vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

Dutch plant-based ingredients company Fooditive Group has developed vegan casein using fermentation. Previously, the protein could only be obtained from milk. Casein is responsible for much of the texture and functionality of dairy products, such as the stretchiness of cheese, and this is one reason why vegan alternatives sometimes struggle to hit the mark. An animal-free source of casein could potentially lead to huge improvements in alt-dairy. According to Fooditive, the ingredient will be the first vegan casein available for applications in the food industry when it launches next year. The company already has a list of food developers and businesses lined up to test the product. While companies such as Nobell Foods and New Culture have also developed vegan casein, they only use the protein in their own products and have not made it available to the wider food industry. Previously, Fooditive has used its innovative technology to develop an upcycled sweetener made from apples and pears, which the company now uses in its pea-based milk alternative GoPeasy. Following the success of this product, Fooditive decided to turn its attention to animal-free dairy proteins. “Making healthy and affordable food for everyone means that we simply need to target every aspect of our diet, and animal-free products should definitely be a part of it. Delivering ingredients that have been produced sustainably is the main key to a long-lasting future that can support the growing human population,” said Moayad Abushokhedim, founder and CEO of Fooditive. ...

Canadian Coffee Chain Tim Hortons Adds Chobani Oat Milk to 4,000 Locations Tim Hortons, Canada’s largest quick-service restaurant chain, announced Chobani oat milk is now available across the company’s 4,000 Canadian locations. The oat-based alternative is lactose and gluten-free and can be added to any hot or iced beverage.  The oat milk will also be featured in two limited-time releases, the Cinnamon Caramel Oat Latte and Cinnamon Caramel Oat Cold Brew, available at participating restaurants. “We’re happy to be serving Chobani oat beverage and giving our guests another option so they can personalize their coffee and other beverage orders just how they like it,” says Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer for Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons is the latest major coffee chain to incorporate oat milk onto the menu. Oatmilk’s continuing surge in popularity has resulted in other multinational chains such as Starbucks, Peet’s and Dunkin’ swiftly adding the dairy-free favorite to their milk selections.  A New Plant-Based Option Tim Hortons also tested Beyond Meat sausage as a sandwich and wrap in 2019, before limiting and ultimately removing the menu item. As such, Chobani’s oat milk will add a prominent plant-based option to the company’s lineup, which previously offered only almond or soy milk at select locations.  Chobani, the top-selling American brand that helped to popularize Greek yogurt, was an exclusively dairy-based company until 2019, when it launched a line of coconut milk yogurts and yogurt drinks.  The success of those products led the company to extend the non-dairy line into ...

NadaMoo! announces it has secured almost $10 million in a Series B round. The Austin, Texas-based pioneer of dairy-free ice cream plans to continue expansion of distribution, focusing on increased marketing and product development.  Founded in 2005, the founders began making small batches of coconut-milk ice cream for friends and family and initially launched in Whole Foods Market. After expanding nationally with Whole Foods as a retail partner, the brand completed a $4 million Series A financing round in 2017. Today the company produces over 20 flavors and has availability across the US and operates a flagship Scoop Shop in Austin. NadaMoo! uses 100% sustainably sourced sugarcane packaging as launched on its 15th anniversary last year. Additionally, all ingredients are NonGMO Project verified, processed without artificial preservatives, colors or flavors, and are certified plant-based, and gluten-free. The Series B round was led by existing capital partners, District Ventures Capital and InvestEco, and new partner Killam Investments, a South Texas based family office. “This round of funding will help us continue to drive the NadaMoo! brand for the benefit of our customers and the planet,” said CEO Daniel Nicholson. “It’s encouraging to see Texas-based family offices like Killam Investments diversifying into sustainable industries like plant-based food to ensure our acceleration toward a more sustainable planet. “Beyond being the right thing to do, this raise underscores the fact that investing in businesses that put people, planet, and purpose before profit has the potential for a strong return. Consumers purchase decisions are increasingly ...

