Category: Food

Nestlé is exploring technologies that could lead to animal-friendly alternatives that are close to meat in terms of taste, flavour, and texture.

By Agnieszka de Sousa

• Nestlé has been working on alternative meat products that will blend cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients.
• The company has also been expanding its range of milk alternatives, most recently adding a pea-based drink in Europe.
• To complement efforts in plant-based alternatives, the company is exploring technologies that could lead to animal-friendly alternatives that are close to meat in terms of taste, flavour, and texture.

Nestlé is planning to enter the cultured-meat market in a move that could see the world’s largest food company help deliver the nascent technology faster to the mass market.

The Swiss giant has been working on alternative meat products that will blend cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients, according to people familiar with the deliberations, who asked not to be named because the information hasn’t been made public. The meat is being developed with Israeli cell-based startup Future Meat Technologies, the people said.

Rehovot-based Future Meat‘s plant makes cell-based, slaughter-free meat production a reality.

BY NOGA MARTIN

 The world’s first industrial cultured meat facility has opened in the city of Rehovot, home to the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Agriculture, Israeli slaughter-free meat-production startup Future Meat Technologies announced on Wednesday.

With the capability to produce 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of cultured products a day, equivalent to 5,000 hamburgers, this facility makes scalable cell-based meat production a reality.

“This facility opening marks a huge step in Future Meat Technologies’ path to market, serving as a critical enabler to bring our products to shelves by 2022,” said Rom Kshuk, CEO of Future Meat Technologies. “Having a running industrial line accelerates key processes such as regulation and product development.”

By Rachel Moss

Parents could soon have another option when feeding their babies, because the world’s first human ‘breast milk’ has been formulated in a lab.

A female-led start-up, Biomilq, has successfully created milk from human mammary cells (female breast cells). The company says their milk is the closest ever match to the “macronutrient profile” of the real deal, with the same types of proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids and bioactive lipids.

The product does lack the antibodies in breast milk straight from the mother, but the company’s co-founder and chief science officer, Dr Leila Strickland, told Forbes: “Even without antibodies, the nutritional and bioactive composition of our product will be much closer to that of breast milk than to bovine-based infant formula… our product will support immune development, microbiome population, intestinal maturation, and brain development in ways that bovine-based infant formula fundamentally cannot.”

They’ve called their product the “world’s first cell-cultured human milk outside of the breast” and say it will be available to buy within the next three years. 

by ANNA STAROSTINETSKAYA

SINGAPOREANS CAN NOW ORDER KATSU CHICKEN CURRY, CHICKEN & RICE, AND CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD MADE WITH EAT JUST’S INNOVATIVE CELL-BASED CHICKEN THROUGH DELIVERY APP FOODPANDA. 

Today, cell-based (also known as “lab-grown” and “cultured”) meat became available for home delivery for the first time in history thanks to a partnership between California-based startup Eat Just and delivery platform Foodpanda. Customers can now order three dishes made with GOOD Meat chicken (a brand under which Eat Just is innovating its cell-based meats) from Singapore-based restaurant 1880: Chicken & Rice with coconut rice, pak choi, sweet chili, chrysanthemums, and microgreens; Katsu Chicken Curry with jasmine rice, heritage carrots, micro shiso, and edible flowers; and Chicken Caesar Salad with kale, romaine, edible flowers, shaved radish, and plant-based Caesar dressing. 

To further promote the eco-friendly nature of growing meat from cells rather than slaughtering animals for meat en masse, each order—delivered by electric bicycles in 1880’s delivery zone—will come packed in sustainable packaging made with bamboo fiber and resin. Each order will also include a Google Cardboard headset that plays a film about GOOD Meat’s connection to the importance of preserving the planet. 

“Food is at the core of our business, and ensuring that we have a sustainable food ecosystem is an important agenda for us. Foodpanda is thrilled to be the first platform in the world to deliver cultured meat dishes so that customers in Singapore can be the world’s first diners to enjoy them from the comforts of their home,” Jakob Angele, CEO of Foodpanda APAC, said. “Together with Eat Just, we hope to bring this to more markets—not just in Asia but also in every country in the world where Delivery Hero [its parent company and an Eat Just investor] brands operate.”