4Mins Read BioBetter has revealed it is using tobacco plants to drive down costs associated with cultivated meat production. Citing scaled production as the remaining big obstacle for the industry, the startup has identified a way to harness tobacco plants. For the good of human and planetary health, BioBetter is using them to create growth factors essential […]
17Mins Read A few weeks, I sat down (via Zoom) with Chris Kerr to talk about the alternative protein industry. Chris is the founding partner and Chief Investment Officer at Unovis Capital Management and their early-stage venture capital fund New Crop Capital to. Their investment thesis revolves around identifying companies that are successfully creating products that can […]
4Mins Read Germany’s PHW group, one of the largest poultry producers in Europe, has confirmed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Israel-based SuperMeat. It formalises a joint goal of bringing cultivated poultry products to European consumers. Chicken, duck and turkey have been specifically cited for future manufacture. The two food producers will combine their […]
5Mins Read DigitalFoodLab has released its annual State Of The European FoodTech Ecosystem report. Key highlights include 2021 being a record year for total investment, median funding amounts, and number of deals secured. Globally, Europe now holds 20 percent of the food tech sector, up from 12 percent in 2021. Main drivers for growth include grocery delivery […]
12Mins Read Expo West, which is held in March in Los Angeles at the Anaheim Convention Center, boasted over 2,700 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees filling the venue’s 480,000 square feet. It’s the largest natural food tradeshow in the U.S., and Green Queen was on the ground. As I walked the Expo West aisles, alt protein seemed to […]
3Mins Read Bangkok’s Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) has announced its new partnership with Israel’s Future Meat. The partnership brings together one of the world’s largest agro-industrial food conglomerates and a leader in the cultivated meat scene. The two will co-create a line of hybrid cultivated meat aimed squarely at the Asian market. CPF will leverage its reach […]
5Mins Read Founded in 2020 by a former New Zealand dairy executive and an Israeli food tech innovator, molecular farming startup Miruku has unveiled its animal-free dairy mission as part of a $2.4 million seed round announcement. Miruku, which has been operating in stealth until now, is Asia Pacific’s first molecular farming dairy company and is one […]
3Mins Read Alife Foods has unveiled its first cultivated meat prototype, a schnitzel (breaded cutlet) made in collaboration with LabFarmFoods and the Fuchs Group. The product is currently undergoing taste trials and sensory evaluations. The company hopes to present a fully realised prototype to investors by year-end and become known as the ‘cultured schnitzel company’ after releasing […]
3Mins Read The Netherlands’ House of Representatives has just passed a motion to make cultivated meat samples legal. Dutch cell-based startups have heralded the move as significant progress towards regulatory approval. The D66 and VVD democratic political parties proposed the motion. Formal acceptance of cultivated technology in the Netherlands adds pressure on other countries to define their […]
3Mins Read California’s MeliBio has closed a successful seed round with $5.7 million invested for its bee-less honey made without bees led by Astanor Ventures, with some existing backers doubling down and new names coming on board. Funding will be used to scale its proprietary precision fermentation technology for manufacturing the company’s honey without bees and to […]
5Mins Read Israel’s alternative protein sector has experienced its biggest investment year on record. $623 million was raised last year, representing a 450 percent increase on 2020’s $114 million. It secured Israel the second spot on the global investment leaderboard. New Good Food Institute Israel (GFI Israel) data highlight growth across all sectors. Previous startups are shown […]
3Mins Read The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA) announced its launch this week as a new coalition with a mission to offer member companies developing cultivated meat and seafood access to shared information. Its key priorities include interacting with consumers, building knowledge and acceptance and developing straightforward regulatory frameworks. In a joint statement by APAC-SCA’s management committee, […]
