ZenB, a plant-based and gluten-free producer of pasta made from yellow peas, has introduced lasagna and cavatappi pasta shapes to its lineup. The company said its new shapes are highly-requested and a ‘first for the gluten-free category,’ offering ‘no-compromise’ profiles that hold up in sauces and deliver the same mouthfeel and experience as their wheat pasta counterparts, with more protein and fibre as well as zero additives. Crafted in Italy with a clean label, solo ingredient – whole yellow peas – the new pasta shapes each deliver 17g of protein and 11g of fibre per 3 ounce serving, described as having the ‘palate-pleasing’ texture of wheat pasta with a ‘bouncy and tender al dente bite’. Hugo Pérez, chief storyteller at ZenB, commented: “This has been a monumental year for ZenB as we’ve entered into retail and developed new wholesome food innovations made with real, clean ingredients that are genuinely delicious too”. He added: “Lasagna and cavatappi were the most requested shapes from our community, and when they speak, we listen. By adding these to our lineup, we now have even more ways for foodies, families or anyone to enjoy crave-worthy dishes without compromise.” ZenB pastas are all non-GMO, vegan and contain no artificial flavours or preservatives. The company also recently entered the snack category with the launch of ZenB Cracker Crisps. #Italy #pasta #yellowpea #ZenB

Swiss technology group Bühler has unveiled its new food innovation hub in Uzwil, Switzerland, opening up four new Application & Training Centers (ATCs). The company’s existing ATCs, such as its Extrusion Application Center, will complement the new facilities, which aim to connect the entire value chain and enable a circular economy approach to food production. Brand-new ATCs opening their doors to customers are a Flavor Creation Center, Food Creation Center, Protein Application Center and Energy Recovery Center. Bühler currently has ATCs in 23 locations around the world, some of which cover multiple industrial applications. The hubs offer dedicated training for customers and provides them with a collaborative platform to test new product ideas and experiment with product innovations. The new Protein Appliation Center aims to enable and accelerate the development of processes for plant-based food production, including meat substitutes, plant-based drinks and ingredients. It is equipped with the latest wet isolation and fractionation techniques for separation of protein, starches and fibres. The facility is operated in collaboration with technology partner Endeco, and will connect the Grain Innovation Center, Extrusion Application Center, Pasta Application Center, Food Creation Center, Flavor Creation Center, and Energy Recovery Center. At the Flavor Creation Center, Bühler’s expertise in processing, roasting and grinding cocoa beans, nuts and coffee is combined in one place. The centre has been processing coffee since 2013 and cocoa and nuts since 2022, and has now been upgraded and renovated. It offers product innovation, training, process optimisation and raw material analyses. It operates in line with Bühler’s Chocolate Application Center, Food Creation Center, and Energy Recovery Center. The new Food Creation Center will support customers through the entire innovation and industrialisation process, in the development of food products such as chocolate, snack bars, wafers, biscuits, crackers and baked goods. Together, the ATCs in Uzwil produce around 550 tons of biomass annually. To make optimum use of the waste and by-products generated, Bühler and its strategic partner Vyncke have built the Energy Recovery Center, which serves as a heating facility for Bühler’s headquarters. The Energy Recovery Center also works as a demonstration and testing platform for customers who want to reduce their carbon footprint, waste production and energy costs by using side streams. Milling Solutions has also started construction on a new Grain Innovation Center (GIC) in Uzwil, where Bühler and its customers and partners will develop, test and scale sustainable and efficient solutions for grain and feed processing to improve food and feed solutions. It is set for operation by the end of 2024. A new Grain Processing Innovation Center (GPIC) in Kano, Nigeria, is also under construction and expected to open at the beginning of 2024, focusing on development of products, recipes and processes using local grains such as sorghum, millets, maize, soybeans and tigernuts. Johannes Wick, CEO of Grains & Food at Bühler Group, said: “In this world where requirements are changing so fast, customers need flexibility and creativity to adapt their products addressing key issues such as sustainability, the use of local raw materials, healthy diets, and affordability”. He added: “With the completion of the new Application & Training Centers we are able to cover the entire scope of production, from different raw materials to multiple types of finished products.” #alternativeproteins #Bühler #Switzerland

Coffee shop chain Costa Coffee has launched its first plant-based ready-to-drink (RTD) product, an Oat Latte. The 750ml RTD is launching exclusively in over 500 Tesco stores across the UK, combining Costa’s Signature Blend coffee with creamy oat milk. Costa said the launch follows surging demand for plant-based alternatives, with a 38% increase in RTD plant-based sales over the past year according to Nielsen data. In response to this, the company claims to be the first major coffee brand to introduce an RTD drink in a multi-serve format using dairy-free alternatives. Mark Cumming, head of FMCG UK and Ireland at Costa Coffee, commented: “We are excited to introduce our 750ml Oat Latte, a product that demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovation in our RTD range. We understand that consumers today seek not only great taste, but also products that align with their lifestyle or dietary requirements.” #CostaCoffee #Oatmilk #RTDcoffee #UK

Alongside the industry heavyweights famed for pioneering the plant-based category, smaller businesses with big ambitions are also championing the future of sustainable, animal-free food. In this month’s Start-up spotlight, we speak to Elo Life Systems, a US-based company that aims to meet growing consumer demand for healthier natural ingredients through providing a natural, zero-calorie sweetener created through molecular farming methods. Todd Rands, the company’s CEO, tells us more. Elo’s mission is to unlock nature’s abilities to make consumers’ favorite foods more delicious, healthy and planet friendly. From unique plant-based sweeteners to saving crops like the banana from extinction, we focus on ingredients that empower consumers to feel good about the food they eat every day. How can your molecular farming approach provide benefits for our global food system? Molecular farming allows us to completely reimagine our food system, from what we grow, to how and where we grow it. It enables more local, planet-friendly sourcing of ingredients, while expanding our access to the diversity in nature, effectively reducing the environmental impact of food production. Via molecular farming, Elo produces sought-after ingredients that are difficult to harvest from natural sources and cannot be synthesised through artificial or other techniques. This provides better quality nutrition that is affordable and accessible to everyone. We use easy-to-grow crops as biofactories for these ingredients, enabling local, commercial-scale production while reducing their cost and environmental footprint. How is Elo Life Systems innovating in this space? Elo’s innovation starts with a deep understanding of the natural pathways that produce the most desirable ingredients for our food system. Utilizing advanced data analytics and computational biology, we find the best combinations of natural genes and enzymes to produce our ingredients, construct and optimise the pathways in plants, and then grow the resulting crops to produce our ingredients at commercial scale. We are harnessing nature to sustainably power the ultimate biofactory. What are the benefits of Elo’s natural sweetener for the plant-based food industry? Elo’s plant-based sweetener is 300 times sweeter than sugar, with zero calories, and a taste profile that is very similar to sugar. Our sweetener empowers food and beverage companies to reduce sugar and artificial sweeteners while improving nutrition in thousands of everyday food and beverage products people enjoy. And because it is plant based, it helps the industry meet the growing consumer demand for healthier and more natural ingredients in their foods. At the same time, our molecular farming platform enables more local, planet-friendly production, effectively reducing the environmental impact of food production. How are machine learning and data analytics technologies shaping the company’s approach? Machine learning and analytics greatly speed the process and the insights we’re able to uncover. We use sophisticated data analytics and algorithms to find the patterns in nature. This enables us to design and optimise the complex metabolic pathways that produce our ingredients, like Elo’s sweetener, in nature. And by constructing those pathways in crops, Elo can affordably scale commercial production. Molecular farming is completely changing the environmental footprint of food production. From what we grow, to how and where we grow it, molecular farming – where plants utilise sunlight, water, and CO2 to create energy – enables us to produce more while using substantially fewer resources. How does this work? For ingredients that are highly desired but rare in nature, we cannot simply strip natural sources of plants from delicate native ecosystems, nor can we continue to deforest land to create more space to grow additional crops. Using crops as biofactories via molecular farming enables us to produce those desirable ingredients in existing crops rather than destroying natural sources or taking up more land. Produce more, use less. Our sweetener is a great example. It is inspired by monk fruit, which has been used in China for hundreds of years and is increasingly popular in the west. It is prized by consumers and food and beverage companies alike for its sweet taste and no calories. But monk fruit can only be grown in remote valleys of China, and requires extensive labour to grow, harvest and process in Chinese factories before being shipped all the way around the world for use in our foods. A totally unsustainable and expensive production model. Through molecular farming, we reduce monk fruit’s cost and carbon footprint through local production. We use our biofactories to produce monk fruit sweetener in other easier to grow crops. And we’re able to produce the sweetener as a co-product in existing crop systems. This ensures we don’t require additional land and other resources to produce our sweetener. What has been the biggest challenge faced by the company so far? There’s been great reception to our sweetener, as everyone is seeking to reduce excess sugar in their diets. The biggest challenge thus far arises from the complexity of the food and beverage markets. There are literally hundreds of thousands of applications in products and brands which each need time to formulate, evaluate, market test and prepare for commercial launch with Elo’s new sweetener. For Elo, that has led us to seek partners that share our vision for innovation… that are daring to dream big and throw out the old conventional approaches to producing food. We’ve found a few such partners, where we can combine their commercial capabilities with Elo’s technological, biological and agricultural expertise. Finding true synergies with such partners is key to our success. Where is the company in its commercialisation journey? We’re moving from the lab to the field, where we will build our production scale in the coming year. And we are continuing to secure partners that are ready to work with Elo to reduce sugar and other artificial ingredients in their foods and beverages. We expect to have the initial regulatory (GRAS) status with FDA that is needed to commercialise our sweetener by 2025. We often focus on the technical product achievements when listing our biggest accomplishments, and there have been plenty. We are doing something that is incredibly complex, something that no one else has done before. Producing sweeteners by building natural multi-step enzymatic pathways that all need to work in synchrony inside of a plant is not easy. But seeing that work come to life with a product that everyone is excited to taste is incredibly rewarding. But our biggest achievement at Elo, by far, is the team and culture we’ve built. A group with unparalleled intellectual horsepower, driven to take on the toughest challenges, motivated by Elo’s mission to improve human health through food, and unified by our values – that is the ultimate secret of our success. What’s next for Elo Life Systems? The next two years will be incredibly eventful at Elo, as we scale up production of our first product using molecular farming – Elo’s all-natural zero-calorie sweetener. We will also be working with CPG and ingredient companies to incorporate and evaluate Elo’s sweetener in new foods and beverages. And we have our eye on the horizon as we explore other new ingredients to produce via molecular farming, including novel proteins, natural preservatives and high-value flavors and bio-actives. The future is incredibly bright, as molecular farming enables us to deliver more accessible and affordable nutrition, while improving the health of our planet. #EloLifeSystems #StartupSpotlight #US

