Chemicals and Materials update for September 6th
Nuutrition
Marketing guru Jason Hall comes up with 400 rebrands for cultivated meat
In Manhattan, a branding expert whose resume includes big-name clients like Netflix and Apple claims to have come up with 400 new names for cultivated meat, a category that is struggling to find resonance with consumers. The long list comes as cultivated meat producers begin to submit their products for regulatory approval and begin to consider building customer interest beyond the novelty factor.
“I saw these companies getting close to making FDA-approved meat, and I thought, this is so cool,”. “But I know some people are going to be scared of it.”
Previous terms have included lab-grown meat, slaughter-free meat, cell-based meat, synthetic meat, cultured meat, and cultivated meat. USDA, in landmark approvals earlier this year, used the term cell-cultivated. Producers are largely using the term “cultivated meat,” but Hall isn’t satisfied this is the right nomenclature. “It doesn’t sound like something that tastes good,” he says. “While the word is technically correct, it doesn’t feel welcoming. . . . Scientific and engineering minds have the most issues with names that don’t feel logical. However, consumers don’t run on logic. They run on feelings.”
Hall will share the full list freely with any company in the space, but offered a few examples: grown meat, copious proteins, perpetual proteins, method eating, or switch eating. “The names don’t have to be correct,” he says. “They just have to put an idea in the mind.”
Renewable Chemicals
Orta taps Leonardo DiCaprio-backed startup Nature Coatings for denim dye
In Turkey, fashion brand Orta is set to launch a fall and winter collection that includes denim dyed with Nature Coatings’ BioBlack TX. The 100% biobased black pigment replaces petrochemically produced carbon black.
The partnership with Orta closely follows news that Nature Coatings had completed a $2.45 million seed round that included participation from A-list actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio.
Orta is using BioBlack TX as a fabric coating and, in an industry-first, for warp dyeing. “Now is the time to reimagine our design process based on regenerative principles,” Dr. Sedef Uncu Aki, manager of denim sales and marketing, product development, R&D, planning and operations at Orta, tells Sourcing Journal. “It is also a time for rapid collaborative action.”
Levi’s is also using BioBlack TX in its WellThread Collection following years of development work between Nature Coatings and the denim giant.
Renewable Chemicals
Calvin Klein taps Ananas Anam and TENCEL for sustainable knit trainer
In London, household name designer Calvin Klein is using fibers from pineapple and wood wastes in its debut trainer footwear.
“The Sustainable Knit Trainer” features a knitted upper composed of Ananas Anam’s PIÑAYARN® blended with Lenzing’s TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers. Crafted through a low-impact manufacturing process, PIÑAYARN® harnesses the potential of pineapple leaf waste while employing a water-free spinning technique. The inclusion of TENCEL™ Lyocell, a fiber sourced from responsibly managed forests and produced through a solvent spinning process with a remarkable solvent and water recycling rate of over 99%, ensures complete traceability of TENCEL™ fibers within the blended yarn.
The casual shoe is available in in classic hues, including black and off-white, with the iconic Calvin Klein logo.
Renewable Chemicals
PM Group unveils biomass cleanroom gloves
In Taiwan, PM Group has unveiled the world’s first cleanroom gloves made from biomass.
Dubbed PVC PACER Bio-Mass Gloves, the vinyl gloves are already being produced using established production processes for cleanroom gloves. The inclusion of biomass makes production of PVC PACER Bio-Mass Gloves carbon neutral. Certifications for the gloves have already been received from Japan’s JORA, USDA, and Europe’s OK Biobased from Europe.
Cleanroom gloves are specifically designed to meet strict requirements of environments where precise control over airborne particle concentration, such as cleanrooms and laboratories, is required.
https://www.eetimes.eu/worlds-first-professional-cleanroom-biomass-gloves/
Renewable Chemicals
BioInnovation Institute adds Novozymes’ Venture, BioHalo, and Visibuilt to Venture Lab program
In Copenhagen, nonprofit incubator and life science research institute has added three companies developing biobased materials to its Venture Lab program.
In addition to five biotherapeutics companies, the Venture Lab additions include Novozymes’ Venture, which is evaluating scale cell culture media ingredients for the cultivated meat industry; BioHalo, which developing biobased fluorinated polymers and high-performance materials; and Visibuilt, a company developing solutions for road construction that replace fossil ingredients in asphalt and reduces energy consumption during production.
The 12-month Venture Lab program is designed to support start-up companies with business acceleration, scientific, and team development. It also provides a founder-friendly convertible loan of €500,000 and access to labs and offices at the BII in Copenhagen. The early-stage companies also get an exclusive opportunity to apply for €1.3 million in follow-up funding through BII’s Venture House program.
Biobased Materials
Fighting Big, Bad Climate Change: Patagonia founder builds straw house
In California, Yvon Chouinard, the founder of sustainability focused outdoor brand Patagonia, is living in a straw house designed by architect Dylan Johnson.
The pair tells Dwell that straw is a promising and ecofriendly alternative to conventional building materials. “In the ’60s, people were talking a lot about straw bale houses and mud houses, adobe, stuff like that… but that kind of disappeared,” Chouinard said. “And I have a habit of getting interested in something—and the idea kind of sticks in the back of my head for years and years and decades even, and then it just kind of erupts.”
The Ventura, California, home uses post-and-beam framing filled with straw bales, a waste product from nearby rice farms. The idea is poised to catch on, with California adding a Straw Building Code in 2019. “With less than 5% of all the rice straw that we produce each year in this country, we can build a million 2,000-square-foot homes,” Chouinard adds.
The Chouinard family made deadlines in 2022 when they donated Patagonia—then valued at $3 billion—to a trust and a nonprofit group to use the profits to fight climate change.
https://www.dwell.com/article/yvon-chouinard-dylan-johnson-straw-bale-house-interview-9fb6f5c2
Renewable Chemicals
Searo eyes seaweed to solve plastics crisis
In London, a startup is converting polysaccharides in seaweed into bioplastics for packaging. Searo tells Food-Navigator Europe that its material extends the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables and is compostable.
“We’re working to make sure that everything we make breaks down very rapidly,” says co-CEO Francis Field. Early applications include “really big offenders” to plastic waste and a focus on simple performance requirements. Such products include flow wraps, punnets, and single-use cups.
The seaweed is sourced from Tunisia and harvested by France’s SELT Martine Group. Searo is currently operating production trials with partners and hopes to launch its first products by year end.
Renewable Chemicals
Plant-based straws shown to contain PFAS
In Belgium, researchers at the University of Antwerp have found poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in straws, including those made from plant-based materials.
For straws made from paper and bamboo, they could not determine whether contamination with the forever chemicals occurred from contamination of soil or processing, or was added deliberately to improve straw performance. For paper straws, they theorize PFAS could also originate from paper recycling chain.
“Small amounts of PFAS, while not harmful in themselves, can add to the chemical load already present in the body,” Dr. Thimo Groffen, an environmental scientist at the University of Antwerp, said. “The presence of PFAS in paper and bamboo straws shows they are not necessarily biodegradable. We did not detect any PFAS in stainless steel straws, so I would advise consumers to use this type of straw – or just avoid using straws at all.”
PFAS chemicals have been associated with low birth weight, thyroid disease, increased cholesterol levels, liver damage, kidney cancer and testicular cancer.
The findings were published in peer-reviewed journal Food Additives and Contaminants.
https://www.sustainableplastics.com/news/pfas-found-plant-based-and-plastic-straws
