Trubar has launched Trubar Pro, a new range of plant-based protein bars now available in Target stores nationwide in the US, targeting consumers seeking high-protein snacks with simplified ingredient profiles and dessert-inspired flavours. Each bar contains 18g of plant protein and 12g of fibre, with a protein blend made from brown rice and pea protein. The range is sweetened with monk fruit and formulated without gluten, dairy, soy, sugar alcohols or seed oils. The launch comprises three flavours: Chocolate Pea-nut Job, Caramel But Make It Salty and Cake It 'Til You Make It. The collection aims to combine higher protein content and fibre with flavours inspired by familiar sweet treats. Trubar Pro enters a protein bar category in which brands are increasingly seeking to balance nutritional composition, ingredient preferences and taste. Its plant-based formulation also positions the range for consumers looking for alternatives to dairy-based protein products. Alongside its nationwide Target launch, Trubar Pro is available through CVS, Wegmans, Big Y, Lowe's Grocery, the brand's direct-to-consumer website and Amazon.

Biotechnology company Mycofeast has announced its acquisition of New Zealand-based precision fermentation start-up Daisy Lab. Mycofeast was founded in 2023 and is headquartered in Oxford, UK, with a biotechnology facility in California, US, and 16-million-litre fermentation plant in Poland. The company’s portfolio includes carotenoids, dairy proteins and other biologically produced ingredients and compounds, powered by its innovation engine Evolutia Bio. The platform combines AI discovery, high-throughput screening and genetic engineering capabilities, with capabilities in strain development, biosynthesis, enzyme design, fermentation scale-up and industrial production. Daisy Lab, based in Auckland and founded in 2021, develops proteins claimed to be bioidentical to dairy proteins through precision fermentation. One of its key focuses is lactoferrin, a high-value milk protein with applications across various specialised nutrition and health categories, while it has also developed wider capabilities in recombinant dairy proteins. © Matt Queree The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, aligns with Mycofeast’s strategy to integrate capabilities that can help address the fragmentation between scientific discovery, strain and process development, industrial manufacturing and access to market. Witek Hruzewicz, Mycofeast’s CEO, said: “The sector has no shortage of exceptional science. The harder problem is connecting that science with process development, industrial manufacturing, capital and commercial markets quickly enough – and with economics that actually work.” “Daisy Lab brings a strong dairy protein platform, proven scale-up capability and a talented New Zealand team into that system. It is highly complementary to what we are building.” Daisy Lab has progressed its technology platform from lab development to 500-litre fermentation while building in-house expertise across molecular biology, fermentation, downstream processing and scale-up. The deal will enable Mycofeast to expand into the Asia-Pacific market, while for Daisy Lab, the deal allows it to move beyond the limitations of a standalone start-up model, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Irina Miller, said. “Mycofeast gives us access to a much broader scientific, manufacturing and commercial platform while allowing the expertise developed by the Daisy Lab team to contribute across a much larger organisation,” Miller added. Daisy Lab’s founders will take on roles within the wider Mycofeast group, extending their involvement beyond the New Zealand business and contributing to broader development. Its lactoferrin programme will continue to be developed within the group, working closely with the Evolutia Bio R&D team in California and Mycofeast’s wider engineering, commercial and manufacturing operations.

