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Forget Plants. Alt-Meat Needs More Mycoprotein

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Of the three pillars of alternative protein, plant-based is getting the most mainstream attention and cultivated meat is the currernt darling of VC investors. But fermentation may be the most practical in terms of both cost and scalability, and one area of that segment turning heads of late is mycoprotein. 

From an affordability and nutritional point of view, mycoprotein has a boatload of advantages over other forms of alternative protein — a point underscored this week when The Spoon’s Chris Albrecht profiled a company called Kernel Mycofoods. In their own words, the folks behind the Buenos Aires, Argentina-based company are currently on a mission to “make a product that [is] comparable without a price that will exclude the emerging markets.”

But Kernel isn’t the only company hoping to bring mycoprotein to the forefront, which makes now a good time to take a closer look into what this segment of fermentation is and why it matters to alternative protein.

Mycoprotein is a single-cell protein made from a naturally occurring filamentous fungus called fusarium venenatum. To get mycoprotein, fungi spores are fermented alongside glucose in fermentation tanks in a process similar to that of brewing beer. The entire operation produces a pasty, doughy texture that resembles a chicken breast. 

Up to now, the most well-known application of mycoprotein is as the main ingredient of Quorn’s meat analogues. But as noted above, several other companies are now getting recognition for their use of mycoprotein as an alternative to traditional meat. That list includes Kernel Mycofoods as well as Better Meat Co., which opened its production facility last month, and food giant Unilever. The latter is producing a mycoprotein called Abunda through a partnership with Scottish company Enough. 

Experts say mycoprotein is high in fiber, low in sodium, has an inherently meaty texture, and is rich in amino acids. Kernel, for example, says its mycoprotein has a higher protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score than beef, soy, or wheat gluten.

Mycoprotein falls into the “biomass fermentation” category, as opposed to traditional or precision fermentation (though the lines between all three can be blurred). Because of this, its biggest advantage compared to other forms of alt-protein is its ability to scale at a lower price point. The Good Food Institute noted in its 2020 State of the Industry report on fermentation that biomass fermentation offers “well-established examples of scalability and cost reduction suitable for alternative protein applications.” 

Mycoprotein specifically has a number of other advantages. 

Versatility is a big one. Mycoprotein can be used on its own, as Quorn does with it, or it can be blended with traditional meat to enhance the latter’s flavor and nutritional profile. For example, it could reduce the amount of cholesterol found in a traditional burger patty.

Mycoprotein also already has an established track record, having been approved for use in food products in the early 1980s. That point alone suggests companies won’t face the same types of regulatory hurdles they do with, say, cultured meat. 

And as an alternative to plant-based meat analogues like those of Beyond and Impossible, mycoprotein is a potentially much more eco-friendly operation since it doesn’t require land to grow plants or significant amounts of downstream processing to get the meaty texture consumers want.

Of all these things, though, nutrition might just be the main driver behind mycoprotein. Citing panelists at the recent IFT FIRST event, Food Navigator recently reported that “consumers increasingly want products that are nutritionally comparable to or better for them than animal protein – something the current industry is not fully delivering.” The “current industry” in this case are plant-based analogues from the likes of Beyond and Impossible, companies that talk at length about elements like texture and mouthfeel but very little about their products nutritional profiles. Nutrition will, according to IFT FIRST panelists, be the “disrupting” factor in the near term when it comes to alternative proteins.

All of those factors mean mycoprotein could well become the breakout star of the alt-protein sector by the end of the year.

More Headlines

Plant-Based Cheese Company Nobell Foods Raises $75M – The company will use the new funds to commercialize its first plant-based cheese products, including mozzarella, which the company makes from soybeans that are genetically edited to produce casein. 

Bezos-Backed NotCo Raises $235M for Plant-Based Alternatives – This new capital will allow NotCo to expand into new product categories in North America and scale its proprietary A.I. platform. 

Redefine Meat Launches 5 “New Meat” Plant-Based Proteins in Israel – Plant-based meat company Redefine Meat announced five new products are now available at select Israeli restaurants and hotels. 

