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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based protein

Singapore’s Float Foods Unveils a Plant-Based Food Incubator for Indonesia

Plant-based food startup Float Foods said this week it has launched a new incubator for plant-based food innovators in Indonesia (h/t Green Queen). Dubbed NEWFOOD Startup 2020, the program is a joint effort between Float Foods and food incubator Ultra Indonesia.

According to the NEWFOOD 2020 website, the program will invest in “up to 10 of the strongest performing Indonesian companies” creating plant-based alternatives to animal products. Meat and dairy alternatives are the obvious products here. Companies working with tech solutions geared towards plant-based foods and novel packaging products are also welcome to apply. All companies should have a minimum viable product at the time of their application.

The program comes at time when the alternative protein sector is seeing a huge amount of demand and investment dollars. At last check, over $1 billion has been invested, with the bulk of that money going towards plant-based products. While the U.S. is still the largest market for alt-protein, the Asia-Pacific region is also seeing significant growth, too. Float Foods says that the market for plant-based proteins in Indonesia has witnessed “tremendous growth” in demand over the last few years and will grow at a CAGR of 6 percent in the Asia-Pacific region by 2025.

Part of the demand for plant-based proteins comes from new intel around safety and ethical standards in traditional meat-packing plants, not to mention outbreaks of COVID-19 at facilities.

The NEWFOOD 2020 program is looking for companies that can answer this demand. The program will be completely virtual, with 40 days of online mentorship sessions for pre-selected companies on a range of topics, including business development, distribution, financial projections, and company valuations. Following that, 10 companies will be selected via an online demo day and will receive up to $25,000 each.

The program is currently accepting applications. Registration closes September 25.

 

Chile’s NotCo Raises $85M to Bring Its Plant-based Proteins to the U.S.

NotCo, a Chilean food tech company known for its alternative protein products, announced today it has closed an $85 million Series C round. The round was led by Future Positive, L Catterton Partners, and General Catalyst. Existing investors include Kaszek Ventures, The Craftory, Bezos Expedition, Endeavor Catalyst, Indie Bio, Humbolt Capital and Maya Capital.

The new funds come as NotCo plans to scale its operations and expand internationally, starting with a move into the U.S. The company said in today’s press release that it is evaluating both retail and restaurant partnerships in the States.

Rather than focus on a single food category, NotCo is developing meat, dairy, and egg alternatives at the same time. The company currently has its NotMilk, NotBurger, NotIceCream, and NotMay in stores around Chile, Brazil, Argentina. It also has deals with Burger King and Papa John’s in Chile. 

To make its plant-based protein products, NotCo uses artificial intelligence to match animal proteins with their ideal plant replacement, pulling from a library of thousands of plant profiles the company has stored up. The idea is to make combinations of plants that will most closely mimc not just the taste of meat or dairy but also the texture, smell, and mouthfeel, among other factors.

This approach has made NotCo one of the biggest players in plant-based protein in Latin America. However, an expansion to the U.S. means NotCo will have to compete with some serious competition in an already crowded alternative protein space that includes some of the industry’s biggest names: Beyond and Impossible in the plant-based meat sector, Eat JUST for eggs, and Perfect Day for dairy. 

International expansion, whether to the U.S. or from it, is a major development in the alternative protein space of late. Beyond, Impossible, and Eat JUST have all announced plans to move into other markets, including Canada and China. Those expansions make sense, given the amount of cash flowing into the sector. The entire alternative protein category has seen an enormous amount of investment in 2020: over $1.1 billion so far, with more than $907 million of that going to plant-based protein.

For its own expansion, NotCo co-founders, Matias Muchnick (CEO) and Karim Pichara (CTO), will be based in the U.S. The company said in a recent interview that it wants to be a $300 million company by 2024, with 70 percent of that business in the U.S.

Nestlé Launches Plant-based Tuna Alternative

Nestlé announced this week its newest product release: a plant-based tuna called Vuna, which is the company’s first seafood alternative product. Vuna will first be available in Switzerland.

