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Category: Future Foods

  • Opinion: To Win in AI, We Need to Win in Alternative Proteins

    7 Mins Read

    Robert Dupree, general partner at VC firm Alwyn Capital, argues that future foods and alternative proteins are key to winning the AI race.

    If artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be the new determining factor for global hegemony, then energy dominance, food security, and water resilience must combine into a single integrated national security priority.

    Securing a stable food supply is integral to defending national interests. A disrupted food system not only endangers public well-being but also undermines military readiness and economic stability, two pillars of national power. Alternative proteins can help build redundancy into our food system and will help to reduce vulnerability. 

    The US faces a growing array of security threats from China. As food, water, and energy become critical choke points, alternative protein R&D acts as a strategic hedge, ensuring US soldiers and citizens remain fed without requiring a massive resource footprint while maintaining traditional US farms and agriculture.

    Alternative proteins are food ingredients created to replace or complement conventional animal-derived proteins. They include cell-based meat, precision fermentation, plant-based proteins, and molecular farming. Each is leveraging different technologies to produce sustainable, scalable, and functionally equivalent protein sources. 

    The climate problem plaguing AI and data centres

    ai climate change
    Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva

    AI is the ultimate force multiplier, but it requires stable power and water. Both the US and China are scrambling to shore up these resources, and whoever integrates them first wins the AI race. As Chris Wright stated during his confirmation hearings: “The security of our nation begins with energy.”

    What he was referring to is the energy needed to win the AI race against China. To run high-fidelity models, AI needs data centres, and data centres need lots of power. The power required for data centres alone will need to double by 2030, and President Trump is pushing to accelerate that timeline. 

    The US has invested $328.5B in AI. It is unlikely that China will be able to outspend us, but they will continue to limit our progress through halting exports of raw materials needed for chips and energy storage.

    China has prioritised energy creation and brought its cost to below $0.08/kilowatt-hour, half that of the US, and they are masters of doing more with less. Deepseek has demonstrated that China is surpassing us by developing its model at a lower cost and without relying on high-performance chips.

    China has prioritised building energy infrastructure, while the US energy industry has lagged. Building energy sources with speed and efficiency will be critical for the next several years in the US.

    Small Modular Reactors take two to three years to construct, while larger nuclear reactors need five to seven years to build. The new Alaskan LNG pipeline won’t be delivered until 2031.

    While China restricts exports of antimony and other rare earth materials, the scale of renewables like solar will be limited. Those timelines don’t work for doubling power within five years.

    In contrast, a new shale gas well (the main energy source for the US) can be drilled and brought online in as little as a few weeks. That means we will be looking at doubling shale capacity to double our current power output and meet the demands of data centres. To do this, we need roughly 140,000 shale gas wells by 2030. As President Trump promises, the US will “drill, baby drill”.

    During this period of power and data centre expansion, access to water resources will be essential. A new vertical shale gas well requires around two to four million gallons of water, and one data centre uses over three million gallons of water a day. This surge in demand will intensify pressure on all other water-intensive industries. 

    Farmers vs AI

    factory farming water pollution
    Courtesy: Budimir Jevtic

    Currently, half of the water from the Colorado River goes to agriculture, and most of that goes to growing feed for animals. Data centres and their energy sources will be in direct competition for this crucial water supply. Furthermore, states with the most farm revenue are also the ones targeting new data centres with tax incentives. This pits farm interests against AI development. 

    The amount of water the US uses for animal feed is astronomical. Corn is the leading feed grain in the US, representing more than 95% of the total feed grain production. In 2024, US corn production was estimated at 14.9 billion bushels. One bushel of corn requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce, and producing 14.9 billion bushels requires 37.25 trillion gallons.

    In 2016, the total water consumption by the US livestock sector was 72.65 trillion gallons. In 2021, Google’s data centres consumed over three billion gallons of water, by 2023, that usage had doubled to six billion gallons.

    Our water resources are heavily strained and in short supply. Arkansas aquifers are being depleted at an alarming rate, as is the largest US aquifer, the Ogallala Aquifer. As previously mentioned, our short-term energy supply will likely come from shale gas that will require two to four million gallons of water per new well.

    US aquifers are already experiencing strain from data centres and agriculture, and the increased demand will see the US water supply further stressed. Cattle require immense amounts of water, water that is needed for AI innovation. Thus, it will be crucial for the US to promote domestic protein production that requires less water.

    On top of being resource-intensive, cattle are slow to replace. The cattle cycle typically spans about 10 years from low point to low point. As of January, the US cattle inventory stands at 86.7 million heads, marking its lowest level since 1951. Given this stage in the cycle and the current low inventory levels, investing in alternative proteins will serve as a prudent strategy to mitigate potential supply disruptions and market volatility. 

    In addition to beef, the egg market volatility has been affecting the US consumer for the last three years. Egg prices are at a record high due to Avian Flu outbreaks, which have decimated the US chicken population – nearly 170 million birds have been lost over the last two years.

    If the chicken and cattle industries were depleted, it would take 1.5 and two to three years, respectively, under optimal conditions, to get flocks and herds back to current levels. Alternative proteins allow for faster production and shorter lead times – many alternative proteins can be produced in a matter of days or weeks. 

    Dealing with disruptions

    beef prices
    Consumer price index for beef | Courtesy: Bureau of Labor Statistics

    In 2023, the US suffered crop losses totalling $21B due to storms. A major storm, combined with a failing power infrastructure, limited resources for farms and factories, and storm-related delays, could cripple the economy of a country facing an isolationist policy.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins expects significant challenges for farmers and has committed to providing financial support to help them navigate the impact. This underscores the administration’s recognition that our food supply will face increasing disruptions. 

    The USDA predicts beef imports will continue at record prices for the next couple of years. As the US cattle herd has declined, beef imports, mainly from Canada and Mexico, have surged, doubling since 2013 and exposing vulnerabilities in our supply chain.

    We are already seeing delays in cocoa and coffee production due to weather, leading to shortages and record-high prices. As more commodities fall victim to changing climate patterns, we will experience additional shortages and major disruptions in the US food system.

    Since JBS, the world’s largest beef producer, and Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the US, are both foreign-owned, relying on overseas control of such critical industries could further complicate the supply chain. 

    Alternative proteins will alleviate the burden of securing reliable protein and reinforce our national security in an increasingly uncertain world. Establishing alternative proteins as a backstop, especially if the current trade war with China enters an extended period, will help to secure a stable US food supply. 

    Global dominance now hinges on AI, which in turn relies on both water and energy, resources that are increasingly scarce, making water a critical strategic asset. Feedstock for animal agriculture is one of the largest consumers of our water supply. Clinging to outdated systems vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, trade conflicts, and resource competition puts the US at a strategic disadvantage.

    Alternative proteins, by contrast, require less water, are produced more quickly, and can be non-GMO, minimally processed, and free from vaccines or antibiotics.

    To secure global hegemony, the US must embrace alternative proteins as a strategic hedge.

    The post Opinion: To Win in AI, We Need to Win in Alternative Proteins appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Flora Ventures’s Gil Horsky

    gil horsky
    3 Mins Read

    In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

    Gil Horky is the Founding Managing Partner at Flora Ventures.

    What future food technologies most excite you?

    1. The usage of peptides to deliver new functional benefits in food and supplements
    2. New sustainable and efficient cold-chain technologies to extend route-to-market and food freshness
    3. Blockchain and its applications in food transparency

    What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?

    1. Weight Management: The GLP-1 pharma market is exploding, but access remains out of reach for many due to hefty prices and unpleasant side effects, creating a massive opportunity for the food industry to step in.
    2. Supply Chain: Supply chain resiliency within the food chain is increasingly important due to climate change, geopolitical disruptions, and the most recent, crazy tariff war. 
    3. Longevity: Longevity and nutrition are deeply intertwined, and we will see new food and supplement products tailored to promote longevity,

    What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

    Globally highlighting the dialogue around the urgent need to fix our global system.

    If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

    Sadly, I think that even a magic wand can’t fix it, because the majority of existing products have not delivered on the expectations of consumers and investors. There was just too much hype with overpromising (and underdelivering) products in this segment.

    What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

    Grit, and the ability to fundraise.

    The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?

    Foreverland. I worked for many years in the chocolate industry for Mondelēz, and I love their carob-based ‘chocolate-like’ products – tasty and sustainable.

    What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

    It is a very exciting investment we made in a stealth startup in the GLP-1 space. The technology is cutting edge and led by a stellar serial entrepreneur.

    What has been your most disappointing investment so far?

    So far, none. I, of course, wish that some investments would progress faster.

    What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

    That it is not as glamorous as it looks like. Similar to entrepreneurs, fund managers are spending a significant amount of their time fundraising from LPs and managing the administrative aspects of running a fund (reporting, compliance, legal, etc.). More importantly, delivering outlier returns (which is what counts at the end) is damn hard.

    What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

    I tasted some chocolate made with cell-based cacao.

    Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

    Noma Projects. Had the privilege to visit them last year – not only super tasty products, but also using a very thoughtful approach on the sustainable footprint of their ingredients and processes .

    What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

    I truly love the food industry, I worked in it most of my entire career and cherished every moment of it. Food is ingrained in human culture and emotions, and everyone has an opinion or something to say about it. But it is also the industry with the biggest impact and potential return on human and planetary health.

    The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Flora Ventures’s Gil Horsky appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • As Sales Slide Again in ‘Disappointing’ Q1, Beyond Meat Nets $100M in Debt Funding

    beyond meat q1 2025
    7 Mins Read

    Beyond Meat saw year-on-year revenue drop by 9% in what it termed “clearly a disappointing” Q1 2025, and announced a $100M debt financing deal to shore up its liquidity.

    Following two consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue growth, Beyond Meat’s revenues fell by 9% in Q1 2025, largely driven by “broader macroeconomic concerns and reduced consumer confidence” in the US.

    The company netted $69M in the first 12 weeks of the year, while posting a gross loss of $1.1M (compared to a gross profit of $3.7M in the corresponding period in 2024). Its operating expenses, meanwhile, narrowed by $2M, and its net losses were down by 2.6%.

    Beyond Meat said it was “experiencing an elevated level of uncertainty within its operating environment”, which has forced it to withdraw its full-year forecast and limit its outlook to Q2 only, where it expects net revenues between $80-85M.

    Founder and CEO Ethan Brown said the quarter was “clearly a disappointing one” as the firm felt the effects of worsening category conditions and macroeconomic headwinds. He blamed the move by several retailers to shift plant-based meat from the refrigerated section to the freezers, which impacted the availability of some of its core products during the quarter.

    Concurrently, the company secured $100M in debt financing from Unprocessed Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, a non-profit advancing plant-based diets. It is the latest in a series of investments and acquisitions made by the organisation or its affiliates lately, including Eat Just, Wicked Kitchen, Simulate, and Blackbird Foods.

    “This facility provides us with additional liquidity as we advance our strategic priorities and invest opportunistically to help us drive our growth plans,” said Brown, whose firm has a $1.1M debt thanks to a convertible note that will mature in 2027.

    “In addition to securing access to this substantial new financing, we are continuing to evaluate opportunities to further strengthen our balance sheet and best position our business for the future,” he added.

    US sales slump a concern for Beyond Meat

    beyond meat sales
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    In the first quarter, Beyond Meat’s largest revenue decline came in US foodservice, where its sales were down by 23.5%. CFO Lubi Kutua said while the company expect headwinds to continue in this channel in the coming months, its newly built foodservice team in the country will “begin to pay dividends soon”.

    “We’ve done better historically in the non-commercial space – universities, hospitals, things like that. But we’ve now really started to focus on that commercial space again,” he said. “I don’t think you should expect us to pick up a massive name QSR in the US right now. But we’re focusing more on that smaller national account, and we are making some progress there. And you’ll hear some fun stuff or encouraging news as we progress through the year.”

    Its performance in domestic retail wasn’t much better, as revenues shrank by 15%, primarily due to a decrease in product volumes amid “weak category demand”. Its distribution was impacted by the migration to the frozen section in several supermarkets.

    Internationally, Beyond Meat’s sales sustained in retail, reaching $12.7M (a 1% hike from Q1 2024). This channel was affected by a decrease in volumes, mainly due to low sales of its ground beef products. Kutua ascribed this to a “packaging transition led to some disruption and limited loss of distribution for those items”.

    Sales jumped by 12% in the company’s global foodservice channel, thanks in large part to increased sales of its vegan chicken to a QSR customer. Beyond Meat cited the same reason when explaining the 9% increase in this channel in the previous quarter too.

    “In the absence of further worsening category and macroeconomic trends, we expect overall volume as well as the volume of our core products to improve as we gain back retail distribution and benefit from seasonality, putting us in a better position to actually realise the planned benefits of a more efficient and appropriately sized production footprint,” Brown told analysts in earnings call.

    Misinformation drives short film and new marketing drive

    meat misinformation
    The meat industry has used the tobacco playbook to spread misinformation | Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    The Beyond Meat CEO highlighted two overarching factors behind Beyond Meat’s disappointing Q1 performance: distribution and misinformation.

    “While Beyond Meat can always and will always seek to improve our products, we believe the central issue impeding our return to sustained growth is perception. Or more accurately, misperception,” he said.

    “If we look inward, our highest priority is driving operating and margin improvements. Externally, our highest priority is on dispelling misinformation and empowering the consumer to make informed decisions around our products,” he added.

    The number of Americans trying to consume more protein has been steadily increasing in the US, from 59% in 2022 and 67% in 2023 to 71% in 2024. Brown believes Beyond Meat “should be a central part of satisfying consumer interest for protein”, but it needs to reestablish itself “within their decision set”. “Beyond’s value proposition remains obscured in doubt and misinformation,” he said.

    To counter that narrative, the company released a 10-minute short film, Planting Change, last month, featuring interviews with medical and nutrition experts like Stanford professor Dr Christopher Gardner (who was behind the famous ‘twin study‘ featured in Netflix’s You Are What You Eat) and dietitian Joy Bauer.

    Now, the company has launched a new marketing campaign titled Real People, Real Results, which features the experiences of six people of different ages as they shift to a healthy plant-based diet that includes Beyond Meat. The programme is designed by Forks Over Knives co-authors Matthew Lederman and Alona Pulde.

    “From lower total cholesterol, lower LDL cholesterol, to weight loss, better sleep, higher energy levels, and lower inflammation, Real People, Real Result participants reported exciting benefits of a plant-based diet that includes our products,” said Brown.

    Beyond Meat escaping ‘intense pressure cooker’, says CEO

    Misinformation has become a recurring theme in Beyond Meat’s earnings call, and not by choice. The rise of carnivorism and the manosphere has pushed a lot of crap about the food system on our social media feeds. Americans eat way more meat than they’re supposed to, and even though they recognise its ill effects on the planet, they spent more on it last year than ever before.

    Big Beef has been ultra-successful in its misinformation campaigns. The industry spent over $4M on lobbying efforts in 2024, and has been creating and sponsoring educational materials for children.

    Combine that with the growing discontent with ultra-processed food, which has only magnified since the arrival of Robert F Kennedy Jr as the health secretary. All this has directly impacted the bottom line of plant-based meat producers. Beyond Meat isn’t an outlier – overall meat alternative sales fell by 7% in the US last year.

    RFK Jr has also been an advocate of regenerative farming, which can have several benefits for soil and nature. Meanwhile, climate activists have sounded the alarm about the misuse of this term by the beef industry as a greenwashing tactic. Brown himself criticised this in the previous earnings call, suggesting that “any serious scientists around regenerative beef will tell you that’s just a non-starter”.

    He remains optimistic about the “hard work” Beyond Meat has done to clear up misinformation. “If you think about where we were two years ago, it was kind of the height of this intense misinformation campaign where there’s something wrong with the ingredients, there’s the process and so on and so forth. And we still have some of that,” he said.

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

    “But you can feel it waning a little bit and it’s more of the truth starting to come out,” he added, explaining how its products’ certifications around heart health and diabetes nutrition have helped it counter the negative narrative created “not [just] by the meat industry, but also by the pharmaceutical industry, who didn’t want to lose sales from selling antibiotics to livestock”.

    “We kind of made it through that really intense pressure cooker,” Brown said.

    Speaking of pressure, Kutua confirmed that the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are, at the moment, “relatively minimal”. Beyond Meat, which last year had reportedly been in talks with bondholders to restructure its debt, continues to evaluate further deals to address the debt, and will benefit from the $100M loan by the Ahimsa Foundation.

    “The overall macro environment is challenging for alt-protein, but we are confident of the leadership and the outlook,” the non-profit’s president, Shaleen Shah, told Bloomberg News. “This is the right side of the history. The way animals are grown and processed is unsustainable, and alt-protein is the way forward.”

    The post As Sales Slide Again in ‘Disappointing’ Q1, Beyond Meat Nets $100M in Debt Funding appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Science Museum, Fermented Rapeseed & Shifting Shelves

    science museum future of food
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers the Science Museum’s future food exhibit, Beyond Steak’s UK debut, and a Dutch public-private plant-based partnership.

    New products and launches

    In London, the Science Museum will host a Future of Food exhibit from July 24, featuring Aleph Farms‘s cultivated beef steak, the oldest sample of Quorn‘s burger from 1981, Clean Food Group‘s yeast-derived palm oil alternative, and more.

    lab grown beef
    Courtesy: Science Museum Group

    British YouTubers James Marriott and Will Lenney (aka Willne) have launched Rodd’s, a dairy-free ready-to-drink brand featuring an iced latte, waffle latte, and a vanilla matcha latte, all made with oat milk. They’re available at 300 Sainsbury’s stores for £2.20 per 250ml bottle.

    Rude Health has released a “clean deck” iced coffee range, with its Oat Latte Iced Coffee and Mocha Iced Coffee aiming to address ultra-processing fears. They’re available for £3.75 per 750ml pack.

    In more oat milk news from the UK, new startup Via Nature has rolled out Oat Shaker, a line described as a “snack in a bottle”. It comes in Banana & Coconut, Matcha & Pineapple and Blueberry & Açaí flavours, and can be found at Sainsbury’s for £4 per 750ml.

    beyond steak uk
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Beyond Meat‘s vegan steak pieces have made it into the UK, rolling out at 650 Tesco stores to align with British Sandwich Week (May 19-25), priced at £4.50 per 160g pack.

    Vegan chocolate maker NOMO has released Salted Popcorn and Birthday Cake flavours in UK supermarkets, which are available in 32g and 127g bars, respectively.

    New Zealand-based Nutrition from Water has released a Ready-To-Bake Sponge Cake Premix from its Marine Whey 50 algae protein.

    vegan french butter
    Courtesy: Maison Linotte/Meawnamcat/Getty Images

    French luxury pastry maker Maison Linotte has unveiled Purely, a premium vegan butter for professionals and baking enthusiasts. Described as a clean-label product, it contains no palm oil and can be used as a 1:1 replacement for dairy butter. It has a neutral flavour and colour, and reduces emissions by 82%.

    Italian almond-based cheesemaker Dreamfarm has debuted vegan Ciliegine, or mini mozzarella balls, at the TuttoFood fair in Milan. They will roll out at Esselunga stores, with each 120g pack containing 12 balls.

    Also in the non-dairy world, Canada’s Daiya has reformulated its cream cheese and Deluxe Mac & Cheese lines with its new fermented oat cream. It has also added a Cinnamon Twist flavour to the former range.

    daiya cream cheese
    Courtesy: Daiya

    And in the US, Dr. Praeger’s is launching two frozen vegan snacks – Taco Stars and Ranch Crunchy Veggie Fries – at Target stores this month.

    Policy, company and finance developments

    Belgium’s Bolder Foods, which was working on a mycelium ingredient for better vegan cheese, has ceased operations after failing to close its funding round.

    In the Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research, Jumbo, Intersnack Group, Alpro, HAK, and The Vegetarian Butcher have launched a two-year public-private partnership called Shifting Shelves, which aims to increase the uptake of plant-based meat and dairy, legumes, and nuts via literature reviews, consumer research, and virtual and in-store supermarket tests.

    shifting shelves
    Courtesy: Jumbo

    Berlin-based startup Cultimate Foods has received funding from the Investitionsbank Berlin, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, to scale up its cultivated animal fat.

    Denmark’s Ferm Food has earned EU authorisation to sell its fermented rapeseed cake as a food ingredient. A byproduct of canola oil production, it contains 28-30% protein and can be used in bread, cakes, and plant-based products.

    ferm food
    Courtesy: Ferm Food

    Abhay Rangan, co-founder and former CEO of Indian plant-based dairy startup One Good (now part of Nourish You), has joined German cultivated milk startup Senara as its chief business officer.

