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Alt. Protein Round-Up: Kingdom Supercultures Raises $25M, The EVERY Company Launches Animal-Free Eggs,

Plant-based foods and alternative protein products are often associated with a reduced carbon footprint. This week, the government of Denmark hopped on board with this ideology: the government will invest 1.25 billion kroner (~$194 million USD) into plant-based foods as part of a climate agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For this week’s alternative protein round-up, we gathered up some of the top news of the week from around the alt-protein world, including Clara Foods’ rebrand and the launch of The EVERY Company, Kingdom Supercultures’ Series A round, Burger King’s new menu item, and Revo’s plan for a 3D printer factory.

Clara Foods Becomes The EVERY Company, Launches Animal-Free Egg Protein

Clara Foods, one of the early pioneers building nature-equivalent proteins using precision fermentation technology, announced this week it is rebranding to the EVERY Company and is launching its first animal-free egg product called ClearEgg, an egg protein product targeted at the protein beverage market. Read full article here.

Kingdom Supercultures raises $25 million

New York-based Kingdom Supercultures announced this week that it has raised $25 million in a Series A round to fund the development of microbial cultures. The company is developing what it calls “Supercultures”, which are microbial-based ingredients to improve the texture, flavor, and functionality of plant-based products and consumer packaged goods. The new capital will be used to expand its ingredient portfolio and R&D facilities in Brooklyn, New York.

Burger King will soon serve up Impossible nuggets

Burger King made headlines when it first began serving the Impossible Whopper two years ago. This week, the fast casual restaurant chain announced it will begin trialing Impossible nuggets in three U.S. cities on October 11:  Des Moines, Boston, and Miami. The nuggets are made from a base of wheat flour and soy protein, and will be served in a pack of eight. Burger King is the first fast food chain to offer Impossible’s newest product, and the nuggets will be available for a limited amount of time.

Revo Foods shares plans for 3D-printed factory

Austrian startup Revo Foods produces plant-based fish products, and some of its prototypes are created with a 3D printer. The company is in the process of developing a plan to boost its production capacity and scale its 3D printing technology. The company’s idea is to have a production-scale facility wit interconnected 3D printers stacked on one another. This week, The Spoon spoke with te CSO of Revo Foods, Theresa Rothenbücher to hear more. Read the full article here.

Scientists Discover How to Manipulate Plants’ Response to Light for Food Growth

What if you could turn a plant’s genes on and off depending on changes in light and temperature? A group of scientists from UC Riverside has done just that in a recent study that could have important implications for farmers in an era of rapid and unpredictable climate change (reported on by UC Riverside News).

Plants need light to develop and grow, and the protein found in plants that detects light is called phytochrome B. This particular protein changes the expression of genomes and alters plant growth based on light information received. Additionally, phytochrome B can control the activity of a group of proteins called PIFs. If the activity of the PIF proteins are reduced, this could lead to the plant’s stem slowing in growth.

According to the researchers, this discovery can assist in increasing food production and crop yields. When plants are too close together in a field, they compete for light. Shorter plants that end up in the shade of other plants exert extra energy to grow their stems taller than their neighbors. This extra energy is taken away from growing the “food part” of the plant, like the seeds, leave, or fruit.

The scientists, led by UCR botany professor Meng Chen, reduced the activity of the PIF proteins and reduced the stem growth. In turn, they discovered that plants with shorter stems can free up energy for the more desirable edible portions to grow more rapidly and robustly. They also found that manipulating a plant’s response to light can allow plants to be grown closer together and in the shade.

With the human population rapidly approaching 8 billion and expected to hit close to 10 billion by 2050, finding alternative solutions to growing high crop yields is prudent. Indoor farming, as companies like CropOne, AeroFarms, and BrightFarms practice, allow for a fully controlled environment and can result in consistent crop yields. A company called InnerPlant edits plant DNA to turn the plant into a living sensor to mitigate crop loss.

Climate change is expected to affect growing seasons and the ability to grow certain crops worldwide. However, studies like this give hope that one day crops will better adapt to fluctuations in light and temperature, making them viable in a rapidly changing environment.

SIMPLi Uses Sensory Technology to Increase Transparency in the Supply Chain

Launched in 2019, SIMPLi is an ingredient company that works directly with farming communities worldwide to eliminate unnecessary middlemen, shorten and streamline supply chains, and reduce fraudulent activity. To achieve that aim, SIMPLi uses IoT technologies to help farmers in places like Greece and Peru who use regenerative farming techniques and helps them command an above-market premium for their crops. SIMPLi has helped 560 farmers transition to more sustainable farming techniques.

