Morning Folks,

Thank you for all the well wishes. I’d love to say I am all healed but this sprain has turned into a nasty ligament tear and recovery is slower than I’d like. I am RICE-ing constantly, though, and I will get there. Also, Arnica cream FTW.

Back to business. I had an ‘Aha!’ moment last week: the alt protein movement was fundamentally built to solve a B2B supply chain problem, and then we tried to sell it to consumers.

The supply chain problem is real, and if anything, it is getting worse. Climate change is intensifying, emissions pressure is not going away, and the need for food that relies less on animals and more on lower-emission protein sources is only becoming more urgent. On that level, the thesis behind alt protein was always sound. It was never irrational to think the system needed new inputs, new technologies, and new ways of producing protein at scale.

But that is also where the disconnect began. Consumers were asked to care about a problem they did not experience as their own. A supply chain problem is not always a consumer problem. Most people do not wake up thinking, “How do I help solve the protein supply chain?” They wake up thinking about cost, taste, convenience, habit, identity, and whether the product in front of them fits their life. We expected consumers to adopt a category that was solving for the industry’s problem, not necessarily theirs.

And I think we keep coming at this backwards. We keep starting from the consumer story, or at least trying to force a consumer story, when the real leverage is often elsewhere. The problem was never just “how do we get people to buy this?” It was also “how do we help the food system solve a real, structural problem?” That is a very different question, and I think we have not always been honest enough about which one actually matters most.

The interesting thing now is that Big Food seems to understand this more clearly. It sees the problem and is starting to invest in, partner with, and work with many of the startups solving ingredient and supply chain problems. That tells you the B2B case is not only still there — it is working. The question is no longer whether the need exists. It clearly does. The question is how much of that value can be captured through consumer-facing brands versus through ingredients, infrastructure, and supply chain solutions.

This is the fundamental mismatch. The business case still exists. The climate case still exists. The B2B need still exists, and will only become more urgent. But the consumer case was never as obvious as the sector wanted to believe. And unless we get much more honest about that distinction, we will keep making the same mistake: innovating for the supply chain, then wondering why the shopper does not care.

-Sonalie

💡 Only on Green Queen

🔬 Exclusive: Food System Innovations Unveils $2M Lab to Speed Up Sustainable Protein Development
US non-profit Food System Innovations has launched a Sustainable Protein Action Lab to bridge the research funding gap and help future food companies accelerate product development.

🍦 Exclusive: Andfoods Readies Singapore Launch of Black Gram Whipped Cream After Mars Patent Citation
New Zealand startup Andfoods will bring its lentil-based whipped cream to Singapore in the coming weeks, shortly after its black gram protein was mentioned in a Mars patent filing.

🧈 Industry Insights: A US Act Targets Savor’s ‘Lab-Created’ Butter – Here is the Startup’s Response
A bipartisan bill from the US House of Representatives is aiming to restrict the labelling of a carbon-derived butter developed by Bill Gates-backed Savor. Here’s what it has to say.

 ⭐️ Big Fermentation News

🇳🇱 Dutch fermentation specialist The Protein Brewery closed an €18 million ($20.5 million) extension of its Series B round to expand production of its Fermotein mycoprotein and support its EU launch.
💡The firm has already sold out its 2026 capacity to clients in the US, and will use the new funds to expand its manufacturing capacity beyond 2,000 tonnes by 2029.

🇨🇦 Protein Industries Canada has funded a new project to create an AI platform that can make fermentation cheaper and more efficient, and “unlock new value” from agricultural byproducts.
💡The new platform will use existing industrial sensors and advanced machine learning to continuously infer fermentation conditions, food safety indicators, energy performance and process health in real time.

✔️ Biomanufacturing firm Biosphere has acquired fellow gas fermentation specialist NovoNutrients, a year after the latter put its assets up for sale.
💡 The acquisition has given Biosphere a strong foundation in gas fermentation and high-intensity aerobic fermentation, and bolsters its ability to pursue new opportunities across various sectors.

