Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

meat

Future Food: Beyond Impossible, Investment is Heating Up Throughout the Alt-Protein Space

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. In it we cover the alternative protein landscape, from plant-based meat to cellular agriculture to insects. Subscribe here!

Who’s investing in alternative protein?

Last week the interweb was all abuzz with Beyond Meat’s wildly successful IPO. This week, Impossible Foods raised $300 million and began selling the hotly anticipated Impossible Whopper in three more cities (besides the OG: St. Louis).

But a girl cannot live on plant-based meat alone, no matter how good it may taste. Plus, any news from Beyond/Impossible this week is really just a continuation of the trajectory we’ve been seeing:

  • Consumers are demanding more plant-based protein options at a variety of price points
  • Alternative meats are heading into more and more retail channels, including prepared meal delivery
  • Investors are hustling to get more involved in the white-hot plant-based meat space

Let’s take a closer look at that last one. We don’t often spend much time peeking behind the curtain at the companies doling out funding to these startup darlings making bleeding burgers or cultured steak. But they’re the ones dictating the pace of innovation in the space.

One company of particular interest is the newly-minted Big Idea Ventures (BIV). The hybrid venture/accelerator firm is backed by Tyson and Temasek, a holding firm owned by the Singaporean government. BIV’s goal is to be the largest accelerator dedicated entirely to the alternative protein space. It made its first investment a few weeks ago, in Singaporean cultured shrimp startup Shiok Meats.

BIV may be unique in its laser focus on animal-free proteins, but there are quite a few other VC firms investing in the space, like Stray Dog Capital and New Crop Capital. Big Food corporations like Cargill and Tyson are also reading the cards and investing in plant- and cell-based startups, expanding their portfolios and gradually reframing themselves as generalized protein companies.

If you’re interested, you can read my piece on BIV’s new protein fund and upcoming accelerator programs here.

Media holds the key

One of the costliest parts of making cultured meat is the media — essentially, the food that scientists feed animal cells to help them multiply enough that we can eat them. As of now a lot of cell-based companies rely on Fetal Bovine Serum. Since this is extracted from the necks of baby cows in slaughterhouses, it’s a) super controversial, b) not vegan, and c) expensive.

This week we also wrote about Canadian startup Future Fields, which is developing a media completely free of any animal products. Their solution could help cultured meat companies bring their product to market sooner, and with a more appealing price tag.

Impossible gets into dairy?

Okay okay, I know we said no more Impossible Food news. But one more tiny thing: this week FoodNavigator reported that Impossible is currently developing a suite of “dairy” products. This isn’t exactly surprising. When we spoke to Impossible CEO Pat Brown at CES this year he made it clear that Impossible wasn’t stopping just at burgers.

We asked Impossible if they had any updates in the dairy department, and they responded that it’s their mission to “make all meat, fish and dairy products that consumers love directly from plants as soon as possible.” No word on when, though I’m guessing Impossible will focus on meat for a while longer. What we do know is their next product: steak.

For now, flexitarians thirsty for plant-based dairy alternatives can opt for a creamy glass of Oatly — that is, if they can find it.

Photo: JUST.

Protein news ’round the web

  • This week JUST, maker of plant-based and (soon) cell-based animal products, officially launched its JUST Egg in China. Their product uses mung bean to replicate scrambled eggs’ signature texture.
  • Iconic Canadian fast-food joint Tim Horton’s is testing out breakfast sandwiches featuring Beyond Meat’s vegan sausage patties in 60 restaurants across Toronto.
  • Chick-fil-A is exploring adding plant-based meat options to their notoriously small menu.

Eat well,
Catherine

Eat Mor (Fake) Chikin: Chick-Fil-A Might Add Plant-Based Meat to Its Menus

Growing up in Atlanta, there was no treat better than a crispy Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich. These days, when I go home to visit, things are a little trickier: I’m a vegetarian now and Chick-Fil-A’s doesn’t have a single meat-free entrée.

But soon that might change. Business Insider reported today that the fried chicken chain is exploring adding vegan options to their offerings, including plant-based meat.

