Californian food tech pioneer Eat Just’s vegan chicken, called Just Meat, has outperformed conventional versions, and is now available in nearly 4,000 stores across the US.
Eat Just, the maker of the vegan Just Egg and the Good Meat cultivated chicken, has expanded its portfolio with a move into plant-based meat.
This past August, the Californian company soft-launched Just Meat, a vegan chicken made from wheat and soy protein, which it says has beaten conventional chicken in taste tests.
The new products have now landed in over 3,050 Walmart stores across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, as well as being available at Sprouts, H-E-B, Giant, Hannaford, Albertsons United, Tops, and more supermarkets, with a total footprint close to 4,000.
“We are launching broadly into foodservice in December,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, tells Green Queen.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Taste-testers prefer Just Meat over conventional chicken
Just Meat has been six years in the making. “The R&D was [about] building the right tools to form real fibres, to get the bite right, to layer the way animal muscle does,” explains Tetrick.
“We think plant-based chicken should simply taste better than the animal alternative, and if it does that, it wins. That was the gap we saw in the market.”
Just Meat is available in four flavours: original, Buffalo, sesame-ginger, and chilli-lime. It combines wheat protein and soy protein concentrate with sunflower and coconut oils, cornstarch, flavourings and seasonings, modified food starch, soy lecithin, and xanthan gum.
The meat alternative contains 24g of protein per 100g, over 1g of fibre, and zero cholesterol. At Walmart, it’s available in half-pound bags for $5.50 – in comparison, Tyson Foods’s grilled chicken strips are priced at $3.08 for the same size, while Foster Farms’s version costs $3.99.
“Just Meat performs like pulled chicken in every recipe where people already use chicken today,” says Tetrick. “In an independent 24-person preference test conducted by Nichols Research, Just Meat outperformed a leading frozen chicken strip.
Expanding on this, he added: “The majority of participants preferred Just Meat on flavour, texture, and overall liking, making it the first time a plant-based chicken beat the animal version in a direct consumer preference test.”
Courtesy: Eat Just
Just Egg to launch in Europe in January, as Good Meat looks to lower costs
Just Meat’s expansion comes amid a surge in purchases of Just Egg, which has capitalised on the US egg crisis. In January alone, the mung bean egg’s sales grew five times faster than in the past year, while 56% of shoppers returned to buy more (a three-point increase from 2024).
And earlier this month, Eat Just revealed that this growth has only accelerated since. “Just Egg has the highest velocity of all plant-based proteins in the US,” says Tetrick, citing SPINS data from the previous four weeks. “That gives us confidence that when you give people something that tastes good, that is highly differentiated, it will win with consumers.”
Moreover, the vegan egg has made its way into Europe this year, after Eat Just partnered with Vegan Food Group, owner of brands like Meatless Farm and VFC, on an exclusive manufacturing and distribution deal.
Just Egg’s rollout was meant to begin in the UK first (followed by Germany), but the product hasn’t made it onto shelves yet – instead, it has been showcased at events all across the UK in recent months. But Tetrick confirms that Just Egg will begin its rollout in Europe in early January.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Not only did Eat Just pioneer vegan eggs; it was the first company to begin selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world, after securing regulatory approval in Singapore in 2020 (followed by a US green light in 2023).
That brand of cultivated chicken, Good Meat, was available at several foodservice establishments in the city-state before a packaged version with a revamped recipe was rolled out into retail last year. Tetrick confirms that Huber’s Butchery is still selling the Good Meat chicken, adding that the focus here is on “long-term R&D to meaningfully bring the cost down at much larger scales”.
Just Meat is not the only new product format unveiled by the company this year. In May, it launched Just One, a range of protein powders made from the same mung bean base that powers Just Egg, which can also double as an egg substitute in baking.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Crafty Counter’s protein buns, Too Good To Go’s Whole Foods partnership, and Space F’s cultivated meat tasting.
New products and launches
US vegan startup Crafty Counter, maker of Wunder Eggs, has launched plant-based protein buns in an initial egg and cheese flavour. The hemp scramble inside contains 40% more protein than a chicken egg, and each bun has 11g of protein and 4g of fibre. They’re available on its website for $49.99 per 12-pack.
Courtesy: Hema Reddy/LinkedIn
Omaha-based firm AgVault has introduced a precision fermentation technology to produce a whole-cell yeast ingredient with 50% protein, higher essential amino acid and beta-glucan content, and up to 200% more probiotic content than competitors.
Continuing its nationwide rollout, Wildtype has brought its cultivated salmon to Arizona, by way of Tucson’s Kingfisher Bar & Grill. It’s served as a salmon crudo appetiser.
Courtesy: Wildtype
Surplus food app Too Good To Go has expanded its partnership with Whole Foods Market with the launch of seven Surprise Bag categories at more than 530 stores across the US, priced between $6.99 and $9.99 for baskets valued at $21-30.
Danish natural colouring giant Oterra has partnered with Sweden’s Seprify to launch a plant-based whitening ingredient that replaces titanium dioxide (TiO2) across food and beverage applications.
Courtesy: Colruyt Group
In Belgium, retail giant Colruyt Group has opened a high-tech pop-up store under its Okay brand at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which exclusively sells plant-based products. It will go on tour next year.
British plant-based brand THIS has expanded its whole-food offerings with a Christmas-special chestnut, mushroom and caramelised onion nut roast, which will be available exclusively in Tesco stores nationwide from December 8 for three weeks. It’s priced at £7.50 and serves four.
Company and finance updates
Finnish functional mushroom startup Kääpä Biotech has secured $9M in financing to scale operations, expand vertical integration, and accelerate the rollout of its NordRelease line of products.
Courtesy: Kääpä Biotech
Singapore startup Anomaly Bio has raised $2.6M in pre-seed funding to produce microbial ingredients for industries like crop protection, nutrition, and personal care.
Canadian performance nutrition brand Vegain has launched a crowdfunding campaign on FrontFundr to support its flagship product, Surge, a clear protein drink blending 25g of plant protein with electrolytes. It has nearly met its $500,000 target in just a week.
Courtesy: Vegain
Along similar lines, French plant-based meat maker La Vie has closed its latest crowdfunding campaign, raising nearly €650,000 more and bringing its total number of investors to over 3,500.
Israeli cellular agriculture company Pluri has signed a number of commercial agreements with food and agtech leaders in Asia, Europe, and the US under its brands Ever After Foods (cultivated meat), Kokomodo (cell-based chocolate), and Coffesai (cell-cultured coffee).
Courtesy: Yeonjoo La/LinkedIn
Speaking of which, Korean startup Space Fhosted a tasting event for its cultivated pork luncheon meat, showcasing both a 100% cultivated meat version and a hybrid option mixed with plant proteins.
British tempeh leader Better Nature has hired Victoria Harrison as its new marketing director in a maternity cover role. She has previously held senior roles at Ella’s Kitchen and Nurture Brands.
Policy and research developments
The European Food Safety Authority has published new, clearer guidance for companies seeking regulatory approval for novel fermentation-derived foods, outlining how to describe the microbes and the substances they produce, how to identify safety concerns, and what data is needed for risk assessment.
Noma, one of the world’s best eateries, and Novonesis (owned by Ozempic owner Novo Nordisk) have teamed up to develop bio-based products through fermentation for the former’s Noma Projects line, which is the latest iteration of the soon-to-be-closed restaurant.
Courtesy: Novonesis
The US Department of Agriculture has awarded $611,000 to Jiakai Lu, an associate food science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for a three-year project to create a computational framework to enhance the texture of plant-based meat.
The Spanish Association of Plant-Based Foods and Beverage Producers, or Vegetal/es, has presented a proposal to develop a national action plan for plant-based foods in its fourth annual summit.
Courtesy: Vegetal/es
The European Food Information Council has relaunched its Switch To Whole Grains campaign to plug the EU’s fibre gap, since diets low in whole grains are linked to 145,000 preventable deaths and 2.9 million years of healthy life lost across the region.
Finally, students at the University of Basel in Switzerland have voted to shift towards a fully vegan catering menu by 2030, with 53% of the 3,000-odd voting students saying yes to the change.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Crafty Counter’s protein buns, Too Good To Go’s Whole Foods partnership, and Space F’s cultivated meat tasting.
New products and launches
US vegan startup Crafty Counter, maker of Wunder Eggs, has launched plant-based protein buns in an initial egg and cheese flavour. The hemp scramble inside contains 40% more protein than a chicken egg, and each bun has 11g of protein and 4g of fibre. They’re available on its website for $49.99 per 12-pack.
Courtesy: Hema Reddy/LinkedIn
Omaha-based firm AgVault has introduced a precision fermentation technology to produce a whole-cell yeast ingredient with 50% protein, higher essential amino acid and beta-glucan content, and up to 200% more probiotic content than competitors.
Continuing its nationwide rollout, Wildtype has brought its cultivated salmon to Arizona, by way of Tucson’s Kingfisher Bar & Grill. It’s served as a salmon crudo appetiser.
Courtesy: Wildtype
Surplus food app Too Good To Go has expanded its partnership with Whole Foods Market with the launch of seven Surprise Bag categories at more than 530 stores across the US, priced between $6.99 and $9.99 for baskets valued at $21-30.
Danish natural colouring giant Oterra has partnered with Sweden’s Seprify to launch a plant-based whitening ingredient that replaces titanium dioxide (TiO2) across food and beverage applications.
Courtesy: Colruyt Group
In Belgium, retail giant Colruyt Group has opened a high-tech pop-up store under its Okay brand at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which exclusively sells plant-based products. It will go on tour next year.
British plant-based brand THIS has expanded its whole-food offerings with a Christmas-special chestnut, mushroom and caramelised onion nut roast, which will be available exclusively in Tesco stores nationwide from December 8 for three weeks. It’s priced at £7.50 and serves four.
Company and finance updates
Finnish functional mushroom startup Kääpä Biotech has secured $9M in financing to scale operations, expand vertical integration, and accelerate the rollout of its NordRelease line of products.
Courtesy: Kääpä Biotech
Singapore startup Anomaly Bio has raised $2.6M in pre-seed funding to produce microbial ingredients for industries like crop protection, nutrition, and personal care.
Canadian performance nutrition brand Vegain has launched a crowdfunding campaign on FrontFundr to support its flagship product, Surge, a clear protein drink blending 25g of plant protein with electrolytes. It has nearly met its $500,000 target in just a week.
Courtesy: Vegain
Along similar lines, French plant-based meat maker La Vie has closed its latest crowdfunding campaign, raising nearly €650,000 more and bringing its total number of investors to over 3,500.
Israeli cellular agriculture company Pluri has signed a number of commercial agreements with food and agtech leaders in Asia, Europe, and the US under its brands Ever After Foods (cultivated meat), Kokomodo (cell-based chocolate), and Coffesai (cell-cultured coffee).
Courtesy: Yeonjoo La/LinkedIn
Speaking of which, Korean startup Space Fhosted a tasting event for its cultivated pork luncheon meat, showcasing both a 100% cultivated meat version and a hybrid option mixed with plant proteins.
British tempeh leader Better Nature has hired Victoria Harrison as its new marketing director in a maternity cover role. She has previously held senior roles at Ella’s Kitchen and Nurture Brands.
Policy and research developments
The European Food Safety Authority has published new, clearer guidance for companies seeking regulatory approval for novel fermentation-derived foods, outlining how to describe the microbes and the substances they produce, how to identify safety concerns, and what data is needed for risk assessment.
Noma, one of the world’s best eateries, and Novonesis (owned by Ozempic owner Novo Nordisk) have teamed up to develop bio-based products through fermentation for the former’s Noma Projects line, which is the latest iteration of the soon-to-be-closed restaurant.
Courtesy: Novonesis
The US Department of Agriculture has awarded $611,000 to Jiakai Lu, an associate food science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for a three-year project to create a computational framework to enhance the texture of plant-based meat.
The Spanish Association of Plant-Based Foods and Beverage Producers, or Vegetal/es, has presented a proposal to develop a national action plan for plant-based foods in its fourth annual summit.
Courtesy: Vegetal/es
The European Food Information Council has relaunched its Switch To Whole Grains campaign to plug the EU’s fibre gap, since diets low in whole grains are linked to 145,000 preventable deaths and 2.9 million years of healthy life lost across the region.
Finally, students at the University of Basel in Switzerland have voted to shift towards a fully vegan catering menu by 2030, with 53% of the 3,000-odd voting students saying yes to the change.
Lawmakers in Hungary have overwhelmingly voted in favour of banning cultivated meat, even though the EU Commission has called the move “unjustified” and experts have questioned its legality.
After nearly two years of attempts, the Hungarian government has succeeded in its attempt to stifle a food product that isn’t even on the market yet.
In a vote on Tuesday (November 18), Hungary’s parliament voted to ban the production, distribution and marketing of cultivated meat, with 140 in favour, 10 against, and 18 abstentions. Exceptions to the ban are only applicable for medical and veterinary purposes.
In his justification for the ban, the bill cited the need to protect “traditional rural lifestyles and human health” (as well as the environment), warning against the “potential dangers of non-traditional technologies”.
“Food production [must] be linked to the land, as this is the basis of our traditions and culture, and if we move away from this, we will lose our identity,” agriculture minister István Nagy said a day before the vote. “The spread of meat produced in laboratory conditions would result in a lifestyle change that would completely upset European culture, which we cannot allow.”
Hungary is the second European country to vote for a ban on cultivated meat, after Italy in 2023. Its efforts have been directly opposed by fellow EU member states, as well as the European Commission, which has said a ban would damage the free market and was “unnecessary” and “unjustified”.
How Hungary’s ban on cultivated meat materialised
Hungary’s path to the cultured meat ban began in January 2024, when Nagy publicly attacked the industry after meeting Ettore Prandini, president of the Italian farmers’ association Coldiretti, one of the loudest opponents of cultivated meat.
Months later, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán weighed in on the issue in his annual state-of-the-nation speech, stating that the EU “talks nonsense” and is “dumping artificial meat and poor-quality GMO products on us”.
In July, at the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, Hungary used its presidency to call for efforts to “protect” Europe’s culinary traditions from novel foods like cultivated meat – in other words, it sought to outlaw these proteins.
That sparked an EU-wide debate, including widespread backlash from countries like the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Sweden. The latter, for instance, said justifying the move by calling cultivated meat harmful to human health was “unacceptable”, highlighting that Hungary hadn’t provided any risk evaluations or demonstrated that these products might threaten human or planetary health.
One of the top criticisms is that Hungary’s ban goes against EU law. The country submitted a Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) notification to the EU Commission (a procedure aimed at preventing barriers to the free movement of goods among member states) detailing why it was prohibiting this industry, though its explanation was rejected by the executive body and several member states.
Still, in March this year, Hungary’s deputy prime minister, Zsolt Semjén, submitted a bill to the parliament to attempt to ban cultivated meat, which policymakers voted to adopt yesterday.
“Our country has examined the issue of cultured meat from all sides and has also subjected the regulation to the necessary EU procedures. Our position has not changed, even after these procedures were concluded, and the strictest possible regulation is needed,” said Nagy.
“We only allow its use for medical and veterinary purposes, and in all other cases, we strictly prohibit the production and distribution of cultured meat in our country.”
Hungary’s ban goes against consumers’ wishes
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
“It is undeniable that traditional food production has a positive impact on agriculture and rural living conditions as a whole,” Semjén writes in the bill, which is now awaiting a final signature from the president (who has five days to do so).
“Technologies and production methods that differ from traditional ones contain potential dangers that threaten our fundamental values. We do not yet have a satisfactory answer to these challenges,” the text adds. “The presumed negative effects justify a general ban on the production and marketing of laboratory-grown meat.”
Along similar lines, Nagy added: “The national government is committed to food production linked to the farmland and strengthening the countryside. Some people have become distant from nature, and a false romanticism is developing regarding wildlife. The majority of society must understand that without farmers, there is no food and no future. Artificial meat is a fabrication, and we insist on our culture.”
Cultivated meat has been proven to be better for the planet (especially when produced via renewable energy), in addition to supporting animal welfare and, in the longer term, food security. Even farmers are embracing the technology, so to ban it on “presumed negative effects” is befuddling.
Cultural protectionism has been cited as a justification for the ban in Italy, too. At the same time, the safeguarding of livestock producers is the bedrock of the seven state-level bans on cultivated meat in the US. Still, these farmers welcome the competition and have spoken out against placing restrictions on cultured meat.
Courtesy: GFI Europe
That sentiment isn’t just confined to the farmers. Most European consumers are also against banning cultivated meat, including over 60% of Hungarians. In fact, around 55% of the latter group support the sale of these proteins if they pass safety assessments from food regulators.
So far, only two companies have filed to sell cultivated meat for human food in the EU: Parima (for cultivated duck) and Mosa Meat (beef fat). Since they’re at least a year away from entering the market, prohibitive decisions like Hungary’s are unnecessary, according to the EU Commission
“A ban is therefore unjustified, since it could pre-empt the harmonised authorisation procedure for novel foods at EU level, which includes a scientific assessment by EFSA,” it said last year.
Spanish startup MOA Foodtech has unveiled the MOA Box, a turkey service for manufacturers to create high-value ingredients from starch byproducts through fermentation and AI.
To enable food companies to produce future-facing ingredients without the typical cost, time and regulatory barriers, MOA Foodtech has devised an out-of-the-box solution.
The Madrid-based firm has launched a turnkey service called the MOA Box, which uses biotechnology and AI-directed fermentation to convert starch-rich byproducts into market-ready, high-value ingredients.
A result of eight years of research, the platform offers manufacturers a fast, predictable, and commercially scalable route to product innovation at low costs.
“We decided to launch the turnkey service for starch-rich by-products because the opportunity is massive and immediate. Starch side streams are abundant, underutilised, and highly suitable for fermentation, yet most companies lack the technology to turn them into high-value functional ingredients,” co-founder and CEO Bosco Emparanza tells Green Queen.
“With our AI platform and fermentation expertise, we can offer a fast, de-risked, end-to-end solution that transforms waste into new revenue streams. It allows our partners to unlock value, improve sustainability performance, and differentiate their portfolios, while positioning MOA at the centre of a circular, scalable, and economically attractive ingredient ecosystem.”
