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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based

Are Beyond Meat’s Flagging Sales a Sign Big Cattle’s Negative Messaging is Working?

This week, Beyond Meat had some lousy news for Wall Street: US sales were down 13.9% year over year.

According to the company, the culprit for the sales drop was a softening in their grocery and foodservice markets.

For some, a sales drop for a high-flying alt-meat pioneer like Beyond might come as a shock. Like Impossible Foods and others in the fast-growing plant-based meat industry, Beyond has had mostly good news over the past few years as revenue went up and to the right on the back of new sales channels, geography expansion, and growing consumer demand.

So what’s going on here? Why is an alt-meat bellwether like Beyond suddenly seeing its sales drop?

The company cites a number of issues, including supply chain constraints, restaurant labor challenges, and ordering uncertainty in the face of never-ending pandemic. They also say new competition is putting downward pressure on market share.

I have no doubt these reasons are true in varying degrees, especially increased competition. More alt-meat alternatives are coming to market all the time, giving grocers and consumers more choice.

Still, from what I can tell, Beyond Meat products are ubiquitous on the shelves of every grocery store or warehouse club I walk into. So if the product is still widely available, I have to wonder: is this a Beyond Meat-specific problem? Or, more specifically, are consumers buying more plant-based meat in general and just less Beyond?

Maybe. Market watchers have estimated that plant-based market grew 12.1% year over year for the month ending July 31st 2021, which shows the industry doesn’t necessarily have a sales problem, at least yet. Personally, I’d love to know what Impossible’s sales have done over the same period. The two companies are the Coke and Pepsi of alt-meats, and if Beyond’s sales drop while Impossible’s continue to go up, that would be a bad sign.

At this point, it’s worth emphasizing I have no idea if this is the case, only that it’s a possibility. Remember, unlike factory-farmed cow or chicken meat, plant-based meats are unique. They are essentially designer products, different in taste, mouth feel and other flavor attributes. I know some people who like Impossible but won’t eat Beyond, and vice versa. Maybe there’s just more of the former than the latter.

I also suspect there might be another non-Beyond meat factor at play here, which is this: a growing negative perception of some plant-based meat products.

Like many who follow the plant-based meat industry closely and are overly aware of the techology-powered ingredient list and carbon footprint of the products, I’ve had friends who don’t spend nearly as much time thinking about plant-based tell me they’ve heard these products are highly processed, unhealthy (or outright bad for you) and less natural compared to the “real thing”.

All of which sounds a lot like the messaging I’ve watched come from the Cattleman’s Association over the last few years. The large meat-growers trade group and other lobbying organizations have continued to push out thought pieces and commentary putting plant-based (and cell-based) meat in a negative light. The messaging is all focus-group tested and aimed to directly appeal to a variety of consumer values and it appears it may be working.

So: Is this a Beyond problem, or is it a canary in the coal mine indicating a growing perception problem for alt-meat? I suspect it may be a little of both. Either way, I am sure the plant-based meat – as well as the factory farming industry – are all watching what happens very closely.

Dallas Chef Offers A Fearless Approach to Her Vegan Ghost Kitchen

For Dallas chef Lori Moore, operating her new business, Vspot, out of what is commonly called a “ghost kitchen” is no figment of anyone’s imagination. Her vegan-inspired menu evolved from her fanciful passion for food, but Lori’s lunch and dinner spot is the result of years of training, hard work, and planning. In her case, the “ghost” part of the equation is more of a conscious choice than a need to follow a growing trend.

“I was always that weird kid that loved veggies,” Moore said in a recent interview with The Spoon. After graduating from Dallas’ Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in 2011, Lori toyed with the idea of opening a vegan food truck. Still, the cloud kitchen concept allowed her to focus more on cooking and less on infrastructure.

