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Ashlen Wilder

January 31, 2022

I Tried Viome’s Health Intelligence Test to Understand My Gut Microbiome and Biological Age

In recent years, the gut microbiome has drawn a lot of attention in the field of nutrition science for being able to tell us an extraordinary amount about our health. Viome, a personalized nutrition company founded by executive and entrepreneur Naveen Jain, offers at-home testing that allows users to get insight into their microbiome and overall health. As someone who is deeply interested in cutting-edge personalized nutrition, I was excited to try out one of Viome’s at-home testing kits.

Taking the test

Viome sent me its Health Intelligence Test, which measures stress response, biological age, and the health of your immune system, gut microbiome, cells, and mitochondria. Taking Viome’s at-home test is straightforward, and simply required both a blood and stool sample. The testing kit included all the materials needed to gather this, and supplied extra testing materials just in case you made a mistake during the collection process. I appreciated that the instructions were detailed but also easy to follow.

Once the stool and blood samples are gathered, packaged, and sealed, I just had to drop them off in a prepaid package at my local post office. Once the samples are received, Viome states that it takes about four weeks to receive the results, which is about the amount of time it took for mine.

Before you receive the results, you must take a lengthy intake survey in Viome’s user portal that asks questions about what you eat, how you sleep, stress levels, and other lifestyle questions. It took me about 40 minutes to answer all of the questions.

Background on my health

Prior to disclosing my results and experience with using Viome’s test, I think it is important to share my perceived health and lifestyle to give you more background. For the past eight years, I have followed a whole-foods, plant-based/vegan diet that incorporates a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains. I do yoga and walk every day, and rock climb multiple times a week. I get plenty of outside time because I hike, stand-up paddleboard, and forage for wild foods. I do not smoke, am not a heavy drinker, and have no chronic illnesses. I have rarely taken antibiotics in my life.

The results

In general, I consider myself to be a very healthy person and feel great most of the time. Therefore, I was surprised when I received my results.

Overall, my results were not terrible, but they were not great, and certainly did not meet my expectations. The results were graded on a scale from 0 to 100 (0 being the worst, 100 being the best), and the classification of being not optimal, average, or good.

How my mitochondrial health, immune system health, and stress response health were rated in my Viome portal

My cellular and mitochondrial health were classified as “not optimal”. My gut microbiome health and immune system health was rated as “average”, while my stress response health was “good”. I am 25 years old, but my biological health was considered to be that of a 21-year-old.

Within these larger categories were subcategories that were also graded. For example, within the “gut lining” category, there were other subcategories like butyrate production pathways and gut lining health.

The number of different ingredients recommended to me

One of the things that surprised me the most was that based on my results, the company recommended 56 different ingredients for me to supplement with. This included vitamins, herbs, minerals, food extracts, amino acids, prebiotics, and probiotics “we’ve identified to improve or help maintain your scores.”

Within the Viome portal, you can see what bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes, viruses, and probiotics, are present in the “My Active Microbes” section. My test results show that my sample contained several viruses: Paprika mild mottle virus, Pepper mild mottle virus, Tobacco mild green mosaic virus, Tomato brown rugose fruit virus. These are plant diseases, so I did not understand why this showed up in my gut.

As I mentioned before, I eat a diverse whole-food diet, eat pro-and prebiotic foods, forage wild foods, and even brew my own fermented beverages. Despite my efforts to maintain a healthy gut, only one probiotic strain was identified in my sample and my active microbial diversity ranked low.

A few of the foods on the “minimize” list

The company recommends foods that you should avoid and minimize, and also foods that are considered “superfoods” for your body. My avoid list had five foods listed (tomato, paprika, alfalfa sprouts, bell pepper, and mung bean sprouts), while my minimize list consisted of nearly 80 different foods. My superfood list consisted of 17 different foods, including cabbage, apple, artichoke, and broccoli.

Understanding the results

I first felt overwhelmed and stressed about receiving my test results, and decided to share them with my primary care physician. After looking over my results she said she was not concerned at all, especially since I did not have any symptoms I was worried about. I asked her specific questions about why some of my scores were not optimal, and she said that was not her field of specialty, and in all honestly, she wasn’t even sure of who would be best to bring my test results to.

