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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Future Food

Wendy’s is Semi-Secretly Testing a Plant-Based Burger in Canada

Wendy’s seems to be following in McDonald’s footsteps and launching a plant-based burger in Canada. In September McDonald’s began testing a meat-free burger in select Canadian locations. Earlier today, vegan advocacy sites LiveKindly and VegNews reported that social media picked up an outdoor Wendy’s advertisement in Toronto showing a burger called “The Plentiful” along with the words: “Where’s the beef? Not here.”

The fast-food chain hasn’t publicly announced the new burger yet, nor is it listed on its website. According to LiveKindly, The Plentiful is made from pea protein and is served with non-vegan cheese and mayonnaise.

And… that’s about all we know for sure. It’s unclear how much The Plentiful will cost, how many Wendy’s locations will offer it, or how long it will be available. Perhaps most importantly, we don’t know which brand of plant-based burger is on The Plentiful or whether it’s made from a patty developed internally by Wendy’s. Since we know the burger is pea protein-based, that rules out Impossible, which is made from soy and potato protein — but not Beyond.

If indeed The Plentiful is made with a Beyond Burger, Wendy’s would really be taking a page from McDonald’s book. The latter began testing a plant-based burger made with a Beyond patty called the P.L.T. (Plants, Lettuce, Tomato) in select locations in Canada this September. If this is the case, both Wendy’s and McDonald’s chose to omit the Beyond brand name from their new menu items — a move that I think is a missed opportunity to draw in new consumers familiar with the Beyond media buzz.

Regardless, it’s not a huge surprise that Wendy’s is hopping on the plant-based meat trend. During this year’s second-quarter review call Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor acknowledged the popularity of meat alternatives and said it was something that the fast-food chain would “look into.” Right after that Wendy’s fans gathered around 30,000 signatures on a petition calling the restaurant to add a plant-based burger to its menu.

Canada seems to be prime territory for fast food restaurants to test out new plant-based products. In addition to McDonald’s, 7-Eleven began selling a Beyond Meat pizza in the Great White North. Canadian chains Tim Horton’s and A&W were some of the first major fast-food chains to add Beyond Meat to their menus — though Tim Horton’s has since stopped serving the meat alternative in all but two regions.

We’ve reached out to Wendy’s and will update the post when we hear back. Until then, if you’re a Spoon reader in Toronto, give The Plentiful a try and tell us what you think!

 

Will People Eat More Spinach if It’s Red? The USDA Thinks So.

Spinach consumption dropped significantly after an E. Coli outbreak in 2006, from 2.3 pounds per American to 1.6 pounds, and has remained flat since, according to the USDA. Now, a scientist at the agency hopes to boost the leafy vegetable’s place in our diet by introducing USDA Red, “the world’s first true red spinach variety.”

“A true red spinach like USDA Red will bring excitement to the spinach market and could help attract people back to eating spinach,” Agricultural Research Service geneticist Beiquan Mou, who developed the new variety, said in a press release.

But could changing the color of spinach really make it more desirable? There’s some science to back up Mou’s hypothesis. According to a 2016 study from International School of Advanced Studies, humans associate the color red with calorie-dense foods. “The redder an unprocessed food is, the more likely it is to be nutritious, while green foods tend to be low in calories,” said SISSA researcher Francesco Foroni.

The new spinach variety is the result of traditional breeding, with the color derived from betacyanin, the red pigment found in plants such as beetroot. The USDA said that betacyanin allows USDA Red to have an antioxidant capacity that’s up to 53 percent higher than other spinach varieties, which could help prevent sickness, inflammation and cancer.

We often forget, but almost all of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy today are the products of genetic breeding. For example, corn used to be 10 times smaller, hard and tasted like potato, Vox reports, while watermelon had also been significantly smaller and bitter. Carrots can be found in many colors, but through selective breeding the root vegetable is mostly found in orange. Earlier this decade, a black tomato breed called Indigo Rose debuted.

