Finland’s Solar Foods, which makes Solein protein from air, has obtained self-affirmed GRAS status in the US, taking it a step closer to commercialisation in the country.
Solar Foods is inching closer to bringing its Solein protein to market in the US, after earning self-determined Generally Recognized as Safe (SAFE) status.
The Finnish startup’s fermentation-derived ingredient is made by feeding microbes on carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen (instead of sugar). The orange-yellow powder can be used in products from meat, dairy and egg alternatives to pasta and beverages.
Following the GRAS determination, the company now need to register its production facility in Vantaa, Finland – called Factory 01 – with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This would enable it to begin exporting its protein to the US, something it suggests could happen by the end of this year.
”Obtaining self-affirmed GRAS status is the first step towards entering the United States,” said Solar Foods chief commercial officer Juan Benitez-Garcia. “We will shortly be able to launch commercial activities in this significant new market, including marketing and sales operations, and drive our growth.”
The company will also endeavour to notify the FDA of its GRAS determination, with the aim of receiving a “no questions” letter. Its Solein protein is already on the market in Singapore, which approved the ingredient back in 2022.
Why Solar Foods will notify the FDA of its GRAS determination
Courtesy: Solar Foods
Since Solein is considered a novel food – much like the precision-fermented heme ingredient in the Impossible Burger, or any cultivated meat – it needs to go through a regulatory testing process before it can be sold as part of food and beverage formulations.
For the self-affirmed GRAS status, Solar Foods conducted large-scale scientific research and published food-safety-related results in peer-reviewed journals. A qualified panel of experts have additionally compiled a statement on Solein’s safety and intended use based on the determined food categories and ingredient concentrations.
The next step – facility registration with the FDA – requires the company to present a food safety plan fulfilling the specific requirements and any other applicable requirements. This would allow it to market Solein in the US. Based on the company’s timeline, we could see products made from Solein protein in the US as early as next year.
After that, the startup will look to obtain the “no questions” letter from the FDA, for which it is required to make a notification with necessary reports on the safety of the product, which would be evaluated by the food safety body.
There are multiple reasons to do this. Self-affirmed GRAS determination doesn’t legally require FDA review, meaning companies aren’t required to disclose safety data publicly, helping maintain confidentiality around proprietary information and trade secrets.
It’s an easier, cheaper and faster way to commercialise. But it does mean companies are making their own safety assessments independently from the FDA (while complying with its requirements). On the contrary, GRAS notification is a much more rigorous process that includes both positive and negative studies on the ingredient. This is viewed as a more transparent process with publicly available data, and breeds both market and consumer confidence.
Outlining this, Solar Foods explained that FDA GRAS notification could “widen the possibilities” for Solein as some potential customers “may require the go-through of this procedure”. It estimates that it will receive the FDA letter by the end of 2026.
A year of milestones for Solar Foods
Courtesy: Solar Foods
It has been a big year for Solar Foods, which is planning to go public with a technical listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Helsinki.
At the start of the year, the Solein protein was part of a Taste the Future chocolate snack bar released by Fazer – a majority shareholder of Solar Foods. And last month, Japanese food conglomerate Ajinomoto unveiled mooncakes and ice cream sandwiches where Solein replaced the dairy, while it won the international Phase 3 category in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge.
The startup, which has attracted €43M in equity funding and €30M in debt financing, opened Factory 01 in April, with the daily ability to produce as much protein as a dairy farm with 300 cows. The manufacturing plant was facilitated by €34M in grants from Business Finland, which has pledged a further €76M to support Factory 02 if built in Europe.
Solein is said to have “the lowest carbon footprint compared to all other known protein sources” when produced via renewable energy, with emissions equal to just 1% of those generated by conventional meat, and 20% of plant proteins. The ingredient also has 65-70% protein, 5-8% fat, and up to 15% dietary fibre, while containing iron and vitamin B.
Solar Foods has previously said that regulatory approval in the US will provide “significant benefits” in authorisation processes in other markets – it has filed dossiers in the EU and the UK too.
”The United States will be a significant market for us. GRAS status in the US will contribute to advancing Solein’s expansion into other markets that do not grant specific novel food approvals, such as Japan,” explained Benitez-Garcia.
As Factory 01 churns out Solein and Solar Foods inks partnerships in Singapore and the US, these efforts will determine the prerequisites for earning sales contracts for Factory 02, whose capacity will be 50 to 100 times higher.
Looking forward, the company anticipates the UK greenlight in 2026, and is also considering filing applications for new products developed alongside Solein.
The culture wars over cultivated meat continue, with a House Representative in Illinois introducing a bill to ban these foods in the state.
And it goes on.
Two months after Florida’s ban on cultivated meat came into effect, and a month before one goes live in Alabama, Illinois has joined a number of other states to try and outlaw these proteins.
House Representative Chris Miller, a third-generation cattle farmer, has introduced HB 5872, a bill to make the sale, manufacture or distribution of cultivated meat a Class C misdemeanour.
It means that if you sell cultivated meat, you’ll be treated the same way as you would if you possessed less than 2.5g of marijuana, assaulted someone, or left a firearm in your house that could easily be accessed by a minor. The penalty can result in 30 days of jail time, and/or $1,500 in fines.
“Agriculture is big business in Illinois, and we don’t need fake meat laboratories creating a highly expensive product that tries to replicate real meat,” said Miller. “Illinois farmers know what they’re doing, and they do it well.”
Rep Miller relies on misinformation to back bill
Courtesy: Representative Chris Miller/Facebook
Miller’s bill, which hasn’t been referred to any of the committees yet, calls cultivated meat “a threat to the health, safety, and welfare” of Illinois residents.
A press release on the Representative’s website explains that HB 5872 was introduced as a response to “growing concerns from the notion of replacing real meat with laboratories”, and argued that it would protect “individual’s health, farmland, and agricultural products”.
Let’s break that down. First, cultivated meat poses no health risks – if it did, the USDA and the FDA wouldn’t have deemed it safe to be sold for human consumption, as they did for Upside Foods’ and Eat Just’s chicken products last year. In fact, cultivated meat takes away any concerns about antibiotics or bacterial contamination (like E coli).
Next, to make cultivated meat, you need sugars, minerals, and other inputs, which are agricultural products. Andy Jarvis, director of the Bezos Earth Fund’s Future of Food initiative, told Green Queen in June: “This is not an anti-farmer sector; this is a sector that is using farmed products in new ways.”
And finally, the claim that this is a threat to farmland is laughable at best – research has shown that if produced by renewable energy, cultivated meat uses 90% less land than conventional beef. It has also been found to be three times more efficient at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock.
“The ideology behind cultivating animal cells to improve carbon emissions is mind-blowing,” said Miller, with complete disregard for the misinformation he was spewing. Explaining how cultivated meat is made, his announcement took inspiration from an account of Upside Foods’ process by Wired. The publication revealed that instead of producing its meat in bioreactors, the Californian startup was at the time primarily relying on plastic roller bottles.
Miller, however, contorted the two to say that cultivated meat is produced in bioreactors, and employees “grow sheets of tissue in plastic flasks, called roller bottles, and combine them to create larger pieces of chicken or beef”. He’s also using one company’s process as a yardstick for the entire industry.
It highlights a startling reality: policymakers are trying to suppress consumer choice by outlawing food without actually knowing how it’s truly made. Alabama’s bill was also similarly built on misinformation.
It’s all about politics
Courtesy: Upside Foods
“Here in Illinois, farmers work hard to raise cattle and produce some of the finest meat on the market,” said Miller. In January alone, a local company recalled nearly 7,000 lbs of raw ground beef thought to be contaminated with E. coli.
“My legislation would protect farmers and the high-quality products they help produce to feed families across the nation,” Miller added, regurgitating an argument made by almost everyone who’s tried to ban cultivated meat.
Legal challenges against cultivated meat have become a trend in the US, particularly among Republicans. But for all the talk about protecting the state’s animal agriculture industry, most of these efforts come from legislators who themselves are livestock farmers, or belong to a family of meat producers. So really, they’re looking out for themselves.
Only last week, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from procuring cultivated meat, ordering contractors to not discriminate against conventional meat producers, and calling for restrictions on how cultivated meat is labelled in stores – despite it never appearing on any supermarket shelf in the US.
Pillen, part of a pork family empire in Nebraska, now wants to ban cultivated meat in the 2025 legislative session. Similar efforts are ongoing in Arizona, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
Illinois was set to be the site for Upside Foods’ industrial-scale manufacturing plant before the project was put on pause. But now, the company has sued Florida for its ban, calling it unconstitutional. Whether such pushback would deter Miller – who has previously been censured by his colleagues for attending Donald Trump’s rally that preceded January 6 – only time will tell.
But as November 5 draws closer, Donald Trump incoherently tries to talk about plant-based bacon, and his running mate JD Vance denounces ‘soy boys’, the Republican strategy seems to be clear: nothing is more American than red meat, no matter how bad it is for you or the planet.
Let’s cut the crap and call these bans what they really are: political stunts hoping to sway voters with misinformation and no regard for their own freedom to choose what they eat.
Nebraska Senator Barry DeKay has introduced a bill to ban cultivated meat in 2025, months after Governor Jim Pillen signed an executive order to take this action.
Editor’s Note: This article was amended on 17 January 2025 to reflect that the bill has been introduced. Our previous reporting focused on Governor Pillen signing an executive order.
Despite Ron DeSantis’ Florida being sued for banning cultivated meat, his Nebraskan counterpart remains unfazed, initiating a “a full-blown attack on lab-grown meats and fake meat”.
Those were governor Jim Pillen’s words in August, after signing an executive order putting several restrictions on cultivated meat, and announcing his intention to ban these products in this year’s legislative session.
Now, Senator Barry DeKay has brought forward a bill to keep cultivated meat from being manufactured, distributed, or sold in Nebraska, requiring these proteins to be labelled as “adulterated food products” under the Pure Food Act.
“There are clear, recognised benefits of meat as a source of protein. It is uncertain whether manufactured meat protein is a substitute for natural meat sources as essential dietary needs. I question elevating lab meat to a level of equivalency with real meat,“ claimed DeKay.
“Until or unless there are clear labelling rules that adequately disclose that cultured meat is not real meat, its sale allows lab meats to unfairly benefit from industry investments in marketing and production,” he added.
“What’s more, this industry is supported by organisations that want to do away with animal production in Nebraska and the United States. This is part of the process that we’re going to go through to make sure our way of life, our livestock, and our product that we can put on the dinner table stays intact going forward.”
Pillen, meanwhile, did not mince his words. “It’s important we get on the offense so that Nebraska farmers and ranchers are not undermined. Our job is to protect consumers, grow agriculture and defend agriculture,” he said.
Courtesy: Governor Jim Pillen
Nebraska governor takes jibe at Bill Gates
The effort goes back to August when Pillen introduced the executive order at Oak Barn Beef, a family-owned meat shop in West Point.
The governor was flanked by the owner of the store, a livestock farmer running for office, and the head of the state’s agricultural department (whose family owns a beef farm), when he approved three measures to protect animal agriculture from the “extraordinary, crazy views out there that there’s going to be different ways to feed the planet”.
And he took a jibe at Bill Gates, who has invested in a number of alternative protein companies, including California’s Upside Foods, the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Florida. “There’s a guy that made some money in building computers. He needs to stay in the computer space and knock this stuff off thinking that he’s going to promote lab-grown meat. He’s lost his brains,” said Pillen.
“We’re being proactive and making sure that silly things aren’t happening, because they are happening on the coasts,” Pillen added. Last year, two restaurants – one on each coast – were serving cultivated meat, after Upside Foods and fellow Californian startup Eat Just received approval from the USDA and FDA.
The governor, whose family owns a major pork farm in the state, was very forceful in his wording. “If there are Nebraskans that want to buy lab-grown meat, good for them. They’re just not going to do it in Nebraska,” he said.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen received and signed the executive order in August, officially putting it into effect. And now, DeKay has followed through on the intention to outlaw cultivated meat.
How Nebraska’s executive order stifles cultivated meat
Courtesy: Governor Jim Pillen/X
Pillen announced three separate measures to block the progress of the cultivated meat industry. First, he has prohibited state agencies from procuring these proteins
Then, he has mandated state contractors to ensure they don’t “discriminate against natural-meat producers” in favour of alternative proteins.
And finally, he’s asked the agriculture department to make a rule that requires any cultivated meat sold in stores to be clearly labelled separately and placed away from what he called “real meat”. For the record, cultivated meat uses cells from real animals, so it is ‘real meat’ – just, you know, without the slaughter and the pollution and the land use and the water consumption.
Sherry Vinton, the aforementioned director of the agriculture department, said her agency will develop standards to determine when alternative proteins – including plant-based meats – are being falsely labelled or misadvertised. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
“Without these regulations, people can be misled, they can be deceived into buying a product that they didn’t intend on buying,” she said. Some would say that’s insulting people’s intelligence.
“We are going to get very aggressive and make sure Nebraskans are not going to get confused by how meat is labelled,” Pillen said. “People are not going to be able to come into Nebraska and sell product that has meat on it that’s not meat.”
The executive order suggested that blended meats – which combine conventionally raised meat with plant-based ingredients or cultivated cells – “have the potential to confuse consumers”.
But to the contrary, peer-reviewed research has shown that when produced using renewable energy, cultivated meat can account for 92% fewer emissions, 94% less air pollution, and 90% less land use than conventional beef. Another study estimated that a shift to cellular agriculture combined with green energy could cut annual emissions by 52% and reduce the amount of land used by traditional farming methods by 83%.
A familiar – and tired – rhetoric
Courtesy: EPA
Pillen said that 95% of livestock producers in Nebraska are family-owned, and that he wants to keep it that way. This is the same rhetoric used by DeSantis as well as Alabama governor Kay Ivey, whose state has also banned cultivated meat (which will come into effect on October 1).
Nebraska’s lawmakers are aims to follow in his fellow Republicans’ footsteps. The governor promised to reciprocate this legislation in his state in May – when the bans by Florida and Alabama were announced.
“The fake-meat, petri-dish-meat folks, they’re not going to have a place in Nebraska, just mark that down on your calendar,” he said at the time. “It’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and fight and defend Nebraska, and that’s what we’re doing.”
In August, when signing the executive order, Pillen said he’ll ask policymakers to propose and prioritise a ban on cultivated meat next year. “We can etch it in stone so nobody has a chance,” he suggested, calling these proteins “an attack on our values”.
“We are the beef state,” he added. The problem is, agriculture is the largest source of Nebraska’s emissions, contributing to 42% of the state’s climate footprint, according to the US EPA. And beef production alone accounts for 55% of this share, and 23.7% of the state’s overall emissions.
That seemingly doesn’t faze Pillen. “Nebraska farmers and ranchers, like those here today, are committed to producing the best food products anywhere,” he said. “We feed the world, and we save the planet more effectively and more efficiently than anybody else, and I will defend those practices with my last breath.”
But this idea that cultivated meat is a threat to farmers is a fallacy. As Andy Jarvis, director of the Bezos Earth Fund’s Future of Food scheme, told Green Queen in June: “Everyone gets kind of very nervous about cultivated [meat]… thinking that it’s completely detached from farming. Well, the [culture] media are sugars, and all sorts of minerals and things that are coming from crops, and they’re farmed goods.”
He added: “So this is not an anti-farmer sector; this is a sector that is using farmed products in new ways. And generally using farmed products that are more profitable and highly sustainable in the way they’re produced.”
Nebraska leaders miss the irony
Courtesy: Jim Pillen for Governor
Lawmakers in Arizona, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have all introduced similar proposals to thwart cultivated meat. As Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti put it, these types of bans are “a harbinger of what might come when a small set of people try to make laws and rules” on what Americans can eat.
So it makes it even more depressingly funny that Jeanne Reigle, the legislative candidate supporting Pillen at the signing, said – completely unironically – that what keeps her up at night and makes her fear for American children’s future is that the “government could get involved and have more control over this new so-called ‘food’”.
As for Pillen, it’s unclear whether he really feels so deeply about this issue, or it’s more a PR stunt – after all, it’s become almost fashionable in Republican states to restrict new businesses hoping to find a way to feed America when meat inevitably goes into short supply. Given Republicans’ staggering lack of belief in climate change or willingness to embrace cultivated meat, this is nothing new.
But the Nebaraska governor wants it to be. He wants you to know that this is “a big deal”. Whether a ban actually happens – or any such bills die down eventually – only time will tell.
Should Pillen really be focusing on products that have never been sold in Nebraska and wouldn’t have for quite a few years anyway? Or should he be putting his energy into reducing the dangerously high nitrate levels in his hog farm’s water supply, which would also protect the health of the farmers and consumers he says he cares about?
Instead of feeding peanut shells to livestock, we can upcycle them to make high-fibre meat analogues and growth components for cultivated meat, while cutting down on food waste.
Did you know that you can eat peanut shells? Better yet, were you aware that you can make planet-friendly meat from them?
That’s what scientists from the US are proposing, in a move they say can cut food waste, promote human health, boost food security and farm economies, reduce emissions, and thus meet several Sustainable Development Goals.
In a review published in the Frontiers journal, researchers outline how about 22% of the 46 million tonnes of peanuts produced annually is waste from the shells, resulting in a loss of over 6.5 million tonnes of dietary fibre and 595,000 tonnes of plant protein.
While peanut shells are most commonly upcycled into animal feed, a dry complete material for packaging and industrial fillers, and potentially biofuel, the study suggests that this is a “missed opportunity” since these hulls are edible to humans. It proposes methods to recapture nutrients (like protein and fibre) and process these hulls into functional ingredients for a variety of foods, including plant-based and cultivated meats.
The nutritional and food security potential of peanut shells
Courtesy: Frontiers
The scientists argue that the valorisation of peanut byproducts would significantly increase the amount of food available from current land, water and energy use, addressing hunger and benefitting farmers (who could sell the shells at a premium compared to low-cost animal feed).
Most of the greenhouse gas emissions from peanut production come from on-farm activities, and the hulls alone represent a quarter of the potential energy output. But overall, these groundnuts generate 97% fewer emissions per kg than beef, and use up 97% less land too – so using the shells to produce food for human consumption illustrates a highly sustainable way to increase food security.
Peanut shells have several nutritional advantages, according to the study. They’re a rich source of dietary fibre (making up over 60% of their dry weight) and protein (7%), alongside plant-sourced phytonutrients like polyphenols and flavonoids. This includes the anti-inflammatory flavonoid luteolin, which has been used as a source of bioactive in medicines and nutritional supplements.
The scientists cite research showing the potential of extracts derived from peanut hulls in cancer and hypertension treatments, pain management, displaying anti-diabetic properties, and reducing pathogen activity in food applications.
“The advances in the evidence about these compounds have led to widespread production of extracts from peanut hulls frequently used in pharmaceuticals in most global regions,” the study states.
However, peanut shell flour isn’t currently processed anywhere in the world, according to the researchers, and this presents an opportunity for health experts and food manufacturers. Once consumers accept it as an ingredient, adding it to foodstuffs can reduce production costs and food insecurity in at-risk regions, many of which overlap with peanut-growing areas.
Shells and husks of hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts are already being used as fibre- and protein-rich flours. But peanuts are grown in substantially larger volumes, and their shells have a much larger absolute amount of protein, fibre and nutrients than hazelnut or almond hulls. Still, no patents exist for processing peanut shells for human food uses, rendering it a market ripe for innovation.
Reimagining peanut shells as a future food
Courtesy: Patcharapon’s Images/Sissyartsy
Just as almond and hazelnut flours have been utilised in baking and snacking applications, peanut hull flour can also be used to make breads, cookies, crackers, and biscuits. Fibre-rich flours from these shells can enhance baking textures due to strong binding capacity and higher water absorption. Common foods like stews and gravies can also benefit from peanut shell flour.
