbonisation levers, and they also recognise protein diversification as a lever to achieve their Scope 3 targets.
“This suggests that undertaking such analysis can support companies in understanding how protein diversification can help them meet their climate goals, aligning with the latest scientific evidence published by organisations such as the IPCC and the Eat-Lancet Commission.”
Danone, meanwhile, is the only business reskilling its workers to support a transition to more sustainable and healthy diets. It is helping its factory staff in Villecomtal-sur-Arros produce oat milk after shifting away from producing dairy yoghurt.
The report further highlights the role of government policy and regulation in accelerating the protein transition, such as the UK’s 10-year health plan, which mandates supermarkets to disclose sales of healthy products.
“If implemented, such disclosure standards could be a step towards healthy sales targets and incentivise companies to allocate more resources to innovation in healthier, more sustainable categories, such as diversified protein sources,” Wilson says.
Why investors fell out of love with plant-based proteins
Graphic by Green Queen
It has been tough going for plant-based companies. Consumer purchases have seen a constant dip in some of the largest markets too, including the US and the UK.
One reason behind the slowdown in sales is a lack of specific marketing commitment. Asked why they don’t employ direct marketing strategies, some companies in the FAIRR report cited potential backlash from “politically sensitive topics” like diets and sustainability, and 30% said they were moving away from messaging that could isolate consumers, like prominent vegan labelling.
But the decline hasn’t just been at a consumer or business level. After investments in plant-based startups peaked at $3.8B in 2021, they have fallen by 61%, 43% and 64% in each year since. Wilson says capital has been less readily available in these years, thanks to a host of factors, including “general market issues that have reduced liquidity and increased the cost of investing, such as rising interest and high inflation rates”.
“However, there are also issues specific to the sector, including initial overvaluation of consumer-facing plant-based and novel protein companies as technology firms rather than food companies. The performance of early plant-based meat alternatives also varied, leading to disappointment among willing consumers, and slower-than-expected market uptake rates and returns on investment,” she points out.
“This was broadly reported in the media with a negative sentiment towards the category as a whole, further deterring consumers. Ultimately, without a track record of reliable cash flows, companies are considered high-risk investments.”
“As a result of these factors and losses on previous investments, in their due diligence, investors are now prioritising especially unique innovations that have intellectual property potential, or can also be applied across sectors beyond food for risk mitigation,” says Wilson.
In the first nine months of 2025, plant-based companies have already surpassed their investment totals from last year. Can it sustain this momentum? “Investors are primarily focused on returns and, therefore, a clear pathway to achieving profitability,” she says. “As with any company an investor backs, this comes down to a combination of technology, product performance, a clear target consumer, strong governance and a scale-up plan to reduce unit economics.”
France’s Parima, formed this month after Gourmey’s acquisition of Vital Meat, has received regulatory approval to sell cultivated chicken in Singapore, a first for a European startup.
Parima has become the first European startup to be cleared to sell cultivated meat for human food anywhere in the world, following approval from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).
The French startup was formed as a result of cultivated meat maker Gourmey’s acquisition of Vital Meat, which developed the cultivated chicken product now greenlit in Singapore.
It marks the Southeast Asian country’s second authorisation for cultivated meat this year, with Friends & Family Pet Food Co getting the nod for its Kampung bird products, and the first for human applications since Vow‘s cultured quail in 2024.
The development also brings an end to a long regulatory saga for Parima in the city-state. “We submitted our chicken regulatory dossier to the SFA at the end of 2023,” Étienne Duthoit, founder of Vital Meat and now part of Parima’s leadership team, tells Green Queen.
Parima did not respond to questions about its launch plans or potential retail distribution in Singapore. That said, the company did host a public tasting for its innovation at Hue restaurant, featuring dishes like cultivated chicken skin chips, handmade chicken ravioli in a chicken broth, and chicken rice.
Parima promises ‘meaningful’ inclusion rate of cultivated meat
Courtesy: Parima
Vital Meat uses cell-line technology developed from nearly 25 years of avian cell research at Groupe Grimaud, a global animal genetics leader, turning cells from fertilised chicken eggs into cultivated meat.
It already operated a pilot plant near Nantes, equipped with 2,000-litre bioreactors, but as part of Parima, it’s joined forces with Gourmey’s innovation centre and a pilot facility in central Paris, where it runs multiple 400-litre bioreactors. The combined bioreactor capacity reaches several thousand litres.
Like most companies in the space, Parima is taking the hybrid meat route, combining its cell-cultured protein with plant-based ingredients to form meat products. The firm hasn’t disclosed the exact share of different ingredients, but Duthoit notes it is a strong proponent of “meaningful inclusion rates” of cultivated meat.
“It’s the only way to truly meet consumers’ expectations for authentic taste, texture, and nutrition, and to clearly stand apart from first-generation plant-based options,” he explains. “Our technology also gives us flexibility: we can adjust the proportion of cultivated cells depending on the recipe, always aiming for the highest-quality products.”
Parima isn’t revealing how much the product will cost, though Duthoit promises it has “a clear path toward viable unit economics, not only for premium products, but also for high-volume applications like chicken”.
“Our strategy remains the same: start with premium segments where quality and differentiation matter most, then progressively expand towards broader market access as we scale,” he says.
A breakthrough for Singapore’s delayed approvals
Courtesy: Vital Meat/Parima
Singapore is widely recognised as a hub for future food tech, thanks to a robust R&D ecosystem, highly skilled workforce, strong government support and investment, and heightened consumer acceptance.
As Parima notes, the SFA’s rigorous science-based regulatory framework for novel foods is recognised as amongst the most advanced globally. And the agency granted the world’s first approval of cultivated meat to Eat Just’s Good Meat division back in 2020.
All this led a host of cultivated meat players to focus their attention on the island nation and file for regulatory clearance, but their success has been sparse. Vow only became the second company to earn the regulator’s green light, three-and-a-half years after Good Meat.
“After being the first country to approve cultivated meat at the time, they really want to make sure that they are not perceived as a country where it is easy to get approvals,” Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Israeli cultivated beef maker Aleph Farms (which is also awaiting the SFA’s go-ahead), told Green Queen last month.
This is why Parima’s approval is a breakthrough. Its team worked closely with the SFA to demonstrate compliance with the regulator’s food safety, quality, and transparency requirements. The extensive and collaborative review eventually confirmed the cultivated chicken as safe for human consumption.
“It validates the safety and robustness of the core foundation of our multi-species platform and strengthens our position to lead the market introduction of high-quality, economically viable cultivated proteins across multiple markets,” says Parima CEO and Gourmey co-founder Nicolas Morin-Forest.
Parima eyes global dominance in cultivated meat’s milestone year
Courtesy: Parima
Parima has another application with the SFA, which is reviewing the safety of Gourmey’s cultivated duck. In addition, the startup has seven other active filings across the globe, including the EU, the UK (it is the most advanced in both jurisdictions), Switzerland, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and another undisclosed country.
It has repeatedly signalled its goal to become the first cultivated meat company to be cleared to get the regulatory nod for two animal species. And Morin-Forest has indicated that the first approval for the Gourmey brand could come in Singapore too.
“We’re fuelling close collaborations with regulators worldwide on multiple dossiers, including our cultivated duck,” Duthoit says. “The dialogue continues to advance constructively, and we’re confident the next approvals will follow soon. Each milestone brings cultivated foods closer to consumers, safely, reliably, and at scale.”
Some businesses are hoping to use Singaporean approval as a benchmark for regulatory clearance in other countries, including the UK. Will Parima take that approach too?
“While there’s currently no formal equivalence between Singapore’s framework and other regulatory agencies, this approval sets a strong precedent. It reinforces confidence in the safety and robustness of our technology, which supports all our ongoing submissions,” says Duthoit.
Graphic by Green Queen
Parima is the latest in a growing list of cultivated meat startups cleared to sell their proteins this year. In addition to Vow and Friends & Family’s approvals, Wildtype and Mission Barns are selling their salmon and pork products in the US, respectively, and Believer Meats has earned FDA approval for cultivated chicken. In the EU, Biocraft Pet Nutrition and Umami Bioworks registered their cultivated meat innovations as feed materials, which can now be sold as pet food ingredients.
Parima suggests that the Singapore clearance provides a launchpad for its broader Asian go-to-market strategy, with culinary partners and major agrifood groups already showing interest in its protein portfolio.
“Our strategy has always been global from day one, with eight active dossiers progressing in parallel across major markets,” notes Duthoit. “Singapore’s green light is an important signal for those upcoming approvals.”
Jianshun Biosciences, a Shanghai-based culture media supplier, has expanded from biopharma to the cellular agriculture field to join China’s booming alternative protein industry.
With more patents than any other region in the world, and an ecosystem boosted by government investment, it’d be a mistake not to look at China’s alternative protein industry as anything but world-beating.
And homegrown companies are recognising the opportunity. Based in Shanghai, Jianshun Biosciences (JSBio) is one of them. The firm is a leading cell culture media manufacturer for the biopharma sector, with operations in the US and South Korea too. But now, it is building on that expertise to cater to the cultivated meat industry.
“JSBio has expanded into cultivated meat to leverage its biopharma expertise and large-scale cell culture capabilities,” founder Shun Luo tells Green Queen. “This move aligns with our mission to promote sustainable food innovation and the health of both people and the planet.”
The company will deliver serum-free formulations, food-grade components, and process development support to help cultivated meat producers scale up efficiently, with Luo describing the cellular agriculture focus as a “natural next step” from advancing human health to supporting long-term wellbeing.
Asia’s largest dry powder culture media network
Courtesy: JSBio
Founded in 2011, JSBio has developed over 200 serum-free culture media products tailored to various cell types. Additionally, it provides process optimisation support to help businesses improve yields, maintain cell health, and scale efficiently.
In recent years, the firm has collaborated closely with trailblazing cultivated meat companies, leading to the development of its CellKey Series of culture media. This supports the unique demands of cultured meat production while incorporating food-grade components at an industrial scale.
“JSBio works with top cultivated meat companies globally, including several that have already achieved important regulatory milestones,” explains COO Louis Cheung, without disclosing the names of the companies.
“JSBio produces cell culture media from high-quality, food-grade materials,” he adds. “Dry-powder media are made with an automated pin-milling system, while liquid media use single-use preparation and terminal filtration. Each batch undergoes strict quality checks before aseptic filling and traceable delivery.”
In fact, the firm operates Asia’s largest dry powder culture media network, with an annual capacity exceeding 6,000 tonnes across several sites. This, Cheung says, positions JSBio to deliver both scale and affordability to partner companies.
JSBio’s culture media costs under $1 per litre
Courtesy: JSBio
“JSBio integrates its services into cultivated meat production by providing end-to-end support, including food-grade raw materials, culture media at various scales, and formula optimisation to meet companies’ operational needs,” says Cheung. “Regulatory support is a core focus, with strict quality controls helping streamline approvals and accelerate market entry.”
Culture media are essential to the production of cultivated meat, entailing a mix of nutrients to facilitate the growth of animal cells. These components account for the majority of the costs involved in the entire process, and reducing this is key to reaching price parity with conventional meat.
Typically, culture medium costs hundreds of dollars per litre, thanks to expensive animal inputs like bovine serum albumin and fetal bovine serum, as well as growth factors and basal media (such as amino acids, vitamins, and glucose).
Globally, more and more cultivated meat companies are shifting to serum-free media formulations to drive down production costs, with US startup Clever Carnivore bringing this to just $0.07 per litre at pilot scale.
“Media remains a major cost driver in cultivated meat production. We work to understand what cells truly need, streamline formulations, secure cost-efficient raw materials, and enable processes like high-temperature-short-time (HTST) sterilisation – and that’s just a glimpse of how we help partners scale cultivated meat more cost-effectively,” says Cheung.
“For existing cultivated meat clients, JSBio offers culture media at less than $1 per litre,” he adds. “As we expand our supply chain and adopt new technologies to boost productivity, we anticipate further reductions in cost.”
China embraces cultivated meat
Courtesy: JSBio
With its expansion into cellular agriculture, JSBio has joined the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture to build strategic partnerships and drive regional innovation.
“JSBio is among the most capable players in Asia for culture media innovation and scalable bioprocess support,” said program director Peter Yu. “With their regional leadership and solid expertise, JSBio will help global players scale efficiently in Asia and advance commercialisation.”
The company’s shift towards cultivated meat comes amid growing public acceptance and government backing for these proteins. A recent survey found that 77% of citizens in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are open to trying cultured meat, and 45% are likely to replace conventional meat and seafood with these.
Meanwhile, the current five-year agriculture plan encourages research in cultivated meat, while the bioeconomy development strategy aims to advance novel foods. China is already home to eight of the top 20 patent applicants for these novel proteins.
This year, the country saw its first alternative protein innovation centre open in Beijing, fuelled by an $11M investment from public and private investors to develop novel foods like cultivated meat. And in the Guangdong province, officials are planning to build a biomanufacturing hub for plant-based, microbial and cultivated proteins.
At the annual Two Sessions summit, top government officials called for a deeper integration of strategic emerging industries like biomanufacturing, and the agriculture ministry outlined the safety and nutritional efficacy of alternative proteins as a key priority. And a document signalling China’s top goals for the year underscored the importance of protein diversification, including efforts “to explore novel food resources”.
Protein transition platform Food System Innovations has received a $2M grant from the Bezos Earth Fund to create an open-source AI model for sustainable food products with Stanford University.
The Bezos Earth Fund is doubling down on its alternative protein bet, investing in an effort to accelerate the development of future foods with artificial intelligence (AI).
It has awarded a $2M grant to Food System Innovations (FSI), a philanthropic impact platform investing in the transition to a sustainable agrifood system, as part of its $30M AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge.
The financing will support a collaboration between FSI’s sensory analysis programme, Nectar, and computer scientists at Stanford University to develop an open-source AI model to drive alternative protein product development.
It comes amid growing calls from experts to shift away from a food system reliant on industrial livestock farming, and towards low-emission proteins that use significantly less land and water.
Algorithms will predict sensory attributes and optimise product formulations
Courtesy: Nectar
FSI aims to fast-track food systems transformation by marrying science, markets and society to enable more sustainable food choices. It has a diversity of programmes to do so, and among these is Nectar, which has built the world’s largest publicly available database on the sensory performance of plant-based and blended meat products.
This online repository has been built on taste tests with thousands of meat-eating consumers in the US, and revealed that several alternative protein products outperform 100% animal-derived alternatives on a range of attributes.
Armed with the Bezos Earth Fund grant, FSI and Stanford researchers are now developing algorithms that predict sensory attributes and optimise ingredient formulations for sustainable proteins.
They will use a combination of Nectar’s sensory data and molecular flavour databases to build an AI model that connects molecular structure, flavour, texture, and consumer preferences. This, FSI says, will help accelerate alternative protein product development and deepen their market penetration.
“Taste is the gateway to consumer adoption. Nectar’s data helps the sustainable protein industry refine formulations and enhance flavour, making climate-friendly foods truly irresistible,” said Nectar director Caroline Cotto, who is also the co-principal investigator of the grant.
“Partnering with the Bezos Earth Fund allows us to translate AI innovation into real-world climate and conservation impact, one bite at a time,” she added.
Bezos Earth Fund looks to ‘make AI work for the environment’
Courtesy: Rocío Lower/Bezos Earth Fund
Stanford PhD candidate Anna Thomas, the project’s technical lead and fellow principal investigator, outlined that developing AI tools for sustainable protein design was “a critical step for human and planetary health”.
“Our early research shows that large language models can help revise formulations based on sensory feedback. With this grant, we can deliver actionable insights that improve taste and speed the protein transition,” she said.
Thomas’s research has found that collaborating with a large language model to devise sustainable proteins reduces time spent by 45%, compared to 22% when teaming up with another human food scientist. The paper also designed an AI approach that can decrease emissions by 79% in restaurants while keeping consumer satisfaction intact.
AI has been criticised for its impact on the climate. Experts warn that skyrocketing demand is leading to a rise in energy and water use to run data centres and keep them cool. Most of that power use comes from fossil fuels, which are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
But some investors argue that advancements in alternative proteins could be the key to winning the AI race. And Bezos Earth Fund’s AI director, Amen Ra Mashariki, suggests the organisation is “focused on making AI work for the environment – not the other way around”.
FSI was one of 15 entities that won a grant under the second phase of its AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, a $100M initiative launched last year to develop AI-enabled solutions that address climate change and biodiversity loss. In the first phase, nine organisations won $50,000 grants for sustainable proteins, including FSI.
“These projects show how AI, when developed responsibly and guided by science, can strengthen environmental action, support communities, and ensure its overall impact on the planet is net positive,” said Mashariki.
Aside from its AI initiatives, Bezos Earth Fund has also invested $100M to set up three Centers for Sustainable Protein at universities in North Carolina, London and Singapore, as part of its $1B commitment towards food systems transformation.
The UAE’s capital has begun work on establishing a framework for novel food approvals aligned with best practices from international regulators.
Abu Dhabi is doubling down on its promise to boost food security through future-friendly food, launching a new strategic initiative to develop a regulatory framework for novel proteins like cultivated meat and animal-free dairy.
The endeavour was born out of a collaboration between the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), the Quality and Conformity Council (QCC), and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO).
The move aims to position the Emirati capital as a global leader in food innovation, reducing approval timelines by six to nine months and accelerating market entry for novel foods.
It comes just a day after ADIO teamed up with Vivici and The Every Company to explore the establishment of a four-million-litre precision fermentation facility. The partnership was also said to support the creation of a regulatory pathway for these animal-free proteins.
Abu Dhabi’s regulatory framework to align with ‘international best practices’
Courtesy: Believer Meats
The development of this regulatory framework “embodies Abu Dhabi’s commitment to adopting the highest global standards for food safety and innovation”, according to Dr Tariq Ahmed Al Ameri, acting director-general of the ADAFSA. “It enhances the readiness of our regulatory ecosystem to embrace emerging technologies such as cultivated proteins and precision fermentation-based foods.”
