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Category: food tech

  • General Mills Backs $6.4 Million Seed Round for Food Coloring Made From Fungi

    jelly beans
    3 Mins Read

    Michroma, the California-based biotech startup working to develop natural colorants from fungi, has closed a $6.4 million Seed funding round.

    Michroma’s new funding was led by Supply Change Capital, a food tech VC backed by 301 INC, the corporate venture capital arm of food giant General Mills. The round also includes funding from Be8 Ventures, which is backed by food company Dr. Oetker, and CJ CheilJedang, the $23 billion Korean supplier of fermentation-based bio-products. 

    Sustainable food without petroleum-based ingredients

    “We are poised to meet consumer demand for healthier and more sustainable food without petroleum-based ingredients,” Michroma’s CEO and Co-founder, Ricky Cassini, said in a statement. “Unlike the current generation of unstable natural options, like betalains, carminic acid, and anthocyanins, Michroma is producing better-performing natural colorants powered by fungi. This next stage of our development will help us industrialize our fungal platform and enable the world’s transition to natural colors.” 

    Michroma launched in 2019 with a novel red colorant it called REd+. It says the colorant is temperature resistant and stable across the entire food pH spectrum allowing it to be used in a range of processes including pasteurization and extrusion without altering the color.

    Precision fermentation

    Michroma says its use of precision fermentation replaces petroleum, which is used as the base ingredient for most mainstream colorants. This tech allows for a more sustainable color market. Colorants are used in a wide range of foods and beverages from snacks and candies to juice and some meat and fish. The food colorants market is valued at more than $2.6 billion.

    Michroma’s tech creates “fungal biofactories” which produce small molecules, like colors, more efficiently, the company says.

    General Mills Brand Bold Cultr Debuts As First Major U.S. Precision Fermentation Cheese Launch
    General Mills’ Bold Cultr precision fermentation cheese

    The funding marks General Mills’ second investment in precision fermentation. The multinational food giant recently announced a partnership with Israel’s Remilk, which produces dairy through precision fermentation. General Mills first launched Bold Cultr, a cheese made from Perfect Day’s precision fermentation whey in 2021.

    ‘The power and versatility of filamentous fungi’

    “We are leveraging the power and versatility of filamentous fungi with our synbio platform. By combining a unique fungal chassis strain with precision fermentation, we are capable of producing high-value complex molecules with high yields previously unseen in the biotech industry,” said Michroma’s CSO and Co-Founder, Dr. Mauricio Braia.

    “We see compelling market and consumer potential for Michroma’s fungal platform to create next-generation natural ingredients, from colorants to flavors, that are healthier and more sustainable while maximizing production efficiency,” said Noramay Cadena, Supply Change Capital’s Managing Director and Michroma Board Member.

    Michroma's precision fermentation food colorant Red+
    Michroma’s precision fermentation food colorant Red+ | Courtesy

    “We are excited by the speed and skill with which they are building out their capabilities. Even more so, in light of the current disruption of supply chains globally, we believe Michroma is laying the foundation for the sustainable ingredients of the future,” Cadena said.

    Michroma’s tech also addresses concerns about the safety of artificial colors. The company points to Nielsen data that shows 92 percent of consumers are concerned about artificial colors. Products that contain Yellow 6 and Red 40 must include warning labels in the E.U. and are banned in some countries including Norway and Austria because of the connection to some health issues in children including neurobehavioral issues. U.S. regulators have been considerably laxer on warnings and bans on artificial colors, despite consumer interest in safer ingredients.

    The post General Mills Backs $6.4 Million Seed Round for Food Coloring Made From Fungi appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The Jeff Bezos-Backed Vegan Unicorn NotCo Raises $70 Million to Scale Up B2B Tech

    notco milk
    3 Mins Read

    NotCo, the Jeff Bezos-backed Chilean vegan food tech company working with a novel AI tool to develop plant-based milk, meat, and chicken, has announced the closing of a $70 million Series D1.

    With funding led by Princeville Capital and existing backers Jeff Bezos through his Bezos Expeditions, Tiger Global, L Catterton, Kaszek Ventures, Future Positive, and The Craftory, as well as new backers Marcos Galperin, founder and CEO of the largest Latin American tech company, MercadoLibre. The funding underscores the food giant’s $1.5 billion valuation.