I then decided it would be best to speak with someone from Viome to discuss my results further. I was able to talk with Grant Antoine, a naturopath by training and clinical expert at Viome. The Viome test results are intended to be self-explanatory, and Antoine said, “They’re straightforward, and hopefully, you’re doing a lot of the interpretation on your own.” When I asked who would be best to take the results to for a deeper explanation, he stated that a nutritionist or health coach would be a good option.

I actually have completed my health coaching certification and felt that I still needed to take the results to someone who was more qualified than myself.

Personally, I felt as if supplementing with 56 ingredients is excessive, especially since as a young, plant-based, athletic female, I already take a decent amount of supplements. When I asked Antoine to elaborate on why this is necessary, he said that this recommendation is based on my results, questionnaire, goals, and scores, and then seeing where there might be an opportunity to improve my scores. The recommendations are based on the company’s artificial intelligence engine that calculates the best way to support your scores and gaps with food and supplement.

Purchasing 56 different supplements would be extremely pricey (and take up a lot of cupboard space), but Viome offers personalized supplements it creates for you based on your results. If I did want to follow these supplement recommendations, it would really only make sense to purchase from the company. Viome offers customized supplements for a monthly subscription fee of $150 per month, which includes all of the recommended ingredients.

When asked why I had plant viruses present in my gut, Antoine said that when we eat plants that contain these viruses, they can linger in our gut, potentially causing an immune response or affecting the gut lining. He also said, “What exactly they’re doing, how harmful they are, we don’t exactly know if I am being 100% upfront, but there are indications that they’re inflammatory.”

Conclusion

When I asked Antoine if anyone had perfect scores across all health categories, he said, “For most people, there’s, room for improvement. We do have some all-stars that come through and they’re green across the board. I would say that those are elite athletes; there are some superstars out there.”

After already spending years figuring out what foods I should avoid, and creating health and wellness routines that make me feel great, I have decided to not follow Viome’s recommendations. Even though my results were slightly alarming, Antoine said, “But you actually have a very good result. You have a really good report of your biological age. I consider that to be kind of like your overall report card grades.” Maybe if I did follow the recommendations and take the supplements, I would feel better than I could have ever imagined.

If you are interested in giving Viome’s Health Intelligence Test a try yourself, it is currently available on sale for $199 (It is normally $299). For $129 (normally $199), the Gut Intelligence Test can be purchased on its own.

January 20, 2022

Nextbite’s Alex Canter Shares Insight on Virtual Kitchen Trends in 2022

This week I spoke with Alex Canter, the CEO and a co-founder of virtual restaurant company Nextbite, to hear his perspective on what 2022 holds for virtual kitchens and restaurants.

Nextbite, based in Denver, Colorado, uses a host kitchen model where it licenses a portfolio of delivery-only restaurant brands to restaurants with excess kitchen capacity. Restaurant partners can fulfill orders under these virtual brands to augment their restaurant’s dine-in and off-premise revenue. By taking on an additional restaurant brand, a restaurant can take advantage of their slowest hours, or even when they might not be open (such as the early morning or late night).

According to Canter, while many restaurants are slowly making their way back from the challenges of COVID-19, most are still not operating at full capacity. “Out of all the restaurants in the U.S., the only restaurant I can say confidently is operating at its full potential is In-and-Out,” said Canter. “They have a line out the door from the moment they open to the moment that they close.”

But this could all change in 2022, in part to new opportunities created by virtual brands. In 2022, “restaurants are really starting to understand their potential,” said Canter. “If you think about the kitchen as a manufacturing facility for food, I would say the average kitchen is probably operating at 30% output of what it could what it can do at peak.” After seeing the spike in virtual kitchens and delivery-only brands, restaurant establishments realize that they can cash in on this too. By streamlining online ordering and offering multiple menus and concepts, restaurants can reach new customers and different demographics.

In total, Nextbite has 17 brands that Canter said have been carefully created to consider emerging dining trends both inside and outside the U.S. People’s tastes and cravings change quickly, and can be easily influenced by social platforms like Tik Tok.

