Seattle Food Tech Raises $1M to Jumpstart Vegan Chicken Nugget Manufacturing

Vegan meat company, Seattle Food Tech, whose slogan reads “Sustainable, Affordable Plant-Based Meat,” has acquired $1 million of seed round funding.

The company, founded in 2017, employs unique manufacturing processes to create vegan meat that resembles traditional meat, in terms of texture and taste, while maintaining price parity with meat counterparts.

It’s first upcoming product, a plant-based “chicken” nugget was finalized in February. The Food Tech company hopes to retail the product at major franchises, such as Walmart and Costco, for as little as $2 per serving. It is also expected that the new nuggets will be stocked at hospitals and schools by fall this year.

Seattle Food Tech wants to be a part of the industrialization of meat alternatives, CEO, Christie Lagally, told The Spoon. The company is working alongside partners who serve the meat industry, allowing it to be equipped with the same technology that enables large-scale meat production and processing.

Seattle Food Tech defines itself as: “[A] food manufacturing technology and production company defined solely to catapult meat alternative production toward price parity with factory-farmed animal-based meat.  SFT implements novel food manufacturing methods in large-scale production to produce low-cost plant-based meat at high volumes.”

A report released by GlobalData earlier this month revealed 70% of the world’s population is actively ditching meat. Another survey found 53% of Canadians eat meat alternative products, while nearly eight million Brits now eat a meat-free diet. So the demand for alternatives is, inarguably, soaring.

Further, recently, internet users became somewhat perplexed that UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to introduce “touch-free” meat packaging, as “squeamish” millennials are “grossed out” by raw meat.

Companies such as Seattle Food Tech and other leading brands such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and Quorn are spearheading a changing food system. Founder of Virgin, Richard Branson, has even predicted that plant-based meat will soon “become the norm.”

“I believe we will look back and be shocked at what was the accepted way we killed animals en masse for food,” he stated in February. He added, “in 30 years it is unlikely animals will need to be killed for food anymore.”

Image Credit: Seattle Food Tech