Future Food Quick Bites: Coconut Latte Pods, Vegan Lakers & Iowa SNAP Decision

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 Coconut Cloud’s coffee pods, Better Balance’s Crypto.com Arena link-up, and the USDA’s rejection of Iowa’s plant-based purchase restrictions.

New products and launches

US coffee chain Peet’s Coffee has introduced the Everything Plant-Based Sandwich, which features Impossible Foods‘s vegan sausage, Eat Just‘s Just Egg, and dairy-free cheese.

Oyamel, the Washington, DC restaurant owned by José Andrés, held a cultivated meat tasting featuring Eat Just‘s Good Meat chicken and Wildtype‘s salmon in several dishes, organised by non-profit Food Solutions Action.

Foodservice distributor Performance Food Group has ventured into the blended meat space, launching a Beef & Jackfruit Burger under its FarmSmart brand in partnership with meat analogue maker The Jackfruit Company.

Californian startup Renegade Foods has added three French-Hungarian vegan salami SKUs to its lineup. Available in Salami Lorraine, Salami Provence, and Salami Budapesti flavours, they can be found on its website for $42.75 per three-pack.

Also in the US, dairy-free brand Coconut Cloud has launched single-serve coffee pods made with instant coffee, coconut cream powder, coconut sugar and MCT oil powder. The Coconut Cream Latte capsules are available on its website and Amazon for $24.99 for an 18-pack.

Expanding its presence in the US market, plant-based food brand Better Balance has become an official partner with Los Angeles’s Crypto.com Arena, home to the Lakers; collaborated with PLNT Burger, owned by former Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn, to put its vegan hot dog on the menu; and expanded its retail footprint to select Giant and Martin’s on the East Coast.

South Korea’s Unlimeat has launched two new vegan kimbap products in sausage and buldak variants in the US, which are available on its website for $8.99 per pack.

British plant-based meat maker Shicken has launched its Tikka Masala, Butter Curry, and Korma Curry SKUs at Albert Heijn stores in the Netherlands.

In Canada, plant protein company Burcon NutraScience has partnered with Belgian bakery and chocolate giant Puratos to develop products using the former’s Puratein canola protein as an egg replacer.

Chilean food tech unicorn NotCo has rolled out a line of functional chocolate snacks called NotSquares, as part of its $30M investment in the snack category over the next three years. The products contain a slow-releasing carbohydrate called Palatinose.

Company and finance updates

NotCo is also facing some controversy, though. Its NotMayo, marketed as vegan, has been found to contain the amino acid L-cysteine, which a company representative reportedly confirmed was sourced from bird feathers.

Ahead of its Series C round, Dutch cultivated meat startup Meatable has secured a strategic investment from Betagro Ventures, the VC arm of one of Thailand’s largest food companies. It comes weeks after the company told Green Queen about its plans to gain regulatory approval across Asia next year.

Germany’s €34M Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is now operational, demonstrating DSM-Fonterra-owned Vivici’s precision fermentation technology for beta-lactoglobulin (a whey protein) at an industrial scale.

In the UK, the demand for vegan options at public events has grown by 280% over the last five years, according to research by Togather.

New York startup Pureture, which has developed a vegan casein protein, has teamed up with South Korea’s Kangwon National University to set up an Alternative Protein Research Center.

In California, seaweed bacon producer Umaro Foods has received a $1.5M grant from the US Department of Energy to enhance the performance, production costs, and sustainability of bioplastics in collaboration with seaweed packaging startup Sway.

After appointing insolvency advisors in an attempt to rescue the business, UK vegan ready meal startup Allplants has entered administration, making 65 employees redundant.

Policy, research and awards

The US Department of Agriculture has turned down a request by the state of Iowa that sought to block residents from accessing meat and egg alternatives via federal food assistance initiatives like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has put out a call for companies to join its cultivated meat sandbox programme. The deadline is Thursday, November 28, with five to eight companies set to be chosen.

Similarly, the Singapore Food Agency has issued a call for applicants to its Second Future FoodsMain Grant on Nutrition and Functionality, which is open until February 2025.

Meanwhile, the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture has submitted a request to the country’s Consumer Affairs Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, calling on the government to develop a clearer regulatory framework for cultivated meat.

Plant-based meat has a climate impact 91% lower than beef, 88% lower than pork, and 71% lower than chicken, regardless of how these proteins are produced, according to a comprehensive life-cycle assessment published by the Good Food Institute.

Czech cultivated meat startup Bene Meat Technologies, which is developing both pet and human food, has received the Industrie Award at the Czech Head Awards, which is accorded annually for significant contributions in the field of innovative research technology.

In Australia, the University of Queensland‘s Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) has released a white paper exploring the potential of precision fermentation, with recommendations for boosting the industry’s future.

Finally, Peta India has named Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat, as the country’s most vegan-friendly city.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.