    Finally, UK tempeh brand Better Nature has hired Helen Atkinson as its new head of sales. She has previously worked at Dr Oetker, Noble Foods and Bel Group.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Science Museum, Fermented Rapeseed & Shifting Shelves appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Mycelium Protein Firm Meati to Be Sold for $4M After Bank-Induced Crisis

    meati layoffs
    4 Mins Read

    Embattled alternative protein firm Meati Foods is set to sell for just $4M after an unprecedented financial crisis that turned the business on its head.

    Two months after a bank swept most of its cash reserves in an unexpected move, Colorado-based mycelium meat maker Meati Foods is preparing for a sale worth $4M.

    The deal was disclosed in filings to the Adams County District Court on May 2, with CEO Phil Graves assigning the firm’s assets to attorney Aaron Garber. It’s expected to be sold to a new company called Meati Holdings, though the filing did not provide any other information about the buyer, according to BusinessDen, which first reported the news.

    Garber wrote that the $4M sale would “preserve the operational value of the company, maximise recovery for creditors, and reduce collateral damage to stakeholders and interested parties when compared to a liquidation”.

    Meati, which listed $158M in assets, has asked a judge to allow the buyer to run the company even before the sale closes. It is unclear how this affects its employees and facilities. Meati declined to comment when approached by Green Queen.

    The $4M valuation is far below its $650M valuation in the $150M Series C funding round in 2022. Last year, the firm added another $100M via a Series C1 round, and was an outlier in an otherwise dire investment landscape for alternative proteins.

    How Meati got to this point

    meati sale
    Courtesy: Anay Mridul/Green Queen

    At the beginning of this year, Meati was cruising. It had raised the largest round in the industry in 2024, doubled its revenue, and expanded its retail distribution by 130%, with its mycelium steak, chicken and breakfast patty SKUs in over 7,000 stores.

    In late February, its lender swept away two-thirds of its cash reserves due to a technical default, despite assuring Meati that it wouldn’t. Meati was in the middle of an internal fundraising round that would have extended its runway into 2026; while the company was current on its payments, it had breached a financial agreement relating to revenue and gross profit.

    This legally forced the firm to issue a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN), informing all 150 employees of impending layoffs if immediate funding isn’t secured.

    The notice suggested that should Meati fail to raise the capital it needed by May 6, it would cease operations at its manufacturing facility in Thornton, Colorado and permanently cut all jobs at the site, all the way from the warehouse and food production technicians to the R&D team and the CEO.

    “Our lender unexpectedly removed cash from our accounts and took control of remaining cash reserves […] and the action was not reasonably foreseeable,” Meati’s WARN document read. “We would have liked to have given you more advance notice of this action, but we were unable to do so because our lender’s actions were wholly unanticipated and unforeseeable.”

    Meati had been hopeful of securing the required investment. And this Monday, AgFunderNews reported that Meati had secured bridge funding that would allow it to continue operating for the time being.

    Now, a judge is set to rule on Meati’s request, which, if approved, would give Garber control of its actions until the sale closes.

    Uncertainty plagues alternative protein space

    meati funding
    Courtesy: Meati

    Meati’s impending sale comes at a curious time for alternative protein. Global investment in the sector declined by 27% in 2024; plant-based food (-64%) and cultivated meat (-40%) startups took most of the hit.

    Fermentation startups, however, saw a 43% hike, surpassing the plant-based category for the first time. This was led by Meati’s $100M round. The company is actually one of the most well-capitalised in the industry, having raised $365M since being founded in 2017.

    It has had its fair share of troubles. It has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs since 2023 – with the latest described as a right-sizing move to move the company towards profitability – and has been involved in an IP dispute and false marketing lawsuits over the last few years.

    While meat alternatives also saw a 7% dip in sales in the US last year, Meati bucked the trend. Circana data for the 52 weeks to July 14, 2024 showed slowing sales of meat analogues, but Meati’s whole-cut steak was among the top 15 growth items. The company saw a $2.7M hike in year-to-date sales, thanks in large part to its all-natural ingredient list.

    “Consumers shouldn’t have to decide between feedlot meats that are inhumanely raised, wreck the environment and lack nutrients, or ultra-processed plant-based options that have a long list of ingredients you can’t pronounce,” Graves told Green Queen in January.

    Alternative proteins are a polarising topic in the US, where the discourse around ultra-processed food and Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again movement has dovetailed with a cultural shift back towards beef, despite its health and environmental detriments.

    As an established leader in the space attempting to decarbonise the food system, Meati’s impending sale is unfortunate and a further example of the uncertainty enveloping the sector.

    The post Mycelium Protein Firm Meati to Be Sold for $4M After Bank-Induced Crisis appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ‘Frankenstein Meets The Matrix’: Montana & Indiana Become Latest US States to Ban Cultivated Meat

    montana lab grown meat
    6 Mins Read

    Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has signed a bill that prevents the production or sale of cultivated meat in the state, while Indiana has introduced a two-year prohibition.

    From October 1, manufacturing or selling cultivated meat in Montana could put you at risk of imprisonment for up to three months, a fine of up to $250, or both.

    The state became the fourth to pass legislation banning cultivated meat after Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB 401 into law on May 1.

    Retailers that sell cultivated meat could face fines too, while restaurants could have their licences suspended. Additionally, even though it can’t be sold, the state has put a restriction on how cultivated meat can be marketed, preventing it from being “misbranded”.

    And yesterday (May 6), Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed into law HB 1425, which establishes a two-year moratorium on the sale and manufacturing of cultivated meat and its labelling as a “meat product”.

    It’s in effect from July 1 this year until June 30, 2027, and violators face fines up to $10,000, the highest of any other such ban in the US.

    Montana attacks World Economic Forum after ban

    Montana’s anti-cultivated-meat bill was brought to the House floor in February by Representative Braxton Mitchell, who said at the time: “This bill will help promote the Montana agricultural industry and keep it strong and thriving in the state of Montana. I think we have a unique opportunity here to put the hammer down clearly and show that we stand with agriculture and that we stand with our cattle ranchers.”

    The effort was co-sponsored by over 70 lawmakers, most of whom are Republican. “I have some grave concerns over the use and production of lab-grown meat,” Representative Randyn Gregg said during the first hearing.

    “The process is a fusion of dystopia. One could call it Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ meets Keanu Reeves in ‘The Matrix’,” he added, painting a vivid – if highly misleading – portrait of how cultivated meat is made. It’s not the first time someone has described cultivated meat as ‘Franken-food’, or a legislator has supported a ban based on wholly incorrect assumptions about the process.

    The bill passed through both chambers without much fuss, with House Republicans unanimously voting in favour, outnumbering the opposition from Democrats for a final count of 64-35. In the Senate, the bill was voted 34-14 in favour, with five of the nays coming from Republicans. It was then transferred to Gianforte, who quietly signed it into law last week.

    In announcing the bill’s success, Mitchell claimed the state was “punching back at the World Economic Forum’s plan to force the world to eat fake meat and bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals”.

    It’s in reference to the organisation’s assertion that alternative proteins are necessary to help meet the needs of a population that will reach 10 billion in 2050 and combat the changing climate. Again, he isn’t the first lawmaker to attack the WEF as a means to justify a ban on cultivated meat.

    Mitchell further added that the WEF “claims that our consumption of naturally grown meat is ‘the source of greenhouse gases and climate change’”. But the organisation is right. Livestock farming accounts for as much as a fifth of global emissions (10 times higher than aviation), while taking up 70% of our freshwater supplies and 80% of farmland.

    Within the food system, nearly 60% of emissions come from meat and dairy production. In Montana, where there are twice as many cows as humans, agriculture is responsible for over a fifth of GHG emissions, with methane from cattle a major contributor. Cultivated meat, meanwhile, can have a 92% lower impact on climate change, and requires 95% less land and 78% less water than conventional beef.

    Indiana temporarily bans sale and labelling of cultivated meat

    indiana lab grown meat
    Courtesy” Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

    In Indiana, HB 1425 was proposed by Representative Beau Baird, who indicated that cultivated meat was too new a product to be viewed as perfectly safe, and should be prohibited for two years as more studies are conducted.

    “The US Department of Agriculture just approved this product in 2023, in the fall, so it’s still a relatively new product. I think that taking our time and making sure we know what our constituents are consuming is thoughtful and a wise decision,” he had said.

    The bill also contains a provision that mandates manufacturers to label cultivated meat products with the phrase “This is an imitation meat product”, and outlaws labels that don’t “clearly indicate” that it is a cell-cultured product.

    But the text actually defines cultivated meat as “animal protein grown in a facility from extracted animal stem cells and arranged in a similar structure as animal tissues to replicate the sensory and nutritional profiles of meat products”, so the labelling clause caused some confusion.

    “We actually define ‘cultivated meat product’ in this bill, but then the label is going to say something different,” Senator Shelli Yoder said during one of the hearings.

    Nevertheless, the bill passed with a 74-15 majority in the House, and 43-7 in the Senate, with Governor Braun signing it into law yesterday.

    It makes Indiana the fifth state to officially ban cultivated meat from being sold within its borders, albeit this is a temporary measure.

    Cultivated meat bans popular despite criticism

    lab grown meat ban
    Courtesy: Good Meat

    It’s almost becoming fashionable for states to attempt to ban cultivated meat, empowered by an administration that loves Big Meat and a cultural shift that has brought beef back to the centre of the plate.

    Florida and Alabama introduced the first two bans in 2024. And in March, Mississippi’s bill to ban cultivated meat became official, passing both the House and the Senate unanimously (which eschewed the need for the governor’s sign-off).

    More than 20 states have tried to do so over the last few years. In the current legislative session, South Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, and Georgia have all been mulling the move, while Nebraska is awaiting the governor’s sign-off.

    But these efforts have been criticised by a multitude of stakeholders, including cattle farmers themselves. In a March 2024 letter sent to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the North American Meat Institute called the ban “bad public policy”.

    “These bills establish a precedent for adopting policies and regulatory requirements that could one day adversely affect the bills’ supporters,” it said, emphasising the importance of consumer choice.

    California’s Upside Foods, one of only three companies that have been approved by the FDA and the USDA to sell cultivated meat, has filed a lawsuit against Florida’s ban. Last week, a judge blocked the state’s attempt to throw out the case, paving its way towards the trial court.

    Meanwhile, regulators cleared Mission Barns’s cultivated pork fat for sale earlier this year, the first green light for cultivated meat since Upside Foods and Good Meat’s summer 2023 approvals. It will debut at San Francisco restaurant group Fiorella and Sprouts Farmers Market.

    The post ‘Frankenstein Meets The Matrix’: Montana & Indiana Become Latest US States to Ban Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ‘Pivotal Moment’: Green Bonds Group Launches First-Ever Climate Finance Tool for Alternative Proteins

    alternative protein grants
    6 Mins Read

    The Climate Bonds Initiative, whose certification programme helps mobilise finance for climate solutions, has introduced a criterion dedicated to unlocking alternative protein investment.

    There’s no two ways about it: we need to change the way we eat, and we need to start with meat.

    Farming animals takes up way too much land, water, and resources than we can afford to use, all while producing 57% of the food system’s emissions. In fact, livestock agriculture is responsible for as much as a fifth of all global emissions – that’s 10 times higher than the greenhouse gases produced by the aviation industry.

    Despite the large amount of resources and pollution associated with meat and dairy production, these foods only provide 17% of the world’s calories and 38% of its protein supply. Global meat consumption is set to grow by 50% by mid-century, but we’re running out of land to meet that need.

    We need new ways to produce meat, which is where alternative proteins come in. Scientists agree that plant-based options are the “best available foods” for planetary health, considering that the world breached its 1.5°C temperature threshold in 2024, and without immediate and tangible action, even keeping post-industrial warming under 2°C feels like a pipe dream.

    While traditional plant proteins and novel alternatives might be the best way forward, investors don’t necessarily believe so anymore. The industry has taken several funding hits since the highs of 2021. Last year, financing for startups in the sector dropped by 27%, following a 44% dip the year before.

    It is critical that this industry develops further to scale up production and drive down costs, which is why the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) has launched its Alternative Protein Criteria to mobilise capital for these future foods.

    “It is essential that any investment aiming to address climate change and environmental integrity consider alternative proteins,” the non-profit says.

    “The alternative protein market is poised for rapid growth – with global protein demand expected to double by 2050, the need has never been greater. And yet clarity on how to achieve the greatest return on investment for the global protein market has been elusive to date,” Joanna Trewern, director of partnerships and institutional engagement at ProVeg International, tells Green Queen.

    “The newly launched CBI criteria is a comprehensive tool for certifying investments into alternative proteins, capturing everything from tofu to fungi and cultivated meat and seafood. Beyond protein type, it provides guidance on the most impactful strategies to scale the alternative protein market, including retail marketing, sustainable sourcing, and replacement and substitution,” she adds.

    “This is vital information for start-ups and investors operating in the alternative protein space. This valuable tool brings clarity at a critical time for the sector and will help increase investor confidence and drive investment into the most impactful areas.”

    What’s the focus of the Alternative Proteins Criteria?

    precision fermentation cheese
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    Climate bonds are financial instruments designed to raise capital for low-carbon projects to advance the green economy – think solar power, electric vehicles, and mass transit. They can be issued by governments, organisations like the World Bank, universities, and even corporations.

    CBI describes itself as the leading organisation mobilising global capital for climate action. It aims to drive the growth of the green and sustainable debt market through science-based frameworks, including the Climate Bonds Standard (CBS), which allows investors to assess the climate credentials and environmental integrity of bonds and other green debt products.

    The new Alternative Proteins criteria are said to be the first tool for certifying investments in sustainable proteins, and follow two months of public consultations. They highlight key areas for climate mitigation: scaling up production of foods like plant-based, fermentation-derived, cultivated, and blended proteins, encouraging meat substitution, and improving manufacturing processes and sourcing.

    Designed to provide procurement guidelines to align alternative protein production with a 1.5°C transition and enable stakeholders to issue credible green finance, the criteria focus on two main areas.

    The first is replacing some of the production and consumption of animal proteins with lower-impact alternatives – swapping beef would provide the biggest gains here. The second involves mitigating the impact of alternative proteins themselves, with a focus on energy source and use, raw materials, and waste management.

    CBI notes that most of the emissions for alternative proteins relate to energy use, so a switch to renewable energy is “significantly more effective” in attaining the potential emission reductions.

    “In assessing sustainability in the food system, alternative proteins are one of the most impactful climate mitigation solutions,” said Rosie Wardle, co-founder of Synthesis Capital and a member of the framework’s technical working group.

    “We must catalyse more capital into this sector to scale up the industry and to ensure the resilience of our food system, as without these solutions we cannot feed our growing global population within planetary boundaries.”

    The eligible measures for alternative protein stakeholders

    cultured meat regulation
    Courtesy: Aleph Farms

    The criteria will focus on climate and land use impacts, and will be informed by other standards in the market and recent policy developments. They’re applicable to various financial instruments, including use of proceeds (UoP) for green bonds and sustainability-linked debt.

    CBI’s framework only covers alternative protein sources intended for human consumption, so animal feed, pet food, and non-food applications are not eligible. It spotlights hybrid and blended products too, which combine different alternative proteins with each other or with animal-derived sources, with the latter needing to replace at least 60% of animal ingredients.

    The Alternative Proteins Criteria targets producers, distributors, retailers and foodservice providers alike. In its list of eligible measures that companies could use for UoP certification, it mentions product and menu reformulation, chef and food prep staff training, and sensory tasting to increase the uptake of alternative proteins for foodservice and own-label retail brands.

    Running cross-product discounts on alternative protein dishes and promotions like Meatless Mondays, matching the price of animal-free options with meat and dairy, recommending foods like beans in heart-healthy pamphlets in hospital canteens, redesigning stores to nudge consumers towards more sustainable foods are also among other measures eligible for UoP certification.

    The criteria incorporate safeguards for other issues like water pollution, animal welfare, and nutrition. Crucially, CBI states that cultivated meat companies must move away from fetal bovine serum by 2030 – a shift already being seen across the industry.

    Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of cultivated meat company Aleph Farms, and a member of the criteria’s industrial working group, called it “a timely and essential step towards aligning capital with food systems initiatives that serve both people and the planet”.

    “This initiative marks a pivotal moment for sustainable finance. It empowers new investors to join a transformation already embraced by over a third of the global population identifying as flexitarians,” he says.

    “It helps unlock critical funding to scale up new protein production systems like cultivated meat, transforming how we feed the world by reducing emissions, land use, and biodiversity loss, while ushering in a new era of culinary innovation and experiences.”

    The post ‘Pivotal Moment’: Green Bonds Group Launches First-Ever Climate Finance Tool for Alternative Proteins appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • This Singapore Bar Shows Diners What Food Will Look Like in the Future

    fura singapore

    5 Mins Read

    From gas protein and bean-free coffee to cultured quail and upcycled kombucha, Fura is opening up the future of food to Singaporeans.

    One of the hottest additions to the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list last year, the cult bar is putting sustainability at the heart of its operations and championing an inventive, future-facing menu.

    Both a cocktail bar and dining destination, Singapore’s Fura has made a big splash since opening in October 2023, with its menu labelled as a Journal of Future Food. The first edition, for example, featured dishes like XOXO, Tempe, featuring mushroom XO sauce, pomelo, and a chimichurri made from Solein, the gas protein by Solar Foods.

    Meanwhile, one of the cocktails on offer was called Got Milk?, a combination of Empirical Soka, pandan, honeydew, and kombucha made from Very Dairy, the animal-free milk commercialised by precision fermentation startup Perfect Day (which has since been discontinued).

    Now, co-owners Christina Rasmussen and Sasha Wijidessa are embarking on the next step in Fura’s journey, with the second volume of its future food menu. Among the highlights are Vow‘s cultured quail (and its residual ‘tallow’), a novel take on the Dirty Banana cocktail with Prefer’s beanless coffee, and a triple-corn cocktail highlighting the benefits of crop diversification.

    “We want to change the way we eat and drink by giving a glimpse of what our diet could look like in the future due to climate change,” Rasmussen, previously the head forager at Copenhagen’s world-renowned restaurant Noma, tells Green Queen.

    Cultured quail walks into Fura

    vow cultured quail
    A Quail Walks Into a Bar, featuring Vow’s Forged Parfait | Courtesy: Kahying

    One of several establishments using Australian company Vow’s cultivated meat in the city-state, Fura takes things a step further, using not just the Japanese quail parfait, it is also making use of the startup’s fat byproduct.

    A Quail Walks Into a Bar is the eatery’s first dish using the cultured quail, which is sold under the Forged brand and was approved for sale in Singapore last year. “The Japanese quail has a buttery, smooth parfait texture, which is piped and torched on top of a hazelnut biscuit, garnished with dill cream and acidic malt apple gel to cut the richness,” describes Rasmussen.

    “We’re then also using a byproduct of making the quail cells from Forged as our ‘butter’ for the Bread & Butter(ish). This is formed into a candle, which is lit just before serving and topped with pink peppercorn, garlic and Maldon salt,” she says. “The melted result serves as a dip for the black garlic bread, sweetened with brown bananas.”

    This innovation doesn’t stop at the food – the cultured quail has also made onto Fura’s cocktail menu. “A Quail Walks Into a Martini showcases the use of cell-cultured meat by rooting it in a familiar drink, a dry martini,” she says. “The quail is infused into gin and dry vermouth; a caramelised fennel puree is then sous vide and fat-washed with gin to complete the rich and dry drink.”

    Fura uses this technique often to integrate less familiar ingredients into the menu “By connecting them to something familiar, our guests will recognise and feel comfortable ordering [them],” says Rasmussen.

    In addition, Singaporean startup Prefer’s bean-free coffee – made by fermenting waste bread, soy milk pulp and spent brewer’s grain – appears in two menu items. It’s part of the New Age Sando, which combines the coffee alternative with an apricot kernel ice cream, raspberry crisps, and marigold.

    Plus, in Fura’s take on a Dirty Banana, the coffee is replaced with Prefer’s version, which is mixed with Empirical Ayuuk, dates, cardamom, and lacto banana cream.

    prefer bean free coffee
    Fura’s New Age Sando, featuring Prefer’s bean-free coffee | Courtesy: Kahying

    Turning future food from ‘intimidating’ to something ‘approachable’

    Apart from future food startups, Fura works with a range of local businesses to source its ingredients, including GreenLoop Farms, Mother Dough and Bewilder.

