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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

alternative protein

Givaudan and Bühler Open “Protein Innovation Centre” in Singapore

Flavor/fragrance company Givaudan and food processing company Bühler, announced this week they have opened the doors on their APAC Protein Innovation Centre at the existing Givaudan Woodlands site in Singapore. The facility will serve as a place to develop plant-based protein tailored to Asian consumers tastes and preferences. 

The goal is to bring together food processing companies, startups and researchers to develop more and better ways to produce alternative proteins. The Centre includes Bühle’s extrusion and processing equipment and a kitchen and flavor laboratory by Givaudan. The two Switzerland-based companies said that initially the facility will be able to produce 40 kilograms of plant proteins per hour.

The space includes a wet and dry extruder, a product development kitchen, storage facilities, and a viewing area where visitors to the Centre can watch live demonstrations. 

Givaudan and food processing company Bühler first announced the Centre back in February of 2020. Much has happened since then, and I’m not just talking about the pandemic. Over the last year or so, alternative protein companies from around world have flocked to Singapore to establish various innovation and R&D centers. That list now includes Perfect Day, Oatly, ADM, Avant Meats, and Eat Just. 

Singapore is currently trying to make more of its food production local. Currently, about 90 percent of the city-state’s food is imported. The government has set up the 30×30 initiative, which aims to produce 30 percent of Singapore’s food locally by 2030. These factors make Singapore an especially innovation-friendly environment when it comes to the development and regulation of alternative proteins.  

Givaudan and Bühler’s new facility will specifically focus on helping companies from the APAC region develop and scale their alternative protein solutions.

Something Better Foods Receives $500K Investment from ICA

Oakland, California-based Something Better Foods, a producer of various plant-based meat and seafood alternatives, raised $500,000 this week through ICA, a nonprofit venture capital fund. Something Better Foods aims to make plant-based foods more accessible to people of color, and ICA’s goal is to “…accelerate great businesses through mentoring and investments to close the racial and gender wealth gaps.”

Better Chew is Something Better Food’s brand, and its product line includes plant-based chicken patties, meatballs, fried chicken, steak, fried fish, chicken nuggets, breakfast sausage patties, and chicken patties. The company uses an undisclosed proprietary process to replicate the taste, texture, and look of meat. Better Food is focused on distributing its products through direct-to-consumer channels and foodservice outlets. One thing that sets Something Better Foods apart from other plant-based meat companies is that it has chosen to incorporate both equity and representation into its business model.

Healthy food and veganism movements often leave out marginalized communities, and this is a huge issue that both Something Better Foods and ICA are trying to offer solutions to. Low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. often only have immediate access to fast-food chains and convenience stores, and about 2.3 million people in the U.S. live in a food desert. Even if someone living in one of these communities wanted to eat healthy, fresh foods or try a plant-based diet, it would be incredibly challenging to access these foods.

This initial round of funding will be used to expand Something Better Foods’ operations and offer additional employment opportunities in the company’s local community. Something Better Foods’ is ICA’s most recent portfolio company and the venture capital fund has so far placed $1.5 million in growth equity to Bay Area companies, focusing on companies founded by entrepreneurs of color and women.

Finally! Prime Roots’ New Koji Bacon is a Really Good Vegan Bacon

Whenever conversation arises around my decision to follow a plant-based diet, it is inevitable that someone will say, “I could never do that because of bacon.” The salty, crispy, aromatic cuts of meat have people hooked. I get it – bacon is a classic breakfast side, it appears on top of donuts and wrapped around dates, and provides the crunch in a BLT. It makes me wonder if a really good vegan bacon existed, would this be enough for more people to transition to a plant-based diet?

This week, I was lucky enough to try exactly that – really good vegan bacon from the company Prime Roots. To celebrate Earth Day, Prime Roots launched four new flavors of its plant-based bacon, black pepper, sriracha, maple, and hickory. Prior to today’s launch, Prime Roots has been selling its original bacon on its website and according to the founder, Kimberlie Le, the product frequently sells out.

The plant-based bacon alternative looked, smelled, and cooked just like its meat counterpart. Depending on your preference, the bacon can be made chewy or crispy depending on how long you cook it. I opted for crispy and fried the bacon in a cast iron pan for a little over 10 minutes. The bacon was umami-rich with the familiar hickory smoke flavor, and definitely delicious.

