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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

alternative protein

Cultured Decadence Raises $1.6M to Make Lobster in a Lab

Wisconsin-based cellular agriculture company Cultured Decadence announced today it has raised $1.6 million in an oversubscribed round of pre-seed funding. Investors include Bluestein Ventures, Joyance Partners, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, gener8tor, GlassWall Syndicate, Bascom Ventures, and China-based Dao Foods. The company also received non-dilutive funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation administered by the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC). 

Cultured Decadence will use to the new funds to create what it says will be the first cell-cultured lobster meat in North America. This financing follows work by Cultured Decadence in developing novel cell lines and reducing the cost of its cell-culture media. Cell-culture media is typically one of the key elements driving up the cost of a cultured meat product, so any company making progress on this step is good news for the whole industry.

Lobster may be the first dish Cultured Decadence is recreating in a lab, but the company said its technology can be applied across a range of seafood analogues, including carp, shrimp, and scallops. The goal is to help decrease the planet’s reliance on traditional seafood. Overfishing, ocean pollution, and human rights abuses are just a few of the issues plaguing the industry, and they were around long before “Seaspiracy” hit Netflix.  

The promise of cell-cultured seafood is that it doesn’t require the actual ocean to produce — a point underscored by Cultured Decadence’s Wisconsin headquarters, which is thousands of miles away from any major body of water. 

The company joins Singapore-based Shiok Meats in the quest to provide more sustainable lobster meat to consumers. Shiok unveiled its lobster meat to the world for the first time at an invite-only taste-testing event in 2020.

Besides today’s, other recent fundraises in the cultured seafood space include Avant Meats’ $3.1 million round, also in December 2020, and BlueNalu’s $60 million fundraise in January 2021. While all of these companies focus on different products and specific processes, they share the end goal of advancing the cultured seafood industry, which is still an extremely nascent one.

Cultured Decadence said it would use the new funds to continue developing its lobster prototype and eventually launch commercially. No specific timeframe was given. 

Report: Impossible Foods Planning to Go Public

Impossible Foods, best known for its plant-based meat analogues, is preparing for a public listing, according to sources that spoke for an exclusive report by Reuters. The public listing could value Impossible at more than $10 billion.

Those sources note that the company is exploring going public via either an initial public offering (IPO) “in the next 12 months” or through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). 

SPACs, also called blank-check companies, are a route to going public that involves less regulatory scrutiny than a traditional IPO. Going public via SPAC is a current “hot trend” on Wall Street, and an option becoming increasingly popular in the food world. AppHarvest made its public debut in February via SPAC, and AeroFarms, which just announced its plans to do the same.

Reuters’ sources also warned that Impossible’s public debut is subject to market conditions, and the company may change course and instead decide to do another round of private fundraising. To date, the company has raised $1.4 billion in funding, including a $200 million fundraise from August of last year. 

Its chief rival, Beyond Meat, went public back in May 2019, becoming the first-ever plant-based meat maker to do so. Both companies are in high demand right now, as sales of plant-based proteins totaled $7 billion in 2020, with meat analogues being the leading category. 

News of a potential public debut for Impossible comes the same week the company released its first ever national TV ad campaign, which is in part aimed at converting traditional meat eaters into devotees of Impossible’s plant-based wares. 

The company has in the last 12 months opened a direct-to-consumer e-commerce store, increased its geographic reach to more than 20,000 locations, and slashed its prices, putting products a little more on par with traditional meat.

Solar Foods Receives €10M to Scale Production of its Protein Made Out of Air

Solar Foods, which literally makes protein out of air, announced today that it has received €10 million (~$11.98 million USD) in funding from the The Finnish Climate Fund. The subordinated load will go towards revving up commercial-scale production of the company’s product, Solein. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Solar Foods to €35 million (~$41.6 million USD).

Based in Finland, Solar Foods uses a combination of captured carbon dioxide, bacteria and electricity to create Solein, which can make multiple food items including alternative proteins. A big promise of Solein’s is its narrower impact on the planet than traditional animal agriculture or even plant-based protein. It doesn’t require land or water, and is not dependent on weather. According to today’s press announcement, Solar Foods said that Solein creates roughly one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions of meat protein and 20 percent of those from plant protein production.

The technology was borne out of research from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and LUT University of Finland. Solein is now in the commercialization stage, and the new funding will be used to build a pilot production facility. The new facility will include a food bar and is scheduled to start operations in early 2023.

The nothingness of air is really turning into something in the alternative protein space. In addition to Solar Foods, the aptly named Air Protein does much the same thing and recently raised $32 million. Deep Branch calls itself a carbon dioxide recycling company because it turns CO2 into protein for animal feed, and recently raised nearly $10 million. And Swedish researchers at RISE have developed technology to turn air into fat.

For more on this nascent science and protein sector, check out our The Spoon Plus Insider Guide to Air Protein.

Beyond Meat Opens Its First Manufacturing Facility Outside the U.S., in China

Beyond Meat announced today the opening of its new manufacturing facility in the Jiaxing Economic & Technological Development Zone near Shanghai, China. The plant is Beyond’s first facility outside of the U.S. and is expected to increase both the amount of product the company can manufacture in that region and the speed at which it can do so.

The new facility will produce Beyond’s beef, pork, and poultry products, including “Beyond Pork,” the company’s minced pork product made “specifically for the Chinese market.” The facility will also function as an R&D hub for the region that will develop new products.

Beyond first announced its intent to build two facilities in China towards the end of 2020. The company already sells its plant-based beef products in that region via a deal with Starbucks. For a limited time in 2020, Beyond products were also available via Yum Brands restaurants, including KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. 

In the Chinese market, it has competition from a handful of local players that includes Green Monday-owned Omnipork as well as HERO, which recently raised $850,000. Beyond CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement today that the opening of the new manufacturing facility will allow the company to “effectively compete” in China.

The U.S. still leads in terms of demand for plant-based meat alternatives, but the Asia region is catching up. China, meanwhile, is the world’s largest consumer of meat, particularly when it comes to pork. At the same time, though, the meat-replacement category is growing in that country, with Euromonitor predicting it to be worth $11.9 billion by 2023. 

Beyond’s news comes the same week its chief rival, Impossible, launched its first-ever ad campaign to sway meat eaters towards plant-based products. Impossible has yet to to start selling its wares in China, however. At last check, the company was still waiting on regulatory approval for that market.

GFI: Plant-Based Retail Sales Reach $7B in the U.S.

Retail sales of plant-based foods in the U.S. reached $7 billion in 2020, according to new data released this week by the Good Food Institute and the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA). Sales grew 27 percent in total, which is nearly twice as fast as total U.S. food retail sales. The $7 billion figure includes plant-based meats, eggs, and dairy products.

Plant-based milk is still the largest category of the bunch, and grew at 20 percent over the last year to reach $2.5 billion in sales. Almond milk remains the top seller, though oat milk is catching up, according tot he report. 

Plant-based meat analogues nabbed second place in terms of retail sales, which grew to $1.4 billion in 2020. GFI called plant-based grounds — or plant-based versions of ground beef — the “breakout” product format. “Plant-based ground sales more than doubled in size over the course of 2020, in part due to the introduction and increased distribution of those products in retail.”

Findings for other plant-based categories in the report include:

  • Eggs, once a tiny category, grew 168 percent — a 706 percent increase over the past two years.
  • Ice cream grew 20 percent, to $435 million.
  • Yogurt grew 20 percent, to $343 million.
  • Butter and cheese grew 36 percent and 42 percent, respectively.

Obviously the reason for the increase in sales is that consumers are more interested than ever in eating these products, particularly as traditional meat comes under fire for both environmental and ethical reasons. GFI’s report noted a 3.4 percent jump in U.S. households purchasing plant-based foods in 2020, reaching 56.8 percent of consumers.

The new data comes on the heels of a March report from GFI that found $2.1 billion had been invested in plant-based foods in 2020, including the $700 million raised by Impossible, LIVEKINDLY’s $335 million, and Oatly’s $200 million in private equity financing.

As far as who is actually buying these products, GFI found, in this week’s report, that the demographic tends to be “from higher income brackets.” However, we can expect that to change, according to the Institute: “As plant-based food prices drop over time and begin to reach price parity with animal-based products, we can expect consumers from lower income brackets to increase their purchasing of plant-based products as well.” 

Netherlands-Based Schouten Launches Plant-Based Beef and Chicken

Despite the fact that the Netherlands is smaller than the US state of West Virgina, there are 60 companies and research centers focused specifically on plant-based proteins throughout the country. And one of the first plant-based companies in the Netherlands, Schouten, announced this week the launch of two new high-protein plant-based chicken and beef products.

Schouten has been producing meat alternatives using plant-based ingredients since 1990. The company has a vast portfolio of plant-based meat alternatives, including sausages, schnitzels, burgers, mincemeat, strips, and nuggets. All of the products are suitable for vegetarians, and some are suitable for vegans.

The company’s new plant-based beef and chicken pieces are vegan and are low in both cholesterol and sodium. The chicken alternative contains 18.3 grams of protein per 100 grams and is made from a combination of wheat and pea protein. The beef alternative contains 22.7 grams of protein per 100 grams and is made from soy, wheat, and pea protein.

In addition to being a rich country for agriculture and food companies, the Netherlands is considered a leading country in the plant-based space. The demand for vegan alternatives has steadily increased over the past few years in the country, and in 2018, a government advisory board in the Netherlands recommended that citizens reduce meat intake to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

Another large player in the Netherlands’ plant-based space is Vivera, which produces more traditional cuts of plant-based like burgers and chicken tenders, but also boasts unique products like garlic kiev. SoFine Foods started making tofu in the Netherlands in the 1960’s, and now the company’s portfolio includes plant-based fish, cheese, and meat alternatives. All of Vegafit’s products are vegan, and the company produces nuggets, schnitzel, burgers, steak, and fish sticks.

Schouten’s new products will be available for retailers worldwide and companies in the food processing industry. The company does not offer its plant-based products direct to consumer, but works globally with retailers, brand manufactures, and fast food chains.

Welldone Aims to Reach Price Parity With Meat in Russia

A few years ago in Russia, vegans and flexitarians would have to buy plant-based products in specialty stores, but as of recently, plant-based alternatives have crept into mainstream retailers and restaurant chains. Moscow-based Welldone saw an opportunity to create high-quality plant-based products for the increasing amount of vegan and flexitarians in Russia, and the company recently raised its first undisclosed round of funding.

In a phone conversation last week Alexander Kiselev, the founder of Welldone, explained to me that the plant-based space in Russia is about five years behind compared to the U.S. There are a few players in the Russian plant-based space, and some products from larger plant-based companies in the U.S. and Europe are imported. However, these imported plant-based alternatives are expensive; Kiselev said that two Beyond Meat patties retail for around $18 USD in Russia. Kiselev saw an opportunity arising from the increasing demand from flexitarians and vegans in Russia and began developing his own plant-based meat alternatives.

Welldone uses an extrusion process to craft its alternative burger patties, cutlets, and minced meat. Each of the products is made from a combination of soy, coconut oil, and cellulose.

The company produces 15 tons of plant-based alternatives per month and aims to reach price parity with meat. The retail price of 200 grams of Welldone’s beef patties costs approximately $2.6 USD, while the same amount of beef costs around $2. To do reach price parity, the company will be expanding its production facility with the goal of producing 300 tons per month. The latest funding round will be used to support this.

Besides Welldone, there are few other notable players in the plant-based space in Russia. Greenwise uses soy, wheat, and textured vegetable protein to create plant-based jerky and fillets. Okraina is a meat producer that started a vegan line called Vega Food for alternative protein products, which includes plant-based mincemeat, dumplings, cutlets, and sausages. Not Meat is a brand of the Naro-Fominsk meat company, and its plant-based products include sausages, patties, and cheeses.

Although there currently is not much market research on the plant-based space in Russia, the fact that meat producers are now making plant-based products is evidence that this market is growing. Plant-based products are now more readily available in retailers and restaurants, and this signals that the demand for alternatives is there. Welldone’s products are available throughout grocers, retailers, and restaurants throughout Russia, including TGI Friday’s throughout the country.

Mapping a Path Forward for Farmers in an Alt-Protein Landscape

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Most working in the alt protein space are familiar with research showing that traditional animal agriculture is both bad for the planet and highly un-sustainable as the primary source of calories if we plan to feed 10 billion people on this planet by the year 2050.

Over the past decade, this realization — along with a growing consumer appetite for better tasting plant-forward food and huge leaps forward in food science and biotech — has resulted in massive interest on the part of investors in the alt-protein space.

