Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the food industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked food startups reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Food Startups reducing GHG Emissions
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 175 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 food startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 170 food startups reducing GHG emissions, get in touch.
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Vow produces Cultured Meat
Meat production consumes large amounts of water and accounts for significant methane emissions. Besides, there are ethical concerns regarding how the industry operates. Developments in food biotechnology offer opportunities to produce sustainable meat using cell culture techniques. This batch process limits the slaughtering and also provides uniform taste and texture to the processed meat.
Australian startup Vow innovates in cell-based cultured meat technology. The startup selects self-renewing animal cells and cultures them to produce in-vitro meat. Besides culturing meat from common sources like chicken, pork, beef, and bacon, Vow focuses on deciphering cell lines of exotic animals and stores them in their cell library. Some of the cell-based meat in their pipeline are alpaca, water buffalo, and kangaroo. With cell recombination techniques, the startup formulates a new category of food with a tailored process and novel characteristics like taste, texture, nutritive value, and more.
Flying Spark offers Insect Protein Powders
Although plants like legumes, pulses offer an alternative to animal protein, their cultivation furthers deforestation. Farming increases methane emissions both directly and indirectly. This is why edible insects are emerging as an alternative food source that requires less land. Growing, breeding, and extracting protein from insects require less time, effort, and water, making them a source of sustainable food production.
Israeli startup Flying Spark extracts protein powder and oil from Mediterranean fruit fly larvae. The fruit fly protein source production process reduces the greenhouse gas emission 70 times as compared to conventional animal-based production. Flying Spark provides high-quality protein powder, which has 70% protein and high mineral bioavailability. The startup also extracts oil from fruit fly that contains palmitoleate (Omega-7), an unsaturated fatty acid with multiple health benefits.
Back of the Yard algae sciences develops Algae-based Food Colors
Conventionally, chemicals are used to produce food colors. The cultivation and extraction of colorants from fruits yields colorants of specific types and colors. However, it requires land usage, long harvesting time, and methane-emitting processing practices. This is why startups are developing sustainable replacements for food colorants.
A startup from the US, Back of the Yards algae sciences develops food colors from spirulina. It uses a proprietary solvent composition and a pressure-free production process. The startup’s product, BYAS-C501, is a water-soluble blue colorant for food and beverages. BYAS-C501 has high color retention and antioxidant properties. The company uses biostimulants and performs vertical farming to produce spirulina. The whole production process ensures zero emissions and a non-toxic phycocyanin-rich colorant for food processing.
Ellie provides Insect-based Ingredients
Insects are a sustainable food production source. Achieving mass production of food from insects requires high adaptation and efficient breeding methods of the target insect species. Thus, the type of insect reared also plays an important role in reliable production and high protein yield. Hence, the alternative utility of an established insect industry like sericulture is beneficial. Sustainable sericulture offers a reduced carbon footprint and GHG emission production process. Food startups are experimenting with combinations of production processes and insect sources to optimize insect protein production.
Japanese startup Ellie develops sustainable alternative meat food products from silkworm moths. The startup introduces gene manipulations in silk moths to produce Silkfood, a new alternative protein. Ellie produces and serves a menu of staple food dishes, desserts, and more in its Silk food Lab. The startup has recently introduced additive-free silk food, non-fried chips. Ellie aims to introduce more sustainable and high-protein alternatives in near future.
Air Protein makes Protein from Air
The large-scale farming of livestock for nutrition-rich food harms the environment as well as raises ethical concerns. A probiotic process, similar to a technique used by astronauts to produce food in space, offers an effective alternative. The process enables protein production for human consumption from thin air. By offering an alternative to livestock for protein production, the process reduces methane emissions.
US-based startup Air Protein develops air-based protein using a proprietary probiotic production process. The startup’s protein has an amino acid profile comparable to traditional meat. The probiotic process creates a closed-loop carbon cycle, thus nullifying the harmful emissions from agriculture or livestock production. In addition to reducing emissions, this speeds up the production of protein food.
Discover more Food Startups
Food startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on sustainable agriculture, food waste management, and sustainable sourcing. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the food industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more food technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free FoodTech Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
