Food From Thought

Share this post

Food From Thought: November 2022

unovisassetmanagement.substack.com

Discover more from Food From Thought

Unovis Asset Management: Investing in purpose-driven entrepreneurs with a shared vision for a well-fed and sustainable world. Talk with us about the alt-meat universe!
Continue reading
Sign in

Food From Thought: November 2022

Strategic partnerships aim to bring more cultivated meats to Asia and Europe, potential new production options for cellular agriculture, and more.

Nov 11, 2022
Share this post

Food From Thought: November 2022

unovisassetmanagement.substack.com
Share
The Food From Thought logo.

First, a quick shout-out to FoodHack, which this month named Unovis to its new list of the top food and climatetech VCs! We’re proud to be in the company of VCs like Foodlabs and Nucleus Capital who are helping to move this industry forward.

Out of all the obstacles that have been faced by the alternative protein industry, one of the things to come out of the struggle is more collaboration — in all forms. 

Strategic partnerships have proven to be a necessary and positive step forward for both plant-based and cultivated meat products. We’ve seen an influx of plant-based items added to global restaurant chain menus, predominantly in places like Australia and throughout Europe, met with consumer curiosity and approval. 

We’ve also seen brands in the cellular agriculture category creating partnerships with restaurants in Singapore, which is currently the only place in the world where these products have regulatory approval to be sold. By planting their products there, cultivated meat has the opportunity to reach consumers in Asia and Europe more quickly, while they wait for regulatory approval in the United States and elsewhere. 

Another recommendation for improvement has been talk of creating “hybrid” meats — a blend of plant-based meat with cultivated meat — to not only offer a more ethical and environmentally-friendly product, but also one that is more cost effective for consumers. The CEO of SCiFi Foods even says doing this would push alt protein products over the edge, giving them just enough actual meat flavor and texture to wow consumers seeking better options. 

As for the production challenges, molecular farming startup IngredientWerks says there’s a more efficient third option to fermentation and bioreactors for growing cultivated meat: using corn varieties that express casein proteins and meaty-tasting heme proteins. It will be interesting to see if this takes off as another production route for this sector.

And in a historic movement, cultivated food startups in Asia recently signed a nomenclature agreement that will help move the sector forward even more, especially in terms of consumer acceptance and normalization. After years of being called “clean meat,” “lab-grown meat,” and “cellular meat,” this signed memorandum of understanding has decided that “cultivated meat” is here to stay. 

As brands continue to partner and be innovative in the ways above, we should see gaps in price, taste, and texture become smaller between conventional and alt proteins — while consumer awareness and acceptance rise.

With that connectivity in mind, the Unovis team recently attended the FoodTech Israel 2022 exhibition in Tel Aviv, along with many of our portfolio companies included Anina, Imagindairy, Zero Egg and Aleph Farms. Founded by The Strauss Group’s foodtech incubator The Kitchen, FoodTech IL is one of the largest events of its kind in the world, dedicated to raising the profile of foodtech activity in Israel, promoting Israeli startups in the industry, and connecting founders with investors and major food companies.

Portfolio News

Aleph Farms

  • We Tried The World’s First Cultivated Steak, No Cows Required

Beyond Meat

  • Beyond Meat Launches Vegan Steaks at 5,000 Grocery Stores Nationwide. Will You Try It?

BlueNalu 

  • BlueNalu Projects Profitability‘Fishless fish’: the next big trend in the seafood industry

  • BlueNalu launches scientific advisory board to accelerate commercialization plans of cell-cultured seafood

Heura

  • Spanish startup Heura Foods gulps €20M funding from NBA and football stars for its vegan pork

  • Heura tucks into $20M funding chunk for its plant-based proteins ahead of beefier B round next year

  • Leonardo DiCaprio, Lewis Hamilton Up the Vegan Ante With Big Investments

    Miyoko’s Creamery

  • Miyoko’s Launches Cultured Oat Milk Butter into US Walmart Stores Nationwide

  • The future of food, from plant-based cheese to sustainable beef, can be found in these 4 brands

  • Why Plant Milk Butter Is The New Craze (And A Perfect Fall Recipe To Try It Out)

Mosa Meat

  • Esco Aster, Mosa Meat partner to quicken commercialization of cultivated beef

  • Mosa Meat Expands to First Industrial-Scale Production of Cultivated Beef

    SCiFi Foods

  • 7 ways CRISPR is shaping the future of food

Super Meat

  • ‘Chefs are often the first to embrace new food innovations’: Cultivated meat innovator eyes restaurants as path to market

Wicked Kitchen

  • Wicked Kitchen's Target Center concession stand draws interest from other NBA arenas, CEO says

  • Wicked Kitchen Teams Up With NBA to Put Vegan Food at Concessions

    Zero Egg

  • Breaking Down Plant-Based Egg Advancements

  • The Guardian: All sizzle, no steak: how Singapore became the centre of the plant-based meat industry

  • New Food Magazine: How to stand the test of time in the cultured meat market

  • Food Dive: IFF launches plant-based ingredient that mimics chunky meat texture

  • Food Dive: How Jack & Annie’s uses jackfruit to shake up plant-based meat

  • Food Navigator: Mainstreaming alt protein: EU bets on 7 novel sustainable proteins to feed the masses

  • The University of Vermont: Cultivating Meat For A Sustainable Future

  • Food Ingredients 1st: Science and industry join forces as cultivated meat consortium aims to boost burgeoning sector

  • Nxtaltfoods: Vegan vs. Plant-Based: Which Term Should the Food Industry Officially Adopt?

  • Food Navigator: ‘There’s going to be a lot of burnt capital…’ Navigating the ‘hand-wringing phase’ of alt meat investment

  • VegOut Magazine: Kevin Hart’s Hart House Opens First Location in Westchester

  • Forbes: Taco Bell Is Testing A Proprietary Plant-Based Meat Alternative

  • SciTech Daily: Plant-Based Meat Is “Healthier and More Sustainable”

  • VegNews: Does Vegan Meat Belong in the Deli Case Next to Animal Meat? These 2 Brands Say “Yes”

  • Food Navigator: Norway invests in cellular milk, egg, and meat production as a ‘new direction’ for industry

    And two books:

  • The Ministry for the Future: A Novel

  • What We Owe the Future

Share this post

Food From Thought: November 2022

unovisassetmanagement.substack.com
Share
Previous
Next
Top
New

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Unovis Asset Management
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing