The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore has issued a fatwa declaring that cultivated meat is generally halal, and Muslims can eat these products as long as they adhere to halal standards.
The Fatwa Committee of the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) has announced that cultivated meat can be considered halal, and the country’s Muslims are allowed to consume it if certain conditions are met.
The sole entity with the legal power to issue halal certificates in Singapore, Muis’s fatwa ruled that cultured meat can be halal if the cells are sourced from animals Muslims are allowed to consume (for example, chicken but not pork), and there’s no mixing of non-halal components in the manufacturing process.
The ruling was issued at Muis’s Fatwa Conference on February 3, and marks an important next step for cultivated meat’s progress in a country that first approved its sale in 2020, and 15.6% of whose citizens are Muslim. Halal diets refer to food consumption in accordance with Islamic law – when it comes to meat, it means animals must be slaughtered in a prescribed way, and certain types of meat and byproducts – including pork and blood products – are prohibited.
The halal conditions cultivated meat must follow
Courtesy: GFI APAC
The fatwa comes after over a year of deliberation by the Islamic council, which – supported by the Office of the Mufti – consulted stakeholders like the Singapore Food Agency, industry bodies like the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, and scientists and other experts. Plus, Muis visited a local cultivated meat production facility, with scholars perusing the matter from all angles of the Islamic perspective, and taking into account Singapore’s “socio-religious realities”.
While presenting the results of the study on Saturday, the Fatwa Committee outlined the environmental and food security benefits of cultivated meat, finding that its pros outweigh any perceived cons. Muis said its fatwa was underpinned by the Islamic principles that it serves to preserve human life and protect the environment. “The fatwa also considers the Islamic legal principle that unless proven otherwise, whatever is beneficial is permissible,” it added.
The religious guidance on cultivated meat consumption was developed due to questions of permissibility for Muslims after the SFA approved the sale of GOOD Meat’s cultured chicken in 2020. Considering the global impetus to find alternative, sustainable food solutions and the emergence of novel food, it is necessary to establish a clear religious position from the outset in order to facilitate any future plans for the halal certification of cultivated meat,” said Muis.
The Fatwa Committee studied three inter-related aspects – the source of the meat, the production process, and the ingredients used – and outlined requirements stipulating that the cell lines should be from a species permissible to eat for Muslims, every ingredient making up the texture and composition of the cultivated meat should be halal, and the product must be clean and non-toxic. These guidelines largely align with those released by Shariah scholars in Saudi Arabia in September.
“Building a truly inclusive, efficient and secure protein production system requires making high-quality, nutrient-rich, and culturally relevant foods available to every facet of society,” said Mirte Gosker, managing director of GFI APAC. “With Muis’s precedent-setting announcement, Singapore is bringing that bold vision one step closer to reality.”
Halal consumers represent 25% of the world’s population, and the halal meat market is estimated to grow by 7% annually to reach $375B in 2031. Research has found that the most important consideration for Singaporeans around cultivated meat is that it must be halal before it is consumed, with some raising concerns about whether its production can be halal, especially if they’re located close to facilities making cultured pork or other prohibited meats.
The study further suggested that participants unanimously expressed trust in Muis to determine the halal status of cultivated meat, believing its opinion to be comprehensive. “They are doing the right thing as a Muslim authority and speaking on behalf of all Muslims in Singapore,” one respondent said.
Singapore to create halal certification for cultivated meat
Courtesy: GOOD Meat
Now, Muis plans to work with government bodies like the SFA and industry stakeholders to develop guidelines for halal certification of cultivated meat – a move that would be welcomed by the sector. A 44-company survey by GFI APAC last year revealed that complying with halal requirements was a priority for 87% of the businesses. But a lack of resources outlining how products can adhere to such religious certifications would prove to be a significant entry barrier, the study added.
Currently, no cultivated meat approved for sale on the market satisfies the council’s halal guidance yet, according to GFI APAC. While the timeline for the halal certification depends on the complexity of certifying the products, Muis explained that any locally produced halal-certified cultured meat would be available only for local sale and consumption – exports are only possible if other countries have approved the sale of these products (the US and Israel are the only others to have done so).
“Companies applying for Muis Halal Certification must have a facility producing cultivated meat products in Singapore,” the council added. “This is the same principle applied to conventional meat-producing facilities. The halal status of imported raw materials and processing aids from overseas which are used locally must be substantiated with the appropriate halal supporting documentation, depending on the risk category, and not the country of origin.”
The fatwa mentioned that the guidelines are intended to ensure that halal dietary rules are followed and maintained. But it added: “In all cases, Muslim consumers make their own informed choice whether to patronise any halal-certified eating establishment or consume any halal-certified food product.
“Similarly for cultivated meat, if it is halal-certified, Singapore Muslims can choose whether to consume or otherwise. Actual Muslim consumer acceptance of cultivated meat will also depend on other considerations like personal dietary preferences, taste, and cost.”
Gosker said: “More than a billion people around the world adhere to halal food standards, so for cultivated meat to make the leap from novelty to the norm, it is crucial that there are viable pathways to achieve this certification.”
Muis’ fatwa follows the aforementioned advice from three leading Shariah scholars in Saudi Arabia, which told GOOD Meat that cultured meat can be considered halal if it meets certain criteria. And in 2022, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America adjudged cultivated meat as provisionally permissible by default, provided Halal criteria are followed.
In terms of other religious guidance, Israel’s chief rabbi David Lau declared last January that local producer Aleph Farms’ non-FBS steak could be considered kosher and akin to eating a vegetable (parve). This wasn’t a kosher certification, however, and the company is now pursuing one for its facility from local rabbinate authorities.
Belgian food tech startup Bolder Foods has introduced MycoVeg, a functional mycelium ingredient that offers creamy and stretchy textures in non-dairy cheese. The biomass-fermented innovation is being trialled by dairy companies, and is set for a 2025 market launch.
Brussels-based Bolder Foods has announced the development of its newest alt-cheese innovation, MycoVeg. Made from mycelium, the functional ingredient leverages biomass fermentation to provide an end product with a smooth and stretchy mouthfeel and umami-packed punch.
The startup argues that existing toolkits for cheese manufacturers aren’t strong enough to truly meet consumer expectations around taste, texture and price on a mainstream level. To address that pain point, Bolder Foods has created a semi-finished product that can be used as a bulk ingredient, combining mycelium with plant-based elements to deliver better dairy-free cheese products.
“We’re not making end products ourselves – we sell MycoVeg to cheese manufacturers and dairy companies to make end consumer products,” Bolder Foods co-founder and CEO Ilana Taub tells Green Queen. “That said, MycoVeg enables the creation of clean-label and deliciously creamy soft, semi-hard and fresh cheeses (think brie, camembert, gouda, cheddar, mozzarella).”
Harnessing mycelium’s nutritional and functional prowess
Courtesy: Bolder Foods
Founded in 2020 by Taub and COO Michael Minch-Dixon, Bolder Foods specifically works on innovative cheese alternatives. Its first product line, Chizou, is a plant-based grated range made from cauliflower and chickpea protein, which is said to melt and brown like conventional cheese.
In 2021, the startup began focusing its attention on mycelium, an increasingly popular ingredient in the alternative protein space, owing to its nutritional, environmental and functional benefits. A study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry last December suggested that the mushroom root is rich in fibre and low in fat, alongside 20-30% of protein content in dry matter, which provides all the necessary amino acids. It’s also a source of essential micronutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin B12, which are typically found in animal-sourced foods.
Plus, a three-week early intervention trial found that 190g of mycelium per day can lower LDL cholesterol by 21% on average versus animal protein. And the fungi can sequester carbon (with certain strains able to store 70% more carbon in soil), some of which can be broken down into carbohydrates that act as nutrients for the soil.
The research focused on the flavour potential of mycelium in the context of meat alternatives, but found that foods made from mycelium usually exhibit bland or only slightly mushroom-like flavour profiles, which can be enhanced by spices and seasonings. Additionally, it’s possible to develop ‘in-process’ flavours through biochemistry and flavour chemistry, with different mushroom species able to produce various taste profiles, such as the aroma of beef bullion, curry or maple syrup, or the flavour and texture of chicken – the same can be applied to cheese too.
To produce its mycelium ingredient, Bolder Foods uses a naturally occurring, non-GM strain of fungi. “Our technology is based on biomass fermentation through a process that combines fungi and vegetable substrates. It’s a simple liquid fermentation process with minimal downstream processing, and the resulting product (MycoVeg) consists of a unique combination of biomass and fermented vegetables,” explains Taub.
The startup has created some prototype products to showcase the potential of its tech, using a mix of standard cheesemaking equipment and cheese alternative recipes.
Targeting taste and texture with mycelium
Courtesy: Bolder Foods
Taub argues that current manufacturing methods don’t allow cheese producers to create alternatives that have mass appeal. “Plant-based analogues made from coconut oil and starch have improved a lot in recent years, but they’re still quite average and nutritionally poor,” she suggests. “Nut-based analogues create an improved consumer experience, but they’re extremely expensive so again, can’t appeal to a wide group of consumers.”
She adds that all the dairy companies Bolder Foods has spoken to are looking for new approaches and technologies to solve this problem: “MycoVeg helps create delicious, unctuous alternatives with smaller (clean-label) ingredient lists, which do not require gelling agents or modified starches (such as currently present in many alternatives).”
The startup has described its ingredient as capable of having a spectrum of flavours, spanning neutral all the way to strong umami notes, as well as a texture that is creamy and elastic. In conventional cheese, the meltability and stretchability come from casein, which makes up 80% of the protein content found in dairy. Taub notes that while many companies are working on developing recombinant casein – such as Standing Ovation, Eden Brew, New Culture, Fermify and Zero Cow Factory – that is not the approach Bolder Foods is taking.
“Developing synthetic dairy proteins (such as casein) is part of the solution, but not all of it, as dairy and cheese [are] made up of much more than just protein,” she says. “With our unique approach, we’re able to create elasticity and bite that resembles dairy cheeses. Ultimately, when recombinant casein is available to the market, we see MycoVeg as the perfect ‘host’ for these proteins.”
It’s an important aspect to nail, given that taste and texture have long been the bane of non-dairy cheese. If you were to use Americans as a gauge, a study leveraging Kroger data from 60 million US households found that 73% of consumers are unhappy with the flavour (“plastic” or “unnatural”) and texture (“grainy”) of vegan cheese. They want cheeses that taste better, melt well and have a creamy mouthfeel – aspects that Bolder Foods has highlighted.
Teaming up with dairy companies with a targeted 2025 launch
Courtesy: Bolder Foods
Currently, MycoVeg remains in the R&D stage. “Our projected costs allow the development of end consumer products that are affordable (not premium). Our yield, fermentation time and minimal downstream processing mean all speak to favourable unit economics enabling significant inclusion rates and attractive overall ingredient costs,” says Taub.
“We’ve started our first trials with dairy companies,” she adds. “Once these trials are over, we’ll start scaling our fermentation process to reach commercial scale. We anticipate first sales of products made with MycoVeg to happen in 2025 on a small scale, and 2026 on a full commercial scale.”
A 2020 survey revealed that Belgium (alongside the UK) represented the highest penetration rate for vegan cheese in Europe (67%). Since then, the market has expanded, with a 27% rise in value from 2021-22 – thrice more than conventional cheese in the country. Unit sales for plant-based cheese also grew by 30%, just as its dairy counterpart saw sales drop by 4%. Still, vegan alternatives only represent 0.1% of the total Belgian cheese market, indicating that there’s a long way to go.
Bolder Foods has raised about €1.5M ($1.63M) in investment so far, and is currently fundraising. “We’re in discussions with several VCs and funds, but there is still room for more investors,” says Taub, who will hope to eventually become a leader in the $2.85B mycelium market.
In the 1980s, Willem van Eelen began working on the technology that produces what we know today as cultivated meat – now, his daughter, via RESPECTfarms, is extending his vision to help farmers take the plunge, beginning with the world’s first cultured meat farm.
If the whole world transitioned to alternative proteins like cultivated meat, what would happen to all the farmers? This is one of the most pressing questions surrounding the industry.
It’s an important one, too – how do you diversify the world’s protein intake without wiping out the livelihoods of a quarter of the global population, which forms the backbone of our food system? To answer it, Ira van Eelen, Ruud Zanders, Florentine Zieglowski and Ralf Becks came up with RESPECTfarms, presenting a way one could grow cultivated meat on conventional farms.
Van Eelen is the daughter of Willem van Eelen. Known as the grandfather of cultivated meat, he began working on the tech in the 1980s and led the first-ever public research project on these proteins in the early 2000s, funded by the Dutch government.
Founders: Ralf Becks, Ruud Zanders, Ira van Eelen and Florentine Zieglowski – courtesy: RESPECTfarms
The outcome of this research focused on how cultivated meat could be an additional business model for farmers. It’s the seed that sparked the idea to launch RESPECTfarms, which is hoping to decentralise cultivated meat production on traditional farms. Ira van Eelen calls this “the bare necessity”, viewing cultured meat as a solution to climate protection and food security.
“Not all farmers should make cultivated meat tomorrow,” she tells me. “But we need to diversify the current protein production for a more resilient agricultural system.”
Why not grow ingredients for plant-based proteins, then, like some transition projects are doing? “Not all plants are useful for cultivated meat production either (but rather for plant-based meats),” van Eelen responds. “Some others (including sidestreams) make sense in terms of processing costs or composition for cell culture media.”
Why RESPECTfarms advocates growing cultivated meat on farms
Do livestock farmers really want to make the switch from something they’ve known all their lives? “It depends on why meat has been their entire livelihood,” she suggests. “Is this because they love to work with animals? Because they see it as a viable business? Is it because they are proud to contribute to food security and feed the world? Cultivated meat does not mean you need to give up on your motivation on why you are a farmer. They can still produce meat, just in a different way (and with some key additional benefits).”
And what might those benefits be? As RESPECTfarms explains in a hypothetical video, farmers would be able to produce more meat with fewer cows – and they don’t need to be slaughtered. It safeguards them against any disease risk to the livestock (and that transferring into the meat produced), because you’re essentially taking them out of the equation. Plus, there are the environmental benefits too – cultivated meat can mean 92% fewer emissions, 94% less air pollution, and 90% less land use than conventional beef, if produced via renewable energy.
The next question that springs to mind is why grow cultivated meat on a farm instead of at a manufacturing facility? As van Eelen explains in the video, the farm is a smart location for this, because everything you need is already there. You’ve got the animals and their cells, a place to generate energy, as well as the people who are adept at handling them, are familiar with following processes and know how to deal with hygiene. Farmers can play a role in feeding the cells, and process residual flows via recycling and waste management. “So why wouldn’t we do it in a place like that?” asks van Eelen.
“It will secure [farmers’] place in rural areas and secure food production,” she tells me, before adding: “But yes, for those farmers that aim to stay in the way they have always been practising agriculture, they might want to transition towards another form of agriculture.”
Addressing design challenges for existing farms
RESPECTfarms’ demonstrative video explains how farmers can work with experts (like architects) who can retrofit their stable with new designs that are fit for cultivated meat production and a farm of the future. It combines sustainable production with local agriculture to make a circular chain – hitting a key consumer concern.
There are other potential pain points too. What do farms do with existing animals, if not slaughter them the way they were raised to do? “Our proposition is that they can produce the same amount of meat that they used to produce, only with fewer animals needed. This opens up the opportunity to hold the few animals in an animal-friendly way,” says van Eelen. “What farmers do with their animals at a certain point is up to them to decide.”
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
And in terms of redesigning stables, how do smallholder farms with limited space and facilities fit in here? Van Eelen explains they could still technically produce cultivated meat, with external inputs on the cell culture media. “Current agriculture already shows different strategy practices – from differentiating the farm practices (like income on feed, milk, and meat) to focusing on one practice only (such as specifically breeding sows). We expect this to happen also for cellular agriculture farms in the future,” she notes.
“Further, It is all about how we can design the process most cost-effective for farmers: What is the investment needed by the farmer? What is the input and output? What are the price points? This is still part of the research and will develop over time. Farmers are traditionally used to work in collaboration, so we expect [to work with] regional cooperatives.”
RESPECTfarms is working with 60 farmers in the EU
Van Eelen and her co-founders are working with farmers on different levels. This includes partnerships with the German Agricultural Society (DLG) and Swiss farmers’ union Fenaco, both of which are leading organisations in their respective countries with thousands of members, and have expressed support for RESPECTfarms’ concept. “We intend to expand on these engagements and conversations intensively in the next months,” van Eelen reveals.
Have farmers been receptive to the idea? “We have not experienced extraordinary negativity around cultivated meat by farmers. We have validation that there is a group of farmers that wants to produce cultivated meat,” she outlines. “There is also a group that does not want to tap into this field, but it is an assumption that farmers would not want this. And we focus on the ones that aim at transitioning with us.”
RESPECTfarms is part of the Horizon Europe programme, which helps fund the feasibility of farm-scale cultivated meat production. “We will research opportunities and key blocking issues [in] Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Norway,” she adds.
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
Currently, van Eelen and her colleagues are having one-on-one talks with about 10 farmers in Switzerland and Germany, and 50 in the Netherlands. And it’s the latter where it is looking into the possibility of its first farm (planned for 2025), with Germany being an alternative. “The construction of a pilot farm represents a risk to investors and other private funders. Therefore, we see an urgent need for the public sector to support a first farm – both to de-risk and increase the value over time.”
RESPECTfarms began running an 18-month feasibility project in January 2023, armed with €900,000 in funding from European governments, NGOs, and industry partners like Rügenwalder Mühle, Fenaco, Rabobank, and the Belgian animal rights group GAIA. “Current agriculture is heavily subsidised,” notes van Eelen. “There are also subsidies to transition towards more sustainable practices. Farmers should be subsidised to transition towards this model in the future, too.”
Another aspect to consider is the expensive machinery and equipment required for cultivated meat production. “At the moment, bioreactors are still expensive. That is partly due to the design of these bioreactors that are not suitable for food production. We aim at developing a design that is feasible, viable, and desirable for farmers to invest in,” van Eeelen explains.
The need for regulatory support
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
She calls on the public sector to “pave the way” in terms of regulatory frameworks to open up the possibility for cultivated meat farms. Currently, no country in the EU has received applications for approval, with the bloc’s novel foods regulation being the most stringent in the world. Within Europe, though, Switzerland and the UK are currently evaluating filings from Israeli cultivated beef producer Aleph Farms (which last month received clearance in its home country).
So how do farmers make money in the meantime? “Unfortunately, with their current agricultural practices – or [if] they have already transitioned towards plant-based alternatives,” notes van Eelen. ‘If we don’t work on this now, we will be too late for the farmers in need of another alternative, futureproof business model.”
Speaking of the future, RESPECTfarms is working towards fully optimising its first farm by 2029, in the hope to start a movement that can help scale out its process from 2030 onwards. “Our first long-term vision is the transformation of 1,000 farms in 2038, with a growing network to expand and sustain,” says van Eelen.
Buy-in from governments, farmers and consumers is crucial – can RESPECTfarms get the ball rolling with the world’s first cultivated meat farm?
In an exclusive interview with Green Queen, Wild Earth co-founder and alt-protein investor Ryan Bethencourt talks the death threats he’s received, his experience with Shark Tank and Mark Cuban, his investment criteria, learning from Tesla, media bias, and his company’s upcoming cat food and Basics lines.
“It was honestly pretty brutal,” says Ryan Bethencourt, recalling a trip he took with his father when he was 10. “I loved animals, cared for lots of our dogs and cats, and I then went to see a pig slaughtered in front of me.”
He recalls seeing the fear in the creature’s eyes – as if the life had been drained out of them. “They were sliced up in front of me,” he describes, noting the day he quit pork.
That was over 30 years ago now, a period since which Bethencourt has emerged as a leading scientist, entrepreneur and investor in the alternative protein industry. His trip to the farm provides a snapshot of a man who deeply cares about animals – he grew up with a bunch of dogs, cats and other “exotic pets” – and his company Wild Earth, which makes food for our furry friends, extends that image.
It took him until his late teenage years to go fully vegetarian, but it was really in his late 20s that he gave up animal foods altogether, after watching the 2005 documentary Earthlings. “I went vegan the next day,” the now-44-year-old tells me. “As Ursula Le Guin wrote in one of my favourite short stories, once I had seen the wrongness of our society, I chose to walk away from Omelas and go vegan.”
What Ryan Bethencourt the investor looks for in startups
A few years after taking the plant-based plunge, Bethencourt and a few friends co-founded Indie.Bio in 2014, a biotech accelerator based in San Francisco, which has funded dozens of leaders in the alternative protein industry. It marked the beginning of his journey as an investor.
Bethencourt calls his journey of becoming an angel investor accidental. “I wanted to keep supporting ‘future of food’ companies post IndieBio, and I started to invest tiny angel cheques to help founders just get off the ground (most were their first cheques),” he says, naming companies like cultivated meat leaders Shiok Meats (Singapore) and Newform Foods (South Africa). “Over time, I realised I needed more capital to support so many founders that were approaching me.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
This is when he launched Sustainable Food Ventures with food and flavour scientist Mariliis Holm. It’s a rolling fund that backs 60 companies over three years (50% of which are first cheques). Over the last decade, Bethencourt has been involved in the angel or VC funding of more than 180 companies. Some of his favourites? Upside Foods, Mycoworks, NotCo, Geltor, Jellatech, Galy, Hoxton Farms and Farmless, among many others.
What does a serial investor like him look for in a company? The North Carolina resident has three simple criteria. He calls the first “missionary over mercenary”, indicating support only for people who deeply care about a sector. “They’ll keep going no matter what, and you need that when building a business. No company or industry stays hot forever, and when it gets brutally hard, that’s when missionaries shine,” he explains.
The next is a focus on new and interesting insights or technology, “ideally with a deep understanding of why others that have tried failed and why this time it’s different”. Finally, he asks the question: “Do I want to work with this person/team for the next few decades?” He believes this is his most unusual insight, as he views backing a founded as a lifelong commitment – it’s not just their first startup, but those that follow too. For example, he invested in Alan Perlstein’s Miraculex (now Oobli) years ago, and has since funded Perlstein’s latest startup, California Cultured.
“I still get founders of large commercial companies who call me and ask for my perspective on their companies or their next startup, and I love the fact they feel comfortable reaching out to me as the years roll on,” says Bethencourt.
Creating Wild Earth and securing a Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban
It was at Indie.Bio when Bethencourt first became “obsessed about pet food”. There were a few reasons for this. The investor had learnt that 30% of the meat consumed in the US goes to feeding pets (which, to him, meant that 25-30% of factory-farmed animals could be replaced). He also realised that dogs, as omnivores, could “survive and thrive” on a plant-based diet. And he was even more shocked to find out that cats (traditionally seen as obligate carnivores) could similarly prosper on a nutritionally complete vegan diet.
Courtesy: Wild Earth
It sparked an idea that propelled Bethencourt to mainstream popularity. “I really believe in the saying: ‘Let food be thy medicine.” And most pet food is honestly horrible,” he says, invoking the dreaded 4Ds – dead, diseased, dying or downed animals – and referring to the contamination with euthanasia drugs and melted plastic.
“All of these contaminants have been found by the FDA in pet food, and that’s before you actually understand what our pets are being fed: ground-up chicken feathers, beaks and other horrible things,” he notes. “The great irony of this all is we can replace the entire rotten pet food industry with nutritionally compete plant-based and yeast-based proteins, clean and not gross.”
He took it upon himself to transform the pet food industry for all the animals, and started Wild Earth with his co-founders in 2017. Two years later, he appeared on national television with the aim of generating interest and investment in his company. Suffice it to say, he was successful in reaching his goal, and then some.
On Shark Tank, Bethencourt landed a deal with Mark Cuban, securing $550,000 for 10% of the company. (Since then, Wild Earth has closed Series A and A+ rounds to bring total funding to nearly $50M). “Shark Tank was a surreal experience,” he reveals. “A lot of people don’t know this, but there aren’t any redos on the show. When the doors open, you get one shot and that’s it, and the pressure is intense as they make sure you never meet the Sharks prior to the pitch.”
The Sharks went hard on Bethencourt after he revealed that Wild Earth had no commercial sales yet (with plans to launch its first product soon), despite essentially valuing the business at $11M. He expected that response. “We were trying our best to make sure we made the best dog food possible and it was taking a lot longer than I originally hoped,” he tells me.
“I hoped one of them would see the vision behind Wild Earth and why we had to bring change to the pet food industry, and luckily, right at the end when all the Sharks had declined, Mark looked at me and made me an offer. I honestly thought he was going to pass too, but he really understood where the future was going and was willing to take a chance.”
Bethencourt says Cuban and his team have provided “incredible support” over the years, adding that he speaks to Cuban every few weeks. “I think Mark also deeply understood the opportunity in the plant-based/vegan space,” he suggests. “After he backed us, I kept sending him studies on plant-based diets’ health benefits and strength/exercise benefits too. A few years back, Mark went mostly vegetarian, and I think it’s helped keep him in great shape on top of his commitment to lots of exercise.”
Exploring cultivated meat and health benefits of vegan pet food
Wild Earth didn’t stop at vegan pet food, though. In 2022, the company announced its foray into cultivated meat with a cultured chicken broth topper for dogs. A year and a bit later, it remains one of only a handful of producers working on cell-based pet food.
“I’ve spent a lot of time talking to everyone, including the biggest critics of the plant-based industry, cattle ranchers, self-proclaimed carnivores, and some of the biggest meat producers on the planet. I’m convinced that while many of us (at least 50% of us) are happy with plant-based and fermented protein options, there’s still a large group of consumers who want ‘real’ meat, and I think we can make those products for them too, [which] are slaughter-free, but real meat,” Bethencourt explains.