The USDA said that it’s seeking a partner to license production of red spinach seeds for the market. Until then, you’ll just have to make due with green spinach, or leaf it alone (not sorry).

Future Food: China is the Holy Grail for Meat Alternatives, Eclipse Foods Launches Ice Cream

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Impossible Foods may be gaining territory, both geographically and market-wise, here in the U.S. But when it comes to the future regions, the startup has its gaze set on Asia — specifically, China.

You can read the full explanation of why Impossible is eyeing China in our post, but it boils down to three main reasons:

  • China has the largest population in the world
  • China produces the most meat in the world
  • China consumes the most meat in the world, and its hunger for protein is growing

In short, China is the holy grail for any alternative meat company. That’s especially true with the recent African Swine Fever outbreak, which threatens to massively deplete pig populations and drive up pork prices.

Photo: Impossible Foods

Which plant-based meat company will get to world’s most populated country first? Impossible is certainly in the running, as is Beyond Meat. And Asian plant-based meat company Omnipork, which has the advantage of selling a product developed specifically for Asian palates, has said it will start selling in China by the end of this year.

Big Food could also make a move. China-based WH Group, the largest pork company in the world, owns Smithfield. In August Smithfield announced it would be launching a “plant-based protein portfolio.” If WH Group decides to sell a new alt-meat line in China, either under the Smithfield brand or another one, the company’s massive supply chain and retail partnerships could help it quickly scale up across the country.

Then again, it could be time for China to embrace a lower-tech meat alternative. With all these newfangled, bleeding, uber-realistic faux meat options out there, it’s easy to forget that China has actually been making its own meat alternatives for centuries to adhere to Buddhist diets.

Ten years from now, we’ll likely see a mixture of all of the above in China. The country’s appetite for protein is immense and it’ll take multiple plant-based meat players to feed. Let’s just hope that if and when Impossible does land in China, they’re prepared for the inevitable demand.

Eclipse Foods x Oddfellows. Photo: ©Heidi’s Bridge

Eclipse Foods is (soft) serving up plant-based ice cream

If you want to know what’s cool right now in the food world, a good place to look is ice cream. A few months ago Berkeley, CA-based Perfect Day launched their flora-based dairy with an initial line of ‘screams (which were delicious, btw). Now, Eclipse Foods, a plant-based dairy company based literally down the road from Perfect Day, is following in their footsteps.

This weekend Eclipse Foods is debuting its proprietary plant-based dairy recipe in limited-edition flavors at high-end ice cream shops on opposite coasts: Humphrey Slocombe in San Francisco and Oddfellows in New York (thanks for the tip, Grubhub).

Unlike Perfect Day, which ferments actual dairy proteins using genetically modified microbes, Eclipse’s dairy is made from a combination of everyday plant-based ingredients that the founders claim do a much better job imitating dairy than plain old oat or almond milk. Their product is also free from nuts, coconut, soy, and other allergens.

I had the chance to try soft serve made with Eclipse Foods’ dairy during the Good Food Conference this year and thought it was overall quite good. While the flavor was almost there — it was a bit too salty and lacked the pure neutral fattiness of dairy — the texture was spot on. The soft serve was smooth and super creamy, without the iciness that often comes with plant-based ice cream.

The flavor issue might be irrelevant for now, since I’m not sure exactly how much people will actually taste Eclipse’s dairy base underneath the bold flavors of Oddfellow’s Miso Cherry and Humphrey Slocombe’s Mexican Hot Chocolate.

Given this initial partnership, Eclipse seems to be following the Impossible sales model, starting out with high-end B2B partnerships. Impossible debuted at David Chang’s lauded Momofuku restaurant, which instantly rocketed the product to fame. Eclipse is launching with two similarly trendy brands, ones known to attract droves of Instagram-ing hipsters who can start some buzz around the new brand.

