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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Alt Protein Round-Up: Cultured Seafood in Europe, Precision Fermentation in Silicon Valley

The Good Food Institute released a new report that shared in the first half of 2021, alternative seafood companies raised a total of $116 million in funding, compared to $26 million in all of 2020. In contrast, last year saw a 23 percent increase in U.S.-based alternative seafood sales.

In addition to this report on alternative seafood, we’ve got news on BlueNalu, Meatable, Change Foods, Enough, and a new cultured food hub in Switzerland.

BlueNalu to bring cultured seafood to Europe

BlueNalu announced this week that it would explore the distribution of its cell-based seafood throughout Europe in partnership with frozen food company Nomad Foods. According to the two companies, this is the first agreement between a cultured protein company and a consumer packaged goods company in Europe. BlueNalu did not disclose what seafood analogs it would supply or when distribution throughout Europe would occur.

Givaudan, Bühler, and Migros form the Cultured Food Innovation Hub

Givaudan, Bühler, and Migros, three Swedish corporations, have partnered to open the Cultured Food Innovation Hub outside of Zürich, Switzerland. The hub, which is set to open in 2022, will assist existing start-ups in the precision fermentation and cultured meat and seafood space to develop and commercialize their products. The facilities will include biofermentation capabilities and a product development lab.

Meatable enters joint development agreement with DSM

Dutch cultured meat start-up Meatable and Royal DSM, a nutrition tech company, will work together to reduce the cost of growth medium used in cultivated meat production. Growth medium is a liquid that contains proteins, growth factors, and vitamins that cells need to grow, and it is often the priciest component used in creating cultivated meat. In addition to working on growth medium, the companies “will focus on the development of meat-like taste and texture of the final product, which are important factors influencing the purchase decision of consumers.”

Change Foods open up R&D facilities in Silicon Valley

Precision fermentation start-up Change Foods announced it has opened up new R&D facilities in life science incubator BioCube. BioCube has established itself as one of the longest-running and well-respected incubators in Silicon Valley, with alumni such as Impossible Foods. Change Foods has set its sights on creating vegan cheese with the same stretch and melt of real cheese as its first product, and will use its new facilities at BioCube to accelerate those efforts.

Enough begins construction on world’s largest alt. protein facility

Scotland-based Enough (previously 3F Bio) produces an alternative protein made from mycelium called ABUNDA. The company just started construction on a 15,000 square meter factory in the Netherlands, which according to the press release, is set to be the largest factory for alternative protein in the world. The production facility will be able to produce approxiameltely 10,000 metric tons of mycoprotein per year.

Will Grocery Delivery Become the Next Utility?

When was the last time you went grocery shopping? Prior to the pandemic, chances are good that you made a few trips per week to the store — a weekly haul plus a couple of trips for last-minute needs (milk!) and wants (wine!). When the pandemic hit trips to the store went down and online shopping went up.

Now, as vaccines roll out and we can see the light at the end of this very dark tunnel, there are questions one again around how we will go grocery shopping. Will the record-breaking grocery e-commerce converts continue to shop online? How many in-person trips to the store will people make each week?

At the same time, however, there is a new model of grocery shopping emerging. It’s almost like Grocery-as-a-Service, to borrow from the cloud computing world. There are a number of startups turning grocery shopping into more of a utility, promising to get you your food and other goods within fifteen minutes of your ordering them. And they are all raking in big funding amounts.

Since the start of this year, we’ve seen a steady stream of fundraises for startups in this space. Weezy, Jiffy and Fridge No More all raised sizeable rounds so far in 2021. But things kicked into high gear this week when GoPuff raised $1.5 billion and Berlin-based Gorillas raised $290 million. That is a lot of cheddar to get a wedge of cheddar delivered in 15 minutes.

The idea behind these startups is pretty straightforward. Create small, delivery-only (or “dark”) grocery stores and place them deep inside dense, residential neighborhoods. These stores carry a limited inventory that can be customized for the neighborhood they are in. Set up a small delivery radius and allow people to order food via an app. Orders are packed in minutes and because the delivery area is small, it can be done on bike or scooter, so no need to drive a car in traffic or find parking. In less time than it takes to watch an episode of Superstore, your grocery order arrives at your door.

Obviously, these type of speedy delivery marts can only work in tightly-packed, highly-populated areas, where you can make multiple deliveries per hour. But if they do catch on, will they change the way we shop for food?

Take Fridge No More, for example, which wears its ambitions on its apt company name. There is no minimum order with Fridge No More and no delivery fee. The company says they can make money because they don’t have to invest in a store that serves walk-in customers (e.g. no nice lighting or cashiers). If you live in their service area, you could make multiple orders throughout the day. Run out of milk? It arrives 15 minutes later. Want to bake cookies but don’t have chocolate chips? Order and wait a few minutes. Last-minute cocktail party? Get a couple bottles of booze and a bag of chips way before your guests arrive.