A US federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by precision fermentation company Onego Bio against The Every Company, bringing an end to the latest legal dispute between the two companies over patents covering the production of ovalbumin. The companies are among a growing number of businesses developing animal-free egg proteins using precision fermentation, a technology that uses microorganisms to produce specific proteins without relying on conventional egg production. The US District Court for the District of Delaware ruled that Every had not made a patent infringement claim against Onego Bio and declined to issue the declaratory judgment sought by Onego. The court did not rule on the validity of Every’s US Patent No. 12,096,784, nor did it determine whether Onego Bio infringes the patent. The dispute centres on the production of ovalbumin, the primary protein found in egg white, through precision fermentation. Every produces ovalbumin using yeast, while Onego Bio uses the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. Onego, a spin-out of Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre, filed the lawsuit in September 2025 seeking a declaration that its technology did not infringe Every’s patent. It also argued that the patent was invalid and unenforceable. Onego had argued that statements made by Every to investors created uncertainty over whether it could face an infringement claim and that the company had indicated Onego would need a licence to use its technology. However, the Delaware court found that Every had not taken an affirmative step indicating that it intended to sue Onego or assert the ’784 patent against it. According to Onego, the court stated that Every had “never singled-out the ’784 Patent or accused Onego of infringing it”. The court also characterised Every’s reported statements to investors, even if they had been made, as “forms of puffing rather than actual threats”. Onego said it had sought the declaratory judgment as a precautionary measure to protect technology developed through decades of research at VTT and provide greater certainty for customers and companies operating in the precision fermentation sector. The company added that its Trichoderma production technology is fundamentally different from EVERY’s approach and that Every’s patent does not disclose how to produce ovalbumin using the organism. Following the ruling, Onego Bio CEO and co-founder Maija Itkonen said the company would focus on commercialising its Bioalbumen product in the US. “We welcome the decision that there is no infringement claim against Onego, no challenge to our freedom to operate, and no litigation between us anymore,” she said. “Our team is busy shipping metric tons of Bioalbumen and selling to US customers, and the response has been incredible.” Itkonen added that there was room for multiple companies in the precision-fermented egg protein market, arguing that increased competition could help expand the category and give customers greater choice. The latest ruling follows the dismissal of a parallel case in Wisconsin in May 2026 on jurisdictional grounds. With the Delaware case now closed, Onego said there is no ongoing litigation between the two companies.

Following Beyond Meat's expansion into the beverage category, the company has launched Beyond Immerse Energy, a sparkling beverage combining plant protein, fibre, antioxidants, electrolytes and caffeine. The new drink is available in Cherry Berry and Watermelon Strawberry flavours and is launching exclusively through Beyond Meat’s website in the US. Beyond Immerse Energy contains 20g of protein and 5g of fibre per serving, alongside vitamin A from beta-carotene and electrolytes. The beverage is made without dairy or GMOs. The new product also provides 160mg of caffeine per serving, sourced from coffee beans. Beyond Meat said the launch is intended to combine the energy boost associated with traditional energy drinks with nutritional attributes including plant protein and fibre. Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat, said: “Energy shouldn’t mean choosing between a boost and good nutrition. Beyond Immerse Energy brings caffeine from coffee beans together with plant protein, fibre, antioxidants, and electrolytes in one refreshing drink.” Alongside the energy drink launch, Beyond Meat has introduced three new flavours to its existing Beyond Immerse sparkling protein drink range. Watermelon Strawberry is available now, while Limoncello Ginger and Yuzu Grapefruit are set to launch soon. The new flavours join the existing Peach Mango, Strawberry Lemonade and Cherry Berry variants, bringing the Beyond Immerse range to six flavours. The company said the wider portfolio is designed to provide consumers with plant protein, fibre, antioxidants and electrolytes in a convenient sparkling format, with Beyond Immerse Energy adding caffeine for occasions when consumers are seeking an energy boost. Beyond Immerse and Beyond Immerse Energy each provide 20g of protein and 5g of fibre per serving. The drinks are also made with electrolytes and contain vitamin A from beta-carotene.