This launch will be a test to see if Eclipse can follow Impossible in other ways. Can it reinvent the plant-based dairy space like Impossible reinvented plant-based meat? Or will it just be the flavor of the month?

Photo: Nestlé

Protein ’round the web

  • Nestlé is partnering with food and biochemical company Corbion to develop microalgae ingredients for use in plant-based foods.
  • Starting this week, Chicago-based Giordano’s is offering plant-based sausage from Impossible Foods as an add-on topping fo all of its orders nationwide.
  • Speaking of Impossible, taqueria chain Dos Toros is offering Impossible beef in all 21 of its NYC and Chicago locations.
  • Mooala, maker of dairy-free milks and creamers, announced it has closed a $8.3 million Series A funding round.

That’s it from me this week.

Eat well,
Catherine

What’s Next for Impossible Foods? Maybe Pork, Definitely China

Impossible Foods is gearing up to enter China, and it looks like they might launch in that country not with their signature “bleeding” beef but instead with a plant-based pork product.

In a Bloomberg TV interview at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai today, Impossible CEO Pat Brown told cameras that the company has “a very good prototype” of plant-based pork. “It’s really just a matter of commercializing and scaling that,” he added.

We already knew that Impossible was developing alternatives to pork and fish. At CES last year (we’re returning for FoodTech Live, join us!) Pat Brown told me that they were also tackling whole cuts of meat, like steak.

Brown also told Bloomberg that Impossible was eyeing an expansion into China, which he said has “always been the most important country for our mission.” It’s easy to see why. China accounts for over one fourth of the world’s meat consumption and is also the largest producer of pork globally.

Nonetheless, the most populated country in the world is primed to embrace plant-based meat. The Chinese government is aiming to reduce its meat consumption by 50 percent by 2030, and Allied Market Research reports that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing market for meat alternatives. There’s also added motivation thanks to the recent outbreak of the African Swine Flu, which could cut the country’s pig population in half by the end of this year.

Brown told Bloomberg that Impossible is way too small to fill the supply-demand gap created by the African Swine Flu. However, he noted that outbreaks like these illustrate the problems with food security associated with meat, and could help turn people towards more sustainable plant-based alternatives.

Indeed, once Impossible does enter the Chinese market, it would make sense they do so with a pork alternative, since pork is far and away the most consumed meat in China. But Impossible wouldn’t be the only one bringing plant-based pork to Asian audiences. Omnipork, made by Hong Kong-based Right Treat, makes a ground pork alternative developed specifically to appeal to Asian palates. Omnipork isn’t yet available in China but when I spoke to CEO David Yeung earlier this year he said they were aiming to launch in that country later this year.

Of course, with China’s massive hunger for pork there’s plenty of room for more than one player in the market. Especially if future food-safety scares nudge more Chinese consumers to look to plant-based alternatives to feed their hunger for pork.

The bigger point is that once it gets to China, Impossible Foods will have access to a brand new massive market. One that’s primed and ready to hop on the plant-based meat train. If Impossible can hook Chinese consumers — and with the popularity of the Impossible Whopper, the startup has shown that it knows how to stir up consumer demand — it could have a significant ripple effect on the global industrialized meat industry.

Want to keep tabs on the white-hot alternative protein space? Make sure to subscribe to our weekly Future Food newsletter!

SKS 2019: Why Big Food is Betting So Heavily on Startup Accelerators

So you’re a new food startup who wants to level up and get some funding and mentorship. Or you’re a big CPG company who wants to uncover the latest food trends and acquire companies already tapping into them.

The answer for both quandaries might be food accelerators or incubators. Key word: might.

At SKS 2019, we dove into the wide world of food accelerators: what are they, which types of food companies should consider them, and why they’re suddenly all the rage. Weighing in on this conversation from the stage were Natalie Shmulik, CEO of The Hatchery; Tessa Price, Program Manager of WeWork Food Labs; and Peter Bodenheimer, Partner & Managing Director of Food-X.

