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ProVeg webinar

© ProVeg International

Fairs & Events

ProVeg Webinar: The Power of Plant-Based Menus

ProVeg International is hosting a webinar titled The power of plant-based menus on 27th September, 11:00 am (CET). The discussion is aimed at food-service professionals who are looking to increase and optimise plant-based choices in the food-service industry.  ProVeg will be joined by an expert panel which includes: Dean Wilson Hartles, Director of Food and Drink Development at The Restaurant Group UK; Claire Roper, a Food Brands Marketing Consultant; and Lauren Spokes, Head of Sales, UK Foodservice at Heura Foods. In recent years, food service businesses have been increasing their vegan offerings to reach their sustainability goals and to meet the growing demand of consumers who are reducing their animal consumption. Last year, UK-based chain Wagamama pledged to make 50% of its menus plant-based to …

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Vegan Ice cream from Australia

© Streets Ice Cream
Company News

Now Vegans Can Enjoy Iconic Aussie Golden Gaytime Ice Cream

Streets, the Australian ice cream brand owned by multinational Unilever, recently launched a vegan version of Golden Gaytime, an ice cream snack sold in the country since 1959.  Streets’ decision to make a non-dairy version of its iconic ice cream comes in response to a petition by consumers asking the company for a vegan-friendly alternative. Annie Lucchitti,  Streets’ spokesperson commented on the launch, “Australians have been buying more plant-based products than ever, and we are thrilled we could bring another Aussie classic into this domain too. Golden Gaytime has been around for over 60 years, and re-creating this iconic product had to maintain the delicious expectations that come with our classic treat.” Vegan Golden Gaytime ready for summer The original Golden Gaytime is a vanilla …

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Terry's Chocolate Orange Plant Based Bar

© Terry's Chocolate Orange
Sweets & Snacks

Terry’s Chocolate Orange Launches Vegan Society-Certified Plant-Based Bar

UK brand Terry’s Chocolate Orange has launched a plant-based version of its popular milk chocolate bar. The bar has been certified by The Vegan Society, confirming that the ingredients and production process are free of animal exploitation. It also comes in fully recyclable packaging. After conducting extensive R&D to get the closest possible taste to the original bar, Terry’s settled on rice syrup as a replacement for dairy. Real orange oil gives the chocolate the brand’s classic flavour. “We want Terry’s to be accessible to as many people as possible, so launching a plant-based Terry’s bar was a must for us,” said Victoria MacDonald, Brand Manager at Terry’s Chocolate Orange. “We absolutely did not want to compromise on taste, and after months of development, we …

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TissenBio Farms

© TissenBio Farms
Investments & Acquisitions

Korea’s TissenBio Farms Raises $1.6M for Alt Meat With Marbling

Korean foodtech startup TissenBio Farms has raised 2.2 billion won ($1.6 million) in its pre-Series A funding round. Using 3D bioprinting, TissenBio produces whole cuts of cultivated and plant-based meat with marbling that replicates animal meat. The startup is a spinoff from Thyssen Biopharmaceuticals, which created the proprietary technology to bioprint organs for transplants but soon recognised its potential for use in the alt meat sector. TissenBio has also created a range of edible bio-inks, which add flavour, texture, and nutritional value to meat alternatives. Costing just $0.33 per 100 grams, the inks are suitable for use on a large scale. TissenBio’s pre-Series A round was led by Envisioning Partners, with further contributions from FuturePlay and Stonebridge Ventures. The startup will use the funding to …

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Fermented shrimp dumpling

©Aqua Cultured Foods
Fermentation

Aqua Cultured Develops Minced Seafood Dumplings for Asian Go-To Market Partners

Alt seafood startup Aqua Cultured Foods announces it has created a minced dumpling filling for its future go-to-market Asian food partners. One of the company’s new options is a bulk shrimp alternative that can be seasoned, packaged and co-branded by retailers or distributors. Aqua, which produces mycoprotein-based seafood using fermentation, is primarily known for developing whole-muscle cut, sushi-quality filets. However, minced seafood dumplings present another lucrative and highly accessible market opportunity. As dietary staples in countries like China, South Korea, and Japan, frozen dumplings – known variously as mandu, gyoza or jiaozi – make up a $5.8Bn global market, and its value is expected to grow to $10Bn by the end of 2027.  Unlike whole cuts of high-grade fish, dumplings can utilize off-cuts, trim and …

