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Category: Alt Protein

  • No, Beyond Meat Has Not Filed for Bankruptcy

    beyond meat bankruptcy
    4 Mins Read

    Rumours suggest that Beyond Meat is considering a bankruptcy filing amid falling sales, but the plant-based giant has vehemently denied the claim.

    Beyond Meat, the company that put plant-based meat as we know it today on the map, has come out strongly against media reports alleging that it has filed for bankruptcy.

    The Californian vegan pioneer has had a tough couple of years, with sales falling further this year and its stock price at a fraction of its IPO value six years ago. Its year-on-year revenue slimmed by 20% in Q2 2025, prompting the company to announce a new round of layoffs and appoint John Boken, managing director of corporate restructuring consultancy AlixPartners, as its interim chief transformation officer.

    But the latter development has led some media outlets to speculate (or declare) that the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Financial news site The Street‘s headline states Beyond Meat “is headed” towards bankruptcy, while UK newspaper The Independent also nodded to the rumour in its URL.

    Indian publications The Economic Times and Hindustan Times also reported on the claim. They based their reporting on lawyer John T Orcutt’s blog, which said “reports confirmed” the news, but did not post a source. A host of other outlets have disseminated the rumour, including a vegan news publication.

    But before the story spiralled, Beyond Meat came out with a strong statement refuting the reports. “Recent media stories suggesting that Beyond Meat filed for bankruptcy are unequivocally false,” the company tweeted.

    “We have not filed nor are we planning to file for bankruptcy. Go Beyond.”

    Beyond Meat hired restructuring expert amid layoff plans

    In 2024, Beyond Meat recorded its lowest revenue in five years, reaching just $326M. But in the first six months of 2025, it has posted just $144M in sales, a near-15% drop from the same period a year ago.

    The company’s continued struggles have forced it to cut back its workforce. In February, it announced that it would lay off 9% of its global workforce, or 64 employees, which included all its staff in China, where it has suspended operations.

    And this month, it said it would let go of 44 employees in North America, though it isn’t clear if this is part of the same job cuts as above, or an additional round of layoffs.

    Beyond Meat blamed its poor sales performance on softening demand and reduced distribution in US retail, and low sales of its burger products to restaurants internationally. It also hired Boken to drive its operational footprint into the current revenue environment and accelerate margin improvements, with the goal of becoming EBITDA-positive within the second half of 2026.

    “It’s a pretty broadly skilled position. I can’t comment on how much time he has. We’re really enjoying him being here. So hopefully, we’ll get some good work done together,” founder and CEO Ethan Brown said in an earnings call.

    beyond mycelium steak
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Could going beyond meat mimics help pay off its debt by 2027?

    Beyond Meat has an outstanding debt of $1.1B, owing to convertible notes (a type of investment that begins as a loan and turns into equity) that are due to be paid back in 2027.

    The company has been working on several solutions to address the debt. It was reportedly in talks with bondholders to restructure its debt in 2024. And this year, it secured a $100M debt financing facility to enhance its liquidity from Unprocessed Foods,  a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, a non-profit advancing plant-based diets.

    So you’d think Beyond Meat has at least until 2027 to pay off its debt and avoid bankruptcy. The firm has made a radical move to turn its fortunes around: it’s dropping the word ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on traditional plant proteins.

    Its next product, Beyond Ground, features just four ingredients – fava bean protein, potato protein, water and psyllium husk – and isn’t intended to mimic meat. “Going forward, we intend to increasingly use ‘Beyond’ as the primary brand,” Brown confirmed in the Q2 earnings call.

    beyond meat rebrand
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen

    “We have been formally using the shortened mark in certain instances for some time now, and believe it provides for reduced emphasis on facsimile, a now-complicated frame that overshadows the real high-quality protein offerings we provide to consumers, and a widening of our aperture beyond animal protein replicates,” he said.

    There have been several bankruptcies and acquisitions in the plant-based industry over the last 18 months, and more consolidation is expected. Aside from low sales, a lack of investment is also to blame. In Q2, plant-based companies only raised $127M, and this included the $100M secured by Beyond Meat.

    That deal shows that the company still has some clout amid a dire investment landscape, and it will hope to use this to return to success before it’s too late.

    Green Queen has contacted Beyond Meat for comment on the bankruptcy rumours.

    The post No, Beyond Meat Has Not Filed for Bankruptcy appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Meet the Pakistani Meat-Lover Who Created the Country’s First Plant-Based Kebabs

    pakistan vegan food
    5 Mins Read

    In a country where veganism is confined to health stores and imported products, Ghaas Phoos is spearheading the fledgling plant-based movement in Pakistan.

    Ailya Khan grew up on kebabs and tikkas, and hated vegetables. But her love for animals made her give up meat eventually.

    The vegetarian samosas didn’t satisfy the strong cravings for the meat-rich dishes she was familiar with in Pakistan. There were barely any plant-based alternatives, and nothing satisfied her from a cultural, sensory, or emotional perspective.

    “I struggled a lot to find affordable vegan food and realised that here in Pakistan, even people who want to go vegan, eat plant-based, or host plant-based events often can’t find ready-to-go vegan options or accessible plant-based catering services,” she says.

    “It really hit me that most Pakistanis – and many people around the world – don’t have access to plant-based options that connect with our culture.”

    That’s when she decided to take things into her own hands. In 2022, Khan founded Ghaas Phoos Plant-Based Foods, Pakistan’s first vegan meat startup. “The whole idea behind Ghaas Phoos (which literally means grass) was to reclaim the phrase, to make ‘grass’ common and even celebrated,” she explains.

    In the subcontinent, ‘ghaas phoos’ is often used as a derogatory term for vegetarian food – it’s the South Asian equivalent of rabbit food, or the narrative that vegan food is just salads. “We take a fun and proud approach: feeding everyone ‘grass’, showing how creative and joyful plant-based food can be,” says Khan.

    Ghaas Phoos has retail and foodservice expansion in sight

    ghaas phoos foods
    Courtesy: Ghaas Phoos Foods

    Ghaas Phoos, though, is much more than grass. The startup’s offerings include soy-based kebabs and patties, mushroom biryani, and green pea kebabs, all infused with familiar Pakistani spices.

    “We’ve also experimented with over 50 versions of local dishes behind the scenes, things like kulfi (a local ice cream), gulab jamun (milk-based doughballs in rose-cardamom syrup), haleem (a thick, low-cooked stew), dum kebab, makhni kebab, and more,” says Khan.

    The startup operates a meal delivery model and is still in its beta-tasting phase, currently operating two to three days a week, based on pre-booked orders. Currently, it’s a team of three, with Khan joined by her sister and a cook.

    “We personally handle deliveries within a 20km radius in Karachi, but we’re hoping to expand soon. Our meals are pre-cooked and served hot, and another revenue stream we’re developing is consulting for restaurants that want to add plant-based items to their menus,” she says.

    “The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had organic reach on digital. We’ve had a lot of organic reviews – customers have been posting on their own accord on different food groups,” she says. “People have been very supportive of us with regard to a new, budding business.”

    Phase two of its expansion plan concerns retail, with Ghaas Phoos aiming to start with frozen products within Karachi. “But for that, we’ll need a larger kitchen,” she notes.

    Over the next 12 months, the startup is planning to open a small-scale café/kitchen to facilitate grab-n-go and in-house meals. “We’re not trying to compete with meat,” says Khan. “We’re here to showcase what kind of food innovation is possible with local ingredients and plants.”

    ‘Pakistanis are open to trying different foods’

    Khan dismisses the idea that Pakistan is a meat-rich country, except for the three major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. “Most local dishes are plant-based or vegetarian, due to the country’s agricultural nature,” she explains.

    “In the last decade, we’ve seen a surge in the meatification of recipes and heavy dairy infiltration in the market. Even though most menus are now filled with meat and dairy items, people do want to try plant alternatives,” she adds.

    To create demand, Khan says you have to help people find the right food: “We did one soft launch in 2022, and we’ve done R&D for two years. With our final launch in 2025, what we’ve seen is that people do show interest and buy the food, and most of our clients are consistent and repeat customers. This shows people are open to trying different cuisines, whether they are vegan or not.

    “Pakistan has a very rich and diverse food landscape. Luckily, we are still connected to our traditions through food. Every celebration, every tradition revolves around food. If you give us a well-curated meal with the right spices, honesty, and tradition, it will be loved.”

    She reiterates that the business isn’t mimicking meat, but instead banking on unique flavours, textures, and natural colours as its selling point: “We also like calling our products what they are, which has been received positively. We say mushroom biryani, mushroom qeema (mince), pea cutlets, plant-based kebabs, soy patties, egg-inspired plant-based eggs, and so on.”

    Ghaas Phoos seeks investors as plant-based awareness grows

    plant based meat pakistan
    Courtesy: Ghaas Phoos Foods

    Pakistan, for now, has few plant-based protein options. Some companies import international brands of non-dairy milk, while a few independent stores make their own. Accessibility is a major barrier to vegan eating in the country, according to Khan.

    “Tofu and soy are not easily available. I only know five vegans, who make their own seitan. Beans are accessible, but turning them into plant-based meats like the ones available in the Middle East requires awareness, both in the investor community and among restaurants,” she explains.

    “Mushrooms are accessible to a certain class or those with access to land and wild areas,” she adds. “The pre-conceived notion that meat sells creates a sense of risk around plant-based food innovation. I believe there’s limited food knowledge around plant-based foods. I’ve trained three cooks so far, all of whom have been surprised by how much we can experiment with different plants, their textures, and their flavours.”

    But awareness is growing. “We haven’t been met with any hostility so far. In fact, we’ve seen some restaurants add plant-based items to their menus. Pakistani people have been very open to exploring different taste palettes,” she says.

    And a few weeks ago, Jacked Nutrition introduced a vegan brown rice protein powder range with 24g of protein and 2g of fibre per 30g scoop, indicating the burgeoning demand for plant-based options.

    To deliver on its expansion plans, Ghaas Phoos is looking for support from a range of parties. “Finance is definitely important, but we’re also open to support in alternative protein food knowledge, training, and partnerships with international brands who want to explore the Pakistan market through us,” says Khan. “We are also looking for funders and investors who believe in a plant-based future and will help keep the business sustainable for the long term.

    “Ghaas Phoos is here to open people’s minds to what we can do with plants, and challenge the existing limitations of culinary arts. You don’t always need meat to enjoy desi flavours.”

    The post Meet the Pakistani Meat-Lover Who Created the Country’s First Plant-Based Kebabs appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • New Zealand’s Leaft Foods Unveils Pre-Workout Rubisco Protein Drink

    leaft blade
    4 Mins Read

    New Zealand startup Leaft Foods has introduced its first consumer product, a pre-workout drink made from Rubisco and delivering 17g of complete protein.

    Targeting the performance nutrition sector, a New Zealand-based food tech firm is bringing the world’s most abundant protein to market in liquid form.

    Unlike most plant proteins, which are derived from the seeds, Rubisco is found in the leaves of green plants, and is a complete protein with significant functional, nutritional and environmental benefits.

    The concept is what lends Leaft Foods its name. The startup has introduced its first consumer product, Leaft Blade, a ready-to-drink offering featuring 17g of Rubisco protein that digests up to six times faster than traditional proteins.

    Available on its website for NZ$35 ($21) per 100ml pack, the product subverts the status quo of recovery-focused protein drinks by targeting the pre-workout period instead. Leaft Foods suggests consuming it 20 minutes before training to get peak performance from every session.

    Leaft Foods’s Rubisco outperforms whey and plant proteins

    rubisco protein
    Courtesy: Leaft Foods

    Founded in 2019 by husband-and-wife duo John Penno and Maury Leyland Penno, Leaft Foods leverages an enzyme found in every plant on Earth. We’ve all consumed a lot of Rubisco without even knowing it.

    Nutritionally, it is a complete protein, with high amounts of essential amino acids, resulting in a PDCAAS score similar to beef, egg whites, and dairy proteins. It’s also rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and micronutrients, and easily digestible.

    From a functionality viewpoint, Rubisco offers foaming, gelling and emulsification properties, setting just like egg whites in baked goods and posing as an alternative to methylcellulose in plant-based meat. Moreover, it is responsible for carbon fixation and has been targeted in studies looking to increase crop yields, which represents its positive potential to produce climate-friendly foods that preserve food security.

    Scientists have been attempting to extract Rubisco from green leaves for over a century, but most efforts destroyed its delicate structure and rendered it worthless. Leaft Foods says it has developed a gentle, food-safe process that preserves protein integrity and unlocks its full potential, leveraging alfalfa as the source crop.

    Its ingredient, termed Leaf Rubisco, outperforms other plant proteins like pea and soy, and has a superior amino acid profile to whey protein. It also generates 97% fewer emissions than the latter.

    Leaft Blade focuses on ‘proactive’ protein delivery

    leaft foods
    Courtesy: Leaft Foods

    Leaft Blade contains 50,000 green leaves in each 100ml serving, alongside L-tyrosine to sharpen focus and support brain function, leucine to trigger growth, and tryptophan to restore balance.

    The company argues that most protein options are “reactive” as they’re taken after a workout, but its offering is “proactive”. “When you train hard, your muscles send a ‘build’ signal that works best when leucine and other essential amino acids are already in your bloodstream, ready to go,” it explained in a LinkedIn post.

    The drink can be taken before or during training to support that critical anabolic window and help you get more from every session, it added. It is meant to be kept in the freezer and consumed just frozen or chilled.

    Aside from Leaft Blade, the firm is already delivering commercial-grade Leaf Rubisco protein to multiple markets. “Our technology platform doesn’t just deliver Leaf Rubisco protein; it unlocks value from 100% of the raw material we harvest, creating multiple revenue streams from a single leaf,” it said.

    “We’re also working with B2B ingredient customers to formulate Leaf Rubisco protein isolate into their applications, leveraging its unique nutritional, emulsifying, foaming, and gelling properties,” the company added.

    Leaft Foods, which raised $15M in Series A funding in 2022, validated its extraction process at pilot scale last year and moved to a 30,000 sq ft commercial-scale demo plant in Canterbury, New Zealand. This facility has the capacity to produce a tonne of Leaf Rubisco products per week.

    Others innovating with Rubisco protein include Plantible Foods, which this week opened its own factory to produce hundreds of tonnes of the protein from duckweed in Texas, Israel’s Day 8, and Dutch startup Rubisco Foods.

    The post New Zealand’s Leaft Foods Unveils Pre-Workout Rubisco Protein Drink appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Century Pacific Buys Loma Linda, Tuno from Plant-Based Meat Maker for Under $10M

    atlantic natural foods acquisition
    4 Mins Read

    Filipino giant Century Pacific Food has acquired the assets of plant-based meat company Atlantic Natural Foods for less than $10M.

    Atlantic Natural Foods, a 135-year-old company behind plant-based brands like Loma Linda and Tuno, has sold off its assets to a Filipino food conglomerate for under $10M.

    The deal is the latest example of consolidation in the vegan category, and comes weeks after the firm signed an asset purchase agreement with Century Pacific Food’s North American arm (CPNA).

    Owned by the Philippines’s Po family, Century Pacific was first founded as a food canning company in 1978, and is now a global processor of meat, seafood, dairy, pet food, and plant-based products.

    “The acquisition reflects CPNA’s measured and profitable growth strategy: tapping into established markets while accelerating momentum for plant-based food adoption across diverse geographies,” said Century Pacific COO Greg Banzon.

    Loma Linda, Tuno and other brands to bring immediate benefits

    loma linda foods
    Courtesy: Atlantic Natural Foods

    Atlantic Natural Foods was founded in 2008, but its portfolio brand Loma Linda has been around since 1890, when it was established by John Harvey Kellogg, the creator of corn flakes and brother of Kellanova founder WK Kellogg.

    In 2014, the firm bought Loma Linda from what was then called Kellogg’s, and has since expanded its brands’ presence to over 25,000 stores in the US, plus 30 other countries.

    However, the sales and investment challenges facing the plant-based industry, combined with Covid-19 disruptions, supply chain volatility and rising inflation, hit Atlantic Natural Foods hard. It shut its US manufacturing site in March and began shifting production to Century Pacific, months after withdrawing from an acquisition deal with Above Food, which had been in the works for three years.

    Then, in May, Atlantic Natural Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $10-50M in assets and $1-10M in liabilities, with 100 to 199 creditors. “The restructuring of government tariffs, inflation, price pressures from government and others, labour, insurance – coupled with cybersecurity attacks which have created IT cost to increase three times – showed no relief on the near horizon,” explained chairman Doug Hines.

    It entered a purchase agreement with Century Pacific shortly after, and has now sold off its entire portfolio of brands to the Filipino company. These include Loma Linda, Tuno, Neat, and Kaffree Roma.

    Banzon suggested that the acquisition would bring immediate financial benefits to the business, with operational integration expected to be a seamless, bolt-on match to CPNA’s existing plant-based business, allowing it to scale up without disruption.

    It aligns with the acquisition strategy outlined by CEO Teodoro Po. “There are a few bolt-ons, so those are of smaller sizes that we can just bolt on to our existing platforms,” he told the Philippine Star last month.

    Atlantic Natural Foods becomes latest plant-based acquisition

    century pacific atlantic natural foods
    Courtesy: Unmeat

    With the transaction, Atlantic Natural Foods’s brands join CNPA’s Unmeat brand of plant proteins. The latter offers shelf-stable products in over 13,000 stores globally, including Walmart, Albertsons, HEB, and Meijer in the US.

    In a press release, Century Pacific said its advanced R&D capabilities and world-class manufacturing attracted Atlantic Natural Foods as a supply partner, which eventually led to the acquisition.

    “This is a strategic and synergistic move for CPNA. We are bringing together a trusted heritage brand and a disruptor brand under one roof, leveraging decades of consumer trust with bold innovation,” said Banzon. “This allows us to serve both loyal customers and new generations seeking accessible, nutritious, and sustainable food choices.”

    The initial move to shift production to Century Pacific positioned the Philippines as the primary supply location for Loma Linda’s shelf-stable products, targeting Seventh-day Adventists in the country.

    The company has a long history with the church. Kellogg was brought up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which was the owner of the Loma Linda brand until 1990. Its products are considered a staple for those transitioning to a meat-free diet when joining the church.

    The takeover seeks to reinforce CNPA’s “broader mission of building a healthier, more sustainable portfolio that provides affordable nutrition to the consumers we serve”, Banzon said.

    It is the latest in a long list of M&A deals in the plant-based sector. Vegan pet food maker Wild Earth was recently acquired by InvenTel after filing for bankruptcy, while Daring Foods was bought by Australia’s v2food last week. Also in the US, Wicked Kitchen, Simulate, and Blackbird Foods have all been taken over by Ahimsa Companies in the last year or so, while dairy-free cheesemaker Vertage was snapped up by Misha’s Inc in January.

    The post Century Pacific Buys Loma Linda, Tuno from Plant-Based Meat Maker for Under $10M appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Pamela Anderson, Oatly x Häagen-Dazs & Domino’s Peta

    pamela anderson flamingo estate
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Pamela Anderson’s vegan pickles, Oatly and Häagen-Dazs’s ice cream collab, and Actual Veggies’s Indian-inspired burger.

