Blue Ocean Closures, a Swedish company that develops fibre-based closures and packaging components, has unveiled its latest innovation: Paper-Plug, an integrated fibre-based opening system. The concept aims to unlock new opportunities for convenient, low-cost and low-carbon packaging across food applications such as dry and frozen foods, ingredients and health supplements. It can also be used in personal care and home care applications. Setting the solution apart from traditional closure approaches, which usually rely on tear openings or separate plastic fitments, Paper-Plug integrates directly into paperboard packaging structures. Its opening and dispensing concept combines a fibre internal screw closure with a direct interface to carton and corrugated board structures. This integrated design aims to pave the way for ‘highly functional’ renewable packaging solutions, while maintaining cost efficiency and convenience. While previous packaging formats have often relied on glass, metal or plastic, this new solution creates opportunities for new product architectures, Blue Ocean Closures said. The solution has been crafted using the company’s forming technology, developed to produce advanced fibre components with low energy consumption and at industrial speed. It can be used across premium carton and hybrid board formats, reducing dependency on fossil fuel-derived materials and unlocking opportunities for differentiation and branding. The closure is also compatible with existing paperboard converting approaches, with safe integration of barrier opportunities where necessary. Staffan Andersson, CTO at Blue Ocean Closures, said: “Paper packaging has historically been strong in surfaces and structure but limited in functionality wherever advanced opening, dispensing and reclosure features were needed. With Paper-Plug, we want to expand what paper packaging can become.” “We believe this opens a completely new design space where sustainability, convenience and economics increasingly reinforce each other rather than compete.”

GEA has relocated its Application and Technology Center (ATC) for New Food and Biotechnology to Sarstedt, Germany, aiming to help food and biotechnology companies scale precision fermentation and cell cultivation processes. The engineering and technology group has relocated the centre from Hildesheim, where it has been operating since 2023, to its established engineering site in Sarstedt, Lower Saxony. The move is intended to bring pilot-scale biotechnology capabilities closer to GEA's existing expertise in beverage processing, liquid dairy and process engineering. Backed by a €4 million investment, the transition includes the conversion and fitting out of an existing facility, with around 240 employees now based at the Sarstedt site following the relocation. The ATC enables companies developing alternative proteins and other biotechnology-derived ingredients to validate production processes before committing to commercial-scale manufacturing. Pilot facilities include bioreactors ranging from 50 to 500 litres, integrated with media preparation, separation, filtration, hygienic process design and automation systems. GEA said the centre is designed to bridge one of the biggest challenges facing the biotechnology sector: translating promising laboratory results into commercially viable industrial processes. Klaus Stojentin, CEO of GEA's nutrition plant engineering division, said: "New Food and biotechnology need places where you can find out whether a promising process can actually become a viable industrial application. In Sarstedt, we bring pilot infrastructure and engineering expertise under one roof. That gives our customers a stronger basis for their next decision." While precision fermentation and cell cultivation have gained attention for their role in producing alternative proteins, GEA noted that the technologies also have applications across a broader range of food ingredients. Biotechnological production methods can be used to manufacture enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, flavours and other functional ingredients for the food, feed and healthcare industries. The company said the centre will allow customers to evaluate process stability, product quality and production economics at pilot scale before progressing to contract manufacturing or investing in full-scale production facilities. Frederieke Reiners, vice president new food & biotech at GEA, said: "A good lab result creates interest. A solid process creates confidence. Sometimes the most valuable outcome of a test run is a clear no – because a process isn't stable enough yet, or the cost structure simply doesn't hold up. Learning that early can save a company a lot of time and capital." The opening comes as the commercialisation of precision fermentation and cultivated food technologies continues to progress more slowly than many early market forecasts predicted. Challenges around financing, regulatory approvals, production costs and manufacturing scale remain significant barriers for many companies seeking to bring new products to market. GEA said its focus is on providing the engineering infrastructure needed to support industrial biotechnology, rather than replacing conventional food production. Instead, the company sees fermentation-based manufacturing as a complementary production pathway for specific ingredients, particularly where supply chain resilience, climate pressures or raw material constraints are driving demand for alternative production methods. The company also pointed to growing political support for industrial biotechnology in Germany, where the federal government has identified precision fermentation as a strategic technology. GEA said continued investment in pilot infrastructure, alongside predictable regulation and collaboration across the value chain, will be critical to accelerating commercial deployment. Industry partners attending the opening included the Biotechnology Fermentation Factory (BFF) in the Netherlands, which is developing open-access food-grade pilot facilities, and Finnish food technology company Solar Foods, which is producing its fermentation-derived protein Solein at industrial demonstration scale. By integrating biotechnology pilot operations with its established engineering teams in Sarstedt, GEA aims to provide customers with support throughout the product development journey, from early process validation through to the design and implementation of commercial production plants.