Amanda Norris, executive director of Chick-fil-A’s menu, didn’t tell BI exactly what type of vegan options they were looking into, but did mention that “it might be some kind of alternative protein on a sandwich.”

This news is far from surprising. Restaurant chains large and small are taking note of the rising consumer demand for plant-based proteins and adding vegan products to their menus. Del Taco, Carl’s Jr., TGIFridays and A&W have Beyond Meat options, while White Castle, Qdoba, and Burger King have embraced the Impossible Burger. In fact, at this point any QSR that isn’t exploring more alternative meat products is being foolish.

Chick-fil-A is an interesting case since it likely won’t be using plant-based ground beef or burgers. The chain’s whole shtick is that it eschews beef in favor of chicken, so adding a product from, say, Impossible Foods wouldn’t make a lot of sense from a menu cohesion standpoint. Beyond Meat does make plant-based chicken strips, so we could see something like that, or like the vegan crispy nuggets from Seattle Food Tech.

The chain is clearly open to experimentation: they’re the first fast food restaurant to experiment with meal kits and also have two off-premises units focused 100 percent on catering, delivery, and carryout, and offer delivery via Doordash from 1,000+ locations. And yet they’re only now experimenting with something as simple as a vegetarian entrée.

I chalk this up to the fact that the chain has a very small, simple, and curated menu. But even though people come to Chick-fil-A for one thing, it’s getting harder and harder for nationwide chains to ignore consumer demand for realistic plant-based meat — and the increased revenues and new customers it brings restaurants. It seems that Chick-fil-A is finally waking up to the fact that it’s losing customers (like me) who are bypassing it in favor of other QSR’s that offer filling meat-free options.

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. 

Impossible Foods is Struggling to Meet Skyrocketing Demand — Is It In Over its Head?

Impossible Foods, makers of the super popular “bleeding” plant-based burger, has been on a hot streak lately. In January they launched a (very tasty) version 2.0 of their iconic “meat,” which is now available in four countries. They’re on the menus of major fast-casual and fast-food chains like Red Robin, Qdoba, White Castle, and, soon, Burger King. And later this year, they’ll hit grocery shelves.

But it’s not all smooth sailing. Eater reported yesterday that Impossible is having trouble making enough product to keep all their restaurant partners stocked.

The news is not exactly surprising. As we’ve noted time and again, consumers can’t get enough plant-based protein. This news from Eater shows that demand for meat alternatives seems to be outpacing the production capabilities of at least some popular vegan meat companies.

Impossible isn’t the only one grappling with the supply-and-demand problem. Beyond Meat, one of their main competitors, went through similar growing pains last year when fans complained that Beyond’s plant-based burger patties were often sold out at grocery stores. The El Segundo-based startup even had to delay its scheduled entry into the U.K. due to difficulty meeting demand.

Since then Beyond Meat has opened up a second production facility and seems to have bounced back. I haven’t heard any other internet murmurings of “out of stock” signs (comment if you have!), and the aforementioned Eater piece notes that many New York restaurants who couldn’t get their Impossible burgers are replacing them with Beyond. In fact, Beyond’s shortages seem to be behind them as the company prepares to go public later this week.

Even bigger alternative meat companies are having to add new production means. Maple Leaf Foods, which owns Field Roast and Lightlife Foods, recently announced plans to build a $310 million plant-based protein factory — the largest one in the U.S. As demand for meat alternatives continues to grow I’m betting we’ll see even larger alt-protein factories being built, especially once poultry giant Tyson fulfills its promise to enter the plant-based meat space.

In the end, this shortage isn’t a devastating blow for Impossible. It is a reality check, both to consumers and the company, that the startup darling isn’t hiccup-proof. The shortage also shows that the skyrocketing demand for plant-based protein isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

Impossible is clearly aware of their production issues and scrambling to fix them. Eater notes that the startup is increasing staff and hours of operation at its plant in Oakland, California, and that it plans to double production by the summer.

That’s a good start. However, Impossible is planning to roll out to 7,000-plus Burger King locations soon, doubling its restaurant footprint. It’s also going to launch in retail sometime this year. With all these moves, Impossible may have to start thinking beyond (ha) just adding another production line if it plans to continue expanding at such a rapid clip.

Want to keep up with all plant-based protein news? Subscribe to Future Food, our weekly newsletter offering stories and analysis on the alternate protein landscape.

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

    Shiok Meats Raises $4.6M for Cell-Based Shrimp

    Shiok Meats isn’t so shrimpy anymore. The Singapore-based cultured meat startup, which has been using cellular aquaculture to grow crustaceans in a lab, just completed a $4.6 million seed round (h/t Forbes).

    The round sports a pretty impressive list of investors, including the CEO of Monde Nissan (owner of popular plant-based meat product Quorn). Big Idea Ventures, a new venture fund focused on meat alternatives with backing from Tyson, also participated.

    This news comes just a few weeks after the startup held the first public taste-test of its shrimp. The cell-based crustaceans were tucked into dumplings and served at The Disruption in Food and Sustainability Summit (DFSS) on March 29th.

    For such a young company, Shiok Meats has been quickly gaining traction and notoriety. According to its CEO and co-founder Dr. Sandhya Sriram, Shiok Meats is the first cell-based meat company based in Asia. It was also the first cultured meat startup accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator.

    When we first wrote about Shiok Meats back in January, we were optimistic that their choice of location — that is, Asia — would serve them well. Not only is there far smaller competition than in, say, Silicon Valley, but Asia also has a huge appetite for alternative protein, as well as the regulatory flexibility to bring new edible technologies, like cell-based meat, to market before the U.S. does.

    Clearly, investors see the opportunity as well. Forbes reports that Shiok will use its new funding for R&D and to grow its bioengineering team. Next, the company will focus on scaling so that they can have a product to market in two to three years.

    Redefine Meat Serves 3D Printed “Beef” made of Plants to Unknowing Diners

    This week, diners at a fancy restaurant in Israel were served an elegantly plated kebab, garnished with an eye-catching swipe of crimson sauce and thin slices of red onion.

    What they didn’t know is that the kebab wasn’t actually made of meat. Instead, it was a 3D-printed plant-based creation from Israeli food tech company Redefine Meat (formerly Jet-Eat).

    “We are hijacking the dinner,” explained Redefine Meat CEO and founder Eschchar Ben-Shitrit. According to him, this marked the first time in the world that 3D printed plant-based meat was served in a restaurant.

    Redefine Meat’s “meat” is made with relatively simple ingredients: three plant protein sources, fat, and water. The secret is in the printing production method. Instead of extrusion or pressing, Redefine Meat uses 3D printing to give their products a more realistic texture and mouthfeel. “We can not only mimic the fibers of the meat, but also the way that fat and water is trapped in the meat matrix,” explained Ben-Shitrit.

    Serving the meat at a restaurant — with no preface or explanation — was the ultimate test for Redefine Meat. If diners liked it in and of itself, and not just because it’s plant-based, then it was a win. “We don’t want to [make] a better vegan product,” Ben-Shitrit explained. “We want to attract people who are eating meat.”

    They’re not alone. Lots of companies are developing plant-based products targeted not at vegetarians and vegans, but at the growing number of flexitarians. That includes young startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as well as veteran meat alternative companies like Tofurky and Lightlife. Even major food corporations and leaders in packaged meat goods like Nestlé and Tyson Foods are pivoting to develop products aimed at people who eat meat, but are looking to eat less of it.

    Redefine Meat plans to launch their first product, likely some sort of 3D printed vegan “beef,” through a French butcher that distributes meat wholesale to European restaurants. They plan to have their product on menus in Europe by 2020.