    AI-developed vegan food

    NotCo’s AI tech, which it’s dubbed Giuseppe, helps it to identify ingredients that can best mirror the taste, texture, and nutrition profiles of animal products. It recently announced a partnership with Kraft Heinz to bring plant-based versions of some of the brand’s iconic products to market. The first items to launch are vegan cheese slices similar to the popular Kraft Singles.

    Kraft Heinz and NotCo have signed a joint venture agreement earlier this year

    The company’s own brand of products has taken off over the last several years after becoming the first investment of Bezos Expedition in Latin America in 2019. Its product lineup under the ‘Not’ label includes burgers, meat, milk, chicken, mayonnaise, and ice cream available across LATAM countries including Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. It’s also increasing its shelf space in the crowded refrigerated and frozen sets across 10,000 stores in the U.S. It is now the fastest-growing food tech company in Latin America.

    “Since day one, our mission has been to create a more sustainable world, transforming the food industry by creating delicious plant-based food available for all tables, kitchens and pantries,” NotCo co-founder and CEO, Matias Muchnick, said in a statement.

    ‘New, impactful partnerships’

    “Building off the example of our joint venture with Kraft Heinz, we’re excited to develop new, impactful partnerships leveraging our proprietary technology. These partnerships will help diversify and accelerate our impact while scaling the accessibility of truly delicious plant-based options to further propel the industry forward,”Muchnick said.

    NotCo’s vegan mayo was one of its first AI-developed products | Courtesy

    The new funding will fuel NotCo’s new B2B efforts, which it says include other CPG brand partnerships, as well as suppliers and technology providers, enabling them to use the Giuseppe AI.

    “The food industry desperately needs to adopt technology to dramatically accelerate the product development process, reduce cost and address the challenges posed by climate change. NotCo is a very unique company in the food tech space globally with immense potential thanks to the team they have built and its one-of-a-kind AI technology,” said Joaquin Rodriguez Torres, co-founder of Princeville Capital. He also joins NotCo’s board of directors. “It’s rare to find a company with such an incredible track record of success in a short period of time, and we’re excited to help bolster the company’s growth and expansion.”

    The post The Jeff Bezos-Backed Vegan Unicorn NotCo Raises $70 Million to Scale Up B2B Tech appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Why This Company Is Growing Vegetables In Bioreactors Instead of Fields

    a farm

    3 Mins Read

    The nutri-tech start-up Novella is taking a page from cell-based meat production and growing botanical ingredients without the whole plant.

    Israel-based Novella says it’s growing plants in bioreactors in a method similar to cultivated meat, and reducing the inefficiencies of field-based crop production.

    “We don’t need the whole plant to get access to specific bioactive compounds,” Kobi Avidan, CEO and co-founder of Novella, said in a statement. “It also isn’t necessary to discard up to 99 percent of a plant and incur tons of agricultural waste just to derive specific nutrients. We have the technology where we can narrow the harvest of an entire field for its plant essence in a single bioreactor.”

    According to Novella, the traditional “field to bottle” method of producing nutraceuticals involves a long and complex journey that is labor intensive and limited by the reaches of agricultural land. Ingredients are often grown and harvested across the world before reaching their final destination, further complicating the process, making traceability more difficult, and producing more emissions.

    Bypassing the field

    Even as urban farms take foot offering locally-grown fruits and vegetables, Novella says no one has tackled the nutraceuticals arm of botanical micronutrients.

    Rather than growing the whole plant, Novella is identifying plant tissues such as those in stems, fruits, leaves, and flowers. It then pulls a cell culture, just like companies using the tech for growing meat in bioreactors.

    Novella founders
    Novella founders (left to right), Itay Dana, Kobi Avidan, and Shimrit Bar-El

    The result is a powdered botanical product composed of whole-cell and nutrient-rich plant tissue. The process also eliminates exposure to pesticides and herbicides common in field-based agriculture.

    “Growing nutrients outside the plant is actually a simpler process than growing meat cells outside of the cow,” says Avidan. “Moreover, we can now cultivate any ingredient close to the market of interest. This will be instrumental in lowering costs, as well as lightening their ecological footprint.”

    Growing kale bioreactors

    The startup has begun exploring plants including the dark, leafy green vegetable kale, which is used for its range of vitamins and antioxidants.

    “Kale has captured the interest of the functional food, supplement, and pharma industries due to its long list of vitamins and minerals,” says Shimrit Bar-El, PhD, co-founder and CRO of Novella. “But it is very difficult to work with and process. We are specifically exploring the vegetable for its vitamin K and unique carotenoid composition.”