4Mins Read Hong Kong startup Good Food Technologies, which makes plant-based pork meat, has announced the closure of an oversubscribed HK$12 million (approx. US$1.5 million) seed round led by pan-Asian VC Gobi Partners, in their first investment into the alternative protein sector, with further participation from LeverVC, DayDayCook and Brinc. Good Food manufactures plant-based products designed for […]
4Mins Read Montreal-based Opalia (previously Bettermilk) is creating cell-based milk, without the use of Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS). The startup has already secured $1million in pre-seed funding, with a seed round now in progress for continued R&D and projected scaling costings. Opalia uses all the functional components of milk to create its cultivated version, which it does […]
3Mins Read Californian plant-based meat pioneer Impossible Foods is expanding its reach in Australia and New Zealand with retail distribution secured Woolworths and Countdown supermarkets. Consumers will now be able to purchase the world famous meat analogue directly from shop shelves. The brand made inroads in November last year, securing foodservice partnerships in both countries. Two of […]
4Mins Read Israeli foodtech SuperMeat, whose cultivated chicken a food expert called indistinguishable from the animal version, has announced a strategic partnership with Japanese food giant Ajinomoto. The two plan to work together to speed up and improve the development of cultivated meat products. This marks Ajinomoto’s first move into cellular agriculture, with the biotech investing in […]
4Mins Read Buenos Aires-based Stämm Biotech recently closed a $17 million Series A round to scale its 3-D printing bioreactors aimed at the global cultivated meat sector. This brings the startup’s funding to $20 million. The new investment will be used to double the company’s headcount and refine its micro-fluidic bioreactor developments. The smaller bioreactors could reduce […]
3Mins Read Vienna-based Arkeon Biotechnologies has announced the closure of an oversubscribed seed round. The startup secured more than $7 million in the raise, which Square One Foods, Synthesis Capital and ReGen Ventures participated in. Investment will be diverted to significant scaling-up of CO2-derived protein production capacity, continued process engineering and commercial product development. Arkeon claims to […]
3Mins Read Impossible Foods and Motif Foodworks are the latest plant-based meat manufacturers to be meeting in court. The former has filed a lawsuit accusing Motif of IP infringement, connected to its patented ‘heme’ ingredient. Impossible is seeking damages and injunctive relief in the lawsuit it has filed against Motif. Impossible gained a patent for its heme […]
3Mins Read Mzansi Meat, the African continent’s first cellular agriculture startup, has announced that it has successfully produced a cultivated beef burger after two years of research and development. The burger will make its debut was made at a bespoke event net month. “This is a huge milestone for South Africa and Africa,” co-founder and CFO Tasneem […]
3Mins Read California’s Upside Foods, which has pioneered cultivated meat in the U.S, has announced that it is inviting consumers to tour around its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in Emeryville as a way to educate the public about its products. Cellular agriculture alternatives to conventional meat remains shrouded in mystery for many and Upside hopes […]
3Mins Read Two fungi-based alternative meat manufacturers are accusing each other of legal transgressions. Colorado-based Meati Foods, founded in 2015, claims that a former employee went to work for California’s The Better Meat Co, founded in 2018, taking a proprietary mycelium harvesting technique with them. In turn, Better is accusing Meati of undermining its IP in order […]
Not every alt protein cream cheese is made equal and that’s a great thing!
If you poll every one of your friends on what their favorite cream cheese is, you will not get anywhere near consensus. There’s an array of choices on the market these days from mild to tangy, spreadable to whipped, and savory to sweet. Not all cream cheese is made equal, so why should it be any different when it comes to alt protein cream cheese?
To prove I’m right, I tried as many different kinds as I could get my taste buds on. Tough job I know, but I’m just the gal for it! Not one cream cheese on this list is 100% like the other, which is exactly how it should be since you have your dairy-free, animal-free, fermentation-based, nut-based, hemp-based…. Clearly, gone are the days when the only vegan cream cheese option was Tofutti and I, for one, am pretty psyched about that. So even if you don’t agree with my reviews, I hope you will be inspired to branch out of your cream cheese comfort zone and try something new.
