Chunk Foods

Founded in 2020, Chunk Foods is an Israel-based plant-based meat startup envisioned and formed at MIT by Founder Amos Golan. The company claims to be the first to enable large-scale production of realistic whole-muscle cut meat substitutes. Chunk Foods uses its proprietary solid-state fermentation technology to combine plant ingredients and food-grade microorganisms to create whole-cut meat analogs. The company initially plans to produce beef alternatives and later seafood and poultry alternatives. Chunk Foods intends to replicate the taste, structure, nutritional profile, and other attributes of animal meat while keeping a clean and short ingredient list.

In May 2024, Chunk Foods expanded its portfolio with Chunk Slabs and Chunk Cubes. The Chunk Slab, weighing over 3 lbs, claims to be the largest plant-based meat slab yet and is developed as an alternative to brisket.

Key customers and partnerships

In August 2023, Chunk Foods partnered with Florida-based The Talk of the Town Restaurant Group, to offer a plant-based steak option across its restaurants. Through the partnership, the restaurant group intended to purchase and launch 100,000 Chunk steak alternatives across its network of restaurants. In September 2023, the company partnered with vegan fast-casual restaurant Neat Burger to introduce the Chunk Steak Sandwich at Neat Burger's Nolita location in Manhattan. Further, in October 2023, Chunk Foods partnered with Monster Vegan, a Philadelphia-based vegan comfort food restaurant, to expand the distribution of its flagship product, Chunk Steak.

In January 2024, the company inked a strategic partnership with Mexico-based multinational food processing company Sigma Alimentos to supply plant-based proteins for Sigma’s Better Balance product line. Following this, in April 2024, the companies developed a 100% plant-based meat substitute called "Better-nera" for the Spanish market. In June 2024, Chunk Foods partnered with NYC restaurant chain Jajaja Mexicana to offer tacos and chimichangas featuring chunk steak. In August 2024, it partnered with Pastrami Queen, a traditional NYC Jewish deli, to introduce a plant-based pastrami sandwich.

Funding and financials

In April 2023, the company announced that it had raised USD 15 million in a seed funding round held in November 2022 led by Fall Line Capital with participation from The MIT E14 fund and Robert Downey Jr.’s Foot Print Coalition. The funds were to be used for building a large-scale production facility slated to be completed in the summer of 2023. Further, in January 2024, Chunk Foods secured USD 7.5 million in seed extension funding led by Cheyenne Ventures. The fresh funding was earmarked for expanding its commercial and operations teams across the US to secure nationwide distribution and boost the number of local distribution alliances.