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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

New Study Puts Cell-based Beef Grown on Soy Scaffolding to the Test

A study published today in the scientific journal Nature Food outlines a new way to give cell-based meat a realistic, well, meaty texture. In the study, which was authored by researchers from Israeli cultured meat company Aleph Farms and the Technion Institute of Technology, Israel, describe tests of a new 3D scaffold made of soy protein on which animal tissue can be grown. (Thanks for the tip, CNET.)

The scientists tested out the scaffold with bovine cells to create a sample that looked like beef muscle tissue. The scaffold is porous, which gives the animal cells space to latch on and grow their own interweaving matrix of tissue. It’s also edible and, since it’s made from soy, provides additional protein. Tasters in the study noted that the final product accurately mimicked the texture of beef and had a “meaty flavour.”

For those who don’t nerd out studying next-gen alternative protein, texture is one of the biggest hurdles facing consumer adoption of cell-based meat. Scientists may already be able to grow muscle and fat tissues, but putting them together in a way that emulates the texture of meat is a much trickier issue. That’s why most of the samples of cultured meat and seafood displayed during culinary demos thus far — shrimp dumplings from Shiok Meats, chicken nuggets from JUST, and beef burgers from Mosa Meat — have the texture of ground meat.

However, companies and scientists around the world are experimenting with new ways to grow animal tissue cells. Aleph Farms, whose researchers helped write the aforementioned study, has successfully grown cell-based steak, albeit in very thin cuts. Memphis Meats’ technology allows it to grow pretty realistic-looking cuts of cultured chicken. Atlast Foods uses mycelium (mushrooms roots) to create edible scaffolds on which to grow muscle cuts like beef. Researchers are also experimenting with materials like spinach, gelatin, and even LEGOs as cultured meat scaffolding material.

We’re still likely several years from tasting cell-based meat ourselves, no matter the texture. Before it can hit the U.S. market, cultured meat has to gain regulatory approval from both the FDA and the USDA — and we don’t know if the timeline might be slowed down by the current global pandemic. Looking on the bright side: maybe that equates to more time for researchers to continue to solve the cultured meat texture problem.

Sustainable Bioproducts Rebrands, Raises $80M for Protein Fermentation Tech

Biotech company Sustainable Bioproducts announced this morning that it has rebranded as Nature’s Fynd and raised $80 million in fresh funding. The Series B round was co-led by Generation Investment Management LLP and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from 1955 Capital, Mousse Partners, ADM Ventures, and Danone Manifesto Ventures. This brings the total amount of funding for Nature’s Fynd so far to $113 million.

Chicago-based Nature’s Fynd grew out of NASA-supported research in 2016. The company creates complete proteins by fermenting extremophile microbes based off of those that live in the scalding-hot geothermal springs in Yellowstone National Parks. The resulting protein contains all nine essential amino acids. Eventually Nature’s Fynd plans to use said protein to create its own food and beverage product lines.

For now, though, Nature’s Fynd has yet to start actually producing this fermented protein at a large scale. Today the company announced it will begin production at its 35,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Chicago later this month. Nature’s Fynd CMO Karuna Rawal told me via email that they plan to start selling branded products to retailers in 12 to 15 months.

Food made with Nature’s Fynd’s protein. [Photo: Charles Cherney Photography]

The fact that Nature’s Fynd was able to attract such a hefty amount of capital suggests that investors believe in the potential of protein fermentation. It’s especially notable that the venture arms of Big Food companies ADM and Danone both contributed to Nature’s Fynd’s latest fundraise (both groups also participated in the Series A round). Perhaps those companies are hoping that down the road, they could incorporate alt-protein from Nature’s Fynd into their own animal-free products as an alternative to, say, pea or soy.

Nature’s Fynd is not the only company developing fermentation tech to create protein. Perfect Day and New Culture both use genetically-engineered microbes to ferment the building blocks of dairy. This is a cousin to so-called gas fermentation, in which microbes transform carbon dioxide into edible protein. And Motif Foodworks provides bespoke fermented protein to CPG companies making animal-free products.

