Page 6 - Food&Drink magazine April-May 2023

NEWS
Impossible Nuggets
A random sample of an incoming shipment of Impossible Foods’ plant-based Chicken Nuggets failed the Imported Food Inspection Scheme (IFIS) and was rejected from entering the country.
A spokesperson for the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) told Food & Drink Business the department is responsible for administering the IFIS, which operates at the border to check the safety and compliance of imported food, based on risk.
The nuggets failed because they contained calcium pantothenate, which the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code prohibits in food products.
Under the Code (Standard 1.3.2 Vitamins and Minerals), vitamins and minerals can only be added to food if permissions exist in the code.
“In the context of the failure, the food poses a potential risk to human health as consumption of the food may lead to detrimental excesses or imbalances of the vitamin, in consumers of the food. Further information is available from the FSANZ website – Vitamins and minerals added to food (foodstandards.gov.au),” the spokesperson said.
The shipment had to either be destroyed or re-exported and every shipment since has been inspected and tested.
“The department has no jurisdiction post border. Decisions about stock in the marketplace in Australia is the responsibility of the business selling the food. Regulatory responsibility lies with the state and territory food regulators,” they said. ✷
ABOVE: Impossible Foods chicken nuggets.
Vow’s Mammoth Meatballs
IN a spectacular publicity event to advance awareness of cultivated meat, Australian cultivated meat start-up Vow created the first meat from an extinct animal’s DNA. The Mammoth Meatball was made from cells of the extinct Woolly Mammoth, a pachyderm not seen wandering the earth in 5000 years.
The scientific experiment intended to draw attention to
the future of food in our growing population by challenging the public and the meat industry to think differently about how we produce and consume food.
The concept was initiated by an international team of experts and scientists and produced by Vow, that earlier this year applied to FSANZ for its cultivated quail product to be classified as safe for human consumption.
Vow reveals its Mammoth Meatball.
Vow’s chief scientific officer James Ryall said the goal behind bringing an extinct protein back to life and creating the mammoth meatball was to start a discussion around food and what the decision to eat meat really means for the world.
Using advanced molecular engineering, the mammoth meat was grown from cells inserted with real mammoth DNA and completed with small parts of African elephant DNA, the mammoth’s closest living relative.
Vow co-founder and director Tim Noakesmith said we needed to radically change how we produce food, and “start eating for tomorrow”.
“We need to think differently about our future. We need to get smarter when we think about food and manufacturing at scale. We need to think holistically, and we need products that are better for the planet and sustainable for the future,” Noakesmith said. ✷
Cauldron to be regional leader
AUSTRALIAN start-up Cauldron said its successful $10.5 million raise would go towards building Asia-Pacific’s largest network of precision fermentation facilities.
Founded by Michele Stansfield, the oversubscribed funding round received local and global investment including Main Sequence and Horizon Ventures. It was also one of the largest seed rounds for a female founded start-up.
Cauldron said it uses a “revolutionary hyper- fermentation platform that will unlock the production of new forms of food, feed and fibre, and unlock a $700 billion global industry opportunity”.
The company claims that compared to conventional methods, its unique continuous fermentation process/hyper- fermentation platform “radically lowers commercial risk, producing ingredients five times more efficiently, with a
five times reduction in cost” . Cauldron CEO and founder
Stansfield said, “Humanity has spent thousands of years getting fermentation to work. With Cauldron’s revolutionary fermaculture platform, we are supercharging that process and unlocking the next evolution of how we produce food, feed, and fibre globally.
“Our technology, 35 years of expertise, combined with Australia’s unique infrastructure and abundance of natural resources,
LEFT: Cauldron founder and CEO Michele Stansfield.
will help ensure companies in this space can get new products and ingredients to market quickly, at lower cost and risk.”
The company said it would expand its existing pilot facility in Orange, New South Wales, and start building a network
of precision fermentation facilities around regional Australia that tap into the country’s agricultural know- how and feedstock while diversifying and creating
new local jobs. ✷
6 | Food&Drink business | April/May 2023 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au