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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Better for You Food

Re-Nuble Aims to Use Food Waste To Make Indoor Agriculture More Sustainable

The role of indoor growing, ranging from small indoor vertical farms to large greenhouses, is vital to sustaining the world’s food supply. Controlled Environmental Agriculture is essential for growing crops in underused spaces, rooftops, and rows of vertical gardens. Seizing upon this vital resource, Tinia Pina, Founder & CEO of ReNuble, has taken up the challenge to help this idea scale. With a best-in-class nutrient and growing medium, Pina’s company has created organic compounds sourced from food waste for sterile, technology-driven hydroponic and soilless systems.

For the dynamic Pina, her vision for what became Re-Nuble started more than six years ago in the New York school system. “I also saw our outreach educational classes for this program were from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.,” she recalled in an interview with The Spoon. “I noticed what the kids were bringing for class for lunch, and those options were very processed. With that diet, you see a direct impact on their level of attention. And I felt, from a systemic perspective, that will immediately impact the type of productivity and retention of the information we’re teaching. So overall, I always felt that people with better access to nutrition are spending more time being able to be fully immersed and retaining the information. And they are calling less out of work with fewer sick days.”

The genesis of Re-Nuble’s solution, Pina goes on to explain, came from her observation of how food waste was disposed of. “At that time, New York was spending $77 million to export its food waste to China, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. And that’s simply because we don’t have the composting infrastructure to handle it,” Pina said.” I wondered how we could make food waste a consistent alternative for conventional synthetic fertilizers by doing it for soils or hydroponic systems. So, we focused on using food waste as a viable alternative for chemical fertilizers in indoor grow environments.”

Specific to its product lines, Re-Nuble’s Head of Business Development & Strategy, Riyana Razalee, said in a company press release, “CEA is a large part of the future of farming, and so, we have to prioritize its role in decarbonization. Solutions need to address the gamut of the food supply chain, decarbonizing as many parts of it as possible. This vital issue is what our team is focused on”. The company states that for every acre of an indoor farm that uses Re-Nuble’s organic hydroponic nutrient, Away We Grow, the company can remove up to 5 metric tons of carbon emissions annually. That’s approximately one home’s energy use for a year.

In addition, its grow medium, ReNu Terra, supports the anti-peat movement. Companies, activists, and governments are demanding the reduction of drained peatlands. When farmed for agriculture needs, peat changes from a carbon sink to a greenhouse gas emitter, releasing approximately 1.9 gigatonnes of CO2e annually. This amounts to 0.4 billion gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for a year.

Pina said Re-Nuble has three customer segments now. First is the consumer market. Away We Grow could be part of a kit offered for an indoor growing system. “Consumers are eager to find more environmentally and people and animal-friendly solutions,” Re-Nuble’s CEO noted. The second segment is commercial farms such as Gotham Greens. The third, she said, is “disruptive farms.” For the last group, she stated, “There are severe supply shortages globally, and so there’s a lot of urgencies to find something that could be more sustainable, but even more importantly, something that they can afford.”

Mikuna Foods Hopes Its New Funding Will Take Its Superfood Chocho To New Heights

If there’s a category of superfoods that has the potential to surpass super, Mikuna’s line of chocho protein products aspires to claim that title. The competition is intense, but the uses for a clean, gluten-free, low-glycemic, multipurpose powder-like food go well beyond juices and smoothies.

“Chocho is the future of plant-based proteins, and as we look ahead to the brand’s product and innovation pipeline, Mikuna is poised to lead the plant-based industry back to its clean, whole food roots,” company CEO Tara Kriese said in a company statement.

 Chocho is a lupin that, once milled, becomes a protein-rich powder. It is indigenous to South America in the Andes Region, particularly in Ecuador and Peru (where it is known as Tarwi). Mikuna’s founder, Ricky Echanique, is a fifth-generation farmer from Ecuador who suffered from digestive issues. He found the answer in his backyard, discovering that this plant provided solutions to his ailments. After discovering the power of this superfood, it became Echanique’s mission to bring chocho to the world.

 Kriese, a former SVP for plant-based meat company Impossible Foods, brings her market knowledge and personal passion to the company. In an interview with The Spoon, the CEO spoke about her daughter, whose multiple life-threatening childhood allergies took her to the plant-based, clean food world long before it was fashionable.