 

 

Unilever Partners With Enough to Add Fungi-Based Protein to Plant-Based Meat Lineup

Univever has had Enough.

Or, rather, will have Enough through a partnership with the Scotland-based company that develops a biomass mycoprotein called Abunda. The two companies announced the partnership today that will add the fungi-based protein to Unilever’s plant-based meat brand it acquired in 2018, The Vegetarian Butcher.

From the release:

Plant-based foods is one of Unilever’s fastest growing segments and we’re delighted to partner with ENOUGH to develop more sustainable protein products that are delicious, nutritious, and a force for good,” said Carla Hilhorst, EVP of R&D for Foods & Refreshment at Unilever. “We’re excited by the potential that this technology has for future innovations across our portfolio, and we can’t wait to launch more plant-based foods that help people cut down on meat, without compromising on taste.

Enough’s Abunda mycoprotein is developed through a fermentation process that feeds sugars from grain crops such as wheat to create a whole food biomass product the company claims uses 90% less water and feed inputs than producing beef. The company, formerly called 3F BIO, is in the process of building a 50 thousand-ton capacity facility to scale up production of Abunda for partners like Unilever.

Enough is just one of many companies producing fungi meat alternative ingredients through fermentation. Some, like Prime Roots and Mycovation are focused on mycelium-derived ingredients. Enough and others like fungi-meat pioneer Quorn and Italy’s Pura, are focused on fermentation-based mycoprotein production.

For Unilever, this is the second time in the last 12 months the large multinational food company has added new plant-based ingredients to its lineup through partnerships with startups. Last year, the company moved into microalgae protein through a partnership with Algenuity.

Pepsi and Diageo Will Launch Paper Bottles in 2021

Spirits company Diageo, best known for the Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Smirnoff brands, announced this week that it’s created the world’s first plastic-free, paper-based bottle. Along with Monday’s announcement, Diageo also said it has partnered with venture management firm Pilot Lite to launch a sustainable packaging tech company called Puplex Limited.

First, the bottle. Puplex Limited designed and developed a bottle made from what the press release calls “sustainably sourced pulp” that is 100 percent free of plastic and also food safe and recyclable. The bottle will debut in 2021 with Johnnie Walker scotch whiskey.  

Scotch won’t be the only beverage available via these new bottles. Puplex Limited created a consortium of companies that includes PepsiCo and Unilever to further develop these bottles and launch their own branded versions in 2021, based on Puplex’s designs and tech.

More than 1 million plastic bottles are sold globally every single minute, and each of of those takes about 450 years to completely degrade. When it comes to recycling said bottles, the U.S., certainly wouldn’t win any prizes, unless they’re for not recycling: in 2017, just 8 percent of plastics were recycled, according to data from the EPA.

Given our broken recycling system, major beverage companies (among others) are now under pressure to reduce their overall reliance on plastic. For example, in 2019, PepsiCo teamed up with Coca-Cola and Keurig-Dr. Pepper for the Every Bottle Back program, which aims to reduce plastic use as well as invest in the improvement of the recycling of plastic bottles. 

So far, developing alt-packaging for the plastic bottles has proved challenging. It seems Diageo has made something of a breakthrough with its product announced this week. How scalable that breakthrough is across the entire beverage industry remains to be seen. 

Ice Cream by Air! Unilever Tests Ben and Jerry’s Drone Delivery

In the future, when I have an ice cream craving, I won’t need to put on pants to walk across the street for a pint — I’ll just open the window and a drone will be waiting for me with some frozen treats.

This scenario is likely years away, but Unilever took a step toward that vision with a successful drone delivery test of Ben and Jerry’s, according to a press release issued this week. The company, partnering with Terra Drone Europe, demoed the drone delivery of three Ben & Jerry’s mini cups to a predetermined destination inside Unilever’s U.S. headquarters during its annual investor event.