The framework will put in place a comprehensive and streamlined system for novel foods, in alignment with international best practices, including those adopted by the UAE, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the EU, Singapore, and the US.
As part of the initiative, the Abu Dhabi government will look to simplify procedures and speed up commercialisation by unifying registration requirements for new food products, halal certification, and production and import permits through a single-point contact system.
It will further introduce a science-based risk assessment approach based on the type and maturity of technologies, and update the halal certification system to align with modern advancements and global benchmarks, particularly those of Malaysia and Indonesia. This, in turn, will strengthen international recognition of UAE halal certificates and boost the competitiveness of national food exports.
In addition to these elements, Abu Dhabi will develop a national database of approved food products, alongside detailed technical and regulatory guidelines, in an effort to ensure transparency and reliability.
“This agreement underscores the Council’s commitment to supporting the industrial and regulatory sectors through robust quality infrastructure services that ensure product conformity, particularly halal products, to the highest safety and quality standards,” said Fahad Gharib Al Shamsi, acting secretary-general of the QCC.
Food security driving Abu Dhabi’s novel food regulation
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
The Abu Dhabi government noted that the initiative aims to drive economic growth and food system resilience by leveraging cutting-edge food technologies and attracting high-value agrifood and biotech investments.
But at the heart of the UAE’s regulatory advancements for novel food is its bid to become the world’s most food-secure nation by 2051. Currently, it relies heavily on food imports to meet 90% of its population’s needs.
Last year, the capital established an AgriFood Growth and Water Abundance (AGWA) cluster to bolster food and water security with advanced technologies. It’s set to contribute Dhs 90 billion ($24.5B) in additional GDP to Abu Dhabi’s economy and create 60,000 new jobs by 2045, with an expected investment of Dhs 128 billion ($34.8B).
“With a focus on accelerating the adoption of advanced solutions such as alternative proteins and precision fermentation, this collaboration reflects our commitment to the UAE National Food Security Strategy 2051 and reinforces Abu Dhabi’s role as a global centre for food innovation,” said ADIO director-general Badr Al-Olama.
“This partnership is designed to build a connected business ecosystem that combines forward-thinking regulations with Abu Dhabi’s strong investment ecosystem and solid support for technological innovation,” he added.
Food security is also the target of alternative protein companies eyeing the UAE market. As revealed by Green Queen, Israel’s Aleph Farms is planning to file for regulatory approval of its cultivated beef in the country.
“We have a strong agenda in terms of food security at Aleph Farms, which is raising a lot of interest, essentially because of the geopolitical tensions, tariffs and disruptions of supply chains globally, especially for animal proteins,” its co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia said last month.
In 2024, AGWA also partnered with fellow Israeli cultivated meat firm Believer Meats to establish a regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi, with the two entities working together to establish a regulatory pathway and halal certification standards.
Plant-based companies are no longer allowed to label ground meat products as ‘mince’ in the Netherlands, according to a new ruling by the government’s food regulator.
The Dutch government’s goal to make half of the national protein intake come from plants by 2030 is already in motion, with meat consumption falling to its lowest levels since records began. But its food regulator has just made things harder.
In a new ruling, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has instructed vegan protein makers to stop using the term ‘plant-based mince’ on ground meat alternatives.
The regulator is asking companies to change how they label these long-standing products, or risk facing fines. But critics argue that the decision is based on a 27-year-old law that did not mention and does not apply to plant-based products.
“This sudden enforcement contradicts earlier guidance and risks confusing – rather than protecting – consumers, who clearly understand the meaning of ‘plant-based mince’. And the worst thing? It could hinder national goals for the protein transition,” said Rutger Rozendaal, CEO of The Vegetarian Butcher, part of the JBS-owned The Vegetarian Butcher Collective with fellow plant protein leader Vivera.
NVWA decision invokes 1998 law not meant for plant-based category
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher
The NVWA issued the warning in a letter to six manufacturers and retailers, who sell plant-based mince from major brands or their private labels. That includes The Vegetarian Butcher and Vivera, which have been using the term for 15 years.
The announcement is being seen as a surprise, especially since the ban exclusively impacts plant-based mince products – vegan burgers, chicken pieces, and sausages are still all fair game.
“We didn’t see this coming. We never get complaints about it from consumers,” Rozendaal told EenVandaag, which first reported the news. “So it was a shock when the letter with the warning arrived. We immediately called everyone together and said: ‘What’s going on here?’”
The NVWA’s decision is based on a Commodities Act Decree on meat products from 1998, in which ‘minced meat’ was deemed a protected designation only to be used on animal proteins. The regulator said it came across the term ‘plant-based mince’ during an investigation into the use and labelling of additives in meat alternatives.
“Checking and enforcing the designation ‘vegetarian mince’ isn’t a high priority for the NVWA. That’s why we haven’t done so in recent years,” an NVWA spokesperson told NU.nl. “But now that we’ve encountered violations during the project, we can’t ignore them.”
But industry representatives believe the NVWA is nitpicking by citing the decree. As The Vegetarian Butcher points out, the law was published at a time when plant-based alternatives were virtually non-existent, and so wasn’t intended to ban the use of the term on these products.
“At the time, there were specific issues surrounding the composition of ground meat,” said Rozendaal. “These rules are intended to ensure the food safety of meat. This doesn’t apply to the plant-based sector and therefore shouldn’t apply to this category.”
He added: “The term ‘plant-based mince’ clearly indicates a plant-based alternative and doesn’t infringe on that. [It] has become commonplace, and research shows that consumers are well aware of whether a product is vegetarian or vegan. A name change would actually create more confusion.”
Plant-based industry calls for government talks to modernise labelling laws
Courtesy: Vivera
All inspections and correspondence have been completed by NVWA, and if companies fail to make the change now, the agency can enforce it via penalties, including daily fines.
The Green Protein Alliance, a sustainability-led association representing supermarkets and meat-free producers, noted that other meat terms, like schnitzels, aren’t listed as protected designations under Dutch law. It’s why companies can continue to use them.
“We actually believe the term ‘plant-based mince’ should also be valid, as it clearly indicates it’s made from plant-based sources,” Jessie van Hattum, a protein transition specialist at the alliance, told EenVandaag.
The organisation has helped develop a Protein Tracker for supermarkets, in line with the government’s goal to bring a balance between animal and plant protein intake. Currently, 85% of retailers in the country are using the tool to drive up sales of plant-based food towards a 60% share by 2030.
“A name change will make achieving these goals more difficult, as familiar words like ‘gehakt’ [minced meat] contribute to the transition,” argued Rozendaal, calling for talks with the NVWA and the government to collaborate on clear and modern labelling regulations.
The company has been in a similar situation before. In 2012, the NVWA cited the same law to ask it to stop using the term ‘gehakt’ on its vegan mince – in response, the brand changed the label to ‘gehackt’. And in 2017, the regulator issued a warning against its use of terms like ‘fish-free tuna’ and ‘smoked bacon bits’, but withdrew the complaint after public and media outcry.
The Dutch crackdown on vegan minced meat comes weeks after the EU Parliament voted in favour of a ban on meat-like terms across a wide range of plant-based alternatives, in direct contrast with the body’s decision against the measure in 2020. The proposal will now be brought to the EU Commission and Council, and needs approval from all member states – some are already rallying against it.
A new study from France suggests that nutritious plant-based diets high in UPFs don’t lower the risk of heart disease more than minimally processed, meat-rich diets. But experts warn it is highly misleading.
Does highly processed equal bad for you?
It’s a question that has had health experts sparring with each other ever since the idea of ultra-processed foods (UPF) hit the mainstream.
According to the Nova classification, devised in 2009, UPFs are made via industrial formulations and techniques like extrusion or pre-frying, featuring cosmetic additives and substances deemed to be of little culinary use. Basically, if you can’t make it in your kitchen, there’s a good chance it’s a UPF.
That definition, however, has been criticised as too broad and arbitrary and it has spawned an entire movement against processed foods – there’s now a Non-UPF Verified label for companies to put on their products, and California has banned these products from school cafeterias. Even the Trump administration is being called upon to regulate UPFs as part of its Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
All this has stemmed from research linking UPFs with a variety of health conditions, heart disease among them. Plant-based products like meat and cheese alternatives have been caught in the crossfire too, with consumers voting with their wallets and sales dropping by 7% and 4% in the US in 2024, respectively.
Many of these studies are highly misleading and serve as a launchpad for attention-grabbing headlines that completely miss the point. For example, in a widely covered study last year, plant-based meat products accounted for only 0.2% of all UPF calories eaten; media coverage sought to blame “fake meats” instead of the real culprits.
That seems to have happened again with newly published research from France, which argues that even nutritious plant-based diets don’t pose any cardiovascular benefits if they’re high in UPFs, compared to meat-heavy diets with low intake of ultra-processed products. However, read between the lines, and the truth is somewhat skewed.
What does the study say about plant-based UPFs?
Courtesy: VegFather
The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health, was conducted by researchers at public research bodies INRAE and Inserm, and education institutes CNAM and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord. They analysed health data from nearly 64,000 adults participating in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort, and followed up with them after 9.1 years on average.
Their findings suggest that people whose diets were rich in nutritious plant-based foods – those low in sugar, salt and fat – with little to no industrial processing had a 40% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than those who eat high amounts of animal products and fewer plant-based ones.
That is consistent with a range of other studies, which have found that plant-rich diets – thanks to their lower saturated fat and cholesterol content – are much more beneficial for heart health than meat-based diets.
Even among people who predominantly ate plant-based foods, the French researchers found that diets that were lower in nutritional quality and ultra-processed were linked with a 40% greater risk of cardiovascular disease than diets rich in nutritious products with minimal processing.
However, diets rich in both plants and UPFs did not lower cardiovascular risk more than diets heavy on meat and low on UPFs. That, the authors argued, highlights the need to consider both the nutritional quality and degree of processing in health discourse, and can support policies that promote nutritious, non-UPF plant-based foods.
“Future research could usefully explore the impact on health of different categories of ultra-processed foods, particularly plant-based substitutes,” they wrote.
The problem is, the researchers take a singular brush to plant-based foods, bundling ready-to-eat pastas, store-bought soups, and confectionery items with meat alternatives. Without reading the fine print, it leaves the impression that all plant-based UPFs are bad, which – as multiple other studies have revealed – is decidedly not the case.
Why the research is misleading about plant-based meat
Courtesy: Physicians Association for Nutrition/GFI Europe
There are several shortcomings and misleading elements in the study, according to Amy Williams, nutrition lead at the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe. For instance, definitions of what comprises a ‘plant-based UPF’ were not standard, since this category included cakes and pastries containing animal products.
Moreover, the matrices ‘UPF healthy plant-based diet’ and ‘UPF unhealthy plant-based diet’ were confusingly named, as a majority of the participants in the study were meat-eaters – these matrices only tell us how much healthy or unhealthy plant foods people were eating relative to the rest of the group. Plant-based meat, incidentally, veered towards the healthy side, as it was generally made of legumes.
Speaking of which, meat alternatives were more commonly eaten in diets scoring highly on the ‘unprocessed healthy plant-based diet’ metric than any other diet, so the limited associations the paper does find likely do not bear much relevance.
“This study has nothing to tell us about the nutritional benefits of plant-based meat, which made up 0.1% of the food eaten by participants. It is based on food diaries taken an average of nine years ago – long before many of today’s plant-based meat products entered the market,” Williams tells Green Queen.
“Instead, as we see in other UPF studies, processed conventional meat was eaten far more widely, and featured most heavily in the ‘unhealthy UPF diet’ compared to any of the others. This food, which plant-based meat generally replaces, is consistently associated with adverse health outcomes.
“Anyone looking for a more robust source of evidence about plant-based meat should examine the randomised controlled trials, which have found that replacing conventional meat with this food can reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, and support weight management,” notes Williams.
Research by GFI Europe and the Physicians Association for Nutrition has contended that most studies overlook important nuances of plant-based meat, which has a very different nutritional profile from most UPFs, potentially misleading consumers about their health impact.
And in a recent scientific advisory, the American Heart Association punctuated this point, stating that not all UPFs are unhealthy, and policymakers should nudge people towards healthier UPFs, which include whole plant foods, whole-grain breads, and meat and dairy alternatives low in sugar, salt, and fat.
Following a dismal first half of 2025, funding for alternative protein startups bounced back in Q3 as investors rallied around differentiated tech and financial credibility.
Plant-based and fermentation-derived proteins enjoyed a resurgence in VC flows in Q3 2025, a departure from the sector’s recent struggles to attract investors.
Alternative protein startups collectively raised $247M between July and September, nearly double the $130M total from the previous quarter, according to the Good Food Institute’s (GFI) analysis of data from Net Zero Insights.
There are caveats, though: investments were highly concentrated in Europe, and cultivated meat companies still struggled to attract funding, despite having their most successful year in terms of regulatory approvals yet.
Those working with plant-based proteins and ingredients derived from biomass fermentation, however, emerged as the biggest winners in this period. Still, barring a miracle fourth quarter, the overall sector is on course for a fourth consecutive year of investment decline.
Plant-based startups ride on unique tech and commercial traction
Courtesy: GFI
According to GFI’s analysis, plant-based companies attracted $142M in Q3 2025, surpassing the entire alternative protein sector’s Q2 total. This was led by a $58M round for France’s Nxtfood, which owns the Accro brand of meat alternatives and tripled its revenue last year.
It means this segment has attracted more capital in the first nine months of 2025 ($322M) than it did in all 2024, when annual capital flows declined by 64% to reach just $309M. This aligns with investment trends in the larger climate tech sector, which has surpassed its 2024 totals in this period too.
“Capital continues to flow to select, well-positioned companies with differentiated tech, credible paths toward progress on taste and price, and commercial traction,” said Daniel Gertner, GFI’s lead economic and industry analyst.
“In Q3, nearly three-quarters of plant-based deal value was secured by companies based in Europe, where retailers are driving protein diversification initiatives and private-label expansion, and where pockets of retail sales growth persist,” he added.
This speaks to a larger trend. Over two-thirds of alternative protein capital flows went to companies headquartered in Western Europe. US businesses captured less than one-fifth of the total.
Meanwhile, fermentation startups bagged $105M in Q3, most of which ($93M) went towards biomass fermentation technologies, specifically The Protein Brewery ($35M), The Better Meat Co ($31M) and Revyve ($28M). But while that takes the segment’s total to $253M so far this year, this is less than half of the $651M it raised in 2024.
Courtesy: The Better Meat Co
Investors seeking ‘near-term proof points’ for cultivated meat
Cultivated meat has had a milestone year – seven companies have received some form of regulatory clearance in different jurisdictions to sell their proteins for human or pet food. But investor enthusiasm has not matched the regulatory success.
Startups in this sector received only $227,000 in Q3. And no deals were publicly disclosed in Q2 either, putting cultivated meat’s total investment at just $36M for the first nine months of this year. In contrast, this technology attracted $139M in 2024, itself a 40% decline from the previous year.
“Cultivated meat is capital-intensive and milestone-driven, so funding is likely to cluster around key technical and commercial advancements,” Gertner pointed out.
“Right now, investors seem to be watching for additional near-term proof points such as favourable unit economics, further regulatory approvals, and consumer traction. We’ve seen meaningful progress on these fronts in 2025, but bridging the scale-up phase will still require additional capital from public, private, and philanthropic sources.”
Can the alternative protein industry build on this?
Courtesy: Bettani Farms
The uneven access to funding across regions and technologies has pushed companies to tap into large corporations, foundations and the public sector, in the form of partnerships, acquisitions, grants, and research consortia. These mechanisms will be increasingly important in extending runway as VC dollars flow to fewer companies and in smaller checks until the sector delivers high-multiple exits, GFI said.
Compared to Q3 2024, investments in plant-based companies doubled in the corresponding period this year, but declined by 43% for fermentation startups and 92% for cultivated protein firms.
But Gertner warned against looking too much into quarter-to-quarter variations in a sector where just a small number of deals can significantly influence overall totals. Multi-year progress on “scale-up, product innovation, and corporate involvement” is more informative.
Can the industry sustain this bit of momentum? Is it past the trough of illusionment? It’s worth noting that investors pumped $1.1B into alternative proteins last year – as of Q3 2025, that cumulative total sits at just $611M thus far.
“A sustained upswing in private investments in alternative protein companies will rely on companies demonstrating credible paths to profitability and achieving tangible exits such as IPOs and strategic acquisitions,” argued Gartner. “In the near term, capital will likely continue to concentrate around firms that hit technical and scale milestones and demonstrate strong market performance.”
Californian startup Mission Barns will hold the US’s first retail sale of cultivated meat on November 1, selling pork meatballs at Berkeley Bowl West.
Next week, Americans can walk into a grocery store and buy cultivated meat off the shelf for the first time.
The product in question is made by Mission Barns, a San Francisco-based startup that has received FDA and USDA approval to sell its cultivated pork fat in the US.
Its pork meatballs will be sold at Berkeley Bowl West, an independent grocery store on Heinz Avenue, on November 1, with each 304g tray priced at $13.99. The one-time sale will be held at 3pm in aisle 16 of the store, and the limited stock means shoppers can only buy one pack each.
The retail debut comes nearly two months after Mission Barns introduced its cultivated meatballs and bacon to diners at Fiorella restaurant in San Francisco’s Sunset District. Now, it is hosting a four-part tasting series at Berkeley Bowl West, titled Bites from the Barn, starting the same day as the sale.
Public tasting series to spotlight cultivated meatballs and salami
Courtesy: Mission Barns
Bites from the Barn is being billed as the “largest free-to-the-public cultivated meat tasting series ever held”, and will offer consumers a chance to taste the future-facing products and engage directly with Mission Barns’s team.
