With the likes of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods setting the ground for vegan meat alternatives, a new player on the market now wants to make the plant-based food sector more versatile — by bringing shrimp-less shrimp to people’s tables.
Developed by startup New Wave Foods, the plant-based shrimp alternative — which is made from mung bean and a seaweed-derived ingredient — is now ready to launch on the market.
It took five years and $8 million for New Wave to engineer the product’s formula, working with a certified master chef from the Culinary Institute of America. Eventually, seaweed-derived ingredients, together with a functional protein, created the product New Wave is launching, one that reportedly has the same flavor and “snap” texture of real shrimp.
The startup recently announced that it raised $18 million in a Series A funding round, which will help it scale up its shrimp alternative and bring other plant-based seafoods to market.