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- FoodTech Weekly #146 by Daniel S. Ruben
FoodTech Weekly #146 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
May 05, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #146
Hi there,
I'll spend the second half of next week in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the HackSummit. It's going to be a ton of fun meeting new and old friends in the FoodTech and ClimateTech communities, learning new things, and trying out some of the latest innovations in food. Still undecided? Use the code COLLEAGUE20 for a 20% ticket discount.
FoodHack Summit 2022
I find stories on unintended consequences fascinating, especially as it comes to food/ag. So here's a new gem:
Sesame is the ninth most common food allergy in the U.S; earlier this year, a new labeling requirement took effect which forced the food industry to disclose on the packaging whether the product contained (even traces of) sesame. Since many food companies say that they cannot clean their equipment to guarantee it's free of sesame — and federal labeling rules prohibit them from stating that their products contain sesame unless the items actually contain it — they've instead opted to add small amounts of sesame flour to many of their products to comply. Thus, an entire industry has chosen to intentionally add a food allergen, meaning that 1M+ Americans allergic to sesame now have fewer safe food options — the exact opposite of what lawmakers were going for. More on this story in WaPo.
Mcneda, CC BY-SA 4.0 / WikiMedia
This week's rundown:
Chunk Foods fetches $15M to e.g. build factory producing 'millions' of plant-based steaks
Norfolk Healthy Produce plans U.S. launch of gene-edited tomatoes high in antioxidants
It's Fresh of the U.K. rakes in £6.7M for tech to cut food waste in fruits and vegetables
Let's go!
Conversations
More convos with entrepreneurs coming up soon!
Noteworthy
Norwegian AgTech startup Farmforce has scooped up 29.5M NOK (appr. $2.7M). The platform is used by 900K+ farmers in 30+ countries to help them digitize, and help multinationals better understand their global supply chain.
Bucharest, Romania FoodTech startup bonapp.eco has received a €600K pre-seed extension round via SeedBlink. Similar to e.g. To Good To Go and Karma, the company connects users with local food retailers, allowing consumers to purchase food that is approaching its expiration date, at a 50% to 80% discount.
Revyve of Wageningen, the Netherlands has bagged a €8M Series A round, backed by e.g. Cosun Protein and Oost NL. The company upcycles fibers and proteins from brewer's yeast, which can then become ingredients to replace animal proteins like egg white as well as E numbers like methylcellulose, and be used in e.g. pasta, sauces, and bakery products.
Washington State University has used gene-editing tool CRISPR to produce pig meat that may allow for higher-quality meat and improved 'resilience of livestock in the face of changing environmental conditions.'
Israel-based Chunk Foods has grabbed $15M in funding, in the biggest-ever seed round in the Israeli FoodTech space. The round was led by Fall Line Capital, and joined by MIT E14 Fund, and FootPrint Coalition Ventures. Chunk Foods uses fermentation with food-grade microorganisms to turn soy and wheat into whole-cut vegan steak. The company is building a factory in Israel which will be able to produce 'millions' of steaks every year.
Chunk Foods
Cultivated meat startup Joe's Future Food Technology Co of China says it has secured 'tens of millions' of RMB (appr. several million US dollars) in Series A+ funding from Qiming Venture Partners. This follows about $14M funding raised in 2021. Here's more on what to expect for FoodTech funding in China in 2023.
U.K. startup It's Fresh has banked a £6.7M round led by VC firm BGF and joined by Zintinus and Praesidium. By using ethylene control filters, It's Fresh can keep fruits and vegetables fresh longer, thus cutting food waste.
Israeli precision fermentation company Remilk has, as the first cell ag food company in the country, received regulatory approval in Israel to launch its products there, following a review by the Israeli Ministry of Health.
U.S. / U.K. company Norfolk Healthy Produce is planning a limited-scale launch of purple tomatoes this year in the U.S, pending regulatory FDA approval. The tomatoes have been genetically engineered to contain high levels of antioxidants, and a longer shelf life.
Image course: Norfolk Healthy Produce
iFarm will build the world's largest vertical farm in Mexico, in collaboration with Opus 2G Group. The farm will have a cultivation area of 38,000 sq. m (appr. 400K sq. ft), and grow 35 types of leafy greens and microgreens.
What's next for plant-based seafood? Quick, interesting read.
The Spoon has some nice visuals on U.S. food waste data (as presented by ReFED).
Solinftec is launching an autonomous solar-powered robot called Solix Hunter that will 'hunt' insects in crops using specific frequency in light (as nocturnal insects are often attracted to light sources emitting UV radiation). The robot will 'lure, detect, and eradicate' insects without using pesticides, 24 hours a day.
Image: Solinftec
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
The Rockefeller Foundation (U.S.) is hiring a Managing Director, Food is Medicine... World Economic Forum (Geneva) is recruiting a Innovation Specialist, Food and Water, and a Senior Consultant, Food Innovation Hub (location: UAE)... Planet A Foods is looking for a Head of Sales... Nutropy (France) has a number of open roles both on the business side and ingredient side... Essential (Kenya) wants to bring on a Managing Director, as well as a Fungal Fermentation Specialist... GFI Europe is looking for a Head of Operations... Kanpla (Denmark) is hiring a Product Manager.
Blake Byrne wrote an article in TechCrunch (paywalled, but available for free on Medium) on what's needed for precision fermentation to be economically competitive for egg and dairy proteins (hint: It'll take more than just scaling and building factories).
U.S. automated freight forwarding platform Transship has launched a new platform which they believe will help cut prices and make the entire shipping experience faster, more efficient, and data-driven; with added sensors in reefers (refrigerated containers), Transship will also help cut food waste of perishable goods like meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.
Want to share some FoodTech news/project with other FoodTech Weekly subscribers? Hit reply.
Random Stuff
Blackpool Zoo in Lancashire is hiring people to dress as birds of prey, to scare away food-stealing seagulls. The job comes with an inflatable bird costume.
Thinking about working at an early-stage venture-backed startup? You probably shouldn't pursue that, Evan Armstrong argues.
An increasing number of U.S. restaurants offer separate menus for dogs, where the four-legged friends can get e.g. a bowl of Dög Pawrignon made with wild-caught salmon-oil.
Watching these little robots get pushed around makes me feel sorry for them (it's part of training them, but still):
The academic cheating industry has started to suffer from ChatGPT, as an increasing number of e.g. U.S. students have used ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to write or outline an essay.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. And here's the Appetizer which I co-host. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.