    Down the road, they also plan to sell their meat directly to the consumer. Ben-Shitrit told me that he expected that their meat would retail for around €30 to€35 per kilo (just under $20 per pound). That’s pretty eye-poppingly expensive, at least for the U.S. consumer. However, Ben-Shitrit expects that price to go down as they scale up the technology and get more, higher-producing machines. As of now, the company only has one small machine that makes around two pounds of meat per hour. They’re in the midst of building a bigger “alpha” machine that will make roughly ten times that. While he didn’t disclose details, Ben-Shitrit said that the company has an undisclosed amount of funding from Israeli investors.

    We haven’t had the chance to try Redefine Meat’s 3D printed meat ourselves. According to Ben-Shitrit, the aforementioned diners liked the product. When they were told it was actually made of plants, “85 percent of them ranked it as meat-like.” Obviously we have to take this review with a grain of salt, but texture is kind of the final frontier of meat alternatives. Companies have figured out ways to emulate the protein, umami and even bloodiness of meat — but beyond burgers, there’s a lot of work still to be done.

    Sure, a few companies are making strides in the meat-free texture department: Vivera sells plant-based steaks; Sophie’s Kitchen and Good Catch make fishless tuna, and several players are making vegan sushi. But there’s still a long way to go. If successful, Redefine Meat’s technology could help develop plant-based meats and fish with a mouthfeel closer to the real thing.

    At the end of the day, there won’t be any wide-reaching dietary shifts towards plant-based eating unless those plant-based options taste really good. Which is a fact that Ben-Shitrit is very aware of. “If we have amazing technology and it’s not tasty, then we didn’t do anything,” he told me.

    Hopefully Redefine Meat brings their 3D printed “meat” stateside soon so we can see (and taste) for ourselves.

    Want a Veggie ‘Disc’? EU Cracks Down on Plant-Based Meat Labeling

    If you’re in the E.U., time might be running out for you to order a veggie burger or vegan sausage link.

    The Guardian reported this week that the agriculture committee of the E.U. banned the use of meat labels (like “steak,” “sausage,” or “burger”) to describe vegetarian products. The measures will be voted on by the full European parliament after May’s elections, and then will be put to a vote by member states and the European commission.

    This decision follows a similar E.U. judgment which impacted plant-based food labeling in 2017. The European court ruled that vegan products aren’t allowed to be called “milk,” “cheese,” or “yogurt.”

    According to The Guardian, a proposed replacement for the term “burger” is veggie disc. Which sounds only slightly more edible than “veggie cardboard.” One hopes they can be a little bit more creative when it comes to naming.

    European meat corporations were apparently not involved in the ruling, but they’ve got to be happy about this. Allied Market Research projects that the plant-based meat market will reach $7.5 billion by 2025. But a big reason for meat alternative companies’ success is their ability to market to flexitarians — and they’ll have a much harder time doing that by selling veggie discs and plant-based links.

    This same fight is being fought in the U.S., too. Animal agriculture corporations are lobbying states and even the President to crack down on what can and cannot be called “meat.” More than a dozen states have introduced meat labeling laws of their own. The FDA is also considering enforcing rules over what can and cannot be called “milk.”

    Meat companies do kind of have an argument when it comes to plant-based meat. After all, it’s really just plants that are mimicking meat — though don’t tell that to Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat. Where the issue will really get sticky, however, is when cultured meat comes to market. This new product is biologically meat — animal muscle, fat, and connective tissue — but doesn’t come from a slaughtered animal.

    The FDA and USDA are still figuring out how to regulate cell-based meat. And we likely have a few years before it’ll be sold in the U.S., so those regulatory bodies still have some time to decide. But if there’s one thing this E.U. issue has shown is that some people — farmers, meat companies, and even governments — are very protective of what can and cannot be called meat.

    It makes sense that Europe would be even more sensitive to this than the U.S. After all, many regional specialty foods have something called Geographic Indications, meaning that a product has to be from a specific region in order to label itself as such (think: Champagne, Parmesan, etc.) Raw meats and dairy products are both categories of protected items. With its historied pride of food, it’s not surprising that European countries are leading the way on meat and dairy labeling crackdowns.

    The issue will likely get more controversial as companies get better at making meat (and meat-like) products without the animal. Let’s just hope we never have to eat Veggie Discs. Ever.