Nestlé’s fish-free tuna contains six plant-based ingredients, with pea protein being the key component. Although Nestlé did not disclose the rest of the ingredients, they did say the tuna product is high in protein and contains essential amino acids. The Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland has spent the past nine months developing the product, which will be released under the Swiss brand Garden Gourmet.

Nestlé is among the largest food manufacturers in the world and is growing its plant-based portfolio. Two of its brands, Garden Gourment and Sweet Earth, offer plant-based meat alternatives like chicken nuggets, sausages, and burger patties. Nestlé also launched its Incredible burger last year, though it changed the name of the product to Sensational Burger after Impossible pressed a trademark infringement case.

With a growing population correlating to a growing demand for seafood, plant-based alternatives offers a solution to feeding a protein hungry planet. The seafood industry is currently worth $15 billion, and given the microplastics found in fish and overfishing threatening traditional fish, the plant-based seafood industry certainly has the opportunity to expand.

Overall, plant-based seafood alternative companies have raised $35 million in investments as of June 2020. Plant-based seafood currently only accounts for 1 percent of total plant-based meat sales, and sales of plant-based foods are quickly outpacing the sales growth of animal-based foods. There is certainly room and opportunity for more alternative seafood products and companies in the plant-based space.

Nestlé’s Vuna joins other companies like Good Catch and Sophie’s Kitchen which also offer plant-based fish. Other large CPGs also see the potential in plant-based seafood. General Mills, for example, is an investor in Good Catch.

For now, Nestlé’s tuna alternative product is currently only available in the Switzerland, though the company has with future plans to roll out in other markets. The tuna will come refrigerated in a glass jar and be available in select retail locations.

Video: 50 Million Plant-Based Eggs Later, Eat Just Keeps Innovating

Between massive disruptions to the supply chain and growing evidence of COVID-19’s zoonotic origins, it’s little wonder that both demand for and investment in plant-based protein choices has escalated to previously unseen heights in the last several months.

Helping lead the charge and change in the way we humans get our proteins is Eat Just, a San Francisco-based company whose plant-based egg product is on store shelves everywhere between Whole Foods and Costco. The company now has its sights set on international expansion and, more importantly, on further helping us humans understand the negative impacts of our over-reliance on animal proteins. Those impacts include (and are definitely not limited to) further harm to the planet and the likelihood that COVID-19 won’t be the last pandemic we see.  

“There’s a collision that’s happening between human beings and animals and that collision is causing a spillover that is increasing the risk profile of our food systems,” Eat Just founder and CEO Josh Tetrick explained to me over a Zoom chat recently.

Eat Just was one of the early innovators in the new generation of plant-based food and one of the only companies with plans for both plant-based and cultured protein products. Given all that, I wanted to get Tetrick’s take on the current state of the market and how things are changing as the pandemic situation plays out.

Watch the video below to see our full conversation, where we discuss:

  • The versatility of the egg and how we can replicate it using plant-based alternatives
  • How the pandemic is changing the way consumers think about not just the foods they eat but where those foods come from
  • The recent United Nations report that outlines how our increasing demand for animal protein is the number one driver of zoonotic diseases
  • How plant-based protein companies can work alongside — not replace — established CPGs and other food industry players to spark change in the way we eat

Plant-Based Meat Company THIS Has Surpassed Its £2M Crowdfunding Goal — With Time to Spare

Plant-based meat company THIS has more than surpassed its £2 million (~$2.6 million USD) target goal on crowdfunding platform Seedrs. So far, the London, U.K.-based company has raised over £3 million — and has 40 days left to go on its campaign (h/t Plant Based News). 

THIS, which raised £4.7 in March of this year, calls itself a plant-based meat company for meat lovers. It only launched in 2019, but already has its plant-based chicken nugget and bacon products in stores at 2,000 retailers across the U.K., including those of Tesco, Waitros, and Ocado. The company has some presence in restaurants, too. Its products are made from soy bean protein, water, and pea protein. The inclusion of other ingredients, such as vegetable extracts, food additive Maltodextrin, and potato starch, varies from one product to the next. 

With the money it’s raising via its Seedr campaign, THIS hopes to expand further into supermarkets and across more restaurant chains, though the campaign does not list specific names. The company noted that it is also “building a formidable innovation engine within the company” to develop more plant-based meat products. 

