Future Food Quick Bites: Oatly for Kids, State Investments & Ted Talks

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 Little Spoon’s partnership with Oatly, a spate of government investments into alternative proteins, and a Ted Talk about cultivated meat.

New products and launches

US vegan startup Brooklyn Delhi, which makes vegan Indian pantry staples, has debuted at Whole Foods nationwide with four of its products: sweet potato coconut dal, red bean rajma masala, black bean butter masala, and chickpea tikka masala.

New York startup Blackbird Foods has released an expanded range of vegan wings with two new flavours – tangy and smoky Texas BBQ and sweet and spicy Thai Chili.

Also based in New York, kids nutrition brand Little Spoon has unveiled two limited-edition smoothies in partnership with Oatly. The Apple Cinnamon Swirl and Peach Berry Bliss flavours will debut on June 25 on the former’s website.

Califia Farms has launched Complete Kids, a multi-ingredient milk for children featuring 8g of protein per serving from peas, chickpeas and fava beans. It’s available at Target for $5.99.

In more alt-dairy news, Elmhurst 1925 has rolled out a line of cashew creamers, which it describes as an industry-first. Available in sweet cream, cinnamon churro, caramel brûlée and unsweetened flavours, they can be used for coffee as well as cooking applications, and are available on its website and at Sprouts.

UK vegan artisanal cheese brand Julienne Bruno has launched into Ocado’s flash delivery service Zoom, shortly after its Superstraccia won Gold at the Free From Food awards.

On July 2, US vegan restaurant chain Plant Powered Fast Food will launch a limited-edition American BBQ rib sandwich, The Ribby, across its 10 locations. It features a jackfruit meat patty, BBQ sauce, onions and pickles.

Germany’s Endori has announced that its vegan Chicken Natural product has now been permanently added to the menu of Italian restaurant chain L’Osteria. It means customers can choose to use the pea protein and broad bean chicken as a topping across its 170 restaurants in nine countries.

Fellow German company Rügenwalder Mühle has reformulated its vegan Mühlen Salami, and updated the recipes of its entire salami range to remove methylcellulose.

And Australian vegan startup Made With Plants has expanded distribution for its plant-based bacon, chicken, ham, and grated mozzarella into more than 500 Coles stores nationwide.

Policy and finance developments

Canadian economic cluster Protein Industries Canada has announced a new project to optimise and use locally grown pea and fava bean protein ingredients, in partnership with Lovingly Made Flour Mills, TMRW Foods and Dutton Farms.

The government of Brussels has awarded a €400,000 ($429,000) subsidy to Maastricht-based plant protein producer Dutch Structuring Technologies, which will use the capital to quintuple production capacity to 1,000 kg per hour.

The Israeli Innovation Authority has invested nearly 1.5M shekels (about $400,000) into microalgae protein maker Brevel, which will support its R&D efforts on its next product, functional lipids for food applications.

Another microalgae tech company, France’s Fermentalg, has raised €12.8M ($13.7M) to accelerate sales of its natural colourants and omega-3 ingredients and development of its alternative protein and lipid products, with European precision fermentation leader HuvePharma becoming a reference shareholder.

In more precision fermentation news, Singapore’s National Research Foundation has awarded a $14.8M grant to the city-state’s Illinois Advanced Research Center, an affiliate centre of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US, to develop a Centre for Precision Fermentation and Sustainability.

South African biotech startup Immobazyme has secured R24.5M ($1.35M) to scale up its production capacity for precision-fermented proteins.

UK vegan company Allplants has raised £1.8M ($2.3M) and launched its frozen meals into foodservice through a partnership with leading wholesaler Bidfood.

In Australia, member of parliament Lisa Baker has released a new report recommending the Western Australia government create a working group for food systems transformation, with a focus on supporting alternative proteins through investment, policies and regulation.

Over in the US, five months after launch, Algae Cooking Club has slashed the price of its algal cooking oil by 20%. It has made its way into over 150 retail stores and experienced sales growth of 50% month-over-month.

Research and manufacturing updates

Cultivated steaks, burgers, tuna and lobsters could replace Sunday roasts and fish and chips on British plates by 2054, according to research by FixOurFood and the University of York for UK grocer The Co-op‘s Responsible Retailing Report.

French extrusion specialist Clextral has introduced a patented Galaxy Texturisation Technology for plant protein extrusion, which can produce softer, more flexible textures for whole-cut meat analogues.

Sproudz is new innovation hub established in Bern, Switzerland, which offers startups space and facilities for rent to develop plant-based products. Vegan companies BakeryBakery and Outlawz Food – which helped develop the concept – are already on board.

The Good Food Institute India has released the fourth report in its series of guides for alternative protein companies to navigate the country’s regulatory landscape. This edition focuses on the labelling and display requirements for pre-packaged foods.

Finally, is cultivated meat the future of food? That’s the question Upside Foods co-founder Uma Valeti explores in his Ted Talk for the Ted Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.