One interesting use case comes from the hydrolysation of peanut hull flour, which is used to extract lignans (a group of polyphenols). What’s left over is cellulose, which can be processed into a substitute for methylcellulose. This is a commonly used emulsifier, thickener, and binding agent in plant-based meats.
The targeted activation of proteins could unlock properties associated with cellulose additives, better utilising peanut shells and improving the cost efficiency of upcycling them, while also providing greater culinary versatility and an enhanced nutritional profile with fewer overall processing demands.
Meanwhile, these shells also have a high concentration of branch-chain amino acids, some of which are associated with umami flavours, especially grilled and aged meats. Plus, they can be processed in a similar way to pea protein, whose large demand is set to outsize production capacities.
“Recapturing lost protein from an alternative legume source like PHs could provide an additional source to meet that demand while increasing the efficiency of existing production systems,” says the study. Due to the retained fibre and carbohydrate content, the final sale volumes could be 20% larger than pea protein, if aiming for similar concentrations.
These peanut shell protein concentrates can have multiple applications, from a mildly peanut-flavoured protein supplement for drinks and powder, to a protein base for plant-based meat and dairy products.
Notably, they can be used as a replacement for other plant proteins in serum-free growth media, bio-ink, and structural scaffolding components of cultivated meat, important at a time when the industry is working to reduce costs through culture media innovations.
Israeli molecular farming player PoLoPo will now supply patatin after its egg protein clients expressed demand for the native potato protein.
PoLoPo, the Israel-based startup turning potatoes into protein factories, is now supplying patatin to clients, in response to an unexpected demand for the native potato protein.
The company uses molecular farming to grow target amino acids within a potato’s tuber through its SuperAA platform. While its first product is ovalbumin, the most abundant protein found in chicken eggs, its metabolic engineering techniques can also increase the potato’s own protein content.
And according to PoLoPo, commercial customers that have been buying its egg protein have also been asking for the latter, since the startup can produce patatin at much lower costs than current the current standard.
“We are keeping our eyes on the prize, which is bringing molecular-farmed egg protein to market, but conversations with clients revealed an additional demand for patatin in large quantities at a fair price,” said Maya Sapir-Mir, CEO of PoLoPo, which is awaiting regulatory approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) before going to market.
Why PoLoPo’s patatin is unlike other potato proteins
Courtesy: PoLoPo
Sapir-Mir co-founded PoLoPo with CTO Raya Liberman-Aloni in 2022. The team decided to begin with potatoes due to their resilience in diverse climates, low growth costs, short maturation time, relatively large storage capacity (in the form of tubers), high yields, and compatibility with existing technologies.
The company says it’s an efficient and sustainable ingredient that offers attractive financial opportunities for established agrifood producers, which will allow PoLoPo scale up its SuperAA system in a cost-effective manner.
For its ovalbumin, it inserts a DNA sequence into the potato to teach it to produce a fully functional, nutritionally equivalent protein that is chemically identical to chicken eggs.
But it can also produce a powdered version of patatin. It does so by drying and extracting proteins harvested from the tubers. The final product doesn’t have any GMOs, despite the process using genetic engineering.
The problem is, most manufacturers destroy native protein when extracting potato starch, so most patatin on the market is non-functional, and this usually ends up going to animal feed, pet food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.
PoLoPo’s patatin, though, has a high protein digestibility score of 0.99 (the scale maxes out at 1), which is similar to that of casein, beef and eggs. It also has all essential amino acids and boasts functional attributes like emulsification, gelling and texturisation.
“Patatin has high nutritional value, is not considered as an allergen, and has great functionalities. By that, it is a versatile protein option for many categories: plant-based meat and dairy, baked goods, products like bars and drinks that are popular for sports nutrition or even meal replacement,” Sapir-Mir tells Green Queen.
PoLoPo bets on cost efficiency amid impending US approval
Courtesy: PoLoPo
“We are scaling up our production to pilot scale in Israel for product and formulation development purposes,” reveals Sapir-Mir. “It’s important to remember that to scale, all we need is to plant another field.”
This is one of the key advantages of molecular farming: it doesn’t require expensive bioreactors to produce ingredients on a large scale. Here, the plants themselves act as the bioreactors. This also means lower prices – a key selling point for PoLoPo’s plunge into a $105M market for potato proteins.
Current prices of functional patatin can surpass $100 per kg, as extraction and drying with existing infrastructure is a resource-intensive process. But PoLoPo’s potato plants produce higher levels of patatin within potatoes, leading to better returns – both financially and in terms of yields. Combined with the protein’s functionality, this could help battle food insecurity in malnutrition-hit regions.
“Our SuperAA platform is significantly elevating the natural yield of patatin in potatoes, making potato processing for functional protein extraction more economical,” highlights Sapir-Mir. “This innovation unlocks pricing points that the industry has never seen before for functional patatin, offering more competitive pricing for high-quality protein.”
While she leaves the door open for fundraising (the company closed a $2.3M pre-seed investment round last year), PoLoPo is also now gearing up for launch in the US. It applied for USDA approval in May, and expects to get the nod by the end of the year.
“The submission to the USDA earlier this year is to cover growing our rich protein potatoes. We will file self-GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) for the patatin ingredient, and because it’s the natural protein growing in its natural environment, we expect a relatively smooth and quick approval,” Sapir-Mir explains.
PoLoPo is among a host of Israeli companies using molecular farming to grow future-friendly proteins. Finally Foods is also using potatoes, but to grow casein (the main protein in dairy) instead. NewMoo, meanwhile, is producing liquid casein from soybeans.
Alternative proteins are poised to present attractive benefits to Israel, with the industry expected to produce 10,000 additional jobs, have more than 200 companies and over a dozen manufacturing facilities, and contribute $2.5B to the country’s economy by 2030.
Canada’s New School Foods has attracted $6M in new capital and opened a commercial-scale manufacturing facility to bring its vegan salmon to market.
As it prepares for its commercial launch in the US and Canada, plant-based seafood maker New School Foods has received $6M in a seed extension round and opened a 28,000 sq ft production facility.
The latest investment included Inter IKEA – the holding company of the Swedish furniture giant – Good Startup, NewTree Capital and Hatch, building on existing state-led funding from Protein Industries Canada.
It brings the Toronto-based startup’s total raised to $18M, and will help it accelerate the launch of its whole-cut salmon analogue to foodservice customers.
Whether the vegan salmon appears on IKEA menus one day remains to be seen, but New School Foods founder and CEO Chris Bryson commended the furniture retailer’s “strong alignment to our mission of creating a more sustainable food system”. “We greatly admire the fact that IKEA has committed publicly to being at least 50% plant-based in their menus by 2025,” he told Green Queen.
Courtesy: New School Foods
How New School Foods makes its whole-cut salmon
New School Foods, which was established in 2021, employs directional freezing on a biopolymer gel to form thousands of microscopic ice crystals that travel away from the freezing source. The ice is then removed, leaving behind empty channels that act as a scaffold, which can be filled with proteins, fats, flavours, etc. to form meat-mimicking muscle fibres.
The “cold-based” process creates highly tunable fibres – their length, diameter and resistance can be altered to create the desirable textures. These pieces of muscle fibres are then assembled into larger structures, separated by layers of connective tissues.
“While conventional structuring processes like extrusion use heat to mimic muscle fibres, which pre-cooks the protein, we use a freezing-based technique to create muscle fibres that do not pre-cook the proteins,” explained Bryson.
“This ensures that the product looks raw, and then transforms upon cooking, providing a familiar cooking experience. And by not pre-cooking the proteins, it ensures that the texture does not end up being rubbery.”
Bryson said the method is “specifically designed to address the inherent product complexities and challenges of making whole cuts: “That’s everything from the way the product looks – both raw, and cooked, and how it actually cooks and transforms, to its texture and its taste.”
He added: “Salmon, for example, has a vibrant, shiny and translucent look, layered with parallel white lines. Those lines melt upon cooking, which enables the product to flake. And then those flakes break down into small muscle fibres. Recreating that entirety is key to driving a customer experience that will feel authentic, familiar, and worth enjoying time and again.”
Courtesy: New School Foods
Using machines identical to fishing industry
This process of making vegan salmon will now be applied on a large scale via New School Foods’ V1 commercial assembly line in the new facility in Toronto, which is designed to “host multiple stages of growth”.
Bryson described the V1 assembly line as “the very first commercial implementation of our scaffolding and directional freezing processes”. It will support the startup’s initial restaurant partners while aiming to showcase how it can produce high-quality seafood analogues.
“We’ve designed the facility to allow room for continued expansion of our production capabilities, since there will be a V2 line, and so on,” the CEO said, adding that contrary to many competitors, the company owns its production operation instead of using a co-manufacturer.
“This ensures that we have greater control over quality [and] unit costs, and can invest in continuous innovation for both our process and formulations so as to solve the most important issue at hand – creating plant-based alternatives that appeal to a wider customer audience,” he said.
“This is especially important for making whole-cut alternatives because they are significantly more complex products to create than a ground product – if you want to do it right.”
New School Foods’ technology uses adapted off-the-shelf, commercially available industrial equipment to ensure it can scale up. “Ironically, one of the pieces of equipment we use is a commercially flash-freezing machine identical to those used in the commercial fishing industry – we’re just using it for plant-based fish,” Bryce revealed.
Courtesy: New School Foods
Quality and price the ‘North Star’ of vegan seafood
The latest investment comes a few months after the company kicked off its New School Culinary Council, a collective of chefs and restauranteurs that will guide product development, recommend recipes, and support the market adoption of its vegan salmon.
The first chef it had collaborated with was Matthew Kenney of Plant Food + Wine fame. The vegan chef has endured a troublesome couple of years, with at least 12 of his restaurants closing since September 2022. Asked if Kenney is still working with the brand, Bryson indicated that the partnership had run its course for now. “As of late, we’ve mainly been working with local chefs in Toronto,” he said.
New School Foods has always targeted chefs as its point of entry in the market. “Our plan has always been to distribute via the chefs and tastemakers – 70% of the seafood purchased in the US is via restaurant orders rather than grocery/cook-at-home,” he explained.
“Since we are producing new versions of the product every week, if not multiple times per week, it’s been very important for us to get immediate market feedback to keep improving the product,” added Bryson. “This is something that we expect to continue doing; getting great feedback from experts is critical to building a great product.”
New School Foods founder and CEO Chris Bryson | Courtesy: New School Foods
While there’s no exact launch date yet, the startup has previously suggested that it would be sometime this year. Alternative seafood has faced significant headwinds of late, with sales only making up 1% of the entire plant-based market in the US. Its slice of the overall seafood industry is similar. Brands like Akua, Ordinary Seafood and New Wave Foods have shut down in recent months, illustrating the tough market landscape.
And as consumers continue to face cost-of-living pressures, finding the right price for its salmon will be key to making people bite. Bryon agreed, saying: “Product quality and price parity need to be your combined North Star, and that’s a major reason why we’ve developed our own manufacturing operation.”
He added: “We won’t start at parity since that requires significant volume, but we’re laying the right foundation to get there. When we do launch via our restaurant partners, we expect that the price of the filet will be of a comparable price to other entrees on the menu.”
New analysis by the Food Foundation shows that plant-based meat is better for the planet and mostly healthier, with traditional proteins like beans or tofu the most optimal options.
Plant-based burgers, sausages and nuggets are much more climate-friendly and largely better for human health – but their progress is hindered by a price premium, a new study by the UK’s Food Foundation has found.
While the environmental benefits of plant-based proteins are well-known – especially in high-income countries – the conversation around their health credentials has been skewed and misleading, and needs “much greater nuance”.
The report revealed that plant-based meats and traditional plant proteins like beans, grains, tofu and tempeh all have significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than animal-derived meat. The same is true for water use (barring rice). Meanwhile, vegan proteins also contain fewer calories, less saturated fat, and higher fibre levels than meat products.
Courtesy: Food Foundation
The Food Foundation split plant proteins into three categories: new-generation analogues, traditional proteins (both classed as processed), and beans and grains (which are less processed or unprocessed). It analysed 67 plant-based products and compared their climate, nutrition and price attributes to 46 meat products.
Beans and grains like chickpeas, rice, oats and lentils were on average the strongest-performing foods on all three fronts of sustainability, nutrition and price, and thus should be “an important part of strategies” to support dietary shifts. That said, in the short term, “like-for-like meat substitutions are likely to offer a realistic and feasible transition pathway”, the report suggested.
Plant proteins: a solution for UK’s fibre deficiency
Courtesy: Food Foundation
According to the research, the number of plant-based meat options far exceeds products offering traditional proteins like tofu or tempeh. And the proportion of ultra-processed food (UPF) – a thorn in the side of the vegan food industry – in each category also varies considerably.
While misleading media coverage has bred consumer confusion about UPFs – in the UK, an equal share of consumers believe UPFs are healthy and unhealthy, despite these foods making up 57% of the average British diet – the report pointed out that suggestions of plant-based meat being unhealthy solely because they’re UPFs are wide of the mark.
“Even plant-based alternatives with good nutrient profiles based on traditional nutrient profiling models, such as mycoprotein (Quorn), can be classed as UPFs,” the researchers wrote, adding that a 2023 study found positive health impacts from the intake of ultra-processed meat analogues.
While plant proteins were found to be lower in protein than meat, this difference was only marginal. And in any case, the UK doesn’t have any protein deficiency issues at a population level, the report said. In fact, Brits are overconsuming protein, with men and women eating 29g and 22g more of it, respectively, than is recommended by the British Nutrition Foundation.
Courtesy: Food Foundation
The biggest gain for plant-based meats and traditional proteins comes with fibre intake, a nutrient the UK is not consuming enough of. On average, conventional meat products only have 0.5g of fibre per 100g, versus 4.7g for vegan meats, and 5.1g for grains and beans.
But while tofu, beans and the like have minimal levels of salt, plant-based meat products have higher salt levels than animal proteins (1.3g vs 1.1g, respectively). The report also found that only a third of the meat analogues analysed are fortified with iron and vitamin B12. This leaves room for improvement: brands could enhance the health credentials of vegan meats by improving fortification and reformulating them to reduce salt content.
However, certain products are already outperforming their animal counterparts. Vegan bacon has on average 1g more protein per 100g, while plant-based meatballs have 1g lower salt content compared to their livestock-derived equivalents.
Light on the planet, heavy on the wallet
The Food Foundation cites figures from Our World in Data to show that meat production has an outsized impact on the planet. Beef (from beef herds) is by far the most polluting protein, followed by lamb and beef from dairy cows.
But even chicken – often floated as a ‘sustainable’ meat option – has more than twice the emissions impact of rice and Beyond Meat, and emits three times more greenhouse gases than Quorn and Future Farm.
Similarly, beef is the most water-intensive food analysed in the report, followed by rice and other animal proteins. The rest of the plant proteins use much less water – Quorn’s water consumption is 97% lower than beef, while Beyond Meat’s water footprint is 99% smaller.
Courtesy: Food Foundation
But while plant-based meats and proteins delivered plenty of wins on the health and environment fronts, their prices for consumers leave a lot to be desired. Meat analogues and plant proteins (like tofu and tempeh) are 73% and 38% more expensive than conventional meat products, respectively, with only grains and beans turning out cheaper (-52%).
Vegan bacon has the highest price premium, with these products almost three times more expensive than animal-derived versions. On the other hand, plant-based meatballs and mince are almost at price parity, costing only 7% and 14% more, respectively.
Courtesy: Food Foundation
UK should cut animal consumption with beans and blended meat
The report has a bunch of recommendations for different stakeholders in the industry. If you’re an investor, consider the fact that alternative proteins offer the highest CO2e savings per dollar of invested capital of any industry – three times higher than cement, transport or aviation – according to Boston Consulting Group.
For food manufacturers, restaurants and retailers, ensuring price parity for alternative proteins would be a major step forward, as would setting sales-based targets for plant proteins – several supermarket groups in Europe have already done so. These entities should also reformulate products that are high in salt or other unfavourable health metrics, so they’re on par or even more nutritious than meat.
Running cross-product promotions like meal deals and set menus for plant-based food, increasing the ratio of plant-rich foods to meat-based ones, and innovating with blended meat – mixing meat with alternative proteins, as Quorn is doing with the NHS – are all beneficial to this sector.
Courtesy: Quorn/Billion Photos/Green Queen
There’s a real focus on promoting unprocessed proteins like beans, which the report says represents a “win-win-win” for environmental, health and equity outcomes. Making beans more appealing via marketing strategies is key, especially since the consumption of these foods isn’t patterned by income levels.
As for policymakers, they should focus on strengthening procurement in schools and hospitals; introduce mandatory reporting of protein ratios for large companies; extend the VAT exemption of plant-based milks; and recognise the need to eat less meat as part of its climate strategy.
The UK government was also urged to reject EU proposals to outlaw the use of dairy-related terms on plant-based product labels, connect alternative protein development with public health goals, improve the regulatory system for new products, and build on its investments into this sector.
There has been some progress on the latter – earlier today, it was announced that UK Research & Innovation has invested £12M in a new National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre, which aims to develop and bring to market plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived proteins.
Speaking to Green Queen, Dr Stella Child, research and grants manager at the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, said that to ensure the UK remains competitive internationally, “the new government needs to build on the country’s growing scientific expertise and invest £100M a year in R&D and creating the infrastructure British alternative protein companies need”.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Chile’s vegan ads with Joaquin Phoenix, Maison Landemaine’s La Vie sandwiches, and Helaina’s animal-free lactoferrin study.
New products and launches
A new vegan brand is on the market. Spain’s Beanstalk Foods has entered the European market with a range of meat analogues like hamburgers, meatballs, pastrami, breaded calamari, as well as ambient salami and chorizo snacks. It will start with Spain and the UK, and has a sister company in New York for a US launch.
Courtesy: Beanstalk Foods
South Korean vegan cheese brand Armored Fresh has expanded its distribution footprint with KeHe Distributors, with its products now available nationwide for retailers in the US.
Israeli vegan meal kit producer Anina Culinary Art, whose products feature upcycled vegetables in dehydrated discs, has now launched nationwide in the US with its new online store.
German chocolate giant Ritter Sport is adding a new Vegan Double Crunch flavour to its Travel Retail Edition Vegan Tower in January. The range will be showcased at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes (September 30 to October 3).
Courtesy: La Vie/Beanstalk Foods/Fundación Veg
Parisian bakery chain Maison Landemaine has introduced two sandwiches using La Vie‘s plant-based meats: a vegetarian croque monsieur with ham and a vegan club sandwich with bacon.
Speaking of bacon, the UK’s Squeaky Bean has introduced ready-to-eat Crispy Bacon Style Strips, described as a first-to-market vegan alternative.
In Chile, Fundación Veg has launched a new campaign in Santiago Metro to promote plant-based eating during the Fiestas Patrias (September 18-19), with an animal-welfare-centric painting of actor Joaquin Phoenix by local artist Fab Ciraolo.
Courtesy: Pythag Tech
New York-based Pythag Tech, a software provider focused on cultivated meat, has unveiled The Clean Meat Terminal, a market intelligence platform for investors, companies, consultants and researchers with news, regulatory information, a company database, and more.
In Hong Kong, The White Owl Group has opened a new joint location for its plant-forwardMaya Bakery and The Cakery at the IFC Mall in the city’s Central district.
KFC China partnered with famed Shanghai vegan eatery Spring Breeze Songyuelou to introduce plant-based steamed buns on its breakfast menu.
And in India, cricketer Virat Kohli and actress Anushka Sharma (who are married) have appeared in a new ad campaign for plant-based meat brand Blue Tribe.
