Hope for cultivated meat?
What I talk about when I talk about which cultivated fish startup got the green light from the FDA, what major grocery distributor was hacked and the new butter made in a beaker.
Hello and welcome to Technically Food, my newsletter about how technology is changing the food we eat. I’m making up for all the weeks I took off so today I’m dropping into your in box with some interesting news from the food-tech world. Next week, I’ll write about the food scene in China. Ultra-processed? Yep. 7-11’s around every curve? That too. Interesting things I saw and ate. Yep yep.
So the news.
Wild Type, a cultured meat startup in San Francisco, announced it finally received a green light from the FDA, the regulatory agency for food safety in the US. A green light means the FDA has agreed Wild Type’s cultivated salmon is safe to eat and the startup can start selling it. If you live in Portland, and can somehow get a reservation at Kann – I could not – then you can be one of the earliest to taste the salmon. (Side note: the chef appears in an online video for the launch in a fancy jogging outfit running through Portland to the doors of his restaurant.) The team at Wild Type wants it to be eaten raw, like sushi. I’ve tried the salmon in a few iterations over the last two years. In its current formulation, I think it’s best served as a component to a dish. My most recent sample was at Loveski’s, a deli in Marin county that served it atop a toasted bagel with cream cheese, capers and red onions. My mom tasted it and said that with all the other good stuff she’d be happy to eat it instead of the real thing.
I bet you want to know if you can tell the difference? I think so. Is the salmon 100% cultivated salmon cells? I’ve asked many times and did not get a definitive answer. I asked an industry expert what they thought it could be. They texted: “They do not explicitly say, but based on data they admit online, at its lowest it might be 1.3% salmon cells to at most 12.8% salmon cells.” Interesting stuff. I’ve been told that the scaffold, the framework to embed the salmon cells, is plant-based.
Why wouldn’t they make it 100%? The biggest reason is because the process is slow and very expensive. In today’s world, Investors won’t want to see money being ignited to hit 100%. The remaining percentage is likely plant proteins and fats, and perhaps binders. These are things other cultivated meat startups admit to needing to perfect the texture. This isn’t news any company wants to share, but it’s important for transparency. We should have full view to what’s in our food and how it’s made. Even if not everyone cares to go deep.
Kudos to Green Queen for landing this news, which is very exciting despite some states making the sales of cultivated beef or chicken illegal. (You actually can’t buy either of these anywhere in the US so this seems like efforts that could be better spent on ensuring our food system is healthier for everyone.)
Other news…
Have you been to the grocery store this week? Major food distributor UNFI was hacked and it’s causing some huge gaps in everyday staples. For those that don’t know, UNFI is the main distributor to Whole Foods and other markets that rely on natural, organic and specialty goods. The hackers were spotted in UNFI’s system last week!! And it’s still doesn’t look to be resolved. I stopped by Whole Foods on Wednesday, and there was A Lot Missing including crackers, nuts, plant-based milks, bread and more. I’d venture to guess that more shelves and a wider variety of products are missing than what happened in March 2020. Next question is why the attackers did it? To make the stock price drop, which it has, or to show how “easy” it is to threaten food distribution?
Enough startups have opened up shop in the Sacramento region that I may need to plan a road trip to go visit them all. Why? It’s cheaper than San Francisco yet still close to talent at UC Davis and other area schools. In 2022, Gotham Greens opened a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse there specifically because of Davis. In April, UC ANR Innovate – the UC school innovation arm for agriculture and natural resources – announced it had received a grant to build a new innovation facility called The Plant. The almost one million dollar grant was awarded through the California Jobs First initiative and will foster agrifood innovation, sustainable agriculture, and biotech between government, academia and private business. It’s too hot in Sacramento for me, but I know a few gardeners that make it work in spades.
In April, I picked up a croissant at a pop up at Jane the Bakery in San Francisco made with butter from Savor. The San Jose startup has developed a process to create fat by chemically synthesizing fatty acids from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen using heat and pressure. These fatty acids are combined with glycerol to form triglycerides. Savor hopes to eventually capture and use methane gas say from cows on farms but it’s probably too complicated to launch with. While I was there, I also bought a traditional croissant so that I could try them side by side. The croissant with real butter stayed softer longer and there was a slight difference in taste; something I could only pick up on because I was looking for it. Savor is now making its fats in a 25,000-sq-ft plant in Batavia, Illinois. One day soon perhaps there may be enough product so Jane the Bakery and others can stock thermochemical butter croissants full time. For now, you can order bonbons by One65 made with butter that Bill Gates said he “wouldn't be able to tell wasn’t butter” in this video.
Savor croissant on the left — half eaten I couldn’t wait; and the full-size traditional butter version from Jane the Bakery. Everyone is talking about the free waffles at Hampton Inn. I stayed at a location in Las Vegas a few years back. The rooms were big, clean and comfortable. I loved waking up to free breakfast and my cousins both devoured the waffles. In China, there were waffles at my hotel buffet in Chengdu. Best part? Staff broke them up into quadrants so I could take one corner. There was a mesh screen so I could shake some powdered sugar atop it. A perfect bite.
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Hope these novelties take you into the weekend looking for something new to taste. Here’s a quick poll to get some input on what you think of these innovations.
This is a fascinating subject. I've never heard of cultivated meats/proteins. What's the difference between cultivated salmon and farmed salmon?
Have you been to Bageltopia in Berkeley yet? I finally went there and tried their vegan lox, which is made from carrots and is pretty good. Mind you, I haven't eaten actual lox in many years, so my taste-memory isn't fresh. But I wonder how the taste of that lox might compare with the taste of Wild Type's salmon, especially if their salmon is less than 12.8% salmon cells . . . ? Naturally, lox isn't meant to replace fillets of salmon.
Also, re. butter from Savor. I guess the tech is intended to formulate butter as an ingredient, more so than as straight butter to serve on something. I think Miyoko's plant-based butter does a really great job. I recommend it to everyone.