In order to avoid tackling complex technology on her own, Moore took advantage of a platform offered by Los Angeles-based CloudKitchens, a company founded by Diego Berdakin in 2016. Key features of CloudKitchehn are tools that allow Moore to track orders and work with suppliers. The consumer-facing process starts with Flipdish, a seperate technology, that takes customer orders, which are sent to the kitchen owner for fulfillment. Next in line is Otter, an AI-based technology, which seamlessly connects to various delivery options, including Uber Eats, Door Dash, Caviar, and Grubhub.

“Using the technology of a cloud kitchen, it takes care of the technology that is out of my range,” Moore said. “It lets me do what I do best—cook.

Before starting Vspot, Moore offered meal prep, which gave customers menu options in advance that the Dallas chef would prepare for her clients to pick up. Her weekly menu would include five different choices for lunch and five for dinner.

Moore’s decision to focus on vegan food was partially based on her food preferences and appealing to the North Texas’ growing interest in plant-based foods, which was aligned to her community becoming more health-conscious during the COVID-19 pandemic. The commissary where she does all her cooking is in Trinity Grove, near the downtown area, where many of her regulars live.

“Many people are intimidated by the idea of being vegan,” she said, commenting that many are shocked when they order and enjoy a vegan burger. “They can’t believe it’s vegan and can’t wrap their head around it.”

Between 75% and 80% of her food is made from scratch, with such items and burgers, cheese, chicken, and buns provided by a local purveyor. Listening to what she jokingly calls “voices in her head,” Moore hopes to add soups and other staples to her roster of vegan offerings.

As with most successful upstart food companies, Moore is a heavy user of social media leaning on Instagram to whet people’s appetite with pictures and videos of her burgers (Impossible Burger), vegan chicken sandwiches, sides, and desserts.

The cloud/ghost kitchen concept fits Moore’s vision to a T. She refuses to be satisfied with her single location in Dallas, hoping to expand her idea across the country. She would find a place for the cloud kitchen and train people to handle the food prep in order to carry out that vision. Of course, leaning heavily on her model of using Flipdish and CloudKitchens for the required tech muscle would be a significant key towards achieving her long-term goal.

Lori Moore is not alone in seeing the power and profit of vegan-themed cloud kitchens. Aside from startups in China and India, there are Souley Vegan, based in Oakland; Good Vibes in Sacramento; Qusqo Bistro in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles-based Plant Nation.

Migros Launches Plant-Based Hard-Boiled Egg. Watch This Video To See How It’s Made

Swiss retail and grocery giant Migros announced last week they were launching a new plant-based hard-boiled egg.

The new egg, called The Boiled, is the latest from the company’s plant-based product line, V-Love. According to the announcement, The Boiled is made with fourteen different ingredients but gets its protein punch from soy. The alt-egg will be on sale this month in stores across Switzerland in four-packs and will retail for 4.40 Swiss Francs (~$4.84).

The new egg looks exactly like an egg and tastes pretty close to one too, at least according to Swiss daily newspaper Aargauer Zeitung (translated): How does it taste? Amazingly similar to the original. Only the consistency of the protein differs more strongly. It has less bite. The egg yolk, on the other hand, has the floury-soft consistency, the yellow color – confusingly similar.

You can get a quick idea of how TheBoiled comes together by watching the video below. The process includes pouring the liquid that forms the white outer portion of the egg into molds. After the white part is formed and solid, the eggs are positioned on an automated production line where the yellow yolk is then injected. The video finishes by showing a TheBoiled egg cut in half.

While Migros claims that the new plant-based egg is the world’s first, there have been a number of companies making plant-based eggs in recent years, and earlier this year Singapore-based OsomeFood launched a hard-boiled egg made primarily from mycoprotein. Migros’ TheBoiled does appear to be the first plant-based hard-boiled egg made with soy.

Video: Melibio’s Darko Mandich on Making Honey Without the Bees

Honey is a$7 billion industry. While honeybees themselves are not in danger (at least today), the focus on honey production is problematic for the broader bee ecosystem since farmed honeybees compete with wild bees for food and ultimately hurt biodiversity.