Each event will feature live cooking demonstrations and opportunities to meet the company’s scientists to learn about the tech used to produce its cultivated pork products.
The tastings will be held once per month. The first, on November 1, will spotlight the meatballs, while the second will feature Mission Barns’s Italian-style dry-cured salami on December 12. The final two events, on January 16 and February 21, will give consumers a taste of the meatballs too.
On launch day, one of the meatball packs will contain a golden ticket, the recipient of which will be invited to a private tasting and tour at the startup’s facility in San Francisco.
“We’ve been excited to work with Mission Barns for many years, and these meatballs – made with their cultivated pork fat – deliver the same flavour and texture as conventional pork while offering an option for our meat-loving and flexitarian customers,” said Anthony LeBlanc, head meat buyer at Berkeley Bowl.
“Berkeley Bowl has long been a launchpad for innovative food brands,” he added. “We’re proud to be the first US grocery store to offer cultivated pork to our customers.”
The company’s CEO, Cecilia Chang, said the tasting series is an open invitation to join the mission to make meat tastier and healthier than the market standard. “We talk about scaling technology, but real change scales through people voting with their plates. That’s why this series matters: it’s where health meets flavour, innovation meets community, and the movement truly begins to grow,” she noted.
Mission Barns partners with Tufts to gauge consumer acceptance
Courtesy: Mission Barns
Mission Barns uses belly fat cells from American Yorkshire pigs and grows them in bioreactors to make its Mission Fat. This fat is then mixed with plant-based ingredients to make products like meatballs, bacon, sausages, and salami.
This hybrid approach allows the startup to keep costs from soaring too high and scale production in an efficient manner. And since fat is the primary flavour carrier in food, even a little bit goes a long way in replicating conventional meat.
Mission Fat will appear on the label as a composition of purified water, cell-cultivated pork fat cells, and kosher salt. It’s mixed with pea protein, coconut oil, Italian seasonings, methylcellulose and other ingredients to make the meatballs.
Now, the company is collaborating with researchers at the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture, who will capture real-world feedback and consumer attitudes at the tasting series, in a bid to inform future study design and public acceptance frameworks.
“This partnership gives us a unique opportunity to study how consumers encounter cultivated meat outside the R&D lab or focus group setting,” said Sean Cash, an economist and professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “Understanding how people experience and talk about these novel products in everyday environments will be key to shaping responsible and transparent innovation across the food system.”
Mission Barns has also earned a listing at Sprouts Farmers Market, and was aiming to hit shelves in Oakland in Q3. Green Queen has contacted the startup for updates on this partnership.
The sale at Berkeley Bowl West will only be the second instance of a cultivated meat product being available in retail. Last year, fellow Californian firm Eat Just launched its Good Meat cultivated chicken at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore.
Plant-based company Beyond Meat’s share price has been on a rollercoaster ride over the last week – short sellers, meme stocks, and a Walmart deal are all at play.
On Thursday, October 16, Beyond Meat’s share price crashed to an all-time low of 50 cents on Nasdaq, valuing the company at just $19M. Six days later, the plant-based burger maker was worth $3.5B.
That was courtesy of a more than 1,000% climb, which sent the Californian firm’s stock soaring to a high of $7.69 on Wednesday, before finishing the day at $3.58.
The rapid and volatile shift has kept Beyond Meat’s name in the headlines all week long, amid a backdrop of a sales slowdown that has forced the company to quit certain markets, conduct layoffs, restructure its debt, and deny rumours of a bankruptcy filing.
How Beyond Meat entered meme-stock territory
Courtesy: Nasdaq
The momentum for Beyond Meat’s rally began last week on Reddit, when Dubai-based real estate developer Dimitri Seminikhin (who goes by Capybara Stocks on social media), fuelled a large volume of purchases. He told Business Insider that he bought 4% of the company’s stock and felt the company’s recent debt swap deal is a better sign than what most investors have made it out to be.
He added that he saw the company’s recent moves – which include appointing a corporate restructuring consultant as interim chief transformation officer to become EBITDA-positive within the second half of 2026 – as buying time for growth or an acquisition. Seminikhin also said he wasn’t concerned about the declining sales of plant-based meat in the US.
What ensued has been compared to previous rallies of meme stocks like GameStop – in 2021, a trader rallied a group of online traders to send its stock price skyrocketing. Meme stocks are so called because they gain popularity based on social media hype, rather than a business’s financial performance.
The gains continued on Monday after Roundhill Investments added Beyond Meat to its Meme Stock ETF (exchange-traded fund), which helped fuel a short-squeeze. This phenomenon occurs when investors who bet against the company, by selling borrowed stock in hopes of buying it back on the cheap later, are forced to rush that process to protect themselves from losing more money.
Then, on Tuesday, the company announced an expanded distribution deal with Walmart, making its chicken pieces, Korean BBQ-style steak, and burger six-packs available at over 2,000 of the retailer’s stores nationwide. That got investors excited further, with Beyond Meat’s stock price closing at $3.62, its highest in nearly three months.
Still, the firm is very much in the weeds, with demand weakening and its stock price a far cry from the high of $234.90 in 2019, its debut year on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Beyond Meat’s recent moves exhibit ‘road to profitability’
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Karola G/Pexels
The BYND stock’s rollercoaster journey on the capital market comes amid a testing period for plant-based meat’s poster child.
The firm recorded its lowest quarterly revenue in Q1 2025, reaching $69M and it secured $100M in debt financing from Unprocessed Foods, a subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, a non-profit advancing plant-based diets. In the ensuing three months, Beyond Meat’s sales fell by 20% compared to the year-ago period.
In February, it announced that it would lay off 9% of its global workforce, or 64 employees, which included all its staff in China, where it has suspended operations. And in August, it said it would let go of 44 employees in North America, though it isn’t clear if this is part of the same job cuts as above, or an additional round of layoffs.
The stock has been declining steadily, and the crash accelerated last month, when Beyond Meat proposed an exchange offer for convertible bonds to eliminate over $800M of debt. The company’s current debt amounts to $1.15B, thanks to 0% convertible notes that will mature in 2027.
Under its proposal, these would be swapped for higher-interest 7% notes that are due in 2030, plus stock shares. The firm needed 85% of its holders to agree to this by the end of October, but 97% did so by last week, which took the stock to an all-time low.
This is the action Seminikhin is bullish about. Speaking to Business Insider, he outlined his thesis of investing in the company: a “fundamentally misunderstood” conversion event, a technical setup leading to a short squeeze, and a strong balance sheet and book value post-conversion”.
Beyond Meat’s recent move to move, well, beyond meat and spotlight traditional plant proteins was also praised by the online trader. The company this week launched Beyond Test Kitchen, a marketplace where it’s selling limited-edition drops of new products, including a four-ingredient Beyond Ground and a whole-cut mycelium steak.
“For the first time in a long time for Beyond Meat, there’s a road to profitability and growth that’s being written,” said Seminikhin.
Amid the slowdown in sales of plant-based meat and investment in alternative proteins, innovation is losing a little momentum too, according to a new patent analysis.
Patent filings for plant-based and cultivated meat are mirroring the trends seen in the retail and investment sectors, with the number of applications on a downward correction after years of sustained growth.
That’s the takeaway from the fifth edition of IP firm Appleyard Lees’s Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report, which reviewed global patent filings in the energy, AI, materials and food sectors in 2022.
The analysis revealed that patent applications for cultivated meat fell by nearly 10% from 125 in 2022 to 113 in 2023, a far cry from the 9% increase in the former year. Meanwhile, the decline in plant-based meat filings continued for a second consecutive year, falling by 20% from 280 to 223.
“In the cultivated meat sector, funding, regulation, and consumer uptake remain key challenges for innovators, alongside upscaling and production efficiency,” said Emily Bevan-Smith, a patent attorney at Appleyard Lees.
James Myatt, a partner at the firm, added: “In plant-based meats, sales fell by 12% and some manufacturers have either reduced operations or gone into administration.”
Plant-based meat patent filings fell, but consumer interest may be renewing
Courtesy: Appleyard Lees
The decline in new priority filings (the first patent application for a unique invention) for plant-based meat was largely driven by a 37% dip in the US. European applications were more stable, with the number of filings 30% higher than the US – this is in stark contrast with previous years, where the two regions have competed closely on innovation, and is reflective of a stronger market for these products in Europe.
Unique assignees, which indicate the number of individual patent applicants or owners who have filed a patent for a given technology, for vegan meat alternatives decreased in 2023. This suggests that fewer entities are filing patents and that the industry is becoming more challenging for smaller businesses.
While the flavour and texture of these products were key focuses for companies in 2022, there was an equal decrease in the number of filings in each of these areas in 2023. The reduction was also consistent across all protein types, with applications for tofu and tempeh showing the largest decrease
In terms of companies, Cargill and Unilever made a record number of applications in 2023. The former spotlighted wheat gluten, lentil flour, pea protein and corn protein, while the latter’s surge reflected the eventual sale of The Vegetarian Butcher to JBS-owned Vivera. Fuji Oil and Roquette Frères were also among the top filers, though their totals fell slightly from 2022. And Nestlé had the most significant decrease among the major applicants.
Courtesy: Appleyard Lees
The report suggests that the drop in plant-based meat innovation was possibly due to “continuing commercial difficulties in the industry”, alongside consumer concerns around ultra-processing and unsatisfactory taste and texture. Plus, these products can cost up to 82% more, making them less appealing to shoppers.
That said, the number of filings in 2023 was the third highest ever recorded, and remained higher than at any point before 2020, showcasing continued R&D in the space despite the “apparent wavering of consumer interest in plant-based meat products”.
Appleyard Lees says there are causes for optimism. Plant-based meat products held their own in taste tests with omnivores, just as recent evidence suggests public concerns over the health ills of plant-based meat are largely unsubstantiated.
“It seems possible that a renewed wave of consumer interest in plant-based meat could be approaching, driven by innovations improving the quality of plant-based meats and reducing the cost of their manufacture,” the report reads.
Cultivated meat innovation needs government and investor support
Courtesy: Appleyard Lees
The IP firm argues that patent filings for cultivated meat may have peaked in 2022 – for now. The lack of investment and regulatory uncertainties in the US likely contributed to the 40% fall in applications in the US in 2023. It is now only marginally ahead of Europe and South Korea.
Speaking of which, Europe also saw a 25% decline in patent activity, which Appleyard Lees ascribed partly to a split between pro- and anti-cultivated-meat regulations, along with growing apprehension about the industry’s effect on farmers.
In Asia, though, things were more positive. Japan experienced a doubling in application numbers after then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida publicly endorsed cultivated meat. South Korea witnessed an increase too, thanks in large part to government support for industry innovation.
There was a decrease in the share of unique patent applicants for cultivated meat in 2023. Dutch cultured pork producer Meatable was the top filer, with applications related to the methods of culturing and maturing cells and increasing fat accumulation to tune flavours.
South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Solutions Corporation was the second busiest applicant. And in the longer term, Ivy Farm Technologies, Upside Foods, Korea Food Research Institute, and Ajinomoto have all been prominent patent filers in this segment since 2019.
Courtesy: Appleyard Lees
“Global patent activity in the cultivated meat sector shows a strong push to appeal to consumers by creating products that closely resemble conventional meat in flavour, texture, nutritional value and cooking behaviour,” said Myatt.
“A significant hurdle for this sector is securing investment and navigating local regulatory environments, which in some geographies (and key markets) are uncertain and polarising,” the report states. “Despite these issues, patent filings are increasing, and may continue to increase, in countries where this technology has government support.”
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Eat Just’s vegan chicken, Beyond Meat’s Walmart expansion, and Tesco’s collab with La Vie.
New products and launches
Californian startup Eat Just has launched its plant-based Just Meat into US foodservice. The vegan chicken is being tested by Texas-based Franklin Barbecue’s Aaron Franklin.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Beyond Meat, meanwhile, has boosted its distribution significantly, rolling out its chicken pieces, Korean BBQ-style steak, and six-pack of burgers into more than 2,000 Walmart stores.
New Zealand-based rubisco protein playerLeaft Foods has teamed up with Meateor Pet Foods to offer its Alfalfa Protein Concentrate to pet food producers in the US.
Courtesy: Alpine Bio
US molecular farming startup Alpine Bio has expanded its tech to produce lactoferrin in soybeans with over 3.5 times more iron than bovine sources, and a highly soluble non-GMO fractionated soy protein isolate with whey-like characteristics.
In the UK, Tesco has introduced a new festive wrap under its Plant Chef own-label brand, featuring La Vie’s vegan bacon.
Courtesy: Emily Giles/LinkedIn
British supplements brand Dr.Vegan has launched MenoFriend, a plant-based menopause formula in 53 Waitrose stores.
Also in the UK, frozen foods maker One Planet Pizza has released its Margherita Pizzetta and Cheezy Garlic Flatbread into Morrisons stores.
Courtesy: Joe Hill/LinkedIn
German chocolate maker Jokolade has rolled out a vegan product with Planet A Foods’s cocoa-free chocolate, ChoViva.
ChoViva is also featured in a new Salted Caramel with Hazelnut Crunch ice cream stick launched by retail giant Rewe’s Best Wahle private-label brand.
Courtesy: Shalom Daniel
Shalom Daniel, founder of blended meat players Joyn Foods and 50/50 Foods, has released a new book, Cut the Bull, to advocate for halving meat consumption.
And oat milk giant Oatly will debut its exclusive signature drinks at the My Coffee Awards in Barcelona (November 7-9), which will also release a Coffee Michelin Guide.
Company and finance developments
Plant Futures Collective‘s Meat Free Made Easy campaign has featured in the Tesco magazine, the UK’s most-read print title.
After sparking online furore for axing several vegan menu favourites in the UK, including the Vegatsu, the CEO of Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group has defended the decision.
Revo Foods founder Robin Simsa | Courtesy: Revo Foods
Austrian mycoprotein player Revo Foods has hired David Petuzzi as CEO, with founder Robin Simsa moving to the role of commercial director.
Italian vegan fast-food chain Flower Burger has kicked off a €1M equity crowdfunding campaign on CrowdFundMe to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.
Courtesy: Sunday Supper
In the US, vegan frozen foods maker Sunday Supper has begun a $625,000 crowd investment drive on WeFunder, after recording 300% year-on-year growth.
In similar news, HumaneCheck has launched a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign for its app, which lets grocery shoppers scan product barcodes for animal welfare grades. Its prototype, FindHumane, is a database of all animal products deemed meaningfully more humane by the ASPCA, which supports the project.
Courtesy: HumaneCheck
US functional wellness company Laird Superfood is the latest to quit the 100% plant-based space, announcing that it will now offer dairy and potentially other animal-based ingredients.
Research, policy and awards
The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture has teamed up with Beyond Impact VC and Beyond Animal to accelerate capital flows into the cellular agriculture and future food sector.
US animal-free collagen maker Jellatech has been named a finalist in the Sustainable Tech Innovation category for the 2025 NC Tech Awards.
Courtesy: Better Nature
UK tempeh maker Better Nature has been awarded full three stars from the Nourish Awards.
Finally, the World Economic Forum and media publisher Frontiers have named precision fermentation among the top 10 emerging technologies to accelerate planetary health solutions.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has formally accepted a dossier by French firm Parima to sell cultivated duck products, which is expected to be approved next year.
Parima, a cultivated meat company formed last week, could be selling cultured foie gras and pâté to consumers in Australia and New Zealand by August 2026.
The startup’s regulatory dossier for cultivated duck, made under its Gourmey brand, has been officially accepted by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). Now, the application will enter the scientific risk assessment process.
Parima emerged as a new entity after Gourmey acquired French cultivated chicken firm Vital Meat, marrying their tech, regulatory and manufacturing prowess, with a combined 15 patent families and more than 70 applications. The company is seeking regulatory clearance for its cultivated meat products in seven markets.
Its FSANZ filing comes months after the regulator gave the green light to Sydney-based cultivated quail maker Vow, which has been selling its protein in the form of parfait and foie gras in restaurants across Australia since July.
How Gourmey makes its cultivated duck
Courtesy: Sherry Hack
The standout feature of Parima’s application is that it will be assessed under FSANZ’s General (Level 5) Procedure, as opposed to its Major Procedure. It means the process is expected to take less than a year, since it only requires one round of public consultation. It’s also around A$40,000 cheaper.
It’s important to note that the late August 2026 timeline underlined by FSANZ is not set in stone. Vow’s application was meant to take around 15 months and be approved by June 2024, but was delayed by a year as the regulator amended its Food Standards Code.
Parima submitted its application in August. In its dossier, the startup explains that it employs non-GM cell lines and a semi-continuous process using shake flasks. Duck cells are grown in controlled conditions until the viable density is reached – after this, the majority of the culture volume is inoculated in a suspension bioreactor, and a small amount is retained to maintain a continuous process.
Once the culture in the bioreactor reaches the desired density, the biomass is harvested and separated from the culture media by centrifugation, before being washed with a saline solution. It is then packed and frozen until it’s ready to be used to make a final product, in combination with other food-safe ingredients.
“Cell-cultured duck is proposed for use by the general population, without sensitivities to duck or other avian species, as a food ingredient for further processing to be used [in] duck meat analogues at an inclusion rate of 5-80% by weight of the finished food,” the company says.
The cultivated duck can be turned into meat analogues, spreadable specialties, and fats and oils. Gourmey has already unveiled its foie gras application, which has been endorsed by a group of Michelin-starred chefs.
Parima’s regulatory progress latest in milestone year for cultivated meat
Courtesy: Parima
According to a document released by the FSANZ, the scientific risk assessment report will take about six months, followed by a six-week public consultation period starting in March. The FSANZ board will then make its approval decision, before being discussed by ministers in both countries in June.
“We look forward to working transparently and constructively with FSANZ as the review progresses, bringing cultivated foods one step closer to consumers’ plates,” Parima said in a statement.
