Plant-based honey producer MeliBio has announced a $2.2 million investment, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $9.4 million. The capital came from existing backers, including Collaborative Fund and Siddhi Capital, as well as new investor The Greenbaum Foundation, which is led by Jim Greenbaum, executive producer of ‘The Game Changers’ and ‘Seaspiracy’. MeliBio was founded in 2020 by scientist Aaron Schaller and honey industry executive Darko Mandich. The company’s plant-based product aims to address issues involved in commercial honey production, such as the use of pesticides and adulterants, and is said to perform and taste just like its conventional counterpart. Collaborative Fund founder Craig Shapiro, who recently joined MeliBio’s board, said: “The conventional honey industry is not sustainable. Bee populations have seen steep declines, threatening to damage our broader food and agricultural systems. “We were thrilled to meet Darko and the team, who have created a product that is simultaneously healthier, more delicious and sustainable. We love backing teams creating products that make the right choice the easy choice.” MeliBio CEO and co-founder, Mandich, added: “We are thankful to our investors for recognising the progress our team has made and for providing the additional capital to scale our company”. The business is partnering with organic food producer, Narayan Foods, to introduce its plant-based honey to European stores, with the rollout expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023. Products will be sold under Narayan’s Better Foodie brand. #MeliBio #Plantbasedhoney

Nestlé has launched a limited-edition plant-based foie gras, Vois Gras, under its Garden Gourmet brand. Nestlé’s research and development teams sought to develop an alternative to foie gras for consumers’ festive meals. A spokesperson from Nestlé told FoodBev: “The delicious soy-based Voie Gras has an authentic texture, flavour and appearance. It goes very well with bread, brioche or canapé crackers, and can be used hot or cold, in sweet or savoury recipes.” Voie Gras is launching during the season when animal-based foie gras is mostly consumed. The plant-based alternative is soy-based with a blend of miso paste, sea salt and truffle oil. The new product has a better nutritional profile than animal-based foie gras and is sold at a lower price point. Voie Gras is available in select Swiss Coop stores for an RRP of CHF 7.95 (approx. $8.37) per 180g jar. It is also available in limited quantities in certain retailers in Spain. #Nestlé #GardenGourmet #Spain #Veganfoiegras #Switzerland

Ingredient companies CP Kelco and Chr Hansen have collaborated to demonstrate the possibility of plant-based yogurt alternatives production – “vegurts”. The result of this collaboration included industrially validated prototypes of drinkable and edible “vegurts” with oat, soy, pea, coconut or almond bases. Christian Gilleladen, principal application scientist at Chr Hansen, said: “The technological challenge to produce both spoonable and drinkable ambient vegurts with great nutrition, taste and texture is significant.” He continued: “Selecting the right culture to provide fermentation performance, texture and flavour for each recipe, and having these complement the stabilisation and flavour systems is critical to making great products. By working together, we have been able to unlock the synergies between ingredients and process to produce a variety of desired thicknesses and mouthfeel.” Anne Sinha, marketing director at CP Kelco, commented: “This collaboration represents a new way of helping our respective customers accelerate their product development and access technical application support globally.” She continued: “With access to teams who know each other and work together well, and who are closely connected to other global ingredient producers, customers can benefit from an integrated team of world-leading experts with insights across their entire development chain.” A range of vegurt prototypes are available to food producers for tasting. The recipes can also be adapted to meet specific requirements for sugar, protein, fat, texture and flavour. Tora Jorn, sales technical service manager at CP Kelco: “Together, we look forward to this opportunity of sharing our support and helping with the development of the flavours, textures and nutritional profiles our customers are targeting when they embark on the plant-based, shelf-stable vegurts journey.” #ChrHansen #CPKelco #plantbasedyogurt

Heinz has announced the launch of a vegan version of its sell-out Christmas Dinner Big Soup cans. The plant-based alternative is filled with vegan sausage, stuffing balls and vegetables. Bahar Kiransa, marketing manager at Heinz Soups, said: “We’ve been hard at work all year perfecting our recipes for both the meat and vegan versions. We are particularly proud to be introducing the vegan version this year, as everyone deserves to be able to try the delicious flavours of our much-loved Heinz Christmas Dinner Soup.” The vegan soup is available at Asda’s stores for an RRP of £2 per can for a limited time only. #Heinz #UK