All of this is why a Serbian bee industry executive named Darko Mandich became fascinated with the idea of making honey without bees. His company MeliBio uses precision fermentation, synthetic biology, and plant science that replaces bees as the honey-making medium. The result is a “honey” with the same taste, texture, and mouthfeel of natural honey without any harvesting from bees.

Since the company recently released its first plant-based honey, we thought it would be good to catch up with Darko to talk a little about his honey and how he got the inspiration to start the company.

Making Honey Without Bees With Melibio

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Kingdom Supercultures Raises $25M, The EVERY Company Launches Animal-Free Eggs,

Plant-based foods and alternative protein products are often associated with a reduced carbon footprint. This week, the government of Denmark hopped on board with this ideology: the government will invest 1.25 billion kroner (~$194 million USD) into plant-based foods as part of a climate agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For this week’s alternative protein round-up, we gathered up some of the top news of the week from around the alt-protein world, including Clara Foods’ rebrand and the launch of The EVERY Company, Kingdom Supercultures’ Series A round, Burger King’s new menu item, and Revo’s plan for a 3D printer factory.

Clara Foods Becomes The EVERY Company, Launches Animal-Free Egg Protein

Clara Foods, one of the early pioneers building nature-equivalent proteins using precision fermentation technology, announced this week it is rebranding to the EVERY Company and is launching its first animal-free egg product called ClearEgg, an egg protein product targeted at the protein beverage market. Read full article here.

Kingdom Supercultures raises $25 million

New York-based Kingdom Supercultures announced this week that it has raised $25 million in a Series A round to fund the development of microbial cultures. The company is developing what it calls “Supercultures”, which are microbial-based ingredients to improve the texture, flavor, and functionality of plant-based products and consumer packaged goods. The new capital will be used to expand its ingredient portfolio and R&D facilities in Brooklyn, New York.

Burger King will soon serve up Impossible nuggets

Burger King made headlines when it first began serving the Impossible Whopper two years ago. This week, the fast casual restaurant chain announced it will begin trialing Impossible nuggets in three U.S. cities on October 11:  Des Moines, Boston, and Miami. The nuggets are made from a base of wheat flour and soy protein, and will be served in a pack of eight. Burger King is the first fast food chain to offer Impossible’s newest product, and the nuggets will be available for a limited amount of time.

Revo Foods shares plans for 3D-printed factory

Austrian startup Revo Foods produces plant-based fish products, and some of its prototypes are created with a 3D printer. The company is in the process of developing a plan to boost its production capacity and scale its 3D printing technology. The company’s idea is to have a production-scale facility wit interconnected 3D printers stacked on one another. This week, The Spoon spoke with te CSO of Revo Foods, Theresa Rothenbücher to hear more. Read the full article here.

Revo Foods Wants To Build a 3D Printing Facility For Plant-Based Fish

Austrian startup Revo Foods produces plant-based fish products, but not the formed and fried items that are becoming increasingly common in grocery store aisles. Revo is making structurally sophisticated products: sheets of smoked salmon, salmon fillets, and sushi cuts with a realistic look and feel.

We’ve already seen cell-cultured meat startups use 3D printing to create cuts of meat with complex fat and tissue structures. Revo has brought 3D printing into the plant-based fish arena, and the company is betting that the resulting products will win over more seafood eaters.

This week, company CSO Theresa Rothenbücher joined The Spoon on Zoom to talk about Revo’s 3D printing technology and vision for scaling up.

“3D printing is our core technology here at Revo because it gives us the possibility to produce precise structures,” says Rothenbücher. With 3D printers, the team can closely mimic the appearance of a salmon fillet, with its layers of orange muscle and white connective tissue.

Revo is currently ironing out its production process, both by speeding up the actual printing, and by experimenting with other techniques that can be used to complement 3D printing.

But the company is also working on an ambitious plan to boost its production capacity. 3D printers have typically been used to produce prototypes, but Revo wants to scale up the technology. Rothenbücher describes the team’s vision: A production-scale facility that houses interconnected 3D printers of varying sizes. To save space, printers could be stacked on top of each other. An automated conveyor belt system would run through the facility.

