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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

keto

Weekly Food Tech News Show: Wither Magic Spoon?

On this week’s Food Tech News Show, Mike and Carlos welcome Rachel Konrad, former head of communications for The Production Board, Impossible Foods and Tesla.

The stories we catch up on include:

You can find the video version of this Weekly Food Tech News Show below, and you can find the audio-only podcast on Apple Podcasts.  

Keto Cereal Craze Over? - FTNS

A reminder: It’s the last two days to get early bird pricing for the Smart Kitchen Summit. Use discount code PODCAST at checkout for 15% off of tickets. 

Is The Keto Cereal Craze Over?

I have a soft spot for sugar cereals.

Having grown up in the 80s eating big boxes of Captain Crunch, Lucky Charms, and Life (my friends called me Mikey!), I still salivate when I see big, colorful boxes with leprechauns and monsters in the grocery store cereal aisle.

So when keto-friendly, processed sugar-free sugar cereal substitutes started appearing in 2018 and 2019, I was excited. Like any self-respecting adult, I’d moved on to more responsible breakfast offerings, but saw these new keto-free cereals as a guilt-free time travel machine back to the land of the magically delicious.

I wasn’t the only one. The product’s early success accelerated during the pandemic, a time when people were bored at home and ordering lots of food via delivery. This led to an impressive series B in 2022, where the company scooped up $85 million. That funding fueled the company’s expansion into retail, and now you can find Magic Spoon in places like Costco, Target, and Walmart.

With widespread availability, the company should now be beating the old-school, better-for-you cereals like Grape Nuts and granola, right?

Maybe not. According to a tweet by Andrea Hernández of Snaxshot, Magic Spoon cereal has hit the clearance bin at Sprouts, a chain specializing in premium brands. The pic, which Andrea also posted on Linkedin, led to much discussion about whether the better-for-you keto cereal trend is over.

While it may not be over, you have to wonder about the long-term prospects of Magic Spoon and competitors like Schoolyard Snacks (formerly Cereal School). The first problem is they are just very expensive. Unfortunately for these brands, breakfast cereal is a commodified item, something most normal adults aren’t willing to pay a 3x premium for.

The other problem is addressable market size. I like Magic Spoon (or actual sugar cereal) as a once-in-a-while nostalgic escape, but realistically, I’m not going to make it a part of my everyday routine (and, as I said, I really like sugar cereal). I imagine this is pretty typical of their addressable target market.

Finally, there’s the question of taste. I’m fine with it, as are many others, but some think the sugar-free taste is a poor synthetic representation of the real thing. In a way, this criticism echoes some of those who have heard about Impossible and other plant-based meats (though I would argue both the purchase motivation and rationale for plant-based meat are much stronger, and the addressable market much bigger).

So is the keto, better-for-you sugar cereal trend over? Probably not yet, but I have to wonder if the VCs who wrote large checks for fund companies making tiny boxes of cereal for adults had rigorously worked through all their assumptions about how big these markets would be.

Qdoba CEO: We Chose Impossible Foods for “Its Unique Flavor and Texture”

The world of fast-food burritos has experienced a real shake-up lately, thanks to one thing: plant-based meat.

Now if you’re hitting up the drive-thru at least two popular Mexican food chains, you can opt to replace the beef in your tacos/burritos/bowls with meatless meat. This April, Del Taco rolled out Beyond Meat to all of its menus. Just a month later, Qdoba began serving Impossible’s plant-based beef in all of its 730+ locations nationwide.

The meatless meat lines have been drawn, with Del Taco on one side with Beyond Meat and Qdoba on the other with Impossible. During an email interview with The Spoon, Qdoba’s CEO Keith Guilbault told me that the chain decided to go with Impossible over other plant-based meat suppliers because their “protein stood out for its unique texture and flavor.”

Jill Adams, Qdoba’s VP of Marketing, echoed the sentiment over the phone last month. “We landed on Impossible because it delivers on flavor,” she said. “There’s also high consumer awareness around the product.”

Because of this awareness, she told me that Qdoba had seen a wave of new customers come in specifically to try the Impossible products. In fact, according to Adams, when Qdoba tested Impossible menu items in Eastern Michigan this February they saw transactions grow 4 percent. “There was an immediate uptick,” she said.

The post-Impossible spike isn’t exactly surprising. Immediately after adding Beyond Meat “beef” to their menus, Del Taco reported an increase in both check size and overall food traffic. In fact, many QSR’s report an uptick in traffic and sales immediately after adding a plant-based meat option to their menus.

