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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Tyson

I Taste Tested the Impossible Chicken Nugget Against Three Other Brands. Here’s How It Fared.

You may have heard that Impossible Foods plant-based chicken nuggets are available today at select restaurants. To generate a little buzz for today’s launch, the company behind the Impossible Burger offered to send bags of the new plant-based nuggets to journalists around the country. Not being one to pass up free nuggets, I was happy to try them out.

To make things interesting, I decided to give Impossible a little competition with a side-by-side taste test against two chicken meat nuggets (Tyson and McDonald’s) and another plant-based nugget (Incogmeato).

My nugget taste test was a family affair. Participants included my son and daughter, the true experts in the family on chicken nuggets.

Both kids tasted them blind. There were two things I wanted to know with a blind taste test: First, could they tell the difference between the animal meat nuggets and plant-based nuggets? Second, what did they think of each nugget’s flavor? I also tried each nugget (non-blind, of course) to compare and contrast with the new Impossible nugget.

I cooked a batch of each frozen nugget in my oven for the time specified on each bag. While I generally prefer to cook nuggets and other prepackaged freezer food in an air fryer (see my note at the end), for the taste test, I wanted to use the method most consumers still use when they get the nuggets home. As for the McDonald’s nuggets, I had a friend run through a McDonald’s drive-thru while I was cooking the other nuggets so they would still be warm.

Soon the nuggets were all plated and ready to be dipped.

The Nuggets: Impossible (yellow), Incogmeato (pink), McDonald’s (green) and Tyson (blue).

We started with the Incogmeato. Both kids knew right away it was a plant-based nugget. And while they thought it was passable, neither loved it.

“I like the spices,” shrugged my son.

I thought the Incogmeato nugget was fine, but I also could tell it was a plant-based nugget. I also thought the outside was a bit spicier than the other nuggets.

Next up was McDonald’s. Both kids guessed these nuggets were from Mickey D’s, in part because they’ve each eaten them a hundred times over their lifetimes, but also because they looked like McDonald’s nuggets.

The McNuggets have what looks like a fried batter coating, which sets them apart from the frozen home-cooked nuggets which all have breading on the outside. As it turns out, it was this outside coating that saved the McNugget in our taste test. Both kids like the batter-y coating.

“Good outside,” one of them said.

So what didn’t they like about McDonald’s chicken nuggets?

“The chicken is not that good,” my son said.

“That’s my thing,” agreed my daughter. “The chicken kinda ruins it for me.”

My thoughts on the king of fast food nuggets? Not that great. The chicken inside was dry and a bit spongy, and I didn’t really like the outside batter.

Now it was Tyson’s turn. Perhaps not surprisingly, it turns out the biggest maker of frozen chicken food products knows what they’re doing when it comes to nuggets:

Both kids liked these nuggets the best.

“My favorite is this one,” said my daughter.

Her brother nodded. “This is only one that is definitely chicken.”

I agreed with them that the Tyson nugget was good.

Finally, it was time for the Impossible. What did my kids think? Both liked them.

“The flavor is great,” said my daughter.

“It’s really good,” said her brother.

They both suspected the Impossible nuggets might be plant-based, but they weren’t completely sure. In the end, though, it really didn’t matter to them since they both said they’d definitely eat them again.

For my part, I thought the Impossible nuggets were delicious. The plant-based meat tasted like real chicken. The breaded outside was tasty, just like the Tyson nugget. A parent could serve these, and any nugget-loving kid would scarf them up.

After all was said and done, here’s how the nuggets ranked in our taste test:

  1. Tyson – the best tasting nugget. The chicken was moist and the breaded outside was crispy.
  2. Impossible – A close second with yummy plant-based meat that tasted like the real thing and a nicely breaded outside.
  3. McDonald’s – The kids liked them, I suspect out of childhood nostalgia and sheer muscle memory. These were my least favorite.
  4. Incogmeato – No one disliked them, but my kids just like them less than the other nuggets. I thought they were fine, but I thought the Impossible was definitely better.

Bottom line: This is a good performance for Impossible. The nugget, which uses soy as its main ingredient (as does Incogmeato), is nearly indistinguishable from a real chicken nugget and is both kid and parent-approved.

