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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Plantish Comes Out of Stealth Mode to Unveil Plant-Based Salmon Fillet

Salmon is one of the most popular fish choices to consume, and in the U.S., it is estimated that Americans eat a total of about 450,000 pounds of it a year. Unfortunately for vegans and vegetarians, there has not been a plant-based salmon product that has the ability to directly replace real salmon in all of its classic applications. Plantish, a start-up based in Rehovot, Israel, is looking to change that, and unveiled its plant-based salmon fillet this week.

Plantish is a newer company in the food tech space that was founded six months ago in 2021. Despite being so young, the company raised a pre-seed round of $2 million USD, led by TechAviv Founder Partners, in the middle of 2021.

The company’s first product is called Plantish Salmon, which will be a fully structured, boneless, plant-based salmon fillet. Although the company could not disclose what exactly the ingredients the fillet is made out of, they did state that it will have the same nutritional value as real salmon, including high protein content, B vitamins, and both Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.

According to the company, its alternative salmon fillet can be used in any application that conventional salmon is used in. The whole-cut fish analog aims to achieve the same flavor, structure, and texture as a regular salmon fillet.

What Plantish guarantees that it salmon fillet doesn’t have is mercury, microplastics, antibiotics, or other toxins. Sadly, this guarantee cannot be made with all wild-caught or farmed raised salmon. Farmed raised salmon can be fed large amounts of antibiotics, while wild-caught fish raises concerns about overfishing and being contaminated with microplastics.

In 2022, you can find a good plant-based burger (and many other meat analogs) in grocery stores or a restaurant with ease. Vegan seafood? Not so much. Compared to the plant-based meat category, the plant-based seafood category is significantly smaller, and the Good Food Institute has called the plant-based seafood space a “white space“. On top of this, many alternative seafood products come in an minced form, rather than a whole-cut fillet.

Good Catch is one company that produces vegan seafood products, and it launched a new plant-based salmon burger product last week. One other company working towards a plant-based salmon fillet is Revo Foods, which is based in Austria and is using bioprinting technology for some of its alternative products.

As exciting as Plantish Salmon is, the company shared that it is planning for the official launch of the product in 2024. Until then, Plantish will be executing tasting pop-ups that are slated to begin towards the end of 2022.

Dippin’ Dots Begins Roll Out of Edible Spoons from IncrEDIBLE Eats

This week, Dippin’ Dots, the maker of the cryogenically frozen bead-based ice cream sold at ballparks, fairgrounds, and pretty much anywhere else kids convene in America, announced they’d formed a partnership with edible cutlery maker IncrEDIBLE Eats to offer the startup’s environmentally friendly spoons in select locations.

According to the announcement, Dippin’ Dots has shipped samples of the edible spoons to all locations and will begin rolling out the cookie-ish cutlery in select locations across the country.

“They will start in select locations – mostly aquariums, zoos – with a goal to introduce early summer,” IncrEDIBLE Eats founder Dinesh Tadepalli told The Spoon.

According to Tadepalli, he initially approached Dippin’ Dots through Linkedin. It wasn’t long before they connected and the large ice cream company offered to share booth space at the big IAAPA amusement park industry expo in November.

Six months later, Tadepalli has come full circle. He first came up with the idea for the edible spoon after buying ice cream with a disposable plastic spoon for his kids, and now his startup is partnering up with one of the country’s biggest ice cream companies.

And what does his company have in store for the rest of 2022? One thing is introducing the second-generation product, which Tadepalli describes as “more bitable and tastier.” He also says they’ll introduce new products, including edible straws and chopsticks.

What this year won’t include is working with Lori Greiner. Tadepalli told me that despite an offer of investment on Shark Tank last fall, in the end, they ultimately couldn’t come to terms with the shark.

Despite their lack of a deal, Tadepalli says the higher awareness – aka the Shark Tank Effect – for his company of being on a hit show is well worth it.

“We are happy with the awareness after being on Shark Tank,” said Tadepalli.

CES 2022: Meet the Graphene Kitchen Styler, a Cooking Appliance Made With the World’s Thinnest & Strongest Material

For most of us, graphite is the black smudgy drawing material at the center of an everyday wooden pencil. For material scientists, it’s the foundation for perhaps the most interesting nanomaterial ever discovered.

That nanomaterial is called graphene, which is an extremely thin layer of carbon arranged in a honeycomb-shaped (hexagonal) lattice.

