Challah Bread/ Baked Bread

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Food & Beverage

Shiru Partners with Puratos to Develop Next-Gen Egg Replacer for Baking

California biotech startup Shiru announces a new partnership with Puratos, a leading innovator of bakery goods, to help evaluate and scale prototypes for a next-generation egg replacement.  The partnership will focus on Shiru’s proprietary discovery platform Flourish, which identifies proteins that offer the same taste and texture properties as animal-based ingredients. Shiru will then leverage Puratos’ expertise in bakery, patisserie and chocolate ingredients to create prototypes of plant-based baked goods.  In order to target proteins, Flourish uses bioinformatics and machine learning to search through hundreds of millions of functional proteins found in nature. Once it locates a possible candidate with desirable properties, Shiru uses precision fermentation and high-throughput screening techniques to produce more of the proteins, which are then evaluated for their performance in baked goods.    …

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Dr Ranjani Varadan

Dr Ranjani Varadan, ©prweb

Company News

Shiru Appoints Dr. Ranjani Varadan, Ex of Impossible Foods, as Chief Scientific Officer

Shiru Inc. of California today announces the onboarding of  Dr Ranjani Varadan as its first Chief Scientific Officer. Dr Vardan was the first scientist hired by Patrick Brown at Impossible Foods where she served from 2011-2021 in roles including Vice President of Strategic Ingredients and Vice President of Research and Development. Founded in 2019, Shiru is focused on the discovery of naturally occurring proteins that can replace animal-based products. The company’s Flourish™ discovery platform combines precision fermentation, machine learning, and high-throughput screening to develop high-value functional ingredients. All-star lineup The news closely follows Shiru’s hiring of three new advisors including former president and CEO of Tyson Foods Dean Banks. Rachel Konrad, also previously of Impossible Foods, sits on the Board of Directors. Uniquely qualified “Ranjani …

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Company News

Ex Tyson Foods CEO Joins Former Impossible Foods’ Rachel Konrad at California’s Shiru

Shiru, a biotech startup that creates novel plant-based ingredients for the global food industry, appoints three new advisors including former president and CEO of Tyson Foods Dean Banks. Banks joins a list of industry veterans at the company including Rachel Konrad, ex-Chief Communications Officer of Impossible Foods. Founded in 2019 and based in Emeryville, California, Shiru aims to reduce the world’s reliance on animals for food by providing sustainable, plant-based alternatives. The company is currently developing ingredients for gelation, egg replacement, and structured fats functions. Shiru raised $17 million in a Series A round last October and was previously named winner of the DSM Meat Replacement Innovation Challenge. The three additions as announced today will comprise the Shiru advisory board, while Rachel Konrad along with …

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Shiru

The Shiru Team ©Shiru

Investments & Finance

Californian Biotech Startup Shiru Makes Waves in Alt Protein, Securing $17M in Series A

Californian biotech startup Shiru has closed a $17 million Series A funding round to develop novel plant-based food ingredients using machine-learning algorithms and precision biofermentation. Shiru’s technology allows food companies to incorporate next-generation plant-based proteins without in-house biotech facilities. “Shiru’s goal is to make it simple and cost-effective for every food company, from multinational conglomerates to innovative startups, to do the right thing for people and the planet.” Shiru’s patent-pending discovery platform is set up to produce plant-based alternatives to eggs, meat, dairy, and gelatin, in a fundamentally different manner to conventional plant-based production. Having reverse-engineered the most popular ingredients from the molecular level, Shiru claims to have achieved the same levels of taste, texture, gelation, foaming, emulsification, and binding abilities as animal proteins. Founded …

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