Jumbo Supermarkets has announced that it will match the prices of its own-brand meat substitutes to the comparable animal-based variant. The European supermarket chain, which has stores in the Netherlands and Belgium, said that the initiative is in line with its ambition to encourage a more plant-based diet. The company wants 60% of the proteins it sells to be plant-based by 2030 at the latest. Jumbo’s own-brand meat substitute range consists of dozens of products including vegetarian chicken pieces, vegan minced meat and various types of burgers. The supermarket chain said that it recognises that price is a barrier for consumers to choose meat substitutes, and is lowering the prices of its meat alternatives range, which until this week was more expensive than traditional animal-based counterparts, to make choosing plant-based and vegetarian easier. Products that already had an equal or lower price than the comparable meat product will not change in price. Anrico Maat, retail director of Jumbo, said: “In addition to affordability, taste is often a determining factor. That is why we continuously work on improving and expanding the plant-based range. Recently, research by ProVeg found that a number of our plant-based private label products are positively assessed for their nutritional values.” Several other European supermarkets have also made similar moves in recent months, recognising the need to make plant-based alternatives more affordable for consumers. European chain Billa dropped the prices of its own-brand plant-based Vegavita range earlier this month following the opening of a new 100% plant-based store in Austria, making more than 50 Vegavita products the same price or cheaper than the non-vegan alternatives. Lidl in Germany was also celebrated for matching the price of its Vemondo range to its animal-based counterparts as well as placing them in the immediate vicinity of meat variants, aiming to make it easier for consumers to find alternatives to their favourite meat products. #Europe #JumboSupermarkets #plantbasedmeat #supermarkets

The Coconut Collab has launched a new coconut-based barista-style milk claimed to look, taste and behave just like its dairy counterparts. The new product, M!lk, is initially available exclusively through Ocado and aims to ‘set a new standard’ for plant-based milk. According to The Coconut Collab, the product froths well, does not split when warmed and will not alter the taste profile of tea, making it well-suited to hot drinks, smoothies, cereals and more. The company said it uses ethically-farmed coconuts which are naturally low in sugar and full of minerals, electrolytes and healthy fats. It operates with a zero waste approach, using 100% of the coconuts sourced to create its yogurts, creams, desserts and milks within its supply chain. James Aerdieck, founder of The Coconut Collab, said: “We know that one in three Brits are drinking plant-based milk, however we also know that almost every variant currently available on supermarket shelves influences the taste profile of the end product – whether this is a cup of tea or a bowl of cereal”. He added that M!lk offers customers an “unrivalled and uncompromising” plant-based milk alternative, with taste at the heart of the company’s proposition. #plantbasedmilk #UK #TheCoconutCollaborative #coconutmilk #milkalternatives