How MOA Foodtech uses AI to create waste-derived ingredients
Courtesy: MOA Foodtech
Emparanza founded the startup in 2021 with Susana Sánchez and José María Elorza, utilising biomass fermentation to develop high-value ingredients through the company’s AI platform, Albatros.
“It models and simulates over 300 bioprocess scenarios per hour, matching substrates, yeast strains, and process conditions to identify the most efficient, low-cost, and low-impact route. This allows us to design the optimal bioprocess before we even step into the lab,” explains Emparanza.
“Once the process is defined, we move into fermentation, where selected yeast strains convert starch-rich by-products into ingredients with targeted nutritional and functional properties. We then perform downstream processing, which may include separation, drying, extraction, or refining, depending on the final application.
“Finally, we validate performance in food matrices and prepare for industrial scale-up, ensuring consistency, safety, and cost efficiency. Because we integrate AI, bioprocess engineering, and ingredient science, we’re able to develop solutions in a fraction of the time and with significantly reduced risk.”
The AI Directed Fermentation tech results in a biomass boasting all essential amino acids and has a protein digestibility score of 0.9 (on par with soy, beef, eggs and casein). Combined with its functional attributes, the ingredient can be used in a range of applications, from plant-based meat and cheese to bread, sauces and pasta.
The MOA Box integrates seamlessly into companies’ existing infrastructure, giving them access to its fermentation and bioprocessing workflow, expert technical support, and formulation guidance. It also generates up to 17.5 times more value from starch byproducts.
“We’ve analysed more than 200 different side streams from multiple industries, and from that work we selected starch-rich by-products as our primary focus. These streams can come from the starch industry, bakery processing, cereal production, pea protein fractionation, and the potato sector,” says Emparanza.
“They are generated in very large quantities, they are stable and low-cost, and – most importantly – when you combine them with the right microorganism and the right fermentation process, the yields and conversion efficiencies can be exceptionally high.
“This is exactly where our AI platform becomes critical. Albatros evaluates each sidestream’s composition and predicts which strain–process combination will deliver the best technical, economic, and sustainability performance.”
First product developed for meat analogues, snacks and pet food
Courtesy: MOA Foodtech
The MOA Box incorporates every stage of production, from substrate screening to regulatory validation and commercial rollout, allowing clients to move from byproduct analysis to a market-ready ingredient in six months.
MOA Foodtech’s team supports the entire process, from AI-led bioprocess design to scale-up, technology transfer, and go-to-market strategy, ensuring rapid commercial deployment without the need for in-house R&D or infrastructure investment.
Emparanza says his firm derives its revenue from a packaged turnkey service. “We use our AI platform to design a customised bioprocess for each client’s specific side stream. Once the optimal solution is developed, we transfer the full process and license the technology, enabling the client to produce the ingredient in their own facilities,” he explains.
“Our revenue comes from customisation fees, technology transfer payments, and ongoing licensing or royalties linked to production volumes.”
The company has validated its first full fermentation process in a 120-cubic-metre bioreactor with one of its industrial partners. “However, the core objective of this Box is not to build our own manufacturing footprint; it’s to transfer the optimised process to our clients through licensing, so they can produce the ingredient directly or through their manufacturing partners,” Emparanza notes.
Speaking of partners, MOA Foodtech is already producing its first ingredient at industrial scale and selling it to manufacturers for use in pet food, meat analogues, and snacks. And at this year’s FI Europe event in Paris, it will unveil another product with one of its customers.
“So you will continue to see our ingredients entering the market, both through our own developments and through co-developed products with industry players,” he says.
The turnkey service launch comes months after MOA Foodtech received €14.8M from the European Innovation Council, €12.5M of which was contingent on matching funding from private investors.
“We have planned the round for the end of next year, and we already have more than 50% of the required private investment committed,” Emparanza reveals. “This puts us in a strong position to unlock the €12.5M EIC funding as scheduled.”
CSM Ingredients, a leading bakery industry supplier, has forayed into the cocoa-free chocolate world with a range of carob-based innovations.
It was in the 1970s, during the natural food movement, that carob gained popularity as a cocoa alternative.
Already a symbol of food security amid wars and famine, the legume was colloquially (and disparagingly) termed ‘poor man’s chocolate’ at the time, thanks to its likeness in taste to the confection. However, carob chocolate never really caught on.
Until, that is, this decade. A slew of companies has returned to this Mediterranean ingredient as a modern-day solution to the cocoa crisis, characterised by falling harvests and rising costs. The difference this time, though, is that these innovations are powered by food technologies that didn’t exist 50 years ago.
The latest to join the carob train is CSM Ingredients, a leading supplier to the bakery industry, which has been left reeling by the volatility of the cocoa market. The Nexture-owned company has introduced Nuaré, a new line of carob-based cocoa alternatives to address the sector’s cost, supply and sustainability concerns.
“We believe that innovation thrives where challenges arise. With cocoa facing increasing global constraints, our teams have responded with Nuaré, a carob-based range that delivers indulgence with purpose,” said CSM Ingredients CEO Christian Sobolta.
CSM Ingredients’s cocoa-free solutions fit into bakery and ice cream products
Courtesy: CSM Ingredients
The company said it developed the Nuaré range to ensure high performance and versatility across multiple categories, and in both artisanal and industrial settings. Each product is designed to be integrated easily into existing processes, ensuring flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiency.
Current applications include cake coatings, which deliver a consistent shine and colour without greying or bloom and maintain a stable surface through freeze-thaw cycles, as well as ice cream coatings, which are optimised for viscosity and adhesion, ensuring a smooth, glossy finish.
Nuaré also makes carob-based cocoa innovations for dark bakery mixes (think muffins and cakes), providing warm brown hues and consistent baking performance. Plus, they can be used in pastry fillings to offer a creamy, indulgent mouthfeel.
The range can also be customised to provide bespoke solutions for clients. “More than an ingredient, Nuaré represents our commitment to creativity that empowers bakers and ice-cream makers to push boundaries; resilience in the face of supply volatility; [and] sustainability rooted in nature,” said Sobolta.
CSM Ingredients noted that the new lineup offers a plant-based ingredient system that ensures cost predictability and continuous supply, responding to calls for reliable and resilient alternatives to cocoa. It also opens up more creative possibilities, given the ingredients’ “unique optical and sensory qualities”.
Why carob continues to be a favourite for chocolate alternatives
Courtesy: CSM Ingredients
Chocolate is a highly polluting industry, producing more greenhouse gases than every food item except beef, requiring 1,700 litres of water for a single bar, and causing widespread deforestation and food waste. And by exacerbating climate change, the sector itself is hit hard.
Global cocoa stocks have slumped to their lowest levels in a decade, and prices have reached all-time highs. Extreme weather and crop diseases have wrecked plantations in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two largest cocoa producers, which have already lost over 85% of their forest cover since 1960. Now, scientists say a third of cocoa trees could die out by 2050.
CSM Ingredients is gearing the Nuaré range towards this industry, built on the heritage of carob chocolate. Many players in the space use agricultural byproducts, or ingredients like fava beans or sunflower seeds, but carob has several advantages: it’s drought-tolerant, requires minimal agricultural inputs, boosts biodiversity, and is high in fibre, vitamins, minerals, polyphenols and antioxidants.
Once dried and ground, the carob fruit produces what the company describes as a “naturally sweet, chocolate-like powder” with mild caramel notes. It also features a range of golden, nutty and warm brown colours, which it claims are not achievable with conventional cocoa, and so presents an advantage in formulations where both taste and visual appeal play a crucial role.
It isn’t the only company offering carob-based cocoa-free solutions. Italy’s Foreverland also uses the legume as the base for its alternative, called Choruba. London-based Win-Win and Chicago’s Mez Foods, meanwhile, use carob powder as part of their formulations.
Swiss manufacturing giant Bühler Group has named three winners of its New Chocolate Challenge, which aims to industrialise climate-resilient cocoa-free ingredients.
Foreverland, Green Spot Technologies and Kawa Project have all won Bühler Group’s future-friendly chocolate innovation programme.
Recognised for their cocoa-free ingredients, they emerged victorious from a pool of over 50 applicants to the New Chocolate Challenge, which sought to find sustainable solutions for an industry marred by climate change.
The winning startups worked with Bühler to develop cocoa-free chocolate prototypes at its facility in Uzwil, Switzerland, which were then showcased at a tasting event in Chicago last week. Now, they will continue to work on scaling up and commercialising their solutions.
What Bühler saw in the cocoa-free challenge winners
Foreverland CEO Massimo Sabatini presenting at Bühler’s tasting event in Chicago | Courtesy: Bühler Group
The New Chocolate Challenge was announced in August, focusing on three cocoa-free innovation routes: plant-based or upcycled sidestreams to deliver chocolate-like flavours and textures, biomass or precision fermentation to produce essential chocolate compounds (like flavours and lipids), and cell-culture approaches directly leveraging cocoa cells.
The top three startups were chosen in October, when they advanced to full-scale trials at the Bühler Chocolate Research and Training Center, testing their cocoa alternatives on industrial equipment.
Here, they worked with Bühler’s experts to create prototypes and develop a pathway for a viable product from lab to industrial scale. They addressed critical issues, like the impact novel ingredients have on the production process, whether existing assets for natural cocoa should be used, and what adaptations are required.
Foreverland, based in Puglia, Italy, modernises the carob-based chocolate substitutes of the previous century with fermentation. Its ingredient, called Choruba, valorises a widely wasted food (90% of the carob fruit is discarded globally, with the seeds used for locust bean gum) and lowers water consumption by 90% and emissions by 80%, compared to conventional chocolate.
Green Spot Technologies takes a similar approach, upcycling commercial food waste by fermenting it into functional ingredients. Its cocoa-free solutions are made from fava bean fibres and grape skins, and are sold under the Milatea brand as powders, chocolate chips, and fillings. It recently raised €5M in funding to scale up these innovations.
Finally, Kawa Project uses spent coffee grounds from industrial breweries and employs a proprietary extraction and refining method to produce a powder that can be used as a substitute for alkalised cocoa powder in baking applications.
Big Chocolate is going cocoa-free
Courtesy: Bühler Group
Bühler’s focus on chocolate alternatives comes in a year when cocoa prices have broken all-time records, thanks in large part to the climate crisis.
Over 70% of cocoa-producing areas Africa experienced an extra six weeks of days above 32°C last year, with extreme weather and crop diseases hitting plantations hardest in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. These are the two biggest producers of the crop, and they have already lost over 85% of their forest cover since 1960. Now, scientists warn that a third of cocoa trees could die out by 2050.
Compounding the issue is the fact that the industry itself is a driver of climate change. Producing chocolate emits more greenhouse gases than any other food except beef, and making a single bar requires 1,700 litres of water on average. Further, the industry is the source of widespread deforestation and food waste.
The cocoa crisis has prompted the industry to look for sustainable alternatives, resilient to climate change and supply shocks. This is where Bühler’s New Chocolate Challenge came in, connecting innovative startups with established giants like Hershey’s, Cargill, Puratos, Nestlé, Mars, Nutriart, Barry Callebaut, and the IRCA Group, which partnered with the competition.
Many of these companies have seen their businesses impacted. Hershey’s announced a double-digit hike in product prices and cut its annual forecast, while Barry Callebaut (the world’s largest B2B chocolate supplier) has struck partnerships to explore both cell-based and cocoa-free chocolate.
“Cocoa price volatility is a wake-up call. Through our New Chocolate Challenge, we’re mobilising the ecosystem to explore credible, scalable cocoa alternatives while leveraging existing assets wherever possible,” said Thierry Duvanel, innovation director at Bühler North America. “Our goal is to help the industry deliver outstanding chocolate experiences with greater resilience and sustainability.”
The EU is losing out to other regions on the biotechnology front, thanks to an outdated novel food framework. A regulatory sandbox could reinstate its leadership.
Europe is home to some of the world’s most avant-garde food tech startups. So why do they end up leaving?
The problem, according to a new report by think tank the Ministry of Future Affairs, lies with the EU’s outdated system to assess the safety of new products before they can launch into the market.
The bloc’s novel food regulatory framework is competitive with others in terms of the timeline and robustness. However, the length of assessments is twice as long as promised, raising costs for startups and driving away investors from the region.
These regulatory inefficiencies have put Europe’s position as a biotech leader “under threat”, harming its strategic autonomy and food security. For instance, companies like Onego Bio (which makes fermentation-derived egg proteins) and cultivated meat player Meatable have chosen to apply for approval in the US or Singapore first, respectively, where the framework is clearer and timelines shorter.
The startups that opted to file novel food dossiers in Europe first, like Finland’s Solar Foods, say the move has “come at a significant cost”.
Courtesy: Solar Foods
“Our regulatory journey has taken more than twice as long as the EU’s own market approval timeline anticipates. In the meantime, we’ve had to enter other global markets just to remain viable while waiting for approval at home,” says Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, co-founder and CSO of the Solein protein maker.
“We’re not asking for lower food safety standards, but for a regulatory process in our home market that is efficient, predictable, and enables innovation to thrive,” he adds.
In response, the Ministry of Future Affairs has convened food safety, regulatory, and legal experts, who analysed regulatory pain points experienced by applicants and have formed a Framework for a Pan-European Regulatory Sandbox for Novel Foods.
“We fund innovative European food scientists and entrepreneurs, only to see them leave for other markets due to the EU’s unpredictable regulatory approval process. This further strengthens the geopolitical power and competitiveness of other countries, such as China, which benefit from the lack of an efficient regulatory pathway to market in Europe,” says Anna Handschuh, the organisation’s managing director.
“Member states that wish to support and benefit from the growing food biomanufacturing market should collaborate on setting up regulatory sandboxes.”
What’s wrong with the EU’s novel food framework?
The report, titled Closing the Food Innovation Gap, suggests that though the EU’s novel food regulation is often seen as a barrier, it does offer some unique benefits.
For instance, it covers a wide range of technologies, including cell cultivation and precision fermentation, and follows a centralised procedure – once approved, companies can sell in all 27 member states. Applicants can also require five years of protection for the data they’ve generated during the period they are putting their dossiers together, as well as confidential treatment of certain information.
Plus, once approved, the decision is valid indefinitely, meaning that companies don’t have to go through any renewal process (unlike feed additives and smoke flavourings).
To get the green light, applicants generate data and gather studies to support their dossiers, which are then validated by the European Commission, before being passed on to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to perform a suitability check (which takes 30 days).
Courtesy: European Food Safety Authority
The EFSA then performs a scientific risk assessment before publishing its opinion, a process that can take nine months (and can be extended if the agency wants more information). Based on this opinion, the EU Commission prepares a draft implementing regulation, which 55% of member states (representing 65% of the bloc’s population) must approve. The legal timeline for this process is seven months.
In actuality, the average time it takes for a novel food product to be approved in the EU currently is 30 months, far higher than the stipulated 18-month timeline – and this can stretch to as long as five years. In comparison, average timelines in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand are 12 to 24 months.
“The costs of generating data to support a novel food application in the EU are higher, and there is more uncertainty due to the cost of additional data requests that occur during the risk-assessment period,” the report suggests.
Indeed, a novel food dossier in the EU could set a company back €250,000, on par with Australia and New Zealand, though far higher than the €100,000 expected in Singapore and €75,000 needed for a self-affirmed GRAS determination in the US.
This is because the EFSA requires data from at least five independent batches of the novel food ingredient, whereas the other regions require a minimum of three. The EU regulator further asks for data on shelf life and stability in relevant food matrices, adding extra costs and complexity.
How a regulatory sandbox can break the EU’s innovation deadlock
The Ministry of Future Affairs suggests that food tech investors have been recommending European companies to launch in the US, and have deprioritised the EU as an investment destination. Its solution to this situation is inspired by a former EU member state.
In March, the UK opened a regulatory sandbox for cultivated meat, connecting eight startups (three of which are from the EU) with scientists, regulatory experts, and academic bodies to overhaul the regulatory framework and fast-track their path to market.
This enables British regulators to “generate the information needed to answer outstanding questions and increase the efficiency of the regulatory process”, without compromising on existing food standards, according to the sandbox’s head, Joshua Ravenhill. “Sandboxes like ours facilitate innovation whilst ensuring citizens’ safety,” he said.
Sandboxes are time-bound regulatory environments in which innovative products can be tested under supervision, and often with temporary exemptions from standard rules. The report outlines that they can streamline approvals, reduce costs, shorten timelines and remove administrative burdens.
Mosa Meat is part of the UK FSA’s cultivated meat regulatory sandbox | Courtesy: Mosa Meat
Through its pan-European sandbox framework, the Ministry of Food Affairs aims to inspire a transparent pre-market approval process, create high-quality dossiers that demystify requirements, streamline and fast-track procedures, foster cross-border collaborations, and restore investor trust.
Aside from the regulatory testbed, its framework proposes a Living Lab to host public tastings of novel foods, an experimental regulatory learning space to reduce fragmentation across borders, and shared AI and digital tools to improve efficiency.
This sandbox would last for 2.5 years and comprise 10 food tech companies planning to file a dossier in the next 12 months, with the key result being the submission of at least two applications by the end.
“The framework aims to transform the regulatory process from what is currently viewed as a barrier into a strategic enabler. With the process laid out, we aim to demonstrate that novel foods approval can be completed within the regulated timeline while upholding safety,” notes Hannah Lester, CEO of Atova Regulatory Consulting.
Fortunately for the alternative protein industry, the EU has shown it is willing to modernise its novel food framework. Its new life sciences strategy will introduce the Biotech Act next year, which aims to speed up approvals for these innovations by mobilising investments and creating an AI-led supportive tool. In addition, the EU Parliament has recommended the use of sandboxes to assess applications, while helping companies transition from this testbed regime to full market access.
Wellness company Fermenta will roll out limited-edition protein bars featuring Solar Foods’s gas-fermented protein, Solein, in the US early next year.
As Americans sink their teeth into everything protein, companies are scrambling to boost this macronutrient in their products from a range of sources.
One startup has turned to air. Fermenta, a health and performance nutrition startup, has tapped the Solein protein developed by Finnish firm Solar Foods, which is made by fermenting carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen.
Fermenta will release a line of gluten-free Solein-powered protein bars under its Gutsy brand, marking one of the first times the ingredient will be available in the US. It is set to roll out in Q1 2026.
