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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food tech news

Food Tech News: Cell-Based Seafood and a New Documentary on Urban Farming

Whether your weekend plans involve golf, Instagram listening parties, or baking yet-another loaf of quarantine bread, add a side dish of food tech news to your agenda to get things started. Here are a final few bits from this past week. 

Call It Cell-Based Seafood

A consumer study by Rutgers University professor William Hallman has found that “cell-based” is the preferred term for describing seafood made from cells grown in a lab. Other labels up for consideration were “cultivated,” “cell-cultured,” “cultured,” and “produced using cellular aquaculture.” The final text of the study, which was funded by BlueNalu, a company in the cell-based fish game, will be published in the near future.

Stop & Shop Launches a Digital Nutrition Program

Joining in the trend of offering nutritionists for grocery shoppers, Stop & Shop this week announced its Nutrition Partners program. The free program will be 100 percent digital at first, connecting shoppers with registered dietitians. It will also offer webinars, recipes, cooking demos, and other nutritional education online. In the event we ever make it out of the pandemic, the program will eventually be available in-person.

JUST Heads to Canada

JUST, makers of the plant-based egg that uses mung bean as its main protein, announced its expansion into Canadian grocery stores. According to an email sent to The Spoon, the company will launch its frozen folded egg product in Whole Foods and Walmart stores in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Ottawa. JUST is also working with regulators to bring its pourable egg product into Canada, too.

2-Min Trailer for "Hearts of Glass – A Vertical Farm Takes Root in Wyoming"

Watch: New Documentary Follows Urban Farm Workers With Disabilities

A new documentary, “Heart of Glass,” will air on over 200 TV stations this month to coincide the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (July 26). The film details the story behind the creation of Wyoming indoor vertical farm Vertical Harvest, which provides employment for persons with disabilities. Check the trailer above and mark your calendars.

Food Tech News: Grubmarket Acquires Boston Organics, Surplus Food App Karma Pivots to Delivery

Here are some things that have been making us feel good lately: pancakes on weekdays, video calls with family, and foodtech news.

We can’t help you with the first two, but we’ve got the latest lineup of foodtech-y stories ready to go. This week we rounded up stories about grocery e-commerce acquisitions, food waste service pivots, and curbside grocery pickup.

Grubmarket acquires Boston Organics
Grocery delivery service Grubmarket announced its acquisition of Boston Organics, an online farm-to-table delivery service, earlier this week. Boston Organics is the first east coast foothold for Grubmarket, which is based in San Francisco. According to a press release this acquisition is part of Grubmarket’s plans to expand nationwide. Over the past year alone, Grubmarket has acquired other artisanal grocery delivery services Doorganics and Eating with the Seasons.

Weis Market and Hannaford restart curbside grocery pickup
East coast grocery chains Weis Markets and Hannaford have restarted their curbside pickup services (via GroceryDive). Both retailers hit pause on curbside pickup in March as COVID-19 started spreading rapidly, but are resuming the service to cater to customers who want to avoid crowds in grocery stores. To minimize contact, cstomers are asked to remain in their vehicles during the pickup and store employees will not accept cash or paper coupons. Both grocers have stated that some items might not be available due to high demand.

Photo: Karma.

Surplus food resale platform Karma pivots to delivery + food boxes
Before COVID-19, Sweden-based startup Karma’s platform partnered with restaurants to sell their surplus food for pickup at a discount. Now, with many foodservice establishments struggling or closing down altogether, Verdict reports that Karma has pivoted to delivery. The service provides its own drivers to deliver cooked restaurant meals, priced at half off, to customers who place an order on the app. Deliveries are available on weekdays up until 7pm, within a 3km radius of the restaurant. Karma is also launching Karma Box, a fruit and vegetable box sourced from their foodservice partners.