    Will Impossible’s Massive Restaurant Rollouts Help it Beat Beyond Meat in the Grocery Aisle?

    Today fast-casual burger chain Red Robin announced it will be offering plant-based Impossible burgers at all 570 of its U.S. locations starting April 1.

    In and of itself, this isn’t huge news. Impossible is already in over 5,000 restaurant locations, ranging from high-end spots like Momofuku to the White Castle fast-food chain. But in light of the Redwood City-based startup’s impending move to retail shelves, it begs the question: will Impossible’s hefty restaurant presence translate to brand recognition in the grocery aisle?

    Impossible’s key retail competitor is Beyond Meat, whose plant-based burger patties have been a mainstay in grocery stores since they launched in Whole Foods in 2013. Beyond Meat is in even more restaurant locations than Impossible: almost 11,000 in total. Just this week Del Taco, with whom Beyond had been doing a pilot program, decided to offer the plant-based meat as a taco option in all of their 594 U.S. stores. And back in January Beyond slid onto the menu at over 1,000 locations of the fast-food join Carl’s Jr.

    At the end of the day, I don’t think any of Impossible’s recent restaurant expansions will give it a leg up on Beyond in the grocery aisle. Instead, the real differentiators will be selection, taste, and pricing.

    Beyond has the upper hand when it comes to variety: in addition to their patties, they also offer plant-based sausages, crumbles, chicken strips, and will soon come out with a ground beef-like product as well as breakfast patties. Impossible hasn’t officially stated what meaty product it will launch at retail, but it’ll likely either be patties or a ground beef replacement.

    Taste-wise, both Beyond and Impossible have unveiled 2.0 versions of their signature meatless burgers in 2019. We liked Beyond’s, but Impossible’s blew us away when we sampled it at CES.

    The biggest question mark is pricing. Since Impossible and Beyond are both pretty darn good, I imagine many shoppers (myself included) will reach for the option that’s easier on their wallet. Impossible also hasn’t released any pricing information yet, but if they’re smart, they’ll undercut Beyond — which, at $5.99 for two patties, isn’t super cheap.

    Taking a macro view, there’s plenty of room for multiple meat-like meat alternatives to be successful in the grocery aisle. The demand is plant-based meats is certainly there: a new study from Dupont Nutrition and Health indicates a growing consumer interest towards meat alternatives, with more than half of Americans increasing their plant-based food intake.

    At CES this year Impossible Foods’ CEO Pat Brown also downplayed the competition between meat alternative companies. “If other people are making great [plant-based] products — and this is not B.S. — we love it,” he said.

    Of course, competition is competition. People likely won’t be tossing both Beyond and Impossible burgers into their grocery carts. But if plant-based meat sales continue to soar — and I bet they will — I think that more high-end meat alternatives in the grocery aisles will equate to more sales for all involved.

    Avant Meats Develops Cultured Seafood (Fish Maw, Sea Cucumber) for a Chinese Audience

    Last week we wrote a think piece about how cultured meat — that is, meat grown outside the animal in a lab setting — will likely debut in Asia. Part of the reasoning behind this is because of all the innovative cellular agriculture startups popping up in the area, targeting local cultural demands and restrictions.

    One of said innovative startups is Avant Meats, a new cell-based meat company operating out of Hong Kong. Avant Meats isn’t developing cultured burgers, sausages, steaks, or tuna — but fish maw.

    Many Westerners (the author included) have never come across fish maw, or dried swim bladder. Upon first glance it might seem like an odd choice. But there are a few very good reasons why Avant Meats is starting with this particular food item:

    First and foremost, it’s easy(er) to make. Unlike a cut of meat like steak, which requires muscle cells, fat cells, and connective tissue, fish maw is made up of only one cell type. That simplicity allows Avant Meats to grow a fish maw from scratch in as little as one and a half months. “The route to scaling up is much simpler,” Avant Meats CEO and co-founder Carrie Chan told me over the phone.

