Reducing deforestation

Making mycoprotein uses far fewer resources than conventional meat production. It doesn’t need anywhere near as much land as animal agriculture, for example, which relies on cutting down forests to create more space for cattle herds. The beef industry, in particular, is a key driver of deforestation around the world, especially in the Amazon.

According to new research from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, partially replacing beef with mycoprotein could cut deforestation rates in half.

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The study, published in the journal Nature, concluded that replacing 20 percent of the world’s per-capita beef consumption with mycoprotein would not only significantly cut deforestation rates, but could also cause an 11 percent reduction in methane emissions.

Animal agriculture is the largest polluter of methane, a heat-trapping gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

‘People can continue eating burgers’

But reducing meat consumption doesn’t mean that consumers have to go without their favorite foods. Quorn offers a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian meat products. There are Hot & Spicy Burgers, Steak Bakes, Turkish Style Kebabs, Sausage Rolls, and more, all made from mycoprotein. 

Dr. Florian Humpenöder, who led the study, told the Guardian: “The food system is at the root of a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, with ruminant meat production being the single largest source.”

“The good news is that people do not need to be afraid they can eat only greens in the future. They can continue eating burgers and the like, it’s just that those burger patties will be produced in a different way.”

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For example, Dutch cell-based meat brand Mosa Meat can create 80 beef burgers using just one cow cell sample. According to the food-tech startup, the result is “indistinguishable” from conventionally produced burgers.

Together with university professors, NGOs, and other startups and industry players, Mosa Meat helped to form a consortium called Cellular Agriculture Netherlands. The consortium put forward the funding proposal to the government.

The money will go towards the sector’s overall development, which includes education around cell-based meat and furthering innovation. The funding is the first part of the Netherlands’ larger growth plan, which will see between €252 and €382 million invested in cellular agriculture. 

A fast-growing industry

Mosa Meat isn’t the only cell-based meat company in the Netherlands. Like Mosa Meat, Meatable takes samples from animals, like cows and pigs. It uses them to grow real meat, without harm, in only a few weeks.

Around the world, the cultured meat sector is taking off. By 2030, the global market is predicted to surpass a value of $12 billion. In Singapore, regulatory approval for cultured meat has been granted, and cell-based chicken has already been served in a restaurant.

“Cultured meat is a fast-growing industry,” said Daan Luining, the co-founder of Meatable, in a statement. “It’s important to invest and support education and research across all areas from universities to research labs as well as informing the wider population about this dynamic industry.”

“This is an exciting next step in the development of the cellular agriculture ecosystem, supporting this innovative new industry like so many other emerging industries before it, and one that will be beneficial to us all.”

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The meat-free chicken brand has seen rapid success in several culinary hubs across the world, including the United States, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Singapore (where Next Gen Foods was established).

The move into UK restaurants marks the brand’s second European launch, only six months after its debut in Amsterdam.

Taking animals out of the equation

Former meat-loving engineer Andre Menezes began to look at food differently after recognizing how inefficient and archaic the animal farming system is. Menezes went on to create TiNDLE, which claims to be the first plant-based chicken designed by chefs, for chefs.

“Since the very start, we have known that bringing TiNDLE to London would be a critical milestone for the company. It is not only one of the world’s premier food destinations, but also a global hot spot for innovation,” said Menezes in a recent statement.

“We are thrilled to be working alongside some fantastic restaurant partners and chefs in the UK, who are helping us achieve our goal of bringing delicious – but also sustainable – options to diners.”

Some of the confirmed menu items include meat-free Coronation chicken sandwiches, Wellingtons, Katsu dishes, curries, and chicken steak burgers. 

London locations

More than 50 locations are set to offer TiNDLE thanks to partnerships with iconic eateries and restaurant groups, including BrewDog, Aqua Shard, Get Plucked, City Spice, Other Side Fried, sketch London, Let’s Do Maki, Refuel Your Soul, Paternoster Chop House, Unity Diner, and Neyba.

