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Category: Alt Protein

  • Lobbies, Food Tech & Neophobia: In Conversation with George Monbiot About How To Feed The World Without Devouring The Planet

    15 Mins Read

    It’s hard to think of someone who holds truth to power as effectively and as committedly as George Monbiot. The multi-award-winning British thinker, journalist, activist, and long-time environmentalist has been speaking out on the ills of capitalism and the climate crisis for almost 40 years, during which he has been attacked, arrested and shot at. Among the subjects that he has taken on throughout his storied career as an investigative journalist and as a Guardian columnist (a gig he started in 1996!) are indigenous land appropriation, neoliberalism and political corruption, and epidemic loneliness.

    In his latest book Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, he tackles our current food system crisis and explores the billion-dollar question of how to sustainably feed a growing global population without destroying our planet’s natural resources and exacerbating climate change.

    Below, he talks to Green Queen‘s Sonalie Figueiras about why talking about food system change is so controversial, food tech and the S curve, the ‘mind-blowing’ alt protein products he has tasted, how to deal with Big Food lobbies, whether government regulation matters and what gives him hope after so many years of tireless activism.

    Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded live on Wednesday, February 1st 2023 during the City University of Hong Kong’s Webinar Series The Future of Food: Seeking Sustainable Solutions. Watch the full video interview, including a Q&A with questions from students across Asia HERE.

    The below transcript was edited for grammar and clarity.

    Sonalie Figueiras: George, welcome. I’m going to dive right in. We are here to talk about your new book Regenesis. It’s your 12th book, I believe. What was the main thesis for writing this book, given you’ve written so many others?

    George Monbiot: Thanks Sonalie. Yes, it does seem a bit greedy to have written so many books. [Laughs]. 

    But I’ve been puzzling over this question for a long time as to why it is that we apply relatively strict standards to all industries except food and farming. And we create a sort of moral force field around those industries and say: Well, no, we don’t want to criticize them. We don’t want to go there. 

    And yet, food production is, by a very long way, the most damaging thing we’re doing to the planet. We all need food, we all need farming, we all need to eat. But the way we’re doing it is absolutely devastating to life on earth and to our own future prospects. It’s the number one cause of habitat destruction, the number one cause of wildlife loss, the number one cause of species extinction, the number one cause of soil depletion, of freshwater use. Most importantly, perhaps, and we always neglect this, of land use. And it’s also one of the major causes of greenhouse gas emissions, of water pollution, and of air pollution. 

    And yet, we don’t want to criticize it. And we don’t even want really to document what it’s doing, let alone find much better ways of doing it. It’s as if we just shy away from the issue except for a few tiny little tweaks around the margins, which just aren’t going to get [us] there. 

    So this huge central question, how do we feed the world without dividing the planet? That came to divide my mind and really dominate my thinking and my questioning over quite a few years. And so finally, I thought, right, I’ve just got to try to crack this as I can’t avoid it any longer. Because so many people have been avoiding it. I’ve got to tackle it head-on. And that led me into a really fascinating, and quite mind-blowing, intellectual adventure because so little of this issue is known outside very narrow scientific circles. And almost every day, I was coming across things, which made me go, wow! That changes everything! That is absolutely fascinating! Why doesn’t everyone know this? Why isn’t this on the top of the political agenda? And this was day after day after day. 

    Altogether, as well as doing extensive fieldwork, I read 5,000 scientific papers in researching this book. I just couldn’t stop. I became addicted to reading them, to chasing the citations trail and going on and on and on, to discovering these extraordinary things which specialists know, but the rest of us don’t, and we urgently need to.

    Food production is, by a very long way, the most damaging thing we’re doing to the planet. We all need food, we all need farming, we all need to eat. But the way we’re doing it is absolutely devastating to life on earth and to our own future prospects. 

    Sonalie Figueiras:  It’s become a bit of an obsession for me too so I understand very much what you mean. 

    You have been sounding the alarm about climate and food for a long time now. I actually found some of your columns from almost five years ago, I even found a Guardian article from 2008 making the connection between climate and meat production. So let me ask you, in the last couple of years, do you see a difference in people’s understanding of the connection between food and climate? Do you think it’s changing? Or do you think that most people still don’t know?

    George Monbiot: I think most people don’t know. But I think it is also changing. I think we’re beginning to see the beginnings of the shift. We’re starting to see some people becoming much more aware than they were before. And that is beginning to ripple outwards. [But] It’s much too slow. I find so many times I’m having to start from first base with people, to say, right, okay, this is the problem. And yet, what we’re looking at is an even bigger issue than fossil fuels. You know, we finally got there with fossil fuels. It’s taken 30 years or so to persuade people that fossil fuels are a problem and to explain why fossil fuels are a problem. Still, some people deny it, because, well, of course they do. But we broadly got there. Most people are at least vaguely aware that fossil fuels are a problem and why they’re a problem. But the food system? You have to start from scratch again, and again, and again. And it’s frustrating, but that’s what educators are here to do.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you think the media is doing a good enough job on that front? Other than folks like yourself?

    George Monbiot: The media is not doing a good enough job on any front. [Laughs]

    Sonalie Figueiras: One of the things that we’re seeing, as people in the industry is an increasing number of attacks from the meat and dairy lobbies on the solutions and alternatives that are being brought to market to solve for our addiction to industrial meat. How do we, as citizens, deal with this, given that most people are not even aware that lobbies are in play?

    George Monbiot: I feel like I’ve been here before because I’ve been fighting the fossil fuel industry for so long. And they’ve been using exactly the same tactics. And in fact, they learned those tactics from the tobacco industry. In fact, some of the very same people who did the job for the tobacco industry went on to do the job for the fossil fuel industry. And it’s probably the same people, the same public relations, who are doing the same job for the livestock industry. And they are clever people, they know how to get into your mind. They know what persuades people and what doesn’t. And so they just find all these ways of trying to keep people hooked on the current meat-based economy and demonize any attempts to address that.

    And I think you’ve just got to realize this is the sea in which we swim. It’s pointless to even complain about it, you know. This is the circumstances [we find ourselves in]. We are up against massive industrial lobbies who will fight with every dirty trick in the book to try to sustain their position and prevent themselves from being out-competed. In the past, some of these lobbies have been very successful. It’s like how the motor industry and the oil industry nixed electric cars going back a century now- they just stopped the development of electric cars.

    We can’t afford to let that happen. And so we have to fight them. And we fight them by making the case again and again. And by making it as well as we can, as creatively as we can. We use the facts, we use the data, the scientific figures, which are very well established, and we get them out there. It’s not enough just to reel off facts and figures. We have to embed them within narratives, within the stories which are going to reach people. And we have to be as clever and creative as possible in doing so.

     Often, people who see themselves as environmentalists are actually defending the old against the new regardless of what the environmental impact of that is. 

    Sonalie Figueiras: One of the more worrying things that we’re seeing is vegan advocates joining forces with pro-pastured beef/regenerative ag advocates. It makes for very strange bedfellows, but this is happening. What is this all about?

    George Monbiot: It is peculiar and disturbing, but we’ve seen it before. And, and also often, people who see themselves as environmentalists are actually defending the old against the new regardless of what the environmental impact of that is. 

    To give you an example in another sector: I know several people who refuse to have a microwave oven in their house because they think it’s going to kill them. Now, there’s no evidence whatsoever that a microwave oven harms you. But the very same people in every case have a wood-burning stove in their house, which absolutely can kill you because of the very dangerous particulate emissions that it creates. But they think that wood burning stove is green. And the microwave oven is not because the wood-burning stove is old, and the microwave oven is new. 

    Often what we’ve got is a phobia of new stuff, a sort of almost a sort of comfort reaction of regard to cling to the old stuff. And this is why you see this bizarre situation of environmentalists supporting pasture-fed meat, which is the most damaging farm product on Earth. That is what has destroyed more rainforests, more wetlands, more savannas, and more habitat in general than any other food product. It’s what’s driven more indigenous people off their land than any other food product. It’s what produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other food product. It has the biggest carbon and ecological opportunity costs of any product…

    But it’s old. Very, very old. It goes back to the Neolithic [period]. People were herding cattle 10,000 years ago, and so, it’s good. Old is good. And the very same people will attack anyone who’s trying to produce plant-based or microbial-based meat substitutes to appeal to people who aren’t going to go vegan but want to eat something like meat that doesn’t come from animals. And because that’s new. It’s scary. It’s new. And it will be made in factories. Well, all the food we eat passes through a factory before it reaches us. So these are scare words like factories… where do you think your food comes from? It might be grown in fields, but it’ll pass through a factory before it reaches you. Even if it’s just a package, it will go through a factory.

    All successful new technologies, whether it’s the laptop, I’m speaking on to you on whether it’s this [shows his iPhone], whether it’s the refrigerator, whether it’s a car replacing horses and carts, they all follow this S curve adoption...What we’ve seen happening in the last few months suggests that we’re beginning to move into the second phase of the S curve, which is off the bottom and just starting to climb.

    Sonalie Figueiras: It reeks of a certain type of elitism that is really dangerous.

    Let’s dive into the alternative technologies. You’ve been tasting and sampling some of them lately. Do you feel most people are aware of the many alternative protein technologies from cultivated meat to microbial fermentation and precision fermentation to plant-based meats 2.0?  Are we having an effect in terms of getting the word out? It’s been interesting to see you embrace these new technologies. What made you get behind them?

    George Monbiot: With the new food technologies, we’re at the bottom of the S curve. Now, all successful new technologies, whether it’s the laptop, I’m speaking on to you on whether it’s this [shows his iPhone], whether it’s the refrigerator, whether it’s a car replacing horses and carts, they all follow this S curve adoption. For quite a few years, they bump along the bottom and not much seems to be happening, and they have various setbacks, and people say: ‘Oh, the sector is collapsing…you know…there’s not much going on’, and uptake is just 1 or 2%. And you see big fluctuations because you have a low baseline. And then what happens is the price starts to come down, the scale starts to go up, and the quality starts to improve. This has been the case with all of these technologies, even artificial ice as opposed to river ice. The transition has always been the same. There have always been scare stories around new technologies. And so it bumps along the bottom, then it begins slightly to uptick and you’ll see a slow rise to about 10% market penetration, and then it just goes straight up. It’s slow, then sudden. And that’s the S curve adoption. And we see that again, and again, all the way through history.

    At the moment, we’re still at the bottom of the S curve for new technologies like precision fermentation, like realistic alternative meats made out of plant or microbial products, [like] cell-cultured meat and the rest of it. I think the answer is going to be a hybrid of all three incidentally, but we’re right at the beginning of this, and most people either don’t even know about it, or say ‘Oh, that’s not for me, you know, I don’t see myself as the sort of person who might eat those things’. And that’s, that’s totally familiar from the whole history of industrial change. That’s how it’s always been. 

    And what we’ve seen happening in the last few months suggests that we’re beginning to move into the second phase of the S curve, which is off the bottom and just starting to climb. And, and that’s been several quite dramatic breakthroughs. One has been the first approval for cell-cultured meat in Singapore, and in the US.* Another has been the radically improved quality of plant-based meat substitutes. Now that I’m plant-based, I don’t feel any need to eat meat substitutes, but these aren’t aimed at me. And they’re not aimed at you. They’re aimed at the great majority of people who want to eat something like meat. 

    I’ve eaten recently three sets of products, which are quite mind-blowingly similar to what they’re imitating. So much so that if it were a blind tasting, you really would not know the difference. One is a steak made by a Slovenian company called Juicy Marbles. One is lamb fillet and beef fillet made by an Israeli company called Redefine Meat. And the other is a whole series of sushi and tempura products made by a restaurant in London called 123V. And in every case, it’s like: ‘II can’t believe I’m not eating the original!’  In fact, it’s quite disturbing for someone like me and you. ‘This doesn’t feel right.’ [Laughs]. 

    So I think we’re seeing these very major breakthroughs. We’re gonna see the costs come down, a lot more competition coming in and the costs will start coming down and as that happens, adoption will start to tick up. People in the industry are saying we’re likely to reach cost parity about the middle of this decade. But then the takeoff for the S curve will be in the 2030s, that’s what they reckon. 

    *Editor’s Note: Cultivated chicken company Upside Foods earned GRAS status from the FDA in November, meaning its chicken meat made from cells was deemed safe to eat by the US agency. It has yet to obtain USDA approval.

    The regulatory issues are really the big sticking point in Europe. And in the UK, in the UK, our food regulator, like everything else in the UK, is underfunded and overwhelmed and just can’t cope.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you think we can get there without government intervention in the form of incentives, or regulation? 

    George Monbiot: Well, we need some government action. A lot of the time, it’s about government getting out of the way. Because we have governments responding to lobby groups by saying, oh, you can’t call it milk. You can’t call it cheese. You can’t call it meat or sausages or burgers unless it’s come from an animal. Which is slightly confusing because there’s a whole load of products for which they’re perfectly happy for this food literalism not to apply. What about peanut butter? What about coconut? What about Jelly Babies? Are they babies? What about buffalo wings? Do buffaloes have wings? And hot dogs! You ban vegan hotdogs on the basis that they don’t have any meat in them, well why don’t you ban meat hotdogs on the basis that they don’t have a dog in them? This is just bullshit responses to industrial lobbying. But unfortunately, a lot of governments are responsive to that lobbying. 

    The regulatory issues are really the big sticking point in Europe. And in the UK, in the UK, our food regulator, like everything else in the UK, is underfunded and overwhelmed and just can’t cope with the volume of applications mostly for cannabidiol CBD applications. It’s just been completely flooded with them. And it can’t get through those to get to the alternative protein applications. 

    And then the EU has this regulatory process where it’s meant to take two years for a novel food application to get adopted. But that process can be suspended at any time. And so what you’ve got is industrial lobbyists, the animal agriculture lobby, putting huge pressure on the regulators by bombarding them with lots of objections. And then they say: ‘Oh, it’s too complicated! We’ll just suspend the process.’ And then it stays in limbo for years, potentially. And so these products can’t then get adopted and they cannot reach the people who want to eat them.

