Welcome to the weekend! Time for french toast and iced tea and celebrating dad (if that’s your thing).
But first, let’s catch up on this week’s food tech news. We’ve got stories on Starbuck’s new reusable coffee cup pilot, insect farm funding, produce freshness tracking tech and more. Enjoy!
Starbucks trials reusable coffee cups at Gatwick airport
Ubiquitous coffee chain Starbucks is partnering with environmental nonprofit Hubbub to launching a reusable cup trial program in London’s Gatwick airport (h/t Fast Company). Customers can borrow a reusable cup from Starbucks and drop the cup off at one of five check-in points in the airport once they’re done with their drink. Otherwise they must pay 5 pence ($.07) for a disposable coffee cup, which will be donated to Hubbub.
Agrofresh integrates Zest Labs’ platform for produce tracking
AgroFresh, the company working to optimize produce freshness along the supply chain, is incorporating Zest Lab’s platform into their own FreshCloud tracking technology. Agrofresh uses Zest’s platform to aggregate transit insights from produce shipments, after which it applies its own knowledge of biotechnology to decide how/where best to ship the order. The company is currently trialing Zest’s technology in produce supply chains internationally.
Photo: Katja Schulz, via Flickr.
French insect startup Ÿnsect gets €20M from EU
Ÿnsect, the Paris-based insect farming startup, just got a €20 million ($22.4 million) grant from the European Commission (h/t Agfunder). It will also get €3.7 million ($4.15 million) in a European public-private partnership to build a giant insect processing facility. Ÿnsect vertically farms mealworms for use as sustainable feed (mostly for fish) and previously raised €110 million ($123.4 million) this February.
Photo: Motif ingredients.
Motif Ingredients hires ex-Nestlé exec as CCO
This week Motif Ingredients, a biotechnology company that develops food ingredients through engineered microbes (and one of our Food Tech 25!) announced it had appointed Michele Fite as its new Chief Commercial Officer. The company launched in February with $90 million in funding, which it claims is the largest Series A raised by any food tech company to date. Before joining Motif Fite had worked at Nestlé, Kerry, and Dupont. In her new role at the company she will lead commercial strategy, business development, and marketing.
Did we miss anything? Let us know and tweet us @TheSpoonTech.
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