“Right now, our vision as a company is to have a seamless traceable platform that our clients, from a B2B perspective, and our consumers, can leverage directly to see the full international supply chain for each ingredient that they either consume or purchase from us,” said Matthew Cohen, SIMPLi cofounder told me recently.

SIMPLi’s data tracking starts at the farm, where it tracks soil and crop health. In processing facilities, the company’s sensors ensure that nothing is tampered with. Once loaded onto cargo ships, SIMPLi uses GPS tracking and sensors that track the temperature and other environmental metrics are implemented. Arriving at facilities in the U.S. is one of the last steps before reaching the client.

There is “a lot of different touchpoints where we’re using technology and there’s a lot of data along these touchpoints that we want to capture, which we’re already doing today,” said Cohen.

Murky supply chains can hide major issues like slave labor, animal welfare, food fraud, child labor, ingredient sourcing, and environmental pollution. With emerging reports of these issues, consumers are asking for better options. They’re rewarding companies that give it to them; A recent survey found that 94 percent of consumers are more likely to stay loyal to a completely transparent brand. Additionally, 55 percent of customers shared that social responsibility and sustainability were important factors when deciding what product to buy.

SIMPLi recently raised an undisclosed seed round and launched its regenerative organic red, white, and tri-colored quinoa in 49 Whole Foods locations on the East Coast. Its e-commerce site hosts products such as sustainability-grown olives, olive oil, and quinoa. If you’ve eaten food from Sweetgreen, Daily Harvest, or &pizza, there’s a good chance you may have already eaten SIMPLi’s quinoa, gigante beans, artichokes, or olive oil.

Danone North America to Launch “Dairy-Like” Segment

One common complaint amongst those trying to make the switch to non-dairy milk is that some alternatives have a “plant-y” flavor; meaning, it doesn’t quite taste like cow’s milk. Some alternative milks might taste distinctively like soy, almonds, or coconut. That being said, companies like Oatly and NotCo have produced some pretty great milk alternatives that give conventional milk a run for its money.

Danone North America is the latest company to attempt to create a “dairy-like” segment of plant-based products in hopes of providing alternative milk that dairy-drinkers can enjoy. Through its two brands, Silk and So Delicious Dairy Free, it will launch Silk nextmilk™ and So Delicious Wondermilk™ in January 2022.

According to an email sent to The Spoon, the company’s scientists deconstructed the attributes of real dairy and the sensory experience, like the mouthfeel, of drinking milk. These characteristics were then recreated by blending different plant-based ingredients, including soy, coconut, and oats.

Both brands will offer a whole fat and reduced-fat version of plant-based milk. Silk Nextmilk will contain six key nutrients found in dairy (Calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, B12, Riboflavin, and Phosphorus), with each serving offering 4 grams of protein.

Little information was disclosed in regards to the So Delicious Wondermilk. However, the Wondermilk line will also include frozen dessert (a vegan way to say ice cream) pints and cones.

Alternative milk, already a $2.5 billion market, is the most established category in the plant-based food space. Another company that aims to be a direct replacement for dairy is NotCo, which uses AI to develop its whole fat and 2 percent alternative milk. Other big players in the space that Danone’s brand will face competition from include Oatly, Ripple, Good Karma, and possibly Beyond Meat in the future.

When launched in grocery stores early next year, both Nextmilk and Wondermilk will retail for $4.99 per carton.

Sausage Made from Jackfruit? It’s Delicious

Hailing from Asia, jackfruit is the largest tree fruit globally and is often likened to the flavor of Juicy Fruit gum. This massive spiky fruit seems like an unlikely fit as an ingredient in the plant-based space, but unripe jackfruit has a neutral flavor and a texture similar to shredded pork or chicken.

One company that makes plant-based meat alternatives using jackfruit is Boulder, Colorado-based Jack & Annie’s. Jackfruit serves as the main ingredient for its extensive portfolio of plant-based alternatives, ranging from meatballs to shredded pork.

Jack & Annie recently sent me samples of its plant-based maple breakfast sausages, savory breakfast sausages, and chicken nuggets to taste test.

I first tried the maple breakfast sausage and savory breakfast sausage, both of which are made from a base of jackfruit, water, soy flour, and canola oil. Using my cast iron pan, I cooked both types of sausages in a small amount of oil for about 8 minutes.

