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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Rebellyous

Rebellyous Develops Patent-Pending Production System That Puts Plant-Based Meat at Price Parity With Animal Meat

Seattle-based plant-based meat startup Rebellyous Foods has announced they have developed a new patent-pending production system prototype that can produce plant-based meat at price parity with traditional meat.

The company claims the new system, which it calls the Mock 1S, will eventually reduce the cost of plant-based meat manufacturing by 95% through a combination of workforce reduction through automation, reduced energy consumption, and a 90% reduction in waste, and other improvements.

What makes the new Mock 1S system more efficient than traditional plant-based meat manufacturing? According to Rebellyous CEO Christie Lagally, the system is custom-designed for making plant-based meat, whereas traditionally, plant-based meat manufacturers utilize conventional food processing infrastructure that isn’t designed for the job.

“If you walk into a typical plant-based meat production facility, it would be exactly the same equipment as you would see in a typical meat processing facility,” said Lagally.

According to Lagally, plant-based meat production plants today utilize bowl choppers, tumblers, and conveyor belts that combine to texturize dry protein, emulsify the oils, water, and starch, and eventually mix it all together. With the Mock 1S, she says the system performs “just-in-time hydration” and emulsifies and mixes the dough at the right temperature in one automated process flow, all without using conveyor belts or wasted steps.

Lagally, who is a former Boeing engineer, had the vision for re-inventing plant-based meat manufacturing ever since she founded the company as Seattle Food Tech back in 2017. With this week’s announcement, she believes they’ve reached a significant milestone that will help her company to scale production of the company’s plant-based chicken and offer it at prices that are the same as you’d find from the likes of Tyson or other big-meat producers. Longer-term, she believes the system they have developed will allow them to produce their much cheaper than traditional factory-farmed animal meat products.

When I asked her if she planned to eventually offer her system to others to help them scale production, she said they might eventually go down that path, but for now, they’re happy to use it for their product.

“It’s not off the table. But I’ll tell you, that’s not our first goal. Our first goal is to deploy. We just deployed this new system, so we’ll start using it to make cost-competitive plant-based chicken we’ll scale it up.”

Lagally told me that with this milestone in the books, the company is now in fund-raising mode to help invest in scale-up of their production capability. The company plans on implementing the next-generation Mock system (the Mock 2) in their current production facility and begin to look for a new location in 2023 where they can ramp up production to meet the growing demand for their product.

And just how big is that demand currently?

“We are now in almost 600 retail locations. We will be announcing some new retail locations and about a month. We are serving 46 school districts ranging from northern Washington to the southern tip of California.”

While Lagally says they aren’t ready to show the Mock 1 off publicly – they currently have 5 patents pending for the system – you can see a walkthrough tour The Spoon took of the Rebellyous plant last year here to get a peak of their early thinking about how to reinvent plant-based meat manufacturing.

The Alt Protein News Round-Up: Cultured Pork in China and McPlant Burger’s Launch

If you haven’t had the chance to check it out, The Spoon was given an exclusive virtual tour of Rebellyous Foods’ production facility, where it manufactures its plant-based chicken. Speaking of which, we have some news about Rebellyous Foods’ school cafeteria launch, CellX’s cultured pork unveil, the official launch of the McPlant burger, and Equinom’s new partnership.

CellX unveils cultured pork and shares goals for price parity

China-based cultured meat producer CellX revealed its cultured pork product this week, which uses cells extracted from the country’s native black pig. The alternative pork product was incorporated into various dishes and served to potential investors. Pork is the most consumed meat in China, but the country has experienced supply chain issues due to the pandemic and an outbreak of African Swine Fever amongst herds. The company’s goal is to reach price parity with conventional pork by 2025.

Rebellyous plant-based chicken nuggets to be served in public schools

Rebellyous Foods, a producer of plant-based chicken tenders, nuggets, and patties, shared this week that its alternative nuggets will be making their way into public school cafeterias in Washington and California. The first school to supply the nuggets was Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) in Northern California last year, and the five new school districts to do so are Dublin Unified, Livermore Joint Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Pleasanton Unified, and Everett Public Schools. The “Kickin Nuggets” were developed specifically for K-12 food service and are made from a base of soy protein.