Austria already generates around 80% of its energy from renewable sources, but the team is still working on maximizing the facility’s energy efficiency. “We are designing it in a way that we hope will avoid wasting energy, kind of like a closed circuit system,” says Rothenbücher. “So really, sustainability is one of our main focus points—besides having a great taste.”

The idea of producing food in a high-tech, 3D printing factory might seem like a potential turnoff for buyers, but Rothenbücher is optimistic about consumer acceptance. Revo has already produced some animated videos to introduce the technology—and brought out printers to meet consumers face-to-face.

“We usually bring one of our R&D printers to events, and then show people how the food material is transformed into the salmon products. Usually, they really like it and are fascinated with it, and if they can directly taste it, it’s even better,” says Rothenbücher. “Of course, it is not a traditional way of producing food. But then, we are a new generation.”

Revo has already tested its products at restaurants in Vienna, with positive results. The company plans to launch a line of fish spreads in early 2022, and to introduce sushi and whole cuts sometime after that.

The team selected salmon as a flagship offering because of the species’ popularity and environmental concerns linked to salmon aquaculture. They’ve also created some tuna products, and in the future, they’ll consider expanding to other species. As Rothenbücher says: “There are so many different fish in the sea.”

While Revo is focused on plant-based fish products for the time being, Rothenbücher believes that there will be opportunities for the company to collaborate with cell-based companies or manufacture hybrid products in the future. With specialized, upscaled technology for printing realistic cuts of fish, Revo could position itself as a production partner for cell-cultured startups moving toward commercialization.

Alt. Protein Round-Up: Tofurky’s Algae-Based Products and Animal-Free Chicken Fat

In this week’s alternative protein round-up, we have news on MeaTech’s cell-based chicken fat, Impossible Pork, the ProVeg Incubator, Tofurky’s partnership with Triton Algae, and Unicorn Biotechnologies.

MeaTech is now producing animal-free chicken fat

In the race to produce real animal fat outside of the animal, Israel-based MeaTech has hit a milestone: The start-up shared that it is now capable of producing over 700 grams of cell-based chicken fat in a single production run. MeaTech acquired Belgium start-up Peace of Meat last year, and is using its platform to produce the cell-based fat. The fat product can be used to create realistic marbling in cell-based meat or even used to create a plant-based hybrid product.

Impossible Foods is bringing its alt. pork product to foodservice

Impossible Pork will soon be found in foodservice locations in the U.S., Singapore, and Hong Kong. As of this week, David Chang’s New York restaurant Momofuku Ssam Bar began serving the alternative pork product in one of its dishes. Impossible Pork is set to launch in 100 plus restaurants in Hong Kong starting October 4th, and in Singapore sometime before the end of this year.

Proveg Incubator announces eight new start-ups in cohort

Berlin-based ProVeg Incubator just kicked off its latest accelerator program on September 20. Through the incubator, the start-ups have access to one-on-one mentoring, ProVeg’s network, and up to €250,000 in funding. This food-tech focused cohort contains eight start-ups from around the world, including:

  • Altein Ingredients (India) – mung bean protein
  • Alt Foods (India) – Plant-based milk made from grains and sprouted millet
  • Brain Foods (Bulgaria) – Plant-based snacks
  • Cultivated Biosciences (Netherlands) – uses fermentation to make a fat ingredient from yeast
  • Genesea (Israel) – B2B food-ingredient company that uses macroalgae
  • Meat Future (Estonia) – mycoprotein chicken and fish
  • Plant-based Japan (Japan)
  • ProProtein (Estonia) – uses precision fermentation to create dairy proteins

Tofurky partners with Triton Algae for future alt protein products

Plant-based meat brand Tofurky announced that it has partnered with algae producer Triton Algae Innovations to develop a new line of plant-based alternatives. The products will be crafted using Triton’s “essential red” algae, which contains protein, iron, vitamin A, and more. The algae, which is normally green, is grown with UV light which causes it to turn red and produce heme. It was not disclosed what exactly the new product will be, but it is set to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

Unicorn Biotechnologies Is Making Purpose-Built Bioreactors for Cell-Based Meat Production

According to Jack Reid, the CEO a new Cambridge-based startup called Unicorn Biotechnologies, companies trying to make meat without the animal today are mostly using large metal vats built for making something other than meat. “Existing bioreactor systems haven’t been and weren’t developed specifically for the cell ag industry,” said Reid. Read The Spoon’s story about how Unicorn is working to build purpose-built bioreactors for cell-based meat here.