Food Tech News: Synthetic “Wine,” Peach Raises Funds for Office Lunch Delivery

The Spoon team is packing their bags for New York, where we’ll be for next week’s Customize summit! If you’re interested in the effect that personalization will have on the food system — in CPG, grocery, nutrition and the home kitchen — you should really join us. Good news! Spoon readers can snag one of the last remaining tickets for 15 percent off with code SPOON15.

But first, let’s catch up on some intriguing food tech tidbits from the week. Our latest dispatch includes stories on office lunch delivery fundraises, a new AI accelerator, and synthetic wine grown in a lab. Enjoy!

Endless West debuts synthetic “wine” and “sake”
Two years ago Endless West came out with Glyph, a spirit that’s constructed on a molecular level to taste like whiskey, without the aging. This week the San Francisco-based startup unveiled two new products: molecular wine and sake. The products, which are made in a lab, don’t contain any grapes — instead, they consist only of water, ethanol, and chemical compounds which mimic the flavors and aromas of the beverages. If you’re curious, you can buy Endless West’s first wine and sake products on their website.

Danone and Microsoft team up for AI accelerator
CPG giant Danone and Microsoft announced the launch of AI Factory for Agrifood, a startup accelerator targeting early-stage companies working on sustainable food and beverage projects (via FoodNavigator). The program is part of Microsoft’s AI Factory, so it will focus on companies leveraging AI. Target projects include regenerative agriculture, food waste reduction and supply chain optimization. Applications have closed and selections will be announced on March 6.

Photo: Peach

Office lunch delivery company Peach raises $5 million
A new SEC filing reveals that Peach, the Seattle-based startup offering discounted office lunch delivery, has raised $5 million as part of a larger round (h/t Geekwire). The company, which was founded in 2014, has raised $15.75 million thus far. This news comes two years after Peach cut a third of its staff in an attempt reach profitability.


Food Tech News: KFC Canada Partners with Alexa, Blockchain and a New Peanut Allergy Drug

Pat yourself on the back — you made it to February. We’re in the thick of winter and here at The Spoon we’re busier than ever reporting on news and prepping for our Customize food personalization summit (you’re coming, right?)

But there’s always time for food tech news! Here are a few interesting stories from around the web this week: an Alexa skill that lets you talk to Colonel Sanders, food safety blockchain, e-grocery funding and a new peanut allergy drug. Enjoy!

KFC Canada unveils new Alexa skill
This week KFC Canada announced a new Alexa skill which allows users to chat with and reorder fried chicken from… the Colonel himself. The fast food chain teamed up with AWS to develop the skill, which uses AI to turn text into speech that sounds like the voice of Colonel Sanders. According to a release from KFC Canada, KFC is the first global QSR to use this text-to-speech technology. 

Photo: Neogen

Neogen partners with riope.io for food safety blockchain
Neogen Corporation, an international food safety company, is partnering with blockchain-for-food startup Ripe Technology (creators of ripe.io). Neogen will use ripe.io to create a blockchain to track food safety diagnostics and animal genomics for their customers. The company hopes that incorporating blockchain will help customers verify the authenticity of their food products and lead to increased transparency and traceability. 

FDA approves drug for peanut allergies
Those who suffer from life-threatening peanut allergies may soon be able to breathe a little easier. US health regulators have approved the first ever drug for peanut allergies. Called Palforzia, the oral drug works by slowly ramping up exposure of peanut protein to desensitize allergy sufferers. It’s specifically meant for children and teenagers.

E-grocery Supermercato24 raises €11 million (~$12.1 USD)
Supermercato24, a Milan-based e-grocery marketplace, announced that it had raised  €11 million (~$12.1 million USD), bringing its total funding to €28.4 million ($31.2 million USD) (via EU Startups). The round was led by DIP with participation from current investors 360 Capital Partners, Innogest and more. On Supermercato’s online platform, users can shop for groceries from local supermarkets, which will then be delivered to their door. With its new funds, Supermercato24 will expand its operations throughout Italy and Poland, where it’s already available, and grow into new countries. 

