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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

food tech

Podcast: How the DeSci Movement Will Change The World of Food

Do you know what DeSci is?

Don’t feel bad if you don’t, especially if, like me, food is your primary focus.

A16Z’s publication Future describes DeSci as a movement in which “a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs are leveraging blockchain tools, including smart contracts and tokens, in an attempt to improve modern science. Collectively, their work has become known as the decentralized science movement, or DeSci.”

Dr. Jocelynn Pearl

If you haven’t heard of DeSci by now, the reason is that while the trend’s caught the attention of the biotech and research funding worlds, it hasn’t entirely made its way into the future food conversation just yet. 

But it’s only a matter of time, so I figure there’s no better time to learn than now. To help us do that, I invited Dr. Jocelynn Pearl, a biotech scientist, entrepreneur, podcaster, and DeSci expert, onto the podcast. 

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Pearl and I discuss the following:

  • What is DeSci?
  • How DeSci is changing the insular and outdated world of research publishing
  • The benefits of using Web3 tools like DAOs, blockchain, and NFTs in science research
  • Why DeSci hasn’t yet reached the future food industry just yet and why that may soon change
  • What the future of science research may look like with these types of tools

If you’d like to hear more from Jocelynn, you can find her podcast, the Lady Scientist Podcast, and read some of her writing on her website.

As mentioned in the episode, we are having an event next week on the state of food robotics, and we’d love for you to join us. So get your free ticket here. 

You can listen to the podcast by clicking play below or at the usual podcast spaces such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Walkaround Guide to Food Tech at CES 2023

If you’re heading to CES to check out food tech, we’ve got you covered. The Spoon team has scoured the exhibitor pages and the news releases and is keeping running track of all the companies exhibiting in the food tech category in Las Vegas this week.

You can use the handy table below to read a description of what each is showing off at CES as well as find a link that shows a map of the location of their booth.

The exhibit floor open tomorrow and we’ll be updating this throughout the show, so feel free to check back!

The Smart Cutting Board is the Latest Kitchen Gadget to Make Its Way to CES

Over the years, there’s been no shortage of kitchen gadgets at CES. But next week, a new category will join the smart ovens, connected thermometers, and AI-powered fridges on the floor of the world’s biggest tech conference: the smart cutting board.

Yep, there will be not one but two on display in Vegas next week, each with a very different focus. First is Versaware, a company that makes a connected cutting board that works in tandem with a bowl as part of a system that helps users calculate and track calories and nutrition. According to Versaware, when a user prepares a meal, they scan the ingredient barcodes (for packaged food) or query an item (for fresh produce) on the touchscreen display before they drop it onto the cutting board. Then, the app takes the weight of the added ingredient and calculates the incremental calorie count and macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat) as you build your meal.

The other smart cutting board on display next week is BLOK, which its creators bill as a ‘Peleton for the kitchen.’ The idea with BLOK is users will learn to be better cooks through access to live and on-demand cooking classes viewable through the device’s video screen. When the cutting’s all done, the BLOK’s wooden cutting board detaches from the video screen and is washed. The assembled BLOK (wooden cutting board and video screen) is stored in a wireless charging station that fits on the countertop. The company will monetize through – what else – a subscription service for access to cooking videos.

Both devices beg the question of whether consumers will embrace technology being inserted into the most basic of kitchen mainstays, a category that – at least up to this point – has excelled in being nothing more than a reliable surface on which to slice and dice our food. While I think both companies will have an uphill battle selling the idea to consumers, I am more skeptical about the BLOK, primarily because I’m not convinced of any Peleton-for-kitchen business model. I’m also not sure the cutting board is the most logical place to put video playback, especially with most consumers’ easy access to smartphones, Alexa video screens, and tablets.

I plan to swing by and see both products next week. If you’re at CES and want to see a smart cutting board up close, you can find Versaware at booth 53414 and BLOK at booth 61706.

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.