Consumers are curious about precision fermentation but need clearer information about the technology and its benefits before they can develop confidence in products made using it, according to new research from the EIT Food Consumer Observatory. The qualitative study, From Curiosity to Confidence: Developing effective messaging for products made with precision fermentation, examines how consumers perceive the emerging food-production technology and how different communication approaches influence their response to products containing precision-fermented ingredients. The research found that consumers are often willing to try a precision-fermented product before forming an opinion, creating an opportunity for food manufacturers and brands to turn initial curiosity into acceptance. However, the report warned that this curiosity also places pressure on the first consumer experience, with products needing to meet expectations from the outset. Precision fermentation uses microorganisms such as yeast or fungi to produce specific substances, including proteins and fats, which can subsequently be used as food ingredients. The study, conducted with 45 participants, found that consumers generally viewed precision fermentation as new and innovative. While many participants were not yet convinced by the technology, they expressed enough curiosity to want to taste products made using it. At the same time, participants raised questions about how microorganisms are used during production, whether the resulting ingredients should be considered “real” foods or alternatives, and the safety of the technology. Some participants also questioned what precision fermentation could mean for farming and employment across the food production sector. Klaus G. Grunert, professor of marketing at Aarhus University and lead of the EIT Food Consumer Observatory, said that unanswered questions could cause consumers' initial curiosity to turn into suspicion. The research also found that overly vague explanations of the technology could make precision fermentation appear almost “like magic”, potentially leading consumers to believe that information was being withheld. As a result, the report recommends that companies make the science accessible while providing sufficient detail to demonstrate transparency. One potential route to improving consumer understanding is to connect precision fermentation with traditional fermentation. The research found that consumers were already familiar with fermented foods such as bread, yogurt and cheese, although some participants did not immediately identify these products as fermented. Linking precision fermentation to this established food-production history helped make the technology feel less experimental to some participants. However, the report cautioned that the comparison should be accompanied by a clear explanation of how precision fermentation works, rather than being used as the sole means of communicating the technology. The research suggests that manufacturers should focus communications on tangible benefits for consumers, rather than relying primarily on explanations of the technology itself. Taste, texture and nutritional value were identified as more compelling reasons to purchase than messages focused mainly on replacing existing ingredients for sustainability or ethical reasons. While wider benefits such as animal welfare and sustainability remained important to participants, these tended to act as supporting rather than decisive factors in purchase decisions. The report also advised companies against positioning precision-fermented products simply as replacements for familiar foods. Direct comparisons could encourage consumers to assess a new product against an established favourite, creating a challenging benchmark for an unfamiliar innovation. Instead, the research recommends developing products with their own clear consumer benefit and using the novelty of precision fermentation to build on consumers' existing curiosity. The EIT Food Consumer Observatory recommends that manufacturers and brands make precision fermentation understandable without concealing its complexity, capitalise on consumers' willingness to try new products and communicate tangible benefits. It also advises companies to avoid presenting products solely as substitutes for familiar favourites and ensure that products deliver on consumer expectations during their first trial. The research forms part of the EIT Food Consumer Observatory's wider work examining perceptions of emerging food technologies and the factors that influence consumer acceptance. The findings were published ahead of World Food Day on 16 October 2026, which this year focuses on the theme “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.” The study was carried out through the EIT Food Consumer Observatory's Citizen Participation Forum. Participants first explored their perceptions of precision fermentation before being divided into three groups to assess product concepts and communication narratives.

Plant-based pizza brand One Planet Pizza has expanded into the ready meals category with a new range launched exclusively at Asda stores this week. Three meals are rolling out at 276 Asda stores across the UK as part of the new line: Tofu Tikka Masala with Basmati Rice, Mac & Cheeze, and Veg & Lentil Ragù Lasagne. The meals, priced at £3.85 per 400g meal, are centred around whole-food, plant-based ingredients such as lentils, beans and tofu, with a focus on plant protein and fibre. Tofu Tikka Masala features cooked tofu in a spiced tikka masala sauce with sweet potato, cauliflower and edamame beans, served with basmati rice and chana dal lentils, containing 24g of protein per pack. Mac & Cheeze, containing 22g of protein, features cooked macaroni pasta in a soya-based butter bean and cheese alternative sauce, topped with a cheese alternative crumb. Finally, Veg & Lentil Ragù Lasagne features lasagne sheets layered with a vegetable, lentil and pearl barley ragù, topped with a soya-based white sauce and cheese alternative. All three meals can be prepared from frozen in ten minutes in a microwave, and are also suitable for oven cooking. The range responds to market research, commissioned by One Planet Pizza and conducted by North Star, that found plant-based ready meals have been underperforming within the broader ready meal category, highlighting opportunities for growth. Joe Hill, co-founder of One Planet Pizza, said: “We wanted to create familiar comfort food favourites that were properly satisfying, full of flavour and delivered the protein and fibre credentials shoppers are looking for”. “Finding the right manufacturing partner was one of the biggest challenges for these meals. This is quite a specific range and we wanted to work with a factory that still makes things by hand in small batches, which is much harder to find these days. The fact that we found that capability here in the UK was a real bonus.” The launch comes as One Planet Pizza celebrates hitting more than £1 million in annual retail sales for the first time in its ten-year history. The brand’s frozen pizzas are currently listed in Asda, Morisons, Co-op and from January 2027, two pizzas will be listed in Iceland’s 207 UK Food Warehouse stores.