Graphene was first isolated in 2004 when a couple of scientists stuck everyday household tape to graphite to separate the fragments. They repeated touching the tape to the thin dusting of graphite particles until they had a layer one atom thick. They were eventually able to take this method to create the world’s first sheet of what is called graphene. It was this discovery – as well as a better understanding of the amazing resulting properties of the material – for which the two scientists from the University of Manchester eventually won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010.

Ever since, it’s those same properties that have made graphene the focus of material researchers around the world. Not only is graphene the world’s thinnest material (again, one atom thick), it’s also the strongest. In addition, graphene is also transparent and is an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. As a result, some of the applications being explored as part of the “graphene gold rush” include everything from conductors to touch screens to concrete strengthener.

And now, a home kitchen cooking appliance.

That’s right, at CES last week, a company called Graphene Square showed off a new cooking appliance concept that uses graphene to heat and cook food. The product, called the Graphene Kitchen Styler, looks something like a transparent space-age George Foreman grill. To make, say, toast, you insert a slice of bread between two transparent clamshell sides, close it, and watch through the transparent graphene material as the bread gets toasty and brown.

According to a company spokesperson, the graphene can go up to 200 degrees Celsius within 90 seconds. And while the video below shows the appliance browning toast, Graphene Square says they’ve also used the Graphene Styler to cook steak, chicken, and even boil water.

CES 2022: A look at the graphene-based cooking appliance from Graphene Square

While graphene itself is a pretty exciting material technology, it remains to be seen as to whether consumers would want this specific appliance built with it. And while the Graphene Square says this product could be to market by 2023, it may just be that the company – which is more of a B2B materials science manufacturer than consumer products company – is trying to entice a Samsung or LG to consider graphene for one of their future kitchens appliances.

Soli Organic to Advance Indoor, Soil-Based Agriculture Through Selective Breeding, AI, and Machine Learning

Soli Organic (previously known as Shenandoah Growers) is an agriculture company that operates indoor growing operations to produce organic culinary herbs. Today, the company announced two new partnerships with Rutgers University and AI/IoT company Koidra that will help enhance its cost advantage and increase the accessibility and affordability of its products.

In the multi-year partnership with Rutgers University, Soli Organic will work with plant breeding experts from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The focus of the collaboration is to optimize the nutrition, flavor, aroma, and yields of selected crops. Additionally, the partners will research what crops that are not feasible for outdoor production but are potentially viable for commercial production in an indoor growing operation.

While leafy greens and herbs are often the most popular types of crops grown via indoor cultivation, there is vast potential for additional crops in this space. Dr. James (Jim) Simon, the Director of the Rutgers New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program, said, “Of the over 400,000 plant species on the planet, we consume less than 100. We have not even scratched the surface of the different flavors and textures of plants. What will be key to a sustainable future is identifying plants that offer consumers the highest nutrient density combined with flavor, texture and shelf appeal, and the lowest possible environmental impact.”

With Koidra’s artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, Soli Organic intends to automate the operation of its growing facilities. This technology will not necessarily replace human growers, but streamline operations and allow growers to make data-informed decisions. In a greenhouse setting, Koidra use of artificial intelligence, data collection, and sensing technology is able to increase yields, profitability, and consistency.

“Soli Organic is relentless in our pursuit of technologies and partnerships that support our vision to offer our retailer partners and consumers nationwide a variety of nutrient-dense, differentiated fresh products in a manner that maximizes profitability while minimizing environmental impact,” said Soli Organic’s Chief Science Officier Tessa Pocock about the new partnerships.

Soli Organic has seven growing facilities and supplies to 20,000 retailers across the country. According to the company, it is the only indoor grower that has soil-based, controlled environment growing operations. Most of the big players in this space, like Gotham Greens, Bright Farms, and Bowery Farming, use hydroponic growing methods instead.

If you have ever seen indoor-grown greens or herbs in your grocery store, you may have noticed that most of these products are a bit pricier than the standard options. Soli Organic already offers affordable herbs, but following the new partnerships, hopes to bring even more indoor-grown produce to consumers.


Wine Bottles Can Now Be Reused Thanks to Good Goods’ Return Program

You have probably heard the popular waste management phrase, “Reduce, reuse, and recycle.” The order of these words represents the hierarchy of what option is best, and that certainly applies when it comes to glass bottles. While a glass bottle is easy enough to recycle, reuse is better since recycling requires energy, water, and other resources and can even release pollutants.