Aleph Farms has announced a partnership with protein production technologies supplier WACKER to develop affordable cell growth media for cultivated meat production. The partnership will streamline the production processes for growth medium proteins in order to bring down costs. The proteins produced will be animal-free, acting as a substitute for the fetal bovine serum (FBS) currently most commonly used in the sector. FBS is extremely expensive, accounting for the majority of the cost of cultivated meat, and often has issues with contamination and variable quality. Non exclusive agreement Perhaps most importantly, the new agreement will be non-exclusive, meaning other cultivated meat companies will also be able to access the affordable cell growth media. This could make it possible to bring down costs across the board, a vital step towards price parity and the commercial viability of cultivated meat. In an interview in July, Aleph Farms told vegconomist it had a vision to “lead the global food system transition toward a more sustainable, equitable, and secure world”. The company has had a highly successful year in 2021, receiving investments from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and tuna processor Thai Union. Aleph Farms also recently set out plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2025. “Bringing down the cost and making suitable raw materials available at this key moment in the scale-up of production is imperative to taking cultivated meat mainstream and driving impact,” said Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms. “Our team’s scientific expertise alongside WACKER’s vast experience makes it possible ...

Scientists obtain animal stem cells that can be grown without serum, with the potential to dramatically reduce the production costs of cultivated meat. Researchers from the University of Nottingham‘s School of Biosciences, in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge, Exeter, Tokyo, and Meiji, have developed stem cell lines that can be grown under chemically defined conditions. This breakthrough could make it possible to produce cultivated meat without serum, feeder cells, or antibiotics. Currently, most cultivated meat production relies on fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is expensive, of inconsistent quality, and has attracted ethical concerns. The ability to cultivate cells in a chemical growth medium could greatly improve the consistency and safety of cultivated products, as well as dramatically cutting costs. For the purposes of the research, the scientists used cells taken from the embryos of livestock such as pigs, sheep, and cattle. Some cultivated meat companies have also been attempting to address the problem of eliminating fetal bovine serum. For example, Biftek has developed an animal-free growth medium that it plans to begin commercialising, while Mosa Meat has been able to slash its production costs by 88 times after developing an alternative to FBS. “With a growing population to feed in a changing climate, finding reliable and sustainable food is vital,” said Professor Ramiro Alberio, who led the new research. “This research offers potential solutions that the food industry could use at scale.” ...

Australian plant-based meat companies face the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs Inquiry into definitions of plant-based meat and other products this week, with chairperson Senator Susan McDonald – former owner of Australian meat retailer Super Butcher – pushing to prevent plant-based producers from using terms like “meat”, “beef”, and “chicken”.  Described by The Australian as “avowedly pro-coal”, Senator McDonald was appointed to the board of Beef Australia in 2016 and is now chairing the senate inquiry. Representatives of US manufacturers Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, as well as Australian companies v2food and Deliciou were present to defend the plant-based meat cause.  The Australian Red Meat Advisory Council – a powerful lobby group in the country famous for its meat consumption – recently commissioned a survey claiming that consumers were being misled by the way meat alternatives are labeled and packaged. However, plant-based producers were backed up by the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) and Food Standards in Australia which refuted the meat lobby’s findings.  At the hearings, plant-based producers pointed out that certain terms, such as chicken or mince, are necessary to ensure consumers understand their products and how they will cook and taste. In addition, products are always accompanied by labels such as “plant-based” or “made from plants” to avoid confusion.  The committee will present its report of the labeling inquiry by the end of February 2022.    ...

Strong Roots announces a $55 million investment from McCain Foods in what is reportedly one of the largest deals in plant-based from a European competitor. The Dublin based company has a strong presence in mainstream US retail, is the fastest-growing food brand in the UK, and one of the few food brands to have received a B Corp certification. Young entrepreneur Samuel Dennigan launched Strong Roots in 2015 on a mission to “redefine frozen” and just three years later secured $18.3 million in a Series A funding. This year saw a widespread rollout into US retail including Kroger stores as well as Walmart and Wholefoods. Speaking to vegconomist in 2020, Dennigan said that the products’ simplicity is the secret to the brand’s success: “You break open our burgers, you see vegetables. When consumers look at the back of our packs, they understand the ingredients and what goes into their food.” Strong Roots will remain independent with McCain Foods taking a minority stake in the business. Strong Roots will use the funds to rapid growth in existing markets, including GB, Ireland, and United States, to enter new markets working with new retailers, as well as expand into the foodservice market through McCain Foods’ out-of-home network. “Our role is to be better, food can be better” Samuel Dennigan commented today: “As food producers, our role is to be better, food can be better, and our duty is to lead the betterment of ingredients, sourcing, packaging, process and taste, at the same time ...