Plant-Based News Round-Up: OmniPork in America, $3M for Alternative Cheese

Earlier this month, Bloomberg Intelligence released a report called “Plant-Based Foods Poised for Explosive Growth” that stated the alternatives proteins and dairy market could increase to $162 billion in the next decade. The plant-based space is seemingly always expanding, innovating, and churning out news. To keep you updated, we’ve gathered recent updates on companies in the space, including Omnipork, Hooray Foods, and Misha’s Kind Foods.

Omnipork launches in Sprouts and whole foods locations throughout the U.S.

Omnipork, a China-based brand owned by OmniFoods, announced this week that it has brought its alternative pork products to America. The company’s alternative pork strips, grounds, and luncheon products at now available at all 371 Sprouts locations and 200 Whole Foods Market stores. In addition to America, Omnipork has also recently expanded throughout Asia, Australia, and the UK. The alternative pork product is made predominantly from pea protein, soy, rice, and shitake mushrooms, and was originally crafted for the Asian market.

Left: Founder of Hooray Foods Sri Artham

Hooray Foods partners with Imperfect Foods

Hooray Foods, an alternative meat company, shared with The Spoon that it has partnered with Imperfect Foods, an online grocer focused on reducing food waste. Starting September 2nd, Hooray Foods’ bacon will be available for purchase on the grocer’s site as an add-on to shoppers’ weekly subscription boxes. The alternative bacon is made from a base of coconut oil, rice flour, tapioca starch, and can also be found at select Whole Foods and independent grocery retailers throughout the U.S.

In 2020, the plant-based bacon category doubled from 2019, increasing to a value of $267 million. Hooray Foods currently faces competition in the alternative bacon space from Prime Roots and AtLast.

Misha’s raises $3 million for alternative cheese

Misha’s Kind Foods, the California-based alternative dairy company, announced this week that it has raised a $3 million seed round. The round was led by Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures Partners Fund ll, L.P., Lisa Shamus & Partners, and Chris Paul. This new capital will allow the company to focus on product development, retail expansion, and growing its team. Misha produces non-dairy cheese products made from a blend of almonds and cashews, as well as herbs, vegetables, and spices.

The plant-based cheese category alone has experienced a 70 percent growth in the past two years. Although this category is not as mature and large as alternative dairy, Misha’s faces an abundance of competition from well-funded companies like Miyoko’s Creamery, Nobell, and Grounded Foods.

Bezos-Backed NotCo Raises $235M for Plant-Based Alternatives

NotCo, a Chile-based food tech company that produces various plant-based alternative foods, announced today that it has raised $235 million in its Series D round of funding.

The round was led by Tiger Global and saw participation from DFJ Growth Fund and ZOMA Lab, with individuals also joining including Jack Dorsey, Joe Gebbia, Lewis Hamilton, Roger Federer, and DJ Questlove. Existing investors include Bezos Expeditions, EHI, Future Positive, L Catterton, and Kaszek Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to $360 million.

This new capital will allow NotCo to expand into new product categories in North America and scale its proprietary A.I. platform. Additionally, the funds will help the company accelerate its plans to launch in Europe and Asia. Currently, NotCo offers five products: NotMilk, NotBurger, NotIceCream, and NotMayo. The products are available in approximately 6,000 retailers and foodservice locations throughout the U.S., Chile, Brazil, and Argentina.

Something that sets NotCo apart from other plant-based companies is its use of its A.I. technology (the company has five patents in the U.S. for this). Called Giuseppe, the proprietary A.I. platform analyzes the properties of thousands of plants in a database and then creates unique combinations with the goal of replicating animal ingredients. For example, the ingredients in the NotMilk product include pea protein, pineapple juice, chicory root, coconut oil, and cabbage juice.