It currently operates an innovation centre and a pilot facility in central Paris, where it runs multiple 400-litre bioreactors, and a pilot plant near Nantes, equipped with 2,000-litre bioreactors run daily. It also has a dedicated setup with a 5,000-litre fermenter, which analysis shows can bring costs down to $3.43 per lb. And in June, it partnered with AI specialist DeepLife to develop an avian digital twin to optimise production of its cultivated meat.
Aside from Australia and New Zealand, Parima has filed for approval in the EU (where it is the most advanced), the UK (also the most advanced here), Switzerland, Singapore, the US, and another undisclosed country.
In an interview with Green Queen this summer, Gourmey co-founder and Parima CEO Nicolas Morin-Forest had said it was expecting approval in Singapore first.
“We anticipate the first market authorisations within the next few months,” he said last week. “We’re aiming to become the first European cultivated meat company to get approved, and the first ever company with approval for two species: duck and chicken.”
Friends & Family Pet Food Company, meanwhile, was cleared to sell cultivated pet food in Singapore, and Biocraft Pet Nutrition and Umami Bioworks registered their cultivated meat innovations as feed materials in the EU, allowing them to sell the products as pet food ingredients.
Plant-based giant Beyond Meat has kicked off the Beyond Test Kitchen, releasing its clean-label Ground products and whole-cut mycelium steak to quick success.
As it works to turn around its sales and eliminate its debt, US plant-based pioneer Beyond Meat has debuted a new strategy to launch its innovations.
The company has unveiled Beyond Test Kitchen, a customer-led approach to product development, gi giving them an exclusive first taste of its new proteins before wider rollout.
Each product is produced in limited quantities and sold in fashion-industry-style ‘drops exclusively on Beyond Test Kitchen’s direct-to-consumer website.
Its first products are the much-anticipated Beyond Ground and the mycelium-based steak that has only been available in restaurants, and they’ve been selling fast.
Beyond Test Kitchen debuts Ground range and mycelium steak for home use
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Titus Group
Beyond Ground was first announced in July, when CEO Ethan Brown announced that the company would begin dropping the word ‘Meat’ from its brand name to spotlight traditional plant proteins that go beyond replicating animal-based foods.
In its original form, the product contains just four ingredients: water, fava bean protein, potato protein, and psyllium husk. It is intended as a response to the category’s biggest criticisms, from ultra-processing and long ingredient lists.
The mince-like protein will boost the nutritional perceptions of plant proteins. Each 4oz serving of the uneasoned Beyond Ground contains 140 calories, 4g of fibre, 1.5g of fat, and 27g of protein (higher than beef). Plus, it has zero cholesterol, saturated fat, or added oils. Home cooks can add any seasonings, marinades, or sauces to build their meals around the product.
As part of the Beyond Test Kitchen, the company has also launched the Ground product in three flavours: Chipotle Pineapple, Korean BBQ Style, and Tuscan Style Tomato. These do contain more fat, saturated fat, and sodium, but don’t need further seasoning during cooking.
Meanwhile, the whole-cut Beyond Steak Filet has so far been confined to eateries like Boa Steakhouse, Ladybird, and Next Level Veggie Grill. But after feedback from its custmers, Beyond Meat is opening up the mycelium-derived protein to home cooks for the first time through this approach.
The whole-cut steak is comprised of a base of wheat gluten, fava bean protein, avocado oil and mycelium, with a small amount of brown rice powder, oat bran, malted barley flour, beet juice colour, apple extract, spices and natural flavours, starter culture, and salt. Each 127g fillet delivers 28g of protein and 3g of fibre, with just 1g of saturated fat.
Most Beyond Test Kitchen bundles sold out amid financial unrest
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Karola G/Pexels
On the Beyond Test Kitchen, the products are available in four bundles. Three of them – comprising an eight-pack of the steak or combining it with the Beyond Ground products – have already sold out. A variety pack of the latter is still up for grabs.
The products are priced similarly to Beyond Meat’s existing range, with the eight-packs starting from $71.20. The bundle with just the Beyond Ground is $72.50, putting each product at just over $9, while the all-steak option costs $84 (or $10.50 per fillet).
Beyond Meat said information on future Test Kitchen products, including how customers can get involved with feedback on new ideas and tasting products early, will be available on its social channels. Brown has previously teased products like chickpea hot dogs and lentil sausages.
The move comes amid a media storm for the company. Its stock fell to an all-time low of 85 cents last week, after announcing the early settlement of an exchange offer for convertible bonds to eliminate over $800M of debt.
Beyond Meat is currently $1.15B in debt, thanks to 0% convertible notes that will mature in 2027. But the proposal would see them swapped for higher-interest 7% notes that are due in 2030, plus stock shares. The firm needed 85% of its holders to agree to this by the end of October, but 97% did so by last week.
The firm recorded its lowest quarterly revenue in Q1 2025, reaching $69M. It also secured $100M in debt financing from Unprocessed Foods, a subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, a non-profit advancing plant-based diets. In the ensuing three months, Beyond Meat’s sales fell by 20% compared to the year-ago period.
In February, it announced that it would lay off 9% of its global workforce, or 64 employees, which included all its staff in China, where it has suspended operations. And in August, it said it would let go of 44 employees in North America, though it isn’t clear if this is part of the same job cuts as above, or an additional round of layoffs.
However, Brown said the “opportunity to potentially live outside some of the confines we’ve been in recently”, with Beyond Ground and “the use of the Beyond brand and protein occasions for consumers”, makes him “very optimistic” about the future. With Beyond Test Kitchen, the company is doubling down on this approach.
Sanah Baig, who has years of experience working for the US government, explains why she chose to join the Plant Based Foods Institute, and her thoughts on the MAHA and livestock lobby.
Few people know about agricultural policy in the US as well as Sanah Baig.
She spent years working for the government, beginning with a stint at President Barack Obama’s US Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 2011 and 2016, before returning to the agency under Joe Biden’s administration in 2022. During this time, Baig also served as a senior policy advisor for agriculture and nutrition to the White House.
She left the government this January at the end of the Democrats’ term, and five months later, joined the Plant Based Foods Institute (PBFI) as its new executive director.
Her tenure has dovetailed with the chaos that has come with Donald Trump’s second presidency. The administration has erased any mentions of climate change from the USDA website, reduced funding for the food stamps programme by around 20% (the largest reduction in its history), and scrapped the annual food security survey to stave off criticism of the budget cuts.
With a few months under her belt at PBFI, Baig speaks to Green Queen in an extensive interview about her role, the government’s view on plant-based eating, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, the influence of meat lobby groups, and the proposed changes to the national dietary guidelines.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Green Queen: What compelled you to join PBFI? What has your focus been for the first few months?
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Institute
Sanah Baig: I was drawn to PBFI’s mission to architect a food system where plants take centre stage, meaning food is produced using dramatically fewer resources and less land, farmers and rural communities thrive through new market opportunities, and families have delicious options that nourish and delight them.
I saw an opportunity to link actors across the food value chain, from researchers to companies to consumers, as well as to partner with unconventional allies like economic development and public health groups.
Since my career has been focused on agricultural development, I bring a natural passion for working with producers, the research and extension communities, government officials and industry to scale innovative food systems. To that end, we’ve just secured philanthropic funding to advance our domestic sourcing and upstream value chain development work.
Since starting as executive director in June, I’ve been focused on ensuring PBFI can maximise its unique role as the sister organisation to the Plant Based Foods Association, and fill gaps in a robust NGO ecosystem that has made huge strides to increase R&D funding, public procurement policies, institutional foodservice adoption, and menu and behavioural change efforts that advance plant-based foods.
In the coming months, we’re launching a new effort that will build regional plant-based agricultural networks, starting in the Midwest. We’re also in the process of building out our team and developing strategic workgroups that will tackle key challenges around plant protein production, market development, and consumer education.
GQ: What are the biggest challenges facing you in your new role? What are your goals going forward?
SB: The exciting challenge is to come in as PBFI’s first executive director and translate the strong foundation of impressive knowledge, research, and relationships into action. That means new programmes that build upon our learnings, including from our signature domestic sourcing initiative, which connects plant-based food companies with American farmers to build resilient domestic supply chains.
The level of interest in the organisation these first few months has been extraordinary – we received 1,000+ applications for two new positions, which tells me there’s significant buy-in for this work and recognition that plant-based foods are a critical piece of the giant food systems transformation puzzle.
We also just secured two new grants to support our domestic value chain development efforts and to strengthen the Plant Based Foods Global Alliance, which will enhance collaboration across emerging markets like Turkey and Argentina, and more established markets like Canada and the EU.
As the global market for plant-based foods continues to grow, so do our shared challenges, especially in terms of labelling, infrastructure, and positioning. Especially against the backdrop of a polarised world, with food issues in the crosshairs, maintaining clarity and progress requires ecosystem-level coordination.
We face uphill challenges around shifting both agricultural incentives and narratives. On the incentive side, we need to create pathways for farmers to grow more diversified inputs like oats, peas, chickpeas, small grains and a range of emerging crops with functional and nutritional benefits that meet consumers’ needs.
We need to ensure they have the agronomic support, insurance coverage, infrastructure support, market connections, and long-term contracts to sustain economic viability. Farmers need to know the demand is there. This requires working with governments at all levels, research institutions, and the private sector. This is not a domestic issue, but a global one. The new Eat-Lancet report notes that we must increase the production of fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts by 9% annually, and up to 150% by 2050.
On the narrative side, we’re working to reframe how people think about plant-based foods. Mindset shifts are not easy, and incredibly context-dependent. But we see an opportunity to tell a better story about plant-based foods that highlight choice, abundance, deliciousness, wellness, and local tradition.
In the policy space, we can strengthen our message about rural opportunity, public health improvement, and climate resilience as our evidence grows. My main goals are to build the partnerships, programmes, and policy frameworks that make this vision a reality – connecting farmers to markets, advancing the research agenda, and creating spaces for collaborative problem-solving across the entire value chain.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Institute
GQ: As a political insider, how do you think government agencies like the USDA view plant-based eating?
SB: Nearly two decades ago, I got an internship at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service HQ. That experience lit a fire in my belly because it introduced me to a set of wickedly complex challenges around food production, not just in the faraway places I focused on as an international relations student, but right here at home.
It was astounding to see how much public R&D and global cooperation were required to produce safe, nourishing, affordable food with fewer resources, booming population growth, and new pests and diseases constantly emerging. I knew these problems were not just worth solving, but absolutely existential. At such a formative stage, it was deeply motivating to be surrounded by the world’s foremost agricultural scientists working to stay ahead of these crises.
It also opened my eyes to the realisation that government agencies are not monolithic entities with single viewpoints. The USDA alone is made up of nearly 30 distinct agencies and offices with differing missions (for example, resource conservation, rural development, forest management, food safety, innovation, and foreign trade).
And it depends greatly on the leadership at the top. We had a saying that “people are policy”, which I saw firsthand at both the USDA and the White House. It’s more apparent than ever in today’s political reality.
During this time, I had a growing interest in nutrition as a widening circle of family members began suffering from diet-related chronic diseases. In a different corner of the USDA, the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americanswere developed and I read it closely. Even then, the 2005 report underscored the crucial role of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes as foundational to our health.
When I looked at the USDA’s research, marketing, and farm production programs, I was shocked that these programs did not focus on incentivising the very foods that the department itself said were most beneficial for us. I set out on a mission to understand why, and to do my best to close the gap. Ultimately, it depends on the agency’s mission, what its leadership prioritises, and what resources are available.
Throughout my decade in government, I was pleasantly surprised to see interest in plant-based foods from different angles. The science community especially understood that meeting global demand for protein by 2050 was not possible within the current system and that we needed to embrace innovation to fill the growing supply gap.
The USDA allocated at least $30M for plant protein R&D in just the past few years, with much of the innovation driven through interest by land grant university partners who recognised the need for US competitiveness. This was complemented by historic investments in the USDA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program supporting state-level fruit, vegetable, and nut production.
The Food is Medicine movement championed by the HHS embraced plant-forward eating through produce prescriptions and medically-tailored meals. NIH Research Grants funded clinical trials on plant-based diets for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and inflammation.
Courtesy: Touacha Her
The Department of Defense piloted plant-based MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) in collaboration with private suppliers. Small Business Innovation Research Grants via the USDA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Education fund plant-based protein startups.
To me, these are clear signs of progress that policy officials acted on the overwhelming body of evidence that plant-based foods advance human and planetary health, and expand economic opportunity. That said, progress is not linear, and we have to work harder than ever to sustain these efforts, especially with hundreds of thousands of federal workers exiting government service this year alone.
GQ: How do you view the rise of meat and dairy consumption in the US, and animal protein’s winning role in the culture wars, especially in the context of your role and goals at PBFI?
SB: Looking at the data, meat and dairy consumption has seen a steady long-term rise, and this is happening against a backdrop where the median US farm-only income was negative $900 in 2023. This indicates the current agricultural system isn’t working for many producers, regardless of long-standing cultural narratives around it.
PBFI is working to offer an on-ramp for producers to get to true profitability and stability through the production of crops needed for a growing global plant-based market, especially in alignment with the Planetary Health Diet. Whether it’s growing beans, mushrooms, or almonds, there’s real economic potential here that spans both whole and value-added foods.
And it’s not an all-or-nothing approach; we’re seeing corn growers adding legumes into their rotations for nitrogen-fixing, soil health and yield benefits. I’m excited to work with commodity producers to see how they can integrate new crops into their systems and generate more economic and environmental value.
As for the culture war aspect, there’s a really compelling and untapped story about the power of plants. The plant-based movement is about abundance, choice, opportunity, and tradition. Plants have been at the centre of human diets and agricultural traditions for millennia.
The more we can celebrate the deliciousness, versatility, and nutritional benefits of plant-based foods, and connect that to the economic opportunities for growers and rural communities, the more we can move beyond divisive rhetoric and toward practical solutions that benefit everyone.
GQ: What are your thoughts on the proposed US dietary guidelines? Do you believe the recommendation to increase plant protein intake and reduce red meat will make it to the final document?
Courtesy: National Institutes of Health
SB: I am hopeful that the final report will reflect the recommendations from the Advisory Committee’s scientific report issued late last year. The committee proposed emphasising beans, peas, and lentils and moving them to the top of the “protein foods” subgroup.
One of our main goals is to ensure the revised US dietary guidelines recognise the nutritional benefits of plant-based foods and diets. They provide the basis of many federal food procurement programmes, including nutritional assistance programs, and are a pathway to ensure increased access to plant-based options that many rely on to meet specific dietary needs and preferences.
GQ: Do you believe government bodies and public policy are under the influence of the livestock lobby to some extent, as several investigations have claimed?
SB: Policymakers respond to the groups that engage them most. As public servants, their job is to seek input and feedback when advancing new programs, policies or laws.
Groups that represent conventional agricultural producers have a long history of advocating for their interests at both the national and federal levels. For example, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was founded in 1898, which means they have had a more than 125-year history of building relationships with public officials. They formed because of clear challenges they were facing, like a monopoly in the packer market. And they understood the power of collective action at the national level.
Fast-forward to 1985, and groups like the Organic Trade Association emerged with their own set of clearly defined goals around creating uniform standards, certification, and marketing programs. In five years, they and a coalition of like-minded groups pushed forward the passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to directly address those needs. We should learn from those lessons.
There has never been a larger coalition of organisations calling for plant-forward food systems. But this ecosystem is still in its emergent stage. We must urgently align on our core goals in order to present unified asks to policymakers.
As the trade group representing US companies that make plant-based foods, PBFA has been advocating on behalf of the industry for a fair and transparent playing field for many years. PBFI is focused on welcoming US farmers into the supply chain to catalyse more domestic production, and unlocking policy incentives to make this feasible.
But we can’t do it alone, and I’m excited to have so many allies working together to set a clear policy agenda that we can unite around.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Institute
GQ: What opportunities and challenges do you see with the MAHA movement? Do you see a chance to align on certain issues?
SB: There is common ground in wanting to do everything we can to make healthy foods more affordable, more accessible, and more delicious than junk foods as a way to combat chronic diet-related diseases.
The delicious part is getting better: plant-based innovation has come so far in terms of taste and variety. Accessibility is advancing through foodservice, especially getting nutritious plant-based options into schools, hospitals, workplaces, and communities that want and need options that align with their dietary needs and preferences.
Part of the affordability challenge goes back to the farm level, and this is where the opportunity gets really interesting. The majority of what we grow in this country does not go to feeding people directly.
If we can begin to change the upstream supply chain by incentivising farmers to grow more diverse crops for direct human consumption, including the ingredients needed for plant-based foods, we can improve the downstream cost for consumers.
Of course, there’s a lot of creativity needed in the middle of the supply chain, too. Plant-based foods span an incredible spectrum, from whole grains and legumes to innovative products. Our focus should be on supporting farmers, advancing research, improving nutrition access, and giving consumers better choices that fit their budget.
These are goals that can resonate across many different political perspectives and seek to unite us around what to advance, versus solely on what to ban.
GQ: Do you believe more Americans can, after all, become flexitarians or meat reducers?
Courtesy: PBFA
SB: Absolutely. We know from our research that 59% of US households purchase plant-based products, and 79% of those households are repeat buyers. At the same time, taste concerns (historically the biggest barrier) have dropped significantly, from 41% in 2023 to just 27% this year.
There is a big opportunity gap in access. People may be willing and interested in plant-based foods, but it’s not always easy to find the options that align with their needs/preferences in retail or foodservice settings.
Our research indicates plant-based options are still hard to find, and variety doesn’t always align with growing interest areas – for example, culturally diverse flavors or cleaner labels. Our role is to be the convener and catalyst, bringing together stakeholders across the entire value chain to identify barriers and co-create solutions.
