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Category: Alt Protein

  • Kinoko-Tech Inks Deal to Roll Out Fungi Products in Australia, From Zero-Waste Burgers to Mycelium Muesli Bars

    mycelium meat
    5 Mins Read

    Israel’s Kinoko-Tech has partnered with Australia’s Metaphor Foods to commercialise a range of mycelium protein products – including sausages, flapjacks and chips – down under.

    How would you like some fungi in your morning granola bar?

    Kinoko-Tech, an Israeli mycelium protein startup, is asking why not. Growing mycelium on grains, legumes, nuts, and food industry sidestreams, it is gearing up to launch a new kind of protein that serves as an alternative to both meat and plant-based foods, as well as a base for innovative functional foods.

    The company has signed a strategic commercial agreement with Metaphor Foods, an accelerator and innovation arm of ingredient manufacturer Hela, to produce large-scale quantities of mycelium protein and supply it to manufacturers, ahead of a rollout in 2025.

    Kinoko-Tech’s clean-label “meat-like” products are highly nutritious and better for the planet, while tackling our growing food waste problem. Think burgers, sausages, patties, chunks and cubes rich in protein and fibre, but made by fungi fed on grains, lentils and often-discarded items like vegetable peels.

    “We are trying to get them to be meat-like but instead come in a way that is familiar for people to use,” explains co-founder and CEO Jasmin Ravid. “These products all have a very short ingredient list of substrate and mycelium. One example is patties of black lentils, mycelium, and salt. Another example is chickpea, vegetable cutoffs (side stream), mycelium, and spices.”

    These centre-of-plate foods will be complemented with products like flapjacks, nut and protein bars, and chips, which leverage side streams like okra and use natural sweeteners. “These offer consumers convenient, healthy, unprocessed, protein-packed options for everyday snacking,” Ravid tells Green Queen.

    Hitting on taste, health and sustainability with clean labels

    mycelium protein
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

    Kinoko-Tech leverages solid-state fermentation in a process licensed from Yissum, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s tech transfer company.

    “The uniqueness of the technology is the ability to use locally supplied ingredients (including side streams) for the fermentation process,” says Ravid, who co-founded the startup with CTO Daria Feldman and COO Hadar Shohat in 2019. “This method efficiently converts the substrates into high-protein, fibrous products.”

    The startup suggests that its production process is zero-waste, since the “end products combine mycelium and substrate”. It means everything that goes into the fermentation platform comes out as part of the product. Moreover, the fermentation tech produced “minimal emissions” compared to other manufacturing processes.

    A life-cycle assessment conducted on data from its pilot site found that even at a small scale, the mycelium protein’s greenhouse gas emissions are lower than growing tomatoes.

    But while sustainability is important to many consumers, how food tastes and feels is an even more crucial consumption driver. In Australia, where Kinoko-Tech is aiming to enter the market, 46% of people are dissuaded from eating plant-based meat due to its unsatisfactory flavour, and another 30% say the same for texture.

    Kinoko-Tech is hoping to break that mould by offering a new kind of meat replacement. But while it resembles tempeh – another fermented food that is based on soybeans – Ravid says the mycelium protein offers more: “Our products are designed to be versatile. The centre of the plate products has a juicy, fibrous texture that is quite different from tempeh. The taste is also more umami and rich.”

    It’s also delivering on the nutrition front, with high amounts and fibre (a nutrient many of us underconsume), and all nine essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. The short ingredient lists, meanwhile, will allay fears of overprocessing and appeal to the 68% of consumers who are happy to pay more for products that only contain recognisable ingredients.

    The startup plans to market the mycelium protein to consumers as “a sustainable, nutrient-dense alternative that’s easy to prepare in various cuisines, celebration legumes, vegetables (if those will be part of the substrates), and fermented food”.

    Who are these consumers? “Health-conscious individuals, flexitarians, and vegetarians seeking high-quality, unprocessed, protein-rich foods that align with their health and wellness goals,” says Ravid. “We aim to provide options that not only meet their dietary preferences, but also enhance their overall lifestyle.”

    Kinoko-Tech plans Europe expansion post Australia launch

    kinoko tech mycelium
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

    Ravid reveals that Kinoko-Tech is producing its mycelium starter kit at a facility in Israel, and can already produce enough protein to manufacture 120,000 tonnes of end products annually. These final products will be produced by Metaphor Foods at a site in Melbourne.

    “We aim to begin commercial production in Australia in 2025, beginning on a small scale of 24-48 tonnes annually and reaching 700+ tonnes annually once the partnership is fully established, positioning us strategically to serve growing markets,” she says.

    The scale-up would also help Kinoko-Tech bring down the price of its protein, another key pain point for consumers. “The key differentiation of the technology is the unit economics and low capex needed for production. As we scale the production, we will get price parity with traditional animal proteins,” suggests Ravid. “Our goal is to offer a cost-effective, sustainable alternative without compromising quality.”

    The company is focusing on “forging strategic partnerships” to enable local production utilising its fermentation technology and mycelium starter kit. The partnership with Metaphor Foods is part of this strategy, which will enable it to produce the mycelium in Australia, followed by an expansion into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

    “We are currently in discussions with several food manufacturers across Europe and the US to create more partnerships like these,” outlines Ravid. “Our plan is to launch in Australia with Metaphor in 2025, and in Europe with one of our other partners.”

    kinoko tech
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

    The agreement with Metaphor Foods also includes a strategic investment. “We have successfully completed an initial funding round and are currently focusing on scaling our operations and supporting our market launch alongside our partners,” she says. “As we move forward and sign more partnerships, we will evaluate opportunities for additional funding to further accelerate our growth and expand our reach.”

    Investors have been doubling down on fermentation startups amid a dip in interest in the larger alternative protein space. In the first three quarters of this year, fermentation protein companies have exceeded their funding totals from all of 2023, surpassing $550M in nine months (versus last year’s $443M).

    Meanwhile, more and more companies are looking to mycelium for cleaner-label meat analogues, including Beyond Meat and Nosh.bio, whose Koji Chunks are made from just one ingredient. Similarly, Elmhurst 1925 has forayed into plant-based meat with its single-ingredient TerraMeat hemp chicken. And in the UK, Vegbloc has come up with a whole-food-based protein that’s designed to replace, not imitate, meat.

    The post Kinoko-Tech Inks Deal to Roll Out Fungi Products in Australia, From Zero-Waste Burgers to Mycelium Muesli Bars appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • GFI Opens 7th Office in Japan As New Prime Minister Takes Office

    forsea foods
    4 Mins Read

    To meet Japan’s alternative protein potential, the Good Food Institute has opened an office in the country just as a new prime minister is sworn in.

    The Good Food Institute (GFI) has opened a new office in Japan, banking on the country’s robust economy, public investment potential, and top-class research infrastructure.

    The alternative protein think tank’s newest office joins its affiliates in Singapore, India, Israel, Europe, Brazil, and the US.

    “Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy and an R&D leader with top-tier research institutions and manufacturing facilities, all stemming from a vibrant commercial ecosystem recognised globally for its high quality,” Kimiko Hong-Mitsui, interim director of GFI Japan, told Green Queen.

    “Japan now has the ability to invest significant resources into the fundamental R&D necessary to become a world leader in alternative proteins,” she added. “This combination of public funding potential, a world-class research ecosystem, and the ability to scale manufacturing to a global level makes Japan an ideal location for GFI to focus its efforts.”

    good food institute
    Courtesy: GFI

    GFI Japan lays out priorities and seafood focus

    Japan is home to a number of alternative protein startups, from vegan egg maker Umami United and plant-based meat producer DAIZ, to cultivated meat players like Integriculture.

    These companies have the ability to propel Asia’s food system in a direction that would feed the continent’s “skyrocketing meat demand in a more secure and sustainable way”, said Hong-Mitsui.

    “Just as Japan developed and exported the cutting-edge technologies that brought solar power and other renewables to the world, we now have an opportunity to pioneer the next generation of alternative proteins – the food equivalents of clean energy,” she said.

    GFI Japan has laid out a number of strategic priorities, which include identifying opportunities for state funding for R&D and commercialisation of alternative proteins, supporting regulatory efforts for cultivated meat, and creating better links between local and international companies in the space.

    The think tank also aims to provide translations of relevant reports and resources, and help foster new convocations between Japanese research institutions and alternative protein scientists globally. “We are keen to ensure that knowledge generated globally is easily accessible to Japanese industry leaders through the translation of materials, and vice versa,” said Hong-Mitsui. “This has already begun with the translation of key reports into Japanese, with many more to come.”

    One thing that separates Japan from GFI’s other offices is its taste for seafood. “During our strategic planning process, which will aim to identify the highest-impact and most tractable areas in which to invest our time and resources, we will consult with a wide variety of Japanese policymakers and industry stakeholders,” notes Hong-Mitsui. “We anticipate that alternative seafood will be a significant feature in those discussions.”

    She added: “The fundamentals for building a world-leading industry are already present in Japan – namely the ability of the government to fund critical R&D, and a business ecosystem with a proven track record of scaling high-tech industries.”

    gfi japan
    Courtesy: GFI

    Targeting policy and regulatory progress for alternative proteins

    The alternative protein ecosystem in Japan has received plenty of attention from its government. Outgoing prime minister Fumio Kishida has called these future foods a key part of “realising a sustainable food supply”, and his administration has awarded tens of millions of dollars in investments to companies, as part of a larger food-sustainability moonshots.

    But there’s a change of the guard atop Japan’s government, with Shigeru Ishiba taking over as the country’s prime minister today. “The former prime minister publicly called for scaling the cultivated meat industry – a call fully supported by GFI and the entire alternative protein ecosystem,” said Hong-Mitsui.

    “We will continue working with policymakers in the months and years to come to fulfill this vision and expect that alternative proteins’ potential to contribute to Japan’s economy and employment will be of strong interest to any government.”

    Under Kishida’s regime, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare transferred its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency, while continuing to oversee food safety. It meant that companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but makes the prime minister the ultimate authority on these matters.

    “Officials are making steady progress in developing a novel food regulatory framework. Unlike countries that conduct individual consultations, Japanese officials primarily communicate with industry associations that speak on behalf of alternative protein companies, which fosters better market readiness for the sector as a whole,” said Hong-Mitsui.

    “GFI Japan has already begun to collaborate with these local stakeholders by providing relevant resources and guidance to further support this regulatory development process.”

    Over the next 12 months, GFI Japan will bring on additional employees and work to scale up its operations. “GFI Japan will be focused on unlocking public funding in order to grow a strong domestic alternative protein sector, with significant potential across plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived foods,” explains Hong-Mitsui.

    “We will also identify opportunities for greater research collaborations between government, academia, and industry, and elevate Japan’s unique points of difference,” she added.

    The post GFI Opens 7th Office in Japan As New Prime Minister Takes Office appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The Raging Pig Co Attracts Investment to Expand Vegan Pork Products & Launch Mycelium Meat

    raging pig funding
    4 Mins Read

    German meat analogue maker The Raging Pig Company has closed a seed funding round ahead of its move into mycelium protein.

    As it gears up to enter the mycelium market, vegan pork startup The Raging Pig Company has secured an undisclosed sum to accelerate its progress.

    The seed funding round included Sprout & About Ventures, Livian, Solvable Syndicate, and several angel investors, and will allow the startup to develop new products and enlarge its footprint.

    The Hamburg-based startup will use the fresh capital for “further expanding the distribution and sales channels in Germany” across foodservice and retail, positioning itself as the country’s leading plant-based sausage dealer, said CEO Arne Ewerbeck, who co-founded the business with Constantin Klass in 2022.

    “On the product side, we are looking forward to releasing the first mycelium products into the market soon,” Ewerbeck added.

    Raging Pig to roll out mycelium products early next year

    the raging pig company
    Courtesy: Kynda

    Raging Pig’s current lineup includes its flagship bratwurst and bacon, as well as a smoked sausage, mini-bratwurst, and currywurst. The products are made primarily from pea protein, bamboo fibre, and oyster mushrooms.

    The bacon leverages a proprietary fat encapsulation tech and industry sidestreams to deliver its signature look and crunchy mouthfeel, while also reducing emissions by 90% compared to conventional bacon.

    And in March, it announced plans to incorporate mycelium into its product range, teaming up with fellow German startup Kynda to roll out mycelium-based analogues. The latter utilises sidestreams like soy, oat and rice okara to produce a zero-waste mycelium ingredient for plant-based and hybrid proteins.

    “Our focus has always been on taste and sustainability. With Kynda’s nutritious and allergen-free ingredients, we’re able to significantly lower our production costs and are finally able to compete with heavily subsidised meat producers,” Ewerbeck said at the time.

    Raging Pig has been looking to replace the “highly processed” pea protein texturates obtained from high-moisture extrusion in its products. It showcased a burger with the myceliym at the Internorga trade fair in March, swapping 17% of the pea protein with the Kynda-Meat.

    The mycelium-infused meat analogues are set to be released in early 2025, and are currently undergoing the “final steps of production scale-up and distribution”.

    “The first products that we will launch with mycelium will be our plant-based sausage range, starting with our classic: the German bratwurst,” said Ewerback. “There are other products like burger patties in the pipeline and ready to roll out. We will see what makes more sense and how the market reacts as well. Since we are already selling at scale, we can take these steps one at a time and see what works best.”

    Pork industry on the decline as meat analogues gain popularity

    raging pig bratwurst
    Courtesy: The Raging Pig Company

    Germany is the second-largest pork producer in the EU, amounting to the slaughter of 44 million pigs last year, but the industry has been on a declining curve over the last few years, thanks in large part to the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in herds in 2022 and consumers shifting dietary habits.

    Last year, pig populations reached their lowest since 1990, just as overall meat production dropped by 4%. In the long term, both the number of pigs slaughtered and the amount of pork eaten in Germany dropped by around 20% between 2015 and 2022.

    Moreover, the post-ASF landscape has led many countries to ban pork imports from Germany, including China, its largest buyer of pork until 2020. At the same time, meat analogues have become increasingly popular, with production doubling since 2019.

    In fact, Germany is the largest market for plant-based food in Europe, with meat consumption dropping by 12% from 2019 to 2023, and 55% of its population identifying as flexitarian. Three in 10 Germans say they want to eat more meat analogues over the next two years, just as the country’s latest nutrition guidelines suggest halving meat intake and eating 75% plant-based.

    Meanwhile, the government set aside €38M in its 2024 federal budget to encourage the manufacturing and consumption of alternative proteins, promote a switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre.

    To solidify its presence, Raging Pig began offering retail products in northern Germany this summer, with products available in select Edeka and Rewe stores (among others) in Hamburg and surrounding areas.

    But its main focus is on the foodservice channel. “We are currently available nationwide in Germany through different foodservice partners,” said Ewerbeck. This includes the canteens at public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk’s offices in Hamburg, alongside snack bars, festivals, and pubs.

    “Next to Germany, we are currently available in Switzerland and will take a closer look at some other European markets in the upcoming years,” he added.

    The post The Raging Pig Co Attracts Investment to Expand Vegan Pork Products & Launch Mycelium Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Ahead of Opening World’s Largest Cultivated Meat Factory, Believer Meats Taps GEA to Drive Down Costs

    believer meats gea
    4 Mins Read

    Israel’s Believer Meats has joined forces with German engineering firm GEA to help scale up production of cultivated meat, ahead of opening the industry’s largest facility next year.

    Early next year, the world’s largest manufacturing facility for cultivated meat will open its doors in North Carolina. Its owner, Israeli startup Believer Meats, is already planning ahead to optimise its processes in the long run.

    The company has partnered with German corporation GEA – one of the biggest suppliers of production-scale equipment for the food and beverage sector – to develop technologies and processes that would drive down the costs and emissions associated with producing cultivated meat.

    “Believer is on track to overcome the biggest obstacles to scalability,” said Believer Meats CEO Gustavo Burger. “By partnering with GEA – one of the world’s foremost engineering and biotech equipment manufacturers – we are taking the next step in innovating state-of-the-art technology and process engineering capabilities needed to produce cultivated meat products at the right cost.”

    Climate and costs at the forefront

    believer meats chicken
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    The collaboration aims to enhance the unit economics and sustainability aspects of cultivated meat by optimising the performance and efficiency of manufacturing, starting with chicken before expanding to other products.

    Believer Meats and GEA will look to drive advancements in bioreactor technology, perfusion systems, and media rejuvenation. They will also adopt numerous strategies to lower the climate impact of producing cultivated meat, including optimised water usage, power consumption, and circular economy initiatives like waste stream utilisation.

    GEA will develop and commission bioreactors for Believer Meat’s technology, specifically designed to deliver high cell densities and yields. The latter’s centrifuge-based perfusion and cell media rejuvenation process is said to optimise cell performance and save water, nutrients, and resources, allowing the startup to reduce production costs by eliminating byproducts and enabling the reuse of media.

    “The partnership with GEA will help maximise production yields efficiently and sustainably, which are top priorities for Believer,” said Burger. “The cultivated meat industry is forging a new path that has never been travelled. We are thrilled to partner with GEA and are very optimistic about the future.”

    The two companies will further seek to set up joint commercial ventures, leveraging each other’s strengths and resources to expand market reach and speed up the industry’s growth to full scale.

    “With the global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, there is a clear need to feed more people using fewer resources,” said GEA CEO Stefan Klebert. “We share Believer’s vision that cell cultivation technology is the key to making safe, healthy meat broadly available and affordable.”

    The deal comes just months after Believer Meats signed an MoU with Abu Dhabhi’s new food and water cluster, AgriFood Growth & Water Abundance, to establish research and production centres in the city in a bid to combat food and water insecurity.

    Believer Meats study proves cheap cultivated meat possible

    believer meats
    Courtesy: Believer Meats

    Believer Meats announced plans for its facility in late 2022. The 200,000 sq ft plant, located in Wilson County, North Carolina, will feature an innovation centre and tasting kitchen, and be able to churn out 12,000 tonnes of cultivated chicken every year. It’s expected to be operational at the beginning of 2025.

    According to McKinsey, it will take until at least 2030 for cultivated meat to be cost-competitve with its conventional counterparts, and this is after companies have cut costs by 99% in less than a decade. One investor told Reuters that these products need to reach manufacturing costs of $2.92 per pound to breach price parity.

    Believer Meats has already demonstrated the potential of its technology to lower the costs of producing cultivated chicken. Teaming up with researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, it showcased how using tangential flow filtration (TFF) – an efficient way to separate and purify biomolecules – can be an effective method for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat.

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

    The research, published in the Nature Food journal, suggested that this could bring down the cost of cultivated chicken to $6.20 per lb, in line with the retail price of conventional organic chicken.

    “Our findings show that continuous manufacturing enables cultivated meat production at a fraction of current costs, without resorting to genetic modification or mega-factories,” said Believer Meats founder Yaakov Nahmias. “This technology brings us closer to making cultivated meat a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional animal farming.”

    North Carolina, meanwhile, is also home to one of Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centers for Sustainable Protein. The alternative protein research hub at NC State University is primarily focused on biomanufacturing and commercialising new technologies – and counts Believer Meats as one of its industry partners.

    The post Ahead of Opening World’s Largest Cultivated Meat Factory, Believer Meats Taps GEA to Drive Down Costs appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Despite Declines, Plant-Based Meat is Selling Better Than It Did Pre-Pandemic

    circana meat alternatives
    5 Mins Read

    Retail sales of plant-based meat have been shrinking, but they’re still higher than pre-pandemic levels. Opportunities lie in price cuts and bundling these analogues with fresh produce.

    In 2023, sales of vegan meat and seafood fell by 12%, on the back of higher manufacturing costs, lower investment levels, and consumer concerns around ultra-processing. This year, it has been more of the same, with Americans spending 19% less on chilled meat analogues and 7% less on frozen products.