Editor’s Note: Some of the below products and brands are very new to the market and are only available at select retail and/or online locations in the U.S., and these can change frequently. Please check with the brand website for the most up to date information.
Source: Modern Kitchen
1) Modern Kitchen’s Animal Free Cream Cheese Spread ($30/3 pack)
Being a huge fan of everything Perfect Day, I was really excited to get a sneak taste of Modern Kitchen’s line of animal-free cream cheese.
Unless you live under a rock, you already know how Perfect Day revolutionized the alt protein industry with its bio-identical dairy proteins made via precision fermentation. You may be familiar with their ice cream sold under The Urgent Company brand. But what you may not know is that Perfect Day’s 2nd animal-free dairy brand, Modern Kitchen has launched a line of cream cheese currently selling DTC. It is the first animal-free dairy cream cheese on the market and how can it not be perfect, pun intended, when it’s dairy cream cheese, right? Well, spoiler alert, it is perfect. You get the exact same mouthfeel you get from eating dairy cream cheese down to the flavor and texture, aka how creamy and spreadable it is. If you’re someone who doesn’t want to have to sacrifice one iota in taste when it comes to your plant-based eating habits, this is most definitely the cream cheese for you. It’s animal-free, in other words, guilt-free with the same great cream cheese taste we all know and love.
Modern Kitchen’s cream cheese comes in three flavors: Spring Onion & Chive, Harissa Pepper, and Strawberry – and I tried them all. I really thought Spring Onion & Chive would be my favorite, but I was impressed with the other two flavors too. The Harissa Pepper cream cheese has just the perfect amount of spiciness to allow the pepper flavor to really come through and win over folks who can’t handle spicy foods like me. And then there’s Strawberry. I mean I love strawberries and I love cream cheese so match made in heaven truly. This strawberry cream cheese has got me thinking of all types of baking possibilities, like a vegan warm butter cake or a strawberry cheesecake.
I will say that I feel these guys should be in a category of their own because it’s almost unfair to compare animal-free dairy with plant-based dairy. It’s also really important to underline that if someone has a dairy or they allergy, this product will not be suitable for them.
Bonus Points: Modern Kitchen has really cool and innovative packaging- I love the vibrant green, orange and red colors, which will definitely stand out from the sea of whiteness on the supermarket shelves. Typically, cream cheese packaging is mainly white because cream cheese is, well, white. Not very imaginative if you ask me.
Cons: This is definitely the priciest of all the options on the list. Plus, they don’t currently offer an original plain version but hopefully that’s in the works.
Overall Score:10 out 10
Source: Nature’s Fynd
2) Nature’s Fynd Dairy Free Cream Cheese ($5.49)
I was really looking forward to trying Nature’s Fynd. The fact that they make plant-based food using NASA-inspired technology and volcanic microbes from Yellowstone makes the sci-fi nerd in jump up for joy. They currently have 2 flavors out: Original and Chive & Onion and I tried both.
Nature’s Fynd cream cheese is smooth, creamy, and tangy. It is a very very close second runner-up, which says a lot since it’s 100% plant-based. The Original is cheesy with a nice tang and you can really taste both the chive and onion in the Chive & Onion. It’s fungi-based and made via fermentation, aka the same process that’s been used for centuries to make all real dairy cheese.
Ingredients: Dairy-Free FyTM Milk (Water, Nutritional Fungi Protein), Coconut Oil, Sugar, Contains less than 2% of Mushroom Extract, Salt, Lactic Acid, Guar Gum, Cultures.
Bonus Points: Nature’s Fynd is allergen-free since it’s not made with any nuts or soy, and Fy is grown using a fraction of land, water, and energy of traditional protein sources.
Cons: if you don’t like your cream cheese with a pronounced tangyness, this may not be the one for you.