McPlant burger launches in McDonald’s throughout the UK

Starting September 29th, select McDonald’s locations in the UK will begin rolling out the highly anticipated McPlant burger, which is now 100 percent vegan. The meat-free patty was made in partnership with Beyond Meat, and the burger will also include vegan cheese, mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup, and pickles. McDonald’s previously ran trials of the McPlant in 2020 in various countries, and at that time, the burger was vegetarian but not vegan. The McPlant will become available nationwide starting in 2022.

Equinom to partner with Meatless farms as a supplier

Equinom, a nutrition company that uses AI to improve the nutrition content of seeds, disclosed this week in a press release sent to The Spoon that it will begin supplying Meatless Farm, a plant-based meat brand, and its ingredient subsidiary Lovingly Made Ingredients. Meatless Farms will use Equinom’s pea protein concentrate in a variety of its products, boosting the protein content by up to 50 percent. This is the first plant-based company that Equinom has partnered with.

Wild Earth Launches Cell-Based Petfood

Plant-based pet food brand Wild Earth has announced plans to expand its product line into pet food made with cell-based meat. The announcement comes on the heels of a new $23 million funding round from a group of investors that includes Mark Cuban and the star of Vampire Diaries, Paul Wesley.

Led by alternative protein entrepreneur and investor Ryan Bethencourt, Wild Earth has been one of the early leaders in creating pet food from plant-based ingredients. With products like Clean Protein dog food (which uses pea and potato protein) and Superfood Dog Treats With Koji (Koji is a fungi protein used in fermented food in Asia), company sales have grown more than 700% year over year, according to a release sent to The Spoon.

Come Along On A Video Tour of a Plant-Based Chicken Manufacturing Plant

This video is a tour of the Rebellyous Foods plant in Seattle. Rebellyous makes plant-based chicken nuggets, patties, and tenders. Our guide for the tour is Rebellyous cofounder and CEO, Christie Lagally.

Our tour starts off with a presentation by Lagally, who gives us an introduction to Rebellyous. After that, we go on a walking tour of the Rebellyous factory.

Note on the tour video: It was presented via the Zoom platform and I was the cameraman (apologies for the lack of camera stabilizer!). I followed Christie around and fielded questions from our partners in Japan.

Enjoy the tour! This video tour is available for Spoon Plus Subscribers. You can click here to learn more about Spoon Plus.

Rebellyous Reformulates its Plant-Based Chicken, Officially Launches at Retail

Rebellyous announced today a new formulation for its plant-based chicken as well as the addition of patties and tenders to its product lineup. The company also said it is officially kicking off its retail program starting with stores across the Pacific Northwest U.S.

I spoke with Rebellyous Founder and CEO, Christie Lagally by phone this week to find out more about the company’s new formulation. Basically it’s a new ratio of soy and wheat structured in a way that shreds more like actual chicken. Lagally said the breading on the outside is new as well, a deviation from the crumb-y texture of its previous formulation. The new breading will make Rebellyous’ chicken more akin to what you would find at QSR.

Rebellyous is also officially launching its foray into retail today. The company was originally more of a B2B play, selling to places like school and hospital cafeterias as well as restaurants. When the pandemic hit last year, however, many of those outlets shut down, forcing Rebellyous to divert the product it had made into retail.

With its trio of new products, Rebellyous is now going to retail intentionally, complete with a comprehensive marketing plan. “This is our official CPG rollout,” Lagally said.

Rebellyous products will be available starting this week at 20 different store brands throughout Washington and Oregon, as well as at a number of select restaurants in the Seattle area (where Rebellyous is headquartered). The MSRP for each product is $5.99. Per package, there are 15 nuggets, six tenders and three patties. By comparison, Incogmeato’s plant-based nuggets from MorningStar cost $5.27 for 16 nuggets at a Pacific Northwest Walmart.

