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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Food Tech News: Wild Type Is Looking for Chefs, White Castle Is Offering Rewards

Some final bits of food tech news from ’round the web this week:

Wild Type Has a Pre-Order List for Chefs

While still a good five years out from commercial production, Wild Type said this week it has opened a pre-order list for chefs wanting to include the company’s cell-based seafood into their dishes. Right now, the company is developing a cultured salmon prototype that would work in sushi dishes. Wild Type cofounder Justin Kolbeck clarified that the company is not launching its product, just “releasing news” that they “have the next iteration of the product.

White Castle Launches a Rewards Program

White Castle has launched its first-ever rewards platform, called “the Craver Nation loyalty program.” Like other digital rewards programs out there, Craver Nation will offer discounts and deals to loyal customers that sign up for the White Castle mobile app. The program was trialed earlier this summer in Louisville, Ky. and is another digital tool in the chain’s quickly-growing arsenal of them.

Asia-based abillionveg Raises Fresh Funding

Singapore-based app abillionveg announced this week that it has closed a $3 million pre-Series A round, with participation from Nan Fung Group, CloudKitchens, and York Capital. The app features community-led reviews for vegan and vegetarian products, including both retail and restaurant offerings. Simultaneous to the funding news, the company announced it has struck partnerships with plant-based heavyweight Impossible Foods and restaurant-booking platform Chope.

Cornucopia Farms Is Building a Large-Scale Hydroponic Farm in Georgia

Leafy green lovers, take note. Marietta, Ga.-based Cornucopia Farms said this week it is completing construction on a 56,000-square-foot hydroponic farm two hours east of Atlanta. The farm will grow all manner of greens, including herbs, Romaine, and Bibb lettuce, among other types, and will produce an estimated 12 million heads of leafy greens and 2 million pounds of herbs per year when it is completed. That won’t be for a minute, though: completion of the project is expected at some point in the latter half of 2021.

Food Tech News: Lettuce Glow, Plus More Expansions for Food Tech Companies

Since most of us are still relatively homebound, it’s no surprise much of the food tech news of late has been about grocery, grocery delivery, farming at home, and big food brands going the direct-to-consumer route.

Herewith, the latest developments in those areas from around the web this week:

Lettuce Grow’s Farmstand Gets a Glow

Lettuce Grow, a smart-garden company founded by Jacob Pechenik and Zooey Deschanel, announced this week a new accoutrement for all your at-home farming needs. The company is launching its Glow Rings LED indoor grow lights as an add-on to its Farmstand hydroponic vertical garden. The garden, which we covered back when it was first released, previously lacked any lighting technology and had to be kept outside. The addition of the Glow Ring means those would-be agtech enthusiasts with no outdoor space can try their hand at the indoor smart-farming concept. 

Giant Food Stores grows Mid-Atlantic footprint | Supermarket News

A Giant Partnership for Union Kitchen

Grocery chain Giant Food is expanding its partnership with Washington, D.C.-based food accelerator Union Kitchen. The chain will offer more products from Union Kitchen participants — all of whom are food and bev producers — through its grocery delivery program. For shoppers, it means access to more locally made and/or grown goods.

JUST Is Expanding to More U.S. Stores . . . Again

Eat JUST, the company behind plant-based egg product JUST, said this week via an email to The Spoon that it is in the midst of what it calls its largest expansion yet. By the end of September, the company will have its products at “more than 17,000 points of retail distribution” across the U.S., a 40 percent increase that includes stores like Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and Safeway. Food Lion, Giant Food, and many other local stores are also on the list.

Food Tech News: The Great Vending Machine Bug-Out, Food Tech Lawsuits Galore

We may be all-in on next-gen vending machines here at The Spoon, but does that mindset apply to those currently dispensing edible tarantula in a can? Read on to decide for yourself. Also, it’s another week another lawsuit for third-party food delivery services, this time in the booming online grocery sector.

Edible Insets Arrive in Japan’s Vending Machines

Japan, a country famous for its vending machine culture, has upped the ante recently by selling bugs out of these machines. Kotaku reports that, though still not terribly common, an increasing number of vending machines around the country now sell edible insects, from crickets to grasshoppers to (for the really adventurous soul) scorpion and tarantula. 

Now DoorDash Isn’t Getting Sued for Price-Gouging

DoorDash was dropped from a recent lawsuit that alleges third-party food delivery services used the pandemic as an excuse to price-gouge homebound New Yorkers. Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates are all named in the suit, too. The voluntary dismissal noted that consumers leading the suit “reserved the right to refile against DoorDash.”

