No lab-based meat or dairy product is yet on the market, but lots of people are working on such things. Here are some recent examples, starting with my favorite.
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- Grant offered to lab-grown kangaroo meat start-up: Australian lab-grown meat business has been awarded AUS$25,000 to help with its research into cell-cultured kangaroo meat products… Read
- Kraft Heinz venture fund invests in startup making real cheese… without cows: San Francisco startup New Culture – which is making animal-free dairy cheese with casein proteins made from microbial fermentation (instead of cow’s milk) – has closed a $3. 5m seed round led by Evolv Ventures, a $100m venture fund backed by Kraft Heinz… Read
- First products from Motif FoodWorks’ fermentation-based protein platform ready to launch in 2021: The first three proteins from Motif FoodWorks’ fermentation-based food ingredient platform will be ready for launch in early 2021, says the company, one of a new breed of synthetic biology companies using microbes as microscopic factories capable of producing animal proteins… without animals… Read
- Sustainable Bioproducts gears up for 2020 launch of consumer brand built around new-to-the-world protein source: Sustainable Bioproducts – which is developing new-to-the-world protein-packed whole food ingredients from microbes – plans to launch a consumer brand to help familiarize Americans with a new fungal food source that could be used in everything from meat and milk alternatives to snacks… Read
- Perfect Day gives fans first taste of animal-free dairy with limited edition ice cream release: Perfect Day, a start-up producing whey and casein via microbial fermentation (minus the cows) is giving fans a first taste of its animal-free proteins via a limited edition release of ice cream sold directly to consumers via its website… Read
- Clara Foods completes Series B, joins forces with Ingredion to commercialize egg proteins… minus the chicken: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Clara Foods, a San Francisco-based startup producing egg proteins via microbial fermentation, has ditched the chicken in favor of yeast, and teamed up with ingredients giant Ingredion to develop and commercialize its animal-free wares after completing a Series B funding round… Read
- ‘Cultivated’ meat could be the most-consumer-friendly term for cell-cultured meat, suggests Mattson/GFI research: The term ‘clean meat’ is confusing (and carries the tacit implication that regular meat is ‘dirty’), while ‘cell-based meat’ – a more neutral term favored by some startups – doesn’t poll well with shoppers. ‘Lab-grown’ is a food marketer’s nightmare. But ‘cultivated meat’ might just tick all the boxes when it comes to describing growing meat from animal cells, without slaughter, suggests new research. Read more
- Five startups form alliance to provide clear path to market for cell-based meat: BlueNalu, Finless Foods, Forke & Goode, JUST Inc., and Memphis Meats have formed a coalition called the Alliance for Meat, Poultry & Seafood (AMPS) Innovation to carve out a clear path to market for cell-cultured meat, poultry, and seafood. Read more
- Selling plant-based and cell-cultured meat will be about ‘benefits for me’ says Hartman Group: While ending factory farming and reducing GHG emissions are top priorities for start-ups such as Impossible Foods, most shoppers are primarily motivated by ‘benefits for me’ – be it taste and discovery, or health and wellness, when it comes to plant-based meat and dairy, according to a new report from The Hartman Group. Read more
- FDA and USDA shed more light on how cell-based meat will be regulated, but don’t weigh into naming debate… yet: The USDA and the FDA have provided more clarity on who will be responsible for what when it comes to regulating cell-cultured meat, but have not – yet – offered their thoughts on appropriate terminology with which to describe it on food labels. Read more
- Future Meat Technologies raises $14m to commercialize cell cultured meat: ‘We see a path to reality here, it’s not just something on a Power Point presentation,’ says S2G Ventures: Future Meat Technologies is one of the few players in the nascent space to have shown how cell-cultured (a.k.a. ‘cultivated’) meat could move from the lab to an industrial scale, claims one of the lead investors in a $14m Series A round that will support the construction of a pilot scale production facility south of Tel Aviv, Israel… Read
- MycoTechnology unveils texturized fermented vegetable protein for plant based meat applications: As the race to expand protein options for plant-based meats heats up, Colorado-based MycoTechnology has thrown its hat into the ring with a texturized version of PureTaste, a vegetable protein produced via the fermentation of pea and rice proteins with Shiitake mushroom mycelium (roots)… Read
- Future Meat Technologies raises $14m to commercialize cell cultured meat: ‘We see a path to reality here, it’s not just something on a Power Point presentation,’ says S2G Ventures: Future Meat Technologies is one of the few players in the nascent space to have shown how cell-cultured (a.k.a. ‘cultivated’) meat could move from the lab to an industrial scale, claims one of the lead investors in a $14m Series A round that will support the construction of a pilot scale production facility south of Tel Aviv, Israel…Read