radiofree.asia

Category: Alt Protein

  • Overlooked and Underfunded: Are Climate Tech Investors Missing Out On Precision Fermentation?

    cowabunga milk

    9 Mins Read

    By: Beatriz Franco, Managing Partner at Vita Vera Ventures, and Maya Benami, PhD, Advisor to Vita Vera Ventures & Technical/R&D Consultant.

    Climate tech investors are missing out on a food technology solution with major GHG emissions-lowering potential, argue food tech experts Beatriz Franco and Maya Benami.

    Current food production is not only a driver of climate change, but it is also a victim of climate change.

    This means that, unfortunately, we cannot expect our food supply to continue at current levels. Combined with the added pressure of population growth, it is clear we will need to integrate emerging food technologies into our food supply system in order to support the demands of humanity, as well as the latter’s sustainability and resiliency.

    Climate tech investing has significantly increased in the last few years, based both on the urgency for solutions as well as the clear business opportunities it offers. However, we continue to see that investors are not appropriately targeting technologies with the highest potential for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and in the process, overlooking opportunities for both impact and returns.

    PWC’s State of Climate Tech report notes that the food and agriculture sectors are tied to nearly a quarter of all global GHG emissions (some say up to 1/3 of emissions) but they received only 12% of global climate tech venture funding. Meanwhile, the mobility sector received almost 50% of global climate tech venture funding in 2022, yet is responsible for only 15% of global GHG emissions.

    This is why we are shining a light on one fast-growing food technology sector that is still largely misunderstood, despite its immense potential: precision fermentation.

    What is Precision Fermentation?

    Fermentation itself is not new. Humans have been consuming fermented foods, such as cheese and alcohol, for centuries. They are made through traditional fermentation methods, where microorganisms, such as yeasts, transform sugars into an ingredient, new food, or beverage in order to remove toxins, increase shelf life, and/or improve taste and digestibility.

    Precision fermentation is a more advanced form of fermentation. It turns microorganisms, like yeast and bacteria into ‘factories’ to produce specific end-products such as proteins, enzymes, fats, vitamins, flavors, or pigments. Those microorganisms are fed carbon-based compounds, such as sugars, and are engineered and optimized to produce replicas of an organic molecule, such as protein. Precision fermentation is already used in pharma for the production of compounds such as vaccines and insulin, and it is now being applied to food production as well.

    In the past, insulin was harvested from cattle and pig organs. This process was highly inefficient at best, requiring tons of pig parts in order to obtain just a few ounces of purified insulin, not to mention that this non-human insulin ofte caused allergic reactions in many patients. Today, insulin is produced through precision fermentation by inserting the human insulin gene into a microbe and prompting it to produce human insulin.

    As far as new food applications go, examples of exciting products in development or in production through precision fermentation include whey protein, casein to make cheese, palm oil alternatives, animal fat, collagen, and even breast milk proteins for infant formulas.

    Seizing the Opportunity, Why the Disconnect?

    With so many opportunities for impact and returns, why aren’t we seeing more generalist investors looking into food tech?

    We believe one big challenge comes from the fact that it is becoming more complex to assess the opportunity given the evolution of new processing tech and biotech methods. Also, given its nascency, many companies are still in R&D and lab-scale phases, thus too early in their journey to offer revenue and customer metrics to analyze traction during investor diligence.

    Can investors leverage the biomedical sector as a proxy during diligence?

    Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. While some scientific aspects of pharmaceutical and biomedical diligence can offer comparative insight, other aspects can be quite different, especially when considering that the goal of food production is to make much larger quantities at much lower price points. Accordingly, business strategy as well as processing and equipment requirements can differ significantly.

    Drugs created via precision fermentation for the pharmaceutical industry are grown in expensive highly controlled bioreactors that are suitable for the production of high-value, low-volume products.

    The food industry, on the other hand, needs to create affordable, high-volume food compounds produced in food-grade conditions. This is why we are seeing so many new startups focused on building the infrastructure and enabling technologies around alternative foods, including built-for-purpose fermenters and bioreactors.

    One other difference to highlight is on the regulatory side. The regulatory process for novel foods can be perceived as easier and faster when the primary goal is to demonstrate that the new food is substantially equivalent to an existing food. Biopharma, on the other hand, needs to go through the rigorous testing required for new medicines that are often administered to immune-compromised patients.

    It is interesting to note that there are differences in the way scientists in these two industries approach their products. A cell biologist that works in the pharmaceutical industry will not be concerned (or necessarily understand) the nuances of what is needed to make a successful food product, which includes specific consideration of each sensory property, such as flavor, texture, and color, and using only food-grade reagents.

    Starting from the ground up?

    You might be thinking: is this new (old) tech a black box? Well, yes and no. Precision fermentation relies on living organisms and cells as part of its process. While biology is the oldest ‘technology’ in the world, so much is still not well understood, such as the mechanisms of cell communication and the complexities of cell organization.

    That being said, humans have been successfully using biology for advancement long before understanding the science behind it. See: the birth of agriculture- we’ve grown crops and bred livestock for over 12,000 years.

    These days, genetic screening, cell manipulation technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning greatly enhance our understanding of cell processes by pinpointing genetic sequences that are responsible for protein production pathways in a cell, just to take one example. So now scientists can use what we do know and build upon it to harness natural processes.

    Using precision fermentation, we can leverage microorganisms to sustainably create a vast array of known and novel foods and ingredients, from meat, dairy, seafood, eggs and honey to specific flavors such as new sweeteners, taste enhancers, and much more.

    The investors’ journey: important aspects to unpack during diligence

    So what should an investor look for during diligence? While there are many angles to be evaluated such as market opportunity, team, competitive landscape, IP, and moat, among others, commercial traction is most likely not going to be available at this stage.

    In order to address the intricacies of this nascent industry and its specific requirements, we unpack the key points that investors should take into consideration when performing diligence on a precision fermentation company.

    Customer Validation

    While it’s true that early-stage companies will have little to show in terms of revenues and customer traction, the next best thing to review is customer validation. Investors can and should talk to potential customers and validate that the product is actually solving a real need.

    Some companies will have LOIs, initial partnerships and customer trials; they may even have surveys that can provide an indication of what a potential customer is thinking. That being said, a phone call with a potential customer in your network is still advisable, not only to understand how important that solution really is but also to evaluate their willingness to pay for such a solution.

    Proof of Concept and Scalability Mindset

    As mentioned, many companies in the precision fermentation space are currently at lab-scale/ R&D phase. In the very earliest stages (lab-scale, where most companies are), they will be creating prototypes and proofs-of-concept and producing a few grams to a few kilograms per batch and using fermenters under 20L and likely between 1L and 5L.

    As they progress and move to pilot, demo, and commercial scale, quantities produced, and size of fermenters increase accordingly but one important thing that some investors forget, is that not all products are created equal. If a precision fermentation company is targeting products that represent a small percentage of the final food formulation, such a company will be able to go to market with a higher price point than one whose product makes up the bulk of the final food formulation, and therefore their path to a viable commercial scale is shorter. Investors should be aware that a viable commercial scale can vary in size significantly depending on the target product.

    In all cases, investors should always look for founders with a “scalability mindset”. In other words, no matter how early a company is in its journey, founders should be thinking about scalability from the start. This is shown through each of their decisions during technology & process development. For example: Are they frontloading their cost analysis while building their process? Did decisions around inputs take into consideration availability and supply chain resiliency? Are they already planning for their equipment needs and establishing partnerships?

    Scaling is one of the trickiest parts of the success of this industry. In addition to scaling up the technology itself and accurately forecasting budgeting needs, companies face an additional challenge: the bottleneck of little-to-no-fermenter availability, both from a co-manufacturing standpoint or direct purchase. Many fermenters available today are currently prioritized to produce high-value, lower volume pharmaceutical grade vaccines and drug compounds. Companies are purchasing biomedical infrastructure or fermenters from biofuel facilities or other industries and attempting to repurpose them, which is far from ideal.

    However, we expect and hope to see a positive change in this space in the near future given not only the surge of new companies tackling this problem but also the increasing interest shown by governments around the world through regulation and potential investments targeting the development of the industry.

    Process Feasibility, Efficiency & Optimization

    This is an important part of diligence: investors need to dig in and understand where the company’s process is at and how efficient both the upstream and downstream processes are. A critical aspect here is to ascertain how much final product you get at the end of the process and how long that takes from start to finish. This involves getting at how much product the microorganism secretes, how fast, and how much product is recovered after purification.

    Investors should not only be clear about where a company is today, but also where it’s going tomorrow and when it will be profitable, which is why reviewing its optimization plans and efficiency targets is vital, much like they would financial projections. All assumptions embedded in these plans should be checked to ensure they are realistic and reasonable.

    It’s Time to Seize the Opportunity

    Not a day goes by without media headlines reminding us of the consequences of the climate crisis. Now is the time to focus on technologies that can solve for these, particularly as they affect our global food system, and investors should be prioritizing solutions that can reduce the most GHG emissions.

    We have no doubt that precision fermentation will, together with other emerging food technologies, be a much-needed part of the answer to building a more resilient food system.

    And here is the proverbial cherry on top: there is real money to be made by investors. Climate tech is not only our biggest hope in the fight against climate change, but it is also simply good business. As it stands, the global food market represents a not insignificant 10% of the world’s GDP, and with a growing population to feed, demand will only increase.

    Startups that can offer good substitutes for foods whose current emissions costs is too high for our future world to bear (i.e. meat, dairy, eggs) at the right price and with a lower carbon footprint will undoubtedly find success- and those companies who can do so at a higher quality and a lower price will knock it out of the park. It’s time to invest in the future of food.

    Beatriz Franco is a Managing Partner at Vita Vera Ventures, a Climate Tech fund investing in vital innovations advancing the resiliency, efficiency and sustainability of the food industry.

    Maya Benami, PhD is an author and R&D consultant specializing in cellular agriculture, fermentation, microbiology, plant biochemistry, and environmental sustainability. She advises venture capitalists, start-ups, and global food and beverage firms on R&D, due diligence, and product development.

    An earlier version of this article was previously published on Medium.

    The post Overlooked and Underfunded: Are Climate Tech Investors Missing Out On Precision Fermentation? appeared first on Green Queen.

  • 10 Labeling Learnings: A Regulatory Expert’s Guide For Plant-Based Brands Going Global

    7 Mins Read

    Legal and regulatory expert Mathilde Do Chi shares her top 10 tips for plant-based brands on how best to label their products as they enter new geographies.

    First emerging as a disruptive category in the food industry, plant-based alternatives to products of animal origin have ballooned from a niche to a sizable share of the market in recent years. Nowadays, you can find endless options to replace animal-based products with their counterparts devoid of ingredients of animal origin. In many countries, there are now multiple leading brands for each product category from meat to dairy to eggs.

    Many of these brands are now eyeing new markets to expand their footprint and find a new audience of conscious customers. While great branding is important, it’s key to ensure that your messaging and your product information translate in other countries. Not to mention that it’s a regulatory minefield out there and it’s vital for companies to know how to protect themselves, their brands and their products, especially as they start entering new markets. Here are the 10 things to think about and consider before launching your label in a new land.

    1) Deliver the information in the local language

    Although English is used as the lingua franca in business, brands need to be mindful to provide all the necessary information in at least one of the official languages of the targeted country. For instance, the European Union encompasses half a billion inhabitants distributed in 27 EU Member States whose official languages amount to 24 in total! 

    English is only the official language in Ireland and Malta. It does not mean that consumers in other countries won’t understand English but significant disparities exist in terms of proficiency in the region. In the same fashion, Switzerland uses 3 out of its 4 official languages in business (French, German, Italian but not Romansh) which compels brands to provide information in the language spoken in the targeted region. 

    Additionally, make sure to localize your marketing materials and not translate your marketing campaigns word for word. Not adapting your marketing strategy has proven to be not only ineffective but also detrimental to reaching new markets abroad. 

    2) Be mindful of the culture 

    Communication happens on the listener’s terms, meaning that everything you say to a person is filtered through their frames of reference, biases and preconceived ideas.

    Culture is part of these elements that influence the perception of products and if this is overlooked it may result in you failing to gain new customers. Countries have different approaches to the importance of tradition regarding certain delicacies. 

    Some names of traditional products such as those listed under the protected designations of origin (PDO) and the protected geographical indications (PGI) cannot be used if their production methods and ingredient list do not comply with a rigid set of criteria. Resist the urge to give a plant-based twist to these products of animal origin as you could face some backlash from consumers and legal repercussions for not complying with legal provisions. Better stick an out-of-the-box strategy by coming up with original names when designating your products. 

    3) Take into account all the types of consumers that may come across your products

    Food law provisions stress that consumers must be provided enough information to be able to form an informed decision, thus easily recognizing what the plant-based food in question contains and what would be its animal-based version. 

    Unlike diets of people with specific needs – like those suffering from coeliac disease or practicing a given religion with dietary restrictions, such as Islam and Judaism, vegan and plant-based foods are not marketed specifically towards vegans and those eating a fully plant-based diet.

    Brands need to convey their message in a way it can be understood by omnivores, flexitarians and vegans, and vegetarians. This can be done by using descriptive and clarifying terms such as plant-based, and meat-free, or by adding the mention “do not contain meat”.

    4) Emphasize the versatility of your products

    A golden rule to attract more customers when introducing a new foodstuff is to showcase all its applications. You need to demonstrate how to cook and use it which can be easily done by providing signature recipes either on the back of the packaging or on social media or the company’s website. 

    Introducing new foods into one’s diet may seem daunting at first and can be easily remedied by guiding people on ways to best incorporate them into their daily life. 

    5) Shed light on the nutritional benefits 

    Plant-based products have been viewed as healthier than animal products due to their high fiber content and the fortification of vitamin B12 and iron. Don’t shy away from displaying the other nutritional components of your products such as being high in protein and low in fat. 

    6) Be careful between using the words plant-based and vegan 

    Vegan relates to the ethical belief of veganism which seeks to exclude any products or services that exploited animals in their supply chain. The food industry may resort to animal testing due to some outdated regulations to assess the toxicity of some components of a food ingredient and determine the maximum daily intake of a certain food. Thus, it is important to use the term only when the foodstuff and all its ingredients did not make use of animals. Additionally, you may also choose to showcase the genuine vegan nature of the foodstuff by having it certified by the V-label or the vegan trademark to bear their quality seals just like halal and kosher products bear theirs. 

    Alternatively, you may decide to go for the term plant-based on your packaging and have your product certified by the Plant-Based Food Association if you are selling in the US or Canada.

    Consumers have trust in products with a quality seal and it can also help consumers to find your products more easily by making them distinct. 

    7) Only highlight the environmental benefits of your products if you can prove them

    When making claims, it is paramount that you can substantiate them at the risk of ending in hot legal water through misleading consumer allegations coming from the animal and dairy industry, consumer protection association, or even plant-based competitors. 

    Even though the IPCC panel, the EAT-Lancet, and other respected organizations have demonstrated that plant-based products play an essential role in lowering GHG emissions in the food production industry, claims are always tied to a specific product and are not to be interpreted through reports issues the aforementioned organizations. 

    Avoid claims like eco-friendly, and good for the planet and rather go for specific and substantiated claims like “this product sold in the US emitted 83% fewer GHGs than US chicken as analyzed through this study performed by this entity”. 

    The more specific you can be the better! 

    8) Play the long-term game 

    The plant-based meat category in the US received quite a lot of backlash at the beginning of the year but this does not apply to other regions and other categories! A lot of brands entered the market with poor marketing strategies with products that lacked flavor and texture which did not result in establishing them as long-term players.  

    Analyze your target audience properly and tailor your marketing accordingly to broaden your customer pool and establish your brand. 

    9) Collaborate with others 

    Creating partnerships with other players in the industry is a win-win scenario where you will gain exposure to new markets and unlock new business opportunities. This is what LaVie did last year with its signature plant-based bacon by launching a collaboration with Hank Burger, a French vegan burger chain. 

