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...
A district court in Louisiana has determined that a state law restricting the use of 'meaty' terms on food labels to products derived from slaughtered animals is unconstitutional, in a ruling hailed by Tofurky as "a victory for the entire...
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.
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...
The overall plant-based foods sector reported a significant slowdown (but still positive) growth for 2021 vs. 2020 with plant-based meat sales seeing flat growth while other categories grew by single-digits for the year, according to new data released...
Boston-based Motif FoodWorks says it is “very confident” it will prevail in its legal spat with Impossible Foods over a new generation of ‘meaty’ flavors produced by precision fermentation.
The first product to emerge from the El Segundo-based ‘PLANeT Partnership’ joint venture between Beyond Meat and PepsiCo is a plant-based jerky, rolling out to stores nationwide across multiple channels this month.
US retail sales of frozen meat alternatives dipped -1.7% to $722.8m in the year to February 27, while sales of refrigerated meat alternatives fell -3.9% to $475m over the same period, according to IRI data crunched by 210 Analytics. Cumulatively, the...
Shiru - a startup producing proteins via microbial fermentation - has teamed up with texturizing ingredients specialist CP Kelco to explore label-friendly replacements for methylcellulose and other highly functional ingredients.
While growth in US retail sales of refrigerated plant-based meat has slowed, investors are still pouring large amounts of cash into startups creating alternatives to meat, eggs, and dairy products with plant-based and fermentation-based approaches, and...
Sophie's Kitchen is gearing up to significantly expand distribution of its plant-based seafood portfolio of chilled, frozen, and shelf-stable pea-based seafood analogues including its most recent product launch -- fish burgers -- which CEO Miles...
At a time when plastic packaging is emerging as a top concern among environmentally-conscious consumers, plant-based meat company No Evil Foods' decision to switch from fully compostable packaging to paper cartons with plastic inserts may appear...
Nature’s Fynd - a startup growing protein-packed food from microbes with a fraction of the environmental footprint of meat or dairy – is launching refrigerated breakfast patties featuring its ‘Fy’ nutritional fungi protein in selected Whole Foods stores...
Plantish has raised $12.5m in seed funding to scale up the production technology for its plant-based whole-cut salmon fillets, which will first enter fine dining restaurants by late 2023.
Louis Dreyfus Company – a leading global agricultural commodity trader with interests in grains and oilseeds, coffee, cotton, juice, rice, sugar, and freight - plans to enter the plant-based protein market later this year.
CPG companies with more diverse leadership and which intentionally engage a consumer base that more accurately reflects the racial composition of the US population are attracting shoppers and growing faster than brands that over-index among white shoppers,...
The drop in US sales growth of natural and organic products following the 10% pantry-stocking surge early in the pandemic will linger well into 2023 – dropping to less than 4% before starting to climb again slowly to about 5% in 2024, according to analysis...
DSM is gearing up to launch commercial quantities of upcycled canola protein isolate extracted from Non GMO rapeseed at a new facility in Dieppe, France, later this year, and says it is seeing interest from firms spanning plant-based meat and dairy, to...
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....
Better-for-you frozen foods brand The Real Good Food Company is on course to hit between $140m and $150m in net sales by the end of the year with a long-term goal of becoming a $500m brand, owing to a new production facility coming online this month and...
Relocating current croplands to ‘optimal locations’ - while allowing ecosystems in then-abandoned areas to regenerate - could turn back the clock on carbon emissions, according to a team of international researchers.
Western food companies are responding to the invasion of Ukraine by ramping up support for those facing Russian aggression. But what is their moral obligation when it comes to operations in Russia?
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...
Two more high-profile players in the alt meat space are clashing over IP, with Impossible Foods accusing Motif FoodWorks of infringing a patent it secured in 2020 covering the use of its flagship ‘heme’ ingredient in meat substitutes.
While many consumers may be aware of the drawbacks of a high sodium diet, fewer are actively reducing their sodium intake and believe it is the responsibility of food manufacturers to provide products that are both flavorful and low in sodium, presenting...
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...
Consumers’ ongoing efforts to kick the sugar habit and select better-for-you, nutrient-dense foods and beverages unexpectedly may be helping to fuel a rise in Asian-inspired flavors, beverages and dishes across categories, according to recent research...
Despite laudable progress in recent years to create a more circular economy for plastics, the food industry still has a long way to go to meet ambitious and fast-approach goals to reduce the use of total and virgin plastic and incorporate more post-consumer...
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...
The US Food and Drug Administration has finalized a guidance on issuing recalls that first issued in draft form in 2019. The document’s plain language should help ensure compliance, experts contacted by NutraIngredients-USA agree.
A legal dispute* between two high-profile startups deploying fermentation to produce fungi-based meat alternatives is heating up with Meati Foods accusing The Better Meat Co of intellectual property theft, and The Better Meat Co accusing Meati of sowing...
Despite the continued hype around meat alternatives and a growing flexitarian lifestyle trend, meat is still the protein of choice for most consumers, argues Jonna Parker, principal, fresh foods at IRI.
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...
Ahold Delhaize, which owns several US retailers including Giant, Food Lion, and FreshDirect, reported that US regional sales were slightly down for the full year 2021 but that its grocery e-commerce sales picked up some of the slack.
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...
A much-needed economic boost during the pandemic that helped reverse US agriculture’s multi-year downward financial slide likely will hold through at least 2022, although beneficial conditions likely won’t be “quite at the same level” as the past two...
Nearly a third of the world's crop fields will be unsuitable for food production by the end of this century unless carbon emissions are curbed, warns the latest instalment of the IPCC climate change report.
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...
While meal kit demand surged during COVID-19, many consumers still aren't sold on the idea of a meal subscription and players in this space should embrace the full potential of e-commerce to become "true online grocery retailers" by providing...
Price sensitive consumers may be on the decline and make up only a third of all grocery shoppers, but they appear to have an outsized impact on select categories as rising inflation prompts them to rein in spending, according to new research by Symphony...
The Swiss flavours and fragrances company has coined the technology ‘PrimeLock+’, as it says it brings the visual appeal of beef fat to plant-based products, while allowing for controlled fat and flavour release during the cooking process.