    Despite these declines, though, people are still purchasing more plant-based meat products than they were before Covid-19 – last year’s dollar sales ended up at $1.1B, versus $856M in 2019, according to new analysis by market insights firm Circana.

    The Current State of Meat Alternatives report shows that meat analogues have experienced a 2% loss annually over the last four years, compared to a 5% growth for plant-based dairy and a 7% hike for vegan seafood. Since 2019, the market share of meat-free products in the overall meat market has reduced consistently, but still remained largely the same, going from 1.39% in 2020 to 1.07% so far this year.

    Frozen rules, and on-trend products make gains

    plant based meat sales
    Courtesy: Circana

    Plant-based meats sell much better in the freezer, the report found. Sales dropped by 9% in the 52 weeks to July 14, 2024, compared to the same period a year ago. But the decrease was much larger in the refrigerated section, where dollar sales took a 17% dip to reach $309M, than in the frozen aisle (a 6% loss totalling $720M in sales).

    Americans spent twice more on meat analogues in the freezer, and that can be seen via their market share too – these products were bought by 67% of Americans, compared to 37% who bought chilled plant-based meats. Only 29% of people purchased items from both sections.

    plant based meat market leader
    Courtesy: Circana

    Still, some brands are delivering growth. Beyond Meat has increased dollar sales by $10M, driven by its focus on “shifting the ultra-processed perception”, while Meati has seen a $2.7M hike year-to-date, thanks in large part to its all-natural ingredient list for whole-cut steak.

    Circana’s report suggests that the way to consumers’ hearts and wallets are by “delivering quick and easy solutions along with elevated experiences”, with a focus on flavour, form and convenience. Beyond Meat’s ‘heart-healthy’ steak product has been the most successful in the last year, with sales $7.7M higher than the same period last year – this is one of the products that delivers on all three of these metrics.

    Similarly, Impossible Foods’s flagship beef and Beef Lite were up by $3.6M and $3.2M, respectively, while Morningstar Farms’s vegan chicken strips and beef crumbles had sales increases of $3.3M and $3.2M.

    Plugging the price gap

    plant based meat price premium
    Courtesy: Circana

    Plant-based meats continue to be more expensive. SPINS data for the Good Food Institute has shown that there was a 77% price premium on meat analogues last year. This continues to be the case today, with the price gap between conventional and vegan meat exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

    In 2019, meat analogues were $4.16 costlier per lb, but this gap was narrowing in 2022. However, it has been increasing for the last two years, and is now at $4.20 per lb. Given that plant-based products currently make up only 1.07% of the meat market, progress is a tall order for manufacturers as things stand – especially since the per-pound price gap is 31 cents for alt-dairy and $1.27 for vegan seafood.

    That said, chicken and turkey patties have seen prices decrease by 4.5% and 5.5%, respectively, with volume sales also up by 7% and 4% (compared to a flatlining of beer burgers). “This growth is providing value and a ‘better for you’ lean protein option,” the report states.

    Meanwhile, the headwinds of the sector have also resulted in the closure of some companies and withdrawal of certain product lines. Since 2020, the number of alt-meat brands has shrunk by 28%, from 116 to 83.

    One way companies can increase consumer interest is through merchandising. Nearly two in five (38%) people who buy meat analogues also purchase fresh fruit and salad vegetables. “Cross-merchandise with the produce aisle to inspire healthy meals,” Circana suggests.

    Who is the alt-meat shopper?

    us number of vegans
    Courtesy: Circana

    The report shows that the share of vegetarians and vegans in the US has been consistent at around 5-7% for the last 18 years, but the rise of keto and carnivore diets online has led to a 6% increase in meat-eaters since 2022 (making up 80% of the total). The number of flexitarians, meanwhile, is down by 4%.

    When it comes to plant-based meat, the average households tend to be high-income African-American and Asian millennials and urban male Gen Xers. Nationally, plant-based meats are appearing in fewer households, a decrease of 21% between 2022 and 2023, while the number of individual buyers has also narrowed by nearly five million.

    Along the same lines, meat analogues are losing shoppers faster than they’re gaining them, partly due to a 20% decline in “heavy meat alternative buyers”, who make four times more trips to the store and spend twice as much as the average American. This group is responsible for 75% of total spending on these products.

    circana plant based
    Courtesy: Circana

    And worryingly, the share of frequent-purchaser households is declining faster (8%) than one-time buyers (5%). “Retention of frequent buyers is critical to category success,” the report says. “Understand frequent-buyer profiles and identify ways to keep them engaged in the category, such as highlighting trending flavours, pack sizes, and recipes.”

    Companies are also encouraged to “invest in innovation”, with future offerings set to “deliver value through clean, quality products rooted in key consumer trends”. Finally, given the expanding price gap, brands need to define ‘value’ for consumers, including “taste experience, convenience, form, and nutritional profile”.

    The post Despite Declines, Plant-Based Meat is Selling Better Than It Did Pre-Pandemic appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Amid NHS Blended Meat Deal, Sales Hit 6-Year Low for Quorn Maker Marlow Foods

    quorn sales
    4 Mins Read

    Marlow Foods, the parent company of Quorn and Cauldron Foods, saw pre-tax losses surpass £60M in 2023, four times higher than the year before.

    As the wider meat analogue category struggles, the company behind the UK’s leading meat-free business, Quorn Foods, is feeling the heat too.

    Marlow Foods, which makes Quorn and Cauldron Foods, recorded a £63.4M pre-tax loss in 2023, according to newly filed accounts, a fourfold increase from the £15.4M it lost last year. Even after a tax credit, the company’s losses exceeded £50M.

    The alternative protein giant primarily blamed “the material external pressures of input cost inflation and the decline in demand in the UK and US retail markets”. When discounting redundancy-related costs and the impairment in value at its production facility in Billingham, the underlying operating loss was at £10.6M for 2023, a figure £9.7M higher than the year before.

    Revenues also slumped by 7% to just under £205M, the group’s lowest since 2017. It means Marlow Foods – which was bought by Filipino food giant Monde Nissin in 2015 – last made a pre-tax profit in 2021, when it gained £7.3M.

    And while the business managed to cut its selling and distribution costs by nearly half, its cost of goods has soared, causing gross profit to decline from £65M in 2022 to just £1.4M last year.

    “Inflationary pressures had a major impact during 2023 with the prices of energy, commodities and other inputs rising significantly above historic levels,” read a statement by the board. “These pressures eased through the year, but costs remained elevated.”

    Foodservice delivers hope amid layoffs and strategic exits

    plant based meat unhealthy
    Courtesy: Quorn

    The decline was largely due to the company’s retail performance, where sales fell by 8.6% to £171M. It also suffered losses in the quick-service restaurant sector, with revenues down by 11% – here, its sales of meat-free chicken to KFC across Europe were offset by a decline in business at Greggs.

    But the group’s foodservice fortunes were positive. Rebranded as Quorn Pro this year, this segment saw sales jump by 5% to £28M. Meanwhile, the new Marlow Ingredients division – which supplies Quorn’s mycoprotein to meat and dairy analogue producers – began initial sales worth £300,000.

    Marlow Foods suffered losses both at home and internationally. In the UK, its revenue decreased by 6.7% to reach £160M, while its rest-of-world sales totalled £15M, a 26% drop. That said, KFC’s take-up of its vegan chicken outside the UK helped swell revenue by 7% and reach £28.7M.

    To stem the flow, the group restructured its UK operations this year, which involved redundancies in retail, supply chain, research and development and support functions. It also made cutbacks at its aforementioned Billingham factory.

    And in the US – where it depreciated the value of its £17.7M investment to zero in 2022 – the company narrowed its business by exiting from a number of retailers and foodservice points, cutting back on marketing spend, and conducting a number of layoffs.

    Quorn CEO Marco Bertacca called it “a challenging year”, but retreated the brand’s position as the market leader in the UK. “Our business has evolved over time, and we are now at the forefront of helping everyone eat less meat,” he said. “We truly believe that there’s nothing quite like mycoprotein. Fungi and fermentation can be the protein solution the planet needs.”

    Quorn looks to blended meat for turnaround

    quorn marlow foods
    Courtesy: Quorn

    “The group took steps to minimise the impact of this inflation through competitive sourcing, selective forward purchasing and internal efficiency initiatives as well as through increasing the selling prices of some of its products,” Marlow Foods’s board stated in the filing.

    “However, the group seeks to protect its customers and consumers from increased costs and inflationary input cost increases were only partially recovered through selling price increases.”

    Quorn remains the UK’s bestselling meat-free brand, while Cauldron Foods was only recently displaced as the second on the list by fellow tofu maker The Tofoo Co. “The group continues to plan for a return to sales growth and profitable trading, taking into account known macro-economic and geo-political risks,” the filing read.

    As a marker of its turnaround strategy, Quorn announced in June that it had partnered with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to provide its mycoprotein to be mixed with meat for blended burgers and sausages in hospitals.

    “Once upon a time, we were effectively competing with the meat industry – only making products that were alternatives to theirs, and encouraging people to switch. Of course, we still offer these products, but as human knowledge has evolved, businesses are evolving, including ours,” Bertacca told Green Queen at the time.

    “The category, like many others, has seen a slowdown, but we must not forget that comes against the backdrop of many consecutive years of incredible growth in meat-free eating,” he added. “Now is the time to start talking about the solutions we can achieve together as an industry, rather than focusing on the challenges.”

    The post Amid NHS Blended Meat Deal, Sales Hit 6-Year Low for Quorn Maker Marlow Foods appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • How Rebellyous Foods’s New Mock 2 Platform Makes Cost-Competitive Plant-Based Meat

    rebellyous foods mock 2
    5 Mins Read

    Seattle startup Rebellyous Foods has unveiled its Mock 2 Production System, which reduces the cost of manufacturing plant-based meat to reach parity with animal proteins.

    In February 2023, Rebellyous Foods closed a $9.4M Series B funding round to build its flagship meat analogue production system, Mock 2, which it promised would deliver products on par with the price and quality of conventional meat.

    Less than two years later, it has achieved that goal, announcing the completion of the technology platform, which can produce 2,500-5,000 lbs of different kinds of meat analogues every hour on a single processing line, and deliver 60% cost reductions compared to existing production methods for vegan meat.

    Famous for its vegan chicken nuggets, tenders, and patties, the company unveiled the new Mock 2 Production System at RMS Foods’s New Mexico facility. It already offers cost-competitive products – its plant-based tenders go at $61.49 per kg for foodservice customers, versus $60.99 for Tyson’s Red Label Tenders, and $93.49 for Beyond Meat’s version.

    But Mock 2 system – a fully continuous, automated, and chilled dough substrate processing system – enables further cost savings, while significantly improving energy efficiency, minimising material waste, slashing its climate footprint, and enhancing employee safety and working conditions.

    This is important, considering that 53% of Americans are deterred from buying meat analogues due to their prohibitive prices, and that 45% of consumers are more likely to buy these products if they provided better bang for their buck.

    How the Mock 2 system cuts production costs

    plant based meat price parity
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods

    “Our Mock 2 technology is the key to meeting the unmet demand for delicious, affordable plant-based options. We’re not just competing on price and volume – we’re setting new standards for texture, flavour and quality,” said Christie Lagally, a former Boeing engineer who founded the business in 2017.

    The company has made a major play for the foodservice sector, and has products in universities, restaurants, correctional centres, and event and entertainment venues. The feather in its cap, however, is its partnership with cafeterias in the National School Lunch Program. Rebellyous Foods’s vegan nuggets meet the USDA’s child nutrition standards, and its products reach over four million students nationwide.

    Mock 2 will drive the next phase of its growth. It replaces the Mock S1 system and its batch-based process with a “fully automated, labour-free, continuous production system”, Lagally explained.

    “The Mock 2 system is an automated, continuous production technology designed for making high-quality plant-based meat,” she told Green Queen. “It integrates temperature control and digital monitoring to precisely hydrate, emulsify, chill and mix ingredients, ensuring consistency and quality.”

    She added: “Unlike conventional batch processing, which requires employees to mix the product and move it to different systems, Mock 2 operates continuously, significantly reducing energy and labour requirements. It also maintains the quality that delivers delicious plant-based products.

    “The Mock 2 reduces costs by automating the production process, which lowers labour requirements and the equipment-level chilling decreases energy usage. The system also improves consistency, leading to fewer errors and waste and minimizing the need for a cold work environment, which typically adds to operational costs​.”

    In addition, Lagally noted that the platform “reduces space, energy, and labour demands, providing better worker safety and enhanced food safety due to less human involvement and improved sanitation”.

    Rebellyous Foods readies itself for ‘aggressive growth’

    rebellyous chicken
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods

    Plant-based meat sales have been on the decline – they were down by 12% in 2023. More recently, dollar sales dipped by 6% in the five weeks ending September 1, compared to the same period a year ago, according to Circana data crunched by 210 Analytics.

    But Rebellyous Foods’s sales have gone the opposite way, roughly doubling in each of the last three years, which the company says demonstrates “the need for delicious plant-based meat options” and is a marker of the brand’s differentiation.

    It helps that the products taste good. A weeks-long blind taste test last year revealed that Americans prefer vegan nuggets from the leading brands (70%) than they do conventional versions (54%) – and one of these brands was Rebellyous Foods.

    That said, Lagally confirmed that the brand has left the retail space for now. “The company is focusing on cost-sensitive, high-volume markets such as schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities where quality is always a priority,” she said, before adding that it “may re-enter” supermarkets in the future.

    “Rebellyous will use the Mock 2 system for our products, including plant-based chicken nuggets, patties, and tenders,” confirmed Lagally. It will produce its own offerings with this technology at the RMS Foods facility. “We anticipate that it will help reduce our product prices, maintaining the quality and delicious flavour and texture our customers love. It will also eventually offer additional revenue streams through partnerships and deployments in other facilities​,” she said.

    The company began inviting proposals for the Mock 2 technology – patented in the US, Canada and Japan, with others pending – from USDA and FDA food processing facilities at the start of the year. And it’s now exploring international partnerships too. “We aim to deploy the Mock 2 in these regions by collaborating with existing food processing facilities,” said Lagally.

    “Now that Rebellyous has delivered on the milestones of our Series B – which was nearly two years ago – we are speaking with select investors to support high-margin growth,” she revealed. “Future funds will be used for scaling costs, sales and marketing growth, product development, ingredient optimisation, and Mock 2 deployments​.”

    Lagally added that the company wants to regain its production technology too in the next 12 months: “Rebellyous plans to continue its aggressive growth strategy, including deploying new Mock 2 systems, expanding into new distribution points, exciting new product development, and entering new product markets.”

    The post How Rebellyous Foods’s New Mock 2 Platform Makes Cost-Competitive Plant-Based Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Slutty Vegas, Impossible Chicken Salads & A Vegan Cream Liqueur

    vegan documentaries
    6 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Upside Foods’ tasting event at a taqueria, Japan Airlines’ sweet protein partnership, and a UK state investment into climate-resilient legumes.

    New products and launches

    Cultivated meat leader Upside Foods showcased its chicken at Chicago taqueria Antique Taco, weeks before a judge will consider its preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit against Florida’s cultivated meat ban.

    upside foods chicken
    Courtesy: Jessica Halper/LinkedIn

    You can now eat sweet proteins on the fly, literally. Japan Airlines has partnered with Californian food tech startup Oobli to offer its chocolates on the Tokyo-San Francisco route. They’re made from Oubli Sweet Protein, a sugar alternative that has no impact on blood glucose.

    Frozen meat-free brand Amy’s Kitchen has expanded its plant-based footprint, replacing eggs with tofu in its breakfast wraps and scrambles.

    Next year, New York City will be host to the first Plant Powered Kids Festival, a fully vegan event that will include family-friendly activities like workshops, cooking classes and yoga sessions, alongside food from plant-based vendors. It will be held at Industry City in Brooklyn on February 2.

    just salad impossible chicken
    Courtesy: Just Salad

    US fast-casual chain Just Salad has made Impossible Foods‘s vegan chicken a permanent menu item with its fall menu launch. The plant-based Unbreaded Chicken Filet is part of a Southwest Crunch salad and a Vegan Chipotle Wrap, and also available as a protein option in Build-Your-Own orders.

    Speaking of chains, Slutty Vegan is part of the Pepsi Dig In Restaurant Royalty Residency in Las Vegas. Founder Pinky Cole will be serving up its signature Fussy Hussy burger at Mandalay Bay’s Libertine Social and Luxor’s Public House for four weeks through October 18.

    slutty vegan vegas
    Courtesy: Slutty Vegan

    British vegan food producer Marigold Health Foods – maker of Engevita nutritional yeast, vegan boullion cubes, and canned meat analogues – has teamed up with packaging specialist Sonoco to launch fully recyclable packaging for a range of its products. The latter’s EnviroCan is designed with a paper bottom and can be recycled by consumers kerbside.

    Also in the UK, The Tofoo Co – recently acquired by Comitis Capital – has introduced a Tofoo Katsu SKU in its added value line, which will be available at Sainsbury’s for £3 per 240g pack.

    Shortly after its Swiss launch, artisan vegan cheese brand Julienne Bruno has entered the Republic of Ireland via 65 stores, offering its plant-based Burrella, Crematta and Superstraccia SKUs from €5.29-5.95.

    julienne bruno cheese
    Courtesy: Julienne Bruno

    Parisian meat analogue maker La Vie‘s bacon will be on the menu at Picadeli at French retailer Monoprix and in Sweden for the next two months.

    German beverage manufacturer Waldemar Behn is making its vodka-based Dooley’s Creamy Liqueur brand entirely vegan. It will relaunch the range in 700ml bottles next month, swapping out the dairy with coconut and soy milk instead.

    And ahead of Oktoberfest, German food tech innovator Planteneers is offering manufacturers its fiildMeat S 141501 modular system to make plant-based meats for street food classics, such as bratwrusts as well as hot dog sauces.

    Company and financial news

    The UK’s Department for Environment, Rural and Social Affairs (Defra) has pumped in £3M towards four research organisations to develop climate-resilient legume crops.

    Hollywood star Gal Gadot‘s mac and cheese brand Goodles, which has a vegan SKU, has hired a new CFO in Chris Hall after sales tripled in 2023.

    vegan smoked garlic butter
    Courtesy: Flora/Warren Goldswain/Getty Images

    Dutch alt-dairy leader Upfield has renamed itself to Flora Food Group to reflect its flagship butter range, and acquired a manufacturing facility located in Hugoton, Kansas to produce creams and cream cheeses for the North American market.

    Speaking of factories, Thai plant-based cheese company Swees has opened a fully vegan-certified facility for co-manufacturing.

    Croatian plant protein producer Nutris has been acquired by Swedish investment firm Summa Equity for an undisclosed sum.

    nutris fava bean
    Courtesy: Nutris

    Scottish startup MiAlgae has secured $18.5M to produce omega-3 fatty acids via microalgae fermentation. It will use the capital to build an industrial-scale facility in the country.

    As it awaits regulatory approval in Singapore, Dutch cultivated meat producer Meatable has received €7.6M ($8.5M) in state funding, under the Netherlands Enterprise Agency‘s Innovation Credit programme.

    At Wageningen University, the Bioprocess Engineering Chair Group’s cellular agriculture team has obtained a €1.5M investment from Korean biotech firm Whoniz to work on cultivated meat and seafood.

    odd burger
    Courtesy: Odd Burger

    Canadian vegan fast-food chain Odd Burger has announced the private placement of $4M of convertible debt after reporting its highest quarterly revenues since going public.

    Israel’s MNDL Bio has raised $2M to expand its AI-powered gene optimisation platform, which is said to accelerate R&D, lower costs, and bolter success rates in synthetic biology.

    Impact investor Earth First Food Ventures has kickstarted a $10M Series A round to expand its financing portfolio in the alt-dairy segment and introduce a $50M precision fermentation fund.

