Analyst Take: Alabama and Florida have imposed state-wide bans and penalties for the production or sale of cultured meat. The two laws overshadowed the USDA’s landmark decision last year to approve the sale of cultivated meat in the US. Meanwhile, the newly-housed REAL Meat Act of 2024 aims to prohibit the use of federal funds for any activities related to cultivated meat, citing dangers to human health and the livelihood of traditional meat producers. Cultured meat producers, already struggling with high production costs, now face additional challenges in responding to these bans, potentially pushing back commercialization timelines.
Analyst Take: Food tech funding continued its recovery, increasing for the fourth consecutive quarter and reaching its highest level since Q1 2023. This was led by several high-profile rounds, including Meati’s USD 100 million megadeal, Prolific Machines’ USD 55 million Series B, and Voyage Foods’ USD 52 million Series A. Early- and growth-stage funding accounted for 75% of total investments, the highest since 2022. These investments were mostly focused on companies producing ingredients for alternative meat and dairy applications, such as Solar Foods, Enifer, and MOA Foodtech. Funding was primarily allocated to commercialization, capacity scaling, and market expansion, potentially paving the way for increased product and market activity in the alternative meat, dairy, and ingredients sectors in the second half of the year.
Analyst Take: The National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show, the premier annual foodservice trade event held in May in Chicago, shined a light on PBM innovations from Chunk Foods, Oshi, and Tofurky, highlighting the potential of alternative meats in the foodservice space. PBM was a common theme at the NRA Show, with foodservice venues reporting improvements in their customer and sales figures, following the addition of plant-based products onto menus. Meanwhile, GOOD Meat, the pioneering company in the commercial sale of cultivated meat and the only one with regulatory approval in multiple countries, became the first ever to initiate retail sales of cultivated meat with the launch of its latest innovation, GOOD Meat 3, at Huber's Butchery in Singapore.
Analyst Take: Food tech incumbents Unilever, Starbucks, CJ CheilJedang, Pulmuone, Cargill, and Danone inked strategic partnerships across the F&B value chain, focusing on product innovations, distribution channels, and production process improvement. CCM startups focused on integrating advanced tech like AI and robotics to enhance production processes. The intentions behind these partnerships include improving the efficiency and precision of production while reducing the risk of cross-contamination, real-time data collection and analysis, and development of sustainable mass-production systems.
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