Tate & Lyle and BioHarvest Sciences have reported progress on their collaboration to develop ‘next-generation’ plant-based sweeteners, confirming that BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis platform can produce their targeted sweetening solution. The partnership between the two companies was announced in late 2024, aiming to address demand for sustainable and healthy plant-derived sweeteners that can be used to enhance taste in sugar-reduced and sugar-free food and beverage products. It was expanded earlier this year, with the scope broadened to include multiple plant-based sweetener molecules. Now, the latest milestone marks continued progress in the collaboration, with development activities continuing to advance in line with expectations. BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis platform, based on plant cell cultivation technology, can reduce the industry’s reliance on traditional agricultural extraction for botanicals, aligning with both companies’ sustainability goals and the ambitions of the broader food and beverage industry. The approach could also improve consistency and supply reliability, while reducing some of the time, labour and natural resources required to produce certain ingredients. Susanna Palatucci, vice president of commercial innovation and strategy at Tate & Lyle, said: “Different food and beverage categories demand different balances of taste, nutrition, cost and labelling, which is why building a broader toolbox of solutions matters”. “This milestone further bolsters the potential of BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis platform and the role new approaches to ingredient development could play in helping us meet those varied customer needs across our portfolio.”

Venture studio Food Founders Studio has closed an oversubscribed €4 million funding round, supporting the development of innovative food-tech start-ups designed to address unmet needs across the food and beverage industry. Securing investment has been notably challenging for the European food-tech industry in recent years – investors are becoming more selective and demanding stronger proof of commercial value, with many start-ups struggling to bridge the gap between pilot-scale lab innovation and commercial viability. Despite this, Food Founders Studio noted that investment is ‘beginning to return,’ with European food-tech start-ups raising €401 million in the first half of 2026 – nearly 18% more than a year earlier, though the number of funding rounds fell by 12%. Food Founders Studio, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, works with food and beverage manufacturers to identify key challenges for the industry, then searches for technologies that can address them. Its boards assess technical performance, the commercial case, and the viability of the intellectual property. It then recruits experienced leadership and co-founds the selected venture, working alongside the team on industrial validation, partnerships and fundraising. The studio has already scouted more than 100 technologies and advanced nine to validation before launching its first venture, SentiaNova. SentiaNova is built around neutral plant protein technology licensed from a European university, with the tech designed to remove unwanted off-flavours at the source rather than masking them. Within a year of launch, it has now recruited a CEO and is working toward commercial production while closing its own funding round. The €4 million, raised by family investment offices and angel investors, will support the studio’s next ventures and the work of identifying and securing the technologies behind them. It is currently recruiting a CEO and co-founder for its second company. Additionally, the firm is expanding its search for technologies beyond universities and research institutes – it will now open its sourcing to start-ups and corporate R&D teams who cannot take technologies forward. The studio will assess those opportunities against the same industrial, technical and commercial criteria it applies to academic research. Alexandre Morel, CTO and co-founder of Food Founders Studio, said: “A technology can be technically strong and still lack a route into the food industry”. “We want to find that technology wherever it sits, secure what is needed to build on it, and put the right team around the opportunities that meet a tangible industry need.”

