Interviews

Juan Benitez-Garcia_President-Global_Savory_ADM

Juan Benitez-Garcia © ADM

ADM: “We’re Looking Forward to Supporting the Future of the Alternative Protein and Plant-Based Space”

ADM has been in the alternative protein headlines almost constantly this year, announcing: $300 million investment to expand its alternative protein production facilities in Ilinois in April; a partnership with Eat Just in May to accelerate its cultivated line GOOD Meat; a new firm called ScaleUp Bio in Singapore earlier this month; and most recently, a strategic partnership with Benson Hill to scale ultra-high soy protein. Juan Manuel Benítez-García, President, …

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Rimi & Manav Thapar LoveRaw

Rimi & Manav Thapar © LoveRaw

LoveRaw: “We Believe in Our Strong Brand Identity, We Stand Head and Shoulders Above Our Competitors”

UK vegan chocolate pioneer LoveRaw has been reinventing confectionery since 2013, and along the way, founders Manav and Rimi Thapar have rejected offers on Dragons Den, developed multiple innovative products and sold millions of units in both mainstream and independent retail, gaining a loyal following from non-vegans, vegans and “nonvegan vegans” as coined by the entrepreneur couple. After the phenomenal success of the Ferrero Rocher-style “Nutty Chocolate Balls” which launched …

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Mark Kulsdom The Dutch Weed Burger

© The Dutch Weed Burger

The Dutch Weed Burger: “Seaweed is Considered the First Plant on The Planet and Has Been at the Foundation of Life as We Know It”

Amsterdam’s Dutch Weed Burger, which offers several alt seafood products enriched with seaweed and microalgae, says it is “Organizing a mutiny in the fast food industry, by showing politicians, big corporations, NGO’s, farmers and consumers that there are new opportunities on the horizon that are nourishing to nature, animals and mankind.” Originally founded by Mark Kulsom and Lisette Kreischer, co-author of Man Eat Plant and Dog Eat Plant, Dutch Weed …

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Shaunagh_Duncan, Oatly UK

Shaunagh Duncan, Head of Sustainability ©Oatly UK

Oatly: “It is Absolutely Achievable for the UK to Significantly Reduce its Consumption of Animal Products”

Shaunagh Duncan, Head of Sustainability at Oatly UK and Marisa Heath, Chief Executive, Plant-Based Food Alliance UK, spent some time discussing their insights into sustainability, the UK’s food strategy, the school milk campaign, and driving the systemic shift towards plant-based in order to avoid climate disaster. What is your opinion on the recent UK government’s food strategy? Shaunagh Duncan: It is incredibly disappointing that the Government’s food strategy lacked any …

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Chris Dammann Bluu Biosciences

Christian Dammann ©Bluu GmbH

Bluu Seafood: “By 2025 Cultivated Seafood Can Be Expected to Appear in Supermarkets”

Christian Dammann, PhD, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Bluu Seafood and VP at Cellular Agriculture Europe, is an internationally renowned expert in cellular agriculture and cultivated fish development as well as a former co-founder of BlueNalu. Bluu Seafood is one of the first cultivated seafood innovators in the European sphere and appointed Christian as its inaugural COO in 2021.  Christian focuses on process development, scaling-up, and – most crucially – …

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Andreas Herber ©BENEO

BENEO: “Our Survey Revealed 1 in 4 Consumers Worldwide Identify as Flexitarian, and Half Are Interested in Plant-Based”

Leading functional ingredients producer BENEO has hit the vegconomist headlines recently with its €50 million investment into a new faba bean processing plant in Germany, as well as its acquisition of Meatless BV, a Dutch producer of texturized plant proteins with over 15 years of experience. We interviewed Andreas Herber, Member of the Executive Board at BENEO, to discuss the company’s plant-based future.  Who is BENEO and what does the company …

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Jennifer O'Brien Plantruption

Jennifer O'Brien © Plantruption

Sea & Believe: “After Six Months, We Achieved Our Goal: a Cod-Like Product That Flakes Like Real Fish”

IndieBio alt-seafood startup Sea & Believe recently developed what could be the first plant-based whole cod filet to flake just like real fish. With a focus on Irish seaweed and microalgae, the female-led team is researching and collaborating with universities and food technologists to create plant-based seafood that’s close in taste and texture to the real deal. We talked everything seaweed with Founder Jennifer O Brien. How and why was …