THIS says it’s on a mission to make “hyper-realistic plant-based food that mimics meat in taste, texture, and appearance.” But while the company may have picked a good time to launch their campaign, it’s also a highly competitive year for plant-based protein. Thanks in no small part to the pandemic, investment in plant-based proteins is up: $1.1 billion up, according to investor network FAIRR’s recent report. Over $907 million of that figure has been invested in plant-based protein alternatives so far in 2020.

And where the alt-protein space was once the territory of mostly burgers, more and more companies have lately come to market with other meat substitute products. Simulate, which raised $4.1 million in July, also makes chicken nuggets. In the bacon realm, THIS will compete with Hooray Foods and Prime Roots, and possibly Beyond, if rumors are to be believed. 

THIS’s fundraising campaign on Seedr is still in private phase and will go public in the coming days.

FAIRR: Investment in Alternative Protein Has Already Reached $1.1B in 2020

Investment in alternative protein for the first half of 2020 is almost double what it was for the whole of 2019, according to a new report by investor network FAIRR. Between January and the beginning of July of 2020, over $907 million was invested into plant-based foods, compared to $457 for the whole of 2019. More than $290 million has been invested into cell-based meat so far in 2020. The entire market for alternative protein is expected to grow to $17.9 billion by 2025.

The U.S. is still the largest market for alt-protein, reaching almost $5 billion in sales in 2019, $1 billion of those for meat alternatives. China’s is also a huge market for alternative proteins, particularly when it comes to meat replacements. 

We’ve noted this growth frequently over the last few months, and FAIRR’s report lays out some of the main drivers behind consumers’ insatiable appetites for non-animal protein. There’s the aforementioned uptick in investment, a point supported by a recent slew of news announcements. In the last week alone, Better Meat Co. raised $1 million, Joywell Foods raised $6.9 million, and plant-based cheese company Grounded raised $1.74 million.

FAIRR also calls out the rise of plant-based seafood products and a decrease in production costs for manufacturers as market drivers, along with an increase in companies using alt-protein to diversify their product lines. Last year saw a number of major milestones that brought these issues further into the light and helped alt-protein go mainstream. For instance, Nestlé opened its own production facility for plant-based meat in May of this year. UK grocer Sainsbury’s launched its own line of plant-based products in early 2020. Meanwhile, Starbucks, KFC, and a host of other QSRs have rushed to add plant-based offerings to their menus.

Then, of course, we have the pandemic to thank for this massive uptick in demand for alternative protein. “Consumers worldwide are rethinking how they eat and what they eat amidst supply chain disruptions and public concern over the link between meat production and viral diseases,” the report states.

Across the board, investment in food tech is up since the start of the pandemic, having reached $4.8 billion in the first half of 2020 according to a report from Finistere. This too is in response to the current global health crisis.

But FAIRR also calls COVID-19 “only the latest straw on the camel’s back” when it comes to alt-proteins. Pre-pandemic, our heavy reliance on animal-based proteins was already under scrutiny because of animal supply chains’ negative impact on the environment, not to mention human health. Throw a zoonotic pathogen in there (which COVID-19 is widely believed to be), and it’s easy to see why the pandemic has accelerated the demand for animal-free protein sources.

What’s next? Cell-based protein, probably. While that sector has made up a much smaller portion of investments in the first half of 2020, those dollars are nonetheless pouring in. As the pandemic wrecks more havoc on our food system and sheds light on the importance of finding new sources of protein, expect the interest in cell-based proteins to continue its acceleration.

Noops Closes $2M Pre-Seed Round, Launches Oatmilk Pudding in U.S.

Noops, a new company that makes plant-based pudding snacks from oat milk, today announced its U.S. launch online and in some retail locations. The company also announced it has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by 25madison, with participation from Unovis/New Crop Capital and Siddhi Capital. 

Noops said in today’s press release it will use the funds to further develop its product, expand into more retail and foodservice outlets, and expand marketing efforts.

