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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

MycoTechnology Wins the Radicle Protein Challenge, Secures $1M

MycoTechnology, producers of fermented mushroom protein, won the $1M prize for receiving first place in the Radicle Protein Challenge this week. The Syngenta Group, a multinational agriculture company, and Radicle Growth, a venture capital firm specializing in food and agriculture startups, hosted this challenge. An additional $250K was awarded to runner up Blue Nalu, a cellular aquaculture company.

The competition hosted 150 applicants from all over the world and came to a head with a virtual event this week where each of the four finalists pitched. The two other finalists include Cell Farm and Trophic.

In addition to funding, MycoTechnology will have access to the Syngenta Group and Radicle Growth’s global agriculture and food networks. MycoTechnology’s mushroom fermentation technology is used to create products including ClearTaste, which blocks the bitter flavors of certain foods, and PureTaste, a mushroom-based protein.

At the beginning of 2020, the Good Food Institute predicted that one of the alternative protein trends of the year would be innovative ingredients and enhanced flavors, especially coming from fermented yeasts and mushroom varieties. Additionally, a recent report released on the Good Food Institute added fermentation as a third category (alongside cultured meat and plant-based proteins) in the alternative protein sector. Besides MycoTechnology, other companies have also taken advantage of using the umami-flavor and versatility of different mushrooms. Meati transforms mushroom mycelium into a juicy plant-based steak. Mushlabs and Ecovatives both use mushrooms to provide better texture for plant-based meat alternatives.

Prior to the competition, MycoTechnology raised $39M over the summer. This brings the company’s total funding to $121.6M.

Meat-Tech 3D Closes $7M Funding Round, Files for IPO

Israeli food tech company Meat-Tech 3D officially announced yesterday that it had closed a $7 million funding round for its cultured meat production technologies that integrate 3D printing. The round was led by Psagot Provident and Pension Funds with participation from the Mor investment house as well as private investors.

The funding announcement comes about one week after Meat-Tech 3D said it had started the process for an IPO in the U.S. (The company is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange already.)

At this point, Meat-Tech 3D is more focused on the B2B realm, with plans to license its technology — a combination of cell-cultured meat processing and 3D printing — to alt-meat producers, rather than creating its own line of products. 

That technology and process involves growing cells in bioreactors then turning the different cell types (e.g., muscle, fat) into inks that get bioprinted to mimic a specific cut of meat. The 3D-printed structures are then placed in incubators where they grow before being frozen and packaged for shipping. The company successfully printed a piece of beef via this method.

Scale, however, is what Meat-Tech 3D ultimately wants to achieve. And as we’ve discussed before, there’s a long trek towards cultured meat at scale, and a big difference between a successful prototype and having an actual product widely available.

Meat-Tech isn’t the only cell-based meat company using 3D printing. At the recent Smart Kitchen Summit, NovaMeat showed off it’s 3D printer by making a “steak” live during the show. And earlier this year, Redefine Meat said it had achieved the ability to 3D print plant-based steaks using industrial-level technology.

Meat-Tech CEO Sharon Fima said in today’s press release that the new funds will enable the company to progress with its acquisition of cultured meat company Peace of Meat as well as continuing to build out R&D.

The company has not yet provided a timeframe for the IPO. 

Muji Releases a Line of Shelf-Stable Plant-Based Meat Items

U.S.-based fans of Muji largely know the brand as a home goods store. But in other countries, including Muji’s home base of Japan, consumers can also purchase a variety of food and beverage items, making the brand more akin to IKEA than just another housewares store. Add plant-based protein to that list of edible goods one can purchase, as the company just released four soy-based dishes meant to take the place of regular ol’ meat.

The products are available right now to Muji customers in Japan via both the company’s brick-and-mortar stores and its website. Dishes include plant-based versions of a burger, minced meat, meatballs, and a thinly sliced meat. All products come ready to serve and are shelf stable, so they can be stored at room temperature and need no additional hydration. They cost roughly $2.75 USD per pack.

