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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

alternative protein

Food & Ag-Tech Companies Make TIME’s Best 100 Inventions of 2021 List

Every year, TIME puts together a list of 100 inventions that change the way we live for the better. The publication judges contenders, who were nominated by TIME’s editors and correspondents, based on creativity, originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.

The list spans multiple categories, such as accessibility, artificial intelligence, consumer electronics, fitness, medical care, transportation, and of course, food and drink. This year the list featured a whole bunch of food tech, including many companies The Spoon has previously covered like SAVRPak, MeliBio, InnerPlant, and Upside Foods.

Here are just a few that made the list:

Kuleana

This San-Francisco-based food tech start-up has developed a “sushi-grade” plant-based tuna made from ingredients like algae, koji, radish, bamboo, and potato. Kuleana‘s tuna deep red color mimics ahi tuna, and it also contains nutrients like B-12, iron, and omega-3 fatty acids. Like regular tuna, alternative tuna filet can be eaten in poke bowls, sushi, and ceviche. The start-ups next planned product is plant-based salmon.

SAVRPak

The goal of SAVRPak is to eliminate food waste, and keep delivery food warm and not soggy. In October of this year, the company unveiled a prototype of its delivery packaging aimed at keeping food at 140o or above for more than 20 minutes. The start-up has also developed small packs that can be placed inside to-go food boxes that absorb moisture to keep food fresh and crisp.

Sfoglini Cascatelli

This invention is relatively low-tech, but as one of the three best inventions in the “food and drink” category, it’s worth a mention. Dan Pashman, foodie and the host of The Sporkful podcast, could not find a pasta shape that held the ideal amount of pasta sauce, stayed on the fork, and was satisfying to sink your teeth into. He, therefore, decided to invent, the Cascatelli pasta, which is a short, ruffled noodle that has a half tube shape. The pasta is manufactured by pasta company Sfoglini, and it costs $19.96 for 4 lbs.

MeliBio

Using synthetic biology and precision fermentation, MeliBio has developed plant-based honey that has the same taste, texture, and mouthfeel as honey made from bees. Earlier this year in March, the start-up raised a pre-seed round totaling $850,000. To hear more about the company, watch The Spoon’s interview with the founder Darko Mandich.

Upside Foods

Upside Foods announced in May of this year that its first product will be cultured chicken, which is still pending regulatory approval. Since then, the start-up unveiled its state-of-the-art facilities (totaling 53,000 square feet) in Emeryville, California where it will be capable of producing up to 50,000 pounds of cultivated chicken every year. Check out a glimpse inside the new facilities here.

InnerPlant Innersoy Living Sensor

InnerPlant edits the DNA of plants to enable them to glow a certain color when the plant is stressed from lack of water or under attack from pests or fungal infection. The start-up has so far worked with tomato and Arabidopsis plants, and InnerSoy is the plant it is currently working on commercializing. InnerPlant recently gave The Spoon an exclusive viewing of its glowing living sensor plants, and you can watch the video here.

Alt Protein Round-up: Funding for Cell-Based Milk, A Glimpse Inside UPSIDE’s Factory

According to Forbes, 4.5 million plant-based turkeys will be consumed this year on Thanksgiving in the U.S. That sounds like a lot of alternative roasts and Tofurkey’s gracing holiday gatherings, but compared to the number of regular turkeys that will be consumed (46 million) it’s not much. Maybe next year, we’ll have the option to serve cell-based turkey to our guests?

In this edition of the alternative protein round-up, we’ve gathered together the most interesting stories from the past week in the plant-based, cell-cultured and even bug protein worlds, including TurtleTree’s funding, locusts in the EU, Beyond Meat’s sales, an inside look at UPSIDE’s fancy new facility, the animal-free egg ClearEgg, and cell-based pet food.

Turtle Tree raises $30 million in Series A round

TurtleTree, a Singapore-based biotech company, announced recently that it has raised $30 million in a Series A round of funding, with VERSO Capital as the lead investor in this round. This brings TurtleTree’s total funding to $40 million. In September of this year, TurtleTree opened a 24,000 square foot R&D facility in Sacramento, California, where it is expanding upon its precision fermentation technologies. The start-up is developing cell-based milk as an alternative to infant formulas, as well as a compound found in human milk called lactoferrin. The funding will be used to continue this R&D as well as bring on new hires.

