Does Meatless Farm’s decision to send employees home for good suggest a particularly challenging period for the plant-based meat sector? Are industry experts hopeful for the future of meat alternatives in the UK and further afield?
Soy is one of the main drivers of deforestation around the world. Forests are cut down every day to make way for the growth of soy crops. However, most of this soy, in fact almost 80%, is grown to feed not humans, but animals.
In the highly competitive, complex landscape manufacturers are now in, product acceptance is more than ever about the emotions a product generates, FoodNavigator hears.
French ingredients company Roquette has opened up a new food innovation centre, focusing on developing a wide range of foods with a small number of ingredients, prominently pea protein, wheat protein, polyols, soluble fibres and starches. FoodNavigator...
Uncommon, formerly called Higher Steaks, leverages RNA, the molecule that contains the chemical instructions that direct cells’ natural machinery into making a protein, to create cultivated bacon and pork belly from animal cells.
The cell bank initiative is being spearheaded by Extracellular, a CDMO concerned that cultivated meat research is being impeded by costly animal primary cells.
A major new innovation project led by the University of Copenhagen will convert nutrients and CO2 from shrimp and fish farming into seaweed for the food sector.
Some products, such as croissants, need a bit of butter to get their unique texture. Israeli startup Gaven Technologies hopes to provide a vegan replacement of butter and other animal fats in bakery products, with its new plant-based fat FaTRIX.
Mycoprotein and fungal proteins take up less land than animal farming, and can be used to aid in regenerative agriculture, explains mycoprotein major Quorn - perhaps the best-known manufacturer of mycoprotein-based meat substitutes.
Plant-based milk is one of the most successful categories of alternative protein, predicted to reach a value of $47 Billion by 2030. But why is it so successful? The driving force behind any alternative protein’s success is the motives people have for...
A new alternative protein made from brewer’s spent yeast has scaled up and will now transition to full production. The protein, which is made by the EGGcited consortium and coordinated by NIZO, can act as a substitute for egg and dairy, and can replace...
The company says its plant-based butter is already as good as its conventional counterpart, and plans to close any taste and texture gaps in dairy-free creams and cheeses within the next three years.
A ‘ground-breaking’ £1 million project has been announced in the UK, which aims to both produce peas that are tasteless but retain nutritional value and have a significant impact on reducing the need for UK imports of soya.
Traditionally, eating meat has been considered a cornerstone of masculinity, especially for professional male athletes. A recent small study, however, suggests that attitudes towards plant-based diets are changing among athletes.
In working to improve the taste of plant-based seafood alternatives, Dutch start-up Upstream Foods is cultivating fat from salmon cells for the B2B market.
As ProVeg International, a group wanting to replace animal consumption with alternative protein by 50% by 2040, opens an office in Nigeria – where most people already follow a plant rich diet, and where greenhouse gas emissions are low compared to developed...
Research suggests when it comes to buying sustainable products, an ‘intention-action gap’ exists amongst consumers. Which ‘nudging’ approaches can brands and retailers take to encourage more sustainable consumption?
Henry Dimbleby is bleak in his stinging assessment of the food system’s current ills, namely diet-related disease and environmental destruction, which are damaging both our dietary and planet’s health. But we can look to the past for solutions, he says,...
With the global dairy alternatives market projected to reach over $61bn by 2029, what started as a niche offering is now commonplace in household fridges. Innovators are leaning into new product formats and category expansion to grow alt dairy, so what’s...
In the food industry’s search for alternative protein sources, upcycled ingredients are becoming more useful and more popular. But it is often with difficulty that they are developed – upcycling products into edible and palatable foods often requires...
Edible insects have many benefits. They are a good source of alternative protein, a rival to plant-based meat; they are often considered more sustainable than conventional meat; some insects are even higher in protein than beef. However, many consumers...
Consumer turnover of Parmigiano Reggiano recently hit an all-time high of €2.9bn. What is it about this famed cheese that makes it unique? And as a premium product, what systems do producers put in place to protect against potential food fraud? FoodNavigator...