Puris has announced the upcoming launch of its new pea protein ingredient, H-IZO, at the IFT FIRST 2026 trade show in Chicago, US, this month. According to the company, which offers a range of pea-based ingredient solutions as well as non-GMO and organic soy beans, H-IZO can simplify high-protein beverage and dairy alternative formulations by enabling lighter textures with fewer ingredients. It aims to address key formulation challenges in sports and lifestyle nutrition while helping manufactures meet the demand for high-protein, clean-label food and beverage products. Benefits of the new solution include lower viscosity, enabling a smooth and creamy mouthfeel even at high protein inclusions. Additionally, it has been developed to offer ‘superior’ solubility and mixability, supporting homogenous, lump-free formulations. The solution allows a stable suspension without added gums, catering to demand for simpler ingredient decks, while also reducing the need for flavour masking systems due to its cleaner taste profile. The company will showcase the new solution at IFT FIRST in an ice cream and vanilla ready-to-mix beverage concept, alongside highlighting its existing ClearP soluble pea protein.

LiveKindly Collective has signed an agreement to acquire German plant-based food brand Greenforce. Headquartered in Munich, Greenforce was founded in 2020 and produces a range of plant-based food products including alternatives to meat, cheese and eggs. LiveKindly Collective, a group with a global footprint and headquarters in New York, US, will add Greenforce to its portfolio of plant-based brands – which also includes Fry’s Family Foods, Like, and Oumph. In a statement shared on LinkedIn today (2 July 2026), the group said the acquisition marks a key milestone in its mission to “make plant-based eating the new norm” while further strengthening its position in the market. “Germany is one of the most important plant-based markets in Europe, and by bringing together Greenforce's innovation and strong consumer brand with LiveKindly Collective's international scale, production capabilities and distribution network, we are creating even greater opportunities for growth and category development,” the company’s statement reads. David Suarez, CEO of LiveKindly Collective, noted that the plant-based foods market is in a phase of “strategic consolidation”. He added: “At LiveKindly Collective, we are actively shaping this development. The integration of Greenforce is another important step in our strategy to lead this category, with a clear focus on growth and sustainable profitability”. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval, with the two companies continuing to operate independently until such approvals are granted. LiveKindly, founded in 2020 by Roger Lienhard, has expanded its offering in recent years, adding to its portfolio and building on its strategic partnerships. The company reported a major milestone in November last year, closing its first series of profitable months since its inception despite market headwinds within the broader alternative protein sector. The company partnered with Tindle Foods in a manufacturing deal in December, with CEO Suarez stating that the company’s financial security allowed it to look beyond organic growth. Top image: © Greenforce

Huel has expanded its range of ready-to-drink Daily Greens carbonated beverages with two new flavour additions, Strawberry Lemonade and Pink Grapefruit. The new drinks feature bold, ‘fruit-forward’ flavours, developed with an aim of enhancing the balance of sweetness and offering a more refreshing flavour experience for consumers. Available via Huel’s website with additional retail roll-out to follow over the summer, the new flavours join the brand’s existing RTD Daily Greens portfolio – which already includes Apple, Cucumber & Mint; Peach & Hibiscus; and Blueberry, Lemon & Thyme variants. The Daily Greens RTD range was introduced in 2025 following the success of the brand's Daily Greens powder line, with the expansion tapping into demand for convenience and on-the-go consumption. Like the existing products in the range, the new flavoured drinks each contain a blend of 42 vitamins, minerals and ‘superfoods,’ adaptogens, 4g of dietary fibre and just 1g of sugar per can. The RTD drink also provides electrolytes, catering to functional hydration trends, while its blend of antioxidants and vitamins is designed to support cognitive function, immunity and gut health, and steady energy.