    Likewise, partnering with non-plant-based entities can entice consumers’ curiosity and make plant-based offerings more accessible to the mainstream public. Since March 2021, Oatly has been available across the US which has contributed to broadening the plant-based milk choice for consumers. 

    10) Embrace brand activism 

    The very nature of the plant-based and vegan food movement lies in its willingness to disrupt the current food market to foster the adoption of new products that do not harm animals. Advocacy is usually based on the evolutive character of language and growing consumer knowledge and awareness, and eagerness to discover new ways of eating.

    Brand activism has been defined by the authors Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler as business endeavors to encourage, hinder or direct social, political, economic and/or environmental reform or standstill intending to promote or impede improvements in society. This goes far beyond the values-driven Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs in the sense it aims to demonstrate why a brand exists and how it contributes to the Common Good. 

    In our case, the Common Good refers to the end of animal exploitation, the creation of healthier food alternatives, and the lessening of the negative impact of food production on the environment. 

    The Spanish plant-based “meat” pioneer Heura excels in advertising its products unconventionally and educationally. Their campaigns are known for disseminating information to convince consumers to rethink their eating habits. Heura’s website displays a breath of fresh air, where they challenge the average conception that plant-based meats are alternatives by striking off the word alternatives and replacing it with the phrase “successors of meat,” reframing the evolution and place of plant-based products on the food market.

    Bernat Añaños, the co-founder of Heura, called out governments at the COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 since its agenda did not even mention the role of food production and especially meat production in GHG emissions and highlighted that moving away from animal products was a powerful tool to mitigate climate change. 

    Aligning your values with your brands will resonate much more than you can envision, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and social impacts of their diets and demand to be empowered to be part of the solution.

    Want to take a deeper dive? Check out my book ‘Naming and advertising vegan and plant-based alternatives to products of animal origin in Europe’, available on order here.

    The post 10 Labeling Learnings: A Regulatory Expert’s Guide For Plant-Based Brands Going Global first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post 10 Labeling Learnings: A Regulatory Expert’s Guide For Plant-Based Brands Going Global appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Vow Founder On That Mammoth Meatball: “We Needed To Do Something So Outrageous That It Would Break Through Into Mainstream Media.

    6 Mins Read

    Green Queen‘s Sonalie Figueiras shares her reservations about Vow’s global headline-grabbing cultivated mammoth meatball event with company founder and CEO George Peppou in this exclusive interview.

    “We created the mammoth meatball to serve as a starting point for this conversation.” So writes George Peppou, the founder and CEO of Australian cultivated meat company Vow, in a Medium post about the startup’s unveiling of a cultivated meatball made with DNA cells from the extinct wooly mammoth.

    It’s safe to say that the company achieved this goal and more. In fact, chapeau to the entire Vow comms team, who did a phenomenal job and deserve a raise! (Or at least a bonus!). The mammoth meatball unveiling is likely the most talked-about cultivated meat event ever. As someone who covers the alt protein space closely, I can safely say I have never seen more earned media for such an industry announcement. Not only was the news broken by The Guardian, the story was also picked up by almost every major global news outlet: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Business Insider, ABC, the Washington Post, the BBC to The Times all covered it. It made US television, with a bit on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which attracts an audience of over 2.3 million viewers. Even that altar of prestige journalism, The Atlantic, weighed in. We at Green Queen published the story too, nach.

    While the vast majority of the coverage has been positive, a select few have questioned. Gizmodo‘s Isaac Schulz wrote about his take in a piece titled: I Hate The Mammoth Meatball. Truth be told, I share many of Schulz’s reservations.

    Last year, a London-based startup called sent us a press release about their mission to produce cultivated lion and tiger meat and we chose not to cover the story. It seemed gratuitous, arrogant and entirely beside the point of the alternative protein industry’s raison d’être. The mission of this sector is to solve for food security and usher in an era of global food production that is safe, ethical, sustainable and nutritious. Why on earth would we want to do anything to glorify the consumption (and killing) of majestic, endangered creatures like lions and tigers? God forbid that this type of stunt would justify and embolden the already too numerous trophy hunters of today.

    Still, Vow is a well-established, mission-driven cultivated meat player who last year raised the largest Series A in the sector ever. Peppou, who is seen by many as a true and fearless visionary when it comes to the future of food, has spoken many times about the company’s goal to “invent entirely new meats” and has hinted at a future of cultivated zebra and kangaroo meat. I wanted to get more context from him about how the team decided to go ahead with the meatball and he kindly obliged – our interview below.

    A mashup of the Vow mammoth meatball media coverage – Courtesy Vow Product Manager Sarah Ellis’ Linkedin post.

    Sonalie Figueiras: You have said you did this to bring cultivated meat into mainstream conversation. Is this the right conversation? It could be argued that promoting extinct species consumption does not address climate change or food security, or health, ie the main motivators to disrupt food with cultivated meat? 

    George Peppou: Two key points here: (1) We needed to do something so outrageous that it would break through into mainstream media. The original cultured meat hamburger was produced 10 years ago, and yet the mainstream media still rarely covers any large advancement in cultured meat. The mammoth meatball project has been covered extensively, and has a whole new cohort of people talking about whether or not they would eat cultured meat. (2) While the mammoth meatball is a product concept (and not something we currently plan to bring to market), it is still produced using cultured meat technology, so all of the sustainability benefits that apply to cultured chicken, still apply to cultured mammoth. 

    Stephen Colbert showcases Vow’s mammoth meatball – via Twitter.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you worry that this could risk weaponizing the narrative of cultivated meat in the vein of the dangers of ‘bringing Jurassic Park to life’ narrative? 

    George Peppou: No. We are not bringing whole animals to life. That is definitely a criticism aimed at others but isn’t relevant here. For every one person who says “ew” there seems to be another two saying “yes, please!”.

    Sonalie Figueiras: On the conservation front, Gizmodo journalist Isaac Schultz writes: “When you think of the woolly mammoth, do you think “the future of food?” I don’t. What’s next—polar bear patties? Sea turtle stew? I don’t think a product designed to be salivated over and consumed is the best way to bring attention to climate change and conservation issues, even if the meat is lab-cultivated.” How would you reply to that?

    George Peppou: I think the very fact that Isaac has written an article about cultured meat, the future of food and sustainability indicates that this project has had its desired effect. We are having conversations today that we simply weren’t having yesterday. Cultured meat is (hopefully) only a few months away from being sold in the US, and yet still, very few consumers are familiar with what it is. 

    Courtesy George Peppou

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you worry it may put off regulators, particularly in geographies where they are already skeptical of the technology, and that they may see this as a distraction / gimmicky?

    George Peppou: No, every regulator and country we have worked with has been incredible. The reactions from regulators have been the same as the public, entertained by the spectacle and aware that mammoth is a stunt, not a product. There is real support from within the regulatory bodies we have spoken to, to ensure that cultured meat can be brought to market in a safe manner. If it is not safe, it is not food. 

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you wonder about the political ramifications of such a tasting, with the pro-meat lobby weaponizing the news to further push their anti-innovation, anti-food-tech agenda by saying that if funds were to be allocated to the space, they would be used for non-essential purposes rather than to sustainably feed the world? 

    George Peppou: To be clear, there was no tasting of the mammoth meatball. This was a concept used to start a discussion and bring cultured meat into the mainstream discussion. Throughout the press around the meatball project we have been very clear about our belief that traditional agriculture and cultured meat will need to co-exist. Cultured meat is not going to replace traditional agriculture in the near future, but it does provide an important source of high-quality protein in a sustainable manner.  

    Sonalie Figueiras: Lastly, and this was my biggest concern personally with the other startup that says it’s working on cultivated lion and tiger, do you worry that this kind of event will serve to glorify the consumption of endangered animals? 
    George Peppou: This is a valid question and something that we have spent a lot of time thinking and talking about internally. In the case of this particular project, we don’t believe that this is a concern (as the mammoth is already extinct).

    The post Vow Founder On That Mammoth Meatball: “We Needed To Do Something So Outrageous That It Would Break Through Into Mainstream Media. appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • OpEd: What The Anti-Cultivated Meat Brigade Aren’t Telling You About Italian Pork & Beef Production

    4 Mins Read

    “You can literally smell the pig and cow sh*t all around you”: A food technologist and Italian transplant living in one of Italy’s main pork production regions shares her feelings about the government’s push to ban cultivated meat.

    Yesterday, the Italian government endorsed legislation that would prohibit the production of laboratory-made meat, feed and other “synthetic” foods. The country’s agriculture minister emphasized that the bill was aimed at protecting Italy’s agri-food heritage and health protection. In recent months, agricultural organizations including Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers’ association, have amassed half a million signatures demanding protection for “natural” food against “synthetic” food. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, part of the right-wing Brothers of Italy political party, is among those who have signed it.

    If the bill passes, Italian food producers will be prevented from producing food or feed from animal cell cultures or tissues; violators would face up to €60,000 in penalties.

    Here’s what they’re not telling you about Italy’s so-called “protection of food culture and tradition” in relation to heavy fines for cultured meat: You can literally smell the pig and cow sh*t all around you in the main regions of Italy that specialize in producing the country’s traditional meat and animal-based products. One of those regions is Emilia-Romagna, where I live with my family. 

    I’ve been living in the aptly-named “Italian food valley” for the last few years, the land of world-famous foods like prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano. The food here is incredible. Even fruits and vegetables are some of the best on the planet.  Living here, I re-learned an important lesson: food is best enjoyed outside the “fast-food” culture.

    Imagine yourself inside a car driving by fields and factories where animals are reared. You see all these beautiful sights: lush vineyards and bright green fields. But oh, the smell!  The car’s windows are closed but you can still smell the stink from the animals. The cows and pigs in their pens. The odor permeates everywhere; it’s inescapable. The air quality is bad. So, so bad! This is a reality of life for people like me who live in these areas.

    And it’s the price we pay for all those delicious meat- and dairy products the region produces. It makes sense that people want to protect it- it’s a very successful industry. Meat accounts for a whopping 57.7% of total exports from the region. The whole world craves our Parma ham. 

    You love your polpette, ragú, gnocco fritto and all the many types of salumi? Fill your lungs with this air. It has become so normal it is a part of the food culture and heritage.

    And the stench is only one (awful) part of it. There are also all the resources that producing meat the “natural” and “traditional” way requires. The water. The feed. The workers. Remember the drought last year? This year doesn’t seem to be any better after a winter of little rain and snowfall.

    If this rebranding by Italy’s Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali (MiPAAF) is about food sovereignty, then this move counters that.

    Because people should have freedom. And that means choices. Choices around the foods we eat and how they are produced. But also, the freedom to choose a future where people’s health, food tradition, and the planet’s future are not compromised.

    I feel so conflicted about all of this, particularly because Italy is where I first came across the idea of cellular agriculture. I moved here to get my master’s in food innovation and Dr. Mark Post (the Dutch scientist who first created cultivated meat and the founder of OG cultivated meat company Mosa Meat)  was our visiting professor. We attended his lectures and worked on related experiments in a lab right here in Italy. A few months later, my team was researching solutions for the future of meat, and cultivated meat emerged as one of our biggest findings. 

    I’ve had many a discussion with my Italian partner during which I’ve shared how much the sight of a basic steel tank and the centuries-old fermentation tradition it represents excites me. Italians have mastered the microscopic world and I can easily picture Italy as a leader in cultivated and fermentation-based protein technologies, after all, Italians are masters of flavour, fermentation and great stewards of culinary tradition, traditions, that were born out of innovation many centuries ago.

    If the country’s meat and dairy industry feels threatened, this new regulatory move doesn’t sound like a bold move. It feels desperate. And if history is our teacher, we know that we don’t achieve greatness when we operate from fear.

    When I talk to my Singaporean friends, they have a totally different mental model. The Lion City state’s government has understood what’s at stake: nothing short of their national food security. Singapore’s 30 by 2030 plan, which involves ensuring that the country achieves 30% domestic food production by the year 2030, has enabled the city-state to become Asia’s food tech capital. In 2020, it became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat, a bold move that made headlines around the globe. China has recently pledged its support to alternative proteins too. These countries see the (climate crisis) writing on the wall. 

    Italy has all the elements in place to be a future food leader: knowledge (both modern and traditional), resources, and one of the best climates for growing food on the planet (if you have ever tasted a fresh, ripe Italian tomato, then you know.

    My hope for Italy? That tradition and technology can co-exist so my Filipina-Italian daughter gets a chance at a safe, ethical and sustainable future. 

    An early version of this article was first published on social media.

    Disclaimer: Jennibeth does work for Green Queen. This had no effect on the publishing of this editorial.

    The post OpEd: What The Anti-Cultivated Meat Brigade Aren’t Telling You About Italian Pork & Beef Production appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center Opens With a Bang: The World’s Largest Piece of Cultivated Meat

    TissenBioFarm shows off its cultivated meat
    4 Mins Read

    TissenBioFarm debuted a giant piece of cultivated meat at the opening of South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center in the North Gyeongsang Province.

    This story has been updated at 13.00 on 31 March 2023 with additional information about the company’s 10kg cultivated meat prototype.

    South Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province has announced the opening of the North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center. This 2,309㎡ facility was built over six years with a total investment of KRW 9 billion (approx. USD$7 million), and it aims to develop biomaterials and support companies in the cultivated meat sector.

    South Korean startup TiessenBio Farm, which raised more than $1.6 million in a Pre-Series A funding round last September, unveiled a 10-kilogram piece of cultivated meat on the occasion.

    The North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center

    The four-story building houses laboratories, analysis rooms, and quality control rooms. The second floor will host five companies and Yeungnam University Cell Culture Research Center, while the third floor will feature research and analysis rooms with 55 types of corporate equipment to be installed by 2024 with a budget of KRW 3 billion.

    The North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center opening ceremony launch. | Courtesy

    “The Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center opened in Uiseong, where a new airport will be built, is expected to play a pivotal role in advancing a high-tech industry,” Cheol-Woo Lee, Governor of North Gyeongsang Province, said at the launch. “We will continue our support and investment in promising new industries.”

    The opening ceremony was attended by about 200 people, including government officials, university representatives, research institutes, and private companies. The site tour showcased five companies, including TissenBioFarm, which unveiled a 10kg cultured meat prototype to the public for the first time. The company claims it is the world’s largest piece of cultivated meat to date.

    Green Queen contacted the company for further information to clarify the percentage of cultivated cells and tissue, scaffolds used and what other ingredients the piece contains. We also asked the company to specify what type of animal meat this is. So far, the company has not replied.

    Update: Tiessen’s Chief Strategy Officer La Yeonjoo told Green Queen the following via email: “This prototype is a hybrid cultivated meat, consisting of cells and bioink. We have developed original technologies that can make cultured meat of this size while keeping nearly all the cells alive.”

    The prototype’s ingredients are as follows: animal cells, bioink, food coloring, palm oil and food adhesive.

    La says the company has not yet publicly disclosed the % of cells of this prototype publicly because “it doesn’t appropriately represent the company’s capabilities”, adding that the event organizers at Cellular Agriculture Support Center asked them to make a prototype on very short notice. TiessenBio made it in their small lab in just a few weeks and La said they didn’t have enough time to grow the cells “as much as we wanted to and could have.”

    “By the end of this year, we will scale up our cell culture infrastructure, and will showcase 100% cultivated meat (that would translate into approx. 80% cells + 20% bioink and other biomaterials),” she added.

    North Gyeongsang Province has also announced its Cellular Agriculture Industry Promotion Strategy, which plans to link with the vaccine, drug, cosmetics, and green bio industries. Uiseong-gun is creating the Uiseong Bio Valley General Industrial Complex for the integration of the cellular agriculture industry.

    South Korea’s cultivated meat sector

    The opening of the North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center marks a milestone in South Korea’s efforts to develop the cellular agriculture industry. With this center, the country hopes to become a leader in this emerging field.

    The center launch comes after 28 key industry stakeholders in South Korea signed a memo of understanding in February to advance the country’s cultivated meat industry.