Food Tech News: Longer-Lasting Strawberries and Plant-Based Meatballs

The holiday limbo is over and we at The Spoon are preparing to jet off to CES to report on cool kitchen and food tech. If you’re there, be sure to say hi — and get your ticket to attend Food Tech Live, if you haven’t already!

Before we head to the airport it’s time to share a few food news stories from around the web. Enjoy, and be sure to follow along on social media to keep up to date on all the CES food tech news!

USDA unveils longer-lasting strawberry
You know how when you pick up a pint of strawberries at the store they seem to start molding before you even get home? That’s not the case with a new strawberry variety developed by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. According to Food Dive, the new fruit, called “Keepsake,” lasts longer than the average berry while kept in cold storage (AKA your fridge). The new berry is being distributed in Redding, California but could adapt to climates in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S.

Photo: Subway

Good news for sub sandwich-loving flexitarians across the pond. This week Subway announced it would add the Meatless Meatball Marinara sanwich to all of its locations in the U.K. and Ireland (h/t VegNews). The chain began testing the meatless sandwich in that region in October, just a month after Subway in the U.S. piloted a meatless meatball sub of its own made with Beyond Meat.

Swiss coffee trading company Algrano raises $4.04 million
This week Algrano, a Swiss company which trades green coffee, raised 4 million Swiss Francs (~$4.04 million USD), according to Daily Coffee News. Algrano has a digital platform connecting coffee producers and roasters to create a traceable marketplace for unroasted coffee beans. The company raised an additional $2 million roughly 18 months ago.

Food Tech News: KitKats Sweetened with Upcycled Cocoa Pods, QFC Sells Produce Grown In-Store

As the days get colder and shorter and darker and rainier (thanks, Seattle), I turn to my favorite winter pastime: baking. Considering all the holiday cookie collections that came out this week — especially the New York Times and Food52 — I think this weekend will be one for the books.

But cookie guides aren’t the only food-centric news that happened this week. There are also stories about Nestlé sweetening KitKats with upcycled cocoa pods, Starship’s newest university partner, QFC launching produce grown in-store, and more. Read on to get the highlights.

Nestlé Japan launches Cacao Fruit Chocolate
This week Nestlé Japan launched its so-called “Cacao Fruit Chocolate,” its first chocolate — a KitKat — made with powdered cacao pulp as a substitute for sugar. Back in July, the Swiss company announced it had developed a way to upcycle cacao pods, which are typically wasted, to replace sugar in chocolate candy bars. Now Nestlé is bringing the initial product using this new sweetener to market. The new KitKat will be available at KitKat Chocolatory stores (I want to go to there) and online.

QFC sells first store-grown produce
Talk about locally grown. This week two QFC grocery stores in the Seattle area started selling produce — lettuce, kale, and assorted herbs — grown on Infarm vertical farming units within their stores. The greens were planted in a distribution center in Seattle then transferred to the individual stores, where they retailed for $2.99 per bunch. According to FoodDive, thirteen more QFC stores will add Infarm grow cases after the holidays.

Starship bots roll onto UT Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas welcomed a fleet of Starship autonomous delivery robots onto campus this week. According to CBS DFW, the robots will deliver food and groceries to students in a three-mile radius of campus and will charge $1-2 per order. In addition to UT Dallas, Starship’s ‘bots already operate on-campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Houston, Purdue, George Mason University, and Northern Arizona University, and were recently pulled from the University of Pittsburgh after an accessibility incident.

Air New Zealand pilots edible coffee cups
In an attempt to reduce waste, Air New Zealand is trialing edible cups to customers both in-flight and on the ground (via NZ Herald). The airline already uses compostable cups, but those still end up in a landfill (although they break down much more quickly than styrofoam cups). The new vanilla-flavored cups are made by the New Zealand company twiice, and can be used for coffee or as an edible dessert bowl.

Food Tech News: UK Grocery Stores Sell Discounted Food and Grey Goose Meal Kits

You’ve made it through Thanksgiving. By this time you’re probably working your way through a fridgeful of leftovers (turkey pot pie FTW) and turning your eyes towards the next holiday, whatever that may be for you.