Ben Hedley, the co-founder of the multi-cuisine kitchen Neyba, shared: “TiNDLE has been a mind-blowing experience for our chef team at Neyba. It is not just the texture, but also the fibers within the protein and how quickly it absorbs various marinades, seasonings, and sauces.

“TiNDLE is incredibly versatile and has added a whole new dimension to our plant-based offering.”

TiNDLE’s pop-up event is coming soon

To celebrate its UK debut, TiNDLE will be hosting a three-day pop-up in Soho in partnership with Sides, a food brand from YouTube collective The Sidemen. At the event, held between April 27 to 29, attendees will have the chance to sample complimentary TiNDLE sliders.

To find out if TiNDLE is available near you, head on over to its website.

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But what about meat made from thin air? It seems way too futuristic to be true, but it’s real.

Inspired by old NASA research, which focused on innovative ways to feed astronauts on long space missions, California-based food tech startup Air Protein uses carbon capture to literally turn air into protein.

Put (relatively) simply, the brand uses microbes to recycle purified food-grade CO2 and combines it with water and energy to create protein. After that, in a process similar to beer fermentation, the protein is turned into a flour-like substance.

Oils, nutrients, and flavorings are added to turn that powder into the end product: Air Meat. The totally vegan product resembles either steak, chicken, fish, or pork.

Why we need Air Meat

According to founder Lisa Dyson, Air Protein is driven by an impact-focused mission to transform the food system.

Conventional meat products are the product of animal agriculture. The outdated and destructive industry not only slaughters billions of animals, but also contributes around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions and destroys rainforests. (According to a study by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 80 percent of the Amazon has been cut down by ranchers.)

Some may be confused by the idea of using air to make products that taste like meat. But Dyson says it is an essential concept to explore. It doesn’t require anywhere near as many natural resources but gives those who enjoy meat products a credible, realistic-tasting alternative, she says.

Dyson told Dezeen: “We have a mission at Air Protein to accelerate the world’s transition to climate and rainforest-friendly meat. That mission requires us to make products that meat-eaters love.”

“We are focused on delivering taste, texture, and nutritional outcomes that will make the environmentally-friendly choice the easy choice.”

This article was originally published on April 20, 2022. It was corrected on April 27 to state that Air Protein uses food-grade CO2.

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After reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, Barrymore vowed to reduce her chicken intake. Eating Animals shines a light on the morals surrounding boycotting meat, and exposes the animal cruelty involved in intensive farming. It’s also part of the reason why Barrymore recently partnered with Quorn.

The UK-based vegetarian food brand is known for making realistic-tasting meatless nuggets, wings, fillets, and more using mycoprotein (which is derived from fungi). At the end of last year—as Quorn launched its Meatless ChiQin Cutlets and Wings in the US—Barrymore took on a position with the company titled “Chief Mom Officer.”

The actor, who shot to fame as a child after playing roles like “Gertie” in 1982’s E.T., is also a passionate cook and cookbook author. In her role with Quorn, Barrymore is helping to develop new products and recipes for its website.

While plant-based meat has, historically, been more expensive than conventional meat products, brands like Quorn are helping to bring prices down. Last year, a study analyzed several vegan meat products on sale in the UK and found that Quorn had some of the cheapest options on offer. 

‘Easy, Findable, Affordable’

In the US, Quorn is also trying to keep its products’ prices as low as possible, according to Yahoo! Finance. All of its suggested retail prices sit below the $5 mark.

“I just want it to be easy and findable and affordable,” Barrymore told the publication. “Families cannot be expected to go to a farm stand and cook a full meal all of the time. These aspirations are not true to life. You have to find people where they are and find out what they need — and be gracious and thoughtful about it.”

Other plant-based meat companies, like popular US brands Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, are also trying to reduce the prices of their products as much as possible.

In August of last year, Dennis Woodside, the president of Impossible Foods, told CNBC: “We’ve lowered our retail prices and our foodservice prices twice in the last 18 to 20 months, each time by 15 percent to 20 percent, so pretty meaningful price drops.”

“Currently, our product on the shelf is priced a little higher than organic grass-fed beef, so that’s still a premium price, and we know we need to get that down over time.”

