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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Smart Kitchen Summit

SKS Q&A: Adam Yee on Podcasting, Meat Alternatives and The Importance of Food Stories

You might not recognize Adam Yee’s face if you saw him on the street, but there’s a chance you would recognize his voice. Yee created and runs the My Food Job Rocks podcast: a weekly show highlighting people with all kids of cool jobs in the food industry.

When he’s not behind a microphone, Yee is moonlighting as a food scientist for the Better Meat Co., a startup developing blended meats (part meat, part plant-based protein) to act as an alternative to animal products.

Yeah, he’s a busy guy. Yee will also be speaking at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) in Seattle on October 8-9th. Come hear him (and see him!) as he interviews movers and shakers in the food world, and shares his own insight into the future of eating.

You’re the founder and host of the podcast My Food Job Rocks! What’s the podcast all about?
We interview experts in the food industry about career advice and new technologies every single week and we’ve done it for the past three years. With over 185+ episodes, we have people from big companies such as Coca-Cola, KraftHeinz, and Tyson Foods, to startups such as Beyond Meat, JUST, and FoodLogiQ and everything in-between such as the suppliers, legal counsels and market research groups that help the industry function. We specialize in interviewing the people in the trenches and have specific yet fascinating roles within the companies. However, I’ve been told our founder episodes have helped a ton of food businesses out as well.

Overall, My Food Job Rock’s purpose is to get people excited about the food industry. Students, prospecting entrepreneurs and food industry veterans love the podcast because it dives into why people are passionate about the food industry and why the food industry is not just being a cook at a restaurant, it’s so much more.

It seems like everyone and their mom has a podcast these days. How do you make yours stand out?
By posting on LinkedIn every week for the past three years.

I also record, edit, and publish all of my episodes so I work on the craft of podcasting and try and make the next episode better than the last.

For me, creating an episode every week is really important because showcasing what people do in this industry is important and what this specific person does is important. When you post without missing a week for a while, it’s more than just a hobby, it becomes a mission.

It’s very hard to be consistent when podcasting. Especially when you first start out and you hate your own voice but, it was important to share the stories because these stories aren’t being told. I think that’s the amazing part about podcasting is that we all have the power to share stories on whatever we want!

In my opinion, everyone and their mom should make a podcast because today, everyone has the power to share their voice and the best part is, there will be always someone who wants to listen. Not only does everyone have a story, everyone has a different perspective to tell their story.

You also helped found the startup Better Meat Co. Tell us more about what they do and your role with the company.
After I interviewed Paul Shapiro about his book, Clean Meat, he asked me if I knew any food scientists that could help him on a project. Well, I’m a food scientist so I volunteered to help. After creating the first prototype, Paul’s fiancée (now wife)’s dad tried it and liked it and Paul asked me to join him in creating Better Meat Co. Since a year and a half ago, I’ve been in charge of creating all of the Better Meat Co. products and developing production and quality systems to make them commercializable.

Because I knew the systems of navigating the food industry, and had the network [to ask] when I didn’t know things, we created a product in less than a year and started selling. About a year after the company launched, we collaborated with Perdue Farms to help them create their newest product, Chicken Plus, a blended chicken product using Better Meat Co. ingredients. I hear Chicken Plus is shipping to stores this week.

Describe one of your all-time favorite interviews from My Food Job Rocks.
I really like all of the episodes I’ve produced. However, I will list three that are a mixture of the most popular and have the best types of discussions.

  • Episode 91 with Missy Schaaphok, who is a registered dietitian from Taco Bell is a fascinating story of someone who can take initiative to make fast food healthier. Missy has made a huge impact because of her skillset in Taco Bell by reducing the salt and sugar in all of their products. She also introduced the power menu and has made a ton of improvements making taco bell the low-key healthiest fast food option. What is amazing about Missy is that as a registered dietitian at a fast food company, she is making a huge impact in making the world healthier.
  • Episode 119 with Tom Mastrobuoni, the CFO for Tyson Ventures is a great episode to understand why huge companies like Tyson are investing in companies that do plant-based foods, cell-based foods, and kitchen tech and I found diving into how big companies can shift to understand and take risks on innovation is more about culture than anything else. This was an amazing episode because Tom was so open about why Tyson is exploring in all of these spaces. This podcast was shared throughout the food-tech realm for the first time and as Better Meat Co got legs, people recognized my name because of this particular episode and that helped us in a lot of talks.
  • Episode 177 with Eric Pierce from the New Hope Network was one of my favorites as well. I’ve listened to Eric talk on other podcasts and I’ve dreamed of having him on because he talks about trends so insightfully. Luckily, I met him when he was looking at the Better Meat Co’s booth at Expo West. We talked and I said I was a fan and I asked him if he wanted to be on the My Food Job Rocks podcast. We prepped a lot before actually interviewing, with Eric sharing me trend insights and me developing questions about them. My favorite part about this interview is we dig through the meta of why trends happen and I think that has helped a lot of people rethink on how to develop awesome products.