    Policy and research developments

    The EU’s regulation requiring manufacturers to produce caps that stay tethered to the plastic bottles has been in place for a couple of months now, and has annoyed many drinkers. But with the EU set to double down on its plastic waste strategy, the caps are here to stay.

    Cultivated meat startups Meatable and Umami Bioworks have joined the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture, expanding its membership to 12.

    precision fermentation egg
    Courtesy: The Every Company

    Precision fermentation egg maker The Every Company has secured a foundational patent in the US for its animal-free ovalbumin protein.

    Food advocacy organisation ProVeg International has taken over the Portuguese Vegetarian Association to open an office in Portugal, joining 12 other locations globally.

    Cellular Agriculture Australia has released a report calling for clearer, more verifiable impact claims and metrics from companies in the cultivated meat and cellular ag space.

    eric adams vegan
    Courtesy: NYC Health + Hospitals

    Across the Pacific, New York University hosted the 2024 Plant-Based Food Festival, where it announced that it has signed on to the city’s Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge.

    Scientists at the National University of Singapore have found a way to fortify soy whey with Bifidobacteria strain and propionic acid bacteria to increase vitamin B12 levels in plant-based products.

    In an advancement for vegan seafood, researchers in China have created plant-based simulated yellow croaker meat tissues by dual-nozzle 3D printing.

    Finally, a new docuseries goes behind the scenes of the plant-based culinary scene in Portland, Oregon. The V Word will be released tomorrow, September 26 on streaming network WaterBear, and explores the lifestyle through a cultural lens via the city’s vegan restaurants.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Slutty Vegas, Impossible Chicken Salads & A Vegan Cream Liqueur appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Mushroom Innovator Fable Foods Opens Its Spores to Blended Meat – Here’s Why

    fable foods shiitake infusion
    6 Mins Read

    Fable Foods co-founder and CEO Michael Fox explains why the company has decided to work with meat producers on blended applications.

    Climate Week NYC is coinciding with a new era for blended meat, with a major taste test revealing that Americans like part-meat, part-plant burgers and nuggets more than their conventional counterparts.

    The survey, carried out by research firm Nectar, revealed that 56% of people liked blended burgers produced by the market-leading brands, versus 42% who liked the taste of 100% beef burgers. They preferred the former’s savouriness and beefy flavour, their juicy texture, and appearance.

    One of these leading brands was Fable Foods, the Australian plant protein maker that had made its name with meaty mushroom products. The brand had never indicated a move into the blended category before, so its inclusion in the survey was somewhat of a surprise.

    But its new Shiitake Infusion offering – designed to be blended with beef mince – has been two years in the making, reveals co-founder and CEO Michael Fox, who realised that most consumers aren’t interested in absolute veganism, but are more inclined to be flexible.

    Plant-based meat still only makes up 1% of the entire meat market, which itself is valued at $2T. “A lot of people do want to reduce their meat consumption, but they don’t want to sacrifice taste, price and convenience in reducing their meat consumption,” Fox tells Green Queen.

    fable shiitake mushroom
    Courtesy: Fable Foods

    “At the moment, the plant-based options in the market – including ours – require most omnivore consumers to make some sacrifice. And that’s why the plant-based market has remained small,” he adds.

    “So we started brainstorming new ways to help consumers who want to reduce their meat consumption. We decided to try and meet those consumers where they are – reducing with smaller portions of meat, and altering recipes by substituting vegetables for some meat.”

    Fable Foods, which has so far secured $15M from investors, has already attracted multi-channel interest in the product. “We have partnered with a retailer and a large catering organisation in Australia, who are both using our Shiitake Infusion product,” Fox says. “We’re close to launching with a North American retailer and are in discussions with additional retailers and catering organisations in the US.”

    The blended meat has appealed to its foodservice customers too, and the brand is “actively working on product development projects” with the ingredient for those clients.

    Fable Foods’ blended meat sells 10 times faster than plant-based SKU

    The Shiitake Infusion ingredient is 89% shiitake mushrooms, and is mixed with water, rice, canola and coconut oils, yeast extract, mushroom powder, and salt. Compared to an 80/20 beef mince, the blended meat is 35% lower in saturated fat, has half the cholesterol and 17% fewer calories, and contains 8g of fibre per serving (versus zero).

    “We aren’t the first to mix non-meat ingredients with beef – it’s been done for years, primarily at the cheaper end of the market,” Fox points out. In just the last year, 50/50 Foods’ Both Burger has landed on the menu at Disneyland, Mush Foods’s 50Cut Burger has become part of Pat LaFrieda’s portfolio, fellow Aussie company Harvest B has entered the space, and industry giant Quorn has begun offering its mycoprotein to British hospitals for blended burgers and sausages.

    “Our focus at Fable is on creating a product that’s not just a compromise, but an improvement that consumers prefer over 100% beef in terms of taste, texture, and experience, [and is] cheaper and also carries the health and environmental benefits we’re striving for,” he says.

    “Our new Shiitake Infusion product is resonating with consumers, and the value proposition is incredibly strong. With more advancements and innovation coming to the fore, I do think there will be more brands who explore this path.”

    fable shiitake infusion
    Courtesy: Daniel Hine/Fable Foods

    Consumers do seem to be taking to it. In the Nectar taste test, three in four preferred the taste of a blended burger with Shiitake Infusion over a 100% beef version. It’s not just the US, though. Fable Foods partnered with a supermarket in Australia to trial a 1lb pack of blended mince in a 50-50 ratio.

    The product was placed alongside ground beef on shelves. Half the people who tasted it during in-store samplings purchased it on the spot. And since launching, it has been selling 50 units per store per week – 10 times higher than the sales of its Pulled Shiitake SKU.

    Australians are increasingly cost-conscious, especially when it comes to reducing meat and embracing plant-based food. So it helps that the Fable Foods blended burger could end up being 5% cheaper. Plus, there are the climate benefits: selling 100 of these burgers would cut 270kg of dietary carbon emissions and 110,000 litres of water.

    Moving past the ‘all-or-nothing’ approach

    When Fable Foods announced the move, it admitted that this could be controversial. A vegan company, making products that end up in meat is contradictory. But as the success of blended meat over the last year has shown, the decision isn’t unfounded.

    “At Fable, we believe in supporting people who want to reduce their meat intake as the most effective way to create change. Fable produces the mushrooms rather than the beef, and we recognise the importance of an inclusive approach, which focuses on reducing meat consumption rather than pushing for an all-or-nothing shift,” says Fox.

    He calls the black-and-white approach to meat-eating polarising and alienating. “Inclusion and supporting those who want to reduce, but aren’t prepared to eliminate, their consumption of animal products leads to a larger reduction in meat consumption than a polarised ‘vegans vs non-vegans’ mentality,” he suggests.

    “We cheer on and celebrate the vegetarians and vegans who have crossed the finish line and changed their habits,” he adds. “But… we believe an inclusive approach will help achieve a larger impact in reducing global meat consumption and in mitigating the harmful outcomes it has on the environment, consumer health, and animal welfare.”

    fable foods blended meat
    Courtesy: Fable Foods

    Even Peter Singer, the noted animal rights pioneer who authored 1975’s Animal Liberation and is known as the father of effective altruism, isn’t against this approach. Speaking to Fox on an episode of his Talking Shiitake podcast, he stated that this would be a good thing for animals and the environment, which would benefit from fewer methane emissions and less land used to grow soy for feed.

    “While I would rather we got away from beef and other animal products altogether, this does seem to be something that an ethic that looks towards consequences can support, because the consequences will be better than people just continuing to eat 100% beef,” Singer said. (It should be noted that he is an investor in Fable Foods.)

    Fox warns that companies entering the blended meat segment need to ensure these are products that consumers prefer over 100% meat in sensory tests. “If we don’t, we risk those who trial blended products not returning, undoing any of the potential health and planetary gains we are all seeking,” he explains.

    “Our next challenge is to effectively communicate this product’s benefits to consumers and drive trial. We’re testing various messaging and marketing activities to determine what works best, because we’ve seen firsthand that when people try it, they love it.”

    The post Mushroom Innovator Fable Foods Opens Its Spores to Blended Meat – Here’s Why appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Plant-Based Food Offers Far Better Returns on Climate Investment Than EVs or Green Energy

    plant based investments
    6 Mins Read

    Investing in a plant-based food system offers much greater emissions cuts per dollar than renewable energy or electric vehicles, shows a new report.

    If governments and investors put the same amount of money into plant-based food as they do electric vehicles (EVs) and green energy, the former will offer the greatest returns on investment in terms of reducing emissions.

    Every $1B pumped into companies and strategies focused on transitioning to a plant-based food system would result in the mitigation of 28 million tonnes of CO2e, a return five times higher than renewable energy (five million tonnes) and EVs (seven million tonnes).

    The emissions savings from financing plant-based progress also far outweigh the returns on investment into improving livestock production practices, the report from Tilt Collective and Systemiq found.

    “Shifting to a plant-rich food system represents a spectacular pay-off as a climate investment – the outsized climate benefits are clear,” said Tilt Collective CEO Sarah Lake, who previously co-founded the research firm Madre Brava.

    The food system takes up around a third of the world’s emissions – by the UN FAO’s estimate, it was responsible for 13 gigatonnes of emissions in 2019, more than the industry and transportation sectors combined.

    Tilt Collective, whose work is centred around the protein transition and addressing the ills of industrial livestock agriculture, has released the report to coincide with the ongoing Climate Week NYC (September 22-29). It underscores the critical underfunding of the plant-based food industry, given its outsized impact on climate change mitigation.

    “While we of course need investments in other sectors and food solutions as well, the data is undeniable that investments in plant-rich food systems, and shifting consumption and production patterns, offer exponentially more emissions reductions for the money spent,” said Lake.

    Investing in plant-based food more valuable than livestock improvements

    plant based electric vehicles
    Courtesy: Tilt Collective/Systemiq

    The report argues that current ways of producing food are highly inefficient, using up 65% of the world’s freshwater and contributing to almost all (90%) of deforestation. This is largely thanks to livestock farming, which alone accounts for 57% of the food system’s emissions, a figure twice as high as that for plant-based food.

    Animal agriculture currently occupies 80% of the world’s land, but only provides 18% of its calories and 38% of its protein supply. It’s also leading to a rise in non-communicable diseases, elevated antimicrobial resistance, and pandemic risks, contributing to the $9.3T of hidden costs caused by “unhealthy dietary patterns”, according to the FAO.

    Moreover, if meat consumption continues to grow and current livestock production models remain unchanged, we can only feed 3.4 billion people while respecting planetary boundaries, less than half of the eight billion people living across the planet today, and a third of the 10-billion-strong population expected by 2050.

    Many meat and dairy producers are looking into ways to lower their methane impact and, subsequently, climate footprint. A lot of money has been poured into this strategy, and it does have some merit, but not nearly as much as the returns you get when you invest in transitioning to plant-forward food system.

    Such a shift towards a plant-forward food system offers 2.5 times more emission reductions than improving on-farm livestock and crop production systems – the latter would cut emissions by 11 million tonnes per billion dollars invested.

    In fact, the return on investment for enhancing production practices is lower than addressing food waste too, which itself accounts for five times more emissions than the entire aviation sector. Project Drawdown has named food waste reduction as the top climate solution to curb emissions in line for a 2°C future – and this report (focused on a 1.5°C target) shows that this can eliminate 23 million tonnes of emissions per $1B.

    Tilt Collective and Systemiq outline the potential of a high-ambition scenario – one where over 80% of the population adopts the Planetary Health Diet proposed by the Eat-Lancet Commission by 2050, food waste is halved, up to 30% of livestock interventions for emissions reductions are implemented, and biochar is established as a sequestration strategy.

    Business as usual would mean our agricultural emissions rise to 21 gigatonnes by 2050 – but this high-ambition scenario would slash that by 71%. Improved livestock and crop management would help bring emissions down by five gigatonnes, food waste reduction by one gigatonne, and a plant-based transition by eight gigatonnes.

    “While advancing all transitions is essential to meeting our climate goals, the investment opportunity in a plant-rich food system is impossible to ignore,” said Christine Delivanis, head of nature and food at Systemiq, which is focused on systems change towards a low-carbon economy.

    plant based transition investment
    Courtesy: Tilt Collective/Systemiq

    Multi-pronged benefits could be unlocked by philanthropic funding

    It’s not just the emissions potential. A plant-based transition would bring co-benefits that other sectors can’t. For starters, there’s the land sparing.

    The food system is set to use up 4.1 billion hectares of land by 2050 if things stay the same, but turning to a Planetary Health Diet would free up nearly 1.6 billion hectares. This can slow down biodiversity loss by 40%, and unlock the potential to sequester two to four gigatonnes of carbon by 2050.

    This would also save 1,100 cubic km of water by 2050, equivalent to current freshwater withdrawals from the US and China. Essentially, water use could be cut by a third, annual savings from water bills could be down between $140-240B for farmers, and water pollution from nutrient runoff will be slashed by 40%. Likewise, fertiliser use will reduce by 40%, and bring savings equivalent to the annual manure production of 350 cows.

    In addition, moving to plant-forward dietary habits would bring a host of health benefits. It would increase 150 million years of healthy lives and save $3.4T in economic productivity annually by 2050 from these gains, since malnutrition, obesity, antimicrobial resistance, and pandemic risks will all fall.

    The problem, though, is that the shift towards a sustainable food system is severely underfunded. On average, alternative proteins are currently receiving $3.4B in public and private sector investment every year, versus the $46B sent to improving production systems and $5B to food waste management.

    return on climate investment
    Courtesy: Tilt Collective/Systemiq

    To put that into context, investments in renewable energy startups reached $11.6B in 2023 – and that’s just VC money. The Tilt Collective/Systemiq report says the alternative protein transition needs $160B in incremental funding annually until 2050, which means the current yearly total is at a meagre 2%.

    Philanthropic organisations can be a catalyst here. An initial investment of $250-500M from this sector could unlock $4-7B of public and private finance. This would also create strong, science-based narratives, break silos between food system pillars and communities, and derisk investment in the sector.

    One such organisation is the Bezos Earth Fund, which has set up a $1B Future of Food initiative, through which it’s investing $100M in three alternative protein research hubs globally. Andy Jarvis, director of the Future of Food initiative, said the scale of philanthropic investment is quite small.

    “We see this as a high-leverage opportunity for philanthropy to catalyse action by governments, the private sector and civil society to meet climate goals, deliver benefits to nature and boost human health and nutrition,” he added.

    The post Plant-Based Food Offers Far Better Returns on Climate Investment Than EVs or Green Energy appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Americans Like Blended Meat Burgers & Nuggets More Than Their Bestselling 100% Animal Counterparts

    9 Mins Read

    In a comprehensive survey about blended meat, Americans were found to prefer half-meat, half-plant burgers and nuggets more than the market-leading, fully animal-derived products.

    People prefer the taste of blended meat over most plant-based analogues, as well as some 100% animal meat products, a blind taste test has shown.

    Nectar, a new initiative focused on taste-based protein transition, convened 1,192 meat-eaters from across America to analyse their views on blended meat products, which combine conventional meat with plant-based proteins and ingredients.

    The Future of the Industry 2024: Plant-Rich Meat report contains insights from sensory panels where participants analysed over 50 sensory attributes for 22 blended meat products across nine categories: burgers, steaks, hot dogs, pork sausages, beef and pork meatballs, chicken sausages, chicken meatballs, chicken nuggets, and unbreaded chicken patties.

    Two-thirds of respondents (67%) expressed interest in buying blended meats. While this was (expectedly) much lower than the 90% who would buy conventional meat – given this was a poll of omnivores – fewer people said the same about plant-based analogues (57%).

    The results mirror those of Nectar’s Taste of the Industry report from June, where the Both Burger by 50/50 Foods outperformed plant-based meat on taste, and was the only alternative patty that came within one point in average liking of the conventional burger.

    50/50 Foods was recognised as one of the leading taste performers in the blended meat category, alongside Fusion Foods’ Duo burgers, Teton Waters Ranch’s Veggie Blends, and Fable Foods, which announced its move into blended meat today.

    Teton Waters Ranch was also the leader in the “plant-rich” beef/pork meatball category, while Kidfresh was the top performer for chicken meatballs and nuggets, and Grateful Eats in the chicken patty segment.

    Blended meats have been recognised by many in the food industry as a pathway to accelerate emissions reduction from meat consumption in the short term, especially at a time when meat intake is said to increase and plant-based meat sales have suffered. But for greater consumer uptake, several challenges lie ahead.

    Blended burgers and nuggets taste better

    50 50 burger
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Americans were interested or extremely interested in the concept of blended meats (and only 4% showed no intrigue). These products were received better than conventional products in two categories: burgers and chicken nuggets.

    The leading plant-rich burger was liked by 56% and nugget by 58%, higher than the 42% and 47% of people who liked the 100% animal products. Even the average blended burgers (42%) and nuggets (51%) were found to be on par or slightly better. In contrast, only 36% liked plant-based burgers, while a similar number of people liked vegan nuggets (47%).

    “These two categories performed well for different reasons,” Nectar director Caroline Catto tells Green Queen. “For burgers, I think it was because burgers – like sausages or meatballs – are a format that consumers understand as historically ‘blended’ (includes seasonings, onions, etc.),” she says.

    “For the burgers we tested, I also think it was because these products were mostly blended with premium ingredients like caramelised onions, shiitake mushrooms, etc. that are umami and delicious in their own right.”

    The report found that blended meat products had a better beef flavour than 100% beef, were juicier, and were adjudged to have a superior look and seared exterior. In fact, conventional burgers were the worst-performing products when it came to savoury flavours, with only 29% of respondents associating them with these tasting notes, versus 32% doing so for plant-based and 38% for blended burgers.

    mcdonald's chicken nuggets
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Meanwhile, blended chicken nuggets (you know, like the ones McDonald’s sells) were found to hold together better and be much crunchier than conventional nuggets, and performed nearly as well as 100% chicken nuggets on savoury and chicken flavours.

    “For nuggets, this was the only breaded category we tested, and I think we’re seeing that breaded products continue to perform highly across plant-based and plant-rich products,” Catto says.

    Vegetables > meat analogues

    blended meat products
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Despite the sensory dominance of burgers and nuggets, when asked what plant-rich products appeal to them the most in theory, 79% of Americans said meatballs, followed by sausages (75%) and burgers (73%). On the other end of the spectrum lie steak and cold cuts, which appealed to only 19% and 18%, respectively.

    Interestingly, a majority (60%) of respondents said they prefer a 50-50 balance of plant and animal ingredients, while another 30% preferred a mix that contains around 90-95% of animal meat. And as for what these plant-based ingredients could entail mushroom and savoury vegetables (64%) each were much more attractive than plant proteins like pea (52%), mycelium (38%), or plant-based meat (34%).

    “This speaks to the importance of consumer education and making sure ingredient labels include things that consumers are either familiar with and can understand, or if not, that companies go above and beyond to help customers understand what their products are made of,” says Catto.

    “For blended meat companies, this points to an opportunity to lean into whole-food plant-based ingredients when creating blends,” she adds. “For plant-based alternative meat companies, the focus needs to continue to be on creating taste-forward options that replicate the experience of real meat and exceed consumer expectations on taste, price, and health.”

    Motivations, barriers, and entry points

    hybrid meat survey
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Plant-based meat makers have been moving away from the climate-centric messaging that they based their brands on for so long because that argument is no longer moving the needle. Instead, consumers seem more concerned with health, nutrition, taste and price.

    But things seem different when it comes to blended meat – environmental sustainability was the top interest driver for these products, cited by 51%. Health (47%) follows closely behind.

