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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

New Wave Foods

New Wave Foods Debuts Plant-Based Shrimp in US Foodservice Companies

Tyson-backed New Wave Foods announced today that it is launching its plant-based shrimp alternative in foodservice companies and restaurants throughout the U.S. The company signed a non-exclusive agreement with the largest foodservice redistributor in the U.S., Dot Foods, to make its product commercially available.

New Wave Shrimp is made from a combination of mung bean, seaweed, and other plant-based ingredients. The plant-based shrimp can be used just like regular shrimp – it can be grilled, baked, sautéed, fried, and seared. Besides being vegan, gluten-free, and non-GMO, the shrimp alternative is also suitable for those who have a shellfish allergy.

Shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the U.S., and the population of wild shrimp continues to decline due to environmental pollution and overfishing. Additionally, shrimp fishing produces a lot of bycatch, which can reduce the population of wild fish and turtles. Farmed shrimp is an alternative to wild-caught shrimp, however, it can contain high amounts of unwanted antibiotics, be farmed by slave labor, and emit a high amount of carbon dioxide.

Other companies besides New Wave Foods are focused on providing a sustainable and plant-based option to wild and farmed shrimp. The Plant Based Seafood Co. has three varieties of plant-based shrimp, coconut-crusted, breaded, and regular, made from a base of konjac powder. Sophie’s Kitchen produces a variety of plant-based seafood products and its shrimp alternative is made from rice flakes, potato-starch, and konjac.

New Wave Shrimp is the first product from the company, and we may start seeing the product on restaurant menus by mid-2021. In 2022, New Wave Foods plans on expanding its product line to include lobster, scallops, and crabs.

New Wave Foods Raises $18M for Plant-Based Seafood

New Wave Foods announced today it has closed an $18 million Series A round for its plant-based seafood alternatives. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Evolution VC Partners with participation from “other new and existing investors,” according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The new round will enable New Wave Foods to scale up production and expand sales and marketing, as well as build out its team and plan for future products. Initially, the company will sell its products directly to restaurants and foodservice businesses, where it says roughly 80 percent of all shrimp in the U.S. is consumed.

Currently, New Wave Foods makes a shrimp alternative from seaweed and plant proteins, the idea being to provide a more planet-friendly version of the U.S.’s most popular seafood item. Deforestation and the permanent destruction of mangroves, increased greenhouse gases, and human rights abuses are just a few of the unsavory byproducts of traditional shrimp production. With its shrimp alternative, New Wave Foods wants to provide product that is “virtually indistinguishable from ocean shrimp in terms of taste and texture” but doesn’t come with the environmental and human consequences tied to parts of the traditional fishing industry.

Tyson Foods made an undisclosed investment in New Wave Foods in 2019, taking a minority stake of less than 20 percent.

Speaking in today’s press release, New Wave said that its shrimp product will be versatile enough to fit in a range of different dishes, though the company hasn’t yet publicly named any official restaurant or foodservice partners.  

Following the launch of its shrimp product, New Wave Foods plans to develop plant-based lobster, scallops, and crab. 

Tyson Invests in Plant-based Shrimp Company New Wave Foods

Today Tyson Foods announced it has made a jumbo investment in plant-based shrimp.

The world’s second-largest poultry processor has invested an undisclosed amount in New Wave Foods, a San Francisco-based startup developing plant-based shrimp made from plants and algae. Exact pricing details were not disclosed but Tyson Ventures CFO Tom Mastrobuoni told CNBC that the company took a minority stake of less than 20 percent.

Founded in 2015, New Wave Foods is part of the new wave of companies leveraging tech to make alternatives to beloved animal products (burgers, chicken nuggets, etc.) that look, cook, and taste like the real deal. Their initial product could have a particularly large reach: shrimp are the most-consumed seafood in the world. But as of now, plant-based alternatives for the popular crustacean are few and far between and a cultured version, which Singapore-based Shiok Meats is currently developing, is still a few years off.

New Wave Foods plans to roll out its alterna-shrimp in restaurants. They haven’t made their pricing public yet, but one thing New Wave Foods is sure they will have is cost consistency — a welcome change when traditional shrimp can vary widely based on the year’s catch and other natural factors.  Eventually the startup will move on to make other plant-based crustaceans such as crab and lobster.

Tyson has been investing in a variety of meat alternative companies as it tries to reframe itself as a ‘protein’ company, including cultured meat companies Memphis Meat and Future Meat Technologies. The poultry giant had a 6.5 percent ownership in Beyond Meat until it parted ways with the company back in April and subsequently launched Raised & Rooted, its own line of blended and plant-based meats.

The New Wave Foods partnership is also an opportunity for Tyson to expand beyond land animal substitutes. “There’s a really interesting adjacency,” Mastrobuoni told me. He explained that globally, seafood consumption is great than terrestrial animal (cow, chicken, etc.) consumption. As Tyson expands to become more of a global company it makes sense for them to branch into seafood.

This is quite a week for Big Food investments in meat alternatives. Earlier Hormel Foods announced its Happy Little Plants line, which will be the first products from its new plant-based division Cultivated Foods. The Good Food Conference — the creme de la creme of alternative protein conferences — is happening right now in San Francisco (we’re there!), so odds are there will be even more announcements before the week is out. Stay tuned.