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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Jennifer Marston

Just Salad Debuts Meal Kit Brand to Fight Food Waste, Plastic Packaging

Fast-casual chain Just Salad has launched a meal kit brand it is calling the “next generation of meal kits.” Dubbed Housemade, the line is available now exclusively via Grubhub, according to a blog post from Just Salad.

The standout feature of the new meal kit line (which launched very, very quietly this month), is its purportedly waste-free packaging. Anyone who has ever ordered a traditional meal kit knows that you’re typically left with a mound of plastic, cardboard, and dry ice after the food is prepped.

In contrast, Just Salad says the Housemade line uses “zero plastic packaging.” Instead, meals arrive in curbside recyclable or compostable packaging, and labels on the packages are water soluble. Recipe cards contain disposal instructions for the packaging.

In terms of what actually arrives in a kit, it’s a bit of a cross between a prepared meal delivery and a more traditional kit. For example, the Housemade Mediterranean Chicken Salad comes with uncooked chicken, rice, vegetables, and other ingredients. Items are pre-portioned out, so that the customer just has to put them into single pan and cook for 15 minutes. Since Just Salad won’t be using dry ice or other cold storage materials for its packages, meals are meant to be delivered within an hour. There is no subscription to purchase the Housemade kits, which start at $10.49 for a single serving. Users can simply head over to Just Salad’s page on the Grubhub app or website.

Meal kits as a category has long been championed as a potential avenue for fighting food waste because ingredients are pre-portioned and users get exactly what they need for each meal. The tradeoff for that convenience up to now has been excess amounts of packaging waste, which rather nullifies any other sustainable aspects of the meal kit.

Just Salad said in its blog post that its Housemade kits have “91 percent less packaging by weight than the average meal kit.” Again, the reason that is possible is because kits are have few ingredients, are available in single-serving sizes, and are meant to be delivered within an hour. Traditional meal kits, on the other hand, serve entire families, usually require a subscription, and are shipped across the country. All of those factors require more protective packaging (insulating, shipping, etc.) for any given order. Just Salad’s tactic of using its own locations to fulfill orders and delivering those orders within an hour automatically removes some of the packaging problem from the process.

In its blog post, Just Salad said meal kits “have a crucial redeeming feature,” which is fighting food waste, but that the industry must “rethink the meal kit concept” in order to effectively cut down on packaging waste.

Impact Investor Norrsken Is Taking Applications for Its Food-Tech-Focused Accelerator Program

Stockholm, Sweden-based Norrsken Foundation announced this week it will launch an eight-week accelerator program this summer for startups, including those working in the food tech realm. 

The Norrsken Impact Accelerator will, as its name suggests, look for companies enacting positive change across all areas of sustainability that encompass the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. While Norskken says on the program’s website that it supports startups “across all verticals,” food tech is a particular focus this year. Norskken did not name exact areas of food tech, but given its alignment with the UN SDGs, it’s safe to assume the program is looking for companies that work in areas like health and wellness, food waste, food insecurity, alternative protein sources, and other areas with a sustainability angle. 

Companies should ideally be at early (pre-seed) stage. While geographically they can be based anywhere in the world, applicants should plan to relocate to Stockholm for the duration of the program if accepted. Norrsken will choose 20 companies from the pool of applicants to participate in the eight-week program, which begins on July 5, 2021. 

Chosen companies won’t follow a set curriculum. Rather, they will focus on the issues most pressing to their specific company’s journey, whether that’s product development, regulatory issues, marketing, or strategy. Mentorship is also a big part of Norrsken’s program. Companies participating will get access to a range of executive mentors from Oatly, Voi, Klarna, Wild Earth, and many others.

Participants will also receive a $100,0000 investment (with 5 percent equity) at the start of the program and a chance to pitch to potential investors via a demo day near the program’s end. 

Applications are open until February 28.

Kitchen United Plans a Massive Expansion for Its Ghost Kitchen Network

Kitchen United will expand its ghost kitchen network significantly in 2021, the company said during a talk at this week’s ICR conference (h/t Restaurant Dive). Michael Montagano, KU’s CEO, said he expects the company to grow its number of locations from its current four to 20 by the end of the year, which would equal 500 percent growth for KU in total units.

The company currently operates ghost kitchen facilities in Pasadena, California and Chicago, Illinois, as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona and Austin, Texas. According to Montagano’s ICR presentation, Kitchen United’s 2021 expansion will include new facilities in those existing “high-volume” markets as well as kitchen facilities in completely new locations, like New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Plans for this massive expansion come as restaurants continue to struggle with closures and capacity restrictions brought about by the pandemic and the industry continues shifting en masse to off-premises formats like ghost kitchens and virtual restaurants. And even when those limitations are lifted, general consensus is that meal formats like takeout and delivery are here to stay, which means more restaurants will continue seeking kitchen space in which to fulfill those orders.