    New products and launches

    Hollywood actress Pamela Anderson has partnered with Los Angeles-based Flamingo Estate to launch a limited-edition batch of Pamela’s Pickles. They are based on a family recipe and described as smoky and spicy, and can be found on the brand’s website for $38 a pop. All proceeds go to California Wildlife Center, a non-profit veterinary hospital.

    pamela anderson pickles
    Courtesy: Flamingo Estate

    Mr Charlie’s Told Me So, dubbed a ‘vegan McDonald’s’, has opened a new location in Brentwood, Santa Monica, and is offering free Not A Cheeseburger and fries to the first 111 visitors on its launch on August 16.

    Oat milk leader Oatly‘s limited-edition collaboration with ice-cream maker Häagen-Dazs Shops is now live at the latter’s US stores. The Blueberry Lemon Non-Dairy Freeze blends the Summer Blueberry & Lemon Sorbet with Oatly’s milk and real blueberry preserve, and is available until the end of the month.

    oatly haagen dazs
    Courtesy: Häagen-Dazs Shops

    Baked by Sticky, the vegan dessert brand owned by Washington DC bakery Sticky Fingers, has launched a high-protein range of cookies and brownies using Eat Just‘s single-ingredient mung bean protein powder. They’re available at hundreds of stores in the US, and can be shipped nationwide.

    Minnesota-based vegan bakery Front Porch Pies‘s products have been rolled out at all Dogwood Coffee and Backstory Coffee locations.

    Animal rights charity Peta is giving out free vegan ice cream on its first annual i Scream truck tour, covering New York, Boston, Burlington, Philadelphia, Providence, and other cities nationwide over the next eight weeks.

    In South Africa, Fry Family Foods is targeting meat reducers with a newly released Flexi Range, comprising a Smash Burger, Classic Sizzler, and Braai Sizzler.

    UK plant-based meat brand Moving Mountains has secured a listing at online retailer Ocado for its vegetable-led Superfood range, comprising a spicy burger, crispy dippers, and spicy bites. Each product contains almost 15 ‘plant points‘ and costs £3.50.

    actual veggies chickpea masala
    Courtesy: Actual Veggies

    Whole-food brand Actual Veggies has unveiled its first collaboration product, a Chickpea Masala Burger made in partnership with award-winning Indian chef Maya Kaimal. It will roll out in the freezers of Sprouts Farmers Market stores this month.

    Company and research developments

    Actual Veggies has also been named on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the US, debuting at number 563 overall and number 23 in the food and beverage category.

    solar foods solein
    Courtesy: Solar Foods

    Finnish gas protein startup Solar Foods is working with the city of Lappeenranta to reserve a site to carry out preliminary studies for the construction of its Factory 02, which would be able to produce 12,800 tonnes of its Solein protein every year.

    Amid talk of a foray into blended meat, Impossible Foods has reached a major milestone: six years of its Impossible Whopper partnership with Burger King, a deal that helped put the plant-based meat giant on the map.

    impossible whopper
    Courtesy: Peter McGuinness/LinkedIn

    Livekindly Collective‘s Anja Grunefeld has stepped down from her role as CEO and head of its Europe operations to pursue other opportunities, with CEO David Suarez taking over management of the region.

    Canadian publicly listed company Planet Based Foods has appointed Supreet Sidhu as CFO, who will take over from Emrah Petorak. The move is part of an operational turnaround to rebuild investor confidence.

    Policy and research developments

    Peta has become a shareholder of Domino’s Pizza as part of its Vegan Cheese, Please campaign. The move will allow it to attend annual meetings, submit resolutions, and urge executives to introduced non-dairy cheese options in the US.

    respectfarms
    Courtesy: RESPECTfarms

    RespectFarms, a cultivated meat research project helping farmers transition to sustainable food systems, is working on a new film to showcase its efforts, as part of the EU-backed Fostering European Cellular Agriculture for Sustainable Transition Solutions (FEASTS) consortium.

    Finally, in Australia, the Universal Society of Hinduism is asking for an official apology from Swiss food giant Nestlé for not disclosing the use of beef in various locally manufactured products, including Allen’s Lollies (which contains gelatin).

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Pamela Anderson, Oatly x Häagen-Dazs & Domino’s Peta appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Plantible Foods Opens Duckweed Protein Factory in US, Eyes Funding to Triple Capacity

    plantible foods factory
    4 Mins Read

    US food tech startup Plantible Foods has opened a large-scale factory to produce duckweed protein in Texas, and is now looking for additional investment to triple its capacity.

    Aiming to take duckweed protein to the masses, Plantible Foods’s commercial-scale facility in Texas is now fully operational.

    The new 100-acre factory, called The Ranchito and located in Eldorado, will allow the US startup to manufacture thousands of tonnes of biomass annually. This translates to hundreds of tonnes of its Rubi Protein.

    The ingredient is Plantible’s version of Rubisco, a protein found in duckweed and believed to be the most abundant protein on Earth. The new plant will enable the firm to reduce 8,000 tonnes of CO2e from the food system every year by replacing animal proteins and synthetic ingredients.

    “This marks a defining moment for Plantible, our partners, and the community of Eldorado,” said CEO Tony Martens, who co-founded Plantible with Maurits van de Ven in 2016. “We’re scaling a food system rooted in science, sustainability, and shared prosperity – proving that it’s possible to build resilient food solutions while creating real economic opportunity in rural America.”

    Plantible’s new Rubisco factory significantly cuts costs

    plantible foods
    Courtesy: Plantible Foods

    Duckweeds, also called lemna or water lentils, are free-floating, naturally occurring freshwater aquatic plants, which combine to form a green carpet on the surface of water. They’ve been consumed in Southeast Asia for centuries, but have witnessed a rise in popularity in the last decade, thanks to their immense environmental and nutritional benefits.

    Being aquatic, duckweed doesn’t occupy any farmland or contribute to deforestation, contains more micronutrients than many vegetables, has a protein digestibility score of 1.0 (the highest possible), and, with a doubling rate of two to three days, is the fastest-growing plant in the world.

    Plantible grows its lemna on controlled aquafarms that allow freshwater to be constantly recycled and refreshed, leaving a water footprint 10 times lower than soybeans. Once the plants are harvested, they are milled, filtered and dried so that the pure protein can be extracted from the plant’s leaves.

    The final product is an off-white and odourless protein that can grow anywhere in the world and contains all nine essential amino acids. Rubi Protein is free from 20 allergens and comprises 85% protein, and offers functional benefits like emulsifying, gelling, and fat-binding, helping reduce the reliance on saturated fats, egg whites, and methylcellulose.

    The company has developed two ingredient blends featuring Rubi Protein. Rubi Whisk provides structural integrity, moisture and oil retention properties for egg- and gluten-free baked goods like lemon tarts, macarons, and cookies, and Rubi Prime offers the emulsification and binding benefits of methylcellulose to make cleaner-label plant-based meat products that can be served hot or cold.

    Its Eldorado facility has a growing network of greenhouses, upgraded protein filtration systems, and a new, higher-yield duckweed strain. The state-of-the-art filtration equipment has significantly reduced production costs while increasing throughput. This has advanced its ability to achieve cashflow positivity at the plant and produce its Rubisco protein at scale.

    Plantible pursuing investment to increase capacity by threefold

    plantible rubi protein
    Courtesy: Plantible Foods

    Plantible is currently working with a range of customers to incorporate Rubi Protein into consumer products. One of these partners is functional ingredients provider ICL Food Specialties, with which it has previously created a Rovitiras Binding Solution for meat and seafood alternatives.

    “Plant-based protein formulators have been searching for years for a clean-label, highly functional replacement for chemically derived binders, such as methylcellulose,” said Paul Peterson, global head of alternative proteins at ICL Group.

    “In partnership with Plantible Foods, we have been able to leverage our deep knowledge of proteins to create a market-leading binding solution that allows plant-based food manufacturers to meet the needs of even the most demanding consumers.”

    Plantible has introduced a proprietary lemna strain that increases the yield of Rubi Protein per acre, and is now conducting trials on additional strains that could further enhance the ingredient’s unit economics, scalability, and affordability.

    “With at least 35 species in the duckweed family and more than 1000 strains, Plantible has excelled in identifying strains that are best adapted for growth in the local climate,” said Chris Phillips, VP of research at the startup. “We then tailor our growth conditions to further maximise protein production and product quality.”

    The firm closed a $30M Series B round last year, taking its total raised to $57M. It is now working to secure more funding to triple its capacity and meet its clients’ demands. At the same time, it will continue to invest in the Eldorado plant, hiring locally and expanding its footprint.

    Several other startups are working with duckweed protein too, including Sustainable Planet (UK), GreenOnyx (Israel), MicroTerra (Mexico), DryGro (Kenya), Ful Foods (Pakistan), Rubisco Foods, Rinus & Hans (both Dutch), and Fyto (US).

    The post Plantible Foods Opens Duckweed Protein Factory in US, Eyes Funding to Triple Capacity appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Germany’s Rewe Group Targets 60% Plant-Based Sales By 2035, Calls for National Protein Plan

    rewe voll pflanzlich
    5 Mins Read

    German retail giant Rewe Group has set a ‘protein split’ goal in a new strategy, and calls for a national protein plan as part of six food policy demands.

    Six months after announcing the creation of its protein strategy, German retailer Rewe Group has unveiled a target to make 60% of its sales come from plant-based products by 2035.

    The supermarket group, which owns Penny in Germany and Billa in Austria, shared that vegan products made up 54% of its sales in 2024 (excluding beverages). The analysis was based on a methodology developed by the World Wildlife Fund last year, which Rewe Group is calling on the industry to adopt.

    “Germany has the opportunity to position itself as a pioneer of competitive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural and food systems,” the company said in a position paper. Protein diversification, it added, is a key lever for ensuring healthy and sustainable diets, and so the supply and demand of alternative proteins must be “significantly expanded”.

    “Yet, a true dietary transition has not yet been pursued decisively enough at the political level,” the document stated. It’s why Rewe Group has laid out six demands for federal and state policymakers, asking them to develop a national protein roadmap.

    Denmark was the first to introduce a plant-based strategy in 2023 (before rolling out a wider green transition plan that includes a carbon tax on meat). It was followed by South Korea shortly after, and late last year, Portugal committed to developing a plant-based plan too.

    “For more climate- and resource-friendly food production, the overall political framework must also change,” the company noted. “We therefore welcome the fact that policymakers have also recognised the relevance of this issue, even if developments could be pursued more decisively.”

    Rewe Group’s four-pronged protein strategy

    rewe protein strategy
    Courtesy: Anay Mridul/Green Queen

    “As one of Europe’s largest trading companies with an ambitious climate target, we have committed ourselves to a holistic protein strategy,” Rewe Group said.

    The new protein strategy has four strategic pillars. First, it will optimise its product ranges to veganise recipes and ingredients where it makes sense, with a focus on taste and variety.

    Second, it will support food tech startups driving innovation in the category with new products and technologies to build a future-friendly food ecosystem.

    Next, Rewe Group will promote conscious eating and make sustainable diets more accessible via clear labelling, targeted offerings, and an attractive product range.

    And finally, the retailer is advocating for a national protein strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic agriculture sector and support the country’s climate goals. This, it added, would include an industry standard for tracking the proportion of plant-based and animal protein sales, or the ‘protein split’.

    “We are taking a step-by-step approach, leveraging our regional market structures and relying on strategic partnerships. Transparent communication, targeted incentives, and continuous innovation are central elements of our protein strategy,” it said.

    Rewe Group urges the German government to create protein strategy

    rewe vegan
    Courtesy: Anay Mridul/Green Queen

    Last year, the federal government kicked off the Proteins of the Future on the Plate forum to promote the alternative protein sector, a move Rewe Group said provides a platform for a joint protein plan. It’s asking policymakers to now build on that, and has made six key demands.

    • Transparent, simplified regulation: The approval process for cultivated meat and precision-fermented products must be accelerated at both national and EU levels. The German government should advocate for the reliable implementation of novel food regulations to bolster investor and consumer trust.
    • Greater R&D investment: The government should step up research funding for protein diversification, as well as investments into food tech infrastructure and startups. At the EU level, Germany should keep calling for the inclusion of alternative proteins in programmes like Horizon Europe.
    • Expand real-world lab access: Labs help test new technologies in real-world conditions, but this requires legal flexibility. Experimental clauses, particularly in food law, must be legally anchored and equipped with innovation-friendly guidelines. This would enable systematic regulatory learning and the further development of existing rules.
    • Scrap the extra VAT for plant-based milk: Germany currently charges a 19% levy on non-dairy milk, but only 7% for cow’s milk. Matching the VAT for both product sets would help market distortions and heighten consumer acceptance, without impacting animal-based products.
    • Boost plant protein production: National subsidies and funds from the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy should be directed towards legume and protein crop cultivation. Farmers should be provided practical information and training opportunities, and public catering services should integrate plant-based options to offer growers more stable opportunities.
    • Make science-based decisions: Food policy decisions must be grounded in scientific evidence, and all alternative proteins should be considered with an open mind and treated equally. Calls for national bans on cultivated meat undermine EU law, weaken innovation, and consumer freedom.

    The protein strategy comes a month after Rewe Group partnered with Oatly, Vly and Berief Food to launch a petition calling on the government to reduce the VAT rate on non-dairy milks. It has so far received over 93,000 signatures.

    Rewe is the latest supermarket to adopt a protein split target, as part of EU retailers’ growing climate ambition. Fellow German retailer Lidl has set a plant-based sales goal too, as has the Netherlands’ Ahold Delhaize. Meanwhile, Wolt Market Denmark has become the first non-Dutch supermarket to adopt the Protein Tracker tool and will now establish concrete protein split targets.

    And in the UK, an alliance of over 200 organisations have urged the government and retailers to make reporting of healthy food sales mandatory to include protein sales disclosure too.

    The post Germany’s Rewe Group Targets 60% Plant-Based Sales By 2035, Calls for National Protein Plan appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Plant-Based Just Egg Lands in the UK via Vegan Food Group

    just egg uk
    5 Mins Read

    Eat Just’s market-leading vegan egg, Just Egg, has finally launched in the UK, with the distribution being handled by VFC parent Vegan Food Group.

    Just Egg, the mung-bean-based vegan liquid egg from US company Eat Just, has launched into the UK market. Each 340ml carton is priced at £3.99 and equivalent to six eggs.

    The rollout marks the product’s European debut, as well as its first foray outside North America. It will be manufactured and distributed by Vegan Food Group (VFG), the holding company behind plant-based brands like VFC and Meatless Farm, as part of an exclusive deal announced in April.

    “People have been waiting for so long to bring this to the UK, and me and the team have just had such an incredible journey working with the US team, understanding the brand and… how we bring that to the UK consumer is very different to the US consumer,” says Abigail Nelson-Ehoff, head of marketing at VFG.

    “The consumers who have been waiting for this product, a lot of the vegan community, [will go]: ‘Finally, it’s here,’” she adds. “But it’s also as many people, if not more people, who have never heard of the product – this is an amazing product for them. So it’s how we can bring it to both.”

    Matthew Glover, co-founder and chairman of VFG, says: “We think there’s a huge pent-up demand for it. There’s not been anything like this on the market so far. So we’re very excited to launch it into the UK.”

    Echoing Nelson-Ehoff, he says this product is “really for everybody, not just vegans”: “It’s for anybody that’s plant-curious. There’s a lot of people that are allergic to eggs, so it’s perfect for those individuals.”

    How Just Egg made it to the UK

    just egg uk launch
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Just Egg is made from a base of mung bean protein and contains nearly 13g of protein per serving (5.9g per egg equivalent, versus 6.3g for a chicken egg). It has less than a third of the saturated fat found in convnetional eggs, as well as zero cholesterol. Producing the vegan liquid egg uses 98% less water and 83% less land, while generating 93% fewer greenhouse gases.

    The European launch of Just Egg has been a years-long endeavour. Eat Just had signed several partnerships to bring the product across the Atlantic, while receiving novel food regulatory approval by the European Food Safety Authority and authorisation from the EU Commission.

    But the efforts finally came to fruition in April this year, after the Californian food tech unicorn struck a deal with VFG. The latter invested £11.5M ($15.2M) to build a fully automated line to produce Just Egg at its facility in Lüneburg, Germany (Europe’s largest dedicated plant-based factory), enabling it to produce the equivalent of 500 million eggs per year.

    “Proprietary mung bean production will be led by Eat Just, supplying this directly to VFG from its Minnesota facility,” Glover told Green Queen at the time. “From that point, VFG is installing a fully automated downstream production system in Lüneburg to produce Just Egg. Other ingredients and packaging will be sourced locally.”

    He added: “The brand positioning and proposition sits perfectly alongside the existing VFG portfolio of brands, products and eating occasions. Our strategy is consolidating a portfolio of exciting products and brands, to which Just Egg sits perfectly.”

    Through its investment, VFG sought to enhance automation, extend shelf life, cut waste, and improve product quality at its facilities in the UK and Germany. It will also support retailers and foodservice partners with “next-gen innovation and operational excellence”.

    “VFG will be making the majority of the upfront investments in capital expenditure and marketing to launch the brand in Europe,” Glover said.

    Eat Just and VFG look to build plant-based momentum amid egg crisis

    just egg europe
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Eat Just’s UK entry comes on the back of skyrocketing success in the US, with 174 million birds culled in the current three-year wave of avian flu. Retail egg prices reached a record high of $6.23 per dozen in March. In some cities, each egg costs $1 now.

    The company had already sold the equivalent of 500 million chicken eggs and captured 99% of the market for alternatives in the US. But in January alone, Just Egg’s sales grew five times faster than in the past year, while 56% of shoppers returned to buy more (a three-point increase from 2024). Most shoppers (91%) putting it in their basket, meanwhile, are neither vegan nor vegetarian.

    With egg shelves empty, if Americans want eggs, they only have a few choices. “One, don’t eat them. Two, you know, have applesauce. Or three, have Just Egg,” co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick told Green Queen in February. “This is a real moment in time for the plant-based industry to prove that it’s up to the challenge.”

    The egg crisis isn’t just restricted to the US – in Europe, the cost of eggs has reached its highest in at least a decade, reaching €268.5 ($292) per 100kg in March.

    In the UK, it will compete with the Crackd vegan liquid egg, which is made from pea protein. Aquafaba brand Oggs previously marketed a liquid whole egg alternative, though it hasn’t been in stock in supermarkets for several months now. “There are other egg replacements on the market, but quality-wise, there’s nothing that can stack up against Eat Just,” VFG CEO Dave Sparrow said in April.

    “The UK and Germany are the immediate priority given our extensive distribution, which is already in place, and then we’ll roll out across other key markets,” Glover said at the time.

    “The food system is broken. Most eggs are produced in factory farms. There’s about 37 million eggs currently trapped inside [them], both caged and cage-free. And these are real squalid, overcrowded, unhealthy places to produce food,” he says now.

    “So this plant-based egg that we’re producing is much cleaner and healthier, and certainly much better for the environment and the animals and people.”

    The post Plant-Based Just Egg Lands in the UK via Vegan Food Group appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • More Layoffs, More Losses in Bleak Q2 for Beyond Meat Amid Brand Refresh

    beyond ground
    7 Mins Read

    Beyond Meat posted another poor quarter as sales fell by nearly 20%, prompting the plant-based company to lay off 6% of its staff and refresh its identity.

    Californian plant-based giant Beyond Meat endured another “tough quarter”, with year-on-year sales falling sharply by 19.6% in the April-June period.

