Hi Folks,

Nicola here, Future Food Weekly’s resident newsletter editor. Sonalie is living her best life in California at the SynbioBeta 2025 conference (she will be back next week), so I’m here to tell you that today’s edition brings a mix of challenges and new frontiers in the future food world. We’re reporting on mycelium maker Meati Foods’ potential sale for just $4 million (the company has raised $450 million since its founding)—an inflection point for one of alt protein’s most high-profile players. It’s a reminder of the pressures startups face in scaling innovation sustainably.

Also in focus in a few of our exclusives this week: we look at what a possible UK sugar tax on sweetened plant-based milks could mean for the industry, we put the spotlight on new bans on cultivated meat in the US, and highlight a Singapore bar giving diners a literal taste of the future. Plus, we ask: could counting ‘plant points’ help shift diets? 

Elsewhere: a new Federal Supreme Court ruling complicates things for Switzerland’s plant-based meat sector, British vegan pet food player The Pack gets acquired, and Oatly posts strong Q2 earnings.

Let’s dive in.

-Nicola

💡 Green Queen Originals

🇬🇧 Industry Insights: UK Set To Tax Plant-Based Drinks
The UK government is planning to remove the exemption for sweetened dairy and plant-based milk from its sugar tax – what does this mean for non-dairy alternatives?

🇸🇬 Spotlight: This Singapore Bar Shows Diners What The Future Of Food Looks Like
From gas protein and bean-free coffee to cultured quail and upcycled kombucha, Fura is opening up the future of food to Singaporeans.

🌱 Deep Dive: Could ‘Plant Points’ Be The Way To Get People To Eat Less Meat?
As nutritionists and gut health experts encourage consumers to eat 30 different plants a week, could counting ‘plant points’ be an effective nudge to get people to transition to plant-forward diets?

💰5 Minutes With A Future Food VC: Earlybird’s Christian Nagel
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, Christian Nagel, Co-Founder and Partner at Earlybird, explains why AI is revolutionising food tech, and what keeps him motivated.

🚫‘Frankenstein Meets The Matrix’: Montana & Indiana Become Latest US States to Ban Cultivated Meat
Montana’s Governor has signed a bill that prevents the production or sale of cultivated meat in the state, while Indiana has introduced a two-year prohibition. Is it becoming fashionable?

🤝🏼 Big Acquisitions

📉 Mycelium meat CPG leader Meati Foods is set to sell for just $4 million after an unprecedented financial crisis that turned the business on its head.
💡At the beginning of this year, Meati was cruising. It had raised the largest round in the industry in 2024, doubled its revenue, and expanded its retail distribution by 130%.

🐶 British alternative pet food maker The Pack has been acquired by Prefera Petfood, a premium manufacturer founded by industry veterans.
💡The acquisition comes just weeks after the startup co-launched the UK’s first cultivated meat product for pets, and follows Prefera’s deal to co-produce cultivated mouse meat with another firm in Europe.

✅ Must-Read Headlines

🤝🏼 Dutch startup Meatable has partnered with Singapore-based TruMeat to build a large-scale facility to produce cultivated meat at cost-competitive levels.
💡The factory should be able to deliver cultivated meat at the cost levels and volumes required to support Meatable’s commercial partners in formulating, testing, and launching products made with its cultivated pork.

💰 The Climate Bonds Initiative, whose certification programme helps mobilise finance for climate solutions, has introduced a criterion dedicated to unlocking alternative protein investment.
💡The new Alternative Proteins criteria are said to be the first tool for certifying investments in sustainable proteins, and follow two months of public consultations. 

📈 Swedish oat milk leader Oatly recorded its second-best quarter since its Summer 2021 IPO, cutting its year-over-year losses by 73% in Q1 2025.
💡Health misinformation surrounding oat milk, and the ongoing trade war, could complicate things.

🇨🇭Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has introduced labelling rules for plant-based meat products that it claims would avoid confusing customers.
💡Swiss plant-based meat startup Planted, which is set to receive a deadline to rename its products, called the move politically motivated.

📚 Key Research

🌱 A new study led by the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation about consumers in Singapore and the UK illustrates the importance of culture when assessing people’s motivations for eating plant-based meat, with clues for brands on how to leverage the cultural contrast - AKA: plant-based meat is too generic.

☠️ In an international study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, experts suggest that ultra-processed foods and the “artificial” additives in them can raise the risk of premature death.

🤰🏻 New research published in the BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth journal reveals that only 72% of midwives feel prepared to advise pregnant patients on plant-based nutrition, highlighting the need for further education.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🫘 Eat Just has added a new single-ingredient protein powder to its portfolio, made from the same mung bean base as its Just Egg, and which the company says has more protein than “anything else on the market”.

🌾 At Sharjah’s Mleiha Wheat Farm, agricultural experts have developed a variety of the grain with 19.3% native protein content, potentially offering a major breakthrough for the UAE’s food security and export market.

🐟 US cultivated seafood startup BlueNalu is targeting an initial launch of its bluefin tuna in California and has cemented partnerships to take the product global.

🍗 Beyond Meat launched plant-based Chicken Pieces at Kroger stores across the US, marking a new iteration of its first-ever product, and the return of a fan favourite.

🌱🍔  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 the Science Museum’s future food exhibit, Beyond Steak’s UK debut, and a Dutch public-private plant-based partnership.

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📆 Scene & Heard

Don’t Miss the HackSummit NEXT WEEK in Lausanne!

🇨🇭 Whether you’re looking for new talents to add to your radar, find your next investment, or seal your next partnership deal, you’re sure to find a whole host of opportunities waiting for you at the HackSummit NEXT WEEK! Don’t miss out, get your ticket here.

🇺🇸 The Food Protein Summit 2025, happening 25th-26th August, will host leaders in nutrition, science, and technology to drive advancements in food protein production and create an accessible, sustainable food system. Find out more and register here.

🇳🇱 On 13th May, The Protein Community is hosting Generative ProtAIn, an exclusive acceleration session designed to equip you with practical AI applications in precision fermentation, personalized protein development, and smarter product design. Find out more here.

🌱 ProVeg Incubator’s latest cohort features 10 innovative startups revolutionising the plant-based and fermentation-driven food sectors. These startups are advancing sustainable solutions, from plant-based seafood and precision-fermented proteins to upcycled ingredients and novel fats. Learn more about these stellar companies here.