    “Participants in this study recognised that reducing meat consumption has positive sustainability outcomes,” explains Catto. “Consumers’ understanding of how diet connects to sustainability has grown significantly over the past several years – however, brands must still deliver the personal benefits to consumers (taste, price, and health) in order to drive demand.”

    hybrid meat
    Courtesy: Nectar

    The factors holding most Americans back were affordability (45%) and flavour (43%), while another 27% said they were not familiar with the products. That said, nearly a quarter (24%) said they were willing to pay more for blended meat products, while another 43% were happy to buy them if they were priced the same as conventional meat. This suggests that companies should aim for price parity, according to Catto.

    “While consumers may be willing to pay a slight premium, the vast majority of flexitarian consumers expect these products to be the same as animal-based meat, or slightly cheaper since they contain half the amount of meat,” she says. “Once ‘taste’ has been solved, price will be the next big hurdle for these companies so they should aim for parity from the start.”

    She continues: “In Europe, we’re seeing some white-label plant-based and plant-rich products that are being sold for less than their animal analogues. In these cases, retailers are leading the charge to make these options more affordable and more approachable defaults for consumers.”

    blended meat
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Moreover, 55% of Americans said they were more likely to try these products in restaurants instead of at home. “The barrier to entry is lower in foodservice,” suggests Catto. “Consumers are more likely to try something novel if they don’t have to cook it themselves or risk cooking something they are unfamiliar with.

    “Foodservice presents a real opportunity to show consumers how delicious plant-rich products can be in different menu options and hopefully drive more at-home consumption as familiarity grows. I see this as very akin to why Impossible initially sold into restaurants and foodservice as a way to socialise the products before launching in retail.”

    The roadblocks on the path to mainstream adoption

    blended meat survey
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Despite the potential interest, blended meat products still trailed behind 100% animal meat in seven out of the nine product segments. “This tells us a few things,” says Catto.

    First, further R&D is needed for the blended meat category to hit the mainstream. Secondly, and in that vein, the plant-rich category does have mainstream taste potential, as evidenced by the leading burger and nugget products.

    Finally, just as hybrid cars are paving the way to full EV adoption, blended meat “offers a practical solution consumers can adopt today to curb their meat consumption on the way to full plant-based adoption”.

    This is the hope of the companies whose products were involved in the taste test. In the last 12 months, the blended meat sector has moved faster than it ever has – the Both Burger is in Disneyland, Mush Foods’s 50Cut Burger is now being sold by Pat LaFrieda, Harvest B is doing blended meat too, and Quorn (one of the largest meat-free companies globally) is offering its mycoprotein to British hospitals for blended solutions.

    Several challenges lie ahead. “The first is determining who is the core audience for these products, and once that’s been established, how do you reach that audience and market to those consumers appropriately,” notes Catto.

    Food Systems Innovation, the parent organisation of Nectar, has hired Tim Dale as a category innovation director to tackle this research, looking into consumer insights, nomenclature and labelling, and the optimal blend ratios to set to avoid greenwashing.

    “Blended products still have work to do to surpass animal-based products in taste, as well as additional marketing challenges that will determine the scale of consumer adoption.”

    Where does this leave plant-based companies?

    blended meat poll
    Courtesy: Nectar

    Leading blended meat products outperformed plant-based analogues in six out of eight categories (there were no vegan chicken sausage products tested). But when it comes to the average blended meat offering, leading plant-based products had a higher mean liking in four of the eight categories.

    “The meat category is large and alternative proteins are just scratching the surface (currently at about 2% of total market share). There’s room for both plant-rich meat and plant-based products to coexist and possible that there will be learnings and synergies between them,” says Catto.

    Nectar is now working on its 2025 Taste of the Industry report, where it will test 150 plant-based meat products across 15 categories. Catto suggests that the main takeaways for vegan meat makers from the blended meat poll are similar to those from this year’s Taste of the Industry report. “More R&D is needed if plant-based companies want to win over omnivore consumers,” she explains.

    “They need to lean into bolder product profiles that more closely mimic or exceed the taste and experience of animal-based meat. This will require further investment in sensory research as well as development of novel ingredients and technologies.”

    The post Americans Like Blended Meat Burgers & Nuggets More Than Their Bestselling 100% Animal Counterparts appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Australia’s vEEF Rolls Out Plant-Based Beef Mince and Sausages Cheaper Than Meat

    veef plant based meat
    5 Mins Read

    In Australia, vEEF has introduced a new range of meat analogues that are priced lower than animal-derived meat, keying into consumer trends.

    Nearly a year after its merger with Love Buds, vEEF is rolling out a new range of meat analogues that tackle a key consumer pain point: cost.

    Available at Woolworths, the new beef mince and sausages are on par with conventional meat, at AU$4.50 per 300g pack. This is much lower than Woolworths’ own-brand lean beef and beef sausages (ranging from AU$16-22 per kg, versus AU$15 for vEEF).

    They are housed in renewed packaging that uses 50% less plastic than previous vEEF products and features a Carbon Neutral label, a reference to the brand’s carbon neutral certification by the eCarbon reductio Institute last year.

    “We recognise that high costs have historically deterred many conscious consumers from embracing plant-based alternatives. In these challenging times, we’re committed to striving towards making delicious, nourishing plant-based foods accessible to all Australians,” said co-founder and CEO Alejandro Cancino, who received a Michelin star during his time in Tokyo, as well as three chef’s hats, Australia’s equivalent to the Michelin star.

    “By offering vEEF at a fair price, we’re empowering more people to make choices that align with their values and dietary preferences. It’s about making plant-based eating an accessible option for everyone, not just a select few,” he added.

    vEEF cuts profit margins to offer cheaper plant-based meats

    veef sausages
    Courtesy: vEEF

    Cancino founded the company as part of Fenn Foods in 2018 with his wife, Paolo Moro, with a range that now includes nuggets, bacon bits, roast chicken, steaks and burgers across chilled and frozen formats.

    Last year, vEEF merged with All G Foods’ Love Buds brand to form the Aussie Plant-Based Co. “This union combines our strengths, enabling significant growth in both retail (vEEF) and foodservice (Love BUDS) sectors,” said Cancino.

    “Our consolidated resources and shared expertise have positioned us for continued expansion. We remain committed to delivering top-quality plant-based products across both channels, leveraging our enhanced capabilities to meet growing consumer demand,” he added. “This strategic alliance strengthens our market presence, allowing us to better serve our customers and drive innovation in the plant-based food industry.”

    The latest soy-protein-based products are vEEF’s first new launches since the merger. They include a beef mince for use in tacos, pasta sauces, and more, as well as three sausages. The classic sausages are ideal for stir-fries and barbecues, the Smokey ones can be added to soups and casseroles, while you can top up pizzas and breakfast scrambles with the Chorizo version (which is much cheaper than conventional branded Chorizo sausages, which range from AU$26-50).

    The company has managed to bring down the prices and overcome challenges like high raw material costs and supply chain instability through a multi-faceted approach. Its manufacturing hub streamlines production and reduces reliance on external suppliers to cut intermediary costs, while it has been working on addressing efficiencies in the supply chain.

    vEEF has also continued to refine its manufacturing process, allowing it to increase output while maintaining its quality, and the economies of scaling up this way also bring down prices. Notably, it is accepting a lower profit margin to offer competitive pricing, with a long-term focus on market share and consumer accessibility.

    Just earlier this month, a survey of 2,000 Australians found that price is the second largest barrier to the consumption of plant-based meat, with 37% deterred from choosing these products due to their high markups. That said, budgetary concerns were also the second most important reason for reducing the amount of meat Australians eat, a factor cited by 54% of respondents.

    The price problem for plant-based meat

    plant based meat survey
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    The aforementioned poll, commissioned by Sydney-based think tank Food Frontier, suggested that nearly a fifth of Australians (21%) identify as meat reducers, while another 7% are flexitarian. Meanwhile, 15% are vegan or vegetarian – meaning more than two in five consumers are either cutting back on meat, or don’t eat it at all.

    This is on the back of a 47% hike in plant-based meats sales in Australia from 2020 to 2023 (across both retail and foodservice). With another 12% of citizens hoping to reduce meat this year, and four in five going meat-free at least once a week, the market for plant-based analogues seems ripe.

    But the latter category suffers from a major price premium, carrying a 33% higher markup than animal-derived meat. That said, this gap has narrowed from 49% in 2020, and Australian-made plant-based mince is only 8% more expensive than its cattle-based counterpart. Vegan sausages, on the other hand, have become 27% costlier in this time.

    plant based meat price parity
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    Food Frontier found that manufacturers are prioritising health and nutrition in plant-based meat, followed by price. “Some Australian manufacturers said they absorbed price hikes whenever feasible to shield consumers from bearing the brunt, recognising the role of pricing in consumer decision-making,” the think tank’s CEO, Simon Eassom, told Green Queen in May.

    “And some companies improved efficiencies in their supply chain, while others pursued vertical integration to reduce overall expenses. Another contributor to the narrowing of the price gap is the departure of several imported plant-based meats, which were more expensive per kilo than locally produced products.”

    With continued manufacturing efficiencies, expansion in local production capacity, as well as some support from retailers, costs could be driven down even further, added Eassom: “If overseas trends are anything to go by, we think the Australian market, when it can, will see even closer price parity.”

    The post Australia’s vEEF Rolls Out Plant-Based Beef Mince and Sausages Cheaper Than Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • India’s Health Minister Calls for Regulatory Reform of Novel Foods to Meet ‘Evolving Consumer Preferences’

    5 Mins Read

    At a food safety summit in New Delhi, India’s health minister JP Nadda underscored the importance of building a regulatory framework for novel foods like cultivated meat.

    The Indian government’s support for alternative proteins continues to shore up, with the country’s health minister highlighting the importance of regulatory reform for foods like cultivated meat.

    Speaking at the Global Food Regulators Summit 2024 in New Delhi, JP Nadda commended the work of the Food Safety Standards and Authority of India (FSSAI) in the first 100 days of the new coalition administration, putting it in the context of a growing list of food safety advancements needed in India.

    “We face a complex array of challenges, from persistent foodborne illness to emerging concerns such as new nutraceutical safety, novel foods, and the microplastics in our food chain, all while striving for sustainability,” said Nadda, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare.

    “In this dynamic environment, the role of food regulators has never been more crucial. This demands continuous collaboration, relentless innovation, and a commitment to constant improvement in our food safety systems,” he added.

    India working on novel food regulatory framework

    It’s still early doors for technologies like cell cultivation and precision fermentation in India, with only a handful of companies involved in these sectors at present.

    But there have been a number of advancements in the last few months, propelled by the FSSAI’s work on developing a regulatory framework for these foods, which would allow companies to apply for and receive clearance to sell their products on the market.

    Currently, the FSSAI categorises cultivated meat and precision-fermented foods as ‘non-specified’ products or ‘novel foods’, since they have no history of consumption in the country. But in March, it was reported that the food safety regulator was formulating a framework for these proteins, with a senior official saying: “We are working on drafting regulations for cultured meat products.”

    Nadda said that the health ministry and the FSAI have been “playing a pivotal role in developing standards” in line with international trade, evolving food production processes, and changing consumption patterns.

    “The rapid globalisation, technological advancements, and evolving consumer preferences are reshaping our food systems at an unprecedented pace,” he explained. “FSSAI has made remarkable strides in reviewing and developing new standards based on cutting-edge advancements in food technology.”

    That said, while it is believed that cultivated meat will be regulated under the Approval of Non-Specified Food and Food Ingredients Regulations (NSF Regulations) by the FSSAI, there is currently no specific definition of cultivated meat or guidance provided under these rules.

    The FSSAI had previously formed a Working Group on Cultured Meat with regulatory and scientific experts to study the possible regulatory pathways for cultivated meat in India, although experts say the framework needs to be more dynamic and align with ongoing innovations.

    “Developing a regulatory framework that adapts to scientific advancements and is not rigid, but accommodates the innovations in this sector, would be essential to India setting an example for a dynamic and effective regulatory framework on cultivated meat,” Astha Gaur, regulatory policy specialist at alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) India, told Green Queen in March.

    Increasing government interest in alternative proteins

    cultivated seafood india
    Courtesy: Umami Bioworks

    Nadda’s comments – which also involved a focus on sustainable packaging – come just a month after India announced its BioE3 policy. The climate-focused bioeconomy strategy counted smart proteins and functional foods as one of its six pillars.

    “By providing dedicated R&D and innovation support, the policy will accelerate the development of new technologies and processes that can pave the way towards the nutrition, price, and taste parity of smart protein products, making them a truly competitive alternative to their animal-derived counterparts,” GFI India acting managing director Sneha Singh told Green Queen at the time.

    Announcing the country’s latest budget in July, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will set up 100 accredited food safety labs nationwide. Along similar lines, India has also set up a $5.9M National Research Foundation to expand research across sectors including food safety (Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about lab-grown diamonds at its first board meeting).

    Meanwhile, Bengaluru is host to two new alternative protein hubs. The Centre for Smart Protein and Sustainable Material Innovation is focused on incubation, equipment access, and product development, while the Alternative Proteins Innovation Center is an integrated R&D facility for ingredient and product development.

    Singapore’s Umami Bioworks has partnered with the former to accelerate research and scalability of its cultivated seafood, while also setting up an R&D facility at the Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai. Fellow cultivated meat startup Neat Meatt Biotech – based in New Delhi – is working with the government’s ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to develop cultivated fish too.

    These advancements serve as proof that India has a burgeoning cultivated meat sector, but one that needs better consumer awareness. A 2023 survey revealed that the number of Indians familiar with the term (42%) was almost identical to those who weren’t (41%). And while 40% expressed interest in trying cultivated meat, a third of respondents “stayed neutral and didn’t answer the question”, highlighting the industry’s public perception challenges.

    Nadda wasn’t the only national government official talking up novel foods last week. In the UK, science secretary Peter Kyle was asked about cultivated meat on Sunday. “I think it’s an exciting area of science. Britain is leading the way on its development,” he responded.

    “The market would tell – we’re not going to force anyone to eat it. But let’s see whether this can contribute to the health of our nation, and help with the challenges of climate change. And for those people who have concerns about animal rights, then they may well offer something for them as well.”

    The post India’s Health Minister Calls for Regulatory Reform of Novel Foods to Meet ‘Evolving Consumer Preferences’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Forma Foods Unveils ‘Chaotic’ 3D Printing Tech for Michelin-Starred Vegan Beef

    forma foods
    5 Mins Read

    Mexico’s Forma Foods is making whole-cut plant-based meat using a 3D printing technique that has impressed Michelin-starred chefs.

    What started as a bioprinting firm in 2017 has turned into a full-fledged food tech startup, leveraging its chaotic printing technology to address consumer pain points about the texture of meat analogues.

    For 75% of people around the world, the texture of plant-based meat is as important as its animal-derived counterparts – but only about 60% are actually satisfied with it.

    In Mexico City, Forma Foods is hoping to give consumers the mouthfeel they want from these products based on a technology that doesn’t just replicate animal muscle fibres, but also adipose and connective tissues, resulting in a well-rounded textural experience for the consumer.

    The startup’s beef analogues have impressed investors as well as chefs alike, landing on the menu of Rodrigo Rivera-Rio’s Koli, a recent recipient of a Michelin star. “It’s a protein, obviously, made with all the most cutting-edge technology in a laboratory,” the chef told TecScience in June. “It’s from Monterrey, it’s regia cuisine.”

    koli cocina de origen
    Courtesy: Forma Foods

    How Forma Foods developed its chaotic printing technology

    Forma Foods was founded on the back of years of research by Grissel Trujillo de Santiago and Mario Moises Alvarez during their time at Tecnologico de Monterrey. With biotech engineer Li Lu Lam Aguilar joining as co-founder and CEO, the tissue engineering experts initially explored cultivated meat, but pivoted to plant proteins due to the much higher costs involved.

    Its chaotic printing technology produces microstructures that mirror the architecture of animal tissues via the use of plant-based pastes: pea protein helps simulate muscle tissue, coconut oil mimics fat tissue, and prebiotic fibre from an Oriental root replicates connective tissue.

    “The term ‘chaotic’ might seem counterintuitive, as it’s often associated with disorder,” admits Alvarez, the firm’s CTO. “But in mathematics and physics, chaotic flows are known for their ability to create intricate, highly ordered microstructures efficiently.”

    The development of a now-patented specialised printhead in 2019 allowed the company to overcome the challenge of adapting 3D printing to produce meat analogues. “We use static mixers within our printheads to generate chaotic flows, enabling us to produce detailed microarchitecture within each filament. This innovative method allows us to recreate the complex texture of meat in a cost-effective and scalable way,” Alvarez explains.

    “Our printing technology replicates the architecture and texture of real meat by precisely organising different components – protein fibres, fat, and connective tissue – at a microscopic scale,” he adds. “In real meat, these elements are not mixed randomly – they are aligned and structured, which gives the meat its distinctive texture. Similarly, we print multi-material filaments that emulate these components.

    “While other plant-based meat producers typically create ‘ground meat’ products where all the ingredients are mixed and lack the fibrous structure of real meat, our approach coextrudes three different materials through the same nozzle, achieving a microstructure that mimics the natural alignment of meat at the micron level.”

    3d printed meat
    Courtesy: Forma Foods

    Forma Foods outpaces a cow by a factor of 100

    Forma Foods has created plant-based versions of arrachera (skirt steak) and carne al pastor (grilled pork) to appeal to local palates. After all, more than half (54%) of Mexicans are swapping meat for plant-based analogues.

    In 2022, a study suggested that 9% of the country’s population was vegan, another 19% vegetarian, and 15% identified as flexitarian – making it the largest plant-forward market in Latin America. Even Taylor Swift recognised this, offering Propel Foods’s vegan Bistec steak, Chorizo and Pastor tacos to Eras Tour visitors at the Foro Sol stadium in the capital last year.

    As proof of its product potential, Forma Foods has raised over $1M in funding from Tec Ventures and Saya Bio. “We are seeking additional funding to accelerate the development and scaling of our technology,” says Alvarez.

    Each of the company’s printers can currently produce 1.8kg of its beef per hour, a rate around 100 times speedier than the time it takes to raise a cow. “Our overall annual production is still limited, as we only have a small number of printers in operation (we design and build our own 3D printers),” he reveals.

    “However, our technology is easily scalable by simply adding more printers, which will significantly increase our production capacity to tonnes per month by mid-2025,” notes Alvarez. Another milestone would be reducing the costs of the final product. “Our current market price is above that of traditional beef, but we aim to achieve price parity by 2026,” he adds.

    plant based meat mexico
    Courtesy: Forma Foods

    The startup has outlined a three-pronged strategy as part of its development plan: gain consumer trust, establish strategic partnerships in the market, and offer products that are unique and innovative. On that note, it’s been in talks with some foodservice customers, and currently supplies three cuts of its 3D-printed meat for special events at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

    At Koli, Rivera-Rio served its beef as part of a conceptual dish. The story goes: as one beet watched cows eating other beets, it felt lonely and decided to become beef itself. To visualise this, he requested Forma Foods to shape its meat analogue in the form of a beetroot, pairing it with a beet sauce.

    “I think it would be very interesting to keep this as an ongoing dish in the menu: the vegetable that wanted to be meat,” the chef said, hinting at an ongoing collaboration with the startup. “This season it would be beet, next it could be a carrot. It can be a thousand things.”

    “Looking ahead, we plan to expand into retail stores across Mexico, particularly those specialising in vegan and health-conscious products,” says Alvarez. “We expect this rollout to happen at the beginning of 2025.”

    The post Forma Foods Unveils ‘Chaotic’ 3D Printing Tech for Michelin-Starred Vegan Beef appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • After 136 Years, Italy’s Gruppo Tonazzo is Ditching Meat for Plant-Based

    gruppo tonazzo plant based
    5 Mins Read

    Italian legacy meat producer Gruppo Tonazzo is shuttering its meat business to solely focus on plant-based proteins via its Kioene brand.

    Driven by its impact on the environment and people’s health, one of Italy’s oldest meat manufacturers is going vegan.