    The company’s revenue reached just $75M in Q2 2025, below the lower end of its revised outlook for the quarter. Volume of products sold decreased by 19%, while gross profit shrank by 37%. While it suffered a decrease in operating losses too, its net losses totalled $33M, a 4% improvement on Q2 2024, thanks primarily to foreign exchange gains.

    vCEO Ethan Brown described the results as “disappointing”, coming on the back of a poor first quarter and amid widening losses for the overall plant-based meat sector. Beyond Meat blamed the performance on softening demand and reduced distribution in US retail, and low sales of its burger products to restaurants internationally.

    The company is now kickstarting another round of layoffs, impacting 44 employees in North America (amounting to 6% of its global workforce). This will incur a one-time charge between $800,000 and $1.3M, mainly in severance payments, employee benefits and related costs, though the move is expected to save the company up to $7M over the next 12 months.

    “It is truly with a heavy heart that we made these reductions, and my deep appreciation and respect for these teammates and friends extends far beyond any comments I can make today,” Brown said in an earnings call.

    Beyond Meat has also appointed John Boken, managing director of corporate restructuring consultancy AlixPartners, as its interim chief transformation officer. He will be tasked with driving the firm’s operational footprint into the current revenue environment and accelerating margin improvements, with the goal of becoming EBITDA-positive within the second half of 2026.

    “We are responding by accelerating our transformation activities, including more rapidly and aggressively reducing our operating expenses to fit anticipated near-term revenues; prioritising increased distribution of our core product lines; and investing in margin expansion initiatives across these core products,” said Brown.

    The news sent shares of the company down by 4% at the end of trading. In other news for publicly traded plant-based companies, Oatly’s stock has rebounded by 31% this month, reaching levels last seen a year ago.

    High costs, misinformation and meat revival hurt retail sales

    beyond meat earnings
    Courtesy: Bloomberg/Getty Images

    The lowlight of Beyond Meat’s Q2 performance was US retail, where revenues plunged by nearly 27%, thanks in large part to a decrease in product volumes, which the company attributed to “weak category demand” and reduced distribution points.

    It’s reflective of the wider decline in sales of plant-based meat in American supermarkets, which have dipped by 17% in the refrigerated section so far this year, and 8% in the freezer, according to Spins data cited by Reuters.

    Brown pointed to several factors that led to the poor performance in this channel: the higher price than conventional beef puts it a disadvantage among cash-strapped consumers; the “negative narrative” around the sector is “sufficiently ingrained to outlast initial efforts to dispel this information“; and conventional meat is “having a moment that currently leaves less room” vegan alternatives.

    “This has been an enormously disruptive period for our category and brand across US grocery, with instability being the consistent theme for quite some time, from multiple entrants flooding the market only to be delisted, to a general shrinking of shelf space, to a disruptive relocation of the category from refrigerated to frozen aisle in certain large retailers,” said Brwn.

    “As we seek to rebuild our presence across this critically important channel, we are prioritising consolidated offerings at high-impact chains so we might drive results that are similar to some of our higher-performing current retailers.”

    It’s not just US supermarkets where Beyond Meat is underperforming. Internationally, retail revenues narrowed by 9%, with the company blaming low sales of its burger, sausage and ground beef products in Canada, and reduced burger sales in Europe.

    When it came to foodservice, revenues were up by 7% in the US, mainly due to price hikes and changes in product sales mix. But internationally, foodservice sales fell by 26%, with Beyond Meat suffering from low burger sales to quick-service restaurants. Reports suggest that McDonald’s has removed the McPlant from its Austrian menu, opting to run out its contract with Beyond Meat.

    ‘Not the moment’ for plant-based meat

    beyond meat mycelium steak
    Courtesy: Beyond

    When asked by one analyst if Beyond Meat can win back consumers who have stopped purchasing vegan alternatives, Brown said it was “not the moment for plant-based meat right now”.

    “You’ve got these cultural moments that occur, and we happen to be on the other side of the particular moment,” he explained. “That won’t always be the case, but what we shouldn’t do is use a lot of dry powder trying to force growth right now.

    “What we should be doing is stabilising the business, getting the operating expense to where it needs to be, fixing the margins so we can reach the audience that we need to reach.”

    The company is now focusing on giving consumers value for money while meeting the heightened demand for protein and fibre. It will begin offering six-pack offerings for the Beyond Burger, which will help drive down the price of each individual patty for the consumer.

    Meanwhile, even as it launched a whole-cut mycelium steak filet, Beyond Meat’s next product has nothing to do with meat. Called Beyond Ground, the innovation is an answer to critiques about ultra-processing, long ingredient lists, and poor nutritional value.

    The mince-like protein only has four ingredients: fava beans, potato starch, water, and psyllium husk. Each serving contains 140 calories, 4g of fibre, 1.5g of fat, and 27g of protein (higher than beef). Plus, it has zero cholesterol, saturated fat, or added oils. The product “represents an early foray beyond beef, pork and poultry replication”, Brown said, and has been “met with considerable enthusiasm, albeit with a very narrow consumer set”.

    Despite the resurgence of animal protein, Beyond Meat remains optimistic. “We know that the extreme nature of the current renaissance around animal protein will, as consumer trends do, moderate. This moderation may occur solely with time, new information or new trends or may be spurred on by a set of related factors, including pricing pressure, droughts and genetic disease outbreaks,” said Brown.

    “Over time, facts do have a way of overcoming fiction. Consumers do, in fact, bristle at being misled at the expense of their own health, and our products will have the opportunity to be more fairly evaluated for what they are,” he added.

    Scrapping ‘Meat’ gives Beyond the freedom to meet broader protein needs

    beyond meat q2 2025
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    The Beyond Ground product represents a major refresh of the company’s identity. In response to the substandard performance, the firm is dropping ‘Meat’ from its brand to highlight traditional plant proteins, starting with the fava bean mince. Later iterations could include chickpea hot dogs and lentil sausages, Brown has teased.

    “Going forward, we intend to increasingly use ‘Beyond’ as the primary brand. We have been formally using the shortened mark in certain instances for some time now, and believe it provides for reduced emphasis on facsimile, a now-complicated frame that overshadows the real high-quality protein offerings we provide to consumers, and a widening of our aperture beyond animal protein replicates,” he said.

    This would allow Beyond Meat to “have the freedom” to meet broader consumer protein needs and deliver the nutritional gains they’re after.

    The company will provide more details about the use of ‘Beyond’ as its brand in the coming months, which it’s implementing on a rolling basis. “The necessity of this reset does not, however, reduce or diminish our conviction or enthusiasm for the future that awaits,” stated Brown.

    “The factors that encumber our success today are transient. Just as we recognise that we are a higher-priced item in a period of economic uncertainty and stress, we know that on a material basis, our cost structure will change as we achieve scale.

    “We are, in fact, already in one limited but important instance, producing and supplying product at a cost price that is roughly equal to the corresponding animal protein equivalent. As we get to much higher volumes across our core products, the efficiency of our system will prevail. And all other things being equal, we should be able to underprice animal protein in many offerings.”

    Brown labelled it a “tough quarter” that the company took “on the chin”. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but I think the reaction is what matters,” he said. “We’ve obviously known about these results and have been fast after it.

    “Between the intensified cost reduction, the gross margin expansion initiatives, really focusing on expanding our core distribution (particularly in US retail), and then this opportunity to potentially live outside some of the confines we’ve been in recently, around looking at things like Beyond Ground and the use of the Beyond brand and protein occasions for consumers, I’m very optimistic [about] where we’re headed.”

    The post More Layoffs, More Losses in Bleak Q2 for Beyond Meat Amid Brand Refresh appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Australia’s v2food Acquires US Vegan Chicken Startup Daring Foods, Teams Up with Ajinomoto

    daring chicken
    5 Mins Read

    Australian plant-based meat firm v2food is going global, having acquired leading US vegan chicken maker Daring Foods and partnered with Japanese food giant Ajinomoto.

    v2food, the leading manufacturer of plant-based meat in Australia, is setting its sights on the international market with two key deals.

    The Sydney-based firm has snapped up US vegan chicken startup Daring Foods for an undisclosed sum, and signed a strategic partnership with Japan’s Ajinomoto to develop next-gen food solutions for Asia and Africa.

    Daring, which holds a 45% market share in the US unbreaded chicken category, will continue to operate under its own brand and serve as a platform for v2food to launch its own products across the country.

    “For several years, v2food has been the number one plant-based meat company in Australia, and through the acquisition of Daring, we are excited to be able to introduce our world-class product range into the US market,” said v2food CEO Tim York.

    The collaboration with Ajinomoto, meanwhile, will leverage the MSG maker’s “century of food science expertise” to expand v2food’s protein transition efforts. Alongside Daring’s brand identity, the three entities will create a “powerful platform for innovation”, v2food noted in a press release.

    v2food looks to build on Daring’s US retail strength

    v2food
    Courtesy: v2food

    Founded by Ross Mackay and Elliot Kesses in 2018, Daring is one of the most well-known alternative meat brands in the US. It capitalised on the category’s investment boom at the turn of the decade, raising over $120M in a 13-month period from 2020-21.

    It has a line of vegan chicken pieces and nuggets (made from soy protein), as well as frozen entrées (both 100% plant-based or vegetarian) featuring its signature meat alternative. Daring products are available in over 15,000 stores across the US, reportedly generating $30M in annual revenue.

    “Daring has built an incredible, consumer-loved brand with strong reach across the US, and combining that with our food technology creates immediate opportunities to accelerate our mission to be one of the global leaders in plant-based protein,” said York.

    The acquisition will combine Daring’s strong retail penetration and consumer loyalty with v2food’s established manufacturing networks and proprietary food technology.

    “With v2food’s technology platform and Ajinomoto expertise supporting us, we’re in the best position yet to deliver on our consumer promise at both pace and scale. In my view, this is how the space should have been built from the start: thoughtfully, profitably, and as healthy as possible,” said Jeffrey Gendelman, who took over from Mackay as Daring CEO last year.

    He added that the companies had a cultural alignment: “Daring was built on a commitment to clean-label plant protein that never sacrifices taste or experience. Together, we see an opportunity to shape the future of our space in a way none of us could have achieved alone.”

    v2food, Ajinomoto and Daring will create clean-label frozen meals

    plant based meat australia
    Courtesy: v2food

    The company says the Ajinomoto deal allows v2food to rapidly scale up its plant-based innovations to meet the global demand for sustainable proteins. It has strategic expansions earmarked for emerging markets like Africa and Asia, which will be home to a majority of the world’s population growth in the next 25 years, and where Ajinomoto already has commercial operations.

    The partnership is targeting flexitarians with chicken, a popular protein, by making plant-based eating accessible and appealing. Through Ajinomoto’s Green Business Development Department, the collaboration backs the companies’ sustainability goals and aims to unlock new revenue streams in the meat-free sector.

    Shigeo Nakamura, president and CEO of Ajinomoto, noted that the deal focuses on “innovation, sustainability, and co-creation in technology and business development”.

    Now that Daring is part of v2food’s operations, the three entities will together speed up the development of clean-label plant protein products, including a range of frozen meals with short ingredient lists and a focus on taste, nutrition and affordability.

    v2food has already been working on clean-label solutions, having developed methylcellulose-free formulations and natural colour-changing technology with algae. And last year, two studies found that v2food’s plant-based mince can have the same protein quality and digestibility as conventional ground beef, but is more filling and better for gut health.

    The firm, which has raised around $137M to date, has been busy expanding its ready meal portfolio through M&A deals. In early 2024, it announced the acquisition of local ready meal makers Soulara and Macros, forming a new entity called Flexitarian Meal Solutions, which it said would sell between 50,000 and 100,000 meals per week.

    Plant-based meat industry to ‘rationalise’ over the next five years

    v2food daring foods
    Courtesy: Daring Foods

    The announcement comes amid a difficult period for the plant-based sector. In the US, retail sales of meat alternatives fell by 7% in 2024. Chicken is the second-most popular product type in the vegan category, but its sales also declined by 8%.

    It comes amid an animal protein boom in the US, with meat sales reaching record highs and only 22% of consumers looking to cut back on it (a five-year low). That has hurt plant-based companies, who have been forced to rethink their strategies, consolidate, or in some cases, cease operations.

    Beyond, for example, dropped the ‘Meat’ from its name to highlight traditional plant proteins, ahead of a new fava bean mince that doesn’t aim to mimic an animal product. It comes on the back of a 19% drop in year-on-year sales in Q2. Impossible Foods, another major player, has suggested that it may foray into the blended meat category to attract a wider set of consumers.

    And in May, legacy plant-based business Atlantic Natural Foods, the parent company of Tuno and Loma Linda, filed for bankruptcy (it is now in talks for a potential sale).

    Consolidation has ramped up in the sector. In the US, Wicked Kitchen, Simulate, and Blackbird Foods have all been acquired by Ahimsa Companies in the last year or so. And in Australia, Aussie Plant Based Co was taken over by Smart Foods after entering liquidation (making a comeback this year), while investment firm MyCo rescued Australian Plant Proteins from insolvency.

    “Our strategic move into the US market, especially with a strong brand like Daring and the backing of a global powerhouse like Ajinomoto, is a logical next phase of growth as the market consolidates,” said Jack Cowin, founder of Hungry Jack’s (the franchisee of Burger King in Australia) and an inaugural investor in v2food.

    “Over the next five years, we expect to see a rationalisation of the industry with various best-in-class plant-based meat companies (such as v2food and Daring) coming together to gain scale and provide technical solutions that meet or exceed consumer requirements for great-tasting, affordable and nutritious food that also happens to be better for the planet.”

    The post Australia’s v2food Acquires US Vegan Chicken Startup Daring Foods, Teams Up with Ajinomoto appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Schuman Cheese, Good Planet Foods Form Joint Venture for Better Plant-Based Dairy

    schuman cheese good planet
    4 Mins Read

    US dairy leader Schuman Cheese and olive oil cheese producer Good Planet Foods have formed GPV Foods, a joint venture to meet the demand for improved non-dairy products.

    To address one of the most polarising plant-based alternative products, Schuman Cheese and Good Planet Foods have created GPV Foods, a new US entity to produce better vegan cheese.

    Schuman is a legacy player in the US dairy market and the country’s largest importer of Italian cheese; Good Planet is an eight-year-old startup known for its olive-oil-based cheeses.

    The joint venture brings together Schuman’s Vevan brand of non-dairy cheese with Good Planet’s retail business, uniting their scale, reach and expertise to meet the demand for tastier products.

    “This partnership strengthens our manufacturing capabilities, expands our plant‑based portfolio, and positions us for rapid growth in a category we strongly believe in,” said Keith Schuman, plant‑based business lead at Schuman. “Together, we can scale faster, serve our customers better, and set a new standard for what plant‑based cheese can deliver.”

    GPV Foods will leverage brands’ retail and foodservice footprints

    good planet cheese
    Courtesy: Vevan

    Good Planet Foods began with a range of coconut-oil-based cheeses, including snackable wedges, smoked wheels, and snack packs. In 2023, it switched to olive oil as its key ingredient, pairing it with tapioca and potato starch and pea protein, in response to consumer feedback about saturated fat content.

    The Bellevue-based startup’s current portfolio includes shreds, slices, blocks, and snackable cubes made from olive oil, alongside a trimmed coconut oil lineup. They’re available in over 1,200 retail doors nationwide.

    Schuman has been around since 1945, and diversified into the plant-based category in 2020 with Vevan. The brand initially started with palm oil and modified potato starch as the base ingredients, before shifting to a pea milk and coconut oil lineup.

    It makes Cheddar, mozzarella and pepper jack shreds and slices, alongside a cream cheese range. Schuman describes the products as having “superior melt and consumer-winning flavour”, which are available in both retail and foodservice channels.

    GPV Foods will combine Good Planet’s retail presence with Vevan’s foodservice and ingredient expertise. It will benefit from greater production capacity and streamlined distribution, which will allow it to respond faster to market needs, broaden its reach, and invest in new technologies and formulas that “push the boundaries” of vegan cheese.

    “Pairing our retail leadership with Vevan’s foodservice strength creates a truly unmatched platform. This venture allows us to reach more consumers, deliver superior innovation, and accelerate growth in a way that benefits the entire category,” said Good Planet founder and CEO David Israel.

    Financial and political challenges stretch vegan cheese market

    schuman cheese
    Courtesy: Vevan

    Both brands will remain distinct and focus on the markets and channels they perform best in, with their products now available in nearly 5,000 stores, according to Nosh. Vevan, meanwhile, is set to reformulate many of its recipes using Good Planet’s olive oil platform.

    The partnership comes amid middling retail performance for vegan cheese in the US. Last year, dollar sales dropped by 4% to $218M and household penetration fell to 4% (a one-point drop from 2023), according to SPINS data crunched by the Good Food Institute (GFI). Dairy-free alternatives have made up just 1% of the overall cheese market for the last three years.

    That being said, repeat purchase rates were up from 48% in 2023 to 54% in 2024, indicating that products are better meeting consumer needs, GFI said.

    Israel told Nosh that there will likely be some consolidation in the workforce after potential redundancies are identified as part of the new venture. That aligns with the wider sector too. In June, French dairy giant Bel Group announced it will withdraw its Nurishh brand of plant-based cheese by the end of 2025 due to low sales, and close its production factory in Saint-Nazaire, which is set to impact around 30 jobs.

    In further examples of category consolidation in the US, vegan cheese startup Vertage Foods was snapped up by fellow plant-based firm Misha’s Inc in January, and dairy-free nutrition firm Kate Farms was acquired by Silk owner Danone this summer.

    Poor sales aren’t the only challenge facing this industry. Last week, a bipartisan group of senators revived the Dairy Pride Act, asking the Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of ‘milk’, ‘cheese’, ‘yoghurt’ and other such terms on non-dairy alternatives. The agency has also received a complaint against vegan butter maker Country Crock’s use of the phrase ‘Dairy-Free Salted/Unsalted Butter’ on its Homestyle lineup.

    The post Schuman Cheese, Good Planet Foods Form Joint Venture for Better Plant-Based Dairy appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Future Food Quick Bites: Beanless Coffee, Watermelon Seed Milk & Bezos Earth Fund

    sustainable protein startup competition
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Prefer’s beanless coffee latte, Ahimsa Foundation’s $12M factory bet, and Bezos Earth Fund’s alternative protein competition.

    New products and launches

    Singaporean bean-free coffee startup Prefer has launched its iced oat latte with vegan ice-cream chain Kind Kones.

    prefer bean free coffee
    Courtesy: Jake Berber/LinkedIn

    In the US, plant-based startup Elmhurst 1925 has added three unsweetened non-dairy milks to its lineup, in pistachio, vanilla pistachio, and vanilla cashew variants. They’re available at Sprouts Farmers Market nationwide and on the brand website for $8.99 per 32oz pack.

    Californian firm Força Foods has debuted its Milkish watermelon seed milk in the US at Wildroots Coffee in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    forca foods
    Courtesy: Forca Foods/Instagram

    Meanwhile, PlantBaby’s Kiki Milk, which makes non-dairy milks for kids, has secured a listing at Target stores in California, Hawaii, and Washington. It will be available in original, unsweetened and chocolate flavours in 32oz cartons for $6.99.

    Vegan seafood startup Oshi has landed a distribution deal with Sysco, with its salmon now available at five of the latter’s US warehouses, and soon open to customers in all 50 states via Sysco Marketplace.

    oshi vegan salmon
    Courtesy: Oshi

    German discount retailer Lidl has brought back its Ben & Jerry’s style non-dairy ice creams under its Vemondo label in the UK, which are available in Cookie Dough, Choco Fudge Brownie and Peanut Butter Cookie flavours.

