Despite some recent industry challenges, thanks in part to a flooded
market,
optimism reigned at Future Food Tech’s recent Alternative
Proteins event — which brought more
than 600 industry players together in New York City to discuss pathways to
scale, price parity, consumer sentiment and more.
In all, the mood was optimistic about alt-protein’s role as a key ingredient in
the much-needed transformation of our global food
systems
— and the planet — for the better. Representatives of 36 countries participated,
including employees from 109 alt-protein startups and 87 food brands. While the
industry still faces growing
pains,
many companies are already overcoming such challenges as scaling up production
and overcoming consumers’ hesitancy to try new products.
Opening keynote speaker Amy
Chen, COO of Upside
Foods, set the tone by recounting the startup’s recent feat
in earning the first-ever USDA approval of a cultivated-meat
product,
for its cell-culture chicken — followed closely by industry peer Good
Meat, a division of the successful plant-based egg
company Eat Just, Inc — which lays the groundwork for the cellular
agriculture
industry
to achieve the scale needed to begin to meaningfully disrupt conventional animal
ag’s global monopoly on the protein market.
Over the two-day conference, attendees sampled some of the world’s newest foods
— everything from cell-cultured meat and
seafood
to protein derived from
algae
and
air,
plant-based
innovations
and
mycelium-based
whole-cut meats and steaks, and the holy grail of the alt-cheese industry: a
plant-based
casein
that replicates the mouthfeel of dairy cheese; listened to 96 speakers — ranging
from inventors to investors — and discussed regulatory frameworks for the
burgeoning industry. Discussions strategized about bringing new products to
market, and reiterated alternative proteins’ potential to create widespread
positive impacts on climate and nature.
On day one, representatives from the Singapore Economic Development
Board hosted a breakfast talk, complete with samples,
to demonstrate how the country is already a global leader in cultivated-meat
production — in 2020, Singapore became the first country to greenlight
cultivated meat and has since become a global hotspot for alt-protein
innovation.
To support the industry at scale, the island nation is now developing advanced
cell media and bioreactors that will help companies meet growing demand, and is
seeking partnerships to bring more products to market.
Among other highlights: Tim
Geistlinger, Chief
Science Officer at Perfect Day, told the audience he
doesn’t see any slowdown on acceptance and enthusiasm for the company’s
animal-free (yet genetically identical) dairy
products.
And Michael Leonard, CEO of Motif
Foodworks, explained that his company has been
building the very building blocks of food that consumers crave — with
breakthrough
ingredients
including Hemami, which provides umami flavor to plant-based meats; and
Appetex, a plant-based texture ingredient that replicates the mouth-feel and
chewiness of meat.
NotCo founder and CEO Matias
Muchnick suggested alt protein would
eventually go beyond simply mimicking animal products and begin to deliver
“exceptional experiences” with entirely new food options that “expand the
palate.”
That’s something Micael
Simonsson, Tetra
Pak’s director of processing development and
biotech, is looking for as his company seeks to partner with startups to help
scale. Currently developing partnerships with a number of alt-protein
developers, Simonsson said the packaging giant hopes to play the role of enabler
with its deep expertise in building and scaling food-plant operations for new
food companies, alongside its traditional expertise in sustainable packaging.
One company that seems poised to make headlines in the industry is
BlueNalu. Its cell-cultured bluefin tuna product
could meaningfully offset demand for the endangered
fish
and give “the ocean time to rest” — the company is part of a booming
cultivated-seafood
industry
that could offer a solution to overfishing and supply chain volatility, as well
as consumer health concerns about mercury and microplastics in their seafood.
With a similar ray of hope for steak lovers, Berkeley, Calif.-based startup
Ohayo Valley held an exclusive Taste Lab where
delegates could taste its highly anticipated WagyuMe
burger
— a blend of plant-based proteins and fat mixed with cultivated wagyu cells.
Another potentially game-changing innovator — Air
Protein CEO Lisa
Dyson, whose company literally makes
protein from
air
and the yeasts and other elements it contains — said her goal is to not only
have a product that consumers love; but to create inputs that help large
companies solve questions of sustainable, healthy food at an industrial scale.
As ever-increasing consumer awareness of the environmental pitfalls of many
conventional proteins continues to feed demand for sustainable
alternatives
— and innovators continue to
innovate,
and investors continue to
invest
— the future looks bright for the alt-protein industry.
As Julian Melchiorri, founder
and CEO of Arborea, summed it up: “Sustainability, cost
and quality are the three main pillars that allow scalability to have a powerful
impact. And once those pillars are in place, there’s little doubt that a more
sustainable dinner — and lunch, and breakfast, and snack — will be served.”
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Jeremy Osborn is a NYC-based entrepreneur and and senior consultant with a background in marketing and communications, tech, strategy, governance, and sustainability. He holds an MA in Resources, Environment, and Sustainability from the University of British Columbia and has worked for leading brands in a wide range of industries and sectors — including food and ag, consumer goods, built environment, industrial manufacturing, energy, finance, transportation, and more.
Published Jul 21, 2023 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST