Despite recent international launches from NYC to Milan, Neat Burger has announced the closure of half of its UK restaurants after losses grew by 145% last year.
The chain backed by the popular Formula One star, who has followed a vegan diet since 2027, will see four of its London sites shut before Christmas, while plans for four new locations have been shelved too.
Neat Burger, the fast-food chain backed by the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Leonardo DiCaprio, has faced a financial setback amid its expansion drive, with low footfall and increased losses forcing it to shut five of its stores in London (its grab-and-go concept has already been shut), halving its UK footprint.
Of Neat Burger’s nine UK sites – all in London. spread across Camden, Soho, Oxford Circus, Wembley, Canary Wharf, Victoria, Stratford, Liverpool Street and Dalston – the Oxford Circus (its debut location opened in 2019), Canary Wharf, Westfield Stratford and Liverpool Street are set to close, with the Dalston grab-and-go location (opened this August) already shut.
Neat Burger had planned three new locations in Queensway, Waterloo and King’s Road – as well as one in the O2 Arena – but these have now been shelved. The lease for the O2 Arena site, which was worth £100,000 annually with a 20-year commitment has been surrendered to the landlord, while the remaining lease term for the Dalston store – 12 years left on £45,000 annually – has been assigned to a third party.
Neat Burger’s closures driven by 145% loss
Courtesy: Neat Burger
The decision to close the stores and scrap plans for new ones comes after Neat Burger posted a £7.85M loss for the 2022 financial year, up 145% from the £3.2M loss reported in 2021. “As with any dynamic growing business, we’re constantly changing and adapting to the market, and so as part of our ongoing strategy, we are announcing the consolidation of four of our London operations,” the company told Restaurant Online (this is not counting the Dalston grab-and-go location).
“This decision is driven after an analysis of our consumer data and the shift towards hybrid work, leading to a natural decrease in footfall at some of our larger restaurants,” it added.
This is echoed in the statement by company co-founder and managing director Zach Bishti in its yearly accounts, where he noted that 2022 began as the UK faced another pandemic-induced lockdown due to the Omicron variant, though “a turbulent Q1 gave way to a steady recovery in trading during spring and summer”.
He explained that the nature of sales had changed compared to pre-pandemic, with Monday and Friday footfalls in London’s financial district and West End dropping with the rise of work-from-home. Plus, the demand for home delivery – which surged in 2021 due to lockdowns – declined, and this led Neat Burger to shutter its delivery-only kitchens.
“In light of changing work habits, the directors have identified that future expansion of the corporate estate should focus on smaller, compact units situated in high-footfall areas,” wrote Bishti.
International expansion among a turbulent time for UK vegan sector
Neat Burger opened its first location in Nolita, New York City | Courtesy: Neat Burger
Neat Burger secured $18M in Series B funding earlier this year, taking total funding to $100M, according to the Financial Times. Over the past few months, the chain has been accelerating its international expansion, with new sites in New York City and Milan joining its existing London and Dubai stores. The chain had announced plans to open another store in the Big Apple.
Bishti alluded to this in the company’s filing, stating: “International expansion remains a key strategic objective for the group, with our inaugural New York restaurant having opened in April 2023.”
At the time of the Manhattan store opening, Neat Burger CEO Tommaso Chaibra said: “With the successful launch of our New York location and record first quarter under our belt, we have demonstrated the strength of our brand, and are now well-positioned to bring our award-winning plant-based food to the growing number of consumers in the US and worldwide who are embracing a healthier and more flexitarian lifestyle.”
But according to This is Money, the restaurant group told staff that the company’s “future is at risk” now, and redundancies are being lined up.
“The last four years have been a roller coaster for any hospitality business. We’re facing macro pressures that we’re seeing reflected across the industry, and the strongest brands are having to adjust their sails to account for increasing energy costs, food price inflation and compounding interest rates,” the company told Restaurant Online.
Courtesy: Neat Burger
Neat Burger’s decision is reflective of the overall decline of the UK’s vegan market. According to industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe, plant-based sales declined by 3% between 2021-22 in the UK, with meat analogues dropping by 8% in the same period. Meat alternatives brand Meatless Farm was rescued from administration by fellow British player VFC, while mycoprotein giant Quorn reported a £15.3M loss in its yearly accounts, citing (like Neat Burger) post-pandemic inflationary pressures as part of the reason.
But this trend isn’t restricted to retail – a number of vegan restaurants have closed too. Fast-casual chain Clean Kitchen Club permanently shut its Notting Hill location in London in February, for example, while Flower Burger exited the UK market in September and Edinburgh’s Harmonium closed in April. In north England, V Rev, JJ’s Vish and Chips, Zad’s (all Manchester), Frost Burgers (Liverpool) and Donner Summer (Sheffield) all shut last year as well. In fact, earlier this month, popular vegan restaurant V Or V also announced it is closing.
“We believe that sometimes, taking a step back is necessary to make a bigger leap forward,” Neat Burger told Restaurant Online. We remain deeply committed to our mission of providing delicious, sustainable, plant-based dining, and are excited about our future growth prospects.”
Singaporean food tech startup TurtleTree has obtained self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status for its precision-fermented lactoferrin in the US and vsays its whey protein will sell at a positive gross margin following commercialisation in Q4 2023.
TurtleTree says it has obtained self-affirmed GRAS status according to US FDA regulations for its precision-fermented whey protein, lactoferrin, according to documents seen by Green Queen. This will allow the company to commercialise the ingredient, which it labels as LF+. The company says it is the first precision fermentation company globally to obtain self-affirmed GRAS status for this ingredient. Company founder and CEO Fengru Lin told Green Queen the company plans to apply for full FDA approval next year.
The announcement comes a year after the company – which has raised nearly $40M in funding – announced its animal-free protein was market-ready, after 18 months of R&D. “With LF+, we see a way to contribute towards better nutrition in the here and now while our longer-term dairy projects remain in the pipeline,” TurtleTree chief strategist Max Rye had said at the time. “The hope is to ultimately take a proactive approach in creating the world we want to see and genuinely make a difference during a time of need.”
And earlier this year, it hosted an exclusive tasting event for the LF+ protein in San Francisco. TurtleTree, which registered a net loss of $10M for the financial year of 2022, says once it commercialises its lactoferrin, it will be selling at a positive gross margin, claiming to be the first precision-fermented dairy protein producer to do so.
Self-affirmed GRAS vs FDA notification
The self-affirmed GRAS filing makes TurtleTree one of the only precision fermentation dairy protein companies to have GRAS status in the US. California’s Perfect Day and Israel’s Remilk are the only two precision fermentation companies to have FDA GRAS status. Like Turtle Tree, Israel’s Imagindairy has obtained self-affirmed GRAS status.
Self-affirmed GRAS status doesn’t legally require FDA review- instead, companies need only conduct a safety approval by a scientific panel, and the latter can include both internal and external experts. This can be done without notifying the FDA or disclosing safety data publicly.
It’s an easier and cheaper way to commercialise, as well as being much faster, given full FDA approval can take between six months to a year. Further, it’s a way of maintaining confidentiality around proprietary information and trade secrets though it does mean companies are making their own safety assessments independently from the FDA (while complying with its requirements).
This is why many companies prefer to go through the GRAS notification process, which is much more rigorous and requires the submission of a host of comments, including both positive and negative reviews and studies of a company’s ingredients. If approved, the FDA sends a ‘No Questions’ letter, deeming the ingredient safe for sale – this is seen as a more transparent process with publicly available data and breeds both market and consumer confidence.
Courtesy: TurtleTree
Remilk has already filed for the GRAS notification, and now, TurtleTree’s CEO Fengru Lin told Green Queen the company will work on full FDA approval next year. “After extensive internal testing and rigorous evaluation by global experts in the field, our animal-free lactoferrin has been affirmed ready for market entry,” said Vanessa Castagna, director of clinical and scientific affairs at TurtleTree. “Securing self-GRAS marks a pivotal step, attesting to the safety and efficacy of our advanced technology and the dedication of our team.”
Why lactoferrin is sought-after and short in supply
Lactoferrin is one of the main whey proteins found in human milk and bovine colostrum produced just after birth, and also known as ‘first milk’. It’s a highly sought-after protein, given it takes at least 10,000 litres of milk to produce just 1kg of purified lactoferrin and currently retails for $750-$1,500 per kg. Because of the limited supply, it’s only used in a few essential foods and beverages like infant formula and supplements.
But this whey protein has been found to have many functional benefits, including antiviral, antibacterial, anti-carcinogenic, immunity-boosting, gut-strengthening and iron regulation properties. The latter is one of its main attributes, with the ingredient deriving its ‘pink gold’ moniker due to the hue derived from its rich iron content (it’s used to treat low iron levels during pregnancy too). Lactoferrin supplements, meanwhile, lower the risk of respiratory tract infections.
This has led to an increase in global demand for lactoferrin, with one research firm estimating a 15.8% annual growth for its market, reaching from $772.3M now to $3.3B in 2023. TurtleTree has claimed that its animal-free version will be more affordable and that it has managed to scale up production of the protein, which allows the company to alleviate “the global shortage of lactoferrin”, and attract new consumers previously unable to access the protein due to cost and supply barriers.
The company said in a press release that these include “fortifying adult nutrition products such as protein powders, functional beverages, meal replacement alternatives for the elderly, and multivitamins, as well as supplementing plant-based dairy products to bridge the functional gap with traditional dairy milk.”
Courtesy: TurtleTree
The company will be able to extend the functionality of the proteins to applications outside Infant formulas, multivitamins and supplements, suggesting that it could be used in protein powders, functional beverages, meal replacements for the elderly, and animal-free dairy products.
“This milestone not only validates our commitment to innovation, but also opens doors to exciting partnerships with US food and beverage companies,” said Castagna. The company says its customers have indicated an interest in purchasing $500M worth of its LF+ protein over the next five years.
When the company was first founded, the plan was to produce cell-cultured breast milk but has since pivoted to precision fermentation dairy proteins. Lin told AgFunder in September that “initially we were really gung-ho about full spectrum milk, but bovine milk is traded on the market at $2 a gallon and we couldn’t see a way to get to that point anytime soon [using lactating mammalian cells]. We were also working on producing growth factors for cultivated meat and milk to support our cell-cultured milk program, but over time we pulled away from that to focus on high-value dairy ingredients.”
Precision fermentation and sustainability
TurtleTree adds that precision fermentation will help produce lactoferrin in “a far more sustainable way”. Livestock farming accounts for 11-19.5% of all global emissions, and between 2005 and 2015, greenhouse gas emissions of the dairy cattle sector increased by 18% due to growing demand. Plus, the dairy industry uses way more water and land to produce than plant-based alternatives.
Dairy proteins derived from precision fermentation can have a much lower impact on the environment. TurtleTree cites data from Perfect Day’s life-cycle assessment (LCA), which found that the latter’s beta-lactoglobulin (another whey protein) emits 91-97% fewer emissions, requires 29-60% less energy, and consumes 96-99% less water than conventional dairy.
British-South African company De Novo Foodlabs’ LCA is working on its own version of lactoferrin, what it calls precision-fermented NanoFerrin, and found that its protein would potentially have a 99.9% lower GHG footprint, land use and water use than conventional lactoferrin.
Courtesy: TurtleTree
Other companies working with lactoferrin derived from cellular agriculture include Australia’s All G Foods, New York’s Helaina (both using precision fermentation) and Israel’s Wilk (which uses cell cultivation). The latter two are working on breast milk applications.
TurtleTree maintains that its long-term plan is to make cell-based milk for human consumption. “Bovine. lactoferrin is just the start. We see today’s achievement as a vital step in realizing our broader commercialisation strategy and in enhancing access to milk’s most powerful ingredients,” said co-founder and CEO Fengru Lin.
“By fortifying products with bioactive ingredients like lactoferrin, we’re executing a crucial component of our overall plan to empower more people than ever before to enhance their health. Our current partners share in our enthusiasm, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to incorporate LF+ into their products. Together, we are making sustainable and health-conscious choices accessible to a broader audience.”
We speak to Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick about recent concerns around the Californian food tech’s financial health and what the future looks like for cultivated meat.
Eat Just, the Californian food tech that makes the JUST Egg plant-based egg and owns the cultivated chicken company GOOD Meat, is facing allegations about its financial health.
The same day Tetrick was named in the TIME100 Climate list last week – a roundup of the most influential business leaders and the only alternative meat founder to be included – the company was cited in a Wired article that alleged it is facing several financial and legal challenges.
In September, Bloomberg reported that Eat Just received $16M in capital injection from existing investor VegInvest/Ahimsa Foundation and suggested that the company was facing a cash crunch. According to Bloomberg’s reporting, neither side of Eat Just’s business – vegan eggs or cultivated meat – is profitable, and the company has been “unable to pay bills from some of its business partners”, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Wired’s reporting alleges that Eat Just – which has raised over $850M in funding from investors including UBS O’Connor, Qatar Investment Authority and Charlesbank Capital Partners – is the subject of at least seven lawsuits since 2019, has failed to pay its bills to multiple parties while continuing to commit to large projects in the meantime and writes that former employees claim that the pressure to achieve industry firsts led to poor financial planning.
Tetrick painted a different picture via email, telling Green Queen: “Eat Just, Inc. includes both JUST Egg and GOOD Meat, with JUST Egg making up 99.9% of the company’s current revenue. JUST Egg experienced a 173 percentage-point improvement in EBITDA in the first half 2023 vs full year 2022, and an 80 percentage-point improvement in gross margin in the first half 2023 vs full year 2022. Our business plan is on track to achieve break even in 2024, with half of our current SKUs selling at a positive margin today.”
‘We feel pressure to scale our impact’
Courtesy: Eat Just
In May 2022, Eat Just said it had teamed up with bioreactor company ABEC to build 10 bioreactors with a 250,000-litre capacity each – much larger than any other cultivated meat company had. This August, ABEC filed a court complaint alleging that the project was set to cost Eat Just north of $1B, and the bioreactor company stood to make over $550M from the partnership.
ABEC claims Eat Just was failing to make timely payments by the end of 2022, claiming $61M in unpaid invoices by March 2023. The manufacturer is suing Eat Just for over $100M, which also includes payments for changes to the scope of the bioreactor work.
Wired’s reporting mentioned other lawsuits involving food processor Archer Daniels Midland, lab equipment manufacturer VWR International, and the company’s landlord. Carrie Kabat, Eat Just’s head of communications, told Wired that all these lawsuits have been settled.
Eat Just is involved in some active lawsuits as well. In September, Clark, Richardson and & Biskup Consulting Engineers said the company owes $4.2M for unpaid work for a cultivated meat project, while food processing firm Pearl Crop filed a lawsuit alleging over $450,000 in unpaid invoices. And in October 2022, food processor Dakota Speciality Milling lodged a legal complaint against the company. The company declined to comment on active litigation.
“It was a very poorly kept secret that all employees knew about, that we weren’t paying our bills,” one former employee told Wired. One freelance contractor, who was owed $32,000, was allegedly only paid after they posted about their non-payment situation on social media.
In response to the above, Tetrick told Green Queen: “We felt, and still do feel, pressure to scale our impact – for the people, animals, and planet we serve.” Asked about the allegations around non-paid vendors, he repeated the statement he made to Wired: “The vast majority of our vendors throughout the company’s history have been paid on time and in full. At the same time, we recognise that if even one vendor is not paid on time and in full, it’s not acceptable and it’s on us to make it right.”
‘Focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan’
Courtesy: Eat Just
Eat Just says it is no longer working on the ABEC bioreactor deal, or the large-scale cultivated meat facility they were going to be housed in. “At the heart of our large-scale programme was an assumption that we would continue to raise capital for that large-scale facility,” Tetrick told Wired. “That did not happen.”
Speaking about this, Tetrick told Green Queen: “In the past few years we have invested a lot of capital in the design and engineering for a large-scale cultivated meat facility, knowing we would have to raise additional capital to complete the rest of the facility. Because of market conditions, we found ourselves in a position where it became very challenging to raise that additional capital. At this point, we’re re-assessing how we think about a large-scale facility in a more realistic way – which will still be very challenging.
He told Wired that GOOD Meat will shift focus towards finding ways to build cultivated meat facilities that cost less than $200M. “The reality for us now is we need to figure out a way to build large-scale facilities without spending north of half a billion dollars, because it’s simply not viable long-term,” Tetrick said. “There has to be a better way of doing it. And if we can’t figure out a different way of doing it, then what we’re doing won’t work.”
Looking ahead, Tetrick says the company is focused on revenue generation and profitability. “We own 90%+ of one of the fastest-growing categories in alt-protein and sell to millions of consumers – this having only created the category a few years ago,” he tells Green Queen. “JUST Egg, today, is available in more locations than ever before, the product is [of] higher quality than ever before, and we are selling at better margins than ever before. On the GOOD Meat side, we are the first company in the world to receive and sell cultivated meat, and one of only two that have sold cultivated meat in the United States.”
He adds: “Overall, we are focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan (i.e., cover operating costs through margin dollars) and serving our customers. If we execute, the company and its missions win. It’ll be challenging and hard – and it’s up to us to get it done.”
‘I hope to be leading the company for a long time’
GOOD Meat at Cop27 | Courtesy: Eat Just
Some ex-employees question whether he’s the right person to lead the company moving forward, calling his leadership “impulsive and dogmatic” and giving his management a “failing grade”. One staffer alleged he had a “very non-collaborative working style” that can make some uncomfortable.
But others, according to Wired’s reporting which cited multiple sources, praised Tetrick’s ability to fundraise and effectively communicate his ideas. One former staffer added: “Josh never gives up, and I’m sure he’s doing everything he can to bring that round in” and with another concurring that Tetrick “really does believe in the mission”.
In a podcast episode recorded with Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras earlier this year, Tetrick acknowledged that scaling cultivated meat is hard, but he remains undeterred. “One might say it’s too hard to scale as well, and when I hear that criticism, my answer is it’s really hard to scale it up, but ‘really hard’ is different than ‘impossible’ to scale up,’” he said. “So, it requires a ton of investment, time, energy and technical knowledge to scale it up, but it is still very much within the realm of what is possible to do, it is just a big technical and epic capital challenge.”
Tetrick said his ultimate goal is advancing cultivated protein, adding he wants “to do everything I can, through the people that we hire, technology that I’m pushing, capital that I’m raising, interviews that I’m giving, to increase the probability that cultivated meat as the main source of meat in the food industry happens sooner”.
Asked what his vision of success is, he told Figueiras: “Even though it is really hard, even when there’s only trying, even though it can be really frustrating, even though it can make you nauseous sometimes, I feel that to be useful, to feel like you’re doing everything you can to try and increase the likelihood of something so good happening- that’s what I want, and I hope to be doing this leading the company for a long time. This is where I think I could be the most effective.”
With additional reporting and research by Anay Mridul
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 host of developments for plant-based giants, corporate moves and a vegan meal donation campaign.
New products and launches
It’s a big week for big plant-based brands. Let’s start with Beyond Meat, which has extended its partnership with Pizza Hut UK through the launch of its pepperoni in the country, which features in the Big New Yorker and Beyond Pepperoni Feast pizzas, as well as the Beyond Pepperoni Melt.
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
It’s not the only pizza partnership going for Beyond Meat. In the US, it collaborated with vegan frozen brand Blackbird Foods for a relaunched version of the latter’s pepperoni pizza. Blackbird argues that Beyond’s pepperoni is meatier than its original house pepperoni, and the pizza will be available nationwide in retailers including The Fresh Market, Central Market, Earthfare and select Whole Foods stores.
Fellow Californian plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods has announced that it is the Official Plant-Based Burger of Walt Disney World Resort. The company, which has a fantastic track record for foodservice partnerships, has been working with Disney for three years.
Staying in this area, Bay Area company Eat Just – another vegan leader – has updated the product packaging for its mung-based JUST Egg. It will begin rolling out at Target and other retailers this month, with nationwide (and Canadian) availability expected by March 2024.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Swedish oat milk leader Oatly has had a busy week too. It has expanded its foodservice footprint with Insomnia Cookies, which will house its 11oz plain and chocolate oat milks across its over 250 locations in the US.
Meanwhile, in Spain, Better Balance has introduced three veggie burgers with a Nutri-Score A rating. The Huerta (peas, carrots and peppers), Eggplant and Spinach Burgers are available in El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, and Alcampo supermarkets.
Fellow Spanish brand Cocuus, which debuted its 3D-printed vegan bacon in Carrefour earlier this month, is prepping for a UK launch with the plant-based bacon analogue. Plus, vegan foie gras and tuna are planned for the months to follow.
In other pig-based meat alternatives news, German meat manufacturer Rügenwalder Mühle is continuing its link-up with fashion photographer Paul Ripke with a cleverly named Paulled Pork snack, which resembles a char siu bao and is part of the brand’s Veganuary campaign.
Also in Germany, dairy giant Bauer is teaming up with Austrian upcycled food company Kern Tec to launch ZUM GLÜCK!, an alt-dairy brand that leverages the latter’s apricot kernel fat. The milks and yoghurts will be available in January.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Over in the UK, vegan yoghurt maker The Coconut Collaborative has joined the plant-based milk world too, with a barista coconut M*LK that it swears froths, doesn’t split, and keeps a neutral flavour. It will initially launch through Ocado, with a wider rollout from January.
Meanwhile, discount retailer Aldi is reportedly expanding its own-label meatless offerings with a spin-off of its Plant Menu range, called Veggie Menu. Its IP filings have revealed that it will include cheese spreads, vegetarian sausages and quiches.
Away from retail for a second, London-based cocoa-free chocolate maker WNWN Food Labs has launched wholesale packs of its dark and vegan milk chocolates for bakeries, restaurants/foodservice, confectionery groups, and CPG/FMCG companies globally – something the brand hinted at in an interview with Green Queen in August.
Fresh off its first national TV campaign with Grace Dent – where it pointedly hit home on the health aspect of its vegan chicken – British plant-based brand THIS has updated its chicken pieces with a cleaner label, with a 50% cut in the number of ingredients.
In more British chicken news, VFC has entered the frozen category with two new SKUs: a plant-based chicken breast and chicken mince, which it claims is first to market. They will initially launch in Morrisons stores, with a wider rollout anticipated in 2024.
Courtesy: VFC
Speaking of mince, Singapore’s Good Health Farm, which debuted the world’s first tempeh beef mince in August, will be launching into 13 Fairprice stores in the city-state, with a sampling campaign, promotional pricing and local celeb chef Forest Leong.
The tempeh market is fermenting in India too, with Hello Tempayy releasing its new line of shelf-stable, tikka-style marinated tempeh thins in Tandoori, Korean BBQ and Thai Chilli flavours. These are available nationwide via online delivery.
In Australia, plant protein manufacturer The Harvest B has gained a listing on Woolworths‘ online platform Healthylife, which will stock the former’s locally produced lamb, chicken, beef and pork analogues.
And in news that will delight plant-based meat fans, Israeli 3D-printed meat producer Redefine Meat is entering European retail after expanding into foodservice footprint to 5,000 locations over the last year and a half. Its retail rollout will begin with the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Funding and markets
In Germany, sugar giant Nordzucker will invest €100M ($109.5M) in the production of plant-based proteins, with a new dedicated facility planned for a 2026 opening, which will create around 60 jobs.
Similarly, Israeli mycelium meat producer Mush Foods – which provides its ingredient for use in blended meat applications – has been awarded $250,000 in the Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Business Competition.
In the UK, meat alternatives could account for a third of the nation’s protein market by 2040, according to a report by UK think tank the Social Market Foundation.
Meanwhile, in Italy, seven agrifood startups have been chosen for the FoodSeed Accelerator, including cocoa-free chocolate maker Foreverland, ozonated oil startup Agreen Biosolutions, and water management service Soonapse.
Dutch vegan cheese maker Willicroft has launched a crowdfunding campaign on the back of unveiling its plant-based butter, which is made using precise (not precision) fermentation – there’s a difference!
M&A and corporate moves
Canada’s Protein Powered Farms has acquired Lovingly Made Ingredients, the plant protein extrusion facility built and previously owned by Meatless Farm. It will offer customised protein blends, pea and fava proteins for alt-dairy and snack applications, and pulses-based fibre products, and be open for co-manufacturing opportunities.
And in the UK, artisanal vegan cheese maker Palace Culture has been acquired by The Compleat Food Group (formerly Winterbotham Darby), which owns fellow plant-based brands Squeaky Bean and Vadasz.
Courtesy: Palace Culture
This week has also seen quite a few corporate personnel moves in the food world. Jean Madden, who has been the chief marketing officer of TiNDLE Foods for three years, is now the brand’s chief operating officer and has been formally named as a co-founder of the company (she was part of the original 4-person founding team).
Beyond Meatreally is going full-tilt on the health aspects of plant-based meat. It has hired an official nutrition advisor in Joy Bauer, a registered dietitian and host of NBC’s Health & Happiness show and the health and nutrition expert on The Today Show.
Meanwhile, changes are afloat at Boston food tech firm Motif FoodWorks, whose CEO Dr Mike Leonard has departed and been replaced by industry veteran Brian Brazeau as the company embarks on a fresh round of layoffs.
Manufacturing, policy and events
Told you it’s been a busy week for Oatly. Toronto-based food packaging company Ya YA Food Corp. has announced a $92M investment into the expansion of its Business Depot Ogden plant in Utah – this was previously taken over from Oatly as part of the oat milk maker’s ‘asset-light supply chain strategy’, and will keep manufacturing oat milk and expand production for Oatly.
In Lisbon, biotech company MicroHarvest has opened a pilot plant to accelerate the commercialisation of its biomass-fermented single-cell protein. The 200 sq m plant can churn out 25kg of product per day.
Swiss equipment manufacturer Bühler has opened a new food innovation hub in Uzwil, Switzerland, which will house four application centres for food, flavour, protein and energy recovery. These will enable the development of processes to produce plant-based meat, drinks and ingredients – among other foods.
In the UK, while the King’s Speech left out some key social issues, it did include an animal welfare bill that will see the export of livestock for fattening and slaughter permanently banned.
Speaking of social issues, vegan supplements brand Complement, which has donated one plant-based meal to children in need for each product sold, has announced a no-purchase-necessary campaign through Christmas, where all you need to do is sign up to its emails, and it will donate a meal to kids globally.
Meanwhile, a study by the University of California, Irvinesays monocropping foods like soy, corn and palm for cooking oils are highly detrimental to the climate, and lab-grown fats – take your pick – can save tons of land, water and emissions.
Courtesy: Sodexo
To promote more eco-friendly eating, Sodexohosted its global Sustainable Chef Challenge, where eight of its chefs faced off to create two low-carbon practical dishes that minimised food waste. The winners were its UK and Ireland chef Sharon McConnell and Brazilian chef Ricardo Machado.
British plant-based meat brand Moving Mountainspartnered with food emissions expert Klimato for a life-cycle assessment of its products, and revealed that its burger emits 92% less CO2e than beef.
As we approach the end of the year, awards season is upon us too. Vegan Women Summit has announced its inaugural VWS Awards to commemorate leaders and organisations accelerating women’s leadership with positive social, planetary and animal welfare impact. There are nine categories – including founder of the year and best place to work – and nominations are open until December 31.
And finally, Toronto held the 2023 International Vegan Film Festival and Vegan Cookbook Contest last week, with The Smell of Money among the winners in the former category, and PlantYou by Carleigh Bodrug winning in the latter.
The cultivated meat sector is seeing a flurry of activity from startups announcing new production facilities across the globe, as teams work to accelerate the scaling and commercialisation of cell-cultured alternatives to conventional meat.
A handful of cultivated meat startups have made headlines with news of production plants and facilities across countries like Australia, China, Israel, Singapore, the US and Malaysia, despite recent reporting detailing scaling and funding challenges. A growing number of companies are advancing in their scaling plans with larger-scale factories, pilot plants and demonstration facilities. While some of these are already operational, others are under construction, and others still are at the planning stages, all are continuing to hit milestones and make progress.
Meatable’s new pilot plant
Courtesy: Meatable
Dutch cultivated pork producer Meatable is having some year. In August, it nabbed $35M in a Series B round (taking total investment in the company to $95M). In October, it hosted its second cultured meat tasting of the year in Singapore, ahead of a planned 2024 launch. And now, to advance that very plan, it has opened a new pilot facility in its home country.
Its new pilot plant at the Bio Science Park in Leiden, the Netherlands spans 3,300 sq m (35,521 sq ft), which is double the size of its previous office and lab space. “In our previous location, we were working with 50-litre bioreactors, but here we have the possibility to work with larger bioreactors and therefore produce more product,” Meatable COO Carolien Wilschut told Green Queen last month. The new facility will be able to increase the bioreactor capacity to 200 litres, and potentially 500 litres.
“This is an important step for us in scaling up,” Wilschut added. The facility will expand Meatable’s ability to test and produce large volumes of cultivated pork in preparation for its foodservice launch next year in Singapore, where it has partnered with contract manufacturer ESCO Aster (the only approved cultured meat manufacturer in Singapore) as well as plant-based meat brand Love Handle to co-produce hybrid meat products.
The company has already applied for regulatory approval in Singapore – and is also looking into the only other country that has cleared the sale of cultivated meat. “In order to gain regulatory approval in the US, we’re working with the relevant US experts and authorities on this matter – including the US Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture,” co-founder and CEO Krijn de Nood told Green Queen in August.
On the new Leiden plant, he said: “It is fantastic to see how we have grown from an idea of two entrepreneurs five years ago into a mature company with a tangible product that can transform how we eat meat. In this new facility, we can further scale the company’s processes and accelerate commercial launch.”
Newform Foods’ demo facility
Courtesy: Newform Foods
In South Africa, Newform Foods (formerly Mzansi Meat) – Africa’s first cultivated meat startup – has partnered with engineering giant Project Assignments on a demonstration facility, which is touted to be the largest of its kind in the continent.
The two companies are collaborating to design a blueprint to introduce Newform Foods’ B2B bioproduction platform globally. This model will enable food producers and retailers to expand their offerings by creating cultivated meat products “without the burden of intensive R&D and associated costs”.
The demo plant aims to showcase to food businesses how they can incorporate cultivated meat products into their existing facilities, facilitating and curating “a cell line of interest”, developing a prototype, and scaling the process.
“We want to create an end-to-end service from prototype to pilot and beyond, simplifying the journey from lab to market. We’re excited to be putting our plans into action, working with Project Assignments who are masters of their craft,” said Newform Foods co-founder and CEO Brett Thompson. “This will be an amazing opportunity to show the world what our bioproduction platform can do at scale.”
Newform Foods – which raised $130,000 in pre-seed funding last year – has already unveiled its cultivated beef burger and lamb meatballs, and plans to create cell-cultured mince, sausages, steaks, chicken and nuggets in the future, with a focus on meat cuts suited to classic African dishes.
Magic Valley’s co-manufacturing plant
Courtesy: Magic Valley
Australia’s first cultured lamb producer, Magic Valley, has expanded into a new pilot facility at bio-innovator and incubator Co-Labs. The company – which debuted its lamb last year, followed by cultivated pork earlier this year – says the facility can help scale production capacity up to 3,000-litre bioreactors and produce up to 150,000kg of product annually.
“We are excited to embark on this expansion journey at Co-Labs, which will greatly amplify our production capacity,” said Magic Valley CEO Paul Bevan, who said the establishment of the pilot plant “also reaffirms our position as a major player on the global stage”.
“It’s been amazing to witness the growth and development of Magic Valley during their time at Co-Labs and we’re committed to supporting their journey ahead for a more sustainable future,” added Co-Labs co-founder Andrew Gray.
Magic Valley collaborated with Washington-based Biocellion SPC earlier this year to optimise its production by enhancing its bioreactor design. The company says its cultivated meat products can emissions by reduce 92%, land use by 95%, and water use by 78% compared to their conventional counterparts.
Omeat’s pilot plant for cost-effective cultivated meat
Courtesy: Omeat
Los Angeles startup Omeat, which launched from stealth mode in June, has completed the production of its 15,000 sq ft pilot plant. The new facility is part of the startup’s unique vertically integrated approach and can produce up to 400 tons of product annually.
The plant will deliver essential data and insights for scaling up production and ensuring quality, flavour and safety. Omeat says the completion of the plant will enable it to “demonstrate the intricacies of its process at scale, establishing a clear path for regulatory review and approval”.
In August, the startup – which raised $40M in an oversubscribed Series A round last year – launched its B2B arm by revealing it has already completed the first commercial sales of its ethical and affordable alternative to fetal bovine serum, Plenty, which is available to purchase for cultured meat producers.
“We’re pioneering a very unique farm-to-table approach that enables us to create delicious real meat with a fraction of the resources needed to produce conventional meat. It’s a more humane and sustainable way to satisfy the growing global appetite for meat,” said Omeat founder & CEO Ali Khademhosseini. “We remain confident that at scale, Omeat’s prices will be less than conventional meat, providing accessibility to high-quality protein worldwide.”
Cultivated pioneers face scaling challenges
It’s not all rosy, though. The only two companies to have earned US regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat – Upside Foods and Eat Just’s GOOD meat, both of whom are working on chicken– both previously announced industrial-scale facilities. The former broke ground on a 187,000 sq ft factory in Glenview, Illinois, which it says can eventually produce 30 million pounds of meat and seafood annually (Upside acquired cultivated seafood company Cultured Decadence in early 2022), while the latter had signed an agreement for a US facility that will house 10 250,000-litre bioreactors, which it says will be capable of making 30 million lbs of meat.
However, both companies are facing scaling and prouction difficulties. In two separate investigations by Wired, it was revealed that Upside Foods’ chicken served at San Fransico restaurant Bar Crenn wasn’t grown in bioreactors, but rather in non-scalable tiny bottles.
Similarly, Eat Just is allegedly in legal and financial trouble after failing to pay a number of its vendors, for which it has faced several lawsuits – this includes ABEC, the company commissioned to build those 10 bioreactors. As a result, co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick says the company is no longer working on that bioreactor deal, or the facility they were meant to be housed in.
Finnish startup Solar Foods has closed an oversubscribed €8M ($8.8M) Series B funding round to expand the production of its Solein protein made from air and support the construction of its Factory 01, slated to be operational in the first half of 2024.
With a Series B round that was fully subscribed nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, Solar Foods’ air protein is getting ready for takeoff. The €8M ($8.8M) investment was led by Finland’s Springvest Oyj, while existing investors including Happiness Capital, Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures and Fazer participated via a private placement.
This is according to cellular agriculture investor Agronomics, which has invested €6M ($6.6M) in the startup via €3M ($3.3M) rounds each in its Series A funding in September 2020 and in the form of a pre-Series B Convertible Promissory Note in October 2021.
The latest financing brings the total raised to over €43M ($47.1M) in equity, with an additional €30M ($32M) in debt financing. Solar Foods says the latest funds will be used to build and ramp up production of its Solein air protein at its first commercial-scale facility called Factory 01, which is set to begin operations next year. The investment will also help it utilise new production organisms and commercialise Solein in food products.
“The oversubscription, the still-growing waiting list and the funding round reaching its maximum target sooner than expected are all outstanding news for us. It is incredibly uplifting to see that so many want to be part of our journey,” said Solar Foods co-founder and CEO Pasi Vainikka. “The success of this round leads us to think about how a new similar opportunity should be arranged, including an opportunity for international participation.”
Courtesy: Solar Foods
A strongly backed protein solution
Founded in 2017 as a spinout of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University, Solar Foods makes what it calls the “world’s most sustainable protein”. It uses microbial fermentation to turn carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen (which replace sugar as an energy source) into its protein ingredient, in a process that eschews the need for open land, fertilisers and pesticides, and irrigation.
In fact, the fermentation process – similar to winemaking – means the protein is not dependent on water, weather, climate conditions or agriculture, and can even be produced in desert-like conditions, the Arctic and outer space (it has partnered with the European Space Agency to develop a system for producing food on Mars). The microbes are grown in a liquid form, and eventually transformed into an orange-coloured dry powder.
Agronomic outlines that since its first investment in Solar Foods, the startup has made “significant technical, regulatory and operational progress”, including an increase in the productivity of its organism by over 10 times. In December 2022, it received €34M ($37.3M) in grant funding to support the construction of Factory 01, which has been called “the world’s first commercial facility to produce food by using carbon dioxide and electricity as its raw materials”.
This grant added to a host of investments made in Solar Foods over the last few years. In February 2022, it raised €10M ($10.9M) from the Pharmacy Pension Fund of Finland, a year after it secured the same amount from the state-owned Finnish Climate Fund. In December 2020, it received a €4.3M ($4.7M) grant from Business Finland.
Speaking about the Series B round, Vainikka told Tech.eu: “This funding is more than a financial boost: it’s a mark of confidence in the future of sustainable food solutions that Solar Foods represents. We are excited to channel these resources into our new factory and amplify our impact in the food industry.”
Solar Foods co-founders Pasi Vainikka and Juha-Pekka Pitkänen | Courtesy: Solar Foods
Market debut and regulatory approval
According to a life-cycle analysis, Solein emits just 1% of greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional meat and 20% compared to plant-based proteins. It has a strong nutritional profile too, with 65-70% of protein, 5-8% of fat, 10-15% of dietary fibre and 3-5% of mineral nutrients. Solar Foods says its macronutrient profile is similar to dried soy or algae, and contains iron and B vitamins, which are essential nutrients often sourced from animal ingredients.
In October 2022, Solar Foods received regulatory approval for Solein in Singapore, allowing it to sell the carbon-captured protein in the island nation. At the time, Vainikka likened the protein’s development to the discovery of the potato. “We are introducing an entirely new ingredient to the world of food,” he said. “It’s a watershed moment for how we think of what we eat.”
This approval was followed by Solein’s debut at Singaporean eatery Fico, which began selling a vegan chocolate gelato made from the flavourless protein. But it’s not just dairy that Solein can replace – the ingredient has already been demoed in over 20 different foods, including burgers, eggs and meatballs. “Solein vanishes into daily meals, while at the same time maintaining its rich nutritional value and offering a unified solution that caters to virtually every imaginable meal of today and tomorrow,” co-founder and CTO Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, has previously explained.
Solar Foods’ Solein debuted as part of a vegan gelato recipe by Singapore restaurant Fico | Courtesy: Solar Foods
Solar Foods has also submitted a dossier to the European Food Safety Authority for EU approval. And in addition to the €34M grant for its Factory 01, it has a further €76M ($83.2M) earmarked for Factory 02 “if we were to build on European soil” as Vainikka told AFN. Moreover, the company has a strategic partnership with Japanese food company Ajinomoto, which entails product development with Solein and a marketability study set to begin early next year.
Famed for its wild salmon, British Columbia’s shift to industrial farming has brought threats to human and planetary health. To counter that, three companies are working on a whole-cut plant-based version of Canada’s favourite fish, with financial support from the government.
Nearly 80% of Canadians eat salmon, while one in 10 eat it at least once a week. It’s so ingrained in its national culture that the government calls it “an important icon” for people in Atlantic Canada.
But the country’s wild salmon reserves are depleting, with the fish now classed as an endangered species – last year saw the largest decline in population. Increasing demand has meant a shift away from wild salmon farming and towards intensive practices such as overfishing and habitat destruction, while climate change has further exacerbated that issue.
It’s not just their population that has been endangered – it’s their health too. The farming industry in British Columbia, for example, has been caught dumping piscine orthoreovirus-infected (a fish virus) blood into Canada’s largest wild salmon migration route, while scientists warned as far back as 2012 that a virus was infecting both its farmed and wild salmon – which inevitably affects human health.
The Canadian government, however, failed to pay any heed to these warnings, stating that risks to salmon populations were low. Now, it seems it’s paying a little more attention. One of its five Global Innovation Clusters, the alternative-protein-centric Protein Industries Canada, is making a $4.5M investment in an effort to produce a realistic vegan alternative to wild salmon.
Whole-cut salmon: the holy grail of vegan seafood?
The vegan whole-cut salmon is said to ‘transform from raw to cooked’ | Courtesy: New School Foods
The project involves three Canadian businesses: plant-based seafood company New School Foods, precision fermentation startup Liven Proteins and dehydration solutions provider NuWave Research, with a total investment of $11.4M.
The three companies are working together to commercialise a whole-cut vegan wild salmon product that “transforms from raw to cooked” and promises to offer consumers the same taste and texture as their beloved conventional counterparts. New School Foods has previously unveiled its own whole-cut salmon analogue made from plant fibres, achieved via what the startup describes as proprietary directional-freezing-based scaffolding technology.
The new initiative builds off New School Foods and Liven Proteins’ first project, which proved out the technology necessary to formulate a full muscle-cut product. Alongside NuWave Research, they will now focus on scaling up the production and commercialisation of the salmon.
New School Foods will use its newly developed tech to produce a whole-cut salmon fillet, while Liven is creating animal-free collagen through precision fermentation to replicate the functional and nutritional attributes of conventional salmon, which itself represents a $15B industry. Meanwhile, NuWave Reserach will develop and validate new techniques for its vacuum microwave tech, which will help accelerate the manufacturing of this product.
“These new technologies will support the increased production of a high-quality plant-based salmon fillet alternative, expanding sustainable and nutritious options available to Canadians and helping meet domestic and global demands,” said Canada’s innovation, science and industry minister François-Philippe Champagne.
New School Foods founder and CEO Chris Bryson added: “In addition to optimising our novel food processing technology with the support of our consortium partners, we’ll be building out our own production assembly line, providing a competitive advantage to fine-tune product quality and optimise costs so that we can create a plant-based alternative built for a wide audience.”
“Scalability and product-end applications are key to the success of Liven’s new ingredients, and this project addresses both components,” said Liven co-founder and CEO Fei Luo.
Plant-based investment in Canada soars
Courtesy: New School Foods
Canada’s plant-based market is set to grow by 9.2% annually until 2027. Interest in these foods is growing: government research suggests that over 40% of citizens are actively trying to incorporate more vegan foods into their diets, with plant proteins expected to contribute $4.5B to the country’s GDP growth.
Last year, a third of Canadians tried a plant-based meat alternative, while 42% reported consuming a vegan dairy substitute, according to research by Dalhousie University. Meanwhile, 31% said they consume the former at least once a week, and half said the same for the latter dairy. Another survey revealed that Canadians eat alt-protein (7%) more than pork (5%) or seafood (4%) in a typical week.
“Innovation is an ongoing process. It is the continual improvement of ideas, and the generating and stacking of IP to ultimately create a revolutionary product or service,” added Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel. “By building off IP generated in the first project, and by bringing in new partners and their IP, new technology is being created, leading to a premier, commercial, first-to-market product.”
Protein Industries Canada’s involvement is its first investment under its second mandate, which began with the 2023-24 fiscal year with an additional $150M in funding from the federal government.
In September, the organisation commissioned a report by Ernst & Young that highlighted great potential for the global plant-based market over the next decade (though these are optimistic numbers with some caveats). The report highlighted a need for increased policy and infrastructure support, as well as more investment in the alt-protein sector in Canada, but said the country has what it takes to be a leader in this space.
This is echoed by the industry think tank the Good Food Institute, which called Canada a “global leader in public funding for plant-based foods” in its 2022 State of the Industry report. It highlighted Protein Industries Canada’s funding of 45 different plant protein R&D projects, which cover areas like regulatory policies as well as increased production.
The project is touted as the “first of its kind to market”, though in Europe, Austrian brand Revo Foods launched a whole-cut vegan salmon in retail earlier this year. Other companies working with whole-cut seafood analogues include Israel’s Oshi (formerly Plantish), Germany’s Esencia Foods, US’s Aqua Cultured Seafood and India’s Seaspire.
The news also comes a week after the launch of Future Ocean Foods, a consortium of 36 companies working to advance the alternative seafood sector – New School Foods is part of the organisation.
Germany has set aside €38M in investment for the promotion of alternative proteins and a switch to plant-based agriculture in its federal budget for 2024. This includes promoting the manufacturing and processing of plant-based, cultivated and fermented proteins, supporting a transition to plant-based farming, as well as opening a Proteins of the Future centre.
The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag has announced €38M in funding for a sustainable protein transition in 2024, extending Germany’s reputation as a European leader in alternative protein.
The investment promotes a focus on future-facing proteins for human nutrition over animal feed, increased research funding for plant-based foods and cultivated meat, support for farmers to transition from animal agriculture to plant-based farming, and set up a new protein centre.
It coincides with a funding structure announced by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) that will provide subsidies to pig farms for a transition from animal husbandry to better forms of husbandry, with a total sum of €705M until 2033. Additionally, €1M has also been made available in the new budget to support efforts to reduce animal testing – something Germany has been criticised for previously – with a further €1M reserved for future budgets.
What Germany’s 2024 budget means for sustainable proteins
Zoe Mayer, Alliance 90/The Greens | Courtesy: Stefan Kaminski/CC
Germany’s new alt-protein funding is broken down into multiple focus areas, following “intensive negotiations” that paved the way for a “clear commitment to the protein transition”, as outlined by Bundestag and Green party member Zoe Mayer.
“For the first time, a large sum – 38 million euros in 2024 – will be earmarked for the promotion of alternative protein sources and the switch to plant-based agriculture, after decades of focusing primarily on subsidising livestock farming,” she said in a press release. (In the EU, at least 50% of cattle farmers’ income comes directly from government subsidies.)
As per Germany’s 2024 budget, the BMEL’s protein crop strategy will see €8M earmarked for greater focus on human nutrition over animal feed for these proteins. The largest section of the funds (€20M) will go to an ‘opportunity programme’ aiding the transition from animal husbandry to plant-based, cultivated or fermented protein processing. The remaining €10M has been set aside for the production and processing of these alternative proteins and projects that promote this transition.
This will be helped by the establishment of a stakeholder forum on protein sources for human nutrition, as well as a Proteins of the Future Competence Centre. Industry think-tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe says this centre should develop a roadmap for the protein transition with measurable goals, and set out what needs to be done by both industry and politicians to put Germany at the forefront of the alternative protein landscape by 2030.
“The announced Competence Centre Proteins of the Future offers the opportunity for work on alternative protein sources in Germany to be better coordinated and aligned with a strategic goal in future,” said Ivo Rzegotta, senior public affairs manager for Germany at GFI Europe. “Germany needs a roadmap for the transition towards more alternative protein sources and such a centre can be the first step in developing such a strategy with all relevant departments and stakeholders.”
This roadmap, GFI Europe suggests, should combine the definition of research priorities, the coordination of public research funding, the support of companies with regulatory issues, the development of production capacities, and the role of farmers in the transformation.
Government funding a positive sign, but can go much further
Courtesy: Getty Images
This isn’t the first time there has been government support for sustainable proteins in Germany. Last year, the country introduced its latest nutrition strategy, one of the main focuses of which is an increase in plant-based eating – particularly in government-run establishments like hospitals and schools.
In fact, according to GFI Europe, Germany is the largest plant-based food market in Europe, with sales rising by 11% from 2020 to reach €1.9B. It boasts 12% of vegans and vegetarians, with a USDA report calling it Europe’s largest flexitarian population (with 55% following this diet). Meanwhile, meat consumption has reduced in the country – a 750-person survey by the EU’s Smart Protein project earlier this month revealed that the nation has seen the greatest fall in meat intake (alongside Italy), with 59% eating less meat in 2022 than a year earlier.
Other isolated instances of funding in this sector include the agricultural ministry’s financing of alt-protein projects, which also comprises research into cultivated fish, as GFI Europe states. Meanwhile, the education and research ministry is funding projects in the NewFoodSystem innovation area and the Cellzero Meat project, and the economic affairs and energy ministry is supporting near-market projects in scaling up with its Industrial Bioeconomy funding programme.
Moreover, Germany was home to a meeting of the Legume Generation consortium – an €8.6M, five-year project backed by the UK and EU to reduce the protein deficit through legume production – at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) earlier this month.
But a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) from June suggests that funding measures in Germany have been uncoordinated, individual instances that don’t follow a coherent overall strategy for the sector’s development, adding that the investment is significantly lower than in other countries.
And last week, the German Constitutional Court struck down funding for climate action not included in the budget, stating that repurposing €60B of unused pandemic funds from 2021 to finance climate protection went against the country’s Basic Law.
Plus, an investigation last month revealed how six members of the EU Parliament – two of whom are from Germany – have deep ties with agricultural lobby groups and are opposing key pieces of legislation from the Green Deal, including the pesticide reduction law. One of the German MEPs, Christine Schneider, is part of a group that governs the European Food Forum, described as a non-partisan food and farming platform – but its business members include pesticide association CropLife, Cefic (which represents agrochemical firms like BASF and Bayer) and Yara, Europe’s biggest fertiliser company.
Nevertheless, the 2024 budget’s focus on plant proteins represents a positive step, says Rzegotta: “With this decision on the protein transition, the coalition is taking a big step towards the transition to a sustainable food system laid out in the coalition agreement. The agreed funding measures for research and transformation will put Germany on the path to becoming a leader in this emerging field.”
Along similar lines, Mayer added: “Our budget holders were able to push through key green demands that represent nothing less than a paradigm shift in the agricultural sector’s funding system.”
Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just and its cultivated meat subsidiary GOOD Meat, has been named in the inaugural TIME100 Climate list of influential business leaders – the only person from the alternative protein industry to be chosen.
TIME describes its newly-debuted TIME100 Climate list as “an argument for how we see the future”, asserting that climate progress will come from “engagement with and leadership by the business world”. It published the inaugural list yesterday, with famous names ranging from Stella McCartney and Bill Gates to Billie Eilish and Coldplay.
Tetrick, whose California-based company is the maker of plant-based Just Egg (famous for its vegan liquid egg and frozen vegan egg patty) and the parent of cultivated meat entity GOOD Meat, is the only leader from this sector to be named as one of the 100 most influential climate pioneers in the world.
Tetrick was recognised for his company’s efforts to bring the world’s first cell-cultured meat to market – in Singapore three years ago – and for being one of the only two companies to be approved by the USDA to sell cultivated meat in the United States.
“I think individuals can make the choice to solve one part of our climate challenge by choosing to eat in a way that causes less harm,” Tetrick told TIME. “Less harm to themselves and to the planet. And this choice doesn’t require one dollar of new spending or any food technology company like ours to make cultivated or plant-based meats. It just takes an awareness of the problem and a will to take agency to solve it.”
Food accounts for a third of all global emissions, and meat is responsible for 60% of that share. Cultivated meat can emit 92% fewer emissions than conventional beef, reduce meat-production-related air pollution by 94%, and require 90% less land, according to peer-reviewed research.
Courtesy: Eat Just
Why the Eat Just founder made the TIME100 Climate list
The TIME100 Climate list was compiled after months of research and vetting by the magazine’s climate action platform TIME CO2. Its six-person team prioritised nominees from five systems crucial to change, aligning with scientific and economic consensus: energy, nature, finance, culture and health.
TIME CO2 valued measurable and scalable achievements over commitments and announcements, favouring more recent action. “The inaugural TIME100 Climate list produced no single perfect instance of complete climate action, but multitudes of individuals making significant progress in fighting climate change by creating business value,” wrote TIME CO2’s Marcius Extavour.
Asked what sustainability effort he hopes would gain more mainstream popularity over the next year, Tetrick said that while the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is paramount, so too is a shift away from the factory farming of billions of animals as a primary food source.
“That system causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined, and it’s getting worse every day. The effort is a simple one: choose to eat foods – mostly plant-based – that cause less harm to our planet,” he explained.
In response to a question asking about why climate tech isn’t getting enough attention, Tetrick unsurprisingly highlighted cultivated meat. “We believe that making meat without the large-scale slaughter of animals requires new technologies, including cultivating meat from a single cell and turning that into meat through a process of feeding and culturing those cells in vessels, similar to brewing beer,” he noted.
“The need for more funding, more attention and more government”
Courtesy: Eat Just
Tetrick added: “Cultivating meat is in its early days, and more attention and funding are needed to accelerate its rise to the top of the system of meat production.” It’s a point he touched upon on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in September, the Eat Just founder told host and Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras that he wished infrastructure could be built faster, for which more capital is necessary.
“If you had instead of hundreds of millions, you had hundreds of billions, you would go faster,” he said. “You could build infrastructure faster, you could design and engineer the vessels. You could hire more people, you could accelerate research and development.” This additional capital, he stated, could come from both private and public funding, with Tetrick noting that he agrees that more money, attention and government support would accelerate this industry.
GOOD Meat has been recognized on multiple ‘best of’ lists including as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies,” Entrepreneur’s “100 Brilliant Companies,” CNBC’s “Disruptor 50” and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. JUST Egg has been named among Popular Science’s “100 Greatest Innovations” and Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” and the history-making debut of GOOD Meat was heralded as one of 2020’s top scientific breakthroughs by The Guardian, Vox and WIRED.
As the meat industry continues to knock the long ingredient lists of certain plant-based meat alternatives, one element pops up more often in the discourse: methylcellulose. But what is this substance, and is it really unhealthy? Here’s why plant-based meat companies use it, and a few alternatives.
In 2020, the Center for Consumer Freedom – a lobby group connected to the meat industry – ran a Super Bowl ad that acted as a blatant attack on plant-based meat. The 30-second spot featured kids in a Spelling Bee competition participants struggling to pronounce complicated words that are ingredients used in alt-meat.
It began with methylcellulose, which confounded the contestant, who asked for its meaning. The judge described it as a “chemical laxative that is also used in synthetic meat”. The child asked: “Why?” and walked back, and the commercial concluded: “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.”
The ad was a direct attack on plant-based meat’s two giants: Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, both of which use methylcellulose in some of their products. In response to the ad, Impossible countered with a spoof, where a child is confused after being asked to spell “poop”. The judge explains how there’s “lots of poop in the places where pigs and chickens are chopped to pieces to make meat”, and a voiceover highlights research that found 300 samples of ground beef to contain “faecal bacteria”. Impossible’s ad ends with: “Just because a kid can spell ‘poop’, doesn’t mean you or your kids should be eating it.”
The use of ingredients like methylcellulose is a major point of contention for plant-based meats – but what is it, and should we really not be eating it?
What is methylcellulose, and why is it used in plant-based meat?
Methylcellulose (known as E461 in its E number in the EU) is a compound derived from cellulose – a naturally occurring substance found in the cells of plants like root and leafy vegetables, fruits such as apples and pairs, as well as legumes. Unlike cellulose, however, methylcellulose is synthetically produced.
A commonly used substance in multiple industries – including food, household products and construction materials – it’s made by heating cellulose and treating it with methyl chloride, which is turned into an odourless white powder.
Many plant-based meat manufacturers use methylcellulose for its binding and gelling properties, which aid the texture that’s crucial to consumers. The substance isn’t toxic or an allergen, can dissolve in cold water, and form a gel at high temperatures. And as a gel, it has a unique thermoreversible attribute: methylcellulose can set when hot and melt when cold.
This is crucial for plant-based meat, which can be held together during the cooking process thanks to its gelling properties, and provide a succulent, juicy bite to these products once cooked. These properties make it a hard-to-replace substance.
Singapore-based meat alternatives brand TiNDLE Foods, which has a global presence, says methylcellulose (along with coconut oil and oats) helps keep its plant-based meat together. On its website, it explains: “Think of it as a plant-based egg white.”
Is methylcellulose safe and healthy?
Courtesy: Wladimir Bulgar/Science Photo Library
Methylcellulose is mainly a functional ingredient: the only real nutritional quality it has is fibre. Since this fibre content is insoluble and non-fermentable, it doesn’t lead to any bloating or gas. It isn’t digestible since human bodies lack cellulase, the enzyme needed to digest methylcellulose – so it passes through the body undigested. It does, however, contribute to water absorption in the intestines, which makes stools softer – this is why it’s an ingredient often used in laxatives.
The ingredient has garnered a bad reputation and is frequently cited as an element in the ‘overprocessed’ nature of plant-based meat. It was in the spotlight during a lawsuit against Beyond Meat last year, which questioned the ‘all-natural’ claims its burgers used to make (it no longer labels them this way).
Methylcellulose is approved by the EFSA in the EU, the FDA in the US and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, which rule it safe for human consumption, with no specified limits to its use. This is because no adverse effects have been observed when this is consumed in moderation.
When used as a laxative, consumers are advised to consume not more than three servings (6g) per day. In Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods’ formulations, methylcellulose forms less than 2% of the total weight of their burger patties (2g).
Startups making methylcellulose alternatives
As the focus on cleaner labels increases, the plant-based meat industry is looking for ways to replace methylcellulose to appeal to more consumers with shorter, more ‘natural’ and unprocessed labels. Some startups are providing solutions.
Fiberstar
Courtesy: Fiberstar
US company FIberstar is championing citrus fibre as an ideal base for replacing methylcellulose. Its Citri-Fi ingredient can replace elements like phosphates, carrageenan, titanium and glycerides. But when mixed with agar agar, native starch and psyllium husk, it “creates a texture that simulates real animal meat and produces a burst of juiciness and sizzle during cooking”, as the company told FoodNavigator.
It added: “This allows products like burger patties to be cooked at a high temperature without falling apart. During the cooking process, water and fat release to simulate the texture and create a burst of juiciness and sizzle which is convincing to quasi-carnivores.”
Meala
Courtesy: Meala
Israeli food tech startup Meala has developed a proprietary platform that creates functionally activated proteins that can replace methylcellulose in a 1:1 ratio, as well as other gums for binding and gelling. Part of The Kitchen FoodTech Hub‘s portfolio, Meala secured $1.9M in funding earlier this year.
It says its powdered ingredient will appear as a protein on product labels and can improve the texture of meat alternatives. “Our vision is for plant-based alternatives to sport a similar short list of simple, recognizable ‘home kitchen’ ingredients while delivering the same full-bodied flavour and texture of real meat,” its co-founder Hadar Razmovich says.
Eggmented Reality
Another Isreal-based startup, Eggmented Reality taps into precision fermentation to develop functional proteins that have gelling, binding, foaming or stretching properties. Its first product is an alternative to eggs and methylcellulose. The company, which has raised $1.2M in funding, has partnered with local food giant Tnuva – which invested in the startup through the Fresh Start food tech incubator – on a joint development agreement.
“Precision fermentation is expensive, so we are pursuing superior functionality so formulators can use less of an ingredient to achieve functional parity. We’re able to use 40-50% less of our protein to achieve the same gelation capability that commercial ovalbumin or egg white powder can deliver,” co-founder Jonathan Rathauser told AFN. “Eggmented represents the next generation of precision fermentation companies that really focuses on unit economics and functionality.”
Plantible Foods
Courtesy: Plantible Foods
Duckweed (also called lemna) is gaining popularity for its high protein and omega-3 fatty acid content and pedigree as a climate-friendly superfood. One company is taking things a step further: Califonia-based Plantible Foods, which raised $21.5M in Series A funding in 2021 to scale and launch its nutrient-dense Rubi Protein, has patterned with ingredients company ICL Food Specialties to develop a clean-label methylcellulose alternative.
The new solution, called ROVITARIS Binding Solution, outperforms methylcellulose “by a mile both texturally and nutritionally”, according to Plantible chief commercial officer Morgan Keim, who told AFN that the ingredient will “render methylcellulose obsolete”. The companies plan to do initial consumer trials in Q1 2024, and commercialise later in the year.
After years of working with cellular agriculture companies, Parendi Birdie is now working on her own blended meat startup. She tells Green Queen about launch plans, consumer testing, and the best way to market these products.
This article is part of our content series exploring the world of hybrid and blended meat products – those blending cultivated or conventional proteins with plant-based ingredients, respectively, and why some think this is the future of reducing meat consumption.
Eating meat is fuelled by our unconscious desire for satisfaction, not cognition. Familiarity, place and origin are key concepts in food psychology, and the primal instinct in us still dictates why we eat what we eat.
This is what Parendi Birdie, a cellular agriculture expert now working on a new blended meat startup (currently in stealth mode) tells me. It’s also what a survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) earlier this year tells us, revealing how three-quarters of its 1,022 American respondents feel food consumption impacts their physical and mental well-being.
It rings true when applied to meat-eating too. In 2021, Ipsos conducted a 1,018-person poll that revealed how 89% of Americans include meat in their diets. It noted an interesting observation: 59% of respondents believed eating meat is the American way of life, and 52% felt that people advocating for reduced consumption are trying to control what the public eats.
Source: Ipsos
The psychological explanation above extends to plant-based meat, and its barriers to adoption, as Birdie explains: “Evolutionary wiring makes it easy to envision how a cow becomes a burger, but it’s challenging to envision how peas transform into a burger. This confusion then creates room for doubt and allows the narrative of unnatural/processed/fake meat to gain traction.”
But there is a solution to this – one that could cut people’s meat intake, and simultaneously help them overcome their neophobia around plant-based alternatives. “Blends can sidestep this discussion by focusing on meat that’s enhanced with plants,” explains Birdie. “This approach allows blends to confidently occupy the realm of ‘real’ in the consumer’s minds, without questioning its authenticity.”
The idea is to throw out the black-and-white thinking, “the rules and labels”, to craft an ideal meat product. “We’re combining the meat we know and crave with the plant-powered benefits we want more of to create inspired, enhanced protein with more flavour, juiciness and nutrients,” Birdie says of her new startup.
The challenges facing blended meat
In an interview with food tech firm Alt Collective – where she works as a scientific advisor – Birdie explained how she came across cultured meat in 2013, which was the springboard of her career in cellular agriculture and alt-protein. She has a biochemistry degree and has been an early team member at cultivated meat startups GOOD Meat and Mission Barns (she also interned at precision fermentation company The EVERY Co).
In January, she left her position as head of brand strategy at Mission Barns and began working in strategic and advisory roles with various companies. The other thing she’s been working on is blended meat, which she says is “the silver bullet” to solve the biggest problems in alternative protein.
Some companies – like SciFi Foods – are combining cultured proteins with plant-based to create hybrid meat. Birdie’s startup will start with a blend of conventional and plant proteins. “Rather than trying to make plants taste like meat, we use them to enhance meat, offering something genuinely better,” she says. “The companies that will succeed here will have a consumer-obsessed, taste-first approach, connecting on a deeper emotional, gut level.”
Courtesy: IFIC
And there are legs to this approach, as numerous studies have shown. That IFIC report revealed that taste continues to be the top purchase driver for food and beverage in the US. Recently, a Mintel survey showed that flavour (48%) ranks as the biggest factor stopping Americans from trying plant-based meat.
But there are doubts about the blended meat segment. Companies from Tyson Foods to Aldi have all tried to do this and failed. Perhaps there were a few marketing faux pas here. Tyson, with all its money and might, went with ‘Angus Beef & Isolated Pea Protein’ as the front-of-pack message on its Raised & Rooted blended burger – hardly an inspiring (or mouthwatering) slogan.
Courtesy: Tyson
According to the IFIC poll, while 14% of Americans consumed more blended meats in the last year, that growth rate decreased from the year before. Moreover, a higher number of consumers (20%) are eating fewer of these products. Industry think-tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) says that – amidst mainstream recognition of plant-based meat and numerous headlines about the headways made by cultivated meat startups – blended meat might need some help with its value proposition vis-a-vis consumers. It sector to reach a broader meat-eating base.
So, with these numbers in mind, why would people want to eat a burger made from an animal-plant blend? “135 million Americans don’t try a product by accident,” says Birdie, referencing a Gallup poll from 2020 that revealed how 41% of Americans have tried meat alternatives. “There is something deep and real that drew millions of people to try plant-based meat. We all want to eat better, but don’t want to sacrifice taste.”
Market testing and launch plans
“There is a huge, untapped market of people actively seeking plant-forward options, but today, they only have two choices: meat and plant-based meat,” explains Birdie. “This binary leaves a big set of the population frustrated by underperforming plant-based meat products designed for vegans.”
This is something plant-based meat company Impossible Foods has touched upon. Speaking to Green Queen last week, a spokesperson for the brand said: “Taste is the #1 reason why consumers will decide to purchase a product again or not. Many consumers have unfortunately had a less-than-positive first impression of various plant-based products, and that casts doubt on the rest of the category as a whole.”
Birdie’s blended meat company is “exploring what makes the finest cuts of meat so extraordinary” and applying “cutting-edge culinary techniques” to create products that deliver the flavour experience found in only “the most exquisite cuts”. The team’s R&D testing has led to the development of new approaches to thermal treatment, flavour development and mixed-protein binding – “all to allow our consumers to enjoy a clean label, while not sacrificing the sensory experience”.
This is reflected in the initial product lineup: truffle-mushroom meatballs, bourbon-bacon-artichoke sausages, and black Angus-roast shallot and shiitake burgers. While there’s no launch date yet, the plan is to enter retail first, before moving to foodservice with blended meats that “aim to outperform plant-based and conventional meat on all fronts”.
A video closeup of the blended meat patty Birdie is working on – courtesy: Parendi Birdie
And Birdie says she can back this up with data. In setting up her company, she has done extensive research, including surveys and focus groups, plus a Meta in-market ad testing with over 200,000 participants. According to Birdie, who extrapolates the testing results based on the overall US population, 163 million Americans are “excited” for products that combine plant and animal protein, while 64 million flexitarians agreed that “Instead of eating plant-based meat occasionally, I’d prefer to regularly eat a meat product that combines real meat and plants.” No doubt these are encouraging stats.
“These products offer an enhanced sensory experience with the plant-powered benefits we want more of,” suggests Birdie. “This, coupled with the cultural and psychological familiarity of meat, is the winning combination for widespread, daily adoption. We’re pioneering a new category to meet this massive unmet demand.”
That adoption point is something Mirte Gosker, managing director of GFI APAC, is bullish about. “If blends are embraced by conventional meat industry players, it could dramatically increase plant-based meat manufacturing globally, which – through economies of scale – could drive down production costs for all plant-based ingredients, including those used for fully plant-based products,” she told Green Queen.
In it for the long-term
The blended meat category is still embryonic, but several companies – including 50/50 Foods and Mush Foods – are making progress in this space. There is, of course, the climate argument to contend with: beef is the worst greenhouse-gas-emitting food on the planet. But meat reduction is a much more pragmatic and deliverable approach than outright elimination.
Plus, research has found that replacing just half of our meat and dairy consumption with plant-based alternatives – essentially what blended meat is doing – can cut 31% of our agricultural and land use emissions, halt deforestation, halve the decline of ecosystems, and double overall climate benefits.
Gosker cited a report by the Guardian last year, which forecast the predicted impact of blended meat on our food system. “If Burger King and McDonald’s – which together represent between 2-3% of global beef purchases – changed their beef patties into 50/50 blends with plant-based meat, demand for global agricultural land would reduce by 8.5 million hectares – an area the size of Ireland,” she summarised.
Courtesy: Parendi Birdie
“The stakes are so high for this cause, yet the standards are far too low,” says Birdie. “Our vision radically differs from others and we aim to be a leading force driving change, not merely to be along for the ride. When I look at where we want to be in, let’s say 100 years from now – a world in which we truly have a sustainable protein industry – it’s hard for me to envision a realistic path without blends playing a critical role.”
Biride adds that she isn’t too excited about blended meat’s short-term benefits. “I believe the true power of blends lies in their unique ability to create an environment where the entire sustainable, alt-protein protein sector can thrive.”
The Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC’s first State of the Industry report highlights the funding rollercoaster that is alt-protein, Singapore’s reputation as an innovation launchpad, barriers to the adoption of plant-based meat, and the receptiveness to blended meat products. Plus, a separate report by GFI showcases the potential of sidestream valorisation.
GFI APAC launched its first State of the Industry report last week, showcasing alt-protein’s tremendous potential and heightened challenges in Asia-Pacific. The think tank explores the investment gap in the sector, describes the importance of scaling up and presents a consumer survey showcasing interesting results and opportunities for alt-protein producers, including those working with blended meat.
Here are the key takeaways:
APAC private alt-protein investment reached a high, then fell off a cliff
Courtesy: GFI APAC
2022 was a record year for alt-protein financing in the region. Public funding increased by 207% from 2021, from $31M to $94M. This sum was actually 37% higher than the all-time total up to 2021 ($68M). The current total ($162M) accounts for 16% of all alt-protein investments globally.
Similarly, at $551M, private financing was up by 45% year-on-year, surpassing $1B in all-time funding. But the sector was also affected by the global downturn in VC funding, which reached a 13-quarter low, with the first half of 2023 only witnessing $47M in investment.
After surpassing Australia/New Zealand in funding last year, Singapore has now given way to the Antipodean nations when it comes to investments in the first half of 2023. Australia and New Zealand garnered $20M in funding, followed by South Korea ($13M), mainland China ($8M) and then Singapore ($3M).
APAC’s business ecosystem is growing rapidly
Courtesy: GFI APAC
There are now at least 206 startups working with alternative proteins in APAC, with 20 launching just last year. Interestingly, most of these new startups from 2022 are focused on B2B rather than B2C, which is an inversion from earlier years.
Of the 206, 130 companies belong to the plant-based pillar, 46 in the cultivated meat space, and 30 in fermentation. Australia (45%) leads the region in terms of precision fermentation startups – like Eden Brew, Cauldron and All G Foods – followed by Thailand (27%). Singapore, meanwhile, is home to the highest number of biomass fermentation (39%), cultivated (33%) and plant-based (21%) startups in APAC.
Singapore is a testbed for R&D exports
Courtesy: GFI APAC
Despite the decline in private funding, Singapore remains a “global testbed” for the region, helping producers incubate, innovate, partner, and export their alt-protein offerings internationally. At least 25 non-local companies have a presence in the island state for R&D and business development, while it’s home to almost a quarter (24%) of all alt-protein startups in APAC.
Shared R&D facilities and progressive regulatory frameworks are enabling companies to scale up their products and conduct market tests. The country was the first in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat, and these feats are why its trade minister Alvin Tan dubbed it “the best place in the world for food innovation”.
Alt-protein needs $10B of investment – per year
Courtesy: GFI APAC
Despite the record public funding numbers, alt-protein’s share of funding is minuscule when looking at it more closely. GFI APAC cited data from the Climate Policy Initiative from 2022, which revealed that only about 3% of all climate finance goes to agrifood systems (that has minutely risen to 4.3% this year).
According to GFI APAC, alt-protein only represents 0.5% of that share (with APAC making up 0.1%), despite these foods significantly reducing the impact of food on the environment, which accounts for a third of all emissions. For example, a study earlier this year found that veganism can cut emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to meat-rich diets.
The report estimates that if funding for alt-protein could capture just 8% of the global meat market by 2030, the reduction in GHG emissions would be equivalent to decarbonising 95% of the aviation sector, adding that “unlocking the full benefits” of alternative proteins will require about $10.1B in public funding annually.
Overcoming scale-up challenges is key
Courtesy: GFI APAC
The report states that there’s an urgent need to address the alt-proteins scale-up barriers, which is key to achieving mass production and price parity with conventional proteins: “Building factories cheaply and proving demand in early markets will help to make scale-up more affordable, easier to finance, and lower risk.”
Co-manufacturing organisations can further support efficient scaling-up, and Singapore has established the platform for derisking early scale-ups, with companies like Esco Aster and SGProtein leading the way. And while first-movers are exploring the scaling advantages of other APAC countries for later-stage co-manufacturing, there are significant gaps in the region’s scaling capacity. The report says that considerably more alt-protein tech facilities are needed across scales, especially demonstration, first-of-a-kind, and commercially proven plants.
Consumers want to try more plant-based meat, but barriers keep them at bay
Courtesy: GFI APAC
The report also published results of a six-country, 5,971-person survey about plant-based meat, dividing participants into sceptics, rejectors, novices, curious, expanders and enthusiasts based on their responses. Thailand seems to be the most receptive to plant-based meat, while Singapore surprisingly has the highest number of sceptics (unlikely to try) and rejectors (who want to lower their alt-meat intake).
Like the US and Europe, health is the biggest driver of plant-based meat intake for Asian consumers too, followed by taste and affordability. But when it comes to barriers of consumption, this is flipped, as price takes top priority, followed by nutrition and flavour.
Courtesy: GFI APAC
If they were more affordable, nutritious and better-tasting, it would increase the number of APAC consumers who eat meat alternatives from 5% to 63%. And 15% of these respondents say they would fully replace conventional meat with plant-based if their concerns are alleviated – highlighting a massive growth opportunity for brands in this space.
Flexitarians are also key for these companies. Plant-based sceptics and novices are also the groups that consume meat the lowest, while meat intake is trending up for enthusiasts, who are the current buyers and represent higher-income consumers. This means that the people who eat the most plant-based meat also consume conventional meat more often than the rest.
Blended meat is of high interest – especially to vegan sceptics
Courtesy: GFI APAC
Blended meat products – which combine plant-based ingredients and proteins with animal-derived meat – are on the up right now. A majority of consumers (93%) showed at least some interest in these foods, with over half saying they’re very interested.
Notably, almost two-thirds of sceptics and rejectors showed some interest in blended meat, with nearly a fifth of the latter very interested. Enthusiasts were the most interested, reflecting their wishes for diverse protein options.
When presented with an option to choose from tofu/tempeh, beans/legumes, plant-based meat and blended meat, the groups that eat vegan meat alternatives the least – sceptics, rejectors and novices – placed blended meat on top, while the former two put plant-based at the bottom. For the rest, plant-based meat leads the way, but blended meat comes second.
This reflects the potential of blended meat to flip the perception of consumers apprehensive of plant-based meat, and help them move towards lower meat consumption.
Sidestream valorisation could advance alt-protein
Courtesy: GFI
In a separate report by GFI’s US division, the think tank analysed eight high-volume crop sidestreams in the US, Canada and Mexico to determine which has the highest potential for plant-based, fermented and cultivated protein ingredients.
Soy meal (commonly used as animal feed), tomato pomace and canola meal were ranked as the crops most ideal for sidestream valorisation to make protein concentrates for plant-based products. Soy meal also ranked as the top crop to upcycle for protein hydrolysates for fermentation and cultured meat media – developing this sidestream could help tackle the cost and scale-up challenges mentioned above.
For fermentation-based proteins – specifically lignocellulosic-derived sugars – corn stover was earmarked as the most useful sidestream, followed by soy straw, rice hulls and sugarcane trash. All these crops were measured against criteria like production volume and cost, environmental credentials, and functional attributes.
“We currently produce significant amounts of waste due to low-value utilisation and disposal of things like agricultural residues, processing side chains and food losses generated throughout the supply chain,” said Lucas Eastham, a senior fermentation scientist at GFI. “The valorisation or the upcycling of agricultural and processing side streams presents an opportunity for us to shape the circular bioeconomy, and this will help us reduce waste and increase food production.”
TLDR: to reach its full potential in APAC, alt-protein needs significantly higher public and private investment, better taste, nutrition and prices, more facilities to derisk scaling up, and higher sidestream valorisation.
Californian food tech startup Yali Bio unveiled its precision-fermented fat at the MISTA Growth Hack event in San Fransisco, debuting the alternative with a dairy-free ice cream. Now, it plans to roll out its fat to manufacturers looking to elevate their plant-based offerings.
Months after joining MISTA, a food tech innovation platform, to accelerate its goal and facilitate partnerships with other manufacturers, Yali Bio has unveiled a precision-fermented fat at MISTA’s Growth Hack event via a dairy-free ice cream.
Founded in 2021, Yali Bio engineers alternatives to animal and certain plant-based lips and fats that are key to the taste and texture of products like cheese, desserts and baked goods, as well as meat. The ice cream that demonstrated this solid fat – developed in partnership with MISTA supports including Givaudan, Ingredion and AAK – ran out in less than an hour.
Courtesy: Yali Bio
A fat for better-tasting meat and dairy alternatives
Yali Bio described the fat as having a “pale, buttery colour and neutral flavour”. Thanks to its precision fermentation tech, qualities like the melting point of the fat – which is crucial for baked goods – can be fine-tuned to suit various applications.
The company adds that it can be used to enhance the taste, texture, cooking performance, nutritional qualities and environmental credentials of “entire food categories”, including non-dairy butter, cheese, baked goods and candies. Expanding on the health aspect, Yali Bio’s precision-fermented fat boasts benefits over other plant-based oils: for example, it has half the saturated fats and five times the monounsaturated fats found in coconut oil, a widely used ingredient in vegan dairy products.
The importance of taste and texture in plant-based meat and dairy can hardly be understated. For instance, a recent Mintel survey revealed that flavour is the biggest deterrent (48%) to trying meat alternatives in the US, followed by nutrition (35%). Similarly, Kroger data collated by the Plant Based Foods Association and insights firm 84.51° (covering 60 million US households) found that texture is what consumers dislike the most about vegan food.
Courtesy: Yali Bio
Having received positive feedback on the ice cream time and again at the event, Yali Bio founder and CEO Yulin Lu touched upon this aspect as well. “It was great that the ice cream was so popular, but we were especially pleased that so many people applauded the taste and texture.”
To advance its mission, the company tapped former Impossible Foods executive Don DeMasi as its senior VP for engineering and biomanufacturing. The alt-meat giant has built its success upon its own precision-fermented, iron-containing ingredient called heme, which helps its burgers bleed and provides the metallic taste associated with meat.
DeMasi is focusing on building biomanufacturing capacity and process development to help scale production. Yali Bio, which raised $3.9M in seed funding last year to take total investment to $5M, is currently building a new lab and looking to offer its fat to food manufacturers in a B2B business model. It hopes to reach full production capacity within the next year or two, barring any regulatory hurdles. The startup says the use of plant-based ingredients instead of cell cultivation makes for a much simpler regulatory process.
The fat comeback
Yali Bio is part of a growing number of companies working in the alt-fat space. At this year’s SXSW Syndey, Australia’s Nourish Ingredients showcased Tastilux, a “breakthrough fat” made from naturally occurring lipids scaled through precision fermentation to help deliver the same taste and texture as conventional meat.
While these aspects are key, so are the environmental credentials. Yali Bio argues its fat is better for the planet than its dairy or coconut counterparts, since it can be made efficiently via techniques and equipment similar to the ones used to brew beer, with “very low greenhouse gas emissions and very high supply chain transparency”.
Courtesy: Yali Bio
This is the target of palm oil substitutes like PALM-ALT, developed by Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University and – like Yale Bio’s fat – touted as a game-changer for baked goods due to the ability to remain solid at room temperature. Palm oil is directly linked to tropical deforestation (which is responsible for 20% of all GHG emissions annually) and wildfires, but it accounts for 40% of all oil produced. Present in half of all supermarket items across multiple categories, its production is set to increase by 50% by 2050.
Other companies innovating with fermentation-based palm oil alternatives include British firm Clean Food Group, New York-based C16 Biosciences (where DeMasi used to previously work), Dutch startup NoPalm Ingredients, and Estonia’s startup Äio. Meanwhile, German biotech firm Colipi is using precision fermentation to turn yeast into ‘Carbon Oil’.
“Anything that enables us to move from an animal-based agriculture to an animal-free world using biomanufacturing is a worthy pursuit,” Edward Shenderovich, managing partner at lead investor Essential Capital, told TechCrunch last year. “Yulin identified an important pain point in the adoption of plant-based, fermented and cultivated food. Most cultivated meat is just proteins, and we like to eat fat. Fat has been demonised, but it is making a comeback.”
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 The Laughing Cow’s vegan cheese, plant-based burgers in Puerto Rico, and another round of alt-protein awards.
Fast-food giant Burger King is opening its 15th plant-based location, with a store in Puerto Rico’s Plaza Trujillo Alto, in partnership with Dutch plant-based meat company The Vegetarian Butcher, extending the ongoing collaboration between the two companies.
Courtesy: Bel Foods
Another fast-food favourite, Leonardo DiCaprio- and Lewis Hamilton-backed Neat Burger is continuing its accelerated global expansion drive with its first Italian store, set to open in Milan’s Merlata Bloom shopping centre today.
There are some developments in the aviation industry too. Indonesian plant-based meat producer Green Rebel has partnered with AirAsia‘s in-flight F&B operator Santan to launch two versions of vegan nasi rendang on all flights over 75 minutes.
Similarly, UK vegan chocolate brand LoveRaw has partnered with catering service Gate Gourmet to get onboard Virgin Atlantic flights. Passengers in Upper Class and Premium will be able to help themselves with LoveRaw’s Caramelised Biscuit Wafer (a Kinder Bueno knockoff) from the airline’s Wander Wall snack area.
Also in the UK, American infant brand Else Nutrition has introduced its plant-based dairy alternative for toddlers, a soy-free powder made from almonds and buckwheat. This marks its first foray into Europe.
Meanwhile, French dairy giant Bel Foods has unveiled a vegan version of its famous The Laughing Cow snacking cheese triangles in plain and garlic and herb flavours. They’re made from almonds and will retail at £2.50 (versus £1.90 for the conventional one) at Asda and Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Bel Foods
In more snacking news, French algae startup ZALG has released crispy seaweed sticks made from locally grown seaweed. They’re available in lemon zest and onion flavours, and can be made in a fryer in 90 seconds.
Speaking of the ocean, Germany’s Ordinary Seafood has introduced vegan tuna and smoked salmon at METRO outlets in cities including Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg (among others) starting this month.
