Morning Folks,

I had an entirely different note prepared, but was sidetracked by this outstanding piece in Dieline’s Shelf Line Substack, “Beyond's Sparkling Protein Beverage Rebranded After Just A Few Months”, by Chloe Cordover (h/t Anay for sending it to me this) about the design revamp of Beyond’s sparkling protein drinks range.

There's so much in this piece to learn from, to think about, to respond to, but I will start with the piece’s money quote: “they’re [Beyond are] used to developing products, not brands” by Paula Grant, the designer in charge of the revamp.

This is painfully true for the entire plant-based alternatives industry, specifically plant-based meat and other non-milk products*.

Building products is entirely different from building brands, and our industry has yet to truly learn this lesson.

As I regularly write about, we are in the middle of a massive F&B CPG boom. Whether I am browsing online or walking through supermarkets locally and when I travel, I am astounded by the creativity that is taking place on retail shelves.

Gen Z and its follow-up, Gen Alpha, have raised the bar on us: they want great taste, unimpeachable ingredients, design-first brands and unique formats. There is a bounty of incredible products out there, and not just in the global North. From packaging innovation to branding that delights, from functionality to ingredient quality to artisanship, it's such an exciting time for emerging food and drink brands, and it's such an exciting time to be a young consumer.

And yet, none of this is happening in our space. It just kills me.

We are arguably the space that needs it the most. Not to mention, the biggest protein boom of the last few decades is happening right now in CPG, and the entire alt-protein retail brand industry is asleep at the wheel.

Every single alt-protein brand out there should read this piece, then read it again. They should make it required reading for their entire team, from the C-suite down to the intern, to better understand what Beyond is getting wrong and, by extension, what the others are.

To close this note, allow me to extrapolate Chloe's point one step further: brands change culture, not products. If we're building product after product but no brands, is it any wonder that we haven't made a dent in the culture?

-Sonalie

*One could argue that even in the plant milk space, most of the brands have not built brands, but created products, and as I’ve argued before, success in this niche is down to the fact that consumers have a functional need (lactose intolerance or dairy protein allergy) that motivates purchases, unlike with meat. And even then, there's only a tiny handful of plant-based milk brands that have really broken through as proper culturally relevant brands, with Oatly being far and away the best and biggest.

 💡 Only on Green Queen

🤖Deep Dive: Food Companies Using More AI to Scale Bioprocesses, But Expectation-Reality Gap Remains
A majority of executives say their use of AI in bioprocess development is accelerating, but only 8% believe the tech is fully meeting their expectations, according to new data. Why does that gap persist? Algocell co-founder and CEO Omri Schanin explains.

🇨🇳 Industry Insights: Why China is Leveraging Pharma Factories to Establish Its Future Food Leadership
China is repurposing its pharmaceutical manufacturing network to produce novel foods for the global alternative protein industry, strengthening its bid to become a leader in this future-friendly space, according to a new report by GFI APAC.

 💰 Future Food Funding

🇮🇳 Indian startup Arboreal Bioinnovations secured ₹23 crore ($24.2 million) Series A funding to scale up functional ingredients like yeast and plant proteins, sugar replacers, and fibres.
💡The startup says its ingredients serve more than 1,100 consumer and nutraceutical manufacturers, and have powered over 300 product launches in the last 18 months.

🇫🇷 Ferments du Futur, a public-private research initiative to industrialise fermentation technologies for future food production in France, received a €19.1 million ($21.8 million) funding boost from a government agency.
💡Research has shown that if France treats the shift to alternative proteins as a strategic priority, it could add €18 billion in gross value to its economy.

📊 The Robertson Foundation has invested $19 million in six organisations working to lower methane emissions from the food system.
💡The organisations receiving the funding are focused on two key approaches to curbing methane emissions from the food system: plant-forward dietary shifts and food waste reduction.

🇳🇱 The Netherlands Enterprise Agency has committed up to €400,000 ($465,000) for a Partners for International Business cluster to help companies develop blended proteins for the meat-reducing French market.
💡In France, ingredient cultivation and primary processing are strong, but taste, texture and scale still lag.

 ✅ Must-Read Headlines

🍄‍🟫 The Transfarmation Project has opened a demonstration hub in Iowa, turning a former pig factory farm into a space for growing specialty mushrooms.
💡The project aims to demonstrate how transitioning from factory farming to crop production is profitable and sustainable for farmers, key in America’s largest farming state.

✅ Israeli cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms has obtained regulatory approval for its beef steak in Singapore and plans to launch the product in the first half of 2027.
💡Aleph Farms is awaiting approval in the UK, Switzerland, and Thailand, too. 

🌱 Livekindly Collective has agreed to buy Hilton Food Group’s meat-free Dalco Food subsidiary for £5.4 million ($7.3 million).
💡According to Livekindly Collective, the acquisition will bolster its strategy of building a brand-led plant-based food business with a scalable manufacturing platform.

👩🏻‍🌾 The UK’s food and environment ministry has awarded £2.35 million to a project to build one of the world’s largest wetland farming supply chains, led by biomaterials startup Ponda.
💡Modelling by Finance Earth suggests that the project could begin generating commercial revenues within 12 months of its completion.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🧈 US startup C16 Biosciences launched its first food ingredient, a precision-fermented cocoa butter, while expanding its portfolio of yeast-derived fats for the beauty industry.

🐶 Friends & Family Pet Food has added four broth toppers to its cultivated quail lineup for cats and dogs in Singapore, as it works to update the packaging to plug the consumer awareness gap.

💧Canada’s Botaneco is using a water-based oleosome platform to produce superior plant-based fats that rival dairy and conventional supply-strained options.

🥛 A new lifecycle analysis reveals that Oatly’s oat milk now has a 67% lower climate impact than chilled cow’s milk in the UK, up from 55% in 2021, highlighting its shifts in ingredient and energy sources.

🤝🏼 Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks has teamed up with Slovenia’s Acies Bio to scale up production of enhanced Aspergillus niger strains for use in industrial-scale protein solutions.

🏨 Swiss chain Capsule Hotel has become the latest hospitality company to set a food sustainability target to increase the share of plant-based proteins on the 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 Beyond Meat’s ad campaign with Josh Hart, Califia Farms’s banana milk, and a Harvard study on UPFs and health.

📆 Scene & Heard

🇭🇰 Are you a Techstyle or Agrifood startup redefining the future of sustainability? Step into the spotlight at ReThink HK 2026! Pitch your groundbreaking solution to a high-impact crowd of brands, corporates, and investors - and turn your innovation into real momentum through greater visibility, meaningful connections, and powerful partnerships. Find out more and apply here.

🚀 Eatable Adventures has opened applications for NOVO Agrifoodtech, a new international acceleration program designed to help deeptech startups apply technologies developed beyond the food industry, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, advanced materials and quantum computing, to agriculture and food production. Learn more here.

🇪🇺 The first European Hybrid Foods Conference will connect leaders from across the value chain - retail, food service, food brands, manufacturers, ingredient and machinery suppliers - to accelerate the journey from innovation to large-scale adoption. It’s happening 14th-16th September; register here.

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