Two Japanese food tech companies — Next Meats and its spinoff Dr. Foods — were finalists in the Alternative Proteins – Cultivated Meat category at the FoodNiche Summit held at Cornell Tech University in New York.
At the event, they presented their sustainable versions of the world’s top three delicacies: vegan foie gras, vegan caviar, and the recently launched vegan truffle butter.
“We were delighted to be chosen as finalists and given such a prestigious opportunity”
In its eighth year, the FoodNiche Summit aims to bridge the gap between academic scientific discoveries and marketplace innovations, presenting an excellent expansion opportunity for Dr. Foods and Next Meats.
According to the announcement, the Japanese finalists seek local distribution partners to enter the New York market with their plant-based products. “The companies would like to team up together with industry-leading American companies to scale up the international vegan business from Japan to high-end B2B food markets in the US,” it says.
Ethical delicacies
Both companies are based in Tokyo and specialize in developing premium plant-based food products. They focus on sustainable food production and aim to find solutions to endangered resources and unethical production methods. For example, Dr. Foods leverages a Japanese traditional fermented food culture called “koji” to develop its popular plant-based foie gras.
Since September 2023, Dr. Foods has expanded its vegan caviar and foie gras offering, reportedly selling 160,000 servings of foie gras across 28 Japanese hotels.
The company has conducted tasting sessions for all three products in the US, Singapore, the Netherlands (where vegan foie gras and caviar are available), Thailand, and the UAE, receiving positive feedback. As a result, Dr. Foods plans to intensify export efforts to hotels and restaurants globally, the products’ target market.
Listings and market presence
Dr. Foods is listed on the OTCQB Market in the US as “DRFS.” Meanwhile, Next Meats, a subsidiary of Next Meats Holdings, is said to have been the first Japanese plant-based company to gain a listing on the American OTC market (as “NXMH”) and already offers a range of products in the US and Canada.
Next Meats has already introduced 33 alt-protein products, including the “world’s first” plant-based Yakiniku Short Rib and Skirt Steak. The company also offers a plant-based Beef Bowl, Chicken, Burger Patties, Pork, Tuna, and Milk, specializing in Japanese-style products.
Koichi Ishizuka, CEO at Next Meats Holdings, shared, “We were delighted to be chosen as finalists and given such a prestigious opportunity to showcase our products at Cornell Tech University in New York, where we are aiming to distribute ‘VEGAN FOIE GRAS,’ ‘VEGAN CAVIAR,’ and ‘VEGAN TRUFFLE BUTTER’ in the coming months.”