Upcycled Plant Power (UPP) has partnered with East of Scotland Growers (ESG) to deploy its automated selective harvesting technology across ESG’s farms. UPP is a UK food-tech company creating vegetarian protein products and fibre ingredients from previously wasted broccoli crops. ESG is a farmer-owned agricultural collective with a focus on sustainably grown, high-quality vegetables. The partnership will enable UPP to secure a reliable supply of broccoli biomass for ingredient production. Under the agreement, ESG will operate UPP’s selective harvester to automate the broccoli harvesting process. Harvested side stream material will be supplied to UPP as a consistent feedstock, enabling both companies to unlock value from the biomass. The value to UPP over the five-year term of the partnership is expected to exceed £1 million, assuming multi-unit deployments from year two. For farmers, UPP said its solution reduces dependency on casual harvest labour and mitigates labour-cost inflation, while also reducing crop loss caused by labour shortages and boosting efficiency for farms. The partnership is structured so that ESG shares in the gross margin from UPP’s sale of upcycled ingredients, allowing growers to monetise side streams without additional operational risk or capital investment. Andy Laing, business development director at East of Scotland Growers, said: “This collaboration improves farm profitability while contributing to a food system that is more sustainable and resilient”. “We have been working with our supermarket partners to address Scope 3 emissions reduction, and working with UPP is helping us meet those goals.” UPP recently celebrated a successful £3.5 million funding round, including a £1.5 million follow-on investment from climate-focused firm Elbow Beach. Andy Summerfield, investor director at Elbow Beach, commented on the new partnership: “UPP’s partnership with East of Scotland Growers is exactly the kind of solution we want to support; transforming under-utilised agricultural biomass into high-value, nutritious ingredients while delivering meaningful economic returns to farmers”. “By backing scalable solutions that reduce waste, lower emissions and strengthen supply-chain economics, we are helping accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and commercially robust food future.”

A recent report from ProVeg International and Planeatry Alliance says inconsistent in-store activation is preventing UK retailers from unlocking the plant-based food and beverage category’s full commercial potential. The report, named ‘Blueprint for Plant-Based Commercial Growth: Realising the Commercial Opportunity in Protein Diversification,’ draws on market analysis, store audits across ten UK retailers, product-level data and industry interviews. It argues that while headlines have focused on slowing meat alternative sales, the broader plant-based sector is ‘entering a new commercial phase,’ with growth opportunities emerging across the category. However, the report notes that while plant-based products are widely available across UK retail, the supporting infrastructure – such as signposting, shopper communication, meal inspiration and category navigation – often remains underdeveloped. During store audits, no retailer was found to incorporate plant-based products into wider in-store communications, while execution around fixture signposting and shopper activation varied significantly. Highlighting a notable opportunity for improvement, even the highest-scoring retailer achieved less than half of the maximum possible activation score. Joanna Trewern, partnerships director at ProVeg International, said the real opportunity goes beyond putting more products on shelves. “Retailers have largely achieved distribution,” she commented. “The next challenge is helping shoppers discover products, understand how to use them, and buy them again.” The report also shows significant variation within how well different plant-based segments are performing. While some meat alternative products face pressure, dairy alternatives were shown to be remaining resilient. Additionally, ‘ingredient-led’ proteins showed strong growth signals – the report highlights year-on-year growth in tofu, tempeh, beans and pulses, driven by consumer interest in protein, fibre, value and recognisable ingredients. “The lesson for retailers is that plant-based should not be treated as a single category with a single growth strategy,” Trewern said. Protein diversification is framed as an increasingly important commercial consideration for retailers facing commodity volatility, inflationary pressures, climate-related supply risks and changing consumer preferences. The report emphasises how a more diversified protein portfolio can support shopper relevance, supply resilience and long-term category growth. To help retailers move beyond product availability and improve category performance, the report puts forward a five-stage ‘stocked to scaled’ activation framework. Recommendations include improving category navigation, connecting products to meal occasions, strengthening shopper communication, building demand beyond discounting, and embedding protein diversification into wider commercial strategies. Future growth will depend less on increasing distribution and more on creating the conditions that support discovery, trial, repeat purchase and long-term category confidence, the report concludes.

