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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Wild Earth

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.

Wild Earth Launches Cell-Based Pet Food As It Raises a Fresh $23 Million

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.

And now, the company plans to use cell-based meat in a new line of products. From the release:

(Wild Earth) has its sights set on adding new products and launching a new initiative into cell-based meat pet food to deepen their market share and gain new customers. Cell-based meat is a lab-grown meat; a sustainable alternative to traditional meat. Cell-based meat is cruelty-free to produce. Cell-based meat is the future of meat, and pet food is leading the revolution!

The company got a boost in 2019 when Bethencourt appeared on Shark Tank and secured a $550 thousand investment from Cuban. Bethencourt, already well-known in the alternative protein space as one of the earliest employees at seminal biotech accelerator IndieBio, became an influential alt-protein evangelist and helped increase Wild Earth’s profile in the market.

Wild Earth is just one of a number of pet food companies eyeing cell-based meat as an ingredient. Startup Because Animals is working on cat food with meat made from mice cells which it plans to have in the market by 2022. Boulder-based Bond Pet Foods has sourced chicken cells from a heritage hen named Inga and plans to roll out pet food using cultured chicken meat in 2023.

And now, we can add cell-based beef and seafood to the list of ingredients coming to the cell-based pet food market. According to the release, Wild Earth plans to have its new lineup of pet food with beef, chicken, and seafood cell-based meat inputs on the market in 2022.

You can see highlights from Bethencourt’s appearance on Shark Tank in the video below:

Mark Cuban Invests In Vegan Dog Food Company Wild Earth