    And French vegan cheesemaker Jay&Joy has launched its dairy-free camembert, dubbed Albert, at online stores and independent retailers in the UK, priced at £5.80 per 100g wheel.

    Company and finance updates

    Ahimsa Companies, the holding company that has bought several plant-based businesses over the past year, is investing $12M into a contract manufacturing plant in Ohio to supply major partners in early 2026.

    ahimsa companies
    Ahimsa Companies acquired plant-based frozen food maker Blackbird Foods in February | Courtesy: Blackbird Foods

    US cultivated seafood firm Atlantic Fish Co has received a $305,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to scale up its cultured black sea bass.

    Wild Earth co-founder Ryan Bethencourt has exited the vegan dog food startup after eight years as CEO, following its bankruptcy and subsequent acquisition by InvenTel.

    wild earth bankruptcy
    Courtesy: Wild Earth

    Germany’s Veganz Group is also seeing a change at the top, with co-founder Jan Bredack stepping down as CEO, following three years of declining sales and a recent restructuring of its operations. He will be replaced with financial expert Rayan Tegtmeier.

    Canadian vegan fast-food chain Odd Burger has opened a new location in Edmonton and appointed co-founder Vasiliki McInnes as its new CFO.

    bezos centre for sustainable protein nus
    Courtesy: National University of Singapore

    Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centre for Sustainable Protein at the National University of Singapore and Enterprise Singapore have launched a Sustainable Protein Startup Competition to identify future-friendly protein solutions, backed by a $3M grant over five years from the fund.

    Research, policy and events

    In Japan, the Consumer Affairs Agency’s Food Sanitation Standards Council Subcommittee on Newly Developed Foods is advancing discussions on the safety management of cultivated proteins, with an interim draft of the guidelines expected this summer.

    lab grown eel
    Courtesy: Anatoly Michaello

    In the quest to make cultivated beef feel much closer to its conventional counterpart, researchers from ETH Zurich have developed 3D muscle tissue composed of thick, contracting fibres from myoblasts.

    Demonstrating the power of choice architecture, a three-month pilot by Greener by Default, Friends of the Earth and Sodexo saw the sale of 2,000 extra plant-based mains in a corporate cafeteria, simply by swapping one entree at the most popular station and ensuring it featured familiar flavours and an appealing description.

    tim spector plant based diet
    Courtesy: Zoe

    As the UK food industry rallies around the 30-plants-a-week approach, a new study by King’s College London has found that Brits don’t eat enough plants – the median is eight plants a day, but some eat as few as two.

    Informa Markets‘s food industry event, Fi India, will host producers of plant proteins, soy products, functional ingredients, and more in Greater Noida (September 3-5).

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Beanless Coffee, Watermelon Seed Milk & Bezos Earth Fund appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Beyond & Oatly Among Plant-Based Exhibitors at Inaugural Anuga Alternatives Show

    anuga alternatives
    3 Mins Read

    Anuga, one of the world’s largest food and drink trade shows, is launching an event exclusively for alternative proteins. It’s already lured nearly 100 exhibitors, including industry giants Beyond and Oatly.

    Two months ahead of its first trade show dedicated to alternative proteins, Anuga is attracting strong interest from companies across the world.

    Anuga Alternatives, first announced last summer, will take place in Cologne from October 4-8, and aims to support the more than 1,400 companies working with plant-based, fermentation-derived and cell-cultivated proteins globally.

    The inaugural event ties in with Anuga’s top theme, Sustainable Growth, focusing on ensuring the global supply of protein in a health-forward and technologically feasible manner. So far, 90 exhibitors from across the world have confirmed their participation, including from the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey and Luxembourg.

    Who will exhibit at Anuga Alternatives?

    anuga vegan
    Courtesy: Anuga

    Two of the headline exhibitors are also among the only publicly traded plant-based alternative companies. Fresh off a rebrand that scraps ‘Meat’ from its name to spotlight traditional plant proteins, Beyond will descend onto the floor of exhibitors at Anuga Alternatives.

    Fellow industry giant Oatly, meanwhile, has promised to debut a product the show describes as a “special highlight”.

    Local tofu makers will showcase their innovations at the show aswell, led by The New Originals Company (behind the Omami brand of tofu) and Tofutown (now owned by the UK’s Vegan Food Group).

    Meanwhile, Pacifico Biolabs will present Viando Chicken, a mycelium-based alternative that the company claims offers the same sensory, nutritional and functional attributes as conventional chicken. Another meat analogue comes from SunflowerFamily, which will introduce a sunflower protein mince.

    Danish seaweed specialist Jens Møller Products will present its algae-based vegan caviar under the Cavi-Art label, and plant-based shrimps called Zhrimps.

    In addition to meat and seafood alternatives, attendees at Anuga Alternatives will be able to try Neggst Foods’s plant-based egg patty, which is made from fava bean and pea protein.

    Anuga bets on ‘firmly established’ alternative protein market

    anuga plant based
    Courtesy: Anuga

    The premiere of Anuga Alternatives comes a year after Anuga added an alternative protein category to its main show. This year, over 1,300 exhibitors are presenting plant-based product solutions across the 10 trade events it hosts, which it said was a “clear indication” of how this sector is well-entrenched in the food industry.

    “Alternative proteins are certainly no longer a future theme – they are firmly established on the market. Numerous market analyses confirm this development,” Anuga said in a press release.

    It cited research by Innova Market Insights, which points to a 10% annual growth in the number of new microbial protein products. Yeast-derived proteins are experiencing a particularly dynamic rise (+60%), as are animal-free whey proteins (+24%), which are increasingly being incorporated into dairy and bakery goods.

    Algae-based product launches are also up by 17%, with kelp and red algae standing out. In fact, algae joins cultivated proteins, nuts, oats and soy in the list of proteins garnering increased global interest from consumers.

    Anuga Alternatives will be complemented by a specialised programme on the show’s Horizon Stage, which bundles future themes of the food industry in keynotes, panels and interactive formats. It will demonstrate how food, technology and sustainability can be rethought, and examine the current developments in the areas of research and technology of alternative proteins.

    “The market for alternative proteins is not only being pushed by the demand of the consumers, but equally by trailblazing, technological innovations. The progress made in processing plant-based sources of protein and finding new sources of protein [is]an of central importance here,” Anuga director Jan Philipp Hartmann said after the show’s announcement last year.

    It isn’t the only food and beverage event spotlighting alternative proteins this year. Informa Markets’ trade show, Fi India, will host producers of plant proteins, soy products, functional ingredients, and more in Greater Noida next month.

    The post Beyond & Oatly Among Plant-Based Exhibitors at Inaugural Anuga Alternatives Show appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Better Nature Raises $1.5M to Fight Chicken with Tempeh After ‘Best-Ever’ Quarter

    better nature funding
    5 Mins Read

    As it aims to displace chicken, UK tempeh brand Better Nature has secured £1.1M ($1.5M) on the back of its best quarter to date.

    In the era of whole-food plant-based eating and fibremaxxing with 30 plants a week, British tempeh maker Better Nature is making some major strides.

    After recording a 128% increase in sales in Q2, its best quarter since its 2020 market debut, the startup has raised £1.1M ($1.5M) to supercharge its mission of displacing the UK’s $4.3B chicken market.

    The capital came primarily from angel investors, 70% of whom were existing shareholders. It will enable the firm to accelerate its sales and marketing initiatives, double down on innovation, and widen the appeal of its tempeh products as high-protein, gut-friendly options.

    “We’re now the UK’s number one tempeh brand by volume, with 38.1% market share, leading the category’s impressive 41% growth,” said co-CEO Elin Roberts, who co-founded the startup with Fabio Rinaldo, Elin Roberts, Chris Kong and Driando Ahnan-Winarno in 2018.

    “Our latest fundraising round is a brilliant boost for the business at a point when the tempeh category is rapidly gaining momentum, and we are seeing strong brand growth,” she added.

    The funding amount is relatively small, but is reflective of the current investment landscape for alternative proteins. Year-on-year investment in the sector fell by 49% in the first half of 2025. And when excluding Beyond‘s $100M debt financing deal, plant-based companies only received $27M in Q2, half of the total in the previous quarter.

    Better Nature to launch tempeh in two more markets

    better nature tempeh
    Courtesy: Better Nature

    Tempeh, an ancient fermented soybean product native to Indonesia, has been making its way into Western palates recently. Better Nature’s portfolio comprises five SKUs, including a smoky tempeh block and BBQ-marinated pieces, which are listed nationally at various retailers in the UK, and in over 1,300 stores in Germany.

    The company is banking on the anti-UPF sentiments surrounding plant-based meat alternatives, which have hurt sales and stalled the industry’s momentum, positioning its tempeh as a clean-label protein that outperforms chicken.

    “People are less focused on vegan food vs non-vegan food. Instead, they’re looking for food that’s good for them, the planet and animals vs food that’s not,” Roberts told Green Queen in January. “We don’t want to perfectly replicate chicken. That would be impossible to do without the ingredients and processes that consumers are turning away from.”

    She added: “However, we know two things. First, chicken is the most widely eaten meat in the UK and second most widely eaten in the world. Second, tempeh – through its plain flavour, firm texture, absorption of flavours and high protein content – is an excellent swap for chicken in almost any dish, also offering consumers extra fibre, gut health benefits and plant points (as well as a shelf life that’s seven times longer). That’s why we call it supercharged protein, and chicken so-so protein.”

    It’s this approach that made Better Nature the second fastest-growing meat-free brand in the UK last year, with sales expanding by 457% (albeit from a small base). This year, it revamped its recipe to increase the protein content from 19g per 100g serving to 22g, the equivalent of three eggs or two-thirds of a chicken breast.

    Its original tempeh is now the best-selling tempeh SKU in Tesco, while it is the sole tempeh brand in Asda, with full estate distribution, Roberts noted.

    “Internationally, we’re also making waves – in Germany, our revenues skyrocketed [by] 330% year-on-year in Q2 2025, making us the leading tempeh brand in the market,” she added. “We’ve expanded into Austria, and we’re gearing up for launches in two more international markets later this year.”

    ‘Perfectly poised’ to capture UK health trends

    better nature revenue
    Courtesy: Better Nature

    It has been a curious time for plant-based brands in the UK. Sales of meat analogues fell by nearly 10% in 2024, while household penetration dropped by four percentage points (reaching 31.5%).

    But the volume of tofu sold was 10% higher in January 2025 than 12 months prior, possibly due to its affordability and tempeh and seitan also enjoyed an 85% hike. In the ensuing months, products like Oh So Wholesome’s Veg’chop and This’s Super Superfood have rolled out in a bid to rival both meat analogues and tofu.

    Research shows that a third of Brits want to cut back on meat and dairy, as dissatisfactions with cost, health and taste take hold. On the flip side, 38% want to increase their intake of plant-based foods, and one in six consumers have tried tofu, tempeh or seitan in the previous 12 months.

    The country is being urged to make beans more appealing to consumers, and brands like Bold Bean Co have enjoyed a 306% year-over-year growth. Tofu maker The Tofoo Co, meanwhile, enjoyed its best year yet, with sales up by nearly 20% in 2024. The shift is driven by the ‘plant points‘ movement, which encourages people to eat 30 different plants every week for better gut health.

    “As a brand, we’re perfectly poised to capture the huge trends in health right now: high-protein, gut-friendly, natural, fibre-rich and plant-based,” said Roberts, who was named on Forbes‘s 30 Under 30 this year alongside co-CEO Kong. “With the new funding, we will continue to drive mainstream brand growth, going beyond the plant-based aisle to tap into the growing market for natural, gut-friendly proteins.”

    In May, Better Nature appointed former Dr Oetker and Bel Group account manager Helen Atkinson as its new head of sales. And now, it’s launching its largest marketing campaign to date. The aim is to challenge “the mindless consumption of chicken” to help health-conscious consumers swap poultry for tempeh.

    “With our Indonesian roots and our expertise in tempeh at the heart of the brand through my brilliant co-founder Ando, we are the go-to experts on tempeh and perfectly placed to get the world eating what we believe to be the healthiest protein on the planet,” said Roberts.

    The post Better Nature Raises $1.5M to Fight Chicken with Tempeh After ‘Best-Ever’ Quarter appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Wolt Market Denmark Adopts ‘Protein Tracker’ to Promote Plant-Based Eating

    4 Mins Read

    Wolt Market Denmark has become the first supermarket outside the Netherlands to adopt the Protein Tracker, a tool aimed at increasing sales of plant-based food.

    As Denmark aims to lead the EU’s protein transition during its presidency, its retail sector is following suit.

    Wolt Market Denmark, a local subsidiary of the Finnish e-grocer, has adopted the Protein Tracker, a sustainability tool that helps companies measure sales to achieve a better balance between plant- and animal-based foods.

    It is the first supermarket to begin using this approach outside the Netherlands, where all major supermarkets publicly report the proportion of plant-based proteins sold.

    “We see the Protein Tracker as a necessary tool to ensure that our company sells more plant-based food, thereby helping to drive the transition towards a healthier and more sustainable diet,” said Martin Rouchmann, category manager at Wolt Market Denmark.

    Wolt Market Denmark looks to set concrete ‘protein split’ targets

    wolt protein tracker
    Courtesy: Wolt

    The Protein Tracker was developed by the Green Protein Alliance and ProVeg Nederland, with the help of think tank the Questionmark Foundation, climate non-profit Natuur&Milieu, and Dutch supermarkets.

    The initiative was born out of the Dutch government’s ambition to bring protein intake back in balance, split equally between plant and animal sources, as was the case in the 1950s. Now, 85% of retailers in the country are using the tool to drive up sales of plant-based food towards a 60% share by 2030.

    Companies can calculate their sales using the Protein Tracker’s methodology, which are then validated by the experts at the Green Protein Alliance and ProVeg Nederland. After this process, they can make the results public and repeat the assessment annually to provide transparency on their progress.

    “It is a fantastic tool to set targets and make real progress in moving closer towards the recommendations of the Eat Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet,” noted ProVeg International CEO Jasmijn de Boo.

    Several Dutch retailers have reduced their offerings of animal products after adopting the tool, with the largest cutbacks occurring at Jumbo (-42%), Spar (-26%), and Hoogvliet (-23%). Wolt Market Denmark would hope to replicate these actions to lower its emissions and drive healthier diets.

    “Our engagement with the Protein Tracker has offered critical insights, affirming that we are progressing toward a more plant-based sales mix,” said Rouchmann.

    He added: “Nevertheless, it also underscores that substantial efforts remain necessary. We are now positioned to establish concrete targets and systematically monitor our progress on an ongoing basis.”

    Retailers go green as Denmark leads protein transition

    wolt market denmak
    Courtesy: Wolt

    Wolt’s move to track its protein sales was encouraged by the Vegetarian Society of Denmark, which invited Green Protein Alliance’s Anke van’t Klooster to share the tool with the Danish retail industry. “By using the Protein Tracker, Wolt Denmark is showing that they are taking the shift towards a more plant-based diet seriously and are setting an example for other Danish supermarkets,” she said.

    The move comes during Denmark’s presidency of the European Council. It has laid out a plan to futureproof the region’s food system by focusing on an EU action plan for plant-based foods and a common protein strategy.

    “European protein supply is vital for the development of plant-based foods, raw materials for the livestock sector, and the diversification of supply sources. It is also an important element in the transition towards a more sustainable food system,” reads Denmark’s programme for the presidency.

    The presidency will host a conference on plant-based foods in September, as well as a Plant Food Summit for “policy inspiration” a month later. In addition, it will address the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, 82% of whose subsidies go towards livestock farming.

    These plans are in line with the Danish government’s recent policies. It promoted meat reduction in favour of plants in its updated dietary guidelines and established a $96M fund to advance the plant-based sector back in 2021, and later became the first country to create a national plan for plant-based foods. These were followed by the landmark Green Deal in 2024, which resulted in the world’s first carbon tax on meat and dairy farming and another $60M funnelled into the plant-based fund until 2030.

    Meanwhile, European retailers are ramping up their sustainability initiatives. German retailers Lidl and Rewe Group have both set protein split goals, while in the UK, an alliance of over 200 organisations have urged the government and retailers to take a joint initiative to make reporting of healthy food sales mandatory to include protein sales disclosure too.

    And in the Netherlands, Albert Heijn has become the world’s first supermarket to publicly disclose its methane emissions, heeding long-winded calls from sustainability experts.

    The post Wolt Market Denmark Adopts ‘Protein Tracker’ to Promote Plant-Based Eating appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Clever Carnivore Gives California A Taste of Its Cultivated Pork

    lab grown meat taste test
    4 Mins Read

    US cultivated pork startup Clever Carnivore has hosted its first tasting events on the West Coast, ahead of a planned launch in 2026.

    Chicago-based Clever Carnivore is continuing to gear up for the launch of its cultivated pork products in the US.

    The company hosted private tastings in Palo Alto and San Francisco on July 29, its first such events on the West Coast, convening investors, chefs, and food industry operators.

    “Everyone was impressed by the delicious product, but even more so by our low production costs and scalable, modular process,” Clever Carnivore claimed in a LinkedIn post.

    Clever Carnivore’s prototype bratwurst contains 10% pork cells

    lab grown pork
    Courtesy: Clever Carnivore

    At the events, attendees got a taste of the startup’s cultivated bratwursts, which contained 10% pork cells. This form of hybrid meat, which combines cultured and plant-based ingredients, is a common fixture in the industry, as it allows companies to keep costs low and supplies stable at current scales.

    “Our prototype products incorporate a plant-based fat,” co-founder and CEO Virginia Rangos told Green Queen in June. “Our cultivated pork delivers the ‘meaty’ flavour, allowing us to use plant-based fats and reap the nutritional benefits of plant-based vs animal fats.”

    Despite the low inclusion rate, the sausages seemed to prove a hit with taste-testers. “As someone from Germany who hasn’t eaten a traditional [bratwurst] in years, I was shocked,” said Anita Broellochs, founder of fermented plant protein powder maker Balletic Foods. “It honestly was one of the best bratwursts I’ve ever had.”

    The cultivated pork product also left Irfan Tahir, a scientist at light-derived novel protein maker Prolific Machines, impressed. “I may have gone back for seconds (okay, I definitely did),” he remarked.

    Tasting events are crucial for cultivated meat startups, allowing them to gain first-hand consumer insights about their products and finetune them before market launch. Clever Carnivore’s West Coast events follow two tastings in June (including one in Chicago), where it served over 50 bratwursts.

    “We’ve spoken to conventional meat advocates who candidly told us they ‘wanted to hate’ our product,” Ramos said. “But when presented with a product that cooks and tastes just like the sausage they’ve always loved, they quickly became intrigued.”

    Aside from taste, she noted that people have appreciated its value proposition: the cultivated pork is free from steroids, antibiotics or GMOs; has a secure food supply chain with domestic production; and offers expanded options that will keep products on shelves amid shortages and price inflation for conventional meat.

    Clever Carnivore targets 2026 launch with industry-leading media costs

    clever carnivore
    Courtesy: Clever Carnivore

    Rangos was speaking to Green Queen to discuss Clever Carnivore’s latest cost breakthroughs, in its effort to match the price of conventional pork.

    The company has brought the cost of its culture media down to an industry-leading $0.07 per litre at pilot scale, sped up the doubling times of its porcine cells to 14 hours, and designed inexpensive bioreactors that could enable its demo facility to reach profitability in its first full year of production.