Did the company receive any concerns from its vegan consumer base? “Yes we did,” he confirms. “We had lots of conversations and as we’ve seen, this topic is controversial. It’s likely that we’ll launch a separate line of cultivated pet foods under a different brand to ensure that there’s no confusion.”
While all of Wild Earth’s consumer products will be vegan, this possible future line of cultivated products will cater to people who still want “real” meat for their pets, but want to skip the low quality and cruel use of animals in factory farming. “Our mission at Wild Earth is to make killer food without the killing,” states Bethencourt.
Courtesy: Wild Earth
Consumer apprehension over the health aspects of alternative proteins is a key challenge for the industry in 2024. The Wild Earth CEO says he’s seen a “dramatic change” in perception about the health credentials of dog food in the last seven years. This shift has occurred both in consumers who’ve noticed benefits for their pets when eating vegan, and veterinarians who are recommending plant-based diets for dogs to tackle food allergies, weight control, diabetes and other clinical applications, according to Bethencourt.
“We’ve also seen a dramatic shift in who the average Wild Earth consumer is: when we started, the majority of our customers were vegan/vegetarians, but today, the majority of our customers aren’t (over 70%). We’re seeing widespread adoption from consumers just looking for cleaner and healthier food, and they’re now comfortable with plant-based pet foods.”
That has given rise to an increasing number of vegan pet food brands and products. One estimate put this market at $26B in 2022, predicting it to double to $57B by 2032. Companies like The Pack, Omni, Hownd (all UK), Noochies (Canada), Paleo (Belgium) are all innovating in this space, and that’s without looking at the larger players launching dedicated plant-based lines.
“The vast majority of both vegans and vegetarians still feed their pets meat-based pet food,” asserts Bethencourt. “I know because I get lectured almost daily (particularly) by vegans who tell me that dogs can’t be vegan (after we’ve fed tens of thousands of dogs plant-based diets for many, many years and they’ve thrived).
“I’m thankful I no longer get the death threats though,” he adds, recalling people’s uproar over feeding dogs vegan food. “Those were weird.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
He calls recent research about the benefits of plant-based diets for pets his “favourite new development” in the space, particularly the studies by University of Winchester professor Andrew Knight. In 2022, he published a paper revealing that dogs fed vegan diets were healthier and required fewer veterinary interventions. He followed it up with similar research for cats, showing that felines on a plant-based diet could be healthier than those fed meat.
Bethencourt believes the increase in such studies has led to vets getting more receptive of vegan pet food, and industry giants like Mars, Nestlé and General Mills experimenting with plant-based launches. “We’re still early, [but] I’m confident we’re starting to reach a tipping point in the US, Europe and the UK, and hopefully soon globally,” he says.
‘Plant-based industry can learn a lot from Tesla’
While Wild Earth did develop its lines of cultured chicken (and beef), it has been forced to pause their development due to the challenging financial environment globally, doubling down on its commercial plant-based products instead. “We’re now in conversations with other companies who have developed cell-based lines about partnering to produce future slaughter-free meat lines,” reveals Bethencourt.
It’s reflective of the wider challenges for alternative meat across the world, a slump he calls “brutal, but… inevitable”. “All industries move in boom and bust cycles. In the plant-based space, most funding has frozen, but – and here’s the important part – the customers are still out there, and across Europe, the US and Asia more customers are becoming open to plant-based products,” he explains.
“I think one of the biggest challenges for all of us is competing with some of the planet’s largest companies in the food category. Most plant-based food companies are tiny in comparison to today’s food giants, but if we focus on making incredible products, with great customer benefits and very competitive prices, we can win.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
The narrative around plant-based hasn’t been helped by the attacks from some mainstream media outlets, which Bethencourt agrees are biased, given most of their advertisers still sell animal-based products, meaning they can’t be too critical. “In an era of AI and information warfare from both nation states through to large incumbents, we all have to think more independently and question everything,” he implores.
The Wild Earth CEO says the plant-based industry can learn a lot from the likes of Tesla, which launched with a premium line and has since aggressively increased product benefits and lowered prices. “People will want to buy tasty, healthier and cost-competitive products – we just have to push our industry harder to deliver on these, and that’s a hard challenge for us all,” he notes.
Going back to the media aspect, Tesla – a company that’s “probably the most hated by mainstream media” – is doing “an incredible amount of good”, despite governments and petrochemical giants being against it, according to Bethencourt: “They continue to win market share by focusing on innovation, their customers, and making better and increasingly more cost-competitive products.”
One company that’s doing it right in his eyes is Chile’s AI-led vegan startup NotCo. “From day one, Matias [Muchnik], their founder and CEO, has always said tastier products, healthier products and better-priced products will win, and they have all across Latin America.” (Most recently, the company’s collaboration with The Kraft Company bore fruit to a vegan version of the latter’s iconic boxed mac and cheese).
Wild Earth will launch cat food and a Basics line for dogs
Courtesy: Wild Earth
Since raising the half a million from Cuban on Shark Tank, Wild Earth has managed to release 14 products, feed tens of thousands of dogs, launch online and in retail nationwide, and sell over $42M worth of vegan dog food, treats and supplements. In the company’s early days, it was able to grow revenue by 25-50%, and last year, that figure crossed $10M. This year, the target is $15M, though the focus is on cost-efficient growth, keeping in mind the precarious economic landscape.
Its D2C business remains its most successful sales channel. “One of the hardest things for us was transforming from an R&D organization to a commercial organisation,” says Bethencourt. “It’s hard for any company but particularly for a mission-based company we’ve had to learn a lot of lessons, staying true to our mission means being effective and scaling sales.”
Now, Wild Earth is looking to expand into retail and diversify its product portfolio by launching a new cat food SKU, as well as an essential Basics line. The latter – set to launch later this year – will provide a lower-cost entry point for vegan pet food to cater to a wider audience. The company also hopes to return to India and Asia (where it was selling pre-pandemic), and enter Europe and Canada – international expansion is on the cards for 2025.
People aren't ready for us to turn carnivore cats vegan but I'm going to do it, it's e/acc after all
“We’re very optimistic about the future for plant-based pet food and think the first plant-based food boom and bust (for us and our pets) was just the end of the beginning of market adoption,” predicts Bethencourt, who foresees continued growth in the sector over the next decade.
“One of our guiding principles at Wild Earth is to be bold and push the pet industry to change,” he says. “We did this when we launched our plant-based dog food, treats and supplements, we’re doing that again with our vegan cat products and we’ll challenge ourselves again in the future to grow the space for cell-based meat to end the use of factory-farmed animals in pet food.
“It’s hard, but it’s something we believe is important to do for the world we want to see in the future.”
Amid a flurry of proposed bans on cultivated meat in the US and around the world, two senators have now introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of cultured meat in school meals.
Just as American schoolchildren are having to fight for even soy milk under the First Amendment, two US lawmakers are hoping to introduce a wider crackdown on alternative proteins in the education sector.
Senators Mike Rounds (Republican) and Jon Tester (Democrat) have proposed a bill to amend the Richard B Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and ban the use of cultivated meat in US school meals.
Titled the School Lunch Integrity Act of 2024, the senators seek to prohibit cell-cultured meat from being served in schools under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP).
“This common-sense bill will make sure our schools can serve real meat from our ranchers, not a fake substitute that’s grown in a lab,” said Tester, a third-generation farmer from Montana. “Montana ranchers grow the best meat in the world, that’s a fact – and our students ought to be getting the best in their school breakfasts and lunches every day.”
US senator promotes local beef over cultivated meat
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC, Jon Tester
Cultivated meat has already been approved for sale in the country, with the USDA granting clearance to Californian producers UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat last year. It made the US only the second nation to allow the consumption of these proteins – but Rounds’ office claimed that these actions “undermine the important work of American livestock producers”.
The USDA hasn’t yet issued any guidance over cultivated protein in the NSLP or SBP, but despite its approval of cell-based chicken from the aforementioned companies – which have also received a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) certification from the FDA – Rounds questioned the safety of these products, citing a lack of research.
“It starts out with a piece of meat, a cell from an actual chicken and then it is developed artificially within the laboratory. We just want to make sure that’s not the stuff they are selling in our schools,” Rounds told local outlet Keloland.
In a statement, he said: “Our students should not be test subjects for cell-cultivated ‘meat’ experiments. South Dakota farmers and ranchers work hard to produce high-quality beef products. These products are often sold to South Dakota schools, where they provide necessary nutrition to our students.
“With high-quality, local beef readily available for our students, there’s no reason to be serving fake, lab-grown meat products in the cafeteria. I’m pleased to introduce this bipartisan legislation that benefits South Dakota producers and protects students from the unknown effects of cell-cultivated ‘meat’ products.”
Reflecting a wider disconnect between meat and climate change
Courtesy: Our World in Data
It’s a rhetoric commonly used by sceptics of cultivated meat, which – as mentioned above – has been cleared as safe for human consumption by the US government. Promoting beef serves the interests of the country’s livestock industry – which receives 800 times more public funding than alternative protein companies – and encourages the consumption of a product that is proven to be the worst-emitting food.
Rounds will argue that he’s supporting local farmers and beef, which will have a lower carbon footprint than meat produced elsewhere. This is a commonly held misconception, because transport accounts for less than 1% of beef’s GHG emissions. “Eating local beef or lamb has many times the carbon footprint of most other foods. Whether they are grown locally or shipped from the other side of the world matters very little for total emissions,” explains Our World in Data’s Hannah Ritchie.
But perhaps Rounds can be forgiven for the confusion – he is, after all, a lawmaker in a country that fails to connect meat consumption with the climate crisis. One study found that 74% of Americans don’t think eating meat is bad for the environment, while another put that number at 41% for red meat. But peer-reviewed research has revealed 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.
Even studies that critics routinely cite – such as a 2019 University of Oxford paper – are misinterpreted. While that research was undertaken when cultivated meat was much less developed and heavily reliant on fossil fuel power, it still found that the worst-case scenario for cultivated meat’s GHG emissions is better than the “best” conventional meat production systems for at least the next 100 years.
Livestock industry questions the safety of cultivated meat
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Nevertheless, the bill was welcomed by animal agriculture groups like the US Cattlemen’s Association, R-CALF USA, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and South Dakota Pork Producers, who seemingly ignored the implications of the safety rulings for cultivated chicken – a marker that other foods produced this way can also be regulated the same way in the future – by the USDA and FDA. In January, Israel became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated beef, after the Israeli Ministry of Health (IMOH) issued a ‘no questions’ letter for Aleph Farms.
“Science experiments belong in the classroom, not the cafeteria,” said Justin Tupper, president of the US Cattlemen’s Association. “The long-term health effects of consuming foods produced using cell-cultured technology [have] not been established. These products are too new and untested to be considered safe for our nation’s children.”
Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, added: “The claim that cell-cultivated meat grown in a laboratory is as safe and healthful as real, natural meat has not yet been definitively determined. So, subjecting children to this nascent, scientific experiment is bad public policy. We applaud Senator Rounds’ bill that will ensure our children and grandchildren will not be encouraged to consume this controversial and unnatural product while at school.”
“We just want to make sure that our livestock producers in the upper midwest aren’t ham-stringed by schools suggesting that because of liberals in the area or individuals that don’t like ag that they are suddenly then being challenged to compete with cultured meat, which we think has a long way to go and hasn’t been properly tested at this stage of the game,” added Rounds.
Joining a global trend of cultivated meat bans
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods
The legislation is reminiscent of the amendment of France’s climate law in 2021, which banned cultivated meat in canteens, similarly calling into question the safety of the products and the threat to livestock farmers.
That wasn’t the end of France’s anti-cultivated-meat push, which last year introduced a bill to prohibit the production and sale of these novel proteins throughout the country – not just in the education sector.
It’s part of a wider trend that’s developing around the world. A month before France’s proposal, Italy became the world’s first country to officially ban cultivated meat. And one of the farming groups that lobbied prominently for the law is now in talks with Hungary to push forward similar legislation in the country.
Austria has also voiced its opinion against cultivated meat, presenting a note to the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council last week alongside Italy and France. It garnered support from the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Meanwhile, senators in the US have been jumping on this bandwagon as well. Before Rounds and Tester introduced their legislation to the Senate, Republican lawmakers in several states had already floated the idea of prohibiting the general production and sale of cultivated meat within state borders.
It began with Florida, where House representative Tyler Sirois proposed HB 435, which seeks to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cultured meat within the state, imposing criminal penalties – including facing misdemeanours of the second degree, fines of $500 to $1,000, and license suspensions or stop-sale orders – on anyone violating these rules.
Shortly after, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, while Nebraska’s Real MEAT Act would mandate the word “imitation” on alt-protein if passed.
Then, in Arizona, House representative Quang Nguyen drafted HB 2244, a bill that would make it illegal to “intentionally misbrand or misrepresent” an alternative meat product as meat, while fellow Republican David Marshall went a step further with HB 2121, attempting to ban the sale or production of cultured meat.
And just this week, Wisconsin State Assembly representative Peter Schmidt – a Republican dairy farmer – proposed two bills against alternative protein, one of which put restrictions on the labelling of cultivated meat.
Rounds said it’s too early to tell how the bill will play out in the Senate. But really, the focus should be on finding ways to safeguard the environment, not promote food production methods that destroy it. Climate activists will hope these bills stop making the rounds.
Eat Just has relaunched its vegan mayonnaise and ranch lines, citing years of requests from consumers to bring back the products. The return of the SKUs, which were discontinued after major controversy and to focus on the Just Egg rollout, will help the business reach its profitability goals.
Five years after discontinuing its ultra-popular (and controversial) condiments, Eat Just has responded to consumer’s wishes. The Just Mayo and Ranch ranges are returning to supermarket shelves, as the Californian company steps up its efforts to become profitable this year.
The relaunched dressings will be rolled out in the refrigerated section of Whole Foods stores nationwide from February, before entering the ambient aisles of additional retailers in March. Both products have been brought back in two flavours: original and chipotle.
In a tongue-in-cheek statement, Eat Just’s global marketing head, Tom Rossmeissl, said: “Who would have thought? People who had a religious obsession with our mayo and dressings would be pissed when we cut them? I thought I’d get a few angry emails. But instead, we’ve seen almost four years of pseudo-online bullying and boxes of hate mail.
“We just wanted people to scramble some plant eggs, but I guess we could have let them continue to slather their bread and pizza too?”
Bringing back a fan favourite
Courtesy: Eat Just
The relaunch of Just Mayo comes after the company encountered calls from consumers “in the comments of nearly every @JUSTEgg social post over the last four years”. The company recently held a poll on Instagram asking users if it should bring back its mayo and ranch, where 87% of its followers responded with ‘Yes!’ (only 2% said no, with the other 11% selecting ‘What even is that?’, reflecting how the company has onboarded new fans in the last few years).
An Eat Just representative confirmed to Green Queen that the recipes for the returning condiments are the same as earlier. “The main ingredients in the mayo are canola oil, vinegar, and pea protein,” they said. Modified food starch, salt, sugar, spices, and fruit and vegetable colours also appear in the original flavour. “For the ranch, it’s very similar, but with additional seasonings like onion, garlic, and lemon juice.” Other ingredients include autolysed yeast extract, lactic acid, propylene glycol alginate, modified food starch, xantham gum, salt and spices. (For both ranges, the shelf-stable versions contain calcium disodium EDTA for preservation.)
Mayo is a lucrative market. According to Amazon Fresh, mayo is the top-purchased condiment in all but one of the US states it delivers in. Circana data reveals that dollar sales for mayo were up by 21% year-on-year in July 2023, reaching $2.6B, as unit sales crossed $592M stateside. One estimate put the global mayo market at $12.3B in 2022.
And this trend is reflected in vegan mayo too, with one insights firm valuing egg-free mayo at $4.3B last year. According to the Good Food Institute, dollar sales for vegan condiments, dressings and mayo increased by 47% from 2019 to 2022 (reaching $89M), and unit sales swelled by 32% in the same period.
This has been helped by a proliferation of plant-based mayonnaise options in recent years beyond Follow Your Heart’s Vegenaise, which came onto the market back in 1977. These include Primal Kitchen (owned by Kraft Heinz), Hellmann’s, Sir Kensington’s (both Unilever), and Chosen Foods, to name a few.
The relaunched Just Mayo is priced at $6.99 per 12oz jar. “The SRP for JUST Mayo and JUST Ranch is in line with, or even lower than, other plant-based mayos and dressings on the market,” the spokesperson said. “Given our fans’ consistent feedback that our products are superior to others they’ve tried, we feel our prices are fair and accessible.”
The new launch will hope to help the company on its path to profitability. Eat Just has been facing financial stress lately, with its cultivated meat division Good Meat involved in a number of lawsuits (it has just filed counterclaims against one of its suppliers). To date, the company has raised over $850M for its plant-based and cultivated businesses but has reportedly been facing a cash crunch.
But CEO Josh Tetrick – who was named in the TIME100 Climate list last year – told Green Queen in November that Just Egg, which makes up 99.9% of the company’s current revenue, experienced a 173 percentage-point improvement in EBITDA in the first half 2023 vs full year 2022, and an 80-point hike in gross margin in the same periods. “Our business plan is on track to achieve break even in 2024, with half of our current SKUs selling at a positive margin today,” he said.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Why the Eat Just mayo was discontinued in the first place
Eat Just had originally launched its mayo in 2013, when the company was still called Hampton Creek. The product was subject to a lot of press attention and consumer excitement and quickly became one of the leading vegan mayonnaises on the market, available at Whole Foods Market, Walmart, Kroger and more.
But the popularity led to Eat Just being sued in 2014 by Unilever, which admitted that Just Mayo was eating into the sales of its own Hellmann’s mayo). The lawsuit was filed “on the grounds that the term ‘mayo’ implied the use of eggs”, but the food giant withdrew it after criticism from the media and consumers, applauding Eat Just’s “commitment to innovation and its inspired corporate purpose”, before launching a plant-based version of Hellmann’s in 2016.
It was a win for Eat Just, but it soon followed a much larger controversy. In 2016, Bloomberg reported that the Californian startup had been directing employees and contractors to buy up “mass quantities of Just Mayo” as part of an undercover operation in 2014 that “made the product appear more popular than it really was”. Contractors were also allegedly asked to call retail store managers posing as customers to ask about the availability of the mayo, presumably in a bid to drive hype for the product.
“We need you in Safeway buying Just Mayo and our new flavored mayos. And we’re going to pay you for this exciting new project!” Caroline Love, the brand’s director of corporate partnership at the time, wrote in an April 2014 email to contract workers. “The most important next step with Safeway is huge sales out of the gate. This will ensure we stay on the shelf to put an end to Hellmann’s factory-farmed egg mayo, and spread the word to customers that Just Mayo is their new preferred brand.”
A March 2015 correspondence signed by the corporate partnerships team’s Melanie Myers read: “You will be calling Whole Foods Market locations as a customer to create buzz and increase demand for Just Mayo flavors and Just Cookie Dough in these stores, putting pressure on the Regional Buyer.” Eat Just provided scripts to these workers, asking them to pretend to be caterers or planning events for which they require “this new mayonnaise. I think it’s called Just Mayo.”
“We’ve always been transparent about what happened here,” the Eat Just spokesperson told Green Queen. The company “was trying to address a QA/QC [quality assurance/control] issue with our first shipments of Mayo and add shelf space, and it represented less than 1% of sales at the time.”
This is consistent with what the company had said, with Myers outlining that the project was carried out primarily for quality-control purposes, but admitted that “we also thought it might give us a little momentum out of the gate”. Tetrick added that it had cost the company about $77,000, representing less than 0.12% of its total sales.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Despite expanding its line mayo range with flavours like wasabi, truffle, sesame ginger, garlic, chipotle, and sriracha, Eat Just eventually withdrew the condiments range to focus on Just Egg, which has become incredibly popular and captured 99% of the vegan egg market. But now, it’s hoping to make amends to customers with “coupons, recipes, mayo-based holiday surprises and more via its Instagram account” in the coming months.
“Challenges, doubts, and unforeseen hurdles have not stopped Eat Just from continuing to drive innovation in plant-based foods to give consumers better choices and more ways to change the food system for the better every time they sit down to a meal,” said the brand.
The focus is to now become financially sustainable and break even. “It’s the most important objective of the company and the team is focused on increasing the probability of achieving it,” the spokesperson told Green Queen. Asked what its goals for the year were, they responded: “To sell healthier, sustainable products to millions of consumers in a way that enables the company to sustain itself in the long term.”
It echoes what Tetrick said in November: “We are focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan (i.e., cover operating costs through margin dollars) and serving our customers. If we execute, the company and its missions win. It’ll be challenging and hard – and it’s up to us to get it done.”
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 a ton of alt-dairy developments, more discussions around banning cultivated meat, and vegan culinary tourism in Sri Lanka.
New products and launches
Canadian vegan cheesemaker Daiya has partnered with The Bear actor Lionel Boyce for Fromage Forgery, a campaign paying tribute to dupe culture. Boyce acted as salesman for the brand’s takeover of Downtown New York City, where over 350 customers tried its new oat-cream-based ‘dupe’ cheese.
Courtesy: Actual Veggies
Speaking of New York, Actual Veggies, which makes whole-food plant-based burgers, is launching a range of Super Fries in Classic Russet Potato, Sweet Potato and Purple Sweet Potato varieties, which will also contain ingredients like chickpeas and cauliflower. The Classic is available on Hungryroot now.
Fellow New York brand HIPPEAS has launched a new line of chickpea puffs called Flavor Blast!, available in Vegan White Cheddar Explosion and Blazin’ Hot flavours at Sprouts, Amazon and its e-commerce store.
Alt-meat leader Tofurky will soon launch a Plant-Based Pepp’roni in a 4oz pack at Tops Markets in the northeast and Hy-Vee in the midwest, starting this February.
Mycelium meat producer Prime Roots has collaborated with charcuterie and pâté maker Three Little Pigs to bring its Black Truffle Koji-Pâté, Harvest Apple Koji-Pâté and Koji-Foie Gras to customers in New York, Bay Area, and Portland delis.
Meanwhile, following its November announcement, plant-based children’s nutrition brand Kate Farms‘ Pediatric Blended Meals are now available. Eligible for insurance coverage, the vegan whole-food meals come in three flavours, are designed for kids aged one to 13, and can be used for both tube and oral feeding.
Courtesy: Kate Farms
In Florida, the Manatee County School District has rolled outImpossible Foods’ burgers and nuggets in student cafeterias at two high schools and three middle schools.
Illinois-based macadamia milk maker Milkadamia has released a new Organic Artisan line of refrigerated SKUs, in original and unsweetened varieties, as well as blends of macadamia with oat, almond or coconut milks. They were showcased at the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas this month.
Another alt-dairy innovation comes courtesy of Elmhurst, which has launched an oat-milk-based sour cream in a squeezable pouch format. You can find it on its online store and at Publix, with more to follow.
Chilean food tech company NotCo is expanding distribution for its Unsweetened Vanilla and Barista milks, with the former available at Whole Foods nationwide from February. The Barista edition is at grocers like Sprouts Farmers Market, New Seasons, Raley’s Supermarket, Hannaford, Haagen and Met Foodmarkets, and coffee shops like Joe Coffee and Daily Provisions.
If you’re flying to or from the UK, by the way, British Airways is now offering Glebe Farm’s oat milk aboard all its long-haul flights.
Three months after announcing price parity for its vegan own-label Vemondo in Germany, Lidl has expanded those efforts to Austria (as well as Denmark and Hungary), cutting prices by 52% on over 30 meat and dairy analogues.
Courtesy: Yumgo
Elsewhere, French brand YUMGO‘s egg alternatives – which come in powdered and liquid forms for whole eggs, whites and yolks – are now available in Japan, following a partnership with leading deli distributor Nichifutsu Boeki KK.
Indonesian plant-based meat leader Green Rebel has introduced its steak, Balinese skewers and Padang-style rendang SKUs to the frozen section of RedMart stores in Singapore.
And in Israel, Beyond Meat has launched chicken cutlets, nuggets and tenders, with help from distributor Diplomat Plant Based. The brand dominates the country’s alt-meat market share, accounting for 25% just four years after entry.
Financing and collaborations
London-based dairy alternatives company The Coconut Collab has closed a £1.5M Series B funding round from existing investors, which will help it scale production, launch new SKUs and expand internationally.
Courtesy: The Coconut Collab
Indian clean-label vegan nutrition startup Earthful, meanwhile, has raised $400,000, after witnessing a 5x growth over the last year.
Australian bio-based vegan leather company ALT.Leather has secured $100M in a seed funding round to produce the country’s first plant-based alternative to the material.
Belgian precision fermentation startupPaleo has opened a new R&D centre in Leuven to scale up production and accelerate its commercialisation plans, ahead of a fundraise later this year.
German catering service company Dussmann is doubling down on its Veganuary initiatives with a Vielfalt Statt Verzicht (Diversity Instead of Sacrifice) campaign in partnership with vegan startups Planted, BettaF!sh, BOONIAN, and Brew Bites, whose dishes are available at 60 Dussmann sites nationwide.
In more collaboration news, Canada’s Modern Plant-Based Foods has “received interest from a diversified multinational entertainment and media conglomerate”, which will see its Vegan Kaviar appear at select dining outlets across the latter’s properties. (While the tone of the release is coy, this is certainly the Walt Disney Company.)
