Fats & oils

Impossible Foods targets K-12 foodservice market after securing USDA Child Nutrition Label for its plant-based meat

06-May-2021 By Elaine Watson

Impossible Foods is heading into K-12 schools across the US this month via pilot programs in California, Washington, and Oklahoma ahead of a wider K-12 market entry in the fall, after securing a Child Nutrition Label for its burgers from the USDA's...

Brave new ‘animal-free’ world: When animal products are no longer made from animals, what do we call them? (And are they vegan?)

05-May-2021 By Elaine Watson

Thanks to advances in synthetic biology, with the right set of instructions, an army of microscopic little food factories (yeast, fungi, bacteria, algae etc) can now make animal proteins without animals, from collagen and egg albumin to whey protein if...

Tree nuts, a useful tool in weight management? Study identifies satiating benefits

04-May-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Known as a source of healthy fats and protein, mixed tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) may also be an effective weight management tool, finds a new study published by UCLA researchers.

Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, and Hellmann's lead Unilever Q1 2021 food sales: 'Foods and refreshments did have a very good quarter,' says CEO

03-May-2021 By Mary Ellen Shoup

Unilever – which has strong anchor portfolios across the CPG landscape including food & personalized nutrition, beauty & personal care, and home care – saw continued strong in-home consumer demand for its core ice cream brands and double-digit...

New kid on the plant-based block? TerViva to commercialize oils (2022) and proteins (2023) from Pongamia trees

29-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

TerViva – a California-based firm seeking to commercialize ingredients from low-input, high-yielding Pongamia trees – aims to have commercial quantities of 'golden buttery' oil available by mid-2022, with ‘highly soluble’ protein isolates to...

Beyond Meat unveils the Beyond Burger 3.0 with likeability scoring ‘on-par with 80/20 ground beef burgers’

27-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

The next iteration of the Beyond Burger - featuring 35% less saturated fat and 75% more iron than 80/20 beef burgers, a comparable level of B vitamins, and a meatier flavor – will hit grocery stores next week and restaurants in June, with a leaner version...

Cell-cultured milk: Tech fantasy or a liquid goldmine? BioMilk goes public

23-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

Visitors to BioMilk’s website are asked a simple question: ‘What is milk?’ a question that - until relatively recently - had a pretty obvious answer: the white stuff lactating mammals produce. Today, however, there’s plant-based milk; there are products...

Race to create omega-3-rich canola contaminates ‘small number of canola fields,’ but doesn’t trigger FDA safety questions

15-Apr-2021 By Elizabeth Crawford

FDA is not worried about the safety of specific lots of canola seed and “a small number of canola fields” for human and animal consumption that inadvertently were contaminated with low levels of two new genetically modified varieties of canola seed currently...

Tofurky CEO on double-digit growth, fighting state labeling laws, and fat in plant-based meat: ‘There’s a juiciness problem…’

09-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

With VC-backed food tech startups deploying molecular biologists and astrophysicists now competing for shelf space in the red-hot meat and dairy alternatives market with equally deep-pocketed multinational meat and CPG companies, where do independent...

A game-changer for the alternative meat sector…’ Mission Barns raises $24m to scale up cell-cultured fat tech, build pilot plant

08-Apr-2021 By Elaine Watson

Berkeley-based startup Mission Barns – which has developed a platform to grow fat from animal cells, outside of the animal - has raised $24m in a Series A round to help scale up its technology and build a pilot plant due to become operational later this...

BAPP puts out lab guidance to help detect olive oil adulteration

31-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program has published a guidance document for one of the most commonly adulterated ingredients of all: olive oil.

Plant-based dairy in focus: 'Cheese is the most technically challenging space in dairy alternatives...'

30-Mar-2021 By Elaine Watson

US retail sales of plant-based milk surged 21.9% to $2.542bn in measured channels in the year to Jan. 24, 2021, while sales of plant-based cheese and yogurt (far smaller categories) were up 43.6% to $233.9m and 16.4% to $346.2m respectively in the year...

Smallfood gears up for commercial production of novel highly soluble complete protein source

29-Mar-2021 By Elaine Watson

Yet another new player has emerged in the burgeoning alternative protein space, this time touting a novel Non GMO complete protein sourced from a single-celled marine microorganism, which it claims can give animal and plant proteins a run for their money.

New astaxanthin player debuts armed with ‘dark fermentation’ patent

25-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

A new player is on the verge of entering the astaxanthin and other markets with the granting of a patent on a ‘dark fermentation’ process for cultivating Haematococcus pluvialis and other algae species.

News in brief

Cell-cultured meat startup Meatable raises $47m to fund small-scale production

23-Mar-2021 By Elaine Watson

Dutch cell-cultured meat startup Meatable - which is working with porcine and bovine induced pluripotent stem cells [iPSCs] – has closed a $47m Series A round (bringing its total funding to $60m) to advance small-scale production at the Biotech Campus...