    “Our expertise in media optimisation allows us to replace expensive components like bovine serum albumin and fetal bovine serum with carefully chosen alternatives, [and] ensure that we’re using only the absolutely essential components, maximising growth and minimising cost and waste,” Rangos explained.

    Clever Carnivore is now raising a $7M extension to its seed round from 2023 (which also closed at $7M) to develop new products and secure regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). So far, Upside Foods, Good Meat, Mission Barns, Wildtype, and Believer Meats have received a ‘no questions’ letter from the agency.

    “In reviewing their published dossiers, we paid close attention to which data the FDA ultimately asked them to provide, and we’re providing as much information as possible in our initial submission,” Rangos explains. “We project [our] cultivated meat could be available on the market as early as summer 2026.”

    Asked how the company plans to launch its innovations, she added: “We’re very interested in partnering with existing conventional meat and restaurant chain brands. We know we’re asking consumers to try something new, and we think presenting Clever Carnivore’s cultivated meat for the first time under a label consumers recognise and trust will go a long way toward getting consumers to try the product.”

    The company’s tastings come at an exciting time for cultivated meat in the US. Wildtype’s cultured salmon is rolling out at restaurants across the US, including in Oregon, California and Washington state. Mission Barns, meanwhile, has earned its USDA approval and will debut its cultivated pork products at Fiorella Sunset in San Francisco, alongside a retail launch at Sprouts Farmers Market.

    The post Clever Carnivore Gives California A Taste of Its Cultivated Pork appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Weeks After FDA Approval, Wildtype Expands Cultivated Salmon Across US

    wildtype salmon
    5 Mins Read

    Californian food tech startup Wildtype is taking its cultivated salmon to restaurants across the US, showcasing its potential with award-winning chefs.

    More and more Americans can now get their hands on cultivated seafood, thanks to San Francisco firm Wildtype’s expansion drive.

    The company’s cell-cultured coho salmon, which received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in late May, is now available in four restaurants, with another soon to be announced.

    The product is available at eateries in Oregon, California, Washington, and Texas – in the latter, it’s a limited-time offering, given the incoming ban on cultivated proteins next month. With these rollouts, Wildtype is aiming to enhance consumer acceptance by letting award-winning chefs get the best out of its innovation.

    kann wildtype salmon
    Courtesy: Kann

    How America’s chefs are serving Wildtype salmon

    The first restaurant to feature the Wildtype salmon was Kann in Portland, Oregon, where it’s paired in a summery dish with pickled strawberry, spiced tomato, strawberry juice, and an epis rice cracker.

    “We take pride in the ingredients we utilise,” said chef-owner Gregory Gourdet. “Introducing Wildtype’s cultivated salmon to our menu hits the elevated and sustainable marks we want our menu to offer guests who share a similar value system to ours.”

    The sushi-grade cultivated salmon then made its debut at Otoko, led by Yoshi Okai. The Austin eatery is known for a multi-course omakase experience that blends Tokyo-style sushi and Kyoto-style kaiseki, with tasting menus costing between $150 and $250.

    “Farm-raised salmon creates so much pollution, so it’s not sustainable. You want to enjoy seafood long-term, so Wildtype’s good because you don’t have to kill the fish anymore,” said Okai. “It’s something new. It’s awesome.”

    wildtype salmon where to buy
    Courtesy: Wildtype

    Now, Wildtype is returning to its home state of California through a partnership with Adam Tortosa’s San Francisco outpost, Robin. Also an omakase restaurant, its tasting menus range from $119 to $219, with Wildtype landing on the menu on August 14.

    “The way I would describe Wildtype’s taste is the same as regular salmon. If it didn’t taste like salmon, we wouldn’t consider it,” Tortosa said. “I’m more excited about what it means for the future of the seafood industry. It means that there is a future.”

    A week after landing at Robin, Wildtype’s salmon will make its way into Seattle, where it will be on the menu of James Beard-nominated oyster bar The Walrus and the Carpenter. Chef Renee Erickson will serve it as part of a tostada, with the salmon tossed with lime juice and paired with cucumber, pickled carrot, olive oil and herbs.

    “The Wildtype salmon saku that we serve raw has pure salmon flavour – it’s amazing. It also has a really dense, nice quality, and I think the fattiness and the deliciousness you’re used to in wild salmon, you get as well in this,” Erickson noted. “It is mind-blowing that it actually is salmon, just not in the sense of what I’ve been used to my entire life.”

    wildtype salmon fda
    Courtesy: Wildtype

    More cultivated meat expected on restaurant menus

    Backed by the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos, Wildtype obtains living cells from Pacific salmon, which are adapted to suspension culture. They are grown in tanks similar to those used to make beer or kombucha, under temperature and pH conditions that wild fish thrive in, alongside a nutrient mix containing proteins, sugar, fat, salt, and minerals like iron and zinc.

    The cells are harvested using bowl centrifugation, washed three times with a water and sugar solution, rapidly cooled using blast chillers, and stored frozen. They’re mixed with certain plant-based ingredients to replicate the structure and texture of conventional salmon.

    The spate of rollouts follows the FDA’s issuance of a ‘no questions’ letter to Wildtype, which confirmed that the cultivated salmon is “as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods”. Founders Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck told Green Queen that the startup plans to debut in retail too, following the foodservice launches. It isn’t the only cultivated protein to land restaurant deals in the US this year.

    Mission Barns, which received the FDA green light in March and US Department of Agriculture approval last month (Wildtype’s salmon does not fall under the latter’s oversight), will soon debut its cultivated pork at Fiorella Sunset in San Francisco this quarter. Its meatballs will also be available at Sprouts Farmers Market.

    lab grown meat approved
    Courtesy: Mission Barns

    These developments come in what is turning out to be a milestone year for cultivated meat in the US. In July, Israel’s Believer Meats joined the list of startups with FDA authorisation for its cultivated chicken.

    These three regulatory wins two years after Upside Foods and Good Meat’s cultivated chicken products made their way at restaurants in the US, including at Dominique Crenn’s Michelin-starred Bar Crenn in San Francisco and José Andrés’s China Chilcano in Washington, DC. Upside Foods is now aiming to secure approval for cultivated chicken shreds and bring them to US eateries by the end of the year.

    Meanwhile, last week, Clever Carnivore hosted a public tasting of its cultivated bratwurst in Palo Alto and San Francisco, ahead of a planned launch in 2026.

    And outside the US, Vow’s cultured quail has been available at restaurants in Singapore since April 2024, and in Australia since June.

    The post Weeks After FDA Approval, Wildtype Expands Cultivated Salmon Across US appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • In Rare Break from Plant-Based Attacks, France Pumps €12M Towards ‘Protein Sovereignty’

    4 Mins Read

    The French government has invested in 10 projects to expand domestic plant protein production, in direct contrast with its efforts to ban plant-based meat labels and soy products in schools.

    Are plant proteins finally getting a break in France?

    The country’s agriculture and food sovereignty ministry has announced 10 winners of its Territorial Legume Sector Projects, pumping in €11.7M for efforts to ramp up local plant protein production.

    The call was first launched in June 2024, as part of the ministry’s National Strategy for Plant Proteins, which aims to reduce reliance on imported plant proteins and develop a range of local products.

    The ‘protein sovereignty’ initiative is backed by the funds for sovereignty and ecological planning transitions, and supports projects committed to the development of domestic plant proteins. The winners, the ministry said, can benefit from dedicated support, particularly for downstream investments and funding needed for the production of prototypes and project engineering.

    Which projects won France’s plant protein grants?

    soy isoflavones
    Courtesy: Ika Rahma

    Two of the winning projects are directly aiming to produce food for human consumption. The DSLFB project, led by Berry Graines, aims to boost the added-value legume sector, particularly through investments in packaging tools and strengthening traceability and quality. Texipro, meanwhile, is leading an eponymous effort to create an industrial unit for the primary processing of textured vegetable proteins using crops like soybeans.

    The Innov’Légumineuses project, led by Bioalva, highlights an innovative process for fermenting locally produced seaweed and legumes, enabling scale-up to an agrifood unit.

    Vivescia, a cooperative group of over 10,000 farmers, is spearheading the AGIL project, aimed at developing seed sorting and packaging, while Axereal’s CultivUp project aims to boost a processing tool offering new outlets for legume crops like peas and broad beans.

    The ColeGra’m initiative looks to create a profitable local sector for the production and marketing of legumes, and is led directly by stakeholders in the upstream agriculture sector.

    Another project, titled Finovaleg, aims to enhance seed sorting capacity and fund R&D activities for the industry, and Déshyouest (led by the cooperative of the same name) is focused on improving the group’s “carbon-free alfalfa dehydration tool”.

    Then there’s the TP2030 project, which looks to increase post-harvest processing and storage capacities to help French lentils regain market share. And the Leg4All project, led by Terres Univia, will promote best practices to increase the uptake of legumes in menus.

    “Currently, more than one million hectares are planted with plant-protein-rich crops. One of the ministry’s objectives is to reach 10% of France’s usable agricultural area by 2030,” said Annie Genevard, the agriculture and food sovereignty minister. “These projects will accelerate our progress in food sovereignty and also contribute to meeting our environmental transition challenges.”

    Investment contrasts with France’s continued attacks on plant-based food

    france plant based meat
    Courtesy: Vanessa Loring/Pexels/Green Queen

    France’s legume focus is in stark contrast with its moves to inhibit the alternative proteins sector over the last few years. It has long been a proponent of a ban on the use of meaty terms on plant-based product packaging.

    It has tried to impose a labelling ban twice since 2023, with the most recent attempt being rejected by both the national Conseil d’État and the European Court of Justice. But earlier this month, French MEP Celina Imart kickstarted another such attempt at the EU level, proposing a ban to the European Parliament, which will vote on the measure after the summer.

    That was followed swiftly by a similar proposal from the EU Commission last week, days after Genevard targeted the term ‘veggie steak’ in a debate on proteins at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

    And despite the investment in domestic plant proteins, France’s food safety agency has recommended a ban on soy-based products in mass catering environments like schools, corporate cafeterias, and daycare facilities. The move was based on its assessment of health risks linked to the consumption of foods rich in isoflavones, which have long been debunked by scientists.

    Consumer perception runs contrary to these anti-alternative-protein measures. In France, sales of plant-based food grew by 9% in 2024 to reach €537M, making it the third-largest market for these products in Europe. Chilled meat alternatives recorded a 15.5% growth. At the same time, research suggests that meat intake has fallen over the last two decades.

    That said, the ‘protein sovereignty’ project aligns with the 35% of French residents who rate legumes and pulses among the richest sources of protein, and the two-thirds who eat foods like beans, grains, lentils and wheat weekly. For a third of these consumers, nutritional benefits are the major driver behind the increase in intake – these 10 projects will hope to build on that.

    The post In Rare Break from Plant-Based Attacks, France Pumps €12M Towards ‘Protein Sovereignty’ appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Cambridge University: Alternative Proteins Are Key Drivers for A Renewable Food System

    lab grown meat australia
    5 Mins Read

    Alternative proteins are a critical lever in the shift to a truly renewable food system, which is necessary to sustainably feed the rising global population, argues a new report.

    How do you feed 10 billion people when current industrial agriculture systems (and the planet with it) are collapsing?

    According to Paul Gilding, a fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the answer lies with modern technologies.

    “We are approaching a critical fork in the road. One path leads to widespread food crises and economic disorder. The other offers a renewable food system – one that is stable, affordable, and able to thrive even as the climate changes,” he said.

    Gilding, a former Greenpeace CEO, has authored a paper arguing that the agrifood system is on the brink of market disruption, one that will have seismic consequences for economies, societies, and ecosystems.

    “Most in the industry take comfort in a belief that transformational change is ‘difficult and complex’ and will be ‘very slow’,” the report notes, citing barriers like farmer perceptions, consumer resistance, the power of lobbies, and cultural shifts.

    “They see sustainability as an optional ‘something we should do’, rather than a set of physical limits that will undermine the economics and stability of the current system, making change inevitable,” it adds.

    “While comforting, these are the usual self-serving illusions of an incumbent industry. They ignore the inevitability that unfolds when change is driven by science and economics, rather than noble intentions or public opinion.”

    Why we need food systems change

    food system transformation
    Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva

    Transformational change is inevitable, the paper argues, for two converging reasons. Industrial farming is reaching its physical and environmental limits. Climate change, water scarcity, soil degradation, and a lack of land are rendering the current system incapable of meeting the 35-56% rise in demand by 2050. This will result in supply shocks, further inflation, and geopolitical instability.

    A range of new technologies is enabling food production without traditional agriculture, combining AI and biotechnology to offer proteins and foods that will eventually be “cheaper, healthier and safer”.

    In Gilding’s eyes, a renewable food system should be able to feed over nine billion people healthily and affordably, within the now rapidly changing climate and extreme geopolitical instability, while allowing for steadily growing demand for land. The industry would continue to do all this indefinitely, using resources within the ecosystem rather than extracting them and making them unavailable for further use.

    “Disruptive market change is inevitable. It will either occur through the food system breaking down due to global supply instability and the resulting conflict and disorder, or through an economics-driven transformation that leverages new technologies and processes to create a stable and ‘renewable food’ supply,” he writes.

    “Such a transition will be complex, non-linear and resisted by the incumbent industries. It will create significant economic and social disruptions and have major consequences, especially for farming communities and workers in related industries. This will need to be well managed to minimise negative impacts and social risks,” he adds.

    Gilding also notes that new approaches to food production won’t fully replace traditional farming; instead they will mainly impact industrial agriculture such as intensive beef and dairy factory farms. However, resistance by “incumbent industries and populist politicians” could slow this transition, just as climate change risks accelerate.

    How alternative proteins can enable a renewable food system

    lab grown meatballs
    Courtesy: Mission Barns

    The report points out several key drivers that will disrupt the agrifood market. The impact of climate change, soil loss and water scarcity on the food system will lead to supply instability and shocks. Conversely, agriculture’s effect on the planet will come into sharp focus as the climate crisis accelerates and threatens the economy.

    New production technologies – like precision fermentation and cell cultivation – and parallel tech like AI and renewable energy will accelerate the scale, quality and price reductions of sustainable food.

    Gilding highlights how the current food system is built on the “first domestication”, which allowed us to master macroorganisms, and uses vast amounts of resources to grow animals and plants: “This has been hugely valuable to society, enabling us to produce ever greater quantities of food, but it is an inherently inefficient approach with huge amounts of wasted inputs and outputs.”

    The new food system is being built on the “second domestication”, leveraging microorganisms and cells to grow the key nutritional elements we need. This helps us bypass the macroorganisms and produce food that isn’t just functionally the same, but in many cases bioidentical. “It is not ‘artificial food’, it is the same food being produced more efficiently,” argues Gilding.

    He outlines how precision fermentation can produce foods, ingredients and nutrients currently extracted from animals and plants more efficiently, while cell cultivation can do the same from those sourced from livestock. Moreover, plant-based foods are being enhanced by technologies such as AI to be cheaper, healthier and tastier.

    “Consumer acceptance of these ‘new processes’ is often raised as a likely barrier to growth – that consumers prefer ‘natural’ products to processed ones,” he writes, nodding to the ultra-processed food (UPF) debate. “The reality is, much of the food eaten today is not at all ‘natural’ in the way it is perceived. These new production processes simply allow us to grow the required food to the specifications we need, rather than breaking down macroorganisms to access them through extraction.”

    Many sceptics point to a perceived negative impact on the farming community. Addressing these concerns, Gilding says the disruption will be far less (and considerably slower) for smaller family farmers and also for horticulture. “It will mainly threaten large-scale industrialised agriculture such as broadacre soy and corn, and feedlot beef and dairy,” he notes.

    “Achieving a ‘renewable food’ system will probably require reductions in the food system’s greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water intensity in the vicinity of 60–90%,” he adds. “Therefore, transformation is essential. And transformation is always disruptive.”

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  • EU Pumps $3.3M in Mewery to Scale Up Cultivated Pork

    mewery
    7 Mins Read

    Czech startup Mewery has secured €2.9M ($3.3M) in grants from the EU to expand the production of its cultivated pork and launch pilot projects with meat producers.

    While private investment in cultivated meat is in freefall, public support for the category remains robust.

    The EU has made its biomanufacturing ambitions clear, with €350M available in biotech funding and a new act aimed at simplifying the novel food regulatory process.

    As part of its goal to establish the region as a future food leader, its key R&D funding programme, Horizon Europe, has invested €2.9M ($3.3M) in Brno-based cultivated pork maker Mewery.

    Most of the funding comes from a €2.5M ($2.86M) grant via Horizon Europe’s EIC Accelerator, backed by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. The rest comes from its participation in the international research consortium Alliance, a Horizon Europe initiative led by Wageningen University and supported by CzechInvest, which convenes 19 partners to expand the use of microalgae-based ingredients by developing multi-product biorefineries.

    Mewery has already demonstrated its co-cultivation technology (combining pork and microalgae cells) on four prototypes. At the start of the year, it began gradual production in a medium-sized bioreactor with a production capacity in the lower kg range. Now, the firm will use the funds to scale up its tech to higher kg volumes of biomass, which it plans to achieve at the turn of the year.

    “This will be a crucial step that will open the way for us to test our technology with meat producers,” says founder and CEO Roman Lauš. Initial talks are already underway, with pilot projects expected to be launched in the EU in the coming months.

    “We are currently adjusting our bioprocess for the use in our medium-sized bioreactor with a goal to produce enough biomass for pilot testing projects with partners across Europe, i.e., kilos,” Rostislav Brzobohatý, Mewery’s chief commercial officer, told Green Queen.

    “These projects will be in our focus in the coming months. Specific volumes will depend on the needs of individual manufacturing partners that we plan to involve in testing the unit across Europe,” he added.

    mewery czech republic
    Courtesy: Mewery

    How Mewery is reducing the costs of cultivated pork

    Founded in 2020 by Lauš, Mewery’s co-cultivation tech allows it to enhance cell growth efficiency and reduce costs, resulting in a product with “highly valuable composition”. Last year, the company established a stable cell line and expanded its cell bank to include multiple types of non-GMO porcine cells.

    It has since begun operating a pilot plant within its facilities at Brno’s Mendel University, which will help with the testing project. “Right now, we are focusing on internal validation of the bioprocess and its optimisation for the current bioreactor size,” says Brzobohatý.

    “Mewery will produce the agreed volumes of biomass at its own facility and deliver them to manufacturing partners for testing. We expect them to test our biomass as part of their product applications,” he adds.

    “We don’t consider the co-production of our biomass with external manufacturers as we expect to be able to produce required volumes with our current capacities. The co-production is not planned in later stages either, as our long-term business model is built on licensing and our effort will be to enable our manufacturing partners to develop their own production capabilities [by] leveraging our co-cultivation technology.”

    Currently, its cost per kg of meat is in the tens of euros. “We are still in low experimental volumes compared to industrial production, and it is premature to draw conclusions about future prices from these figures,” notes Brzobohatý.

    Its cost pipeline is pointing towards a price below €10 per kg, driven by the continuous optimisation of its inputs. “With up to 10 times higher yield than industry standard, we significantly reduce the amount of growth media required while simultaneously lowering waste management costs,” he says.

    Replacing high-cost components like fetal bovine serum with its proprietary microalgae-based alternative and producing recombinant proteins internally allows it to reduce reliance on expensive external suppliers. “Combined, these factors are steadily narrowing the gap to conventional meat pricing and positioning Mewery not only as a technological pioneer, but as a commercially viable player in the future protein market,” Brzobohatý says.

    “However, right now, we are primarily focusing our efforts on developing the right product together with our partners – a product that will excite consumers and deliver real added value, which is ultimately what will determine the perceived value for money and the whole production and pricing strategy,” he adds.

    mewery funding
    Courtesy: Mewery

    Testing project will inform regulatory filings

    Mewery has previously teased products like meatballs and tenderloin made from 75% porcine cells and 25% microalgae cells. In 2023, it debuted a burger at a small tasting in its home country, where over 90% of attendees indicated their willingness to taste the cultivated product.

    “Mendel University will collaborate on tests related to nutritional composition and safety and will assist in finetuning the joint product,” says Brzobohatý. “In the event of a successful application, we will continue to discuss with our partner regarding a possible joint application to the European Food Safety Authority.”

    Only Gourmey and Mosa Meat have applied to sell cultivated meat in the EU so far, with its rigorous and – in its own words – “lengthy” approval process a major barrier for novel food companies. For Mewery, however, it would “make a lot of sense to start in Europe” with partners with whom it’s ready to move from joint development to commercialisation.

    “However, we are still planning to apply in the US at the same time, despite the current developments in the field of cultivated meat there,” Brzobohatý says, nodding to the spate of state-level cultivated meat bans. “Based on the current schedule, we expect to apply in 2027-28.”

    lab grown pork
    Courtesy: Mewery

    High costs, low scalability and ‘unfulfilled promises’ have led to funding gap

    Mewery has secured €4M from public and private investors since its inception. Moreover, thanks to an EIC grant, it has won a Seal of Excellence, a European quality label awarded to projects that meet the highest standards set by the EU Commission.

    “We see this award and funding from local sources as a strong sign of confidence, not only in our team, but also in the very idea of cultivated meat as a sustainable alternative,” said Lauš. “European validation at this level proves that our project is at the absolute forefront of technology and ready for scaling up to pilot production.”

    Funding for cultivated meat has slowed dramatically since the turn of the decade. The sector saw funding decline by 75% in 2023, and another 40% in 2024. In fact, in the last three years, these companies have cumulatively raised less money than they did in 2021 alone ($1.3B). And this year so far, the category has only attracted $35M.

    cultivated meat investment
    Graphic by Green Queen

    Brzobohatý ascribes the slowdown to high production costs, limited scalability, and unfulfilled promises from earlier market players: “Many companies are struggling to transition from lab-based production to industrial-scale manufacturing or to develop cost-effective processes, leading investors to take a more cautious approach. At the same time, regulatory uncertainty is further dampening investor enthusiasm.”

    What makes Mewery a prospect? Based on feedback from EIC biotech and VC experts, it points to two main factors. “Our proprietary unique co-cultivation method with technological advantages [is] already proven in previous proof-of-concept studies (high yield, lower production costs, longer shelf life, easier scalability, and more). These are arguments that give hope for a potential breakthrough in the industry that investors are waiting for,” he says.

    Then there’s its commercial pipeline, which “takes into account the needs of our future manufacturing partners and involves them in joint development at an early stage”. This has the potential to “accelerate joint market entry after the regulatory phase”.

    He adds: “We believe that there will be several major developments in the meat cultivation industry in the near future, which will attract renewed investor interest and confirm the enormous potential of our industry.

    The post EU Pumps $3.3M in Mewery to Scale Up Cultivated Pork appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Alternative Protein Funding Down by 50% in the First Half of 2025

    beyond meat mycelium steak
    5 Mins Read

    Investment in plant-based, fermentation-derived and cultivated proteins declined by half in the first six months of 2025, outlining continued headwinds for the sector.

    Alternative proteins haven’t had the same pull with investors as they did at the turn of the decade, and the consistent downturn in funding has reached a new low in 2025.

    In the first six months of this year, funding for plant-based, fermentation-derived and cultivated proteins fell by 49% compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Good Food Institute’s (GFI) analysis of data from Net Zero Insights.

    This is after alternative protein companies raised just $129.5M in Q2, a 45% decline from the previous quarter. It took total funding for the first half of 2025 to $364M.

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    Unlike recent quarters, where fermentation companies have gone the opposite way of the otherwise declining trend, they only raised $2.6M in Q2 (down from $146M in Q1). And while there were three investments announced for cultivated meat, the amount of each deal remained undisclosed.

    Plant-based food companies received $127M in the April to June period. However, a large chunk of that was thanks to Beyond‘s $100M debt financing deal. Without this, the plant-based category would have received just half of its Q1 total in this period.

    AI a threat and an opportunity for alternative protein funding

    alternative protein investment
    Graphic by Green Queen

    For context, investment in the future food sector has been slowing for a few years now. After attracting nearly $7B in 2021, there has been a constant drop, to $3.2B in 2022, $1.5B in 2023, and $1.1B in 2024.

    The trend was already worsening in Q1 2025, when alternative protein investments declined by 28% year-on-year. But the subsequent performance in Q2 has left more questions for the sector for the rest of the year.

    VCs, in general, are a conscious class right now. It’s not just this sector that has seen a downward trend in funding, agrifood tech (a 37% year-on-year decline), biotech (-35%) and climate tech (-19%) have all suffered similarly.

    With alternative proteins, the hesitance in investing stems from a range of factors, including geopolitical uncertainties, President Donald Trump’s tariff war, Robert F Kennedy Jr’s MAHA policies, the constant attacks on ultra-processed food, legislative bans on cultivated meat, and a resurgence of animal proteins amid continued sales declines for plant-based proteins in several markets.

    “Recent investment levels in alternative proteins reflect a market-wide slowdown in food and climate tech funding, driven in part by the reallocation of investor capital toward artificial intelligence,” Daniel Gertner, GFI’s lead economic and industry analyst, told Green Queen.

    ai lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Cyril Marcilhacy

    “These conditions present headwinds for alternative protein startups seeking to raise capital. Topline investment totals fluctuate from quarter to quarter, but the broader trend points to a more cautious capital environment in the near term,” he added.

    Like in 2024, there’s one area that has dominated the share of investment and presented additional headwinds for food tech: artificial intelligence. These companies received 53% of all venture capital flows in the first half of this year.

    That said, the tech is driving innovations within the alternative protein industry. Companies and researchers are using it to discover ingredients, optimise processes and develop better products.

    So for alternative proteins to keep investor interest piqued, a focus on using AI for practical and industrial applications may be the best way forward for now.

    De-risking events could usher in more renewed investor interest

    daily harvest chobani
    Courtesy: Chobani

    Despite the doom and gloom, there were some signs of progress, according to GFI. At least five M&A deals took place in Q2, while partnership activity remained robust. Businesses have been looking to consolidate or collaborate to share costs, strengthen distribution networks, and accelerate regulatory pathways.

    Speaking of which, it has been a milestone year for cultivated meat and seafood regulation. In Q2, US startups Mission Barns and Wildtype received the green light from the FDA, with the latter’s salmon going on sale since it doesn’t require USDA approval. Sydney startup Vow, meanwhile, gained final authorisation in Australia and New Zealand, and began selling its cultured quail in the former’s restaurants.

    This month, Mission Barns obtained USDA approval, clearing the way for market entry, while Israel’s Believer Meats got the FDA nod for its cultivated chicken. And Friends & Family Pet Food Company secured clearance to sell cultivated chicken for cats and dogs in Singapore.

    lab grown meat approved
    Graphic by Green Queen

    Public investment is also on the rise. The EU announced €350M in funding to scale up biomanufacturing, which could advance the fermentation sector and support the development of sustainable food ingredients. That said, a recent report showed that the fermentation industry needs $500B to meet its true potential.

    According to GFI, companies would need to deliver commercialised technologies and successful exits to kickstart a sustained turnaround in funding. But the increase in strategic deals and regulatory wins could be early signs of a resurgence in investment.

    “Several de-risking developments have occurred in recent months, including regulatory approvals for multiple cultivated meat companies and growing momentum in mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships,” Gertner said.

    “While still early, these developments may help lay the groundwork for a more favourable investment climate and renewed investor interest in the months ahead.”

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  • Happy Ocean Foods Ditches Vegan Seafood for ‘Clean’ Plant Protein

    happy ocean foods
    5 Mins Read

    German alternative protein startup Happy Ocean Foods has bid farewell to its plant-based seafood portfolio, instead embracing a Clean Protein philosophy to meet consumer trends.

    As clean eating becomes the norm for more and more Europeans, one plant-based seafood startup is shifting its focus to cater to their needs.

    Munich-based Happy Ocean Foods, which made its name with vegan shrimp and tuna, has scrapped its seafood alternative lineup. Instead, it’s now focusing on a Clean Protein System, which offers functional plant protein bases for the foodservice sector.

    “The market is overflowing with imitations – but what is missing are functional protein solutions that work in real kitchens and at the point of service,” said co-founder Julian Hallet. “That’s why we at Happy Ocean Foods are now focusing on Clean Protein.”

    The firm has now launched Ocean Touch and Umami Touch, two products that still evoke either the sea or animal protein, but are made to stand on their own and deliver high amounts of protein with fewer ingredients.

    Happy Ocean Foods taps into Europe’s clean-label push

    happy ocean foods clean protein
    Courtesy: Happy Ocean Foods

    The company describes the Clean Protein System as a tool that offers next-gen plant-based components tailor-made for caterers and foodservice operators. They require no cutting or marination, offer price flexibility and supply stability, and can be used in a range of applications, including bowls, wraps and salads.

    The Ocean Touch product comprises flakes that can be used cold or lukewarm. They’re made from a base of pea protein isolate and rice flour, which are mixed with rapeseed oil, pea fibre, microalgae oil, and flavourings. Available in natural and lemon-herb variants, it contains 21g of protein per 100g, with 1g of fibre and omega-3 from DHA and EPA.

    Meanwhile, Umami Touch is sold as cubes in spicy and Mediterranean flavours, and is described as having a “meaty bite”. It comprises pea protein isolate, fava bean protein, rice flour, rapeseed oil, salt, and natural flavours, and has 22g of protein and 1g of fibre per 100g.

    “With our deep expertise in wet extrusion and functional protein blends, we’re creating ready-to-use, allergen-free protein bases for modern foodservice concepts. These components are made to simplify kitchen processes while maximising flavour, texture and nutritional value – to deliver on every level,” the company wrote on LinkedIn.

    Happy Ocean Foods’s pivot comes amid a rise in clean eating in Europe. Research shows that one in two consumers now prefer a clean-label approach to healthy eating, while two-thirds reconsider purchases based on ingredient lists. Germany, in fact, is the most active country for clean-label product launches.

    A 2024 survey revealed that 73% of Europeans are looking for products with recognisable ingredients, and up to 55% are willing to pay more for those with natural claims. The trend is tied to healthy eating, with 81% of consumers citing health as an important driver of daily food choices.

    Meanwhile, despite Germany being the largest market for plant-based food outside the US, concerns around ultra-processed food continue to plague producers of meat and seafood analogues. Vegan seafood is one of the least popular animal-free food categories in the country, with only a fifth of consumers eating it in the last year. And that’s despite 38% wanting to increase their consumption of plant-based food.

    vegan trends
    Courtesy: GFI Europe

    Plant-based category ‘missing healthy, high-protein solutions’

    Happy Ocean Foods began in 2025, with Hallet and co-founder Robin Drummond targeting the demand for healthier, more sustainable proteins. It launched Happy Srump in 2022, followed by Happy Tyuna in 2024, before unveiling the Clean Protein products this year. It’s also working with reserach partners on further innovations.

    “When we founded Happy Ocean Foods over five years ago, we weren’t interested in catering to the next vegan hype,” Hallet said. “We were interested in something very simple: to meet the growing protein demand in our society with high-quality, plant-based sources – varied, nutritious and without animal origin.”

    He continued: “We started with fish alternatives because there were no alternatives in this category despite overfishing. But today, we know it is very difficult to keep track of the category and identify really good products, [and] what is missing are healthy and high-quality protein solutions that impress with their taste and versatility and integration at all levels.”

    Hallet revealed that after consulting many sales partners in the last few months, the company found some key opportunities for growth: cleaner labels, higher protein, quick and flexible use, and a formulation free from soy, wheat and other allergens.

    “For us, this is not a pivot. It is the logical continuation of why we founded Happy Ocean Foods: good food, good nutritional values, good impact,” he said. “Not as a replacement, but as a solution.”

    happy ocean foods germany
    Courtesy: Happy Ocean Foods

    It’s not the only company that has pivoted or diversified from vegan alternatives to standalone plant proteins. Austria’s Revo Foods recently launched The Prime Cut, a 3D-printed mycoprotein fillet described as a “new class of performance nutrition that doesn’t try to imitate meat”. And in the UK, leading plant-based meat brand This introduced a Super Superfood product packed with whole foods and meant to rival tofu and tempeh.

    And this week, industry giant Beyond Meat said it has dropped ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on traditional plant proteins, ahead of launching a new Ground product with four ingredients: fava beans, potato starch, water, and psyllium husk.

    “Instead of thinking about a simple replacement for animal protein, what if you just thought about your daily protein consumption, and I started to try to replace as much of that as I can with plant protein, any form that I could?” CEO Ethan Brown told Fast Company. “You’ll see us come out with things like, maybe, lentil sausage. Or chickpea hot dogs.”

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  • Beyond Says It’s Dropping ‘Meat’ From Its Name to Target America’s Protein Craze

    beyond meat rebrand
    5 Mins Read

    Ahead of its latest product launch, Beyond Meat is dropping ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on the power of traditional plants amid falling sales and rising demand for protein.

    Beyond Meat is going beyond meat – quite literally.

    The Californian pioneer of plant-based meat says it’s ditching ‘Meat’ from its name to simply be ‘Beyond’ as it enters a new era with products centred on celebrating whole plants rather than imitating animal protein.

    The move, as first reported by Fast Company in an interview with CEO Ethan Brown, comes amid falling sales for the industry giant. By Brown’s own admission, Beyond had a “disappointing” first quarter of 2025, with year-on-year sales down by 9%. Longer-term, the company’s market value has shrunk by around 95% since its 2019 IPO.

    There are several factors behind this decline. If you ask Beyond, the main culprits are “weak category demand” and “intense misinformation”. “While Beyond Meat can always and will always seek to improve our products, we believe the central issue impeding our return to sustained growth is perception. Or more accurately, misperception,” Brown said in the company’s latest earnings call.

    As protein enters virtually every food category, Beyond is pivoting its business model. For years, it has been known for its signature burger and other meat analogues – now, though, it’s going all-in on traditional plant proteins.

    Beyond CEO hints at post-workout products and lentil sausages

    beyond sausage
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Since 2024, Beyond has been on a product launch spree. It first reformulated its beef platform with a new recipe, before revamping its beef crumbles and its sausage portfolio. This year, it has rolled out chicken pieces, a reimagined version of its first-ever product, as well as a mycelium steak.

    It turned heads in 2024 when it introduced its Sun Sausage lineup. They’re made from a base of yellow peas, brown rice, red lentils and faba beans, and represented the company’s first foray beyond meat alternatives.

    It seems the move wasn’t a one-off. As plant-based meat continues to struggle – US retail sales fell by 7% in 2024 – a rethink has become necessary. While Beyond’s shift may seem radical, it plays into consumer trends in the US.

    Its newest product is a testament to that. Called Beyond Ground and due to be launched in August, the mince-like protein only has four ingredients: fava beans, potato starch, water, and psyllium husk. Each serving contains 140 calories, 4g of fibre, 1.5g of fat, and 27g of protein (that’s higher than beef). Plus, it has zero cholesterol, saturated fat, or added oils.

    “It’s not trying to be beef, pork, or poultry. It’s simply a very high protein, centre-of-the-plate product that can be used in any dishes you’d use any ground meat in,” Brown told Inc. Magazine in June.

    beyond meat documentary
    Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown in Planting Change | Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    This is just the start, however. In his interview with Fast Company, he said: “If you’re the best in the world at making plant proteins, why confine yourself to the centre of the plate?”

    He elaborated: “Instead of thinking about a simple replacement for animal protein, what if you just thought about your daily protein consumption, and I started to try to replace as much of that as I can with plant protein, any form that I could?”

    So what could future Beyond innovations look like? Brown hinted at everything from a centre-aisle offering with 30g of protein and zero fat to post-workout products inspired by Roman gladiators. The company’s new mission seems to “serve an occasion” instead of trying to mimic an animal. “You’ll see us come out with things like, maybe, lentil sausage,” said Brown. “Or chickpea hot dogs.”

    Beyond targets America’s protein obsession in new era for plant-based

    There has been no offical announcement about the rebrand from Beyond Meat, and Green Queen has reached out for confirmation.

    But for the company whose vegan chicken got the thumbs-up from Mark Bittman, and scored famous investors like Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Chastain, to resort to the veggie burger category feels like a gamble.

    Is Beyond turning back the clock and undoing all the work it has done over the past decade-and-a-half? Is it giving in to the meat lobby it has very publicly fought for years? Or is it being a shrewd business that has identified the needs of today’s consumers, and its place in the renewed landscape?

    us protein consumption
    Courtesy: Bain & Company

    The bottom line is: protein is going nowhere. In December, 85% of Americans said they wanted to consume more protein in 2025. And a more recent survey by Bain has found that a net 44% of consumers want to eat more protein (a 10-point rise from last year).

    Despite the furore around ultra-processed foods, few Americans (15%) want to eat more unprocessed products now than they did in early 2023 (20%). So products like Beyond Ground, which process climate- and health-supporting whole foods like fava beans into a blank protein canvas, are destined to succeed – at least in theory.

    “There’s a longing for animal protein because we associate it with simpler times,” said Brown. “But how it’s being delivered to us is not [simple].”

    All that said, Beyond’s meat portfolio isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This month, it introduced another first for its portfolio, a whole-cut steak fillet made from mycelium. It will hope the product helps turn its fortunes around.

    beyond mycelium steak
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Brown blamed Big Meat and Big Pharma for the vast amount of misinformation surrounding alternative proteins, which has hurt sales, scared off investors, and forced many startups to shut. VCs also share part of the responsibility, with funding for the sector decreasing by 27% in 2024.

    The Beyond CEO said he was grateful for the large investment sums his company has attracted – it secured a $100M debt financing deal this year – ultimately, however, the money “diverted consumers’ focus” from the fact that its vegan meat “is closer to the field than the factory-farmed ingredients they’re used to eating”.

    So maybe the changing landscape has forced Beyond’s hand. It isn’t the only one. Its chief rival, Impossible Foods, recently floated the idea of a foray into blended meat.

    By ditching the ‘meat’, is Beyond ushering in a new dawn for plant-based?

    The post Beyond Says It’s Dropping ‘Meat’ From Its Name to Target America’s Protein Craze appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Alpro Kids, 3D-Printed Shawarma & Vegan Meat Labels

    alpro kids milk
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Alpro Kids’ video-game-style campaign, Mighty Drinks’ rescue deal, and South Africa’s plant-based meat labelling law.

    New products and launches

    To market its new Alpro Kids range of plant-based dairy products in the UK, Danone has teamed up with Appetite Creative to launch an immersive connected packaging experience. It can be accessed through QR codes and embodies a classic adventure video game style, complete with leaderboards and prize winners.

    alpro kids
    Courtesy: Appetite Creative

    Swedish pea milk producer Sproud has gained a listing at 193 Sainsbury’s stores in the UK. The retailer will stock its barista, barista zero, and unsweetened products from August 10.

