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FoodTech Weekly #178 by Daniel S. Ruben
News on FoodTech, food, and society
Daniel S. Ruben
December 22, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
FoodTech Weekly #178
Hi there,
That’s a wrap, 2023. Thanks again to all of you who follow along for the ride — I appreciate you. FoodTech Weekly will be back in your inboxes Jan 12 (or if I’m really bored, Jan 5).
I wish you a relaxing holiday season.
Gif by greetings on Giphy
This week's rundown:
NewLeaf scores $45M to help with plant nutrient uptake
Antibiotic sales in livestock up in U.S., down in E.U.
U.S. agencies launch strategy to cut food waste with 50% by 2050
Let's go!
Conversations
Had the chance to chat with Yael Alter, CEO of SuperFruiter. After business school, Yael found herself managing agricultural companies — she was CFO of the biggest potato company in Israel, ran an ostrich farm, worked with feed mill companies, and was Co-Founder and CEO of SooS Technology, which can turn genetic male embryos into females (to avoid male chick culling). She was then headhunted as CEO to commercialize SuperFruiter, a JV by COPIA VC, (research entity) the Volcani Center, and (seed company) BreedX.
What problem is SuperFruiter solving? Melons are too big. It’s bad for consumers and for farmers. ‘On the consumer side, people want convenience and new taste experiences. They are prepared to pay for it, like we’ve seen with cherry tomatoes. But melons are often 2 kg (4.5 lbs) big, so it’s not really a portable snack, and the large size results in food waste’, Yael says and continues:
‘On the farmer side, growers want to become more efficient. Melons are however grown directly on the ground, and this takes a lot of space. SuperFruiter allows farmers to grow 20 smaller fruits per plant instead of 1-2, and they can grow the melons vertically. So — less space, less fertilization, you can grow the fruit year round in greenhouses and get consistent quality.’
Dr. Yaakov Tadmor discovered the (now patented) ‘SuperFruiter’ gene 8 years ago. There’s no GM or CRISPR involved, it’s conventional plant breeding. SuperFruiter grows e.g. a 600 gram Piel De Sapo (vs. the conventional 2-2.5 kg size) and a 700 gram Yellow Canary (vs. the conventional 1.5-2 kg size), which will go on the market in 2024.
The company is working on a cherry melon, in two versions: One will be the size of an apple, ready-to-eat, with a sweet taste and launched in 2025. The other version will be a 50-70 gram cherry melon. SuperFruiter is looking into miniaturizing many things from the cucurbitaceae (the gourd family of flowering plants), from watermelons to pumpkins.
Says Yael: ‘Consumers want convenience and to eat healthy, but it takes a big effort. We’ll make it easy for people to substitute snacks, chips, and chocolate bars, and eat something sweet, tasty, and good-for-you instead. And we’ll make life for growers more profitable and efficient too. We think what we do will be a $100M market in five years’.
SuperFruiter currently has 5 full-time employees, plus staff support from BreedX and Volcani (a prestigious academic research institute in Israel that works on complex ag challenges).
The company is raising a Seed round, so it’s open to connecting with relevant investors. SuperFruiter is also eager to connect with big grower cooperatives and food retailers, globally. Yael can be reached via email ([email protected]) and LinkedIn.
Yael Alter / SuperFruiter
Noteworthy
U.S. ag biotech startup NewLeaf Symbiotics has bagged a $45M Series D round, led by Gullspång Re:food and joined by e.g. Otter Capital Partners, S2G Ventures, and Leaps by Bayer. The company is developing microbial ‘amendments’ that can naturally boost plants’ nutrient uptake and ability to fight environmental stressors.
Clove of Australia has scooped up $4.15M in funding from e.g. Blackbird Ventures and SHAKTI for an AI-powered personalized recipe platform for home cooks (the app has not yet launched).
France-based Dionymer has raked in €1.5M (appr. $1.65M) to upcycle organic waste into biodegradable polymers (h/t DigitalFoodLab).
Cascara Foods of Chile has been splashed with $415K through equity crowdfunding on platform Broota, to combat food waste by turning e.g. pulps, peels, and ugly vegetables into snacks and supplements.
Antibiotic sales for use in livestock in the U.S. increased 12% from 2017 to 2022, the FDA says. Meanwhile in the E.U., antibiotic sales for use in livestock fell more than half from 2011 to 2022, and antimicrobial use in animals has reached the lowest level ever, reports the EMA (European Medicine Agency). In 2019, antibiotic-resistant bacteria directly killed 1.2M+ people worldwide.
Source: Vox
Biotech startup Clean Food Group of London, U.K. has received a £1M (appr. $1.3M) grant provided by Innovate UK. The company, which develops sustainable, functional microbial oils that can substitute traditional oil and fat ingredients such as palm oil, raised £2.3M (appr. $2.9M) in funding from e.g. Doehler Group and Agronomics earlier this year.
French political party Les Républicains) has introduced a bill in the National Assembly that, if passed, would prohibit the production and marketing of cultivated meat in France. The bill says cultivated meat is junk food and threatens livestock farming. A similar law was recently adopted in Italy.
The EU has announced a €50M (appr. $55M) funding package for startups working with precision fermentation, Green Queen reports.
Spore.Bio, which has developed a device that can identify bacteria within minutes in food, drink, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products, has clinched €8M (appr. $8.8M) in a pre-seed round led by LocalGlobe and joined by EmergingTech Ventures, No Label Ventures, Famille C, Better Angle, and angel investors (h/t: FoodHack).
Three U.S. agencies — the FDA, USDA, and EPA — have launched a strategy to cut food loss and waste in the U.S. with 50% by 2050.
Raising the standard temperature of most frozen food by just 3 degrees centigrade (from -18C to -15C) in transportation and storage could cut 17.7M tons of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent of taking almost 4M cars oof the road (h/t AGFO).
Spanish alt protein startup Libre Foods, which has launched e.g. a mushroom-based bacon, has been awarded a €335K (appr. $369K) public R&D grant from Neotec to develop low-cost mycelium ingredients for meat alternatives.
North Carolina-based cultivated seafood startup Atlantic Fish Co. has secured a $100K loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Colombia passed a law to tax ‘ultra-processed foods’ in an effort to curb diet-related disease and associated costs (h/t Marie Dollé).
How can we bring down emissions from international ships that transport food around the world? Some people believe we should bring back sails.
Image: BAR Technologies / WindWings
News from the FoodTech Weekly community
NitroCapt (Sweden) is hiring a CFO… Oshi (Israel) is recruiting a Supply Chain Manager… Nium (U.K.) is looking for a Lead Process Engineer… Essential (Kenya) has an opening for a Maintenance Manager… Aqua Cultured Foods (U.S.) is on the hunt for a Senior Food Scientist… Regenerative Food Systems Investment (U.S./remote) wants to find a Relationship Manager & Sales Lead.
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Random Stuff
Turkey’s central bank governor Hafize Gaye Erkan says she has moved in with her parents, as the country’s high inflation is driving up rents in Istanbul.
New research from MIT hypothesizes that the rise of tea consumption in 18th century England increased the consumption of boiled water, thus reducing mortality rates.
The six risks of alt protein companies, by Good Signal.
How to hijack $250K worth of rare Japanese KitKats.
To get people to eat-more plant-based foods, don’t call it vegan.
I love you.
Daniel
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This issue was produced while listening to Wish on an Eyelash, Pt. 2 by Mallrat and The Chainsmokers. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Did your brilliant friend forward this to you? Subscribe here.