If you’re contemplating applying for an accelerator program or just curious what they actually entail, you should watch the whole video of the panel below. Here are a couple of standout points made by our speakers to spark your interest:

What do food accelerators look for?
All of the panelists agreed that when searching for candidates for their programs, fit is critical. Shmulik emphasized the importance of a good founder presence. Price said that companies have to align with WeWork’s values and offer some technology that can accelerate WeWork’s ecosystem. For Bodenheimer, though, one of the biggest factors is persistence. “When the sh*t gets tough, will they stick with it?” he asked.

Why are food accelerators so hot right now?
You may have noticed that food accelerators seem to be popping up left and right lately. According to Bodenheimer, this is at least partially because of Big Food companies. He explained that large food and beverage companies typically only allocate 1-2 percent of their budget to R&D, so they turn to accelerators as a way to access more innovative products. Sometimes this can be productive, but other times it can be muddy, especially if the Big Food company doesn’t have a clear objective for their program.

So, what are the newest food trends?
Of course I wasn’t going to let these industry experts off the stage without asking them about the innovative new trends they were seeing bubbling up at their respective accelerator/incubator programs. Shmulik noted that more and more companies were looking to make eating an experience, not just a task. Price spoke about personalized nutrition and on-demand ordering, and Bodenheimer said he’d seen a lot of companies tapping into food as medicine, plant-based offerings and CBD.

If you want to hear the rest of the panelist’s up-and-coming dining trends to watch, or learn more about food accelerators in general, watch the full video below.

SKS 2019: Building a Food Accelerator

Black Sheep Foods Makes Plant-Based Lamb to Target the Asian Market

Maybe it’s because of my last name, but I never took to lamb even before I became a vegetarian. It could have been the gamy flavor, the fact that it’s often dry, or just thinking too hard about what exactly lamb is.

But for much of the world, specifically Australia, New Zealand, India, China, and other Asian countries, lamb is a dietary staple. As these countries grow in population and become more wealthy, it’s likely their demand for all meat — lamb included — will only increase.

So it’s timely that a new startup called Black Sheep Foods is developing a plant-based alternative to ground lamb. Founded in June of 2019 by two former employees at cell-based seafood startup Finless Foods, Black Sheep’s lamb burger is made from soy protein, coconut oil, and natural flavors. Sunny Kumar, Black Sheep’s co-founder, told me over the phone last week that they’re eventually planning to develop a versatile ground lamb product that can be used to make everything from patties to curries.

Black Sheep has been working out of the MISTA food business accelerator program, which is run by Danone, Mars, and more. However, they’re packing up to move to Singapore to participate in the 5-month Big Idea Ventures accelerator program, from which they will also receive $250,000 in funding. [Ed note: The author is a mentor for Big Idea Ventures but is not directly involved with Black Sheep Foods.]

Their go-to-market plan is to sell the plant-based lamb through restaurants and foodservice, specifically targeting large office cafeterias. Kumar said they plan to launch product on a limited scale by the end of the Big Idea Ventures program in five months. In terms of price, the plant-based lamb will likely be on par with the cost of lamb in the U.S., where the meat commands a premium, but more expensive than lamb in areas like Australia where it’s cheaper.

Kumar hasn’t decided precisely where they’ll debut their plant-based lamb, but said that Singapore would be a natural choice because of the area’s love for the new wave of uber-realistic meat alternatives, like Impossible Foods’ burgers which debuted there last year.

Whether or not they launch in Singapore, Kumar was very specific that Black Sheep would initially target Eastern regions, like India and China. Not only is there less competition — the plant-based meat alternative space is not as crowded as it is in the West — there’s also a pressing need to find sustainable, tasty protein sources to feed booming populations in these areas. And while Asian consumers might have a plant-based burger every once and a while, to make a real difference there must be alternatives to everyday staple meats, such as like lamb.

