Food+Tech Connect’s Post

Last week’s top food innovation news 📰🌶️ Backlash hits David Chang over Momofuku's chili crunch trademark, as cease and desist actions draw internet ire. Jing Gao of FLY BY JING advocates empathy-driven operations for emerging food brands challenging market norms. Perfect Day sued by Olon for breach of contract and fraud, seeking $112M unpaid bills and $32M damages. Supermarkets brand fruits and veggies as investors target agriculture. Mosa Meat secures €40M for production expansion after opening world's largest cultivated meat facility. Europe's global investment share rises from 23% to 36% by 2023, despite AgriFoodTech funding decrease, per FoodTech 500. Growing trend links organic certification with regenerative agriculture. USDA's crop insurance restrictiveness prompts call for regenerative agriculture insurance development. #foodtech #foodstartups #foodbiz  #agrifoodtech #chilicrunch #davidchang #trademarkbullies https://lnkd.in/e2aqeDDY

“It’s going to go down as one of the biggest failures in food history. Business schools will be presenting lessons on lab-grown meat,” says Julian Mellentin, a food consultant who advises companies on lab-based meat. “We were told that this innovation would transform how we eat and farm,” but many industry figures have admitted that the game is up. SCiFI foods, backed by Coldplay and Andreessen Horowitz, closed this year. Israel’s Aleph Farms laid off 30% of its staff. Upside food cancelled its plans for its first production bioreactor. One reason for the failure is that the economics were always stacked against the complicated process used to produce lab-grown meat. Cells are extracted from animal fetuses and grown in sterile bioreactors, a process that takes a lot of energy and money. The resulting slurry is then stretched and shaped to resemble animal tissue. The bioreactors are very expensive. They require pharmaceutical industry level lab conditions (very unlike a typical food processing plant), very expensive nutrients, which amount to 2/3 of cost, specialized labor (i.e., many #scientists with masters and PhDs) and long timescales. Studies find that producers will be lucky to hit $63 per kilo, which is far more expensive than what is found in food markets. A second reason for the failure is that people prefer traditional #food, shaped by years of eating that food. And who can blame them. Most people are happy with traditional meat. Furthermore, many people judge food by the way it looks and as you can see from this post’s picture, it looks a bit strange. “Even the test marketing has stopped, because nobody wanted the product – it’s just too weird. People are very reluctant to put a new #technology in their bodies,” one consultant says. “The only markets that it can aim for now are as a high-end product – almost as a novelty – on the coasts of the U.S., and possible Singapore and London.” The CEO of Impossible Foods, which only sells plant-based meat products, acknowledged that the political mood has changed for everyone. No one wants fake meat anymore and no plant-based meat supplier is profitable. The articles argues that a better approach would be “better farming, not Silicon Valley Frankenfood.” But I’m sure this is not the last we will hear about lab-grown meat or plant-based meat. I have posted on the end of fake meat many times over the last few years. Some people want governments to bail out these companies. Bill Gates and Richard Branson think lab-grown and plant-based food is great, particularly to fight climate change, they are investors, and they have a lot of influence. Like many technologies that aren’t doing well, despite years of #hype, the #tech bros have been pushing them for years and they just can’t admit they are wrong. #innovation #startups #hype #biotech https://lnkd.in/gxFebUuC

Tender Food Inc, a food technology startup based in Massachusetts, USA, has successfully closed over US$11 million in Series A funding. Led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with existing investors Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners and new investors Claridge Partners and Nor'easter Ventures, the additional funding will allow Tender to further its goal of revolutionizing the way we produce and consume meat. What's different about Tender? Its patented technology spins plant protein fibers like cotton candy to create structured cuts of meat. The result is hyper-realistic, nutritious, affordable, products with simple ingredients, in any format – from pulled pork to chicken breast to seafood to steak. "Consumers are largely disappointed with plant-based meat products in the market – they’re too expensive, they don’t taste good, and are mostly limited to burgers and sausages with long, unrecognizable ingredient lists," said Christophe Chantre, Co-founder & CEO, Tender Food. "We need new technologies to address these challenges and drive meaningful adoption in this category, which is crucial for decarbonizing our food system. Our technology allows us to create healthy products that taste great, have the structure and feel of animal meat and are much cheaper to produce.” #alternativeproteins #foodtech #investment #foodproduction

If lab-grown meat promised to save us from environmental disaster, why are these projects now faltering? The meat industry is one of the planet's biggest polluters, responsible for massive greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and excessive water use. Lab-grown meat emerged as an innovative and sustainable solution. However, high production costs, technological barriers, and consumer resistance are jeopardizing this promise. The future of the meat industry is at stake. Without real innovation, we’ll remain trapped in an utterly unsustainable food system. Will the vision of a future without traditional meat industries fade away due to cost and acceptance issues? #labgrownmeat #sustainable #future #foodinnovation #climateaction #meatindustry

People Like REAL Meat ... SHOCKER! but the meat industry must still adapt from embracing more localized supply chains regenerative farming and animal welfare Climate action really means consumers eatjling less meat ! i ask my customers to eat MUCH less meat but better quality + local (produced within 25 km). #localfood #farmers #regenerative #regeneracao #meat #meatindustry #animalwelfare #carne

