Hi Folks,

Hands down, one of my favorite things about Dubai where I just spent an amazing and head-spinning week, was the hotel breakfast buffets with huge bowls of fresh hummus, moutabal and zaatar bread (also ful medames, a sort of Middle Eastern refried beans meets baked beans). It was very easy to follow a plant-based diet during my visit and, more than that, I didn’t feel categorized as an ‘Other’ (see this fascinating post by futurist Ralph Mercer on this topic).

This week what’s on my mind is Europe’s plant-based industry. Unilever has put Dutch brand The Vegetarian Butcher up for auction, a blow given the 2018 acquisition is routinely referenced as one of the few successful exits (re-reading the coverage from that year about the deal is sobering. Times have a-changed.). Meanwhile, allplants, the UK-based cult frozen vegan chef-made ready-meal brand, has gone into liquidation. The company’s founders blame rising cost of living, inflation and interest rates. Interestingly, recent sales data from GFI and Circana show that Netherlands and UK sales volumes are down almost 4% and almost 10%, respectively, while France is up almost 2% (the report notes strong growth in plant-based cheese, as further evidenced by Bel Group’s next-gen vegan cheese project), Germany is up 11% and Spain is up over 6%. Did the Netherlands and the UK over-index on plant-based? In the report, the authors note that decreased prices in the plant-based category in the Dutch market have not led to growth, “suggesting other factors are at play” while cost of living was cited as a key issue in the UK. What does this all mean in the face of rising inflation and media misinformation globally? I am sorting through all of this as I continue to think about what Mr Trump’s presidency for the industry. I think it’s a bumpy time, but surely lots of opportunities ahead too and we’ve got to find them.

-Sonalie

🇨🇳 All G Foods Gains Regulatory Approval For Animal-Free Lactoferrin In China

Sydney-based All G Foods secured the regulatory greenlight to sell its precision-fermented lactoferrin protein in China, and expects to receive approval in yet another market imminently.

• All G Foods is the first company to secure approval for the sale of precision-fermented bovine lactoferrin in China, and aims to launch its first products in the market - one of the world’s largest consumers of lactoferrin - in the second half of 2025. 

• The approval is yet another marker of China’s biotech dominance and global regulators’ embrace of precision fermentation.

• The startup’s other priority markets for approval include the US, Australia and New Zealand, and Japan.

• Much of the global lactoferrin supply is reserved for infant formula and supplements, but the protein has multifunctional properties well-suited to applications across functional foods, which are in high demand in China, and many others.

• All G Foods has a partner in China to accelerate its efforts. Learn more here.

💡 Only on Green Queen

❓Roundup: COP29 Digest
In our final edition of Green Queen COP29 Digest, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the interwebs to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’. Catch up: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4.

🇮🇹 Deep Dive: How Italy Can Become A Plant-Based Food Leader
Italy’s plant-based market is bucking the global decline, but there are several missed opportunities for companies and the industry as a whole.

📈 Must-Read Headlines

🇮🇱 Precision fermentation startup Imagindairy has received regulatory approval for its animal-free whey protein in Israel, as it closes in on its latest fundraising round.
💡Imagindairy is also working on several key milk proteins, including casein and other whey proteins like alpha-lactalbumin.

🐟 Los Angeles-based food influencers Zoya Biglary and Alix Traeger landed a $150,000 Shark Tank deal with Daniel Lubetzky for their vegan seafood startup Finneato Fysh Foods.
💡The company has heeded the Sharks’ advice of targeting the D2C channel with a squeezable vegan spicy tuna.

🇩🇰 After months of negotiations, Denmark’s policymakers have agreed on how to implement the livestock emissions tax they announced in June.
💡Denmark will channel 43 billion Danish kroner ($6.1 billion) to buy land from farmers and convert it into forests.

🌏 Funding for alternative proteins has grown by 85% this year in Asia-Pacific, mirroring a larger sector-wide recovery, according to a new report by AgFunder.
💡The report found that India has leapfrogged China to the top spot, attracting $2 billion (or 48%) of the region’s funding this year.