🏫 US supplements corporation Herbalife and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have launched a plant cell fermentation hub to advance biomanufacturing and next-gen health products.
💡The hub is looking to position India on the global map of commercial plant cell fermentation via industry partnerships, blue-sky research, training programmes and entrepreneurial spin-offs.

🤝🏼 US startup FerrinX, which makes precision-fermented lactoferrin, has signed a deal with Palmer Holland to distribute the ingredient to cosmetics and beauty brands in North America.
💡FerrinX plans to build and fund facilities capable of producing 300 tonnes of lactoferrin annually within the next decade.

🥕 Portuguese firm GRA Nutra released a new fermentation-derived beta-carotene colour for food and beverages in the US, where clean-label dyes are all the rage.
💡GRA Nutra says natural colours are now both “a regulatory necessity and a branding asset”, and its vertically integrated plant is set to go online early next year.

 ✅ Must-Read Headlines

💊 London-based Myota, which makes prebiotic fibre blends to enhance gut health, secured $4.5 million Series A funding to scale its D2C sales and set up a B2B business in Europe and the US.
💡Myota has already launched or agreed multiple partnerships and distribution deals; this funding will help it go even further.

🐟 US startup Wildtype has kicked off a crowdfunding drive to begin direct-to-consumer sales of its cultivated salmon lox and launch a marine complex supplement for skincare.
💡The firm has already secured 75% of its funding goal, with more than 200 backers.

🌱 Dutch plant protein player Schouten Europe acquired Bobeldijk Food Group, which makes a wide range of meat and seafood alternatives, for an undisclosed sum.
💡The acquisition makes Schouten the largest family-owned plant-based meat business in Europe, and it’s an outlier in the industry, having achieved revenue growth of 30% last year.

👩🏻‍🌾 The EU’s agricultural commissioner has vowed to help farmers diversify their activities and grow more plants in its soon-to-be-published Protein Plan.
💡There have historically been many barriers to diversification; support for farmers is key to strengthening the plant-based value chain.

 📚 Key Research & Industry Insights

📊 New analysis from the Good Food Institute shows that non-dairy milk outperformed its conventional counterpart in the US foodservice sector last year, but sales of plant-based proteins fell despite a narrower price gap with meat.

🌱 A new study by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition found that plant-based alternatives contained twice as many additives as meat and dairy, but its authors – and a range of experts – say this doesn’t necessarily increase health risks.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🥩 Beyond Meat is finally bringing its whole-cut mycelium steak to retail shelves in the US, starting with Wegmans and H-E-B.

🌻 Finnish startup Perfat Technologies launched Perfat Soft, a sunflower-oil-based oleogel that can replace butter and palm oil across a range of applications.

🍫 Germany’s Planet A Foods has introduced a no-added-sugar version of its cocoa-free chocolate, ChoViva, to meet demand for “healthier indulgence”.

👜 US startup Mushmycel unveiled a range of vegan leather accessories derived from waste materials like reclaimed mushrooms, coffee grounds and coconut fibres.

🌱🍔  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 Huel’s new meal replacement drinks, Oatly’s matcha collab with Lidl, and a Gen Z dietary survey in India.

📆 Scene & Heard

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The NAPIC Conference, happening 14th-15th October, will gather a diverse group of stakeholders— including industry leaders, innovators, researchers, investors, and policymakers— to explore and advance the latest developments in alternative protein innovation. Sign up here.

🧫 The International Scientific Conference on Cultured Meat will return to Maastricht 15th-17th November to delve into the science and innovation behind lab-grown meat, exploring its environmental, ethical, and health impacts in the food industry. Find out more here.

💡 Bridge2Food Europe returns to Den Bosch, The Netherlands, 15th to 17th June 2027. Register your interest today.

🌏 The Growth Asia Summit returns on 8th-10th July 2026, after its biggest-ever edition in 2025, to once again explore the very latest market opportunities that have developed over the previous 12 months in the region driving the growth of the global food, beverage and nutrition industries. Find out more here.

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