Spanish food tech company Heura has announced the opening of a new innovation laboratory in the 22@ technological district of Barcelona.
The laboratory’s increased capacity will allow for the integration of scientific disciplines and the promotion of technological transfer. It will be used to further Heura’s work to develop healthy and sustainable food solutions.
Heura has also announced plans to register six new patents over the next nine months, with the aim of offering products with “an unprecedented impact and nutritional density in the most consumed food categories”. The company will continue to expand beyond the plant-based meat category, in line with the prototypes for healthier plant-based cheese, pasta, and snacks it unveiled last October.
The new patents will focus on replacing additives, modified starches, and saturated fats with vegetable proteins and healthy lipids. In this way, Heura hopes to transform the ultra-processed food categories, facilitating access to high-value food. The technologies will not be restricted to Heura products — they will also be licensed to other companies to maximise the reach of healthy and sustainable food solutions.
Transforming food production methods
At the beginning of 2024, Heura announced that its turnover had reached €38.3 million the previous year, while international sales rose by a huge 63%. In Spain, the brand’s plant-based meat achieved a market share of 26% and the highest repeat purchase rates in the category.
Heura presented its first patent-pending technology in 2023, claiming it could now produce plant-based foods with previously unattainable nutritional values. The first commercially available product to use the technology was the brand’s additive-free plant-based ham alternative, featuring 64% protein density and low levels of fat.
“These new technologies aim to transform current food production methods, but their true strength lies in the efficiency of their scaling and their adaptation to regional consumer preferences,” said Marc Coloma, CEO and co-founder of Heura Foods. “That’s why we’re forging alliances with industry leaders to accelerate a change that no one can drive alone.”