Black Sheep isn’t the only company hoping to tap into the massive potential of the Asian alternative protein. Right Treat’s Omnipork makes plant-based ground pork, sold in both retail and foodservice, which target Asian consumer preferences. And on the cultured meat side, Singapore-based Shiok Meats is making cell-based shrimp and Integriculture is tackling cultured foie gras (and other meats) in Japan.

Eventually, Kumar does want to bring his plant-based lamb to the United States. “Ultimately, we can’t ignore the U.S. market,” he told me. There, Black Sheep’s focus on lamb could help them stand out from a sea of beef burgers, especially if they decide to branch into retail. Then again, lamb’s gamey flavor makes it a pretty polarizing meat for U.S. consumers, which may scare foodservice spots away from trying out Black Sheep’s initial product.

Regardless, I think Black Sheep would be wise to continue focusing on the Asian and Australia/NZ markets. Australia and New Zealand eat a ton of lamb, so they might welcome a high-quality plant-based alternative. And while the aforementioned startups like Omnipork do make faux meat for Asian markets, the space is relatively empty compared to Western markets. Plus nobody’s making lamb there yet.

However, if Black Sheep does make its way to the U.S., I’ll have to get over my lamb skepticism and give it a try. Last name be damned.

SKS 2019: Plant-Based Foods Aren’t Going Anywhere, But Taste is Key

Ask almost anyone in the food space about the biggest trends they’re seeing, and odds are they’ll mention one thing: plant-based. From meat to dairy to eggs, plant-based alternatives to traditional animal products are becoming more and more commonplace — and tasting better and better.

Considering the ubiquity of plant-based dining, we invited a few experts to come speak about the trend at SKS 2019 earlier this month. Author and scientist Dr. PK Newby, Bjorn Oste, co-founder of Oatly, and Daniel Scharff Director of Strategy & Analytics for JUST,  took the SKS 2019 stage to unpack the plant-based dining trend: who’s catalyzing it, what products they want, and why is it gaining so much popularity right now?

If you’re curious about why ‘plant-based’ has suddenly become the buzzword du jour, it’s worth watching the whole video below. Here are a few high-level takeaways from the conversation:

Health is a big driver
There are many reasons that people shift towards a plant-based or flexitarian diet: ethical concerns, environmental motivations, etc. But according to Scharff, health is another big driver. “The number one reason for dietary change isn’t weight loss,” he said. “It’s health.”

Dr. Newby echoed this idea, siting studies which showed that plant-based diets are key to longevity and chronic disease prevention — as well as the health of our planet. Since millennials are motivated by health and sustainability, she said, they’re a primary driver for the adoption of plant-based food.

Mission matters
It may seem like new companies (of Big Food corporations) are popping up every day promising a unique twist on plant-based foods. But according to Oste, companies can’t just slap the term “plant-based” on their products and expect to see a loyal customer base spring up overnight. “Consumers care about companies on a mission that are authentic, transparent, and value-driven,” he said. In short: You can’t just talk the talk. You have to walk the walk, too.

Taste is king
All of our panelists agreed that, while mission and health are key, taste is still king. “Taste will always be first,” said Dr. Newby. “It’s the primary driver.” The others? Cost, followed by convenience. But the overall conclusion was no matter how sustainable, healthy, or affordable a plant-based product is, if it doesn’t taste amazing — it doesn’t have a chance.

Scarff went one step further. He said that animal product alternatives don’t only have to taste great, but also has to look, cook, and eat like the original product. “It has to replicate the experience that they’re used to,” he said, referencing consumers. That’s one of the reasons that JUST is so adamant that they sell their plant-based egg next to actual egg cartons in the grocery store.

Dr. Newby finished her talk with a bold claim. “The future is absolutely meatless,” she said. It’s too early to say if her prediction is correct, but there’s one thing we can be sure of: the plant-based revolution is here now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon.

If you want to hear the full conversation, check out the video below.