“We want to create delightful moments for consumers and offer sustainable and clean products that support digestive wellness and are high in protein, vegan-friendly and contain less sugar,” said Fermenta CEO John Gibb. “Solein is a groundbreaking new ingredient which supports our sustainability ambition and offers exceptional nutritional values with no compromise on taste.”
Why Solein makes the perfect base for Fermenta’s protein bars
Courtesy: Solar Foods
Solar Foods produces Solein by feeding microbes on gases instead of sugar, eschewing the need for farmland, water for irrigation, and fertilisers and pesticides. The microbes are grown in a liquid form, and later dried into a flavourless powder that has 78% protein, 6% fat, and 10% dietary fibre. Its macronutrient profile is said to be akin to dried soy or algae, and it contains iron and B vitamins.
The company calls Solein the “most sustainable protein” on Earth. The main raw materials for production are carbon dioxide and renewable energy, resulting in emissions equal to just 1% of those generated by conventional meat, and 20% of plant proteins.
Aside from the environmental wins, Solar Foods’s deep-yellow ingredient also delivers on the nutrition front. It has all nine essential amino acids, zero cholesterol or saturated fat, and is packed with iron and vitamin B12. Plus, the powder has a mild flavour, making it an ideal base for a variety of products.
“Solein is an extremely versatile ingredient, and Fermenta’s functional protein bars are one example of how Solein works in final products,” said Troels Nørgaard, chief commercial and product officer at Solar Foods.
“As an agile startup, Fermenta will be among the first to bring products made with Solein available for consumers in the US. We are very excited to see what kinds of products Solein will be used in in the future.”
Solar Foods bets big on health and performance nutrition
But earlier this year, it made clear that its strategy in the US is to target the health and performance nutrition market, having recently unveiled a ready-to-mix protein shake powder for athletes and gymgoers looking to enhance their performance and recovery.
“The consumer demand for different health and performance nutrition products is growing rapidly. Solein excels as an ingredient in this category, offering customers a highly versatile ingredient with exceptional nutrition, functionality, and taste, while drastically reducing environmental impact,” said Nørgaard.
It comes as 70% of Americans try to consume protein this year, and one in three increased their intake, spawning protein-spiked coffee syrups, cup noodles, Doritos, and water, as well as an expletive-laden rant on late-night TV.
The publicly-listed company has raised around €83M in equity and debt funding, and signed several supply and product development agreements, including a €1.39M deal with US-based GLP-1 wellness company Superb Food. Italian food firm KelpEat has also signed a €500,000 agreement, while three other commercialisation deals could account for half of the production capacity of its upcoming large-scale facility, dubbed Factory 02.
This facility, expected to begin operations in 2028, will be able to churn out 12,800 tonnes of Solein annually at €4.30-5.20 per kg. Its current demo plant, Factory 01, has a capacity of 160 tonnes of Solein per year, which is set to increase to 230 tonnes by 2026.
“Produced via an innovative gas fermentation method, a highly efficient and scalable technology, Solein can address the significant global protein supply challenge while minimising the risk for supply restraints,” said Nørgaard.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Heura’s frankfurter recipe, Eat Just’s sector-leading sales, and Beyond Meat’s legal victory.
New products and launches
Spanish plant-based meat maker Heura has introduced a new clean-label frankfurter with 18 times fewer saturated fat and 58% more protein than animal-based versions. And in an unprecedented move, it has made the recipe available to meat giants in Spain, including Oscar Mayer, Argal, and Elpozo.
Courtesy: Heura Foods
British oat milk brand Oato has expanded into nearly 300 Tesco stores, which will carry its one-pint and one-litre bottles nationwide.
UK plant-based company Sunflower Family has launched a line of sunflower seed protein products, including a mince SKU, chunks, a Bolognese mix, and a burger mix.
Courtesy: Sunflower Family
Scottish firm Kingdom Five, meanwhile, has introduced K5 Radical Protein, a solid-state fermentation platform that grows whole-food mycoprotein products for animal-free sausages, fillets, nuggets and seafood.
Across the Atlantic, US firm Barvecue has rolled out a vegan Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken in the freezers of Harris Teeter stores across the Southeast.
Fresh from its acquisition by v2food, Daring Foods has unveiled a range of microwaveable vegan chicken products in diced and shredded formats, which can be cooked in just four minutes and pack 45g of protein 8z pack. They’re available at Walmart and Albertsons stores across the US.
And pecan milk maker Pecana has announced a major expansion, landing at nearly 4,500 stores nationwide, including 3,800 Walmart locations, as well as Natural Grocers, Harmons, and Sprouts Farmers Market.
Company and finance updates
As the egg crisis rages on, Eat Just’s mung-bean-basedJust Egg has achieved the highest sales velocity of any plant-based product in the US, based on SPINS data from the last four weeks.
Courtesy: Oddball
Oddball, a US startup making vegan jelly snacks, has raised $2M in a seed funding round to expand its product line and footprint, and support its launch into Whole Foods this month.
In France, plant-based meat maker La Vie has announced it will soon open a crowdfunding round, a year after securing €25M from VCs and crowd investors.
Courtesy: La Vie
British chocolate company Made Uncommon, which owns Otherly Oatml*lk, Seed & Bean, and other brands, has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of Love Cocoa and vegan brand HiP, both founded by James Cadbury (yes, that Cadbury family).
South Korean tofu giant Pulmuone is planning a European expansion by setting up a subsidiary in Amsterdam, which will source products from its US facilities to supply to key markets like France, Germany, and Spain
Policy, research and awards
Starbucks is being urged to trial oat milk as its default milk option in the UK, as part of the Animal Justice Project’s Udderly Kind campaign, with signatories to its open letter including VBites’s Heather Mills, Ecotricity’s Dale Vince, Veg Capital Matthew Glover, and journalist George Monbiot.
Courtesy: Starbucks
Beyond Meat has won a legal dispute against a former co-manufacturer over the termination of a production agreement, with a judge validating the plant-based meat maker’s decision to end the deal and denying the latter’s request to reopen the arbitration.
US corn milk maker Maïzly has won the 2025 GAMA Innovation Award for SMEs, beating entries from over 50 countries to be recognised as one of the “most groundbreaking new products” globally.
Courtesy: Maïzly
Australian cultivated pork producer Magic Valley is among the winners of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein Singapore and Enterprise Singapore’s Sustainable Protein Startup Competition at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit. It will receive S$175,000 ($134,000) in funding and in-kind support.
US cell-based collagen makerJellatech has been named a finalist in the Sustainable Tech Innovation category for the 2025 NC TECH Awards.
Courtesy: This
Finally, Redefine Meat’s Flank Steak, This’s Super Superfood and Nomo’s Salted Popcorn Chocolate Bar secured the top prizes at The Grocer’s New Product & Packaging Awards 2025.
Under Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the list of economic growth priorities includes a focus on food tech and synthetic biology.
After decades of growth driven by the private sector, Japan’s government is taking charge of its economic future.
This month, the administration held the first meeting of the Japan Growth Strategy Headquarters, setting out measures to strengthen the country’s economic supply chain and mobilise investment through public-private partnerships.
Part of the effort is the creation of the Japan Growth Strategy Council, which aims to create increased income and consumer confidence through supportive and targeted policies.
“This cabinet will create a strong economy in order to turn concerns about current livelihoods and the future into hope. We will strategically deploy fiscal resources based on the concept of responsible and proactive fiscal policy,” said Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s new prime minister.
The plan has identified 17 priority areas, including AI, synbio and food tech – the latter will be led by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – with the government hoping to publish a growth strategy by June 2026.
What will the food tech strategy look like?
Courtesy: Prime Minister’s Office of Japan
The draft documents only mention food tech at a high level, but they do provide some early-stage indications of what the strategy might include.
They describe the promotion of “new technologies designed to address challenges in the food manufacturing and restaurant industries”, adding that food tech will be used to create new products and services, and boost business development and scale-up.
The government also intends to intensively promote a “structural transformation in agriculture”, including the development and adoption of smart agricultural technologies and new crop varieties, and the cultivation of export-oriented production areas.
“With business phases such as research and development, commercialisation, business expansion, market development, and overseas expansion in mind, please incorporate measures to create and expand new demand, such as defence procurement and other government procurement, as well as regulatory reform,” Takaichi told ministers.
She also asked them to devise a public-private investment roadmap that includes timelines and target capital sums realised through these actions.
“To take preemptive measures to fundamentally strengthen supply capacity in response to risks and social challenges, we will promote strategic investment through public-private partnerships. We aim to further grow Japan’s economy by providing products, services, and infrastructure that contribute to resolving shared global challenges,” she said.
Strategy will take long-term view and benefit startups
Courtesy: IntegriCulture
Speaking at a press conference, Norikazu Suzuki, the agriculture minister in charge of the food tech growth strategy, outlined that the government would promote increased investment in the sector, including “fully enclosed plant factories and land-based aquaculture facilities that utilise new technologies”.
“We believe this is an area where we should focus our efforts. The basic plan, at least, has already been decided as a broad framework, and we have already decided on things like where we want to aim for in terms of food self-sufficiency,” he said. “However, we do not currently have a medium- to long-term strategy for each of these individual areas that we need to protect and attack, particularly food tech.”
With the Japan Growth Strategy Council, the government will discuss the kind of strategy it would like to employ over a 10-, 20-year span. And while Suzuki said the plan can’t be drawn up “immediately”, it would ultimately streamline things for food tech businesses.
“Until now, startups were unsure of where to turn for advice, wondering whether to go to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has been clearly designated as the responsible party,” he noted.
“The Growth Strategy Headquarters has a set schedule, and we would like to move forward with our discussions within that schedule, or even sooner if possible.”
The country wants to become the most advanced bioeconomy society by 2030, and has announced an $8B fund to support biomanufacturing. And as the food strategy gets developed, it is already working on a regulatory framework for novel foods like cultivated meat.
“Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy and an R&D leader with top-tier research institutions and manufacturing facilities, all stemming from a vibrant commercial ecosystem recognised globally for its high quality,” Kimiko Hong-Mitsui, director of GFI Japan, told Green Queen last year.
“Japan now has the ability to invest significant resources into the fundamental R&D necessary to become a world leader in alternative proteins.”
French startup Green Spot Technologies has raised €5M ($5.8M) to expand production of its waste-derived fermented ingredients, including cocoa alternatives under new brand Milatea.
As the hunt for cocoa alternatives reaches a fever pitch, one startup is turning to food waste to solve several environmental problems at once.
Based in Toulouse, Green Spot Technologies upcycles commercial food waste – such as spent brewer’s grain, tomato skins, and wine grape marc – by fermenting them into nutrient-dense, high-fibre powders for a variety of applications.
Now, the startup has secured €5M ($5.8M) in new funding to expand its production and portfolio. The round combined equity and bank loans and was led by Team for the Planet, with additional support from the European Innovation Council, EIT Food, and new angel investors.
Green Spot Technologies will use the capital to scale up its capacity from 100 to 1,000 tonnes per year, and launch a new ingredients brand called Milatea.
New brand bets on cocoa-free chocolate
Courtesy: Milatea/Green Spot Technologies
Founded by Ninna Granucci and Silas Boas, Green Spot Technologies collects food industry sidestreams and ferments them in GMO-free culture at its facility in Carpentras. Microbes predigest the fibres, boost the protein content quality, and consume sugar and anti-nutritional factors, and enhance the flavour.
Once harvested, the fermented product is dried and ground into a powder. The startup has previously unveiled three applications under its Ferment’Up range: a sauce made from tomato byproducts, a fibre-packed bakery ingredient from apple pomace, and a line of cocoa alternatives derived from the fava bean and grape industries.
The latter is the central focus of its new Milatea brand, which is targeting the bakery, pastry, and confectionery markets with its fermentation-derived fillings, chips and powders.
Its Color Plus ingredient range features powdered cocoa substitutes that’s stable in baking and freezing, while it also offers pastry-standard dark and milk chocolate (which can be veganised on request) chips. These can be used in cookies, cakes, brioches, and viennoiseries, among other applications.
As for its fillings, Milatea offers a cocoa-free chocolate flavour and chocolate-hazelnut version free from cocoa, milk and tropical ingredients like palm oil. These remain stable through freezing and thawing too, and can be used to fill or top pastries, viennoiseries, biscuits, and entremets.
“Milatea is building bridges with chefs, researchers, and industrial players to make sustainable indulgence both scalable and accessible,” Green Spot Technologies said on LinkedIn.
Reflecting on the capital injection, Granucci said: “We are proud to see our current investors renew their trust and to welcome new partners who share our vision: fermenting the future of food.”
Why investors and chocolate giants are eyeing alternatives
Interest in this category is growing as the cocoa industry faces an existential threat from the climate crisis, which added six weeks of days above 32°C in over 70% of cacao-producing areas in Africa, with extreme weather and crop diseases hitting plantations hardest in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. These are the two biggest producers of the crop, and they have already lost over 85% of their forest cover since 1960. Now, scientists warn that a third of cocoa tree could die out by 2050.
At the same time, producing chocolate emits more greenhouse gases than any other food except beef, and making a single bar requires 1,700 litres of water on average. Further, the industry is the source of widespread deforestation and food waste.
Speaking of which, food waste itself accounts for up to 10% of global emissions, exacerbating food insecurity and hunger, and causing $1T in annual economic losses (though that is a conservative estimate).
Green Spot Technologies, which won the Kraft Heinz Co Innovation Challenge and was a finalist for the 2024 Earthshot Prize, valorises industry waste, lowers the impact climate footprint of producing chocolate, and safeguards the sector from climate shocks.
Its dry fermentation process uses 60% less water than wet methods, and has allowed the prevent 235 tonnes of food waste emissions even before scaling up (the technology can potentially produce 100,000 kg of product annually).
After weeks of stock uncertainty, Beyond Meat has posted a 13% revenue decline in Q3 2025 and has adjusted its expectations for the next quarter, too.
In a rollercoaster Q3, Beyond Meat saw its sales shrink despite exceeding expectations, with the plant-based giant now cutting its forecast for the upcoming year.
The Californian company recorded revenues of $70M, down by 13.3% from the corresponding period in 2024, but slightly above analysts’ predictions of $69M, with company CEO Ethan Brown attributing it to “category headwinds and an accompanying softer top-line continue”.
As losses widen, Beyond Meat blames weak category demand and China suspension
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
The Beyond Burger maker’s loss from operations swelled to $112M, compared to $31M in Q3 2024. This was thanks to large non-cash impairment charges related to its long-lived assets, as well as smaller expenses from legal fees, a lease termination, and the closure of its China operations. Overall, the company’s net loss was at $111M, a 316% increase from the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, Beyond Meat’s gross profit reached $7M in Q3 2025, nearly half of its value in the July to September period in 2024. Its gross margin also narrowed from 18% in Q3 last year to 10% in 2025. These included $1.7M in expenses related to its China withdrawal.
Its decrease in revenue was primarily driven by a 10% decline in product volumes, which in turn was a result of “weak category demand”, reduced retail distribution in the US, and lower sales of burger products to international quick-service restaurant consumers.
And Beyond Meat’s 3.5% drop in net revenue per lb was primarily a result of higher trade discounts, changes in product sales mix and price decreases of certain products, partially offset by favourable changes in foreign currency exchange rates.
These challenges have prompted the firm to revise its sales forecast for Q4, which is now expected to be between $60M and $65M, compared to analysts’ estimates of $70M.
US sales a major concern for Beyond Meat
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen
The US remains its biggest market by far and the drop-off in sales has been alarming in this quarter. In the retail channel, Beyond Meat’s year-over-year revenues slimmed by over 18% in Q3 2025, totalling just $28M, thanks to weakening demand and distribution.
Things were even worse in the foodservice segment, where sales fell by 27% to just $10.5M, with the company citing a decrease in volumes due to low demand and the lapping of sales of its vegan chicken to a QSR customer in the year-ago period.
Internationally, retail sales decreased by nearly 5% to reach $16M, thanks largely to reduced sales of its burger, dinner sausage and chicken products. In the foodservice channel outside the US, Beyond Meat’s revenues were up by 2% to 15M, with the company citing higher sales of its chicken products to a QSR customer, which were partially offset by reduced sales of the Beyond Burger to others.
So far this year, Beyond Meat’s sales are down by 14% compared to the first nine months of 2024. And if its sales forecast for Q4 comes true, it’s set to record a 14.5-16% drop in full-year revenue for 2025.
Beyond Meat CEO strikes optimistic tone about company’s future
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown at the company’s IPO in May 2019 | Courtesy: Mark Lennihan/AP
“As we approach the end of 2025, we’ve achieved three important building blocks for our broader transformation efforts,” said Beyond Meat co-founder and CEO Ethan Brown.
“These are significantly reducing our overall leverage in connection with the previously announced exchange of substantially all of our 2027 convertible notes; meaningfully extending our debt maturity; and finally, adding substantial liquidity to our balance sheet.”
He added that the company was taking “equally strong measures” to accelerate its path to sustainable operations, including pursuing further and sizeable cost reductions, gross margin expansion investments, and targeted strategic growth initiatives.
“Though category headwinds and an accompanying softer top-line continue to weigh on and reverberate throughout our current performance, including our Q3 results, we are closing out the year with a much improved balance sheet, important transformation spadework underway, and genuine optimism and excitement regarding our future,” he said.
Remilk has partnered with industry leader Gad Dairies to launch three animal-free milk products using its precision-fermented whey protein in cafés, restaurants and (soon) supermarkets in Israel.
Two years after being cleared to sell its cow-free protein in Israel, precision fermentation player Remilk has commercialised the ingredient with a line of milk products.
The Rehovot-based startup has teamed up with Gad Dairies, the country’s fourth-largest dairy company, to launch The New Milk range. The two firms have begun distributing a barista-style milk at coffee shops, restaurants and hotels, and will introduce an everyday milk and a vanilla-flavoured version in supermarkets in January.
Additional products are set to be launched in the coming months. “This is a defining moment for the dairy category,” said Amir Aharon, CEO of Gad Dairies. “The New Milk is more than a product – it’s a historic milestone where generations of dairy tradition meet groundbreaking technology.”
Remilk’s fermented whey protein approved to sell in four countries
Courtesy: Remilk
Founded in 2019 by Aviv Wolff and Ori Cohavi, Remilk employs precision fermentation to produce bioidentical milk proteins via yeast. The technology involves inserting specific DNA into microbes to instruct them to produce desired molecules when fermented.
