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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Perfect Day Expands to Develop Animal-Free Milk Fat

Today Perfect Day announced that it’s building a team to develop animal-free fats through genetically engineered microbes. The Berkeley, California-based startup has already developed a fermentation-like process to create key milk molecules which can be used to make animal-free dairy.

A blog post from Perfect Day’s co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya made clear that these efforts are still super early stage. They indicated that there probably wouldn’t be prototypes of products featuring the flora-based fats for a while since they’ll be laser focused on scaling up their milk proteins in 2020. They also didn’t indicate which products they would develop with their fat, but in an email to The Spoon their team told us that “animal-free dairy is the obvious fit.”

The startup has been going at full force recently. Last year the company partnered with ADM to increase production capacity and raised a $34.8 million Series B in early 2019. As I mentioned above, it also launched its first product — ice cream made with their flora-based milk — in July of this year. 

This expansion shows that Perfect Day’s scope is far wider than just protein. In the post, Gandhi and Panda write that they want their flora platform “to be as broad and powerful” as possible to make “the full dairy experience animal-free.”

Perfect Day’s announcement also goes to show that when it comes to developing sustainable alternatives to animal products, protein is only part of the puzzle. All of the ingredients — from fats to flavorings — have to be environmentally friendly as well.

Right now, that’s not necessarily the case. Many plant-based products rely on palm or coconut oil for richness, since these two fats are saturated (just like butter or beef fat). However, coconut oil and especially palm oil can be exploitative to laborers and the environment, clearing tropical rainforests.

In short, just because a food is animal-free doesn’t mean it’s necessarily sustainable. Perfect Day’s initiative to revamp every aspect of animal alternatives is a good blueprint for other alternative protein companies to consider, if they’re not doing so already.

Future Food: China is the Holy Grail for Meat Alternatives, Eclipse Foods Launches Ice Cream

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Impossible Foods may be gaining territory, both geographically and market-wise, here in the U.S. But when it comes to the future regions, the startup has its gaze set on Asia — specifically, China.

You can read the full explanation of why Impossible is eyeing China in our post, but it boils down to three main reasons:

  • China has the largest population in the world
  • China produces the most meat in the world
  • China consumes the most meat in the world, and its hunger for protein is growing

In short, China is the holy grail for any alternative meat company. That’s especially true with the recent African Swine Fever outbreak, which threatens to massively deplete pig populations and drive up pork prices.

Photo: Impossible Foods

Which plant-based meat company will get to world’s most populated country first? Impossible is certainly in the running, as is Beyond Meat. And Asian plant-based meat company Omnipork, which has the advantage of selling a product developed specifically for Asian palates, has said it will start selling in China by the end of this year.

Big Food could also make a move. China-based WH Group, the largest pork company in the world, owns Smithfield. In August Smithfield announced it would be launching a “plant-based protein portfolio.” If WH Group decides to sell a new alt-meat line in China, either under the Smithfield brand or another one, the company’s massive supply chain and retail partnerships could help it quickly scale up across the country.

Then again, it could be time for China to embrace a lower-tech meat alternative. With all these newfangled, bleeding, uber-realistic faux meat options out there, it’s easy to forget that China has actually been making its own meat alternatives for centuries to adhere to Buddhist diets.

Ten years from now, we’ll likely see a mixture of all of the above in China. The country’s appetite for protein is immense and it’ll take multiple plant-based meat players to feed. Let’s just hope that if and when Impossible does land in China, they’re prepared for the inevitable demand.

Eclipse Foods x Oddfellows. Photo: ©Heidi’s Bridge

Eclipse Foods is (soft) serving up plant-based ice cream

If you want to know what’s cool right now in the food world, a good place to look is ice cream. A few months ago Berkeley, CA-based Perfect Day launched their flora-based dairy with an initial line of ‘screams (which were delicious, btw). Now, Eclipse Foods, a plant-based dairy company based literally down the road from Perfect Day, is following in their footsteps.

This weekend Eclipse Foods is debuting its proprietary plant-based dairy recipe in limited-edition flavors at high-end ice cream shops on opposite coasts: Humphrey Slocombe in San Francisco and Oddfellows in New York (thanks for the tip, Grubhub).

Unlike Perfect Day, which ferments actual dairy proteins using genetically modified microbes, Eclipse’s dairy is made from a combination of everyday plant-based ingredients that the founders claim do a much better job imitating dairy than plain old oat or almond milk. Their product is also free from nuts, coconut, soy, and other allergens.

I had the chance to try soft serve made with Eclipse Foods’ dairy during the Good Food Conference this year and thought it was overall quite good. While the flavor was almost there — it was a bit too salty and lacked the pure neutral fattiness of dairy — the texture was spot on. The soft serve was smooth and super creamy, without the iciness that often comes with plant-based ice cream.