Muji hasn’t yet said if there will be an international expansion. Though given the company’s geographical reach at this point — the brand is in 35 countries — an overseas expansion would not come as a surprise.

International expansion also makes sense given the sheer demand right now for plant-based proteins. Global demand for plant-based protein options is on the rise, and some estimates expect the market to be worth $17.9 billion by 2025. 

That growth is happening around the globe. In Asia, Omnipork parent Green Monday just raised $70 million, and both Just Eat and Impossible — major alt-protein players in the U.S. — are opening production facilities in that region. Both Impossible and Beyond also released direct-to-consumer e-commerce ventures this year. Further south, Chile-based NotCo just expanded to the U.S., while over in Australia, V2food just raised $55 million. Those developments are a sampling of all the recent activity, which shows no signs of slowing down. 

Muji’s news is another example of plant-based protein’s reach not just geographically but also in terms of the types of settings in which consumers can now purchase these goods. Not so long ago, plant-based proteins were largely the territory of QSRs. Now they’ve infiltrated every type of restaurant, along with grocery stores, wholesale retailers, and chains like Muji that sell much more than food items.  

NotCo’s Milk Alternative Launches in the U.S. Today

Chile-based food tech company NotCo, best known for its alt-protein products, announced today it is launching its plant-based milk alternative in Whole Foods stores across the U.S. These alt-milk products will be available in Whole and Reduced Fat varieties at stores as of today, according to a press release from NotCo sent to The Spoon.

The launch follows an $85 million Series C funding round from September, an investment the company said would help NotCo expand internationally through both retail and restaurant partnerships. Previously, NotCo raised $30 million in 2019 from a pool of investors that included Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos. The company’s total funding to date is $115 million.

All that funding and expansion aside, the company has undergone some changes in the last year, including having to restructure its business and do layoffs. NotCo also shut down its Santiago-based production plant for its NotMayo product, passing production of that item on to an unnamed third party. Currently, the NotCo website only lists the milk alternative under its products. A spokesperson for the company told The Spoon that the milk products are currently for sale across Latin America.

Like other milk alternatives out there, NotMilk is comprised of a number of plant sources, pea protein being the main one. Pineapple juice concentrate, cabbage juice concentrate, and chicory root fiber are others. NotCo claims that, with these ingredients as well as AI and machine-learning algorithms, it is able to recreate the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of regular ol’ milk. As of today, U.S. consumers can see how it stacks up in terms of those elements to other choices already in grocery stores.

On that note, NotCo joins the likes of Oatly, Take Two, and others that already have plant-based milk alternatives in the U.S. market. Further down the line, all these companies may have to compete with Impossible, which is developing its own milk alternative. Whether other alt-protein heavyweights like Perfect Day and Eat Just ever come to market with milk alternatives remains to be seen. Regardless, NotCo faces more than a little healthy competition when it comes to retail shelves in the U.S.  

Food Tech News: Tik Tok Creator’s Menu and Biodegradable Bacardi Bottles

Happy Halloween! This year’s holiday will certainly look different, but I know I will be checking out the full moon, making my own chocolate peanut butter cups, and watching The Shining. Maybe you can find joy in creating a candy chute or developing your own candy delivering robot for trick-or-treaters. Or, you can spend some time catching up on food tech news like Tik Tok’s new food menu, biodegradable Bacardi bottles, Whole Foods’ predictions for new food trends, and adaptogen coffee pods.

Tik Tok partners with Postmates for “Creator’s Menu”

Tik Tok has skyrocketed in popularity amongst millennials this year, with the majority of its users between the ages of 16-24. To capitalize on this demographic, Tik Tok partnered with Postmates to create a menu of this year’s most popular food trends that millennials are salivating over. Available from October 28 to November 22, local restaurants in Los Angeles will be serving up their versions of whipped coffee, cloud bread, pancake cereal, and a bento box. These are the food trends on Tik Tok that have reached between 259 million to 3 billion hashtags. With the whipped coffee going for $7.50 and the bento box $20, this is a price only a millennial could justify.

