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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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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.”

Scoop: Seattle Food Tech Raises $1M to Jumpstart Plant-Based Meat Manufacturing

You’ve heard of Impossible Foods, you’ve heard of Beyond Meat — but there’s a new plant-based meat company on the scene. Seattle Food Tech launched in 2017 and recently raised a $1 million seed round, led by Fifty Years and Blue Horizon.

The nascent company hopes to produce plant-based meat at a scale and price comparable to traditional meat. In February, they finished developing their first product: a “chicken” nugget made of textured wheat, oil, chicken flavoring, cornstarch, and corn breading. What sets the product above its humble ingredients and makes it so good, according to founder and CEO Christie Lagally, is how it’s processed.

“It’s really all about the processing,” she told The Spoon. In order to make plant-based meat at scale and at a price competitive with meat, plant-based food companies have to develop intensive manufacturing technology specialized to their product.

This is the big way that Seattle Food Tech is disrupting the meat — heck, even the plant-based meat — industry. Along with several partners and equipment suppliers, Lagally is working on developing specialized machines for plant-based meat production. Essentially, she wants to industrialize the meat alternative industry.

At the moment, the “nuggets” are made through a contract manufacturer. However, the end goal of Seattle Food Tech is to start a facility specifically designed to manufacture plant-based products on a large scale. If they succeed, Lagally believes that it would be the first and only company to do so.

Seattle Food Tech also distinguishes itself from other plant-based meat companies in its go to market strategy. While Impossible Foods goes after restaurants and Beyond Meat sells on supermarket shelves, the Seattle-based company plans to market their product wholesale to institutional dining halls, such as school and hospital cafeterias.

By opting not to sell their nuggets as a CPG, Seattle Food Tech would be able to offer them at roughly the same cost as meat — around $2 per serving. Lagally says that eventually, once they get their volumes up, they might consider putting their products in large grocery stores, such as Walmart and Costco.

They hope to have their nuggets in schools and hospital dining halls by fall of 2018. Next up, they want to tackle “chicken” strips, which, along with nuggets, are two of the most eaten low-cost chicken products. This is a tougher mechanical lift than the nuggets, since replacing the strip will require extrusion to mimic the texture.

Lagally said that Seattle Food Tech will use their funding to hire staff and continue developing specialized manufacturing equipment.

“Fundamentally we can’t replace meat if it’s not convenient, good tasting, priced well, and widely available,” said Lagally. To do that, Seattle Food Tech will need some very innovative manufacturing technology — and some very good-tasting nuggets.

Bone Broth’s $103M Funding Shows Food Supplements Are A Hot Industry

How would you like to have your bone broth and drink it too?

Ancient Nutrition, a company best known for its bone broth-based protein supplement powder, just snagged a $103 million investment. The funding round was led by private equity firm VMG partners along with Hillhouse Capital and Iconiq Capital. It also included participation from over 100 current and former players in craft food companies such as Noosa Yogurt, The Honest Company, and Stone Brewing.

Ancient Nutrition’s new boost in funding shows that the market for supplements—especially ones that are “natural”—is still booming. The company’s main product is powdered bone broth, a trending meal supplement (which is essentially broth) sipped by health fiends and hipsters alike. Bone broth has particular appeal to people on the ketogenic diet, who believe that we should be eating more like our ancestors: high fat, lots of protein, and minimal carbs. The rising popularity of this and other low-carb diets, such as the paleo diet, have led to a higher demand for protein supplements.

Ancient Nutrition also offers bone broth-derived supplements such as protein powder, which comes in flavors like “French Vanilla” and “Greens.” These can be used in your post-workout smoothies or as a meal replacement, which is another category that has been on the rise lately thanks to veteran Soylent and startups like Bear Squeeze and Ample.

Ancient Nutrition has a serious health food pedigree. Co-founder Jordan Rubin started Canadian dietary supplement and probiotic company Atrium Innovations, which was acquired by Nestlé last year for $2.3 billion. He then took his natural products know-how to start Ancient Nutrition in 2016 alongside Josh Axe, the man behind the popular health & fitness website Dr.Axe.

This funding indicates a strong consumer market for health supplements, especially ones derived from natural products instead of chemicals. Throw the words “superfood” and “whole food” in there, and Ancient Nutrition is capitalizing on three consumer trends: natural, unprocessed foods, miracle health ingredients, and low-carb, high-protein diets. Plus they’ve got convenience going for them; by turning bone broth from a beverage that takes hours to cook into an instant, portable supplement, they’ve made it uber accessible.

Ancient Nutrition plans to use their funds to develop new healthy lifestyle products like fungi, probiotics, and essential oils, presumably all of which will come in French Vanilla.

Review: Meet Meater, the Connected Thermometer

Proteins are generally the hardest part of the meal to make. Overcook them and they turn to inedible leather; undercook them and possibly send loved ones to the ER. For the nervous meat cookers who are skittish around the skillet, Meater is a new, connected thermometer that’s here to help.

Meater is a $69 bluetooth- and wifi-enabled meat thermometer, but it’s actually more than that. With its accompanying app, Meater is actually a guided cooking system that monitors your meats, tells you when they’ve reached a safe cooking temperature, and lets you know when to remove your meat from heat to let it rest properly.

The device itself looks like a shiny five inch nail. You stick Meater into the meat and leave it there while cooking. Truth be told, you have to jam the Meater in there pretty deep for it to work properly.

The depth needed for the probe actually caused a problem for my first test. The chicken thighs I was going to cook were too small for the Meater to work properly, even though the Meater app lists chicken thighs as something you can cook with it. Meater seems to be meant for larger cuts of thicker meat, so I opted for a pork loin in my second go-round.

Setup for the Meater itself was straightforward. I chose the Bluetooth option over the wifi because wifi required setting up a (free) account. Meater paired easily, but because the device is in an oven, or wrapped in foil, the signal dropped if I took the phone out of the kitchen.

Once Meater is inserted, you select what type of meat and what cut you are going to cook from the app. Then you choose the target internal temperature you want the meat to cook to. It gives you a few options based on the level of done-ness you prefer, as well as the USDA recommended cooking temp. With just a few taps on your phone, you’re ready to cook.

The app gives you a readout with three indicators: The current internal temp, the target temp, and the ambient temp. After a few minutes in the oven, it also provides an estimated cooking time. Once it starts cooking you can watch the various temperatures move around the dial.

What’s nice, for a nervous, OCD nelly like me, is that with the probe always in the meat, there’s no need to repeatedly open up the oven (letting heat escape) to re-insert a traditional thermometer. Since you have a constant running readout of the internal temperature, it frees you up to do other things in the kitchen.

Where Meater gets more helpful is when you’re meat is almost ready. The app delivered a nice little alarm when there was about five minutes left on my cook time, and then it instructed me to remove the meat before it reached the final temperature. It kept cooking out of the oven and hit the targeted 145 degrees as promised without overcooking. I even checked with a second meat thermometer to confirm the accuracy of the Meater.

The result was great. The pork loin came out tender and flavorful and, most important, safely cooked.

When not in use, Meater comes in a handsome wood holder/charger. The holder requires one AAA battery to charge Meater, and has a magnetic backing you so you can stick it to an oven hood to keep it handy. At $69, Meater is a pretty good value considering a Thermapen costs at least $79.

For a cautious cook such as myself, Meater would be a great addition to my kitchen, and would give me more confidence to cook proteins I might not normally try.