    I draw inspiration also from the knowledge that things can change very, very quickly...Once you can reach 25% of the population, and persuade them to get behind a new idea, then that change becomes very hard to stop.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Yes, that does slow things down. How do you find the inspiration and strength to continue amidst attacks and the lack of good news and lack of progress? Where’s your hope?

    George Monbiot: Yes, it is exhausting and difficult. And it is a struggle. It is a constant struggle. I’ve been doing this for 38 years now. But I draw inspiration from the young people who are stepping forward, the amazingly brave people who are often prepared to risk prison in order to defend the living world and defend the prospects of their own generations.

    I draw inspiration also from the knowledge that things can change very, very quickly. Society is a complex system, and all complex systems have tipping points. And with society, we know where the tipping point is- it’s about 25% of people dedicated to a new approach. Once you can reach 25% of the population, and persuade them to get behind a new idea, then that change becomes very hard to stop. And the reason for that is partly the internal dynamics of the complex system called society. But partly that we are hyper-social mammals. And we’re always testing the wind to see which way it’s blowing. And if we perceive that the wind has changed, we swing around to catch that wind. And so the great majority of people never need to be persuaded. They just need to feel that things have changed, and they’ll fall in line with that change. Of course, highly repressive and authoritarian governments can stamp out that change. But in any government, which at least pretends to be a democracy, it’s very hard for them to stop it. And so what we can see is a situation which seems hopeless, we feel, you know, we can’t get anywhere and go on forever fighting people one by one. But actually,  we’re not taking into account the dynamics of complex systems and how they operate. And so this above all else gives me hope that things can move much, much faster than we imagined possible.

    Sonalie Figueiras: A wonderful message of hope to finish on. Thank you so much, George. 

    Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot is published by Penguin (£20) – order now. 

    The post Lobbies, Food Tech & Neophobia: In Conversation with George Monbiot About How To Feed The World Without Devouring The Planet appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 2023: The Year of Vegan Sushi

    Kusaki vegan salmon
    3 Mins Read

    Another Veganuary has come to a close but the vegan options continue to roll in. And one category is set to see big growth this year: vegan sushi.

    Supermarket sushi giant Kikka Sushi has announced vegan tuna and salmon sushi coming to Whole Foods Markets’ sushi counters, Konscious Foods comes to freezers, and restaurants go all-in on plant-based fish.

    Vegan supermarket sushi

    Kikka, a Whole Foods partner for more than 30 years, is using the vegetable root konjac in proprietary preparations to replicate the taste and texture of raw salmon and tuna. The launch is part of Kikka’s five-year mission to create vegan sushi offerings that mimic the taste and texture of conventional seafood. The sushi is rolling out to select locations nationwide.

    Kikka’s launch comes on the heels of the November launch of Konscious Foods, a Vancouver-based vegan sushi brand coming to freezer sections. The company is the brainchild of Yves Potvin who launched the popular vegan brands Yves Veggie Cuisine and Gardein.

    Kikka sushi comes to Whole Foods
    Kikka sushi comes to Whole Foods | Courtesy

    Konscious Foods marks the first time a sushi range comes to freezer sections. It will feature eight products including four sushi and four onigiri rolls for retail and food service.

    “At Konscious, our chefs create plant-based seafood that people can choose over traditional options for their own health and the health of the planet,” Potvin said in a statement. “We saw a gap that wasn’t being filled. People want choices, regardless of whether that’s for meat or seafood. Here we match the delicious taste of plant-based sushi and onigiri with the convenience of ready-to-eat meals and snacks.”   

    Last month, Dutch-based Vegan Zeastar announced “the world’s first” range of vegan sushi and poke bowls, which it served up at a regional food service trade show. The range included palm-oil-free vegan nigiri, sashimi, uramaki, gunkan, handrolls, or poke bowls.

    Plant-Based sushi restaurants

    Vegan sushi isn’t just coming to supermarkets, though. Restaurants are increasing their options. Vegan sushi bar Kusaki in West Los Angeles is bringing the city its first plant-based omakase experience. Kusaki is offering a mix of appetizers, sashimi, nigiri, and hand rolls with plant-based salmon nigiri and a crispy garlic tuna carpaccio made from tapioca.

    Kusaki is bringing plant-based sushi to Los Angeles
    Kusaki is bringing plant-based sushi to Los Angeles | Courtesy

    Jeffrey Best and Ken Jones, two longtime bar and restaurant operators, are also opening a vegan sushi restaurant, APB (All Plant Based), coming to West Hollywood. APB will be a vegan sushi bar with a menu by Niku Nashi.

    Plant-based sushi offerings aren’t new to LA —  Shojin in Little Tokyo and Culver City have been vegan destinations since 2008. And other sushi spots including Highland Park’s Ichijiku and Fiish in Culver City’s Platform mall offer a range of vegan items.

    Asian-inspired Planta Queen recently opened in New York City near the Empire State Building. It offers a range of sushi items as well as other Asian dishes including bao, dumplings, and noodle dishes.

    The post 2023: The Year of Vegan Sushi appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The First Cultivated Pork Filet Debuts In the U.K.

    3D Bio-Tissues steak

    2 Mins Read

    BSF Enterprise, a biotech-focused investment company, says its subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues has produced the first cultivated steak in the U.K. made from pork cells.

    The first cultivated pork cutlet was made with 3D Bio-Tissues’ (3DBT) serum-free and animal-free cell booster, named City-mix. The result “exceeded expectations in appearance, taste and texture,” the company said. The 3DBT team cooked and ate the filet.

    Cultivated pork filet

    The company says the pork filet is a world’s first for cultivated meat; while a number of companies have developed cultivated pork, much of that has been mince.

    “This is a significant scientific breakthrough which has very positive implications not just for BSF and 3DBT but also for the U.K. and the cultivated meat industry as a whole,” 3DBT CEO Che Connon said in a statement.

    “We are absolutely delighted with the look, taste and texture of our cultivated pork, which is the first time we have fully sampled our product,” Connon said. “Our cruelty-free fillet has exceeded our expectations in all respects, and we are extremely excited about the technological progress we are making and the impact this could have upon our industry.”

    3DBT used pork cells to produce the 3.5-inch by 1.5-inch steak, similar to a typical cut of meat.

    City-mix growth serum

    The company is using City-mix, a lower-cost growth factor that can increase yield without the need for animal-based fetal bovine serum. 3DBT says City-mix is a critical IP component, “providing clear competitive differentiation and world-leading technology.”

    “City-mix, our serum free media in which we cultivated the fillet, is helping to greatly reduce the cost of cultivated meat such that it may become economically viable in the near future,” Connon said.

    3D Bio-Tissues cultivated pork
    Left to right: Dr Craig Stamp, Dr Che Connon and Dr Ricardo Gouveia of 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) taste the cultivated pork | Courtesy Kenn Reay Photography

    “At the same time our ‘structure without scaffold’ technology is helping to make cultivated meat that more closely resembles traditional meat in every respect, without the need for plant-based additives,” Connon said. “We look forward to taking the findings through to the next stage of development, focused on producing a chef-ready product for public consumption.”

    According to the testers, the raw steak showed visible meat fibers and structural integrity similar to conventional meat in consistency, elasticity, color, and texture. The cooking process mimicked conventional meat as well: shrinkage, searing, browning, charring, and crisping, with aromas identical to conventional pork. 3DBT says the taste and texture of the final product were indistinguishable from pork.

    The post The First Cultivated Pork Filet Debuts In the U.K. appeared first on Green Queen.

  • This Whole-Cut Raw Salmon Filet Is Made Entirely Out of Plants

    New School Foods raw fish filet
    3 Mins Read

    Toronto-based New School Foods has released its first product: a plant-based whole-cut salmon filet it says looks, cooks, tastes, and flakes just like conventional salmon.

    New School Foods’ vegan fish release comes on the heels of $12 million in Seed funding from Lever VC, Blue Horizon, Hatch, Good Startup, Alwyn Capital, and grants from multiple Canadian government grant agencies including Protein Industry Canada.

    Whole-cut fish

    New School says its whole-cut fish is made with plant fibers that replicate the diameter, length, strength, and structure of fish muscle fibers to deliver the same texture and mouthfeel of fish.

    It joins a growing category of startups tackling whole-cut fish. Last summer, Revo Foods announced a 3D-printed whole cut salmon and Indian vegan seafood startup SeaSpire unveiled a plant-based snapper filet created using bio-printing.

    There’s an increasing demand for seafood that’s free from heavy metals such as mercury. Consumers are also becoming concerned about microplastics in their seafood. Several studies have found microplastics in a range of seafood products including a number of fish species, scallops, and mussels.

    New School Foods also says it has achieved a plant-based fish that comes in a raw state — a feat made possible by a cold-based processing technology. Most of the whole-cut plant-based options come to consumers pre-cooked.

    The company’s unique scaffolding technology uses directional freezing to create scaffolds that mimic muscle fibers and connective tissues found in meat and fish. They’re then infused with different proteins and flavors that mimic the taste, texture, structure, and cooking process of live meat and fish.

    ‘The next frontier of meat alternatives’

    “The next frontier of meat alternatives is whole cuts, and from day one we understood that New School Foods needed to solve two heavily connected issues: the quality of the meat alternatives in-market and the limited toolkit our industry uses to produce them,” Chris Bryson, CEO and founder of New School Foods, said in a statement.

    “What’s generally available for consumers now are rubbery, ground, pre-cooked products that will not convince the average customer to change their lifelong habits,” he said.

    New School says its tech was designed to be scalable from day one; its production technologies will allow it to maintain its texture, mouthfeel, and macrostructure at maximum production capacities.

    New School Foods' vegan salmon
    New School Foods’ vegan salmon | Courtesy

    “We invested in New School Foods because they recognized that the existing production technologies in the plant-based meat industry are insufficient for creating a whole-cut product that consumers genuinely want to eat,” said Nick Cooney, General Partner at Lever Ventures. “Their technology is unlike anything else we’ve seen in the industry in terms of truly mimicking the texture, mouthfeel, and experience of cooking and eating whole cuts of meat.”

    New School says the next frontier in meat successors is whole cuts. They represent the majority of animal meat sales but have proven challenging for the plant-based sector to mimic connective tissue, muscle fibers, and other microstructures in meat.

    Consumers in North America could get a chance to taste New School Foods’ fish later this year; the company says it expects to launch its filet in select restaurants following the launch of a chef-only pilot program kickstarting its commercial efforts.

    The post This Whole-Cut Raw Salmon Filet Is Made Entirely Out of Plants appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • USDA Foreign Ag Service To US Plant-Based Brands: Export To Germany Where 55% Are Flexitarians

    5 Mins Read

    A new report is encouraging US plant-based brands to export to Germany, describes as the ‘fastest-growing plant-based meat market in Europe’

    While the US mainstream media is on a headline rampage against plant-based meat, the US Department of Agriculture’s foreign arm is publishing reports extolling the growth of the plant-based meat sector abroad to encourage US plant-based meat brands to lean in to export markets like Germany. So I guess that means the USDA doesn’t think plant-based meat is a has-been ‘fad’ then. Or maybe their copy of Bloomberg BusinessWeek got lost in the mail? But I digress…

    The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service has just published a 12-page report titled ‘Plant-Based Food Goes Mainstream in Germany’ aimed at boosting US exports of plant-based foods to the European country, which the authors described as “one of the most important markets for plant-based food worldwide.” 

    In the report’s synopsis, the authors write: “German food culture is changing. The number of vegans is growing, and more than half of the population wants to reduce meat consumption, considering themselves flexitarian.” Sprichst du Deutsch? 

    While the report details the rise of the vegan food movement in Germany and describes the typical vegan consumer, it does not delve into the specifics of how this cultural shift took place, though one noteworthy takeaway is that unlike in many other countries, Germany benefits from overt political will for reducing meat consumption. 

    Nonetheless, the report gathers many interesting data points, which we break down below. 

    55% of the population is flexitarian or part-time vegetarian 

    55% or more than half of Germans describe themselves as “part-time vegetarians” or flexitarians, i.e. they are opting for less animal-based food on their plates. That’s close to 46 million people. 

    Germany has the highest rate of vegetarianism compared to its European neighbors. 8 million people followed a vegetarian diet, around 10% of the population. The number of vegans in Germany reached over 1.5 million people in 2022, compared to just 100,000 people 10 years ago – that’s an impressive 1,400% increase.  

    Beef, pork and milk are down, but cheese and chicken still popular

    In 2011, Germans ate an average 138 pounds of meat each year. That number dropped to 121 pounds in 2021 or a 13% decrease. On the meat front, pork consumption is down by 23% (despite being Germany’s favorite meat), beef is stable and chicken is up by 13%.  

    Butter and milk consumption is down compared to 2021 levels (3% and 4% respectively) while cheese consumption is stable. 32% of consumers say that they will consume fewer dairy products (e.g., milk, yoghurt, cheese) in the next six months. 

    Politicians and NGOs support reducing meat consumption

    There is political support in Germany for reducing meat consumption- the Green Party is currently part of the ruling government coalition and the country’s Green Minister of Food and Agriculture nutrition strategy includes a focus on plant-based diets.

    Further, NGOs in Germany are more vocal about reducing meat consumption than elsewhere- the report cites the German Fridays for Future Movement website which advocates for halving meat consumption by 2035 in contrast to the US Fridays for Future Movement, which does not say anything about meat! Calling Greta! 

    veganz
    German vegan brand Veganz delivers products across categories | Courtesy Veganz

    Fastest-growing market for plant-based meat  

    Germany is the fastest-growing plant-based meat market in Europe and one of the fastest-growing plant-based dairy markets in Europe. Earlier today, I was shown off the record data suggesting that the total German plant-based meat category was up between 11% and 16% YoY in the first half of 2022. Every supermarket in Germany stocks plant-based alternatives and almost every major fast food chain has plant-based menu items. Interestingly, Germans are the most likely to pay more for plant-based meat than animal meat compared to citizens of other countries. 

