Cocoon Bioscience will grow its high-value proteins business, which includes developing recombinant growth factors for cultivated meat.
Plus, the USDA’s office of the chief scientist gets a new director and cultivated meat startup Upside Foods expands its leadership team.
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.
The alternative protein sector was ‘overhyped, but now its demise is being over exaggerated,’ said investors at a recent industry event as the GFI unveiled results of a global investor survey suggesting a mood of cautious optimism.
Sales of plant-based meat have slowed in the US market following a surge in the early months of the pandemic, but the category hasn’t fallen off a cliff.
“You can’t change how meat eaters eat by making the same thing they already consume,” says cultivated meat startup Vow’s founder George Peppou.
Creating sustainable meat means developing more than just the same old chicken and beef analogues, says Vow’s CEO and cofounder.
The Kitchen expects “at least half” of new investments to result from venture studio activities rather than from direct investments into existing ventures.
Over 60% of the global population lives in Asia with just 20% of farmland, and a growing middle class demanding high-status animal protein. We need to create better alternative protein products for the Asian consumer, writes Sonalie Figueiras.
News roundups from 2022 shed light on the rise and fall of eGrocery, the downturn’s impact on agrifoodtech and what to watch for 2023.
Roughly 94% of agrifood corporates’ total emissions lie in their supply chain; 33% of those are linked to animal agriculture.
Israel’s overall culture shows how the country has built its agrifoodtech with collaboration, support and a sense of belonging you may not find elsewhere.
The letter grants GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status to Upside’s cultivated chicken product, paving the way for a market launch in the US.
USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack also announced new funds, partners and innovators for the AIM for Climate global initiative.
PeakBridge and others participated in the Series A round, which Vow says will enable it to bring its cultivated quail to Singapore soon.
Synonym connects precision fermentation startups with production infrastructure to help them unlock the promise of synthetic biology.
Innovative Food startups garnered $356 million in 2021; much of that went to Singapore alt-protein companies as well as those in China and India.
BioBetter says it can bring down the cost of growth factors from the normal range of $50,000 – $500,000 per gram to a mere one dollar per gram.