Photo from Bacardi

Biodegradable Bacardi Bottles

Bacardi has started using bottles that look exactly like regular plastic, except for the fact that these bottles are apparently able to break down in the trash, both outside and in the ocean. The material used to make the bottle is called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and its main component is canola oil. Danimer Scientific, which makes this material, feeds canola oil (which contains carbon dioxide that was stored in the plant) to bacteria. The bacteria then turns this into PHA, which is extracted to make plastic-like products. Companies like Nestlé and PepsiCo are also using this material for packaging.

Whole Food predicts food trends of 2021

Whole Foods released its annual food predictions for the upcoming year, and it should come as no surprise that plant-based foods are a trend that is predicted to continue on an upward trajectory next year. Healthy baby food, chickpea-based foods, vegetable jerky, and upcycled foods are some on the list. Out of all the predictions made, my personal favorite is alcoholic kombucha.

Adaptogenic, compostable coffee pods from Hong Kong

Hong Kong-based Beams Coffee combines the trends of gourmet coffee and adaptogens in its compostable pods. Adaptogens are plants and herbs that are supposed to help the body combat stressors, and Beams Coffee uses medicinal mushrooms like Cordyceps, Lion’s mane, Reishi, and Tremella. These mushrooms are paired with specialty coffee from Sydney and Melbourne and come in pods that are 95 percent sugarcane-based. The coffee pods are available in four varieties including beauty, mind, energy, and immunity, and are compatible with the Nespresso maker.

Bee Honey is the Latest Animal-Free Food To Come From Precision Fermentation

Ahh, the magic of fermentation.

Over the past couple of years, the age-old process that brought us beer, soy sauce and kombucha has become suddenly sexy as it’s taken on new power through innovative startups trying to reinvent our food system.

While old-school fermentation continues to be a highly scaled workhorse, a new group of startups now use fermentation in innovative new ways that allow them to replicate proteins and other food compounds normally sourced from animals. In other words, they’re making animal products without the actual animal.

The end-result is products like Perfect Day’s ice cream or New Culture’s cheese that replicate the taste and experience of food produced the old fashioned way, on farms and through industrial production, without the need for animals.

And now, the miracle of precision fermentation is bringing us a new analog for a food that is particularly in peril: bee honey.

A startup by the name of Melibio wants to create bee honey using microbial fermentation technology. The “honey,” which company CEO Darko Mandich says “resembles the taste, the texture, and the viscosity of bee-made honey,” will be made by replicating the process used to create bee honey.

Why a honey alternative? As most know at this point, the honey bee population has been in precipitous decline over the past decade. Climate change, pesticides and, yes, murder hornets all continue to pose a threat to honey bees and the $7 billion honey industry.

Of course, creating biosynthesized honey won’t replace honey bees themselves. The declining bee population remains a problem, especially given the larger role of bees as pollinators To help us there, we may have to rely on technology Hail Maries like robotic bee drones or bubbles to solve the problem.

So how soon will it before we can taste Melibio’s bee honey without the bee? According to Mandich, the company plans to launch their honey replacement sometime next year and that 14 companies have signed letters of intent to use the product.

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Forager Partners With Roche Bros. To Make Local Food More Accessible

Forager, a procurement platform for sourcing local food, announced its partnership with Massachusetts-based Roche Bros. grocery store this week. Over 20 Roche Bros. and its subsidiaries in the Boston Metro area will be implementing Forager’s platform.

Forager forms relationships with local farmers, ranchers, fishers, and artisanal producers, and then streamlines the process of getting their products into stores. Local producers can update their inventory on a phone, and buyers from grocery stores can instantly see the price and amount of these items. Through the Forager program, local food and products go straight from the farm to the grocery store, rather than to a warehouse before heading off to the grocery store.

I spoke with Forager Founder, David Stone, this week about this recent partnership and Forager’s mission. Stone said that his company prefers focusing on partnering with smaller, independent grocery stores over the big players in the grocery game like Walmart or Amazon. By connecting smaller grocery stores with more local producers, this gives smaller stores a chance to compete with larger retailers and providers by attracting consumers that are specifically looking for local produce.