Remilk uses it to make beta-lactoglobulin, the main whey protein found in bovine milk (accounting for 65% of the total whey content). It is said to be nutritionally superior to most proteins, with gelling, foaming and emulsifying properties that enhance the texture of a range of food and beverage products.
Beta-lactoglobulin also contains a larger concentration of essential and branched-chain amino acids than other whey proteins (such as leucine, which is key for muscle synthesis). Plus, it’s tasteless, stable across a wide pH range, and tolerant to heat.
The startup combines its recombinant whey protein with shea and coconut fat, sugar, acidity regulators, flavours, stabilisers, salt, and emulsifiers to turn it into milk, which is fortified with calcium, vitamins D and E, and dietary fibre. The entire process emits up to 97% fewer greenhouse gases than conventional milk production, in addition to requiring 99% less land and over 90% less water.
Remilk has raised over $150M to develop and commercialise the technology, and was the first company to secure regulatory approval for precision-fermented dairy proteins in Israel, back in 2023. Moreover, it has been cleared to sell its beta-lactoglobulin in Singapore, the US, and Canada, too.
“We founded Remilk with a clear vision: to create a better, healthier, and tastier world through real milk made without cows. Today, in a remarkable global milestone, that vision is becoming a reality,” Wolff, who is the CEO, said of the product launches.
“Our partnership with Gad Dairies, a brand with an unmatched culinary legacy, is the natural next step to ensure the highest-quality, best-tasting products. We’re proud of this collaboration that bridges vision and innovation with uncompromising taste and quality,” he added.
Taste is the top driver for precision-fermented milk consumption
Courtesy: Remilk
Remilk described the new range as “identical in taste” to cow’s milk and rich in nutrients. It can froth quickly into a stale form, is fortified with calcium and vitamins, and contains 75% less sugar.
The products are also kosher-pareve (with no traces of conventional dairy) and free from lactose (though, being bioidentical to cow’s milk, they’re not suitable for people with dairy allergies). They’ll be sold in 750ml bottles for 15 shekels ($4.64).
To gauge consumer interest, the two companies partnered with Geocartography Knowledge Group on a survey of local consumers, finding that 92% of Israelis drink cow’s milk and 61% drink milk alternatives. Additionally, 56% consume both, and 55% say existing plant-based milks aren’t tasty enough, indicating an openness to innovation but a preference for the familiar.
The poll further revealed that 66% of respondents maintain separation between meat and dairy (in accordance with kosher dietary laws), and among them, half would drink coffee with milk after a meat-based meal if it were a pareve milk that tasted like conventional milk.
According to Remilk, the survey pinpoints taste as by far the leading driver of the adoption of fermentation-derived dairy products, with consumers expecting a product that matches cow’s milk on flavour, texture and functionality.
“Our collaboration with Remilk represents a global breakthrough for Gad: milk born from advanced science and technology, yet rooted in decades of culinary tradition,” said Aharon. “The New Milk proves that it’s possible to combine premium quality, sustainability, and industrial innovation without sacrificing taste.”
While several companies have received regulatory approval for different milk proteins globally, very few have commercialised liquid milk products. Perfect Day’s beta-lactoglobulin has been used in milk alternatives by Nestlé’s Cowabunga label, Tomorrow Farms’s Bored Cow range, and Strive Nutrition’s FreeMilk line in the US, and its own Very Dairy brand in Singapore.
And earlier this year, Israel’s Imagindairy linked up with its founding investor Strauss Group to unveil two products using its precision-fermented beta-lactoglobulin ingredient in the country, including a milk under the Yotvata brand.
Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of cultivated meat pioneer Aleph Farms, believes alternative proteins are bouncing back as business models mature and regulators take notice.
For several years, complementary proteins have followed a familiar pattern described by the Gartner Hype Cycle, a framework that maps how emerging technologies rise through early excitement, fall into disillusionment, and eventually mature through practical progress.
The sector’s early surge of enthusiasm was followed by a steep correction. Investment slowed, companies consolidated, and critics questioned whether the field could deliver on its promise. What is emerging now is a smaller, stronger cohort building on firmer ground.
Recent developments suggest that complementary proteins, including plant-based, fermentation and other fungi-based, cultivated, and blended products, are beginning to climb what Gartner calls the slope of enlightenment.
Pressure on the old system, momentum in the new
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Outbreaks of animal disease, climate shocks, water scarcity, and geopolitical volatility are creating mounting pressure on conventional supply chains. Natural-resource scarcity and a shrinking national cattle herd (the US herd fell to 86.7 million head in 2025, the lowest since 1951) are steadily driving meat prices upward.
These risks are opening space for alternative protein production systems and reinforcing the strategic imperative for diversification in global protein production.
Public-sector support is expanding in key markets such as the UK, Switzerland, the UAE, Japan, and South Korea through government-backed strategies and innovation programs, to name a few.
In the UAE, Abu Dhabi launched the AGWA agrifood cluster last year, with the goal of adding $24.5B to GDP and creating 60,000 jobs. Both South Korea and Japan have explicitly integrated alternative proteins into their national food security strategies, signalling growing alignment between innovation and policy.
Consumers shifting behaviours as regulators catch up
Believer Meats is the latest to receive US approval to sell cultivated meat | Courtesy: Believer Meats
GLP-1 medications are accelerating a broader trend toward protein density, healthy indulgence and portion control. Market analyses show that menu items highlighting ‘protein’ or offering smaller portions resonate with both GLP-1 users and mainstream diners.
Governments and regulators around the world are moving from theory into practice. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have cleared five cultivated meat producers, including three within the past six months, which is a notable acceleration.
At the same time, regulators across the UK, the UAE, Switzerland, and Japan are finalising frameworks for novel proteins, paving the way for initial local market clearances.
In parallel, international efforts to harmonise standards are accelerating, with regulatory agencies collaborating through working groups to develop shared definitions, labelling requirements, and safety protocols.
As realism replaces hype, business models are maturing
Impossible Foods has teased a move into blended meat | Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The focus has shifted from branding and rapid scale to solving real unmet needs, whether at the protein supply or consumer level. Companies that once prioritised growth at any cost are now emphasising operational discipline, profitability, rigorous attention to food safety, and a sharper articulation of consumer value.
The industry is moving toward clearer value propositions and more deliberate product segmentation. Instead of trying to replace all conventional meat, leading companies are identifying where they can create distinctive value and meet specific consumer needs.
Blended products combining plant proteins and ingredients such as mushrooms are gaining traction by offering balance: the familiarity of traditional meat with the nutritional and environmental advantages of plants.
Precision fermentation players are concentrating on high-end applications where functionality, flavour performance, and nutrition justify premium positioning. Some leading cultivated meat producers, including Aleph Farms, are focusing on healthy indulgence products crafted for today’s conscious consumer seeking taste, quality, and alignment with personal values
The sector is entering a phase of greater realism. Market projections and timelines are being revised to reflect lessons learned across the alternative protein landscape.
For plant-based products – whose inflated ambitions triggered the initial hype – early growth forecasts have been tempered as the category matures. The right products are now growing steadily in well-defined categories.
Valuations across the alternative protein ecosystem have also undergone a necessary correction. Average pre-money valuations for Series B and later-stage alternative protein startups fell by 30-40% between 2021 and 2024, according to PitchBook data, as investors prioritised capital efficiency and clearer paths to profitability.
Early signs of a rebound, and the road ahead
Nxtfood raised Europe’s largest plant-based funding round since 2022 | Courtesy: Nxtfood
As a result, and after two years of retrenchment, investment is flowing again to companies with proven technology and solid fundamentals. According to PitchBook, late-stage leaders in alternative proteins and novel ingredients are attracting larger checks as early-stage valuations remain under pressure.
We’ve seen five complementary protein companies with strong growth prospects and value propositions raise significant funding in the last few months, from plant-based to fermentation and fungi-based innovations.
We can prudently say that together, these trends suggest that the sector is regaining its footing and entering a more pragmatic phase of growth.
Since late 2022, many voices in the field have viewed cellular agriculture and other complementary proteins as stalled in the trough of disillusionment, the low point that follows the initial hype.
That perspective captured the mood of the moment. But the data emerging over the past year, and especially in recent months, across public support, regulatory progress, refinement of product strategies and business models, and consumer trends, suggest that the inflexion point may already be underway. The recent industry consolidation trend and investments rebound could indicate signs of maturation.
The path from disillusionment to maturity will not be automatic. It will require discipline, focus, continued technical progress, thoughtful regulation, and new models of collaboration between the public and private sectors. But the foundations are stronger today than they were two years ago.
The next phase of growth will be defined not by hype cycles but by prudent execution, relevance, and credibility. Companies delivering real value will ultimately carry the sector to the plateau of productivity, where complementary proteins become a lasting part of a secure and sustainable global food system.
The future of coffee, cocoa and wine is already in danger thanks to climate change, and even the most advanced geoengineering interventions might not be enough to protect them.
In a damning study about the extent of the climate crisis’s damage, scientists have warned that some of the world’s economically important crops may be past saving.
Collectively, more than 175 million people are dependent on the coffee, chocolate and wine industries; however, these commodities face existential threats from climate change. Global wine production has fallen to its lowest levels in 60 years, cocoa stocks are the weakest in a decade, and coffee prices have broken all-time records.
According to the study, published in Environmental Research Letters, even the most advanced climate fixes might not secure the future of these coffee, cocoa beans, and wine grapes.
Tech that cools the planet still not enough
Courtesy: Nestlé
Each of the crops in question grows only in specific regions where environmental conditions are favourable. Many grape species, for example, have specific temperature, rainfall and soil moisture needs, while arabica coffee is less heat-tolerant than robusta (which tends to be lower-grade). Cocoa is highly susceptible to pests and diseases caused by high temperatures, rainfall and humidity.
The research explored a process called stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), which helps reflect some sunlight away from Earth and releases it into the upper atmosphere instead. This mimics the temporary cooling that occurs after large volcanic eruptions.
The scientists analysed whether SAI could stabilise conditions for grape, coffee and cocoa cultivation across major growing areas in western Europe, South America and West Africa. They modelled climate conditions from 2036 to 2015 across 18 regions, assessing how SAI could affect temperature, rainfall, humidity, and disease risk.
The process was found to be able to lower surface temperatures, but it did not preserve the favourable conditions needed for healthy yields. In fact, only six regions showed a significant improvement in growing conditions compared to a scenario without SAI.
Unpredictable rainfall and humidity levels were the biggest barriers to SAI’s success, which is far less effective at moderating moisture levels or preventing flooding than it was at cooling the planet. This means crop yields and farm income projects remain unstable even under SAI conditions.
“Reducing temperature with SAI alone isn’t enough,” explained co-author Ariel Morrison. “Natural climate variability also cannot be ignored – it leads to a wide range of outcomes under the same SAI scenario that could affect the livelihoods of farmers growing cacao, coffee, and grapes.”
Findings shine light on the potential of bean-free coffee and cocoa
Courtesy: Nestlé
Morrison explained that while SAI could alleviate heat stress in some places in the short term, it isn’t a reliable long-term solution. “SAI climate intervention may offer temporary relief from rising temperatures in some regions, but it is not a guaranteed fix for the challenges facing luxury crop farming,” she said.
“Adaptation strategies tailored to local conditions, investment in resilient agricultural practices, and global cooperation are essential to saving these crops and the communities that depend on them,” she added.
The study shows that technological fixes alone won’t safeguard these key industries – the effort will require innovation and global commitment to sustainable adaptation. It also highlights the importance of novel production methods, like growing coffee and chocolate in cell culture, and alternatives made from more resilient and climate-friendly crops.
Many food tech startups are creating bean-free alternatives to coffee and chocolate, with some using fermentation and roasting techniques akin to the conventional industries. They are less susceptible to climate change and supply shocks, reduce companies’ planetary impact, and can be used to replace or complement the ingredients in a variety of applications.
One startup that makes both is Singapore-based Prefer. “Using Prefer’s fermentation technology, we’re able to make flavours and ingredients, like coffee and cocoa, for the food industry to provide delicious, affordable, and sustainable products to the masses,” its co-founder and CEO Jake Berber tells Green Queen.
“Our mission is to futureproof our favourite foods,” he adds. “The study confirming that climate change may soon outpace our ability to protect coffee and cocoa is both disheartening and a critical validation of our work at Prefer.”
Industry giants are already recognising the potential of beanless alternatives. Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate supplier, has partnered with German cocoa-free chocolate maker Planet A Foods to develop new products. Moreover, it’s exploring cell-based cocoa, an area that Lindt & Sprüngli and Mondelēz International have invested in, too.
Food waste and meat consumption are major drivers of the climate crisis. But a blended meat approach could provide a win-win solution.
What do apples, TikTok and waste have in common?
According to researchers at Cornell University, they could help you eat less meat. In a study published in the Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, they have proposed a way to repurpose the waste left by the apple industry into a meatball enhancer that lowers beef content and keeps social media’s fibremaxxers happy.
Animal agriculture accounts for up to a fifth of all global emissions, while food waste is responsible for as much as 10%, so this approach could help lower consumption emissions. Reducing one’s intake of red meat – high in saturated fat and cholesterol – and adding fibre can reduce cardiovascular risk and boost gut wellness. And replacing beef content with a food industry byproduct will help lower the cost of meatballs.
“It’s a win-win-win,” said Elad Tako, associate food science professor at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “It could mean more natural, better-for-you products for meat companies and the people who care about getting enough protein and other nutrients, but also provide a new income stream for apple and cider producers.”
Meatballs blended with apple waste no different from 100% meat
Courtesy: Journal of Food Science and Nutrition
When apples are pressed into cider or juice, only about 70-75% of the fruit is used. The rest – comprising the skins, seeds, core and pulp – is collectively called pomace, and its recovery rate is low. Most of this goes either to animal feed, compost or landfill.
These byproducts are rich in dietary fibre, antioxidants, and micronutrients so the team at Cornell sought to find a way to save the millions of tonnes of apple pomace produced every year.
They bought three kinds of apples at wholesale, pressed them in a commercial juice press, and freeze-dried the leftovers for 48 hours. They then milled the dried material into a powder with uniform particle size, before rehydrating and blending it into ground beef at 10% and 20% inclusion rates.
These were then fed to a sensory panel of over 100 untrained testers, which revealed that the meatballs with apple pomace were indistinguishable in aroma, taste, texture and overall preference from 100% beef versions.
Beyond the sensory attributes, the researchers found that the 20% meatballs exhibited a decline in cooking yields and a shift in internal colour, which may matter to manufacturers who need to meet specification standards. For the taste-testers, there was no cause for concern at the higher inclusion level, indicating that consumers may accept small changes if the product is otherwise familiar.
“It’s a great source of fibre and bioactives,” Tako said of apple pomace. “But as an ingredient, it also has an antioxidant effect and contributes to a longer shelf life for food products.”
Indeed, chemical analysis showed that there were polyphenols and fibre present in the apple pomace. However, the protein content was reduced slightly, and the study said further research to investigate how this would affect perceptions of blended meat is warranted.
That said, Americans already overconsume protein, and are vastly deficient in fibre – only 5% of adults meet the daily requirement of fibre intake (25g for women and 38g for men), with the average person consuming half the recommended amount. This is another reason why fibremaxxing has exploded on TikTok – a trend this approach could neatly fit into.
Blended meat approach can fill fibre gap and create revenue stream
Courtesy: Sreang Hok/Cornell University
The researchers noted how global apple production surpassed 97 million metric tonnes in 2023, leaving behind a volume of mass that’s expensive to handle. Transportation and disposal costs can eat into already tight margins, especially for smaller processors.
So turning pomace into a dry, shelf-stable ingredient could mean less waste-hauling and a marketable ingredient. Regional apple and cider producers could sell it as a value-added product to meatpackers, snack food manufacturers, or specialty food producers, opening up a new revenue stream and enabling a closed-loop manufacturing system.
In terms of benefits for livestock producers, apple pomace adds pectin, fibre, polyphenols and micronutrients to meat. Adding fruit-derived fibre could close the fibre consumption gap through popular processed foods and modestly reduce the share of animal protein without altering the eating experience or asking consumers to change their habits.
The researchers added that this blended meat approach could be useful in schools, hospitals and workplaces, where familiar comfort foods are served at scale. Plus, it could reduce methane emissions from both landfills and beef consumption.
The exact size of the potential market depends on a range of issues, including the quantity of pomace that can be dried, the pace at which producers can supply it, and whether food manufacturers will invest in reformulation and labelling changes. Freeze-drying is also energy-intensive and requires capital equipment or third-party services.
In October, Central Market began carrying five meat products blended with shiitake mushrooms from Fable Food Co, with promising early results – one in two people who sampled the innovations have bought them on the spot.
Blended meats are very much here to stay. If we can curb waste and create revenue for local processors at the same time, that’s an important bonus. Apples aren’t the only fruits that could be valuable for the protein transition – in South Korea, one startup is creating animal-free dairy proteins by fermenting a yeast strain derived from locally grown grapes.
With seasonal lookbooks and a flavour trend report that feels like it came from the fashion industry, Oatly is courting Gen Z to take its oat milk to newer heights. Here’s an exclusive peek behind its strategy.
Fashion, flavour and fibre may as well be Oatly’s new buzzwords.
The Swedish oat milk giant has long been lauded for its innovative marketing and ‘wackaging’ – who can forget thatunhinged Super Bowl ad? Some may turn their noses up, but this approach gets people talking.
The problem, though, is that after taking over supermarket shelves and specialty coffee shops across the world at the turn of the decade, Oatly’s momentum has slowed. Its China and US operations have struggled particularly, and while it just recorded its first quarter of profitable growth since its 2021 IPO, the company had been forced to revise its full-year guidance for 2025.
Its performance stateside is symptomatic of the cooling demand for non-dairy alternatives, whose overall sales fell by 5% last year. “It is true that the plant-based category has softened in the US,” concedes Bryan Carroll, UK general manager for Oatly.
“But if you look at the data, this is down to a number of reasons, and actually not because of a resurgence back towards cow’s dairy (or raw milk trends) as has been portrayed,” he tells Green Queen.