If you or your kids are chicken nugget fans, I would definitely recommend trying out the Impossible nuggets. And heck, why not even have your own taste test?

Finally, an updated serving suggestion. The next day I tried the Impossible nuggets in the air fryer (10 minutes). As suspected, the results were much better. The outside was crispier than my oven batch, and the inside was juicy. I’d definitely recommend using the air fryer for the Impossible (and any other nugget).

Tyson’s Raised & Rooted Expands into Plant-Based Burgers, Brats and Italian Sausage

Raised & Rooted, Tyson Foods’ plant-based protein brand, announced today that it is expanding its lineup with three new offerings: burgers, Bratwurst and Italian sausages.

Raised & Rooted launched in June of 2019 with plant-based “chicken” nuggets and a line of blended burgers that combined both plant ingredients with conventional animal beef. The new Raised & Rooted products are made from pea protein, are soy free and have 17 – 21g of proteing per serving. The company says the Raised & Rooted brand is available at more than 10,000 retail locations and will be expanding beyond the U.S. into Europe.

Plant-based meats are enjoying continued growth in popularity. According to recent data from the Good Food Institute, sales of plant-based meat grew by more than $430 million in sales between 2019 and 2020 and the category is now worth $1.4 billion in the U.S.

There has been a flurry of activity in the plant-based meat space recently. Plant-based food startups Hungry Planet, Atlast Food Co., and Gathered Foods each raised eight-digit rounds of funding last month. Established giants aren’t resting on their laurels either. Beyond Meat launched version 3.0 of its burger, and Impossible kicked off its first major TV ad campaign, looking to entice meat eaters.

Raised & Rooted is also launching its new plant-based meat at as the summer grilling season is about to start. The added bonus this year is that with vaccinations rolling out, more people will be able to partake in backyard barbecues than last summer.

All of Raised & Rooted’s new products are available now nationwide, and cost between $4.99 and $7.99 per package.

Applegate to Launch New Blended Meat and Vegetable Burgers in Retail This Month

Hormel-owned Applegate will begin selling Well Carved, its frozen line of blended meat and vegetable products, in grocery stores this month, according to IngredientsNetwork. Well Carved includes hybrid beef and turkey burgers mixed with beans and vegetables, as well as blended meatballs. The new offerings feature a garden-full of plants lentils, cauliflower, spinach, parsley, and kale.

The Well Carved line was meant to debut at the Natural Products Expo West in March, but like every other event, it was postponed in response to COVID-19. Applegate decided to push the launch back to April and do it with retailers — though it hasn’t yet specified which ones, how many, or in which areas.

Applegate was actually the first Big Meat brand to venture into blended products. It launched The Great Organic Blend Burger, made from a mixture of beef and mushrooms, a year ago. That puts it well ahead of Tyson, which debuted its Raised & Rooted line of blended beef burgers and plant-based chicken nuggets in June. Soon after, chicken giant Perdue also released a line of hybrid chicken nuggets, made with plant-based protein from Better Meat Co.

Pricing may be a hurdle for Applegate. A four-pack of Well Carved burgers goes for $9.99, which is almost twice the price of a four-pack of organic beef burgers at some supermarkets. In fact, it’s almost on par with the price of Beyond Beef burgers. I’m wondering if people looking to cut their meat consumption will actually purchase a blended burger when, for roughly the same cost, they can just buy a delicious plant-based substitute?

Two things could work in Hormel’s favor, though. One, the Well Carved burgers are frozen. And in a time when people are stocking up on frozen food like nobody’s business to avoid grocery runs, that’s a good thing. Well Carved burgers also position themselves as clean label and wholesome — that is, they contain only vegetables and meat. Some critics don’t like that plant-based meat like Beyond and Impossible contains a litany of ingredients and is processed. That could spur flexitarian consumers looking to cut their meat consumption to give Well Carved a try.

It’s a prime time to drop a new alt-meat product in retail. With COVID-19 spurring sharp increases in grocery sales for both meat and plant-based meat, this is a prime time to experiment and see if blended burgers can actually make it in the market.

Food Tech News: Califia Farms Raises $225M, Tyson Instant Pot Kits and Corn Fiber Chocolate

After a week of frigid winds and school closures in the PNW, we at the Spoon are looking forward to a long weekend. Hopefully you have a break too.

But before you start queuing up a Netflix series to binge, catch up on our latest food tech news roundup. We’ve got stories on Tyson’s new Instant Pot meal kits, a patent to reduce the sugar in chocolate, and a massive fundraise for plant-based dairy. Enjoy!

Tyson rolls out Instant Pot Kits
This week Tyson and Instant Pot announced their new speedy-cook collaboration: Tyson Instant Pot Kits. The kits contain prepped ingredients, including Tyson chicken. You dump all the ingredients into an Instant Pot and the meal is ready to serve in 20 minutes. Tyson Instant Pot Kits are currently available at select retailers and will roll out nationwide this spring. Pricing has not been disclosed.

Mondelez patents tech to reduce sugar in chocolate
If you’re trying to cut down on sugar in the new year, we might have good news for you. Mondelez has patented a process to reduce the sugar content in chocolate by up to 50 percent (h/t GroceryDive). The new technology uses soluble corn fiber as a stand-in for sugar, and apparently does not significantly affect chocolate’s sweet taste or physical appearance. Mondelez owns brands Cadbury, Toblerone, Chip’s Ahoy and more, so we could see reduced-sugar chocolate popping up in those products sometime soon.

Califia Farms raises $225 million Series D
Plant-based food & bev company Califia Farms announced this week that it had completed $225 million in Series D financing. The round was led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) with participation from Temasek, Claridge, Green Monday Ventures, and more. This brings the company’s total funding to a whopping $340 million. Founded in 2010, Califia Farms is known for its dairy-free milks, yogurts, and cold-brew coffee blends. The company will use the new capital to build on its popular oat-based platform, increase production, and ramp up global expansion.

Tyson Expands Raised & Rooted Footprint, But Will Anyone Actually Care about Blended Burgers?

On its earnings call this week, Tyson Foods gave some updates on its Raised & Rooted alternative protein brand which it announced in June. According to the call, the brand’s plant-based “chicken” nuggets, made with plants and egg whites, are now available in 7,000 stores. Tyson also stated it would begin shipping its blended burgers — made with a mixture of beef and plant protein — later this month.

Since there are already plenty of faux chicken nuggets in the frozen grocery aisle, it’s the blended burger bit that’s more intriguing to us at The Spoon. Especially since Whole Foods just named “blended, less beefy burgers” one of its top 10 food trends of 2020.

In theory, blended burgers seem like a good idea. Replacing part of the beef with plant protein is an easy way to cut down on animal products without being too radically “anti-meat” or alienating hardcore carnivores. And in settings like cafeterias, where people might not even know that they’re eating meat cut with plants, that approach might work out.

Blended meat is still pretty new so it’s too soon to say for sure how these blended offerings will resonate (or not resonate) with consumers. But I’m not optimistic. My guess is that in trying to appeal to so many people, companies making blended burgers might actually end up appealing to very few. Carnivores will continue to choose meat, health nuts will go with lower-fat turkey, and those with strong environmental or ethical motivations will likely opt for plant-based options.

All of which is to say, despite the stamp of approval from folks like Whole Foods, I’m not sure that blended meat is actually a juicy enough offering to draw in consumers. When we already have plant-based offerings like Impossible and Beyond that taste pretty darn close to the real thing, what’s the point of getting something that’s not quite meat but not quite plants? It seems like flexitarians would be more keen to choose one path or the other.

There is one edge that Raised & Rooted’s burgers have over Beyond and Impossible though, and that’s health. Tyson’s blended patties contain 40 percent fewer calories and 60 percent less saturated fat than typical beef burgers. Plant-based options from Beyond and Impossible, however, are comparable to beef in terms of calorie content and fat — something they’ve attracted a lot of flack about lately. Then again, if consumers want a meaty burger option with fewer calories than beef or plant-based beef, they could always opt for turkey or bison burgers.

