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Category: Future Foods

  • US Govt Loans $25M for Voyage Foods to Build Large Cocoa-Free Chocolate Factory

    voyage foods
    4 Mins Read

    US food tech startup Voyage Foods is set to open a large-scale manufacturing facility for its ethical pantry staples, aided by a $25M loan from the government.

    Recognising the vulnerability of the global cocoa supply, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested around $25M to help California’s Voyage Foods build a large factory for cocoa-free chocolate products.

    The 284,000 sq ft facility in Mason, Ohio will have the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of cocoa-free chocolate annually, alongside the startup’s nut-free spreads and beanless coffee.

    The USDA is partially funding the plant through its guaranteed loan programme, which has set aside $1B for rural businesses to meet their working capital needs. Businesses can be headquartered anywhere in the US, but the project seeking the loan must be in a rural area with a population of under 50,000.

    “We received the loan this summer,” reveals Voyage Foods founder and CEO Adam Maxwell. “The loan allows Voyage to open our own facility hand in hand with the USDA’s backing.”

    The factory is also being supported by the $52M Series A+ round Voyage Foods closed in May. “We’re on track for the facility construction and equipment installation to be complete by the end of 2024,” Maxwell tells Green Queen. It is expected to be operational in the new year.

    Sustainable takes on carbon-heavy foods

    voyage foods cargill
    Courtesy: Andria Lo/Voyage Foods

    Maxwell established the company with R&D head Kelsey Tenney in 2021, aiming to secure the future of environmentally intensive pantry ingredients through inexpensive crops. It sells cocoa- and nut-free peanut butter and chocolate-hazelnut spreads in over 1,400 locations nationwide, made from ingredients like sunflower seeds, grape seeds, chickpeas, buckwheat, and more.

    It also makes beanless coffee made from roasted chickpeas and rice hulls. By relying on cheaper and more stable raw materials, and making use of agricultural byproducts, the company is aiming to lighten the planetary impact of foods like chocolate and nuts, while also catering to allergies.

    Dark chocolate is the most polluting food after beef and a major driver of deforestation, while nuts take up large amounts of water for production. While contributing to the climate crisis, both industries themselves face threats from climate change, which is why low-impact alternatives are becoming increasingly important.

    For its cocoa-free innovations, Voyage Foods uses a proprietary technology to turn a base of grape seeds, sunflower protein, RSPO-certified palm oil and shea kernel oil into a chocolate-like compound product. An independent life-cycle assessment has found that its non-dairy milk chocolate produces 84% fewer emissions compared to conventional options, while its semi-sweet chocolate reduces GHG emissions by 81%.

    They also use 99% less water to produce. If just 5% of the world switched to its cocoa-free chocolates, it would lower emissions equivalent to removing between 1.5 and 1.8 million cars from the road annually and save between 500,000 and 1.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of water. This has led analysts to call its products “the most sustainable chocolates ever to come to market”.

    Voyage Foods spearheads the cocoa-free chocolate space

    cocoa free chocolate
    Courtesy: Andria Lo/Voyage Foods

    To date, Voyage Foods has raised $94M from equity investors, making it the best-funded player in both the cocoa-free chocolate and beanless coffee sectors.

    This year, it also signed a deal with Cargill, the largest privately held company in the US. The agricultural giant has become Voyage Foods’ exclusive B2B distributor globally, giving clients access to the cocoa-free chocolate and nut-free spreads, with initial launch plans slated for Europe.

    “We are incredibly dedicated to our commercial partnership with Cargill. Voyage’s innovative technology coupled with Cargill’s global reach will allow us to bring our products to the world,” says Maxwell.

    The cocoa-free chocolate maker will continue to manufacture in its 25,000 sq ft plant in Oakland, but the much-larger Ohio factory will help supply the products to Cargill and deliver on new CPG and foodservice partnerships.

    “With this new facility, Voyage is maturing from a startup food technology company to a large-scale manufacturer with the ability to deliver value across the entire ecosystem to our people, partners, and the planet,” says Maxwell.

    He declined to share information about the company’s financial performance, but said in May that its sales had been increasing every month. The factory will take things up a notch, with the hope of strengthening its leadership among cocoa-free competitors like Win-Win (formerly WNWN Food Labs), Planet A Foods, Foreverland and Nukoko.

    Looking ahead, Maxwell says getting the facility operational and building a team is a key priority for the business: “This is an important component of delivering on opportunities that are in front of us, and meeting consumer and commercial demand in B2B, foodservice, and retail distribution channels.”

    The post US Govt Loans $25M for Voyage Foods to Build Large Cocoa-Free Chocolate Factory appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • MicroLub, A Startup Replacing Fat With Water, Beefs Up Budget with $4.5M Round

    microlub
    5 Mins Read

    UK deep tech startup MicroLub has closed a £3.5M ($4.5M) funding round to replace fats and oils with its plant-based microgels.

    Oil and water may not go together, but who says they have to?

    For one British startup, water can functionally replace oils, addressing a host of issues related to the world of fats, ranging from environmental stress to public health.

    MicroLub, a spinout company from the University of Leeds’s Sarkar Lab (named after founder and CTO Anwesha Sarkar), has fattened its wallet with a £3.5M ($4.5M) investment round.

    The company argues that while fats and oils make food tastier and texturally appealing by adding “lubricity” and a “creamy” mouthfeel, they also increase calorie content. To overcome that challenge, the startup is betting on microgels of plant proteins, developed through the formation of protein and water gels that are broken into microparticles using a homogeniser. These microgels release water when chewed to create the creamy mouthfeel associated with fats.

    This can slash the fat content of a product by up to 75%, though a 50% reduction is more common – in one trial, MicroLub cut the fat content in cheese by 35%, but taste testers were unable to tell the difference from conventional cheese.

    “When we discovered the technology and tested lubricity, we knew it had many potential applications, which we can now explore further and commercialise with this investment,” said Sarkar.

    The company already has three patents for fat replacement, texture enhancement and nutrient delivery technologies, which it will look to commercialise with the funds. The proceeds will enable it to develop new products with partners, scale up its tech with co-manufacturers, and build its team.

    How MicroLub swaps out fat with water

    microgels fat
    Courtesy: MicroLub

    “Molecular friction lies at the heart of any sensory experience – whether it’s a creamy yoghurt, a juicy burger, or a soothing skin cream, our perception is determined by the interaction of molecules within the product and with our bodies,” MicroLub CEO David Peters told Green Queen.

    “Our innovative approach focuses on leveraging cutting-edge science to pioneer the next generation of protein technologies, to develop proprietary ingredient solutions that dramatically reduce molecular friction. We do this by adding lubrication to food products, using protein microgels coated with polysaccharide hydrogels,” he explained.

    “Proteins and polysaccharides are already found in many food products, but the way in which we combine them mimics the ‘fatty sensation’ of full-fat products, adding texture, richness, and succulence in low-fat or plant-based foods.”

    Since this is a platform technology, it works well with a wide range of proteins. “Our customers can choose which protein they want to use – whether that’s pea, soy, oat, fava bean, or even dairy proteins – as well as which polysaccharide,” said Peters.

    “The optimal combination and ratio in which they are being combined will depend on which type of application the technology is being used in. For example, the ideal protein/polysaccharide combination for a plant-based burger will differ from that for a low-fat yoghurt.”

    Those are just two examples of the kind of products that the microgel can be used in. “Baked goods, spreads and confectionery are among the other categories in which we have customers using our technology,” revealed Peters.

    And who might those customers be? “We are in advanced talks with a number of potential partners to commercialise our technology,” he said, describing a three-step strategy for the business.

    “The first phase in that process involves collaborating with those partners to develop products made with MicroLub-based ingredients. The second phase involves scaling up the technology and incorporating it into our partners’ manufacturing facilities, before entering the final phase, which will see us license the technology to our partners, so they can launch commercial products.”

    Cutting down saturated fats and ingredient lists

    fat substitutes
    Courtesy: MicroLub

    The $3.3B fat replacement market has many challenges, as a recent report by British chef and writer Anthony Warner pointed out. “There is often a focus on protein when we talk about food system health and sustainability, but fat is equally important,” it stated.

    Animal fats are already linked with environmental, ethical and health concerns, while tropical oils like coconut or palm – often the only functional alternatives to the former – present significant sustainability and biodiversity issues, largely due to deforestation.

    Peters noted how reduced-fat and plant-based foods have “struggled to achieve anything like their full sales potential, because of issues around texture, mouthfeel and astringency.” Microgels are especially effective in these products, he said.

    It’s also among solutions that process existing ingredients via different approaches, freeing them from novel food regulations and paving the way for faster market entry than other alternative fats. “They are not the solution to all the problems surrounding fat, but they do offer a suite of different approaches to food innovators looking to improve their products,” Warner told Green Queen in August.

    MicroLub isn’t looking to remove the entire fat content of a product. “Our technology requires there to be some [fat] present for structure and to perform certain functions, such as melting,” explained Peters. “But we can significantly reduce the fat content without any noticeable change to texture or mouthfeel. In addition, we enable our customers to remove thickeners and emulsifiers from their products, thereby shortening their ingredient lists and creating clean-label products.”

    While unhealthy saturated fats are contributing to the growing obesity epidemic – half the world is on track to be overweight or obese in the next decade – fat is still a crucial macronutrient. MicroLub’s water-based solution, Peters argued, improves the nutritional profile of products by replacing saturated fat with protein and water.

    “Our second-generation technology, which still uses proteins and polysaccharides but combined in a different structure, enables high-loading of nutrients without affecting the texture or taste of the product,” he added. “This enables our customers to create genuinely healthy products which are packed full of nutrients.”

    Now, MicroLub is looking to build out its R&D team to dedicate resources for collaborative projects with partners. “We expect to be entering into a number of joint development agreements, as well as continuing to develop the technology and file additional patents,” said Peters.

    The post MicroLub, A Startup Replacing Fat With Water, Beefs Up Budget with $4.5M Round appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Lidl’s Climate Target Makes It A ‘Frontrunner’ in the Protein Transition, But Speedier Action is Needed

    lidl emissions
    5 Mins Read

    German supermarket Lidl has extended its target to reduce Scope 3 emissions, which nearly make up its entire climate footprint. But experts say the shift to plant proteins needs to be accelerated.

    European retail giant Lidl has revised its climate targets as it moves towards its net-zero target for 2050, with the move heaping pressure on rival grocers’ sustainability roadmaps.

    The discount supermarket is aiming to cut its scope 1 and 2 emissions – direct emissions emanating from business-owned sources and energy consumption – by 70-80% by the end of the decade (depending on the country). In the UK, this is at the lower end now, coming down from the previous target of 80% reductions, thanks to a new shipping line).

    However, the real progress is in the scope 3 emissions goal. These include indirect emissions from the entire supply chain, occurring from products that the company sells. They’re responsible for virtually all of Lidl’s emissions. “That is where the retailer needs to concentrate the vast majority of its reduction efforts,” says Florian Wall, senior associate for Germany at think tank Madre Brava.

    “Independent of a 70 or 80% reduction target, we should not lose sight of the bigger picture here: a whopping 99.65% of Lidl’s emissions are scope 3, of which at least half come from the production of meat and dairy,” he adds.

    Lidl is aiming to cut its scope 3 emissions by 35% in the next decade, and reduce its emissions from agriculture, forestry and land use by 42.4%. As part of this shift, the retailer is aiming to become the first retailer to align its plant protein offerings with climate targets.

    ‘Much more proactive approach’ needed

    lidl plant based
    Courtesy: Lidl

    In the last year, Lidl has marginally increased the share of plant-based meat sales from 11.1% to 11.8%, and vegan dairy from 6.1% to 6.6%.

    In 2023, the company also committed to doubling the share of its plant-based meat and dairy sales by 2030. But Madre Brava has previously called upon Lidl to set a global target to expand the ratio of plant-based proteins sold to 60% by 2030 (it has already done so in the Netherlands).

    The retail chain has also lowered the prices of plant-based analogues to match their conventional counterparts (or even beat them on price) in Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It has positioned these products next to conventional meat and dairy items on shelves as well.

    “A big part of this shift is making the healthy and sustainable choice the easy choice for the consumer. We know from our own consumer survey in Germany for example, that 63% of consumers are willing to reduce their meat consumption,” says Wall, explaining how these measures have helped Lidl cater to the country’s flexitarian population.

    “To make this change mainstream, Lidl must focus on the mainstream: the flexitarians generally open to reducing their meat consumption but needing support. Lidl lowered their prices for their private label plant-based products by 23% – and instantly saw a demand increase of 30%,” he adds.

    But while Lidl has made some progress here, Wall says its efforts must be accelerated: “Lidl measures its protein ratio for two categories: protein food (mainly meat) and dairy. If Lidl continues with its current rate of change, it would hit its 2030 protein ratio target in the dairy category, but not in the protein food (meat) category.

    “Lidl, like any food retailer, has a clear impact on consumer choice, through the food environment it creates. The good news is, there are many levers it can pull to accelerate the change, and it’s worth mentioning them. They include price, placement, promotion, transparency, consumer education, plant-based default options, portion size, faster go-to-market cycles, wording (labelling), and product reformulation.

    “Several retailers across Europe are experimenting with these measures. Lidl could take a much more proactive approach here.”

    Lidl piles pressure on Rewe

    lidl vemondo
    Courtesy: Lidl

    Despite the need for more rapid action, Lidl is still a leader in the retail sustainability race in Europe. “At the moment, [Lidl is] walking, rather than running towards its destination, but others are standing still,” says Wall.

    “Lidl is now the frontrunner on both fronts: their commitment to shifting sales to more plant-based protein is essential to meet their scope 3 emissions targets, and their focus on the Planetary Health Diet is positive,” he suggests.

    The scope 3 emissions target is in line with that of the Rewe Group, which last year became the first German supermarket company to set a full-scope target. However, there’s a big gap in their approaches, which has left the latter “playing catch-up”.

    Livestock farming takes up two-thirds of Germany’s food-related emissions. Lidl acknowledges that meat and dairy play a major role in its scope 3 emissions and, unlike Rewe, it has made the necessary moves by committing to the protein ration.

    supermarkets plant protein transition
    Courtesy: Madre Brava

    “At the moment, Rewe’s approach is as much use as a sat nav that tells you the destination but not the directions,” says Wall. “A target without a plan is not really a target. We would urge them to publish protein diversification plans and targets. Without them, they can’t hope to achieve the reduction in emissions they are aiming for.”

    He adds: “The best thing Rewe could do now to kickstart progress to meet its scope 3 target is to set protein diversification targets and follow some of the best practices from other food retailers when it comes to pricing and placement of plant-based alternatives.”

    Edeka, Aldi and other retailers are set to publish their scope 3 targets in the coming weeks, and this could make for a “much healthier and more sustainable” supermarket landscape in Germany.

    “Scope 3 represents a huge part of supermarkets’ overall emissions, and meat and dairy products represent a big part of scope 3, so frankly, no supermarket will reach their overall, or scope 3 emissions reduction targets without protein diversification targets,” he says.

    The post Lidl’s Climate Target Makes It A ‘Frontrunner’ in the Protein Transition, But Speedier Action is Needed appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • WWF Develops Tool to Help Retailers Meet Planetary Goals By Ramping Up Plant-Based Food Sales

    lidl plant based meat
    5 Mins Read

    The World Wildlife Fund has launched a tool for supermarkets to align their sales with their climate goals, urging them to sell more plant-based food than animal protein.

    With retailers playing a key role in the food system’s emissions and its transition towards a low-impact industry, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is helping them with a new methodology to enable the protein transition.

    Meat and dairy take up 57% of agrifood emissions, and up to a fifth of the world’s total emissions, while also using up 80% of farmland and 30% of the global freshwater supply. But despite this disproportionate use of resources, livestock farming only supplies 17% of the world’s calories and 38% of its protein.

    Experts have suggested that emissions from the food system alone will blow us past our 1.5°C budget, and maybe even the 2°C mark – there’s no way for us to meet our climate targets without addressing agriculture.

    On the flip side, vegan diets have been found to reduce emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to those rich in meat. And even if we replace just half of our meat consumption with plant-based alternatives, it can lower farm and land use emissions by nearly a third, while halting deforestation and reducing hunger by 3.6%.

    Hence, the protein transition – i.e., the shift away from animal- to plant-based food sources. Dietary change is the most effective lever in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and as gatekeepers of both sides of the supply chain, retailers play a crucial role in enabling this shift.

    “Retailers are critical in accelerating the transition to healthy and sustainable diets, particularly in countries with high consumption-related environmental impacts,” said Brent Loken, global food lead scientist at WWF. “This transition requires a rapid transformation of food environments and for healthy and sustainable foods to be made more affordable and accessible to all.”

    To help move the needle, its Planet-Based Diets Retailer Methodology aims to support supermarkets in promoting plant-based food consumption over animal-sourced foods, which the conservation organisation says is critical to “restoring nature, limiting the impacts of climate change and supporting consumer health and wellbeing”.

    Retailers urged to measure by weight, not protein

    wwd planet based diets
    Courtesy: WWF

    The report breaks down food sources into seven groups: meat, plant proteins, and meat analogues; dairy and dairy alternatives; fats and oils; fruits and vegetables; grains and cereals; tubers and starchy foods; and snacks high in fat, salt and sugar.

    The methodology proposes a stepwise approach to help retailers drive the shift towards a more sustainable food system. The first step of the protein transition is to measure the balance of animal and plant-based sales for whole products like sausages, chicken breasts, chickpeas and yoghurt, as well as categorise composite products (like meals, salads, and sandwiches) into meat-based, seafood-based, vegetarian, and vegan. This step covers both branded and private-label offerings.

    It recommends that retailers measure foods by weight instead of protein content, and provides several reasons for it. First, ‘protein transition’ doesn’t refer just to the macronutrient, but the overall diet. Plus, focusing on protein in the analysis could then delve into complexities like bioavailability and amino acid profiles, which raises the question of where to draw the line.

    Secondly, focusing on the weight also allows the analysis to capture the entire spectrum of a retailer’s offering, not just their protein content. It also aligns with the methodology of other dietary models like the Planetary Health Diet or national guidelines, which aim to find the most optimal foods to achieve specific goals like meeting nutritional requirements and lowering climate impact.

    Next, sales-based measures of products offer a standardised way to compare different products and categories, as well as across food groups. And finally, WWF says measuring sales in weight is straightforward and practical for most retailers, as they often manage inventory and sales data based on volume.

    “This approach aims to provide a practical, consistent and holistic methodology that helps retailers effectively manage and improve the sustainability and health of their product range, while remaining aligned with established dietary frameworks and taking a broad view of diet quality,” the report reads.

