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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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The Food Tech News Show: Food Tech Funding Down in 1H 2024

The Spoon has launched a new podcast!

As listeners of the Spoon Podcast know, it’s been both a long-form interview show and a news show. Since those who listen to interviews aren’t always the same as those who want their weekly dose of food tech news, we thought a dedicated news show made sense.

Meet the Food Tech News Show podcast! You can subscribe to the new The Food Tech News Show on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, iHeart Radio, and via RSS.

On this episode, Michael Wolf and Carlos Rodela welcome Peter Bodenheimer, a longtime food tech investor and operator, to discuss the current state of food and ag tech funding. In this episode, they delve into:

Tune in to The Spoon’s new dedicated weekly food tech news show!

Those who would like to watch the video version of the show can check it out below.

The Food Tech News Show

Big Week For Cultivated Meat: Dutch Government Approves Tastings, UPSIDE’s Chicken Debuts at Crenn

It’s been an eventful few days for cultivated meat.

After getting the final regulatory green light from the USDA to serve cultivated meat to U.S. consumers, UPSIDE Food’s cultivated chicken showed up on menus for the first time this weekend at Bar Crenn. The event, hosted on Saturday, July 1st, marked the first time cultivated meat has gone on sale in the U.S.

Here’s how the special menu, prepared by famed French chef Dominique Crenn, was described by the press release sent to The Spoon: Diners at this historic meal were served UPSIDE Foods’ cultivated chicken, fried in a Recado Negro-infused tempura batter and accompanied by a burnt chili aioli. Served in a handmade black ceramic vessel adorned with Mexican motifs and Crenn’s logo, the dish was beautifully garnished with edible flowers and greens sourced from Bleu Belle Farm. It reflects the global benefit that Chef Crenn sees in cultivated meat – with UPSIDE Chicken from the Bay Area in California, tempura from Japanese traditions, and an infusion of Recado Negro from Mexico’s Yucatan.

Just a few days later, on July 5th, the Dutch government approved a ‘code of practice’ to allow tastings of cultivated meat to occur within tightly regulated environments, an agreement that precedes the E.U. novel food approval. The code of practice was done in consultation with Dutch cultivated meat companies Mosa Meat and Meatable, along with HollandBIO.

This agreement makes the Netherlands the first country in the European Union to make pre-approval tastings of food grown directly from animal cells possible before a broader E.U. novel food approval. Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland, a group created to implement a €60M award from the Dutch National Growth Fund, will be responsible for implementing the code of practice, which will include the hiring of an expert panel to evaluate requests by companies to conduct tastings of cultivated meat and seafood.

In many ways, 2023 is shaping up to be a critical year for cultivated meat, as governments seem to finally be comfortable with producing meat in giant metal vats. With approval in hand, companies like UPSIDE and Mosa Meat will continue to work on scaling up to larger production plants and creating lower-cost and ever-more climate-friendly techniques for producing meat in bioreactors.

UPSIDE Foods Nabs USDA Label Approval for Cell-Cultivated Chicken

Cultivated meat company UPSIDE Foods announced today it had secured label approval from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its cultivated chicken product, according to a release sent to The Spoon. The approval comes half a year after the company became the first to get a GRAS green light for its cultivated meat from the USDA. The company becomes the second such company to receive approval after Good Meat (the cultivated meat division of Eat Just which secured their label on June 8th).

Cell-cultivated meat falls under the same USDA labeling requirements as traditional meat products, and the company’s USDA label approval shows its cultivated chicken is in full compliance with the governing agency’s pre-market labeling requirements. This means that post-inspection, UPSIDE’s chicken products will sport a USDA mark of inspection on their packaging. The USDA label will use the term “cell-cultivated chicken” to describe UPSIDE’s product to distinguish it from meat grown using traditional farming methods.

With label approval in hand, UPSIDE is working to secure the final regulatory step before the company can begin selling its cultivated meat to consumers, a Grant of Inspection (GOI) for its cultivated meat production facility, EPIC (short for Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center). Upon this final milestone, the company could move forward with commercial sales of its product. UPSIDE has previously announced it will first sell its chicken in the Bar Crenn restaurant in San Francisco. The company hasn’t indicated when it will receive its GOI but previously indicated it hopes to sell its cultivated meat to consumers this year.

With another win notched on its belt, UPSIDE continues to outpace most startups looking for US regulatory approval for its cultivated meat product. Undoubtedly, part of that success is attributable to the company’s regulatory affairs group, led by former FDA regulator (and food scientist) Eric Schulze. You can hear my conversation with Eric from 2021 on The Spoon Podcast below.

Breaking: UPSIDE Becomes First Company to Get Greenlight From the U.S. FDA For Cultivated Meat

Today UPSIDE Foods announced it has become the first company in the world to receive a “No Questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cultivated meat, poultry, or seafood. This letter signals that the FDA believes UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken is safe for consumers.

This is big news for UPSIDE and the broader alt-protein industry since it’s the first time that the FDA has greenlit a cultivated meat product. The approval moves the U.S. market one step closer to seeing meat made via cellular agriculture sold to consumers.

“This is a watershed moment in the history of food,” said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of UPSIDE Foods. “We started UPSIDE amid a world full of skeptics, and today, we’ve made history again as the first company to receive a ‘No Questions’ letter from the FDA for cultivated meat. This milestone marks a major step towards a new era in meat production, and I’m thrilled that U.S. consumers will soon have the chance to eat delicious meat that’s grown directly from animal cells.”

Along with the FDA’s memo detailing the agency’s review of the data and information provided by UPSIDE Foods to establish the safety of its cultivated chicken filet, it’s also released a 104-page document prepared by UPSIDE Foods that details the safety of the cultivated chicken and its production process.

While this is a big step, don’t expect to see UPSIDE’s chicken on store shelves in the immediate future. According to the release, UPSIDE Foods still needs to secure the necessary approvals from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) before UPSIDE Foods’ cultivated chicken can be sold to consumers. According to the company, details on the launch timing will follow.