So let’s look at the data, then. According to Nielsen retail scanner data, the volume growth of dairy drinks was flat in the 52 weeks to September 6, and declined by 0.7% in the month prior. And though there were pockets of value growth, thanks in part to rising prices of high-protein products, that is slowing too, from 4% in the previous 12 months to less than 2% in the preceding four weeks.
Courtesy: Oatly
Still, Oatly’s business could do with a strategy boost, which has materialised in the form of its new taste-first approach, inspired by the food-fashion nexus.
The firm has produced two ‘lookbooks’ featuring innovative recipes that showcase the versatility of its products, and published a Future of Taste report highlighting the industry’s biggest trends for 2026. On the menu: fibremaxxing, decaf, East-inspired ingredients, and – of course – matcha.
“We see taste as much more than just flavour. Sure, it’s literally another word for it – but for us, taste represents a frontier for innovation, identity and impact,” says Carroll. “It’s also long been a sticking point for consumers, and we’ve been on a mission to prove that choosing dairy-free doesn’t have to mean compromising on taste.
“We are yet to fully execute the new taste strategy in the US and instead are focused on fixing areas like our structural operations. That being said, Oatly’s volume is still performing better than competitors and the categories. We see our taste strategy working in Europe, and we’re excited to bring this momentum to our US customers.”
How the Oatly lookbooks came to life
Courtesy: Oatly
Aside from putting taste at the heart of things, Oatly had been looking to connect more deeply with lifestyle and culture, beyond just food and drink. “The coffee scene is transforming radically and we believe Oatly is uniquely positioned at the heart of this,” says Carroll.
Enter the lookbooks, which COO Daniel Ordonez said were breaking down barriers with “quotes reminiscent of fashion and unexpected recipes that totally change the way in which consumers view oat milk”.
The Spring/Summer 2025 lookbook featured drinks like a maple-miso latte, a salty banana split, and a lacto-fermented blueberry matcha. This month, Oatly released the Autumn/Winter 2025/26 version, offering recipes for a gochujang hot chocolate, a sticky toffee Irish coffee, a carrot cake matcha latte, and a clarified pumpkin spice latte.
“The idea for the Oatly Lookbook came from merging the worlds of food and fashion: a recipe book inspired by the fashion playbook. Oat Couture, if you will,” says Carroll.
“It’s a collection of explorative, Oatly-based serves that tap into both current and emerging flavour trends, giving partners and baristas inspiration and consumers fun, accessible ways to experiment at home. It’s all about showing the versatility of Oatly beyond the everyday flat white and reimagining how people experience flavour.”
The trend report was produced with AI-driven intelligence platform CultureLab and is based on insights from over 200 baristas and industry experts globally. Things kicked off when blind taste tests this year showed that dairy drinkers prefer oat milk in their coffee up to four times more.
“That told us two things,” says Carroll. “First, we really do taste better than cow’s milk, and second, there’s still a big gap between perception and reality around taste. So, we wanted to take our commitment to taste a step further, to show that we don’t just make products that taste great, but that we understand how taste itself is evolving.”
That resulted in the Future of Taste report, which he says is for “anyone with a stake in taste”, from baristas and café owners to those curious about the next wave of flavour innovation: “It explores the trends we believe will define what’s on high-street menus, and in your coffee cup and cupboards, in the months and years ahead.”
Trend report will shape Oatly’s product development and partnerships
Courtesy: Oatly
The recipes in the lookbooks are developed by an in-house team led by barista development director Toby Weedon and head of food and drinks experience Rowena Roos. They work with a team of 60 barista market development managers, who spend “hundreds of hours in coffee shops” and attend global food and drink events to keep their finger “on the taste and flavour pulse”.
“From this, they pull recipes together by testing, tasting and iterating to land recipes that are both trend and flavour-led and accessible,” Carroll explains.
The company is taking a “multi-pronged approach” to promote the lookbook, amplifying it through an earned, owned and paid campaign. It began with a flagship event in Berlin in early October, convening members from all its Europe, Middle East and Africa markets.
“It was an immersive experience built around our signature drinks, launching the taste report and the A/W Lookbook and featuring masterclasses led by our in-house Barista team, giving guests the chance to taste the trends and see the lineup in action,” recalls Carroll.
“The insights are a really valuable tool to help us stay ahead of emerging trends. We’ll be using them to guide everything from product innovation to the development of our signature drinks, and to inform brand partnerships that align with where taste and culture are heading next,” he says.
Some of the lookbook recipes have already appeared on coffee shop menus and Oatly’s own product portfolio – for instance, it launched a popcorn-flavoured barista oat milk inspired by the sweet and salty popcorn latte in the S/S 25 lookbook.
“Our #1-selling barista edition continues to give baristas and home drinkers the tools to craft indulgent, creative drinks at home,” says Carroll. The full barista range – from an organic version and jiggers to the Lighter Taste edition and the 1.5-litre multipacks – is “designed to be a versatile base for thousands of drink combinations”.
“We’re now building on that versatility by developing more flavour-forward drinks, like our new Oatly Matcha Latte, making big out-of-home trends easier to recreate in-home or serve quickly in high-paced out-of-home environments,” he highlights.
Is Oatly working on a protein oat milk?
Courtesy: Oatly
One of the major trends highlighted in Oatly’s report revolves around fibremaxxing, the TikTok-fuelled Gen Z movement to, well, max out on fibre in food and drinks.
Fibre, Oatly says, is “coming for protein’s crown”. “Thanks to the gut health boom, we’re seeing fibre experiencing a glow-up. And it’s now the nutrient everyone’s talking about,” its report states. “We know where the protein trend took us… protein in everything! Considering prebiotics are just one subgroup within the fibre umbrella, this would suggest a breakout trend is on the cards.”
But protein is very much the macronutrient of the moment. This year, 70% of Americans are trying to consume it, with one in three increasing their intake. That demand has spawned protein-spiked coffee syrups, cup noodles, Doritos, and water, as well as an expletive-laden rant on late-night TV.
Protein has been a thorn in the side of oat milk, and some brands are now adding pea protein to make up the difference. Has Oatly, whose oat milk contains 1g of protein per 100ml, been tempted to hop on the bandwagon?
“This isn’t something in our plans,” says Carroll. “But we never say never in terms of product innovation.”
He acknowledges that oat milk contains less protein than dairy, but points to the fact that “most people already meet or in some cases even exceed their protein needs through a balanced diet”.
“For now, our focus is on delivering great-tasting, fibre-rich, fortified oat drinks with a lower climate impact, while continuing to explore new opportunities as consumer needs evolve,” he says.
“Our drinks already offer a great balance of nutrients, including fibre, vitamins, and minerals, while being low in salt and saturated fats, and free from added sugars or additives. Oats are also a source of high-quality protein compared with many other grains and have well-documented health benefits, from supporting heart health to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.”
Matcha latte sells well as Oatly targets Gen Z
Courtesy: Oatly
Looking to the future of its taste strategy, Carroll states that Oatly will “keep prioritising café partnerships”, as well as exploring “where the next big flavour trends might take us”.
A product born out of this plan was the aforementioned matcha latte, which combines its oat milk with finely ground Tencha matcha. This followed the launch of the Lighter Taste barista milk earlier this year, designed specifically to have a more neutral flavour and let your coffee’s natural tasting notes shine.
Asked about the performance of these products thus far, Carroll says: “Matcha has exceeded all expectations and is selling well in all the markets it has launched in. The Lighter Taste product is a key part of our barista portfolio, which aims to give consumers and baristas a range of flavours and formats.”
Oatly has not been shy about its focus on Gen Z. Speaking to investors in an earnings call this year, Ordonez said of the lookbook: “These are premium signature drinks that tap into Gen Z’s obsession with flavour and cold drinks. Can you imagine any of these drinks with cow’s milk? We don’t think so.”
The trend report builds on this. “People’s daily drink choices, especially younger generations, are being shaped by a world in flux. Drink trends go viral and are seen from London to Seoul, and technology is making it easier to order, customise and share,” it states.
“Tighter budgets mean value matters, but a unique drink is still worth the splurge. Health, sustainability trends and global flavours are blending as a generation raised online is seeking both identity and connection in every cup. What’s popular today provides an insight into a constantly evolving, global, digital culture.”
This will inform how Oatly builds its brand over the next 12 months. “Taste will continue to be our top priority – it’s what people know and love us for. While we already taste great, we’re always exploring new ways to innovate and improve our range as we grow,” says Carroll.
“You can expect to see us keep pushing boundaries with products that make plant-based choices even more delicious, accessible, and of course, sustainable.”
The Global Methane Hub has invested $30M in an accelerator programme to fast-track solutions to lower methane emissions from rice production.
Half the world depends on rice for most of its food requirements, and 95% of the grain is produced and consumed in developing countries. In fact, over three-quarters of the crop globally directly serves as food for humans, significantly higher than wheat (66%) and maize (12%).
Rice has an oversized impact on the climate. Rice paddies account for 9% of human-caused methane emissions and around 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and they consume 40% of the world’s irrigation water.
The flooded conditions in paddies create an oxygen-free environment where soil microbes flourish, consuming organic matter and producing methane as a byproduct, most of which is released into the atmosphere by the rice plants.
Climate change is wreaking havoc on the rice industry too. Rising temperatures could shrink rice yields by 40% by the end of the century, and are already raising arsenic levels in the crop. In China, extreme rainfall has reduced rice yields over the last 20 years. And in Vietnam, nearly 250,000 acres of land in the Mekong Delta – its rice bowl – is being taken out of production, partly due to climate change.
This is why the Global Methane Hub, a philanthropic organisation that invests and mobilises financing to reduce methane emissions, has committed $30M to a new Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator.
The research scheme, which will be supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and convene at its Bellagio Center next year, aims to accelerate innovations that slash methane emissions from rice cultivation, without compromising yields and profitability.
“Methane emissions from rice cultivation need to be addressed alongside all other significant methane sources,” Hayden Montgomery, director of the Global Methane Hub’s agriculture programme, told Green Queen.
“By deploying and scaling technologies, such as high-yielding rice varieties with shorter growth durations and minimal water requirements, we can achieve substantial emission reductions. These technologies not only help reduce rice methane emissions while meeting growing demand, but also build the resilience of smallholder rice farmers by lowering water pumping costs and increasing yields.”
Global Methane Hub spotlights four research areas for rice
Courtesy: Tonhom27/Getty Images
One of the most popular strategies to save water and reduce methane output from rice production is alternative wetting and drying (AWD). This involves farmers going through several wet and dry cycles, rather than keeping the paddy flooded the whole time.
However, the effectiveness of such systems is heavily dependent on local infrastructure, agronomic conditions, and the farmer’s capacity to implement them. And according to the Global Methane Hub, these strategies haven’t delivered the necessary reductions at scale to “significantly bend the curve of rice methane emissions”.
Through the accelerator, whose strategy will be released in early 2026, it will develop a roadmap for improving the readiness and real-world performance of various solutions identified under the four key research areas for rice systems: plant genetics and physiology, soil microbiome, agronomy, and emissions measurement.
“The accelerator is a pooled, globally coordinated research effort that will be guided by a comprehensive strategy, which is currently under development. The allocation of funds will be determined on the basis of recommendations of a scientific committee, and decisions taken by the funders,” said Montgomery.
“Our intention will be to balance the deployment of funding across the breadth of the scope of research, which includes agronomy, plant research, soil microbiome and emissions measurement, and between early and late stage research, always with a view to bringing about a step change in the speed of progress and ensuring relevance to the largest rice growing regions, including Asia.”
Rice methane accelerator seeks $100M in public and private sector investment
Courtesy: Chen Yanhui/Unsplash
To date, the Global Methane Hub has raised over $500M in pooled funds from more than 20 of the largest climate philanthropies to speed up methane mitigation efforts globally.
The new accelerator is looking to secure at least $100M more in philanthropic, public and private sector funding. “We are engaging with philanthropy, governments and the private sector to attract additional investment into the Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator. We have secured initial commitments from philanthropy but we are engaging in productive discussions with many more,” Montgomery said.
“Awareness of the importance of addressing methane is rising, and many governments and companies are already investing in research to address rice methane. The accelerator offers a way to consolidate this and overcome the fragmentation that has previously held back progress.
“Companies from across rice value chains, such as retailers, processors, consumer packaged goods companies and traders, are also starting to get better organised in order to address their scope 3 methane. Just a week ago, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development launched a new guide to support companies to take action. We expect this to help drive further investment.”
This is the organisation’s second flagship agricultural research initiative, following the Enteric Fermentation Accelerator, which focuses on lowering emissions from livestock (the leading source of anthropogenic methane emissions).
“With the Enteric Fermentation Accelerator, we have been successful in raising awareness of the need to address emissions of enteric methane. We have attracted significant additional resources from across philanthropy, public and private sectors towards the implementation of the strategy we published, and we have been able to deploy resources into the highest priority research areas much more quickly than typically occurs,” noted Montgomery.
“Because we deploy resources through direct collaboration with researchers, we have been able to assemble consortia of specialists from across many disciplines, who wouldn’t have necessarily worked together otherwise. This has led to very strong research teams being built with the requisite capability to deliver. We hope to replicate this kind of success with the Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator.
Bill Gates’s outlook ‘very much aligned’ with Global Methane Hub’s mission
Courtesy: Ruben Boekeloo/Pexels
As greenhouse gases go, methane is particularly dangerous for short-term warming. “Methane is a short-lived, highly potent greenhouse gas, with 86 times the atmospheric warming potential of CO2 over a 20-year period,” Montgomery pointed out. “Therefore, improving rice cultivation systems presents a significant opportunity to quickly reduce warming.”
According to the Global Methane Hub, without low-emission strategies that are adaptable across diverse contexts and able to balance productivity, water use efficiency and sustainability with improved farmer resilience, rice methane emissions could increase by 7% by 2030.
This has led several startups to innovate with sustainable rice production. Indian-American firm MittiLabs and France’s CarbonFarm both use AI and satellite tech for carbon credits (though the efficacy of the voluntary carbon market has been called into question multiple times)
In Singapore, Rize buys seeds, fertilisers, and other inputs in bulk and sells them to farmers who implement alternate wetting and drying. This practice, which could lead to a 30-70% reduction in methane emissions, is promoted by fellow Singaporean startup AgriG8 too, whose gamified digital platform helps rice farmers lower emissions.
In his controversial memo last week, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates namechecked rice’s methane impact. However, when it comes to agriculture, he suggested the focus should not be on emissions reduction; rather, it should be on increasing yields, developing climate-resilient crop varieties, and using AI to forecast weather and change cultivation plans.
“Bill Gates asserts that we need to back breakthroughs that will help the world reach zero emissions, that we can’t cut funding for health and development to do it, and we need to improve agriculture in poor countries,” said Montgomery.
“This assertion is very much aligned with the mission of the Rice Methane Innovation Accelerator to crowd-in new public, private and philanthropic investment to drive breakthroughs, rather than relying on reallocations of other funding, and to support low methane rice production that also supports resilient livelihoods and food security, in particular in poor countries,” he added.
“The accelerator will be dedicated to developing innovations that expand upon and add to the already available options for reducing rice emissions, ensuring they are locally relevant to smallholder rice farmers globally. Good agricultural practice is good for farmers, yields and also methane emissions.”
Singapore has replaced its ’30 by 30′ food sovereignty plan with one that sharpens focus on specific food categories; notably, cultivated meat isn’t part of the new strategy.
Six years after announcing a strategy to lower its reliance on food imports, Singapore is overhauling its approach.
The city-state procures over 90% of its food from other countries, and only 1% of its land is set aside for agriculture, making it vulnerable to supply shocks and climate change. In its bid to boost self-sufficiency, its government launched the ’30 by 30′ policy in 2019, aiming to produce 30% of its food locally by the end of this decade.
Now, however, Singapore is scrapping that plan in favour of a new four-pronged strategy that targets local production of protein and fibre, import diversification, stockpiling, and global partnerships.
“We are now ready for the next chapter of our food security plan: the Singapore Food Story 2,” environment minister Grace Fu said on the opening day of the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit. “It replaces ’30 by 39, which is an aspiration only for local production.”
She added: “We can complement local production with other food strategies to achieve food resilience. We have reassessed our needs, our resources, and our capabilities. And with these considerations, we are expanding our portfolio of strategies.”
Why ’30 by 30′ didn’t work
Courtesy: Ants Innovate
Explaining the decision to move away from the ’30 by 30′ framework, Fu said the government knew it would be a “challenging aspiration” from the start, citing Singapore’s “small and undeveloped agri-food sector, our limited land resources and high operating cost environment”.
“Since then, we have had to deal with the impact of supply disruptions caused by border closures due to Covid-19, export bans by some countries and animal diseases,” she explained.
“Our local agri-food sector, like their peers in other countries, has faced headwinds – supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures on energy and manpower costs, and a tougher financing environment. This has led to delays in farm development and some exits, even as we witnessed new start-ups,” added Fu.
And despite Singapore’s reputation as a global food tech hub, the challenges that have plagued categories like plant-based proteins and cultivated meat also played a part. “The alternative protein industry has faced hurdles in scaling up due to higher production costs and weaker-than-expected consumer acceptance globally,” said Fu.
Four companies are already approved to sell cultivated meat in the city-state, whether for human use or pet food, and it remains an attractive location for players in the space to enter the market. The aforementioned challenges mean these proteins are not part of the national food security strategy in the short term, according to the Singapore Food Agency.
“In the longer term, if and when alternative proteins become more competitive and mainstream globally, it can potentially contribute to our food security,” the regulator told the Straits Times. “In the meantime, we will press on with efforts in R&D and industry development for this sector.”
That said, the SFA has committed S$42M ($32M) to 11 future food projects, four of which are focused on solutions to strengthen the nutrition and functionality of alternative proteins. Additional financing has been awarded to the Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability to translate research outputs into market-ready solutions.
Singapore exploring multi-tenanted production facility
Courtesy: Nurasa
“Drawing from our experience over the past five years, we have reassessed our local production strategy to be more targeted,” said Fu.
Under the Food Story 2 strategy, Singapore is aiming to have 20% of fibre and 30% of protein consumption supplied locally by 2035. The fibre category includes fresh leafy and fruited vegetables, beansprouts and mushrooms; the proteins refer to eggs and seafood. For context, only 8% of fibre intake was produced domestically last year, rising to 26% for protein.