Instacart Facing Lawsuit Over Service Fees

Grocery service Instacart faces a lawsuit alleging the company charged millions in “deceptive service fees” to customers and also failed to pay hundreds of thousands in sales tax. D.C. Customers were “tricked” into “believing they were tipping grocery delivery workers when, in fact, the company was charging them extra fees and pocketing the money,” said DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine, who filed the suit. Previously, Racine sued DoorDash over its former tipping policy for drivers. 

Food Tech News: Virtual Derby Fare Is Upon Us

The Kentucky Derby is around the corner! Not that I or many other folks will be physically present for the famed event this year. We will, however, be cooking up some classic Derby fare, courtesy of the internet. Read on for more on that as well as other food tech news bits from the last week.

Virtual Derby Menu 2020

Churchill Downs Racetrack, home of the Kentucky Derby, is once again offering an at-home Derby menu for couch-bound attendees of the famous event — of which there will be many more this year, given the venue’s reduced capacity requirements. For the event, taking place September 5, Churchill Downs has created an at-home menu fans can access online and create in their own home kitchens. 

Africa’s First High-Tech Greenhouse

Van der Hoeven Horticultural Projects has started construction on the first fully automated glass lettuce greenhouse in Africa. The greenhouse, outside Cairo, Egypt and roughly 2.5 hectares in size, will grow herbs and lettuce, while automation technology will regulate climate and plant density for more optimal growing in desert conditions.

The Profitability of Plant-Based Eggs

Eat Just, maker of the famed JUST plant-based egg, is on track to profitability, according to a report this week from Reuters. The company aims to turn an operating profit before the end of next year is also considering and initial public offering.

Target All-In on Online Grocery

Target announced this week that its grocery pickup service is now available across the U.S. The service is now available in about 85 percent of its stores. For now, only Target’s most popular items (about 750 of them) are available for pickup, though the ongoing popularity of online grocery could change that in the future.

Food Tech News: New Meals from Sun Basket, a Dr. Pepper Shortage, and Virtual Concession Stands

These days, food tech news is flying by at breakneck speed — sort of like how I’ll be doing this weekend on my paddle board. Before that can happen, though, here are a few last bits of intel from the past week to keep you up to date on your food tech, whether you’re spending the weekend lakeside, curbside, or on your couch. Just don’t plan on a Dr. Pepper to go with it.

Sun Basket launches no-prep meal kits.

Meal kit company Sun Basket this week launched its Fresh & Ready line of products, which the company says can go straight into the microwave or oven and be ready in as little as six minutes. This new line is available as part of Sun Basket’s weekly meal plan subscription, and maintain the company’s focus on fresh, organic ingredients sourced from family-owned farms.  

Refill brings virtual concessions stands to Ohio high schools.

Refill, a company that makes virtual concession stand technology for things like sporting events, announced this week it is testing out its platform in Ohio high schools. The system uses features like contactless ordering and payments to make the process of grabbing grub during a ballgame more efficient and socially distanced.

Kroger is launching a marketplace strategy.

Kroger will double its online grocery inventory through a new digital marketplace strategy. The move, which is an obvious bid to compete with Target, Amazon, and other online heavyweights, will initially focus specialty retailers with natural, organic, and international products. The launch will also include housewares, toys, and other items.

There’s a Dr. Pepper shortage. 

Hang tight, soda lovers. Dr. Pepper had to reassure fans this week that its products would be back on store shelves in full force soon. “We’re doing everything we can to get it back into your hands,” the company tweeted, adding that it’s working with distributors to do so.

Food Tech News: Kroger Pilots Contactless Pay, How QSRs Could Change the Whole Food System

Had your fill of food tech news for the week? Of course you haven’t. With that in mind, here are a few more bits and bites to carry your appetite for food tech through the weekend.

Kroger Launches Contactless Payments

Kroger launched a pilot for contactless payments in Seattle, WA this week. The test will take place in the grocery retailer’s QFC division, and allow customers to use their mobile phones to pay for groceries. The system accepts a number of payment types: Apple, Google, Samsung, Fitbit, and mobile banking apps. 

Microsoft and Land O’Lakes Bringing More Tech to Rural Areas

Farming technology is all well and good, but farms first need to have access to broadband. As AgFunder points out, 18 to 40 million Americans do not have that connectivity, especially those in rural areas. To address that issue, Microsoft and Land O’Lakes said this week they are working together to bring more connectivity to farms and rural areas.

