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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

CES

We’ll Be Talking Lab-Grown Meat & More at CES 2023, And You Won’t Want To Miss It

2022 has been a big year for the world of lab-grown meat. Not only did we see it begin to show up at fine dining locations in Singapore and see hundreds of millions of venture funding poured into the sector, but this year also marked the first time the US FDA sent out a “No Questions” letter to a cultivated meat company, signaling that it believes that UPSIDE’s cultivate chicken is safe for consumers.

And while 2022 was full of momentous news for alt-meat, 2023 is guaranteed to be even more action-packed. Numerous cultivated meat companies are beginning to scale up the production of their products, big food companies are evaluating how to fit cultivated meat into their product portfolios, and innovators continue to find breakthrough ideas that will help cellular agriculture make a dent in traditional animal agriculture.

To help 2023 get kicked off, we’ll be bringing the conversation about how to scale cultivated meat and other alternative protein to the big stage of the Consumer Electronics Show at the CES Food Tech Conference this coming January. I will be taking the stage to interview some of the biggest names in the future of protein in a session called “Scaling Towards a Trillion Dollar Alternative Protein Industry,” including the CEO of UPSIDE Foods Uma Valeti, Head of Operations for Perfect Day, Shayri RoyChoudhury, and the CEO of SuperMeat, Ido Savir.

This session is just one of a full day of programming on food tech at the world’s biggest technology conference. On January 5th at the CES Food Tech Conference, we’ll also be talking about the tech-powered restaurant, how the consumer kitchen will change in the future, the future of farming, and even how we will grow food in space!

If you are an entrepreneur interested in the opportunities presented by the future of food, you won’t want to miss it. You can find out more and buy tickets to the CES Food Tech conference here.

We’ll see you in Vegas.

If you’re interested in sponsoring our CES food tech conference or the Food Tech Happy Hour, drop us a line.

Announcing The Spoon Fall Event Series

We are very excited to be announcing The Spoon’s slate of events for 2022 (and January 2023).

The Spoon’s event series in 2022 includes the new innovator and startup-focused SKS Invent, our first in-person event exclusively for leaders & changemakers called The Spoon Food Tech Leader’s Forum, and finally, the CES’s Food Tech Conference & Exhibition powered by the Spoon in January 2023.

With this new series, we are focused on discovering and celebrating innovation across the series, which is interconnected from beginning to end.

Read below to find out about each and how the series interconnects.

Smart Kitchen Summit Invent

Over the past decade, there has been great innovation in food and cooking. We saw the arrival of precision heating and modernist cuisine cooking techniques. Smart connectivity and audio assistants enabled us to interact with our appliances in new ways. Robotics and AI were layered onto cooking. New combination cooking appliances that use steam or precision RF heating made their way into the kitchen.

But there is so much more that can be done and we want to help accelerate progress towards this future. In particular, we think there are five areas of innovation in which we’d love to see more innovation: Core Culinary, Sustainability, Delivery & Commerce, and Places & Spaces.

We’ll be writing more about SKS Invent and our call to action for the future of food and cooking innovators in the coming days, but you can learn more about each and apply to showcase your innovation at SKS Invent here. You can also inquire about sponsorship and purchase early bird tickets.

The Spoon’s Food Tech Leader’s Forum

One of the things that excite me most about events is the energy and creativity that comes from bringing together leaders from diverse but related industry backgrounds together. New ideas and collaborations always follow these exciting events that spark conversation, learning, and laughter when new perspectives and approaches collide.

The Food Tech Leader’s Forum will feature an exclusive event bringing together visionaries, inventors, entrepreneurs, and executives to map the future of food tech. It will include discussions about some of the industry’s most pressing topics, strategy whiteboard workshops, curated networking opportunities, and product demos and tastings designed to show you what the future of food will look like.

The event will also feature the finalists from the SKS Invent to showcase their vision and demo their products live and in-person.

If you would like to learn more about how to apply for a ticket, become an FTLF patron or more, you can do so here.