    The average vegan is young, female and well-educated

    Young Germans are driving the rise of flexitarianism, and seemingly bringing their parents along with them. The most commonly cited reasons for consumers to adopt a meat-free diet was moral or ethical in nature, with reasons that included animal welfare, climate conservation and industrial livestock farming. According to veggieworld, the average German vegan is female (81%), young (60% are between 20-39 years old), well-educated (70% have a high level of education), and has a high income.  

    Consumers across Europe losing their appetite for meat

    Across Europe, consumers are eating less meat and are increasingly interested in plant-based foods. 

    A 2021 European survey byProVeg International and Innova Market Insights spanning 7,500 participants across 10 countries revealed that 46% of respondents had already cut their meat consumption, with just under 40% saying they plan on doing so in the future. The German data supports this trend. 

    This tracks with data from FMCG Gurus from last April around global consumer behavior trends, which stated that global consumers were planning to moderate their meat intake. 80% of the respondents said this was due to environmental concerns, while 74% felt that eating less meat was a healthier choice. 

    Brits lowering animal foods intake, French motivated by inflation

    Earlier this year, the UK charity the Vegan Society shared the results of a survey they conducted of 2,000 participants: 33% of people said reducing or eliminating animal products is a priority in 2023 and 56% of non-vegans said they would decrease their animal product consumption.

    Data analytics outfit Kantar just released its own report about French consumer spending habits in 2022. The report suggests that French people are buying less meat. While that’s good news for the planet, the planet is not their main motivation. Inflationary pressure is what’s keeping more French folks away from their steak hache. 

    That said, their consumption of plant-based alternatives (the exact wording used by the authors in French is “offres dites de transition alimentaire“, which loosely translates to “product selection aimed at the food transition”, but I am transliterating) is stable. The report states that despite rising food prices, eco-friendly, vegan and plant-based products continue to be popular since September 2022.

    The post USDA Foreign Ag Service To US Plant-Based Brands: Export To Germany Where 55% Are Flexitarians appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Eastern Europe’s First Cultivated Meat Makes the Case for Microalgae Cells

    3 Mins Read

    Czech food tech startup Mewery has debuted what it says is the world’s first cultivated meat made to use microalgae cells.

    Made from a mix of pork cells and microalgae cells, Mewery has released its first cultivated meat prototype and the first for central and Eastern Europe.

    The prototype comes after the company launched in 2020; it was included in Big Idea Ventures’ New Protein Fund accelerator and landed investment funds from Credo Ventures and Purple Ventures last year.

    Microalgae cells

    Using novel tech, the meat is 100 percent cell-based, something Mewery says is an unusual feat in the industry as many other cultivated meat producers rely on inputs including soy and pea mixed with 30 to 50 percent cultivated animal cells.

    Mewery’s cultivated meat is made from 75 percent pork cells and 25 percent microalgae cells – growing to a marketable cut in just ten weeks to produce.

    Mewery’s pork meatballs are made with microalgae | Courtesy

    Mewery says microalgae plays a key role in its cultivated meat development by saving money and replacing controversial ingredients including fetal bovine serum (FBS). Mewery says it also offers a nutritional advantage, enriching the products with additional vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, fiber, and antioxidants.

    Microalgae is being hailed as a sustainable food solution with companies exploring its potential in mimicking dairy, seafood, and palm oil, among other applications. Mewery says its use of microalgae in cultivated meat “has great potential to disrupt the whole field.” The company has submitted a patent for its process of production, including the development of its own cultivating medium.

    “We already have several variants of media that work for us without animal products and which we continue to work with. It is like a cookbook,” Roman Lauš, Mewery’s founder, said in a statement.

    “You have to add somewhere, take away somewhere else, and you will only find out if it was successful when you bake the cake. We have typed specific parameters that we track and compare their dependencies. It’s bioinformatics in practice,” he says.

    Market timeline

    Mewery is aiming to bring its cultivated meat to market within two years. That timeline could line up with regulatory approvals. Cultivated meat is currently only approved for sale in Singapore, but a recent FDA GRAS status in the U.S. for cultivated meat producer Upside Foods means U.S. approval is likely within the next year.

    Impossible Foods patties
    Impossible Foods

    Europe, however, has been notoriously more stringent on approval processes for novel food ingredients. The E.U. and U.K. have still not approved heme, a key ingredient in Impossible Foods’ burgers that give them their meaty taste and texture.

    But for Mewery, the time until approval is valuable.

    “Now we are working intensively on establishing our own biobank, which is basically a repository of cells from which we can cultivate more meat,” Lauš says. “In this way, we want to ensure a more or less unlimited source of pig cells, which will move us closer to large-scale production. The increase in the volume of cultivation in large-capacity cultivators is directly related to this and should happen already this year.”

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  • Anne Hathaway Backs Precision Fermentation Platform for a ‘Better Future’

    Anne Hathaway backs The Every Company
    3 Mins Read

    Actress Anne Hathaway has invested in The Every Co., a leading precision fermentation protein platform aimed at bringing sustainable alternatives to the food system.

    In her first B2B investment, the Academy-Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway has backed Every with an undisclosed funding amount. The platform is best known for its precision fermentation egg product.

    “The need to transform our food system has never been clearer or more urgent,” Hathaway said in a statement. “An important piece of the puzzle is in nature-equivalent animal proteins, such as Every has been developing.”

    Backing a ‘vision of a better future’

    Hathaway joins Every’s other notable investors including Bloom8, McWin Food Systems Fund, Temasek, TO Ventures, Grosvenor, ZX Ventures and others, bringing its funding to more than $230 million.

    “I’m proud to back this vision of a better future,” she said. The We Crashed star said she was drawn to impact investing following shifts in her own life including reducing her meat consumption and single-use plastics. She says Every’s impact, technology, and nutrition advantages drove her interest in backing the company.

    every macarons
    Every’s egg protein was used in Chantal Guillon macarons | Courtesy

    Every says Hathaway’s investment will help further its mission to bring animal-free protein “to everyone, everywhere.”

    “We are thrilled to partner with visionary investors like Anne to drive forward our plans to reimagine the way we feed and nourish the world,” said Every CEO Arturo Elizondo. “Ultimately, our vision is to deliver animal-free protein to everyone, everywhere — and help set the table for the better food future we all deserve.”

    Every proteins a crucial solution

    The announcement follows the company’s seven years of R&D and its recent launch of three new products, Every Pepsin, Every Protein, and Every Egg White. Every was the first company to produce animal-free pepsin and egg proteins using precision fermentation.

    Every says its proteins are crucial solutions to the problematic food supply amid rising populations and threats from climate change.

    the every company x pulp culture
    The Every Company x Pulp Culture | Courtesy

    Precision fermentation is poised to offer sustainable solutions. The sector, which has seen nearly $2 billion in recent investments, replaces animal ingredients and offers more sustainable solutions to the food system’s challenges.

    The category has largely been anchored around precision fermentation whey from California’s Perfect Day and its roster of co-branded partnerships. But Every says there are a number of other vital applications for the tech. It recently showcased its egg protein in a range of products including Pulp Culture’s hard juice and in vegan macarons. Every is currently scaling up its tech with BioBrew from Anheuser Busch InBev.

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  • Oatly Adds Climate Footprint To Revamped US Oatgurt Range To ‘Give Consumers Choices’

    4 Mins Read

    Oatly Group AB, the Swedish oat drink company, announced that it has added climate footprint labeling to select US products, starting with the brand’s newly reformulated Oatgurts, a range of plant-based yogurts.

    Oatly Group AB, the Swedish oat drink company that sells its plant-based dairy products across the world and that helped to popularize oat milk, announced today the introduction of climate footprint labeling for select products in North America, starting with the brand’s newly reformulated line of Oatgurts, a yogurt-like product made from oats.

    While the company has been publishing product climate footprints for many of its products in Europe since 2021, this marks the first time that Oatly is releasing climate footprints for some of its products in North America. The company says this new addition to its product labels reflects its belief that consumer choice and education play a vital role in shaping the future of the food system.

    Calculating the climate footprint of Oatly products

    Oatly’s product climate footprints are expressed in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per kilogram of packaged food product and are calculated based on a life cycle assessment approach from ‘grower to grocer’.

    According to the Oatly website, the footprints account for both the production and the distribution to market of a product, which can further be broken into the emissions cost of agriculture (including nitrous oxide from soils and carbon dioxide emissions from farm energy use, transport of ingredients, processing, packaging and distribution.

    The calculations are validated through a partnership with the carbon footprint audit tool CarbonCloud, and it aggregates emissions into a single unit based on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and their global warming potential over a 100-year period.

    CarbonCloud, which like Oatly is headquartered in Sweden, works with other plant-forward food startups including Naturli, Tenzing, Naughty Nuts and Future Farm.

    Source: Oatly Website

    The Oatly website lists the climate footprint of 16 of its products as shown in the above table. The climate footprint for an Oatgurt pot ranges from 1.7 to 1.9 kg CO2e/kg. In comparison, the company’s Original Oatmilk Chilled is 0.62 kg CO2e/kg.

    What is not disclosed is how these numbers compare to other foods and given that there is no industry agreed-upon standard, it can be difficult for a consumer to make comparative choices and for them to get an idea of what these numbers mean in the context of other daily habits such as taking public transportation or buying second hand clothing.

    Early stages for climate labeling on food products

    There is currently no standard methodology for CO2e labeling for food products. Oatly says it is committed to making products that are good for both people and the planet, and hopes that it will encourage other food companies to add climate information to their products.

    “Transforming the food industry is necessary to meet the current climate challenge, and we believe providing consumers with information to understand the impact of their food choices is one way we as a company can contribute to that effort,” said Julie Kunen, Director of Sustainability at Oatly North America. “We’re motivated every day at Oatly to deliver products that are good for both people and the planet. We hope this next step of transparently bringing climate information to the forefront inspires other companies to do the same and helps consumers begin to recognize and learn about these indicators as they shop for their households.”

    Climate labeling is not just a boon for consumers. It can help businesses achieve decarbonization targets. As Oxford University Professor Peter Scarborough, who has done research on eco-labeling systems, said in an interview: “Manufacturers, caterers and retailers have targets for reaching net zero [emissions] and they don’t have the tools they need to get there.”

    Carbon labeling on food products is still in its very early stages but more and more food companies are adding this information to their packaging. In 2020, Unilever pledged to label all its 75,000 products and announced a pilot in the US and Europe but the FMCG giant has yet to fully roll out such labeling. In 2021, British energy drink maker Tenzing became the first soft drink brand to introduce carbon labeling to its products that same year and Brave Robot, the ice cream brand made from Perfect Day animal-free dairy proteins, also added carbon labeling to its pots. Last year, Nestlé and Sainsbury’s partnered with non-profit climate scoring tool Foundation Earth to trial traffic-light eco-labels to its products in the UK.

    Newly reformulated Oatgurt range for US market

    The revamped Oatgurts are the company’s first North American products to display the climate footprint on-pack. The newly reformulated range of plant-based yogurts, which are now available for retail across in stores across the US, feature fewer ingredients, new blended fruit formats instead of fruit at the bottom, and a new Vanilla flavor variety.

    “The products we make at Oatly aim to make it easy for people to make the switch to non-dairy alternatives, and great taste is one of the most essential components of driving that conversion,” said Leah Hoxie, SVP of Innovation at Oatly North America. “This line of newly reformulated Oatgurts delivers on just that and more — deliciousness, great texture, and a variety of tasty flavors that people crave.”

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  • TiNDLE Launches 6 New Plant-Based Chicken Products At 6,000+ German Grocery Stores

    3 Mins Read

    Singaporean foodtech TiNDLE Foods has launched a line of new plant-based chicken products in 2,200 stores across Germany in a collaboration with the country’s largest retailer EDEKA Group, as well as a limited-time release at 4,200 Netto stores.

    This is the first time the brand’s products will be available to consumers to cook at home, except for a brief limited three-product seasonal release at UK’s Morrisons supermarket chain for the 2023 Veganuary campaign.

    “Our new line of grocery-ready products was created to be easy to prepare and convenient for everyday home cooking, but also intended to be blank canvases that can be elevated or dressed up if you wanted to make a gourmet meal at home,” Andre Menezes, co-founder and CEO of TiNDLE, told Green Queen via email.

    Source: TiNDLE Foods

    6 new plant-based chicken product formats

    Six new plant-based chicken product formats have been announced, including nuggets, sandwich patties, tenders, popcorn chicken and wings, as well as a traditional schnitzel, which is exclusive to the German market. The products will be priced at €3.49 and sold in the chilled aisle.

    EDEKA, which operates over 11,000 stores in the country, will debut TiNDLE products in southwest Germany including Frankfurt this week, followed by major metropolitan areas like Berlin and Hanover starting next Monday. The group is also featuring the new range at its Netto Marken-Discount chain for a limited time until February 5th.

    TiNDLE continues to be available in restaurants in various countries and Menezes told Greeen Queen that the company plans to continue growing its presence across both restaurants and grocery stores. 

    The company did not rush a retail launch, working instead with chefs across Europe, Asia and the United States to gather feedback on how the product performed during preparation and to “source open feedback and collect insights on best uses across dishes and cuisines, but also look at details related to flavor, shape, size, color, and more to further improve the overall TiNDLE experience.”

    Next Gen Foods co-founders Timo Recker (Chairman) and Andre Menezes (CEO).

    Criticism of the sector is “short-sighted”

    When asked about the perception that the plant-based meat sector is underperforming, Menezes said “we see our launch into thousands of retail outlets as a strong indicator that the category is continuing to grow.”