Hostess Opens Innovation Lab

Hostess Brands has opened a new innovation lab in Kansas that employs researchers, product testers, and bakers creating new kinds of snack cakes. The lab will test and develop new prototypes for food products, which means we could well have a new kind of Twinkie in our hands in the future.

How about now no cow?

If QSRs swapped beef with alternative proteins in their products, they could completely alter the food system. That’s the premises of an excellent new article from Wired, which outlines the problems with our over-reliance on beef and how fast-food chains can use their wide availability and low prices to change consumer attitudes about meat.

Food Tech News: Shelf Engine Raises $12M, Willie Nelson Does AgTech

There was much ado about food tech funding this week. Seriously. Between Cooks Ventures’ Series A, Zuul’s $9 million round, and all the figures in between, we barely had time to write about anything else. With that in mind, here are a few more bites of food tech news before another weekend of staying at home starts.

Shelf Engine raises $12 million.

Seattle-based Shelf Engine, whose AI tech manages grocery store inventory to cut down on food waste, announced this week it had raised $12 million. The round was led by GGV Capital and included participation from Initialized Capital, Foundation Capital, Correlation Ventures, 1984, Founders’ Co-op, and Liquid 2 Ventures.

Ikea sets launch date for plant-based meatballs.

This one’s for fans of DIY furniture who also happen to love plant-based meat. Ikea finally unveiled a plant-based version of its famous meatball made from yellow pea protein. Meatballs will be available on August 3 in the U.K. and September 28 in the U.S. in the frozen food section of its stores as well as in the cafeteria. That’s assuming, of course, that the pandemic hasn’t shut us all down again.

Image via Shock Ink/Pamela Springsteen.

Willie Nelson backs regenerative agriculture.

Last year it was CBD-infused coffee. This year, Willie Nelson is making his contribution to the food industry by backing regenerative agriculture. AFN reported this week that regenerative ag business TerraPuerzza has partnered with the country icon to bring regenerative land, water, and resource management techniques to Willie’s 500-acre Luck Ranch in Texas.

Domino’s launches a website for recycling pizza boxes. 

Domino’s and its main box supplier, WestRock, launched recycling.dominos.com this week to better educate consumers on how to recycle their pizza boxes. That includes clearing up some recycling myths (yes, you can recycle a box with grease on it) as well as helping folks understand what to do if their area does not accept recycling.

 

Food Tech News: Cell-Based Seafood and a New Documentary on Urban Farming

Whether your weekend plans involve golf, Instagram listening parties, or baking yet-another loaf of quarantine bread, add a side dish of food tech news to your agenda to get things started. Here are a final few bits from this past week. 

Call It Cell-Based Seafood

A consumer study by Rutgers University professor William Hallman has found that “cell-based” is the preferred term for describing seafood made from cells grown in a lab. Other labels up for consideration were “cultivated,” “cell-cultured,” “cultured,” and “produced using cellular aquaculture.” The final text of the study, which was funded by BlueNalu, a company in the cell-based fish game, will be published in the near future.

Stop & Shop Launches a Digital Nutrition Program

Joining in the trend of offering nutritionists for grocery shoppers, Stop & Shop this week announced its Nutrition Partners program. The free program will be 100 percent digital at first, connecting shoppers with registered dietitians. It will also offer webinars, recipes, cooking demos, and other nutritional education online. In the event we ever make it out of the pandemic, the program will eventually be available in-person.

JUST Heads to Canada

JUST, makers of the plant-based egg that uses mung bean as its main protein, announced its expansion into Canadian grocery stores. According to an email sent to The Spoon, the company will launch its frozen folded egg product in Whole Foods and Walmart stores in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Ottawa. JUST is also working with regulators to bring its pourable egg product into Canada, too.

2-Min Trailer for "Hearts of Glass – A Vertical Farm Takes Root in Wyoming"

Watch: New Documentary Follows Urban Farm Workers With Disabilities

A new documentary, “Heart of Glass,” will air on over 200 TV stations this month to coincide the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (July 26). The film details the story behind the creation of Wyoming indoor vertical farm Vertical Harvest, which provides employment for persons with disabilities. Check the trailer above and mark your calendars.

Week in Restaurants: A Classic SoCal Diner Goes Off-Premises, Dom’s Still Checking Pizzas

Why are you reading this and not grilling up a delicious Beyond Burger this holiday weekend?