Underscoring the demand for more kitchen space, Montagano said during ICR that Kitchen United’s existing facilities are full, and that existing customers want to continue growing with the KU platform. To date, Kitchen United’s facilities have served most known brand names, including The Halal Guys, Dog Haus, and Wetzel’s Pretzels. A move to more and different parts of the country may allow more regional chains to take advantage of the company’s kitchen infrastructure, too.

In larger cities like New York and San Francisco, Kitchen United will have plenty of competition. Zuul is already an established player in New York City, with plans for expansion around the five boroughs. San Francisco has the super-secretive CloudKitchens, Reef, which raised a whopping $700 million last year, and, in the Peninsula area, DoorDash Kitchens.  

Ÿnsect Plans to Make Its Edible Mealworms Available for Human Consumption in Europe, the U.S.

From the locust to the Goliath Beetle, insects of many kinds are a regular part of people’s diets in many parts of the world, including Mexico, South Korea, Australia, and multiple African nations. In Western cultures, folks are far less excited about the prospect of eating bugs, though that is slowly changing. Just this week, the bugs-as-protein got another boost when Paris-based Ÿnsect announced it will enter the market for human food following a positive assessment of mealworms from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Up to now, Ÿnsect has historically always farmed insects to use as fish and pet food as well as fertilizer. Specifically, the company focuses on Molitor larvae, also known as the mealworm. Mealworms are the larvae form of the darkling beetle, and this week, the EFSA officially declared them fit for human consumption “under the procedures required by the European Union regarding new food legislation,” according to Ÿnsect’s press release.

“This is a recognition that mealworm ingredients are premium products as they are uniquely ‘food grade’ compared to other insects used only in animal feed,” the company said.

For Ÿnsect, that means a move towards farming mealworms for human consumption, especially as part of sports and nutrition edibles. Before any food businesses in Europe can enter the market, it must first file a Novel Food application and get it approved. Ÿnsect said this week it has already done so, and also plans to file a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) request in the U.S. “in the coming months.”

In Western countries, at least, there’s a well-documented “ick” factor when it comes to eating insects, Squirmy, slimy bits that they are, mealworms might require even more effort on the part of edible insect startups when it comes to helping consumers overcome their doubts. (We had our own heated discussion about mealworms last year on a weekly Spoon podcast.)

That said, our food has more insect parts than one might think, since it is “impossible” to completely remove all insects when harvesting and processing certain crops. Because of that, the USDA actually already permits a certain amount of insects or their parts in foods. In other words, Ÿnsect will in all likelihood receive GRAS for its mealworms once it files in the U.S.

In Europe, the company will compete with multiple others in bringing Molitor larvae to the masses. Notable among those is Sweden-based startup Tebrito, which raised €800,000 at the end of 2020 to scale up production of its nutrient-rich powder made from mealworms. And in Finland, EntoCube grows insects for human consumption. Outside Europe, Beobia has an at-home countertop device for growing mealworms in your own kitchen, should you so desire.

The EFSA’s recognition isn’t quite final: the favorable assessment has to be confirmed by European Commission’s Health Directorate General, which will give final market authorization for the European Union. 

Yelp Now Displays Feedback on Restaurants’ COVID-19 Safety Measures

Yelp users will now be able to provide feedback on restaurants’ COVID-19-related health and safety practices, according to a company blog post from this week. 

Effective now, Yelp will display if users observed — or did not observe — practices like social distancing and the wearing of masks at restaurants and other businesses. The information will be posted on the business’s Yelp page under a “Health and Safety Measures” heading in the COVID-19 section (see image above).

Yelp says that to ensure the feedback is fair and accurate, several different criteria must be met before COVID-19 safety information can be listed on its page, including:

  • Multiple user responses “with consensus from multiple users” on social distancing and mask-wearing
  • Responses received within the last 28 days
  • Responses from users logged into their Yelp account

For businesses with multiple locations, the user feedback will only be relevant for the location which the reviewing users visited.

To provide feedback, users can either answer survey questions, much as they would when contributing feedback on other aspects of a restaurant, or they can use the “edit” button on the restaurant’s COVID-19 updates section. Yelp will also notify users via push notification when a relevant restaurant has updated its COVID-19 information. 