    TissenBioFarm's giant piece of cultivated meat
    TissenBioFarm’s giant piece of cultivated meat | Courtesy

    The North Gyeongsang Province led the MOU. Other signatories include city governments (Pohang-si, Gyeongsan-si, Gumi-si, Uiseong-gun), universities (POSTECH, Yeungnam University), research and technology institutions (Korea Food Research Institute, Gyeongbuk Technopark, Pohang Technopark), and corporations including cultivated meat startup TissenBioFarm, health food manufacturer Ildong Foodis, and functional food ingredients developer Neo-Cremar. 

    “We are working on groundbreaking technologies to overcome key challenges in the cultivated meat field,” TissenBioFarm CEO Wonil Han said in a statement at the time. “Once it is done, South Korea will be a global game changer in the field.”

    The post South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center Opens With a Bang: The World’s Largest Piece of Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Australia’s Magic Valley Debuts Cultivated Pork Meat

    Magic Valley pork wontons

    5 Mins Read

    Cultivated pork meat is Magic Valley’s latest achievement, following the launch of its lamb meat last year.

    Melbourne-based Magic Valley says its cultivated pork meat comes from skin cells retrieved humanely from a living pig. The cells are then grown using the company’s breakthrough technology that replaces fetal bovine serum.

    ‘An ethical and sustainable solution’

    According to Magic Valley, its tech allows the cells to replicate infinitely, turning into both muscle and fat — all from a singular skin scraping. The startup says this makes it a more stable and faster tech than those achieved by other cultivated meat producers. It says its tech is scalable for all types of meat, not just pork and lamb.

    “The global need for alternative proteins to meet the demands of the growing population is imperative as we take that journey to achieve net-zero, steering clear of traditional ways of consuming meat for ethical and environmental reasons,” Magic Valley founder and CEO Paul Bevan said in a statement.

    Unlike other players, Magic Valley does not rely on fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a growth media for its products. “We don’t need a replacement for Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) in our process, as we have never used it! Instead, we have developed our own proprietary growth media that is completely animal-origin-free, setting us apart from many of our competitors,” Bevan told Green Queen over email.

    “By eliminating the need for FBS, we are able to align our production process more closely with our core mission of promoting a more sustainable and ethical food system, and maintaining a strong commitment to sustainability and animal welfare,” he added.

    Pork format, cost per kg and cultivated material percentage

    The company is starting with pork meat in a minced/ground format to address “the growing concerns about the ethical and humane treatment of pigs in traditional meat production”. Pork is a widely popular protein source enjoyed by millions of people globally. In many parts of Asia, including China, it is the most consumed animal meat per capita.

    Bevan told us that its initial minced pork products are designed to contain approximately 20% cultivated material. “This percentage has been carefully selected as it allows us to effectively replicate the taste, flavour, and aroma characteristics of a traditional minced meat product, ensuring a satisfying eating experience for consumers.”

    He says that by incorporating 20% cultivated material in their product, they can “balance the benefits of our innovative cell-cultured technology with the practical aspects of production and consumer preferences.”

    Currently, production costs for Magic Valley’s minced pork product stand at $33/kg. Bevan recognizes this may seem high compared to conventional pork prices but is careful to underline that the company is in its very earliest stages and has significant potential for improvement. He says he is targeting a cost of $3.30/kg in the future to ensure competitiveness in the market.

    “As we move forward with our plans to establish a pilot plant facility and scale up production, we anticipate benefiting from economies of scale.”

    Actively fundraising and working with Australian regulators

    The news amidst active fundraising efforts for the company. Bevan told us that the company is aiming to raise $3 million to “support the next phase of growth and development”. The goal is to use the funding to work on regulatory approval for Magic Valley’s lamb and pork products, scale up production capacity and develop its first pilot plant facility.

    Bevan told us that he and his team are “actively engaged” with Australian regulators, particularly Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), which he says is known for its proactive approach towards novel food technologies. The agency recognizes “the potential benefits it can bring in terms of sustainability, animal welfare, and food security” and has established a clear and comprehensive framework for companies like Magic Valley to follow.

    He described the process as “consultative” in nature and the communication flow as very “open and transparent”, with a great deal of collaboration with the regulators, with regulator meetings and discussion around Magic Valley’s technology and processes in order to address any concerns or questions raised.

    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan
    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan | Courtesy

    The global cultivated meat market is set to reach $630 billion by 2040 — representing what Bevan says is an enormous opportunity for Australia to benefit from and contribute to the industry that is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

    “So, with both the need and desire for new forms of protein, and the global economic opportunity growing exponentially, our newest cultivated pork milestone puts Magic Valley in good stead to capture a sizable market share to feed future generations,” Bevan said. He says the company’s cultivated pork products provide the exact same flavor experience for consumers that enjoy conventional pork. “It is an ethical and sustainable solution and at scale, our products will be much cheaper than traditional alternatives,” he said.

    Next up, the company will dive into cultivated beef, angling toward a full range of meat options as regulatory approval is expected in 2024.

    Food tech in Australia

    The news follows a string of announcements out of Australia this month. Earlier this week the precision fermentation company Cauldron announced a AU$10.5 million raise to build Asia-Pacific’s largest network of precision fermentation facilities. And in the cultivated meat category, Vow says it has created a meatball using cells from the extinct wooly mammoth as part of a project to showcase the potential of cellular agriculture. 

    Vow Cultivated Meat Factory
    Vow’s Factory 1 was announced last year | Courtesy

    Bianca Lê, Honorary Fellow at The University of Melbourne; Technical Strategy and Growth Manager at Mission Barns; and Board Director, Cellular Agriculture Australia, recently called for Australia to develop standards for biotechnology, including cultivated meat, as the nation is particularly vulnerable to climate change and needs food solutions.

    “Australia has been one of the world’s top three beef exporters for more than 70 years. We’re also a biotech leader. Two decades ago, Australia’s biotech sector was tiny. Now it’s amongst the top five in the world,” she wrote.

    “As we face an increasingly uncertain future, it might be a smart move to secure our food supply while protecting ourselves against climate change – and reducing environmental damage.”

    The post Australia’s Magic Valley Debuts Cultivated Pork Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Food Tech Investments In Europe are Down, But Not Out, Report Finds

    heura fish
    3 Mins Read

    Just how robust is funding for food tech startups in Europe? A new report takes a deep dive.

    A new report on the European food tech industry shows a decrease of 36 percent in investments between 2021 and 2022. But according to DigitalFoodLab, which authored the report with funding from Nestlé, investments in the future of food actually grew.

    Investments doubled

    The report found that nearly €6 billion was invested in European food tech startups in 2022 — almost double the amount invested in 2019 and 2020. Investments in AgTech startups grew by almost 50 percent, benefiting from the current energy and food supply chain crisis.

    Investments decreased overall by 36 percent but, according to Matthieu Vincent, co-founder and partner at DigitalFoodLab, “if we remove delivery startups, they actually grew by 21 percent, which is quite remarkable in the current context,” he told Green Queen via email.

    Vegan French cheese brand Nutropy recently raised money to scale | Courtesy

    Vincent says some categories stand out positively (packaging, for example) while others were almost wiped away like payment solutions for restaurants. “It is the same for countries,” he says. “The U.K. and France still grew quite significantly while Germany’s food tech investments went down by almost 90 percent.”

    The Nordic countries ranked third behind the U.K. and France. And a number of Eastern European countries ranked because of single startups; Estonia with Bolt and the Czech Republic with Rohlik. Germany and Spain were among the strong followers, while countries like Italy and Poland had limited money invested in food tech but possess strong potential.

    Hope for the future

    Despite quarterly investments in food tech still declining, there is hope for the future. There are likely to be more challenges raising capital, the report notes that some may still raise with a downturn at a lower valuation. However, those startups that raised with unrealistic profitability prospects may go bankrupt in the year to come.

    But realistic examples are visible in all directions. Spanish-based plant-based food brand Heura, says it increased its international sales by more than 260 percent in 2022. France, long a holdout in alternative protein, saw funding for a number of innovations in dairy and meat alternatives over the last year.

    milk
    France-based Bon Vivant recently raised €4M for its precision fermentation dairy. Photo Courtesy Pixabay via Pexels.

    But with increased retail and food service interest in emergent categories such as precision fermentation and cultivated meat, funding could see a renewed boost in the coming months. A report late last year found similar trends. As plant-based meat sales declined in the U.S., Dr. Catherine Tubb, Director of Research at Synthesis Capital, said it’s all part of the “S” curve growth. “History is littered with examples of technological products and services that were adopted with the famous ‘S‑curve,’” writes Tubb. “This adoption shape is ubiquitous, with products as diverse as refrigerators, cars, color TVs, and smartphones all showing that same familiar S-shaped curve.”

    The new report notes that despite current trends, the industry remains optimistic about the sector’s future. Technology-focused startups with long-term profitability prospects are still receiving funding and the shift to profitability may be a positive thing for some startups. The report says there has never been a better time to invest in food tech, whether as a future entrepreneur, a large agrifood or financial company, or an investor.

    The post Food Tech Investments In Europe are Down, But Not Out, Report Finds appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Because Animals Sells Off Discontinued Products To CULT Food Science To Accelerate Cultivated Pet Food Technology

    4 Mins Read

    Cultivated meat innovation company CULT Food Science has acquired consumer brand assets, two patents, non-scientific IP and product formulations from cultivated pet food startup Because Animals.

    CULT Food Science, a publicly traded Vancouver, Canada-based cultivated meat innovation company, announced yesterday in a press release titled posted to its website that it had signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire the consumer brand assets, related patents, non-scientific intellectual property, and product formulations (referred to in the release as “the Assets”).

    The Assets include a yeast-based dog treat (noochies), a yeast-based dog food and two provisional patents for rehydrated-then-freeze-dried-yeast-probiotic-based pet supplements.

    According to the release, these assets will be combined with CULT’s existing pet food brands to form a new Pet Food Division that will work to develop and commercialize cultivated pet food products.

    Confusion around LOI news media coverage

    There was some initial confusion yesterday surrounding the LOI news, with social media posts and smaller media outlets suggesting that Because Animals had been entirely acquired and one platform that contacted us describing it as the “World’s First Cultured Meat Brand Acquisition”.

    In a statement sent to Green Queen via email regarding the original CULT press release, Shannon Falconer, co-founder and CEO of Because Animals reiterated that “Although it’s not clear from the press release, the consumer brand ‘Because Animals’ was not acquired.”

    Instead, Falconer told us that the company is focusing all its resources to accelerate the commercialization of its cultured meat technology. As a result, it discontinued the sale of its nutritional yeast-based products late last year and had recently agreed to sell all formulations and two provisional patents related to these discontinued products to Joshua Errett.

    Falconer added that “Because Animals retains all of its intellectual property relating to cultured meat – which is our core business – and we are committed to revolutionizing the pet food industry with this technology.”

    When asked to confirm the news mentioned in the release, Lejjy Gafour, CEO of CULT Food Sciences, told us via email that “as stated in the release formally on our website”, the news announcement referred only to the acquisition of “Because Animals Inc.’s consumer brand assets, related patents, non-scientific intellectual property, and product formulations” and directed us to “additional clarifying language included in the release which the other outlets or individuals may have overlooked”, which says that “Because Animals Inc will continue to innovate in the pet food industry.”

    Former Because Animals co-founder joins forces with CULT

    Errett is the former COO and co-founder of Because Animals. He departed in September 2022 according to Linkedin profile and on October 31, CULT announced that Errett had joined the company as Vice President.

    “The CULT platform is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive in the field of cellular agriculture. It has endless potential to impact the world’s food supply and so I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” added Mr. Errett.  

    Earlier this month, CULT, which according to its website is focused on “providing investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat, cell-based dairy, and other cultured food companies around the world”, revealed that Canadian biotech and cannabis entrepreneur Marc Lustig had acquired a 15% stake in the company, making him the largest single shareholder

    “I am very excited to have taken a significant ownership stake in CULT Food Science. I believe it is inevitable that cell-based foods will sustainably transform our food systems for the better, and that these products will be coming to market much sooner than most people think. As a first-mover in the cellular agriculture space, CULT has the opportunity to play a unique and valuable role in the industry’s exciting scientific innovation,” said Lustig of the investment news.

    Pet food is a growing focus area for cultivated meat startups

    Because Animals was founded in 2016 by Falconer and Errett, and backed by leading VC funds including Draper Associates and SOSV. It was one of the first companies globally to focus on developing pet food aimed at dogs and cats using cellular agriculture technology and in August 2021, debuted the world’s first commercially available cultivated cat food. In early 2022, Because Animals secured investment from European CPG company Group Orkla SA, bringing the company’s total funding to $6.7 million.

    Colorado-based Bond Pet Food created cultured chicken aimed at pets in 2020 and last November, vegan dog food company Wild Earth, which famously got Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban to invest $550,000 in 2019, said it had developed a cultivated chicken broth topper “aimed at making the category more sustainable”.

    The post Because Animals Sells Off Discontinued Products To CULT Food Science To Accelerate Cultivated Pet Food Technology appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Vow Debuts Cultivated Meat Made From Extinct Wooly Mammoth DNA

    4 Mins Read

    Australian cultivated meat company, Vow, has created a meatball using cells from the extinct wooly mammoth as part of a project to showcase the potential of cellular agriculture.

    Vow’s mammoth meatball is a token product showing not just how cells from unconventional species can create new kinds of meat, but also as a symbol of both biodiversity loss and climate change.

    Mammoths went extinct in large part due to human hunting as well as post-ice-age planetary warming. The novel meatball was unveiled on Tuesday at the Nemo science museum in the Netherlands.

    “We have a behaviour change problem when it comes to meat consumption,” Vow CEO George Peppou said in a statement.

    “The goal is to transition a few billion meat eaters away from eating [conventional] animal protein to eating things that can be produced in electrified systems.

    “And we believe the best way to do that is to invent meat. We look for cells that are easy to grow, really tasty and nutritious, and then mix and match those cells to create really tasty meat.”

    A copy of the invitation for Vow’s Wooly Mammoth Meatball tasting

    Cultivating curiosity

    While most cultivated meat producers are tackling conventional meat such as chicken, pork, beef, and fish, Vow is taking a different approach by investigating the potential of more than 50 less common species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks, and various types of fish. Tapping into human curiosity to taste less conventional meat could help acclimate consumers toward the novel cell tech, the company says.

    Vow Cultivated Meat Factory
    Vow’s Factory 1 was announced last year | Courtesy

    The mammoth muscle protein was created by Vow along with Professor Ernst Wolvetang at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland. The team used DNA from mammoth myoglobin, a key muscle protein that gives meat its flavor, and filled in a few gaps using elephant DNA. This sequence was placed in myoblast stem cells from a sheep, which replicated to grow to the 20 billion cells subsequently used by the company to grow the mammoth meat.

    “It was ridiculously easy and fast,” said Wolvetang. “We did this in a couple of weeks.”

    Mammoth was the second choice. The initial idea came from Bas Korsten at the creative agency Wunderman Thompson. The team wanted to replicate dodo bird meat, but there is no DNA available for replicating.

    Mammoth worked just as well symbolically though. “Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it,” Korsten said.

    Vow is not the first food tech company to explore mammoth protein. Last year the startup Paleo explored creating woolly mammoth “paleo protein” via its novel precision fermentation heme technology. And the biotech company Colossal is using CRISPR technology to potentially resurrent the species, which it says could play a crucial role in protecting ecosystems that trap and store carbon.

    Cultivating sustainable protein

    Like other cultivated meat offerings, Vow says cultivated meat uses much less land and water than livestock and produces no methane emissions. The energy Vow uses is all from renewable sources, and the company does not use the controversial growth medium, fetal bovine serum.

    No one has tasted the mammoth meat yet, though. “We haven’t seen this protein for thousands of years,” said Wolvetang. “So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies.”

    Vow quail meat, Morsel | Courtesy

    Vow was moving toward approval last year for its cultivated quail meat, dubbed Morsel. It had anticipated an end-of-2022 launch into Singapore restaurants, but it has yet to be approved by Singapore Food Agency (SFA).