The flavor issue might be irrelevant for now, since I’m not sure exactly how much people will actually taste Eclipse’s dairy base underneath the bold flavors of Oddfellow’s Miso Cherry and Humphrey Slocombe’s Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Given this initial partnership, Eclipse seems to be following the Impossible sales model, starting out with high-end B2B partnerships. Impossible debuted at David Chang’s lauded Momofuku restaurant, which instantly rocketed the product to fame. Eclipse is launching with two similarly trendy brands, ones known to attract droves of Instagram-ing hipsters who can start some buzz around the new brand.

This launch will be a test to see if Eclipse can follow Impossible in other ways. Can it reinvent the plant-based dairy space like Impossible reinvented plant-based meat? Or will it just be the flavor of the month?

Photo: Nestlé

Protein ’round the web

  • Nestlé is partnering with food and biochemical company Corbion to develop microalgae ingredients for use in plant-based foods.
  • Starting this week, Chicago-based Giordano’s is offering plant-based sausage from Impossible Foods as an add-on topping fo all of its orders nationwide.
  • Speaking of Impossible, taqueria chain Dos Toros is offering Impossible beef in all 21 of its NYC and Chicago locations.
  • Mooala, maker of dairy-free milks and creamers, announced it has closed a $8.3 million Series A funding round.

That’s it from me this week.

Eat well,
Catherine

Dairy Farmers of America Brand Launches First Ever Blended Milk Product: 50% Dairy, 50% Plants

If you’re like me, you might have an entire arsenal of milks — plant-based and otherwise — in your fridge.

Apparently, I’m not alone. Nearly 50 percent of consumers buy both plant-based dairy and old-fashioned cow juice. To answer that demand, last week, Minnesota-based Live Real Farms debuted a product meant to replace the entire dairy shelf. Their new Dairy + Blends are 50 percent dairy milk, 50 percent almond or oat milk.

“This is the first-ever milk blend,” Rachel Kylo, Live Real Farms’ SVP of Growth & Innovation, told me over the phone. They began developing the product a year ago, aiming to make something with the nutty flavor of oat or almond milk with the creamy texture and higher protein content of dairy. All of the blends are lactose-free.

Live Real Farms began testing Dairy + Blends in the Minneapolis market in late June. The blended product will roll out to more areas later on this fall through retail partner HEB, as well as certain Targets. The suggested retail price is $3.49-$4.49 for a half-gallon, which is slightly more expensive than conventional, non-organic cow milk but on par with many almond and oat alternatives.

This might be the first blended milk product, but startups and major corporations alike are already experimenting with other blended animal products — namely meat. The primary arguments for blended meat are a) environmental impact, and b) nutrition. By cutting the amount of meat in, say, a burger with plants, companies can make a product that has a small(er) environmental footprint and also less cholesterol, saturated fat, etc. Tyson’s forthcoming Raised + Rooted line features a beef burger blended with plant protein, and startup Better Meat Co. has developed a vegan protein intended to blend with pork.

According to Kylo, however, the main reason consumers are embracing plant-based milk is taste. They value the nutty flavors of alternative milk but also want the creaminess and nutritional profile of regular milk. That may certainly be one motivation, but it conveniently leaves out environmental or ethical arguments for getting off of moo juice.

It’s not surprising that Live Real Farms steers very clear of mentioning the environmental impacts of dairy farming. The brand is a subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a milk marketing collective made up of 8,000 family farms.

Regardless of the PR schtick, the fact that a brand owned by DFA is launching a blended milk product is significant. It shows that milk alternatives are here to stay. Farmers may be trying to beat back their progress with labeling laws, but they clearly acknowledge that their popularity is not only inevitable, but is also a lucrative business opportunity. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

DFA is exploring multiple ways to bolster milk sales amid a recent decline in the U.S. dairy industry. Just a few months ago the organization launched an accelerator program to incubate young dairy-focused startups and bring new technologies to the agricultural industry.

“The idea that people are either in the dairy or plant-based alternative camp is not the case,” Kylo told me. (Vegans excluded, presumably.) With the Dairy + Blends line, Real Live Farms is betting that consumers’ recent interest in milk alternatives is not just a stopover on their way to cutting out cow milk completely.

Live Real Farms is sending me some samples of their new Dairy + Blends, so check back in soon to read my product review.

Perfect Day Launches Ice Cream Made from Cow-Free Milk, and We Tried It

Since we first heard about Perfect Day, the Silicon Valley startup making dairy without animals, we’ve been eagerly waiting to see what their first product would be.