The star ingredient in all of Prime Root’s bacon and alternative protein products is koji, a filamentous fungus. Koji is important in Japanese cuisine because it is used in products like miso, sake, and soy sauce. The fungus is great for plant-based meat alternatives in that it grows rapidly, has a neutral flavor, and it can be easily molded into any shape.

Besides bacon, Prime Roots produces a myriad of other meat and seafood alternatives from koji. A few other products include plant-based lobster mac & cheese, sausage ravioli, and prepared meals like kung pao chicken. Le said that Prime Roots’ goal is to become the Nestle of plant-based foods.

Another start-up called AtLast also uses mycelium to craft its plant-based bacon product, and the company recently raised $40 million in funding. Meati uses mycelium to create plant-based steak, chicken, and jerky, and is planning for a rollout of its products this upcoming summer.

Like most of Prime Roots products, the four new bacon flavors will only be available for a limited amount of time. Until the products sell out, an 8 oz. package of bacon costs $9.99, plus $15 shipping on Prime Roots’ website.

ADM Launches Plant-Based Innovation Lab in Singapore

Global food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) announced at the tail-end of last week it had opened an innovation lab in Singapore dedicated to plant-based protein. The lab will help the company increase production of alternative proteins “to meet growing food and beverage demand in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The new facility is located ADM’s Biopolis research hub, which contains a number of different labs, including one for flavor analytics, a sensory evaluation center, labs for sweet, savory, and dairy foods, and a customer innovation center. The plant-based innovation lab will house experts working with texture, flavor, and other key areas of alt-protein development.

“The lab will help us capture key insight and learnings to help drive exciting new solutions for the Asian market, but also help us better serve customers around the world looking to incorporate Asian flavors and preferences into their latest plant-based food and beverage innovations,” Marie Wright, chief global flavorist and president, Creation, Design & Development for ADM, said in a statement. 

Singapore continues to be a key location in Asia for the development of alternative proteins. Just today, cultivated meat company Avant Meats announced its own R&D and pilot manufacturing facility in the city-state. Perfect Day announced its Singapore facility in December of 2020, and the city-state made history in December 2020 by granting the world’s first regulatory approval to a company, Eat Just, to sell cultured meat. There is also a growing number of local players, including plant-based meat maker Next Gen and cell-based seafood maker Shiok Meats.

Singapore is a natural spot for food innovation. Currently, it relies on exports for about 90 percent of its food. The government’s 30×30 initiative is attempting to change this by aiming to make 30 percent of food production local by 2030. 

At the same time, Asia is one of the key regions for the growth of alternative proteins. A recent report from DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences found that demand for plant-based protein in the Asia-Pacific markets is expected to grow 200 percent over the next five years.

A Plant-Based Restaurant Redefines the QSR

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I’ve been writing a lot about the plant-based QSR lately, so when I recently got the chance to visit the new location of Copper Branch, a plant-based restaurant company from Canada, I jumped at it. 

Across its franchise locations, which span Canada and are now making their way into the States, Copper Branch offers quick-service food that’s entirely plant-based. The company’s latest location to open, and its second in the U.S., is in Nashville, Tennessee — conveniently down the street from my house. 

Upon visiting, however, it became clear that food is only one part of Copper Branch’s mission. The company is, it seems, less about selling plant-based foods and more about reinventing what it means to be a quick-service restaurant (QSR). 

Despite the popularity in recent years of items like the Impossible Whopper and the Beyond Taco, the average QSR is better known for greasy burgers, salty fries, and sodas drunk out of non-recyclable cups. I love an occasional trip to the drive-thru as much as the next person, but those indulgences come with health and planetary costs that are becoming increasingly more problematic in light of climate change and chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity.

Copper Branch’s model is compelling because the company’s goal is bigger than simply making plant-based foods accessible to mainstream consumers’ palates. Over a recent call, CEO Trish Paterson talked about the company’s “triangular focus” when it comes to sustainability. The goal is to strike a balance between human health, animal welfare, and planetary health when it comes to food, packaging, operations, and everything else it takes to run a restaurant. The bigger-picture mission is to “change people’s mindsets of what fast food really is.”