On its website, Noops lists oat milk, date paste, and sunflower seed protein as the main ingredients of its pudding snacks. All ingredients are organic, and the puddings contain zero added sugars. Noops says each serving contains five to seven grams of protein, five to seven grams of fiber, and half the carbs find in regular pudding snacks at the grocery store. 

Starting today, the snacks are available to pre-order online, and the company will launch at certain retailers (specifics weren’t named) and via Instacart later this month. Right now, the products are only available in the U.S.

Like many products derived from plants and alternative ingredients, Noops’ snacks ring up high in terms of price point right now. An eight-pack of 135g cups costs$39, while a 24-pack costs $84. That’s considerably higher than, say, a three-pack of 115g Swiss Miss puddings that will run you about $3.50 bones. It’s less astronomical, though, than something like Magic Spoon’s $40 for a four-pack of 7-oz. alt-sugar cereal.

On the whole, demand for plant-based products products continues to rise. And Noops is wise to sell its wares directly to consumers via its website. Since the pandemic hit, many companies have taken this route to reach customers who prefer e-commerce to mingling with strangers at the grocery store. Noops joins the likes of Impossible, Planterra, Beyond, and other plant-based brands in offering or planning to offer their products via e-commerce shops.

Impossible Goes the Meal Kit Route With Home Chef Partnership

Meal kit company Home Chef announced today it is partnering with Impossible Foods to offer the latter’s plant-based burgers in its kits. This is the first time Impossible has shown up in the meal kit realm, and it comes at a point when consumer demand for plant-based meat is rapidly growing.

Home Chef will offer multiple recipes that give customers the option to swap out regular ol’ protein for Impossible’s burger, which will come as a 12-oz, package of ground meat for use in a range of recipes that would ordinarily call for beef.

The addition of Impossible to the Home Chef roster is part of the meal kit company’s new “Customize It” feature, which lets users adjust their weekly order to fit their needs, whether that’s extra protein, more veggies, or additional servings. Think Chipotle for meal kits. It’s also the latest way in which the Kroger-owned meal kit company is trying to diversify its offerings to meet different consumers’ lifestyles.

Meal kits are just the latest expansion for Impossible, which up until recently had only been available in restaurants. The company launched its direct-to-consumer online store in June. Those in the lower 48 states can buy bulk orders of Impossible products through it.

But while Impossible may be ahead of its rival Beyond in terms of D2C (Beyond has announced but not yet launched its own e-commerce site), it lags behind in meal kits. Beyond has been available in Blue Apron and HelloFresh kits for some time.

Since the start of the pandemic, Impossible has grown its grocery store footprint by more than 30x and its products are now in about 5,000 grocery stores. Meal kits are another road into consumers’ homes, an important destination seeing as how a lot more people are staying home these days. It doesn’t hurt, either, that the long-struggling meal kit market is actually making something of a comeback.

COVID-19 Summit: How a Global Pandemic Will Reinvent the Restaurant Menu

For the last few weeks — really since states began mandating dining room closures — one of the most commonly uttered pieces of advice for restaurants has been to rethink their menus. Between a global pandemic, a looming recession, and unprecedented disruption to daily life, it seems the one piece of restaurant operations that’s pretty much never changed suddenly needs a major overhaul.

That point was reiterated yesterday at The Spoon’s COVID-19 virtual summit. In particular, two big points stuck out: the menu needs to teach consumers how to eat healthier and it needs to be redesigned for the off-premises format.

Robert Egger, the founder of LA Kitchen, talked about the need to rethink the menu in times like these and focus on trimming portions down.

“The tyranny of the plate is something we need to reject,” he said on a panel with Spoon Publisher Mike Wolf and chef Mark Brand. He was talking specifically about the four-compartment meal that represents the standard American diet, where “the big piece of meat” is accompanied by vegetables and starches.

Egger’s suggestion is that restaurants and institutional foodservice businesses distance themselves from that format and look to menu models that create more integrated meals that are plant-forward and rely on alternative proteins for sustenance. Think of the grain bowls or falafel bowls served up by chains like Sweetgreen or Tender Greens, two companies Egger referenced in his talk. These, he says, can give customers a “robust, flavorful replacement” for the standard American diet that relies so heavily on animal proteins and gigantic portions.

