Future Food Quick Bites: Baby Ribs, Believe in Chickens & An Alt-Protein Week

In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers VFC’s ad in response to KFC’s new campaign, a new oat milk company, and an alternative protein week.

New products and launches

Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat producer Juicy Marbles has introduced its newest product, Baby Ribs, made with a cleaner-label recipe. The 350g pack will roll out tomorrow, and newsletter subscribers who pre-ordered the product could receive prototypes of its lamb rack or bacon.

Shane Stanbridge and C-Y Chia, owners of Oakland’s now-closed Lion Dance Cafe, are working on a cookbook inspired by the vegan restaurant, and have put out an open call to ask customers which dishes they should include in the recipe list.

Catering giant Compass Group‘s Eurest division has linked up with Irish company The Plant-It Food Co to serve the latter’s vegan chicken across non-commercial operations in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia. A national rollout will follow soon.

UK plant-based brand Framptons has unveiled the Wessex Oat Company, a range of discount oat milk in original, unsweetened, oat latte, caramel latte, and chocolate flavours for £1.49-1.99. It will also introduce a single cream alternative later this year.

German vegan startup Planteneers has developed a fully plant-based Italian buffet. It showcased the menu with Marriott International, preparing vegan tiramisu, white fish and mortadella sandwiches for 1,450 attendees at the Future Food-Tech trade show in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, German producer Greenforce has linked up with UAE agrifood tech company Silal to bring its dehydrated plant-based meat mixes to foodservice locations in the Middle East and Africa region.

Also in Germany, discount supermarket Kaufland has expanded its own-label vegan, K-Take It Veggie, by around 20%, crossing 100 SKUs. It comes a year after it reduced the prices of its private-label plant-based products to match animal proteins.

In Australia, vegan food maker Plantein has rolled out an affordable line of ready-to-cook meals at Woolworths stores, featuring burgers, mince and meatballs for A$2.95 ($1.97).

And fellow Australian company Fascin8foods has expanded its Froom range of whole-food plant-based burgers, mine and meatballs to retailers in New South Wales and Queensland.

Company and event updates

Ingredients giant AAK has received a ‘no further questions’ letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of shea stearin, a plant-based fat that can replace cocoa butter and coconut oil, among others.

The Plant Based Foods Association has partnered with jobs platform Tälist, enabling its members to post open positions on a specially curated version of the AltProtein.jobs board.

New York-based firm Livekindly Collective – the parent company of Like Meat, No Meat, Oumph! and Alpha Foods – has named David Suarez as CEO. Suarez moves up from his previous role as chief supply chain officer.

The Cultured Meat Symposium and UC Davis’ Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP) have collaborated to host the Alternative Protein Week (September 9-13), which will convene over 300 researchers, policymakers, investors and stakeholders to discuss novel protein production.

Two months after opening its first European plant-based production line in Germany, Dutch drinks company Refresco has acquired Spanish white-label plant-based milk maker Frías Nutrición for an undisclosed sum.

UK vegan chicken maker VFC has launched a new campaign taking a shot at KFC‘s Believe in Chicken campaign, calling on people to ‘Believe in Chickens’ instead. The plurality aims to highlight the fast-food giant’s “hypocrisy”.

Solar Foods, the Finnish startup making protein from air, is planning to go public via a technical listing on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. This would enable it to list existing shares without raising capital, the goal being to enhance visibility and provide liquidity to existing shareholders.

Research, policy and awards

What really drives people away from cultivated meat? One new study suggests it could be people’s morals, with Germans and Americans who care about the purity and naturalness of life are less inclined to eat these proteins. It highlights another pain point around consumer education for the sector.

Minnesota governor Tim Walz has announced a $200M Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s food system

US mycelium meat producer Meati has received the Sustainable Plant of the Year award by Food Engineering magazine for its 100,000 sq ft Mega Ranch in Thornton, Colorado.

A campus-wide meat-free trial at the University of Bonn in Germany found that up to eight weeks after the trial ended, sales of meat were lower by 7-12% than before the veggie month, with 80% of students saying they want to see more meatless meals in the canteen.

Finally, in the UK, polling by Bosh! has revealed that nearly half (49%) of the country’s vegan population is male, subverting trends seen in previous research, which has suggested that veganism is much more common among women.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.