Crushing Ag and FoodTech Innovation - Five Israeli Startups to Watch in 2021

Image credit: Justin Veenema on Unsplash

It’s the holidays. This year is going to be different for many of us with festivities via Zoom as opposed to in person, but the common denominator for the festive season remains the same - food! So, grab a munchie or a beverage, and check out these Israeli startups that are crushing ag and food innovation!

Hack your metabolism

Lumen measures metabolism in real-time through a device and app, enabling daily personalized nutrition. By using a carbon dioxide sensor and flow meter to determine the carbon dioxide concentration in a single breath, the type of fuel your body is using to produce energy can be determined. In November, together with Garmin International, Lumen launched a Connect IQ Lumen App and Garmin Health API integration, allowing users to better understand the impact of fitness and nutrition decisions on their body in real time.

Follow: @LumenMetabolism

Same taste - no after taste

DouxMatok offers targeted delivery of flavor Ingredients, such as sugar and salt, enabling healthier consumption of foods without compromising taste. In October, the company announced a strategic collaboration with Roberts Sugar to deliver a unique sugar reduction solution based on cane sugar, to food companies in North America. DouxMatok’s solution is expected to be available to the food industry in the United States as of 2021.

Follow: @DouxMatok

Better yields for farmers’ fields

CropX Technologies helps farmers get bigger, better yields by offering proprietary soil sensor technology and cloud-based Ag analytics that integrate with irrigation systems. The affordable, easy-to-install CropX system helps farmers increase crop yield and quality and reduce water, fertilization and energy costs. At the beginning of the year the company announced the acquisition of Nebraska-based CropMetrics, a provider of cloud-based, precision-irrigation tools. 

Follow: @Crop_X

Any tree, any time

SeeTree provides farmers with one of the most advanced data and intelligence networks in Agtech by providing visibility into the health records and productivity of any individual tree at any time, and over time. The company provides a comprehensive service combining boots on the ground and high-resolution multi-dimensional sensing imagery utilizing drones, sensors and special vehicles to collect precise data. Harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and combining it with agronomic human intelligence, results in a synergy that facilitates accuracy and consistency.

Follow: @SeeTree_AI

From Nature - Back to Nature

TIPA® Compostable Packaging is a supplier of flexible compostable packaging that will fully biodegrade in a compost environment, including laminates and labels. TIPA offers certified food grade packaging for fresh, dry, chilled, baked, and frozen goods and has amassed a stellar array of clients that includes Stella McCartney, Natoora and Bimbo. In November, it was announced that TIPA and Commonwealth Packaging in the United States would partner to help retailers embrace sustainability while still delivering an effective packaging experience to its customers.  

Follow: @TIPACorp

Congratulations To The FoodTech 500 Top Ten!

Congratulations to the FoodTech 500 Top Ten that exemplify what it means to be one of the stars of the FoodTech industry! 

The deeper insights into the people and companies on the FoodTech 500 list make for fascinating reading as they describe how they started out as a company, and their thoughts on the role of technology in the FoodTech industry. Explore the full list of the Fortune 500 of FoodTech here.

Some fascinating factoids about the FoodTech 500:

• In total, 78.2% of FoodTech 500 companies are less than 5 years old and 56.1% are at pre-seed or seed-stage funding. 
• Despite their early stage, close to 75% are revenue-generating.
• The FoodTech 500 represents a truly global response with over 1.200 applications from 54 different countries, across 8 different categories of AgriFoodTech. 

Tomorrow's food trends have a very good chance of starting with the the FoodTech 500, particularly the Top Ten. Watch this space!

Ocean Plastic Is Turning Our Seas Into A Synthetic Soup

It was the morning after the storm the night before. As I stood on what the evening before had been a pristine picture-perfect beach, I could hardly believe my eyes. The beach was covered in debris – as if someone had emptied a garbage can and scattered the contents over the sand. There was plastic wherever I looked. Plastic cups, plastic toys, sections of plastic rope and tangled up in the seaweed which had also come ashore, more plastic bags than I could count. Slabs of polystyrene, plastic bottles and even a container large enough to be the proverbial kitchen sink. I was reminded of the quote by Sir Richard Attenborough, “There is no away – because plastic is so permanent and so indestructible. When you cast it into the ocean, there is no away.” 

Sky News in the United Kingdom has launched an Ocean Rescue campaign with a 45-minute film released on 25 January called “A Plastic Tide” that puts the ocean plastic problem into perspective.

“The ocean where life on Earth began is being turned into a synthetic soup,” the narration begins by Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore, as he embarks on a journey to explore the immense problem of plastic pollution. He begins in Mumbai, India, where a city beach once used for swimming and playing is now completely covered in plastic garbage. Surprisingly, it’s not from direct littering, but from the ocean tide; every day brings a fresh layer of garbage, which could come from anywhere on the planet. No beach or shoreline is unaffected by this pollution. Due to the ocean currents and waterways that flow into those oceans, plastic waste that’s tossed in Australia or Japan could just as easily end up in Scotland or Nova Scotia.

Read more about ocean plastic and what we can do about it in my guest blog for TIPA.

Sheffa Foods Doing Everything To Play Its Part On World Environment Day

This Sunday, June 5th, is known as World Environment Day (WED) and was created by the United Nations General Assembly to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.  Since it began in 1974, it has become widely celebrated in over 100 countries as a global platform for public outreach.  Above all, WED serves as “the people’s day” for doing something to take care of the Earth or become an agent of change. 

One brand looking to do its part is Sheffa Foods out of New York.  Their newest project, Better for the Planet (BFTP), was created to introduce eco-friendly packaging for their line of healthier snacks.  Their goal is to help revolutionize the food industry with 100% compostable packaging made of bio-based raw materials.  This new packaging, made by TIPA, a clean-tech startup, is designed to break down and fully return to nature. 

Sheffa is currently raising money on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform to bring to market their coffee-house inspired Granola Bars in 3 flavors in this new packaging.  Also choosing to partner with 1% for the Planet, which connects consumers, businesses and non-profits, 

Sheffa is on their way proving that small companies can have a big impact and change the way we think about packaging and sustainability.