In the case of Copper Branch, fast food means partnerships with companies like Eat Just (eggs) and Field Roast (cheese, meat) to recreate scrambles, burgers, chili, and other dishes made entirely from plants. At the same time, the company also prioritizes local partnerships for certain items, which is itself a form of sustainability. For example, the Nashville location serves coffee from Bongo Java, a beloved local roaster and one of the oldest independent coffee shops in town. Paterson says the local partnerships are intentional and a means of supporting local business and communities surrounding each Copper Branch location. Franchisees are expected to spend “a percentage of their revenue on local activities and giving back to their own communities,” which includes sourcing coffees, desserts, and other items from around town.

Packaging is another important part of the operation. Copper Branch has used compostable straws and cutlery for years, as well as compostable water bottles. A little more challenging are the to-go boxes for the food, which have to be lined with plastic to keep food hot during transport. Paterson said the company has considered a “bring your own container” program, though for the moment that’s on hold due to the pandemic. 

All of this sustainability doesn’t come cheap, though. Paterson said right now the biggest challenge for her company is the price point of menu items. For instance, a “Copper Burger Deluxe” at the restaurant costs $8.95. An Impossible Whopper is $5.89 by comparison.

“The ingredients that we use will never lend themselves to put us on that price point,” she says of the standard QSR menu. Instead, Copper Branch sees its job as helping consumers to understand the higher price points as “investing” in their own health and that of the planet.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Getting consumers in front of actual products, preferably eating in the restaurant, are important parts of educating consumers. That education doesn’t have to be preachy, either. A good meal speaks for itself. If that meal can be got as quickly and conveniently as the experience at a place like McDonald’s, consumers may be willing to pay a little more. 

Even if they’re not, the price point for plant-based, sustainably packaged foods may yet come down. For her part, Paterson believes we’ll get closer to that point. “The more advanced research and development gets, the lower the cost structure becomes, and those products will become more mainstream.”

Restaurants ‘Round the Web

CloudKitchens, the uber-secretive startup from ex-Uber boss Travis Kalanick, is reportedly Uber all over again, and definitely not in a good way. Business Insider recently reported on tensions and a mass exodus of staffers from the company.

Speaking of food delivery, a group of food delivery workers in NYC, known as Los Deliveristas Unidos, recently took to the streets to protest working conditions. The city’s largest union of service worker supported. Eater NY has the full story.

The latest Yelp Economic Average report recently found that restaurant openings were up in the first quarter of 2021 compared to one year ago. However, they fell short of 2019 levels. 

Clara Foods Teams Up With AB InBev to Make Animal Protein at Scale

Alt-protein maker Clara Foods announced this week a partnership with ZX Ventures, the innovation arm of beer brewer AB InBev, to “brew” animal-free protein at a large scale via fermentation, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

Clara Foods, which was founded out of the IndieBio accelerator, has been using precision fermentation for years to develop animal-free protein, including an animal-free egg white. But a major challenge is producing such proteins at scale — that is, in large enough amounts to realistically compete with the traditional animal protein industry. 

AB InBev, of course, is no stranger to fermentation at scale, it being the largest beer brewer in the world. The partnership with Clara Foods will combine AB InBev’s “centuries of expertise in scaled, food-grade fermentation and downstream processing gained from large-scale brewing processes” with Clara’s technology to develop more sustainable protein at scale. 

Speaking in the press release, Patrick O’Riordan, founder and CEO at BioBrew, a technology platform venture in ZX Ventures, pointed out that meeting the future food demands of the planet will require cross-industry collaboration that marries the old with the new. In this case, fermentation, a centuries-old process, will get combined with novel technologies from Clara. 

Scalability is key to the advancement of any alternative-protein right now. For Clara Foods and ZX Ventures’ BioBrew team, the goal is to produce alt protein — in this case egg whites — at a similar scale to beer brewing. Since brewing beer and fermenting protein aren’t quite the same thing, O’Riordan noted, in an interview with Food Navigator, that the technology for egg proteins will “probably be an adaptation of existing technology” currently used in beer-making.  

CEO Arturo Elizondo told The Spoon earlier this year that the company hopes to go beyond egg white replacements. “We wanted to have a real kick ass platform that is not just a chicken egg plant protein platform, or an egg protein platform, but a true animal protein production platform, so that we can flex in and out of different products,” he said. 

So far, the company has launched an animal-free pepsin. Other future products include an egg protein for beverages and the aforementioned egg white replacement.  

