🎨 Fading out Fake Food Colourings

Responding to regulatory pressure and mounting consumer demand, this week Kraft Heinz announced it is planning to remove artificial colours from all of its US products by the end of 2027. And General Mills is doing the same.

The FDA has already moved to ban Red Dye No. 3 as well as phasing out petroleum-based synthetic dyes from US food supply by the end of 2026.

With these sweeping pledges, two of the largest CPG players will now be on the look out for natural, sustainable colorants.

Luckily a wave of startups are already working on the fix including Michroma, Sparxell, EXBERRY, Chromologics, FUL Foods and Plume Biotech.

This week in FoodTech:

🐟 Whole cut cods without the catch
9️⃣ Top fundraising rounds in AgriFood
🪺 Green light for cultured quail products

The Digest

📉 What’s down? UK plant-based milk brand Mighty Drinks has entered administration due to rising costs and an inability to secure further investment. Read the goodbye.

🧫 Researchers in Korea have developed a self-healing hydrogel-based scaffolding technology that enables scalable production of cultivated meat with precise micrometer-scale marbling, supporting fat and muscle cell growth under physiological conditions without the need for meat glues or processing equipment.

🫛 At the UN’s pre-COP climate conference in Bonn, over 100 global stakeholders launched the Belém Declaration on Plant-Rich Diets, urging member states to adopt national action plans promoting climate-friendly, plant-based diets to enhance food security, public health, and climate resilience ahead of COP30 in Brazil.

🍻 Opinion: Why alcohol-free beer is on the up, and what meat-free meat can learn to boost its growth.

💡 Have your say: Was AgriFoodTech always an unholy alliance?

New in Funding

🤖 California-based industrial automation firm Sojo Industries raised $40 million from S2G Investments to scale its modular robotic packaging systems and track-and-trace software, designed to streamline on-site packaging, reduce emissions, and enhance supply chain transparency for food, beverage, and consumer goods manufacturers.

🐟 Seafood robotics company Shinkei Systems, based in the US, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Founders Fund and Interlagos, with participation from Yamato Holdings, Shrug, CIV, Jaws, and Mantis, to scale its patented automated ikejime fish harvesting technology and expand its premium "Seremoni Grade" seafood offering.

🍗 Netherlands-based Rival Foods secured €10 million in a Series B funding round led by APG, with participation from PYMWYMIC, ROM Utrecht Region, and PeakBridge, to scale its clean-label whole-cut plant-based meat technology, double production capacity, and expand internationally.

🇨🇦 Canada’s Future Fields raised an $8 million Series A round—co-led by Amplify Capital, BDC’s Climate Tech Fund, and R7 Partners, with support from Toyota Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, Builders VC, TRAC VC, and the University of Alberta Innovation Fund.

💸 Belgian early-stage investor biotope by VIB secured €5 million at the first close of its second fund, Biotope Ventures 2, with backing from BNP Paribas Fortis, Agri Investment Fund, SFPIM Relaunch, Anacura, VIB, The Nest, and Edaphon, to invest €250,000 in up to 30 international biotech startups advancing planetary health.

🍄 French startup Fungu’it raised €4 million, in a round led by Asterion Ventures and with participation from Evolem and UI Investissement, to scale its fungi fermentation technology that transforms food waste into natural, cost-efficient flavours for plant-based meat and cocoa alternatives.

🍫 LA-based All In Food, formerly This Bar Saves Lives, launched its Madagascar vanilla, honey, and almond snack bar at Starbucks nationwide following a $4 million funding round led by Obvious Ventures.

🌱 Swedish agritech startup BlueRedGold raised €2.73 million in a round led by PINC, with participation from The Food Tech Lab and PolarVentures, to build a modular indoor facility and scale its automated saffron cultivation system for global licensing.

🍦 Greek startup Plan(e)t Foods secured €1.05 million from SPOROS Platform to accelerate the international expansion of its carbon-negative, plant-based ice cream brand, which has rapidly grown through innovative R&D, strong market presence, and a focus on sustainability.

New in Startups

🪺 Sydney startup Vow received regulatory approval to serve its cultured quail meat products, including Forged Parfait and Forged Gras, in Australia for the first time, following two years of food safety review by FSANZ. Get the inside track.

✂️ Cultivated pork startup Clever Carnivore, based in the US, has cut its culture media costs to $0.07 per litre, and aims to launch its products in the US by 2026 pending FDA approval.