MeaTech 3D Ltd. announces it has successfully bioprinted what it believes to be the largest cultured steak produced so far – 3.67 oz (104-grams) of cultivated real fat and muscle cells. “We have… placed ourselves at the forefront of the race to develop high-end, real cell-based cultivated premium meat products” MeaTech states its goal is to develop a “true replacement for conventional steak that maximizes cell-based content rather than non-meat ingredients”. The steak the company has cultivated is comprised of real, living muscle and fat cells, using advanced 3D bioprinting technology which it says will bring premium cultivated meat products closer to being market-ready. This June, the first cultivated meat company to be publicly listed revealed its plans to develop cultivated pork. A few months later, this September, the Israeli foodtech firm announced that its subsidiary, Peace of Meat, had successfully produced over half a kilogram of cultured chicken fat biomass in a single run, marking the first time such a large quantity of fat has been produced at one time outside of a real animal. Speaking on today’s development, CEO Sharon Fima stated: “Today’s breakthrough is the culmination of over one year’s efforts in our cellular biology and high-throughput tissue engineering processes, as well as our precision bioprinting technology. By bioprinting a 3.67 oz steak comprised of living tissue, we believe we have both validated our core technologies and placed ourselves at the forefront of the race to develop high-end, real cell-based cultivated premium meat products.” ...

The EVERY Company announces $175M in Series C funding, making a total raise to date of $233 million. The animal-free protein producer, which rebranded from Clara Foods this October, reports that the round was “heavily oversubscribed due to strong investor appetite to fill the growing supply gap for animal-free protein”. San Francisco-based EVERY, which currently produces EVERY ClearEgg™, EVERY EggWhite™, and EVERY Pepsin, will use the capital to scale production, commercialize a “robust pipeline of animal-free protein products” across the US, and expand into new food applications. EVERY™ has developed a platform that produces real animal proteins without the involvement of any animal, last year launched the world’s first animal-free pepsin with Fortune 500 ingredients company, Ingredion, and recently released what it claims is the world’s first animal-free egg protein. “There has never been a better time to be a B2B ingredients platform,” said Arturo Elizondo, CEO & founder of The EVERY Company. “As the world’s biggest food companies work to evolve their product offerings into the 21st century by driving for cleaner, kinder, and more sustainable labels, the options available are few and far between. We at EVERY™ are perfectly positioned to enable the world’s largest and smallest food companies to transition to an animal-free future –– without compromises. Now, our major objective is to scale the platform to make good on our promise to bring our proteins to everyone, everywhere. This new injection of capital will allow us to do just that.” The round was co-led by new investor ...

Demand for plant-based foods is driving a huge growth in the CPG market in the USA, according to the Food Institute, citing a study that says Millennial and Gen-Z purchasers of plant-based products are primary drivers of this sector. “We saw this with low fat, low carb and gluten-free. Now it’s the plant-based products’ turn” The study predicts the US market for packaged foods will reach $1.376 trillion by 2028 and states that the ” growing trend of plant-based and organic foods is driving the market. With the rising health consciousness, consumers are gradually shifting toward healthy food and drink alternatives”. Research conducted at the end of 2020 found that 51% of regular meat-eaters were planning to either moderate or eliminate meat from their diet over the course of the year, and as we close out 2021 it seems that may have indeed been an accurate prediction. As another study found this February, 39% of US respondents revealed that their time in lockdown over the pandemic had led to their discovery of vegetables and vegetable dishes. In October, Whole Foods Markets selected reducetarianism as one of the top anticipated trends of 2022, indicating that consumer preferences for alternatives to animal protein will remain strong. Just last month, Whole Foods and Wakefield Research found that 58% of Americans have catered to guests following special diets for the holiday season, such as plant-based or gluten-free, with over half believing that offering vegan options at gatherings was important. Hard swing for plant-based Ashley Goldsmith, ...