The Israeli startup The Mediterranean Food Lab, which has been developing natural plant-based flavor bases for the alternative meat sector, has won an award of €100,000 from the EIT Food Accelerator Network (FAN) Program, according to a statement released by the Technion on Tuesday. The EIT FAN program is held at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food in the Technion, in conjunction with the Strauss Group. EIT Food, a major European food intiative, has been seeking to reshape the foundations of the food industry.

Food scientists for decades have tinkered with plant proteins, starches and oils to make burgers that sizzle, bleed and taste like real beef, without harming a single steer. Then comes the hard part: formulating a name. Last year MorningStar Farms, a division of Kellogg Co., introduced “Incogmeato” and Spam maker Hormel Foods Corp. launched “Happy Little Plants.” A Canadian plant-based retailer calls itself YamChops, San Diego startup Before the Butcher sells the “Uncut” burger and a San Francisco company is called Unicorn Meat.

Scientists say slaughter-free meat has the potential to save the world from another pandemic. But telling people it will reduce animal cruelty and have a positive environmental impact – although true – won’t be enough to convince large numbers of consumers to switch to meat that is grown outside of an animal’s body, said Professor Johannes le Coutre, from the University of New South Wales’ School of Chemical Engineering.

Orbillion Bio is on a mission to bring healthy, sustainable and flavorful meats with a complete farm-to-table story to the modern consumer. The innovative startup is looking to develop premium cell-based meat products from heritage cell lines that are directly sourced from farmers, all to accelerate the broad availability of nutritious cultivated meat products. The company’s first offering? Premium meats from Wagyu, bison, and sheep that are low-fat, low-cholesterol and high-protein.

Supermarkets and fast food outlets are selling chicken fed on imported soya linked to thousands of forest fires and at least 300 sq miles (800 sq km) of tree clearance in the Brazilian Cerrado, a joint cross-border investigation has revealed. Tesco, Lidl, Asda, McDonald’s, Nando’s and other high street retailers all source chicken fed on soya supplied by trading behemoth Cargill, the US’s second largest private company.