Whether that uptick will turn into a steady increase remains to be seen. However, for now Del Taco and Qdoba seem to have carved out their own corners. As of now, they don’t have any competition from other Mexican food QSR’s: Taco Bell has a new vegetarian menu but is steering clear of fake meat, whereas Chipotle recently announced that it wouldn’t serve Impossible or Beyond since they were too processed.

Qdoba and Del Taco’s menus are relatively similar, which means that the brand of plant-based meat (or lack thereof) they use could become a significant factor when people decide where they want to stop for fast-food burritos — especially as more and more diners become familiar with meatless meat. But for now, the simple fact that Qdoba and Del Taco both offer plant-based meat could be enough to lure in new customers; vegetarian, flexitarian and otherwise.

KetoCoach is a Home Blood Test Kit for Keto Dieters

I was legitimately nervous about the needle. I realize this makes me a big baby, especially since it’s not even a real needle — it’s the teen-tiny pointy tip of a lancet cartridge. But like a four-year old, I asked KetoCoach Founder, Matt Payne, if his companies ketone blood test was gonna hurt.

This is the second time I’ve gone on the ketogenic diet for a story. I did at the start of the year to test out the Keyto, which measured acetone in your breath to see how deep into ketosis your body is. But while exhaling may be easier, Payne told me that KetoCoach’s blood test provided more accurate results.

So back into a diet heavy on avocados I went to see how the two tests stacked up.

The KetoCoach system has three parts: a lancet, the digital meter and test strips. For anyone who monitors their blood glucose, this should all seem familiar. Place the test strip into the meter, prick your finger (after washing it), place a drop of blood on the test strip and wait a few seconds for the results.

The test is looking for ketones in your blood that show up when you are in ketosis. According to the FAQ:

If you are monitoring your blood ketones, you will be measuring beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), the most common ketone the body produces. Since the blood cannot get altered as much as urine can, blood is considered a more accurate, and more consistent measurement of ketosis. However, be aware that blood levels may still fluctuate (although not as greatly as urine).

There are other keto blood testing kits out there, but Payne says the difference with KetoCoach is that its test strips are individually wrapped in foil, which results in a cleaner test.

Before we begin, I should reiterate that I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, nor do I actively recommend the keto diet. Check with your physician before embarking on dietary changes.

Much to my (big baby) surprise, the actual needle prick was the easiest part of the test. The hardest part early on was getting enough blood out for a test. Payne said to get a matchstick head-sized drop of blood to have enough for the test — but I wasn’t supposed to “milk” or squeeze the lancing site, as I could introduce other substances from my skin and impact the readings. I actually went through about three or four test strips (and lord knows how many pin-pricks on different fingers) before I was able to figure out how best to get out enough blood (one trick, getting a thicker gauge needle).

Once add your blood to the test strip, the device gives you a numerical reading: Lo, .5 – 3.0 is nutritional ketosis, 3.0 – 8.0 is high ketosis. I wound up doing two separate trials as I ran out of test strips early on and it takes about three days to get into ketosis.

Without getting into too many numbers, the KetoCoach worked as promised. By day 3 of being on a keto plan, the test said I was in ketosis. I never got above a 1.0, which could be because while I was pretty strict about adhering to the keto diet, my carb counting may not have been accurate enough.

Since I still had the Keyto, I decided to use that simultaneously with the KetoCoach. Each test was done around the same time every day. While the two devices operate on different scales, they seemed to line up — with the exception of only two instances. In particular, for the last reading I took, Keyto said I was in high ketosis, but KetoCoach said I was just in nutritional ketosis. Again, it’s hard to verify, but I certainly felt keto-y, if that’s a thing, and like I should be in high keto.

Without a full-on scientific lab to verify results, it’s hard to say that KetoCoach is any more or less accurate than the Keyto, though the theory behind it (a cleaner test) seems solid. The KetoCoach is definitely more complicated to use at first, but pretty easy to run after you get used to it.

For those wanting to measure their progress on their keto diet, it may come down to cost. The KetoCoach costs $50 for the starter kit, with additional 50-packs of test strips costing $35. For comparison, the Keyto breathalizer costs $250, but you can keep using it over and over. There is a little more to carry with the KetoCoach, but it comes with a floppy case that’s easy enough to fit in a gym bag or duffel.

It’s hard to give a flat out recommendation for either device without further testing. But the KetoCoach did seem to do as promised, and after getting over my fear of needles, was easy to do on a daily basis.

Review: Magic Spoon is the (Expensive) Kids’ Cereal for Adults, and is Magically Delicious

I have an 8 year old, but we don’t ever buy him sugar cereals, in part because I know I would gobble up most of the box. At my age/metabolic rate, the effects of Lucky Charms tends to linger a lot longer than I’d like them to.