Brand agreed. “If you continue to feed the beast, which is literal obesity and diabetes, you’re already part of the problem,” he said. “Why are you opening a restaurant to kill people?”

Instead of reacting to what they think customers want to see on the menu, restaurants should instead try to lead customers to choices that will be better for them. That could mean offering an alternative protein to chicken or not serving avocado toast in a region that doesn’t grow avocados. It definitely includes serving smaller portions and getting away from what Eggar called “the groaning plate.”

In many cases, it will also mean preparing food that can travel easily. With restaurant dining rooms closed for now, businesses are having to quickly pivot to off-premises models that serve delivery and takeout meals. One mantra I’ve heard often in my conversations over the last few weeks is “pare down your menu” to make it friendlier to the off-premises format.

Moving your menu to an off-premises setting is more than just a matter of uploading your existing one to Postmates et al. Restaurants have to factor in what food travels well and how they can offer variety without inducing decision paralysis, where a customer sees so many options they freeze up.  

At the event yesterday, Chowly’s Sterling Douglass said there was no magic number of menu items when it comes to offering choice without that decision paralysis. Rather, it’s a matter of simplifying the choices themselves. For example, an item called “Chicago-style Hot Dog” will be selected more than a hot dog that requires customers to take an extra step by selecting “Chicago-style” from a list of styles. 

And, of course, the food has to travel well from the restaurant to a customer’s house. That’s where Eggar’s grain bowls could prove themselves really valuable. A plate of chicken parmesan sliding around a box and getting more lukewarm with every minute doesn’t exactly make for an appetizing to-go order. A bowl of greens, quinoa, and other items that were meant to be mixed together makes a whole lot more sense when it comes to food that travels. My bet is that it’s cheaper to produce, too.

As restaurants continue building and modifying their models to fit in this strange new world or social distancing, paring the menu down to a few simpler, healthier options could prove the most beneficial thing for everyone’s health, not to mention their wallets.

With Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers, Food is Now Software

I was excited when my wife brought home Beyond Burgers the other night, but I was soon crestfallen (don’t tell her this) when I saw that they were the old recipe of Beyond Burgers. That version of Beyond Burgers was fine — enough to get me into the plant-based burgers in the first place, but the new recipe the company released earlier this year, is so. much. better.

Because my wife doesn’t write about food tech for a living, she was probably unaware that there even are multiple versions of Beyond Meat at the market. Why should she be? Food is typically food. You have your list, you go to the grocery store, put your items in the cart without looking at them too carefully, and bring them home.

But plant-based foods, especially those that aim to re-create the look and feel of animal meat, are ushering in a new era, one where new versions of the product are constantly being tweaked, updated, and released. In short, we are entering an era where food is becoming more like software.

This was fully apparent when I visited the Beyond Meat R&D facility down in Los Angeles last year. Teams of scientists were putting the company’s patties through various machines, simulations and tests, all to find the right combination of ingredients to create the optimal elasticity, flavor, texture and more of meat.

Beyond Meat certainly isn’t alone in its constant state of iteration. Impossible Foods was the belle of the ball at CES this past January as it launched a new recipe for its heme-burger. Like Beyond, Impossible will continue to improve its recipes even after it comes to retail next month. And the recipe tinkering won’t end this year, or with Beyond and Impossible. Nestlé is already revamping its Incredible Burger, Rebellyous is sure to improve upon its fake chicken nuggets, Omnipork will update its plant-pork, and JUST is always exploring new ways to make its mung-bean eggs (let’s not even get into the cultured meat that will make its way to market in a few years).

It’s not hard to see why there is so much recipe tweaking. First, plant-based meat companies like Beyond and Impossible are trying to do something that hadn’t really been done before. Instead of offering a veggie alternative to meat like a black bean burger or portabello mushroom “patty,” they are trying to re-create meat from the ground up. There wasn’t a playbook to go by, and the chances that they would get it perfect right out of the gate were pretty slim.

The new version of Beyond Meat (and the sister product, Beyond Beef ground) is so much better than the first version. At least for meat eaters and flexitarians who were looking for something like meat, but less ethically and environmentally complicated. As Beyond and Impossible spend more on research and development, they will uncover new ingredients, new combinations and new manufacturing techniques to make their products even better and tastier. (For more check out our interview with Impossible CEO Pat Brown.)

