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Handtmann to Showcase Latest Automation Solutions for Food Production at Interpack

February 1, 2023

Global technology solutions provider for the food processing industry, Handtmann, will exhibit numerous automation solutions at interpack 2023, hall 5 stand C38, which will take place from May 4th to 10th, in Düsseldorf, Germany. The German manufacturer, which regularly presents its integrative solutions for food production at events such as the IFFA, where it showcased vegan tex mex bites or the Anuga FoodTec, where it presented its latest technologies, announced it will carry out live demonstrations of some of its automated machinery at the coming interpack fair. From mixing to the package Many “smart” digital solutions developed in-house, specifically adapted to various production processes to enable cross-process automation, are part of Handtmann’s modern processing methods, which cover all steps from product preparation, processing, and packaging; “from mixing …

Organisations and Brands:Handtmann

©Tender

Food & Beverage

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

December 14, 2022

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 …

©The Kraft Heinz Not Company

Products & Launches

Kraft Heinz and NotCo Reveal First Joint Products: Animal-Free Cheese and Mayo

October 26, 2022October 25, 2022

Kraft Heinz Co. and food tech startup NotCo reveal the first products of their innovative partnership will be animal-free cheese slices and mayonnaise. Beginning in November, Not Cheese will be tested in 30 Cleveland, OH stores, with a national rollout planned for later next year. The two companies’ new mayo is also expected to launch in early 2023, reports Bloomberg. Kraft Heinz and NotCo joined forces to create The Kraft Heinz Not Company in February to accelerate the development of affordable plant-based foods. Combining Kraft’s iconic brands with NotCo’s AI-driven technology, Kraft stated the venture would develop premium, co-branded products with an “unprecedented” focus on speed, quality and scale. Cheese singles The newly unveiled products include dairy-free Not Cheese, which recreates Kraft’s classic Singles slices in …

Organisations and Brands:Kraft Heinz NotCo

Spain’s Innomy Receives €1.3M For Mycelium-Based Meats

September 23, 2022

Spanish startup Innomy, dedicated to mushroom-based alternatives to meat, announced it has raised €1.3 million in a Pre Series A funding round to scale, promote and market its products in Europe. Innomy is part of Spain Foodtech startup acceleration program developed by Eatable Adventures in collaboration with ICEX (Spain Export and Investment), CNTA, and Rockstart’s AgriFood program. Innomy is based in Bilbao and was founded in 2021. The team consists of CEO and co-founder Juan Pablo de Giacomi, COO and co-founder Pablo Sánchez Rey, and mycologist CSO Francisco Kuhar. Innomy says it is developing a new generation of healthier, sustainable, and more delicious meat alternatives combining fungi and biotechnology. For years, the startup has been researching mycelium properties and their benefits on people’s health and …

Organisations and Brands:Eatable Adventures innomy

@ Photographer Yuval Gruda

Company News

Food Tech Startup Meala Develops Vegetable Protein to Replace Methylcellulose

September 21, 2022

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 …

Company News

ENOUGH Inaugurates ‘World’s Largest’ Mycoprotein Facility

September 20, 2022

Food tech startup ENOUGH recently inaugurated what it claims to be the world’s largest mycoprotein facility, a game-changing supplier for the alternative protein market. The new factory will produce up to 60,000 tonnes of ENOUGH’s ABUNDA® protein by 2027, which is equivalent to growing a cow’s worth of protein every two minutes, explains the company. ENOUGH develops its mycoprotein by fermenting fungi using a technology that leverages renewable feedstocks, creating a unique zero-waste fermentation process for growing a complete food protein containing all essential amino acids also high in dietary fibre. Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) with its Plenitude project supported the production plant’s construction phase with €16.9M coming from European funds aimed at advancing competitive bio-based industries. Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore, CBE JU’s executive director, commented at …

Organisations and Brands:ENOUGH

©Rival Foods

Fundraising

Rival Foods Raises €6M for High Tech Vegan Whole Cuts

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022

Rival Foods, a company dedicated to plant-based whole cuts, recently announced the completion of its €6M Series A funding round. The raised funds will be invested in developing new formulations with next-generation protein sources, scaling up its technologies, and expanding its operational capabilities. Based in the Netherlands, it was founded in 2019 by Birgit Dekkers and Ernst Breel as a technology spin-off company from Wageningen University & Research. Rival Foods’ aim is to develop plant-based whole cuts and future products using new technologies and processes. Rival Foods claims that by developing technologies, equipment, processes, and product compositions, it can make plant-based whole cuts that deliver the same fibrous texture, rich mouthfeel, and juiciness experience of an animal cut. Its processes also can turn a wide …

Organisations and Brands:Wageningen University

Investments & Finance

Standing Ovation Raises €12M for Animal-Free Casein Production

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

Standing Ovation, an alt protein food tech startup, today announced it has completed a Series A financing round led by Astanor Ventures, to develop and scale the production of animal-free caseins. Created in 2020 and based in Paris, Standing Ovation aims to become a key player in the food transition by specialising in the development and production of caseins by precision fermentation to make non-animal and lactose-free cheese and dairy products. CEO Frederic Paques said: “Standing Ovation’s technology has tremendous potential. However, bringing the products rapidly to the market requires significant resources, and substantial funding had become necessary. Astanor Ventures, which had already supported us at an earlier stage, understood it, as did the other participants in this round.” Peakbridge, Seventure Partners, Big Idea Ventures, …