    Courtesy Novella

    Vegetables are often at risk of contamination from bacteria such as E Coli and salmonella — typically the result of run-off from animal agriculture operations.

    Consumers are increasingly demanding products that are microbiologically safe, natural, and without chemical additives, says Itay Dana, B.Sc., MBA, co-founder and BDO for Novella. “There is an increasing demand for natural botanicals, accompanied by incremental rises in prices resulting from a shortage of such products,” Dana says.

    “By shifting the cultivation of popular micronutrients to the lab, the Novella platform can help free up extensive agricultural terrain for rededication to the growth of food crops while making high-value nutraceutical ingredients more readily available at affordable prices.”

    Lead image courtesy Unsplash.

    The post Why This Company Is Growing Vegetables In Bioreactors Instead of Fields appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Vertically-Grown Indoor Wheat Breakthrough Holds Potential To Localize The Global Food System

    wheat field
    3 Mins Read

    A German vertical farming startup has grown wheat without soil in an indoor vertical farming operation—and it’s potentially more efficient than open-field growing.

    Vertical farming is no longer just for salad greens and strawberries. Berlin-based vertical farming startup, Infarm, says its indoor wheat trial has implications for growing at scale.

    The company says it could produce 117 tons of wheat per hectare per year in vertical operations—a number that’s 26 times the yield of conventional open-field growing. Wheat requires more land to produce than any other crop.

    But Infarm is doing it without land, and, notably, without soil. While hydroponic growing methods have been a sore spot for organic food proponents due to the lack of nutrient-rich soil, indoor farming holds significant potential—making food more reliable, accessible, and affordable. Infarm’s success is proof: now valued at more than $1 billion, the company raised $200 million in a Series D funding round last year, bringing its total to more than $600 million, according to Crunchbase.

    Global food security

    “Being able to grow wheat indoors is a milestone for Infarm and of significant importance for global food security, as wheat is a calorie-dense but resource-intense crop that is a core component of diets worldwide,” Erez Galonska, CEO and co-founder of Infarm, said in a statement.

    international day of plants
    Photo by Paz Arando on Unsplash

    The increases in yield came by way of extended growing cycles; Infarm says it can achieve six in a year versus just one for conventional farming. Infarm is still in the early stages of development but says it anticipates being able to increase its yields by more than 50 percent—far outpacing that of conventional field farming.

    The development could play a critical role in the future of food security. Not only does vertical farming promise to be more accessible than some conventional growing methods, while also reducing many of the risks with outdoor growing, which often requires high and heavy doses of pesticides and herbicides, but it could also offer an alternative source to Ukrainian- and Russian-sourced wheat. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put strains on the global wheat supply; the country was among the top global exporters prior to Russia’s attack in February.

    Food for a growing a planet

    “To continue to feed the world’s growing population, we need to achieve higher crop yields which we have now proven to be possible for wheat,” said Guy Galonska, chief technology officer and the co-founder of Infarm. “We are confident that wheat can be grown successfully at scale indoors as a climate-resilient alternative.”

    bread
    Courtesy Pexels

    Infarm’s development could increase production for the staple crop, helping to feed more people by localizing production. Despite the benefits of indoor growing, the sector is energy intensive and can also be costly. But pressure from the increasing global population—which just reached eight billion—and climate change, make food production alternatives all the more critical, especially for staple crops.

    “Our first step is to make governments and financial institutions aware of the tremendous potential of indoor vertical farming to enhance climate resilience and food security,” a spokesperson for Infarm told Just Food. “This will help pave the way for the sector to access government grants and subsidies, in addition to private investment.”

    Lead image courtesy of Pexels.

    The post Vertically-Grown Indoor Wheat Breakthrough Holds Potential To Localize The Global Food System appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Sustainable Chocolate Gets a Boost With Trendlines Investment In Celleste Bio

    Vegan Chocolate Market to Reach $1 Billion By 2027
    3 Mins Read

    With support from Mondelēz International, Barrel Ventures, and Regba Group, along with Trendlines, Celleste Bio is closer to bringing its cell-based chocolate to market.

    New cell-based food tech startup Celleste Bio, which hails from Israel, is out to tackle chocolate’s sustainability and labor issues. The company is producing high-quality cocoa using conventional cell culture methods.

    Cacao trees, which grow in tropical regions across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, are expected to face threats as climate change increases temperatures and impacts growing seasons. The industry is also linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss.

