From innovations in production to consumer preferences: What you will hear at the Innovations in Plant-Based Food And Beverage Summit. The Innovations in Plant-Based Food And Beverage Summit is an event covering the most significant trends in the plant-based food and beverage industry, bringing together experts from companies such as Nestlé, Mackenzie Stuart, Pilgrims Food Masters, and many others. The summit will take place on 21-22 February 2024 in Berlin, Germany. The summit will address the following topics: Innovations in plant-based ingredients, sustainable manufacturing practices, market trends and consumer insights, culinary innovation and taste development and regulatory and labelling updates. Its goal is to create a space for the exchange of professional experiences, forecasts and insights into the further development of the industry from leaders and experts in the field of plant-based nutrition. This includes not only production but also sustainable packaging, product eco-friendliness, consumer preference trends and legislative aspects of industry regulation. The relevance of the summit is justified by statistics: According to Euromonitor, in 2023, the market size increased from 90 to 101 million dollars in Western Europe. Consumers are increasingly choosing plant-based diets for various reasons, and manufacturers are responding proactively. The industry is continuously evolving, so the summit will discuss the latest technologies in production and ways to implement them in business to maintain competitiveness in the market. Participation in the summit will be beneficial for product manufacturers, technology suppliers, developers of environmentally friendly packaging, farmers and raw material suppliers. The speakers at the summit are market leaders and industry activists ready to share real experiences and forecasts regarding the future of plant-based products. Business Conference Facilitation (BCF) is a professional organiser of high-level B2B events. They produce, conduct and coordinate conferences, summits and forums in major business industries of the emerging global market. To learn more about the summit, you can visit our website.

The EU has announced that it will invest €50 million in 2024 to help start-ups scale up the production of alternative proteins using technologies such as precision fermentation. The investment will be made as part of the European Innovation Council (EIC)’s Work Programme 2024, under the EU’s flagship Horizon Europe programme. It aims to “improve the sustainability, efficiency and resilience of the European supply chain” through providing support to small businesses in the alternative protein space. Precision fermentation is a method of fermentation whereby microorganisms, such as yeast, are used to produce real animal proteins – such as whey and casein – without the use of animals. These proteins are often responsible for delivering the taste and texture of foods like cheese, meat and eggs, helping companies to create animal-free alternatives that are able to mimic the familiar qualities of their traditional counterparts. Meat, eggs, dairy and seafood made using precision fermentation can significantly reduce carbon emissions and are also free from antibiotics. Companies in Europe using precision fermentation to develop animal-free proteins include Paleo, a Belgium-based company developing animal-free, species-specific myoglobin proteins for meat alternative applications. Paleo has this week announced that it is expanding into the plant-based pet food market. Elsewhere, Onego Bio, based in Finland, is using the technology to create animal-free egg proteins and was shortlisted in FoodBev Media’s inaugural World Cell-based Innovation Awards this year. The funding, under the EIC’s Accelerator Challenge, aims to support the development of “viable alternatives that complement agriculture,” producing foods that are rich in protein and other nutrients. The work programme highlights that these foods can be produced using existing agricultural sidestreams, with benefits including reduced pressure on natural resources such as land and water. Acacia Smith, senior policy manager at non-profit think tank the Good Food Institute Europe, said: “It’s excellent that the EIC has recognised precision fermentation’s game-changing potential to feed Europe’s growing population, improve public health and reduce our reliance on imports”. She added: “It’s also very welcome that this funding aims to develop new ways of scaling up production – tackling Europe’s lack of infrastructure – and to look at other critical areas such as consumer acceptance, regulatory approval and supporting the entry of these foods into the European market.” #animalfreeproteins #EU #precisionfermentation