Photo of the jackfruit-based chicken nugget (left), savory sausage breakfast patty (right), and maple breakfast sausage link (top)

So how’d they taste? Both alternative sausages were the right amount of oily, and had a great, chewy texture like a animal-based breakfast sausage. The level of seasoning in each sausage was phenomenal, and my entire (small) house smelled liked maple syrup after cooking.

The chicken nuggets, made from a base of jackfruit, water, wheat flour, and soy flour, were next. I cooked them in my air fryer for about 8 minutes and plated them.

The verdict? Like the sausages, the texture was spot on. However, I felt like the nuggets lacked seasoning (at least compared to the sausages) and the breading was a bit thin. There are a lot of plant-based chicken nuggets on the market now, so it’s challenging to say which is the best (I personally really like Nowaday’s nuggets).

Pea protein, soy, fungi, and wheat are some of the most commonly used ingredients used to create plant-based meat alternatives. These ingredients are lauded for their affordability, high protein content, and ability to mimic the texture of different animal proteins. Although jackfruit is affordable and has a great natural texture, one downside to it is that it’s protein content is not as high as other ingredients. However, it does offer potassium and vitamin B.

A few other companies in the plant-based space besides Jack & Annie’s are using jackfruit as a base ingredient. Last year, Singapore-based Karana raised $1.7 million to develop plant-based pork made from the fruit. Upton’s Naturals offers a few different flavors of seasoned, ready-to-cook shredded jackfruit, and The Very Good Butchers produce a taco stuffing.

Overall, I found Jack & Annie’s products to be great alternatives. The company’s products range from $4.99-$6.50, and can be found in stores like Sprouts. Target, Wegmans, and Meijer.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Tofurky’s Algae-Based Products and Animal-Free Chicken Fat

In this week’s alternative protein round-up, we have news on MeaTech’s cell-based chicken fat, Impossible Pork, the ProVeg Incubator, Tofurky’s partnership with Triton Algae, and Unicorn Biotechnologies.

MeaTech is now producing animal-free chicken fat

In the race to produce real animal fat outside of the animal, Israel-based MeaTech has hit a milestone: The start-up shared that it is now capable of producing over 700 grams of cell-based chicken fat in a single production run. MeaTech acquired Belgium start-up Peace of Meat last year, and is using its platform to produce the cell-based fat. The fat product can be used to create realistic marbling in cell-based meat or even used to create a plant-based hybrid product.

Impossible Foods is bringing its alt. pork product to foodservice

Impossible Pork will soon be found in foodservice locations in the U.S., Singapore, and Hong Kong. As of this week, David Chang’s New York restaurant Momofuku Ssam Bar began serving the alternative pork product in one of its dishes. Impossible Pork is set to launch in 100 plus restaurants in Hong Kong starting October 4th, and in Singapore sometime before the end of this year.

Proveg Incubator announces eight new start-ups in cohort

Berlin-based ProVeg Incubator just kicked off its latest accelerator program on September 20. Through the incubator, the start-ups have access to one-on-one mentoring, ProVeg’s network, and up to €250,000 in funding. This food-tech focused cohort contains eight start-ups from around the world, including:

  • Altein Ingredients (India) – mung bean protein
  • Alt Foods (India) – Plant-based milk made from grains and sprouted millet
  • Brain Foods (Bulgaria) – Plant-based snacks
  • Cultivated Biosciences (Netherlands) – uses fermentation to make a fat ingredient from yeast
  • Genesea (Israel) – B2B food-ingredient company that uses macroalgae
  • Meat Future (Estonia) – mycoprotein chicken and fish
  • Plant-based Japan (Japan)
  • ProProtein (Estonia) – uses precision fermentation to create dairy proteins

Tofurky partners with Triton Algae for future alt protein products

Plant-based meat brand Tofurky announced that it has partnered with algae producer Triton Algae Innovations to develop a new line of plant-based alternatives. The products will be crafted using Triton’s “essential red” algae, which contains protein, iron, vitamin A, and more. The algae, which is normally green, is grown with UV light which causes it to turn red and produce heme. It was not disclosed what exactly the new product will be, but it is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

Unicorn Biotechnologies Is Making Purpose-Built Bioreactors for Cell-Based Meat Production

According to Jack Reid, the CEO a new Cambridge-based startup called Unicorn Biotechnologies, companies trying to make meat without the animal today are mostly using large metal vats built for making something other than meat. “Existing bioreactor systems haven’t been and weren’t developed specifically for the cell ag industry,” said Reid. Read The Spoon’s story about how Unicorn is working to build purpose-built bioreactors for cell-based meat here.

