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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Future Food: Plant-Based Meat Is about to Hit Troubled Waters

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Meat alternatives may be in the midst of their salad days, but they still have their haters.

Thus far, things have been looking rosy for plant-based meats. Beyond Meat blew all expectations with their IPO and followed that up with plans for a new production facility in Europe (next stop: world domination). Impossible Foods recently raised $300 million and has begun rolling out in Burger Kings across the nation. Even mega food corporations like Nestlé, Tyson and Unilever are jumping into the warm, inviting waters of plant-based meat innovation.

But plenty of groups are out to rock the boat.

Big Meat — that is, major industrial meat corporations and coalitions, like the National Cattleman’s Association — feel threatened by the growing popularity of plant-based meat, which is hoovering up a 10 percent chunk of their market share. To clap back, traditional meat companies have helped push bans to keep meat not made from a slaughtered animal from using labels like “burgers” or “sausages.” Europe is contemplating a similar ban.

The competition is not plant-based meat’s only detractor. Some ethically motivated consumers are also turned off by Impossible Foods’ and Beyond Meat’s recent push into fast-food restaurants, including Burger King, criticizing their alignment with corporations which can be exploitative to human workers and promote poor nutrition.

Others are concerned with the long ingredient list and heavy processing that goes into plant-based meat. Sure, options like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are better for the environment than beef — but are they better for our bodies? Not necessarily. As the shine of novelty wears of plant-based meat, companies will have to work harder to show consumers that it is indeed the healthier choice. Or at least convince them that they shouldn’t care.

Plant-based meat has been coasting on a wave of consumer excitement, ethically conscious messaging, and high-profile celebrity endorsements and investments. But soon the waters are going to start getting a little bumpier. That goes double once cell-based meat enters the game and frames itself as a cleanier, simpler meat option — without the sacrifice.

Alternative meat companies better prepare to fight.

Photo: Arby’s

We’ve got the meats

Recently, rumors have been flying that fast-food chains from Wendy’s to Arby’s are considering adding Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat to their menus (along with Subway, Dunkin’, and others).

When Arby’s President Robert Lynch heard the news, he almost had a heart attack. “The only way [it would happen] would be if I got fired for some reason,” he told Fortune, presumably between bites of a hearty Meat Mountain sandwich.

Okay, so vegetarians will have to keep bypassing Arby’s for now. But the bigger point here is how vehemently Lynch was against the very idea of adding plant-based meat to their menu.

As fellow Spoon writer Chris recently pointed out, this sort of all-in or all-out stance towards, well, anything is rampant in today’s political discourse. It seems that even the fast-food space is not immune.

Protein new ’round the web

  • Food tech investment will soon pivot away from plant-based meat and towards dairy alternatives, predicts Techcrunch. Investors better start saying “cheese.”
  • Burger King traffic has increased 18 percent since they introduced the Impossible Whopper (h/t CNBC).
  • Can plant-based proteins significantly cut down on our meat consumption until there’s a reasonable replacement for steak? The Washington Post asks if a lack of T-Bones is an insurmountable obstacle for meat alternatives.
  • Down Under, Hungry Jack’s — the Australian version of Burger King — is investing $1 million to develop a new veggie burger. But is that enough?

This Tuesday was apparently National Burger Day. Food holidays are kinda bogus (National Fluffernutter Day, anyone?), but we hope you took the opportunity to enjoy a juicy double-decker patty nonetheless. Plant-based or otherwise.

Eat well,
Catherine

Arby’s Fires Up its Beefy Base, Says It Will Shun Plant-Based Meat

Sorry to all those flexitarians who had thought maybe they would finally get the chance to eat at Arby’s. Contrary to some earlier reports, Arby’s will not be serving the Impossible burger and will remain dedicated to having the meats.

The non-controversy flared up this week when two vegetarian–based news publications wrote that Arby’s had been in talks about creating a sandwich using Impossible’s plant-based burger. They both cited a story from The Information earlier this month, but evidently seeing the news in a veggie publication was enough to make Arby’s president, Rob Lynch, see heme-based red. In an article published by Fortune today, Lynch recounted his reaction after seeing that potential change in direction:

Lynch recalled his momentary panic after reading the misreport. “Please, please, please say it isn’t so!” he quickly queried colleagues, who reassured their boss no one was exploring plant-based options.