The vertical farming industry has faced turbulence as the soaring expectations of its early days have levelled with growing consciousness of unit economics and scalability setbacks bringing a sense of realism instead – much like other advanced food-tech industries. While some growers took a significant hit, with a series of bankruptcies making headlines in recent years, those that remain cautiously optimistic believe the path ahead is clearer, more focused and displaying signs of maturity. In this feature, included in FoodBev magazine's September issue, we explore how the industry is rising to the challenge. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle framework, which tracks how emerging technologies mature over time, the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’ is a necessary – albeit challenging – stage that promising, emerging technologies must move through before reaching a more productive plateau in which mainstream appeal and widespread adoption await. For the vertical farming industry, these stages have been clear to observe, and the disillusionment phase has hit some harder than others. Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of vertical farming company Oishii, told FoodBev: “Drawing a parallel to the Gartner Hype Cycle, the sector – similar to electric vehicles and other clean-tech industries – experienced an initial wave of excitement and high expectations, followed by a necessary market correction as companies worked to prove the long-term viability of their business models. Over the past few years, optimism has become more grounded and pragmatic.” Indoor vertical farms, where crops are grown vertically in controlled conditions using hydroponics and other soilless technologies, provide clear environmental benefits in reducing water use, land use and waste – in addition to being independent of climate and seasonal limitations and removing the need for pesticides. This ability to address the growing need for more planet-friendly farming methods fuelled early optimism and the boom in investment that came with it – a pattern seen with many cutting-edge technologies. In F&B, this pattern has played out across other food-tech categories such as plant-based and cultivated meat, and precision fermentation-made ingredients. Martin Davalos, partner at investment firm McWin Capital Partners, said: “Several years ago, vertical farming was sometimes presented as a universal solution capable of replacing large parts of conventional agriculture. Significant capital was invested on the assumption that scale, automation and technological improvement would rapidly drive down costs.” However, he emphasised, what came next showed that growing crops successfully in a controlled environment and operating a profitable agriculture business are two different challenges. “A number of companies expanded infrastructure before fully validating unit economics, crop market fit and operational reliability,” he explained. “Rising energy prices and a more difficult fundraising environment then exposed the fragility of those models.” The last few years have seen a string of companies – some regarded as leaders within the sector – file for bankruptcy and enter liquidation, despite promising beginnings, significant achievements and notable funding raises. UK-based Jones Food Company, operator of the largest vertical farm in the country, closed in May last year after failing to secure new investment. More recently, in the US, major player 80 Acres Farms announced in August 2026 that it would wind down operations. In a statement, 80 Acres said that despite “an exhaustive effort to find a way forward,” it was unable to secure the capital required. The news came just a year after it announced a major merger with Soli Organic, and 18 months after it raised $115 million in capital alongside an acquisition of biotech firm Plantae Biosciences. AeroFarms, a microgreens grower also based in the US, also said it would cease operations in December 2025 – though the company received emergency funding just a week later and now continues to operate with the backing of VC firm Palm Ventures, which announced its acquisition of the company in June 2026. Lessons learned Increasingly sophisticated technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled monitoring tools, smart sensor solutions and optimised LED lighting are all delivering efficiency,cost reduction and crop quality gains. However, smart use of these technologies – alongside a solid business model and the right operational expertise – are where the real impact lies. © Intelligent Growth Solutions Dave Scott, chief technology officer at UK vertical farming tech manufacturer Intelligent Growth Solutions, emphasised this: “It might sound counterintuitive coming from someone with ‘technology’ in their job title, but I don’t believe the greatest advances have come from the technology itself,” he said. “More often, they come from the scientific understanding that shapes how that technology is applied.