The sustainable food revolution is taking shape in Europe, and its epicentre lies in a thriving ecosystem of startups that are transforming the way we source our protein. In a world increasingly aware of the importance of reducing environmental impact and improving health, these start-ups have become spearheads, driving the production of plant-based proteins as a sustainable alternative to traditional animal-based protein sources.
From the sunny shores of the Mediterranean to the bustling urban centres of the North, these startups are not only challenging gastronomic conventions, they are also leading a shift towards a more ethical and planet-friendly way of eating. Here’s a snapshot of Europe’s plant-based startup ecosystem.
By sector, these are the plant-based startups to keep an eye on:
Plant-based meat analogues:
- Juicy marbles: Developed by Formidable Foods, Inc. (USA) and produced by BEVO d.o.o. LLC (Slovenia, EU), they base their claim on being a group of creators making food, science and art.
- Jack & Bry: Established in the UK, its model is based on making meat analogues from jackfruit.
- Heura Foods: The Spanish company founded in 2017 is among the Top 10 of the 500 Foodtech companies evaluated by Forward Fooding.
- La Vie Foods: French and founded in 2019, it features a patented vegetable fat that they say allows for a meat-like experience like no other brand.
- MILGOGI: This Italian company develops wholemeal meat alternatives, with high nutritional value, fibrous texture and good organoleptic properties, made from various vegetable proteins.
- Raging Pig Company: Its mission is to eliminate pork from the food industry. Its flagship product is “bacon” (Germany, 2021).
- Nova Meat: (Barcelona, 2018) They offer products that claim to be far from bland, uninspired plant-based meats that cannot match animal products in terms of taste, texture and aroma.
- RIP™ Foods: Based in Barcelona, they produce plant-based street food for restaurants and retailers.
- Apollo: Polish company that seeks to show that plant-based cooking can be healthy and tasty.
- Green&Great: Founded in Spain in 2018, it focuses on the distribution of plant-based proteins to the HORECA sector.
- Let it v: Established in Barcelona in 2022, it aims to redefine the concept of meat and make the plant-based option increasingly inclusive for all publics.
- Planted: (Switzerland, 2018) combines proprietary structuring and fermentation technologies to produce meat from vegetable proteins, using only clean ingredients.
- HappyVore: Founded in France in 2019, it produces locally produced vegetarian alternatives to meat.
- Uniami: (France, 2020) Pioneers in the development of a patent-pending process for texturising vegetable proteins called “umisation” that they say can recreate the experience of meat and fish fillets without compromising taste or texture.
- VFC Foods: Since 2020, they have been working on chicken analogues.
- Greenforce: A company founded in 2020 in Germany that has developed an enzymatic process capable of converting almost any plant into high-quality protein-rich food products.
- Meeat: A Finnish company’s commitment to meat catalogues.
- Oumph!:It offers a range of products that emulate hamburgers, meatballs and more.
- vegafit: Established in the Netherlands, it specialises in the production of plant-based products.
Plant-based dairy analogues:
- VÄCKA: (Spain, 2019). They develop cheese analogues with different lines: creamy, matured and meltable, and also a range of pizzas.
- Nnutropy: Its B2B solution provides animal-free milk replacers produced by precision fermentation that can be transformed into cheese analogues.
- SENNsenn: This Austrian company is the first plant-based alternative to cheese made from apricot kernels.
Plant-based alternatives to fish:
- BetaFish: Founded in Germany in 2020, they launched their first tuna substitute in 2021 and have been growing ever since.
- Happy Ocean Foods: This German foodtech company founded in 2019 focuses on using algae and proteins to develop sustainable alternatives to seafood.
- Seavolution: Since 2021, they have been offering fish of vegetable origin, cooked in a natural way, using an efficient and easy to scale process.
- Revo Foods: From Austria, it offers fish analogues also for the HORECA sector.
- Hooked: This Swedish company is supported by EIT Food and has been running since 2019.
- Loki Foods: From Iceland, they have just launched their first white fish alternative.
- Isauki: They develop alternatives to seafood products with high nutritional value, mainly based on micro and macro algae (Bilbao, 2022).
- OLALA: (Formerly Seafood Reboot) is a French foodtech that focuses on the taste of its products.
- Mimic Seafood: From Madrid, they emphasise their Mediterranean roots.
Plant-based “foie gras”:
- Aberyne: The French company’s main project is an alternative to foi gras. Its main ingredient is cashew nuts.
Ingredients:
- Cano-ela: A Dutch company supported by EIT Food that focuses on removing refined ingredients from the food chain by processing oil-rich seeds in innovative ways.
- The Very Food Co.: French company focused on the production of ingredients (mainly dairy and egg substitutes) for the HORECA sector.
- Napiferyn Biotech: Polish start-up company that has developed and patented a unique technology for obtaining rapeseed protein from the side stream of oil pressing.
Alternative fats:
- Cubic Foods: Founded in Barcelona in 2019, the company works on a novel oil and water emulsion, Omega-3 microencapsulation techniques and the first cell culture platform for special fats (cellular Omega-3) to emulate the taste of animal-based fats.
- Bflike: From 2021 this Dutch foodtech will base its proposition on an innovative smart fat FATTEC7+.
- Givaudan Primelock: PrimeLock+™, a patent-pending, natural, vegan-friendly, integrated solution that mimics animal fat cells, is the bet of this Swiss company with more than 200 years of history.
Plant-based egg alternatives:
- Perfeggt: This German startup combines a new generation of precision fermentation, taste science and food technology to produce food and ingredients that are versatile in their application.
- Fabumin: Israeli company founded in 2020 that produces egg substitutes from the recovery of cooking water from pulses.
- Neggst: Based in Germany, it offers a plant-based alternative to eggs, rich in protein and vitamin B12.