GFI Europe March newsletter
The Good Food Institute Europe
Advancing plant-based and cultivated meat in Europe to build a better food system for people, planet and animals.
This month: European sustainable protein investment soars, upcycling innovation and the key regulatory priorities to help cultivated meat flourish in Europe.
Featured story
This month, GFI’s new analysis of Pitchbook data reveals that Europe’s sustainable protein companies raised €579 million ($622 million) last year – nearly 24% more than in 2021 – despite strong global economic headwinds.
Europe’s plant-based sector saw a 15% increase in venture capital deals in 2022, while investment jumped 30% in the continent’s cultivated meat companies and 37% in European fermentation companies. There was good news for France and Spain, both of which saw investments increase across all sustainable protein categories, while the value of deals in the UK’s cultivated meat industry grew almost fourfold, and Scandinavia continued to become a fermentation powerhouse.
But don’t start celebrating just yet. These figures need to be seen against the backdrop of a global deceleration in investments, from a record-breaking €4.7 billion ($5.1 billion) in 2021 to €2.7 billion ($2.9 billion) in 2022.
Right now, sustainable proteins are where solar panels were in the 1990s. They exist, and they’re available for eco-conscious consumers who are willing to pay a premium – but they need investment to improve quality and bring down prices.
With the EU preparing to invest heavily in cleantech and biomanufacturing through its Green Deal Industrial Plan initiatives, now is the perfect opportunity to fund the innovations needed to keep Europe competitive and create future-proof jobs
Top stories
Researchers Dorian Leger and Milena Ivanisevic, funded by GFI’s 2022 Research Grants Programme, are turning agricultural byproducts like corn husks into oils to help sustainable proteins replicate the complex flavour of conventional meat.
The researchers will experiment with different byproducts and processes, identifying the most economical approach, and say there is huge potential to use existing infrastructure to scale up their process quickly.
The pair are collaborating with institutions across Europe, the United States and Israel to create a toolkit helping startups, large companies, and governments understand the incredible process of transforming byproducts into food.
Alt Protein Project: Join the students driving innovative sustainable protein research across Europe
Are you a student keen to turn your university into a hotbed of sustainable protein research? Look no further than the Alt Protein Project!
Led by passionate students from universities across Europe, this project is driving sustainable protein research and education. With chapters in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, the UK, and Norway, students are developing courses, building links with the industry, and bonding over their love of delicious plant-based food.
Our Science and Technology Community Co-ordinator Martina Helmlinger writes about the incredible work they have achieved so far – and how to join the growing movement.
A Brno-based startup has unveiled the world’s first cultivated meat prototype using microalgae.
Mewery say by using a hybrid culture medium with microalgae extracts, they’ve created a meat made up of 75% pork and 25% microalgae cells, which is packed with vitamins, antioxidants and essential fatty acids – and the process is cheaper.
Now, they’re aiming to have a consumer-ready product in two years, starting with pork meatballs and sausage. But to get there they require more funding to continue developing their biobank cell repository and build large cultivators to scale capacity.
Meanwhile, in the UK, cultivated meat startup Ivy Farm has announced it will build a manufacturing facility… but not in Britain.
The Oxford-based company cites the need to expand in a country with ‘a clear pathway towards regulatory approval’. And this was followed by news that Germany’s Bluu Seafood plans to export their cultivated salmon for sale in Singapore.
These announcements should serve as a wake-up call to the UK government and the EU, who must both prioritise regulatory clarity for cultivated meat to enable the benefits of this more sustainable food to be felt here in Europe.
Our Policy Manager Seth Roberts takes a deeper dive into this issue and asks how cultivated meat and precision fermentation will find a clear path to market in Europe.
In the wake of the FDA’s landmark decision to grant the green light to UPSIDE Foods’ cultivated chicken product in the United States, Seth chats to Marina Schmidt from the Red to Green podcast and offers insights into the regulatory situation on this side of the Atlantic.
He tells her how European regulators need to work more closely with the sustainable protein sector, co-designing a system to ensure consumers can have confidence in these foods and their incredible climate benefits can be felt across the continent as soon as possible.
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From the automobile to the iPhone, all technological innovations have followed a path to market adoption known as the S-curve. In a new report, UK based sustainable protein investors Synthesis Capital analyse where the sector is at now – and the key steps needed to complete the journey.
Having moved beyond the Technology Trigger, the authors argue sustainable proteins have reached The Peak Of Inflated Expectations – and caution there could be a backlash if products don’t live up to the hype.
The sector needs to move through the Trough of Disillusionment, where the market experiences a reality check – particularly when it comes to scaling production and achieving price parity with conventional meat – before arriving at the Slope of Enlightenment, the stage at which the industry begins to overcome these limitations.
The authors predict significant growth over the next decade as sustainable proteins move through these stages, and say now is a good time to invest in companies with strong research and development programmes.
As food prices continue to rise and the need for a sustainable food system becomes more urgent, our Senior Corporate Engagement Manager Carlotte Lucas explores how businesses are creating affordable and delicious food that doesn’t harm the planet.
She writes in the World Of Food Ingredients (pp32-34) that the more companies get on board, the closer we will get to developing sustainable products that taste as good – and are as cheap as – the animal-based products they are designed to replace.
Read about the latest innovations, from creating better fats to new ways of scaling up production, and the huge opportunities that await large companies who want to shape the future of the sector.
Finland’s Onego Bio is among nine companies from around the world, such as Perfect Day and Nature’s Fynd, who have formed a new organisation to champion precision fermentation.
The Precision Fermentation Alliance will advance the development and commercialisation of this innovative way of making food, to educate and advocate for its environmental and public health benefits, and to identify the challenges and opportunities facing this rapidly maturing sector.
GFI Founder and President Bruce Friedrich caught up with leading German newspaper Tagesspiegel during a recent visit to Berlin’s Meat Evolution Leaders Summit (Mevo) to talk about recent developments in cultivated meat and how it will be impossible to hit our Paris Agreement climate targets without developing more sustainable ways of making meat.
He also talked about the urgent need for public investment, saying: “Germany was once a leader in renewable energies and continues to be a leader in climate protection measures. The German government should support science in the development of alternative proteins with public research funding and create incentives for industry. That would shorten the time frame a lot.”
Meet the researcher: Dr Alan Javier Hernandez Alvarez on plant-based protein nutrition
A career spent exploring the nutritional and health benefits of plant-based foods – along with an outsider’s perspective – has given Dr Alan Javier Hernandez Alvarez a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s sector.
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1yKaran Shah
Biotechnology researcher at NIGEB
1yAlso, we can use the symbiosis partnership between Algae and fungi to boost the nutritional profile of cultivated protein. Here is the symbiosis partnership between euglena gracilis and Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium pellets. It is really fascinating. 🍄 🤝 🌿