XPRIZE, an organization that hosts competitions to seek out solutions to global challenges, announced the six finalists of its $15 million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion (FTNB) competition. The contest, kicked off in 2020, seeks to stimulate the development of more sustainable and accessible chicken breast and fish filet alternatives that can satisfy the rising demand for meat products amid a growing global population.
According to the release, the six finalists have developed “multiple consistent cuts of a meat alternative that replicate the look, taste, smell, feel, cooking behavior and nutritional properties of a structured filet of fish or chicken breast.” The finalists were selected by a judging panel of “diverse experts in international sustainability, agricultural and biological engineering, the food industry, and experts working at the highest levels of academia and research.”
The finalists, which were selected from a semi-finalist group of 28 companies (later expanded to 31), include a mix of cell-cultured, fermentation, and plant-based platforms. The mix between chicken and fish is 50/50, with three for each:
- CellX: Cell-based chicken team from China
- Eternal: Fermentation-derived chicken team from Argentina
- The PlantEat: Plant-based chicken team from South Korea
- ProFillet: Plant-based fish team from Canada
- Revo Foods: Plant-based fish team from Austria
- TFTAK: Plant-based fish team from Estonia
What’s just as interesting as which companies were named finalists are which ones didn’t make it to the final round. The list of semi-finalists included some of the biggest names in alternative protein across cell-cultured (UPSIDE, Good Meat, Blue Nalu to name a few), mycelium-based (Atlast/MyForest, Good Meat Company) and gas fermentation (Air Protein) based products, and none of these companies made the finalist round.
Also surprising is that none of the companies chosen were based in the United States, the country which has seen the biggest overall amount of venture capital go into alternative protein. Two of the finalists are from Asia, two from Europe, one from Latin America, and one from Canada.
One reason some of the bigger names didn’t end up on the finalist list is no doubt due in part due to the withdrawal by up to about 11 companies earlier this year due to a revision to the contest’s rule changes last year that said Aspire, one of the co-sponsors of the event, would have a right of first refusal on investment in the finalists. The rules were revised slightly in September, but the restrictions still proved too much for many finalists such as Eat Just, Wild Type and Better Meat Company.
The FTNB competition was modeled after XPRIZE conducted an analysis of global food system challenges in which it identified 12 breakthroughs that could establish a more food-secure and environmentally sustainable world by 2050. From these 12, the group chose the need for alternative proteins at-scale as a critical impact area that requires significant technological advances, decreased price points, and notable shifts in consumers’ preferences.
From here, the finalists will head to the next round of tastings. The semifinalist round was hosted in Abu Dhabi, which is the home to Aspire, which cosponsored this XPRIZE competition alongside the Tony Robbins Foundation. According to XPRIZE, the winning team, which will be selected in 2024, will develop multiple consistent cuts of chicken breast or fish filet alternatives (115 grams / 4 ounces) that can replicate the sensory properties, structure, versatility, and nutritional profile of conventional chicken or fish, while having a lower comparable environmental footprint than animal-agriculture derived products.
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