So what food categories and concepts will be successful in the virtual kitchen space in 2022? According to Canter, Pizza and Chinese food – the original delivery food categories – remain very popular. He also said breakfast foods for delivery are on the rise as illustrated by Nextbite’s survey which showed that forty-five percent of consumers ranked breakfast sandwiches as one of their favorite breakfast items to order. Nextbite’s celebrity taco concept, George Lopez Taco, does really well in suburban areas where it can be difficult to find an authentic street taco.

Wiz Khalifa and Nextbite’s restaurant concept, “Hot Box”

According to Canter, Nextbite works with celebrities like Wiz Khalifa and George Lopez because a small independent restaurant would never be able to connect with a high-profile celebrity. By using one of Nextbite’s celebrity-driven brands, they can tap into a celebrity brand’s following and demand.

Finally, Canter says food preferences vary depending on where you sell and who the consumer is.

Food preference and demand “change a lot when you go from major cities to the suburbs to college campuses. Depending on the demographic, some of our brands absolutely crush it on college campus markets and some do just okay in the suburbs. There’s a lot of variety happening, but I think people’s tastes are changing so faster than ever and we’re keeping up with that by constantly innovating and launching new concepts that are meeting that demand.”

January 13, 2022

Plantish Comes Out of Stealth Mode to Unveil Plant-Based Salmon Fillet

Salmon is one of the most popular fish choices to consume, and in the U.S., it is estimated that Americans eat a total of about 450,000 pounds of it a year. Unfortunately for vegans and vegetarians, there has not been a plant-based salmon product that has the ability to directly replace real salmon in all of its classic applications. Plantish, a start-up based in Rehovot, Israel, is looking to change that, and unveiled its plant-based salmon fillet this week.

Plantish is a newer company in the food tech space that was founded six months ago in 2021. Despite being so young, the company raised a pre-seed round of $2 million USD, led by TechAviv Founder Partners, in the middle of 2021.

The company’s first product is called Plantish Salmon, which will be a fully structured, boneless, plant-based salmon fillet. Although the company could not disclose what exactly the ingredients the fillet is made out of, they did state that it will have the same nutritional value as real salmon, including high protein content, B vitamins, and both Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.

According to the company, its alternative salmon fillet can be used in any application that conventional salmon is used in. The whole-cut fish analog aims to achieve the same flavor, structure, and texture as a regular salmon fillet.

What Plantish guarantees that it salmon fillet doesn’t have is mercury, microplastics, antibiotics, or other toxins. Sadly, this guarantee cannot be made with all wild-caught or farmed raised salmon. Farmed raised salmon can be fed large amounts of antibiotics, while wild-caught fish raises concerns about overfishing and being contaminated with microplastics.

In 2022, you can find a good plant-based burger (and many other meat analogs) in grocery stores or a restaurant with ease. Vegan seafood? Not so much. Compared to the plant-based meat category, the plant-based seafood category is significantly smaller, and the Good Food Institute has called the plant-based seafood space a “white space“. On top of this, many alternative seafood products come in an minced form, rather than a whole-cut fillet.

Good Catch is one company that produces vegan seafood products, and it launched a new plant-based salmon burger product last week. One other company working towards a plant-based salmon fillet is Revo Foods, which is based in Austria and is using bioprinting technology for some of its alternative products.

As exciting as Plantish Salmon is, the company shared that it is planning for the official launch of the product in 2024. Until then, Plantish will be executing tasting pop-ups that are slated to begin towards the end of 2022.

January 12, 2022

Soli Organic to Advance Indoor, Soil-Based Agriculture Through Selective Breeding, AI, and Machine Learning

Soli Organic (previously known as Shenandoah Growers) is an agriculture company that operates indoor growing operations to produce organic culinary herbs. Today, the company announced two new partnerships with Rutgers University and AI/IoT company Koidra that will help enhance its cost advantage and increase the accessibility and affordability of its products.

In the multi-year partnership with Rutgers University, Soli Organic will work with plant breeding experts from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The focus of the collaboration is to optimize the nutrition, flavor, aroma, and yields of selected crops. Additionally, the partners will research what crops that are not feasible for outdoor production but are potentially viable for commercial production in an indoor growing operation.