We’ll work with farmers to diversify into plant-based ingredient crops, support manufacturers in scaling innovation (and we’ve already seen rapid progress), partner with retailers and foodservice operators on accessibility, and connect into the research community advancing ingredient science and consumer insights.
When these value chain partners are aligned and supported, flexitarian eating becomes an easier choice. It’s not about convincing people to change; it’s about building a system that makes it easy for them to put more plants on the table.
SB: Overall, the UPF discourse is driven by the good/correct desire to improve diet quality and public health outcomes in America and beyond. The public and decision-makers alike have coalesced around the term ‘ultra-processed’ as shorthand for foods that shouldn’t be consumed.
But the idea that a food is unhealthy or unsustainable just because it is processed lacks scientific backing and confuses consumers. To lead to the positive public health outcomes we all desire, UPF policies should target foods that do not provide positive contributions to the diet – that is, true junk foods – and not lump in nutrient-dense foods like plant-based meat, dairy, and eggs. That is to say, the focus should be on championing nutrition, not punishing processing.
Thankfully, health organisations, including the American Heart Association, are also calling for nuance in the UPF space and recognising that plant-based products contribute positively to healthy dietary patterns.
We are hard at work to prevent nutritious plant-based foods from being lumped into state and federal definitions of UPFs and to ensure that consumers who rely on these products to get the nutrition that they need will continue to have access to them.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Institute
GQ: What has the plant-based sector done wrong over the last five years? What’s it gotten right?
SB: As an ecosystem, we can tell a better story and challenge oversimplified narratives, especially about overall VC funding or one company’s sales being the only measures of success. We can embrace both whole foods and value-added products as part of a diversity of options available to consumers.
Beyond the bright spots in foodservice, things are steady and improving in some dimensions of retail, despite narrative challenges. Plant-based sales have stayed steady or grown in many pockets (milk, protein powders, and tofu) and in terms of household penetration and repeat purchases.
Visibility and proper merchandising matter: plant-based doubles its share in e-commerce (6% of sales) versus in-store (3% of sales). Based on 2024 migration analyses from Kroger’s 84.51 data arm, we are seeing that consumers are growing happier with the taste and texture of plant-based products.
Manufacturers are innovating on the R&D side. Consumers are noticing and responding positively, but they want more. Specifically, more variety, better prices, and convenient formats.
I think it’s most productive to focus on lessons learned throughout the evolution of this relatively new sector. Innovation has been our greatest strength. Plant-based manufacturers have pushed R&D at a pace rarely seen in the food sector, responding to consumer insights in real time.
The results are promising: taste and texture are no longer the barriers they once were, and more consumers are choosing plant-based options. This is underpinned by agility: when consumers ask for cleaner labels, higher protein, or ingredients sourced through regenerative practices, plant-based companies have been able to pivot more quickly.
In a world where consumer preferences are shifting rapidly, this responsiveness is a powerful differentiator.
Spain’s alternative protein ecosystem is thriving, with investments rising by nearly 550% in 2024. Now, experts are calling for public funding and a national plant-based action plan.
Plant-based, microbial, and cell-cultured protein startups are the main focus of Spain’s agtech sector, with 42% of startups working on these innovations.
Research by the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe shows that Spain is the second most attractive country for alternative protein investors in Europe (behind Denmark), as the sector’s fundraising efforts became wildly successful last year.
Funding for alternative proteins reached €64.7M in 2024, a 547% jump from the year before (albeit from a small base), led by Heura’s €40M Series B round. This came as sales of plant-based food hit €491M in supermarkets, representing a 10% increase in volume.
Additionally, one in five Spanish households bought a plant-based meat product at least once last year. The data shows that the country has all the ingredients to become a regional future food leader, though it will need strong financial and policy support from the government to get there.
Spain’s R&D prowess is hampered by a lack of government support
Courtesy: GFI Europe
GFI Europe’s report reveals that 71% of Spain’s alternative protein startups are focused on plant-based ingredients, while 19% are working on fermentation and 10% on cultivated meat.
This industry is built on a strong and rapidly growing R&D ecosystem – between 2020 and 2024, Spain had the fifth-highest number of researchers in this field in Europe, and the sixth-largest number of publications.
It sits 14th on the list of researchers and publications per capita, and 11th on productivity, churning out 0.51 papers per researcher. Moreover, Spain ranks fourth in publications when adjusted for purchasing power parity.
Catalonia is highlighted as a global innovation hub, led by IRTA’s Centre d’Innovació en Proteïnes Alternatives (CiPA), Spain’s first public research centre dedicated to alternative proteins. This hub is coordinating research projects with universities, startups, and businesses. Other clusters are also being developed at Navarre, the Basque Country, the Madrid and Valencia regions, Galicia, and Andalusia.
According to GFI Europe, climate change causes annual losses of €550M to Spain’s agriculture sector, underscoring the need for alternative sources that use fewer resources and generate less pollution.
There have been some positive signs: the National Food Strategy, published earlier this year, acknowledged the role alternative proteins can play in the food system. But the government needs to go further to truly reap this industry’s economic benefits.
“Spain has the opportunity to become the benchmark for alternative proteins in Southern Europe,” said Carlos Campillos Martínez, public affairs manager for GFI Europe in Spain. “Our country has the scientific talent and business ecosystem to merge culinary tradition with agri-food innovation – but it needs the right support to consolidate itself as an economic, sustainable, and industrial innovation driver.”
How policymakers can bolster Spain’s future food sector
Courtesy: Novameat
The report reveals that alternative protein firms face significant barriers to realising their full potential, including limited access to production-scale infrastructure and a lack of R&D funding from the government.
GFI Europe has made nine recommendations for policymakers with varying complexity levels. Two of the easiest ones involve ensuring funding instruments for R&D and the commercialisation of alternative proteins. Just as with AI, the government should allocate specific research financing for these foods, like other European countries have. Further, strict requirements for existing funding instruments have become a barrier for the sector.
The other low-complexity recommendations are to provide pre-submission guidance to streamline the regulatory approval process for novel foods, and include alternative proteins in the Mediterranean diet guidelines. Plant-based alternatives can help replace processed meat intake to allow consumers to more closely adhere to the guidelines.
In terms of solutions with medium complexity, Spain should ensure that the agrifood tech sandbox focuses more specifically on regulatory challenges, like those stemming from the EU’s novel food regulations.
At the same time, some industrial facilities are currently underutilised or abandoned, so Spain should explore their potential for retrofitting to reduce costs for the sector and revitalise local communities. The government is also advised to mobilise private funding to support infrastructure development.
And as for the most complex actions, Spain should facilitate food diversification by encouraging investments from traditional Spanish industries like wineries, breweries or olive oil producers (in addition to meat and dairy companies).
Finally, GFI Europe is asking the Spanish government to develop a national action plan to boost the production and consumption of plant-based food, the way Denmark has done and is encouraging other EU members to do. Failure to do so would raise the risk of Spain being left behind in Europe’s future food race.
To further accelerate their progress, the country is home to a new partnership between the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, a non-profit think tank focused on alternative proteins, and the World FoodTech Council, which comprises over 3,300 members and will host the World FoodTech 2025 Conference in Seoul later this month.
As part of the MoU, the two organisations will get together to support strategic regulatory policies on novel foods in Korea, boost domestic R&D initiatives, and spur new scientific talent development pathways to enable researchers from adjacent fields to contribute to the future food sector.
South Korea’s alternative protein space needs international representation
Courtesy: TissenBioFarm
“For more than a decade, South Korea has invested more money into scientific R&D as a percentage of GDP than any other Asian country – an asset the country is now leveraging to become an alternative protein powerhouse,” said GFI APAC managing director Mirte Gosker.
“Just as Asia was early in understanding the untapped potential of renewable energy technologies to satisfy soaring global demand, every country will inevitably need innovative ways to make more meat with fewer resources – and our region is once again laying the groundwork to sell the world what it needs.”
But despite South Korea’s progress in alternative proteins, there lies a structural gap in the integration of that expertise into global discussions. At this year’s AltProtein Asia event (held at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein in Singapore), stakeholders exchanged knowledge about how to tackle technical bottlenecks hindering taste, scale, and price parity for alternative proteins.
The symposium attracted top scientists from Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, but not South Korea. GFI APAC is aiming to change that next year, ensuring that the latter country isn’t just present, but also takes a central role in the dialogue.
“South Korea is home to one of Asia’s most advanced tech ecosystems, including 10 biotech innovation and manufacturing clusters, dozens of alternative protein companies, and the highest number of researchers per capita of any country on Earth,” says Yeonjoo La, South Korea startup lead at GFI, who is also working to establish GFI Korea.
“By connecting Korea’s scientists, policymakers, and technologists with their overseas counterparts, we can supercharge plant-based and cultivated meat development, rapidly increase regional regulatory knowledge-sharing, and create an impact far greater than the sum of its parts,” she adds.
Korean government goes big on sustainable proteins
Courtesy: Space F
The partnership between GFI APAC and the World FoodTech Council comes as government support for alternative proteins is ramped up in South Korea. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, for starters, has established a framework for regulatory approval of these proteins.
Last year, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced an investment of ₩29B ($21M) in research funding for plant-based and cultivated seafood technologies, and the North Jeolla Province announced that it would open a Food Tech Research Support Center dedicated to plant-based proteins in 2026.
Meanwhile, GFI APAC itself signed an MOU with the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization and its Bio-based Future Food Industry Committee – a coalition of 33 future food companies – to advance market research and knowledge exchange, increase policy coordination for novel food regulation, facilitate training, and host joint workshops on alternative protein innovation.
Also in 2024, the federal government enacted the Food Tech Industry Promotion Act, which aims to improve citizens’ lives, create jobs and develop the national economy by reinforcing the convergence of food production with cutting-edge technologies. It’s set to come into effect this December.
And earlier this year, Uiseong County won its bid to build a 2,660 sq m Food Tech Research Support Center focused on cultivated meat, backed by public investment to the tune of ₩14.5B ($10M). Opening in 2027, it will help companies develop and scale up their processes, and apply for regulatory approval.
The building will be located next to the existing Cell Culture Industry Support Center. Both are situated inside a special zone in the North Gyeongsang Province, which exempts companies from certain regulatory hurdles to fast-track novel food development.
GFI APAC’s collaboration with the World FoodTech Council aligns with these developments. The latter is focused on establishing global standards, certification support systems, and international cooperation on emerging food technologies.
“Food tech tackles the defining challenges of our era – from population growth and climate change to public health in the age of AI,” said Prof Ki Won Lee, co-chair of the World FoodTech Council. “In partnership with GFI, we are committed to positioning K-food-tech as a key driver of the future food system and a leader in this transformative industry.”
The Good Food Institute has acquired cell lines and growth media from defunct startup SciFi Foods, and partnered with Tufts University to make them available for cultivated meat researchers.
In a major move to save the future food industry years of effort and millions of dollars for R&D, the Good Food Institute (GFI) has purchased cultivated meat components developed by SciFi Foods to free them up for public use.
The non-profit has bought eight bovine cell lines and two serum-free media formulations at an auction of SciFi Foods’s assets, following the Californian startup’s closure in 2024.
GFI has also partnered with the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) to store and validate the components and place them in an open-access cell bank for academia and, eventually, companies. This cell bank will be housed at the institute’s upcoming future foods innovation hub.
It marks the first time suspension-adapted bovine cell lines will be available to cultivated meat researchers globally, and is set to remove some of the preeminent barriers to market entry for industry players.
“SCiFi’s pioneering work is like a baton in a relay. Given our role in the field, GFI was able to ensure that baton didn’t drop, and through our partnership with Tufts, copies of that same baton will be handed off to scientists and startups around the world, enabling more people to join the race,” highlighted Dr Amanda Hildebrand, VP of science and technology at GFI.
How GFI snapped up SciFi Foods’s cell lines
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Founded in 2019, SciFi Foods began growing cell lines for beef in 2023, developing a hybrid burger with 90% soy protein and 10% cultivated meat. It had raised $40M in funding, was in consultation with the US FDA for approval, and operated a 16,000 sq ft pilot facility, where it completed a commercial-scale production run in a 500-litre bioreactor.
The startup had hoped to enter the market by 2025, but as investors withdrew from the wider cultivated meat sector, SciFi Foods was unable to escape the headwinds. It shut down in June 2024 after running out of cash, appointing an advisory firm for the sale of its assets.
Among the parties notified of the auction were GFI and Tufts. The former’s bid was accepted in August, and the cells and media were successfully transferred to the latter for storage and distribution a month later.
“We didn’t know who else might show up for the auction, but collectively agreed it would be a shame for SCiFI’s technology to get locked in a box somewhere, so we were excited that GFI decided to bid,” said Meera Zassenhaus, director of communications for TUCCA.
The components bought by GFI include the three most commercially developed beef cell lines from SciFi Foods. These had been modified by the gene-editing technology CRISPR to ensure their ability to grow indefinitely in culture, and subsequently adapted to grow in scalable single-cell suspensions.
Two of these cell lines were further engineered to remove markers of antibiotic resistance (genes inserted in the R&D stage), making them suitable for food applications.
“When we started SCiFi Foods, we had to start from square one, beginning with a small sample of cells from a cow on an actual farm. It took us four years and tens of millions of dollars to develop these cells into commercial cell lines that grow quickly in suspension and in serum-free media,” said SciFi Foods co-founder and CEO Joshua March.
“This was a massive technical achievement… but despite our relative speed, our progress wasn’t on the time-to-revenue required in today’s VC market. Despite our disappointment that we can’t take the SCiFi burger to market, we are extremely excited by GFI’s acquisition of our cell lines and the collaboration with Tufts for use by the field.”
Open-access cell lines a ‘win-win-win’ for cultivated meat
Courtesy: Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture
“So many experiments currently take place in small-scale systems, and at the end of the day, those experiments can only go so far in informing large-scale, bioreactor-based processes,” said Dr Andrew Stout, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at TUCCA.
“When labs across the field have access to shared, scalable, and serum-free systems, I think it will cause a real leap in the value and applicability of their research. At the same time, I’m hopeful that these cells will also help to catalyse a broadening pattern of resource sharing and cell line optimisation across the field,” he added.
According to GFI, cultivated meat makers currently spend a significant portion of their funds and time on cell line development, which costs between $2-10M, so access to these materials could save the industry tens of millions and years of R&D, removing barriers for future startups.
Open access to these cells and the media formulations will kickstart immediate R&D work and enable studies to be run in small bioreactors, which can help researchers refine process development. Plus, their availability reduces redundancies and spurs innovation through research collaborations, and benefits B2B players like media and scaffold suppliers and bioreactor and equipment manufacturers.
“Talk about a win-win-win,” said Hildebrand. “This type of open-access jumpstart invites more people to the field, gives everyone a better starting position, and ultimately can produce more winners – companies that get more products to consumer plates, and consumers who have more choices for foods they love.”
Tufts said the cell bank will offer shared-use prototyping and scale-up research facilities, incubator lab space for startups to co-locate, and a network of experts to accelerate cellular agriculture development globally. The university is currently raising capital to build out its infrastructure to acquire and develop additional cells, including bovine, mackerel, and pork lines.
Researchers interested in the cell lines can now join a waitlist, while the media formulations are already available online. “We are essentially composting intellectual property, or IP, from an individual start-up and transforming it into a public good to benefit the entire field,” said Tufts’s Zassenhaus.
“This model of IP reuse makes sense for all kinds of technologies even beyond alternative proteins, especially as climate tech broadly faces a contraction in funding,” she added.
Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn has launched a blended yoghurt combining dairy with fava beans, just as Kerry has discontinued its hybrid Smug Dairy range in the UK.
While blended meat is entering supermarkets in Europe and the US with aplomb, the same can’t be said of hybrid dairy.
When Kerry launched its Smug Dairy range in the UK last year, combining dairy with oats to produce milk, cheese and butter products, it promised to “shake up the dairy category” and give consumers “healthier and more sustainable” options without compromising on taste. It even spent £5M on a marketing campaign for the range.
Last month, though, it said it was scrapping the entire lineup, turning its focus to a 100% dairy-based snacking range. It was a major example of a disruptive product not quite scaling the heights it needed to.
Just across the North Sea, things are going the opposite way. After introducing two blended milk products in June, Dutch retailer Albert Heijn has expanded into hybrid yoghurts.
The two contrasting approaches beg the question: why did Kerry’s effort fail, and what keeps Albert Heijn confident in the category’s future?
Why Kerry’s hybrid Smug Dairy range didn’t work
Courtesy: Smug Dairy
Explaining the decision to withdraw the hybrid dairy products, Kerry Dairy Ireland’s strategy and marketing head, Victoria Southern, said that though the range had delivered on taste and function, “categories like milk and butter are difficult to disrupt”.
“Our focus is now on leaning into Smug’s strengths to deliver new products that are great in taste, stand out with playful branding and highlight clear nutritional benefits. These are best applied in categories where consumers are more curious and open to trial,” she highlighted.
So why didn’t Brits find these products appealing? There were two primary issues: the milk-to-oat ratio and the price tag.
Kerry’s blended milk only contained 25% of plant-based ingredients, rising to 25% for the block butter and 30% for its Cheddar. The only offering with an equivalent amount of plants was the spreadable butter, which was its most climate-friendly product, offering 54% lower emissions than 100% dairy butter.
The other products offered very little in terms of sustainability – for example, the Smug Dairy milk only achieved an 18% emissions reduction. It just wasn’t a big enough difference to move the needle with most dairy consumers.
Smug Dairy didn’t cater to those who would be swayed by cheaper products either. Its hybrid butter was priced at £9.38 per kg, higher than the £7 cost of its Kerrymaid dairy spread, and more than twice as expensive as the dairy-free spreadable butter sold by Kerry’s Pure brand (for £4.30 per kg).
Its hybrid Cheddar block was also only 36p cheaper per kg than Cathedral City’s dairy-free version, and the oat-dairy milk set you back only 5p less than Alpro’s oat milk. Blended proteins are designed as a bridge between flexitarians and plant-based eaters, but it’s hard to justify a shift towards hybrid dairy when the gap with vegan versions is so narrow.