    The mammoth meatball debut comes as the U.S. FDA issued a “no questions” letter to California’s Eat Just for its cultivated Good Meat label chicken. Eat Just is currently the only cultivated meat producer in the world with regulatory approval, which was granted by the SFA in 2020.

    Eat Just and fellow Californian cultivated meat producer Upside Foods, which received FDA clearance last November, now must both pass USDA inspections before they can begin selling their meat in the U.S.

    The post Vow Debuts Cultivated Meat Made From Extinct Wooly Mammoth DNA appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Lypid Debuts Pork Belly Made With Patented PhytoFat

    3 Mins Read

    Taiwanese-U.S. food-tech company Lypid unveiled vegan pork belly made from its patented PhytoFat at the recent Future Food-Tech summit held in San Francisco earlier this month.

    The product ist the first release of Lypid’s upcoming line of plant-based products. According to Dr. Jen-Yu Huang, Lypid’s co-founder and CEO, there is a lack of solid, whole-cut alternative proteins on the market. “Our Pork Belly will revolutionize the food industry and provide environmentally conscious options for diners who crave the texture, taste, and mouthfeel of pork belly,” she said. Dr. Huang was recently included in the 2022 Forbes “30 Under 30” list.

    Vegan pork belly

    Lypid’s pork belly marks the company’s entry into the plant-based meat market. Dr. Michelle Lee, Lypid’s Co-founder and CTO, explained that the company combined its patented PhytoFat with a unique fibrous protein alternative to create an authentic pork belly experience. Several celebrated Bay Area chefs have begun testing the plant-based pork belly, with the goal of introducing the product to menus in the near future.

    The Pork Belly was served at the Future Food-Tech summit with Adobo Garlic Fried Rice prepared by San Francisco Marriott Marquis’ Executive Chef David Hollands and Executive Sous Chef Bernardita Gotis. “When it’s cooked, it behaves like pork belly – it becomes crispy and doesn’t solidify immediately,” Hollands said. “Not all vegan products perform like the real thing.”

    Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen‘s founder and editor in chief tasted the pork belly at the summit and said: “As someone who grew up in Hong Kong, I’ve eaten my fair share of pork belly, I was amazed. the texture was uncanny and it was savoury like animal fat.”

    Photo courtesy Lypid

    PhytoFat recently took home the first-place prize for “Ingredient Innovation” at FoodBev Media’s World Food Innovation Awards in 2023. The company’s Pork Belly was also a finalist in the “Plant-based Product” and “Technology Innovation” categories.

    Last August, more than 500 Louisa Coffee shops across Taiwan introduced vegan burgers made with Lypid’s proprietary vegan PhytoFat. The company raised more than $4 million in Seed funding last spring to accelerate its product development and expansion plans.

    Pork successors loom large

    Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, specifically across Asia. It makes up 36 percent of total global meat consumption, according to the USDA. But as consumers seek to diversify their protein, sustainable options are taking priority. Hong Kong-based Omni Foods is seeing success with its plant-based pork in Asia and the U.S., among other markets.

    Last month, the U.K. saw the country’s first cultivated pork debut. BSF Enterprises said its subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues had successfully created a steak made from pork cells.

    3D Bio-Tissues steak
    3D Bio-Tissues has created the world’s first cultivated pork steak | Courtesy Kenn Reay Photography

    Not all companies are thriving, however. Last week, cultivated pork producer New Age Eats announced it was ceasing operations.

    “Creating the experience of meat without slaughter is extremely difficult,” New Age founder and CEO Brian Spears said in a statement. “We start with biotech borrowed from human health applications designed for high-cost, low-volume products. We worked to flip to low-cost, high-volume products. That is expensive, takes time, and needs a lot of patient capital.”

    The post Lypid Debuts Pork Belly Made With Patented PhytoFat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The White House Issues Guidelines to ‘Harness the Full Potential and Power of Biotechnology’

    3 Mins Read

    The Biden-Harris Administration revealed new priorities detailed in a report last week that will trigger actions to advance American biotechnology and biomanufacturing.

    The move follows an Executive Order signed by President Biden last September aimed at advancing biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation. The goals aim to enhance America’s bioeconomy, restore local supply chains, and support the country’s innovation ecosystem.

    U.S. biomanufacturing

    Biomanufacturing, the use of biological systems to produce goods and services at a commercial scale, the tech has the potential to unlock sustainable alternatives across industries such as plastics, fuels, and medicines, the White House said in a statement. These innovations hold potential for new solutions in health, climate change, energy, food security, agriculture, supply chain resilience, and national and economic security.

    The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) detailed its plan in a new report outlining a vision for what is possible with biotechnology and biomanufacturing and the research and development needed. The report includes sections authored by federal departments and agencies that are responsive to the President’s E.O. on biotechnology and biomanufacturing R&D to further societal goals such as climate change solutions, food and agricultural innovation, supply chain resilience, human health, and crosscutting advances. These goals serve as a guide for public and private sector efforts to harness the full potential and power of biotechnology and biomanufacturing to develop innovative solutions in different sectors.

    lab worker
    Photo by Julia Koblitz via Unsplash

    The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Biomanufacturing Strategy will guide investments in bioindustrial domestic manufacturing infrastructure to establish a domestic bioindustrial manufacturing base. The strategy includes three priorities: establishing customers that stand to benefit from early-stage innovations, advancing biomanufacturing capabilities through innovation, mapping and tracking the biomanufacturing ecosystem to support future efforts. DoD is issuing a formal request for information on biomanufactured products and process capabilities that could help address defense needs and whose development and commercialization could be addressed by DoD investment.

    The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis will assess the feasibility of economic contributions to the country’s bioeconomy, as called for in the President’s E.O. Other deliverables from the E.O. are also in development, including plans to expand training and education opportunities for the biotechnology and biomanufacturing workforce, a report on data needs for the bioeconomy, a national strategy for expanding domestic biomanufacturing capacity, actions to improve biotechnology regulation clarity and efficiency, and a plan for strengthening and innovating biosafety and biosecurity for the bioeconomy.

    ‘Accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient food system’

    Magi Richani, CEO of Nobell Foods, a biotech company making animal-free cheese, applauded the move in a statement shared to LinkedIn. “I can’t overstate the importance of this step in accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient food system,” she wrote.

    “Our global food system over the last few years has proven to be anything but resilient. And with the continued environmental degradation caused by industrial-scale animal agriculture, it’s not only refreshing, but critical to see the work we are doing prioritized as a key solution to building a more resilient food system, increasing consumer choice, and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions,” Richani said.

    Methane emissions
    Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash

    Richani pointed to animal agriculture, which contributes close to 31 percent of total U.S. methane emissions — a planet-heating gas more potent than CO2. But the reality is, she said, “no one will change their behavior fast enough to offset its impact. Most people are not going to eat less cheese or meat if it costs more or tastes less.”

    The U.S. investment into biotech could help change that. “The bold goals and R&D needs outlined in this report serve as a guide for public and private sector efforts to harness the full potential and power of biotechnology and biomanufacturing to develop innovative solutions in different sectors, create jobs at home, build stronger supply chains, lower costs for families, and achieve our climate goals,” the White House said.

    The post The White House Issues Guidelines to ‘Harness the Full Potential and Power of Biotechnology’ appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Exclusive: Former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke Named In Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination On The Basis Of Sex

    7 Mins Read

    Canadian foodtech entrepreneur Marissa Bronfman says that after being recruited as co-founder for a new biotech mycelium fermentation company, she was subjected to a sexist work environment and was terminated by former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke for requesting that he hire a female scientist.

    Earlier this week, Green Queen received a PDF copy of court filings detailing that on March 13, 2023, Marissa Bronfman filed a complaint case in the Ontario Superior Court Of Justice naming Darren Burke, of The Different Food Co Inc. as the sole defendant. 

    Ms. Bronfman’s complaint alleges that Mr. Burke misrepresented himself, his intentions and his company, terminated her in bad faith, defamed her, discriminated against her on the basis of sex and misled her. 

    The filings cite further complaints against Mr. Burke including Breach of Contract, Breach of the Duty of Honesty in Contractual Performance, Bad Faith Manner of Dismissal and Breach of the Human Rights Code, among others.  

    According to the case documents, Ms. Bronfman says that she entered into an employment contract with Mr. Burke as part of a new mycelium fermentation-related biotech company he was starting after he recruited her for many months. She says the agreement meant she was entitled to CA$150,000 in annual base salary and ‘generous benefits’, as well as equity in the company and co-founder status. Although Ms. Bronfman was originally going to consult with the company, she says Mr.Burke changed his mind and would only work with her if she didn’t work anywhere else.

    In November 2022, Ms. Bronfman publicly announced that she was joining the company and then leveraged her personal network and social media presence to promote the company. She says she introduced Mr. Burke to potential investors, represented the company at an industry event in Toronto and offered him “significant” professional advice that “led to Mr. Burke changing his business model”.

    She says that things started to go awry when she suggested to Mr. Burke that the company hire a female scientist towards the end of November. According to the court documents, “These comments upset Mr. Burke and he expressed his disagreement with them.”

    By early December, Ms. Bronfman was told she was being laid off as the company needed to raise more funds and that she would be reinstated once the company had done so. However, Ms. Bronfman was actually wrongfully terminated after Mr. Burke said he did not wish to work with her any longer, and that “her opinions had been too ‘strong’ (emphasis in original).

    In January of this year, Ms. Bronfman says Mr. Burke published a defamatory post about her on his personal Linkedin profile which has over 11,000 followers. The filings state that “This post was clearly designed to intimidate the Plaintiff, and harm her reputation within the foodtech industry.” 

    After her attorney sent Mr. Burke a cease and desist letter, he removed the post from his profile, though Ms. Bronfman says that by then it had caused “significant embarrassment and reputational damage”.

    Ms. Bronfman says that she has suffered reputational harm, a limiting of employment opportunities in Canada, and mental and physical distress as a result of Mr. Burke’s actions.

    Ms. Bronfman is asking for a range of damages in the amount of CA$1,000,000 as well as  CA$150,000 in lost earnings, CA$500,000 for breach of contract and moral damages for bad faith dismissal, CA$250,000 in punitive damages, CA$75,000 for injuries to dignity, feelings, and self-respect as well as any legal costs incurred. 

    Further, she is requesting the 25% of company equity she was promised (in the court filings the latest valuation is listed at CAD$3,000,000, which Green Queen confirmed from the company’s most recent investment deck) and asking for a declaration that he breached their contractual duty of good faith and that he discriminated against her. 

    Screenshot from St Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada Website

    According to the filings, The Different Food Co Inc is a food-tech company incorporated in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The company’s mission involved ‘Harnessing mycelium fermentation to reengineer almonds using 90% less water’ according to a presentation deck. While Ms. Bronfman lists herself as a co-founder of the company on her Linkedin profile, there is no mention of it on Mr. Burke’s Linkedin profile. Green Queen has seen proof that the company is still in operation and that Mr. Burke is listed as a Director. 

    On his profile, Mr Burke is described as a “celebrated science-based entrepreneur focused on plant-based and alternative protein nutrition and social impact ideas to save the planet” as well as a “Former tenured university professor who commercialized scientific research into a new category of sports nutrition products.”

    Couresy Outcast Foods

    Accordion to the page, Mr Burke spent 10 years as a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, in Halifax, Canada and then founded Rivalus, a nutritional supplements company that he says he grew to $20 million in revenue before a “successful exit.” He then, along with fellow entrepreneur and former professional NHL hockey player TJ Galiardi, co-founded Outcast Foods, a Canadian sustainable food waste company that transformed old and ugly produce into powdered nutrition supplements. The company raised CA$10 million led by District Ventures which counts well-known South African-Canadian investor Arlene Dickinson as a General Partner. In a 2021 article from this publication, Mr. Burke said that the company had experienced YoY online retail sales growth of close to 4,000%. He is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which Green Queen confirmed via phone. Mr Burke also features on the institution’s website as Dr Darren Burke.

    We have reached out to Mr. Burke for comment and we will update the story once we hear back. 

    In an exclusive interview and over multiple conversations by phone, Ms Bronfman told me that the past few months leading up to the filing of the suit have been taxing: “Things have been very difficult, and the public nature of it has been challenging, but I am fortunate to have lots of support. Many people in the industry, especially women, have reached out to me.” 

    In addition, she said that fighting back is not easy but she believes it is necessary: ”I feel emboldened and empowered by the support I’ve received from people in the industry, and by the laws we have in Canada to protect people. I am looking forward to my day in court and pursuing justice.”  

    She also told me she believes that this kind of behavior by male executives is more prevalent in the industry than people realize: “Unfortunately, this is a very common story in tech and foodtech, though we rarely hear about it. All too often women are threatened, shamed and silenced into not talking about or seeking legal justice for unethical and illegal treatment in the workplace, whether from co-founders, investors and/or colleagues.” 

    She said that one of the reasons she is speaking out is to “help end an entrenched culture of mistreating, intimidating, shaming and silencing women, and inspire positive change and greater equality” in foodtech, where female founders and co-founders are a small minority yet suffer the majority of predatory, unethical and illegal behavior in the workplace. 

    “I will not be intimidated, I am not afraid and I will always fight for women’s rights,” she added.

    She said that while she hopes the suit will result in “a fair and just resolution”,  she wants her story to help make a difference to other women in the food tech space. “I hope that my story will empower others. It’s inspired me to launch my website, to expand my work with purpose-driven founders and investors, women in particular, and I look forward to continuing to speak on women in business and the future of food.” 

    Ms. Bronfman is being represented by Esq. Kathryn Marshall, attorney and partner at Levitt Sheik LLP, a leading labour and employment law firm in Toronto.

    Asked why she chose to take up Ms. Bronfman’s case, Ms. Marshall told Green Queen: “I frequently act for women in the tech and start-up industry and have observed a disturbing trend of women being mistreated, silenced and taken advantage of. This is an important case that will hopefully result in changes in the industry and help to empower female founders. Marissa is strong and brave and has fought for women her entire career. I am honoured to be her advocate.”

    For her part, Ms. Bronfman said: “I am grateful to be represented by such a passionate lawyer who has fought for women her entire career. 

    This is a developing story.

    The post Exclusive: Former Outcast Foods CEO Darren Burke Named In Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination On The Basis Of Sex appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Chipotle Charts a Sustainable Course for 2023 With ESG Goals and Food Tech Investments

    chipotle
    4 Mins Read

    Fast casual restaurant chain Chipotle has announced its 2023 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, which will be tied to an executive compensation bonus of up to 15 percent.

    Chipotle’s new ESG goals include increasing the pounds of local produce purchased, improving diverse employee retention — Chipotle says it increased its diversity from 60 percent to nearly 64 percent last year — and increasing the number of restaurants with composting programs. The announcement also comes on the heels of notable investments into food tech.

    ESG Goals

    “Chipotle’s ESG goals are a direct reflection of our commitment to inspire real, sustainable change with a potential impact far beyond this Company,” said Laurie Schalow, Chief Corporate Affairs, Chipotle. “We hold our executive leadership team accountable to make business decisions that Cultivate a Better World, and we want to continue to transparently showcase the steps we’re taking to help meet these objectives.”

    The restaurant chain, which has more than 3,000 U.S. locations, says it is committed to increasing the total pounds of produce purchased from local farmers year over year. It defines local produce as a 350-mile radius of one of its distribution centers.

    Chipotle puts a focus on locally sourced produce. Courtesy

    For this year, Chipotle’s goal is to purchase at least 37.5 million pounds of local produce, up from 36.4 million pounds purchased in 2022. The organization also met its 2022 goal of purchasing more than 57 million pounds of organic, transitional and/or locally-grown ingredients, with 58.3 million pounds in total minus rice and beans, which were excluded due to external crop factors.

    Chipotle is also leveraging its new venture fund, Cultivate Next, to make early-stage investments in companies that can help further its mission and meet its ESG goals. This includes increasing its local produce supply through its latest investment in Local Line, a leading local food sourcing platform for regional food systems, serving farms, producers, food hubs, and food buyers by helping them digitize their operations and sell products. That investment will also support Local Line’s U.S. expansion.