The demand for local produce surged at the beginning of the pandemic, and although it is unclear if this trend is still on an upward trajectory, companies have responded to it. Besides Forager, other companies have made an effort to connect consumers to local goods. Grubmarket raised $20 million in funding earlier this month for its virtual farmer’s market platform. This summer, Chipotle also launched a virtual farmer’s market so consumers can have access to local cheese, meat, and produce from its suppliers.

The Forager platform is currently being used in about 30 grocery stores in nine different states. The company is in discussion with about 10 other grocery stores for new potential partnerships.

Deep Branch Secures €2.5M to Scale Up Production of Novel Protein Using CO2 Inputs

Alternative protein company Deep Branch has secured €2.5 million (~$2.9 million USD) in new funding from the European Investment Council (EIC) Accelerator to scale up production of the company’s novel, single-cell protein called Proton. The funding will be used to build a production facility in the Netherlands that the company hopes will be operational by Q2 of next year, according to a release sent to The Spoon.

The announcement comes just months after Deep Branch secured government funding from the UK through an organization called the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), which funded nine projects to the tune of $30 million to help advance zero-emission farming and greater food sovereignty within the UK.

One of those projects is REACT-FIRST, which is a consortium centered around Deep Branch’s technology that creates protein using CO2 inputs from industrial emissions. Deep Branch, which has developed an animal feed formula using its novel single-cell protein that has a nutritional profile similar to that of fishmeal, was working with nine other partners as part of REACT-FIRST to create a sustainable protein research and production value chain.

With today’s news, Deep Branch is expanding to mainland Europe as part of an effort to accelerate the scaling of production for the company’s novel protein. The new funding will help the company build out a production facility at the Netherlands-based Brightlands Chemelot Campus, a European hub focused on providing space and infrastructure for circular chemistry and chemical processes. The new facility will, according to the release, “enable Deep Branch to scale up increasing production to enable animal feed manufacturers to expedite performance testing of the new protein.”

“Brightlands Chemelot Campus is the ideal location for our Scale-Up Centre, and there is a clear alignment between our goals and the facility’s overall ambitions for CO2 recycling and sustainable hydrogen use,”said Deep Branch CEO Peter Rowe in the release. “The industrial site gives us the ability to scale up quickly and has room for a large-scale production facility as well as the raw materials to create Proton. We have access to everything we need.”

Deep Branch will be working with feed producers BioMar and AB Agri as part of the scale up and optimization.

“Setting up the pilot plant represents an important next step in finding the perfect recipe for Proton that meets the requirements of feed producers,” said Rowe.

Deep Branch is one of a small cohort of new startups that have launched over the past few years focused on developing protein using a process called gas fermentation. (Check out Spoon Plus report on the topic here.) Others include Air Protein, Solar Foods and NovoNutrients. Last year, the European Space Agency started working with Solar Foods to develop the technology for use in space to feed astronauts.

Food Tech News: Fried Chicken-Scented Face Masks, Halloween Robot Delivers Candy

Hormel and Jack in the Box give away scented masks

If you love the smell of chicken and bacon, now you have the option to inhale these scents all day. To promote new product launches, Hormel and Jack in the Box are giving away free scented face masks. Jack in the Box will soon launch a new plant-based UnChicken Sandwich and is giving out free fried chicken-scented face masks to celebrate. To promote the launch of its Black Label Bacon, Hormel is giving away “breathable bacon” face masks.

Photo from PR Newswire

Reece’s to deliver candy bars through robotic door

This year’s Halloween will likely be sans trick-or-treating, but Reese’s brand came up with a festive solution to distribute its peanut butter chocolate cups despite the circumstances. The brand created a robot door that travels through neighborhoods via remote control, and will release smoke and play a Halloween soundtrack. To receive a king-size Reese’s peanut butter cup from the door, one must simply approach the robot and say “trick-or-treat”. To determine where the robot door will stop this Halloween season, you can pitch your request on Reese’s Instagram page.