That time has finally come. Today Perfect Day is doing a limited release of three ice cream flavors made with its cow-free dairy. They’re selling 1,000 orders of an ice cream trio that includes a pint each of dry ice-packed Vanilla Blackberry Toffee, Milky Chocolate, and Vanilla Salted Fudge. The cost will be $20 per pint (so $60 total) plus shipping. That’s pretty significant, but compared to some of the fancier plant-based ice creams out there, it isn’t completely outrageous — especially when you consider the level of tech that went into making Perfect Day’s product.

Perfect Day makes its dairy by genetically modifying microflora to produce the two main proteins in milk: casein and whey. They combine the dried proteins with plant fats, water, vitamins and minerals to make a lactose-free product that has the same properties — taste, consistency, and nutritional breakdown — of milk.

Far left, plant-based ice cream. Perfect Day’s ice cream in the middle and right. (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit Perfect Day’s labs and give their ice cream a taste. Co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya laid out three ice cream samples for me to try: two were theirs, and one was from an unnamed plant-based dairy company.

After I tasted the first bite, I could tell immediately which of the three were Perfect Day’s; they tasted just like ice cream. Creamy and smooth, I was almost surprised how much it didn’t surprise me at all. All I could think was “yep, that’s ice cream.”

According to Pandya, the company landed on ice cream as their first product because it’s “synonymous with dairy delight,” and because there’s not a really good plant-based option for ice cream on the market right now. “They all lack the right mouthfeel,” he said. Perfect Day’s, however, exactly copied the experience of eating a spoonful of ice cream — without the odd iciness or aftertaste that can come with plant-based alternatives.

Left: Perfect Day’s protein alone. Right: Mixed with water and fat to make “milk.” (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

In tandem with their new product launch, Perfect Day is also doing a rebrand of sorts. They’re now calling their core product “flora-based” dairy, as the milk proteins are made by genetically engineered microflora, not plants or lab-grown cells. “We want people to know it’s plant-based but not from plants, it’s an animal product but without animals,” Pandya explained.

Since it doesn’t come from an animal, the company has to be careful about how they refer to the ice cream on its packaging. To avoid ruffling the FDA’s feathers, the flora-based ice cream will actually be labeled “frozen dairy dessert.” Pandya pointed out the importance of keeping the “dairy” term in there for safety, as Perfect Day’s milk would trigger dairy allergies just like the stuff made by cows.

Perfect Day’s master plan is to focus on B2B sales and provide their dairy technology to large CPG companies in order to “make the greatest change possible,” according to Pandya. However, they decided to do this initial launch under their own brand to get their name out there and establish the legitimacy of their product. Eventually they envision partners putting “powered by Perfect Day” on their packaging.

Photo: Perfect Day.

In short, Perfect Day wants to become synonymous with their animal-free milk. And they might actually have a good chance. Startup New Culture is also creating dairy proteins through fermentation, though they’re still a ways away from being able to do a product launch. Of course there are all the plant-based dairy competitors, from oat milk to almond milk and beyond. But while some of these options do a pretty good job of imitating dairy, they can’t hope to have the exact same nutrition, taste, and physical properties of milk. Perfect Day can.

Ice cream — er, frozen dairy dessert — is just the start. Pandya told me that they’re working on dozens of prototypes. Just the other week I saw an Instagram post from the company featuring bagels topped with cream cheese made from their dairy. So far the startup has raised $61 million in funding and has a staff of 60.

Today’s release is a one-time deal. Pandya said Perfect Day’s ice cream will be more widely available in 2020, either through partners or under their own brand. Based off of my taste test, I think their technology has the potential to (and I hate this word, but it fits here) disrupt the way that we make and consume dairy alternatives. If you want to try Perfect Day’s flora-based ‘scream for yourself, you can order it starting now on their website.

Perfect Day co-founder Perumal Gandhi will be speaking about forging the future of protein at the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) in Seattle this fall! Early Bird tickets are on sale here. 

Oatly Brought the Oat Milk Craze to America. Now They’re Hustling Not to Lose Their Grip

Chances are if you’re going to a fancy coffee shop, you’ll have the option to swap the cow’s milk in your latte for almond, soy, or oat milk.

If you haven’t heard of the last option, you’re kind of behind the times (don’t worry, that was me until recently). Oat milk is on a path to soon usurp almond milk as the top alterna-milk in coffee shops around the U.S. According to Nielsen, oat milk sales grew by 50 percent from 2017 to 2018, while almond milk sales grew only 11 percent.

Oat milk lovers can thank one company in particular for kickstarting the oat milk craze to the U.S. Ironically, they’re from Sweden.

Founded in 1994 in Malmo, Oatly was developed by brothers Bjorn and Rickard Oste, who were looking for a sustainable alternative to dairy milk. They began experimenting with oats and later patented their oat milk production process. In 2001 they launched a consumer-facing brand.