    WWF calls for 74:36 sales ratio in favour of plant-based foods

    wwf plant based
    Courtesy: WWF

    In step two, the WWF outlines an opportunity for retailers to dive deeper into the data of their own-brand products. This involves breaking down their composite products on an ingredient level to enhance the granularity in product categorisation. Here, retailers would measure the weight of each ingredient with a product, rather than using its total weight. For example, in a vegan lasagna, the 70g plant-based mince would go in the first food group, and the 20g non-dairy cheese in the second food group.

    The methodology also offers a way for supermarkets to go beyond the protein transition and promote a healthy and sustainable dietary shift by addressing foods outside meat, dairy and their alternatives. “Retailers should track the proportion of whole grain sales compared to refined grains, as well as the proportion of fats from animal-based or plant-based sources,” it explains.

    WWF is now urging retailers to set clear targets to rebalance diets in favour of plant-based – or planet-based, as it likes to say – foods. It has recommended setting targets to achieve a ratio of 60% plant-based protein sales, as well as an overall sales split of 74% in favour of plant-based foods (including vegetables, grains, starches and other food groups).

    Some retailers in Europe have already done so. Lidl and Ahold Delhaize have set protein ratio goals in certain markets, and are vying to be the first to establish an international target.

    “Retailers must be prepared to adapt their sales strategies to achieve both their own sustainability commitments and contribute to global goals,” said Mariella Meyer, senior manager of sustainable markets at WWF Switzerland.

    “We know that intensive agriculture is the number one driver of the catastrophic decline of wildlife and nature, so promoting healthy, sustainable dietary choices is key. In countries where animal-source foods are overconsumed, food retailers can lead the way by rebalancing their products.”

    The report also suggested that reformulating meat analogues that are high in salt, fat or sugar and may lack essential micronutrients is key to the protein transition. This is also why dairy alternatives need to be fortified, and why WWF champions plant proteins like tofu, tempeh and seitan to replace meat consumption.

    The post WWF Develops Tool to Help Retailers Meet Planetary Goals By Ramping Up Plant-Based Food Sales appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • The Better Meat Co Takes Its Mycoprotein to Asia with Singapore Regulatory Approval

    better meat co singapore
    4 Mins Read

    Californian startup The Better Meat Co has received regulatory approval for its Rhiza mycoprotein ingredient in Singapore, paving the way for its international debut.

    The Better Meat Co is now cleared to sell its Rhiza mycoprotein in Singapore, allowing companies to use the ingredient in meat analogues, as well as an “enhancer” in dairy products and blended meat applications.

    The fungi strain covered by the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA) approval, Neurospora crassa, has a long history of consumption in Asian food, from a base for oncom – a fermented Indonesian staple made from byproducts like soy pulp (or okara) – to fermented okara in China’s Gannan district.

    It comes three months after the US Food and Drug Administration granted a ‘no questions’ letter to The Better Meat Co, in response to its notification to the agency that its mycoprotein falls under the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) label.

    Now, the SFA’s go-ahead opens up The Better Meat Co’s market outside the US for the first time, heading to a country known for its penchant for future foods.

    Shelf-stable Rhiza mycoprotein can be used in blended meat

    the better meat co gras
    Courtesy: The Better Meat Co

    Rhiza is described as a whole-biomass ingredient, rather than a protein isolate, made from the filamentous root-like structure of the fungi. Aside from Neurospora crassa, The Better Meat Co actually has three other US patents for other Neurospora species for use as a shelf-stable food ingredient.

    The mycoprotein contains all essential amino acids and has a protein content of 50% by dry weight, which is higher than eggs. It also has a protein digestibility score of 0.87-0.96 (close to casein, beef and eggs). Plus, it has more fibre than oats and more potassium than bananas, while containing no cholesterol and “virtually no saturated fat”.

    Aside from being a climate-friendly form of protein – unlike conventional meat – it has functional benefits that make meat blended with Rhiza have superior yields and an improved texture after being cooked.

    The ingredient has featured in products spanning steaks, foie gras, carne asada, tacos, chicken cutlets, bacon, tuna, deli slices, sausage, jerky, and more. “It’s far more meat-like in its texture than TVP, and is a whole food that can act as a single ingredient product on its own (with seasoning added),” founder and CEO Paul Shapiro told Green Queen.

    “The Better Meat Co sells our mycoprotein B2B, and in a shelf-stable granule format. There’s no cold chain needed,” he explained. “The buyer (a food company) simply hydrates it and then either uses it as a single-ingredient animal-free meat, or adds it as an ingredient into its formulation.”

    He added: “Rhiza can be used both to make animal-free meat and as an enhancer to hybridise animal meat. It is the only mycoprotein in the world recognised by USDA as safe and suitable for inclusion in animal meat.”

    Rapid progress for The Better Meat Co

    the better meat co
    Courtesy: The Better Meat Co

    The Singapore approval is a feather in the startup’s cap after a tough couple of years. Until this summer, it had been embroiled in a bitter IP battle with fellow mycelium producer Meati since late 2021. The Better Meat Co had sued Meati – one of the best-financed alternative protein companies – for undermining its IP and attempting to “bully” a less-funded rival.

    Meati, which also employs submerged fermentation tech, responded by accusing the former of stealing its IP. But a judge in California ruled largely in The Better Meat Co’s favour in June, with both sides agreeing to end the dispute.

    Since then, The Better Meat Co has received its FDA letter in the US, obtained a $1.5M government grant to build a factory, and slashed mycoprotein production costs by 30%, matching the price of commodity beef when manufactured at scale. In the six years since it was established, the startup has raised $27M, but it is currently not fundraising.

    “As demand for Rhiza mycoprotein far outweighs supply right now, our major focus is on scaling to be able to produce more of this important ingredient for food producers,” Shapiro said.

    The startup has already signed multiple letters of intent and offtake agreements with major consumer brands in both the US and Asia, and has been working with meat industry giants Hormel Foods and Maple Leaf Foods to develop meat analogues.

    “Whether as the star ingredient in animal-free meats or as a highly functional meat enhancer, Rhiza mycoprotein is the perfect fit for food companies seeking to make better meat,” Shapiro stated. “We’re looking forward to Singaporeans getting a chance to enjoy a taste of the future of food – now.”

    The company will join a nascent mycelium space in Singapore. Quorn, a brand synonymous with mycoprotein (which is derived from mycelium), has been operating in the island nation since 2017, while Dutch startup The Protein Brewery received the SFA greenlight for its mycelium ingredient Fermotein earlier this year.

    Locally, 70/30 Food Tech has launched a research lab to develop mycelium protein products, and Mycovation‘s MyX line of mycelium products can be used in meat analogues, baked goods, functional foods and beverages, and extruded snacks.

    The post The Better Meat Co Takes Its Mycoprotein to Asia with Singapore Regulatory Approval appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • German Ministry Grants €2.6M to Project Upcycling Dairy Waste Into Mycelium Protein

    mycelium whey
    4 Mins Read

    Infinite Roots and the Hamburg University of Technology have received a €2.6M grant from the German government to develop tech that transforms whey into a feedstock to grow mycelium.

    As mycelium protein mushrooms in popularity, the German government is backing a new project to tackle the massive amount of waste created by the dairy industry, and turn it into a valuable ingredient with fungi.

    The Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and local food tech startup Infinite Roots have been awarded a €2.6M ($2.8M) grant by the federal food and agriculture ministry (BMEL) to develop technology that can upcycle whey – the liquid left over after milk is curdled and strained – into a feedstock for mycelium fermentation.

    The funding was authorised by the parliament via the federal office for agriculture and food (BLE), the central implementing authority and project management arm of the BMEL, under the national innovation support scheme.

    Why Infinite Roots is aiming to upcycle whey

    infinite roots
    Courtesy: Infinite Roots

    By volume, whey is the largest byproduct of the dairy sector. Around 80-90% of milk that enters cheese manufacturing facilities ends up as whey. And globally, between 180 and 190 million tonnes of whey are produced annually.

    Not all of this goes to waste – about half is processed into added-value products like whey protein, functional foods, edible films and coatings, and lactic acid. But not enough is repurposed either, and whey disposal is a costly process, both in terms of economics and the environment.

    Its biochemical and chemical oxygen demands are significantly higher than wastewater, which poses an environmental challenge. Meanwhile, if not disposed of properly, whey can contaminate groundwater and present risks to farmland.

    This is what the German government is hoping to address with its grant. The project aims to create a technology that can use whey as a feedstock for mycelium growth, which in turn would be used for novel ingredients and products. Mycelium is the root-like structure of edible mushrooms, comprising a network of tiny thread-like cells that grow underground to form an intricate web of connections. It’s a fast-growing market, set to cross $6.5B by 2032.

    Infinite Roots already uses industry sidestreams – spent grain from beer brewing – to grow mycelium for its own meat analogues. “Whey protein is an exciting alternative that opens the door to unique flavour profiles, though it does require fine-tuning our fermentation process to ensure that the mycelium can efficiently absorb the nutrients,” a company representative tells Green Queen.

    “Whey also brings the advantage of being a relatively low-cost byproduct, which could help drive down production costs in the future. For now, we’re focused on investing in new research, fermentation technologies, and processes to perfect the concept.”

    Mycelium meat on the horizon with impending EU regulatory approval

    mycelium protein
    Courtesy: Infinite Roots

    Infinite Roots is working towards commercialising its vegan meat range, and says the whey project is in its research phase and currently only requires limited quantities of the protein from local dairies.

    “Our current product lineup is vegan, but any future products that incorporate whey will not be classified as such. That said, with whey as a feedstock, we see the potential to create highly nutritious, protein-rich foods,” the spokesperson adds.

    The project will offer a solution to waste disposal and create new revenue streams for what it calls an abundant byproduct, turning sour whey into a valuable resource. “Our upcycling technology will not only optimise the fermentation process, but also turn a problematic waste product into a valuable resource, saving time, reducing costs, and introducing sustainable practices into the food industry,” says Infinite Roots CEO Mazen Rizk.

    It is among a number of mycelium companies teaming up with the animal protein industry. US startup Bolder Foods is selling a semi-finished mycelium product to cheese and dairy manufacturers, Finnish player Enifer is also using a dairy byproduct as a mycelium feedstock for human food, feed and aquaculture applications, and industry giant Quorn is supplying its mycoprotein (a mycelium-based protein) as part of burgers and sausages blended with meat for UK hospitals.

    TUHH is simultaneously leading an educational drive involving young researchers to promote awareness around upcycling and sustainable food technology, which Rizk says adds an “exciting” dimension to the project. “We’re not just developing new technologies; we’re inspiring future innovators in sustainable food production,” he notes.

    Infinite Roots says the fusion of mycelium and whey could offer “intriguing health benefits, thanks to the complementary nature of these ingredients”. Its current ingredient – the one using spent grain from Bitburger Brewery (an investor in the business) – is in its final stages of development and expected to launch in the coming months.

    “We’re already in talks with food manufacturers, with plans for an initial rollout in select product categories before scaling up further,” the spokesperson says.

    The startup, which has raised $73M to date, has already achieved self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status in the US and notified the FDA to receive a ‘no questions’ letter, although it isn’t considered a novel food, since it only uses edible mushroom strains. “We’re in the final steps of securing clearance for market entry in Europe,” its representative says, “while in Asia, we’re already set to offer our products to consumers.

    The post German Ministry Grants €2.6M to Project Upcycling Dairy Waste Into Mycelium Protein appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Denmark Invests $2.1B to Speed Up Green Transition, With Major Focus on Climate-Friendly Agriculture

    denmark green fund
    5 Mins Read

    The Danish government is pouring 15 billion kroner into green research and innovation, which includes a focus on climate-friendly agriculture and alternative proteins.

    To speed up its path to net zero by 2045, Denmark is investing 15 billion kroner ($2.1B) until 2030 in R&D for new technologies spanning four distinct research missions.

    The government is aiming to make it easier to transfer new climate-centric tech solutions from the laboratory into society, strengthening capabilities around carbon capture, biofuels, food and agriculture, and the circular economy. Policymakers also want to resolve any barriers that impede these technologies’ part to market – like testing, documentation, or coordination between authorities.

    There’s a major focus on the agrifood sector, which is the largest source of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, making up 25% of the share (versus 24% from transportation and 19% from energy). Addressing carbon-intensive farming is key to meeting its goal of reducing emissions by 70% by 2030 (from 1990 levels) – the country became the first in the world to announce a carbon tax on meat and dairy production earlier this year.

    “Climate change is one of our generation’s biggest challenges, which we can only solve with innovation and in collaboration with the country’s most talented researchers,” said Christina Egelund, Denmark’s education and research minister.

    “Known solutions and technologies have brought us far, but not at the finish line. We must further develop, test and make the solutions even more widespread,” she added.

    Denmark deepens focus on plant-based foods

    denmark carbon tax
    Courtesy: Kravcs/Getty Images/Green Queen

    Denmark is pumping 500 million kroner ($73M) towards a future-friendly food sector. The funds will be used to develop technologies that can significantly reduce the climate impact and land use of conventional and organic food production, including emissions from livestock and fertilisers, and lower negative effects on nature.

    To do so, it is looking at solutions such as soil carbon sequestration, biorefining (including pyrolysis and biochar), new feed products linked with smaller climate footprints, plant breeding, and more effective regulation (for example, on emissions reporting).

    Much of this research mission covers the AgriFoodTure partnership between universities, knowledge institutions, small businesses, and multinational corporations. The initiative already has 18 projects with 70 partners working to generate new solutions for the agrifood sector under five tracks: land use, animal food production, plant-based food, alternative protein and food biomanufacturing, and value chain aspects.

    The Danish government is aiming to fast-track documentation and regulation, establish a new foundry for sustainable food, introduce mandatory implementation and follow-up, and discover solutions for a climate-neutral agriculture sector. It also namechecked precision fermentation and gas fermentation among the key solutions.

    The focus on alternative protein is an extension of the country’s recent moves to greenify the domestic food industry. Emissions from beef consumption make up 45% of its emission reduction targets, while the country is a major exporter of pork and dairy, two groups of foods with large climate footprints.

    In June, the Danish parliament approved the first carbon tax on agriculture, with farmers set to pay 720 kroner ($105) for their cattle herd’s emissions from 2030, rising to 1800 kroner ($260) in 2035.

    “Bureaucracy and slowness must not stand in the way of the green transformation of agriculture,” said food and agriculture minister Jacob Jensen. “That is why I am happy that we are now allocating funds to more quickly develop, test and implement the measures that will make the transition easier for farmers. With the plan, we give farmers a real opportunity to implement the technologies that can reduce their tax payment.”

    Denmark was also the first country to establish a national action plan to transition towards a plant-based food system. The scheme includes training chefs in public and private kitchens to prepare vegan meals, a greater focus on plant-based diets in the education sector, expanding exports of locally produced vegan food, and investing more in R&D for this industry.

    Carbon capture and biofuels not bereft of criticism

    denmark carbon emissions
    docuCourteys: TeamDAF/Getty Images

    The move will increase universities’ research and innovation funds and long-term research capacity by 500 million kroner ($73M) in 2025, prioritise strategic climate research environments, and bolster coordination in the implementation of such funds.

    Denmark’s lawmakers also hope to strengthen the links between the four missions, authorities and international research initiatives, while addressing the need for test and demonstration facilities, all aimed at increasing the speed of rolling out technologies.

    Not all of the research missions are universally embraced by climate activists. For example, Denmark has 30 projects centred around carbon capture and storage solutions, and was the first country to open an underwater burial site for CO2 and import the gas from other nations.

    But these technologies come with a wide range of problems, despite being deemed necessary by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency. The process of capturing and storing carbon itself emits 21% of the gas involved, and it’s highly expensive and unproven on a large scale. Experts also suggest that building a wind or solar power plant is a much more efficient approach.

    Similarly, Denmark is championing ways to convert renewable electricity into products that can lower emissions from transport and industry, which currently have no cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuels. One of these approaches is power-to-X technology, which converts energy into hydrogen for biofuels – but the tech’s efficiency and approach have come under some criticism.

    Finally, the country is also targeting a circular economy with the green innovation investment, with 19 projects involved in developing solutions to enhance resource productivity, reduce waste, increase recycling rates and quality, and slash emissions from products – with a particular focus on plastics and textiles.

    “Green research and technology is a core element in the transition, because it creates the concrete tools for agriculture to adapt and develop in a greener direction – also for many years to come,” suggested Jeppe Bruus, the minister for the public-private green tripartite. “The government is now coming up with a concrete plan for that core element.”

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  • Molecular Farming Startup Earns USDA Approval for Peas That Produce Beef Protein

    moolec myoglobin
    4 Mins Read

    Moolec Science has received what it claims is the first USDA approval for genetically engineered peas, which can produce iron-rich beef protein via molecular farming.

    Luxembourg-based molecular farming startup Moolec Science has obtained US regulatory approval for PEEA1, which are genetically engineered peas that can produce iron-rich bovine myoglobin.

    In a letter marking the completion of the regulatory review, the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) “did not identify any plausible pathway” by which Moolec’s modified garden pea would “pose an increased plant pest risk”.

    It is the third instance of regulatory clearance achieved by Moolec in the last 18 months, joining its nutritionally rich GLASO safflower oil and Piggy Sooy (soybeans that contain pork proteins).

    “With USDA approval for our genetically engineered pea, Moolec has now secured regulatory clearance for all of our key crops in the US: safflower, soybean, and pea,” said Moolec co-founder and CEO Gastón Paladini.

    “We are proud to be the only molecular farming company with three US regulatory approvals and a major commercial contract. This milestone underscores our leadership in the landscape with tangible, science-backed results.”

    Targeting iron deficiency with a plant-based source

    moolec peas
    Courtesy: Moolec Science IR

    Myoglobin is a heme protein found in mammalian muscle cells, which facilitates oxygen storage and diffusion in humans and dogs, and is an essential source of taurine for cats. It’s also the protein responsible for the colour and iron content of meat and seafood.

    According to a recent scientific review, nearly a quarter of the world’s population suffered from anaemia in 2021 (a direct result of iron deficiency), with cases increasing rapidly for women, expectant mothers, young girls, and children under five. Globally, 31% of women suffered from the condition, versus 17.5% of men. When the amount of iron in the body is too low, it can’t produce enough red blood cells to generate oxygen supply.

    Moolec’s genetically engineered peas produce high yields of bovine myoglobin, which allows it to cater to consumers looking for plant-based sources of iron. The company believes the product can hake up the food ingredient market and the $2B pea protein market by offering a nutritious alternative to conventional meat.

    Moolec CSO Amit Dhingra called the APHIS approval “a historic development”. “It validates Moolec’s strategic approach and exemplifies our commitment [to] advancing sustainable food production through science and innovation,” he said. “This approval is a critical step toward enhancing global food supply and meeting the growing demand for innovative, nutritious food solutions for the world.”

