Kraft Heinz has just teamed up with foodtech startup NotCo to create a joint venture that will develop co-branded plant-based foods across multiple categories, with the first products to launch this year. FoodNavigator-USA caught up with NotCo co-founder...
By now, we are all familiar with the recent topline 'problem' in retail plant-based meat. The slow-down is visible in Beyond Meat's latest earnings call itself. Foodservice and international sales are driving all of the brand's growth....
For the father and son behind start-up Planet Based Foods, declining sales of meat alternatives that closely mimic animal products is not a harbinger of dwindling consumer interest in plant-based options, but rather a natural evolution of the trend that...
Coca-Cola is the latest major global food and beverage giant to suspend operations in Russia as an act of protest against the Russian invasion and continued attack on Ukraine and follows similar announcements made by PepsiCo, Starbucks, and McDonald's....
If churning out milk from lactating bovine mammary epithelial cells in a bioreactor seems a bit, well, unnatural, ask yourself what’s ‘natural’ about the life of a dairy cow in an industrial-scale dairy farming operation, says Opalia co-founder Jennifer...
Big Bold Health, a company bent popularizing the immune health benefits of a particular legacy crop, has announced $4 million in funding from a venture capital firm.
Emeryville, CA-based Finless Foods has closed a $34m series B round* to fund pilot-scale production of cell-cultured bluefin tuna, and support the national foodservice launch of its first product: plant-based tuna.
Fat is mission-critical to the appearance, smell, taste, mouthfeel, and texture of meat. And if you want to formulate meat alternatives that look, cook, smell, and taste like the real thing, plant-based fats will only get you so far, claims San Francisco-based...
Kroger has teamed up with Impossible Foods and Denver-based Custom Made Meals, which manufactures entrees and appetizers for Kroger’s Home Chef brand, to develop plant-based protein products, although it has not provided details about the scope of the...
While scientists are still unlocking the secrets of the gut microbiome, consumers increasingly understand that what we feed the armies of microbes that line our digestive tracts may be intimately connected to our physical – and mental - wellbeing. So...
Plant-based proteins continue to dominate the so-called ‘alternative protein’ category, but will this still be the case in 10 years’ time? And which emerging plant proteins – from canola, barley and hemp to Pongamia, lupin, and chickpeas – will become...
Plant-based meat alternatives are getting 'meatier' by the day as brands reverse engineer animal products and put them back together with plants. But getting plant-based fat to behave like animal fat has been a major stumbling block for the...
Launched less than a year ago by a mix of entrepreneurs, investors, fitness industry veterans, and celebrity Dwayne Johnson, ZOA Energy claims it has quickly become the fastest-growing energy drink and #2 brand in the healthy energy drinks category (per...
PepsiCo is already hitting notable milestones and reaping financial benefits from its ambitious pep+ plan announced last fall that places sustainability at the center of how the CPG giant says it will create value and drive growth, according to CEO Ramon...
There’s no shortage of startups on a mission to fix the broken food system and FOMO-fueled legacy brands jumping on the plant-based bandwagon, says Dave Zilko, the CPG veteran behind the new Skinny Butcher brand. But buyers, he says, are still open to...
Santiago-based NotCo - which entered the US market in 2020 with plant-based NotMilk - is gearing up to enter the ultra-competitive US meat alternatives category with NotBurger, a brand that has rapidly gained traction in Latin America with high-profile...
Belgian Boys, a fast-growing brand selling European-inspired treats and fresh breakfast items, has received $7m in funding led by Equilibra Ventures, a startup and investment platform from KIND Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky, to expand the brand's...
Through a combination of rapid innovation, investing in growth platforms, ongoing “prudent” M&A and strategic paring down of labor and factories, Nestle is on track to deliver solid mid single-digit organic growth in 2022 and into the foreseeable...
UPDATED: An SEC filing from key shareholders at Lifeway Foods suggests all is not well at the top of the Illinois-based kefir company, with feuding members of the family that created it seeking the removal of CEO Julie Smolyansky and urging the board...
Despite a whopping 3,561% gap between the most expensive and least expensive products across the CBD industry, the overall category is getting cheaper for consumers.
Several international food and beverage companies have temporarily shut down operations in Ukraine following Russia's invasion to ensure the safety of employees while bracing for the long-term economic impact that skyrocketing commodity prices and...
What are consumers looking for when it comes to healthy and functional beverages? Is it sparkling water to kick a sugary soda habit or a daily wellness shot with ginger and turmeric for an immunity boost? Find out in the third and final session of FoodNavigator-USA's...
Spring is around the corner which means diet food and fitness marketers will soon begin pressuring women to swap favorite foods with low-calorie, low-carb and low-sugar alternatives to help “get their beach bodies back,” and encouraging men hit the gym...
While skeptics maintain cell-cultured meat faces “intractable technical challenges at food scale,” and Impossible Foods CEO Dr Pat Brown dismisses it as ‘vaporware,’ Wildtype has just persuaded investors to part with a cool $100m to help it scale up its...
The draw of industrial biotechnology is compelling: beef without the cow, eggs without the chicken, almost every animal-based product that society has relied on for centuries having a non-animal replacement in the works. Maybe it’s just me, but with...