Food Tech at CES 2023

Food tech is heading back to the big stage at CES 2023!

Last January The Spoon powered the first-ever dedicated food tech conference and exhibition at the world’s biggest tech conference, and in 2023 we’ll be teaming up with the Consumer Technology Association to bring food tech back in a big way.

We’ll be programming an all-new conference full of exciting topics and working hand in hand with the CTA to find the most interesting companies to showcase what they’re building on the show floor. We are also planning a special Spoon evening event to highlight the winners of the SKS Invent innovation awards.

If you would like to sponsor The Food Tech conference at CES or exhibit in the designated Food Tech Exhibition at CES, you can head to this page and fill out the contact form and we will be in touch!

As you can see, all of these events are interconnect and there is a throughline that brings together new innovators, groundbreaking concepts and more as we journey from online to Seattle to Vegas in January 2023.

I look forward to seeing you on this year’s food tech journey!

Are We Ready for Humanoid Robots Like Ameca to Take Our Food Order?

If you watched the news coming out of CES, you probably saw a robot named Ameca talking to attendees on the trade show floor.

The robot, whose human(ish) eyes and facial expressions had Elon Musk freaked out when it showed up on Twitter last December, went viral during CES in January as press and attendees tweeted out videos of the humanoid interacting with attendees.

Ever since CES, I haven’t been able to shake the image of Ameca and wonder when we might see a robot like her at my corner restaurant. And, once humanoid robots start to show up in our restaurants, I can’t help but wonder how exactly consumers will feel about it? After all, it’s one thing to show off futuristic technology at a geek-filled conference like CES. It’s another to see it in your local restaurant.

Why wonder, you ask? After all, aren’t today’s front-of-house robots more R2D2 than C3PO, and didn’t a spokesperson for the company behind Ameca say it’s probably a decade before a robot like her is walking on the streets amongst us.

Because it’s only a matter of time. My guess is we’ll start to see humanoids like Ameca in customer service roles within five years, first in scenarios where interactions are limited to a focused topic (like ordering food) and the robot is either immobile (standing behind a register) or where mobility is limited to a small spacial terrain.

So if I am right and that’s the case, it’s worth asking: will consumers embrace or run away from humanoid robots working at their local restaurant?

Industry research would suggest it depends. In a research paper published in 2018 entitled “Human Or Robot? the Uncanny Valley in Consumer Robots”, researchers describe a test in which they showed participants images of three different customer service workers – a highly but imperfectly human-like robot, a human, and a human posing as a perfectly human-like robot – and told them a chain of stores is considering employing them.

The results showed people felt most comfortable with humans and least comfortable with almost-human robots. Interestingly, while respondents weren’t as comfortable with the perfectly human-like robot as they were humans, they did feel slightly more comfortable with perfectly human-like robots than ones that were slightly off. This suggested to the researchers that once consumers can no longer discern small differences that make a humanoid seem slightly uncanny, they become more comfortable.

The receptivity of humanoids might also depend on where people live. The same researchers conducted a test in the US and Japan where they showed survey respondents pictures of robots with moderate or high human likeness and also photos of humans. Japanese respondents tended to see the robots as significantly less uncanny than Americans and were more likely to see the robots as having more “human nature.”

Researchers theorized these differences in reactions between Japanese and US respondents might be cultural. They suggest that in countries like Japan where religions like Confucianism and Shinto teach that spirits live in both animate and inanimate objects, consumers may be more likely to grant human nature onto robots. They contrast this with the US, where Christianity, a religion that believes only humans have souls, is dominant.

While consumer perceptions tied to religious or local value systems are important, it’s also worth recognizing that collective perceptions in society do change over time. As robotics become more commonplace, everyday consumers may just become less freaked out about them. Today’s novelty could become tomorrow’s everyday reality, if you will.

And while only time will tell, my guess is operators might opt to be more conservative, at least in the near term, when deploying humanoid robots. After all, if almost-human robots freak out consumers, restaurant owners might be safer installing something closer to Chuck E. Cheese than some real-world version of the kid from Polar Express.