“Our innovative technology was developed by studying nature’s own solutions for adapting — and ultimately thriving — in environments with limited resources,” Thomas Jonas, the CEO and co-founder of Nature’s Fynd, stated in an email to The Spoon. Considering that the future of our food production is a bit perilous right now, it’s a smart move to invest in novel ways to create dietary staples. Protein included.

JUST’s New Plant-based Egg Patties Taste Like Fast Food (and That’s a Good Thing)

What with the COVID-19 outbreak shuttering restaurants and encouraging social distancing, I’ve suddenly found myself spending a lot more time in my kitchen. I’ve also been on the lookout for protein-packed meals that will store well in case, you know, the worst happens.

So it comes as no surprise that I was excited to sample the JUST’s new plant-based “folded egg” product this week. The eggs — which are made of mung beans — resemble a small square omelet. I received a shipment of them in a refrigerated insulated box (such packaging waste!), and were packaged two-together in shrinkwrapped plastic (more packaging waste!). These were pre-production samples that were shipped directly from the company, so there will presumably be far less packaging once the eggs are available at the grocery store this April.

Taken out of the package, the eggs really do look like, well, eggs. They have a spongy texture and light yellow hue of countless BEC (bacon, egg and cheeses) I bought from corner bodegas in New York, or the filling of fast-food breakfast sandwiches. So far, so good.

JUST folded eggs in packaging. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

The eggs came with a guide which outlined three options for cooking. I could heat the omelet in a toaster for 6. 5 minutes, toast in a toaster oven for 15 minutes at 350 F (or presumably a conventional oven), or microwave it while wrapped in a paper towel. I don’t have a toaster oven that has an option to cook something for 6.5 minutes, so I went with the microwave. The grocery store having been out of paper towels for days, I had to microwave mine without — for 30 seconds per side — and it turned out perfectly fine; warm throughout and pliable.

I first took a bite of the heated omelet by itself. While the texture definitely reminded me of dry omelets (that’s not a bad thing, per se), the taste was distinctly beany — almost chemical-y. In short, not like eggs at all. I thought that the JUST Egg scramble I’d tried in the past did a far better job of approximating the almost sulfuric flavor.

JUST Egg sandwich [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

However, when I made the omelet into a breakfast sandwich featuring toast, (vegan) butter, kale, and hot sauce, I would definitely not have known it wasn’t the real thing from a chicken egg. The patty had the same texture as a reheated omelet, and the beany flavor didn’t come through against all the other ingredients. I gave half of the sandwich to my roommate who devoured it and was shocked to learn that the egg inside was not, in fact, an egg at all.

The JUST omelet won’t fool anyone when eaten on its own, but it’s clearly not meant to be. The folded egg is the perfect shape and size to go into sandwiches, burritos, etc, to add a plant-based layer of protein that can be ready in mere minutes (and doesn’t require the cooking skills of a perfect egg omelet).

The JUST folded egg will be sold in boxes of four starting this April. According to the company, it’ll debut in the freezer section of 5,000 retailers nationally and will sell for the MSRP of $4.99. That’s pricey compared to a dozen regular eggs, but I think the convenience factor of the JUST omelets make them a worthy buy — especially if you’re trying to eat more plant-based products.

We don’t know what the quarantine situation will look like come April, but if you’re able to safely make it to your grocery store to pick up a pack of JUST folded egg omelets, I’d say they’re worth adding to your shopping cart.

Future Food: How Might COVID-19 Affect Alternative Protein Sales in the US?

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Whether you’re in the office, practicing social distancing, or trying to stock up on oat milk, there’s no way to avoid it — talk of COVID-19 is everywhere. We spoke to a few startups this week who have been impacted by the coronavirus, and while some cited production delays or higher material cost, I was intrigued to see one response from plant-based cheese company Grounded Foods (whose fermented cauliflower cheese I sampled last month). Here’s what Grounded’s co-founder Veronica Fil had to say:

When coronavirus hit… I imagine dairy supply came under more threat than ever (especially coupled with supply shortages arising from Australia’s post-bushfire economy). I think that’s why Grounded suddenly had such a spike in interest. There’s a lot of focus around our products providing a more resilient alternative to dairy, and one that’s not so reliant on international trade forces.

