Online food marketplace BUBBLE – a fast-growing platform enabling new and emerging natural food brands without the bandwidth to set up DTC operations seek new routes to market – has launched a self-service platform enabling vendors to get approved and...
The tide appears to be turning for direct-to-consumer subscription boxes, including for food and beverage, with consumer interest dropping dramatically in 2021 compared to last year when the pandemic pushed many people to try the services as a safe and...
Bonumose – a Virginia-based startup with patented technology it claims could enable the mass market adoption of rare sugars such as allulose and tagatose – is investing $27.7m in production and R&D facilities in a 36,000 sq ft facility in Pantops,...
AgTech startup Pivot Bio, which is retooling bacteria in soil to more effectively convert nitrogen from the air into food – eliminating the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer – is taking its sustainability message directly to consumers with the launch...
As Vejii prepares to go public on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) in the coming weeks, co-founder and CEO Kory Zelickson shares how the company is leveraging its data and consumer insights to create the best plant-based shopping experience for...
The FDA has issued long-awaited final guidance for the food industry outlining voluntary, short-term (2.5 year) sodium reduction targets for 163 categories of packaged, prepared, and restaurant foods.
PURIS - a key supplier of pea protein to Beyond Meat – has opened a new facility in Dawson, Minnesota that more than doubles its production capacity, and cements its position as the leading supplier of pea protein in North America.
Singapore-based startup Next Gen Foods is gearing up to enter the burgeoning plant-based chicken category in the US next year following a successful debut in restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, and the UAE.
When it comes to meat alternatives, most people tend to think about plant-based or cell-cultured meat (real animal cells grown outside an animal). But fungi, in a less familiar form factor (think foamy slabs of mushroom mycelium instead of dome shaped...
Lightlife will debut its new plant-based, whole-muscle chicken product exclusively in the prepared foods section in Whole Foods Market locations this month, making parent company Greenleaf Foods the exclusive plant-based chicken provider for all Whole...
Cauliflower-fueled startup Outer Aisle Gourmet has accused bakery giant Bimbo Bakeries USA of a “behind-the-scenes ambush,” which it claims prompted Amazon to delist its fast-growing cauliflower sandwich thins just as Bimbo was preparing to launch its...
Israeli firm InnovoPro – which recently launched a US subsidiary in Chicago – has unveiled a textured vegetable protein (TVP) combining chickpea and pea protein that it claims will enable food manufacturers to expand the ingredient toolbox for plant-based...
Hormel Foods is dipping its toes further into the meat alternatives space via its venturing arm 199 Ventures, which is teaming up with The Better Meat Co. to bring new products to market featuring the latter’s Rhiza mycoprotein ingredient, a filamentous...
Square Baby, a direct-to-consumer baby food company offering veggie-forward meal solutions, is making the leap from a regional brand serving the West Coast to a full-blown national operation, a milestone that couldn't have been achieved without a...
Kingdom Supercultures – a Brooklyn-based startup specializing in building novel combinations of microbial cultures it claims can improve the flavor, texture and functional properties of everything from plant-based dairy products to kombucha - has raised...
‘Animal-free’ protein startup Clara Foods has rebranded as The EVERY Company and unveiled EVERY ClearEgg, a highly soluble, "nearly invisible" functional egg protein, its second product produced via precision fermentation using genetically engineered...
Two-thirds of US adults say the pandemic has caused them to re-evaluate their life priorities and has had the most profound impact on where and how they eat, according to Mintel research.
Sweegen will expand its high-intensity sweeteners portfolio early next year with the addition of brazzein, an ultra-sweet tasting protein found in small quantities in the fruit of a West African plant called oubli, that can be produced on a commercial...
MeliBio, a startup developing honey without bees, has unveiled its first products at a tasting in Berkeley, California, as it gears up for a soft launch supplying food service and CPG companies with its animal-free/vegan honey as a branded ingredient...
When I began studying organic food consumption in the early 2000s, I remember one of the first problems I encountered was a misperception among prominent public firm executives.
From surging ocean freight costs to sky high corn prices and general supply chain disruptions, the last 12-18 months have been a roller coaster ride, says Nate Yates, VP Global Sugar Reduction Platform at Ingredion. But one thing has remained remarkably...
The Urgent Company – best known for Brave Robot ‘animal-free’ ice cream– is moving into new territory with the launch of Modern Kitchen lactose-free cream cheese, its second brand featuring Perfect Day’s animal-free dairy proteins (made with microbes,...
Seven months after releasing a report alleging “dangerous” levels of heavy metals in top baby food brands, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi's subcommittee on economic and consumer policy has released a follow-up report alleging that the industry “consistently...
Beyond Meat is rolling out its Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links in Canadian grocery stores nationwide marking the plant-based brand's entry into the Canadian retail breakfast category.