For restaurants and other businesses that want to be a little more proactive and display their COVID-19 safety efforts, Yelp will also now allow them to list whether they have the following services: staff checked for symptoms, contactless and/or disposable menus, heated outdoor seating, covered outdoor seating, indoor dining, private dining, and DIY meal kits.

One of the major points we discussed at last October’s Smart Kitchen Summit was that visualizing cleanliness and safety in restaurants is now “table stakes” for restaurants. Even after a vaccine is widely available, consumers are likely to demand more visual cues about a business’s health and safety practices. So while Yelp’s new feature is a response to a (hopefully) short-term situation, user-generated feedback on these areas will be a standard feature moving forward for most restaurant review platforms. 

CookUnity Raises $15.5M to Expand ‘Chef-to-Consumer’ Meal Service

Meal subscription service CookUnity announced today it has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Fuel Venture Capital with participation from new and existing investors, including IDC Ventures, which led CookUnity’s seed round of funding. The Series A round brings CookUnity’s total funding to date to $23 million. 

The Brooklyn, NY-based company said it plans to use the new funds to expand its service across North America, grow its marketing efforts, and open two new kitchens, in California and Texas, to support the expansion.

CookUnity bills itself as a “chef-to-consumer platform.” Its subscription service, which currently serves New York City, offers users weekly choices of meals made by a wide range of local chefs, from those with Michelin stars to up-and-coming ones. Pricing starts at $10.49 per meal, with food options serving a fairly wide range of dietary needs and preferences. Meals arrive fully prepared, with instructions for heating and plating. 

For chefs, both established and up and coming, CookUnity’s platform provides another way to reach potential customers. This is especially important at a time when most restaurants are still operating under capacity restrictions. Consumers over the last several months have turned to other means of getting dinner on the table. One of those ways has been meal kits and subscription services, a sector that’s seen something of a resurgence in recent months. Bringing chefs, many of which have been out of work because of the pandemic, to the meal kit sector seems an obvious way to create new food options for consumers and opportunities for those making the food.

To that end, CookUnity says it plans to expand its roster of chefs in the coming months. The company currently has 32 chefs participating and says it will aggressively expand that number to around 150 by mid-2022. The new kitchen locations opening in Los Angeles and Texas will also expand CookUnity’s chef roster beyond local NYC chefs. 

Grubhub to Offer In-Car Ordering Through Fiat Vehicles

In-vehicle tech company Lear Corporation announced today that its Xevo software businesses has partnered with Grubhub to bring food ordering capabilities to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Drivers will be able to order food from the third-party delivery service via an app on FCA’s Uconnect Market platform. 

FCA vehicles will be the first to offer Grubhub’s service as an in-vehicle feature. Once signed into their Grubhub account via the in-car system, customers can order ahead and pay for their meal on the go before picking it up from the restaurant. Users will also be able to reorder past meals market as “favorites.”

An additional feature lets users discover “new favorites,” too. If a customer is driving by a restaurant from which theY have never ordered, they can tap a button that will forward the restaurant’s menu to their email. Needless to say, drivers can’t browse the menu of a new restaurant while actually driving the car. 

Given restaurant tech’s current focus on making the customer meal journey speedier and more efficient, adding order-ahead and pay features to the car seems like a no-brainer. Grubhub may be the first third-party delivery service to land in the car, but the Xevo deal is not the first go-around for in-vehicle restaurant service. In 2019, Domino’s teamed up with both Xevo and Chevrolet for in-vehicle ordering deals. Also in 2019, BMW partnered with Olo to make food ordering directly available from BMW vehicles. 

FCA’s Uconnect platform, meanwhile, is available on 2019 and 2020 models of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Grubhub is available soon to those drivers as well.

Next Up for Cellular Agriculture: Scalability, Accessibility

At one point in the not-too-distant past, the idea of edible protein grown in a lab was the stuff of science fiction. But in what’s felt like a relatively short period of time (a few years), a greater number of companies, individuals, and investors have embraced the concept of cellular agriculture and, more and more, consider it a vital part of our future food system. 

Now the cell-based protein sector has a new set of challenges to tackle. As HigherSteaks’ Benjamina Bollag and BIOMILQ’s Michelle Egger discussed this week during The Spoon’s Food Tech Live event, we’re past the days of trying to convince folks that cellular agriculture is a viable reality. Now, companies have to prove the idea of growing protein in a lab can work at scale outside that lab to feed a growing world population, and do so while keeping environmental degradation minimal.

It’s not exactly a simple feat (understatement), and it certainly won’t happen next week (or next year). But during this week’s Food Tech Live, Bollag and Egger pinpointed not just the areas cellular agriculture needs to focus on in order to continue its evolution towards the mainstream, but also ideas for how to get there.