The Kitchen 2030: How Food & Cooking Will Change in the Future (Video)

If you’ve been following The Spoon since the early days of 2015, you might remember that our flagship event that started it all was the Smart Kitchen Summit. Dedicated to the quiet revolution that was happening in the consumer kitchen, SKS became the event to examine the tech disruption upending business models and changing the way we source, cook and eat our food forever.

So it was fitting that our opening panel at the first CES Food Tech Conference was “The Kitchen 2030: How Food & Cooking Will Change in the Future,” featuring some of the leading companies in the kitchen and appliance industries. The panel discussion was hosted by Michael Wolf, CEO and founder of The Spoon and included Khalid Aboujassoum, Founder & CEO of Else Labs, Dochul Choi, Senior Vice President at Samsung, Robin Liss, CEO at Suvie and Kai Schaeffner, executive at Vorwerk (Thermomix).

The panel talked about where and how cooking, storing and even shopping for foods has shifted in the last several years; with more transparency and information about the foods we eat, the digitization of the recipe, guided cooking features and a whole new wave of kitchen appliances that may change the entire layout and function of the consumer kitchen.

“The Kitchen 2030” panel can be viewed in its entirety below — leave a comment with your predictions for the next decade of innovation in the connected kitchen.

CES: Tackling Food Waste With Technology (Video)

The topic of food waste and innovation is so important — in the US alone, $408 billion worth of food is wasted each year. But the topic is too often overlooked when it comes to food tech conversations.

That’s why we invited experts to join us at the CES Food Tech Conference last month to talk about waste at different points in the food supply chain as well as the systemic issues plaguing the global food system.

We welcomed Vonnie Estes, Vice President of Innovation with the International Fresh Produce Association to moderate this panel with participants including Spencer Martin, CEO of Clew, Adian Mouat, Co-Founder & CEO of Hazel Technologies and Tim West, President of True West Ventures LLC.

The full panel — “Tackling Food Waste With Technology” is ready for viewing below.

Former US Defense Official: Cell-Cultured Meat & Other Future Food Technology is Critical For US National Security

Last week, the future food industry was abuzz with the news that China had put cell-cultured meat and other future food technologies in its five-year plan.

According to Matt Spence, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy under the Obama administration, this type of move shouldn’t be all that surprising given how critical many leaders in emerging economies view food innovation to their national security.

“What what used to keep me up at night when I was at the Defense Department running Middle East policy was what type of attack is ISIS is going to launch?” said Spence last month, speaking on a panel (moderated by yours truly) at the Consumer Electronics Show. “How to plan for war with Iran? How are we thinking about going after Osama bin Laden?”

According to Spence, who is now managing director for investment and advisory firm Guggenheim Partners, what worried leaders around the region was very different.

“When I talked to leaders in the region, what kept them up at night was ‘do I have enough food and water to feed my population?’. They are realizing they have a way of producing meat that people want more of as they get wealthier, and others are appetites and demand for luxury change. And the equation doesn’t add up unless we do something new.”

While Spence himself may have come away from these conversations with a greater conviction that food technology is an essential part of a national security framework, the US still has no comprehensive plan around building a food future nearly seven years after he left the State Department. That’s not to say some parts of the US government responsible for food regulation and policy haven’t been slowly progressing on regulatory frameworks for some future food. Still, like with many things driven by US agencies, it’s all relatively piecemeal, and there’s no real cohesive strategy to it.

Maybe that will change. There are signs, after all, that the US government sees this as important, such as the recent grant given to Tufts to create an alt-protein center of excellence. But again, these are small gestures compared to the all-in approach we’ve seen from China, Israel, Taiwan, and other countries.

But who knows? As the Biden administration takes another swing at a slimmed-down Build Back Better bill in 2022 and works on other spending priorities in the second half of his term, let’s hope he and others in his administration begin to work on developing a more comprehensive, forward-looking plan to build a more sustainable food future. I’ve even written down a few ideas he could use to get started.