From 'whole cuts' of seafood from fungi, to plant-based lamb, to highly functional proteins from brewers' spent grains, here's a quick snapshot of some of the alternative protein startups participating in a virtual pitch slam at last...
Fresh food may make most consumers feel happier and capture the lion’s share of retail sales – for now – but rising prices, concerns about perishability and shifting preference are pushing more shoppers to the frozen aisle, suggests new research by Deloitte.
Berkeley-based startup Perfect Day – which makes dairy proteins using microbes instead of cows – has made its first move into the foodservice arena via a partnership with Villa Dolce to incorporate ‘animal-free’ whey into two new categories: gelato and...
New Age Meats has raised $25m in series A round* led by Hanwha Solutions of South Korea that will allow it to begin manufacturing sausage products combining cell-cultured and plant-based meat at a 20,000-square-foot pilot facility in Alameda, California,...
Plant based meat brand Tofurky has teamed up with San Diego-based Triton Algae Innovations to commercialize new ‘algae-based meat innovations’ featuring Triton’s protein-rich Non-GMO ‘essential red' algae for retail launch in Q1, 2022.
While many parents say that their family has eaten more healthily since the start of the pandemic, one in five parents reports relying more heavily on fast food as a quick fix family meal option, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott...
Startup Aqua Cultured Foods is carving out novel territory in the nascent alternative seafood space with a Non-GMO fermentation-based production platform capable of delivering high-protein, nutrient-rich ‘whole cuts’ of fungi-based seafood, with the first...
Venture capital firm Lever VC has completed final close of Lever VC Fund I, with $80m raised to back early stage plant-based and cell-cultured meat and dairy companies around the world.
A keen empathy for consumers, a deep commitment to innovation and an open-door approach to collaboration helped the founder of Nissin Foods not only capture the hearts of billions of people when he invented instant noodles, but also helped build and sustain...
Sophie’s Kitchen has secured a $5.6m investment led by venture capital firm Billy Goat Brands to help it expand its plant-based seafood empire, which now extends into multiple categories including ‘toona,’ crab cakes, fish filets, smoked salmon, and shrimp....
Motif FoodWorks has submitted a GRAS notification for myoglobin, a heme-binding protein found in the muscle tissue of cows that Motif is expressing in a genetically engineered yeast strain. The protein – which the Boston-based firm reckons could be a...
For the co-founders of the better-for-you Asian American food startup immi, the most exciting part of closing their seed fundraise wasn’t the $3.8m that will help them relaunch an improved version of their low-carb, high-protein, plant-based instant ramen...
Interested in meat, dairy, and seafood alternatives? Is all the hype - and the wads of cash - truly justified? Are some formulations (think plant-based cheese and yogurt) really ready for prime time? Are the purchase drivers for plant-based seafood the...
Food tech company ENOUGH broke ground on what it says will be the ‘world’s largest’ fermented protein facility today (16 September). When fully operational the site will have the capacity to produce 50,000 tonnes of mycoprotein ingredient ABUNDA per annum.
A new platform for whole-cut texturization to produce plant-based meat alternatives and cell-based hybrids has been developed by Israeli firm Alfred’s FoodTech, Ltd.
In FoodNavigator-USA's latest roundup of new product launches, we include an eclectic mix of new products, from Chobani's first foray into peanut butter, to Hershey's new 'Oat Made' bars, an interesting new twist on tofu, and...
With soup sales beginning to cool closer to pre-pandemic levels in the last quarter of fiscal 2021, Campbell Soup Co. is heating up the category, literally and figuratively, with innovations across its Pacific, Well Yes! and namesake soup brands to maintain...
Outer Aisle Gourmet – which makes sandwich thins, pizza crusts, and wraps using fresh cauliflower as the #1 ingredient – is gearing up to open its third manufacturing facility to meet growing demand for its grain-free, low-carb products.
When it comes to packaging, is it always clear which is the most environmentally-friendly choice? Mixed material packaging combining high levels of paperboard, for example, is often touted as a greener choice than plastic, but if most of it ends up in...
Retailers struggling with labor shortages are offering higher pay and better benefits to fill vacancies – but according to one industry player they also should embrace automation to ease the burden on and maximize the efficiency of existing staff to maintain...
We all know plant-based foods increase our wind. But with the take up of this kind of diet seen as one of the best ways for individuals to combat climate change, could these gasses potentially bode badly for the atmosphere?
Cargill has opened a $150m pectin production facility in Bebedouro, Brazil, to meet growing global demand for the label-friendly texturizing ingredient.
While investors and journalists are pretty excited about a new wave of startups growing food in fermentation tanks, it’s easy to forget that we’ve been eating a filamentous fungus grown in big metal vats (a.k.a. ‘mycoprotein’) since the 1980s, says the...