Fil’s response made me wonder — how is the COVID-19 outbreak affecting other alternative protein companies in the US?

Photo: Beyond Meat

First, let me say that since the coronavirus has only been on the world stage for a few months, we don’t yet have any cold, hard data on how it’s affecting sales of animal vs. non-animal foods. Everything that follows is speculation on my part, based off of talks I’ve had with other industry insiders and my friends and family.

One thing we do know is that there’s no evidence that food is a vector of disease spread for the coronavirus. But there is evidence that the disease began in animals and then migrated to humans in a “wet market” in Wuhan, China. So while you’re definitely not going to get coronavirus from eating meat, in an overabundance of caution some consumers might still be wary of consuming animal products — and more amenable to sampling plant-based options.

Plant-based foods often have longer shelf lives than their animal-based counterparts. This might not be as much of a deciding factor for meat, which you can easily freeze, but is more relevant for dairy. As consumers stock up on staples like canned goods and toilet paper, they might be more apt to throw alt-dairy in their cart (like the aforementioned oat milk), assuming they’d stay fresher for longer.

Supply chains are another thing that could well be affected by COVID-19. Import restrictions in China have dramatically slowed down the country’s exports of meat and poultry. Alternative protein companies who import their plant-based ingredients from other countries, especially China, could also face production slowdowns as trade slows.

COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be slowing plant-based meat companies’ focus on the Asian market. Beyond Meat, for example, still plans to open a new facility on the continent by the end of 2020. That update came a few weeks ago on the company’s recent earnings call, so it’s unclear if recent virus escalation has upset those goals.

As I said above, it’s too early to make any sort of sweeping generalization about whether coronavirus is boosting or hurting sales of plant-based foods. But with the pandemic far from contained, we’ll likely soon start to see more data on how the disease is affecting the entire food system in general, including alt-protein.

For now, I turn to you, Future Food readers. Have you (or your company) noticed any shifts over the past few months? Please email us at tips@thespoon.tech to share!

Houston, we have cell-based meat (and fish)

This week I wrote a story about how NASA scientists determined that some red lettuce grown on the International Space Station (ISS) was not only safe to eat, but was just as nutritious as lettuce grown on terra firma.

As someone who always has alternative protein in the back of her mind, I couldn’t help but think back to October when Israeli startup Aleph Farms announced that it had successfully grown animal muscle tissue cells in space, also aboard the ISS. Then I saw a tweet from Mike Selden, the co-founder of cellular aquaculture company Finless Foods, reminding me that their technology was also in use during the aforementioned test.

https://twitter.com/MikeSeldenFF/status/1237830865461239809

Finless Foods collaborated with Aleph Farms and Russian biotech company 3D Bioprinting Solutions, which provided the 3D bioprinter to extrude the animal tissue cells. What I didn’t realize was that during the experiment Finless Foods printed some cells of their own: fish cells.

We’re light years away (figuratively, not literally) from astronauts being able to print enough meat or seafood to sustain themselves on multi-year journeys. But maybe soon, NASA will do a study on the nutrition of 3D printed, cell-based animal or fish tissue, just like they did with the lettuce.

Photo: Beyond Meat

Protein ’round the web

Stay safe out there and remember, #CancelEverything.

New Plant-Based Group The LIVEKINDLY Co. Announces $200M Investment in Alt-Chicken, Digital Media

There’s a new plant-based powerhouse on the block. Today Foods United announced that it has bought vegan media platform LIVEKINDLY and rebranded as The LIVEKINDLY Co., creating an alternative protein group which will focus chiefly on plant-based chicken. The group is backed by Swiss investment firm Blue Horizon, which has previously invested in both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. As it came out of stealth, LIVEKINDLY Co. also announced that it has raised $200 million in capital from 10 to 15 investors, including its founders.

The LIVEKINDLY Co. has already made two large alt-poultry investments: it holds the majority stake in South African company Fry Family Food Co, which makes meatless burgers, chicken and seafood for retail and foodservice, and the German startup LikeMeat, which makes plant-based chicken products.

