Source: Future Meat Technologies

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 world’s largest food company, Nestle, has partnered with Future Meat Technologies to develop alternative meat products that combine plant-based and cell-cultured meat. Meanwhile, Israeli company MeaTech 3D is developing kosher lab-grown pork and the EU plans on phasing out factory farm cages by 2027.

In other news, Thrive Market is exploring a $2 billion IPO and Zomato’s IPO opened this week with a $1.2 billion offering.

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

1. Nestle Eyes Lab-Grown Meat Market to Tap Future Growth – Bloomberg

The Swiss giant has been working on alternative meat products that would blend cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients in partnership with Future Meat Technologies.

2. Thrive Market Is Considering an IPO at $2B+ Value – Bloomberg

The pipeline for direct-to-consumer listings is building as many of these companies benefited from increased demand during the pandemic.

3. EU to Phase Out Factory Farm Cages for 300M Animals by 2027 – Green Queen

The ban will be introduced by the end of 2023 in an effort to phase out all cages for animal species including hens, mother pigs, calves, rabbits, ducks, and geese by 2027.

4. Kosher Lab-Grown Pork from Israel’s Growing Cultured Meat Sector – The Jerusalem Post

There is a breadth of opinions in the Orthodox community over whether cell-cultured pork can be considered meat in the halachic sense.

5. Zomato IPO: India Food Delivery ‘Unicorn’ Opens $1.2B Offering – BBC

It raised $562.3m from institutional investors, as they bid for 35 times more shares than allotted to them ahead of the much-anticipated offering. Analysts are wary of the loss-making company’s high valuation.

6. Kurly, the Korean Grocery Startup, Raises $200M on a $2.2B Valuation After Shifting IPO Plans Away from the NYSE – TechCrunch

Kurly had been planning an IPO in the US later this year; instead it announced this week that it would instead seek to list in its home market instead.

7. Panda Express Adds Beyond Meat Orange Chicken to Its Menu in Select Restaurants – CNBC

Panda Express will be the first Asian concept restaurant to serve Beyond Meat on its menu.

8. England to Slash Meat Intake by 30% Under New Food Strategy – Green Queen

England’s latest National Food Strategy advises the public to reduce meat consumption by 30% within 10 years.

9. Instacart Taps Facebook Executive As CEO, Names Founder Apoorva Mehta to Executive Chairman – Forbes

Apoorva Mehta, the billionaire founder of grocery delivery app Instacart, is stepping into an executive chairman role while the head of the Facebook App, Fidji Simo, will become Instacart’s CEO.

10. Undocumented Farmworkers Push Congress for Protections Amid Historic Heat – ABC

Advocates say legal status is needed to fight for basic worker protections.

11. Biden Commits $655M and New Regulations to Strengthen Meat Industry Competition – Food Dive

The funds will be directed to support new and small businesses in the processing sector. USDA also will reinvigorate the Packers and Stockyards Act and crack down on false country-of-origin labeling.

12. Gopuff Is Hiring Over 100 Employees to Back Ghost Kitchens Operation – Grocery Dive

Job listings, which include line cooks, kitchen leads and district managers across at least six states, indicate the company is preparing to deliver fresh-made foods.

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