    Following the APHIS approval, Moolec would require clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration too before it can commercialise the ingredient.

    It has been six months since Moolec confirmed the stable presence of a bovine myoglobin gene in pea seeds, so the product – set to be sold with the beef proteins embedded in its matrix – is still in its infancy. The company has earmarked 2028 for the commercial launch of PEEA1.

    Moolec’s revenues swell ahead of GLA-rich oil launch

    moolec science
    Courtesy: Moolec Science

    Moolec’s other ingredients are much further along the way. The company acquired fellow molecular farming player Valorasoy Food Ingredients last year, taking over its industrial demo centre to sell texturised soy protein flours to B2B clients.

    Meanwhile, GLASO – an oil with thrice as much GLA (an omega-6 fatty acid) – is coming to market next year, following an offtake agreement with a major CPG and pet food player, which would see the later use an initial 50 tonnes of the oil in 2025. Moolec is expecting to harvest 300-400 tonnes of GLA-rich safflower seeds this month. GLASO is also being used to develop a bovine chymosin protein, which is used in cheesemaking.

    Then there’s Piggy Sooy, which earned APHIS approval in April and is currently undergoing field trials in three US states, with a launch targeted for 2027. Finally, it is also working on YEEA1, a dietary supplement and food ingredient derived from yeast.

    Moolec is among a number of companies engaged in molecular farming, where scientists modify plant cells to express animal proteins, which can be harvested from leaves or other plant tissues. It allows startups to scale up faster while lowering production costs, since instead of using expensive bioreactors, they’re using plants as the factories.

    Research suggests it’s a market that could be worth $3.5B by 2029, and Alpine Bio, Mozza, Miruku, Tiamat Sciences, Bright Biotech, ORF Genetics, PoLoPo, and NewMoo are all innovating in this field.

    Moolec – which is listed on Nasdaq – is one of the pioneers, and raised $30M to fund R&D and scale-up efforts last year. The company reported a revenue of $5.8M (primarily from the Valoraoy ingredients) in 2024 in its latest earnings report, compared to $1M last year, against a rise in operating losses to $9.3M. The company now aims to capitalise on the revenue growth in 2025, driven by the introduction of the GLASO ingredient.

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  • Future Food Quick Bites: Cultivated Chicken Tasting, Oat Milk Liqueur & Alt-Protein Awards

    oatly tea
    6 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Vital Meat’s cultivated chicken tasting in Singapore, Oatly’s new marketing campaign, and layoffs at The Every Company.

    New products and launches

    As it awaits regulatory approval in Singapore, French cultivated meat producer Vital Meat collaborated with Hue Restaurant as part of a tasting in the city-state. The event featured three dishes using the startup’s cultivated chicken powder.

    vital meat
    Courtesy: Carisa Lim/LinkedIn

    There’s a new mushroom brand in town. California’s Thallus Foods is using the chicken of the woods mushroom to replace, well, the other chicken. It calls itself the first indoor cultivator of this fungi variety.

    Speaking of new companies, in Denmark, Plantbox is curating plant-based meats and cheeses for wholesale consumers, and has gained listings at SPAR, Pico Pizza, Nemlig, Wolt, and more.

    oatly advertising
    Courtesy: Oatly

    Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has kicked off its new It Works in Tea campaign to target Britain’s tea-drinking tendencies. Featuring billboards in London, Manchester, and Brighton, the brand asked consumers to text a WhatsApp number if they were unconvinced. It received over 12,000 responses in the first 24 hours, who were in with a chance of winning a free tea set (with a mug and PG Tips tea).

    London-based The Good Pea Co, which makes alt-milk powders, has rebranded to Kwerky, with a new five-ingredient oat and pea milk powder slated for launch next month.

    Also in the UK, Tiba Tempeh has gained a listing for its tempeh block and mince at 327 Morrisons store, following a rollout in Sainsbury’s in the summer.

    In more tempeh news, Mamame Foods has introduced tempeh chips made from black-eyed peas in original, hot chilli, sea salt and rosemary flavours. They’re available at Whole Foods in the UK and will come to Planet Organic this month for £4.99, alongside Erewhon and Sprouts in the US in the coming weeks.

    mamame tempeh chips
    Courtesy: Mamame Foods

    Discount retailer Asda has added Dark Choc & Honeycomb Cake Pop Bites to its private-label Free From range in the UK.

    Belgian bakery and chocolate giant Puratos has extended its ready-to-whip Ambiante line with a dairy-free chocolate flavour, which uses cocoa from the company’s Cacao-Trace programme and can be used as a topping or filling for cakes, pastries, and more.

    future food quick bites
    Courtesy: Puratos

    Swedish startup Hooked Foods has teamed up with Sodexo to distribute its seafood and chicken analogues to the caterer’s network, following a successful Green Lunch for one of its clients.

    Vegan frozen food company Strong Roots has launched Air Bites, a range of products designed specifically for air fryers. It is available in Crispy Spinach & Carrot, Crispy Pea & Lemon and Crispy Veg flavour for £2.95.

    oat milk liqueur
    Courtesy: Oatrageous/Misunderstood Whiskey

    And back in the US, Misunderstood Whiskey has unveiled its Outrageous brand of cream liqueurs made from oat milk. The 14% ABV bottles come in espresso, coconut and bourbon cream flavours for $28.

    Company and finance updates

    US biotech startup Tiamat Sciences, which created animal-free growth factors for cultivated meat via molecular farming, has ceased operations following financial constraints.

    Californian firm The Every Company, the precision fermentation startup making recombinant egg proteins, has conducted layoffs at its Daly City headquarters.

    not milk
    Courtesy: NotCo

    Chilean food tech startup NotCo, whose products are built on its AI platform Guiseppe, has developed a generative AI model to create new flavour and fragrance formulations.

    Czech company Bene Meat Technologies, which makes cultivated meat for pets, has created a cell bank that already has over 5,000 samples stored.

    bene meat
    Courtesy: Bene Meat Technologies

    Two years after the initiative’s launch, Ferments du Futur has opened an innovation centre in the Paris-Saclay science and innovation cluster. The public-private scheme is an accelerator for fermentation startups.

    Spanish vegan egg maker Uobo has secured a six-figure sum in its latest funding round, and partnered with fellow Catalan startup Cubiq Foods – which makes animal-free functional fats – to develop a new egg alternative for B2B clients.

    uobo vegan egg
    Courtesy: Uobo

    In Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has issued several grants under the Small/Startup Business Innovation Research Program. Alternative protein startups include Agro Ludens ($7.1M), Deats Food Planning ($4.5M), and Fermenstation ($3.4M).

    ProVeg South Africa has been working with the Western Cape government to raise awareness about food insecurity during the National Nutrition Week (October 9 to 15), distributing 2,000 educational booklet to youngsters, hosting events for locals, and handing out 2,500 vegan nuggets from Fry Family Food in Uniondale.

    redefine meat
    Courtesy: Redefine Meat

    Israeli 3D-printed meat maker Redefine Meat has won plaudits from Dutch chefs after hosting them at its new visitor centre in the production facility in Best, with the startup’s R&D team taking in the feedback to improve upon its New-Meat range.

    US biotech manufacturing firm Liberation Labs, which specialises in precision fermentation, has received a further $12M from cellular agriculture investor Agronomics. It brings its total equity-linked funding to $35.5M, which will be joined by its upcoming Series A round.

    Policy, events and awards

    The APAC Society of Cellular Agriculture has signed an MoU with Temasek Polytechnic to create its first student chapter, which will foster a community of students across Asia-Pacific looking to shape the future of food through cultivated meat and seafood.

    float oat milk
    Courtesy: Float

    FoodBev Media has announced the winners of its 2024 World Plant-Based Innovation Awards, which include Float‘s adaptogenic oat milk, Elmhurst 1925‘s sour cream, Arla‘s JÖRÐ barista oat milk, The Mushroom Meat Co, and LOVO chocolate.

    Speaking of awards, Australian cultivated meat startup Vow, which has been selling its cultivated quail since receiving clearance in Singapore this April, has won the Future Ready Award in the Australian Financial Review‘s 2024 BOSS Most Innovative Companies category.

    vow lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Vow

    Finally, also in Australia, Sydney will host the next edition of the AltProteins Conference in October 2025, following a three-year stint in Melbourne.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

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  • The UK Could Lead the Protein Transition – Stakeholders Outline How

    uk alternative protein
    5 Mins Read

    With a host of positive developments recently, the UK’s alternative protein sector is at a tipping point – but the country needs further action to solidify its leadership.

    It has been a big year for the UK’s alternative protein industry. The country became just the fourth in the world (and first in Europe) to allow cultivated meat to be sold (to pets), set up a national hub for future foods, and finally broke away from EU novel food regulations to speed up its own regulatory process.

    These are all critically important steps when you consider that 16% of British households are food insecure or have low levels of security, and that alternative proteins could add £6.8B every year to the country’s economy and create 25,000 jobs by 2035.

    The UK Committee on Climate Change has said that meat and dairy consumption needs to be reduced by a fifth by 2050 to achieve the nation’s net-zero target for 2050, which would in turn contribute to food security, healthy diets, biodiversity, and resilience.

    While the UK’s recent moves to advance alternative proteins position the country as a potential world leader in the industry, several actions need to be taken for it to truly transform its food system and address the global crises of climate change, public health and pandemics.

    That’s according to a new briefing written by stakeholders in the food sector, including the Bezos Earth Fund’s Centre for Sustainable Protein in London, the Good Food Institute Europe, and the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC). The paper was created at a workshop held at the Pioneer Group’s Wilton Centre in June, which convened over 40 representatives from different parts of the industry.

    “Alternative proteins face the inherent challenges of nascent regulations, consumer acceptance, smaller production scales, R&D investment needs, differing feedstocks, [and] techniques to create textures and flavours,” it reads. “To truly compete with traditional meat, alternative proteins must overcome three barriers: cost, sensory optimisation, and a complex regulatory system.”

    Tactics to build on alternative protein progress

    bezos earth fund imperial college
    Courtesy: Imperial College

    The report builds on a 2022 whitepaper by UK Research and Innovation, the national science funding agency, titled Alternative Proteins: Identifying UK Priorities, and underlines the need to develop and commercialise future-friendly foods spanning plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated proteins.

    “The challenges in accelerating the development and commercialisation of the alternative proteins sector require a coordinated effort involving industry, government, research institutions, and other stakeholders,” it notes.

    The paper lays out 10 tactical actions to take the UK’s alternative protein industry forward, each assigned to different stakeholders.

    First, it calls for the mapping of the full alternative protein landscape across the UK, including an understanding of the UK’s alternative proteins asset base, capacities, readiness, and investments. This would be prepared by GFI and NAPIC by the end of the year.

    These two entities would work with Growing Kent & Medway to create a database of food-grade development and testing facilities across the UK, and carry out a gap analysis.

    The Pioneer Group and Growing Kent & Medway, meanwhile, could develop a programme of accelerators and incubator spaces for spinouts and small businesses, co-locating them with clusters of expert human capital, bioprocessing and R&D.

    Meanwhile, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London would scope a case for investment into a protein database to enable access to protein structures and predict properties like allergenicity, solubility and binding.

    This research hub can also team up with NAPIC to facilitate collaboration between industry and academia, generating data and standardising the methodology for life-cycle assessments of alternative proteins.

    Government action crucial to support the industry

    fsa lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Food Standards Agency

    Public-private collaboration is a must, according to the report, which has outlined the need for the Food Standards Agency, Advanced Food Regulation, MAST Consulting, and Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein to develop and deliver a programme of regulatory training for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

    NAPIC was assigned to host sandpit events to create ‘oven-ready’ projects involving full supply chains – and both SMEs and large corporations – for the development and commercialisation of these proteins. According to the paper, it would also work with Growing Kent & Medway, the Bezos hub, and IChemE to develop training programmes to cross-skill and upskill the future workforce in the industry.

    GFI, meanwhile, took ownership of creating an in-depth policy and regulation stakeholder map for the UK alternative protein sector, and the Pioneer Group could develop a series of talking-head videos and blogs to highlight these foods’ importance on a national level, which would be launched on what is termed as the Alternative Proteins Day.

    The briefing further highlighted the need for detailed terminology for the food sector, and for alternative proteins to be included in the food pyramid, the national industrial strategy, and the National Health Service’s Eatwell Guide.

    Companies in the sector would also thrive from access to venture studio, accelerator, incubator and scale-up facilities. And the Food Standards Agency needs to set a framework for the regulation of different proteins that specifies parameters for standards, performance, safety, functionality, sustainability, etc. – progress has been made on this front recently.

    “This briefing note calls on policymakers, industry leaders, and consumers to embrace alternative proteins as a key component of future food strategies,” the paper reads. “Alternative proteins represent a promising solution for sustainable food production. By supporting their development and adoption, stakeholders can contribute to a more sustainable and secure food system.”

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  • French Whole-Cut Vegan Chicken Startup Umiami Rebrands to Swap & Makes Play for the US

    swap chicken
    4 Mins Read

    Umiami, the Parisian startup making whole-cut plant-based chicken, is now called Swap, and has entered the US foodservice sector.

    French plant-based meat company Umiami has rebranded to Swap, which it says is “a universal word, easy to understand, and works well for international audiences”.

    “Swap perfectly represents our mission: to provide consumers with the opportunity to exchange their usual meat for a delicious and sustainable alternative, without compromising on taste or texture,” said co-founder and CEO Tristan Maurel. “Our new name is a call to action, encouraging consumers to make a positive choice for themselves and for the planet.”

    The refresh coincides with the brand’s US launch, where it is targeting flexitarians via restaurants to encourage them to “swap” to a “new kind of chicken”. It has introduced the Swap Chicken, a whole chicken fillet alternative, at restaurants in Chicago.

    Umisation tech enables clean-label meat analogues

    umiami chicken
    Courtesy: Swap

    The four-year-old startup, which has raised $107M in funding to date, relies on its Umisation texturising platform to produce whole-muscle replicas of conventional fillets like chicken and fish.

    This involves a technique that transforms plant proteins into structured fibres without high heat or pressure. “This technology is the result of several years’ research and development, and uses plant matrices to produce a fibrous texture and control the size, direction and thickness of the resulting fibres,” the company told Green Queen last year.

    “Umisation is an innovative protein texturing technology that is unique and specific to Umiami. It is the world’s first-ever process to be able to create – on a large scale – plant-based fillets that resemble pieces of animal meat: both in taste and texture,” they added.

    The technology also allows the startup to produce plant-based meat with minimal ingredients, with the chicken using eight ingredients and no artificial flavours, colourants or texturisers.

    swap plant based meat
    Courtesy: Swap

    This will likely resonate with Americans, who are looking for clean-label formulations amid the classification of meat analogues as ultra-processed (despite that label being separate from nutrition). Around 40% of the country’s consumers say they avoid ultra-processed foods and/or plant-based meats.

    Meanwhile, half of people in the US now seek out clean-label packaged foods, while health is the major driver of overall food consumption, influencing how eight in 10 Americans eat. On the contrary, a sixth of respondents are dissuaded from trying meat analogues in a restaurant setting because they have too many ingredients.

    And April, a decade-long proprietary study revealed that 99% of European manufacturers (like Swap) believe clean-label products are not just an advantage, but a cornerstone of their business strategy. In fact, over the next two years, these products are set to make up 70% of portfolios (up from 52% in 2021).

    Swap Chicken on the menus at multiple Chicago restaurants

    umiami plant based
    Courtesy: Swap

    Swap’s chicken fillet has 21g of protein per 100g, and can be marinated, breaded, sliced, or cubed to be served either warm or cold. The company says it is also “priced comparably to boneless, skinless chicken breasts”, which enables it to help kitchens reduce both costs and food safety risks.

    “We created a product that we believe will unlock the plant-based category for the mainstream consumer. Swap Chicken’s superior taste, clean ingredients and unrivalled product versatility finally enable chefs to recreate traditional recipes using only plant-based ingredients,” said Maurel.

    Among the Chicago restaurants Swap has partnered with The Chicago Diner, Spirit Elephant, Soul Veg City, Majani, Duke’s Alehouse, and Clucker’s Charcoal Chicken, while it is also on the menu of SteMartaen Vegan Catering. “We believe Swap Chicken will elevate menu possibilities, making it easier than ever to Swap animal meat for plant protein,” Maurel said.

    The company opened a 14,000 sq m facility in the Alsace region earlier this year, backed by local and federal government funding, which can produce 7,500 tonnes of plant-based meat annually, eventually rising to 20,000 tonnes. Swap says the rebranding also allows it to expand beyond chicken fillets to all kinds of meat and fish analogues, broadening its future product development plans.

    “Our rapid growth opens up new opportunities for expansion, while staying true to our commitment to simple ingredients and authentic recipes,” said Maurel.

    It comes amid a flurry of positive developments for France’s plant-based sector – this month alone, fellow Parisian plant-based meat maker La Vie closed a €25M investment round, McDonald’s debuted its first vegan product in the country with Beyond Meat‘s chicken, and the EU’s top court rejected France’s attempted ban on meat-related terms on vegan packaging labels.

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  • Swedish Researchers Adopt Ancient Technique to ‘Trick’ Grains Into Releasing As Many Minerals As Meat

    plant based meat iron
    5 Mins Read

    Researchers in Switzerland are using hydrothermal treatment to amplify the bioavailability of minerals in grains to mimic animal proteins like red meat.

    In 2023, a study of 20 meat and plant-based analogue products revealed that almost all of the vegan products had a higher amount of micronutrients than animal proteins, a finding contrary to popular belief. This was thanks to the “excessive fortification” of vegan meats, which were found to have “significantly higher” levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, and sodium.

    But as consumers move away from long ingredient lists and opt for cleaner labels and whole foods in the era of ultra-processed foods, the research outlined an important conclusion: if plant-based meat is to be widely consumed, manufacturers need to urgently find ingredients and technologies to enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients, using fortification as an added tool instead of the primary nutrient source.

    Now, a group of researchers in Switzerland claim to have solved that challenge. In a project titled Mineralskiftet (or The Mineral Shift) and funded by the national innovation agency Vinnova, scientists have achieved a breakthrough that can increase the bioavailability of minerals like iron and zinc in grains, so much so that their concentrations are nearly as high as in meat.

    The project was led by MatLust Development Node – run by the Södertälje municipality – in collaboration with Axfoundation, Hidden in Grains, and Warbo Kvarn. It relies upon the ancient technique of hydrothermal treatment to break down the acid that binds minerals in grains and ‘trick’ them into releasing the nutrients.