This past week may have been short, but it was still a busy one for food tech news. Here are a few stories that caught our interest from around the web, including a new grocery food waste initiative, some extreme holiday sweaters, a Grey Goose prepared meal kit and more, Enjoy!

Morrisons sells discounted food through Too Good to Go in UK
Starting this week, consumers can purchase discounted food past its “best before” date from all UK supermarket Morrisons (h/t Bristol Post). The service is available through app Too Good to Go, where people can purchase mystery boxes of fruit, vegetables, bakery and deli items worth at least £10 for as little as £3.09. The contents won’t be revealed until they pick up the boxes from the supermarket. Morrisons has trialed the service at select stores but it will now be rolled out to all 494 locations in the U.K.

Tofurky to sell cheeky holiday sweaters
Looking for something to wear to an ugly holiday sweater party? You might want to consider this latest offering from Tofurky. The alternative meat company recently unveiled two holiday sweaters with a tongue-in-cheek social justice bent. One encourages people to “Say Yum” to a plant-based diet, while the other wishes people a “merry and politically air-tight” holiday. The sweaters cost $34.99 and all of the proceeds will go to non-profit WildAid.

Grey Goose launches prepared meal kit for holiday season
Vodka brand Grey Goose has partnered with Cocktail Courier and Cooked to create a prepared meal kit intended specifically for the holiday season (via MarketingDive). Called “Holiday Dinner by Grey Goose,” the kit has chickens, potatoes, carrots, salsa, and, of course, a bottle of Grey Goose vodka with cocktail fixings. It costs $200 and is meant to feed eight people, so the price not actually absurd. ($20 of each kit is donated to Meals on Wheels.) If you want to get lazy on holiday cooking, you have until December 31 to order the kits off of the Cocktail Courier website.

Starbucks in Japan to eliminate plastic straws
This week Starbucks in Japan announced it would eliminate single-use plastic straws from all 1,500 stores nationwide next year (h/t QSR Magazine). The chain will start offering paper straws with its iced beverages in select stores in January 2020, and will roll them out to all locations across Japan by May. No word yet on whether Japanese Starbucks will eventually embrace the strawless plastic lid currently used in U.S. locations.

Food Tech News: 7-Eleven Delivery via Voice and Air Fryer Meal Kits

Thanksgiving week is upon us, which means you might be spending this weekend procuring your bird, cleaning out the fridge, and making seating diagrams. Or, ya know, just doing stomach stretches to prep for a full day of friends, family and feasting.

In between your preparations, catch up this week’s food tech news. Here are a few stories the piqued our interest from ’round the web this week, including new voice ordering tech for 7-Eleven, Drinkworks home bar partnerships, and a new air fryer meal kit. Enjoy!

7-Eleven adds voice ordering capabilities to its delivery app
This week 7-Eleven launched 7Voice, which lets people place delivery orders for the chain’s 7NOW delivery app via voice-controlled Google Home and Amazon Echo systems. According to a press release from the company users have to tell their voice assistant to open the 7NOW Delivery app, after which they can speak their order, which will then be delivered in 30 minutes or less from their nearest 7-Eleven location. No word if 7Voice will sync with other voice assistants like Microsoft’s Cortana down the road.

Territory Foods expands meal delivery service
Meal delivery service Territory Foods is now available in three new markets: NYC, Philadelphia, and Houston. The company sends users fresh, pre-prepared meals specifically tailored for their diets, from vegan to keto. All of the meals are gluten- and dairy-free. According to a press release emailed to The Spoon, Territory Foods currently operates in seven markets including San Francisco and Washington, DC and has plans to expand even further in 2020.

Peapod and Gina Homolka of Skinnytaste Collaborate on First Meal Kit for Air Fryer

Peapod co-creates meal kit for air fryer
Online grocer Peapod has teamed up with cookbook author Gina Homolka to create a limited-time meal kit meant to be prepared with an air fryer. The recipe comes from Homolka’s cookbook, which entirely consists of dishes made using the trendy appliance. The new meal kit is available to Peapod users in Chicago area as well as in select grocery stores in NYC and mid-Atlantic areas. 

