The top food tech innovators to be paying attention to this year
When we’re talking about food tech companies, we’re really talking about a broad spectrum of companies that specialise in different areas. Think about organisations that focus on immersive dining experiences such as TREE by NAKED. Or perhaps the people that bring us longer-lasting food such as the folks down at Apeel. There’s really no shortage of food tech companies to be paying attention to this year through to 2023.
In this blog, we’re going to explore the top 25 food tech companies worldwide. From food delivery to safeguarding a sustainable future, the companies in this list really offer the best of the best.
Kiwibot
Who’s a good boy? Well, kind of anyway.
Ever dreamt of having food delivered straight to your door via an automated tiny robot? Okay, so it’s a bit of a stretch, but if that ever was your dream, do we have news for you.
Kiwibot offers the largest robot delivery infrastructure in the whole world. The delivery company focuses on helping businesses make those last miles. And with the Kiwibot 4.0, the iF Design Aware 2021 winner, it’s never been easier.
Imperfect Foods
Food doesn’t always come out exactly as we’d expect. More often than not, this means the food goes straight into the bin or gets left on the shelf untouched. But in reality, there’s absolutely nothing with the food.
Imperfect Foods is a food delivery subscription service that tackles food waste. You can tell the app exactly what things you’re interested in, and each week the service will handpick fresh items based on your preferences. Of course, you can remove and add items if desired. This just makes the process that much more effortless. And with cheaper prices than standard grocery services, there’s really nothing to complain about.
RollercoasterRestaurant
In a world where experience dining is taking over, RollercoasterRestaurant is absolutely one to keep your eyes on.
Combining delicacies with steel to make one adrenaline-fueled meal, RollercoasterRestuarant will help turn your restaurant into an experience worth taking. With their recent 2020 award for the best restaurant concept within the UK, definitely consider giving them a look.
TraceTrust
“We make your edibles credible” – TraceTrust
Cannabis and hemp are becoming more and more legal across the United States and slowly across the rest of the world. With that in mind, it’s time to start looking at safe and credible sources of cannabis.
TraceTrust offers a variety of services including training and education programmes for employees, consultations on distributor and regulatory requirements, and finally, certifications that ensure manufacturers and brands produce the same product each and every time.
With many people taking an interest in cannabis and hemp for the first time, it’s good to have a trustworthy company behind your back to ensure safety.
Uber Eats
The King of food delivery.
At face value, Uber Eats is just another food delivery service app on your phone. But to the food-tech world, it’s much more than that.
Offering jobs to almost anyone with a car, Uber Eats is an inclusive service with its finger wrapped around most of the world. But what the delivery service mainly offers is an excellent tracking service that allows the customer to follow each stage of their food’s journey, from preparation to 1 minute away down the street. The delivery process has never been so straightforward and stress-free.
TREE by NAKED
When we’re talking about high-tech, immersive dining experiences, we’re talking about TREE by NAKED.
This Japanese experience combines food and art, manipulating technology such as virtual reality, projection mapping, lighting and music. Sit back and enjoy a meal tailored to the story and performances in this extravagant six-course meal.
Disney World
When you think about food technology companies, Disney World isn’t really one you’d expect to crop up. That being said, the company has featured on our blog twice under two separate themes.
Disney World’s Epcot is a great source of innovative farming techniques such as hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics. The resort even gives you an in-depth look at their farming system in their Living with the Land attraction.
Beyond Epcot’s 2.5 million square feet of greenhouses and new farming techniques, Disney World is famous for its experience dining like nowhere else. Imagine sitting in the restaurant from your favourite movie. Eating ratatouille in a mouse-sized restaurant or sipping on green and blue milk from the planet Batuu. The exceptional dining experiences here can’t be rivalled when it comes to immersion and fantasy.
Thermomix
If you’re looking to expand your culinary horizon then look no further than Vorwerk’s Thermomix.