Getting groceries becomes like getting water to your home. Whenever you need it, you can just fire up the app and have them appear.

As with most tech innovation, there will be questions around equity as these types of services roll out. Will speedy on-demand grocery be available everywhere, or only to people who can afford it? Will suburban and rural areas be shut out because the economics don’t work? These are all really good questions and ones I hope are meaningfully addressed as these startups start spending their funding on expansion.

The more existential question from the rise of these startups is how they might impact our relationship with grocery shopping, assuming they can scale. Just as the pandemic pushed people into new habits, will always-on, cheap delivery change the way people shop for their groceries?

Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

More Headlines

Cell-Cultured Fish Startup Bluu Biosciences Raises €7 million – The cultured protein fund-a-palooza continues!

7-Eleven Is Adding Drive-Thrus to Its Restaurant Business – Get a Slurpee without leaving the car.

Chipotle Invests in Self-Driving Delivery Vehicle Company Nuro – The use of autonomous vehicles actually makes a lot of sense of the digital-forward QSR.

Ex-WeWorkers Have Launched Santa, A Hybrid ‘Retail Experience’ Startup Focused on ‘Small US Cities’ – The digital/physical retail hybrid is currently hiring up.

Food Tech News: Grocery Goes Electric, Green, and Voice-Enabled

Happy long weekend, to those of you lucky enough to have one! This is a cause for celebration — and for food tech news. This week was heavy on grocery, from Tesla shipping trucks to international in-store vertical farms. Enjoy!

 

 

Kroger expands Ship, enables voice ordering for grocery pickup
It was quite a week for grocery giant Kroger! First, the company expanded Ship, its home delivery service, to the Mid-Atlantic region, covering Virginia, West Virginia, and the Raleigh-Durham area (h/t BizJournal). With this latest expansion, Ship is now offered in each Kroger store division. According to BizJournal, the company will next roll it out to their other divisions, like Harris Teeter and Ralphs.

A few days later, the grocery chain let drop on their Linkedin page that they would be launching voice-enabled ordering through an action on the Google Assistant voice app (h/t FoodDive). Customers can access the app through iOS, Android, or Google Assistant, and use it to view their Kroger Grocery Pickup. So far, the service is available in six banner stores including QFC and Fred Meyer.

 

Amazon unveils new food-related variable type for Alexa
Speaking of voice assistants, this week Amazon added four new variable types to Alexa’s skillset, including AMAZON.Food. According to  VentureBeat, AMAZON.Food “captures food items, such as ‘bacon,’ ‘scrambled egg,’ and ‘lemon juice,'” so that it can help users save time and have better voice experiences. All the recently-announced skills are in public beta and can be used in skills published to the Alexa Skills Store.

Albertsons adds 10 Tesla semi trucks to its delivery crew
On Tuesday grocery chain Albertsons announced that it is purchasing 10 all-electric Tesla tractors for its Southern California fleet. The trucks will be able to travel between 300 and 500 miles on a single charge, even when pulling a fully stocked trailer. This move is part of the company’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, as part of their overarching sustainability agenda.

Ember launches copper mug for the holidays
Looking for a gift for the coffee/tea/hot chocolate lover in your life? Ember, the company that makes connected mugs/thermoses that allows users to precisely control the temperature of their drinks, launched a copper mug today. The metallic mug costs $129.99 and joins Embers’ travel and ceramic mug.

 

Vertical farming company Infarm crosses country lines into Paris
Berlin-based startup Infarm, which installs small vertical farms inside grocery stores and restaurants, is expanding out of Germany for the first time — and into Paris (h/t Techcrunch). The French launch of Infarm’s in-store farm unit will be at the Metro flagship store later this month. This expansion comes after the company raised a $25 million Series A in February of this year.

 

Google’s new algorithm can help you avoid food poisoning
Google has teamed up with Harvard to develop an algorithm which alerts you to restaurants that carry a higher risk of food poisoning. As Harvard reports, the algorithm uses machine learning to flags search terms associated with food poisoning (like “vomiting”) and check them against the location history of the affected user. Using this information, it can determine likely restaurant food safety issues, after which it can alert local health inspectors to investigate.

Did we miss anything? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech with a tip! 

Food Tech News Roundup: Grocery E-Commerce, Food Fraud & Cooking Robot Goes Beta

Food tech news time! We had quite a few updates on the Spoon this week, too. Chris Albrecht launched a brand new podcast about food-related robots and AI called The Spoon: Automat — give it a listen! We also announced the details of our next food tech meetup: The Future of Meat. Tickets are free, so if you’re in the Seattle area we hope to see you there. And finally, we’re just a little over a month out from heading to the legendary Guinness Storehouse for SKS Europe, so if you want to network with the top leaders defining the future of food, make sure to get tickets before they’re gone.

