bee-free honey

Vegan honey

©Mellody
Products & Launches

MeliBio Launches Mellody, the ‘World’s First’ Realistic Plant-Based Honey

Honey innovator MeliBio announces it is launching Mellody, the “world’s first” plant-based honey brand to taste just like honey from bees. Created to provide restaurants and consumers with a sustainable alternative to bee-made honey,  Mellody is said to perform just like the original while improving the health of the planet.  Mellody recently debuted at Natural Products Expo West, and will be launching exclusively at US food service locations, including Baia (San Francisco), Little Choc Apothecary (NYC) and Motel Fried Chicken (Philadelphia), as well as Eleven Madison Park for World Bee Day. MeliBio states its plant-based honey addresses urgent issues facing both the commercial honey industry and natural ecosystems. Native bees are critical to food production and biodiversity conservation, but are under increased pressure due to …

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Organisations and Brands:
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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Organisations and Brands:
Fooditive develops bee-free honey

© Fooditive
Ingredients

Fooditive Develops Bee-Free Honey Using Precision Fermentation

Plant-based ingredient manufacturer Fooditive has revealed it is working on bee-free honey. The company has found a way of copying the DNA of honey and using fermentation enzymes to create a product that exactly mimics the conventional variety. The vegan honey is said to have the same texture, colour, properties, and health benefits as honey made by bees. First trials of the product are set to take place at the beginning of next year. According to Fooditive, the sequence modification process used to develop the honey could potentially be used to make alternatives to any animal product — something the company describes as a “revolutionary advancement”. LowSalt Another new innovation by Fooditive is LowSalt, an alternative to table salt which is lower in sodium and …

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Organisations and Brands:
BAIA Honey Panna Cotta

©BAIA/ MeliBio
Gastronomy & Food Service

MeliBio Partners with San Francisco’s BAIA to Debut Exclusive Bee-Free Honey Menu

MeliBio, a startup making real honey without bees, announces its groundbreaking honey is now available at San Francisco’s BAIA restaurant for a limited time. From July to September, guests at BAIA can order the startup’s award-winning honey in two exclusive summertime dishes. The new collaboration comes ahead of MeliBio’s official launch at select US restaurants later this year.  BAIA will feature the honey, which MeliBio says is indistinguishable in taste and texture from conventional honey, in two plant-based menu items – a bruschetta appetizer with tomato, chili and basil and bee-free honeycomb panna cotta.  Filling a “critical gap” in flavor According to BAIA Executive Chef Joshua Yap, the brand’s honey helps to fill a critical gap in flavor. “Many times while developing a new plant-based …

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Organisations and Brands:
MeliBio Darko Mandich

MeliBio CEO Darko Mandich ©MeliBio
Fermentation

MeliBio and Eleven Madison Park Showcase Bee-Free Honey for World Bee Day

In celebration of World Bee Day on May 20, MeliBio, the world’s first startup making real honey without bees, partnered with 3-Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park to serve bee-free honey to a distinguished crowd of investors, creators, and leaders in conservation and government.  A high-level luncheon The exclusive event took place at Eleven Madison Park’s world-renowned NYC restaurant, where two dozen invited guests were treated to an intimate cocktail reception and four-course lunch featuring MeliBio’s award-winning bee-free honey. Guests also received commemorative Eleven Madison Park gift bags with MeliBio honey samples. Founded in 2020 by Darko Mandich and Aaron Schaller, PhD., MeliBio combines precision fermentation with plant science to create a product identical in taste and consistency to honey derived from bees. In March, the …

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Organisations and Brands:
Bee-io honey CEO Ofir Dvash

CEO Ofir Dvash ©Bee-io

Company News

Bee-io: Israel’s Bee-Free Vegan Honey Set for Commercialization

As more consumers learn the truth about the destructive honey industry, various startups are offering vegan honey alternatives in the emerging space. One such company is Bee-io, an Israeli food tech company set to start cultured honey production on an industrial scale.  Honey alternatives such as agave or rice syrup have seen considerable growth over recent years, but the vegan honey segment is about offering consumers real honey without the bees. Bee-io is producing proteins in microorganisms using bioreactors and fermentation to mimic the processes used by bees in honey production.  Bee-io has been traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the symbol BHNY since May 2021 and recently merged with shell company Whitestone group. The company is set for rapid international growth and …

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