NEW TECH FOODS

Upside Foods has announced that its cell-based chicken has launched at chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco, US. The company says that the historic event, held on 1 July, marks the “first-ever” consumer sale of cell-based meat in the US. The restaurant debut of Upside’s chicken followed the announcement two weeks prior, that cell-based meat companies Upside and Good Meat had both been approved to sell their cell-based chicken products in the US. Uma Valeti, CEO and founder of Upside, said: "The landmark sale of Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn officially marks cultivated meat's debut into the US market. It represents a giant leap towards a world where people no longer have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet. I can't wait for more people to get their first bite – it's a magical moment that inspires an exciting world of new possibilities." Diners at the historic meal were selected from entrants of Upside’s social media contest based on their passion to build a better future. The cell-based chicken was fried in a Recado Negro (Mexican spice)-infused tempura batter and accompanied by chilli aioli. Upside says it’s collaboration with chef Crenn stands as a “testament to their united vision for a more sustainable and conscientious future of food”. The event held significance as it marks the reintroduction of meat to Crenn's menu since its removal from Crenn Dining Group's restaurants in 2018, as a result of concerns regarding the negative impacts of conventional meat production on the planet. Chef Dominique Crenn commented: "It's truly an honour to serve Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn and introduce cultivated meat to the US. It's the first time meat has made it back on my menu since 2018, because Upside chicken is the first meat that I feel good about serving. From its exquisite flavour and texture to its aroma and the way it cooks, Upside chicken is simply delicious and it represents a significant step towards a more sustainable and compassionate food system." Following the launch event, Upside’s cultivated chicken will be available at Bar Crenn through ongoing Upside services due to commence later this year. #UpsideFoods #US

Venture capital newcomer Joyful Ventures has announced the successful closing of £23 million of its $25 million fund, aimed at catalysing the global animal protein industry towards sustainable, regenerative food solutions. Joyful Ventures is led by partners Milo Runkle, Jennifer Stojkovic and Blaine Vess, who have a wealth of expertise in the alt-protein sector, entrepreneurship and investment. They plan to channel the fund into pre-seed and seed-stage startups from across the globe that disrupt and innovate the food system. The target technologies include plant-based, precision fermentation, mycoproteins, molecular agriculture and cultivated technologies, with a strong focus on B2B opportunities. Joyful Ventures’ co-founder and general partner, Jennifer Stojkovic, said: "We're not just passively investing in promising sustainable food technology startups. Our team is fully committed to leveraging our expertise, powerful network and industry insights to nurture our portfolio companies, guiding them towards growth and success. Not many in the industry have access to the industry’s top founders and CEOs at their fingertips like our team. This kind of connectedness and mentorship experience is invaluable for our founders." Stojkovic continued: “Rather than trying to deal with the carbon, methane and the nitrogen that we're creating, let’s prevent it from happening by changing what is on our plates. Boston Consulting Group found that investing in plant-based protein is 11 times more impactful from a climate investment perspective than EVs, it's three times more impactful than decarbonising cement, and four times more impactful than green building, and yet that's where you keep continuing to see most of the investments go." "If you are interested in investing in climate, and you want real, scalable, quick solutions, there's nothing better than food.” Stojkovic built her career in the tech industry under Silicon Valley’s most prolific venture capitalist, Ron Conway, and worked with the industry’s leading companies including Google, Microsoft and Meta. In 2020, she leveraged her expertise to found the Vegan Women Summit, the “world’s largest” platform of future of food professionals. Milo Runkle founded Mercy For Animals and co-founded New Crop Capital and The Good Food Institute. He has dedicated his career to advocating for food system reform and pioneering the alt-protein sector. Blaine Vess is an entrepreneur and investor who has a proven track record in successful startup exits. She brings extensive investment experience to Joyful Ventures, having backed over fifty early-stage companies. Joyful Ventures' advisory team and LPs encompass a large variety of global industry founders and CEOs representing diverse voices and perspectives, including Bjorn Oste, co-founder of Oatly, Sandhya Sriram, CEO of Shiok Meats, Ryan Bethencourt, co-founder of Indie Bio and CEO of Wild Earth and Arturo Elizondo, CEO of EVERY. Joyful Ventures says it is the industry’s only LGBTQ- and woman-led firm – it is dedicated to providing unique and diverse investments into the future of food and driving change through powerful climate solutions. #JoyfulVentures #US