    Chipotle will also be increasing its focus on composting with a goal of reducing waste to landfills by 5 percent by 2025 and increasing the number of restaurants participating in its compost program by 23 percent this year. The chain said it exceeded its 2022 goal of reducing Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5 percent, achieving a 13 percent reduction against 2019 emissions.

    Food tech investments

    Cultivate Next is also investing in Zero Acre Farms, a food company focused on healthy, sustainable oils and fats. Zero Acre Farms uses fermentation to make oils that are more environmentally friendly than conventional vegetable oils, namely palm and soy.

    Chipotle invested as part of Zero Acre Farms’ Series A extension round in an undisclosed amount. A spokesperson for Zero Acre Farm told Green Queen that the investment is not necessarily an indicator that the chain will be using the company’s oil in stores anytime soon. “This news is only in regards to a financial investment in ZAF by Chipotle,” they said. “That said, Chipotle makes investments through its Cultivate Next fund in companies it thinks can help it achieve its mission to cultivate a better world.”

    Zero Acre Farms | Courtesy

    However, the move could signal the chain is warming up to food tech. Chipotle has eschewed plant-based meat products such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods in the past, opting instead for tofu in its Sofritas instead, and a limited-edition plant-based chorizo made “using all real, fresh ingredients grown on a farm, not in a lab.”

    In 2019, Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol told Yahoo Finance that the company spoke with the brands and “unfortunately it wouldn’t fit in our ‘food with integrity’ principles because of the processing, as I understand it, that it takes to make a plant taste like a burger.

    “If there’s a way for them to do this that would match our ‘food with integrity’ principles, I’m sure we would continue talking with them.”

    Chipotle’s Cultivate Next did invest in fellow Colorado-based company Meati Foods — a clean-label vegan meat made from mycelium.

    “We are excited to support new ways to bring vegetables to the center of the plate though plant-based alternative protein options that mirror Chipotle’s Food With Integrity standards,” Curt Garner, Chief Technology Officer at Chipotle, said in a statement at the time. “Meati is producing responsibly grown plant-based protein that tastes delicious.”

    The chain has yet to make any announcements about adding Meati to its menus, though. But a trial could be on the horizon as the startup has just started its retail rollout, landing in 380 Sprouts Markets earlier this month.

    The post Chipotle Charts a Sustainable Course for 2023 With ESG Goals and Food Tech Investments appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Cultivated Pork Startup New Age Eats Shuts Down After Five Years Amidst ‘Recent Market Turmoil’

    3 Mins Read

    The CEO of cultivated pork startup New Age Eats announced in a social media post that the company is shutting down after just under 5 years of operation.

    Founder and CEO Brian Spears broke the news on social media writing that “we made the painful decision to shut down New Age Eats” amidst a tumultuous funding environment and a lack of runway to continue.

    “As the CEO, I take ultimate responsibility for this shutdown. When we started ~5 years ago, we had no blueprint to develop and commercialize cultivated meat. I am grateful to everyone who supported our brilliant, talented team as we learned along the way,” he said.

    Earlier this year, Spears penned another social media post in which he shared that New Age Eats was letting go of the company’s pilot manufacturing facility in the Bay Area’s Alameda city food innovation hub, The Research Park at Marina Village and asked potential buyers to reach out. “Construction is 90% complete (put your final touches on it!) and 80% paid for (we’re walking away from significant investment because, well, we have to). You’d be move-in ready in 1-2 months…We will take the best offer in the next few weeks!”

    Spears confirmed today the company was unable to find a buyer for the plant and was not able to secure additional funding: “Unfortunately, with recent capital market turmoil, we have been unable to attract investment.” He told AgFunder News earlier today that things changed starting the second quarter of last year: “The shift in capital markets beginning around spring 2022 has made life challenging for startups across the board, he said.”

    New Age Eats was focused on bringing cultivated pork sausages to market and had raised over $32 million dollars since its founding in June 2018 and backers included seasoned food and tech VCs like IndieBio, TechU Ventures and Siddhi Capital. The company reeled in a $25 million Series A investment round back in October 2021 led by South Korean energy and real estate conglomerate Hanwha Solutions and at the time had been vocal about a launch plan that included both the US and Asia.

    Spears was hopeful about the state of the cultivated meat sector going forward, writing that “While our company will no longer survive, multiple companies will pick up the baton and use our technology to further our shared mission.”

    He was candid about the challenge of creating a cultivated meat company and alluded to how complicated it was to match investment timelines in a R&D context that requires long timelines: “Creating the experience of meat without slaughter is extremely difficult. We start with biotech borrowed from human health applications designed for high cost, low volume products. We worked to flip to low cost, high volume products. That is expensive, takes time, and needs a lot of patient capital.”

    Spears also expressed his gratitude for all the support the company has received to date. “Lastly, I want to express profound gratitude to everyone who supported me and the team along the way. I’m also grateful to those who worked against us. Without them, I wouldn’t have learned what I did, that everything is one – no crest without trough, buyer without seller, villain without victim. My gratitude is for everything in this beautiful existence that we share. Ideally, my future work leads to broadly sharing that increased appreciation.”

    Spears has been outspoken about the importance of focusing on founder mental health and in his latest post, he said he was encouraged that this topic was gaining more attention: “The toll on my mental heaIth to gain these perspectives over the years has been tremendous. I am encouraged that mental health – including of founders – is being more openly discussed.”

    The post Cultivated Pork Startup New Age Eats Shuts Down After Five Years Amidst ‘Recent Market Turmoil’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ChickP Debuts Cream Cheese and Cheddar Made From Chickpeas

    chickpea cream cheese
    2 Mins Read

    Israel-based food tech start-up, ChickP Protein, Ltd., has developed a chickpea isolate that can be used in making plant-based cheese.

    ChickP says its prototypes for chickpea-based cream cheese and firm cheddar cheese match the appearance and flavor of conventional cheese.

    Chickpea cheese

    “Flexitarians dominate the consumer market for dairy alternatives,” Liat Lachish Levy, CEO of ChickP, said in a statement. “They are eager to eat vegan alternatives as long as those alternatives can level up to real dairy’s sensory and nutritional attributes. These are precisely the gaps the industry is striving to close. While some cheese analog producers succeed on the sensory points, this often comes at the expense of the desired nutritional balance — and vice versa.”

    ChickP hard cheese
    ChickP hard cheese | Courtesy

    ChickP’s formula includes a high-functioning chickpea isolate with a 90 percent whole protein composition, providing a nutritional boost to plant-based food applications. The isolate is also a clean-label ingredient, with a neutral flavor, which the company says makes it highly versatile.

    The new cream cheese formulation combines the isolate along with other simple ingredients and traditional cheesemaking processes that ChickP says make the resulting product naturally replete with probiotic benefits. The company says emmental, parmesan, and mozzarella are in the works.

    “We insisted on applying only traditional processes for our winning cheese analogs,” explains Maor Dahan, application manager for ChickP. “Our formulas contain no stabilizers or gums. We explored a range of cultures to find the strains that work best with our formula. On top of that, the synergy between the chickpea isolates and starch helped create a rich, smooth, creamy textured spread on par with real dairy cream cheese and awards hearty complete protein fulfillment.”

    Demand for dairy-free cheese

    ChickP says a Smart Protein Project survey conducted across ten countries found cheese is increasingly popular with individual consumption averaging from one to six times per week.

    Chickpea's protein makes for creamy ice cream
    Chickpea’s protein makes for creamy ice cream | Courtesy

    The findings show there is also strong interest in plant-based versions, but consumers say taste, texture, and value of products currently on the market don’t meet their expectations. Still, demand for plant-based cheese is expected to reach $7 billion by the end of 2030.

    The cheese debut follows ChickP’s chickpea ice cream prototype released late last year, a chickpea creamer prototype launched last summer, and an $8 million Series A funding round last January.

    The post ChickP Debuts Cream Cheese and Cheddar Made From Chickpeas appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 1999 To 2023: Expo West Then and Now

    12 Mins Read

    I made my first visit to Expo West in 1999. More than two decades later, I take a look back.

    The way things change over time is fascinating. Watch any movie from the 1940s and you may find yourself astounded that people who look not so different from us today, lived completely different lives less than a century ago. For one, they had no cell phones, computers, or electric cars. Back then, the average woman owned only about seven dresses, whereas today, she’s likely to purchase nearly 70 new garments a year.

    The differences are also noticeable in the changes to our food choices. Back then, grapefruits and hard-boiled eggs were mainstays on nearly every breakfast table, lunch was eaten at an Automat, sherry-sipping happened in the late afternoons, and steaks were on most dinner tables.

    These days, breakfast tables are more likely to feature avocado toast or overnight oats (that is if you’re not intermittent fasting). Lunch might be a salad, a wrap, or perhaps, a smoothie. Instead of sherry, you may have a kombucha, or maybe a matcha latte — with oat milk, of course. And while steak is still on (far too many?) dinner tables, healthier fare from kale and quinoa to meat successors like Impossible burgers, or the humble, versatile bean, have become equally, if not more, popular.

    expo selfie
    The author at Expo West in 2019 (left), Michelle Gannon (right) | Jill Ettinger All Rights Reserved

    I was thinking about all of this recently as I reflected back on the spring of 1999, when the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, Calif., attracted about 31,000 attendees. I was one of them. It was my first trek to the industry trade show (also known as ‘Expo West’ or ‘Expo’). Earlier this month, I made what should have been my 25th visit, but was my 22nd as a result of missing the last three years due to the pandemic.

    Prior to the pandemic (which shut the event down for 2020 and 2021, and has slowed traffic in the last two years to around 65,000 attendees), attendance would tip past 80,000 retailers, brands, press, and more — all consumers at heart — clamoring into the ever-expanding Anaheim Convention Center to taste their way through the endless aisles of food and drink, looking for the next big products destined for a supermarket shelf near you.

    “The energy on the floor this year makes it undeniable that the innovations at Expo West are not only shaping the future or natural and organic but of CPG overall,” Carlotta Mast, Senior Vice President and Market Leader at Informa Markets’ New Hope Network, said in a statement. “The thousands of new products on display are from an increasingly diverse group of founders and serve a diverse consumer base that cares about ingredients, responsible sourcing, and the greater impact their purchases can have.”

    Something for everyone

    The Expo is not unlike a choose-your-own-adventure book. Are you an organic enthusiast? How about gluten-free? Or, maybe, like me, you’re interested in vegan food. There are other noteworthy considerations like regenerative agriculture, B Corporations, or Fair Trade-certified offerings. Maybe it’s not food you come for at all — there are also aisles and aisles filled with body care products, pet products, vitamins, supplements, and so much more.

    In 1999, I attended the event as a grocery buyer for a mid-sized East Coast health food store. While stores have become chains and chains have consolidated into retail empires, grocery buyers are still the holy grail of booth visitors for brands, especially for the young brands spending all of their money to showcase at Expo West, eager to find placement for their new products and, possibly, start a new food revolution as so many have before them. 

    Luna Bar
    Luna Bar | Courtesy

    I wish I could say I remember more of what I saw on the show floor that first year as a retailer. My cell phone didn’t have a camera back then to record all my favorites. I do remember finding a vegan energy bar I was particularly excited about. Those were the days of slimy, congealed Power Bars and the sweet-and-chalky Balance Bars. Clif Bar had created Luna Bar — the nutrition bar designed for women — flipping the script on both the emergent bar category and how to market to untapped demographics. It’s more than 20 years later and I still look at the Lemon Zest bar with the same admiration as I did after my very first bite. This year, though, I looked at the Clif Bar booth a bit wistfully, as the company’s longtime founders recently sold to Mondelez after decades of being proudly independently owned.

    Much of the show’s focus in 1999 was on organic, even though it would be a few more years until the USDA officially launched the National Organic Program. Brands were eager then to talk about how they eschewed synthetic chemicals, espousing the benefits of minimal soil inputs. Today, organic is the label de rigueur for any self-respecting brand. Now, if you really want to stop people in their tracks, regenerative certification is the must-have.

    Kamut was the hot “it” grain back then, finding its way into pasta and cereal, among other products, boasting a better-for-you replacement for conventional wheat. I don’t think I saw one kamut item this year, or in any recent years, for that matter. But I sure saw a lot of oats and chickpeas.

    Hemp was up-and-coming in 1999, but still years away from anything close to going mainstream. Now it’s in everything from soda and soap to supplements and even dog treats.

    Dairy made up as big a chunk of the show back then as it does today, with farmers on hand to talk about how loved and cared for their cows are. In 1999, meat was largely absent from the Expo save for the Ostrim craze (it’s ostrich! And beef! And maybe elk!) and all manner of jerkies, which still permeate the show two decades on. I’m still as skeptical today about both as I was in my 20s. (Maybe even more so as animal agriculture is deeply tied to global emissions, deforestation, and human health issues.)

    Across the show floor on the supplement side, echinacea was peaking in the late ‘90s, as were other herbal mainstays like ginseng, ginkgo, kava kava, and the buzziest of them all, St. John’s Wort. This year was all about gummies, adaptogens, and something that resembled a Starburst fruit chew, but with melatonin instead of gelatin, which I happily downed several hours later as I climbed into bed fried from the day and too exhausted to sleep. I think it helped.

    As I walked the show this year, I was struck by how much had changed and, even more so, just how much hadn’t. 

    Old and new trends

    There were still new energy bars trying to break into the crowded category. This year, it seemed most were aimed at kids. But that could also just be because I now view the show through my mommy goggles. My daughter loved the blueberry-purple carrot snack bar from Yumi that I brought home. Even at age nine, she knows how saturated the category is, telling me, “I didn’t think I would like another kind of bar, but this one was really delicious.” Maybe there’s room for more after all.

    Green drinks and powders always seem to be on the cusp of their big breakthrough at Expo. And even though they’re certainly more popular now than they were nearly 25 years ago, the widespread acceptance brands are always hopeful for every year is somehow perpetually still just out of reach.

    Water is always at the Expo in one form or another. In the early days, after my years in retail, I worked as a broker. One of our favorite clients was an Idaho water brand called Trinity Springs. For years they’d make quite the Expo splash with their phenomenal story, which I committed to memory like the Pledge of Allegiance (ask me!). That booth was always a popular destination until the show banned single-use plastic water bottles. Then came the paper box water that never quite took off. This year, the show was filled with what seems like the only logical workaround: recyclable aluminum cans and bottles. 

    Sparkling Botanicals By Rishi
    Courtesy Sparkling Botanicals By Rishi

    Sparkling water and drinks reigned supreme. My favorite product at the show in any category this year was the delicious Schisandra Berry sparkling water from Rishi’s Sparkling Botanicals. There were loads of other options in the category, including the prebiotic soda cohort that has taken health food stores by storm with their nine-plus grams of fiber per can. (But trust me on the Schisandra.)

    Plant-based then and now

    Then, of course, there were the vegan options. Long gone are the days of Tofurky founder Seth Tibbott sporting his pilgrim costume as he served up his delicious roast. He’s retired now and the company was just recently acquired.

    I don’t think it was that 1999 show, but in one of those early years, I remember the thrill of a brand (maybe Lightlife?) having a hot dog cart on the show floor filled with veggie dogs. That was long before you could get a vegan hot dog at a sports stadium or a vegan burger at a fast food restaurant. I probably visited it five times over the weekend.

    Amy’s Kitchen was absent this year, but for years, decades, really, it had a buffet of tasty options and cushy booth carpeting for tired feet that gave you two reasons to make multiple visits.

    This year saw no shortage of vegan innovations, with Colorado’s Meati causing all kinds of buzz for its minimal ingredient mycelium meat — a far cry from those veggie dogs of years past. The meat was exceptionally juicy, with a dense and chewy texture likely to satisfy die-hard meat-eaters. If you had told me in 1999 I’d still be coming to this trade show 20+ years later and eating mushroom meat on a stick (and taking pictures of it with my phone!), I’d probably have asked you if you’d eaten another kind of mushroom. But here we are. 

