Morning Folks,

Thanks for all the lovely messages about my Synbiobeta notes. I will try to do more letters like that.

Today, I am highlighting the best of Green Queen’s coverage to help you sift through all the headlines. One clear theme? UPFs!

The anti-UPF fight is reaching a fever pitch, dominating mainstream food media. At Green Queen, we’re focused on how this affects future food companies. If MAHA-poster-lady Casey Means gets confirmed as the new Surgeon General, UPFs will continue to face material challenges - we report on what her nomination could mean for the sector. As it stands, US CPG brands are contending with new product labels like Seed Oil Free Certified, led by the same folks who brought you the Non-GMO certification. If they are anywhere near as successful with the former as they have been with the latter, it’s going to mean a systemic change to snack and condiment formulations, a material risk to Big Food players. And they are already fighting back: we have a juicy story on how Nestle, Danone and Co got the UK government to ditch its anti-UPF push. Meanwhile, a new report underlines what many of us already know: UPF research is misleading the public about many plant-based meat products, at a time when the vast majority of scientists are advocating for a shift to plant-forward diets.

On the business side, the industry continues to see consolidation M&A activity, with the food tech investment platform’s assets snapped up by VC Big Idea Ventures, while frozen plant-based DTC brand Daily Harvest has joined the growing Chobani family.

Synbio startups continue to notch regulatory wins, with TurtleTree bagging the first US FDA No Questions Letter for animal-free precision fermentation lactoferrin protein and Mosa Meat announcing it has filed for approval in the UK for its cultivated fat.

While Wall Street and the White House may have abandoned all things climate, the crisis isn’t going anywhere, but one thing’s for sure: it’s an incredibly gendered issue. New US research shows women are almost twice as likely (62%) to vote for climate policy than men (37%, and this gap is highest amongst young voters (i.e. young men tend to lean anti-climate). A separate French study belabours the point: not only are men less likely to vote for climate policy, their preference for meat-heavy diets and cars means they emit 26% more greenhouse gas emissions than women. Oy vey!

Finally, don’t miss this fun look at what your dinner plate could look like in 2050. Imagine growing salad leaves on your sweatshirt!

-Sonalie

💡 Green Queen Exclusives

❓ Industry Insights: How Nestlé, Danone & Co Lobbied The UK Govt To Scrap Its Anti-UPF Push
Some of the largest food and drink companies successfully lobbied against the UK government’s push to offer discounts on minimally processed and nutritious products. Here’s how it went down.

🔮 Food Trends: This Is The Dinner Plate of 2050
Food futurist Morgaine Gaye and Oxford climate scientist Joseph Poore predict 10 trends we could see in 25 years – if they’re right, you could be eating dishes that grew on your jeans for dinner.

🥛 Industry Insights: Oatly Is The World’s First ‘Climate Solutions’ Beverage Company
Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has become the first food and beverage firm to be certified as a climate solutions company, with a new sustainability plan that puts Big Dairy’s inaction in the spotlight. But what does this mean?

💰5 Minutes With A Future Food VC: Nordic Foodtech VC’s Louise Heiberg
In our new interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders. Here, Louise Heiberg, Investment Director at Nordic Foodtech VC, shares the moonshot she’d have loved to be part of and her most successful investment to date.

🇺🇸 Casey Means As Surgeon General: Could the Wellness Influencer Be Good for Food Tech?
Wellness influencer and Levels co-founder Casey Means is in line to become the next Surgeon General of the US. A divisive figure across the aisle, what could her appointment mean for food tech?

✅ Must-Read Headlines - Funding + M&A

🇹🇭 Bangkok-based Muu secured an undisclosed sum from A2D Ventures, Leave a Nest Japan, and an unnamed Japanese food giant to advance its precision-fermented dairy proteins.
💡Muu is working on both casein and whey proteins, making it one of the only such startups in the animal-free dairy space. 

🌱 US dairy giant Chobani has acquired plant-based startup Daily Harvest for an undisclosed sum.
💡Daily Harvest has raised over $133 million to date, and has evolved its product offering over the ten years since its inception; last year, it began offering a GLP-1 companion collection of meals in response to consumer trends.

💵 Food tech investor Big Idea Ventures has acquired the assets of London-based food tech investment platform and marketplace Vevolution.
💡The terms of the transaction were undisclosed, but it aims to boost BIV’s global infrastructure and support the broader startup and innovation ecosystem across climate and agrifood tech, future materials, and sustainable AI.

📈 Regulatory Progress

🇸🇬 Singapore-based TurtleTree secured the first ‘no questions’ letter for precision-fermented lactoferrin from the US Food and Drug Administration.
💡The company explained that the FDA validation would remove regulatory uncertainty and enable its global expansion; it is pursuing regulatory approval in other key markets in Europe and Asia too.

🇳🇱 Dutch cultivated meat startup Mosa Meat has filed for regulatory approval in the UK for its cultivated beef fat.
💡Mosa Meat filed for approval two months after joining the FSA’s cultivated meat ‘sandbox’ programme, and its beef fat could be on the market by 2027.

📚 Key Research

🥩🌱 Blended meat could be a viable solution to accelerate the protein transition, and a new taste test, carried out by Nectar, has found several brands that meat-eaters prefer over conventional meat.

😯 People who are more focused on nutrition tend to waste less food than those who are eco-conscious, according to a new study from the University of Adelaide.

🍫 Researchers at the University of Exeter surveyed nearly 3,100 small-scale cocoa farmers in Brazil, and found that fear and hopelessness are driving growers towards strategies meant to build resilience, but which are instead degrading ecosystems and increasing future risks.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🌱 British consultancy firm Plant Futures Collective has brought together more than 50 brands, organisations, and restaurants for a first-of-its-kind Meat Free Made Easy campaign.

🏷️ The Seed Oil Free Alliance has rolled out a certification label for products that eschew these fats, building on growing discontent around seed oils and amid a resurgence of tallow.

🍗 Lebanese fast-casual chain Malak Al Tawouk has partnered with plant-based meat brand Switch Foods to add vegan chicken items to its UAE menu.

🌱🍔  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 Nutella Plant-Based’s UK launch, Oatly’s collab with Chris Parnell, and Nestlé’s new biotech centre.

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📆 Scene & Heard

Don’t Miss Future Food-Tech in Chicago!

🇺🇸 Future Food-Tech Chicago is where breakthrough innovators unite with global food corporates, investors, ingredient providers, manufacturers, and policy makers to forge partnerships, bridge supply gaps and discover the next generation of sustainable proteins and ingredients. It’s happening 2nd-3rd June; learn more here.

🇳🇱 The Plenitude project’s final conference: Circular Bioeconomy for Sustainable Protein Production - is taking place 3rd June. It offers a unique opportunity for stakeholders, professionals, and academics to explore cutting-edge innovations and actionable solutions in sustainable protein production. The conference is free to attend for relevant audiences passionate about creating change and addressing global challenges through collaboration and innovation; get your ticket here.

🇸🇬 The Agritech ClimAccelerator Singapore is launching its first agritech programme in Asia-Pacific, powered by Better Earth Ventures. The initiative aims to empower climate-focused startups and drive bold agritech solutions in one of the most climate-vulnerable and agriculturally critical regions. Applications close 30th May; learn more and apply here.