While the pandemic may have forced Rebellyous into retail prematurely, that may wind up being in the company’s favor. Sales of plant-based meat have grown over the past few years and shot up during the pandemic. “There is just a lot of demand for these products,” from retailers, Lagally said.

As such, Lagally said that Rebellyous is ramping up production, and will go from making a couple thousand pounds of product a week to 40,000 pounds a month over the next few months.

The Food Tech Show: Fake Nuggets & Real Goodbyes

It was a sad week at The Spoon as we said goodbye to Catherine Lamb.

Catherine is heading off to Chicago to get her MBA at Kellogg University. After that she’ll take over the world, or at least the world of food tech.

I met Catherine for the first time when she volunteered at the Smart Kitchen Summit in 2017. More than one person came up to me during the conference and told me I really needed to hire this person. I interviewed her a couple weeks later and did just that.

If you want to hear the audio version of me getting sappy, you’ll have to listen to the podcast. In addition to saying goodbye to Catherine, we also discuss the following stories:

To listen, just click play below, download the podcast direct to your device, or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We Tried the Plant-based Chicken Nuggets from High Tech Startup Rebellyous

Even though I technically have more time to cook during quarantine, there are some days when my motivation to scrounge up a meal is exactly zero. On those days, I turn to my freezer — frozen burritos, pre-made meals, and ravioli are always ready to go when I need them. Now I have a new staple to add to my freezer: plant-based chicken nuggets from Rebellyous Foods.

If you’re not familiar, Rebellyous is a plant-based meat company that’s reinventing manufacturing technology to make meat alternatives more scalable. After launching in 2017, the Seattle-based startup began selling its first product, a plant-based chicken nugget, to hospital and office cafeterias.

But with COVID-19 essentially closing down their marketplace, Rebellyous quickly pivoted to begin offering its nuggets on retail shelves. Last week the vegan nuggets hit the freezer sections of several small retailers in the Seattle area. A pack of 30 nuggets costs $5.99. The plant-based nuggets have a protein content comparable to regular chicken nuggets and are meant to be just as easy to prepare — whether in a corporate dining hall or a home kitchen.

A bag of Rebellyous plant-based nuggets. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

This week I was able to put that assertion to the test when I received a sample of Rebellyous’ frozen nuggets. I reached for the nuggets when I was feeling especially hangry, hoping that they wouldn’t take forever to cook. The package suggests three cooking methods: Bake, Pan Fry, or Deep Fry. It explicitly notes not to consume the nuggets raw or microwave them, which I assume would be bad for their texture.

I decided to bake my nuggets. I preheated the oven to 425°F, shook out a some nuggets onto a bare baking sheet, and popped them into the oven. Eight minutes and one flip later, and the nuggets were ready. They did stick to the baking sheet a little bit, so next time I would line the pan with parchment paper.

I’ve tasted Rebellyous’ nuggets before, so I knew what to expect. But in the past they’ve always been prepared by an air fryer; I was skeptical that my oven would provide the same crunchy exterior.

Happily I was wrong. The nuggets had a crisp, crunchy coating and a juicy interior that almost exactly mimics the nuggets I grew up eating in my elementary school cafeteria. It’s almost uncanny. The nuggets were tasty enough that I didn’t even feel the need to use a dipping sauce, though a side of barbecue would have been delicious.

Rebellyous’ nuggets post-bake. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

I just enjoyed one serving, which is six Rebellyous nuggets. One serving has 160 calories, 7 grams of fat and 14 grams of protein (Rebellyous uses wheat protein). The serving didn’t look like a whole lot on my plate, but they actually filled me up quite nicely. Since they have a relatively low calorie and fat count, you could double the serving size or just eat them as a snack.

Rebellyous is certainly heading to retail at an opportune time. Sales of plant-based meats have increased dramatically during the pandemic, as meat prices spike and people search for healthier foods. A handful of plant-based companies have also raised funding over the past few weeks, including Rebellyous itself.