DSM has expanded its portfolio with the introduction of Vertis CanolaPro, a canola protein isolate. The launch follows “more than ten years of research and development at DSM to unlock the healthy protein from the canola seed and produce it at scale for the food industry”. According to DSM, canola seeds are one of the plant sources that contain all nine essential amino acids. Vertis CanolaPro will allow food and beverage producers to develop plant-based products that offer complete proteins and are free from major allergens. DSM says that the functionalities of the plant protein help improve the bite and texture of meat and fish alternatives and create a smoother mouthfeel in plant-based dairy and performance nutrition products. Patrick Niels, executive vice president of food and beverage at DSM, said: “We are immensely proud to bring Vertis CanolaPro to the market to help address the need for nutritious, delicious and sustainable plant-based food and beverages. At DSM, we’re driven to partner with our customers in the food and beverage industry to produce great products that have benefits for both people and the planet.” He continued: “With the launch of Vertis CanolaPro alongside our legume-based offering, we are establishing a leading portfolio of healthy and sustainable plant proteins that even better positions us as a go-to innovation partner for the plant-based market”. Vertis CanolaPro is produced in a joint venture with Avril Group, a processor and financer in the vegetable oils and proteins sector. #DSM #plantbasedprotein #VertisCanolaPro

Tropical Sun has teamed up with Asda to launch two new ready-to-eat jackfruit products that offer a plant-based “pulled meat” experience, in BBQ and Tex Mex flavour varieties. Vas Sideras, Tropical Sun’s supermarket lead, said: “We’ve seen a soaring demand for plant-based foods in recent years and these ready-to-eat products build off the success of our Jackfruit in Brine and Jackfruit in Water products which are amongst the most popular foods in our entire range”. The 400g tins are available in Asda stores nationwide, for an RRP of £2.49. #Jackfruit #TropicalSun #UK