Courtesy: Modern Plant-Based Foods
In Sri Lanka, sustainability non-profit SLYCAN Trust has partnered with Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts to launch Plant-Based Gastronomy: Tales of Sri Lanka’s Cultural Heritage. The initiative aims to showcase the country’s plant-based heritage and promote sustainable culinary tourism, with a dedicated vegan food corner at Cinnamon Grand Colombo’s restaurant and the introduction of a vegan chef.
Over in the US, after closing eight stores last year, vegan fast-casual chain Native Foods has converted its three remaining locations in Chicago, Palm Springs and Glendale into an employee ownership model.
Meanwhile, vegan seafood producer New Wave Foods has ceased operations after being unable to pay its debts in full to various creditors, and has entered into a general assignment agreement.
Cultivated meat developments
Researchers at Tufts University have developed bovine muscle cells that produce their own growth factors, which can significantly cut production costs for cultivated beef.
Following discussions about cultivated meat at the EU’s Agrifish Council last week, Hungary may be joining the bandwagon of countries hoping to ban cultured meat, with its agriculture minister meeting the head of Italian farmers’ union Coldiretti (which played a key role in finalising Italy’s ban).
In more alt-protein ban developments, Wisconsin State Assembly representative Peter Schmidt – who is also a Republican dairy farmer – has proposed two bills restricting the labelling of cultivated meat and plant-based milk, following in the footsteps of Arizona.
In the UK, cultivated fat producer Hoxton Farms has expanded its leadership by adding former Impossible Foods senior VP Nick Halla to its board.
If you followed the viral TikTok homemade butter trend of 2022, and were sad you couldn’t do it with vegan cream, fret not! Californian startup Savor – which makes animal-free fats from a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen – has released a video showcasing how to make butter from scratch using its fat.
Israel’s Redefine Meat has now made it to the Premier League, with Crystal Palace footballers Chris Richards and James Tomkins taste-testing the 3D-printed plant-based meat in a new video.
After announcing its anti-Veganuary ad campaign Let’s Eat Balanced, UK livestock association the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is facing pushback from campaigners who have submitted complaints against the ad to the country’s Advertising Standards Authority.
Finally, a new report by ProVeg South Africa has revealed that vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians make up 10-12% of the country’s population and have driven the 33.1% rise in fast-food consumption since 2019. The researchers explore vegan options at QSRs and make recommendations to help the foodservice industry.
Since launching in 2014, Veganuary has boasted increasing sign-ups year on year. But what’s the evidence that the campaign that encourages people to adopt a vegan diet during January is really taking a bite out of the meat market?
More than 700,000 people signed up in 2023, and it’s likely that these figures – which only account for people who officially signed up on the Veganuary website – represent just a fraction of all those who took part without signing up.
Veganuary is a campaign which encourages people to try veganism in January. The Veganuary charity, a UK-based non-profit behind the campaign, counts Deborah Meaden, Joaquin Phoenix and Chris Packham among its ambassadors.
Official Veganuary signups have increased every year since it began in 2014.
In a paper we published last year, we highlighted Veganuary as the most well-known and participated-in meat-free challenge. More than three-quarters of British people have heard of Veganuary.
One in ten have considered taking part, and 6% claim to have taken part. That equates to around four million people – significantly more than the official participation numbers.
Three out of four British people have heard of Veganuary, and one in six have at least thought about taking part.
So why has Veganuary succeeded where so many other efforts to curb our problematic meat consumption have failed? There are two reasons, as outlined in our recent study.
First, Veganuary invites people to try a vegan diet at a time of year when people are often open to trying healthy new habits. Capitalising on an annual time of change can help to overcome any inertia that normally prevents people trying vegan diets.
Second, Veganuary is a social experience. People can connect with others attempting the same challenge. The sense of camaraderie and community is something that Veganuary participants frequently comment on having enjoyed.
Encouragingly, Veganuary’s survey of participants indicates that 98% would recommend the experience to a friend. Moreover, 78% of participants intended to cut their previous animal product consumption at least in half beyond the end of January, and 25% said they intend to stay vegan.
So, Veganuary makes sense in terms of social psychology. Lots of people have taken part, and plenty say they’ll cut down on meat in the longer term. But what evidence is there that Veganuary has made a real impact on dietary habits?
The recent increase in the number of people embracing meat-free diets in the UK is shown in the graph below – in particular, the number of vegans has increased 370% in the past five years.
The rate of veganism in the UK has increased by 370% since 2019.
So Veganuary came to exist and grew rapidly during a time of increasing UK interest in veganism. Could that have been a simple coincidence?
Researchers at the London School of Economics looked at more than 2 million meals sold in workplace cafeterias between 2016 and 2022. Crucially, the workplaces began their Veganuary campaigns halfway through this period, in 2019. The researchers estimated that Veganuary increased sales of vegan products by 86–113% in the 2019-2022 campaigns, and had a lasting impact on sales of vegan products
Sales data from 200 UK supermarkets indicate that, during Veganuary 2023, sales increased for plant-based foods which were on promotion, but not for those which were not on promotion, according to a University of Oxford study.
Veganuary has also increased sales of plant-based products at UK grocery stores. A team at the University of Surrey studied sales of plant-based and animal products at 154 UK grocery stores from November 2020 until March 2021 and found that Veganuary increased sales of plant-based products by a huge 57% during January.
Sales also remained 15% higher after Veganuary compared to before the month-long campaign. That said, there was no significant change in meat consumption observed during the same period.
Curious about Veganuary’s far-reaching impact, I searched Google News to estimate the number of published news stories about veganism during January compared to the rest of the year. In January, there was an average 66% increase in the number of media articles about veganism compared to other months between 2015 and 2020 – evidence that Veganuary increases public attention on veganism-related issues.
Media stories mentioning veganism were 66% higher in January between 2015 and 2020.
Next, I used Google Trends to investigate seasonal trends in the number of people actively seeking out information on veganism. The data in the graph shows some of the clearest evidence yet for the Veganuary effect, with clear spikes in search activity every January. Moreover, interest appears to begin rising right around the time that Veganuary began in 2014.
UK Google searches about veganism peak every January, and started increasing around 2014 when Veganuary began.
Finally, I tracked down the dataset from an unpublished survey of vegans conducted in 2019, because I knew it contained data on a very specific question. The survey, which the researcher kindly shared with me, asked more than 2,000 vegans when they changed their diet, to the nearest three-month period.
Using this data, I created this graph, which shows clear spikes, with more people turning vegan in the first quarter of the year, and an increase starting around (or slightly before) Veganuary began in 2014.
Self-reported dates of when UK vegans changed their diets shows clear peaks in January.
One piece of data stands out most of all. When Veganuary asked participants about their number one motivation for taking part, 18% said the environment and 21% said their health – but 40% said animal welfare.
Animals were the most frequent main motivation for Veganuary participants.
Indeed, the data indicates that the messages inspiring the most dietary change are not about carbon emissions, but about animal cruelty. Almost nobody in the UK views common animal farming practices as acceptable, yet while cow burps are within the range of acceptable dinner party conversation, knives in throats typically are not.
Meat consumption largely remains a social norm but that may well be about to shift. The social tipping point whereby enough people adopt a new norm for it to catch on is estimated to be around 25%. In the UK, the number of people consuming meat-free diets is now up to 14%. Veganuary could soon nudge us towards a vital cultural tipping point.
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Indian government is embarking on a project to create cell-cultured seafood with cultivated meat startup Neat Meatt Biotech.
The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has signed an MoU with New Delhi-based biotech company Neat Meatt to develop cultivated fish, in what is a landmark project for the world’s third-largest seafood consumer. The initiative aims to ensure India keeps up with international progress and tackle climate and food security issues.
The project aims to tackle India’s growing demand for seafood – fish consumption has swelled by 88% in just over a decade – reduce pressure on wild resources, keep up with global progress on alternative proteins, and provide solutions to climate change and food insecurity.
Proof of concept could be shown within two months
The partnership will initially focus on developing cell-cultured varieties of high-value fish species – like kingfish, pomfret and seer fish – which are extremely popular in India, especially among the coastal belts. Based in Kochi, CMFRI has entered into a collaborative research agreement with Neat Meatt, a cultivated meat manufacturer and solutions provider, to help develop these seafood products.
An MoU signed by the two parties reveals that CMFRI will conduct research into early cell line development of high-value marine fish species. This involves isolating and cultivating fish cells for further R&D. Additionally, the marine research organisation will handle genetic, biochemical and analytical work, equipped with a cell culture laboratory with basic facilities, providing a solid foundation for research in cellular biology.
Meanwhile, the project will leverage Neat Meatt’s expertise in cell culture tech, with the firm leading the optimisation of cell growth media, development of scaffolds or micro-carriers for cell attachment, and scaling up production through bioreactors. The company will be responsible for providing the necessary consumables, manpower and additional equipment required as well.
Courtesy: CMFRI
Neat Meatt co-founder and CEO Sandeep Sharma is confident that the partnership’s proof of concept could be established within a couple of months. But Kajal Chakraborty, principal scientist at CMFRI, told the Hindustan Times that the product may take a decade to reach the market. “Just like other meat, we will use cell line cultures to produce fish meat. It’s even more difficult to grow meat of higher vertebrates in laboratory settings,” she explained.
CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan added: “This project aims to accelerate development in this field, ensuring India is not left behind in this emerging industry.”
Why India decided to invest in cultivated seafood
India’s seafood market is worth $57.15B, according to one estimate, and is set to expand by 7.6% annually. And last year, its seafood exports reached an all-time high, shipping out 1.7 million tonnes worth $8.09B. But with growing awareness about the seafood industry’s climate impact, there have been calls to switch to lower-carbon production methods.
While estimates suggest that carbon emissions of fish caught in India’s marine fisheries are 17.7% lower than the global average, in terms of overall climate change impact by 2050, the country remains in the medium to high category. The country has a burgeoning alt-protein sector, with 113 companies working across plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived meat, dairy, seafood and eggs.
But even though several alt-seafood startups exist in India (such as Seaspire, Mister Veg, VegetaGold, Veggie Champ and The Mighty Food), only two companies – Klevermeat and Myoworks – are known to be working on cultured seafood. So this collaboration between CMFRI and Neat Meatt holds promise.
“This public-private partnership [PPP] marks a crucial step in bridging the gap between India and other nations like Singapore, Israel, and the USA, who are already advancing cultured seafood research,” said Gopalakrishnan, who praised cultured fish’s “immense potential for environmental and food security”. He added: “This collaboration leverages CMFRI’s marine research expertise with Neat Meatt’s technological know-how in this field, paving the way for a sustainable and secure future for seafood production in India.”
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC
Explaining the reason behind this partnership, the Good Food Institute (GFI) India’s science and technology specialist, Chandana Tekkatte, told Green Queen: “There is a growing recognition that by enabling more large-scale international scientific and industrial collaborations (leveraging our decades-old bioeconomy expertise), India could become a production powerhouse in the emerging cultivated meat industry and pave the way for other emerging economies.
“The DBT-BIRAC is also encouraging such PPP models to help accelerate R&D breakthroughs in cultivated meat and seafood in India, similar to the momentum seen in Singapore, Israel, and the US. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also been working closely to advance research in cultivated meat and other smart protein categories within the nation’s priorities for high-performance biomanufacturing.”
In another instance of government support for cell-based meat in India, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Science and Engineering Research Board included cultivated meat research under its Competitive Research Grant Programmes in 2021.
The rise of cultivated proteins in India
Tekkatte said India’s cultivated meat and seafood industry is still in its infancy but stands to benefit significantly from India’s thriving pharmaceutical sector, which is set to reach $150B in 2025. “This sector has a proven track record in affordable, high-quality manufacturing, and cultivated meat companies have the opportunity to tap into its vast infrastructure and resources,” she explained.
She added that key early-stage scientific advancements in cultivated meat and seafood have been led by startups in cell line development (Neat Meatt, Klevermeat, Clear Meat), media formulations (Clear Meat), and scaffolds (Myoworks) over the last five years. These have helped build the foundation of the sector and “continue to inspire future research endeavours”.
Previous GFI India research has revealed that one in four Indians would consider giving up conventional meat, seafood, dairy or eggs in the future, citing issues like hygiene, smell, ease of cooking and heaviness on the stomach, as well as animal welfare and impact on the climate. Meanwhile, a three-country study from 2019 on consumer acceptance of cultured meat revealed that 56% of Indians are “very or extremely likely” to buy cultivated meat regularly. “Consumer education and perceptions will play an important role in advertising, marketing, and sale of cultivated meat,” said Tekkatte.
This will also be influenced by prices. “The cost of cultivated meat production will come down with scale — and the scale-up principles of cultivated meat biomanufacturing are sound and have been demonstrated in biopharmaceuticals and vaccine manufacturing industries,” explained Tekkatte.
Courtesy: Myoworks
She added that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India’s regulatory framework “needs to be made more dynamic and evolve in tandem with innovations”. Cultivated meat falls under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSAI) set out in 2017, which rules that if a product or ingredient doesn’t have a history of human consumption – or is obtained using new tech with engineering processes that significantly alter its composition – it’s classed as a non-specified or novel food product.
In 2020, the FSSAI formed the Working Group on Cultured Meat with regulatory and scientific experts to study the possible regulatory pathways for cultivated meat in India. “Early engagement with cultivated meat companies intending to apply for pre-market approvals under the Non-Specified Foods Regulations during the development process would enable the regulatory body to have oversight of the development process, leading to effective, timely guidance to the companies to ensure regulatory compliance and appropriate data submission to reduce approval timelines,” Tekkatte outlined.
“The significance of channelling resources into the cultivated meat industry is particularly relevant in India, with our unique vulnerability to climate change and public health crises. With this massive decrease in land use, additional opportunities arise for the diversification of crops towards direct food consumption,” she said. “As we funnel more investment towards R&D and infrastructure, there’s no doubt that the cultivated meat sector can grow exponentially in India and help cater to the increasing protein needs of the global population.”
San Francisco-based SciFi Foods has announced the successful completion of its first 500-litre bioreactor run in its recently opened facility in San Leandro. The startup now aims to complete regulatory approval and enter US foodservice by early next year.
Hybrid meat might be coming to your plate sooner than you think. SciFi Foods, which makes beef from a mix of cultivated and plant proteins, has completed its first commercial-scale production of its cell-cultured beef in a 500-litre bioreactor.
The company achieved this feat in its recently opened 16,000 sq ft pilot facility in San Leandro, California. It’s the same scale that SciFi Foods will be commercialising out once it receives the regulatory green light from the FDA and USDA.
SciFi Foods can produce 50,000 hybrid beef burgers a year
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Backed by Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and other investors like Coldplay, SciFi Foods has raised over $40M in total financing. Previously called Artemys Foods, the company emerged from stealth in 2022 with a cultivated beef product slated to be used in hybrid meat formulations.
Hybrid meat is a blend of plant and cultivated proteins, and along with blended meat (animal protein mixed with plant-based ingredients), it represents a rapidly growing trend. The idea is to combine the superior taste credentials of cultured proteins with the cost-effectiveness and scalability of plant-based ingredients.
SciFi Foods uses a 90/10 blend of vegan and cell-cultured ingredients. The 90% plant-based composition is derived mainly from soy, and helps the company solve a major bottleneck of cultivated meat: scalability. Scaling up is, as the startup puts it, “a major risk factor” for commercialising these proteins. To overcome that, the company has developed beef cell lines that grow in a 100% serum-free process, using a defined media that doesn’t include any animal-derived ingredients.
Single-cell suspension lines come with a major benefit: they can be grown in any standard, stirred-tank bioreactor, without the need to try and scale up novel hardware. And that has helped SciFi Foods finish its first run on the 500-litre bioreactor. With its hybrid approach, this is enough to produce about 50,000 burgers a year at launch, reveals co-founder and CEO Joshua March. “We expect to be able to double this pretty quickly,” he tells Green Queen.
The company says it encountered no problems in expanding its cell lines from bench scale to the large bioreactor – in fact, it witnessed higher yields in the latter than the small-format bioreactors it was using previously. “We have really great cell lines that we’ve optimised for scale,” notes March. “We are confident we can increase yield significantly more over the next couple of years.”
Currently, SciFi purchases the plant-based ingredients in its hybrid beef from major supplies, based on its own unique formula. “Today, we do the blending in-house,” says March. “However, we’re in talks with various co-packers for our commercial launch.”
Plans for price parity, regulatory approval and market launch
SciFi Foods founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora | Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Speaking to Green Queen in November, March highlighted the issue with scaling up cultured meat production: “Scaling up a novel biomanufacturing process is always hard, but it’s especially hard if you are producing commodity products at competitive prices.”
This is where the single-cell suspension lines come in, given that they don’t require expensive substrates like microcarriers or scaffolding, which is crucial for cost control. In our last interview, March pointed to the industrial fermentation space for proof points that price parity for this sector is possible, but added: “There is only one reasonable blueprint for how to get there: a very simple process with minimal downstream processing and robust cell lines that grow well with low-cost inputs.
“Many of those cell lines are optimised through genetic engineering to approach the maximum theoretical performance for converting feed to product. We believe that all of the same principles apply to cultivated meat, which informs our unique strategy.”
In 2022, the company announced it had achieved price parity with conventional beef using a combination of its proprietary high-throughput cell line engineering and CRISPR technology. The latter is adapted from a genome editing system used by bacteria for immunity and has been touted as a potential embryonic treatment for several hereditary diseases (though some studies say altering the DNA of embryos or eggs and sperm could cause mutations that lead to other health threats).
At the time, March explained that the team had experimented with 10-20% cultivated proteins mixed with plant-based proteins to produce a burger that would cost under $10 to make at its facility, with scaled-up manufacturing potentially driving costs further down to $1 per burger. Now that it’s settled on the lower end of that share (at 10% of cultured beef), it will hope to be able to meet these numbers.
Doing so will be crucial, as the cost of living strains consumer wallets and shapes their attitudes around what they eat. In the US, a 1,018-person survey last year revealed that 46% of respondents are concerned about the rising costs of meat – but while 45% of them expressed interest in trying cultivated meat once it was described to them, only 4% would be willing to pay more for these novel proteins.
Proposed bans ‘profoundly un-American’
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
A larger global poll of 10,000 people last year, though, revealed that 62% of consumers are willing to eat cultured meat. However, there isn’t much research into consumer attitudes towards hybrid meats blending cultivated with plant-based proteins. A 2020 survey covering 1,000 Brits revealed that 35% would be open to trying these products – so while there is some acceptance, the room for growth is huge.
It’s also important because this will be how several cultured meat producers go to market, at least initially. It’s what Israel’s Aleph Farms – the latest company to receive regulatory approval, and the first for beef – is doing with its Black Angus Petit Steak, and Dutch startup Meatable plans to do with its cultured pork.
SciFi Foods hopes to get the go-ahead from the USDA and FDA by early next year, and is already in the consultation process with the latter. Then, it plans to launch into foodservice straight after. “We’re also exploring a number of B2B conversations,” March tells me. “We think that partnering with major food companies is a great way to scale up faster and to get into retail.”
Asked about the recent pushback against cultured meat in US states like Florida, Arizona and Texas – where Republican senators have been calling for a ban on these foods – March brushes them aside. “It’s clear that the proposed bans are for protectionist reasons, and [have] nothing to do with safety or anything else,” he notes. “This is profoundly un-American: consumers should be the ones to choose what products they want to eat, not regulators.”
Funding future food innovations is crucial. As traditional VCs look elsewhere, it’s for the sector to welcome new and diverse sources of investment, from blended capital to redeemable equity.
By Sonalie Figueiras, founding editor at Green Queen Media and advisor at Better Bite Ventures, Mucake and Alwyn Capital, and Maximilian von Poelnitz, Venture Partner at Ajinomoto Corporate Venture Capital
Over the past five years, we have seen a food tech hype bubble building as generalist investors entered the space in droves attracted by the promise of backing climate solutions, the realization that the current food system faces existential challenges, hundreds of passionate mission-led founders, a handful of IPOs that made global headlines because of outsized returns, social media-fueled foodie trends and the promise of helping make the world a better, more environmentally-friendly place. More simply put, food innovation became sexy.
Over time, a disconnect formed between R&D initiatives and go-to-market strategies, and while new money flooded the space, deep sector expertise and long-term track records were hard to come by.
This culminated in the easy money and public stock market euphoria of 2020 and 2021 especially with Covid-led government cash infusions. By 2023, the bubble had burst, and over the past 12 months food tech companies have seen their valuations slashed, dozens of startups have disappeared from the space and the generalist money has moved on to new pastures like climate tech, with funding rounds drying up.
The pendulum has now swung back in favour of cash-infused investors and companies that are actively prolonging runway and driving a clear path to commercialization and profitability. This is problematic for deep tech companies in sectors like cellular agriculture and precision fermentation where there is still a lot of work to do to drive bench-scale applications to industrial and commercial scale distribution; many companies will struggle to move from the lab to the open market without access to capital.
Foodtech investing today: burned by hype
So what went wrong? Ultimately, investors were led to believe that food tech could behave like a tech business and that distribution was simple. There was a sense of ‘build it and they will come’. In 2019/2020, CAGR calculations also made for easy math given that alternative protein markets were growing at over 15% annualized and in some sectors like dairy at over 50%. This led to further media hype and many new /generalist investors jumping into the sector feet-first. Ultimately both the production and distribution math was challenged as startups continue to struggle to move from pilot scale to commercial scale. Further demand for innovative products driven by taste and texture will contribute to additional adoption but not based on the timelines that investors were originally sold.
Foodtech as an investment class: one brush cannot apply to all types
One of the most important “resets” to have occurred over the past 12 months has been investors recognizing that food businesses are not SAAS or technology companies. The term food tech really should not be seen as a catch-all but rather spans a wide variety of industries that include biotech, CPG and/or ingredient-focused R&D houses. This ultimately requires investors with deep expertise in each and a much more niche focus, and in certain verticals, a far longer time horizon for exit.
Except for a few innovation-led plant-based companies like Impossible Foods (precision fermentation-derived heme), Climax Foods (plant casein IP), or EQUII (protein-enriched flour), most plant-based food/meat companies are CPG plays and should be classified (and diligenced) as such. A CPG venture capital firm ultimately has a different investment thesis than a deep-tech fund.
While there is a long history of successful investments and M&A in the food space, the reality is that a Danone will never be a Google or an Apple in terms of market share and revenues – the food business simply does not have the same unit economics as software companies.
Investor Daniel Gluck wrote about these differences in a social media post: “CPG companies don’t scale as fast as tech, typically. Like tech, CPG focuses on creating and changing habits. But customers are more adventurous with apps on their phone than food on their shelves. Most retailers take on new products only 1 to 2 times a year. Customer adoption takes time and growth is slow.”
Wired journalist Matt Reynolds reports further: “Food isn’t like the technology industry, Reams points out. Food companies—even ones with a cool technological edge—do not grow like a software company, he says. Food companies operate on razor-thin margins, prices are volatile, and customers can be extremely picky about what they’ll put in their mouths. There’s also a scaling issue. Software companies can scale rapidly because getting their product to new customers costs almost nothing. It’s just a matter of duplicating lines of code, or hooking up a user to a centralized database that already exists. Food isn’t like that. Every extra plant-based burger requires more soy and pea plants that have to be grown, plus labor costs and processing time. Bigger factories and more efficient production will reduce the cost per burger, but scaling is a slow process that requires expensive physical infrastructure, with no guarantee that customers will buy those slightly-cheaper burgers once they’re made.”
That being said, liquidity events exist every year as large incumbents such as General Mills, PepsiCo, Netsle, or Unilever continue to be active in the space. The takeaway here is that this makes for a completely different investor base as and life cycle.
Food is not ‘frivolous’
With the challenges facing the industry, there continues to be an existential need for food tech solutions and productivity gains. The recent hype cycles in the industry and the failures that continue to gain media attention do not change the fact that the industry is solving a core problem: the very real issues facing our global food systems, which are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We cannot solve the climate crisis without evolving our food systems.
In a piece asking whether the venture capital model is broken, James Ledbetter writes of the sector’s frivolity problem: “Venture capital’s frivolity or lemming problem is not recently acquired. The Internet highway is littered with roadkill of venture-backed companies that would have been considered silly even if they had succeeded.” As we consider how the food industry can benefit from different funding structures and formats, it’s important to state that food, unlike many flash-in-the-pan apps, is anything but frivolous. Food is an essential part of human daily life and must be accorded the importance it merits.
Deeptech food: a longer game
Over the past five years, the term food tech has also come to mean a key focus on synthetic biology, precision fermentation, and even cellular agriculture. These represent sectors with very different capital requirements and investment horizons compared to a standard plant-based meat alternative product.
Deep-tech and cultivated meat/food tech companies have more parallels with healthcare technology given their long R&D cycles, some form of regulatory approval, and the need to plan distribution and supply chain effectively. More importantly, these businesses come with significant infrastructure needs whether through co-manufacturing agreements or a self-designed manufacturing hub. At each business milestone, the company or start-up requires different forms of capital that cannot be supported purely by the venture capital industry.
The key concern in the functional food tech industry is innovators moving from bench scale to pilot scale and then ultimately to commercial scale. Each stage requires a significant investment and technically the risk profile is reduced at each stage. In 2023, venture capital investors tend to shy away from deals where 50% of the capital is put into capex. Again, there are clear parallels with the traditional healthcare biotech inverter landscape. At pilot scale, food tech companies need access to other forms of capital as they begin to take what they created in a lab and bring it to market.
Ultimately, the industry is at a tipping point as it awaits better infrastructure, more project finance, and greater government support. Infrastructure projects do not lend to venture capital timelines. For investors, the next few years will involve increased consolidation and survival exercises by several larger startups. This will potentially be very good for a few early movers but still requires these businesses to find product market fit and commercial success.
