Cargill, based in Minnesota, has entered a product co-development and commercial go-to-market agreement with Spanish food tech company Cubiq Foods to help leverage its catalog of products and technology, Food Dive reported.
“Cubiq is one of many companies working to create plant-based fats that perform better in terms of taste, nutrition, calories and ingredient lists,” the Food Dive report stated. “But the plant-based partnership also gives Cubiq an opportunity to work with Cargill on developing products and commercializing cultivated fat.”
Resembling Mirai Foods' collaboration with Germany’s Rügenwalder Mühle, the deal correlates with Cubiq’s plans to launch plant-based “smarter fats,” such as its Go!Drop emulsion of vegetable oils and water, to its ingredients and offerings. It also follows Cargill’s $5.75 million funding round investment last May.
According to Cubiq CEO Andrés Montefeltro, a readily available product intended for application improvement and broad commercialization will accelerate the company’s general development.
“As one of the world’s largest meat companies — and an entity that is expecting the plant-based sector to eat away at the traditional meat industry’s sales and profits — it makes sense for Cargill to work toward partnerships that help establish better and more realistic plant-based alternatives,” a recent Food Dive report suggests.
The plant-based fats company has also cultivated fat alternatives in the works, which comes directly from growing animal fat cells.
“Cubiq has been improving alternatives through fats. It got its start with plant-based fats using a process that can convert liquid oils into solid or semi-solid fats for a healthier and more natural pairing in plant-based meat,” a recent press release states. “The Go!Drop line, which is now available on Cargill’s website, is an example of this work.”