While leafy greens and herbs are often the most popular types of crops grown via indoor cultivation, there is vast potential for additional crops in this space. Dr. James (Jim) Simon, the Director of the Rutgers New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program, said, “Of the over 400,000 plant species on the planet, we consume less than 100. We have not even scratched the surface of the different flavors and textures of plants. What will be key to a sustainable future is identifying plants that offer consumers the highest nutrient density combined with flavor, texture and shelf appeal, and the lowest possible environmental impact.”

With Koidra’s artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, Soli Organic intends to automate the operation of its growing facilities. This technology will not necessarily replace human growers, but streamline operations and allow growers to make data-informed decisions. In a greenhouse setting, Koidra use of artificial intelligence, data collection, and sensing technology is able to increase yields, profitability, and consistency.

“Soli Organic is relentless in our pursuit of technologies and partnerships that support our vision to offer our retailer partners and consumers nationwide a variety of nutrient-dense, differentiated fresh products in a manner that maximizes profitability while minimizing environmental impact,” said Soli Organic’s Chief Science Officier Tessa Pocock about the new partnerships.

Soli Organic has seven growing facilities and supplies to 20,000 retailers across the country. According to the company, it is the only indoor grower that has soil-based, controlled environment growing operations. Most of the big players in this space, like Gotham Greens, Bright Farms, and Bowery Farming, use hydroponic growing methods instead.

If you have ever seen indoor-grown greens or herbs in your grocery store, you may have noticed that most of these products are a bit pricier than the standard options. Soli Organic already offers affordable herbs, but following the new partnerships, hopes to bring even more indoor-grown produce to consumers.


January 12, 2022

Wine Bottles Can Now Be Reused Thanks to Good Goods’ Return Program

You have probably heard the popular waste management phrase, “Reduce, reuse, and recycle.” The order of these words represents the hierarchy of what option is best, and that certainly applies when it comes to glass bottles. While a glass bottle is easy enough to recycle, reuse is better since recycling requires energy, water, and other resources and can even release pollutants.

When it comes to wine bottles, a New York-based startup Good Goods hopes to keep the containers out of landfill and recycling bin through its wine bottle return and reuse program. The company launched its program in New York City in 2020. Two years prior, it had launched a grab-and-go food brand in reusable containers, which gave them the framework to create the model they use now.

Today, Good Goods takes a multi-pronged approach to bottle reuse. First, they work with about 60 wine producers and brands across the U.S. and sign them up for the bottle reuse program. Then, standardized bottles (branded with Good Goods’s label along the bottom edge of the bottle) are provided to the wineries. These bottles are filled with wine, and then eventually shipped to participating retailers.

Customers then purchase bottles of wine at the participating retailers. When the wine is finished, empty wine bottles can then be returned to the same store from which it was initially purchased or to another participating retailer. Good Goods operates a customer loyalty program to incentivize the bottle return, and customers receive $1 off their next purchase.

Good Goods gathers the used bottles and brings them to its facilities, and then a third-party company sanitizes the bottles. The bottles are redistributed to wineries, and the process starts again.

A visual explanation of how Good Goods operates

According to the Good Goods, customers have returned 20,000 wine bottles to date. Over 50 retailers located in New York and New Jersey have joined the program, and the company currently has a waitlist of 100 retailers wanting to sign up. By the end of 2022, Good Goods’ goal is to expand to New York, California, Texas, and Washington and onboard 600 retailers.

January 7, 2022

In 2022, Consumers Want to Order Healthier Delivery Food

At the beginning of every year, millions of people set intentions to better themselves, and many of their resolutions revolve around health and wellness. Of course, food plays a crucial part in health, so it’s no surprise that many resolutions end up being specific to food. This year, Nextbite, a virtual restaurant company, conducted a survey to understand what exactly customers want when it comes to delivery food and their diet goals.

The company surveyed 1,046 US consumers aged 13-54 years old in December 2021. One key takeaway from the survey was that 49 percent of the consumers plan on ordering healthier delivery food in 2022. Of these consumers, 59 percent of them order food for delivery at least once a month or more, while 41 percent plan on ordering more food for delivery this year.

