EU Regulates Plant-Based Labeling, Plated Lays Off 10% of Corporate Staff + More

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Every week we track the business, tech and investment trends in CPG, retail, restaurants, agriculture, cooking and health, so you don’t have to. Here are some of this week’s top headlines.

The European parliament has proposed a new rule that would ban the use of burger, steak and sausage to refer to plant-based products–instead, being replaced by “veggie discs”. In other plant-based news, Canadian meat producer Maple Leaf Foods is constructing a $310 million processing plant devoted to vegan meat alternatives. The Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel now serves Beyond Burger, Beyond Sausage and Right Treat’s Omnipork.

In retail news, Albertsons-owned Plated has laid of 10% of its corporate staff. A study has found that grocery M&A increased 73% last year. Amazon Go stores will now start accepting cash payments, amid intensifying criticism that the company is discriminating against the unbanked.

And finally, Ripe.io has partnered with FlavorWiki to establish a Blockchain of Taste for producers, retailers and consumers to taste products at different stages of the supply chain.

Check out our weekly round-up of last week’s top food startup, tech and innovation news below or peruse the full newsletter here.

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1. Veggie Discs’ to Replace Veggie Burgers in EU Crackdown on Food Labels – The Guardian

The parliament agriculture committee approved a ban on producers of vegetarian food using nomenclature usually used to describe meat.

2. Albertsons-Owned Plated Lays Off 10% of Corporate Staff – Bloomberg

Plated has laid off about 10% of its New York City staff as it reorganizes its corporate office to cut costs. The job cuts impacted roughly 25 workers.

3. Rethinking Protein

Join us on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 in New York City to hear from Founders and CEOs that are creating sustainable alternatives to protein at our April Food+Tech Meetup, Alternative Protein. We’ll be joined by Courtney Boyd Meyers of AKUA, Gavin McIntyre of Ecovative and Brian Rudolph of Banza.

4. Amazon Exec Tells Employees That Go Stores Will Start Accepting Cash to Address ‘Discrimination’ Concerns – CNBC

Amazon Go stores will start accepting cash, amid intensifying criticism that the company is discriminating against the unbanked.

5. Grocery M&A Increased 73% Last Year, Study Finds – Grocery Dive

There were 527 M&A deals in the food space in 2018, which is an 11% decrease from the record number seen in 2017.

6. Maple Leaf Foods Diving Deeper into Plant-Based Protein with $310M Factory – Financial Post

The Canadian meat producer has announced plans to build a processing plant devoted to vegan meat alternatives.

7. Vegan Food Takes Over Disneyland Hong Kong Hotels – Live Kindly

The Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel has new vegan dishes on the menu. It now serves the vegan Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage as well as Right Treat’s Omnipork.

8. ADM Invests $135M Food Tech Fund – Chicago Business

Cultivan Sandbox, which backs agriculture and foodtech companies, has raised a $135m investment fund. New investors include Growmark, ADM, Ecolab and Griffith Foods.

9. This New Cereal and Beer Share an Ingredient – and It’s Fighting Climate Change – Fast Company

Kernza is a type of wheatgrass that has vast environmental benefits over wheat. Now Cascadian Farm and Patagonia are starting to create a market for it.

10. Restaurant Website Builder BentoBox Raises $16.4M – TechCrunch

The new round was led by Threshold Ventures, with participation from Bullpen Capital, Haystack, Female Founders Fund and restauranteur Will Guidara. The funding will allow the company to start working with larger restaurant chains and build more features.

11. Trump Administration Sued Over Rollback of School Lunch Standards – New York Times

New York, five other states and the District of Columbia have sued the Agriculture Department over illegally issuing rules that weakened Obama-era standards for school meals.

12. A Decade of Pesticides, GMOs, and Alternatives to Chemical-Intensive Farming – Civil Eats

Four experts discuss how the last 10 years have seen an increase in pesticides—and crops bred to resist them—even as consumer concerns have mounted.

13. Women, Women of Color & Gender Non-Conforming Innovator Database

We created this open-source list to increase representation, support and investment in women, women of color & gender-nonconforming innovators in food. Join the list & help us spread the word using #womxninfood

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