NotCo joins the ranks with other large players in the plant-based space that have successfully expanded internationally. Beyond Meat fortified its presence in Europe earlier this year, and around the same time announced that it had opened a manufacturing facility in China. Impossible Foods and Just Eat made major expansions to Asia in the fall of 2020. Oatly is currently building or planning future production facilities in Singapore, China, and the UK.

In the U.S., NotCo’s NotMilk is currently available in Sprouts, Whole Foods, Wegmans, and other retailers. All of the company’s products are available in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina. By the end of 2021, NotCo aims to have its products available in 8,000 retailers globally.

Why Plant-Based Nuggets are Gold

When I think of chicken nuggets, I think of my young son. More specifically, I remember how at one point I surreptitiously replaced his animal-based chicken nuggets and tenders with plant-based ones… and he didn’t notice (or didn’t care). That small bit of deception is why I think the plant-based chicken nugget market could be a very big deal.

Plant-based chicken nuggets are nothing new. Companies like Quorn, Morningstar and Gardein have been selling them in the frozen aisles of grocery stores for years now. But things really heated up this month when both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods jumped into the faux poultry ring. Beyond, which had previously piloted plant-based chicken with KFC, announced a couple weeks back that its new tenders are available at 400 restaurants across the country. That announcement was quickly followed by the news that Impossible was unveiling its nuggets to potential restaurant customers this week for a fall rollout.

While both of their plant-based chicken products will debut at restaurants, it’s a no-brainer that their nuggets will eventually make it to store shelves. Both Beyond and Impossible spent a great deal of time last year vastly expanding their national retail sales footprint, all the heavy lifting of getting into stores in done, they now just need to roll out their nuggets.

And it’s on the store shelves where things get interesting, as there will be ton of competition. Not only are the stalwarts like Quorn, Morningstar and Gardein already there, but giants like Tyson has its Raised & Rooted plant-based nuggets, and Target has its own Good & Gather brand. Not to mention there is also a new crop of plant-based nugget startups like Rebellyous, SIMULATE, Nowadays, and Daring Foods competing for your dollar.

Competing for your top dollar, that is. Right now, you have to pay extra for plant-based chicken. A quick look at Safeway shows that an 8-ounce package of Raised and Rooted nuggets is $4.99, compared with a 32-ounce package of traditional animal based nuggets for $7.79. That’s almost four times as much food for a few dollars more.

But this is where Beyond and Impossible can help. While both of their burger products are still more expensive than traditional meat, consumer prices for Beyond and Impossible have steadily come down over the past couple of years. It’s a safe bet that the same will happen for their chicken products. With the brand recognition both Beyond and Impossible have, they should be able to quickly gain market share at retail and exert price pressure on other players in the space.

Another big opportunity for plant-based chicken nuggets and tenders is in schools cafeterias, where nuggets are menu staple. The USDA reports that schools served 5 billion lunches in fiscal year 2019, so it’s no surprise that schools were actually one of Rebellyous’ primary markets before the pandemic shut everything down last year. Also consider that this past May, Impossible received the Child Nutrition (CN) Label authorized by the USDA, which will make it easier for schools to purchase the Impossible Burger. With Impossible running pilots programs with a number of school districts across the U.S., it’s a safe bet the company will get the same regulatory approval for its nuggets.

But the big reason plant-based chicken nuggets and tenders will be huge goes back to my son. Nuggets and tenders are really more of a kids’ food (though, who doesn’t love a good nugget?), and if you can create a reasonable facsimile, they aren’t going to care. It’s not like trying to replicate a filet mignon at a fine dining establishment. Creating a plant-based filet requires “muscle” and fat structures. Plus, consumers have a heightened expectation around what a filet is and should be, so the uncanny valley is much greater. Nuggets, on the other hand, are junk food. (I say that with love) There doesn’t need to be a ton of complexity to make a good nugget. Bread it, flavor it, make sure it looks enough like meat on the inside and there you go. Kids will knock ’em back no fuss no muss.