Foodtech (esp deep-tech sectors like cultivated meat) has an investment horizon problem: VC exit timelines don’t match technology lifecycles. In the healthcare space, there is a mechanism for VCs to exit their investments as a new round of investors might join at the clinical trial stage. Ultimately food tech needs a milestone-driven approach that allows for other forms of patient capital to enter the investment pool.
So where do we go from here?
What’s clear is that the classic Silicon Valley VC model is not necessarily adapted to the needs of systemic food system change. To finance a transition to a less carbon-intensive, more resilient global food system that meets the needs of humanity ethically, sustainably and nutritionally, new types of capital are needed. Below we explore some of the possibilities.
Patient capital
Patient capital does not have a rigid definition, but generally, the term refers to long-term investments where investors are prepared to wait a considerable amount of time (3-5 years in some sectors, 10-15 years in others) before seeing any financial returns. For this reason, fund managers implementing a patient capital strategy will maintain their investments even if they’re seeing short-term losses for the fund. Pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are typical examples of patient capital. In recent years, patient capital has also come to be associated with impact investing. In this context, rather than maximising immediate returns for shareholders, the focus is on maximising the positive social or environmental impact of an investment, alongside financial gains. Non-profit investment fund Acumen, for instance, defines patient capital as “investment in an early-stage enterprise providing low-income consumers with access to healthcare, water, housing, alternative energy, or agricultural inputs.”
Both patient capital and venture capital seek a return on investment. Besides its longer time horizon, however, patient capital also has a higher risk tolerance than traditional forms of investment and can perhaps provide more follow-on investment in the event that a company enters a challenging capital environment.
Blended/public capital
Food is a commonwealth sector- we all need a better food system. Investing in food system solutions should involve commonwealth interests, including taxpayer money, and should be based on defined criteria around finding solutions to the biggest problems of our time such as bulwarking our global food system against the consequences of climate change.
We need more blended capital solutions, where public funds match private sector investment, effectively doubling funding rounds for young startups. Given food’s importance in society, governments should be actively participating in the future food sector and investing in innovation and talent. A great example of the successful deployment of blended/public capital is the Bpifrance story (Banque Publique d’Investissements France), the French government’s investment bank arm.
In an in-depth piece for Sifted, reporter Chris O’Brien writes about the success of ‘La French Tech’ being underwritten by Bpifrance:
“To understand the secret of France’s entrepreneurial boom, take a close look at state bank Bpifrance, an economic beast whose tentacles reach into every corner of this nation’s innovation ecosystem. Between direct and indirect investments, Bpifrance poured €1.6bn into French tech startups and venture funds in 2022 alone, up from €1.51bn in 2021…A closer look at the cap tables of the 120 companies reveals that 51 raised some kind of direct investment from Bpifrance, according to Dealroom…Even in Europe, where government investment in the economy is de rigueur, Bpifrance stands apart. And, a decade after its creation, its mission continues to expand with programmes to stop climate change and rebuild France’s industrial base.”
The ‘Shared Prosperity’ model and redeemable equity
Gutter Capital offers a model they dub “shared prosperity”, a model that “derives from 16th century maritime commerce…“Sailing crude vessels on treacherous routes from Europe to Asia and the Americas, early navigators risked death or capture on the high seas to deliver their cargo. As compensation, ship captains would take 20% of the profit from goods carried. Carried interest was born. Today, carried interest refers to how venture capitalists are compensated, taking 20% of the profits from the investments they make. Where sea captains risked life and limb to earn their keep, today’s venture capitalists enjoy the spoils of conquest while remaining safe on shore…The Gutter Infinity Fund will attempt to share the wealth by spreading both risks and rewards across the fund’s stakeholders…Our view is that founders are getting a raw deal,” Teran tells Fast Company, “so we’re putting our money where our mouth is and doing something about it.”
Food tech companies can also consider nontraditional equity structures such as redeemable equity. Can Atacik, founder of Alethina Impact Investments and Advisory, founding partner of ImpACTNOW Capital, and a venture partner of Venture Science talks about how climate entrepreneurs in particular can leverage redeemable equity to raise funding on alternative terms.
“Some climate founders may have a venture that doesn’t have a likely exit on a 10-15 year horizon (or exiting may not even be the right outcome). Keeping the business private long-term may lead to better business outcomes and climate impact, and founders may want to have the right to regain ownership over time.”
Redeemable equity enables founders to buy back ownership from VCs at pre-defined terms, which means investors can still have a compelling exit without forcing an IPO or acquisition. While the upside can be lower, a redeemable structure does mean greater downside protection than traditional VC.
An increasing (though small) number of startups are pursuing non-traditional equity models during fundraising. A German femtech team just raised a seed round that included the co-founder creating her own sustainable financing instrument, dubbed the Future Profit Partnership Agreement (FPPA). As reported here, she developed a “a mezzanine financial instrument that combines advantages of equity and debt capital and enables an appropriate return for investors…Instead of a conventional equity round, they offer a profit share. The agreement ends as soon as the return is achieved…Profits are a means to an end and are reinvested, used to cover capital costs or donated.”
Venture debt
With the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), there has been a significant uptake in financial services and banks targeting venture debt (the higher interest rate environment has helped as well). This is a form of financing that allows Series A and B startups to finance capex or other working capital needs even when they are cashflow negative or only at pilot stage from a revenue standpoint. In addition, we are starting to see project finance firms put up the capital for equipment especially if that equipment can be moved or re-used in the event of a default.
However, this form of capital still does not solve for the physical space constraints of creating an industrial food ecosystem. It also does not provide enough capital to truly build large-scale infrastructure and ultimately venture debt is still bound to a startup’s ability to raise its next round. As such it certainly can help a startup as it begins to commercialize but won’t provide the capital required for the industry to mature.
Low-interest government-backed loans
At a cellular agriculture conference last week, alternative protein think tank founder Bruce Friedrich underlined the importance of government support for the cultivated meat sector and he specifically cited low-interest government loans as a key mechanism to boost innovation and help startups scale in a nascent industry, highlighting how vital these loans had been for electric vehicle pioneers.
“Elon Musk says they would have failed twice, if not for long-term low-interest government loans. There is no solar industry, there is no EV [electric vehicle] industry, there is no biopharma industry, if not for governments helping the companies that can’t qualify for standard bank loans, giving them long-term low-interest loans,” said Friedrich. Low-interest government-backed loans have been notably absent as an option for future food founders. One reason for this? Food has not yet reached mainstream consciousness as a key climate concern. This needs to change, given the importance of adapting food systems to reach net global zero goals.
One could argue that no other sector matters as much as food if humanity is to continue to thrive amidst an increasingly acute climate crisis. As such, it’s critical to explore new types of financing and new invested capital formats to support the food tech sector and its community of innovators and entrepreneurs.
Sonalie Figueiras is a journalist, serial climate entrepreneur, longtime food systems change activist and the founding editor of Green Queen Media.
Maximilian von Poelnitz is a venture partner with Ajinomoto helping to set up their new $100m venture capital fund. He has deep experience in food, bio, and climate tech investing following his roles as an investment director and managing partner at DSM Venturing and New Territory Ventures respectively.
German biotech startup Infinite Roots has secured $58M in Series B funding, which it claims is the largest investment in mycelium in Europe.
Hamburg-based Infinite Roots has closed a $58M Series B financing round, described as Europe’s largest investment in mycelium tech. Formerly known as Mushlabs, the startup uses biomass fermentation to grow micronutrient-rich, umami-packed mushroom mycelium, which can be used in applications like meat and dairy analogues.
The funding round was led by Dr. Hans Riegel Holding (one of the two holding companies of Haribo), with support from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, German retailer Rewe Group, and Thailand’s Betagro Ventures. Meanwhile, returning investors include Clay Capital, FoodLabs, Redalpine, Simon Capital and Happiness Capital. It brings the company’s total raised to $73M.
The company will use the funds to scale its fermentation platform, turn to commercial activity and advance its launch plans.
Infinite Roots’ regulatory and production plans
Courtesy: Infinite Roots
Founded in 2018, Infinite Roots leverages submerged fermentation to grow mycelium, but since it only uses edible mushroom strains, it’s not considered a novel food, which eases the regulatory pathway considerably. Essentially, these are the roots of mushrooms consumers can buy at the supermarket, as founder and CEO Mazen Rizk told AFN.
“We’re not using mould, and I think that’s easier for consumers to understand,” he said. Education is key, if you consider a 10,000-person survey suggesting that nearly 80% of Americans didn’t identify a mycelium growing on a substrate as a mushroom.
The company already has a self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status – which is determined through consultation from an independent scientific council, without the need for FDA review – and plans to notify the FDA of the same to receive a ‘no questions’ letter in the US. It’s in talks with the European Food Safety Authority too.
Infinite Roots plans to use the new capital to scale its fermentation platform and production capacity, expand commercial growth, and invest in launch activities globally. Rizk told AFN that the business doesn’t plan on building its own facilities, instead relying on contract manufacturers that can grow mycelium on pilot and industrial scales. “We don’t own production facilities because of the heavy capex that comes with it,” he said. “We have also been developing the technology to use [cheaper, more sustainable] sidestreams from the agrifood industry as feedstocks such as brewers’ spent grains.”
The startup’s patented technology can enable the creation of multiple mycelium-based food products, and showcases the fungi’s potential to diversify the world’s protein consumption. “Rethinking food production and consumption has never been more pressing, and requires our collective efforts,” Rizk said in a statement.
“We are in a unique position to define a new era of mushroom mycelium-based products. With Infinite Roots’ technology and products, we aspire to lead the monumental shift to a more sustainable and healthy food system.”
Mushroom root’s potential is coming to fruition
Courtesy: Infinite Roots
Mycelium is hot in the alternative protein universe currently, with many startups innovating with fungi to develop sustainable and highly functional proteins. One estimate values the market at $2.85B, and there has been a host of activity in the space lately: from innovations and breakthroughs to product launches and even more funding rounds.
And this is because of mycelium’s nutritional and environmental prowess, and ability to scale in a cost-competitive manner. In December, a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry – all of whose authors are involved in fellow mycelium startup Meati – delved into the ingredient’s potential.
Mycelium is said to be low in fat and high in fibre, with 20-30% of protein content in dry matter, which usually provides all of the essential amino acids. Additionally, it can deliver essential micronutrients – especially those usually found in animal foods – like iron, zinc and vitamin B12. The study cited research revealing the impact of mycelial extracts on the immune system, cancer, cirrhosis and glycemic response. A three-week early intervention trial has that 190g of mycelium per day can lower LDL cholesterol by 21% on average versus animal protein.
If more companies valorise agricultural sidestreams – the way Infinite Roots does – they can reduce a lot of food waste. Estimates reveal that a third of all food produced globally goes to waste, which accounts for 6% of global emissions. Moreover, mycelium sequesters carbon (with some strains able to store 70% more carbon in soil), some of which can be broken down into carbohydrates that act as nutrients for the soil.
For consumers, though, taste is key when it comes to alternative proteins. Mycelium excels here, with foods made from the ingredient usually exhibiting bland or only slightly mushroom-like flavour profiles, which can be enhanced by spices and seasonings to replicate the flavour of the meat. Developing ‘in-process’ flavours through biochemistry and flavour chemistry is an option too, since different species of mushrooms can produce various profiles, such as the aroma of beef bullion, curry or maple syrup, or the flavour and texture of chicken.
Infinite Roots takes a different approach, embracing the inherent flavour of mushroom roots. The startup heavily relies “on the tastes that the mushroom strains bring, rather than having to mask tastes, so we can create meat alternatives that are minimally processed with a very clean label,” Rizk told AFN.
His company – which plans to come to market this year – is in a burgeoning space backed by significant investment. Meati, one of the sector’s leaders, has raised $275M so far, while Nature’s Fynd has secured an even higher $510M. Fellow US brand MycoTechnology has brought in $208M. Over in the UK, Enough Food’s total funding amounts to $122M. But the biggest name in this industry internationally is Quorn, the brand synonymous with mycoprotein, which – despite a loss-making year – is comfortably the market leader in the UK.
“It is high time for consumers to be able to reconcile their appetite for good food and their willingness to act for the planet and for their health,” said Svetoslava Georgieva, chair of the EIC Fund board. The EIC’s Work Programme 2024, which falls under the EU’s flagship Horizon Europe scheme, recently also allocated €50M for precision fermentation startups. This strengthened its commitment to protein diversification, despite some of its member states objecting against another alt-protein pillar, cultivated meat.
Ministers from 13 nations are pushing back strongly against the EU’s cultivated meat policy and asking the bloc to rethink its novel foods regulatory process in the interest of safety.
Some countries are resisting the move, but the EU could now revisit its legislation. Here’s what happened at the meeting, and what could come next.
Over the last few months, there has been increased parliamentary activity in governments around the world, specifically focusing on banning the production and sale of cultivated meat. While there are multiple reasons cited, the most common ones found across the board pertain to the safeguarding of national culture, livestock farmers, and consumers’ health.
This week, things boiled over. A delegation led by Austria, France and Italy – the latter two of which have already proposed a ban or gone through with it – presented a note to the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries (Agrifish) Council meeting calling for a radical overhaul to cultured meat regulation in the region. This was supported by the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Critics, however, have highlighted false claims made by the representatives of these nations, labelling the entire exercise as unnecessary. While the note only serves to set out a position and does not trigger any formal follow-up process, some believe that the EU might be considering revisiting its novel foods regulations anyway.
What did the note say, and how was it misleading?
Graphic by Green Queen
The note states that cultivated meat raises many questions, including ethical, economic, social and legal concerns, as well as sustainability, public health, and transparency. It calls for a public consultation process and a “comprehensive impact assessment” to assess the development of these foods, as well as drawing guidelines based on the regulatory framework for new pharmaceutical products (including pre-clinical and clinical studies). It also touches upon labelling, urging the EU to prohibit these products from using meat-related terms.
“A transparent, science-based and comprehensive approach is necessary to assess the development of artificial cell-based meat production, which in our view does not constitute a sustainable alternative to primary farm-based production,” the ministers write in the note. They add: “We urge the Commission and all member states to take pre-emptive action against the monopolisation of food production and towards the diversification of primary farm-based food production guaranteed by European farmers.”
Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe has pointed out that there are many misleading claims made by the lawmakers. One of them is about cultivated meat’s environmental impact, referencing a non-peer-reviewed, UC Davis study funded by the meat industry, which is “based on incorrect assumptions” and deviates significantly from existing literature. Its findings have driven a major misinformation campaign on social media. 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.
The note referenced a 2019 University of Oxford paper too, when research on these novel proteins was “much less developed” and based on energy sources heavily reliant on fossil fuels. This contradicts the most recent data available, which underlines that even the worst-case scenario for cultivated meat greenhouse gas emissions is better than the “best” conventional meat production systems for at least the next 100 years.
The ministers argue that cultivated meat does not have higher animal welfare standards, referring to the use of fetal bovine serum (FBS). But FBS is being phased out by companies globally, and hundreds of animal-free media already exist. Some FBS-free formulations have been approved for sale, like Eat Just in Singapore and Aleph Farms in Israel.
Additionally, there were concerns about cultivated meat “being monopolised among a few large-scale industrial producers” and how that would affect small-scale farmers, but GFI Europe argues that these foods can be made by “companies of all shapes and sizes” (over 50 of the 160+ startups in this space are European), and can work alongside existing farming methods to diversify and strengthen our food supply.
The delegates further questioned the EU’s novel foods regulatory framework, but it is known to be the most robust in the world, which is why companies have found it challenging to file for clearance in the bloc. Other European countries – namely the UK and Switzerland – are already assessing dossiers. And as for the call to regulate cultivated meat as a pharmaceutical product, GFI Europe labels it “nonsensical”, pointing out that it’s “a food that will be made in food production facilities, so it’s essential that it is regulated as food”.
What happened at the council?
Courtesy: Romania in the EU/Twitter
The note presented by Austria’s agriculture minister, Norbert Totschnig, made waves on the Agrifish Council floor. There was controversy even with the countries opposing cultivated meat, with Austria’s health ministry – which is responsible for food safety – noting that the move does not reflect the government’s position.
Other countries voiced their disagreement too. In the same week, the Netherlands took one step closer to becoming the first EU nation to allow public tasting events of cultivated meat, its representative stuck his neck out for the novel proteins in the EU Council as well. “We of course understand the concerns with regards to the public health and the future of livestock farmers, but also at the same time, we are talking about how do we secure the global food security, and the world population as we all know is growing fast, and so is the demand for animal proteins,” said Piet Adema, the Dutch food quality and agriculture minister.
“Therefore, we believe that it is important to support innovations that create production methods for animal proteins complementary to, and not as a substitute to, conventional sustainable production. So, more research is needed to ensure the safety and the lower energy use, and therefore, in the Netherlands, we invest in this research, and so I would plea to let’s also look at the opportunities of this development and not only see the threats.”
Similarly, Jacob Jensen, the agrifood minister for Denmark – a leader in protein diversification – said: “We understand the concerns that have been raised under this item, but Denmark remains very positive towards the development of new innovative biotechnological solutions that could lead to new sustainable proteins. And, like the Netherlands, we believe that we must also focus on the upside, and therefore, we look forward to the biotech initiative from the Commission that will look into the opportunities.
“We already have EU regulation on novel food in place. This sets a clear legal framework that is solidly based on science. Denmark sees no reason for hindering the development and marketing of cell-based products, as long as such products are safe and fulfil the legal requirements and as long as they are labelled in a way which is not misleading to consumers. If these requirements are met, it must then be up to consumers if they want to buy these products.”
Meanwhile, Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health and food safety commissioner explained that the bloc’s existing regulatory framework for novel foods ensures that human health and consumer interests are well protected in a functioning internal market.
What happens next?
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
EU Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič had separately spoken about the need for a strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture, which was outlined by GFI Europe’s senior policy manager, Alex Holst. “As Commission vice president Šefčovič said, we need to ensure our food system is ‘fit for the future’, remains competitive and can respond to issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity,” he said. “Cultivated meat can play a vital role in achieving these goals, and it’s a positive step that policymakers are becoming interested in developing a better understanding of this food.”
Holst noted how EU countries have already made strides in cellular agriculture, questioning the point of this debate altogether. “The EU’s Horizon Europe programme and countries like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have already invested in cultivated meat R&D, recognising its potential to improve food security, reduce emissions, and satisfy [the] growing demand for meat,” he explained.
It’s curious that despite investing in cultivated meat, Spain was a part of the note’s supporters. There will be a focus on France and Romania too, as both have proposed bans on cultivated meat. But it’s unclear whether France’s bill will be debated or not, as it’s one of many such bills proposed by opposition parties. As for Romania, the proposal had been voted through by the Senate but is yet to be passed by the Chamber of Deputies.
But Romanians have mulled over the subject, with the Economic and Social Affairs Council of the Senate publishing an opinion on it. Its report on the proposed legislation stated: “The statement of reasons does not explain why synthetic meat should be banned. It is not clear why it could be dangerous to consume this product for the health of the consumers. Moreover, it is not clear why lab-grown meat is considered lower quality than ‘natural’ meat, considering the benefits of meat outlined in the statement of reasons. Therefore, the ban added through Article 5 is excessive, and it is necessary to eliminate it or provide further justifications.”
Meanwhile, Italy’s move to be the world’s first country to ban cultivated meat has been flagged as a violation of EU law, as the bloc is required to be notified to the EU Commission for comments by other member states. Plus, the country will not be able to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat produced outside Italy but within the EU, whose common single market enables the free movement of goods and services.
But changes may be afoot for Italy’s ban. “The Italian Government has committed to updating the law based on any feedback received from the European Commission, meaning there is a legal and political requirement to make changes to the cultivated meat ban if needed,” Francesca Gallelli, Italy policy consultant for GFI Europe, told Green Queen. “We also trust that Italy’s scientific community and civil society groups will play a vital role in holding the government responsible and making decisions based on evidence-based research rather than misinformation.”
Striking a similar tone, Julia Martin, cellular agriculture lead at ProVeg International, told Green Queen: “We hope it will be overturned. But we also hope that Italy will come round to seeing the huge benefits that Europe stands to gain from cultivated meat. The EU needs to support cultivated meat if it wants to bring down greenhouse gas emissions from the food system.”
Austria’s representative eventually tabled the note, which will not lead to any direct legislative changes. But ProVeg said the EU Commission “has the intention to revisit the guidance for novel food applicants”, with Martin further noting how the bloc recently funded FEASTS, the first Horizon Europe project on the impact of cultivated meat and seafood: “These actions should serve to reassure member states that these foods will be safe for consumers and will serve a significant role in addressing the environmental challenges with intensive animal agriculture.”
Israeli startup Steakholder Foods has added a 3D-printed shrimp prototype to an expanding roster of alternative seafood products. The company plans to also introduce a hybrid version if costs allow.
A month after unveiling the world’s first 3D-printed eel alternative, Steakholder Foods has gained another ‘first’ with its new shrimp analogue.
The new innovation was created using precision printing on the company’s proprietary DropJet printed, which is designed specifically for fish and seafood analogues. It uses a shrimp-flavoured ink designed by its food tech team, and will hope to accelerate Steakholder Foods’ route to market.
Pondering hybrid seafood
Courtesy: Steakholder Foods/Canva
Steakholder Foods, formerly known as MeaTech, plans to roll out its seafood portfolio – which currently comprises a cultivated grouper fish fillet (in collaboration with Umami Meats), and the 3D-printed eel and shrimp – to future customers in two potential forms. The first would be a standard 3D-printed analogue, while it’s considering making hybrid seafood (a combination of plant-based and cultivated ingredients) as well, if it’s able to scale in a cost-effective manner.
“By unveiling a second new species of plant-based, 3D-printed seafood this month, we expect to position Steakholder Foods to sell and deliver its first DropJet printer in 2024, offering partners and customers a unique opportunity to benefit from the expanding global seafood market, while making the right kind of impact on the environment,” said CEO Arik Kaufman.
Speaking after the unveiling of the company’s eel analogue, Kaufman hailed its 3D-printing tech and potential as a hybrid seafood product: “Such versatility could significantly boost profitability for food companies and lead the way to a shift towards more efficient and sustainable practices in the industry. This product exemplifies the broader possibilities our technology offers our partners.”
It’s an approach vaunted by other entrepreneurs in the alt-seafood space too. Varun Gadodia, co-founder of India’s SeaSpire, told Green Queen in September: “We believe the category will be unleashed by the rise of biotech-driven solutions – [like] cell-based and synthetic biology – and aim to develop enabling technologies or solutions for hybrid seafood alternatives.”
Steakholder Foods, which has previously also unveiled a hybrid 3D-printed/cultivated steak, expanded its business model last year to serve as a B2B supplier of 3D bioprinters and bio-inks for alternative protein manufacturers. Its tech can create structured end products – whether that’s plant-based, cultivated or hybrid – to create realistic meat alternatives.
The importance of shrimp alternatives
Courtesy: Steakholder Foods
The company’s decision to expand its seafood lineup with shrimp makes sense when you consider that shellfish represents a $68B market. And just last year, 7.6 million tons of shrimp were harvested globally. But shrimp farming is associated with a host of different issues. Crustaceans like shrimp account for 22% of the total carbon emissions from fishing, despite making up just 6% of all the tonnage landed.
Meanwhile, a WWF report from last year revealed that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing of shrimp and prawns amounted to potential economic losses of about $47M each year between 2015 and 2021. In fact, 26.4% of all shrimp fishing activities were potentially illegal and unregulated between 2016 and 2021.
The seafood species faces climate threats as well. Scientists have warned that pink shrimp could lose 70% of their habitats in the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the century. Shrimp has also suffered from population declines, with with spawning population only an eighth of what it was in 1908. And there has been a collapse in Atlantic shrimp numbers too, thanks to climate-change-induced ocean warming.
Steakholder Foods says its heavy-duty printing solution can help meet growing demands through high-volume, efficient and sustainable production, offering a scalable, eco-friendly alternative to traditional shrimp farming. The aforementioned SeaSpire is working on a shrimp prototype as well. Meanwhile, other players in this space include Vegan Zeastar (Netherlands), Thai Union (Thailand), HAPPIEE! (Singapore) , Lily’s Vegan Pantry, Plant-Based Seafood Co. (both US) and Boldly (Australia).
The Netherlands has launched an expert committee to evaluate applications for cultivated meat tastings, six months after forming an official framework for the same. Cultured pork producer Meatable has responded by submitting its dossier to the panel, and expects to host Europe’s first tasting of these novel proteins soon.
Six months after the Dutch government announced a Code of Practice for cultured meat and seafood tastings, the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation (CANS) has launched an independent expert committee to evaluate companies’ requests to host public trials.
This will be the final hurdle for companies hoping to give people a taste of their product, and would make the Netherlands the first EU country to make pre-regulatory approval tastings possible. The news has been welcomed by local cultivated meat players like Mosa Meat, Upstream Foods, and Meatable – the latter has, in fact, now submitted a dossier for the panel to assess the safety of its cell-based pork.
“We are thrilled to see the protocol developed in consultation with the government is now being implemented,” said Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, the company that unveiled the world’s first cell-cultured burger in 2013. He confirmed that his company too will be applying for tastings of its cultivated beef soon. “The Netherlands continues to be a global leader in sustainable food innovation, even as others in Europe appear to be taking a step backwards at the height of our climate and biodiversity crises.”
Upstream Foods CEO Kianti Figler called it “a pivotal moment” for the country’s cultivated meat and seafood ecosystem: “We are dedicated to revolutionising seafood alternatives through fish fat cultivation, and this initiative empowers us to showcase our innovative approach.”