    The choice of fish maw was also a strategic nod to Avant Meats’ target demographic: consumers in China and Hong Kong. “Our food culture is very different from the West,” said Chan. Dried fish swim bladder is considered a delicacy in traditional Chinese cuisine, prized for its texture and purported health benefits.

    There’s also an environmental aspect at play. Fish maw is in such high demand in China that the two main fish species that are hunted for it — Bahaba and Totoba — are on the brink of extinction. There are even black markets dedicated to the bladders, which can fetch up to HK$1 million ($~127,000) per kilogram. “It’s similar to shark fin,” explained Chan.

    Finally, there’s a health and safety consideration. China struggles with food traceability issues. In fact, last year a study from Food Control found that more than half of the fish fillets sold under commercial brands were mislabeled. By growing food in a lab — especially products as rare and coveted as fish maw — consumers can know exactly what they’re getting and where it came from.

    Photo: Photo by Duangphorn Wiriya on Unsplash.

    As noted in the intro, Avant Meats isn’t the only cell-based meat company targeting Asia as their launch pad. JUST, who is aiming to be the first to bring cultured meat to market, announced recently that the product will likely debut in Asia. In Singapore, Shiok Meats is developing cell-based crustaceans. Part of the reason so many cultured meat companies are looking to Asia is because it has relatively looser regulatory standards, especially in Hong Kong.

    Chan was hesitant to speak too much about the regulatory framework in Hong Kong, where Avant Meats is headquartered, but did admit that it’s an ideal place to launch a new food product. “It has a very robust market and lots of disposable income,” she told me.

    Though they have a very developed strategy, Avant Meats is a very new startup — even in a field that’s quite new itself. Chan started the company in July of last year, and was recently joined by Dr. Mario Chin, her co-founder and the company’s CSO (and only other employee).

    Considering their late start and lean team, Avant Meats likely won’t be part of the first wave of companies selling clean meat. Chan said that they expect to have a commercial product out in three to four years, though they’ll be doing taste tests of their fish maw in Q3 or Q4 of this year. But she believes their strategy to start with a simple, unique product will help them stand out. “We’re starting behind the other guys, so we better find something that’s commercially more pragmatic,” she explained.

    Fish maw is just the first stepping stone for the company. Down the road, Avant Meats will expand their lineup, developing more complex seafood products. Chan told me that next they’ll look into making sea cucumber. Their end goal is to make an entire fish filet, likely using some scaffolding to help emulate the texture.

    Chan didn’t specify what type of fish they would be tackling. There are a couple cellular aquaculture companies further along in the development process. Finless Foods is developing cell-based bluefin tuna, and Wild Type is growing salmon.

    However, both these companies are based in the U.S. Avant Meats’ Hong Kong HQ and strategic product choice could help them stand out in a field that’s getting more exciting — and more crowded — by the day.

    Questlove Partners with Impossible Foods to Launch Plant-Based Cheesesteak

    Questlove, legendary drummer and frontman for The Roots and bandleader for The Tonight Show, took to Instagram today to announce a new, non-musical project: a sandwich.

    Dubbed “Questlove’s Cheesesteak,” the sandwich is a vegetarian version of a Philly Cheesesteak made with Impossible’s plant-based meat 2.0. Livekindly reports that the sandwich will not be 100 percent vegan, as it will have dairy cheese.

    It will be available starting March 28th at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park during all home Philadelphia Phillies baseball games. Over the next few months, it’ll roll out on menus of 40 Live Nation-owned event spaces across the U.S., including concert and sporting venues. This comes a year after Live Nation put the Impossible Burger on the menu at 35 of its music venues.

    This isn’t Questlove’s first foray into the food world. He wrote a James Beard-nominated culinary nonfiction book, Something to Food About: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs, and has been on a number of food-focused TV shows.

    Though not a vegetarian, the musician wrote on Instagram that he fell in love with Impossible Foods several years ago. In fact, he invested in the plant-based meat startup in 2017. He’s also from Philadelphia, so, as he puts it, “i gotta know #Cheesesteaks right?”

    Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have been accumulating quite a roster of celebrity endorsers and partners. My colleague Chris recently wrote about Beyond’s posse of high-profile athletes and musicians that have partnered with or endorsed the company. In addition to Questlove, Impossible also has investments from “Harold and Kumar” actor Kal Penn, and has been endorsed by celebs like Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Teigen.

    These celebrity supporters could help both companies continue to gain influence with vegans and flexitarians alike. In the case of Beyond Meat, it could also help the company’s impending IPO pop — which might in turn make it easier Impossible and other plant-based meats to go public down the road.

    As a vegetarian, I know how hard it can be to find a decent meat-free meal option at a sports arena or concert hall that’s not just french fries. That’s why this Questlove-Impossible sandwich is a win-win: Impossible gets to target the captive audience (literally) at huge venues, and LiveNation gets to add a vegetarian option to its menus and look cool. As an investor in Impossible, Questlove has an obvious motive to help the startup sell more of their meat 2.0.

    If you get a chance to sink your teeth into Questlove’s Cheesesteak, drop us a line and let us know how it is!

    Cultured Meat Will Likely Debut in Asia, Not Silicon Valley. Here’s Why.

    It’s no longer a question of whether or not we can make meat without the animal. We can, and there are taste tests to prove we can do so and still make it taste and feel like the real thing. What is still up in the air is what this new product will be called, when exactly you’ll be able to buy it, and where it will be available.

    The “where” is getting clearer: Asia. JUST, the San Francisco-based company racing to be the first to bring cell-based meat to market, announced in a CBS San Francisco interview last month that they would debut their first product — a cultured chicken nugget — in Asia sometime this year. The exact country was not specified.

    This news surprised me. The majority of startups developing cell-based meat are in Silicon Valley, Europe, or Israel, so I naturally assumed cultured meat would launch in one of those spots.

    But when I sat down to think about it, there are actually quite a few good reasons why Asia is the ideal launch grounds for this new food.

    New startups

    Asia is an up-and-coming hotspot for cellular agriculture, the technology behind cultured meat. These past few months alone we’ve seen a flurry of new cell-based activity in the geographic area:

    • Shiok Meats, a startup based in Singapore, is developing cultured crustaceans, like shrimp and crab. Co-founder Dr. Sandhya Sriram told us last year that the company is planning a taste test of its cultured shrimp later this month in Singapore and will roll out its products in Southeast Asia in a few years. The startup also just became the first cell-based meat company to be accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator.
    • In Hong Kong, Avant Meats is in the early stages of developing a cultured-fish product. In an interview with the Good Food Institute (GFI), Avant Meats founder Carrie Chan said their product will be “tailored for the preference and consumption behavior of consumers in China and Asia,” and will likely launch there.
    • Japanese biohacking hobbyist club Shojinmeat is enabling anyone to grow their own meat by open-sourcing cellular agriculture technology. It also has a spinoff startup, Integriculture.
    • A few weeks ago, the GFI announced they would partner with the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) to set up a research center for cellular agriculture in Mumbai. They plan to set up a lab in the city by 2020 and construct a larger facility the following year.

    This recent uptick in cellular agriculture activity in Asia isn’t out of the blue. In fact, there are a couple of reasons why Asia is a more fertile launching ground for cell-based meat than, say, the U.S.

    Regulations

    Before cultured meat can get to our plates, we need to figure out how to regulate it. In fact, regulatory clearance — the official stamp that cell-based meat is safe to eat — is probably the biggest hurdle to getting clean meat to market.

    In the U.S., we have a path in place — mostly. The USDA and FDA decided last year to jointly regulate cell-based meat. However, the two organizations left a lot of things open-ended — including the question of labeling. Until labeling is sorted out, cultured meat won’t be approved by the FDA and can’t be legally sold in the U.S.

    Of course, cell-based meat will have to pass muster by regulators in Asia as well before it can be sold. But in a phone interview, Shiok Meats’ Sriram told me that “Asia seems to be pushing the regulators within to come up with a framework sooner than the West.”