Oatly may have been around quite a while, but recently it has been experiencing meteoric growth. When I spoke to Bjorn Oste on the phone (who’s now on the board of Oatly’s parent company), he told me it took the company 18 years to reach a billion kronor (~$104 million) in sales. In the past year, they’ve doubled that number.

Oatly’s sales really started to climb when they made their way into the U.S. in 2016. They originally started out in coffee shops, but now their business is split 50/50 between cafés and retail. Oatly products are now in over U.S. 1,500 grocery stores including Whole Foods and Target. It’s also in over 2,500 coffee shops.

Unsurprisingly, Oatly’s explosive uptick in sales has brought its fair share of problems. The company is currently struggling with product shortages. To address this demand, Oatly — which is so secretive about its technology it doesn’t like to outsource production to copackers — recently cut the ribbon on a plant in New Jersey: its first in the U.S. They’re already building another plant in Utah set to open early next year.

“When we launched [in the U.S.] it was very hard to predict growth,” said Oste. “It’s been a shocking reception.” In fact, Oste told me that the non-dairy market is actually bigger here than in Oatly’s native Europe.

Photo: Oatly.

Oatly’s entrance into the U.S. was also strategically timed to take advantage of the growing alternative protein market. “We’re seeing a paradigm shift towards plant-based consumption,” Mike Messersmith, General Manager of Oatly, told me over the phone. He explained that Oatly waited to enter the U.S. until they thought that the market was strong enough to support their product.

And strong it is. Nielsen data indicates that sales of plant-based milk beverages rose 9 percent in 2017-18 and took in $1.6 billion. This growth is driven by flexitarians who are eschewing dairy milk for health or environmental reasons. Oatly is lactose-free and also friendly for those with nut allergies. It’s also markedly more sustainable than dairy from a cow and also takes much less water than almond milk, which attracts ethically-motivated Gen Z and millennial consumers.

As always in the alternative protein space, taste is king. A product can be sustainable as all get out, but if it doesn’t taste delicious in your coffee or poured over your cereal, it’s not going to make it. “Customers want to choose plant-based options without feeling like they’re compromising,” Messersmith said. With its creamy, latté art-friendly milk, Oatly seems to have nailed the taste and texture aspects.

Other companies are quickly trying to cash in on oat milk’s popularity. PepsiCo launched its own line of the beverage through Quaker Oats, and major brands like Califia Farms are also selling the oaty drink.

I haven’t taste tested every oat milk out there, but judging purely from what I’ve seen Oatly truly does seem to have at least the coffee shop market cornered (when it’s in stock). According to Oste, they have an advantage because unlike other companies, they have complete control of the entire production system. They even have founded a company which creates new non-GMO oat varieties that have higher protein and fat contents.

Oatly doesn’t seem to have any interest in making an “Almondly” or “Soyly,” either. Oste told me that over the years retailers had asked them to expand their repertoire and branch out into other milk alternatives, but he wasn’t tempted. “Pretty much anyone can make soy or almond milk,” he said. But when it comes to oat milk, “[we] own the space.”

For now, that might be true. Now Oatly has to ramp up production to maintain customer loyalty. With their first U.S. factory newly up and running and their second underway, it seems like they’ll be able to.

Next up, Oste hinted that the company might bring some of their other oat-filled products — like ice cream, savory spreads, and heavy cream — to the U.S. With the dairy-free ice cream market alone projected to hit $1 billion by 2024, I’d say that’s a pretty smart move.

GFI: Investment in Plant-Based Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Hits $16 Billion, No Sign of Slowing

Today the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit promoting alternatives to conventional animal agriculture products, released a report on the state of investment in plant- and cell-based meat and dairy companies. You can download the report and read it in full, but here’s the main takeaway: the alternative protein space is on a massive upward trend, with record amounts of capital invested and high rates of new companies and acquisitions.

While it’s important to be aware of the author here — GFI has a clear agenda to promote alternative protein products — the numbers (below) are convincing. And also, not all that surprising. In fact, it’s in line with what we’ve been reporting all year.

Data from the report shows that alternative protein investment began experiencing a real boom in the past 2.5 years. Of the $16 billion invested in plant-based meat, egg, and dairy companies over the past 10 years, GFI reports that $13 billion of that occurred in 2017 and 2018 alone. We can attribute that to a corresponding increase in consumer demand for plant-based food options, specifically dairy and meat, spurred by trendy startups making tasty-in-their-own-right products like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and Oatly oat milk.