New York-based financing and development platform for biomanufacturing facilities, Synonym Bio, has announced the launch of Scaler. Scaler is a “first-of-its-kind” fully interactive, free online tool enabling synthetic biology companies to project their costs of production and operations at a commercial scale. In a statement, the company said: “Our goal with Scaler is to promote the growth of biomanufacturing by making it easier for companies to understand what it will require to build and operate at the scale necessary to bring their bioproducts to the mass market”. Synonym says that Scaler’s straightforward dynamic interface allows any company that is developing a bioproduct through fermentation to overcome the challenge of building and operating profitably at a commercial scale. By inputting a few production variables, the technology works to instantly provide users with a customised techno-economic analysis with insights into projecting costs to build and operate a facility at scale, identifying a bioproduct’s biggest profitability drivers and understanding levers of commercial adoption. Scaler’s model is updated frequently to reflect changes to operating and capital costs. Synonym says that Scaler will enable companies to find reliable, market-vetted data that can “jumpstart” their capacity plans, instead of having to rely on a patchwork of expensive and often unreliable data sources. Synonym’s co-founder and CEO, Edward Shenderovich, said: “When we launched Synonym last year, it seemed obvious that lots more capacity would need to be built quickly to satisfy the demand for bioproducts. And the impediment to large capital projects is always financing. With Scaler, we’re creating a framework for the industry to see biomanufacturing facilities as the transformational asset class it is.” The Scaler tool complements Capacitor, a comprehensive free directory of global fermentation capacity that Synonym launched last year. Together, Capacitor and Scaler can provide the synthetic biology ecosystem with a powerful, accessible suite of tools to guide companies along their biomanufacturing scale-up journey. #SynonymBio #US

Following yesterday’s article that stated that cell-based meat tastings could potentially be legalised in the Netherlands in weeks , the Dutch Government has announced that it has successfully created a ‘code of practice’ that will make tastings possible in controlled environments. This historic agreement makes the Netherlands the first country in the European Union to make pre-approval tastings of food grown directly from animal cells possible, even before an EU novel food approval. Krijn de Nood, CEO of Dutch biotech company Meatable, said: “This is great news for the Netherlands. We know cultivated meat can significantly help reduce climate impact. By enabling the tasting of cultivated meat, The Netherlands maintains its pioneering role in Europe and beyond. For Meatable, this means that we can allow consumers to taste and experience our products, and make our products even better with their feedback.” He continued: “Our goal is to make tasty cultivated meat that is indistinguishable from traditional meat available to everyone, without harming people, animals or our planet. This development brings that goal closer. We thank the ministries for their constructive collaboration and look forward to invite the first people to try our sausages, dumplings, and pulled pork!” Dutch food tech company Mosa Meat’s CEO, Maarten Bosch, added: “This is a great achievement for the Dutch government and another proof point that the Netherlands is a global leader in agriculture and food innovation. We thank all 127 members of the Tweede Kamer who voted in favour of finding a way to make this possible and Minister Kuipers, Minister Adema and their teams for being professional and collaborative in getting it done.” He added: “Mosa Meat will use these controlled tastings to gather invaluable feedback on our products and to educate key stakeholders about the role cellular agriculture can play in helping Europe meet our food sovereignty and sustainability goals”. The announcement follows on the heels of the government’s ‘National Growth Fund’ which in October last year, committed €60 million to build a robust cellular agriculture ecosystem to make the Netherlands a global hub for the burgeoning technology. The organisation created to execute the ‘National Growth Fund’ plan – Cellular Agriculture Netherlands – holds responsibility for implementing the code of practice, including hiring a panel of experts to evaluate requests by companies to conduct tastings of cell-based meat and seafood. The code of practice was created after an intervention by the Dutch House of Representatives in 2022. A motion sponsored by Dutch politicians Tjeerd de Groot (D66) and Peter Valstar (VVD) requested that the government enter into consultations with Dutch cellular agriculture producers to enable pre-approval tastings under controlled and safe conditions. The motion passed by 14 of 17 voting political parties including VVD, BBB, CDA, D66, Christen Unie, PvdA, GroenLinks, PvdD, SP and more.

Finnebrogue, one of the UK’s leading food producers, has announced plans to collaborate with cell-based meat company Ivy Farm Technologies, to create one of the “world’s first” commercially available cell-based wagyu beef burgers. The new partnership will see the two companies work together to produce cell-based wagyu beef burgers once the industry is given the regulatory green light. Finnebrogue has its own world-class herd of wagyu cattle on its estate in County Down, Northern Ireland – cells from the herd are currently being cultivated by Ivy Farm. The company’s traditional wagyu beef burger was named the UK’s best burger of the year by Which? magazine in 2022. Finnebrogue says that Ivy Farm’s cell-based meat process will enable it to “explore a new way of meeting the growing demand for its wagyu products, creating tonnes of delicious meat with a smaller carbon footprint”. The process of creating the cell-based wagyu beef burger involves taking cells from Finnebrogue’s herd and cultivating them in fermentation tanks at Ivy Farm’s facility in Oxford, UK, where it is then harvested. The wagyu cells will join Ivy Farm’s existing product range, which includes British pork and Aberdeen Angus beef. The two companies say that future innovations could include cell-based meat from Finnebrogue’s premium venison. Jago Pearson, chief strategy officer at Finnebrogue, said: “Our task is always to make food that is nutritious, delicious and sustainable for food-loving consumers up and down the land – and so we are excited to strike a partnership with Ivy Farm that will allow us to explore the future potential of cultivated meat…In time, we are excited to help realise the potential this may bring in producing sustainable food that can feed a growing global population.” Rich Dillon, CEO at Ivy Farm, added: “Appetite from consumers for sustainable and delicious meat has never been higher. This new collaboration with Finnebrogue showcases how cultivated meat can work with traditional farming, helping to reduce the pressure on producers to intensify operations to meet growing demand, while boosting consumer choice.” He continued: “In Finnebrogue we have found a partner who has a long history and track record of producing premium products that do not compromise on taste and quality”. #Finnebrogue #IvyFarm #UK

Good Meat has announced it has made its first-ever sale of its cell-based chicken product in China Chilcano restaurant in Washington, US. A select group of diners sat down last night to a “historic meal” of charcoal-grilled cell-based chicken, marking the first-ever sale of Good Meat in the US. The landmark dinner, hosted by chef José Andrés saw the cell-based chicken marinated with anticucho sauce and served with potatoes and yellow chilli pepper chimichurri. It comes two weeks after Good Meat and Upside Foods received full US regulatory approval to sell its chicken to consumers within the country. Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Good Meat and its parent company Eat Just, said: “I am proud that Good Meat is launching with José Andrés, beginning a new tradition of how Americans will eat meat in the many decades ahead”. Chef José Andrés added: “The big day is here, the chicken is here, and people are going to be talking. This is a first for the history of humanity”. The event precedes China Chilcano’s official menu debut of the dish, which will be served weekly in limited quantities by reservation only, beginning 25 July. Good Meat follows Upside Foods which launched its cell-based chicken in chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco, US earlier this week. #GoodMeat #US

