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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Alternative Protein

Food Tech News: Muniq Raises $8.2M for Protein Powder, Danone Launches Plant-Based Cheese

Welcome to this week’s Food Tech News round-up! This week, news that caught our attention included Muniq’s recent funding round, Danone’s new plant-based cheese, Torchy Taco’s new contactless services, and Zero Egg’s restaurant debut.

Muniq raises $8.2 million for blood sugar regulating protein powder

Muniq, a protein powder created specifically for blood sugar control and gut microbiome health, raised $8.2 million in its Series A round. The round was led by Alpha Edison and Acre Venture Partners, with participation from Baron Davis (former NBA star and investor) and Cathy Richards (founder of SimplyProtein). The protein powder contains a high amount of prebiotic resistant starch that can help regulate blood sugar and weight management, and it was developed specifically with those who live with diabetes or struggle with weight loss in mind. Muniq’s five flavors of protein powder include Chocolate, Vanilla Creme, Mocha Latte, Vegan Vanilla, and Vegan Chocolate. A bag of protein powder with 28 servings costs $99 and is available for purchase on the company’s website.

Photo from Danone’s website

Danone launches plant-based cheese through So Delicious Brand

Danone’s So Delicious brand recently announced the release of new dairy-free cheese products, which include plant-based shredded cheese, slices, and spreads. All of the cheeses are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO, but it is currently unclear what the main ingredient in these new products is. The shredded and sliced cheese products are now available in stores such as Target, Walmart, Market Basket, Fresh Thyme across the US. The cheese spreads will be released sometime in March.

Photo from Torchy’s Taco website

CardFree and Torchy’s Taco partner to develop contactless services

Torchy’s Taco, a fast-casual taco chain, partnered with CardFree, a provider of modern ordering services, to revamp online ordering and contactless services in the restaurant’s location. Customers eating at Torchy’s will now be able to use the Text-to-Pay solution, which enables them to pay on a mobile phone for both phone-in and drive-thru orders. The new Order@Table solution allows customers to add to their order while dining in without getting back in line or interacting with a cashier. The taco chain is also trialing curbside pickup with “I’m Here” notifications for curbside pickups; the customer can simply send this notification from their phone to let the restaurant know they have arrived. These new features and services are now available in Torchy’s 83 locations across seven states.

Zero Egg makes debut in Birmingham, AL restaurant

Plant-based egg producer Zero Egg made its first restaurant debut at Tropicaleo, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. The restaurant created a special menu to celebrate Veganuary, and several of the menu items showcase Zero Egg’s soy, potato starch, and chickpea-based eggs. The speciality dishes include breakfast sandwich with vegan cheese, Zero Egg biscuit, and Beyond Meat patty, as well as a rice bowl with Zero Egg scramble, Beyond Meat sausage, and sweet plantains. These menu items are available now, and it is unclear if they will become permanent menu fixtures.

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.

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. 

KFC Launches Plant-Based Zero Chicken Burger in Locations Across Singapore

KFC announced today the launch of its new plant-based burger, called the Zero Chicken Burger, in restaurants throughout Singapore (h/t VegNews). The new menu item is now available in 80 different KFC locations within the city-state for a limited time.

The Zero Chicken Burger is meat-free, but not fully vegan, making it more suitable for vegetarians and flexitarians. The “chicken-free” patty uses a mycoprotein base and is seasoned will KFC’s classic recipe of 11 herbs and spices. In addition to the patty, the burger will include cheese slices, mayo, lettuce, BBQ sauce, and a toasted sesame bun. The nutrition information has not been released for the new item yet, so it is currently unclear if this plant-based burger will contain as much protein as KFC’s regular chicken burger.

This is not the first time KFC has trialed a plant-based menu item. In the summer of 2020, the company served plant-based chicken sandwiches at 50 locations in Southern California for a limited time. In 2019, it sold plant-based fried chicken sandwiches at a location in Mississauga, Ontario for one day. Also in 2019, Beyond Meat fried chicken was available at a KFC location in Atlanta, Georgia, where it sold out in just five hours. The popularity of these trials makes one wonder when KFC will launch a permanent rollout of plant-based menu items.

It is also important to mention how Singapore is becoming a hot spot for food tech and alternative protein developments. Besides KFC’s plant-based burger launch, various other companies are developing and launching alternative protein products in this South Asian nation. Eat Just made its first commercial sale of its cultured chicken meat, called GOOD meat, in Singapore at the end of last year. Perfect Day is opening a new lab in the city-state in April 2021 to continue developing its flora-based alternative dairy products. Cell-based seafood producer Shiok Meats, which raised $12.6 million in its Series A round last year, is also located in Singapore.

