Sweegen secures FEMA GRAS status for the sweet protein brazzein via precision fermentation; Conagen says the same tech can produce the vivid red pigment carminic acid (without crushing insects).
Court documents show Miyoko Schinner and the board of the plant-based dairy company she founded have agreed to go through an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, although legal experts say it doesn’t necessarily mean that their very public dispute is simmering down.
Precision fermentation startup The EVERY Co has teamed up with Alpha Foods to explore the potential of meat alternatives featuring ‘animal-free’ egg whites made with microbes instead of chickens.
GMOs still have an image problem when it comes to food. But attitudes are evolving, insists one startup on a mission to change hearts and minds, one purple tomato at a time.
Armed with $15m in seed funding from Fall line capital, the MIT E14 fund, and FootPrint Coalition, Israeli startup Chunk Foods is building a factory for its plant-based whole cuts of meat.
While opportunistic food marketers are already jumping on the ‘regenerative ag’ bandwagon, we need more data to define what this means for individual crops before growers can see a clear business case for adopting new practices, says KIND Snacks.
Danone’s corporate venture arm Danone Manifesto Ventures has taken a minority stake in Imagindairy, an Israeli startup making ‘animal-free’ dairy proteins via precision fermentation (using microbes instead of cows).
Unlike almonds, which rely on honeybees for pollination, a dwindling and increasingly expensive resource, pistachio crops are pollinated by wind, which is both abundant and free-of-charge. So why are some growers turning to artificial pollination?
High-tech solutions to end male chick culling by sexing chicks before they hatch are “more advanced than people realize,” insists the founder of new nonprofit Innovate Animal Ag. At the same time, organizers of the global Egg-Tech Prize have not yet issued a final award because “none of the applicants met the criteria.”
One of a new wave of startups seeking to unlock the potential of plant cell culture in the food and nutrition industry, Ayana Bio has launched its first ingredients: lemon balm and echinacea.
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.
Growing meat from animal cells instead of plundering the oceans and slaughtering billions of sentient creatures sounds like a no-brainer. But we have to aim for cost parity, says Fork & Good: “It’s a totally useless exercise to make these products at a price nobody can afford.”
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.
US retail sales of plant-based foods rose 6.6% to $8bn in 2022, with growth in creamers, eggs, and butter partially offset by declines in meat, ice cream, and cheese, according to new reports from the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and the Good Food Institute (GFI). Unit sales fell 3%.
‘Jaundiced’ investors that jumped into indoor ag hoping to make a fast buck have got their fingers burned, says Revol Greens CEO Michael Wainscott. “Agriculture is slow, biology is slow, and capital has to reflect that.”
Reducing the absorption of sugars in processed foods could help lower the glycemic impact of our diet and deliver digestive health benefits, claims BioLumen
Cultivated meat is edging closer to commercialization in the US as GOOD Meat becomes the second startup to secure a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA affirming the safety of its process for growing chicken from cells, outside of the animal.
In agtech, deals from Grow Indigo, FreezeM and others were all about insect farming, forest restoration and capturing more carbon.
In agtech, produce quality control platform Clarifruit raised $12 million while more layoffs struck the food delivery sector.
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