🇬🇧 London-based New Wave Biotech has launched an AI bioprocess simulation software to help alternative protein companies expand production faster and cheaper.
💡Scaling from lab to commercial levels is expensive and lengthy. With Bioprocess Foresight, a startup can simulate these processes to predict the quantified output, costs, and sustainability impact.

🤝🏼 Hot Topic - M&A & Industry Collaboration

🌱 Unilever is in talks with investment bank Piper Sandler to host an auction of The Vegetarian Butcher, the vegan business it bought six years ago.
💡The Vegetarian Butcher is one of the leading plant-based businesses globally, its products are available in 55 countries and over 40,000 retail locations, alongside a host of foodservice outlets.

🧀 Dairy behemoth Bel Group has partnered with other French food companies on a three-year, government-backed project to develop better-tasting vegan cheese products.
💡The alliance is fuelled by a €9 million investment and will centre on creating minimally processed vegan cheese through advanced fermentation and ageing techniques.

🥛 New Zealand-based oat milk makers Otis and All Good have joined forces to form a new entity called Good & Humble.
💡The new entity will leverage each company’s strengths to scale up production, ramp up innovation, and support local oat growers, with a view to expanding globally.

📉 British plant-based ready meal maker Allplants has moved to appoint administrators after recording continued losses, though one potential buyer is lined up.
💡Allplants has raised £67 million across several financing rounds, and this move reflects a wider problem for the UK’s vegan market.

🧫 Everything Else In Future Food

📺 Fermentation startup Nature’s Fynd has teamed up with Succession star Justine Lupe in a marketing campaign for its dairy-free Fy yogurts.

🍔 Beyond Meat has struck its latest QSR partnership with fast-food giant Wendy’s, which is launching a vegan burger in Georgia, a marker of the plant-based pioneer’s European focus this year.

☕️ TurtleTree is aiming to launch its animal-free lactoferrin in canned coffee drinks in mid-2025 via a partnership with fellow Singapore startup Mad Foods.

📉 A new analysis of patent filings by IP firm Appleyard Lees shows that patents for plant-based meat declined for the first time in a decade in 2022, while innovation in cultivated meat slowed too. Here’s why, and what it means.

🌱 When it comes to health, plant-based analogues to meat and dairy have similar or better nutritional profiles, an 11-country study by ProVeg International reveals.

🇬🇧 Some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and M&S, have partnered with leading charities to form a surplus food distribution body.

🧁 A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal reveals how cutting out sugar could save the planet.

🆕 New Newsletters: have you signed up YET? 🆕

Green Queen Gulf is a new monthly industry newsletter spotlighting the Gulf region’s agrifood innovation. Expect the same insight and curation you love from our team with a new geographical focus → subscribe and share.

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🌱🍔  Future Food Quick Bites 

In our weekly column, Future Food Quick Bites, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Coconut Cloud’s coffee pods, Better Balance’s Crypto.com Arena link-up, and the USDA’s rejection of Iowa’s plant-based purchase restrictions.

📆 Scene & Heard

Explore the 5th Fermentation-Enabled Alternative Protein Summit

🇺🇸 Don’t miss the 5th Fermentation-Enabled Alternative Protein Summit returning to San Francisco on February 24-26, 2025! This unparalleled forum is bringing together 170+ business executives, innovation and R&D decision-makers from leading CPGs and ingredient providers, investors, and late-stage technology enablers shaping the future of alternative proteins. Leave with actionable strategies for achieving cost parity, quality, and taste through scale-driven R&D, infrastructure development, and strategic partnerships, helping diversify food categories with the next generation of ingredients. Discover the 2025 Agenda here.

🇬🇧 Future Food Systems, taking place in London on 6th February, will unite a curated group of changemakers across the food and drink sector to harness the power of progressive thinking, technology, and collaborative approaches to transform current systems. Learn more here.

🌱 Registration for Natural Products Expo West 2025 is open. Whether you are looking for health and beauty, organic, or natural and specialty foods, this is THE place to see the newest products and trends. It’s happening March 4th-7th; register here.

Want More? Check out Green Queen’s Deep Dive series: 

• Blended Meats Are Here 

• Meat Misinformation Deep Dive

• Ozempic & the GLP-1 Revolution

• Policy Matters: Regulating Future Food Innovation