Research and policy developments
The Good Food Institute has released a report on investment in the alternative protein space, advising companies on where to target fundraising efforts amid a global squeeze in food tech financing.
Courtesy: Helaina
New York-based precision fermentation player Helaina has released a pre-print, non-peer-reviewed study, which found that its animal-free lactoferrin had a lower immunogenic response than the bovine version.
In the UK’s Slough Borough Council, a trial to collect food waste using dedicated caddies from residents in five areas has saved the council more than £3,000.
Courtesy: Chinese Nutrition Society/Dao Foods
During China’s National Nutrition Week 2024, the Chinese Nutrition Society promoted soy and legume consumption, with one event focusing on soy milk’s nutrition and releasing a white paper around guidelines and recommended intakes.
Events and awards
The Good Food Institute has unveiled the latest cohort of its student-focused Alt Protein Project, with 21 new chapters part of its fifth year.
Manufacturers, startups, investors, suppliers and scientists will gather at ProVeg International‘s New Food Conference in Berlin on September 3, where they’ll examine the current state of plant-based foods and best supply chain practices, as consumers reach a “societal tipping point”.
Courtesy: Solar Foods
Finally, Finnish startup Solar Foods, which makes Solein protein from air, has won the international Phase 3 category in NASA‘s Deep Space Food Challenge.
The UK is opening a £38M National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre to bring new planet-friendly foods to market, with a £15M investment from the government.
The University of Leeds is hosting a new hub dedicated to developing and commercialising climate-friendly alternatives to animal proteins, and getting more people to eat them.
The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) has been established through a £38M investment from public and private sector players, including over 100 stakeholders and businesses both domestically and abroad.
Of this, £15M comes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK – two of the government’s largest financing bodies – as the UK look to accelerate its net-zero emissions strategy.
The future food hub will be co-hosted by the James Hutton Institute, the University of Sheffield, and Imperial College London – which is also the site of one of Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centers for Sustainable Protein – with a team of 30 interdisciplinary researchers and 120 international partners. These include farmers, small and large businesses, regulators, and councils).
Focusing on plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived products and ingredients from innovation to commercialisation – as well as developing more sustainable animal feed and aquaculture – NAPIC will offer technical, entrepreneurial, regulatory and policy training, while promoting knowledge exchange via its international network of partners, which includes the United Nations.
Courtesy: Ivy Farm Technologies
“This hugely welcome investment will provide a catalyst driving forward the pace of innovation by bringing together a wide variety of UK researchers to solve the many challenges involved in commercialising alternative proteins,” Dr Stella Child research and grants manager at the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, told Green Queen.
According to GFI Europe’s estimates, the £15M financing by the BBSRC and Innovate UK has brought the government’s total investment in alternative proteins to over £91M. The capital will support NAPIC for five years, as its members work to produce a roadmap for the development of a National Protein Strategy in the UK.
“The new National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre will advance research and innovation in alternative proteins, strengthening the UK’s leadership in this critical sector and fostering international collaboration to ensure a more sustainable and secure food future for all,” Dr Stella Peace, executive director for healthy living and agriculture at Innovate UK, said in a statement.
The four pillars of the UK’s new alternative protein centre
Courtesy: THIS
The members of NAPIC will work closely with businesses, academia, regulators, and investors on four interdisciplinary knowledge pillars. The University of Leeds will lead the Perform pillar, ensuring that alternative proteins meet consumers’ taste, texture and nutrition expectations.
The Produce pillar – headed by the James Hutton Institute – will help partners develop ingredients and products with optimum functional, sensories and nutritional qualities, and address concerns about ultra-processed foods and a just transition for farmers.
Then there’s the Process pillar, with Imperial College leading this effort. It involves a specific focus on scaling up cultivated meat and precision fermentation via AI-guided models to help commercialise these foods.
Finally, the University of Sheffield will spearhead the People pillar, which aims to focus on delivering a fair protein transition for consumers and farmers through a focus on affordability, accessibility and acceptability. This involves providing new training and business opportunities for farmers, as well as futureproofing the UK’s protein supply against a reliance on imports.
The UK currently imports over £15B worth of protein products (including meat, dairy, eggs and seafood), plus £3B worth of animal feed, according to Dr Rob Hancock, deputy director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC) at the James Hutton Institute.
Courtesy: Imperial College
The food system accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, with meat and dairy alone making up 57% of this share (twice as much as plant-based). In contrast, a University of Oxford study found that vegan diets can reduce emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to a meat-rich diet.
“Reducing these emissions will be difficult, especially given an increasing global population and the impacts of climate change,” said Professor Derek Stewart, director of the APGC, who is leading the Produce pillar. “We need to find more sustainable sources of protein and thankfully there is a huge biodiversity in non-animal sources of protein, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of this.”
Transitioning to healthy, sustainable sources of protein is a pressing global challenge,” added Professor Karen Polizzi from Imperial College’s Department of Chemical Engineering, who is spearheading the Process pillar. “NAPIC will help facilitate this transition by supporting researchers and industry in all parts of the process from product design through to consumer acceptance.”
Why the consumer focus is vital
Professor Anwesha Sarkar, project leader of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre | Courtesy: University of Leeds
Polizzi is the vice-director of the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein too, but while this hub has a research focus surrounding engineering biology and AI to speed up the development of alternative proteins, NAPIC will home in on making these foods mainstream in the UK.
Consumer acceptance is one of the major barriers hindering these foods’ progress. Professor Louise Dye, co-director of the Institute of Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield, told PA Media that only around 9% of supermarket protein sales come from alternative proteins.
“Population-level access to – and acceptance of – alternative proteins is currently hindered by a highly complex marketplace, concerns about taste, nutritional equivalence and cost, as well as health and safety concerns, and the fear of diminished livelihoods for farmers,” added Professor Anwesha Sarkar, project leader for NAPIC, and research and innovation director at the University of Leeds’ School of Food Science and Nutrition.
And while there are encouraging signs, a lot more needs to be done. For example, one survey suggested that 2.5 million Brits were vegan in 2023, a 78% rise from the year before – and another 3.1 million were vegetarian. Meanwhile, meat and dairy consumption fell to their lowest levels last year in nearly half a century (when records began) – but so did fruit and vegetable intake.
Courtesy: YouGov
When it comes to cultivated meat, more Brits would feed these proteins to their pets (47%) than themselves (33%), according to a 2022 study. This was echoed by a more recent poll too, where only 26% of consumers expressed a willingness to eat cultivated meat – with taste and price key concerns.
Even with plant-based meat, a category of products that have been on the market for a while, taste and affordability are the biggest complaints in the UK, while health is the most attractive benefit of these analogues.
This illustrates the need to drive consumer support for these proteins by meeting them where they are, as well as helping farmers transition away from animal proteins without hurting their incomes and lives. There is some potential here, with research revealing that British farmers recognise the benefits of cultivated meat.
“With consumers and agriculture at the heart of a transition towards alternative proteins, it’s hugely important that the centre focuses on ensuring these foods meet people’s expectations around taste, price and nutrition, as well as enabling British farmers to benefit from new opportunities in this growing sector,” said Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at GFI Europe.
UK government urged to ramp up investment in alternative protein
Courtesy: Number 10/Flickr/CC
NAPIC is the latest in a string of examples showcasing the UK’s commitment to alternative proteins. In the last 18 months, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has injected £12M in the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub at the University of Bath, while UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supported Imperial College’s Microbial Food Hub with up to £12M in financing.
“The launch of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre exemplifies our commitment to spearheading innovation in the alternative proteins sector,” said Professor Guy Poppy, food champion at UKRI and deputy executive chair of the BBSRC (which is part of UKRI).
“By harnessing the strengths of our world-class scientific community and robust industrial partnerships, this initiative addresses vital sustainability challenges and forges essential links between research and commercial application,” he added. “Academic and industry collaboration is key to transforming these pioneering ideas into practical, scalable solutions.”
Along similar lines, NAPIC head Sarkar said: “NAPIC is a truly pan-UK centre with global reach and our mission is to be an ‘innovation enabler’ for rapidly evolving alternative protein industries, delivering a universally healthy, acceptable, accessible, eco-friendly food system by harnessing the UK’s world-class science.”
Highlighting the potential of the hub, the James Hutton Institute’s Dr Hancock told PA Media that around 75% of human food comes from just 12 plant species, but “there are about 14,000 plant species which are edible and available to be exploited”.
Courtesy: James Hutton Institute
GFI Europe has previously called on the UK to provide £390M in investment to the alternative protein sector between 2025 and 2030, if it is to keep pace with the rest of the world. “Estimates indicate that, with regulatory reforms and sufficient public investment, the UK’s alternative protein industry could add £6.8B each year to the country’s economy and create 25,000 jobs by 2035,” noted Dr Child, its research and grants manager.
Now, the think tank is urging the UK to go even further. “In order to achieve this success and ensure the UK remains competitive internationally, the new government needs to build on the country’s growing scientific expertise and invest £100M a year in R&D and creating the infrastructure British alternative protein companies need,” she added.
But with investments growing in the last couple of years, and the UK recently becoming Europe’s first country to approve cultivated meat for sale, the establishment of NAPIC is a step in the right direction.
“Today’s announcement provides yet more evidence that the UK government increasingly recognises the importance of alternative protein research and development to boost food security, reduce the climate impact of our food system and create green futureproof jobs,” said Dr Child.
India’s new BioE3 policy puts alternative proteins and future food in sharp focus – what does the biomanufacturing strategy mean for this sector?
On Saturday, India announced a biotechnology policy focused on the economy and climate, with smart proteins and functional foods – as well as climate-resilient agriculture – among six pillars of the strategy.
With BioE3 (which stands for Biotechnology for Economy, Employment, and Environment) being approved by the Union Cabinet, India is aiming to foster “high-performance biomanufacturing”, with a focus on accelerating tech development and commercialisation by getting up biomanufacturing hubs and biofoundries.
The policy is designed to strengthen the country’s net-zero goal of 2070 and its Lifestyle for Environment strategy (which encourages green behaviours), and speed up ‘green growth’ by promoting a circular bioeconomy. The government aims to position India as “a potential leader in the fourth industrial revolution”, science and tech minister Jitendra Yadav said in a press conference yesterday.
The administration defined “high-performance biomanufacturing” as the ability to produce products from medicine to materials, promote advanced biotech processes for the manufacturing sector, as well as address farming and food challenges.
The six focus areas are high-value bio-based chemicals, biopolymers and enzymes; smart proteins and functional foods; precision biotherapeutics; climate-resilient agriculture; carbon capture; and marine and space research.
That alternative proteins have been highlighted as an economic pillar of the world’s most populous nation is a big deal for the industry. Here’s how it happened, and what comes next.
How alternative proteins became part of India’s BioE3 policy
It all started in July 2023, when the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council met to identify key areas of scientific importance for high-performance biomanufacturing, explains Sneha Singh, acting managing director of the Good Food Institute (GFI) India.
The secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Dr Rajesh Gokhale, presented smart proteins as part of the initiative. Since then, the department has been holding closed-door meetings with an expert committee to identify a strategic roadmap and period goals for the alternative protein industry.
Courtesy: Blue Tribe Foods
GFI India – a think tank focused on alternative proteins, which include plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived proteins – was part of these meetings. “The inclusion of smart protein as part of the BioE3 policy is the government’s signal to the world that India is looking to be the hub for R&D and cost-efficient manufacturing in this emerging sector,” Singh tells Green Queen.
She adds that other agencies have been engaging on smart proteins too. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has been working on regulatory clarity, while the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) showcased plant protein technology at the World Food India event.
The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council has also backed entrepreneurs through early-stage ignition grants, and the Department of Science and Technology has led calls to promote translational R&D.
How will smart protein startups profit from BioE3?
The biomanufacturing policy “acts as a catalyst” for alternative protein’s growth in key foundational areas, according to Singh.
“By providing dedicated R&D and innovation support, the policy will accelerate the development of new technologies and processes that can pave the way towards the nutrition, price, and taste parity of smart protein products, making them a truly competitive alternative to their animal-derived counterparts,” she explains.
Meanwhile, the establishment of manufacturing hubs and biofoundries will offer “crucial support” for large-scale commercialisation. “This increased production capacity can significantly improve the accessibility and affordability of smart protein products, enabling them to reach a wider consumer base,” she says.
Courtesy: Perfect Day/Zydus Lifesciences
“Smart protein startups will gain significant momentum through dedicated R&D and innovation support, greater investments, and a nurturing ecosystem,” she adds. “The policy will foster a collaborative environment, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and resources between industry and academia, and encouraging public and private partnerships, leading to faster development and commercialisation of smart protein technologies with biohubs and biofoundries.”
Agriculture accounts for 15% of India’s emissions, and two-thirds of this comes from livestock farming. Singh believes the circular bioeconomy focus resonates with the goals of food sustainability: “By reducing reliance on animal farming, alternative proteins address environmental concerns, further strengthening the smart protein sector’s appeal.”
Who else stands to benefit?
But it’s not just companies that benefit from India’s new policy. “With the growing demand for millets, chickpeas, and other indigenous crops for smart protein end-products, farmers and crop-producing communities can explore new avenues with these resource-efficient crops to create a robust supply chain and contribute to rural economic development,” outlines Singh.
“The policy’s commitment to expanding the skilled workforce is another vital aspect, as it aligns perfectly with the sector’s rapid growth and immense economic potential,” she adds. This will “open several doors for students and the nascent workforce”, who’d be able to enter a fast-growing industry through dedicated coursework and multidisciplinary roles.
This is something Gokhale touched upon in the press conference too. “[BioE3] is expected to generate substantial employment opportunities, particularly in tier-II and tier-III cities, where biomanufacturing hubs will be set up,” he said. “These hubs will leverage local biomass sources, thereby enhancing economic development in these regions.”
Looking at things longer-term, all these efforts will combine to bring benefits to consumers. They will “gain access to a wider array of better-quality, tastier, and more nutritious smart protein products, catering to their diverse preferences”, notes Singh.
Courtesy: GFI India
At around 20%, India has the largest vegetarian population in the world. A report by GFI India last year found that one in four early-adopter consumers would consider giving up conventional meat, seafood, dairy or eggs in the future, with issues like hygiene, ease of cooking, animal welfare, and planetary impact top of mind.
Meanwhile, a perceived ‘unnaturalness’, lack of clarity on health benefits, and taste and price are among the major consumption barriers for alternative proteins in India. People over 45 feel these products are not relevant to them and possess a synthetic taste, while product availability is a key hurdle for many Indians. The amped-up focus on biomanufacturing would help address many of these challenges.
Looking to the future
India’s bioeconomy has grown immensely in the last decade, going from $10B in 2014 to more than $130B in 2024, according to figures cited by Gokhale. This trajectory is set to continue, with forecasts valuing the sector at $300B by 2030.
“Notably, the once fledgling pharmaceutical industry is now a $50B behemoth, fulfilling a significant portion of global demand for medicines and vaccines,” says Singh. “Today, a similar opportunity awaits in the smart protein sector. India’s robust biopharmaceutical and bioprocessing industries have already laid a strong foundation, establishing us as a key player in R&D, innovation, and the large-scale manufacturing capabilities needed for the smart protein sector globally.”
Courtesy: Seaspire
Singh references the government’s Make in India initiative, the propulsion of entrepreneurial ventures, skilled talent generation, and technological advancements as markers of India’s potential to become a global manufacturing hub for smart proteins.
“Leveraging its biomanufacturing capabilities, India can innovate and scale up production of crucial equipment and ingredients cost-competitively, leading the way for technological breakthroughs to produce high-quality and low-cost food manufacturing while fostering robust bioeconomy growth,” she says.
Just earlier this month, the central government introduced 109 new climate-resilient crop varieties for the country’s farmers – for Singh, this is a sign India is “fully committed to making our food systems more productive while also being more cognisant of the impacts of climate change”.
This effort also shares synergies with alternative proteins. “Many of these climate-positive crops, such as pulses, legumes, and beans, have applications for plant-based proteins,” she says. “Beyond climate resilience, government support for research on crop breeds with higher protein content and reduced off-flavours can be hugely impactful in increasing the commercial potential of these crops through plant protein value chains.”
Courtesy: Narendra Modi/X
India has also launched a joint climate-smart agritech accelerator programme with Australia. And last week, Mumbai-based Zydus Biosciences agreed to buy a 50% stake in biomanufacturer Sterling Biotech from Californian precision fermentation pioneer Perfect Day – they plan to open an animal-free protein factory to supply to global markets.
“Climate-resilient agriculture is not solely about safeguarding food systems from the effects of climate change – it is also about reducing their contribution to this global challenge,” says Singh.
Leading future food industry investor Blue Horizon is pivoting from fund management to manufacturing, starting with a Giga Protein Factory in the Arabian desert. Here’s why.
Just over a year ago, alternative protein fund leader Blue Horizon pulled the plug on its growth fund amidst changes in the venture capital landscape and an internal dispute that had led to complications.
Fast-forward to June 2024: agrifood VC platform AgFunder announced in a social media post that it was taking over the management of Blue Horizon’s growth fund effective immediately. The update stated that Blue Horizon had “exited the investment advisory sector”.
According to the announcement, the fund’s limited partners (LPs) would “gain access to AgFunder’s global network, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Singapore” and “benefit from the resources provided by AgFunderNews, comprehensive research, and GAIA, AgFunder’s proprietary database and AI platform, which includes over 60,000 agtech and foodtech startups.”
Blue Horizon, meanwhile, said it was pivoting away from asset management to focus on core operations and manufacturing via large-scale ‘Giga Protein Factories’ under a new entity, dubbed NUOS (NUtrition Operating System), in a bid to “accelerate the global transition to a sustainable food system”.
It represents a significant shift in the alternative protein and future food investor space. Since its founding by Swiss businessman Roger Lienhard in 2016, Zurich-based Blue Horizon has been a seminal fund in the sector.
But the seed for change came when Blue Horizon began raising the growth fund – the firm realised that the category wasn’t mature enough to warrant growth equity capital.
According to Blue Horizon’s founders, the future food industry was entering the Gartner hype cycle, and concern around pricing, taste and health came to the fore, which led the conventional meat and dairy industry to mobilise and launch anti-plant-based meat campaigns. Subsequently, mainstream investors became nervous and the alternative protein sector fell into what the firm calls a “capital chasm”, a bottleneck that impeded the industry’s progress.
Blue Horizon told Green Queen they couldn’t break the cycle, ending up with only a $100 million raise after three years of efforts for their first growth fund (reports suggest the firm was targeting multiples of this sum).
Behind the scenes, there were other complications. The firm’s fund management business had faced hurdles despite raising capital, and a dispute with one key executive of the venture fund rattled LPs’ confidence, resulting in its liquidation.
“Yes, there have been tensions,” says Hector Freitas, partner and head of business development at Blue Horizon. “But that’s history.”
After much soul searching, Blue Horizon made the decision to scale back its fund management business – the firm transferred the growth fund to AgFunder – and recalibrate its employee base with an eye toward the future.
AgFunder takes on growth fund
Founded in 2013 by Michael Dean and Rob Leclerc, AgFunder is a leading global early-stage investor in food and agriculture with a portfolio of nearly 100 agrifood tech companies across six continents.
Last month, AgFunder closed its fourth early-stage fund on $102M, surpassing its target. It has already deployed a third of this fund, supporting startups like jitter-free coffee brand Rarebird and ketone-rich energy drink maker Key.
The takeover of Blue Horizon’s fund brings its total managed assets to $300M and adds a growth-stage portfolio to the firm.
“We’ve always intended to have [a growth fund], but the market needed to mature and there have been limited viable opportunities for growth stage investing until fairly recently,” Dean told Green Queen.