Plant-powered nutrition brand Indi has expanded its functional snacking portfolio with the launch of Brain Bar, a new plant-based snack designed to support cognitive health while tapping into growing demand for clean-label, functional foods. Launching this July, the 35g bar combines 16 plant-based ingredients with vitamins, minerals and more than 6g of fibre to deliver sustained energy and support focus, cognitive function and reduced fatigue. The product will be available through Indi's website and Ocado, with distribution also extending to independent retailers via wholesalers. It has an RRP of £2.20. Made with a chewy almond butter and date base, the Brain Bar features walnuts, flaxseed, puffed quinoa and berries including cranberry, blueberry and haskap, delivering a chocolate and berry flavour profile with around 4g of naturally occurring sugars per bar. The formulation includes functional ingredients such as lion's mane mushroom, guarana, rhodiola rosea and bacopa monnieri, alongside vitamins B12, C and D3, iron and zinc. The bar is 100% plant-based, gluten-free and free from added sugar, artificial sweeteners, flavourings, emulsifiers and preservatives. The launch builds on the success of Indi's Gut Bar and expands the brand's portfolio to four products spanning snacks and powdered supplements focused on brain and gut health. Helen Snook, co-founder of Indi, said: "Following the sell-out success of our Gut Bar, we're delighted to be expanding our functional snacking range. Combining great taste, nutrient-dense ingredients and targeted nutritional benefits, our new Brain Bar offers consumers a convenient, clean-label snack that supports everyday wellness and plant diversity." She added that the company aims to bring "credible science-backed snacking alternatives" to a category increasingly crowded with highly processed products and complex ingredient lists. The product is available as a single bar, a three-pack multipack and 12- and 24-bar bundles through the brand's direct-to-consumer channel.

IFF has announced the launch of Danisco Grindsted DuoGel, a stabiliser system designed to close the texture gap between plant-based and traditional gummies. Launching in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the solution is claimed to be the first of its kind in the region. It is developed specifically for low-pH, fruit-based gummies, engineered to address a key technical challenge in plant-based confectionery: recreating a juicy and satisfying bite comparable to traditional gummies with fruit juice or fruity flavour profiles. IFF noted that current gelatine-free formulations often produce a short, brittle bite or ‘overly dense,’ sticky chew. Through the combination of two hydrocolloids, pectin and carrageenan, Grindsted DuoGel is claimed to deliver an elastic and chewy texture that is difficult to achieve using a single ingredient. In studies conducted by IFF, gummies formulated with the new solution demonstrated improved melt resistance and reduced surface stickiness in warmer conditions, enabling reliable distribution in hot climates. The solution is halal-certified and supports vegan-friendly claims, allowing manufacturers greater flexibility in product positioning. Linda Friis, vice president of applications for EMEA at IFF, called it a “step change for plant-based confectionery”. She added: “It delivers consistent texture and allows easier implementation on existing production lines, giving manufacturers the confidence to innovate and scale quickly”.