Growing demand for alternative proteins has been driving the development of new technology solutions for large-scale manufacturing of food ingredients. Among the main market drivers is sustainability, a cornerstone in the shift to alternative proteins and plant-based ingredients, with an impact on the environmental footprint as well as the financial viability of a manufacturing plant, as Gregory See Hoye explains. As new alternative and plant-based products are introduced to the market, innovations in process technologies based on R&D initiatives are critical to ensure that product integrity is maintained throughout scale-up and commercialisation. Dedert Corporation understands how sustainable design and process customisation are connected. With focused technical expertise in drying and evaporation, Dedert equally supports growing start-up companies and established market leaders with their goals for product development, process innovation and full-scale operation. Drying technologies In the manufacture of plant-based protein isolates, spray drying is usually automatically acknowledged as the required technology, likely a carryover mindset from the traditional production of dairy proteins. Spray drying offers many advantages and is certainly required in these applications, but careful consideration of the product’s end use may reveal opportunities for alternative technologies or other integrated solutions. From an energy perspective, thermal drying naturally carries an important cost related to fuel requirements or other heating sources due to the latent heat of vaporisation of water of about 970 BTU/lb (2256 kJ/kg). With a generally low solids content in protein feed streams, spray drying therefore consumes considerable energy compared to other technologies. The resulting production cost contributes to the product’s profitability with respect to the market price. Higher value applications like health products or nutraceuticals may be more forgiving to these costs, but products targeting feed or food applications may prompt a need for cost-saving solutions. Process efficiency can be gained by shifting moisture reduction away from the thermal drying step. Current development around integration of mechanical dewatering, pre-concentration and reduced thermal drying processes are gaining attention. This arrangement, or a similar combination of related technologies, results in lower water evaporation requirements through thermal drying, and also opens the opportunity to consider alternate drying technologies such as ring drying. With these innovations, plant-based protein operations could potentially expect reductions in production costs, resulting in higher product profitability and easier access to market (especially for new products). Evaporation technologies In addition to energy efficiency, water management is another area of sustainable design investigation. Many possible solutions can be considered, but the implementation of an evaporator on the wastewater stream provides a simple process to improve environmental impact. In many locations, municipalities have limitations on organic concentration in wastewater streams from manufacturing facilities. Evaporation can separate water from the solids, yielding a condensate stream that can be more readily discharged from the plant. Meanwhile, the concentrated product, or the solids fraction, becomes a nutrient-rich value-added product that can be used as a liquid fertiliser or blended with fibre for animal feed. For additional benefit, the condensate stream from an evaporator can also be recovered as a heat source. Example applications include feed pre-heating for the evaporator itself, as well as ambient air heating and process air heating in other operational stages. Through process equipment supplier partnerships, opportunities for process water recovery can also be realised. With further treatment and cleaning, the evaporator’s condensate stream can be a water source integrated into an upstream water-consuming process to reduce fresh water consumption. Other potential areas of investigation include integration between dryers and evaporators (implemented in the form of waste-heat evaporators driven by dryer exhaust gases), as well as innovations using new technologies available to condense water vapour from various processes. Such process integrations between the upstream water users and downstream evaporation and drying technologies could result in water recovery for use as process water or other improved sustainability benefits. Summary The alternative protein market is evolving faster than expected. As a result, a focus on a key driver of the market shift, sustainability, needs to be considered early in the manufacturing process design to match the core consumer values. This sustainable design approach offers economic and operational benefits to the ingredients manufacturers by applying optimised technologies with better efficiency to reduce utilities consumption. Strategic partnerships between manufacturers, process providers and equipment suppliers are important to successfully implement a holistic approach to sustainable process design, requiring a like-minded collaboration to ensure a seamlessly integrated process solution. This approach will open opportunities to lower the cost of operations and therefore provide easier access to market for new product innovations that meet changing customer expectations in a growing industry. About Dedert Corporation Dedert Corp. has partnered with the top ingredients manufacturers across many industries for over 50 years, witnessing first-hand how traditional process technologies can remain established while market demand evolves to new expectations. Our design innovations, ranging from falling-film evaporators to ring drying and multi-stage spray drying, are developed from R&D pilot plant testing and optimised for full-scale operation based on customised needs for our clients. Find out more at: dedert.com Gregory See Hoye is market manager at Dedert Corporation, a drying and evaporation technology solutions provider. His current role focuses on supporting developments in the manufacturing of plant-based food ingredients. Greg has 17 years’ experience in the food and agrifood sectors, with 12 years specialising in evaporation and drying solutions. #partnercontent #DedertCorporation #technology #alternativeproteins #plantbasedproteins

Nestlé has created a powdered shelf-stable plant-based protein blend to complement egg dishes. Consumers will be able to replace their eggs with the “nutritious” soy-based alternative, which results in an equal amount of protein as chicken’s eggs and a reduction in saturated fats and cholesterol at a lower cost when compared to using more eggs instead. In addition, the product is also fortified with iron to address key micronutrient deficiencies. The protein blend is versatile for a wide range of dishes, such as scrambled eggs, omelettes or baking. The product is currently being tested in a limited number of stores in Central America under the Malher brand before being rolled out across more markets in Latin America. “Egg is one of the most widely used protein sources,” said Torsten Pohl, head of Nestlé’s product and technology centre for food. “With this unique solution, we wanted to provide an affordable, nutritious solution that could be used to replace some of the eggs when cooking egg-based dishes. The plant-based dry mix also brings an equivalent amount of quality protein, [and] less cholesterol, while ensuring a good taste and texture.” “We are excited to test this new concept in Central America, where egg dishes are a major source of protein for many,” stated Lourdes Muñoz, regional manager for central America at Nestlé. “By replacing some eggs with this shelf-stable plant-based protein, we will not only provide an affordable alternative but a sustainable one too that many people can use when cooking breakfast, lunch or dinner.” #eggalternative #Nestlé