AeroFarms is Supplying Goose Island UK With Hydroponic Hops

Goose Island UK has collaborated with indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms to craft Hail Hydro’s beer, a brew made with hops grown hydroponically in AeroFarms’ 100,000 square-foot global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.

The new hazy session IPA joins Goose Island’s Impossible IPA series, a collection of beers using new recipes, techniques, and hops. Those looking to learn more about the new beer can scan a QR code on the can to read about AeroFarm’s hops and take a virtual tour of its farm.

The hydroponic hops plants were grown without soil and submerged in AeroFarms’ patented growth medium and fed nutrient-rich water. Because this method is unaffected by changes in the weather, soil conditions, and any other environmental factors that come with crop farming, AeroFarms can grow and harvest these Cascade hops year-round.

As fluctuating temperatures, droughts, and flooding impact crop yields more each year, expect to see more indoor farming in the craft beer industry and beyond. The industry took off in 2020, as companies like Freight Farms, Elevate Farms, Plenty, and BrightFarms raised large funding rounds and broke ground on major expansions. While these companies have historically grown leafy greens and herbs, some are beginning to branch out to produce crops like strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. AeroFarms grows over 550 varieties of plants, including leafy greens, hops, berries, and tomatoes (and how hops).

The AeroFarms and Goose Island collaboration beer is currently available on the Goose Island UK website.

Deane Falcone of Crop One Discusses How Indoor Farming Reduces Food Waste

When The Spoon last wrote about Crop One in 2018, the company had just announced that they were building the largest indoor hydroponic farm in the world. The farm, based in Dubai, is set to be 300,000 square feet, three stories high, and capable of producing up to 6,000 pounds of food a day.

This week, I spoke with Deane Falcone, the CSO of Crop One, to catch up on how things are going. He said Dubai is set to open sometime early next year in 2022. Crop One has been steadily growing its team during the past few years and brought on a new CEO, Craig Ratajczyk.

In our conversation, Falcone explained to me how Crop One’s protocol and technology produce extremely clean plants that result in very little waste. Here is a transcript of part of our conversation:

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ashlen: Can you discuss how indoor crop production reduces food waste?

Deane: Sure. You know, there are numerous metrics for just indoor production, but I’ll focus on things that are I think, unique to us at Crop One. So the first thing is that it’s going back to that plant first concept. What we’re really trying to do at the end of the day is grow a very, very high-quality plant. When you grow high-quality plants, I mean all the leaves that I get on the plants are on a, you know, spinach or kale or lettuce, you want all those leaves to be high quality. And so that’s what we really aim for. So that’s the beginning of the process. 

In other words, there’s not a leaf or there are far, far fewer leaves that might be discarded, because they’re not at the right development stage. They might have some yellowing or something like that. And so all the systems contribute to that high quality. So at the very beginning that of the process, what you’re wasting, so to speak, is reduced. So that’s an important concept to keep in mind. 

The other really important concept is the cleanliness factor. So we talk about this a lot, you know, we grow in sealed rooms, it’s filtered air, grown on purified water, we have pretty elaborate water purification systems. And so what that gives us is a plant that’s very, very clean. And you may or may not know from previous discussions with us, but no one touches the plants. If they are touched by hand when they’re transplanted or they’re harvested, it’s people being wound up wearing gloves, so only a gloved hand touches the plant. Not even water touches the surface of the plant that you eat. So I’m going into that because that results in again, a clean environment, filtered air, etc, etc. 

That gives us what we refer to as a very low microbial load on the surface of plant that has very little fungi and bacteria on the surface and plants, the surface of leaves. But we’ve had this tested, we set up the labs and stuff like that. And so the reason why that’s important is that these are not disease-causing pathogenic microbes but it turns out that when you as soon as you harvest the plant, as soon as you harvest that leaf, the fungi and bacteria, which again is a natural part of the environment, that’s what causes the breakdown of food, so we start seeing food decay is because of these.

The presence of fungal spores and whatnot that that break down the product. And so that’s a really big determinant as to the shelf life. So our shelf life is it’s at least three weeks the refrigerator So it is largely because of that. Now of course, it’s the freshness aspect that is, apart from getting close to a population center so that the delivery to the final consumer is very short. But it’s very fresh, but really the thing that gives us that long shelf life is the cleanliness of the product. Again, it just stays in very good shape over a long period of time.

The packing occurs in a cold room onsight so the delivery time to the cold room as you know, is a few minutes away right in the same building, that it’s packed. It’s been kept in refrigerated temperatures the whole time. 

So there’s really no waste except for the occasional you know, there might be a piece of stem or something that we don’t want in the product and so that simply won’t be passed. For all of those reasons the food waste is really, really low. Again it starts on “the field”, that is in the growth rooms. The plants are very high quality so there’s little waste there. A little sorting waste, and then it stays low throughout the entire process.

This is a really important issue as I’m sure you know, because the statistic I’ve quoted for years now is ⅓ or about 33% of all food produced is wasted, particularly agricultural crops. Just a few days ago in fact, I read another article that it can go as high as 40%. So 33 to 40% of food produced is wasted which is astonishingly high. 

Ashlen: Thank you for breaking all of that down. You might have mentioned this already, but I’m guessing seeing everything is pesticide-free as well?

Deane: Absolutely. And just so you know, our new CEO is always asking why do we only say pesticide-free? What about herbicides? What about the fungicides? He’s an ag person by the way. He comes from the ag approach. He has a very good perspective on what really has gone on for outdoor agriculture. So nothing touches those leaves and nothing is in the water either as far as chemicals, only mineral nutrients to the plants.

Ashlen: Have you ever had a problem in the past with pests entering the facilities or is that pretty easy to manage on your end?

Deane: Yes. So we’ve been in operation for over six years now, What I mean by the operation is the whole process of growing the plants harvesting, packing, and selling. The honest truth is you have to have good protocols so everything’s kind of double door. And we’re actually in a warehouse. So insects can get into the warehouse. If you aren’t careful with the double door system, that is. Don’t open the inner door when the outer doors are open, it’s really as simple as that. If you don’t adhere to that pretty soon you can get in second position. And exactly as you say, you know, without the use of pesticide that’s a lot of nice material for the insects to take. So they’ll take it over pretty rapidly but I have to say in the last, maybe pushing four years, but certainly the last three and a half years, we have not had a single insect infestation. It’s really, you know, well-trained people. People put their gloves on, we clean the shoes. The insects by the way are oftentimes almost microscopic, they’re very, small and so they can adhere to your clothes. And they just like to eat plants. It’s just very common and so we really have to keep an eye on that. But again the last three to four years, we haven’t had any insect outbreaks. So that’s literally the main thing keeping those doors shut.

Ashlen: Can you speak about the nutrition component of food that’s been grown outdoors versus something that would be grown indoors? 

Deane: So this is a huge interest to us. We’ve evaluated, everything we grow. The nutrition is at least as good, as what we’re trying to see is where we can make it better. And so, there might be ways of just, for example, manipulating what’s the mineral nutrient to the water. So for example, plants need a fair amount of calcium. How much calcium is actually taken up in a queue. related to these, and so we’re really starting to look at that. To see if we can enhance it because the biggest kind of change in perspective indoor growth is that everything is controlled automatically. It’s everything that’s dissolved in the water. 

So for example iron, in traditional agriculture, all those components are in the fertilizer or in the soil. In our case, we add them, right so they’re adding very precise levels. And of course, you could add to much, which you don’t want to have, you could have negative plant growth if you go too high with certain levels of other trace minerals. Such as copper; plants require a little bit of copper. Of course, they require a little bit of iron. You can’t go too high in those, and so on. But others like potassium and calcium, for certain species, we can actually increase their abundance of leaves by simply increasing their level in the water. So there’s there’s a lot of opportunities there we’re just at the beginning of increased nutritional content.

So if you think about outdoor grows, it turns out that the metabolites, the mineral nutrients, the vitamins that plants produce, and plants are great at producing an abundance of them. You know, they’re loaded. Almost all breeding plants are loaded with vitamin C, for example. The fact of the matter is those levels. Those levels oscillate very widely outdoors because it’s influenced by the environment. If you have a couple of days of heavy rain or a period of drought, warm days, all that kind of variability, that results in variability of this kind of nutritional aspects of vitamins and minerals and nutrients.

