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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Food Tech News: Muniq Raises $8.2M for Protein Powder, Danone Launches Plant-Based Cheese

Welcome to this week’s Food Tech News round-up! This week, news that caught our attention included Muniq’s recent funding round, Danone’s new plant-based cheese, Torchy Taco’s new contactless services, and Zero Egg’s restaurant debut.

Muniq raises $8.2 million for blood sugar regulating protein powder

Muniq, a protein powder created specifically for blood sugar control and gut microbiome health, raised $8.2 million in its Series A round. The round was led by Alpha Edison and Acre Venture Partners, with participation from Baron Davis (former NBA star and investor) and Cathy Richards (founder of SimplyProtein). The protein powder contains a high amount of prebiotic resistant starch that can help regulate blood sugar and weight management, and it was developed specifically with those who live with diabetes or struggle with weight loss in mind. Muniq’s five flavors of protein powder include Chocolate, Vanilla Creme, Mocha Latte, Vegan Vanilla, and Vegan Chocolate. A bag of protein powder with 28 servings costs $99 and is available for purchase on the company’s website.

Photo from Danone’s website

Danone launches plant-based cheese through So Delicious Brand

Danone’s So Delicious brand recently announced the release of new dairy-free cheese products, which include plant-based shredded cheese, slices, and spreads. All of the cheeses are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO, but it is currently unclear what the main ingredient in these new products is. The shredded and sliced cheese products are now available in stores such as Target, Walmart, Market Basket, Fresh Thyme across the US. The cheese spreads will be released sometime in March.

Photo from Torchy’s Taco website

CardFree and Torchy’s Taco partner to develop contactless services

Torchy’s Taco, a fast-casual taco chain, partnered with CardFree, a provider of modern ordering services, to revamp online ordering and contactless services in the restaurant’s location. Customers eating at Torchy’s will now be able to use the Text-to-Pay solution, which enables them to pay on a mobile phone for both phone-in and drive-thru orders. The new Order@Table solution allows customers to add to their order while dining in without getting back in line or interacting with a cashier. The taco chain is also trialing curbside pickup with “I’m Here” notifications for curbside pickups; the customer can simply send this notification from their phone to let the restaurant know they have arrived. These new features and services are now available in Torchy’s 83 locations across seven states.

Zero Egg makes debut in Birmingham, AL restaurant

Plant-based egg producer Zero Egg made its first restaurant debut at Tropicaleo, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. The restaurant created a special menu to celebrate Veganuary, and several of the menu items showcase Zero Egg’s soy, potato starch, and chickpea-based eggs. The speciality dishes include breakfast sandwich with vegan cheese, Zero Egg biscuit, and Beyond Meat patty, as well as a rice bowl with Zero Egg scramble, Beyond Meat sausage, and sweet plantains. These menu items are available now, and it is unclear if they will become permanent menu fixtures.

A Plant-Based Egg Round-Up

According to the Good Food Institute, the plant-based egg industry is worth $10 million. This is a small number compared to the plant-based milk industry, which is worth a whopping $2 billion; however, the plant-based egg industry has grown by an impressive 228% in the past two years. With the entire plant-based food industry estimated to reach $74.2 billion by 2027, there is plenty of room for the plant-based egg category to continue to grow.

Plant-based eggs are poised to become the next big thing in the plant-based space, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the companies involved in this industry. We’ve pulled together some of the emerging and bigger players in this space.

Eat Just
Funding: $220M
About: After hitting the milestone of selling over 50 million plant-based eggs earlier this year, it is clear that Eat Just is one of the leaders in this industry. The company makes its liquid egg and folded egg patties with mung beans as the main ingredient. Eat Just products are available in retailers and restaurants nationwide (U.S.), and the company announced in October that it is expanding its products into Asia.

Zero Egg
Funding: $8M
About: Zero Egg launched its plant-based egg powder alternative earlier this year in October on World Egg Day. The egg alternative is crafted from soy protein isolate and pea flour and comes in two different varieties: EGG Basics as a direct replacement for scrambles or omelets and BAKE Basics for specialty baking. Zero Egg’s products are available globally to foodservice operators and manufacturers in the US, Europe, and Israel.

Float Foods
Funding: Undisclosed
About: According to Green Queen, Float Foods is the first company in Asia to create a plant-based egg white and yolk. This new product is called OnlyEg, and it is set to become available commercially in 2022. This plant-based egg was developed using a mixture of undisclosed legumes. In September of this year, Float Foods also launched an incubator for plant-based food innovators.

Evo Foods
Funding: $335K
About: This is India’s first plant-based egg start-up, and it has said it will be launching a plant-based liquid egg alternative sometime this year. Evo Foods uses biotechnology to extract protein from lentils for its formula. The product will first be made available D2C on its website and restaurants in India, and the company has plans to launch in the US by April 2021.

Crack’d
Funding: Unknown
About: The company recently announced at the beginning of November that it will be launching its liquid plant-based egg in the UK market. The egg formula is comprised of pea protein, nutritional yeast, and black salt. According to Crack’d, its liquid egg can be used for both baking and creating traditional egg dishes.

