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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

New Age Meats Raises Another $2M for Cell-Based Pork

Cultivated meat startup New Age Meats (NAM) announced today it has raised a $2 million seed extension round led by TechU Ventures. The round follows the NAM’s $2.7 million seed round from earlier this year and brings the company’s total funding to $5 million.

The Berkeley, CA company is currently developing a cell-based pork sausage and says the new funds will go towards this development. In particular, that includes bringing the price point of its product down. 

NAM will also use the funds to further build out its Food Science department, which it says is focused on getting the key attributes — taste, smell, texture, etc. — of its cell-based pork as close to the real thing as possible. On that note, the company held a taste test for its pork back in 2018 and received largely positive reviews. 

Another key element to NAM’s methods is its use of automation to optimize bioreactors and essentially grow its meat faster. Part of the new funding will go towards implementing more of this automation, as well as robotics, to speed up both the research and development processes. 

Investment in cell-based meat has already reached over $1 billion in 2020 so far, which is almost double what it was for all of 2019. Cell-based meat makes up a small-but-significant portion of that investment, and NAM’s seed extension follows funding news from BlueNalu, Integriculture, and others. 

Though the company didn’t provide a timeframe, NAM said today it plans to eventually build out a pilot facility, scale product development and production, and bring its first products to market.

As Cell-Based Protein Becomes a Reality, What to Call it Gets Increasingly Important

Last week we briefly covered news about a Rutgers study that found “cell-based” the best descriptor for lab-grown seafood products. Further thought and reading on the matter leads me to believe the study’s findings have implications for labeling across all of the cell-based protein space, not just seafood.

Here’s a quick recap: A new study by Rutgers in the Journal of Food Science recommends “Companies seeking to commercialize seafood products made from the cells of fish or shellfish should use the term ‘cell-based’ on product labels.”

The study, commissioned by cell-based seafood company BlueNalu, claims to be the first of its kind evaluating how to label alternative seafood products in a way that both appeals to consumers and meets regulatory requirements around product naming. The study was done by William Hallman, a professor who chairs the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He noted this week that participants in the study were able to tell the label “cell-based” apart from ones like “wild caught” or “farm raised,” and that those participants still believed the cell-based products were as nutritious as the others. 

Other names tested in the study were “cell-cultured seafood” and “cultivated seafood,” as well as phrases like “cultivated from the cells of ____” and “grown directly from the cells of ____.”

It’s not hard to understand why “cell-based seafood” resonates the most with consumers. The above phrases lack the kind of concise description needed for food products, and terms like “cultivated seafood” are rather muddy in terms of describing what goes into making the product. 

This question of labeling is only going to get bigger as cell-based proteins move further from concept and into a culinary reality for average consumers. We’ve already seen this play out to some degree with plant-based proteins. About a year ago, large meat corporations were pushing hard to ban their plant-based counterparts from using words like “burgers” and “sausages” on packaging. As we wrote previously, “Big Meat trying to quash alterna-meats’ popularity by telling companies how they can or can’t label themselves feels protectionist and ineffective, not to mention desperate, at this point.” 

And that was before the pandemic. Since COVID-19 hit and shed an uncomfortably bright light on issues in traditional meat production, demand for alternative proteins has been through the roof. Just this week, investment network FAIRR released a report stating investment in alt-protein for the first half of 2020 is nearly double the amount for all of 2019. That includes cell-based protein.

Whether Big Seafood pushes back on labeling now that more cell-based seafood is coming to market remains to be seen. It will certainly have a lot of opponents if it does. BlueNalu just announced a new facility designed for commercial production of its alt-seafood products. Wild Type raised a $12.5 million Series A round last year for its cultured salmon, and Shiok Meats just partnered with Integriculture to scale up production of lab-grown shrimp. And those are only the seafood-focused players in the cell-cultured protein space.

Big Seafood aside, effective labeling of all these products — and all cell-based protein products, really — will be key to appealing to new consumers who may not have previously known about cell-based meat and dairy, and that it’s just as nutritious as the real deal. When it comes to finding a name for these alt-protein items, that could be the most difficult and most rewarding challenge companies face.  

FAIRR: Investment in Alternative Protein Has Already Reached $1.1B in 2020

Investment in alternative protein for the first half of 2020 is almost double what it was for the whole of 2019, according to a new report by investor network FAIRR. Between January and the beginning of July of 2020, over $907 million was invested into plant-based foods, compared to $457 for the whole of 2019. More than $290 million has been invested into cell-based meat so far in 2020. The entire market for alternative protein is expected to grow to $17.9 billion by 2025.