Organisations and Brands:Big Idea Ventures

Company News

MMS and Bühler Announce Innovation Partnership For Next Generation of Alternative Meat & Dairy

June 29, 2022

The Swiss Bühler Group and MMS AG of Zurich, announce an innovation and technology partnership to advance the development of highly functional ingredients for sustainable meat and dairy products. “With this exciting technology partnership, we will bring new processes to market that will take product quality, nutritional value and sensory properties to the next level,” says Ian Roberts, CTO of Bühler. “There are many complementary opportunities with different business areas in which Bühler operates and where MMS’ membrane technology could be part of the downstream processing. “MMS is highly specialised in this technology step and, like us, is committed to problem solving and innovation. For us, they are a powerhouse for numerous liquid-liquid fractionation applications,” Robert adds. This technology makes a difference, especially in the …

Organisations and Brands:Bühler

One of Narayan Foods’ production facilities in Slovenska vas

Startups, Accelerators & Incubators

Vegan Date Burger, Shitake Croquetas, and Functional Donuts Win Spanish Food Tech Prizes

April 28, 2022

Biotech students at the University of Elche, Spain, have won top prizes for a range of vegan food innovations. Winning the top three spots of the INNOBIOTEC contest were a plant-based burger made from dates, vegan shitake croquetas, and a donut designed to prevent aging. Student startup Solum took first place with the presentation of its plant-based burger using dates as the integral ingredient, with dates being an abundant local food source. Croqelx, a vegan version of traditional Spanish croquetas, took second place for its use of the shitake mushrooms and its high vitamin D content. In third place was Elderdough, a traditional ‘buñuelo’ donut rich in antioxidants and minerals to help reduce oxidative stress in the body, which causes aging. Tramousse, a creamy, vegan, …

©Loryma

Food & Beverage

Loryma Expands Extrudate Portfolio for Crispy Meat Alternatives

April 13, 2022

Loryma, the German ingredients specialist, has expanded its extrudate portfolio to include Lory® Crumb breadcrumbs and Lory® Crisp cereal crispies. The food tech applications can be used to coat vegan goods, adding crunch and crispiness to meat alternatives and other products. Optimizing the nutritional values and mouthfeel of applications across the sector, the brand claims the new product range complements its Lory® Tex texturate, which serves as the basis for meat alternatives. The various blends differ in coloring, nutritional value, and shape, with Loryma offering extruded breadcrumbs based on maize, rice, and potatoes for different types of processing and end products. The portfolio expansion is just the latest alt meat-focused offering from the German food tech. Loryma provides solutions in food security and addresses future-oriented …

Organisations and Brands:Loryma

Manufacturing & Technology

Handtmann to Present Latest Technologies From Product Preparation to Packaging at Anuga Tec

March 2, 2022February 22, 2022

The Handtmann Group will present the latest technologies for manufacturing a wide variety of food products at Anuga FoodTec under the motto ‘WE TURN IDEAS INTO SOLUTIONS’ in Hall 6 Stand B010/C019. The modular solutions offer scope from start-up to fully automated, highly industrial performance production, optionally from product preparation to transfer to the packaging solution. In the area of product preparation, the Handtmann Inotec BC140iT-300 automatic process unit and the VarioMix mixer will be on display. These universal process units can be used for simultaneous heating, cooling, mixing, crushing and emulsifying of solid, paste-like and liquid products. The all-rounders are perfect as stand-alone machines, but can also be easily integrated into modern, complex production processes. The Biberach-based company will be presenting numerous solutions for …

Organisations and Brands:Anuga Handtmann

©NASA

Food & Beverage

NASA Offers $1M Prize For Food Tech Innovators of the Future

February 25, 2022January 21, 2022

NASA is calling on the food tech world to help send astronauts further into the cosmos than ever before. With a prize purse of up to $1 million, NASA is launching the Deep Space Food Challenge to find the most innovative food tech solutions on the planet. “Pushing the boundaries of food technology will keep future explorers healthy and could even help feed people here at home.” NASA, in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency, has launched The Deep Space Food Challenge to ask competitors to create a food tech system that could sustain a crew of four on a three-year deep space mission. Ready-to-eat foods, dehydrated powders, cultivated plants and fungi, as well as cellular agriculture meat have all been explored in Phase One …

Organisations and Brands:NASA

©Handtmann

Manufacturing & Technology

Food Tech Solutions Leader Handtmann Launches Customized Service

March 2, 2022January 20, 2022

German food production company Handtmann has launched Handtmann Customized Solutions to provide individual approaches to food production systems. The new service offers Handtmann’s technically sophisticated system solutions applied to specific customer requirements. Following the Handtmann motto “My idea. My solution”, the new Customized Solutions approach will develop specific processes needed for individual production – from product preparation through to packaging. The company now aims to address individual needs and special requirements with even more flexibility. One of the world’s leading providers of solutions for portioning, dosing, forming, and co-extruding, Handtmann works with small-scale producers and start-ups as well as medium-sized companies and industrial enterprises globally. The Customized Solutions service shows how Handtmann series production machines can be extended and modified in a variety of ways …

Organisations and Brands:Handtmann

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The vegconomist-newsletter
information for decision-makers