Motif FoodWorks – a Boston-based startup focused on high-impact ingredients that can be added to plant- based meat and dairy formulations in small quantities but make a significant difference to the eating experience – has raised $226m in Series B* funding,...
San Francisco-based Change Foods – one of a new breed of startups making 'animal-free' dairy ingredients using microbes instead of cows – has closed an oversubscribed $2.1m seed funding round,* and plans to launch its first consumer products...
After disrupting the sleepy dried fruit category with its skin-on, nutrient-dense, zero food-waste approach, emerging superfruit snack brand RIND is expanding into the salty snack aisle with the launch of thin-cut, crispy fruit chips with help from Valor...
Vertical Roots, a vertical farming company which grows its leafy greens in repurposed shipping containers year-round, has opened its third indoor farm in Atlanta, Georgia, reducing produce transportation and expanding access to fresh, locally-grown leafy...
“Global and local” dairy companies have approached Imagindairy - one of a clutch of startups using microbes (not cows) to produce milk proteins – about developing ‘animal-free’ dairy milks and other products, says the Israeli company, which lags some...
With US retail sales of cannabidiol-infused foods, beverages and supplements declining sharply in the past year and some early-adopters souring on the ingredient after experiencing lackluster ‘results,’ some players in the space are discontinuing their...
Geltor – which has developed a computational biology platform to create a range of ‘designer’ functional proteins via microbial fermentation - will launch the world’s first ingestible ‘animal-free’ vegan collagen for the food and nutrition markets this...
The Better Meat Co – a startup best-known for providing plant-based meat enhancers – has completed construction of a “substantial mycoprotein fermentation facility” in Sacramento that will produce fungi-based meat alternatives that “work phenomenally...
Israeli cultured meat firm Future Meat Technologies has its eye on Asia as a major market for its products with China and India as key targets, after notching-up two successes in significantly lowering production costs this year.
The plant-based meat category is not short of starry-eyed founders armed with me-too products and a lofty mission to fix the broken food system (spoiler alert, they probably won’t). But there is still room for new players with a genuine point of difference...
Poverty in the coffee industry is an “enduring crisis,” despite US consumers’ willingness to pay upwards of $16-$22 per 12-ounce bag of roasted coffee and a premium for products that promise to ethically source beans and pay farmers a fair price.
When it comes to meat alternatives, fat remains the final frontier for formulators, says Nourish Ingredients, which is harnessing the power of microbes to produce next-generation ‘animal-free’ fats it claims can deliver a ‘meatier’ experience than plant-based...
New Culture – one of a cluster of startups in the emerging ‘animal-free’ dairy space* engineering microbes to produce dairy milk proteins, without cows – is aiming to launch animal-free Mozzarella in late 2023.
Doozy Pots – a plant-based gelato made from organic hemp and oat ingredients and the brainchild of a former Ben & Jerry's product developer – is injecting some differentiation and innovation into the plant-based ice cream and frozen desserts...
After 16 years of blood, sweat and tears building a consumer brand, Hint Inc founder Kara Goldin has been through some ups and downs, and 2020 offered up both in equal measure. But while many beverage brands struggled to adapt in a rollercoaster year,...
Despite significant unmet demand for convenient keto products across categories, consumers who follow the diet are becoming more selective and less willing to settle for options that use low-quality or unhealthy ingredients to meet the diet’s strict macro...
With five times the production capacity available at its newest production facility, Nabati Foods is ramping up production of its plant-based 'cheeze' and meat products and has plans to introduce its latest innovation, plant-based eggs, later...
Terviva – a California-based firm commercializing ingredients from low-input, high-yielding Pongamia trees – has raised $54m in equity capital,* with an additional $24m in equity and debt capital to follow this quarter, and announced a collaboration with...
Cognitive decline over time may be inevitable, but according to the husband and wife team behind the recently launched whole food functional beverage blend Memore, feeding the mind the right nutrition early and often not only could delay onset and slow...
Daring Foods – a startup seeking to punch above its weight in the plant-based chicken category via a lower calorie product with a shorter, cleaner, ingredients list and bold branding – has closed a $40m Series B round led by D1 Capital Partners, and supported...
Eat Just Inc.'s GOOD Meat division has secured $170m in new funding to scale production of its cell-cultured chicken (and R&D into other animal protein including beef and pork) in North America and Asia through multi-million dollar investments...
With an infusion of $5m in series A funding, the bagless tea brand Tea Drops continues to push the boundaries of tea with innovative new products that offer convenience and a unique experience that supports consumers’ evolving emotional needs.