To help reach this goal, the government will help its farms manage production costs. “Our farms face rising operating costs. While we cannot control energy costs and global inflation, we can help our farms lower production costs by taking the following steps,” said Fu.
Singapore is now studying the feasibility of developing a multi-tenanted agrifood production facility, which could offer farms plug-and-play spaces, common utilities and shared services, and an indoor production facility with controlled environments.
In addition, the city-state will invest in R&D and fund farms to build capacity. “Technology and innovation are enablers that boost farm productivity, build resilience and be future-ready,” Fu noted.
“Given climate change and geopolitical developments, countries are increasingly vulnerable to global shocks and disruptions in our food supply. In recent years, we have seen how a single event could send ripple effects through the global market, disrupting the supply of food on our tables,” she explained.
“The Russia-Ukraine conflict showed this clearly. It is happening miles away from Singapore. Yet, by disrupting the global supply of fertilisers and animal feed, the conflict indirectly triggered export restrictions on food items in Singapore.”
She added that building up local production under the original ’30 by 30′ policy was necessary to provide an assured and regenerative source of food during supply disruptions, indicating that the new strategy builds on that: “Together with other pillars of our food strategy, it gives us more options and flexibility in times of need.”
As climate change wrecks the cocoa industry, Barry Callebaut has teamed up with Germany’s Planet A Foods to produce alternatives with its cocoa-free chocolate, ChoViva.
What if your KitKat bar were made without chocolate?
As extreme weather scorches cocoa crops, causing shortages and never-before-seen prices, Swiss chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut is feeling the heat.
Its sales volume fell by nearly 8% in the financial year ending in August, despite a 49% hike in revenue, indicative of the larger chocolate picture: global cocoa stocks have slumped to their lowest levels in a decade, and prices have reached all-time highs.
To combat the headwinds, Barry Callebaut has been exploring alternative options to conventional chocolate-making, whether it’s through precision fermentation or cell-based cocoa. Now, it is extending this effort with a long-term commercial partnership with Planet A Foods.
Courtesy: Planet A Foods
The German startup is one of the leading players in the cocoa-free chocolate space, with its sunflower-seed-based ChoViva ingredient now used in over 70 products found in over 80,000 stores globally.
“Through this partnership with Planet A Foods, Barry Callebaut is embracing technology to open further avenues for growth while enhancing our resiliency to today’s cocoa-market volatility,” said Christian Hansen, head of global strategy at Barry Callebaut.
How (and why) Planet A Foods makes its cocoa-free chocolate
To make its beanless chocolate, Planet A Foods puts a base of sunflower seeds through a proprietary fermentation process. This is then roasted to bring out a similar aroma, flavour and texture to cocoa, and mixed with sugar and plant-based fats to create a mass comparable to cocoa.
ChoViva can be used as a 1:1 replacement for conventional chocolate or in hybrid formulations. Since entering the market in 2024, it has featured in products by the likes of Lindt, Piasten, Aeon, Peter Kölln, Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn, Kaufland, Rewe, Aldi, and Lidl, among many others.
Planet A Foods operates a production facility in Pilsen, Czech Republic, and is working to expand its annual capacity from 2,000 tonnes to over 15,000 tonnes, an effort supported by a $30M Series B round it closed in December 2024.
Courtesy: Planet A Foods
But why is it making a chocolate alternative? Cocoa trees are threatened, and scientists have warned that a third of them could die out by 2050. The two biggest producers of the crop, the Ivory Coast and Ghana, have already lost over 85% of their forest cover since 1960.
And human-caused climate change is making things worse. It added six weeks of days above 32°C in over 70% of cacao-producing areas across several African countries, with extreme weather and crop diseases hitting plantations hardest in the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
While the chocolate industry is a victim of the climate crisis, it’s also a major driver of the phenomenon. Producing chocolate emits more greenhouse gases than any other food except beef, and making a single bar requires 1,700 litres of water on average. The industry is also the source of widespread deforestation and food waste.
But with ChoViva, Planet A provides manufacturers a chance to lower emissions by up to 91%. “ChoViva delivers a genuine chocolate-like experience, crafted from 100% natural ingredients and entirely without cocoa,” said Planet A Foods co-founder and CTO Sara Marquart. “This innovative alternative offers consumers the indulgence they love while supporting more mindful and sustainable choices.”
Cocoa-free innovations will complement – not replace – chocolate
Planet A Foods said the partnership will propel the company’s growth and help establish it as a future ingredient leader. “Our goal has always been to scale ChoViva into a global ingredient platform – and this equal partnership helps us do just that”, said co-founder and CEO Maximilian Marquart.
“By combining Barry Callebaut’s global footprint and capabilities with our innovation, we can scale responsibly and bring more products to markets worldwide, faster than ever,” he added.
Barry Callebaut, whose revenues hit $18.2B in the 2024-25 financial year, insisted that cocoa remains at the heart of its business and “will continue to play a central role in its future”. The embrace of cocoa-free chocolate complements its sustainability goals by shortening supply chains and lowering emissions.
Courtesy: Barry Callebaut
“These non-cocoa innovations are not meant to replace traditional chocolate but to complement it, expanding our portfolio to meet growing customer and consumer demand,” said Dries Roekaerts, president of customer experience at Barry Callebaut.
The chocolate giant stated it was aiming to navigate the volatility of today’s cocoa market with a proactive and diversified approach, fuelled partly by its innovation strategy, which is powered by industry-leading R&D capabilities.
“This partnership marks a key milestone in diversifying our portfolio and capturing the exciting opportunities in chocolate alternatives without cocoa,” said Roekaerts. “Together with Planet A Foods, we can scale the production of irresistible chocolate-like creations that broaden choice without compromising on taste, quality and our commitment to the planet.”
The development comes months after Barry Callebaut teamed up with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences to explore the potential of cell-based chocolate, and began using precision-fermented sunflower seeds in some of its offerings in Europe.
China’s Angel Yeast has begun operating an 11,000-tonne production line for its yeast protein, bolstering the country’s sustainable food leadership.
Already accounting for 15% of global yeast production and nearly 60% of the market in China, Angel Yeast is expanding its dominance as it kicks off industrial-scale manufacturing of its fermented protein.
The firm has started operations at its yeast protein facility at the Baiyang Biotechnology Park in Yichang, Hubei. It can currently produce 11,000 tonnes of high-purity protein annually, with built-in expansion capacity to meet future market growth.
“As global priorities continue to shift toward health, nutrition and sustainability, we see unprecedented market potential for yeast protein,” said Li Ku, general manager of Angel Yeast’s Protein Nutrition and Flavoring Technology Center.
“We will continue to accelerate production expansion to deliver more innovative, high-quality and dependable yeast protein solutions to customers and consumers worldwide and help drive a more sustainable future for the global food industry.”
Angel Yeast eyes sports nutrition and weight management markets
Courtesy: Angel Yeast
Angel Yeast uses fermentation to turn brewer’s yeast into AngeoPro, an ingredient with over 80% protein. It has all nine essential amino acids and a PDCAAS score of 1.0 (on par with animal proteins like whey and eggs), and boasts B vitamins, minerals, and 5g of fibre per 100g.
It supports muscle protein synthesis and recovery after exercise, and a recent study proved its efficacy to boost calcium absorption, improve bone health, and enhance gut health. It’s why AngeoPro is geared towards the weight management and sports nutrition markets.
Plus, it has “industry-leading purity” and a neutral flavour profile, which allows for direct consumption or blending whey, soy or other ingredients to create nutrition supplements, meat and dairy alternatives, protein bars and beverages, baked goods, snacks, and more.
Angel Yeast’s production process for the yeast protein significantly lowers land use, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to animal proteins.
“We are using high-density fermentation to reduce the use of water resources. We have also adopted a circular economy method in post-extraction to reduce water emissions, which can increase manufacturing efficiency and save energy consumption,” Yan Zhang, dean of Angel Yeast’s research institute, explained in a video on its website.
The new facility enables the automation of the entire process, from fermentation and autolysis to separation and drying. At the same time, it establishes an end-to-end production system encompassing raw materials, packaging and warehousing.
The entire manufacturing process occurs within controlled fermentation tanks, making it independent of weather or location and enabling year-round production. Angel Yeast stated that the development significantly enhances its global manufacturing footprint and extends its leadership in the sustainable protein market.
China builds its biotech dominance
Courtesy: Angel Yeast
The demand for yeast protein is expanding rapidly, thanks to its health and environmental advantages. This market is already worth $1.5B today, and is set to grow by 8.5% annually to reach $2.3B in 2030.
Several companies are innovating with brewer’s yeast proteins globally. In Switzerland, Yeastup raised $10M last year to repurpose a former dairy factory for its spent brewer’s yeast ingredients, while Germany’s ProteinDistillery broke ground on a large-scale plant for its yeast-derived Prew:tein ingredient. And Indian startup SuperYou, co-owned by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, launched a protein powder made from biofermented brewer’s yeast in August.
But Angel Yeast is one of the world’s leading yeast manufacturers, and its new facility signals China’s readiness to lead the future food ecosystem. Its 30-60 climate policy is aimed at hitting peak emissions by 2030 and becoming carbon-neutral by 2060, which will only happen if 60% of the country’s protein supply comes from alternative sources by the latter year.
The government has been pumping in resources to propel its biomanufacturing sector. Its bioeconomy development strategy aims to advance novel foods, and President Xi Jinping has called for a Grand Food Vision that includes plant-based and microbial protein sources.
This year, China saw its first alternative protein innovation centre open in Beijing, fuelled by an $11M investment from public and private investors to develop novel foods like fermentation-derived proteins. And in the Guangdong province, officials are planning to build a biomanufacturing hub for plant-based, microbial and cultivated proteins.
And at the annual Two Sessions summit, top government officials called for a deeper integration of strategic emerging industries like biomanufacturing, while a document signalling China’s top goals for the year underscored the importance of protein diversification, including efforts “to explore novel food resources”.
The country’s biotech capabilities have been recognised globally. Last year, the US national intelligence director’s annual threat assessment labelled China’s strategic advancements in “synthetic biology and agricultural biotechnology” as an attempt to “lead the broader biotechnological landscape”, prompting Congress members to call for strategic measures that solidify the US’s “resilience in this critical sector”.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Oatly’s switch to British oats, Eat Just’s pancake mixes, and NotCo’s Stranger Things collab.
New products and launches
In the US, Eat Just has rolled out a range of pancake mixes, called Power Jacks, in original, chocolate-chop and cinnamon roll flavours. They contain its signature mung bean protein, and have been spotted at Target and Hannaford.
Courtesy: La Vie/Oatly/Eat Just
Beyond Meat has launched a value pack of its vegan ground beef at over 1,300 retailers across Canada, including Walmart, Sobeys, Safeway, Loblaws, and more.
Fresh from a packaging refresh in the UK, Beyond Meat has also returned to the menu of British pub chain BrewDog, gaining a nationwide listing at 54 outlets.
Courtesy: La Vie
Also in the UK, French plant-based meat leader La Vie has launched Vegan Sharer Croquettes in ham and cheese and bacon variants. They’re available at Morrisons, Ocado and Tesco for £3.50 per 140g pack.
Meanwhile, Rollagranola is foraying into the children’s breakfast space with Little Rollas, a line of premium vegan granolas in vanilla, berry and cocoa variants. They can be found on its website for £4.99 per 350g box, and will soon enter supermarkets.
Courtesy: NotCo
In Mexico, NotCo has released NotChicken Hellfire Spicy Nuggets and NotSnack Bars Upside Down Waffle in collaboration with TV series Stranger Things, which will begin airing its final season on Netflix this month.
Indian plant-based dairy startup 1.5 Degree has launched a retail kiosk at two locations of multiplex chain PVR Cinemas in New Delhi and Gurgaon, featuring dairy-free gelato, shakes, and sundaes.
Courtesy: Debabrata Das/LinkedIn
Fellow Indian plant-based brand ProMeat has partnered with British Brewing Company in Mumbai to introduce an 11-strong menu of dishes making use of its meat alternatives.
Company and finance updates
Oatly has announced that eight of its barista oat milk SKUs are now made from 100% British-grown oats, which will help lower its climate footprint by 7-13% by 2026. The company estimates it will have tripled its investment in these crops by next year, while also doubling the volume of British oats from supplying products across EMEA markets. Alpro made a similar move earlier this year.
Courtesy: La Vie/Oatly/Eat Just
Speaking of plant-based milk, Starbucks has dropped the surcharge on non-dairy milks in Italy, echoing its policy in several markets. The decision was announced by the company’s local licensing partner, Percassi.
Japanese vegan egg producer Umami United has secured ¥310M ($2M) in further pre-Series A funding, adding to the $1.64M it raised in 2023. The startup will use the funds to deepen R&D, expand capacity, and accelerate international expansion, with a focus on North America.
Courtesy: IntegriCulture
US startup Caulipower, known for its cauliflower-crust pizzas, has been acquired by Urban Farmer, a portfolio company of private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners.
Minnesota-based food coalition Mbold has kicked off Protein Catalyst, a pre-competitive, collaborative effort to drive sustainable protein innovation in the state, in partnership with industry giants like General Mills, Target, Bühler Group, and more.
Courtesy: Kesko
Finnish retailer Kesko has seen sales of plant-based meat alternatives increase by 4% over the past year, rising to a 10% growth for dry soy protein products, 15% for canned beans, chickpeas and lentils, and 20% for tofu.
Research, policy and awards
Two weeks out from COP30, seven MEPs from Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark signed the Belém Declaration on Plant-Rich Diets, which will call on UN member states to create national plans to promote healthy and sustainable diets at the climate summit this month.
In Australia, plant-based dairy is growing at 5.2% this year, outpacing the growth of the overall dairy category (which is expanding by 3.6%). According to Euromonitor, the former will continue this momentum through to 2030.
Courtesy: Kokomodo
Cocoa-free chocolate maker Kokomodo (now part of Pluri) has won 20,000 Swiss francs ($24,700) in non-dilutive funding as part of the Gold Prize at MassChallenge Switzerland.
Finally, trade show Fi Europe has announced the finalists of its 2025 Innovation Awards, selecting 23 companies across categories like dairy alternatives, future food tech, plant-based, health, sustainability, and more.
Californian food tech startup The Every Company has raised $55M in Series D funding to expand production of its precision-fermented egg proteins, following a nationwide rollout at Walmart.
The Every Company is going all out to fill the void left by the egg crisis, as avian flu threats and price hikes continue to hit consumers, manufacturers, and the foodservice industry.
The San Francisco-based startup uses precision fermentation to produce recombinant egg proteins, which companies can use to replace chicken eggs in everything from baked goods and pasta to protein beverages and coffee syrups.
Its chicken-free egg proteins have appeared in several products already, including smoothies, hard juices, matcha, and meat alternatives. Moreover, they were the centrepiece of a one-night-only dinner at Daniel Humm’s three-Michelin-starred eatery, Eleven Madison Park.
Now, The Every Co has secured $55M in Series D financing to take its future-friendly proteins to new heights. The round was led by existing investor McWin Capital Partners, through its McWin Food Tech Fund, with participation from Main Sequence, Bloom8, TO.VC, Minerva Foods, Grosvenor Food & Ag, New Agrarian, SOSV, and more.
“EVERY has crossed the line from promise to proof,” said Martin Davalos, partner and head of food tech at McWin Capital Partners. “They’re not talking about proof-of-concept pilots here – they’re selling metric tons of product at scale to some of the biggest food companies on the planet. EVERY is exactly the type of platform that will define the next decade of food production.”
It’s the third-largest sum raised by an alternative protein firm in 2025, and takes the startup’s total raised to $288M. The capital will be used to expand its manufacturing capacity, grow its footprint to more sectors, and drive the business towards profitability.
Additionally, its egg protein is now featured in a product at all Walmart stores across the US, and it marks a shift from the company’s strategy of co-branding products to becoming a full ingredient supplier. This means its customers and the products they use its ingredients in are kept confidential.
“Having our protein featured in products at the world’s largest retailer is a massive proof point for the entire industry,” co-founder and CEO Arturo Elizondo tells Green Queen.
Amid egg crisis, The Every Co’s ingredients are already saving companies money
Courtesy: The Every Company
Precision fermentation involves inserting a DNA sequence into microbes to teach them to produce specific molecules when fermented. It’s the same way insulin, rennet, and many vitamin supplements are made today.
The Every Co uses the technology to produce a suite of animal-free ingredients. OvoPro is a recombinant ovalbumen protein that can replace egg whites’ functionality in a range of applications, while OvoBoost is a highly soluble, taste- and texture-neutral protein identical to glycoprotein, which can help fortify products like coffees, juices, sodas, syrups, and baked goods.
Both have been approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration, alongside an animal-free pepsin that acts as a digestive protein for food processing and dietary health products. “We are currently primarily focused on OvoPro to go after the $270B egg market,” says Elizondo.
The global egg supply chain has been wrecked by bird flu. Prices have never been higher in some countries (in some US cities, they reached $1 per egg), demand has kept increasing sharply. At the same time, anticipated price corrections have led some producers of powdered eggs to delay purchases, exacerbating the supply gap.
“OvoPro is priced to be competitive with, or cheaper than, conventional battery-caged commodity eggs on a cost-in-use basis,” notes Elizondo. “Several multinational customers have already validated that switching to OvoPro is saving them money compared to conventional eggs.”
Asked about the future of these ventures, Elizondo says: “Due to the significant commercial pull from food companies seeking to replace eggs, we are currently prioritising OvoPro and, in particular, the bakery segment.”
The Every Co plans to double its manufacturing capacity
Courtesy: The Every Company
Speaking to Green Queen in April, Elizondo had outlined that The Every Co’s top priority this year was “expanding manufacturing capacity to meet customer demand”.
“We are currently manufacturing at commercial scale with a European manufacturing partner, producing metric tonnes of high-quality product each month at steady state,” he says now. “We will be doubling our capacity with our current partner starting in a few months, and plan to onboard additional manufacturing capacity with this new injection of capital to meet customer demand.”
In another move to boost its capacity, The Every Co has partnered with Dutch animal-free dairy startup Vivici and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to explore the establishment of an industrial-scale precision fermentation facility with a four-million-litre capacity.
