Morning folks,

We had to cut a lot from this edition because there was too much news—that’s what one week off will do ;)

There’s so much to discuss, but in this issue, I want to focus on ‘Hot Cultivated Protein Summer’, our tongue-in-cheek wordplay to describe what has been a veritable cascade of news in the cultivated meat, fat, seafood and dairy space over the past few weeks.*

To save on space, I’m sharing this post I penned last night, recapping all the regulatory progress of 2025 as well as every news item in the sector since early July, a useful illustration of the acceleration and progress we are seeing in terms of approvals, partnerships, scaling and technological milestones…Everything except funding, which remains anaemic. As startups continue to notch regulatory, commercial and technical wins, will investors come back? The jury is still out.

Meanwhile, over in plant-based land, the two leading startups seem to be going through a major identity crisis. The OG plant-based meat company is saying goodbye to ‘meat’. That’s right, Beyond Meat is now simply Beyond. CEO Ethan Brown told Fast Company they are done with imitating animal meat. Instead, they are focusing on whole food proteins, which he suggests was always the plan until pesky investors and Silicon Valley derailed it with their techno-optimism. Wall Street reacted to the news with a yawn (the stock price fell slightly). This, after Impossible Foods’ Peter McGuinness recently told The Wall Street Journal in June that the company may make ‘hybrid burgers with 50% beef’ to ‘get the category going’. Disruption or desperation? You decide. Or message me your answer.

-Sonalie

*NB: Proud to say that Green Queen broke a fair few of these stories with several exclusives, so if you are not following us on email/LinkedIn, you are missing out.

💡 Only On Green Queen

🇸🇬 Exclusive: Friends & Family Pet Food Company Gets Singapore Approval for Cultivated Meat
US startup Friends & Family Pet Food Company received regulatory approval to sell its cultivated meat for dogs and cats in Singapore, marking a first for Asia. Its inaugural treats will contain 65-70% cultured cells.

🥛 Exclusive: Opalia Lands First Sale of Cell-Based Milk Ahead of $4M Fundraise
Canada’s Opalia has secured what it claims is the world’s first commercial supply agreement for cell-based dairy, weeks ahead of an expected $4 million fundraise.

💰 Funding News

🇨🇦 Canadian biotech firm Mara Renewables raised $9.1 million to expand the production of its algae-based omega-3 DHA.
💡Through its vertically integrated platform, Mara supplied enough algae-based DHA to offset 6.7 billion anchovies from the supply chain in 2024 alone, and it is now focusing on boosting its global manufacturing footprint through additional strategic partnerships.

🍫 London-based Win-Win raised £3 million Series A funding for its cocoa-free chocolate, and will use the funds to develop new products and expand into European markets.
💡The startup has already partnered with German bakery giant Martin Braun-Gruppe for two coating products.

🇨🇿 Czech startup Mewery secured €2.9 million in public grants to expand the production of its cultivated pork and launch pilot projects with meat producers.
💡Mewery’s co-cultivation tech allows it to enhance cell growth efficiency and reduce costs, resulting in a product with “highly valuable composition”.

🍞 On a mission to make healthy ultra-processed foods, UK startup Modern Baker secured £2.5 million in a Series A funding round led by impact investor network Adjuvo. Its first proof-of-concept, dubbed Superloaf, is a seeded white bread produced by Hovis.
💡Hovis is only its first licensee, and Modern Baker is developing a broader pipeline of products targeting “under attack” UPF categories like biscuits, sweet bakery, breakfast cereals, ready meals, and beverages.

🇬🇧 UK tempeh brand Better Nature raised £1.1 million to supercharge its mission of displacing the UK’s $4.3 billion chicken market on the back of its best quarter to date.
💡The company is banking on the anti-UPF sentiments surrounding plant-based meat alternatives; it’s already the UK’s number one tempeh brand by volume, has landed in Germany and Austria, and has plans to launch into two more markets this year.

🇫🇷 The French government has invested €11.7 million in ten winners of its Territorial Legume Sector Projects as part of the ministry’s National Strategy for Plant Proteins.
💡The move is in stark contrast with its efforts to ban plant-based meat labels and soy products in schools.

📉 Analysis from the Good Food Institute shows that investment in plant-based, fermentation-derived and cultivated proteins declined by half in the first six months of 2025, outlining continued headwinds for the sector.
💡It’s not just this sector that has seen a downward trend in funding, agrifood tech (a 37% year-on-year decline), biotech (-35%) and climate tech (-19%) have all suffered similarly.

