Future Food Quick Bites: Dairy-Free Mozzarella Sticks, Vegan Wetherspoons & Indian Cultivated Meat

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 Sunday Supper’s plant-based mozzarella sticks, M&S’s new vegan cookies, and a cultivated meat tasting in India.

New products and launches

US vegan frozen foods maker Sunday Supper has released Mozza Fritto, a dairy-free mozzarella stick SKU. It’s available at Besties Vegan Paradise in Los Angeles and Orchard Grocer in New York City, and will be at Giant, Bristol Farms, and Good Eggs this month, selling for $9.99 for three servings.

As it conducts a regulatory feeding trial for cultivated meat, Further Foods, the portfolio brand of Cult Food Science, is launching a line of vegan Sprinkles toppers for pet food under its Noochies! brand. The 4oz packs will be available in six flavours (three apiece for dogs and cats), and retail for $16.99 in the US and Canada.

Cultivated meat is now officially banned in Alabama. But before it came into effect, Upside Foods took its Freedom of Food tasting event to the state for locals to try its chicken before it became illegal.

Italian food giant Barilla is bringing its vegan pesto to the US as part of a flavour expansion, which will be available exclusively at Krogers stores starting this month.

There’s a new almond milk on the block. Sól Date‘s milks are sweetened with dates and come in Original, Chocolate and Vanilla flavours, and can already be found in 400 locations, with another 250 slated for January.

In more dairy-free news, Canadian vegan cheese brand Daiya has shaken up its frozen pizza range, which has a “lighter, fluffier, and crispier gluten-free crust” and the new Oat Cream cheese.

In the Netherlands, The Vegetarian Butcher‘s Pulled Beef Strips are now featured on the menu of meal startup Mama’s Maaltijden, part of a poké bowl with sushi rice and pickled cucumbers.

French plant-based meat leader La Vie has teased two new products in Apple’s trademark marketing style, showing the “advantageous curves” of the packaging. They will come out at the end of October in Italian-style and Spicy Asian flavours, and apparently won’t trigger the meat labelling lobby. We think it’s sausages – what’s your guess?

Meanwhile, La Vie has also rolled out its smoked ham at Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.

French vegan ingredient company Ingood by Olga has introduced Lengood, a fermented green lentil powder that is designed as a clean-label egg alternative for bakery and pastry products.

In the UK, pub chain Wetherspoons has added a limited-edition Korean-inspired vegan sticky fried chicken bowl using Quorn‘s mycoprotein meat. It’s served alongside chips and coconut rice.

UK supermarket M&S has released vegan speculoos and chocolate chip cookies in a light-up tin, as part of its Christmas range. It retails for £7.

Speaking of British retailers, Slovenian whole-cut plant-based meat producer Juicy Marbles is now selling its vegan steaks at Sainsbury’s, available in two-packs for £7 at 553 stores nationwide.

Singaporean vegan seafood brand HAPPIEE! has expanded its UK presence, with its plant-based shrimp, squid and calamari now available at Sainsbury’s and Morissons (from next week).

A new vegan sweets brand has been set up by a former Mondelez International executive. Wild Thingz makes bug-shaped fruit gummies in Zesty Pests, Fruity Flyers and Gummy Grubs, which will be available as 25g packs for 90p and 130g bags for £2.99.

Staying with confectionery for a second, UK vegan oat milk chocolate maker H!P is getting festive with a new £12 advent calendar that features its plain, orange, salted caramel and gingerbread offerings. In addition, it’s launching a Gingerbread Cookie Bar, H!P ‘n’ Mix Festive Pouch, and a Christmas gift box.

In Thailand, vegan cheese brand Swees has released with what it claims are the world’s first rice-based cheese sticks, with backing from the national government.

Company and finance updates

Spain’s Pascual Innoventures has upped its investment in the first three editions of the Mylcubator programme to over $2M, with its latest infusion going to precision fermentation egg startup Onego Bio.

Israeli vegan seafood player Oshi has received two million shekels ($550,000) as part of grant funding by the Israeli Innovation Authority.

In Sweden, Örebro University’s PAN Sweden research centre has been awarded 40 million kronor ($3.9M) from the state research council Formas for its work on plant proteins. Agrifood company Lantmännen is a key actor in the project.

Swedish pea milk pioneer Sproud has raised 14.4 Swedish kronor ($1.4M) in a fresh funding round, adding to the $1M it secured back in March.

UK startup Fermtech has brought in £360,000 in crowdfunding (moving past its £325,000 target) for its ‘zero-carbon’ koji protein, using spent grain from breweries as feedstock.

Californian firm Triplebar is restructuring to amp up its focus on developing a generative AI genomic language model by 2026 to disrupt the food and medicine industries.

In Singapore, Temasek-owned sustainable food innovation platform Nurasa has signed an MoU with Food Harbour Hamburg to bring together companies from both regions to develop planet-friendly food solutions.

Meanwhile, Israeli food tech startup Steakholder Foods has signed a deal with frozen foods manufacturer Bondor Foods to supply plant-based premises for vegan white fish and salmon patties.

Indian cultivated meat startup Biokraft Foods is hosting its first public tastings for cultivated chicken after completing an internal validation for the product. The tastings will be held in Mumbai and Pune.

Elsewhere, cell-based chocolate maker California Cultured has received an investment from Sparkalis, the corporate venture arm of Belgian B2B bakery, patisserie and chocolate leader Puratos Group.

Job platform Alt Protein Careers has expanded into Europe, and several startups – from Redefine Meat to Mewery – are already advertising roles there.

Policy developments

Over 100 organisations and academics are calling on the UN FAO to retract its Pathways Towards Lower Emissions report from COP28, which downplayed the impact of livestock and climate change. It follows a similar open letter from July, which itself came months after authors whose work the report was based on asked the FAO to retract its report. The latest letter comes after the FAO doubled down on its stance.

In California, the share of meatless meal options in school lunches increased from 7% in 2019 to 11% in 2023. The number of high schools offering veggie meals also rose from 36% to 56%.

UK charity The Vegan Society and the International Rights Network have helped remove veganism from the National Health Service‘s Prevent training, a counter-terrorism programme designed to identify those at risk of radicalisation. Before the intervention, veganism was being referenced in the training.

Finally, The Vegan Society is also celebrating a major milestone: it recently crossed 70,000 product certifications with its Vegan Trademark.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.