Ira van Eelen, board member at CANS, said: “Proud of the work we have done as Cellular Agriculture Netherlands to make it possible to taste cultivated meat not only in the Netherlands or the EU, but also in the place where it originated and all started.”
How the cultivated meat tasting committee works
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
In July, the Dutch government worked with Mosa Meat, Meatable and sector representative HollandBIO to create a Code of Practice that would make tastings possible in controlled environments – those that are suitable for food preparation and inaccessible to the general public. It was created after a 2022 House of Representatives motion sponsored by members Tjeerd de Groot (Democrats 66) and Peter Valstar (VVD) requested the government to enter consultations with these companies on this matter. The motion passed with 14 out of 17 votes in favour.
Under the Code of Practice, cultivated protein companies must include information such as the type of cells, animal origin, use of genetic modification, and description of the process (including growth factors, antibiotics, and other constituents). They also need to provide safety information too, spanning chemical and/or biological structure, limit values from regulatory bodies, an exclusion of substances with known or suspected genotoxic activity, and allergen risks.
The dossier further needs to have details about nutrition, like microbiological status, amounts to be ingested, measured content values, and total amount per person. Participation must be uncompensated and strictly voluntary, and comprise adults with no known allergies or underlying diseases (they should not be pregnant either). Companies must keep a record of where the tastings are held, with how many people, and the recipe of the way the products are cooked.
They must ensure the presence of an emergency response officer, and register any adverse events occurring up to two weeks before the tasting. All this is taken under consideration by the expert committee, which is comprised of a toxicologist, microbiologist, physician and an ethical expert. Approvals would mean a company can hold a total of 10 tastings, with no more than 30 participants each, over the maximum span of a year.
Meatable’s hybrid pork to launch in Singapore soon
Courtesy: Meatable
For cultivated meat producers, the hope is to finetune their offerings while building consumer awareness through practical education. The move puts the Netherlands on an exclusive list of countries that allow cultivated meat tastings, including Singapore, the US and Israel. Notably, these three are also the only nations that have granted regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat.
It means that people in the Netherlands will be allowed to taste these products before they’re approved for wider sale, making it the first to do so in the EU. The regulatory process falls under the EU novel foods framework, and so far, there has been no positive progress on that front. In fact, a dozen countries are opposing these foods, with Italy already having banned cultured meat locally. Meatablle plans to apply in the US next, and is already in talks with the USDA and FDA.
“The Netherlands has long been the pioneer of cultivated meat, which is further cemented by this latest development, and we thank the Dutch government, Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation, and HollandBIO for their joint efforts to make this possible,” said Meatable co-founder and CEOKrijn de Nood. “We’re delighted that we have already handed in our dossier for approval and look forward to holding our first tastings in the Netherlands soon.”
Meatable has already hosted tastings in Singapore, with two events last year for retail partners, government officials, the media, and other stakeholders. It has filed for regulatory approval in the nation as well, and expects to receive clearance soon and launch products in restaurants by mid-year. Its first offering is a hybrid meat product, developed in partnership with Singapore-based Love Handle.
The company, which has raised $95M in total funding, uses a proprietary technology called Opti-ox, which allows it to eschew the controversial fetal bovine serum (Mosa Meat pioneered the non-FBS production method and published the results as open-source). Meatable uses pluripotent stem cells, which can naturally and rapidly multiply, doubling in just 24 hours. Opti-ox helps produce real muscle and fat cells that can fully differentiate in eight days – 30 times faster than it takes to rear a pig for pork on farms.
While development is ongoing, Meatable’s last tasting featured pork sausages with 33% cell-based meat, and the rest plant-based. “Each recipe is like a puzzle, where all components need to complement each other perfectly. We will keep on working on this to make sure we have the perfect recipe ready for the launch,” Meatable COO Carolien Wilschut told Green Queen in October.” It remains to be seen what the final proportion of the product will be.
Apart from facilitating tastings, CANS is spearheading various other initiatives as part of a €60M investment from the Dutch National Growth Fund (a €20B project overall), including a new education programme for students this year, and the appointment of scientists within InHolland, TU Delft, Maastricht University and Wageningen University & Research.
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 Oatly’s new partnership with Carvel, price fluctuations for meat and eggs, and rare labelling wins for plant-based companies.
New products and launches
French alt-meat maker La Vie is continuing its growth, with its new pea protein ham now available in the UK exclusively through its largest retailer, Tesco. It made the announcement with a delightful billboard.
Courtesy: La Vie
Similarly, Dunkin’ has introduced its vegan doughnuts to the UK market, with plant-based alternatives to three of its bestsellers – Original Glazed, Boston Crème and Strawberry Rainbow – available in most of its 34 locations nationwide.
Continuing in the UK, Aldi has launched its largest-ever vegan cheese range, from Cheddar alternatives and mozzarella to camembert and grated parmesan. The discount retailer has also introduced a vegan smoked salmon as part of its private-label Plant Menu range.
Another company working on vegan seafood is Japan’s Nippon Ham, which is developing a plant-based tuna sashimi for foodservice, slated for an April launch.
Speaking of which, Israeli whole-cut meat producer Redefine Meat is now available at more than 650 foodservice locations in 13 countries across Europe, including at Leonardo Hotels, All Star Lanes, and Compass Group.
Likewise, Irish fast-food chain Boojum has introduced a Carne Asada dish for Veganuary, made using British alt-meat brand [MOCK]‘s mushroom and soy protein beef, and paired with a guajillo chilli sauce.
Courtesy: Seedtrace
For Veganuary’s campaign in Germany, meanwhile, catering service company Dussmann has partnered with Swiss alt-meat maker Planted and traceability platform Seedtrace, offering supply chain transparency of Planet’s schnitzel via a QR code. It will be available in 60 Dussmann restaurants.
Also in Germany, Rügenwalder Mühle has discontinued its classic animal-derived Schinken Spicker ham as part of its commitment to increasing plant-based offerings. It says the move will free up production capacity for its meatless products.
Elsewhere, US ice cream company Salt & Straw has released a Dairy-Free Decadence range as part of its Pints of the Month series, featuring flavours like Toasted Oat Milk & Cookies, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Bananas Foster with Candied Pecans. Made with oat and/or coconut milk, they can be bought in-store or online.
Another ice cream development: Oatly has teamed up with cult-favourite creamery Carvel, placing five flavours of its oat milk ice creams in more than 300 Carvel stores across 18 US states.
Courtesy: Harken Sweets
For more American sweet treats, look no further than Harken Sweets‘ better-for-you, plant-based takes on the Snickers and Milky Way bars. Called the Nutty One and The Gooey One, respectively, they contain 75% less sugar and less than 150g of calories, and are available at Fairway Market, Pop Up Grocer, Gourmet Garage NY, and ShopRite, and on its e-commerce site.
In California, Langer Farms has released Apple Honey – only featuring apple juice concentrate and natural flavouring – alongside an Apple Butter SKU (an elevated applesauce), which are available online via its website and Amazon.
Meanwhile, US plant-based manufacturer Franklin Farms has collaborated with Disney to feature Mickey Mouse on co-branded packaging for six of its products. They feature the Disney Check, a symbol indicating compliance with Disney’s Nutrition Guidelines.
Courtesy: Franklin Farms
And Canadian vegan frozen meal producer Plant Up has added Butter Chik’n Bites and Shawarma Bites to its appetiser range. Its products are now available at over 650 stores, including Metro, Longos, and Whole Foods.
Finance, manufacturing and corporate moves
Californian alt-meat giant Impossible Foods has hired three women in senior leadership positions, with Elaine Paik and Emma Hutchens joining the C-suite as CFO and chief people officer, respectively, and Alexis Regan taking up the role of senior VP for sales.
Dutch company Vion Food, which makes both meat and plant-based analogues, is closing a pig plant and divesting/selling off its ham brand, pig and beef slaughterhouses, and a pre-packing facility – all in Germany – as part of its sustainability strategy for 2024, following increased competition and African swine fever outbreak.
Dublin-based Sea & Believe has launched its inaugural seaweed farm in Connemara, Ireland to develop ingredients for the food and skincare industries using a red Atlantic seaweed that is richer in protein than fish.
In Austria, mycelium meat producer Revo Foods has unveiled an industrial-scale production method for 3D-printed foods, called the Food Fabricator X2. The 3D-printed whole-cut salmon maker is also crowdfunding to scale up and launch new products this autumn, and has already raised nearly €575,000.
UK biotech firm Multus has raised £7.9M in a funding round and announced what it claims is the world’s first commercial-scale, cost-effective plant for serum-free growth media to produce cultivated meat and milk.
Israeli startup Mediterranean Food Lab has nabbed $17M in a Series A round to scale up its solid-state fermentation tech, which can create flavour ingredients said to transform the sensory attributes of vegan food.
Policy developments
Marking a rare labelling win for the vegan industry, France’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the Nutrition & Santé Group, which was accused by the meat lobby of misleading consumers through meat-related terms on its plant-based analogues. (The French government, though, has previously proposed an unprecedented ban on these.)
Yet another labelling achievement came from Chile’s NotCo, which appealed the ban on its NotMilk trademark in its home country. The brand is officially “NotGuilty”, with the Court of Appeals of Valdivia revoking the sentence and rejecting the anti-competition lawsuit filed by dairy farmers union Aproval.
Courtesy: NotCo
In more animal industry backlash news, Bishop Burton College in east Yorkshire, UK has apologised for a Happy Veganuary post on Facebook and announcing it wouldn’t serve meat two days a week during January. Pushback from pro-livestock students and farmers has led to the idea being abandoned.
Elsewhere, two months on from cutting prices of its own-label Vegavita range across all stores in Austria, Rewe Group‘s Billa has seen sales increase by 33%. Future meat and dairy analogues will now be set at a price on par with or, if possible, lower than their conventional counterparts.
Speaking of prices, beef is expected to cost Americans more this year on the back of a large two-year decline in production. Cattle feeders face much higher prices for their cows as a result of the reduction in cattle supply due to beef herd liquidation.
Similarly, egg and ham prices have soared in the US, with hikes higher than any other food in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Consumer Price Index report. While eggs were 23.8% lower than the ‘eggflation’ 12 months before, they were up 8.9% from November. Meanwhile, raw beefsteak prices rose by 11.9% year-on-year, the second-highest increase in that metric.
Research and accomplishments
A study commissioned by LI Food, a Lower Saxony state initiative for food, has revealed that Germans often underestimate the climate and animal welfare implications of dairy, specifically cheese. But despite some scepticism around food tech, respondents were open to trying precision-fermented cheese.
Similarly, a survey by precision fermentation cheese company New Culture revealed that four in five of respondents are willing to purchase animal-free cheese, of whom 80% were meat-eaters. Early adopters are happy to pay $4 more per pizza with the company’s cheese, but taste remains key, with 59% of respondents saying they’d avoid analogue foods if they didn’t taste as good.
Meanwhile, vegan dog food brand Hownd has been named one of the world’s most ethical businesses by The Good Shopping Guide, receiving a rating of 98 out of 100 in factors like environmental impact, animal welfare and public record.
Finally, the US Plant-Based Foods Association is overhauling its platform to prepare for a “pivotal” 2024, launching a redesigned website, a new digest and monthly newsletter, as well as a revamped members’ portal.
British entrepreneur Heather Mills has secured a rescue deal for her plant-based brand VBites, buying the assets of the business from administrators for £1M and waiving nearly £5M of debt owed to her, a month after first announcing that the company was bankrupt.
Just a month ago, VBites entered administration and seemed likely to end its 30-year run. But in a surprising turn of events, the British plant-based company is back on the map.
Founder Heather Mills has fended off five competing offers to buy the assets of the collapsed business for £1M through her limited company Vegan Solo Consulting. As part of the deal, the entrepreneur has additionally waived £4.8M owed to her as a secured creditor, which will help secure a better return for all creditors, as first reported by the Grocer.
“I was devastated when the company was forced unnecessarily, with three days’ notice, into administration,” said Mills. “It was agreed between both shareholders that we would always give each other three months’ notice, knowing the figures 6 months ahead set for the company, so I was doubly shocked that it went straight into administration, even though I gave viable solutions.”
She added: “But I strongly believed the next-generation technology VBites had developed and the work it had done still had a huge role to play in assisting the transition of the food market to a healthier and more sustainable place.”
Heather Mills relocates, rebuilds staff base
Courtesy: VBites
Founded in 1993, VBites brought in Interpath Advisory in mid-December after struggling with cashflow issues, fundraising and a drop in consumer demand on the back of the cost-of-living crisis. According to documents filed by the company earlier this month, the business collapsed with a total debt of £8.37M, with trade creditors owed £1.86M and its 84 employees owed over £415,000 (they are expected to be paid back in full). The company owed money to 153 creditors, from food suppliers and packaging companies to lawyers and energy firms – at least part of this debt is set to be repaid.
Meanwhile, German firm Nature’s Richness Holdings (the new foods division of Pfeifer & Langen) holds 34% of VBites’ shares currently – it had purchased a 25% stake in 2021. Nature’s Richness was owed £2.5M at the time of administration, with repayment in full expected.
Mills, who owns the remaining 66% of the company’s shares through her firm Seckloe, was selected as the preferred bidder by Interpath as her offer “represented the best overall outcome for creditors of the company in the circumstances”. The asset-only deal included the plant and machinery, stock, IP and social media accounts. But it didn’t secure the jobs of the 64 employees who were retained to help with the administration, or the 20 let go at the time of appointing Interpath.
Some employees have since quit the business too, with CEO David Wood joining fellow British plant-based meat manufacturer MYCO as its chief in December. Mills said she was “not happy being told that many of my loyal and hard-working staff were losing their jobs” during the firm’s collapse. “I was cut out of everything,” she said. “This is why I have chosen to resurrect the company myself, at great personal expense, and take control of the operations, personally moving back to the northeast to ensure we are still able to make a positive contribution to the future of our global food economy.”
Millshe has already re-employed 40 staff members, and has expressed hope to continue rebuilding the company’s workforce, as its factories in Peterlee, County Durham and Corby, Northamptonshire remain operational. “We agreed a rent-free period at the Peterlee property in the administration with the landlord [which is Duo Renovations Limited, also owned by Heather Mills], which was contingent on the transaction being executed,” said Interpath Advisory.
“This facilitated the continuation of trade and subsequent ability to finalise a sale. As a condition of the executable transaction with the purchaser, Seckloe has agreed to waive the entirety of its debt of £4.8M in the administration, considerably improving the overall returns to creditors.”
VBites turns over a new leaf
Courtesy: VBites
VBites’ rescue is reminiscent of British alt-meat player Meatless Farm‘s story from last year – after announcing it was entering administration, the brand was saved by fellow plant-based meat player VFC. Since then, VFC has taken over pie manufacturer Clive’s Purely Plants too, before rebranding into the Vegan Food Group this month to expand its footprint as a holding company, with the aim of becoming “a vegan Unilever”.
VBites has previously stated similar intentions, hoping to turn northeast England into the “Silicon Valley of plant-based foods” after buying the Peterlee site – a former Walkers crisp factory – in 2019. Last year, Mills rescued Boston, England-based meat alternatives manufacturer Plant & Bean too, but it was amidst VBites’ cashflow loss.
In a statement announcing the administration, Mills had blamed a combination of “corporate greed and poor management”, increasing ingredient and energy costs, misinformation about the plant-based industry, the cost-of-living crisis, and the “current state of the manufacturing economy” in the UK. “It is unsurprising and inevitable that where profits are to be made, amorphous corporate entities will follow and unfortunately their practices too often undermine the entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and agility of movement that saw plant-based entrepreneurs have so much success,” she explained.
“There is too often a tendency to treat their investments as short-term experiments and opportunistic flights of fancy, embalm them in restrictive governance and then either walk away or enforce a takeover when the market hits a bump,” Mills added. “There is a balance – we need capital to grow, but it needs to be well-intended capital and it needs to be married with strategic vision and belief in a brighter future.”
The 56-year-old criticised certain celebrities who have backed the meat and dairy industries, but “should take their responsibilities as influencers much more seriously” – actresses Aubrey Plaza and Queen Latifah have both come under fire for featuring in dairy commercials. “The plant-based industry needs to take a lead from the dairy industry in unifying its voice, but as a force for good and promotion of the facts – as opposed to a litany of lies and misinformation,” Mills said.
“We also need to work harder to demonstrate the long-term profitability of plant-based farming and manufacturing to the meat and dairy industries. If you want to enter the house, you need the keys – and working with the incumbent players in our food sector is the only way to effect meaningful and sustainable change.”
The UK plant-based sector has been hit hard: inflation made meat-free among the worst-performing grocery categories last year, with sales down by £38.4m, and volume falling by 4.2%. Despite that, it’s still Europe’s second-largest vegan market. And as the sector consolidates, some believe it could bounce back this year. With 140+ products in 28 countries – including vegan sausages, burgers, fish fingers and cheeses – VBites will be hoping to be a part of that.
“We have already developed a version 2.0 of plant-based food – soon to launch – that we believe will be a market mover, and will help all of those people attempting to make a flexitarian or plant-based transition to achieve their goals more easily, both with variety and deliciousness,” revealed Mills.
“Watch this space,” she added, alluding to the brand’s subtly new logo. “VBites is turning over a new leaf.”
With 2024 tipped to be a landmark year for cultivated meat regulation, we look at how the industry is faring across the world.
While some countries are stepping up their efforts to progress these novel foods, others are pushing to ban them altogether.
After a year that broke a three-year-long regulatory deadlock for cultured meat – with the USDA approving the sale of Upside Foods and Eat Just’s cell-based chicken – we’re not even a month into the new year, and we already have a third company on the list.
Just last week, Israel’s Aleph Farms became the world’s first producer to gain clearance to sell cultivated beef, after receiving a ‘no questions’ letter from the country’s health ministry. For many, it’s a marker of things to come for the industry this year, proving that there will likely be no further deadlocks – at least from a global perspective.
Yifat Gavriel, Aleph Farms’ regulatory affairs chief, said after the approval: “2024 stands to be a landmark year for the advancement of regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultivated meat.”
So let’s look at how things currently stand. Some countries are really accelerating their efforts to advance cultivated meat regulation, while others are going completely in the opposite direction as legislators hope to ban the production and sale of these proteins. Here’s what’s happening.
Forging ahead: Israel, UK and Asia-Pacific
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Let’s start with the good. In December, Israel’s Ministry of Health issued a ‘no questions’ letter for Aleph Farms’ consumer brand Aleph Cuts, allowing it to market its cell-cultured beef steak in the country. The approval for Aleph Farms’ Black Angus Petit Steak is subject to meeting labelling and marketing requirements as well as the completion of a Good Manufacturing Practices inspection on its facility.
It made Israel the third country – after Singapore and the US – to clear the sale of cultivated meat, advancing efforts to tackle food insecurity. The country has always been supportive of alternative proteins. “Three out of the first eight cultivated meat companies worldwide are Israeli. 15% of global investments in the field are allocated to Israeli-cultivated meat companies,” explained Alla Voldman, VP of strategy and policy at GFI Israel.
“With its global leadership in cellular agriculture, Israel continues to push for greater regional integration and economic collaboration, which will be crucial for stabilising the region,” added Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.
But it isn’t just Israel that Aleph Farms applied for approval in – it has done so in Singapore, the US, Switzerland, and the UK. The latter, which is home to at least 23 cultivated meat startups, is reportedly aiming to fast-track its approval of cultured meat via a bilateral deal with Israel. While it currently retains pre-Brexit rules and follows the EU’s stringent novel foods process, the UK’s cultivated meat sector is growing fast – British startups raised £61M in funding in 2022, which is more than the rest of Europe combined (£45M).
Now, UK ministers and regulators are looking to accelerate the approval of cultivated meat to boost food security, ease the cost of living, and provide alternative, planet-friendly meat sources for a growing population. They intend to do so through a deal with Israel to boost collaboration on cultured meat, with the British stakeholders visiting Israel in 2023 to taste these novel proteins and see how the market is regulated.
In light of this, the country’s Food Standards Agency recently launched a survey asking manufacturers when they plan to applications for cultured products, and what technologies they may be using.
Meanwhile, there is positive progress in Australia and New Zealand too: the countries’ joint regulator greenlit Sydney-based Vow Food’s cultured quail as ‘safe to eat’ in December. It gave way to a six-week public consultation process, giving people an opportunity to provide feedback about the product. Following the comment stage, the regulator will continue the novel food approval process, with an aim to complete it between March and May.
“Public confidence around the introduction of novel food categories is always a vital step in gaining acceptance,” said Simon Eassom, executive director of Food Frontier. “The ultimate success of Vow’s application will pave the way for Australia and New Zealand to take a lead in this exciting new era of food production.”
Cultivating potential: Regulatory opportunities in Asia-Pacific
Courtesy: Vow Food
Another Australian producer, Magic Valley, recently revealed that it’s working closely with the Antipodean regulator on the compliance and safety of its cultivated pork, with approval anticipated this year followed by a 2025 commercial launch.
Elsewhere, France’s Vital Meat claims it’s the frontrunner to become the first European startup to be approved in Singapore, the first country to approve the commercial sale of cultured meat. It will likely face competition from Dutch cultured pork producer Meatable, which is also expecting approval this year.
Chinese and American regulators met virtually last year after Upside Foods was granted Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA to discuss how the industry can move forward. A month later, the annual, China’s Central No. 1 Document mentioned a diversified food system of animals, plants and microorganisms – words similar in tone to the ones used by president Xi Jinping a year earlier, in a speech recognising the importance of alternative proteins.
Speaking to Green Queen after the launch of the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum in October, Mirte Gosker, managing director of industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, said: “Japan and South Korea will likely be next in line among APAC countries to develop such frameworks, as both nations are proactively seeking input from industry groups to craft clear and efficient safety review processes. No timeline has been set for when this work will be completed.”
The regulatory framework in Japan, whose prime minister Fumio Kishida endorsed cellular agriculture last year with plans to boost the sector to reduce the country’s climate footprint, will actually soon become more complicated. In April, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (which will continue to oversee food safety) will transfer its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency in April. It means companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but does make Kishida the ultimate person responsible for these matters.
South Korea, meanwhile, prioritised the establishment of regulatory frameworks for cultivated proteins as part of the alt-protein guidance in its national plan in 2022. It has also amended the Food Sanitation Act to recognise cultivated food as an ingredient within the legal framework and in the scope of premarket authorisation.
Going backwards: Florida, Arizona and Texas push back in the US
Courtesy: Florida House of Representatives
Having approved two companies to sell cultivated meat last year, the USDA’s stance on these proteins is pretty clear. Speaking at Tufts University’s Cellular Agriculture Innovation Day on January 11, the department’s undersecretary for research, education and economics, Sarah Baig, said cellular agriculture “really fits into USDA’s vision for the future of food and our agricultural systems”.
She highlighted the USDA’s “sweeping action to tackle structural competition issues in the agricultural supply chains to create fairer, safer… ag markets”, and how” cellular agriculture R&D is really a key part of this entire work”. She added that to meet food innovation and climate goals, “we will need cellular agriculture”.
But it’s not all rosy for cultivated meat, though. Despite global efforts to get cell-based proteins on consumers’ plates, politicians in some countries are moving to take them off the table.
Look at the US, for instance, where multiple states are hoping to ban cultivated meat. In November, Republican lawmaker and Florida House representative Tyler Sirois introduced draft legislation to ban the production, sale and distribution of cell-cultured meat in the state. If signed into law, it would come into effect in July this year, with a list of penalties laid out for non-compliance.
Violators would face a misdemeanour of the second degree, alongside a fine between $500 to $1,000, while food establishments would be subject to disciplinary action. The license of any restaurant, store, or other business in violation could be suspended or issued an immediate stop-sale order. The proposal also authorises the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt additional state-specific rules, which would mean anyone looking to obtain regulatory approval for cultivated meat in Florida would require authorisation from the department.
Florida’s bill came soon after Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, as well as Nebraska’s proposed Real MEAT act mandating the word “imitation” on alt-protein.
Earlier this month, Arizona followed Florida with two bills looking to restrict the labelling of plant- and cell-based meats and banning cultivated meat altogether. Republican David Marshall drafted HB 2121, where he called his proposal “a matter of statewide concern necessary to protect public health”.
“The production and sale of lab-grown, cell-cultured animal products threaten to harm this state’s trust land beneficiaries and the highest and best use of state trust land, which includes the lease of state lands to ranchers for livestock grazing to fund public schools and other public institutions,” reads the bill, calling the ban “necessary to protect this state’s sovereign interests, history, economy and food heritage”.
If it becomes law, anyone found violating the act would face a civil penalty of up to $25,000. But more notably, anyone whose business is “adversely affected” by the sale of cultivated meat can file a suit to stop the act and collect damages of up to $100,000 (plus legal fees).
EU: Far-right politicians in France, Italy, Romania and Austria make cultivated meat a political hot rod
Courtesy: AP
If you think that’s poor, Europe is arguably worse.
Italy, for instance, made headlines in November when it became the first country to ban cultivated meat. It followed a months-long process spearheaded by Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida and sparked by a petition by Coldiretti, one of Italy’s largest farming associations, calling for a prohibition of “synthetically produced food”.
After half a million Italians signed the petition, Italy’s senate approved a bill to put the ban into effect, with 60% of senators voting in favour. It then submitted a notification to the EU stating its plan to prohibit the production and sale of cultured meat, but upon realising it would be rejected, the nation withdrew the notice and sought to ban the novel proteins without EU approval.
It was successful in its efforts after the lower house of parliament approved the bill, which carries fines between €10,000 and €60,000 for each violation. Italy has repeatedly cited national heritage, threats to food culture, delocalisation, and human health concerns as reasons behind the move – but critics have called it unlawful.
