Morning Folks,

It’s been an absolutely insane week in the sector, and our newsroom has been sprinting to keep up, from legal drama to funding to regulatory moves, so make sure to keep scrolling so you don’t miss anything. This edition is packed!

This week, lawsuits are piling up and eating time: the precision‑fermentation egg makers (The Every Company vs Onego Bio) are trading cross‑jurisdictional filings and fee motions after Onego’s suit was dismissed in Wisconsin but persists in Delaware; Impossible Foods was ordered to pay roughly $3.25 million in attorney fees in a trademark dispute; and NotCo scored a partial win in Chile—allowed to keep the “not milk” phrasing but barred from using the word “milk” or milk imagery. I’ve spoken with founders, investors and lawyers across the sector: everyone says the same thing — litigation is a massive distraction for small teams, it scares off or delays fundraising, often stems from asymmetric information and poor commercial clarity on both sides and ultimately wastes scarce capital and attention that should be going to product, manufacturing and market building.

Medicare and GLP‑1s: Starting in July, U.S. Medicare beneficiaries may be able to access GLP‑1 prescriptions for weight loss at a co‑pay of roughly $50 per month. This would be the first time Medicare covers weight‑loss treatments (not to mention this is very affordable for this class of drugs) and could dramatically increase uptake among older adults and retirees. Expect knock‑on effects across grocery, foodservice and CPG: more people on GLP‑1s means demand shifts toward smaller portions, higher‑protein options and less impulse snacking.

Public‑health messaging miss: a recent Guardian piece reporting that the European Society of Cardiology and European Association of Preventive Cardiology are advising people to “cook more” to avoid ultra‑processed foods felt out of touch. Doctors need to better understand their patients' daily realities. Telling people that the only practical way out of UPFs is to spend more time at the stove ignores the realities of low‑income households and modern life. Systemic solutions — better convenient, affordable, healthy options; procurement and school‑meal reform; fiscal measures that change product portfolios, are what we need, not moralizing, elitist advice.

Mainstream press misfires: The Economist ran a piece that was ostensibly about the difficulty of making vegan cheese that tastes good but quickly pivoted into a post‑mortem on Climax Foods (now Bettani Foods). I found the article lacking context and accuracy (we’ve reported on this company closely for years), the headline framing leaned into the tired, populist trope that “vegan cheese just doesn’t taste good,” which felt like a bait‑and‑switch and a missed opportunity for nuanced coverage. Ironically, Climax (as Climax Foods) produced one of the best vegan cheeses I’ve tasted and even won awards — reductive coverage like this matters, because mainstream press framing shapes investor and consumer perceptions.

Trust and influencers: The New York Times reported that over 50% of US adults now get health information from online wellness influencers. That’s an uncomfortable reality we can’t wish away. The industry needs a strategy to work with these folks so they can help tell our stories rather than pretending influencer dynamics are a passing fad.

On the grimmer side: The founder of plant‑based nugget company Simulate, Ben Pasternak, was arrested in NYC late last month on suspicion that he strangled his girlfriend. Simulate, which was once refered to as the ‘Tesla of Chicken’ and whose Nuggs sparked a viral meme, raised over $60 million from VCs and celebs like Jay-Z, before being acquired by Ahimsa Companies. Separately, the eFishery saga in Southeast Asia, a huge startup fraud that gripped the regional ag‑tech community and left top-tier investors reeling, has reached a legal conclusion: the founder Gibran Huzaifah was sentenced to nine years in prison by an Indonesian court.

People I’ll miss: Daniel Skaven Ruben, who has written the FoodTech Weekly newsletter every Friday for 6 years, has announced he’s stepping down from his writing duties as he takes on a new semi-government role. His Friday emails were a ritual for me: I’ll miss his sharp analysis, dry jokes and the optimism he brought to an industry that desperately needs it. Congratulations Daniel, and thank you for everything.

-Sonalie

 👩🏻‍⚖ This Week in Food Tech Lawsuits

🥛 The Chilean Supreme Court has ruled that NotCo can continue using the trademark ‘NotMilk’ on its plant-based milk, but can’t use ‘milk’ and related imagery anywhere else on its packaging, following a nearly five-year legal battle with the dairy industry.

🥚 The Every Company has filed a motion asking a Delaware court to sanction Onego Bio for “improper duplicative litigation”. The latter, in turn, accuses The Every Co of contradicting statements made under oath.

🌱 A US federal judge has asked Impossible Foods to pay the attorneys’ fees incurred by influencer Joel Runyon and his company Impossible HQ after his $3.25 million trademark victory in March.

 💡 Only On Green Queen

💊 Exclusive: Eden Brew Gets US GRAS Clearance for Animal-Free Casein & Eyes Supplements Industry
Australian precision fermentation startup Eden Brew has been cleared to sell its cow-free casein protein in the US, and pivoted its immediate focus to health and supplements.

🧀 Tasty Awards: Violife on Solving the ‘Tension Between Taste & Nutrition’ with Plant-Based Dairy
Violife won more honours than any other brand at the 2026 Tasty Awards. Its commercial lead, Meryem Leyoussi, explains how the company is balancing taste and nutrition.

 💰 Funding News

🧫 Meatly, based in the UK, raised £10 million ($14.1 million) Series A funding to establish Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility in London, marking a vote of confidence for the wider cultivated meat sector. 
💡The company is working towards commercially viable cultivated pet food product launches, slated for 2027.