Better Nature has secured £700k in a seed plus round to fuel retail growth for its tempeh range in the UK and Europe, ahead of its Series A rasie next year. 67 existing investors participated in the round following a £1.6 million seed round in 2021. Joining the investors for seed plus were two new backers, including The Global Entrepreneurship Centre which supports business growth. The latest funding will support the brand’s new listing with Holland & Barrett and build on existing listings with Selfridges, Mindful Chef, GoPuff and Allplants. The brand says it will also be used to support retail growth in Europe. Founded in 2019, the brand specialises in tempeh, a cultured plant-based food with “double the protein content of tofu”. Better Nature’s co-founder and CEO, Christopher Kong, said: “This raise marks the start of a transformative stage for the brand as we scale up our distribution, marketing and NPD in a bid to take tempeh mainstream as we head into 2023. Within the plant-based category right now, there is a real opportunity for brands who can deliver on health, taste, and convenience, and as a business, we have a strong range of products which are perfectly placed to capitalise on this.” He continued: “Coupled with growing consumer demand for natural plant-based food, the market opportunity for tempeh is significant. At Better Nature, we want to be Europe’s go-to tempeh brand, and this round will certainly help us on our journey to achieve that goal.” NPD and innovation will also be a focus with plans to launch new lines in 2023 for convenience in the all-natural plant-based category. #BetterNature #UK

ICL Food Specialties has partnered with Protera Biosciences, an AI-driven food tech start-up, to develop functional, clean label proteins for food manufacturers. The partnership follows ICL’s 2021 investment in Protera via its ICL Planet Startup Hub, which is the vehicle used by ICL to invest in and collaborate with innovative companies in food tech and agri-tech globally. ICL and Protera plan to develop and commercialise sustainable protein-based ingredients using precision fermentation. The ingredients will address current market demands and offer a replacement for chemical additives. The partnership also hopes to improve the sensory properties of plant-based food applications. Protera is creating impact through Madi, a deep-learning platform that can predict and match the structure and functionality of vegetable proteins. It designs proteins from a database of more than 1.5 billion edible protein sequences and applies precise fermentation parameters for producing them. The results address consumer demand for a shorter list of simple ingredients on food labels. Its new platform encourages the discovery of untapped plant-based proteins with high performance. Both companies say the development and production of plant protein make the replacement of animal proteins easier and reduce pollutants such as methane and carbon dioxide. Hadar Sutovsky, ICL vice president of External Innovation and general manager of ICL Planet said: “Thanks to this collaboration, we can offer novel ingredients via breakthrough technology currently not available in the market. Once these functional ingredients are launched, food manufacturers will be able to speed up development of clean label and sustainable plant-based products.” Leonardo Alvarez, founder and CEO of Protera added: “We are excited about this collaboration with ICL Food Specialties to bring new proteins to market. Combining the forces of our two companies will dramatically accelerate our vision of using biology to create protein-based ingredients. We already are validating functional targets in the lab, with unprecedented speed and accuracy.” ICL and Protera’s research teams have begun working on the development of protein-based ingredients, with hopes to scale up production once the ingredients are ready for commercialisation. #ICL #Protera #UK

Greggs and plant-based meat brand, This, have announced a new partnership and launched a new meat-free sandwich into all of the bakery’s 2,200 shops. The newly announced partnership began in September when the bakery launched a chicken-free baguette with goujons made from This’s ‘chicken’ recipe using pea and soy protein, coated in batter and southern fried crumbs. Now, the two brands have launched the vegan turkey-free and stuffing baguette into all Greggs’ shops. The sandwich features “hyper-realistic” plant-based turkey-free goujons with a festive sage and onion crust, cranberry sauce and vegan gravy. Andy Shovel, co-founder of This, said: ‘’Having such a huge operator and admired brand as Greggs want to work with us is massive. It’s a statement on the quality of the products we’re producing. It’s also reflective of the continued investment into and demand for plant-based food.’’ The new plant-based festive baguette is available across Greggs’ stores nationwide for an RRP of £3.50. #Greggs #Plantbasedturkey #This #UK

Upfield-owned vegan cheese brand, Violife, has launched Vegan Blue, a crumbly blue-cheese alternative with added spirulina “veins” for authenticity. Victoria Slater, head of Violife Northern Europe, said: “At Violife, we’re focused on helping our customers celebrate with new flavours and textures, especially during the festive period. Our new Celebration Platter, including the innovative Vegan Blue is a perfect addition to any Christmas cheese board.” The GMO, preservative and nut-free plant-based cheese block is available in Tesco stores for an RRP of £3.25. #Bluecheese #UK #Upfield #Violife