    These make it onto the menu in innovative ways too. Take the 3 Crop Corn cocktail, for instance, which is aimed at promoting crop diversification as a strategy for lowering emissions and supporting regenerative landscapes.

    “The name refers to a three-crop system with a small grain (represented by the sorghum grain from the Empirical Soka), summer legume (showcased in corn silk vermouth), and cover crop (a garnish of mustard frills from GreenLoopFarms),” explains Rasmussen.

    Another aspect of Fura’s sustainability is waste reduction. Its menu has an Ugly Delicious section to include ‘wonky’ fruits and vegetables that don’t make it in retail stores and would otherwise be thrown away. The eatery ferments these to make fruit wines and kombucha.

    “We make all of our kombuchas in-house. We have three different flavours: #01 is a blackberry, fennel and black tea kombucha, #02 is a raspberry, pineapple and milk kombucha, and #03 is a grapefruit, coconut and green tea kombucha,” says Rasmussen.

    “The milk kombucha is the byproduct from one of our old cocktails, where the ‘whey’ was in excess and we used it to help soften the sharpness of acidity in our kombucha.”

    lab grown meat singapore restaurant
    Fura’s Journal of Future Food, Volume Two | Courtesy: Kahying

    Aside from food, Fura avoids using cling film and works with reusable piping bags, and makes paper mâché with used receipts, which are then repurposed as product cards for their retail section. These types of measures are what helped the establishment achieve the Sustainable Bar Award by Asia’s 50 Best last year.

    “Everything on our food and drinks menus highlights ingredients that are prevalent, invasive or in abundance due to the imbalance of our ecosystem. Our guiding principle is to look for ingredients that have low carbon emissions,” says Rasmussen.

    “We understand it can be intimidating for people to live in a way that helps work towards a more sustainable future, so we want to make that more approachable by showing people small steps they can take through food and drink.”

    The post This Singapore Bar Shows Diners What Food Will Look Like in the Future appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Beyond Meat Brings Back Fan Favourite: Unbreaded Chicken Pieces

    beyond meat chicken pieces
    6 Mins Read

    Beyond Meat has launched plant-based Chicken Pieces at Kroger stores across the US, marking a new iteration of its first-ever product, and the return of a fan favourite.

    At the behest of its fans, plant-based giant Beyond Meat has brought back the cult-favourite product that kickstarted the company’s journey.

    The El Segundo-based firm has reintroduced Chicken Pieces, a successor to its first-ever product, Chicken Strips, which was discontinued six years ago.

    According to the company, the new unbreaded chicken is one of Beyond Meat’s “most highly requested products”, teasing its release on its Instagram page with a post that featured countless comments from customers asking for the chicken and debuting it at Expo West in Anaheim, California this past March.

    The launch comes days after a two-decade-long study showed that regularly eating chicken could double the risk of death from gastrointestinal cancers, raising fresh concerns about advice from bodies like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which has supported a shift to white meat as a planetary and human health solution.

    “After several years of research to raise the bar on taste, clean ingredients, and nutrition, Beyond Meat is reintroducing our unbreaded chicken platform as Beyond Chicken Pieces,” a company spokesperson told Green Queen.

    “As a company dedicated to rapid and relentless innovation to create the most delicious and nutritious plant-based proteins, and following the introduction of our breakthrough unbreaded chicken strips, we are excited that we have truly raised the bar with this newest iteration of unbreaded chicken,” they added.

    The evolution of Beyond Meat’s chicken

    beyond meat chicken strips
    The original Beyond Meat chicken strips. Courtesy: Reuters

    While Beyond Meat may be best known for its beef burger patties today, when it first entered the retail market, it was with a plant-based chicken range, launching grilled strips in a frozen format in 2013.

    That product was the result of 20 years of research by University of Missouri professors Harold Huff and Fu-Hung Hsieh, whose formula was licensed by Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat.

    The firm launched the Chicken Strips in the US market in 2012 and garnered a cult following among its customer base. However, the product failed to impress food journalists like Mark Bittman, then an influential columnist at the New York Times, who called it “bland, unexciting and not very chicken-like” when trying the strips unadulterated.

    As Beyond Meat introduced its beef and sausage analogues in the years ahead, it discontinued the OG chicken product in 2019, the same year it went public.

    The company did not respond to Green Queen’s question about why the frozen chicken strips were withdrawn from the market in the first place, though an FAQ section on its website at the time said: “We’re constantly innovating and renovating our products based on consumer feedback. Unfortunately, our Chicken Strips weren’t delivering the same plant-based meat experience as some of our more popular products.”

    It added: “But, there’s good news. We have a team of chefs and scientists who are working on getting an even better, tastier version of Beyond Chicken Strips back on retail shelves and restaurant menus as soon as possible.”

    Now, after six years, they’re finally back, this time as pieces rather than strips. “Made from simple ingredients including avocado oil, which is high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, Beyond Chicken Pieces offer 21g of clean plant protein per serving with only 0.5g saturated fat, no cholesterol, no GMOs, and no added hormones or antibiotics,” the company spokesperson told Green Queen.

    Like many of Beyond’s recent products, it carries certifications from the American Heart Association’s Heart-Check and the American Diabetes Association’s Better Choices for Life scheme.

    Will consumers take to unbreaded vegan chicken pieces?

    beyond chicken pieces
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Beyond Meat’s unbreaded chicken pieces are made from soy protein, wheat gluten, natural flavours, avocado oil, potato starch, pea fibre, potassium salt, yeast extract, spices and seasonings, and salt. They’re available at 1,900 Kroger stores, with each 10-oz pack setting you back $8.99.

    While it may be the company’s most requested product, introducing a pre-cut unbreaded chicken analogue is an interesting choice. There are several other products like this on the market, including from The Vegetarian Butcher and Vivera, but they tend to be a hard sell for meat-eaters, which is the focal consumer demographic for plant-based meat companies.

    In a 2,700-person taste test of American omnivores, only 37% liked the market-leading vegan chicken strips and chunks, falling to 25% for the average brand, as opposed to 67% who liked the animal-based benchmark.

    Taste-testers complained of a bland, earthy and chemical flavour, as well as a weird aftertaste in the average unbreaded plant-based chicken chunks. In fact, even the plant-based leader was preferred over its conventional counterpart by just 15% of participants.

    When it comes to unbreaded chicken analogues, people prefer whole-cut filets over strips or chunks. “One of the biggest R&D opportunities across all categories was juiciness [or] tenderness,” explained Caroline Cotto, director of Nectar, the research agency that conducted the taste test. “That played out in this category clearly where perhaps the smaller pieces have more problems retaining their moisture.”

    Beyond Meat restates core focus amid whole-food demand

    beyond chicken
    Courtesy: Beyond Meat

    Plant-based meat continued to see declining sales in the US last year, dropping by 7%, just as traditional proteins like tofu, tempeh, and seitan witnessed a 7% hike in sales. This comes as consumers are looking for more whole-food options. In the UK, plant-based meat brand THIS’s Super Superfood and Oh So Wholesome’s Veg’chop, which pack plants in protein-rich blocks, lean into this trend.

    Beyond Meat did not respond to questions about market decline or the impact of the Trump administration’s policies on its business though the company said that its “core product portfolio is intended to replicate beef, pork and poultry”. When asked how it plans to straddle the line between meat alternatives and whole foods, it pointed to the Sun Sausage line it launched last year, which the spokesperson called “an important and exciting expansion of our product portfolio”.

    The Sun Sausages contain a base of yellow peas, brown rice, red lentils and faba beans, which are complemented with avocado oil, oat bran, oat fibre, and other ingredients. While the brand has touted a “clean and simple ingredient list”, each of the three flavours contains over 20 ingredients.

    Beyond Meat has been doubling down on the health messaging over the last year, battling vast amounts of misinformation from the meat industry with a new documentary, Planting Change, released last week.

    “There’s also a very strong countercurrent, which is this narrative around being highly processed and full of questionable ingredients, which is a manufactured narrative. It’s not one that actually has science behind it or much truth to it,” Brown said in an earnings call in February.

    He has previously stated that it would be arguable “whether Beyond Meat is, at its core, a plant-based meat company that delivers health and wellness, or a health and wellness company that makes plant-based meat”.

    The company’s revenues were down by 5% in 2024, though the rate of decline had slowed substantially, with losses shrinking by 52%. That said, it decided to suspend its China operations and laid off 9% of its global workforce in the last quarter of 2024. Now, it’s preparing to debut a new steak product made with mycelium, and will announce the financial results of Q1 2025 next week.

    The post Beyond Meat Brings Back Fan Favourite: Unbreaded Chicken Pieces appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Eat Just’s Single-Ingredient Protein Powder Doubles As An Egg Replacer

    eat just protein powder
    5 Mins Read

    Eat Just has added a new single-ingredient protein powder to its portfolio, made from the same mung bean base as its Just Egg. The company says the product has more protein than “anything else on the market”.

    As sales of Just Egg hike amid the avian flu crisis, its parent company is now targeting another high-in-demand product: protein powder.

    California’s Eat Just has rolled out Just One, a range of protein powders made from the same mung bean base that powers its liquid egg alternative, at all Whole Foods locations in the US.

    The unflavored, single-ingredient version is also available at Purple Carrot, and contains 30g of complete protein per serving (three heaped tablespoons, or 35g). This means it contains all nine essential amino acids, and more of them than whey, pea or soy protein, which populate the current market of protein powders.

    just egg protein powder
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    In addition, Just One comes in three flavours – chocolate-peanut butter, maple-banana, and vanilla-chai – which contain 17g of protein per serving. Each protein powder comes in a 12oz reusable aluminium tin, priced at $34.99.

    “This is more than a conventional protein powder – it’s a protein that enables you to bake, to bind, to emulsify, to make pancakes and muffins and sauces. It’s an awesome, creamy [addition] to oatmeal.” Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick tells Green Queen, adding that it can replace eggs and milk in a range of applications.

    “It has more protein per serving than anything else on the market. It’s an entirely new category; a new, innovative kitchen staple,” he suggests.

    Just One protein powder hailed by chefs

    “We spent years trying to find a clean, single-ingredient protein that could make it a little easier to eat better,” Tetrick said in a statement. “We’re so excited to see what folks make with it.”

    Explaining how it’s made, he tells Green Queen: “It’s exactly the same protein we use to make Just Egg. We take a bean, mill [it] into a flour, and separate the protein at high rates of speeds in a centrifuge.”

    This proprietary protein separation technology maintains the protein’s integrity during processing, allowing the resulting ingredient to gel, emulsify, leaven, bind, and more. Eat Just argues that most protein powders make food denser and grittier, but Just One makes it better.

    just one protein powder
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    It carries some clout with culinary experts too, with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern saying: “My chefs and I have fooled around with Just One in our kitchens for the last six months. We’re in love. From pumpkin bread to mushroom meatballs and silky smoothies, this single ingredient can do it all. It’s best in class.”

    All of the flavour contains brown sugar, natural flavours, and salt, with 8g of added sugar per serving; the maple-banana powder also has banana powder and natural maple flavour, the chocolate-peanut butter version uses Guittard cocoa and roasted peanut powder, and the vanilla-chai variety has cashew powder and chai spices.

    How Just One compares with eggs to feed US protein demand

    To use Just One as an egg replacer in baking recipes, the company recommends blending 80g of the powder with 200g of water, with 50g of the hydrated mix equivalent to one egg. That means one tin of the protein powder can roughly replace 25 eggs.

    At the suggested retail price, this equates to $1.38 per egg used in baking. That’s not far away from the price of chicken eggs in some larger US cities. Plus, the mung bean powder gives bakers the ability to add 6.5 times more protein than conventional eggs.

    This will appeal to an increasingly protein-hungry American population. The number of people trying to consume more protein has been steadily increasing in the US, from 59% in 2022 and 67% in 2023 to 71% in 2024, according to a 3,000-person survey. And this year, 85% want to continue increasing the amount of protein they eat.

    vegan protein powder
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    “I think Americans love protein for all sorts of reasons – cultural, emotional, and because of evidence-based reasons,” says Tetrick. “They have loved [it], and probably will always want more of it.”

    It leaves a major opportunity for alternative protein companies, given the environmental intolerance issues associated with conventional whey protein. That said, 87% of Americans believe you need animal products to get enough protein, despite vast evidence to the contrary, so there is a need for education.

    Still, the demand for plant-based protein powders can be seen in the numbers. In 2024, retail sales of the category rose by 11% (reaching $450M), with Americans buying 30 million units (a 13% rise). They also became 2% cheaper, and were the fourth-largest category in the vegan market after milk, meat and creamer alternatives.

    Animal-free protein powders on the rise

    just egg whole foods
    Courtesy: Eat Just

    Just One is among a growing list of companies offering animal-free protein powders. Just last week, Finland’s Solar Foods announced the world’s first protein powder made from air – targeted at the health and performance nutrition market in the US – while Balletic Foods entered the space with three fermentation-derived protein powders.

    Perfect Day was one of the first companies in the world to create an animal-free whey protein powder, and lent its ingredient to CPG protein powder brand Strive Nutrition, as well as online sports nutrition giant Myprotein. And last year, Nestlé released a Better Whey product under its Orgain line last year, featuring the same ingredient.

    Elsewhere, France’s Bon Vivant has introduced a three-strong range of functional animal-free dairy protein powders, while Dutch microbial protein maker Farmless is working on a ‘brewed’ protein powder.

    Meanwhile, precision fermentation startup The Every Company has launched a sugar-free syrup with 5g of recombinant egg protein per ounce, offering consumers a new way to add protein to their diets.

    The post Eat Just’s Single-Ingredient Protein Powder Doubles As An Egg Replacer appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Earlybird’s Christian Nagel

    christian nagel
    3 Mins Read

    In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

    Christian Nagel is a Co-Founder and Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital.

    What future food technologies most excite you?

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising food tech with entirely new approaches through generative models. For example, precision nutrition is becoming possible with hyper-personalised meal recommendations based on biomarkers and real-time data. In the lab, AI is accelerating synthetic biology, designing microbes that produce animal-free proteins.

    Robotic kitchens powered by AI are moving beyond automation into culinary creativity, and supply chains are getting smarter with AI predicting demand and reducing food waste. Across the board, AI is making food systems more efficient, sustainable, and tailored to individual needs.

    What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?

    AI is accelerating the design of microorganisms that can produce new proteins, vitamins, and fats, or even mimic complex animal products. This innovation will drive momentum in the most compelling foodtech opportunities: fermentation-based protein platforms, clean-label functional ingredients, and technology that enhances supply chain resilience.

    What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

    The commercialisation of cultivated meat products, exemplified by regulatory approvals and first-to-market entries, such as Upside Foods and Eat Just’s cultivated chicken approvals in the US, Mission Barns‘s cultivated pork approval in the US, Eat Just’s cultivated chicken approval in Singapore, and our portfolio company Gourmey, which is in the approval process for fois gras in seven countries, representing a massive technological and regulatory milestone.

    If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

    I’d significantly enhance the taste and texture parity with conventional meat, particularly around juiciness, flavour, and cooking experience. This would likely involve breakthroughs in fat formulations, texture scaffolding, and ingredient innovation to dramatically improve consumer adoption.

    Like Nosh.bio’s Koji Chunks, addressing all the aforementioned points, with no additives, and now moving from the lab to mainstream shelves. This proves that sustainable, functional alternatives can deliver on taste, scalability, and consumer appeal in real-world markets without a magic wand.

    What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

    We look for founders with the potential, both in grit and vision, to redefine an industry.

    What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

    When it comes to future food, impact can come from very different directions, and that’s exactly what we see in both our portfolio companies Gourmey and Nosh.bio. I wouldn’t pick just one because they represent two very different, equally exciting approaches.

    Gourmey is redefining high-end cultivated meat with a focus on culinary excellence, while Nosh.bio is building a foundational fermentation platform with broad applications. Both are shaping the future of food, just from very different angles.

    What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

    People often think venture capital is just about chasing the next big thing, but after 28 years in this industry, the hype cycles become easier to spot. In reality, it’s about a long-term partnership. Being all in from day one is what we embrace at Earlybird, and that means being a sparring partner before the breakthrough and through the uncertainty so that you might get to celebrate the wins at the end.

    What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

    Fois gras in Paris from Gourmey – this was an experience with cultivated meat, where it was even better than the original, also confirmed by Rasmus Munk, who was Chef of the Year 2024 and is now part of Gourmey’s culinary board.

    Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

    Besides having been catered with Nosh.bio’s products, Cookies Cream in Berlin is still my most favourite climate-forward restaurant, despite not being vegan.

    What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

    Being part of the founding journey, from the earliest stage, is what keeps me inspired. There’s something deeply meaningful about being the first to believe in a founding team, sometimes before anyone does. That early conviction can make all the difference.

    The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Earlybird’s Christian Nagel appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • California’s BlueNalu Bets on Premium Sushi & Price Parity with Cultivated Bluefin Toro

    bluenalu
    6 Mins Read

    US cultivated seafood startup BlueNalu is targeting an initial launch of its bluefin tuna in California and has cemented partnerships to take the product global.

    A highly prized sushi delicacy made from cultured tuna cells could soon be coming to diners’ plates in California.

    San Diego-based BlueNalu is targeting the state as the first port of entry for its cultivated bluefin tuna toro, having filed for regulatory approval with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    “Our initial launch will focus on California, starting in our home base of San Diego – a region known for its vibrant food culture and consumers who prioritise healthy and responsibly produced products,” founder and CEO Lou Cooperhouse tells Green Queen.

    At the same time, the company is laying the groundwork for international operations in “markets where demand, regulatory clarity, and strategic partnerships align”. That includes Singapore (where it has submitted a regulatory dossier), the UK (where it’s part of the government’s new regulatory sandbox scheme), and several nations in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

    The UK is the only European country to have approved cultivated meat for sale, which has prompted BlueNalu to amp up its focus on this market and expand its ongoing partnership with frozen food distributor Nomad Foods.

    “We began collaborating in 2021 to explore the market potential for cultivated seafood and following compelling consumer insights, we are now working together on market entry and commercialisation strategies,” says Cooperhouse, noting that the link-up will help bring its cultivated tuna to both the UK and the wider European market.

    “This includes evaluating premium foodservice offerings that align with consumer demand for high-quality, sustainable seafood, and also exploring other channels of distribution that align with Nomad’s current and future capabilities,” he adds.

    Brits respond positively to cultivated seafood

    lab grown seafood
    Courtesy: BlueNalu

    As part of its global push, BlueNalu commissioned a survey of 2,000 frequent sushi consumers in the UK last summer. “The results showed strong enthusiasm for BlueNalu’s first product, cell-cultivated bluefin tuna toro: 92% of respondents expressed some level of interest in trying it, including 55% who were very or extremely interested,” reveals Cooperhouse.

    “Consumers identified the absence of parasites, pesticides, microplastics, mercury, and antibiotics as top benefits, followed by high omega-3 content and sustainable production,” he adds. “The study also affirmed that the terms ‘cell-cultivated’ and ‘cell-cultured’ effectively communicate the product’s origin and align with consumer expectations.”

    BlueNalu is one of eight startups participating in the UK Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) two-year regulatory sandbox programme, which aims to help firms bring cultivated meat to market faster. It is the only US company in the scheme, and the only one focused on seafood.

    BlueNalu CTO Lauran Madden calls it a “first-of-its-kind initiative” designed to support the development of safe and innovative cultivated food products. “The sandbox offers a unique opportunity for early, collaborative engagement with regulators to ensure we are aligned with the FSA’s expectations and data requirements for novel food applications, and structured dialogue and feedback,” she tells Green Queen.

    “We commend the FSA for its forward-thinking approach and leadership in enabling a science-based, transparent regulatory pathway for emerging food technologies,” Madden adds.

    In the aforementioned survey, 73% of Brits said they’d likely visit a sushi restaurant that offers the product. So it stands to reason that BlueNalu is planning to introduce its tuna in the UK and Europe through premium sushi and fine-dining restaurants.

    “This approach reflects both consumer interest and our product’s unique value proposition. Nomad Foods has a long history of launching innovative seafood products, and together we are identifying the best entry points that meet today’s expectations for taste, safety, consistency, and sustainability,” says Cooperhouse.

    “As we progress towards commercialisation, this partnership enables us to pair scientific and regulatory progress with real market insights and commercial expertise.”

    The cost economics of bluefin tuna

    cultured meat
    Courtesy: BlueNalu

    Bluefin tuna is a highly sought-after seafood delicacy, thanks to its velvety texture, buttery flavour and nutritional attributes. However, this species represents the ocean’s fastest and longest-distance swimmers, which makes it difficult to raise the fish in captivity, thus commanding a higher price. Toro is the fatty part of bluefin tuna belly, and is used in high-grade sushi and sashimi.

