Food From Thought: May 2022

Beyond Meat debuts Jerky, Aleph Farms cultivated meat to be tested in space, Outstanding Foods launches the first ever dairy-free cheese balls, Upside Foods is valued at over $1 billion, and more

With Earth Day 2022 having officially come and gone, the chances are pretty good that most people were recently exposed to something that made them consider the environmental impacts of their food choices. 

While recent surveys have suggested that health and animal welfare are often at the forefront of purchasing incentives, the effects of diet on the planet are undeniable at this point.

The global food system is changing, and consumers are making decisions around how to best vote with their dollar based on all sorts of things. 

It’s an exciting time to be a part of alternative proteins as both plant-based alternatives and cellular agriculture gain global traction — and consumer attention. 

As we crawl our way out of the last two years of pandemic fog, many consumers are emerging with new perspectives. In addition to a deep desire to make health-related changes, they’re looking for ways to live that will also support planetary health. 

The path to change has been paved and the interest is there. 

Challenges are keeping up with ever-increasing consumer demand while figuring out how to boost production efficiency. Alternative protein companies are facing these challenges head-on, while also aiming to achieve price parity and make their products more attractive to consumers regardless of personal motivations.

All of these factors continue to stretch and change the food system as we’ve known it. Eventually, choosing a plant-based burger, an eggless egg, and a cultivated chicken nugget could very well be the norm, making industrial animal agriculture as we know it outdated and obsolete. 

This is the future. Can you see it?

Abbot’s Butcher

• Abbot’s Butcher Makes Huge US Retail Expansion into Over 1,000 Target Stores

Aleph Farms

• SpaceX, Axiom and Aleph Farms Prepare to Test Cultivated Meat in Space

• The Passover meal has already made room for vegan entrees. Next up? Cell-based meat

Alpha Foods

• Alpha Foods, Zero Egg Team Up to Offer New Meatless Sausage Scramble Breakfast Bowls at Costco

Beyond Meat

• Carl Icahn Pushes McDonald’s to Expand Meatless Options

• Beyond Meat launches new retail product

Black Sheep Foods

• Plant-Based Lamb from Black Sheep Foods Now Available at all INDAY Fast-Casual Indian Restaurants in New York City

BlueNalu

• SoCal Company BlueNalu Grows Seafood in a Lab in Effort to Solve Overfishing Problems

Dao Foods

• Dao Foods Announces Investment in Six Alternative Protein Ventures

Good Catch

• Gathered Foods, Makers Of Good Catch Plant-Based Seafood, Secures $26.35 Million In B-2 Bridge Funding Round With Louis Dreyfus Company And Others

Matrix Meats

• Matrix F.T. Finds Niche in Cultivated Meat Industry

• Matrix F.T. Scales Wet Lab for Plant-Based Nanofiber Scaffolds Used in Cell-Based Meat Cultivation

Meati Foods

• Evermore Partners Acquires Boulder Office Building and Secures Leaseback with Local Startup

Miyoko’s Creamery

• This Plant-Based Company Wants to Help Dairy Farmers Pivot from Cows to Crops

Mosa Meat

• The Netherlands House of Representatives Passes Motion to Legalize Samples of Cell-Cultured Meat

• How This Alternative ‘Beef,’ Made From Fungi, Could Save Rainforests

• Dutch Government Awards €60 Million To Domestic Cellular Agriculture Ecosystem

Novameat

• Novameat Eyes Mass Market with 3D Printed Vegetarian Steak

Oatly 

• Oatly Rips Gain After Pointing to Improved Manufacturing Pace 

• Oatly Beats Revenue Expectations as New Production Facilities Ramp Up

• Oatly the ‘fastest turning national brand in US milk category’ in Q1 says loss-making firm; US revenues up 40%

Outstanding Foods

• Outstanding Foods Launches First-Ever Dairy-Free Cheese Balls

Purple Carrot

• Purple Carrot Appoints Rishi Bhatia as New Chief Executive Officer

• 23 Best Food Subscription Boxes To Buy In 2022

SuperMeat

• 71% of Participants Choose Cultivated Meat at Live Consumer Test by SuperMeat

• No Chickens Were Harmed in the Making of This 100% Chicken Sandwich

UPSIDE Foods

• UPSIDE Foods bites into $400M round to serve cultivated meat later this year

• ‘Meat the Future’ Challenges Viewers to Think About the Evolution of Agriculture

Zero Egg

• How Vegan Eggs Took Over All the Breakfast Menus at Yale

• Alpha Foods, Zero Egg Team Up to Offer New Meatless Sausage Scramble Breakfast Bowls at Costco

• AP News: Meat Substitutes Market is Projected to Reach USD 4.0 billion by 2027

• FoodDive: ADM investing $300M to boost production of alternative proteins

• Supermarket Perimeter: Survey: 75% will try plant-based in next year

• Yahoo! Life UK: Half of Brits will be vegetarian by 2040 and eating 'air protein' in 10 years

• Tasting Table: 20 Plant-Based Meat Brands Every Vegetarian Should Know About

• European Biotechnology: Study shows advantages of cellular agriculture

• Green Queen: China Holds First Cellular Agriculture Forum To Embolden Cultivated Meat Progress

• Green Matters: Fungi-Based Meat Alternatives Are Healthy — And Eco-Friendly