    Chocolate’s not-so-sweet side

    The cocoa industry’s ongoing human rights violations also make alternatives more appealing. Despite pledges from the world’s leading chocolate producers including Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé to ensure their chocolate is free of child labor, problems are ongoing. The industry is also tied to other human rights violations including mistreatment of women, unfair wages, and human trafficking.

    Cell-based chocolate is one potential answer to the industry’s problems. Like the tech replicates animal cells for meat and dairy, Celleste, co-founded by experts in the food tech space Hanne Volpin, PhD, CTO of Celleste, Avishai Levy, MSc,E., Orna Harel, PhD, and Daphna Michaeli, PhD, says it will reproduce cacao cells without the use of genetic modification or manipulation.

    Celleste's Hanne Volpin
    Celleste’s Hanne Volpin | Courtesy

    “We want to offer people the pleasure and health that high-quality cocoa products provide while eliminating the challenges of sustainable production that we face in cocoa production today,” Volpin said in a statement.

    “Trendlines believes that the global need for more sustainable cocoa ingredients today and in the future, represents a tremendous opportunity for all stakeholders,” said Trendlines Agrifood Fund CEO, Nitza Kardish, PhD.

    Disrupting Big Cacao

    Celleste joins several other cocoa alternative producers. Last month, Seminal Biosciences emerged from stealth mode with its precision fermentation cocoa butter that performs just like conventionally grown cocoa butter.

    “In addition to making chocolate more sustainable, with stateside production via bioreactors, this technology will improve the security and reliability for a key ingredient used across a variety of industries,” Alka Roy, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Seminal Biosciences, said in a statement.

    Waim bars
    Waim bars, courtesy WNWN

    U.K.-based WNWN is also working to replace conventional chocolate but it has turned to other plant-based ingredients instead of cell cultures or fermentation. It’s using barley and carob in a process that it says replicates the flavor and mouthfeel of conventional chocolate without all the negatives.

    “Chocolate has a truly dark side with more than a million child laborers estimated to work in Ivory Coast and Ghana, where three-quarters of the world’s cacao is grown, and more CO2 emissions pound for pound than cheese, lamb or chicken,” WNWN CTO Johnny Drain said in a statement earlier this year. “Using fermentation we’re able to create a suite of the same flavor compounds found in cacao. We can dial up certain aromas and even adjust the acidity to bring out notes found in premium single-origin chocolates.”

    Lead image courtesy of Pexels.

    The post Sustainable Chocolate Gets a Boost With Trendlines Investment In Celleste Bio appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Thailand’s Ambitious Plan to Become the ‘Silicon Valley of Food’

    bangkok
    3 Mins Read

    Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA) SPACE-F project is aimed at bringing investment opportunities to the Thai food tech sector and creating the Silicon Valley of food for Southeast Asia.

    According to Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director of NIA, food security has been a challenge around the world in the wake of the pandemic. Likewise, the rapidly increasing global population, climate change, and a decline in agricultural labor, along with food waste, have made food security a “serious issue” that needs to be solved.

    The agency launched the SPACE-F program in 2019 to incubate and accelerate the growth of Thailand’s food tech startups through mentorships, business connections, and co-working programs and it continues its support in scaling up the sector through its 2022 edition of SPACE-F.

    NIA Accelerates Thai FoodTech Startups to Steer Bangkok Towards Becoming FoodTech Silicon Valley Through SPACE-F Project

    Dr. Chairatana points to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 report from the UN, which showed ten percent of the global population—more than 800 million people—are now suffering from hunger.

    Thailand has sufficient raw materials to serve growing demands, Dr. Chairatana says. And it also has a top-notch logistics service. “These attributes make the Thai food industry exceptional and position Thailand as the kitchen of the world,” Dr. Chairatana says. But, he says, utilization of technology and innovation is lacking.

    Accelerating food tech growth

    “Most of the players in the sector are stuck at the SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) level where their focuses are mainly on domestic consumption. The NIA, therefore, stepped in to encourage the use of innovation in this particular industry. Intending to feed the world through innovation, the ‘SPACE-F’ project has initiated in 2019 to incubate and accelerate the growth of FoodTech startups in Thailand,” Dr. Chairatana says.

    “The project brings together FoodTech startups and corporates through innovative mentorship, business connections, and a co-working program. SPACE-F provides a prominent platform to encourage entrepreneurial startups to embrace deep tech and innovation to bring advancement to their business and the food industry. Selected startups then will be mentored to take on Southeast Asian and global markets,” he said.