Dairy alternative company Daiya Foods has announced that Hajime Fujita has been appointed to the role of chief executive officer. Fujita will replace Michael Watt, who had been in the role since 2019. Fujita is a former director at Daiya and will lead all global operations throughout North America and the brand’s continued international expansion. He brings over 17 years of global experience in business and financial planning throughout the US and the Asia-Pacific region. Fujita joins from Daiya’s parent company, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, where he was VP of business planning. Daiya has been producing plant-based dairy alternatives since 2008, well-known for its cheese formats including blocks, shreds, slices, sticks, cream cheese style spreads and sauces. It has since expanded into other ‘cheese-forward’ foods like pizza, mac and cheese and frozen cheesecake. Having played a key role in Otsuka’s acquisition of Daiya in 2017, Fujita joined Daiya himself and served as director of financial planning and analysis from 2018 to 2021. Following this, he assumed a seat on Daiya’s board as part of the VP role at Otsuka. Among his key achievements at Daiya are playing a lead role in the development of the company’s manufacturing facility and office in Burnaby, British Columbia, said to be the largest stand-alone plant-based food facility in North America. Commenting on his new role, Fujita said: “There is enormous potential in the Daiya brand to push the highly competitive plant-based category to new heights, particularly through product innovation and bold marketing”. He added: “I’m thrilled to be rejoining Daiya at such a dynamic period in the wider cultural conversation around plant-based eating and I look forward to working with our fantastic team in writing the next chapter of our amazing brand story”. Alongside Fujita’s appointment, the Daiya board of directors made two further changes to the leadership team. Chief marketing officer, Melanie Domer, will assume a new role as chief commercial officer, overseeing marketing and sales. John Kelly, VP of consumer marketing assumes the role of chief marketing officer. Domer commented: “By bringing sales and marketing together, Daiya will be even better positioned to reach and engage with consumers all along the shopper journey, bringing more people to plant-based eating, and driving growth of our categories”. Daiya’s foods are available in more than 25,000 grocery stores in the US and Canada, as well as through e-commerce partnerships. Its products can be found internationally in Asia, Europe and Latin America. #DaiyaFoods #plantbasedcheese #plantbaseddairy #US

VFC has launched its first range of ‘naked’ uncoated vegan chicken breasts and mince, both rolling out now in Morrisons stores across the UK. The expansion of VFC’s range follows the two milestone acquisitions made by the company this year: Meatless Farm and, most recently, Clive’s Purely Plants. With the launch of the two new frozen products, VFC stretches beyond its core range of southern-fried crispy coated vegan chicken. VFC said this will open the brand to a broader consumer base and multiple usage occasions. VFC Chick*n Breasts aim to replicate the shape, texture and taste of real chicken breasts, made from 100% natural ingredients. Meanwhile, the VFC Chick*n Mince offers a ‘market-first’ innovation, VFC said, containing 31g of protein and 7.8g of fibre per 100g. It is gluten-free and claimed to contain 65% less saturated fat than conventional chicken mince. Alison Reilly, head of marketing for VFC, commented: “We recognise that health is a key driver for consumers in this category. Expanding our product portfolio into uncoated products not only allows us to appeal to incremental meal occasions in the week, but also aligns with our mission of sparing chicken’s lives by featuring our products in more mealtimes.” VFC co-founder, Adam Lyons, described the mince as a “game-changer in the world of plant-based cuisine”. He added: “We’re proud to offer a product that matches the taste and texture of conventional chicken mince, whilst providing exceptional nutritional value. We believe that our customers will be delighted with the taste, versatility and health benefits of this innovative addition to our product range.” #frozenfoods #plantbasedchicken #UK #VFC

Sugar manufacturer Nordzucker is entering a new business segment with an investment of more than €100 million into the production of plant-based proteins. Headquartered in Germany, Nordzucker has announced that it will put a new plant into operation for this new business segment at its site in Groß Munzel, Lower Saxony, by mid-2026. The expansion is expected to create around 60 additional jobs and reflects the “increasingly important role in the future” that plant-based nutrition is set to play, said Nordzucker’s CEO Lars Gorissen. He commented: “We are supplementing our portfolio with a product that fits in well with our core competences and are thus consistently pursuing our growth strategy”. The company will produce and sell pea proteins to be used as a source of protein and texturizer in plant-based food. It will rely particularly on the yellow pea from regional cultivation, which Gorissen said fulfills all the requirements for economical and sustainable production with its ability to be grown in many regions and fit well into the crop rotations of farms. Nordzucker can produce peas all year round due to their shelf life. They will be marketed as a concentrate and dry texturate for further processing in the food and animal feed industry. The company’s chief financial officer, Alexander Bott, said double-digit growth rates are expected per year in the pea protein concentrates and texturates segment, so the company is “setting a fast pace in terms of implementation”. Construction of the new production facilities is scheduled to begin in autumn 2024. The plant will benefit from Nordzucker’s existing infrastructure and transport links, enabling good access to raw materials from many arable farming regions and to sales markets. The supervisory board of Nordzucker has supported the entry into the new business segment and expansion of production capacity at the Groß Munzel site. #Germany #Nordzucker #peaprotein #plantprotein