    However, its supply is limited and extremely variable in quality, and its stocks face declines due to overfishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. Continued demand is driving the species towards endangerment and has prompted governments to place strict quotas to limit its fishing. Plus, tuna is one of the most polluted fish in the oceans, often contaminated with plastic debris and extremely high levels of heavy metals like mercury.

    Israel’s Wanda Fish, too, is working on cultivated bluefin tuna toro to address this issue, though BlueNalu appears to be ahead in the race to bring it to consumer plates. It already operates a 38,000 sq ft pilot plant in San Diego (which can produce enough tuna for small-scale sales), and has unveiled plans for a larger 140,000 sq ft facility that can manufacture six million lbs of product annually once operational.

    This will help bring down costs for the cultivated tuna, a crucial aspect for most consumers. That said, the company is already staring at an advantage here, since bluefin tuna toro already carries a premium price tag, so a cell-cultured version wouldn’t have the same cost difference as that with commodity beef or chicken. According to the poll, 74% of UK consumers are willing to pay the same or more than for conventional bluefin tuna.

    “BlueNalu’s business strategy centres on high-demand species that address challenges in supply, consistency, sustainability, and food security – particularly those that displace imports… and command premium pricing,” says Cooperhouse.

    “Seafood is already a premium category, and toro is one of the most expensive cuts, and has been described as the ‘Wagyu beef of the sea’. That gives us a unique opportunity to compete in a segment where consumers already expect to pay for quality, and where BlueNalu’s product’s health benefits, consistency, and safety attributes add real value.

    “BlueNalu’s consumer research has already demonstrated that many consumers will see great value in our products, due to the health and safety advantages associated with our process. As a result, we believe we will be able to sell our products at or near price parity from our early stages of commercialisation.”

    BlueNalu attracting global interest

    lab grown bluefin tuna
    Courtesy: BlueNalu

    The results of the UK research are “highly consistent” with other consumer studies BlueNalue has conducted in the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, covering nearly 10,000 people who “showed broad demand” for its seafood.

    “Across these markets, we’ve seen strong interest in cell-cultivated seafood, especially among health-conscious consumers who value safety, quality, and transparency,” says Cooperhouse.

    BlueNalu has previously announced partnerships and agreements with Asian food giants Pulmuone (South Korea), Mitsubishi, Sumitomo (both Japan), and Thai Union (Thailand), as well as industry leaders like Rich Foods and Griffith Foods. In addition, it has teamed up with Neom, Saudi Arabia’s upcoming future-facing city.

    It is one of the most well-funded startups in the cultivated meat industry, having attracted $118M over several rounds, including a $33.5M Series B raise in 2023. However, the firm was an outlier that year, when overall funding for cultivated meat dropped by 75%.

    That fall has since continued, as legislative challenges in the US and overseas have attempted to ban cultivated meat (with several states being successful), with investment in this space dropping by a further 40% in 2024.

    “As a pre-revenue startup, we’re continually exploring strategic investment opportunities to support our growth,” Cooperhouse says when asked if BlueNalu is seeking new capital.

    He adds: “We remain focused on scaling production, advancing regulatory clearances, and building a strong foundation for commercialisation and global market penetration.”

    The post California’s BlueNalu Bets on Premium Sushi & Price Parity with Cultivated Bluefin Toro appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Emirati Scientists Create Wheat Variety with ‘Record-Breaking’ 19% Protein

    sharjah wheat farm
    4 Mins Read

    At Sharjah’s Mleiha Wheat Farm, agricultural experts have developed a variety of the grain with 19.3% native protein content, potentially boosting the nation’s food security and exports.

    Home to an extreme climate, scarce water resources, and desert conditions, growing food in the UAE is relatively tough work. In fact, less than 2% of the country’s land is arable, which is why 90% of its food supply is imported.

    Despite these challenges, the Gulf state might have just had a major breakthrough for its food security and export market. Mleiha Wheat Farm, located in Sharjah, has developed Saba Sanabel (Seven Spikes), a wheat variety with 19.3% protein content – the highest recorded globally.

    The farm is in its third year now, and was launched to raise production rates and meet the local food demand. In this latest phase of the project, the high-protein wheat has been cultivated on over 1,400 hectares of desert land using advanced farming technologies. It’s expected to produce 6,000 tonnes of wheat this season.

    “Through this project, Sharjah has shown that innovation could overcome even the toughest farming challenges,” said Amna Al Dahak, the national climate change minister.

    AI-powered irrigation and chemical-free farming

    wheat protein content
    Courtesy: Sharjah Government

    The wheat farm was initiated by Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah, to enhance food security by providing high-protein wheat free from chemical fertilisers, pesticides and other potentially harmful substances.

    It developed a unique wheat strain labelled Sharjah 1, which is designed to withstand high salinity and drought conditions. A biotech lab sped up the genetic improvement process, evaluating more than 1,450 strains before finding the best-performing varieties.

    The high protein content in Saba Sanabel is attributed to the organic farming approach, which helps improve the fertility and content of the soil, and preserves the quality of the wheat grains.

    To grow the wheat grains, the farm uses contaminant-free desalinated water for irrigation, which increases the productivity and protein content, because water accelerates the transfer of dry matter from the stems and leaves to the grains, which is crucial for plant development.

    In fact, the irrigation system is driven by artificial intelligence (AI), and was identified by Al Dahak as instrumental to the project’s success, given it also reduced water use by 30%.

    The crop is only fertilised with natural manure, and has thus earned five quality and safety accreditations, including the HSP food quality certificate and the Made in Emirates label. In addition, the project won the Best Innovation Award for Sustainability in the UAE, a marker of its impact on climate protection and agricultural advancement.

    “Sharjah’s wheat has exceeded global standards, making it one of the most nutritionally valuable wheat varieties worldwide,” said Osama Hussein Qambar, an agricultural expert at the Sharjah Department of Agriculture and Livestock.

    Can high-protein wheat support food security?

    mleiha wheat farm
    Courtesy: Sharjah Government

    Mleiha Wheat Farm is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies like satellite thermal imaging (to optimise yield and quality) and a weather monitoring system (to obtain live forecasts and protect crops from fluctuations). “Through this project, Sharjah has shown that innovation could overcome even the toughest farming challenges,” said Al Dahak.

    In 2022, when the farm was established, the UAE imported 1.7 million tonnes of wheat, 330,000 tonnes of which were brought into Sharjah. Through this project, the company aims to reduce its wheat imports and bolster its self-sufficiency.

    At full capacity, the targeted annual output sits at 15,200 tonnes, which would meet Sharjah’s entire wheat demand. The emirate is looking to export the protein-rich wheat to position itself as a key supplier internationally. In fact, during the third harvest, Sheikh Sultan inaugurated a line of products derived from Saba Sanabel flour, including pasta, vermicelli, croissants, cakes, biscuits, semolina, and traditional Arabic bread.

    All this ties into the UAE’s goal to become the world’s most food-secure nation by 2051. The COP28 host initially aimed to break into the top 10 list of the Global Food Security Index by 2021, it ranked 23rd as of 2022.

    Nearly a fifth of its population lives below the poverty line, and according to the World Bank, 6% of its citizens are undernourished. And while the country scores high on food availability and safety, it could do better on the sustainability front.

    It’s already making moves here, with the new wheat variety giving residents an affordable source of locally grown plant protein. The UAE is home to the Middle East’s most sustainable restaurant, Boca, at a time when research shows that sustainability is an important factor for two-thirds of the country’s diners.

    Meanwhile, around 15% of Emiratis want to cut back on meat, and 26% of this group want to replace it with plant-based alternatives. Brands like Switch Foods, Thryve, Nadura* and Arlene are leading the charge with their domestically produced offerings.

    The post Emirati Scientists Create Wheat Variety with ‘Record-Breaking’ 19% Protein appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Gordon Ramsay x Flora, Hyper Oat Milk & Vegan School Meals

    gordon ramsay flora ad
    4 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Gordon Ramsay’s partnership with Becel, a new vegan egg in Italy, and Spain’s plant-based school meal decree.

    New products and launches

    Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has taken his partnership with plant-based dairy giant Flora Food Group global, appearing in a replica Skip the Cow ad (minus the expletives) for its Canadian dairy-free butter brand Becel.

    In the UK, Quorn has added two new flavours to its mycoprotein-based deli slices range. The tomato-basil flavour can be found at Sainsbury’s and Asda, and the garlic-herb variant at Tesco, both for £2.60.

    As whole-food plant-based food surges in the UK, The Tofoo Co introduced a Thai Burger and Southern Fried Pieces, which will retail at Waitrose and Tesco, respectively, for £3.

    Speaking of whole foods, vegan seafood player Happiee! has launched what it claims is the UK’s first ready-to-cook lion’s mane mushroom chunks. They’re available in original and teriyaki flavours, retailing for £4 per 180g pack at 240 Sainsbury’s stores.

    lion's mane mushroom uk
    Courtesy: Happiee!

    Confectionery giant Mars has rolled out a new Honeycomb for its dairy-free Galaxy range in the UK. Combining cocoa and hazelnut paste with honeycomb pieces, the bar is available at Sainsbury’s for £1.50.

    Ice cream maker Oppo Brothers has launched a better-for-you vegan sorbet range called Oppo Refresh, available in Sicilian Lemon & Strawberry, Alphonso Mango & Passionfruit, and Raspberry Coulis Swirl flavours for £3.75 per three-pack.

    Also in the UK, oat milk brand Minor Figures has launched the Hyper Oat line it had unveiled at Expo West. Available in berry, turmeric, matcha, and mango variants, the milks contain adaptogens and nootropics. The berry and mango flavours are available at Waitrose for £3 per 750ml bottle, followed by a wider launch in the coming months.

    minor figures hyper oat
    Courtesy: Minor Figures

    In Spain, plant-based meat leader Heura has rolled out a Fine Herbs chicken burger to cater to the country’s affinity for white meat, one of several products planned for this year.

    Italian plant-based producer The Bridge has launched a vegan liquid egg called Veg Egg, which is made from soy milk and soy protein.

    Across the Atlantic, South Korea’s Unlimeat has brought its flagship Korean BBQ Bulgogi and Pulled Pork Original products to 300 Kroger-affiliated stores in the US, including Ralphs, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, and Smith’s.

    unlimeat
    Courtesy: Unlimeat

    Californian biotech firm Checkerspot has developed what it says is the world’s first high-oleic palm oil alternative made entirely via microalgae fermentation.

    Company and finance updates

    US animal-free dairy startup DeNovo Foodlabs has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Earth First Food Ventures called PFerrinX26 to scale up the production of precision-fermented lactoferrin protein. They will announce a manufacturing partner soon, and plan to build facilities to produce 300 tonnes of the protein within the next decade.

    LoveRaw, the cult-favourite British vegan chocolate brand known for its Ferrero Rocher and Kinder Bueno copycats, has been rescued from administration by Bulgarian plant-based producer Smart Organic, after investment and supplier challenges disrupted the former’s operations and revenue.

    loveraw chocolate
    Courtesy: LoveRaw

    Mycelium Technologies, the French parent company of mycelium protein brand Mycfoods, has kickstarted its first fundraising round, with a €750,000 target. It plans a subsequent €4.5M round next year.

    French plant-based companies Hari&Co, Accro, HappyVore, La Vie and Swap Food have formed InterVeg, a coalition aimed at accelerating the transition to a plant-based diet via constructive dialogue with policymakers and promotional campaigns.

    Policy and research developments

    In a big win for the protein transition, Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved the Royal Decree on Healthy and Sustainable School Cafeterias, which contains a provision to protect children’s right to a 100% plant-based menu in schools, as well as increase legume consumption.

    new wave biotech
    Courtesy: New Wave Biotech

    What makes a lean startup? Singaporean sustainable food production platform Nurasa and AI-based precision fermentation facilitator New Wave Biotech have released a whitepaper to help ingredient manufacturers “reimagine the five core lean startup principles” for the food tech world.

    Researchers from the US have devised a new 3D printing process to make vegan calamari, using mung bean protein isolate, powdered light-yellow microalgae, gellan gum, and canola oil.

    At the University of Florida, researchers are testing a new kind of cattle feed that could help dairy cows release less methane and use nutrients more efficiently.

    Finally, in Norway, scientists are proposing kelp and other seaweed species, as well as plant residues, as an alternative to blood and other animal-derived inputs to use as culture media for cultivated meat.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Gordon Ramsay x Flora, Hyper Oat Milk & Vegan School Meals appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Plant-Based Milk Brands Are Going All-In On Replicating Dairy – Will Consumers Sip?

    eclipse non dairy whole milk
    5 Mins Read

    A wave of ‘not milks’ is on the rise, attempting to replicate dairy instead of merely replacing it, but previous efforts have seen mixed success.

    From Japan to the US, plant-based milk brands are hoping to tackle the resurgence of dairy with ultra-realistic alternatives that match cow’s milk on flavour and texture, branding them with monikers like ‘Not Milk’ or ‘Like Milk’.

    It’s a concept that was first popularised by Chile’s NotCo, whose NotMilk – made from a blend of ingredients identified by artificial intelligence (think peas, pineapples, and cabbage) – took the US by storm for its likeness to conventional dairy.

    The idea was that traditional plant milks didn’t necessarily deliver on flavour. Soy was too beany, oat too cereal-like, and coconut, well, too coconutty. Consumers were left wanting more. In 2023, research suggested that despite 44% of US households buying non-dairy milk, a third of Americans still hadn’t found an alternative that met all their needs.

    A recent global survey found that among the people who don’t purchase plant-based milk, nearly six in 10 are open to making the shift if their needs are met. The problem? Unsatisfactory taste or texture, which remains the primary barrier and leaves 57% of consumers resistant to drinking dairy-free alternatives.

    This is why some plant-based milk brands are now focusing on replicating the flavour of cow’s milk, as opposed to just offering a non-dairy alternative that may not taste similar. NotCo did it first, and Alpro followed soon after – but will this approach be successful?

    plant based barriers
    Courtesy: Roland Berger

    Replicate, don’t imitate

    Last week, California’s Eclipse Foods debuted a Non-Dairy Whole Milk for coffee shops, bakeries, smoothie bars and other foodservice outlets.

    “Unlike most plant-based milks that aim to imitate traditional dairy milk, Eclipse’s latest innovation truly replicates milk,” the company explained in a press release. Its team isolated proteins from peas and chickpeas to replicate the molecular structure of milk.

    The new product focuses on “flavour, stability, sweetness, and whiteness”, which Eclipse Foods argued are the main categories where most non-dairy milks fall short. Its innovation is said to foam in both hot and cold temperatures, and hold that foam for as long as cow’s milk.

    The brand says it’s inspired by Hokkaido, the dairy-famous region in Japan. So it’s fitting that in the East Asian country, another non-dairy company is hoping to reproduce the flavours of milk.

    like milk
    Courtesy: Asahi Group

    Asahi Group, the holding company of the eponymous beer giant, this month began test sales of Like Milk, an animal-free milk made from yeast. The firm leverages fermentation to achieve this result, feeding yeast with sugar, powdering the extracted biomass, and mixing it with plant-based ingredients.

    It contains an equivalent amount of protein to dairy and soy milk, and lots more fibre. In addition, it’s free from 28 common allergens, and positioned as a product that “can be used in every aspect of daily life in the same way as milk”.

    Asahi’s technology boosts the yeast’s emulsifying properties and removes its unique flavour to leave a mellow-tasting vegan alternative reminiscent of dairy. Like Milk is set to be released nationwide next year.

    Fermentation is also the star of Koatji’s Koji Oat Milk, which is crafted by Michelin-starred chefs. While the brand doesn’t specifically market the product as a dairy replica, it suggests that the combination of oat milk with the enzymes used to make miso imparts a depth of flavour to “create the plant milk of the future”.

    koatji
    Courtesy: Koatji

    Do consumers want dairy-like non-dairy milk?

    These plant-based milk innovations rival other newcomers that are targeting aspects like nutrition (see Whole Moon and Potina), sustainability (Força Foods and Kern Tec), and premiumisation (Tách and PKN).

    It comes amid a resurgence of dairy consumption in some parts of the world. In the UK, while conventional dairy sales increased by 6% in January, plant-based analogues only saw a 1% hike. Across the Atlantic, sales of dairy milk grew by 2% in the US last year, with raw milk intake up by 18% (albeit from a smaller base) – in contrast, the country saw a 6% decline in plant-based milk consumption.

    Can meeting the thirst for cow’s milk with ‘exact’ replicas help vegan brands attract more consumers? Companies like Eclipse Foods and Asahi are betting on it, though the category’s history to date shows middling returns.

    NotCo’s Not Milk is no longer as widely available in the US, though that could be more to do with the firm’s shift in approach and the handover of its North American operations to Kraft Heinz.

    However, some notable examples come from Danone. In the US, the dairy giant discontinued its Silk Nextmilk and So Delicious Wondermilk SKUs, both alternatives said to replicate the molecular composition and taste of cow’s milk. The company didn’t give a reason for the withdrawal, saying at the time it was “prioritising our efforts on innovation across our product portfolio to deliver on evolving consumer preferences, including functional and nutritional needs”.

    alpro this is not milk
    Courtesy: Alpro

    And in the UK, Danone recently pulled its This Is Not M!lk range under the Alpro brand, as revealed by Green Queen last month. “While ‘This Is Not M!lk’ was designed to create a more familiar dairy milk taste, our UK shopper research showed us that many of our consumers enjoy the taste of oat just as much, if not more so,” Tom Kerr, head of plant-based at Danone UK & Ireland, told Green Queen in a subsequent email.

    “As such, we decided to focus on the great taste of our core oat range and discontinued This is Not M!lk in the UK towards the end of 2024,” he added. “We have no plans to bring this back to the UK at the moment… However, it continues to be enjoyed by consumers across several markets in Europe.”

    Indeed, for many consumers, non-dairy milk simply tastes better. One global survey found that two in five respondents buy plant-based milk for its taste superiority. It’s why you see so many people who aren’t vegan or lactose-intolerant opting for an oat milk latte – and research shows one in five Americans who purchase vegan alternatives also put cow’s milk in their shopping carts.

    So will products like Eclipse Foods’s Non-Dairy Whole Milk and Asahi’s Like Milk help turn the tide for plant-based milk? Or will they go the same way as Danone’s attempts? Only time – and consumers – will tell.

    The post Plant-Based Milk Brands Are Going All-In On Replicating Dairy – Will Consumers Sip? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • From Zero-Dairy Casein to Beanless Coffee: Rudy Yoo’s Plan to Reinvent the Food Industry

    armored fresh
    8 Mins Read

    Rudy Yoo, co-founder of Armored Fresh and Pureture, has big plans for the future food industry, featuring yeast-based casein, barley-derived coffee, and clean-label, complete plant proteins.

    How does a five-ingredient, sugar-free, “zero-dairy” shake with 25g of protein per serving sound to you? How about coffee made from roasted barley instead of, well, coffee beans? Or an additive-free functional bar with complete protein from plants, designed as pre- and post-workout fuel?

    Rudy Yoo is working to make all this (and more) a reality. The co-founder of oat milk cheese brand Armored Fresh and vegan casein maker Pureture is embarking on several new projects this year, all to unlock nutrition that’s sustainable for both the human body and the planet.

    South Korea-based Armored Fresh has been expanding its US footprint over the last year with the launch of its oat milk cheese slices and parmesan shakers. Pureture, based in New York City, has developed a fermentation-derived casein that ditches the cows for yeast and comes 30-40% cheaper than the conventional protein.

    Now, Yoo is taking things a few steps further. This year, he will launch Piilk (“Pure + Milk”), a new line of protein shakes combining Pureture’s casein tech with Armored Fresh’s product development expertise. They replicate the functional and sensory attributes of dairy with a clean and animal-free ingredient list.

    Then, under Armored Fresh, he has announced JustAlt, a functional food brand with high-protein, low-sugar products, and Barley Brew, a beanless coffee alternative made from grains.

    “Pureture is a biotech company specialising in innovative raw materials and B2B supply, while Armored Fresh is a B2C food brand offering alternative dairy products directly to consumers,” Yoo tells Green Queen. “Through strategic partnerships, both companies are working together to lead the next-generation alternative dairy market.”