Elizondo suggests that the egg market’s volatility has led to an increase in demand for alternatives like its precision-fermented proteins. Its technology enables year-round production decoupled from the livestock and feed markets – this cuts out the risk of avian flu, salmonella outbreaks, and other supply shocks.
Plus, its powdered ingredients have an 18-month shelf life and eschew the need for expensive cold chains, a key advantage for bakeries that rely on refrigerated liquid eggs.
“Avian flu outbreaks are happening more frequently, and they are far more severe in recent years. Food companies are more eager than ever to safeguard their supply chains and future-proof their businesses,” the CEO says.
“Eggs are a crucial ingredient whose functionality is nearly impossible to replicate with plant-based substitutes – our bioequivalent protein ingredient helps companies secure highly functional, no-compromise egg proteins that offer all of the performance and none of the supply chain challenges.”
Onego Bio lawsuit ‘a desperate attempt’ to access IP
Courtesy: The Every Company
The Every Co has been involved in a bitter legal battle with fellow precision-fermented egg producer Onego Bio, which is also cleared to sell its ingredient in the US.
In September, the Finnish startup sued The Every Co to invalidate a key patent granted to the latter in the US, accusing it of fraud. Shortly after, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (which Onego Bio spun off from) challenged one of Every’s patents in Europe.
“We filed this action to protect our ownership and to bring clarity around a recently issued patent that we believe is invalid,” Onego Bio co-founder and CEO Maija Itkonen told Green Queen at the time. “Our intention is not to block progress but to safeguard it. We have deep respect for legitimate intellectual property and value fair competition, which we see as the foundation of a healthy market.”
Last week, The Every Co filed its response to the court, which revealed that the two companies were discussing a potential $400M merger before talks fell apart and Onego Bio filed the lawsuit, as reported by AgFunderNews.
“Onego Bio’s lawsuit against EVERY is a desperate attempt to access EVERY’s intellectual property,” Elizondo said in a statement sent to Green Queen last week. “Onego was the one who initiated contact with EVERY earlier this year, seeking a license to our patents. Onego repeatedly threatened litigation if a license was not granted, not the other way around, and contrary to the claims in their complaint.
“Despite their repeated threats, EVERY engaged in good faith discussions. Upon dissatisfaction with the proposed terms, Onego filed a baseless lawsuit in an attempt to enhance their negotiating position.
“EVERY will not capitulate to threats and will vigorously defend its extensive IP estate from any attacks, particularly those as unsubstantiated and baseless as the ones brought forth by Onego. EVERY has been innovating for a decade – for more than seven years before Onego was even founded – and has invested significantly in its intellectual property since its inception.
“We have accumulated 63 issued patents across global jurisdictions over that period, each having undergone the standard, rigorous review process by the patent office, and we have over 100 more in the pipeline still pending issuance. Our robust IP portfolio, developed over a decade, is a testament of our leadership in the category.”
How The Every Co scored one of the year’s largest investments
Courtesy: The Every Company
In April, Elizondo indicated that The Every Co was “well-capitalised and supported by a robust investor base” willing to continue backing it.
When asked by Green Queen about the company’s revenue and profitability plans, following this week’s Series D announcement, it declined to comment, citing confidentiality. However, Elizondo says the firm has an “incredible group of investors who have continued to support our growth and stand by our mission.”
“To have raised one of the largest rounds in our space despite the tough macroeconomic environment speaks to the promise of what we are building,” he says.
Indeed, funding for alternative proteins declined by 27% in 2024, reaching $1.1B. That trend has continued this year, with startups in the sector attracting just $611M in the first nine months of 2025.
Despite the decline, fermentation remained a bright spot in 2024, experiencing a 43% increase in investment, totalling $651M. However, that momentum has receded again: by the end of September this year, fermentation firms had only raised $253M.
So how did The Every Co close one of the industry’s largest funding rounds this year, surpassed only by Beyond Meat’s $100M debt financing round and Nxtfood’s $58M raise? “Ultimately, I think it came down to the fundamentals and the progress of the business,” says Elizondo. “The egg ingredient market is massive, and it is deeply challenged. We have an unequivocal leadership position.
“What we pitch to customers is not a vegan alternative that is almost as good as the real thing, but not quite there and with dozens of competing products – our pitch is very simple: same or better performance, at a same or better price, without the shortages and volatility, and with an 18-month shelf life.”
The product-market fit, he adds, is no longer in doubt: “We have a real product that is working for customers, which we are producing at a commercial scale at steady state and selling to mass-market customers. The technology works, customers want it, and the market potential is truly massive – that’s what convinced investors.”
US food tech startup Atlantic Fish Co has raised $1.2M in new funding, which it will use to optimise its cultivated seafood fillets, scope out partnerships, and prepare regulatory filings.
In its bid to “actually move the needle” in the $400B global seafood market, Atlantic Fish Co has attracted fresh funding for its high-value cultivated white fish.
The North Carolina-based startup has secured seed investment from Katapult Ocean, Alwyn Capital, DMV Capital, and the Georgetown Angel Investment Network (among others). In addition, it has received $305,000 as part of a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation.
Combined, the company has hooked $1.2M in financing for this round, taking its total raised to $2.3M to date. It will use the capital to make progress on technical, regulatory and commercialisation efforts.
“This $1.2M enables us to finalise our go-to-market product and secure the regulatory greenlights to launch in the US,” said co-founder and CEO Doug Grant.
‘We can’t make more ocean’
Courtesy: Atlantic Fish Co
Founded in 2022 by Grant and CSO Trevor Ham, Atlantic Fish Co’s cell culture platform works across any species, having demonstrated the technology with both seafood and terrestrial proteins. But its initial focus is on high-value whitefish, specifically black sea bass.
The startup takes a small sample from fish muscles and selects the healthier cells. These are then fed on the same food-grade nutrients they’d receive inside fish, enabling them to grow into lean muscle in a bioreactor.
Atlantic Fish Co’s end products are “restaurant-quality” fillets that do away with the harmful contaminants found in conventional seafood, like mercury, microplastics, antibiotics or parasites.
The firm first developed a black sea bass prototype in partnership with the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab last year, hosting a tasting event at the latter’s facility in Kannapolis.
The product is targeting an overstretched seafood industry – nearly 90% of global fish stocks are at maximum capacity or overfished. One study suggests that we could be heading towards a complete collapse of ocean life by 2048, driven primarily by overfishing. Climate change is worsening things, pushing fish to the high seas where they’re likely to be overexploited, causing diseases, and driving up prices.
“We’re solving a huge problem. Seafood is under real pressure,” said Grant. “We can make a lot of things, but we can’t make more ocean.”
And consumers recognise this. A 2024 survey by the Marine Stewardship Council found that 30% of people had been eating less seafood in the last two years, with 48% concerned about overfishing and 35% worried about climate change impacts. Over 80%, meanwhile, had changed their dietary habits in this period, and 43% did so for sustainability reasons.
Atlantic Fish Co preps FDA submission and chef collaborations
Courtesy: Atlantic Fish Co
Sam Selig, investment manager at Katapult Ocean, said his firm was impressed by Atlantic Fish Co’s technical milestones and its advancements of a “breakthrough technology in cultivated protein”.
“Supporting the initial commercialisation of their sustainable white fish filet – and their broader vision to expand across proteins – aligns perfectly with our mission to back ocean- and health-friendly blue foods with meaningful market opportunity and impact,” he remarked.
The $1.2M round may seem small at first, but given the trials of the cultivated protein sector, it’s a notable achievement. Startups in this space have seen investment fall off a cliff in recent years, down from $1.3B in 2021 to just $139M in 2024 (and a mere $36M so far this year).
“The cultivated meat sector has learned expensive lessons, and there are still only a handful of products on the market,” said Grant. “We’ve stayed capital-efficient with disciplined milestones and focused on seafood, the category best positioned to break through.”
Atlantic Fish Co will use the funds to optimise its whitefish fillets and refine their texture, flavour and nutritional profile, prepare for its regulatory submissions (including pre-market consultation with the US Food and Drug Administration), and establish partnerships with chefs to validate product market fit and open up initial distribution channels.
Despite fish innovations accounting for a fraction of the overall alternative protein market, it has been a milestone year for cultivated seafood. In the US, Wildtype received the green light to sell its salmon, which is now available on restaurant menus in several states. Meanwhile, BlueNalu filed for FDA approval for its bluefin tuna, while also eyeing the European market.
Speaking of which, Germany’s Bluu Seafood teamed up with spice manufacturer Van Hees to create hybrid proteins combining cultured fish cells with plant-based ingredients. And in India, Biokraft Foods debuted cultivated seafood prototypes in collaboration with a government-based research institute.
Over nine in 10 Singaporeans say they’d replace a portion of their meat with blended proteins, with one product outperforming 100% chicken mince on taste.
Combining meat with plants in a best-of-both-worlds approach is gaining favour in the west, and a new study signals a growing appetite for these proteins in Asia too.
For 88% of omnivores in Singapore, eating meat is a critical part of their normal routine. Yet 91% say they would replace at least some portion of their consumption with blended proteins – and taste is the most important lever.
The state’s Agency of Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR) Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation institute conducted the blind taste test, which was commissioned by the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC and sensory research firm Nectar.
Though only 58% of participants said they would likely buy “balanced proteins” (versus 95% who echoed the sentiment for meat), this is significantly higher than the interest in plant-based meat (38%).
Courtesy: Nectar/GFI APAC
“Balanced proteins appeal far beyond the current plant-based audience,” Nectar director Caroline Cotto tells Green Queen. “93% of Southeast Asian consumers are interested in trying balanced products, including three-quarters who had no intention to buy fully plant-based meat again.
“The category unlocks a markedly wider segment: 50% of likely balanced protein buyers had low intent to purchase plant-based meat. The APAC data illustrates that by leveraging familiarity – upgrading traditional meat formats rather than swapping them out – companies can attract mainstream consumers, including flexitarians and “meat eaters” who wouldn’t typically consider pure plant-based alternatives.
“This incremental approach fits Asia’s rising protein demand and culinary culture, where dishes often blend plant and animal proteins naturally.”
The research included 20 blended meat products and 10 animal and plant proteins each. It found that 81% of consumers liked the 100% meat option, and this rose to 85% for the leading balanced protein SKU.
This is the chicken-soy mince product created by Q Protein, a collaboration between Quality Meat, Cremer Sustainable Foods, and Temasek subsidiary Nurasa. In taste tests, 41% of Singaporeans preferred it over 100% chicken mince, compared to 29% who liked the latter more.
“The success reveals the potential for achieving not just parity, but sensory advantage through blending. This is a compelling argument for incremental ‘step changes’ rather than radical innovation. The optimal blend ratio (30–50% plant proteins) preserves the sensory familiarity of meat, while embedding nutritional upgrades,” says Cotto.
“Co-development between conventional and alternative protein experts, plus strong local manufacturing, ensures better regional flavour and ingredient alignment. Q Protein’s case highlights that with modest R&D investment, balanced proteins can win on taste, drive health benefits, and unlock sustainable growth in meat-centric markets.”
Several other blended meats were close to taste parity with their conventional counterparts, including chicken chunks and beef mince, both of which were within 0.2 points of liking with the 100% animal version on a seven-point scale.
How should plant-based meat producers respond?
Courtesy: Nectar/GFI APAC
Even the average blended protein product performed better overall than plant-based alternatives, liked by 59% versus 44%, respectively. When compared directly, 71% of taste-testers said balanced proteins taste better than vegan meat analogues. 51% find the former better for health and 40% believe they’re more economical.
This is perhaps why a third of consumers said they would buy products to reduce their meat consumption once blended proteins were added to the fray, higher than the 19% who’d do so when plant-based meat was the only alternative.
So should vegan producers reformulate their offerings to fill the sensory gap, or begin supplying their ingredients to meat companies for blended protein innovations?
“Both paths hold value, but the collaboration model may unlock faster market growth and scale in Asia. Partnering as ingredient or innovation suppliers gives alternative protein companies access to established processing lines, distribution networks, and trusted retail channels,” says Cotto.
“Reformulation for local flavour or texture alignment remains important, but pure direct-to-consumer strategies have lower traction.”
R&D needed to fill gap between average and leading balanced proteins
Courtesy: Nectar/GFI APAC
The research highlighted a likeability gap between the average and leading blended meat products, which were embraced by 37% and 44% of participants, respectively – in comparison, conventional meat was liked by 60%.
“Improvements in balanced protein flavour and appearance are the highest priorities: in categories like chicken mince and beef, the leading balanced proteins matched or outperformed conventional benchmarks in overall liking, pointing towards attainable parity with continued R&D,” Cotto explains.
Another top driver is health, with 69% of consumers rating blended proteins as better for their wellbeing than conventional meat. “This perception led to a 0.5-point increase in purchase intent, equal to the benefit of being perceived as tastier or better priced. Lower cholesterol, more fibre, and reduced fat are the main benefits cited,” she says.
“While sustainability strengthens that choice, it’s a multiplier rather than the initial hook. The awareness of up to 50% lower greenhouse gas emissions bolsters the narrative for climate-conscious buyers. However, environmental benefits boost purchase intent only marginally unless paired with health and taste.”
According to GFI APAC, some of the tested products were pre-commercial prototypes that are being fine-tuned, so the results “represent the floor for enhanced meat performance, not the ceiling”.
So how can companies make these products better? It seems blending meat with savoury vegetables or mushrooms is far more popular (cited by 49-52%) than with plant-based analogues (16%) or ingredients like pea protein (7%). Chicken is the most appealing balanced protein format, and the most preferred ratio (chosen by 57% of consumers) comprised 75% meat and 25% plant-based ingredients.
How blended meat attitudes differ in Singapore and US
Cotto outlines that taste is the strongest purchase driver of blended meat in both the US and Singapore. However, motivations differ. “In the US, interest in blended proteins skews more toward health motivations, with cholesterol and nutrition leading drivers, and with slightly lower overall intent to repeatedly substitute conventional meat,” she says.
“In Singapore, curiosity around innovation and alignment with cultural eating habits played a stronger role,” she notes. This is helped by the prevailing regional familiarity with mixed-protein dishes such as mapo tofu or sambal tempeh.
“Importantly, Singapore consumers showed higher openness overall: nine in 10 said they’d replace a portion of their meals with meat enhanced with plant proteins, compared to about seven in 10 in recent US tests,” adds Cotto.
“While both US and Singaporean consumers cited flavour as the biggest opportunity for improvement in BP products, appearance was a bigger issue for Singaporean consumers than texture, a marked difference from the US study of balanced proteins. Almost all top R&D opportunities for balanced proteins in APAC were related to flavour (six out of seven), with only one for appearance and none for texture.”
“Integrating plant proteins with conventional meat has the potential to enhance product nutrition, boost protein content, lower prices, and increase food-industry profit margins,” says Jennifer Morton, head of corporate engagement at GFI APAC.
“Such products could also create a virtuous cycle in which plant-protein producers can rapidly scale up their manufacturing capacity, leverage economies of scale, drive down costs, and expand the accessibility of sustainable proteins, including fully plant-based products,” she adds.
British cultivated meat startup Hoxton Farms has submitted a regulatory dossier to the Singapore Food Agency, with filings in the UK, North America and other Asian countries to follow soon.
Amid a wave of regulatory successes for cultivated meat, UK startup Hoxton Farms is getting in on the act with an application in Singapore, the first of several submissions planned globally.
The London-based food tech firm filed a dossier for its cultivated pork fat with the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), which has already doled out approvals to three startups in the space. It expects to receive the green light between late 2026 to early 2027.
Hoxton Farms’s submission was overseen by CSO Vitor Espírito Santo, who played a key role in helping Eat Just’s Good Meat division achieve the industry’s first regulatory approval back in 2020, also from the SFA.
“The SFA remains a world leader in regulation for cultivated products. While the team has evolved, their commitment to safety, transparency and collaboration hasn’t changed,” co-founder and CEO Max Jamilly tells Green Queen when asked about how the regulatory landscape has evolved in the five years since.
“We also benefit from clearer guidance and more precedent today, which makes the process more predictable and improves our chances of success,” he tells Green Queen.
Jamilly first teased the Singapore filing in an interview with this publication earlier this year, when Hoxton Farms set its stall out in Asia through manufacturing and commercialisation partnerships with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and Mitsui Chemicals.
Hoxton Farms to build commercial-scale cultivated meat facility
A mortadella prototype using Hoxton Farms’s cultivated fat | Courtesy: Hoxton Farms
Founded in 2020 by Jamilly and COO Ed Steele, Hoxton Farms leverages cell biology and machine learning to grow fat from pig cells in modular bioreactors. The ingredient is a drop-in replacement for animal fats and plant-based oils, and can be mixed with plant proteins to create products like soups, sauces, and hybrid pork.
“We start with stem cells from a pig, specifically mesenchymal stem cells, grow them in proprietary cell culture media (made of proteins, vitamins and sugars, much like you would feed a conventional pig), and differentiate them into real pork fat, or adipocytes,” explains Jamilly.
“Not only are we making real fat tissue – not biomass – but our proprietary cell lines, optimised bioprocess and patented bioreactors are all designed for cost efficiency and scale. Using AI to fine-tune growth and differentiation, we can produce delicious, high-quality fat at low cost – real animal fat made for food manufacturing.”
That said, Jamilly notes that its current costs are high due to limited scale. “But our technology is designed to bring these costs down rapidly. At industrial volumes, our process and reactor design allow us to reach a cost in use competitive with conventional pork fat while maintaining excellent quality, so food manufacturers can make delicious products,” he highlights.
Hoxton Farms currently operates a 14,000 sq ft pilot facility in London, running 500-litre bioreactors. “Our next facility, in the 10kL range, will be built next year and commissioned in early 2027,” the CEO reveals. “This expansion will enable us to move from pilot to early commercial scale and meet the huge demand we have from major food manufacturers.”
So why the focus on fat? “First, fat is what makes food taste delicious. A small amount of fat can be transformative to any dish – it’s a low inclusion, high-impact ingredient,” says Jamilly. “Second, and we know this as humans, fat is easier and faster to grow than muscle.
“Most importantly, demand for meat (and the fat that makes it taste amazing) is growing, prices are increasing, and there’s more and more uncertainty with tariffs and climate change.”