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 with Johnny Drain, CTO and co-founder of WNWN Food Labs. WNWN produces plant-based and cocoa-free chocolate products, with an ambition to drive the chocolate industry toward a more sustainable and ethical future. Read on to find out more. I was a fermentation wizard consulting for fine-dining restaurants around the world and creating sustainable products, often from by-products, for consumer brands. [Co-founder] Ahrum was an investment banker who was itching to start a food company. About three years ago, a mutual friend of ours put her on to my work and she approached me on Instagram. We clicked when we first chatted and the company was incorporated a few months later. In the early stages of the company we discussed many foods that are produced unsustainably and unethically, and flavour profiles that need to be future-proofed. We dug into how we might best drive positive change in the production monopolies that perpetuate unfair wages and poor working conditions. However, we decided to begin with chocolate. I had been sitting on the idea of cocoa-free chocolate for a few years already, and had produced a primitive prototype that made me confident it was possible to reproduce the 500-odd flavour compounds found in chocolate that result from the fermentation and roasting of cacao beans. I knew those compounds don’t come from cacao alone; many other plants can deliver them too. Since then, we’ve moved quickly and we were the first in the world to sell cocoa-free choc. What are the key issues within the cocoa industry that WNWN is aiming to raise awareness of? While many foods we know and love have problematic supply chains — coffee, tea and vanilla do too — mass-market cocoa production is particularly egregious. Only a handful of multinationals control the majority of the industry, so ‘Big Choc’ (which is akin to Big Pharma or Big Ag) has the power to entrench cocoa farmers in poverty with stagnant wages, soaring cost of living, and rising cost of production. The industry is held up by slave labour and child labour, deforestation and extraordinarily high carbon emissions — more than chicken, cheese and lamb. In fact, chocolate is rather a climate double whammy: massive carbon emissions in its production, and the destruction of carbon-absorbing forests to grow it. We’ve chosen to work with ingredients that are abundant, sustainable, and widely-grown — and hence are resilient to food system shocks and climate shocks. Our hero ingredients are barley and carob, even though we tease out radically different flavours from them compared to most people who buy them. We developed some innovative fermentation processes inspired by natural cacao fermentation. This yields a highly sustainable, flavour-identical chocolate substitute. Our choc looks, smells, snaps, melts, bakes and tastes just like real chocolate, but contains no cacao. It can be used in bars, confections, ice cream, beverages, baked goods, any application where chocolate—milk to dark, from couverture to cocoa powder — is currently used. We have created a range of dark choc and a vegan ‘milk’ choc. The latter’s creaminess derives from a blend of oats and tiger nuts, another interesting and sustainable ingredient with a very lower water footprint compared to almonds, soybeans or even oats, which are already quite low. What has WNWN’s biggest achievement been so far? As a mission-driven company, Ahrum and I frequently speak out about what’s wrong with Big Choc and what needs to change. Paradoxically the companies we’re alienating are the very ones we most need to partner with — we simply cannot change this industry without their help. And what we’ve found is that we’re not being shut out; quite the opposite. We’re being welcomed to the table, and we’re seen as potential collaborators instead of adversaries by some of the biggest candy and snack companies in the world. We raised our second funding round in a tricky environment. Geopolitical uncertainty, global financial instability and supply-chain issues from both the Ukraine conflict and Covid contributed to a sort of rebalancing of valuations and also of investors’ appetites. There’s more scrutiny on startups to prove their product and their potential. We navigated the round and pulled together an extremely strong consortium of investors that believe in us and in our mission. Having said that, starting the company during the lockdowns was almost equally challenging. It was many months before Ahrum (living in Portugal) and I (opening a restaurant in Paraguay for much of the lockdown) even met each other face-to-face. By then we already had a product prototype and pre-seed funding. To get to that stage when we’d never been in the same room together was marvellous yet absurd in its own way. What’s next for WNWN Food Labs? Any exciting plans in the pipeline? We just recently announced wholesale packs in larger sizes for the food and beverage trade, so now restaurants, bakeries, confectioneries and others in foodservice can begin to use our choc in earnest. While we can’t sell to consumers globally, we can wholesale globally, and that means it shouldn’t be long before people outside the UK can lay hands on our choc. People, I should say, as well as pets: since our choc contains no theobromine, nor caffeine, it’s safe for pets, and it would be fantastic to see a cocoa-free chocolate treat for dogs. A big one. From the beginning, our mindset has been to scale fast and achieve price parity with comparable chocolate (on supermarket shelves and as B2B ingredients), because we want to drive meaningful change now, not five or ten years from now like a lot of our colleagues in food-tech. In our first year we increased our production capacity eightfold. Now we’re selling wholesale, ahead of schedule. By creating a mass market-priced alternative, we change the status quo. We can reduce the industry’s environmental harm and relieve economic pressure on cocoa farmers who are forced to accept less than a living wage. That helps strengthen cooperatives of smallholder farmers, and helps undo habitat destruction caused by expanding plantations. We can help meet the rising demand for chocolate without correspondingly high damages. Once there are well-priced products available, the consumer wins too, which is important in light of the EU ban on cocoa and chocolate linked to deforestation. We’re called “win-win” for a reason. We want the planet to win, we want farmers to win, and yes, we want chocolate companies to win too, by helping them operate more sustainably and ethically. #WNWN #chocolate #startups #StartupSpotlight #confectionery #WNWNFoodLabs

