Meet the founders: Lypid tackles fat, the final frontier for alt meat
From ‘designer fats’ made by microbes to oleogels, the race is on to find replacements for animal fats in meat alternatives, say the founders of California-based startup Lypid.
From ‘designer fats’ made by microbes to oleogels, the race is on to find replacements for animal fats in meat alternatives, say the founders of California-based startup Lypid.
US regulators have warned startups in the emerging field of ‘molecular farming’ that expressing animal proteins such as casein in genetically engineered plants will require strict allergen management protocols.
Liberation Labs—a startup on a mission to address capacity bottlenecks in biomanufacturing—has secured $30 million in equipment financing to support its first commercial-scale precision fermentation facility in the US.
Bel Group—the multinational firm behind cheese brands Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin—has teamed up with AI-powered startup Climax Foods to develop plant-based versions of its iconic brands for launch in Europe and the US by the end of 2024.
Believer Meats has a new Burger, Freight Farms grows its indoor ag team.
Aqua Cultured Foods has raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Stray Dog Capital to expand its fermentation-based production platform for high-protein whole cuts of fungi-based seafood.
Parties interested in bidding for distressed plant protein processor Merit Functional Foods have until April 21 to submit an offer, says receiver PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
2023 will be a pivotal year for cultivated meat, as a handful of well-capitalized startups hit the market and early-stage players wait with bated breath to see if consumers are sufficiently enthused to motivate anxious investors to keep funding the nascent space, said investors at the Future Food Tech conference.
Panelists at the AgFunder 2023 Global Report launch party discussed the challenges for alt protein and eGrocery, and why capital is swimming upstream.
While alt-protein investment has cooled, there’s still plenty of interest in replacing eggs, says Maija Itkonen of precision fermentation startup Onego Bio.
Burcon NutraScience—which developed the plant protein extraction technology utilized by Merit Functional Foods—says it will submit a formal proposal to acquire the distressed business, which went into receivership on March 1.
Tofurky’s new owner Morinaga Nutritional Foods paid north of $50m for the family-owned alt meat brand, one of the leading players in the US meat alternatives market, AFN has learned.
Meati president Scott Tassani says he remains confident his minimally-processed mushroom root-based steaks and cutlets can breathe fresh life into the North American meat alternatives category, and believes Meati can capture “20% of what we think will be a $5 billion retail market in five years.”
New frontiers in biotechnology and fermentation are being deployed to reduce the environmental impact of our animal-based food system. But do developments in cellular agriculture take ethics into account?
Israeli startup Ever After Foods (formerly Plurinuva) has unveiled technology it claims can transform the unit economics of cultivated meat by reducing the capex required to build facilities and increasing the productivity of tissue production.
Israeli startup Aleph Farms has struck deals enabling it to take an “asset-light” approach to scaling up cultivated meat production in Israel and Singapore. CEO Didier Toubia tells AFN Aleph is also scouting for sites in the US for a larger scale facility and believes it can achieve cost parity with premium beef by 2028.
Swedish startup Millow is developing minimally processed products made from oats and mycelium grown in a patent-pending fermentation process it claims uses a fraction of the water and energy used by players such as Quorn.
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown faced a grilling from analysts Thursday evening as the plant-based meat firm posted a 20.6% decrease in net revenues to $79.9 million in Q4, 2022 vs Q4, 2021, with a net loss of $66.9 million.
Long-awaited FDA draft guidance on labeling for plant-based milks has been slammed by the milk lobby for its “circular logic” and criticized by plant-based advocates who say it “undercuts the administration’s climate goals.”
High-protein, low-sugar “complete nutrition” brand Soylent sees opportunities to expand its retail presence and improve marketing, according to its CEO.
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