SKS 2019: The Plant-based Revolution

Shiok Meats Nets $500K Investment from Agronomics for Cultured Shrimp

Yesterday Agronomics, a company which invests in animal product alternatives, announced that it had completed a subscription of $500,000 in the form of a convertible loan to cell-based seafood company Shiok Meats (h/t StockMarketWire). Agronomics stated that on conversion, the subscription is expected to own a roughly 2.3 percent share in the Singaporean startup. The loan will convert to shares upon completion of a Series A funding round of $10 million by Shiok Meats.

The Singaporean company raised $4.6 million in April of this year. This latest round of investment brings its total funding to $5.3 million.

Founded in 2018, Shiok Meats is developing seafood — specifically crustaceans — outside of the animal using a technology called cellular aquaculture. Its first product is cell-based shrimp. The company did the first public taste test of its crustaceans back in March, to reportedly positive reviews.

Shiok Meats is one of several companies developing cultured seafood. Wild Type is developing cell-based salmon, BlueNalu has chosen mahi-mahi as its first cultured seafood product, and Finless Foods has stated it will bring its cell-based bluefin tuna to market over the next few years.

However, Shiok Meats is unique in two ways. Firstly it’s focusing on shrimp, which is one of the most widely consumed kinds of seafood in the world (and the number one most consumed in the U.S.) They’re also one of the few cell-based meat (or seafood) companies based in Asia, despite the fact that that’s the area of the world where cultured meat will likely make its market debut.

When I spoke with Shiok Meat’s CEO Dr. Sandhya Sriram back in January, she told me that the company is still likely 3-5 years from commercializing its first product. But with an additional half a million in its pocket, the startup is edging a lot closer to that goal.

Emergy Foods Makes Very Realistic-Looking Steak Alternatives From Fermented Mushroom Roots

Today Boulder, CO-based startup Emergy Foods announced the release of its first alternative meat brand, Meati Foods.

Meati Foods will focus on making whole cuts of meat from fermented fungi, also known as mycelium. Unlike most plant-based meats, Meati Foods’ offerings are free of pea, wheat, and soy. According to Emergy Foods CEO Tyler Huggins, who I spoke with over the phone today, opting for mycelium allows Meati to mimic the look and mouthfeel of whole cuts of protein, such as steak and chicken breast, which is difficult to do with other proteins.

In addition to better being able to replicate the texture of meat, mycelium has some inherent nutritional benefits. “It has the same protein profile of meat, and the same quantity [of protein] as chicken or steak,” Huggins told me. It also comes with fiber, which traditional meat doesn’t have.

Photo: Emergy Foods

At first Meati Foods will sell to high-end restaurants in order to build their brand. Huggins said that their products will likely be priced on par with traditional meat at these spots. As they scale he expects they’ll be able to match wholesale meat prices for chicken and beef, They plan to move into retail soon, but are currently limited by production capacity.

Founded in 2016 by two PhD students, Emergy Foods announced back in July that it had closed a $4.8 million funding round and currently has a team of 10.

If you want to try Meati’s realistic-looking steaks, you might not have much longer to wait (provided you’re in the Colorado area). Meati is preparing for a beta launch at the end of 2019 and is expecting to launch in restaurants in early 2020.

Emergy Foods isn’t the first brand to leverage mycelium as a magical ingredient to mimic meat. Prime Roots uses ‘shroom roots to make a variety of animal product alternatives, from bacon to crab cakes to chicken breast. Though it chiefly sells in Europe, alt-meat giant Quorn uses fermented fungi as the base for its wide array of products. There’s also Atlast Foods, a spinoff of Ecovative, which makes mycelium-based scaffolding for use in a myriad of meat alternatives, both plant-based and cell-based.

Based off of their product offerings and target demographics, it looks like Prime Roots will be Meati Foods’ biggest competitor. When I asked Huggins how he’ll differentiate himself, he said that Meati uses a “unique strain of mycelium” which can really accurately imitate meat.

