According to Forbes, 4.5 million plant-based turkeys will be consumed this year on Thanksgiving in the U.S. That sounds like a lot of alternative roasts and Tofurkey’s gracing holiday gatherings, but compared to the number of regular turkeys that will be consumed (46 million) it’s not much. Maybe next year, we’ll have the option to serve cell-based turkey to our guests?
In this edition of the alternative protein round-up, we’ve gathered together the most interesting stories from the past week in the plant-based, cell-cultured and even bug protein worlds, including TurtleTree’s funding, locusts in the EU, Beyond Meat’s sales, an inside look at UPSIDE’s fancy new facility, the animal-free egg ClearEgg, and cell-based pet food.
Turtle Tree raises $30 million in Series A round
TurtleTree, a Singapore-based biotech company, announced recently that it has raised $30 million in a Series A round of funding, with VERSO Capital as the lead investor in this round. This brings TurtleTree’s total funding to $40 million. In September of this year, TurtleTree opened a 24,000 square foot R&D facility in Sacramento, California, where it is expanding upon its precision fermentation technologies. The start-up is developing cell-based milk as an alternative to infant formulas, as well as a compound found in human milk called lactoferrin. The funding will be used to continue this R&D as well as bring on new hires.
Locusts are approved as a sustainable food by European Union
Insects have long been recognized as a sustainable protein source due to their low carbon footprint, and very minimal water and land use. Although many cultures around the world already frequently include insects within their diets, this is not often the case in developed first-world countries. However, this week, the European Union approved the migratory locust as food for humans. This action is a push for bringing awareness to more sustainable foods, especially alternative protein sources. The EU said that locusts, which are high in fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals, would be considered snacks foods or food ingredients,
Are Beyond Meat’s Flagging Sales a Sign Big Cattle’s Negative Messaging is Working?
This week, Beyond Meat had some lousy news for Wall Street: US sales were down 13.9% year over year. According to the company, the culprit for the sales drop was a softening in their grocery and foodservice markets. For some, a sales drop for a high-flying alt-meat pioneer like Beyond might come as a shock. Like Impossible Meat and others in the fast-growing plant-based meat industry, the company has had mostly good news over the past few years, watching as revenue heads up and to the right on the back of new sales channels, geography expansion, and growing consumer demand. So what’s going on here? Why is an alt-meat bellwether like Beyond suddenly seeing its sales drop? Read the full article here.
What Does a Cultivated Meat Plant Look Like? Take a Video Tour of UPSIDE Foods’ New Production Facility to Find Out
At this time, Singapore has been the only country to offer regulatory approval for the commercial sale of cultivated meat, and Qatar is expected to be next to do so. Despite this, several companies in the cultured meat space have opened up state-of-the-art facilities to develop their alternative meat products in anticipation of receiving regulatory approval sooner than later. One of these companies is UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats). Last week, UPSIDE Foods hosted a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of its 53,000 square foot Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC for short). The center will be used for the production of cultivated meat and the development of new types of meat and product formats. Read the full article and watch the video here.
Animal-Free ClearEgg Debuts in Protein Smoothie
Last month, The Every Company rebranded from Clara Foods and announced the launch of its animal-free egg protein product. Now, the company’s egg protein, called ClearEgg is being used as an ingredient in a limited-time Pressed smoothie.The smoothie is called “Pineapple Green Protein”, and the added ClearEgg boosts the protein content up to 10 grams. Other ingredients include apple, pineapple, banana, spinach, and avocado. Read the full article here.
Bond Pet Food Teams Up With Hill’s To Make Meat Protein for Pets Using Precision Fermentation
Bond Pet Food, an alternative protein company for pet food, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a biology-based pet food company, announced this week that they have partnered to develop an alternative meat protein for pet food using precision fermentation. Precision fermentation makes animal-identical proteins without slaughtering/harming animals. Bond sourced a small blood sample from a heritage hen, and this sample was used to extract the genetic code of chicken protein. Read the full article here.
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