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Henrik Hetzer, Loryma

Henrik Hetzer Managing Director Loryma GmbH ©Crepel&Deiters

Loryma: “It Continues to Inspire Me” – Interview With a Wheat Enthusiast

We talked to Henrik Hetzer about the future of plant-based food. As the managing director of Loryma, Hetzer says he is convinced that his company must continue to broaden the scope of its meat alternatives in order to maintain sustainability goals,  both for the business and the future of the planet. Loryma, a subsidiary of the Crespel & Deiters Group, specialises in the production of wheat proteins, wheat starches, extrudates …

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Matias Muchnick CEO - Notco

© NotCo

NotCo: “Our Dream as a Company is to Reinvent the Food Industry”

Neither NotCo, nor its young CEO Matías Muchnick will need much introduction for our readers in the plant-based business industry. NotCo has been causing a stir here since its very early days. And as our readers will know, this disruptor became the first Chilean Unicorn company last year in a funding round which included investors such as Lewis Hamilton and Roger Federer, valuing NotCo at $1.5 billion. Matías Muchnick went …

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Neil Rankin © Symplicity Foods

Symplicity Foods: “Food Made by Nature is Always Better. Nature Does Things Better All Round”

Headed by Neil Rankin, the trained butcher and London steakhouse chef who switched to making 100% clean vegan meat; Symplicity Foods is a clean label food company that specialises in “helping chefs, home cooks, caterers and restaurants to reduce their reliance on meat”. Becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability, Rankin took the initial approach of trying to use every part of the animal when creating his food. Eventually became “disenchanted with …

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Stephanie Michelsen

Stephanie Michelsen © Aqua Cultured Foods

Jellatech: Working to “Harness the Power of Cell Ag to Reduce the Dependency on Animal-Derived Proteins”

This Monday, New Carolina’s Jellatech announced a massive breakthrough, revealing what the company claims to be the “world’s first cell based collagen”. The news comes less than two years after Jellatech was born, and shortly follows the female-led team securing a strategic investment from Canada’s CULT Food Science. Founder and CEO Stephanie Michelsen and the Jellatech team gave us some deeper insights into the milestone and the next steps in …

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Caroline Wilschut, Meatable

Caroline Wilschut © Meatable

Meatable: “Championing a New Way of Producing Meat Without Hurting Animals, People, or the Planet”

Netherlands-based Meatable is growing “real, tasty meat without harming animals or the planet,” stating, “It isn’t like meat, it is meat”. Last year the company raised $47 million in a Series A round, bringing the company’s total funding to $60 million, and this February hired cultivated meat industry leaders Hans Huistra as COO, Jef Pinxsteren as VP of Development, and Cees de Jong as Chairman of the Board. Caroline Wilschut, …

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Aviv Wolff

Aviv Wolff ©Remilk

Remilk: “Driving Transformational Change Throughout the Dairy Industry”

Remilk has been hitting the headlines consistently in recent months: following a $120 million oversubscribed Series B round this January, the Israeli foodtech team announced plans to construct what will reportedly be the world’s largest full-scale precision fermentation facility in Denmark. If that wasn’t enough, just this month Remilk revealed a groundbreaking development in its journey, securing GRAS status and allowing the sale of its non-animal, real-dairy products in the …

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Chris & Sebastiano, ForGood

Chris Smalling & Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni

ForGood: “We Are Committed to Doing Everything in Our Power to End Animal Suffering”

When international footballer Chris Smalling, brand builder Rebecca Wheeler, and vegan investor Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni realized their values aligned, the three game-changers came together to launch ForGood, a new sustainability-focused VC consultancy with a global vision.  On the hunt for disruptive, high-growth business ideas working to address climate change, ForGood is a purpose-driven collective of investors committed to scaling ideas to build a better future. We spoke with all three …

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Violife Le Rond Camembert

©Violife

Violife: “Continuing to Develop Flavors and Formats That Are First-of-their Kind in the Plant-Based Cheese Space”

Violife became part of the Upfield portfolio following the acquisition of Arivia in 2020, creating the largest plant-based consumer food products company in the world. Violife cheeses are available in more than 50 countries and are most widely available in the UK, US, and mainland Europe. We spoke with General Manager Andy Reichgut, who is responsible for building business in US retail and food service channels. Reichgut is a leader …

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