FDA tightens additive oversight as Quebec exposes livestock abuse
FDA proposed requiring food companies to notify regulators before using GRAS food additives, while pushing its ultra-processed food definition further into limbo.
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FDA proposed requiring food companies to notify regulators before using GRAS food additives, while pushing its ultra-processed food definition further into limbo [88].
02
Berlin's Cultimate Foods, a cultivated-fat startup, shut down for good four months after filing for bankruptcy, the latest casualty as cultivated-meat funding cratered to $74 million in 2025 [102].
03
Animal Justice footage showed calves and sheep beaten with rods at a Quebec livestock auction, and provincial inspectors reportedly witnessed the same abuse a year earlier and did nothing [146].
04
Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund backed animal-free dairy startup All G's pre-Series B round, a rare fresh infusion into a precision-fermentation sector short on capital [105].
05
A PCRM analysis found a low-fat vegan diet cuts food energy density by roughly 30%, a mechanistic explanation for why plant-based eaters lose weight without counting calories [108].
06
PETA is seeking criminal cruelty charges after 17 horses burned to death in a Saratoga harness-track barn that had no smoke detectors, sprinklers, or fire alarms [133].
FDA proposes mandatory notification for new food additives, delays UPF definition
Photo: AgFunderNews
“By proposing mandatory GRAS notifications, we are closing critical information gaps and giving the FDA greater visibility into substances entering the food supply.”
“Considering the out-of-control, self-regulatory system we currently have for food ingredients, it's disappointing that today's announcement lacks substance and doesn't propose anything meaningful.”
Brian Ronholm, director of food policy, Consumer Reports · [150]
By the numbers
2,000+self-GRAS and 1,740 FEMA GRAS substances already on the market that the new rule would cover [88]
120 daysthe public comment period before FDA drafts a final rule, with no fixed timetable after that [88]
WatchThe FDA will publish the rule in the federal register August 11 and open the 120-day comment window; the promised ultra-processed food definition remains stuck at the Office of Management and Budget with no release date [150]
Cultimate Foods folds as Germany's cultivated-fat pioneer fails to find a buyer
Photo: green queen
“The company didn't become what we hoped it would become. That hurts.”
Jordi Morales-Dalmau, Cultimate Foods co-founder and CTO · [102]
“We built something real: A team. A technology. Scientific publications and patents. A product. None of that changes the outcome. Cultimate is closing.”
$74Mraised by cultivated-meat startups globally in 2025, nearly half of 2024's total and 20 times lower than 2021's peak [102]
€2.3MCultimate's 2024 seed round, before it filed for bankruptcy in April 2026 [102]
WatchNo buyer emerged during Cultimate's restructuring; the cultivated-fat field watches for the next closure after Believer Meats, Meatable, Upstream Foods and Cell4Food [102]
1 yearMAPAQ inspectors documented the same abuse at this auction before this footage surfaced, and took no action in between [146]
WatchAnimal Justice is pushing for a National Framework for Farmed Animal Protection to end the conflict between MAPAQ's roles promoting and policing the agriculture industry [146]
FromAnimal Justice
04▲InnovationStory
Malaysia's sovereign fund backs All G's animal-free dairy in pre-Series B round
Photo: green queen
“It is wonderful to have an investor like Xeraya onboard. The decision to back All G is a powerful endorsement of our science and our mission.”
“We invest in transformative biology with a clear pathway to improving human health, and we're excited to help All G expand into Southeast Asia and beyond.”
$36M+raised by All G to date, after Xeraya joined a round that had already secured $6.6M [105]
60,000-litrescale where All G currently produces single-digit tonnes a year of its lactoferrin ingredient, LFX [105]
Company claim"We will have a self-affirmed GRAS for human lactoferrin before the end of 2026, and we will be in market within six months" (Jan Pacas, All G CEO) [105]. This is All G's own unaudited timeline for an ingredient not yet filed with FDA.
FromGreen Queen
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Cook Nora Cooks' Marry Me Lentils: black lentils in a creamy sun-dried tomato sauce, a budget one-skillet dinner that needs no fake meat [79].
JBS is bringing Wesley Batista, once suspended amid an insider-trading investigation, back as group CEO in January, replacing Gilberto Tomazoni [74].
JBS reversed course on closing its Souderton, Pennsylvania beef plant, saving about 400 jobs with a $30 million retooling investment [75].
Research & Nutrition
Vegetarian diets are linked to a 13% lower risk of total cancer and vegan diets to a 23% lower risk, per a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies [11].
Activism & Animals
Iceland deported five American crew members of the anti-whaling ship M/V Bandero after it blocked a Hvalur 9 fin-whale hunt; the company has killed at least 35 whales this season [122].
PETA's formaldehyde-free Kind Piglet dissection replacement reaches US schools this November, following its Kind Frog [134].
A Sierra Leone sanctuary that's cared for rescued chimpanzees since 1995 now houses more than 120 of them, evidence the illegal pet trade in western chimps persists [128].
Dogs' brains distinguish human fear from sadness, the first evidence dogs read specific negative facial expressions rather than just good versus bad [142].
Innovation
ProVeg International launched a public database tracking European retailers' plant-based sales targets; only 15 of 37 supermarkets assessed have set one [113].
THIS™ launched a fact-based hub to counter protein and plant-based nutrition misinformation spreading online [110].
NNB Nutrition and Axiom Foods launched hydrolyzed plant proteins engineered to match whey's clarity and solubility as dairy whey supply tightens [111].
The Alt Protein Project welcomed 15 new student groups across seven countries, growing its campus network past 800 members [107].
Wins & Culture
Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Bernardo Ficarella, a four-time ADCC lightweight champion, says he went vegan "for the animals" [164].
One Good Thing
In Hardin County, Iowa, the Faaborg family cut the ribbon this week on a converted hog barn that now grows oyster, lion's mane, and reishi mushrooms. The pond that once held waste from their 1,100-hog operation is full of fish, frogs, and a family of ducks. "This project is not just mushrooms, but conservation and rewilding efforts," Tanner Faaborg said, and the family's already planning a pollinator garden and prairie restoration for the fall [132].
Food Safety News
Animal Justice