Massachusetts

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Manufacturing & Technology

Report Finds Boston Could Become One of the Leading Centers for Food Technology

According to a study by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, food tech companies are increasingly choosing to locate in the greater Boston area. The report also finds that 70 foodtech companies raised more than $8 billion in capital between 2019 and 2022. The Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute (FNII) report, titled Boston Foodtech 2023, highlights Boston as a leader in this growing field, with 138 food tech companies, 14 organizations and more than 13,000 employees. The region is positioned to attract and retain top talent because the number of STEM graduates in Massachusetts is greater than any other state.  World-class cluster “This world-class cluster is seeded by Boston’s strong ecosystems in related industries, especially biotech, robotics, software, and data …

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Healthy Kelp Meatballs Bowl

©North Coast Seafoods
Products & Launches

North Coast Seafoods Launches “Trendy and Delicious” Kelp Meatballs in US

US seafood company North Coast Seafoods announces its Kelp Meatballs are now available online and for US foodservice, including K-12 school systems and higher education institutions.  North Coast describes the Kelp Meatballs, which can also be sold as Nuggets, as a “one-of-a-kind” plant-based food that is delicious and easy to prepare. Made primarily with ocean-grown kelp,  the meatballs also feature ingredients like green chickpeas, brown rice and spices, and are naturally vegan and gluten-free.  To create the product, North Coast partnered with Atlantic Sea Farms to procure kelp grown in the cold waters off the Gulf of Maine.  “Chefs and foodservice operators ask me all the time, ‘What’s new out there?,” said Chef Andrew Wilkinson, North Coast’s chef director of research and development. “My immediate …

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Ark Biotech TEA for cultivated meat

© Ark Biotech
Manufacturing & Technology

Ark Biotech: TEA Demonstrates How New Biomanufacturing Tech Can Bring Cultivated Meat to the Masses

US company Ark Biotech has launched a techno-economic analysis — Total Addressable Market (TEA) — claiming it demonstrates how new biomanufacturing tech can reduce the costs of cultivated meat to reach price parity with industrial animal meat. “The TEA offers a current perspective on where the industry has got to thus far and what is necessary for further progress,” says the company.  Ark Biotech is a US B2B company supplying the cultivated meat industry with industrial-scale bioreactors, operating systems, and services. Based in Westwood, Massachusetts, the company was founded in 2021 by Yossi Quint, arguing that a bottleneck in the production system is stopping the technology from bringing cultivated meat to the masses.  Ark Biotech claims it is designing next-generation technology for the cultivated meat industry at lower …

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Motif FoodWorks Burger with HEMAMI

©Motif FoodWorks
Company News

Motif FoodWorks Partners with IngredientWerks to Explore Creating Animal-Free Heme From Corn

Food tech startup Motif FoodWorks announces it is partnering with IngredientWerks, an agtech ingredients company, to develop high-value plant-based proteins for the alt-protein market. Through the research partnership, the two companies say they will explore new ways to optimize heme protein production through molecular farming.  According to Motif, the partners have begun an exploratory study aimed at recreating Motif’s HEMAMI™ ingredient using corn. HEMAMI is used to give plant-based meats the same flavor and aroma as animal-based meat, and is said to be bioidentical to the bovine heme protein found in beef. IngredientWerks will aim to produce Motif’s HEMAMI using broad-acre crops such as corn. If successful, Motif says enabling crop protein production in its ingredient strategy will lower both production costs and the carbon footprint …

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Tender Pulled Pork Sandwich

©Tender
Food & Beverage

Meet Tender: A Startup Using Cotton Candy-Like Technology For “Superior” Plant-Based Pork

Tender, a plant-based meat startup in Boston, is using old-school technology to create ultra-realistic alternatives to pork and other structured cuts of meat.  Utilizing processes similar to those found in cotton candy machines, the company spins plant proteins into fibers to create products it says are “just better” in taste and texture than most plant-based offerings on the market.  “Our goal is to create superior quality in alternative meats”, Tender co-founder and CEO Christopher Chantre told the Boston Globe. “That’s really what we’re going after – is that next-level quality of texture.” First developed in a Harvard laboratory, Tender officially launched in 2020 in Greentown Labs in Somerville, MA. The company was initially founded as a graduate project by Chantre, who reportedly spent nine years …

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HARVEST-BOWL-Vegan Bowls For All

© Veggie Grill
Delivery Services

Veggie Grill Launches ‘Vegan Bowls For All’ Delivery Concept at 29 Locations

Health-forward chain Veggie Grill today announces the launch of a delivery service called Vegan Bowls For All which will operate from 29 Veggie Grill locations in California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington. Veggie Grill has partnered with all of the most popular delivery platforms for the new concept, such as Doordash, Postmates, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, to deliver lunch and dinner seven days a week in each area. The fully vegan service debuts with six customizable whole food plant-based bowls, with a wide choice of vegan toppings. Options include: the Cali-Grains Bowl, Korean Kimchi Bowl, Chickpea Curry Bowl, Thai Coconut Curry Bowl, Harvest Bowl and Ranchero Bowl. Salad options are also available for delivery to include the Classic Romaine Caesar, Power Greens Caesar, Catalina …