🍄‍🟫 UK startup Adamo Foods won a €10 million ($11.7 million) grant from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme for a project to use industry sidestreams to scale up and launch its whole-cut mycelium meat.
💡The company is currently in the process of scaling to its demo plant (>5,000 litres), and says it will reach 50,000 litres within the next three years.

🪖 Californian startup Biosphere received a $9 million Department of Defense grant to build portable bioreactors and produce gas-fermented proteins for the US Army.
💡The startup’s tech is designed to “produce nutritious, shelf-stable food anywhere, eliminating traditional supply chain constraints”.

🧫 Israeli cultivated meat startup SuperMeat raised $6 million, as part of a targeted $10 million Series A4 round.
💡SuperMeat is targeting Switzerland as its launch market, having filed for regulatory approval to sell its cultivated chicken in the European country.

🇬🇧 UK-based Naturbeads received a €4.1 million ($4.8 million) EU grant to support the construction of a new factory in Italy to produce cellulose-based alternatives to microplastics.
💡The beads match plastic properties at a competitive cost, aided by a closed-loop strategy engineered for maximum efficiency. 

🫘 Canada’s Phytokana Ingredients has secured $330 million in offtake agreements for its fava bean products, supporting its planned commercial-scale facility in Alberta.
💡The new facility will process 30,000 tonnes of fava beans annually into protein concentrates and high-protein flours.

 🤝🏼 Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships

🍇 Better Juice, which uses microbial enzymes to turn fruit sugars into dietary fibre and non-digestible molecules, has been acquired by Dutch juice giant Prodalim.
💡The acquisition should accelerate the technology’s launch in the US market, meeting a major consumer demand for effective sugar alternatives.

🥛 German dairy giant Müller has agreed to acquire local plant-based milk and tofu producer Berief Food.
💡The acquisition marks Müller’s most earnest push into a category it has had little experience in, but Berief Food is one of the leading suppliers of plant-based foods in what is Europe’s largest market for these products.

🍎 Oterra has teamed up with Californian AI-led biotech company Debut Bio in a multi-million-dollar collaboration to develop and scale a natural alternative to Red 40, a petroleum-derived food dye linked to ill health in children.
💡The move away from synthetic food colours in the US opens up a significant opportunity for natural alternatives.

♻️ US synbio firm LanzaTech has partnered with the Technical University of Denmark’s Bright hub to set up a biofoundry that can recycle waste CO2 emissions into biofuels, sustainable materials, and more.
💡The partnership will enable faster development, with automation and parallelisation enabling thousands of microbial designs to be generated and tested at once. 

 🥳 Milestone Moments

🧬 Molecular farming pioneer Moolec Science has completed the first phase of the industrialisation of its GLA-rich safflower oil, and has kicked off a new sowing campaign and a move into renewable energy.

✅ California-based Ruby Bio has demonstrated fermentation titers above 100g per litre for its clean-label emulsifiers, paving the way for large-scale, cost-competitive production.

🐩 US company Bond Pet Foods has obtained a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA, enabling it to sell the precision-fermented lamb protein it developed with Hill’s Pet Nutrition for use in dog food.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🦮 Italian food company Forza10 debuted the Coolty Meat brand of cultivated dog food, made using Czech startup BeneMeat’s cell-cultured protein.

🐶 Finnish startups Enifer and Rovio Pet Foods teamed up to launch a semi-moist dog treat made with Enifer’s Pekilo mycoprotein ingredient.

🐕‍🦺 Mars Petcare launched another edition of its global pet food innovation programme for sustainable proteins and fats, with an amplified focus on Asia-Pacific.

📉 Beyond Meat experienced a 15% decline in sales in Q1 2026, following its worst financial year as a public company in 2025, with hopes of a turnaround hinged on retail launches of its plant protein drinks and mycelium steak.

🏭 Danone is closing its plant-based dairy facility in New Jersey, which made products for its Silk and So Delicious brands, laying off 114 employees amid a slowdown in its non-dairy business.

🧖‍♀️ Green Queen Wire: New molecular research suggests commercial caviar-derived cosmetic ingredients are biologically more complex than current industry definitions imply. Is it time to reconsider what “caviar extract” means in premium skincare?

🌱🍔  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 Beyond Meat’s partnership with Karen Carney, a wave of British launches, and Savor’s bakery debut.

📆 Scene & Heard

🚀 Catch Up With Sonalie Figueiras At Bridge2Food Europe 2026

💡 Green Queen’s founder and editor-in-chief Sonalie Figueiras will be speaking at Bridge2Food Europe 2026, happening 9-11 June 2026 in Copenhagen, where she will give a keynote titled “The Global Politicization of Food and the Influence on Consumer Choices”. Catch her live to unpack how geopolitics and consumer behavior are increasingly intertwined in the future of food. Register here, and use code GREENQUEENMEDIA to get €200 off your ticket.

🇭🇰 Join Green Queen Founding Editor Sonalie Figueiras and a stellar lineup of speakers on May 29th at Soho House Hong Kong for the 5th Marketing Exchange Forum. If you’re thinking about growth through identity, systems change, and long-term brand relevance, this is the conversation for you; learn more and register here.

🐶 Big Idea Ventures and Mars Petcare, in collaboration with AAK, Bühler, Givaudan, and Ingredion, are launching the 3rd edition of the Next Generation Pet Food Program. This year’s program will place a stronger focus on the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting APAC’s growing importance as a hub for sustainable food innovation, ingredient development, and pet nutrition. Find out more here.

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