Among those are safety and quality assurance, equipment design, supply chain logistics, and cell culture density, to name just a few things. Egger added that one of the challenges cellular agriculture companies face right now is they are relying on technology from industries (biotech, Pharma) that have never had to scale to the level of mass commodity, which essentially the holy grail for cell ag companies.

Perhaps the biggest — and most important — challenge for these companies will be making cell-cultured protein, whether meat, breast milk, cheese, or eggs, into the hands of many. In other words, how do we make it more accessible to everyone?

It’s a question that isn’t possible to answer in the span of a 30-minute online chat, but definitely one the industry as a whole should consider now, though we’re years away from reaching that stage of mass commodity. Right now, a select few consumers can get their hands on alternative proteins grown in a lab. Those are usually the folks invited to exclusive taste-testings or the ones that can afford the rare fine dining experience for cultured protein.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that if you truly want to reduce the amount of environmental degradation or provide more options to people or subsidize diets in a healthier manner, you have to get into the hands of everyone throughout this world,” said Egger.

That in turn will require more strategic thinking on the part of the industry in terms of how to reach a wider audience. It will also require collaboration amongst the difference companies currently innovating across the cellular agriculture sector.

Delivery Hero Launches its Own VC Fund, DX Ventures, to Invest Across Food Tech

Global food delivery service Delivery Hero announced today the official launch of its own venture capital fund that will invest in food, delivery, and other areas of the food industry. Called DX Ventures, the fund has a dedicated pool of long-term capital to devote to companies working in on-demand services, food tech, fintech, artificial intelligence, and logistics, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Duncan McIntyre, Managing Director of DX Ventures, said the fund was something Delivery Hero has been thinking about for a number of years, and that investments into other companies is a strong part of how the service has been built over the years. “We’ve made about $500 million [in] minority investments over the last couple years,” he told me over the phone recently. Out of the success of those investments came the next obvious step: formalizing the concept of Delivery Hero as an investor. Hence, DX Ventures.

The fund will start off with a focus on early-stage companies, such as those at Series A level. “The aim of the fund is to look at industries and areas that are going to be disruptive over the next 10 years,” McIntyre said. That could include food delivery, but it might also include adjacent areas, such as alternative proteins, packaging alternatives, or supply chain features.

He added that DX Ventures will also look for companies that compliment the core Delivery Hero platform. Delivery Hero, for example, has added grocery delivery to its list of services (see the company’s $360 million acquisition of InstaShop last year). McIntyre suggested that companies contributing to the grocery delivery sector might be appropriate candidates to receive investment from DX Ventures. Other examples might include companies that can improve the restaurant delivery experience by providing better tracking, shorter delivery windows, lower price points, or healthier food options. “There’s a lot of efficiency to be gained in the food system,” said McIntyre.

All of the above examples are hypothetical at this point, as DX Ventures has yet to announce any companies it is investing in. At the moment, the fund is actively looking for companies in which to invest over the long term.

Potential companies can be located anywhere geographically speaking, though the fund will also focus on markets where Delivery Hero already has a presence. At the moment, that includes no less than 50 countries across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. 

DX Ventures will be independently managed from Delivery Hero.

NPD: QSRs Outpace Full-Service Restaurants in Terms of Transaction Improvements

The restaurant industry closed 2020 by “moving its way out of the steepest declines the industry has experienced since the Great Recession,” according to a new update from The NPD Group. 

Restaurant transactions in December 2020 were down 10 percent compared to the same period one year ago. However, that figure is a 27-point improvement from restaurant transactions in April 2020 — at the height of shelter-in-place mandates in the U.S. — when transactions were down 37 percent from the previous year.

NPD’s numbers suggest some much-needed improvement for the restaurant industry overall, after nearly a year of lockdowns, capacity restrictions, and consumer fears around eating out.

That improvement doesn’t look equal across all sectors in the restaurant biz, though. NPD notes in its recent report that full-service restaurants, which typically did not have much in the way of to-go strategies in place at the start of 2020, “bore the brunt of transaction declines throughout the pandemic.” In April, full-service transactions declined by -70 percent compared to a year ago; they improved to -30 percent in December.

Individual state restrictions also have something to do with the numbers around full-service restaurants. NPD noted that In more restrictive states, full service restaurant chain transactions are down 60 percent to 70 percent. In less restrictive states, “there isn’t as much of a gap between quick service and full service restaurants.” 

Most major QSRs were already better prepared to shift to off-premises operations when the pandemic struck in full force last year. Some, like Chipotle and Starbucks, had existing strategies in place around digital, drive-thru, and express store formats. Others, like McDonald’s, had the deep pockets and technical expertise to pivot quickly — a luxury most smaller chains and independent restaurants cannot afford.