🤝 UK-based cultivated fat startup Hoxton Farms has formed a strategic partnership with Japanese chemicals giant Mitsui Chemicals to integrate Mitsui’s advanced materials into its bioreactors, aiming to reduce production costs, improve yields, and scale biomanufacturing across sectors including food, cosmetics, pharma, and sustainable materials.

🍯 Football star David Beckham has partnered with entrepreneur Shaun Neff to launch Beeup, a honey-based fruit snack brand offering non-GMO, vitamin-rich treats for kids and families.

🍄 Mama Shrooms, founded by wellness author Gemma Ogston, has launched the UK’s first functional mushroom-based wellness hot chocolate for teenagers, blending organic cacao, vitamins, and adaptogenic fungi to support mental and physical wellbeing.

Plant Based

🥩 Toronto-based New School Foods launched NS/TX Industries Inc. to scale its proprietary directional freezing technology, used to create ultra-realistic plant-based salmon, and expand into red meat alternatives like steak and bone-in ribs. See for yourself

🥛 Pure Mylk launched The Mylky Way, Southeast Asia’s first dedicated plant-based beverage innovation hub in Selangor, Malaysia, to support sustainable product development from prototype to launch through collaborative formulation, testing, and scalable production.

​​🤝 Slovenian plant-based meat maker Juicy Marbles joined forces with Austrian mycoprotein specialist Revo Foods to launch Kinda Cod, a raw, whole-cut cod alternative tailored for the US market, addressing consumer demand for more realistic, cookable seafood substitutes.

🚪 Swiss startup Planted opened its new flagship production site in Memmingen, Germany—transformed from an old brewery into ‘Europe’s most advanced alternative protein facility’ to scale distribution of its planted.steak across the continent. Take a look inside.

🧁 Korean plant-based company UNLIMEAT debuted a new US dessert brand, bbang, debuting with Oat Cream Buns and Hotteok—two Korean-inspired, dairy-free treats.

🥕 German manufacturer Raps launched ‘Compound Vegan Roast,’ a versatile, clean-label solution that enables the easy production of plant-based roast meat alternatives with appealing texture, stability, and flavour.

🍖 Israeli 3D-printed meat pioneer Redefine Meat unveiled a new line of plant-based products with significantly reduced saturated fat and methylcellulose, aiming to boost nutrition and flavour to better meet European consumer demand for healthier, premium meat alternatives.

Big Food

🎨 Kraft Heinz is planning to remove artificial colours from all of its US products by the end of 2027. And General Mills is doing the same.

🐝 Dole UK has partnered with agri-tech firm AgriSound to pilot a pollination monitoring study using real-time sensor data to assess how advanced polytunnel materials affect pollinator activity.

🔑 Tetra Pak opened its New Food Technology Development Centre in Sweden, designed to help companies using biomass and precision fermentation accelerate their product development and scale-up.

📈 Roquette expanded its NUTRALYS® plant protein range with two new textured solutions, its first-ever textured wheat protein (NUTRALYS® T WHEAT 600L) and a new textured pea protein (NUTRALYS® T PEA 700XC), to help food manufacturers meet rising demand for sustainable, nutritious, and affordable meat alternatives.

🛒 Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn has become the first major retailer in the Netherlands to launch its own hybrid dairy and plant-based milk line, developed with Farm Dairy and PlanetDairy, offering nutrient-rich blends made from 60–70% dairy at the same price as conventional options.

🌾 Premier Foods is partnering with wheat supplier Bartholomews to trial low carbon wheat on 165 acres in southern England, using renewable energy and low carbon fertiliser as part of its efforts to reduce emissions.

From the Community

Get hired in FoodTech

• Food Impact (UK) are hiring a Director of R&D

• The Reservoir (USA) are looking for a General Manager

• Liberation Bioindustries (US) are hiring a Site Controller

• Givaudan (Switzerland) are recruiting a Global Marketing Manager

🎬 Take a look at what happened in the latest FoodHack Meetup in Dubai.

🎧 Good listen: Why Startups Fail (and What We Can Learn) by ICOS Capital.

📈 Infographic: Why we need to start measuring CO₂e emissions per kcal, not just per kilogram of food product.

📊 Just for fun: A FoodTech Founders job description

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Until next time - Stay Hungry