Spain’s Foodtech Innovation Awards Name Seven Winners Across Sustainability, AI, and Alternative Protein
Seven companies were recognized at the sixth edition of the Foodtech Innovation Awards, held on May 28 as part of Expo Foodtech 2026 and Pick&Pack for Food Industry at the Bilbao Exhibition Center in Spain. The awards, selected from more than 200 applications, span categories including digitalization, sustainability, healthy food, automation, packaging, and startup innovation. Plant-based protein from beverage sidestreams Noiet Foods took the AZTI Award for best healthy food …
Solar Foods’ Solein Enters US Consumer Market in Sports Nutrition Partnership
Finnish food technology company Solar Foods has reached its first US consumer product placement, with sports nutrition brand Ambrosia Collective introducing a Solein-based protein powder under its Planta line for test marketing, ahead of a planned nationwide rollout this summer. The ready-to-mix powder, available in a salted caramel coldbrew flavour, delivers 20g of protein per serving with no sugar. It is currently sold through Ambrosia Collective’s website and on Amazon. …
Investment Climate Podcast: Charles Pontvianne of planetary Shares How to Get Funded in 2026
In this podcast series, Alex Shandrovsky interviews investors about benchmarks for funding Alt Proteins in 2026 and uncovers the investment playbooks of successful Climate Tech CEOs and Leading VCs. Podcast Host Alex Shandrovksy is a strategic advisor to numerous global food tech accelerators and companies, including alternative proteins and cellular agriculture leaders. His focus is on investor relations and post-raise scale for agrifood tech companies. This podcast is syndicated through …
Formo’s Precision-Fermented Casein Enters Active FDA GRAS Review
Food technology company Formo has announced that its recombinant casein, co-developed with Belgian biotech firm Those Vegan Cowboys, is now under active FDA GRAS review. The company claims it is the first precision-fermented casein to reach this stage in the United States, with a no-questions letter expected later this year. Alongside the announcement, Formo has launched a US subsidiary, Formo Foods Inc., and appointed Rx Food Ingredients, LLC as its …
Sun Bear Biofuture Completes £25,000 Pilot Plant for Yeast-Derived Cocoa Butter Alternative
Oxford-based biotech startup Sun Bear Biofuture has completed its first production run using a custom-built pilot plant designed to manufacture a cocoa butter alternative via yeast fermentation, at a setup cost of £25,000 — a fraction of the £350,000 to £1 million typically required for conventional precision fermentation facilities. A low-cost route to scale The pilot plant, which is automated and end-to-end, has production capacity for dozens of kilograms per …
Cats Prefer Cultivated Meat Over Chicken in First Published Feline Feeding Trial
A peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science has found that domestic cats accepted a diet containing cultivated hamster cell biomass at least as well as one based on conventional chicken breast, with the cultivated meat diet actually generating fewer leftovers despite containing significantly less palatability enhancer. The study, conducted jointly by researchers at Ghent University and Czech biotech company BeneMeat, is the first published in vivo assessment of …
Parima Notches Third Approval Milestone in a Year With FSANZ Safety Assessment Completion
Cultivated protein company Parima has completed the core safety risk assessment stage of Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s (FSANZ) novel food approval process for cultivated meat, becoming the first company outside Australia and New Zealand to reach this point in the FSANZ pathway, and only the second company globally to do so. The assessment covers Parima’s cultivated duck, produced from duck embryonic stem cells isolated from fertilized Pekin duck eggs. …
Utah Startup Melazyme Raises $2M Seed Round to Produce Fermentation-Derived Melanin and Brazzein
Melazyme, a precision fermentation startup based in Utah, has closed a $2 million seed round led by SeaX Ventures, with additional participation from Stellaris Venture Partners and Plug and Play Ventures. The capital will go toward platform development, production scale-up, and early commercial deployment. The company was founded in 2025 by Perumal Gandhi, co-founder of Berkeley, California-based Perfect Day, and Bonney Oommen, formerly of Perfect Day, where he served as …
Pacifico Biolabs Closes €7M Series A to Scale Mycelium Protein Through Idle German Brewery Infrastructure
Mycelium fermentation company Pacifico Biolabs has closed a €7 million Series A round to scale production to 200 tonnes per month and begin commercial launches across the DACH region and the Nordics. The round was backed by Stray Dog Capital, Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen (TGFS), Sprout & About Ventures, Simon Capital, FoodLabs, and a regional brewery partner. Repurposing idle brewing capacity The core of Pacifico’s production model involves running its fermentation process …
Standing Ovation’s Sébastien Louvion Renewed as President of Food Fermentation Europe
Sébastien Louvion, Chief Regulatory Officer at precision fermentation company Standing Ovation, has been confirmed for a second term as President of Food Fermentation Europe (FFE), the Brussels-based industry association representing the fermentation-enabled food and ingredients sector in Europe. The renewal covers a one-year mandate. Louvion first took on the presidency in January 2025, succeeding Jevan Nagarajah of Better Dairy. Before assuming the presidency, he had served on FFE’s board since …