🐢 AI-Created Not Turtle Soup

Today’s the day (and also the last day) to enter your startup into the FoodTech World Cup.

We’re teaming up with Givaudan to host a global pitch competition that showcases regional talents across the agrifood value chain.

60 startups will be shortlisted to pitch in their region’s virtual Demo Day to top tier investors with a place in the grand final at the HackSummit up for grabs.

You’ve gotta be in it, to win it. So head this way.

This week in FoodTech:

🌸 Think Pink: Heinz’ Barbiecue sauce
🐷 Telling Porky Pies? Danish Crown
🥥 Shutting down: Coconut meat gelato

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn revealed that 44.1% of the proteins it sold in 2023 were plant-based, up from 42.6% in 2022.

📉 What’s down? UK oat milk company Minor Figures saw its losses grow to nearly £10 million last year, due to inflationary pressures and a decline in the APAC region.

🔐 Closing down: Chicago-based Sacred Serve, which makes non-dairy gelato using upcycled coconut meat, has shut down its operations. Here’s why

🍫 The European Union is set to fine Cadbury and Oreo owner Mondelez for restricting sales of its products between EU member states.

❌ The EU has agreed new legislation to set packaging reduction targets for its member states (5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040), and will ban certain single use plastic packaging formats from 1st January 2030.

🍻 Researchers at Nanyang Technological University have developed a way to extract useful proteins from brewers’ spent grain, a leftover from beer production.

🐟 Exclusive: How Pacifico Biolabs (20233 HackSummit Pitch Finalists) are navigating new waters to bring biomass-fermented seafood to the masses.

New in Funding

🇳🇱 Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat secured €40 million, in a round led by Lowercarbon Capital and M Ventures, to support the “next phase” of its growth plans ahead of a planned launch in Singapore later this year.

🇮🇱 Israeli agtech Greeneye Technology raised $20 million to scale its operations in the US. Its precision spraying technology, which can be retrofitted to work on most existing machines, detects and sprays only areas with weeds, rather than hitting crops or bare ground.

🇰🇪 Kenyan insurtech Pula raised $20 million Series B funding to provide agricultural insurance to farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It will use the funds to establish new partnerships, including for livestock covers.

🌾 OlsAro, based in Sweden, raised €2.5 million seed funding to expand its climate smart crop breeding platform, with a particular focus on its first product, a salt-tolerant wheat variety designed to deliver significant increases in yield in saline soil. Here’s why they were backed.

👉 Catch up on all 10 funding rounds from the week including methane-reduction technologies and plant-based vegetable packaging.

New in Startups

☀️ Finland’s Solar Foods announced the opening of its Factor 01, the world’s first commercial-scale air protein facility, where it will produce 160 tons of its flagship Solein protein annually.

🧫 Dutch cultivated meat startup Meatable hosted the EU’s first public tasting event for cultivated meat, showcasing its hybrid pork sausages to chefs, journalists, industry stakeholders and public officials.

👎 Precision fermentation whey producer Perfect Day is being sued by its Italian contract manufacturing partner Olon for alleged breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, and fraudulent concealment, with the manufacturer claiming it is owed $112 million in unpaid manufacturing fees and £32 million in damages.

🧀 Molecular farming startup Nobell Foods has rebranded to Alpine Bio and secured its 10th US patent, and says it is now working on up to 15 proteins that can be expressed in a variety of plants. Here’s the backstory.

🇮🇪 Irish food waste prevention startup Senoptica Technologies has been approved for entry into the North American market by the FDA. It uses optical sensors created by its patented food-safe ink to determine oxygen levels inside packaged foods, offering real-time insights into the condition of goods and predicting spoilage before it happens. 

Plant Based

🐢 Chile’s NotCo has developed NotTurtle Soup, a plant-based solution to turtle soup aimed at preserving the global green sea turtle population, using its AI technology. Here’s why it might ruffle feathers.

7️⃣ Canada’s Wamame Foods unveiled what it says is the “world’s highest protein content” meat alternative, 64% higher than that of cooked ground beef, which is made with just seven ingredients.

🍔 Portuguese biotech GreenCoLab unveiled three microalgae-based prototypes: a microalgae-based alternative to sturgeon roe, microalgae artisanal beer, and algae-based burgers.

🥚 UK-based Sinless Foods makes handmade, plant-based alternatives to eggs, including fried and poached, made with ingredients such as rice starch, pea protein, and pumpkin powder.

🍄 US butchery Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors joined forces with mycelium meat company Mush Foods to launch a burger made with the startup’s 50CUT blend of mushroom root and beef, designed to appeal to the flexitarian market.

Big Food

💕 Heinz has partnered with Mattel to create the Barbiecue sauce, a hot pink mix of (vegan) mayo and barbecue sauce, in homage to Barbie.

🐷 Europe’s largest pork producer, Danish Crown, has admitted to misleading consumers with claims that “Danish pork is more climate-friendly than you think”.

💰 McCain Foods announced the acquisition of Irish “veg-first food brand” Strong Roots for an undisclosed sum, having invested $55 million in the company in 2021.

⚡️ UK supermarket Tesco is using AI to cut its energy costs by 10% and save over 385 tonnes of CO2e across its refrigerated distribution network.

🍖 Waitrose is launching a new summer food range, inspired by AI-powered food and drink trends.

🧈 Flora launched the world’s first plastic-free paper tub, which can be recycled with other paper and cardboard household waste, into 386 Sainsbury’s stores in the UK. Here’s the flip side.

🧃 Arla Foods Ingredients unveiled Progamer, a new high-protein beverage concept for gamers who want to ‘level up’ their nutrition.  

From the Community

Jobs in FoodTech:

• Good Food Institute (Europe) are hiring a Comms Assistant

• Le Mat (Romania) are recruiting a Sales Manager

• Synonym (USA) are looking for a Process Engineer and Director of Business Development

• Nutropy (France) have open roles for a strain engineer, technician and apprenticeship

👋 Join us at a FoodHack Meetup near you in Dubai, Vienna, Lisbon, Boston, Mexico City

💰 Grow-NY International Business Competition is open for agrifoodtech startups with a $1 million top prize, mentorship, and business development support.

🤝 Here’s what makes a great early-stage startup team, according to investor Steve Molino.

🚀 NewMoo’s Co-Founder, Daphna Miller gives top tips for coming out of stealth.

🐧 Just for fun:

Until next time - Stay Hungry

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