Which is why I was excited to learn about Magic Spoon, which brands itself as “Childlike Cereal for Grown-Ups.” The cereal comes in four varieties: Fruity, Chocolate, Cinnamon, and Frosted, and boasts that it is high in protein, keto-friendly, non-GMO, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, wheat-free and has nothing artificial.

Magic Spoon is able to get all the sweetness without all the junk through Allulose, which can be found in certain fruits like figs and raisins.

It all sounds too good to be true and there must be some catch. There is, and it’s the price. You can only buy Magic Spoon in four-packs for a whopping $40. That’s ten bucks for a 7 oz. box of cereal. You can pick up two, 40 oz. boxes of Cheerios for less than $8 on Amazon.

OK, so it’s expensive, and you have to order it online, and thus wait for your breakfast. I actually bought mine about a month ago and had to wait for delivery because the backorder wait time was so long.

So, how does it taste?

Awesome. Magic Spoon tastes awesome.

I dug into a bowl of the Fruity cereal this morning and it tastes just like the sugary cereal of my youth, but has only 8g of carbohydrates 0g of sugar and 3 net carbs for keto counters (Froot Loops has 26g of carbs, 12 grams of sugar and 23 net carbs). It doesn’t really taste like any actual fruit, it tastes “pink” to my tastebuds (which is probably influenced by its shocking pink color), but Spoon Founder, Mike Wolf thinks it tastes exactly like Froot Loops. Regardless of any synesthesia, I ate a whole bowl and was ready to eat more.

If I’m honest, I preferred the Cocoa flavor, which was more in-line with what was advertised on the box and had a mellow chocolate flavor. I’ll update this post when I try the Cinnamon and Frosted (there’s only so much cereal I can eat in one sitting).

My one complaint is that there is a slight aftertaste, it’s not bad, it’s just more like a slightly metallic and, ironically, artificial feeling reminiscent of pre-packaged protein shakes (which is probably because of the whey protein isolate in the cereal). But that’s a minor quibble.

If Magic Spoon catches on, I suspect bigger CPG companies will have to look at jumping in with similar cereals, though they will have to figure out how to appeal to nutrition-conscious customers without cannibalizing their existing sales.

Will I plunk down another $40 for more? I’m not sure yet. That probably depends on how long these 28 oz. of Magic Spoon in my pantry lasts.

The bigger point is, I went from zero boxes of cereal in my house to four, which I will happily eat and share with my 8 year old.

Maybe.

Blow it Out: How the Keyto Device Gamified Me Into the Keto Diet

Listen, this post is going to make me seem like the world’s biggest hypocrite. After writing about gradually turning vegan last week, I’m doing a full 180 to write about how I spent this past week piling up meat and heavy cream to go on a keto diet.

In my defense, it was to try out the Keyto, a breathalyzer and mobile app that tells you when your body is in ketosis — the state where your body burns fat for fuel. As someone who has struggled with his weight for most of his adult life, the opportunity to get paid to shed a few pounds (by doing my job, no consideration changed hands with Keyto) was too good to pass up.

We wrote up the Keyto back in November, when the company raised $2.5 million and launched an Indiegogo campaign (where it raised another $1M). The good news is that unlike so many other crowdfunded hardware devices, there is an actual device that I actually used, and the company says it is shipping the first batch to early backers (who paid $99, the device will retail for $179) this coming week.

As a refresher, the Keyto is roughly the size of a vape pen. After you start your keto diet (very few net carbs, lots of fats), you blow into the device three times a day. The Keyto measures your breath for acetone, a by-product that your body makes when going through ketosis.

The Keyto talks to the accompanying app on your phone which calculates your “Keyto Level.” A level of 1 – 3 means your body is still using carbs for energy, 4 means you’re in “light ketosis” and your body is using fat for fuel, 5 – 7 means you’re in full ketosis and using mainly fat for fuel, and level 8 is “Deep Ketosis” which I think rips open the space/time continuum, allowing you to travel back in time and inhabit your 22-year-old body.

In addition to rating your ketosis level, the Keyto app also provides food recommendations. There’s a quick list of foods to eat and avoid, as well as recipes and meal plans. The app also has a community feature and some general advice about following the keto diet.

So. How well did it work?

Before we go any further I should say that I am not a nutritionist, do not advocate the keto diet for everyone, and suggest you consult with your doctor before making any changes to your diet.

Having said that, first, let’s talk about the device. The box comes with the main breathalyzer, four mouthpieces, a battery and a travel bag. The Keyto itself feels solid and is easy to self-assemble. My one issue with the build is that the button you push to turn on the device sinks below the line of the rest of the device, so it feels “stuck” when it’s not. It’s not a big thing, but it cheapens the feel of the product.