Photo by Rick van Houten on Unsplash

Locusts are approved as a sustainable food by European Union

Insects have long been recognized as a sustainable protein source due to their low carbon footprint, and very minimal water and land use. Although many cultures around the world already frequently include insects within their diets, this is not often the case in developed first-world countries. However, this week, the European Union approved the migratory locust as food for humans. This action is a push for bringing awareness to more sustainable foods, especially alternative protein sources. The EU said that locusts, which are high in fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals, would be considered snacks foods or food ingredients,

Are Beyond Meat’s Flagging Sales a Sign Big Cattle’s Negative Messaging is Working?

This week, Beyond Meat had some lousy news for Wall Street: US sales were down 13.9% year over year. According to the company, the culprit for the sales drop was a softening in their grocery and foodservice markets. For some, a sales drop for a high-flying alt-meat pioneer like Beyond might come as a shock. Like Impossible Meat and others in the fast-growing plant-based meat industry, the company has had mostly good news over the past few years, watching as revenue heads up and to the right on the back of new sales channels, geography expansion, and growing consumer demand. So what’s going on here? Why is an alt-meat bellwether like Beyond suddenly seeing its sales drop? Read the full article here.

What Does a Cultivated Meat Plant Look Like? Take a Video Tour of UPSIDE Foods’ New Production Facility to Find Out

At this time, Singapore has been the only country to offer regulatory approval for the commercial sale of cultivated meat, and Qatar is expected to be next to do so. Despite this, several companies in the cultured meat space have opened up state-of-the-art facilities to develop their alternative meat products in anticipation of receiving regulatory approval sooner than later. One of these companies is UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats). Last week, UPSIDE Foods hosted a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of its 53,000 square foot Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC for short). The center will be used for the production of cultivated meat and the development of new types of meat and product formats. Read the full article and watch the video here.

Animal-Free ClearEgg Debuts in Protein Smoothie

Last month, The Every Company rebranded from Clara Foods and announced the launch of its animal-free egg protein product. Now, the company’s egg protein, called ClearEgg is being used as an ingredient in a limited-time Pressed smoothie.The smoothie is called “Pineapple Green Protein”, and the added ClearEgg boosts the protein content up to 10 grams. Other ingredients include apple, pineapple, banana, spinach, and avocado. Read the full article here.

Bond Pet Food Teams Up With Hill’s To Make Meat Protein for Pets Using Precision Fermentation

Bond Pet Food, an alternative protein company for pet food, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a biology-based pet food company, announced this week that they have partnered to develop an alternative meat protein for pet food using precision fermentation. Precision fermentation makes animal-identical proteins without slaughtering/harming animals. Bond sourced a small blood sample from a heritage hen, and this sample was used to extract the genetic code of chicken protein. Read the full article here.

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Bond Pet Food Teams Up With Hill’s To Make Meat Protein for Pets Using Precision Fermentation

Bond Pet Food, an alternative protein company for pet food, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a biology-based pet food company, announced this week that they have partnered to develop an alternative meat protein for pet food using precision fermentation.

Precision fermentation makes animal-identical proteins without slaughtering/harming animals. Bond sourced a small blood sample from a heritage hen, and this sample was used to extract the genetic code of chicken protein. Then, the code is mixed with specialized yeasts, sugar, vitamins, and minerals and fermented in stainless steel vats to eventually produce meat proteins.

Bond Pet Food produces bio-identical chicken, beef, fish, and other meat proteins that have the same nutritional value as their animal counterparts. Last year, the company unveiled that it had developed a chicken protein prototype for pet food.

Through the partnership, the two companies will develop a pet food formula that acts as an alternative to Hill’s most popular meat proteins for both cats and dogs. The goal is to craft a product that is more sustainable than other pet foods, while simultaneously providing food that contains high-quality nutrition.

Pet food raises concerns due to its use of factory-farmed meat, deeming much of what is available on the market as unsustainable and unethical. On top of this, pet food can contain slaughterhouse byproducts, undisclosed animal species, cheap fillers, and even toxic ingredients that lead to recalls. We have plenty of plant-based and alternative meat options for humans, but not as many for Fido.

Other competitors in the alternative pet food space include Wild Earth and Because, Animals. In September of this year, Wild Earth announced that it would begin developing pet food developed with cell-based meat after raising $23 million in funding. Because, Animals is developing cell-cultured mice meat for cat food.

For Bond, the deal is a big win, as Hill’s appears to be the first large pet food brand intent on bringing a product with animal-identical protein to market using precision fermentation. As more deals like this one are inked, it’ll only be a matter of time before we see a significant number of new alt-protein pet food products from the large players in what is a $30 billion pet food market.

Animal-Free ClearEgg Debuts in Protein Smoothie

Last month, The Every Company rebranded from Clara Foods and announced the launch of its animal-free egg protein product. Now, the company’s egg protein, called ClearEgg is being used as an ingredient in a limited-time Pressed smoothie.

The smoothie is called “Pineapple Green Protein”, and the added ClearEgg boosts the protein content up to 10 grams. Other ingredients include apple, pineapple, banana, spinach, and avocado.

While it might sound gross to have egg protein added to a smoothie, The Every Company’s egg protein product is actually completely tasteless and odorless. The company intended for its protein to be added to both cold and hot beverages, like juices, energy drinks, and protein shakes, as well as snacks like protein bars.

ClearEgg is created through precision fermentation, where yeast or other microorganisms are fermented and converted to create protein identical to those found in animals and their byproducts. Because the protein is identical, those who have egg allergies should avoid consuming ClearEgg.

The Every Company has been working on developing an animal-free egg since 2014, and is one of the early pioneers of the precision fermentation space. While lots of companies are developing plant-based egg alternatives – Float Foods, SavorEat, and Migros to name a few – The Every Company is the only one we’re aware of using precision fermentation for their alt-egg.

For now, the ClearEgg protein smoothie, which costs $7.95 will be offered at Pressed locations in Los Angeles and New York. Starting in 2022, the juice company will begin to carry the item at more locations

What Does a Cultivated Meat Plant Look Like? Take a Video Tour of UPSIDE Foods’ New Production Facility to Find Out

According to the Good Food Institute, there are approximately 70+ companies working on cultivated meat services, inputs, and end products. At this time, Singapore has been the only country to offer regulatory approval for the commercial sale of cultivated meat, and Qatar is expected to be next to do so. Despite this, several companies in the cultured meat space have opened up state-of-the-art facilities to develop their alternative meat products in anticipation of receiving regulatory approval sooner than later.

One of these companies is UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats). Last week, UPSIDE Foods hosted a ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of its 53,000 square foot Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC for short). The center will be used for the production of cultivated meat and the development of new types of meat and product formats.

It’s easy enough to find Youtube videos about how plant-based meat or real hamburger is made, but because the cultivated meat industry is so nascent, behind-the-scenes looks at this industry have been harder to come by. Until now. UPSIDE Foods shared a video tour of the inside of its EPIC facility. Take a look:

UPSIDE Foods Grand Opening

The front of the facility hosts a kitchen for hosting tastings of cultivated meat. There are areas dedicated to the milling and mixing of cell feed, as well as areas for packaging and testing products. Products will be tested for safety and quality in EPIC’s quality assurance facilities. UPSIDE has also provided an office for federal inspectors to oversee every process, which is required in all meat and poultry processing facilities in the U.S

UPSIDE’s innovation center will employ about 50 people throughout different departments, including maintenance, production, quality & food safety, engineering, and plant management.

Less than half, or only about 40 percent, of Americans are willing to try cultivated meat. Hopefully, allowing consumers to get a glance into cultivated meat facilities might help them warm up to the idea of this alternative protein.

Want to see a cultivated meat facility in action for yourself? UPSIDE will begin offering in-person tours at its Emeryville, California facilities in January 2022.

Yali Bio Comes Out of Stealth Mode to Discuss Future Synthetic Fat Products

While alternative protein products are generally considered more environmentally friendly than animal-based products, there are a few ingredients in this plant-based space that raise concerns. Tropical oils like coconut and palm oil, which are commonly used as the fat alternatives to animal-based products, have become notorious for being a cause of deforestation and habitat destruction in Asia.

San Francisco-based start-up Yali Bio aims to address the environmental concerns of both animal products and tropical oils by producing a synthetic, plant-based fat product. Apart of the Illumina Accelerator program (which runs from September 2021-March 2022), Yali Bio combines synthetic biology and genomics to develop its products.