European governments have announced a total of nearly half a billion euros of funding to develop sustainable proteins, according to new figures released by the Good Food Institute (GFI). GFI’s 73-page report – 2022 State of Global Policy – found that the EU and national governments have earmarked over €477 million for foods such as cell-based and plant-based meat. The international nonprofit’s report shows European governments are ramping up support for these more efficient ways of making meat, seafood, eggs and dairy, with €370 million invested in 2022 alone. It also states that global government investment in the sector doubled last year, with Denmark and the Netherlands both breaking global records. The Netherlands launched the €60 million Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland (Cellular Agriculture Netherlands) funding programme ‘National Growth Fund’ designed to accelerate research and the commercialisation of cell-based meat and precision fermentation, as well as education and training to prepare workers for the jobs this sector creates. Denmark outpaced other countries buy announcing DKK 675 million (approx. €91 million) to support the country’s growing plant-based sector and to incentivise farmers to grow protein-rich crops. Other European highlights from the report include: The European Union increased sustainable protein funding to €25 million through the Horizon Europe programme, while the EU-funded EIT Food platform distributed €1.8 million to cell-based meat, plant-based meat and fermentation projects. France committed around €67 million, including up to €56 million for research into sustainable protein production, as well as more than €10 million in grants to help plant-based food manufacturer #Umiami buy and retrofit a production facility – a project expected to create 200 jobs. The UK committed to spending £20 million to build capacity, research, innovation and business-led commercialisation in the sustainable protein industry, including developing fermentation-made foods. Finland awarded a €34 million grant to fermentation startup #SolarFoods, enabling the company to accelerate the progress of their first production facility and doubling the nation’s investment in sustainable proteins. Governments across Europe are expanding their reasons for investing in sustainable proteins, with Norway citing food security, the UK and the Netherlands citing ambitions to lead the world in biotechnology and Denmark and Sweden citing climate concerns. Acacia Smith, senior policy manager at the GFI, said: “Sustainable proteins can deliver the meat people love at a fraction of the environmental cost, so it’s an encouraging sign for food security and climate change that Europe is increasing its investment in this field”. She continued: “But, with Italy trying to ban cultivated meat and other countries considering unnecessary plant-based labelling restrictions, Europe is sending mixed messages to researchers and companies who need certainty to deliver on their potential. The EU and national governments must develop coherent strategies to support the sector, and ensure regulatory processes are clear, to reap the benefits of their investments.” The report estimates that governments worldwide invested a total of $635 million in sustainable proteins last year alone, with countries from Brazil to Oman getting involved for the first time and others such as Australia multiplying their investments. Although the report found public support has now surpassed $1 billion, research funded by the UK Foreign Office and #ClimateWorks shows it will take more than $10 billion each year to realise the full benefits of the sustainable protein sectors. #GoodFoodInstitute #Europe #government

Plant cell technology company Ayana Bio has announced it is opening a new state-of-the-art laboratory situated in Boston’s Seaport district in Massachusetts, US. The lab will serve as a “nucleus” to advance Ayana Bio’s plant cell-cultivated production systems to create a diverse range of cost-effective and high-quality health, wellness and nutrition ingredients. The lab is in the same building as Ayana Bio’s strategic partner, Ginkgo Bioworks, increasing collaboration and teamwork with Ginkgo’s biological technology and resources. Ayana Bio says the new lab will help it to overcome previous industry challenges through better cell lines and a multi-product production system. The technology will make plant cell-cultivated ingredients scalable through its proprietary hardware and production process that can accommodate a variety of cell lines simultaneously. Unlike previous plant cell cultivation processes, Ayana Bio uses the same workflow to manufacture all plant materials, enabling the production of a large volume of different high-value products while keeping costs low. Effendi Leonard, cofounder and chief technology officer at Ayana Bio, said: “Ayana Bio’s new lab integrates indoor plant cultivation systems, cell biology, process and ingredient development to streamline an efficient workflow from plant cells to final products. Our partnership with Ginkgo is complementary and empowers us to identify optimal starting points to scale diverse plant cells, ultimately generating superior and cost-effective ingredients.” Inside the lab, Ayana Bio’s plant-cell scientists are developing high-value botanicals. In January the company pledged $3 million to accelerate the sustainable production of cacao bioactives while simultaneously supporting genetic research to improve cacao plant varieties. The opening of the new lab follows Ayana Bio’s April launch of its first plant cell-derived echinacea and lemon balm health and wellness ingredients. Introduced to the US market, these products have the bioactive composition of conventionally grown botanicals and can replace lemon balm and echinacea in dietary supplement formulations for sleep, mood and immune support. In June, Ayana Bio unveiled functional gummies made with the plant cell-cultivated echinacea and lemon balm , in partnership with Robertet. Frank Jaksch, CEO of Ayana Bio, added:“As Ayana Bio makes leaps in our commercialisation capabilities, this new lab stands as a testament to our unwavering dedication to providing the most essential plant bioactives for nutrition-rich formulations. It’s been rewarding to already open our doors to interested partners and showcase the transformative capabilities we employ to cultivate and scale plant materials, liberating ourselves from the constraints of agriculture.” Ayana Bio says the facility “solidifies [its] commitment to transforming the future of sustainable ingredients in one of the world’s most innovative scientific research and development hubs”. #AyanaBio #GinkgoBioworks