Both the initial reports and Lynch’s reaction are totally predictable.

Arby’s talking with Impossible would make total sense as there is an ever-growing list of QSRs adopting plant-based meat alternatives, including Burger King, Carl’s Jr., White Castle, Del Taco, Qdoba and more. They all see sales of plant-based meat booming and are moving quickly to cash in. In fact, Burger King went from testing the Impossible Whopper to deciding to roll it out to all locations nationwide in less than a month.

And, sadly, in this modern political age, it wasn’t surprising at all to see how Lynch responded. This is, after all, the same restaurant chain that created a special vegetarian menu by serving the same sandwiches, just without the meat (good one, bro). Lynch was just leaning into what’s driving the company and reaffirming Arby’s meat marriage. This notion that you can only be one thing, and anything else is a betrayal, is rampant in today’s public discourse.

It’s silly. And dumb. And ultimately doesn’t matter. Vegetarians and flexitarians will have plenty of other fast food options to spend their money, and Arby’s will always have its meats.

Impossible Foods Makes Next Big Fast Food Move with Burger King

At Burger King, having it “your way” could soon mean making that whopper 100 percent meat-free.

Starting today, the fast food chain will offer a Whopper made with plant-based “bleeding” patties from Impossible Foods (h/t New York Times). Called the Impossible Whopper, the burger is now available at 59 stores in the St. Louis, Missouri area. If all goes well, the meatless Whopper will eventually be on the menu in all 7,200 Burger King locations in the country. According to CNET, the Impossible version will cost one dollar more than a typical Whopper, making it roughly $5.20 per burger.

Being on the menu of all Burger King’s in the U.S. would be a huge step into the mainstream for Impossible Foods — and meat-like meatless burgers in general. Impossible is already in roughly 6,000 restaurants globally including roughly 380 White Castles and 570 Red Robins. Rolling out to all of Burger King’s locations would double their presence. Beyond Meat, which makes a similar meaty plant-based patty, is on the menus at over 1,000 Carl’s Jr.’s and over 500 Del Taco’s.

Partnering with a place like Burger King means that not only is Impossible growing quickly and going mainstream, but so is the demand for plant-based meat in general. According to the NPD Group, shipments of plant-based protein to foodservice operations increased by 20 percent in 2018 alone.

For Impossible though, the Burger King partnership could help them get more name recognition before they head to retail in 2019. That is, if they can continue to successfully scale up their miracle ingredient, heme, which gives the burgers their trademark “bloody” look and taste, and which Impossible makes through genetically engineered yeast.

Alltown Fresh is Revamping the Convenience Store with Kombucha and Avocado Toast

Pull into any gas station to fill up and grab a snack, and chances are your options will be potato chips, sugary sodas, and one of those hot dogs shriveling under a heat lamp.

Unless, that is, you’re near Plymouth, MA. Around there, you can swing by Alltown Fresh, a fancified convenience store which opened in January of this year and offers high-quality coffee, kombucha on tap, house-made healthy food and smoothies, WiFi, and even a small selection of groceries.

Oh yeah, and you can fill up your car, too. Alltown Fresh’s parent company is Global Partners, a fuel company that owns and supplies roughly 1,000 gas stations throughout the Northeastern U.S. But Alltown Fresh doesn’t position itself as a gas station that happens to have pretty good food. “We want to flip that paradigm,” Alltown Fresh’s SVP of Retail Operations Ryan Riggs told me over the phone. They want their store to be a place you seek out for its food and beverage options first, and to fill up on gas second (or not at all).

Yes, there are already gas station convenience stores with QSR’s like Subways or Dairy Queen’s attached, but Alltown Fresh’s offerings — with greens-filled smoothies, Moroccan chickpea bowls, and quinoa porridge — are next-level healthy. But for those who are loyal to their road trip junk food, don’t fear. “You can still get your Snicker’s,” Riggs told me. The unhealthy food just won’t be the only option.

