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The Platform For GOOD FOOD INNOVATION
13 Jun 2022
Image: Benson Hill
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.
Some reckon a major food tech shakeout has begun as delivery services and alternative proteins “fall out of favor” with consumers bogged down by inflation. Even so, food innovators like Benson Hill (pictured above) continue to explore new ways of developing proteins for our plates.
In the restaurant world this week, the James Beard Foundation announced its Media Award winners for 2022, a list that includes journalists, TV broadcasters, and social media wizards. Along those lines, Food & Wine named its top Game Changers for the year. Congratulations to all the honorees.
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1. The Foodtech Shakeout Has Arrived – Axios
Delivery services and alternative meat brands are “falling out of favor” as inflation squeezes the pocketbooks of many consumers.
2. Better Beans May Hold the Key to Tastier Alt-Protein – Wired
Companies like Benson Hill in St. Louis are using genomics to create high-protein peas and soybeans. Their efforts could drastically improve the taste of plant-based meat and milk alternatives.
3. Cereal Brand Magic Spoon Scoops Up $85m, Heads to Target – TechCrunch
The cereal made with “better-for-you” ingredients and zero added sugar is now available at 1,300 Target stores in the US. New capital will go towards additional retail efforts in the future.
4. Why Accountability Must Be the Next Big Meat Industry Trend – Forbes
A new U.S. House subcommittee report hones in on concerns around worker safety in the meat-packing industry, and explains why why stricter oversight and regulations are so necessary for the meat processing sector.
5. Here Are the 2022 James Beard Foundation Media Award Winners – Eater
Cookbook author Kristina Cho, Tammie Teclemariam of New York Magazine, and Alexis Nikole Nelson aka @BlackForager took home awards doled out by the foundation after a two-year hiatus.
6. Meet the Food & Wine Game Changes of 2022 – Food & Wine
This year’s 16 Game Changers come from all corners of the hospitality world and range from the newly minted to those who have worked in food systems, restaurants, food media, and other areas for decades. They are all dedicated to making the world a more inclusive, sustainable, and delicious place.
8. Export Bans in Asia Prompt ‘Fears of More Protectionism’ – NY Times
Export bans like recent ones from India, Malaysia, and Indonesia can help reduce the domestic price of commodities. But these bans also have downsides.
9. Why a Fast Food Worker Is Striking for Industry Reform – Civil Eats
A longtime Jack in the Box employee joins other workers to support the FAST Recovery Act, which they hope will give them a voice and force corporations to maintain safer, healthier workplaces.
10. HSA is Skirting the Russian Black Sea Blockade To Feed The World’s Hungriest – Forbes
Agribusiness conglomerate HSA Group is war-ravaged Yemen’s largest grain importer. In the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the company is now scrambling to source enough grain from new trade routes.
11. IntegriCulture Expands Its Cell-Based Egg Protein Into Skincare – Green Queen
Japanese skincare brand Essencebase is using IntegriCulture’s cell-based egg ingredient, Cellament, in a new line called L’Oeuf. Integriculture says the products unleash the previously untapped powers of egg when it comes to non-food applications.
12. SuperMeat Gets Grant to Open-Source Cultivated Meat – NoCamels
The Israeli Innovation Authority’s grant will enable SuperMeat to set up what it says is the world’s largest open high-throughput screening system for cultivated meat ingredients, supplements, and cell scaffolds. SuperMeat suggests this will benefit the entire cultivated meat industry.
13. Cirkul Announces $70m Fundraise – Bloomberg
The beverage platform is best known for its reusable water bottles with flavor cartridges. The Series C round will support Cirkul’s recent launch at Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond as well as additional expansion.
14. SCiFi Foods Emerges From Stealth, Bags $22m – Food Navigator
Formerly known as Artemys Foods, the newly rebranded SCiFi is tackling the elusive beef burger as its first cultivated meat product. The Andreessen Horowitz-led Series A round will go towards R&D efforts.
