Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets, dairy-free cheese and meat-free burgers: the startup that Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Al Gore are betting on.

For some time now, mushrooms have become one of the alternatives to animal protein of reference in laboratories, 3D printing technology and artificial or plant-based meat products, as well as a valuable material for the construction or fashion industry. The ease of cultivation, scalability, economic prices, low carbon footprint or the incredible nutritional benefits of mushrooms are some of the reasons for their potential to stock the pantries of the future.

One of the startups that is betting on meat made from mushrooms and other products derived from this food is Nature's Fynd, based in Chicago (USA) and for which powerful investors such as Jeff Bezos, Al Gore or Bill Gates are betting, known for its support to other artificial meat projects such as Beyond Meat. Specifically, raised 158 million dollars.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets

The company makes foods like dairy-free cream cheese or meat-free breakfast patties and burgers, as well as chicken-free chicken nuggets from a mushroom protein rooted in the volcanic springs of Yellowstone National Park.

The basis of their food is Fy, the fungus-protein derived from a microbe called Fusarium cepa flavolapis, which was discovered by Nature's Fynd's scientific director and founder, Mark Kozubal, on a research trip to Yellowstone. At that time, he was looking for microorganisms capable of surviving extreme conditions. The National Science Foundation and NASA were behind this expedition.

As highlighted by CNBC, the alternative food sector increased retail sales in the US by 27% in 2020, bringing the total market value to 7,000 million dollars, according to the Plant-Based Food Association (PBFA), which brings together more than 200 companies.

Meanwhile, shipments of alternative protein products from foodservice distributors to restaurants rose 60% year-over-year in April, according to research firm NPD Group.

At the head of this booming industry are the leading brands of vegan burgers and other substitutes for chicken or sausages: Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, which have also driven traditional meat producers to launch their artificial meat items to take a piece of cake from this coveted business.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets

According to data from the consulting firm AT Kearney, grown foods and meat alternatives are expected to account for 60% of global meat sales by 2040. Another trend is the decline in the cost of artificial meat, which is increasingly reaching parity with prices on the conventional meat market.

Co-founded in 2012 by Thomas Jonas and Mark Kozubal, now CEO and chief scientific officer, its first steps were under the name Sustainable Bioproducts. For its versatile and protein-rich Fy source, Nature's Fynd relies on fermentation, a technique used for millennia to make products such as cheese, wine, beer or bread.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets: Just as cows, chickens and pigs were domesticated centuries ago as a source of protein, “now is the time for this second domestication,” Kozubal said in a recent interview. "Growing this microbe is an efficient way to produce protein that is just as good."

The company is currently building a factory of more than 3,000 square meters and its products, such as cream cheese and dairy-free yogurt, as well as meatless empanadas for breakfast, will arrive in US supermarkets later this year. In February, they launched a limited sample exclusively online.

Beyond fungi, Nature's Fynd is also a representative of the food sustainability movement, whose mission is to reduce the carbon footprint of global food systems, which generate 34% of greenhouse emissions related to climate change.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets

At the moment, the youngest consumers are interested in a new diet based on plants and microbes that respects the rhythms of the planet and aligns with sustainable objectives. Generation Z and millennials are today's biggest buyers. 63% of U.S. consumers between the ages of 24 and 39 believe their nutritional needs can be fully met with a plant-based diet, according to this One Poll study.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets: Nature's Fynd explains that its vegan protein includes all 20 amino acids —including the 9 essential amino acids— and good levels of fiber, vitamins and minerals, without cholesterol or trans fats. In fact, Fy has only one-tenth the fat of conventional minced meat, 50% more protein than tofu and twice as much as raw peas.

Now, and with this powerful injection of capital, they hope to scale their product and increase manufacturing capacity to take the throne from the meat industry.

Fermented mushroom protein chicken-free nuggets

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Yolanda Díaz defends raising the minimum wage in August to 1.5 million workers in the face of falling unemployment and rising inflation

After receiving in recent weeks the report of a committee of experts in charge of designing how to raise in the next 3 years the minimum wage interprofessional (SMI) to 60% of the average wage, as recommended by the European Social Charter, the Ministry of Labor is preparing to start this month the negotiation with employers and unions to agree a new increase of the SMI this year.

Specifically, the third vice president and minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, defends starting in July the dialogue at the social dialogue table to raise the minimum wage in August before the recovery of the labor market, after the unemployment registered last June its largest monthly drop in history, and the progressive increase in inflation, according to the information, which ensures that Díaz is negotiating this measure directly with the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.

Thus, Sánchez and Díaz would have held a private meeting on the matter last week, according to the digital newspaper, which ensures that the third vice president is prioritizing the increase in the minimum wage cap to compensate for the sharp rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in recent months, after rebounding 2.7% in May, due to the recovery of official labor market figures.

In fact, Yolanda Díaz has defended this approach this past Sunday in an interview to El País in which she demanded not to leave behind the 1.5 million most vulnerable workers because they do not have the support of a collective agreement. "I cannot understand that we leave them out with a CPI that is at 2.7%, raising electricity, gasoline, practically everything. My conviction is clear. And the only president who has frozen the minimum wage has been Mariano Rajoy, " Díaz said.

Sanchez, for his part, has left the door open for the minimum wage to grow back before the end of the year to meet the commitments of its coalition agreement with United we Can, which state that the SMI should reach 60% of the average wage before the end of the legislature in 2023, despite having been extended to the end of last year the hike scheduled for 2021, pending the end of the pandemic, against the criterion of Work, unions, and the european commissioner of Jobs Nicolas Schmit.

However, the president of the Government has asked to wait to know the evolution of the labour market in the next few months before taking action on the SMI in an interview in The Sixth pick for The Information, in which he asserted that the Executive must provide confidence and clarity to the uncertainty the pandemic still leads entrepreneurs and workers, which could slow the increase in the minimum wage after summer.

The report of the committee of experts proposed to raise the minimum wage between 1.3% and 2% in 2021 to comply with the european recommendation that reach at least 60% of the average wage, which implies an increase in the month between 12 and 19 euros this year to achieve the goal of that in 2023 the SMI is situated between 1.012 and 1,047 euros, which would mean an increase of between 6.4% and 10.4%, compared to the current 950 euros per month in 14 pays, that was agreed to in January 2020.