✅ Must-Read Headlines

🥔 Israeli molecular farming startup PoLoPo has pivoted its business model to develop high-protein potatoes for chips, aiming to disrupt the $53 billion industry.
💡The company expects to receive US approval for its molecular farming platform, called SuperAA, by the end of 2025.

🇦🇺 Australian precision fermentation firm All G is gearing up to launch its animal-free bovine lactoferrin in the US and China in Q4 2025.
💡All G is working with a co-manufacturing partner with the ability to scale production up and down to meet demand.

🚫 Backed by the milk industry, a bipartisan group of US senators has reintroduced the Dairy Pride Act, asking the FDA to crack down on “misleading” plant-based labels.
💡Research has shown that the nutritional value of plant-based milks in the US is, on average, almost on par with their conventional counterparts - even if consumers are confused by labels, they’re not suffering any consequences.

✅ Big Cultivated Approvals & Tastings

🇺🇸 US food tech Mission Barns secured the USDA green light for its cultivated pork fat, enabling the launch of its first products into the market.
💡Mission Barns will launch into Sprouts and restaurant group Fiorella this quarter, and its pork products are currently priced in line with premium meat, though its long-term goal is price parity.

🇮🇱 Israel’s Believer Meats secured US FDA approval for its cultivated meat, becoming the fifth cultivated meat startup to secure regulatory clearance in the US, and the first non-US company to do so.
💡It has also completed construction of the world’s largest cultivated meat factory in North Carolina.

🍣 US startup Wildtype is launching its cultivated salmon at eateries in Oregon, California, Washington, and Texas, showcasing its potential with award-winning chefs.
💡Backed by the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos, Wildtype obtains living cells from Pacific salmon.

🍴Cultivated pork startup Clever Carnivore, based in the US, hosted its first tasting events on the West Coast, ahead of a planned launch in 2026.
💡The company says its prototype bratwurst contains 10% pork cells.

🌱 Plant-Powered News

🥩 Beyond Meat is dropping ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on the power of traditional plants amid falling sales and rising demand for protein. And it has launched its hotly anticipated mycelium steak at New York City’s Ladybird and all BOA Steakhouse locations.

🍔 McDonald’s India is targeting the country’s protein craze with the launch of a Protein Plus range to power up its existing burgers with vegetarian protein slices.

🇩🇰 Wolt Market Denmark has become the first supermarket outside the Netherlands to adopt the Protein Tracker, a tool aimed at increasing sales of plant-based food.

🐟 Slovenian whole-cut meat analogue maker Juicy Marbles released Kinda Salmon, its second vegan seafood product with Austrian mycoprotein startup Revo Foods.

🇩🇪 Munich-based Happy Ocean Foods, which made its name with vegan shrimp and tuna, has scrapped its seafood alternative lineup. Instead, it’s now focusing on a Clean Protein System, which offers functional plant protein bases for the foodservice sector.

👎🏼 Ahead of its expected EU launch this year, plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods has lost its four-year trademark battle with an independent bakery from Spain.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🇩🇪 Anuga, one of the world’s largest food and drink trade shows, is launching an event exclusively for alternative proteins. It’s already lured nearly 100 exhibitors, including industry giants Beyond and Oatly.

🇳🇱 The Netherlands’ largest supermarket, Albert Heijn, has quietly added its methane footprint to its sustainability report, in a global first for the retail sector.

🐥 Sweden no longer has any hens living in cramped cages, according to animal advocacy group Project 1882, marking the only instance of a country making the move without legal coercion.

🌱🍔  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 Prefer’s beanless coffee latte, Ahimsa Foundation’s $12M factory bet, and Bezos Earth Fund’s alternative protein competition. Make sure to check out last week’s Quick Bites column for more updates, too!

📆 Scene & Heard

Join Us At AltProteins 25 This October!

🇦🇺 At AltProteins 25, we’re asking the tough questions: Where is product innovation really heading? And, in a world hyper-focused on consumer adoption, is climate impact being left behind? Join Cecilia Chang, CBO of Mission Barns, James Petrie, CEO of Nourish Ingredients and Sonalie Figueiras, Founder of Green Queen Media on 14th October as they challenge the status quo and rethink what's next. Secure your spot today!

🇸🇬 The Bezos Centre and Enterprise Singapore are offering a new grant opportunity, which will offer startups a premier slot on stage at Singapore International Agri-Food Week and the opportunity to secure 150,000 SGD in cash. Find out more here.

🇬🇧 The Future of Food Competition is a free, fully inclusive, not-for-profit event. It has an important agenda to encourage action or increase awareness of key (and in some cases, seismic) megatrends coming fast down the line where issues and opportunities need addressing. Learn more and enter here.

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