Overall Score:9 out 10
Source: Upfield
3) Violife 100% Vegan Just Like Original Cream Cheese ($5.99)
Violife is one of the biggest plant-based players, especially since it was acquired by Upfield, so their line of cream cheese is readily available and much easier to find in stores. As a fan of Violife’s Epic Mature Cheddar, I was expecting to love their cream cheese just as much, and indeed love it, I did! A little back story to explain why.
Being born and raised in Brazil, my first experience eating cream cheese was when I was nine years old on a trip to the US with my parents. We were at the airport with a friend of my mom’s and her daughter and had some time to kill before boarding the plane back to Brazil, se we decided to grab a bite. This was back in the day when there were no fancy eateries at airports and the only option was your regular old-fashioned diner. I sat next to my mom’s friend’s daughter on the counter and when her bagel with cream cheese came I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I had never seen a bagel either. Long story short, she said I couldn’t leave the US without trying it and so I did. The bagel was toasted and warm, topped with a thick layer of slightly melting cream cheese on both sides. It had a very mild but distinct cheese flavor that reminded me of Brazilian requeijão, only richer and creamier. I remember the taste of that bite vividly to this day and it’s the standard by which I judge all cream cheeses. Violife cream cheese tastes just like that, it has the mouthfeel of traditional old-fashioned Philadelphia cream cheese. It spreads nicely on the bagel giving you that thick creamy layer that takes me back to when I was nine years old eating it for the first time. Fair warning, if you like your cream cheese with a lot of tang, you may not enjoy it as much as I did.
The Violife cream cheese range includes Just Like Cream Cheese Original, Just Like Cream Cheese with Chives, Just Like Cream Cheese Garlic & Herbs, Just Like Cream Cheese Cheddar, and Just Like Cream Cheese Strawberry.
Grounded Foods cream cheese only comes in one flavor currently, Onion & Chives, but I am told by co-founder Veronica Fil that a plain/original version is due out this year. It’s got the creaminess texture you want and it’s slightly tangy, but not off the charts tangy, just enough to make it the opposite of mild in flavor. For comparison’s sake, it lands somewhere between Nature’s Fynd and Violife on the tanginess scale. Grounded Foods cream cheese was my favorite for a long while, but with so many new players in the alt protein cream cheese scene, I have to give it a slightly lower ranking. It may no longer be #1 but it’s certainly still among my top 3.
Bonus Points: This vegan cream cheese is allergen-free, since it doesn’t contain any nuts or soy, and it’s the only vegan cream cheese made with hemp. I also dig the sleek classy look of their black & white packaging.
Cons: They didn’t use to offer a plain version, but it seems like they will very soon!
Overall Score: 8 out 10
Source: Vertage
5) Vertage Cream Cheese (Not available for retail purchase yet)
I got a sneak taste of Vertage’s line of gourmet cheeses including their cream cheese, which comes in a plain version only currently. Vertage’s cream cheese is among the ones with the most tang that I tried for this review and it would likely be an 8 for folks who like tangy cream cheese. It has a good smooth spreadable texture and you definitely get a foodie mouthfeel with every bite. According to their website, their cheeses are ”cultured & fermented, with a chef’s sense of flavor.” It’s worth noting that as of this month, Vertage will be the only cheese used by chef Tal Ronnen in his Crossroads restaurant here in Los Angeles.
Bonus Points: The gourmet approach and Vertage’s fermentation process, which makes it more sustainable than animal-based and even many alt protein-based cream cheeses.
Cons: It’s not as close to the animal cream cheese as the ones above.
Overall Score: 7 out 10
Source: Kite Hill
6) Kite Hill Cream Cheese Alternative Made with Almond Milk ($6.49)
I’m a big fan of Kite Hill’s ricotta, yogurts, and sour cream, but I wasn’t completely over the moon about their cream cheeses. The texture is a bit softer and less dense than what you’ve come to expect from cream cheese. I tried the plain and it really was plain, as in it lacked the cheesy flavor of cream cheese. Kite Hill does have a pretty sizeable cream cheese line though, with flavors ranging from Plain, Chive, Everything, and Garden Veggie, to the seasonal Pumpkin.