Dutch food-tech company The Protein Brewery has today (29 June 2026) announced an €18 million extension of its Series B funding round, led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund. The company – a producer of mycelium-based ingredients, headquartered in Breda, the Netherlands – expanded the round beyond its initial target thanks to ‘strong investor demand’. In September 2025, it successfully closed a €30 million Series B funding round, with the latest extension bringing its total funding raised to date to more than €70 million. Joined by existing investors Invest-NL, Novo Holdings, Madeli and the Brabant Development Agency, the round will support The Protein Brewery’s continued growth. Particularly, it will help increase production capacity of its flagship Fermotein ingredient and expand commercially across Europe. The funding news comes just a couple of weeks after The Protein Brewery celebrated a major milestone in the approval of Fermotein in the European Union: the first whole-food novel mycelium ingredient to be approved for sale on the market under the EU Novel Food Regulation. Fermotein is a ‘mycoprotein’ ingredient made from the fungus Rhizomucor pusillus, designed to deliver clean-label and vegan-friendly nutrition across a wide range of food and beverage applications. Fermotein © The Protein Brewery With its latest funding raise, The Protein Brewery aims to expand production capacity to more than 2,000 MT through scaling operations at its facility in Mijkenbroek. After summer 2026, the company will focus on driving sales into Europe with a primary focus on active nutrition, including ready-to-mix powders and bars, and other functional foods and beverages. Investment will also support the advancement of clinical and scientific research into the ‘longevity-promoting’ benefits of Fermotein, as well as pursuing further regulatory approvals in new markets including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India. Thijs Bosch, CEO of The Protein Brewery, said: “Building a completely new ingredient category takes patience and investment in the right activities, at the right time. With this additional funding, we move from proving that whole-food mycelium is a desirable ingredient to delivering it at the scale that brands and manufacturers need.” Due to Fermotein’s nutritional profile – containing approximately 50% protein with all essential amino acids, and 30% dietary fibre – the company believes it is ideally positioned to meet demand for functional foods targeting longevity, gut health, metabolic health (including GLP-1 support) and muscle maintenance. The Protein Brewery has already sold out its 2026 capacity to customers in the US, and is working with initial customers in active nutrition in the EU and UK. Ugur Yuksel, investment manager at ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, commented: “The Protein Brewery has successfully translated strong scientific foundations into a robust industrial-scale production process and a growing commercial business, exactly the profile we look for in companies that can deliver measurable environmental impact at scale”.

Precision fermentation is often framed as a competitor to plant-based food, but the reality may be far more collaborative. Suzanne Robb, senior market strategy manager at CPI, explores how fermentation could enable the next phase of alternative protein growth. Suzanne Robb For the past decade, the alternative protein conversation has been framed as a contest of technologies. Plant-based foods, precision fermentation and cultivated meat are often presented as distinct and even competing categories vying for market share, consumer attention and investment, but this framing misses a crucial point. In practice, precision fermentation isn’t emerging as a substitute for plant-based systems, but as a functional ingredient platform that enhances them. Its greatest impact lies in how it’s being integrated into commercial formulations and existing manufacturing systems to address specific performance gaps. Moving beyond the ‘either/or’ mindset Plant-based products have achieved significant commercial success, scaling rapidly by building on established agricultural supply chains and existing manufacturing infrastructure. Today, they represent the largest segment of the alternative protein market, accounting for a substantial share of category sales, according to Fortune Business Insights. Yet despite this success, one persistent challenge remains: performance. While plant proteins are effective at delivering structure and protein content, they often struggle to replicate the complex functional properties of animal-derived ingredients. This is particularly evident in a few different use cases, including applications that rely on casein-driven gelation and melt behaviour in cheese, thermostable foaming and aeration in egg-based systems, stable emulsification across complex formulations, and the characteristic flavour development that occurs during cooking. These limitations aren’t simply matters of taste; they directly affect process performance, product stability, and repeat purchase behaviour. And this is where precision fermentation comes in. By programming microorganisms to produce targeted functional molecules such as proteins, enzymes, fats and flavour compounds, precision fermentation enables the creation of ingredients that are molecularly identical to their animal counterparts. Rather than replacing plant-based formulations, these ingredients are increasingly being integrated into them. Some of the most important advances in alternative proteins illustrate this complementary relationship clearly. Recreating meat flavour and unlocking dairy functionality One of the defining examples is the use of precision-fermented heme in plant-based meat. Impossible Foods’ soy leghemoglobin, produced via yeast fermentation, replicates the iron-containing molecule responsible for the characteristic flavour and aroma of meat. © Impossible Foods This introduces a functional ingredient that catalyses key flavour reactions. Without it, plant-based burgers may look and feel like meat, but can lack the depth of flavour created during cooking meat. With it, they can deliver the ‘bleeding,’ aroma and taste cues that consumers associate with real