    Padua-based Gruppo Tonazzo, which began as a butcher shop in 1888, has announced that by the end of the year, it will divest its meat business. The company will switch its entire focus on plant proteins through its long-running Kioene brand, which itself has been around since 1988 and is an established leader in the country’s vegan market.

    “We are embarking on the third revolution in our company’s history, and – we hope – in the sector as well,” said CEO Stefano Tonazzo, calling it “a gesture of great responsibility towards the environment and the nutritional wellbeing of future generations”.

    This was echoed by his brother Albino, who is CEO of Kioene: “This is a choice that we have carefully considered within the family and shared with our collaborators, a decision through which we want to make our contribution to safeguarding the planet and promoting an increasingly conscious diet.”

    Francesca Gallelli, public affairs consultant at alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, told Green Queen: “This decision demonstrates that alternative proteins are not a threat, but rather a chance for the conventional meat sector to diversify, innovate, and enhance its offerings to meet consumers’ demand – especially when backed by deep expertise and the strength of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand.”

    Embracing vegetables for people and the planet

    kioene plant based
    Courtesy: Kioene/Gruppo Tonazzo

    The makings of the decision can be traced back to the establishment of Kioene all those years ago, the idea for which came about during a trip the Tonazzo brothers took to São Paulo. “We woke up very early and left with one of our suppliers to visit the slaughterhouses outside the city,” Albino recalled in an interview with Nord Est Economia last year.

    “On the way, we saw an endless line of trucks stopped on the road. We asked what it was. It was soy, destined for animal feed,” he said. “It was shortly after, during dinner, that my life changed: they explained to me that the energy needed to produce one unit of animal protein was the same as that needed to produce 12 units of plant protein. An absurd ratio.”

    It sparked a research effort that ended in Albino and his team creating some of the first soy burgers on Italian supermarket shelves. That lineup has since expanded to include a whole-food focus, using vegetables like aubergines, broccoli, kale and spinach as the base, and these propelled the brand’s market success.

    Apart from the veggie burgers, its current portfolio also includes falafels, cutlets, and chicken fillets (though these contain eggs and aren’t vegan) in both fresh and frozen options. Its entire lineup has over 100 SKUs – including alt-dairy offerings – and has penetrated 2.3 million households in Italy (around 10% of the total).

    In the last decade, Kioene has become a major money maker for Tonazzo, so much so that the plant-based burgers alone made up €50M of its €80M turnover in 2023 (a 63% share).

    “While our family has been involved in the meat industry for five generations, nearly 40 years ago, we began a shift by introducing plant-based protein alternatives,” said Stefano. “With the same spirit of innovation and foresight, we are now closing all meat-related operations to focus entirely on plant-based proteins and our Kioene brand.”

    Tonazzo leans into Italy’s fast-growing plant-based market

    gruppo tonazzo vegetali
    Courtesy: Kioene/Gruppo Tonazzo

    Tonazzo’s factory in Villanova di Camposampiero will continue to produce plant-based products, and employees in the meat business will be offered new roles within the company to ensure a just transition, which is earmarked for December 31.

    “As pioneers and key players in this market, we feel a deep responsibility towards future generations, and we want to help protect the Earth from progressive environmental degradation. We are aware of the need to help people take care of their wellbeing, starting with food,” Albino said.

    “This is how we aim to contribute to change and collective awareness, and we are convinced that the market and consumers will follow us once again.”

    Italians are actively eating less meat. A pan-European survey in 2023 found that the country had the joint-highest share of consumers (59%) looking to cut back on guanciale, vitello, pancetta and the like. This was primarily driven by concerns around health (54%), antibiotic use (17%), and the environment (16%), in line with the reasons Tonazzo is saying arrivederci to meat.

    It does seem that the company is following consumer trends: among the Italians reducing meat, most want to replace it with legumes (57%) or legume-based proteins (43%), with the desire for plant-based meat lower at 39%. Kioene’s portfolio plays straight into this trend.

    That said, it also comes at a time when meat analogues are the second-fastest-growing segment in Italy’s vegan sector, behind only plant-based cheese. In 2023, retail sales of meatless products in Italy swelled by 13%, nearly reaching €200M – only milk alternatives had higher sales, according to GFI Europe.

    This isn’t a one-off. Plant-based meat sales are actually up by 24% from two years ago, and in the first four months of 2024, sales are 10% higher than the corresponding period last year.

    “As more Italians incorporate plant-based meat into their diets, it’s inspiring to see a historic meat company embracing the potential of alternative proteins,” said Gallelli.

    The post After 136 Years, Italy’s Gruppo Tonazzo is Ditching Meat for Plant-Based appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • UK Regulator to Reform Approval Process for Cultivated Meat & Precision Fermentation

    fsa novel foods

    5 Mins Read

    The UK’s Food Standards Agency has announced it will implement changes to speed up and ‘modernise’ the authorisation process for novel foods. But experts say more needs to be done.

    Next year, the UK’s food safety regulator will introduce changes to its regulatory framework for market authorisations in an attempt at “modernising” the process.

    In its latest board meeting yesterday, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) ratified changes to the approval process for foods like cultivated meat and precision-fermented products. The move will see the creation of a new public register that replaces the existing system of requiring a statutory instrument, which adds up to six months to a process that already takes over two-and-a-half years.

    Following a consultation with industry stakeholders and approval by the new Labour government, the regulator announced it hopes to roll out the reforms in early 2025.

    The overhaul could benefit a range of food industry players and consumers while continuing to uphold the FSA’s rigorous safety standards. It also marks a departure from the EU-like regulations the agency had retained post-Brexit, which it said haven’t been designed to operate in a UK context.

    “We hope British alternative protein companies will be reassured that the FSA is taking sensible steps to modernise its process while continuing to enforce a gold-standard regulatory system that can give consumers confidence in new products,” Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at GFI Europe, told Green Queen.

    But GFI Europe warned that the UK needs even more ambitious methods to keep up with the global pace, urging the government to draw on inspiration from other progressive regulatory frameworks internationally.

    FSA proposals met with broad support

    fsa lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Food Standards Agency

    The changes – which affect ‘regulated products’ like feed additives, food flavourings, and alternative proteins – were first proposed by the FSA in March.

    The food regulator sought to remove renewal requirements for feed additives, and food or feed containing or produced from GMOs. Currently, products that have been approved need to reapply for clearance every 10 years, which crowds up the FSA’s docket. Around 22% of its current caseload are renewal applications, and it expects a further 300 in 2025 and 2026 as approvals expire.

    “Removing the requirements for renewals will promote a more proactive and dynamic approach to maintaining food and feed safety,” the FSA commented, noting that it would mean applications in the system “decrease considerably, releasing resources to focus on new marketing authorisations, including innovative products”.

    The second proposal revolved around the new public register. At the moment, the parliament needs to pass statutory instruments before a novel food can go on the market, which is a time-consuming process. The FSA suggested that the removal of this step would speed up approvals by three months, allowing products to be commercialised following a ministerial decision.

    Both proposals received broad support from stakeholders, which included cultivated meat startups like Mosa Meat and Meatable – 71% agreed with the plan to scrap renewal requirements, while a similar 70% were in favour of removing the statutory instrument process.

    “New UK government ministers have confirmed they are content to proceed with our two initial market authorisation reform proposals to remove renewal requirements for authorised regulated products and allow authorisations to come into effect following ministerial decisions,” the FSA said. “We are now prioritising delivery of this work.”

    While the FSA will continue to conduct rigorous assessments of food safety with ministers the final decision-makers, it argued that the changes will release resources to focus on new authorisations: “Consumers will benefit from new, safe products reaching the market more quickly, including novel foods and products which have sustainability and environmental benefits.”

    UK government must implement ‘wider-ranging measures’

    lab grown meat approved
    Courtesy: Meatly

    The move comes months after London-based Meatly became the first European cultivated meat startup to receive regulatory clearance, with the FSA giving the go-ahead to its cultivated chicken for cats and dogs. Aleph Farms and Vital Meat have also filed applications for cultivated meat in the UK, while Mosa Meat has announced plans to do the same.

    The regulator has been pushing to move past the inherited EU legislation, which it said was transferred to the UK with minor amendments for operability. It called the EU requirements “prescriptive and, in some cases, not proportionate to the risk”.

    Outlining how the caseload is expected to rise from 450 in March 2024 to 570 by March 2026.” Without urgent action, we will be unable to keep pace with this growing caseload. This will affect consumers’ choice and access to new and potentially beneficial products,” it said.

    The regulator has also been hoping to win government funding that it would use to create a regulatory ‘sandbox’ for the safety testing of cultivated meat. Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe – which has welcomed the FSA’s changes – is calling on ministers to approve this bid in next month’s budget. This would ensure “the body can accelerate its understanding of the food safety aspects of cultivated meat.”

    “But to send a clear signal to startups, the FSA and UK government must quickly follow these initial steps with more wide-ranging measures to modernise our regulatory system, ensuring it keeps up with the rapid pace of innovation,” said Pardoe.

    “The government should implement an ambitious range of reforms to modernise the UK’s novel foods regulatory framework, such as producing clear guidance for companies planning on submitting applications for cultivated meat and precision fermentation products and formalising a process for startups to enter pre-submission consultations,” he explained.

    “They should also share information about risk assessments with trusted international partners and should follow the Dutch government by designing a system for pre-market tastings, enabling companies to work closely with consumers to develop products.”

    The post UK Regulator to Reform Approval Process for Cultivated Meat & Precision Fermentation appeared first on Green Queen.

  • UK Regulator to Reform Approval Process for Cultivated Meat & Precision Fermentation

    fsa novel foods
    5 Mins Read

    The UK’s Food Standards Agency has announced it will implement changes to speed up and ‘modernise’ the authorisation process for novel foods. But experts say more needs to be done.

    Next year, the UK’s food safety regulator will introduce changes to its regulatory framework for market authorisations in an attempt at “modernising” the process.

    In its latest board meeting yesterday, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) ratified changes to the approval process for foods like cultivated meat and precision-fermented products. The move will see the creation of a new public register that replaces the existing system of requiring a statutory instrument, which adds up to six months to a process that already takes over two-and-a-half years.

    Following a consultation with industry stakeholders and approval by the new Labour government, the regulator announced it hopes to roll out the reforms in early 2025.

    The overhaul could benefit a range of food industry players and consumers while continuing to uphold the FSA’s rigorous safety standards. It also marks a departure from the EU-like regulations the agency had retained post-Brexit, which it said haven’t been designed to operate in a UK context.

    “We hope British alternative protein companies will be reassured that the FSA is taking sensible steps to modernise its process while continuing to enforce a gold-standard regulatory system that can give consumers confidence in new products,” Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at GFI Europe, told Green Queen.

    But GFI Europe warned that the UK needs even more ambitious methods to keep up with the global pace, urging the government to draw on inspiration from other progressive regulatory frameworks internationally.

    FSA proposals met with broad support

    fsa lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Food Standards Agency

    The changes – which affect ‘regulated products’ like feed additives, food flavourings, and alternative proteins – were first proposed by the FSA in March.

    The food regulator sought to remove renewal requirements for feed additives, and food or feed containing or produced from GMOs. Currently, products that have been approved need to reapply for clearance every 10 years, which crowds up the FSA’s docket. Around 22% of its current caseload are renewal applications, and it expects a further 300 in 2025 and 2026 as approvals expire.

    “Removing the requirements for renewals will promote a more proactive and dynamic approach to maintaining food and feed safety,” the FSA commented, noting that it would mean applications in the system “decrease considerably, releasing resources to focus on new marketing authorisations, including innovative products”.

    The second proposal revolved around the new public register. At the moment, the parliament needs to pass statutory instruments before a novel food can go on the market, which is a time-consuming process. The FSA suggested that the removal of this step would speed up approvals by three months, allowing products to be commercialised following a ministerial decision.

    Both proposals received broad support from stakeholders, which included cultivated meat startups like Mosa Meat and Meatable – 71% agreed with the plan to scrap renewal requirements, while a similar 70% were in favour of removing the statutory instrument process.

    “New UK government ministers have confirmed they are content to proceed with our two initial market authorisation reform proposals to remove renewal requirements for authorised regulated products and allow authorisations to come into effect following ministerial decisions,” the FSA said. “We are now prioritising delivery of this work.”

    While the FSA will continue to conduct rigorous assessments of food safety with ministers the final decision-makers, it argued that the changes will release resources to focus on new authorisations: “Consumers will benefit from new, safe products reaching the market more quickly, including novel foods and products which have sustainability and environmental benefits.”

    UK government must implement ‘wider-ranging measures’

    lab grown meat approved
    Courtesy: Meatly

    The move comes months after London-based Meatly became the first European cultivated meat startup to receive regulatory clearance, with the FSA giving the go-ahead to its cultivated chicken for cats and dogs. Aleph Farms and Vital Meat have also filed applications for cultivated meat in the UK, while Mosa Meat has announced plans to do the same.

    The regulator has been pushing to move past the inherited EU legislation, which it said was transferred to the UK with minor amendments for operability. It called the EU requirements “prescriptive and, in some cases, not proportionate to the risk”.

    Outlining how the caseload is expected to rise from 450 in March 2024 to 570 by March 2026.” Without urgent action, we will be unable to keep pace with this growing caseload. This will affect consumers’ choice and access to new and potentially beneficial products,” it said.

    The regulator has also been hoping to win government funding that it would use to create a regulatory ‘sandbox’ for the safety testing of cultivated meat. Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe – which has welcomed the FSA’s changes – is calling on ministers to approve this bid in next month’s budget. This would ensure “the body can accelerate its understanding of the food safety aspects of cultivated meat.”

    “But to send a clear signal to startups, the FSA and UK government must quickly follow these initial steps with more wide-ranging measures to modernise our regulatory system, ensuring it keeps up with the rapid pace of innovation,” said Pardoe.

    “The government should implement an ambitious range of reforms to modernise the UK’s novel foods regulatory framework, such as producing clear guidance for companies planning on submitting applications for cultivated meat and precision fermentation products and formalising a process for startups to enter pre-submission consultations,” he explained.

    “They should also share information about risk assessments with trusted international partners and should follow the Dutch government by designing a system for pre-market tastings, enabling companies to work closely with consumers to develop products.”

    The post UK Regulator to Reform Approval Process for Cultivated Meat & Precision Fermentation appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 86% of Spaniards Would Eat More Plant-Based Meat If They Deliver on Taste, Health & Environmental Benefits

    plant based meat spain
    4 Mins Read

    A majority of consumers in Spain are open to eating more meat analogues if they offer nutritional and taste parity alongside a lower environmental impact.

    In Spain, over half of consumers (56%) have eaten plant-based meat in the last six months, and another 8% are considering trying them. But an even higher share of people would consume these products if they presented key benefits, according to a new survey.

    Conducted by Spanish meat analogue leader Heura, the 1,000-person poll sought to examine the perspectives of the country’s residents on the nutritional, taste and environmental credentials of plant-based meat.

    It found that consumption of these products skews higher in men, those aged 25-34, and people in the northeast. There was also a significant difference in socioeconomic acceptability, with medium- to high-earners more likely to eat plant-based meat.

    But of those who haven’t consumed these products in the last six months, it’s people in the northwest of Spain and the age bracket of 35-54 who are most interested in trying plant-based meat in the short term.

    To sway these consumers and take plant-based meat intake to an even higher level, companies need to meet their taste and health requirements while convincing them of the environmental benefits.

    UPFs not a barrier, but consumers still unsure about nutrition

    spain vegan survey
    Courtesy: Heura

    Spain is among Europe’s largest meat consumers and has one of the highest per-capita meat consumption rates globally. Based on data from the UN FAO, the country’s average meat intake per person is five times higher than what’s recommended by the WHO.

    But Heura’s survey shows that Spaniards are open to plant-based meats, provided they meet their needs. It underscored the importance of taste and texture when it comes to meat analogues – 85% of consumers say they’d eat these products if they delivered the same sensory experience as their conventional counterparts.

    This is particularly important to the 8% of people considering eating more plant-based meat in the near term – of these, 98% of people would be convinced to try vegan analogues if they matched animal proteins on taste. And this would persuade even those currently disinterested in these products, 65% of whom would be open to giving them a shot.

    Heura, which saw sales jump by 22% last year (reaching €38.3M), says it has the highest repetition rate on the market, and claims that neurophysiological studies have found that its vegan burgers perform on par or better than conventional beef.

    Another major concern surrounding plant-based meats is the health aspect. Red meat has been associated with increased risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and other conditions, but the (often misleading) narrative around ultra-processing has left many questioning the nutritional value of plant-based meats.

    However, only 8% of Spaniards believe that the ultra-processed nature of vegan burgers means they’re not healthier than animal-derived meat. Nearly three-quarters (71%) feel plant-based burgers are better for human health, but the poll also uncovered consumer uncertainty in this regard – only 26% of people strongly agreed with this statement.

    Unawareness about plant-based meat’s planetary benefits

    spain plant based meat survey
    Courtesy: Heura

    People in Spain remain largely unaware of the environmental potential of plant-based meat. Asked to rank four measures based on their positive planetary impacts, a majority (64%) ranked replacing meat with plant proteins as the least effective action, behind recycling, using renewable energy at home, and reducing water consumption.

    Two-thirds (66%) of Spaniards found recycling to be the most effective action to combat climate change, despite the fact that the country’s recycling rates are lower than the EU average. In contrast, only 19% of respondents placed plant-based meat consumption in their top two climate actions.

    However, recycling has been found to reduce an average of 5-9% of greenhouse gas emissions, much lower than the 75-90% reduction a plant-based diet can bring, according to the FAO. Independent research has also shown that vegan diets can reduce emissions and water pollution by 75%, while replacing 50% of animal proteins with plant-based analogues can cut agricultural emissions by 31%.

    Heura – which closed a €40M Series B funding round earlier this year –  says it has also reduced its own climate footprint by 23% per kg of product between 2021 and 2023, while its vegan beef emits 94% fewer greenhouse gases than conventional beef.

    But when presented with a plant-based meat option that tastes the same, has a better nutritional value, and has a lower environmental impact, 86% of consumers would be willing to consume it. This is actually twice as high as the willingness to try a vegan burger with such attributes, suggesting that expanding the category is no longer limited to burgers.

    “We are solving these challenges in a way that goes beyond what the industry is doing. With cutting-edge technology and new scientific approaches, we create foods that have the same textures and flavours as meat, but are better for your health and the planet,” said Heura co-founder and CEO Marc Coloma.

    “We want to satisfy those who are looking for complete and sustainable options, while contributing to the wellbeing of everyone, from society and the planet to animals,” he added. “We don’t make alternatives, we make successors.”

    The post 86% of Spaniards Would Eat More Plant-Based Meat If They Deliver on Taste, Health & Environmental Benefits appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Uggs, Plant-Based Stroopwafels & Beer from Pasta Waste

    vegan uggs
    5 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Alpro’s new flavoured barista milk, vegan footwear wins, and Violife’s latest marketing campaign.

    New products and launches

    South Korean vegan cheesemaker Armored Fresh has announced that it will release a vegan grated parmesan made from oat milk in the US this fall.

    alpro barista caramel
    Courtesy: Alpro/Green Queen

    Alpro has released a 750ml caramel-flavoured barista milk made from soy and oats in the UK, which is available at Sainsbury’s for £1.75.

    Another flavoured milk comes from Mighty, which has announced a Gingerbread Oat Barista milk as part of the UK’s annual tradition of releasing Christmas-themed products from September.

    In more alt-dairy news, Cathedral City has added a Plant-Based Smokey cheese block to its lineup, which will be available at Tesco soon.

    beyond belief brewing co
    Courtesy: Beyond Belief Brewing Co

    Also in the UK, Beyond Belief Brewing Co, a subsidiary of pasta supplier Ugo Foods, is launching a line of beers made using waste pasta in grocery, including a Pale Ale, IPA and Vienna Lager, which will be available at Ocado for £8.50-£8.75 this month.