Tyson isn’t the only Big Meat company betting on blended meat. Rival Hormel sells Blend Burgers, in both turkey and beef, under its Applegate brand. Chicken behemoth Perdue announced a line of blended chicken products — half white meat chicken, half plant protein — shortly before Tyson unveiled Raised & Rooted. Our Head Editor Chris Albrecht tried the nuggets (as did his eight-year-old) and liked them just fine, but said there wasn’t enough of a value add to entice him to purchase them again. Instead, he’d rather just feed his kid nicer chicken and vegetables, separately.

I think that ambivalence will hold true for the blended meat space overall. Blended burgers are just fine — but when so many companies are vying to be your protein pick in the grocery aisle, fine just isn’t good enough.

Tyson Discontinues ¡Yappah!, Its Crispy Snack Bites Made with Upcycled Ingredients

Tyson’s brand of snacks made from rescued food ingredients, ¡Yappah!, is shutting down less than a year after it was announced.

¡Yappah!’s first product was a line of crispy snack bites made from spent barley from Molson Coors beer brewing, vegetable purées from juicing, and its own upcycled chicken breast trim. The snacks were packaged in recyclable aluminum canisters and had 8 to 10 grams of protein per serving.

“We’re sorry, but ¡Yappah! Chicken Crisps are no longer available,” the Yappah website reads. “The team decided that the product did not offer the viability that would enable continued investment.”

Tyson first announced the brand in May of 2018. After both a Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, which raised the relatively small amounts of $11,674 and $13,542, respectively, it launched the crisps during a short trial at a Chicago supermarket in July 2018 and then began selling them online. On Amazon a 6-pack of the crisps, which came in 1.25-ounce cans, sold for $21.94. That shakes out to $3.65 a can, which is pricier than the majority of snack options out there, even high-end ones.

According to reviews, the ¡Yappah! crisps weren’t exactly a slam dunk. The space in the aluminum cans meant that the crisps sometimes arrived at consumers’ doorsteps crushed into crumbs, and the can’s sharp edges made them tricky for on-the-go snacking. Some customers also balked at paying such a high price for ingredients that would typically be thrown away or used as animal feed. As one reviewer put it: They Sacrificed Function for the Message.

The crisps were the first product of the ¡Yappah! brand, which would feature products made from sustainable and upcycled ingredients. They were the first product from the Tyson Innovation Lab, a team within Tyson meant to bring consumer products to market in just six months.

In the end, ¡Yappah! crisps were too expensive, too difficult to eat, and maybe too niche to attract enough consumers to keep the product viable. Nonetheless, it’s encouraging to see a major food corporation like Tyson investing so heavily in creative ways to feature oft-forgotten ingredients, even if it didn’t work out in the end.

Despite a big company like Tyson’s setback, several smaller companies are still in the upcycling game. Regrained makes snack bars out of spent grain from beer brewing. Toast Ale upcycles stale bread into beer. Misfit Foods turns pulp from juicing into blended sausages, and Pulp Pantry repurposes the same pulp into fruity snacks.

This might not be the last upcycling endeavor we see from Tyson. “Food waste is still a focus from us,” said a statement we received from a company spokesperson. Hopefully the ¡Yappah! flop doesn’t discourage them, or other Big Food companies, from continuing the fight.

Tyson Invests in Plant-based Shrimp Company New Wave Foods

Today Tyson Foods announced it has made a jumbo investment in plant-based shrimp.

The world’s second-largest poultry processor has invested an undisclosed amount in New Wave Foods, a San Francisco-based startup developing plant-based shrimp made from plants and algae. Exact pricing details were not disclosed but Tyson Ventures CFO Tom Mastrobuoni told CNBC that the company took a minority stake of less than 20 percent.

Founded in 2015, New Wave Foods is part of the new wave of companies leveraging tech to make alternatives to beloved animal products (burgers, chicken nuggets, etc.) that look, cook, and taste like the real deal. Their initial product could have a particularly large reach: shrimp are the most-consumed seafood in the world. But as of now, plant-based alternatives for the popular crustacean are few and far between and a cultured version, which Singapore-based Shiok Meats is currently developing, is still a few years off.