Drinkworks and Brown-Forman to develop co-branded cocktails
Wine and spirits company Brown-Forman and beverage innovation company Drinkworks announced they would be partnering to develop signature cocktails for the Drinkworks Home Bar system. The first selection of cocktails will be available in mid-2020. After that, owners of the home bar can create classic drinks, like margaritas and manhattans, all made with Brown-Forman spirits.

Food Tech News: Vegan Powdered Eggs, More Vertically-Grown Lettuce & India’s Red Hot Cloud Kitchen Market

Happy weekend from sunny Victoria, Canada! I took the ferry from Seattle for a quick weekend of high tea, touring gardens and whatever else one does in the capital of British Columbia.

But first, this week’s food tech news. We’ve got stories about blockchain, vegan eggs, and vertical farming to get your Saturday started right. Enjoy!

Gotham Greens expands to Providence, RI
Indoor agriculture company Gotham Greens announced plans to expand into Rhode Island this week. The company currently operates four farms: three in the New York City area and one in Chicago. The new 110,000 square foot greenhouse farm in Providence will open in early fall of 2019 and will operate year-round, serving local residents and foodservice establishments. Gotham Greens estimates the new facility will produce around 10 million heads of lettuce and leafy greens annually.

 

South America’s biggest egg producer creates a vegan egg
This week Grup Mantiqueira, South America’s largest producer of eggs, announced it had developed a vegan egg product in collaboration with nonprofit the Good Food Institute (h/t Livekindly). Called N.Ovo, the plant-based product is made of pea starch and comes in powdered form packaged in a traditional egg carton. (Cute, but is it practical?) N.Ovo will debut March 31st at the Rio Super Expofood event.

 

Photo: Pixabay

Ripe.io teams up with FlavorWiki
Ripe.io, the company developing a blockchain for the food industry, has partnered with digital sensory platform FlavorWiki. Basically, ripe.io will be able to access FlavorWiki’s collection of data around consumer flavor, texture, and aroma preferences, and in turn Flavorwiki will store its database on ripe.io’s blockchain-based platform.

That’s a lot of jargon. Essentially, food producers and sellers will be able to use the data from FlavorWiki and ripe.io to better understand how things like seasons and soil conditions impact customers’ taste perceptions. In theory, this improved transparency will be able to help producers make better-tasting foods.

 

Box8 raises $15 million in India’s red hot cloud kitchen market

India’s Box8 is the latest startup to benefit from the rapid growth of a food delivery market that is fueling investment in cloud kitchens across every region of the globe. The Mumbai based startup, which has 110 kitchens across five cities, just raised $15 million for its series C. It’s the second big raise for an Indian cloud kitchen startup in just one month, with Pune-based Faasos raising nearly $16 million in a series D earlier this month.

Box8, which currently serves 1 million meals a month across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurgaon, plans to use the new funding to expand to open 100 more kitchens over the next 12 months and expand to five more cities.

Did we miss anything? Tweet it out to us @TheSpoonTech!

Food Tech News: GMO Salmon, Robots at the Olympics and the World’s Best Wine

I’m off to run my first ever half marathon this weekend in Portland, and looking forward to carbo-loading and that post-run endorphin rush. But before that, I’m excited to share this week’s roundup of food tech news with you. Here are some of the latest eye-catching stories from around the web, from GMO salmon to the best wine in the world:

Genetically engineered salmon to be grown in the U.S.
As of last Friday, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) lifted an import ban and will now allow genetically engineered salmon eggs to be raised in the U.S. The eggs are made by AquaBounty Technologies, a company which alters the DNA of salmon so they grow more quickly. The FDA approved these GM salmon (known as AquAdvantage salmon) back in 2015, but has been tied up in debates around labeling until last week. The salmon are already available in Canada and could be on store shelves in the U.S. as early as 2020.