Until now, burgers have been the star of the plant-based meat world, but don’t be surprised if next year plant-based chicken nuggets take center stage.

Photo from Nature’s Fynd website

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Nature’s Fynd Raises $350M Series C for its Microbial Protein – The protein originates from a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park.

Gathered Foods is Bringing Plant-Based Options to Long John Silver’s – Five locations in California and Georgia now serve Good Catch’s Crab-Free Cakes and Fish-Free Fillets

Multus Media Raises $2.2M for Cultured Meat Serum Replacement – The company says its growth media lasts twice as long as existing serum.

Mzansi Meat Co. is Bringing Cultured Meat to Africa – Representing the food and farming culture of Africa is important to Mzansi Meat Co., and the company will be extracting cells from indigenous cattle breeds.

Wicked Kitchen, UK Plant-Based Food Brand, Raises $14M Series A Round

Wicked Kitchen, a UK-based plant-based food and prepared meal brand, announced this week that has closed a Series A round of $14M. This is the company’s first public round and it was led by Unovis Asset Management and NRF Nove Foods.

Following this funding, Wicked Kitchen will soon expand into the U.S. with its plant-based offerings, and will build out its teams in London, Austin, and Minneapolis. Its current product lines are extensive, featuring everything from vegan desserts to alternative protein analogs. For the U.S. consumer, Wicked Kitchen will bring plant-based prepared frozen meals, ready-to-eat lunch and breakfast options, sauces, mayo, pesto, and meals kits to select retailers.

The founders of Wicked Kitchen are Chad and Derek Sarno, who are also chefs and co-founders of Good Catch, a plant-based seafood brand in the U.S. In 2018, the Sarnos collaborated with Tesco in the U.K. to launch Wicked Kitchen as a new plant-based range. Wicked Kitchen products are sold exclusively in Tesco, and has yet to be announced which retailers will carry the company’s products in the U.S.

In 2020, $2.1 billion was invested into plant-based companies, and they have continued to score a lot of funding this year. Large funding rounds like Wicked Kitchen’s recent round has allowed plant-based companies to expand into additional markets throughout the world. Singapore-based Next Gen Foods announced yesterday that it will be bringing its plant-based chicken brand TiNDLE to the U.S. following a $20 million extension of its seed round. Cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms raised $105 million earlier this month and shared it will use this funding to grow its operations internationally. Eat Just also shared that it plans to use its $200 million funding round that was closed this past March to expanding internationally.

Wicked Kitchen’s products are expected to roll out by the end of summer in the U.S., with a total of 20 products launching initially.

ChickP Develops Plant-Based Mayo with its Proprietary Chickpea Isolate

Israel-based ChickP announced today that it has utilized its chickpea isolate to formulate a plant-based mayonnaise product. The company partnered with food companies to develop several egg-free recipes, including mayonnaise and several salad dressings. The pilot for the mayo product was a success, and a large-scale pilot production of the product is now taking place.

Currently, ChickP is commercializing its two chickpea isolate products, ChickP G910 and ChickP S930. Both have a neutral taste, and ChickP 910 has gelling and emulsifying abilities while ChickP S930 has the capacity to foam and emulsify. The company’s chickpea isolates boast a protein content of 90 percent, and will function as a direct replacement for egg yolk in the mayo product.

An ingredient called aquafaba, which is the liquid leftover from cooked chickpeas, has gained popularity in the plant-based space to act as an egg white replacement and for its ability to foam and act as an emulsifier. Besides this ingredient, vegan products often make use of starches, stabilizers, and hydrocolloids to replace eggs. A company called Vor Foods in the United States has commercialized a powdered aquafaba product.

In addition to ChickP’s mayo product, several other food producers are working with the company to develop egg-free and plant-based products such as vegan sauces, dressings, and creams. By the end of the year, ChickP hopes to have the mayo commercially available.