    Barefoot shoe maker Vivobarefoot has introduced the Gobi Sneaker Premium Canvas, a Vegan Society-certified sneaker made from 98% natural materials. Instead of plastic, the brand is using a bio-based alt-leather from Natural Fiber Welding called Mirum.

    In more footwear news, sheepskin boot manufacturer Ugg has announced a vegan version of its signature shoe, partnering with New York label Collina Strada. The vegan Uggs are made from recycled polyester microfibre and corn leather, and are available in the UK on both brands’ websites.

    vegan stroopwafels
    Courtesy: Stroop Club

    Texas-based startup Stroop Club has rolled out its vegan stroopwafels in Europe. Using sunflower oil and cacao fats, the products are available as two- or eight-packs at Ankorstore.com and Faire.com, and on its website.

    Speaking of Dutch delights, plant-based giant Vivera has launched Protein Bites in the Netherlands, described as “plant-based meal enrichers” made from vegetables, grains and legumes. The whole-food product line is available in TexMex, Thai and Green flavours, and can be found at Albert Heijn, Jumbo and Plus stores.

    vivera protein bites
    Courtesy: Vivera

    In the US, TiNDLE Foods‘ chicken tenders are now available on the menu of AI-driven meal kit and grocery solutions platform Hungryroot.

    Meanwhile, Rich Products Corporation‘s F’real has debuted the first non-dairy edition of its DIY shakes, an oat-milk-based Choco Choco Chip flavour.

    Plant protein company Havredals has expanded its fava bean meats on the US east cost through a distribution partnership with Performance Food Group.

    faba bean burger
    Courtesy: Havredals

    And Slovenia’s Juicy Marbles is also hoping to ‘steak’ a claim in the US with a 2025 supermarket launch for its whole-cut meat analogues. It’s working on a more accessible product line to widen its customer reach.

    Finance and company updates

    Plant-Ex Ingredients, a British supplier of plant-derived flavours, colours and extracts has raised £9M in funding from BGF to expand internationally, with the US a key focus market.

    Canadian vegan meal replacement beverage maker Sperri has attracted new funding to spur its US expansion efforts. It has just entered the D2C channel via Amazon.

    Swedish investor Kale United has announced a new €50M Kale Growth Fund for alternative protein startups.

    mellody honey
    Courtesy: MeliBio

    Vegan honey maker MeliBio has been granted a utility patent in Germany, which it hopes will fuel its expansion in Europe.

    Meanwhile, Copenhagen-based Meat Tomorrow, which is developing pluripotent stem cell lines for cultivated meat, has raised 4.1 million kroner ($610,000) to expand R&D efforts and establish partnerships.

    As election season rages on in the US, vegan cheese giant Violife has debuted a new marketing campaign dubbed America Has Voted, after its product was voted the best dairy-free cream cheese. The company will take over bagel shops on election day (November 5) and offer samples in grocery store parking lots in Austin and Miami.

    violife cream cheese
    Courtesy: Violife

    Givaudan‘s food innovation platform MISTA has chosen biomass fermentation as the central theme for the 2024 Growth Hack event.

    Research and policy developments

    As US lawmakers continue to find ways to try and ban cultivated meat, a federal judge in Florida has set a date for a hearing about the state’s ban on cultivated meat. In its lawsuit, Californian startup Upside Foods asked the court for a preliminary injunction, which Chief US District Judge Mark Walker will hear arguments for on October 7.

    florida lab grown meat lawsuit
    Courtesy: Kevin Martin Galante/Upside Foods

    In a new research partnership, Indian cultivated meat startup ClearMeat will join forces with Melbourne’s La Trobe University under the Indo-Australian research corridor. It was announced as ClearMeat unveiled ClearX9, an FBS-free powdered growth medium.

    Also in India, the Good Food Institute India and the state-owned CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology have signed a research agreement to advance the country’s alternative protein sector. The latter will provide scientific support and access to state-of-the-art labs and instrumentation facilities for GFI India’s research fellows.

    If it manages to meet the taste and nutrition requirements, plant-based dairy could be 10% cheaper than cow’s milk by 2030, a new report shows.

    national trust vegan
    Courtesy: William Shaw/National Trust

    Finally, in the UK, conservation agency the National Trust is looking to make half of its food in cafes meatless as part of its net-zero pledge for 2030, with its 2.6 million members set to vote on the proposal. Around 40% of its current catering is plant-based.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Uggs, Plant-Based Stroopwafels & Beer from Pasta Waste appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • New Zealand Government Invests $5.95M to Develop Cultivated Seafood

    new zealand lab grown seafood
    4 Mins Read

    In New Zealand, the government has poured NZ$9.6M ($5.95M) into a five-year programme to develop cultivated fish products.

    A five-year, government-backed scheme is aiming to develop new fish cell production systems for cultivated seafood products in New Zealand.

    The new Endeavour Fund programme is backed by a NZ$9.6M ($5.95M) grant from the central government, allowing Plant & Food Research to create novel seafood products in a local context.

    Plant & Food Research is a state-owned research agency focused on futureproofing and enhancing the value of the horticulture, agriculture, fish, food and beverage industries. It noted that cultivated seafood could help New Zealand meet the global demand for more sustainable seafood and marine products (like collagen).

    The project will also examine the social and cultural aspects linked with New Zealand’s acceptance of cultivated fish, including Māori perspectives and concerns with respect to taonga species (those that are significant to Māori culture, such as tuna, crayfish and mussels).

    Researchers hope to create cultivated fish and collagen

    new zealand lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Plant & Food Research

    Plant & Food Research aims to “fundamentally change the way” cultivated fish cells are utilised to accelerate the industry’s progress, unlock new applications, and place New Zealand at the “technological forefront in cell line development and media formulation”.

    The project will be led by Dr Georgina Dowd, the agency’s cellular aquaculture research lead. “There are so many applications for cell lines,” she said in 2022. “Preventing and monitoring disease is probably the biggest.”

    She added: “It’s only a matter of time before one of the detrimental OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health)-notifiable diseases arrives here and impacts our seafood industry. Unless we put systems and pipelines in place, we are really at risk.”

    The research agency says cells must be viable and healthy, and multiply rapidly and in large numbers, while media must be defined, animal-free and sustainably produced. Existing fish cell lines and media, it argues, don’t meet these requirements.

    While several companies are working on cultivated seafood – from Singapore’s Umami Bioworks to Germany’s Bluu Seafood – nobody has been able to commercialise it yet, a marker of the “unstable foundations” of seafood cellular agriculture and the technology’s lack of commercial viability, according to Plant & Food Research.

    With the millions it has received from the government, Dowd’s team hopes to expand the knowledge around fish cell cultures and generate an in-depth understanding of their nutritional needs, leading to enhanced isolation and proliferation. Once the optimal culture requirements have been identified, it can develop natural nutrient sources for two applications: cultivated fish and cell-based collagen.

    “It would be great if others could use continuous fish cell lines developed at Plant & Food Research as part of a fish health management strategy that doesn’t involve using whole animals,” Dowd said two years ago. “Or if our cell lines could be used to create lab-grown fish products for human consumption. They could help support a low-impact industry to share our kaimoana with the world.”

    Why New Zealand’s seafood sector needs an overhaul

    new zealand lab grown fish
    Courtesy: Kim Westerskov

    The Plant & Food Research grant is part of the Endeavour Fund, an initiative by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that has poured in NZ$236M ($146M) this year alone in 19 research programmes and 53 Smart Ideas, which aim to catalyse and test high-potential research innovations.

    This included four Smart Idea projects from Plant & Food Research. One is focusing on developing methods for examining soil vulnerability to support sustainable soil management practices, another is looking into the microbiome of vineyards to control grapevine trunk diseases.

    Yet another is centred upon investigating if silvervine compounds (a kiwi fruit species) can be used to control feral cat populations. And finally, one of these Smart Idea projects is aimed at developing an epigenetic clock to support the sustainable management of pāua (sea snails) fisheries.

    New Zealand’s aquaculture industry is hoping to quadruple sales by 2035, but climate change and rising sea temperatures could result in the loss of millions for the sector. Experts suggest that the impact of overfishing on the country’s fishing trade has been understated.

    Just last year, the country’s bottom-trawling industry came under fire after a government-commissioned report focused on the seabed around Aotearoa named the practice one of the biggest threats to releasing carbon from the seabed back into ocean waters. Concerns over stock management also led Seafood NZ to suspend the Marine Stewardship Council certification for orange roughy, blocking exports of the fish to most parts of Europe and North America.

    Consumers recognise the impact of climate change on the fishing industry, and vice-versa. A recent 22,000-person global survey found that 30% of people have been eating less seafood in the last two years, with nearly half (48%) concerned about overfishing and 35% worried about climate change impacts.

    Over 80% of people have changed their dietary habits in this period, and 43% are doing so for sustainability reasons, highlighting the importance of investments in projects like Plant & Food Research is undertaking.

    It’s also an untapped market in New Zealand – only one local company (Opo Bio) is working on cultivated meat, but it focuses on red meat. That said, New Zealanders may be about to get a first taste of cultivated meat, with Australian startup Vow on the verge of receiving clearance from the countries’ joint regulator.

    The post New Zealand Government Invests $5.95M to Develop Cultivated Seafood appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Aleph Farms Teams Up with Miznon Chef Eyal Shani to Roll Out Cultivated Steak in Restaurants

    aleph farms eyal shani
    5 Mins Read

    Israeli cultivated meat pioneer Aleph Farms is gearing up for the restaurant launch of its beef steaks through a partnership with Michelin-starred chef Eyal Shani.

    At the tail-end of last year, Aleph Farms became the third company to receive regulatory approval for cultivated meat anywhere in the world, with Israel clearing its Black Angus Petit Steak for sale in the country.

    Now, nine months on, the launch of the product – under its Aleph Cuts line – is closer than ever, thanks to a collaboration with Eyal Shani, the celebrity chef behind the restaurant chain Miznon.

    “Together with Eyal Shani, we will debut Aleph Cuts through a series of thoughtfully curated dining experiences in Israel,” an Aleph Farms spokesperson told Green Queen.

    Shani is joining the company as an investor and launch partner, helping it introduce its cultivated beef via roaming dining experiences. But it remains to be seen which of Shani’s eateries debuts the product, and when.

    “Eyal’s dedication to using the finest ingredients and raw materials elevates our new category of animal products, ensuring that it is not only sustainable but also of exceptional quality,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia. “His innovative spirit and focus on connecting people through food make him an invaluable partner as we launch Aleph Cuts globally.”

    Eyal Shani makes the argument for cultivated meat

    eyal shani lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    A self-proclaimed “re-enchanter” of Israeli cuisine, Shani owns 17 restaurants in Tel Aviv alone, and a total of around 50 globally, from Port Said and Romano to HaSalon. His culinary footprint is spread across the world, including the US, the UK, France, Singapore and Australia. And Shmoné, his New York City eatery, won a Michelin star last year.

    “I was born into a vegan family and, until the age of five, was fed only plants and roots. Almost 60 years have passed and today, I have over 50 restaurants across six continents, and I serve meat in all of them. I ask myself constantly: what am I bequeathing to the world?” said Shani.

    “Aleph Farms has given me the opportunity to bequeath a future that avoids causing suffering to billions of animals, in which people will be one with nature and not harm it, in which Aleph Cuts are more wonderful than the meat we know today and is so without killing a single animal, and in which our happiness does not require that the animals with which we share the world feel pain,” he added.

    The Petit Steak is a hybrid meat product comprising non-modified, non-immortalised cells of a premium Black Angus cow, combined with a plant protein matrix made of soy and wheat. It will be priced similarly to premium beef, the company confirmed.

    Before it launches, though, Aleph Farms needs to clear some regulatory hurdles, including the Good Manufacturing Practices assessment for its production plant. “We still need to do the GMP inspection for our pilot facility in Israel and follow the labelling guidelines in Israel before launching with Eyal Shani,” the spokesperson said.

    “Before Aleph Cuts become a staple on restaurant menus, it’s important for us to receive feedback from consumers in the initial phase of our launch,” they added. Aleph Farms has previously outlined a long-term goal of making its cultivated beef available in supermarkets.

    Aleph Farms in ‘active discussions’ with investors

    lab grown meat israel
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    The partnership with Shani comes months after Aleph Farms laid off 30% of its local employees as part of its “asset-light” approach towards scaling up. “We are maintaining R&D and production in Israel while expanding globally through co-manufacturers,” the firm said at the time. “We care for all affected employees and will be supporting them in the new job search.”

    There were suggestions that difficulties in securing fresh capital also played a part in the decision. Aleph Farms has raised $118M in funding so far, with its last round coming in 2022. But the wider fundraising struggles of alternative protein and the geopolitical tension with the Israel-Hamas war have impeded its efforts to secure more money.

    “We are in active discussions with potential investors who are aligned with our mission,” the spokesperson said, highlighting that the recent changes have been “challenging” but in line with its “capital-efficient, asset-light scale-up approach”.

    “Our primary operational focus is on enhancing robust scale-up capabilities for our production process at our pilot production facility in Israel, as well as in Southeast Asia with our partners – a pivotal region for our hub-and-spoke expansion strategy,” they added.

    Aside from its pilot plant in Rehovot, Israel, Aleph Farms has entered a partnership to produce cultivated meat in Thailand, and teamed up with a biotech startup to leverage AI to reduce costs and enable scalability. It has previously also acquired a manufacturing facility in Modi’in, and signed a deal with ESCO Aster in Singapore (the world’s first approved industrial manufacturer for cultivated meat).

    The startup has additionally filed for regulatory approval in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US, and is looking to do so in other markets too. “Our team has been advancing our regulatory paths towards launch in various countries while responding to queries and submitting data to authorities worldwide,” the representative said.

    Following Israel, the company is planning launches in Singapore and Thailand, before expanding into Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China and Australia. “We want to ensure that we first build the right production and sales support capabilities to ensure steady supply over time, and continuous revenue increase for a successful launch of our products.”

    The post Aleph Farms Teams Up with Miznon Chef Eyal Shani to Roll Out Cultivated Steak in Restaurants appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • NewTexture: Schouten Creates ‘Replacement for Textured Proteins’ with Novel Fibre Technology

    schouten newtexture schnitzel
    4 Mins Read

    To address concerns about plant-based meat textures, Dutch company Schouten has introduced a chicken schnitzel made from its NewTexture fibre technology.

    When it comes to plant-based meat, one of the biggest pain points for consumers is the texture. For years, many meat analogues have been described as dry, crumbly, mushy, or just unappealing in terms of mouthfeel.

    It’s why companies are racing to come up with ways to produce meat analogues with whole-muscle structures that better resemble their conventional counterparts. It’s also why this effort is called the “holy grail” of plant-based meat.

    Globally, the texture of vegan meat products is as important as their animal-derived versions for 75% of consumers – but only about 60% are actually satisfied with it.

    Similarly, a 1,500-person survey this year found that 42% of Americans are deterred from choosing a meat analogue dish at a restaurant because they don’t think they’ll like the texture. And in Germany, 26% of people say they’d pay more for a plant-based product if it has the same taste and texture as the food it’s hoping to replace.

    Responding to these needs, Dutch alternative protein pioneer Schouten has come up with a “self-developed” fibre technology, promising enhanced textures in meat analogues. It’s starting with a chicken schnitzel, which is now available for its foodservice customers.

    Fibre technology aims to improve texture and reduce emissions

    schouten newtexture
    Courtesy: Schouten

    Schouten explains that a lot of meat analogues require high amounts of energy and what some feel is “unnecessary processing”.

    This is why it has developed a novel fibre technology, dubbed NewTexture, which it describes as a “replacement for textured proteins”. The innovation is aimed at providing a better texture for meat analogues, and it results in lower emissions than existing technologies.

    “This new subline within our Classics range is the result of years of research and development,” says Niek-Jan Schouten, CEO of Schouten Europe. “We are confident that Schouten’s NewTextures will be a game changer for both our business partners and end consumers.”

    Schouten is showcasing the technology in its new chicken schnitzel, made from soy and wheat proteins. This is said to have a uicy texture and white hue characteristic of conventional chicken. In addition to the visual and textural attributes, the schnitzel also has strong nutritional credentials, clocking in 12g of protein per 100g, nearly 5g of fibre, and only 1.2g of saturated fat.

    “Meat substitutes are sometimes prepared incorrectly, which can make them a bit dry. These products retain their juiciness, making them even more appealing,” explains Schouten. “The overall package is spot on, and we are very proud of this launch, which will help elevate the product category to a new level.”

    Others innovating with fibres to advance meat analogues include Germany’s Project Eaden and US startup Tender Foods, both of which are using fibre-spinning technologies.

    It’s all about product diversity

    schouten
    Courtesy: Schouten

    Schouten, a family-owned company, has been making meat analogues since 1990 – one of the earliest movers in the market. It has an extensive product range geared towards customers in over 50 countries, from supermarket private-labels to branded manufacturers and quick-service restaurant chains.

    It forayed into seafood analogues for the first time in early 2021 with a vegan tuna product, before releasing new lines of plant-based chicken and beef a few months later.

    Outside its Classics line of meat analogues, the company also has a range called Variations, which involves products that aren’t meant to resemble meat. “Ultimately, we believe that meat substitutes don’t always need to mimic meat,” Schouten said. “With legumes and vegetables, we can develop excellent protein-rich products that don’t have a meat equivalent.”

    He added: “However, to convince true meat lovers to buy meat substitutes more often, the classics are still essential. It’s important that we continue to improve the quality of these products. That’s why we keep investing in our Classics.”

    It was with this line of thinking that the company announced a portfolio of mycoprotein products, through which it also aims to “market products with a lower footprint and less processing”.

    These moves have legs, and are being replicated elsewhere too. Beyond Meat, one of the world’s largest plant-based meat companies, recently brought out Sun Sausages in response to consumer demands for whole foods – these links aren’t meant to resemble meat, and are instead made from vegetables and legumes. And just last week, the company said it would soon launch a mycelium-based steak as a clean-label option.

    The post NewTexture: Schouten Creates ‘Replacement for Textured Proteins’ with Novel Fibre Technology appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Novameat Closes $19.2M Series A Round, Revamps Plant-Based Shredded Beef with Better Texture

    novameat funding
    5 Mins Read

    Spain’s Novameat has attracted €17.4M in a Series A funding round to expand its plant-based meat range based on MicroForce technology, starting with a revamped shredded beef offering.

    Catalan food tech startup Novameat has received €17.4M ($19.2M) in an oversubscribed Series A investment round, taking its total raised to $25.6M.

    The capital injection was led by Sofinnova Partners and Forbion via its BioEconomy Fund, and included follow-on investments from Unovis Asset Management, Praesidium, and Rubio Impact Ventures.

    Novameat aims to use the funds to expand to new markets, scale up its production capacity, and introduce new products – for the latter, it is starting by reformulating its Shredded Nova-b*ef, which has an improved taste and texture with a competitive price tag.

    “We will be expanding our commercial presence across Europe, with an initial focus on regions where we are seeing strong traction from foodservice and manufacturing partners seeking superior products in terms of taste and nutrition,” Novameat founder and CEO Giuseppe Scionti told Green Queen.

    “Once we establish a solid foothold in Europe, our strategy includes expanding into North America and the Asia-Pacific, where we plan to leverage our unique technology and product offerings to build key distribution and production partnerships,” he added.

    How Novameat is delivering on texture with MicroForce technology

    novameat shredded beef
    Courtesy: Novameat

    Novameat burst onto the scene in 2018 with a 3D-printed whole-cut vegan steak, and showcased an improved version two years later that featured a combination of tissue engineering and technology that enabled micro-structured tridimensional 3D printing.