KFC’s Zero Chicken Burger will be available for a limited time until supplies last. The plant-based burger costs $6.95 alone or $8.65 for a combo meal that includes a drink and fries.

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.

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.

Outstanding Foods Raises $10M Series A for its Plant-Based Pork Rinds and Puffs

Outstanding Foods, the company behind PigOut Pigless Pork Rinds, announced today that it has raised a $10 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by SternAegis Ventures, which previously led Outstanding Foods’ $5 million round of financing last July.

In addition to PigOut, Outstanding Foods recently launched the plant-based TakeOut Meal-In-A-Bag Puffs snacks. Coming in varieties such as “Pizza Partay” and “Hella Hot,” these puffs are non-GMO, gluten free, certified plant-based, soy-free and contain 21 grams of protein per bag. On its website, Outstanding Foods claims you can eat a bag as a meal. And while I do like their PigOut snacks, I’m not sure I’d serve myself a bag of “Chill Ranch” puffs for dinner anytime soon.

In today’s press announcement, Outstanding Foods said it will use the new funding to expand its retail footprint and its direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing efforts. Outstanding was part of the CPG D2C boom we saw last year, in which PepsiCo, Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and a host of smaller snack brands all made their products available for direct sale to consumers.

Launching D2C sales channels made a lot of sense in 2020 as the pandemic spurred on both initial panic buying (causing empty shelves at local stores) and had people minimizing any trips outside their homes. The pandemic also had us craving snack foods, so the ability to get them delivered to our door was a smart play that not only generated revenue for brands, but also allowed brands to fully own the customer relationship and data.

But Outstanding isn’t putting all its pigless pork rinds in one online basket, the company’s snacks are currently available in real world stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and southwest 7-11 locations.

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.  

Impossible Foods Drops its Prices, Bringing More Parity with Animal Products

Impossible Foods announced yesterday that it was cutting the wholesale prices of its plant-based burger and sausage products, giving the meat alternatives more price parity with traditional, animal-based meat.

CNBC reported that domestic food distributors will now pay 15 percent less for Impossible’s burger and sausage alternatives. International distributors will also get price cuts.

An Impossible spokesperson told CNBC that the price for Impossible Burger is now down as low as $6.80 per pound. The average price for a pound of animal beef patties at the start of this year was $5.32. This is the second price drop for Impossible meat over the past year.

Getting price parity with animal meat is essential for mainstream adoption of plant-based alternatives. According to a report from the Good Food Institute in March of 2020, sales of plant-based meat grew more than 37 percent from 2017 to 2019. Early on in the pandemic, sales of plant-based meat skyrocketed 264 percent as traditional meat supply chains were disrupted by COVID-19 and ethical issues arose around the treatment of workers at meat facilities.

Last summer, Impossible Foods rival Beyond Meat brought the price of its plant-based burgers down through its Cookout Classic SKU. That packaging made each Beyond Meat patty $1.60, compared with $2.42 per patty in its other packaging at the time.

The $1 billion plant-based meat industry is still dwarfed by the market for traditional animal meat, which is valued at $95 billion at retail. However, plant-based meat as we now know it is still a nascent category that has only been around for a couple of years, and Impossible only started making its major push into retail last year. Bringing the price of Impossible burger down to a price point the same as animal meat will remove at least one barrier for those interested in switching (or staying with) plant-based alternatives.

Air Protein Raises $32M to Make Meat From Air

Air Protein, a company using technology to make meat from elements in the air, announced today it has completed a $32 million Series A round of fundraising. The round was led by ADM Ventures, Barclays, and GV (formerly Google Ventures), according to a press announcement sent to The Spoon.

Air Protein’s approach to alternative meat is fairly unique at this point in the evolution of alt-protein. The company feeds elements found in the air, such as carbon dioxide, to microbes in a fermentation tank. The microbes ingest the air elements and output a healthy protein that then gets texturized and turned into various alt meat products. Though the company has not yet named specific types of meat it is developing, it does plan to create products it will sell directly to consumers (as opposed to selling to other food producers). 

Speaking on the phone this week, Air Protein’s CEO and cofounder Dr. Lisa Dyson told me the company’s technology is “very flexible” in terms of the types of meat it can produce. And since air protein, the concept, requires very few resources (e.g., land, water) to produce, it can be produced virtually anywhere in the world.  

To that end, San Francisco Bay Area-based Air Protein plans to use its new funds in part to launch an R&D lab that will help develop different types of alt-meats as well as scale production. On the phone, Dr. Dyson said the lab will allow her company to “produce and expand” its product line, and that the forthcoming R&D innovation lab will be key to that process. 