Do We Really Need a Self-Heating Soup Can?

Here’s a question: Do we need a self-heating soup can?

Believe it or not, it’s a challenge startups have been trying to tackle for decades.

And while it may seem like an odd question, there is definitely a need for meal-heating solutions among outdoor adventurers, first responders, and military personnel on-the-go, all of whom periodically need a hot meal but don’t have immediate access to a kitchen or campfire.

The reason I’m even asking is a pitch that landed in my inbox from a company out of Germany called Canboy. The company was founded by a brother team who have been working on the idea for the past decade and are finally beginning to commercialize their invention.

The Canboy and other self-heating solutions work through what is known as an exothermic chemical reaction. You’ve probably used this technology without knowing, possibly through a portable hand-warmer or similar products. The products typically use a chemical compound called calcium oxide, released through a button push into the water inside a triple-walled container that separates the consumable from the chemical cocktail. The resulting heat generated in the surrounding cavity is enough to heat the food for consumption.

You can watch the Canboy in action below:

Self-heating meals. Easiest way at the touch of a button.

Of course, there are alternatives to this approach, including flameless heater packets (which use another chemical process involving magnesium). And then there are high-tech approaches like those created by Ember, which can heat food like soup.

And while the whole idea of self-heating cans seems silly, consider this undeniable truth: no one likes cold soup (and yes, I know gazpacho fans might want to have a word, but you are an exception and a little weird). And considering we live in an ever-more-uncertain world where the doomsday prepper market is becoming a sizeable industry, there might finally be a big enough market for a company like Canboy to make a go of it.

According to Freddy Arnold, whose brother Uwe invented the concept (and has a US patent), the company is gaining some traction in their home country of Germany. They’ve begun to see their Canboy containers to their local fire department, and the “THW” Technisches Hilfswerk (state organization of Germany) has requested product samples. The company is also looking for customers in the food and beverage space interested in a self-heating food containers.

Those interested, they can order from the company’s website. The products aren’t cheap – about € 9,50 a can – but hey, if you’re looking to hike Mt Everest or building that million-dollar doomsday bunker, you might be ok with spending a little for a hot soup.

Russian Food Tech Hit Hard by Ukraine invasion

Beyond the horror inflicted on Ukraine by Russian forces, the universal blowback from this unprovoked attack has dealt a major blow to Russia’s food-tech business. Between the financial impact of harsh sanctions and public sentiment against anyone or anything associated with Vladimir Putin, established companies and startups in every segment of this emerging space have been hit hard.

Yandex, the company, called by some the “Google of Russia,” is the biggest name on what is becoming a sinking ship. Yandex deployed its delivery robots in many U.S. locations via its partnership with GrubHub, but Yandex has fallen on hard times since the Ukraine invasion. The University of Arizona and The Ohio State University have ceased accepting deliveries from GrubHub via its Yandex partnership. In the meantime, one of the firm’s key executives, Tigran Khudaverdyan, has been hit with personal sanctions and has left the company after his assets were frozen and his personal travel was restricted.

CNN reported that Yandex, which handles about 60% of Russia’s web traffic, along with its media business and ride-sharing divisions, is losing customers to the point where it may not be able to meet its debt payments. The company headquarters is in the Netherlands but primarily serves the Russian market and is listed on the Russian Stock Exchange.

Russian grocery-delivery giant Samokat entered the U.S. market with a bang in September 2021 with a new service called Buyk (pronounced bike), which offered 15-minute delivery using empty storefronts in New York City. In the wake of harsh sanctions which froze capital assets, the company has shut down operations and this week filed for bankruptcy.

As it turns out, Russian consumers have become major consumers of plant-based meats. Fueled by the pandemic, Vegconomist reports that 10% of Russians eat plant-based alternatives while 54% are willing to add such products to their diets. Greenwise and Welldone are two leaders in the plant-based meat industry in Russia, both of which have set their sites on the European Market and beyond. Even if the Russian market is a large one, the country’s citizens are facing economic hardships and will unlikely have money to purchase anything more than basic staples. The future of these companies must be in doubt.