    He added that “change in our food system happening over decades and not immediately overnight…Such a paradigm shift is not easy even on an individual level, let alone on a broader society.”

    Pressed further, Menezes said the criticism of the sector is “a short-sighted evaluation of larger market conditions today, including how the market is reacting to inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical tensions. These are factors that have influenced market conditions today, but don’t necessarily correlate to larger macro trends and what will be key to longer-term change in our food production processes.”

    US retail launch coming later this year

    In addition to the Germany news, TiNDLE is trialing a limited edition range of meal kits created in collaboration with celebrity chef Chad Rosenthal on direct-to-consumer marketplace Goldbelly including a Buffalo Chicken Tenders Wrap Kit, a Chicken Sandwich Kit, a Chicken Sandwich Kit and a Sweet Honey BBQ Chicken Wings Kit ahead of an anticipated US retail launch later this year.

    TiNDLE’s products are made entirely of non-GMO plant ingredients and offer consumers 17g of protein and 8g of fiber per 100g serving. They also include Lipi™, the company’s proprietary chicken-fat-like emulsion that contributes the aroma and savoriness of its animal counterpart.

    Next Gen Foods was founded in 2020 by Timo Recker and Menezes to “reduce humanity’s reliance on animal agriculture.” The startup has raised over $130 million dollars since, including the largest Series A round in plant-based meat history.

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  • Anonymous Source Suggests Impossible Foods Laying Off 20% Of Its Workforce

    Impossible Foods patties
    3 Mins Read

    Citing an anonymous source ‘familiar with the matter’, Bloomberg reported today that California-based plant-based meat startup Impossible Foods is going to lay off 20% of its workforce or approximately 100 employees.

    Very few additional details about the layoff announcements are available though the reporter did write that the same source said the company “offered voluntary separation payments and benefits to employees at the end of 2022” and that Bloomberg viewed internal documents that confirmed separation packages. Impossible has yet to officially confirm or deny the news.

    Editor’s Note: Green Queen has reached out to Impossible Foods for comment and this piece will be updated with new information.

    The maker of the Impossible Burger announced a 6% job cut in October of last year, which it attributed to company restructuring; CEO Peter McGuinness said in a memo the axed roles had either “become redundant to others in the organization” or “no longer aligned with our core business priorities.”

    Earlier this month, Bloomberg BusinessWeek dropped a controversial cover story in its print edition decrying plant-based meat a failed ‘fad’, which drew backlash and extended commentary. In response, Impossible took out a cheeky advert in The New York Times and published a heated reply titled “Bloomberg was supposed to report the facts. It just became another opinion piece” on their website, describing the piece as “pages rife with one-sided anecdotes and editorialized framing” and concluded: “the reality is that the plant-based meat category is still young and yet to be fully defined. We’re proud of our leadership in the category, even if that means we take the heat sometimes.”

    In a TIME interview about the Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece that came out two days ago in which the reporter described McGuiness as “hopping mad”, he said of the fad accusation: “We’re in a category that is in first gear. It hasn’t even been created yet, and people are trying to say that it’s the death of it, or it’s a fad. In the beginning, the internet was a fad. In the beginning, cars were a fad and horses were going to stay. Electric cars were a fad. I just don’t like the implication, nor do I think it’s accurate.” He added that Impossible Foods currently has 17% consumer awareness, noting that “83% of the country’s never even heard of us…95% of the country hasn’t even tried us yet, and we’re still growing at those growth rates.” 

    Despite flat or declining North American grocery sales for the plant-based meat sector, Impossible shared it had achieved a 50% increase in US retail sales in 2022, a year that saw it debut vegan beef in Australia and New Zealand, partner with Kroger on co-branded vegan meat products, expand its Burger King partnerships to include its plant-based chicken patties, launch its chicken nuggets in Hong Kong and add more foodservice offerings to its lineup aimed at school systems and other public procurement channels. Two weeks ago, Impossible collaborated with 7-Eleven Canada on the retail chain’s first plant-based breakfast sandwich featuring Impossible™ Sausage at 550 stores nationwide.

    In addition, the company beefed up its C-Suite, adding former SVP and General Manager at Newell Brands Sherene Jagla as its inaugural Chief Demand Officer, Leslie Sims as its first Chief Marketing and Noel Clark as Senior Vice President of International. In April 2022, Impossible’s founder Pat Brown stepped down as CEO and McGuiness, formerly COO at Chobani Foods, stepped in to run the startup.

    Competitor Beyond Meat, whose stock price continues to take a beating, also announced layoffs this past October, removing 19% of its workforce amidst “cost-reduction initiatives intended to reduce operating expenses.”

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  • Chefs Aren’t Just Ready for Alternative Protein, They’re Leading the Shift: Survey

    chef
    4 Mins Read

    A new survey shows chefs around the world are embracing alternative proteins at a rapid pace and with optimism about the changing landscape.

    Despite US alternative protein retail sales last year dipping for a number of brands including category leader Beyond Meat, experts still predict big things for the category. At the front lines of the shift, chefs are embracing plant-based alternatives and many are pledging to bring cultivated protein to menus once approved.

    The findings

    German food and beverage-focused GEA Group recently polled 1,000 chefs from 11 countries including Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, UK and the U.S. about the changes to the protein category. According to the survey, 90 percent of chefs said they’ve seen a growing interest in alternatives from their patrons, with more than 40 percent saying that interest is increasing.

    “Considering that chefs not only earn their living via food but, in many cases, define themselves in terms of their devotion to food and culinary traditions, one might expect a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to alternative proteins,” reads the report. But, GEA says that while its survey did uncover some skepticism, “these were decidedly in the minority.”

    The double mcplant
    McDonald’s has launched a Double Beyond Meat McPlant burger | Courtesy

    “In fact,” reads the report, “the large majority of chefs surveyed are familiar with the various types of alternative proteins and already using them in their kitchens.”

    Only two percent of chefs surveyed said they had “never heard” of plant-based food, while six percent said they had no real knowledge of the alternatives. But an overwhelming 92 percent said they were familiar with plant-based foods and beverages, and a majority (63 percent) said that they know a lot about them.

    Cultivated meat, which is only currently approved for sale and consumption in Singapore, also showed surprising levels of awareness among the chefs despite its lack of availability. Eighty percent of the chefs said they were familiar with cultivated meat, with 41 percent claiming to know a lot about the tech.

    Nearly 25 percent of the chefs surveyed said they expect new foods including protein and dairy successors to constitute more than 50 percent of all food by 2040, with An additional 43 percent of respondents saying 25 percent to 50 percent of all food by 2040 will be made up of alternatives and new tech.

    According to the findings, that shift is well underway with 90 percent of chefs saying they’re already using some forms of protein and dairy successors, with more than 33 percent using them at high frequencies. While egg and seafood alternatives are the lowest on their radar, 30 percent of chefs said they’re using them at high levels.

    Making the transition

    “If there is one message to take from the survey, it’s that most chefs around the world are definitely not waiting around; they have begun making the transition to new foods,” reads the report.

    The findings mirror other research that shows demand is increasing among consumers. A 2022 Boston Consulting Group survey found more than 50 percent of consumers use alternative proteins occasionally and 35 percent use them frequently, with 13 percent identifying as “exclusive or near-exclusive” users.

    The shift is especially strong in Europe, with a 2022 survey from The Good Food Institute finding 50 percent of consumers in Spain and Italy are eating plant-based meat monthly.

    Spain’s Heura is helping lead the shift to alternative protein | Courtesy

    GEA’s survey found chefs feel the responsibility of food choices; 75 percent said they consider it a very important factor in human health and 62 percent consider it very important for the health of the planet. A growing number of chefs are reducing their own meat consumption, the survey finds. Thirty-three percent say they’re reducing their own meat intake and 15 percent identified as vegan or vegetarian. Further, 96 percent of the chefs surveyed said their restaurants are working to reduce their environmental footprints, with 44 percent working to “a great extent” on the issue.

    “The overall level of interest among chefs in using alternative proteins reinforces a growing body of data that tells us the following: new food is not just a possibility,” reads the report, “but the emerging new reality.”

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  • Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Spent Beer Grains Land In Novel Vegan Protein Blends

    beer
    3 Mins Read

    SolvPro, the new line of vegan plant protein blends from Osage Foods, is made using EverPro — the upcycled grain from beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev.

    Osage Foods, the Missouri-based provider of ingredients and ingredient systems, has launched six protein blends featuring fellow Missouri company Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (AB InBev) EverPro protein. The range is targeted at end-use applications with varying functionalities and benefits, the company says.

    EverPro

    EverPro is a first-of-its-kind barley protein that dissolves almost instantly when added to beverages. The protein is made from spent brewers’ grains in the beermaking process. AB InBev launched EverGrain to upcycle the leftover grains to reduce its food waste and carbon emissions.

    “The EverPro protein isolate is the key ingredient in our SolvPro 008 and 009 systems, in combination with pea protein isolate and with added masking agents, this new system delivers a complete plant protein with adequate levels of all the essential amino acids to deliver a PDCAAS of 1.0, equivalent to whey protein isolates,” Bill Dickinson, President of Osage Food Products, said in a statement.

    anheuser busch
    Anheuser-Busch InBev is identifying new market opportunities for spent beer grains | Courtesy

    AB InBev says its EverPro delivers greater solubility, better taste, and improved texture.

    “This system allows for a very high usage level and protein levels beyond anything currently on the market (>30 grams per serving) with no thick viscosity, chalkiness, or off flavors,” Dickinson says.

    “We’re so excited to partner with Osage Food Products on their SolvProTM solution,” said Greg Belt, CEO of EverGrain. “It truly is a solve, with plants working harder together to give consumers what they crave: great taste, nutrition, and sustainability in their plant-based protein shakes.”

    Belt says both EverPro and SolvPro work well in dairy alternatives, coffee, and as an ingredient in nutrition bars.

    Upcycling spent grain

    AB InBev, the world’s largest beer producer, has been aiming to create new market opportunities for spent grains over the last several years.

    EverPro is the world’s first commercially available upcycled barley protein, something AB InBev outperforms popular protein choices like whey and pea protein in absorption and digestibility.

    golden wing barley milk
    Molson Coors’ Golden Wing barley milk

    The use of spent grains makes EverPro a more sustainable protein than other plant-based protein options as it emits fewer emissions and requires less land and water than other proteins. EverPro is also certified by the Upcycled Food Association, a nonprofit that says it is on a mission to “prevent food waste by accelerating the upcycled economy”.

    In 2021, EverGrain announced Take Two, which turned more than 500,000 pounds of spent beer grain into plant-based milk. AB InBev’s competitor Molson Coors also brought barley to the dairy-free sector with the launch of Golden Wing barley milk last year.

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  • New Project Explores Decentralizing Cultivated Meat By Supporting Farmers

    cow
    3 Mins Read

    A new research project from Respect Farms aims to bring cultivated meat production to conventional agricultural operations.

    The 18-month feasibility research project is underway with €900,000 in support funding from European governments, NGOs, and industry partners, including Rügenwalder Mühle, the Swiss farmers’ union, fenaco Genossenschaft, the cooperative bank Rabobank, and the Belgium animal rights organization GAIA (Global Action in the Interest of Animals).

    The research

    The group’s goal is to develop the world’s first cultivated meat farm where meat is grown directly from animal cells. Respect Farms, founded by Ira van Eelen, Ralf Becks, Florentine Zieglowski and Ruud Zanders, is active in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, working to develop new business models for conventional agriculture, and leveraging cellular agriculture as a key factor.

    Mosa Meat FBS
    Cultivated meatball | Courtesy Mosa Meat

    A mass shift to cultivated animal protein could help to decentralize cultivated meat production, allowing any farmer or rancher to produce it similar to other crops and animal products.

    Respect Farms will look at three key areas: animal-friendly cell selection, circular cell feeding, and bioreactors suited for farm environments.

    “We are excited to help develop a vision on how farmers will be included in the future cellular agriculture ecosystem. It is important for our nascent field to explore business models and value chains that maximize the benefits for everyone. We are quite proud to be a scientific and technical partner for this project,” Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said in a statement.

    “Cultivated meat offers a solution to the significant issues we are facing as a global community: feeding the fast-growing population in a safe and sustainable way while reducing environmental damage and conserving our planet”, said Jan Westra, Strategic Business Developer at consortium partner Priva.

    The group calls the research essential, saying it plays a vital role in evaluating the potential future role conventional agriculture will play for cellular agriculture.

    New business models for Swiss farmers

    “Once the project is completed, we will be able to assess the extent to which cellular agriculture and the production of cultivated meat on farms represent a new business field for Swiss farmers. Our involvement is thus oriented towards the purpose of the fenaco cooperative: to support farmers in the economic development of their businesses” says Christian Consoni, Head of the Food Industry Division at the fenaco Cooperative.

    “We believe that this proposition responds well to the demand for necessary new sustainable earning models for the existing agricultural sector,” says Aernout van der Does, Directeur Banking for Food, Kringdirectie Oost-Brabant, Rabobank.

    Methane emissions
    Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash

    GAIA’s president Michel Vandenbosch praised the project as a win for animal rights advocates.

    “For animal welfare, we want the food transition towards cultured meat production to happen as soon as possible, without doubt,” Vandenbosch said.

    “For a 100 percent animal-friendly and slaughter-free transition, we aim [sic] a beneficial transition also for farmers,” he said. “With the upcoming feasibility studies, we will assess opportunities for farmers, how they can best use these opportunities and what role they can play. In this way, the transition to cultured meat fits into the broader picture of making the economy ethically sustainable.”

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  • Meati Opens An ‘Infinitely Scalable’ Mycelium ‘Mega Ranch’ to Rival Big Meat

    meati
    3 Mins Read

    Things are getting meaty over at Meati as the mycelium mushroom meat producer opens a large-scale production facility it says can rival the output of conventional animal farms.