beef. From a formulation perspective, the significance lies in efficiency of impact. These ingredients are typically used at low inclusion levels, allowing developers to target flavour gaps without substantially altering the core protein matrix or cost structure. Dairy presents an even clearer example. The proteins that give dairy products their characteristic performance, including melting, stretching, foaming and emulsification, are difficult to recreate using plant ingredients alone. Precision fermentation companies such as Perfect Day are producing animal-identical whey and casein proteins without the cow, allowing manufacturers to retain familiar functionality while expanding the possibilities for alternative dairy products. The implication is significant: rather than trying to approximate cheese or yogurt using plant proteins alone, manufacturers can combine plant-based matrices with fermentation-derived proteins to achieve closer parity in texture and performance. The same pattern is playing out across other ingredient categories. Precision fermentation is also used to produce egg proteins such as ovalbumin, which unlocks aeration, binding and emulsification in baked goods and processed foods. Meanwhile, fermentation-derived fats and oils are being developed to address one of the biggest gaps in plant-based products: richness and mouthfeel. In each case, the role of fermentation is to help solve discrete functional challenges within broader formulations, not to replace plant-based formulations entirely. A layered future, not a fragmented one Taken together, these examples suggest that the future of alternative proteins is unlikely to be defined by a single technology. Instead, many manufacturers are adopting a layered approach that combines the strengths of different ingredients. Plant-based systems continue to provide the bulk structure, protein content and cost-efficiency needed for scalable products, while precision fermentation-derived ingredients are being used more selectively to deliver specific functional benefits and optimise performance. Rather than competing with one another, the two approaches are increasingly working in combination to create products that better meet consumer expectations. This model enables more efficient formulation strategies, where functionality is engineered through selective ingredient inclusion rather than complex workarounds. For product developers, this also reduces formulation trade-offs and enables more precise control over product attributes. As manufacturers look to improve flavour, texture and functionality without redesigning products from first principles, fermentation-derived ingredients are becoming increasingly embedded within broader formulation strategies. While fermentation remains a smaller segment of the alternative protein market than plant-based foods, investment and commercial interest continue to grow as organisations explore its potential to enhance product performance and accelerate innovation. Precision fermentation is becoming embedded across the value chain, even if it remains largely invisible to consumers. Why this matters for the next phase of growth Early growth in the alternative protein sector was driven by novelty and values including sustainability, animal welfare and curiosity. But the next phase of the sector will be driven by repeat purchase, and that depends on product experience. Consumers don’t choose preferred technologies; they choose food that tastes good, performs reliably and offers value. Delivering those expectations consistently. and at commercial scale. is where the next challenge begins. Product performance alone isn’t enough; manufacturers also need production systems that can translate promising formulations into viable commercial products. Precision fermentation is proving that it addresses the attributes that determine whether consumers come back for a second purchase, including flavour authenticity, texture fidelity and functional performance, but commercial success ultimately depends on the ability to scale production reliably and cost-effectively. As more manufacturers integrate fermentation-derived ingredients into plant-based formulations, attention is increasingly shifting towards process development, scale-up and the generation of robust technical data needed to support the move from proof-of-concept to commercial deployment and market adoption. From a manufacturing perspective, this integrated model offers several advantages. It supports incremental reformulation: rather than redesigning products from first principles, manufacturers can introduce functional ingredients into existing formulations to address specific performance limitations, reducing time-to-market and lowering development risk. It also maintains compatibility with existing processing infrastructure. Because fermentation-derived ingredients are typically used at low inclusion rates, they can often be incorporated without significant changes to production lines or processing conditions. And it enables more efficient cost-in-use optimisation. While some precision fermentation ingredients remain relatively high-cost on a per-kilogram basis, their targeted application means that overall formulation economics can remain competitive when evaluated at the product level. Together, these factors make precision fermentation particularly suited to B2B ingredient integration, rather than wholesale category disruption. From category competition to ingredient convergence Reframing precision fermentation as an enabling technology, rather than a competing category, helps clarify where the industry is heading. The future is unlikely to be defined by ‘plant-based versus fermentation.’ Instead, it will be built on hybrid systems that combine the strengths of both. In practice, that future is already here, with burgers that taste more like beef, cheeses that melt more convincingly and baked goods that perform as expected. Precision fermentation may remain largely behind the scenes, but its impact will be felt where it matters most: formulation, processing and manufacturing performance. As precision fermentation becomes more embedded within broader food systems, the infrastructure needed to move innovations from formulation into manufacture will become increasingly important.