I could write a whole story about how I met each of my 180+ guests and how we’ve connected throughout the years. The connections made throughout each episode of My Food Job Rocks are all interesting stories.

Why do you think a podcast is an effective medium to discuss food technology — something that’s very tangible?
Podcasting has the ability to tell stories and they are stories with a voice… literally. They are effective because there are people who want to hear these stories, and with the digital age, people can find what they like anywhere.

But I think the best part about podcasting is that it shows authenticity. Written word misses the human element, video has too much production value to be completely authentic but podcasting, you can choose to edit out the umms and ahhs, you can ask questions that people are afraid to ask on-air, with podcasting, your voice carries authenticity and you have the ability to bring out that authenticity from your guest.

Since I am a food scientist and I did start a company from scratch, I have issues that are hard for me to solve alone, so I ask my guests about the parts when things get hard technically and when times are tough and on a personal level, the advice that has accumulated over the three years of doing this has made me a much better public speaker, food scientist, and person.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

SKS Q&A: Ovie’s Stacie Thompson on Why Tech is the Secret Weapon to Fight Home Food Waste

The majority of food waste in the U.S. happens at the consumer level, but surprisingly few companies tackling the home food waste problem.

One of the few companies with an actual device aimed at eliminating home food waste is Ovie. The startup creates LED-enabled tags which connect with voice assistants to help you keep track of leftovers in your fridge, so you can make sure to eat things before they go bad and wind up in the trash.

Ovie co-founder Stacie Thompson will be talking about the market potential in solving home food waste at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} in Seattle this October. Check out our Q&A with Thompson below, then head over here to grab your tickets before they’re gone!

Tell us a little bit more about Ovie. What was the impetus for the company?
Ovie is a system that is designed to seamlessly integrate into your kitchen and help you keep track of, and use your foods more effectively. The idea is truly a solution to a very real problem that we all face: that moment when you open the fridge and realize that once again all of that food that you intended to eat is ending up in the garbage because it has gone bad.

The system integrates a visual notification on foods by way of a container, clip and connector that are fitted with a SmartTag. The SmartTag lights green for good, yellow for foods to prioritize and if it’s red, you should probably think twice before consuming it. This allows you to tag and track the foods that matter to you. Once tagged, they’re connected to the app which has a digital “fridge” that allows you to know what you have from anywhere and can give you recipe inspiration based on what you’ve got.

Statistics tell us that 40% of food waste occurs in the home, yet most solutions focus on farms, grocery stores, distributors and restaurants. Why do you think that is?
Food waste is an enormous problem, so I think a lot of companies have focused on those areas because you can see a big impact through the adoption of a relatively limited user group.

When you think about households, that consumer set is really huge — and vastly varied in the way people live and deal with food. So finding a solution that addresses a large portion of this group that will be readily adopted is no small task. Making a meaningful connection with homes is the way that we will see food waste reduced at the household level.

Why did you choose to make Ovie compatible with voice assistants, as opposed to purely controlled through an app?
Is there anything easier than pushing a button and saying “Alexa this is spinach”? Using an app is easy. But we all want what’s easier than easy — we want magic. Voice has become the simplest way for people to outsource tasks in their lives without feeling burdened by tech. That’s especially important in the kitchen where people have their hands busy with a lot of different tasks. We believe Voice is on the way to being the dominant tech interface in the kitchen and makes it a natural way for our tech to fade into the background and be helpful.

What’s next for Ovie?
Wow — such an open-ended question! First and foremost, we’re excited about finally getting this amazing product into people’s hands so that they can start feeling more control of what they have in the fridge and pantry. But Smarterware is just the beginning of many products and partnerships that Ovie has begun and are geared towards helping all of us live more successful, sustainable lives.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

SKS Q&A: Atomo’s Founder on Why He’s Creating Coffee Without the Beans

At the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS}, we’re all about exploring the future of food. But what about the future of drink — specifically the future of our favorite morning beverage, coffee?