The demo was part of Unilever’s Ice Cream Now service, which launched in 2017. The program uses apps such as UberEats to deliver sweet treats to customers using gas station and convenience store freezers as distribution points. There are at least 900 pickup points across the U.S., The Tampa Bay Times reports. The location and timeline of any commercial ice cream drone delivery roll out has not been determined yet, a spokesperson for Terra Drone told The Spoon.

“With regulations around future drone flights expected to become more flexible, the consumer goods company is preparing for a drone logistics service that will deliver products to more customers faster,” according to the press release.

The race is on to develop delivery drones. Uber unveiled its delivery drone last year and plans to test it this summer in San Diego. Amazon has been at work at its own drone program and patented tech that would charge drones in mid-air. Israeli tech company Flytrix has conducted drone deliveries in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as a North Dakota golf course.

The big hurdle for drones isn’t so much the technology, but regulation, and if that’s ever cleared, a pint of non-dairy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough will be flying my way.

Pepsi and Nestlé to Trial Reusable Containers in Effort to Ditch Plastic

This summer, a group of 25 big name brands including Pepsi, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble will test out a new program that sells products in reusable containers in an effort to combat rampant plastic waste, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The new program, dubbed Loop, will be run by recycling company, TerraCycle, and will kick off in May, starting with 5,000 shoppers in New York and Paris. From there it will branch out to more locations like London, Toronto and Tokyo over the next year.

Some examples of the new packaging include Pepsi selling Tropicana orange juice in glass bottles, and Häagen-Dazs putting its ice cream in steel containers. The Journal writes that prices for these products will be roughly the same as their plastic counterparts, but there will be a deposit of $1 – $10 per container (plus shipping). Shoppers order items through a website for home delivery and when they are done, schedule a pickup for the containers which will be cleaned and reused.

It’s always good to be skeptical of big brands whenever they appear to be making some kind of altruistic move–they are in business to make money, not save the planet. But this trial is coming at a time when people are waking up to just how much plastic waste we’re generating. National Geographic reports that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been created over the past six decades and only 9 percent of it has been recycled. It gets worse, as U.S. plastic recycling was projected to decrease to just 4.4 percent last year.

The good news, though, is that a number of regulators, companies and startups are tackling the problem head on. Last year more than 60 countries introduced initiatives to ban single-use plastic. Companies like Starbucks and Disney and Hyatt are banning single use plastic straws. Vessel Works launched a reusable coffee cup program in Colorado. And zero waste grocery stores are starting to pop up.

Will all this activity move the needle for convenience-addicted shoppers (myself included) to ditch their old habits and try something new? The ease of buying the normal plastic containers will be a hard habit for a lot of people to break. Hopefully Pepsi, Nestlé and all the brands participating in this new trial will design a recycling program that works, stick with it and throw some of their considerable marketing muscle behind it to make it a success — and help make us move on from plastic.

Unilever Buys the Vegetarian Butcher, Big Food Continues Plant-Based Investment

News broke yesterday that consumer goods giant Unilever will acquire the Vegetarian Butcher, a Dutch company that makes plant-based meats (h/t Bloomberg). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Vegetarian Butcher meat substitutes like Vegan NoChicken Shwarma and Vegan Smokey Hotdog out of soy protein, sunflower oil, and flavorings. Its products are currently available in over 4,000 locations in 17 countries, including the Netherlands, Japan, and the U.K. (As of now, they’re not available in the U.S.)

As a region, Europe is a hotbed of vegan protein innovation. Its plant protein market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.1 percent until 2023. It’s also considered the largest market for meat substitutes, accounting for over 39 percent of global sales in 2017. So it makes sense that Big Food companies, like Unilever, are taking notice and acquiring smaller vegan food brands to diversify their portfolio and capture some of this booming market.

Here are a few notable investments/acquisitions:

No wonder. As more and more consumers — led by millennials and Gen Z — shift from meat-heavy diets to more flexitarian ones, the demand for plant-based protein is skyrocketing. In a report commissioned by the Good Food Institute, research firm Nielsen showed that retail sales of plant-based foods have grown 17 percent in the past year, reaching $3.7 billion. The report estimated that the total plant-based retail market is worth roughly $4.1 billion.