Judging from these investments it’s clear that The LIVEKINDLY Co. is thinking globally. It seems the company will continue to do so: according to Reuters, the company has already signed with a partner in Asia and are about to sign with two more in the U.S.

In addition to plant-based meat and media, The LIVEKINDLY Co. also has an equity stake in PURIS Holding, a purveyor of plant-based ingredients (specifically pea protein). According to a press release from the company, this makes The LIVEKINDLY Co. “the only company in the plant-based food sector to own and operate the entire value chain of production.”

That could help their portfolio companies scale quickly and cut costs in order to stand out from other alternative chicken players on the retail shelves. Blue Horizon, The LIVEKINDLY Co’s chief backer, has also invested in numerous plant-based chicken startups, including Planted and Rebellyous, so we’ll see if those companies get folded into to the LIVEKINDLY portfolio as well.

Perhaps the most intriguing move by The LIVEKINDLY Co. is its purchase of its namesake: LIVEKINDLY (which Blue Horizon has also invested in). The digital media platform, which has been a source for plant-based news for years, wrote in a blog post that their mission as journalists would “stay the same.” With an entire media platform at its disposal, it’s not hard to imagine that The LIVEKINDLY Co. could use the website as a tool to grow their portfolio company’s brand recognition and reach, especially in the U.S. market. However, LIVEKINDLY’s association with the brands could be a knock against the publication’s journalistic independence.

The LIVEKINDLY Co’s C-suite certainly has the experience to help give the company’s brands an edge in the retail and foodservice world. CEO Kees Kruythoff was formerly President of Unilever North America. The leadership team also includes veterans of Nestlé and food investment firm Blue Horizon Corporation, which has invested in dozens of alternative protein companies. A good team doesn’t guarantee success, of course, but these veterans could leverage connections in retail, foodservice, and supply chain providers to optimize distribution and avoid pitfalls like production shortages.

Considering the ever-growing popularity of plant-based meat, it’s not necessarily surprising that we’re starting to see this type of umbrella parent company form. In fact, it’s like we’ll see more of them companies pop up as alt-meat competition heats up and companies vie for a bigger piece of the market.

Beyond Meat to Debut Plant-based Breakfast Sausage in Retail

Beyond Meat, the company most well-known for its plant-based burger, will be dropping a new product in retail: the Beyond Breakfast Sausage. According to a press release from Beyond Meat, the new offerings are made with pea protein and will come in two flavors, classic and spicy. The patties contain 11 grams of protein per serving and contain 50 percent less fat and 33 percent fewer calories than the average pork sausage.

Beyond Breakfast Sausage will launch in select retailers — including Albertsons, Key Foods, and Whole Foods — by the end of March. Unlike Beyond’s iconic plant-based burgers or other sausage product, which are both sold in the refrigerated meat section, the new breakfast sausages will be available breakfast meat section of the frozen aisle. The MSRP for a six-pack of Beyond Breakfast Sausage is $4.99.

This isn’t the first time Beyond has sold a plant-based breakfast sausage. The company first began testing its breakfast sausage on an egg-and-cheese sandwich at Dunkin’ in New York in July of 2019, then accelerated a nationwide rollout of the product to all Dunkin’ locations after higher-than-expected consumer demand. And just a few weeks ago Starbuck’s in Canada announced that it would launch a meatless breakfast sandwich which includes a Beyond sausage patty.

Notably, each restaurant chain stated that it had created its own unique blend of herbs and spices for its meatless sausage patty. It’s unclear whether the new frozen retail sausages will mimic the flavor blend of either Dunkin’ or Starbucks.

One thing to note is that the Beyond Breakfast Sausage will be sold in the frozen section, which might be an adjustment for shoppers who are used to seeing Beyond products in the refrigerated meat section of their grocery store. (Though plenty of retailers still sell the plant-based meat in the frozen section, anyway.)