Eating healthier is not a surprising resolution, as it is one that often makes it in the top three most common resolutions. In the survey, 49 percent reported that they desired to eat healthier this year, and this was a top goal of consumers aged 18-34 years old. Eating healthier does not necessarily mean following a specific diet; only 6 percent of consumers said they planned on trying to follow a trend diet like Whole360 or keto.

In 2020 and 2021, we turned to comfort food to deal with the emotional and mental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yelp gathered up data in 2020 to determine what the most popular delivery items in different states were during the COVID-19 pandemic and created the map above. As you can see, many of the items, such as donuts, pizza, nachos, Belgian fries, and hot wings, would not be classified as health foods. According to DoorDash, the top two popular items ordered in 2020 were chicken sandwiches with a side of fries and mac and cheese.

Often reliant on quick-service chains, delivery food is traditionally viewed as unhealthy. However, by adding fresh and nutritious food dishes to delivery menus, restaurants, and ghost kitchens can change that perception while encouraging health-motivated customers to keep ordering food for delivery.

February is the month where upwards of 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. Consumers may want to commit to vegan grain bowls and green smoothies now, but later this year, revert back to ordering hot chicken wings and deep-dish pizza. Despite the surge in the new COVID-19 variant at the moment, 2022 looks promising due to the fact children are returning back to school, adults are working in-person, and events are being held again. The way 2022 plays out may be a determining factor if consumers turn back to comfort food or stick to wholesome options.

December 29, 2021

Foodoo.ai Applies Machine Learning to Reduce Food Waste in the “Grab & Go” Sector


Almost all workplaces and college campuses offer a vending machine filled with snack items such as chips, pretzels, cookies, and candy. While shelf stable, these sugary and salty snack items are less nutritious and not nearly as tasty as fresher options like fresh sandwiches or salads. And yet these long-lasting, less healthy items persist as a mainstay in the office vending machine because fresh items expire three to four days after they are prepared, therefore increasing the risk of these products ending up in a landfill.

Foodoo.ai wants to change all that by giving offices the ability to offer fresh food without all the food waste. The Czech Republic-based startup’s mission is to provide food delivery to offices with what it calls “zero waste nutrition.” The company works with certified commercial kitchens to prepare fresh, healthy food options, delivers them to workplaces, and then uses its proprietary software and hardware to ensure little to no food is wasted.

Once Foodoo.ai’s kitchen partners finish prepping individually packaged fresh food dishes like sandwiches, veggies and dips, soups, and salads, the company then attaches an RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag to the outside of the packaging. This tag contains important information like the dish’s name, the ingredients, and the expiration date; all of this information is sent to the company’s data center.

Foodoo.ai has developed a proprietary hardware kit that can be installed into any existing refrigerator, mini-fridge, vending machine, or other food storage unit. Without the need to develop its own smart fridge or vending machine, Foodoo.ai can scale faster while also giving customers a lower-cost option that doesn’t involve swapping out their fridge.

The hardware system consists of scanners that keep track of product stock and the expiration dates. The data that is collected from the hardware is sent to Foodoo.ai’s cloud-based software, which uses machine learning to provide insight into the shelf life of products, how much product is left at the end of the day, anticipated consumption rate, user behavior, and what products are in high demand.

The grab-and-go food market has become increasingly more popular with millennials. Prepackaged, short shelf-life food items were originally considered low-quality food, often associated with gas stations or corner markets. Now, prepackaged grab-and-go food is depended on by office workers, college students, travelers, and those working or visiting hospitals.

Most people have particular food preferences, dietary restrictions, and allergies, and unfortunately, grab-and-go food cannot be customized to accommodate this. This might lead to customers picking at certain parts of the dish, and throwing the rest away. If customer demand and traffic are not accounted for, this can quickly lead to packaged fresh foods expiring and being thrown out.

According to Foodoo.ai, about 17 percent of the food it delivers to workplaces is wasted. As the company’s artificial intelligence gleans more information, Foodoo.ai believes its system can gain even more insight into food preferences and consumer behavior and help to reduce the amount of grab-and-go food wasted.