Big Foods’ involvement in the plant-based food market could help mitigate widespread production issues. As consumer interest in vegan foods rises, smaller producers are struggling to keep up with demand. With newfound access to the manufacturing systems and supply chains of major food producers and distributors, plant-based meat companies can hopefully have an easier time feeding our hunger for vegan protein.

Which likely means there’ll be a lot more Vegan NoChicken Teriyaki making its way onto flexitarians’ plates.

Food Tech News Roundup: GM Hops, Food Delivery Mergers & Meat MRI’s

Happy weekend. This was a big week for food tech news, with funding updates from Instacart and Impossible Foods, and big partnership announcements from Innit/Chef’d and Kenwood/Drop. But there were also a bunch of smaller stories that caught our eye, even if we didn’t have time to write a post about them. So we rounded them up in one place for you! Put an egg on something and eat it while skimming through our roundup of this week’s food tech news stories.

Report: Postmates and DoorDash mull over merger 

Sources told Recode that Postmates and DoorDash, two food delivery giants, have discussed a possible merger at least once over the past year. This move would be a bid to gain advantage over competitors like GrubHub and UberEats in the hotly-contested food delivery war.

These murmurings come only a month after DoorDash secured $535 million in funding, which they said they would use to expand operations (and maybe invest in robots?). As of now there’s no deal, but this wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The food delivery sector is just too crowded — if these competitors could pull off a merger and optimize their service, I say go for it.

Photo: Pixabay

Unilever wants to turn plastic waste into food safe packaging

Unilever announced this week that it’s starting a new initiative to recycle polyethylene terephthalate resin, which is commonly used in clothing, food and drink packaging, and engineering projects. They want to turn any of their products made with PET resin, including ones that are colored, into transparent, food safe packaging. The consumer goods giant is partnering with recycling tech startup Ioniqa and Indorama Ventures, the world’s largest producer of PET resin, on the project.

It’s an interesting time in the world of food packaging. Various groups, including NASA and the military, are trying to make it lighter, safer, and more resilient. This initiative from Unilever might make it more environmentally friendly, as well. But it’s got a long way to go; currently, 91% of plastic waste isn’t recycled. With a massive company like Unilever behind it, this project might be able to reduce that statistic significantly. 

Credit-TECAL-GIM-UEx.jpg

MRIs can qualify meat taste without touching them

Researchers at the University of Extremadura in Spain have found a way to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the same technology used in hospitals to look inside our bodies, to measure the taste properties of whole loins and hams — without touching them.

The technology uses non-invasive magnets and radio waves to take images of the meat, which is then run through a computer vision algorithm. Scientists can use the images and readings they see to make predictions on the quality of the meat, including its fat content, color, and salt content, without having to damage a pricey Iberico ham.

This research indicates another approach to food safety monitoring and quality control, which is a fast-growing market full of startups like Mimica and FoodLogiQ.

 

Would brewers replace hops with GMO yeast?

Hold on to your IPAs: A team of chemists and geneticists in California have developed a genetically modified yeast that can mimic the flavor and aroma of hops. To make it, they spliced DNA from mint and basil plants into the genes of brewing yeast, which gave the yeast a grapefruit-like flavor typical of the Cascade hop.

By swapping out hops for GM yeast, brewers could have greater control over their product, reduce the costs of beer-brewing, and reduce environmental impact. As might be expected, craft brewers aren’t eager to replace hops with GM yeast — they feel it takes some of the art out of brewing. But we’re seeing more and more intersections of beer and tech, from IoT-powered beer tracking systems to beer publishing systems for at-home brewers.

 

Photo: AgVend

AgVend raises $1.75M in seed funding

Last week ag-commerce startup AgVend raised $1.75 million in seed funding. The round was led by Drew Oetting at 8VC, with participation from Green Bay Ventures, Seahawk Capital, The House Fund, and others.

Agvend is a digital commerce platform which lets farmers compare prices and purchase ag services and inputs. With AgVend, farmers can order a specific fertilizer and have it delivered (via AgVend’s partners) the same day or take advantage of flash sales promotions, without ever leaving their farm. The startup launched at the beginning of 2018 and now covers states across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, with plans to expand later this year.