AgFunder partners Michael Dean and Manuel Gonzalez with head of media and research at AgFunderNews, Louisa Burwood-Taylor | Courtesy: AgFunderNews
“With our network and AI-driven discovery platform, we have been particularly strong with early-stage investing, which also offers the best opportunity for high multiple returns – but with a maturing portfolio, we’ve always intended to have a growth strategy, and this deal with Blue Horizon gave us the opportunity to dive in sooner than later,” he added.
Discussions about Blue Horizon’s fund management began because the two funds share a limited partner. “The anchor investor in Blue Horizon is also an anchor investor in our fund,” he shared. “They approached me to see if AgFunder would be interested in taking over the Blue Horizon growth fund, and facilitated the introduction last September. So it took around seven to eight months to close.”
Would AgFunder use the funds to invest in its existing early-stage portfolio companies? “We have a good number of portfolio companies maturing nicely who will be going out for their Series B+ soon, and we’ll certainly take the best of those opportunities to our LPAC [Limited Partner Advisory Committee] for consideration [under the growth fund],” Dean said, after confirming that roughly 50% of the fund is left to disburse.
Freitas says he is confident that AgFunder will do right by the fund. “The [growth] fund is now under control of the LPs.[It’s] super important to make sure that the LPs are being looked after in the right way,” he says in an interview with Green Queen. “I’m sure they [AgFunder] will do something really good with the fund going forward.”
Blue Horizon taps into its true DNA
A rendering of Nuos’ Giga Protein Factory | Courtesy: Nuos
The focus is now on NUOS, which is described on its website as “the world’s leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) facility for producing alternative proteins at scale”. It’s an extension of Blue Horizon’s goal to transition the world to a sustainable food system.
Freitas, alongside Lienhard and CEO Björn Witte, is part of Blue Horizon’s management team, and says the development of NUOS is one of his key responsibilities.
He frames the latest activity at Blue Horizon as the result of a long-term master plan with three main verticals, with the first revolving around innovation: “One of our master plans is our innovation vertical – Blue Horizon has always stood for accelerating the transition into a sustainable food system.”
Blue Horizon’s smart protein journey started with backing alternative protein innovation, which involved seeding the early-stage funders – “meet the founders, help them with capital, and support them to grow”, as Freitas puts it. “Since the inception of Blue Horizon, we have done close to 100 investments in the alternative protein space.”
Further, he points out that the firm has had a handful of successful exits to its name, something that’s “quite unusual in the current market environment”. The latest example is New Roots, the Swiss vegan cheese company (as per Blue Horizon’s own website).
Courtesy: New Roots
Blue Horizon began by making investments off its balance sheet, Freitas tells Green Queen, about the firm’s origins. “[First}, we started with balance sheet investments, which was followed by the inception of the funds. We started the venture capital fund, and we started the growth fund,” he says, suggesting that operational excellence has been one of the firm’s strengths.
The firm was one of the most supportive fund partners in the alternative protein space, he adds, going above and beyond a typical venture capital role. He points to a dedicated content and social media team based in Los Angeles whose sole job was to assist Blue Horizon startups as an example. “That’s how we supported our portfolio.”
Green Queen spoke to at least three founders whose companies were seed-funded by Blue Horizon who characterised the fund’s team as “very supportive of founders,” with both noting how important the team was to the broader alternative protein ecosystem.
Freitas says that Blue Horizon will continue to invest in innovation, though not at the same pace. “The adjustment of strategy is that we have decided to exit the investment advisory side of the business given the market development in our industry over the last two years,” says Freitas. “It just does not seem to work well for us.”
Covering the whole spectrum from early seed to fund advisory was “not our DNA. Our DNA is being entrepreneurial,” he explains. “That’s where we see the biggest impact,” he says when asked why Blue Horizon is pivoting to driving operational businesses. “That’s where we see the biggest need.”
Phase two: consolidation
The second vertical involved the execution of a consolidation strategy. Freitas says that while plant-based meat companies such as Like Meat, Planted or Daring tend to become very successful in their home markets quite quickly, it’s when the startups start expanding geographically that things get complicated.
“It’s still food,” he says. “It’s not an app that goes from one phone to the other,” noting the challenges of regulations and logistics for tangible goods like plant-based meat, challenges alien to software startups and their investors.
For Lienhard and his team, the “early sparks were failing to create the fire” – products were costly, they weren’t getting tastier fast enough, and the startups were too small for the impact needed. To set the stage for large-scale transition, Blue Horizon set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to fundraise and bring together “some of the most promising players out there”.
Blue Horizon tells Green Queen that the firm saw an opportunity to break the fragmentation cycle and consolidate some of the sector’s leading players into one holding company, which would benefit from tailwinds in the market, world-class products, consolidated operations and a credible leadership team.
That formed the basis of Livekindly Collective, which launched in 2020 with $135M in funding (later raising a $200M Series A and a $200M Series B). Claimed to be the world’s third-largest alternative protein company, it’s essentially a roll-up of plant-based portfolio brands including Like Meat, Fry’s, Oumph!, No Meat, Dutch Weedburger, and later Alpha Foods, which allowed for economies of scale on R&D, production, distribution and marketing.
Giga protein factories and the Tesla model
The third vertical of the master plan is all about managing costs and expectations. “Up until 2022, there was ‘an early hype’; and hope in our market of gaining fast traction,” says Freitas. “Several funding rounds and funds came into the picture, Beyond Meat went public, and everyone was talking about the plant-based sector growing rapidly.”
But when the hype cools down, people look to make changes. “If you’re tight on money, you tend to go for the cheapest protein you can find in the supermarket, and the cheapest protein is still meat,” he says.
Plant-based meat still comes at a premium – in the US, it is 77% more expensive on average than conventional meat. To bridge this gap, Blue Horizon is taking inspiration from Elon Musk’s Tesla Gigafactory EV playbook in Nevada: build on a large scale in the desert, with optimum costs for energy, land, labour and logistics; involve people who care about sustainability; and focus on food security.
“We did very detailed calculations over the last 18 months… [and] realised that we will be able to undercut the lowest price of chicken breast of JBS meat from Brazil or Thailand,” says Freitas.
A rendering of Nuos’ Giga Protein Factory | Courtesy: Nuos
Just like EVs are going from highly prized (and priced) luxuries to gradual mass-market adoption, for alternative proteins to truly reach the mainstream and meet demand, the unit economics needs to compete with meat.
The first of these giga protein factories will be in the Middle East, which would be able to produce a million tonnes of product each year. “We want to be the home for alternative protein production going forward. And establishing in the Middle East has a lot of benefits,” Freitas states. “Capital, of course, but also a willingness [from local governments] to be in this space.”
When the news was announced, Witte – who is the chairman of NUOS – said the company was looking for “the right partner who shares the vision, mission and has the ecosystem to drive a global transition”, and the Abu Dhabi government turned out to be the ideal fit.
“Amongst all of the nations’ proposals NUOS received, it was clear from the outset that Abu Dhabi would be the natural partner. Through a combination of their vision, commitment, local infrastructure and long-term partnership appetite we felt that we could… create the gold standard for the food industry globally,” Witte added.
An ‘Innovation Academy’ to reach price parity
Plant-based meat at price parity with animal meat | Courtesy: Lidl
Some supermarkets have already made major strides towards price parity via their private-label ranges, with Lidl in Germany and other EU markets being the most notable example. Why can’t the sector have more such wins?
“The Lidl campaign was amazing… putting alternative proteins next to meat at the same price on the shelves. It looked super cool to start with. But in the end, products were not good or tasty enough yet to attract repeat buyers,” he says. [Editor’s note: Lidl said the campaign helped increase sales by 30% over six months.]
“There are some products out there that are really amazing. Look at Burger King: they’re selling plant-based chicken nuggets at the same price as meat. They get closer to their sustainability targets – being one key driver, but they’re probably not making enough margin yet.”
Getting taste and texture right is crucial, as is cleaning up ingredient labels. He alludes to the constant headlines criticising Beyond Meat’s supposed long ingredient lists, adding that nobody talks about what goes into the minced meat found in supermarkets. “It’s often an unfair comparison. But that’s how it works,” says Freitas. “Constant development needs to be done because our minds are so conditioned to meat.”
A rendering of Nuos’ Giga Protein Factory | Courtesy: Nuos
It’s why Blue Horizon is creating an Innovation Academy next to the gigafactory, which would allow it to invest in R&D for companies and drive prices down. While price is important to the end consumer, Freitas believes it’s probably even more crucial for B2B customers.
“If you can give a retailer or a QSR more margin against an equivalent product on a plant-based basis… they will be able to sell it,” he says. “They will place it correctly, and then consumers will take it on.”
Freitas adds: “Our strength is being close to the founders, being close to operations, being close to building infrastructure, and creating ideas [about] what the next step can be so our industry is growing… When you are on the operational side, you constantly have to be in a fight so you have a better chance [when] sitting in the driver’s seat, and steering food chains in the right direction.”
NUOS breaks ground in 2025, aiming to solve what it describes as the “great bottleneck” with the “great unlock” for plant-based meats, by enabling the upsurge in the S curve and the leap into mass adoption.
As Lienhard puts it: “The unlock for the industry is building something that can help startups accelerate and scale.”
This article was updated to add new information.
Disclaimer: NUOS is a content partner for Green Queen’s newsletter Green Queen Gulf.
New Zealand plant-based meat company Sustainable Foods, which makes the Plan*t line of hemp-based meats, has gone into voluntary administration.
Sustainable Foods, the parent company of vegan meat analogue brand Plan*t, has entered voluntary administration, citing harsh market conditions.
The company’s directors had appointed administrators on Friday after it struggled to raise capital, CEO Justin Lemmens confirmed to the New Zealand Herald. It planned to raise NZ$500,000 to NZ$1M ($310,000-620,000) to allow it to continue trading in 2025.
Sustainable Foods had been “caught in a perfect storm”, he told the newspaper, explaining that consumer and retailer interest cooled in the face of a tough economic environment, just as the manufacturer was investing to develop a new product.
A thwarted expansion followed by funding success
Courtesy: Sustainable Foods
Founded in 2018 by Lemmens and Kyran Rei, Sustainable Foods came to prominence via a line of hemp-based meats in partnership with The Craft Meat Co, which it acquired in early 2020. This was rebranded to Plan*t in 2021, with Lemmens calling the asterisk a “versatile” symbol depicting the company’s nutrition, sustainability, origins in New Zealand, and use of novel proteins.
The brand initially came to market with a range of hemp-based Chick*n, before diversifying into burgers, sausages and minced meats. These high-protein products leveraged hemp’s sustainability and health credentials (it’s linked to cardiovascular, neurological and anti-inflammatory benefits).
But while Sustainable Foods aimed to expand into Australia and Asia by the end of 2021, this move was stalled due to challenging market conditions, and Plan*t’s footprint still remains within New Zealand.
To overcome these challenges, the company raised NZ$2.15M in a crowdfunding campaign in April 2022 (about $1.5M at the time), with investors including ruby union player TJ Perenara and media company Stuff. Following the investment, the company highlighted its aim to grow its turnover from NZ$1.5M in the year ending March 2022 to NZ$20.6M by 2025.
Two months later, it netted a further NZ$1.25M as a loan from the New Zealand Government’s Regional Strategic Partnership Fund to boost its operations. The funds were earmarked “to purchase and install additional manufacturing equipment/machinery to enable the scale-up in production capacity at the Sustainable Foods facility”.
Relocation and cost-of-living pressures hurt Sustainable Foods
Courtesy: Sustainable Foods
In January, Sustainable Foods relocated its headquarters from the coastal district of Kāpiti in Wellington to the town of Ashburton in Canterbury. The idea was to be closer to its hemp suppliers, with a new 1,400 sq ft established to produce its meat analogues.
But according to the NZ Herald, the move was a challenge for the company, and coincided with low supermarket sales due to stocking issues.
The company used a high-moisture extruder – the only commercial machine of its kind in the country – for its hemp protein products, but this was too expensive and hindered Sustainable Foods’ ability to scale up, further hurting its financial health.
Lemmens said the cost-of-living crisis has forced supermarkets to focus on high-volume meat products to maintain consumer footfall, and these have crowded out the shelf space its Plan*t meats could have filled.
The company, which employs over 60 staff and had an annualised revenue of NZ$2.4M, now expects the first report from administrators at PwC soon. “Sustainable Foods will continue to trade while working through possible restructure solutions alongside other options,” Lemmens told the NZ Herald.
The development comes months after fellow New Zealand plant-based brand Sunfed Meats shut down under similar circumstances: supply chain pressure, high costs, and a loss of faith from investors.
Sustainable Foods did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scientists have found a way to produce proteins by feeding yeast on upcycled wastewater from the food and pharma industries.
How would you like your wastewater-derived meat?
It may sound unappetising, but residual water from the food and pharmaceutical sectors could be a solution to our crippling food waste problem, while producing alternative proteins like meat and dairy analogues, as well as greener fuels.
Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) tapped the salty residue from cheese produced by Danish dairy giant Arla to test a yeast strain called Debaryomyces hansenii. These microbes can thrive in highly saline environments, and the study found that they can be turned into valuable proteins to make meat analogues, dairy alternatives, pigments, and enzymes.
“There are businesses that create waste streams that are rich in nutrients, but also have a very high salt content, which is often a problem,” explains DTU Bioengineering assistant professor José Martinez.
“The salinity prevents utilisation of the nutrients while preventing businesses from discharging their waste streams as ordinary wastewater, which means they have to special treat, and this is costly. Why don’t we try to grow this type of yeast in these salty waste streams?” he explains.
Food waste meets pharma waste
Courtesy: Jose Ramos
In 2020, a study found that wastewater from raw cheese manufacturing – usually derived from the demineralisation of whey – was problematic, “posing severe environmental and public health problems” thanks to its acidic pH and the high amounts of phosphorus, total solids, oils and fats, and minerals involved.
Agriculture’s planetary impact is already massive – it accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. But a third of all food produced is either lost or wasted, which alone makes up 8-10% of emissions. So a solution that valorises a food industry sidestream that otherwise ends up harming the planet and our health has bags of potential.
Martinez has been researching yeast cells adapted to extreme conditions like high temperatures, low nutrient content, or high salinity for years. D. hansenii is adapted to aquatic environments, and can thrive in water up to six times as salty as seawater.
The experiment with Arla’s wastewater exceeded his expectations. The saline residue was also rich in lactose (a sugar), which the yeast cells easily metabolised. While more salt content meant more efficient growth, the yeast’s development wasn’t as efficient as it could be due to insufficient nitrogen levels.
To solve this bottleneck of the lactose-rich waste stream, Martinez met with Manuel Quirós, a cultivation specialist at Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. Quirós revealed that Novo Nordik had a salty residue of its own – linked to the manufacture of haemophiliacs – which was high in nitrogen.
“We simply mixed the two saline waste streams – the one with a high lactose content and the one with a high nitrogen content,” explains Martinez. “We used them as they were. We didn’t need to add fresh water, nor did we need to sterilize the fermentation tank, because the salt prevented the growth of other microorganisms. It was plug and play.”
His research team found that D. hansenii thrived in the mixture. To make the yeast a product of commercial interest, they used CRISPR technology to modify the strain into a protein as it grew.
CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that can cut the DNA of cells in specific places, allowing scientists and manufacturers to deactivate genes, insert new pieces of DNA into the genome, and change genes to get rid of mutations. It can help produce many different proteins and substances, and its potential has been explored by researchers using koji mould to make better-tasting meat analogues too.
A green fuel that’s actually sustainable?
Courtesy: Mikal Schlosser
Martinez initially settled on a fluorescent protein to be used as a model substance, enabling them to get a production target by measuring how strongly fluorescent the liquid was when the yeast cells were at work. The optimal mixture of the waste streams from Arla and Novo Nordisk was nearly twice as salty as seawater and contained 12g of sugar per litre.
According to the DTU, D. hansenii has been the target of “intense research” for decades. Previous studies have focused on finding the gene that makes the yeast cells salt-tolerant and trying to transfer it to plants so they can tolerate high salinity. This ended up being very complex, as salt tolerance is linked to several genes working in tandem.
Over the course of two years, Martinez and his colleagues worked to use the yeast cells themselves, leveraging their salt-tolerant attributes and modifying them to produce valuable ingredients. The use of CRISPR means this yeast and the food and pharma industry’s waste products can create a range of products.
But these aren’t limited to food. Martinez is part of a separate research collaboration exploring green fuels. Using this breakthrough, that effort could now include modifying D. hansenii to produce lipids (or fats) that can be converted into sustainable fuels.
Currently, many ‘sustainable’ fuels are built on palm or cereals. Palm oil is linked to mass tropical deforestation, while biofuels command 44% of the total cereal production in the US, which is a highly inefficient use of land and resources.
It’ll take at least a decade before Martinez’s research can be turned into commercial returns, since the lab-scale tests were only conducted on one to five litres of waste streams. The next challenge is to scale up to 10-30 litres, but Martinez expects hurdles in providing an efficient oxygen supply to the liquid. Expanding to thousands of litres will present obstacles as yet unknown.
For Novo Nordisk, though, the sustainability aspect is promising. The pharmaceutical company is already leaving a huge impression on the food industry through Ozempic and Wegovy, its GLP-1 agonist drugs. Across the US, one in eight Americans have tried such medications, and food companies big and small have been forced to innovate to cater to this demographic.
“Novo Nordisk wants to take full responsibility for our entire value chain,” explains Quirós. “Our strategy is called Circular for Zero. We have three focus areas: reducing the use of resources, reducing CO2 emissions, and minimising waste streams.”
Mars Petcare and Big Idea Ventures are spearheading a new programme for startups developing novel proteins and fats to develop sustainable pet food innovations.
As the planetary impacts of pet food become apparent to more and more consumers, a new programme is hoping to advance innovations that deliver more sustainable food for our furry friends.
Industry giant Mars Petcare and food tech investor Big Idea Ventures have partnered with food and feed technology specialist Bühler and plant-based fat producer AAK to launch the Next Generation Pet Food Program.
The initiative is on the hunt for human food startups that can help greenify the pet food sector through sustainable solutions like novel ingredients and upcycling. The idea is to use alternative proteins and fats to reduce the carbon emissions of the pet food sector.
“This initiative aims to highlight the exciting opportunity for developing sustainable pet food products,” said Andrew D Ive, founder and managing general partner of Big Idea Ventures. “It represents a significant step forward in fostering innovative, eco-friendly solutions within the pet food industry.”
Scheme looks for novel food startups to transform pet food sector
Courtesy: Olga Kholiavina/Getty Images
Pet ownership is on the rise, as is the carbon footprint attached to it. While the true emissions of pet food are a subject of debate between experts, research has shown that 20% of all meat in the UK and 25-30% in the US is used for pet food.
Meat is the most carbon-intensive food, making up 57% of the global dietary emissions together with dairy (twice as high as plant-based foods). Livestock agriculture is also an efficient form of farming, taking up 80% of the world’s farmland while supplying only 18% of its calories and 37% of its protein.
While. there are a number of companies working specifically on making pet food more planet-friendly, whether through plant-based proteins or cultivated meat, the Next Generation Pet Food Program wants to apply the tech advancements in human food to this industry.
The organisers are looking for companies innovating with alternative proteins and fats, nutritionally rich and sustainable novel ingredients, and eco-friendly processing technologies like food waste upcycling and innovative extraction techniques.
Startups will be chosen based on how unique their solution is, their ability to be scaled up, their potential to reduce emissions (with quantifiable metrics), and their willingness to openly collaborate with partners using your IP. Companies based in Asia-Pacific are preferred as the showcase event, will be held in Singapore, but other geographies will be considered if they have a highly relevant tech solution.