Meanwhile, the Clara Foods partnership is AB InBev’s first-ever with a food company, though it’s not likely to be the last.

LegenDairy Rebrands to Formo, Announces Plans to Bring Products to Market

LegenDairy, a precision fermentation alterative dairy company, announced today that it has rebranded to the name Formo, and that it will focus on consumer-facing products with plans to unveil its first products later this year.

To create its animal-free milk proteins, Formo uses microorganisms instead of cows. These undisclosed microorganisms are first encoded with the DNA sequences of milk proteins. A fermenter is then used to grow the cells, which are harvested when enough protein has been raised. From this point, the cultivated milk protein can be used to make cheese.

Plant-based ingredients, like different fats and carbohydrates, are added to the milk proteins to create the base of cheese products. Like traditional cheese, the product is heated until it turns into curd. After this step, a wide spectrum of cheese products can be created from this base and packaged as fresh or ripened to create a stronger flavor.

Formo shared that it is first focusing on specialty European cheeses, like ricotta and a few ripened/aged kinds of cheese. The company will launch its products where customers are most excited about it (based on its upcoming consumer acceptance study) and where it can get regulatory approval.

In addition to Formo, a few other companies use precision fermentation to create alternative dairy and cheese products. Perfect Day applies its precision fermentation process through its spinoff brand, Brave Robot, to create an animal-free ice cream that is molecularly identical to real dairy. Change Foods uses precision fermentation to develop its cheddar and mozzerella, and plans on launching its product on the market in 2023.

Formo is currently expanding its team of scientists and executives in preparation for its initial product presentation in Europe this year, and market launch in 2023. Prior to the launch, the company will host a tasting this summer for its alternative cheese products with Ricky Saward, the first plant-based Michelin star chef.

Big Idea Ventures Unveils the Third Cohort for Alt-Protein Accelerator

Food tech investment firm Big Idea Ventures (BIV) this week unveiled the companies chosen for Cohort 3 of its alt-protein-focused accelerator program. Fifteen early-stage startups will participate in the five-month-long program, either in NYC or Singapore, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

BIV looks for companies developing both plant-based and cultured protein products and ingredients. Food tech companies related to the alt-protein space are also considered. Past program participants include companies from the plant-based protein space, cultured protein, and corresponding technologies. Evo, MeliBio, and WTH Foods have all taken part in the program.

BIV says its third cohort is focused on sustainably feeding a growing world population.To that end, chosen companies include:

NYC Program:

  • AquaCultured Foods: A seafood alternative using microbial fermentation
  • The Frauxmagerie: A plant-based cheese using cultures without dairy
  • Innocent Meat: A B2B cell-based meat production system
  • incrEDIBLE: An edible cutlery to reduce single-use plastics
  • Blue Ridge Bantam: A cell-based ground and whole-cut turkey
  • New Breed Meats: Plant-based burgers, grounds and sausages
  • Plant Ranch: Plant-based Mexican meats

Singapore Program:

  • Angie’s Tempeh: Tempeh fermentation technology to create protein-rich foods
  • Animal Alternative Technologies: Cell-based meat services including bioreactors and software
  • Farmsow: A B2B ingredients company developing sustainable alternatives to tropical oils and animal fats
  • GreenGourmet Foods: Plant-based dairy 
  • Haofood: Alternative chicken protein from peanut focused on the Asian market
  • MAD Foods: A plant-based beverage 

Two companies — plant-based yogurt maker Wellme and a food tech startup called Meat. The End — will participate in both NYC and Singapore.

Beside $125,000 in cash investment and $75,000 on in-kind investment, chosen companies also get access to co-working space, including test kitchens, for the duration of the program, as well as mentorship and networking opportunities.

BIV is also currently taking applications for Cohort IV, which will take place during summer 2021. Applications are taken on a rolling basis.

Plant-Based Meat Maker Hungry Planet Raises $25M

St. Louis, Missouri-based Hungry Planet announced today it has closed an oversubscribed $25 million Series A round of funding. Post Holdings led the round, with participation from Singaporean investment group TRIREC, and “other leading plant-forward investors,” according to a press release.

Aided by these new funds, Hungry Planet says it will expand its line of plant-based meats across retail and foodservice, domestically and in international markets. The company’s current product line includes chicken, pork, beef, lamb, turkey, crab, chorizo, breakfast sausage, and Italian sausage alternatives.  

