Mycelium pioneer Bosque Foods (formerly Kinoko Labs) has unveiled its whole-cut mushroom-based meat alternatives for the first time in Europe during a private tasting at the ProVeg Incubator in Berlin.
Key alt-protein and food-tech investors including Purple Orange Ventures, Unovis, Astanor Ventures, Food Labs, Big Idea Ventures, and Be8 were treated to alt-pork fillets in Vietnamese bao buns and alt-chicken fillets during the sampling on Wednesday 9 February.
Bosque Foods is creating the next generation of meat alternatives, starting with whole-cut meat products grown naturally from mycelium. The food-tech company, based in New York, is an alumnus of the ProVeg Incubator and IndieBio.
The purpose of the tasting was to showcase Bosque Food’s early prototype mycelium-based fillets to investors, and to demonstrate the potential of the ingredient that the startup is cultivating, as well as the progress that they have made on developing end products.
Isabella Iglesias-Musachio, Founder and CEO of Bosque Foods, said: “We are creating better-than-meat products that deliver on the entire taste experience, nutrition, and affordability without compromise.
“Bosque Foods is moving forward at lightning speed. We have opened our new labs in New York and are looking for additional lab space in Germany. We’ve also onboarded our new CSO Dr. Jorg Bormann, who is a fungal biologist with over 20 years of experience in fermentation research, and our new CTO Caroline Van Der Horst, a food technologist who has helped to build two of the largest mycelium cultivation companies in Europe.
“From the science and tech side, we have achieved proof of concept of our unique solid-state fermentation method, and developed our first prototypes which we are showcasing at exclusive tastings like this one.”
Bosque Foods recently kicked off its seed round of funding and is actively raising capital in order to grow the company by investing in product development, R&D, and new hires. Previously, Bosque Foods attracted $500,000 in investment from ProVeg and VC firm SOSV.
Albrecht Wolfmeyer, Head of the ProVeg Incubator, said: “The different types of fermentation are key drivers in the current transformation towards a more sustainable food system. Highly efficient processes like biomass fermentation, and in particular the method of solid-state fermentation that Bosque Foods is developing, can be a real game changer for the alternative protein space. The next generation of alternative protein products – like whole-cut meat and chicken alternatives – can achieve in terms of nutrition, texture, flavour and clean label what the current generation of plant-based products is often missing. This is why I am very excited about the innovative work of the team at Bosque Foods. ”
Bosque Foods is currently developing a line of chicken and pork fillets, which they intend to sell as branded CPG products through supermarket retailers, and wholesale through food service establishments.
Notes:
- For more information about Bosque Foods, check out www.bosquefoods.comÂ
- For more information on the ProVeg Incubator, check out www.provegincubator.com
- ProVeg Incubator is part of ProVeg, a leading food awareness organisation working across four continents. More information can be found at www.proveg.comÂ
- The ProVeg Incubator works with strategic partners Blue Horizon Ventures and M-Industry, as well as a number of other investors and partners, including the Association of Alternative Food Producers, Food Labs, Beyond Advisors, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, Good Seed Ventures, Katjesgreenfood, New Crop Capital, NX-Food, Purple Orange Ventures, Veg Capital, VegInvest, and Zintinus.