 After being introduced to Echanique in 2020 and learning of Mikuna and chocho, Kriese knew she was on to something big. “I couldn’t believe that no one was using this amazing crop,” she said. And it’s no one-trick pony, something borne out by the company’s relationship with Erewhon, which features the protein in juices that it features in its in-house Tonic Bar and in juices it sells in the store.

 The well-known Los Angeles-area gourmet supermarket’s use of chocho is part of Mikuna’s current multipronged strategy, which will evolve with its new investment dollars. The company sells its original or pure product along with vanilla and cacao varieties direct to consumers via its website. They also are available at Amazon and in retailers and foodservice locations across Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and California.

Mikuna’s seed round investors include Olympians and World Champion athletes like Leticia Bufoni, professional skateboarder and six-time X Games gold medalist, professional surfer, and three-time world champion Mick Fanning; and professional snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist Sage Kotsenburg.

“I’ve always wanted a protein powder that’s clean, and Mikuna is as clean as it gets with just one simple ingredient, chocho,” says Professional Surfer Mick Fanning. “With Mikuna, I’m investing in both the future of nutrition and our planet, and to join such an impressive community of individuals to support Mikuna’s growth was a natural fit for me.”

Backed by more than hype, Kriese senses that, like her, when consumers learn of the power and versatility of this Andrean superfood, they will have a “chocho moment” just as she did.

Betterland Foods Launches Better-For-You Chocolate Using Perfect Day’s Animal-Free Whey Protein

Move over Hershey and Mars, WOO is coming, and it’s fixing to make a sweet, healthy impact on the candy category.

betterland foods, a Napa-based company that recently introduced its cow-free milk, is taking the alternative whey protein it created to take on the alternative dairy market and now aiming at making noise in the candy space with WOO. This better-for-you candy bar competes with the big names on taste but without guilt.

“Candy has not been disrupted since 1934,” company CEO Lizanne Falsetto said in an interview with The Spoon. “Keep in mind that Hershey and Mars can buy up the shelf space, but they still can’t get to the core of what we believe people want today. They want to have a decadent treat that’s better for them and better for the planet.”

WOO (as in Moo or Whoo) is now available direct to consumers before being launched in retail. WOO’s layered chocolate bar, built using Perfect Day’s whey protein, contains organic chocolate, caramel, peanuts, and cow-free nougat. Falsetto quickly points out the dramatic difference between WOO and its entrenched competitors.

Falsetto explains that most candy bars on the market have 28 grams of sugar, while WOO had nine. The betterland’s bar has six grams of fiber compared to one in most others and eight grams of protein versus four.

Falsetto and her partner, company president Bill Pikar come to the “healthy” food space with a significant win under their belts. Falsetto is the founder and former CEO of Think! A pioneering protein bar that she developed in her kitchen. The company was sold in late 2015, after which Falsetto began working with women leaders in her Holistic Success Network.

Always keeping an eye on the alternative protein space, Falsetto and Pikar were ready to jump at the chance at another chance to (as she puts it) “blow up a category.” The Perfect Day folks reached out to the former nutrition bar creator and suggested a new type of bar using cow-free whey. Not one to focus on their “been-there, done-that” space, the betterland’s team suggested they produce a “better for you” candy bar.

“We decided the candy category would need a disruptive product, and that’s why candy was the choice.” Falsetto commented. She also jokes that betterland’s newest product has a deja-vu experience. “Interestingly enough, we were making nutrition bars on candy equipment in 1995, and now, in reverse, we are now making candy on nutrition bar equipment.”

Having gone through retail product placement with THINK!, Falsetto has developed a clear marketing strategy. Initially, protein bars, she says, didn’t have a set home in a retail store, and she sees the same route for WOO. A “dual placement” strategy, where the vegan-friendly candy bar sits with its category competitors and at the cash wrap for impulse purchases.

WOO’s initial direct-to-consumer campaign aims to create consumer familiarity and tap into social media awareness. When betterland approaches Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods of the world, the company will be in a better position for retail acceptance.

Falsetto’s take on marketing speaks to her success at finding and fulfilling a market need: I would say when it comes to a market campaign., all we want to put the food into people’s mouths, and we want them to eat it alongside a Snickers bar—like the Pepsi Challenge.”