Food System Innovations (FSI) has launched the Food Intelligence Lab, a new interdisciplinary initiative designed to build the AI infrastructure needed to accelerate research and development across the sustainable protein sector. Backed by a $2 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund awarded last year, the lab will develop open-source datasets, machine learning models and benchmarking tools that aim to shorten product development timelines and improve the sensory performance of plant-based and other sustainable protein products. The announcement comes as alternative protein companies continue to face slowing consumer adoption, driven in part by persistent concerns around taste and texture despite years of investment in formulation improvements. Anna Thomas, director of machine learning at the Food Intelligence Lab and a computer scientist at Stanford University, said: "AI is already transforming fields like drug and materials discovery, but food still lacks the shared infrastructure needed to fully unlock the potential of AI in this space. We're building tools to help food scientists iterate faster and create truly exceptional sustainable protein products." Unlike sectors such as pharmaceuticals, where extensive public datasets have accelerated AI development, food formulation remains constrained by fragmented data, proprietary research and expensive experimental cycles. The Food Intelligence Lab aims to address that gap by creating large-scale, open datasets that combine sensory evaluations with instrumental measurements such as texture profile analysis, pH and shear testing. These resources will underpin AI models capable of predicting consumer-relevant attributes, including taste and texture, before products undergo physical testing. The initiative will also collaborate with food companies, academic researchers and non-profits to translate those models into commercial R&D workflows. FSI highlighted an early collaboration with Proxy Foods AI, in which the teams developed an optimisation system known as Expert-Guided Bayesian Optimisation (EGBO). According to the organisation, the AI system improved the sensory performance of a plant-based Greek-style yogurt by 29% in just 10 formulation iterations completed over five days. The optimised formulation matched an animal-based benchmark on three of four key sensory attributes – consistency, creaminess and tanginess. FSI also reported that EGBO outperformed a professional food scientist working under the same time constraints, achieving a higher optimisation score while arriving at a stronger formulation more quickly. Panos Kostopoulos, founder and CEO of Proxy Foods AI, said: "Food scientists shouldn't have to spend months on trial-and-error to get texture, mouthfeel, flavour, and aftertaste right." Kostopoulos continued: "Partnering with FSI's Food Intelligence Lab to open-source these tools is how we accelerate those breakthroughs and ultimately change how we feed the planet for the better." Beyond formulation optimisation, the lab is also developing AI tools to predict sensory outcomes, an area that could reduce the industry's reliance on costly and time-consuming consumer taste panels. Researchers recently introduced TasteBench, an open benchmark and Kaggle competition that evaluates AI models on their ability to predict how closely sustainable protein products resemble their animal-based counterparts. According to FSI, the strongest AI model currently performs at roughly the level of the median human sensory panellist. The organisation believes combining scientific literature, experimental data, foundation models and human expertise will eventually enable AI systems to recommend the next best formulation experiment, significantly reducing development timelines. The launch reflects a broader trend toward applying artificial intelligence across food product development, as manufacturers seek to improve formulation efficiency while lowering development costs. For the alternative protein sector, where consumer acceptance remains closely tied to sensory quality, more accurate predictive tools could help companies bring better-performing products to market faster while reducing reliance on costly trial-and-error experimentation. By making its datasets, benchmarks and models openly available, FSI also hopes to lower barriers for start-ups, academic researchers and established manufacturers, encouraging greater collaboration across the sustainable protein ecosystem. The Food Intelligence Lab's research, including papers on EGBO and TasteBench, will be presented at the AI for Scientific Discovery Workshop during the 2026 International Conference on Machine Learning.