“ “Much of the hardware used in controlled environment agriculture is based on proven technologies. The challenge, and ultimately the opportunity, lies in how those systems are integrated and used to generate actionable insights.” Growers implementing smart technologies must be able to use these solutions to turn data and scientific understanding into better outcomes, leveraging them to better understand how crops respond to their environment, he argued. McWin’s Davalos echoed this sentiment, telling FoodBev: “Ultimately, commercial success depends less on the sophistication of an individual technology than on the integration of biology, engineering, operations, procurement and sales”. “Companies are more likely to struggle when they approach the sector primarily as an infrastructure development exercise, underestimate the biological complexity of production or assume consumers will pay a substantial premium solely because a product was grown vertically.” When investing in a vertical farming start-up, McWin looks for companies with automation designed around a proven production process, in addition to proven unit economics at a relevant scale and crop types with sufficient value to justify controlled environment production. “We would avoid companies whose economics depend primarily on optimistic assumptions about future electricity prices, unproven yields or large cost reductions that have not been demonstrated,” Davalos pointed out. “We would also be cautious where significant capital expenditure is committed before the company has established product market fit and operational stability.” Identifying where the value lies and focusing on the appropriate crop type is one of the most fundamental elements of success for businesses in this category, with cost competitiveness against existing, traditionally grown field crops being a key factor in whether products achieve widespread adoption, Oishii’s Koga said. He highlighted four major ‘waves,’ with crops already grown in greenhouses – such as strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes and bell peppers – being the first to see widespread adoption due to production costs in smart farms soon falling below those of traditional methods. © Oishii Fruit trees could come next – while growing them in smart farms is not currently cost-effective or time-efficient, he noted, future developments in plant dwarfing and selective breeding breakthroughs could create varieties of peaches or pears that are suitable for such facilities. Root vegetables are less compelling due to their low market prices and ability to withstand long-distance transport, while grains also face competition from extremely low-cost alternatives despite being easiest to grow, Koga acknowledged. A recent analysis in Plant Physiology put the current minimum production cost for dried staple crops, such as wheat, rye and barley, at around $10 per kg of dry plant matter through vertical farming – and less than $1 per kg through conventional field production, highlighting the scale of the price premium. “Furthermore, their high requirement for sunlight makes electricity costs a major bottleneck,” Koga added. “An energy revolution is required; this is not a problem that can be solved in five or ten years, but rather a challenge spanning 30-50 years.” Meanwhile, McWin’s Davalos pointed out the challenges associated even with leafy greens, which have been the primary focus for many industry players – the economics can be challenging when vertical farms compete directly against efficient field production or advanced greenhouses. “The relevant comparison is not whether a crop can be grown vertically, but whether it can be grown competitively against the best available alternative in a specific geography,” he summarised. For Oishii, which recently raised $150 million in Series C funding, its focused approach on premium strawberries is described by Koga as a key factor behind its success and differentiation in the market. “We intentionally launched with a premium product to establish credibility and demonstrate the value consumers place on exceptional quality,” Koga enthused. “By concentrating our resources on a single crop…we’ve been able to deepen our expertise, improve product quality and steadily reduce costs. That focus has been central to our strategy from day one.” Rising to the challenge The challenge is undeniable, with high energy, capital expenditure, labour and maintenance costs all posing critical hurdles to be tackled. However, technological advancements to reduce costs and accelerate growth are ongoing. “Lighting and climate management – including cooling, heating, ventilation and dehumidification – represent a major portion of energy demand,” Davalos said. “These costs can be reduced through more efficient LEDs, better airflow design, improved insulation, heat recovery, flexible operation around energy prices and access to renewable or otherwise stranded energy.” Targeted automation can also bring down costs – however, he warned of being mindful that fully automating an unstable production process can add cost and complexity. Additionally, while robotics can address labour-intensive burdens in areas such as transplanting, crop handling, inspection and handling, Davalos noted, technologies must be able to operate reliably in humid and “biologically complex” environments. AI systems are frequently cited among the biggest technological opportunities when it comes to unlocking more of the industry’s potential. Intelligent Growth Solutions’ Scott said: “Vertical