In spite of the evidence, the entrenched incumbents in traditional agriculture have aggressively pushed back against the growing interest in alt-ag alternatives. For example, the Dairy Association and Cattlemen’s Associations have made significant efforts to counter the fairly substantial body of research that links animal agriculture to higher levels of greenhouse gases. They’ve also underwritten research to highlight consumer confusion about new meat alternatives, hired nutritionists to create counter-narratives about the health benefits of plant-based food, and fought against plant-based alternatives labeling their products as “meat” and “milk.”

This pushback is not a hard sell to the average small- and medium-sized farmer, who knows they will make less money if consumers eat less meat. Unless, of course, these farmers radically change the products they are selling.

Easier said than done. For most people, transitioning to a completely new career or starting a brand-new business is challenging, to say the least. For a farmer, transitioning away from animal agriculture is like doing both at the same time. Throw in other complicating factors, such as family legacies, property rights and whole lot more more considerations, and you see why most livestock farmers would rather just keep doing what they’re doing, which is to sell traditional meat.

The reality is, to get more livestock farmers to convert their legacy farms towards plant-based proteins or cellular agriculture, there’s a whole lot of work that needs to be done and resources to be committed, and even then many farmers will choose not to transition.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, and some organizations are already endeavoring to help farmers make the switch.

On the plant-based side, Refarm’d and Transfarmation are programs that support farmers converting their existing livestock farms into plant-based products. Refarm’d provides resources to help dairy farmers start growing ingredients for plant-based milks such as almond or oat milk. Transfarmation helps farmers shift to growing high-value crops like hemp, and by helping them apply for grants to support the transition.

There aren’t currently any such programs for cell-ag, in part because the market for cell-cultivated meat is so nascent and also because cellular agriculture is a much bigger departure from what is traditionally considered farming.

What would a cell-ag farmer’s life look like? One idea, as outlined by Future Meat‘s Chief Science Officer Yaakov Nahmias, would be a hybrid approach. Existing livestock farmers would invest in bioreactors and other cultivated meat production and produce both animal meat and meat made in bioreactors.

From there, hybrid farmers would be able to compare the amount of time and resources it takes to create each product. If the prognosticators around cellular agriculture are right, cell-cultured meat will become way more efficient from a resource input-to-calorie output perspective, which should mean — beyond the up front capital and retraining costs — cell-cultured meat production should be much cheaper. Add in how much faster it is to create animal cells using cellular agriculture, and the choice may be clear: cell-cultured meat production could be a much more sustainable and competitive business in the long term than traditional farming.

It’s clear converting to plant-based or cellular agriculture future (or both) on the part of farmers will take lots of convincing and lots of resources. Lots of resources usually means government involvement, in the form of new programs, direct subsidies or tax incentives.

While the US government supports animal agriculture with billions in direct subsidies each year, there’s little to no financial support given towards building a more sustainable farmer future. That’s a shame since American meat and dairy farmer will face increasing competition from overseas producers of plant-forward, fermented and cell-cultured food products. Nation-states like Singapore and Israel, which have significantly less farmland than the US, are already betting on future food innovation as a way to become much more, if not entirely, self-sufficient for food, and it won’t be long before other countries (many of them customers of U.S. animal agriculture) take their cues from these early pioneers.

While some of the Green New Deal type legislation-makers did talk of lower-carbon footprint farming as one of the primary goals, much of the focus was on crop farms and not livestock farmers. This is partially due to the massive political influence the cattle and dairy farmer lobbies have in U.S. politics, but also because creating models for lower-carbon outputs for crops is a big enough lift in itself.

While it’s not clear what the Biden administration is thinking around cell-cultured meat production, the Biden campaign made clear ramping up the bio-manufacturing industry was one of their strategic priorities, and specifically made it part of their rural support plan outlined during the campaign.

While cultivated meat-based infrastructure investment might not be the first priority in the coming infrastructure or farm bills in the next couple years, that doesn’t mean Biden and congress can’t push for programs to begin underwrite these future transitions and to also look for creative solutions that could underpin the future of farming. Last year, the UK government announced a program aimed at investing in completely new technologies and business models around agriculture. This type of program is just one potential model for the US government as a way to begin laying the foundation for a way for livestock farmers to prepare for a post animal agriculture future.