Using the new Thermomix’s 20 functions, you can explore new recipes on your journey to become a master chef in the kitchen, using one of the simplest tools on the market.
With such a versatile and easy to use machine, there’s never been a better time to get into cooking at home.
Allplants
Always in a rush when cooking food at home? The amount of meal subscription services has rocketed over the past years with different companies such as HelloFresh fighting for the top spot. But what if you’re a vegan or vegetarian?
Allplants specialises in delivering quality vegan and vegetarian meals straight to your door that needs nothing more than heating in your oven or microwave. With cheap bundles and over 30 meals to choose from as well as countless extras for breakfast, treats and drinks, there’s no better service to choose from.
Little Spoon
Healthy and tasty meals aren’t just for adults. Little Spoon offers fresh and organic baby food via a delivery service that ensures your little one will get all their nutrients and vitamins from a delicious quality meal. And with their new additions of toddler and kids meals for those up to 10 years old, it’s never been more inclusive!
Their healthy meals are on offer for prices below $5, ensuring you can always afford good food for your children.
Winnow
Want to cut down on food waste in your kitchen? Winnow offers services that can help reduce food costs by 2-8% by reducing your food waste. Their AI ‘Vision’ is a breakthrough product that grows smarter over time in your kitchen. The AI works to assess and identify food waste and reduces it by 40-70%.
Interested in how it works? Check out their demos today or request a demonstration in person!
Koia
Thirsty for healthy plant-based beverages? Koia has you covered.
We’re not talking bitter tomato juice or gritty carrot smoothies. We’re talking real tasty chocolate banana protein drinks. We’re talking low sugar fruit smoothies and protein coffees. Cookies and creme keto drinks.
In every bottle of your Koia drink, you’ll find plant-based protein and nutrition. Low sugar or none at all. High fibre drinks. What’s more, each drink is gluten, soy and dairy-free. Each drink is vegan, kosher and non-GMO verified, so no matter how you diet, you can enjoy a refreshing bottle of Koia wherever you are.
Good Catch
Overfishing has become more and more of a problem as the years have passed. Day after day, fish are being caught faster than they can reproduce and the ocean’s ecosystem becomes more and more vulnerable.
For the vegetarians and climate change combatants out there who love a good fish dinner, there’s Good Catch.
Choose from delicious plant-based tuna in different sauces, corn chowder crab cakes and mouth-watering fish burgers. Good Catch’s ‘fish’ is on offer online, in restaurants and on deli counters. And with eight awards at their back, there’s really no excuse to not give them a try.
Future Meat
When it comes to cultured and lab-grown meat, there’s often a hefty price tag included that stops the meat from going straight onto the market. But not for Future Meat, which is the first cultured meat company to break through the $5 cost barrier.
Their sustainable and cost-efficient technology is causing them to become one of the leading names in this futuristic meat industry, one that you can expect to see all over the place in years to come.
Check out their cultured chicken breasts and salads as well as their kebab skewers, meat pies and cultured hamburgers.
Splento Food Photography App
If you want to boost your online sales without spending tons of money on food photography, try to use new tech solutions, like the Splento Food Photography App which will save you 90% of your photography costs. You don’t need to book a professional photographer to sell your listings better anymore.
JUST
Another name in the long list of companies trying to cut down on the food industry’s effect on the planet. JUST has started out by growing egg substitutes in an attempt to cut down on chicken farming.
Their bottled delicious mung bean substitute scrambles just like an egg, giving the opportunity for countless JUST egg recipes. The company also offers packets of folded eggs, as well as sous vide that comes in three different flavours inspired by America, Japan and Mexico.
Silo
There are a lot of new innovations companies are looking into to help reduce food waste, but what about your food at home?
Silo is the affordable way to keep your groceries fresher for longer, lasting between 2-5x longer than when kept in regular storage containers. The system works by vacuuming the insides of the container, slowing down any decay and sealing in that lovely taste and all the nutrients.