Mars has already been working on replacing chicken and pork fat with sustainable alternatives, so partnering with AAK – which makes plant-based oils and fats for a variety of applications – makes sense. Bühler, meanwhile, will provide technological expertise, with selected startups invited to tour its Protein Innovation Center and participate in an extrusion demo in Singapore.
“Ensuring a sustainable source of pet nutrition requires new ideas, technologies, and innovative practices,” said Bühler CTO Ian Roberts. “Collaborative innovation between industry leaders like Mars Petcare and Big Idea Ventures attracts startups from both within and beyond the pet care sector, supporting them in scaling their solutions to enhance the sustainability of pet nutrition.”
Startups to showcase product concepts in Singapore
Courtesy: ThamKC/Getty Images
The deadline for applications is September 10, and in the end, five to six startups will be chosen for the programme. Once selected, they’ll participate in online sessions during October and November, gaining expert insights from leading pet food experts and understanding the key factors in product formulation for pet food.
The startups will work with CPG, ingredient and tech experts from Mars Petcare, AAK and Bühler to develop innovative pet food concepts that directly address problem statements.
Then, during the Singapore International Agri-Food Week (November 18-22), the organisers will host a meet-and-greet event alongside the tour of Bühler’s facility. The startups will present a pitch for their innovations to Big Idea Ventures, which will help polish the presentation in preparation for a showcase event. Here, they’ll be presenting their solutions to a “high-profile audience”, which will offer them a host of networking opportunities.
“At Mars Petcare, our purpose is: A Better World for Pets,” said Elise Malandain, VP of R&D at Mars Petcare. “This programme aligns perfectly with our commitment to sustainability and innovation, and we are excited to collaborate with startups that share our vision.”
The announcement of the Next Generation Pet Food Program comes amid a flurry of activity in the alternative pet food space. Just this week, for example, Wild Earth entered the vegan cat food category with a “nutritionally complete” Unicorn Pate.
Last month, UK manufacturer Pets Choice agreed to acquire vegan dog food maker Hownd, while London-based Meatly became the world’s first cultivated pet food company to be approved for sale.
Meanwhile, in the US, Friends & Family Pet Food Co. announced it was partnering with Singapore’s Umami Bioworks to produce cultivated seafood treats for cats, while Cult Food Science began preparing for FDA feeding trials in pursuit of regulatory approval for its Noochies! cultivated dog treats.
And in a major win for the sector, the British Veterinary Association revised its position on the health credentials of vegan pet food, recognising that it’s possible to feed plant-based diets to dogs, so long as they’re nutritionally complete.
California’s Mission Barns has developed a novel bioreactor that is easy to scale and can lower the cost of cultivated meat, with regulatory approval imminent ahead of its planned market launch.
Moving away from the conventional single-cell suspension reactors of the biopharma sector, Mission Barns is hoping to solve cultivated meat’s scalability and cost problems with a novel solution.
The Californian startup is working on a cultivated pork fat called Mission Fat, which is meant to be mixed with plant-based proteins and ingredients to make hybrid meat products like bacon, pepperoni and chorizo.
Founded in 2018 by Eat Just alum Eitan Fischer, Mission Barns plans to launch these products in both foodservice and retail channels once it receives regulatory approval, for which it has filed dossiers in several countries. But to meet the market demand for cultivated meat, the company (and the industry) needs to solve two major bottlenecks: production capacity and price.
To get there, the startup has eschewed conventional bioreactors to develop a novel machine that’s more efficient, easier to scale, and ends up with a cheaper final product.
“We have different sizes of our proprietary bioreactors, ranging from R&D-scale units for experiments and optimisation, to our largest scale which is currently at pilot scale,” explains Bianca Lê, technical affairs and growth principal at Mission Barns.
The problem with using pharmaceutical bioreactors for cultivated meat
Courtesy: Mission Barns/LinkedIn
For Mission Barns, the need for a better bioreactor solution stemmed from the fact that a lot of the biotechnology used to make biopharmaceuticals isn’t purpose-built for cultivated meat.
There are inherent differences between the two: the per-tonne demand for cultivated meat is seven times higher than for biopharma drugs produced from mammalian cell cultures; the accepted ideal costs for the former is around $5-10 per kg, versus $500,000-1M for the latter; and people have more concerns about GMOs in food than in medicines.
“Bioreactors are vessels designed to grow cells. They’ve historically been designed to produce products for the biopharmaceutical industry,” Lê tells Green Queen. “We’ve invented a novel bioreactor that allows us to scale the production of cultivated meat, whether it’s pork, beef, or chicken, or fat or muscle.”
Most cultivated meat producers use bioreactors that support single-cell suspension, as these are readily available at larger scales. But to produce cell cultures this way, companies need to genetically modify anchorage-dependant cells (those that need something to attach to) so they can grow in suspension liquids.
“Meat is made up of muscle and fat cells embedded within a protein scaffold that provides structure and texture,” explains Lê. “These anchorage-dependent cells are called ‘adherent cells’ because they need to attach (or adhere) to this scaffold in order to grow. This is in contrast to cells that are able to freely float and grow whilst suspended in liquid (called ‘suspension cells’).”
Mission Barnes argues that existing suspension culture bioreactors aren’t effective in making non-GM cultivated muscle or fat, while commercially available adherent culture bioreactors only exist at small to medium scales due to a lack of market demand.
“Rather than changing the meat cells to suit a suspension culture bioreactor, our bioreactor recreates the same adherent growth conditions inside an animal’s body,” says Lê.
The mission behind the novel bioreactors
Courtesy: Mission Barns
For the new bioreactors, Mission Barns wanted to meet four key design specifications that outperform current options (whether suspension or adherent), with the aim of achieving high production capacities at low costs.
First, the company wanted to “efficiently grow and harvest meat cells (which are anchorage-dependent) from any species, using less space than existing harvestable adherent bioreactors”, outlines Lê. Then, it aimed to bypass the lengthy development process required for new cell lines to adapt to existing bioreactor environments.
The new machine also needed to be able to easily “mature muscle and fat cells, taking into account changes in geometry, density, and buoyancy”. And finally, the startup wanted the bioreactors to “produce whole-cut tissue products within a single vessel, eliminating the need for separate tissue production equipment”.
“We have successfully developed a bioreactor that meets these specifications, allowing us to cultivate both muscle and fat cells, or tissue, from any species,” says Lê.
“Our innovative adherent approach enables us to focus on engineering a single system – the bioreactor – instead of having to modify and adapt different cell types to work with existing bioreactors like suspension bioreactors. This makes the process more efficient and straightforward.”
Mission Barnes has additionally developed fully chemically defined and animal-free culture media, non-GM pork cell lines that can differentiate fat and proliferate quickly, and food-grade, cheap process reagents and substrates for coating, washing, and harvesting.
With partners lined up, Mission Barns expects US approval soon
Courtesy: Mission Barns
“At this pre-market stage, our primary focus is on bioprocess optimisation,” says Lê. The startup’s bioreactor is already in its third iteration, which is over 500 times larger than the initial prototypes.
Now, it is planning a larger-scale manufacturing facility. “Our current plan involves having bioreactors with working volumes in the tens of thousands of litres at commercial scale, when we’ll be outputting tens of millions of pounds of final product per year,” she adds.
Mission Barns, which has so far raised $60M, conducted a techno-economic analysis of this future facility, finding that with continued tech advancements – such as efficient media use, innovative scale-up, and an optimised supply chain for raw materials – it could reduce costs to reach price parity with conventional pork.
Asked about the regulatory progress, Lê reveals that Mission Barns is “actively working with regulators around the world” to bring its products to market “in a way that can assure consumers of its safety and high quality standards”.
“We’ve already completed a comprehensive safety assessment of our cultivated pork, and expect the agencies to publicly agree with our assessment soon, including the US,” she says.
The current pilot plant facility “can produce enough product to supply a handful of restaurants and retailers”. This would help with the initial market launch, as Lê points out: “We have a number of exciting partnerships confirmed with major US grocery stores, restaurants and food distributors who we have partnered with to sell our products.”
In Netherlands, discount retailer Lidl has introduced a blended minced meat SKU with pea protein, and reduced the price of its plant-based meat and dairy products.
With a new product and pricing strategy, Lidl Netherlands has taken a major step towards its 2030 goal of making 60% of all protein sales plant-based.
The discount supermarket has launched its first blended meat product, a minced meat mix with 60% beef and 40% pea protein. It has a lower impact on both the climate and consumer wallets.
In addition, it has permanently decreased the prices of its own-label vegan meat and dairy analogues, which will now be priced either the same as their conventional counterparts, or even lower than them.
“Much work is being done by supermarkets to encourage the purchase of plant-based food, but this move by Lidl in the Netherlands represents a hugely significant shift in the way supermarkets approach food system change,” said Jasmijn de Boo, CEO of ProVeg International.
Lidl establishes economic parity for Vemondo range
Courtesy: Lidl Nederland
Pricing has been a major climate strategy for Lidl across several markets. It first achieved price parity for products in its private-label Vemondo brand in its home country of Germany, before extending that to Denmark, Hungary, Austria and Belgium.
In the Netherlands, it conducted a six-month pilot that involved putting its plant-based meat SKUs next to the conventional meat aisle in 70 stores. The result was a 7% hike in sales, with visibility, taste and volume the key factors.
The retailer extended this placement approach across its 440 stores in the Netherlands, and has now brought its pricing strategy to the country too. It means that meat analogues like vegan burgers and sausages, and alt-dairy products such as plant-based yoghurt, cheese and crème fraîche now either cost the same as meat and dairy, or are cheaper.
This is key to consumer adoption: in 2023, a UK-based study by ProVeg showed that people are dramatically more likely to buy plant-based foods over their animal-derived equivalents when the former are lighter on the wallet.
Meanwhile, another survey by the food advocacy organisation revealed that plant-based analogues are now cheaper overall than meat and dairy in nearly all Dutch supermarkets, which – like Lidl – have committed to the 60/40 ratio by the end of the decade.
“Shifting to more plant-based diets is vital if we are to successfully stabilise CO2 emissions and halt habitat and biodiversity loss around the world,” said de Boo. “Supermarkets play a huge role here and Lidl has shown what can be done to encourage this shift. We urge other supermarket chains to compete with Lidl with their promotion of plant-based foods.”
A report by Madre Brava last month suggested that Lidl and Ahold Delhaize are leading the protein transition in the retail world, aligning their sales goals with climate targets. Lidl is working towards public targets across its locations, having published goals in six countries, with others to follow suit soon. “Doing so within this year could potentially turn Lidl into the first supermarket chain to publicly commit to align their protein offerings with human and planetary health goals,” the report said.
Taking on blended meat years after retailers’ failed attempts
Courtesy: Lidl Nederland
In 2019, Aldi brought out a BBQ Flexitarian Burger made from a mix of beef and beans, which got widely panned. Two years later, Tesco introduced a Lean & Greens range that combined chicken with vegetables. In both instances, the products are now discontinued.
Blended meat – especially from private-label brands – wasn’t commercially successful. But things have changed now. Everyone from Nestlé and Purdue Farms to Quorn in the NHS and even Disneyland are dabbling with these products, which deliver an improvement on the climate credentials and represent more uptake among meat-eaters and flexitarians.
Lidl Netherlands has made a major move towards lowering its climate footprint. Beef is the most polluting food on the planet, and by subbing out 40% of it with pea protein (whose emissions are 90 times lower), the retailer’s new minced meat produces 37% fewer emissions.
According to Lidl, half of the population in the Netherlands eats minced meat every week. But a large European survey this year found that 49% of Dutch consumers have reduced their meat consumption compared to 2023. And the top two factors for purchasing plant-based analogues are taste and price, two attributes Lidl’s alternative proteins must get right.
“The taste is the same, but the environmental impact and price are lower,” promised Geert de Vries, a buyer at Lidl. The 300g mince – available in all its Dutch stores now (and yes, placed right next to meat) – will set consumers back €2.29, a 33% improvement on ground beef.
“The development took quite a while. We wanted to develop a minced meat mix that contains less meat, but retains the taste,” said de Vres. “I daresay that even for the real meat lover, this minced meat mix is indistinguishable from regular minced meat.”
Martine van Haperen, health and nutrition expert at ProVeg Netherlands, lauded Lidl’s two initiatives. “Price is the main obstacle for people to choose plant-based more often. The step to make plant-based products the same price or cheaper than meat and dairy removes that obstacle,” she said.
“Also, not everyone wants to eat meat substitutes or legumes. By introducing a hybrid product, just in the meat section, they really appeal to the meat eater. They don’t even have to change their consumption pattern. This is a valuable addition that really gives Lidl the opportunity to influence the protein ratio.”
Finnish gas protein startup Solar Foods is planning to go public with a technical listing on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Helsinki.
Solar Foods, which makes Solein protein by feeding microbes on gases, has announced its intention to list the business on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in September.
The First North marketplace is a division of Nasdaq Nordic and an alternative stock exchange for smaller companies in Europe. It is currently home to over 550 companies.
Helsinki-based Solar Foods will be applying for a technical (or direct) listing – unlike an IPO, this doesn’t involve the issuance of any new shares, but instead allows businesses to sell their existing stocks without raising new capital.
The Solein protein producer outlined two reasons for going public. The first is to implement a global growth strategy, which involves scaling up production, introducing new products, and making strategic acquisitions to speed up tech development.
Additionally, Solar Foods aims to enhance its profile and credibility among stakeholders, customers, financiers, as well as current and future personnel.
Tech licencing could open up new revenue stream
Courtesy: Solar Foods
Solar Foods produces Solein through the fermentation of microbes, using carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen as feedstocks (instead of sugar). The resulting protein can be used in an assortment of products, from meat, dairy and egg analogues to beverages and noodles.
Having already been approved for sale in Singapore, it debuted as part of a vegan chocolate gelato at Italian eatery Fico, and was the base of a Taste the Future chocolate snack bar released by Fazer – a majority shareholder of Solar Foods – earlier this year. And just this month, Japanese food conglomerate Ajinomoto unveiled mooncakes and ice cream sandwiches where Solein replaced the dairy.
The deep-yellow, flavourless powder boasts 65-70% protein, 5-8% fat, and up to 15% dietary fibre, while also containing iron and vitamin B. But apart from nutrition, Solein’s USP lies in the sustainability credentials – the main raw materials for production are carbon dioxide and renewable energy, resulting in emissions equal to just 1% of those generated by conventional meat, and 20% of plant proteins.
This has also allowed it to become the first private company in Finland to gain a Nasdaq Green Equity Designation, which recognises businesses that generate more than half of their turnover from green activities, and less than 5% from fossil fuels.
In its announcement, Solar Foods explained that its business model is “to produce new food raw materials for the global market using both existing and new microbial strains under development”.
“This requires investments in R&D, sales and marketing, as well as in the production capacity of Solein,” it said. “As the company has already scaled its production technology to demonstration scale, it also has the potential to licence both hydrogen fermentation technology and production organisms for the food industry.”
In doing so, its net sales would be based on a licence fee based on clients’ production, and the startup said this model wouldn’t tie up capital and would help improve its profitability.
Solar Foods working on new products as it plans for Factory 02
Courtesy: Solar Foods
To date, Solar Foods has attracted over €43M in equity funding, including an €8M Series B round last November, as well as €30M in debt financing. It also received €34M in grants from Business Finland to build its commercial-scale Factory 01, which opened in April with the capacity to produce as much protein per day as a dairy farm with 300 cows.
Business Finland has set aside a further €76M to support the construction of its next plant, Factory 02, if it’s built on European soil. This facility is expected to have a profitable production scale.
Solar Foods has highlighted several “megatrends” that underscore its growth. Climate change, biodiversity loss, shrinking farmland, a swelling population, increasing consumer consciousness around sustainability, and geopolitics (three countries make up 80% of global soy production) are all major challenges for food companies.
“Solein has the lowest carbon footprint compared to all other known protein sources if fossil-free energy is used in production,” Solar Foods said. “The production of Solein does not require arable land, and it can be produced anywhere where renewable energy is available, such as in the desert or in space. In large-scale production, the company estimates that Solein’s cost will be competitive with any other protein.”
The startup is now focusing on international expansion, with regulatory approval expected in the US this year, allowing it to begin sales in the second half of 2024. This is set to provide “significant benefits” in authorisation processes in the other markets it has filed dossiers in, such as the EU and the UK. Solar Foods anticipates the UK greenlight in 2026, and is also considering filing applications for new products developed alongside Solein.
The two manufacturing plants form the basis of Solar Foods’ growth over the next two years. Factory 01 can produce 160 tonnes of Solein annually, and this would be sold to customers for test marketing campaigns and new product pilots – these are prerequisites for earning sales contracts for Factory 02.
The latter’s capacity is set to be 50 to 100 times higher than Factory 01 and generate net sales of €80-200M. It could see a total investment of €150-420M, and based on current estimates, each kg of Solein will cost €4.3-5.2 to produce (excluding certain financing costs). That price is set to fall even further with tech advancements.
At the end of 2023, Solar Foods had a net debt of €12M (25% down from the previous year), with an operating loss of nearly €7M and net sales of €5,000 – the latter will likely increase significantly with the new partnerships this year, including the Fazer and Ajinomoto products.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Lurpak’s plant-based butter, Cheetos’ limited-edition vegan release, and Oatly and Kolkata Chai Co.’s ice cream block party.
New products and launches
Arla‘s market-leading butter brand Lurpak has finally entered the plant-based world with a non-dairy spreadable version made from rapeseed, coconut and shea oils, oats and cultures. It debuts in the UK today, and in Denmark on August 26.
Courtesy: Lurpak/Meawnamcat via Getty Images
Another dairy-free win comes from Premier Foods, whose canned custard brand Ambrosia has introduced a plant-based edition in the UK. The non-HFSS 390g tin is currently available at Morrisons for £1.95 (on par with the £2, 400g dairy and egg version), and will roll out at other retailers next month.
Irish vegan influencer duo David and Stephen Flynn – known as The Happy Pear – is bringing its range of dips, soups, ready meals, granolas and drinks to UK supermarkets following a successful €2.5M crowdfunding round in June.
Courtesy: The Happy Pear
Swedish vegan meat analogue startup Hooked Foods has brought out four new products – chicken bites, chicken filets, tuna bites, and salmon bites – with a refreshed packaging design. They will be available at ICA Gruppen and Coop Sverige from October.
German pet food startup VegDog has permanently introduced a potato-based vegan popcorn snack for dogs.
Frito-Lay‘s cult-favourite cheese puff brand Cheetos has at last gone plant-based with a new Vegan Vegetalien White Cheddar Blanc launched exclusively in Canada for a limited time.
Courtesy: @accidentally_vegan_canada via Instagram/Yazgi Bayram via Getty Images
Ingredients giant Ingredion has released a functional native cornstarch called Novation Indulge 2940, which holds distinct gelling properties for use in vegan cheese, among other applications.
UK vegan meat maker Shicken has rolled out its Tikka Kebab in Costco stores in the US, making it the only British plant-based meat brand currently available on its shelves.
Also in the US, Oatly has partnered with Kolkata Chai Co. to promote their Oat Milk Chai Soft Serve at a block party at the latter’s East Village location in New York City this Friday (August 22), which is National Soft Serve Day. It comes a week after Oatly’s soft-serve began appearing at Impossible Foods‘ Chicago pop-up.
Courtesy: Oatly/Kolkata Chai Co.
Texas-based Kibo Foods has launched a new line of Veggie Crunch chips made from green peas. They come in three plant-based flavours: sour cream and onion, hot chipotle, and sea salt. They’re available on its e-store and on Amazon for $21.99 per 12-pack.
In Singapore, upcycled food startup The Moonbeam Co. has collaborated with coffee company Bettr to introduce the Resavour Mocha Siew Dai Cookies, made using spent coffee grounds.
