European vegan nutritional shake brand Huel recently raised $24 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the eight-year-old startup’s value up to $560 million. English actor Idris Elba—best known for his roles in The Wire, Luther, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom—and his wife Sabrina invested in the company alongside British comedian and TV presenter Jonathan Ross and activewear brand TALA’s CEO Grace Beverley.

“I’ve been a ‘Hueligan’ (a Huel fan) for several years now, starting my journey while preparing for my role in Thor, so to come on board with Huel was an easy decision,” Elba said in a statement. “I believe in their mission to deliver nutritionally complete food, sustainably. We have some exciting projects coming up and I look forward to spreading the message and raising awareness around healthy, low carbon food.”

Huel

Huel—a portmanteau of “human” and “fuel”—was founded by Julian Hearn and James Collier to provide a solution to the environmental consequences of standard food production and food waste by making a nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food solution with minimal impact on the environment and animals.

Its first product, a low-carbon-footprint protein powder, launched in the United Kingdom in 2017 and the brand has since expanded into ready-to-drink, snack bar, and hot lunch options.

“We are trying to change the way the world thinks about food and Huel offers a solution to help people make easy changes to their food choices,”  Huel CEO James McMaster said in a statement. 

Low-carbon vegan shakes

In 2019, Huel launched its nutritional bars in the United States following a $20-million venture capital round. And today, much of the company’s loyal fans—whom they call “Hueligans”—are in the US, representing Huel’s second-biggest market, followed by Germany and Japan.

Its strong growth—40 percent year over year—is attributed to the new product launches and the company’s expansion from solely direct-to-consumer to retail stores. The new funding will be used in continued international expansion with a focus on the US, along with new product innovation, and continued expansion online and in retail stores.

Huel

As part of the Elbas’s investment, one of the new projects will include Huel working with them on their climate change initiative to help people eat at 1.5°C, the global warming limit the Paris Agreement is trying to reach. Huel meals fit within a diet aligned with supporting that reduction, and Huel believes that raising awareness of our diets is one of the simplest and most effective actions people can take to tackle climate change.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with Idris and Sabrina to raise awareness of the role of food in climate change and to encourage individuals and the industry in general to move towards a food system based on sustainable nutrition,” McMaster said.

Huel will work with the Elbas to inspire and motivate people about the benefits of changing diets to support the health of the environment, which is a vital component of food sustainability.

Plant-based diet helps fight climate change

Many experts would agree that the diet that best aligns with the goals of the international treaty on climate change is one that excludes animal products. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published last year, human activity—including the ways we grow or raise our food—is “unequivocally” responsible for climate change and humanity has only a few years left to keep the planet from warming 1.5°C past post-industrial levels.

And while fossil fuels are often seen as having the most negative impact on the climate crisis, animal agriculture—which contributes to one-fourth of total greenhouse gas emissions—is mostly ignored. Approximately 30 percent of the world’s ice-less land mass is used for animal agriculture and 33 percent of all cropland is used to grow food for those animals. 

One of the most comprehensive studies pointing to the environmental impact of animal agriculture was published in 2018 by Oxford University researchers, who spent five years compiling data from nearly 40,000 farms in 119 countries and examining the environmental impact of producing 40 foods—which amount to 90 percent of all food eaten on earth. 

The researchers found that the global meat and dairy industries are responsible for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and that if individuals removed animal products from their diets, they would reduce their carbon footprint by 73 percent. The researchers also found that if meat and dairy production were to cease, global farmland use would be reduced by 75 percent. 

“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gasses, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use,” study lead author Joseph Poore said in a statement.

Another report published earlier this month by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Changing Markets Foundation found that the methane emissions of five of the largest meat corporations and 10 of the largest dairy corporations is equal to more than 80 percent of the European Union’s entire methane footprint. 

The report also estimated that the combined methane emissions of these 15 companies—which include JBS, Tyson, and the Dairy Farmers of America—exceed the methane footprint of entire countries including Russia, Canada, Australia, and Germany.

“To tackle these emissions in a substantive manner, the number of animals in mass industrial systems of production must be dramatically reduced,” the report says. “This is the most effective measure to reduce emissions from animals themselves and emissions from their manure.”

This post was originally published on VegNews.com.

European consumers will soon be able to indulge in real honey without exploiting a single bee. That’s because MeliBio, the California-based startup that unveiled the world’s first real honey made without the use of bees, recently announced a partnership with Narayan Foods, Europe’s largest organic and sustainable plant-based food producer. 

Through the partnership, MeliBio will become available across 75,000 European stores under Narayan Foods’ Better Foodie brand. 