According to Spence, the timing is good for cell-cultivated meat and other future food technologies to begin making a difference.

“There’s a technology and a change we can make every day by what we eat, and I’m hard-pressed to find other areas of national security that there is that type of ready solution available.”

Just click play below if you want to watch the Future of Meat panel from CES 2022 to hear Matt Spence and others.

Five Predictions for Consumer Food & Kitchen Tech in 2022

Food tech prediction week at The Spoon continues, and today we’re looking at the home. And if you haven’t already, make sure you check out my predictions on restaurant tech, food robots, and plant-based meat.

Meet The Smart Food Delivery Locker

For the last few years, companies like Walmart, Amazon, and others have been trying to figure out how to deliver food when we’re not home. Ideas have run the gamut, from delivering products directly to our fridges, onto our dinner tables, depositing groceries in our garage, to even dropping deliveries into our car trunk.

All this effort would be unnecessary if homes just had temperature-controlled storage lockers, something that – at least until lately – hadn’t existed.

Until now. This month Walmart and HomeValet announced a pilot program that will deliver fresh groceries to the HomeValet smart outdoor delivery receptacle. Another company, Fresh Portal, is building a temperature-controlled home delivery box that is accessible both outside (for delivery companies) and inside the home. And then there’s Dynosafe, who appeared on Shark Tank in the spring of 2021 and got an investment from Robert Herjavec.

While companies like Yale have been making smart boxes for delivery for a little while, there hasn’t been a widely available temperature-controlled smart storage box. In 2022, I expect we’ll start seeing more deals like the Walmart/HomeValet deal, as well as some integration deals with third-party delivery providers.

Steam-Powered Cooking Gains Traction

Although steam cooking has long been a fixture in pro kitchens, it’s never taken off in the consumer kitchen. However, that could change in 2022.

Consumer steam cooking picked up, um, steam in 2020, when Anova started shipping their countertop Precision Oven. At CES this year, LG showed off a new microwave with steam cooking. And then there’s Tovala, the food delivery and steam oven startup which has started advertising it on national Sunday night football broadcasts.

While steam cooking has followed a similar path to sous vide circulators – a pro tool making its way into the home – I think it has much wider appeal. Because they know the power of steam-cooking, some chefs have pined for an affordable home combi-oven. Now that they’ve finally got their wish, 2022 might be the year consumers take notice.

Amazon Debuts a Smart Fridge

Back in 2017 when I first asked if Amazon might build on a smart fridge, all the evidence I had to go on was a couple of patent filings. Since that time, we’ve watched as the online giant launched branded kitchen appliances and worked on making Alexa a capable home cooking assistant.

And then last fall, Business Insider wrote about Project Pulse, Amazon’s top-secret smart fridge project. According to insiders, the fridge would include machine vision and other advanced technology tell us when food’s about to expire, and automatically order & replenish through Amazon. The effort is reportedly being led by the same group that developed Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and has been in the works for a couple years.

Truth be told, the smart fridge category could use Amazon. The market has grown stale as big US appliance brands have slowed down their efforts in this space, including market leader Samsung. While the South Korean appliance giant has historically been the most aggressive among the bigs in the category, Samsung didn’t make any substantive announcements about Family Hub at CES this year other than adding it to the Bespoke Fridge line. There are also signs that the company may be shifting its focus to its new Home Hub as the center of its smart home strategy.

Bottom line, if an Amazon smart fridge becomes a reality in 2022 (and I think it will), it would catalyze some much-needed innovation from other large appliance makers.

Home Food Waste Technology Comes Into Focus

Smart composting appliances are one nascent category within home food waste innovation coalescing into a legitimate category. Kickstarter darling Lomi has finally started shipping, Vitamix, known for lits blenders, is shipping its FoodCycler FC-50, and a variety of others are on the way.