As long as you’re here, let’s take a quick look at the week in restaurants. And what a week it was. With states halting the reopening of dining rooms, it’s clear the effects of the pandemic are far from over in the restaurant industry. Yet business keeps on, and there were a number of noteworthy developments from this week around ghost kitchens, AI pizza checkers, and the greatest diner of all time.

New NORMS

NORMS, a much-loved diner chain in Southern California, this week debuted NORMS Junior, a new store prototype geared towards to-go orders. The company says NORMS Junior will be the model for future NORMS locations — no surprise, given the pandemic’s effect on dining rooms (see above). NRN has some great slides of what this new NORMS will look like.

Next Stop for Wingstop: Ghost Kitchens

Also riding the off-premises wave strong is fast-casual chain Wingstop, who this week opened its first ghost kitchen in its hometown of Dallas, TX. The new facility is less than 400 square feet and is for delivery-only orders. Wingstop says one of its goals is to digitize 100 percent of its transactions. A delivery-only ghost kitchen will aid in that.

Taco Bell Redoes Digital Rewards

Simply dubbed Taco Bell Rewards, the new app-based loyalty program comes five years after the band’s original rewards program. Apparently the idea of a new loyalty app was so popular it sent Taco Bell traffic through the roof and temporarily crashed the site. To access the new rewards program, customers can download the latest version of the Taco Bell app, which includes a beta version of Taco Bell Rewards.

AI Will Continue Checking Your Pizzas

Domino’s and Dragontail Systems said this week they will continue their partnership, which puts Dragontail’s AI tech in Domino’s restaurants to ensure quality. The smart scanner uses advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence, and sensor technology to check the quality of pies before the go out for delivery. (Dragontail’s tech can also be used to ensure proper sanitization in restaurants.) The continuation of the partnership means more of these pizza scanners across more Domino’s locations. So far, the partnership between the two companies has been limited to Domino’s locations Australia. They have not yet said if this extended partnership will bring the technology to stores elsewhere in the world.

A (High-Tech) Sign of the Times

Of all the reinventions the restaurant is undertaking right now, menus are one of the more fascinating. Between calls to action about paring down the size of their menus, offering disposable ones, or, preferably, going full-on digital and contactless, restaurants have a lot of choices and decisions to make when it comes to how they will present their menus in the future. It’s not a question of wanting to or not. The pandemic, social distancing guidelines, and new regulations for restaurants have, as I wrote a couple weeks ago, rendered the reusable menu null and void.

In some cases, a simple sign that connects customers to the menu might be the best way forward, at least for now.

A boat-load of third-party restaurant tech companies now offer contactless tech bundles that include digital menus, but I was intrigued this week after talking to Larry Oberly, CEO of SpreedPro.

SpeedPro isn’t a restaurant-tech company; it’s a large-format printing service with locations around the U.S. and Canada. Over the phone, Oberly explained that the company recently started offering these large-format signs with its new technology, called InfoLnkX, embedded into them. Customers just hold their phones up to the NFC-enabled decal on the sign, which pulls up the restaurant menu on that person’s device.

Oberly said the tech is highly customizable, which means different signs could take users to different digital places: the menu in one instance, a promotion coupon in another, a video somewhere else. Remember the days of strolling down the sidewalk and pausing at a random restaurant then asking to view their menu? Were a restaurant equipped with something like SpeedPro’s signage, a person could simply hold their phone up to a sign outside and pull up that info themselves instead of cramming around a bunch of other people to all view the same menu posted in the window.

Social distancing is obviously the motivator behind the tech. While an InfoLnkX-enabled sign isn’t quite as technically flashy as, say, a contactless dining bundle from a restaurant tech company, it could very well have it’s own place in the future of restaurants. Besides lessening the number of people crowding around to view the same menu, being able to browse a menu from their own device would help customers decide on what to order before they ever set foot in the restaurant, hopefully lessening the number of people in line and making the entire order process faster.

For restaurants struggling to stay afloat and trying to adjust to dozens of new operational realities, the best interim solution for the menu issue might be a case of simpler is better.

Disney, Dole Whip . . . Delivery?

At some theme parks, the food is as much a part of the experience as the rides. We’re getting neither at the moment, thanks to the pandemic, but that might change soon, at least where food is concerned.

This week, Disneyland asked its annual passholders if they would like theme park food items delivered to their home. Think funnel cakes, churros, and the ever-popular Dole Whip, not to mention more substantial meal items found at restaurants around the park.

Disney hasn’t made any promises or shared any plans beyond the survey question. And while I thought the news was odd at first, the more I sit with it, the more it actually makes sense. Hear me out.

