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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

mycellium

Unilever Partners With Enough to Add Fungi-Based Protein to Plant-Based Meat Lineup

Univever has had Enough.

Or, rather, will have Enough through a partnership with the Scotland-based company that develops a biomass mycoprotein called Abunda. The two companies announced the partnership today that will add the fungi-based protein to Unilever’s plant-based meat brand it acquired in 2018, The Vegetarian Butcher.

From the release:

Plant-based foods is one of Unilever’s fastest growing segments and we’re delighted to partner with ENOUGH to develop more sustainable protein products that are delicious, nutritious, and a force for good,” said Carla Hilhorst, EVP of R&D for Foods & Refreshment at Unilever. “We’re excited by the potential that this technology has for future innovations across our portfolio, and we can’t wait to launch more plant-based foods that help people cut down on meat, without compromising on taste.

Enough’s Abunda mycoprotein is developed through a fermentation process that feeds sugars from grain crops such as wheat to create a whole food biomass product the company claims uses 90% less water and feed inputs than producing beef. The company, formerly called 3F BIO, is in the process of building a 50 thousand-ton capacity facility to scale up production of Abunda for partners like Unilever.

Enough is just one of many companies producing fungi meat alternative ingredients through fermentation. Some, like Prime Roots and Mycovation are focused on mycelium-derived ingredients. Enough and others like fungi-meat pioneer Quorn and Italy’s Pura, are focused on fermentation-based mycoprotein production.

For Unilever, this is the second time in the last 12 months the large multinational food company has added new plant-based ingredients to its lineup through partnerships with startups. Last year, the company moved into microalgae protein through a partnership with Algenuity.

Atlast Fulfills Planned Capacity Through B2B Partnerships

Atlast Food Co., a U.S.-based producer of mycelium-based alternative meat products, announced today that it has partnered with a variety of undisclosed businesses that will use the company’s products as an ingredient in their own products. Atlast is a spinoff of Ecovative, and through these partnerships, it has fulfilled its planned capacity through 2023.

Mycelium is essentially the root system of mushrooms. It can be grown very quickly, and has a neutral flavor and fibrous texture that allows it to easily absorb other tastes and take on an almost fleshy feel. Atlast says it can grow a full 100 ft x 10 ft sheet of mycelium in 10 days. Mycelium-based bacon is the company’s first product.

The bacon was launched for retail under the brand name MyEats and first sold at a food co-op in Albany, New York. Despite the positive feedback from the retail launch, Atlast says it will remain a B2B company. 

Other companies that use mycelium as their main ingredient for alternative protein products include the start-ups Meati and Prime Roots. Meati trialed its mycelium-based steak this year at SALT Bistro in Boulder, Colorado, though it is unclear if the company will be targeting retailers or consumers. Prime Roots launched a line of plant-based meals and alternative bacon in Whole Foods this fall, and its products are also available for consumers to purchase on the company’s website. As far as we know, Atlast is the first company using mycelium for alternative meat to target B2B channels.

This recent news from Atlast hints at the increasing expansion of the plant-based protein market through retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. Plant-based CPGs are incredibly common, but there are fewer companies specifically targeting B2B channels. Atlast joins other alternative protein companies like Zero Egg and Clara Foods in specifically targeting those B2B channels.

MycoTechnology Wins the Radicle Protein Challenge, Secures $1M

MycoTechnology, producers of fermented mushroom protein, won the $1M prize for receiving first place in the Radicle Protein Challenge this week. The Syngenta Group, a multinational agriculture company, and Radicle Growth, a venture capital firm specializing in food and agriculture startups, hosted this challenge. An additional $250K was awarded to runner up Blue Nalu, a cellular aquaculture company.

The competition hosted 150 applicants from all over the world and came to a head with a virtual event this week where each of the four finalists pitched. The two other finalists include Cell Farm and Trophic.

In addition to funding, MycoTechnology will have access to the Syngenta Group and Radicle Growth’s global agriculture and food networks. MycoTechnology’s mushroom fermentation technology is used to create products including ClearTaste, which blocks the bitter flavors of certain foods, and PureTaste, a mushroom-based protein.