    The Swedish Food Agency has recommended a decrease in meat consumption by 30% by 2035, and a doubling of whole grain intake nationally. “Almost everyone would benefit from eating more whole grains,” notes Veronica Öhrvik, a nutrition expert and project leader at Axfoundation.

    “That’s why the market needs readily available products that are both tasty and sustainable, allowing us to more fully absorb all the nutrients from whole grains,” she adds.

    How hypothermal treatment frees up minerals in grains

    mineral rich project
    Courtesy: Axfoundation

    The Mineralskiften project has been ongoing since 2021, with the primary goal of solving the mineral absorption issue in the protein transition and developing healthier whole-grain products from barley, rye and wheat.

    One of the barriers to reducing meat intake, the researchers say, is that the minerals found in meat are easier to absorb than those found in grains. It’s partly why nine out of 10 Swedes consume fewer whole grains than recommended.

    Iron deficiency is also a major risk for 25-30% of girls and young women in the country, and those who avoid meat are usually found to have lower iron levels. This is despite the average amount of grain consumed by Swedes containing more iron than the levels of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy consumed.

    The problem is that grains like wheat, rye, oats and barley are bound to phytic acid, an antinutrient found in the outer layer of these foods, where many minerals and other nutrients are located. The human body can’t break down this acid, meaning that most of the minerals bound to it pass through the body unabsorbed.

    To solve this challenge, the researchers employed an innovative method of hypothermal treatment, developed by Hidden in Grains, to release minerals in grains like barley, rye, and wheat varieties such as einkorn, emmer, Dalawheat, and spelt.

    The technique is inspired by centuries-old grain preparation methods and optimised with modern tech at the Axfoundation’s Torsåker Farm. The researchers soaked the grain at specific times, temperatures and pH levels to kickstart the grain’s natural processes and trick it into thinking it’s time to release the minerals.

    This makes it easier for the body to absorb those minerals. The project showed how the treatment can break down up to 99% of the phytic acid present in the grains, making nearly four times more iron and zinc available to the body.

    “The results show that not only are the grain products flavorful and easy to use, but we can also enhance the nutritional value of grains with minimal climate and energy costs,” says Hidden Grains CEO David Fredlund.

    Mineral-rich grains to appear in new products and dishes

    mineral rich foods
    Courtesy: Axfoundation

    The process doesn’t work as well for all grains – oats, for example, remain relatively unchanged after the treatment. But tests showed the true potential of these future-friendly grains to treat iron deficiencies without harming the planet.

    A portion of whole-grain pasta with tomato sauce had 35% of the daily recommended intake of iron for children aged seven to 10, higher than the 25% available in a portion of regular pasta with meatballs. The zinc levels in the latter (45%), though, were higher than in the former (20%).

    To prepare for commercialisation, the innovation teams at both Axfoundation and MatLust Development Node have begun experimenting with new ingredients, dishes and products for both retail shelves and restaurant menus.

    Axfoundation has worked with mills, retailers, and a range of stakeholders to develop Råggyberry, which it describes as a “snack of the future”. This contains hydrothermally treated whole grain rye, a byproduct from the prediction of white cheese, yoghurt, and an apple and blackcurrant compote.

    It tested the product on 50 families with children through a partnership with meal delivery company Middagsfrid, where 80% found it to be tasty, 75% felt just the right amount of satiety, and 85% understood the health benefits. After receiving positive responses in a sampling with over 2,000 children, Råggyberry is being launched at Willys, Hemköp, and Urban Deli, all owned by retail chain Axfood.

    The researchers also found that refined wheat flour can be entirely or partially replaced with whole grain in products through micronisation (which involves finely grinding whole grains), and tested various other meals and products, including granola, porridge, pasta, pancakes, crackers, cookies, and even sausages.

    Hidden in Grains’s hydrothermally treated Bulgur as Barley product is available through wholesalers and has been used in dishes like tabbouleh, with the target buyer being the public foodservice sector.

    “This is a great example of how minerals can be significantly more available from grain products, making it easier for more people to eat sustainably without compromising on nutritional content,” says Öhrvik. “Whole grains are among the most sustainable foods we can eat, and Sweden has significant production capacity.”

    The post Swedish Researchers Adopt Ancient Technique to ‘Trick’ Grains Into Releasing As Many Minerals As Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Judge Rejects Upside Foods’s Request to Block Florida’s Cultivated Meat Ban

    florida lab grown meat ban
    5 Mins Read

    A federal judge has refused Upside Foods’s request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against Florida’s ban on cultivated meat, throwing its Art Basel plans into doubt.

    Upside Foods has had its request to halt the enforcement of Florida’s cultivated meat ban denied by a federal judge.

    In a 21-page ruling last Friday, Chief US District Judge Mark Walker rejected the Californian food tech startup’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which would have allowed it to showcase its cultivated chicken at the Art Basel festival in Miami (December 6-8).

    Florida was the first US state to ban cultivated meat, making it a second-degree misdemeanour to manufacture, sell or distribute these proteins. After being signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in May, the law came into effect on July 1.

    A month later, however, Upside Foods – one of only two companies approved to sell cultivated meat by the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration – filed a legal complaint against the state, calling the move “unconstitutional”.

    The Institute for Justice, which is leading the case on behalf of Upside Foods, sought a preliminary injunction to halt the ban until a decision on the lawsuit is made, allowing the company to sell its products and honour its event commitments. It had teamed up with local chefs for the Art Basel fair, and is set to host a tasting at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in the state capital next February.

    But after a hearing last Monday, Walker has denied the preliminary injunction. However, this does not spell the end of the lawsuit.

    Upside Foods ‘could identify no regulation’ to support specific arguments

    florida bans lab-grown meat
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    Upside Foods argued that the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) – which requires the USDA and FDA to inspect all poultry products, which apply to sales in states too – preempts Florida from prohibiting the sale of cultivated meat.

    “Essentially, the federal government has said that cultivated chicken cells produced at Upside’s facilities can be used in poultry products, and the state of Florida is saying that they can’t. The state simply doesn’t have that power,” Paul Sherman, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, said at the time.

    The state argued that cultivated chicken does not fall into the definition of a poultry product, but Walker noted that Upside Foods “has the better of the arguments” here, acknowledging that Upside Foods’s product comes directly from chicken cells.

    However, while the company argued that Florida’s ban imposes ingredient and manufacturing requirements inconsistent with the PPIA, the judge said the plaintiff could not identify a law or regulation “creates a federal ‘ingredient requirement’ with respect to ‘cultivated meat’”.

    Moreover, since Upside Foods does not manufacture its cultivated chicken in Florida, the ban on manufacturing doesn’t impact its operations or facilities. “Florida has not sought to reach into Plaintiff’s facilities to tell them how they should handle their cultivated chicken cells throughout the production process and then reframed such regulations as a sales ban,” he wrote.

    “Just because Plaintiff’s product arguably falls within the scope of the PPIA, and thus, is under the USDA’s regulatory authority, this does not mean that a state is expressly preempted from banning the sale of that particular kind of poultry product,” Walker stated.

    Lawyers to appeal decision as judge recognises ban’s effect on Upside Foods

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

    While the preliminary injunction has been denied, the lawsuit continues. “Preliminary injunctions are just that: preliminary,” said Sherman. “The real fight is still ahead, and today’s ruling has no bearing on the final resolution of this case. We always expected the bulk of the lawsuit to be decided on its merits, and that’s exactly where we’re headed.”

    The judge’s ruling revealed a number of partnerships Upside Foods had struck to sell cultivated meat in Florida before the ban was imposed. The company had already sold its cultivated chicken to at least one restaurant in Miami, and the chef it had teamed up with for Art Basel was also planning to offer the cultivated chicken at her restaurant on a limited basis by the first quarter of 2025.

    Upside Foods had further identified chefs in Miami and Tallahassee for similar partnerships, but halted talks after the ban came into place.

    “Defendants’ suggestion that Plaintiff’s evidence must establish something more than past sales or distribution, halted plans to work with Florida chefs, and future intentions to resume efforts to partner with Florida chefs and other businesses would effectively require Plaintiff to submit an admission concerning the commission of a crime under Florida law,” wrote Walker, noting that Upside Foods did not need to incriminate itself “just to get through the courthouse door”.

    In recognising Upside Foods’s standing to seek a preliminary injunction, he stated that the “evidence demonstrates that it faces a real and immediate threat of criminal enforcement against it if it continues to attempt to sell or distribute its cultivated chicken in Florida”.

    Suranjan Sen, an attorney at the Institute of Justice, called the denial of the preliminary junction merely a “procedural step”. “We are looking forward to appealing this preliminary decision while the case goes forward,” he said. “We are confident that the courts will ultimately recognise that Florida cannot ban products simply to protect local industries from honest competition.”

    Florida isn’t the only state to have banned cultivated meat – a similar law took effect in Alabama at the start of this month. And lawmakers in Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia have introduced similar measures.

    The post Judge Rejects Upside Foods’s Request to Block Florida’s Cultivated Meat Ban appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Umami Bioworks Heads to the Home of Fish & Chips, Seeking UK Regulatory Filing for Cultivated Seafood

    umami bioworks
    5 Mins Read

    Singaporean cultivated seafood producer Umami Bioworks has expanded operations to the UK, and is in talks with the country’s regulator as it maps a path to market.

    Umami Bioworks’s international expansion rages on, with the cultivated seafood startup now setting up operations in the UK, the land of fish and chips (and overfishing).

    The UK is the latest in a growing list of countries on Umami Bioworks’s radar, which include South Korea, India, Malaysia, the US, and Singapore. “Over the past year, we’ve been evaluating a variety of strategies to bring our platform to the European market to address the growing challenges with seafood supply shortages and rising costs,” Umami Bioworks founder and CEO Mihir Pershad tells Green Queen.

    It comes just a day after the UK government invested £1.6M for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to fast-track testing and regulatory approval of cultivated meat, and three months after it became the first European country to greenlight such a product for sale (albeit for pet food).

    “We’ve been in contact with the regulators at the FSA, exploring the path to commercialisation in the UK market,” reveals Pershad. “We’re excited to be moving forward in the UK market after assessing the market needs and multiple conversations with regulators and potential partners.”

    Those partners include institutes like University College London and Imperial College, which is also the site of one of Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centres for Sustainable Protein. “In general, we work with university collaborators on frontier projects to help unlock new innovations cultivated solutions more scalable and more affordable,” says Pershad.

    “Our collaborations span a wide range of activities, from establishing new species for cell cultivation to the development of novel machine learning solutions that enhance the speed of development and scalability.”

    Battling the UK’s big overfishing problem

    lab grown fish uk
    Courtesy: Umami Bioworks

    The company’s model in the UK mirrors its scale-up approach globally. “We intend to partner with an established food company to establish domestic production built upon Umami’s technology platform, producing seafood that meats UK consumer tastes and desires,” explains Pershad.

    While the production capacity hasn’t been determined yet, he adds: “We see Umami’s role in the ecosystem to primarily be commercialising and scaling near-term cultivated solutions, but we also see tremendous value in seeding the future of the industry in partnership with academic collaborators.”

    Umami Bioworks, which merged with fellow Singaporean cultivated seafood firm Shiok Meats in March, is among a number of startups using cellular agriculture to tackle the global overfishing crisis. Nearly 90% of the world’s fish stocks are now 80% of the planet’s fisheries have been fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, according to the UN FAO.

    One study suggests that we could be heading towards a complete collapse of ocean life by 2048, driven primarily by overfishing for human consumption, as well as marine pollution and climate change.

    Looking locally, over a third of UK fish populations are being overfished, and a quarter have been depleted to critically low population sizes, marine protection organisation Oceana UK found. The government’s own scientists have said that 54% of the country’s catch limits set by lawmakers are at unsustainably high levels.

    The UK relies heavily on 10 key fishing stocks, five of which are either being overfished or reaching critically endangered population levels. Of these 10 stocks, six are whitefish, the same type Umami Bioworks is first focusing on for its UK plans.

    “We will be bringing production technology and capability for both premium seafood and companion animal products to the UK, and will determine the order of launch for various products in collaboration with our local partners,” says Pershad.

    Umami Bioworks praises UK government’s effort to advance cultivated meat

    lab grown fish
    Courtesy: Umami Bioworks

    Britain’s appetite for cultivated meat may not be huge – a government-backed survey suggested that only a third would be open to trying these proteins – but it is certainly growing. YouGov polling shows that the number of Brits who would give cultivated meat a go has grown from 19% in 2012 to 26% now.

    This is likely aided by the growing awareness about cultivated meat – nearly three-quarters (74%) of UK residents have heard about these foods. But while they generally consider them to be better for animal welfare and planetary health, concerns around taste and price remain.

    Additionally, more people feel cultivated meat (27%) is less safe to eat than those who think it’s better (16%), although a third (33%) are unsure about the food safety aspect. It highlights a critical gap in consumer education and communication for the industry.

    This will be remedied in part by the government’s aforementioned efforts to create a regulatory ‘sandbox’, which would provide application support to cultivated meat startups, speed up regulatory approval timelines, and expand the safety and nutritional knowledge of novel foods, all while maintaining the FSA’s safety standards.

    “Ensuring consumers can trust the safety of new foods is one of our most crucial responsibilities,” said Prof Robin May, chief scientific advisor to the FSA. He added that the initiative “will enable safe innovation and allow us to keep pace with new technologies being used by the food industry to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of safe foods”.

    Pershad says Umami Bioworks is “delighted” to see the FSA’s ambitions of creating a sandbox be realised: “We are strong proponents of sandbox approaches because we believe they enable companies and regulators to learn together and to share openly in a way that builds more robust and tailored regulatory frameworks when new technical approaches are involved.”

    So where next for the company? It’s setting up production lines in Malaysia and South Korea, collaborating with research initiatives in India, and working with a pet food company to bring cultivated fish treats for cats to the US market next year. “We are in active review with documents submitted to regulators in major markets across America, Europe, and Asia,” Pershad told Green Queen last week.

    “Of course, the EU is a significant seafood market and one that we are assessing closely,” he says now. The EU’s novel food regulation (which the UK is now moving away from, nearly five years after Brexit) has long been a major barrier for startups in the space. So far, only France’s Gourmey has filed for approval. “We don’t yet have a timeline or firm plans to announce for regulatory submission or market entry into the EU, but we expect to solidify those plans this quarter.”

    The post Umami Bioworks Heads to the Home of Fish & Chips, Seeking UK Regulatory Filing for Cultivated Seafood appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Coconut Infant Formula, Vegan Sushi Rolls & Regulatory Help

    vegan sushi rolls
    5 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a coconut-based infant formula, Marriott Hotels’s food waste driven, and a US government tool for regulatory help.

    New products and launches

    Los Angeles startup Before the Butcher has introduced a Cooked Plant-Based Breakfast Sausage Patty. The frozen product just needs to be reheated to an internal temperature of 165°F/74°C, and can keep in the freezer for 12 months.

    daring chicken bowls
    Courtesy: Daring

    Also in California, plant-based chicken player Daring has launched two new frozen entrée bowls in Buffalo Mac & Cheese and Queso Burrito variants. Both contain dairy cheese, so aren’t suitable for vegans, and will be available at Albertsons, Target, and Publix stores nationwide.

    US grocer Trader Joe’s has brought out an unsweetened version of its Organic Non-Dairy Coconut Beverage, which is available for $2.99 per 32oz pack.

    trader joe's milk alternatives
    Courtesy: Trader Joe’s

    Across the Atlantic, GoodMills Innovation will exhibit three new texturants, two made from peas and one from fava beans and wheat, at the Fi Europe 2024 event in Frankfurt (November 19-21).

    Dutch alt-seafood producer Vegan Finest Foods has released three plant-based sushi rolls under its Vegan Zeastar brand. They come in three options: Oshi No Salmon, Spicy No Tuna, and No Salmon Asparagus.

    heura white ham
    Courtesy: Heura

    Spanish plant-based meat maker Heura is opening a pop-up called The Phamacy in France to celebrate its new additive-free white ham. The setting mimics a real pharmacy with staff dressed in medical gear and a menu in the form of prescriptions.

    In the UK, plant-based brand Meatless Farm has added two vegan sourdough pizzas to its lineup in Ham & Mushroom Style and Spicy Pepperoni Style flavours (available at Sainsbury’s), while updating its existing Beef Style Meatballs, Pork Style Sausages, and Quarter Pounders (which can be found at Morrisons).

    meatless farm pizza
    Courtesy: Meatless Farm

    Fellow British plant-based meat brand THIS, meanwhile, has partnered with fresh pasta maker Dell’Ugo to release two vegan ravioli products. Available in Bacon & Cheese and Chicken & Pesto flavours, they’re available on the Dell’Ugo website and at Morrisons.

    In more UK news, egg alternatives brand Oggs has launched Gingerbread Cakes and Hot Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes as part of its Christmas lineup. The cakes can be found at Sainsbury’s and on Ocado for £3.95, and the cupcakes are stocked at Tesco Express, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Ocado for £2.35.

    coco2 infant formula
    Courtesy: Coco2

    And Australia’s Coco2 has debuted what it claims is the world’s first coconut-based infant formula, which took 10 years to develop alongside the University of Queensland, parents, and healthcare professionals. It offers three products for different age groups: up to six months, six to 12 months, and 12+ months.

    Company and finance updates

    Marriott Hotels, the world’s largest hotel group, has enlisted AI-powered food waste startup Winnow‘s expertise in 53 of its kitchens in the UK, Ireland and Nordics, after reducing its waste by a quarter in the first six months of 2024 through the technology. The company now aims to cut food waste by 50% in 2025.

    North Carolina-based cultivated seafood maker Atlantic Fish Co has won an SBIR PHASE I grant from the US Department of Agriculture, which it will use to advance R&D operations.

    oat milk cheese
    Courtesy: Armored Fresh

    FoodBev Media has announced the shortlist for the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2024, with companies like MyForest Foods, Armored Fresh, Beyond Meat, Prime Roots, and Elmhurst 1925 among the finalists across 15 categories.

    Research and policy developments

    In the US, the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration have jointly released an online tool to help biotech companies – including those involved in cultivated meat, precision fermentation and molecular farming – navigate the regulatory pathway.

    hello kitty algae
    Courtesy: Sanrio Co.

    At the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, the makers of Hello Kitty will feature the cartoon in an exhibit focused on the sustainability potential of algae. The character will be turned into 32 different types of algae, from triangular microalgae to wakame, looking to promote their role in planet-friendly food, biofuels, bioplastics, etc.

    The judge presiding over Upside Foods‘s lawsuit against Florida’s cultivated meat ban held a hearing lasting over two hours, and has suggested he will rule by early November, well before the Art Basel event in Miami Beach (December 6-8), where the startup is hoping to showcase its chicken.

    florida bans lab-grown meat
    Courtesy: Upside Foods

    At the National University of Singapore, scientists have developed a scalable method for cultivating pork fat tissue using protein scaffolds made from secalin, a protein extracted from rye.

    Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute Europe has published an updated edition of its scientific review on cell lines used in cultivated meat.

    Finally, while promoting her new climate change movie The Wild Robot, Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o has endorsed eating plant-based food as one of the ways to “do something good for the planet”.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Coconut Infant Formula, Vegan Sushi Rolls & Regulatory Help appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • UK Government Pumps £1.6M, Opens New Regulatory Office in Milestone Move for Cultivated Meat

    fsa regulatory sandbox
    6 Mins Read

    The UK government has awarded £1.6M to the Food Standards Agency to create a ‘sandbox’ to fast-track cultivated meat approval, alongside a new regulatory office.

    Nearly five years after breaking away from the EU, the UK is rapidly stepping up its efforts to bring cultivated meat on British plates.

    Today, it has awarded £1.6M to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to create a first-of-its-kind regulatory ‘sandbox’ for cultivated meat producers. The idea is to “support innovation through safety” by speeding up the timeline and lowering the costs related to regulatory clearance.

    Sandboxes comprise controlled environments for situations where scientific and technological innovation has outpaced existing regulation – a lot of companies are currently making cultivated meat, but the UK’s authorisation process is slow and congested. These sandboxes run for a limited period to help startups, researchers and regulators work together to develop new rules, standards and guidance.

    The investment for the Cell-Cultivated Products Regulatory Sandbox is part of the first round of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund.

    In addition to the financing, the FSA said it is pressing ahead with plans to set up a system of international cooperation, which would see the UK greenlight cultivated meat products that have been approved by other countries.

    In a parallel effort, the government has also created a Regulatory Innovation Office to reduce the burden of red tape and accelerate public access to new technologies. It will work together with the Department for Transport, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

    Robert E Jones, president of trade association Cellular Agriculture Europe, said the move signposted the UK’s aim to be an innovation leader by “boosting its global competitiveness in the race to address food security and sustainability issues in our food systems”.

    “The UK has the potential to be at the front of the pack in Europe’s projected £70B cultivated meat market, but only if investors know we are open for business,” added Jeremy Coller, president of the Alternative Proteins Association. “The creation of this sandbox is a fantastic step forward for growing British businesses.”

    Cultivated meat sandbox will lower costs and approval timeline

    uk lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Ivy Farm Technologies

    Plans to create a sandbox were first announced by the FSA in February, after a 2023 report it commissioned found that speeding up novel foods regulation could help the UK meet its carbon reduction plans. The regulator said it was in talks with food companies and had issued a call for scientists to work alongside the testing project.

    Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe last month called on ministers to approve the FSA’s bid for funding to ensure the agency “can accelerate its understanding of the food safety aspects of cultivated meat”.

    Regulatory sandboxes allow companies to test new concepts with real customers under the supervision of a regulator, as designed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. The cultivated meat sandbox, a first for Europe, would provide pre-application support to startups, expand the safety and nutritional knowledge of novel foods, and reduce approval timelines, all while maintaining safety standards.

    Due to launch in February, the sandbox will be jointly run by the FSA and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) over a two-year period, which will collect “rigorous scientific evidence” about the technology behind cultivated meat. The aim is to better guide companies on making products in a safe way, and demonstrating that they are, indeed, safe.

    The regulatory bodies will address some of the key questions that need tackling – such as labelling – before cultivated meat hits the market. All this would enable the FSA and FSS to “keep pace with emerging technologies” and apply new, up-to-date insights when clearing novel foods for sale.

    The sandbox programme aims to shrink the costs associated with regulatory applications – currently standing at £350,000-£500,000 per product – and help cultivated meat startups attract the investment required to scale up their manufacturing capacity.

    So far, five companies have applied for regulatory approval in the UK. London-based Meatly, which targets pet food, is the only one to have received the go-ahead. Israel’s Aleph Farms (whose cultivated beef is already approved in its home country), French startups Vital Meat (cultivated chicken) and Gourmey (cultivated foie gras), and British player Ivy Farm Technologies (cultivated beef) are all waiting in the wings.

    Now, the FSA expects at least 15 more applications in the next two years, and predicts that many more startups could crop up thanks to the development.

    UK expands efforts to advance cultivated meat

    fsa lab grown meat
    Courtesy: Food Standards Agency

    The announcement accompanied the FSA’s confirmation that it will establish a framework for international cooperation for novel food approvals, which was first suggested in May. This would enable the UK to authorise products based on their approvals in other countries like Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

    These plans are yet to be backed by Keir Starmer’s Labour administration. But the FSA is planning to use some of the funds to set up an international regulatory network that would help set up such a system.

    Cultivated meat is also on the radar of the new Regulatory Innovation Office, whose engineering biology focus involves helping regulators bring these products to market faster. “By speeding up approvals, providing regulatory certainty and reducing unnecessary delays, we’re curbing the burden of red tape so businesses and our public services can innovate and grow, which means more jobs, a stronger economy, and a better quality of life for people across the UK,” said science and tech secretary Peter Kyle.

    “Ensuring consumers can trust the safety of new foods is one of our most crucial responsibilities,” said Prof Robin May, chief scientific advisor to the FSA. “The CCP sandbox programme will enable safe innovation and allow us to keep pace with new technologies being used by the food industry to ultimately provide consumers with a wider choice of safe foods.”

    These developments are part of a larger effort by the UK to “modernise” its regulatory framework. In 2025, the FSA is rolling out reforms to the process, which include the creation of a new public register to replace the existing system of requiring a statutory instrument, and removing the need for renewals of approvals every 10 years.

    The statutory instrument adds up to six months to a process that already takes over two-and-a-half years, and the renewal requirements add to the FSA’s already crowded backlog – around 22% of its 450-strong caseload are renewal applications, and it expects a further 300 in the next two years as approvals expire.

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

    Further demonstrating its commitment to the cause, the UK government also poured in £15M towards a National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), taking its total investment in the category above £91M. NAPIC involves multiple universities, farmers, regulators, and plant-based, cultivated meat and fermentation startups, alongside international partners like the UN.

    The post UK Government Pumps £1.6M, Opens New Regulatory Office in Milestone Move for Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Nuggs Maker Simulate Bought By Ahimsa Companies After Period of Uncertainty for the ‘Tesla of Chicken’

    simulate nuggs
    5 Mins Read

    Vegan chicken startup Simulate, famous for its Nuggs, has been acquired by Ahimsa Companies to get the business back on track after months of (dis)quiet.

    Simulate, the plant-based meat brand known for its meme-famous Nuggs, has been taken over by Ahimsa Companies, a recently formed holding company.

    First reported by Axios, the deal is a combination of cash and equity (the amount was undisclosed), and will be used to help the startup return to shelves and consumer’s plates. In recent months, its products have reportedly disappeared from grocery stores, leaving many wondering whether the business was going under.

    Having raised $57M already, Simulate chose to find a buyer rather than try and secure more money in an increasingly difficult funding environment for plant-based meat companies.

    It comes months after Ahimsa Companies, which is affiliated with the Ahimsa Foundation, bought vegan food brand Wicked Kitchen and its subsidiaries Good Catch and Current Foods for an undisclosed sum.

    simulate ahimsa companies
    Courtesy: Simulate/Green Queen

    Simulate’s journey from lockdown-favourite to recent struggles

    Simulate first came on the scene in 2018, with founders Ben Pasternak and Sam Terris banking on the company’s tech-forward software-like approach – which involves constantly improving its formula and publishing its updates – to win customers over.

    The social-media-savvy brand became (in)famous for controversial taglines such as ‘the Tesla of chicken’ and ‘Kill you slower’, leaning it to a silly-yet-serious approach that left a lot of impressions (and memes). The startup’s investors include Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian, hip-hop legend Jay-Z, and frozen food behemoth McCain Foods.

    The brand blew up during Covid-19, with its frozen chicken nuggets reaching online consumers at a time when most other vegan alternatives were only available in retail stores. By the end of 2021, its annual revenue hit $8M.

    Simulate had also introduced vegan chicken breast, tenders, strips, cutlets, and the now-discontinued discs, and was once valued at $250M. But then, at the end of 2023, Pasternak stepped down as CEO (remaining as chairman), with Terris (who was COO) taking over.

    “This was a decision Ben and I made together over many months, and we ultimately aligned that this would be best for Simulate as we scale up our new technology,” Terris told Forbes at the time.

    In the last few months, things have been muted. The brand’s social media – its best marketing too – had largely gone quiet, with no posts since the end of June. The previous two were related to a new product, Insta-Chicken, that the brand said it would release online (but can’t be seen on its website now).

    This led many fans online to wonder if this was it for Simulate. “Are you still going to make nuggets? The stores near me(in Philly)have stopped carrying them & I read you might be getting rid of them,” wrote one Instagram user. On a Reddit thread titled ‘Has Simulate Nuggs Gone Out of Business?’, customers said the brand’s website was down at one point, and its products could no longer be found on shelves.

    Now, the mystery is out, and it seems Simulate is getting back on its feet. “We’ve spent the last year searching extensively for the right mission-aligned partner to help push Simulate’s technology forward. We found our match in Ahimsa,” Terris wrote on LinkedIn. “Feeling especially grateful today for our team (past and present), the Board, our investors, and NUGGS fans everywhere.”

    Ahimsa Companies looks to amp up M&As

    Ahimsa Companies’s takeover of Simulate is the latest in an increasingly lengthy list of M&A deals in the plant-based sector, and the food tech industry overall. Research has shown that M&A activity in the food business reached an eight-year-high in the first four months of this year. And in Q2, the number of deals was up by a third compared to the same period last year.

    Vegan chicken startup VFC’s evolution into the Vegan Food Group, a holding company that now owns Meatless Farm, Clive’s Purely Plants and Tofutown, is one of the most prominent examples of the importance of consolidation in the plant-based meat sector, which has faced sales and investment declines since the tail-end of the pandemic.

    “There’s been a lot of cash deployed to develop great products, brands and technology, but not under the right economic conditions to thrive,” Ahimsa Companies CEO Matthew Tullman told Axios. “To carry forth the plant-based movement, consolidation is really required.”

    He outlined why driving the industry forward is important. “It is impossible to conceive of a future (in which) we can feed seven-to-10 billion humans on an animal-based diet,” he said, noting that he still has hopes for “a plant-forward future”, but the industry doesn’t work well with the typical venture capital timeline anymore.

    Tullmann confirmed that Ahimsa Companies had no operational overlap with the Ahimsa Foundation, whose head Satish Karandikar is an investor in the holding company, and which led a funding round for alternative protein startup Eat Just last year.

    As part of a roll-up strategy, Ahimsa Companies is now looking at companies in the precision fermentation, cultivated meat, extruded pea protein, non-dairy alternative, and plant-based food segments – it already has two larger deals in the pipeline, according to Axios. Additionally, it has bought a 50,000 sq ft factory in Ohio to produce meat analogues.

    vegan chicken nuggets
    Courtesy: Nectar

    The vegan nugget category is lucrative, but also overcrowded and highly competitive. In the US alone, there are 20 brands of plant-based chicken nuggets, such as Gardein, Quorn, Beyond Meat Impossible, Jack & Annie’s, Alpha Foods, Daring, MorningStar Farms, Yves, Rebellyous, LikeMeat and Boca – and that’s before you get to private-label brands. That has made it hard for companies to stand out, and some, like Nowadays, have exited the space.

    Simulate seemed to have been facing a similar squeeze. But it will be buoyed by the takeover, and the fact that people love vegan nuggets – more so than even the conventional thing. In a recent taste test, more meat-eaters liked plant-based nuggets made by a leading brand (70%) than chicken-based versions (53%), and Simulate was among four other companies identified as the leaders.

    “Generally, breaded and fried plant-based meat categories receive higher ratings than non-breaded and fried categories,” explained Caroline Cotto, director of Nectar, which carried out the research. “These products stood out for their superior flavour, which was most central to overall liking.”

    The post Nuggs Maker Simulate Bought By Ahimsa Companies After Period of Uncertainty for the ‘Tesla of Chicken’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • McDonald’s France Finally Goes Vegan, Offering Veggie McPlant Nuggets With Beyond Chicken

    mcdonalds vegan nuggets
    4 Mins Read

    McDonald’s France is introducing vegan nuggets made from Beyond Meat, its first plant-based option, offered at the same price as conventional chicken.

    Fast-food giant McDonald’s is finally offering a plant-based option in France, its biggest market outside the US.

    The chain will launch Veggie McPlant Nuggets tomorrow at all its 1,500+ outlets in the country, extending its Europe-wide partnership with US vegan leader Beyond Meat. They will be available in four-, six-, nine- and 20-piece servings and as part of various meal deals, all at the same price as conventional McNuggets.

    Unlike previous veggie launches, the vegan chicken nuggets are a permanent menu addition at McDonald’s France, and are designed to attract vegans as well as flexitarians looking to diversify their protein intake.

    McDonald’s looks to build on France’s changing dietary habits

    mcdonalds france vegan
    Courtesy: McDonald’s France

    The vegan McNuggets are a result of a “close collaboration between Beyond Meat and McDonald’s”. They’re made from a base of pea protein and coated in a blend of wheat and corn flours lightly salted with pepper and celery.

    “We chose to innovate with a first offering based on plant proteins, directly inspired by one of our iconic products,” said McDonald’s France CMO Jean-Guillaume Bertola. “With the Veggie McPlant Nuggets, we are responding to the increasing desire of French consumers to diversify their protein intake while never compromising on taste.”

    The national rollout was based on consumer tests conducted by McDonald’s, which “yielded very satisfactory results, particularly regarding quality and flavour”, according to Bertola.

    “The response was unanimous, there was a real craze from our consumers who found a strong resemblance to the iconic nugget,” he told Le Figaro. “We are rather confident about the success of the product,” he added, noting that the meat-free nuggets have “performed very well” in Germany since their early 2023 launch there.

    McDonald’s holds the largest share of France’s increasingly popular fast-food market. In fact, the country has been labelled as the chain’s biggest market after the US. So the launch of a vegan version of one of its most popular products is a marker of the country’s changing dietary habits, and McDonald’s wish to capitalise on the transition.

    In 2023, an EU-wide survey revealed that nearly six in 10 consumers in France had reduced their meat intake in the preceding year. And federal data shows that French people are eating 6% less meat per capita than they did 20 years ago, though overall consumption has still risen.

    Currently, its citizens eat over 700g of meat per week, more than double what’s recommended in Eat-Lancet’s Planetary Health Diet, and 100g higher than the national dietary guidelines. Health and climate experts have been calling for the national recommendations to cut weekly meat consumption by 25% to 450g in the upcoming update.

    And despite the high amounts of meat the French eat, 57% of them say they’d back government policies that cut back on animal protein for human and planetary health.

    Beyond Meat’s European success with McDonald’s

    mcdonald's mcplant
    Courtesy: McDonald’s

    The launch of the Veggie McPlant Nuggets marks an extension of the successful partnership between McDonald’s and Beyond Meat in Europe. While the McPlant burger – made using Beyond Beef – hasn’t quite worked out in the US, it has thrived across the Atlantic.

    Beyond Meat has suffered a rocky couple of years in terms of sales – for example, it posted an 18% decrease in annual revenue in 2023. Despite that, international sales actually grew by the same percentage, largely thanks to the McDonald’s partnership.

    The vegan meat maker’s CEO, Ethan Brown, told investors that the business had witnessed “continued traction at McDonald’s across countries such as Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, UK, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Switzerland”.

    With the vegan McNuggets, Beyond Meat’s link-up with McDonald’s is entering France, joining a Veggie lineup comprising burgers such as the McVeggie, Veggie Curry, and Honey Mustard Veggie, as well as the Caesar Salad Veggie. But none of these existing options are suitable for vegans, so the plant-based nuggets are a first for the fast-food chain’s French operation.

    This comes amid a resurgent plant-based industry in the country. Just last week, the EU’s top court ruled against a ban on the use of meat-related words on plant-based packaging, a piece of legislation originally proposed by the French government (which was suspended by the nation’s highest administrative court).

    This came at the same time France’s most popular plant-based meat export, La Vie, closed a €25M funding round, introduced vegan meatballs, and debuted its first national TV ad. And months earlier, despite all the kerfuffle, plant-based food was all the rage at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

    The post McDonald’s France Finally Goes Vegan, Offering Veggie McPlant Nuggets With Beyond Chicken appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Döhler Backs Fava Bean Chocolate Maker As Climate Change Eats Up Cocoa Crops

    cocoa free chocolate
    4 Mins Read

    German food manufacturing specialist Döhler has invested in UK startup Nukoko to scale up its bean-to-bar cocoa-free chocolate, ahead of a market launch in 2025.

    This month, cocoa futures in the UK dropped by 16%, marking a rare gulf with US cocoa prices. But while that may seem like a good thing, it happened because of a shortage of high-grade cocoa.

    It comes in a year where cocoa prices have hit record highs, thanks to extreme weather decimating crops in the two largest producers of the fruit, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

    This is why certain up-and-coming startups in the food tech arena are vying for new solutions, with a view to creating climate-resilient chocolate alternatives (or even cell-based versions) with more robust and carbon-light crops, such as sunflower seeds, carob, or barley.

    One of them is betting on fava beans (or broad beans, if you’re in the UK), the high-protein base for falafels and fūl in Egypt to pachamanca in Peru and doubanjiang in China. British innovator Nukoko is treating this humble bean – of which the UK harvests 740 tonnes annually – the same way chocolate producers process cocoa beans, ending up with what it says is the world’s first bean-to-bar cocoa-free chocolate.

    To transform fava beans into chocolate, Nukoko makes use of the same fermentation processes, and as it looks to scale up and bring its version to market, it’s now being supported by Döhler, a behemoth in the fermentation and manufacturing industry.

    Why Nukoko chose fava beans to overhaul cocoa

    fava bean chocolate
    Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva

    So here’s the problem, chocolate is a problematic ingredient. Dark chocolate produces more greenhouse gas emissions than every other food bar beef, and is highly water-intensive. The widespread use of palm oil has also meant the industry is linked to tropical deforestation (which accounts for 95% of all forest-clearing globally).

    Cocoa is making the planet warmer. But climate change itself is wrecking cocoa – as mentioned above, yields are down and prices are up, and a third of all cocoa trees could die out by 2050. Farmers in Ivory Coast, meanwhile, have already lost 85% of the forest cover since 1960.

    Nukoko is among a host of companies hoping to solve this problem. Some – like fellow British startup Win-Win, Italy’s Foreverland, Germany’s Planet A Foods, and US player Voyage Foods – are taking the same approach, using other ingredients and blending them with sustainable fats to make cocoa-free chocolate.