There has also been an uptick in acquisitions of plant-based companies: of the 19 acquisitions in the space since 2009, 10 happened in 2017-18. That number could certainly increase as Big Food companies decide to invest more heavily in alternative protein sources (Unilever purchasing The Vegetarian Butcher; Maple Leaf Foods buying Lightlife and Field Roast). Beyond’s over-performing IPO could also entice these big corporations to spend big bucks.

However, acquisition isn’t the only way to get a bigger piece of the plant-based pie, especially going forward. For example, Tyson decided to end its investment in Beyond Meat to focus on developing its own line of plant-based products. And with its aforementioned successful IPO, Beyond has proven that acquisition isn’t the only end game for alternative protein companies.

The reports also covered investment and growth in the cell-based meat space, though products in that space have yet to come to market so there’s less going on overall. GFI notes that a whopping 11 new cultured meat companies were founded in 2018, bringing the total number of companies to 27. Of course, none of those companies have actually made a public sale. But 2019 might be the year that JUST finally makes good on its promise and brings cell-based meat to market — keep your eyes on Asia.

The plant-based/cell-based investment space isn’t about to cool anytime soon. So far in 2019 Shiok Meats, the Singaporean startup developing cultured shrimp, has raised $4.6 million, Singapore is investing over $100 million in cell-based meat (and other food innovations), and plant-based dairy company Eclipse Foods also closed a seed round. Add in Beyond Meat’s wildly successful IPO and it’s no wonder investors are scrambling to throw money at the alternative protein space. And it’s only May.

You can download the full report here.

Psst — want to stay up to date on all the investment trends in the protein alternative space? You’ve gotta subscribe to our Future Food newsletter — we cover it all. 

Introducing Future Food: Our Alternative Protein Newsletter

Have you checked what’s in your hamburger recently? It might be plant-based, made with “bloody” heme, or even grown in a bioreactor. (Just kidding — that last one isn’t here yet. But it will be soon.)

We’re fascinated by the fast-evolving alternative protein space. And clearly, so are you: the plant-based food industry increased by 20 percent in 2018, and is worth over $4.1 billion. In the cell-based (also called cultured) space, companies are doing everything from cheese to steak without the animal.

That’s why we decided it was timely and relevant to devote an entire newsletter to the topic of alternative protein products: meat, sure, but also eggs, dairy, bugs, seaweed, etc. It’s called Future Food, and this is the very first one!

We hope you like it. If so, you should sign up for the Future Food newsletter to get it in your inbox every Thursday. Now, to the news…

Photo: Beyond Meat.

Last week Beyond Meat, the El Segundo, California-based startup making plant-based burgers, chicken, sausage, and more, set the terms of its IPO.

The numbers were pretty eye-popping: the company could raise as much as $184 million, and might be valued at a whopping $1.2 billion. Beyond’s sales are also going through the roof, with revenues almost tripling from 2017 to 2018.
Whether Beyond Meat’s impending IPO fails or succeeds will be a be a sort of canary in the coal mine for the plant-based meat industry. It’s set to go public in early May, so keep an eye on this newsletter for ongoing analysis.

But all is not rosy in Beyond’s world right now. News broke that Tyson Foods had parted ways with the plant-based meat startup and sold its 6.5% stake, just days before Beyond goes public.

The news wasn’t shocking, since Tyson had recently announced plans of its own to get into the plant-based protein game. And we all know it’s bad practice to compete with a portfolio company. We analyzed the full reasonings behind Tyson’s exit — as well as the potential effects the move might have on Beyond’s IPO — here.

Photo: Stewart Butterfield via Flickr.

People are abuzz with excitement over cell-based meat: that is, meat that’s grown outside the animal. But we’re still not sure what it will be called, when it will come to market, or where it’ll first launch.

I have a theory, though: Asia. Specifically Hong Kong. Recently I explored the reasons why Asia is an ideal launch pad for cultured meat, from regulation to consumer interest. Feel free to @ me if you disagree.

Photo: A burger topped with a prototype of plant-based bacon grown on Ecovative’s mycelium.

A big struggle for all meat alternative companies — both plant-based and cell-based — is texture. They can do burgers, sure. But steak? That’s a lot more of a challenge.

Ecovative, a biotech company in New York, is growing scaffolds for meat alternatives out of mycelium. For all you non-mycologists out there, that basically means mushroom roots.

This method is cheap, quick, and scalable. But will it be enough to make animal-free steak that can fool even the most discerning of carnivores?

Photo: Meringues made with animal-free egg whites from Clara Foods.