The U.S. is still the largest market for alt-protein, reaching almost $5 billion in sales in 2019, $1 billion of those for meat alternatives. China’s is also a huge market for alternative proteins, particularly when it comes to meat replacements. 

We’ve noted this growth frequently over the last few months, and FAIRR’s report lays out some of the main drivers behind consumers’ insatiable appetites for non-animal protein. There’s the aforementioned uptick in investment, a point supported by a recent slew of news announcements. In the last week alone, Better Meat Co. raised $1 million, Joywell Foods raised $6.9 million, and plant-based cheese company Grounded raised $1.74 million.

FAIRR also calls out the rise of plant-based seafood products and a decrease in production costs for manufacturers as market drivers, along with an increase in companies using alt-protein to diversify their product lines. Last year saw a number of major milestones that brought these issues further into the light and helped alt-protein go mainstream. For instance, Nestlé opened its own production facility for plant-based meat in May of this year. UK grocer Sainsbury’s launched its own line of plant-based products in early 2020. Meanwhile, Starbucks, KFC, and a host of other QSRs have rushed to add plant-based offerings to their menus.

Then, of course, we have the pandemic to thank for this massive uptick in demand for alternative protein. “Consumers worldwide are rethinking how they eat and what they eat amidst supply chain disruptions and public concern over the link between meat production and viral diseases,” the report states.

Across the board, investment in food tech is up since the start of the pandemic, having reached $4.8 billion in the first half of 2020 according to a report from Finistere. This too is in response to the current global health crisis.

But FAIRR also calls COVID-19 “only the latest straw on the camel’s back” when it comes to alt-proteins. Pre-pandemic, our heavy reliance on animal-based proteins was already under scrutiny because of animal supply chains’ negative impact on the environment, not to mention human health. Throw a zoonotic pathogen in there (which COVID-19 is widely believed to be), and it’s easy to see why the pandemic has accelerated the demand for animal-free protein sources.

What’s next? Cell-based protein, probably. While that sector has made up a much smaller portion of investments in the first half of 2020, those dollars are nonetheless pouring in. As the pandemic wrecks more havoc on our food system and sheds light on the importance of finding new sources of protein, expect the interest in cell-based proteins to continue its acceleration.

Finistere: Food Tech Investment Reached $4.8B in the First Half of 2020

An unusually high volume of food tech investment news has kept us on our toes all summer, and we’re not the only ones to notice. Food tech VC firm Finistere Ventures said today that 2020 so far as been an “extraordinary” investment time for both food tech and agtech, with much of that investment happening smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. More importantly and according to the firm’s latest findings, much of the capital is actually a direct reaction to the pandemic. Finistere, whose investment portfolio includes Memphis Meats, CropX, and Good Eggs, released the findings today in collaboration with PitchBook Data, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

For the first two quarters of 2020, total agtech investment reached $2.2 billion compared to the $2.7 billion raised for the entirety of 2019. While slightly lower, food tech investment reached $4.8 billion during the first two quarters of 2020 compared to $7 billion for all of 2019, and that number will continue to rise rapidly (see below). 

Large investments, what Finistere calls “mega rounds” of more than $100 million have continued and encompassed all of the top 10 food tech investments and 50 percent of the top agtech investments. 

Other notable points, as quoted directly from the report, include:

  • Investors are helping startups push their funding needs outside the “Covid zone” and build more evidence of their value as future growth investors will be looking for signals of scalability.
  • Rounds led by new investors have been a lesser part of the 2020 total, which is likely to continue while capital managers take stock of the market conditions.
  • While early-stage Agtech has seen a decrease in pre-money valuations, valuations for late-stage financings continued to increase in 2020 despite the current pandemic. Valuations will be under pressure looking forward and will likely require a year or more for the true impact of Covid to manifest in this metric.

Food tech, in particular, has a promising outlook right now, thanks in no small part to consumers’ collective behavioral shift to eating more at home. “It is our view that there will be lasting and persistent changes to consumer behavior in at-home consumption, and interesting to note this is the first year since 1994 that restaurant share of food consumption dropped versus in-home,” the report stated.

Other activity around the food tech sector supports this idea. Online grocery sales have experienced record highs since the start of the pandemic. Many companies, from plant-based meat producers to snack brands, have launched direct-to-consumer channels in response to this shift away from public spaces and into the consumer home. And with the state of the restaurant industry still very much in flux, these behaviors aren’t likely to change anytime soon.