The same can’t be said for traditional animal meat. Sure, there will be varying degrees of quality, but beef is going to always taste and feel like beef, chicken like chicken and pork like pork. The cow (or pig or chicken) is not going to become a different animal.

Of course, this is part of the appeal of meat — you pretty much know what you’re going to get, and you will always know how to cook it. The same can’t be said for plant-based proteins, which will undergo constant tweaking. With these new iterations comes the chance that Beyond and Impossible will forget that perfect is the enemy of the good, and they will keep messing with it to create the Windows Me of plant-based meat: a recipe foisted upon the consumer that is just… awful.

But unlike software, there is no “Umami patch” that can be downloaded to the patties on store shelves to correct an off flavor. Think: New Coke, but only much more complicated. Coke, however, only had to deal with flavor, plant-based proteins need to have not just the right flavor but texture and appealing looks as well. A misstep could result in entire production runs being scrapped and new marketing campaigns to bring people back to a brand.

All of this tweaking and recipe improvement also plays into the criticism that plant-based proteins are too processed. It’s not hard to imagine critics already lined up against plant-based proteins to point fingers at scientists in white coats and petrie dishes creating “meat” in sterile lab environments. Animals, on the other hand, are familiar and all natural (well, in theory, I don’t think anyone would argue that factory farming of meat is in any way natural).

Aside from market realities and public perception though, I’m most fascinated by food as software because it represents a whole new way of thinking about food itself. The basic building blocks of our meals can be improved upon, resulting in new flavors and textures that we never even considered.

The natural endpoint for all this goes way beyond, well, Beyond, and the way we think of food now. At some point food will literally become software that is beamed to your 3D food printer, where meals that match you precise flavor and dietary needs are extruded directly onto your plate.

But until that day comes, just pay attention to the label to make sure you are buying the correct, that is, the newest, version of that plant-based burger.

Forget Coffee Pods — This Argentinian Company is Making Home Protein Pods

As a planet, we’re experiencing something of a protein frenzy right now. Whether it’s made of meat or plants, we just can’t get enough of the stuff.

An Argentinian company called Enye Technologies is trying to help feed this protein craze with microfungus, the main ingredient in plant-based meat company Quorn. They have developed a way to grow mycelia, or delicate fungus filaments, to make edible protein chunks which the company calls “Kernels.” The kernels apparently have a texture similar to tuna and a neutral flavor.

According to FoodNavigator, EnyeTech will have a two-sided go-to-market approach for its Kernels. It will license out its protein-growing technology to food companies looking for cheap protein. More interestingly, it will also build a kitchen appliance which will allow customers to grow 300g of microfungus protein per day using a process not unlike making a Nespresso drink.

Yes, a Nespresso for protein.

The aforementioned Food Navigator article noted that the company plans to launch their Kernel technology at CES in January 2020, though they didn’t specify if that’s when they’ll launch the protein tech alone or the full-fledged consumer appliance. They haven’t disclosed pricing details for the appliance or the protein pods, but Enye Tech is expecting to sell Kernel to foodservice partners for $2 per kilo.

As of now, there are too many question marks to know if this device could actually be viable. Is the appliance affordable? How do consumers order more protein pods? Is the protein-making process really as easy as just popping in a pod? Does the Kernel protein actually taste good?

But the biggest question of all is whether making your own protein at home is actually worth it. In an age where more and more appliances are vying for our countertop, I’m not sure that many consumers will make room for a machine that only makes protein chunks. And when there are so many appealing plant-based options you can easily buy at the grocery store, does anyone actually want to go through the added trouble of growing their own? However, we are headed towards an era of cooking convergence; maybe Enye Tech would fare better if they incorporated their technology into another countertop appliance?

Right now, this technology seems like it would have a pretty niche audience: namely, people who love doing things like brewing their own beer and are also pretty environmentally conscious. I have a hard time envisioning a future where everyone casually grows their own protein for dinner. When we head into space, it might be a different story.