Hampton Creek wants to scramble the egg industry with new plant-based product
With a new board of directors and company leaders, and new funding, Hampton Creek is stepping out with its much anticipated plant-based egg substitute, which is free of antibiotics and cholesterol. Unlike other brands making vegan eggs, Hampton Creek is turning first to foodservice—Flore in San Francisco will begin using the product in a scramble on its menu. The product is based on mung bean protein and, according to Hampton Creek, takes two-thirds less water to produce than real eggs. Read more at San Francisco Chronicle…
What the heck is ‘fragrance’? Thanks to California, companies now have to tell us.
There are more than 3,000 chemicals that could be labeled as the generic “fragrance” on the labels of household cleaning products. But California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a new piece of legislation that will require manufacturers to disclose certain toxic chemicals online by 2020 and on product labels by 2021. Not all chemicals will have to be disclosed, but more than 2,000 that are on California’s state list of harmful chemicals, including phthalates and perchloroethylene, will need to be. “We see this as a first step toward safer formulation,” says Samara Geller, an analyst at Environmental Working Group. Read more at Mother Jones…
A pet-food company wants to make cell-cultured meats for dogs and cats
A former advertising executive is building a new kind of pet food company that grows meats in bioreactors from a small amount of cells, so that pet food can be produced without needing to slaughter animals. Bond Pets is still in its early stages, but founder Rich Kelleman says once companies figure out how to scale lab-grown meat for human consumption, a pet-focused product could come shortly behind. Read more at Quartz…
‘The hardest bakery possible’: Reinventing the meaning of ‘whole grain’
A new bakery in Washington, D.C., focuses on making 100 percent whole grain bread from locally sourced, freshly milled whole grains. Grocery store breads can bear a whole grain label if more than half of the flour contains grain’s three components—even if the rest of the mix is plain white flour. The reason so many bakers sift the bran out of their bread is because baking with it is difficult. But leaving the germ and bran in the bread adds flavor and nutrition. Read more at NPR…
Finland baker launches bread made from crushed crickets
Bakery and foodservice provider Fazer says it has the world’s first insect-based bread in stores. Each loaf contains about 70 crickets, plus wheat flour and seeds. Read more at Reuters…
