🛢 Olive Oil Heist

Half a million dollars' worth of extra virgin olive oil was stolen in Spain last week as increased drought and reduced production have made prices of “liquid gold” soar globally.

According to Bloomberg, the cost of a bottle of extra virgin olive oil has jumped about 15% since mid-July in Spanish supermarkets. With record prices, police are on the watch for increased crime, though on this occasion the oil-thieves we’re able to slip away unseen.

This Week in Food:

• EatJust’s $16M funding boost

• Rolling out 3D printed burgers

• Paw Patrol snacks’ explicit site

The Digest

📈 What’s up? A bite from a certain type of tick can cause an allergy to red meat and, as temperatures rise, they’re spreading into new areas.

📉 What’s down? A wide range of US crops, such as sugar cane, soybeans, and nuts, has been affected by adverse weather conditions, including the first hurricane to hit California in 80 years.

📊 An interactive tool to show our food consumption’s impact on the planet.

🎬 Good Watch: Insider Business shares 11 of the most faked foods in the world.

Funds and Funding

🐶 UK-based fresh dog food company Butternut Box, which prepares and ships healthy food and supplements made with “human-grade ingredients”, raised £280 million from General Atlantic and L Catterton to further expand its operations.

💲Israeli food giant Strauss Group’s foodtech incubator and investment arm, The Kitchen Hub, is raising a $70 million fund and launching The Kitchen Labs, a new innovation centre for startups with the support of the Israeli Innovation Authority. Take a peak inside.

🍳 Bloomberg reports that plant-based egg leader Eat Just, Inc. secured $16 million “short term boost funding” from the non-profit VegInvest/Ahimsa Foundation to “work on costs and logistics to make it profitable.”

🥜 US better-for-you snack company SkinnyDipped raised $12 million Series A funding to move into new retailers and categories. Known for its lightly dipped nuts, the startup’s round featured a host of celebrities, including Amy Schumer, Mark Wahlberg, Becky G, and Post Malone.

💰 New, female-founded VC fund Unconventional Ventures reached the “half-way” close of its targeted €30 million fund, with which it will invest solely in climate-focused companies with diverse founding teams and startups. Its portfolio so far features startups such as Ocean Oasis, which is developing sustainable desalination using wave energy.

🔍 Check out all the funding news from the week including for microalgae production, a nordic co-manufacturer and sustainable milk protein from air.

3D Steaks

🇮🇱 Israel’s Steakholder Foods unveiled its proprietary Light CAD Editor, a new software designed to enable its clients to create, test, and optimise 3D models and fibrous textures for its 3D bioprinters.

🥬 British vertical farming startup Jones Food Company debuted a new British salad range, which has launched into Asda supermarkets, a move which Jones Food Company says makes it the first British retailer supplying a vertically farmed bagged salad range at this kind of scale.

🎸 US-based better-for-you ice cream brand Enlightened has partnered with heavy metal band Metallica’s non-profit organisation, All Within My Hands, to launch a limited-edition, guitar-shaped ice cream bar, which will raise money to support local food banks.

Plant Based

🥓 Happyvore, based in France, debuted plant-based bacon allumettes - matchstick-shaped bacon pieces made with just seven ingredients and designed for use in dishes such as quiche and carbonara.

🇫🇷 France’s agriculture ministry has drafted a new proposal to ban the use of 21 ‘meaty’ terms, including ‘steak’, ‘beef’, ‘ham’, and ‘grilled’, on labels for plant-based products.

🚀 British plant-based meat brand THIS launched its products into the Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain, Albert Heijn, marking its first international launch.

💡 Good Read: Green Queen lays down ten of the lessons the plant-based sector needs to learn as it moves into its next phase.

Big Food

🥃 Pernod Ricard‘s scotch whisky business, Chivas Brothers, is planning to invest £60 million, including implementing heat recovery technologies and installing electric boilers across viable distilleries, to reach its goal of carbon-neutral distillation by the end of 2026.

🤬 Lidl UK has issued a recall of Paw Patrol snacks after the website listed on the products’ packaging displayed pornographic content.

🍔 Catering giant Sodexo is set to roll out Israeli startup SavorEat’s 3D printing robot, which both prints and cooks customisable plant-based burgers, at the University of Denver.

🤝 Lesaffre, a global key player in fermentation for nearly 170 years, acquired a 10% stake in Israeli startup Yeap, which claims to be the world's first company that produces protein from yeast.

🍻Bill Gates has acquired 1,703,000 shares in AB InBev in a deal valued at $95 million, signifying “confidence in the global brewer’s ability to overcome its current challenges”.

HackTrends: Cold Supply Chain

Refrigeration and cold chain logistics are critical aspects of a functioning food system. As Hampus Jakobsson from Pale blue dot neatly summarised for us: ‘Cold storage isn’t going anywhere; in fact, the industry is only going to grow in size, and we need to find ways to reduce its environmental impact.’

🔎 Discover in the full HackTrend Report:
- 2x case studies (SnoFox, Koolboks)
- The why, the challenges and the figures behind the space
- List of 26 companies advancing the cold supply chain
- Expert insights from Mudcake, AENU, Pale blue dot

From the Community

Apply today:
- Climate Generation (USA) are looking for a Senior Communications and Marketing Manager
- Oobli (USA) are hiring a Head of R&D and Product Development Leader
- Gourmey (France) are recruiting for a Senior Bioprocess Engineer, Lab Operations Associate and Quality Control Lead
- Yeap (Israel) have an open role as Head of R&D

👋 Meet your local FoodTech community in Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Kigali, Lausanne, Mexico City, New York City, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Valais, Wageningen, Zurich. Sign up for free.

🍄 The Future is Fungi Award has opened for applications. Give your novel research or innovation the recognition it deserves. More details here 

💡Here’s the anatomy of a successful pitch deck.

🦜 Just for fun: When word gets out there’s a new angel investor in FoodTech.

That’s all for today. We’ll be back in your inbox next Friday.

Thanks for reading.

How did you like today’s newsletter?

Love it 😁 Meh 😐 Hate it 🙁

Curated by Nicola and Laura 

Until next time - Stay Hungry