“The EU law also provides that technical regulations like this law must be notified to the European Commission before their actual adoption, allowing other member states and stakeholders to provide comments on potential barriers to the EU internal market,” industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe said in a statement. “The Italian authorities’ withdrawal of their [TRIS notification and today’s vote blatantly contravene the EU law.”
Italy’s ban came around the same time that the senate in Romania voted to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat as well, proposing bans between €40,000 and €60,000. The bill would need approval from the Chamber of Deputies.
This was swiftly followed by France’s Les Républicains party proposing a ban on cultured meat in the country, with a bill introduced in the national assembly hoping to prohibit the production and marketing of these proteins “in the interests of human health, animal health and the environment”, invoking arguments of going against French tradition and hurting livestock farming.
“The purely utilitarian vision of food is, in fact, the opposite of French tradition, which sees food first and foremost as a cultural and social fact,” the proposal read. It added: “Replacing ‘junk food’ with another ‘junk food’ is not progress.”
Another European country turning it back on cultured meat is Austria, which – alongside Italy and France – will oppose cultivated meat production at the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on Tuesday. The delegations from these nations have written a letter to the EU – supported by the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia – describing cultured meat as “a threat to primary farm-based approaches”.
Highlighting the lack of approval for cultivated meat in the EU, the letter states that these novel proteins raise many questions, including ethical, economic, social and legal concerns. The lawmakers also highlight issues with sustainability, public health, and transparency. Notably, the text cites a widely condemned, meat-industry-funded UC Davis study highlighting the apparent environmental fallacies of cell-cultured meat, and calls for “science-based information sharing” to “counter any deceiving greenwashing campaigns”.
“A transparent, science-based and comprehensive approach is necessary to assess the development of artificial cell-based meat production, which in our view does not constitute a sustainable alternative to primary farm-based production,” the letter reads, calling for a “comprehensive impact assessment” and public consultation process on the matter.
Challenges remain for cultured meat
Courtesy: Upside Foods
While some countries are showing promise, the cultivated meat sector continues to face major hurdles. At Tufts University’s annual Cellular Agriculture Innovation Day on January 11, stakeholders highlighted infrastructure and manufacturing capacity as key challenges.
Taking the example of South Korea’s Samsung Biologics, one of the world’s largest cell culture facilities, Yossi Quint, founder and CEO of bioreactor producer Ark Biotech, said: “If Samsung Biologics were to be running every single minute of every single day for an entire year, they would produce less cultivated meat than the average Tyson facility produces in one day.”
He added that the facility’s current output would need to be increased by 10,000 times to reach equivalent production rates: “When you think about a 10,000x increase, it’s not about incremental changes. We’re talking about a revolution about reimagining what infrastructure looks like.”
Quint explained that larger bioreactors, more readily accessible cell media, optimised filtration systems and bioprocesses, as well as automated production are crucial factors to help overcome this disparity and reach price parity. However, for manufacturers producing whole-cut meats, scaling up is harder as they require edible scaffolding material for structural cell support and enhancing nutrient and oxygen supply to the tissue.
These scaffolds need to be integrated into bioreactors, which means they essentially become single-use vessels for each individual unit of whole-cut meat. “I don’t know any company that’s going out and saying: ‘We’re going to grow this whole-cut, 1,000-kilogram piece of meat,’” said Ryan Silvia, programme manager of cultured meat scaffolding R&D at MilliporeSigma. “I imagine what this all means is there’s going to be a scale-out approach, not a scale-up approach for whole-cut meat.”
Additionally, some panellists noted that shared infrastructure and pilot-scale manufacturing can help companies improve capacities and reduce the amount of capital needed. “When there’s very capital-intensive infrastructure that we are thinking about building out, can it be done in a way that is more accessible or communal?” wondered Lily Fitzgerald, senior advanced technology manager at Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
Eric Schulze, the former scientific and regulatory affairs chief at Upside Foods who started his own climate-focus brand consultancy, touched upon the importance of funding too. “The name of the game is price parity or slightly undercutting conventional products. If we get there, it’s on, and we really have a real new food space race, and that’s exciting,” he said. “But VCs don’t want to spend money on putting steel in the ground, so we need federal loan guarantees for alternative proteins. The federal government has to form the triangle of academia, private industry, and the public sector.”
Honing in on this, GFI president Bruce Friedrich said: “If the government gets the industry started then the private sector can take over, just like electric vehicles [EVs]… Elon Musk says they would have failed twice, if not for long-term low interest government loans. There is no solar industry, there is no EV industry, there is no biopharma industry, if not for governments helping the companies that can’t qualify for standard bank loans, giving them long-term low interest loans.”
Among all these challenges is the regulatory aspect. It does feel like a landmark year, as Aleph Farms’ Gavriel proclaimed – whether that’s a good one or bad remains to be seen.
Israeli food tech startup Forsea Foods has unveiled the first prototype of its cultivated eel, linking up with Tokyo vegan restaurant SAIDO to create dishes with the cell-cultured fish. It aims to launch the seafood product by 2025.
Forsea Foods, the only known company working on cell-based eel, has created the first prototype of its cultivated eel. The startup has partnered with Japanese chef Katsumi Kusumoto, executive chef and owner of Tokyo vegan restaurant Saido, to create two traditional dishes using its cultured fish, showcasing its application and potential.
Kusumoto and Forsea Foods have developed two popular Japanese dishes – unagi kabayaki (marinated grilled eel over rice) and unagi nigiri (a type of sushi). Now that the company has achieved a working proof of concept – which it claims features “the same tender, succulent texture and rich savoury flavour as real eel” – it is prepping for scale-up.
Saido owner and executive chef Katsumi Kusumoto (left) and Forsea Foods’ cultured eel (right) | Courtesy: Saido/Anatoly Michaello
Forsea Foods’ cultured eel will be welcomed by Japan
Founded in 2021, Forsea Foods employs a proprietary method for culturing seafood, using organoid technology to create 3D microtissues comprising fat and muscle, which can mimic the functions and structure of organs. These spontaneously differentiate into edible cells, replicating the natural process of cell formation.
Moreover, the cell lines can self-organise into tissue structures without the need for scaffold support. This simplifies the production process, eases supply chain bottlenecks for eel meat, and improves scalability. It also enables efficient and cost-effective production by significantly decreasing the reliance on costly growth factors, which will help Forsea Foods disrupt a $4.3B market and bring its eel closer to price parity with its conventional counterpart.
The company, which won the Startup Pitch Hour Prize at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit last October in Singapore, has previously raised $5.2M in seed funding, and now expects to add to that amount. Partnering with Kusumoto helped showcase the potential of its product. “Unagi is an enduring favourite in Japan,” said the chef. “Its timeless appeal, however, is impacted by a growing awareness among the Japanese population of the need to take a more sustainable approach.”
“Forsea is pioneering the fusion of traditional, high-quality Asian cuisine with groundbreaking technology to create the world’s first cultured unagi – one that will provide the consumer with a genuine seafood experience without putting further strain on aquatic life,” said Forsea Foods co-founder and CEO Roee Nir.
The news will likely be welcomed by Japan’s government, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida endorsing cellular agriculture last year and announcing plans to create a sector for these novel foods to reduce the country’s climate footprint. “We will develop the environment to create a new market, such as efforts to ensure safety and the establishment of labelling rules, and foster a food tech business originating in Japan,” he said.
To that end, the government awarded ¥1.87B ($13.1M) to Tokyo-headquartered IntegriCulture last month, which has created a cellular agriculture infrastructure platform called CulNet and claims to have developed serum-free cultivated chicken and duck meat at a fraction of the cost needed for animal-based growth factors.
Forsea Foods founders Roee Nir, Yaniv Elkouby, Iftach Nachman and Moria Shimoni (left to right) | Courtesy: Tal Shahar
However, Japan’s regulatory framework will soon become more complicated, after the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (which will continue to oversee food safety) transfers its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency in April. It means companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but does make Kishida the ultimate person responsible for these matters.
A spokesperson for Forsea Foods confirmed that the company is communicating with regulatory authorities in Japan, as well as Singapore. Saido has already been serving vegan unagi to diners, and once regulatory approval comes through, the restaurant intends to serve the cultivated eel too.
Are there any concerns about potential backlash from patrons over a vegan restaurant serving cultured meat? “Forsea’s co-founder Iftach Nachman is an ideological vegan… For him, cultivated meat is vegan,” said the Forsea Foods spokesperson. “We believe that the decision whether cultivated meat is vegan or not really depends on one’s opinion. We believe that there is a certain segment of the vegan population that welcomes cultivated meat as a means of overcoming the challenges of the traditional industry.” [Since it is made from extracted animal cells, cultivated meat isn’t usually regarded as vegan-friendly – for an ethical take, this is a good read.]
The spokesperson added: “Saido is not only for vegans, but also for customers who come for excellent cuisine and new dining experiences.”
Overfishing and pollution have left eels endangered
Both Kusumoto and Nir touched upon a similar theme – the decline of conventional eel populations as a result of overpopulation and pollution. In Japan, which consumes over 70% of all eel catch, the fish has maintained luxury status, with wholesale prices reaching $40 per kg, according to one estimate (Forsea Foods predicts this to be $60 per kg in wholesale, and $250 per kg for restaurants).
But eel consumption has declined over the last two decades, falling from about 160,000 tons in 2000 to just over 60,000 tons in 2021. And this isn’t just limited to Japan – in the EU, eel populations have diminished dramatically, decreasing by 98% from 1980, leading to an export ban on eels in 2010.
This has resulted in eel becoming a critically endangered species, with overfishing, poaching, illegal trading, and breeding troubles all playing a role. Known as mysterious creatures, these fish undergo an unusual metamorphosis, with a breeding process that includes a 6,500-km-long migration to one of two spots: the Sargasso Sea (near the Bermuda Triangle), or off Guam. This makes captive breeding difficult, especially amidst elevating demand for the fish.
The overfishing of eels, meanwhile, disrupts the marine and freshwater ecosystems they come from – these fish maintain a balance in biodiversity by preying on smaller fish, ensuring that no single marine species takes over the ecosystem. Eels, in turn, are a food source for birds like the grey heron and the great cormorant.
Courtesy: Anatoly Michaello
This underpins the need for alternatives to conventional eels. While Forsea Foods is the sole company dealing with cultivated versions of the fish, fellow Israeli company Steakholder Foods unveiled a 3D-printed alternative in December (it plans to include cultured eel cells in the product at a later stage, if costs allow). And New York’s Ocean Hugger Foods and Japanese giant Nissin already have plant-based eels on the market (using aubergines and soy protein, respectively).
Now, Forsea Foods hopes to launch its eel commercially in 2025, as it seeks strategic partners in Japan and across Asia. To advance its progress in this region, it has formed new engineering and food applications departments, and appointed a new business development manager in Japan. The company also views the EU and the US as rapidly developing markets.
“This year, we will [be] working to improve process parameters in our lab and increase our scales,” revealed the spokesperson. “In addition, we are planning to conduct a few tasting events of our products, expand our relationships in Asia and launch our next financing round.”
The Israeli startup’s unveiling of its cultivated eel comes a week after fellow Rehovot-based company Aleph Farms gained the country’s first approval for cultured meat, and the world’s first for cell-based beef. “It is great to see more geographies approve cultivated meat and, equally important, to see more types of cultivated animal proteins entering the market,” Robert E Jones, president of Cellular Agriculture Europe and co-founder of the Global Cellular Agriculture Alliance, told Green Queen. “Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United States, and the UK have made early investments to build complementary protein ecosystems, and the dividends are now paying off.”
As marketing experts, we know that consumers are not as rational as academic research leads us to believe. In 2024, it’s time to get unstuck and rethink our priorities.
For the past decade, the alt protein industry has been focused on the holy trinity of price, taste, and convenience. While we’ve made huge progress on all three, there simply aren’t enough consumers showing up to the party. Many of our propositions will continue to fail unless we change our thinking. We’re calling for 2024 to be the year we shift our mindset and skillset to get us unstuck.
On the face of it, price, taste, and convenience (collectively known as PTC) seem like sensible drivers of choice in food. Who wouldn’t want cheap, tasty, and easy? But research published last year by think tank Rethink Priorities shows they’re not nearly enough to explain actual behavior. As marketing and branding experts we have been trained to know real people are not nearly as rational as academics or structured research questionnaires will lead us to believe.
Why price, taste & convenience are not enough
Think about it for a moment. Bottled water is a $300 billion category globally despite being indistinguishable in blind taste tests, potentially worse for your health, and sold at a 10,000% price premium to tap water. Aligning alt protein pricing with conventional animal products will not bring a flood of consumers knocking on our doors. Demonstrating value and justifying a fair premium will.
Let’s look at ramen next, a $50 billion category globally. It has graduated from dorm rooms into kitchens and Michelin-starred restaurants not by imitating established tastes, but by introducing new ones with a few lucky cultural moments along the way. Attempting to imitate the taste of animal protein, down to the blood dripping out of our undercooked burgers, doesn’t help especially when it adds scary-sounding compounds to the ingredients list. We have to create an aspirational taste and cultural context of our own.
Finally, the fastest growing segment in pet food – raw, fresh, and frozen – has reached $18 billion in the US alone despite being harder to find and a pain in the ass to serve compared to a bag of dried kibbles. Yes, we need to know where to get and how to use alt-protein. But food is also an act of love, and we will put in the effort when we really care.
It’s not (just) you, it’s the ecosystem
While some self-flagellation within alt protein is necessary – especially around the lack of marketing skills, the us vs. them mentality, and the echo chamber we operate within – the reason we’re stuck has a lot to do with the larger food ecosystem.
In developed markets, and increasingly globally, a small handful of companies control the vast majority of products that go into our shopping baskets. However, they lack the incentives to disrupt their own categories.
Yes research labs are experimenting with novel ingredients and well-intentioned incubator teams are conducting market tests. But when the time comes for country managers in charge to allocate their budgets, they will always bet them on the proven formulas that are sure to deliver their profit targets and company bonuses. Alt-proteins remain curiosities relegated to page 40 of the sustainability report at best or are quietly “deprioritized” at worst.
Perhaps even more important, and certainly much more ignored, are food retailers and foodservice operators who have the potential to be market makers. Yet they are largely sitting on the sidelines because nobody is bringing them a compelling category vision in terms they understand and can act on.
The good news? Both food retailers and leading manufacturers we’ve spoken to have a genuine appetite for change. But we can’t rely on them to work out the answers that will give them the confidence to shift their portfolios by themselves. To get us unstuck we need to embrace a consumer-centric mindset and skillset that will get the ecosystem moving. Here’s how.
Courtesy: The authors via DALL-e
The five resolutions we need for 2024
Stop thinking product, start thinking category
Here’s a harsh truth – the consumer doesn’t care about us. We like to think we build our market by taking people along a funnel from when they are first aware of us to when they become our loyalists, forever a converted advocate.
The reality is that when a consumer walks into an average supermarket they’re faced with more than 30,000 items to choose from. People don’t think in products, they think in categories. They want to pick up some chicken for dinner, put a healthy snack in their kids’ lunchbox, or grab milk for their latte. It’s little wonder most shopping is done on auto-pilot. People’s brains don’t want to process endless new options, so they come back to what they grew up with – the meals they know they like.
Think this doesn’t sound like you? Remember you are not your consumer. Get used to the idea that you spend disproportionately more time thinking about what you’re eating and studying where your food comes from than pretty much everyone else on the planet.
Resolution #1: Deeply understand not just your product or ingredient but the category context it exists within. Use these needs, beliefs, and habits to get people’s attention and serve them better.
Stop thinking rational, start thinking emotional
Thinking rationally takes time and energy. We make over 200 decisions just about food every single day. Because we don’t have the capacity to think deeply about these decisions, it’s far easier for us to make quick responses to emotional cues.
Advertisers trying to influence these decisions bombard us with thousands of messages every day. From the phone you check as soon as you wake up, to the podcasts that put you to sleep, it doesn’t stop. That’s why great advertising doesn’t make you think, it makes you feel. It’s why the infamous Got Milk? campaign worked, tapping into relatable moments such as running out of milk at breakfast time. Our brains call upon these emotional responses to make quick, intuitive decisions.
However, the way the alt protein industry has tried to understand the consumer is fundamentally flawed because it engages them on a rational level, not a true-to-life, intuitive, and emotional one. Various studies keep telling us that around 90% of consumers say they would buy more sustainable proteins once they’re the same price, taste, and nutrition as the meat they buy today. Does that mean they actually will? Sadly not.
Resolution #2: Stop spending time and money asking people rational questions that just confirm pre-conceived notions but don’t relate to actual behaviors. Uncover a deeper understanding of your consumers and test their emotional responses, so you’ll know whether the positioning of your product is going to resonate or fall on deaf ears.
Stop thinking niche, start thinking mass
Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness beat us to this one in his Adweek X conference interview at the end of last year. By talking to the niche – the small percentage of consumers who do pay attention, do think rationally, and deeply care – you risk “pissing off” the masses. Americans eat on average 347g of meat per day. That’s the market for alternative meat proteins right there. If you categorise your market based on attitudes to climate change, animal agriculture, or worse ‘food technology’, you define a much smaller market and an artificial one at that. Remember what consumers told you in a survey is not true to real life.
Marketers today are trained to ‘target the market’, not market to a target. That’s because brands and products grow through having lots of customers, not a small number of highly loyal ones. Half of all Coca-Cola buyers buy the brand just one or two times a year. There will always be people whom our products aren’t relevant for, strong traditionalists, or those who simply cannot afford them. But largely you’ll find a huge market for the taking, almost half of Americans identify as ‘flexitarians’.
Resolution #3: Get the right marketing and consumer leadership in place to think big, just as you do with your science and technology roadmaps. To get to a wider audience you need deep consumer expertise that’s not easy to develop, but neither is cracking how to grow meat from animal cells, or making dairy without cows.
Note: Please don’t think this doesn’t apply to you if you’re a “B2B player”. If you don’t lead and support your customers in this work, you can’t expect them to figure it out for themselves, and won’t ever get beyond working in the incubator lab with them.
Stop thinking parity, start thinking difference
Differentiation is something a good business person will spend a lot of their time thinking about. Identifying a meaningful attribute their proposition can stand behind and become known for. Take cars – they all get you from A to B – but some are famous for safety, others for speed, others for style.
The problem with parity is it provides no compelling reason for consumers to switch. If our only difference is climate or animal friendliness we’re toast. These aren’t meaningful to a mass audience (despite what your rational research claims), so why would they change the habits of a lifetime? We either wait for consumers to become enlightened while the clock is ticking, or we find relevant points of differentiation in the category to stand behind today. Health benefits for up to 90% of South Asians who suffer a form of lactose intoleranceor86 million Americans who have borderline high or high cholesterol levels), and experiential benefits (taste, mouthfeel, hunger satiation) all have huge potential within alt-proteins.
You may be thinking, but what about Oatly, don’t they talk about being cow-free and sustainable all the time? Oatly began as a proposition for those with a milk protein allergy. The success in building brand awareness then came from aligning with coffee shops and baristas, providing a differentiated coffee experience in a distinctively branded way that made choosing Oatly a contemporary choice. The brand earned the right to then build upon a deeper purpose which is a lot of what we hear from Oatly today.
Resolution #4: Zero in on a meaningful difference you bring to the world. Do it by spending time with consumers to immerse yourself in their world. If you don’t have the budget for ethnographic studies – find some friends of friends who’ll invite you into their kitchen and talk freely. Go through their fridge – what have they bought and why? What are they looking for when they buy meat or dairy? What are the things you could make even better, and what are the things they don’t want you could remove?
Chasing price parity builds a commoditised industry. Having a broadly accessible alt-protein category may be the ultimate aim to drive switching from animal to non-animal products, but it’s not how categories are created. Industries now regarded as commodities started as premium propositions, and they retain branded propositions within them to this day. The cream cheese category was largely built by the Philadelphia brand. Pints of ice cream didn’t exist until Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry’s exploded onto the scene, growing the category far beyond what bland flavors in big tubs were able to do.
Building demand requires creating consumer value. A collection of poorly branded, generic frozen “not-chicken” nuggets will not create a category, no matter how cheap they are. Once desire is established and products become a part of weekly shop and restaurant orders, then we’re ready for mass-pricing, private-label, commodity products. Just like the industries that have been created before us.
Resolution #5: Having a path to price parity is important, but building category value now is even more so. Find the day-to-day consumer problems where you can bring value and use them to disrupt your category.
The willpower to get unstuck
Ever since the Roman times January, named after Janus the god of beginnings and transitions, has given us a chance for a fresh start. We make many resolutions for the occasion, but the ones that last follow a simple formula.
Break down the challenge into smaller steps, like the five shifts we’ve described. Tell others that you are putting the consumer at the center of your thinking. Remind yourself of the benefits regularly. Reward your teams as you put thinking into practice. And track progress toward your milestones regularly.
For our part, we will be continuing to beat the drum on ways to get us unstuck. We hope you will join the debate because we can’t let this new year’s resolution fail.
In a strongly-worded, evidence-backed open letter, more than 250 climate, nutrition and food experts and organisations are calling on USDA chief Tom Vilsack to address the country’s heavy meat consumption as a climate mitigation strategy.
In December, the US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack was asked at COP28 if he had heard about meat reduction as a strategy to tackle climate change. “I don’t hear much about that,” he responded, adding: “I did hear about the important role that strategies for methane reduction could play in making the current livestock industry more sustainable.”
Now, over 250 climate, health and food advocates are pushing back on the USDA chief’s comments. In an open letter addressed to Vilsack – spearheaded by the Center for Biological Diversity – experts point out the US’s signing of the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, which included a pledge to “work collaboratively and expeditiously” to shift towards the consumption of lower-emission foods.
The US and its meat problem
COP28 was widely touted as the first food-focused COP, with a dedicated food day, a menu with two-thirds of food being meatless, and the release of an agrifood roadmap for emissions cuts by the FAO. That roadmap, which was rumoured to be encouraging a reduction in meat consumption in richer countries, didn’t pan out that way – at least not as explicitly.
As the letter points out, the FAO’s plan reads: “High consumption of food products with high GHG footprints in some locations contribute unnecessarily to the emissions of agrifood systems… The issue is to know not ‘if’ diets should change – for they absolutely must for human and planetary health – but how to obtain these results.” But it also mentioned that low-income nations needed to increase the output of their livestock.
The reality is that animal agriculture is highly detrimental to the environment. The food system accounts for a third of all emissions – livestock farming, depending on who you believe, is responsible for anywhere between 11 to 19.5%. Meat itself makes up 60% of all food emissions, despite only supplying 18% of the world’s calorie supply and 37% of its protein needs. But instead of reducing our consumption of meat, we’re set to be eating 14% more of it by 2030.
Courtesy: Our World in Data
The US is a major culprit here – Americans eat over six times more red meat than the recommended daily intake by the Eat-Lancet Commission. And there is a climate disconnect here: 40% of the country doesn’t believe eating less red meat would help climate change, a number that rises to 74% for overall meat consumption, according to a separate study.
These attitudes aren’t helped by the fact that policies are heavily skewed towards the animal agriculture industry. Livestock farming receives 800 times more funding than alternative protein companies in the US, according to a study that suggests the “gigantic power” of the meat and dairy lobby is blocking the rise of sustainable alternatives. And in November, when the US invested nearly $200M in 185 agricultural projects to boost the supply chain, there was no mention of climate change, emissions or protein diversification.
Other research has revealed how veganism can cut emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to a meat-rich diet. And if you were to look at it more pragmatically, even a 50% switch to plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy can reduce emissions by 31%, halt deforestation and double overall climate benefits.
Scientists’ three key recommendations to the USDA
That’s not to say that the US hasn’t recognised the value of alt-proteins – even if states like Florida and Arizona are pushing back. Last year, the USDA granted regulatory approval to Upside Foods and Eat Just for their cell-cultured chicken, a landmark move that made it only the second country to do so. It has also cleared the sale of precision fermentation dairy proteins from three companies.
So, as the head of the USDA, it stands to reason that meat reduction should be on the agenda for Vilsack. “The USDA has repeatedly been urged by scientists (including its own scientific advisory committees), environmental experts, and public health advocates over the past decade to address excessive meat and dairy consumption in food and nutrition policy,” the letter states. “But the United States has fallen far behind other G20 nations in even taking the first step of incorporating sustainability into the national dietary guidelines.”
Courtesy: Upside Foods
Directly addressing the agriculture secretary, it continues: “Under your leadership, the USDA has instead relied on false solutions such as feed additives, which have minimal impact in reducing emissions and aren’t scalable, and biogas, which worsens the problem of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Improving agricultural production is only one piece of the puzzle, and ignoring dietary shifts in consumption creates an ineffective and weak climate response.”
The signatories go on to outline three key demands from the USDA:
Immediately make meat and dairy reduction a key part of USDA’s climate strategy by acknowledging the role of consumption in climate mitigation and identifying opportunities to support and incentivise dietary shifts.
Align food and climate goals in all USDA programmes and policies, including by increasing access to healthy, plant-based foods in the school meal programme.
Integrate sustainability into the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, with an emphasis on plant-forward dietary patterns.
Jennifer Molidor, a senior food campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said: “Secretary Vilsack can’t keep his head in the sand anymore, because this letter delivers the message loud and clear. We have to address our meat-heavy diets now, or the climate emergency will force us to.”
Finnish company Solar Foods’ Solein protein is expanding its footprint in Singapore through a partnership with Helsinki-based food giant Fazer Group, which has crafted a limited-edition snack bar using the air protein.