According to industry tracker Traxcn, the Russian food tech scene is booming with 131 food tech startups in areas such as personal meal services, online catering, plant-based meats, restaurant reservations, and cloud-based accounting services specializing in working with restaurants. Companies such as Gettable, Welldone, and Qummy (among others) will face significant challenges attracting investors and reaching consumers beyond Russia during these troubled times.

From the U.S. perspective, major fast-food companies are taking a significant hit by leaving Russia and Ukraine, leaving their operations dark. McDonald’s, for example, gets 9% or $2 billion of its revenue from Russia and Ukraine. Pepsi and Coke are suffering similar losses (Coke 1-2% of annual revenue; Pepsi, 4% of yearly income) by leaving Russia and Ukraine.

The Digital Twin Emerges as Tool For Rapid FoodTech Product Iteration

Changing eating habits and preferences, accelerated by a pandemic, demand different product designs and SKUs. Start-up food companies are increasing their market share with innovative new products. Added up, all of this continual competition in the food space is causing pressure for brands of all sizes for the rapid iteration of food products and their processes.

A new application is emerging that helps food companies deal with all this change, something that at once tracks consumer demand and product details to provide actionable insights for brands in their operations and with their supply chain partners. This new tool is the digital twin.

IBM is one company investing in the digital twin application as software for food companies and manufacturers. From their perspective, a digital twin is a virtual model designed to accurately reflect a physical object. Informed by data, the virtual model can be used to run simulations, study performance issues and generate possible improvement scenarios, all with the goal of developing valuable insights – which can then be applied back to the original physical object.

Transparency becomes increasingly important as consumers seek healthier ingredients and knowledge of food origins. Some brands provide details on their working conditions, plans for a smaller carbon footprint, sustainable packaging design, or community benefits as reasons to purchase their products. The digital twin improves the responsiveness of food brands by gaining deeper insights via consumer- and market- feedback data from multiple sources. Organized data helps food companies reformulate recipes, formats, or product designs in response to those signals.

At BMO’s 15th annual Global Farm-to-Market conference in 2020, Mike Duffy, CEO of New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers noted how the ongoing pandemic made it clear that technology will play a key role in efficient and flexible supply chains. Duffy added ‘it is important how you increase collaboration with all your [supply chain] partners. How do you get to better connectivity, forecasting, and faster decision-making? [There has been] a lack of visibility of products moving through the supply chain. There is a big disconnect from demand signal to production [response]. How do you shorten the cycle time to make manufacturing more responsive to shifts in consumer demand so that there isn’t obsolete or excess inventory?’. It is the goal of digital twin software to provide actionable and product-specific information responding to changing demands from consumers or supply chain partners.

Leading food companies (and rising start-ups) are building a framework with their suppliers and end-customers in an integrated response system facilitated by the digital twin. It allows them to gain the insights to produce products or modify them. For example, the digital twin can estimate modifications with IoT feedback from retail, foodservice, or digital consumer surveys. Digital threads incorporate a range of information and benchmark performance to identify potential opportunities. It simulates the impact of changing raw materials or packaging, factors that may see rising market preference. As part of the support function for the food company, the digital twin more accurately validates production with real-world supply chain and operations information.

For automation leader Siemens, the digital twin helps the food sector become more flexible to drive sustained innovation through the timely use of information. The physical and digital are integrated for continual improvement of products through process updates. Siemens’ software manages data security, protection, and privacy as required, along with transparency where regulated or expected by governments or consumers. As a long-time leader in manufacturing innovation and operations design, Siemens supports how brands respond to change. Combined with lifecycle management techniques, digital twinning accelerates ‘on-point’ production, and ensures faster responsiveness.

