From 'whole cuts' of seafood from fungi, to plant-based lamb, to highly functional proteins from brewers' spent grains, here's a quick snapshot of some of the alternative protein startups participating in a virtual pitch slam at last week's Good Food Conference, hosted by the Good Food Institute (GFI).
The first to pitch was Anne Palermo, CEO and co-founder at Aqua Cultured Foods, a Chicago-based startup carving out novel territory in the alternative seafood space with a Non-GMO fermentation-based production platform capable of delivering high-protein, nutrient-rich ‘whole cuts’ of fungi-based seafood.
The first products - whole cut calamari and popcorn shrimp – are set to launch on a small scale in the foodservice market in 2022, said Palermo: “Alternative seafood is still considered a nascent industry, there's no major player, and we are going after that refrigerated protein set, because our products are whole grown, whole food ingredients, that are able to withstand temperature and humidity fluctuations with no detriment to quality.
“We are able to retain all the naturally occurring proteins, fibers, and micronutrients that you typically see in whole food ingredients, but what I really want to highlight is the fact that we have vitamin B12 in all of our products and that is something that can be lacking in a plant based diet because it’s typically found from animal sources.”
“Our business model is to go after foodservice first because 70% of all seafood is consumed in restaurants. However, due to the long sales cycles, we are also going to be going after retail branded opportunities simultaneously.”
Next up was Shiva Susarla, CEO at Singapore-based Mycovation, which makes mycelium-based products that partners can use in a variety of products including meat alternatives.
“Our USP is the customization,” said Susarla, who says the company has a mantra called ‘VANS’ (vegan, affordable, nutritious, and sustainable).
“When fermented using different technologies [solid state, liquid state etc], you can get different textures, functionality, nutrition and flavor... So if you want a pink colored mycelial flour with 40% protein and 18% fiber, we identify the right strain and the right substrate.”
Next up was Jack Reid, co-founder and CEO at Unicorn Biotechnologies, which is “developing the next generation of biomanufacturing equipment to become the go-to manufacturing partner for the cellular agriculture industry.”
He added: “Existing biomanufacturing systems are not designed specifically for cellular agriculture processes. They are primarily developed to produce simple cells like bacteria, not complex animal cells, and these repurposed technologies are not able to grow all of the animal cell types we want to use in this industry; it's like trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
“At Unicorn, we’re developing a fit for purpose, fully automated, biomanufacturing system to affordably and rapidly scale cellular agriculture products from the lab to the factory floor. Our patent pending technology combines hardware, software, and analytics to scale out and fully automate proven processes used in the lab to produce animal cells.”
Next was Steve George, CEO and co-founder at Terra Bio, a ‘bio-fractionation’ company which makes proteins and other ingredients from upcycled feedstocks such as brewers’ spent grains.
“So our two lead products are unhydrolyzed spent grain proteins that are perfect for plant based meat replacements, and sugars, which we're positioning as a highly sustainable feedstock for the emerging fermentation industry.”
While others have ventured into this space, notably AB InBev spinoff EverGrain, he said, “Our differentiator is that our protein is unhydrolyzed, so it has the ability to impart texture to whatever food that it's added to.”
Christophe Chantre, co-founder and CEO at Harvard spinoff Boston Meats, meanwhile, is focused on creating appealing ‘whole muscle’ textures in alternative meats.
“We’ve invented highly-scalable technologies that allow us to create true tissue structure and in particular muscle structure… The obvious first application is in cell cultured meat, but as we launched, what was very interesting was that we had all these large food companies asking us if we could apply our technology to plant-based products, which is a huge white space, as there's no plant based chicken breast or steaks on the market today.
“And so we’ve pretty much pivoted to focus on that first. It was definitely a rough start, but we've had a couple breakthroughs more recently, and we're really starting to show that we can get this true texture.”
He added: “We really see ourselves as a platform that can enable [the alternative protein] industry.”