French plant-based brand Aberyne is launching its vegan Foi Green foie gras – made from cashews and coconut oil in original, Espelette pepper and truffle flavours – in Spain, the UK, Switzerland as well as the US in time for Christmas.
And in Austria, the Rewe Group has opened its second Billa Pflanzilla location – a 100 sq m fully plant-based store in Graz. The same day, it announced a price drop for its own-label Vegavita range across all Billa and Billa Plus stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Rewe Group
Additionally, Billa Plus will now also feature vegan cold cuts from Italian company Biolab, which secured a listing for three products under two brands: Liveg’s vegetable pastrami slices and Biolab’s vegetable carpaccio slices and seitan.
Elsewhere, fungi protein company Nature’s Fynd has partnered with American chef Andrew Zimmern, who has raved about the startup’s cream cheese based on its Fy protein. Zimmern will publish some recipes using the product today.
Russian-German DJ Anton Zaslavski – better known as Zedd – has invested in refined carb company BetterBrand, which will launch a limited-edition vegan Jalapeño Cheddar Better Bagel.
Speaking of celebrities, Robert Downey Jr has co-written Cool Food, a guide to reducing our carbon footprint through food, with NYT Bestselling author Thomas Kostigen. It will be out on January 23.
One company helping the environment along with its offerings is US-based Voyage Foods, which makes cocoa-free chocolate, beanless coffee and nut-free nut butter. It is launching its hazelnut- and peanut-butter-free roasted seed spreads at 1,200 Walmart stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Voyage Foods
In more retail news, Wicked Kitchen has secured a listing at Target for six frozen entrées, which include the debut of two new offerings – a Bolognese and a mac and cheese – which join the existing lineup of naked burrito, Penang curry, Korean bowl and Sriracha tofu and rice.
And Daring Foods is getting into the frozen entrée game too, unveiling six bowls featuring its soy protein chicken, which includes a partnership with cult favourite chilli crisp brand Fly by Jing. These can be reheated in the microwave in 3.5 minutes and are available in multiple retailers nationwide.
Manufacturing and finance news
In the ingredients world, Italian company HI-FOOD (part of CSM Ingredients) has collaborated with Alianza Team Europe to develop clean-label protein emulsions to improve the taste and texture of plant-based meat.
Israeli food tech firm ChickP, which makes a 90% chickpea protein isolate for better-for-you plant-based nutrition bars, will be exhibiting protein-fortified granola-based cereal and energy bars at the Food Ingredients Europe event (November 28-30) in Frankfurt.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, cultivated meat producer Newform Foods (previously called Mzansi Meat) has partnered with engineering giant Project Assignments on a demonstration facility that is said to be the largest of its kind in Africa.
Another cultured meat company, Melbourne-based Magic Valley, has expanded into a new state-of-the-art pilot facility at bio-innovator and incubator Co-Labs. The company says the facility can scale up to 3,000-litre bioreactors and produce up to 150,000kg of product annually.
Courtesy: Vitasoy
Also in Australia, plant milk giant Vitasoy is set to produce 70 million litres of its soy, almond, oat, rice, and coconut milks and soy and oat yoghurts this year, which will be its biggest year to date.
Hain Celestial, the parent company of alt-protein brands Yves Veggie Cuisine and Linda McCartney’s, has posted positive market share developments. The former’s market share in Canada rose by 2.7% in the frozen category and 0.7% in fresh, while the latter “increased velocities” in frozen by 20%, and upped distribution by 12% ahead of a new meatless burger launch in 2024.
Elsewhere, Swedish impact investor Kale United, which invests in plant-based companies like Heura, Meatless Farm and Eat JUST, has opened a fundraising round to secure 12 million SEK ($1.1M) ahead of a planned IPO in 2025, with a third of shares already booked.
A month after announcing a £15.3M loss in mycoprotein giant Quorn‘s yearly accounts, parent company Monde Nissin‘s CEO Henry Soesanto is going all-in on the brand by investing part of his family fortune. The funds will be capped at 12% of the value of Monde Nissin’s $2.2B outstanding shares over the next 10 years.
Courtesy: Quorn
Maybe Soesanto has seen this report that predicts the US plant-based meat market to grow by 23.5% annually until 2028, or Circana figures that show a 48% rise in foodservice sales for meat alternatives in the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, compared to 2019.
Policy and research
Amid its lobbying exposé, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessmentconvened an alt-protein roundtable to discuss food safety legislation and regulatory frameworks for cultivated and precision fermented foods.
One country that isn’t as receptive to cell-cultured meat, it seems, is Italy. Last month, we reported how Italy’s U-turn on its cultivated meat ban was just a smokescreen. Now, it has confirmed that it intends to be the first country to ban “synthetic food”. Not sure if that’s as trailblazing as its agriculture minister thinks it is?
Across Europe, the European Vegetarian Unionunveiled the Plant-Based Manifesto ahead of the 2024 elections, outlining the urgent need to transform the region’s food system.
Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods
In the US, plant-based meat manufacturer Rebellyous Foods has been contracted by healthcare company Vizient to introduce the former’s vegan chicken nuggets, patties and tenders in hospitals, universities and schools nationwide. Its K12 products meet USDA standards for two alternate credits for the National School Lunch Program.
On another note, a new study has joined a growing body of evidence about the impact of vegan food on pet health. The peer-reviewed study has found that plant-derived vitamin D2 is just as effective as animal-derived vitamin D3 on dogs’ overall vitamin D levels. This is apparently the 10th study demonstrating positive outcomes for plant-based pet diets.
Latest awards
This week has seen another round of awards in the future food industry. Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat startup Juicy Marbles, Bel-owned vegan cheese brand Nurishh and UK plant-based cheese maker Sheese were all certified Gold Champions at The Grocer‘s New Product & Packaging Awards 2023.
In the US, VegNewsannounced the winners of its best vegan restaurant awards in the country. This includes Plant Power Fast Food (for the fast-food category), Crossroads Kitchen (fine dining), Monty’s Good Burger (burger joint), Pura Vita (pizza) and Ice Queen (ice cream).
Vegan Women Summit‘s Pathfinder pitch competition, which financially supports early-stage women-founded alt-protein startups, has announced precision fermentation company Liven Proteins and its founder Fei Luo as its 2023 winner.
Courtesy: Umami Bioworks
Meanwhile, FoodBev has unveiled the winners of its 2023 World Cell-Based Innovation Awards, which include TissenBioFarm (beef), Senara (milk), Umami Bioworks (seafood), C16 Biosciences (palm oil alternative) and BIOMILQ (breast milk).
Finally, Thailand’s Let’s Plant Meat – which makes plant-based beef, burgers and katsu – has received the Prime Minister’s Export Award in the Best Thai Brand category.
A Republican legislator in Florida has introduced a bill proposing to ban the production, sale and distribution of cell-cultured meat in the state. If signed into law, this would come into effect in July 2024.
On Monday, Florida House Republican Tyler Sirois proposed a new bill that would impede the regulatory progress made by cultivated meat in the US. The proposed legislation (HB 435) seeks to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cell-cultured meat within the state, imposing criminal penalties on anyone violating these rules.
The bill, which would come into effect in July 2024 if signed into law, would be in contrast to the position taken up by other states and the central administration. In June, the US Department of Agriculture granted clearance for the production and sale of cultivated chicken to Californian companies Upside Foods and Eat JUST, making the US only the second country to approve cultured meat after Singapore did so in late 2020.
Florida’s bill threatens to halt these advancements in the US, which has by far the highest number of publicly announced companies working in this space (43) and commands 60% of global cultured meat investments.
Florida’s proposed cultivated meat ban
Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat at China Chilcano | Courtesy: Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro
Sirois’ bill lays out a list of penalties for those who fail to comply with the proposed ban. Deeming it unlawful to make or sell cultured meat in the state, any person violating this would face a misdemeanour of the second degree, alongside a fine between $500 to $1,000. Meanwhile, any food establishment doing so would be subject to disciplinary action. The license of any restaurant, store, or other business in violation could be suspended or issued an immediate stop-sale order.
The bill also authorises the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt additional specific rules governing the use of cultured meat in the state. This means anyone looking to obtain regulatory approval for cultivated meat in Florida would require authorisation from the department.
Apart from its animal welfare credentials, cultured meat is much more environmentally friendly than conventional meat, which accounts for 60% of food emissions globally. Animal agriculture, meanwhile contributes between 11-19.5% of all emissions.
A life-cycle assessment (LCA) published earlier this year found that cultivated meat is three times more adept at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock (significantly reducing its land use), while the lack of manure means its nitrogen emissions are lower too. A similar LCA by alt-protein industry think tank the Good Food Institute in 2021 revealed that cell-based meat produced via renewable energy can have a 92% lower impact on global heating, requires 95% less land, and uses 78% less water compared to conventionally farmed beef.
But Florida’s proposed bill spotlights the larger disconnect between meat and climate change in the US – a Washington Post and University of Maryland poll in July revealed that 74% of Americans don’t believe eating meat has any impact on climate change. Meanwhile, Sirois’ proposal reflects many leading Republicans’ stance on climate change – in one primary debate, the party’s presidential candidates refused to connect human activity to the ecological crisis, with one actually calling it a hoax.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis – formerly seen as one of the major challengers to former president Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination but losing traction of late – deflected the question after saying: “Let’s have this debate. We’re not schoolchildren.”
Policy support for cultured meat in the US
Chef Dominique Crenn served the first USDA-approved cultivated chicken in the US at Bar Crenn | Courtesy: Upside Foods
While some are suggesting that cultivated meat isn’t for sale anywhere in the US, both Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat and Upside Foods are selling their cell-cultured chicken at upscale restaurants, the former at China Chilcano in Washington, DC and the latter at Bar Crenn in San Francisco, California.
In fact, California has been at the forefront of legislative cultured meat support. In July 2022, it became the first US state to invest in research for these foods, allocating $5M of the state budget for alt-protein research.
The national government has also thrown its weight behind the sector. The Biden administration released an executive order in September 2022, directing agencies to create reports on the biotech sector, which included one from the USDA on “cultivating alternative food sources”. This was followed by the earmarking of $6M to USDA’s Agricultural Research Service for alt-protein R&D.
A year before this, the US government made its largest public funding package for alt-protein through a $10M NIFA grant, which formed the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture in Massachusetts.
There’s still a long way to go, however. Last year, the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law by Joe Biden, billed as the most ambitious climate act passed in the country. It earmarked $369B for clean energy, but just over 5% of the money is set aside for changing farming practices, which account for 11% of the US’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, this spending overlooks meat and dairy production, as well as food waste. The ‘climate-smart’ agricultural practices the IRA seeks to promote won’t actually reduce emissions all that significantly. This disproportionate funding is reflective of the global climate finance gap – only 4.3% of all climate investments go to agrifood systems, which make up a third of all GHG emissions.
Other countries looking to ban cultivated meat
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
Nevertheless, Florida’s proposed ban on cultivated meat undoes a lot of the good work done to progress this sector in the US. More internationally, Italy has been making headlines this year with its own proposed ban on cultured meat to protect its food heritage. The country withdrew its notification for the bill to the EU last month, but only as it expected a rejection. Its agricultural minister has since confirmed that the government is looking to press ahead with the bill.
Similarly, the Romanian Senate has reportedly voted to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat too, which is pending approval from the Chamber of Deputies, which has the final say. Violations would mean a fine between €40,000-60,000.
“This proposal threatens to cut Romania off from investment and job opportunities, undermine efforts to tackle climate change and restrict consumer choice,” GFI Europe’s policy manager Seth Roberts told Romania-Insider. “It would also leave Romania behind as countries around the world invest in cultivated meat as part of a future-proof food system.”
On Italy’s proposed ban, Robert E Jones, president of the industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe, told Green Queen: “As such a move will be a blatant violation of EU law, it is yet another sign that this is all political theatre to fulfill a campaign promise to a vocal minority, and a monumental distraction from the real conversation we need to have about creating a climate-resilient food system in Europe.”
In a world packed with celebrity spirits, some are spotlighting sustainability with innovative plant-based alcohol offerings, from zero-waste to zero-ABV. Here are three of our just-launched faves.
If it feels like there are way too many celebrity-backed or -owned alcohol brands, that’s because there are. There’s practically a new one every month. Just this year, we’ve seen Blake Lively launch Betty Booze, Jennifer Lopez unveil Delola, Jason Momoa introduce Meili, Matthew McConaughey partner with his wife for Pantalones, and Michael Bublé expand his Christmas empire with Fraser & Thompson.
It’s an oversaturated market, but some are cutting through the noise to offer more sustainable booze for fans, given it’s an industry linked to “water and food insecurity, environmental degradation, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and greenwashing”, according to one report.
It’s not just you that alcohol leaves thirsty – liquor itself is thirsty: a 500ml bottle of beer uses around 148 litres of water, while a single 125ml glass of wine needs 110 litres. An average person uses around 142 litres of water a day, to put that into some context.
There’s also a waste problem. In the US, 70% of wine bottles end up in landfill, while half of all alcohol containers are thrown away and not recycled in the UK. Meanwhile, for every litre of tequila, about 5kg of pulp and 10-15kg of acidic waste are left over, both of which can contaminate soil and water supplies in production regions.
So as we push towards a more sustainable and ethical food system, here are three celebrity-led alcohol brands launched just this year that pull focus on these very themes.
Woody Harrelson: Holistic Spirits Co.
Courtesy: Holistic Spirits Co.
Described as the world’s first plant-powered spirits company, Now You See Me actor Woody Harrelson teamed up with health and wellness entrepreneur Amy Holmwood to launch Holistic Spirits Co.
The brand debuted gin and vodka flavoured with botanicals and positioned as superfood-containing, better-for-you drinks. “No alcohol will ever be healthy, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be more conscious of what we’re putting in our bodies while we enjoy spirits, in whatever setting that may be,” says Holmwood.
The Origen vodka’s base spirit is made from organic white wheat, while the Harmony gin is made from organic corn, and both are infused with artichoke leaves, elderberries, green tea leaves, and muscadine grapes. The latter additionally makes use of botanicals like juniper berries, coriander seed, hyssop, lemon peel, lime peel, angelica root and orris root. At 35% ABV, neither spirit has any artificial colours and flavourings or added sugars.
“For years I’ve wondered who was going to come along and put my favourite superfoods into spirits,” says Harrelson a long-time vegan and star of nature documentaries like Kiss the Ground and its forthcoming sequel. He has also invested in plant-based meat and seafood brands Wicked Kitchen, Abbot’s Butcher and Good Catch. “I think it’s a marvellous thing that Amy came up with, and I admire her sense of purpose. It was a no-brainer to get involved from the start.” (Holmes, who has degrees in biotech and nutrition, developed the recipe in 2022.)
Both the spirits are distilled using what the company describes are “sustainable initiatives and green, cutting-edge” techniques. Moreover, the Holistic Spirits Co. has been accepted into the Positive Luxury Butterfly Accelerator Programme, which helps innovative sustainable businesses scale up through financial aid and tailored support.
Lewis Hamilton: Almave
Courtesy: Almave
Another vegan celebrity with a strong investor portfolio, Formula One legend Lewis Hamilton teamed up with Montelobos Mezcal and Alma Finca maker Casa Lumbre to unveil a blue agave tequila – with a non-alcoholic twist.
Hamilton, whose investments include the popular plant-based fast-food chain Neat Burger and Chilean alt-protein startup NotCo, launched Almave with Casa Lumre co-founder Iván Saldaña to cater to the growing number of teetotal and sober-curious youth consumers. In the UK, for example, over a quarter of 16- to 25-year-olds are teetotallers, while the number of college-age Americans who don’t drink has risen from 20% to 28% in the last decade.
Almave claims to be the only company to be using blue agave to make alcohol-free tequila. It’s made using the same raw materials and in the same part of Mexico, but eschews the fermentation process that turns the liquid into alcohol. For this reason, Almave’s liquor can’t legally be called tequila, and is instead referred to as a blue-agave spirit (much like labelling conventions prohibit alt-milk manufacturers from using dairy-related terms).
Regardless, the company promises the “same distinct agave taste and character”, making a product “true to the land, true to the plant”. There are two variants: the Almave Ámbar, which boasts notes of roasted blue agave, sweet caramel and toasted wood, and the Almave Blanco, which is characterised by balanced sweetness and acidity.
Emma Watson: Renais Gin
Courtesy: Renais Gin
Ever the goody-two-shoes, Hermoine has stayed true to her dentist parents with a spirit that’s better for your teeth than others. It also happens to be better for the planet.
But it’s not just her fictional parents she’s paying homage to. Emma Watson’s family has deep ties to French winemaking, and her father owns an award-winning wine company called Domaine Watson. While she may have been absent from our screens for a few years (rumour has it she’ll be back soon), Watson has been busy cooking (sorry, distilling) up a gin brand with her brother, Alex. The twist, as is standard with gin, is that made from grapes, not grains.
Renais Gin valorises the winemaking sidestream by upcycling byproducts – French pressed wine grape skins and lees – some of which come from the Watson family vineyard. These are mixed with a distillate made from Kimmeridgian stone (the soil type of the Chablis terroir), pressed Grand Cru grapes and a whole host of botanicals: linden flowers, cubeb berries, coriander seeds, acacia honey, lemon peel, angelica roots, lime slices, rock salt and juniper.
The company is certified as carbon-neutral by ClimatePartner, which evaluates the entire supply chain to “cut out as much carbon as possible, and offset the remainder through humanitarian and ecological initiatives”. Offsetting programmes aren’t always the best idea, though, as the company acknowledges. “We know we’re not perfect, but are committed to offsetting our footprint while working in the background to minimise our impact.”
Renais Gin uses solar-powered stills and tackles the packaging problem too, partnering with the Magical Mushroom Company to create biodegradable mushroom packaging.
Singapore-headquartered global plant-based meat brand TiNDLE Foods is launching its vegan chicken range at US grocery stores, marking the company’s retail debut in the country. Green Queen speaks to US Managing Director JJ Kass about conquering the world’s largest plant-based market.
The launch comes two months after the company debuted its breakfast sausage for foodservice in the US, which was its first domestically made product, and shortly after successful retail launches in the UK (at all Whole Foods locations and 350 Morrisons stores) and in Germany (at 2,200 EDEKA Group stores).
TiNDLE Foods is rolling out its plant-based chicken SKUs in grocery stores in select cities, which will be the brand’s first foray into retail in the US. Its chicken tenders, wings, patties and nuggets will be dispersed at different retailers across the US, with broader nationwide penetration expected in 2024.
Where you can find TiNDLE chicken
Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods
The soy- and wheat-based chicken, TiNDLE’s flagship product, has been widely available in US foodservice since 2022, including at BrewDog, BAIA, Goldie’s Tavern, Native Foods, Project Pollo, Parson’s Chicken and Beyond Sushi. In September, it launched its first locally produced offering in the US, partnering with plant-based egg producer JUST Egg to create a breakfast sausage.
TiNDLE’s retail debut sees its chicken products appear on the freezers of various retailers on the East and West coasts, as well as the Midwest. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, its patties, tenders and wings are available at 84 Giant Eagle stores, while those in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York City can find its patties, wings and nuggets on FreshDirect’s online platform.
On the East coast, the brand’s plant-based chicken is available through independent retailers. In California, TiNDLE’s products can be found at Berkeley Bowl, BESTIES Vegan Paradise (Los Angeles), Harvest Market (Fort Bragg and Mendocino), Pacific Market (Sonoma County) and Piazza’s (Palo Alto and San Mateo). Additionally, it’s launching in Hawaii at Mana Foods.
All the products carry an RRP of $9.99. The brand is activating a digital marketing campaign to promote the launch in the local surroundings of these retailers. “We plan to launch in-store promotional materials with Giant Eagle to educate consumers about TiNDLE chicken,” JJ Kass, TiNDLE’s VP of business development and US managing director, tells Green Queen. To incentivise customers, Giant Eagle will also launch a price promotion in December and BOGO deal in January.
Standing out from the nugget crowd
Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods
The vegan chicken market is increasingly crowded. There were signs of its potential in 2021, when it was a growth leader in the plant-based meat industry. A report by the NPD Group earlier this year revealed that pound sales for plant-based chicken shipped by broadline foodservice distributors increased by 38% year-over-year.
But this space – particularly for nuggets – is overpopulated and highly competitive. For example, there are over 20 brands in the US making plant-based nuggets, including Gardein, Quorn, Beyond Meat Impossible, Jack & Annie’s, Simulate, Alpha Foods, Daring, MorningStar Farms, Yves, Rebellyous, LikeMeat and Boca (not to speak of brands that have exited the space like Nowadays).
And that’s before you get to supermarkets’ own-label products. This has naturally led to a squeeze – mirroring the overall decline of the meat alternatives category – with companies like Nowadays having to cease operations.
“Many products on the market today have a similar flavour and experience across chicken nuggets, chicken tenders and chicken sandwich patties (where they’ve mostly been focused),” acknowledges Kass. So how does TiNDLE plan to stand out? “We wanted to perfect each of those offerings, but also take it a step further and customise each of our products to match the versatile and wide experience that people know from dining on poultry chicken today.”
She points out how TiNDLE rolled out its chicken in foodservice before retail across other markets too, as it aimed to collaborate with chefs and culinary experts “to first perfect the entire experience of eating chicken – nailing down that complete ‘chicken’ aroma and flavour”. When it came to developing its retail range, the company wanted to replicate this “high-quality restaurant experience” at home. “Our team looked at a full range of consumer needs, and we created differentiated products that are not only rich in flavour, but also use specially designed coatings to deliver the best experience possible,” she adds.
To do so, the team looked at specific use cases, whether that’s identifying “the right bite, peppery finish, and meaty mouthfeel of a wing”, the ideal coating and thickness of chicken patty for burgers or sandwiches, or a “family-friendly nugget” with a crispy breadcrumb finish. “Each of our products is individually developed to fit these different use cases and deliver the most outstanding version of it (animal-based or not),” she explains.
Clean-label chicken for the time-strapped
Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods
Kass relayed consumer feedback revealing how they’re looking for products with shorter ingredient lists. It’s a major point of criticism of plant-based meat, particularly from the meat lobby, which has successfully run targeted ads against this very aspect of meat alternatives.
But Kass’s claim is backed up by data. In 2020, a global survey by Ingredion found that over half of respondents believe it’s important for products to have short ingredient lists, while further research from the ingredients manufacturer earlier this year suggested that 78% would spend more on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.
Within the US, a 1,022-person survey by the International Food Information Council in May found that ‘healthy’ (24%) and ‘natural’ (23%) are the two most appealing labelling descriptions for plant-based meat. Food products labelled as ‘natural’ are the most regularly bought items across physical (40%) and online (39%) retail, while ‘clean ingredients’ are important to 29% and 30% of consumers in those respective channels too.
“We were intentional in developing our core TiNDLE chicken with only 9 base ingredients – many of which are common and familiar, including soy protein, oat fibre, and sunflower oil,” notes Kass, adding: “All of our ingredients are also GMO-free.”
As alluded to above, the going has gotten tough for plant-based meat lately. According to data from Circana, the retail sales volume of meat alternatives dropped by 23% in the year ending October 8. Companies like Beyond Meat – the US’s leading meat alternatives brand in terms of sales last year – have registered repeated revenue declines and had to resort to employee layoffs.
“Those numbers of retail sales declining in the category are impacted by a few factors, including retailers who may be adjusting their assortments or changing the types of products they’re offering,” suggests Kass.
“While overall plant-based meat sales may be down from last year, we’re still seeing strong interest in plant-based chicken, and it continues to grow.” She cites SPINS data reporting that sales of frozen plant-based chicken nuggets/strips/cutlets were up by 4% year-on-year.
Before TiNDLE’s vegan chicken launch at Giant Eagle and FreshDirect, it tested retail readiness with several pop-ups (including in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles) and a rollout to dozens of West Coast indie stores to enable consumers to try the products.
“Feedback was positive across the board and allowed us to gain some insights from shoppers to understand which of our products were most useful for their home cooking habits,” says Kass. “We’re launching this week our full product range in Giant Eagle and FreshDirect with new resealable frozen bags – ideal for busy households or shoppers who are interested in high-quality, plant-based meals at home, but are short on time.”
Singaporean oat milk maker OATSIDE has unveiled a line of vegan ice creams in the city-state, starting with three flavours. It will host a public sampling event this weekend to promote the new products, which can be found at all major retailers in the country.
A year after securing $65.5M in Series A funding, Singapore’s homegrown oat milk brand OATSIDE has entered the frozen category with a range of three ice creams. The ice creams come in Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough and Coffee with Mini Chocolate Chips varieties, and are described as having a creamy texture with the malty base of its oat milk.
The company has also launched an OATSIDE Ice Cream Excuses promotional campaign to go along with the launch. This weekend (November 18 and 19), OATSIDE will host a public tasting event outside the Plaza Singapura shopping mall, where it will sample the new dairy-free ice creams and put up a Wall of Excuses for visitors to write their “best or worst excuses for indulging in ice cream”. The event will be attended by OATSIDE’s bear mascot and track and field athlete Shanti Pereira.
“Plant-based non-dairy ice creams pose a technical challenge and tend to be icy versus their dairy counterparts, but we’ve managed to achieve a rich, creamy non-dairy ice cream using our classic OATSIDE oat milk as the base ingredient,” said OATSIDE founder and CEO Benedict Lim. “Our team has been wiping out pints of OATSIDE ice cream, and we’re struggling to keep the freezers stocked.”
The oat milk ice creams are available at all major retailers in Singapore – including FairPrice, Cold Storage, Redmart and Pandamart – at a steep introductory price of S$12.50 ($9.18) for a 473ml tub. This pricing will continue until January 31. But it could put off consumers, with a 1,000-person poll by Milieu revealing how 49% of Singaporeans who’ve tried plant-based milk but don’t drink it regularly cite cost as one of the top major deterrents.
Courtesy: Oatside
The oat milk for non-vegans
Described as Asia’s first full-stack oat milk producer, OATSIDE was founded in 2020 by Lim, a former CFO at Kraft Heinz Indonesia. The company – whose oat milk is produced in Bandung, west Java in Indonesia using roasted Australian oats – has gone from strength to strength since. Its alt-milks, which come in Barista, Chocolate and Chocolate Hazelnut variants, are now available in multiple southeast Asian markets, including Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Like its fellow oat milk maker Oatly, the brand is known for its wacky, self-deprecating humorous marketing. Its ice cream announcement, for example, includes phrases like “nuttier than your aunty’s conspiracy theories, and richer than your ex’s excuse for ghosting you” and “meet the ice cream you didn’t ask for”.
Speaking to Green Queen last year, Lim described the ethos of the brand’s consumer messaging – which is dotted with illustrations and comic-style cartoons – as “optimistic, adult and as-is”. “The artwork was a way to convey our brand world – the OATSIDE of life; the bright side of life told in all its unfiltered, modern glory. The packs’ artwork are cartoons and yet have a feel and tone that speaks to adults, which is our intention,” he explained.
He added that the company’s mission is to “be the plant milk for people who don’t care for plant milks”, honing in on the taste aspect of the oat milk. This approach has legs, given that a 1,027-person YouGov survey in Singapore last month found that taste is the top factor affecting the food choices of all diets except vegans, who prioritise health and price first.