Hungry Planet says its products are now in thousands of venues across the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand restaurants, retail, and foodservice outlets. A broader retail launch is currently happening across the USA and Singapore, with more markets planned for the future.

Hungry Planet’s fundraise comes on the heels of the Good Food Institute (GFI) and the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA)’s recent announcement that retail sales of plant-based foods in the U.S. reached $7 billion in 2020. Additionally, an earlier report from March found $2.1 billion had been invested in plant-based foods in 2020.

The $25 million raised by Hungry Planet is just the latest in a number of recent fundraises by plant-based meat-makers, including Israeli startup Redefine Meat’s $29 million Series A round, Gathered Foods’ $26.3 million, and AtLast’s $40 million from last week.

One thing that may help Hungry Planet compete with all this competition is its partnership with Post Holdings. The deal, first announced in January 2021, gives Hungry Planet access to Post’s Foodservice and Retail units, through which the company can expand its own distribution.

Additionally, Hungry Planet CEO and co-founder Todd Boyman said in today’s press release that the Series A round will allow the company “to expand further and faster.” Boyman founded the company in 2014 with his sister Jody Boyman. With the new funding, Hungry Planet has raised a total of $25.5 million to date.

Atlast Food Co. Secures $40M Series A Round to Expand Whole Cut Plant-Based Meat Analogues

Atlast Food Co., which uses mycelium to produce plant-based meat alternatives, announced today in a press release that it has raised a Series A round of $40 million USD to create new whole cut meat alternatives. This latest funding round was led by Viking Global Investors and saw participation from 40 North, AiiM Partners, Senator Investment Group, Stray Dog Capital, Footprint Coalition, Applegate, Stonyfield, and Whole Foods.

This new funding will be used to scale the company’s technology, production, and team to bring its product to a commercial scale. To create the new whole cuts of alternative meat, Atlast is partnering with Ecovative, its parent company. Using Ecovative’s AirMycelium manufacturing platform, Atlast is currently building the largest aerial mycelium farm in the U.S. to supply its production of meat alternatives.

Atlast offers its first product, mycelium-based bacon, through its brand MyEats. Dubbed MyBacon, it consists of six plant-based ingredients, is cholesterol-free, and the serving size of two slices contains 4 grams of protein. The Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany, New York is the only retailer that carries MyEats bacon right now, but the product will be distributed to more grocery retailers as production picks up.

Mycelium works well as an ingredient for plant-based meat alternatives because of its fibrous texture that can mimic the muscle texture of animal proteins. Additionally, mycelium grows quickly, and its neutral flavor allows for any desired flavor to be absorbed. Meati is another start-up that produces mycelium-based meat alternatives, and the company trialed its mycelium-based steak last summer and is also developing mycelium-based chicken and jerky.

Atlast was not able to disclose exactly what variety of meat analogs it will be developing, but did say that mycelium gives them the opportunity to create a wide variety of meat alternatives like filet mignon, chicken breast, and even fish. The products will be made available to CPG, foodservice, and grocery industries, and Atlast plans on distributing its mycelium meat alternatives to these industries this year.

Yes, Mealworms Are Gross. Here’s Why They Matter

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Another step was made this week towards edible insects as a source of protein for humans. Question is, Will bugs ever become an ordinary part of the ordinary American’s diet?

This is not a new question. For years, the food industry, the media, and even the United Nations have urged cultures not historically acclimated to bugs to consider insects like mealworms and grasshoppers as more sustainable forms of protein. Mealworms, for example, are high in protein and require less land to produce than traditional meat sources like cows or chicken.  

And speaking of mealworms, this week, insect protein startup Ÿnsect announced it had acquired Dutch agtech company Protifarm, which raises mealworms for human food consumption. A press release from Ÿnsect noted that the deal will let the company speed up its manufacturing process for foods geared towards humans, providing yet another source of alternative protein for the planet. The news comes a few months after the European Food Safety Authority granted its approval of mealworms for human consumption. Ÿnsect also plans to file for GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status in the U.S.

Additionally, France-based Ÿnsect will be able to expand internationally with the integration of Protifarm, which has food customers in Germany, the Netherlands, England, Denmark, and Belgium. In fact, the acquisition makes Ÿnsect the world’s largest producer of insect food and animal feed, and bumps its portfolio of patents to nearly 300.