Disneyland has yet to set a reopen date for its Anaheim, CA theme park, and a note on the site from this week said that date “has not been identified.” Giving diehards a chance to order their favorite foods from the park would in a small way keep fans locked into the Disney ecosystem. It would also help generate some sales for the theme park, which has obviously lost revenue since it closed up due to COVID-19. And if memory serves me correctly, much of the fare you get (sandwiches, salads, pretzels, popcorn) at Disneyland would travel well, making the items easier to deliver.

Again, there’s no official word this is happening, but if enough passholders are missing their Dole Whip and can’t adequately recreate it at home, Disney may have a new sales channel on its hands. That could in turn set a standard for other theme parks with memorable food items. Harry Potter World Butter Beer, I’m lookin’ at you.

Restaurant Tech Around the Web

DailyPay adds CYCLE to its instant pay app for restaurants. The app, which lets restaurant workers access their earnings immediately instead of waiting for a paycheck, now lets restaurants provide bonuses, termination pay, or other “off-cycle payments” to employees instantly.

To-go sales grew in May. Black Box Intelligence shared new data at the Restaurants Rise conference this week indicating an increase in sales for restaurant to-go orders for April (66.8 percent) and May (96.4 percent). “Everything that was lost in the way of dine-in sales, in some cases, was made up by … to go and off-premise,” Kelli Valade, Black Box Intelligence CEO and president, said during the conference. 

Popeyes is getting a makeover. Chicken chain Popeyes plans to open 1,500 worldwide that feature an updated design (see image above) and lots of high-tech bells and whistles to make its operations more efficient. 

In Sweden, Plant-based Meat Is Getting a Bit Fishy

It’s no secret the alternative-protein market is skyrocketing in terms of both growth and new innovations. Already today we’ve written about Motif Foodworks’ efforts to make better fat for plant-based burgers and Japanese startup DAIZ’s recent $6 million funding round. 

And here’s another one to watch: a Swedish startup called Hooked, which is developing the “world’s first” plant-based shredded salmon. Food Navigator ran a profile of the company today, detailing how the company wants to address the unsustainable nature of the seafood industry and why they chose shredded salmon and tuna as their first plant-based products. 

Demand for seafood is growing — and harming the health of the planet at the same time, Hooked founders Emil Wasteson and Tom Johanson told Food Navigator. 

“By consuming Hooked’s products, consumers can enjoy seafood without any of these negative consequences. We are meeting the rapidly increased seafood demand with healthy and tasty alternatives with a production that can scale without harming the planet.”

Those products include plant-based shredded salmon and tuna, which are made from soya protein isolate and meant to be used in pastas, pizzas, wraps, and more.

‘We want to mimc the real nutritional value of [conventional seafood]. Most of the plant-based meat the you see on the market…may have good texture and taste, but the nutrition is not there,” said Peter Liu, Hooked’s CTO.

Hooked is focusing on European markets to start, though they may find a greater demand for their seafood products if the salmon and tuna do indeed deliver on taste, nutrition, texture, and price point.

If 2019 was the year alternative protein infiltrated the mainstream, 2020 is shaping up to be the year companies improve these products, both in terms of taste and variety.

Third-Party Delivery Suspends Services to Comply With Curfews

Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Philly, Atlanta . . . the list of cities under curfew goes on, and if you live in one of those places and were counting on some food delivery for your supper, you’ll have to look elsewhere. DoorDash recently told The Verge it is “pausing” operations to comply with those local curfew orders. 

From The Verge:

DoorDash, which has seen an increase in orders as restaurants have been forced to suspend eat-in dining during the pandemic, told The Verge it is pausing operations to abide by curfews. Its spokesperson did not provide details about which cities were affected as of Monday.

Uber has also suspended service in some cities, which extends to its Eats food delivery business. An Uber spokesperson told Business Insider that customers should use the app to learn more about these suspensions, and that they should use Uber/Uber Eats “for emergency purposes only during this time.”

Postmates, which is the biggest service in Los Angeles, is also abiding by local curfews. Grubhub said it is “pausing operations when needed.”

Delivery companies aren’t being specific about which cities have suspended which services. Even in places where an order goes through, they are then cancelling orders. For ones that actually go through, some drivers are having trouble actually getting the food to customers:

How long these suspensions and changes to service last will, most likely depend on when the unrest subsides. To find out if food delivery is a realistic prospect in your city, best to check for updates directly in these services’ apps.