According to NPD, major QSRs’ takeout, drive-thru, and delivery orders “soared” over the last several months, despite restrictions across the overall restaurant industry: “Quick service customer transaction declines bottomed out in April with a decline of -35% versus year ago, but quickly improved as shelter-at-home orders were lifted. In December, quick service restaurant chain customer transaction declines were down -8% versus last year.”

With things like speed of service, simpler menus, and more-efficient kitchens remaining top priorities for restaurants in 2021, improvements to the overall industry is likely to remain divided between the quick-service chains and their full-service counterparts for some time to come.

Green Monday Brings Its Plant-Based Pork to U.K. Restaurants for the First Time

Plant-based food company Green Monday will expand its global reach beyond Asia starting with its first-ever restaurant partnerships in the U.K. The Hong Kong-based company’s OmniPork product, a plant-based version of minced pork, arrived in the U.K. this week as part of several restaurants’ Veganuary menus, according to an article from Green Queen Media.

Nine restaurants will carry OmniPork on their menus as part of their participation in Veganuary. Green Monday described these restaurant partnerships as the company’s “soft launch” into the U.K. The company will officially launch in both foodservice and retail in the U.K. later this year.

Participating restaurants this month include Plant Hustler in Bournemouth and Eat Chay in Shoreditch, as well as online delivery services Alta Foods, Viet Vegan, and Kay Kay Foods.

OmniPork already enjoys a sizable presence across Asia, including China, Singapore, Macau, and Thailand. Notably, Green Monday struck a covetable partnership with McDonald’s in 2020 to bring OmniPork to the mega-QSR’s restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau. Green Monday also raised $70 million last year, part of which will go towards further expansion of OmniPork’s geographical reach. Green Monday’s expansion comes the same week Discos, one of China’s leading QSR chains, completely swapped out chicken-based eggs for a plant-based alternative on its menu, highlighting the increasing demand from consumers for alternative proteins. By some accounts, demand for alternative protein is expected to increase 200 percent over the next five years in certain parts of Asia.

Over in Europe, the market for plant-based meat and dairy alternatives is expected to reach €7.5 billion (~$9.1 billion USD) by 2025. As in Asia, shifting consumer eating habits are the major force driving this growth.   

The U.S. remains the largest market for alternative protein, though others are catching up fast. This week’s news from Green Monday and the company’s forthcoming expansion to the U.K. and beyond is further proof of that.

A Leading QSR Chain in China Ditches Chicken Eggs for Eat Just’s Plant-Based Version

Eat Just announced this week its plant-based egg products have landed on the menu of Discos, one of China’s leading fast-food chains. More importantly, Discos won’t just be offering the JUST egg alongside animal-based eggs. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the JUST egg will outright replace its traditional counterpart in several menu items.

Plant-based foods on QSR menus aren’t new — in fact, they’re arguably standard fare at this point. Eat Just’s news is, however, the first time a major quick-service chain has completely switched out an animal-based protein for a plant-based version, which could signal a new shift for the direction of QSR menus over the next several years.

Discos will start the switchover with 500 locations across Bejing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin and Hainan provinces. (The chain has roughly 2,600 stores across 32 provinces in China.) The JUST egg will be in three different breakfast burgers, three breakfast bagel sandwiches, and on a western-style breakfast plate.

Discos’ full shift to plant-based eggs also seems a long-term strategic play for the brand. Demand for plant-based meat in China is expected increase by 200 percent over the next five years, according to a December 2020 study by DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences. According to the firm, the change is “driven by consumer values around health, taste, and sustainability.”

The JUST egg, meanwhile, has been available in China since 2019 in both retail and foodservice businesses, as well as through e-commerce sites Tmall and JD.com.

Discos’ chief marketing officer Xie Yahui suggested in today’s press release that the decision to swap out the chicken egg for a plant-based one was a decision driven by consumer preference: “The introduction of JUST Egg at Discos is a product and brand upgrade based on consumers’ increasing interest in nutrition, healthier diets and environmental awareness,” she said. She added that future menu offerings from Eat Just will be based on consumers’ reactions to these first dishes available.

This swap by Discos most likely isn’t a one-off occurrence. Worldwide, demand for plant-based protein has steadily grown for the last couple years, with 2020 being an all-out banner year for popularity and investment dollars. QSRs, meanwhile, are drastically changing, from their store formats to what’s on the menu. Overhauling the amount of animal-based protein on those menus seems a logical next step, for China and beyond.