A new plant-based food company, Woop4, has launched a line of vegan seafood products into the Canadian market including tropical piranha and mahi-mahi alternatives. The company said its 100% plant-based and allergen-free products are ideal for vegans as well as pregnant women and those with food allergies. Additionally, it is launching alternatives to soy, peanut and sesame mayonnaise, designed to imitate these flavours without the use of the allergens. Its products offer omega-3 and a good source of vegetable protein among their nutritional benefits. #Woop4 #mayonnaise #Canada #plantbasedsauces #Plantbasedseafood

India-based superfood company Nourish You has acquired the vegan food brand One Good, known for its range of plant-based dairy alternatives. One Good is headquartered in Bengaluru, India, and was founded under the name Goodmylk. Its portfolio includes plant-based alternatives to milk, cheese, chocolate, curd, ghee and butter. The One Good team, including CEO and co-founder Abhay Rangan, CFO and co-founder Radhika Datt, and COO Dhivakar Sathyamurthy, will join the leadership team at Nourish You. Beginning with 50 acres of farmland and having now expanded to 5000 acres across Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, Nourish You retails its homegrown superfood products in India, specialising in quinoa, chia and millet. Its products are available across over 2,500 retail stores. The company expanded into alternative dairy with the launch of Millet Mlk in early 2023. One Good aims to offer vegan milk at a lesser cost compared to cow’s milk in select pockets of the country, with a mission of enabling access to high-quality plant-based nutrition for all. Krishna Reddy, co-founder of Nourish You, said: “From introducing India to the power of superfoods and now acquiring One Good, Nourish You evolves from being a superfood brand to a plant-based brand, embracing a more inclusive vision”. “One Good’s journey is revolutionary. It was born with a vision of creating the next big dairy company, devoid of animals. Moreover, it is led by a team of fervent vegans dedicated to both innovation and animal protection.” Reddy added: “The acquisition integrates Nourish You’s commitment to animal welfare with our existing values of nourishing consumers, farmers, and the planet. It also reinforces our commitment to make healthy, flavourful plant-based foods, affordable and accessible.” Abhay Rangan, CEO and co-founder of One Good, commented: “Our journey towards creating One Good was ignited by a passion for animal rights and a dedication to accessible and affordable plant-based alternatives for all. We are excited about being a part of Nourish You’s incredible platform and leveraging their scale and operational excellence to build India’s biggest plant-based dairy company.” #superfoods #OneGood #NourishYou #India #plantbaseddairy

Nature’s Fynd, a producer of fungi-based meat and dairy alternatives, has launched what it claims is the world’s first dairy-free, fungi-based yogurt. Launched at Whole Foods stores across the US, the new yogurt is made using Fy, Nature’s Fynd’s proprietary nutritional fungi protein ingredient, as a base. It hits the shelves in single-serve 5.3 ounce containers, available in strawberry, peach and vanilla flavours. According to the company, its yogurt has a thick and creamy consistency without the grittiness often found in high-protein and plant-based yogurts. Fy Yogurt contains 8g of protein, 4g of fibre and is made with live and active cultures. The peach and strawberry yogurts contain 8g of total sugar while the vanilla has 9g. All flavours contain no artificial flavours or preservatives, as well as being nut-, soy- and gluten-free. Thomas Jonas, CEO and co-founder at Nature’s Fynd, said: “In a crowded market of dairy-free yogurts that often sacrifice nutrition for taste or vice-versa, we have created the world’s first fungi-based yogurt – it is delicious, nutrition-forward and earth-friendly”. Chicago-based Nature’s Fynd grows Fy protein from fungi with origins in Yellowstone National Park, through the company’s fermentation process. It is then crafted to create products for the brand’s dairy-free food portfolio, which also includes cream cheese alternatives and meatless breakfast patties. #NaturesFynd #US #plantbasedyogurts #fungi #alternativeproteins

Farmless, a Dutch fermentation start-up, has raised €4.8 million in a funding round co-led by World Fund and Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from Revent. The company brews ‘planet-friendly’ functional proteins with a complete amino acid profile, using a feedstock made from carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen and renewable energy. Its fermentation platform allows for local protein production independent from climate and agricultural land. Using the funds raised from the seed round, Farmless plans to build a pilot protein brewery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, develop its fermentation platform and continue the process of regulatory approval. According to Farmless, it can brew proteins with up to 5000 times less land than beef and significantly reduce demand for animal products as well as encouraging reforestation, reversing biodiversity loss and reducing gigatons of carbon. The company’s mission is to free protein production from animals and agricultural land by building a fermentation platform with the potential to create an entirely new food repertoire. Its team of scientists has already created an initial product that can be used to create successors to meat, dairy and eggs. Farmless has designed its platform to outperform animal-based proteins on economics, aiming to provide an affordable, simple and efficient solution from the ground up. Adnan Oner, Farmless’ founder and CEO, said: “In today’s unpredictable world, where climate change threatens crop yields, our fermentation platform offers an antifragile solution for food security. This allows any country to take control of their protein production, without the need for fertile land.” “If we unlock the protein-producing powers of the microbial kingdoms we can create a future worth getting excited about. We can have an abundant, cruelty-free food supply and rewild the world, restore forests, all while drawing down gigatonnes of CO2 from the air.” Oner added that investor interest in the funding round had been “overwhelming,” and that the company has found investors that share its “sense of urgency in creating dramatically better ways of producing proteins on a planetary scale”. Nadine Geiser, principal at World Fund, said that moving away from sugar as a feedstock for fermentation represents a “significant opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions of fermentation-based food production”. She added: “At World Fund, we only invest in startups with the greatest climate performance potential – and there is a significant need to reduce emissions in the farming, agriculture and land use category (FALU)”. “The FALU category is responsible for around 22% of emissions globally, but receives just 12% of venture funding for climate, so it’s critical we back more startups like Farmless, which has the potential to drastically reduce land use from agriculture, and to improve biodiversity globally.” #alternativeproteins #Farmless #fermentation #theNetherlands

The Every Company has debuted its Every Egg – claimed to be the world’s first liquid egg made without the hen – at an exclusive event in New York City. The Every Egg was created using yeast fermentation and was the result of nine years of product development by the company. According to Every, it matches the culinary versatility of traditional eggs and can be used as a 1:1 drop-in across hundreds of applications. It delivers eight grams of protein per serving and has zero cholesterol, saturated fat or artificial flavours. The precision fermentation-made product contains egg protein that is identical to its traditional, animal-based counterpart, developed in an entirely animal-free process. The company said it hopes to pave the way for a future where consumers can enjoy eggs without the process variability, disease risk and high environmental impact of animal agriculture. Every’s co-founder and CEO, Arturo Elizondo, said: “By decoupling the egg from the chicken, Every Egg is going to change the way we think about one of the most ubiquitous foods on the planet. For nine years, my dream has been to build a food system humanity can be proud of.” The innovation was unveiled in a product collaboration with chef Daniel Humm, served up to culinary innovators, chefs and creators at Humm’s 3-star Michelin retsuarant, Eleven Madison Park. Humm commented: “Eggs are a universal staple in every kitchen, and this is the first time we’ve crafted an event menu around a novel food product. When we prepared an omelet using Every Egg, the taste and versatility was all but indistinguishable from hen eggs. We are excited about the potential of Every Egg to transform the food landscape.” #plantbasedegg #precisionfermentation #US #TheEveryCompany #animalfreeprotein