The app is still in beta, so I had to get a special link to load it onto my phone. Installation and registration were easy and I could get up and running with my first Keyto breath check in just a few minutes. The app looks fine and is easy to figure out, but it’s pretty dull. We’re living in a golden age of app design and Keyto’s boxy UI feels hobbled together.

Oddly, the instructions for blowing into the device were surprisingly complex. The app counts you down to get you ready to blow (but don’t inhale too deep!). When you do blow the app starts by saying “Blow powerfully” and then almost immediately it says “Blow normally.” Which is it? And how does it impact my score? A company rep told me that it doesn’t really matter as long as you blow till the end of your breath, where most of the acetone will register.

I spent last Sunday pigging out on cakes and ice cream, knowing that I’d be giving them up the next day. I did my first breath test in the midst of that sugar rush and sure enough, I blew a 2: my body was still using carbs for energy.

With that carb caravan was behind me, I became pretty strict about being on keto. I haven’t had a slice of bread or piece of candy since that Sunday. The general food guidelines offered by the Keyto app were actually quite helpful (especially if you love avocados), and provided me with enough food variety to where I didn’t feel bored by being on this diet.

By the end of Tuesday, I had blown my first 4 — light ketosis! I had broken though a barrier, and it was enough to keep me going. Then on Thursday I blew a 5 – full ketosis. Jackpot! Now I was addicted and started blowing into the Keyto more than three times a day. It was a game, and I wanted to win.

To be honest, it’s become such a game that I stopped and blew once while writing this post (I got a 6).

Now would be a good time to say that I have no way to verify the Keyto’s results here at home. I could go get a blood or urine test, but I can’t do that every day (let alone multiple times a day). From a product review perspective, the device seems to work as advertised. You blow into it, it gives you a score. The longer you adhere to the keto diet, the higher your score goes. Whether or not that score is entirely accurate, I can’t say.

I can also see how this gamification could get extreme and possibly unhealthy. I became obsessed with my Keyto score, checking it more than three times a day (see above) and trimming away anything that might lower it. I wanted to win. Win what, exactly, I wasn’t sure, but I certainly don’t want it to come at the expense of my overall health.

This has been a good experiment, and the Keyto made cutting out processed sweets and constant snacking easier than writing what I eat in a food journal. But now that I’ve blown it out, I’m ready for moderation–and to bring back those vegan treats.

Keyto Raises $2.5M, Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Ketogenic Diet Device

Keyto, a startup that helps people adhere to a ketogenic diet, today announced that it has raised a $2.5 million seed round of funding and launched an Indiegogo campaign for its Keyto breath analyzer and accompanying app.

The ketogenic, or “keto” diet, is a low-carb, high-fat diet and all the rage right now. Here’s how Harvard Health Publishing describes how the diet works:

In essence, it is a diet that causes the body to release ketones into the bloodstream. Most cells prefer to use blood sugar, which comes from carbohydrates, as the body’s main source of energy. In the absence of circulating blood sugar from food, we start breaking down stored fat into molecules called ketone bodies (the process is called ketosis). Once you reach ketosis, most cells will use ketone bodies to generate energy until we start eating carbohydrates again.

One of the ketones the body produces when on this diet is acetone, which is released via your breath. The Keyto analyzer measures the amount of acetone you exhale and communicates that level to the Keyto app. The app then reports back on what your ketosis level is on a scale of one to ten (the higher the level, the more efficient your fat burning). Based on your current and goal weights, the Keyto app then provides food and meal recommendations for you, as well as a community of other Keyto users to share information with and a color coded guide of over 10,000 items to eat while on the diet.

Keto adherents can pick up a Keyto system for $99 on Indiegogo right now. After the crowdfunding campaign, Keyto will retail for $150. In an interview, Keyto Co-Founder Dr. Ray Wu told me that the Keyto device is already in the production process and will ship to backers in January of 2019.

I asked Wu why, if the company is already in production and has raised a seed round, is it turning to crowdfunding? “One of the biggest reasons is business intelligence,” said Dr. Wu, “We’re trying to gauge how many units we should be producing, and we want to get people excited about the product.”

We are not dieticians or scientists here at The Spoon, so we can’t recommend (or condemn) the keto diet, nor validate the effectiveness of the Keyto product. However, Keyto isn’t the only company looking to pick up on what you exhale. This past July, Lumen launched an Indiegogo campaign for their own eponymous device which claimed to measure the CO2 in your breath to see if you are burning carbs or body fat.

FWIW, that Lumen campaign went on to raise more than $1.8 million dollars. Will Keyto be able to ride the keto craze and muscle up more money than that?