Zero Egg Raises $5M for Its Plant-Based Egg Product

Zero Egg, which makes a plant-based egg product, announced today that it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Powerplant Ventures, with participation from existing investors Unovis Asset Management/New Crop Capital and Strauss Group/The Kitchen Hub. This brings the total amount raised by Zero Egg to $8 million.

Based in Israel, Zero Egg just launched in the U.S. last month. The company’s egg product is a powder made primarily out of soy protein isolate and pea flour. It comes it two forms: the EGG Basis is used for scrambles and omelets, and the BAKE Basics is an egg replacement for baking.

Right now, Zero Egg is a B2B play, selling its egg replacement to food service companies and restaurants, though it plans to eventually sell to consumers. With the new funding, Zero Egg plans to grow its brand in the U.S. and launch new products over the coming year.

Though overall sales of plant-based foods have been growing over the past couple of years, plant-based eggs are a small category. According to the Good Food Institute (GFI), the plant-based egg category was only worth $10 million at the end of 2019. Though GFI noted that while the smallest, it is also the fastest growing category of plant-based foods.

Part of the reason for the small sales numbers for plant-based eggs is that they aren’t a suitable replacement for baking purposes. JUST Eggs, which are made from mung beans, are tasty as part of a burrito, but you wouldn’t make a cake with them. Over in the U.K., Crack’d launched its plant-based egg made from pea protein and nutritional yeast, which the company says can be used to make things like quiches and cookies (something we haven’t tested ourselves).

The Spoon’s Ashlen Weddington was sent a sample of a pre-made Zero Egg patty and thought it was pretty good. With today’s news, a lot more people here in the U.S. will be able to weigh in with their own thoughts on the eggless egg.

Crackd to Launch Its Plant-Based Egg in the U.K.

Plant-based egg brand Crackd will soon launch its 100 percent vegan liquid egg replacement at stores in the U.K., according to Green Queen Media. The company’s product, called Crackd The No-Egg Egg, will be available at select retailers in December.

Crackd uses cold-pressed pea protein, nutritional yeast, and black sea salt for its signature egg product, which the company says “cooks, bakes, acts, and tastes just like an egg.” Among the items Crackd says you can create with its egg are quiches, cookies, Yorkshire pudding, and sponge cake. It can also be turned into scrambles, omelettes, and other traditional egg dishes, though Crackd says on its FAQ page that it takes about 15 minutes longer to cook than a regular chicken egg.

The company’s claims that Crackd can be used in a variety of cooking scenarios are big, since eggs have 22 functions, some of which are difficult to mimic with a plant-based substitute. Baking, in particular, requires functionalities like binding and aeration that are hard to recreate in plant-based egg products.

We have not yet tried Crackd’s product, but I’m waiting eagerly to hear customer reactions around how the well the product translates to that wide variety of food items — and how those finished products taste. Making a sponge cake with a plant-based egg is one thing. Making a sponge cake that tastes good and doesn’t have the ol’ plant-based aftertaste is another.

Crackd joins the likes of Zero Egg, which just launched in the U.S., and Eat Just, probably the most well-known player on the plant-based egg scene right now. Interestingly, Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick told me at SKS 2020 that his company is “about two years away” from a plant-based egg you can bake with. 

We’ll have a better idea of how Crackd stacks up to these other plays come December. Crackd The No-Egg Egg will be available at Marks & Spencer stores nationwide across the U.K., as well as at online specialty store The Vegan Kind.

Plant-Based Zero Egg To Launch On World Egg Day

Zero Egg will launch its plant-based egg powder alternative in the U.S. on October 9th, which, fittingly, is World Egg Day.

To celebrate the launch, Zero Egg invited me to join a virtual Zoom brunch and taste test products made with its plant-based egg replacement. It was certainly the highlight of my week to be shipped a large box filled with vegan brunch items; the delivery included muffins, a breakfast sandwich, cookies, caesar dressing, prosecco, OJ, and a sample of its flagship egg powder product.

The Zoom brunch included members of Zero Egg like co-founder and CEO, and Executive Chef, Mario Rodriguez, who explained how to use the Zero Egg products. Even though the breakfast sandwich sent to me came frozen, I was impressed that after warming up, the egg patty in the sandwich was fluffy and had the proper texture of a real egg.

The actual product that Zero Egg will be selling to foodservice operators and food manufacturers is a plant-based egg powder made mainly out of soy protein isolate and pea flour. The powder comes in two forms; EGG Basics as a direct replacement for scrambles or omelets, and BAKE Basics for specialty baking.

The company faces competition from Just Egg, which has been rapidly expanding this year. Just Egg has established itself with consumers through its plant-based liquid egg and frozen folded egg patties made from mung beans and has plans for international expansion. Zero Egg has partnered with Gordon Food Service for distribution to foodservice operators and food manufacturers, but will soon expand its offerings to directly target consumers.

Zero Egg has already partnered with several restaurants and bakeries in Israel, where the company was founded. Next year the company plans to launch a consumer version of the product at the retail level, as well as a plant-based egg patty sometime in the future. The company has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Unovis Asset Management-New Crop Capital, Strauss Group-The Kitchen Hub, and Valor Siren Ventures.