Bühler hosts 80 game-changing startups as part of MassChallenge program

Another week and another superb batch of stories for you, with new products, funding announcements, tech breakthroughs and several key studies dominating our headlines.

First up, we were intrigued to hear that a UK brand is shaking up the menus of UK hospitals with a novel partnership to supply its mycoprotein for a new wave of 'hybrid meat' products. The rollout is expected to be gradual, with the first blended meat options appearing on hospital menus by the end of 2024.

Meanwhile, as the Italian government worries about misleading meat-eaters, a new poll suggests a different story. A survey conducted by The Good Food Institute (GFI) found that a whopping 69% of Italians believe terms like 'hamburger' are perfectly suitable for plant-based options.

The early-stage startups selected for the 2024 MassChallenge Switzerland have been announced, and come from 37 countries, spanning five continents. The 80 startups pitched their ideas to the corporate partners and experts in Bühler’s CUBIC innovation center last week.

Out east, a team of researchers from Korea has published a paper on developing a substitute for eggs using microorganisms. It is expected that the development of egg substitutes using non-animal raw materials will solve the problems of factory farming, which causes problems such as increased emission of greenhouse gas and waste, and contribute to building a sustainable food system that allows easy protein intake.

We were also pleased to hear that the Biden-Harris Administration, through the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, has announced it is slated to award approximately US$51 million to the iFAB Tech Hub, a consortium led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to implement four projects that will bolster the region’s ability to scale up the production and delivery of critical technologies that will advance food and industrial applications of biotechnology. Let’s hope a Trump-led government doesn’t just tear all of this amazing progress down!

As usual, there’s much more online, and don’t forget to follow our LinkedIn page for the stories as they go live…

🏆 Bühler hosts 80 game-changing startups as part of MassChallenge program

🍄 Quorn teams up with NHS for 'hybrid revolution'

🌱🥩 Nestlé launches Maggi Rindecarne meat alternative