That’s exactly what Jarret Stopforth, founder and CTO of Atomo, is trying to brew up (sorry, we had to). Atomo is reverse engineering coffee to make a beverage that tastes just like your favorite cup of joe — but is made without a single coffee bean. And they just raised a tidy $2.6 million to jumpstart their mission.

Stopforth will be at speaking about his vision for the future of coffee at SKS this October. To give you a little advanced taste, we asked the him a few questions about the catalyst to create Atomo and his mission to forge a more sustainable way for people to get their morning caffeine fix. Check out the answers below, and don’t forget to grab your ticket to SKS!

At Atomo, you’re making coffee without any coffee beans. Tell us a little more about how that works.
We looked at green beans, roasted beans and extracted (brewed) coffee samples and through advanced analytical procedures studied the volatile and non-volatile compounds present. By evaluating the individual compounds in coffee we were able to map the most significant ones contributing to the characteristic aroma and flavor of coffee. Once we identified the most significant compounds we evaluated upcycled and natural plant-based material with high sustainability indices as a source for extracting and generating the blend that enables us to create a coffee “dashboard” – with this we can make coffee without the bean and tweak our dashboard to create different flavor and aroma profiles.

What’s your go-to-market strategy?
From our Kickstarter campaign in February, we pre-sold 64,000 cups of coffee to nearly 700 people around the world. We plan to fulfill those backer’s orders by the end of this year/beginning of next with a public product launch in 2020.

Where did you get the idea to make coffee without beans? What was your motivation?
I am an avid coffee drinker and always look for a consistently enjoyable experience that I can rely on. Having my doctorate in food science I am also always looking at food and beverage with an eye on how things are made and how to disrupt or improve them. After having a lot of lousy coffee I said to myself one day that there must be a better way to enjoy one of my favorite beverages and to create it from the ground up where we can control for consistency and quality. I was working on this when Andy approached me to see what I was working on in the background and wished I could be doing full time. And after sitting together to talk through the idea, Andy was motivated to join the quest based on the threats we were seeing with the sustainability and future of coffee – we wanted to create a consistently great cup of coffee that was also good for the environment.

What’s the advantage of making bean-less coffee? Economically, environmentally, etc.
The benefit of beanless coffee is that it is more sustainable by not requiring deforestation as well as using upcycled plant-based materials. Likewise, by using the upcycled ingredients we can create molecular coffee for a fraction of the price it takes to farm beans. We are delivering premium quality coffee that’s accessible to all.

How do you take your coffee?
Cortado.

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

The Food Tech Show: Big in Japan

Let’s talk about Japan!

We were in Tokyo this month for the third annual Smart Kitchen Summit Japan so, naturally, this podcast is all about the magical wonderland that is the Land of the Rising Sun.

Not only did the Spoon team spend two great days talking food tech with some of the coolest thinkers and entrepreneurs in Japan and broader Asia, we also ran around Tokyo checking out food robots, eating amazing food and delighting in the wonders of the Japanese version of 7-Eleven.

You can read some of the coverage of what we found in Japan here, and if you want to meet many of those who participated in SKS Japan, make sure to come to SKS North America (use discount code PODCAST for 25% off of tickets).

As always, you can listen to the Food Tech Show on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download this episode directly to your phone or just click play below.

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SKS 2019 Q&A: Barilla’s CTO on Balancing Tradition and Tech

Founded in 1877, Barilla, the world’s largest pasta maker, has a lot of history behind it. But the Parma, Italy-based company is also looking towards the future with its Blu1877, an innovation hub exploring new, sustainable products and incubating forward-facing startups.

So how does a giant, 150-year-old pasta company leverage technology to constantly innovate? That’s what we’ll be asking Victoria Spadaro-Grant, CTO of Barilla, at the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} this October. As a little amuse bouche before she takes the SKS stage, we asked Spadaro-Grant a few questions about what role Barilla can play in the future of food.

Check out the Q&A below. We’ll go far more in-depth at SKS, so don’t miss out. Get your tickets now and join us in Seattle!

As the CTO of Barilla, what sort of technologies are you exploring?
There is a lot happening in the world of food. From robotization of restaurants and cooking “smartization” to natural-digital design of food, to digitization of industrial food processes to create completely new and unexplored consumer experiences.