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Founded by Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia, the company is on a mission to feed Africa’s growing population with sustainably produced protein.

Like most cellular meat companies, Mzansi Meat Co’s food scientists cultivated the burger in a lab, after collecting cells from a living animal (in this case, a cow from a local animal sanctuary). 

The cells were isolated and grown in a culture medium. Then, they were placed on an edible structure and combined with spices and flavoring to produce the end product.

Why produce cultured meat?

Conventional animal agriculture is destructive to the environment and contributes 14.5 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. This has motivated innovators to think of new ways to produce the foods we love, in more sustainable ways.

While many brands are making meat-like products out of plants, the cell-based meat market is growing too.

Mzansi Meat Co is the first to produce a cultured meat burger in Africa, but in Singapore, cell-based meat has already appeared on restaurant menus.

The Singapore Food Authority became the first in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat in 2020. And last year, California brand Eat Just debuted cultured chicken at 1880, one of the country’s top restaurants.

‘Our burger is only the beginning’

Mzansi Meat hopes to follow closely in Africa.

“Cellular agriculture wasn’t an industry in Africa until Mzansi was born,” said Thompson. “Our burger is only the beginning, we now know it’s possible and the next step is scaling up. It starts with one small beef burger and we aim to be producing tons of cultivated meat every month in the future.”

According to Karodia, the brand will now focus on cultivated sausages. After that, it’ll tackle meat that can be substituted in traditional cuisines across Africa. “Everything we make will be braai-friendly and ready for the fire,” she said.

The cultivated meat market has significant potential when it comes to removing animals from the food system. According to McKinsey, a management consulting firm, by 2030, the sector could make up “billions of pounds of the world’s meat supply.”

The post Cultured Beef Burgers Arrive In Africa For The First Time appeared first on Plant Based News.

To this day, Selfridges is still making headlines. But times have changed, and now, the store is leading the way toward a more sustainable future of food. It is the first of its kind in the world to serve Redefine Meat’s plant-based, 3D-printed products.

In Israel, in 2018, Redefine Meat created its groundbreaking innovation: 3D-printed plant-based steak. Now, it uses a combination of material science, artificial intelligence, and 3D printers to also create realistic-tasting, 100 percent vegan versions of lamb, sausage, ground beef, and beef burgers.

Plant-based meat 20 times more efficient

In Harry Gordon’s Bar & Kitchen and The Brass Rail Restaurant, Selfridges will serve the brand’s sausage and lamb New-Meat alternatives in a Spanish white bean stew and ciabatta roll, respectively.

“Selfridges stands out as a worldwide brand synonymous with quality. Its in-store restaurants are no different and that’s why it’s a natural step for Redefine Meat’s New-Meat products, as defined by their quality, to be listed on their menus,” said Redefine Meat’s CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit in a statement. 

“We’re confident that it will continue to surprise and impress the public with the same delicious taste and texture of animal meat, and its truly ground-breaking environmental benefits,” he added.

According to the brand, the production of its plant-based meat is 20 times more efficient than animal agriculture. Compared with the beef industry, it uses 96 percent less water, 98 percent less land, and emits just a fraction of the greenhouse gasses. 

The rising popularity of 3D-printed meat 

Selfridges is the first department store to serve Redefine Meat’s products, but it’s far from alone in the industry.

In Israel, 3D-printed meat is available from a number of hotels and restaurants, and Redefine’s products can also be ordered in Berlin and Amsterdam.

In the UK, Marco Pierre White, restaurateur and esteemed celebrity chef, added Redefine Meat’s plant-based steaks to menus at his steakhouses last year. At the time, he told the Telegraph that he was “mind-blown” at the taste of the 3D-printed meat, before admitting that “the world needs to eat less meat.”

In the UK, the plant-based meat industry is thriving. In fact, in 2021, companies in the UK alternative protein market raised £212 million. A significant improvement on 2020, when brands in the space raised £55 million.

It helps that Brits are increasingly choosing meatless options for environmental and ethical reasons. Last year, data showed that meat and fish consumption in the UK dropped by 17 percent in the last decade.

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