    Clean-label is a ‘necessity’ in the alt-dairy world

    pureture
    Courtesy: Pureture

    The teams at the two startups tested more than 400 yeast strains to optimise the protein yield and eliminate off-notes in taste and colour. The result is an animal-free casein that provides “the same essential amino acid profile as dairy proteins” and “replicates dairy-like emulsification, texture, and nutritional properties without additives”.

    Casein is the main protein found in cow’s milk, and is a market worth $3B. Pureture employs a six-step liquid fermentation process that combines yeast with plant-based ingredients to make its version. It begins by cultivating a yeast strain and enriching it. Then, it separates the protein and tests the emulsification functionality, before sterilising and drying the casein.

    Pureture’s casein is said to maintain “excellent taste and functionality”, and can naturally bind water and fat. It contains 25g of protein, with a complete amino acid profile (like dairy). Yoo explains that it “offers high digestibility and bioavailability without requiring dairy-based fortification”, and has “a nutritional profile superior to traditional plant proteins”.

    “Most dairy-free products rely on emulsifiers, gums, and stabilisers to mimic dairy texture, requiring heavily processed ingredients. In contrast, Pureture’s yeast-based alternative casein offers natural emulsification, overcoming the limitations of existing dairy-free products and providing a cleaner, more natural solution,” says Yoo.

    “Consumers are increasingly favouring transparent ingredients and minimal processing, making clean-label products essential for building trust,” he adds. “In the alternative dairy market, clean-label is not an option – it’s a necessity.”

    Globally, around half of consumers say they’d pay more for clean-label products. And as plant-based alternatives get knocked for some long ingredient lists, especially in the ultra-processed food context, developing cleaner labels will only become a more attractive proposition.

    Armored Fresh to launch clean-label protein shake

    piilk
    Courtesy: Armored Fresh

    The vegan casein will help Armored Fresh create products that are “nutritionally competitive” with dairy. To begin, it is launching a five-ingredient protein shake under the Piilk brand in July.

    “We aim to set a new standard, creating products that are cleaner and healthier than traditional dairy protein shakes,” says Yoo. “While dairy-based protein shakes rely on various additives, we are proving that superior nutrition and functionality can be achieved without them. We may not surpass nature itself, but our goal is to maintain maximum nutritional integrity with minimal processing.”

    After more than 100 rounds of testing, the product is now being finalised. There were several considerations for the teams at Pureture and Armored Fresh, including the inherent tasting notes of the protein, and choosing the appropriate flavours and sweeteners.

    “Natural flavours are widely trusted by consumers but may react unpredictably with protein, making flavour consistency a key challenge,” describes Yoo. “Synthetic flavours effectively balance protein’s inherent taste and ensure uniform flavour quality, but they need to align with clean-label standards and consumer preferences.”

    In addition, he and his colleagues are evaluating sugar alternatives like stevia and erythritol in their bid to optimise the taste for the public’s palate. “Our ultimate goal is to deliver the most natural and satisfying taste, ensuring the best balance between functionality and consumer preference,” Yoo says.

    “We are at a critical decision point – prioritising taste enhancement or committing to all-natural ingredients,” he adds. While the final ingredient list is still under wraps, it is likely to contain cocoa, a sweetener, flavourings, and the Pureture casein.

    The company is in talks with Whole Foods Market and other premium retail stores for the Q3 launch of this shake, dubbed ‘Only 5’. It will be followed by ‘Only 7’ and ‘Only 9’, with each protein shake featuring distinct functionalities and flavours. “Each product is designed for specific performance needs, from balanced nutrition to enhanced recovery and beyond,” he says.

    Could barley-based coffee counter caffeine crashes and climate change?

    barley brew
    Courtesy: Armored Fresh

    Beyond protein shakes, Yoo recently detailed plans for another product. Describing his struggles with the side effects of caffeine consumption, he explained that Armored Fresh has developed a coffee alternative made from roasted barley.

    “Coffee is a part of daily life for millions, but many struggle with side effects from caffeine crashes and jitters to digestive discomfort and poor sleep,” he tells Green Queen. “Barley Brew is our roasted-barley coffee alternative that keeps the bold, roasted flavour of coffee, while eliminating its downsides.”

    The team landed on the grain after “countless trials”, finding that it delivered sustained, gentle energy (minus the caffeine crashes) and gut-friendly digestion with low acidity. In addition, it contains natural antioxidants, beta-glucan, and GABA for immunity and focus.

    In a blind taste test of a cold brew made from the barley-derived coffee, consumers praised its clean finish, depth, and smoothness. The company is offering a Half-Caf blend as well, combining roasted barley with coffee beans for those who still need a light caffeine lift. More than 80% of taste testers were unable to distinguish it from conventional coffee.

    “Barley Brew isn’t just a caffeine-free option – it’s a new, flexible coffee ritual that adapts to different needs, supports gut health, and aligns with sustainable agricultural practices,” says Yoo. Coffee prices have reached record highs as climate change strains the commodity’s supply. Globally, 60% of coffee species are endangered, and the area suitable for cultivating Arabica is shrinking.

    It has led to the rise of several beanless coffee startups, including Atomo, Minus Coffee, Northern Wonder, and Prefer. Now, Armored Fresh is joining that list, targeting a Q3 launch in Manhattan. “As barley cultivation requires significantly less water and fewer resources than coffee, it’s better for both people and the planet,” says Yoo.

    More products in the pipeline

    justalt
    Courtesy: Armored Fresh

    Last month, Armored Fresh unveiled JustAlt, whose debut product line features protein bars in chocolate, peanut butter, and fruit flavours.

    “Most plant-based snacks lack performance, or sacrifice taste and ingredient integrity,” argues Yoo. “JustAlt is our new functional alt-food brand, launching with zero-sugar, high-protein, clean-label protein bars and spreads. These are designed for everyday performance, blending science-based nutrition with delicious flavours.”

    The brand will enable “flexitarians, athletes, and busy consumers to make better daily choices without compromising on taste, convenience, or quality” through products designed for workout fuelling, snacking, or meal replacement.

    “We are also exploring various plant-based milk and processed dairy alternatives using the emulsification function of our casein, with research on coagulation properties in progress,” Yoo says of further product development plans.

    “As for Armored Fresh cheese, we plan to integrate this alternative casein into its formulation, with a target launch next year,” he adds.

    “Additionally, we are developing a new research pipeline to use yeast protein peptides to mimic dairy protein peptides, further expanding functionality and applications.”

    Armored Fresh, Pureture gear up for fundraising

    armored fresh cheese
    Courtesy: Armored Fresh

    To kickstart this new era, both Armored Fresh and Pureture are preparing to fundraise. The former closed a $23M Series B round in 2022, and as it continues to scale, it will initiate a Series C round in 2026. This is set to “support explosive growth, expand our zero-dairy and functional alt-food product lines, and accelerate our retail footprint”, says Yoo.

    Pureture, meanwhile, secured $1M in SAFE funding led by Forward Deployed VC in 2023, and is now preparing for its Series A in 2025. The startup was previously close to finalising a $12M round, though despite “significant interest”, Yoo abandoned the effort as he couldn’t find the “right kind of investor”.

    “I secured the flexibility last year to raise funds freely in the US, which allows us to move faster when the investment environment improves,” he says. “Thanks to this decision, Pureture is now in a much stronger position, and I’m confident the next round will happen under far better conditions.”

    The fresh capital will help Yoo’s companies scale up yeast-based casein production, expand R&D efforts for functional proteins and peptides for sports nutrition and medical food applications, strengthen global partnerships, and optimise production efficiency and quality control.

    Pureture has secured 50,000 sq ft of land to build a new production facility, and has begun research into functional peptides extracted from dairy proteins, aiming to “advance beyond plant-based alternatives into the future of smarter, more functional nutrition”.

    “Through this funding, Pureture aims to set the new standard for alternative casein and functional protein markets,” he says. Scaling up will also help the firms make their products more competitive on price. “Typically, technology-driven zero-dairy products are more expensive, but Pureture’s protein is significantly cheaper than dairy proteins and requires no additives, reducing production costs.”

    Yoo adds: “This allows us to maintain clean-label standards while ensuring pricing parity with conventional dairy products. As production scales, we can further reduce consumer prices, positioning Armored Fresh protein shakes as competitively priced within the high-protein alternative dairy category. By delivering superior quality without a price barrier, we aim to set a new standard beyond traditional dairy.”

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  • Fermentation Can Futureproof the EU Food System – But Only With Regulatory Reform

    food fermentation europe
    5 Mins Read

    Fermentation has transformative potential for the future of the EU’s agrifood system – but industry leaders say they need regulatory and financial support from policymakers.

    The EU must build its modern fermentation capacity to strengthen agricultural resilience and safeguard its future food system, industry experts have said.

    In a new position paper, trade body Food Fermentation Europe (FFE) argues that technologies like biomass and precision fermentation can deliver resilient protein production, cut emissions, and boost the EU’s competitiveness, at a time when it is facing calls to greenify the food system.

    “The recently unveiled Vision for Agriculture and Food sets the direction for the sector, emphasising sustainability, resilience, and competitiveness,” the FFE says, noting that fermentation can “offer transformative solutions that align with the EU’s objectives”.

    In simple terms, precision fermentation involves using microbes to produce specific ingredients – such as recombinant animal proteins – and biomass fermentation entails cultivating microbial biomass as food.

    Unlocking the full potential of this industry requires decisive and bold policy action, including clearer regulation and increased investment to help scale up production and bring future-friendly ingredients to market.

    Why fermentation holds the key to EU’s future food system

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    Formed in 2023, FFE represents nine fermentation firms working on animal-free proteins and fats, including whey, casein and egg alternatives. Its position paper is a result of months of consultation between policymakers, think tanks, scientists, startups, and industry leaders.

    It notes how fermentation tech supports some of the EU’s key agrifood targets, including the bioeconomy strategy, which outlines the need for innovative production models. The fermentation industry can create high-value jobs and attract investment – it was the only alternative protein sector to see an increase in financing last year.

    The authors argue that the category can boost food security by providing stable, local sources of high-quality proteins and essential nutrients. And since these innovations require less land and water than animal proteins – and mitigate food waste by valorising agricultural side streams – they help optimise food production while reducing pressure on natural ecosystems.

    In addition, precision and biomass fermentation can support the EU’s net-zero goal for 2050. The recently unveiled agrifood vision was criticised by climate experts for failing to highlight protein diversification; European Agricultural Commissioner Christophe Hansen has since promised to develop a comprehensive plan to diversify plant protein sources.

    eu protein diversification
    Courtesy: Nicolas Tucat/AFP

    FFE suggests that fermentation, by virtue of its efficiency and scalability, is poised to be a “key pillar” in the EU’s food vision. However, there are several hurdles that need to be addressed.

    One of the most urgent ones is the EU’s novel food regulatory framework, which has long been thought of as too complex and slow, pushing several alternative protein companies to look elsewhere to commercialise.

    “Current approval processes under the novel food regulation are not sufficiently agile to keep pace with rapid innovation in fermentation,” the paper states. “While Europe’s rigorous safety assessment is a cornerstone that we fully support, the process can be made more innovation-friendly without compromising standards.”

    There is also a lack of support for industrial scale-up, while the overall success of the fermentation industry depends on how well it’s integrated into the bloc’s food resilience and bioeconomy plans. “Ensuring that these technologies are considered in policy dialogues and that their strategic value is recognised by all stakeholders is imperative,” says FFE.

    Regulatory clarity, investment, and consumer trust key to success

    eu novel food
    Courtesy: Formo

    So how can the EU cultivate the right environment for fermentation tech? FFE believes the European Food Safety Authority must establish a clear, science-based regulatory framework for novel foods.

    It’s important to approve products based on science and safety considerations alone, without any influence of “subjective perceptions of threats to traditions or culture” (which have been used as arguments to ban cultivated meat). “We urge the Commission to not deprive European consumers of their freedom of choice to adopt innovation,” FFE says, adding that Europe would otherwise not remain a world leader in this sector.

    Further, the EFSA must speed up the approval process for fermentation-derived ingredients, and policymakers should recognise them as strategic assets in achieving the EU’s food resilience and climate goals, and reducing its reliance on external protein sources.

    “Ensure fermentation-based food production is embedded within the EU’s bioeconomy and biotech discussions, aligning with sustainability, competitiveness and food security goals,” says FFE.

    The bloc has already been investing millions into these technologies through initiatives like Horizon Europe, and is being urged to continue doing so. “Encourage risk insurance mechanisms to de-risk private sector investments in food biotech innovation,” the paper suggests.

    those vegan cowboys
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    Additionally, the EU should promote targeted R&D partnerships to bridge the gap between lab success and market viability. Here, public-private collaboration is key: this would help develop fermentation infrastructure and ensure integration into existing food and feed supply chains. Industrial symbiosis models – where fermentation facilities contribute to circular economy initiatives, such as waste valorisation and nutrient recovery – should be a major focus.

    Finally, greater awareness is key to consumer acceptance and adoption, so the EU is being called on to launch campaigns that educate the public on the benefits of fermentation-derived proteins.

    “By integrating fermentation technologies into the EU’s policy agenda, Europe can position itself as a global leader in sustainable food production, ensuring long-term economic and environmental success in the agrifood landscape,” FFE says, adding that “regulatory clarity, investment incentives, and consumer trust-building efforts must go hand in hand”.

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  • Shiru Hits Commercial Scale With AI-Derived Structured Fat Ingredient

    shiru
    4 Mins Read

    AI protein discovery platform Shiru is producing its animal-free fat ingredient at commercial scale- CEO Jasmine Hume calls it a “turning point” for the food industry.

    In a major milestone for the future food industry, a plant-based unsaturated fat discovered by artificial intelligence (AI) is now being manufactured at commercial levels.

    Californian startup Shiru, which leverages AI to discover plant-derived and microbial alternatives to animal-based proteins and lipids, says it is now ready to supply finished ingredients to brands who need turnkey solutions, as well as license its technology to ingredient manufacturers.

    The company’s flagship ingredient, OleoPro, is a structured fat alternative made from unsaturated oils and a blend of plant proteins called uPro, which mimics animal fats for plant-based meat, dairy and cosmetics applications.

    During a time when the Trump administration is upending global supply chains, Shiru is aiming to solve challenges in nutrition, formulation, and manufacturing with speedy AI-powered solutions.

    “This milestone is the result of years of creative problem-solving, late nights, perseverance, teamwork, and unshakable conviction,” founder and CEO Jasmin Hume wrote. “But it’s more than just a marker of company growth – it’s powerful validation that AI-driven product discovery can solve entrenched industry challenges with unprecedented speed.”

    Shiru takes a big step to bring oleogels to market

    oleopro
    Courtesy: Shiru

    Experts recognise oleogels as an alternative fat with major potential. The process combines oil with gelators to form hard structures, giving unsaturated oils some of the functional attributes of harder saturated fats, without all the health issues.

    However, low availability of food-grade gelators and certain regulatory restrictions around their use have impeded efforts to produce them at a commercial scale. This is where AI comes in. Hume believes that when “used with purpose”, this tech can simplify complex biological and chemical processes to “unlock solutions that seem beautifully obvious in hindsight”.

    Shiru used AI to find natural oleogel structurants, which Hume described as “clean-label, sustainable, and entirely plant-based”.

    “Our AI platform helped us identify the right proteins, but that was only part of the story. Our team then engineered a scalable and entirely new process for producing those proteins with the precise performance attributes required to succeed in real-world formulations,” she said.

    She noted how Cargill recently issued a call for experts on scaling oleogel production, and how Nestlé’s new structured dairy protein ingredients boost the release of the GLP-1 hormone to manage weight loss. Shiru’s uPro is a plant-based version of similar technologies

    The startup has already signed over 30 agreements from food and ingredient manufacturers for OleoPro and uPro. “This moment is a turning point not just for Shiru, but for the food industry,” said Hume. “While we’re delivering plant-based structured fats that match the functionality of saturated animal fat and environmentally demanding ingredients like palm and coconut oil, we’re also opening the door to entirely new food experiences.”

    One of its prototypes is a solid olive oil made purely with olive oil and uPro. “The future of food isn’t just better, it’s also more creative,” she said.

    A healthier, planet-friendly alternative to tallow and palm oil

    shiru oleopro
    Courtesy: Shiru

    Shiru is scaling up OleoPro at the same time Americans shun seed oils and re-embrace beef tallow, which had gone out of fashion decades ago for its high saturated fat content. More than half of tallow is made up of saturates, mostly palmitic acid, which raises LDL (or bad) cholesterol levels, negatively impacts your metabolism, and can cause inflammation.

    Americans eat too much saturated fat (it makes up 12% of their calories) – the American Heart Association recommends keeping this share under 5%, since historically, these fats have been linked with an increased risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US.

    Saturated fats usually have high smoke points, remain solid at room temperature, and last a long time, making them ideal for CPG applications. Plant-based versions include coconut and palm oil, though these fats generally cause vast amounts of tropical deforestation. OleoPro, though, is a climate-friendly alternative that can cut saturated fat content by 80%.

    “We have the tools to simultaneously clean up labels, build more resilient supply chains, improve public health, and reduce our impact on the planet,” Hume said of Shiru’s ingredients. “This is just the beginning. Our pipeline is stacked with innovations ready to transform the food system and we’re breaking down barriers daily.”

    The company is working on a protein-based alternative to methylcellulose, specifically designed for plant-based meat applications. Plus, it’s developing a vegan egg replacer that replicates the binding, leavening, and structural benefits of the chicken-derived version.

    In addition, Shiru, which has raised $36M in funding, operates ProteinDiscovery.ai, an AI platform that hosts the world’s largest database of plant-derived and microbial proteins and enables corporate partners to swiftly identify and test highly functional, natural ingredients.

    Its scale-up comes amid a boom in alternative fats. Australia’s Nourish Ingredients, California’s Yali Bio, New York’s C16 Biosciences and Sweden’s Melt&Marble use precision fermentation to produce fats and lipids, while Hoxton Farms, Steakholder Foods and Genuine Taste employ cell cultivation. Bill Gates-backed Savor, meanwhile, is fermenting carbon to produce animal-free butter.

    The post Shiru Hits Commercial Scale With AI-Derived Structured Fat Ingredient appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Biotech Meets the Final Frontier: A Micro-Lab for Microbial Proteins in Space

    sustainable food in space
    4 Mins Read

    Scientists have launched a miniature lab into Earth’s orbit, which contains microbes designed to produce proteins in space.

    Space may be the final frontier, but could it also be the solution to Earth’s food security problems?

    It’s a question that led to the launch of a mini laboratory into the planet’s orbit this week, containing yeast to produce edible proteins via precision fermentation in space.

    The project is being spearheaded by scientists at Imperial College London’s Department of Bioengineering and Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, and Cranfield University, which collaborated with the European Space Agency, Frontier Space, and Atmos Space Cargo.

    The partnership installed a fully automated miniature microbe laboratory aboard Phoenix, Europe’s first commercial returnable spacecraft, which took off at SpaceX on Monday. The intention is to find a way to produce food and other bio-derived products in space for astronauts, which has implications for food production on Earth.

    Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, from Imperial College’s Department of Bioengineering, said: “We dream about a future where humanity heads off into the dark expanses of space. But carrying enough to feed ourselves on the journey and at our destination would be unimaginable in cost and weight.”

    He added: “We’re excited that this project makes use of academic and industry expertise in physics, engineering, biotech and space science – converging on this challenge.”

    Space protein exploration could have lessons for Earth too

    bezos centre for sustainable protein
    Courtesy: Imperial College London

    According to Imperial College, it takes food, water and fuel are heavy supplies that add to the cost of a space flight, which pushes up the cost of feeding each astronaut to around £20,000 ($26,500) per day. One solution could be to take yeast strains onboard and engineer them to produce food, pharmaceuticals, fuel and bioplastics in the microgravity of space.

    The lab will transport microbe specimens to space and return them to Earth for comprehensive analysis, providing crucial data about microgravity, long-term storage, and the impact of space transportation.

    Frontier Space CEO Aqueel Shamsul said the mission represented a “major milestone” in democratising access to space research. “Our SpaceLab Mark 1, ‘lab-in-a-box’ technology enables researchers to conduct sophisticated experiments in microgravity without the traditional barriers to space-based research,” he explained.

    “This project represents a significant opportunity to mature Frontier’s technology, providing bio-experimentation solutions for space environments with the future space infrastructure post-International Space Station.”

    The lessons from this experiment could speed up developments in space-based manufacturing, pharmaceutical research, and sustainable food production for long space missions.

    “If just a handful of cultivated cells could provide all our food, pharmaceuticals, fuels and bioplastics using freely available resources, that would bring the future closer,” noted Ledesma-Amaro.

