Companies like Perfect Day, Impossible Foods, and a host of other startups that are developing replacements for animal farmed goods used in food, clothes, cosmetics, and chemicals have raised a whopping $1.5 billion through the first half of the year.
Dairy
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Maker of #1 selling plant-based cheese item in the US rolls out new slice flavors, plus all-new cheese blocks and shreds, available now at more than 1,000 Walmart locations. Greenleaf Foods, SPC, owner of leading plant-based brand Field Roast, announced today that its Chao Creamery dairy-free cheese line is expanding. In addition to new plant-based slice flavors like Smoked Original Slices and Spicy Original Slices, Chao Creamery now delivers a Creamy Original Block, Creamy Original Shreds, and Mexican Style Blend Shreds.
Toward the end of 2018, I penned a column defending Dairy Foods’ coverage of the plant-based dairy-alternative space. The column was in response to reader feedback suggesting such coverage was harming dairy farmers and the dairy processing industry. Since then, we have continued to get emails and phone calls, albeit less often, questioning the inclusion of these “dairy wannabees” in our monthly issues and on our website. Considering that dairy alternatives are the stars of one of this month’s cover stories (our Outlook Report), I thought the time was right to restate our defense.
From a viral pandemic to the movement for racial justice to the worsening climate crisis, Senator Cory Booker says the massive challenges facing the US right now are all tied to a “savagely broken food system”. And last week, his most recent challenge to that system gained new momentum, when a coalition of 300 farm, food, and environmental advocacy organizations sent a letter to Congress urging legislators to pass a bill that would eventually eliminate the country’s largest concentrated animal feeding operations (Cafos).
Lavva – best-known for its pili nut and plaintain-fueled plant-based yogurts – has moved into the plant-based milk category with a higher-fat product made with three ingredients: organic coconut water, filtered water, and pili nuts; with no added sugar, sweeteners, gums, stabilizers or emulsifiers.
The oat drink business has publicly defended its decision to receive investment from Blackstone, after Oatly fans and activists pledged to boycott the brand. “We could have chosen any private equity. Why Blackstone?” writes Oatly of the controversial investment. According to the dairy alternative business, the answer lies in ‘creating the most change possible’.
If the world is to meet its target of limiting global warming to “well below” 2C, some degree of diet shift will be necessary, scientists say. If it is to strive for the most optimistic target of keeping warming to 1.5C, changes to diet may be even more crucial. In this interactive Q&A, Carbon Brief explores how greenhouse gas emissions from meat, dairy and other diets compare, as well as whether changes to the production and transportation of meat could help to stem its climate impact.
Startups Biomilq and TurtleTree Labs, founded in 2019 and based in the US (North Carolina) and Singapore respectively, believe they can provide a more nutritious alternative to infant formula by inducing human mammary cells in a bioreactor to lactate, then harvesting the product. “The end goal is a product that is as close to breast milk as we can produce,” says Michelle Egger, Biomilq’s co-founder and CEO.
Tim Brown, president and chief executive officer of Upfield US, Inc., the global company’s US-based business unit, sees it as a startup with scale. The maker of such well-known spreads brands as Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Imperial and more is capitalizing on consumer interest in plant-based products with clean label attributes to identify and execute against opportunities with consumers.
NotCo, a leading food-tech company in Latin America, is announcing the closing of an $85 million Series C investment round, co-led by Future Positive, the investment vehicle of Fred Blackford and Biz Stone, and L Catterton, the largest and most global consumer-focused private equity firm.
Oat milk brand Oatly has come under fire from activists and consumers threatening boycotts after the company signed a $200 million deal in July that included an investment from the private equity firm Blackstone. The firm is headed by Stephen Schwartzman, a major donor to President Trump, Business Insider reported.
Directory
Change Foods
Cultivated Dairy
United States 2019
Sesamilk
Plant-Based Dairy
Thailand 2019
Yoconut Dairy Free
Plant-Based Dairy
United States 2016
Berkeley Alt Meat Lab
Cultivated Plant-Based Algae Fungi Meat Dairy Eggs Seafood Ingredients Research
United States
Take Two Foods
Plant-Based Dairy
United States 2020
Helaina
Cultivated Dairy
United States 2019
Better Dairy
Cultivated Dairy
United Kingdom 2020
Devon Garden Foods
Plant-Based Dairy
United Kingdom 2019
Remilk
Cultivated Dairy
Israel 2019