Finistere noted that for food tech, retaining customers and growing margins will be important to future funding rounds.

Agtech will have a bit more of an uphill climb. The report states that agtech companies “are likely to face a turbulent outlook for 2021,” citing farming margins, labor costs, trade conflicts, and pressure to develop more sustainable farming methods as factors. The industry should expect much consolidation in the future.

Plant-Based Pork Rinds, Upcycled Cookies and Potato Nacho Cheese: The Best Alt. Snacks I’ve Tasted

I don’t want to brag, but being stuck at home for the past five months, I’ve become pretty good at snacking. Too good at snacking, judging from my most recent trip to the scale.

So when both Outstanding Foods and Startup CPG recently asked if I wanted to try out their wares — well, who am I to turn down free snacks sent to my door?

Outstanding makes Pig Out, the plant-based pork rinds. What’s funny to me is that when I’ve mentioned them to other people, they wrinkle their nose in befuddlement and are hesitant to try them. As if gluten-free, non-GMO, soy-free, vegan and certified kosher rinds made mostly from rice, sunflower oil and pea protein is grosser than rinds made from deep-fried pig skin.

Anyhoo.

Pig Out rinds come in flavors like Original, Hella Hot, Texas BBQ and Nacho Cheese. While the main taste is salty, they are delicious! My wife in particular was hooked on the Hella Hot flavor, lamenting that left to her own devices, she could eat the entire bag. (I could too.)

Meanwhile, Startup CPG is a service that connects emerging CPG brands with each other and investors. The company sent me 25 different products to try out, and these are the ones you should hunt and chow down as soon as you can:

  • 12 Tides seaweed snacks. Delicious puffs of organic kelp that are light, airy and satisfying. Plus the packaging it totally compostable.
  • Loca plant based nacho sauce. This potato-based cheese spread is akin to the “cheese” you find in a convenience store. I’m not going to lie — it smells to high heaven, but tastes devilishly good!
  • Renewal Mill chocolate chip cookies. Made from upcycled okara flour, these cookies are soft and chewy and a perfect sweet treat in the afternoon.
  • Kween Granola Butter. A spreadable granola with a lovely cinnamon tinge to it. My only complaint is the texture is a little gritty, but it is a nice sweet counterbalance to the saltiness of a Wheat Thin.
  • Jack and Tom jerky. I’m not usually a fan of jackfruit, but prepared and dried in this fashion, this is a great vegan alternative to meat jerky, and the spiciness is powerful, yet playful.

The sad part is that most of these snacks are more expensive than your standard CPG brands. But they are probably better for you (in moderation) and definitely better for the planet. Plus, most of these plant-based alternatives are just getting off the ground now and haven’t scaled up production to bring down prices yet.

But, since it looks like lockdowns won’t be ending anytime soon, it might be high time to invest a little more in your snack game.

Sweet! Joywell Foods Raises $6.9M to Develop Plant-Based Protein That Can Replace Sugar

Joywell Foods announced today it has closed a $6.9 million Series A round to further develop its plant-based sweeteners derived from the proteins of “exotic fruits.” The round was led by Evolv Ventures with participation from Khosla Ventures, SOSV, Alumni Ventures Group, and other investors. It brings Joywell’s total funding to $13.2 million. 

Joywell says it will use the new funds to build out its proprietary platform, which uses both plants and fermentation technology to create healthier sweeteners derived from the protein of certain fruits. Right now, that includes the so-called miracle berry, otherwise known as synsepalum dulcificum. The berry contains a protein called miraculin, whose sweetness “is up to 5500x that of sugar,” according to today’s press release. Joywell has so far commercialized one product, a popsicle, using miraculin.  

Joywell told AgFunder News today that it is also working with another plant-based protein called brazzein, which is derived from the Oubli plant common to West Africa. Part of the new funds will be used to further develop products from this as well as other plant-based proteins, which the company says it will test through limited retail and direct-to-consumer channels.

Joywell’s work addresses a massive and well-documented problem in the U.S. food system: sugar consumption. The average American consumers roughly 17 teaspoons of sugar per day, which is 57 pounds of sugar every year, according to the University of California San Francisco. Excessive sugar consumption, as most of us know, can lead to health problems like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. 

