Brazilian start-up Future Farm is celebrating twice over. At the beginning of April, its most recent product, Future Tvna, won the Innoval prize awarded at Alimentaria in the category of best international product. But this plant-based tuna, made with natural ingredients, not only captivated the Fira de Barcelona jury, it also attracted the interest of the Ametller Origen group.

The two companies have reached a distribution agreement which has already brought Future Tvna to more than 50 of the Catalan group's restaurants and shops since mid-April. Ametller Origen were principally drawn to the product’s plant origin, a recipe combining peas, soya, chickpeas, Schizochytrium sp microalgae oil and containing DHA and antioxidants.

Food of the future
Future Farm's director for Southern Europe, Felippe Fontanelli, said, "We are delighted to have the support of a company like Ametller Origen, which has been able to take such a long-standing tradition, dating back to 1830, and to bring it to the food of the future. We believe this agreement is a reflection of the perfect union between natural, traditional food and the latest technology. This is a combination that will allow us to improve people's health, care for animals and protect the planet.”

And it seems this is only the first step for the company in Spain. Marketing Director, Pedro Zuim, said, "In addition to several active distribution agreements, we do now have a presence in the country. We have invested and will invest in local communication and implementation partners. We are in addition keen to build a larger local team in the medium term to support growth. We see Spain as a key market for our success.

Plant-based alternative
The goal for the time being is to make progress in the Spanish market, so that products reach more consumers. Behind that ambition lies a foodtech vision, the company being created in April 2019 to change the way people eat meat around the world by bringing to market a plant-based alternative that has been developed using natural, non-GMO products. In addition to tuna, its product range includes hamburgers, meatballs, “chicken” strips and sausages.

All these foods have been developed using the latest technological advances. Future Tvna, for example, is the culmination of work by a team of Australian engineers and food experts who have come up with a product that tastes, feels and looks like tuna, and which aims to promote the protection of marine life by reducing the harm caused by industrial fishing.

^{Photo: Future Farm}