farms generate vast amounts of information every day, and AI gives us the ability to extract meaningful insights at a scale that simply wasn’t possible before”. “Over the next five years, this will help drive continuous improvements in crop performance, energy efficiency, automation and overall farm productivity, accelerating the industry’s path to commercial maturity.” AI-driven “physical intelligence” and crop breeding can improve yields and “dramatically” lower costs, Oishii’s Koga said, while sharing his optimism about the potential of surging productivity and further falling costs if governments and businesses globally do their bit to encourage investment in the sector. “Applying the principle known as McKinsey’s ‘Cleantech Moore’s Law’ – which states that costs decrease by 70% when the market grows 100-fold – our strawberries, currently priced at $7, could see their cost drop to the $2-$3 range simply through the expansion of industrial scale,” Koga explained. Additionally, he emphasised the potential of rapid crop variety improvement: “At our Japanese research centre, numerous varieties have already been identified in just one year that offer nearly 40-50% higher yields while maintaining quality; at this pace, it would not be surprising to see yields more than double – and costs cut by nearly half – within five years.” Greater collaboration across the value chain could facilitate the sector’s much-needed progress, encompassing both private and government-backed funding initiatives, transparent and credible knowledge and data sharing from both growers and technology providers, and long-term purchasing partnerships with retail and manufacturing partners. © Oishii “Energy providers and infrastructure partners also have an important role,” said McWin’s Davalos. “Locating facilities near low-cost renewable power, waste heat, industrial carbon dioxide or other underutilised resources could materially improve both economics and environmental performance.” “Investors, meanwhile, need to finance businesses in stages and require proof of performance before funding successive waves of expansion.” Overall, from an investor’s perspective, Davalos said McWin expects vertical farming to become a “smaller, but more commercially credible” industry than some earlier forecasts suggested. “It is unlikely to replace conventional agriculture or advanced greenhouse production across broad crop categories,” he noted. “Instead, it should become an important component of a more diversified agricultural system, particularly for high-value crops, specialist ingredients, propagation, climate-stressed regions and markets that place a high value on local, reliable production.” Looking ahead, he expects continued consolidation with a greater focus on profitability, standardised facilities and collaboration with retailers, manufacturers, energy providers and agricultural organisations. “Success would not be measured by the total amount of capital invested or hectares of facilities announced,” he concluded. “It would mean multiple companies operating facilities profitably over several years, expanding primarily from internally validated economics and customer demand, and delivering measurable benefits in supply resilience, quality, resource efficiency and environmental performance.” “Vertical farming has an important role to play, but its future will be defined by focused applications and operational excellence rather than the claim that it can grow every crop, everywhere.” Top image: © Oishii

British plant-based recipe kit brand Grubby has collaborated with London vegan restaurant Mildreds once again on a range of signature dishes for October 2026. The nine dishes include an exclusive first taste of four classic recipes served in Mildred’s restaurants, as well as five of the companies’ previously launched recipe collaborations, returning for 2026 in response to consumer demand. As with all Grubby dishes, each recipe arrives with pre-portioned ingredients and a step-by-step method. They are all ready to serve within 30 minutes, and the company has also partnered with meat alternative brands Fable Food Co and Symplicity Foods on several of the new recipes. The new recipes are: Chipotle Tinga Tacos: Fable’s mushrooms cooked in a chipotle and pineapple sauce, served in corn tacos with charred pineapple salsa, pickled radish, shredded lettuce and garlic mayo. Mushroom and Aubergine Shawarma: Marinated aubergine and oyster mushroom skewers on a tahini coconut yogurt, finished with parlsey sauce and crispy spiced potatoes. Smoky Mushroom Prime Patty: A Symplicity smash burger in a toasted brioche bun with green chimichurri and caramelised balsamic red onions, served with fries. Shiitake Peanut Laksa: A red curry and peanut base with wholewheat noodles, topped with crispy Fable mushrooms, tenderstem broccoli, roasted peanuts and fresh coriander. Martin Holden-White, founder of Grubby, said: “Last year's collaboration with Mildreds was a huge hit with our customers and we have been inundated with requests to bring it back ever since”. “We are also incredibly proud to showcase four new dishes from the Mildreds menu – people are queuing up to order these in Soho right now, and we've worked with the Mildreds team to get them cookable on a Tuesday night.”