“There’s something about the creamy maltiness of OATSIDE that is very familiar to people growing up in this region and that builds a connection and joy that people want to share with others,” noted Lim told Green Queen last year.
Courtesy: Oatside
Singapore’s growing alt-dairy scene
The launch comes as the global market for vegan ice cream grows and becomes increasingly crowded. According to one estimate, the sector is set to grow by 8.33% annually and reach $1.24B by 2030.
Within Singapore, 30% of consumers are limiting their dairy intake, with 70% actively seeking ways to be more eco-conscious, according to Mintel research. The Milieu poll, meanwhile, revealed that 87% of its citizens have tried a milk alternative, of which 62% consume these products regularly.
The island nation is home to multiple oat milk startups like noomoo, OatMlk and Oatbedient, and has seen an influx of international plant-based milk companies, including Rude Health (UK), Happy Happy Soy Boy (Australia), Otis (New Zealand) and Oatly (Sweden) – in fact, the latter opened a $30M oat milk manufacturing facility with local beverage giant Yeo Hiap Seng in 2021, its first such factory in Asia.
The country’s plant-based ice cream segment is already host to several players, such as Ben & Jerry’s, The Ice Cream and Cookie Co, Magnum and Kind Kones all selling vegan frozen desserts in retail. Meanwhile, Finnish company Solar Foods introduced a vegan gelato made from air protein earlier this year. Last year, Californian precision fermentation startup Perfect Day launched ice creams made from its animal-free whey through its consumer brand Coolhaus in the Lion City (the US company has since closed down its B2C business and agreed to sell Coolhaus to Superlatus). Now, OATSIDE hopes to stand out from the crowd, as it has done with its oat milk range, which Singaporean baristas began to favour over Swedish pioneer Oatly.
In June, OATSIDE scored a notable win when it entered an agreement with Singapore coffee chain Flash Coffee that saw it become the default oat milk brand in all of the chain’s milk-based beverages. However, Flash Coffee, a VC darling that was meant to be South East Asia’s answer to Starbucks for the digital generation, announced it was shutting down its 11 Singapore and filing for liquidation after being unable to meet its financial liabilities, according to reporting from the Straits Times.
Oatly’s ice cream move came after a new report called for the Asian region to urgently decarbonize its food system. The Asia Food Challenge Report – jointly published by PwC, Rabobank and Temasek report during Singapore’s yearly Agri-Food Innovation Week (SIAW) earlier this month, claims that taking necessary action could help cut the region’s emissions by 12% by 2030, which is equal to all of the global aviation industry’s emissions from 2022.
The report’s authors further highlighted the importance of disclosing Scope 3 emissions (those arising from the supply chain), which make up 95% of emissions from large agrifood corporations. “Helping farmers finance the adoption of technologies to decarbonise food production is critical for successfully reducing the carbon footprint of our food system,” said Dirk Jan Kennes, Rabobank’s Asia head of RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, who called the decarbonisation of food production “vital for Asia’s road to net zero”.
Chipotle founder Steve Ells is opening Kernel, a new fast-casual meatless restaurant concept leveraging robot chefs and minimising waste. With the first location set to open in Manhattan next year, it marks a return to the foodservice world for the former Chipotle CEO, who exited the company in 2020.
It was Bill Gates who inspired Steve Ells to re-enter the food space. Having stepped down as executive chairman at Chipotle in 2020, on the back of multiple foodborne illness outbreaks linked to the burrito chain’s food, Ells spent some time skiing and reading. He found Gates’ 2021 book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, which outlines environmental solutions to eliminate emissions.
Ells sought to use his two-decades-long experience in foodservice industry to help the situation. His new meat-free restaurant chain, Kernel, will tap into robots and only a skeleton human staff to minimise resources, cut waste and ensure food safety.
Steve Ells – Courtesy: Chipotle via Reuters
How robots will make your veggie burger at Kernel
That last factor is pertinent. Chipotle was hit with the largest fine imposed in a US food safety case, agreeing to pay $25M after over 1,100 customers got food poisoning from its food between 2015 and 2018.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Ells says a single Kernel location can only need three human employees – as opposed to dozens at other QSR chains – with the robots doing the bulk of the work. This system is designed to ensure better food safety standards.
Additionally, it’s also built to minimise waste. A third of all food is wasted globally, and in the US, over 84% of all unused food in restaurants is thrown away, amounting to between 25,000-75,000 lbs a year for a single restaurant. Ells and his team have thus worked out a way to squeeze a commissary kitchen and robotics into spaces around 1,000 sq ft or less to make to-go food orders.
Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva
Here’s how it works: once your order is in, a robotic arm places a pan with food in the oven, while a programmed toaster puts a bun in the oven for warming. A conveyor belt moves the dishes along, which are finished by employees who provide any final touches, package the food, and put it into a cubbyhole for pickup.
“We’ve taken a lot of human interaction out of the process and left just enough,” explains Ells. The 58-year-old’s new restaurant will rival fast-casual players like Shake Shack, Sweetgreen and Chipotle itself.
Attracting investment and planned locations
Ells opened Chipotle in 1993 after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, with the initial purpose of generating funds to open a fine-dining establishment. He borrowed $85,000 from his father to open the burrito chain, which became so successful that the fine-dining idea was abandoned and within 13 years, the company went public with over 500 restaurants.
Ells paid his father back within a year of opening Chipotle, and now has a reported net worth of at least $200M. He’s injecting $10M of his own money into Kernel, with an additional $36M coming from investors. This includes VC firm Greylock Partners, which has a host of AI-led startups in its investment portfolio.
The new restaurant will focus on whole foods like legumes and vegetables over plant-based meat alternatives, which have had a couple of tough years in the US. “It’s not trying to be beef. It’s not trying to be pork,” Ells says of Kernel’s veggie burger.
And while he may not have returned to fine dining himself, the entrepreneur has tapped Andrew Black, a former chef at New York’s now-mostly-vegan restaurant Eleven Madison Park, to develop plant-based sandwiches and sides for the menu.
With the first store slated to open in 2024, the plan is to open 15 Kernel locations in New York City in the next couple of years, before expanding to other places. While it will have much fewer employees than its counterparts, Kernel will invest its savings from the lower number of workers into higher wages and better benefits.
Courtesy: SavorEat
Kernel won’t be the first to have robots flipping burgers. Vending machine startup RoboBurger has been doing this since 2019 in the US, while catering giant Sodexo partnered with Israeli food tech company SavorEat to launch a 3D-printing robot for vegan burgers at the University of Denver earlier this year.
The below conversation is the transcript of the second episode of the podcast miniseries Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers featuring Didier Toubia, founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, interviewed by show host Sonalie Figueiras. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
In the second episode of Green Queen in Conversation – Cultivated Meat Pioneers, Sonalie Figueiras talks to Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, a cultivated meat company based in Israel. Didier cuts a unique figure in the space- the conversation was a real eye-opener about his background and how he started working with food and development agencies in Africa and how that informed his worldview about food systems, equity and food justice, and how in turn that led to starting a cultivated meat company specialised in beef steak, which he believes will help right the wrongs inherent in our food systems.
He is so passionate about ensuring access to safe, traceable, and nutritious food for everyone, and not just for those of us in the wealthier countries. So, I think our conversation is quite different from the other interviews in this series. I found it really inspiring, particularly, as Didier has had many careers in his life, from food and development, to biotech, to deep tech. I’m sure you’ll find our chat fascinating too.
Sonalie Figueiras: Hi Didier, it’s great to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.
Didier Toubia: Hey, Sonalie. Good to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, I think you are a key part of the global cultivated meat story, and I want to explore the Aleph journey. So, my first question is: how did your cultivated meat experience begin? When did you first discover cultivated meat, and how did you end up with one of the first companies in the space?
Didier Toubia: I think the origins of my interest in cultivated meat goes back probably 25 years when I studied food engineering and biology in France at the time, and when I studied my major and full Master’s Degree in the south of France, getting deeper into food technologies for the developing world. I started my career in the Ivory Coast in Western Africa with the IFC, a branch of the World Bank. My goal was really to tackle the inherent issues of the food system, especially malnutrition, and food security issues, whilst studying in Africa, and I realized relatively quickly that those challenges can’t be addressed by targeted action, and totally systemic issues of hunger, allocation of resources, and issues associated with the distribution of resources – we can take care of and solve with more focused initiatives, rather than with (targeted) actions.
When I came back to France, 20-25 years later, my main motivation was to address those systemic issues with the food system, the roots of the reasons why we have those issues, both in terms of sustainability, food security, public health, not just in Africa, but on the global level. Actually, a lot of the issues I saw at the time, and the issues we see in Africa today, on the global level, are very much overlapping. So, it really kind of closed the loop for me and connected a lot of the dots with my early experience in the food system, but also with my overall 10 years of experience in the biomedical industry, following me going to Israel. Aleph Farms is at the crossroads between the biomedical world and the food system.
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Sonalie Figueiras: So, that’s interesting anddifferent than a lot of the other founders in the space. So, not so much the climate connection: for you, it’s the food security and the nutrition piece of the puzzle, but at the same point in time, it’s interesting, because when people think of going to Africa and dealing with systemic issues around malnutrition, they wouldn’t immediately associate cultivated meat in bioreactors as a solution to the problems that African nations can face. How do you bridge the two there? I mean, cultivated meat is an expensive and deep technology that still requires decades of work before we can scale it to a mass level.
Didier Toubia: It’s through the long-term play. I would argue that the food system [as it works today] is not actually intended to feed the people. During the industrialization of our food system in the 50s and 60s, the focus has been on efficiencies and output, how to produce more food at a lower cost, and large industrial companies developing and making more profit. I think the fact that today, we’re throwing away close to 30% of our food, while close to 900 million people don’t have enough food is a testimonial that the current food system is not designed to bring the right amount of nutrition to the right people at the right time and in the right place. And I think cultivated meat can help decentralize food production.
One of the big issues with our food system today, beyond the focus on profit, is that it’s super concentrated. Historically, we used to rely on 6-7,000 different sources of food. Today, I believe that five different species and eight different crops make up over 70% of the food we consume globally, and the system is not just concentrated in a few species, it’s also concentrated in specific areas of the world. If we’re talking about beef, for instance, it’s primarily in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and a little bit in Europe, and a lot of countries are importing beef, for instance, in Israel (where Aleph was founded), we import 88% of all beef. It’s a shared challenge with all the countries in the Middle East, and we see the same pattern in many parts of Asia, including Singapore, where they import technically 100% of all beef, and cultivated meat can help decentralize the production of food because we can grow [meat from] cells.
I’ll explain in a little bit what we do, and how that fits into our vision – That we can grow cells in a closed system independently to the climate or the local availability of land and water, meaning that we can distribute the production of high-quality animal nutrition, both empowering local communities and diversifying the supply, and substituting for part of the inputs. However, it also involves making sure that we make the food system more resilient by diversifying the supply of animal protein and fats. We build circuit breakers and meat plants, and we make the system more resilient to shocks. So, we do see cellular agriculture as a cornerstone of a more secure and resilient food system, and regarding your comment about the cost of cultivated meat, it’s clear that it’s a long play, and I think that cultivated meat is probably similar to solar panels which were extremely expensive 20 years ago, and now, 20 years later, the production cost has come down as the economies of scale started to play, and production processes and product technologies have improved.
We believe that for the next few years cultivated meat will be more confined in the developed world, but [we are] developing a long-term strategy for the Global South, and that’s one of the projects we’ve done with water recently in the US, for instance- I’m actually planning to travel to Ethiopia in the next couple of months to further explore the possibilities. We believe that in Africa where today there is strong pressure to intensify cattle farming (Africa is similar to India in that the sector mostly relies on smallholder farms) to make the system supposedly more resilient and more efficient.
We all know that industrial agriculture is not a good solution, we’re pushing back from intensive agriculture in the developed world to regenerative eggs and organic food. So, I think cultivating cells might be a way to skip this intermediate phase of animal farming industrialization, and to keep the smallholder farms as they are and supply them directly with the growing cells, a little bit like how some countries have skipped the phase of landline phones, for instance, and in some parts of India and China, bringing cells to the global South can help them move directly to cellular agriculture and skip this intermediate phase of intensive industrial animal farming, which is bad for everyone, same as how these countries and regions went directly to cellular phones and skipped the landline intermediate step.
Sonalie Figueiras: I love the vision. I do have to ask, why beef then? You know, why not chicken? Beef is currently one of the most, if not, the most expensive meat in the world. It has a status as something very elite and associated with wealth and higher status. Why start with steak, not even ground beef, the ultimate luxury food?
Didier Toubia: That’s an important question. Our product strategy with implementation at Aleph Farms is, on the one hand, high impact, and on the other, high-value products. I want to explain why beef fits into our roadmap.
First, we believe that the biggest contribution to cultivated meat will be where we have real challenges with animal protein and fat production. If we’re talking about the concentration of the food system, cattle farming is the most concentrated of all the animal production practices. Beyond that, it’s also the biggest impact on climate- livestock production is responsible for about 15% of global emissions, while the environmental impact of chicken is much lower. When we’re talking about the use of land and water, which are also critical parameters as we have been causing land diversion- in the last 50 years we lost 30% of all arable land since the Second World War, and 42% of the crops we harvest every year in the world are intended for animal feed, primarily cattle and cows, and the intensive monoculture of soya and maize is one of the primary drivers of deforestation and the loss of soil quality. The amount of water required to make one kilogram of beef varies between 1,500-10,000 litres, depending on the farming practices, and we might have 40% less freshwater in the next few decades. So, there are some real issues associated with beef production which we don’t see with the other animal meat species today.
Growing cells using renewable energies we’re able to reduce the environmental impact [of beef production] by 92%, in terms of the greenhouse gasses emitted. We can also reduce the amount of land by 95%, and the amount of water by 78%. When we’re talking about cultivated beef, I think it would be difficult to [have similar] benefits for cultivated chicken as long as [we are looking at] climate and environmental parameters. So, this is one.
Second, as we said before, cultivated needs will be relatively expensive. I talked about solar panels, but we can also talk about electric vehicles as an analogy. Innovation is expensive today, and I think there is an inherent conflict within the world of food tech. Tech is associated with innovation and is expensive, and food is a commodity. It should be at a low price, and not like biomedical products or high-margin products. So, we wanted to get into the market and drive initial acceptance to rely on products where we can bring value so that we can reach prosperity quicker, and build a sustainable business model over the long term.
When you’re talking about prosperity, it’s not an absolute value, it’s relative, it’s relative to the equivalent product produced with the conventional egg. When we’re talking about this tech price point, which is maybe 10 times higher than GM chicken, it’s easier to get to the same price point as our cost curve is driven down, than to get to the price point of GM chicken, which makes the whole business model more sustainable and enables us to drive more impact over time.
So, the focus on beef is driven by two decisions: One, to focus on new products where we can really bring benefits and document real environmental impact, and second, based on higher value and higher margins which can drive us to be sustainable as a company earlier. As we drive the cost down and progressively move toward the mainstream, we’ll probably make a cultivated chicken and a cultivated pork down the road. However, it will take a few years.
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Sonalie Figueiras: So even though it might seem counterintuitive, it makes the most sense to attack the beef problem, because of its climate footprint, and it makes the most sense to go with steak because it allows for early adopters to get involved, and for you to become financially viable. This is very much the Tesla Model in many ways, right?
Didier Toubia: Yes, I think it’s been the whole idea with Tesla, that it has been able to drive this transition towards electric vehicles because they weren’t the first to make electric cars. In the 70s, there were early electric cars in the US, but they were the first to crack the code of the right product strategy. If we talk about Tesla, it’s not just starting high-end and then moving to the mass market that drives the cost down, which as we just discussed is what we’re doing, but it is also about differentiating the products versus internal combustion engine cars. We’re not trying to copy existing cuts of beef one-for-one. We’re not trying to be an exact duplication of tenderloin or ribeye, but rather developing our own set of attributes and our value proposition, and differentiate ourselves versus conventional meat, so that our products can be successful based on what they are, and not as a copy of anything, which is not a good marketing strategy.
Sonalie Figueiras: Okay. I want to get into your product strategy in a second, but since we’ve been talking about your vision and how you started, I want to ask you: You’ve been doing this for a few years now. Has the industry progressed enough, and do you timeline-wise feel you are where you want to be where you thought you were gonna be?
Didier Toubia: I’ll start with the second question. When we raised our A round in 2019, and we built a business plan back in 2018, so five years ago, we said that we would be in the market by the end of 2022. We’re currently on track for launching Q4 this year. So, we’re probably six to nine months late from our initial plan. I think for a certain type of innovative product, and given the delivery uncertainties we had at the time, we had to invent everything from scratch. I think that this six to nine-month delay within these five years is okay, not bad. So, in terms of timelines, we won’t be that far off and overall, you know, [we are] making good progress according to our plans.
Sonalie Figueiras: That’s pretty good, pretty much on track!
Didier Toubia: I think it is. I think we’re well on track. Plus or minus, you know, 20%, which is kind of the range of the order of magnitude of uncertainty, but overall, we’re on track. I think the industry as a whole has made a lot of progress. When we started, cultivated meat was completely theoretical. It sounded like science fiction. I think that four or five companies in this space, including Aleph Farms, have already developed scalable processes, have done a lot of work on cost reduction, and have already built facilities where they can make cultivated meet at the commercial level and comply with all the regulatory requirements. So, I think that when we’re looking five years back, we can appreciate the progress that has been made, which is phenomenal. I’m not saying that we have solved all the issues or that everything is perfect- there’s still work ahead of us to continue to scale up, meet consumer expectations and move toward the mainstream. However, I think on the technology side, the scientific side, in terms of process development, early industrialization and regulatory compliance, we have made a huge leapfrog, and I’m quite happy to see that. The industry is really on the verge of going to market and starting initial acceptance.
Sonalie Figueiras: That’s good to hear. I’m certainly very optimistic, but I want to ask some follow-up questions. One is about timeline constraints around regulatory approval. Currently, that’s only happened for Eat Just in Singapore for two of their chicken products [Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded before Eat Just and Upside Foods were granted US regulatory approval by the USDA in June 2023]. So, I want to understand, you say you plan to launch in Q4, is that going to be in Singapore? And how confident are you on the regulatory approval side? What about regulatory approval in your home country of Israel?
Didier Toubia: Yes, Aleph Farms decided to focus on the Middle East and Asia first. For the same reasons of food security I mentioned before, I think that there is more need for cultivated meats in those geographies, and that’s where you want to address real issues and have a real impact, so we filed regulatory applications in both Israel and Singapore last year. I can’t share the exact details of where we stand right now, but we believe that we have reasonable chances, and we can be cleared in one of those countries at least in the next few months, and launch after the summer.
We do believe that Asia will be an important market for us moving forward. When we’re looking at, let’s say 10 years ahead, most of the population of the world is based in Asia, and the increase and growth in meat consumption really relies on Asia, while the consumers are also very open to novel foods, and the public-private partnership we’re talking about is working very well. I think that there’s a lot of alignment between the different stakeholders in the animal protein and fat industry in many Asian regions, as well as in the Middle East, to push innovation and new production systems, which can help in getting more food sovereignty. In Europe and the US, I think that there is a strong political will to drive innovation.
In my view, we do see, especially in the last six to nine months, as cultivated meat is getting closer to the market, and more interest associated with the conventional agriculture lobbies, which are trying to delay the launch of cultivated meat, that the internal alignment between all the stakeholders in Europe and the US will take more time, just because traditionally, those geographies are very strong in commercial agriculture, and a lot of farmers don’t yet understand exactly what we do, and feel that cultivated meat could be a threat, which we don’t see in Asia, nor the Middle East of course, because cattle production is very limited.
Sonalie Figueiras: And they don’t have land or enough water…
Didier Toubia: Exactly, exactly. We overlook the importance of land on our planet.
Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. I mean, since you brought it up, this pushback that we’re seeing in Western markets, especially in North America and Europe, where there are strong beef farmer identities associated with national cultures- let’s dive into this narrative coming up in the media and across social media that cultivated meat is some kind of “franken-food”, that “it’s too tech”, and “it’s not real food.” For some people, there seems to be a bias against it. I want to ask you: What do you think about consumer perception, and what do you think the average person is getting wrong about the science of cultivated meat?
Didier Toubia: I think that’s a big question and I would like to give three answers. The first one is more related to conventional agriculture and why there is a misperception around cultivated meat, and maybe on the consumer side as well:
First, we do see cells and cellular agriculture as a third pillar of animal-based agriculture. Same as when we started eating meat thousands of years ago, and meat became widespread 600,000-700,000 years ago when we started cooking meat. And then, many years afterwards when we domesticated animals, we were able to milk cows, goats and sheep, and to drink milk and eat dairy products, which was a completely new source of animal-based products at the time- we were the only species drinking the milk of another species. So, drinking milk was very weird when we started, but today, it’s a normalised part of the food culture.
We do see a third source of animal-based products, which is cells. Same as milk, which was introduced to the diet a long time ago, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, we’re witnessing today, a third source of food, which is, not exactly meat, it probably has more similarities with milk than with meat, and those cells have the benefit of providing an additional source and additional choice for animal-based products, which can relieve a little bit of the pressure on conventional agriculture for raising farming whole animals. We’ve technically passed the maximum scale, which makes sense in terms of farming whole animals because we have too many costs today [in animal agriculture], and the impact is huge.
Now, if we can introduce cells into the food system, which do not require the farming of whole animals, we can reduce the number of animals and better manage them in the framework of regenerative ag and sustainable farming practices and still complement them with an additional source of animal-based products to make sure that we have more choices, and ensure that we can still meet the increasing demand for animal proteins and fats? This is how we look at [the opportunity for] cells. We call it cellular agriculture because we believe that similarly to how meat has been incorporated into the agricultural ecosystem, the same can be done with cells. So, we do see cells as an opportunity for agriculture, as an additional revenue stream and an additional practice which can complement sustainably-produced meat and dairy.
Sonalie Figueiras: So you’re saying that eventually, you’re imagining a system where meat cattle farmers can make money by selling cells to cultivated meat companies?
Didier Toubia: Yes. They [the farmers] have to make money with the cells, of course. If we don’t find the right business model, it won’t work. Actually at Aleph Farms last year, we started a global research project with the Federation University in Australia to develop different business models for incorporating cells into common conventional farms in different parts of the world, because the business structure of farmers and their farming practices tends to vary a lot between different geographies, like in India, the US, Europe- they all work differently. We need to find a way to incorporate cells into agriculture, it will not work otherwise, that’s for sure.
I think there’s sometimes a misperception that cultivated beef is a threat to agriculture. We see it as a solution for an inclusive and just transition. You know, I grew up in France, and for instance, France has traditionally been the largest beef-focused country and exporter of beef in Europe. In the last few years, France became a net importer of beef, and on average, the number of [cow] heads is going down by 2.5% every year. 53% of farms are bankrupt and artificially maintained thanks to government subsidies. The average age of livestock farmers is close to 60 years old, and in less than 10 years, more than half of all these livestock farmers will have retired. So, the current system is not working as it is. So, if we can incorporate innovation and direct a part of the subsidies towards the training and investment in research and building capacities for other sources of animal-based food, we can drive an inclusive transition for the benefit of all the stakeholders. That’s a topic that lacks understanding of what cell agriculture is, which sometimes leads to some pushbacks, which is also driven by a lot of financial interests, and conventional agriculture players are benefiting from tens of billions of dollars of subsidies. So, a lot of financial interests in the current system are very strong lobbies, which are motivated by those financial interests and not by any motivation to make change, but that’s not how we can prepare for the future. So, that’s one thing.
Then, we’re talking about the consumers again, I think that if we are talking about cultivated meat, our first application of the cells is through foods like milk: we can do certain different products for milk. We can make cultivated meat from cells and a range of other products. At Aleph Farms, we publish some of the other products we make from the cells, like collagen, and we have a few other ones. So, we’re not a cultivated meat company, we’re a cellular ag company, and Aleph Cuts is only the first application of the cells.
When we’re talking about cells, there is a misperception that cells are processed food, which is not the case and I want to talk about that a little bit. What we do is instead of farming big animals like cows, we look at small animals (i.e. the cells). Cells are the building blocks of life and the building blocks of animals (i.e. the cows). We’re able to isolate the cells from a healthy animal, fully test them for safety, and nurture those cells to feed them in a controlled environment, the same as how animals are fed and nurtured in a corral or a meadow to make high-quality animal products. The cells that Aleph Farms uses are not immortalized, meaning we stick to the natural genetic material of the cells. We also follow the same processes and the same stations for cell proliferation and maturation, as in nature. So technically, we do what the animal domestication industry is doing: we replicate a natural process, and we control that environment to grant better access to high-quality nutrition with more predictability and more control. The cells are not ‘processed’. Further, we can turn the cells into a range of different products.
While I can’t say that cell-based products won’t be processed in the future, the source from which we’re using the cells by themselves is not processed. When we grow cells in the growth medium, which is the feedstock for the cells, we’re using an animal component-free growth medium, meaning we feed them without any animal input. The cells come from animals. If you think about how we make yogurt for instance, or fermented/cultured milk, we also grow cells in a medium. With yogurt, the cells are non-animal, they’re usually bacteria, whilst the growth medium is animal-based. In our case, it’s the opposite, meaning (what we do) when we cultivate ourselves, we do the same thing as when we make yoghurt, but the other way around. In our case, the growth medium is animal-free.
Sonalie Figueiras: That’s a very helpful analogy.
So technically, growing cells is a process no different than making yogurt, which is considered unprocessed food. These are some of the misperceptions that arise from many plant-based products out there, which are considered processed. So, it’s those kinds of analogies that people are making in their minds with cells and cultivated meat- they have preconceived ideas.
Aleph Cuts – Courtesy Aleph Farms
Sonalie Figueiras: People often confuse plant-based meat and cultivated meat, that’s true. Of course, that’s because all of these technologies are lumped under one umbrella. For most people, change is difficult and new technologies are complicated. However, the yogurt comparison is a very helpful analogy. Did you have a third part that you wanted to share?
Didier Toubia: Yes, I wanted to say that as we discussed before, we don’t think animal agriculture will disappear in 10 or 20 years. I know that a lot of vegan activists would like us to say that we’ll disrupt conventional agriculture, and a few plant-based companies make this type of claim, which I think is a mistake, because if we’re talking about regenerative ag, and as I’ve explained, we have a strong focus on climate and food security at Aleph Farms, we do need animals. However, we need far fewer animals, and we need to manage them better. Animals have a role in regenerating the soils and have a role in organic farming and are oftentimes associated in the countryside or in the Global South with social and economic value. As I’ve said when talking about Africa, we don’t want to replace smallholder farms, and the cows have a very important social and economic role there, especially for many, many families. We need to respect that. I think that cultivated meat as an application of sales should be complementary, and a driver for the transition to work less, cost less and be better managed. By the time we understand that, people will be looking at cultivated meat from completely different angles, not necessarily as a threat or not like those guys who are trying to replace the food, but as an additional choice for a meal, and this will open a lot of possibilities.
Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. Instead of an alternative, it’s an added option.
Didier Toubia: At Aleph Farms, we’re talking about complementary products, instead of alternative products. I think “alternative products” doesn’t mean anything.
