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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Food Waste

Apeel Sciences Raises $250M to Extend Produce Shelf Life

Apeel, the startup that makes a natural coating to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, announced today via a release emailed to The Spoon that it had raised $250 million in fresh financing. The round was led by GIC with participation from Viking Global Investors, Upfront Ventures, Tao Capital Partners and Rock Creek Group. Celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry have also joined as minority, non-participatory investors.

Founded in 2015, Apeel is fighting the global fresh food waste problem by creating a foodsafe powder coating out of plant oils which, when applied to produce, can double or triple their lifespan. The “peel” functions as a barrier to keep water in and oxygen out, fighting the two main causes of produce rotting. Each fruit or vegetable has its own proprietary coating.

Currently, Apeel avocados are available in retailers in the U.S., including 1,110 Kroger stores. Last year the company launched its Apeel-treated avocados on store shelves in Denmark and Germany. In Germany it also offers coated mandarins and oranges.

Apeel’s CEO James Rogers also told me in an interview last week that, in addition to citrus and avocados, the company also has coatings for asparagus and cucumbers in the works.

Extending the lifespan of fresh produce can not only cut down on food waste but can also equate to major savings for retailers. So it’s no surprise that Apeel isn’t the only company working to make your fruit stay fresh for longer. StixFresh has a sticker that can extend produce shelf life by two weeks, and Hazel Technologies makes packaging inserts for bulk fruit and vegetable harvest boxes to slow ripening. Perhaps most similar to Apeel, Italian company Sufresca also makes an edible coating which it claims can extend produce shelf life by several weeks.

According to Rogers, Apeel distinguishes itself by using only edible, natural elements to “copy the way that Nature does it.” They also develop different coatings for each fruit or vegetable to optimize its lifespan. “Every piece of produce is a living, breathing thing, [and] it needs its own optimized little microclimate in order to survive optimally,” said Rogers.

Food waste is one of the leading contributors to global warming, and fresh foods — like fruit and vegetables — are one of the most common foods to go to waste. Of course, wasting food is also bad news for a grocery store’s bottom line — and consumers, for that matter.

Thus far, both consumers and grocery stores seem to be on board by Apeel’s products. Rogers told me that when markets put signs indicating that their produce has been coated with Apeel, they see double-digit increases in sales. “That starts to make sense when you realize that a lot of people are pricing waste into their purchase decisions.”

Today’s raise brings Apeel’s total funding to $360.1 million. With its new capital, Apeel will continue to focus on expansion in U.S. and Europe, but it will also allocate funds to support its initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America.

Imperfect Foods Raises $72M to Expand Delivery of Ugly Produce and Pantry Goods

Imperfect Foods, the company that delivers surplus and “ugly” food directly to consumers, announced today that it had closed a $72 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Insight Partners with support from existing investors, including Norwest Venture Partners. This bumps the total amount raised by Imperfect up to $119.1 million.

You may have seen Imperfect Foods (formerly known as Imperfect Produce) boxes sitting on stoops around your neighborhood. Since 2015, the company has been delivering boxes of surplus and cosmetically imperfect produce — that is, fruits and vegetables that would normally go to waste — to consumers in curated boxes. The produce is discounted up to 30 percent compared to grocery store prices.

In an intriguing pivot, last year the company diversified into other grocery categories, like dairy, meat, and pantry items. Some of these were still “imperfect” products, like coffee beans that were too small or misshapen almonds, but others were not. Last year the company also launched a pilot program to pick up their delivery boxes for reuse.

With its new funds, Imperfect will continue to bring its grocery delivery to more areas across the country and add on to its fulfillment centers.

I received Imperfect boxes for a little over a year but discontinued them since, as a single person, I couldn’t use enough of my box to justify the cost. But ever since the pandemic has had me sheltering in place and dreading trips to the grocery store, I’ve missed my weekly boxes of produce and staples.

In fact, COVID-19 actually presents a valuable opportunity for Imperfect Foods. Surveys show that up to 60 percent of consumers are “fearful” of shopping inside grocery stores, while sales of online groceries are skyrocketing. Imperfect can provide the online grocery experience with a side of good conscience since you’re also cutting down on food waste.

Imperfect isn’t the only company to deliver ugly fruits and vegetables to consumers. Misfits Market also ships boxes of cosmetically flawed produce to consumers. Theirs is all organic, but the key difference is that you can’t choose what’s in your box, while Imperfect offers customization options.

In a time when consumers are relying on convenience and valuing their health perhaps more than ever, it’s a prime time for delivery services like Imperfect. Clearly investors feel the same way.

Big Idea Ventures Raising $250M Fund Targeting Later-Stage FoodTech Companies

Big Idea Ventures (BIV), the hybrid VC firm-slash-accelerator, first caught my attention last year when it launched the New Protein Fund, a $50 million fund targeting seed-stage companies in the alternative protein space, and made its first investment in cell-based seafood company Shiok Meats. At the same time, BIV announced a twice-yearly accelerator program for budding alt-protein startups with locations in New York City and Singapore.

Now the accelerator is seeking its second cohort — and BIV is preparing to launch its second fund. Called Generation Food, BIV’s newest fund will target later-stage companies, Series A and beyond. It will expand its focus to tackle sustainability across the food supply chain, not just in the alternative protein space. The target amount? 250 million dollars.

I hopped on a call with Tom Mastrobuoni, a Venture Partner at BIV and the former CFO of Tyson Ventures (which invested in the New Protein Fund), and Andrew Ive, the founder and Managing General Partner of BIV, earlier this week to learn more about Generation Food. Mastrobuoni said that this fund will take a step back to tackle some of the larger, underlying issues plaguing the food system. He named six target areas:

  • Alternative Protein. With the Generation Food fund, BIV will continue to invest in alt-protein. However, they’ll focus on companies that are enabling general growth within the sector instead of particular food brands.
  • Innovative Ingredient Options. Better-for-you ingredients for healthy products including salt and sugar replacements.
  • Breakthrough Manufacturing. Improved manufacturing processes for proteins, as well as more sustainable packaging and low-waste water solutions.
  • Food Safety Innovation. Technologies that are making food safer and last longer, e.g. hyperspectral imaging.
  • Traceability and Transparency. Supply chain enhancements — but not just blockchain, which Mastrobuoni pointed out can be cost-prohibitive.
  • Logistics Enhancement. Ways to get food from A to B more efficiently, without relying so much on old-school methods like trucks.

At the same time, BIV will continue to use its New Protein Fund to fuel the Accelerator program. Thus far BIV has invested in 12 seed-stage companies through its Accelerator Program — which is split between Singapore and New York — and are about to kick off another. Ive said that he plans to start raising for the second New Protein Fund when the current one’s capital is about 75 percent deployed — in two years or so. He also plans to add at least one more cohort location.

Generation Food is a big step up for BIV, both in terms of scope and size. Ive told me that they were inspired to start the fund after speaking with large corporates, many of whom are making significant commitments to shareholders and consumers about how they’ll reduce their environmental impact — be it through packaging, water usage, CO2 emissions, etc. “Large corporates want to make these changes,” Ive told me. “They just don’t necessarily have the technologies in place to deliver on them.”

That’s where BIV can come in. Instead of corporations having to re-engineer their businesses to meet these targets, they can integrate technology from mid-stage companies which will do it for them.

Considering the volatile economic climate right now, it might seem like an odd time to launch a venture fund. But for BIV, COVID-19 is actually proving the relevance of food technology more than ever. “The pandemic is shining a light on the cracks that have always been just under the surface of the food supply chain,” Mastrobuoni told me. With the Generation Food fund, BIV hopes to drive innovation into spaces that can enhance sustainability and make the supply chain more resilient, should something like the coronavirus strike again.

Indeed, one of the things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is a heightened awareness around our food — where it comes from, how safe it is, and how inconsistent our supply chain can be (just try to find flour at your grocery store and see what happens). If we want to ensure a more resilient supply chain — especially in case another catastrophe strikes — we have to make our food system more sustainable now.

That’s the kind of argument that could help BIV attract the full $250 million for Generation Food.

Waste Free! Loop Expands Reusable Packaging Program Throughout the U.S.

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing me to order more things than ever online — from groceries to toiletries to fancy dried beans — I’m accruing quite a lot of single-use packaging at my house. And I feel bad about it.

Maybe I’ll soon be able to assuage some of that guilt when Loop, the reusable packaging service, expands nationwide over the next few months (tip via Fast Company). Loop, an initiative from recycling company Terracycle, sells name-brand CPG products directly to consumers that are packaged in reusable containers made from metal and glass. After the consumers use them up, they put the empty containers back in the tote they came in and Loop picks them up to be sterilized and refilled.

Loop launched in the U.S. last May with a pilot program in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. According to an Instagram post from the company, Loop will roll out its reusable-container service across the contiguous U.S. sometime this summer. Globally, Loop is available in Paris and has plans to head to Canada, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. this year.

At launch Loop already had a roster of big-name partners like Kroger, Pepsi, Nestlé, and Walgreens. The platform has expanded to include roughly 200 products, including plant-based burgers and ice cream from Häagen-Dazs (my personal favorite).

I know what you’re thinking — during a pandemic when we’re all anxious about contamination, are we really going to be okay with receiving groceries packed in containers that someone else has already used? Especially since bring-your-own mugs and reusable totes in retailers are becoming a thing of the past?

Loop’s CEO certainly thinks so. He told Fast Company that Loop has seen evidence that “consumers are comfortable with reuse during COVID.” Since Loop has a reuse protocol in place — with stringent cleaning measures and pre-established health and safety checklists — he’s confident that they’ll be able to continue their closed-loop packaging practice without putting users at risk.

If users are comfortable with this, Loop’s extended platform could be a real help to cut down on our persistent packaging problem. Even if your delivery boxes are technically recyclable, COVID-19 is causing challenges for the waste management industry as a whole. Many packaging elements — like styrofoam and ice packs — aren’t recyclable anyway. Considering that the EPA reported that over 32 million tons of packaging and containers went into landfills in 2017 — almost a quarter of the total waste from the entire year — this is an issue we need to take seriously.

Today is Earth Day, so there’s no better time to take a moment and consider how we can help preserve our planet. Come this summer I know one small step that I’ll be taking cut down on the amount of packaging I’m tossing out. Bonus: I still get to enjoy my chocolate-fudge ice cream.

Daily Harvest Switches to Home Compostable Containers

Daily Harvest makes frozen containers of pre-prepped food that are supposed to be better for your health than most frozen meals. But are they better for the planet, too?

The company has taken at least one step towards sustainability. Starting in April, Daily Harvest will roll out its new Re:generation line of containers which are 100 percent home compostable and made from plant-based renewable fibers. They’re also adjusting its portion size; the savory Harvest Bowls + Soups will be 1.5 times larger, and the Oats + Chia Bowls will be .75 times their current size.

Daily Harvest is also working more upstream to make the entire production process — from manufacturing to shipping — more sustainable. According to a release from the company emailed to The Spoon, Daily Harvest is in the midst of “working to eliminate all single use plastic and non-recyclable materials through our supply chain.” Where exactly they are on that process is unclear.

I tried out Daily Harvest’s service last year and really enjoyed the taste, health, and convenience of the frozen meals. I was happy to learn at the time that the cardboard delivery box in which the meals com is recyclable, as are the meal cups themselves. The liner holding the dry ice included in the shipment is supposedly also biodegradable and made of recycled denim.

Making the cups not just recyclable but home compostable is an encouraging step to cut waste in the very wasteful home meal delivery space — and one that I hope to see other companies following. Some already are. UK supermarket chain Waitrose has debuted fully compostable packaging for prepared meals. Pizza tech company Zume also pivoted into compostable packaging last year, though it’s currently dealing with lack of funding and major layoffs.

Other companies, like NadaMoo, are learning just how complex making home-recyclable containers actually is, especially for leak-prone products like ice cream.

One major question I had when learning this news was whether or not Daily Harvest’s new containers will contain PFAS, or chemicals that do not ever biodegrade. Last week Sweetgreen began rolling out new to-go meal bowls that were compostable and free of PFAS (their old containers were compostable but did have PFAS). As of today, Chipotle has pledged to remove PFAS from its own bowls by the end of 2020.

I’ve reached out to Daily Harvest to find out if its new packaging does, in fact, contain PFAs and will update this post when I hear back. Until then, it’s still encouraging to see a company so synonymous with frozen food delivery taking steps to reduce its packaging footprint. Here’s hoping Daily Harvest’s actions will encourage other delivery-only meal companies to follow suit.

Produce Mate Launches Kickstarter for Silicone Mat That Extends Produce Life

After learning that the majority of food waste happens in the home, I’ve been trying to take conscious steps to cut down on the amount of food I throw away — buying only what I need, cooking with scraps, etc. By far the biggest struggle is produce — no matter how carefully I plan to use up all my bananas, tomatoes, and avocados, I usually end up with at least a few rotting and ending up in the compost. Sorry, I am a flawed human. 

A new startup out of Portland, Oregon is trying to give me and other aspirational folks a longer lead time to use up their produce before it goes bad. Called Produce Mate, the company makes antimicrobial kitchen mats that contain minerals that fight the bacteria responsible for spoilage of fruits and vegetables. Place the mat — which is the same size as a sheet of paper — on the counter or in your fridge, store your produce on top, and your fruits and veggies will stay fresh for longer.

How much longer? According to Produce Mate’s founder Dagan Kay, who I spoke to on the phone earlier this week, they don’t have any exact numbers yet. The company is currently in the midst of gathering data on how the mat will affect the lifetime of various fruits and vegetables. “It’s a tough thing to predict (or advertise) because every fruit ‘n veggie is different and results will always vary,” he told me. Kay did, however, cited one study they’d done in which fruits and vegetables stored on the Produce Mate mat lasted 40 percent longer than those stored on a counter alone.

Photo: Produce Mate

Produce Mate recently launched on Kickstarter with a goal of $15,000. Backers can nab a single mat for $25 with an estimated ship date of July 2020. The mats come with suggested “cut-to-fit” lines in case it doesn’t slot easily into your fridge. Kay told me if successful, he plans to sell the mats for $30 MSRP both online and through retail partners by the end of this year. 

Produce Mate is bootstrapped right now, and Kay said that the company needs the Kickstarter funds before it can order its first large-scale run of the mats. As always, crowdfunded hardware companies come with a strict “buyer beware” caveat — especially at a time when COVID-19 is putting up extra obstacles for manufacturing. 

Other companies are also fighting home food waste by tackling produce lifespan. The most similar to Produce Mate is StixFresh, which makes a small sticker that exudes plant compounds that keep bacteria from forming on fresh fruit and vegetables. Further upstream in the supply chain, Hazel Technologies and Apeel are extending produce life with packaging inserts and edible coating, respectively.

Kay is aware of these competitors and said that Produce Mat differentiates itself in two major ways. Firstly, it doesn’t require any behavior change on the part of the consumer — no stickers to add to your bananas, no nothing. The mats are also long-lasting — they stay effective for over two years — which means less stuff ends up in the trash. “I didn’t want to save fruit and vegetables from the landfill just to add something else to it,” he told me.

Kay explained that for many consumers it’s easy to get overwhelmed when facing as daunting a challenge as food waste. But the Produce Mate, he told me, could catalyze real change because “it’s tangible and simple proof that cumulative action actually makes a difference.” Time will tell if it’ll help people like me do better at using up those bananas before they go bad.

Sweetgreen Rolls Out Truly Compostable Bowls — Will Other Chains Follow Suit?

If you’ve grabbed lunch at a Sweetgreen before, you likely felt pretty virtuous as you tossed your takeout container, knowing that it’s “100 percent compostable.”

But the truth about those takeaway bowls is a lot less pleasant. According to The Counter (formerly The New Food Economy), all molded fiber bowls contain PFAS; a nasty class of chemicals that do not naturally biodegrade. That means that the compostable food containers you’ve been throwing out are not, in fact, compostable. In fact, they contain hazardous, unhealthy components that never break down.

However, Sweetgreen just took a big step to get rid of PFAS and make their to-go containers truly compostable. The fast-casual chain partnered with Footprint, a company fighting single-use plastic packaging, to develop a new line of biodegradable bowls that are completely devoid of PFAS (h/t FastCompany). Sweetgreen launched the bowls first in San Francisco earlier this year, since new legislation requires that as of January 1, 2020, all single-use food service ware (containers, cups, etc) in SF must be PFAS-free.

The containers are made of fibers from bagasse, an agricultural waste product, which is blended, heated, and covered with a natural coating so it won’t leak. The lids for Sweetgreen’s to-go containers are currently plastic, but the company plans to start selling lids made of the same compostable material soon. Sweetgreen has plans to roll out the compostable bowls at all of its stores nationwide in 2020.

Sweetgreen is one of several restaurant chains with high numbers of to-go orders that is increasing its sustainability efforts. Its competitor, Just Salad, recently announced plans to send zero waste to landfills by 2022. Coffee chain Blue Bottle aims to divert at least 90 percent of its waste from landfills by the end of this year.

On the fast food side, Taco Bell aims to implement PFAS-free sustainable consumer-facing packaging by 2025. Starbucks will switch to reusable packaging by 2030 in a bid to cut its landfill waste by half. And McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, and Burger King have all made their own pledges to reduce single-use and plastic.

In a time when worry over COVID-19 could be making restaurants more hesitant to accept consumer’s reusable containers — Starbucks, for example, has stopped letting customers use their own drinking vessels — better to-go packaging is more needed than ever before. But implementing truly recyclable or compostable packaging is much easier said than done, even as more cities mandate PFAS-free to-go containers.

With its new biodegradable bowls, Sweetgreen shows that it’s taking sustainability seriously. The move should put some pressure on fast-casual competitors like Chipotle, Panera, Chopt, and more, to follow suit and step up their to-go container game.

Food Tech News: Self-Heating Coffee Cans and Pepsi’s Pulp 6-Pack Rings

It’s very possible that you will be staying inside this weekend, or else maybe you’ve got a trip planned to go support your local Chinatown. But first, catch up on one type of news that won’t make you want to bury yourself under a comforter and never come out: food tech news!

This week we’ve rounded up stories on self-heating coffee cans from La Colombe, PepsiCo’s newest waste-free packaging, and plant-based pork. Enjoy.

La Colombe debuts self-heating coffee cans
La Colombe is has something hot a-brewing. The Philadelphia-based coffee brand has teamed up with beverage tech startup HeatGen to create self-heating cans of java (via the Philadelpha Inquirer). Users twist the bottom of the can and wait two minutes, during which a chemical reaction heats the coffee to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. For now the self-heating coffee cans, which come in two flavors, cost $5 each and are only available at one La Colombe location in Philadelphia. La Colombe CEO Todd Carmichael told the Inquirer that the cans would soon have a larger rollout in Wegmans grocery stores.

PepsiCo trials soda rings made from molded pulp
In an effort to cut down on plastic rings (you know the ones that trap sea turtles), PepsiCo is trialing a new method of holding together its six-packs of soda cans. The new rings are made of molded wood pulp instead of plastic. According to FoodNavigator, the new packaging will be tested out over the next few weeks on 7.5-ounce mini six-packs of Pepsi and Sierra Mist. In addition to being recyclable, the pulp rings are also biodegradable and compostable.

Photo: Hormel Foods

Hormel’s Happy Little Plants rolls out plant-based ground “meat”
Happy Little Plants, the alternative protein brand by pork company Hormel Foods, recently expanded the footprint of its plant-based ground “meat.” The product, the first for Happy Little Plants, is now available at all 74 locations of the Midwestern grocery chain Fresh Thyme Farmers Market (h/t VegNews). Hormel launched Happy Little Plants back in 2019 at Hy-Vee supermarkets in six states and has plans to introduce new products in the coming months.

This Alternative Sweetener Is Made From Upcycled Apples and Pears

Overconsumption of sugar is responsible for illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, a problem that’s hard to avoid because American food is full of the stuff. Many people and companies lean on alternatives to avoid sugar, but while research has proven that consumption of aspartame, sucralose and others is safe, many people have concerns about them. Stevia is another sugar alternative that’s made from leaves, but its odd aftertaste disqualifies it for use in many products.

This conundrum in the multi-billion-dollar sweetener industry presents an opportunity for Fooditive, which hopes to provide another option that is not only natural, but also reduces food waste. The Netherlands-based startup’s sweetener is made through a fermentation process that extracts fructose from apples and pears sourced from Dutch farmers that have brown spots or off colors and can’t be sold in stores, Fast Company reports. The company, founded by food scientist Moayad Abushokhedim, has also developed carrot waste into a preserving agent for soups, sauces and bakery items, as well as thickening agents made from banana skins and emulsifiers from potato extracts.

The company is following a B2B model and will distribute the sweetener to food and beverage companies across the Netherlands. There’s no word on when it will go on sale to the general public, although the company’s website says online ordering will be coming soon. Fooditive said it has plans to expand to Sweden, the U.K. and Abushokhedim’s native Jordan. 

While Fooditive’s sweetener is novel, using food and food scraps that would otherwise be discarded is part of a growing trend of so-called upcycled foods. Other companies with this model include Barnana, which turns misshapen and over ripened bananas into snacks, ReGrained, a maker of bars made from spent grain leftover from brewing beer, and Sir Kensington, a vegan mayo maker that uses chickpea liquid.