    The work will build on his research at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and Microbial Food Hub at Imperial College, where he and his colleagues are working on creating the next generation of alternative proteins.

    By exploring precision fermentation – which combines traditional fermentation with the latest advances in biotech to efficiently produce proteins and fats – in space, researchers could better understand how to make microbial foods on Earth, and in barren areas where food production is currently limited.

    Alternative proteins in space

    lab grown meat space
    Courtesy: European Space Agency

    Space and alternative protein exploration have a long history; in recent years, efforts have been ramped up as the need for future-friendly foods becomes more urgent by the day.

    The European Space Agency, which was part of this latest project, has previously supported two projects from the UK and Germany to grow cultivated meat in space. “The feeling is that we are at the beginning of a process that could transform the industry, making the conventional meat production model obsolete,” Paolo Corradi, an engineer at the agency, said in 2023.

    In the US, NASA has been conducting experiments on cultivated meat since 2001. And in 2022, it partnered with fungal protein startup Nature’s Fynd to develop a micro-gravity biofilm-biomass reactor to produce nutrient-dense vegan protein for astronauts. NASA runs the Deep Space Food Challenge with the Canadian Space Agency as well, and among its winners is Solein gas protein maker Solar Foods.

    Mexican cultivated meat producer Micro Meat, meanwhile, has teamed up with US-based space parks developer Orbital Assembly to install meat production equipment in its space stations.

    SpaceX, where this new mini lab was launched, has worked with cultivated meat firm Aleph Farms to conduct experiments on microgravity’s effects on muscle tissue growth, using beef cells harvested by the Israeli startup. Aleph Farms has also grown cell-cultured beef on the International Space Station, nearly 400km away from any natural resources.

    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has been working with cellular agriculture innovator Integriculture and the Tokyo Women’s Medical University on a project involving cellular agriculture and cultivated meat production in space.

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  • Solar Foods: Your Future Protein Powder Will Be Made From Air

    solein protein shake
    5 Mins Read

    Finland’s Solar Foods has developed a protein shake to help you pump your macros. The kicker? The ready-to-mix powder ditches dairy for CO2.

    As it prepares to enter the US market, Finnish food tech firm Solar Foods is targeting a food format precious to Americans today: protein shakes.

    The maker of Solein – a protein derived from microbes and gases – has developed a ready-to-mix powder to help you hit your daily protein goals.

    It’s the first readily available protein powder made from thin air, and is aimed at a consumer base obsessed with protein. Americans are eating more of the macronutrient than ever before, with six in 10 Americans increasing their intake last year, and 85% want to continue to do so in 2025.

    87% of them believe you need animal products to get enough protein, despite vast evidence to the contrary – and that’s before you account for the climate impact of livestock farming, which is making it increasingly difficult to meet America’s growing demand for food.

    As it begins its next phase under new CEO Rami Jokela, Solar Foods aims to challenge that with its gas protein, which it has described as “the most sustainable protein in the world”.

    solar foods
    New Solar Foods CEO Rami Jokela | Courtesy: Solar Foods

    Solar Foods targets US performance nutrition market

    The Solein Protein Shake has been unveiled in a Salty Caramel flavour, and contains no sugar. It’s designed as a daily protein supplement to support active lifestyles and conditions-based nutritional needs.

    Solar Foods says Solein’s unique properties eschew the need for any other protein sources. Each 16g serving of the powder boasts 10g of protein, with the ingredient containing all essential amino acids (including branched-chain), as well as iron and vitamin B12.

    “Solein is especially well-suited to be used in different kinds of ready-to-mix protein powders, as it blends well with liquid, bringing richness and indulgent, creamy consistency without dairy,” says chief commercial officer Juan Manuel Benitez-Garcia.

    “Solein Shake is one example of such a protein powder, ready for consumers as it is, or to be adjusted to different consumer needs from healthy snacking to fulfilling even demanding protein needs. By increasing the amount of Solein, the shake is also ideal for boosting performance as well as muscle growth and maintenance,” he adds.

    The company is positioning the product towards athletes and gymgoers looking to enhance their performance and recovery. That aligns with its commercialisation strategy for the US, which focuses on the health and performance nutrition market. Consumers in this segment consume 500,000 tonnes of protein powder worth $10B annually, according to Solar Foods.

    “Ready-to-mix protein powders are usually made with dairy-based whey protein, as it has been the top choice in taste, bringing fresh flavour to products without the off notes typical to plant-based proteins,” says Benitez-Garcia, before pointing out that the demand for whey is outgrowing supply.

    “When you’re a health and performance nutrition brand with a big part of your business based on whey but struggling to see where future supply will come from, you’re actively looking for better options,” he explains. “Thanks to Solein’s mild taste, it matches the freshness of whey, also bringing the upsides of sustainability as well as price and quality stability.”

    Solein’s protein powder is the latest in a growing list of animal-free protein powders looking to serve the ever-growing appetite for functional protein ingredients without the environmental cost.

    Perfect Day, one of the first companies in the world to create an animal-free whey protein powder, lent its ingredient to CPG protein powder brand Strive Nutrition, as well as online sports nutrition giant Myprotein. And last year, Nestlé released a Better Whey product under its Orgain line last year, featuring the same ingredient.

    France’s Bon Vivant has also introduced a three-strong range of functional animal-free dairy protein powders. Dutch microbial protein maker Farmless is also working on a ‘brewed’ protein powder. And this week, Balletic Foods entered the space with three fermentation-derived protein powders, one of which is focused on recovery.

    How Solein is produced

    solein
    Courtesy: Solar Foods

    Solar Foods produces Solein at its demo plant in Finland, dubbed Factory 01, which can churn out 160 tonnes of the protein per year (rising to 230 tonnes next year). In addition, the company is building a much larger Factory 02, which would be able to manufacture 12,800 tonnes of product annually.

    It produces the protein by feeding microbes on carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen instead of sugar. Doing so eschews the need for farmland to grow sugarcane, alongside any irrigation, fertilisers and pesticides. The ingredient is not dependent on water or weather either, allowing it to be produced in climates like the desert, the Arctic and even outer space.

    The microbes are grown in a liquid form, and later dried into an orange-yellow powder that is flavourless and has 78% protein by dry weight, 6% fat, and 10% dietary fibre. Its macronutrient profile is said to be akin to dried soy or algae – but it outperforms both plant and animal proteins on sustainability.

    Since the main raw materials required for its production are carbon dioxide and renewable energy, Solein results in emissions equal to just 1% of those generated by conventional meat, and 20% of plant proteins.

    The ingredient received novel food approval in Singapore in 2022, debuting as part of a vegan chocolate gelato at Italian eatery Fico. In addition, it was the base of a Taste the Future chocolate snack bar released by Fazer (a majority shareholder of Solar Foods) in the city-state, and a line of mooncakes and ice cream sandwiches rolled out by Japanese food giant Ajinomoto.

    Moreover, the company achieved self-determined Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status in the US last year, and registered Factory 01 with the Food and Drug Administration to import Solein protein stateside. At the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California last month, it announced Solein Protein Bites – Nut Mix Edition as a concept product to showcase Solein’s capabilities.

    Solar Foods, which has raised over €43M ($47M) in equity funding and €30M ($32M) in debt financing, has applied for novel food approval with the European Food Safety Authority, expecting the green light in 2026. In February, it gave the region a taste of Solein through a partnership with Italy’s KelpEat, which showcased a high-protein snack with the ingredient at the Pitti Taste food fair in Florence.

    The post Solar Foods: Your Future Protein Powder Will Be Made From Air appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Moolec Science: Molecular Farming Pioneer to Merge with Bioceres Group in All-Stock Deal

    moolec science
    4 Mins Read

    Molecular farming player Moolec Science – known for its pork-producing soybeans – has announced a merger with Argentina’s Bioceres Group and two other firms.

    Luxembourg-based Moolec Science has agreed to merge with three companies, including Argentina’s Bioceres Group, the agtech firm it spun off from as a seed startup in 2020.

    The NASDAQ-listed molecular farming company has entered a Business Combination Agreement with Bioceres, precision fermentation player Nutrecon, farm equipment manufacturer Gentle Tech, and their subsidiaries in an all-stock deal.

    Expected to close in the second quarter of this year, the transaction will see Moolec become the parent company of these entities, and issue up to 87 million new shares and five million warrants to their shareholders.

    Following the announcement, Moolec co-founder and CEO Gastón Paladini announced that he had stepped down from his role, pledging his continued “support and collaboration as a shareholder and as a founder”. The company has not yet named a successor.

    “The need to accelerate agricultural innovation to address current and future challenges, such as enhancing on-farm profitability and reducing environmental impact, is increasingly evident,” said Federico Trucco, CEO of Bioceres Crop Solutions.

    “Bioceres is enthusiastic to be part of a larger, more ambitious Moolec, one that expands its focus from science in food ingredients to a comprehensive ‘cradle-to-cradle’ approach.”

    Merger marks ‘new stage’ for Moolec

    moolec science
    Courtesy: Moolec Science

    Molecular farming enables the modification of plant cells to express animal proteins, which can be harvested from leaves or other plant tissues. It allows companies to scale up faster while keeping production costs low, since they’re using plants – not expensive bioreactors – as factories.

    Research suggests it’s a market that could be worth $3.5B by 2029, and Moolec is one of the leaders in the space. It has already commercialised several innovations in the US, with three ingredients receiving regulatory clearance in the US in the last two years.

    This includes a nutritionally rich GLASO safflower oil, Piggy Sooy (soybeans that contain pork proteins), and PEEA1 (peas that produce bovine myoglobin).

    “Molecular farming, as exemplified by Moolec Science, offers a compelling solution to the challenge of balancing productivity and sustainability. For instance, what soybean yield technology can rival the direct production of 300kg of animal protein from a three-tonne-per-hectare crop?” Trucco pointed out.

    The impending merger marks a “new stage” for Moolec, positioning it within a broader organisation with “synergies on multiple levels”, according to Moolec CFO José López Lecube.

    “Becoming part of a larger organisation will enable cost efficiencies and significant revenue increase as well as product portfolio diversification. It will also enlarge our investor base, providing the company with new stakeholders who support Moolec’s new and more diversified business,” he said.

    Once the deal is completed, Moolec said it would be “uniquely positioned” in the agricultural value chain, with a proposition centred around modifying seeds and microbes to change how we use land and water resources and enhance human health.

    Merged entity recorded over $500M in sales in 2024

    moolec piggy sooy
    Courtesy: Moolec

    Moolec suggested that its technology discovery and development engine allows it to address multiple upstream and downstream needs in a cost-competitive way.

    It will continue to develop its flagship molecular farming products, and will integrate Mycofood, the fungi protein technology developed by Nutrecon’s Eternal brand. Through Bioceres, it will now also offer upstream technologies for regenerative agriculture – a hot topic in the US – including biological inputs and climate-resilient seeds.

    Moolec will offer R&D, contract manufacturing and regulatory services under brands controlled by Bioceres and Nutrecon Plus, it will expand its reach into emerging technologies for biomass and grain fermentation – especially for biomaterial production – as well as new concepts on equipment, integrating material science, electric mobility, and autonomy.

    Finally, the merger is expected to result in “significant cost synergies” and create an integrated management structure. The combined entities will manage a portfolio of over 800 patents and 550 product registrations, together representing over half a billion dollars in sales in more than 50 countries in 2024.

    Moolec – which raised $30M to fund R&D and scale-up efforts in 2023 – reported a revenue of $5.8M in 2024, compared to $1M the previous year, against a rise in operating losses to $9.3M. Its sales primarily came from the texturised soy protein flours developed by Valoraoy Food, a molecular farming startup Moolec acquired in 2023.

    It’s a burgeoning space with a number of players growing everything from casein in soybeans to egg protein in potatoes. These include Alpine Bio, Mozza, Miruku, Tiamat Sciences, Bright Biotech, ORF Genetics, PoLoPo, and NewMoo are all innovating in this field.

    The post Moolec Science: Molecular Farming Pioneer to Merge with Bioceres Group in All-Stock Deal appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: FTW Ventures’s Jenn Burka

    jenn burka
    3 Mins Read

    In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.

    Jenn Burka is the Principal at FTW Ventures.

    What future food technologies most excite you?

    Technologies that look at the future of food with a systems approach are the most interesting to me – things that aren’t a single product solution, but that can actually make an impact on the way we grow, transport, and get nourished by our food.  

    What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?

    1. Food as medicine
    2. Cold-chain technologies
    3. Farmer fintech

    What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?

    The advances we’ve seen in our understanding of the microbiome have brought the idea of a healthy gut into the mainstream and released some exciting first-generation products that will pave the way forward for more focus on how to utilise food to make us healthier. 

    If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?

    In order to make these alternatives competitive with meat, there would need to be significant changes in how meat is subsidised. Otherwise, at current costs, it’s hard to see these products being adopted by a significant enough part of the population to have a true climate impact. It also has to taste good.

    What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?

    Product-founder fit is incredibly important, especially in food tech, which is such a complex system that really requires an understanding of how the parts fit together.

    The One That Got Away: What is the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t?

    I really love what the team at Brightseed is doing to advance the food as medicine movement. I also love Zya‘s approach to fighting high sugar consumption.

    What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?

    Our fund is only two years in, so it’s a bit too early to say, but I’m really excited about our portfolio company VoltAir, which is looking at the impact that food has on other global emissions in the cold chain by creating a fully integrated software and hardware solution to electrify the refrigeration unit in diesel trucks.

    What has been your most disappointing investment so far?

    I’ve invested a ton of my time looking at microbiome startups, and I’m disappointed that I haven’t yet found the company that we’ve gotten over the finish line. Still waiting for the perfect blend of founding team, true technological innovation, and intelligent go-to-market strategy (we’re still rather hesitant about pure supplement plays).

    What do people misunderstand/get wrong most about VC?

    VCs are often startups too! Particularly emerging funds that don’t have cushy management fees that allow them to earn a lot of money and pay for a lot of resources.

    We have to really love working with founders and believe in their outsized potential in order to keep doing what we do.

    What is the most ‘future food’ thing you have eaten this month?

    I found a craft beer that was brewed with Oishi berries…a bit gimmicky but I had to try it (and I do love a sour beer)!

    Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?

    Probably my favourite climate-forward dish would be the one I make out of our backyard garden using peak summer produce. With tomatoes, peppers, basil, garlic, and eggs from our neighbour’s chickens (plus homemade sourdough with my five-year-old starter), it’s easy to sustain myself for a few months (plus more with what I freeze/can/preserve).

    What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?

    I’ve worked in the food system most of my career, and there are so many legacy players that haven’t changed in 100+ years. I believe that startups can be the catalyst for change in these industries, and change is what needed to make our system better for you and better for the planet.

    The post 5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: FTW Ventures’s Jenn Burka appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The Plant-Based Reset: Can Whole-Food Proteins Win Over Consumers?

    oh so wholesome
    8 Mins Read

    As sales of meat alternatives continue to slide, a new crop of whole-food plant protein formats is on the rise. Oh So Wholesome’s Veg’chop is among the products spearheading this shift.

    This month, a shift seems to be occurring in Europe’s plant-based protein ecosystem. Austria’s Revo Foods, known for its vegan seafood, launched a Prime Cut product that isn’t intended to replicate meat, but provide a new source of plant protein. And in the UK, the brand behind THIS Isn’t Chicken rolled out a Super Superfood that champions whole foods and rivals tofu, not meat.

    The latter’s product is said to have been years in the making, and will reach supermarkets like Tesco on April 28. On the same day, also at the UK’s largest retailer, a new startup will debut another whole-food plant-based protein format, also years in the making.

    In 2023, Squeaky Bean and The Cultured Collective founder Simon Day explained his vision for what he called Vegbloc. Packed with whole grains, vegetables, legumes and seeds, he described the idea as “a no-brainer”, made from ingredients and a process “based firmly in food heritage rather than novel science”.

    jason gibb
    Oh So Wholesome co-founder Jason Gibb | Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

    Fast-forward to now, a few tweaks later, Vegbloc is now called Veg’chop, and will be sold under Day and co-founder Jason Gibb’s new brand, Oh So Wholesome.

    “I wanted something that tasted like the plants it was made from and that I was happy to eat daily with my family,” says Gibb, who developed the product after being unenamoured by the current plant protein option on the market.

    Next week, his innovation will stock the shelves of 649 Tesco stores, rivalling not just meat and vegan alternatives, but also tofu and tempeh.

    Why Tesco bet big on plant-based whole foods

    Veg’chop comes in a sausage-like chub chape, which can – as the name suggests – be chopped for use as a centrepiece in fajitas, curries, pasta dishes, salads and wraps, to name a few. It comes in two flavours (original and Mexican-style), boasting 10g of protein, and 9-10g of fibre.

    The 250g packs retail for £3, and contain ingredients like red lentils, quinoa, yellow split peas, mushrooms, gram flour, chia and flax seeds, onions and nutritional yeast (plus spices).

    They lean into some key consumer trends in the UK. Gut health has been in sharp focus, thanks to the popularity of apps like Zoe and the introduction of GLP-1 agonist drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro. A recent survey by Tesco showed that gut health is a top concern for 37% of Brits in 2025, which pushed the retailer to launch its own-label Gut Sense brand in January.

    Meanwhile, 91% of Brits don’t eat enough fibre. Among children, only 4-14% consume the recommended amount. The Tesco poll showed that 70% of people are adding more fibre to their diet to maintain a healthy microbiome.

    plant based ultra processed
    Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

    The push is also being led by health experts like Tim Spector, who has popularised the 30-plants-a-week mantra. In that vein, vegan food brand Gosh! this month refreshed its packaging to introduce a ‘Plant Points’ system, highlighting how many plants each of its products contains. If you’re wondering, Veg’chop has over 10 plants.

    There was one more critical finding from Tesco’s research: 22% of Brits want to consume more plant-based foods. Last year, the retailer revealed that “veg-led meals” accounted for 40% of its plant-based sales, prompting it to go big on whole foods – rather than meat alternatives – in its vegan range for Christmas. It also introduced a meat-free Root & Soul ready meal line that put vegetables front and centre.

    “Tesco specifically have often been at the forefront of plant-based category development in the UK and led with new ranges, and I see their backing of Veg’chop as another example of their strategic approach to the category,” Day tells Green Queen.

    For Veg’bloc, entering the CPG world makes perfect sense. Only a quarter of Brits say they choose a healthier food option when dining out, but this rises to two-thirds at supermarkets.

    “Most retailers are looking for more plant-packed, healthy and minimally processed foods with clean ingredient lists across the store. In plant-based specifically, I think the whole market knows that some changes need to be made to excite shoppers and inspire home cooks,” says Day.

    A new category, based on age-old plants

    whole food plant based protein
    Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

    Explaining why Vegbloc became Veg’chop, he says: “People really valued the naturalness of our product and how wholesome the ingredient list was. Our original design didn’t reflect that, so we made a change to use a more natural colour palette.”

    He adds: “The product name was changed from Vegbloc to Veg’chop to help people more quickly understand how to use the product. We also felt that Veg’chop had more appetite appeal than Vegbloc.” The overarching brand name, Oh So Wholesome, was added because there are other products in the pipeline “that will help people to eat more plants”.

    The new format will be stocked alongside tofu, tempeh, falafels and meat alternatives – but will Brits take to it? Oh So Wholesome conducted consumer research to answer that very question, and found that there was widespread interest in ‘eating more veg’ and ‘natural products’.

    “People really welcomed how conveniently Veg’chop could deliver this. They were often surprised by how much they liked the taste. There was also very high interest in Veg’chop (and appreciation of our ingredient list) from people concerned with ultra-processed foods [UPFs],” says Day.

    In the UK, the main growth is coming from products that are versatile, healthy and perceived as natural, with clean ingredient lists – foods that you would be happy for your family to eat every day, as he explains.

    “Veg’chop, tempeh and tofu epitomise this. The growth is largely from people who will continue to eat some meat and aren’t interested in products that seek to taste like meat,” he says, noting that rising interest in beans comes from the same place too.

    “Along with other brands who sell these products and are doing a fantastic job, our work is to inspire people to cook with these whole-food products and arm them with recipes and high-quality products that ensure they love them when they eat them,” he adds.

    “I’m also a believer that a long history in food is a good predictor of future longevity. Tofu and tempeh are obviously traditional products with a long history, and whilst our product is a new concept in a way, it is just made from plants that have a long history in cooking.”

    vegchop
    Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

    UPF concerns have ‘forced hands’ of plant-based meat companies

    The launch of products like Veg’chop, THIS’s Super Superfood, and Revo Foods’s Prime Cut comes after sales of meat alternatives fell by 7% in 2024, while tofu expanded its market share to reach 9% of households. One of the best-performing meat-free brands was Better Nature, whose sales grew by 476% (albeit from a small base) as the UK embraced tempeh.