Japanese restaurant operator Fujiya has announced a sorghum-based meat analogue brand called Nikugoe. The lineup, which includes Hamburg Steak, Meat Super Cheese Hamburger, and Meat Super Gyoza, is set to launch in the country in autumn, with future plans to take it to the US.
Courtesy: Tous les Jours
South Korean bakery chain Tous les Jours has added vegan cakes to its menu. The Plantastic raspberry-chocolate and blueberry-chocolate offerings are available nationwide.
And in Dubai, vegan café Seva is set to reopen on September 1 after undergoing renovations in the summer.
Research and company developments
Research by plant-based meat brand Meatless Farm has found that two-thirds of meat-eaters would swap beef burgers for a vegan option after learning that its meat-free burger has 85% lower emissions.
Courtesy: Meatless Farm
At the University of Lisbon‘s Técnico Lisboa, researchers have developed cultivated seabass via 3D bioprinting, a result of a five-year effort.
Inn Pakistan, the Institute of Agronomy at Bahauddin Zakariya University has launched an MSc (Hons) degree in Climate Change and Food Security.
Company and personnel updates
Sandhya Sriram, founder of cultivated seafood startup Shiok Meats (now acquired by Umami Bioworks), has been appointed as CEO of New Zealand-based food tech investor and accelerator Sprout Agritech.
In Canada, Danone’s plant-based milk brand Silk‘s coconut and almond milk ranges, and Walmart‘s private-label Great Value almond milks, have been recalled due to concerns of a Listeria outbreak.
Courtesy: Beacon Press
Mercy for Animals president and CEO Leah Garcés is releasing her second book, Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming, on September 17. Currently available for pre-order, it is described as an “insightful and pointed exploration of the injustices perpetrated by factory farming”, and will be promoted via a six-city book tour in the fall.
Finally, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has joined the growing list of retailers and caterers to commit to making 60% of all protein sales plant-based by 2030, with the aim of halving emissions by this time. The international airport will also introduce Fairtrade standards for food and coffee, with all products being deforestation-free by 2025 (echoing the incoming EU regulations).
Catalonia is home to a ‘booming’ alternative protein industry, says a government report as Spain’s autonomous region looks to become a European hub for future food.
As Spain’s alternative protein sector expands, Catalonia is hoping to become a centre of innovation for these future foods.
A new report by the government’s Catalonia Trade and Investment agency reveals that the autonomous region is home to 112 companies in the sector, which employ 1,031 people and generate €301M in revenue. But it expects the number of businesses working with alternative proteins to “grow exponentially in the coming years”.
In what is dubbed as the “first comprehensive analysis of this field” in the region, the state agency claims it ranks 14th on the global list of alternative protein projects receiving foreign direct investment.
The makeup of Catalonia’s alternative protein sector
Courtesy: Heura
The report seems to be an effort to attract foreign businesses to Catalonia, with a statement from Bernat Anaños, co-founder and plant-based meat leader Heura (which is based in Barcelona, the Catalan capital), outlining as much: “Barcelona and Catalonia are the perfect place from which to lead the protein transition.”
Among the 112 companies identified by Catalonia Trade and Investment are those that deal exclusively with alternative proteins (like Heura), as well as meat and dairy companies with plant-based product lines. Moreover, there are players specializing in ingredients for taste, aroma and texture enhancements, supplements, and other areas.
Signalling the growth potential of the sector, over a third (34%) of the companies are less than a decade old, while 70% are small or medium-sized (turning over less than €50M). But most businesses are focused internationally: nearly 70% are exporters, and 15% are local subsidiaries of foreign companies.
Within the region, Barcelona is home to 62% of players in the region’s alternative protein sector, responsible for 83% of its revenue and 86% of jobs. Apart from Heura, these include vegan cheese producer Väcka, fermentation startups Libre Foods and Real Deal Milk, plant-based meat makers Novameat and Zyrcular Foods, alt-fat innovator Cubiq Foods, and vegan food manufacturer Natursoy.
Recent developments outline sector’s potential
Courtesy: Väcka/Ditaly
The report stresses that it’s not just companies that make up the alternative protein ecosystem in Catalonia – it’s also populated by business organisations and associations, technology transfer platforms, incubators, as well as universities and research centres, like Eatable Adventures, Forward Fooding and Innovacc. Meanwhile, trade fairs like Alimentaria, BioCultura, Hispack, Free From Functional Food Expo, and Hostelco also focus on this area.
Illustrating the increasing interest in Catalonia’s alternative protein potential, the report highlights several recent and upcoming developments. For example, the Department of Climate Action and the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology last year pumped €7M into the Center for Innovation in Alternative Proteinsm, which promotes future food R&D for human and animal nutrition.
Ingal Enginyeria & Consulting, meanwhile, will develop a pre-industrial plant for the extraction and production of alternative protein, which will be available to hundreds of startups. Natural Gourmet Foods has similarly inaugurated a production and distribution facility specifically for plant-based meat. And German meal kit giant HelloFresh, whose range includes meat analogues, is preparing to launch in Barcelona.
Looking forward, the Catalan government says consumer preferences, production capacity, regulatory environments, and climate action policies will be the main factors influencing the global alternative protein industry. Nationally, it notes how four out of five consumers in Spain are reducing their meat consumption, and 72% are eating more meat and dairy analogues.
“There’s a need to drive technological development so that companies in the alternative protein space can reach production capabilities equivalent to those in traditional food industries,” ACCIÓ says on its website. “These innovations should also facilitate the exploration of fermentation and cell-cultivation processes to obtain these new products.”
Driven by the restaurants and corporate catering, foodservice sales of plant-based meat and dairy in the Netherlands grew by 111% and 82%, respectively, in the past two years.
In 2023, the number of meat analogues sold in Dutch foodservice channels was double the amount two years prior, just as conventional meat saw volume sales decline by 2%, according to Foodstep data analysed by ProVeg Netherlands.
Between 2021 and 2023, the volume sales of plant-based meat grew by 111%, on the back of sustained popularity in restaurants and corporate catering. Dairy alternatives, meanwhile, saw unit sales increase by 82% in the same period.
These new figures mean vegan analogues accounted for 4.3% of the overall meat market and 7.4% of the dairy sector – for the first time, the share of these products in foodservice is higher than in the retail sector.
When looking at the data longer term, the volume sales of conventional dairy have shrunk sharply, according to ProVeg Netherlands. The organisation suggests the segment never recovered from the foodservice dip experienced by the entire industry during the Covid-19 lockdowns, which saw many restaurants close both temporarily and permanently. Sales of these products have only reached 78% of pre-lockdown levels.
On the other hand, plant-based dairy has become more popular. Milk alternatives alone saw a 92% rise, and their popularity in the quick-service sector was thanks to the 123% hike in volume sales of plant-based barista milks. These products made up two-thirds (68%) of all ‘frothable’ milk sold in sandwich shops, snack bars and cafés.
But there is a caveat – most QSRs and coffee shops use whole milk instead of specially crafted barista milk. So when accounting for this, nearly 20% of milk used in this foodservice segment is plant-based. And this is dominated by oat milk, which is responsible for 12% of the share.
Meanwhile, margarine and butter alternatives saw a smaller growth of 7% between 2021 and 2023, but already account for 63% of the market. Vegan cheese and ice cream, however, has a long way to go: despite volume sales rising by 113% and 227%, respectively, these products still only make up 0.9% and 0.4% of cheese and ice cream sold to the foodservice sector in the Netherlands.
The largest growth for plant-based products in this period came from the cooking cream segment. Accounting for 12% of the overall market, volume sales of vegan cooking cream skyrocketed by 320%. The volume share of these products is even larger in the education (37%) and corporate catering (21%) sectors.
“Most products still have a long way to go. But plant-based cooking cream is already well on its way to becoming just as ubiquitous a plant-based basic product in catering as margarine,” said Martine van Haperen, foodservice expert at ProVeg Netherlands.
Caterers turn to exclusively plant-based options
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher
When it comes to plant-based meat, bitterballen (Dutch croquettes) have witnessed the biggest rise (201%) between 2021 and 2023, while croquettes have grown by 50% in volume sales. The market share for meat analogues is highest in the education sector (9.5%) – here, vegan versions account for 22% of all bitterballen sold.
Likewise, traditional plant proteins have become more popular too, with legumes growing by 33% in Dutch foodservice. Lentils (69%) saw the biggest rise, followed by chickpeas (67%) and other beans (25%).
Vegan mayo and fries sauce represent another food group with explosive growth, with sales up by 244% and accounting for 3.5% of the overall market. In corporate catering, though, their share is already at 8%.
“What these products have in common is the high one-on-one replaceability with the animal alternative,” explained van Haperen. “More and more caterers only offer vegetable cream, mayonnaise or bitterballen. That is much easier and more environmentally friendly than offering animal and vegetable options separately, especially because the consumer hardly tastes the difference.
She added that the high volumes can be attributed to the strict sustainability targets of Dutch foodservice companies – 16 caterers have committed to have at least 60% of all proteins sold be plant-based by 2030, an effort led by animal rights group Wakker Dier. These include Van Leeuwen Catering, Vermaat Groep, Albron, Hutten and Compass Group.
Driven by the restaurants and corporate catering, foodservice sales of plant-based meat and dairy in the Netherlands grew by 111% and 82%, respectively, in the past two years.
In 2023, the number of meat analogues sold in Dutch foodservice channels was double the amount two years prior, just as conventional meat saw volume sales decline by 2%, according to Foodstep data analysed by ProVeg Netherlands.
Between 2021 and 2023, the volume sales of plant-based meat grew by 111%, on the back of sustained popularity in restaurants and corporate catering. Dairy alternatives, meanwhile, saw unit sales increase by 82% in the same period.
These new figures mean vegan analogues accounted for 4.3% of the overall meat market and 7.4% of the dairy sector – for the first time, the share of these products in foodservice is higher than in the retail sector.
When looking at the data longer term, the volume sales of conventional dairy have shrunk sharply, according to ProVeg Netherlands. The organisation suggests the segment never recovered from the foodservice dip experienced by the entire industry during the Covid-19 lockdowns, which saw many restaurants close both temporarily and permanently. Sales of these products have only reached 78% of pre-lockdown levels.
On the other hand, plant-based dairy has become more popular. Milk alternatives alone saw a 92% rise, and their popularity in the quick-service sector was thanks to the 123% hike in volume sales of plant-based barista milks. These products made up two-thirds (68%) of all ‘frothable’ milk sold in sandwich shops, snack bars and cafés.
But there is a caveat – most QSRs and coffee shops use whole milk instead of specially crafted barista milk. So when accounting for this, nearly 20% of milk used in this foodservice segment is plant-based. And this is dominated by oat milk, which is responsible for 12% of the share.
Meanwhile, margarine and butter alternatives saw a smaller growth of 7% between 2021 and 2023, but already account for 63% of the market. Vegan cheese and ice cream, however, has a long way to go: despite volume sales rising by 113% and 227%, respectively, these products still only make up 0.9% and 0.4% of cheese and ice cream sold to the foodservice sector in the Netherlands.
The largest growth for plant-based products in this period came from the cooking cream segment. Accounting for 12% of the overall market, volume sales of vegan cooking cream skyrocketed by 320%. The volume share of these products is even larger in the education (37%) and corporate catering (21%) sectors.
“Most products still have a long way to go. But plant-based cooking cream is already well on its way to becoming just as ubiquitous a plant-based basic product in catering as margarine,” said Martine van Haperen, foodservice expert at ProVeg Netherlands.
Caterers turn to exclusively plant-based options
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher
When it comes to plant-based meat, bitterballen (Dutch croquettes) have witnessed the biggest rise (201%) between 2021 and 2023, while croquettes have grown by 50% in volume sales. The market share for meat analogues is highest in the education sector (9.5%) – here, vegan versions account for 22% of all bitterballen sold.
Likewise, traditional plant proteins have become more popular too, with legumes growing by 33% in Dutch foodservice. Lentils (69%) saw the biggest rise, followed by chickpeas (67%) and other beans (25%).
Vegan mayo and fries sauce represent another food group with explosive growth, with sales up by 244% and accounting for 3.5% of the overall market. In corporate catering, though, their share is already at 8%.
“What these products have in common is the high one-on-one replaceability with the animal alternative,” explained van Haperen. “More and more caterers only offer vegetable cream, mayonnaise or bitterballen. That is much easier and more environmentally friendly than offering animal and vegetable options separately, especially because the consumer hardly tastes the difference.
She added that the high volumes can be attributed to the strict sustainability targets of Dutch foodservice companies – 16 caterers have committed to have at least 60% of all proteins sold be plant-based by 2030, an effort led by animal rights group Wakker Dier. These include Van Leeuwen Catering, Vermaat Groep, Albron, Hutten and Compass Group.
And this week, industry members got a taste of three new dishes using a new kind of ingredient for hybrid meats (a combination of cultivated animal cells and plant-based ingredients).
Local startup Ants Innovate showcased Cell Essence, a cultivated pork oil for hybrid meats, as part of three dishes at a private tasting. It is part of the company’s line of functional ingredients for the alternative protein industry, and was mixed with products from its plant-based meat brand NouMi.
The cultivated porcine oil was part of IKEA-style meatballs, Shanghai-style soup dumplings (xiaolongbao), and teriyaki grilled skewers. The latter featured another of Ants Innovate’s functional ingredients, a lean meat cut using its Scalable Micro-Imprinted Lapis Expansion (or SMILE) tech.
A few drops are all that’s needed
Courtesy: GFI APAC/LInkedIn
Ants Innovate is an alumnus of the state-owned Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), and was founded by Hanry Yu and Ong Shuian in 2020. The startup calls itself an “industry enabler and a translator of technology to products”, and aims to supply functional ingredients for cultivated and plant-based protein manufacturers to make premium whole-cut meats.
The company is working on a range of fictional hybrid meat ingredients to hit the taste, texture and affordability touchpoints, which includes a scaleable micro-imprinting and stacking technology for planet-friendly meat cuts, as explained by the Good Food Institute APAC, whose director Mirte Gosker was at the tasting event.
Cell Essence is described as an ingredient that “emulates the rich, savoury essence of pork”, and has a major impact on the sensory aspects of hybrid meats even in small concentrations. The technology extracts these attributes from animal cells and helps the startup “control the meaty aroma, fibrous base or natural meaty colouring” of the products.
“This is a hybrid cultivated porcine oil that emulates the rich, savoury essence of pork,” explained Calisa Lim, senior project manager at trade body APAC-SCA, who was also at the event. Writing on LinkedIn, she said she was particularly “blown away by the smell and taste” of the meat skewers.
“The small percentage of cells (<3%) was enough to deliver on the sweet, salty and umami flavour that conventional pork has,” wrote Lim.
The commercial potential of hybrid meat
Courtesy: Ants Innovate
Ants Innovate is among several startups working on cultivated meat ingredients. Silicon Valley startup Mission Barns is making cultivated pork fat, Dutch player Upstream Foods is working on cultivated salmon fat, and fellow Singaporean company ImpacFat is developing cultivated fish fat. South Korea’s Simple Planet, meanwhile, has created a cultivated meat powder.
Ants Innovate – whose name takes inspiration from the Ants and Lions story – has an automaton instrument that uses process and design engineering to seamlessly transform ingredients like Cell Essence into end products. It has established various cell lines and opened a lab and pilot plant at Bedok Food City.
It launched NouMi in 2022, offering plant-based meat products in the form of baos, spring rolls, curry puffs and dumplings. It has also been working with strategic partners in supply chain and distribution to commercialise its functional ingredients.
Most cultivated meats that have been sold so far are hybrid meats, as the industry continues to scale and lower costs. “The chances of being able to economically produce 100% cultivated products that can compete on price with commoditised meat are slim to none in the next 10+ years,” Heather Courtney, general partner at Alwyn Capital, told Green Queen in December.
“in the short term, it’s likely the only way to make cultivated commercially feasible,” she added. “Hybrid products will allow the cultivated market the chance to build and become normalised with consumers, while also – importantly – generating the revenues and business necessary to keep dollars flowing into the space, so scale can be further achieved.”
Ants Innovate addresses the cost question on its website, saying: “We have low cost as a key design goal and have simplified the manufacturing process and ingredient list, as well as the cell and food production strategies. We use cells for their meaty flavours so our premium quality products will be priced competitively with conventional meat.”
The world’s top food delivery services are failing to implement strategies to reduce meat and dairy consumption, despite the climate emergency.
Despite an uptick in vegan food options, most food delivery apps promote these meals temporarily, and lack long-term, concrete strategies for reducing animal-derived foods, a study has found.
Animal rights organisation Four Paws analysed 18 food delivery services in Europe, the US and South Africa to rank their climate, meat and dairy reduction goals, animal welfare policies, and vegan food offerings. These companies were found to be lacking in their efforts to curb meat and dairy consumption, despite these foods making up 57% of global agricultural emissions.
Only three have raised the topic of animals: Thuisbezorgd (the Dutch subsidiary of Just Eat) mentioned welfare in a blog post in connection to people’s shifts to plant-based; Just Eat Switzerlad referred to animal husbandry in its trends report for 2022; and Deliveroo mentioned animal health in a materiality matrix in its 2023 report.
But none of them have any policies to protect animal welfare. “Food delivery services really need to start delivering on animal welfare. When ordering out, it makes a big difference for animal welfare and the climate, whether you choose a meat burger or a vegan pizza,” says Sonja Svensek, head of nutrition at Four Paws.
“This is why it is so essential that food delivery services support their partnering restaurants and consumers in making animal-friendly choices,” she adds.
Just Eat Takeaway.com leads climate goals, but they’re still poor
Courtesy: Four Paws
The 18 services are subsidiaries of five major global food delivery services: Deliveroo, Delivery Hero, DoorDash/Wolt, Just Eat Takeaway.com, and Uber Eats.
The research found that Just Eat Switzerland topped the ranking with 32 points out of 100, followed by the brand’s UK operation, which scored 27 – although this overall rank was still classed as ‘poor’. Both showed equally positive initiatives towards meat and dairy reduction and climate goals, however, earning 16 points of 40 for this category.
Four Paws revealed that several leading companies have made references to the negative environmental effects of animal proteins in their annual reports or by developing concrete initiatives. Just Eat Takeaway.com, for example, acknowledged that “animal-based products have on average higher emissions per kg of product compared to plant-based products” in its 2022 emissions report submitted to the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Its UK and Swiss subsidiaries have worked with carbon calculator startup My Emissions to access the climate footprint of meals, enabling restaurants to understand how sustainable their dishes are, and allowing consumers to make more planet-friendly choices.
Just Eat UK also provided sustainability guides to partners, addressing the impact of animal-based foods, as well as topics like sustainable packaging and green operations. Its German and Austrian subsidiaries, under the brand name Lieferando, further highlighted the livestock-climate connection in either their reports or on their websites.
However, it’s unclear whether Just Eat Takeaway.com’s carbon labelling schemes and restaurant sustainability guides will extend to other geographies too.
Meanwhile, Deliveroo’s annual report for 2023 – which recognised beef as the highest polluting food – had a section on a hypothetical meat tax. If such a levy were to be imposed, the company said it would advise restaurants and grocers to promote plant-based products and dishes.
“Although this was only a risk mitigation strategy to avoid costs being passed on to the consumer rather than a self-motivated climate strategy, it is positive to see that Deliveroo was aware of the emissions problem of beef and saw plant-based dishes as a solution,” Four Paws states in the report.
How food delivery companies fare on vegan food
Courtesy: Just Eat for Business
Just Eat Switzerland came out on top in terms of the availability of plant-based food, scoring 14 out of 20 points. This was followed by the company’s subsidiaries in the UK, the Netherlands (Thuisbezorgd), and Germany (Lieferando).