Austrian entrepreneurs are extracting cyanide from stone fruit seeds – a side stream of the fruit processing industry – before upcycling them into B2B food ingredients.
Eat Beyond Global Holdings, which has acquired a slew of alternative protein food brands in the past year, has made an investment in Daydream Drinks, a hemp and adaptogen-infused sparkling water brand based in Canada.
Boston-based Motif FoodWorks has gained exclusive access to technologies designed to address two key challenges in plant-based formulations: achieving melt and stretch in plant-based cheese, and healthier fat that enables marbling in plant-based meat....
Following its launch of chocolate products in November 2020, BeyondBrands' GoodSam Foods has introduced direct-trade coffee beans grown by small, family-owned farms in Colombia who use regenerative farming techniques.
Cell-cultured meat pioneer Memphis Meats is rebranding as UPSIDE Foods as it gears up for a small-scale consumer launch of its first product – chicken – by the end of the year, pending regulatory review.
Arbiom is a start-up developing solutions to convert timber by-products into food and feed ingredients. The group recently unveiled its first protein ingredient, SylPro. We caught up with the company to find out more about its technology and commercialisation...
The unprecedented shift to ecommerce during the pandemic and predictions that many consumers will continue to buy groceries online even after it is safe to return to retail stores has elevated the importance of an omnichannel strategy – but according...
An infusion of $10.5m in seed funding will accelerate the consumer life sciences company GEM’s mission to overhaul the $140.3b supplement market by replacing “reductionist” pills, tablets and candies with whole food bites designed to improve the health...
Baby and toddler food brand Raised Real – which has built a loyal following with its direct-to-consumer subscription business – is making its first move into bricks & mortar retail via a deal with Target, which is stocking six SKUs in its freezer...
SnackFutures, Mondelēz International's innovation and venture hub, has selected nine well-being snack brands to participate in its inaugural CoLab startup engagement program.
Ingredients giant DSM has teamed up with San Diego-based startup Debut Biotech to explore the potential of its ‘cell-free’ biomanufacturing platform, a next-generation manufacturing process it claims could unlock new opportunities to biosynthesize a far...
BrightFarms has opened its latest indoor farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina, capable of producing 2 million pounds of lettuce per year in the Southeast US region which currently has limited options for indoor-grown leafy greens on store shelves, says...
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...
Pete and Gerry’s Organics’ decision announced yesterday to sell a majority stake of the family-owned free-range and pasture-raised egg business to the private equity firm Butterfly may be “unsettling” to some, acknowledges the CEO, but he says it will...
Tattooed Chef has entered into agreements to acquire New Mexico Food Distributors, Inc. and Karsten Tortilla Factory, LLC (collectively referred to as “Foods of New Mexico”) for approximately $35m to ramp up production of its plant-based frozen foods...
Asian plant-based meat sensation OmniPork is gearing up for a nationwide retail and foodservice launch in the US market later this year after debuting in a handful of restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu to celebrate Earth Day.
“There's no way we could have launched 10 years ago in America,” observes Julian Dyer, stockbroker-turned chef, turned-founder of London-based Pots & Co, which is looking to make a splash this side of the Atlantic with his upmarket desserts.
While adaptogens and nootropics are central to the calming and functional benefits of Moment’s trio of botanical beverages, they take a backseat in marketing, which focuses first on the behavior modifications and lifestyle the brand promotes – a strategy...
Use of botanical ingredients in the beverage category has taken off, with floral-infused sparkling waters, to bottled water with ashwagandha, and yerba mate energy drinks, while the market for botanicals in snacks and packaged food represents a smaller,...
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...
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...
Taste and smell are fundamental to how consumers experience food and beverages, but most tools for understanding and measuring these senses – including a highly trained human nose – are subjective, imprecise, and expensive making it difficult to cost-effectively...
With so many emerging bar brands vying for space in a crowded market dominated by large CPG -- Clif Bar, KIND (Mars), RXBAR (Kellogg's) -- and retail sales still down in 2021, what's the future of the bar set, and how can brands punch above...
Bay area startup Clara Foods has teamed up with ZX Ventures, the innovation arm of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev - which knows a thing or two about large-scale fermentation - to help realize its dream of making ‘animal-free’ egg proteins using microbes...
For many consumers a freshly toasted bagel is a source of joy, comfort – and guilt, but thanks to food-tech startup Better Brand Inc.’s proprietary Grain-changing Technology, Americans can soon enjoy a clean label option that tastes and functions like...
DouxMatok, the Israeli firm behind patented technology that makes regular sugar taste sweeter, has launched limited-edition chocolate spreads in the US with half the sugar of leading brands to give consumers the chance to taste products made with its...
