Future Food Quick Bites: Slutty Vegas, Impossible Chicken Salads & A Vegan Cream Liqueur

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 Upside Foods’ tasting event at a taqueria, Japan Airlines’ sweet protein partnership, and a UK state investment into climate-resilient legumes.

New products and launches

Cultivated meat leader Upside Foods showcased its chicken at Chicago taqueria Antique Taco, weeks before a judge will consider its preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit against Florida’s cultivated meat ban.

You can now eat sweet proteins on the fly, literally. Japan Airlines has partnered with Californian food tech startup Oobli to offer its chocolates on the Tokyo-San Francisco route. They’re made from Oubli Sweet Protein, a sugar alternative that has no impact on blood glucose.

Frozen meat-free brand Amy’s Kitchen has expanded its plant-based footprint, replacing eggs with tofu in its breakfast wraps and scrambles.

Next year, New York City will be host to the first Plant Powered Kids Festival, a fully vegan event that will include family-friendly activities like workshops, cooking classes and yoga sessions, alongside food from plant-based vendors. It will be held at Industry City in Brooklyn on February 2.

US fast-casual chain Just Salad has made Impossible Foods‘s vegan chicken a permanent menu item with its fall menu launch. The plant-based Unbreaded Chicken Filet is part of a Southwest Crunch salad and a Vegan Chipotle Wrap, and also available as a protein option in Build-Your-Own orders.

Speaking of chains, Slutty Vegan is part of the Pepsi Dig In Restaurant Royalty Residency in Las Vegas. Founder Pinky Cole will be serving up its signature Fussy Hussy burger at Mandalay Bay’s Libertine Social and Luxor’s Public House for four weeks through October 18.

British vegan food producer Marigold Health Foods – maker of Engevita nutritional yeast, vegan boullion cubes, and canned meat analogues – has teamed up with packaging specialist Sonoco to launch fully recyclable packaging for a range of its products. The latter’s EnviroCan is designed with a paper bottom and can be recycled by consumers kerbside.

Also in the UK, The Tofoo Co – recently acquired by Comitis Capital – has introduced a Tofoo Katsu SKU in its added value line, which will be available at Sainsbury’s for £3 per 240g pack.

Shortly after its Swiss launch, artisan vegan cheese brand Julienne Bruno has entered the Republic of Ireland via 65 stores, offering its plant-based Burrella, Crematta and Superstraccia SKUs from €5.29-5.95.

More news from the UK: vegan frozen pizza maker One Planet Pizza has landed a listing at Morrison’s nationwide with what it says is a “frozen category first”, a plant-based Tex Mex pizza, starting next month.

London-based meal kit startup Grubby has partnered with Leon Grocery on four dishes – Med Veg and Pesto Salad, Korean Sticky BBQ Cauliflower, Mexican Black Bean Salad and Crispy Souvlaki Skewers – for its October menu. Each will feature ready-to-heat rice pouches from the chain’s retail arm.

Parisian meat analogue maker La Vie‘s bacon will be on the menu at Picadeli at French retailer Monoprix and in Sweden for the next two months.

German beverage manufacturer Waldemar Behn is making its vodka-based Dooley’s Creamy Liqueur brand entirely vegan. It will relaunch the range in 700ml bottles next month, swapping out the dairy with coconut and soy milk instead.

And ahead of Oktoberfest, German food tech innovator Planteneers is offering manufacturers its fiildMeat S 141501 modular system to make plant-based meats for street food classics, such as bratwrusts as well as hot dog sauces.

Company and financial news

The UK’s Department for Environment, Rural and Social Affairs (Defra) has pumped in £3M towards four research organisations to develop climate-resilient legume crops.

Hollywood star Gal Gadot‘s mac and cheese brand Goodles, which has a vegan SKU, has hired a new CFO in Chris Hall after sales tripled in 2023.

Dutch alt-dairy leader Upfield has renamed itself to Flora Food Group to reflect its flagship butter range, and acquired a manufacturing facility located in Hugoton, Kansas to produce creams and cream cheeses for the North American market.

Speaking of factories, Thai plant-based cheese company Swees has opened a fully vegan-certified facility for co-manufacturing.

Croatian plant protein producer Nutris has been acquired by Swedish investment firm Summa Equity for an undisclosed sum.

Scottish startup MiAlgae has secured $18.5M to produce omega-3 fatty acids via microalgae fermentation. It will use the capital to build an industrial-scale facility in the country.

As it awaits regulatory approval in Singapore, Dutch cultivated meat producer Meatable has received €7.6M ($8.5M) in state funding, under the Netherlands Enterprise Agency‘s Innovation Credit programme.

At Wageningen University, the Bioprocess Engineering Chair Group’s cellular agriculture team has obtained a €1.5M investment from Korean biotech firm Whoniz to work on cultivated meat and seafood.

Canadian vegan fast-food chain Odd Burger has announced the private placement of $4M of convertible debt after reporting its highest quarterly revenues since going public.

Israel’s MNDL Bio has raised $2M to expand its AI-powered gene optimisation platform, which is said to accelerate R&D, lower costs, and bolter success rates in synthetic biology.

Impact investor Earth First Food Ventures has kickstarted a $10M Series A round to expand its financing portfolio in the alt-dairy segment and introduce a $50M precision fermentation fund.

Policy and research developments

The EU’s regulation requiring manufacturers to produce caps that stay tethered to the plastic bottles has been in place for a couple of months now, and has annoyed many drinkers. But with the EU set to double down on its plastic waste strategy, the caps are here to stay.

Cultivated meat startups Meatable and Umami Bioworks have joined the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture, expanding its membership to 12.

Precision fermentation egg maker The Every Company has secured a foundational patent in the US for its animal-free ovalbumin protein.

Food advocacy organisation ProVeg International has taken over the Portuguese Vegetarian Association to open an office in Portugal, joining 12 other locations globally.

Cellular Agriculture Australia has released a report calling for clearer, more verifiable impact claims and metrics from companies in the cultivated meat and cellular ag space.

Across the Pacific, New York University hosted the 2024 Plant-Based Food Festival, where it announced that it has signed on to the city’s Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge.

Scientists at the National University of Singapore have found a way to fortify soy whey with Bifidobacteria strain and propionic acid bacteria to increase vitamin B12 levels in plant-based products.

In an advancement for vegan seafood, researchers in China have created plant-based simulated yellow croaker meat tissues by dual-nozzle 3D printing.

Finally, a new docuseries goes behind the scenes of the plant-based culinary scene in Portland, Oregon. The V Word will be released tomorrow, September 26 on streaming network WaterBear, and explores the lifestyle through a cultural lens via the city’s vegan restaurants.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.