Were we talking about anything other than mealworms for human consumption, all the above points would suggest mainstream success is a likelihood if not a foregone conclusion.

But we are, in fact, talking about bugs, and any hope of eliminating (or lessening) the “ick” factor involved is going to require a seismic change in perception for many consumers. Roughly 2 billion people around the world eat insects on the regular, but they don’t typically live in the countries Ÿnsect is eyeing for expansion, which includes those listed above as well as the United States.

One way to potentially enable a perception change is to make insects an ingredient, such as a powder, that gets added to other foods, rather than a standalone item. Consumers might be more likely to buy a pasta made with mealworm powder than, say, dried mealworms in a vacuum-sealed bag for snacking.

Ÿnsect, for example, has a Buffalo mealworm ingredient that is part of biscuits, pastas, sport nutrition bars, and meat substitute products. The company also told AgFunder this week that it is targeting athletes first, who might be attracted to the health benefits of mealworm protein. Hardcore environmentalists are another group that could potentially be swayed, particularly those that want alternative sources of protein but are skeptical about the nutrition profile of the current pack of plant-based meats on offer. Making insects part of an experience, say, at a theme park, is also another avenue in. After all, Doritos were invented from trash at Disneyland, and so who’s to say cookies made with cricket powder wouldn’t be a hit in Fantasyland? 

Insects becoming a staple of the average Western household, however, still feels like a long shot. At the very least, it would take some serious marketing genius to even start to change mainstream consumers’ perceptions around eating bugs, to say nothing of the research and development that would have to go into creating products that taste as good or better than traditional protein sources. And there will always be those consumers that turn their noses up at the stuff on principle.

These issues aren’t actually unique to mealworms and other insects. In fact, as I write this, cultured meat is dealing with its own consumer perception challenges, albeit on a different scale, as well as hurdles around creating a product that tastes as good as traditional protein. 

All of which is to say, mealworms, crickets, and the like may yet have their moment. It will just probably look a whole lot different than what most of us still imagine when we hear the phrase “edible insect.”

Alt-Protein News From the Week

Revo Foods Raises €1.5M to Advance its 3D-Printed Alternative Salmon – The company will use the funding to accelerate its 3D food printing process, as well as expand its team.

Cultured Decadence Raises $1.6M to Make Lobster in a Lab – The Wisconsin-based cell ag company will use to the new funds to create what it says will be the first cell-cultured lobster meat in North America

Beyond Meat Boosts European Retail Presence – The plant-based meat giant said it is bolstering its presence at retail stores across Europe this spring, including those in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Revo Foods Raises €1.5M to Advance its 3D-Printed Alternative Salmon

Austria-based Revo Foods crafts 3D-printed salmon made from plant-based ingredients, and over the weekend the company announced that it has raised €1.5 million euros (~$1.78 million USD) in funding. This is the company’s first round of funding, and it included participation from Hazelpond Capital, Eva Summer (CPO of Peace of Meat), Friends2grow, Jens Schuman, MKO Holdings, and national support from the FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency and Vienna Business Agency.

Revo Foods’ funding will be used to accelerate its 3D food printing process, as well as expand its team. The company has several plant-based salmon products that its plans on launching in Europe this year. Its smoked salmon strips and smoked salmon spread is made from pea protein, citrus fiber, and algae oil (these products are not made through 3D printing). The plant-based salmon sashimi is still being developed, and is created using a 3D printing process to create complex structures similar to real salmon.

The company held the first live tasting of its plant-based salmon products at the beginning of March. The tasting was held in Vienna, Austria and Revo Foods partnered with Budapest Bagels to serve its smoked salmon strips in the bagels. Only a handful of journalists were able to attend in person, and one food vegan food writer said, “It tastes too similar like fish, I can hardly eat it.”

There are a few other notable players in the plant-based fish space, however, these companies do not use 3D printing like Revo Foods. In the U.S., Gathered Foods (the parent company of Good Catch) raised $26.35 million in a B-2 bridge funding round at the beginning of April. Hooked is a Swedish-based company that produces plant-based tuna and shredded salmon alternatives. New Wave Foods announced the last week of March that its’ plant-based seafood alternative is now available for foodservice companies and restaurants.

Revo Foods plans on launching its smoked salmon strips first in Europe within 2021. In the next two to three months, the company expects to finalize the development of its plant-based salmon sashimi.