This week, I spoke to Yulin Lu, one of the co-founders of Yali Bio, who said, “We think plant-based meat and dairy will just never be great without tailored fats.” What Lu means by this is that companies too often rely on generic fats like coconut, palm, or canola to craft alternative dairy, cheese, and meat products, when in reality, all of these products need fats tailored for each purpose to be great.

So what is Yali Bio’s secret ingredient for its synthetic fat? Yeast. This ingredient is fed sugar in bioreactors, where a lipid biosynthesis mechanism occurs within the cells. Yali Bio is an early-stage company, so it is unable to disclose more information about its technology and process.

Lu has previously worked for big players in the alternative protein space, like Eat Just and Impossible. One thing he realized with Impossible and Beyond’s meat analogs is that as soon as you cook them, the fat (which is mostly coconut oil) seeps out of the product and into the pan. When you bite into one of these burgers, you’ll still get some of the fat, but a lot has already melted out, resulting in a drier product.

A few other companies are focused on making better and more tailored fats in the alternative protein space. In September, MeaTech 3D announced that it has filed a provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its new stem cell manipulation technology used to create fat cells. Melt&Marble, previously known as Biopetrolia, announced in August that it has raised $$876,000 USD to continue to develop its fermentation-based fats for plant-based foods. Earlier this year, Mosa Meat unveiled that it was able to reduce the cost of developing its fat media by 66 times.

Many of these companies making alternative fats are going the cultivated cell route, which means they will have to go through the regulatory approval process. Yali Bio is using plant-based ingredients, therefore eliminating the need for government regulatory approval. This means we may be seeing Yali Bio’s synthetic fats in alternative protein products before companies like MeaTeach and Mosa Meat.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Smoked Salmon, Funding Rounds, and Brave Robot’s Cake Mix

Alternative protein news has been dropping in faster than fall leaves, and so we’ve gathered some of this week’s top stories, including Revo Foods’ product launch, Aquacultured and Daring Foods’ funding rounds, and Brave Robot’s new cake mix.

Revo Foods launches plant-based salmon in Austrian grocery stores

This week, plant-based seafood startup Revo Foods launched its alternative salmon product in the Austrian supermarket chain Billa Plus. The product now available on retailer shelves is Revo’s plant-based smoked salmon, made from a base of pea protein and algae oil. Additionally, Revo Foods recently appeared on the Austrian show “2 Minuten 2 Millionen” (similar to Shark Tank), where the company garnered interest from potential investors. In 2022, the company has plans to launch plant-based tuna, smoked salmon spread, and sashimi products.

Aquacultured raises $2.1 million in oversubscribed seed round

Alt-seafood startup Aqua Cultured has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding. Unlike many other alt-seafood startups using a straight plant-based or cell-cultured approach, Aqua Cultured uses microbial fermentation techniques to create whole-muscle cut seafood alternatives. The company has developed formulas for tuna, whitefish, squid, and shrimp that leverage its novel fungi as the primary ingredient. Investors include Supply Change Capital, Aera VC, Sustainable Food Ventures, Hanfield Venture Partners, Lifely VC, Conscience VC, Kingfisher Capital, Big Idea Ventures. $2.1 million, a nice pre-seed raise, is even more impressive considering the company only started last month.

Brave Robot releases cake mix

Brave Robot, the first consumer products spinout of precision fermentation platform company Perfect Day, unveiled a new product this week, the “Climate Hero Super Cake.” The yellow cake mix uses the same animal-free milk protein found in the company’s ice cream and replaces the equivalent of three eggs. The mix – which is packaged in a compostable bag – contains other standard ingredients like wheat flour and sugar and requires added oil and water to prepare. One bag of the mix makes two 8-inch round cakes and costs $18.

