Future Food Quick Bites: Vegan Tiramisu, Dave Chang & A Political Breakfast

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 a vegan tiramisu collection in Hong Kong, Dave Chang’s cultivated meat podcast episode, and a ‘super yoghurt’.

New products and launches

Good Food Technologies, the Hong Kong company behind Plant Sifu, has partnered with famed Japanese ramen restaurant Menya Musashi. The latter’s Hong Kong menu features a Veggie Chicken Tomato Tsukemen Set and Deep-Fried Veggie Pork Cutlet Teishoku Set, as well as three sides.

Singaporean oat milk brand Oatbedient is hosting a pop-up at K11 Art Mall in Hong Kong (November 19 to December 2) to celebrate the launch of its Café series in the city. Visitors will get access to discounts and offers on its entire oat milk range.

In similar news, The Cakery, a plant-forward cake shop in Hong Kong, and its vegan sister bakery Maya have teamed up with Singaporean oat milk leader Oatside to introduce a tiramisu collection, which includes a cake, cupcake, overnight oats, and drinks like tiramisu chocolate and a tiramisu Biscoff latte.

In the UK, discount retailer Aldi has rolled out an Ultimate No Beef Flank Steak, a private-label whole-cut meat alternative. The vegan beef product isn’t part of its Plant Menu range, but instead will be marketed under its Specially Selected label with a price tag of £6.99 for a two-pack.

British startup The Coconut Collab has launched two new desserts: Choc and Caramel (£1.50 per 110g) and White Choc Pots (£2.95 for four 45g packs). They’re available at Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and/or Ocado.

Carbon calculator and labelling startup My Emissions has unveiled its second product, Company Carbon Footprints, a platform to help food companies measure their emissions more quickly and accurately. It has already been trialled by restaurant chain Wahaca and caterer Simply Lunch.

Armed with a new ambassador in Maya Jama, Swedish pea milk brand Sproud has introduced its Barista Zero SKU, debiting the product at the European Coffee Symposium in Berlin this week.

Israeli entrepreneur Ola Baker has launched Eggless, a new company focused on innovating in the plant-based egg space.

Company and finance updates

South African cultivated meat startup Newform Foods hosted its biggest tasting event in Cape Town last week, showcasing its lamb meatballs to visitors.

Israeli startup Phyloton, which makes natural food colours from precision fermentation, has received funding from Rich Products Ventures, as well as additional financing from existing investors EIT Food, Arkin Holdings, and Yossi Ackerman (among others).

US-cultivated protein startup Jellatech, whose flagship product is a bioidentical collagen, has opened a 9,000 sq ft facility in Morrisville, North Carolina. It plans to obtain the FDA’s Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification by 2026.

Happy Plant Protein, a spinout from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has secured €1.8M in a pre-seed funding round led by Nordic Foodtech VC, alongside participation from Butterfly Ventures and Business Finland, to develop and license its patented vegan protein production tech.

Research, policy and events

In India, tempeh producer Tempeh Today, the Freedom Project India and the Netherlands Enterprise have launched the Tempeh for Education project. It involves the use of micro fermentation units to produce up to 100kg of tempeh per week, and the goal is to economically empower women through training and a guaranteed buyback programme.

Accor Group, Europe’s largest hospitality company and parent company of hotels like Novotel, Sofitel and Ibis, has announced its goal to introduce plant-based menu options at all of its locations in the coming years. It aligns with its Good Food Feels Great push to make 50% of its menus vegan by 2030.

In Germany, retail giant Rewe Group and fermentation companies Infinite Roots and Formo hosted a “political breakfast” at the parliament. The discussion, which featured MP Albert Stegemann, explored how fermentation can help boost food security and lower climate impacts, while also touching upon regulatory sandboxes and farmer collaboration.

Also in Germany, plant-based shopping baskets are now only 9% pricier than their animal-based counterparts, with own-label milk alternatives now cheaper than dairy, according to a ProVeg International study. At Lidl, which has made major sustainability strides this year, buying vegan private-label products is now more wallet-friendly.

At the Technical University of Munich‘s 2024 TFoodS Conference in Singapore, global experts explored alternative proteins and their potential to help the island nation achieve its 30 by 30 food security vision.

As Israeli-cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms continues to host tasting events ahead of the launch of its cultivated beef, five out of six chefs say they’d serve the Aleph Cuts product in their restaurants.

Researchers at Australia’s Monash University have created a “super yoghurt” made from sweet lupin beans and oats, which they say rivals both dairy and other plant-based yoghurts on taste, texture and nutrition.

Momofuku founder Dave Chang featured cultivated meat on his podcast, The Dave Chang Show, interviewing the Good Food Institute‘s Eric Schulze about this future food.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.