US plant-based beverage brand Kiki Milk has announced the launch of Kiki Milk Protein, an innovative new alt-milk offering made from the ancient Amazonian seed sacha inchi. Kiki Milk Protein embraces the 3,000-year-old seed’s rich nutritional profile, offering a source of complete plant protein, healthy fats and fibre. Sacha inchi is minimally processed and contains all nine essential amino acids, along with 4g of fibre, omega-3 fatty acids and naturally occurring antioxidant compounds. Each serving of Kiki Milk Protein provides 10g of plant protein, primarily from sacha inchi, and contains no gums, seed oils or flavourings. Like all of the brand’s products, the new offering is Certified Organic. Alex Abelin, co-founder of Kiki Milk’s parent company PlantBaby, said: “The problem with most protein beverages is the quality of the protein. When you create a protein isolate, the ingredient typically goes through significant processing to separate the protein from the rest of the seed.” “In that process, you can lose naturally occurring components like fibre, healthy fats and other nutrients that are part of the whole food. We started with sacha inchi because it’s naturally rich in high-quality protein, and our goal was to preserve the seed as close to its original form as possible – delivering protein in a way that works with the whole-food nutrition of the plant.” Kiki Milk Protein will be available in 32 oz six-packs on the company’s website for an MSRP of $49.99, as well as through Amazon. The launch builds on the brand’s recent momentum, with Kiki Milk having significantly expanded its distribution over major national chains over the past year. Founded in 2020 in Hawaii, PlantBaby launched Kiki Milk in 2021 and has since grown to offer a wider portfolio including Original, Chocolate, Unsweetened and Mac Nut varieties.

Japanese biotech company Spiber has announced the launch of Spiber Biofoundry, a contract development and manufacturing service for strain development and advanced fermentation. The company has built its expertise in strain engineering and fermentation over nearly two decades and is now offering its high-yield strain development services to customers targeting proteins. Founded in Yamagata, Japan in 2007, the company develops structural proteins produced by microbial fermentation from plant-derived sugars. It operates an R&D site in Tsuruoaka, Japan and a commercial production plant in Rayong, Thailand. The new Spiber Biofoundry provides process development and contract manufacturing at every scale, from 1-litre fermenters to commercial facilities of over 100 kL. Target products include industrial enzymes and food ingredients, as well as research reagants and diagnostic raw materials. The service is targeting companies facing challenges surrounding low yields and scale-up, with start-ups facing barriers around taking a recombinant protein of their own from laboratory yields to commercial production. Spiber has achieved this with its Brewed Protein innovation, which is used as a material for textile applications. The company can optimise the gene sequence for the customer’s target protein, then introduce it into its proprietary microbial host strains and evaluate expression in culture. In case studies, Spiber designed five sequences for each target protein and tested them against a control: the same gene optimised and supplied by a commercial gene synthesis provider. According to Spiber, for human FGF-2 protein, all five of its sequences outperformed the control, delivering 5.9 to 9.4 times its yield. In broader benchmarking, Spiber-optimised sequences reportedly outperformed the benchmark for over 90% of target proteins tested, with improvements averaging four-fold and reaching 40-fold. The benchmark was each protein’s original sequence before optimisation. For customers who already have a production strain, Spiber develops the fermentation and purification process and manufactures under contract at whatever scale is needed, from 1-litre bench fermenters to 2,000-litre vessels at its R&D site in Tsuruoaka, or commercial fermenters of over 100 kL at its plant in Rayong. Each stage can be commissioned on its own, from a single lab-scale evaluation to full production runs. The service covers proteins, other fermentation products and microbial biomass. Maya Kawana, CEO of Spiber, said: “Developing diverse structural proteins has enabled us to build the technology, expertise and facilities needed to scale fermentation from the lab to commercial production”. “Our work with strategic partners already extends beyond apparel textiles. This service may also create new opportunities for collaboration across industries. By helping more companies bring their technologies to market, we aim to accelerate progress toward a world where we no longer compete for finite resources.”