Now, grab a second cup of coffee and take a look at these noteworthy food tech news stories from around the web.

Photo: Flickr.

Alibaba hops on the blockchain train
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is rolling out a pilot program to combat food fraud in China using everyone’s favorite buzzword these days: blockchain. They’ll initially target food products from Australia and New Zealand that are sold in their Tmall online marketplace, China’s largest open B2C platform.

According to the Australian Financial Review, just two items are part of the pilot program: something in the dairy family and a fish oil supplement. If successful, Alibaba will expand the initiative and try to crack down on food fraud worldwide.

Blockchain is not a perfect cure-all for food fraud. It may be incorruptible, but it doesn’t guarantee that those inputting the provenance and quality of each food item are telling the truth. Other companies, such as Ripe.io and Inscatech, have nonetheless been working on establishing blockchain for food. But this move by Alibaba is on a different level; it’s giving some transparency — and responsibility — to one of the largest e-commerce suppliers in the world.

 

Photo: Klue.

Tech company introduces responsive wearables for nutrition tracking
This week Klue, a technology company developing an OS focused on behavior change, announced partnerships with Stanford University and Crossover Health (a healthcare company) to further their program on shifting consumer eating and drinking patterns.

They also promised to reveal their first wearable technology by May 7. We’ve written about Klue before on the Spoon, but that was when their tech synced up to compatible wearables; now, they’re about to unveil their own. Their press release said that the wearables will harness AI to track wrist movements and determine how much — and how fast — consumers are eating and drinking. According to their press release, they’ll then provide “personalized, real-time micro-nudges on dietary behavior modification,” encouraging wearers to make healthier consumption choices like eating more slowly, staying hydrated or avoiding late-night snacking.

While we’re not exactly sure what a “micro-nudge” is, it seems like this could lead to some literally hand-slapping when you reach for that second cookie. But Klue’s products are also very much in line with two big consumer food trends that have been on the up-and-up: personalization and dynamic nutrition services.

 

Photo: Instacart.

Instacart announces plans for $40M support center
This week Instacart said that it had plans to build a Customer Support Center in Atlanta — with a $40 million price tag. The new center will have a staff of 400, and will complete the construction and hiring process over the next two years, according to FoodDive.

With their latest expansions — including new deals with Costco, Albertson’s, and Sam’s club — plus a recent $150 million funding round, Instacart will no doubt need some serious customer support to help with new client onboarding and delivery organization. We made the claim that if they wanted to beat Amazon the grocery delivery company would have to both expand and innovate — maybe this new service center will help them achieve both of these goals while keeping their customers and suppliers happy.

 

Photo: Whole Foods

Amazon ups Whole Foods perks
Speaking of groceries, this week Amazon amped up Whole Foods perks for Prime members in an attempt to get them to shop more often at the grocery store. Most prominently, Prime members will get an additional 10% discount off of already discounted products.

According to CNBC, roughly 75% of Whole Foods shoppers are Amazon Prime members, but only 20% of Prime members shop at Whole Foods. These perks could help the grocery store move away from its reputation as “Whole Paycheck” and capture Amazon’s Prime members, who value convenience and a good deal.

 


Plant-based protein drink company raises $1.1M
This week protein drink startup Après raised $1.1 million seed round led by Rocana Venture Partners. According to BevNet, the company targets women as the core consumers for their plant-based protein shakes — each of which contains 180 -190 calories and 13 grams of protein.

While plant-based protein drinks made of almond or soy have been around for a while, this is one of the first drinks to market itself purely as a protein beverage — and to emphasize that it’s made of plants. Après’recent funding round indicates that plant-based protein’s popularity has expanded way beyond “chicken” nuggets and burgers. And if consumer trends hold true, the market for plant-based protein will continue to grow over the coming years. So we’ll probably be seeing it pop up more often — and a lot more prominently — in a lot of different food categories.

A user prepares food for the Oliver cooking chambers

Else Labs opens up beta testing for cooking robot Oliver

We’ve followed cooking robot startup Else Labs ever since they appeared as part of our Startup Showcase at the Smart Kitchen Summit, so we were intrigued to hear they’ve opened up beta testing for their cooking robot Oliver.  The company, which is raised $1.8 million through the Qatar Development Bank last summer, announced they were looking for beta testers via email.

Live in North America and want to beta test an Oliver? Apply here. If you live outside of North America, you may have to wait a while longer, as the company states via its beta tester survey this round of beta testing will be in “selected cities in North America.”