Aside from introducing alternatives, companies are also introducing ways to “improve” sugar so we don’t need to consume too much of it. There’s DouxMatok, which aims to make the sugar we already consume hit our tongues more efficiently, and Nutrition Innovation, a technology company using near-infrared scanning to better refine sugar.

Startups are approaching the issue of humanity’s dangerous sugar addiction from multiple angles, so thankfully there are plenty of sweet solutions emerging.

Rockstart Closes €3M in Fresh Funding for Its First Agtech Cohort

Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup accelerator Rockstart announced this week it has closed a €3 million (~ $3,332,000 USD) funding round to support Rockstart AgriFood, its first-ever agtech-focused program. The round follows a €15 million raise from September 2019 that was led by the Danish state fund Vaekstfonden, Dutch investment firm De Hoge Dennen, and “unnamed high net worth individuals,” according to an article on AgFunder news. This latest round of investment comes from undisclosed investors from Europe. 

Nine-year-old Rockstart, who also operates programs for the energy and health sector, kicked off the first-ever cohort for its agtech (also called “agrifood”) program last September. Ten startups were chose to participate, including ChefMe, a platform for hiring private chefs, precision-farming company Vultus, and Beyond Leather Materials, which repurposes unused foods to make leather alternatives.

For all its programs, including AgriFood, Rockstart looks for growth-stage startups and focuses on getting them access to markets and capital. AgriFood, in particular, looks for startups innovating in the following areas: optimizing processes and practices, reducing and/or stopping food waste, and improving traceability.  

Chosen companies receive an initial €100,000 (€35,000 in cash and €65,000 in program costs in exchange for 6 percent equity via a convertible loan). Startups are also eligible for potential follow-on investments from Rockstart up to their Series B stage. The program provides all participants with networking and mentorship opportunities as well as access to the wider Rockstart community. 

The first cohort’s Demo Day, where companies showcase and pitch their products and services will take place on January 30 in Copenhagen. According to the Rockstart website, applications for the next cohort open in April 2020. 

Thirstie Launches Thirstie Access to Let Alcohol Brands Sell Directly to Consumers Online

Thirstie, who makes e-commerce software for liquor brands, today announced Thirstie Access, a solution that will let alcohol brands build and manage their own online storefronts. According to an email sent to The Spoon, Thirstie Access enables the direct purchase of actual booze from these sites, which is a first for the spirits industry.

Despite the uptick in online booze sales over the last few years, purchasing alcohol directly from a brand is tricky business in the U.S. There’s a three-tier system, where alcohol producers hand the product to wholesale distributors, who in turn supply retailers (aka the liquor store) that sell to the customer. Under this system, each tier is regulated separately and no one party can be involved in more than one tier.

The advent of online alcohol sales calls into question whether that system is antiquated and inefficient, seeing as it slows down the process of getting on-demand-crazed consumers their goods as fast as possible. Hence the arrival of companies like Thirstie.  

Since its launch in 2014, the Thirstie platform has acted as a kind of middleman between liquor companies and consumers, facilitating the purchase of alcohol online and connecting brands to its network of local retailers that can deliver the order to the consumer. Its software platform enables liquor companies to essentially bypass the distribution tier and send consumer orders to the retailer for delivery. As my colleague Chris Albrecht wrote last year, with Thirstie, brands, “can ‘sell’ their goods without actually selling them.”

The Thirstie Access tool changes that by letting liquor brands process and handle purchases directly from their own sites. In other words, they can finally add that “Buy” button so noticeably absent from most of these brands’ websites, which is something of a first for the spirits industry. Using Thirstie Access, an alcohol company will be able to quickly build an industry-compliant website from which it can sell its products to consumers. Companies using the Access tool will also be able to leverage Thirstie’s API and its network of retailers (who still have to do the actual delivering of the booze).

There are a few advantages to consumers being able to purchase directly from a liquor brand’s website. For one thing, it cuts out an extra step (or three) in the consumer’s buying journey — instead of getting redirected to a marketplace or liquor retailer’s site, the buyer can simply add items to their cart and hit “buy.” Direct purchasing also means liquor companies get access to their consumers’ purchasing behavior, which is nowadays considered the Holy Grail in online retail. The hope is that both of those things translate to higher direct sales for alcohol brands, particularly the independent ones who often have to fight hard for visibility alongside their more mainstream counterparts.