December 23, 2021

Uber Eats and Motional to Provide Driverless Food Delivery in 2022

Food delivery platform Uber Eats and driverless technology company Motional announced last week that they are partnering to pilot autonomous food deliveries. The companies plan to launch this service in Santa Monica, California, in early 2022.

The delivery vehicle provided and operated by Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, is the fully electric Hyundai IONIQ 5-based robotaxi. The scope of the autonomous delivery service will be small to start; the electric vehicles will only deliver curated meal kits from select restaurants in Santa Monica on Uber Eats.

The design of Uber Eats drone in 2019.

Although this is Uber Eat’s first attempt at developing driverless car delivery, the company actually experimented with drone delivery in 2019. The design, which included six rotors, was unveiled at the Forbes Under 30 Summit with the intention of testing it out in San Diego in 2020. The drone could apparently carry a dinner for two and had a round trip range of 12 miles. However, since the announcement in 2019, we haven’t heard any other news about the delivery drones.

Uber Eats is certainly not the only company that has taken a stab at autonomous food delivery. In 2018, Postmates (which was acquired by Uber Eats) introduced Postmates Serve, an autonomous sidewalk delivery robot and associated food delivery service platform, which has been running pilot trials in Hollywood. During summer 2021, Grubhub and Yandex announced that they would be bringing food delivery robots to college campuses. Earlier this month, 7-Eleven and Nuro announced a partnership to pilot autonomous food deliveries in Mountain View, California.

Autonomous delivery offers several benefits, including reduced delivery fees for customers and restaurants and minimal human contact. Third-party delivery services were in high demand after the start of the pandemic, and seeing that we are still not out of it, food delivery will likely continue to be a popular choice for customers staying home.

As cool as driverless and drone delivery sounds, there has yet to be a company that has really put its concept into action, especially on a large scale. Several companies have now had the chance to pilot their concepts for a few months to a few years, so maybe, 2022 will be the year we see a wider implementation of this tech.

December 22, 2021

New York is Banning Styrofoam Food Containers – What’s next for To-Go Packaging?

Styrofoam food packaging, made from a hard plastic called polystyrene, poses a plethora of problems. First off, it takes an extremely long time to degrade, and it accounts for 10-40 percent of all litter found in streams. The production of polystyrene also releases about fifty different chemicals byproducts into the air, water, and local communities. This is exactly why the state of New York will ban the use of single-use styrofoam food containers and packaging peanuts starting January 1st, 2022.

According to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, the new rule applies to restaurants, caterers, food carts, food trucks, food stores, grocers, cafeterias, coffee shops, delis, colleges, schools, and more. However, there are a few exceptions to the ban, including raw meat and seafood sold with the intention of being prepared off-premises by the customer. Non-profits and places of worship that supply food to those in need may also continue to serve food packaged in styrofoam if they qualify for a certain waiver.

There are no federal bans on styrofoam packaging yet, and all current bans are on a city or county level. In addition to New York, there are 11 other cities throughout the U.S. that do not allow food or beverages to be served in styrofoam packaging, including major cities like San Francisco (CA), Portland (Oregon), and Seattle (WA).

Without styrofoam, what is next for to-go food packaging? Companies producing and developing alternatives to traditional food packaging are focused on using sustainable and biodegradable materials that release little to no chemicals when processed.

In recent years, one of the most popular alternatives to styrofoam is using plant-based fibers to create compostable food to-go containers. Many different fibers can be used for this application, including sugar cane, corn, potato, and bamboo. Packaging made from paper, especially recycled paper, is another common choice. Although these materials are compostable, some compostable packaging contains “forever chemicals” that never break down. A Hong Kong-based company called Ecoinno uses sugar cane and bamboo to craft to-go containers without the use of any of these particular chemicals or plastics.

During this past summer, delivery service Delivery Hero launched a sustainable packaging program for restaurants it serves in an attempt to cut down on single-use and toxic packaging waste. QSRs like Burger King and Taco Bell have begun trialing various alternatives to their original single-use packaging, like reusable, recyclable, and compostable packaging.