Tech startups are tackling this problem with a range of different ways. Magic Spoon uses an ingredient called Allulose in place of sugar in its line of cereals, for example. Other companies are bypassing alternative ingredients altogether and experimenting with ways to improve the existing sugar we’re all so addicted to. An Israeli company called DouxMatok, for instance, combines sugar with food-grade silica to make it more efficient. That in turn allows companies to use 40 percent less sugar in their products. 

Joywell’s use of miraculin actually modifies the taste of food, so that even something sour can taste sweet if miraculin is added. The company says it has a range of potential applications, from baking to dairy to frozen desserts. In doing so, the company hopes to help reduce, if not outright eliminate, our overeliance on sugar in the foods we eat.

Higher Steaks Creates World’s First Lab-Grown Bacon and Pork Belly

United Kingdom based startup Higher Steaks claimed in an announcement today they have successfully created the world’s first lab-grown prototypes for bacon and pork belly.

(Editor update: Mission Barns CEO Eitan Fischer reached out to The Spoon to claim they had created a cultivated bacon prototype this past May, but did not announce it widely at the time).

The production of the first cultivated bacon is big news for those excited for alternatives to industrially produced meat. While 2020 has been a big year for alt-pork, with Impossible launching their plant-based pork at CES and Omnipork debuting their plant-based pork shoulder, this news from Higher Steaks marks the first time bacon or pork belly have been developed from actual animal cells.

The interest in alt-pork shouldn’t be surprising since meat from pigs is the most consumed type of meat in the world. However, countries like China have seen huge viral threats to their pig population, with around half being wiped out in 2019 due to African Swine Fever.

According to company CEO Benjamina Bollag, the protoypes took approximately one month to create, developed from a type of a highly adaptable type of stem cell called induced pluripotent stem cells.

“In nature, you have adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells,” Bollag told The Spoon in an interview. “And this is a way of taking any cell in the body and bringing it back to the embryonic state. Which means that you can expand those cells a lot more and you can make any type of tissue.”

Higher Steaks lab-grown pork belly

According to Bollag, the company used stem cells to create muscle tissue, and used a combination of plant protein and fats to round out the prototype. In the future, Bollag says the company intends to use stem cells to create the other parts of the bacon.

For Higher Steaks, creating the world’s first lab-grown bacon prototype is a big accomplishment. Dutch startup Meatable raised $10 million late last year as part of their effort to create a lab-grown pork, while New Age Meats debuted a lab-grown pork sausage prototype in 2018.

If you’re excited to try out cultivated bacon, you may have to wait a few years. According to Bollag, lab-grown bacon and pork belly will take a while to get to market.

“So I think in the next two to three years, you’ll start seeing it in the upper end, maybe in select restaurants, small quantities” said Bollag. “I think for it to be mass market, really price comparison and supermarket, you’re looking more around five years.”

You can see my full interview with Bollag talking about the development of their bacon and pork belly prototypes below.

Noops Closes $2M Pre-Seed Round, Launches Oatmilk Pudding in U.S.

Noops, a new company that makes plant-based pudding snacks from oat milk, today announced its U.S. launch online and in some retail locations. The company also announced it has closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by 25madison, with participation from Unovis/New Crop Capital and Siddhi Capital. 

Noops said in today’s press release it will use the funds to further develop its product, expand into more retail and foodservice outlets, and expand marketing efforts.

On its website, Noops lists oat milk, date paste, and sunflower seed protein as the main ingredients of its pudding snacks. All ingredients are organic, and the puddings contain zero added sugars. Noops says each serving contains five to seven grams of protein, five to seven grams of fiber, and half the carbs find in regular pudding snacks at the grocery store. 

Starting today, the snacks are available to pre-order online, and the company will launch at certain retailers (specifics weren’t named) and via Instacart later this month. Right now, the products are only available in the U.S.

Like many products derived from plants and alternative ingredients, Noops’ snacks ring up high in terms of price point right now. An eight-pack of 135g cups costs$39, while a 24-pack costs $84. That’s considerably higher than, say, a three-pack of 115g Swiss Miss puddings that will run you about $3.50 bones. It’s less astronomical, though, than something like Magic Spoon’s $40 for a four-pack of 7-oz. alt-sugar cereal.

On the whole, demand for plant-based products products continues to rise. And Noops is wise to sell its wares directly to consumers via its website. Since the pandemic hit, many companies have taken this route to reach customers who prefer e-commerce to mingling with strangers at the grocery store. Noops joins the likes of Impossible, Planterra, Beyond, and other plant-based brands in offering or planning to offer their products via e-commerce shops.

