©Better Balance

Food & Beverage

Global Food Company Sigma Debuts ‘Better Balance’ Plant-Based Meats and Dairy in US

Sigma, a multi-billion dollar food company with leading brands in 18 countries, announces the launch of its new plant-based brand Better Balance in the US. Featuring plant-based shreds, grounds, and dairy-free cheese, Better Balance is currently available for foodservice channels, with future plans for additional products and direct-to-consumer sales. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Better Balance states its products focus on providing great taste, texture, nutrition and versatility. Offerings include: Shreds – Can be marinated as chicken, beef, pork, or fish. Grounds – For Bolognese pasta, plant-based meatballs, and hamburgers. Hot Dogs – Ideal for grilling and summer celebrations. Sour Cream and Cheese Sauce – For dairy-free queso and nachos. First launched in Spain and Mexico, Better Balance says its products are tailored to suit different …

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The Live Green Group

© The Live Green Group

Ingredients

Live Green Group and Sigma’s FoodForms Collaborate to Develop Plant-Based Food Additives

Plant-based foodtech startup Live Green Group is to partner with FoodForms, an internal startup by multinational food company Sigma. FoodForms was created to offer alternative food recipe solutions for third parties. Through the new collaboration, the two startups will develop replacements for common food additives. This will involve using Live Green’s AI/ML recommendation engine, Charaka™, which has a database comprising 15,000 plants and over 500,000 data points. Using this data, the search engine recommends plant-based ingredients to replace food additives. FoodForms will contribute consumer knowledge, food R&D expertise, and scaling capabilities. “This partnership demonstrates the potential of our technology to be the ‘Intel Inside’ of the food industry and be a key enabler in helping accelerate the industry’s transition to health and sustainability,” said The …

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Change Foods raises $15.3 million

© Change Foods

Investments & Finance

Change Foods Raises $15.3 Million in Record-Breaking Seed Funding Round

Change Foods raises $15.3 million to develop animal-free dairy proteins. US-Australian company Change Foods has raised $12 million in its seed extension funding round, bringing its total seed investment to $15.3 million. This sum is the largest ever seed raise for a precision fermentation company. The round was led by Route 66 Ventures, with participation from Upfield, Blue Horizon, Sigma, British soccer player Chris Smalling, and more. Additionally, Change Foods has signed strategic collaboration agreements with both Upfield and Sigma. Transforming the cheese business Upfield is the world’s largest plant-based foods producer, with a focus on dairy alternatives, while Sigma is a global food company with over $6.7 billion in annual revenues. These collaborations will allow for more rapid product development and scaling up, as …

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©Chocke Obleas

Products & Launches

Hugely Popular Mexican Snack Chocke-Obleas Rolls Out Across USA

Having noticed the snack’s enormous popularity and its potential in the USA, multinational food company Sigma Alimentos has launched amaranth-based snack Chocke Obleas (translates to Choco Wafers) into Hispanic grocers across San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and South Texas, with more US locations set to follow. The product is not intentionally listed or advertised as vegan, and appears to be an “accidentally vegan” product; indeed we had to double and triple-check but the website does state, in relatively small print, the word vegan on its ingredients page. Perhaps the brand is missing a trick here, or perhaps it is purposely not pushing for a vegan label in order to avoid being marginalised. It does, however, make clear that it is a keto-friendly snack. …

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