When it comes to wine bottles, a New York-based startup Good Goods hopes to keep the containers out of landfill and recycling bin through its wine bottle return and reuse program. The company launched its program in New York City in 2020. Two years prior, it had launched a grab-and-go food brand in reusable containers, which gave them the framework to create the model they use now.

Today, Good Goods takes a multi-pronged approach to bottle reuse. First, they work with about 60 wine producers and brands across the U.S. and sign them up for the bottle reuse program. Then, standardized bottles (branded with Good Goods’s label along the bottom edge of the bottle) are provided to the wineries. These bottles are filled with wine, and then eventually shipped to participating retailers.

Customers then purchase bottles of wine at the participating retailers. When the wine is finished, empty wine bottles can then be returned to the same store from which it was initially purchased or to another participating retailer. Good Goods operates a customer loyalty program to incentivize the bottle return, and customers receive $1 off their next purchase.

Good Goods gathers the used bottles and brings them to its facilities, and then a third-party company sanitizes the bottles. The bottles are redistributed to wineries, and the process starts again.

A visual explanation of how Good Goods operates

According to the Good Goods, customers have returned 20,000 wine bottles to date. Over 50 retailers located in New York and New Jersey have joined the program, and the company currently has a waitlist of 100 retailers wanting to sign up. By the end of 2022, Good Goods’ goal is to expand to New York, California, Texas, and Washington and onboard 600 retailers.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

One of the stories I missed while I was out of the country in December was the shuttering of Drinkworks.

What makes the announcement so unexpected was, overall, things seemed to be generally going well: the company was expanding nationally, sales seemed on the uptick, and they’d even just announced the newest generation drink appliance in October of 2021.

Then, less than two months later, the joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig Dr. Pepper announced it was ceasing operations.

I don’t have to tell you how unusual it is for a company to announce a new product and then shut down just months later. And, now, almost a month after the news, we really don’t have a good answer for what happened, which is why it’s still worth asking: what the heck happened?

Generally, what that type of quick about-face tells me is that the higher-ups – and by that I mean the two companies involved in the joint venture funding – decided the project wasn’t working and pulled the plug.

So what does ‘not working’ mean? It could be any number of things: Appliance or beverage pod sales weren’t meeting forecasts. Customer satisfaction was low. The project was sucking up too many resources. Maybe the two companies didn’t like working together or their strategies diverged. As I said, it could be anything and we may never know (unless, of course, a former insider wants to tell us. Please reach out if you’d like to do so privately).

The end of Drinkworks also begs the question: is this the end for home cocktail appliances? Bartesian – and now Black and Decker – would argue no. As for me, I’m not sure I want a pod-making machine, but I would take a voice-enabled cocktail marking robot.

Watch my video look at the demise of Drinkworks below.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

Checkers To Roll Out AI-Powered Voice Tech to 267 Restaurant Drive-Thrus By End of 2022

This week restaurant chain Checkers & Rally’s announced a deal with Presto, a maker of restaurant technology, in which the drive-thru focused chain will roll out Presto’s AI-powered voice assistant technology chain-wide by the end of the year.

The announcement comes after early trials showed a 98% order accuracy for the voice assistant technology. And now, according to Checkers President and CEO Frances Allen, the chain plans to roll out Presto’s voice technology to all 267 store-owned and operated locations by the end of 2022. She also indicated that many franchise locations are expressing interest in the technology.

“We had a vision two years ago that we wanted what I would call ‘Alexa at the drive-thru,'” said Allen.

And now, with Presto, they have it. According to Allen, about 80% of the chain’s total business comes through a drive-thru, so the company’s management felt transitioning to a high-accuracy automated drive-thru could significantly impact the business.

“Anything we can do to improve operations, streamline for our guests and our employees, we wanted to do.”

You can hear the Presto voice assistant taking an order at a Checkers drive-thru in the video above. The Presto bot sounds, well, bot-like as it says “Welcome to Checkers, this drive-thru microphone is monitored and recorded for quality assurance.” In fact, the entire exchange sounds like something you might hear on an automated customer service line.

Expedite’s Kristen Hawley thought so too and asked during the press briefing if customers could access live humans at any point during the interaction.

“There are 2% of orders where the system says ‘you know, I don’t quite understand that,'” said Presto founder and CEO Rajat Suri. “If the person is insistent on talking to a staff member or operator, the system will escalate to the human in the restaurant.”

