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NotCo B corp

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NotCo Achieves the “Great Honour” of B Corp Certification

Chilean foodtech NotCo announces it has achieved B Corp certification, joining the global movement of companies seeking to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, as well as transparency and accountability. The fast-growing Unicorn company has been developing dairy and meat alternatives since 2016. NotCo says that the certification highlights its ongoing commitment to achieving meaningful and transparent environmental and social impact performance. In the words of NotCo CEO Matias Muchnick: “Transparency and accountability have always been a driving force behind NotCo, so having B Corp certification is a great honour and is something we have been pursuing since we started this journey.” NotCo launched NotMilk in the US in 2020, and its full portfolio, including NotBurger and NotChicken, enjoys a retail footprint of …

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London-Based Artisan Cheesemaker Honestly Tasty Celebrates Ocado Launch

Honestly Tasty, a UK-based creator of award-winning vegan artisan cheese products such as Shamembert, Blue, and Bree, is celebrating the launch of its products on Ocado, with the rollout taking place this week, according to the brand. Honestly Tasty launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs last June and reported that it raised over 80% of its £450,000 target just a few days later. The brand’s growth was further bolstered by an investment of £250K from Veg Capital that same month, with the VC firm stating at the time, “Vegan cheese is such an important product […] It is also notoriously difficult to get right, but Honestly Tasty have absolutely nailed it with their range”. Co-founder Michael Moore says: “Our mission, from day one, has been …

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CellX & Tofflon to Build “China’s First” Pilot Facility for Cultivated Meat Production

Chinese biotechnology company CellX and Tofflon, a provider of process support, core equipment, consumables, and system engineering solutions for global drug and food manufacturing, have announced a strategic agreement partnership to build China’s first pilot facility for cultivated meat production.  Additionally, the companies announced plans to develop innovative equipment and to build other global facilities for the commercial production of cultivated meat products.  Ziliang Yang, co-founder and CEO of CellX, said: “Tofflon is one of the world’s leading providers of comprehensive solutions for drug and food manufacturing, and their equipment and technologies can be quickly applied to the field of cultivated meat. As part of our strategic partnership, the construction of a pilot facility is the cornerstone of CellX’s journey to scale up cultivated meat production in …

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Lidl

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Lidl Announces New Strategy, Expanding Plant-Based and Reducing Animal Products

The German discount supermarket chain Lidl has revealed plans to pursue a more sustainable business strategy to 2025, with a focus on reducing the number of animal-based products in its offering and increasing its range of vegetable proteins. At Green Week, Germany’s largest agricultural trade show, Christof Graf, chief buyer for the 100-billion-turnover retail giant, told the trade magazine Lebensmittelzeitung that he wants to replace more animal proteins with plant-based alternatives. There is no alternative According to Graf, there is “no alternative” to this step; that as a human species, we must live within the boundaries of the planet, and that this can only be achieved with fewer animal products. He says a change is “without alternative because there is no second planet.” Furthermore, Graf …

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rebellyous foods plant based chicken range

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Rebellyous Foods Raises $9.5M for Plant-Based Chicken’s “Next-Gen Meat Machine”

Rebellyous Foods, the Seattle startup working to make plant-based chicken affordable, has announced a $9.5 million equity round to build its novel production technology. Founded in late 2017 by former aerospace engineer Christie Lagally, Rebellyous focuses on making plant-based meat better, faster, and cheaper through tech-backed solutions. “Next-gen meat machine” “During a tough economic slump, we are thrilled by this testament to investors’ belief in Rebellyous and price parity as a solution to sustained growth of plant-based meat in the marketplace,” said Lagally, who is also the company’s CEO. Rebellyous will use the significant investment to deploy its breakthrough equipment and build its Mock 2 — “next-gen meat machine”— capable of producing 10K lbs per hour, with one production line controlled by one person to bring …

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Beyond Burger

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US Judicial Panel Consolidates Five Beyond Meat Lawsuits Centred on False Advertising