New Wave Foods plans to roll out its alterna-shrimp in restaurants. They haven’t made their pricing public yet, but one thing New Wave Foods is sure they will have is cost consistency — a welcome change when traditional shrimp can vary widely based on the year’s catch and other natural factors.  Eventually the startup will move on to make other plant-based crustaceans such as crab and lobster.

Tyson has been investing in a variety of meat alternative companies as it tries to reframe itself as a ‘protein’ company, including cultured meat companies Memphis Meat and Future Meat Technologies. The poultry giant had a 6.5 percent ownership in Beyond Meat until it parted ways with the company back in April and subsequently launched Raised & Rooted, its own line of blended and plant-based meats.

The New Wave Foods partnership is also an opportunity for Tyson to expand beyond land animal substitutes. “There’s a really interesting adjacency,” Mastrobuoni told me. He explained that globally, seafood consumption is great than terrestrial animal (cow, chicken, etc.) consumption. As Tyson expands to become more of a global company it makes sense for them to branch into seafood.

This is quite a week for Big Food investments in meat alternatives. Earlier Hormel Foods announced its Happy Little Plants line, which will be the first products from its new plant-based division Cultivated Foods. The Good Food Conference — the creme de la creme of alternative protein conferences — is happening right now in San Francisco (we’re there!), so odds are there will be even more announcements before the week is out. Stay tuned.

Hormel Joins the Meatless Meat Movement With New Portfolio of Plant-based Products

Add one more to the list of major CPGs looking to capitalize on the public’s insatiable appetite for plant-based meat. This week, Hormel Foods, who owns brands like Skippy and Applegate, announced the launch of its Happy Little Plants product line. This is Hormel’s first project under what the company’s new plant-based foods division called Cultivated Foods.

The new portfolio’s flagship product is a ground protein offering the Happy Little Plants’ website says you can cook “just like you would with ground beef or ground turkey.” The product contains 20 grams of non-GMO soy protein and is gluten-free.

Right now, Happy Little Plants products are available at select Hy-Vee stores in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconson. Further expansion is in the works, though Hormel didn’t name specific cities or timeframes.

Like most big CPGs bringing plant-based meat alternatives to market right now, Hormel is emphasizing the meat-like qualities of its meatless product. In a bid to appeal to more flexitarians — those wanting to curb meat consumption without going full vegan or vegetarian — food companies are currently creating alternatives to meat that cook, look, taste, and feel like the real thing. In other words, they’re trying to live up to the industry standard set by Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

Hormel is one of a growing list of CPGs launching such products. Tyson announced its Raised & Rooted brand of plant-based meat alternatives this past June. Nestle is selling meatless meat patties to QSR chains in Europe and Israel. And just yesterday, Kelloggs-owned MorningStar Farms announced its own new line of more meat-like, plant-based products called Incogmeato.

These companies have long histories in the food industry, but as The Spoon’s Catherine Lamb pointed out when reporting on the MorningStar news, that could be more hindrance than help. As evidenced by events like Beyond selling out of its meatless chicken wings in less than five hours, consumers are flocking to trendy upstart brands in the alt-meat space who can tout health and environmental benefits and don’t have a history of selling SPAM in grocery store aisles. Like Kellogg, Tyson, and others, Hormel is one more company that will have to find a way to leap the divide between its legacy products and consumer demand for new and different ways to do meatless meat.

Future Food: Are Blended Meats the Future of Flexitarian Dining?

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Earlier today Tyson Foods announced Raised & Rooted, its long-awaited venture into the alternative protein space. Its first products aren’t strictly vegan; they include both animal products and plant-based ingredients. One is a vegetarian chicken nugget made with egg whites and plants and the other is a blended burger composed of Angus beef and pea protein.

Tyson isn’t the only Big Meat company diversifying into the alt-protein market. Just yesterday, Perdue — the fourth largest chicken producer in the U.S. (Tyson is the first) — announced it would also be releasing a line of blended chicken products. Interestingly, Perdue sourced some of its plant-based ingredients with help from Better Meat Co, the startup which makes vegan protein meant to be blended with meat to make it healthier and more sustainable.

Perdue and Tyson are smart to take baby steps into the alternative protein space, though at this point it’s clearly too big a market opportunity to ignore (except for Arby’s, apparently). By starting with blended products, major meat processing companies can grow their customer base into a new market, all while retaining its existing infrastructure.

But there will inevitably be some pushback by those claiming that blended burgers and nuggets are purely a marketing tactic from Big Meat. Which they, of course, are — and a smart one at that. By rolling out a line of (at least semi-) plant-based meats, companies like Tyson and Perdue are showing consumers that they are brands which have their finger on the pulse of what’s new and hip.

Vegetarians and vegans may see these products as a step in the wrong direction. But to those who get in a huff about blended meat, let me say this: it’s a step in the right direction. Sure, consumers who eat a Raised & Rooted burger are still eating meat — but they’re eating less meat than they would otherwise. It’s a good stop-gap until plant-based darlings like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods perfect their products, or cell-based meat takes over.

Beyond Meat’s new Beyond Beef.

For those who prefer their burgers sans meat, this week Beyond Meat announced it’s now selling the long-awaited Beyond Beef in one specific Whole Foods in Boulder, CO. (Fun fact: That location was the first-ever to sell Beyond’s plant-based patties in the meat section.) The company is also dropping a new, meatier version of its plant-based burger patties with better fat marbling to give the patties a texture more akin to beef and apple extract to make the meat brown once cooked.

It’s no surprise that Beyond is firing on all cylinders, debuting new products and improving old ones at a rapid clip. Especially when Big Food companies — Tyson and Perdue, sure, but also Nestlé and Unilever — are all waking up to the potential of the plant-based protein market.

Beyond may have had a wildly successful IPO and enjoy a strong foothold in retail right now, but it’s got competition coming in — and not just from Impossible. No wonder it’s aiming for such an accelerated growth rate in its first year as a public company.

Photo: KFC

Protein new ’round the web

  • KFC in the U.K. is launching “The Imposter,” a vegan chicken burger made of Quorn (h/t The Independent). It probably won’t be long before KFC U.S. follows suit.
  • Dutch food giant Vivera is going to focus 100 percent on plant-based protein. It just sold the meat company in its portfolio, Enkco, this week.
  • Curious about how to grill up Beyond Meat’s burgers and sausages? We’ve got your guide.

That’s it from me this week! I was in San Francisco recently and somehow didn’t get an Impossible Whopper from Burger King. I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive myself.

Eat well,
Catherine

Tyson Foods Debuts Raised & Rooted, its Long-Anticipated Line of Alternative Proteins

Today poultry giant Tyson Foods announced Raised & Rooted, its new brand selling alternative proteins.

Raised & Rooted’s first products will be plant-based “chicken” nuggets (made with a pea protein blend) and blended burger patties (which combine beef and pea protein). The products have lower calories and saturated fat than traditional chicken nuggets and beef burgers, respectively.

In addition to the new Raised & Rooted brand, Tyson is also introducing new alt-protein products through its existing Aidells brand, which sells meaty sausages, burgers, and meatballs. Aidells Whole Blends’ new sausages and meatballs contain a blend of chicken and protein-heavy plants such as quinoa, black beans, and lentils.

Raised & Rooted’s plant-based nuggets will launch in retailers in late summer. The blended burgers will follow this fall. Outside the grocery channel, Tyson will also sell its new alternative protein products through foodservice partners. Aidells’ Whole Blends are already available.

“For us, this is about ‘and’ – not ‘or,'” said Tyson Foods CEO Noel White in a press release emailed to the Spoon. “We remain firmly committed to our growing traditional meat business and expect to be a market leader in alternative protein, which is experiencing double-digit growth and could someday be a billion-dollar business for our company.”

Tyson’s venture capital arm, Tyson Ventures, has invested in mushroom protein company MycoTechnology and cell-based meat startups Memphis Meats and Future Meat Technologies. They had purchased a 6.5 percent ownership in Beyond Meat but quietly dissolved their ties in April — likely since Tyson (understandably) didn’t want to compete directly with one of its portfolio companies once it started developing its own line of plant-based protein.