Plant-based food business VBites has entered administration, the company’s founder Heather Mills has announced. Mills founded VBites in 1993 as a manufacturer and wholesaler of plant-based meat, fish and cheese products. The company operated from its two UK manufacturing sites in Peterlee, County Durham and Corby, Northamptonshire. In a statement, Mills said that while she had offered “every solution I feasibly could to keep [VBites] going,” the business ultimately suffered following demands that she stepped away from day-to-day management to secure essential investment. Mills cited several challenges leading to the collapse, including “corporate greed” within the market and the “galvanised and well-funded marketing of misinformation currently being undertaken by the meat and dairy industries”. Price rises in the global materials and utilities markets and the current state of the manufacturing economy in Britain following Brexit were also noted as key difficulties leading to VBites’ appointment of administrators. James Clark and Howard Smith, of restructuring and insolvency specialist Interpath Advisory, were appointed joint administrators on 11 December. While the company’s directors sought to explore their options, a funding agreement was not reached, Interpath revealed, leaving no other choice for the business. The joint administrators will continue to trade the site in Peterlee while they seek a buyer. 29 members of staff at the site have been retained to assist with trading, and an additional 29 employees at the site in Corby to assist with the fulfilment of outstanding orders. 24 employees across the business have been made redundant. “The plight of VBites is not an isolated case and I think it’s important to take stock and highlight the various factors that are contributing to the struggles of companies like ours in the current market,” Mills wrote in her statement. “The plant-based industry needs to take a lead from the dairy industry in unifying its voice but as a force for good and promotion of the facts – as opposed to a litany of lies and misinformation. We also need to work harder to demonstrate the long-term profitability of plant-based farming and manufacturing to the meat and dairy industries.” She pointed to the similar struggles of other companies in the plant-based market such as Meatless Farm and Plant & Bean, the latter of which Mills bought out of administration earlier this year, adding that numerous plant-based businesses have faced issues such as unexpected investor pull-out and factory closures. “It is unsurprising and inevitable that where profits are to be made, amorphous corporate entities will follow and unfortunately their practices too often undermine the entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and agility of movement that saw plant-based entrepreneurs have so much success,” Mills said. “There is too often a tendency to treat their investments as short-term experiments and opportunistic flights of fancy, embalm them in restrictive governance and then either walk away or enforce a takeover when the market hits a bump.” Joint administrator and managing director at Interpath Advisory, Clark, said their immediate priority is to provide support and assistance to employees impacted by redundancy, as well as seeking a buyer for the business and its assets. Mills expressed hope that the industry can “turn things around as a unified force,” with “well-intended capital, strategic vision and belief in a brighter future” required to achieve meaningful growth for the market. She added a final note of thanks to VBites’ staff: “Thank you for the years of unwavering effort, thank you for the belief and I hope that you can take some solace from knowing that you have had a huge positive impact on the world through the work that you have done over the last 30 years.” #VBites #plantbasedmeat #UK #HeatherMills #plantbasedcheese

Impossible Foods is giving consumers in New York an exclusive preview of its new innovation, Impossible Beef Hot Dogs, on Saturday 16 December. The plant-based meat company will be serving up its latest development in a limited pop-up, available for one day only this weekend in Manhattan, New York City. It marks the first taste of the new product, which promises a ‘fresh but familiar take on the classic American hot dog’. It is set to launch in restaurants and grocery stores next year. According to Impossible, its new hot dog offers a similar cooking and sensory experience to traditional animal beef hot dog, but outperforms the animal-derived version on several nutritional key metrics. The product is claimed to contain 50% less total and saturated fat than a leading brand of animal beef hot dog serviced in restaurants, in addition to featuring 12g of protein and zero cholesterol. It also contains no added or synthetic nitrates or nitrites, instead only using those naturally occurring in cultured celery powder. Peter McGuinness, CEO and president of Impossible Foods, said: “Hot dogs are an undeniably classic part of American culture and not to mention, they’re a burger’s best friend. It’s long been a priority to add them to our product portfolio”. He added: “Our adaptation replicates that quintessential hot dog taste, while offering consumers a nutrient-dense product that’s better for the planet. We want people to see that there’s really no compromise when you choose Impossible products.” Impossible Hot Dogs mark the seventh new product to be released by the brand in the last 12 months. Other recent launches include the Impossible Indulgent Burger and leaner Beef Lite in the beef category, while Spicy Chicken Nuggets and Patties have been introduced to the company’s chicken alternative portfolio. #ImpossibleFoods #plantbasedbeef #plantbasedsausage #US