Magic Valley and Biocellion have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate and gain a clearer understanding of cellular behaviour in bioreactors, and improve bioreactor design and increase efficiency in the production of cultivated meat products. Magic Valley is an Australian cultivated meat company. The process of its production involves taking a small skin biopsy from a live animal, culturing the cells in foetal bovine serum-free media, reprogramming them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and then characterising and differentiating the cells into muscle and fat within bioreactors. This results in a real animal meat product, however, no animals are killed, and no animal products are used aside from the initial cell biopsy. Magic Valley believes itself to be the first company in the world to create animal component-free cultivated lamb from iPSC, and it has recently debuted a prototype cultivated pork dumpling. Biocellion, headquartered in Washington State, US, supports life science companies in making the transition to virtual experiments, which are computer simulations of living system behaviours, modelled cell by cell. These forms of experiments are said to be faster, cheaper and less wasteful than laboratory experiments. Hong Kong-based global venture accelerator, Brinc, strategically supports Magic Valley and Biocellion. Manav Gupta, founder and CEO of Brinc, said: "As a keen advocate of food technology innovation, Brinc proudly supports the collaboration between Magic Valley and Biocellion, which represents a significant step towards addressing the challenges of sustainable protein production. This partnership showcases the potential that interdisciplinary solutions can play to reshape the future of the food industry." Paul Bevan, CEO and founder of Magic Valley, said that the company is committed to revolutionising the way meat is produced, with a “focus on sustainability and ethical practices”. He added: "By collaborating with Biocellion, we aim to unlock valuable insights into cellular behaviour, enabling us to create delicious cultivated meat products efficiently at scale". "We're excited to collaborate with Magic Valley using our advanced virtual experiments technology in order to accelerate the development of bioreactor designs and drive efficiency in cultivated meat production,” said Simon Kahan, CEO of Biocellion. “Together, we are shaping a future where technology and biology converge to address global protein demands."

Meati Foods has announced a partnership with AI company PIPA to accelerate understanding of mycelium’s health benefits. Colorado-based Meati Foods makes whole-food plant-based meat cuts made from mycelium, also known as ‘mushroom root.’ The partnership with PIPA follows the formation of the Meati Science Advisory Board (MSAB) earlier this year, which includes experts in protein, health and nutrition from the University of California, Davis. In addition to helping Meati better understand the health benefits of its current products across ranging consumer populations and segments, the company expects the partnerships with PIPA and MSAB to help it define opportunities for new products. Justin Whiteley, Meati Foods’ co-founder and chief science officer, said: “When founding Meati and unpacking what it would take to achieve global-scale impact on our food system, the requirements were monumental: It had to be a delicious, whole-food solution plucked from nature, rapidly scalable and, critically, hyper-nutritious.” He added: “AI is the perfect tool to help accelerate our understanding of exactly why including Meati products can improve the health of everyone at the family dinner table, and I can’t imagine pursuing this research without a world-class AI partner like PIPA”. Meati is already known to offer complete protein (PDCAAS 1.0), and the other nutrients naturally present in Meati Products suggest potential for positive impact on heart health, digestion, the immune system and blood glucose levels, Meati said. Eric Hamborg, chief commercial officer for PIPA said: “This research is in PIPA’s sweet spot of accelerating what’s possible at the intersection of food, nutrition and health”. “We look forward to supporting Meati’s efforts to better understand how their unique star ingredient can benefit people’s health and improve nutrition now and in the future.”