As we’ve stated in the past, breakfast is a meal ripe for plant-based innovation.  “Entering the breakfast meat category was the natural next step for our brand as we look at our runway for future growth,” Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officer at Beyond Meat, stated in the aforementioned press release. Beyond isn’t the only company gunning for your breakfast. Impossible Foods recently began testing the Impossible Sausage Croissan’wich, featuring a plant-based pork breakfast patty, at select Burger King locations.

However, while these next-gen plant-based breakfast meats are making their way onto more and more fast-food menus, they’re relatively untested in retail. This upcoming product launch could give some insight into whether or not alt-breakfast meat can translate its restaurant success into the grocery store.

Good News, Astronauts — Lettuce Grown in Space is Safe to Eat and Also Nutritious

Astronauts hoping to eat salads during their interplanetary travels got some good news this week. NASA scientists have been examining the red romaine lettuce grown on the International Space Station (ISS) and just determined that it’s not only safe to eat — it’s also just as nutritious as lettuce grown on Earth (h/t New York Times).

The lettuce was grown from 2014 to 2016 in Veggie, a hydroponic growth chamber onboard the ISS. NASA scientists have been examining samples culled from Veggie and comparing them to romaine grown here on Earth under similar agricultural conditions (same humidity, temperature, etc). Today they released a paper which states that the two lettuces had similar nutritional values, though the space-grown lettuce had higher levels of (unharmful) microbes, likely due to their proximity to the astronauts.

Of course, astronauts cannot survive on lettuce alone; nor will they be able to rely on packaged food for multi-year journeys (the trip to Mars will take at least seven months, one way). Since 2016 Veggie has also grown other plants including mizuna and cabbage. NASA scientists are working to launch the Española chile pepper into space, which would make it the first fruiting plant grown and harvested on the ISS. And over at the University of California, Riverside they’re hard at work developing tomatoes with smaller stems and leaves that would be better suited to space travel.

Interplanetary dining exploration goes far beyond fruits and vegetables. In December astronauts baked sugar cookies on the ISS with Zero G Kitchen’s special oven. SpaceX is flying coffee and hemp cultures into space this year to see how zero gravity will impact the plants’ growth. On the protein front, Aleph Farms has successfully grown animal muscle tissue cells on the ISS. Japan is also experimenting with new ways to feed astronauts through its 30+ company initiative, Space Food X.

According to the NASA study, this Romaine experiment indicated that “leafy green vegetable crops can produce safe, edible, fresh food to supplement to the astronauts’ diet.” Good to know that space travelers will have a salad to balance out their space cookies and wine.

Future Food: Impossible Burgers During Lent? Meatless Meat and Religious Dietary Laws

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

The world is full of scary headlines right now (wash those hands!), but flexitarians at least got some good news this week when Impossible Foods announced it would be cutting wholesale prices 15 percent to help the product reach price parity with traditional beef. As I wrote in my piece covering the news, this is a significant step for Impossible as the company sprints towards its goal of replacing all animal agriculture by 2035.

But no matter how close Impossible Foods gets to imitating the flavor, cooking properties and even bloodiness of meat, it’s still not, well, meat. Given that, do the products even carry the same significance as meat?

That question came to mind this week when I read a story in Food & Wine discussing the issue of Catholics eating Impossible — and other meatless meats — during Lent. Lent is traditionally a time when Catholics and other Christians eschew all meat (besides fish and seafood). But do plant-based beef and pork that taste very uncannily like the real thing count as meat?

Impossible’s new plant-based pork [Photo: Impossible Foods]

The Bible doesn’t cover this one. (For its part, the Church has not come out with a statement about whether plant-based meat is appropriate for Lent.) But as plant-based meat improves and starts tasting and behaving just like the real thing, its role within certain diets will become more and more relevant.

Just like some vegetarians and vegans see no reason to eat meatless meats — why would they when they’re perfectly happy with vegetables and legumes? — I expect some who adhere to religious diets won’t be tempted to try Beyond, Impossible and the like.

Others will. While this is just conjecture on my part, I’m sure there’s a contingent of kosher folks, for example, who will be very keen to sample Impossible’s new plant-based pork, which is certified as both halal and kosher by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) and Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU), respectively. At least some restaurants are on board — for example, this month the Halal Shack will begin serving the Impossible Burger.

