Cultivated meat co UPSIDE Foods has closed a $400m series C round that brings its cumulative funding to $608m (giving it a valuation of >$1bn before it has launched a single product on the market), money that will help support a commercial-scale facility...
With an ever-expanding portfolio, Kerry Taste & Nutrition is looking to expand its ingredients into new formats, with its new liquid BC30 probiotic giving opportunities in plant-based milks and liquid milk.
As Americans who have worked from home since the pandemic begin to return to their offices and become more comfortable socializing in the evenings, when and what they eat is shifting earlier and later – at the expense of more traditional meals – creating...
Brave Robot, the animal-free dairy ice cream brand launched by The Urgent Company, has released research findings it said show a substantial reduction in consumption of natural resources when compared with ice cream made through conventional dairy production.
In part four of our series on the high-fat, moderate protein, ultra-low-carb keto diet, FoodNavigator-USA checked in with experts at consumer insights specialist Hartman Group, and product innovation company Mattson to get their take on whether it is...
Motif FoodWorks has upped the ante in a high-stakes legal dispute with plant-based meat co Impossible Foods over meaty-tasting ‘heme’ ingredients by filing a petition with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to challenge the validity of a patent it argues...
Entrepreneurs at startups and emerging brands often innovate and build their businesses based on their intuition or anecdotal feedback from loved ones and early adopters, but as they scale so do their need for detailed data and analysis -- not just about...
More Americans are trying to consume probiotics and prebiotics than a year ago, but many are confused about the best sources for each and the relationship between them, fermentation and strain-specificity – hindering their goals, according to new data...
As the largest natural and organic packaged food company in the US*, General Mills has the scale and resources to drive positive change in the food system through its work in regenerative agriculture, sustainable ingredient sourcing, and nutrition access....
European dairy cooperative Arla Foods and Royal DSM, are set to start a large-scale on-farm pilot with the methane reducing feed additive Bovaer on 10,000 dairy cows across three European countries.
A branded guayusa extract showed a trend toward better gameplay on the Fortnite video game in a controlled trial. But the study pointed to the difficulty in translating a product’s demonstrated biochemical effects into results in the complex format of...
Upfield has released a report detailing the methane emissions in its supply chain. It is the first time a major food company has provided this information, it claimed.
While consumers may be searching for ways to reduce their sugar intake, products that provide a sense of sweetness are still in high-demand, positioning certain natural sweeteners for continued success, says SPINS.
While shoppers care about animal welfare and sustainability, these things are not, yet at least, primary purchase drivers for most Americans, despite what they tell you in surveys, says the co-founder of plant-based chicken startup Nowadays. “What’s the...
“Maligning plant-based meats and milks because of the processing they undergo is nutritionally unjustified and counterproductive to achieving the health and environmental goals of the World Health Organization,” claims one academic who has been studying...
ADM has made a $300m investment to expand existing production capabilities of its soy protein concentrate and open a new protein innovation center in Decatur, Illinois.
Tate & Lyle has expanded production of allulose in a bid to meet surging demand for the rare sugar, which has exploded in popularity following the FDA’s decision to exclude it from the total and added sugars declarations on the Nutrition Facts panel.
When it comes to eating seaweed, most Americans likely think about snacking on toasted sheets of nori, the wrapper around their sushi, or maybe a bright and briny salad at a restaurant, but a handful of startups cultivating fresh seaweed and kelp at scale...
Ag-tech start-up Better Origin wants to fix the broken food chain through its AI-powered insect ‘mini-farms’. The group has just completed a Series A funding round. FoodNavigator catches up with CEO Fotis Fotiadis to learn more about what the future holds.
In the face of ‘unprecedented’ inflation and transportation troubles, Slim Jim and Birds Eye maker Conagra Brands is raising prices – again – but executives are confident that sales, market share and household penetration will remain strong thanks to...
Hemp, barley, chickpeas, and Pongamia (a.k.a. ‘vertical soy’) are four plant-based proteins to watch in the next decade, according to panelists at FoodNavigator-USA's recent ‘Plant-based protein in focus’ webinar, who predicted advances in crop breeding...
New research from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has found that not all fiber is created equal when it comes to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and inflammation.
We’re running out of agricultural land, and fresh water is an increasingly precious commodity in many parts of the world. But one thing we’re not short of is sea water, which covers more than 70% of the earth’s surface, say the founders of ALORA, a startup...
While retailers’ practice of displaying an overabundance of fresh produce, baked goods, meat and dairy alongside shelves stacked deep with staples effectively boosts sales by enticing consumers to buy more, it also costs the industry a whopping $37m a...
New chickpea varieties with 75% more protein could transform the legume from a niche to a mainstream player in the plant-based protein arena, says San Francisco-based startup NuCicer, which is also developing varieties with specific functional attributes...