When asked if the broader rollout of Presto’s technology will result in a permanent reduction of headcount, Allen said no. Instead, she said, Presto’s technology helps fill roles left empty by the persistent shortage of workers the entire restaurant industry has been experiencing since the pandemic began.

“Our motivation is to fill the gap between the people that are available to us working in restaurants and where we need to focus that human labor,” said Allen. “In an ideal world, maybe we have five people at any shift right now. We probably have three or four available. And so this (Presto’s voice assistant) is like a fifth person that is coming in to help.”

“Our motivation here is not to replace people with robots.”

The Auum Dishwasher Takes Aim at Single-Use Waste By Cleaning & Disinfecting a Glass Cup in 10 Seconds

Every year, the average office worker uses 500 single-use paper coffee cups, most of which end up in landfills. Plastic cup and bottle waste is even worse.

One obvious answer to reducing or eliminating all this waste is to replace single-use beverage containers with washable, reusable cups or glasses. The problem with this is many offices don’t have a kitchen, and even in those that do, most workers are either too busy (read lazy) to load or unload a dishwasher.

Enter the auum-S, a small countertop dishwasher that washes and dries a single glass cup in 10 seconds. The machine, which uses less than one ounce of water per wash, also disinfects the glass cups using high-temperature dry steam heated to 140°c (284 °F).

You can watch how the system works in the video below:

Unlike other small form-factor countertop dishwashers, the auum-S is targeted at offices, and because the system is for the professional market, the company uses an as-a-service pricing model. The standard setup price is €150 per month for the machine and one hundred 8 ounce glasses. The glasses, designed by Swiss company Bodum, are double-walled and can be customized for the customer with logos or names printed on the glass.

According to company spokesperson Léo Calvet, auum started selling the auum-S four months ago in its home market of France and has already shipped 1500 machines. Many customers are based in Paris and include such names as L’Oréal and Yves Saint Laurent. The company, which has raised one round of funding and is looking to raise more funds this year, plans to sell the auum-S into additional European markets this year and is eyeing a US market entry in 2023.

The Auum Dishwasher Aims to Eliminate Single Use Cups at Work

How Do You Train AI-Powered Checkout To Recognize A Product? In Vegas (& Elsewhere), You Throw It Like Dice

When it comes to training machine vision and AI-powered retail checkout systems, packaged goods and locally created food items are treated very differently.

That’s at least according to Mashgin, a maker of touchless checkout systems. Company spokesperson Toby Awalt said that’s because another store on the network has likely already added that bag of chips or candy bar to their 10 thousand plus item database.

Not so when it comes to locally made food items.

“CPG items, we have to do less and less because there’s enough overlap,” said Awalt, who gave us a walkthrough of the system at CES 2022. “But for dishes, we’ll do every time.”

According to Awalt, adding a new food menu item for a restaurant doesn’t take that since most cafeterias or restaurants only serve between 15 and 50 items.

“You can do that relatively quickly,” he said.

Still, a new packaged good has to be entered into the system now and then. Whenever that happens, the operator has to position the package in several different positions to give the system enough info to recognize the product whenever it shows up under the camera.

Mashgin’s Toby Awalt Rolls the Häagen-Dazs

“I actually do dice rolls with the product,” said Awalt, throwing a Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar onto the tray.

According to Mashgin, the company recommends the system capture 20 to 50 total positions of a product so it can recognize the product from various angles and also distinguish between different variations within the same product line (such as two different flavors of ice cream or potato chips).

You can watch a walkthrough of the Mashgin system below.

The Spoon checks out Mashgin's AI-Powered Checkout at CES 2022
The Minnow Pickup Pod

CES 2022: Minnow Shows Off Pickup Pod, an Unattended Cubby System Designed for Food Delivery

Food tech startup Minnow showed off their contactless, asynchronous smart lockers for food delivery at CES 2022 — and The Spoon got a demo and sat down to talk to CEO Steven Sperry.

Minnow began shipping the pods in the last four weeks through Hatco, a manufacturing partner who creates Minnow pods on demand. On one end of the spectrum, Hatco is serving customers where food is picked up, including restaurants, ghost kitchens, and cafeteria operators. On the other end, Minnow is focusing on selling their pods into commercial real estate including office buildings, residential spaces like apartments and condos, and college campus locations — basically, where food is delivered.

While delivery lockers aren’t a new idea, Minnow differentiates by being designed specifically for food. Each pod is insulated, lit from the inside, and includes UV lights and antimicrobial surfaces.