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PlantPub Boston Burger

© PlantPub
Society

Matthew Kenney Expanding Boston’s PlantPub Brand With Massive New Fenway Location

Matthew Kenney Cuisine, in partnership with PlantPub co-founders, announces it is opening the brand’s second Boston location, PlantPub Fenway, on July 15. Located steps from the famed Fenway Park stadium, the 250-seat venue will soon become Boston’s largest plant-based restaurant.  Matthew Kenney and PlantPub say they are on a mission to redefine the modern pub by offering sports fans delicious and sustainable cuisine in a familiar, fun setting. Kenney’s company also plans to open additional PlantPub locations across Boston and beyond in the near future.  Created by craft beer entrepreneur Pat McAuley and chef Mary Dumont, the original PlantPub debuted in Cambridge, MA in the fall of 2021. The 8,000 sq. ft.  Fenway venue is a massive new flagship location, with expansive casual dining and …

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Plant Pub burger

©PlantPub
Gastronomy & Food Service

PlantPub and Matthew Kenney to Open World’s Largest Vegan Sports Bar in Boston

PlantPub, a 100% plant-based sports bar, is to open a new 8,000 sq. ft. location in Boston, MA this spring, as a collaboration between celebrity chef Matthew Kenney and PlantPub’s co-owners, including prolific vegan investor Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni. Speaking to vegconomist today, Cossia Castiglioni commented: “We created PlantPub with Pat McAuley back in 2019. Based on a pop-up concept he had tested, we agreed that serving excellent vegan pub food in Boston would be a great idea. Then we were lucky to sign up Wonder Chef Mary Dumont. We opened in Cambridge, and immediately after Matthew Kenney (we are partners in all of his ventures) asked me to join us and expand. And here we are!” The Boston Globe states that, upon opening, the 250+ …

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©The Live Green Co
Investments & Finance

Live Green Co. Raises $7M, Will Relocate From Chile to Boston MA

The Live Green Co has raised $7 million in Pre-Series A funding to make food cleaner and more sustainable with AI-driven plant-based ingredients. The company reports it has increased revenue by 10x since 2020. Founded in Chile in 2018, the food tech startup hopes to usher in “Plant-Based 2.0” –  shifting alternative protein from removing animal products to also eliminating processed ingredients and plastic packaging. To fulfill this bold mission, The Live Green Co is relocating to Boston, MA where the company will develop the AI capacities of Charaka, its proprietary intelligence platform. An AI recommendation engine Through Charaka, The Live Green Co leverages machine learning and the “ancestral wisdom” of plant nutrition to analyze thousands of plants and plant combinations. This information is used …

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Motif Foodworks

©Motif Foodworks
Products & Launches

Motif Foodworks Launches HEMAMI Heme Ingredient After FDA Approval

Motif Foodworks, a Boston-based food technology company, today announced the launch of its HEMAMI heme ingredient following GRAS approval by the FDA. Motif’s revolutionary HEMAMI,  which is the company’s debut product, is now available for large-scale distribution. Motif Foodworks specializes in developing products that improve the taste and texture of plant-based foods. HEMAMI marks a major milestone for the plant-based industry as the only commercially available heme ingredient. While startups like Triton Algae and Yemoja have successfully experimented with algae-based heme in labs, those innovations have not yet hit the market. Heme: The Magical Ingredient Heme is the iron-bearing protein molecule scientists say provides meat with its meaty taste. Heme gained overnight fame, of course, as the star ingredient in the Impossible Burger, where it …

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Mike Leonard Motif Foodworks

Mike Leonard ©Motif Foodworks
Interviews

Motif Foodworks: “Emerging Technologies and Innovations in this Space Demonstrate That Animal-Free Options Will Only Get Better and Better”

Motif FoodWorks is an ingredients company which uses food science to uncover what makes the food we love so good—at a molecular level—and recreate those attributes without using animal products. The company partners with food and nutrition companies to make their plant-based products better tasting, more nutritious, and better for the planet.

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motif-foodworks
Company News

Motif FoodWorks To Open New Lab Space, Selects Boston’s Seaport District as Headquarters

Motif FoodWorks is an ingredient innovation company specialised in “making plant-based food better tasting and more nutritious with animal-free ingredients and deep food science expertise.” Yesterday the company announced it has selected the Innovation and Design Building in Boston’s Seaport District as its new company headquarters, with the move expected by June 2020.

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