On that note, Thirstie will launch Thirstie Access with three indie spirits companies: Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey, RAMONA Organic Wine Spritzes and rum brand Ten to One. Proper No. Twelve will be available for delivery for residents of California, New York, Kentucky, and 15 other U.S. states. Further expansion is planned for 2020.

Thirstie said in the press release it will add “an extensive list” of brands to the Access platform over the next few months. 

The Complete CES 2020 Kitchen Tech Report

At this year’s big tech show in Vegas, there was no shortage of food tech. Everything from Impossible Pork to robot cooking assistants were on display, and so after spending five days in the desert checking out the latest and greatest, here’s my wrap-up of everything I saw in kitchen tech at the show:

Lots of Smart Fridges

It may be hard to believe in 2020, but Internet connected fridges have been showing up at CES for two decades. Of course, with powerful machine vision and food inventory tracking systems, today’s smart fridges are a lot more useful than these attempts from yesteryear even if they’ve yet to be widely adopted.

Some of the companies showing off smart fridge tech at this year’s CES included LG, Samsung, Bosch and GE. Bosch showed off a two-camera smart fridge powered by Chefling, a partnership that shouldn’t be all that surprising given BSH Appliances’ investment in the smart kitchen software startup.

LG’s latest smart fridge, which includes the popular Instaview transparent front door feature, now reorders food when inventory gets low. Samsung’s latest smart fridges use Whisk technology (a company they acquired last year) to suggest recipes based off of your in-fridge inventory. Smarter was also in Vegas at FoodTech Live showing off their retrofit fridge cam.

Home Grow Systems Get a Look

For the first time at CES, big appliance brands showed interest in allowing home grow systems to take root in the kitchen. Both Samsung’s BeSpoke grow system and the LG’s system were evolved proof of concepts that utilized sensors and allowed the home gardener to monitor the status of their plants within the form factor of a standup fridge.

GE’s Home Grown took the home farm out of the fridge and made the entire kitchen a multilayered food grow system. You can watch a video of a booth demo of the concept below:

CES 2020: A Tour of 'Home Grown', the GE Appliances Garden Kitchen Concept

All of the grow systems on display by big appliance brands were more proof of concepts than shipping products. I’ll be interested to see if any of them roll out these products in the next year. Of all the systems, the Samsung Bespoke home grow systems seemed to be the closest to a market-ready product.

Intelligent And Adaptive Surfaces

One of the big trends sweeping food tech is personalization, so why not apply the principle of personalization to our physical space as well? GE did just that with a concept called Shift, an adaptable kitchen that, well, shifts to adapt to each person’s specific requirements. The idea isn’t new. The first winner of the Smart Kitchen Summit startup showcase, a German startup called Tielsa (now KimoCon), makes an app-controlled, adjustable kitchen platform that adjusts the height of the surface space to the specific user.

The Wireless Power Consortium had a full kitchen built out at CES 2020, showing off how their Ki kitchen standard using induction heating and wireless charging worked. Speaking of induction, one of the most innovative entries in intelligent surfaces at CES 2020 was from design firm GHSP, who showed off technology for a video-enabled induction cooktop. I know Americans are in love with their fire cooking, but hopefully new ideas like this will generate interest in what is clearly a superior (and flexible) technology in induction. You can check out a quick video of GHSP’s concept below:

Drink Tech Was EVERYWHERE

Drinks have always been a little easier to serve up in the future kitchen than cooking technology, and this year was no different as we saw well over a dozen next-gen beer, booze, coffee and tea machines sprinkled around the show floor.

On the booze front, CES 2020 had offerings from Drinkworks and Bartesian, while on the beerbot side, we saw offerings from PicoBrew, BEERMKR, MiniBrew and INTHEKEG to name a few. Noticeably absent was LG’s HomeBrew, the automated beer making appliance concept they debuted a year ago at CES 2019.

When it comes to coffee tech, longtime Spoon readers shouldn’t be surprised at my excitement over seeing a working production model of the Spinn coffee maker, a product I’ve been covering since I pre-ordered one way back in 2016 (we’ll have a video of the Spinn later this week). Terra Kaffe had a TK-01 on hand at FoodTech Live to demo the machine’s grind and brew (and milk frothing) capabilities, while MoJoe Brewing was showing off its portable coffee making system.