At the beginning of 2020, the Good Food Institute predicted that one of the alternative protein trends of the year would be innovative ingredients and enhanced flavors, especially coming from fermented yeasts and mushroom varieties. Additionally, a recent report released on the Good Food Institute added fermentation as a third category (alongside cultured meat and plant-based proteins) in the alternative protein sector. Besides MycoTechnology, other companies have also taken advantage of using the umami-flavor and versatility of different mushrooms. Meati transforms mushroom mycelium into a juicy plant-based steak. Mushlabs and Ecovatives both use mushrooms to provide better texture for plant-based meat alternatives.

Prior to the competition, MycoTechnology raised $39M over the summer. This brings the company’s total funding to $121.6M.

Prime Roots Makes Super Protein Building Blocks (and Bacon) from Mushroom Roots

If you’re biting into any sort of plant-based meat these days, odds are its main ingredient is soy, peas, or wheat. But that might not be the case for long if Prime Roots has its way.

The company’s cofounder and CEO, Kimberlie Le, got the inspiration for the company back in 2017, when she began questioning why alternative meats were made from the same few plants. “I wondered — why aren’t people looking at not plants?” she told me in a recent phone interview. So she began experimenting in the Berkeley Alternative Meat Lab with co-founder Joshua Nixon, looking for a plant-free protein building block to upend the meatless status quo.

Eventually, they found it in mushrooms. Or more specifically, mycelium: mushroom roots. (No, mushrooms are not technically plants — they’re fungi.) These roots, which are produced in a process akin to beer brewing, can be used to make any manner of meat substitutes, from shrimp to bacon to crab cakes.

Mycelium have a few advantages over other plant proteins. According to Le, the fungi they use are tasteless, so they don’t have to mask any off plant flavors (like the tongue-coating bitterness that comes with pea protein.) Mycelium require minimal resources to grow and are a more efficient source of protein than plants, which often require solvents to fully extract all the protein. Prime Roots can also tweak the fungi’s nutritional content, adjusting its levels of protein and fat. “We can make our product have 50 percent more protein than meat,” Le said.

Most importantly, though, mycelium have an extremely versatile flavor and texture, meaning they can be used to make any manner of meat or seafood substitutes. While still operating under their former name of Terramino Foods, they were focusing on fish-free salmon burgers. Now they’ve taken a step back to re-evaluate.

To narrow down the choices, they’ve posted a voting page on their website with 12 meaty and protein-heavy options — from chicken tenders to protein bars — all of which Prime Roots has already tested internally. Anyone who casts their vote will have early access to the products at a discounted price.

When they do launch, which Le anticipates will be around 2020, Prime Roots will be sold exclusively online. Le said they’re waiting to start selling their products until they’re priced competitively with meat. Which they’re actually not too far from — as of now — Prime Roots can make their mycelium for only a few dollars a pound.

Prime Roots currently has a team of 10. Last year they participated in the prestigious IndieBio accelerator program and raised $4.25 million.

By choosing to use mycelium as a meat substitute, Prime Roots is going up against one of the highest-grossing meat alternative companies in the world: Quorn. The company uses fermented mycoprotein, a type of fungi, as the base of their meat-free products. Per Le, Prime Roots’ advantage comes down to the unique properties and simplicity of their mycelium. “The fungi that [Quorn] uses has only been in the diet the last 50 or so years,” she said. “We looked at what protein people have been using a lot longer.”

Prime Roots is also hoping that their emphasis on community — putting the product choice in the hand of the consumers — will help them stand out as the alt-protein space gets more crowded. That way Prime Roots can sniff out gaps in the market and develop new products accordingly using their mushroomy building blocks.

It’s a clever idea. But Prime Roots will need more than just catchy marketing strategies to go up against a behemoth like Quorn, which has a sizeable range of products, global name recognition and a widespread retail footprint. To stand out, Prime Roots will have to not only make a product that tastes excellent, but also one that consumers don’t already see in the grocery aisle.

I just cast my own vote — bacon all the way. If Prime Roots can nail the taste of a product as popular (and, in the meat alternative space, as underrepresented) as that, they’ll have more than just a shot at carving out their own space in the alt-protein market.