    Others are coursing a different path. Israeli startups Celleste Bio and Kokomodo, US producer California Cultured, and Finnish giant Fazer are working on cell-based chocolate, while researchers have also discovered three cocoa-like plants that could lighten the load on the chocolate industry.

    Nukoko, founded in 2022 by Ross Newton, Kit Tomlinson and David Salt, chose to use fava beans since they’re a hardy cover crop that’s grown domestically in the UK and the EU, can fix nitrogen, promote soil health, and shrink the need for fertilisers.

    Its chocolate alternative is said to generate 90% fewer emissions, while also benefitting the human body through its high protein and fibre qualities, alongside 40% lower sugar content.

    But the company claims this reduction in sugar has no effect on the flavour – and this could be thanks to the fact that fava beans, just like cocoa, contain a seed storage protein called vicilin. When this breaks down and the peptides are roasted, you’re left with chocolatey flavours.

    Nukoko aims for a 2025 launch

    nukoko chocolate
    Courtesy: Nukoko

    Nukoko puts the fava beans through “unique biotransformation” and controlled fermentation processes, before they’re dried, roasted and ground into a cocoa powder that can be used in all sorts of chocolate formulations.

    “Here in Europe, we’re using a fava bean, because they’re abundant, they’re cost-effective, and really beneficial to the soil,” Newton says in a video on the company’s website. “But as we grow into Asia, for example, we’ll use a domestic bean. That makes our technology truly flexible and scalable.”

    Nukoko’s approach has impressed many in the food tech industry. The company has won a place at the IndieBio accelerator programme in New York, and was named on Forward Fooding’s 2023 FoodTech 500 list (described as the “Fortune 500 of agrifood tech”). Its potential has also led to development agreements with the likes of Swiss retailer Coop group, which has over 2,500 locations in the country.

    Now, Döhler is lending its expertise in fermentation and ingredient manufacturing to help expand Nukoko’s operations. The company – which raised €1.3M in seed funding earlier this year – currently has a pilot facility where it works in 500kg batches, with Döhler helping it transition to 10,000-litre fermentation batches by next year, with a capacity of thousands of tonnes per month.

    The process and ingredients mean Nukoko’s chocolate isn’t considered a novel food, and doesn’t require approval from regulatory authorities. “We aim to launch in the first half of next year,” Newton tells Green Queen. “Our focus is EU/UK, and we are purely a B2B ingredients supplier. We will start supplying milk and vegan milk alternatives initially.”

    As an example of what these products would look like, he says the milk chocolate would contain 23% fava bean powder, shea butter, sugar, and sunflower lecithin.

    Asked if Nukoko would be developing products with Döhler as well, he notes: “Yes, I imagine so.”

    The post Döhler Backs Fava Bean Chocolate Maker As Climate Change Eats Up Cocoa Crops appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Austrian Vegan Seafood Startup Opens ‘World’s Largest’ 3D-Printed Food Factory

    revo foods factory
    4 Mins Read

    Revo Foods has opened what it says is the world’s largest factory dedicated to 3D-printed food, rolling out an updated whole-cut mycelium salmon fillet as the facility’s first product.

    Austrian alternative protein startup Revo Foods has unveiled a new production facility and an updated version of its flagship 3D-printed salmon.

    The new site, dubbed the Taste Factory, can produce up to 60 tonnes of product a month at full capacity, and is described as the first manufacturing plant to apply 3D food-printing technology on such a scale.

    It makes use of Revo Foods’s 3D Structuring tech, which combines two materials (like fat and protein) into complex new forms, in this case resembling meat muscle structures. It helps create desirable textures and juicy, tender structures that are key for vegan fillets. The fat integration creates the delicate layers of its salmon analogue, which are said to separate when baked or fried.

    “With 3D Structuring, we can create entirely new textures using simple but nutrient-rich ingredients like mycelium, creating products that are just so much more exciting,” said Revo Foods CEO Robin Simsa.

    Marrying mycelium with 3D printing

    3d printed salmon
    Courtesy: Revo Foods

    Revo Foods, founded in 2021, introduced the first iteration of its mycoprotein-based salmon just over a year ago, initially rolling the whole-muscle seafood analogue at Rewe Group’s vegan flagship store, Billa Pflanzilla.

    This was born out of a collaboration with Swedish mycoprotein company Mycorena, which has since filed for bankruptcy and been acquired by another fermentation firm, Naplasol. “Mycorena was doing amazing work, but thankfully, we found a way to not be affected by the bankruptcy,” Simsa told Green Queen. “Nevertheless, I hope their great work will live on.”

    Now, it has updated its flagship salmon SKU, called The Filet – Inspired By Salmon, which has a Nutri-Score rating of A, and contains omega-3 (from microalgae oil), as well as vitamins B6, B9, and B12. It’s also high in fibre, and has more protein than its predecessor (14g vs 9g per 100g). The product will first roll out at over 500 Rewe stores in Austria.

    Mycelium – the root-like structure of filamentous fungi – is becoming an increasingly popular base for meat analogues, with companies like Meati, The Better Meat Co, MyForest Foods, Prime Roots and Infinite Roots all banking on the nutritional, environmental and functional advantages of the ingredient. Mycoprotein, the protein derived from mycelium, first became famous with meat-free giant Quorn.

    “Biomasses like fermented mycelium are trending because their natural consistency requires little processing and they are very nutrient-dense,” said Niccolo Galizzi, head of food tech at Revo Foods. “However, in its pure form, it often tastes bland. We believe that for real change, sustainability and culinary pleasure must go hand in hand.”

    He added: “We are already working on the next innovations with mycoprotein, which is a lot of fun using 3D Structuring technology since it offers many possibilities to design the product exactly to the liking of consumers. We like to focus on taste and nutrition, but also on what makes the culinary experiences so unique: getting the texture and authentic mouthfeel right.”

    New revenue stream and mushroom fillet on the cards

    The new Taste Factory will allow Revo Foods to scale up its operations, and potentially open up a new revenue stream as well. While the startup is currently operating the factory in two shifts just to meet demand, Simsa said it is open to manufacturing partnerships with other companies.

    “In the future, we want to focus more on being a technology provider – a provider of process equipment to other food players,” he explained. “We have observed that our technology is of interest to companies outside of the traditional plant-based industry – think dough-like ingredients. We are currently exploring the feasibility of projects.”

    He added: “Apart from this, we have collaborative projects with a number of companies interested in meat alternatives with distinct shapes/structures.” He hinted at an announcement about these partnerships in Q1 2025.

    These companies may be attracted by the fact that Revo Foods’s technology doesn’t need the high temperatures or pressure traditionally seen in industrial production methods, which lowers the nutritional value of the product. Instead, the startup operates under milder conditions that retain micronutrients.

    revo foods the filet
    Courtesy: Revo Foods

    “The production is most efficient at scale. We are still optimising parts of the process to make it most efficient, implement more automated steps and increase the amount of output per machine,” Simsa said. “Also, we’re improving the software controls for the kinematic system.

    “Overall, we see the Taste Factory as a showcase for what this technology can do, and The Filet as the ideal proof. We also need it to improve the actual production setup.”

    Having raised €7.5M ($8.3M) in investment so far, Revo Foods is continuing its efforts to fundraise as it explores new products. One of these could be what Simsa termed a “more natural mushroom protein fillet”, one that would have “an exciting new texture” and umami flavour without attempting to mimic meat – much like what Fable Foods is doing.

    “Many people tell us that they want a good protein-rich meal but not necessarily something with a meat-like taste, which is why this is an interesting avenue to explore,” he said, before confirming that the company will soon relaunch its vegan octopus SKU, called The Kraken.

    The post Austrian Vegan Seafood Startup Opens ‘World’s Largest’ 3D-Printed Food Factory appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Heura Goes Beyond Meat with Healthier Plant-Based Cheese & Pasta to Take On UPF Label

    heura plant based
    5 Mins Read

    Spanish plant-based pioneer Heura is expanding its technology to offer nutrient-dense cold cuts, cheese, and pasta, in a bid to move past the ultra-processed food label.

    It may account for a quarter of Spain’s plant-based meat market, but Heura isn’t satisfied with that – part of an industry inundated with ultra-processed concerns, the startup is doubling down on its technology to expand into new categories.

    At Future Food-Tech London, the Barcelona-based firm showcased a glimpse of its future. By combining plant proteins and healthy lipids, Heura is unlocking textures in food categories where it has been “technologically impossible” to do so until now.

    The company – famous for its clean-label vegan chicken, sausages, burgers and seafood – is now moving into cold cuts, cheese, and pasta. The goal is to tackle a wider range of categories with nutrient-dense alternatives that do away with the need for additives, modified starches, and saturated fats, and entice a larger share of consumers drawn away from ultra-processed food (UPFs).

    “Rather than focusing solely on new ingredients, we need better technologies for product design,” said Heura co-founder and CEO Marc Coloma. “We no longer need to wait years for new functional ingredients that biomimic animal proteins. We can now develop the next generation of products at scale, directly from plant proteins.”

    Heura goes all in on nutrition with category expansion

    heura cold cuts
    Courtesy: Heura

    Heura’s innovation is based on a patent-pending technology that uses simple thermo-mechanical techniques to create product matrices, in what is described as a scalable process.

    The company argues that while the alternative protein industry has been focused on upping the sustainability and nutrition value of meat analogues, Heura’s product structuring tech can replace nutrient-light ingredients with plant proteins in new categories.

    For example, pasta. At the London event, Heura served up spaghetti made from wheat semolina and soy protein isolate, amping up its protein content from around under 20% all the way to 50%. It also brings the carbohydrate content down by 74%.

    protein pasta
    Courtesy: Heura

    Then there were the vegan cheeses, a major pain point for dairy eaters, who remain unsatisfied with the taste and texture of these analogues. Heura is working on several prototypes, and says it can do as many cheeses as possible, which contain 20% protein and low saturated fat. At Future Food-Tech, it exhibited plant-based versions of feta, parmesan, mozzarella, and melty cheese.

    Finally, it also showcased the cold cuts – after all, plant-based meat is Heura’s bread and butter. These are described as the only vegan deli meats “with high protein, low saturated fat, and no additives while having an unparalleled sensory experience”.

    “Today’s prototypes shatter expectations, proving that exceptional taste and unmatched nutritional value aren’t goals for the future – they’re realities we can deliver right now,” said Coloma.

    The company said it wants to provide healthier options to consumers, and diving into newer categories that can help fight the food industry’s challenges will help maximise its impact and “democratise” plant proteins.

    “Who wouldn’t want to replace excess saturated fats, simple carbohydrates, and unnecessary additives with nutrient-dense products made from plant proteins and healthy lipids? And we can do this by leveraging readily available, consumer-friendly ingredients that require no regulatory approval,” says Coloma.

    Debunking UPFs with technology

    heura cheese
    Courtesy: Heura

    The new product prototypes are, of course, a work in progress, and serve as an example of the solutions Heura plans to offer by licencing its technology to industry-leading companies. The dairy-free cheese, high-protein pasta, and clean-label cold cuts are set to grace grocery shelves in early 2026.

    In preparation for that, the Spanish startup is filing six patents in the next nine months to cover the new categories with its Good Rebel technology and “redefine nutritional value standards across the food industry”.

    The proprietary process, unveiled in April 2023, relies upon mathematical models similar to AI to develop breakthrough solitons based on new scientific knowledge, instead of optimising technologies based on existing data, Coloma told Green Queen last year. The tech can create additive-free plant-based foods with superior sensory and nutritional values and fewer ingredients, using only protein, water and oil to structure the product.

    “These new technologies are set to transform current food production methods, but their real power lies in scaling efficiently and adapting to regional consumer preferences. That’s why we’re forging partnerships with industry leaders to accelerate a change that no one can drive alone,” said Coloma.

    The move comes at a time when UPFs dominate our diets and conversations around food. Industry giants like Beyond Meat have reformulated their products and marketing to appease these concerns, while whole-food products have gained popularity.

    The plant-based sector has been unfairly linked to ill health effects of certain UPFs, and experts say that decoupling processing with nutrition is critical. In Europe, 54% of people avoid meat analogues because they’re ultra-processed – but within Spain, only 8% feel a vegan burger is unhealthier than conventional beef if it’s ultra-processed, according to a survey conducted by Heura.

    All UPFs are not the same, and if plant-based analogues to meat and dairy are well-formulated, they usually rank high on the nutrition front – paying attention to the ingredient quality and how it’s integrated into diets is key, the company says.

    There are hardly any brands better placed to spread this message than Heura, which has raised €88M to date and is responsible for four out of the five bestselling vegan products in Spain. Last year, it grew sales by 22%, reaching €38.3M, and it’s coursing towards profitability by 2025. Can its new products capture grocery baskets the same way it has with meat analogues?

    The post Heura Goes Beyond Meat with Healthier Plant-Based Cheese & Pasta to Take On UPF Label appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Future Food Quick Bites: Dairy-Free Mozzarella Sticks, Vegan Wetherspoons & Indian Cultivated Meat

    vegan mozzarella sticks
    6 Mins Read

    In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Sunday Supper’s plant-based mozzarella sticks, M&S’s new vegan cookies, and a cultivated meat tasting in India.

    New products and launches

    US vegan frozen foods maker Sunday Supper has released Mozza Fritto, a dairy-free mozzarella stick SKU. It’s available at Besties Vegan Paradise in Los Angeles and Orchard Grocer in New York City, and will be at Giant, Bristol Farms, and Good Eggs this month, selling for $9.99 for three servings.

    sunday supper mozza fritto
    Courtesy: Sunday Supper

    As it conducts a regulatory feeding trial for cultivated meat, Further Foods, the portfolio brand of Cult Food Science, is launching a line of vegan Sprinkles toppers for pet food under its Noochies! brand. The 4oz packs will be available in six flavours (three apiece for dogs and cats), and retail for $16.99 in the US and Canada.

    Cultivated meat is now officially banned in Alabama. But before it came into effect, Upside Foods took its Freedom of Food tasting event to the state for locals to try its chicken before it became illegal.

    Italian food giant Barilla is bringing its vegan pesto to the US as part of a flavour expansion, which will be available exclusively at Krogers stores starting this month.

    barilla vegan pesto
    Courtesy: Barilla

    There’s a new almond milk on the block. Sól Date‘s milks are sweetened with dates and come in Original, Chocolate and Vanilla flavours, and can already be found in 400 locations, with another 250 slated for January.

    In more dairy-free news, Canadian vegan cheese brand Daiya has shaken up its frozen pizza range, which has a “lighter, fluffier, and crispier gluten-free crust” and the new Oat Cream cheese.

    In the Netherlands, The Vegetarian Butcher‘s Pulled Beef Strips are now featured on the menu of meal startup Mama’s Maaltijden, part of a poké bowl with sushi rice and pickled cucumbers.

    la vie italian style
    Courtesy: La Vie

    French plant-based meat leader La Vie has teased two new products in Apple’s trademark marketing style, showing the “advantageous curves” of the packaging. They will come out at the end of October in Italian-style and Spicy Asian flavours, and apparently won’t trigger the meat labelling lobby. We think it’s sausages – what’s your guess?

    Meanwhile, La Vie has also rolled out its smoked ham at Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.

    French vegan ingredient company Ingood by Olga has introduced Lengood, a fermented green lentil powder that is designed as a clean-label egg alternative for bakery and pastry products.

    In the UK, pub chain Wetherspoons has added a limited-edition Korean-inspired vegan sticky fried chicken bowl using Quorn‘s mycoprotein meat. It’s served alongside chips and coconut rice.

    UK supermarket M&S has released vegan speculoos and chocolate chip cookies in a light-up tin, as part of its Christmas range. It retails for £7.

    Speaking of British retailers, Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat producer Juicy Marbles is now selling its vegan steaks at Sainsbury’s, available in two-packs for £7 at 553 stores nationwide.

    vegan seafood uk
    Courtesy: HAPPIEE!

    Singaporean vegan seafood brand HAPPIEE! has expanded its UK presence, with its plant-based shrimp, squid and calamari now available at Sainsbury’s and Morissons (from next week).

    A new vegan sweets brand has been set up by a former Mondelez International executive. Wild Thingz makes bug-shaped fruit gummies in Zesty Pests, Fruity Flyers and Gummy Grubs, which will be available as 25g packs for 90p and 130g bags for £2.99.

    Staying with confectionery for a second, UK vegan oat milk chocolate maker H!P is getting festive with a new £12 advent calendar that features its plain, orange, salted caramel and gingerbread offerings. In addition, it’s launching a Gingerbread Cookie Bar, H!P ‘n’ Mix Festive Pouch, and a Christmas gift box.

    hip chocolate advent calendar
    Courtesy: H!P

    In Thailand, vegan cheese brand Swees has released with what it claims are the world’s first rice-based cheese sticks, with backing from the national government.

    Company and finance updates

    Spain’s Pascual Innoventures has upped its investment in the first three editions of the Mylcubator programme to over $2M, with its latest infusion going to precision fermentation egg startup Onego Bio.

    oshi vegan salmon
    Courtesy: Oshi

    Israeli vegan seafood player Oshi has received two million shekels ($550,000) as part of grant funding by the Israeli Innovation Authority.

    In Sweden, Örebro University’s PAN Sweden research centre has been awarded 40 million kronor ($3.9M) from the state research council Formas for its work on plant proteins. Agrifood company Lantmännen is a key actor in the project.

    Swedish pea milk pioneer Sproud has raised 14.4 Swedish kronor ($1.4M) in a fresh funding round, adding to the $1M it secured back in March.

    sproud pea milk
    Courtesy: Sproud

    UK startup Fermtech has brought in £360,000 in crowdfunding (moving past its £325,000 target) for its ‘zero-carbon’ koji protein, using spent grain from breweries as feedstock.

    Californian firm Triplebar is restructuring to amp up its focus on developing a generative AI genomic language model by 2026 to disrupt the food and medicine industries.

    In Singapore, Temasek-owned sustainable food innovation platform Nurasa has signed an MoU with Food Harbour Hamburg to bring together companies from both regions to develop planet-friendly food solutions.

    3d printed seafood
    Courtesy: Steakholder Foods

    Meanwhile, Israeli food tech startup Steakholder Foods has signed a deal with frozen foods manufacturer Bondor Foods to supply plant-based premises for vegan white fish and salmon patties.

    Indian cultivated meat startup Biokraft Foods is hosting its first public tastings for cultivated chicken after completing an internal validation for the product. The tastings will be held in Mumbai and Pune.

    Elsewhere, cell-based chocolate maker California Cultured has received an investment from Sparkalis, the corporate venture arm of Belgian B2B bakery, patisserie and chocolate leader Puratos Group.

    cell based chocolate
    Courtesy: California Cultured

    Job platform Alt Protein Careers has expanded into Europe, and several startups – from Redefine Meat to Mewery – are already advertising roles there.