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Blue Farm founders

© Blue Farm

Investments & Acquisitions

Berlin’s Blue Farm Secures Approx €3M for “Radically Redeveloping” Oat Milk

Berlin-based start-up Blue Farm, producer of award-winning powered oat drinks, announces it has closed a round of funding to the tune of around €3 million. Since its launch in early 2021, Blue Farm has sold enough oat drink powder to create over 750,000 litres of oat drink. The Oat Base Bio was awarded the Vegan Food Award for Best Plant Drink 2022 by PETA. Blue Farm states it is “radically redeveloping milk” with its powdered plant-based products, which include oat bases and oat latte bases. By eliminating water and selling only the fermented plant base, the company is significantly reducing the footprint of oat milk. Blue Farm is able to deliver 8L of plant milk, free of additives, directly to the consumer’s mailbox. The round …

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Silk Nextmilk Minnesota Fair

©Silk

Marketing & Media

Silk Nextmilk Wins Over Thousands of Dairy Fans at Minnesota State Fair

Plant-based milk brand Silk recently attended the Minnesota State Fair to offer samples of Nextmilk, a “dairy-like” beverage created to offer the same taste and texture as traditional cow’s milk.  Silk, which is owned by Danone, states it was the only plant-based brand providing samples at the event, which ranks as the largest state fair in the US by average daily attendance. The company sampled Nextmilk to over 44,000 attendees over 5 days – equating to 12 people per minute –  and reports that 90% of tasters submitted highly positive feedback.  According to Silk, reviewers praised Nextmilk’s creamy taste and texture, and admired the product for being lactose-free. Silk’s presence at the fair is even more noteworthy considering dairy is a top agricultural product in …

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TiNDLE Next Gen Foods

TiNDLE ©Next Gen Foods
Company News

Next Gen Foods Names Chicago as New US Headquarters and Opens R&D Lab at The Hatchery

Next Gen Foods, the makers of plant-based chicken brand TiNDLE, announces it has established new headquarters in Chicago, and is opening its first US-based R&D and innovation center at The Hatchery Chicago, one of America’s largest food business incubators. The brand is also expanding the availability of TiNDLE at restaurants throughout the city.  According to Next Gen, The Hatchery will serve as a starting point for TiNDLE’s product development as it scales up into new US sales channels, including food service and retail. As an R&D facility, the center will also allow early-stage exploration of Next Gen’s new plant-based products, leveraging insights from both consumers and operators to expand the brand’s product line. “We are excited to welcome Next Gen Foods and TiNDLE to The Hatchery …

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Darko Mandich

Darko Mandich © MeliBio

Interviews

MeliBio: “I Dream of MeliBio Becoming One of the Most Influential Food Companies Driving Innovation”

MeliBio is giving bees a break from honey production. This Oakland, California company, headed by Serbian CEO Darko Mandich, has been in the vegconomist news feed regularly since early 2021 and is busy with its mission to provide a 1:1 replacement for bee-made honey. After MeliBio’s initial raise, the company revealed what it claims to be the world’s first real honey made without bees as a plant-based ingredient for B2B customers and food service, in October of last year. In March of 2022, MeliBio secured a further $5.7 million to commercialize its first line of bee-free honey. Since then it has begun partnering with fine dining restaurants, including the world-famous Eleven Madison Park. We were overdue a chat with Darko to find out more about …

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Woman drinking oat milk

© DSM
Ingredients

DSM Launches ‘Delvo Plant Go’ to Help Oat-Based Dairy Manufacturers Reach Sustainability Goals

DSM announces the launch of Delvo®Plant Go, an enzymatic solution developed to help manufacturers achieve a simpler, sustainable, and efficient oat drink production process. DSM claims that its new solution simplifies the production of oat-based products and reduces hydrolysis time by up to 30%, thus saving energy.  Ben Rutten, global business manager for milk & plant-based dairy alternatives at DSM, said: “The oat-based dairy alternatives category is in a sustained period of high growth. Now is the right time for producers to simplify their production processes to keep pace with this fast-moving market.” Manufacturers of oat-based dairy alternatives face many challenges. There is a need to increase capacity to keep up with high demand. Producers also need to simplify processes and improve efficiencies to remain profitable in …