    And Israeli 3D-printed meat pioneer Redefine Meat has introduced a new spicy shawarma SKU with 22g of protein and 4g of fibre per serving. It’s available on Ocado in the UK at £4 per 200g pack.

    Company and finance updates

    Fellow Israeli 3D-printed protein maker Steakholder Foods has obtained a positive Written Opinion from the International Searching Authority (ISA) for an international patent application for its vegan fish printer.

    mighty drinks
    Courtesy: Mighty Drinks

    British non-dairy milk firm Mighty Drinks has been rescued from administration by plant protein supplier The Mighty Kitchen, which has bought its IP and some stock.

    Dutch food tech firm Muchgroup has received €375,000 in funding to scale up production of its shiitake-mushroom-based meat alternatives for the foodservice sector.

    muchgroup
    Courtesy: Muchgroup

    Indian precision-fermented protein startup Genexis Biotech has raised ₹40M ($460,000) in seed funding to expand its bioreactor capacity, develop downstream processing infrastructure, and launch a suite of smart proteins and recombinant enzymes.

    Vegan business community Vegpreneur and e-commerce platform Shopline have launched the Vegpreneur DTC Accelerator to help better-for-you plant-based brands scale up faster and more profitably.

    abunda mycoprotein
    Courtesy: Enough

    Scottish-Dutch mycoprotein startup Enough has appointed former Henkel executive Jan Agter as interim CEO. He is taking over from co-founder Jim Laird.

    Finnish vegan company Oddlygood, which owns UK plant-based milk brand Rude Health, has hired Katie Simpson as its head of marketing. She previously held the same position for Innocent Drinks’s UK and Ireland business, and has worked at Diageo, AB InBev and Ferrero.

    rude health oddlygood
    Courtesy: Oddlygood

    Singaporean firm Mottainai Food Tech has opened a pilot facility and R&D lab in Jalan Besut, Jurong to upcycle food waste into fermented plant-based proteins. At full capacity, it will be able to process around 100 tonnes of food industry byproducts annually.

    Policy and awards

    Latin American cruelty-free NGO Te Pretejo has developed a map to showcase a network of laboratories using alternative methods to animal testing.

    UK charity Vegetarian for Life will host its Awards for Excellence in Veg*n Care Catering at the Houses of Parliament in October, recognising individuals and organisations working to enhance plant-based catering standards across care homes, hospitals, and other later-life care settings.

    let's eat balanced
    Courtesy: AHDB | Composite by Green Queen

    In a petition, Ecotricity founder Dale Vince has urged the UK government to end its support for meat and dairy advertising campaigns and promote plant-based foods instead, namechecking the Let’s Eat Balanced drive run by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. It has garnered nearly 25,000 signatures so far.

    In South Africa, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has updated its labelling rules for plant-based meat, allowing terms like ‘burger’ and ‘hot dog’ but not ‘beef’ or ‘pork’. Meat analogues must also have qualifiers like ‘plant-based’, and the move was welcomed by LiveKindly Collective Africa and Fry Family Foods.

    nourish you
    Courtesy: Nourish You

    Finally, Indian vegan startup Nourish You has won the Best Plant-Based Milk Award at the 2025 Vegan India Conference for its Millet Mlk.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Alpro Kids, 3D-Printed Shawarma & Vegan Meat Labels appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • In Europe’s Meat-Rich Cultures, Cultivated Proteins Need A Rebrand

    lab grown meat europe
    7 Mins Read

    There’s a reason why meat is at the heart of the culture wars – for cultivated proteins to succeed, companies need to tap into consumers’ emotions.

    After four successive years of declining consumption, Europeans began eating more meat in 2024, with average annual intake reaching 66kg per person. That’s over four times more than what’s recommended by Eat-Lancet’s Planetary Health Diet guidelines.

    The reason why meat is so revered in Europe is because it is far more than just food – it’s deeply woven into the region’s cultural fabric, representing tradition, identity and community. As is the agricultural systems that produce it.

    According to a new report by the EU-backed EIT Food Consumer Observatory, Europeans view meat in four overarching ways. Some see it as a resource to be exploited for human benefit, some as part of a harmonious system with nature and society. Others believe eating meat is driven by instinctual and primal tendencies, and yet others think innovation and technology will reshape the way we eat.

    “The cultural meaning of meat is in transition, moving from commoditised to more mindful narratives,” the 17-country More than Meat study states.

    However, meat consumption isn’t sustainable for the planet, our health, and global food security. Existing farming systems are overstressed and incapable of keeping up with rising population numbers, while generating a third of all greenhouse gases. Meat, meanwhile, is being increasingly linked to a number of health detriments, from cardiovascular disease and cancer to type 2 diabetes and obesity.

    It’s why climate-friendly alternatives like plant-based meat exist, and cultivated proteins are popping up. However, after peaking in hype in the late 2010s, the progress made by these innovations has slowed. They’re seen as artificial, overprocessed, and disconnected from traditional farming practices.

    However, these proteins “address environmental, ethical, and health concerns associated with conventional meat production” and mitigate “the need for traditional animal farming”, EIT Food says.

    “If we want sustainable meat alternatives to resonate with diverse European consumers, we must first grasp what meat means to them,” said Klaus Grunert, lead of the Consumer Observatory. Effective positioning and communication around alternatives requires more than environmental arguments. It must speak to values, habits, and emotions tied to food.”

    Three types of consumers when it comes to meat

    upside foods florida
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    A companion report published by EIT Food, titled Reimagining Protein and also covering 17 nations, assesses how Europeans perceive cultivated meat, and the best strategies to bring it to market. It found that only 29% of consumers are open to trying these proteins.

    EIT Food identified three main segments of consumers with different attitudes and consumption patterns around meat. Majority Meat includes people devoted to conventional meat, eating it several times a week and showing limited interest in reducing intake or trying alternatives. This group doesn’t prioritise environmental concerns, and sees meat as a natural part of their diet.

    The Preference for Plant-Based group, meanwhile, is focused on a plant-forward diet. Even if they enjoy the taste of meat, they’re deterred by its sustainability and animal cruelty impact – that said, health is often the main driver. But these consumers often find it difficult to find tasty options on the go or out of home.

    Finally, EIT Food found a middle ground in the Best of Both category. These are people who maintain a balanced approach to eating both meat and plant-based foods. They don’t believe eliminating it is necessary, but take issue with overconsumption, animal cruelty and factory farming. For this segment, higher prices make “responsible” meat unattainable.

    The study then analysed how these consumer sets perceive cultivated meat. While taste and texture are important, people want to “see it with their own eyes” instead of relying on third-party accounts in the media. The Majority Meat group may be the hardest to crack, as they’re the least likely to believe cultivated meat can successfully replicate the proteins they love.

    Concerningly for the industry, people who want to eat more healthily are less willing to try cultivated meat, primarily because they see the production process as unnatural and beyond simple food processing. People are also concerned about the long-term health effects for what is, by definition, a novel food.

    And while cultivated meat has been proven to be much more environmentally friendly, participants question whether it will truly have a lower climate impact, citing concerns around energy use. Meanwhile, those in the Majority Meat segment aren’t convinced that meat itself is bad for the planet, despite the livestock industry being responsible for up to a fifth of global emissions.

    When it comes to animal welfare, the Preference for Plant-Based group is unsure if the ethical promises can be fully realised since animals are still involved in the process. Even for the Best of Both category, cultivated meat isn’t seen as “the right solution” because they’re more likely to disapprove of the way animals are raised and slaughtered than their use in the food chain.

    Is hybrid meat the right strategy?

    mission barns usda approval
    Courtesy: Mission Barns

    The research highlighted several reasons why consumer confidence is low in cultivated meat. Manufacturers are one of the less trusted food chain actors generally – they’re seen as having more power than scientists, who are among the most trusted. Study participants also cite low levels of trust in authorities, a lack of publicity in the media, and negative coverage, which EIT Food ascribed to lobbying.

    One of the key strategies for bringing cultivated meat to market has been to mix it with plant-based ingredients to develop hybrid products. But while these may appeal to the Best of Both group, they’re currently seen as a compromise between plant-based and cultivated proteins that aren’t entirely appealing on their own, so their benefits need to be better explained.

    “The target audience for this product is unclear, as consumers in the Preference for Plant-Based group may avoid it due to the presence of animal fat, while those in the Majority Meat group might prefer real meat,” the report explains.

    Another strategy is to position cultivated meat as a premium option, which would make its high costs more acceptable in theory. But it’s “currently not associated with scarcity, exclusivity and premium quality, but with laboratories and artificial food”, EIT Food found. Majority Meat consumers are unconvinced by the taste, while the Best of Both group are less interested in premium meat.

    The authors write that the biggest barrier facing the industry is the perception that it is artificial, and that negatively influences both taste and safety. And with consumers having low expectations for the sensory experience and concerns about the long-term health effects, messaging that focuses on taste and nutrition may be hard to cut through.

    The biggest perceived benefit, however, is animal welfare, and companies should lean into that, particularly with the Best of Both and Preference for Plant-Based groups.

    How companies should market cultivated meat

    lab grown meat hong kong
    Courtesy: Vow

    In the companion Meaning of Meat report, EIT Food notes that consumers are “curious yet sceptical” about cultivated meat: “Despite its compelling ethical and environmental claims (which are positively evaluated by consumers), the perceived scientific nature of cultivated meat could push it towards the same territory as commoditised, industrial meat and plant-based meats. That is, a product perceived as artificial and soulless.”

    This is the opposite of the current cultural movement around meat. So companies must find a balance between being informative and approachable. “The health aspect is least addressed in current cultivated meat communication: many consumers see it as ‘double-processed’ (from cell to meat, and from meat to burger), reducing appeal and willingness to consume,” the report says.

    However, it adds: “Despite scepticism, consumers see cultivated meat entering the market sooner than later; in the far future, consumers perceive cultivated meat as a daily protein source alongside plant-based alternatives.”

    So how do companies market cultivated meat? EIT Food recommends ‘mindful science’, which involves humanising the tech-heavy narrative, showing real people behind the scenes, and design elements that blend clean visuals with soft colours and calm typography.

    Brands should also reclaim ‘real meat’ by clearly stating that cultivated meat is real, just made differently, and backing the claim with educational (not overly technical) storytelling. Products should be anchored in taste, health, and feel-good eating, with marketing communicating flavour, satisfaction and nutritional benefits – think images where friends are enjoying dishes with these proteins, instead of lab equipment.

    EIT Food also suggests companies start with ‘soft science’ in the short term to build trust, before pivoting to emotional and ethical narratives without needing to focus on the tech in the longer run. “Phase this messaging over time: now, focus on people, trust, and transparency; later, shift to the broader cultural benefits, positioning cultivated meat as the future of ethical and sustainable protein, and part of everyday life and community,” it states.

    “To successfully introduce cultivated meat into European markets, manufacturers must first understand how consumers perceive it – what excites them, what concerns them, and what values guide their food choices,” said Sofia Kuhn, director of public insights and engagement at EIT Food.

    “Effective positioning must be rooted in empathy and evidence, responding to consumer beliefs, not just scientific facts. By aligning communication and marketing strategies with real consumer perceptions, we can build trust, foster acceptance, and pave the way for a more sustainable food future.”

    The post In Europe’s Meat-Rich Cultures, Cultivated Proteins Need A Rebrand appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • McDonald’s India Unveils with Vegetarian ‘Protein Plus’ Slices to Meet Skyrocketing Demand

    mcdonalds india protein plus
    5 Mins Read

    McDonald’s is targeting India’s protein craze with a meat-free Protein Plus range to boost the nutritional content of its burgers.

    The latest company to hop on India’s protein train is the world’s largest food corporation.

    McDonald’s India, already home to one of the chain’s most extensive meat-free menus globally, has launched a Protein Plus range to power up its existing burgers with vegetarian protein slices.

    While the slices aren’t vegan-friendly – they’re made from a mix of soy, pea and whey protein – their rollout comes amid rising demand for plant proteins in India. This year, 37% of its citizens are looking to add more of these to their diets.

    The circular slices can be added to any burger, each adding five grams of protein. They’re a result of McDonald’s ongoing collaboration with the CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), part of the national science and technology ministry.

    “We believe in giving our customers choices, and this time, we are giving them the power to personalise their protein intake,” said Akshay Jatia, CEO of Westlife Foodworld, which operates McDonald’s stores in West and South India. “The Protein Plus range allows them to enjoy their favourite McDonald’s burgers without compromising on their protein needs or taste.”

    Protein Plus looks to tackle India’s deficiency

    mcdonalds protein plus
    Courtesy: McDonald’s India

    Swathes of studies suggest that India has a protein problem. According to one survey, 73% of the country has a deficiency. That said, a separate analysis of household food intakes reveals that the risk of protein deficiency, when adjusted for digestible quality, is low in adults and non-existent in young Indians.

    But the protein trend isn’t going anywhere. And in a country with the world’s largest vegetarian population, the appetite for meat may be shrinking. Research shows that more Indians want to increase their intake of vegan meat alternatives (43%) than conventional meat (36%), while two in five want to cut back on the latter.

    It’s why McDonald’s is going big on meat-free. The Protein Plus slices are part of its Real Food, Real Good philosophy, a quality-focused initiative that ensures menu items are free from artificial colours, flavours, and preservatives.

    The slices contain gluten and refined soybean oil, and carry a cheesy base flavour and buttery top note. They can be found across all McDonald’s stores in West and South India, and are available in Protein Plus Meals (the vegetarian version pairs a protein-enriched veggie burger with a protein-rich corn cup and Coke Zero).

    Customers can add multiple Protein Plus slices to their burgers, with each setting them back ₹25 ($0.29). Among its vegetarian options, a Veg Maharaja Mac with one protein slice will contain 29g of protein, while a double patty of the McSpicy Paneer burger will pack around 45g of protein. The new innovation is so popular, it sold out on day one.

    The slices are the second product to come out of McDonald’s India’s collaboration with CFTRI, following the launch of the Multi-Millet Bun. “We are grateful to CSIR-CFTRI for partnering with us to bring this forward-thinking product to life,” said Jatia.

    “Together, we remain committed to crafting menu items that are wholesome and delicious, combining locally available ingredients in a way where great taste and nutrition go hand in hand.”

    Can McDonald’s lead India’s meat-free protein space?

    mcdonalds india protein
    Courtesy: McDonald’s India

    Sridevi Annapurna Singh, director of CFTRI, said: “The Protein Plus slice is an outcome of science-backed formulation and a shared vision to elevate everyday meals through nutrition. This partnership showcases how the food industry and scientific institutions can come together to bring meaningful nutritional upgrades to mainstream eating.”

    The new range was unveiled at an event in Mumbai last week, which was attended by Yogesh Kadam, the minister for the state’s Food and Drug Administration. He noted that the initiative reflected the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s Eat Right India movement, which aims to promote safe, nutritious and sustainable food choices.

    “It is heartening to see scientific research institutions and industry leaders come together to contribute towards national nutrition goals,” he said. This partnership model is vital for strengthening our public health landscape.”

    The move comes just as India’s foodservice industry amps up its protein focus. Such is the demand that Swiggy, one of India’s two major food delivery platforms, launched a dedicated High Protein category on its app this month.

    “As consumers become aware of the importance of protein in their diets, we know that they would not immediately shift away from their favourite items,” said Sidharth Bhakoo, chief business officer at Swiggy Food Marketplace. “The launch of this new [Protein Plus] range is a step forward in upping the protein consumption of consumers, while also enabling them to enjoy their favourite burger.”

    Last year, a report by the Good Food Institute (GFI) India suggested that there’s a “lack of consumer demand” for meat analogues at restaurants, prompting the call for better education and menu integration.

    “The real barrier is not the lack of awareness but the need for a mindset change,” noted Pranav Rungta, vice-president of the National Restaurant Association of India. “With the foodservice industry growing and becoming more organised, educated restaurateurs who understand the impact of health, nutrition, and alternative proteins are also growing.”

    Within McDonald’s, the fortunes of plant proteins are topsy-turvy. The company has seen strong sales of the Beyond Meat-containing McPlant in most parts of Europe, though the vegan burger failed to take off in the US. Now, it has reportedly removed it from its Austrian menu too, opting to run out its contract with the plant-based meat maker instead of renewing it.

    In Canada, the McPlant did not find much success either. McDonald’s chose instead to focus on vegetable-led offerings in that market, trialling a McVeggie burger at dozens of locations earlier this year.

    The post McDonald’s India Unveils with Vegetarian ‘Protein Plus’ Slices to Meet Skyrocketing Demand appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Exclusive: Friends & Family Pet Food Company Gets Singapore Approval for Cultivated Meat

    friends and family pet food
    8 Mins Read

    US food tech startup Friends & Family Pet Food Company has received regulatory approval to sell its cultivated meat for dogs and cats in Singapore, a first for Asia. Its inaugural treats will contain 65-70% cultured cells.

    Friends & Family Pet Food Company has secured approval from Singapore’s Animal & Veterinary Services (AVS) to sell cultivated meat for dogs and cats.

    The Californian startup is the first to be cleared to sell cultivated pet food in Asia. It produces human-grade cultivated meat from the cells of Kampung chickens, a breed native to Malaysia and Indonesia, and will initially sell it as part of eight SKUs, with more to follow.

    “We’ve formulated treats, supplements and food products, which I’ll launch individually when we are ready for production,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Errett tells Green Queen. “We’ll start production in late summer/early fall. So we’re aiming to have products on our site and in select stores shortly after that.”

    Back in 2016, he co-founded cultivated pet food firm BioCraft Pet Nutrition with CEO Shannon Falconer, before establishing vegan dog treats brand Noochies, which was acquired by Cult Food Science, where he served as a VP until December 2023.

    Errett argues that Friends & Family, which he co-founded with CSO Sarah Dodd and Jonny Cruz in 2024, is a nutrition company. “Our goal is to improve the underlying protein source in pet foods with cultivated meat,” he says. “Cultivated meat is the only ingredient I’ve come across in my decade in pet food that has this potential.”

    The announcement comes just days after two regulatory wins for cultivated meat startups in Friends & Family’s home country: Mission Barns secured the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) green light for its cultured pork fat, while Believer Meats received a ‘no questions’ letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its cultivated chicken.

    Friends & Family targets pet nutrition with cultivated meat

    lab grown pet food approved
    Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Company

    Errett notes how dogs, cats and humans all source their food from the same supply chain. “There are no farms that I’m aware of that only produce meat for dogs. So the cow your steak is from may well be the same cow your dog’s beef kibble is from. That’s the current pet food production model, a shared supply with humans,” he says.

    “We’ve copied that model to an extent. We co-develop our ingredients with partners, working together to fully optimise cultivated meat and fish for cats and dogs. This allows us to focus solely on the nutrition, manufacturing and sale of high-performance, premium pet food products.”

    Friends & Family works with 10 undisclosed partners, including contract manufacturers and academic institutions, and employs a proprietary manufacturing process.

    “On the pet food side, we use freeze-dried, air-dried, frozen-fresh and broth formats for our end products, which are different production methods,” Errett says. “What I can say definitively is we avoid too much processing – we like to minimally process all our end products to keep the nutrients and flavours of the cultivated ingredients plentiful and bioavailable to the cat and dog.”

    The company will enter the market with freeze-dried treats. “Cultivated meat is the first ingredient by volume. It’ll come in at approximately 65-70% of the total volume,” he reveals. “We use a proprietary blend of nutritional yeast and prebiotic fibres to support immunity, digestion and longevity. And those are the ingredients.”