Future Food News Round-Up

Apeel Unites Avocado Suppliers Through an Expanded Network Fighting Food Waste – Apeel Sciences announced today that more than 20 leading suppliers from the global avocado industry have joined its network in an effort to keep more food out of landfills.

MeliBio Raises a Sweet $850,000 Pre-Seed Round for Bee-Less Honey – MeliBio, a startup that makes real honey without the need for bees, announced today that it has raised an $850,000 pre-seed round of funding.

TurtleTree Scientific Partners With JSBiosciences to Develop Cell Culture Media at Commercial Scale – TurtleTree Scientific, the B2B arm of cellular ag company TurtleTree Labs, announced a new partnership with JSBiosciences to collaborate on the development of cell culture media.

Nemi Makes Sustainable Snacks From Drought-Tolerant Cactus – Chicago-based company called Nemi is using cactus as its star ingredient to make sustainable snack foods

New Wave Foods Debuts Plant-Based Shrimp in US Foodservice Companies

Tyson-backed New Wave Foods announced today that it is launching its plant-based shrimp alternative in foodservice companies and restaurants throughout the U.S. The company signed a non-exclusive agreement with the largest foodservice redistributor in the U.S., Dot Foods, to make its product commercially available.

New Wave Shrimp is made from a combination of mung bean, seaweed, and other plant-based ingredients. The plant-based shrimp can be used just like regular shrimp – it can be grilled, baked, sautéed, fried, and seared. Besides being vegan, gluten-free, and non-GMO, the shrimp alternative is also suitable for those who have a shellfish allergy.

Shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the U.S., and the population of wild shrimp continues to decline due to environmental pollution and overfishing. Additionally, shrimp fishing produces a lot of bycatch, which can reduce the population of wild fish and turtles. Farmed shrimp is an alternative to wild-caught shrimp, however, it can contain high amounts of unwanted antibiotics, be farmed by slave labor, and emit a high amount of carbon dioxide.

Other companies besides New Wave Foods are focused on providing a sustainable and plant-based option to wild and farmed shrimp. The Plant Based Seafood Co. has three varieties of plant-based shrimp, coconut-crusted, breaded, and regular, made from a base of konjac powder. Sophie’s Kitchen produces a variety of plant-based seafood products and its shrimp alternative is made from rice flakes, potato-starch, and konjac.

New Wave Shrimp is the first product from the company, and we may start seeing the product on restaurant menus by mid-2021. In 2022, New Wave Foods plans on expanding its product line to include lobster, scallops, and crabs.

The LIVEKINDLY Collective Closes $335M Funding Round

Plant-based food company LIVEKINDLY Collective announced this week it has closed a $335 million funding round led by global impact investing platform The Rise Fund. Existing investor Rabo Corporate Investments as well as S2G Ventures participated in the round, which brings LIVEKINDLY’s total funding to date to $535 million.

That’s a substantial amount of funds raised for a company that’s barely one year old. LIVEKINDLY was formed in March 2020 when Foods United bought vegan-focused media company LIVEKINDLY and rebranded under its current namesake. Currently, the company is comprised of a few different brands: Oumph!, The Fry Family Food Co., LikeMeat, and No Meat. All of these brands share a common goal of getting more plant-based products to the masses around the world. 

To that end, LIVEKINDLY says it will go towards new acquisitions, partnerships, and investments, as well as expanding geographically in the U.S. and China. 

LIVEKINDLY’s funding comes on the heels of a report from the Good Food Institute that found $3.1 billion was invested into the alternative protein sector in 2020 — three times more than the amount invested in 2019. Plant-based protein took the bulk of the money, with $2.1 billion invested into the space. 

Of course, much talk these days is on the promise of cultured meat, but it will be years before products reach consumers en masse, as companies are still focused on bringing costs down and getting regulatory approvals.

In the meantime, as the numbers above suggest, there is plenty of demand for plant-based protein, including meat analogues from LIVEKINDLY’s growing roster of brands. 

The company raised $135 million in October of 2020 to expand into the U.S. That sum is part of this $335 million funding round.

Nourish Ingredients Raises $11M for Fermented Plant-Based Fats

Australian startup Nourish Ingredients, which makes plant-based fats, announced today that it has raised $11 million (USD) in initial funding. The round was led by Horizon Ventures and Main Sequence Ventures (a venture firm founded by Australia’s national science agency).

