Start-up Spotlight: ASEAN snacks from Lecka, Asian cultivated fish by Bluu Seafood, Thai-focused plant-based meat by Let's Plant Meat and more feature in our round-up

From farm-to-snacks for Asians: Vietnam-based Lecka eyes ASEAN millennials​

Healthier snacks outfit Lecka believes that its all-natural snacks, localised flavours and sustainable packaging will help it attract the attention of millennial consumers across various markets in the South East Asian region.

Based out of Hanoi, Vietnam, Lecka’s first target consumer group is the highly health conscious, and has launched its first product range of energy bars to cater to this group – but Lecka Founder and CEO Markus Gnirck is looking to target a much larger range of consumers with more upcoming products.

“For the very first time, we are seeing fairly coherent consumer segments appearing across the various countries in this region, where tastes and preferences all used to be very specific to specific markets previously,”​ Gnirck told FoodNavigator-Asia​.

Asian appeal: Bluu Seafood pledges region-specific cultivated fish products​

European cultivated fish product firm Bluu Seafood has highlighted its plans for region-specific product innovation in the Asia Pacific region, in the wake of its first product announcement and bid for regulatory approval in Singapore.

Primarily based out of Germany, Bluu Seafood has had far less presence in the Asia Pacific region thus far compared to local cultivated seafood firms such as Shiok Meats or Avant, but the firm appears to be trying to make up for this in terms of timing by having recently announced its plans for Singapore to be the first market to see its products go on sale, expecting this to take place by late 2023.

Plant-based for Thais: Let’s Plant Meat launches new products to meet inflation-driven rising demand​

Thai plant-based meat firm Let’s Plant Meat has launched a wave of new Thai-focused plant-based meat and seafood products to meet rising demand in the region, which the firm says is being driven by both consumer health awareness and rising meat prices.

Let’s Plant Meat first burst onto the plant-based scene in 2020 as a spin-off from flavour specialist firm Nithi Foods, marketing its then-only product, a plant-based burger patty, as a more affordable version of imported plant-based burger patties from western firms such as Beyond.

Food fingerprinting future: ProfilePrint targets global food standards provider role after industry heavyweight support​

Singapore-based food technology firm ProfilePrint believes it has the capability to establish global standards for the food industry using its digital food fingerprint technology, on the back of partnerships with five of the food and beverage industry's largest names.

When we spoke with ProfilePrint back in 2018, the firm had only just started out on its journey and was then focused solely on tea and providing digital fingerprints for these, utilising molecular signatures to provide consumers and businesses with the ability to know and understand the characteristics of these products without needing to physically touch, taste or smell them.

‘Fantastic opportunity?’: Singapore functional food firm Asmara’s founder reveals that MNC is circling​

Singapore functional food firm Asmara has acknowledged that an MNC hopes to acquire the company, with three businesses in total keen to snap it up.

Founded in 2019 by Ramesh Krish Kumar and Tho Pin Da with a starting capital of just SGD$4,200 (US$3,038), Asmara is behind the products such as Health Tonics, Probiotic-Mood Snacks, Simha Tea, functional beverages, ginseng and para-probiotics.