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©Rewe Group
Retail & E-Commerce

Germany’s REWE Supermarkets Now Offer Vegan Products at Service Counters in 50 Stores

Following the news from last week that one location of the German Rewe supermarket had opened a vegan meat counter, today the retailer announces that, from now on, several vegan products will be available at service counters in selected REWE stores. With 3,700 stores and a turnover of 26.7 billion euros, REWE Markt GmbH is one of the leading companies in German food retailing. According to a press release, this new service once again underscores REWE’s strategic claim to consistently support vegan nutrition and to offer consumers appropriate product ranges. The vegan selection in the service counters includes plant-based alternatives for meat, sausage, cheese and fish. For example, vegan salami and vegan liver sausage, vegan barbecue skewers and vegan steak, various matured cheese alternatives and …

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Squeaky Bean Egg

©Squeaky Bean

Politics & Law

£20M Earmarked for Alt Protein Research and Development in the UK

The Biotechnical and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the UK’s biggest public funder of non-medical bioscience, states in its 2022-2025 strategic delivery plan that it will jointly invest at least £20M for developing alternative, more sustainable protein sources.  The funds will be used for capacity building, research, innovation, and business-led commercialisation of alternative and more sustainable protein products states BBSRC.  The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI), the leading NGO advancing alternative proteins, welcomed the announcement: “It’s great to see one of Britain’s biggest funding bodies investing in research that will help make sustainable proteins more appealing and affordable and help to establish the UK as a world leader in this growing industry.” Objective 4: world-class innovation The UK has the potential to access the global sustainable protein …

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Plantbased Business Hour

The Rise of Chickpea. CEO of Innovopro, Taly Nechushtan

CEO Taly Nechushtan of Innovopro is on The Plantbased Business Hour with Elysabeth Alfano. Want to know all things chickpea? They discuss the world of chickpeas and how this ingredient is going to change the landscape of the plant-based protein industry. Specifically, they discuss The nutritional properties of chickpea for both people and soil? What are the demands for chickpea and are they consumer or industry driven? Which plant-based trend is here to stay? How are plant-based proteins, business strategies in the industry, and sustainability initiatives woven together? Taly’s predictions for the ingredients market. Here is a short clip and transcript from their conversation. Podcast here. Display content from YouTube Click here to display content from YouTube. Learn more in YouTube’s privacy policy. Always display content from YouTube …

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Plant-based burger

@ Photographer Yuval Gruda
Company News

Food Tech Startup Meala Develops Vegetable Protein to Replace Methylcellulose 

Many food formulators working with plant-based alternatives are looking for binders and gums that count as clean-label ingredients to add to their products. Meala, a food tech startup born in Israel, recently revealed it has developed a proprietary platform that creates ‘functionally activated proteins’ designed to replace methylcellulose and gums widely used as binding and gelling agents. The startup claims that its proteins bring the possibility of upgrading to clean label most plant-based meat alternatives while boosting its sensory attributes. Meala was founded in 2020 by Product Innovation Specialist Hadar Ekhoiz Razmovich, Dr. Tali Feldman Sivan, a serial entrepreneur and business strategist, and Liran Gruda, an expert in culinary arts and molecular cuisine. The startup’s mission is to make healthy vegan products and break down the …

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Taco Bell Carne Asada Juicy Soft Taco

©Taco Bell
Fast Food

Beyond Meat & Taco Bell Collab Finally Revealed: Beyond Carne Asada Steak

Today, Taco Bell USA reveals the results of its long-anticipated collaboration with Beyond Meat with the Beyond Carne Asada Steak. Described as a “category-disrupting” protein, the Beyond Carne Asada Steak was created by the Taco Bell Test Kitchen and Beyond Meat’s team of culinary innovators. Intended to complement Taco Bell’s existing menu, the steak will be featured in the brand’s quesadilla, but can be enjoyed in any of the chain’s customizable menu items. The steak will launch next month at 50 locations in the Dayton, Ohio area, and represents a first-of-its-kind innovation for the chain, which is also currently testing a proprietary plant-based beef in Birmingham, Alabama stores.  Additionally, the Carne Asada will be priced the same as Taco Bell’s original steak quesadilla, and there …

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