Scientists in Japan have conducted new research into improving the texture and taste of plant-based meat analogues using protein-glutaminase. The researchers, from Japan’s Amano Enzyme Innovation Center in Kakamigahara, set out to improve the liquid-holding capacities of burger patties made from textured vegetable proteins (TVP). Their work was published in the scientific journal Plos One. According to the team, the lack of juiciness in plant-based meat imitation products is caused by their inability to retain unsaturated oils in a liquid state at room temperature. While solid fats such as coconut oil are often added by plant-based meat manufacturers to add the juiciness provided by animal fat in traditional meat products, the researchers pointed out that these have high saturated fatty acid content. The World Health Organization recommends that saturated fats should not constitute more than 10% of the total fat content in the diet. With consumer health concerns and demand for ‘clean label’ alternatives increasing, food processing using enzymes – which are not considered additives in the case that they are denatured or inactivated by the final food product – is attracting more attention in the plant-based space. Protein-glutaminase is an enzyme that can be used to improve the functionality of meat alternative products based on plant proteins such as soy, pea and wheat. The research team in Japan said that the enzyme may be ‘the only enzyme capable’ of modifying TVPs without the risk of developing peptide-derived bitter tastes or TVP collapse, due to the difficulty in controlling the activity of most protein-modifying enzymes. Soy protein isolate and soy-based TVP were tested during the experiment, treated with the protein-glutaminase for three hours at 50°C and then boiled for five minutes to end the reaction. The dry proteins were also evaluated for their liquid-holding capacities, dissolved in water and canola oil and left to sit for 30 minutes. Their emulsifying and foaming properties were also evaluated. Plant-based burgers were prepared using the protein-glutaminase treated TVPs and a binder (methylcellulose), followed by the addition of water, canola oil, pea protein isolates and potato starch. The researchers found that after grilling, the plant-based patties composed of the protein-glutaminase-treated TVPs showed significantly higher liquid-holding capacities than control patties made without, suggesting that the enzyme could produce increased juiciness in plant-based burgers. An additional benefit was also discovered – after the treated TVP underwent a wash process, it was found that the treatment easily reduced various ‘beany’ off-flavour compounds by 58-85%. The results of an in vitro protein digestion test also showed higher amounts of free amino nitrogen released from the treated patties, indicating that they were easier to degrade with digestive enzymes and absorb nutrients. Because protein-glutaminase is inactive after the grilling process, it is not an additive by regulation and therefore does not need to be listed as an ingredient. The team said its findings could pave the way for food manufacturers to develop clean-label plant-based meat analogues that are “more attractive to consumers”. #AmanoEnzymeInnovationCenter #enzymes #Japan #plantbasedmeat

Dairy-free cheese company Daiya has announced that its reformulated cheese range is now hitting the shelves in the US and Canada. The reformulations stem from the company’s multi-million-dollar investment in fermentation technology. Featuring the new Daiya Oat Cream blend, the proprietary cultured ingredient is now the key component across Daiya’s shreds, slices, blocks and sticks. According to Daiya, its new recipe promises consumers an ‘incredible dairy-like melt’ and ‘deliciously balanced’ cheese flavour. While many brands in the category continue to incorporate oil-based ingredients and GMO techniques, Daiya said it is utilising natural, age-old fermentation methods to create a non-GMO dairy-free cheese with characteristics that mimic traditional dairy products. The latest innovation aims to address challenges faced across the plant-based cheese category, primarily consumer demand for dairy parity and inconsistency across taste and texture of products currently available. Daiya’s reformulated cheese range is made with glyphosate-free and certified gluten-free oats. Consumers can expect to see the new products on shelves now, complete with a packaging refresh to reflect Daiya’s new visual identity, aiming to speak to the growing market of ‘flexible’ plant-based eaters. Melanie Domer, chief commercial officer at Daiya, said: “We expect this advancement to not only rejuvenate consumer confidence in the category, but revitalise the category’s market potential, finally offering retailers a product that truly bridges the gap between consumer expectations and dairy-free offerings”. #Canada #Daiya #plantbasedcheese #US