Precision fermentation food tech company Perfect Day has laid off approximately 15% of its workforce as it moves to exit its consumer-facing business The Urgent Company (TUC). The move comes as Perfect Day plans to focus solely on its B2B ingredient sales and its precision fermentation business Nth Bio, rather than its consumer-facing brands. The TUC division houses four brands, its cream cheese brand Modern Kitchen, ice cream brand Brave Robot, whey protein brand California Performance Company, and its ice cream and frozen novelties brand Coolhaus. Employees were informed of the layoffs in a letter sent at the beginning of July. The company’s president, Narayan Tripunithura Mahadeva, explained the decision in the letter, stating: “We [are] refocus[ing] all efforts on our founding principles of R&D innovation and the resulting B2B partnership opportunities from our investment into the technology we have been building over the past nine years. As part of this, we have to take the incredibly difficult step of parting ways with our talented B2C team members and reducing some Perfect Day positions to support this focused business.” Speculations about changes started circulating within the company at the end of June after Alex Brittian, the head of Perfect Day’s consumer division for Asia and the US, was laid off. The layoffs reportedly impacted a total of 134 employees globally, with 122 from the US and 12 from the UK and Asia. In a statement a Perfect Day spokesperson told news outlet Nosh that it “will not be investing any more time or resources into brands,” and is “look[ing] for places where we can be opportunistic in offering partner products” to retailers. “As you can imagine, the economic climate right now is different than it was even just two, three years ago. There’s just a different level of focus that investors are expecting with their capital. And for us, that has always been B2B. There’s not the luxury that there used to be to be able to expand and maximize opportunities in different adjacencies.” Perfect Day says it aims to prevent disruptions in its retail services and sell through its existing inventory by retaining a small number of TUC employees as consultants. The company has also said it intends to sell all or part of TUC, with plans to fully exit all consumer-facing businesses by September. #PerfectDay #US

Upside Foods has announced that reservations at Bar Crenn will open to the general public this Thursday, enabling the public to eat its cell-based chicken. The reservations at the San Francisco restaurant are due to go live this Thursday 20 July at 12:00 Pacific Time (PT), with the first public service taking place on 4 August. Limited reservations will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Diners will be able to experience Upside’s cell-based chicken as part of a six-course meal priced at $150 – this will be the first time that members of the public can sign up to try cell-based meat in the US. Following the dinner on 4 August, subsequent services will take place on the first weekend of each month, with new reservations released monthly on Bar Crenn’s website on the second Friday of each month. This latest announcement follows the news last month that Upside Foods and Good Meat received final approval from the US Department of Agriculture to sell their cell-based meat products in the country. Upside Foods’ CEO and founder Uma Valeti said: "It’s a dream come true to have Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn. This pivotal moment marks a new chapter in history, where consumers have the opportunity to experience the authentic taste of cultivated meat, and to step forward with us towards a brighter, more delicious future." Chef Dominique Crenn added: “It was an incredible honour to introduce the first-ever cultivated meat to consumers in the US, and now, I’m thrilled to have Upside’s cultivated chicken featured regularly on the Bar Crenn menu. Eating Upside’s delicious cultivated chicken is not only an amazing culinary experience – it’s also a powerful statement towards building a more compassionate and sustainable future. I can’t wait for our guests to try it.” #UpsideFoods #US