    In particular, Hong Kong seems a likely spot for the launch of cultured meat. “Hong Kong is … a free market where many industries are not heavily regulated, including food,” Elaine Siu, GFI’s Managing Director of Asia-Pacific, told me in an interview. While the regulatory landscapes of the E.U. and China are extremely stringent, Hong Kong is comparatively more flexible — at least for the moment.

    The Impossible Burger.

    Consumer Interest

    A 2018 study from Kadence International showed that 66 percent of Americans would try clean meat, as would 75 percent of people in Belgium and the Netherlands.

    There’s less data out there on Asian consumers’ openness towards cultured meat. However, one study by Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems cites higher levels of consumer acceptance in China and India than the U.S. — almost two-thirds of Chinese people were very or extremely likely to purchase cultured meat. Indeed, Sriram seems confident that there’s more demand for clean meat in Asia than in the U.S. “People in Asia are super interested and intrigued by the concept of clean meat,” she told me.

    She referenced the recent launch of the Impossible burger in Singapore as a use-case for the demand for meat alternatives. “1000’s of people queued up for a taste of it!” she wrote to me over email, referencing the “bleeding” vegan burger. Plant-based meat is less controversial than cell-based meat, sure. But the success of Impossible in Singapore backs up a report from Allied Market Research which cites Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing market for meat alternatives.

    GFI’s Siu also noted that, at least in Hong Kong, people are “comfort[able] with trying new products” and have a wide-ranging and diverse palate. That, plus the relatively high spending power of Hong Kong inhabitants, could make its population the perfect test ground for cell-based meat.

    Investment Interest


    In order to continue developing better iterations of cell-based meat — better texture, cheaper production methods, etc. — researchers need some serious capital.

    So far a wide variety of investors have gotten involved in the space, from celebrities like Bill Gates and Richard Branson to major meat companies like Tyson and PHW Group (one of Europe’s largest poultry producers).

    In certain Asian countries, the government is eager to get involved. The Singaporean government has “publicly announced its interest and investment into the cell-based agriculture space,” according to Siu. She told me that Japan has also expressed interest. Having government support could not only be a financial boon, but could also help cellular agriculture companies expedite the tricky regulatory process for cultured meat.

    One thing might make investment tricky though, at least in China. In 2017 the country signed a $300 million agreement with Israel promising that the country would import cell-based meat from Israel companies SuperMeat, Future Meat Technologies, and Meat the Future. That could hinder China’s ability to invest in/import clean meat from nearby Asian countries, though it wouldn’t necessarily quench Chinese investors’ thirst for meat alternatives. 

    JUST’s cell-based chicken nuggets.

    Manufacturing Capabilities

    One of the obvious advantages of producing clean meat in Asia is its wealth of manufacturing resources. They have the necessary production infrastructure in place to scale clean meat, making it affordable and more widely accessible faster. According to Deloitte, five Asia-Pacific nations are expected to be in the top 10 global manufacturers by 2020.

    This might not be relevant to producers in the immediate future. For now, cultured meat production is happening on a relatively small scale, usually in research labs. But as cellular agriculture technology improves and demand increases, as I assume it will, manufacturing for cell-based meat will scale up quickly. At that time, Asia’s wealth of production facilities — and manufacturing prowess — will become a huge help.

    —

    Despite the recent uptick in cellular agriculture activity in Asia, as of now there are many more cell-based meat startups in the U.S. and Europe. “But if we are looking into a few years from now, then the answer may be different,” Siu predicted.

    That’s not to say that there won’t be any cellular agriculture developments in the U.S. or Europe. There will be. But if JUST indeed launches its first clean chicken nugget in Asia, I believe that that’s where we’ll see some of the more exciting cultured meat innovations over the next few years. Critically, it’s also where we’ll get the first data points about consumer reactions to cultured meat.

    All this to say that when it comes to the future of cellular agriculture, I’d spend less time watching what’s happening in Silicon Valley, and more time watching Hong Kong.