    This comes on the back of rising concerns around UPFs, which make up 57% of the average Brit’s diet, and up to 80% when it comes to children or people with lower incomes. A December survey revealed that 90% of Brits agree that diet is an important factor in overall health, and among these consumers, 28% are likely to cut back on UPFs this year.

    Meat alternatives have suffered as a result, with some deceptive media coverage amplifying the perception that all UPFs – including these ones – are bad for you, despite nutritionists saying otherwise.

    Day believes some meat alternative makers have “had their hands forced”, and “probably wouldn’t have looked to whole foods/non-mimics if their mimic sales were rocketing”. “I’m sure there are also some people who always wanted to do something in whole foods, but went where the growth was to start with,” he says.

    veg'chop
    Courtesy: Oh So Wholesome

    As a food purchase driver, health isn’t going anywhere, and he expects that this will ensure the shift to whole-food plant-based continues. “Specific drivers like the need at a population level for us to eat more fibre (in the UK at least) and interest in the beneficial effects of eating a wide diversity of plants for the gut microbiome are also likely to support this direction,” he says.

    “The backlash against UPF only seems to be gathering momentum and whilst there are nuances, I think products like ours will increasingly be looked for,” he adds. “In future, food security and making these products from locally available plants could also be a factor. Meat mimics often rely on protein isolates that are not produced in sufficient quantity in many locations.”

    This will make brand positioning essential, especially as Oh So Wholesome competes with established plant-based players like THIS, which raked in £22M in sales last year. “We welcome any plant-packed and nutritious launches in the category,” says Day.

    “Plant-based needs to entice and inspire people who have been sceptical about the whole category – we want it to be a destination for people who want to eat more plants, and that will take more than one brand. I’m confident there is a role for a brand like us, which isn’t associated with what has come before, as well as for more established brands.”

    The post The Plant-Based Reset: Can Whole-Food Proteins Win Over Consumers? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Bean-Free, Climate-Ready: Compound Foods Expands Sustainable Coffee & Cocoa Ingredient Platform

    compound foods
    5 Mins Read

    US startup Compound Foods has expanded its tech platform to help food companies replace at-risk commodities like coffee and chocolate with bean-free alternatives.

    Coffee and chocolate may go well together, but things are not going all too well right now.

    Apart from red meat, no other foods generate as many greenhouse gases as cocoa and coffee beans. This accelerates climate change, which, in turn, hits these industries hard.

    Crop failures and low harvests are becoming increasingly common, leading to shortages of two commodities whose demand keeps rising. That has caused massive price hikes too – in 2024, both coffee and cocoa futures broke all-time records, and the cost will continue to remain high this year.

    It has necessitated food companies to look for alternatives. Take Barry Callebaut, for example – it’s the world’s largest chocolate supplier, but price and supply volatilities have pushed it to expand into cocoa-free alternatives. “Our non-cocoa solutions from precision-fermented sunflower seeds offerings… expand the portfolio of Barry Callebaut and offer all the variety of chocolatey experiences for our customers,” CEO Peter Feld told investors in its latest earnings call.

    With climate change posing a long-term threat to both the coffee and chocolate industries, several startups have been selling bean-free alternatives.

    San Francisco’s Compound Foods is one of them. Through its Minus Coffee range, the firm has been selling beanless brews in various formats – currently, it retails a functional instant oat milk latte geared towards women’s wellness.

    But now, the startup is expanding its solutions to fellow food businesses – which now have “tighter margins, unpredictable supply, and urgent reformulation needs” – and adding cocoa-free chocolate to the mix.

    beanless coffee
    Courtesy: Compound Foods

    How Compound Foods makes its bean-free cocoa and coffee

    Compound Foods is offering the same tech platform it uses for Minus Coffee to alleviate the pressures felt by other companies too. “When I learned how vulnerable the supply chain really was, I felt compelled to ask: could we recreate the experience of coffee using more resilient ingredients, lower emissions, and food science?” said founder and CEO Maricel Saenz.

    It reverse-engineers the sensory and functional properties of at-risk crops like cocoa and coffee, and then reconstructs them through agricultural byproducts and underutilised ingredients – think seeds, cereals, and fibre. The firm has developed specific formulation and processing methods for each target ingredient, leveraging roasting, extraction and fermentation to attain the desired flavour and aroma.

    “We mapped over 800 compounds in coffee and built our formulation layer by layer,” explained Swetha Mahadevan, head of product at Compound Foods. “Our approach combines upcycling, domestic sourcing, and microbial science to deliver a product that tastes great and performs well.”

    But as the cocoa supply crisis became untenable in 2024, Compound Foods decided to fast-track the development of a cocoa-free alternative, which it claims delivers comparable taste and functionality with a more stable cost profile.

    The new B2B platform can slot into existing manufacturing pipelines, allowing companies to incorporate planet-friendly beanless ingredients without a costly reformulation process. Its coffee alternative is made from date, sunflower and grape seeds, carob, and chicory. It comes in concentrate, cold brew or instant formats, and can be used in ready-to-drink applications, cocktails, functional beverage mixes, snack bars, and foodservice offerings.

    Meanwhile, manufacturers can buy its bean-free cocoa as a powder to replace conventional cocoa entirely, or as an extender that can blend with it. Made from carob, mesquite, spent grain, sunflower lecithin, and cascara (the outer skin of the coffee fruit), it’s also mixed with vegetable fats to offer a chocolate compound.

    While cocoa and coffee already suffer from price instability, President Donald Trump’s tariff war has made things more uncertain. But Compound Foods sources and processes most of its ingredients stateside, reducing the “geopolitical and logistics risks that plague commodity markets”.

    cocoa free chocolate
    Courtesy: Compound Foods

    Can beanless coffee outperform conventional versions?

    The startup, which has so far raised $10M in funding, says its ingredient platform offers custom builds for customers, with the ability to tailor the solutions to meet specific nutritional, labelling, or caffeine targets.

    But do they live up to consumers’ taste expectations? If blind taste tests are to be believed, these products may just even outperform their conventional counterparts. In tests conducted by Purdue University, 60% of people preferred Compound Foods’ beanless coffee over premium brands like Blue Bottle and Stumptown.

    “Our goal isn’t to replace the specialty coffee or craft cacao we love,” insisted Saenz. “It’s to offer a sustainable, cost-effective alternative to the part of the industry that’s most vulnerable, commodity crops grown at scale, traded anonymously, and increasingly exposed to environmental and economic risk.”

    Global cocoa stocks have dropped to their lowest levels in a decade. Ivory Coast and Ghana – the two largest producers of the crop – have been the biggest victims, thanks to extreme weather, crop diseases, and reduced plantations in favour of illegal gold mining.

    Meanwhile, the area suitable for growing arabica coffee – roughly forming a ‘belt’ between the tropics – is shrinking, and could be cut in half by 2050. This puts it among the 60% of endangered coffee species, with experts suggesting that arabica could become extinct in the next 60 years.

    minus coffee
    Courtesy: Compound Foods

    At the same time, chocolate is linked to vast amounts of deforestation, excessive water use, and high greenhouse gas emissions. Coffee isn’t far behind – its GHG impact is worse than pork, chicken, farmed shrimp, and cheese, and producing a single cup requires up to 140 litres of water.

    By contrast, Compound Foods’ beanless coffee uses 92% less land and 94% less water, while producing 86% fewer carbon emissions. It is among a number of players offering bean-free brews, including Atomo, Voyage Foods, Prefer, and Northern Wonder.

    Like Compound Foods, Voyage Foods and Prefer also make cocoa-free chocolate – as do Planet A Foods, Foreverland, Nukoko, Endless Food Co, and a host of others.

    The post Bean-Free, Climate-Ready: Compound Foods Expands Sustainable Coffee & Cocoa Ingredient Platform appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • British Startup THIS Targets Anti-UPF Demand with Whole-Food Plant Protein Range

    this super superfood
    5 Mins Read

    THIS, the UK startup famous for its plant-based meat analogues, has introduced a new product format that champions whole foods and has more protein than tofu.

    After years of building its brand around products named THIS Isn’t Chicken and THIS Isn’t Beef, London-based startup THIS has announced a new range of plant-based products that it says are not meant to replicate animal meat, while still offering shoppers a centre-of-plate protein option.

    The food tech innovator has launched THIS Is Super Superfood, which it describes as a “next-generation” plant protein that can compete with traditionally vegan protein-rich ingredients like tofu and tempeh. It’s geared towards a UK population currently looking for minimally processed whole-food options, just as meat alternatives struggle to capture wallet share.

    The new product range comes in a 250g block format, as well as a 180g pack of lemon-and-herb-marinated pieces, with both retailing at £3.95. They will roll out at Tesco and Waitrose and on Ocado by the end of this month, and in Sainsbury’s and Asda (only the Super Block) in May.

    They contain fava bean protein, a range of seeds, and vegetables to offer consumers a protein rich in fibre, omega-3, and iron, and contribute to your five-a-day. The block and pieces can be used for stir-fries, curries, pasta and ramen dishes, among others, and importantly, the protein holds its texture when fried in a pan.

    With the Super Superfood, THIS is aiming to fill a gap in the category by delivering on health, convenience and flavour.

    “Two years ago, I thought of the idea in the shower, whilst my cat was watching me,” THIS co-founder Andy Shovel said last week. “Since then, the team have done an amazing job of developing them, building a supply chain for them, perfecting their branding, and selling them in… I think these have a shot at really disrupting the plant-based food category.”

    Is this the next generation of plant-based protein?

    this plant based
    Courtesy: THIS

    Luke Bryne, innovation director at THIS, explained that the Super Superfood range is a testament to how simple ingredients can be transformed into something “truly innovative”. “Our innovative superfood technology harnesses the natural synergy of beans, seeds, and mushrooms to create an entirely new plant-based texture,” he explained.

    “At its core, we use fava bean protein as the primary source of protein, blending it with shiitake mushrooms, celebrated for their rich umami depth and unique texture. To further enhance the sensory experience, we incorporate selected seeds that add layers of complexity and mouthfeel.”

    The products contain pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, hemp hearts, and chia seeds, while the shiitake mushrooms are complemented by spinach. They contain 18g of protein per 100g, on par with tempeh and 9% higher than the UK’s bestselling tofu from The Tofoo Co.

    The protein concentration is lower than conventional animal proteins like chicken or beef, as well as THIS’s own meat alternatives – though given that the UK overconsumes protein by 44-55% than what’s recommended, the company is betting on the fact that they will still hold appeal for the average British consumer.

    In fact, THIS plans to lean into the demand for nutritious plant proteins with a texture that matches consumers’ expectations. “This cutting-edge approach allows us to craft a next-generation plant-based protein – one that is not only nutritious, but also elevates texture and taste to unprecedented levels,” says Bryne.

    THIS CEO Mark Cuddigan added: “We have created a whole new plant-based protein and texture using nothing but natural ingredients – it’s like discovering a new superpower. We think that’s pretty super… so much so, we named it twice. The plant-based category is evolving, and THIS Is Super Superfood offers consumers something new.”

    New range meets consumer demand, but THIS’s meat alternatives here to stay

    this isn't chicken
    Courtesy: THIS

    The launch of the Super Superfood was teased by Cuddigan last year, when he said the company was developing a ‘tofu-life’ superfood with more nutritional value than anything currently on the market. The company’s £20M Series C round was also earmarked to roll out new products catering to “evolving consumer health preferences”.

    There’s a heightened demand for whole-food plant-based options in the UK. While sales of plant-based meat slid by 7% last year, tofu expanded its market share, reaching 9% of households. One of the best-performing meat-free brands, meanwhile, was tempeh maker Better Nature, whose sales grew by 476% (albeit from a small base). And searches for ‘high protein’ on online grocer Ocado doubled in 2024, with interest in plant-based sources like lentils up by 18%, chickpeas by 27%, and edamame by 44%.

    “People are less focused on vegan food vs non-vegan food. Instead, they’re looking for food that’s good for them, the planet and animals vs food that’s not,” Better Nature co-CEO Elin Roberts told Green Queen earlier this year.

    Consumers are increasingly apprehensive about ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which make up 57% of the average Brit’s diet, and up to 80% when it comes to children or people with lower incomes. Plant-based meat has suffered from a loss of confidence due to its classification as a UPF, driven by some misleading coverage by national media outlets.

    “There’s so much misinformation out there now – people don’t know what to believe. Is vegan food good or bad?” noted Roberts. “Nutrition can be complex. That’s why messaging that is focused on eating more plant-based whole foods is resonating better – you can’t go too far wrong there.”

    It’s this philosophy that drives THIS’s new superfood range. And it’s not the only brand taking this approach – Oh So Wholesome uses a similar concept, packing whole plants like quinoa, red lentils, split peas, seeds, and vegetables into blocks that can be used in a variety of dishes. Its product line, called Veg’chop (formerly Vegbloc), will launch at Tesco on April 28, the same day as THIS’s Super Superfood.

    That said, THIS’s meat alternative line – which helped the brand grow by 33% to reach £22M in sales last year – isn’t going anywhere, Cuddigan noted. “We’re just growing. We still make the best plant-based meat alternatives, but now we’re giving consumers more options,” he said.

    “The future for the plant-based category is about creating something for everyone, whether you’re a meat-lover, flexitarian, or fully plant-based. So whether you want meat-like texture or whole-food protein, we’ve got you covered.”

    Still, THIS and other plant-based meat makers will need to navigate a fine line: catering to a new set of whole foods-focused customers without alienating the core fans of their original line of plant-based meat replacement products.

    The post British Startup THIS Targets Anti-UPF Demand with Whole-Food Plant Protein Range appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Earth Day, 30 Under 30 & Spirulina Salmon

    forbes 30 under 30 2025
    6 Mins Read

    Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Purple Carrot’s partnership with Fable Foods, Gosh!’s new points-based packaging, and SimpliiGood’s spirulina-based salmon.

    New products and launches

    Plant-based meal company Purple Carrot has added Fable Foods‘s Pulled Shiitake mushrooms to its lineup, including the Bluff Bourguignon Stew and BBQ Burnt Ends kits.

    purple carrot fable shiitake
    Courtesy: Purple Carrot

    US non-dairy creamer brand Laird Superfood has released a larger 750ml pack of its functional-mushroom-infused coffee creamers, which come in Unsweetened, Sweet & Creamy, Cinnamon and Vanilla flavours.

    In the UK, ready-to-eat vegan food brand Gosh! has revamped its packaging with a new ‘Plant Points’ system aimed at supporting the goal of eating 30 plants a week. Each point denotes the inclusion of a fruit, vegetable, whole grain, legume, or seed, and each of the brand’s products has a minimum of six points.

    gosh plant based
    Courtesy: Gosh!

    To mark Earth Day (April 22), Dutch cultivated pork startup Meatable has joined forces with Food Tank, the United Nations Global Compact, and The Hunger Project to tackle climate change and global hunger through the food system.

    Also in honour of Earth Day, Indian plant-based brand Blue Tribe – backed by actress Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli – has launched an Eat Green Initiative to promote sustainable eating. The weeklong campaign (April 22-28) sees employees and influencers share recipes made with the company’s products.

    At the ongoing Expo 2025 Osaka, members of Japan’s Cultivated Meat Future Creation Consortium are showcasing 3D-printed cultured meat and an at-home marbled meat maker, aiming to commercialise the products by 2031.

    Company and finance updates

    Indian plant protein manufacturer Proeon Foods has secured a €1M grant from the Province of South Holland, as part of the European Regional Development Fund, for its EGGcellent project. The startup is working with precision fermentation firm Vivici, Applikon Biotechnology, and Planet B.io to develop an egg alternative for industrial baking applications.

    Relsus, a Singaporean producer of functional plant-based ingredients, has opened a commercial-scale manufacturing facility in Ujjain, India.

    vegan cheese spain
    Courtesy: Quevana

    In Europe, cashew cheese maker Quevana has opened a 2,400 sq m facility in Segovia, Spain, which will double its capacity to over 400,000 units of fermented dairy-free cheese each month.

    Swiss vegan seafood startup Catchfree has raised $1.45M in seed funding to scale up production and commercialise its plant-based shrimp, fish burgers, and fish bites this summer.

    Elin Roberts and Christopher Kong, the co-founders and co-CEOs of British tempeh startup Better Nature, have been named in the Art & Culture of Forbes‘s 30 Under 30 list.

    spirulina salmon
    Courtesy: SimpliiGood

    Armed with a $4M grant from the Israel Innovation Authority, AlgaeCore Technologies‘s SimpliiGood has secured European approval to commercialise its spirulina-based smoked salmon alternative. It is now pursuing clearance in the US too, has pilots with several companies, and will launch its first products as part of private-label brands within the next six months.

    Alternative protein think tank The Good Food Institute is experiencing a change at the top, with CEO Ilya Sheyman departing in June. Jessica Almy, senior VP of policy and government relations, will take over as interim chief as the organisation hunts its next CEO.

    Likewise, at US molecular farming pioneer Moolec, co-founder Gastón Paladini has stepped down as CEO.

    moolec science
    Courtesy: Moolec Science

    Californian vegan frozen foods maker Sunday Supper has expanded its executive team, adding Spencer Oberg as CEO, Matt Williams as head of sales, and Chris Hays as CMO, as it kickstarts a $2.5M seed funding round.

    Meanwhile, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has invested $5M in the newly opened Neptune Bioinnovation Centre in Dartmouth. The 4,738 sq m facility will offer precision fermentation and spray drying capacity, and is set to create over 2,400 jobs and contribute $334M to the region’s annual GDP.

    neptune bioinnovation centre
    Courtesy: Government of Nova Scotia

    Event organiser Emerald Expositions has acquired the Plant Based World Expo and its media platform, Plant Based World Pulse, from JD Events for an undisclosed sum. The deal includes both the North American and European editions of the show.

    Research and policy developments

    Amid the hike in dairy sales in the UK, plant-based milk is also on the rise for the first time since 2022, with sales volumes up by 2.1% between February 2024 and 2025. Oat milk is the leader, with a 7.2% growth in that period – it’s set to take 40% of the non-dairy market this year, according to Kantar.

    In related news, British bakery chain Gail’s has dropped the surcharge on soy milk after a Peta campaign, offering the alternative for free from May 21. However, it will still ask customers to pay 40-60p extra if they want oat milk.

    gail's oat milk
    Courtesy: Gail’s

    The US Department of Agriculture has cancelled the $3B Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities programme that aimed to promote environmentally friendly farming practices. The revocation of the Biden-era initiative is part of the Trump administration’s sweeping climate rollbacks.

    In Canada, meanwhile, candidates from all four major political parties will participate in an election debate about animal protection today (April 23), organised by a group of animal welfare organisations, including Animal Justice and World Animal Protection.

    chocjes
    Courtesy: Kai Kitschenberg/Funke Foto Services

    In its TrendTracker 2024 report, food giant Cargill found that 73% of consumers want their governments to set stricter environmental standards for the chocolate supply, just as European plant-based chocolates and desserts grew by 25% annually between 2019 and 2023.

    Swapping out red meat for plant-based alternatives and choosing non-dairy milks can help cut the average Australian household’s emissions by six tonnes a year, research by the George Institute for Global Health has found.

    lactic acid plant based
    Courtesy: Technical University of Denmark

    Finally, researchers from Novonesis and the Technical University of Denmark suggest that the bacteria in lactic acid could help reduce off-flavours and degrade anti-nutrients in plant-based dairy products, enhancing their taste profile and nutrient bioavailability.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Earth Day, 30 Under 30 & Spirulina Salmon appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Govt-Backed Report Shows How Finland Can Build A €1B Future Food Economy

    finland cellular agriculture
    6 Mins Read

    Finland is well-placed to become a cellular agriculture leader, with its export potential set to reach €1B in the next decade – but funding and regulation challenges must be addressed.

    In a decade’s time, cultivated meat, cell-based cocoa, and carbon-derived proteins could amount to €1B in export value in Finland, according to a government-commissioned report.

    The country’s natural resources and biotech expertise leave it on the cusp of becoming a global leader in the cellular agriculture field, which involves the use of microbial, plant and animal cell cultures to produce proteins, fats, coffee and cocoa (among other products) in bioreactors.

    While a majority of young adults in Finland (83%) have a positive or neutral attitude towards new technologies in food production, there are several challenges that the ecosystem needs to address before it can reach its market potential, according to researchers at the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, the Natural Resources Institute Finland, and University of Helsinki.

    Commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Business Finland, the experts lay out a policy roadmap to help Finland become a leader in this sector.

    Finland’s future food system will blend cellular and traditional agriculture

    vtt finland
    Courtesy: VTT

    The country is already home to food tech leaders like Solar Foods (maker of Solein gas protein), Onego Bio (which makes egg proteins via precision fermentation), and Enifer (producer of Pekilo mycoprotein).

    “One of Finland’s biggest challenges currently is the lack of capital, which limits the growth opportunities of cellular agriculture,” said VTT’s Emilia Nordlund, who led the study. “Building production facilities requires large investments, and success will not come without government support to accelerate investments and realise venture capital investments.”

    The nation is home to a variety of carbohydrate-rich side streams like straw, sawdust, wood chips, and grass biomass, which could be utilised as feedstocks for cellular agriculture. For instance, if more than half of the straw were used as a sugar source for microbes, the amount of food produced would be enough to meet the annual protein needs of the population.

    “The future food system will be based on the interplay between modern agriculture and cellular agriculture, utilising circular economy solutions,” said Päivi Nerg, state secretary from the agriculture ministry. “We must identify the necessary change paths and ensure that measures consider the entire chain, from farmers to consumers and other stakeholders.”

    Teija Lahti-Nuuttila, executive director of Business Finland, added: “Finnish companies should recognise their strengths as part of emerging new value networks and build their competitiveness in the long term together with research organisations. Business Finland is already currently funding ambitious cellular agriculture RDI projects, so there is no need to wait for a separate programme.”

    The researchers have come up with an eight-point plan to tackle the bottlenecks of Finland’s cellular agriculture industry and fulfil the estimated annual export value of €500M to €1B by 2035.

    1) Ramp up major infrastructure investments

    The report states that the country needs an action plan to increase venture capital funding and attract international investor interest, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. The public sector can “provide support that signals the realisation of private financing”.

    Infrastructure investments are critical to enabling new value chains, and the government is being urged to create risk financing and loan instruments to enable factory financing.

    onego bio
    Courtesy: Timo Kauppila/Onego Bio

    2) Ease EU novel food regulation

    One of the biggets bottlenecks for the cellular agriculture industry concerns regulation – the EU’s novel food stringent framework has “significantly” slowed progress and left it playing catch-up with other markets. The report suggests setting up an office in Finland to support startups with the novel food process through advice and financial backing.

    This office would actively influence the EU to expedite and ease the adoption of novel technologies, something that Finnish policymakers must support. Reviewing agricultural subsidies is also key, since these novel food technologies aren’t covered by any EU subsidies yet.

    3) Build a €100M R&D programme

    Finland should introduce a five-year, €100M R&D programme that would produce future food innovations, making use of the nation’s technological expertise and abundant natural resources.

    The multidisciplinary initiative would ensure the development of value chains at the regional level too, while facilitating long-term development and economic growth. In addition, it will help the country achieve its target of increasing R&D spending to 4% of the GDP.

    solar foods factory 01
    Courtesy: Solar Foods

    4) Establish a future food ministry

    The researchers propose creating a joint working group or organisation of ministries to develop the future food system, support the R&D programme, and promote cross-sector collaboration. This Ministry of Future Food would enable a broad perspective for a common goal to develop both conventional and cellular agriculture, boost the value chain, and enable competitiveness.

    Another solution would be to establish a food innovation centre that would take overall responsibility for the implementation of R&D activities, including political decisions.

    5) Expand education to secure future experts

    While Finland has a sufficient knowledge base, the critical mass is not enough – there should be closer cooperation between education and training organisations to produce experts for the food sector. The report says it is “critical” that the number of industrial biotech experts increases in Finland.

    The government’s Growth Programme goal to increase food experts also requires training people about exports. Education programmes focused on future solutions can enable the internationalisation of an expert corps in the country. The talent environment should embrace even those with limited proficiency in Finnish.

    coffee climate change
    Courtesy: Vesa Kippola

    6) Conduct public tastings to educate consumers

    The report calls for the spread of “strong and inspiring stories” about the future food system to enhance consumer knowledge and acceptance. One way to do this would be to create a ‘showroom’ to present novel foods and provide examples of how cellular agriculture can work in tandem with conventional farming.

    Moreover, Finland should follow the lead of European states like the Netherlands to allow public tastings of these foods before they go through the lengthy approval process – the government needs to create a national model to enable these events, which would increase the industry’s chances of success and dispel any prejudices from consumers.

    7) Incorporate primary production in the novel food industry

    Finland’s rich feedstock supply can help the cellular agriculture industry, though there are challenges with production, processing, storage, and logistics. This is why cooperating with primary producers is crucial – for them, this industry can open up new business opportunities. According to the report, business models and practical trials need to be developed to create this value for primary producers.

    Further, the opportunities for cooperation can strengthen the role of agricultural entrepreneurs and the financial profitability of farms when underutilised feedstocks are converted into a business.

    finland future foods
    Courtesy: VTT

    8) Target export support functions for cell-based food

    While local production and related product exports are key to the growth and export potential of cellular agriculture in Finland, the equipment and technology exports, IP licensing, and value chains and factories built by Finnish companies overseas can play a crucial role too.

    Given that this is a young, startup-driven market with a wide range of opportunities, export support functions should be built specifically to meet the needs of the sector to ensure that growth is effectively enabled.

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  • Could This Be the Holy Grail of Cultivated Meat?

    lab grown chicken nuggets
    4 Mins Read

    Researchers in Japan say they’ve reached a “breakthrough” in tissue engineering that could open up “transformative opportunities” for cultivated meat production.

    To solve one of cultivated meat’s biggest challenges, scientists have resorted to the circulatory system.

    The same way blood vessels carry nutrients and oxygen to cells to help animals grow, scientists from the University of Tokyo have devised a “breakthrough” method to deliver these nutrients to artificial tissue, making it possible to grow whole cuts of cultivated meat, the holy grail for the future food industry.

    Currently, most production methods can only render tiny pieces of cultivated meat (akin to mince), which are then assembled into a larger product via edible scaffolds, or combined with plant-based binders and ingredients to form a whole piece.

    The problem lies in the random distribution of hollow fibres, which prevents uniform nutrient delivery and hinders tissue quality. Shoji Takeuchi and his colleagues have come up with what they say is a “scalable, top-down strategy” for producing whole cuts of cultivated meat using a perfusable hollow fibre bioreactor.

    Could this be the future of cultivated meat?

    whole cut lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Shoji Takeuchi

    The study, published in the Trends in Biotechnology journal, explained that getting enough oxygen and nutrients to the cells in the centre of thick tissues is a major hurdle. Diffusion alone can’t sustain cells across considerable distances.

    To overcome that, the researchers developed a bioreactor equipped with an array of semi-permeable hollow fibres that function as artificial circulation systems, which ensured uniform nutrient distribution throughout the tissue.

    “We’re using semipermeable hollow fibres, which mimic blood vessels in their ability to deliver nutrients to the tissues,” said Takeuchi.

    “These fibres are already commonly used in household water filters and dialysis machines for patients with kidney disease. It’s exciting to discover that these tiny fibres can also effectively help create artificial tissues and, possibly, whole organs in the future,” he added.

    “We overcame the challenge of achieving perfusion across thick tissues by arranging hollow fibres with microscale precision,” Takeuchi says.

    Tissues without an integrated circular system have generally been limited to a thickness of less than 1mm, but this new method allowed the scientists to produce a 2cm thick piece of chicken muscle that was several centimetres long and wide. Made using chicken fibroblast cells, which make up connective tisuse, the meat weighed 11g, and was about the size of a chicken nugget.

    Further, the hollow fibre bioreactor had microfabricated anchors to promote cell alignment. And when using active perfusion, the chicken muscle tissue showcased higher protein expression and improved taste and texture.

    Many obstacles to overcome

    hollow fiber bioreactors
    Courtesy: Shoji Takeuchi

    “Cultured meat offers a sustainable, ethical alternative to conventional meat,” said Takeuchi. “However, replicating the texture and taste of whole-cut meat remains difficult. Our technology enables the production of structured meat with improved texture and flavour, potentially accelerating its commercial viability.”

    Speaking of which, there’s still a lot to do and a long way to go before this production method can scale up and make cultivated meat fit for our plates.

    There are several reasons why. The hollow fibres are not edible and must be pulled from the meat by hand, so the team is working on automating their removal or replacing them with edible cellulose fibres that can be left in and fine-tune the texture of the meat.

    In terms of scaling up, as the tissue size increases, ensuring a sufficient oxygen supply becomes more challenging. So future versions of the bioreactor may need artificial blood to help carry more oxygen to cells and grow larger pieces of cultivated meat.

    The researchers used cells cultured in a medium containing animal serum too, which is expensive and raises ethical concerns. To commercialise the product, the team would likely need to use plant-derived collagen and serum-free culture media, something many companies are already doing.

    “Alongside solving these technological issues, regulatory challenges must also be addressed, including the approval of materials and processes for food production by relevant authorities, such as the FDA or European Food Safety Authority,” the study noted. “In addition, fostering a culture that embraces new foods is essential for the acceptance of cultured meat products by the public.”

    Speaking to the Guardian, Takeuchi said with enough funding, products made using this approach could be available in five to 10 years. “At first, it will likely be more expensive than conventional chicken, mainly due to material and production costs,” he said. “However, we are actively developing food-grade, scalable systems, and if successful, we expect the cost to decrease substantially over time.”

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  • EU Climate Agency: Alternative Proteins Are Inevitable for Future Food Security

    eu future foods
    6 Mins Read

    What will the food system look like in 2025? According to the EU, meat will give way to plants and novel proteins, no matter how things end up.

    The EU’s production and consumption patterns require “fundamental changes” to reach its sustainable living vision for 2050, its environmental arm has said.

    The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) new foresight report looks at how the region can futureproof its food, mobility and energy systems, in line with its agenda of “living well, within environmental limits” by 2050.

    Its predictions of what society would look like in 2050 are based on four imagined futures – or “imaginaries” – developed by the EEA and its Eionet network, each a distinct pathway shaped by societal drivers, governance models and technological roles.

    eea imaginaries
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    In ‘Technocracy for the common good’, national governments drive the sustainability shift as liberalised markets get blamed for decades of socio-environmental problems, supported by the unprecedented monitoring capabilities of the IT sector.

    The ‘Unity in adversity’ pathway is driven by recurrent climate disasters, geopolitical tensions and financial shocks, empowering the EU to use stringent, top-down regulatory measures to set rigorous economic boundaries. Here, industry plays a subservient role.

    In the third scenario, ‘The great decoupling’, innovative businesses are the central actors, with their bioeconomy and tech breakthroughs enabling the decoupling of economic growth from environmental harms.

    And finally, the ‘Ectopia’ imaginary combines climate change, growth scepticism, government distrust, and the desire to live in harmony to empower civil society stakeholders to lead a shift in collective action, as consumption and resource use scale back notably.

    Each of these scenarios offers different ways for Europeans to meet the 2050 goal – though some solutions are common across all four futures. Alternative proteins – whether plant-based, cell-cultivated, or fermentation-derived – are one of them.

    Here’s how the protein industry would fare 25 years from today, according to the EEA.

    Technocracy for the common good

    lab grown meat europe
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    Under this scenario, national governments use dynamic food pricing to reflect the health and environmental costs of products – think carbon taxes on meat, as in Denmark starting 2030 – with the aim of nudging consumers towards healthier dietary choices. In fact, nutrition plays a bigger role than taste and food culture.

    People are eating cultivated meat, as well as biofermented proteins, which the EEA describes as extracted from “bio-based residual resources”. In contrast, animal-based nutrition is “marginal”.

    Policymakers prioritise health and the environment over individual preferences. Digitally implemented dynamic food pricing provides an effective monetary incentive for such diets and guarantees that people can always afford to purchase healthy food no matter their economic situation.

    Meanwhile, Europeans increasingly eat food produced in bulk at biorefineries, with exotic food consumption now a celebrated ritual for those who can afford it.

    Unity in adversity

    eu food strategy
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    Here, all food production is controlled by the EU and local authorities, which are pushing for the integration of agroforestry, agricultural drones, and low-methane livestock diets.

    The production of meat alternatives has reached industrial scale to support food security, and these technologies are highly regulated by EU institutions to monitor food safety, environmental impacts, resource allocation, and responsible and ethical research and production.

    A large amount of food is produced within Europe, resulting in more seasonal diets and a reliance on fermented products. Alternative proteins, including algae-derived proteins and plant-based dairy, are subsidised and play a key role in nutrition security.

    Meanwhile, at the societal level, dietary choices are influenced by a broader culture shift and policy instruments like taxes, subsidies and carbon pricing, all in favour of organic, low-carbon and local products. This ‘imaginary’ also involves “very little food waste”, amid incentives to reduce waste in both processing and retail.

    The great decoupling

    future food eu
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    With biotech giants dominating the agriculture sector, this imaginary sees a highly efficient, circular bioeconomy. Agriculture is used for carbon sequestration, and tech-enabled productivity gains and organic farming come to the fore.

    However, the large multinationals control much of the food system and fiercely compete for scarce resources like water and minerals, with less of a focus on healthy food.

    That said, policies promote pricing incentives to “shift dietary choices away from emissions-intense animal products” while wild-caught meat is severely limited in availability. Meat alternatives are developed at an industrial level from protein-packed pulses and algae, which are cheap.

    A growing number of Europeans are eating cell-cultured superfoods made from a customised composition. “Due to a strong market orientation, standards, monitoring and control systems are seldomly regulated by the state and are only harmonised across Europe in particularly critical areas,” the EEA predicts.

    Ecotopia

    eu alternative proteins
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    In a consumer-influenced food landscape, production has shifted to closed-loop systems on small-scale, cooperative farms and urban areas that prioritise integration with natural systems, dominated by organic farming, agroecology, and virtually no pesticide and fertiliser use.

    Many European citizens have become “prosumers”, producing some of their own food, while food value chains are shorter, localised, seasonal, less processed, and plant-based. These attributes can be seen in products beyond just supermarkets.

    With consumers wanting to connect with their food and how it’s produced, nutrition has become a cornerstone of life. The dietary shift away from animal products is motivated by ethical and ecological concerns, too, with EU citizens prioritising plant-based, legume-rich diets to reduce diet-related health problems and cut emissions.

    While the desire for “highly processed food” is scarce, non-sustainable foods are extremely expensive due to taxes, making sustainable products the more affordable alternative.

    Is the EU making progress on these goals?

    eu future foods
    Courtesy: European Environment Agency

    Agriculture is responsible for 11% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, and 81-86% of these come from livestock. That’s despite animal-based foods only providing 35% of calories and 65% of proteins in the region.

    The meat and dairy sector is heavily subsidised, receiving four times as much public money as plant-based farming and around 82% of the subsidies under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

    It explains why there have been growing calls – from doctors, consumer groups, food giants, and even farmers – for the EU to transform its protein supply towards planet-friendly sources.

    “Across all imaginaries, a dietary shift from animal-based to plant-based foods is seen as an important strategy to reduce overall GHG emissions and resource use across the food system,” the EEA notes in its report, adding that the transition towards alternative proteins is seen as an opportunity to “decarbonise the food system, innovate across the food supply chain, and contribute to food security”.

    The EU has been heavily criticised for its failure to deliver on its Farm to Fork strategy, with its new agrifood vision – unveiled in February – labelled as “the death” of that environmental vision.

    In a potentially positive sign, agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen has answered calls to create a protein diversification strategy, promising a “holistic approach” that would encompass both protein production and consumption and diversify the imports of plant-based protein to boost food security.

    Anna Strolenberg, a member of the EU Parliament and a key voice behind this push, has called for more concrete steps and a timeline. She told Green Queen that “there is real momentum to take further steps”, with the upcoming CAP reform providing an opportunity to support farmers to adopt new protein crops.

    “This can help de-risk investments in new production methods and crops,” she said. “If the strategy also includes measures to develop value chains and expand consumer choices, we believe it has the potential to become a real success.”

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  • Europe Is Now A Global Food Tech Leader, As Sustainable Protein Investments Soar

    planet a foods
    5 Mins Read

    European future food startups saw a 25% boost in funding in 2024, making the region a global leader in the space – but economic uncertainty is keeping investors cautious this year.

    While US tariffs keep business leaders and investors on their toes this year, 2024 was a bright spot for the food tech ecosystem in Europe.

    Companies in this space attracted €4.1B, only a 2% decline from the €4.2B they raised in 2023. After a 57% drop from the highs of 2021 (compared to a 72% decline globally), investments are finally stabilising in the region, according to research by Paris-based food tech consultancy DigitalFoodLab for the eighth edition of its State of the European FoodTech Ecosystem report.

    The firm suggests that 28% of global food tech funding flowed into startups originating from Europe in 2024, thanks in large part to the food delivery (accounting for a third of the total) and food science (30%) verticals. The latter includes alternative proteins like plant-based milk and cultivated meat, as well as climate-friendly foods like cocoa-free chocolate and beanless coffee.

    Future food leads Europe’s charge

    alternative protein funding
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    When it came to deal count, alternative proteins were the most well-funded subcategory in Europe last year. And even in terms of the capital invested, this category ranked second, behind only “new retailers”.

    Globally, alternative proteins secured 27% less financing in 2024, according to separate research – though when combined with other climate-friendly innovations in chocolate, coffee and fats, this future food sector saw a 25% hike in investments last year, reaching €830M. That means they account for about a fifth of all food tech funding in the region.

    “Europe was the most attractive region for alternative protein in 2024,” says Matthieu Vincent, co-founder of DigitalFoodLab, citing the firm’s unpublished data on other markets. This is despite the EU being host to a “more complicated regulatory framework” for novel foods.

    Some of the leading examples include Formo’s $61M Series B round, Infinite Roots’s $58M Series B funding, Onego Bio’s raise of $55M over two rounds, Heura’s $43M Series B round, and Mosa Meat’s $42M round.

    formo frischhain
    Courtesy: Formo

    “We have observed a surge in the number of grants and research programmes funded by the EU and the UK, which firmly position themselves to compete and have a leading role in the burgeoning bioeconomy,” the report notes. In fact, European research funding for alternative proteins reached an all-time high of €290M in 2024, according to the Good Food Institute Europe.

    Vincent ascribes the future food success in Europe to a “focus on specific areas that have done extremely well this year, notably alternative chocolate and coffee”. Germany’s Planet A Foods, for example, closed a $30M Series B round in December to scale its cocoa-free ChoViva chocolate.

    “European startups have always skewed a bit more toward B2B, [and] hence healthy ingredients, which are also doing quite well in comparison to B2C-focused alternative proteins,” says Vincent. “It confirms the main trends of the ecosystem: more B2B, a focus on health, and on supply chain solutions, rather than on new brands.”

    Tariffs and economic uncertainty are a blight for European food tech

    europe food tech funding
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    DigitalFoodLab’s report found that German startups lead investments in the food science category, which includes pet food, beverages, CPG firms, and cloud kitchens, in addition to functional ingredients and alternative proteins. They made up a fifth of the category’s total investment, reaching €250M.

    This was closely followed by the UK (€240M), and then France (€130M), Switzerland, and Finland (€110M each). This mirrored the trend across the food tech ecosystem, with strong performances in Germany, the Netherlands, and the Nordic countries.

    The main reason why these countries have attracted investment is that they already have “large consumer markets interested in these products”, according to Vincent.

    “Lagging behind is all the rest of Europe, notably the southern part, where investment in alternative proteins is much more modest,” he points out.

    future foods europe
    Courtesy: DigitalFoodLab

    The global economy faces a huge threat with the arrival of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have plunged every industry into chaos. While things are changing on an almost daily basis, the EU was slapped with a 20% tariff before Trump’s 90-day pause on most such levies a day later.

    However, talks between the bloc and the US are not going smoothly, raising fears of higher tariff rates for EU member states. Food tech investors are already advising founders to exercise caution, and for Vincent’s money, Europe’s progress from last year may be undone.

    “I would have been much more certain about the direction a month or two ago. Now, things look very uncertain with the current economic situation, which is also impacting investments in food tech,” he says. “Uncertainties combined with a declined appetite for sustainability won’t be good for the European ecosystem.”

    He adds: “At the start of the year, I would have predicted a stable year with neither a bounceback nor a decline. Now, as far as I can see, the year will be tough, with probably a decline in funding, at least for the first half of the year, while investors wait to see where things are going.”

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