Sonalie Figueiras: Yeah, I wrote a piece saying exactly that. I think we made a mistake with the name of the sector. I want to come back to what you just said about the vegan question, because as you might be aware, for some founders in this space, the vegan question is very much at the heart of what they are doing, and I see that for you, the ethical part about consuming animals is not at the heart of your mission here.
Didier Toubia: I want to expand here: I have a big issue with the industrialization of animal farming. When we grew up in France, 50 years ago, whenever people slaughtered a pig in the village, there was a ceremony. It was on the main square of the village circle, and when people went, there was a ceremony for the animal, and our relationship to the animal, and the value of the animal’s life. Honestly, I don’t have any inherent issue with eating animals, just as long as we realize that, you know, a cow has given its life to bring the steak on your plate. Today, I think there is a disconnection between meat and the life of the animal behind it. When we industrialize and individualize animal agriculture, putting animals into machines to make meat, or raise them, then slaughter them, it’s the same as when we would make cookies in the plant, meaning without any respect for the animal, that causes a lot of discomfort in me. So, regarding the point of slaughtering animals, I would say that I have an issue with the dehumanization, or let’s say ‘object possession?’ I don’t know if that’s the right term, but turning animals into objects?
Sonalie Figueiras: The exploitation of an animal.
Didier Toubia: It’s not giving respect to the animal and not valuing its life. I think it’s a big issue associated with industrialization. When you slaughter animals in a factory in a high-speed production chain, I think it’s a big issue. It’s a big ethical issue. That’s why we believe that if we can relieve the pressure on farming big animals by funding small animals like cells, we can revert and return to more extensive regenerative farming practices with higher animal welfare, and connect back to the animals as our “complementaries” [food sources] as well.
Sonalie Figueiras: It’s really interesting- you keep referring to regenerative agriculture and organic agriculture, and, you know, what we see in the media and the bigger mainstream conversation is that a lot of regenerative beef folks are very against cultivated meat. I think you’ve covered a lot of why that is, the entrenched lobby interests and the misunderstanding of the role of cellular agriculture in the industry. From where I’m sitting, reporting in this space, there does seem to be this kind of very big split between the regenerative people and then cultivated meat as a food technology, so I want to keep pushing on two things. One, I want to talk a little bit about the role of big food in your company because if we look at Aleph’s journey, you have managed to sign collaborative agreements and partnerships or retain as investors some really big names in the food industry such as BRF in Brazil, and Thai Union, and Mitsubishi. So, I want to ask you, are these partnerships that you are going out to look for? Or are these companies approaching you? How do you navigate through working with companies that are, you know, on some level upholding the status quo, which as you described yourself is problematic and not protected against the future?
Didier Toubia: Firstly, we’re only working with corporations that go through very thorough and strict due diligence by Aleph Farms on ESG parameters, and governmental, social and governance. So, we pick the corporations we work with very carefully based on the alignment of values and vision, that’s important to understand.
Secondly, we maintain our full independence. We don’t grant any rights on our IP, we don’t have any commitments to change anything, and we have no plans to accommodate any requirements from the company. None of those companies will have a seat on our board of directors, for instance. We’re working with those companies, but they don’t influence or impact the internal decision process. We remain fully independent.
Thirdly, the reason why we believe it’s important to have them involved. Just like how renewable energy today is driven primarily by the big energy companies that were traditionally oil-based. Eventually, they switched toward renewable energy and were instrumental in driving impact on the transition towards renewable energies- because, at the end of the day, they see themselves as energy companies. So, they want to develop the best solution to provide energy. I think a lot of those protein and fat companies see themselves as protein companies and are not necessarily committed to only producing meat harvested from slaughtered animals. They understand that we need to incorporate additional choices and new production systems for proteins. We want to drive real impact in the market [so] we need the big players to take hold, invest, and [help] scale these industries, same as what happened with renewable energy.
Sonalie Figueiras: So, are these companies coming to you?
Didier Toubia: It really depends. Usually they do. Actually, yes, mostly they do.
Sonalie Figueiras: So, from your side, since you said there’s strict vetting, you are getting these bigger companies coming to you wanting to learn about what you’re doing, wanting to potentially work together, wanting to participate in this new solution? Is that fair to say?
Didier Toubia: Yes. Again, we check them very carefully before we start working with them. We want to make sure they are really serious about it. The thing is a lot of those companies do understand that, you know, they can’t continue with business as usual. So, they need to incorporate, and diversify the sources of protein they’re putting into the market.
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Sonalie Figueiras: Absolutely. Let’s talk a little bit about your product launch: You recently announced cultivated petite steak, which as you said earlier, is your own format of a steak product. You’re not trying to imitate a conventional beef steak one-for-one. It’s a new label that you’re calling Aleph Cuts. You also just announced a major partnership with Chef Marcus Samuelsson, the very well-known and well-respected James Beard award-winning chef who really privileges work around diversity and takes a broader view of the food system than most. Is he part of your launch plans? I know he’s come in as an investor and an advisor, but can you talk more about how you’re working with him and about your new label?
Didier Toubia: Yeah, sure. So, the first round of products we’re launching under the Aleph Cuts brand is a series of thin-cut beef steaks, which rely on two or three cell towers from bovine origin going onto a plant-based scaffold matrix, meaning it’s a range of hybrid products – plant and animal cells. We’ve been working very hard for the last few years to make sure those products meet the requirements and the expectations of the consumers, accounting for the fact that food is not a functional product, especially meat, it’s a very emotional product, and food is an experience; especially when we talk about animal products, the emotional connection is very strong and working with chefs to develop the right taste, to give life to our products and to develop the right positioning, but also the right format to create this connection, is really important.
The reason why we selected Marcus Samuelsson-other than that he is a great guy- was because we wanted to work with a chef who could help drive initial acceptance of our products, help us with positioning it and developing the right key messages, developing the right culinary approaches, and promote our specific value proposition. So, we do see chefs as partners: we need to convey quality, but at the same time, make sure the product is not presented as a luxurious and inaccessible food. We’re very cautious not to work with a three-star Michelin chef who is disconnected from the ground. What we liked about Marcus Samuelsson is that a lot of his values are very much in line with ours in terms of care, inclusiveness, courage, and creativity. He’s very much in line with our brand [goals of] premium but accessible [food].
Sonalie Figueiras: Is he linked to your plans to visit Ethiopia? [Samuelsson is Ethiopian-born].
Didier Toubia: Yes. Again, I’m fascinated by Africa, and the thing is that, you know, New Zealand also has a lot of connections with Ethiopia and the Eastern region of Africa, which is very interesting in terms of its food scene, and its economic development as well. So, naturally, we see Ethiopia as an interesting angle for us in Africa- that’s why I’m planning to go there in the next couple of months.
Sonalie Figueiras: Do you have children?
Didier Toubia: I do.
Sonalie Figueiras: Do they know what you do? Do they understand about cultivated meat? How do they see what you do?
Didier Toubia: Of course, of course! They are quite involved in what I do, and I consult with them on many topics, and I get their input in a lot of the decision-making process.
Sonalie Figueiras: Some people say that there is a shift globally with this generation (the Gen Zs), and the Alphas coming behind them, in how they think about food, and animal agriculture, and how they are engaged with this idea that they’re living in a pretty serious climate crisis. Do you experience that? And do you think that that’s going to have an impact on our global food systems?
Didier Toubia: Yes, I do. I think that the younger generation is very knowledgeable about a lot of our global issues, and is very engaged [with them]. In my opinion, they will be the driving force behind the systemic changes we need to implement on the global level.
Sonalie Figueiras: As the founder of Aleph Farms, what does success look like to you? What do you see when you look ahead and you imagine success and your vision being realized?
Didier Toubia: I see a food system which is more diverse than today, with more choices, especially more diversity. Technically, today we have many choices, but with very little diversity. What I mean by that is that we have 100 different options of the same products, but we rely on and choose very few production processes, and the food is very concentrated. So, we have a lot of choices, but very little diversity. I would like to incorporate more diversity in the food system, especially with animal products, and to make sure that we can get back to our planetary boundaries while continuing to enjoy gratifying experiences with the food that we eat. I think it’s important because it’s not just a sustainability issue, it’s also a well-being issue. Food is part of what we are. Going back to high-quality foods, and putting the focus on emotions and experiences, is so important- [we need to get] away from ultra-processed and industrialized food products.
Sonalie Figueiras: What are the biggest challenges to get there? And what challenges are you facing at Aleph, specifically? Is it funding?
Didier Toubia: I think the biggest challenge is the amplitude of the food system. The food system is such a big industry and that is difficult to change. If we’re talking just about animal proteins, which is a subset of the food system, it’s a $1.8 trillion market, meaning that if you want to make a change in this market, it will cost you a lot of time, because of its amplitude. At Aleph Farms, we have a target for getting to $1 billion in revenues by 2030, as a way to have an impact, and typically $1 billion in revenues is exactly 0% market share of $1.8 trillion! So, if we want to have a real impact, we need to become very, very large-scale, and that requires a lot of time and a lot of collaboration with all of the stakeholders in the ecosystem. At the end of the day, to drive the change, we need all the players in the ecosystem to align their interests and work together to make the change. Of course, it will not be just one company, not even just four or five cultivated meat companies driving the change.
Sonalie Figueiras: One thing you haven’t mentioned though is government policy. How much of a role do you think that plays in this change?
Didier Toubia: I’ll go back to renewable energy, which I think is a good analogy for cellular agriculture, no different than any other technologies in the existing market that is intended to drive a systemic change in the way we manage the ecosystem. We’ve seen that for renewable energy to become mainstream took a lot of public-private partnerships and governmental support in investing and scaling up these technologies including loans and loan guarantees, tax breaks and tech agreements. Without governmental support, the renewable energy sector would never have been able to drive the cost down enough to become mainstream. It will be the same with cultivated meat. We need the support for the next 5-10 years until we can drive the costs down to become mainstream.
Sonalie Figueiras: Thanks so much, Didier. I appreciate you taking the time, and being so open and so elaborate with your answers. It’s been fascinating!
Green Queen In Conversation is a podcast about the food and climate story hosted by Sonalie Figueiras, the founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. The show’s first season, Pioneers of Cultivated Meat, explores cultivated meat, a future food technology on a mission to produce animal protein sustainability. In each of the six episodes, Sonalie interviews the pioneers of the industry, asking the hard questions about one of the most exciting food + climate innovations of our time and sharing the personal story behind each founder’s journey.
Green Queen In Conversation is a co-production from Green Queen Media and Cheeky Monkey Productions. This episode was produced by Joanna Bowers and hosted by Sonalie Figueiras.
The impact of climate change – whether that’s floods, droughts, extreme heat or cold – is ravaging crops and threatening our food supply. Here are 15 food crops that are facing shortages and uncertain futures due to the global crisis.
Last year as wars were waged, food prices skyrocketed and a new post-pandemic reality set in, up to 783 million people faced hunger around the world – that’s about one in ten people globally. To be sure, many governments, non-profits and private companies are taking action to help tackle food insecurity, but despite all that, around 660 million people may still face hunger in 2030.
A large reason for that is climate change and climate-related extreme weather events. Even as we come up with financial initiatives, food banks and other social solutions, in the long run, curtailing the climate crisis is the only way to drastically reduce this number. Over the last few years, crop failures and food shortages have been much more frequent and visible all around the world due to an increase in floods, droughts, heatwaves, hurricanes, and storms- all of which disrupt our global agricultural systems and farmers’ ability to grow crops consistently. As a result of the climate crisis, we are facing a future with less arable land (where crops can grow), less water available for agriculture, and rising energy prices (needed for farms to operate), not to mention the damage being done to pollinators like bees, who are responsible for the pollination of one-third to one-half of all global foods crops, depending on which estimates you believe.
This has led to an entire innovation industry of future food founders looking to find new ways to produce food that is land-light and climate-resilient to arrest these shortages- with milestones in sectors like cultivated meat and precision-fermented dairy announced almost weekly. Some intrepid teams are even hoping to make fruit grown in labs.
Despite these advancements, the reality is that we are decades, if not centuries, away from a future where agriculture does not rely on land crops. If we don’t take collective steps to mitigate climate change, our dinner plates could look very, very different in the future. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are 15 of your favorite foods that are affected by the climate crisis.
1) Tomatoes
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Pomodo-no? That could be a reality, with research suggesting a 6% decline in tomato yields in major growing regions like Italy and California by mid-century, thanks to global warming.
The optimal temperature for tomatoes is between 22-28°C. Over 35°C, however, yields go down quickly. Currently, 65% of tomatoes grow in California, Italy and China, but record-high temperatures and drought conditions meant the yield was 10% less than expected in the latter in 2021. The Italian tomato-growing region of Foggia, meanwhile, will likely see yields decrease by 18% by 2050.
Restrictions on water use could also affect tomato production in Italy and California, while an increase in air temperature will reduce yields all over the world. We’re already seeing these effects. The UK had a tomato shortage recently due to crop stress in Spain and Morocco, while India – the second-largest consumer of tomatoes – saw tomato prices soar by 400% and removed from the menus of fast-food giants like McDonald’s and Burger King.
If McDonald’s can’t buy tomatoes, you know it’s a problem.
2) Chillies
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In April 2022, Southern California’s Huy Fong Foods generated bedlam after it told its customers it would have to stop making its beloved Sriracha sauce for the next few months as a result of “severe weather conditions affecting the quality of chilli peppers”.
This followed a smaller shortage in 2020, but it meant the company wasn’t accepting any new orders for a few months last year. The low inventory of red jalapeños in recent years was brought on by drought in Mexico and depleting water supplies in Colorado, and exacerbated by last spring’s crop failure, culminating in a shortage of hot sauce for a company that produces 20 million bottles of it annually.
3) Chocolate
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The best things in life don’t come free to us anymore. Dark chocolate is notorious for its high carbon footprint, while cocoa beans are only surpassed by red meat for the highest carbon opportunity costs – or the amount of carbon lost from native vegetation and soils for production.
The chocolate industry is a major driver of deforestation too, especially due to its use of palm oil, which is the largest factor behind tropical deforestation. In Ivory Coast, the top cocoa producer in the world, more than 85% of the forest has been lost since 1960. This has led to a ban on deforestation-linked cocoa in the EU.
But climate change is biting back at chocolate. In 2021, scientists warned that cocoa trees are threatened – and a third of them could die out by 2050 – which could lead to a global chocolate shortage. And just last month, a study found that tropical crops like cocoa, watermelon, mango and coffee may be at risk due to the loss of insect pollinators.
4) Coffee
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Speaking of coffee, one of the world’s favourite drinks is also under threat. Of the 124 known coffee species, 75 (60%) are under threat of extinction according to one study, including arabica, one of the two main species grown and consumed globally (alongside robusta).
In fact, earlier research from one of the authors of the same study found that in a worst-case scenario, arabica could actually be extinct by 2080. Another study revealed that climate hazards due to extreme weather have become more frequent, and will lead to lower yields and higher prices for coffee.
The optimal growing temperatures for arabica and robusta are 18-22°C, and while coffee-growing regions were more prone to too-cold temperatures for the last 40 years, every region has extreme heat to deal with now. This means that the amount of coffee-growing land – a ‘belt’ that lies between the tropics – could be halved before 2050.
5) Wine
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Then there’s one of the planet’s other favourite drinks. Extreme weather conditions like early frost, heavy rainfall, and drought have meant that global wine production has plummeted to its lowest levels since 1961, with a 7% decline year-over-year.
Countries like Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Brazil saw their outputs drop between 10-30%, while Italy’s 12% fall meant it lost its title as the world’s largest producer to France, where supplies were steady.
However, climate change has meant that wine quality may not be the same as you’d expect. French winemakers are watering down their wine to tackle high alcohol levels. Grapes have been ripening under high temperatures, which means sugar levels are increasing faster than polyphenol levels, as trade website Wine-Searcher explains. “High temperatures inhibit the accumulation of these compounds; wines are more alcoholic and, in some cases, quality levels are lower.”
“What will I do when I have shrivelled grapes, low yields and 16% ABV?” one winemaker from Bordeaux said. “My wines would be unsellable.”
6) Potatoes
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Your local chippy might not have many chips anymore. Potatoes – which should obviously and objectively be everyone’s favourite food – have been hit by a bunch of climate events that have left the industry in… taters.
A lack of rainfall has forced farmers to cut back on potato growing in England, while red-skinned potatoes are nowhere to be found across Europe, with potato prices going through the roof. In Northern Ireland, changing weather conditions – particularly dry weather – have also affected spud supplies. While demand for potatoes has been steady, supplies fell by about two million tonnes (4,409 million lbs) in Europe in 2022, one of the driest years on record in the region.
Elsewhere, rising temperatures accompanying sea levels are pushing potato farmers to higher altitudes in Peru, Latin America’s biggest potato producer. One curator estimates that “in 40 years, there will be nowhere left to plant potatoes” in the region.
7) Seeds
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It’s not just foods we buy at the grocer – climate change is threatening the seeds we buy to grow them at home too. One seed farming company manager in the US told the Guardian about facing droughts in June for the last three years, and then torrential rains in July and August, leading to consecutive years of crop failures for lettuce seeds.
And after large hailstorms, severe thunderstorms and 75mph wind, her farm collective saw the first time that a seed failed to mature. Similarly, for a farmer in Maine, multiple years of drought affecting his seed potatoes have given way to extremely wet conditions now. This is a major issue given that the demand for seeds has skyrocketed following fruit and vegetable shortages.
8) Maize
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Hailed as the most important and one of the most widely produced crops in the world, corn shortage has been a problem all over the world.
In Zambia, where many people rely on maize as a main food source, there’s a critical shortage of the group, partly due to exports but no doubt also because of the severe droughts and flash floods the country has faced in recent years. Drought – the worst in 40 years – has dried up the stocks of white maize in the Horn of Africa too, which broadly includes Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti, as well as Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
In north India, maize crops had begun to dry up due to stagnated water in the fields, while floods damaged maize grown as fodder just around the time of harvest.
9) Blueberries
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Peru, the leading blueberry exporter, saw exports more than halved this year due to abnormally high air temperatures, especially during the berries’ flowering process. Local agronomists pinpoint the natural phenomenon El Niño as the driver of extreme stress on blueberry plantations and resulting reduced yield.
The shortage has hit global markets, including the US, with supplies dropping by 70% in the past months. This has pushed up prices by 60% to nearly $6 per lb in retail, with Americans buying 27 million lbs less of blueberries compared to last year.
10) Limes
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Also in Peru, the lime shortage here has been making the waves for months now, after its prices soared from just over $1 to $16 per kg in August and September. El Niño, Cyclone Yaku and other weather and rain fluctuations have “significantly delayed and threatened” the lime blossom in Peru, giving rise to “one of the most disastrous agricultural seasons” in the country in decades, writes climate journalist Thin Lei Win. in Peru in recent decades.
These weather shocks have affected maize, cocoa and coffee as well. In the city of Olmos, climate change and lack of fertiliser access and government support meant lime production fell from 400 tons to just one per week. In Mexico, meanwhile, droughts in 2020 and severe flooding the year after hit lime growers hard.
11) Oranges
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Limes aren’t the only citrus in trouble. In the US, orange juice prices are soaring thanks to a bacterial disease and climate-change-induced extreme weather. In 2022, Florida – home to 90% of the country’s orange juice supplies – was hit by Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Nicole and freezing conditions one after the other, decimating orange yields in the state.
One grower association executive told the Guardian: “At its height, our industry was doing about 244 million boxes of oranges. This season, we ended up with just under 16 million boxes.” Florida lost 10% of its orange trees due to hurricanes, with Hurricane Ian – which was worsened by climate change –particularly devastating: it hit 152,000 hectares of citrus groves in the state (nearly all of the 162,000 hectares of groves, with damages adding up to $675M.
It’s not just the US, though. Brazil – the world’s largest orange juice exporter – saw stocks fall to about 85,000 tonnes, a steep 40% annual decline. Globally, orange juice production in the 2022/23 financial year experienced a 9% decrease.
12) Peaches
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Peaches are already a difficult crop to cultivate, as they’re labour-intensive and highly sensitive to weather fluctuations. Climate change is making things worse. In the American South, for example, a late freeze destroyed about 70% of Southern California’s peach harvest this year, which followed another freeze last year that saw peach crops diminish. Neighbouring Georgia lost even more of its harvest, with only 5% of peaches remaining.
There was a similar situation in Europe, with drought in Spain and France and floods in Italy affecting peach harvests. In 2021, the region’s peach and nectarine harvest was the smallest in 30 years, with some farms in northern Italy losing 70% of their crop.
13) Meat and seafood
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While crops across the world are being affected due to climate change, so are meat and seafood. In the US, for example, 22 cattle died in a Nebraska heatwave, while ranchers in Oklahoma said their cattle was drinking twice as much water as usual to survive a ‘heat danger’ advisory. “Even when it isn’t fatal, heat stress can affect livestock’s milk yield and fertility – and can also harm the people who care for those animals and farms,” writes the Guardian.
The heatwaves that take place on land occur underwater too, as the ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat linked to global warming. One study found that cod, abalone, Chinook salmon and Dungeness crab suffered during the 2013-16 marine heatwave, which generated toxic algal blooms that led to the closure of California’s Dungeness crab fishery. Although the populations of other aquatic animals, like anchovies and market squid, benefitted from the heatwaves.
In Alaska, meanwhile, the snow crab season was cancelled after crap populations (billions of them) collapsed.
14) Cheese
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The climate crisis is coming for your favorite fromages. French cheesemakers are finding it hard to meet the country’s strict quality standards due to their inability to follow traditional methods for quality cheeses, which has been impacted by climate change.
According to the New York Times, standards of some cheeses can cover all stages of the cheesemaking process, including what the animals eat and graze. But hotter and drier summers are killing pastures – one French cheese requires seven months of grazing on mountain pastures, but this cheese has stopped being made as there isn’t enough grass to do so.
15) Micronutrients
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Okay, while technically not a crop, it’s a component of plants that we eat. Micronutrients are essential nutrients that aid development, prevent diseases and promote overall well-being.
However, one 2019 study suggests that “increased concentrations of carbon dioxide – by directly affecting plants –worsen the nutritional quality of food by decreasing protein and mineral concentrations by 5–15%, and B vitamins by up to 30%”. Additionally, these higher CO2 amounts increase photosynthesis in plants like wheat, rice, potatoes and barley, which can increase crop yields, but lower the nutritional quality as plants accumulate more carbohydrates and fewer minerals (like iron and zinc).
Similarly, another study by the Harvard Chan School found that “when food crops like wheat, corn, rice and soy are exposed to CO2 at levels predicted for 2050, the plants lose as much as 10% of their zinc, 5% of their iron, and 8% of their protein content”. So both our micros and macros will be affected by higher emissions, it seems.
This year is already on course to be the hottest year on record, with last month being the warmest October ever. Higher temperatures and climate change effects will continue to affect both crop supplies of fruits and vegetables, as well as animal-derived foods like meat, milk and eggs. Ahead lie murky waters, if no action is taken.
As Rodger Voorhies, growth and opportunity president at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes: “If the global community acts, with drive and purpose, to support agricultural innovation and better nutrition, the worst consequences of climate change can still be avoided and a healthier, more equitable future for everyone can be possible.”
UK vegan pizzeria Purezza has acquired a majority stake in London-based vegan cheesemonger La Fauxmagerie in a merger, with the former looking after the plant-based cheese brand’s sales. Purezza head of sales Mitch Lee speaks to Green Queen about consumer priorities and the vegan cheese market in the UK.
Purezza has acquired a majority stake in La Fauxmagerie, the plant-based cheese brand founded by sisters Rachel and Charlotte Stevens in 2019. As part of the merger, the pizza chain will manage the vegan cheesemonger’s sales, while “expanded collaborations” are also expected.
Purezza founder Tim Barclay confirmed that La Fauxmagerie’s physical retail location in Shoreditch, east London will remain open and continue to sell cheeses by both brands, in addition to products from other artisanal vegan cheese makers like I Am Nut OK, Kinda Co. and Palace Culture.
Barclay kept details under wraps when asked about any potential rebrands, the use of La Fauxmagerie’s cheeses on Purezza’s menu (the restaurant tends to avoid nuts where possible for allergen purposes), or future R&D processes. “At the moment, everything will continue as is,” he offered.
A vegan cheese bloc
Courtesy: La Fauxmagerie
“At Purezza’s core, we want to be able to offer foodie vegans, vegetarians, and even those with no dietary requirements an alternative that doesn’t compromise on quality, flavour and dining excellence and La Fauxmagerie is passionate to achieve the same goals,” said Purezza co-founder Stefania Evangelisti. “It’s a perfect match in our eyes.”
La Fauxmagerie’s Charlotte Stevens added: “We’re so excited to be joining the Purezza family who, in addition to being female-led, share our mission to increase accessibility to high-quality, plant-based products.”
Purezza was founded in 2015 and currently has restaurants in Brighton, London, and Manchester. It has previously raised £2.4M in funding and was named the UK’s Best Vegan Restaurant in 2019 by Vegfest. In addition, the pizzeria has won several awards for its food, including at the World Pizza Championships in 2019, and makes its own rice-based alternatives to mozzarella and stracciatella.
Purezza co-founders Tim Barclay and Stefania Evangelisti | Courtesy: Purezza
La Fauxmagerie – which secured a £2M investment earlier this year – is the first fully vegan cheesemonger in the UK, selling gourmet plant-based cheeses from a host of British brands, plus vegan wine and charcuterie items. It has a cheese cellar that hosts cheese and wine pairings, featuring offerings from other brands as well as its own portfolio, which includes the likes of Truffle Camemvert, Balham Blue, and Shoreditch Smoked. Last year, it gained a listing in UK supermarket Waitrose.
Following the announcement of the merger, the two brands will appear side-by-side for the first time at this week’s Plant Based World Expo event in London (November 15-16).
Taste and price key for British vegan cheese
The merger comes at a curious time for cheese consumption in the UK. Government data shows that while the intake of dairy (excluding cheese) was at its lowest in 2022 since records began, and cheese consumption declined by 10% year-on-year, Brits have been eating more cheese in the last two years than they have ever done. As for vegan cheese, analysis from alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe revealed that sales fell by 12% from 2021-22, reflective of the overall plant-based sector’s 3% decline.
“Right now we’re in a cost-of-living crisis, so people are being more selective on where and how they spend their money,” said Purezza marketing manager Mitch Lee. “Plant-based cheese is an area that still is only just getting going when it comes to taste, texture and quality.”
La Fauxmagerie co-founders Charlotte and Rachel Stevens | Courtesy: La Fauxmagerie
Linus Pardoe, GFI Europe’s UK policy manager, told Green Queen last month: “Ultimately, most people’s food choices are driven by three main things – taste, price and convenience. Particularly during the UK’s current cost-of-living crisis, consumers will be looking very closely at products’ price tags before deciding whether or not to put them in their shopping basket.”
A UK-wide 759-person survey by ProVeg International last year found that even if the taste and texture of vegan cheese were identical to dairy-based counterparts, only 22% of Brits were likely to eat the plant-based versions over conventional. Additionally, only 15% are likely to pay more for vegan cheese, despite them having a similar flavour and texture.