This week, a London-based company called Notpla raised €11.7 million (~$13.1 million USD) for its seaweed-based packaging that “disappears”. The alternative packaging fully degrades within 4-6 weeks without the use of any special processing. Although NotPla’s packaging is intended to be a direct replacement for plastic and not styrofoam, this still has potential for the restaurant and food space.

Despite the awareness of the negative environmental consequences of styrofoam, not many cities or states in the U.S. have enforced a ban. Hopefully, with the rise of more packaging alternatives, we will see more places adopting legislature around single-use packaging and plastics. In the meantime, if you are interested in supporting restaurants that use sustainable packaging, check out the free app Jybe.

December 21, 2021

Cream Cheese and Champagne Shortages? No Fear, Food Tech is Here to the Rescue

In the past few months, supply chain issues have been cited as a reason for major delays in everything from food to holidays gifts. Last week, USA Today published a piece detailing the food and beverages that are in demand for the holiday season but are experiencing shortages throughout the country. A Christmas meal without ham and a New Year’s Eve party without champagne might be a major bummer, but luckily, companies in the food technology space have alternative options for these popular commodities.

Cream Cheese

Cheesecake is a popular dessert option during the holiday season, and bagels with cream cheese are an easy breakfast option for visiting guests. However, according to the USA Today article, bagel shops throughout the country are experiencing shortages, and a cheesecake factory in New Jersey has had to cease production twice due to shortages. Mainstream brands like Philadelphia may be in low stock, but there are quite a few food tech companies that offer alternative cream cheese options. Nature’s Fynd uses fermentation and microbial proteins to create two flavors of cream cheese, while Miyoko’s Creamy uses cashews to craft several different varieties. Spero uses sunflower seeds to produce cream cheese flavors like pumpkin spice, herb, and blueberry.

Champagne

Popping bottles of bubbly is an iconic part of New Year’s Eve, but this year, you may find it more difficult to get your hands on champagne. According to Wine Enthusiast, we are at the beginning of a multi-year champagne shortage. You may want to start “dry January” early and try some alcohol-free sparkling wine options. A few companies that offer varieties of zero-proof champagne or sparkling wine are TÖST, Noughty, and Surely.

Chicken Tenders

With kids at home on holiday break, chicken tenders may be a favorite request for lunch. The price of chicken has been rising, and the meat industry has been experiencing labor shortages. If chicken is pricey or difficult to find, plant-based chicken is certainly one option. The plant-based space recently experienced a “chicken war” where companies were racing to get their alternative chicken products on the market quickly. As a result, Beyond and Impossible now offer chicken tenders and nuggets. Other companies like Daring, Rebellyous, Simulate, and Nowadays all offer plant-based chicken nuggets as well.

Cat and dog food

Our beloved furry family members are susceptible to food supply chain disruptions too. Owners have reported that it is more challenging to find certain wet food brands that they are used to buying. This could be the result of an aluminum shortage on top of delays within the supply chain. In the realm of food tech, Wild Earth offers plant-based pet food and is currently working on a cultivated meat pet food product.

December 18, 2021

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Wildtype’s Sushi, Cultivated Dokdo Shrimp

Ask any cultivated meat startup in the US and they’ll tell you it’s only a matter of time before the U.S. government grants regulatory approval to sell cell-cultivated meat in the United States. Given their vested interest in this rapidly changing market, many of these same startups had something to say as part of the USDA’s recent public comment period on labeling standards for cultivated meat and poultry products. Some 1,700 total comments were received and The Spoon sifted through many of these comments and connected the threads so you don’t have to. You can read Camille Bond’s summary here.

There was lots of other news this week in the alternative protein space, including Wildtype’s distribution agreement, CellMEAT’s new FBS-free growth serum and cultivated shrimp prototype, Eric Jenkusky’s thoughts on the cultivated meat space, and GOOD Meat in Singapore.

Wildtype to bring cultured seafood to retailers and restaurants in the U.S.

In the United States, we will likely be seeing cultivated seafood in sushi bars, restaurants, and grocery stores within the next year. Wildtype, a company based in San Francisco, California, signed an agreement this week with Pokéworks, a restaurant operator with 65 locations, and Snowfox, a sushi bar that operates within grocery stores with 1,230 locations. The intention of the distribution agreement is to allow the masses to get a taste of cultivated seafood in an affordable and accessible manner. Due to the fact that regulatory approval has yet to be granted, it is currently unclear when this distribution will occur.