There’s one more problem worth looking at: did Kerry launch the wrong products? A recent study found that consumers are least receptive to hybrid beverages and milks, and most interested in yoghurt and ice cream formats.
Albert Heijn looks to lure shoppers with cheaper hybrid yoghurt
Courtesy: Albert Heijn
This is where Albert Heijn comes in. Its latest launch is a hybrid yoghurt with 60% dairy and 40% plant-based ingredients (primarily sunflower oil and fava bean protein), a recipe much more suited to success.
The launch adds to its existing blended dairy range, which includes whole and semi-skimmed milk with 70% and 60% dairy, respectively. They’re produced by Dutch firm Farm Dairy and Denmark’s PlanetDairy, and can lower emissions by 20-30%.
While the inclusion rate for the hybrid whole milk is still low for plant-based ingredients, Albert Heijn ensured that these products are priced the same as their conventional counterparts, minimising the risk of alienating shoppers.
The hybrid yoghurt, sold in one-litre cartons, goes one better. It costs €1.49, 10 cents cheaper than Albert Heijn’s own-brand dairy yoghurt with 1.5% fat.
Further, it delivers on the nutritional front, containing an equal amount of protein, but 90% fewer saturated fat (just 0.1g per 100ml), and more vitamin B12, vitamin D and calcium than yoghurt made entirely from cow’s milk.
These attributes put Albert Heijn’s hybrid dairy range on course for success. They’re part of its larger ‘balanced protein’ range, which also features 13 blended meat products, the most extensive such lineup anywhere in the world. The retailer has rolled out a blended beef burger in Belgium too.
In July, it became the first supermarket to publicly report its methane footprint, which makes up 14% of its scope 3 emissions. Albert Heijn is now aiming to reduce this by 45% by 2030 (compared to 2018 levels) – that effort will only be aided by its big bet on blended proteins.
Fable Food Co has launched its omnivore-favourite blended meat range at Central Market stores in Texas, the US’s largest beef-producing state – and to great success.
Texas is the leading cattle producer in the US, with beef being its third-largest economic generator. However, this also means the state has an outsized impact on the planet, since beef is the food system’s single-worst polluter.
But the Republican-led government in Texas has gone to some impressive lengths to protect the industry’s economic interests. In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill to ban cultivated meat, a product that is still in its infancy. In fact, no company has yet been approved to sell cultivated beef in the US.
Of the startups cleared to sell, only Wildtype’s salmon made it to a Texan restaurant, and was swiftly taken off the menu as the ban took place. Now, the state is being sued for its anti-cultivated-meat legislation.
And while Texans love their beef, they also live in a state amongst the most vulnerable to climate change in the US. With the Trump administration’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill rolling back tax credits for green energy, they’re also set to pay higher utility bills, given Texas’s leading wind power capacity.
So they need innovations that are kinder to the planet than incumbent options, cultivated meat among them. But while the courts sort that ban out, one startup has taken a shrewd approach to fulfil Texas’s appetite for meat while lowering its climate footprint.
Fable Food Co is blending beef with shiitake mushrooms to produce a range of ‘balanced protein’ products with better health and environmental outcomes. Taste tests have already proven their potential to attract meat-eaters, and the company has just launched the lineup in Central Market stores in Texas.
Fable Food Co’s Shiitake Infusion beats beef in taste tests
Courtesy: Michael Fox/LinkedIn
Based in Australia, Fable Food made its name with mushroom-based meat alternatives, but last year, it forayed into the burgeoning blended meat space with the Shiitake Infusion offering.
“At the moment, the plant-based options in the market – including ours – require most omnivore consumers to make some sacrifice. And that’s why the plant-based market has remained small,” Fable Food founder and CEO Michael Fox told Green Queen at the time.
“We started brainstorming new ways to help consumers who want to reduce their meat consumption. We decided to try and meet those consumers where they are: reducing with smaller portions of meat, and altering recipes by substituting vegetables for some meat.”
Fable Food combines the stems of shiitake mushrooms (which make up 89% of the product) with water, rice, canola and coconut oils, yeast extract, mushroom powder, and salt. Compared to an 80/20 beef mince, Fable Food’s blended protein is 35% lower in saturated fat, has half the cholesterol and 17% fewer calories, and contains 8g of fibre per serving (versus zero).
The innovation is also 10-15% cheaper than 100% beef, a crucial advantage at a time when beef prices are at an all-time high in the US. Plus, it’s much more climate-friendly, using less land, water and feed.
But taste is the primary driver of food choices, and this is where Fable Food delivers its biggest win. The shiitake mushrooms add a rich umami flavour that enhances the taste of conventional beef, a feature that has impressed omnivores and flexitarians.
Sensory testing by non-profit Nectar in the US has shown that Shiitake Infusion outperforms 100% beef on taste, with three in four meat-eaters preferring a blended burger over one made just from beef.
Blended meat rollout successful, mirroring global trends
Courtesy: Michael Fox/LinkedIn
At Central Market, Fable Food is rolling out five products: burgers, sliders and meatballs mixed with beef, and two koftas featuring lamb and beef.
“If you’ve ever been to Central Market, you’ll know it’s no ordinary grocery store,” Fox said. “They’re culinary innovators – with their own cooking schools, world-class produce, and a track record of launching some of the most exciting specialty food brands in the US. We couldn’t imagine a better launch partner.”
And the early results are impressive. Fox noted that selling five to 10 units in each store per week is considered a success for the plant-based category, but in-store sampling shows that Fable Food’s shiitake-infused products are selling 20 units per hour. In fact, one in two people who sampled the innovations have bought it on the spot, the same conversion rate it has witnessed in Australia.
When you consider the Nectar taste test results, this isn’t a surprise. The organisation’s research has previously found that blended meat is more likely to appeal to omnivores and flexitarians than plant-based alternatives.
The launch mirrors similar developments in Europe. Supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, including discounters like Lidl and Aldi, have brought out balanced protein products under their own-label brands. Albert Heijn, meanwhile, has a 13-strong range of blended meats.
For food producers, the shift to hybrid proteins makes financial sense. Fable Food itself saw revenues expand by 50% in 2024, and anticipates even nimbler growth this year, thanks to its shiitake-mushroom-based products.
The product’s early success in Texas highlights the potential of eco-minded innovations in climate-vulnerable areas. The state is one of seven (all Republican-led) that have banned cultivated meat, while several more have sought to restrict the labelling of meat-free products.
The irony, though, is that while Republicans play down or even flat-out deny climate change, it’s red states that actually need and would benefit the most from sustainable proteins.
France’s Gourmey has snapped up Vital Meat to form Parima, aiming to become the first cultivated protein company to get regulatory approval for two species.
In the latest consolidation move for alternative proteins, Paris-based Gourmey has acquired fellow French cultivated meat firm Vital Meat, combining their tech, regulatory and manufacturing prowess under a new entity, Parima.
The company combines Gourmey’s cultivated duck platform (which has spawned a foie gras product) with Vital Meat’s cultured chicken technology, which are collectively the subject of nine active regulatory filings across the world.
“Parima represents a new chapter, a unified platform built to lead the next generation of animal production, spanning multiple species and market applications, from premium to mass market. It’s about creating abundance through efficiency and scale,” Parima CEO Nicolas Morin-Forest tells Green Queen.
Vital Meat’s team is joining Parima, including co-founder Etienne Duthoit, who is taking up a leadership role. “We’re expanding our site presence in France,” adds Morin-Forest.
“Gourmey remains the group’s culinary brand, focused on premium products, chef collaborations, and established partnerships with leading gourmet distributors serving the world’s top restaurants and hotels,” he says. The brand’s demand from leading restaurants will “remain a key differentiator” as Parima expands across multiple species and applications.
Gourmey and Vital Meat to combine production at French facilities
Courtesy: Vital Meat
Gourmey made a splash in the future food world when it announced regulatory submissions in five geographies last year, including the first ever in the EU. It has created a foie gras product using cultured duck cells, which has been endorsed by Michelin-starred chefs, and has been working on chicken too.
The startup’s platform leverages a “second-generation” tech stack that replaces legacy biopharma techniques with food-grade, cost-effective, scalable processes. It combines continuous production, undifferentiated cell biomass, and suspension-based cell cultures to support efficiency and consistency.
In June, Gourmey partnered with AI specialist DeepLife to develop the world’s first avian digital twin to optimise production of its cultivated meat, shortly after analysis revealed that its 5,000-litre bioreactor system can bring costs down to $3.43 per lb.
Vital Meat, meanwhile, makes cultivated chicken using cell-line technology developed from nearly 25 years of avian cell research at Groupe Grimaud, a global animal genetics leader. The startup filed for approval in Singapore in late 2023, and in the UK in summer 2024. And months later, it held a public tasting at Hue restaurant in Singapore.
Gourmey currently operates an innovation centre and a pilot facility in central Paris, where it runs multiple 400-litre bioreactors. It also has a dedicated setup with a 5,000-litre fermenter. Likewise, Vital Meat has a pilot plant near Nantes, equipped with 2,000-litre bioreactors that are run daily.
Following the acquisition, both sites will remain operational. “Together, they form a fully integrated end-to-end platform, covering cell line and process development, scale-up, and culinary innovation. Our combined bioreactor capacity reaches several thousand litres,” Morin-Forest highlights.
Parima expects regulatory nod in ‘next few months’
Gourmey’s foie gras is made from cultivated duck cells | Courtesy: Sherry Hack
Parima has over 15 patent families and more than 70 applications, alongside regulatory filings in various geographies. “They cover the EU, where we’re the first and most advanced; the UK, where the Vital Meat and Gourmey dossiers are the two most advanced; Switzerland; Singapore, where both companies have active applications; the US; Australia; and another country we’re not disclosing yet,” says Morin-Forest.
Each company’s dossiers will continue under their existing procedures, and in an interview with Green Queen this summer, the Gourmey co-founder had said it was expecting approval in Singapore first.
“We anticipate the first market authorisations within the next few months,” Morin-Forest says now. “We’re aiming to become the first European cultivated meat company to get approved, and the first ever company with approval for two species: duck and chicken.”
Over the next 12 months, the company’s focus is on “execution, advancing regulatory approvals, scaling our production systems, and preparing our first market launches”.
“Our culinary brand, Gourmey, is grounded in B2B readiness, with strong culinary validation (we launched the industry’s first-ever culinary advisory board, bringing together Michelin-starred chefs Claude Le Tohic, Rasmus Munk and Daniel Calvert), global demand, and commercial partnerships already in place,” he says.
Since September 2024, more than 40 alternative protein companies have ceased trading, fallen into insolvency, or been acquired, partly a reflection of the industry’s struggles to fundraise. This year, cultivated fat maker Upstream Foods and cell culture tech firm CellRev shut down, while Uncommon Bio sold off its cultivated meat platform to Meatable and Vow to focus on therapeutics instead.
“After the initial hype, consolidation is the natural next step for our industry,” contends Morin-Forest. “A handful of leaders with the most scalable IP, the strongest products, and global regulatory market access will prevail. That’s what Parima is about.”
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Redefine Meat’s Asda rollout, Purezza’s new online vegan store, and Beyond Meat’s debt swap.
New products and launches
Redefine Meat is making its brick-and-mortar debut in the UK, launching seven of its 3D-printed plant-based whole cuts in 197 Asda stores, and at least three products in 385 locations.
Courtesy: Redefine Meat/StillFx/Getty Images
After selling vegan cheese brand La Fauxmagerie to Honestly Tasty last month, UK plant-based pizza chain Purezza has openedSaporia, a new online marketplace offering over 1,000 vegan products.
UK frozen pizza makerOne Planet Pizza has expanded into Thailand, launching its single-serve Three Cheeze Margherita and Spicy Korean Chk’n pizzettas at 60 Tops supermarkets on October 20, in collaboration with Swees Plant-Based Foods.
Courtesy: One Planet Pizza
British gut-friendly food brand Bio&Me has rolled out Daily Boost Fibre + Protein bars in cocoa and blueberry flavours. The women-oriented snacks contain 9g of protein and 10 plant-based ingredients, and are available at Tesco for £3.35 per pack of three 40g bars.
In the US, The Plant-Based Seafood Co has made its vegan dusted scallops, sold under the Mind Blown brand, available in bulk packs for foodservice customers on WebstaurantStore.
Courtesy: The Plant-Based Seafood Co
And at the same time, The Plant-Based Seafood Co is moving beyond plant-based, launching Smash It Foods, a hybrid seafood brand combining wild-caught salmon with plants, feta and/or honey as part of Superfood Balls.
Company, finance and policy developments
Speaking of blended proteins, Kerry has discontinued the hybrid milk, cheese and butter products it launched under the Smug Dairy brand in the UK, which combined cow’s milk with oat milk. The brand will now focus on dairy snacking instead.
Courtesy: Kerry
Israeli molecular farming startup Asterix Foods has emerged from stealth with $4.2M in funding to scale up the production of dairy, egg and other animal proteins via plant cell culture and a growing system that leverages cheap plastic bags that can be reused several times.
After proposing an exchange offer for convertible bonds to eliminate over $800M of debt last month, Beyond Meat has closed the settlement two weeks ahead of schedule, with nearly 97% of its holders having already agreed to the swap. But the decision sent its stock crashing to a new all-time low of 85 cents on Monday.
Courtesy: Nasdaq
After exiting her embattled animal-free dairy company Fermify, Eva Sommer has joined vegan and vegetarian food discovery platform HappyCow as its new CEO.
DSM-Firmenich has opened the Van Marken Food Innovation Center in Delft, Netherlands, which will serve as the headquarters for its Taste, Texture and Health business, including plant-based alternatives and sugar reduction.
Courtesy: DSM-Firmenich
US material science company Corning has entered the cultivated meat world, having published a patent covering edible microcarriers and support structures to produce animal proteins in cell culture.
US plant-based meat startup Tender Food has now turned into a larger tech company, Lasso, which has raised $6.5M to create a suite of clean-label ingredients with its fibre-spinning technology.
Who knew that cotton candy could be the solution to the food system’s myriad problems?
But while the food climate is rapidly changing, the industry is largely reliant on outdated technologies, like extrusion. And most innovation is centred around stuffing healthy ingredients into traditionally unhealthy products (think prebiotic sodas) or championing new ingredients like mycelium (which is still slapped with the UPF tag).
One startup is looking to fill the void with a technology reminiscent of the fluffy, sticky, sugary floss that populates fairs and street food stalls across the world.
Tender Food has been around since 2020, built on technology developed at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. The firm leverages a fibre-spinning process to turn plant proteins into structured cuts of meat, akin to how sugar is spun to make cotton candy. Its alternatives have made it to restaurants and universities around the Boston area, including Clover Food Lab.
Now, though, Tender Food is expanding its horizons past plant-based meat, evolving into a tech company called Lasso, through which it will launch a slate of new brands and license its technology to other food producers – both aimed at creating better-for-you, additive-free consumer products fit for the anti-UPF, pro-protein, Ozempic-fuelled era.
The company has just closed a $6.5M funding round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with further participation from Safar Partners, Claridge Venture Partners, and others. It takes the firm’s total funding past $25.6M, including previous VC rounds and grants.
“It isn’t a big revelation that the plant-based meat category is struggling,” Lasso CEO Mike Messersmith tells Green Queen. “We are trying to build an incredible company and create impact in the food industry that really needs it. Expanding the category focus better allows us to create a path for that impact.”
A former president of Oatly North America, Messersmith joined the company in June 2024 and took over as CEO from co-founder Christophe Chantre in October. He confirmed that Chantre is no longer involved in the firm.
“He will always be a key player in the company’s development as a co-founder and was hugely instrumental in getting us to where we are, where we can really start pushing scaled commercialisation of the technology,” says Messersmith.
How Lasso spins fibres and proteins into clean-label ingredients
Courtesy: Lasso
Lasso SpinTech, as the technology is called, was developed in a multi-disciplinary lab at Harvard, where researchers worked on applications “ranging from textiles to pharma to food”, Messersmith notes.
The company’s patented food manufacturing platform can use centrifugal force to weave proteins together into sheets of woven fibres, without high heat, artificial binders and gums, or additives. These can then be processed into a wide range of clean-label products.
“The technology resembles a large-scale ‘cotton candy machine’ where we use a rotary jet spinning process to turn a mix of ingredients into microfibers that are collected in sheets, which are then used to make a wide range of food products using standard post-processing equipment,” explains Messersmith.
“[It] is incredibly efficient, high throughput, and flexible, and we have now demonstrated applications across many high-growth consumer categories,” he adds. “We’ve worked with over 1,000 ingredients, including the full spectrum of protein and fibre sources, to make food.”
Since its flexible process works at an ambient temperature, Lasso can process everything from plant-based (like chickpeas) to animal-based (such as whey), wet or dry, and commodity to novel sustainable ingredients (think mycelium, fermentation-derived probiotics, or cultivated ingredients).
“Flexibility has always been built into the core of the platform, giving it the ability to create solutions across a range of food categories. Plant-based meat was the first killer application we focused the tech on to support funding and scale-up,” he says.
“As the food industry has evolved, with consumers demanding protein and fibre-rich foods across categories, it made sense to expand the range of Lasso SpinTech applications – both to realise the full potential of what the company is capable of, and also the reality of it being short-sighted to put all our chips into a single application within a single category.”
Energy-efficient production with prices close to conventional meat
Courtesy: Tender Food
Over the last four years, Lasso has scaled up from a countertop system in a lab to commercial volumes. “We have managed to increase our throughput by a factor of 10x every year over the past several years since the company was founded out of the lab at Harvard. All of that while not materially adding significant cost or size to the footprint of the hardware itself,” says Messermith.