As Purezza and La Fauxmagerie both make artisanal cheese, their products are priced on the higher end. For example, the latter’s almond- and coconut-based Smoked Shoreditch retails at £4.50 for 100g in Waitrose, whereas its almond-shea Truffle Camemvert is priced at £6 for 160g (it must be noted that truffle-flavoured foods will always be more expensive). In contrast, plant-based giant Violife’s coconut-oil-based Smoky Cheddar slices cost £2.95 for 200g, while its Le Rond Camembert sets you back £3.40 for 150g at the same retailer.
Courtesy: La Fauxmagerie
“The cheaper, more readily available products make for nice swaps for vegans,” acknowledges Lee. “However, they often miss the mark for non-vegans who can’t get on board the taste, texture or smell.” If you compare La Fauxmagerie’s cheeses to conventional gourmet cheese, the comparison feels more even. For example, Tunworth’s camembert is priced at £8.50 for a 250g wheel, which is only marginally cheaper gram-for-gram than the former’s vegan alternative.
“Taste is by far the most important thing to focus on, closely followed by texture or application (for example, does a mozzarella really melt?),” suggests Lee. “With plant-based cheeses, the brands who are doing it well are often artisanal, handmade, aged, and use higher-quality ingredients. This makes the texture far better, but also means the cost will be higher.”
The health aspect and market optimism
The other factor consumers are increasingly concerned about is health, and subsequently cleaner labels. In 2020, a global survey by Ingredion revealed that over half of respondents find it important for products to have a short ingredient list. The ingredients manufacturer’s latest data has additionally found that 78% would spend more money on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.
As for the UK, Mintel data from 2019 found that 46% of UK Brits feel ‘clean label’ means ‘good for you’, and 24% believe it means the product is highly nutritious. Purezza’s cheeses don’t necessarily fit the clean-label bill, with ingredients like locust bean gum, sodium citrate and dextrose – instead, they double down on the application factor, designed to give you the best vegan pizza possible.
That caters to the people prioritising taste over other things. But its merger with La Fauxmagerie expands its target consumers, with the latter’s nut-based cheeses containing shorter ingredient lists with elements that can usually be found in home kitchens (like miso, nutritional yeast, and mustard powder, to name a few).
Courtesy: Ellen Richardson
Despite the dip in UK vegan sales, Lee remains optimistic about the market. “You just have to look at brands like Better Nature tempeh and Bold Bean Co to see the demand for plant-based products isn’t slowing down,” he says.
“Plant-based cheese is an area that I see big things for in 2024 – Purezza and La Fauxmagerie aside, you just have to see what other fantastic producers like Honestly Tasty, I Am Nut OK, Kinda Co., Palace Culture and many more are doing to push the needle in this arena. The movement is bigger than one brand,” he adds. “So many non-vegans will say: ‘I could go vegan, but I love cheese too much’ – and this is because if they’ve tried vegan cheese, it hasn’t been received very well. We all need to celebrate each other’s wins with new listings and increased access for consumers.”
A group of 36 inaugural members have joined Future Ocean Foods, a global association to help advance the alternative seafood sector, across the plant-based, cultivated and fermentation verticals. Founder Marissa Bronfman speaks to Green Queen about the group’s focus, consumer attitudes towards alt-seafood, and the industry’s biggest challenges.
Despite microplastics taking over the seas, fish production linked to child and slave labour, and rampant overfishing that could lead to a collapse of global fisheries by 2048, we continue to eat seafood. In fact, while our fish intake has risen by 30% since 1998, it’s projected to grow by a further 80% come mid-century. With 3.3 billion people (40% of the global population) eating seafood as a primary protein source, this is a market that’s set to more than double by 2030.
The seafood industry’s problems were laid bare in the 2021 documentary Seaspiracy, which we described as a “shocking, terrifying and unsparing indictment of the commercial fishing industry”. One study has found that seafood eaters consume up to 11,000 microplastic particles per year, which can lead to long-term health risks. Conversely, styrofoam plastic packaging is widely used for seafood, despite research finding harmful effects on marine life and human health.
Plus, there’s the environmental question to deal with. Farmed shrimp and fish emit more greenhouse gases than pork or poultry. The heavy use of fuels in ocean fishery vessels is one big reason for this. And our continued appetite for these foods has meant higher production rates and, subsequently, overfishing has wiped out fish populations, threatened endangered species, and dredged up marine ecosystems.
As Lily Ng, owner of US vegan seafood company Lily’s Vegan Pantry, explained to Green Queen last year: “Overfishing disrupts the food chain. And when populations are diminished, other species will overpopulate, destroying biodiversity and making changes to the entire ecosystem. In the end, our consumption of fish still destroys our planet.”
Courtesy: Gideon/Flickr via CC
The alt-seafood conundrum
It leaves the seafood sector in a state of reckoning. Many companies are working on more sustainable and ethical alternatives to seafood, whether that’s plant-based, cultivated, or fermentation-derived. According to alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI), there are over 120 companies producing these foods across the globe.
Interest in this space is ballooning. One estimate put the sector at $42.1M in 2021, with a predicted annual growth of 42.3% to reach $1.3B in 2021. In the US alone, by-weight sales of plant-based seafood grew by 40% between 2019-22, according to GFI, which found that over $175M was raised by alt-seafood companies globally in 2021 – a 92% increase from the year before.
And yet, the category still represents a fraction of the overall plant-based alternatives market. GFI data has found that vegan seafood accounts for just 1% of the dollar sales of the total plant-based meat market. While there have been a host of developments and new products in the vegan seafood space, challenges around pricing and consumer adoption remain.
We’re talking about plant-based here because precision-fermented and cultivated seafood are still very niche and have yet to enter the market, owing to regulatory, cost, scale-up, and consumer acceptance hurdles. One of Asia’s leading cultivated seafood startups, Singapore-based Shiok Meats, has shifted focus to cultured beef in the short term, for example, with more time needed to navigate the scaling up of crustacean cell lines for cultivated seafood.
“You can’t really find any research on stem cells for seafood, because stem cell research was done on animals that are closer to humans, like mammals… nobody really looked at stem cells from shrimps,” its co-founder and CEO Sandhya Sriram told Green Queen in May.
Summing up the obstacles faced by this industry, she said: “We’re not stopping working on seafood, we just need more time.”
Courtesy: Umami Bioworks
Tackling seafood’s ‘health halo’
It’s these sorts of challenges that Future Ocean Foods, a new global alt-seafood association, is looking to tackle. It has an inaugural membership of 36 companies from 14 countries, including the likes of Konscious Foods (Canada), Umami Bioworks, Avant Meats (both Singapore), Revo Foods (Austria), SeaSpire (India), Atlantic Fish Co., and Wicked Kitchen (both US).
Founded by Marissa Bronfman, a food tech and impact investment advisor and entrepreneur, the group has received VC funding from “leading food and climate investors”, and is already working with legacy seafood giants to create sustainable alternatives. “Alternative seafood offers us the opportunity to build a more delicious, nutritious, sustainable and ethical global food system,” says Bronfman.
But, she adds, there is lots of work to do. “Future Ocean Foods is currently focused on building community, fostering knowledge-sharing, and facilitating collaboration among our 36 members,” she tells Green Queen. “With this foundation, we seek to increase education and awareness of the benefits of alternatives for human health and environmental sustainability, among consumers, investors, governments, and retail, foodservice, and grocery. Driving [product] trials is extremely important, as is accessing the resources to successfully build and scale.”
The association aims to help raise the nutritional profile of seafood alternatives, with a particular focus on protein content and omega fatty acids. This is crucial in a consumer landscape that puts increasing importance on the health credentials of their food. In the US, for example, a 1,022-person survey in May found that health is the major factor behind eating vegan or vegetarian diets, with six in 10 Americans choosing it. Health benefits are the top reason for Brits to eat plant-based meat (39%) too, as per a 1,000-person poll last month.
“I don’t think all consumers in all markets have the same needs or preferences, but overall, consumers certainly tend to look to seafood for what they perceive to be a healthier protein choice,” says Bronfman. “The ills of meat consumption are now well-known; however, seafood still enjoys the effects of a ‘health halo’, despite mounting evidence and headlines about mercury, antibiotics, disease and the omnipresence of microplastics in fish.”
She adds: “Winning taste is critical, as one bad flavour experience can prevent a consumer from trying alternatives again. For the industry to succeed long-term, we will need to deliver on taste, texture, nutrition and price.”
Future Ocean Foods plans to host events and publish reports for alt-seafood
Courtesy: Future Ocean Foods
Future Ocean Foods’ members – 40% of which are women-founded – are working with conventional seafood operators to help diversify their portfolios with sustainable offerings and promote job security and economic prosperity among communities reliant on the seafood sector. According to the WWF, over 800 million people depend on fish for food and income globally.
The industry association will spotlight its members across the value chain – from microalgae and omega-based ingredient companies to whole-cut vegan salmon and cultured fish maw producers – at international food and climate events. And it’s planning a global event to convene conventional and alt-seafood startups, investors, trade groups, government stakeholders, as well as retail and foodservice representatives.
Moreover, Future Ocean Foods has collaborated with the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega 3s, and added sustainable food advocacy group ProVeg International as a strategic partner and GFI as a knowledge partner. Like the latter, it will produce industry reports to supplement its work.
“We have plans to spearhead a landmark global study about the health and environmental benefits of alternative seafood,” reveals Barfman. “We also look forward to working with our partners, like GFI, to support and contribute to their research and reporting whenever possible.”
She reiterates that the health halo associated with seafood is one of the biggest challenges for transforming the sector: “Overcoming this will take considerable global efforts in increasing education and awareness of the incredible benefits alternative seafood has for people and the planet, which is something we are keenly focused on as an association.”
She adds: “We must also inspire public and private capital to support this nascent industry, as developing, building and scaling anything in a new industry requires significant resources, but holds the greatest opportunity aswell. With dozens of species to reimagine, 3.3 billion people around the world looking to seafood as their primary protein source, and finite fish in the sea, alternative seafood is a hugely exciting early investment opportunity that more food and climate investors would be wise to look closely at.”
CEO and co-founder of Californian hybrid meat company SciFi Foods Joshua March on alt meat price parity, why he’s all in on combining plant proteins with cultivated meat instead of conventional, and consumers’ disregard for industry terms.
This article is part of our content series exploring the world of hybrid and blended meat products – those blending cultivated or conventional proteins with plant-based ingredients, respectively, and why some think this is the future of reducing meat consumption.
“SCiFi Foods is not the future we fear. It’s the future we dream of.”
That’s the message on the homepage of SciFi Foods, an alt-protein company from California. The future it’s referring to is cultivated meat, but just not in the way you’ve imagined it. SciFi Foods is taking the best of two worlds – the superior taste credentials of cultured proteins and the cost-effectiveness and scalability of plant-based ingredients – to create a hybrid beef product.
There are many reasons for this. First, while Americans may have a bad rep when it comes to meat-eating, plant-based consumption, and linking meat and dairy intake to climate change, a 1,022-person survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) this May found that the climate impact of meat and poultry affects the purchasing decisions of 62% of US citizens – for seafood, that number is 45%.
Secondly, Americans have some concerns about the way meat is produced in the country. According to a 1,018-person poll last December by the Good Food Institute (GFI), 46% of Americans are worried about the use of antibiotics. Over a third (36%) are perturbed by the oligopolistic nature of the US meat industry that is dominated by a few very large, and very powerful, corporations, and by the treatment of animals (35%).
Third, there’s a reason why only two companies are authorised to sell cultivated meat in the US. It’s still a relatively nascent category with a tall ladder to climb, not least in terms of regulatory hurdles, production costs and scalability. This problem is exacerbated when you realise that, as per the GFI survey, 46% of Americans are concerned about the rising costs of meat as well.
Reuters claims that cultivated meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be price-competitive with traditional meat. Neither Upside Foods nor Eat JUST, the only two producers with US regulatory approval, have disclosed the absolute per pound costs of their respective cultivated chicken. While cultured meat companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for it to reach price parity with its conventional counterparts, which feels like a long time away.
Despite all that, 45% of respondents in GFI’s survey said they’d likely try cultivated meat. Crucially, this was after the technology was properly described to them. You can look at that as a glass half-empty or half-full manner: nearly half of Americans are receptive to cultured meat, but more than half are not.
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
The problem with blended meat
All this leaves cultivated meat in limbo. Some companies – like 50/50 Foods and Mush Foods – are betting on blended meat, which differs from hybrid in that it pairs plant proteins with conventional meat. It’s a way people can “have their meat and eat it too”, as 50/50 Foods CEO Andrew Arentowicz told Green Queen last month.
But that category has had its ups and downs, with meat giants like Tyson Foods and retailers like Aldi introducing and subsequently pulling blended meat products from the market. The IFIC survey revealed that while 14% of Americans were eating more blended meats in the last year, that is a decline from the growth seen the year before. Plus, a higher number (20%) are eating fewer of these products, while an equal number have never consumed it.
Plant-based meat has reached mainstream recognition and cultivated meat is making headlines with its regulatory approvals, crowding out the category before you even consider fermentation-based proteins. GFI notes that blended may need support in establishing a value proposition with consumers and needs to reach a broader meat-eating audience to access its full potential.
Allaying consumer concerns
SciFi Foods founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora | Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Which brings us back to the future according to SciFi Foods. “We know that 100% cultivated meat may take decades to develop, while hybrid products are possible today,” says its co-founder and CEO Joshua March. “Products that blend plant-based meat with conventional meat are great in concept,” he adds, “but buying food is a very emotional decision.”
This is because “a significant part of the benefit of eating meat alternatives comes from the emotional satisfaction of knowing that no animal was killed”, alongside the climate factor – it’s no secret that plant-based alternatives are much more climate-friendly than meat. “That emotional impact is just not there if ‘slightly fewer animals died for this burger’,” outlines March. “This isn’t about marketing messages, but rather the emotional impact of different products, which make a huge impact.”
But look at the flipside then. Why would meat-eaters who are indifferent to plant-based alternatives and apprehensive of cultivated proteins want to replace their meat with a mix of these two? “We think getting on the market ASAP with an amazing product is the best way to attract all consumers, and our brand is about a tasty burger that uses cultivated beef cells as their magic ingredient,” explains March. “We think the novelty of the cells will attract early consumers, including meat-eaters, and the taste will keep them coming back.”
He continues: “Ultimately, concepts like hybrid or blended are more industry terms and have little relevance for the average consumer.” He punctuates this point with the example of fellow Californian alt-meat company Impossible Foods. “Today, consumers routinely buy the Impossible Burger without dissecting its composition, which includes recombinant proteins produced through precision fermentation [the company’s signature heme ingredient] blended with isolated plant proteins and other ingredients.”
Price parity and 2024 launch plans
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Previously called Artemys Foods, SciFi Foods emerged from stealth last year with a $22M Series A round led by blue chip Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), moving into a new 16,000 sq ft pilot facility. Even with hybrid products, March says the biggest challenges are cost and scale: “Scaling up a novel biomanufacturing process is always hard, but it’s especially hard if you are producing commodity products at competitive prices.”
In July last year, the startup announced it had achieved price parity with conventional beef using a combination of its proprietary high-throughput cell line engineering and CRISPR technology. The latter is a piece of tech adapted from a genome editing system used by bacteria for immunity and has been touted as a potential embryonic treatment for several hereditary diseases (though it carries some controversy, as studies say altering the DNA of embryos or eggs and sperm could cause mutations that lead to other health threats).
SciFi Foods has experimented with 10-20% cultivated proteins mixed with plant-based proteins (primarily soy) to produce a burger it claims will cost under $10 to make at its facility, with scaled-up manufacturing potentially driving costs further down to $1 per burger.
March points to the industrial fermentation space for proof points that price parity for this sector is possible. “But,” he adds, “there is only one reasonable blueprint for how to get there: a very simple process with minimal downstream processing and robust cell lines that grow well with low-cost inputs.
“Many of those cell lines are optimised through genetic engineering to approach the maximum theoretical performance for converting feed to product. We believe that all of the same principles apply to cultivated meat, which informs our unique strategy.” And since SciFi Foods is making hybrid beef, it doesn’t “need to worry about tissue maturation or scaffolding, which dramatically reduces the complexity and cost” of its process.
Steve Molino, Principal at US venture fund Clear Current Capital, which backs food system disruptors, says he thinks the SciFi team is on the right track strategically. “While some are obsessing over how to create 100% cultivated products, I agree with SCiFi’s approach of understanding the minimum inclusion rate required to create the same experience as conventional beef. This strategy will allow for the improved unit economics and scale that will ultimately maximize the chances of reaching commercial viability.” Note: Clear Current Capital is not an investor in SciFi Foods.
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
The company plans to launch through foodservice channels – as Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat and Upside Foods have done – at the end of 2024, pending regulatory approval. SciFi’s cultivated beef product, which the company hopes will be the first cultivated beef product to launch on the market globally, will need to be cleared for sale by the FDA, while its harvest process and product labelling will be supervised by the USDA.
Molino recently attended a SciFi Foods burger tasting and left very impressed: “Cultivated companies will not be successful by creating things that are simply better than plant-based products. They’ll win if they can create the same, ordinary experience animal products offer, which is loved by the masses. The SciFi burger did just that, and both myself and the meat eater I brought along with me thought ‘it simply tastes like a good hamburger’.
The company’s Series A round was followed by a partnership with Michigan State University to test and finalise the plant-based part of its hybrid burger, as well as further investments that have taken total financing to over $40M. One of its early backers was the British brand Coldplay, so it does beg the question: could the scientists at SciFi Foods fix you(r meat cravings)?
Shanghai-based cellular agriculture startup CellX, known for cultivated meat, has ventured into mycelium fermentation to expand its portfolio of sustainable proteins. The company plans to use fermented proteins in meat and dairy alternatives and combine them with cultured proteins to make more affordable hybrid meat, with regulatory filings planned for China and overseas.
CellX’s mycelium venture comes three months after it opened China’s first large-scale cultivated meat pilot factory. At the time, the company had stressed the importance of price parity with animal-derived meat, with production costs at well below $100 per lb of cultured meat already (although it would need to reach $2.92 to be price-competitive).
The new mycelium programme helps this cause. CellX says mycelium proteins have near-term advantages in both cost and scale and have differences in raw material performance. This will help supplement the company’s mid-range protein product portfolio.
CellX’s fermentation protein raw material uses a mycelium strain that boasts over 40% protein and over 20% dietary fibre, and is rich in trace elements and active ingredients like antioxidants. Plus, its amino acid score coefficient is as high as 0.98, which is on par with conventional beef.
After screening for 2,000 microbial strains, the company has found several fungi strains suitable for fermentation in collaboration with “well-known institutions in China”. It has already commenced its fermentation process, with a pilot production of 10 cubic metres. And it intends to partner with downstream developers to create new meat and dairy alternatives as well as functional foods using its mycelium protein.
Advancing the hybrid meat category in China
CellX will also tap into the cost-effectiveness of mycelium fermentation to “enhance the competitiveness” of its cultivated meat portfolio by creating hybrid meat products – which combine cultivated proteins with plant-based and fermented ones. This reduces the cost of cultivated meat, which as mentioned is still far from price parity, and ensures the same, “if not better”, nutritional profile as conventional meat.
The company has previously showcased hybrid products, exhibiting a cultured minced pork product mixed with plant protein in 2021. CellX believes these are “ultimately a more compelling product choice for the consumer”. It’s a path taken by several companies globally, allowing them to go to market faster, given the cheaper production costs and more scalable manufacturing aspect.
Courtesy: CellX
CellX’s mycelium venture is a shrewd move, given that it’s a market set to grow by 7.7% annually to reach $5.21B in 2030. According to one estimate, China produced 75% of mycelium globally in recent years. But while there are a host of companies working with fungi-based meats around the world – like Meati, Quorn and Libre Foods, to name a few – there aren’t many doing so in China. Last year, Shanghai-based 70/30 Food Tech became the country’s first mycelium protein company.
Courtesy: CellX
Other companies working with fermentation proteins in China include ProTi Food Tech, Blue Canopy, Changing Bio and Geb Impact Technology. In a report evaluating the fermentation protein market in China, Tao Zhang, co-founder of Chinese alt-protein investment firm Dao Foods, wrote: “The fermentation approach has a lot of potential in China given its history in the country, China’s manufacturing advantage, and its relatively faster speed in terms of mass commercialisation.”
He added: “Without a doubt, China can play an important role in both the strategy and execution of any new protein company [that] has the wish and will to learn and take advantage of what China can offer on this front for these reasons.”
Outside China, California’s The Better Meat Co. and Israel-based Mush Foods both make mycelium-based proteins for applications in blended meat (which refers to a mix of conventional and plant proteins).
Regulatory approval and government support for alt-protein
CellX, which has raised over $20M following a Series A+ round in June, has earmarked 2025 as a launch year for both its cultivated and fermented proteins. Its co-founder and CEO Ziliang Yang previously confirmed to Green Queen that the company was planning to file for regulatory approval for its cultured meat in Singapore and the US – the only two countries that have cleared the sale of these products.
Now, the company says it’s preparing to submit an application to regulators in both China and abroad for its mycelium protein. A report earlier this year by Asia Research Engagement suggested that 50% of China’s protein consumption must come from alt-protein sources if it is to decarbonise, with 24% coming from plant-based proteins, 16% from fermentation-derived protein, and 10% from cultivated meat/seafood.
Courtesy: CellX
This spells an opportunity for CellX, which is working on cultured beef, pork, poultry and seafood, especially given the fact that China’s one-billion-plus population leads the world in meat consumption. There’s also proof that consumers are interested in cultured meat, with one survey revealing that 90% of its citizens are willing to combine their meat intake with cultivated proteins. Last year, the industry association the China Cellular Agriculture Forum (which includes CellX) held its first event, attended by about 30 companies.
There is government support too. Last year, China included cultivated meat and future foods in its five-year agricultural plan. And earlier this week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization collaborated with the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment to host a roundtable meeting on cultivated food production and precision fermentation. The meeting provided international stakeholders to discuss the latest developments in regulation and production, an event that CellX called “a significant milestone in the development of cultivated meat and precision fermentation in China”.
Impossible Foods has announced that its Beef Lite alternative has been certified by the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Heart-Check Food Certification Program, becoming just the second plant-based meat company to have an accredited heart-healthy product, weeks after adding Ruby Tuesday to its list of long-running F&B collaborations.
Impossible Foods’ Beef Lite – launched earlier this year – is now certified as a heart-healthy meat alternative by the AHA, a “major milestone” for the company in an era of misinformation and confusion surrounding plant-based meat.
With the certification, Impossible Foods becomes just the second alt-meat brand to be featured on the AHA list after fellow Californian plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat. The Beef Lite is the third product to be accredited with the Heart-Check mark, followed by the Beyond Steak and Crumbles range.
Impossible Foods’ Beef Lite caters to health-conscious Americans
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
“As more and more consumers are seeking to make choices that are better for themselves and for the environment, we need to make sure they understand the holistic benefits of meat from plants,” said Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness. “The Heart-Check Mark is an important validator and we’ll wear it proudly.”
Impossible Foods’ Beef Lite, which is intended to be an alternative to 90/10 lean conventional beef, has 75% less saturated fat and 45% less total fat than the latter. Plus, it features 21g of protein per serving, low saturated fat content, and no trans fats or cholesterol.
This extends to the brand’s wider portfolio, all of which contain no trans fats or cholesterol and almost no added sugars. A majority of its beef, chicken, pork and sausage analogues contain 25% less total fat and saturated fat than their conventional counterparts, with many also boasting less than 20% of the daily recommended value of sodium per serving.
It speaks to the growing focus on health within the alt-meat category. A Food Marketing Institute study last year found that 50% of Americans believed plant-based meats were healthy in 2020, but that number dropped to 38% in 2022. Marketing campaigns like Beyond Meat’s This Changes Everything have sought to dispel misconceptions about these products.
Health is a regular topic in mainstream consciousness in the US, given the alarming rise in rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes – over two-thirds (69%) of Americans are overweight and 36% are obese. But the focus on heart health is even stronger, given that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US – one American dies from cardiovascular disease every 33 seconds.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, research found that more American Gen Zers want to go vegan for their health than the environment. A 1,022-person survey by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) in May found that health is the major factor behind Americans eating vegan or vegetarian diets, with six in 10 choosing it. In terms of plant-based meat products like Impossible Foods, ‘healthy’ is the most appealing labelling description to these consumers.
Read between the clean labels
One major criticism of this sector is the often overly long ingredient lists, an aspect constantly attacked by meat lobby groups. One of these organisations, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which has run multiple ads targeting the plant-based meat industry, unveiled a commercial at the 2020 Super Bowl that featured Spelling Bee participants struggling with words like methylcellulose and propylene glycol (which it claimed were “chemicals” used for “synthetic meats”). “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t be eating it,” the ad claimed.
In response, Impossible Foods parodied this with its own advert, where a child is confused after being asked to spell “poop”. The judge goes on to explain how there’s “lots of poop in the places where pigs and chickens are chopped to pieces to make meat”, with a voiceover citing research that found 300 samples of ground beef to contain “faecal bacteria”. In a nod to the CCF’s concluding line, Impossible’s ad states: “Just because a kid can spell ‘poop’, doesn’t mean you or your kids should be eating it.”
But cleaner labels still remain a major concern. ‘Natural’ is the second-most favourable labelling description of meat alternatives for Americans, according to the IFIC survey. This is a global trend: ingredients manufacturer Ingredion has found that 78% of consumers would spend more money on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.
Impossible Foods’ Beef Lite has a larger ingredient list than the flagship beef alternative. Would that deter consumers? “Beef Lite is designed with ingredients to enhance the flavour for this application, including onion powder, garlic powder and spices,” an Impossible Foods spokesperson told Green Queen. “When evaluating a product for health, what matters most is the quality and nutritional value. The reality is that Beef Lite is a healthy and nutritious option.”
The representative compares this to the health perceptions of cereals, pointing to how whole-grain Cheerios meet the FDA’s health guidelines and are accepted as a healthy breakfast option despite having over 15 ingredients (although about 10 of those are vitamin and mineral fortifications).
Besides, Impossible Foods says the less fatty flavour profile of the leaner Beef Lite means it pairs well with dishes like chillies, tacos and pasta, and has been received positively by consumers. The company cites one review to illustrate this point: “I was excited to have a lighter option to the original to help support my health goals. I’ve used this to make a few different dishes and they’ve all turned out great. I didn’t miss the additional fat from the original at all.”
Health or taste? Impossible says both
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The alt-meat maker isn’t just banking on the health aspects of its newly certified product: taste is still paramount. A recent Mintel survey showed that nutrition is actually the second-biggest reason (35%) for Americans’ reticence to try alt-meat, after flavour (48%).
Impossible Foods’ spokesperson agrees: “Taste is the #1 reason why consumers will decide to purchase a product again or not. Many consumers have unfortunately had a less-than-positive first impression of various plant-based products, and that casts doubt on the rest of the category as a whole.”
But then, how would people respond to products marketed as ‘lite’? “We have other products in our lineup for consumers who are looking for a truly gourmet, decadent experience,” they note, pointing to the new Indulgent Burger designed “to be juicier, meatier and all-around more ‘indulgent’”.