Both companies are looking to begin selling their products in early 2020, so soon we might be able to put both products to a taste test. But with demand for protein alternatives on the rise, there’s plenty of room for more than one player in the fungi-meat game to put down roots.

Report: Impossible Whopper Boosts Burger King Sales, Will Popeyes Embrace Plant-Based Meat?

Yesterday Restaurant Brands International (RBI), owner of fast-food chains Burger King, Popeyes, and Tim Horton’s, announced its Q3 2019 Earnings Results.

The report showed that Burger King’s sales increased roughly 15 percent globally for the quarter. In the U.S., the launch of the Impossible Whopper drove 5% comparable sales growth, which Jose Cil, CEO of RBI, noted was the “strongest level since 2015.”

This isn’t exactly surprising. Impossible Whopper sales reportedly boosted traffic by over 18 percent to the BK in St. Louis which first tested the plant-based burger. Reports show, that the alt-meat burger is also leading to higher ticket sales and attracting more millennials and lapsed visitors (like The Spoon’s Chris Albrecht) to the fast-food giant. The RBI Earnings Results seems to indicate that this boost in traffic/ticket amount has continued as the Impossible Whopper rolled out to all Burger Kings nationwide.

Not all was rosy in the report, though. Tim Horton’s had what Cil called “a challenging quarter,” reporting only 0.1 percent growth compared to 2.8 percent growth in the same quarter a year earlier. This comes at the same time that the Canadian fast-food chain nixed Beyond Meat products from its menu, except in Ontario and British Columbia, just months after adding the plant-based meat to 4,000 of its restaurants.

These two facts might have nothing to do with each other. However, the report shows a rapid downturn for Tim Horton’s after the chain had a surprisingly strong Q2, in which its success was attributed, at least in part, to its adoption of Beyond Meat patties. Tim Horton’s rolled out the plant-based meat nationwide in July (that is, during Q3), so maybe consumers across Canada didn’t flock to the Beyond Meat offerings in the same way they did in the initial test markets?

Interestingly, Popeyes had one of its best quarters in nearly two decades, thanks to the viral popularity of its chicken sandwich. Next up, RBI might well continue its history of experimenting with alternative protein and launch a plant-based chicken sandwich. But it better hurry if it doesn’t want KFC or Chick-fil-A to beat it to the punch.

YourLocal’s App Sells Super-Discounted Surplus Food from Local Restaurants

At the end of the day, the majority of restaurants end up having to toss whatever pre-prepared meals are left unsold. When foodservice establishments have razor-thin margins to begin with, any level of waste can seriously hurt their bottom line.

YourLocal is trying to help restaurants cut waste and pocket more money with an app that lets consumers purchase extremely discounted surplus food from local eateries. Users download the app, put in their location, and can browse a list of discounted meals from nearby restaurants. All selections are marked down by at least 50 percent. Users can select and pay for their food online, but have to go to the actual restaurant to pick up their selection within a given time frame.

Sounds like a smart idea, right? Restaurants get to make more money off of food that would be headed for the trash, and people get to eat their favorite foods for less. That’s probably why YourLocal isn’t the first to offer this kind of service.

In Europe, there are already several startups peddling reduced-price surplus food. The largest one, TooGoodToGo, is based in Copenhagen and serves nine countries in Europe. Karma, which started in Sweden but has spread into the U.K., is another service selling marked-down food from restaurants and grocery stores.

YourLocal was actually founded three years ago in Copenhagen, right around the corner from TooGoodToGo. However, while TooGoodToGo is expanding across Europe, YourLocal recently opened up a New York office to attend the Food-X accelerator program and launch in the U.S. — where they’re planning to grow next.

The main reason is that, in America, the market is far less saturated. The closest competitor, FoodForAll, started in Boston and just launched in the New York market last year. However, YourLocal hopes that it can leverage its experience in Europe to grow faster and cement itself as a market leader. But the bigger question is are U.S. consumers ready to embrace the concept of buying extra food from restaurants?