We can actually start to think about saying, oh we have Spinach or whatever leafy green that has x amount of a vitamin or X amount of iron, calcium, or potassium, that sort of thing. So that’s a pretty exciting thing, isn’t it? It’s something that you really can’t say with outdoor growth because again, the environments always changing. At least metabolites change pretty widely in those conditions.

Ashlen: Do you see indoor hydroponic farming as part of the future of food?

Deane: Absolutely. It’s absolutely part of the future. Yes. That I can expand on that if you wish. The first major thing that the industry has to do including us is scaling. And that’s exactly what our farms will show. It is a pretty large operation and produces quite a significant output of the crop. So that actually hasn’t been done to appreciable levels yet and in truth, completely controlled indoor farms, there’s plenty of greenhouses out there that are getting quite massive in producing a lot but they just don’t have that level of precise control nor do they have the density that indoor farming can provide. 

Stacked shelves, vertically stacked shelves. They give you a very high output and we’re not the only company doing that of course. Once that becomes established, then it’s just a matter of time for these things to propagate. There’s a lot of companies jumping into the industry because they see the value, right? It’s pretty obvious now.

Our product is particularly clean, we work really hard to use highly purified water to grow the plants and all that sort of thing. And we really see the advantages, as I mentioned before on shelf life, things like that. So it’s really only the beginning. The honest truth is we didn’t know that the shelf life would be so extended just by making a clean product. So as these kinds of realizations come forth, you can really see the industry expanding because it’s going to be a very viable way of providing food in a reliable and continuous way.

Ashlen: Those are all the questions I have for now. Unless there’s anything else you want to share.

Deane: The only other thing to bring up I guess is very important. Everyone knows about the water use efficiency that indoor ag provides. If you look at the West Coast of the US, we’re seeing the beginnings of real severe shortages of water. As I’m sure you know, most freshwater is actually used for irrigation with agricultural crops. So we’re at the earliest stages in this industry and then in this way of growing food, but it’s important because unfortunately, climate change is real and climate change is here. It’s good that we have these alternative means to at least get the maximum water use efficiency that’s possible, and that’s pretty much going to be true for most indoor farms. Mostly, in our case, all the water that you use in the system goes through the plant. It’s transpired through the plant so very little is wasted in that sense.

Ashlen: Thank you for bringing that up, that’s really important. Great. Thank you for taking the time to speak.

Alfred’s FoodTech Joins Growing Field of Companies Vying to Create Whole Cut Meat Alternatives

Until recently, most plant-based meat products have come in ground or minced form, such as crumbles or patties. But lately, there has been a drive to create “whole cut” meat analogs that can mimic the tissue and muscle structure of animal proteins like a steak or chicken breast.

One of the latest entrants to the whole cut race is Israel-based Alfred’s FoodTech. Formed earlier this year, the company recently unveiled its platform to make plant-based whole cut alternatives, which it claims will “be able to build continuous tissue-like structures and can work with other existing technologies.”

In its announcement, Alfred’s said it had created prototypes of alternative chicken nuggets and deli meat. Two of the main ingredients in the products are pea protein and canola oil, and the company intends to stick with simple ingredients like these while creating products with whole cut texturization.

Alfred’s plans to be a supplier for food companies, meat producers, and cultured meat companies looking to add alternative protein analogs to their portfolios. The company claims it will be able to create custom compositions and can even work with cell-based ingredients.

Alfred’s FoodTech joins a market that is filling up fast with companies looking to create whole-cut products. Better Meat Co, Green Rebel, and Meati have developed whole cut steaks made from mushrooms or mycelium. Earlier this year, AtLast Food Co raised $40 million to create whole cut meat alternative analogs. Others, like Redefine Meat and Novameat, are developing technologies for 3D printing whole-cut plant-based steaks.

To date, Alfred’s FoodTech has raised $1.3 million in seed funding, and the company is currently raising a Series A round. The company was selected as one of the 12 finalists for The Good Food Institute’s annual conference and will present its tech in the pitch slam on September 23, 2021. The company has plans to open a low-volume production site to scale its production.

Update: The article previously referred to the company as “Alfred FoodTech”. The company is called Alfred’s FoodTech, and the article has been updated to reflect this.

David Welch on GMO Controversy and Its Lessons for the Cell-Cultured Meat Industry

The introduction of GMO crops in the 1990s was a moment of opportunity for international agriculture—yet communications with consumers went wrong.

GMO crops have been called frankenfoods, mutants, and carcinogens. According to the Pew Research Center, roughly half of U.S. adults believe that GMO foods are less healthy than GMO-free foods. The Non-GMO Project reports that its butterfly graphic is “the fastest-growing label in the natural products industry.”

Now Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at Synthesis Capital, an investment management firm focused on food system transformation, David Welch has a researcher’s outlook on the rollout of GMO crops. He spent his undergraduate years studying plant biology at UC Berkeley. In his later experience as a research assistant, some of his work focused on genetically modified crops like barley and maize.

Last week, I got on Zoom with Welch to unpack the parallels between the launch of GMO crops and the advent of cell-cultured meats today.

Avoiding a communication breakdown

Around the time when GM crops were first introduced to the public, the scientific community was still debating the safety implications of modified foods. Welch believes that some of that early discourse sowed the seeds of public uncertainty about the safety of GMO foods. Even once the scientific community had reached a consensus, it was difficult to clear up the confusion that had already been created.

“I’m not suggesting that you should stop negative discussions from taking place, and I think it’s fine to have some dissenting views,” says Welch. Yet the lack of clear communication regarding the underlying science of GMOs likely had an impact on public acceptance, an important lesson for the cell-cultured meat industry: “There’s an opportunity for the industry to work closely together to make sure that the science is communicated in a non-confusing way.”

Welch hopes to see companies, governments, and academics work together to develop a common language for describing cell cultivation concepts. That language could help to smooth out issues in the regulation and labeling arena, which has already proven to be a contentious zone for plant-based products.

Importantly, that common language would also help to standardize communications with the public—“so that you don’t have 20 companies talking about the science in 20 different ways, which then creates confusion,” says Welch.

Regulation and mistrust

Even in the U.S., where some GM ingredients have been widely adopted, the regulation of modified crops is notoriously arduous.

“It’s a very expensive and multi-year process to get a GMO crop approved in basically any country,” says Welch. “And I think there’s some evidence through consumer research that that leads to distrust in the technology. People think, if they have to regulate this so stringently, then it must be dangerous.”

Here, he says, lies a potential parallel between GM and cell-cultured meat technologies. In the U.S. and most other countries, the alternative meat industry is still awaiting a regulatory framework. That framework could ultimately affect consumers’ views of cell-cultured meats.

“I’m not suggesting that we should have no regulation,” says Welch. “I think that the regulatory authorities and the companies need to work together to create a regulatory pathway that is safe, but not so onerous that the public perceives the technology as very risky because there’s so much regulation attached to it.”

The future of food work

“One of the other tensions that existed with GM crops was how they were rolled out into the market and the impact that had on some farming communities,” says Welch. From the beginning, seeds for GMO commodity crops were controlled by a few large companies, a trend that has only intensified since the technology was first introduced. “Those companies ended up with a lot of control over the farmers, and I think that’s had negative effects on some farmers.”

There’s another lesson there for cell-cultured meat companies: Many consumers’ perceptions of alternative meat products could well be affected by the industry’s impact on their own communities.

“I think it’s important for the entire food industry to start talking about this,” says Welch. “I believe there’s going to be a future where there are far more alternative meats than conventional meats on the market. And we need to think about what that means for all of the people who are employed through the conventional meat and seafood industries, and what the future looks like for them in terms of new jobs.”

As cell-cultured meat makes its first forays into the U.S. market, producers are sure to face communications challenges. However, Welch notes that there are also opportunities to build trust with consumers by being transparent about the cell cultivation process.

“The way we currently produce meat and seafood, there’s that hidden step between the field—if the animal ever lived on a field—and the point where it gets to your plate,” he says. “I think it’s really exciting that consumers will be able to see how their meat is being made much more openly in the future.”

The Alt Protein News Round-Up: Cultured Pork in China and McPlant Burger’s Launch

If you haven’t had the chance to check it out, The Spoon was given an exclusive virtual tour of Rebellyous Foods’ production facility, where it manufactures its plant-based chicken. Speaking of which, we have some news about Rebellyous Foods’ school cafeteria launch, CellX’s cultured pork unveil, the official launch of the McPlant burger, and Equinom’s new partnership.

CellX unveils cultured pork and shares goals for price parity

China-based cultured meat producer CellX revealed its cultured pork product this week, which uses cells extracted from the country’s native black pig. The alternative pork product was incorporated into various dishes and served to potential investors. Pork is the most consumed meat in China, but the country has experienced supply chain issues due to the pandemic and an outbreak of African Swine Fever amongst herds. The company’s goal is to reach price parity with conventional pork by 2025.