The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has agreed to consolidate five false advertising lawsuits brought against Beyond Meat, at the request of the company. Plaintiffs include Don Lee Farms, a manufacturer of both plant-based and conventional meat that was formerly the exclusive supplier of Beyond Meat products. Three Beyond customers have also brought a civil class-action lawsuit against the company. The complaints all centre on the alleged misrepresentation of the amount of protein found in Beyond products. Don Lee Farms claims to have had the meat alternatives tested by an independent laboratory, which said the protein content was around 30% lower than stated on the packaging. The company also accuses Beyond of falsely claiming its products are free from synthetic ingredients, when in fact …

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Beyond Burger in Store

©Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat Hires Red Bull Exec as New Head of Marketing, Reveals New McDonald’s Nugget

Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) announced Thursday it is hiring Akerho “AK” Oghoghomeh, formerly Senior Vice President of Marketing at Red Bull, as its new head of global marketing. In addition, the company outlined a new series of strategic plans, including a more focused US retail strategy, to increase sales in 2023. Leading the brand As the VP of marketing for Red Bull North America, Oghoghomeh led advertising and other initiatives for Red Bull’s US business, a Beyond spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.  Oghoghomeh will join Beyond as the company seeks to reverse sales declines amid a highly challenging economic environment – data from market research firm IRI shows US sales of refrigerated meat alternatives fell by 15% in 2022.  Targeted strategy Seeking to reverse …

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The Live Green Co. percision fermentation plant, Chile

©The Live Green Co

Chile: The Live Green Co. Reveals New Precision Fermentation Division

Chilean food technology-focused The Live Green Co. has announced the launch of a new precision fermentation division to address food safety, health and climate change issues. Together with its proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning platform Charaka™, which researches and develops products and food additive replacements using only plants, it will develop licensed product formulations and cutting-edge scientific solutions in a faster, more cost-effective, sustainable and effective way. Precision fermentation will also enable Charaka™ to address proteomics and incorporate both plants and proteins into its database. “We want to be the catalyst” Carolina Carriel, product R&D leader at The Live Green Co. says: “At Live Green we want to be the catalyst that promotes better agricultural production practices, and the integration of new technologies such …

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Redefine Meat and Classic Fine Foods collaborate

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Redefine Meat Reports Record Veganuary With 70 New Restaurant Partnerships

Redefine Meat reports a record Veganuary with over 70 new food service customers onboarded across Europe. In the 12 months following Redefine’s impressive $135 million financing round, the Israeli company has seen continued success, bolstered by its partnership with Giraudi Meats, Europe’s leading importer of high-end meat, and further expedited by this year’s Veganuary campaign. The “New Meat” products have now launched commercially across the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Austria and Finland, as detailed below. Netherlands New restaurant partnerships in the Netherlands include Boterlap, Koks gemert, Wildschut, Luxembourgh and Shakshuk. Redefine commercially-launched Redefine Pulled Beef, Pulled Pork, and Redefine Bratwurst within the Dutch market. Germany Across Germany, hundreds of restaurants nationwide are serving New Meat following accelerated growth during Veganuary.  Mundfein, launching its first Redefine …

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Large Retail Expansion For Mighty Yum Plant-Based Lunch Kits

Mighty Yum™, creators of a range of plant-based lunch kits in the style of Lunchables, announces retail partnerships with Hungryroot, UNFI, Earth Fare, and over 600 convenience stores from this month. Mighty Yum lunch kits will now be available at the online Hungryroot store, with the expansion marking “one of our biggest partnerships so far,” according to the brand. In addition to Hungryroot, the lunch kits roll out into  UNFI, Earth Fare, Berkeley Bowl, Kehe, DPI, and over 600 convenience stores in the Northeast. Kid-sized gap in the market Mighty Yum™ was founded by fathers Marc Elkman and Howard Panes who have over 25 years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Noticing a gap in the market for healthy, nutritious foods for children, …