Global food and agribusiness company Bunge has introduced Beleaf PlantBetter, a new plant-based butter alternative claimed to be on par with dairy butter. Bunge’s Beleaf range of plant-based lipids for meat and dairy alternatives was created to meet demand for plant-based alternatives and deliver the same sensory experience as traditional meat and dairy products. The company said its new butter alternative can address complexities faced by food manufacturers and bakers seeking plant-based alternatives that match the versatile functionality of traditional dairy butter and can easily be integrated into the current production process. According to Bunge, Beleaf PlantBetter captures ‘the distinctive aroma and texture’ as well as the same melting characteristics of traditional butter. It is a blend of coconut, cocoa butter, rapeseed and lecithins. While initially designed for bakery applications, Bunge said it has future plans to extend to other dairy and confectionery applications. The product can address challenges such as achieving the precise aeration, volume and taste required for products such as croissants and cakes. Aaron Buettner, president of food solutions at Bunge, said: “Beleaf PlantBetter is a game-changing innovation developed by Bunge that brings together the sustainability attributes of plant-based with the uncompromising sensory and performance of dairy butter—all while delivering a lower cost-in-use compared to butter”. #Bunge #plantbasedbutter

Agronomics has announced that its portfolio company Solar Foods has raised €8 million in a Series B financing round. The round was led by the Finland-based investment organiser Springvest Ovi. Existing investors participated alongside Springvest via a private placement anticipated to close within two weeks. The private placement includes existing investors Happiness Capital, Lifeline Ventures, VTT Ventures and Fazer. Funding will be used to support the continued ramping up of production of Solar Foods’ single-cell protein, Solein. Solar Foods produces Solein using carbon dioxide and electricity. It is a microbial protein-rich powder containing all essential amino acids, produced by feeding microbes with gases including carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen, together with small amounts of nutrients. The bioprocess resembles winemaking, with carbon dioxide and hydrogen replacing sugar as the source of carbon and energy. Since Agronomics’ first investment in Solar Foods, the company has increased its productivity of Solein by over ten times, achieved regulatory approval for Solein in Singapore and submitted a dossier to the European Food Safety Authority for approval in the EU. Agronomics is a venture capital firm that focuses on cellular agriculture, with a portfolio of over 20 holdings at the pre-seed to Series C stage. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. #Agronomics #cellbasedtechnology #Finland #SolarFoods

The Italian Chamber of Deputies has this week passed a law banning the use of meat-related names, such as ‘salami’ or ‘steak’ for plant-based products. The new ban also prohibits the production and marketing of cell-based meat. In a statement, the Good Food Institute (GFI) said that the bill, which introduces fines between €10,000 and €60,000 for each violation, will “cut the country off from innovation and block sustainable development”. It warns that the move will reduce investment, push Italian researchers abroad and hinder the fight against climate change while other European countries are investing in the cell-based and plant-based sectors. The move to ban meat-related terms on the labelling of plant-based products will directly affect Italian companies that make plant-based meat. Industry research indicates Italy as the third-largest European market for plant-based products, with sales surging 21% to exceed €600 million between 2020 and 2022. Francesca Gallelli, public affairs consultant at the GFI Europe, commented: “Eliminating the possibility of using familiar terms to facilitate product recognition undermines transparency, generating confusion for consumers where none currently exists, as demonstrated by surveys”. A survey of Italian consumers revealed that 75% believe that it is necessary to reduce the consumption of conventional meat. Furthermore, 55% are interested in buying cell-based meat. The Italian Alliance for Complementary Proteins, which brings together industry companies, researchers and non-profit associations, said: “This bill tells Italians what they can and cannot eat, stifles innovation, and likely violates EU law”. “Once famous for pioneering world-changing innovations like radio, microchips, batteries, performance automobiles and ground-breaking fashion – Italian politicians are now choosing to go backwards while the rest of the world moves forward.” In the UK, the government has earmarked £12 million for alternative proteins, while the Danish government recently presented a national plan to support the development and uptake of plant-based meat. In Catalonia, the federal government recently invested €7 million in a research centre that will help companies scale up the production of plant-based meat and fermentation. #cellbased #GoodFoodInstitute #Italy #labelling