    But its current lineup – sold to foodservice operators in Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands – includes a chicken fillet, pulled chicken, deli-style turkey, and the aforementioned shredded beef. It is among a number of startups producing whole-muscle meat analogues, often described as the “holy grail” of plant-based meat.

    The company’s manufacturing process is based on its MicroForce technology, an iteration of 3D printing adapted for large-scale food production. “We use standard food industry equipment with some patented tweaks to achieve the same fibrous texture as 3D printing, but on a much bigger scale,” explained Scionti.

    “Unlike many other plant-based meats, we don’t need to use additives like methylcellulose or carrageenans to get the right texture and our process builds the texture. Plus, all our ingredients are natural and retain their full quality due to the low temperature and pressure during production,” he added. “This gentle process, along with our premium ingredients, means there’s no bitter aftertaste, offering a clean, satisfying experience every time.”

    This plays to an important trend – globally, the texture of plant-based meat is as important as their conventional counterparts for 75% of consumers, but only about 60% are actually satisfied with it.

    This technology has also been fine-tuned to enhance the texture and mouthfeel of Novameat’s shredded beef offering. “The fibrous structure has been upgraded to deliver an authentic ‘pulled’ consistency. We’ve also optimised the natural flavour profile, making it a versatile meat alternative suitable for a wide range of dishes,” said Scionti.

    “Additionally, we’ve improved production efficiency, allowing us to scale up and meet increasing demand while keeping our competitive pricing intact. Feedback from tastings has been overwhelmingly positive, and this version of Nova-b*ef is free from allergens, soy, gluten, methylcellulose, carrageenan, and added sugars,” he added.

    This proprietary technology is also what has attracted investors. Alex Hoffmann, general partner at Forbion’s BioEconomy Fund, called it “truly groundbreaking”. “We see significant potential not only in their current products, but also in the pipeline of innovations they are developing,” he said.

    Investors focused on scalable solutions backed by strong tech

    novameat
    Courtesy: Novameat

    Novameat’s current capabilities allow it to produce 500 kgs of whole-muscle plant protein per hour, allowing it to supply its meat analogues to caterers like The New Standard and restaurants such as Taquería in London and Disfrutar in Barcelona, voted the world’s best restaurant in 2024.

    The fresh funds will take things a step further. “The capital raised will be instrumental in scaling our production capacity, both at our existing facility in Barcelona and through new production partnerships, to meet the growing demand for our products,” Scionti said.

    “A significant portion of the funds will also be allocated to accelerating our research and development initiatives, ensuring we continue pushing the boundaries of innovation in creating healthy, high-quality plant-based meats.”

    He confirmed that Novameat has no plans to enter retail anytime soon, since B2B offers a “bigger opportunity” at the moment. “We’re witnessing a strong demand from the foodservice and food manufacturing sectors for premium, differentiated plant-based offerings tailored specifically to their unique needs,” he stated. “These industries are seeking high-quality products that deliver on taste, texture, and nutrition while meeting operational and scalability requirements.”

    That said, he added: “While we focus on serving these sectors, we will also offer our products through select direct-to-consumer partners.” Novameat recently began selling its products on UK e-tailer Mighty Plants.

    The Series A round comes amid an investment slump for plant-based foods – last year, funding in this sector was down by 24% globally, reaching $908M. But while fermentation startups are gaining ground, and cultivated meat is keeping pace, plant-based protein makers are finding it hard to keep investors interested, raising only $138M in the first half of this year.

    “Securing investment has undoubtedly become more challenging in today’s plant-based meat market, with a surge of brands launching similar plant-based products that often lack meaningful differentiation,” said Scionti. “Additionally, consumers are increasingly health-conscious, seeking innovative products that offer both superior taste and clear nutritional benefits.”

    So how did Novameat overcome these challenges to raise $19.2M? “Investors remain focused on scalable solutions backed by strong technology, like our MicroForce Technology, along with proven consumer acceptance and sound unit economics,” its CEO explained.

    “The key to driving the next wave of growth lies in continuously developing products that surpass current offerings in taste, texture, and nutrition, while achieving price parity with traditional meats,” Scionti added.

    The post Novameat Closes $19.2M Series A Round, Revamps Plant-Based Shredded Beef with Better Texture appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • For Its New Factory, Planted Zeroes in On Germany’s Leading Plant-Based Market

    planted meat
    4 Mins Read

    Swiss meat analogue maker Planted will open its second manufacturing facility in Germany, Europe’s leading market for vegan food.

    Planted, the Switzerland-based producer of meat analogues, has announced plans to open a new factory in Germany, its main market for exports.

    The company, which recently unveiled a fermentation-derived whole-cut steak, already has a plant at its headquarters in Kemptthal, Switzerland. For the second site, it is reviving an old brewery in Memmingen, Bavaria to create a modern production hub for vegan meat.

    The new facility is expected to begin production by the first quarter of 2025. At full capacity, it would be able to produce 20 tonnes of meat analogues every day, and around 5,000 tonnes annually. The facility in Germany – which accounts for 75% of Planted’s exports from Kemptthal – is set to create over 50 obs, adding to its 200-strong staff.

    “Our international expansion follows the strategic decision to bolster our biotechnological expertise and locations abroad, closer to our consumers,” said Planted co-founder Lukas Böni.

    Planted powered by a new whole-muscle platform

    planted factory
    Courtesy: Planted

    In April, Planted released its whole-cut steak, which has since made its way into restaurants and retailers in various countries, including Switzerland and Germany.

    This is the first product resulting from its whole-muscle innovation platform, where it uses proprietary microbial fermentation processes to grow what it calls “biostructured proteins”. The startup says it’s “convinced that biostructured proteins will surpass animal meat in the future, in terms of flavour, sustainability, health, productivity and price”.

    Planted began the strategic expansion of its production capacity at Kemptthal this spring via a state-of-the-art fermentation plant, and this effort will now continue at the new site in Germany.

    For the Memmingen factory, Planted has partnered with green infrastructure firm Alois Müller Group. It will be entirely free of fossil fuels and “almost completely” carbon-neutral, making use of a well cooling system, regionally generated district heating from wood burning, and photovoltaics to ensure all energy at the plant comes from renewable sources.

    “We are proud to be one of the few innovators of plant-based meat who covers as many steps as possible in the value chain – from research and development to industrial production,” said Böni.

    “This depth of value creation allows us to develop our vision of ‘better proteins’ even more strongly and will be implemented at the new plant in Memmingen, for example, when it comes to green technology and sustainable production.”

    The company noted that the Kemptthal facility will continue to “maintain its production and importance”, particularly for local consumers in Switzerland, where it is the market leader.

    Planted bets on Germany’s growing appetite for plant-based meat

    plant based meat germany
    Courtesy: Planted

    Planted’s whole-muscle steak is made from soy protein, rapeseed oil, bean and rice flours, and a blend of microbial cultures, and leverages a solid-state fermentation process that lasts 30 to 40 hours. It’s a departure from the high-moisture extrusion it uses to make its plant-based meat products like chicken, kebabs, duck and pulled pork.

    The development of the steak was facilitated by a $2.3M injection by state-backed innovation agency Innosuisse, as part of the Swiss Accelerator Program. The company has secured $131M in total funding to date, helping it breach over 8,000 foodservice and 8,700 retail locations across Europe.

    “Our goal is to quickly bring innovative products from our fermentation platform to the market – in particular the Planted steak, which currently uses our most advanced and disruptive fermentation technology in terms of scalability, flavour and product quality,” said Böni.

    “The investment in the additional production site enables us to meet the rapidly growing market demand and produce even closer to our German consumers,” Böni added. In Germany, the company is one of the top 10 best-selling meat analogue makers.

    The production of each Planted steak produces 97% fewer emissions and requires 81% less water per kg than conventional beef. At the new factory in Memmingen, this will bring savings equivalent to the annual emissions of half the city’s residents.

    Germany is Europe’s leading vegan market in terms of sales, with the sector growing in value by 42% since 2022. In 2023, production of plant-based meat expanded by 17% from the year before amid increasing consumer demand for these analogues. A survey earlier this year revealed that 30% of Germans want to eat more plant-based meat in the next couple of years, just as meat consumption fell to record lows in 2023.

    In March, Germany updated its dietary guidelines to recommend slashing meat consumption by half and making 75% of diets plant-based. Only two months later, the German Nutrition Society doubled down on this by acknowledging that veganism is a “health-promoting diet” with proper supplementation.

    Moreover, Germany’s government allocated €38M in its 2024 budget to promote alternative protein consumption and a switch to plant-based farming, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre.

    The post For Its New Factory, Planted Zeroes in On Germany’s Leading Plant-Based Market appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Domino’s, Plant-Based Dairylea & A KitKat Copycat

    fry's formable meat
    4 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Fry’s Family Foods’ formable mince, Domino’s vegan cheese collaboration in Australia, and upcycled food startup Reduced’s Series A fundraise.

    New products and launches

    Fry’s Family Foods has launched what it says is the UK plant-based industry’s first ‘formable’ mince. The Shape and Sizzle SKU can be made into meatballs, koftas, burgers and sausages, and is available at Tesco for £2.50 per 300g.

    Mondelēz International has released a plant-based version of its Dairylea cheese Dunkers in Morrisons in the UK, with the garlic- and onion-flavoured crunchy tubes now accompanied by a coconut- and oat-based cheese dip.

    Mycoprotein giant Quorn has rolled out a new foodservice menu solutions department called QuornPro, launching through a partnership with Good It’s Gluten Free to include gluten-free meals in foodservice.

    Also in the UK, vegan chocolate brand Buttermilk has introduced the Choccy Wafer Bar, a dairy- and gluten-free replica of KitKat Chunky made from rice. It’s available online and at Sainsbury’s for £1.70.

    vegan kitkat chunky
    Courtesy: Buttermilk

    Speaking of replicating famous chocolates, fellow British brand NOMO has released a vegan coconut-chocolate bar in the style of Mars’ popular Bounty offering.

    Canada’s Else Nutrition has rolled out vegan Ready-to-Drink Kids Shakes in chocolate and vanilla flavours at 19 Bristol Farms locations in Southern California. Suitable for ages two to 13, they’re made from a base of almond butter and buckwheat flour.

    Icelandic brand Good Good has launched a vegan lemon curd with no added sugar in the US, which is available on its website and on Amazon for $9.99 per 330g jar.

    domino's vegan
    Courtesy: Made With Plants/Domino’

    And in Australia, Domino’s has partnered with local startup Made With Plants to introduce vegan and gluten-free mozzarella cheese for its plant-based pizzas.

    Finance and company developments

    Swedish precision fermentation startup Melt&Marble has achieved a manufacturing milestone, completing a demo-scale production of 10,000 litres of fermentation for its animal-free fat.

    Swedish agrifood company Lantmännen has poured in 1.2 billion Swedish kronor ($116M) towards a new plant protein factory in Lidköping, which will be able to produce 7,000 tonnes of concentrated protein from peas and fava beans annually.

    future food quick bites
    Courtesy: Martin Kaufmann/Reduced

    Also in the Nordics, Copenhagen-based food waste startup Reduced, which creates upcycled food ingredients, has announced the second closing of its Series A funding round, which now totals €8M ($8.8M).

    The Climate Bonds Standard, a certification scheme for green debt instruments, has added alternative proteins to its criteria to help drive investment into the sector.

    Artisanal vegan cheesemaker Climax Foods has secured bridge funding from existing investors to extend its runway for the rest of the year, after a challenging few months that has seen a majority of employees furloughed, given unpaid leave, or take voluntary salary cuts.

    climax blue cheese
    Courtesy: Climax Foods

    In England, the Stroud Farmers’ Market has closed its monthly vegan market, citing a lack of footfall and decreasing stalls each month.

    Policy, research and awards

    South Korea’s TissenBioFarm has received the Cultured Meat Product of the Year honour at the 2024 AgTech Breakthrough Awards for its marbled cultivated steak.

    cultivated meat regulatory approval
    Courtesy: TissenBioFarm

    In India, 69% of consumers find plant-based proteins to be as effective as meat, according to a survey by Wonderful Pistachios.

    The Newcastle City Council in the UK has introduced a trial to generate renewable energy and fertilisers from food waste. Households will receive two new containers and caddy bags for food waste, which will then be recycled.

    Another local government in the UK, the Nottingham City Council, has announced it will only serve vegan food and drinks at internal meetings from the end of September.

    oshi vegan salmon
    Courtesy: Oshi

    Finally, Israeli alt-seafood player Oshi has received its trademark in the US, weeks after partnering with Lewis Hamilton-backed vegan chain Neat. It recently relocated production to California, spotting a bigger market for its plant-based fish in the US.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Domino’s, Plant-Based Dairylea & A KitKat Copycat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Thai Startup Creates Plant-Based Pork from Local Coconut Water

    coconut water meat
    4 Mins Read

    Backed by the Thai government, Sangtuptim Inter Co., a manufacturer of coconut-based products, has developed a plant-based pork analogue from coconut water.

    A Thai company known for its coconut vermicelli has created plant-based meat using coconut water, as part of a government-led programme to promote the industrial economy.

    Sangtuptim Inter Co. has developed the meat analogue under the Department of Industrial Promotion’s (Diprom) Reshape the Future policy. The product has won an award in the UK, and is said to represent a prototype for using innovation to increase the value of local food products.

    Thailand is the 10th largest producer of coconuts globally, and has a burgeoning alternative protein sector marked by consumer enthusiasm for healthier products. According to Orasa Sangtuptim, managing director of Sangtuptim Inter Co., plant-based food has become popular in the country, with food safety, sourcing, and environmental impact being key considerations.

    Treading international (coconut) waters

    coconut water noodles
    Courtesy: Sangtubtim Inter Co.

    Diprom announced its Reshape the Future policy in January, with a view to keeping up with the changing economy, reshaping the country’s economic corridors, and increasing access to opportunities through investment. For 2024, the goal is to help over 18,000 entrepreneurs and create over ฿10B ($293.5M) in added economic value.

    When it comes to the agriculture sector, the government agency plans to do so by promoting access to production technology, boosting value-added processing, and helping develop products that meet consumer needs – especially health-promoting plant-based foods.

    Specialising in coconut products, Sangtuptim Inter Co. joined the Industrial Promotion Center, Region 8 scheme that looks to develop small and medium-sized enterprises, beginning with a coconut jelly and further innovating with fresh non-fat, sugar-free noodles made from coconut water, which can be served cold and hot.

    The plant-based pork, meanwhile, is a mix of coconut water and king oyster mushrooms, and has recently been patented. As part of its international recognition, the product has received vegan certification in Italy, alongside the gold award at the International Invention and Trade Expo 2022 in London.

    These products capitalise on the strength of local farmers in the Samut Songkhram Province, and elevate an agricultural raw material to a higher-value product through tech innovation. Currently, Sangtuptim Inter Co.’s products are sold locally, as well as in the US, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and Norway.

    Plant-based demand strong in Thailand

    thailand plant based meat
    Courtesy: Sangtubtim Inter Co.

    “Throughout our participation in the DIPROM programme, we have gained practical knowledge that can be effectively applied,” said Sangtuptim. “We received in-depth advice from experts that has been beneficial to our business, resulting in an annual revenue increase of over ฿2M ($59,000).”

    While the Thai plant-based sector has grown by 61% in the last five years – expected to reach 45B in 2024 – it still faces its challenges. In June, the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published draft regulations suggesting a ban on meat- and dairy-related terms (such as ‘almond milk’, ‘plant-based chicken nuggets’, ‘Angus’ and even ‘clean meat’) on plant-based analogues.

    But this comes amid increased willingness to shift to alternative proteins in Thailand. According to a 1,500-person survey published in January by Madre Brava, two-thirds of Thai consumers plan to stop eating meat in the next two years, and only 9% say they wouldn’t consume alternative proteins in that period.

    Health and nutrition concerns are both the main consumption drivers and barriers – 57% find alternative proteins healthier than meat, but 47% say they’d rather eat whole foods given the amount of processing meat analogues go through.

    Price is another major concern, with 47% also finding plant-based alternatives too expensive. That said, two in five Thai consumers are willing to swap half their meat intake with alternative proteins, while 51% would swap half their meat consumption with traditional plant proteins.

    thailand vegan survey
    Courtesy: Madre Brava

    Meanwhile, Thai citizens want government action to support farmer transitions with new jobs (72%) and eco-friendly practices (69%). “If the government has a policy to seriously support the production of plant-based protein and alternative protein, both for domestic consumption and export, it would be able to correspond with the direction of both the domestic and export markets,” said Jacques-Chai Chomthongdi, Southeast Asia director at Madre Brava.

    A product like Sangtuptim Inter Co.’s vegan pork – which uses locally farmed coconuts, offers health benefits, and promotes food security in a country where 10.5% of people face severe hunger every day – fits the bill.

    The post Thai Startup Creates Plant-Based Pork from Local Coconut Water appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Food Tech Funding ‘Bouncing Back’, But Investor Doubts on Alternative Proteins Still Persist

    mosa meat funding
    5 Mins Read

    As inflation eases, food tech investments are showing signs of recovery, but companies within the alternative protein ecosystem are treading different paths.

    While food tech venture capital dipped by 48% in 2023 (reaching $15.3B), investor interest in this sector is bouncing back, according to a new report by French strategy consultants DigitalFoodLab.

    In the first half of 2024, food tech startups already attracted $7.9B – just over 50% of the 2023 total, indicating that the industry is no longer suffering from the funding declines of the last two years.

    “The slight bounce back that we observed in the first half of the year is mostly due to a handful of larger deals in delivery startups,” says Matthieu Vincent, co-founder and partner at DigitalFoodLab. “At the end of the day, it shows that there is renewed trust in this ecosystem (delivery) as inflation is slowing down.”

    food tech investments 2024
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    Despite early-stage investments remaining strong in 2022 and 2023, the first six months of this year saw seed funding rounds fall dramatically from $2B in 2023 to less than $700,000. The wave of food tech financing driven by late-stage deals – at $3B, Series D+ and private equity deals nearly matched last year’s total of $3.3B.

    “This is only a point of attention, but it could become worrying if it continues, as early-stage investments are fundamental in developing a healthy ecosystem,” the report notes.

    Alternative proteins charting different courses

    digitalfoodlab report
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    After the 2020-21 peak, when funding was at record levels, inflationary concerns and high interest rates combined to lower investor interest. But now, as the situation normalises, investment activity has reached a “new plateau”.

    While delivery is still king, upstream and midstream technologies are taking centre stage. This includes AgTech and Food Science startups (the latter comprises alternative proteins and new food products) – and there has also been a surge in collaborations between companies in these two segments.

    Food Science players made up 28% of the industry’s investments last year, reaching $4.7B. In the first half of 2024, these startups have already raised $2B, thanks to large rounds like Meati‘s $100M Series C and Perfect Day‘s $90M pre-Series E.

    Investments into brands showcasing new food and drink products are helping the overall category, but “there is a wave of doubts about the ability of alternative protein startups to deliver results in the short term”, according to the report.

    Vincent explains that the alternative protein ecosystem is encompassing three “increasingly different paths”. For brands making plant-based analogues, sales have decreased despite consolidation in the category. “We can’t have a call with an investor without hearing: ‘We don’t want to look at that space,’” says Vincent.

    “However, we still feel optimistic about this space and expect that as inflation decreases, consumers will go back to experiment with these products, but maybe not before mid-2025.”

    Then there are the companies dealing with precision fermentation or cultivated meat. “Doubts are still running high on the ability of the startups to ever reach price parity, and more importantly on their ability to fund their scale-up (or build the facilities),” Vincent explains.

    But on the positive side, functional ingredient makers – innovating with sugar, fats, egg proteins, and more – are enjoying sustained interest. “This category is actually doing really well with increased investment, lots of partnerships with large companies and a significant appetite from investors,” says Vincent.