“As a food innovation platform, Narayan Foods is constantly on the lookout for novel sustainable products that would revolutionize the market,” Mario Brumat, founder and CEO of Narayan Foods, says in a statement. “Just by tasting MeliBio’s incredible plant-based honey, we knew we had discovered an innovation that would leave a distinct mark in the industry. We’re thrilled to bring the world’s first plant-based honey to every European household and establish it as the new favorite sweetener.”

MeliBio

European consumers can expect to find MeliBio’s vegan honey in stores next year, with rollout expected to begin as early as the first quarter. 

This news comes just as the startup adds an additional $2.2 million in investments from new and existing investors. Among new investors is The Greenbaum Foundation led by Jim Greenbaum, executive producer of hit vegan documentaries The Game Changers and Seaspiracy. 

MeliBio makes real honey without bees

Founded in 2020, MeliBio utilizes patented technology and microbial fermentation to create real honey from plants and natural ingredients, therefore taking bees out of the equation. 

The end product, Honey Without Bees, doesn’t just have the same look and taste as honey, it also boasts the same health benefits and is an easy one-for-one swap in culinary applications.

By taking bees out of commercial honey production, MeliBio is paving the way toward a kinder, plant-based food system that doesn’t rely on animal exploitation. 

MeliBio

In traditional commercial honey production, bees are exploited for their ability to pollinate and ultimately suffer a host of health complications. 

In nature, bees create honey by collecting nectar from flowering plants. After flying from plant to plant to collect nectar, bees fly back to their hives where they regurgitate the sugary substance, reduce its water content, and thus create honey. This honey is ultimately a source of nutrition for bees and is the insects’ primary source of carbohydrates.

In commercial honey production, however, bees are deprived of the honey they work so hard to create. Instead of collecting nectar from a variety of flowering plants, bees are transported to areas where they are only able to consume mono-nutrients from a single crop. They’re exposed to pesticides, no longer hibernate, and instead of relying on honey for nutrients, they are fed sugar water—a nutrient-less substance. 

Aside from exposure to pesticides, bees also suffer from wing disease due to selective breeding. 

BAIA

MeliBio co-founder and CEO Darko Mandich—who previously worked in the Serbian bee industry—is familiar with the consequences of commercial honey production and is now working to change the industry altogether. 

“I am not proud of things I did to the bees in my former roles, but I am happy that as an industry insider I know how to change this outdated industry,” Mandich previously told VegNews.

MeliBio’s upcoming European launch is only the latest step in the CEO’s mission to transform the industry. 

“It is with great excitement that I bring our innovative MeliBio plant-based honey to Europe. We are proud to partner with Narayan Foods, one of Europe’s most respected sustainable foods producers, to bring our delicious and sustainable products to Europeans everywhere,” Mandich says in a statement.”

Honey without bees will change the world 

Despite launching just two years ago, MeliBio is already making significant strides and collecting awards along the way. 

Just last year, Honey Without Bees earned a special mention in TIME’s prestigious list of 100 Best Inventions of 2021. And this year, the bee-free honey was named to the SIAL Innovation Selection 2022, a prestigious food innovation award in Europe. 

Brad Weaver/Unsplash

Beyond awards, MeliBio is helping wild bee populations thrive by ultimately reducing human reliance on honeybees. 

Honeybees, which have been domesticated for commercial honey production, are incredibly adaptive and are able to collect nectar from a multitude of blooming plants. Wild bees, however, are known to collect pollen from very narrow sets of plants. When honeybees and wild bees compete for pollen, the latter suffer, and as a result, so do the plants and vegetation that rely on these wild populations. 

With an abundance of healthy, varied species of bees, ecosystems are able to thrive. By reducing human reliance on honeybees, MeliBio is paving the way toward healthier, more abundant bee populations and thriving ecosystems.

This post was originally published on VegNews.com.

Vegan food has been evolving at a rapid pace and each new innovation seems to be better than the last. First came “bleeding” burgers, followed by realistic plant-based chicken. And now, seafood alternatives are coming into focus with startups proving that there’s more than one way to make realistic vegan fish. 

There’s already vegan tuna and salmon made from protein-rich legumes, while others are made from soy or a root vegetable called konjac to mimic the taste, texture, and nutrition of fish. Most recently, several startups have begun harnessing the biological kingdom of mushrooms to innovate plant-based seafood even further.

Aqua Cultured Foods

Mycelium, the root systems of mushrooms, naturally grows in a structure similar to the muscle tissue of seafood and is soft in flavor. This unique structure has proven its ability to be used in diverse applications and has already been used to make mushroom leather and mushroom meat. 