Nourish Ingredients has developed a proprietary yeast fermentation process that recreates the molecular structure of animal fats without using animal products. Additionally, Nourish’s process does not use existing materials such as coconut or palm oils, the harvesting of which is controversial because of the resultant deforestation and unethical labor practices.

In addition to being potentially more environmentally friendly, Nourish says that it’s fermentation process allows it to create flavor profiles and mouthfeel that more accurately mimic animal proteins such as seafood, pork, beef and chicken products.

Fermentation has been called “the next pillar of alternative proteins,” alongside cultured meat and plant-based proteins. We’ve already seen fermentation tech being applied in variety of ways including bee-free honey, animal-free cheese, and sausage patties.

At the same time, we’ve also seen a number of startups creating ingredients that help enhance non-animal proteins. Hoxton Farms is cultivating animal-free fats, and Swedish researchers are using electricity and carbon dioxide to turn air into fats.

According to a recent report from Boston Consulting Group and Blue Horizon Corporation, the market for alternative proteins is projected to hit $290 billion by 2030, but that ambitious figure comes with some caveats. First, alternative proteins much reach price parity with traditional animal meats, and there are a number of startups tackling that issue. Equally as important, however, is that alternative proteins must reach taste and texture parity with animal meat as well. If Nourish Ingredients’ technology works as promised, it will help alternative protein companies do just that.

SuperBrewed Foods Uses Fermented Microbes to Create High-Protein Plant-Based Alternatives

The Good Food Institute called fermentation the “third pillar” for alternative proteins, and $435 million was invested in fermentation companies in the first seven months of 2020. Fermentation itself is not a new technology and has been used since B.C. times to produce beloved products like beer, cheese, sauerkraut, and yogurt. This process can be used to modify the flavor and texture of plant-based ingredients to make them behave more like animal-based ingredients. An emerging start-up in the fermentation and alternative protein space is SuperBrewed Food, which ferments microbes to create a vegan protein powder that can be used as a key ingredient in plant-based cheese spreads, milk, and yogurt.

Bryan Tracey, the CEO and Founder of SuperBrewed Foods, was focused on how a gorilla is an herbivore, but could somehow bulk up to have such a large body mass on diet consisting of only plants. The answer was found in its gut-lining; a certain microbe in herbaceous animals allows them to thrive on a plant-based diet. “We went searching into the microbiomes of many different animals and found what we like to call the protein specialists, which are helping you digest the food that you eat to deliver you the nutrition that you thrive off of,” Tracey told me by phone last week.

The original microbe discovered by SuperBrewed was extracted from the gut lining of an undisclosed herbivore animal, and then multiplied using plant-based sugars to feed the growth. SuperBrewed Food uses a low-cost anaerobic environment to grow its bacteria, which is the same process that beer breweries use. Once the bacteria is multiplied, it is washed, separated, and dried to create SuperBrewed Food’s protein powder.

The company is focused on appealing to both flexitarians and vegans, and one appeal to its protein is the B12 content. Vegans typically have to take B12 supplements, but a single teaspoon serving of the protein powder contains 25% of the daily recommended serving of B12.

SuperBrewed Food sent me some prototypes to try that showcased the applications of its microbe-based protein. I sampled three plant-based cheese spreads made by Superbrewed that used its protein, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fluffy texture and creaminess of the cheese spreads. Other vegan cheese spreads I’ve sampled are dense or gummy, but the SuperBrewed spreads had a texture similar to whipped cheese spreads I ate in my pre-vegan days.

In 2020, companies using fermentation to produce alternative protein products raised a total of $837 million in capital, so there are certainly more players emerging in this space. Perfect Day produces flora-based alternative dairy products by fermenting yeast. Nature’s Fynd applies fermentation to a microbe that was originally extracted from the geothermal pools of Yellowstone National Park, and recently unveiled its first product line that incorporates its proprietary Fy Protein. Change Foods uses a process called precision fermentation to create alternative dairy products and is currently developing mozzarella and cheddar.

To date, SuperBrewed has raised $45 million in capital from private investors. The company is about to open its first round of funding to outside investors and will use this to launch its first products in the market in early 2022. The first products brought to market will be plant-based cheese spreads, cream cheese, and hard cheese.