Rebellyous is actually cashing in on three food trends right now: plant-based meat, comfort food, and frozen food. Consumers are looking for food that keeps well, prepares easily, and satisfies. Rebellyous ticks all of those boxes, and has the bonus that it’s kid-friendly (a boon for parents working from home).

I may not be a kid, but after trying them I’m a fan of Rebellyous’ nuggets. The fact that they cook in ten minutes, require no prep, taste satisfying and provide a hearty serving of protein means that they’ve definitely earned a spot in my freezer rotation.

Rebellyous’ nuggets are only available in the Seattle area for now. If you buy a pack, please leave us a comment and let us know what you thought!

Rebellyous Launches Plant-based Chicken Nuggets in Seattle Grocers

Rebellyous Foods, the Seattle-based plant-based meat startup, announced today that it would begin selling its meatless chicken nuggets at Seattle retailers next week.

Since it was founded in 2017, Rebellyous has been selling its plant-based chicken wholesale to spots like corporate cafeterias, universities, and hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area. Obviously, most of those were crowded gathering spaces, but are now shut down or severely limited due to social distancing and shelter-in-place orders.

As a result, Rebellyous has pivoted to move into CPG. Last month, as Rebellyous announced its $6 million Series A funding round, the company’s CEO Christie Lagally told me that they were accelerating their retail launch in response to COVID-19.

Next week, Rebellyous nuggets will make their retail debut in the freezer section at Leschi Market and Vegan Haven in Seattle. The nuggets will be sold in one-pound packs with 30 nuggets each and cost $5.99. The package includes instructions to bake, pan fry, or deep fry (it warns you not to microwave them).

Up next, the company will expand to other West Coast retailers and launch new products. Lagally told me last year that they have a plant-based chicken patty in the works. At the same time, Rebellyous is still working towards its overall goal; to improve plant-based meat manufacturing technology to make alternative protein more scalable and affordable.

If you’re in the Seattle area and try out Rebellyous’ nuggets for yourself, drop us a line and let us know what you think!

High Tech Plant-based Meat Startup Rebellyous Foods Raises $6M Series A, Accelerates Retail Launch

Rebellyous Foods, the startup developing next-gen technology to accelerate the plant-based meat industry, announced today that it had raised a $6 million Series A round. The funding was co-led by Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, and Liquid 2 Ventures, with participation from Agronomics and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc). This brings the Seattle-based startup’s total funding to $8.1 million.

Founded in 2017, Rebellyous Foods, formerly Seattle Food Tech, has always had a grand vision of reinventing plant-based meat manufacturing to make it more efficient and cost-effective. But it also has its own brand of alt-meat: chicken. The startup sells its plant-based chicken nuggets B2B to large-scale foodservice operations, like hospitals and cafeterias, in the Seattle area.

With its new funding, Rebellyous will speed up its specialized equipment R&D and expand product development to broaden its plant-based portfolio to include other products, like chicken tenders.

Rebellyous is announcing funding at a time when all anyone can think, talk, or write about is the coronavirus pandemic. Their press release is no exception; in it, Rebellyous CEO and founder Christie Lagally writes:

“Bird flu, swine flu, and now COVID-19 demonstrate that keeping large numbers of animals in close contact with one another presents a tremendous risk for global health… to transition away from our heavy dependence on meat, it’s critical that we make plant-based meat affordable and widely available through innovative production technology.”

There’s some evidence that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, meaning it originated in animals and spread to humans. While it’s not proven that switching to a vegan diet would prevent future outbreaks of this kind, that’s certainly being argued by companies and organizations trying to push adoption of meat alternatives.

In fact, retail sales of plant-based meats are on the rise right now. But when it comes to foodservice — Rebellyous’ target market — things are much more stagnant. To expand its revenue sources the company will be expanding into retail, and soon. “Rebellyous will be pivoting to selling direct to consumers (CPG), and we expect to announce a soft launch in just a few weeks,” Lagally told the Spoon. “We had always intended to move into CPG, but the pandemic shut down allowed us to realize that goal earlier than expected.” 

It looks like Rebellyous isn’t going to keep all of its eggs in the foodservice basket.