    Courtesy Meati Foods

    Meat wasn’t the only place mushrooms made their mark this year, though. The kind folks at Oasis Adaptogens are taking cues from Four Sigmatic and blending mushrooms and other good-for-yous into coffee replacement and a delicious matcha blend. In fact, I think some of those sparkling drinks I loved were filled with mushrooms promising all manner of benefits, too. I can’t help but wonder what Terence McKenna would make of all this mushroom madness. 

    Climax Foods created a buzz with its plant-based take on classic French cheese — a marbled, stinky blue cheese and creamy, soft brie. I wasn’t a big cheese fan before I went vegan — in fact, I rather hated the stuff — but I’m humbled by the vegan cheese evolution. In 1999, the best attempts at vegan cheese were products from Galaxy Foods or Soymage. And, let’s not beat around the bush: they were all awful, waxy, and not anything like cheese. It’s funny to think that I have only become a cheese lover since going vegan when so many people cite cheese as the reason they won’t go vegan.

    There were scores of other innovations from bee-free honey to more plant-based milk, ice cream, yogurt, and so many vegan egg products. It’s exciting and overwhelming; I feel a sense of duty to my 20-year-old new-vegan self to try it all, but with more than 700 vendors boasting vegan options, it’s a feat most impossible.

    Another show favorite is a staple in our house: Gotham Greens. If you haven’t seen this brand yet, you will soon. The company is bringing healthy, local food to urban consumers by growing it in cities, like in its greenhouse located on top of a Brooklyn Whole Foods Market. From fresh produce to the very best vegan pesto you’ll ever have, Gotham Greens is changing the way cities grow and eat vegetables.

    A giant returns

    The biggest thrill this year was seeing Just Ice Tea make its Expo West debut, or rather, its drop-the-mic comeback. The story is documentary-worthy: in 1998, plucky optimists and iced tea lovers Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff launch Honest Tea – a ready-to-drink line of iced tea driven by their hankering for a cold tea product that wasn’t as cloyingly sweet as the category leaders Arizona and Snapple.

    They were also activists at heart and wanted to support a brand that spoke to their ethos. (I remember one moving speech by Goldman at Expo East, the autumnal sister event to Expo West, which was held in Washington D.C. for a number of years. He was receiving an award, and during his speech passionately called for the then-named Washington Redskins football team to change their inflammatory, derogatory name. If you don’t follow football, the team did change its name in 2020 to the Washington Commanders. Goldman has always been ahead of his time.)

    Just Ice Tea co-founders Seth Goldman and Spike Mendelsohn
    Just Ice Tea co-founders Seth Goldman (left) and Spike Mendelsohn | Courtesy

    Honest Tea was a huge success, and a decade after Goldman and Nalebuff founded it, the company sold to its largest shareholder, Coca-Cola. The brand chugged along with placement in mainstream retailers and fast-food chains. But as drink preferences changed, the soda giant announced last year that it was going to discontinue the tea line.

    Goldman, who now also serves as Executive Chairman at Beyond Meat, almost immediately announced the tea would return through his Eat the Change snack platform along with Spike Mendelsohn under a new name, Just Ice Tea. Same formulas, same ethos, and nearly the same packaging, but, an even more refreshing sip knowing the brand has its heart and soul restored. (Watch this inspiring video of Goldman and Mendelsohn visiting their tea grower partners in Mozambique.)

    The continuum

    In 1999, I left that first Expo West with a suitcase full of samples and a sense of awe about an industry I had no idea would become such a defining part of my life. This year, I left with another bag of samples (and a bit worried I had caught covid). I also left with the realization that this industry, while it’s bigger than it ever was, is also still as dynamic as it ever was, and will be even long after I’ve made my last Expo visit. Despite the businesses that have gone under, the mergers, the lawsuits, and those dear friends we’ve lost along the way — just like all of us, food changes. It has to.

    New Hope, which produces the event, identified five defining trends to look out for at the show: the intersection of health systems (driven by nurturing microbiomes), delivering on climate commitments, radical transparency, sustainability, and the “subscriptionalization” of everything (think: meal kits).

    “It’s always tempting to zero in on the year’s hottest innovations or the latest go-to ingredients, but it’s important to recognize that these trends are reflections and manifestations of the much broader cultural forces that are truly driving today’s natural products industry,” said Jessica Rubino, Vice President, Content at Informa Markets’ New Hope Network. “These big-picture trends exist on a continuum, and Natural Products Expo West offers a front-row seat to observe their evolution.”

    It’s refreshing to see Rubino remind us that the trends are part of a systemic continuum — as is everything. We need to widen the lens in order to get the clearest view. It’s like that old Chinese proverb that Alan Watts loved to tell. The story is always a work in progress.

    With more than 65,000 attendees, thousands of brands, and new convention center wings to visit, it’s impossible to taste or see everything at a show of this magnitude. The trends (and the trendiest) always bubble up to the surface anyway, making their presence hard to miss. Besides, the more Expos you attend, the more you’ll come to realize that tasting everything isn’t the imperative, it’s catching that glimpse into our ever-evolving food system, and seeing how we’re evolving along with it, that’s the real takeaway.

    The post 1999 To 2023: Expo West Then and Now appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Malaysia Gets Its First Cultivated Meat Facility

    malaysian meal
    3 Mins Read

    Slated to launch in Q4 2024, Cell AgriTech says its first cultivated meat production facility will also be Malaysia’s first.

    Cell AgriTech says it plans to be in full production by spring of 2025, pending regulatory approval for cultivated meat. The company made the factory announcement during the first Malaysia Cultivated Meat Conference held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center earlier this month.

    Malaysia’s first cultivated meat facility

    “We are proud to be the first cultivated meat company in the country, bringing a sustainable and delicious alternative to traditional meat products,” said Jason Ng, the founder and manufacturing vice president of the Cell AgriTech group of companies.

    eel
    Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

    Cell Agritech’s focus will be on seafood, with tuna and eel up first. The goal is to achieve price parity with conventional seafood, the company says. The new facility will span three to four acres in size, with a 1,000-liter production volume.

    According to Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup, who was also present at the conference, the global cultivated meat market is expected to grow from US$176.48 million (RM791.87 million) in 2022, to US$321.71 million (RM1.44 billion) in 2027.

    “The development of cultivated meat technology in Malaysia promises to create job opportunities and revenue while addressing national challenges such as food security, health management, and climate change,” Kurup said.

    Cultivated meat is currently only approved for sale in Singapore, but two U.S. companies, Eat Just’s Good Meat and Upside Foods, have received FDA clearance with “no questions” on their tech.

    Alternative protein across Southeast Asia

    In a post shared on LinkedIn, the Good Food Insitute APAC said the historical development also opens up opportunities for new collaborations across Southeast Asia. That kicked off with Ng announcing that Cell AgriTech will partner with Singapore’s Umami Meats to scale up the production of cultivated seafood.

    fish ball
    Courtesy Umami Meats

    Last year, Umami Meats announced it had produced cultivated fish cakes and filets, following the launch of cultivated fish ball laksa last August. It filed a patent for a novel single-stem cell technology that it says can build both muscle and fat in cultivated seafood.

    Mohd Khairul Fidzal Abdul Razak, CEO of the Bioeconomy Corporation — the lead development agency for the bio-based industry in Malaysia — said that as the global population surpassed 8 billion last November 2022, the cultivated meat industry is “poised to grow substantially.”

    “We believe that the future of meat is cultivated,” Ng said. “We are committed to bringing this innovative and sustainable solution to the meat industry as our focus in the field of cellular agriculture.”

    The post Malaysia Gets Its First Cultivated Meat Facility appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Cocoon Bioscience Raises €15 Million for Its Caterpillar Bioreactors

    cabbage looper caterpillar

    3 Mins Read

    Spain-based Cocoon Bioscience has closed a €15 million equity funding round to scale its looper moth-based tech, including the development of a new production facility in Spain.

    The new funding for the biotech startup spin-off of biotech company Algenex was led by Columbus Venture Partners and Cleon Capital with participation from Viscofan, and North South Ventures, among others.

    Caterpillar bioreactors

    Cocoon is focused on developing growth factors for cultivated meat and other alternative protein as well as mRNA synthesis and genetic sequencing. It uses looper moth caterpillars to develop its vaccines and growth mediums instead of steel bioreactors. It injects the moth cocoons with the Baculovirus and then encodes it with different information.

    Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson
    Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson | Courtesy

    “It’s kind of like leveraging cocoons as natural, low-cost bioreactors,” Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson told AgFunder News. “When [humans] catch a virus like a flu, we make a bunch of mucus. Similarly, these moths catch this virus Baculovirus and make whatever protein or enzymes are sequenced into that virus,” he says.

    “We have a product, we’re selling it today, we just need to make more of it,” Robinson said. “We’re selling it at a price point that’s already lower than anyone else, and this platform develops new products extremely quickly.

    The new production facility will be located in Bilbao, Spain — about 250 miles north of Madrid — and is slated to be fully operational in 2024.

    “Our proof of concepts, from knowing what we want to make to having a sample ready to test is an 8- to 10-week process.”

    Reducing cultivated meat costs

    Robinson says that growth factors for cultivated meat costs hundreds of dollars for milligrams, but Cocoon’s tech takes away the bioreactor expense.

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken | courtesy Eat Just

    But with companies moving away from animal-based growth mediums like fetal bovine serum, time will tell if there’s a market for moth-grown media. It’s not slowing things down for Cocoon, though.

    According to Robinson, 2023 is expected to be a big year for the company including building and completing the industrial-scale manufacturing facility “where we’ll be able to produce kilograms to tens of kilograms of these growth factors as well as these enzymes to meet scaling demand for our current partners and those that have expressed interest in working with us,” he said.

    “Cultivated meat companies need to manufacture whatever meat they’re producing in large-scale bioreactors,” says Robinson. “But the growth factors, those high-value, hero ingredients, have to program the bovine cells to perform the way they need to. Those growth factors are traditionally produced in bioreactors, and it becomes really expensive if you’re doing that in the traditional way.”

    The post Cocoon Bioscience Raises €15 Million for Its Caterpillar Bioreactors appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Oatly Snaps Up $425 Million In Fresh Funds and European McDonald’s Deal

    mccafe
    3 Mins Read

    Following a string of quarterly losses, Sweden-based Oatly has raised $425 million in new funds to continue its expansion, that now includes a deal with McDonald’s.

    In a statement last week, Oatly Group AB said the $425 million comes in a deal with hedge fund Silver Point Capital LP for $125 million in a guaranteed term loan B credit agreement along with the sale of $300 million in convertible notes.

    Advancing Oatly’s mission

    “We’re pleased with the confidence demonstrated by our anchor shareholders and new investors in advancing Oatly’s mission and fueling the tremendous global opportunity ahead for our organization,” Oatly Chief Executive Toni Petersson said in a statement last week.

    Courtesy

    “With our operations better stabilized and business plan now fully funded, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the strong underlying global demand for our products and create significant, long-term value for our shareholders,” he said.

    The news sent Oatly shares up 17 percent to $2.43, Marketwatch reported.

    Oatly x McCafé Austria

    Earlier this week, Oatly announced it had struck a deal with McDonald’s Austria to bring its Oatly Barista Edition to all 800-plus McDonald’s McCafés across the country.

    “We have noticed an increased demand for oat-based dairy alternatives among our guests and responded to that. With addition of Oatly Barista, we can now cater a delicious alternative to the growing number of our guests who prefer oat-based drinks at our McCafé, and at the same time we offer our guests a maximum taste experience,” Tanja Wallner, Marketing Professional McCafé & Breakfast at McDonald’s Austria, said in a statement.

    Courtesy McDonald’s

    The move marks the first oat drink in McCafés in Austria and builds on Oatly’s relationship with the fast-food giant. In 2021 it announced a partnership with McDonald’s in mainland China.

    “We’re excited to partner with McDonald’s Austria and commend their commitment to providing their guests with great-tasting drink options that are better for the planet,” says Roland Griesebner, Country Manager Austria at Oatly. “For Oatly, our partnership with McDonald’s Austria allows us to introduce our best-selling product to a wider audience.”

    McDonald’s Austria was one of the first countries to debut the plant-based McPlant burger. Last summer, McDonald’s rival Burger King made plant-based meat the default at its Austrian location.

    “Meat is one option, but it is not the only one,” Jan-Christoph Küster, marketing director of the TQSR Group, Austrian master franchisee of Burger King, said when the campaign launched last year. “We leave it open to our guests what is normal for them: everyone should have the same taste.”

    The post Oatly Snaps Up $425 Million In Fresh Funds and European McDonald’s Deal appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Miyoko Schinner Countersues Miyoko’s Alleging Sexism Led to Her Dismissal

    miyoko's cheese
    3 Mins Read

    Ousted vegan cheesemaker and founder of Miyoko’s Creamery, Miyoko Schinner files countersuit against her former employer.

    Following her dismissal last June and the official public announcement that went viral last month, Miyoko Schinner, founder of vegan dairy brand Miyoko’s Creamery, has filed a countersuit against her former company, alleging that she was forced out after filing multiple HR complaints about recently-hired male executives who “openly denigrated women.”

    Schinner was hit with a lawsuit last month following her departure from the company that she founded in 2014, with claims that the founder was in breach of contract, stole company documents and trade secrets, and misappropriated intellectual property.

    ‘A campaign of mistreating women’

    Schinner’s countersuit was filed last week by The Bloom Firm. The counterclaims follow weeks of the ousted founder sharing videos on social media to publicly deny the accusations made by her former employer and to condemn shifts to the work culture following key hires over the last several years. Her claims include gender discrimination, retaliation, and unlawful use of her likeness on the company website without her consent.

    Miyoko’s cheese | Courtesy

    Schinner claims that following the hire of René Weber as VP of operations at Miyoko’s in 2021, he “immediately began a campaign of mistreating women,” including excluding them from meetings and withholding critical information that Schinner’s countersuit says made it “impossible for her to continue to effectively do her job.” According to the lawsuit, Weber “openly denigrated women, their expertise, and their contributions at Miyoko’s, calling some ‘stupid’ and ‘terrible,’” — terms Schinner says Weber never used about men.

    Schinner claims Weber “mansplained” to her that she did not understand her own products or the company she founded. “In a markedly gendered tone, he described her ideas and ambition as unrealistic, driven by emotion and whim,” reads the countersuit.

    Schinner says she also filed complaints to HR about John Zabrodsky, an operations consultant she says was hired by Miyoko’s at the urging of one of the company’s investors, PowerPlant Partners. Miyoko’s then “swiftly retaliated against [Schinner] by demoting her and then terminating her.”

    The company raised nearly $60 million, including a $52 million Series C funding round in 2021.

    ‘Blindsided’

    The Miyoko’s Creamery board of directors says Schinner’s exit from the company came as she lacked the necessary skills to take the company to the next level as its CEO. Schinner maintains that she was “blindsided” by the lawsuit.

    Explaining the decision to reporters, board member James Joaquin from investor Obvious Ventures said the company was seeking a new CEO with “proven P&L experience who has scaled a larger business.”

    Miyoko Schinner, via Instagram

    According to the court filings, Miyoko’ssenior leadership team brought “multiple concerns” about Schinner to the board and “threatened to quit due to Schinner’s mismanagement.”

    Miyoko’s is being represented by the San Diego law firm Mintz. Company counsel Jennifer Rubin told AgFunder News that while the company cannot comment given the pending lawsuit, as the company’s former CEO, Miyoko Schinner was “responsible for managing all of the organization’s employees, functions, strategies, and operations and, more importantly, providing information necessary to allow the company’s board to fulfill its oversight obligations.”

    The post Miyoko Schinner Countersues Miyoko’s Alleging Sexism Led to Her Dismissal appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • BREAKING: Eat Just’s Cultivated Good Meat Is the Second to Receive FDA Clearance

    good meat

    4 Mins Read

    Good Meat, the cultivated meat division of Bay Area food technology company Eat Just, has received a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its cultivated chicken.