CellMEAT’s FBS-free growth serum and cultivated Dokdo shrimp

CellMEAT is a cultivated meat/seafood company based in Korea, and this week, the company announced two different pieces of news. First off, the company has successfully developed a growth serum for animal cells that does not require the use of Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS). This particular ingredient raises concern amongst animal welfare groups and activists (because it is harvested from the fetuses of pregnant cows during slaughter), and it is extremely expensive. FBS is one reason why cultivated products have continued to have such a high price tag, but many companies in this space have been working towards changing the ingredients found in their growth serums.

The second piece of news from CellMEAT is that the company unveiled a prototype of its cultivated Dokdo shrimp. The shrimp was actually created with the company’s new FBS-free growth serum. According to CellMEAT, the alternative shrimp was created in a variety of different shapes and sizes for a diversity of cooking applications.

Eric Jenkusky of Matrix Meats calls for transparency in the cultivated meat space

In September, the USDA opened a public comment period to solicit input about the labeling of cultivated meat products. The move was widely seen as an important step forward in the regulatory approval process for the commercial sale of cultivated meat products in the United States, which many anticipate will happen soon. When cultivated meat finally does make it to market, it’s important that consumers know exactly what’s in the product, at least according to Eric Jenkusky. Read the full article here.

Eat Just’s GOOD Meat granted regulatory approval to sell new cultivated chicken products in Singapore

Today Eat Just announced its GOOD Meat division has received the regulatory go-ahead to sell new types of cultivated chicken products in Singapore. The company will debut one of the new formats, a chicken breast, at the JW Marriott Singapore South Beach next week. The green light comes just over a year after the company received the world’s first approval to sell cultivated meat from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), Singapore’s regulatory authority for food safety. Read the full article here.

December 16, 2021

Eric Jenkusky of Matrix Meats Calls for Transparency in the Cultivated Meat Space

In September, the USDA opened a public comment period to solicit input about the labeling of cultivated meat products. The move was widely seen as an important step forward in the regulatory approval process for the commercial sale of cultivated meat products in the United States, which many anticipate will happen soon.

When cultivated meat finally does make it to market, it’s important that consumers know exactly what’s in the product, at least according to Eric Jenkusky. Jenkusky is the CEO of Matrix Meats, a company that makes plant-based scaffolding for alternative protein and cultivated meat products. I caught up with Jenkusky last week to talk about the cultivated meat market, the regulatory approval process, and the role he saw his company playing in all of it.

In the past year, Matrix has had contact with 50 plus companies in the cultivated meat industry, and is currently engaged with 22. It is also now offering companies a wet lab research contract, where it will assist interested cultivated meat companies with the feeding and scaffold protocols.

After a busy 2021, next year will be even busier for Matrix; according to Jenkusky, “We are looking at assisting a few companies in achieving a product, a cultivated food product with at least 50 percent cultivated cells in the paid product by quarter two of 2022.”

When cultivated meat products are unveiled by various companies, Jenkusky said an important question is never asked, “How much of this product is cultivated cells, and what type of cultivated cells are those?” For the sake of the industry’s reputation and the consumers who care about what they’re eating, transparency will be crucial. We are often shown photos are videos of different whole cuts of cultivated meat products, but the composition of these products is rarely disclosed.

As Matrix Meats works with companies to achieve a cultivated meat product, Jenkusky said, “One of the things that we plan on doing is when our product comes, is we’re going to be completely transparent to the world as to what and who we’re working with.” Although the USDA and FDA will be regulating the labeling and overseeing the production of cultivated meat products, it is currently unclear what level of transparency they will demand of these products.

About 40 percent of surveyed consumers expressed that they were afraid of lab-produced products such as cultivated meat. Fear like this often stems from not knowing or understanding what a product is made of and how it was produced. In the plant-based space, alternative meat sales may be dropping to the lack of ingredient transparency. For consumers to adopt cultivated meat, it will be critical to disclose ingredients, cell composition, and the production process.

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