But composting is the last stop on the food waste mitigation express, and everyone would be better off preventing food from heading to the compost bin. To do that, we need better food storage, something a startup called Uvera is working with its food storage system that uses UVC light to kill bacteria and extend shelf life. There’s also Blakbear, who is working on a food storage system that would measure gasses emitted from food to help measure shelf life. And though they’re long overdue, startup Silo has told me they should be shipping in 2022.

For their part, most appliance brands still don’t seem to have a cohesive strategy for helping consumers reduce food waste, but that didn’t stop them from talking up sustainability at CES year. I hope all the talk translates to more action in 2022.

AR Takes Guided Cooking to the Next Level

Ever since Thermomix pioneered the category of guided cooking with the launch of the TM5 (and more recently the TM6), there’s been an array of companies building tech to assist consumers as they cook. In the last few years, that’s meant voice assistants from TinyChef and Amazon, software and connected cooking hardware from Hestan and others, and we’ve even seen futuristic concepts like this one at SKS 2020 that monitors eye glances as a way to help a consumer manage meal-making.

But the biggest leap forward in cooking assistance might come in the form of augmented reality. Last fall we saw Snap release their food scanning app that utilizes their augmented reality bar to help provide contextual information for items scanned by the phone, and last month we wrote about a cool demo of how a pair of AR glasses could significantly level up the home cook’s capabilities in the kitchen. And while Lauren Cason’s demo was just that – a demo – I expect some appliance makers may have taken notice of how powerful the combo of cooking and augmented reality could be.

We have a couple more prediction posts to come, so make sure to tune in next week!

Armored Fresh Debuted Its Vegan Korean Mochi at CES. Here’s Our Review

Armored Fresh is the U.S. subsidiary of Yangyoo, the Korea-based food tech company behind Korea’s first vegan cheese and other food alternatives aimed at helping the environment. This January, Armored Fresh was the first Korean company to showcase at the convention’s first “Food Technology” section at CES and is preparing to enter global markets. 

I visited the Armored Fresh booth at CES and tried a couple of their products: the vegan cube cheese and the vegan cheese cream dduk. The plain cube cheese had a very mild cheese flavor and a crumbly texture that I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t really like it because I expected it to be either soft and spreadable or hard and firm when I bit down, and it was neither.

Although I wasn’t a big fan of the vegan cube cheese, I thoroughly enjoyed the vegan cheese cream dduk. Dduk is a type of Korean rice cake made with steamed rice flour that resembles mochi, and Armored Fresh’s contains cream made from coconut oil. While there are some vegan mochi ice cream products on the market in the United States, few product lines are entirely dedicated to vegan mochi and none are as traditional as Armored Fresh. 

The dduk was perfectly soft and had a light chew, and the texture of the cream inside tasted similar to ice cream since the dduk is meant to be stored frozen and eaten slightly thawed. I tried three flavors: corn, rice milk, and injeolmi. The corn flavor was very subtle and fresh, which I liked because I’m not fond of the artificial taste of some corn-flavored products. The rice milk was my favorite because it had a smooth sweetness and reminded me of the mochi I grew up eating. The injeolmi had a unique flavor that was nutty and fragrant. For those that haven’t tried injeolmi before, it is a Korean sweet rice cake made with glutinous rice flour and covered with powdered dried beans and often roasted soybean. The Armored Fresh injeolmi flavor reminded me of roasted soybean or sesame. The cream inside each flavor that I tried had a smooth consistency and texture that didn’t make it obvious that it wasn’t made from real milk. 

Armored Fresh will enter the U.S. market with several different cheese products, including vegan cream cheese in 8 different flavors, vegan cube cheese (also available in 8 different flavors), sliced cheese, and shredded cheese. Armored Fresh also plans to use this vegan cheese on its other brands, Young Man dduk, and Spaceman Pizza. Spaceman Pizza will feature flavors such as margherita, meatball, and kimchi with vegan meatballs made from soy-based meat. The company is also developing almond milk-based yogurt and ice cream. 

Armored Fresh will be attending various food-centric shows in the coming months in Anaheim, Orlando, New York, and Chicago and plans to work with both national and local distributors to make their products available nationwide. 