Speaking of which, pig farming is a highly emissive industry that requires excessive amounts of water and land. And plant-based hard fats like coconut or palm oil – preferred by many manufacturers for their functionality – are the primary drivers of tropical deforestation.
“Cultivated fat delivers taste, nutrition and performance, while reducing dependence on volatile animal and commodity oil markets,” says Jamilly. “Even at low inclusion rates, Hoxton Fat transforms flavour, juiciness and cooking performance.”
He adds: “Our model is fully B2B. We supply cultivated fat as an ingredient to food manufacturers – primarily processed meat producers looking for healthier, scalable, more reliable and sustainable fats, and to plant-based brands seeking authentic taste and performance.”
Hoxton Farms lays out global regulatory and funding plans
Graphic by Green Queen
Hoxton Farms chose to begin its regulatory journey in Singapore thanks to its reputation as a food tech powerhouse. The startup suggests the city-state has set a global benchmark for science-based food regulation, citing its “forward-thinking, collaborative regulatory environment” and “transparent and supportive framework”
Hoxton Farms’s Singapore application is a precursor to regulatory filings in a whole host of regions over the coming months, with Asia-Pacific a central focus. “Japan is firmly on the radar, along with a small number of other Asian markets, such as Thailand, South Korea, and Hong Kong, where regulators are taking proactive, science-driven approaches,” says Jamilly.
“Our partnerships with Sumitomo Corporation and with Mitsui Chemicals give us an ideal foundation to explore these opportunities as we scale production and commercial readiness across the region,” he adds.
In addition, the company is part of the cultivated meat regulatory sandbox launched by the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) this year, which aims to help companies get approval and enter the market faster.
A pork belly prototype using Hoxton Farms’s cultivated fat | Courtesy: Hoxton Farms
“The sandbox has been enormously helpful. It’s a genuinely constructive initiative from the UK government that’s helping shape regulation suited to cell-cultivated products,” Jamilly says. “The recent tasting guidelines and pre-submission advice reflect real feedback from companies like ours, showing that the UK is becoming one of the next great leaders in food tech and biomanufacturing.”
Hoxton Farms will submit its dossier to the FSA later this year. “Our launch will be B2B, supplying cultivated fat as an ingredient to manufacturers, though we may partner with chefs and restaurants for initial showcase events,” he outlines.
To date, his firm has raised $35M, and it’s planning a new funding round in early 2026. Investors’ appetite for cultivated meat has receded rapidly, with capital flows down from $1.3B in 2021 to just $139M in 2024 (and a mere $36M so far this year).
Still, Jamilly remains confident. “We’ve built proprietary technology, a de-risked regulatory path and a clear route to profitability at scale,” he says. “With low-cost reactors, efficient processes and a strong AI-driven manufacturing platform, we’re confident in both our position and our ability to attract new investment.”
Israel’s Believer Meats has received official clearance from the USDA to produce and sell its cultivated chicken in the country, becoming the first non-US startup to reach the milestone.
Months after receiving a ‘no questions’ letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Believer Meats has now completed the regulatory path for its cultivated chicken with approval from the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The firm has received the latter’s green light for its product label and factory in North Carolina, which was completed earlier this year and is the world’s largest cultivated meat facility.
In a post on LinkedIn, CEO Gustavo Burger called it “a major milestone that authorises us to begin commercial production and sales of our cultivated chicken products in the US and export to international markets”.
Formerly called Future Meat Technologies, Believer Meats is the third startup to be cleared to sell cultivated meat in the US this year, following the regulatory success of Wildtype and Mission Barns. It’s also the first overseas company to accomplish the feat in the country.
Burger did not respond to Green Queen’s queries about Believer Meats’s launch plans.
How Believer Meats produces its cultivated chicken
Courtesy: Believer Meats
Founded in 2018 by Yaakov Nahmias, a biomedical engineering professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Believer Meats employs centrifuge-based perfusion and a cell media rejuvenation process to produce its cultivated meat.
The startup uses spontaneously immortalised fibroblast cells from fertilised eggs of domestic chickens. The cell lines are adapted to grow in suspension culture and serum-free media, and are stored in cell banks. These cells are then seeded into bioreactors and expanded until a sufficient volume of cultured chicken mass is produced.
The cells are filtered out from the media and washed in a sodium chloride solution. The harvested material is described as cultured chicken fibroblasts, which are similar in composition and nutritional characteristics to conventional chicken.
Last year, it demonstrated how tangential flow filtration (TFF), an efficient way to separate and purify biomolecules, can be an effective method for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat. It also introduced an animal-free culture medium that cost just $0.63 per litre, further allowing the startup to lower production costs.
Inspired by how Ford’s automated assembly line transformed the auto industry in the early 20th century, its new bioreactor assembly method allowed biomass expansion of 130 billion cells per litre, with a yield of 43% weight per volume. This process of cultivating the chicken cells was carried out continuously for over 20 days, leading to daily harvests of the biomass.
Believer Meats’s technology can optimise cell performance and save water, nutrients, and resources, allowing it to reduce production costs by eliminating byproducts and enabling the reuse of media. The resulting cultivated mass can be mixed with plant-based ingredients to be extruded into finished food products, like chicken breast.
The company claims its tech breakthroughs can bring the cost of cultivated chicken down to $6.20 per lb on a 50,000-litre scale, in line with the retail price of conventional USDA organic chicken.
Despite the bans, five companies can now sell cultivated meat in the US
Courtesy: Believer Meats
Fuelled by a $123M investment, Believer Meats’s 200,000 sq ft plant is located in Wilson County, North Carolina. It features an innovation centre and tasting kitchen, and will be able to churn out 12,000 tonnes of cultivated chicken every year.
“We are the first and only large-scale cultivated meat facility to have earned this approval from USDA. This achievement is a testament to the dedication, innovation, and integrity of our entire team,” said Burger.
In the US, cultivated protein products (excluding seafood) are jointly regulated by the FDA and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The former oversees cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation, before handing over to the latter during the harvesting stage. FSIS also inspects the further production and labelling of these products.
“With both FDA and USDA regulatory milestones behind us, we are one step closer to bringing cultivated meat to consumers around the world and to advancing our vision to lead food innovations that care for the planet,” noted Burger.
Graphic by Green Queen
Believer Meats is the fifth company to be allowed to sell cultivated meat in the US, joining Upside Foods, Eat Just (both approved for chicken), Wildtype (salmon), and Mission Barns (pork).
The cultivated meat industry may have struggled to attract investors lately and had to contend with bans in seven US states, but on a regulatory front, it has been a watershed year. Globally, eight startups have received some form of approval for their products in 2025.
US startup Fork & Good has acquired fellow cultivated meat producer Orbillion Bio to combine their global operations and fast-track the launch of their proteins.
Waiting a decade to find supply chain solutions to meat shortages and price hikes isn’t an option. We need immediate fixes that can make our protein systems resilient to climate shocks and trade disputes.
That’s the thesis that convinced New Jersey-based startup Fork & Good to snap up California’s Orbillion Bio, marrying their B2B platforms to produce cultivated red meat and taking their merged operations to four crucial regions across the world.
“We’re already working with customers in North America and East Asia, and are excited to bring Orbillion’s relationships in Europe and the Middle East online,” says Niya Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Fork & Good. The latter two regions have been working to advance their novel food regulation, so this is timely.
“This consolidation brings together technical and commercial expertise from both companies in one location to accelerate production,” Orbillion founder and CEO Patricia Bubner, who is now Fork & Good’s co-founder and COO, tells Green Queen.
“The teams have been integrated at Fork & Good’s headquarters in Jersey City, which houses a pilot plant capable of producing several tonnes of cultivated meat per year,” she explains. “The combined company also maintains a subsidiary in Abu Dhabi, supporting growth in the Middle East and beyond.”
Asked why the two firms decided to join forces, she says: “Both companies share a B2B focus, proven customer traction, and complementary technology platforms, product focus and markets. This combination immediately expands both companies’ product range and global reach while uniting industry-seasoned talent to deliver on existing contracts.”
Fork & Good boasts ‘most comprehensive’ IP in cultivated meat
Courtesy: Fork & Good
Gupta founded Fork & Good with Gabor and Andras Forgacs, co-founders of cellular agriculture firm Modern Meadow, in 2018. The startup produces cultivated pork using a patented integrated cell manufacturing platform, which lets it grow a large number of cells in a cost-effective manner.
Its pilot facility can produce about seven tonnes of product in less than 800 sq ft of space. As it scales up, Fork & Good is targeting a cost of $5 per lb of biomass at commercial levels, eventually bringing it to parity with commodity pork at $2 per lb. And last year, it became the first startup to host a public tasting for cultivated meat in Europe, serving dumplings with 30% cultured pork in Davos.
Orbillion, meanwhile, has developed an algorithm that can transform 2D culture into 3D culture in record time and at low costs. It has completed a 200-litre production run for its cultivated Wagyu beef, and teamed up with Dutch premium meat manufacturer Luiten Food, opening up access to its 1,200 distribution points.
“Orbillion has successfully scaled beef, and Fork & Good has developed highly efficient pork cell lines. The two platforms are compatible,” says Bubner. “Both centre on producing mammalian muscle cells – the core of what makes meat ‘meat’ – and the main source of its protein. This differentiates [us] from other companies in the space that use fat cells, fibroblasts or undifferentiated stem cells.”
According to Fork & Good, the entity now has the biggest IP portfolio in cultivated meat. “Fork & Good was founded on and expanded the foundational IP developed by Modern Meadow, the first cultivated meat company, adding multiple new patent families covering its own innovations,” notes Gabor Forgacs.
“With Orbillion’s complementary portfolio, the combined company now holds the most comprehensive and defensible IP in cultivated meat (i.e., the greatest number of issued patents), covering core production methods, cell lines, and bioprocess technologies essential for scalable manufacturing.”
Meat producers look to cultivated meat amid supply shocks
Courtesy: Fork & Good
The meat industry is at an inflexion point. Its impact on the planet – already outsized – is only deepening as demand rises, but the climate crisis it’s helping fuel is wreaking havoc on livestock systems.
Meat prices reached an all-time high in July, becoming the primary driver of worldwide food inflation. It came as cattle numbers fell to their lowest in 70 years in the US, and high grain prices and rising interest rates raised beef production costs. The pork industry itself has taken several hits due to repeated cases of African swine fever – in 2018-19 alone, it wiped out a quarter of the global hog population.
Red meat relies on multi-year livestock lead times, so keeping up with rising demand is only getting harder. Cultivated meat can cut the production periods to weeks. USDA data shows that four countries are responsible for 70% of the world’s pork imports and 40% of beef imports – China, Japan, South Korea and Mexico – and it Fork & Good has operations in each of them.
“We work exclusively in B2B, partnering with food manufacturers and meat companies to address their key needs: value‑added ingredients, supply chain stability, and local production,” says Gupta.
“Our ingredients enhance clean‑label, nutritious, and functional properties in a variety of ground red meat products like burgers, sausages, and dumplings, replacing multiple ingredients with a single one. By producing locally, we provide a reliable supply and reduce dependency on traditional meat sources.
“Our approach also enables cost-competitive solutions, helping partners compete today and in the future by delivering scalable, high-quality ingredients that create tangible value in their products and supply chains.”
This is why the company has signed offtakes and paid development agreements with leading producers like Luiten Food, Sigma Alimentos, and several undisclosed “multibillion-dollar food companies”. Fork & Good itself earned its first revenue earlier this year, courtesy of a joint development agreement with an $8B global food manufacturer.
“Serving the customer of the future requires innovation,” says Lennert Luiten, CEO of Luiten Food. “Our vision is to integrate Fork and Good’s cultivated meat with familiar meat and plant-based options, paving the way for a new generation of products that satisfy our taste buds and support a sustainable future.”
A ‘margin-first’ focus as investor ‘patience wears thin’
Courtesy: Fork & Good
Following the acquisition, Fork & Good said it is taking a “margin-first” approach, centred on proving techno-economic viability at mid-scale before pursuing larger expansion. This will help demonstrate sustainable unit economics, an area where the sector has struggled. A B2B business model that does not involve building massive factories, therefore, is a winning strategy.
“We focus on building a business that can deliver high-quality cultivated meat products at competitive cost while maintaining healthy profit margins,” says Gupta. “To reach a mass market, products must be both excellent and affordable. That requires constant attention to efficiency – optimising production, reducing input costs, and scaling smartly – without compromising quality or safety.
“In practice, this means we designed our system based on unit economics at a factory level, rather than building a tech platform and then reducing cost. Thus, we ensure that cultivated meat can compete directly with conventional meat.”
The acquisition comes amid a volatile time for cultivated meat – several companies have shuttered since 2024, and others have resorted to the M&A route (like Uncommon Bio and Parima). Funding, meanwhile, has plummeted from $1.3B in 2021 to just $139M in 2024 (and only $36M so far this year), as investors pivoted to AI and sectors with faster returns.
“Building real-world solutions, especially in cultivated meat, takes time for science, engineering, and scale, and patience has worn thin where fundamentals lag. Still, meat remains a growing $2T opportunity, and overcoming early hurdles, such as in Fork and Good’s case, creates a strong moat,” argues Bubner.
“Partners and strategic investors who understand this value and focus on long-term impact remain highly engaged, even as short-term ‘tourist’ investors move on.”
Fork & Good eyeing cultivated meat approval in several markets
Courtesy: Fork & Good
Highlighting the regulatory success of cultivated meat this year, Bubner says the industry has reached a stage where companies can deliver to customers, and the funding environment clarifies who the strongest players are.
“Mergers and acquisitions reflect this maturation, consolidating talent and technology to accelerate commercialisation. We expect strategic consolidation to continue as the industry scales and focuses on delivering products reliably to market,” Gupta predicts.
The merged entity will accelerate commercialisation and regulatory approvals for Fork & Good, which has filed a dossier with the US Food and Drug Administration and previously earmarked Q2 2026 as the earliest launch date for its cultivated pork. Gupta told Green Queen in February that it is pursuing the green light in Singapore too.
Integrating Orbillion’s platform will create a “unified, scalable system applicable to both red meat types”, according to Bubner. The company is actively preparing submissions and engaging with authorities, but she declined to comment on product formats or timelines.
“We work with global customers and are ready to supply as soon as regulatory approval is granted; we’re pursuing regulatory approval where our customers are,” she notes. “Our focus remains on ensuring our products meet all safety and compliance standards to support broad commercial availability once approvals are in place.”
Australian food tech leader Vow has made its cultivated meat products available for at-home use, including foie gras, a smoked spread, and croquettes.
After months of Vow-ing diners at some of Australia’s top restaurants, the cultivated meat startup is making its retail debut.
Under its consumer brand Forged, Vow has launched three direct-to-consumer products powered by its cultured quail, marking the first time consumers can buy multiple cultivated meat products for at-home use.
The Japanese cultured quail offerings are being rolled out in fashion-industry-style ‘drops’, starting with the firm’s hometown of Sydney. Its residents can order foie gras, croquettes, and a smoked spread to level up the innovation in their kitchens. These will soon be followed by the parfait product that put Vow on the foodservice map.
Vow’s Forged brand brings cultured meat to home kitchens
Courtesy: Vow
The smoked cultured quail spread is described as rich and buttery, made with “the holy trinity of flavour – smoke, salt, and meat”. It contains unsalted butter, 40% cultivated meat, water, glucose and salt, and costs A$14.99 per 180g jar.
“Legally we can’t call it butter, but it is butter, and we recommend you use it like butter,” the Forged webshop proclaims. The Hickory-smoked spread can be folded into pastries and mash, lathered atop warm bread, or whipped into sauces, for instance.
Speaking of rich ingredients, foie gras is one of the most prized (and most problematic) delicacies out there. Vow’s version takes an axe to the animal cruelty, with 51% of the lobe containing its cultured quail, complemented by ingredients like herb-infused coconut oil, sunflower oil, fava bean protein, konjac, and more.
The foie gras can be pan-seared for a golden crust and molten centre, roasted in the oven for a crisp exterior, shaved frozen over warm dishes, or even deep-fried. It’s sold in packs of five (for $25) or 10 ($50).
Meanwhile, the crumbed croquettes come frozen and ready-to-fry. They combine 30% cultured quail parfait with mashed Désirée potatoes, shallots, port wine, and a host of flavourings, which are encased in a panko crust. They pair well with aioli, shaved truffle, pickled chillies, and crisp wines, and are available in a case of 20 (for $30) or 40 ($60).
To make its cultivated meat, Vow uses a small selection of cells from a Japanese quail and places them in a nutrient-rich broth, which is transferred into fermentation tanks that recreate the conditions inside a quail’s body and allow the cells to grow and multiply naturally. The meat is ready for harvest in 79 days, when it is separated from the broth and incorporated into delicacies like parfait and foie gras.
Retail debut comes amid production scale-up for Vow
Courtesy: Vow
Vow co-founder and CEO George Peppou had first teased the company’s plans to move into retail in a statement sent to Green Queen in April, after receiving preliminary approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). The regulator’s food code changes were authorised by food ministers across the two countries in June, clearing the way for commercialisation.
It has already been selling the ingredient to restaurants in Singapore, after receiving the regulatory green light in April 2024. It debuted in its home country this July, with its cultured quail available in dishes at 12 restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne.
The company has raised $55M to date, and cut back 30% of its workforce earlier this year, a decision that stemmed from a longer-than-expected timeline for regulatory clearance, but one Peppou described as coming from a “position of strength as the industry leader, not a position of weakness”.
Courtesy: Vow
Its cell cultivation capacity has extended to 35,000 litres within its second factory, which it says was 20 to 50 times cheaper to build than competitors. It operates the largest food-grade cell culture bioreactor at 20,000 litres, and claims to have completed the largest cultivated meat harvest in history (538 kg).
By the end of the year, Vow expects to reach production levels of up to 900 kg per harvest, scaling to 10,800 kg monthly. Longer-term improvements that utilise the full factory capacity will allow it to eventually surpass 20,000 kg a month.
Its foray into retail comes days before US startup Mission Barns debuts its cultivated pork meatballs at Berkeley Bowl West in California, offering Americans the first chance to buy cultured meat in a supermarket. It will later expand to Sprouts Farmers Market. Vow and Mission Barns’s retail rollouts have only been preceded by Eat Just, which listed its Good Meat cultivated chicken at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore last year.