$30K food and agribusiness prize for MIT and RaboBank competition

MIT and Rabobank are hosting IGNITE, a virtual kick-off on November 9th for its food and agribusiness competition. The 6th annual Rabobank-MIT Food & Agribusiness competition aims to support student innovators in the food tech and agriculture space based in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Winners of the competition will receive $30K USD, access to industry mentorship, and other resources. The kickoff event is free to sign-up for, and the applications for the competition are due in January.

Prime Roots launches plant-based meats and meals at Whole Foods

Producers of vegan, koji-based meat products, Prime Roots will be debuting its meat alternative products and prepared meals in Whole Foods next week. Koji is a type of fungus that gives Prime Root’s chicken, bacon, and beef a meaty texture and umami flavor. Some of the company’s plant-based prepared meals include bacon mac and cheese, Hawaiian shoyu chicken, and beef shepherd’s pie. The company’s products will be available starting on October 27th in Bay Area Whole Foods.

IXON Food Technology Claims to Keeps Meat Fresh For Two Years

This week, Hong Kong-based IXON Food Technology announced its proprietary method of food preservation that allows meat to be shelf-stable for a guaranteed minimum of two years. The company will use this technology to produce packaged sirloin steaks and pork chops.

The company’s preservation technology is called “ASAP”, which stands for advanced sous-vide aseptic packaging. Other methods of preservation, like canning, for example, put food through high heat for sterilization. In this process, some of the flavors of the food get lost. IXON’s technology sterilizes food at a moderate temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows the food to keep both flavor and moisture. This process also excludes preservatives and chemicals which are commonly found in other preserved and packaged foods.

The company explains its technology in this video:

Advanced sous-vide aseptic packaging (ASAP) - How does it work?

If the company’s technology works as advertised that would also mean that meat could be stored and shipped without energy-consuming freezers, and that people could stock up on meats without filling up their fridges and freezers at home.

All of that sounds great, but what we don’t know is how well this technology actually works, and what types of independent verification has been done. Also unknown is what type of company IXON is. Is it looking to license out its technology to other meat providers, or is it building its own meat brand?

IXON Food Technologies joins other companies in the quests to preserve foods and combat food waste. Apeel, producers of a natural food-safe coating that extends the life of produce, raised $250 million earlier this year. And StixFresh created a sticker that is placed on produce to extend its shelf life. IXON Food Technologies appears the be the only company focusing on meat specifically but stated on their website that they plan on expanding to include additional food products in the future.

With a month left to go, Ixon Food Technology’s Kickstarter campaign has raised nearly $36,000, blowing past its goal of roughly $13,000. Early backers can actually receive two 16-oz beef sirloin steaks or pork chops for a pledge of $49 USD. The company is currently applying for patents and trademarks for its technology in the United States, Europe, and China.

Impossible Is Prototyping a Plant-Based Milk Product

At a press conference today, Impossible Foods revealed a prototype for a plant-based milk alternative as part of its ambitious plans to eliminate animal protein from the food supply chain. The product will be called Impossible Milk and will look and function just like cow’s milk. 

To illustrate the differences, Impossible showed its prototype off alongside other alternative milks at the press conference, even mixing it with a cup of coffee to demonstrate how it does not curdle as other plant-based milks do.

Though the milk won’t be available to customers at any point in the near future, It is part of Impossible’s plan to diversify its products to include a range of plant-based alternative proteins. The company is also working on alternatives to chicken and steak, and CEO Pat Brown told MIT Technology Review that Impossible is on a mission to “completely replace the world’s most destructive technology by far, which is the use of animals, by 2035.”

“We will succeed or fail based on whether we build a complete technology platform that creates all the foods we get today from animals,” he added.

To help realize that lofty goal, Impossible also said at the press conference that it intends to double the size of its R&D team over the next year and launched the “Impossible Investigator” project to entice scientists to join the team.