Postmates US and Uber Eats Netherlands scored the lowest on this metric (one point), and also overall, since this was their only point across the ranking.
Of the 18 services, 11 mentioned increasing vegan offerings. But only Just Eat UK, Switzerland, Lieferando in Germany and Austria, Thuisbezorgd and Deliveroo had “vague plans” to up the availability of vegan food on a temporary basis.
Just Eat Takeaway.com developed a Veganuary initiative to inspire consumers about meat-free dishes across 15 markets (although it’s not clear if GrubHub was part of the initiative). Its local efforts include partnerships with Planted and Garden Gourmet and 20% discounts on plant-based orders during Veganuary in Switzerland, plus awards for best vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Germany and Austria.
Similarly, Deliveroo launched limited-edition special dishes for Vegan-ooo-ary in the UK. Meanwhile, Uber Eats Germany offered a 20% discount on vegan dishes on Earth Day, and posts regularly about plant-based food on social media, unlike its operations in other countries.
Four Paws has sent a commitment letter to each of the 18 food delivery companies, outlining goals across the three categories to be achieved by 2028. These include implementing a meat and dairy reduction goal (without compensating these with other animal proteins), phasing out factory-farmed products, and ramping up vegan food options and in-app promotions on these.
“With the sector booming, it is high time these companies are living up to their responsibility to protect animal welfare and the climate, which should be reflected within their CSR policies,” says Svensek. “Delivery services can raise awareness about the importance of a plant-based diet promoting vegan dishes more visibly on their ordering platforms.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Chloe Coscarelli’s comeback to the restaurant world, vegan hits at UK airports, and Canada’s plant-based egg labelling guidelines.
New products and launches
Vegan chef Chloe Coscarelli has opened eponymous restaurant Chloe on New York City’s Bleecker Street (to rave reviews), eight years after she was ousted from her first restaurant chain, By Chloe.
Courtesy: Chloe
On the other coast, vegan seafood company Impact Food served its sushi-grade tuna in nachos and a rice bowl by the Da Poke Man food truck at the Outside Lands music festival last weekend.
If you’re a fan of the adult party game Cards Against Humanity, vegan gaming company This Is Not A Game has released a vegan-focused version called Plants Against Veganity. There’s apparently a Monopoly-style game in the works too.
Courtesy: This Is Not A Game
Israeli alt-seafood player Oshi has partnered with Lewis Hamilton-backed vegan chain Neat, which has added three dishes using the former’s vegan salmon. It comes shortly after the startup relocated production to California, spotting a bigger market for its vegan fish in the US.
US airline JetBlue has launched Lakeland Dairies‘ Milk in a Stick Oat Milk, a plant-based creamer for the in-flight Dunkin’ coffee and tea offerings.
Alt-dairy giant Califia Farms has announced its fall and winter lineups: the former features pumpkin spice barista oat milk, caramel apple crumble oat creamer, and maple waffle almond creamer; and the latter has a holiday blend black iced coffee, holiday nog, and peppermint mocha almond latte. These and other flavours are rolling out across grocery stores now.
Courtesy: Califia Farms
Blue Zones Kitchen – the company based on the world’s blue zones highlighted in Netflix’s Live to 100 – has rolled out its debut breakfast product line. The vegan, gluten-free, steel-cut oatmeal SKUs come in blueberry-walnut and peach-pecan flavours, and can be found at Whole Foods stores nationwide.
Fast-casual chain Veggie Grill has debuted its largest menu update since being acquired by Next Level Burger in January. New items include quinoa-mushroom burgers, crispy chicken sandwiches, and an avocado Cobb salad with tempeh bacon.
Courtesy: Veggie Grill
In the UK, VBites owner Heather Mills is sponsoring The Big Green Clash, an eco-focused rugby match between Richmond Rugby Club and the all-vegan Green Gazelles Rugby Club at London’s Richmond Athletic Ground on September 8.
Meanwhile, bottled oat milk maker Oato has launched a Caffè Latte variant exclusively for British milk round Modern Milkman, with notes of caramel and vanilla, 7g of sugar per 100ml, and a price tag of £1.50 per pint.
Courtesy: Oato
And restaurant chain Wagamama, which aims to make half its menu plant-based by 2025, has introduced a vegan brunch menu at 22 locations across the UK. A national rollout will follow soon.
Financial updates
Australian precision fermentation startup Cauldron has been awarded an A$4.3M ($2.8M) grant by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Industry Growth Program to scale up its manufacturing platform for high-value ingredients.
Brazilian mycoprotein producerTypcal has received R$250,000 ($45,000) in grant funding from the government’s Paraná Anjo Inovador programme.
Courtesy: Typcal
In South Korea, meat-producer-turned-vegan-startup Sujis Link has secured a ₩3B ($2.5M) investment from Samyang Foods, as part of a collaboration to advance the country’s plant-based sector.
Since last summer, sales of vegan breakfasts and brunches have hiked by over 20% at Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports in the UK.
Policy and research developments
In Chile, the agricultural committee has passed a bill that would see plant-based meat, dairy and egg products as “simulated food”. The proposed legislation is now being debated in the Chamber of Deputies.
Canada is developing guidance on the labelling of plant-based egg products, in what it says is an effort to help companies avoid being ‘misleading’ and comply with regulations. The proposed guidance is predictable.
Courtesy: Veronika Dvorakova
Speaking of Canada, cellular agriculture platform Cult Food Science‘s subsidiary Further Foods has submitted a design protocol for feeding trials of its cultivated pet food, which it aims to launch under its Noochies! brand. As we reported last month, the goal is to receive US regulatory approval and sell cultivated chicken in early 2025.
University of Georgia startup CytoNest has introduced an edible 3D fibre scaffold for cultivated meat and seafood, which is made from Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) materials.
Courtesy: Lauren Corcino
Finally, in the UK, West Yorkshire’s Calderdale Council is the latest to go vegan, having approved the proposal to only serve plant-based food at future meetings and catered events.
California’s Upside Foods has filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida over its ban on cultivated meat, and is asking the federal court for an injunction. Here’s what happened, and what’s to come.
Forty-two days after Florida decided to outlaw the sale and production of cultivated meat, the state is now facing a lawsuit over the ban.
Californian cultivated chicken startup Upside Foods has filed a legal complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida, calling Florida’s SB 1084 “unconstitutional”.
Announced on May 1 by governor Ron DeSantis, the legislation made it a second-degree misdemeanour to manufacture, transport, commercialise or sell cultivated meat within Florida’s borders. Penalties included up to $5,000 in fines, 60 days in jail, and businesses having their licenses revoked.
“What we’re protecting here is the industry against acts of man, against an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem, that views things like raising cattle as destroying our climate,” DeSantis said at the time, labelling it a battle against “the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals”.
But Paul Sherman, senior attorney at the Institute of Justice, which is leading the case for Upside Foods, said the ban had “nothing to do with protecting public health and safety”. “Florida’s law is a transparent example of economic protectionism. It was passed following intense lobbying by cattle interests, and its protectionist purpose was no secret,” he said in a press conference.
So what are the grounds for Upside Foods’ lawsuit? And what happens next? Here’s everything you need to know.
Why Upside Foods is challenging Florida’s ban
As one of two companies approved to sell cultivated meat in the US, Upside Foods has been offering Americans a taste of its chicken for over a year now. What started as a residency on the menu of Dominique Crenn’s Bar Crenn has since evolved into tastings at various public events throughout the US.
These included the Industry Only Potluck in Las Vegas, TED Countdown Dilemma: Food in New York, and South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas. In fact, four days before Florida’s ban, the startup hosted a Freedom of Food Pop-Up in Miami, in partnership with local chef Mika Leon.
But this wasn’t the only event Upside Foods was planning in Florida. It had teamed up with local chefs to showcase its cultivated chicken at the Art Basel fair in Miami in December, and host a tasting at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in the state capital next February.
The chef who was working on the Art Basel activation had also planned to offer the cultivated chicken at her restaurant, aiming to make it available to diners on a limited basis by the first quarter of 2025. Upside Foods had additionally identified chefs in Miami and Tallahassee who were interested in collaborating with the brand.
Courtesy: Kevin Martin Galante/Upside Foods
“Florida is the third-largest economy in the US, which is why every CPG sees Florida as an important market,” Sean Edgett, chief legal officer at Upside Foods, tells Green Queen. “We know that ‘tasting is believing’ – giving consumers in every market the opportunity to try our product is hugely important to our future.”
He adds: “We had great feedback from our June 2023 Miami pop-up with Chef Mika Leon and hope to be able to continue that partnership in the future. However, for now, all plans for Florida are on hold.”
“Under the ban, tasting events like these are a crime. If Upside were to distribute its product in Florida, it would expose itself and the local chefs and food establishments with which it wishes to partner to civil and criminal penalties as well as the embargo and destruction of its products,” the complaint reads.
Upside Foods argues that the ban blocked “critical and irreplaceable opportunities” to grow the nascent cultivated meat market: “Upside is enduring ongoing harm in the form of lost revenue, missed business and promotional opportunities, reputational damage, and loss of consumer goodwill.”
The legislation also makes it harder for the startup to partner with restaurant groups. “Florida is the headquarters of the world’s largest full-service restaurant company [Darden Restaurants] and one of the largest quick-service restaurants in the country [Burger King], both of which are key long-term customer targets of Upside’s,” the plaintiff notes.
What makes Florida’s ban unconstitutional?
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods/Canva AI/Green Queen
The Institute of Justice has invoked two provisions of the US Constitution: the Commerce Clause and the Supremacy Clause.
Under the Commerce Clause, the federal government has exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce. States have limited power to interfere with or discriminate against here. “Florida’s ban does just that,” argues Institute of Justice attorney Suranjan Sen, also counsel to Upside Foods.
The state violates the Commerce Clause because its “intended purpose and practical effect is to shield in-state commercial interests from interstate competition”, he explains.
“Floridians have the right to enjoy a free-flowing market of interstate goods and services; they have a right to make an informed choice as to whether these products are right for themselves and their families; and Florida cannot shield itself from the interstate market without good reason,” Sen tells Green Queen.
“There is no such good reason here, in part because these products are safe to eat, and they are heavily regulated and inspected by the USDA and FDA – just like conventional meat.”
And the decision by two federal departments to allow Upside Foods to sell products in the interstate market supersedes any contrary state laws, as outlined in the Supremacy Clause.
“Congress long ago passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, which grant the USDA and FDA the authority to set up a nationwide regulatory regime for meat products, a regime that expressly preempts state laws to the contrary (because 50 different regulatory regimes would frustrate a nationwide market),” explains Sen.
Introducing different ingredient or manufacturing requirements is therefore prevented by these acts. “Essentially, the federal government has said that cultivated chicken cells produced at Upside’s facilities can be used in poultry products, and the state of Florida is saying that they can’t. The state simply doesn’t have that power,” Sherman added in the press conference.
Who are the defendants?
Courtesy: Upside Foods
The defendants in the lawsuit are Florida agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson, attorney general Ashley Moody, as well as state attorneys Jack Campbell (from the Second Judicial Circuit), Bruce Bartlett (Sixth Judicial Circuit), Andrew Bain (Ninth Judicial Circuit), and Katherine Fernandez Rundle (Eleventh Judicial Circuit).
“The lawsuit is ridiculous,” Simpson said in a statement. “Lab-grown ‘meat’ is not proven to be safe enough for consumers and it is being pushed by a liberal agenda to shut down farms. Food security is a matter of national security, and our farmers are the first line of defence.”
He added: “As Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, I will fight every day to protect a safe, affordable, and abundant food supply. States are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California.”
“The states simply do not have the power to wall themselves off from products that have been approved by the USDA and the FDA,” Sherman said when asked to respond to Simpson’s comments. “And if consumers don’t like the idea of cultivated meat, there’s a simple solution. They don’t have to eat it, but they can’t make that decision for other consumers.”
Uma Valeti, co-founder and CEO of Upside Foods, stressed that cultivated meat is a “complement, not competition” to conventional meat. The current methods of meat production are unsustainable – there’s simply not enough land, water or resources to meet the needs of a 10-billion-strong population.
“What cultivated meat is doing is putting choice of having animal-based foods on the table and not having to ration in the future,” Valeti said.
Miami chef Mika Leon and Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti at the Freedom of Food tasting event in June | Courtesy: Kevin Martin Galante/Upside Foods
Recalling the legislative debate that led to the ban, he said it was a “very surreal moment”, likening it to what the world looked like hundreds of years ago, when people challenged “nearly every transformative innovation that came into the world, and innovators had to fight and fight and fight”.
“I felt like I was watching an old boys’ club trying to have a privileged group protected and protecting an incumbent industry. I just couldn’t believe that was happening at this day and age.”
Are there any legal precedents for Upside Foods’ case?
Yes, there are. In 2011’s National Meat Association v Harris, the US Supreme Court unanimously invoked the Supremacy Clause to strike down a California law aiming to restrict meatpackers and processors from handling nonambulatory pigs (who can’t bear weight on their legs or walk without support).
This legislation was found to be “exceeding or conflicting with requirements under the Federal Meat Inspection Act”, notes Sen.
Meanwhile, in 1977’s Hunt v Washington State Apple Advertising Commission, the Supreme Court invoked the Commerce Clause to abolish a North Carolina legislation that required apples to be sold with no grade identification other than USDA grading.
While neutral on the surface, this law “operated to disfavour apples from other states” that could boast grades higher than the UDSA grades.
Courtesy: Upside Foods
What about Alabama’s ban, and what happens next?
The Institute of Justice is asking the court to declare that Florida’s ban violates the constitutional clauses, and grant an injunction preventing the state from enforcing it.
While the lawsuit moves forward, the Institute of Justice will be filing for a preliminary injunction to allow Upside Foods to continue to sell its cultivated chicken in Florida. “The rules state that we must first confer with Florida’s attorneys, which we hope to do this week,” says Sen.
“Once we file that motion, the timeline will largely be in the judge’s hands. That said, the immediate impetus for the preliminary injunction would be so that Upside can host a tasting event in Miami this December at the Art Basel festival, so hopefully we should get a result by then,” he adds.
Just a week after Florida’s ban in May, neighbouring state Alabama also decided to outlaw cultivated meat, but this comes into effect on October 1. According to the legal filing, “officials in Arizona, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia” have also introduced similar proposals.
“We see these types of bans as a harbinger of what might come when a small set of people try to make laws and rules on what common Americans and Floridians can eat,” said Upside Foods’ Valeti.
Courtesy: Upside Foods
“Alabama’s ban is similarly unlawful, as are other efforts to kill a new and innovative industry for the sake of shielding entrenched in-state commercial interests,” says Sen. Since Florida’s law is already in place, the lawyers decided to challenge this first. But he says the Institute of Justice is “not averse to challenging other bans”.
He adds: “Alabama is in the same federal circuit court of appeals as Florida (the Eleventh Circuit). Therefore, the precedent from a victory in this case would likely apply to Alabama as well.”
Upside Foods is among the most well-capitalised startups in the cultivated meat sector, having raised $608M to date. But a lack of investment in the overall industry and two rounds of layoffs in 2024, combined with these legislative challenges, have dented progress.
However, while it has paused its plans for tastings in Florida for now, the company is planning on distributing its cultivated chicken at events in Los Angeles and Chicago next month.
A 50% shift to alternative proteins in the US would make land use much more efficient, alongside biodiversity and carbon sequestration gains for the Midwest and South.
If Americans switch half their meat, dairy and egg intake to alternative proteins, the country would see land nearly the size of South Dakota be freed up. What’s more – the Midwest and South regions can become better carbon sinks, while restoring many threatened ecosystems.
That’s the consensus of a new report exploring the land use benefits of alternative proteins. Authored by the Good Food Institute (GFI) and Highland Economics, Transforming Land Use focuses on US cropland demand to meet current protein consumption, and quantifies how the US can get closer to its biodiversity and climate goals by focusing on proteins that require much less land than animals.
In the US, 42% of land is used for grazing livestock. And of the 21% that is cropland, more than three-quarters is dedicated to crops primarily supporting livestock production. Meanwhile, alternative proteins require 50-90% less land on average than animal proteins per protein – and yes, that includes poultry and eggs too.
Courtesy: GFI
But if the US substituted 50% of animal products for alternative proteins, the report finds that 47.3 million acres of cropland would no longer be needed to produce food. Americans collectively eat eight billion kgs of animal protein per year, so cutting that in half would eliminate the need for 32 million acres of forage and 31.5 million acres of feed crops.
However, the report doesn’t include the land restoration benefits linked with rangelands (where the native vegetation is grass) for grazing livestock, using cropland for biofuels or animal feed exports, water use, and other environmental impacts like greenhouse gas emissions. This means that these benefits – purely for land use – are conservative estimates of the true prospects of alternative protein.
How alternative proteins can change America’s landscape
Freeing up all this land would enable the large-scale restoration of the US’s threatened ecosystems. Of the 485 ecosystems in the country, 45% are currently vulnerable or endangered.
The researchers identified the ecosystems present before the land was converted into feed crops and forage cropland, and can survive in the future with restoration. The proposed shift to alternative proteins was found to have the potential to restore 64% of these threatened ecosystems.
Since the South and the Midwest are home to a significant percentage of feed crops and forage cropland in the US, they have a high number of threatened ecosystems. The Midwest would have the opportunity to restore 84% of its feed crop area (higher than anywhere else in the US), while the South has the greatest opportunities for ecosystem restoration
Courtesy: GFI
The US National Climate Task Force has set a goal of conserving 30% of national land and waters by 2030, and shifting to 50% alternative proteins alone would help restore 13% of the area in this target.
Meanwhile, the restored natural area available from the protein transition would sequester 178 million tonnes of CO2e annually – that’s more than the combined emissions of all domestic flights in the US in 2021. This would mean a 22% increase in the average net national carbon sink associated with land use and forestry. Here, too, the South and Midwest present the greatest carbon sequestration opportunities, at 48% and 33%, respectively.
US government must increase policy support for smart proteins
On a global level, agriculture, forestry and other land uses account for up to 24% of all emissions. Livestock and feed production, meanwhile, have made up 65% of global agricultural land use change in the last 50 years, according to separate research, which said dietary shifts towards more animal-sourced and ultra-processed foods are putting a major strain on land, with factory farming and forest clearance closely associated with animal agriculture.
Climate scientists have suggested that land use alone represents a quarter of the world’s emissions mitigation potential between now and 2050.
And research by Our World in Data has found that beef, sheep, goat and buffalo meats have the greatest carbon opportunity costs per kg – which refers to the land that could be used to restore native vegetation and sequester carbon if a foodstuff wasn’t being grown on it.
Courtesy: GFI
The GFI report makes several recommendations for NGOs and governments to enable a transition to alternative proteins. Non-profits should push governments to back R&D and commercialisation efforts for smart proteins; analyse the socioeconomic impacts of a shift to these foods, and advocate for policies that add revenue streams for farmers; as well as expand land use efficiency benefits across borders.
As for policymakers, they must increase investment into alternative protein research to enhance their taste, texture, price, nutrition, and production capabilities. Governments are urged to promote the scaling up of biomanufacturing, new equitable workforce opportunities, and regional diversity. Additionally, public policies that support farmers and boost new markets for locally produced alternative protein crops are crucial.
“To reach [the US’s] ambitious 2030 and 2050 targets for climate change mitigation and land conservation and restoration, diversifying our protein supply is essential,” the report reads. “More policy support will be necessary to create appealing alternative protein products, scale their production, and provide them at an affordable price to the public.”
Building on its impressive foodservice record, Impossible Foods will open its first pop-up restaurant in Chicago, showcasing its plant-based meat products across a range of dishes.