    The FDA has accepted Eat Just’s conclusion that its first poultry product, cultivated chicken, is safe to eat, clearing a crucial step in bringing GOOD Meat to restaurants and retail in the U.S.

    ‘No questions’

    The “no questions” letter comes as part of one of the agency’s first pre-market consultations for meat, poultry, and seafood made from cells instead of conventionally raised animals. It followed a similar clearance for fellow Bay Area producer Upside Foods that came from the FDA late last year.

    Good Meat’s cultivated chicken was the first in the world to earn regulatory approval, which was granted by the Singapore Food Agency in 2020. Good Meat won several regulatory approvals for its chicken in Singapore since 2020; it remains the only cultivated meat producer in the world with the ability to sell to consumers.

    José Andrés
    Chef José Andrés will be first in the U.S. to serve cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    “Today’s news is more than just another regulatory decision – it’s food system transformation in action,” Bruce Friedrich, president of The Good Food Institute, said in a statement. “Good Meat has become the second cultivated meat company to receive the go-ahead from FDA for its cultivated chicken, bringing cultivated meat closer to becoming a real choice for American consumers. Consumers and future generations deserve the foods they love made more sustainably and in ways that benefit the public good – ways that preserve our land and water, that protect our climate and global health, ways that allow for food security. Global demand for meat is projected to increase significantly by 2050. A few governments around the world are beginning to prioritize alternative proteins as a solution that accounts for this growing consumer demand while also achieving national climate and development goals, but far more need to follow suit.”

    Since its launch, Good Meat’s chicken has been featured on menus across Singapore including at fine dining establishments, hawker stalls, via the foodpanda delivery platform, and at Huber’s Butchery, one of Singapore’s premier producers and suppliers of high-quality meats.

    The company is now working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on necessary approvals before world-renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés is slated to become the first in the country to offer Good Meat’s chicken to customers at his restaurant in Washington, D.C.

    “The future of our planet depends on how we feed ourselves…and we have a responsibility to look beyond the horizon for smarter, sustainable ways to eat. Good Meat is doing just that, pushing the boundary on innovative new solutions, and I’m excited for everyone to taste the result,” Andrés said in a statement.

    Imminent regulatory approval

    The recent green lights from the FDA for both Good Meat and Upside Foods signal that the cultivated meat industry could be up and running in the U.S. within the next year or two. The U.S. requires a two-pronged approval process for cultivated meat involving both the FDA and the USDA. Experts predict cultivated meat could become a $25 billion global industry by 2030.

    Good Meat claims that surveys conducted on its cultivated chicken show a wide approval rating in Singapore with 70 percent of respondents who tried it claiming it tastes as good as or better than conventional chicken. Nearly 90 percent said they would opt for the cultivated chicken instead of conventional, and nearly as many restaurants said they would be open to selling the meat.

    Good Meat's cultivated lab meat
    Good Meat’s cultivated lab meat | Courtesy

    The benefits of cultivated meat are significant, especially when produced with renewable energy, according to a recent LCA. It has the potential to address many of the challenges associated with traditional meat production, including environmental concerns, animal welfare, and public health.

    “While I will always support family farmers’ efforts to feed the world, forward-thinking companies like Good Meat are tackling food security, nutrition and environmental stewardship in new and exciting ways,” said Dan Glickman, Good Meat Advisory Board member; former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. “Receiving a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA and a subsequent clearance from the USDA will allow Good Meat to scale up manufacturing and begin introducing its products to American consumers,” he said.

    “Just as the United States has been a global leader in modernizing conventional food and agriculture techniques, it too can lead in the emerging alternative protein space. Today’s announcement is one such example.” 

    The post BREAKING: Eat Just’s Cultivated Good Meat Is the Second to Receive FDA Clearance appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Jimi Biotech Debuts China’s First Cultivated Chicken

    jimi chicken
    3 Mins Read

    The innovation and AI-driven Jimi Biotech has presented the first fully developed cultivated meat in China.

    China-based Jimi Biotech has achieved a major milestone in cultivated meat by developing what it says is the country’s first 100 percent cell-based meat. The product is created entirely from animal cells without any plant scaffolding.

    Zhehou Cao, CEO of Jimi Biotech, says that cultivated meat containing plant scaffolding cannot replicate the taste and product perception of real meat products, making 100 percent cell-based meat a more viable option for consumers looking for a sustainable option without sacrificing taste or texture.

    Cultivated chicken

    The company is working to develop what it calls “new forms” of meat while reducing public health risks and addressing food safety, environmental pollution, and animal welfare problems related to conventional meat production.

    jimi biotech chicken
    Jimi Biotech’s cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    Roosters in Hangzhou provided the cells for the meat. Cao said a sensory evaluation of the product found that the difference in color, smell, and taste comparing conventional chicken with Jimi’s cultivated chicken was minimal, making it a successful first attempt and a viable contender for scaling up, once China greenlights cultivated meat.

    The company says it has managed to reduce the cost of the culture medium to around ¥ 100 ($14), which is only 3 percent of the price of the culture medium on the market.

    Funding the future of sustainable meat

    Prior to the launch, Jimi Biotech completed its second exclusive ¥10 million round of funding ($1.45 million) in the last four months — both led by Shiwei Capital. The funding will be used for research and development as well as the construction of a small pilot plant.

    Weichang Jiang, a partner at Shiwei Capital, praised Jimi Biotech’s rapid progress in core areas such as cell lines and culture media. Jiang also noted that the company’s automation and AI will make the company an efficiency leader in the sector.

    jimi
    Jimi’s cultivated meat | Courtesy

    “Although only three months have passed since the last round of funding, Jimi Biotech has still made significant technological breakthroughs,” Jiang said in a statement. “In addition to the rapid progress in core areas such as cell lines and culture media, we believe that Jimi Biotech’s deep integration of automation and AI into the research and development also reflects the founder’s emphasis on continuously improving research and development efficiency.”

    The debut comes as the Chinese government has explicitly listed cultivated meat as a key area for future food manufacturing in the “14th Five-Year Plan” for National Agricultural Science and Technology Development. The National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center (CFSA) will also establish a special group for cultivated meat this year to study the regulatory framework of cultivated meat in China.

    “China has the largest market for meat and a well-established supply chain system, so we believe that some of the world’s leading cultivated meat enterprises will be Chinese enterprises,” Jiang said. “With the attention of the regulatory agency, the industry is about to enter an important turning point in China.”

    The post Jimi Biotech Debuts China’s First Cultivated Chicken appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Ever After Foods Unveils a Novel Bioreactor Platform to Scale Cultivated Meat

    ever after foods bioreactor
    3 Mins Read

    Israel-based food tech innovator Ever After Foods has launched its patented bioreactor platform for producing cultivated meat.

    Backed by Israel’s largest food producer, the Tnuva Group, Ever After Foods has developed what it says is the first production platform that can bring cultivated meat to the mass market at scale.

    The achievement comes by way of a proprietary bioreactor system that Ever After says can overcome the critical challenge of scaling cultivated meat. Ever After Foods’ manufacturing plants require significantly lower capital and lower production costs, which it says results in a 700 percent increase in productivity when compared with other cultivated meat technology platforms.

    Cost parity for cultivated meat

    “Current cultivated meat companies all use very similar methods for growing cells and face insurmountable challenges when it comes to scaling production in a cost-effective manner,” Ever After Foods CEO Eyal Rosenthal said in a statement.

    Upside Foods' cultivated chicken
    Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    “To achieve cost parity, their methods will demand huge bioreactors of more than 10,000-liters, which are infeasible for use with animal cells. Ever After Foods’ disruptive technology enables significantly higher cultivated meat production capacity, with efficiencies that lower resources and costs. We can currently produce more than 10 kilograms of cultivated meat mass with just a 35-liter bioreactor and have a proven path to scale and reach price parity,” Rosenthal said.

    “Leveraging its unique production platform, Ever After Foods will transform the food system by reinventing how we produce and consume meat. Ever After Foods is prepared to spearhead the move toward the efficient development, production and distribution of delicious, high-quality cultivated meat products at mass scale,” said Eyal Malis, CEO of the Tnuva Group.

    Sustainable protein

    Ever After says the need for protein solutions is critical as the United Nations predicts the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 with global meat demand rising concurrently. The planet’s natural resources cannot support that, but Ever After says cultivated meat provides an animal-friendly alternative that can.

    A recent LCA on cultivated meat have found it to be more sustainable than conventional animal products, especially when using renewable energy. Another recent report predicted alternative protein will account for 60 percent of the global meat market by 2040, with cultivated meat is forecasted to outpace plant-based alternatives, even despite lacking regulations at present.

    Good Meat's cultivated lab meat
    Good Meat’s cultivated lab meat | Courtesy

    “In less than a year, Ever After Foods developed a solution unlike any other in the market through massive technological advancements that evolved the original biotech-focused technology into a food-grade platform. We see incredible potential for Ever After Foods to transform cells into high-quality cultivated meat products,” said Yaky Yanay, Pluri CEO and President, as well as Chairman of Ever After Foods.

    Ever After Foods, formerly Plurinuva, launched last year as a spin-off of 3D cell-based food tech pioneer, Pluri, Inc.

    “Addressing food security, health, sustainability and animal-welfare concerns, cultivated meat is the future of food,” said Rosenthal. “Our new name, logo and branding underscore our ambition to deliver the future of meat, sustainably, ever after.”

    The post Ever After Foods Unveils a Novel Bioreactor Platform to Scale Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • PoLoPo Raises $1.75 Million In Seed Funding For Potato Protein

    potatoes

    3 Mins Read

    Israel-based startup PoLoPo has secured $1.75 million in a Pre-Seed funding round for its molecular farming potato-based technology.

    PoLoPo’s new funding was led by FoodLabs with participation from CPT Capital, Siddhi Capital, Plug and Play Ventures, Milk & Honey Ventures, and HackCapital.

    The funding will support PoLoPo’s technology platform, starting with replicating ovalbumin, the protein found in egg white. The company says it expects to have prototypes in the coming 18 months, including protein-rich potato tubers and ovalbumin functional samples.

    Turning potatoes into eggs

    PoLoPo’s proprietary technology allows for proteins to be expressed in potatoes in a scalable, cost-effective way, which the company says can enable the food industry to meet its protein demands and nourish the world’s growing population; the egg protein market alone is valued at more than $26 billion, the company says.

    eggs
    Photo by Jakub Kapusnak on Unsplash

    Using its microbial tech, PoLoPo says its ovalbumin will be identical to chicken egg ovalbumin in terms of functionality, nutritional value, and protein sequence. PoLoPo’s goal is to produce better food for the world and reduce the carbon footprint of the production process.

    “We want to produce better food for the world. Molecular farming technology, being harnessed for the production of high-quality proteins, presents a huge opportunity to do so, alongside with taking the animals out of the equation and reducing the carbon footprint of the production process” PoLoPo co-founder, Dr. Raya Liberman-Aloni, said in a statement.

    The mighty, underused potato

    The potato is the world’s most widely grown non-cereal food crop, produced in more than 100 countries worldwide. Potatoes are abundant, resilient, cheap, and versatile yet, according to PoLoPo, are an underused food source. PoLoPo says its potato-to-protein pathway offers commercial scalability since plants require relatively low investment to grow and are amenable to upscaling by common agricultural practices.

    PoLoPo founders
    PoLoPo founders Maya Sapir-Mir (left) and Raya Liberman-Aloni (right)

    “We’ve been very impressed by the disruptive potential of their platform technology and, most importantly, by the deep plant science expertise of PoLoPo’s founders and their bold vision for the company,” said Christian Guba, Managing Partner at FoodLabs. “We believe they are set to complement the incumbents in Precision Fermentation by pioneering a simpler approach to develop proteins.”

    PoLoPo’s innovative approach to protein production has already gained recognition, winning the Coller startup competition FoodTech track in July 2022, and securing its first investment from CPT Capital. Last October, PoLoPo won the FoodHack Demo Day as the startup with the most impact potential.

    The post PoLoPo Raises $1.75 Million In Seed Funding For Potato Protein appeared first on Green Queen.

  • TurtleTree Debuts Its Cultivated ‘Pink Gold’ Lactoferrin

    TurtleTree has debuted its cultivated lactoferrin
    3 Mins Read

    TurtleTree, a global leader in animal-free functional dairy proteins, has announced the launch of the world’s first precision fermentation-produced lactoferrin.

    Known as “pink gold” for its high value and iron-rich pink hue, Singapore-based TurtleTree debuted the cultivated LF+ product at an exclusive tasting event in San Francisco this week.

    LF+ is considered a highly prized bioactive milk protein and one of the most powerful components found in cow’s milk, with functional benefits for immunity, iron regulation, and digestive health.

    ‘Harnessing the power of precision fermentation’

    “By unlocking access to one of the most powerful and multifunctional proteins in milk, we are envisioning a better food future where more people than ever before can improve their personal nutrition sustainably,” TurtleTree Founder and CEO Fengru Lin, said in a statement. “Harnessing the power of precision fermentation will provide us with an abundant supply of these vital nutrients that can be enjoyed by all segments of the population through everyday food products.” 

    TurtleTree's lactoferrin
    TurtleTree’s lactoferrin in application | Courtesy

    TurtleTree says its breakthrough provides an affordable source of lactoferrin; conventional sources can retail at between $700 to $1,500 USD per kilogram.

    While lactoferrin is in use in supplements and infant formulas, supply scarcity means that demand cannot be met for other fertile segments like sports nutrition, where the protein’s iron-regulating benefits can improve physical performance.

    TurtleTree’s development is also removing high methane-emitting cows from the supply chain. Animal agriculture represents more than 15 percent of anthropogenic emissions, fueling the climate crisis.

    ‘Transforming the food system’

    “As one of TurtleTree’s early investors, KBW Ventures recognized that transforming the food system requires studied innovation; a commitment to the science, and both ingenuity and integrity to see it through,” said KBW Ventures Founder and CEO Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed.

    “Transforming the food system as a mission is the business of changemakers, and I am proud that we could play a role in fueling the world’s future in food. TurtleTree’s world first, the showcase of LF+, is what technology can do when mobilized for good,” he said.

    TurtleTree raised $30 million in a 2021 Series A funding round led by Verso Capital after it first announced the lactoferrin product was in the works in June 2020.

    Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed was an early investor in TurtleTree | Courtesy

    “We are incredibly touched by the degree of faith all our investors have placed in TurtleTree and our unique vision of food,” Lin said at the time. “The Series A funds will allow us to scale up our processes and come a huge step closer to creating a new era of sustainable nutrition.”

    The company sees a clear path to profitability on a per unit basis within six to 12 months after commercial launch, which is anticipated for Q4 2023.

    Good Food Institute co-founder and president Bruce Friedrich called the development “another innovative breakthrough” that he says gives consumers more sustainable food choices and creates a more sustainable food system.

    “Consumers deserve nutritious, affordable options that are produced in efficient, better-for-the-planet ways,” Friedrich said. “With more private sector and public sector support, precision fermentation is one of the brilliant alternative protein technologies that can open up a world of possibilities on this front.”

    The post TurtleTree Debuts Its Cultivated ‘Pink Gold’ Lactoferrin appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Life-Cycle Assessment Shows Cultivated Meat’s Benefits for a Sustainable Food System

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    3 Mins Read

    A new ex-ante life-cycle assessment looks at the efficiencies and benefits of cultivated meat.

    The LCA looked at cultivated meat from more than 15 companies, comparing the outlook of cultivated meat production in 2030 to that of conventional animal meat. The research was funded by GAIA, The Good Food Institute, a donor-backed 501(c)3 nonprofit, and CE Delft. The findings are published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

    “Cultivated meat (CM) is attracting increased attention as an environmentally sustainable and animal-friendly alternative to conventional meat,” reads the abstract. “As the technology matures, more data are becoming available and uncertainties decline.”

    The findings

    According to the researchers, the ex-ante LCA looked at cradle-to-gate production of 1kg of meat. Source data include lab-scale primary data from five cultivated meat producers, full-scale primary data from processes in comparable manufacturing fields, data from computational models, and data from published literature.