Soon, consumers will get a taste of the power of mycelium as a seafood alternative. 

Creating fish-free shrimp and scallops

Chicago-based startup Aqua Cultured Foods is developing calamari, shrimp, scallops, and filets of tuna and whitefish with proprietary mycelium fermentation processes that do not use any animal inputs, genetic altering, or modification. The startup says that using mycelium allows it to retain naturally occurring fiber, protein, and other micronutrients. 

Aqua recently raised $5.5 million in seed funding to bring its ultra-realistic seafood alternatives to market. It will use the investment to equip its new facility, scale up production, add key talent, and expand its roster of restaurant and foodservice outlets for product introductions this year.  

Aqua Cultured Foods

“We appreciate having mission-aligned partners that offer strong strategic value for the next phase of our growth, which will involve building up the business and brand,” Anne Palermo, CEO of Aqua, said in a statement. 

“Being good stewards of investor capital is important to us, so along with hitting milestones earlier than expected, we are benefiting from government programs, academic resources, and other advantages to get to market quickly.”  

Aqua’s primary value is its low cost of scaling and its path to price parity, thanks to proprietary fermentation methods that use relatively affordable inputs and equipment. The startup recently acquired a food-grade facility that was already built out nearly to its requirements, which it estimates will save more than $1 million in construction costs.  

Aqua Cultured Foods

Aqua also produces ground vegan seafood fillings for applications such as dumplings, ravioli, and sushi rolls. One of the startup’s options is a bulk shrimp alternative that can be seasoned, packaged, and co-branded by retailers or distributors.

Aqua Cultured believes this sector presents another lucrative and highly accessible market opportunity because frozen dumplings are a staple in countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan.

Vegan seafood aims to save the oceans

While Aqua is well on its way to bringing its products to market, other startups around the world are also harnessing the power of mycelium for vegan seafood. The first startup in Europe to make vegan seafood from mycelium is Germany’s Esencia Foods. Founded by scientist and chef Bruno Scocozza and business strategist Hendrik Kaye, Esencia has the goal of promoting a global transition to sustainable ocean stewardship with mycelium alternatives. 

According to the United Nations, 80 percent of the world’s fish stocks are overfished, and with a projected increase in demand for seafood, some scientists are predicting that the oceans will be depleted by 2048.

Esencia Foods

In an effort to avoid the dramatic consequences of the ocean’s future, Esencia is developing a technology platform using mycelium that is capable of replicating seafood’s unique texture and mouthfeel to offer alternatives that better mimic conventional seafood, starting with scallops and salmon. 

By leveraging a solid-state fermentation process, Esencia grows mycelium in a way that is similar to tempeh but using fungi that provides the soft texture for products such as scallops and the complex texture of fish like sea bass. 

The startup also recognizes its challenges, such as recreating the fatty texture of smoked salmon. To get it right, Esencia plans to partner with a plant-based fat company. The startup hopes to launch its first products in restaurants and foodservice by the end of this year before expanding into retail.

“As a scientist-chef hybrid, I want to go beyond creating an ‘alternative product,’ but to build products that consumers crave because they are culinary highlights,” Scocozza said in a statement. “We want to write a chapter in the history of food.”

“Mycelium solid state fermentation is the perfect technology to build textures and tastes consumers love, while producing at price parity—to make a real impact,” he said. 

Vegan seafood for fine dining

Similarly, another mycelium seafood project is underway in Copenhagen, where scientists are working with chefs at Copenhagen’s two Michelin-starred restaurant Alchemist to create a new seafood by growing fungi on seaweed. Funded by The Good Food Institute, the project’s goal is to demonstrate an innovative method of making sustainable foods through fermentation.

Headed by Dr. Leonie Jahn from the Technical University of Denmark and Diego Prado, the project will see the chefs experiment with fungi to eventually create whole-cut seafood. If successful, the product may be sold at the restaurant and could go on to be widely available for purchase.

“Our main goal with the project is to attempt to create a unique and delicious product that is good enough to be served at a fine-dining restaurant using natural ingredients, with seaweed providing flavors of the sea and the mycelium adding to an attractive texture,” Prado, who is also head of research at Alchemist, said in a statement.

Aqua Cultured Foods

The team is looking into how the texture of the filamentous fungi can be used to create a range of sustainable foods. The aim is to identify how different conditions can be used to alter the fungi’s texture, creating products ranging from scaffolds—which give structure to meat cultivated from animal cells—to animal-free foods that look and taste like meat.