As alternative dairy gains traction in global markets, it will be interesting to see how ethnic products embrace innovation without compromising their foods’ traditions and cultural significance. Armored Fresh’s dduk balances both forces well, creating a product that honors tradition while adapting to changing times to be more sustainable. Above all, it’s delicious.

Robot U: Bear Robotics Enrolls at UNLV To Give Hospitality Students Hands-On Experience

Suppose you’re an aspiring college student looking to enter the hospitality industry and want an education to get set on the right path. In that case, the Hospitality College at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas has to rank near the top of the list.

And in 2022, a big part of preparing for that future has to be showing prospective hospitality students how new technology like automation will change the industry in the coming years. That’s why this week’s news that the college has begun working with Bear Robotics to give students at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality experience working with robotics is no big surprise.

According to Bear’s Instagram account, the company sent two Servi robots to UNLV, where students will get experience deploying robotics within various hospitality and casino resort scenarios.

From the post:

We are proud to announce that we are partnering with @unlv to provide the next generation of gaming and hospitality professionals with hands-on experience in curating robotic automation programs! We’ve launched 2 Servi robots to run a variety of casino resort simulations and we are so excited to see creative approaches to operational challenges.

As I wrote yesterday, one of the fastest-growing job categories in the service-industry sector will be that of robotics management. In fact, I expect many in the service industry will embrace learning new skills to help them better understand automation technology as it changes their industry. And while I expect there to be growing tension between labor and management in industries where robotics will no doubt displace some workers, it’s important that both sides – management and employee – have a better understanding of how robotics will integrate into different roles within the hospitality industry.

For Bear, this announcement comes just weeks after the company showed up in Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. While Bear hasn’t struck any deals with one of the big casinos, I have to wonder if this partnership could bring it closer to landing in a casino down the street from UNLV.

CES 2022: Meet the Graphene Kitchen Styler, a Cooking Appliance Made With the World’s Thinnest & Strongest Material

For most of us, graphite is the black smudgy drawing material at the center of an everyday wooden pencil. For material scientists, it’s the foundation for perhaps the most interesting nanomaterial ever discovered.

That nanomaterial is called graphene, which is an extremely thin layer of carbon arranged in a honeycomb-shaped (hexagonal) lattice.

Graphene was first isolated in 2004 when a couple of scientists stuck everyday household tape to graphite to separate the fragments. They repeated touching the tape to the thin dusting of graphite particles until they had a layer one atom thick. They were eventually able to take this method to create the world’s first sheet of what is called graphene. It was this discovery – as well as a better understanding of the amazing resulting properties of the material – for which the two scientists from the University of Manchester eventually won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010.

Ever since, it’s those same properties that have made graphene the focus of material researchers around the world. Not only is graphene the world’s thinnest material (again, one atom thick), it’s also the strongest. In addition, graphene is also transparent and is an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. As a result, some of the applications being explored as part of the “graphene gold rush” include everything from conductors to touch screens to concrete strengthener.

And now, a home kitchen cooking appliance.

That’s right, at CES last week, a company called Graphene Square showed off a new cooking appliance concept that uses graphene to heat and cook food. The product, called the Graphene Kitchen Styler, looks something like a transparent space-age George Foreman grill. To make, say, toast, you insert a slice of bread between two transparent clamshell sides, close it, and watch through the transparent graphene material as the bread gets toasty and brown.

According to a company spokesperson, the graphene can go up to 200 degrees Celsius within 90 seconds. And while the video below shows the appliance browning toast, Graphene Square says they’ve also used the Graphene Styler to cook steak, chicken, and even boil water.

CES 2022: A look at the graphene-based cooking appliance from Graphene Square

While graphene itself is a pretty exciting material technology, it remains to be seen as to whether consumers would want this specific appliance built with it. And while the Graphene Square says this product could be to market by 2023, it may just be that the company – which is more of a B2B materials science manufacturer than consumer products company – is trying to entice a Samsung or LG to consider graphene for one of their future kitchens appliances.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

One of the stories I missed while I was out of the country in December was the shuttering of Drinkworks.