    The SPACE-F project says it has facilitated a suitable and conducive ecosystem for the development of deep tech for the food industry. Now, it’s looking to encourage the creation of innovative products and services. “Innovative service helps attract joint venture investment, and enhance competitiveness as most competitors are often focused solely on innovative manufacturing,” it says.

    OMG Shrimp launched in August from leading seafood company, Thai Union

    It will continue to provide mentorship for startups through its programs ranging from the Incubator for new face startups and the Accelerator mentorship that speeds the growth of startups by adding value to the existing business.

    A sustainable food system

    With Covid restrictions easing, it’s also looking to attract foreign food techs to Bangkok with funding from Thai companies. “This will enable Thai entrepreneurs and startups to use more of deep-tech, learn international business models, and exchange innovative knowledge that is crucial for the sustainable growth of their food businesses.”

    Innovation is happening from established Thai-based companies, too. Earlier this year, leading seafood producer Thai Union launched a plant-based shrimp alternative.

    “By the end of 2025, the FoodTech industry is expected to be worth 7.76 trillion baht,” Dr. Chairatana said. “And with our vision and commitment to supporting the startup ecosystem, NIA will continue to drive Bangkok towards becoming the Food Silicon Valley,” he said.

    Since SPACE-F launched three years ago, it has mentored more than 50 FoodTech startups. “Graduates from the project are now blossoming and have received continued investment from the private sector, especially the Alternative Proteins,” Dr. Chairatana said. “These new economic warriors will play pivotal roles in shaping the sustainable future of global food security.”

    Lead photo by Evan Krause on Unsplash

    The post Thailand’s Ambitious Plan to Become the ‘Silicon Valley of Food’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Ecovado Targets the Avocado Environmental Impact: Will Consumers Buy It?

    Ecovado

    2 Mins Read

    We all know what happened in February when the U.S. temporarily halted imports of avocados from Mexico just ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. Could a sustainable faux avocado be the answer to that and avocado environmental impact? Meet Ecovado.

    Made from a mixture of broad beans, hazelnuts, apples, and canola oil, a Central Saint Martins graduate has created Ecovado—an alternative to avocados that are supposed to mimic its flavor and texture without the environmental footprint.

    Are avocados sustainable?

    Avocados, like almonds, are inherently water-intensive— it takes between 1,000 and 2,000 liters of water to produce just one kilo of avocados. While many mature avocado trees can sustain themselves off of ground and rainwater, the demand for avocados sees a constant influx of new tree plantings. And parts of Mexico, which grows the majority of U.S. avocados, are in a major drought. Monterrey, Mexico, which is home to the chili peppers used in the popular sriracha hot sauce, recently put severe water restrictions in place for the city’s five million residents.

    Photo of Ecovados lying on a sun-dappled table
    A whole nut in place of the pit

    Arina Shokouhi, who developed the Ecovado, says while the trendy avocado is healthy and delicious, it is also one of the most unsustainable crops, “because of their delicate, easy-to-bruise nature, and the plantation-style monoculture farms required to meet the global demand for avocados are driving the deforestation of some of the most diverse landscapes in the world.”

    Ecovado

    Shokouhi developed the Ecovado for her final-year project, working with the University of Nottingham’s Food Innovation Centre to identify the exact chemical makeup of avocados. The goal was to use ingredients local to the U.K. to replicate the warm-weather fruit.

    Photo of a tray of Ecovados in a supermarket trolley
    Buy Ecovado by the case without risk of spoiling

    “The flavour of avocado is quite subtle and, overall, is most often described as ‘creamy’,” Shokouhi told Dezeen. “On the other hand, broad beans can contain quite a lot of bitter compounds called tannins and can have a beany flavour caused by lipoxygenase.”

    “To reduce the bitterness, we reduced the amount of broad beans in the recipe,” she continued. “The flavour of avocado has been described as ‘nutty’. So we used creamed hazelnuts which would bring a good amount of fat, adding to the creaminess.”

    The Ecovado even comes in a realistic, sustainable skin made from wax which can be upcycled into a candle, Shokouhi says.

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  • Israel Startup Bringing Its Plant-Based Sunny-Side-Up And Poached Eggs To US Restaurants

    4 Mins Read

    Israeli food tech startup Yo! Egg has announced it will be launching into U.S. restaurants later this year. Its sunny-side-up and poached eggs are claimed to be the world’s first, by company CEO Eran Groner. The whole-egg analogues are already served in an Israeli breakfast chain and a U.S. debut is just around the corner.