The larger question at play is this: As the offerings from Impossible and Beyond get closer and closer to imitating meat, at some point do they actually become meat — at least in terms of meaning, taboo, and cultural connotations?

It’s a complex quandary to be sure, and one that we won’t solve in this newsletter (sorry!) But as Impossible and others make better-and-better imitations of meat, it’s a topic that will likely become more contentious.

And once cell-based meat — which is actual meat, just made without killing an animal — comes on the scene? That’s when things will get really sticky.

Grounded Foods’ camembert, made of cauliflower and hemp. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

The next realm of plant-based innovation? Cheese.

Something that’s a little less controversial than the religious significance of plant-based meat? Vegan cheese. An ever-growing number of consumers are seeking it, but, at least according to this writer, no company has yet to truly nail the concept.

But last week when I was in New York for Customize, our food personalization summit, I tried some products that were pretty darn close. Grounded Foods is a new startup that ferments everyday ingredients like cauliflower, oats, and hemp seed to make surprisingly realistic plant-based cheese, including camembert, gruyere, feta, and more.

It’s about damn time! We have made plant-based versions of meat, fish, milk, and ice cream that are good enough to if not fool the average consumer then at least keep them satisfied. But cheese has long eluded even the most innovative of plant-based companies, despite the dozens of SKUs on the shelf.

Are Grounded Foods’ products as good as actual cheese? No. But they do come the closest of the offerings that I’ve seen and tasted thus far. I’m hoping that 2020 will be to cheese what 2018 was to plant-based meat: the year when we start to see a variety of actually good-tasting options hit the market. I’ll get my crackers ready.

Photo: Good Catch Foods

Protein ’round the web

That’s it from me this week. I’m off to go stockpile some oat milk, just in case.

Eat well,
Catherine

World’s Largest Meat Processor to Launch Line of Plant-based Burgers, Meatballs

Colorado-based Planterra Foods announced a new plant-based brand today. Called OZO, the brand will include a line of meatless burgers, grounds, and meatballs. And here’s the kicker: Planterra Foods is owned by the U.S. branch of JBS, the Brazilian corporation that processes the largest amount of meat in the world.

OZO’s offerings are made of a mix of pea and rice protein fermented with shiitake mushrooms, which, according to a press release from Planterra, makes the products more “easily digestible.” OZO’s products will be priced from $5.99 to $7.99, which puts them in line with competitors like Beyond Meat.

The plant-based products will launch in grocery stores across the U.S. in April, after which the company will begin rolling them out through foodservice partners. Well, that’s the plan, anyway. The OZO line was meant to make its debut at Expo West this week, but the trade show was postponed a day before its start due to the coronavirus. It’s unclear if the outbreak will affect the April retail release timeline.

Interestingly, the press release announcing OZO’s launch doesn’t mention JBS until the very last sentence of the last paragraph, effectively burying it at the end. Maybe they’re worried that the information will turn off vegetarians and vegans who don’t want to eat plant-based food associated with a giant meat processor.

Despite Planterra Foods’ seeming reticence around it, the JBS affiliation is what will give the company a fighting chance to stand out in a plant-based meat aisle that’s extremely crowded — and getting more so by the day. OZO can leverage JBS’ existing supply chain to easily source its plant-based ingredients, and can also tap into its retail partnerships to elbow out some shelf space.

However, JBS isn’t the only Big Meat company hoping to leverage its retail connections to carve out a space for its plant-based branch. Tyson, Hormel, and Smithfield Foods have released their own meat alternatives over the past year as well. And just last week Cargill, another food and agriculture giant, announced its own plant-based burger, which will also be hitting retail shelves in April.

All this goes to show that the alterna-meat boom has finally made it all the way up to the largest players — even those specialize in meat. And with demand for plant-based food growing 11 percent year-over-year, it’s likely that JBS won’t be the last Big Food company we see trying to get in on the alternative meat action.