    The products contain prebiotics and oligosaccharides thanks to their ability to “make it through the digestive tract” to the microbiome. “We have 20+ peer-reviewed studies to show these specialised prebiotic fibres rehabilitate and regulate the microbiome, support stool quality, and improve nutrient absorption, which is crucial for cats and dogs. The majority of the immune function of a companion animal is in the gastrointestinal tract,” he says.

    A second SKU of treats will focus on bioavailable trace minerals, including zinc and vitamins B, K and A to support longer lifespans.

    lab grown meat pet food
    Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Company

    Products to be sold indefinitely, not as a limited-edition trial

    Friends & Family’s inclusion rate is on the higher side, both for pet food and cell-cultured meat in general. The treats launched this year by London-based Meatly, the first company to receive approval for cultivated pet food, contained only 4% of cultured meat.

    Meanwhile, after registering its product with Austrian regulators (paving the way for market entry in the EU), BioCraft Pet Nutrition has been working on a product with 99% cultivated mouse meat – but it is yet to commercialise this innovation.

    The high share of cultivated meat content in Friends & Family’s treats begs the question: how expensive is it? “We’ll be priced competitively in the premium Southeast Asian market. I’m pleased where we are today with our price and margin, but we’ll aim to get better as we gain economies of scale,” says Errett.

    “I know there’s a lot of focus on price parity. If we were competing to get into the supply chain of a multinational pet corporation, I think we would need price parity – the pet industry loves very cheap proteins,” he adds.

    cultivated meat approval
    Friends & Family COO Maurice Yeo | Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Company

    “We are creating nutrition to benefit the animal, and the buyer for that is the end consumer: pet parents. Consumers have more criteria than simply price. And, believe it or not, price is not always the driver. You wouldn’t see Farmer’s Dog break $1B in revenue if all the consumer cared about was price.

    “Value is the driver. What does this food do for my cat? What are the nutritional benefits? Why is it better long-term for the health and longevity of my dog? The benefit of the nutrition is measured against the price point, and there is the value. In terms of value, we believe we have made a superior freeze-dried treat to anything currently on the market.”

    Friends & Family’s pet food will be manufactured locally in Singapore, and it has an inventory of tonnes of cultivated meat. This will enable it to commercialise at scale in what is a relatively smaller market for pet food.

    “This is not a market test or a limited-time trial. We are going to sell our products as a going concern,” says Errett. “Through our partners, we have more cultivated meat and fish ingredients than we can use right now.”

    ‘We decided to step back’ from US regulatory efforts

    lab grown meat approved
    Graphic by Green Queen

    The approval from the AVS came in June, 10 months after Friends & Family filed its application. “I have a full appreciation for the Singapore regulatory system – it is open to innovation, but still thorough,” says Errett.

    The authorisation process for pet foods has different standards from that of novel food for humans, which is regulated by the Singapore Food Agency. “Obviously, pet food is similar to human food when it comes to general safety, but there are differences in nutrition, production, labelling, licensing required, and more,” he says. “For instance, pet foods generally consider crude fibre, while if you look at a human food label, you’d see a measure of dietary fibre.”

    He adds: “Overall, though, it wasn’t as painful as in other jurisdictions we’ve applied to, and I appreciated the people we worked with at the AVS in Singapore.”

    Speaking of which, while Friends & Family has been engaging with the US FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) for over a year, after striking partnerships with Umami Bioworks and Novel Farms, the re-election of Donald Trump and the chaotic restructuring of federal bodies and policy rollbacks have stalled progress.

    “We decided to step back to see what happens with a few priorities put forth by the new administration there,” says Errett. “Excitingly, the CVM just launched a new ingredient review process called the Animal Food Ingredient Consultation (AFIC), which I’m very intrigued by.”

    For all the political uproar about cultivated meat in the US – including seven state-level bans and numerous others under consideration – it is the country with the most regulatory approvals for these proteins. Eat Just‘s Good Meat, Upside Foods (both for chicken), Mission Barns (for pork fat), Wildtype (for salmon) are all allowed to sell cultivated meat there, and Believer Meats will join that list once the USDA approves its facility and labels.

    “We recently signed a deal with a major American pet company for cultivated products, so we’re definitely going to land here at some point,” says Errett. “Now, our focus is Asia.”

    And just as well. Singapore was the first to approve cultivated meat back in 2020, with Good Meat rolling out its chicken in restaurants and later in retail. Vow is cleared to sell its cultured quail in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Industry experts are also hopeful of approvals in Thailand and South Korea this year.

    Friends & Family has approval in other countries too

    cultivated meat pet food
    Courtesy: Friends & Family Pet Food Company

    Globally, regulators in the EU and Switzerland are evaluating regulatory dossiers for cultivated meat as well, while the UK has created a designated regulatory sandbox to help human food companies follow in Meatly’s footsteps.

    “We are working with other regulatory systems and do indeed have approval in other countries,” reveals Errett. “[However] we are very focused on Singapore right now – we need to get on the market before expanding anywhere.”

    He adds: “As much as we believe we are creating a foundational shift in pet food and nudging the industry into the future, we still need to use the established launch playbook, and do this one step at a time.”

    What’s in store for Friends & Family over the coming months? “We have cultivated fish products in the pipeline, so we’ll see how that goes in the next year or so,” he notes. “I’m cat-obsessed, and cultivated fish for cats has been a target of mine since forever.”

    The startup has raised “a small amount of venture capital”, with the rest of the funding coming from Errett’s last exit. “It was super challenging to raise money when you can’t even sell your products,” he says.

    “Now that we have market access, we are opening up a new round. We’re looking at scaling up production and nailing our product-market fit,” he reveals. “This is a brand new category, and we are the first to market in Asia, and first anywhere with cultivated products for cats, so that will take some effort and resources.”

    The post Exclusive: Friends & Family Pet Food Company Gets Singapore Approval for Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Impossible Foods Loses EU Trademark Battle with Spanish Bakery

    impossible foods eu
    4 Mins Read

    Ahead of its expected EU launch this year, plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods has lost a four-year trademark battle with an independent bakery from Spain.

    Impossible Foods, the California-based producer of meat alternatives, has been dealt a blow by an EU court over its trademark fight with a Spanish bakery.

    The court in Strasbourg ruled that Impossible Bakers’ brand is distinct enough from the plant-based meat maker, rejecting the trademark infringement claim it brought in 2021.

    After assessing both sides’ claims, the court decided that Impossible Foods’s appeal “must be rejected as unfounded” and “dismissed in its entirety”.

    Why Impossible Foods lost its trademark case

    impossible foods trademark
    Courtesy: Impossible Bakers

    The case began when Impossible Foods filed an opposition to Impossible Bakers’ trademark application. The motion was rejected by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in December 2023, prompting the US company to take the matter to the EU General Court in February 2024, asking for an annulment of the decision under EU Trademark Regulation.

    The bakery was looking to trademark its brand for cakes, candies, pastries and retail products. But Impossible Foods objected to its use of the word ‘Impossible’, citing consumer confusion.

    However, the Barcelona-based business’s flying elephant logo, stylised lettering, and emphasis on the word ‘Bakers’ over ‘Impossible’ differentiated it enough from the vegan meat’s own ‘Impossible’ logo, the court found.

    “Despite the similarities created by the element ‘impossible’, the signs were visually similar to a low degree, in the light of their different structure and the fact that there were several visual differences between them,” it said.

    This included the bakery’s use of an inverted ‘ss’ in its logo, as well as the “significantly smaller” font size for ‘Impossible’ compared to the word ‘bakers’, which carried greater weight. It was the latter word and the flying elephant logo that “attracted the attention of customers”.

    The judge further noted that food products are purchased in visually driven retail environments, which lowers the risk of confusion among customers.

    “Even if some of the goods at issue were considered to be identical, it should be noted that, following a global assessment, the Board of Appeal correctly found that there was no likelihood of confusion,” it said.

    Impossible Foods’s vegan burger launch imminent in Europe

    impossible foods lawsuit
    Courtesy: Wirestock/Alamy

    As a result of the case, the court asked Impossible Foods to cover the bakery’s legal costs. And while it can appeal the decision to the EU’s highest court, it hasn’t done so just yet. It marks a rare loss in the plant-based meat company’s IP battles.

    In 2020, it won a case against Nestlé’s ‘Incredible Burger’, which was renamed ‘Sensational Burger’ after a Dutch court found the words ‘Impossible’ and ‘Incredible’ too similar in sight, sound and meaning. Last year, the company settled a patent lawsuit with Boston-based Motif Foodworks and took over its heme business, which shut down days later.

    Impossible Foods has also been engaged in a long-running conflict with wellness company Impossible X, which it sued in 2021 after the latter’s founder, Joel Runyon, demanded it limit its use of ‘Impossible’ to plant-based food in a cease-and-desist letter. The case is ongoing.

    And earlier this year, the European Patent Office’s Board of Appeals reinstated a key patent it had revoked in 2023, which related to the heme protein and flavour precursors in its flagship burger.

    The EU court’s decision over its trademark fight with Impossible Bakers comes amid the backdrop of the impending launch of the Impossible Burger in the region. Its use of soy leghemoglobin – a precision-fermented heme protein – has kept its signature beef alternatives out of Europe for almost a decade.

    The company first filed for approval of the ingredient in March 2021. Last year, the EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings issued a positive safety assessment of LegH Prep, a liquid preparation containing soy leghemoglobin and other ingredients.

    Months later, a ruling by the regulator’s GMO panel called soy leghemoglobin “safe for human consumption with regard to the effects of the genetic modification”. The EFSA’s opinion was followed by a period of public consultation ahead of final approval by the EU Commission and member states. And this February, the EFSA stated that the public comments didn’t raise any further concerns, moving Impossible Foods closer to commercialising.

    “When it comes to food and the health of people and the planet, the government should have a keen interest in that,” Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness told Bloomberg last month, forecasting a European launch this year. “The flip side of that is we’ve been trying for four years to get Impossible in [Europe], and we’re still not there yet. But we’re waiting patiently impatiently.”

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  • Israel’s PoLoPo Targets High-Protein Potato Chips with Molecular Farming Platform

    polopo
    5 Mins Read

    Israeli molecular farming startup has pivoted its business model to develop high-protein potatoes for the chip industry.

    Tel Aviv-based food tech firm PoLoPo is aiming to disrupt the $53B potato chip industry and meet the protein moment with its molecular farming platform.

    The startup, which turns potatoes into protein factories via molecular farming, had begun as a supplier of ovalbumin (the main protein found in egg) to food industry customers, before diversifying into patatin (the native protein in potatoes).

    Now, it is making a strategic shift from producing powdered proteins to supplying high-protein potatoes for the snacking sector. The company expects to receive US approval for its molecular farming platform, called SuperAA, by the end of 2025, allowing it to tackle America’s obsession with both chips and protein.

    “We’re still fully committed to our molecular farming platform. However, as we advanced technically and regulatory-wise, we identified an opportunity to get to market faster by using our same core technology to enhance the native protein content in potatoes,” Ido Eliashar, VP of business development at PoLoPo, tells Green Queen.

    “Chips allow us to commercialise sooner, reach consumers faster, and prove our platform’s scalability,” he adds. “The egg protein product is still in our roadmap, but chips are the right starting point.”

    polopo protein
    Courtesy: Tal Shahar

    Why PoLoPo is eyeing the potato chip industry

    Founded in 2022 by CEO Maya Sapir-Mir and CTO Raya Liberman-Aloni, PoLoPo chose to work with potatoes due to their resilience in diverse climates, low growth costs, short maturation time, relatively large storage capacity (in the form of tubers), high yields, and compatibility with existing technologies.

    Its technology can grow patatin in potatoes through proprietary metabolic engineering techniques. It inserts a DNA sequence into the potato to increase its native protein content. Most manufacturers destroy patatin when extracting potato starch, so most of this protein’s supply on the market is non-functional, usually ending up in animal feed, pet food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

    PoLoPo’s patatin has a high protein digestibility score of 0.99 (similar to that of casein, beef and eggs) and it has all essential amino acids and boasts functional attributes like emulsification, gelling and texturisation.

    “Depending on the potato variety we implement our technology into, we can elevate protein content by up to three times compared to standard potatoes,” says Eliashar. “That translates to around 18g of protein per 100g of finished chips.”

    PoLoPo’s potatoes require no new processing lines, new equipment or added ingredients, making them a drop-in solution for existing chip producers.

    Why chips? They’re a beloved snack that’s eaten everywhere, every day, he says: “The industry is also under pressure to meet rising consumer demand for protein and cleaner labels.”

    Indeed, 55% of Americans say protein is the main nutrient they look for when selecting snacks, and among protein bar users, 43% would be interested in protein chips. This chimes with the 85% of consumers who want to increase their intake of the macronutrient this year. It’s why protein snacks are outpacing the overall industry by threefold, valued at $24B.

    “With our high-protein potatoes, chip makers can meet those demands without changing the product experience or supply chains,” says Eliashar. “Our technology can be applied to any potato variety, so brands can keep their unique identity while using PoLoPo technology and varieties in the background to boost nutritional value.”

    polopo potato
    Courtesy: Tal Shahar

    ‘Clear, advanced regulatory path’ makes US right place for launch

    PoLoPo is now working with manufacturers and brands to bring the first generation of high-protein chips to market, with a pilot programme already underway. “We work with chip brands, processors, and growers. Our goal is to empower existing players to launch better-for-you snacks using our potatoes,” says Eliashar.

    “We successfully completed a pilot in Israel that demonstrated our solution is scalable and compatible with conventional growing practices and yields. We’re now working to begin operations in the US with local partners,” he adds. “As part of this expansion, we’re implementing our technology into popular US chip varieties to ensure smooth integration into existing supply chains and manufacturing lines.”

    The company has filed for approval under the US Department of Agriculture’s Non-Regulated Status petition. “Because we are not adding a new ingredient but enhancing the crop itself, this path avoids the need for FDA approval when the potatoes are used in whole form, like chips,” Eliashar explains.

    PoLoPo closed a $2.3M pre-seed investment round in 2023; it is now currently fundraising further to “expand pilot production and bring our first commercial collaborations to market in the US”.

    “The US offers a clear and advanced regulatory path for bioengineered crops and products, and has a massive, innovation-driven snack industry. It’s the right place to launch,” says Eliashar.

    molecular farming proteins
    Courtesy: Tal Shahar

    Molecular farming modifies plant cells, rather than microbes or animal cells, to grow proteins that can be harvested from leaves or other plant tissues. It doesn’t require expensive bioreactors to produce ingredients on a large scale, since the plants themselves act as the bioreactors. This also means lower prices.

    PoLoPo is among a number of brands using this technology to produce proteins. In Israel, Finally Foods is growing casein (the main protein in dairy) in potatoes, while NewMoo is producing liquid casein in soybeans, as is US startup Alpine Bio (through soybeans) and New Zealand’s Miruku (via safflower).

    Moolec Science, meanwhile, produces Piggy Sooy (soybeans that contain pork proteins), and PEEA1 (peas that produce bovine myoglobin), among other ingredients.

    The post Israel’s PoLoPo Targets High-Protein Potato Chips with Molecular Farming Platform appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Believer Meats Earns FDA Approval & Completes World’s Largest Factory for Cultivated Meat

    believer meats fda approval
    4 Mins Read

    Israeli food tech firm Believer Meats has secured US FDA approval for its cultivated meat, and completed the construction of its manufacturing facility.

    Believer Meats has become the fifth cultivated meat startup to secure regulatory clearance in the US, having received a ‘no questions’ letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    The Israeli startup has also completed the construction of the world’s largest cultivated meat factory in North Carolina, and is the first non-US company to be greenlit by the FDA.

    The food safety agency’s letter and scientific memo haven’t been published on its website yet, but the news was confirmed by Believer Meats CEO Gustavo Burger. In a post on LinkedIn, he called it “a transformative moment for Believer Meats and the cultivated meat industry as a whole”.

    “This is more than just progress – it’s a defining moment, a bold leap forward in our vision to lead food innovation that cares for the planet,” he said.

    The announcement came the same day California’s Mission Barns secured the facility and labelling nods from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its cultivated pork fat.

    Believer Meats’ tech could make cultivated meat for $6.20 per lb

    lab grown meat cost
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    Formerly known as Future Meat Technologies, Believer Meats was founded in 2018 by Yaakov Nahmias, a biomedical engineering professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

    The cultivated chicken maker leverages centrifuge-based perfusion and a cell media rejuvenation process that can optimise cell performance and save water, nutrients, and resources, allowing it to reduce production costs by eliminating byproducts and enabling the reuse of media.

    Last year, it demonstrated how tangential flow filtration (TFF), an efficient way to separate and purify biomolecules, can be an effective method for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat. It also introduced an animal-free culture medium that cost just $0.63 per litre, further allowing the startup to lower production costs.

    believer meats
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    Inspired by how Ford’s automated assembly line transformed the auto industry in the early 20th century, their new bioreactor assembly method allowed biomass expansion of 130 billion cells per litre, with a yield of 43% weight per volume. This process of cultivating the chicken cells was carried out continuously for over 20 days, leading to daily harvests of the biomass.

    Believer Meats claimed this could bring down the cost of cultivated chicken to $6.20 per lb on a 50,000-litre scale, in line with the retail price of conventional USDA organic chicken.

    Getting the FDA green light is the first step towards full regulatory approval. The company will now require USDA’s clearance for its production facility and product labelling before bringing its cultivated chicken to the market.

    “As we move forward, our focus remains on execution – advancing cultivated meat from promise to product, and contributing to a more resilient, sustainable food system,” said Burger.

    A milestone year for cultivated meat approvals

    believer meats wilson nc
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    Believer Meats first announced plans for its $123M facility in late 2022. The 200,000 sq ft plant, located in Wilson County, North Carolina, features an innovation centre and tasting kitchen, and will be able to churn out 12,000 tonnes of cultivated chicken every year.

    “Commissioning of the factory is underway now, and we are working with the USDA on the final steps for our facility’s grant of inspection,” the firm remarked on LinkedIn.

    It has partnered with German engineering firm GEA to develop processes to lower the costs and emissions of manufacturing cultivated meat. The two entities are focusing on advancements in bioreactor tech, perfusion systems, and media rejuvenation, and adopting strategies like optimised water usage, power consumption, and circular economy initiatives (such as waste stream utilisation).

    believer meats chicken
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    “With our regulatory progress on track, production facility complete, and clear path to market, we are closer than ever to delivering cultivated meat at scale, strengthening global food security, and helping shape a more sustainable food system,” Believer Meats said.

    Four other cultivated meat startups have already received regulatory approval in the US: Eat Just‘s Good Meat, Upside Foods (both for chicken), Mission Barns (for pork fat), and Wildtype (for salmon).

    Globally, a handful of startups have been cleared to sell cultivated meat. Good Meat has approval in Singapore, Aleph Farms in Israel, while Vow is cleared to sell in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. And in the UK, Meatly has commercialised cultivated chicken for pets. Regulators in the EU, Switzerland, Australia, Thailand and South Korea are evaluating applications too, while the UK has created a designated regulatory sandbox.

    Believer Meats’s approval is the fourth such instance this year, a much-needed boost to a category that has struggled to raise funds and faced political attacks via state-level bans in the US. And all signs point to further regulatory nods in the coming months.

    The post Believer Meats Earns FDA Approval & Completes World’s Largest Factory for Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.