Mood candies: Sweet treats for mental wellbeing in Asia
Singapore-based Hue taps gap in mood wellness to launch science-backed candies using traditional Asian botanicals.
Mental health issues affected over 80 million people across ASEAN in 2021 – a 70% increase since 1990. This surge has made mood and emotional wellness a growing focus for functional food innovation.
In response, Singapore start-up Hue has developed mood-boosting candies formulated with ingredients such as tiger milk mushrooms, fish oil, gac fruit, and moringa leaf. The aim is to support relaxation and emotional balance.
Bean-free coffee: Prefer partners Ajinomoto, Coffee Ferm for APAC growth
Singapore’s Prefer looks to scale its sustainable bean-free coffee across APAC with partners Ajinomoto and Coffee Ferm.
Made from food manufacturing byproducts such as rice and soy, Prefer’s bean-free coffee flavours are developed using a proprietary fermentation and roasting process.
As part of its Asia Pacific expansion plans, Prefer has partnered Ajinomoto Thailand and The Coffee Ferm – an Australian FMCG company – to tap their strong distribution networks.
“We chose Ajinomoto and The Coffee Ferm because our technology complements their strong distribution networks, enabling lower-cost, lower-carbon products for their customers,” said Prefer CEO Jake Berber.
India’s Biokraft Foods aims for 2026 commercial launch of cultivated seafood
Food tech start-up Biokraft Foods unveils India’s first cultivated trout fillets as it pursues regulatory approval for its 3D-printed chicken.
Biokraft Foods launched the trout fillets in partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Coldwater Fisheries Research (ICAR-CICFR) – an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the Government of India.
Founder and CEO Kamalnayan Tibrewal called the partnership “an exciting milestone” and a “breakthrough” in expanding the firm’s cultivated protein portfolio.
“The ultimate goal is to achieve a full commercial rollout of both its meat and seafood products by 2026,” announced the firm in a media statement in April.
From Malaysia to the world: Kantin Lab wants to take ASEAN flavours global
Malaysian snack brand Kantin Lab aims to counter the dominance of Western-style snack flavours and showcase authentic South East Asian tastes.
The brand aims to offer a fresh take on snacks by using bold, authentic Southeast Asian ingredients.
“We hope to bring something new to the snack category, which has been dominated by standard Western flavours like BBQ, ketchup, and sour cream & onion. This can be quite boring.
“Coming from Southeast Asia, we feel it’s important to highlight ingredients like lemongrass, lime, and curry leaves, in our products. The goal is to proudly bring South East Asian flavours to the global market,” said Kantin Lab co-founder Vincent Low.
Silkworm protein firm targets ASEAN, EU expansion
Japan’s Morus plans ASEAN and EU expansions for its silkworm protein powder, backed by new funding and growing functional food demand.
Morus has raised US$5m in Series A funding to accelerate clinical trials and scale mass production of its proprietary silkworm-derived bioingredient, MorSilk Powder – a nutrient-dense powder with matcha-like taste and appearance.
It is combined with Japanese matcha for a beverage that manages blood sugar levels or flavoured with yuzu and stevia for its sports nutrition drink. These are marketed under its Kaiko brand.
Hey! Chips taps clean label, texture trends for new fruit bites launch
Singapore-based Hey! Chips has expanded its clean snacks portfolio with a new range of freeze-dried fruit bites, which it claims offer a unique melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Hey! Chips is best known for its range of crunchy whole vegetable snacks, having opted to move away from conventional extruded snacks to establish a ‘whole ingredient’ unique selling point.
All its products are clean label with no sugar or preservatives added, and a standard ingredient list of just two to three items.
“With our crunchy snacks range having hit its stride and finding entry into all the premium supermarkets in Singapore, we wanted to create something even more unique but still true to our clean label ideology,” Hey! Chips Founder and CEO Emily Chu told FoodNavigator-Asia at the Food and Hotel Asia (FHA) 2025 event in Singapore.
PepsiCo accelerator fuels food industry growth with real-world pilots
PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator (GHAC) APAC is driving agri-food innovation, with start-ups in the region piloting solutions alongside PepsiCo and key partners.
The GHAC APAC 2025 edition recently announced this year’s winning start-up, Beijing AIForce Technology at a ceremony in Shanghai, China.
The firm pulled ahead from among 10 finallists across Australia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea to win the coveted US$100,000 prize.
Beijing AIForce’s winning innovation was autonomous, low-carbon e-tractors, an emerging solution for sustainable farming that showed encouraging results in initial tests including the combination of automation, affordability, and sustainability in an all-in-one solution.
Rethinking plant-based: Consumers want natural, minimally processed foods, says Dipsy Dips
Singapore-based hummus brand Dipsy Dips says a focus on the traditions of plant-based eating can overcome growing consumer unease with the category.
Dipsy Dips is tapping into a different narrative within plant-based eating – one that predates the recent interest in meat analogues.
With a focus on traditional, natural foods like hummus, the brand aims to revive interest in minimally processed, nutritionally rich options that reflect the original ethos of plant-based diets.
“Plant-based meats often include all kinds of additives. I was fascinated by them five years ago too, but it didn’t work out as expected. That doesn’t mean it won’t improve in future, but we’re simply not in that space,” said Dipsy Dips founder and director Elizabeth-Anne Theodoros.
“While we fall under plant-based, we’re in a different category – more of a pulse-based superfood than a processed alternative,” she added.
Heart-healthy + salt-free: Aussie startup reinvents Asian condiments
Australian startup Heartful Flavours launches three salt-free Asian seasonings made from whole plant foods, complementing its heart-healthy meal packs.
The new launches are salt-free alternatives to soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce – condiments central to Asian cuisine.
Yeast, seaweed, and mushrooms re-create authentic flavours for the firm’s “Fiish Sauce” seasoning. “Soi Sauce” and “Oister Sauce” seasonings have the same base ingredients but contain fermented soybeans and dates respectively.
“They’re made from 100% whole food ingredients with absolutely no added salt. They taste rich and full of umami – just like the real thing – but better for your heart,” Heartful Flavours co-founder Dr Rebecca Luong told FoodNavigator.
Turion Labs Singapore launch to tackle cost and infrastructure gaps for SEA food tech start-ups
A new venture in Singapore aims to tackle two of the biggest challenges faced by biotech and food tech start-ups in South East Asia – access to expensive infrastructure and limited collaboration opportunities.
These challenges spurred the 6 May launch of Turion Labs, South East Asia’s first full-stack biotech innovation platform, meaning it integrates everything from lab access to regulatory support into one unified service.
This one-stop hub is a joint venture between South Korean biotech accelerator S&S Lab and Indonesia’s venture builder Future Lestari.