But there’s a lot more going on in the protein alternatives world than just meat:

  • Clara Foods, a startup developing chicken-less egg white proteins with genetically engineered microbes, just raised an undisclosed Series B financing round led by ingredient giant Ingredion. They’re hoping to have a product to market as early as 2020.
  • Using a similar technology, New Culture is creating milk without the cow. Their end game is to make animal-free mozzarella cheese that tastes as creamy as the real thing.
  • There’s a nascent group of startups creating proteins not out of plants, sugar, or animal cells — but out of thin air. For real. Called ‘gas fermentation,’ the only inputs are electricity and air, making it a prime candidate for space travel.

Photo: Nestle.

Protein ’round the web

  • Eater L.A.: Los Angeles restaurants are using Impossible’s “bleeding” plant-based meat for a lot more than burgers. Think: taquitos, dumplings, and even tartare.
  • Beyond Meat is BBBTB: Bringing the Beyond Burger to Belgium. And the company is going Dutch with an expansion into the Netherlands.
  • Mcdonald’s Germany has chosen Nestlé’s Incredible burger for its vegan option.

    • I’m off! If you enjoyed this newsletter, be sure to subscribe here (it’s easy) and we’ll send it to you every Thursday. See you next week.

    Eat well,
    Catherine

    Eclipse Foods Wants to Become the Impossible Foods of Plant-Based Dairy

    When it comes to plant-based alternatives, the dairy sector is lagging woefully behind: there’s a plethora of pretty amazing plant-based sausages and burgers, but most plant-based dairy products still taste like a compromise.

    A new Bay Area-based company called Eclipse Foods is trying to change that by creating a line of animal-free products made with a new proprietary plant-based milk that they think could disrupt the dairy industry.

    Rather than just “milking” nuts or oats, however, Steinhart and Bowman are developing a new type of plant-based milk that has micelles, or microscopic structures that help their product mimic the real thing. In addition to having a more milk-like flavor, their product is apparently more versatile than other alternatives out there and can be used to make a wide range of dairy products.

    “Basically, we want to become the Impossible Foods of dairy,” co-founder and CEO Aylon Steinhart told me over the phone. Meaning: they want to make plant-based dairy delicious enough that even non-vegans want to eat it. “We won’t change the world without getting flexitarians on board,” explained Steinhart. “The mainstream has to want it.”

    Eclipse Foods cream cheese on a bagel.

    Steinhart wouldn’t disclose exactly what kind of dairy alternatives Eclipse would be making, but said that they were currently developing roughly a dozen prototypes based off of their next-gen milk. He mentioned ice cream, cream cheese, and sour cream.

    I haven’t tried their products yet so I can’t speak to the taste, but Eclipse Foods seems to be coming along at just the right time. First of all, the demand for plant-based protein is sky-high and on the rise. According to research firm Nielsen, alternative protein sales increased by 20 percent in 2018. Plant-based milk sales increased by 9 percent, and sales of other plant-based dairy products (yogurt, ice cream, etc.) grew by a whopping 50 percent.

    Unlike meat alternatives, however, there haven’t been clear front-runners in the plant-based dairy space. Sure, big producers like Danon and Chobani have launched their own products, as have bigger startups like Ripple Foods, but from my tasting experience at least, none of them have been able to tempt me away from the real thing. In fact, some are actually pretty bad.

    Steinhart is aware of this hole in the market. “There’s no product that truly appeals to the mainstream,” he explained to me. He hopes that Eclipse will make that product.

    Looking at the pedigree of the two co-founders, the company does seem to have a good chance of making products that actually taste good. Steinhart’s co-founder Thomas Bowman is a James Beard Award-nominated chef who helped develop plant-based mayo, cookie dough, and more for JUST (formerly Hampton Creek); Steinhart worked in biz dev for alternative protein nonprofit the Good Food Institute.

    Steinhart said it was too soon to say when their products will be available, or how much they will cost. He also wasn’t sure if they would launch in retail, restaurants, or both. To truly follow the Impossible model, Eclipse Foods would have to start selling their goods in high-end restaurants before moving into fast food, and, eventually, grocery stores.

    Eclipse Foods was only officially incorporated in January of 2019, so it’s quite young. They’re also part of the prestigious Y Combinator 2019 Winter Class. Steinhart and Bowman are currently Eclipse Foods’ only full-time employees, but they’re about to embark on a hiring spree. Steinhart told me that the company had closed their seed round but wouldn’t disclose details.

    All of Eclipse’s plant-based innovation might be rendered moot when startup Perfect Day releases their animal-free dairy made using fermentation. After all, no matter how good an alternative is it’s hard to make it taste as good as — or act just like — the real thing. But until then, there’s room for someone to disrupt the dairy market like Impossible did with meat. And that someone just might be Eclipse Foods.

    Perfect Day Partners with ADM to Scale up Production of Cow-Free Dairy

    Perfect Day, the startup which makes milk without the animal, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with global food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).