    Policy developments

    Over 100 organisations and academics are calling on the UN FAO to retract its Pathways Towards Lower Emissions report from COP28, which downplayed the impact of livestock and climate change. It follows a similar open letter from July, which itself came months after authors whose work the report was based on asked the FAO to retract its report. The latest letter comes after the FAO doubled down on its stance.

    In California, the share of meatless meal options in school lunches increased from 7% in 2019 to 11% in 2023. The number of high schools offering veggie meals also rose from 36% to 56%.

    california school lunches vegan
    Courtesy: Friends of the Earth

    UK charity The Vegan Society and the International Rights Network have helped remove veganism from the National Health Service‘s Prevent training, a counter-terrorism programme designed to identify those at risk of radicalisation. Before the intervention, veganism was being referenced in the training.

    Finally, The Vegan Society is also celebrating a major milestone: it recently crossed 70,000 product certifications with its Vegan Trademark.

    Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.

    The post Future Food Quick Bites: Dairy-Free Mozzarella Sticks, Vegan Wetherspoons & Indian Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Choruba & the Chocolate Factory: Italy’s Foreverland Bites Into €3.4M for New Cocoa-Free Chocolate Products

    foreverland funding
    5 Mins Read

    Cocoa-free chocolate maker Foreverland has raised €3.4M ($3.76M) in a seed funding round to open its first production facility for its carob-based Choruba alternative.

    Puglia-based startup Foreverland has got investors’ tastebuds tangling with a €3.4M ($3.76M) seed round to scale up production and expand distribution for its carob-based chocolate alternatives.

    The financing round included the likes of Grey Silo Ventures, Eatable Adventures, Kost Capital 2100 Ventures, Newland Syndicate, and Moonstone, among others.

    The Italian company is among an expanding crop of cocoa-free chocolate producers looking to lower the environmental impact of the world’s favourite sweet treat. Foreverland’s product, which has been rebranded from Freecao to Choruba, is made from a base of carob and grains mixed with sugar and vegetable fats.

    “These funds will primarily be used to set up our first production facility in Puglia, expand into new markets, and accelerate the development of new products featuring Choruba,” Giuseppe D’Alessandro, co-founder and CMO of the brand, told Green Queen. “We’ll also continue to invest in R&D, particularly to enhance the scalability and versatility of our ingredient, Choruba.”

    In a joint statement, Grey Silo Ventures managing partner Giacomo Fanin and investment manager Matteo Leonardi said: “We spent over a year assessing the (alternative) chocolate sector in all aspects, and when we found out and started digging in Foreverland’s technology we knew that it could tick all the boxes to emerge as a category-defining business.”

    Banking on carob’s sustainability credentials

    foreverland
    Courtesy: Foreverland

    Foreverland came out of stealth last year, built on the back of the vast corporate and food industry experience of D’Alessandro and his co-founders Massimo Sabatini, Riccardo Bottiroli and Massimo Brochetta. Since then, the startup has been releasing products in small batches – such as nutty Easter eggs, pralines and panettone – produced through a network of co-manufacturers.

    But the cash infusion will enable it to open its own facility in Puglia, a region rich with carob trees, in January. It will have an initial capacity of 1,000 tonnes annually. “It’s designed with sustainability in mind, ensuring minimal environmental impact. We’re focused on our semi-finished products in drops or liquid,” said D’Alessandro.

    The factory will also mark a new era for its cocoa-free chocolate, now called Choruba. “The decision to rebrand from Freecao to Choruba came in 2024 after we recognised the strong identity and connection we wanted to create around our ingredient’s Mediterranean roots,” he explained.

    “The name ‘Choruba’ highlights our key ingredient, carob, and represents a futureproof alternative to chocolate with a new ingredient, combining sustainability with the indulgence people expect from traditional chocolate.”

    foreverland cocoa free chocolate
    Courtesy: Foreverland

    Speaking of sustainability, that is at the core of this industry’s efforts. Dark chocolate is the second most polluting food (behind only beef), and has a higher land use change impact than all other foods. It’s also a major driver of tropical deforestation, with Ivory Coast (the largest producer of cocoa) losing 85% of forest cover in the last 65 years.

    Meanwhile, climate change itself is ravaging the cocoa industry, with extreme weather events destroying yields and pushing up prices to all-time highs. And in the long term, a third of cocoa trees could die out by 2050.

    To demonstrate the planetary positives of Choruba, Foreverland conducted an initial life-cycle assessment and found that its carob-based alternative cuts water consumption by 90% and emissions by 80% compared to conventional chocolate. “We’re continuing to refine these metrics as we scale our operations and will share more detailed results soon,” D’Alessandro said.

    The startup also addresses a major food waste issue. Currently, 90% of the carob fruit is wasted, with only the seeds used for locust ben gum. Foreverland upcycles the byproduct into a chocolate alternative it says is far superior to the carob chocolate of the 1970s.

    From creamy spreads to cocoa-free white chocolate, product innovation ramps up

    foreverland choruba
    Courtesy: Foreverland

    “We have discovered how, from a product considered waste, we can create something unique and disruptive through technology and innovation,” said Foreverland CTO Riccardo Bottiroli. “We have filed two patents, but we are not stopping there: research is continuously increasing, and we are developing new allergen-free products, such as spreadable creams.” 

    That is among a number of Choruba-featuring products that will come to market in the coming months. “We’ve already secured partnerships with several manufacturers,” revealed D’Alessandro. “We are actively working with companies in the bakery and confectionery space, who are developing their next-generation chocolate alternatives using Choruba.”

    He added that the first product to feature Choruba as its main ingredient is from an Italian company. The Choruba-coated almond snack will be introduced in December, before further rollouts in early 2025. “Our partners in the bakery and snack sectors are currently testing these ingredients (liquid or drops) in various applications, and we anticipate consumer products hitting the market shortly after,” he said.

    “We’re also working on new formulations for Choruba, including vegan milk, dark, and white chocolate alternatives,” he added.

    carob chocolate
    Courtesy: Foreverland

    Foreverland was one of seven agrifood startups chosen for the FoodSeed Accelerator, part of the state-backed CDP Venture Capital network late last year, and also won the Premio Nazionale Innovazione award in the industrial category. And earlier this year, it won the inaugural FoodTech World Cup at the HackSummit in Lausanne, beating out eight other finalists.

    “The next year is all about growth,” said D’Alessandro. “We’re focused on scaling our production facility, securing more partnerships, expanding into European markets, and releasing new products… Additionally, we’ll continue to push for greater sustainability and transparency in our processes, with a particular focus on R&D to optimise our product offerings.”

    Alt-chocolate startups are gaining ground rapidly. Foreverland’s seed round follows Voyage Foods’s $52M Series A+ investment in May and Planet A Foods’s $15.4M raise in February, both of which make cocoa-free alternatives. Meanwhile, cell-based chocolate maker Kokomodo received a $750,000 infusion in June.

    London-based Win-Win (formerly WNWN Food Labs) is another cocoa-free startup, while Israel’s Celleste Bio, US startup California Cultured, and Finnish food giant Fazer are all working on cell-based versions.

    The post Choruba & the Chocolate Factory: Italy’s Foreverland Bites Into €3.4M for New Cocoa-Free Chocolate Products appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • LanzaTech Expands Gas Fermentation Tech to Recycle Waste Carbon Into Protein, Partners with US Military

    lanzatech nutritional protein

    6 Mins Read

    Synbio firm LanzaTech has extended its carbon recycling operations to human food applications with a new protein, and teamed up with the US military on a joint project.

    A company that turns waste carbon emissions into high-value products is making a move for the human food market with a nutritionally complete protein.

    Chicago-based LanzaTech, a pioneer in the carbon recycling space, is expanding its biorefining platform to produce microbial protein from gas fermentation, in a bid to address the climate, supply chain and food security challenges presented by animal-derived proteins.

    Dubbed LanzaTech Nutritional Protein (LNP), the ingredient can be used in foods such as non-dairy cheese, meat analogues, breads and smoothies, and extend to non-human applications like pet food, as well as animal and fish feed.

    To further its efforts, the company has partnered with the US Navy Research Lab on a project co-funded by the Department of Defense to explore protein production on its ships and meet the nutritional needs of soldiers and sailors across the armed forces.

    LanzaTech, which went public via a SPAC merger in 2022, has built upon its existing technology that ferments carbon-rich waste streams to produce ethanol as a primary product. The leftover bacteria can be freeze-dried to form a protein-rich biomass, and has already been sold for animal feed applications.

    But the company has now adapted its microbes and process to directly produce LNP as the primary product, allowing it to diversify its product range and revenue streams, optimise its value creation, and reach a larger number of consumers.

    “This is a natural extension of our platform, and we have been working on protein for a number of years, including before we went public,” says CSO Zara Summers, who reveals that LanzaTech has already sold 25,000 tonnes of single-cell protein from its operations as animal feed.

    “We decided to enter the protein market because we have always had a firm belief that recycled carbon could impact every aspect of our lives and provide new pathways to the products we use every day, including food,” she tells Green Queen.

    Several facilities lined up in the coming years

    us military sustainable protein
    Courtesy: LanzaTech

    LanzaTech is leveraging Cupriavidus necator – a soil bacterium – to produce LNP, and using feedstocks similar to its current operations, which have spawned commercial-scale volumes of ethanol for apparel, packaging, surfactants, and sustainable aviation fuels.

    “We have a process that consists of continuous fermentation in a gas fermentation reactor, where biomass can be continuously drawn into a deactivation, dewatering, and spray dry workflow,” explains Summers.

    “LanzaTech was founded to find alternative pathways that could avoid impacting land, water and biodiversity, and, importantly, keep fossil resources in the ground,” she adds. “As we came to understand the biological make-up of our commercial production strain and adjacent applications for our commercial bioreactors, we saw a natural evolution in our technology platform go beyond producing a protein co-product to make a dedicated nutritional protein product with a new microbe.”

    The company’s CEO, Jennifer Holmgren, says that it has developed a path to mass-producing protein from CO2 by “coupling a new microbial production strain with our existing bioreactor technology”.

    LanzaTech has been operating a pilot facility in Skokie, Illinois for the last two years, producing two to three grams of protein daily as it prepared for commercialisation. “In the process, we’ve partnered with leading brands and food testing organisations for rigorous analysis and prototyping of nutrition applications,” says Holmgren.

    Now, the company is in the engineering design phase for its first pre-commercial facilities, slated to open in 2026 in collaboration with several partners, with a capacity of between 0.5 to one tonne of protein per day. LanzaTech has additionally developed a roadmap to commercial-scale production in 2028, which would see it manufacture over 30,000 tonnes of LNP per year in larger facilities.

    The multi-pronged benefits of LanzaTech Nutritional Protein

    lanzatech protein
    Courtesy: LanzaTech

    Scaling up will help LanzaTech make its gas protein cost-competitive with animal proteins, which is crucial for a resilient food supply amid a fast-growing global population.

    Aside from the fact that it recycles carbon emissions from the atmosphere to make food, LNP also uses a fraction of the land and water that conventional protein sources need, while having no negative impact on biodiversity.

    Plus, there’s the nutritional prowess. “LNP is <80% protein by dry weight and is complete with all amino acids,” says Summers. “Its functional properties are similar to those of whey and pea protein. It is odourless and neutral in colour, which makes it ideal for formulating.”

    According to the company’s calculations, its facilities’ 0.5-tonne capacity combined with the ingredient’s high protein content is the equivalent of the typical complete daily intake of protein of around 9,000 people.

    LanzaTech has no plans to make its own products from the protein, instead supplying it to other companies for various applications, including human nutrition, pet food, and animal feed.

    “For human nutrition, this protein’s characteristics make it ideal for formulation, and we have already tested its properties and formulatability with food innovator Mattson,” Summers says. “As part of Mattson’s characterisation work, they prototyped the protein in baked goods, protein bars, smoothies, dairy-free cheese, and more.”

    She adds: “With the Center for Aquaculture Technologies, we successfully completed salmon and shrimp feed trials. We are currently conducting feed trials for pigs and poultry, as well as pet food testing with a leading pet food brand.”

    LNP is supplied in the form of a powder that requires minimal downstream processing. “It can be used as a protein-rich powder that could be used as a flour, or used as any protein powder is used today (like whey, pea, or soy powders),” says Summers.

    LanzaTech locks arms with the US military

    lanzatech co2 protein
    Courtesy: LanzaTech

    LanzaTech is in the middle of completing trials for animal feed (including pet food), and is also finalising its human food dossier for the FDA to achieve self-determined Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status in the US.

    To advance LNP’s progress, it is evaluating “several financing structures” for the development of its first pre-commercial facility. “We recently raised $40M through an investment by Carbon Direct Capital, who is a globally recognised investor in the carbon management ecosystem,” says Simmons. “This investment is to fund ongoing operations for LanzaTech as a whole, of which LNP is a part.”

    In addition to its partnerships with food producers, it is working on a joint research and contract development project with the US Navy Research Lab, which is funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the Office of Naval Research, and the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).

    The aim is to work out if LNP can be produced on military platforms. “Together, we are exploring the biomanufacturing potential of a nutritional protein product made from CO2 extracted from seawater,” says Matthew Yates, a research biologist at the NRL.

    “Integrating LanzaTech’s state-of-the-art gas fermentation technology with the US Naval Research Laboratory’s Seawater Carbon Capture Process presents a valuable opportunity to develop a unique capability to meet the nutritional needs of soldiers and sailors across the joint forces, while simultaneously enhancing the resilience of military operations in an evolving geopolitical landscape,” he added.

    The Department of Defense, which the research and engineering office falls under, recently drew fire from sections of conservative media, Republican Congress members, and livestock lobby groups for opening funding proposals to develop cultivated meat for the military. Following the criticism, the DoD revoked its call.

    But Summers says LanzaTech isn’t concerned about any backlash from its military partnership: “We have many projects that have applications with the military at this time, from on-demand protein production in theatre, to humanitarian relief, to creating domestic supply chains that can meet any need that our country requires by leveraging abundant waste resources.”

    The post LanzaTech Expands Gas Fermentation Tech to Recycle Waste Carbon Into Protein, Partners with US Military appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Those Vegan Cowboys Unveils Animal-Free Casein for Meltier, Stretchier Cheese

    those vegan cowboys cheese
    5 Mins Read

    Dutch-Belgian food tech startup Those Vegan Cowboys has debuted its precision-fermented casein protein, with plans to launch animal-free cheese in 2025.

    Animal-free casein is having a moment. From new startups pushing the envelope with structural breakthroughs, to companies raising money to commercialise the protein, to the world’s largest mozzarella supplier diving into the bioidentical ingredient, casein is high on the agenda for alt-dairy producers.

    Now, Those Vegan Cowboys is adding to the list of developments, launching its precision-fermented casein to the market. The ingredient has been four years in the making, and will be unveiled at the Future Food-Tech summit in London tomorrow.

    Instead of a cow, the protein is produced via fermentation in a stainless steel tank dubbed Margaret (after former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady), and can outperform its conventional counterpart under certain conditions in cheese.

    The animal-free casein is being tested by multiple industry players, including dairy companies and Michelin-starred restaurants. The plan, as CEO Hille van der Kaa tells Green Queen, is to launch cheeses on its own as well as through partners, starting with the US in mid-2025.

    Cheese that stretches and melts better

    animal free cheese
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    The brainchild of Dutch entrepreneurs Jaap Korteweg and Niko Koffeman, Those Vegan Cowboys was founded in 2019 a year after they sold plant-based meat brand The Vegetarian Butcher to Unilever.

    To make the protein, the startup collaborates with Wageningen University, Leiden University, and Ghent University. “We currently work with different microbes/strains,” says van der Kaa. “We work with bacteria, as well as yeast, as well as [other] fungi.”

    Casein makes up 80% of the protein content found in milk, and is crucial to the taste and functional attributes of dairy products like cheese – it’s what makes hard cheeses melt and stretch when they’re heated, allowing water and fat to emulsify and deliver the desired mouthfeel.

    But to combat the industry’s climate impact, the animal-free casein space has been expanding rapidly, with startups such as New Culture, Change Foods, Standing Ovation, Eden Brew, Fermify, Zero Cow Factory, Fooditive Group, Alpine Bio, and Formo (which has joined forces with Those Vegan Cowboys). And that’s before you consider molecular farming companies like Moolec, Miruku, NewMoo and Finally Foods, and plant-based casein makers such as Pureture and Climax Foods.

    Those Vegan Cowboys suggests that its fermentation-derived casein stands out by “significantly” improving the stretchability of cheese when compared to bovine casein – up to five times better, alongside a lower melting point.

    “We analysed the functionality of caseins in a broad sense, including sources other than cows. The scientists developed a new recipe for a casein protein produced by microbes, which boasts better properties compared to the cow’s casein combination under specific conditions or for specific products,” explains van der Kaa.

    “Over the past decades, we learned a lot about natural variation in caseins between cows and their impact on [the] functionality of dairy products,” adds Kasper Hettinga, professor of dairy processing and functionality at Wageningen University. “Precision fermentation gives flexibility to dairy producers by creating casein-based ingredients with optimal functionality, by making use of the variability found in nature.”

    Additionally, Those Vegan Cowboys’s ingredient only needs a fifth of the land and water that animal-based casein needs, while generating 80% less carbon and methane. “By working with vegetable fats, we give ourselves more freedom to avoid cholesterol and use less saturated fat in our cheese,” adds CTO Will van den Tweel.

    A big 2024 in store for Those Vegan Cowboys

    precision fermentation casein
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    Those Vegan Cowboys has established eight partnerships – including a dairy cooperative, a pizza maker, a Michelin-starred eatery, and multiple cheese producers – to test its casein for flavour and functionality, the long-term goal being to outmatch bovine dairy on every front.

    One of these companies is Westland Kaas, a cheese producer that is also among Those Vegan Cowboys’s oldest collaborators. The two entities jointly launched vegan cheese range WildWestLand in supermarkets in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2020.

    “They tell us what kind of specifications they prefer,” van der Kaa says of the partners. “We also work together on cheeses. Later this year, we hope to have selected our partners to go to market with next year.”

    those vegan cowboys casein
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    Those Vegan Cowboys has also formed a strategic alliance with Germany’s Formo, uniting R&D operations across strain engineering, bioprocessing and large-scale production to aid their separate efforts for product development and commercialisation.

    One of the goals is to reduce costs – the functional superiority of Those Vegan Cowboys’s casein allows cheese producers to use less of the protein for the same result, ultimately lowering the price of their products. “We expect to have price parity on a functional level within three to five years,” reveals van der Kaa, whose team is currently producing on a cubic-metre-scale at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant.