SOSV and Mayfield Launch the Genesis Consortium to Aid Pre-Seed IndieBio Startups

Yesterday, venture fund SOSV announced a partnership with Mayfield to create the Genesis Consortium, which will invest alongside SOSV into pre-seed-state companies participating in SOSV’s IndieBio accelerator.

IndieBio is perhaps best known for helping startups with extremely disruptive concepts and technologies across multiple industries, including food. Memphis Meats, for example, was one of the earliest movers in the cell-based meat space. Geltor is developing non-animal-based protein for to create gelatin for foods, medicines, and cosmetics. 

That level of scientific and technological disruption, however, requires more time, funds, and faith to bring to fruition than would be the case with other kinds of tech companies. That’s one reason many bioengineering-focused startups get stuck, IndieBio’s Po Bronson told me this week. “To really translate the work of scientists often takes years, and we are often speeding that up at the pre-seed stage in our accelerators,” he said. “What we’ve found is that if we could deploy a little more money there at that pre-stage it can help the startups have the runway, time and get more data to prove that they’re really worth the seed funding.”

In other words, the conundrum is that firms typically want companies to show them results before they invest, but companies need the cash in order to get those results.

That’s where the Genesis Consortium comes in. To be clear, this is not a new fund, but rather a “small pool of money,” in Bronson’s words, to help pre-seed-stage companies at IndieBio develop their ideas and technologies. Currently, IndieBio funds about 50 startups with $250,000 each annually. Beginning in 2021, the Genesis Consortium plans to increase that number to $500,000 for each pre-seed startup, according to SOSV’s press release.

As far as the kinds of companies it will invest in, Bronson told me they will continue to work with startups trying to advance entire industries, including food, through science and technology that address both human and planetary health, and the connection between those two areas. These are not incremental technologies that iterate on existing concepts. Instead, these startups are typically rethinking entire industries.  

And while extra funds are an important part of the package these pre-seed startups will get, they’re not the only tool necessary for turning an idea into a business. Especially when it comes to areas like engineering biology, translating an idea into an actual business is where a lot of companies get hung up. A group of scientists must learn how to communicate their ideas and business in a way that can resonate with not just potential investors but also future markets.

“You cannot just be a scientist. You have to be leading a movement in your space and that means communicating and learning to translate,” Bronson explained. He adds that the IndieBio program is “really good” at getting companies through this particular hurdle through its training.

Getting companies over that hurdle is something IndieBio is known for and will continue with the Genesis Consortium. The hope is that through the initiative, a greater number of visionary VCs and corporates will be able to invest in the kinds of ideas that might not otherwise receive the attention (and money) needed to translate them into businesses that can fundamentally change markets.

Impossible Goes the Meal Kit Route With Home Chef Partnership

Meal kit company Home Chef announced today it is partnering with Impossible Foods to offer the latter’s plant-based burgers in its kits. This is the first time Impossible has shown up in the meal kit realm, and it comes at a point when consumer demand for plant-based meat is rapidly growing.

Home Chef will offer multiple recipes that give customers the option to swap out regular ol’ protein for Impossible’s burger, which will come as a 12-oz, package of ground meat for use in a range of recipes that would ordinarily call for beef.

The addition of Impossible to the Home Chef roster is part of the meal kit company’s new “Customize It” feature, which lets users adjust their weekly order to fit their needs, whether that’s extra protein, more veggies, or additional servings. Think Chipotle for meal kits. It’s also the latest way in which the Kroger-owned meal kit company is trying to diversify its offerings to meet different consumers’ lifestyles.

Meal kits are just the latest expansion for Impossible, which up until recently had only been available in restaurants. The company launched its direct-to-consumer online store in June. Those in the lower 48 states can buy bulk orders of Impossible products through it.

But while Impossible may be ahead of its rival Beyond in terms of D2C (Beyond has announced but not yet launched its own e-commerce site), it lags behind in meal kits. Beyond has been available in Blue Apron and HelloFresh kits for some time.

Since the start of the pandemic, Impossible has grown its grocery store footprint by more than 30x and its products are now in about 5,000 grocery stores. Meal kits are another road into consumers’ homes, an important destination seeing as how a lot more people are staying home these days. It doesn’t hurt, either, that the long-struggling meal kit market is actually making something of a comeback.