Today, a single Lasso SpinTech machine the size of a washing machine can generate over 1,000 lbs of finished product per hour – comparable to industry processing equipment, like extrusion, baking, etc.,” he outlines.
This equates to over two million lbs of product annually (which could help produce 18 million protein bars, for example). The technology is much more climate-friendly than standard industry tech, requiring 95% less energy and producing 85% fewer emissions. In fact, Lasso SpinTech uses less energy than a toaster oven, while shortening the product development cycle from a year to several weeks.
“There are straightforward pathways to continue to scale the throughput of our individual systems, and because of its compact size, the machine itself can also scale by deploying multiple in parallel for high volume needs,” says Messersmith.
At $150,000, the production system represents a fraction of the capital costs of commercial extruders. Over the last year, Lasso has become unit-profitable and reduced the cost of Tender’s meat alternatives by over 85% (from $30 to $3.50 per lb), almost at parity with conventional meat.
“We use a wide array of ingredients, which can allow us to find really high-quality sources but also be really selective on cost structure. Because our technology creates texture naturally and our low-heat process doesn’t create off notes, we avoid having to add high-cost additives, binders, gums, or flavour maskers,” the CEO explains.
“When we deployed [the tech] at our partner manufacturing site, we were able to really demonstrate amazing throughput with very low loss. High-throughput, low-loss, and easy-to-use is a great recipe for cost competitiveness, especially on new technology, keeping operating and labour costs low.
“The technology is incredibly resource-efficient. It uses very little electricity and water with very little waste, which means that the cost to operate it to make food is very competitive. The machine itself is quite efficient to fabricate, meaning our depreciated equipment cost is extremely low.”
Sales of plant-based meat fell by 7% in 2024, and many alternative protein companies have restructured or fallen into insolvency. Even big players, like Beyond Meat, have changed tack to highlight whole foods amid falling sales and mounting debt.
How does Lasso plan to win over consumers with its fibre-spinning tech, at a time when anything remotely processed is facing scrutiny? Messesmith reiterates the fact that its process eschews the need for additives to hold ingredients together, instead using physics to weave protein and fibre into something “super nutritionally dense”.
“A big component of the UPF debate is people pushing back on overly complex ingredient decks that have lots of ingredients they don’t understand or are familiar with. People want protein-dense foods across the stores, but they hate the impact that has on the ingredient decks required to make those foods,” he states.
“We are making major progress in creating better, cleaner- and simpler-label foods that people want because of our advanced technology process that invents new types of bars, snacks, and foods across the store. Because we are ingredient-flexible, we can accommodate new, less processed ingredients as they come to market to continue to push our products.”
The GLP-1 potential is personal for Messersmith
Courtesy: Lasso
The other trend the industry has had to contend with is the GLP-1 boom, which has given giants like Nestlé, Conagra, and JBS pause. One in eight Americans has already tried a weight-loss drug, and Messermith himself is an active user.
“I started taking GLP-1s over a year ago, and it has had such an incredible and profound effect on my diet and health. I started seeing a nutritionist as part of that journey, and she advised me of the importance of building a snacking routine that matched my GLP-1 diet: protein, fibre, nutritionally dense foods to eat throughout the day to stay full and keep up muscle mass,” he recalls.
“One of the big effects for me was that many of the snacks I used to love to eat (sweet snacks, sugar-laden snacks, fat- and carb-based salty snacks) I could no longer eat. They really didn’t fit my new diet,” he adds.
It’s why one of the things Messersmith is most excited about is Lasso’s potential to create products that he’d love to eat himself. “It may sound selfish, but I know a lot of people experience that same level of diet change when they are taking GLP-1s, and many of their favourite food rituals really change,” he highlights.
“We think that by creating really clean-label, protein and fibre-rich, delicious products, we can make something pretty exciting for people on that journey.”
Lasso launching its own brands and licensing SpinTech platform
Courtesy: Lasso
Asked about Lasso’s financial performance over the last 12 months, Messersmith says: “We have kept pretty disciplined on our existing plant-based meat business with a regional New England-based distribution approach. That has been steadily consistent while we have been developing the new category applications that we are excited to bring to market here in the next couple of months.”
Speaking of which, the company has created prototypes for over 15 categories, including snacks, bars, confectionery, and pet food.
“We really think our technology platform is pretty extraordinary in what it can create for the food industry and the impact it will have. We can’t wait a decade for that adoption to occur, so we are being pretty aggressive on how we show what is possible and invite other partners equally interested in change and new solutions,” says Messersmith.
“We are launching some own brands because we want to show what is possible with the tech, and no one can move as fast or with as much intention as we can. We are also in deep, advanced discussions with several global food partners about using the technology for their own businesses, which is an incredible compliment and pathway to scale and impact at an expedited rate.
“The own-brand launches could be great businesses on their own and also serve as public billboards for what is possible with our Lasso platform, which will invite more partners into the conversation about working with us to expedite scale. Ultimately, our goal is to establish our technology as an industry standard, and drive volume through it, whether our own brands that we spin out if successful, or our licensing partners.”
Armed with the new funds (which Messersmith called a “major milestone”), Lasso has three key focus areas for the next 12 months: launch brands in new categories like snacking, finalise and kickstart key manufacturing and licensing partnerships, and continue deploying the technology with a spotlight on scale-up and supporting continued ingredient expansion.
Messersmith is not revealing the first category Lasso will expand to, but says he’s “really excited about the snacking category and looking at spaces like salty snacks, fruit snacks, and other spaces that really are looking for protein [or] fibre solutions”.
Lasso isn’t the only food tech startup leveraging fibre-spinning tech – Germany’s Project Eaden has created pork-free ham using a fibre-spinning process inspired by the textile industry, and raised $15.6M in January as it expands into several other meat alternatives.
Dutch startup Rival Foods, meanwhile, secured $11.5M for its shear-cell tech to make whole-cut vegan meat. Its production system resembles a pressure cooker with a rotating part, using temperature and rotation to enable deformation and alignment of proteins to create fibrous textures.
The US will introduce vegan meals and snacks in the military in 2027, in response to requests from service members.
American troops will be able to choose vegan food as part of an upcoming update to the Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs) programme, the US government has confirmed.
MREs are dehydrated field rations for soldiers in combat or in situations where cooking isn’t possible. Each packaged meal contains an entrée, a side dish, snacks, a beverage powder, a utensil, and accessories like matches.
These have historically been meat-heavy, with vegetarian meals only appearing in 1986. The current menu of 24 dishes only contains four meatless options. Starting in 2027, vegetarian MREs will be replaced by vegan options instead.
US military will serve over six million vegan MREs annually
Courtesy: Tyler J Bolken
Each year, food scientists at the DEVCOM Soldier Center’s Combat Feeding Division work to develop new components of the MRE menu, based on feedback from service members and food trends in the commercial sector.
The next iteration of MREs is due in 2026, and will replace several unpopular beef items and add more protein-filled snacks (like freeze-dried chocolate peanut butter bites) and caffeinated products.
Items for MRE 47, due in 2027, are already in development. According to Julie Edwards, a registered dietitian and senior technologist at the Combat Feeding Division, one request from soldiers was the inclusion of more plant-based meals.
The team has developed several plant-based snacks, including animal-shaped crackers, a protein bar, a recovery bar, and a fruit-flavoured cereal. Edwards confirmed that the four vegetarian entrées will be swapped for vegan ones when this iteration of MREs is rolled out.
According to animal rights charity Mercy for Animals, the US military issues over 37 million MREs every year, so the move could result in more than six million vegan meals served to service members annually. This will cater to the 81% of service members who say the military should provide plant-based MREs, according to a 2022 survey by the animal rights group.
And while the environmental benefit would have been higher had the vegan MREs replaced meat-based dishes instead of vegetarian ones, the change will still lower a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy alone takes up 4% of the world’s emissions, and plant-based foods have a much lower climate footprint.
A sign of the prevailing demand for plant-based food in the military
Courtesy: Julio Hernandez
The shift towards vegan MREs has been some years in the making. In July 2022, the US House of Representatives passed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, one of whose requirements was that the Defense Logistics Agency produce a report on the demand for plant-based MREs.
The report was not submitted by its September 2023 deadline, but internal discussions continued within the Department of Defense, according to Mercy for Animals.
As mentioned above, the organisation has previously conducted its own survey of over 200 active-duty troops to measure demand for vegan MREs. It found that 3.5% of service members are vegan, and 42% either didn’t eat meat, were flexitarian, or were trying to decrease their intake of animal products.
Moreover, 63% felt plant-based food is more sustainable, and just over half believed it’s healthier and provides more energy than meat. When asked specifically about MREs, 81% said they’d pick climate-friendly meals if given the option, and 63% would choose vegan over meat-based ready meals.
The military’s provision of vegan MREs is a big deal, especially amid a climate where animal-based foods are being championed by the Trump administration and sales of plant-based food are falling. The impending rollout of these meals showcases the demand for more sustainable eating habits among soldiers.
The move builds on previous instances of plant-based options being available at specific facilities. In 2019, one vegan soldier successfully campaigned to include a plant-based main at every meal in a US Army dining facility.
And last year, Impossible Foods began working with US Army Central to serve its meat alternatives at military cafeterias in North Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia. Months later, Korean food giant CJ CheilJedang rolled out its Bibigo plant-based dumplings to grocery stores inside US military bases in South Korea.
Sales of meat alternatives are on the rise in Thailand, as plant-based proteins get cheaper and consumers look to shift away from animal-sourced foods.
The plant-based meat market is struggling in Western markets like the US and the UK. But in Thailand, sales are booming, and the food industry senses a window of opportunity.
Between 2021 and 2024, volume sales of meat and seafood alternatives increased by nearly 30% in the Southeast Asian nation, according to Euromonitor data obtained by Madre Brava. This is only set to continue, with analysts predicting another 43% increase between now and 2029.
A driving force behind this rise is the fact that these products are becoming more affordable for locals. In 2022, the average price of vegan meat peaked, but it has fallen for two consecutive years since, contracting by 8%.
According to Madre Brava, this provides an opportunity for Thai meat and seafood producers to supply to this growing industry and ramp up exports to more mature markets like Europe, which spends more money on plant-based meat than any other region.
Courtesy: Madre Brava
Can plant proteins deliver price parity in Thailand?
In a 2024 survey by Madre Brava, two-thirds of Thai consumers said they would reduce or stop eating meat in the next two years, with 44% wishing to replace it with traditional plant proteins, and 39% with novel alternatives.
Still, sales of processed red meat and poultry are set to increase by 25% and 30%, respectively, in the next five years. While that rate is slower than plant-based alternatives in Thailand, it’s nevertheless “alarming”, given the environmental and health consequences.
Despite being excoriated for their ultra-processed nature, plant-based alternatives have largely been found to have better nutrition profiles – higher fibre, lower saturated fat and calories, and equivalent protein levels – than processed meats, which have been deemed carcinogenic by the World Health Organization.
But for plant-based meat to truly take off, price parity is paramount. Currently, these products are more expensive than fresh meat as well as traditional plant proteins like tofu, legumes and nuts.
Courtesy: Madre Brava
Madre Brava’s research found that the price of meat analogues is eight times higher than chicken, four times higher than pork, and twice as high as beef. However, the gap with processed meat is narrower, with vegan alternatives costing 40% more.
The organisation suggests that the price difference between animal and plant proteins will shrink further thanks to the economies of scale and the increasing input costs to produce conventional meat (the country’s livestock production relies heavily upon imported feed crops like maize and soy, which are getting more and more expensive).
You only need to look at developed alternative protein markets like the US, the UK and Germany, where many plant-based meat products are already at par with the price of their conventional counterparts (and some are even cheaper).
Thai meat producers could capitalise on climate targets and Europe demand
Courtesy: Absolute Plant
Speaking of which, the price reductions have been led by retailers’ private-label ranges, especially in Europe, where many supermarkets have announced ‘protein split’ goals to expand the share of sales coming from plant-based foods.
And this is where Thailand’s food industry can thrive. The country is one of the main exporters of poultry to Europe, and major Thai meat and seafood companies could use that network to enter the plant-based sector in the region.
“Given the increasing price of raw materials to produce meat, leading protein producers in Thailand should seize this opportunity to diversify their protein portfolio, and strive for price parity between meat (both fresh and processed meat) and plant-based meat alternatives,” said Madre Brava.
This would also help lower domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture is the second-largest source of emissions in Thailand, and its livestock sector alone generates 39 million tonnes of CO2e annually. As things stand, this will grow by another five million tonnes by 2050.
But the country’s second nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement covers agriculture as a key focus sector, setting an unconditional emissions reduction target of 30% by 2030. Alternative proteins are a critical lever here.
Courtesy: Madre Brava
Previous research from Madre Brava found that replacing half of its meat and seafood production with plant proteins is the only way for Thailand to stay below the climate-safety threshold (zero deforestation by 2025 and a 72% cut in emissions by 2050) set by international experts.
The transition is estimated to cause the loss of 900,000 animal husbandry jobs, but create over two million new jobs in the production of food-grade soybeans and plant proteins. And investment from the government and the private sector could help yield ฿1.3T ($39.6B) in economic value by reducing the reliance on imports.
“Leading protein-producing companies can also harness Thailand’s reputation as the ‘kitchen of the world’ to produce Thai-inspired ready-to-eat products made with meat substitutes to maximise opportunities for export markets in Europe,” Madre Brava stated.
Nigel Sizer, the new CEO of the Good Food Institute, discusses the current predicament of alternative proteins, the industry’s milestones, and the need for more investment.
It’s been over a month since Nigel Sizer took over as CEO of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI).
Based in New York, Sizer is leading the non-profit’s global operations, working closely with regional offices in Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Europe, Japan, India, and Israel.
His appointment comes amid a turbulent time for the industry. Sales have plummeted in some of the biggest markets for alternative proteins, including the US and the UK, and investment has slowed dramatically.
Take plant-based food, for example. In 2021, startups in this space garnered $3.8B in funding, as the sector gained ground on the back of highly publicised IPOs for Beyond Meat and Oatly, and animal proteins took a hit amid Covid-19 and growing concern around the climate crisis. In 2024, however, this segment secured just $309M in investment.
These challenges have caused tons of disruption to an industry built on the idea of disruption. Since September 2024, more than 40 alternative protein businesses have either shut or been acquired, and the era of consolidation will likely continue for the foreseeable future.
GFI is at the heart of the industry’s push to boost investment and policy support, which has diminished as climate takes a backseat in stakeholders’ decision-making.
Sizer is hoping to change that. He spent 15 years in the Global South working for organisations like the UN Environmental Programme and The Nature Conservancy, among others. In addition, he served as the president and CEO of Rainforest Alliance, and as the global director for forests at the World Resources Institute. After Covid-19, he founded Preventing Pandemic at the Source, a 20-organisation coalition lobbying for policies centring on upstream pandemic prevention.
Now, Sizer is building upon all that experience to take the fight for food systems transformation to the next level. In an interview with Green Queen, he outlines the alternative protein space’s most prominent accomplishments and challenges, whether the climate argument still works with consumers, and his immediate priorities at GFI.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Green Queen: What’s your view on the current state of alternative proteins? What hasn’t been done well? What could be done better?
Graphic by Green Queen
Nigel Sizer: It’s an important moment for alternative proteins. The field has made some real progress in terms of scientific research and innovation, regulatory advancements, and consumer awareness.
We know that products still aren’t consistently meeting people’s expectations on taste, price, and convenience. Funding levels—both public and private—are also far below where they need to be to unlock the full potential of these innovations.
And on top of that, disinformation campaigns disparaging new foods are impacting consumer perceptions, and some of the alternatives, like cultivated meat, are being judged prematurely and even banned before they’ve had the chance to prove themselves in a fair marketplace.
I see many of these challenges as the natural growing pains of a young sector. It’s a bit like where solar power or electric vehicles were a couple of decades ago – scepticism and costs were high, and adoption was slow, but look where they are now.
What excites me is that alternative proteins are increasingly being recognised by experts and policymakers as essential for addressing climate change, food security, and public health.
With more investment, continued scientific breakthroughs, and strong collaboration across the public and private sectors, I’m confident the field can deliver products people love while helping solve some of the world’s most urgent challenges.
GQ: What do you feel are some of the industry’s biggest wins?
Graphic by Green Queen
NS: In recent years, governments around the world have begun leaning into alternative proteins in a way we haven’t seen before, recognising their potential to strengthen food security, resilience, and climate action.
Those kinds of signals matter. They show that policymakers increasingly see the alternative protein industry as part of the solution set for the world’s most urgent challenges.
We’ve also seen remarkable regulatory and consumer-facing progress. In just the last few months, US regulators have completed rigorous FDA and USDA reviews, resulting in the world’s first approvals of several cultivated products.
Today, Americans in several cities can order cultivated salmon, and we’re expecting the first-ever retail launch of a cultivated meat product in the US to happen any day now – a milestone that points to what the future of food could look like. Globally, consumers in Australia and Singapore can currently buy cultivated meat at more than 60 points of sale, and just this month, a product using cultivated pork fat was served in a US restaurant for the first time.
It’s also been exciting to see that over the past year, both public and private funding for the fermentation sector has grown significantly, with initiatives like the US iFAB Tech Hub signalling that policymakers now view fermentation as a cornerstone of the American bioeconomy.
It’s still early days compared to nearly a century of industrial animal agriculture, but the pace of progress is undeniable – whether it’s reports showing culture media costs dropping by more than 99% from pharmaceutical baselines, or the launch of major new research hubs like the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Proteins in North Carolina, London, and Singapore.
Taken together, these wins are laying the foundation for alternative proteins to deliver on their promise of a more sustainable, secure, and resilient food future.
Courtesy: Rocío Lower/Bezos Earth Fund
GQ: Do you think the climate argument still holds weight with consumers?
NS: There are definitely consumers – especially younger and more values-driven communities – who prioritise climate and sustainability when making their food choices.