What’s the latest in alternative meat and dairy innovation? Join our expert speakers – including Nestlé, Oatly, Redefine Meat, Those Vegan Cowboys and more – at Protein Vision 2023 to find out.
Research suggests Europeans are ‘highly motivated’ to buy sustainable food. How can brands best communicate their sustainability credentials to consumers? And amid a cost-of-living crisis, are shoppers willing to pay for it?
Libre Foods is working with both fungi fruiting bodies and mycelia to boost diversity, functionality, and taste in meat-free offerings, CEO Alan Iván Ramos tells FoodNavigator.
The taste, appearance, and nutritional profile of plant-based meat analogues can be improved by a single ingredient, according to Belgian start-up Paleo: myoglobin. We catch up with co-founder and CEO Hermes Sanctorum to ask about this novel, animal-free...
From hot-chocolate beads to oven-ready Italian food, from sugar-free plant-based milk to premium tiramisu, our latest NPD covers some of the most interesting products of the past week.
Start-ups in Europe with a bent towards finding solutions that promise to reduce the environmental footprint of the food system are resisting the rise of investor retrenchment globally, a new report claims.
Fresh research out of the University of California, Davis suggests the global warming potential of cultured meat could be between 4-25 times higher than regular beef if a highly refined growth medium is used in its production.
Rapeseed is very high in protein. The rapeseed cake, which is left over after the oil is extracted, contains a significant amount of the crucial nutrient. However, because of glucosinolate defence compounds that reduce its nutritional value, there are...
The Dutch food tech pioneer is working with regulators to bring cultivated meat to Europe. But in the meantime, Meatable is focused on Singapore, where a regulatory exemption was recently achieved to hold the ‘first of many’ tastings.
Farmless claims to be making 'carbon negative' protein. The Dutch start-up has developed the means to make this protein using between 10 and 25 times less agricultural land than your average plant-based protein, and between 250 and 500 times...
The collagen trend has been building over the last few years and Romain Quillot, co-founder of functional collagen food and drink brand Humble+, expects it to continue. We ask about the challenges of incorporating collagen into products, the functional...
Researchers have developed a method to produce a microalga strain containing two amino acids rarely found in such high levels in animal-free protein: cystine and methionine.
The taste and texture of meat and dairy analogues have come a long way. But according to alternative protein experts, ‘there is still room for improvement’. How will the next generation of innovators win over consumers, and what hurdles will they need...
Using Mediterranean almonds predominantly grown with rainwater, rather than their ‘intensively produced’ Californian counterparts, Italian start-up Dreamfarm is development plant-based alternatives to mozzarella and spreadable cheese.
Just short of 18 months after the beverage-to-snacks giant launched its pep+ strategy, we check in to ask what nutritional progress has been made – and what is still left to do – for PepsiCo to meet its end-to-end objectives.
It’s time plant-based manufacturers stop talking about the healthy nutrients that plants don’t have and focus on those they do have, says influential Wageningen food scientist Atze Jan van der Goot.
The recent Plant-Based Protein Manufacturing Summit in Amsterdam brought together leading businesses in the plant-based food and beverage industry with co-manufacturers, innovative equipment and solution providers to explore the challenges and opportunities...
The plant-based sector remains an enormous long-term growth opportunity, though investor retrenchment will continue in the short term, investors told the recent Plant-Based Protein Manufacturing Summit in Amsterdam.
Plant-based company Heura, known for its meatless chorizo sausages, chorizo burgers, and chicken, has unveiled new technology to create high-protein plant-based meat, free of e-numbers.
Last year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sent seeds into space. The seeds have now returned and the organisations will begin new efforts to develop resilient crops that...
Swapping out meat with plant-based alternatives is likely to benefit cholesterol levels, and over a two-year period, could reduce the risk of developing heart disease by a quarter, say researchers.