    Following a Series C funding round that brings Colorado-based Meati’s capital raise to more than $250 million, the mycelium meat company announced the opening of a ‘mega ranch’ in Thornton, Colo., capable of producing ‘tens of millions of pounds’ of the company’s vegan meat per year.

    “Investors and consumers recognize that Meati is a new, differentiated food,” Tyler Huggins, CEO and co-founder of Meati Foods, said in a statement. “They only need to read our simple ingredient list and taste Meati to recognize that this is the cut-through option people have been waiting for — something they absolutely see weekly if not daily on their plates.”

    Mega Ranch

    The company first announced its plans to open the 80,000-square-foot ranch in 2021, following its $50 million Series B funding round. Meati says the Mega Ranch will rival the output of the largest animal-based operations in the U.S. A vertically integrated approach brings growing, harvesting, processing, and packaging in-house to the ranch. The company anticipates a $1 billion run rate in sales by 2025.

    Meati chicken | Courtesy

    “Our belief that nature already has the answer to many of today’s challenges allowed us to unlock a new food with Meati at a time when consumers are demanding something different and better,” Huggins said. “Meati delivers an unparalleled food with its taste, texture, nutrition, and purity, and we’re thrilled to open this first phase of the resource-efficient ‘Mega Ranch’ facility to help even more consumers add it to their diets.”

    Using just a teaspoon of mycelium spores, Meati says it can produce protein equivalent to “hundreds of cows” in just a few days’ time at a fraction of the resources. This, the company says, creates a “nearly infinitely scalable platform.”

    ‘A seismic shift in how we eat’

    “The next few years will see a seismic shift in how we eat, and Meati’s state-of-the-art, scalable production capabilities coupled with its focus on meeting consumer needs for clean, whole-food protein position the brand to lead,” said Fazeela Abdul Rashid, Partner at Revolution Growth and member of the Meati Foods board.

    Courtesy Meati Foods

    “Tyler and the team have a vision for a new food category with pure ingredients and taste that doesn’t compromise. We are excited to continue working with them to reach the next level and bring Meati to more consumers across the U.S.,” Rashid said.

    Meati says its current lineup of products, which includes the Classic Cutlet, Crispy Cutlet, Classic Steak, and Carne Asada Steak, are all being produced at the Mega Ranch. The popular products continue to sell out online within minutes of launching, the company says. Meati has earned praise from Momofuku founder David Chang, former White House senior policy advisor for nutrition, Sam Kass, and Sweetgreen founders Nicolas Jammet and Jonathan Neman.

    Last July, Meati closed a $150 million Series C funding round led by Revolution Growth and Chipotle’s Cultivate Next Fund.

    The post Meati Opens An ‘Infinitely Scalable’ Mycelium ‘Mega Ranch’ to Rival Big Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Another French Startup Is Taking On the Meat Industry

    nugget
    3 Mins Read

    Dévore Food, the Frech plant-based meat startup founded by conventional meat lovers, has released its first products.

    More than two years of development have delivered with Dévore says are meat analogs that offer improved taste, texture, and performance. The first products on offer are Nugs and Strips, which the company says are both more affordable than organic chicken.

    A new, responsible way of eating

    “We wanted to offer a new responsible way of eating based on clean food, in line with our values,” co-founder Eugénie Le Dressay said in a statement. “Products to be devoured without any complexes, with your eyes closed!”

    Le Dressay co-founded Dévore with entrepreneur Vasco Duarte Ribeiro two years ago after assessing their conventional meat consumption.

    Devore foods
    Dévore Foods is bringing plants to meat-loving France | Courtesy

    Despite France’s long history as a meat-eating nation, a growing number of French people have begun reducing their consumption of meat and other animal products. Data from 2021 found nearly half of French citizens have reduced their meat intake in the last three years.

    Le Dressay says the made-in-Fance vegetarian meat from Dévore is rich in protein just like conventional meat but low in saturated fat as well as providing a good source of dietary fiber. The co-founder points to the company’s lower environmental footprint, too, which Le Dressay says is “three times less energy-consuming than chicken,” in terms of CO2, water pollution, and land mobilization.

    Accessible analogs

    “It was important for us to make our products accessible to make life easier for people who want to reduce their meat consumption, whether they are flexitarians, teenagers who have the munchies, or parents who don’t have the time to cook. Cheaper than a free-range chicken and just as generous, our products are good for everyone: tasty and balanced for humans, respectful of animals and sustainable for the planet,” says Ribeiro.

    La Vie
    Burger King has embraced vegan bacon from France’s La Vie | Courtesy

    Dévore’s launch comes on the heels of a number of plant-based launches in France. Last summer, HappyVore nabbed $36.8 million along with France’s largest vegan meat production facility. Last February, French supermarket chain Carrefour opened what it says was the first vegan butcher counter in the country. And the Natalie Portman-backed La Vie has seen its vegan bacon become a mainstay at Burger King locations across Europe.

    The first two Dévore vegan chicken products are now available via the company’s website, in select grocery stores and markets, and through foodservice channels.

    The post Another French Startup Is Taking On the Meat Industry appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Sensible Raises $12 Million for ‘Healthier, More Sustainable, and More Humane’ Hot Dogs

    Sensible Hot Dogs
    4 Mins Read

    Canada’s Sensible Hot Dogs has gone public on the NEO Exchange and raised nearly $12 million in non-brokered private financing for its plant-based hot dogs.

    Sensible took its plant-based hot dog business public last month, launching on Canada’s NEO Exchange in late December under the ticker “HOTD.” Now the company says it has raised more than $11 million for its expansion plans.

    Disrupting the hot dog market

    “Sensible has attracted start-up capital to fuel its food innovation and go-to-market strategy,” Shawn Balaghi, Sensible’s CEO said in a statement. “The Company is well capitalized to launch its operations with goals to disrupt the hot dog market. We’ve taken out all the not-so-great ingredients from the hot dog that are infamously mysterious and created a healthier and tastier frank. The revolution in nutrition, taste, and reduced environmental impact starts with us,” he said.

    Sensible’s hot dogs include the Classic and a Cheesy version both made from ingredients including mushrooms, bean protein, wheat protein, and root vegetables. 

    Balaghi called last month’s launch on the NEO Exchange a significant milestone for Sensible, specifically as the company looks to leverage the capital markets to fuel its growth. “After thoroughly reviewing all of the potential options to list in Canada, we are convinced that listing on the NEO Exchange, a senior stock exchange, best raises our profile among retail and institutional investors and provides a platform from which to expand our shareholder base as we execute our growth and value creation plans,” Balaghi said.

    Sensible hot dogs
    Sensible has listed on the NEO Exchange | Courtesy

    Sensible is fueling its growth to target the increasing demand for hot dogs. According to The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans consume about 20 billion hot dogs every year, with 95 percent of Americans eating about 70 hot dogs per year.

    Data from market analysis firm Statista found that more than 255 million hot dogs were consumed in 2020 and an estimated 261 million will be consumed in 2024 — just in the U.S.

    That brings the market value to nearly $600 million in 2022 — a 20 percent YoY increase. Globally, the hot dog market is expected to reach nearly $2 billion by 2032. Plant-based hot dogs are seeing sales increases, too; the vegan meat market sector is expected to grow to $15.7 billion by 2027, up from $7.9 billion last year.

    “The current meat, dairy, egg, and seafood industries from source to sale cause tremendous suffering, are highly unsustainable, and contribute to a wide range of lifestyle diseases. Sensible aims at a healthier, more sustainable, and more humane food option for consumers,” said Balaghi.

    Processed meat

    Conventional hot dogs have another problem, too. They aren’t healthy. Recent research found processed meats such as hot dogs can reduce life span by nearly 40 minutes. Those findings, published in 2021 in the journal Nature Food, were based on an index designed to calculate the net benefits or detriments of food. It was modeled after a study called the Global Burden of Disease, which looked at the morbidity associated with certain foods.

    “For example, 0.45 minutes are lost per gram of processed meat, or 0.1 minutes are gained per gram of fruit. We then look at the composition of each food and then multiplied this number by the corresponding food profiles that we previously developed,” Olivier Jolliet, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan and senior author of the paper, told CNN in 2021.

    sensible hot dog
    Sensible is targeting the booming hot dog market | Courtesy

    “The index is primarily there to help aid in selecting and using calories consumed on a daily basis to tweak a minimum of habits and make the minimum of change to obtain a maximum benefit for health and the environment from our food experience,” he said.

    Vegan processed food comes with consequences, too, according to another 2021 study. But the benefits of avoiding animal meat continue to be significant, the research found. It split subjects into four groups, and the group with the higher avoidance of animal-based food in their diet saw the greatest nutritional quality.

    The post Sensible Raises $12 Million for ‘Healthier, More Sustainable, and More Humane’ Hot Dogs appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Aleph Farms Is the First Cultivated Meat Company to Earn Kosher Status

    Aleph Farms Cultivated Beef Steak
    3 Mins Read

    Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Yisrael Meir Lau, says cultivated steak from Israel-based Aleph Farms is kosher.

    Cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms has achieved an industry first. Jewish people who observe kosher rules — only eating food blessed by a rabbi — can consume steak produced from cultivated animal cells, says the chief rabbi of Israel.

    Kosher cultivated steak

    While the steak is not yet approved for sale or consumption, regulatory approval is expected later this year. The kosher certification opens the door to a large percentage of the country’s population once the meat achieves approval.

    Israel’s Aleph Farms has earned kosher status. | Courtesy

    “This ruling is meaningful not only for Aleph Farms as a company but also for the entire cultivated meat industry. It sets a foundation for an inclusive public discourse about the intersection of tradition and innovation in our society. At Aleph, we innovate in order to provide quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere in service of people and the planet, and that includes people with different culinary traditions,” Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, said in a statement.

    “We’re excited that more groups of diners can enjoy our products regardless of their religion, helping us to advance our inclusive vision for food security and tap into different food cultures around the world,” Toubia said.

    Kosher beef demand

    Demand for kosher meat is on the rise globally, according to Aleph. It’s expected to reach more than $100 billion globally by 2030, with demand increasing in the U.S., France, and Israel, which combined make up more than 86 percent of the global Jewish population. Nearly 74 percent of Israel’s population is Jewish.

    Aleph Farms is producing cultivated meat from a single cell source. | Courtesy

    Aleph Farms says it’s working closely with regulatory agencies around the world in preparation for commercial launch. Its first product to market will be a cultivated thin-cut beef steak. It’s also developing different steak cuts as well as collagen made from cultivated cells.

    Lucy, a Black Angus cow who lives on a breeding farm in California, produced the fertilized egg that has served as the base for all of Aleph Farms’ products. The company says it can grow “thousands of tons” of cultivated meat from that single cell source for a more sustainable and ethical protein source.

    Aleph Farms says it is also in contact with Muslim, Hindu, and other religious authorities in order to certify its products as a viable dietary option for groups that have different religious practices.

    The post Aleph Farms Is the First Cultivated Meat Company to Earn Kosher Status appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • The Live Green Co. Aims to Clean Up Food Labels With AI-Powered Precision Fermentation

    4 Mins Read

    AI startup The Live Green Co., which has developed a platform dubbed ‘Charaka’, used to discover plant-based replacements for animal ingredients, synthetics, and highly processed ingredients has unveiled a precision fermentation division.


    Boston-based The Live Green Co., founded in 2018 by Sasikanth Chemalamudi and Priyanka Srinivas, says diving into precision fermentation is the logical next step for a tech-focused food company.

    The company has operations in the U.S., India, Chile, and Singapore. The new precision fermentation focus is happening at its India R&D facilities.

    AI ingredients

    “There are several reasons we got into precision fermentation,” Chemalamudi told Food Navigator News. “One is that there are almost 450,000 plants in nature, but modern science has only explored one to two percent of them, and most of the recommendations our AI ML platform [Charaka] gives are not readily available in a commercial form, so precision fermentation helps us synthesize them in a scalable way,” he said.

    “We have about 100 liters of fermentation capacity, but we also have partnerships with [the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotech] and a few [Contract Research Organizations] that can take us up about 300 liters, and by then we would need to scale the facilities for commercial production, which is why we are working in partnerships with established companies who can take this to the next
    level,” Chemalamudi said.

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

    Precision fermentation is seeing widespread adoption by some of the largest food manufacturers including recent launches by Nestlé, General Mills, Mars, and an announcement by Unilever. But The Live Green Co. says it differs from the category, Perfect Day, which has been focused on alternative dairy. The Live Green Co. is working to develop what it calls “plant-only” products.

    “The entire food industry currently relies on a single fungal host, Trichoderma. And there’s a huge need to tailor the machinery of other fungi as per the food industry’s requirements to produce the ingredients of interest in higher amounts much faster, with fewer resources and in a more sustainable way,” Dr.
    Kavish Kumar Jain, precision fermentation lead, The Live Green Co., told Food Navigator.

    One ingredient, methylcellulose is a widely used plant-based ingredient in processed foods. But producing it involves a process that relies on toxic chemical solutions. The Live Green Co. is working to produce an alternative. Chemalamudi says the company is about “70 percent there” in finding an alternative.

    Precision fermentation tech

    “And it’s areas like this where we see precision fermentation can help, because when you use natural ingredients in their natural state, you often have to use a lot of that ingredient to get a desired property, but with precision fermentation, you can just focus on [identifying individual plant components such as proteins with] the desired property and then produce them at scale,” he said.

    The Live Green Co. launched its own line of products in Chile last year.

    The company’s efforts mirror that of Chilean startup The NotCo, which recently announced a partnership with Kraft Heinz, releasing a co-branded knock-off plant-based version of the popular Kraft Singles. Like The Live Green Co., NotCo uses AI (it calls its tech Giuseppe). NotCo is focused for now solely on meat and dairy analogues while The Live Green Co. says it’s working to make food labels cleaner overall, with alternatives to ingredients like methylcellulose.