Air Protein will also use the new funds to recruit and build up its team of employees.

For now, at least, the company is focused on producing only meat alternatives. As Dr. Dyson explained, the traditional meat industry is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters on the planet, as well as an industry that uses unsustainable amounts of resources like land and water. But demand for meat continues to rise, and with a global population moving steadily towards 10 billion people by 2050, the need for alternatives gets more urgent each year. “We need solutions and Air Protein is excited to be one of those solutions,” Dr. Dyson said. 

She was quick to applaud the efforts of other types of alternative meat production, including plant-based meat, and suggested that due to the sheer amount of demand globally for meat, opportunity exists now and will continue to for many different methods and companies. Air Protein’s high-tech, resource-light method for meat is one way to satiate the planet’s appetite for meat without incurring so heavy an environmental burden. 

Vow Foods, Maker of Cell-Based Kangaroo and Other Meats, Raises $6M

Sydney, Australia-based company Vow Foods announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding to further develop alternative forms of meat — chicken, pork, and kangaroo among them. The round was led by Square Peg Capital, with participation from Tenacious Ventures and existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Grok Ventures, according to an email sent to The Spoon.

Investment in the cell-based meat sector has steadily increased over the last several months, though most of that funding has gone towards companies producing alt forms of the most common meats, including chicken, pork, beef, and bacon. 

Like other cell-based meat companies, Vow uses animal cells, rather than actual animals, to produce alternative meat products. In cultivators, it nourishes the animal cells, which then form fat, tissue, and muscle just as they would if they were growing inside the animal itself. 

Unlike others in the space, Vow hasn’t limited itself to just the basics when it comes to meat types. As of this writing, the company has a cell library of 11 different animals that includes more exotic fare such as alpaca, water buffalo, and the aforementioned kangaroo. 

The company did a taste testing of its kangaroo dumpling in 2019. More recently, it held a “culinary demonstration” event that showed off six of its cell-based meat products. The company will also soon open a “food design studio” and laboratory in Sydney to further develop its products. 

And while eating a lab-grown kangaroo might still seem like the stuff of fantasy for many, cell-based meat as a legitimate player in the food industry is very much a reality now. As mentioned above, investment dollars for cell-based meat increased in 2020, and new companies and approaches emerged steadily throughout the year. To cap it all off, cell-based meat got its first-ever regulatory stamp of approval in Singapore, thereby opening the gates of opportunity for others.

Parts of the world — the U.S. being one of them — will probably never see cell-based kangaroo on grocery store shelves. However, Vow’s fundraise this week highlights not just further growth for the cell-based meat sector, but also an interest in the kind of variety and versatility the whole industry needs to continue its march into the mainstream food system.

The LIVEKINDLY Collective Acquires UK-Based Alt-Meat Company No Meat

LIVEKINDLY Collective, collection of alternative protein entrepreneurs and businesses, announced in a press release this week that it has acquired UK-based No Meat. The frozen vegan meat and meal brand joins LIVEKINDLY Collective’s growing portfolio of plant-based food companies.

Prior to the acquisition, No Meat was owned by Iceland Foods, a British supermarket chain that focused on frozen foods. As part of the acquisition, LIVEKINDLY will bring the No Meat brand to new consumers globally, and starting April 2021, Iceland Foods will distribute all of LIVEKINDLY’s existing portfolio brands in Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores across the UK and Ireland.

No Meat produces a variety of frozen alternative meat products, including vegan mushroom steaks, chicken strips and fillets, lamb koftas, fish sticks, sausages, and burgers. Furthermore, the company has a line of ready-to-eat frozen meals like plant-based beef pasties, pizzas, a turkey Christmas dinner, and bolognese.

LIVEKINDLY Collective was founded by the Blue Horizon Group, a food-tech focused venture capital firm, in March 2020. Since its start, it has so far acquired four other plant-based brands including Fry Family Food Co., Like Meat, Oumph!, and media platform LIVEKINDLY.

Refrigerated plant-based meats account for 33 percent of all plant-based meat sales, but frozen plant-based meats actually account for 66 percent, so it seems logical for LIVEKINDLY Collective to add No Meat and its frozen alternative meat products to its portfolio. With the frozen plant-based meat sector is currently valued at $617 million, there is certainly a profitable opportunity for No Meat to expand globally.

With a total of five brands now in LIVEKINDLY’s portfolio, the company is taking steps towards reaching its goal of “making plant-based food the new norm by building a robust ecosystem of founder-led plant-based brands.”