“I will be fascinated to see the outcome of Dr. Jahn’s research,” Seren Kell, science and technology manager at the Good Food Institute Europe, said in a statement. “Seafood is an area where we urgently need to see innovation, and there are huge opportunities for companies and governments to invest in further research to develop plant-based and cultivated seafood that can help meet growing demand in a sustainable way.”

This post was originally published on VegNews.com.

Have you ever wanted to scream into a void about all the annoying things your meat-eating uncle says to you during Thanksgiving? Is a locker room motivational speech the best way you can think of getting hyped up before facing your family during the holidays? You’re in luck because vegan company Oatly is here to help you navigate traditional Thanksgiving like a pro. 

This Thanksgiving, The Oatly Emotional Support Hotline for Plant-based Eaters will offer unique resources for vegans looking for support during the challenging holiday. What happens when you call in? Well, you’ve got options. 

Oatly

First, you can listen to the main menu in different formats, including in English or Swedish, accompanied by smooth jazz or elevator music, or read by a fifth grader from Kansas who won a Thanksgiving essay contest.  

Pressing one will get you to personal affirmations to help emotionally navigate a traditional meat- and dairy-heavy Thanksgiving dinner. Pressing two will get you to useful stats and talking points to defend your reasons for going vegan from a climate perspective. 

Want to scream into a void about your frustrations about explaining your plant-based diet to people? Oatly gives you 30 seconds to do just that by pressing three. 

Pressing four will get you to a locker room-style motivational speech inspired by—but not completely plagiarized from—the 1993 sports film Rudy. Other tools on the hotline include tips about weaving the benefits of plant-based eating into conversation and deflection tactics (such as asking if there is smoke coming from the oven) when the conversation gets too daunting.  

“We know that every Thanksgiving, millions of plant-based eaters endure a heavily meat- and dairy-based holiday meal with family and friends who don’t necessarily understand or accept their dietary choices,” an Oatly spokesperson tells VegNews. 

“Oatly of course feels for our likeminded plant-based friends and wants to arm them with all the help they could need to not only get through these holiday meals but even positively influence dinner conversations, so that’s why we’ve decided to introduce The Oatly Emotional Support Hotline for Plant-based Eaters,” the spokesperson says. 

Oatly

The hotline can be accessed starting today and until November 24 by calling 1-866-OAT-LINE. 

Oatly’s vegan hotline is here to help 

In addition to all of the aforementioned resources, Oatly’s hotline will be operated by plant-based experts on Thanksgiving Day (November 24) from 3pm to 10pm EST. These operators will be on hand to answer questions and help plant-based eaters get through last-minute preparations before sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner.   

“It’s a way for Oatly to take a virtual seat at your holiday dinners, but do it in our very own way, always bringing a dose of lightheartedness—like dialing a number to let out a cathartic scream,” the spokesperson says. “And, of course, to serve as a reminder that it’s a great time to school your family and friends about all the delicious, climate-friendly, and dietary benefits of plant-based food.”

Oatly

For Thanksgiving, Oatly also partnered with James Beard-nominated chef Amanda Cohen, owner of New York City vegetarian mainstay Dirt Candy. Cohen recreated classic Thanksgiving dishes using Oatly’s products instead of dairy, including Pumpkin Pie Oat Bars, Creamy Roasted Mushroom Gravy, and Roasted Carrots with Oatgurt Dressing. 

Marketing vegan food can be funny

Oatly is known for its creative and humorous approach to ad campaigns. During the Super Bowl in 2021, Oatly CEO Toni Petersson appeared in a 30-second spot singing “it’s like milk, but made for humans” in a field of oats. The commercial gained traction, in large part for being so strange—which Oatly ran with by releasing a T-shirt emblazoned with “I totally hated that Oatly commercial” and image of its CEO.

Earlier this year, the vegan company worked with master puppet maker Andy Gent—who was behind the puppets in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs—to create an ad campaign that furthered its mission to make oat milk the new normal. The campaign series revolved around five short episodes of fictitious “The New Norm & Al Show” which featured puppets “Norm” and “Al,” who cleverly discussed shifting from old habits (drinking dairy milk) to new ones like consuming dairy-free milk. 

Oatly

While Oatly has its wits about it, the company recently reported that its third-quarter earnings missed the mark and is currently planning to reorganize the company, including by reducing its workforce, to cut costs by 25 percent. 

“Third quarter financial results were below our expectations, largely driven by COVID-19 restrictions in Asia, production challenges in the Americas and continued foreign exchange headwinds,” Petersson said in a statement. “However, we continue to see strong velocities, year-over-year sales volume growth, and minimal price elasticity globally, which we believe demonstrates the power and resilience of the brand.”

This post was originally published on VegNews.com.