    U.S. restauranteurs will get their first experience of Yo! Egg at the National Restaurant Association trade show, held next week in Chicago. The company anticipates having its whole egg alternatives on Los Angeles menus by the end of the year. Alongside a domestic restaurant chain, Yo! Egg claims that its products are served in Google and Facebook offices, hotels and other foodservice outlets in Israel.

    Yo! Egg

    The case for animal-free eggs

    The global egg market is expected to reach $297.47 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of seven percent. If this comes about, it will demonstrate increasing demand for laid products that are supporting unsustainable production methods. In contrast, the plant-based egg sector is slated to hit $791.356 million by 2027, with a CAGR of just over 27 percent. Comparing the growth trajectories, there is a clear winner, marking a shift in consumer habits.

    Motivation for seeking alternatives to poultry eggs are largely considered to be health-related, due to the increased risk of heart disease that comes from consuming LDL cholesterol and high levels of saturated fat. Environmental issues play an increasingly large role as well. Groner sought to tackle both when he set out to create Yo! Egg, in 2019.

    Already working within the food tech sector for 20 years, he identified a gap in the market for plant-based egg and seafood options. Learning about the water consumption required to produce eggs (53 gallons per single unit), he focussed his attention on solving the issue. His starting point was removing animals from the equation altogether.

    Yo! Egg chooses whole egg analogues, not liquid substitutes

    Together with his co-founders, Yosefa Ben Cohen and Nisim Ben Cohen, Groner sidestepped the usual liquid egg route. The startup looked to solve the more difficult problem of replacing the whole egg experience, with a white and a runny yolk. It did so to take the top spot in the egg sector.

    “Our vision is to create the world’s largest egg company, not egg alternative company, and not the largest plant-based egg company, but the largest egg company without using chickens,” Groner told Tech Crunch. “If we want to do that, we have to move as quickly as possible. That was the main reason why we wanted to raise venture capital.”

    Yo! Egg confirms that it has secured $5 million in seed funding, in a round led by Stray Dog Capital and NFX. Surround Ventures and Secret Chord Ventures both participated alongside. With products full developed and ready to showcase in Chicago, the funding will be used to ramp up production. 

    “With over 95 billion eggs consumed every year in the U.S., and each egg requiring 53 gallons of water to produce, we need a better solution,” Stray Dog Capital partner Jonny Ream said in a statement. “After tasting Yo! Egg, we knew that this company could change the world. We are proud to support their work and excited to see their eggs on menus everywhere.”

    The company aims to be manufacturing 50,000 plant-based eggs per day, once infrastructure improvements are completed. Alongside, new product developments are slated for near-future R&D activities. These will include vegan hard-boiled eggs, scrambled options and baking ingredients for home kitchens.

    Yo! Egg

    Cracking the plant-based egg market

    Earlier this month, Indian plant-based egg startup Evo Foods revealed it is working with Gingko Bioworks to improve its products. The latter will be supplying animal-free egg proteins to heighten the overall experience of consuming Evo’s egg analogues. The company recently debuted what it claims is the world’s first heat-stable vegan boiled egg. It was developed after a $1 million pre-seed funding round in 2021, which supported R&D efforts. 

    Over in Japan, Kewpie, famous for its mayonnaise, unveiled a vegan scrambled egg dish called Hobotama. Created using soy milk, the new line is the company’s first move into the vegan egg sector. It is significant due to Kewpie being the largest processor of conventional eggs in Japan, where each citizen is estimated to eat around 320 a year.

    All photos by Yo! Egg.

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: “NFPs” From Meatless Farms, Impossible Sausage Links, Vegan Butterbeer

    5 Mins Read The latest initiative around food-focused non-fungible tokens (NFTs) comes courtesy of vegan meat brand Meatless Farm, which is currently offering fans a pea farm allotment through the tokens. Elsewhere, Impossible has launched new sausage links that “snap” like the real thing, and health-conscious Harry Potter fans are petitioning for vegan Butterbeer. UK: Meatless Farm launches […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Andrew Zimmerman Joins TiNDLE, Willicroft & InnovoPro Launch Fondue

    4 Mins Read Andrew Zimmerman recently threw his chef’s hat in the plant-based protein ring when he joined Next Gen Foods’ TiNDLE brand as an advisor. Elsewhere in news this week, Willicroft teamed up with InnovoPro to launch vegan fondue and new products from No Evil Foods, Unreal Deli, and Hell Pizza launched. Singapore: Celeb Chef Andrew Zimmerman […]