“That said, some health-conscious consumers tend to prioritise nutrition over taste, which is why we created a product like Beef Lite,” the representative explained. Having products on both ends of the spectrum adds differentiation to its portfolio and suits a variety of consumer needs – from taste and nutrition to everyday cooking. “This allows us to better meet consumers where they are and make meat from plants feel more accessible.”
The company claims that consumers “consistently prefer” its products over competitors’ offerings. It cites multiple blind taste tests to validate this. In Chicago, 91% of the 100 meat-eating participants chose the Impossible Sausage over another leading vegan counterpart, and 71% of 105 consumers in another trial favoured its meatballs. Meanwhile, 80% of 206 Atlantans preferred its chicken nuggets and 63% of 105 people in Denver picked its beef over competitor products.
Impossible Foods’ taste tests have also extended to animal-derived meat. In a 205-participant test in Chicago, 82% of consumers said the indulgent Burger tasted as good as or better than cow-based beef. Two-thirds of 136 Americans surveyed said the same about the Impossible Sausage in a home usage trial. Meanwhile, seven in 10 Americans preferred the brand’s foodservice chicken nuggets over conventional ones, with the product scoring higher in every category, including flavour, texture and overall appearance.
There’s a clear precedent for consumers liking the company’s meat analogues. Asked if Impossible Foods planned to hone in on health in future marketing campaigns – à la Beyond Meat – the spokesperson kept details under wraps, but offered: “Marketing continues to be a focus for us as we work to bring more meat eaters into the category.”
Americans can buy Beef Lite in grocery stores nationwide, but so far, that seems to be the limit of the product’s footprint for now, with no plans to bring the product to international markets as of yet.
Building on foodservice sector in a volatile sector
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The heart-healthy certification comes just a week after Impossible added Ruby Tuesday to its foodservice roster. It will be the largest US chain to carry Impossible Foods’ gourmet Indulgent Burger, which will appear on the menu at all 214 Ruby Tuesday locations nationwide.
It extends the plant-based giant’s exemplary record of foodservice partnerships. Impossible Foods has long-running collaborations with American chef David Chang (seven years), hamburger chain White Castle (five years), Burger King, Starbucks (four years each) and Disney (three years).
It’s a great streak, and the company will hope to have similar success with Ruby Tuesday. Until December 26, diners can get the Impossible Indulgent Burger with a side of tater tots or fries for $6.99 as part of the restaurant’s Tuesday Daily Deal – marking an affordable way to get your hands on a premium plant-based meat product.
The category itself has been in turmoil recently, hit hard by a combination of Covid-19 after-effects, supply chain disruptions, the cost-of-living crisis, and low investor confidence. According to insights firm Circana, retail sales of meat alternatives declined by 12.6% to $106.8M in the five weeks to July 2, 2023, with units down by 19.8% year-on-year. And for the year to July 2, 2023, sales declined by 7.3% year-on-year, while units saw a 15.6% fall.
It has meant that some companies have folded, while others have suffered revenue losses. Just this week, Beyond Meat announced a 26.5% decline in quarterly sales in Q3, following a 30% year-on-year fall last quarter. There have been a bunch of layoffs too, including at mycelium meat maker Meati, and multiple times at both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods itself, which laid off 20% of its workforce (132 employees) in February, after a 6% cut last October.
But McGuinness told AFN in September that the company’s retail performance is strong: “In the 52-week Nielsen [data], we’re still growing high single-digit, low double-digit in retail, which is great. We have a 50% repeat [purchase rate]… so every two people we get to try our product, one repeats, which is quite strong.”
“Impossible is doing its part to introduce meat from plants that rivals the animal and as a result, we’re responsible for driving a majority of the category’s growth,” the company’s spokesperson told Green Queen. “However, we need to increase the availability of products that taste as good or better than their animal counterparts across the category. Doing so will increase the probability that a consumer will have a positive experience and turn a sceptic into a believer.”
There have been a host of developments in the cultivated pet food sector of late, headlined by Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies earning the first EU regulatory approval for the use of cultured meat in pet food.
Prague-based Bene Meat has become the EU’s first cultivated meat company to be cleared for sale in pet food after receiving approval from the European Feed Materials Register. The milestone is the latest development in the burgeoning cultured pet food sector, which has witnessed new tech, new brands, as well as rebrands.
Bene Meat becomes the first to receive EU regulatory approval
Courtesy: Bene Meat Technologies
The Czech startup was founded in 2020 to make cultivated meat for human consumption but has pivoted to pet food for now, providing cultured meat as a raw material to global pet food manufacturers. It has been developing its own FBS-free growth factors since 2021, and now plans to boost production to produce several tonnes of cell-cultured meat daily by mid-2024.
“Thanks to the obtained certification, nothing prevents us from taking further steps,” said Tomáš Kubeš, Bene Meat’s head of strategic projects. “We’re negotiating with feed manufacturers to get this wonderful product into production.” Its tech can be adapted according to manufacturers’ requirements, offering an ingredient that can be fully used in the making of any pet food product.
“We look forward to working with manufacturers, as we’re doing it for them and their customers,” added managing director Roman Kříž. “Manufacturers have a unique chance to gain an unprecedented competitive advantage in the market, thanks to the existence of our product.”
Kříž told Reuters that Bene Meat is the first company globally “that has an official authorisation for the production and sale of cultivated meat for cats and dogs”. He added that the startup is able to scale up its manufacturing at prices that make its meat commercially viable on par with premium and super-premium pet food products.
Bene Meat is emerging in a market with strong acceptance of cell-cultured pet food. A Czech survey by NMS Market Research found that 48% of citizens prefer cultivated meat in pet food for health and safety reasons, while 27% cited ethical and ecological factors as purchasing drivers for cultured meat for their furry friends.
The startup now plans to test how the meat tastes to pets, and will scale up production in its Prague lab as well as a new facility it’s on the lookout for. Bene Meat expects to introduce the first cultured meat for pet food in the EU in early 2024.
Meatly takes on the UK
Courtesy: Meatly
Another company planning to launch cultivated pet food in Europe – starting with its home market in the UK – is Meatly. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s because this is the new name of the startup formerly known as Good Dog Food.
The company, which raised £3.5M in seed funding earlier this year, has just rebranded as it prepares to launch in the UK. Its chairman Jim Melon, executive director of Agronomics – who created the startup in collaboration with Roslin Technologies – has previously said that it would be easier to earn regulatory approval for cultured meat for the pet industry, rather than for human consumption.
Meatly was only launched last year, and makes cultivated chicken by “taking a sample of cells from a chicken egg just once”. It has already secured “key partnerships with manufacturers” – including with petcare retailer Pets at Home – to get its pet food on shelves soon.
“Our pets love meat, but old-fashioned meat – produced through factory farming – requires a huge amount of land, water, and antibiotics and is a key cause of environmental degradation,” said Meatly CEO Owen Ensor. “We need cultivated meat now more than ever. Pet food is the natural starting point, given consumers’ excitement. We’re thrilled to be at the heart of the future of meat production in the UK.”
A kinder seafood brand for pets
Courtesy: Marina Cat
More recent developments include the formation of Marina Cat, a cultivated pet food brand born out of a collaboration between Canada’s Cult Food Science and Singapore-based cultured seafood producer Umami Bioworks.
Marina Cat will combine Umami’s cultivated red ocean snapper and Cult’s patented nutritional yeast ingredient, Bmmune, to make a “high-protein, low-calorie” feline treat that “provides benefits to a cat’s cognitive function, based on its high levels of omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acid chains”.
The startup aims to begin production this year, and expects its product to have widespread availability in 2024. “My vision for the future is that we no longer have to slaughter other animals to feed our cats,” said Joshua Errett, Cult’s VP of product. “This brand brings me one very great step closer to making that a reality.”
The AI opportunity
Courtesy: BioCraft Pet Nutrition
More recently, Vienna-based BioCraft Pet Nutrition (formerly Because Animals) unveiled its proprietary AI and machine learning tool to accelerate R&D for optimal cell proliferation and nutrient production. The tool processes publicly available data and synthesises it into “a picture of the biochemical machinery inside a cell”. It then analyses the data to identify nutritional inputs that can enhance cell growth, nutrient biosynthesis, or other biological processes key to cultivated meat production.
“The main costs and time sinks on the way to commercialization are R&D-related, and our AI has substantially streamlined this process, accelerated our progress, and reduced costs,” said BioCraft founder and CEO Shannon Falconer. “In this application, AI can surpass the human brain for speed and efficiency, and helps us derive more complex conclusions by making more connections between more facts.”
This came a few months after BioCraft had developed a chicken cell line for both cat and dog food, with the cultured chicken ingredient containing all essential nutrients found in conventional pet food, including high protein content, key vitamins, fats and amino acids like taurine.
With the help of AI, BioCraft – which has previously unveiled cell-based mice meat – is engaging in fewer, more targeted experiments, to fine-tune its cell proliferation process and improve the health credentials of its meat. Additionally, it can identify less expensive inputs and ingredients, including those less likely to raise regulatory concerns. (So far, no company has received approval from the US Centre for Veterinary Medicine.)
Why alternative pet food is crucial
Courtesy: Bene Meat Technologies
Pet food is a $144B market and one that’s set to grow annually by 5.3% until 2028. But the industry carries a massive environmental burden. In the US alone, for example, manufacturing cat and dog kibble is equivalent to 25-30% of all animal-consumption-related emissions. And globally, dog and cat food emit around 64 million tons of carbon per year – that’s the equivalent of over 13 million cars.
In fact, according to one study, if cats and dogs were considered their own nation, they would rank as the world’s fifth-largest meat-consuming entity. Moreover, health is an increasing priority for humans, and the continued humanisation of pets has led to a crossover of habits.
This is where cultured pet food comes in. A 729-person study last year found that while 32.5% of Brits would be willing to eat cultivated meat themselves, they’d be more willing to feed it to their pets (47.3%). Of those who would try these proteins themselves, 81.4% would be happy to give them to their four-legged friends.
A recent study exploring the environmental impact of vegan pets can provide an insight into the climate-friendly nature of cultured pet food too. The research suggested that if all dogs and cats went plant-based globally, it could help feed nearly 520 million people, save more greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those produced by entire nations, and free up land the size of several countries.
Further research found that vegan diets can be just as healthy for cats as meat-based ones, shedding the ‘obligate carnivores’ universally associated with felines. It followed another study published last year that found that vegan diets are the healthiest and least hazardous choice for dogs.
In fact, vegan cat food is a $9.2B market that’s expected to nearly double by 2030, while the vegan dog food market is currently valued at £11.5bn ($14.1B), and projected to reach £21bn ($25.8B) by 2033, according to the Guardian.
All the signs are there for the continued growth of alternative pet food, a category that also includes brands like Wild Earth (cell-based dog food) and Bond Pet Foods (cultured chicken for dogs and cats). These latest developments – notably the approval in the EU – are major markers of what’s to come for this sector.
Nūmi, a French startup making breast milk from cell-cultured mammary glands, has raised €3M in pre-seed funding to expand its R&D and recruit new scientists. It plans to file for regulatory approval in the US first, followed by Europe and Asia.
Founded in 2022 by duo Eugénie Pezé-Heidsieck and Eden Banon-Lagrange, Nūmi makes cultivated breast milk using mammary gland cell cultures, in a process it claims “strictly imitates the phenomenon already at work in women’s bodies”. The startup recreates the optimal environment for the development of mammary glands and feeds them with essential nutrients to produce breast milk for infants.
Its €3M pre-seed funding round included support from Heartcore Capital, HCVC, Financière Saint-James, Kima Ventures and Kost Capital. “We are passionate advocates for transformative innovation at the nexus of health and food manufacturing,” said Alexis Hossou, founder and managing partner of HCVC. “Nūmi stands as a prime example of this, with their technology poised to revolutionise accessibility to breastmilk for millions of women globally and advance human health in unprecedented ways.”
Pezé-Heidsieck, Nūmi’s chief technology officer, said the investment will enable the startup to “recruit the best talents for this ambitious project”. In addition to expanding its scientific team, the company aims to use the new funds to further its R&D capabilities and make progress toward regulatory approval and commercialisation.
Keeping its cultivated cards close to the chest
Courtesy: Nūmi
Nūmi, which was formerly called MUMilk, argues that current substitutes to breast milk – mainly based on cow’s milk – aren’t “nutritionally suited to the growth of infants”. Plus, many babies are intolerant to proteins found in dairy, which can further complicate things. The company says that breast milk’s unique composition means it can boost immunity, regulate metabolism, and aid in brain development.
About 5-10% of women are physiologically unable to breastfeed, but many more say they’re not producing enough or have nutritional deficiencies in their milk. In the US, less than half of women continue to exclusively breastfeed after three months, and only a quarter keep doing so at six months, which is the recommended period by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In 2019, a study of 552 mothers found that about 70% experienced breastfeeding difficulties (mostly within the first month) like “cracked nipples, perception of insufficient amount of milk, pain and fatigue”. Many women also choose not to breastfeed, and Nūmi hopes to cater to all these mothers with its tech, providing them with a solution that is “as close as possible” to human breast milk.
According to the team, breast milk comprises over 1,500 constituents and Nūmi is looking to replicate as many of these as it can. While some alternative breast milk startups have initially focused on specific proteins – for example, Israel’s Wilk makes cell-cultured lactoferrin and Helaina produces a precision-fermented version of the same – Pezé-Heidsieck told Green Queen Nūmi is “working towards reproducing as many constituents of breast milk as possible, including different proteins”.
Pezé-Heidsieck declined to disclose specifics about which exact proteins the company is working on, the formulation or the composition of the rest of the milk, or whether the cultivated proteins would be complemented by plant-based ingredients. The company remains tight-lipped on a number of matters as it navigates a “key stage of development”. While Pezé-Heidsieck confirmed that Nūmi has developed different sourcing strategies to develop its cell lines, she didn’t go into detail here either.
Aiming for US regulatory approval before global expansion
Co-founders Eden Banon-Lagrange (L) and and Eugénie Pezé-Heidsieck (R); courtesy: Nūmi
Before it’s ready for infant use, Nūmi’s breast milk needs to be purified. “Dowstream processing to harvest and purity our cultivated breast milk is a key step of our R&D. We have developed different strategies to best purify breast milk and its constituents,” Pezé-Heidsieck revealed, but added: “It constitutes part of our intellectual property, and until we have filed our patents, we can’t share more information.”
CEO Banon-Lagrange said the team has “enthusiastic first results in our lab”, but can’t share a comparison with conventional breast milk at the moment. “Our goal using cell culture techniques is to bring as many high-value constituents of breast milk, accessible to all,” she added.
But one thing Nūmi was happy to talk about was its go-to-market plans. “The US is our first target market as they have developed a clear regulatory framework for innovations like ours,” said Banon-Lagrange. “We believe Europe will follow and would like to make our product accessible to European families as well as soon as possible.”
While the US will be the first country Nūmi will file for regulatory approval in, the CEO hinted at further expansion past North America and Europe: “We believe the Asian market will be an interesting opportunity for us.”
The idea is to become a trailblazer in this space across the globe. “The support of major investors in new technologies supports our ambition to become a leader in this sector,” noted Banon-Lagrange. “All families want to give their children the best: we want to help them achieve this, thanks to science.”
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 host of plant-based dairy news, a bunch of awards and a Chilean vegan pizza collab.
New products and launches
Ahead of the launch of its Series A funding round – as exclusively revealed by Green Queen – Californian alt-honey startup MeliBio has entered the D2C segment with its Mellody plant-based honey, which is available for pre-order now. It’s priced at $19.99 for a 340g bottle and will ship out in January.
Courtesy: MeliBio
Weeks after being spotted at Whole Foods in the US, Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat brand Juicy Marbles has officially appeared on the shelves of Whole Foods stores in the UK with its filet mignon.
London-hosted Plant Based World Europe (November 15-16) will see a host of gourmet brands unveiling their plant-based creations, including Dream Farm’s vegan mozzarella balls, Purezza’s stracciatella, Aberyne Foi Green and Isauki Seafood’s plant-based alternative to baby eels, a Spanish delicacy.
Speaking of Spain, vegan cheese brand Väcka and mycelium meat startupLibre Foods have begun a Veggie Burger Warriors campaign offering plant-based burgers in eateries from November 6-12, which feature the former’s pumpkin Cheddar and the latter’s bacon. The aim is to find the best vegan burger in Spain.
One company that won’t make more vegan burgers anytime soon, though, is Burger King, which is one of the leading fast-food chains for its inclusivity of plant-based food. In an interview with Bloomberg, its parent company’s CEO Josh Kobza said that the demand for plant-based was stable, but the chain will focus on core offerings in the US for the foreseeable future.
Vegan fast-food chain Neat Burger, however, has been expanding rapidly. It has collaborated with influencer Clare Every (The Little London Vegan) and vegan health inequality charity Made in Hackney to launch a Kimchi Crunch Burger featuring TiNDLE’s chicken patty. All burgers sold in November, which is World Vegan Month, will see £1 donated to Made in Hackney.
Courtesy: Neat Burger
Another influencer making waves in the plant-based food industry is Mi-Lyung Cho, whose Korean vegan food enterprise INSTELLA has launched a Veggie Dynamite ramen SKU under its flagship Playful Foodie brand. It will be available on Amazon in the US this November.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong vegetarian fast-food eateryWOW Burger has unveiled a range of plant-based bowls in Katsu, Mediterranean and Korean variants, which use its chicken, lamb and beef alternatives, respectively.
In the US, vegan brand Abbot’s Butcher has extended its partnership with FireRoad Foods to launch plant-based egg cups using Abbot’s pea protein chorizo and FireRoad’s mung bean egg.
Elsewhere, fresh off a $33.5M Series B fundraiser, US-cultivated seafood maker BlueNalu has inked an MoU with Saudi Arabia’s planned urban development Neom to commercialise, market, and distribute the former’s cell-cultured seafood. Neom revealed that it was the lead investor in BlueNalu’s Series B round, injecting $20M.
UK-cultivated meat company Ivy Farm has roped in biotech and biopharma expert Dr Harsh Amin to deliver its R&D strategy and scale-up plans for commercialisation.
In the ingredients space, Ingredion has debuted Novation Indulge 2940, a functional gelling starch made from native corn for application in dairy and alternatives like yogurts, puddings and cheeses.
Meanwhile, on the heels of its University of Cambridge partnership, US upcycled food producerThe Supplant Company has now released desserts using its Supplant Sugars from Fibre ingredient at the University of California, Los Angeles. The desserts concocted by UCLA chefs will contain up to 50% less sugar, 30% fewer calories and eight times more fibre than those with regular sugar.
Courtesy: NotCo/Melt Pizzas
In Chile, vegan food brand NotCo has collaborated with restaurant chain Melt Pizzas to release two plant-based pizzas with the former’s NotCheese mozzarella alternative. The two varieties are called Pesto Margherita and the Vegan Veggie, and there’s 20% off until November 12.
Research and markets
The above is probably a shrewd move, given there’s been a 45% yearly increase in the amount of vegan food delivery orders on Uber Eats in Chile, according to a study by the delivery giant and Veganuary.
Eating a more plant-forward Mediterranean diet can help reduce body fat and prevent muscle loss in older adults, according to a new peer-reviewed study analysing 1,521 individuals.
In the UK, corporate finance advisor Oghma Partners published a report saying that interest in cultivated meat has skyrocketed as the industry looks to scale and become more viable, but a shakeout akin to that of plant-based meat is likely and could see key players consolidate.
Meanwhile, New York-based biomanufacturing development platform Synonym has released an updated State of Global Fermentation report, which covers production costs for specific elements and at certain scales, production capacities in each region, and predicted demand.
In other news, a sea lice outbreak on an Icelandic salmon farm has been labelled as an “animal welfare disaster” by a vet, who was reacting to images of “severely diseased, dead and dying salmon” obtained by the Guardian.
A drone investigation by animal advocacy group Mercy For Animals has found that drinking water in parts of Wisconsin has traces of nitrates and E. coli, as a result of manure from dairy cow farms seeping into the water supply of the nearby residential areas.
It’s probably a good thing then that plant-based dairy holds the highest market share for vegan food, according to a new report by Research and Markets. But egg alternatives are set to have the highest growth rate per year.
Policy and manufacturing
Staying in the alt-dairy realm, Chinese fermentation startup Changing Bio has raised the largest alt-protein investment in the country this year with a 104M RMB ($14.2M) Series A+ round, following its record-breaking $22M Series A fundraiser last year. Its microbial yeast protein was featured in a whipping cream and parmesan powder unveiled earlier this year.
Meanwhiel, food giant Danone has put a €2 price cap on the price of its Alpro oat and almond milks in Belgium, which means a price cut of 20-40% depending on the retailer.
In neighbouring Netherlands, the municipalities of Bloemendaal and Utrecht have voted to ban meat and dairy advertising in public spaces like billboards, posters, and other ad spots. The ban also includes fossil fuel-dependent products.
Courtesy: Changing Markets Foundation
Speaking of ads, US sustainability campaigner Changing Markets Foundation commissioned ad agency Nice and Serious to design a marketing campaign calling out Nestlé’s lack of methane commitments. No newspaper approached wanted to run it, so maybe social media could help?
Meanwhile, Sweden’s Veg of Lund – maker of DUG potato milk – has filed for a patent in the country for plant-based red and white meat, which could add to its current patents for milk in Europe, US and Canada, and smoothies, ice cream and cream in its home nation.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Food Industry Research and Development Institute has opened a Plant Milk Research and Development Center to develop alt-milk products with drinks brand Ah Zh Wei. It is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is already working on vegan meat alternatives.
In sadder news, US plant-based dairy pioneer Miyoko’s Creamery has closed its Petaluma, Sonoma County factory headquarters and switched to a co-manufacturer, a move that has seen between 40 to 50 employees lose their jobs.
Courtesy: Atlantic Fish Co.
Fellow US company Atlantic Fish Co., which makes cultivated seafood focused on overfished species, has been awarded a Small Business Research loan by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Also in the US, meat giant Tyson Foods has recalled nearly 30,000 lbs of its dino chicken nuggets due to fears of contamination with metal pieces. The USDA says there has been one minor oral injury associated with the consumption of Tyson’s nuggets.
ADM has partnered with climate tech startup Solugen to improve the production of plant-based organic acids. To do so, ADM will build a 500,000 ft manufacturing facility adjacent to its corn complex to scale up Solugen’s unique chemoenzymatic process.
And in the EU, the think tank EIT Food has released policy recommendations for protein diversification for a healthier and more sustainable food system that’s less reliant on animal agriculture.
Media and awards
Still waiting for your favourite podcasts to release their new episode? Add another to your list. VegTech Invest has launched an Upside & Impact, a twice-monthly impact investment podcast available on the NYSE’s website ETF Central.
Weeks after the launch of a cultured meat book, there’s another one. Cultivated Meat to Secure Our Future – edited by animal rights advocates Michel Vandenbosch and Philip Lymbery, with a foreword from KindEarth.Tech co-founder Ira van Eelen, daughter of cultured meat pioneer Willem van Eelen – features essays celebrating the progress and discussing the challenges facing the industry.
Speaking of which, South Africa’s Newform Foods (formerly Mzansi Meat) was named a regional winner and overall runner-up in the Green Tech category at the Global Startup Awards Africa in Addis Ababa.
Courtesy: Newform Foods
Australian plant-based meat company v2food, meanwhile, won an InnovationAus 2023 Award for Excellence in the Food and Agritech category for its meat alternative. The startup exhibited its bleeding burger ingredient at SXSW Sydney last month.
At last week’s Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, seafood giant Thai Union named UK seaweed startup Oceanium as the winner of its Innovation Challenge to support the SeaChange 2030 Sustainability Strategy.
In more awards news, V-Labelannounced its 2023 International V-Label Awards winners on World Vegan Day (November 1). These included Heura, TiNDLE, Lidl’s Vemondo, Desserto and Plenty Reasons, among others, in four categories.
Finally, UK vegan dog food brand The Pack has announced that it is now a Certified B Corp, becoming Europe’s first plant-based pet food startup to do so.
Weeks after opening its D2C online marketplace, Colorado-based mycelium meat startup Meati has expanded its line of meat alternatives with new vegan chicken nuggets and spiced takes on its existing steaks and cutlets. The brand has also released two bundles in time for the holidays.
In September, Meati opened its new webstore, where it promised to offer never-seen-before products through a subscription service, allowing customers to give feedback. Now, it is launching four new SKUs and two bundles to mark the holiday period.
Meati’s current lineup includes chicken cutlets (regular and crispy), steaks (classic and carne asada) and jerkies made from its MushroomRoot ingredient. Now, it’s entering the crowded plant-based chicken nugget market with Crispy Bites, and adding spiced and herby twists to its existing portfolio with a Garlic & Pepper Steak, Spicy Crispy Cutlet and Italian Seasoned Cutlet.
As for the holiday bundles, The Merry Mixer includes the four original cutlets and steaks plus the four new products in Meati’s portfolio that adds up to 19 servings, with a $99 price tag. The Fresh Five contains the Crispy Bites, the three new cutlets and steak, and the jerky in 23 services, which will set you back $119.
The Crispy Bites are available as a standalone on its marketplace starting today, with a 1lb bag prices at $25 and giant 5lb bag at $135. The other three new products are available as part of the bundles on the webshop, and can be purchased individually from December. Alongside the online store, these products will also make their way into retail locations, with consumer feedback key to informing Meati’s R&D for new products.
“We’re looking forward to hearing reactions to each of these products geared toward convenient nutrition and the simple idea that flavour, nutrition and ease of cooking can be of equal prominence at the table,” said Meati president and COO Scott Tassani.
The products are touted to have an “extraordinary nutritional profile” including high protein and fibre content thanks to the mycelium base. Last month, Meati shared results from an AI-led study into the health benefits of its MushroomRoot ingredient, revealing that it contains some “exceedingly rare/non-existent” compounds in food that present “pointed” health benefits that could address “prevalent nutritional deficiencies” and enhance “cardiovascular health”.
“We knew MushroomRoot was nutrient-dense based on our early research to find a species ideal for food,” said Meati co-founder and CSO Justin Whiteley. “However, we did not know exactly what benefits we could claim to make it easier for consumers to understand why it is unique.”
Whiteley added that the goal is to “crystallise what health benefits are yielded by regularly consuming Meati”, and sharing this information with Meati’s customers: “Ultimately, we want to make claims about specific benefits, short- and long-term, addressing specific health needs and also overall health and longevity.”
“It’s easy for nutrition to fall by the wayside in favour of convenience and flavour when consumers are constantly on the go,” said Tassani. “Like all Meati products, Crispy Bites, Spicy Crispy Cutlet, Garlic & Black Pepper Steak and Italian Seasoned Cutlet are designed to make it turnkey to enjoy nutrient-rich and convenient meals that fit a range of taste preferences.”
Meati’s focus on health mirrors that of other plant-based meat companies as consumers prioritise taste and health over other factors when it comes to eating or avoiding plant-based meat. Beyond Meat’s latest ad campaign, for example, zeroes in on the heart-healthy aspect of its Beyond Steak.