This year has been a big one for agtech startups. In the last few months indoor farming company Agrilyst and peer-to-peer farming network WeFarm also closed fundraising rounds. Agtech is definitely a growing market, and one to keep an eye on.

Knorr’s “Eat Your Feed” Delivers Instagram-Inspired Recipes… Sorta

Millennials everywhere can finally justify all those overhead photos they just had to snap (and then Instagram) before digging into their food.

Knorr, the powdered soup and seasoning brand owned by Unilever, has developed an AI-powered tool which scans your Instagram feed and then recommends recipes based on your photos. Dubbed Eat Your Feed, the tool uses visual recognition technology to match your food snaps with recipes from Knorr’s database. After you get your recommendations, you can save the recipes or add the ingredients to a digital shopping basket. And if you’re not already on the ‘gram, don’t worry — you can use this short quiz on Knorr’s website to get personalized recipes.

In the spirit of thorough journalism, I decided to give Eat Your Feed a try.

After entering in my Instagram login information, the webpage whirred around a bit before directing me to a page of almost completely nonsensical recipe matches.

First up was a photo I took of burgers & fries (it was actually the Impossible Burger, but I wouldn’t expect Eat Your Feed to know that). I would have expected it to match this to a perhaps another burger recipe, or even a grilling one, but instead I got… chicken and pasta soup?

As I scrolled through my recommendations, some of Eat Your Feed’s logic became clear. Some. For example, a photo I’d posted of some seaside cliffs linked to a recipe for Mussels Meuniere. However, most of the tool’s process was still shrouded in mystery: why did a painting of a cake equate to spinach soup? What linked a photo I took of a cave in Greece to a lemony pasta dish?

Presumably, it was some tag which I didn’t know existed — but Eat Your Feed did. When you allow the tool access to your Instagram, it also gains access to all of your data stored on the platform. It uses AI to scan your captions, locations, and tagged people to try to draw links to their recipe database. A few of these tags are displayed above your matches, which gives you a clue into how the algorithm made its selections. This explains why my photo of the ocean synched up to a mussels dish — both were tagged “Beach.” As to how they categorized both burgers and chicken & pasta soup as “Time” and “United States” is slightly less clear, however, though I suppose I was in America when I ate them?

Those who take the quiz instead of letting Instagram take the wheel have a bit more transparency into their recommendations. I took the 5-question quiz and was suggested recipes that were “Active” and “European” based on my answers. Which makes more sense than pairing cake and spinach soup together because both are purportedly “Swedish.”

One of the tool’s biggest issues lies with Knorr itself. All of the recipes must contain at least one of their ingredients, and since Knorr only makes soup stock cubes and powders, that limits the selection pretty severely.

I couldn’t find a way to save a recipe or add ingredients to an online shopping cart; the only option was to email myself a link to the recipe. In the future, it would be smart for Knorr to partner up with a shoppable recipes platform and a grocery delivery service like Allrecipes/AmazonFresh so they can actually deliver on those promises.

To give Eat Your Feed credit, the tool was gimmicky enough to suck me in in the first place. Plus, I did find myself clicking around other recipes on the site for a minute after I got my personalized meals. However, most of my suggested meals were so laughably off-base that I’m wouldn’t be inclined to make them at home, no matter how much they might remind me of that time I went to the beach two years ago.

So is the tool worth using? In short: no. It gives you almost no utility, but it’s still fun in the way that, say, taking on online quiz about Which Backstreet Boy Is Your Spirit Animal is fun: it’s pretty useless and probably inaccurate, but it’s a great way to waste a few minutes on the internet.

To promote Eat Your Feed, Knorr will open a pop-up restaurant at London’s Jones & Sons on April 11, where diners will be served meals matched to their Instagram feeds. I’ll be sad to miss my four-course meal of various soups and soup-like dishes, but maybe I’ll check in on the ‘gram. And then recreate them at all at home.