Daring raises $65 million, launches in Walmart

Daring Foods, a plant-based chicken brand, announced this week that it has closed a Series C round totaling $65 million, and that it will launch its products in Walmart. The round was led by Founders Fund, with D1 Capital Group, and celebrities such as Naomi Osaka, Cameron Newton, Steve Aoki and Chase Coleman participating. This brings the company’s total funding to $120 million. Daring’s plant-based chicken will be available in 3,000 Walmart locations nationwide.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Hybrid Chorizo Sausages and Impossible’s Burger Stand

Government programs around the globe are increasingly getting more involved in the alternative protein space. This month, the Danish government allocated 1.25 billion kroner (~$194 million USD) for research into plant-based proteins. A few weeks ago, the USDA awarded Tufts University $10 million to establish “a cultivated protein center of excellence”. Most recently, a European agency called REACT-EU set aside $2 million in funding to help decrease the costs of producing cultivated meat (see below).

In this Alt. Protein Round-up, we also have news pieces on Mission Barns’ product unveil, Black Sheep Foods plant-based lamb, Impossible Meat’s burger stand, and ADM’s investment into precision fermentation.

Mission Barns and Silva Sausages unveil first product

Cultivated fat producer Mission Barns and sausage manufacturer Silva Sausages unveiled their first product produced in partnership: chorizo sausages. The sausages are a hybrid product, made with undisclosed plant proteins and Mission Barn’s proprietary cultivated fat. This is the first production run of the product, and this trial exemplified that the companies have the capabilities to produce the sausages on a large scale. In the multi-year partnership, Mission Barns will use Silva’s facilities (which can produce up to 50,000 lbs of sausage per day) and distribution network. There is no date set for an official launch of the hybrid chorizo sausages

European REACT-EU grants $2 million for “Feed for Meat” project

The “Feed for Meat” project was started by Nutreco and Mosa Meat, and it aims to lower the cost of producing cultivated meat. The European REACT-EU recovery assistance program just awarded the project $2 million to support efforts in commercializing cultivated eat throughout Europe. This funding will specifically be used for R&D efforts for reducing the costs of cultured cell media. This component is typically the most expensive part of cultured meat; however, Mosa Meat has shared that it has successfully reduced the cost of one of the growth nutrients by 98 percent.

Black Sheep Foods Launches Plant-Based Lamb in San Francisco Restaurants

This week, alternative protein startup Black Sheep Foods’ plant-based lamb made its debut in San Francisco restaurants. The launch is a big step for the Black Sheep team, which wants to offer more variety to plant-based meat eaters. “Our first product is lamb because it’s both alien and familiar in America,” company co-founder Sunny Kumar told The Spoon this week over Zoom. “Everyone knows about lamb, but no one really eats it at a high cadence.” Read the full article here.

ADM Invests in Acies Bio to expand precision fermentation capabilities

Global nutrition and agriculture company, ADM, invested in the Slovenian biotechnology company, Acies Bio through its venture capital arm ADM Ventures. One of Acies Bio’s specialties is precision fermentation technology for food and agricultural applications, and this technology will be used to assist ADM accelerate its own precision fermentation projects. Making use of Acies Bio’s microbial capabilities and contract manufacturing services, ADM aims to meet the growing demand for products developed through microbial fermentation.

Impossible Foods Opens a Burger Stand in Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena

This week Impossible and Climate Pledge Arena, the world’s first net zero-carbon sports arena, announced that the Impossible patty had been named the venue’s official burger. They also announced Impossible is opening two branded food stands in the home of the NHL’s newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken. Read the full article here.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Kingdom Supercultures Raises $25M, The EVERY Company Launches Animal-Free Eggs,

Plant-based foods and alternative protein products are often associated with a reduced carbon footprint. This week, the government of Denmark hopped on board with this ideology: the government will invest 1.25 billion kroner (~$194 million USD) into plant-based foods as part of a climate agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For this week’s alternative protein round-up, we gathered up some of the top news of the week from around the alt-protein world, including Clara Foods’ rebrand and the launch of The EVERY Company, Kingdom Supercultures’ Series A round, Burger King’s new menu item, and Revo’s plan for a 3D printer factory.

Clara Foods Becomes The EVERY Company, Launches Animal-Free Egg Protein

Clara Foods, one of the early pioneers building nature-equivalent proteins using precision fermentation technology, announced this week it is rebranding to the EVERY Company and is launching its first animal-free egg product called ClearEgg, an egg protein product targeted at the protein beverage market. Read full article here.