GROW Accelerator Unveils the 12 Companies Picked for Its Singapore Food Bowl Program

Singapore Food Bowl, a food-focused startup program backed by AgFunder’s GROW accelerator, today announced the 12 startups chosen for its first-ever cohort. While those companies vary in terms of what they do and offer, all of them are working towards the same underlying goal: to build a more sustainable food system that’s more decentralized and able to stand up to unexpected, unprecedented crises like COVID-19. 

That’s an especially urgent goal in Singapore, a country that relies on imports for about 90 percent of its food. To address this, the Singapore government recently created the 30 by 30 initiative, where the city-state aims to have 30 percent of its food grown locally by 2030. Reaching that goal will require a substantial amount of food tech and alternative farming methods, since Singapore has very little in the way of arable land. 

Hence, programs like Singapore Food Bowl which is tied to the 30 by 30 initiative and also supported by Enterprise Singapore and Dole Packaged Foods. 

John Friedman, director at GROW and AgFunder Asia, said in today’s announcement that the program is “providing a platform not only to accelerate innovation in the local agrifood tech ecosystem, but also to raise awareness across broader society of the need for transformation and greater sustainability throughout our food system.”

AgFunder unveiled the 12 chosen startups this morning: 

  • Augmentus: A code-free robotics automation platform built for use in settings like urban farming
  • CocoPallet: Makes shipping pallets from byproducts of coconut farming for use in the global logistics industry
  • Crust Group: Uses leftover bread from hotels, restaurants, and cafes to create craft beers and other beverages
  • DiMuto: Uses internet-of-things and blockchain to digitize the supply chain for better visibility for both suppliers and customers
  • Fortuna Cools: Uses coconut husks to make a cheaper and biodegradable alternative to traditional iceboxes
  • Invertigro: A modular indoor farming system with specialized crop recipes companies can integrate into their existing business models
  • ListenField: An IoT-enabled app that gives farmers actionable data on crop and climate analysis
  • Lleaf: Developing a polymer film that can be applied to greenhouse panels to increase crop yields
  • Mi Terro: Turns spoiled milk into an odorless, temperature-regulating fabric that can be used for clothes, bedding, and food packaging.
  • Organic Technology Holdings: Repurposes organic waste for pet foods, aquafeed, flavor additives, and health supplements
  • SingCell: Provides biotech development and manufacturing services to help cultured meat companies get to market faster.
  • Smoocht: A “r’ice cream” maker that uses organic brown rice milk to make plant-based desserts

Given the state of the pandemic, the 12-week program is completely virtual. It’s in session right now and will run through mid-September.

Report: Plant-based Meat Sales Increased 23 Percent When Sold Next to Real Meat

Sales of plant-based meat products increased 23 percent when those products were sold in the same department as traditional meat, according to a newly released study from the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and Kroger.

The study ran from December 2019 to February 2020 in 60 Kroger test stores across three states: Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana. Plant-based meat products were placed “in a three-foot set within the meat department,” according to the study. 

Results varied by region. In the Midwest stores, where widespread adoption of plant-based meat is only just beginning to catch, sales were up 32 percent. Stores in the Denver, CO area, which the study says “already had a high concentration of plant-based consumers,” saw a 13 percent increase.

Other notable stats from the study include:

  • Shoppers purchasing a wider variety of plant-based meats increased by 33%
  • Shoppers increased their number of purchase occasions by 34%.

This rise in purchases of plant-based meat products isn’t too surprising, given the recent overall spike in demand. But retailers are still determining which section of the grocery store plant-based meat products belong in, and depending on where you go, they could be int he vegan section, with the organic meat products, or with regular ol’ Big Meat. 

Despite demand, plant-based companies have gotten pushback over the last year or so from Big Meat over labeling their products as “meat.” In 2019, the PBFA actually sued Mississippi over the state’s restrictive labeling rules, which originally prevented plant-based meat companies from using terms like “burger” or “hot dog.” Those laws were overturned in Mississippi, but Arkansas, Missouri, and other states have passed similar legislation. What labeling laws are in any given state will inevitably affect where plant-based products wind up in the grocery store.

Of course the debate of where to put plant-based meats may be rendered less important if current trends in grocery shopping continue. Online shopping is still popular, and the uptick in coronavirus cases may ensure it stays high for some time longer. At the same time, leading plant-based meat companies like Impossible and Beyond have launched or are planning to launch direct-to-consumer sites. Though to be honest, you’d have to be a pretty dedicated fan of those products to take the time to buy in bulk directly. For plant-based meat companies looking to reach newer flexitarians and casually curious consumers, the grocery store aisle — and specifically the meat aisle — remains their best bet.