Despite recent setbacks, the outlook for Beyond Meat is looking rosier in 2022, insisted CEO Ethan Brown during the firm’s Q4 earnings call Thursday as growth in international markets and a recovery in foodservice sales were offset by double-digit year-on-year...
The food industry, already grappling with high inflation, supply chain constraints and transportation challenges related to the pandemic, could see surging prices of key commodities, fuel and energy following what chief of the NATO alliance described...
The hemp/CBD market is going through a reckoning but ultimately will emerge in a stronger position, said the head of one of few publicly traded companies in the sector.
Upcycled food products (made from ingredients that would otherwise not have gone to human consumption) are the most straightforward and scalable path to reducing and preventing food waste, says Upcycled Food Association CEO Turner Wyatt.
New research shows that US consumers are less familiar with the concept of regenerative agriculture than other food production methods, and most are not willing to pay premium for brands making these claims.
Good Culture, best-known for disrupting the cottage cheese category with its clean label formulation, has just secured $64m in Series C funding to drive continued expansion of its healing cultured foods platform.
Pre-harvest spraying of glyphosate-based weedkillers to dry crops is “leading to the mass contamination of essential foods that form the base of our diet,” alleges a new report from The Detox Project, which highlights glyphosate residues on everything...
Fresh Street is responding to the consumer shift towards e-commerce with the inauguration of Chicago’s first grocery built exclusively for click and collect shopping.
San Leandro-based Geltor – which has developed a computational biology platform to create ‘designer’ functional proteins via precision fermentation – has completed its first commercial-scale manufacturing run of PrimaColl ‘animal-free’ vegan collagen...
Emerging Asian-inspired sparkling water brand Sanzo, which has just raised $10m in a Series A financing round led by CircleUp Growth Partners, is seeking to bridge the gap between mainstream sparkling water brands and quintessential Asian flavors such...
Kellogg has unveiled its InGrained initiative to help farmers reduce their climate impact in the Lower Mississippi River Basin where much of the rice for the company’s Rice Krispies and Special K cereals is produced.
Nearly nine in ten consumers snack daily, but according to new research from Mondelēz International, what they reach for and when has evolved significantly during the pandemic – requiring brands to rethink their product offerings, marketing strategies...
It might fit squarely in the ‘niche’ segment of the plant-based protein category right now, but the speed with which Chocho – a protein-packed variety of lupin that grows in the Andes – has gained traction online and in Erewhon stores in southern California,...
Fungi-fueled Meati Foods – which raised some eyebrows in December after its new president (ex-General Mills president Scott Tassani) suggested the startup could generate a cool $1bn in sales by 2025 from mycelium-based meat alternatives – has seen a surge...
Which tools and strategies employed to combat deforestation in palm oil supply chains can be leveraged for other commodities? Should we be wary of taking a ‘cookie cutter’ approach? Experts weigh in.
"Always everywhere," has been Frito-Lay North America's mantra for ensuring that its snack portfolio of legacy brands (Lays, Cheetos, and Doritos) and expanding better-for-you set (Baked, PopCorners, and Off The Eaten Path) is accessible...
The announcement was made in a press conference webcast by Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider, as the company reported strong annual growth in 2021, in its full-year results.
What up-and-coming plant proteins are the most exciting? Chickpeas? Hemp? Canola? Barley? Pongamia? What do we really know about the best overall dietary pattern to support a healthy gut microbiome? And how do we educate consumers about the benefits...
Brainiac Kids – the brainchild of Bay area-based start-up Ingenuity Brands - is rebranding as Brainiac Foods, with new products and packaging designed to reach a broader audience seeking out ‘brain food’: everyday foods with meaningful amounts of ingredients...
Eight out of 10 parents snack on their kids’ food while preparing school lunches; nine out of 10 have bought extra kids’ snacks for themselves; while 60% prefer kids’ snacks over adult snacks, according to consumer research from Nestlé USA, which has...
Tiny Organics has launched its Tiny Beginnings non-puree baby food line for 4- to 7-month-olds, targeting the narrow window of babies' feeding journey where they are most open to trying and developing a preference for bitter vegetables and other...
Silicon Valley-based Change Foods – one of a new breed of startups making 'animal-free' dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows – has closed an oversubscribed $12m seed extension round, and signed collaboration agreements with two leading...
Consumers grappling with skyrocketing grocery prices due to fast-rising inflation may take cold comfort knowing that the increases are not as dramatic as other sectors or as high as in past economically difficult periods in part because of industry’s...
![Yulin Lu: 'Fat is such a clear pain point [for meat and dairy alternatives...]' Image credit: Yali Bio](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/publications/food-beverage-nutrition/foodnavigator-usa.com/article/2022/03/08/it-s-such-a-clear-pain-point-for-formulators-yali-bio-joins-race-to-create-more-animal-like-fats-in-meat-dairy-alternatives/13301626-2-eng-GB/It-s-such-a-clear-pain-point-for-formulators-Yali-Bio-joins-race-to-create-more-animal-like-fats-in-meat-dairy-alternatives.jpg)