Starbucks Canada Embraces Plant-based with New Beyond Meat Breakfast Sandwich

The plant-based meat prophecy is finally coming to fruition. Starbucks announced this morning that it would introduce a Beyond Meat, Cheddar, and Egg Sandwich in its Canadian stores beginning on March 3rd (h/t CNBC). The new sando will feature a custom Beyond Meat patty flavored with fennel, rosemary, and other herbs and spices. Pricing details were not disclosed.

As I mentioned, this morning’s news didn’t exactly come out of left field. The announcement came just a few weeks after the coffee giant’s Q1 earnings call, in which Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer stated that a plant-based breakfast sandwich would be coming to both Canada and the U.S.

Canada has become a sort of testing zone for QSRs who are eager to test out meatless meat. McDonalds, Wendys, and KFC all have done meatless tests up in the Great White North. At the same time Canadian fast-food chain Tim Horton’s, which was one of the early adopters of Beyond Meat, discontinued the plant-based option completely just last month.

That blip aside, plant-based breakfasts are catching on like wildfire here in the U.S. Dunkin began testing its own Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich (made with its own custom patty) back in August of last year, and quickly rolled it out to all stores nationwide. Burger King is also selling the Impossible Croissan’wich, featuring its new plant-based pork, at a limited number of locations.

The Starbucks news comes at a time when we were starting to wonder if the honeymoon was over between QSRs and plant-based meat. However, it looks like that statement may have been premature. Taco Bell announced yesterday that it would “definitely do something with plant-based protein,” and probably before the end of the year. And despite lackluster Impossible Whopper sales last quarter, Burger King is still going whole-hog on plant-based meat with the aforementioned meatless Croissan’wich.

It’s also encouraging that Starbucks isn’t debuting the Beyond Meat sandwich as a limited test or pilot program; rather, it’s rolling out as a permanent part of Starbucks Canada’s core menu. That shows a level of faith on the part of the coffee corporation that the meatless meat is going to be a success, at least in Canada.

What with the hint from Starbucks’ Q1 earnings call, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long before a plant-based breakfast sandwich makes its way south of the border. Until then if you’re in Canada next month and happen to try out, send us a note to let us know how you like it (and how it stands up to Dunkin’s).

Cargill Challenges Beyond Meat with New Meatless Burgers to Debut in April

There will soon be a new entrant in the plant-based meat shelf, and it’s a big one. Today Cargill, the global food and agriculture giant, announced that it would release its own meatless patties and ground products in early April. The new offerings will be sold both through retailers and restaurants.

According to Reuters, Cargill’s new faux meat will be made of both pea and soy protein. Beyond Meat is made of pea and Impossible of soy, so it’s intriguing that Cargill has chosen to combine the two to try and differentiate itself and nail the flavor of meat.

Flavor aside, Cargill has one advantage over newer upstarts like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods: its massive supply chain. The corporation has been operating for 155 years and is one of the world’s largest privately held companies. With its size and scope, Cargill can scale quickly and likely won’t face any supply hiccups, which have plagued both Beyond and Impossible in the past.

These are the first plant-based meat products from Cargill, but the company has been bulking up its alternative protein involvement over the past few years, including investments in pea protein producer Puris (which supplies Beyond Meat) totaling $100 million.

That is just a drop in a bucket compared to the $7 billion Cargill has invested in animal protein in the last five years. Despite dipping its toe into the alt-protein space, the company is still known globally for its involvement in animal agriculture, including the trade of beef’s two main feed sources: corn and soy.

Cargill is far from the only Big Meat company diversifying into alternative protein. Tyson and Perdue have both rolled out blended meat products; that is, offerings that are a mixture of meat and plants. Last year pork producer Smithfield debuted a line of plant-based ground meat and patties. Others, like Nestlé and Unilever, have taken the acquisition route and bought Sweet Earth Foods and the Vegetarian Butcher, respectively.

Like this growing list players, Cargill claims it’s not moving away from meat, but rather diversifying its offerings to meet the growing demand for protein of all stripes. Brian Sikes, leader of Cargill’s global protein and salt business, summed it up in the release: “Whether you are eating alternative or animal protein, Cargill will be at the center of the plate.” Come April, we’ll see if the global company’s new products have the taste to make that statement true.