Indeed, we are living in an unprecedented time where the confine between the worlds of food and digital are blurring, and so is our research and development to create new tasty and delicious products.

One thing remains constant: the human touch and discerning ability required to design foods that people love.

How do you balance trying to foster new innovation with the legacy and history that comes with such a historic company?
Great question! Please think of “tradition” as the innovation that was once super successful and has resisted the acid test of time… remaining in people’s lives forever.

Our job is to continue creating and driving innovation that will become tradition, i.e. Uber, successful products that consumers adopt and carry across all stages of their lives.

Tell us more about Blu1877. Why did you decide to create an innovation lab within Barilla?
At Blu1877, we look to gain exposure to new, exciting products and services, and to new categories that could represent light towers for our future.

Along the way, we also want to help disruptive start-ups that could have the ability to re-shape the way consumers see and experience food.

In sum, the job of Blu1877 is to drive innovation that would be otherwise difficult to carry at Barilla because of the smaller scale or level of category maturity/proximity.

At Blu1877, we seek to tap into evolving trends and learn about how to innovate and do business in a manner — and with an approach — that is different from the established wow we have at Barilla.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for large CPG companies in the future of food?
The ability to generate and invent new “traditions”!

Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

SKS Q&A: GenoPalate’s Sherry Zhang on How Your DNA Can and Should Dictate What You Eat

In Western cultures we tend to go to the doctor to get medicine, but there’s a growing movement advocating for food as the first step towards healthier bodies. (Which, when you think about it, is pretty obvious.) But determining what foods to eat to make you feel better can be tricky, especially in our age of fad diets and fast-food.

Dr. Sherry Zhang founded company GenoPalate to try and solve the whole what-do-I-eat-to-feel-better question for individuals by looking at genetics to create personalized nutrition programs. Sort of like Ancestry DNA for your diet.

Zhang will be speaking at our flagship Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} conference in Seattle this October, exploring the burgeoning trend of food as medicine. (Psst — Early Bird ticket sales end tomorrow, so grab yours before the price goes up!) We asked her a few questions to get a better sense of how exactly GenoPalate works, and what sort of role it could play in mapping out our dining future.

Tell us more about GenoPalate. How exactly does it work?
GenoPalate revolutionizes how people eat healthy based on their unique genetics. Through a simple swab test, GenoPalate’s nutrigenetic home test analyzes 100+ genetic markers that determine a person’s specific needs for 24 vital nutrients such as carbohydrates, vitamin D, and sodium, and sensitivities to lactose, gluten, caffeine and alcohol. The company combines genetic results with millions of nutritional variables to recommend the foods a person should eat more of. Then each client receives a report that includes their genetic results, what they mean, and a personalized list of the 80+ foods that benefit that specific client the most. Using its genetics-based personalized nutrition technology, GenoPalate is changing how people choose, shop for and eat food for better health.

How do consumers get access to GenoPalate’s technology? Is it offered as a solo service? Do you work with partners? A combination?
It is easy to get access to GenoPalate’s technology. Consumers can order their GenoPalate nutrigenetic home tests by going to its e-commerce platform at genopalate.com. It is offered as one streamlined experience and each service comes with GenoPalate’s genetics-based nutrition analysis, a personal nutrition and food map report followed by Activate, a 12-week digital coaching program that provides individual consumers actionable knowledge to eat for their genes.

Personalization is a growing trend in the food space. Why do you think it’s having such a moment lately?
There are definitely radical changes in the expectations, needs and wants of food shoppers lately. I think the driver behind this trend in consumer behavior is the advancements in the technology world that enables 1) the dramatically increased amount of information on sources, ingredients and manufacturing processes to the food we have access to today; 2) the level of precision in health information that we now are able to access and analyze for better understanding the impact of food and nutrition on a person’s health and wellness by the high-paced advancement in the field of clinical genomics. Consumers have always had the appetite for personalized food options for their needs but it was not possible to meet those needs at greater scale. Now we have the technologies to offer that, it is reasonable that consumers and the industry they influence cannot wait for taking it on.

How do you address the issue of privacy around the personal data you gather to create nutrition profiles for GenoPalate?
Keeping our users’ genetic and other personal information private and safe is important to us at GenoPalate.