Impossible Foods is opening a new pop-up restaurant in Chicago’s XMarket Food Hall tomorrow, a first for the plant-based meat maker.
Titled Impossible Quality Meats, the foodservice concept will spotlight the company’s vegan beef, chicken and pork products in a variety of dishes. The idea is to call attention to its expansive foodservice footprint (it is available in over 45,000 locations in the US alone) and showcase the versatility of its plant-based meat range, which has now been on the market for eight years.
“Impossible began as a foodservice brand, launching our flagship beef product in 2016 with some of the best restaurants in America,” said Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness. “It’s been a natural evolution for us to create our own branded dining experience to showcase our delicious food.”
What’s on the many at the Impossible Quality Meats pop-up?
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
Impossible Quality Meats will be open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm, and run throughout fall 2024. It has been leased through PlantX Life Inc., whose parent company Veg House is managing the pop-up.
“With Impossible Quality Meats, we wanted to offer diners a fun way to experience our food. From breakfast to lunch to dinner, we leaned into classic craveable dishes people love,” said McGuinness. “Choosing meat from plants shouldn’t feel like a compromise. It’s great-tasting food, plain and simple.”
The menu contains small plates like Asian-style meatballs in hoisin-lime sauce, Italian meatball sliders, nachos with Impossible Beef or Chicken and a Cheez Whiz-style vegan alternative, beef chilli, as well as chilli cheese fries.
Visitors can also choose grilled chicken Caesar (with vegan parmesan), crispy southwest chicken or Asian-style chicken as part of a salad or wrap.
And on the bun menu, there’s a choice of a breakfast sandwich (with sausage and a vegan egg), a classic Impossible Burger, a smash burger, a bratwurst, an Impossible Hot Dog, and a chilli dog. In addition, the pop-up restaurant will also have rotating burger and hot dog specials.
The Impossible Nuggets are served with fries (which can be subbed for onion rings if you pay extra) and a choice from nine sauces.
And while the company may have stopped working on Impossible Milk, that doesn’t mean Chicago residents wouldn’t get dessert at the pop-up. The brand has partnered with Oatly, the world’s largest oat milk player, whose ice creams will be available in vanilla, chocolate and swirl options.
Impossible Foods is hosting a launch party on Saturday, August 17 at the XMarket Food Hall, when locals would be able to sample Impossible Hot Dogs, Burgers and Oatly Soft Serve for free.
Impossible Foods highlights record amid faltering industry sales
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The development is a marker of Impossible Foods’s reputation as a foodservice mainstay. The company claims to be the leading plant-based brand in this channel in the US, and has long-standing partnerships with American chef David Chang and his Momofuku restaurant group (going back eight years), Bareburger (seven years), White Castle (six years), Starbucks (five years), and Disneyland (four years). And just last week, it completed five years of the Impossible Whopper at Burger King.
In addition to the Impossible Quality Meats pop-up, visitors of Xmarket Food Hall can also buy retail products like its plant-based beef, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets at the PlantX Bodega. It follows the brand’s entry into Whole Foods Market nationwide, which is a sign of its strong retail performance – Impossible Beef is the top-selling plant-based beef in the US across both retail and foodservice, while the vegan meatballs and nuggets are the bestsellers in their respective categories too.
In the US, Impossible Foods is the leader in refrigerated meat analogue sales, making up 9% of the market, according to Bloomberg. However, this segment witnessed a 21% drop in volume 19% decline in dollar sales in the 52 weeks ending May 19, 2024, data by Circana shows. Analysts ascribe this to high prices, unsatisfactory taste and texture, and concerns about ingredients.
Impossible Foods has already been leaning on its taste-first messaging since the identity and packaging refresh in March (with a heavier focus on health too), while it claims to have cut prices by 20% since early 2023.
At the pop-up, prices for dishes with Impossible Foods range from $7.99 for the hot dog to $12.99 for the nachos, chilli-cheese fries, meatball sliders, salads and wraps. Meanwhile, a single-patty Impossible Burger – topped with lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles, and special sauce – will set you back $9.99.
Nutritionist slams ‘unhealthy’ claims about plant-based meat
“The idea that all plant-based meats are categorically unhealthier than animal-based meats is scientifically unfounded. In fact, many plant-based options, like those from Impossible Foods, outperform animal meat in terms of key nutrients like cholesterol, trans fat, and saturated fat,” Kaytee Hadley, a registered dietitian and health and nutrition ambassador of Impossible Foods, told Green Queen.
“Most Americans do not consume enough plants or fibre, and Impossible products contain high-quality plant-based ingredients that contain important nutrients including fibre, iron and potassium,” she added. “Any one food in and of itself will not meet a human’s nutritional needs on its own because people need to eat a diversity of foods and nutrients, but in the context of a balanced diet, plant-based meats, like Impossible, can be a great addition.”
Hadley suggested that basing a food’s nutritional value on the number of ingredients is an “outdated and highly simplistic approach” view of nutrition. “Many foods are enriched with vitamins and minerals (for example, baby food, cereal, and white rice). Does this addition make a food less nutritious? The obvious answer is no.
“When you look more closely at the actual ingredients, processing methods, and nutritional profile of plant-based meats, it’s easy to see that these products are not all necessarily ‘less healthy than animal proteins’.”
In Europe, precision and biomass fermentation startups have attracted €164M in the first half of this year, surpassing the €100M the sector raised throughout 2023. It means this segment alone has made up 57% of the €287M raised by the alternative protein sector in H1 2024.
Where the industry has suffered is the lack of investment in plant-based proteins and cultivated meat. Companies in the former category have only raised €79M in this period, while those in the latter have secured €45M.
The Net Zero Insights data, published by the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, mirrors global trends. While plant-based and cultivated players have lagged, fermentation startups have soared, bringing in $398M in the first six months of 2024 (versus $443M in all of 2023).
Fermentation sector targets scale-up and market entry
Courtesy: GFI Europe
Biomass fermentation startups – which use a method similar to beer or yoghurt production to grow large quantities of mycoproteins from fungi – have been the winners so far this year, securing just over €115M by the end of June. This is a 72% rise from last year’s €67M sum.
Meanwhile, companies working with precision fermentation, which involves genetically engineering organisms like yeast to produce bioidentical ingredients like heme, egg and dairy proteins, raised €49 million this year, up from €33M in 2023.
“While it’s great to see investors becoming increasingly confident in this growing sector, it’s also revealing to look at where this money is going,” writes Helene Grosshans, infrastructure investment manager at GFI Europe.
“Many of the fermentation companies that received large investments are focused on leveraging agricultural and food industry sidestreams as a sustainable feed source, helping produce food more efficiently and affordably – both of which are attractive propositions for investors,” she adds.
Grosshans suggests that fermentation startups are using this money to scale up and build the infrastructure necessary to bring their products closer to commercialisation. For example, German startups ProteinDistillery and Infinite Roots, which raised €15M and €53M, respectively, are looking to expand mycoprotein production using raw materials from brewing industries. Finland’s Enifer, meanwhile, brought in €36M to operationalise its mycoprotein factory.
But while the hike in private sector investment is undoubtedly a positive, it isn’t enough for the fermentation sector to overcome one of its biggest bottlenecks: a lack of infrastructure. Some startups are focusing on building pilot plants and factories to aid their commercialisation efforts – but such constriction is expensive.
“Governments should provide grants, loans and guarantees to alternative protein companies to enable infrastructure scale-up and attract additional investments,” says Grosshans.
Contextualising cultivated meat and plant-based investments
Courtesy: GFI Europe
Despite the encouraging numbers for fermentation, the investment figures for plant-based and cultivated meat companies leave a lot to be desired.
In 2023, European plant-based startups received €553M in venture capital – but much of this can be attributed to two deals for Oatly, which amounted to €391M. When discounting the oat milk leader’s investment rounds, the gap between 2023 and the first half of 2024 is much smaller.
“This serves as an important reminder that the sector remains immature, with individual company fundraises still capable of having a major impact on the overall figures,” Grosshans writes.
She adds that despite not attracting the massive capital injections seen a few years ago, successful plant-based companies are still bagging large investments, like Spain’s Heura (€40M) and THIS (€25M).
The cultivated meat sector – which has seen three regulatory approvals already this year – is faring slightly better in Europe, having secured 39% of the €116M startups raised in 2023. “Much of this funding is aimed at scaling up the sector – particularly Mosa Meat’s €40M investment aimed at preparing the company for market entry.
Speaking of market entry, France’s Gourmey last month became the first cultivated meat company to officially file a dossier for regulatory approval in the EU, which is expected to be an 18-month-long process.
Public sector funding key for alternative protein
Courtesy: Onego Bio
GFI Europe’s analysis comes just weeks after a report by VC firm FoodLabs and investment database Dealroom found that investment in European climate food tech startups overtook the US for the first time in 2023, making up 58% of global funding in the sector and reading €2B.
But globally, food tech investments have suffered, as has the wider VC sector. Alternative protein startups saw funding fall by 44%, but experts are optimistic that the “worst is now behind us”, says Grosshans – although a rebound isn’t expected this year.
An interesting finding of the new European data is that while the number of deals is trending downwards (60 in H1 2024 versus 155 in 2023), the value of these deals is increasing. “Investors are willing to write big cheques but, for now, only to companies with strong metrics,” writes Grosshans.
Government support for innovation sectors is crucial to stimulate private-sector investment. “This particularly applies to alternative proteins, which require significant capital investment to build factories and other scale-up infrastructure, and must compete in the price-competitive food industry,” she says.
A good example is the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme, which has been pouring tens of millions of euros into alternative proteins. Last month, it invested €2.5M each in Dutch palm oil alternative producer NoPalm Ingredients and Swedish precision-fermented fat maker Melt&Marble, as well as €2.4M in oat and mycelium meat maker Millow (also from Sweden). Plus, it was part of Finnish animal-free egg protein maker Onego Bio’s €14M raise in July too.
“In order to realise the climate, economic and societal benefits of alternative proteins, governments need to provide the grants, customised funding solutions and guarantees needed to support the industry, and banks need to provide later-stage capital,” explains Grosshans.
More strategic partnerships with Big Food will help alternative proteins’ case too. These include the collaboration between Leprino Foods – the world’s largest mozzarella manufacturer – and precision fermentation startup Fooditive Group, The Every Company’s animal-free egg partnership with Spain’s Grupo Palacios, and Unilever’s use of Perfect Day’s precision-fermented whey in a new Breyers lactose-free ice cream.
“Private investment has played a central role in enabling the growth of innovative plant-based, cultivated meat and fermentation companies so far,” writes Grosshans. “But new approaches to funding, and collaboration with established food industry players, will be essential for the sector to support Europe’s goals on food security, sustainability and economic growth.”
Seaweed-based meat startup Akua is shutting shop after seven years in operation, citing logistical challenges and the overall decline of plant-based meat.
Akua, the New York-based maker of the Kelp Burger, is ceasing operations, in what is the latest example of the trials of the vegan seafood sector.
In a post on LinkedIn, founder and CEO Courtney Boyd Myers said the company’s board had decided to wind down in late April, seven years after it first began operations. “We had luck, but not enough. We had some wins, but they weren’t big enough,” she wrote.
And in a joint post with the startup on Instagram, she said: “After many, many tough months and hard decisions, we are announcing that our Akua adventure has come to an end. And while we didn’t get to the destination that we envisioned when we were just at the start, we’re more proud than we are sad today.”
Known for its plant-based meat and seafood products from regenerative kelp, Akua first launched its jerky analogue in 2019, followed by its flagship burger in 2021. Having raised $5.4M in funding, its products have been available at retailers and online platforms like Erewhon, Vons, Pavilions, Pop Up Grocer and Good Eggs, as well as at restaurants like PLNT Burger and Hula’s Island Grill.
“We raised money through four different crowdfunding campaigns and over 75 private investors – many of whom are my friends and fellow founders,” said Myers. “Through our events, partners, customers and the thousands of investors who backed us, we built an amazing community of Akua supporters.”
She added: “With that capital and community, we made and sold Kelp Jerky, Kelp Pasta, Kelp Protein Balls, Kelp Spices, Kelp Chocolate, Kelp Beer, Krab Cakes, five flavours of Kelp Burgers (including a collaboration with SpongeBob SquarePants), plus our delicious Kelp Ground Meat.
“While we started as a D2C brand, we learned how to scale our Kelp Burgers into over 1,000 retail stores and with 100+ foodservice customers across the US.”
Kelp, a highly renewable algae, presents a ton of sustainability and nutritional values: it absorbs carbon and nitrogen; prevents ocean acidification; contains essential micronutrients like vitamins A, B6 and K and zinc, calcium and potassium; and is free from saturated or trans fats and carbohydrates.
“We faced many challenges over the years – healthy food is expensive to make and our margins were slim,” said Myers. “We had packaging, manufacturing, warehouse, and shipping catastrophes. We got copied by our supply chain partner. The investors ran into our space and they ran out. Kelp never took off like we thought it would.”
Rough waters for plant-based and alternative seafood
Courtesy: Akua
“As the economy took a turn for the worse, we battled uphill against the general decline of the plant-based movement,” Myers wrote. Sales of plant-based meat dipped by 19% in the 52 weeks ending May 19, according to market insights firm Circana. It reflects “broader changes in grocery purchasing due to the continued pressures of cost of living”, Joanna Trewern, director of partnerships and institutional engagement at ProVeg International, told Green Queen last month.
Many companies in the alternative protein space have felt the squeeze – whether through sales declines, layoffs or more drastic measures. In the last 12 months, Nowadays, SciFi Foods and Sunfed Meats have all ceased operations, while Mycorena has filed for bankruptcy.
Analysis by the Good Food Institute in 2023 found that alternative seafood takes up just 1% of the overall seafood share in the US. Its 2024 research doesn’t have separate figures for seafood, but suggested that within the plant-based space, vegan seafood only accounts for 1% of the market.
Ordinary Seafood and New Wave Foods, both startups making seafood analogues, have been forced to shut too. “Compared to alternative beef, pork, and chicken products, alternative seafood is still a nascent category with fewer companies tackling this problem,” Brittany Chibe, co-founder and CEO of cellulose-based seafood maker Aqua Cultured Foods, told Green Queen last month.
“Additionally, conventional seafood has a health halo and is touted as a healthier alternative to beef, for example,” she said. “Once consumers understand not only the dire state of our oceans but the potential health risks of consuming seafood through its current sourcing methods, seafood becomes much less attractive.”
In her LinkedIn post, Myers said that while the CPG sector was filled with “some of the most wonderful, impact-driven people I’ve ever met in my life”, it remains “a brutal industry filled with a lot of mediocrity, broken systems, and overpriced service providers”. This is why “Akua is one of many fantastic companies with great teams, missions and delicious products that won’t ‘make it’.
The company is currently selling The Last Bundle, a combination of all its products, to sell off its remaining inventory. As for Myers, she said she wouldn’t be building “another supply-chain-related business for the foreseeable future”.
Speaking to Green Queen about alternative seafood’s challenges in February, Maarten Geraets, former managing director of alternative protein at Thai Union, said companies should focus on resizing to lengthen runways and match sales forecasts, engage existing investors with renewed plans, seek support to handle the dip, prepare for eventual growth, and explore partnerships with like-minded players, helping make “an opportunity out of the crisis”.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Mr. Charlie’s new vegan cheeseburger, Califia Farms’ acquisition of Uproot, and a raft of EU investments into alternative proteins.
New products and launches
Vegan fast food chain Mr. Charlie’s – dubbed the plant-based McDonald’s – has introduced the Mr. Royale with Cheese, a burger featuring the non-dairy Cultured Cheddar slices by Stockeld Dreamery. The menu item is available at its Los Angeles and San Francisco locations.
Courtesy: Mr. Charlie’s
AI-powered protein discovery startup Shiru has collaborated with Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition to develop and commercialise sweet proteins for use in beverages and specialty products.
Pinky Cole has opened the second location of Bar Vegan – the sister establishment of Slutty Vegan – at 706 Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
German ingredients company Loryma has developed three wheat-based solutions for specific fat applications to bolster the processing, textural and nutritional benefits of meat analogues.
Also in Germany, poultry giant PHW Group – known for its Wiesenhof brand – is entering the traditional and precision fermentation space with a new subsidiary this year, which will develop ingredients for alternative protein and blended products.
Courtesy: Redefine Meat
Israel’s Redefine Meat is continuing to expand its retail presence in Europe, gaining listings for its 3D-printed meat analogues with Coop in Switzerland, Jumbo in the Netherlands, Velivery in Germany, and Monoprix in France.
As part of the state-funded Singapore Agri-food Innovation Lab, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has partnered with global food giant Bunge. The latter will supply soybean, canola and sunflower fats, plus oilseed meal and cake for NTU to produce alternative protein flavours using fermentation.
Courtesy: Nanyang Technological University
And in Vietnam, Hanoi-based FPT Software has signed an MoU with the Green Tuesday Initiative to reduce its food-related carbon footprint via sustainable food policies.
Finance and business updates
In Poland, the science and education ministry’s National Center for Research and Development has invested $2.29M in Warsaw-based cultivated chicken startup LabFarm. It will use the funding to expand production, develop proprietary growth media, create products, and expand its team.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s Millow – maker of minimally processed oat- and mycelium-based meat analogues – has received a €2.4M ($2.6M) grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator and up to €15M ($16.3M) in equity funding from the EIC Fund. The startup, which has already developed multiple products with large manufacturers, will use the capital to scale up production.
On similar lines, Dutch palm oil alternative producer NoPalm Ingredients has secured €2.5M ($2.7M) in funding, along with potential equity investment, from the EIC Accelerator. It follows a €5M ($5.4M) seed investment round in July.
Courtesy: NoPalm Ingredients
Canadian cellular agriculture platform Cult Food Science‘s portfolio company Jellatech, which is making bioidentical collagen, has joined the Bezos Earth Fund‘s $30M Center for Sustainable Protein at North Carolina State University.
Cult Food Science is also about to close a $3.3M fundraise to commercialise its Noochies! cultivated pet treats. The company will soon begin feeding trials to receive regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Courtesy: Uproot
US plant-based milk leader Califia Farms has acquired New York startup Uproot, which makes alt-milk dispensers. The latter’s team will join Califia Farms, which aims to expand its foodservice offerings.
AI-powered vegan travel app Vegius has initiated a crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder with a target of $120,000 to fuel its global expansion. It currently lists accommodations in 30+ countries and donates half its revenue to the 125 animal sanctuaries it has partnered with.
Research and awards
A new psychology study on US and German consumers tests the Moral Foundations Theory on cultivated meat, revealing that people who say living a natural life is morally important to them are more likely to reject these proteins, while the idea of harm doesn’t have any consistent correlations.
In the UK, a new study by The Vegan Society has found that 41% of men are interested in veganism, but health concerns and unsupportive friends are the major barriers to the lifestyle.
Courtesy: THIS/Green Queen
The Vegan Society has also supported a legal case by two students from the National Major University of San Marcos in Peru, who are asking the university to recognise veganism as a protected belief and offer suitable plant-based meal options.
UK plant-based meat startup THIS has received 10 stars from the Great Taste Awards across five of its products, with its lamb kebabs earning the maximum three stars.
Another recopient of the Great Taste Awards is vegan cheesemaker Julienne Bruno, whose ricotta-style Crematta has received two stars and burrata alternative Burrella has gained one.
Courtesy: Dr Foods
Finally, Japanese startups Next Meats and its subsidiary Dr Foods were finalists in the cultivated meat category of this year’s FoodNiche Summit at Cornell Tech University, where they presented vegan foie gras, caviar and truffle butter with the aim to find local distribution in New York.
