12 start-ups in the spotlight at Future Food-Tech New York
Future Food-Tech New York returns as a virtual summit on 2-3 December
The organiser of Future Food-Tech New York has revealed the names of the start-ups set to showcase their technologies at this year’s event, which is scheduled to go live on 2-3 December through an online platform.
“There has never been a greater need for new technologies to accelerate the future of food. We are excited to unveil the standout solutions that are spearheading the next generation of food-tech innovation at the summit this December,” said Jet Luckhurst, technology scout at Future Food-Tech.
With a proven track-record for scouting the most exciting and freshest technologies, the summit unveils twelve innovators offering unique approaches to meet the industry’s hottest challenges.
Clean food production
Orbillion Bio is building an advanced bioplatform for functional testing of cell lines for cultivated meat – a solution that is ready for rapid scalability and wide-spread adoption.
“Our mission is to bring healthy, ethical, and flavorful cultivated meat with a story to the modern consumer,” explains Patricia Bubner, co-founder and chief executive at Orbillion Bio.
Pargon Pure addresses the need for functional ingredients for clean label products. “Consumers want real foods made with real food ingredients, not synthetic additives,” said Chris Gregson, founder at Pargon Pure.
By working with nature to enhance the nutrition, sustainability and authenticity of packaged foods, Paragon Pure creates high-performance speciality flours by guiding traditional grain sprouting processes towards precise functional properties. Its flours can be used to replace additives and deliver natural flavours, colours and nutrients into wholesome foods.
Tait Labs produces sustainable food and pharma ingredients upcycled from natural sources by unlocking the health potential trapped in the four million tons of mandarin orange peel produced annually. “We are ready to share our vision of how it tackles the two massive problems of food waste and chronic disease,” said Andrew Tait, chief executive of Tait Labs.
Next-gen plant-based food
In the plant-based scene, Bevo is disrupting the market with a machine that can transform any plant-based protein powder into a muscle-like fibrous structure that can then be shaped into whole cut steaks. “We can currently produce beef, pork and chicken-like steaks with a lab-scale capacity,” said Tilen Travnik, chief executive at Bevo.
Those Vegan Cowboys is tapping into the plant-based dairy alternative with new fermentation technology for expressing casein genes in yeast and fungi.
“Casein is then produced on a large scale by grass-fed fermentation,” explained Jaap Korteweg, chief executive at Those Vegan Cowboys and founding partner of The Vegetarian Butcher.
Korteweg is taking the next step in dairy production, from hand milking via the milking machine to the fully automatic milking robot of today.
The Live Green Co is disrupting the way the world consumes food by recommending 100% natural plant alternatives for the animal as well as synthetic and highly-processed additives in our daily foods.
“The Live Green Co is participating in the TechHub at Future Food-Tech to scout for like-minded production and distribution partners globally, along with networking with industry peers,” said Pri Srinivas, founder and chief executive at The Live Green Co
Foodtech as a platform
Protera has created a process called Natural Intelligence, which takes advantage of proprietary AI algorithms to craft functional proteins.
“We are leveraging our deep learning technology to shine a light on a previously untapped universe of functional proteins. Our team is developing next-generation clean-label texturising and food-preserving proteins,” explains Leonardo Alvarez, co-founder and chief executive at Protera.
Biotech company Canomiks uses genomics, bioinformatics, and an AI-based platform to test and certify biological efficacy and safety of ingredients and formulations.
“The basis of food is an ingredient, and the basis of human life is a gene. By leading the way in understanding and mapping the relationship between ingredients and human genes, we are making food as medicine a reality,” said Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, chief executive at Canomiks.
Novel ingredients
Stephane Corgie, chief executive of Zymtronix said the company has developed proprietary technology to deliver a unique, clean method of enzyme immobilisation.
“Zymtronix packs and deploys enzymes as green catalysts, making ingredients more efficiently and precisely than chemistry or fermentation,” explained chief executive Stephane Corgie.
The breakthrough enzyme immobilisation platform improves the activity, stability and reusability of any enzyme to tackle the complex production of novel ingredients while developing efficient processes and lowering costs.
Bespoken Spirits has developed proprietary technology that makes it possible to extract the key elements of the barrel that enhance aroma, colour and taste (ACT) with precision, control and speed.
“[We] precisely tailor spirits for aroma, colour and taste in just days by replacing the antiquated and wasteful barrel ageing process with sustainable science and technology,” said Stu Aaron, co-founder at Bespoken Spirits.
Alternative packaging
StenCo has developed an oxygen barrier, which the company claims is better than most plastics to keep food fresh.
“Using a novel approach and solid polymer science, StenCo is utilising inexpensive, nature-based materials to address some of today’s most pressing environmental issues,” said chief executive John Brown.
Senorics designs and builds miniaturised material sensing sensor solutions to provide insights into the composition of food and beverages.
“Now, we are looking to connect with industry leaders to identify the high impact and beneficial applications to the benefit of organisations and consumers alike,” said Robert Langer, chief commercial officer at Senorics.
All the start-up in the showcase will be quizzed by the summit’s shark panel of investors to drill down into the potential of each solution.
Shark panellist Tomer Diari, vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners, said: “Emerging companies are leveraging innovative technology alongside the Silicon Valley playbook to disrupt the food industry. We’re excited to see them completely transforming the industry throughout the next decade.”
The virtual Future Food-Tech Summit will bring together food brands, retailers, ingredient manufacturers, technology providers and investors for two days of online networking and knowledge-exchange.