We implement de-identification procedures along with encryption of each individual’s data to ensure secure storage and complete anonymous separate of your genetic and personal information. Only automated GenoPalate product services have access to both of this information to deliver our product to each user.

As a business, we do not sell, lease or rent users’ personal information to third-party without user’s consent. User’s genetic information may be used by our product development team to enhance our services to our users. In this case, users’ data will be de-identified and aggregated before analysis to preserve anonymity.

To learn more about our data security and privacy measures please visit, https://www.genopalate.com/legal.

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Keep an eye out for more speaker Q&A’s as we ramp up to our fifth year of SKS on October 7-8 in Seattle! We hope to see you there.

SKS Japan 2019: Moving Into a Food Tech Future

The Spoon team has been in Tokyo this past week for our third SKS Japan conference! This year the theme is Move — that is, how we can leverage technology to move towards a more sustainable, healthy, and collaborative food system, together.

We’ve seen some real growth in our Japan conference. This year there were almost 400 attendees, 180 participating companies, and 60 speakers, over double the numbers from the event’s first year in 2017. These metrics illustrate the exciting potential of the food tech ecosystem in the Japanese market — moving up, indeed.

Here are a few highlights from the conference, including (multiple) cooking robots, augmented dining tech, and lots and lots of delicious food.

The night before SKS Japan was the speaker dinner, where the Suvie kitchen robot made its public debut! Yes, it makes dessert, too.

SKS founder Michael Wolf kicked off the conference with some words on why Japan — and Asia in general — has such an important role to play in forging the future of cooking.

We told you — lots of robots. This year’s SKS Japan featured a (rainbow!) crepe-making robot, an onigiri (Japanese rice ball) robot, the Rotimatic, a roti-making kitchen robot, and more. These food-making ‘bots made for some very exciting breaks!

Other cool tech from the conference were Panasonic’s DishCanvas, a plate that can display moving images, Shojinmeat founder Yuki Hanyu’s VR rendering of a Martian lab-grown meat lab, and Cookpad’s unveiling of Oicy, its device that can dispense hard and soft water to suit specific recipes.

The conversations took a broader focus as well, tackling pressing issues like sustainability, national identity, and more. Here’s a photo from one of the forward-facing discussions from the day, in which Future Food Institute’s Sara Roversi spoke with Ferda Gelegen, the Deputy Head of UNIDO ITPO Japan about how to better grow and consume food in the face of climate change.

The gadgets are certainly cool and the food samples tasty, but the most inspiring part of SKS Japan comes not from the technologies, but the people. It may sound cheesy, but it’s true. We’re headed back to Seattle inspired by the passion, energy, and creativity we saw from the SKS Japan attendees and speakers.

来年まで!

Panasonic’s DishCanvas Uses AR to Put Moving Images on Your Dinner Plate

They say that before you even take a bite of your food, you eat first with your eyes. Panasonic seems to be really taking that idiom to heart with the new product from its innovation incubator GameChanger Catapult.

DishCanvas is a smart plate (no, not that kind of smart plate) equipped with a display which can project moving images. It’s controlled through a smartphone app, through which you can select your desired pattern, texture, and movement to be projected on the dinnerware, as well as any desired transition effects. The dynamic image loop is then “played” on the DishCanvas plate.

We got to check out DishCanvas’ prototype in Tokyo this week at SKS Japan. The plate is made up of a glass top, a display, and batteries. Eventually the display technology will be built into the plate itself, but for now it’s pretty low-tech — essentially just an iPad slide underneath a corresponding dish. The GameChanger Catapult team who showed off the DishCanvas told me that they’re also hoping to make the images interactive, so you could theoretically rearrange images or even play games while you eat.

As I noted, DishCanvas is currently just a prototype. But the team member I spoke with told me that Game Changer Catapult is already in early talks with Disney to use the plates in their parks for children.

Which, to me, is a pretty smart use case. What kid wouldn’t be more likely to eat their veggies if they placed on a plate displaying life-like versions of their favorite Disney characters?

I could also imagine DishCanvas being used in fine dining. For example, a fancy Michelin star restaurant could create custom plate displays to communicate more information about the ingredients used in each dish. Maybe a rare steak would be served on a plate bearing a moving image of rustling grass in a field where the cow once grazed, or a grilled fish could be placed atop a display of ocean waves.