    The two forged a Joint Development Agreement to scale up implementation of Perfect Day‘s tech, which uses fermentation to create dairy proteins without any involvement from a cow. Their initial product will be an animal-free whey protein

    By taking advantage of ADM existing fermentation infrastructure, Berkeley-based Perfect Day is expecting to scale up and gain price parity with conventional whey protein relatively quickly. They plan to enter the market within the next few years.

    Eager customers might not have to wait that long to try animal-free dairy, however. A statement from the founders revealed that Perfect Day is currently forming relationships with food & bev companies “big and small” to develop new products with their animal-free dairy, some of which might be available as early as next year.

    Back in March of this year Perfect Day raised $24.7 million, just a month after it received a patent to use their animal-free dairy tech in food applications. This announcement comes roughly a year after the startup shifted to a technology as a service model, partnering with food and drink companies in order to scale and bring their goods to market more quickly.

    And wow, did they start off with a big one. As co-founder Perumal Gandhi told us, he wanted Perfect Day’s products to “be national from Day One.” Now, with this ADM partnership, it looks like those ambitions might come true.

    Food Tech News Roundup: Recyclable Meal Kits, KFC Goes Vegan(ish), and a Dairy App

    Time for this week’s food tech news roundup! This week on the Spoon we covered self-heating beverage cans, beer made from surplus bread, and indoor smart grow system Ava’s (one of the Smart Kitchen Summit startup showcase finalists of 2017!) seed funding. We also launched a new podcast episode discussing how machine learning can help dairy farmers.

    But enough about us — here are some of the food tech news stories that caught our eye this week:

    Photo: Marley Spoon

    Marley Spoon files IPO in Australia
    Meal kit subscription service Marley Spoon filed for an initial public offering (IPO) this week in Australia, according to TechCrunch. The company is headquartered in Berlin, but decided to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) because Down Under is one of its biggest markets. Marley Spoon has tried to distinguish itself from competing services like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh through its paid partnership with Martha Stewart and its launch of budget-friendly line Dinnerly. The IPO is expected to give Marley Spoon a market capitalization of $152 million — but we’ll see if it can overcome challenges others like Blue Apron faced post-IPO, and whether Marley Spoon will make the move into retail stores like Hello Fresh, Plated and Home Chef.

    Photo: Purple Carrot

    Purple Carrot unveils 100% curbside recyclable packaging
    Marley Spoon wasn’t the only meal kit company with an announcement this week. Purple Carrot, the plant-based meal kit service, sent out a press release to tell the world about their “new 100% curbside recyclable packaging.” Meal kits may cut down on food waste, but they’re notorious for their packaging waste; even if many elements are technically recyclable they often require a good deal of effort on the consumer’s part to break them down or drive them to a facility capable of processing them. Purple Carrot promises that its new packaging will be 100% fit for at-home recycling — which could be a huge step towards mitigating plastic packaging waste.

     

    Photo: Stellapps

    Gates Foundation invests $14M in dairy tech app
    Last week Stellapps Technologies, the India-based IoT and data analysis stack for the dairy supply chain, raised a $14 million Series B round, as reported by AgFunder News. The round was led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and IndusAge Partners. Founded in 2011, Stellapps uses sensors, machine learning, and automation to optimize the entire dairy supply chain: from production to shipping to distribution. Technology has unlocked a new era of cow and dairy management, with startups like SomaDetect and Connecterra allowing farmers to make more data-driven decisions.

     

    Pixabay

    KFC to test vegetarian fried “chicken” in U.K.
    KFC UK has made promises to cut their calorie content by 20 percent over the next 7 years, and one of the ways they’re working towards this goal is by developing a vegetarian version of their iconic fried chicken. Apparently, the new menu offering will still use the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices that made the Colonel famous, and will debut some time in 2019. This comes on the heels of the plant-based Impossible burger’s launch at White Castle.

     

    Photo: Beyond Meat

    Beyond Meat doubles production to meet increased demand
    This week, plant-based protein company Beyond Meat announced that it would double their production to sate the growing hunger for their plant-based burgers. According to Plant Based News, Beyond burgers are outselling beef burgers in some stores in California, and Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown has said that the company is ahead of their sales targets. All of which means that the demand for meat-like vegan burgers is there, and is growing — the question now becomes if Beyond Meat can keep up with demand, especially as it rolls out in 50 countries this summer.

    Did we miss anything? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

    Podcast: E-I, E-A-I, Oh! Connecterra’s Deep Learning Helps Dairy Farmers

    Don’t call Connecterra a Fitbit for cows. The Amsterdam-based company’s “Ida” product is actually a complex artificial intelligence platform to help diary farmers manage their farms.