    “Although animal products contribute around 18 percent of calories and 37 percent of protein to the average global diet, the impacts on the environment are disproportionately large compared to non-animal products in diets (Poore and Nemecek 2018),” note the researchers.

    Photo by Louis Reed at Unsplash.

    The researchers note that conventional animal products’ impact on climate change is significant, making up between 16.5 percent and 19.4 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, twice as large as plant-based sources and “by far the highest contributor within food system emissions.”

    Conventional animal products use approximately 83 percent of global agricultural land, including pastures and cropland for feed, as well as 41 percent of green and blue water use.

    The findings suggest cultivated meat is nearly three times more efficient at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock, making agriculture land use significantly lower. It also found nitrogen emissions to be lower because of cultivated meat production efficiency and lack of manure.

    Renewable energy

    The report also points to the need for renewable energy in producing cultivated meat as the process is “energy-intensive”.

    “Using renewable energy, the carbon footprint is lower than beef and pork and comparable to the ambitious benchmark of chicken,” reads the report. “Greenhouse gas profiles are different, being mostly CO2 for CM and more CH4 and N2O for conventional meats. Climate hotspots are energy used for maintaining temperature in reactors and for biotechnological production of culture medium ingredients.”

    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods
    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods | Courtesy

    The researchers say cultivated meat producers should work to optimize energy efficiency, including sourcing renewable energy, and leverage supply chain collaborations to ensure sustainable feedstocks. The LCA also calls on governments to consider the renewable energy demands of the emergent cultivated meat industry, and, it encourages consumers to look at cultivated meat not as an extra menu option, but a substitute for higher-impact meat products.

    Cultivated meat has the potential to have a lower environmental impact than ambitious conventional meat benchmarks, for most environmental indicators, most clearly agricultural land use, air pollution, and nitrogen-related emissions, the researchers say. “While CM production and its upstream supply chain are energy-intensive, using renewable energy can ensure that it is a sustainable alternative to all conventional meats.”

    The post Life-Cycle Assessment Shows Cultivated Meat’s Benefits for a Sustainable Food System appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Mung Beans Bring a Sustainable Solution To The Struggling Food Industry: Report

    As Bird Flu Ravages South Korea's Egg Industry, Just's Vegan Egg Arrives
    4 Mins Read

    Mung beans are a versatile and nutritious legume staple and a new GFI APAC report highlights their value in an evolving food industry.

    Mung beans have been consumed by many cultures around the world for thousands of years. They are now gaining popularity as an alternative protein source vital to the future of the food industry, due to their high protein content, versatility, and sustainability.

    A recent report by the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific (GFI APAC) highlights the untapped potential of mung beans as a sustainable and nutritious alternative to animal-based proteins in the growing Asian market.

    Mung beans are a rich source of protein, containing about 24 percent protein by weight, which is comparable to other legumes such as lentils and chickpeas. Mung beans are the base of Eat Just’s vegan egg product, and the high protein content makes them an ideal ingredient for other plant-based products, the report notes.

    ‘A portfolio of solutions’

    “There is no silver-bullet ingredient that fits every system, so we need a portfolio of solutions that
    slot into various regional and product contexts,” reads the report. “Mung beans are a mighty plant protein with a functional fit for many plant-based applications, which can bring a business case across the value chain.”

    According to the report, mung beans hold potential across dairy, meat, and egg successor categories.

    “Mung bean proteins cater to lactose-intolerant consumers without triggering other common allergens like soy and wheat proteins,” the report notes. Lactose intolerance is extremely prevalent across Asia —affecting nearly 100 percent of East Asia — and affects 68 percent of the global population.

    mung beans
    Mung beans are a versatile protein source | Photo Courtesy David Gabrielyan on Unsplash

    “While the nascency of mung bean product development means it is too early to tell what the best
    applications are, first-mover companies claim the excellent dairy-like functionality of mung bean proteins and their status as low-allergen and non-GMO can bring unique consumer benefits, including superior taste and appealing clean labels,” the report notes.

    GFI APAC also points to the potential to supplant eggs, particularly amid the avian flu disruption of the supply chain.

    “Shocks to the conventional egg market in 2022 illuminated the supply-side risks facing animal proteins, the impact on price parity, and the value of plant-based eggs as volatility-proof substitutes,” reads the report. Skyrocketing egg prices driven by the outbreak saw sales of Just Egg, the leading mung bean-based egg alternative jump 17 percent in Q4 2022.

    “Plant-based eggs are not only a market opportunity in Asia, which is the world’s biggest egg-consuming region, but an imperative to future-proof the egg supply,” the report reads.

    Mung beans hold potential in the alternative meat category as well, the report notes. “In order for alternative meats to take off in Asia, they must demonstrate key functionalities such as
    the formation of an emulsion—a heat-stable gel with a desired mouthfeel—which can be found in mung bean proteins,” GFI APAC notes.

    Beyond Meat and PepsiCo’s recent joint venture tapped mung beans for plant-based jerky. “The snack segment represents 12 percent of the global meat market and its growth trends are strong with the rise in snacking behaviour since COVID-19, increased desire for healthy, protein-rich snack options,
    and the extremely high demand for convenience food in Southeast Asia,” reads the report.

    Mung beans also show potential applications for cultivated meat and fermentation. “The protein residue
    and peptides left in the water after washing and concentration processes can be extracted and potentially used as plant-based culture media components for the cultivated meat industry,” says GFI APAC. “For fermentation, mung bean hulls have been proven as a good feedstock for the production of xylitol, which is an ingredient used in obesity intervention. Mung bean components may have additional untapped potential in other microbial fermentation processes.”

    Mung bean sustainability

    Beyond their versatility, one of the key benefits of mung beans is their sustainability. Mung beans require considerably less water and land compared to animal-based proteins, making them an eco-friendly protein source. They are also less resource-intensive than other plant-based protein sources such as soybeans and peas. Moreover, mung beans can be grown in a variety of climatic conditions and are relatively easy to cultivate, making them a versatile crop for farmers.

    Courtesy Just Egg

    The GFI APAC report also highlights the potential of mung beans in addressing food insecurity in Asia. As a staple food in many Asian countries, the mung bean’s high protein and nutrient content make them an ideal food source for populations that are struggling to meet the protein demands of rising populations.

    “Crop diversification offers huge potential to increase mainstream acceptance of alternative proteins across Asia and build back the health of our global food system,” reads the report. “Alternative proteins are a dramatically more efficient way of producing protein to meet the soaring consumer demand; however, we need to urgently accelerate product development to drive consumer uptake. Developing alternative proteins using diversified and localised plant protein sources will bring relevant product benefits, and lay the foundations for a sustainable and secure food system that can cope with the
    vulnerable and volatile climates we face now and in the future.”

    The post Mung Beans Bring a Sustainable Solution To The Struggling Food Industry: Report appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 77% of Consumers Will Try Precision Fermentation Once They Understand the Benefits, Survey Finds

    3 Mins Read

    A new white paper released by the Hartman Group in partnership with precision fermentation leaders Perfect Day and Cargill takes the pulse on consumer attitudes toward food technology, chiefly precision fermentation.

    Entitled “Fermenting the Future: The Growing Opportunity for Products Made with Precision Fermentation,” the paper measures current consumer perceptions of food and technology.

    More than 2,500 U.S. adults were surveyed for the research, and 77 percent of those surveyed who said they were familiar with precision fermentation said they are likely to purchase precision fermentation products.

    Perfect Day Raises $350M in Late-Stage Funding Round As Brand Prepares to IPO
    Courtesy Perfect Day

    The tech has been most frequently associated with Perfect Day, the Bay Area company that uses yeast and microorganisms to grow dairy-identical whey protein.

    But the tech has been used in other categories and by other manufacturers. Precision fermentation is expected to grow in popularity as consumers seek out more sustainable and ethical alternatives to conventional animal products.

    The findings

    The report notes that a majority of consumers have favorable opinions about the benefits that science and technology can have in streamlining the food system.

    Younger consumers expressed the most enthusiasm for new technologies like precision fermentation and say they want to support companies that align with their own values around the environment and animal welfare.

    Chocolate ice cream cone
    Photo by Dylan Ferreira on Unsplash

    Consumer attitudes align with the findings that 69 percent of Americans believe “we need to find ways to meet our society’s nutritional needs with fewer resources like energy, water, or carbon,” the Hartman Group said in a statement.

    “[The report] illuminates how companies like ours can meet them where they are with education and tasting opportunities,” said Allison Fowler, CMO of Perfect Day. Fowler says the data validates that most Americans “share our mission to create a kinder and greener future and that consumers are open to learning more about the positive impacts this will have on the environment.”  

    Precision fermentation market potential

    Precision fermentation has already seen interest from major food conglomerates including Nestlé, General Mills, and Unilever. The report predicts the category will see support from more than 132 million adults by 2027.

    Currently, 40 percent of adult consumers are interested in trying the tech; 61 percent say they believe science and technology are our best hope to address climate change. Additionally, more than half of Americans are willing to drastically change their lifestyle to be more environmentally friendly.

    cowabunga milk
    Nestlé and Perfect Day’s precision fermentation Cowabunga milk is now available in select locations | Courtesy

    Millennials and Gen Z show the most eagerness in adopting food innovations, including precision fermentation. Sixty percent of Millennials and 55 percent of Gen Z said they actively seek out food and beverage products from companies that prioritize sustainability and animal welfare.

    With a clearer understanding of precision fermentation, 85 percent of Millennials and 84 percent of Gen Z say they would be likely to purchase products containing ingredients made with precision fermentation.

    The data validates the momentum Perfect Day has cultivated in the precision fermentation industry. Earlier this month, Perfect Day, along with eight other precision fermentation companies, launched the Precision Fermentation Alliance — the first industry trade group for the precision fermentation sector.

    The post 77% of Consumers Will Try Precision Fermentation Once They Understand the Benefits, Survey Finds appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Agri-Food Tech Investments Dropped 44% Last Year, But a Big Turnaround Is Just Ahead, Report Finds

    3 Mins Read

    A new report from AgFunder and Temasek reveals that funding to agri-food tech start-ups reached $29.6 billion in 2022 — down 44 percent from the previous year. But despite the decline, outlook for the category is positive.

    According to the report, the decline in funding was largely in line with global venture capital markets, with the e-grocery market in China, cloud retail infrastructure, and North American alternative protein start-ups hit hardest.

    “The global agri-food system is critical to supporting human life and yet as a system, is inefficient, inequitable, and causing inordinate strain on the planet,” Temasek says in the report.

    Data from the United Nations points to a 60 percent increase in global food demand by 2050, including a 73 percent increased demand in animal protein.

    steak
    Demand for animal protein will soar over the next three decades. Photo by tommao wang on Unsplash

    “Existing food production practices account for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, 70 percent of freshwater usage, and 80% of deforestation worldwide,” Temasek noted. “Geopolitical instability, protectionist government policies and unpredictable weather events have also fueled a global food crisis, with food price inflation threatening global food security.

    “The need to invest for a resilient food system, that is also part of the climate change solution, has never been greater.”

    The findings

    According to the report, “cheap money” along with “increasingly outlandish tech valuations” drove 2021’s record-breaking $51.7 billion in food tech funding — an inflated number that could not be matched in 2022 amid war, inflation, and continued supply chain disruptions, “the market came crashing down in 2022.”

    The report notes that there were no “mega deals” in 2022, which put it in stark contrast to recent years. More than four billion-dollar-plus deals happened in 2021, the report notes, and barring covid’s impact in 2020, there has been one deal worth more than $1 billion every year since 2016.

    Funding for meal delivery programs, e-grocery, alternative protein, cloud retail, and midstream technologies declined more than 35 percent.

    Impossible Foods patties
    Can the alt-protein industry weather the agri-food tech investing climate? | Courtesy

    But climate-related categories, including bioenergy and biomaterials, ag biotech, novel farming systems, farm management software, sensing and IoT, all saw increased funding. Funding upstream in food production technologies, including farm tech and innovative food, raised significantly more capital than downstream.

    The report also shows that African agri-food tech start-ups received 22 percent more funding last year than in 2021, with $600 million raised.

    “There’s no denying the second half of 2022 was terrible for venture capital (VC),” AgFunder noted.

    Climate-focused food system

    The drop in 2022 may be short-lived, however. The report notes that many of the world’s macro challenges, including inflation, food insecurity, and labor shortages, are driving interest in agri-food tech investments.

    farmer
    Climate solutions play a big part in the future of investments. Photo by Zubair Hussain on Unsplash

    A survey accompanying the report found industry VCs largely agree that the sector is playing a bigger role in the climate conversation. Those categories, including indoor agriculture, biotech, and precision agriculture, all saw funding increases.

    “With more discipline from founders (and investors too!), the industry can capitalize on the growing interest in using technology to transform our food and agriculture system to be better for people and our planet,” reads the report. “[2023] could be a vintage year to invest in agrifoodtech.”

    The post Agri-Food Tech Investments Dropped 44% Last Year, But a Big Turnaround Is Just Ahead, Report Finds appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • South Korea’s Tofu Giant Teams Up With Cultivated Meat Startup Simple Planet

    burger
    3 Mins Read

    South Korea’s plant-based food manufacturer Pulmuone and cell-based startup Simple Planet have teamed up to co-produce hybrid cultivated meat.

    Pulmuone and Simple Planet say they’re working to co-develop and commercialize hybrid cultivated meat products that combine plant-based ingredients and cultivated meat. The companies are targeting a 2025 retail launch given the current lack of regulatory approval for cultivated meat products.

    Hybrid meat

    Demand for healthier and more environmentally friendly food is on the rise in South Korea; the country’s alternative meat market was worth approximately $15.6 million USD in 2022, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year, according to Euromonitor. The market is predicted to rise to $24 billion USD by 2025.

    simple planet
    Simple Planet’s cultivated meat will be blended with Pulmuone’s plant-based ingredients. Courtesy

    The move builds on Pulmuone’s recent launches including a plant-based meat brand last year and a 2020 partnership with cultivated seafood startup BlueNalu.

    Last June, Simple Planet announced that it had developed cultivated meat with a higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids.

    Coldplay-backed SCiFi Foods is also working to develop plant-based and cultivated meat hybrids.

    Hybrid meat development is also coming to conventional meat producers. Last month, Mush Foods announced its mycelium protein intended for combining with traditional beef.

    U.S. market

    Pulmuone is also preparing to increase its U.S. presence. Already, 70 percent of the tofu products sold in the U.S. are made by Pulmuone; Walmart, Costco, and hundreds of restaurant chains currently use Pulmuone’s products. It’s the company behind the Plantspired range.

    The company is now aiming to bring healthy, low-fat Korean food sold in South Korea for the last 40 years, to the U.S. consumer, including a range of “healthy” instant noodles.

    Cho Kil-su, head of Pulmuone, told the Korean Herald that the U.S. market saw significant growth in consumption of plant-based food after the pandemic years, as consumers’ interest in health grew.

    plantspired
    Pulmuone is behind the U.S. brand Plantspired. Courtesy

    “Concern for the environment also grew after the pandemic, and demand for plant-based products soared even higher as they produce less carbon dioxide throughout the production process,” he said.

    “This year, we plan to further expand our production infrastructure and expand our B2B business. We will mainly center on supplying universities with our products, as we have analyzed that young adults are most sensitive about health issues and receptive to new types of food,” said Cho.

    “We have partnered with leading local universities such as Yale University and Virginia Tech to provide sustainable food, and contribute to having students establish healthy diets.

    “We also aim to foray into Canada and Europe by expanding our tofu production line at the Ayer tofu plant (in Massachusetts) at the end of 2023.”

    Fellow South Korean plant-based food manufacturer Unlimeat has also seen steady growth in the U.S. after launching in stores last year. It recently launched its plant-based Korean BBQ and two flavors of pulled pork into 1,500 Albertsons locations.

    The post South Korea’s Tofu Giant Teams Up With Cultivated Meat Startup Simple Planet appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.