Miyoko has said herself many times that unlike a lot of players in the alt protein space, her goal is not to mimic the flavor of animal dairy. And when it comes to being a vegan, you’re on usually on one side of this argument fence and not looking to jump over anytime soon. You’re either a vegan who is repulsed by the way animal-based foods taste and doesn’t want your vegan food to be anything like it, or you’re a vegan who is in search of cruelty and animal-free foods that resemble their animal counterparts the most because you miss the flavor of what you used to eat pre-veganism days. I fall in the latter category.
Even though I love Miyoko’s European Style butter and Liquid Moz, it makes me sad to stay that I really don’t care for their cream cheese. It scores points when it comes to texture, but it does not give you the same mouthfeel you get when eating real dairy cream cheese. The plain flavor was the one I least enjoyed while the Fish-Free lox did taste a lot closer to real lox cream cheese. Flavors include Everything, Classic Plain, Savory Scallion, Fish-Free Lox, and Cinnamon Raisin.
3Mins Read Non-profit think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC has released a report documenting the alt-protein sector’s growth within the APAC region and globally over the past year. Highlights include a 60 percent increase in funding into the sector on a global level, with fermentation and cultivated projects claiming more funding than ever before. Overall, […]
3Mins Read Singaporean cellular agriculture startup Umami Meats has closed a $2.4 million pre-seed investment round. The company specialises in “cultivated, not caught” seafood production. Funding has been earmarked for continued plant-based serum development and manufacturing cost auditing. Minimised costs and maximum outreach are top priorities, to make Umami a leading sustainable seafood supplier. Pre-seed funding was […]
In the quest for increasingly realistic meat alternatives, one particular item has remained frustratingly out of reach: the filet.
We’ve conquered burgers, mince, and sausages to a large extent. Bacon is getting there, though there is still work to be done. And let’s face it, cheese is still a work in progress. But the holy grail? Beef steak. Thick-cut, tender to the touch, bouncy steak that melts in the mouth and feels realistically succulent. Juicy Marbles, a startup from Slovenia, is committed to tackling this gastronomic injustice — and. wow, have they ever triumphed.
There are other players in the plant-based steak sector, notably Indonesia’s Green Rebel and Spain’s Novameat. But Juicy Marbles says they were first to market with a marbled filet mignon, in animal terms, the tenderest part of the beef loin. The startup recently raised $4.5 million to scale and this earlier this year, it made 1,000 of its filets available for e-commerce.
I was sent a care package featuring two plant-based whole-cut filet mignons (full disclosure: these were gifted to me). Below, I share my full Juicy Marbles tasting review. TL;DR? The filets are everything they claim to be and more. Which is why I’m not sure I can ever eat them again.
Appearance
To look at, the vegan filet mignon looks like expensive little rounds of premium beef. The right shade of pink, swirled with fat marbling and vacuum-sealed as you’d expect, nothing gave away the meat-free composition. It does state ‘plant-based’ on the label, but I was too busy giving the cuts a tentative pressure test to check if they felt bouncy, like real meat. They did. I was startled.
The steaks are made from non-GMO soy protein and sunflower oil and Juicy says their patent-pending technology offers the marbling that is their trademark.
Taking the mignon out of the packet, the experience got even more surreal. I had to keep checking that this was a vegan alternative. Especially when the iron-rich aroma hit my nostrils. That smell that raw beef gives off? The packaging breathed it out in one big sigh and again, had me double-checking the ingredients.
Plated and ready to eat.
Cooking
It’s been a while since I cooked meat. Over 10 years to be exact, so I read the instructions carefully and did some research online about steak. Everything married up nicely, so I got my pan on the Aga, added some salted vegan butter and dropped my gently-seasoned filet mignon in. The iron-like smell started transforming into a richer meatier aroma. Our dog was instantly excited! Once the first side had reached a suitable crust stage, I flipped. I then gave the sides a little attention, basting them with the browned butter before checking the centres had reached the requisite 165°F.