    Why does a dairy farmer need AI? Well, until now, a lot of farming practices have been passed down through generations. Today we live in the age of data, so sensors on cows and complex algorithms can help dairy farmers see which of those practices are actually useful, and which need to be changed.

    Connecterra just raised €4.2 million, which seemed like a good reason to sit down with its CEO, Yasir Kokhar, for a fascinating deep dive into the overlap between AI and agtech. We touch on how Ida helps improve animal welfare (early disease detection), dairy farm productivity (improved yield!) and even the lives of dairy farmers themselves (more sleeping)!

    The Automat is The Spoon’s weekly podcast about food-related robots and artificial intelligence. Subscribe to it for the best conversations and insight into how automation is changing the way we eat.

    How Now, No Cow: Animal-Free Dairy Startup PerfectDay Raises $24.7M

    Someone’s moo-ving up in the world.

    PerfectDay, a food startup developing technology to make animal-free milk, just raised $24.7 million in series A funding. This brings their total funding to $26.8 million. The round was led by Temasek, a Singapore state-owned investment company, with participation from Horizon Ventures, Iconiq Capital, and Lion Ventures, among others. Berkeley-based Perfect Day is on a roll: earlier this month, they received a patent to use their animal-free dairy technology in food applications.

    Though it’s been attracting a good bit of attention as of late, PerfectDay has been around for a while. The company launched in 2014 under the name Muufri, but rebranded to PerfectDay in 2016. (Fun fact: The new name comes from a study which found that cows produced more milk when listening to soothing music like the eponymous Lou Reed tune.) They plan to use their new funding to expand their staff (currently 32 people strong) and accelerate commercial marketing of their product with dairy & food companies.

    Unlike other milk alternatives, which are made of plants like soy, almond, or peas, PerfectDay uses fermentation to create the exact same elements found in cow’s milk. Scientists give genetically altered yeast a “blueprint” so that, when fed with certain nutrients, they produce two key proteins in milk: casein and whey.

    The resulting proteins can be used to make lactose-free, gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free milk. They can also be used to make a myriad of dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. While there are plenty of vegan dairy products already on shelves, no cashew cheese or coconut-based gelato will ever taste exactly the same as the dairy original. Products made with PerfectDay’s milk proteins, however, taste just like the “real thing”—after all, the proteins are genetically identical.

    When they first launched, PerfectDay was trying to do two things: create a supply chain for animal-free dairy components and put a single brand of cow-free milk on supermarket shelves. In November of 2017 co-founder Perumal Gandhi announced on LinkedIn that they would shift course to focus on a B2B model, creating a supply chain for animal-free dairy products and partnering with food and drink companies to bring their technology to market.

    And this, in my opinion, is where things start to get really interesting. “Nobody else was working on the supply chain side,” Gandhi told The Spoon. “We started this company to have the largest possible impact on the effects of animal agriculture on our planet, and now we can do that by working with grocery stores across multiple channels. We can be national from Day One.”

     

    Animal-free milk has significantly lower environmental impact than cow’s milk.

    By joining forces with existing food manufacturers, especially large dairy companies, PerfectDay hopes to alter the system from the inside. With the recent trends for vegan products and milk alternatives, this disruption could prove to be pretty profitable—both for PerfectDay and the planet. And given their investors’ connections with large-scale food and beverage brands, PerfectDay will likely be able to commercialize their “milk” protein technology relatively quickly.

    Gandhi said that, while they’re also partnering with smaller, family-owned businesses, they need to team up with big companies to truly change the food industry. He hopes that their lab-grown casein and whey will eventually be like pea protein is today: an ingredient that used to be rare, but is now fairly commonplace in animal-free products.

    The path ahead is not without obstacles. PerfectDay will have to convince consumers that cow-free dairy products can taste and function indistinguishably from traditional dairy, and can be produced at a competitive price. They will also have to figure out what their new products will be called.

    In fact, the PerfectDay team is currently in talks with the FDA to determine what sort of labeling use for their cow-free dairy. Unlike lab-grown meat, which is fighting Big Beef to be able to use “meat” on their labels, Gandhi said that they want to call their product something other than “milk.” “We’re trying to come up with a nomenclature to show the consumer that this is produced in a new way, without animals,” he said. “If we call it milk then we’re not being transparent.” This makes sense, especially if their products are more expensive; people want to know why they’re paying a premium.

    Challenges aside, their technology as a service model has the potential to be hugely successful. By choosing to use a B2B model, PerfectDay will no doubt be able to scale more quickly than with a B2C model. It will be interesting to follow their progress and see how they compare in, say, 5 years with other food tech startups who chose to market directly to consumers.

    If the current trend towards animal protein alternatives continues, PerfectDay will no doubt take home some serious (cow-free) cheddar.