Future Food Quick Bites: Bee-Free Honey, Co-Fermented Fish & A New Netflix Doc

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 Melibio’s UK debut, Canada’s ‘unlawful’ plastic ban, and a game-changing vegan documentary.

New products and launches

A year after announcing their partnership, Bay Area alt-honey startup MeliBio and Slovenia’s Narayan Foods have launched a vegan honey product in the UK under the Better Foodie brand. Named Vegan H*ney, it is available at over 200 independent stores in the country, retailing at £5.99 per 300g jar.

French-Belgian digital restaurant and food delivery company No Brainer has launched a hybrid-virtual brand format called Dr Seed, which centres on 100% plant-based food. It offers an app, bypasses aggregators like Uber Eats, and allows consumers to order and pay directly through its platform, starting at 54 Grill in Paris.

Veganuary launch announcements are in full flow. In the UK, pizza chain Papa John’s is introducing a limited-edition vegan BBQ Chicken offering, which is topped with plant-based cheese from Sheese. It will be available from January 2.

Fellow food chain LEON has unveiled its Veganuary menu too, focused on “gut-healing goodness”. It includes a new Bangin’ Bhaji Wrap and Rainbow Squash Salad, which will launch UK-wide on January 10.

And German alt-seafood startup Koralo has debuted its co-fermented microalgae- and mycelium-based New F!sh filet in South Korea, starting with Seoul restaurants Stylevegan and Monks Butcher.

Finance and policy developments

The Canadian government has officially banned the use of plastic straws, food containers, checkout bags and cutlery at foodservice locations, going against a court order brought in by the oil and chemicals industries calling the regulation “unreasonable and unconstitutional”.

Elsewhere, Australia’s government has rejected a $55M funding request for the development of an alt-protein research centre for the third year in a row – though industry players remain confident for future bids.

Seattle startup Rebellyous Foods is accepting requests for proposals for its plant-based meat production system, which it claims can cut manufacturing costs by 60% compared to standard methods and reach price parity with conventional meat.

Weeks after being acquired by The Compleat Food Group and earning a Waitrose listing, London-based artisanal vegan cheese producer Palace Culture says its sales have tripled in the last month, with a wider retail rollout now expected for 2024.

Movers, breakthroughs and pop culture

Brazilian precision fermentation startup Future Cow Technologies has unveiled the first prototype of its animal-free milk, made in 15-litre tanks. The company plans to expand production capacity to up to 5,000-litre tanks for B2B purposes.

Meanwhile, British plant-based meat manufacturer MYCO has hired former VBites chief David Wood as its CEO, who left his position at VBites following the business’s collapse.

In the US, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has sponsored two billboards in Salisbury, Maryland, calling on the poultry industry in the area to pivot to cultured meat.

It’s been over four years since The Game Changers graced our screens, and while a sequel is underway, the original’s director, Louie Psihoyos, is bringing a new vegan documentary to Netflix. Based on a recent dietary study conducted on identical twins, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, takes you behind the scenes of the research. It will release on New Year’s Day, coinciding with Veganuary.