Here’s what you can find in this week's issue of the Better Bioeconomy newsletter: BIO TALKS: ♻️ My conversation with Rebecca Palmer: Turning agrifood byproducts into nutrient-rich B2B ingredients | Terra Bioindustries BIO BUZZ: 🇮🇱🇹🇭 Aleph Farms partnered with BBGI and Fermbox Bio to set up Thailand’s first cultivated meat production facility | Didier Toubia, Kittiphong Limsuwannarot, Subramani Ramachandrappa 🍦 Unilever partnered with Perfect Day to introduce an ‘animal-free dairy’ frozen dessert under the Breyers brand | Narayan T M 🥛 Vivici says it’s ready to supply commercial levels of fermentation-based whey protein to the US market | Stephan van Sint Fiet MACRO STUFF: 🚫 Alabama's Senate passed a bill which bans the sale, manufacture, and distribution of cultivated meat 🇰🇷 South Korea has opened up the regulatory approval process for cultivated meat 📝 FDA has issued guidance for the industry on voluntary engagement with the agency before marketing food from genome-edited plants BIO BUCKS: 🇳🇿 Miruku raised $5M in a pre-Series A round to expand its molecular farming platform for producing dairy proteins and fats | Amos Palfreyman ☕️ Prefer | bean-free coffee raised $2M to scale up production and Asia expansion for its fermentation-derived beanless coffee | Jake Berber, Ding Jie Tan 🍄 70/30 Food Sci & Tech raised $700,000 in a seed extension round to open a Mycelium Research Lab for developing mycelium-based protein products | Eve S. 💰 Bluestein Ventures closed a $45M food tech fund | Ashley Hartman, Andrew Bluestein SOCIAL FEAST: 🤔 What if cultivated meat companies added flavour profiles of their cells similar to the flavour profiles of coffee beans? | James Ryall 🏭 "Asset-light" is what's hot right now | Steve Molino 😮💨 Outdated regulatory framework makes life much harder for alt protein companies | Mathilde Do Chi Ⓥ, LL.M.

Food Industry Executive's recent piece underscores the role of commercial partnerships in the journey of cultivated meat from labs to consumers' plates, highlighting the potential to reshape the global meat market. With established brands throwing their weight behind the cultivated meat industry, could we stand on the brink of a paradigm shift wherein "cultivated" could soon lose its "alternative" tag? Competitive pricing, consumer acceptance, and technological scalability can all be influenced by relationships with household-name partners. #cultivatedmeat #futureoffood #foodandbeverage

High-end retailers showing interest in the future of food. Cultivated meat has a long, long way to go before it's ready for mass market. But, with a similar marketing strategy to Tesla, it may just get there. Sell high-priced, top of the range products initially. This helps to fund a move to lower-priced, more accessible products which cause more widespread disruption. Within dairy ingredients, animal-identical lactoferrin is a dairy protein that multiple start ups are initially targetting. This rare, expensive bioactive whey protein may help prove the concept of animal free dairy and help to fund the industry to scale up production capacity.

🛒 Will the price shock seen at supermarkets end soon? Kristi Knaack Riordan, Founder/CEO of Harvest B, doesn’t think so.  Speaking at the #AltProteins24 conference in Melbourne, Kristi explained that food inflation outpaced general inflation (CPI) for the past 16 years and expects the gap to widen because of further disruptions in global food supply chains from ongoing geopolitical instability & climate change. What can we do as a nation more insulated from global shocks? 🧑🌾 Local food production, like growing veggies at home and buying locally, sounds great—but let’s be realistic. Many households consume too much for this to be a viable solution at scale, and not everyone has the resources or the space to grow their own food. 🔬 This is where science and technology come into play. And while some may view it as dystopian—like something out of Soylent Green—innovations in food tech just may be part of the solution. Australia is home to some incredible companies at the cutting edge of food innovation: 🥬 Harvest B is developing blended meat and plant proteins that are more nutritious, affordable & have a lower carbon footprint. Their products are already on the market—I’ve personally tried their lamb massaman and it was delicious. 🧀 Change Foods is a precision fermentation platform technology company creating animal-free milk proteins for use in cheese and dairy. Having now scaled, they are making big strides towards commercialization 🍖 Magic Valley is pioneering high-quality lamb without traditional livestock farming —my colleague Joanna Lee and I tried their lamb in a tomato ragu and it was outstanding. The role of private markets: 🍔 Private markets play a crucial role, but we need to acknowledge the challenges. Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat raised millions but struggled to shift enough consumers from traditional beef. Even as a pescetarian I admit that if I falter, I’d still reach for a regular beef burger over an Impossible one. ✊ That said, tomorrow doesn’t have to look like today. Bold investors—like Alberts Investible Horizon Ventures W23 Global Mandalay Venture Partners—are paving the way, investing in the future of food alongside us at Giant Leap to accelerate the future of food. Government’s critical role in securing our food future: 🌏 Government support through equity, debt, the #R&DTaxCredit scheme and grants are vital in bringing these innovations to scale with time for consumers to transition - startups need to build better links with the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, Breakthrough Victoria and Invest Victoria ❓ Lauren Morrey, Sally Mccutchan, Mary Manning if Australian #FoodTech startups are keen to access this funding - who do they get in touch with? 🙏A big thank you to Thomas King, Chair of Food Frontier, for convening the AltProteins24 conference with fellow board members Terence Jeyaretnam David Bucca