Without going into detail, likely, we’ve not heard the last of betterland’s relationship with Perfect Day and its alternative whey. “Lizanne’s experience as a protein innovator and retail disruptor made her our first choice to launch candy made kinder and greener with Perfect Day’s whey protein,” said Ryan Pandya, co-founder, and CEO of Perfect Day. “Lizanne has already proven what she can do with betterland milk, and we are thrilled to now bring animal-free layered chocolate candy to consumers who have been excitedly awaiting more products made with Perfect Day protein.”

WOO candy bars will retail for $2.69 and are available at woobars.com

Hero Bread Founder Cole Glass Was “Eating Himself To Death.” So He Created This 1g Net Carb Bread.

Imagine a bread roll much like Subway’s Italian white bread: soft, fluffy, carbohydrate-dense. Now imagine if that bread had zero grams of sugar, 12 grams of protein, and only 1 net carbohydrate per serving.

That’s the product that California-based startup Hero Bread recently launched in Subway sandwich restaurants. The company’s foundational tech is a flour alternative developed in founder and CEO Cole Glass’ home kitchen. Earlier this week, I got on the phone with Glass to find out how he created his flour replacer—and tasted Hero Bread’s Italian roll myself.

Due to a rare and severe set of food allergies, Glass eats an extremely limited diet: no raw fruits, vegetables, or nuts. “My diet has been terrible for my whole life because I can only have protein, fat, and carbs. As a kid, it was great that I could ask for a cookie or bag of chips instead of eating carrots and celery sticks,” Glass told me. But as he grew older, he became more aware of the health problems that his diet could provoke.

Glass wanted a way to eat the carbohydrate-dense foods he enjoyed, but to reduce their health impacts. Yet, most of the alternative flour products on grocery store shelves were made from almond, coconut, or cauliflower (all foods he couldn’t eat).

Hero Bread’s Cole Glass

“I had three options,” Glass said. “I could give up flour-based foods forever. I could go back to eating like a five-year-old and literally eat myself to death. Or, for lack of a better term, I could try and science the shit out of the problem, and reinvent flour from the ground up with a set of ingredients I wasn’t allergic to.”

So, though he didn’t have a culinary background, Glass started baking. And after two years of experimentation, he figured out how to use different combinations of isolated proteins and fibers (from common crops like corn, potatoes, wheat, and flax) as the bases for various baked goods.

Glass cold-emailed Mattson, a food laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area, to see what they made of his alternative flour. After they ran some tests and confirmed that he was onto something, he contacted potential investors.

“I’d show up at their offices with a Lululemon bag full of muffins, cookies, and waffles, and a pitch deck on my computer,” Glass said. Silicon Valley VC firm Great Point Ventures became Hero Bread’s first investor, with partner emeritus Ray Lane joining the board of directors. A former CEO of McDonald’s also became an early investor.

Glass also attracted advisors and investors who were involved with alternative meat startups Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Drawing on their experience, the company decided to launch its first product in partnership with a quick-service restaurant chain. The team started up conversations with potential launch partners, gauging their needs—and found that those conversations kept coming back to bread.

“Bread is the first thing that you think of when you think about something that is super carb-y,” Glass said, “and it’s the most universal platform for us to jump off of.”

As a quick-service chain that sells huge quantities of bread, Subway was an ideal partner. Hero Bread’s Italian rolls were introduced in five U.S. cities (about 300 total restaurant locations) this month, where they’ll be available through January.

When I tried out the Hero Bread roll in my own kitchen, I was surprised at how convincing it looked and felt. It has a thin, golden-brown crust and a super-soft, porous inside. It also has that airy texture of Subway sandwich bread: When you bite into it, your teeth almost melt through it. Toasted, it gets a nice crunch.

The Hero Bread roll smells and tastes similar to the Subway analogue, with the addition of an unfamiliar-but-nice, nutty note, which might come from the milled flaxseed. Overall, I suspect you could serve it in place of a standard-issue sub roll, and no one would be the wiser.

After the limited-time test launch, Glass hopes to expand Hero Bread’s partnership with Subway. The company will also pursue other commercial partnerships in the future and eventually consider direct-to-consumer distribution.

“I wake up every single day feeling some combination of shock, humility, and gratitude that Hero Bread became a company, because I started out just making muffins in my kitchen,” Glass said. But with the startup now up and running, he envisions expanding into “virtually every category you can imagine using flour for. Imagine creating things that look, taste, smell, and feel just like the quote-unquote normal versions—while eliminating net carbs, increasing protein and fiber, and reducing calories.”