JUST

Eat Just secured an infusion of new capital and, according to an announcement late Friday, the funds will go toward improving the product’s quality and the business’ bottom line.

The cultivated meat and seafood space continued to cash large checks and garner new investor support in 2022. However, as regulatory powers in the U.S. pushed the industry closer to commercialization, discussions surrounding future challenges to scale, like price parity and consumer adoption, continue to generate uncertain expectations for growth.

GOOD Meat Inc. has received the go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin producing its cell-cultivated chicken product stateside.

Next week brands and entrepreneurs from across the CPG industry will soon come together at Natural Products Expo West to highlight their latest product innovations along with new technology and trends. Both NOSH and BevNET will have ongoing coverage over the coming days, but here’s a quick preview of just some of the new releases from exhibiting brands, including Goodles, Rob’s Backstage Popcorn and Siete.

Plant-based food company Eat Just recently laid off about 40 of its over 300 employees, totaling 18% of its JUST Egg division. The California-based company’s cultured protein business, GOOD Meat, was not impacted.

In this week’s Checkout, Weee! acquires online Asian food delivery company RICEPO; Oatly debuts an upcycled merch line and announces a new research and innovation center in Sweden; JUST Egg’s key ingredient secures regulatory approval in the EU; and Nestlé reports its third quarter results.

In this week’s Checkout, plant-based nutrition company Equinom raises $20 million; Cuisine Solutions recalls JUST Egg bites; LiveKindly launches two new brands aimed at Gen Z in China; and Motif Foodworks announces new meat alternative tech.

In this week’s investment-focused Checkout, nut butter and snack brand Abby’s Better lands $1 million and adds Kevin Love and Kate Bock as investors; cultivated meat company Meatable secures $47 million; and JUST Egg maker Eat Just raises $200 million.

Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make a plant-based omelette. When JUST — then known as Hampton Creek — started up roughly a decade ago, founder Josh Tetrick wanted to shake up the food industry. While his goal has remained the same, the path has changed. The company has expanded its strategy beyond its own branded products to form strategic partnerships with a focus on ingredients as the way forward. To start, the company announced this week a new food service partnership with Michael Foods, a subsidiary of Post Holdings and one of the largest processors of egg products in the world.

Investors are banking on a plant-based ingredient that behaves like egg whites — with potential use across a broad range of food and beverage categories. B2B food tech startup Plantible announced this week the close of a $4.6M seed round.

Plant-based labeling lawsuit dropped, Kroger rebrands, Tofurky Christmas sweaters and more in this week’s Checkout.

Venture firm PowerPlant Ventures announced yesterday the close of its second fund. At over three times the size of its predecessor, Fund II, which closed at $165 million, will allow the company to further refine its deal structure, co-founder and partner Mark Rampolla told NOSH. He added that the firm “[wants] to change this mindset that capital only cares about return.”

Plant-based brands fight labeling laws, find breakfast partnerships in this week’s Checkout.

While there were plenty of buzzy, ketogenic, CBD-enhanced, cauliflower-based products lurking in Expo booths, if you looked deeper, several larger themes within the natural food industry emerged — including retail channel strategies, the effects of integrated sets and sleepy categories seeing new attention.