    “From day one, our model has been to collaborate with the industry – ingredients companies,
    food manufacturers and retailers – because we want to create large-scale change, and we
    don’t see that being possible by focusing on developing a CPG brand, although we have
    launched a few [Live Green branded] products in Chile in order to validate the technology,” Chemalamudi said.

    The company sees a future where not only are the animal ingredients replaced but so are the additives such as gums and fillers.

    “We have identified 150 additives commonly used in food and beverages in 30 different product categories across 25 geographies that consumers buy on a fairly regular basis, but our pipeline is guided by what our partners are looking for,” Chemalamudi said.

    “Charaka helps us identify the key base formulation or a base set of ingredients really fast.”

    The post The Live Green Co. Aims to Clean Up Food Labels With AI-Powered Precision Fermentation appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • NewFish Partners with Cawthron Institute to Develop Sustainable ‘Blue’ Algal Protein

    3 Mins Read

    New Zealand’s NewFish and the Cawthron Institute have entered into a strategic partnership aimed at commercializing microalgae for use in specialized protein.

    Alternative seafood startupNewFish, with offices in New Zealand and the U.S., has been working with algae fermentation for specialized ingredient development. The new partnership with Cawthron is aimed at accelerating its work and the overall seafood successors category growth.

    Blue protein

    According to Toby Lane, incoming NewFish CEO, resource-efficient and functional “blue” ocean-based proteins play a critical role in shaping the future of the protein sector.

    algae
    Photo by Vita Marija Murenaite on Unsplash

    “With CO2 at its highest point in more than two million years, and the global population growing, we urgently need new sources of naturally sourced, high quality protein with reduced ecological externalities,” Lane said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to provide consumers and customers with great tasting, healthy protein that has a light environmental footprint. Microalgae will play a pivotal role in delivering this.”

    Alternatives to seafood are critical in developing a sustainable food system. Overfishing is depleting fish stocks around the world, and the fishing industry is a leading cause of ocean plastic pollution, with ghost fishing gear making up about ten percent of all ocean plastic. Fishing is also tied to human rights violations, bycatch, and environmental pollution. Fish farming is also a leader in ocean pollution.

    Seafood successors

    A growing number of companies have begun exploring alternatives to conventional seafood, from Good Catch’s popular plant-based tuna to vegan shrimp from Thai Union, one of the largest conventional shrimp producers in the world.

    The Cawthron Institute is a world leader in seaweed and microalgae, working with bioactive compounds including algae. Cawthron is home to the Culture Collection of Microalgae, which includes more than 600 types of both marine and freshwater algae.

    OMG Shrimp launched in August from Thai Union

    Cawthron and NewFish will share research and resources on the development of algae-based nutrition.

    “With the ocean making up 96 percent of Aotearoa New Zealand’s territory, there is a significant opportunity for our waters and its natural resources to provide for us now, and into the future, said Volker Kuntzsch, Cawthron Chief Executive.

    “What fascinates me is that the environmental impact of growing algae and seaweed is so much smaller than traditional protein,” Kuntzsch said. “Exploring the untapped potential of marine bioactives could signal the establishment of an exciting new industry for our country, with the aim of creating an exemplary blue economy with a healthy natural environment as the ultimate ambition.”

    The post NewFish Partners with Cawthron Institute to Develop Sustainable ‘Blue’ Algal Protein appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • On Its Quest to Make Cultivated Meat Cheaper, Multus Biotechnology Secures a $9.5 Million Series A

    3 Mins Read

    London-based Multus Biotechnology has closed a $9 million Series A funding round to help accelerate its technology aimed at reducing cultivated meat costs.

    The funding was led by Mandi Ventures with participation from SOSV, Big Idea Ventures, and SynBioVen, alongside sustainable materials-focused company, Asahi Kasei. Multus also secured a $2.5 million grant from Innovate U.K. through the EIC Accelerator — Europe’s most competitive start-up grant.

    Building the world’s first growth media facility

    “Multus’ technology has the potential to revolutionize the cultivated meat industry by significantly reducing production costs and accelerating the commercial scale-up of the sector, benefiting cultivated meat producers, consumers and the environment,” Julio Benetti, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Mandi Ventures, said in a statement.

    Proliferum M is Multus Biotechnology’s first product

    The fresh funding follows a $2.2 million raise in 2021 and the launch of its first product, Proliferum M — an all-in-one media that eliminates the controversial fetal bovine serum still widely used in cultivated meat development.

    Multus says the new funding will go to support the development of the world’s first growth media facility for cultivated meat development. Growth media are historically the most expensive component to producing cultivated meat.

    “We are excited to use this funding to drive innovation in novel ingredient discovery, intelligent formulation design and food-safe growth media production for the affordable scale-up of the cellular agriculture industry,” said Multus CEO Cai Linton. “We are confident that our unique approach to growth media will play a key role in making cultivated meat a sustainable and affordable choice for all.”

    The funding comes as the cultivated meat industry is poised for commercial production as regulatory approval in key markets could come within the year. Late last year, California-based cultivated meat producer Upside Foods cleared the first hurdle toward U.S. regulatory approval by earning the FDA’s GRAS status.

    Earlier this week, California’s Eat Just Good Meat division earned the first regulatory approval for serum-free media. The approval was granted by the Singapore Food Agency, which also approved the company’s cultivated chicken in 2020. It’s currently the only cultivated meat approved for sale in the world.

    good meat chicken
    Good Meat has earned regulatory approval for its serum-free media | Courtesy

    Multus says its growth media formulations and ingredients will enable the industry to reach affordable at-scale production of animal products. It’s working beyond the cultivated meat scope to other animal-based products as well including dairy and leather.

    The company says its tech enables a “genuinely sustainable alternative to intensive animal farming which continues to erode biodiversity, monopolize arable land, and emit high levels of greenhouse gasses.”

    The post On Its Quest to Make Cultivated Meat Cheaper, Multus Biotechnology Secures a $9.5 Million Series A appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Veganz Patents 2D-Printed Dairy-Free Milk

    veganz cheese
    3 Mins Read

    Germany-based Veganz has secured a license for its patented vegan milk printing process.

    Veganz Group AG — Europe’s only multi-category vegan food provider — has partnered with U.S.-based Vitiprints LLC to bring its newly patented two-dimensional (2D) printed milk to market.

    2D milk

    Veganz says the partnership will allow it to produce a market-ready line of vegan milk that is environmentally friendly by reducing the package volume and eliminating water usage, which reduces shipping weight by more than 90 percent.

    The new milk will be packaged in plastic-free packaging at a CO2 reduction of more than 75 percent and a 53 percent reduction of other greenhouse gases compared to the impact of typical plastic milk containers, the company says. More than 380 million tons of plastic are made every year, and most of it is not recycled.  

    Veganz says the new patented tech increases the shelf life of its milk to more than two years.

    Courtesy Pixels

    The milk is printed into quick-dissolving sheets, discs, or pads made from oat, almond, or soy, which the company says can be mixed in a standard blender or dropped directly into coffee and tea as a stand-in for conventional creamers. Veganz says the 2D milk is free from added sugar, gluten, fillers, and preservatives. It will roll out consumer-facing products as well as food service options.

    “The Vitiprints license for printed milk alternatives will allow us to leverage a leading-edge printing technology, helping us address consumer needs in a healthy, green and sustainable way, while at the same time enabling us to expand our portfolio of products into new target markets,” Jan Bredack, founder and CEO of Veganz Group AG, said in a statement. “We are incredibly excited that our new printed products will offer environmentally superior, great tasting and even heathier alternatives that our customers look for in every Veganz product they purchase.” 

    Andrew Ferber, Chairman of Vitiprints, says the innovative new process will enable Veganz not only to produce a superior tasting product, “but will dramatically reduce the standard milk footprint at retail and beyond,” Ferber said. “We look forward to working together and introducing the Vitiprints technology in Europe with a great partner like Veganz and introduce an all-new standard in the food and beverage marketplace.”

    ‘Rising consciousness of food sustainability’

    Veganz announced its plans to IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (VEZ) late in 2021, with the goal of using those funds to support innovative tech to develop new products such as the printed milk.

    veganz
    Veganz delivers products across categories | Courtesy

    “With ten years of experience, Veganz is a ‘first mover’ in the plant-based food market.,” Bredack said at the time. “[We] offer a highly innovative product range that is able to satisfy consumers’ needs from breakfast to dinner,” he said.

    “We see a positive momentum for purely plant-based food products driven by several trends like the rising consciousness of food sustainability and for animal welfare,” Bredack said.

    Veganz products are sold around the world and include a range of categories including frozen ready meals, meat and cheese successors, and confectionery products.

    The post Veganz Patents 2D-Printed Dairy-Free Milk appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Crafty Counter Launches Revolutionary Plant-Based Hard-Boiled Eggs At Whole Foods Nationwide

    WunderEggs Vegan by Crafty Counter

    3 Mins Read

    Texas startup Crafty Counter has launched its flagship product, an entirely vegan hard-boiled egg made from nuts at Whole Foods grocery stores across the country.

    Crafty Counter, an Austin-based consumer packaged goods company, has launched Hard Boiled WunderEggs, the first plant-based hard-boiled eggs to be made in the U.S., are now available in ready-to-eat six packs at Whole Foods stores nationwide and on the company’s website.

    These WunderEggs are crafted with closer-to-earth ingredients that the company says “are kind to bodies and the planet.” Recently awarded ‘Best New Meat or Dairy Alternative’ at the 2022 Expo West NEXTY Awards, these nut-based eggs are delicious and free of seven of the top eight allergens. They look, feel and taste like chicken eggs, offering a wholesome alternative with natural ingredients like cashews, almonds, and coconuts.

    Crafty Counter was founded in 2018 by Hema Reddy, a former IBM executive, with the goal of helping people eat more plants. The female- and BIPOC- owned company has since evolved and emerged into the plant-based scene, launching WunderBites in 2020 in select locations of Sprouts, Target, and Thrive Market. Each Crafty Counter product is made using simple ingredients and manufacturing process innovation, and lately, cutting-edge food science.

    2023 marks the company’s strategic pivot into focusing solely on developing plant-based egg offerings to address the gap in a category that the company says needs more innovation and variety. The brand will dedicate its early-stage startup resources to penetrating a nascent and ripe-for-disruption category.

    WunderEggs
    WunderEggs, Courtesy Crafty Counter

    According to data by Data Bridge Market Research, the global plant-based egg market is projected to reach 11.89 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 28%. Crafty Counter intends to position itself as an innovator and market leader in the category while staying true to its founding mission of introducing more plants into a consumer’s diet. The company is set to expand its plant-based egg offerings with additional retailers throughout 2023, with the promise of creating additional line extensions.

    Kevin Goradia, an early investor in Crafty Counter said in a statement: “It has been a pleasure watching first-hand all the hard work the team at Crafty Counter has put in to keep innovating with a steadfast focus on solving the needs of that mindful consumer who is looking for sustainable products that are better for them and the environment. The time to act and play our role in slowing down climate change is now, we have no time to wait!”

    Crafty Counter is committed to introducing more plants into consumers’ diets and intends to position itself as an innovator and market leader in the plant-based egg category.

    Courtesy Eat Just

    Compared to plant-based meat, seafood and dairy, there are far fewer plant-based egg startups.

    Eat Just, the California-based global market leader of plant-based eggs in terms of sales made waves recently with a full-page advertisement in the New York Times with the tagline ‘plants don’t get the flu’ in reference to the avian flu outbreaks that has caused egg shortages across the US. The company offers both a chilled plant-based liquid egg replacer and a frozen plant-based pre-cooked egg omelet patty alternative.

    The post Crafty Counter Launches Revolutionary Plant-Based Hard-Boiled Eggs At Whole Foods Nationwide appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Singapore Approves Good Meat’s Serum-Free Media In a Cultivated Meat First

    good meat chicken
    3 Mins Read

    Good Meat, the cultivated meat division of San Francisco’s Eat Just, has secured the world’s first regulatory approval for a serum-free media.

    The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has granted Eat Just approval for its new media used for its cultivated meat. Eat Just’s Good Meat cultivated chicken was the first in the world to receive regulatory approval for sale and distribution by SFA in 2020.

    Serum-free media

    Eat Just says the approval of the new serum-free media will lead to greater scalability while lowering its manufacturing costs. The company says it will also make its cultivated meat more sustainable.

    “Not too long ago, observers thought removing serum was a major limiting step to scaling cultivated meat. I could not be prouder of our team for doing just that and receiving approval to commercialize it this week. It’s yet another step forward for our company, the cultivated meat industry and the health of our planet,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, said in a statement.

    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat
    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat | Courtesy

    Cultivated meat has historically relied on fetal bovine serum (FBS), a controversial growth media that kept livestock tied to the meat’s production. A growing number of cultivated meat manufacturers have been working to develop viable alternatives in anticipation of widespread regulatory approval. Upside Foods, another Bay Area cultivated meat producer, earned FDA GRAS status late last year — the first step toward U.S. approval.

    According to recent findings published in the journal Communications Biology cultivated meat holds the potential to reduce land use by 90 percent, reduce water use 75 percent, while producing 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

    The research also found that FBS, the most common growth media, is responsible for 99 percent of the cost of current cultivated meat production systems. FBS is a “notoriously expensive, unsustainable, and inconsistent component, which is inherently antithetical to the aims of cultured meat,” the researchers noted.

    Eat Just’s approval comes on the heels of its expanded production efforts in Singapore. The company is adding bioreactors, including the largest one in the cultivated meat industry, to its Singapore production center that will allow it to scale up to “tens of thousands of pounds” of cultivated meat per year.