The terms ‘prebiotic’ and ‘probiotic’ are appearing on a growing number of food & beverage brands, while another term – ‘postbiotic’ – is also starting to emerge. But food marketers should do their homework before slapping these terms on their wares,...
Snacking behaviors evolved in a few key ways over the past few years as consumers balanced familiarity with health and wellness and are now looking to expand and diversify their snacking routines, says Brigette Wolf, VP, global head of SnackFutures at...
In a highly competitive industry in which 80-85% of new products fail in the first two years, natural grocery distributor KeHE consistently picks winners and fosters growth among emerging brands thanks to several key initiatives, including its TrendFinder...
Recently strengthened self-regulatory efforts to curb marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children still do not go far enough to “meaningfully protect” children, argue public health advocates after new analysis reveals “loopholes” in the Children’s...
Ongoing strain from the pandemic and increasing financial pressure related to rising inflation are causing consumers to reprioritize their health and wellness goals, and by extension their food and beverage purchases, according to new research from the...
Investing in cell-cultured meat is a calculated risk for investors, but “not a wild gamble,” says the co-founder and CEO of Dutch startup Meatable, who says he is confident that Meatable can put a “cost competitive product on the market by 2025.”
Most Americans believe that organic is healthier for people and the planet than conventional, but they also lack a fundamental understanding of the standard and as such give more weight to single-issue label claims when deciding what to purchase – underscoring...
Colorado-based MycoTechnology – which is building a functional ingredients platform utilizing mycelium, the filament-like roots of mushrooms - has raised $85m in a series E* round (taking its total funding to $200m) that will help it expand its portfolio...
Recently named incoming Organic Trade Association CEO Tom Chapman inherits a strong organization that helped make organic mainstream and double industry sales during outgoing leader Laura Batcha’s tenure of nearly a decade, but which now must address...
By replacing the shrink wrap around multipacks of canned tuna with paperboard cartons, The Bumble Bee Seafood Company not only achieved an ambitious sustainability goal ahead of schedule, but it also unlocked unexpected marketing, retail and consumer...
While regenerative agriculture resonates with rising consumer interest in sustainability, it can be difficult to explain in snappy marketing sound bites and callouts – prompting natural and organic meat company Applegate to try a different approach through...
In its largest expansion to date, Gotham Greens is doubling the size of its greenhouse capacity from 600,000 to over 1.2 million square feet this year unlocking new regions, national distribution at key retailers, and getting one large step closer to...
Koidra, an intelligent automation (IA) startup based out of Seattle, has raised $4.5m in a seed funding round to bring its data intelligence technology to precision and controlled environmental agriculture sectors.
While animal feed and pet food present bigger commercial opportunities for edible insects in the short term, two key European players in the segment - Innovafeed and Ÿnsect, who are both planning large-scale, highly-automated production facilities in...
Israeli start-up BioBetter is repurposing tobacco plants in attempt to overcome the greatest hurdle currently facing the budding cultivated meat industry: scaled production.
Plastic particles are ubiquitous pollutants in the living environment and food chain. For the first time, scientists evaluated the internal exposure of plastic particles in human blood.
Above Food has been quietly building a plant-based foods portfolio which spans plant-based seafood to plant-based cheese, and its market presence is about to explode with the unveiling of a disruptive, more sustainable, oat processing technology that...
While plant-based beef patties and grounds, pork sausages and chicken nuggets abound, seafood alternatives are still relatively scare – representing a significant, and fast-growing, opportunity that innovators and investors alike are moving quickly to...
Unilever is piloting new blockchain technology, GreenToken by SAP, in a bid to increase traceability and transparency in the consumer good giant’s palm oil supply chain.
Many indoor farming companies - while noble in their pursuit of providing consumers with access to locally-grown produce with a longer shelf life and free from pesticides and other contaminants from conventional field farming - have struggled to create...
As the line between functional and fun blurs, foods and beverages no longer need to fit neatly into the “healthy” or “treat” categories – they can simultaneously offer the lifestyle and health benefits consumers want and serve as the rewards they crave,...
![Kathryn Cook: 'We’re increasing protein [from 20%] to 35% by dry weight, and we think we can drive that even higher in future generations...' Image credit: NuCicer](/var/wrbm_gb_food_pharma/storage/images/_aliases/news_teaser_medium/publications/food-beverage-nutrition/foodnavigator-usa.com/article/2022/04/06/new-varieties-with-75-more-protein-could-catapult-chickpea-from-niche-to-mainstream-player-in-plant-protein-arena-says-nucicer/15306706-1-eng-GB/New-varieties-with-75-more-protein-could-catapult-chickpea-from-niche-to-mainstream-player-in-plant-protein-arena-says-NuCicer.jpg)
