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V2food is an Australian based producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in January 2019 with their first product being launched in October 2019. The company was founded by Nick Hazell, former Mars & PepsiCo R&D Director with investments from Jack Cowin’s Competitive Foods Australia and CSIRO’s investment fund Main Sequence Ventures. The company is building a factory to produce plant-based meat products.

History
The company was founded in early 2019 as a partnership between Jack Cowin’s Competitive Foods & CSIRO’s investment fund Main Sequence Ventures. Jack Cowin’s company owns Hungry Jack’s as the master franchisee of Burger King and has stated he wishes to develop a meat alternative for the Whopper that is available at a price that ordinary consumers can afford while addressing the sustainability requirements the environment is currently facing.

CSIRO entered into an arrangement where the organization would generate research in exchange for an equity stake. CSIRO is an Australian federal government agency regarded as one of the best research agencies in the world having been responsible for many commercially used developments including high speed Wi-Fi, polymer banknotes and insect repellent Aerogard. As part of the partnership CSIRO will provide research & development support leveraging their 5000+ employees and over 100 years of agriculture research. Professor Martin Cole of CSIRO said the motivating factor behind the company was the challenge of producing food for a growing population.

Financial Review reported that a factory to supply v2food would break ground before the end of 2019 with a budget of $20 million. Competitive Foods currently operates a facility in Brisbane which will streamline the process. The factory will produce hamburger patties processed from grain legumes.

Product
The company website compares v2 mince as having similar levels of protein to beef mince without cholesterol and with the dietary fibre from plants. Dr.Michelle Colgrave, Molecular analysis team leader at CSIRO Agriculture and Food, said that the most important objective was "to create a realistic meat replacement that tasted good.

In 2019 the product received a favourable review in News.com.au. They observed that the smell and taste were indistinguishable from real meat.[news.com] In a review for Startup Daily Chef David Rodwell said he was "impressed by how it performed and the end result was delicious."

Hungry Jack’s (Australia’s master Burger King franchisee) launched v2food’s first product in October 2019 with a specialty patty specifically developed for Hungry Jack’s. The product is named “The Rebel Whopper” as Australia’s answer to the international success of Burger King products including the Beyond Meat Whopper & Impossible Whopper.