Today’s news follows Impossible’s just-announced expansion onto retail store shelves in Hong Kong and Singapore. And overall, 2020 has been a busy year for the company. It raised another $200 million in August, expanded distribution of its products to Walmart, Trader Joe’s, and other food retailers, and launched a direct-to-consumer e-commerce store. 

The company’s ambitions to branch out from faux beef into dairy, fish, poultry, and other areas of alt protein comes as the entire sector is seeing enormous growth and investment. Impossible’s chief rival Beyond hasn’t exactly rested on its laurels this year, either, having also expanded its product line, launched its own D2C store, and launched products at retail stores in China.

One area we won’t see Impossible branch into, at least for now: cell-based meat. Pat Brown didn’t waffle about at SKS last week when he said the idea of commercially produced meat from a lab was never going to happen. Of course, the company could always change its stance. For now, though, expect Impossible ton continue its focus on plant-based proteins for the foreseeable future.

Eat Just and Impossible Foods Both Made Major Expansions to Asia This Week

Two alt-protein heavyweights in the U.S. took major steps this week in their expansions across Asia, underscoring the growing demand (and need) for alternatives to animal protein in that region.

At the tail-end of yesterday, San Francisco-based food tech company Eat Just announced a partnership with a consortium led by food investment fund Proterra to expand JUST Egg across Asia. Via the partnership, Eat Just will build its first production facility in Asia.

The consortium will invest up to $100 million and Eat Just will invest up to $20 million to build the production facility in Singapore. According to the press release from Eat Just, the factory will “generate thousands of metric tons of protein.” From this deal will also come the subsidiary Eat Just Asia, which will serve JUST egg manufacturing and distribution partners across the region. 

The new production facility is the largest of its kind in Singapore and will serve a growing demand for plant-based protein in Asia. Eat Just’s flagship plant-based egg product is already available in South Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong. The company also mentioned, via the aforementioned press release, a “yet-to-be-announced” partnership in mainland China, where it already sells products via e-commerce. 

Eat Just and Proterra are also in talks to expand commercial production of cell-based meat, which Eat Just is already in the midst of developing.

Also at the end of yesterday, Impossible Foods announced that its plant-based meat products will be available in retail stores for the first time in Asia. Impossible’s Beef product is now available at 200 grocery stores across Hong Kong and Singapore. 

In Hong Kong, consumers can buy Impossible products at 100 ParknShop locations and ParknShop subsidiaries, as well as for delivery online at parknshop.com. Customers in Singapore can find the company’s plant-based beef at 100 FairPrice stores and on grocery e-commerce platform RedMart.

Impossible debuted in the Asian market at restaurants in 2018, but this week’s news marks the first time the company’s products will be available to home chefs.

But while Impossible may be expanding its plant-based empire, one area we shouldn’t expect to see the company branch into is cell-based meat. In fact, when asked about cell-based meat at last week’s Smart Kitchen Summit, Impossible CEO Pat Brown flatly said, “It’s never going to be a thing.” Brown called it “irreversibly expensive” and added that meat grown in a lab would never be a commercial endeavor.

Eat Just doesn’t share the same view. Company founder and CEO Josh Tetrick, who was also at SKS, shared his views on the eventual reality of cell-based meat and gave us a rough timeline and included steps his company and others have to take in order to go from prototype to retail shelves with cell-based meat. It won’t be soon. Tetrick said “north of 15 years” for cell-based meat, and others have cited similar timeframes.

Were cell-based meat to become a commercial reality, Asia is an obvious region to aim for. Increasing urbanization and population growth, particularly in Southeast Asia, has led to a growing demand for animal proteins. This demand has consequences both for the environment and for human health.

Those are challenges plant-based proteins can address, too, hence the quickly rising number of companies in Asia, from Omnipork to Black Sheep Foods and now Eat Just and Impossible. While we wait for cell-based proteins over the long terms, we can expect both demand for and production of plant-based products to continue rising in Asia and beyond.