Finnish plant-based company Meeat Food Tech has won Best New/StartUp Business at FoodBev’s World Food Innovation Awards.
Meeat was also shortlisted in the Best Ingredient Innovation and Best Packaging categories, with the judges impressed by the company’s wide range of 50 innovative products. Founded by a group of former meat industry professionals, Meeat offers ready meals and cooking sauces alongside meat alternatives such as hot dogs and nuggets.
“Innovation and scaling are in our DNA”
The company’s hero ingredient is fermented fava beans, leveraged for their neutral flavour, sustainability, and high protein content. Describing its products as “rehab for meat eaters”, Meeat plans to rapidly expand throughout Europe, Asia, and the US after raising €8 million last year. The company also recently announced plans to provide a partnership option to transform meat factories into plant-based operations.
“A great achievement”
Other plant-based winners in the World Food Innovation Awards include Strong Roots for its carbon labelling, Lypid for its animal-like vegan fats, and MyForest Foods for its mycelium-based bacon.
“We are super excited to win Best New/StartUp Business at the World Food Innovation Awards,” said Annette Kauppinen, CMO at Meeat Food Tech. “It’s a great achievement for a young company to win such a prestigious award. We’ve created our company just two years ago and we already have around 50 plant-based products in our portfolio. Innovation and scaling are in our DNA, together with sustainability, and we believe this kind of agility is needed when consumers are looking for less processed and healthier options. We are already the market leader in plant-based meat alternatives in Finland, and we look forward to launching into new markets soon.”