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  • The Week in Plant-Based: Enkla Kassen Raises €1M, Mr. Charlie’s Veganizes McDonald’s

    5 Mins Read From a popup vegan chocolate store to a vegan version of McDonald’s to blind tastings at a meat festival, this week’s news items are full of alternative protein companies’s unusual and sometimes wacky ways to turn more consumers onto plant-based proteins. Meanwhile, Swedish meal kit company Enkla kassen hit a milestone with both a new […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Impossible Joins Delta Airlines Menu, PeaTos Launches Vegan ‘Cheetos’

    4 Mins Read It’s been a week loaded with news about vegan cheese products. Primula, Daiya, and PeaTos all announced new products, the latter of them being a fully plant-based take on Cheetos. Elsewhere, Delta added more plant-based items to its in-flight menu courtesy of Impossible and others, and London’s vegan restaurant scene has a couple more mainstays […]

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  • Mexico’s Micro Meat Launches To Offer Cultivated Meat Manufacturers A New Way To Scale

    4 Mins Read Micro Meat, Mexico’s first cultivated meat startup, Micro Meat, has launched to offer key foundational tech for the growing cellular agriculture industry. The startup, which is based in Monterrey and co-founded by a tissue engineer and a space systems engineer, claims it is developing a proprietary scaffolding system that will revolutionise the cultivated meat sector, […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Fuddruckers, Goiko Add Vegan Menu Items, Heura Debuts The Choribuger

    4 Mins Read Comfort foods ruled the plant-based newsfeed this week with QSR chains and CPG companies alike debuting vegan takes on classic items around the world. Fuddruckers in the US and Goiko in Spain added plant-based items to their menus while Heura, also in Spain, unveiled the world’s first vegan chorizo burger and Good Planet rolled out […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: CHKP Yogurt Debuts, Chufa-Based Chocolate At Harrods Food Hall

    4 Mins Read Startups around the world are now leveraging the power of chickpea protein to craft meat, egg, and dairy alternatives, and the latest to do so is a company out of Israel called CHKP Foods. Elsewhere in vegan news, iconic department store Harrods has new plant-based desserts and IHOP just unveiled a new breakfast sandwich that […]

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  • Yali Bio Brings ‘Designer Fats’ To The Table For Enhanced Plant-Based Meat And Dairy Developments

    3 Mins Read Californian startup Yali Bio was founded in 2021 to help improve the taste of plant-based food by focusing on fat. The company says that tempting meat eaters away from their favourite dishes is hard and this is because they expect a level of authenticity that many products can’t offer. The company’s hope is that their […]

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  • Regulatory Approval For Alt-Protein, Report: The EU Faces ‘A Barrier,’ The US Is ‘Winning’

    4 Mins Read A new report neatly summarizes the state of regulatory approvals for alternative protein products around the world in just a few pages.  Spain’s Amgen, which provides regulatory advice and consulting to companies working in the alternative protein space, recently unveiled a new report that tracks the status of alt-protein regulatory approvals in various parts of […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Singapore’s Top 50 Vegan Dishes, Plant-Based Pizza From Hell, The Search For Britain’s Greenest School Lunch

    4 Mins Read It was another busy week for plant-based protein startups around the world. Perhaps most notably, UK-based Meatless Farms teamed up with the country’s youngest vegan chef to help more schools build healthier lunch menus. Elsewhere, v2 Foods debuted menu items in Hell (Pizza, that is), and passionate diners in Singapore picked their top vegan dishes […]

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  • Voyage Foods: The Company Making Chocolate, Peanut Butter And Coffee Without Cacao, Peanuts or Labour Scandals

    4 Mins Read Budding Californian CPG Voyage Foods has emerged from stealth development to announce the successful reverse engineering of certain favourite foods. The food tech is focussed on reproducing items considered unsustainable, allergen-heavy or vulnerable to supply issues, as the climate crisis worsens. So far it has created chocolate, peanut butter and coffee. Founder Adam Maxwell, formerly […]

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  • The Week In Plant Based: Whole30 Goes Vegan, Egg Alternatives From Plant B, Ogg

    4 Mins Read Travel ’round the world each week with Green Queen as we round up the latest new from plant-based food and bev companies. This week, US wellness brand Whole30 has a new development on the vegan front. Elsewhere, egg alternatives are hatching everywhere and another celebrity chef turns to plant-based foods. US: Whole30 launches a plant-based […]

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  • The Week In Plant Based: Gaia’s Farming Co. Makes Hemp Milk Debut, Vegan Babybel In The US, Meatless Wings For The Super Bowl

    5 Mins Read The vegan news never stops, and this week, in addition to covering the latest roundup of new alt-protein products, we put the spotlight on a brand-new company. UK-based biotech startup Gaia’s Farming Co. just launched with a new take on the oat milk concept for British consumers. Across the Atlantic, Americans are gearing up for […]

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  • UK Makes First Tentative Step To Join The Global Sustainable Protein Race With Post-Brexit Report

    3 Mins Read The U.K. Government has published a paper entitled ‘The Benefits of Brexit’. The 100-page report has included one six-line paragraph alluding to potential novel food regulation updates. A review of existing regulations appears underway based on the report. The food paragraph pledges the government to work with the Food Standards Agency to ‘update the process […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: 2Foods Raises $4.4M For Healthy Junk Food, Vegan Pet Food Co. Wild Earth Nabs $10M, Oatly Ads Banned

    4 Mins Read The vegan news never stops! Each week, the Green Queen team dives into the latest developments for plant-based foods around the world so you can catch up on what’s happening across the industry. This week, Japan’s 2Foods announced a Series A funding round for its “healthy junk food,” while vegan pet food brand Wild Earth secured […]

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  • ‘It’s Not About Overnight Results’: A New DEI Program Means Designed For Food Tech Leaders Wants Startups To Build Better, More Diverse Teams

    4 Mins Read Vegan Women Summit (VWS) has announced a new leadership initiative, to be run alongside Black History Month. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Program is designed for key figures and leaders within the plant-based and food tech industries. The course will run through May 2022 with the intention of empowering businesses to create growth through […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Beyond Meat And Pepsi Recreate Jerky With Plants, Hong Kong Gets A New Vegan Brand

    4 Mins Read The vegan news never stops! Each week, the Green Queen team dives into the latest developments for plant-based foods around the world so you can catch up on what’s happening across the industry. This week, PepsiCo and Beyond Meat launch a vegan-friendly snack, frozen food giant Tee Yih Jia takes its plant-based brand to Hong Kong, and […]

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  • Vegan Strongman Patrik Baboumian Throws His Weight Behind UK’s GREENFORCE Vegan Meat

    3 Mins Read German vegan food tech startup GREENFORCE has arrived in the U.K. Founded in 2020 by Thomas Isermann in Munich, its official U.K. launch follows trial availability of plant-based meat items. Consumers can order a range of powder-to-meat food mixes for home delivery. All products are certified vegan and developed to minimise food waste.  Vegan strongman […]

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  • Planteneers Take New Digital Configurator Live To Slash Development Times For Plant-Based Products

    3 Mins Read German R&D company Planteneers has unveiled a new configurator. The ‘Plantbaser’ has been designed for use by food manufacturers. The platform allows new product ideas to go from concept to prototype in as little as two weeks. Samples are sent out straight away to further quicken progress. The Plantbaser allows animal-free food producers to take […]

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  • Singapore Scientists Create Plant-Based Emulsifier To Supersede Eggs And Dairy

    3 Mins Read Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has announced a plant-based breakthrough. A team of its scientists has successfully developed a protein and antioxidant-rich emulsifier. It is free from traditional eggs and dairy. Preliminary findings show it could replace animal products in relevant food products. Mayonnaise and whipped cream were given as examples.  The NTU emulsifier […]

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  • The Week In Plant-Based: Oddlygood Bags $28M, Beyond Meat Hires A New Manager, McPlant Gets Wall Street Speculating

    3 Mins Read The vegan news never stops! Each week, the Green Queen team dives into the latest developments for plant-based foods around the world so you can catch up on what’s happening across the industry, from new products to special collabs and more. This week, a Finnish plant-based meat-maker closes its first-ever funding round, Beyond Meat gets […]

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  • Foodtech Startup Beet Launches Delivery App to Make Plant-Based Eating Easier

    3 Mins Read YOUR BEET is a female-founded platform, originating in Melbourne. The platform aims to make plant-based eating and aligning with climate-friendly ideas simple. Personal and planetary health are given priority, with users able to order nutritionally balanced food direct from an app. The startup recently closed a successful SEK 6 million funding round. Little is known […]

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