For example, GFI’s consumer segmentation research shows that groups like ‘Ethical Alternative Seekers’ are motivated by sustainability, among other values, when deciding whether to buy plant-based meat. And GFI Europe also found that environmental concerns play an important role for many European consumers who are consciously reducing their meat consumption. So yes, the climate argument still matters for some consumer segments around the world.
At the same time, most people choose what to eat based on price, taste, and convenience – and that’s why GFI’s theory of change is centred on making sure alternative proteins compete on those terms.
Because regardless of whether someone is motivated by climate when they shop, the fact remains that we cannot meet growing global demand for protein under our current, business-as-usual food system. Something has to change, and alternative proteins are one of the most powerful tools we have to meet that demand in a way that’s sustainable, secure, and equitable.
GQ: What lessons are you applying from your previous roles?
Courtesy: Wildtype
NS: Looking back, a lot of what I’ve done in past roles feels like preparation for this moment at GFI. Whether it was working to protect forests or scaling climate and health initiatives, I saw again and again how our food system is deeply tied to some of the world’s toughest challenges.
One lesson that really stuck with me at the Rainforest Alliance and World Resources Institute is that progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens when you bring people together around practical, science-based solutions and build the partnerships needed to take them to scale.
That’s exactly the kind of approach we need at GFI. Transforming how the world produces protein isn’t something one sector or one country can do on its own – it requires international collaboration, diverse expertise, and coordination across both public and private sectors.
My background in building global coalitions and mobilising resources gives me a solid foundation to help GFI do just that. And what excites me is the chance to apply that experience to accelerate the work so that sustainable proteins become a trusted, central part of how we feed the world.
GQ: What are the biggest challenges facing you in your role? And what are your main goals over the next 12 months?
Courtesy: GEA Group
NS: Like nearly every sector outside of AI, alternative proteins are navigating a tough funding environment right now. That means one of the biggest challenges ahead is ensuring that the scientific research, infrastructure, and innovation critical to this field continue to move forward despite near-term investment headwinds.
Securing resources and making the case for why this work matters – for climate, biodiversity, food security, and public health – is central to my role. And when advocating for increased investment in science and scaling, it’s vital to underscore both the stakes and the solutions: the risks we face if food systems don’t change, and the opportunities we unlock if they do.
Over the next year, my focus will be twofold: first, strengthening GFI’s capacity to drive more public investment into R&D, manufacturing, and scale-up for alternative proteins.
Second, keeping our work tightly connected to the bigger picture: the rate of forest loss from agricultural expansion, the state of our oceans under pressure from overfishing, and the rise of zoonotic diseases with pandemic potential, just to name a few.
Alternative proteins are a powerful part of the solution to all of these challenges, and I’m committed to making sure GFI helps turn that potential into measurable progress. By building momentum now, we can lay the groundwork for a more resilient, secure, and sustainable global food system for the decades to come.
Time Magazine has released its annual list of the world’s best inventions, recognising a range of alternative protein and future food innovations.
From fish grown in bioreactors to butter made from carbon, some of this year’s most exciting food tech innovations have made it to Time Magazine’s list of the Best Inventions of 2025.
The annual publication has been expanded to include 300 products and technologies, the biggest in its 25-year history. The magazine sought nominations from its editors and correspondents around the world, with special attention paid to growing fields like AI and healthcare.
Each innovation was evaluated on a range of factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact. The honourees span a multitude of categories, including food and drink, agriculture, sustainability, green tech, and social impact.
When it comes to food tech, the 2025 list features innovations like cultivated seafood, animal- and plant-free butter, vegan gummies, mycoprotein, and more.
Wildtype, Savor, and The Better Meat Co among 2025 honourees
The company was the first to sell cultivated seafood anywhere in the world, and has joined forces with cultivated chicken maker Upside Foods to sue Texas over its ban on these proteins.
California is, in fact, home to several food tech startups on Time’s Best Inventions list. This includes Savor, which transforms point-captured carbon dioxide, green hydrogen, and methane into agriculture-free fats that can replace dairy and palm oil.
It launched its carbon-derived butter this year, working with the patisserie of San Francisco’s Michelin-starred outpost, One65, to sell bonbons and cookies. Savor has also partnered with fellow Michelin-starred eateries SingleThread and Atelier Crenn, and beloved establishment Jane the Bakery. And it’s now raising a Series B round to build a 10,000-tonne facility.
Speaking of fundraisers, in August, West Sacramento-based The Better Meat Co secured $31M in Series A funding for its Rhiza mycoprotein, a whole-biomass ingredient offering complete protein and high digestibility. Recognised on Time’s list, it is produced by feeding microbes on sorghum and potato sidestreams, and is on course to beat commodity beef prices next year.
Courtesy: The Better Meat Co
Rhiza can be used in vegan and blended meat applications, and is already sold to Hormel Foods, Maple Leaf Foods, K12 caterer SFE, and plant-based salmon maker Oshi. The company has secured five agreements from major meat producers in North America, South America and Asia, which are set to bring $13M in annual revenue.
Meanwhile, Swedish firm Orkla Snacks’s vegan foamy gummies, called Bubs, went viral on social media last year, causing an unexpected supply shortage. Now, four new flavours have been launched in the US, made from the same proprietary recipe and manufacturing technique that earned it a spot on Time’s list.
In the experimental category of the Best Inventions list, Time namechecked a cultivated chicken that made international headlines. University of Tokyo researchers created a nugget-sized piece of meat via a hollow fibre bioreactor, opening possibilities to grow whole cuts of cultivated meat, the industry’s holy grail.
Time Magazine’s list also featured 100 special mentions, and among them is Texas-based artisanal dairy-free brand Rebel Cheese, which uses “cave ageing and proprietary cultures to better match the flavours of their dairy counterparts”.
Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Alpro named World’s Best Brands
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
This week, Time Magazine also released its annual list of the World’s Best Brands, which aims to guide consumers to make more informed decisions and navigate through the brands available in each category.
The publication works with Statista to identify the top brands in the US, the UK, Germany, and Mexico, based on surveys of over 90,000 consumers in each country (India and Brazil will be added in December).
A weighted overall score based on brand awareness (15%), social buzz (10%), likability (30%), usage (15%), and loyalty (30%) was calculated for each brand in the 72 categories. The top-rated entry’s overall score was set at 100, and the scores of the following brands were adjusted accordingly.
In the US, Silk was named the top plant-based milk brand, followed by Almond Breeze, Chobani, Planet Oat, and Califia Farms. Likewise, Chobani topped the overall yoghurt category (it makes both dairy and plant-based versions), and Silk’s fully dairy-free yoghurts were third.
When it came to meat alternatives, Kellanova-owned MorningStar Farms was recognised as the best brand in the US, followed closely by Beyond Meat (with a score of 98.2) and Impossible Foods (92). Field Roast and Gardein rounded out the top five.
Courtesy: Alpro
In the UK, Alpro was named as the best plant-based milk brand in 2025 by Time, with Oatly close behind. Califia Farms, Rude Health and Koko were also on the list, but the gap between the scores is sizeable. Alpro was also fifth in the overall yoghurt segment. Meanwhile, market-leading Quorn was the best meat-free brand, a list also featuring Linda McCartney, Beyond Meat, Amy’s Kitchen, and Cauldron Foods.
Alpro’s dominance of the non-dairy milk market continued in Germany, where it was trailed by Alnatura, Oatly, KoRo and Bio Primo. Rügenwalder Mühle won the honour of the best meat alternative brand, with Green Cuisine, Alnatura, Beyond Meat, and Nestlé’s Garden Gourmet also on the list.
Finally, in Mexico, local company César Soya was named the best brand of meat analogues, followed by Gardein, fellow Mexican firm Soi-yah!, Loma Linda, and Beyond Meat.
Impossible Foods’s plant-based beef and burger have earned NSF’s “gold standard” certification for sports, opening up possibilities to serve MLB and NHL clubs.
Last month, at the Major League Baseball (MLB) game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, competitive eater Joey Chestnut wolfed down 275 vegan nuggets in a fan challenge organised by Impossible Foods.
Soon, the company’s products may no longer be confined to the stands. Its signature plant-based burgers have received a sports nutrition certification that is a requirement for brands to sell food to MLB clubs.
Impossible Foods’s beef and burger have achieved the NSF Certified for Sport mark, validating that the product offers valuable nutrition to athletic lifestyles. The designation isn’t just a first for plant-based meat, but for fresh food products overall.
“NSF Certified for Sport is the gold standard in sports. It’s a huge deal to have Impossible Foods certified as the first plant-based meat available to athletes,” said Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness.
“Americans are more aware than ever about the food they put in their bodies. It’s our responsibility to deliver on delicious, nutrient-dense, high-quality food, like our plant-based beef that’s packed with protein,” he added.
Impossible Foods can now sell to MLB athletes
Courtesy: Peter McGuinness/LinkedIn
NSF is an independent organisation dating back over 80 years, has 40,000 clients in 110 countries, and is a collaborating centre of the World Health Organization.
Its sports certification ensures dietary supplements and foods are free from over 290 substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the National Football League (NFL), MLB, and other organisations. NSF inspects manufacturing facilities and suppliers, and makes sure that all products are accurately labelled.
According to Impossible Foods, the programme helps athletes, trainers and dietitians “make more informed decisions about the products they recommend and consume”.
Clubs in the National Hockey League and MLB are only permitted to provide products that carry the certification. It’s also recommended by bodies like the NFL, the Professional Golfers’ Association, and the American Sports and Performance Dietitians Association, among others.
Impossible Foods’s beef alternatives have been recommended by many nutritionists and dietitians, and its Lite Beef carries certifications from the American Health Association and the American Diabetes Association.
They contain 19g of complete protein (on par with conventional beef), nearly twice the amount of iron, and 40% less fat and 33% less saturated fat than 80/20 beef. They also have no cholesterol or trans fat, and are a source of B vitamins and electrolytes like potassium.
“This certification is further proof that we’re holding ourselves accountable, and that athletes, dietitians and all consumers can feel good about our products,” said McGuinness.
According to Impossible Foods – whose vegan hot dogs are already available for spectators at certain MLB stadiums – the sports certification for its products was the result of “high demand from sports nutritionists who specifically wanted to serve our plant-based beef to their professional athletes”.
“All athletes need protein, but the type of protein the athlete prefers varies person to person. Providing a fresh and safe food supply for athletes who want to eat more plant-based protein can be a challenge throughout the season,” said Becci Roehl, a veteran sports dietitian and founding board member of the American Sports and Performance Dietitians Association.
“Failure to meet their protein needs can impair their ability to recover over the long season. Having a plant-based protein that is NSF Certified for Sport, like Impossible Beef, will add a new weapon to our arsenal, helping athletes to be resilient, staying available on the field for optimal performance.”
To mark the certification, Impossible Foods will showcase its beef mince and burger at the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Nashville (October 11-14), where attendees will sample the products alongside its Lite Beef.
It is also hosting a Protein Bar pop-up in the style of a dive bar at the finish lines of the Chicago Marathon and the Detroit Marathon on October 12 and 19, respectively, where it will serve protein-packed bites to attendees.
Now, its NSF Certified for Sports products can enter foodservice establishments that cater to professional athletes across different sports.
“NSF is committed to protecting and improving human health worldwide. By meeting our rigorous requirements for Certified for Sport, Impossible Foods is demonstrating its commitment to clean sport as well as quality, safety and good manufacturing processes for its plant-based beef products,” said David Trosin, senior director of nutrition and wellness at NSF.
The owner of the world’s largest meat company has warned that the US is not producing enough beef to satisfy the GLP-1-fuelled protein demand. But two of its subsidiaries have a readymade solution.
As beef prices go out of control, leading consumers to opt for other proteins, the world’s biggest meat producer is putting part of the blame on Ozempic.
Americans are chomping down on protein like never before. This year, 70% are trying to consume the macroingredient, and one in three have increased their intake, with meat being the top source. However, the food industry isn’t able to keep up with this soaring demand, thanks to climate-change-induced supply shortages.
Beef is the primary example of this mess. It has never been more expensive in the US, breaking the all-time record every month since March. In August, average ground beef prices reached $6.32 per lb, up by 14% from last 12 months ago. In contrast, the rate of overall inflation was 3%.
US consumer price index for beef (from 2020) | Courtesy: Bureau of Labor Statistics
It is the most polluting and land-intensive food out there, and the planet simply does not have the resources to produce the amount of beef people want.
But the co-owner of JBS, a $15B stain on the climate fight, says rising beef prices are a result of high tariffs and the GLP-1 boom. One in eight Americans has used a weight-loss drug like Ozempic and Mounjaro, which have turned the food industry on its head.
“No one knows exactly what is the impact of these new drugs, Ozempic or Mounjaro… but something is happening because protein overall became [a trend],” Wesley Batista, who sits on JBS’s board, told the Financial Times. “In the past […] the doctor said you should not eat too [many] eggs, you should not eat too much protein. Now it’s the other way around.”
Why beef is getting more expensive
Batista’s claim that Ozempic is driving protein demand isn’t unfounded. GLP-1 users are recommended to eat plenty of protein, since these drugs can cause a 25-40% decrease in muscle mass over eight to 16 months, several times greater than non-medicated weight-loss approaches and age-related muscle loss.
Meanwhile, GLP-1 users are already spending 11% less on most categories of food, and over half (56%) are aiming to make healthier food choices. Foods high in sugar, fat and calories stand to lose, while protein and fibre are all the rage.
The conundrum for the US meat industry, though, is keeping up with the demand while retaining prices. Right now, it is unable to do either. American beef cattle herd inventories have fallen to levels not seen in 70 years, as an ongoing drought decimates grazing pastures.
Cattle cycles tend to run for eight to 12 years, characterised by cattle production and producers’ response to changes in the market. The current cycle began in 2014 and hit a contraction phase in 2020 that has continued since, thanks in large part to drought.
Courtesy: US Drought Monitor
In fact, cattle inventories have contracted at an increasing rate each year since the start of the pandemic. In October 2024, 62% of cattle were in areas suffering from drought, the most since December 2022. The US Department of the Interior warns that drought poses a “serious environmental threat”, and climate change makes droughts “more frequent, longer, and more severe”.
Beef herds will also continue to get smaller unless producers expand their operations, an expensive premise given the high interest rates that mean they’re paying more for operating loans.
US beef imports set to rise, at a climate cost
“The US is facing the highest beef price in history, and so the US needs to import more and more because production is not there to support the demand,” Batista told the Financial Times.
While it’s the largest beef-producing country, the US has imported 30% more beef in the first half of 2025. And Brazil has benefitted particularly, exporting 91% more beef to the US in this period, despite a 10% tariff imposed by President Donald Trump.
Brazilian beef imports only began to fall in August after Trump increased the tariffs to 50%, thanks in part to a political spat with the South American country. Batista said JBS, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in June despite widespread calls to block its IPO, wasn’t hit hard by the tariffs.
Courtesy: PCRM/Morning Consult
Consumers, though, have borne the brunt. In the last six months, 72% of Americans have noticed that beef has become more expensive, leading half (48%) to reduce the amount of beef they’re buying, and 12% to give it up altogether, a recent poll by Morning Consult and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) found.
The US Department of Agriculture forecasts beef imports to increase in the second half of 2025 too, bringing the total volume up by 16% for the entire year. That, combined with inflation and tariffs, will mean continued high prices for beef.
There’s also a climate drawback here. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization notes that American beef has just a quarter of the carbon footprint of Brazilian beef. That said, the industry still has an outsized impact on the planet, generating more emissions and using up more land than any other food.
JBS already has a solution in Vivera and The Vegetarian Butcher
Courtesy: Rene Van Den Berg/Dreamstime
For Batista and JBS, the solution to beef’s multifaceted issues lies in-house. The company has invested hundreds of millions in alternative proteins over the years, most prominently buying meat-free leader Vivera for $400M in 2021, and then The Vegetarian Butcher from Unilever this year (the two have now been merged in a new collective).
Plant-based meat offers comparable amounts of protein to beef, albeit with a fraction of the climate footprint. For example, ground beef sold by JBS’s Certified Angus Beef brand in the US contains 19g of protein and 22g of fat. The Vegetarian Butcher’s soy-based Nomince, meanwhile, offers 22g of protein for the same amount, and with 98% less fat (and no cholesterol), playing into GLP-1 trends.
Similarly, a beef tenderloin steak from Swift Meats (another JBS subsidiary) contains 20g of protein, the same amount present in Vivera’s plant-based steak.
Americans aren’t afraid to shift away from beef. While only 7% of Americans have resorted to buying plant-based alternatives in response to high beef prices, 35% will consider doing so on their next trip to the grocery store, according to the PCRM poll. If the cost of beef continues to climb, this would rise to 37% in the long run.
In fact, high beef prices are by far the top reason that would drive consumers to buy plant proteins instead of beef, cited by 58%. Another 46% are concerned about the health implications of eating beef. Crucially, 44% of Americans would buy these proteins instead of beef if they’re cheaper (as of 2024, the average price gap stood at 14%), and 41% would do so if they tasted better – some already do.
Courtesy: PCRM/Morning Consult
There are other factors at play too. “In Nebraska, a slaughterhouse recently experienced an immigration raid, and given that there are other incidents, the current administration’s immigration policies could lead to a shortage of slaughterhouse workers,” Anna Herby, a nutrition education specialist at PCRM, told Green Queen.
“Producing plant protein requires fewer workers. Overall, it’s much more efficient to raise food for people to eat directly rather than hire workers to raise crops to feed to cattle and then employ another set of (mostly immigrant workers) to slaughter the cattle,” she added.
Batista said that while beef products keep getting pricier in some markets, the “demand is still very strong, especially in the US”. However, with extreme weather and tariffs butchering the industry’s ability to meet the appetite for protein, plant-based brands with established supply chains can fill the gap, and that too with better nutrition and climate credentials.