When the second largest meat processor in the world creates its own line(s) of plant-based and blended chicken and burgers, there’s no longer any doubt that alternative proteins are a profitable opportunity. This news also comes a day after Perdue, another large poultry producer, launched its line of Chicken Plus products: chicken nuggets, tenders, and patties blended with vegetables and proteins sourced from Better Meat Co.

Hybrid VC Firm Big Idea Ventures Wants to Scale the Alternative Protein Revolution

We hear a lot about plant-based startups raking in big funding dollars — cough, Impossible Foods, cough — but not a lot about the companies investing in them.

One such company working to fund the alternative protein revolution is Big Idea Ventures (BIV). Helmed by Andrew Ive, formerly of food innovation accelerator Food-X, Big Idea Ventures is a hybrid venture firm with a VC arm and accelerator program.

It tore onto the scene a few weeks ago when it closed its first fund: the New Protein Fund, which now stands at roughly $50 million. “It’s the first and largest plant-based accelerator fund,” Ive told me over the phone last week.

The fund is backed by giants like Tyson Foods and Temasek, the Singaporean government’s VC arm. It will focusing heavily on plant-based protein startups, Ive said they’re are allocating 5 to 10 percent of their money for cell-based endeavors.

That makes it all the more interesting that they chose to make their first investment cultured shrimp company Shiok Meats. Ive told me that they were drawn in by the Singaporean startup’s product focus: crustaceans. He believes that the flavor and texture of cultured shrimp will be easier to commercialize than, say, beef or chicken. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it is impressive that Shiok Meats, which is less than a year old, has already done an (apparently successful) taste test of its minced “shrimp” in dumpling form.

BIV is also launching physical accelerator programs in two locations: New York City (to launch in Q3) and Singapore (to launch in Q4). Mike Lightman, Managing Partner of BIV, told me that they plan to accept 8 to 10 companies per cohort and do two cohorts per year. All accepted startups will receive $250,000 in funding, a space to work, and mentorship from their entrepreneurs in residence in exchange for a convertible note. Once the program is over, BIV will allocate $1 to $3 million among the top-performing companies. Over the next four years, Ive said that BIV is hoping to back around 100 companies.

In a lot of ways, this accelerator follows the typical script: young startups get funding and advice in exchange for a portion of their company. But BIV’s program diverges in a few ways. Firstly, it’s five months long as opposed to the more traditional three-month programs like Y Combinator and Food-X, which Ive found was too short to really help a company grow. BIV also has a full kitchen in their accelerator space, so startups can actually work on developing/scaling their products in-house. Finally, with their dual presence in Asia and the U.S. (with plans to expand into Europe sometime in the future), Lightman also noted that they can help reduce opportunity costs for entrepreneurs by giving them ready access to multiple markets.

BIV is entering the scene at a time when every major company and their mother seems to be launching a new accelerator. For mega CPG companies, like General Mills, Danone, and Kraft-Heinz, they’re a relatively easy way to discover new companies for acquisition and keep a finger on the pulse of what’s new and “hip.”

With this in mind, it’s not hard to see why Tyson and Temasek want to get in on an alternative protein accelerator.

Tyson has set out to become the number one provider of protein, no matter the source. It has invested widely in both plant-based and cell-based meat companies, including Memphis Meats, FutureMeat, and, up until recently, Beyond Meat. They’re also developing their own line of plant-based proteins set to launch this summer. Through their involvement in the BIV accelerator, Tyson will have access to a wide range of innovative new alternative protein companies, which they can try to acquire or just use to gain inspiration.

For Temasek’s part, Singapore has been quite progressive in pushing for innovation the alt-protein space. Through its new RIE2020 plan, the city-state will invest over $100 million in foodtech endeavors like cultured meat and microbial protein production. Temasek can use BIV’s cohorts to attract promising new alt-protein startups to Asia; which we’ve already predicted will be a hotbed for cell-based meat.