    “That’s why we see more and more startups rebranding themselves from ‘protein producer’ to ‘specialty or functional ingredient manufacturer’,” he adds.

    Investors eye Europe as Asia suffers

    food tech investments
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    No region was spared from the investment declines over the last couple of years, but this year, Europe is surging forward. According to the report, the region was “slightly less affected” by the challenges.

    This builds on previous research focused on climate-centric food tech companies, which found that Europe overtook the US in funding for the first time last year, making up 58% of global investments. This is also seen in the alternative protein world – Europe has accounted for 48% of all venture capital in this space in the first half of 2024.

    “Europe had been ignored for some time, maybe due to the old continent being slow to structure its innovation ecosystem (incubators, business angels, etc.),” says Vincent. But the emergence of large delivery startups with an international focus has “definitely helped put the continent on the global food tech map”.

    Meanwhile, despite India receiving the second-largest sum of money between the start of 2023 and the first half of 2024 (behind only the US), Asia – once the leader in food tech investments – is witnessing a decline in its share of funding.

    Vincent ascribes this to two factors: a strong decline in delivery investments, where Asian (and specifically Chinese) startups were among the first to raise huge amounts of money; and “doubts from foreign investors about their ability to invest in China”. He adds: “We should note that there are many bright spots in Asia, from Singapore to Indonesia.”

    Despite the global trends this year, Vincent is exercising caution. “We expect the same levels of investments, maybe slightly lower, due to the current economic and political situation,” he says. “However, we expect a visible bounce back for 2025.”

    According to the report, this revival will begin in the US and eventually materialise in Europe, though the speed of movement will be slow as the number of “fundable startups” has decreased and investors have upped their requirements. “We may have to wait for 2026 (at least) to see a substantial uptick where we could come back to the levels of funding of 2020,” the report says.

    The post Food Tech Funding ‘Bouncing Back’, But Investor Doubts on Alternative Proteins Still Persist appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Formo Stretches Budget with $61M Series B, Rolls Out Animal-Free Koji Cheese in Supermarkets

    formo cheese
    7 Mins Read

    German food tech startup Formo has closed a $61M Series B fundraise and launched animal-free cheeses made from microbial fermentation in supermarkets.

    If you’re in Germany or Austria, you can now walk to one of 2,000+ Rewe, Billa and Metro stores and buy a first-of-its-kind vegan cheese made from mould.

    Berlin-based startup Formo, known for its exploits in fermentation, has debuted its first products on the market. Frischhain, a cream cheese analogue made from koji protein, is now available in the aforementioned grocery stores in plain and herb flavours. A tomato version is to follow in the coming weeks, alongside Camembritz (a Camembert replica).

    The launch coincides with the closing of Formo’s Series B funding round, in which it bagged $61M from investors including existing backers FoodLabs, EQT Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and welcomed new financiers in The Nature Conservancy and Rewe Group, among a host of others.

    The third-largest alternative protein investment round of this year, it takes Formo’s total raised to $117M, and will enable the startup to scale up production, expand its operations internationally, diversify its product portfolio, and push for net profitability.

    The company continues to advance its precision fermentation technology platform for animal-free casein, with an eye to launching cheeses made with the protein in the first half of 2025. Next year will also see Formo introduce two more cheeses from its koji protein lineup: Frankoforte and Hellasdorf.

    “Frankoforte is a rich, bold blue cheese made from koji protein, offering an intense flavour punch while maintaining a beautifully smooth, creamy texture. Hellasdorf, inspired by classic Greek feta, delivers a tangy, savoury flavour with a perfect crumbly texture,” Christian Poppe, Formo’s public affairs and sustainability director, tells Green Queen.

    How Formo makes its koji protein cheese

    frischhain cheese
    Courtesy: Formo

    To make its cheese, Formo uses a microbe called Aspergillus oryzae, a type of koji mould. This is a filamentous fungus that has been used for centuries in Japan, forming the base for fermented foods and beverages like miso, mirin, shoyu and sake. “Koji protein resembles whey protein, making it the perfect foundation for our cheese alternatives,” says Sandra Wilde, VP of Food at Formo.

    The startup’s process mirrors traditional brewing techniques. It starts by cultivating the koji mould in steel tanks, where the microbes grow in a “nutrient-rich bath” containing sugars and micronutrients, as well as wheat flour or other carbohydrates.

    As the fungi consume these nutrients, they produce protein. Once the fermentation is complete, Formo separates the biomass from the liquid (which contains the protein). This is then dehydrated using spray dryers to create a fine protein powder, which becomes the foundation of the company’s cheese products.

    Once the powder has been extracted, Formo collaborates with family-owned traditional cheesemaking businesses, who use its recipe to create the end product. “These experts apply – just as we do in our pilot plant – conventional cheesemaking techniques, which include coagulation, curdling, draining, pressing, and ageing,” explains Poppe.

    formo camembritz
    Courtesy: Formo

    Partnering with traditional artisans allows Formo to “replicate the familiar taste, texture, and mouthfeel of cheese while leveraging centuries-old cheesemaking expertise”, while providing an alternative source of income for producers in a carbon-heavy industry.

    The koi protein makes up 6.7% of the Frischhain cheese – the rest is made up of shea fat, sunflower oil, soluble corn fibre, salt, sugar, carrageenan, lecithins, and ripening cultures (plus flavourings for the other variants).

    So while the combination of koji and time-honoured cheesemaking ensures that Formo’s cheeses deliver on taste, how does it fare on the nutrition front? The plain Frischhain has more fat (27.6g per 100g) than the Philadelphia Original cream cheese (21g), but the koji cheese has much lower saturated fat (10.1g vs 14g) and is higher in protein (6.1g vs 5.4g).

    It even outperforms plant-based cream cheese on the latter two metrics. Simply V’s almond-based spreadable cream cheese, for example, has 13g of saturated fat per 100g, and 4.8g of protein.

    Formo targets late-2025 launch for precision-fermented cheese

    formo funding
    Courtesy: Formo

    The potential of fermentation extends to sustainability as well. Formo says it’s using production partners and contract manufacturers that “fulfil the highest environmental standards”. According to an ISO-compliant life-cycle assessment (LCA) conducted by CarbonCloud, Frischhain production generates 65% fewer emissions, uses 83% less land, and consumes 96% less water than conventional cream cheese.

    To go a step further, Formo is also donating any surplus food to organisations like the Red Cross or through food waste platforms like Too Good To Go. Additionally, its packaging is fully recyclable and is said to follow “eco-design principles”.

    The company is currently capable of producing “triple-digit tonnes” of its cheese each month, but plans to triple its capacity in the coming year.

    “Our current focus for the Micro Fermentation product line is on Europe, particularly the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), where we aim to establish a strong presence first,” reveals Pappe. Frischhain has already been available for foodservice consumers at Metro since August, with each 1.5kg container priced at €25.99.

    formo frischhain
    Courtesy: Formo

    He says the microbial fermentation products being launched now complement its ongoing precision fermentation efforts, allowing the business to build consumer relationships and brand recognition.

    “Our precision fermentation operations are going great, and we’re making significant strides with our second-generation cheese product line,” he says. “The technology is advancing rapidly, and we’re excited about the potential of creating bioidentical dairy proteins.”

    While declining to share specific launch dates, Pappe says the precision-fermented products – which include hard cheeses made with bioidentical casein – will be initially targeted towards the US, with a rollout around late 2025.

    “Everything is coming together – the launch of our first products, the positive results of our environmental analyses, and the successful funding round,” says Formo co-founder and CEO Raffael Wohlgensinger. “This is the result of five years of intensive research and product development, as well as the work of an incredibly passionate team. Game on.”

    Investors bet on fermentation amid alternative protein struggles

    koji protein cheese
    Courtesy: Formo

    Sandra Malmber, a partner at EQT Ventures, raises an important point. “Few European companies are raising such large rounds within climate tech,” she says. “A key success factor was proving commercial traction, which is a rarity for this type of company at this point in its lifetime.”

    Alternative protein investments have slowed down. They fell by 44% in 2023, and while the decline appears to be halting this year, the amount of capital put into this sector is a far cry from the highs of 2021.

    Amid this macroeconomic environment, Formo credits its $61M round to technological advancements it has made in the last 18 months, allowing it to come to market at competitive prices with “strong profitable product margins”.

    “While our technology was already advanced, the real leap was how quickly we were able to scale it and build robust operations,” notes Pappe. “We moved from lab-scale development to large-scale production at an impressive speed, proving not only the strength of our technology but also our ability to establish strong commercial capabilities.”

    Another factor that may have attracted investors was that Formo deals with fermentation. Alternative protein startups working in this space have received around twice as much funding as plant-based or cultivated meat players this year. In the first half of 2024, the fermentation segment has already obtained 90% of the money it did in all of 2023.

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    So perhaps it’s no surprise that the top four funding rounds in alternative proteins this year belong to fermentation companies – Meati leads with its $100M Series C, followed by Perfect Day‘s $90M pre-Series E, Formo’s $61M Series B, and Infinite Roots‘ $58M Series B.

    “What makes fermentation especially exciting is that it builds on ancient food manufacturing techniques – like those used to make cheese, beer, and bread. Because it’s not entirely new to consumers, it holds great promise for rapid consumer acceptance and uptake,” suggests Pappe.

    “Additionally, fermentation is easier to scale compared to other alternative protein technologies, helping us move faster toward price parity with conventional animal products, which is a major driver of investor confidence,” he adds.

    Pappe believes investment levels will rise again as companies “prove their ability to scale, reach price parity, and win over consumers”.

    “Fermentation is already leading the way, and as more companies hit these key milestones, the entire industry will gain momentum,” he says.” The future is incredibly bright – we’re combining cutting-edge science with tried-and-true methods to transform the food system and make sustainable, affordable alternatives widely accessible.

    The post Formo Stretches Budget with $61M Series B, Rolls Out Animal-Free Koji Cheese in Supermarkets appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • One in Five Australians are ‘Meat Reducers’, With Interest in Plant-Based Analogues Driven by Health

    love buds
    5 Mins Read

    More than two in five Australians are reducing meat or don’t eat it at all, with health a major consumption driver. But taste and price remain key challenges for plant-based meats.

    Australians are cutting back on meat due to health and price concerns, but adoption of plant-based meats remains low, and their taste is a big reason why.

    One in five (21%) of citizens are ‘meat reducers’ – people who are eating less meat but don’t identify as flexitarians – making it the most popular diet in the country, according to a 2,000-person survey conducted by Toluna for think tank Food Frontier.

    Respondents were asked to choose from 13 different dietary patterns – 10% said they were vegetarian, 7% flexitarian, and another 5% vegan, meaning that 42% of Australians are either reducing meat or not consuming it at all.

    australia meat consumption
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    This year, a quarter of respondents have reduced their meat consumption, while 12% are planning to do so, and 2% have eliminated it altogether. The top three reasons for this were health concerns (61%), budgetary constraints (54%), and climate change (37%) – the latter is a welcome surprise, given the country has one of the largest climate denial rates in the world.

    “The cost-of-living crisis may be affecting meat consumption,” suggests Food Frontier CEO Simon Eassom. “Over the past four years, the importance of budget as a motivator for reduced meat consumption has increased significantly, rising from 40% in 2021 to 54% in 2024.”

    Plant-based meat needs a taste kick

    australia plant based survey
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    The dietary drivers in Australia remain similar across the spectrum. For example, 54% of meat reducers said they were doing so for health, 28% also picked medical reasons, and a third (34%) pointed to climate concerns. In the same vein, flexitarian diets are driven by health considerations (58%), medical reasons (34%) and environmental worries (24%).

    Similar to the results in 2021, 79% of Australians go meat-free at least one day a week, with a quarter (24%) doing so for three to four days.

    But while meat reduction is popular, plant-based analogues to meat still have some way to go – only 35% of Australians have tried these products (up from 25% three years ago), and just 16% eat them regularly.

    Australians are most attracted by plant-based meats’ health benefits (53%). Nearly half (45%) enjoy their taste, 38% recognise their environmental advantages, and 36% do so for ethical reasons. However, this is in contrast with the 70% and 54% of Australians who chose health and environment, respectively, as reasons for liking meat analogues.

    plant based meat survey
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    But these products have low repeat purchase rates, with only 22% of Aussies saying they’d buy them again. Poor taste was cited as a barrier by 46% (down from 52% in 2021), followed by their high price (37%, versus 39% three years ago) – this is despite the price premium of plant-based meats narrowing from 49% in 2020 to 33% last year, according to Food Frontier’s 2023 State of the Industry report.

    That study also revealed that plant-based meat sales in Australia increased by 47% between 2020 and 2023, with per capita consumption up by 28%.

    Meanwhile, 28% of Australians buy both plant-based meats and traditional plant proteins like tofu and lentils, and one in five prefer the former because they don’t know how to cook the latter.

    Milk analogues popular in Australia, but climate connection remains low

    plant based milk australia
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    Mirroring global trends, plant-based milk seems to be the leader in Australia’s alternative protein space, with two in five respondents (41%) having tried these analogues, and a third (34%) drinking them on the regular.

    A similar number of consumers (36%) are likely to repurchase plant-based milk after trying it, the higher among the rest of the foods in the survey. Meanwhile, more consumers have tried vegan ice cream (37%) and would buy them again (25%) compared to meat analogues. But vegan cheese leaves a lot to be desired – only 13% who’ve bought it would do so again.

    “The study also aimed to understand Australians’ perceptions of climate change contributors and how these considerations are influencing their dietary choices,” said Eassom. Agriculture makes up 13% of Australia’s emissions, and at least 66% of this comes from livestock farming.

    But while 66% of Australians realise that fossil fuels contribute to climate change, less than half said so for food waste (45%) and animal agriculture (44%). And when asked what actions they take to reduce their impact on the planet, 76% noted that they recycle – by far the most popular act. Only 22% and 16% have been cutting out meat and dairy, respectively, to fight the climate crisis.

    australia climate change survey
    Courtesy: Food Frontier

    “It appears that some Australians are making a connection between animal agriculture and climate change; however, from a list of perceived key contributors to climate change, animal agriculture was selected by the least number of study participants,” said Eassom.

    “This would indicate that, despite growing awareness amongst some consumers, more than half of Australians are either unaware or not concerned about the relationship between food production and climate change.”

    The survey also looked at Aussie attitudes towards pet food, finding that consumers are split on their willingness to change their furry friends’ diets. More pet owners would buy wet pet food with ethically raised meat (49%) or minimal animal ingredients (44%) than products with no animal inputs (38%).

    “That pet owners are interested in switching to other foods as long as they are nutritionally sufficient demonstrates a market for sustainable and innovative pet food options, mirroring the growing interest in diverse protein sources in human diets,” Eassom said. “In response to this, we are seeing a number of companies exploring alternative proteins, including cultivated meat, in pet food production.

    The post One in Five Australians are ‘Meat Reducers’, With Interest in Plant-Based Analogues Driven by Health appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Days After Settling Impossible Foods Lawsuit, Hemami Maker Motif FoodWorks is Shutting Down

    motif foodworks closing

    5 Mins Read

    Motif FoodWorks, the Boston-based startup known for its Hemami ingredient for meat analogues, is shutting down, days after it settled a long-running IP dispute with Impossible Foods.

    Last week, Motif FoodWorks announced it had sold off its heme business to Impossible Foods, as part of a settlement of an IP dispute dating back to 2022.

    Just a few days later, the Boston-based maker of Hemami protein told employees the business was winding down. According to AgFunderNews, which first broke the news, a skeleton staff is staying on to help shut shop.

    The decision was heavily influenced by the Impossible Foods lawsuit – in which both companies agreed to cover their own legal costs – as well as the sales and investment declines in the meat analogue category post-2021, when Motif FoodWorks raised a $226M Series B round, according to one VC manager with knowledge of the situation.

    motif foodworks
    Courtesy: Motif Foodworks

    Impossible Foods lawsuit ‘absolutely hurt’ Motif FoodWorks

    Motif FoodWorks, which spun off from Boston-based synbio firm Ginkgo Bioworks in 2019, has to date secured $345M worth of capital from various investors, making it one of the most well-funded companies in the fermentation protein space.

    Its massive Series B came amid a record year for alternative protein investments, which reached $5.6B at a time when big rounds were the norm – Impossible Foods received $500M, for example, while Nature’s Fynd bagged $350M.

    However, this fell dramatically over the next two years, with companies attracting $2.9B in 2022 and $1.6B in 2023 – for context, fermentation players alone raised $1.7B in 2021. While there are signs of recovery, with the sector raising $666M in the first half of this year, it’s still a far cry from 2021 levels.

    plant based funding
    Courtesy: GFI

    The Series B was a “sign of the times”, according to the source familiar with Motif FoodWorks’ business, who spoke to Green Queen on the condition of anonymity. But the “completely unrealistic cagers for the alternative protein market” drove this raise. “When you think back to 2020 and 2021, people really thought that alternative protein could capture 5% of global meat capacity,” they said.

    But the subsequent struggles of the industry meant that this potential hasn’t yet materialised. And then there was the lawsuit. Impossible Foods accused Motif FoodWorks of patent infringement: both companies make bioidentical versions of heme protein, an ingredient that gives meat analogues their meaty taste and colour.

    Impossible Foods’ version is identical to soy leghemoglobin, while Motif FoodWorks’ Hemami is identical to bovine myoglobin. The lawsuit – which began in 2022 – “absolutely did hurt”, claimed the source.

    “Even though ultimately it was settled, it achieved commercially what it wanted to achieve – which is that large companies, which are, generally speaking, quite risk averse, didn’t want to necessarily work with Motif’s heme,” they said. “Motif couldn’t sell that heme as an ingredient because of this pending lawsuit.”

    They added: “So from a commercial standpoint, Impossible was able to [hinder] Motif from going to market. Even if the lawsuit was partially frivolous and Motif had a case, it still stopped the commercial viability of Motif’s heme product.”

    The big question for precision fermentation

    motif foodworks hemami
    Courtesy: Motif FoodWorks

    Hemami isn’t Motif FoodWorks’ only ingredient. It has also devised a hydrogel called Appetex, which combines plant proteins and carbohydrates to improve the texture of meat analogues.

    It has previously also released finished products. The MoBeef, MoPork, and MoChicken products catered to foodservice and private-label clients, while a direct-to-consumer lineup comprised of Motif PorkWorks, Motif BeefWorks, and Motif ChickenWorks debuted last year.

    The company also has exclusive access to Prolamin technology from the University of Guelph, which uses plant-based ingredients to enhance the texture of vegan cheese products, enabling them to melt, bubble and stretch like their conventional counterparts.

    Motif FoodWorks opened a 10,600 sq ft R&D lab in Boston in 2021, followed by a 65,000 sq ft market development and research centre last year, dubbed Motif’s Plant Base. But amid the market challenges and the lawsuit, it also engaged in multiple rounds of layoffs.

    While the heme business has been taken over by Impossible Foods, what happens to the rest of its ingredients, licences and the facilities remains to be seen.

    motif foodworks impossible foods
    Courtesy: Motif FoodWorks

    “Ultimately, this was more of a market challenge and a landscape challenge, in the sense that customer demand just wasn’t there – primarily prevented from the lawsuit itself,” the source told Green Queen.

    But it also pointed to “the challenges of bringing other ingredients to market”, they added. “This is a bigger question about precision fermentation, and its ability to move from Ginkgo – which is basically creating a strain – to then actually commercialising that strain for the right titer, the right yield, and the right application, and whether or not there’s a customer for that.”

    They continued: “That is the big question that much of the industry is still grappling with. So whether or not Motif is able to grasp it or not, we’re still looking for: what is the right application, what is the right cost, and can that be commercially viable in precision fermentation?”

    The post Days After Settling Impossible Foods Lawsuit, Hemami Maker Motif FoodWorks is Shutting Down appeared first on Green Queen.