Photo: Karma.

Food waste startup expands operations to Paris
This week Karma, a Swedish food waste-fighting startup, launched in Paris. Karma has a mobile app which helps retailers — from restaurants to grocery stores — sell excess food to consumers at reduced prices. This is the third market for the startup, which, in addition to its home country of Sweden, also operates in London. Maybe they’ll bring their waste-reducing smart fridge to Parisian supermarkets next?

Photo: Vivino.

Vivino announces “best wine in the world”
Well, we’ve finally settled it. According to a press release from Vivino, the Danish wine information app/marketplace, the company has selected this year’s best wine in the world: a 2015 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was the winner of Vivino’s 2019 Wine Style Awards, which selects wines based off of Vivino user ratings and feedback. The Awards also charted up-and-coming trends in wine, from new styles of bubbly wine to “evolving identities of American Chardonnay.”

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash.

Robots will help bring food to 2020 Tokyo Olympics spectators
It seems that not all of the eye-catching action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be in the field/track. According to an English version of Kyodo News, robots will be used at the Olympics and Paralympics to guide people to their seats, provide event information, and bring food and drinks to spectators after they place their orders on tablet computers. Developed by Toyota, the robots are around 1 meter tall (3.28 feet), have an articulating arm, and can move at 2.2 kilometers (1.36 miles) per hour.

Did we miss anything? Tweet us news updates @TheSpoonTech or send them to our tip line!

Food Tech News: Ben & Jerry’s Nixes Plastic, TJ’s Halts Delivery, Blockchain for Beer

This weekend’s shaping up to be a chilly one. Kind of seems like a perfect opportunity to stay inside, make pancakes and catch up on the latest food tech news though, right? Here are a few stories from around the web that caught our eye this week, from Starbuck’s going vegan to a blockchain for beer. Enjoy!

Ben & Jerry’s to eliminate single-use plastic spoons and straws
This week Vermont-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced that they would be eliminating single-use plastics from all of their stores. The Wall Street Journal reports that sometime in “early 2019” Ben & Jerry’s will cease offering plastic straws and spoons in all of their roughly 600 stores. By April 9 — Free Cone Day — the company hopes to be fully transitioned to wooden spoons and paper straws. Ben & Jerry’s isn’t the only giant chain cutting out single-use plastics: a few months ago, Starbucks announced its intention to eliminate all single-use plastic straws from its 28,000 locations by 2020.

Starbucks unveils new vegan options in U.K.
Speaking of Starbucks, the coffee chain recently launched two new vegan options in the U.K.: dairy-free mac ‘n cheese and tofu breakfast burritos. The new plant-based offerings are available at select U.K. Starbucks locations. These are likely the first round of options for the chain’s new plant-based food line, which Starbuck’s COO Rosalind Brewer stated last year was on its way.

Photo: Wikicommons

Trader Joe’s ceases grocery delivery in NYC
Grocery chain Trader Joe’s announced this week that it’s shuttering its grocery delivery service in Manhattan. The seven stores on the island will cease deliveries on March 1st. According to Supermarket News, TJ execs decided to stop delivery because of cost and competition with other delivery services. The grocery chain currently works with third-party services like Postmates to deliver in other states.

Photo: TE-FOOD

New Bock Chain beer uses blockchain to trace its ingredients
You may have heard about ripe.io’s Blockchain for Food — but what about a Blockchain for Beer? This week four Alberta-based brewing/malting companies partnered with German food traceability company TE-FOOD to debut a new beer called “Bock Chain.” According to a Medium article by TE-FOOD, curious drinkers can scan the QR code on the Bock Chain beer can and get a visual timeline on their phone tracing the beer grain’s journey from farm to can. The beer launched on February 1st, but there’s no information as to where it’s available or if/when it will roll out into new regions.

Did we miss anything? Leave us a comment or tweet us @TheSpoonTech!