I chose simple flavours to accompany the steaks. I had lofty ambitions of peppercorn sauce or red wine jus but realised I needed to test these in their natural form. Anything tastes great with the right accompaniment, these needed to stand alone. A serving of simple skin-on mashed potatoes and griddled vine tomatoes seemed like a good choice, so I plated. That’s when we (my long-term vegan husband and I) got nervous.
The steaks looked, smelled, and cooked like meat. They were so tender they didn’t need cutting because they pulled apart like perfectly aged beef that had been cooked reverently. Fork in hand, we couldn’t delay the moment any longer.
Flaky texture.
Taste
If I said that the Juicy Marbles filet mignon steaks were better than almost every real beef steak I remember having, it would not be an exaggeration. The meat felt rich and luxurious. It had the right amount of chew that, I thought, only comes from sinew. It released juices as I chewed and I had to stop. Yes, for another, final, packet check. My husband and I both felt as though we had been pranked with real meat and had a moment in silence, just looking at each other. Had we eaten beef? Thankfully no, but an existential crisis was just around the corner.
I’ve eaten beef that tasted less like beef than this beetroot-infused soy protein did. The simple truth is, anyone saying they could never go vegan because they love steak have zero excuses now. This IS steak, it simply hasn’t required an animal to die for it. Nothing about the presentation, cooking or flavour made me nod sagely and think “nice try but this doesn’t taste like meat”. The only thought I had was that Juicy Marbles have created something that has the power to change everything.
Pull-apart texture.
Why it’s a yes/no from me
For anyone looking to try the most realistic, spectacularly well-conceived vegan steak, this is it. It will fool seasoned meat aficionados and I daresay anybody that flatly refuses to even try vegan food because “meat is life”. As a tool for bringing about an end to the factory farming and animal slaughter system, I cannot praise this product enough. It can replace conventional beef with ease, and it should.
However. As an ethical vegan, I can’t bring myself to eat the Juicy Marbles steaks again. I had what I think was a small panic attack almost immediately afterward. I assume this is what vegans who have accidentally eaten meat feel. That moment of being unable to reconcile what has just entered their bodies with their long-held beliefs. That’s how both myself and my husband felt. It’s a testament to the product that I felt this way. I have no beef with this beef successor, I just can’t put it back on my plate because I don’t miss the original. I’ve given nothing up in my quest to be an advocate for animals, so I’ll leave the filet mignon for people that still crave the real thing or those that need a final push.
4Mins Read Barcelona biotech startup Libre Foods has announced the closure of a successful seed round. The company generated $2.5 Million in the raise, led by Green Generation Fund. Return investor Good Seed Ventures participated again, alongside ProVeg International and Veg Capital, former director of process R&D at MycoWorks, Dr. Ritu Bansal-Mutalik and CEO & founder of […]
3Mins Read Israel’s Aleph Farms has announced that it has relocated to new 6,000 square metre headquarters in Rehovot, which will allow the cultivated meat company to increase production by six-fold. Production of thin-cut beef steaks will be the initial focus. An onsite R&D centre is now being planned, to continue developing market-leading technology. International marketing and […]
3Mins Read CellulaREvolution has announced the closure of a new funding round. Having netted £1.75 million in a pre-Series A, the British biotech intends to accelerate the development of its continuous cell cultivation technology. This will be used to usher in cultivated meat as a viable and affordable product, within a reasonable timescale. Happiness Capital led the […]
5Mins Read Better Bite Ventures, a venture capital firm with a focus on backing early stage Asia Pacific (APAC) startups in the alternative protein sector, has announced the launch of a $15 million fund. Better Bite’s mission is to support early-stage founders developing crucial climate-friendly alternatives to animal-based proteins in what it describes as the ‘world’s largest […]