A new player in the burgeoning plant-based meat space founded by former execs at cell-cultured seafood startup Finless Foods, Black Sheep Foods is looking to carve out a distinct position in the market with pea-protein-based lamb burgers and other products utilizing branched chain fatty acids (BCFAs) for flavor.
“Our first product is the world's first plant based lamb," said chief of staff Alice Wistar. "We are the only company with US regulatory approval for the use of BCFAs to make lamb alternatives. We are the only company with a natural supply chain of BCFAs built out, and we are patent-pending on the exclusive use of BCFAs in plant based products.
"We will be launching in just under a month in select restaurants in San Francisco… before gradually ramping up into other restaurants, and eventually into retail.”
CellulaREvolution - a spin-out from Newcastle University in the UK – has developed patent-pending technology designed to facilitate a move from traditional batch culture to a continuous culture system where cells are produced unremittingly, said senior bioprocessing engineer Dr Ajay Tharakan.
For cell-cultured meat, it has two key products:
- A peptide coating that increases cells proliferation in serum-free conditions.
- Bioreactors capable of serum free continuous production of adherent cells.
“Our patent-pending peptide-based coating allows for the continuous detachment of adherent cells. By adopting continuous manufacturing methods for cultured meat, there are very significant cost of goods reductions at scale.”
Singapore-based Umami Meats is focused on bringing down the cost of cell-cultured seafood, said CEO Mihir Pershad: “Without new production methods, we're looking at the collapse of many of our ocean fisheries.
“We see a broad range of applications for our products from high-end sushi and sashimi to fish fillets and even steaks, and then more affordable entry-level products. We’ve developed a novel growth supplement that we can produce for $10 per liter at lab scale today and our commercial costs are less than $1 per liter.
“The goal is to optimize the cell lines alongside the growth serum to develop a leading platform for minimizing the cost of large scale cell culture and to make cell culture and seafood achieve price parity within the next few years.”
Minnesota-based Fybraworks Foods, meanwhile, deploys precision fermentation to produce ‘real’ meat proteins without animals, said president and CEO Dr Chenfeng Lu.
“DNA encoding muscle protein is synthesized in the lab, completely animal free, and put in a microbial host. This meat protein will grow in this fermentation process and be harvested and crosslinked with plant based proteins.”
UK-based Roslin Technologies is making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – primary or mesenchymal stem cells that have been reprogrammed to function as ‘master cells’ that can proliferate indefinitely and differentiate into multiple cells types such as muscle and fat - available to cell-cultured meat producers, said CEO Ernst Van Orsouw.
“We need to bring the costs of [cell-cultured meat] production down and the cells are going to be essential to achieve that.”
Israeli startup Alfred's Food Tech has developed a texturizing technology dubbed ‘Planet tech’ (protein layering and nutrient embedding technology) it claims will enable partners to create unique ‘whole cut’ meat alternatives products, said co-founder and CEO Ronny Reinberg-Moran.
“We are also enablers for the cultured meat industry and new protein companies that can incorporate their innovative materials into our texturization platform. I encourage them to talk to us and try it.”
The last to pitch was Paul Bartels, founder of South African startup Mogale Meat Co, which is building a proprietary 'BioBank' of 500+ cryo-preserved cell samples from free-roaming livestock and wild antelope, and developing a vertically integrated food tech platform to make cell-cultured meat accessible to Africa's rapidly growing population.
Bartels - a wildlife veterinarian with 25+ years' experience in biobanking, cell culture and assisted reproduction technologies - said the firm is looking at making better tasting game meats such as springbok and impala.
If you're interested in meat, dairy, and seafood alternatives, checkout FoodNavigator-USA's FREE 3-part broadcast series on Oct 13, 20, and 27), Disrupting the meat and dairy case: from plant-based bacon to 'real' cheese (minus the cows), featuring a glittering array of speakers from Kroger and Danone, to high-profile startups including NotCo, BioMilk, Change Foods, Atlast Food Co, Nowadays, Nature's Fynd, Good Catch, New Wave Foods, and Aqua Cultured Foods. REGISTER HERE FOR FREE.