Fazer has released Taste the Future, a chocolate snack bar powered by Solein, in Singapore – marking the air protein’s retail debut 16 months after receiving regulatory approval. The product is available at five The Cocoa Trees stores across the island.
Fazer – which posted €1.1B ($1.19B) in revenue in 2022 and is Solar Foods’ biggest shareholder – hosted a media tasting of the limited-edition bar on Thursday, ahead of a one-time public sampling opportunity on Saturday afternoon at The Cocoa Trees store at Raffles City Shopping Centre.
“Singapore is the perfect test ground for our Taste the Future Chocolate Snack Bar, with a highly innovative food ecosystem and people who are not only passionate about food, but curious to try new things that are new, with nutrition and sustainability benefits,” said Heli Anttila, VP of new product development at Fazer Confectionery.
An iron- and fibre-rich vegan snack bar
Courtesy: Solar Foods
The vegan chocolate, hazelnut and berry snack bar contains Nordic oat puffs and 2% Solein powder, and was produced at Fazer Lab, the company’s R&D and innovation unit in Vantaa, Finland. Free from palm oil, the product is made from “100% responsibly sourced cocoa” and is high in fibre and iron.
While the flavourless Solein protein – made by fermenting microbes with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen replacing sugar as an energy source – had debuted as part of a vegan gelato at Singaporean eatery Fico in 2023, this is the first time it’s available as an FMCG product.
Fazer and Solar Foods have been working hand-in-hand on R&D and product development. With the latter’s commercial-scale Factory 01 set to be operational by the first half of this year, the limited run proves to be a good test for this nutritious consumer snack bar’s future market rollouts, once the protein is in full production. This is in line with Fazer’s own emissions reduction goals and target for 100% sustainable sourcing.
“This is an exciting moment for us working with Fazer – the very first time people can try Solein within a consumer snack bar,” said Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka. “This also demonstrates the potential of Solein as a sustainable and nutritious fortifier. With this introduction in Singapore, we are getting valuable customer feedback on Solein’s viability in a new product category and also get a sense of the consumer acceptance of future ingredients.”
Solar Foods targets 2025-26 European launch
Courtesy: Solar Foods
Solar Foods, which began in 2017 as a spinout of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University, calls Solein the “world’s most sustainable protein”, with a production process that forgoes the need for open land, fertilisers and pesticides, and irrigation. It can be made in desert-like conditions, the Arctic, and even outer space (the startup has collaborated with the European Space Agency on a food project for Mars). The microbes are grown in liquid form and eventually turned into an orange-coloured dry powder.
According to a life-cycle analysis, Solein emits just 1% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional meat and 20% versus plant-based proteins. Plus, it has a strong nutritional profile, with 65-70% of protein, 5-8% of fat, 10-15% of dietary fibre and 3-5% of minerals, as well as a macronutrient profile similar to dried soy or algae. The microbial protein contains iron and B vitamins as well, essential nutrients that are often sourced from animal-derived ingredients.
After receiving clearance from Singapore’s food regulatory authority for the carbon-capturing protein, Vainikka compared its development to the discovery of the potato. “We are introducing an entirely new ingredient to the world of food,” he remarked. “It’s a watershed moment for how we think of what we eat.”
This potential has been realised by investors as well, with Solein nabbing €8M ($8.8M) in Series B funding in November to support the construction of Factory 01. It brought total investment in the startup to over €43M ($47M) in equity, with an additional €30M ($32M) in debt funding. The company also has a €34M ($37M) grant for Factory 01 and a further €76M ($83M) earmarked for Factory 02 “if we were to build on European soil”.
Courtesy: Solar Foods
It’s something Vainikka hinted at after the release of the Fazer Taste the Future bar, with its novel foods regulation process in the EU expected to finish by the end of 2025. “Our shared aim extends beyond this pivotal moment, targeting a wider-scale European launch in 2025-26 with a whole range of products.” And it truly could be a range of products – the ingredient has already been demoed in over 20 different foods, including burgers, eggs and meatballs.
For now, though, a snack bar it is. The product will be available at five locations of The Cocoa Trees across the city-state, as part of a bundle offer until February 18 – customers can redeem one Taste the Future bar for every S$30 ($22) spent on Fazer products.
Marketing expert Irina Gerry argues that while blended meat, could meet niche consumer needs such as upgraded nutrition or improved flavor, it’s not a ‘big’ idea.
The concept of blended meat — combining plant-based ingredients with animal meat — has recently emerged as a solution to the challenges faced by purely plant-based meats. At first glance, it seems like a compelling proposition, promising enhanced taste compared to plant-based meat, reduced environmental impact versus animal-based meat, and potentially better pricing. Recent entrants into this space include brands like 50/50 Foods, Paul’s Table, and Mush Foods. However, does this idea truly address consumer needs, or is it merely an industry-driven solution?
The Best of Both Worlds: Understanding Flexitarians
The reason for this is the lack of a real consumer need. We don’t see consumers mixing almond and dairy milk in the same glass. They likely have both milks in their fridge, but use them for different occasions or different members of the household, based on a specific set of preferences. Similarly, we rarely see anyone blending a Beyond Burger with ground beef to improve the flavor.
Quality Perception of Blended Meat: A Complicated Relationship
The act of blending can create a perception of lesser quality. Meat enthusiasts often view pure meat as a high-quality product. When you start mixing in soy or pea protein, it’s like watering down a fine wine. Remember when rumors of McDonald’s burger patties getting mixed with soy caused a social media outrage? The company now specifically messages that its patties are 100% beef, with no fillers, as proof of quality.
The same goes for plant-based consumers. When they choose to have a plant-based product, they are doing so consciously, and for a variety of reasons such as health, ethics, or the environment. None of these reasons is strengthened by adding animal protein to the mix. So, the blend likely dilutes the value proposition for both camps.
Choice and Control: The Art of Personalization
Most consumers enjoy a mix of plant-based and animal-based foods, but they do so on their own terms. They might choose a purely plant-based dish one day and mix and match both plant and animal foods another day. Some are vegan at home, whilst indulging in a pepperoni pizza on weekends, or they might stretch ground beef with veggies and bread crumbs for cost savings. The key is personalization and control over the mixing and matching based on specific occasions and recipes. It is unlikely for a single product to satisfy such divergent needs, especially if it’s a standard product like a burger patty.
Narrow Appeal: The Challenge of a Niche Market
Given these factors, blended meat risks becoming a niche product category. For meat eaters, adding plant-based elements may seem like a compromise in quality and taste. For plant-based consumers, the introduction of animal ingredients feels counterintuitive. The appeal might be limited to a small segment of flexitarians, driven by a specific need or usage occasion, likely making it a commercial challenge.
Blending to meet a specific consumer need, such as lower cost or better nutrition, could be a viable idea, but it’s just not a BIG idea.
So, What’s the Way Forward?
To give blended meat the best chance of success, we need a consumer-centric approach. Here are two potential positioning strategies:
Lead with Flavor: People enjoy exploring new flavors. Incorporating caramelized onions and roasted bell peppers on a burger, or adding a portobello mushroom for an umami boost, can enhance the appeal. This approach focuses on exciting flavors rather than compromising taste or nutritional values. Blending animal-based meat with whole plant ingredients that contribute to an intriguing flavor profile has potential, especially if brands lead with a positive taste experience. However, this might result in occasional purchases due to fractionated usage occasions, leading to low turnover.
Better Nutrition without Compromise: Many consumers aspire to eat healthier foods. Blended meat products offering additional nutritional benefits, such as more fiber, reduced saturated fat, and fewer calories, could be appealing. However, ensuring that taste is not compromised is crucial. Since most consumers choose animal-based meat for its taste, any compromise on this front could spell trouble. Thus, a strategy that leads with great taste, while delivering improved nutrition as a secondary benefit, might hold more promise.
Solving The Blended Meat Puzzle
Successfully positioning blended meat products requires navigating the complex landscape of consumer preferences, quality perceptions, cultural influences, and dietary choices. While the idea holds potential, its success hinges on more than just merging two types of proteins, as a logical response to current struggles of plant-based meat. It demands a deep understanding of consumer desires and their choices in integrating plant-based and animal-based foods into their diets. Only by tapping into these nuances can blended meat transcend being a fleeting trend and secure a meaningful place in our diverse and dynamic food landscape.
Belgium is halting the establishment of guidelines against plant-based meat labelling after continued disagreement among stakeholders, but its higher VAT on milk alternatives is hurting the sector, especially one homegrown brand.
The plant-based labelling war in Belgium is – for now – over, with ‘vegetarian steaks’ and ‘vegan burgers’ all fair game after the country’s lawmakers failed to reach a consensus on the subject.
Following political discussions dating back to 2022, economy minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne has announced that the government has halted its process of establishing guidelines on the labelling of meatless food products, owing to widespread disagreement on the topic.
But while that may be good news, Belgium’s stance on plant-based milk taxes is worrying, and – in the case of the company – potentially fatal.
Why Belgium has paused its plant-based meat labelling guidance
Courtesy: Getty Images/Groen Limburg
In 2020, the EU decided to vote against a proposed labelling ban for plant-based meat products, which led to a working group comprising Boerenbond, the National Union of Butchers, Bacon Butchers and Caterers, the General Farmers’ Syndicate, the Federation of Meat Producers, ProVeg International, and others, which sought to develop “clear guidelines” for plant-based labels. The group used the common argument of consumer confusion, arguing that companies can’t use meat-related terms for alternative products.
It sparked discussions that have lasted years, as well as backlash from plant-based advocacy groups the Good Food Institute Europe, the European Vegetarian Union, and ProVeg. They have urged the Belgian government to reject these guidelines, claiming that they disrespect consumers and endanger market unity in the EU.
“We feared that very restrictive guidelines regarding permitted vegetarian names would seriously compromise the accessibility and promotion of vegetarian food – which we really need to work on in the context of the fight against global warming,” said Green MP Barbara Creemers. Touching upon the consumer confusion aspect, she added: “What is the worst that can happen? That you come home with a bowl of vegetarian chicken cubes when you thought it contained real chicken?”
Creemers was told by Dermagne – who, alongside agriculture minister David Clarinval and state secretary for consumer protection Alexia Bertrand, was responsible for this issue – that there would be no new Belgian guidelines on plant-based meat labels. “There is still great dissonance between the various stakeholders regarding the guide with guidelines that has been drawn up,” Dermagne said, according to Nieuwsblad.
The guidelines that were drawn up were actually discussed at the cabinet level too. “But there is no political consensus on its publication, which I think is a shame,” the economy minister added.
“Whilst the process for developing the guideline has not officially changed, we believe it is unlikely to get any further before the next election [in June],” said ProVeg Belgium communications manager Fien Louwagie. “We hope that, post-election, the new Government acknowledges that consumers are simply not confused by plant-based foods carrying ‘meaty’ names and abandons the development of the guidelines altogether.”
Other European countries have been successful in efforts to ban the use of meat-related terms on plant-based products, most recently France and Italy. Similar discourse is ongoing in Poland. Meanwhile, Switzerland ruled against such a legislation, with a court announcing that such labels aren’t deceptive to consumers.
Discriminatory taxes leave local alt-milk brand reeling
Courtesy: Tiptoh
While the halting of the process is a positive sign for plant-based advocates, Belgium’s “fiscal discrimination” against plant-based milk is a major hurdle. Currently, most drinks are subject to excise duties and packaging taxes, which amount to 22 cents for sweetened and 17 cents for unsweetened beverages. Three products are exempt from these, though: cow’s milk, soy milk and rice milk.
However, some companies aiming to come up with even more climate-friendly alternatives to rice or soy (such as pea or oat) are finding it difficult to understand why they’re treated any differently. One of them is pea milk maker Top Toh, which last year faced a bill of €30,000 in overdue excise duties, followed by a fine of €10,000.
“I had no idea we had to pay excise taxes,” Tip Toh founder Arnaud Muylaert told De Tijd. “That invoice was a very unpleasant surprise. €40,000 is a lot for a company with a turnover of €200,000.” He added: “Why does the government impose excise duties on other plant-based drinks such as oat, almond and pea milk? Especially since [they focus] on sustainability?”
The unexpected bill has forced Tip Toh to raise its prices, with its products now costing €3, which puts it at a major disadvantage, considering soy and dairy cost about €1.20 for the same amount, while most alt-milks are priced below €3. While finance minister Vincent Van Pethegem has confirmed he’s reviewing the exemption for milk, any change isn’t imminent as it would need a change in law, and will be a task for the next government.
That has left Muylaert and Tip Toh in a state of bother. “I am concerned about the survival of our company,” she said. “We can pay the excise duties, taxes and fines thanks to recently obtained subordinated loans of €180,000. But I would rather use that money for innovation and growth. We wanted to hire our first employee, but we had to cancel those plans.”
The entrepreneur has been in touch with the cabinets of lawmakers and spoke to Sammy Mahdi, president of the CD&V party. “They told me they support me, but still nothing happens. I never expected that the government would oppose our project,” he said.
It’s not just small startups that are calling for a change. Danone, parent company of Alpro, Europe’s leading plant-based dairy producer, is also in the same boat. “There needs to be harmonization,” said Danone communications and sustainability director Nathalie Guillaume. “Our society is undergoing a sustainability transition. A flexitarian diet of dairy and plant-based alternatives is the future. The price must be accessible. Therefore, there should be no discrimination in the valuation of both types of milk drinks.”
Courtesy: GFI Europe
Belgium isn’t the only country with disproportionate taxes on plant-based dairy. In Germany, vegan alternatives are charged 19%, versus 7% for dairy (though there are calls for parity), Hungary has a 22% levy on plant-based and 5% tax on conventional dairy, while Italy similarly imposed 22% and 4%, respectively. The Netherlands, meanwhile, is going backwards: it previously carried an identical VAT rate of 9%, but new rules mean a 196% increase in alt-milk taxes (except soy).
But Belgium can follow the lead of the Czech Republic, which closed the gap between the tax laid on cow’s milk and plant-based alternatives – both now carry a 10% levy. Greece has also reduced its plant-based milk VAT from 24% to parity with cow’s milk (13%) now. There’s a lot resting on Belgium’s upcoming elections.
Leading Australian plant-based meat maker v2food has acquired ready meal brands Soulara and MACROS for an undisclosed sum to expand its portfolio, in a sector flooding with M&A activity.
Aussie alt-meat leader v2food has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of local ready-meal brands Soulara and MACROS, which will help broaden its distribution reach beyond in-person channels via its proprietary D2C e-commerce platform.
Founded in 2019, v2food makes meat analogues like burgers, mince, sausages and schnitzels using soy protein. Now, though, it is diversifying into whole-food plant-based options with the acquisition of Soulara, which offers an extensive range of nearly 40 ready meals. This is an extension to v2food’s own ready-to-eat line, launched in 2022, helping cater to a broader audience and evolving preferences.
“We know consumers have diverse needs when it comes to adopting a plant-based diet,” said Sean Bone, commercial manager at Soulara. “Soulara has carved a niche for itself with its focus on delivering meals designed by our team of chefs and dieticians to ensure best-in-class taste, nutrition and value.”
Courtesy: v2food
The deal will see Soulara and MACROS be combined under a new entity called Flexitarian Meal Solutions, selling between 50,000 and 100,000 meals per week, a v2food spokesperson confirmed. While they declined to comment on the financial or restructuring aspects of the deal, they acknowledged that while MACROS isn’t a plant-based business, v2food is “excited to explore how to incorporate more plant-based protein solutions in the range to appeal to the growing number of flexitarians in Australia”.
Catering to Australia’s diverse flexitarian and vegan consumers
Founded in 2017 as Freshara, Soulara claims to be Australia’s first plant-based ready meal subscription, with its broad lineup catering to specific consumer needs like high-protein dishes and calorie-controlled meals, alongside both veggie-forward and seitan-centric options. Some of the highlights include a Supercharged Satay, Spaghetti Veganese, African Peanut Stew, and Balinese Mie Goreng.
“We are excited to unite Australia’s number one plant-based ingredients company with Australia’s number one plant-based ready-made meals brand,” said v2food CEO Tim York. “We know consumers want to eat more plant-based products in their diets, but some of the barriers to making this change are concerns around taste and how to cook them – by adding Soulara to our portfolio, we can further demonstrate how easy and delicious meat reduction can be.”
Courtesy: v2food
This is a pertinent point when you look at v2food’s latest launch. At SXSW Sydney in October, it unveiled RepliHue, a new colour system for plant-based meat. The company argues that most plant proteins remain the same shade before and after cooking, but through its tech, these can shift hues from raw-looking to brown-grey at the same time and temperature as their conventional counterparts do.
This creates a ‘bleeding’ effect, the same aspect Impossible Foods banks on with its genetically modified soy-derived heme ingredient. RepliHue is derived naturally from red algae and other plants, and has the ability to consume carbon dioxide and use light for energy. v2food argues that its innovation also improves the taste and texture of alt-meat, which is a crucial consideration for Australians – a 1,039-person YouGov poll from October revealed that taste is the number-one factor influencing food choices for meat-eaters, flexitarians, vegans, vegetarians and pescetarians alike.
"v2food's expertise in plant protein is the ideal complement to Soulara’s vegetable-forward approach, as we strive together to provide a well-rounded menu for consumers seeking a plant-based lifestyle," said Bone. While the jury's out on whether Australians are looking to go vegan, they certainly are eating less meat (though still a very high amount).
Last year, a 3,016-person study by Queensland’s Griffith University found that nearly a third (32.2%) of Australians had reduced their meat consumption over the previous 12 months. Crucially, 71.3% said they either eat completely meatless diets, mostly vegan or have some plant-based dishes in an overall omnivorous diet – and 45.6% reported eating plant-based meat sometimes.
Vegan acquisitions ramp up as industry looks to consolidate
"As the plant-based movement continues to gain momentum, v2food is excited about the endless possibilities this acquisition brings for the brand, its consumers, and the wider community," stated York.
It speaks to the increased amount of M&A activity and consolidation in the vegan industry recently. In as recently as October, for example, All G Foods spun off its alt-meat brand Love Buds, which merged with Fenn Foods’ vEEF to form The Aussie Plant-Based Co. But this isn't a trend limited to Australia, which (alongside New Zealand) had the highest alt-protein investments in Q1 2023.
Courtesy: Love Buds
In October, Finnish alt-dairy brand Oddlygood acquired Nordic brand Planti, making it the market leader in vegan “spoonable snacks” in Sweden and cooking products in Finland. The same month saw US company Superlatus enter an agreement to buy plant-based dairy and egg company Spero, months after it agreed to purchase precision fermentation dairy leader Perfect Day's consumer brands under The Urgent Company umbrella. Also in October, German food conglomerate Pfeifer & Langen earned a majority stake in sausage-maker-turned-alt-meat brand Rügenwalder Mühle.
A month later, British artisanal vegan cheese maker Palace Culture was taken over by The Compleat Food Group (formerly Winterbotham Darby), which owns fellow plant-based brands Squeaky Bean and Vadasz, while Canada’s Protein Powered Farms bought Lovingly Made Ingredients, the plant protein extrusion facility built and previously owned by Meatless Farm.
Courtesy: The Vegan Food Group
In December, Indian superfood brand Nourish You acquired alt-dairy startup One Good, in one of the country's largest plant-based M&A deals. And just earlier this month, vegan burger chain Next Level Burger purchased restaurant group Veggie Grill (alongside its Más Veggies taco chain) to expand its footprint to 27 locations. This came at the same time the UK's VFC turned into a holding company called the Vegan Food Group to step up its acquisitions, on the back of its purchase of Meatless Farm and Clive's Purely Plants last year.
The flurry of activity is explained by the industry outlook of Andy Shovel, co-founder of UK plant-based meat brand THIS. "We’re now at a stage where the sector is consolidating and poor-quality brands are coming out the market, with more brands consumers can trust and shelves that are way easier to navigate," he told Green Queen in October.
v2food an outlier in the global plant-based sector
Courtesy: v2food
v2food's strategy mirrors that of the Vegan Food Group, according to Simon Eassom, executive director of Aussie alt-protein non-profit Food Frontier. The company is already the most-funded business in the plant-based Industry down under, having raised AU$185M ($138M) following Series B and B+ rounds in 2020 and 2021, respectively. It also has a multinational deal with Burger King, which uses its beef in the Rebel Whopper in the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and, of course, Australia (under the Burger King franchise Hungry Jack's).
“Its acquisition of direct-to-consumer brand Soulara adds another channel in its go-to-market strategy," said Eassom. "We wouldn’t be surprised if there are further announcements from them in the ready meal space, and their push into the service sector with pies and other utility products ensures that v2food is consolidating its position as a major food producer."
He added: “v2food is doing something that few, if any, other major plant-based companies are doing anywhere around the world: branching into all channels with offerings to suit and doing it via mergers and acquisitions."
Israeli-cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms has received the world’s first regulatory approval for cell-cultured beef, marking a milestone in the alternative protein sector.
This makes Israel – still in the middle of regional conflict – only the third country to greenlight cultivated meat, paving the way for Aleph Farms to introduce its Black Angus Petit Steak to diners soon.
Israel’s Aleph Farms has become the first company in the world to earn regulatory approval for cultivated beef, after the Israeli Ministry of Health (IMOH) issued a ‘no questions’ letter for its consumer brand Aleph Cuts in December – akin to an FDA ‘No Questions’ letter in the US. It allows the producer to market its products – currently priced similarly to premium conventional beef – in the country, with plans to roll out at restaurants and, eventually, retailers.
With the greenlight, Israel joins a very short list of countries to allow the sale of cultured meat – only Singapore (Eat Just in 2020) and the US (Upside Foods and Eat Just in 2023) have done so. But these approvals were all done for cell-based chicken products, meaning Aleph Farms is the first company permitted to sell cultivated beef.
“This announcement marks a critical leap in the global race to make the meat that people love, that’s also better for our climate, biodiversity, and food security,” said Bruce Friedrich, founder and president of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI). “We’re thrilled consumers in Israel will soon join those in the US and Singapore as being among the first to be able to purchase these delicious products.”
Aleph Farms’ cultured meat costs the same as premium beef
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
The decision brings an end to a process a year-and-a-half in the making, when Aleph Farms filed its initial submission to the health ministry, following a pre-submission consultation. The company worked closely with the Food Risk Management Department, led by co-founder Dr Ziva Hamama, to ensure “full compliance with safety standards” for these novel proteins.
“This regulatory approval grants us permission to produce and market our product in Israel, subject to specific directions for labelling and marketing provided by the Israeli Ministry of Health, and the completion of Good Manufacturing Practices inspection for our pilot production facility,” explained Yifat Gavriel, the company’s regulatory affairs chief.
The first product to be unveiled is Aleph Farms’ cultivated thin-cut Petit Steak, which was first introduced in April with the Aleph Cuts brand. The hybrid meat product comprises non-modified, non-immortalised cells of a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy, alongside a plant protein matrix made of soy and wheat. Apart from the starter cells derived from one of the cow’s fertilised eggs, there are no other animal-sourced components (such as fetal bovine serum, or FBS) in the cultivation process or final product.
The controlled and traceable process is carried out in an aseptic production environment, which – the company states – increases transparency and significantly reduces contamination risks. Plus, there’s no presence of antibiotics in the process.
Once the requirements mentioned above (labelling and mark-of-facility inspection) are fulfilled, we will introduce Aleph Cuts to diners, offering exclusive tasting experiences curated in collaboration with select partners. “At first, the product will be available in select restaurants,” Yoav Reisler, senior marketing and communications manager at Aleph Farms, told Green Queen. “Afterwards, it will become available at foodservice and retail locations.”
On the cost question, he revealed: “At the time of our soft launch, Aleph Cuts will be priced similarly to premium conventional beef. We are taking various steps to drive economies of scale and achieve price parity with more of the conventional beef market within a few years from launch.”
No doubt, making it a hybrid product helps too, as this is the path some envision cultivated meat to enter the market (Dutch producer Meatable is taking this approach too). “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,” one alt-protein investor told Green Queen in December.
Cultured meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be price-competitive with conventional meat. But while companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for these proteins to reach parity. “Of common animal proteins, beef delivers the highest value in global markets, so by focusing on cultivated beef, we are able to shorten the timeline to price parity,” explained Reisler
Israel’s need – and support – for cultivated meat
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
“The entire Aleph team has united in strength and determination to deliver no matter what during these difficult times in Israel. We are excited to carry this resilience forward in the form of innovation in agriculture and food security,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.
It’s a milestone for a country that has long been supportive of alternative proteins – and for good measure, given the nation’s battle with food insecurity: government figures show that 16% of Israeli families and 21% of children did not have adequate access to safe, nutritious food in 2021. Among families with children, 19% experienced food insecurity, and 8.5% suffered from severe insecurity.
As cultivated meat doesn’t rely on livestock agriculture, huge swathes of farmland, or vast amounts of water, the benefits are as important for climate change as they are for food security. This is especially true for beef, which emits more greenhouse gas emissions than any other foodstuff. It’s a meat loved by Israelis, who eat 19.6kg of it per year and are expected to consume over 29kg annually by 2029.
But uniquely, Israel is known to be one of the most vegan-friendly countries in the world. According to a 2017 survey (the latest data available), 5% of its citizens identify as vegans and 8% as vegetarians. At the same time, 23% expressed a desire to cut their intake of meat.
This explains Israel’s support for alternative proteins, which “stands out globally”, according to Alla Voldman, VP of strategy and policy at GFI Israel. “Three out of the first eight cultivated meat companies worldwide are Israeli. 15% of global investments in the field are allocated to Israeli-cultivated meat companies,” she noted.