    Van der Kaa says the Formo collaboration is going well. “We are very happy with the collaboration so far and learned a lot from each other’s failures and successes.” Another objective is to break through the regulatory barriers – so far, only New Culture has been cleared to sell precision-fermented casein, earning self-determined GRAS status in the US.

    precision fermentation cheese
    Courtesy: Those Vegan Cowboys

    Those Vegan Cowboys is preparing dossiers in the US, Europe as well as Asia, and has big plans for 2025. It aims to launch its own D2C cheese called Margaret’s Finest (it has previously hinted that it’s working on Camembert, Brie, Feta and Gouda-style cheeses), one or two cheeses with its B2B industry partners, and a “love baby” cheese with Formo, all at once.

    This will be facilitated by its first investment round – the startup has been bootstrapped by Korteweg and Koffeman until now. “We are currently raising €15M to get the right partners on board for our next step,” says van der Kaa. These efforts will be helped by the fact that fermentation is hot among investors – especially in Europe.

    The post Those Vegan Cowboys Unveils Animal-Free Casein for Meltier, Stretchier Cheese appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    mycelium meat
    5 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Hitting on taste, health and sustainability with clean labels

    mycelium protein
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Kinoko-Tech plans Europe expansion post Australia launch

    kinoko tech mycelium
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

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

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

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

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

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

    kinoko tech
    Courtesy: Kinoko-Tech

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Estonia’s Äio Secures €6.1M for Demo Facility to Turn Sawdust Into Palm Oil & Animal Fat Alternatives

    aio palm oil
    5 Mins Read

    Estonian startup Äio has closed a €6.1M ($6.8M) funding round to build a facility for its fermentation-derived alternatives to palm oil and animal fats.

    Transforming agricultural and woodworking waste into oils to replace planet-harming fat, Äio has raised €6.1M ($6.8M) to scale up operations via a new demo facility.

    Investors in the round included Voima Ventures, 2C Ventures, Nordic Foodtech VC, and the state- and EU-backed SmartCap Green Fund. It comes a year after the Estonian startup raised €1M to advance its fermentation technology.

    Äio uses specialised yeast to turn byproducts from the wood and agricultural industries – like sugars extracted from sawdust – into food-grade fats and oils. The process is said to be significantly speedier with a much lighter impact on the planet.

    “Providing sustainable alternatives to products such as palm oil or animal fats is a critically important step in reducing the environmental impact of the food and cosmetics industry,” said Hendrik Reimand, partner at 2C Ventures. “We are confident in the teams’ ability to turn this scientific development into commercial success.”

    Fats for every use, made with waste ingredients

    aio funding
    Courtesy: Andrei Ozdoba

    Äio emerged after spinning off from the Tallinn University of Technology, or TalTech, in 2022, built on research conducted by founders Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee. Using a ‘red yeast’ microbe created and patented by Bonturi, the startup ferments it with industrial byproducts in a process similar to brewing beer or making bread.

    The resulting fats are rich in essential fatty acids and antioxidants, while being a boon for the environment. “Äio’s oils, produced from industrial residues, help reduce land use by up to 97% and water consumption by as much as 10 times compared to current palm oil and animal fat production.,” said Bonturi. “Additionally, the speed of oil and fat production through fermentation is 10 times faster.”

    It has so far developed three fats. Encapsulated Oil can replace palm oil in the food industry; Buttery Fat is a substitute for animal fats, shortening and coconut oil; and RedOil can swap out fish oil and seed oils, and also be used in cosmetics and household products.

    Palm oil is ubiquitous and problematic. Present in half of all supermarket items, across multiple categories, it alone accounts for 40% of global oil production. Manufacturers like it because it’s tasteless, odourless, and cheap – once processed – and can withstand high temperatures while functioning as a natural preservative.

    aio redoil
    Courtesy: Andrei Ozdoba

    But it’s the major driver of tropical deforestation, which contributes to nearly a fifth of all global emissions. Most of the world’s palm trees, for example, are in Indonesia and Malaysia, where these plantations have been directly responsible for widespread wildfires in recent years. The industry is also a threat to wildlife and human rights, particularly Indigenous communities.

    These complications are well-known, but that hasn’t stopped production from increasing tenfold since 1980 – and global demand is currently growing by 4% every year. This would mean more forests felled and burned, a form of mass deforestation that emits greenhouse gases while removing the trees that would sequester them.

    “Äio’s approach addresses this issue by valorising agricultural and forestry sidestreams into premium replacements, meaning significant reductions in CO2 or land use,” said Voima Ventures partner Pontus Stråhlman.

    Aïo aims for 2026 factory opening amid industry interest

    aio alternative fat
    Courtesy: Andrei Ozdoba

    The latest round also comes a year after Äio received a €1.8M grant from the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency (EISA) to develop a platform for semi-automated strain technology, in collaboration with the Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies. EISA had previously pumped in €500,000 to help the startup valorise sidestreams.

    The company is already working with fellow Estonian firm Fibernol to convert wood hydrolysates into the microbial oils. Over 120 trove local and international partners have been providing Äio with industrial byproducts or testing its oils and fats.

    It has also attracted interest from major food, cosmetics and household CPG companies, which have signed on to develop products together. The upcoming demo facility will help meet this demand, allowing the startup to produce tens of tonnes of its products. The location hasn’t been finalised, but it’s expected to be completed by 2026.

    Älo has a separate Good Fat Wörks innovation centre to develop its yeast-derived fats and create pilot products. In May, it held a public tasting featuring delicacies made from these products at the Latitude59 startup festival in Tallinn, working alongside Gelatex and Accelerate Estonia.

    Plus, it has been selected for a Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CB-EJU) project worth €7.5M, in which it will develop fat-based materials and cosmetics with other European companies and research bodies.

    palm oil alternative
    Courtesy: Andrei Ozdoba

    “For a scientist, the greatest achievement is when years of research result in a real product that can change the entire food industry and consumer experience,” said Bonturi. “We will continue to develop the company and its products in collaboration with partners, investors and the food industry. We will also continue working with TalTech to train the next generation of bioengineers.”

    Äio is innovating in an alternative fat market that’s expected to grow by 6% annually to reach $4.5B by 2032, but one that faces plenty of challenges, including high costs and low volumes for products aiming to replace those with low costs and high volumes.

    There are plenty of startups specifically using fermentation to overcome this bottleneck for palm oil substitutes, including British firms PALM-ALT and Clean Food Group, New York-based C16 Biosciences, Estonia’s Äio, Dutch startups Time-Travelling Milkman and NoPalm Ingredients, and Bay Area company Kiverdi, among others.

    The post Estonia’s Äio Secures €6.1M for Demo Facility to Turn Sawdust Into Palm Oil & Animal Fat Alternatives appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Researchers Are Using Baker’s Yeast to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Protein & Folate

    microbes co2 protein
    4 Mins Read

    Scientists have discovered a way to turn gases into yeast that contains more protein than beef and enough folate to meet your daily requirements.

    What if acetate and carbon dioxide could help you meet your daily nutritional needs?

    Researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany are proposing just that, having found a way to make yeast using carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen.

    Using a process similar to beer brewing, the scientists fed microbes with these gases and acetate (a compound found in vinegar) instead of sugar to produce protein and folate (also known as vitamin B9).

    The process is based on renewable energy and eschews the need for farmland, resulting in much lower emissions and an efficient way to produce food to feed a population that is expected to grow to 10 billion by 2050. The resulting yeast can be used as a base for vegan meat analogues, helping decarbonise the livestock sector with carbon.

    From power to protein to vitamins

    gas fermentation protein
    Courtesy: Trends in Biotechnology

    The study, published in the Trends in Biotechnology journal, is derived from a “power-to-protein technology” that the same scientists developed to produce microbial protein from renewable energy and CO2.

    Here, the bacterium Clostridium ljungdahlii was used to reduce carbon dioxide with hydrogen into acetate, which is combined with oxygen and transformed into proteins by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or baker’s yeast. (The hydrogen and oxygen can be produced via electrolysis, or using renewable electricity to split H2O into H2 and O2.)

    But the first step only worked through continuous vitamin supplementation. “Humans can’t live on proteins alone,” explained lead author Largus Angenent. “So we wanted to produce B9 at the same time.”

    In the “power-to-vitamin” experiment, Angenent and his team replaced C. ljungdahlii with Thermoanaerobacter kivui, a more robust bacterium, in the two-stage bioreactor system. In the first step, T. kivui converts hydrogen and CO2 into acetate.

    In the second stage, the baker’s yeast is fed on oxygen and this acetate to make large quantities of protein and vitamin B9. “We knew that yeast could produce vitamin B9 on their own with sugar, however, we didn’t know if they could do the same with acetate,” said Angenent. “Since we’re no longer adding vitamin B9, we’re certain that it is produced in the process.”

    Acetate-fed yeast was found to produce around the same amount of folate as yeast that eats sugar – only 6g or 0.4 tablespoons of the harvested dried yeast can meet the daily requirement for the vitamin.

    Meanwhile, six tablespoons or 85g of this nutritional yeast provides 61% of daily protein needs. This is higher than beef (34%), pork (25%), fish (38%), and lentils (38%). That said, the yeast needs to be treated to remove gout-inducing compounds when consumed in excess. Even after that, it meets 41% of the protein needs per day.

    Addressing food security and climate change

    nutritional yeast folate
    Courtesy: University of Tübingen

    For Angenent, the main goal of the research is to reduce meat consumption. Globally, livestock farming accounts for 57% of the food system’s emissions and takes up 80% of land, despite only supplying 17% of the world’s calories and 38% of its protein. That is an inefficient form of agriculture, and a threat to food security in the long term.

    “Our product isn’t yet a finished foodstuff, but the food industry can use it to develop foods,” said Angenent, who claimed that the process has “zero or negative net-carbon emissions”. He added: “I believe consumers will get used to new products. This also comes about through pricing.”

    He suggested that this won’t outcompete farmers. Livestock producers are already under stress to meet the world’s growing protein demand, and doing so at current volumes in the long term is untenable. Meanwhile, it will free up land to produce more vegetables and planet-friendly crops, as well as allow them to protect soil and nature.

    “The fact that we can make vitamins and protein at the same time at a pretty high production rate without using any land is exciting,” said Angenent. “The end product is vegetarian/vegan, non-GMO, and sustainable, which could appeal to consumers.”

    His team now plans to optimise and expand production from lab to commercial scales, conduct food safety studies and techno-economical analyses, as well as work out market interest for the gas-fed yeast.

    For the latter, it doesn’t need to look too far – there are several startups leveraging gas proteins, including Air Protein, Farmless, Arkeon Biotechnologies, and Solar Foods. The latter, which feeds microbes on CO2, oxygen and hydrogen, has already been in the Singapore market, and is now making its move into the US.

    “The growing world population is threatened by malnutrition, especially in countries that suffer from drought and whose soils are low in nutrients,” said Angenent, highlighting the yeast’s food security benefits. “In places like this, substitute products, such as ours, could improve the food situation.”

    The post Researchers Are Using Baker’s Yeast to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Protein & Folate appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    rebellyous foods mock 2
    5 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

    How the Mock 2 system cuts production costs

    plant based meat price parity
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Rebellyous Foods readies itself for ‘aggressive growth’

    rebellyous chicken
    Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Helaina Raises $45M to Launch Effera Human Lactoferrin with Kroma Wellness, Mitsubishi & More

    helaina funding
    6 Mins Read

    US startup Helaina has closed a $45M Series B round to commercialise Effera Human Lactoferrin, its breast milk equivalent protein, in the US later this year.

    Helaina, the New York-based firm making breast milk alternatives with precision fermentation, has secured $45M in a Series B funding round, ahead of a US market launch this year.

    One of the largest sums raised by an alternative protein company this year, the investment was led by Avidity Partners, with additional participation from Spark Capital, Ingeborg Investments, Tom Williams of Heron Rock, Siam Capital, and Relish Works, among others.

    It takes Helaina’s total funding to $83M, making it one of the most well-capitalised precision fermentation startups globally. The company will use the money to scale up and launch its Effera Human Lactoferrin ingredient – a breast milk equivalent protein – as part of consumer products by Kroma Wellness, The Feed, Levelle Nutrition, Healthgevity, and Mitsubishi International Food Ingredients.

    The precision-fermented lactoferrin will come to the market “in the next quarter”, Helaina founder and CEO Laura Katz tells Green Queen. “We’re starting with a US launch and then we will expand globally,” she says when asked about the company’s regulatory plans. “We’re particularly interested in the rest of North America and Europe.”

    She adds: “We sell our protein in powdered form. The versatility and shelf life of the ingredient allows manufacturers to use it in a variety of production processes while maintaining efficacy.”

    helaina effera lactoferrin
    Courtesy: Helaina

    How Helaina makes its Effira Human Lactoferrin protein

    Katz, a food scientist, established Helaina in 2019, spotting an opportunity to use precision fermentation to advance human health through “next-generation” nutrients. At the start of this year, it announced the development of Effera, a fermentation-derived equivalent of human lactoferrin.

    The company describes the ingredient as the first bioactive protein to be used in functional foods, beverages, and supplements. It is said to boost iron homeostasis and metabolism, and promote a balanced immune response and beneficial microbiome.

    To produce the protein, Helaina uses Komagataella phaffii (formerly called Pichia pastoris), the same yeast strain leveraged by fellow precision fermentation players The Every Company and Remilk. It’s also the key element of the heme ingredient in Impossible Foods’s beef analogues.

    “If you think about yeast microbes as tiny factories, normal factory operations produce set byproducts,” explains Katz. “We introduce a new operating system (human DNA), which teaches the yeast to produce something else. We also optimise the environment by providing the yeast the exact nutrients it needs to ferment.”

    She adds: “Once Effera is made, it is separated out from the yeast leaving behind pure human lactoferrin. The finished product has not been genetically modified, it is a non-dairy, non-allergenic source of the protein.”

    Katz suggests the protein ingredient can suit multiple categories, from women’s health and active nutrition to healthy ageing and – in the long term – infant formula. “We will bring our ingredient to infant formula in partnership with formula manufacturers,” she says.

    The yeast-derived lactoferrin is a tasteless, odourless ingreident that can be effective at “very low inclusion levels”, allowing it to be incorporated into formats like “capsules, tablets, powders, gels, energy drinks, nutritional bars or gummies”.

    Effera also meets the demands of the modern consumer, as Katz puts it: animal-free (there are no animal products or byproducts used to produce it), gluten-free, soy-free, certified Kosher and Halal.

    helaina breast milk
    Courtesy: Helaina

    Lactoferrin a focal point among precision fermentation startups

    Helaina has been producing at a commercial scale since May 2023. “Our current manufacturing capabilities allow us to produce as quickly as needed for our customers. Effera is manufactured with world-renowned partner facilities,” she says.

    “One of the benefits of using an ingredient made via precision fermentation is that it unlocks supply constraints on ingredients that were previously impossible or difficult to procure,” she notes. “That is the case with Effera Human Lactoferrin. The only previous source for human lactoferrin was human breast milk on the black market.”

    Indeed, lactoferrin – found in human milk and bovine colostrum produced just after birth – is a highly sought-after whey protein. It’s an iron-rich ingreident that regulates gut health, an increasingly popular market, and possesses antiviral, antibacterial, anti-carcinogenic, immunity-boosting, gut-strengthening and iron regulation properties.

    But it isn’t easily available. It takes at least 10,000 litres of milk to produce just 1kg of purified lactoferrin. This drives up the cost, with the ingredient retailing for $750-$1,500 per kg. Katz declined to comment on the cost of Helaina’s Effira ingredient – but its high price is why much of the lactoferrin supply (60%) is reserved for the infant nutrition sector.

    It’s also why a host of precision fermentation startups are turning to lactoferrin. TurtleTree, which is the only company to receive regulatory approval for such an ingredient, is close to commercialising it via beverage and functional product partnerships.

    But others who have been known to be working on lactoferrin include Australia’s All G Foods and Noumi, US startup De Novo Foodlabs, Californian player Triplebar Bio (in collaboration with FrieslandCampina), and New Zealand’s Daisy Lab. The latter’s core business lies in beta-lactoglobulin (another whey protein), but it recently diversified into lactoferrin as well.

    “Due to some reported headwinds in the alternative proteins’ investment market, we felt that we needed to bolster our commercial strategy,” co-founder and CEO Irina Miller told Green Queen in May. “Production of lactoferrin can substantially accelerate the investment returns for our current and future investors.”

    There are others working on breast milk alternatives too. Israel’s Wilk is using cell cultivation to produce lactoferrin, while French startip Nūmi is aiming to reproducing breast milk itself, with as many constituents as possible (including proteins). And in the US, Yali Bio and The Live Green Co are creating precision-fermented breast milk fats.

    effera human lactoferrin
    Courtesy: Helaina

    Helaina rides on the back of investor interest in fermentation

    In January, Helaina released a pre-print study detailing the composition of its lactoferrin ingredient, and it will soon release peer-reviewed results of clinical and pre-clinical research that have found Effera to be more effective than bovine lactoferrin.

    But it’s not just Effera that Helaina is working on. The company has outlined its intention to build a bioactive portion pipeline to “advance the human healthspan”. “We have a robust technology platform to bring other bioactive proteins to market – there is a limited global supply of bioactive proteins and our pipeline is poised to change that,” says Katz.

    The Series B round means it has raised more money than any other lactoferrin-focused alternative protein startup. It’s also the sixth-largest investment in this sector in 2024 – behind Meati‘s $100M Series C, Perfect Day‘s $90M pre-Series E, Formo’s $61M Series B, Infinite Roots‘s $58M Series B, and Prolific Machines‘s $55M Series B1.

    It comes off the back of a 44% drop-off in alternative protein financing in 2023, followed by a surge in funding interest in fermentation. Before the close of Q3 2024, fermentation startups have already surpassed their funding totals from the entirety of 2023, surpassing $550M in nine months (versus last year’s $443M).

    alternative protein investment
    Courtesy: GFI

    “Technology needs to be right-sized to the problem you’re trying to solve. If you’re making commodities that are inexpensive, it’s hard to justify biotechnology broadly, especially precision fermentation technology,” explains Katz.

    “But when you’re making unique, high value, specialty ingredients like human lactoferrin, you have the ability to implement these technologies in a way where you can build a venture-backed company,” she says.

    “Not only do fermentation startups like ours have attractive unit economics over time. The demand and scale is well established for nutrition innovation to support pressing health and wellness priorities; at Helaina we’re addressing broad needs across different life stages,” she adds. “Further, our particular innovation, focusing on human-equivalency, is bringing ingredients to market that had never been accessible before.”

    The post Helaina Raises $45M to Launch Effera Human Lactoferrin with Kroma Wellness, Mitsubishi & More appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.