“We did research and found that people don’t like the idea of reaching into a dark space to get their food — they want to know that the space is clean and sterile,” said Sperry.

Not only is the Minnow pod designed for food and strong connectivity with 5G on board, it’s also providing a standardized and easier way for third-party delivery drivers to find a delivery location to drop off food without navigating secure lobbies and elevators, gated entryways or confusing campus maps.

When asked about Minnow’s support model and whether a multifamily property owner would be able to use the Minnow pod “as a service” versus a straight purchase, Sperry responded, “The purchase typically has a SAS component because the device is always connected to our servers and monitored in real-time. We monitor the food continually, we know what’s happening in every pod and in most cases, it’s considered an amenity for the residents of that building.”

The Spoon video crew was able to get a quick demo of a Minnow pod live on the CES show floor — check it out below.

CES 2022: Demo of the Minnow Pick Up Pod

In 2022, Consumers Want to Order Healthier Delivery Food

At the beginning of every year, millions of people set intentions to better themselves, and many of their resolutions revolve around health and wellness. Of course, food plays a crucial part in health, so it’s no surprise that many resolutions end up being specific to food. This year, Nextbite, a virtual restaurant company, conducted a survey to understand what exactly customers want when it comes to delivery food and their diet goals.

The company surveyed 1,046 US consumers aged 13-54 years old in December 2021. One key takeaway from the survey was that 49 percent of the consumers plan on ordering healthier delivery food in 2022. Of these consumers, 59 percent of them order food for delivery at least once a month or more, while 41 percent plan on ordering more food for delivery this year.

Eating healthier is not a surprising resolution, as it is one that often makes it in the top three most common resolutions. In the survey, 49 percent reported that they desired to eat healthier this year, and this was a top goal of consumers aged 18-34 years old. Eating healthier does not necessarily mean following a specific diet; only 6 percent of consumers said they planned on trying to follow a trend diet like Whole360 or keto.

In 2020 and 2021, we turned to comfort food to deal with the emotional and mental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yelp gathered up data in 2020 to determine what the most popular delivery items in different states were during the COVID-19 pandemic and created the map above. As you can see, many of the items, such as donuts, pizza, nachos, Belgian fries, and hot wings, would not be classified as health foods. According to DoorDash, the top two popular items ordered in 2020 were chicken sandwiches with a side of fries and mac and cheese.

Often reliant on quick-service chains, delivery food is traditionally viewed as unhealthy. However, by adding fresh and nutritious food dishes to delivery menus, restaurants, and ghost kitchens can change that perception while encouraging health-motivated customers to keep ordering food for delivery.

February is the month where upwards of 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. Consumers may want to commit to vegan grain bowls and green smoothies now, but later this year, revert back to ordering hot chicken wings and deep-dish pizza. Despite the surge in the new COVID-19 variant at the moment, 2022 looks promising due to the fact children are returning back to school, adults are working in-person, and events are being held again. The way 2022 plays out may be a determining factor if consumers turn back to comfort food or stick to wholesome options.

CES 2022: Uvera’s Smart Food Storage Uses UVC Light To Kill Bacteria

If you’re like me, no matter how hard you try, you end up throwing out food.

And while I recognize most of that waste is on me – a huge part of reducing food waste, after all, is being more mindful about how much is made and remembering to eat what’s already been purchased – I am also pretty convinced that better food storage technology could help me better manage and reduce food waste.

This is why I was intrigued to see the Uvera home food storage system at CES. The Uvera smart food storage system is similar to the Silo system in that it has a base unit that will vacuum seal containers to extend the life of food stored in the device. However, what sets the Uvera apart is its use of UVC light.

Why UVC light?

According to Uvera CEO Asrar Damdam, UVC kills bacteria, which helps extend shelf life and make food after.

“UVC light creates a sterilized environment,” Damram said. “It destroys viruses and bacteria such as COVID-19, salmonella, E.coli, and H1N1. So UVC light alone can extend shelf life of food, but now we’re combining vacuuming as well to increase shelf life even further.”

According to Damdam, the company will begin offering the Uvera food storage appliance via a crowdfunding campaign in March of 2022. Let’s hope the company has better luck than the Silo, which is over two years late and hasn’t updated its Kickstarter backers since July.

You can see Damdam explain the Uvera smart food storage system in the video below.

CES 2022: A Look at the Uvera Home Food Storage System