While companies like Upside Foods and Eat Just have garnered attention for their advancements in cultivated meat and the establishment of new production facilities, one startup has been discreetly applying similar principles to berries. Israeli nutritech startup Novella is in the early stages of creating intact-cell berry compounds cultivated outside of the plant using “novel, precision-controlled-environment technology,” as announced earlier this month. The primary health benefits of berries are their antioxidant properties and overall wellness benefits, according to the company. With this in mind, Novella has developed a method to extract these nutrients without utilizing an entire plant. “We know much more about specific health condition categories that particular phytochemicals can benefit, and which berries contain higher concentrations of the compounds that provide these researched benefits.”
The startup has ambitious plans to establish an entirely new supply channel for these nutraceuticals, which, as the company states, are currently in high demand. The nutraceutical industry has experienced significant interest over the past year. In 2022, the market size was valued at $423 billion and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.5% from 2023 to 2032, according to a report from Global Market Insights. Nutriceuticals—a sector where Novella aims to position its products—have become crucial elements of consumers’ lifestyles, the report notes. While nutraceuticals are typically designed to address specific health issues, many can also serve multiple therapeutic purposes, like Novella’s berry products.
The cultivation of these berries utilizes the same technologies as those employed by cultivated meat companies, with a similar goal of reducing waste. “What we realized is that you don’t need the whole plant, or the entire fruit; you just need one part of it,” said Itay Dana, co-founder of Novella, in an interview with Food Dive. “Essentially, we screen different tissues of the berry plant, identify the highest concentration of nutrients, extract them, and ultimately produce a product that is 100% plant cell or berry cell, with zero waste.” The result is a powder that the body can easily absorb, which Novella intends to market to other players in the nutraceutical space. According to Dana, Novella faces no direct competition. “Most companies are focusing on bulk materials, and those that are looking at nutraceuticals like we are essentially explode at the end of the process,” he explained.
Novella has recently opened a new facility that will serve as both its operational headquarters and a pilot plant to expedite the cultivation of whole-berry fruit cells from five different varieties. “Each variety is crafted to meet distinct supplement market demands,” the company stated. The startup aims to alleviate some of the bottlenecks in the supply of high-demand berry ingredients within the global supplement space. However, just like cultivated meat, consumer education remains a significant hurdle, according to Dana. For example, while consumers may be familiar with products like calcium citrate at Walmart, understanding the benefits of these new berry nutraceuticals presents a challenge.