The Silo even comes with some extra handy features, including a built-in Amazon Alexa, notifications about the freshness of your food, a scale system and a pantry app so you can see how your groceries are managing on the go.
Goodr
Have you ever wondered how much food your company is wasting, and what goes on with it beyond being thrown out? Goodr is a ledger service that aims at tracking a businesses surplus food from pickup to donation, delivering analytics on social and environmental impact. The intent here is to help companies claim tax benefits where $40 million goes unclaimed for businesses annually in the US.
You can help feed thousands in your area while saving thousands of dollars from your surplus food.
Too Good To Go
In the mood for some cheap food? We’ve got you covered.
Too Good To Go is a two-part app that requires input from avid diners and food sellers. The restaurant, café or shop puts any items they might otherwise be throwing away onto their store page, and customers can purchase these items for a reduced price.
This process helps reduce the amount of food that actually goes to waste, saving both businesses and customers money all while saving the world at the same time.
Apeel
Apeel is a food waste countermeasure like no other.
Forget new storage containers and quick sales on spoiled food. Apeel is a natural manmade barrier that helps slow down food spoilage by sealing in moisture and locking out oxygen to ward off decay.
The barrier is made up of natural, edible ingredients such as the peels, seeds and pulps of other fruit and vegetables. Not only is it effective, causing produce to last up to 2x as long as normal, but it’s tasteless too! If that doesn’t sound Apeel-ing, I don’t know what will.
Solar Foods
Out of all the companies working on new and innovative ways to create and develop food, how many can you name that make food literally out of thin air?
Solar Foods has created a revolutionary way to produce natural protein from electricity and air. This new source of protein can taste like anything and can act as a suitable substitute for many of the proteins we eat today. The only difference is, this way we don’t harm the planet and its ecosystem.
Beyond Meat
Vegan and hungry for meat? Beyond Meat has a cupboard full of plant-based items made just for you to enjoy. Full to the brim with all the proteins, fats, carbs and minerals that you need (and don’t forget about the flavour), Beyond Meat’s meat comes in the form of burgers, beef, sausage, meatballs, and now, chicken.
Impossible Foods
The King of the plant-based food world, Impossible Foods is really that: impossible.
Their plant-based food is well known for being unreasonably delicious, and often in cases is described as tasting just like the real deal. Their renown has helped their goal at helping combat climate change by reducing the number of people demanding meat. If you’re interested in changing to a plant-based diet but love meat, Impossible Foods is definitely one to try out.
Wild Type
For dinner today? Fish. Only it was never fished.
WIld Type is pioneering cellular agriculture to bring eco-friendly fish to our tables. Using the cell of a salmon, the company is growing meat full of all the natural goodness that you’d expect from any other salmon that swims upstream.
Not only is the product healthy and these days tasty, the meat comes from nothing other than the cell of a salmon, meaning the food you put in your mouth is 100% the real thing.
Shiok Meats
Shiok Meats is yet another cell-based meat pioneer whose main focus was also on seafood. Similar to Wildtype, the company took a single cell from a shrimp that they are using to produce more and more meat every day.
Recently, however, the company also acquired cell-based red meat company Gaia Foods, showing particular interest in expanding their cell-based horizon.
With plans to go commercial in 2022, Shiok Meats is definitely making a name for itself.
Nature’s Fynd
We’re finishing up the list with Nature’s Fynd – ‘a food company for optimists’.
Using FY-protein, a fungi-based protein, the company has developed two products healthy for both you and the planet: dairy-free cream cheese and meatless breakfast patties.
The company has recently raised a massive $350 million in series C funding, intending to use it to increase their production capacity as well as their portfolio, meaning you can be sure to see more Nature’s Fynd products cropping up sooner rather than later.
There you have it – Food Tech Digest’s list of the top 25 food tech companies that you should be paying attention to in 2021. Without a doubt, you can expect to see these names popping up more and more as time goes on, especially as we transition into a world filled with climate-conscious food developments.
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