DishCanvas corresponds to a new movement of augmented dining which tackles not just the taste of food, but the entire eating experience. From scotch tastings enhanced with VR to leveraging sounds  to change the flavor of food, companies are experimenting with ways in which technology can enhance our meals by appealing to all five of our senses.

Here at the Spoon, we cover lots of technology aiming to optimize the way your food tastes. But it’s good to remember that smell, sound, touch, and sight play a role in how we eat, as well.

Japanese Startup Integriculture Will Sell Cultured Foie Gras by 2021, and Teach You To Make It at Home

At SKS Japan this week, lots of speakers have been predicting what the future of food might look like: it might be cooked by robotic articulating arms, it might be carbon neutral, or it might be personalized to individuals’ specific tastes.

But the most futuristic vision of all might have come from Yuki Hanyu, CEO and founder of DIY cultured meat community Shojinmeat. He sketched out a time in which we’re all living on Mars, growing steak in bioreactors in much the same way we brew beer right now.

That reality is still a long way off. However, right now Hanyu is still working on quite a few projects pushing us towards a future in which everyone — yes, even you — can grow their own meat, and cultured meat is available in your corner supermarket.

Shojinmeat was the original enterprise, but in 2015 Hanyu spun out Integriculture, a startup creating full-stack cellular agriculture solutions. After his session at SKS Japan, Hanyu described his company’s projected timeline to me:

2019
By the end of this year Integriculture will start selling Space Salt, a dried version of cell culture media. For those who don’t nerd out on cellular agriculture, media is the liquid “food” that allows animal cells to rapidly proliferate to form meat. Space Salt is Integriculture’s (secret) proprietary blend of salt and food safe amino acids, which, when mixed with water, forms a DIY cell culture media. Hanyu wants to sell it to home enthusiasts who can use it to grow their own meat using Shojinmeat guide.

2020
While its focus is cultured meat, in 2020 Integriculture is also planning to sell its media for use in cosmetic applications, specifically as an anti-aging skincare product.

2021
In 2021, Integriculture will launch its first cell-based meat product: foie gras. Hanyu said that they decided to tackle foie gras as its first product because of its creamy texture, which means that they don’t have to emulate the texture and chew of meat. Since foie gras is already quite expensive, starting with that product will also presumably give consumers less of a sticker shock when they see its high price. Accordingly they plan to launch first in high-end restaurants in Japan.

“We’re not aiming for massive revenue at first,” Hanyu told me during SKS Japan. Instead, he’s expecting that the foie gras launch will be more of a proof of concept to show that cell-based meat is feasible and delicious. He also wants it to help establish regulatory guidelines for cultured animal products in Japan.

Which brings us back to the Space Salt. Presumably, when Integriculture starts selling its cell-based foie gras, Japanese food regulatory bodies will ask the company what’s in it in order to approve it for public consumption. At that time Hanyu and his team plan to show that the only two inputs are duck liver cells and Space Salt (plus water), the latter of which contains ingredients that are already sold on the market. He’s hoping that if they prove that duck liver and Space Salt are both already available for purchase, then by the transitive property their cell-based foie gras shouldn’t pose a problem.

If the 2021 restaurant launch goes as planned, Integriculture will start selling foie gras in supermarkets in 2023.

Photo: Integriculture

An ambitious timeline, to be sure — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The JST (Japan Science and Technology) Agency, part of the Japanese government, is investing part of its $20 million funding in Integriculture’s research for large-scale cell-based meat. The company is also working with JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) on its Space Food X program, which is developing closed-loop food solutions for space travelers.

That’s a lot of balls to juggle for the startup, especially one with only 13 employees and ¥300 million (USD 2.7 million) in funding. There’s also relatively little local support: despite the fact that cultured meat will likely debut in Asia, Japan is still quite light on cellular agriculture startups.

Interestingly, there’s at least one other company openly working in the cell-based meat space — and it’s a big one. Nissin Foods, the instant ramen giant, is partnering with the University of Tokyo to develop their own small cultured meat cubes to include in their freeze-dried ramen packs.

However, as they’re a large company which would require billions of tiny cell-based meat cubes — and they need to make them cheaply to keep down the cost of their product — Hanyu said that they’re likely 10 years away from actually incorporating cultured pork or chicken into the ramen packs.

Maybe then highbrow consumers will be able to have instant noodles with lab-grown foie gras.

The Spoon is Headed for Japan!