    ‘A milestone in scaling’

    “We congratulate Good Meat on achieving this milestone in scaling up cultivated meat production. This complements the company’s work in Singapore to build and operate its bioreactor facility where over 50 research scientists and engineers will develop innovative capabilities in the cultivated meat space such as media optimisation, process development, and texturization of cultivated meat products,” said Damian Chan, Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board.

    “GOOD Meat is a key member of our growing ecosystem of more than 70 alternative protein companies and we look forward to their continued contributions in driving agrifood innovation from Singapore for the region and beyond,” Chan said.

    Cultivated meat comes to the butcher shop
    Cultivated meat comes to its first butcher shop in Singapore | Courtesy Eat Just

    “Today’s announcement is yet another significant step for this cutting-edge industry. AMPS Innovation members continue to advance the food landscape with new methods of producing high-quality, safe products to support commercialization of cultivated meat, poultry, and seafood,” said Robert Rankin, Executive Director, Association For Meat, Poultry And Seafood Innovation.

    Mirte Gosker, Managing Director of the Good Food Institute APAC, the industry’s leading think tank, says removing serum from cultivated meat production can drive down costs and “set the stage for expanded commercialization of sustainable protein.”

    “Given Singapore’s reputation as a global launchpad for scalable food security solutions, we’re hopeful that other nations will also soon embrace this smarter way of making meat,” Gosker said.

    The post Singapore Approves Good Meat’s Serum-Free Media In a Cultivated Meat First appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • The Top 3 Future Foods I Tasted At CES 2023

    CES 2023 Foodtech Review
    5 Mins Read

    By Noah Hyams

    Vegan entrepreneur Noah Hyams shares his top 3 future of food finds at CES 2023, from fermented plant-based soy protein to bioengineered microbe-based soft serve. 

    CES never used to be a food-forward show. But in 2019, plant-based meat startup Impossible Foods changed the rules of the game by debuting their Impossible Burger 2.0 at the annual gathering of the who’s who in tech. According to CES, which published a case study about the success of the launch, the pioneering food company garnered over 446 million media impressions. Thanks to this bold move, CES is now a conference mainstay for tech-forward food companies who are keen to showcase their tech-forward missions and products, not to mention nab some extra media headlines. 

    This year, there was plenty to get excited about foodwise. Asia-based foodtech companies in particular stole the show with innovations ranging from a proprietary plant-based fat and a plant-based replica of milk protein to a novel fermented soybean technology. 

    It was a dream come true for me to make my way through the show, tasting and discovering all the innovative new future food products on behalf of Green Queen. Below, I share my top three picks – the startups whose product or technology I found the most noteworthy. 

    Lypid: Plant-Based Fat Technology 

    Lypid’s plant-based pork belly bites featuring their proprietary PhytoFat at CES 2023

    To start my foodtech journey at CES, I headed over to Lypid’s’s booth to try their newly developed PhytoFat, which the company says “accurately mimics the texture, mouthfeel, transfer of flavor, and cooking behavior of animal fats.” The IndieBio-backed company plans to sell its product to manufacturers to add animal meat-like juiciness and mouthfeel to plant-based meats. 

    The company, which raised US$4 million back in March 2022, says it uses physics and fluid dynamics to recreate a highly stable fat that can hold its texture for six months and melt at high temperatures just like animal-derived fats.. The trans-fat-free ingredient list is mostly made up of water and canola oil. Crucially, the company claims the fat is cheap to produce and requires zero hydrogenation. The company is based in both Taiwan and San Francisco and is currently looking for food service partners to bring its fat innovation to market in the US.

    The plant-based pork belly sample I tasted was surprisingly realistic and tasty. As plant-based meat companies look to increasingly mimic animal meats, ingredients such as realistic-tasting fats are playing an increasingly important role. Plant-based fats on their own don’t perform like animal fats which leads many products to lack the mouthfeel, juiciness, and texture consumers would expect. After its up-and-coming launch in the U.S. in food service, Lypid says it will be looking to expand throughout Europe and Asia.

    Armored Fresh Technology: Bioengineered Soft Serve Ice Cream 

    A booth panel describing AFT’s bioengineering technology, used in its new soft serve ice cream at CES 2023.

    Next, I headed over to Armored Fresh Technology’s (AFT) booth to try their new bio-engineered soft-serve ice cream, a new product line for the South Korean company, and it was delicious. 

    According to AFT, the core of their raw material technology is an emulsifying function that allows them to create a replica of the milk protein casein as a plant-based protein. The company says that dairy’s unique taste and texture features such as the stretchiness of cheese, chewy ice cream, and creamy yogurts all come from casein, which is not available in plants. It’s also why it has been difficult for plant-based proteins to get plant-based dairy to taste like its animal counterpart. Like Perfect Day, AFT uses precision fermentation technology to recreate molecularly identical animal casein from microbes.  

    AFT raised $23 million back in June and then launched their plant-based cheeses made from almond milk and a proprietary plant-based lactic acid in the US market this past October. Currently, the cheeses are available in more than 100 stores on the East Coast. The company has secured a number of patents for its cheese production processes and has now brought some of this same technology to the ice cream category. 

    Kwang Jin Corp’s DNS: Fermented Plant-Based Protein Powder Meal

    Closeup of Kwang Jin Corp’s DNS Da Neung Sik product, a plant-based fermented soybean protein meal, at CES 2023.

    My last stop was at South Korean startup Kwang Jin Corp’s booth. The company was a Korean showing off its latest plant-based food product, ‘DNS Da Neung Sik’ a sort of healthy powder beverage/meal replacement mix. The soybean meal is inspired by Chungguk jang, a traditional Korean fermented food. Kwang Jin has spent many years developing a modernized version of the traditional method of natural fermentation using rice straws to isolate and culture the Chungguk jang bacteria. While the product is primarily from fermented soybeans, there are loads of other healthy ingredients in it such as oat, brown rice, Konjac, cranberry, lemon, sweet pumpkin, broccoli, spinach, sunflower seed, almond, peanut, and banana. It is intended as a fermented alternative (plant-based) milk. I mixed it with water to try it, and it tasted like healthy oatmeal to me. The company says the powder is rich in both protein and gut-friendly probiotics and contains more nutrients than many plant-based milks and meal replacements on the market. The company is targeting US market entry and plans to start selling its products on Amazon as early as February.

    Other Exciting Food Tech We Sampled

    Some of the other noteworthy companies that exhibited their products this year included SavorEat, an Israeli company whose 3-D printer robot makes 3-D printed plant-based burgers. The printer allows customers to even choose their preferred protein-to-fat ratio as well as the size of the patty and how they want it cooked—juicy or well-done.  Another exciting company that sampled their products is Chicago-based Nature’s Fynd, which makes fungi-based meat products from a microbe dubbed ‘Fy’, a nutritional fungi protein with all 9 essential amino acids. The novel fungi was discovered by the company’s scientists in the volcanic springs of Yellowstone National Park. 

    For a complete guide to the foodtech and agtech companies that participated in the show, check out The Spoon’s helpful list. 

    About the author: Noah Hyams is an entrepreneur, musician, and digital producer based in New York City and the founder of Songathon and VEGPRENEUR – Connect with Noah.

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  • Chinese Cultivated Meat Startup Jimi Biotech Closes a ¥20 Million Angel Funding Round

    jimi
    3 Mins Read

    China-based cultivated meat company Jimi Biotech has closed an angel funding round of ¥20 million ($3 million USD) led by Plum Ventures and Fanqie Capital with funding from Green Leaf Ventures and Joyvio Capital.

    Jimi Biotech, which launched in 2021, says the new funding will assist with key talent hires and its ongoing R&D efforts. The funding follows its cultivated beef launch just over a year ago.

    The fast-moving cultivated meat industry

    “Plum Ventures’ investment focus has always included both consumer goods and cutting-edge technology, and cultivated meat is at the intersection of the two; Fanqie Capital has a great portfolio of food and beverage companies, as well as extensive supply chain investment in the food sector, which will help us better enter the market in the future; Green Leaf Ventures has always focused on ESG, which is exactly what we are seeking for in terms of social welfare. Joyvio Capital, a firm believer in cultivated meat, and is committed to continued investment in the field,” Zhehou Cao, the founder of Jimi Biotech, said in a statement. According to Cao, Jimi’s investors share the value and goals of the brand, bringing along resources as well.

    jimi
    Jimi’s cultivated meat | Courtesy

    “In the fast-moving cultivated meat industry, we highly value Jimi’s in-depth and unique thinking on the technical path and future product forms of cultivated meat,” said Shichun Wu, founding partner of Plum Ventures.

    “Jimi has established its leadership position in cultivated meat technologies, and with its strong capabilities in both R&D and commercialization, we believe that Jimi will become a unicorn company in cultivated meat in the future. Plum Ventures hopes to leverage its rich resources to help Jimi achieve this great cause,” Wu said.

    Yong Qing, founder of food-focused Fanqie Capital says the Jimi Biotech team has strong backgrounds in both engineering and biology, which plays a role in its tech-forward platform.

    “Its strategy focuses on independent research and development and is not in a hurry to launch products in the short term,” Qing said, calling Jimi an “excellent early entrepreneurial team.”

    Qing says Fanqie Capital is optimistic about the cultivated meat market in the long run, “and also believes in the ability of Jimi Biotech to become a market leader. In the future, Fanqie will bring its own resources in the food sector to continue to empower Jimi.”

    ‘New forms of meat’

    The company is working to develop “new forms” of meat through its new technology. It says its goal is to reduce public health risks, and address food safety, environmental pollution, and animal welfare problems caused by industrial animal farming, while also working toward a sustainable and slaughter-free protein production chain.

    jimi's team
    Jimi’s team is developing cultivated meat | Courtesy

    The last year has seen Jimi develop a serum-free and animal-component-free culture media for cultivated meat. It says the media works better than fetal bovine serum. The company has also reduced media costs by 20 times and implemented a media recycling system that sees microorganisms replace expensive media components and use waste media as their culture. The company has made other advancements across myoblasts, feeder cell systems, and scaffolding.

    “Cultivated meat requires expertise from many fields, so it is crucial for the team to have innovative thinking and multi-disciplinary discussions,” Cao said.

    “[T]o fully convince consumers, we ultimately need to have an outstanding product.”

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  • Thai Union Invests In French Algae Tech Platform Algama

    algae
    2 Mins Read

    Thai Union, leading producer of Thai seafood, has invested in France’s Algama algae innovation platform.

    Thai Union’s Corporate Venture Capital Fund joined Algama’s recent €13 million Series A funding round to help accelerate its industrial algal ingredients for the food and beverage sector.

    “At Thai Union, we are committed to “Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans”, Thiraphong Chansiri, President and CEO of Thai Union said in a statement. Chansiri says algae, as a sustainable, marine ingredient, is aligned with the seafood giant’s goals.

    Algal protein

    “Algama and its experienced team have strong tech and commercial capabilities to create a positive impact on the protein industry. We are excited to work with them and explore further collaboration opportunities,” Chansiri said.

    algae
    Photo by Vita Marija Murenaite on Unsplash

    Tamalga, the ten-year-old Algama’s flagship product serves as an egg replacer in baked goods. The company says the new funding will accelerate the commercialization of its innovations as well as the development of new applications. It will also add a new 10,000m2 bio-refinery in Liege, Belgium.

    With Thai Union on board, Algama says its also exploring the seafood successors category with protein innovations at the forefront.

    “We are excited to work with Thai Union to create the next generation of seafood ingredients that are sustainably sourced and health-promoting,” Alvyn Severien, Algama’s co-founder and CEO, said. “By exploring the untapped potential of algae, we aim to push the boundaries and develop innovative products for the future.”

    Alternative seafood

    Last spring, Thai Union announced it was exploring cultivated seafood following the launch of its OMG range of plant-based seafood products. The company says the seafood sector is lagging behind other protein sectors when it comes to plant-based options.

    OMG Shrimp launched in August from Thai Union

    “The bigger opportunity lies with flexitarians, who are flexing between meat, seafood and vegan propositions,” Maarten Geraets, managing director of alternative proteins at Thai Union told the Bangkok Post last year. “Plant-based solutions are a trend that people would want to buy into. It’s something you want to be seen with, eating or drinking. It can be very aspirational.”

    The company established its CVC fund in 2019 with its focus on alternative protein, functional nutrition, and biotechnology. The fund is focused on investing in and partnering with early-stage, entrepreneurial companies aligned with Thai Union’s commitment to Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans.


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  • Without Buying Offsets, the EATV ETF Earns Carbon Neutral Status

    A Beyond Burger

    3 Mins Read

    The VegTech plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV, is now certified carbon neutral — a feat it achieved without buying offsets.

    EATV (NYSE: EATV) says its carbon-neutral status comes by way of avoiding animal products in food and materials supply systems. “This means that the investments made by EATV are actually helping to solve the problem – i.e., avoiding creating emissions – rather than using the Band-Aid of offsets,” reads a press release issued by the platform. EATV received its certification from Ethos ESG.

    Plant-based potential

    “Offsets are really important for mitigating global warming, but it is also critical that we address the underlying problem, including the massive emissions generated by our meat-based food system,” said Luke Wilcox, ACA Group Partner and Founder of Ethos ESG. The United Nations says offsets are not a long-term solution in fighting the climate crisis.

    two dairy cows
    Replacing animal agriculture makes EATV carbon neutral | Courtesy of Dan Hamill via Unsplash

    “I’m excited to highlight the impact potential of switching to plant-based products through our certification of the EATV ETF,” says Wilcox. “From an emissions reduction perspective, the plant-based protein sector may be one of the most accessible and impactful areas in the market.“ 

    EATV’s aggregate carbon avoidance potential was deemed greater than its estimated footprint, making an investment in the fund equal to a net reduction in carbon, the platform says. EATV’s global temperature warming potential of 1.18°C is below the U.N.’s goal of 1.5°C and “very far below” the S&P 500 warming potential of 3.2°C, the platform said.

