Future Food Quick Bites: Cultivated Chicken Tasting, Oat Milk Liqueur & Alt-Protein Awards

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 Vital Meat’s cultivated chicken tasting in Singapore, Oatly’s new marketing campaign, and layoffs at The Every Company.

New products and launches

As it awaits regulatory approval in Singapore, French cultivated meat producer Vital Meat collaborated with Hue Restaurant as part of a tasting in the city-state. The event featured three dishes using the startup’s cultivated chicken powder.

There’s a new mushroom brand in town. California’s Thallus Foods is using the chicken of the woods mushroom to replace, well, the other chicken. It calls itself the first indoor cultivator of this fungi variety.

Speaking of new companies, in Denmark, Plantbox is curating plant-based meats and cheeses for wholesale consumers, and has gained listings at SPAR, Pico Pizza, Nemlig, Wolt, and more.

Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has kicked off its new It Works in Tea campaign to target Britain’s tea-drinking tendencies. Featuring billboards in London, Manchester, and Brighton, the brand asked consumers to text a WhatsApp number if they were unconvinced. It received over 12,000 responses in the first 24 hours, who were in with a chance of winning a free tea set (with a mug and PG Tips tea).

London-based The Good Pea Co, which makes alt-milk powders, has rebranded to Kwerky, with a new five-ingredient oat and pea milk powder slated for launch next month.

Also in the UK, Tiba Tempeh has gained a listing for its tempeh block and mince at 327 Morrisons store, following a rollout in Sainsbury’s in the summer.

In more tempeh news, Mamame Foods has introduced tempeh chips made from black-eyed peas in original, hot chilli, sea salt and rosemary flavours. They’re available at Whole Foods in the UK and will come to Planet Organic this month for £4.99, alongside Erewhon and Sprouts in the US in the coming weeks.

Discount retailer Asda has added Dark Choc & Honeycomb Cake Pop Bites to its private-label Free From range in the UK.

Belgian bakery and chocolate giant Puratos has extended its ready-to-whip Ambiante line with a dairy-free chocolate flavour, which uses cocoa from the company’s Cacao-Trace programme and can be used as a topping or filling for cakes, pastries, and more.

Swedish startup Hooked Foods has teamed up with Sodexo to distribute its seafood and chicken analogues to the caterer’s network, following a successful Green Lunch for one of its clients.

Vegan frozen food company Strong Roots has launched Air Bites, a range of products designed specifically for air fryers. It is available in Crispy Spinach & Carrot, Crispy Pea & Lemon and Crispy Veg flavour for £2.95.

And back in the US, Misunderstood Whiskey has unveiled its Outrageous brand of cream liqueurs made from oat milk. The 14% ABV bottles come in espresso, coconut and bourbon cream flavours for $28.

Company and finance updates

US biotech startup Tiamat Sciences, which created animal-free growth factors for cultivated meat via molecular farming, has ceased operations following financial constraints.

Californian firm The Every Company, the precision fermentation startup making recombinant egg proteins, has conducted layoffs at its Daly City headquarters.

Chilean food tech startup NotCo, whose products are built on its AI platform Guiseppe, has developed a generative AI model to create new flavour and fragrance formulations.

Czech company Bene Meat Technologies, which makes cultivated meat for pets, has created a cell bank that already has over 5,000 samples stored.

Two years after the initiative’s launch, Ferments du Futur has opened an innovation centre in the Paris-Saclay science and innovation cluster. The public-private scheme is an accelerator for fermentation startups.

Spanish vegan egg maker Uobo has secured a six-figure sum in its latest funding round, and partnered with fellow Catalan startup Cubiq Foods – which makes animal-free functional fats – to develop a new egg alternative for B2B clients.

In Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has issued several grants under the Small/Startup Business Innovation Research Program. Alternative protein startups include Agro Ludens ($7.1M), Deats Food Planning ($4.5M), and Fermenstation ($3.4M).

ProVeg South Africa has been working with the Western Cape government to raise awareness about food insecurity during the National Nutrition Week (October 9 to 15), distributing 2,000 educational booklet to youngsters, hosting events for locals, and handing out 2,500 vegan nuggets from Fry Family Food in Uniondale.

Israeli 3D-printed meat maker Redefine Meat has won plaudits from Dutch chefs after hosting them at its new visitor centre in the production facility in Best, with the startup’s R&D team taking in the feedback to improve upon its New-Meat range.

US biotech manufacturing firm Liberation Labs, which specialises in precision fermentation, has received a further $12M from cellular agriculture investor Agronomics. It brings its total equity-linked funding to $35.5M, which will be joined by its upcoming Series A round.

Policy, events and awards

The APAC Society of Cellular Agriculture has signed an MoU with Temasek Polytechnic to create its first student chapter, which will foster a community of students across Asia-Pacific looking to shape the future of food through cultivated meat and seafood.

FoodBev Media has announced the winners of its 2024 World Plant-Based Innovation Awards, which include Float‘s adaptogenic oat milk, Elmhurst 1925‘s sour cream, Arla‘s JÖRÐ barista oat milk, The Mushroom Meat Co, and LOVO chocolate.

Speaking of awards, Australian cultivated meat startup Vow, which has been selling its cultivated quail since receiving clearance in Singapore this April, has won the Future Ready Award in the Australian Financial Review‘s 2024 BOSS Most Innovative Companies category.

Finally, also in Australia, Sydney will host the next edition of the AltProteins Conference in October 2025, following a three-year stint in Melbourne.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.