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abilion community investment round

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abillion Launches Community Investment Round After Seeing 20X Growth in Two Years

Sustainability-focused social media and e-commerce platform abillion has announced a community investment round on crowdfunding service Wefunder. The round will give retail investors and abillion’s one million members a chance to invest in the company — something which would normally only be possible following an IPO. Nicholas Cator, who has previously led funding rounds in Oatly, Chewy, and Lazada, will be the lead investor. 500 Global, which led abillion’s seed round, will also participate. The minimum investment amount is $100, and investors do not need to be accredited. The news comes as abillion reports that the platform has grown by twenty times over the past two years. The community now features more than 2.5 million user-generated product reviews, while 4,700 Software-as-a-Service customers are on recurring …

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MyBacon package

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MyForest Foods Triples MyBacon Availability, Grows Production and Prepares to Launch First Jerky

Mycelium innovator MyForest Foods Co. announces a series of major growth milestones, including the expanded availability of its flagship MyBacon and the launch of its second product, MyJerky, later this year. The company also reveals new progress in mycelium production and growing its R&D team. MyBacon, MyForest’s best-selling mycelium bacon product, is now available at 32 retailer and foodservice locations across New York and Massachusetts. The news follows MyBacon’s initial debut in New York City with two retail partners in November 2022. The current list of partners includes: A Matter of Health (Upper East Side), Amish Market (East Village), Brooklyn Fare (West Village), Elm Wellness (Greenwich Village), Food For Health (Upper East Side) and Garden Gourmet (The Bronx).  In addition, MyForest announces it is entering …

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Kinjabang noodles chef

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Kinjabang Noodles: How a Vegan Ramen Brand Became a Retail Success, Selling Out on Amazon

KinjaBang Noodles of Los Angeles states that, since its rather unconventional launch (see below), it has seen rapid growth, selling out on Amazon within hours and reaching the #1 spot in its category, and is now available at 10+ major chain retailers with a retail footprint of 1,500+ locations across the USA. Kinjaz, a “world-renowned” dance crew, choreographers for Justin Bieber and K-Pop Superstars and famous for NBC’s World of Dance and MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, launched the ramen brand in a remarkable pivot during lockdown, when Covid forced the group to close down all their dance studios and cancel all tours. Partnering with Jaback Group, a leading business development conglomerate in the CPG space, the group created KinjaBang Noodles, and leveraging a social …

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impossible burger

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Impossible Foods to Cut 20% of Staff, Plans to Launch Major Marketing Campaign in ’23

Impossible Foods is reportedly planning to reduce its workforce by one-fifth as the company contends with a difficult economic environment, as well as an overall slowdown of the plant-based category.  According to Bloomberg, the California-based company employs about 700 workers, which could lead to the layoff of over 130 employees. A source also revealed the company offered employees “voluntary separation payments and benefits” at the end of 2022.  Last fall, Impossible cut 6% of its workforce (about 50 employees) – at the time, CEO Peter McGuinness said the cuts were necessary to help the company re-organize in order to focus on future growth. With the latest round of layoffs, Impossible joins a growing list of companies, along with Beyond Meat, that have been forced to reduce …

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Nudj jackfruit burgers

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French Startup Nudj is Championing Jackfruit in France After Indian Voyage

Nudj founders, brothers Barthélemy Peuchot and Foucauld Peuchot, passionate about the evolution of consumption patterns, spent time racking their brains about how to change the food industry from within. During a trip to India, they discovered the jackfruit, a largely untapped resource in the west, yet a source of natural protein, rich in fibre and vitamins, and were inspired to launch their brand in 2020. The jackfruit is the oldest natural alternative to meat there is, say the founders. “Once cooked, the melting and stringy flesh of our tender jackfruit is very similar to that of pork or chicken. Indonesians have been cooking it in hot dishes for thousands of years. It’s our turn.” Replacing the “meat moment” Nudj describes itself as an impact startup, …

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