You can watch Chris’s interview with Spinn CEO Roderick de Rode and take a look inside the Spinn in the video below:

CES 2020: A Look at the Spinn Grind and Brew Coffee Maker

DNA & Microbiome Driven Diets

With DNA testing now fast and affordable, it’s not all that surprising to see offshoot concepts that capitalize on the information provided by a person’s profile. One of CES’s most buzzy startups in this space was DNANudge, a French company that is offering a wearable that tells a person whether that CPG product they picked up in the grocery store is a good fit for them. On the microbiome front, Sun Genomics was at FoodTech Live to show off its personalized microbiome kit.

Food Waste Reduction & Sustainability

One area that has traditionally lacked innovation is in the management of food waste in the home. While we still didn’t see a whole lot around food waste prevention tech outside of ever-more-advanced machine vision making its way into our fridges, there was a scrappy Canadian startup was showing off a cool new concept for home composting. The Sepura, made by British Columbia based Anvytech, automatically routes your solids into a food compost bin and disposes of your liquids.

You can see CNET’s video tour of the Sepura composter below:

Food Inventory Management

In addition to a number of food recognizing fridges, there are also a few other products on display showcasing how we could better manage our food. The Ovie smart food tracking system was on display at FoodTech Live, while a new entrant into the smart food tracking space, PantryOn, showed off a new dry pantry tracking system that will notify you and reorder an item when the product is low. While the PantryOn is a bit pricey with a retail price of $900, I am glad to see some companies think about innovating in the pantry.

Smart Schnozzes

Long-term, more intelligent sensors -- and the software and AI that stitches together all the information gathered from these technologies -- are going to make the kitchen truly sentient, which is why I always make sure to check out the new digital nose technologies every year while at CES.

While there was no shortage of electronic noses at CES this year, one digital schnoz that stuck out Cyrano de Bergerac-style was that from Stratuscent. The company’s technology, originally developed by NASA, can be used in a variety of verticals, but the company’s initial focus is food applications. Company CEO David Wu told me they are currently talking to appliance manufacturers about the possibility of including Stratuscent tech in their products.

Countertop Cooking

On the counterop cooking front, Anova was at CES showing off its Precision Oven, which is slated to appear sometime this year. The company was demoing the benefits of steam throughout the show, including showing off how steam can help make much better bread. You can watch a walkthrough of the Anova oven from food tech innovator Scott Heimendinger below, who has been helping Anova with the oven.

CES 2020: A Look at the Anova Precision Steam Oven

One product that seemed to get lots of buzz at CES was a multicooker called Julia from CookingPal. The device looks and acts in large part like a Thermomix, with the main difference being a separate touch screen interface in the form of a 8.9″ display. The touch screen has a camera on it that, according CookingPal, will recognize food and suggest recipes. From there, the Julia offers video-powered guided cooking, and afterwards has a self-clean mode.

Cooking Robots

Much like big appliance brands caught home garden fever, many also seemed bitten by the food robotics bug. Chris covered much of what was on display, most of which struck me as futuristic visions of how robotics could be implemented in a consumer or professional kitchen to make our lives easier. Not that futuristic or far off is a bad thing -- what seemed crazy ten years ago often seems pedestrian in the present, and I expect at some point some of these products will be commercialized.

One that’s worth a look is the Samsung Bot Chef. While a bit reminiscent of the Moley robot arm kitchen robot, the Samsung bot’s fine motor movements and handling of kitchen utensils was impressive, suggesting that maybe a home robot chef isn’t as far off as I might think.

Samsung Bot Chef first look at CES 2020

Key Takeaways

When I was doing my research on what to expect at this year’s CES for foodtech, I was surprised at some of the big ideas that were debuting at the show.

While CES normally is where gee-whiz technology debuts, this year appliance and home brands seemed to thinking bigger with concepts that could potentially solve real-world problems like reduce food waste or help those with special needs.

There also seemed to be a big focus, generally, on the kitchen as a place to employ cutting edge technologies ranging from AI, robotics, virtual reality and more. Big appliance, it seems, has realized what we’ve long believed: the kitchen is the heart of the home.

Finally, it seems personalization is grabbing hold in a big way. Everything from personalized nutrition to physical cooking spaces to meal plans is on the menu, something that I think aligns well with the broader push towards more personalized worlds in this era of data abundance.

We’ll be continuing the conversation about personalization at Customize, our Food Personalization Summit, in NYC on Feb 27th. Join us!