🐮 Impossible Foods' Impossible Ranch

Responsible for 6% of GHG emissions, 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted every year.

The upside? Food waste is an opportunity ripe for disruption. And there are more startups working in this space than you might think.

Here’s 100+ that are top of mind, working on food recovery, upcycling, and shelf-life extending technologies.

There’s no time to waste.

This week in FoodTech:

☕️ 4M pounds: Of ground ‘coffee’ per year
🥛 Just add water: Shelf-stable oat paste
🍟 Protein chips: From chicken and eggs

The Digest

📈 What’s up? UK potato prices have soared by 25% as challenging weather conditions continue to affect supply.

 📈 Also up? US online grocery sales are expected to hit $120 billion by 2028, growing at three times the growth rate of the in-store grocery segment, according to new data from Brick Meets Click.

📉 What’s down? Nestlé is facing criticism after a report by Swiss investigative organisation Public Eye found that it adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries.

🎥 Good watch: Using Lego to show how much land your food needs.

🍗 Next week, Veganuary is set to host a new campaign, Choose Chicken-Free Week, as part of a wider rollout of additional initiatives throughout the year to encourage people to eat fewer animal products and more plant-based foods.

📊 Opinion: Why your company needs a strategy for all four horizons of the future.

New in Funding

🍟 US-based snack manufacturer Wilde Brands, producer of what it claims to be the ‘world’s first’ chips made of chicken breast, egg whites and bone broth, secured $20 million to fuel its expansion plans.

🛍️ Underground delivery startup Pipedream Labs raised $13 million, in a funding round led by Starship Ventures, to enhance its “Instant Pickup” service, which enables a restaurant or grocery store to hand off an order to a customer in under 15 seconds, and kick-start the construction of an ambitious middle-mile network in an as-yet-unconfirmed city.

🛒 Germany’s AIPERIA secured €7.5 million to expand its AI-powered demand planning platform, which allows food retailers and manufacturers to only produce what can be sold.

🥤 KEY, a US-based functional beverage startup led by former PepsiCo and Coca-Cola execs, secured $4 million seed funding for its zero-sugar ketone-fueled energy drink. How it works.

🧫 German startup Cultimate Foods raised €2.3 million in a seed funding round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds. It will use the funds to scale its game-changing cultivated fat technology which helps to provide plant-based meats with authentically ‘meaty’ taste and texture. See the prototype.

🦠 Edonia, based in France, secured €2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Asterion Ventures. It will use the funds to launch its first product: a texturised, microalgae-based ingredient for plant-based meat that it says offers a meat-like texture, grilled umami flavour profile, and contains 30% protein. Here’s the backstory.

New in Startups

🇨🇦 Canadian startup Micromart is using AI-powered image recognition technology to create just-walk-out convenience in any store with its just-plug-in micro-market cabinets.

🌱 Moolec Science earned clearance from the US Department of Agriculture for its Piggy Sooy, which are soybeans containing pork proteins, produced via molecular farming technology.

☕️ Atomo, maker of beanless espressos made from upcycled date pits, has opened a 33,547sq ft roastery in Seattle capable of producing four million pounds of its ground ‘coffee’ a year.

🫘 US-based coffee startup Rarebird Inc. has received a patent for its Px Coffee formulation, made with paraxanthine, a caffeine alternative that occurs naturally in the body when the liver metabolises caffeine, aimed at helping consumers limit their caffeine intake.

Plant Based

🥛 UK-based MYOM has developed a shelf-stable oat paste that turns into “sensational, full-bodied” oat milk when combined with water. Each of its recyclable 65g pouches produces 500ml of oat milk, and refrigeration is only required once the milk has been made.

🇹🇭 British vegan food manufacturer Plant & Bean has opened a new factory in Thailand for plant-based meat via a joint venture with Nutra Regenerative Protein Co, a year after filing for administration.

🐮 Impossible Foods has invested in ‘Impossible Ranch’, a now-former cattle farm that is switching to crop cultivation for plant-based meat, and is rescuing the cows in the process. Here’s why.

🇮🇪 The capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast, has become the first city in Ireland to endorse calls for a global Plant Based Treaty. 

🛒 Swiss supermarket chain Migros debuted a range of meat alternatives made from upcycled spent brewer’s grain, developed in partnership with Circular Food Solutions.

🐶 German pet food brand VEGDOG partnered with MicroHarvest to launch Pure Bites, a new line of dog treats made using MicroHarvest’s biomass-fermented microbial protein.

🤝 Spanish seafood producer Angulas Aguinaga Group partnered with Spanish startup Vrave to launch its first plant-based product, Aros de Mar, a vegan calamari.

Big Food

👟 Hellmann’s Canada joined forces with Italian sustainable fashion label ID.Eight to create a limited-edition collection of sneakers made from food waste. See the price tag.

💳 Amazon launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription for Prime members and those with an EBT card, which will service consumers living in one of the 3,500 eligible cities and towns in the US. 

🍫 Swiss chocolatier Lindt unveiled a plant-based version of its popular Lindor truffles, made using oat milk.

🍦 Unilever is struggling to sell its £15 billion ice cream division due to the sheer size of the brands, and may be forced to retain a significant minority stake.

🍝 Chef Yottam Ottolenghi is making his supermarket debut with the exclusive launch of a range of cooking ingredients, including aromatic spice mixes, pasta sauce and shawarma marinade, into UK supermarket Waitrose stores.

From the Community

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

⌛️ Closing soon: Volunteer at the HackSummit and help deliver a world-class event while getting in on the action.

🇩🇰 Meet the four winners of Food & Bio Cluster Denmark’s Idea Competition 2024.

🚀 Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley, Nestlé and Tetra Pak launched an Open Call for startups focusing on sustainable packaging in alternative fibres and bio-based polymers. Apply to pitch at the "Imagining the Packaging of the Future: Sustainable Solutions Unwrapped 1.0" event in Bern on June 11.

💰 The Coller Startup Competition with Accenture, Good Food Institute and Alternative Proteins Association is open to students, PhDs, postdocs and academics from a UK university with a new idea or early-stage venture aiming to remove animals from the global supply chain. The winning startup will receive a £100k investment from CPT Capital.

💰 Just for fun: FoodTech Founders after finally raising pre-seed

Until next time - Stay Hungry

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Until next time - Stay Hungry