Siemens’ Simcenter digital twin software relies on continual feedback supporting the testing and iteration of production lines, from supply chain logistics with partners at the source, to grocery retail or foodservice. Simulations in the digital twin help validate product prototyping with internal operations tests. The cost of failure is significantly less for a virtual prototype compared to a physical, in-market version. For example, UK-based TrakRap works with Siemens digital twinning software to reduce the costs of operations modifications such as packaging. The transparency of the application builds trust across the value chain.

New companies, such as Twinthread use digital twin applications to make it easier for small and medium-sized food companies to model their factory and in turn gain insights that optimize production. Utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Twinthread provides rapid value via operations cost savings, such as greater energy efficiency, and quality control.

Companies such as Twinthread and Siemens are supporting a revolution in food tech with the digital twin serving as the end-to-end applied tool in both the supply chain and for product management. Digital twins are timely in their ability to quickly respond to and improve product design, one day potentially anticipating pandemic impacts, or climate-, social-, trade- and geopolitical- related implications to food product development and innovation. Digital twins are design thinking in action, placing emphasis on consumer- and market-centric innovation ecosystems which remove the silos between demand signal and production response.

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

Cream Cheese and Champagne Shortages? No Fear, Food Tech is Here to the Rescue

In the past few months, supply chain issues have been cited as a reason for major delays in everything from food to holidays gifts. Last week, USA Today published a piece detailing the food and beverages that are in demand for the holiday season but are experiencing shortages throughout the country. A Christmas meal without ham and a New Year’s Eve party without champagne might be a major bummer, but luckily, companies in the food technology space have alternative options for these popular commodities.

Cream Cheese

Cheesecake is a popular dessert option during the holiday season, and bagels with cream cheese are an easy breakfast option for visiting guests. However, according to the USA Today article, bagel shops throughout the country are experiencing shortages, and a cheesecake factory in New Jersey has had to cease production twice due to shortages. Mainstream brands like Philadelphia may be in low stock, but there are quite a few food tech companies that offer alternative cream cheese options. Nature’s Fynd uses fermentation and microbial proteins to create two flavors of cream cheese, while Miyoko’s Creamy uses cashews to craft several different varieties. Spero uses sunflower seeds to produce cream cheese flavors like pumpkin spice, herb, and blueberry.

Champagne

Popping bottles of bubbly is an iconic part of New Year’s Eve, but this year, you may find it more difficult to get your hands on champagne. According to Wine Enthusiast, we are at the beginning of a multi-year champagne shortage. You may want to start “dry January” early and try some alcohol-free sparkling wine options. A few companies that offer varieties of zero-proof champagne or sparkling wine are TÖST, Noughty, and Surely.

Chicken Tenders

With kids at home on holiday break, chicken tenders may be a favorite request for lunch. The price of chicken has been rising, and the meat industry has been experiencing labor shortages. If chicken is pricey or difficult to find, plant-based chicken is certainly one option. The plant-based space recently experienced a “chicken war” where companies were racing to get their alternative chicken products on the market quickly. As a result, Beyond and Impossible now offer chicken tenders and nuggets. Other companies like Daring, Rebellyous, Simulate, and Nowadays all offer plant-based chicken nuggets as well.

Cat and dog food

Our beloved furry family members are susceptible to food supply chain disruptions too. Owners have reported that it is more challenging to find certain wet food brands that they are used to buying. This could be the result of an aluminum shortage on top of delays within the supply chain. In the realm of food tech, Wild Earth offers plant-based pet food and is currently working on a cultivated meat pet food product.

Let’s Order a Pizza(bot)! Picnic Reveals Pricing, Opens Ordering For Pizza Robot

So you want to deploy a pizza robot? Seattle-based Picnic has you covered (as long as you can cover their monthly fees, that is).

And now we know what that pricing looks like because the pizza robot startup just opened up reservations for their pizza bot on their website.