“In Europe, the idea of surplus food isn’t hard to grasp,” YourLocal’s Head of Growth, Daniel Ratner, told me during a visit to the Food-X headquarters last week. Here in the U.S., however, people might envision sad soggy sandwiches or questionable sushi when they think about leftover restaurant offerings. Ratner and his team are trying to shift the idea of what “surplus” means by selling only high-quality foods, showing consumers that extra doesn’t necessarily mean second-rate.

YourLocal’s other emphasis is simplicity. Ratner said they want to make the purchasing experience as frictionless as possible, so consumers genuinely consider YourLocal an easy alternative to ordering takeout or swinging by a local restaurant for takeaway food. “People want to be socially responsible and thrifty, but it has to be simple,” he told me.

YourLocal currently has a team of 6 and has raised an undisclosed amount of funds from Danish investors. As of now it works with hundreds of restaurants in Denmark and around 100 shops in New York City, where it’s focusing its expansion efforts, and is about to cross the 10,000 meal mark there. The app is free to use for consumers, and the company takes a cut from its retail partners for each transaction.

Some have argued that resale services like YourLocal take food away from services that feed the truly hungry, like soup kitchens or shelters. However, Ratner told me that smaller local restaurants often don’t have enough surplus to actually donate to relief organizations. He gave the example of City Harvest, a NYC-based food rescue organization which can only accept food donations weighing over 100 pounds. Smaller restaurants also likely can’t pay an employee to go drop off leftovers at a local shelter, which means that their extras just end up in a landfill. For these smaller restaurants, additional sales channels like YourLocal could be a way to cut down on waste while making a few extra bucks.

We at The Spoon are big fans of simple strategies to cut down on food waste. While YourLocal’s concept isn’t original, it would be the first to really bring the surplus restaurant food resale business to the U.S. in a meaningful way. If successful, it’ll be a win for restaurants — and hungry folks who love a good deal.

DoorDash’s New Carousel Shows Off All the Impossible Foods Offerings in Your Area

As of yesterday, DoorDash has created a custom carousel featuring restaurants that offer Impossible Foods menu items.

When consumers click on the Impossible filter on the DoorDash site, they’re taken to a separate page which shows only establishments offering delivery of the plant-based meat within their area. So far, the feature is available in 23 cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

I’m currently visiting a friend in New York, so I decided to give the Impossible filter a spin for myself. After putting in her address and clicking on the ‘See All’ Impossible button, I was taken to a new page listing 7 restaurants which sold Impossible items. These ranged from fast-food, like Burger King and White Castle, to more high-end local restaurants.

This Impossible filter is DoorDash’s first carousel featuring a specific plant-based meat brand. It’s clearly a bid by the food delivery company to capitalize on an item with a growing delivery presence. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, DoorDash customer searches for ‘Impossible burger’ have tripled since January of this year alone.

Why the Impossible burger and not, say, the Beyond burger? I’m guessing because Impossible just has a bigger restaurant footprint right now, what with its partnerships with fast-food chains like Burger King. In fact, DoorDash isn’t the only one to see a spike in orders for the bleeding plant-based burger. Back in July of this year Grubhub released a report showing that orders for the Impossible burger rose 82 percent in 2019.

The Impossible filter comes at a time when DoorDash needs to do whatever it can to stand out in the cutthroat food delivery space. DoorDash stole the title for the number one U.S. food delivery company from Grubhub in June of this year, and currently holds 35 percent of the market share. In order to hang onto that lead, the company is smart to experiment with ways to expand their offerings and attract more consumers. From ghost kitchens to filters featuring popular plant-based burgers, DoorDash has shown that they’re not afraid to experiment to keep their hold on the food delivery crown.

If you live in one of the aforementioned participating cities, you can order menu items featured in the Impossible carousel with $0 delivery fees from now until November 7th.