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News from
the frontier
April 2022
Dear friends,
Australian alternative proteins companies made waves in March, with a number of exciting achievements and launches from Magic Valley, Cauldron, Eighth Day Foods and Vow grabbing headlines locally and abroad.
In APAC we saw increased support for the potential of the cultivated meat industry, with announcements of new facilities and consortia across South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.
Read on for more in alternative proteins below.
Food Frontier updates
Food Frontier was lucky enough to be amongst a small group to try cultivated pork - an Australian-first. After tasting the cultivated pork wonton from Magic Valley, Head of Industry Engagement Susie O’Neill was enthusiastic about its potential: “With a taste profile and utility exactly the same as conventional minced pork, I can see cultivated pork becoming a key part of the protein diversification we will require to help feed our growing global population.”
Food Frontier hosted our biannual industry roundtable today in Sydney, with a focus on foodservice. Attendees heard new research on chef and diner attitudes to plant-based meat, an overview on the state of the foodservice industry, about Compass Group's plant-forward strategy; followed by a delicious lunch! Thank you to our partners and presenters from Compass Group Australia, Australian Foodservice Advocacy Body, Food Industry Foresight and Griffith University.
We are pleased to announce that author, broadcaster and last year’s fabulous conference MC, Alice Zaslavsky, will again be joining us to host this year’s AltProteins 23 conference.
Early bird tickets are almost sold out - secure your ticket for the region’s premier alternative proteins event today!
Food Frontier founder Thomas King had a busy month of media appearances! Thomas spoke to the future of alternative proteins in Body and Soul, spoke to the presence of vitamin B in Impossible Nuggets in Sydney Morning Herald, and was interviewed by ABC Victoria’s Country Hour whilst visiting Horsham to meet with local pulse growers and processors.
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Thomas King shared insights on his recent visit to the US and Europe, where he connected with leaders in the alternative proteins space, visited production facilities and tried some of the latest product innovations.
Developments down under
Cultivated meat start-up Magic Valley unveiled its latest product, cultivated pork, at a tasting in Melbourne which Food Frontier attended. Magic Valley is seeking to raise $5M to scale production and submit an application for regulatory approval.
Precision fermentation start-up Cauldron, based in Orange NSW, has announced a $10.5M raise and plans to build fermentation facilities across regional Australia. The raise is of the largest seed rounds landed by a female-founded and led business in Australia.
Eighth Day Foods has placed runner up in the inaugural Scale It Up competition in Singapore, with its fermented lupin protein Lupreme. The company now receives further use of the state-of-the-art Protein Innovation Centre in Singapore supported by Bühler, Cargill, and Givaudan.
- Attracting global media attention, cultivated meat start-up Vow has created a meatball using extinct woolly mammoth cells, as part of a project to highlight the link between industrial livestock production and the destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis.
Meet Co has launched its newest product, plant-based bacon bits, which are debuting in HelloFresh meal kits this month.
Eden Brew’s partnership with dairy co-operative Norco will see an animal-free ice cream launched as early as March 2024, with commercial scale batch runs planned for this year.
A new report commissioned by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has found that the nation’s market for pea protein will grow 10 fold in the coming decade, with plant-based meat alternatives and export opportunities listed as key drivers.
Global developments
GOOD Meat, the cultivated meat division of Eat JUST, has received a 'no questions' letter from the US Food and Drug Administration, accepting Eat JUST’s conclusion that its cultivated chicken is safe to eat.
Following on from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s announcement of plans to support and develop a Japanese cultivated meat industry, Japanese academic and corporate partners have formed the new Consortium for Future Innovation by Cultured Meat to accelerate the cultivated meat industry in Japan.
South Korea's first Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Centre has opened in North Gyeongsang, with local cultivated meat company TissenBioFarm unveiling a 10kg cultivated meat prototype at the launch event.
Malaysian company Cell AgriTech announced it will build Malaysia’s first cultivated meat facility, planning to be operational by the end of 2024.
UK plant-based meat company This raised £15m in a series B, to help the company maintain its rapid growth and enter new markets across the EU.
Impossible Foods has launched its plant-based Impossible Beef Lite, which the company said has a more favourable nutritional profile than 90/10 mince beef, in stores across the US.
Who's hiring?
The employment opportunities continue to grow in the alternative proteins sector across Australia and New Zealand - check out the roles from:
Please share with your networks in case you know anyone suitable for these roles.
Why alternative proteins?
A new life-cycle assessment of projected cultivated meat production has found that on average, cultivated meat is nearly three times more efficient at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock animal, chicken, and six to 13 times more efficient than beef cattle. The study also found that cultivated meat produces seven times fewer carbon emissions than beef, and half of those of pork production.
In addition, the study found that cultivated meat uses significantly less land and water than all forms of conventional animal production. The researchers noted the importance of decarbonising energy systems to power the production of cultivated meat and suggest leveraging supply chain collaborations to ensure sustainable feedstocks are utilised.
This is the first life-cycle assessment to use primary data from multiple cultivated meat companies and from associated companies in the cultivated meat supply chain, cross-checked by independent experts.
Want to discover more of the latest on alternative proteins? Visit our News page and follow us on LinkedIn
– The Food Frontier Team
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