Future Food: Personalizing the Alt-Protein Revolution

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Right now at The Spoon, we’ve all got personalization on the brain. That’s because we’re in the final sprint towards Customize, our food personalization summit happening in NYC one week from today, on February 27. (Want one of the last remaining tickets? Use code SPOON15 to get 15 percent off.)

So it’s pretty natural that I’ve been marinating on how personalization could affect the alternative protein space in the future. Here are a few thoughts:

Nutrition
I recently tried out GenoPalate, a service that gives you personalized nutrition recommendations based on your DNA. My end report stated that, for me, a high protein diet would lead to “reduced waist circumference,” AKA weight loss. It also gave me a list of my “ideal” protein types, including eel, chicken liver, and tofu.

I’m a vegetarian, so the first two proteins on that list aren’t especially relevant. But the report nonetheless got me thinking about how these personalized nutrition services could promote alternative protein consumption, especially amongst folks that are trying to avoid meat for health reasons. As these platforms get more sophisticated, they could sync up with your specific diet (pescetarian, vegan, flexitarian, etc.) to recommend plant-based proteins that are the ideal fit for your health goals — high-protein, low fat, low sodium, etc.

Novameat’s 3D printed plant-based steak

3D Printing
In order to accurately replicate the texture of whole muscle cuts of meat (e.g., steak, chicken breast), some companies, like NovaMeat and Redefine Meat, are turning to 3D printing.

The technology is still in the R&D phase, but down the road it could open possibilities for serious plant-based meat customization. Do you like your “steak” thin-cut and tender? You can print it out that way. Maybe a restaurant is trying to create chicken breasts that are shaped a certain way for a high-end dish. Set the printing specifications and go.

Because while you can’t make cows or chickens grow meat in a certain shape or texture — at least not without a couple hundred generations of breeding — 3D printing technology could allow everyone from foodservice establishments to individuals to create their own custom alt-meats.

Cultured
Cultured (or cell-based) meat also has a lot of potential for customization — though none of it will happen for a while yet. Cultured meat is not even available on the market, but for the sake of argument let’s project into the future:

Say a restaurant is looking for an especially tender cut of beef that is also low in cholesterol. Or they want a super-fatty piece of beef for an especially indulgent dish. That might be tricky to do with meat from a cow, which has biological constraints and also takes much longer to create. However, with cell-based meat, a scientist could theoretically tweak a formula to make exactly what’s needed with a much quicker turnaround than actually raising an animal. This opens up some real possibilities for customized protein.

Okay, so the idea of hyper-personalized protein is pretty futuristic. But there’s plenty of time to develop it. After all, we’re currently in the midst of the plant-based revolution — and just at the forefront of the cell-based one. Once these technologies become more mainstream (and affordable), the possibilities for customized protein could become a lot less out-there and a lot more feasible.

Photo: Impossible Foods

An argument for plant-based burgers

This week nutrition scientist Dr. PK Newby wrote a guest post for The Spoon outlining all the reasons why meatless burgers are not only beneficial for the planet but also a strategic business play for restaurants.

It’s a pretty inspirational post. But to me, Dr. Newby’s most intriguing point was the sheer heat that plant-based burgers are attracting because of their newfound popularity. We’ve already seen widespread criticism in the form of negative SuperBowl ads, online smear campaigns, and even lawsuits against vegan meat and dairy alternatives.

“Novel food technologies will always have haters,” writes Dr. Newby in her article. As the popularity of plant-based meat grows, those haters will likely become more vocal. But what shape will their protests take, and how much will they threaten the growth of meat alternatives?

Keep an eye on this newsletter to find out.

Photo: White Castle

Protein ’round the web

  • White Castle will start offering vegan cheese on March 1st to complement its Impossible Slider (h/t VegNews).
  • Is insect fat a viable butter replacement? Food & Wine says… maybe.
  • Israeli startup Equinom raised $10 million to develop higher-protein seeds, like pea and sesame.

I’ll miss you all next Thursday since I’ll be busy moderating panels and networking at Customize. I’d love to see you there — get your tickets now and come hang in NYC!

Eat well,
Catherine