    LCAs on the impact of switching from beef to plant-based alternatives, along with other sector innovations, compared the carbon footprints of EATV’s holdings including Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions and the expected impact of emissions avoided. Its holdings include Ingredion, Sensient, Givaudan, Dole, Yara, Smurfit, MGP Ingredients, ABinBev, E.L.F Beauty Inc., and Vitasoy International. Also in the fund are Amyris Inc, Beyond Meat, Oatly, and Gingko BioWorks.

    Source: Ethos ESG

    Emissions avoidance

    The EATV Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF is “leading the way for a more aggressive approach in helping to solve climate change by avoiding emissions in the first place,” read the press release.

    “The emissions avoidance thesis through replacements of carbon-heavy animal products has always been at the core of EATV’s philosophy,” said Dr. Sasha Goodman, Fund Manager of EATV. “We have always believed that avoiding emissions can be even more impactful than participating in a carbon market, which can have intermediaries, and be complicated and inefficient. We are happy to confirm our thesis through certification by a reputable third party, Ethos ESG.”

    Oatly is a portfolio company in EATV. Courtesy

    According to Dan Carreno, Director of Business Development at Ethos, the EATV VegTech Invest investment approach “seeks groundbreaking solutions” aimed at addressing the global food and materials supply systems.

    “With EATV, VegTech Invest offers a distinct strategy that seeks to capitalize on the new food revolution paradigm of Plant-based Innovation and Alternative Proteins,” he said. “Ethos is proud to partner with VegTech Invest as we take actionable steps toward a net-zero economy.”

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  • China Takes First Place In the 2022 ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge APAC

    3 Mins Read

    With more than $10,000 in prize money on the table, young Asian tech teams competed in the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge APAC.

    China, Korea, India, Indonesia, and Thailand were all victorious in the 2022 ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge APAC. This was the first year the challenge included all Asia Pacific regions. It focused on South-East Asia in 2021 and Mainland China in 2020.

    The winners

    Students from China’s Shanghai Ocean University and Hainan University won top prize for its plant-based pork floss designed for infants. The plant-based meat is fortified with vitamins A and D.

    Second prize winners came from Thailand and Indonesia; the Thai team, from Kasetsart University, created “DeCrab Jumbo Lump Crab Meat”, a plant-based crab meat with the taste and texture of conventional crab.

    crab
    A plant-based crab meat was a winner this year. Courtesy David Abbram via Pexels

    The Indonesian team, from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Universitas Indonesia, Universitas Katolik and Indonesia Atmajaya, developed “PepShot” — a plant-based energy shop designed for workaholics to boost productivity. It comes in fully biodegradable packaging.

    Korea, Thailand, and India shared the third prize. Korean students from Sung Kyun Kwan University and Yonsei University developed a new range of K-bakery products for South Korea’s biggest chain bakery using Beyond Pork, and vegetables.

    India’s team hailed from NIFTEM-Kundli, IIHM-Kolkata, St. Xaviers College-Kolkata, and NMCCE Mumbai. They developed plant-based kebabs and chicken modeled after HaoFood’s peanut-based chicken.

    Thailand’s team from Panyapiwat Institute of Management created the “Hi Burger” — a satay-flavored plant-based burger made from jackfruit and herbs and spices.

    Meeting Asia’s demand for plant-based food

    “This is the third year we have run the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge and I am pleased to see that the competition is growing in scale and influence,” Shirley Lu, Managing Director of ProVeg Asia, said in a statement.

    omnifoods
    OmniFoods worked with the teams | Courtesy

    David Yeung, co-founder and CEO of the leading Asian pork and seafood successor brand, OmniFoods, said his company was delighted to have partnered in this year’s challenge. “Our team has been impressed by the creativity and passion of the younger generations who are committed to driving positive changes and accelerating sustainability through food innovation,” Yeung said.

    In total, 179 food ideas representing 163 universities, vied for the prizes. The students had to not only develop the food but also a go-to-market strategy for the products. The event was sponsored by PepsiCo, Unilever, Omnifoods, Beyond Meat, Oatly and CPF with the goal of raising awareness about the benefits of plant-based food as well as the innovative skills of young talent.

    “I’m proud of the quality and creativity of students’ work,” Lu said. “Young innovators from Asia are transforming the food systems across the region and we look forward to even more participation from the APAC region next year.”

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  • No Meat Factory Closes a $42 Million Series B Funding Round

    nugget
    3 Mins Read

    Canada’s No Meat Factory has announced the closing of a $42 million Series B funding round to help accelerate its plant-based meat production.

    The new financing was led by new investor Tengelmann Growth Partners. Existing investor Emil Capital Partners also participated.

    No Meat Factory, which launched in 2019, says it plans to expand its plant-based meat production footprint across North America with the fresh funding as well as work to expand globally.

    Plant-based production

    The company currently develops plant-based products including nuggets, burgers, and whole muscle meats for its brand partners through its BRC-certified facility in British Columbia. It’s bringing a second facility online this year which will enable increased production and new product capabilities including deli slices and sausages.

    sausage
    Photo by Александр Трубицын via Pexels

    “The traction No Meat Factory has experienced in just a few short years is evidence that consumers want greater access to plant-based alternative proteins and brands are looking for ways to deliver quality at an affordable price,” Dieter Thiem, CEO and co-founder of No Meat Factory, said in a statement. “With this latest funding round, we are excited to not only expand our operations to meet the needs of our partners, but to take advantage of the support and expertise of our investors as we expand our footprint globally.”

    Thiem co-founded No Meat Factory alongside Leon Bell; combined, the two bring more than 65 years of experience in the plant-based food industry – specifically in plant-based meat production.

    Rapid growth ahead

    “No Meat Factory has an exceptional founding team with decades of experience in the plant-based industry, and we are thrilled to come on board to support the company’s next phase of growth,” said Patrick Schaich, Investment Partner at Tengelmann Growth Partners.

    Daniel Bentrup, Investment Partner at Tengelmann Growth Partners, says No Meat Factory is poised to experience “rapid growth” and increasing demand for its manufacturing capabilities as consumers continue to seek out plant-based successors to conventional animal products.

    burger
    Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

    “We invested in No Meat Factory at their earliest phase just a few short years ago, and seeing their continued growth underscores the importance of what they’re doing for plant-based protein alternatives as an industry,” said Marcel Bens, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of ECP.

    No Meat Factory says part of the funding will also support its expansion into new territories, namely food service. Recent data from Sodexo showed an uptick in plant-based menu items across its U.K.-based food service partners.

    “We will continue to work closely with Dieter and the team to offer our guidance, expertise and connections as No Meat Factory executes its vision to offer truly high-quality plant-based protein products globally,” Bens said. “We’re highly optimistic for the future of No Meat Factory as they plan to evolve beyond servicing brand owners and pursue private-label and foodservice opportunities more broadly.”

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  • A Counter To ‘Plant-Based Junk Food Is Bad News For The Planet’

    alt protein trend predictions 2023
    6 Mins Read

    Editor’s Note: This piece came about because Dan commented on a Linkedin post about our original article. We appreciated his insights so we invited him to write this piece to share his thoughts.

    I am writing this rebuttal in response to the recent article “Our Junk Food Addiction Is Bad News For The Planet, Study Finds” and the publication by Musicus et al, which the article references. I want to contest some of the statements made in the article, starting with the title and the associated cover figure of the news article, which incorrectly associates plant-based meat with adverse environmental and health impacts.

    The goal of the recent study by Musicus et al. was to determine health and environmental impact as a function of diet, from a longitudinal prospective study. One-hundred fifty foods were included in the survey, and the authors split a subset of these foods into different categories, according to four established health indices – the alternative healthy eating index-2010 (AHEI), plant-based diet index (PDI), unhealthy PDI, and healthy PDI. For each index, study participants were split into five groups of equal size (quintiles) based on their score – i.e., the first quintile is the 20% of participants with the lowest scores, the fifth quintile is the 20% of participants with the highest scores. Then for each group/quintile, the authors calculated some environmental and health impacts.

    Before looking at how the different subgroups compare, it’s worth looking at the sum of the data first. Across all participants in the survey, animal-derived products account for the vast majority of environmental impact. For instance, red and processed meat accounts for 31% of greenhouse gas contributions and 59% of cropland needs. If we group the categories into animal, healthy plant-based (vegetable, fruit, tea and coffee, legumes, nuts, whole grains, vegetable oils) and unhealthy plant-based (fruit juice, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grains), the overall contributions are largest for animal foods by a wide margin. For instance, 78% of greenhouse gas emissions and 88% of cropland needs are accounted for by animal foods (including “other foods”, which are largely animal-derived).

    Because the environmental impact of animal products, particularly red and processed meat, is so large, variation in their consumption drives most of the differences across the diet indices, including the plant ones. For instance for AHEI, the decrease in red meat consumption was by far the largest difference in environmental impact between the first and fifth quintiles (the data for other diets is not presented in the paper). Red and processed meat, not plant foods, also explains the modest differences in environmental impact comparing the 1st and 5th quintiles of the unhealthy PDI.

    The authors gauged healthiness by comparing the relative risk of cardiovascular disease in study participants across each dietary index. As presented in Table 1, the relative risk of cardiovascular disease decreases monotonically across the quintiles for AHEI, PDI and healthy PDI and the three indices are basically indistinguishable in terms of relative risk of cardiovascular disease (note however, that the plot of these data in Supplemental Figure 1 does not match the data presented in Table 1!). As noted by the authors “Reduced red and processed meat consumption was the largest contributor to these observed beneficial effects”. 

    In contrast, there is a modest increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease for those with a diet disproportionately high in unhealthy plant-based foods, which is why the authors write “whereas healthy plant-based patterns were associated with indicators of better human and environmental health, including significantly reduced cardiovascular disease risk; greenhouse gas emissions; and use of cropland, irrigation water, and fertiliser; unhealthy plant-based patterns were associated with adverse human and environmental health effects, including significantly increased cardiovascular disease risk and use of cropland and fertiliser.” We already covered that the environmental impact of those in the 5th quintile of unhealthy PDI is driven by differences in red and processed meat. The specific foods contributing to the moderate health effects are not probed in the paper (and the authors informed me that said data is not available). But based on Supplemental Figure 3, the categories with the biggest increases in consumption are red and processed meat, sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages, all of which are linked to cardiovascular disease when consumed in excess. So rather than emphasizing that not all plant-based diets are equal, I think a better takeaway is that excess sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages can offset some of the health benefits of a plant-based diet. 

    But what about the environmental and health impacts of plant-based meat and dairy? The food survey started over 30 years ago and so has limited inclusion of plant-based meat and dairy. Under “vegetables”, there is a category “Tofu, soy burger, soybeans, miso or other soy protein.” However, no plant-based meat or dairy are included in the PDI scoring system, so this study does not directly address the relative environmental or health impacts of plant-based meat and dairy products.

    While plant-based meat and dairy foods were not included in this study, we can apply the same approach to assess environmental impact. For instance, Impossible Foods (my employer) performed a life cycle assessment comparing the potential environmental impacts of an Impossible Burger and conventional, industrially-reared ground beef burger from farm field to manufacturing gate. Producing an Impossible Burger took 10X fewer greenhouse gas emissions and 20X less cropland than a ground beef burger. Likely, these dramatic differences broadly apply to plant-based meats and dairy. 

    But what about the health impacts of plant-based meat and dairy? Unlike environmental impact, there is not a simple categorical answer. One, there is tremendous variation among these products (e.g., soy milk vs. almond milk). Two, health benefits depend on what you are comparing them to (e.g., broccoli vs. a hamburger) and are influenced by the other foods you eat (e.g., burger with salad and water vs burger with french fries and a soda). Third, the metrics by which nutrition and health benefits are assessed are generally rudimentary (and often wrong) – e.g., the degree of “processing” has a negative health connotation and is considered in current nutrition guidelines, but has little to no correlation with actual micro- and macronutrient content. 

    We can at least compare nutrition profiles of plant-based replacements and their animal counterparts. Compared to an industrial ground beef burger, the Impossible Burger macronutrient content is purposely similar, with matching protein quantity and quality, and similar total fat. Both burgers have high levels of heme iron, which is absorbed much better than non-heme iron. The Impossible Burger has 20% less saturated fat than the beef burger and does not contain cholesterol. Saturated fat and cholesterol intake have repeatedly been linked to negative health outcomes, in particular cardiovascular disorders. Micronutrient content is pretty similar too, but with the Impossible Burger having higher levels of several vitamins and minerals. Impossible Burger has some fiber, whereas ground beef has none. The Impossible Burger also has a modest amount of sodium (~1/6th of daily recommendation). All in all, the nutrition profile of the Impossible Burger is superior to its animal counterpart.

    More sophisticated health comparisons are now emerging. For instance, a recent randomized crossover clinical trial showed that replacing animal burgers with Beyond Meat burgers led to improved cardiovascular disease risk factors. 

    In addition to nutrition content, we should consider (and emphasize) the many indirect positive impacts on population health from replacing animal products with plant-based counterparts. Without a doubt, animal agriculture is the most destructive practice in the history of the planet. Animals in the food system are the primary drivers of climate catastrophe and biodiversity collapse, which have profound indirect effects on health and life quality everywhere. Additionally, animals in the food system contribute to widespread antibiotic resistance and are the driver of most zoonotic diseases. 

    In conclusion: as a general good rule of thumb, the best diet for you and the planet is one rich in plant foods, which can include plant-based meats and dairy, and low in animal products and junk food. 

    About the author: Dan Hogan is a Research Fellow at Impossible Foods developing transformative protein technologies for plant-based foods. Prior to joining Impossible Foods in 2020, he led the bioinformatics and core technology groups at Tocagen Inc, which utilized retroviral gene therapies for cancer treatment. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry from Stanford University.

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