If you grew up in 70s or 80s, you probably remember when TV shows would do something wacky to boost ratings during sweeps. Oftentimes, it would involve the characters traveling to someplace new, like The Bradys are going to Hawaii!

That’s kinda what’s happening with The Spoon this week. Mike, Catherine and myself have packed our bags and flown halfway round the world to be in Tokyo. We’re here for the third Smart Kitchen Summit: Japan where we’ll be chatting with reps from companies like SideChef, Cookpad, Middleby, Zimplistic, JUST and many more.

Given that we are literally visiting the future and are 16 hours ahead of our normal time, our content schedule is going to be a little different this week. You’ll still get regular posts from us (I’m visiting a couple of different food robots while I’m in town), and Jenn Marston is holding down the fort stateside.

So enjoy this special week of programming, and I promise, we won’t be introducing a cousin Oliver when we get back next week.

読んでくれてありがとう、来週お会いしましょう！

Hurry! This Weekend is Your Last Chance for SKS 2019 Ultra Early Bird Ticket Pricing

The Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS), our global food tech conference, is returning to Seattle this October. This will be our fifth year, and — not to toot our own horn — it’s shaping up to be the best one yet.

Here’s what you have to look forward to:

  • A killer speaker lineup featuring a wide range of top-level executives, innovators, and investors creating disruptive solutions up and down the food stack.
  • A brand new venue in the heart of downtown Seattle with incredible views and networking spaces.
  • An extended Startup Showcase, our competition for food-based startup companies.
    This year we’re breaking it into two sections: one concentrating on food tech and the other on future food.

In short, you don’t want to miss it. Our events almost always sell out so don’t leave it up to the last minute. Bonus: We’re currently offering Ultra Early Bird pricing through June 30th (that’s just until the end of this weekend!). Prices will go up after that, so hop to it!

We’ll see you there.

Are You a Food Tech Startup or Creating the Next Innovative Food Brand? Apply for Our Startup Showcases at SKS 2019

When we first started the Smart Kitchen Summit in 2015, we knew we wanted to create a forum for food tech startups to connect with big companies, venture capitalists and deal makers. After all, I’d watched the smart home and digital entertainment spaces emerge from nascent industries to large thriving marketplaces over the previous decade and knew the magic that could happen when you bring companies big and small together.

So that’s what we did. Not only did we fill our speaker rosters with leaders from the most interesting startups and big companies doing interesting work on the bleeding edge of the future of food and cooking, but we also created a startup showcase to give these startups an opportunity pitch their ideas and get feedback.

Little did we know at the time the Startup Showcase would become a platform. From the start, we’ve helped propel companies to build their brand, find partners and get market traction.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s Peter Favrholdt, CEO of connected cooktop startup Ztove:

“Bringing home the SKS trophy also had a significance,” he said. “Ztove won a couple of grants in Denmark, and in 2017 we were enrolled in the Odense Robotics Startup Hub – an accelerator program for early startups in the field of robotics. In 2018 we got a small investment allowing us to increase the pace and building the company bringing the Ztove products to market.”

Andrew Deitz, the CEO of SKS 2017 Startup Showcase winner Verdical, had this to say: “Winning the Startup Showcase put Verdical on the food tech map. From the SKS’s visibility we secured a technology partnership that has made our product better. “

And then there’s former rocket scientist turned foodtech entrepreneur Bill Birgen, the CEO of Soggy Food Sucks. I asked him if winning the SKS startup showcase last year had made a difference and he told me this:

“The recognition that came from winning the SKS Startup Showcase galvanized industry interest from marque brands in Soggy Food Sucks and continues to propel the company forward with momentum.”

For 2019, we’re looking to do it again, only this time we’re doubling the opportunities.

First, we’re bringing back the SKS Food Tech Startup Showcase for its fifth year. The SKS Startup Showcase will bring together startups at different stages of growth who are actively showing how they are innovating the world of food tech. One of the prizes for the Startup Showcase will be an annual membership with our partner WeWork Food Labs.

Next, we’re debuting our new  Future Food Startup Competition that will allow startups with a vision to disrupt the traditional way of thinking about food to show the world what they’re up to. The winner of the Future Food competition will get an all-expense-paid trip to Parma to spend a week with Barilla’s Innovation Lab.

We’re really excited to bring these innovators to Seattle to help propel them to the next level, so if you have the next disruptive food tech startup or the next big idea for the future of food, apply today!