Kingdom Supercultures raises $25 million

New York-based Kingdom Supercultures announced this week that it has raised $25 million in a Series A round to fund the development of microbial cultures. The company is developing what it calls “Supercultures”, which are microbial-based ingredients to improve the texture, flavor, and functionality of plant-based products and consumer packaged goods. The new capital will be used to expand its ingredient portfolio and R&D facilities in Brooklyn, New York.

Burger King will soon serve up Impossible nuggets

Burger King made headlines when it first began serving the Impossible Whopper two years ago. This week, the fast casual restaurant chain announced it will begin trialing Impossible nuggets in three U.S. cities on October 11:  Des Moines, Boston, and Miami. The nuggets are made from a base of wheat flour and soy protein, and will be served in a pack of eight. Burger King is the first fast food chain to offer Impossible’s newest product, and the nuggets will be available for a limited amount of time.

Revo Foods shares plans for 3D-printed factory

Austrian startup Revo Foods produces plant-based fish products, and some of its prototypes are created with a 3D printer. The company is in the process of developing a plan to boost its production capacity and scale its 3D printing technology. The company’s idea is to have a production-scale facility wit interconnected 3D printers stacked on one another. This week, The Spoon spoke with te CSO of Revo Foods, Theresa Rothenbücher to hear more. Read the full article here.

Sausage Made from Jackfruit? It’s Delicious

Hailing from Asia, jackfruit is the largest tree fruit globally and is often likened to the flavor of Juicy Fruit gum. This massive spiky fruit seems like an unlikely fit as an ingredient in the plant-based space, but unripe jackfruit has a neutral flavor and a texture similar to shredded pork or chicken.

One company that makes plant-based meat alternatives using jackfruit is Boulder, Colorado-based Jack & Annie’s. Jackfruit serves as the main ingredient for its extensive portfolio of plant-based alternatives, ranging from meatballs to shredded pork.

Jack & Annie recently sent me samples of its plant-based maple breakfast sausages, savory breakfast sausages, and chicken nuggets to taste test.

I first tried the maple breakfast sausage and savory breakfast sausage, both of which are made from a base of jackfruit, water, soy flour, and canola oil. Using my cast iron pan, I cooked both types of sausages in a small amount of oil for about 8 minutes.

Photo of the jackfruit-based chicken nugget (left), savory sausage breakfast patty (right), and maple breakfast sausage link (top)

So how’d they taste? Both alternative sausages were the right amount of oily, and had a great, chewy texture like a animal-based breakfast sausage. The level of seasoning in each sausage was phenomenal, and my entire (small) house smelled liked maple syrup after cooking.

The chicken nuggets, made from a base of jackfruit, water, wheat flour, and soy flour, were next. I cooked them in my air fryer for about 8 minutes and plated them.

The verdict? Like the sausages, the texture was spot on. However, I felt like the nuggets lacked seasoning (at least compared to the sausages) and the breading was a bit thin. There are a lot of plant-based chicken nuggets on the market now, so it’s challenging to say which is the best (I personally really like Nowaday’s nuggets).

Pea protein, soy, fungi, and wheat are some of the most commonly used ingredients used to create plant-based meat alternatives. These ingredients are lauded for their affordability, high protein content, and ability to mimic the texture of different animal proteins. Although jackfruit is affordable and has a great natural texture, one downside to it is that it’s protein content is not as high as other ingredients. However, it does offer potassium and vitamin B.

A few other companies in the plant-based space besides Jack & Annie’s are using jackfruit as a base ingredient. Last year, Singapore-based Karana raised $1.7 million to develop plant-based pork made from the fruit. Upton’s Naturals offers a few different flavors of seasoned, ready-to-cook shredded jackfruit, and The Very Good Butchers produce a taco stuffing.

Overall, I found Jack & Annie’s products to be great alternatives. The company’s products range from $4.99-$6.50, and can be found in stores like Sprouts. Target, Wegmans, and Meijer.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Tofurky’s Algae-Based Products and Animal-Free Chicken Fat

In this week’s alternative protein round-up, we have news on MeaTech’s cell-based chicken fat, Impossible Pork, the ProVeg Incubator, Tofurky’s partnership with Triton Algae, and Unicorn Biotechnologies.

MeaTech is now producing animal-free chicken fat

In the race to produce real animal fat outside of the animal, Israel-based MeaTech has hit a milestone: The start-up shared that it is now capable of producing over 700 grams of cell-based chicken fat in a single production run. MeaTech acquired Belgium start-up Peace of Meat last year, and is using its platform to produce the cell-based fat. The fat product can be used to create realistic marbling in cell-based meat or even used to create a plant-based hybrid product.