Rebellyous plant-based chicken nuggets to be served in public schools

Rebellyous Foods, a producer of plant-based chicken tenders, nuggets, and patties, shared this week that its alternative nuggets will be making their way into public school cafeterias in Washington and California. The first school to supply the nuggets was Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) in Northern California last year, and the five new school districts to do so are Dublin Unified, Livermore Joint Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Pleasanton Unified, and Everett Public Schools. The “Kickin Nuggets” were developed specifically for K-12 food service and are made from a base of soy protein.

McPlant burger launches in McDonald’s throughout the UK

Starting September 29th, select McDonald’s locations in the UK will begin rolling out the highly anticipated McPlant burger, which is now 100 percent vegan. The meat-free patty was made in partnership with Beyond Meat, and the burger will also include vegan cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup, and pickles. McDonald’s previously ran trials of the McPlant in 2020 in various countries, and at that time, the burger was vegetarian but not vegan. The McPlant will become available nationwide starting in 2022.

Equinom to partner with Meatless farms as a supplier

Equinom, a nutrition company that uses AI to improve the nutrition content of seeds, disclosed this week in a press release sent to The Spoon that it will begin supplying Meatless Farm, a plant-based meat brand, and its ingredient subsidiary Lovingly Made Ingredients. Meatless Farms will use Equinom’s pea protein concentrate in a variety of its products, boosting the protein content by up to 50 percent. This is the first plant-based company that Equinom has partnered with.

Wild Earth Launches Cell-Based Petfood

Plant-based pet food brand Wild Earth has announced plans to expand its product line into pet food made with cell-based meat. The announcement comes on the heels of a new $23 million funding round from a group of investors that includes Mark Cuban and the star of Vampire Diaries, Paul Wesley.

Led by alternative protein entrepreneur and investor Ryan Bethencourt, Wild Earth has been one of the early leaders in creating pet food from plant-based ingredients. With products like Clean Protein dog food (which uses pea and potato protein) and Superfood Dog Treats With Koji (Koji is a fungi protein used in fermented food in Asia), company sales have grown more than 700% year over year, according to a release sent to The Spoon.

Pepper the App Aims to be the Instagram for Cooking

Jake Aronskind realized that every time he went on a social media platform, most of what he was seeing was food. After the pandemic began, this was amplified. Seeing people he never thought would be cooking and baking made him realize that there needed to be a more specialized platform for sharing food and recipes. This resulted in him and several cofounders developing the Pepper app.

Specialized social media platforms exist for activities like running (Strava), reading (Goodreads), and hiking (AllTrails). Still, most foodies share their culinary creations on the most popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, and Pinterest. I recently spoke with Aronskind prior to Pepper’s Labor Day weekend launch, and he said, “It’s this idea of building a platform for a specific niche in your life. At the end of the day, Instagram, Facebook, all these other platforms, are simply not made for niche activities.”

Pepper most closely follows the format of Instagram. The app features a newsfeed where you can see the posts from friends and the people you follow. Instead of just adding a caption to go along with a photo, the poster can add a full recipe or list of ingredients. Similar to hashtags, there are options to categorize the recipe with different tags, including different diets (i.e., vegan, keto, gluten-free), difficulty level, and meal type.

From the app’s explore page, trending recipes can be seen from other users. If you find a recipe you want to make on the explore page or newsfeed, you can click the “save” button on the photo. The “saved” section on your personal profile hosts these posts, acting almost like a digital cookbook.

Pepper the App Animation Video
Pepper’s how-to video

Social media is how many of us stayed connected with others during the pandemic, and in 2020, Americans spent an average of 82 minutes per day on social media platforms. Cooking and “stress-baking” became coping mechanisms for dealing with the negative psychological effects of the pandemic, so it’s no surprise that food posts have dominated social media platforms in the past year and a half.

Recon, a food social media app that launched at the beginning of summer (founded by former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff), connects users through photos of homemade dishes and restaurant reviews. Whisk, a recipe-sharing app, partnered with TikTok at the beginning of the year to trial run the integration of its recipe saving and grocery list features. Foodqu!rk is an online platform where users find their food personality and connect with others through dietary preferences.

The Pepper app launched this week, and it is available for free in the iOS App Store. It will likely be available for Android phones by the end of the month.