This ecosystem includes the world’s largest cultivated meat consortium, which Aleph Farms is a part of. A three-year project to scale up production and drive down costs of cultivated meat, it received funding to the tune of 66 million NIS ($18M).
“We believe that the robust presence of cultivated meat companies, fermentation, and plant-based, coupled with advanced academic research, entrepreneurship, industry, and unique consumer market, provide Israel with an opportunity to lead the field forward,” Voldman added. “This strengthens our ability to provide value to countries worldwide in an era of climate and food security crises.”
Toubia added: “We believe that addressing joint challenges like food security is the best way to ensure the prosperity of the Middle East and other parts of the world that rely heavily on massive food imports, especially in Asia.”
But the incidence of veganism be a catalyst for the success of a fellow alt-protein pillar in cultivated meat? “I’m not sure it’s one of the most significant markers,” Reisler said. “Aleph Cuts are animal-based products, as the original source of animal cells is a cow. However, many vegetarians and vegans may call Aleph Cuts vegetarian-friendly and vegan-friendly, as the product is not harvested from an animal carcass and there is no slaughter involved in the production.” [As noted above, the starter cells for Aleph Farm’s beef steaks are sourced from the fertilised eggs of a cow, and as such, cultivated meat isn’t usually regarded as vegan-friendly – for an ethical take, this is a good read.]
What’s next for Aleph Farms after regulatory approval?
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Aleph Farms’ regulatory approval in Israel is a huge win – but it isn’t stopping there. The company has filed for clearance in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US, and is advancing its applications in other markets too. “Entrance to Asia (via Singapore) and the Middle East (via Israel) is currently our main focus. We expect to receive positive indications from the Singapore Food Agency soon,” confirmed Reisler.
Pressed on the progress with these applications – particularly in the UK, as there is talk about a bilateral deal to fast-track approval for Aleph Farms – he told Green Queen: “We maintain a dynamic, ongoing channel of communication with those regulatory agencies as part of our review process. They have been receptive in regard to our production and process development, and have shown appreciation for our methodological science-based approach to ensuring the safety of our process and product.”
The company is simultaneously pursuing a kosher certificate for its facility from local rabbinate authorities too. This is key for a company based in Israel and catering to a large Jewish population, which eats kosher food as directed by the Torah. There are encouraging signs for Aleph Farms here, with Israel’s chief rabbi David Lau declaring last January that its non-FBS steak could be considered kosher and akin to eating a vegetable (parve).
As it awaits decisions from other regulators globally, its approval in Israel could be a precursor for things to come. “2024 stands to be a landmark year for the advancement of regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultivated meat,” claimed Gavriel.
Meatable is expecting a green light for its cultivated pork from Singapore this year, and France’s Vital Meat claims it’s the frontrunner to be the first European startup to be approved in the city-state. Meanwhile, Australia’s Vow Food is in the middle of a consultation process after its cultured quail was cleared as safe to eat by the bilateral Food Standards Australia New Zealand in December.
“There’s still work ahead of us to continue to scale up, meet consumer expectations and move toward the mainstream. However, I think on the technology side, the scientific side, in terms of process development, early industrialisation and regulatory compliance, we have made a huge leapfrog, and I’m quite happy to see that,” Toubia told Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in September. “The industry is really on the verge of going to market and starting initial acceptance.”
Following a $105 Series B round in 2021, Aleph Farms has raised a total of $118M in funding – Toubia has outlined the company’s aim to reach $1B in revenue by 2030. This will be helped by its manufacturing advancements over the last couple of years. In February 2022, it moved to a 65,000 sq ft plant in Rehovot, Israel, which increased its capacity by six times to be able to initially produce 10 tonnes of cultivated steak annually. Last year, it announced the acquisition of another manufacturing facility in Modi’in, Israel, alongside a new manufacturing agreement with ESCO Aster in Singapore (the world’s only approved industrial manufacturer for cultured meat).
“With its global leadership in cellular agriculture, Israel continues to push for greater regional integration and economic collaboration, which will be crucial for stabilising the region,” said Toubia. “We believe that addressing joint challenges like food security is the best way to ensure the prosperity of the Middle East and other parts of the world that rely heavily on massive food imports, especially in Asia.
“Now more than ever, Aleph Farms remains committed to making the world a better place.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Ben & Jerry’s new oat milk ice-creams, Beyond Meat’s new marketing campaigns, and a study linking plant-based diets to a lower Covid-19 risk.
New products and launches
Ice-cream giant Ben & Jerry’s has released its first new flavour after reformulating its non-dairy offerings with oat milk. A vegan version of a fan favourite, the Strawberry Cheezecake is available at retailers and for delivery in the US.
Courtesy: Ben & Jerry’s
And in the UK, Ben & Jerry’s has teamed up with vegan frozen food startup One Planet Pizza to offer a meal deal at Asda for Veganuary. It means the former’s new Oat of this Swirled sundae and latter’s Peppernomi Pizza are available for £5, saving you £4.50.
At Morrisons, Mars has released a vegan version of its Galaxy Fruit & Nut chocolate bar, which is available as a 100g bar or in a 40g snacking format, which will be in stores nationwide from January 22.
Another sweet treat comes courtesy of Premier Foods, which has launched vegan versions of its famous McDougalls jelly for foodservice clients in three flavours: strawberry, raspberry, and orange. The company uses carrageenan to replace gelatin.
UK foodservice wholesaler Brakes has rolled out a new vegan range called Sysco Simply Plant Based, which currently features five centrepiece dishes like Chestnut & Seed Roast. The lineup will expand to reach over 50 products in the next 18 months.
Speaking of foodservice, British noodle chain Chopstix – which specialises in Chinese takeouts – has launched a plant-based Teriyaki Beef dish (created by Miami Foods) for Veganuary. Titled All Leaf, No Beef Teriyaki, it is available across its stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Upfield
Over to some dairy news: European dairy giant Upfield has launched what it claims is the world’s first plastic-free, recyclable tub for its Flora plant butters and spreads, in collaboration with Footprint, MCC and Pagès Group. It is part of the company’s mission to reduce plastic content by 80% by 2030.
Meanwhile, Dutch alt-dairy startup Willicroft is debuting its new precise-fermented vegan butter, named Original Better, at Crisp stores across the Netherlands.
Across the Atlantic, Bel Group-owned The Laughing Cow has launched a dairy-free version of its spreadable Garlic & Herb wedges at Whole Foods in the US, available for $4.49. It is now exploring spicy flavours for its vegan range.
South Korean dairy-free brand Armored Fresh has unveiled a new innovation with its oat milk cheese in the US: Pepper Jack slices. The startup’s products are available at Kroger, Fresh Thyme Market, Town and Country Foods, and Fred Meyer, alongside foodservice clients.
Courtesy: Armored Fresh
Also in the US, Colorado-based mycelium meat producer Meati has expanded into Super Target stores, and has signed an agreement for a listing at Albertsons too, as the company moves to reach 8,000 retail locations by the summer.
And Canada’s Modern Plant-Based Foods has introduced a seaweed-based Vegan Kaviar line in Salmon, Wasabi, and Beluga flavours, initially targeting sushi and seafood restaurants.
Finance and research news
In a sad development, New Zealand-based vegan meal service The Kai Box is shutting down after eight years, the founders announced on Facebook.
But in more positive news, Better Foods, the plant-based subsidiary of South Korea’s Shinsegae Food, has attracted investment from Cleveland Avenue, a VC fund founded by former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. The company will produce alt-dairy products alongside its current meat portfolio to facilitate its entry into the US market.
Seattle-based Rebellyous Foods has announced that it nearly doubled its sales in 2023, and is now donating its plant-based chicken to universities participating in the Humane Society of the United States’ Forward Food Veganuary programme, which trains chefs on vegan prep.
Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods
In France, food procession giant Tereos is investing €4M in its plant protein brand Ensemble to triple the production of its Marckolsheim Alsace plant this year, following a 50% growth in sales in 2023.
UK biotech farm FaBao, which identifies superior microbial bioproducts that can improve soil health, boost crop production and protect ecosystems, has secured a £5.3M investment from VC funds Clean Growth Fund, Pymwymic, and Ship2B Ventures.
Enifer, a Finnish biotech mycoprotein startup, has secured a €12M grant from the European Union NextGenerationEU recovery instrument to fund the construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing facility for its Pekilo protein.
At alt-meat giant Beyond Meat, CFO Lubi Kutua is taking over as interim chief accounting officer from Henry Dieu, who has left the company for another opportunity.
Courtesy: Helaina
New York-based precision fermentation company Helaina, which is making recombinant human lactoferrin derived from fungi, has released a paper detailing the structure of its first protein, Effera.
A widely shared study published earlier this month has revealed that people following vegan and vegetarian diets have a 39% lower risk of developing Covid-19, and are less likely to experience severe symptoms than omnivores.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Unilever, IFF and Wageningen University are undertaking a four-year reserach project to explore how flavours bind to protein molecules and recommend novel strategies to elevate the sensory experience of plant-based meats.
Policy, marketing and awards
French cultivated chicken producer Vital Meatclaims it is a frontrunner to be the first European cultured meat startup to receive regulatory approval in Singapore, having filed for clearance in December.
Speaking of cultured meat regulation, Japan’s framework is about to get more complicated, with the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare transferring its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency (while continuing to oversee food safety), which means companies must liaise with two agencies starting in April.
It’s a big week for Beyond Meat, which has launched two new ad campaigns. In the US, its Literally the Least You Can Do spot playfully mocks people’s non-adherence to New Year’s resolutions, featuring returning star Rizwan Manji promoting its heart-healthy steak. And in the UK, its Taste You Can Believe In pokes fun at classic Veganuary misconceptions and spotlights taste – a factor key for Britain’s alt-meat-eaters.
German cocoa-free chocolate producer ChoViva has been nominated for a Consumer Award by ISM Cologne and Foodnewsgermany for its Neapolitaner Waffeln collaboration with Rewe Group‘s own-label brand, ja!
The Vegan Women Summit has announced 24 finalists in eight categories for the inaugural VWS Awards, which include BioCraft Pet Nutrition, Viva!, Sprout Organic, VBites founder Heather Mills and Polish MEP Sylwia Spurek. The winners will be announced on May 10.
French catering group Sodexo has revealed that 11% of all its meals sold at UK and Ireland sites in 2023 were vegan or vegetarian, a marginal increase from the previous year. It has also made strides in promoting food security, and is ahead of schedule on its net-zero plan.
Japanese Teriyaki Tofu, Southern Indian Chickpea Curry, and Potato and Cauliflower Masala are some of the dishes that have helped Sodexo witness a year-on-year increase in plant-based consumption. From January to November last year, an analysis of over 2.7 million meals across 285 of its UK and Ireland client sites found that 11% were vegan or vegetarian.
This marks an incremental improvement on last year’s share of 10%, and aligns with the company’s social impact pledge and commitment to increase the intake of sustainable meals. The caterer has previously laid out its plans to make 33% of its menus plant-based by 2025, as part of its wider net-zero target for 2040, which it now says is ahead of schedule.
Sodexo makes strides with plant-based meals and net-zero goals
Courtesy: Sodexo
Sodexo research reveals that – like last year – the highest amount of vegan meal consumption occurred in the East Midlands, though its share dropped from 21% to 19%. People chose meat-free dishes 18% of the time in the North West (versus 15% in 2022), 16% in Ireland (versus 8%), 15% in London (versus 11%), 13% in Wales (versus 15%) and 11% in Scotland (versus 10%).
“The increasing preference for meat-free options among our customers is a testament to both the shift in consumer awareness and to the work done by our talented chefs to reformulate menus and create new delicious plant-forward and plant-based recipes,” said Claire Atkins Morris, sustainability director at Sodexo UK and Ireland. “With a wide array of tasty and nutritious options available across our client sites, it is important that our consumers are able to make well-informed decisions about the food they eat.”
The news comes a week after Sodexo announced that it had reduced 37% of its scope 3 emissions (from a 2017 baseline), representing the removal of almost 400,000 tonnes of CO2e by May 31, 2023. That has put the catering company ahead of schedule en route to its 2040 decarbonisation goal – it would have needed to slash emissions by 25.5% by the end of fiscal year 2023 to stay on course, but a faster reduction has meant its footprint is now at 689,172 tonnes of CO2e.
Now, Sodexo has set science-based forest, land and agriculture (FLAG) targets – a 40% absolute GHG emissions reduction by 2030 and a 72% cut by 2040. “Working towards net zero is complex and can be an overwhelming challenge. With multiple data sets and action levers across business activities, it isn’t easy,” said Atkins Morris.
“There are many opportunities for learning, refining and improving as we go. This, naturally, means that we need to be agile to the fast pace of change informed by external factors. This year, for example, we chose to move away from our 2025 carbon-neutral target and reallocate funds to decarbonisation projects. We should all expect to see and be comfortable with changes in our journey, rebaselining and the influences of the external landscape.”
Sodexo was also the subject of a study by Profundo, commissioned by Madre Brava, which looked at the impact of the caterer and five supermarkets switching to 50% plant-based proteins by 2030. It revealed that this would reduce GHG emissions by 31.6 million tonnes per year, which is equivalent to removing over 25 million cars from EU roads. Plus, it would free up 102,000 sq km of land (about the size of Hungary) and save 670 million cubic metres of water (around 268,000 Olympic-size swimming pools) a year.
Global initiatives for sustainable catering
Courtesy: SavorEat
Sodexo’s continued plant-based growth comes at a time when many universities are increasingly adopting plant-based food. Within the UK, the Universities of Stirling, Birmingham, Queen Mary, London Metropolitan, Kent, University College London and Cambridge have already voted to introduce fully plant-based menus at their eateries. In fact, over 650 academics and campaigners have written an open letter to British universities to switch to 100% vegan catering.
But it’s not just the UK that is seeing such advancements in foodservice. In 2021, Sodexo Canada announced it would switch 20% of its protein purchases to plant-based over the next few years, while it aims to turn 42% of its college and university menus vegan in the US, where it also partnered with Israeli food tech startup SavorEat to launch the first 3D-printing robot for plant-based burgers at the University of Denver.
The caterer has previously had a successful corporate pilot with LinkedIn too, where its subsidiary the Good Eating Company and behavioural choice agency Greener By Default combined to halve the carbon emissions of the social media company’s San Francisco office. The 12-week pilot saved 14,400 of CO2e by making two-thirds of the menu vegan, including opting for oat milk as the default coffee bar choice and flavour descriptors over words like “vegan” and “vegetarian” on menu cards.
The results of the research come during Veganuary, which is set to break its partnership record yet again this year. “We are delighted to see an upward trend in Sodexo’s meat-free meal sales again,” said the campaign’s communications head, Toni Vernelli. “Offering tasty and accessible options is crucial in encouraging more individuals to consider plant-based choices.”
This is a trend reflected in the wider catering industry too. Compass Group, the world’s largest catering company, has set the goal of replacing 40% of its animal proteins with plant-based by the end of the decade. Its subsidies Chartwells Higher Education, meanwhile, revealed in November that there has been an increase in students looking for climate-friendly meals in US universities and colleges since the introduction of carbon labels on its menus.
Outside its own menus, Sodexo’s plant-based commitments have extended to its Stop Hunger Foundation, which in 2021 partnered with UK charity Made In Hackney to support its mission to provide free, nutritious vegan meals to over 300 people weekly. “The Stop Hunger Foundation has provided critical support to our community meal service and cookery classes helping us tackle food insecurity for hundreds of households with nutritious, diverse, planet-friendly meals,” said Made In Hackney founder Sarah Bentley.
“Evolving the nation’s eating habits to more plant-centred eating is a crucial tool in the fight against the climate crisis and spiralling lifestyle-related health diseases. It is inspiring to work with the Stop Hunger Foundation and Sodexo as they see the interconnectedness of all these issues and how plant-based food can play a central role in tackling them all.”
A new survey by Coop Switzerland has revealed that over half of Swiss consumers have eaten plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy and seafood – a demographic it labels ‘substitarians’ – while nearly six in 10 are reducing their consumption of animal-source foods, making it a country centred around flexitarians.
Swiss retail and wholesale giant Coop Switzerland has unveiled a 2,221-person survey exploring the consumption habits of the country’s population, which found that meat consumption has declined, while a subcategory of consumers called ‘substitarians’ – or those who eat plant-based meat products – has emerged.
Coop’s Plant Based Food Report suggests that 58% of people are consciously avoiding animal-derived foods like meat, dairy and eggs several times a month, which makes them fit into the flexitarian category (comprising 61% of women and 56% of men). And while a high number of consumers still consume these products at least several times a week – 65% eat cheese, 62% meat and 55% milk – the year-on-year intake is still down by two, three and three percentage points, respectively.
Who are Switzerland’s substitarians?
Courtesy: Coop Switzerland
Over a quarter of respondents (28%) eat plant-based meat, seafood and dairy several times a month, while another 28% do so on occasion, making 56% of the Swiss population substitarians. In fact, 51% have been consuming vegan analogues for at least four years, a share that has increased by three percentage points from last year.
The substitarian demographic has an almost equal gender split, comprising 29% of women and 27% of men (the former’s share is down by two points, the latter’s is up by four). And of these consumers, most skew young and come from urban areas in all the different language-speaking regions. Among those under 29, 42% enjoy vegan alternatives several times a month, while for people over 60 – who actually follow a flexitarian diet most often – only 19% are substitarians.
There’s also a trend of reduction over elimination here: 65% of respondents combine plant-based and animal-derived products in the same meal, whether that’s consciously or unconsciously, indicating an opportunity for blended meat products in the country. It would be one way to continue the increased uptake of plant-based alternatives – the number of respondents who haven’t tried a meat analogue reduced from nearly half (49%) in 2021 to 44% in 2023.
What are the drivers of veganism in Switzerland?
Courtesy: Planted
For Swiss people, climate change is the most important factor in the consumption of plant-based products – this reason was cited by 67% of flexitarians, 63% of substitarians, 68% of vegetarians, and 66% of vegans. Interestingly, while this driver remains top in the first three categories, it suffered a 15-point decline among people who are already vegan, coming in second behind animal welfare (69%).
This was the second-biggest motivating factor for vegetarians (67%) and flexitarians (54%) as well, though it came in third place for substitarians (50%), marginally beaten by health (51%). Health was third on the list of priorities for flexitarians (53%), but fell behind other factors for those already on a meatless diet. For vegans and vegetarians, it’s the fifth-most pertinent reason to eat plant-based alternatives, behind ethical motivations and a lack of desire to eat meat.
Meanwhile, price has become an increasingly crucial consideration, after a couple of years of high inflation due to the elevated cost of living globally. Its importance has climbed by 11 points for vegetarians and six points for vegans, and is cited by 19-24% of Switzerland’s population as a reason to eat more plant-based alternatives.
In terms of the climate change metric, this is most relevant to young flexitarians, with its value increasing by 10 points over last year. For people aged 45 and above, health is the primary component. Health is also by far the most important thing for people in Ticino, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, being cited almost twice as much as the other factors. This makes sense, considering that health is the top driver for the intake of plant-based alternatives in Italy, with 49% of respondents to the EU Smart Protein 2023 survey selecting it
Which products and labels work best?
Courtesy: Coop Switzerland
Coop Switzerland’s research shed light upon people’s attitudes towards product labels. The term ‘vegan’ is attractive to just a quarter of Swiss consumers, but ‘plant-based’ appeals to about half of them. This is perhaps because the former is associated with ‘expensive’, and the latter more strongly linked to health (both have connotations of ‘trendy’ and environmental protection).
In terms of products, the overall plant-based dairy category is still dwarfed by the livestock industry, capturing just 3.7% of the total share. But from Coop’s own sales data, vegan alternatives accounted for 17% of total dairy sales, meaning one in six milks bought at its stores is plant-based. Oat milk dominates this category, responsible for 58% of total alt-milk sales. This is followed by soy (18%) and nut milks (16%).
In terms of meat analogues, schnitzels rule the roost, followed by shredded/sliced meats and sausages. Burgers, once a category leader, have dropped off over the last two years – despite that fall, they have experienced a 279% growth in sales since 2018. Similar numbers exist for shredded meats (+304%), meatballs (+293%) and charcuterie items (+204%) in that period.
Overall, more and more vegan substitutes are being bought at Coop Switzerland, prompting nearly 70% of respondents to say they’ll be either maintaining or upping their intake of these products in five years’ time. This rises to 83% for 15- to 29-year-olds, and 93% for substitarians.
Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods
These figures have likely inspired Coop Switzerland’s new consolidated own-label vegan range, Betty Bossi Plant Kitchen (which combines cookbook publisher Betty Bossi’s CPG arm with the retailer’s private-label brands Délicorn and Yolo). The supermarket claims to offer over 2,200 vegetarian products – more than 1,900 of which are vegan – with upwards of 100 meat and fish analogues, 50 plant-based milks, 40 vegan yoghurts, and about 30 dairy-free cheeses.
“The new branding emphasises that vegetarian and vegan alternatives are now part of the normal diet,”, said Coop brand manager Ivana Guggisberg. “Meat alternatives are no longer niche products, but are bought by a broad section of the population.”
Switzerland is also home to one of the most well-funded alt-meat companies in Europe: Planted Foods, which has raised over $100M and features an extensive range of chicken SKUs, pulled meats and kebabs. Additionally, Coop recently welcomed TiNDLE Foods’ vegan chicken products in 440 stores, marking a Swiss market debut for the Singapore-based brand in time for Veganuary. These developments – plus Coop’s survey – pinpoint Switzerland as a country receptive to future food producers.
As Arturo Jose Garcia and Allie Molinaro argue, cultivated meat can be a boon for smallholder farmers, not to mention reduce global dependence on antibiotics, decrease the need for dangerous slaughterhouses, and empower a future of delicious, sustainably grown food.
In December 2020, a Singaporean restaurant grabbed worldwide headlines by serving the first commercially available cultivated meat. This was also the first time a country approved the sale of cultivated meat, which many hoped would signify a shift in the way we raise and consume animal-sourced food. Still, its acceptance on diners’ plates, in restaurant critics’ write-ups, and the flood of new funding to other cultivated meat companies meant for the first time the just transition of food was seen as an immediate possibility.
Fast forward to 2024, it is clear that food systems change is no longer an option, but a necessity. That sentiment echoed through the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, which wrapped up in mid-December. However, it is also clear there is no silver bullet that will transform our food systems. What we need instead are different but equally important levers that complement one another that, on their own, can’t achieve much, but together they are game-changing.
Cultivated meat, one of those necessary levers, promises a more sustainable, healthier, compassionate, and environmentally friendlier way to produce the meat we love to eat. Imagine real meat, with a fraction of the impact on the environment and animals. Don’t we owe it to ourselves, the animals, and the planet to pull on this lever and give cultivated meat a shot?
Unfortunately, there are already efforts to cap the cultivated meat promise by the knees both internationally and here in the United States, likely spearheaded by farming industry groups. But what these groups fail to realize is that cultivated meat is not meant to preclude farming- it was originally meant to operate in tandem with small farmers. In the Netherlands, local farmers grow corn, barley, and wheat that are used to make feed or the cell cultures, and ranchers keep a small herd of cows on pasture who are used for an occasional harmless biopsy. Keeping fewer animals without the need to slaughter them can be a win for smallholder farmers, public health, and worker safety. But cultivated meat bans exacerbate the problems that this promising innovation has the potential to mitigate and solve.
In a decentralized model, cultivated meat production can open new market opportunities for small farmers who are currently struggling to compete with mega agribusiness. As it stands, only four highly industrialized companies control each of the beef, pork, and chicken markets. If small farmers who are being outcompeted turn to partner with cultivated meat, they can create a novel value-added market for themselves catered toward more ethically minded consumers. This also removes the headache of finding a slaughterhouse with processing capacity and may improve farmers’ mental well-being as they can allow their animals to live out their natural lifespans, collecting biopsies from the same animal for years until she passes naturally, while still feeding the same amount (or more) people than with traditional cycles of fattening and slaughtering.
In addition, keeping fewer animals and raising them on pasture instead of in crowded and unsanitary Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and feedlots reduces the need for routine antibiotics. Currently, industrial agriculture accounts for over two-thirds of the use of medically important antibiotics, which is giving rise to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria kill over 1 million people per year, including 35,000 Americans. However, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on track to kill 10 million people per year by 2050 without intervention. To put that into perspective, just under seven million people have died from Covid-19 since 2020. In a post-antibiotic world, none of us are safe. Routine procedures such as appendectomies and commonly treatable illnesses such as pneumonia, ear and dental infections, and urinary tract infections become deadly.
Finally, eliminating the need for slaughter eliminates the need for notoriously problematic slaughterhouses. Slaughter and processing plants are some of the most dangerous places to work, with the highest amputation and serious injury rates in the U.S. workforce. One worker recently fell into a machine with corrosive chemicals and suffered severe burns. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had previously cited the plant with two repeat and six serious violations. Even without injuries, the conditions are terrible. Workers have reported wearing diapers because they were not allowed to go to the bathroom. In 2020, they were a superspreading site for COVID-19 as workers were forced to come in without proper personal protective equipment (PPE). And in recent months, several U.S. processing plants have come under fire for using child labor.
We need to shift away from industrial animal agriculture, continue to uplift small family farms and regenerative land stewardship, promote diets that are in line with planetary boundaries, and foster the development of alternative proteins and cultivated meat. Food systems solutions must be multifaceted, drawing from a range of techniques and strategies simultaneously. A system that is not one size fits all but is beneficial for all. Cultivated meat is just one piece of the puzzle in our food systems and a just transition. And with the global population heading towards 10 billion and global meat consumption projected to increase by 50% or more by 2050, it’s all hands on deck.