TL;DR: If you’re curious about what new companies are shaking up the alternative protein space, keep an eye on what Big Idea Ventures is up to. Another good way to stay up to date is to subscribe to our Future Food newsletter! You’ll get a weekly dose of in-depth analysis on the plant-based and cultured protein landscape.

If you’ve got a plant- or cell-based startup of your own, you can apply for BIV’s inaugural accelerator program here.

Days Before Its IPO, Beyond Meat Parts Ways with Tyson Foods

Poultry giant Tyson Foods has parted ways with plant-based protein company Beyond Meat, Axios reported this morning in its newsletter. This news comes just days before the El Segundo, California-based startup is expected to go public with a valuation of up to $1.2 billion.

Tyson had a 6.5% ownership stake in Beyond and had invested a total of $23 million in the company between 2016 and 2017. Axios discovered the break when it noticed that Tyson was listed on Beyond’s April 15 amended regulatory filing, but not in one on April 22.

And things started off so well! We were fascinated to see Tyson, the second-largest meat processing company in the world, invest so heavily in Beyond, a company out to disrupt the industrial meat industry altogether. As Tom Mastrobuoni, CFO of Tyson Ventures, pointed out onstage during our Smart Kitchen Summit Europe last year, they’re very aware of that. “We’re onto disruption now,” he told the audience. “The startups that we’re focusing on are, in some ways, out to get us.”

The meat giant seemed fine with that initially, but things must have shifted at some point. Likely after Tyson announced in February that it would be developing its own line of plant-based protein products, which it plans to have in retail by this summer (see statement below). It makes sense that Tyson wouldn’t want to compete directly with one of its portfolio companies in the B2C alternative protein market, and vice-versa.

We don’t know if Tyson had already decided to develop its own line of plant-based products before it invested in Beyond. Otherwise, maybe they saw the numbers and realized the potential of the protein market, then decided to jump in themselves.

If the latter, it’s no wonder that Beyond Meat got a bee in their bonnet. As we mentioned Tyson is the second largest meat processor in the world. They have an incredible amount of capital, manufacturing abilities, R&D teams, and retail partnerships in place that will let them scale their plant-based protein business quickly. It’s easy to see why Beyond Meat wouldn’t like the idea of having such a giant, well-financed competitor in the meat aisle.

A rep from Tyson sent us the following statement (the same one it shared with Axios):

Tyson Ventures is pleased with the investment in Beyond Meat and has decided the time is right to exit its investment. Beyond Meat provided an early opportunity for Tyson Ventures to invest in plant-based protein products that many consumers are seeking. We wish the leadership of Beyond Meat all the best.

Tyson Foods continues to be committed to providing alternative protein as a choice for consumers and recently announced the creation of a new business focused on combining our creativity, scale and resources to make great tasting protein alternatives more accessible for everyone. We plan to launch an alternative protein product soon with market testing anticipated this summer.

According to Axios, there were multiple buyers for Tyson’s stake in Beyond Meat as no new 5% shareholder was listed in the new statement.

Other Big Food companies have also been investing in plant-based protein. However, instead of buying stakes in prominent startups like Beyond Meat, they’re chiefly acquiring smaller vegan companies (Unilever, Maple Leaf Foods) or developing their own products (Nestlé). Maybe Tyson tried to take over Beyond Meat and were rebuffed, then decided to change course and make their own line of plant-based proteins.

Beyond isn’t Tyson’s only venture into the alternative protein space. The poultry giant has also invested in cell-based meat company Memphis Meats as well as Future Meats, a biotech company creating animal-free fat and muscle cells. Though cultured meat is still a ways away from entering your grocery store, it’ll be interesting to see how Big Food companies like Tyson react once they do get to market — and if they’ll be friend or foe.

It’s also worth asking if the break from Tyson will impact Beyond’s IPO, which is set for just days from now. Potential investors might be more wary to buy stock in a company that was backed by a giant like Tyson, but no longer. Then again, I don’t think this will have too much of an effect. People are still ravenous for plant-based protein, and interested parties attracted by Beyond’s inspiring message or growing revenues will likely still buy shares in the company, regardless of any Tyson drama.

We’ve reached out to Beyond and Tyson for comment and will update this post when we hear back.