What makes the announcement so unexpected was, overall, things seemed to be generally going well: the company was expanding nationally, sales seemed on the uptick, and they’d even just announced the newest generation drink appliance in October of 2021.

Then, less than two months later, the joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig Dr. Pepper announced it was ceasing operations.

I don’t have to tell you how unusual it is for a company to announce a new product and then shut down just months later. And, now, almost a month after the news, we really don’t have a good answer for what happened, which is why it’s still worth asking: what the heck happened?

Generally, what that type of quick about-face tells me is that the higher-ups – and by that I mean the two companies involved in the joint venture funding – decided the project wasn’t working and pulled the plug.

So what does ‘not working’ mean? It could be any number of things: Appliance or beverage pod sales weren’t meeting forecasts. Customer satisfaction was low. The project was sucking up too many resources. Maybe the two companies didn’t like working together or their strategies diverged. As I said, it could be anything and we may never know (unless, of course, a former insider wants to tell us. Please reach out if you’d like to do so privately).

The end of Drinkworks also begs the question: is this the end for home cocktail appliances? Bartesian – and now Black and Decker – would argue no. As for me, I’m not sure I want a pod-making machine, but I would take a voice-enabled cocktail marking robot.

Watch my video look at the demise of Drinkworks below.

What The Heck Happened to Drinkworks?

We Tried Goodside Foods Meatless Crumbles Made by MycoTechnologies Mushroom Fermentation Technology

Having gone to numerous CES shows, I’ve developed a few survival strategies for the big tech conference: Bring hand sanitizer, wear comfortable shoes, and eat food whenever you get a chance.

While that last rule is mostly because food lines at CES are usually insanely long, as of late, it also applies whenever a company introduces a new plant-based food. And this year, three years after Impossible Foods debuted their second-generation plant-based burger at CES, we had a chance to try a new alt-meat in the form of Goodside Foods meatless crumbles.

Goodside Foods crumbles, a texturized pea and rice protein blend fermented by mycelia, debuted last week at CES 2022. The product is the first under MycoTechnology’s new consumer-facing brand. According to the company, Myco’s natural fermentation process makes their plant protein easier to digest and removes any off notes from plant-based meat alternatives. Interestingly, the product is packaged in a dry, shelf-stable form that is activated by water or broth. Once activated, the crumbles can be served in meat-based products such as pasta sauces or chili.

I decided to drop by the booth and give Goodsides crumbles a try. The company was serving up chili made with the new crumbles, the other usual chili fixings, and a plant-based cheese made by the company’s technology.

How’d it taste? Pretty darn good. I’ve tried both Impossible and Beyond ground beef alternatives in chili and pasta, and the Goodside Foods’ crumbles were on par with both of these products.

What I didn’t do was try the crumbles on their own in, say, a hamburger patty, so I can’t give a verdict on its standalone flavor. However, since the crumbles essentially gave me the same experience in chili as, say, a ground beef, it tells me Goodside Foods has really nailed the mouthfeel of a ground meat product (which is where many of the early plant-based meat products I’ve tasted fall down).

I also have to say, I like the idea of a dry, shelf-stable alt meat product (that isn’t, well, spam). While most plant-based meats freeze well and many – like Impossible – have pretty long refrigerator shelf-lives, the reality is sometimes we all get busy. Like others, I have forgotten to put a package of alt-meat in the freezer before it spoiled. With a shelf-stable product like Goodside’s crumbles, you can load up your pantry and not have to worry about spoilage.

If you’d like to try Goodside Food’s crumbles, you can order them online.

And, if you’re curious to try more mushroom-powered food, you may not have to wait long. The company was also showing off a mushroom milk at CES (ed note: it tastes like Oatly), which Goodside hopes to start shipping in Q1 or Q2 of this year.

You can see the chili made with Goodside’s crumbles in the video below.

The Spoon Tries GoodSide Foods Meatless Crumbles at CES 2022