Impossible Foods is bringing its alt. pork product to foodservice

Impossible Pork will soon be found in foodservice locations in the U.S., Singapore, and Hong Kong. As of this week, David Chang’s New York restaurant Momofuku Ssam Bar began serving the alternative pork product in one of its dishes. Impossible Pork is set to launch in 100 plus restaurants in Hong Kong starting October 4th, and in Singapore sometime before the end of this year.

Proveg Incubator announces eight new start-ups in cohort

Berlin-based ProVeg Incubator just kicked off its latest accelerator program on September 20. Through the incubator, the start-ups have access to one-on-one mentoring, ProVeg’s network, and up to €250,000 in funding. This food-tech focused cohort contains eight start-ups from around the world, including:

  • Altein Ingredients (India) – mung bean protein
  • Alt Foods (India) – Plant-based milk made from grains and sprouted millet
  • Brain Foods (Bulgaria) – Plant-based snacks
  • Cultivated Biosciences (Netherlands) – uses fermentation to make a fat ingredient from yeast
  • Genesea (Israel) – B2B food-ingredient company that uses macroalgae
  • Meat Future (Estonia) – mycoprotein chicken and fish
  • Plant-based Japan (Japan)
  • ProProtein (Estonia) – uses precision fermentation to create dairy proteins

Tofurky partners with Triton Algae for future alt protein products

Plant-based meat brand Tofurky announced that it has partnered with algae producer Triton Algae Innovations to develop a new line of plant-based alternatives. The products will be crafted using Triton’s “essential red” algae, which contains protein, iron, vitamin A, and more. The algae, which is normally green, is grown with UV light which causes it to turn red and produce heme. It was not disclosed what exactly the new product will be, but it is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

Unicorn Biotechnologies Is Making Purpose-Built Bioreactors for Cell-Based Meat Production

According to Jack Reid, the CEO a new Cambridge-based startup called Unicorn Biotechnologies, companies trying to make meat without the animal today are mostly using large metal vats built for making something other than meat. “Existing bioreactor systems haven’t been and weren’t developed specifically for the cell ag industry,” said Reid. Read The Spoon’s story about how Unicorn is working to build purpose-built bioreactors for cell-based meat here.

Alfred’s FoodTech Joins Growing Field of Companies Vying to Create Whole Cut Meat Alternatives

Until recently, most plant-based meat products have come in ground or minced form, such as crumbles or patties. But lately, there has been a drive to create “whole cut” meat analogs that can mimic the tissue and muscle structure of animal proteins like a steak or chicken breast.

One of the latest entrants to the whole cut race is Israel-based Alfred’s FoodTech. Formed earlier this year, the company recently unveiled its platform to make plant-based whole cut alternatives, which it claims will “be able to build continuous tissue-like structures and can work with other existing technologies.”

In its announcement, Alfred’s said it had created prototypes of alternative chicken nuggets and deli meat. Two of the main ingredients in the products are pea protein and canola oil, and the company intends to stick with simple ingredients like these while creating products with whole cut texturization.

Alfred’s plans to be a supplier for food companies, meat producers, and cultured meat companies looking to add alternative protein analogs to their portfolios. The company claims it will be able to create custom compositions and can even work with cell-based ingredients.

Alfred’s FoodTech joins a market that is filling up fast with companies looking to create whole-cut products. Better Meat Co, Green Rebel, and Meati have developed whole cut steaks made from mushrooms or mycelium. Earlier this year, AtLast Food Co raised $40 million to create whole cut meat alternative analogs. Others, like Redefine Meat and Novameat, are developing technologies for 3D printing whole-cut plant-based steaks.

To date, Alfred’s FoodTech has raised $1.3 million in seed funding, and the company is currently raising a Series A round. The company was selected as one of the 12 finalists for The Good Food Institute’s annual conference and will present its tech in the pitch slam on September 23, 2021. The company has plans to open a low-volume production site to scale its production.

Update: The article previously referred to the company as “Alfred FoodTech”. The company is called Alfred’s FoodTech, and the article has been updated to reflect this.