Starting this week, operators who want to reserve a Picnic pizza robot can choose from two off-the-shelf configurations: “The Essential” or “The Works.” The Essential configuration is your basic pizza workhorse, a robot that can build up to 100 pies per hour with cheese, sauce, and fresh-sliced pepperoni. The Works configuration has additional toppings capability, allowing operators to add sausage, mushrooms, and onions – or whatever toppings they like – up to three total. An additional toppings module is available for The Works for an additional charge.

Both Picnic models can be configured to work with varying dough thickness (up to 2 inches max) and pizza sizes of 12″, 14″, and 16″. The operator can also customize the system to add ingredients in whatever order they prefer, and both models can be configured to have the conveyor system work left to right or right to left.

Those familiar with the Picnic robot know that the system is designed today for solely adding stuff on top of the pizza. Company CEO Clayton Wood has previously told The Spoon that while Picnic robots will someday have the capability to create the dough pies and cook the pizza, the initial focus is on the most “work-intensive” part of pizza-making: adding sauce, cheese, and toppings.

Like many food robotics startups, Picnic uses a robotics-as-a-service pricing model. Baseline pricing for the Essential configuration is $3500 a month for a three-year term, while the Works is $4500 a month for three years. Both models can be reserved with a $250 deposit.

If all that sounds good and you are looking to deploy a Picnic in your restaurant, you’d better hurry. According to Picnic, the systems are sold out for Q1 of next year, and there is extremely limited inventory left for Q2. However, things start to look better in the second half of next year, and both models are widely available for Q4.

Hyper-Robotics Launches a Robotic Pizza Restaurant-in-a-Box

Hyper-Robotics (previously called Highpper), an Israel-based maker of fully autonomous robotic restaurants, has launched its first fully automated restaurant concept, a containerized robot pizza restaurant that can pump out up to 50 pies per hour.

The restaurant, which you can see in the video below, has a whole bunch of technology packed into one box, including three convection ovens, a conveyor belt system that moves pizzas into the ovens, an automatic slicer, and a boxing system that puts freshly-made pizzas into a box to hand off to the customer to name just a few.

Hyper food robotics

Some other features of Hyper’s robot restaurant:

  • 30 pizza warming cabinets
  • Built-in cold storage that can store up to 240 kinds of dough in different sizes
  • Two robotic dispensing arms
  • Dispensers for up to 12 toppings

The company’s choice of pizza for its first autonomous restaurant isn’t a surprise given the company’s CEO and cofounder: Udi Shamai, the CEO of Pizza Hut Israel. Shamai is the master franchisee for the pizza chain in Israel and operates a total of 90 Pizza Huts across the country. Shamai is also the non-executive chairman of Dragontail Systems, a company that makes computer vision and AI systems to help automate food quality assessment for clients such as Domino’s.

With the launch of its robotic pizza restaurant, Hyper-Robotics joins an increasingly crowded pizza robot space that includes the likes of Picnic, Piestro, Basil Street, Bancroft, Middleby, and Pazzi to name just a few. While the unit is the first restaurant from the company, Hyper has plans for other autonomous robots that will also serve up bowl food, burgers and even ice cream.

SKS 2021: Meet Mezli, Maker of Robotic Containerized Restaurants

Over the next couple of weeks, The Spoon is featuring interviews with leaders from the Smart Kitchen Summit 2021 Startup Showcase, and this time up we have Alex Kolchinski, the CEO of Mezli.

Mezli builds containerized robot restaurants they call auto-kitchens. The company’s fully autonomous restaurants-in-a-box offer a menu of Mediterranean grain bowls, sides, and drinks. Mezli’s version 2 auto-kitchen is complete and the company is getting ready to launch v3 publicly next year.

If you’d like to connect with Alex at the Smart Kitchen Summit, hop on over to Hopin where we are hosting our virtual event and pick up your ticket today!

The Spoon talks with Mezli, Maker of Robot Restaurants-in-a-Box