Choice and customization are key to Alltown Fresh’s business plan. Customers order fresh food on a kiosk touchscreen inside the convenience store, and can even customize toppings and sizes. The store also has a limited selection of groceries like dry pasta and tomato sauce, as well as a bulk section where people can stock up on nuts and grains. In future, it would be a smart play to add meal kits to the mix so commuters could stop by and swipe a kit for dinner along with their cold brew or smoothie. Alltown Fresh also has grab-and-go options like bowls and sandwiches ready for quick purchases.

The prices are higher than typical gas station fare, but for what you’re getting, they’re actually pretty good. The Green Smash (avocado, chia and pumpkin seeds on toast) is $6, and a Chili Chicken grain bowl is $13, and a small latté is $2. Considering that a latté from Starbuck’s can set you back about five bucks at this point, that’s a steal.

The company is also prioritizing plastic-free packaging, and uses chiefly recyclable, biodegradable options for the prepared food section. Obviously it’s a lot harder to get rid of plastic when it comes to the brands on Alltown Fresh’s shelves, especially when a lot of them are packaged snacks and bottled beverages, but Riggs said that they were trying to offer as many plastic-free options as possible.

As someone who has been on her fair share of road trips and often ends up subsisting off of diet soda and Cheez-Itz, I think Alltown Fresh has hit on a great concept. The store combines a few trends we’re seeing in consumer dining preferences: personalization, healthy food, and, above all, convenience, in a way I haven’t seen before. The closest comparison I can make is The Goods Mart in L.A., which is also trying to redefine convenience stores as sustainable and healthy — but they’re more bodega than gas station stop.

Riggs told me that they’re hoping to open more Alltown Fresh locations in 2019 and 2020, all of which will be in New England. Now if they could just make it to Seattle so I can fuel up on more than just a bag of sour cream & onion chips on my next road trip, it would be much appreciated.

Beyond Meat Cooks Up Fast Food Partnership with Carl’s Jr.

If one of your New Year’s resolutions included eating less meat, you won’t have to cross Carl’s Jr. off your list. The fast-food chain announced today that it has partnered with plant-based meat company Beyond Meat to make a “flexitarian” version of their Famous Star burger.

The Beyond Famous Star burger will contain a quarter pound of Beyond’s “beef,” cooked in Carl’s Jr.’s signature charbroil style. It will presumably also have lettuce, tomatoes, onions, dill pickles, special sauce (ketchup + sweet relish), and mayo (though whether or not the mayo will be vegan isn’t clear).

A regular Famous Star burger will set you back $4.09, without cheese. The Beyond Famous Star burger will be available in 1,000+ Carl’s Jr. locations in 2019 and will cost $6.29.

$6.29?? That’s pretty pricey for a fast food burger, even one that clocks in at a sizeable quarter pound. For comparison, the Impossible Foods’ plant-based slider at White Castle will only set you back $1.99. To be fair, it only contains half as much “meat” as the Beyond Famous Star burger and doesn’t have the LTO, but it costs less than a third of the price.

Fast-food diners at White Castle were apparently open to ponying up an extra dollar to go plant-based, and the Impossible slider has now rolled out at locations across the U.S. But there’s no guarantee that Carl’s Jr. patrons will shell out over two bucks more to make their Famous Star burger vegan.

Regardless, the move shows that Beyond is prepped for some serious expansion. This news comes a few months after the company inked its first U.S. fast-food chain partnership with Del Taco. (Their plant-based burgers are already available in Canada’s A&W chain). However, Beyond is currently available in just over twenty Del Taco locations — its partnership with Carl’s Jr. would massively ramp up its fast-food presence, allowing it to better compete with plant-based frenemy Impossible Foods, who is planning to launch in retail next year.

These new partnerships will equate to much higher product demand, so hopefully Beyond Meat has moved on from its past supply chain issues. If it can pull off this partnership, no doubt we’ll be seeing Beyond burgers on more and more fast-food menus — and maybe even someday the Golden Arches?

Scoop: Little Caesars Has a Patent for a Pizza-Making Robot

It’s hard to fear the robot revolution when they come bearing pizza.

Little Caesars is the latest fast food chain to get in on the robot action. The pizza chain was issued a patent today for what is described as an automated “apparatus provided for assembling pizza,” which includes “a pizza sauce spreading station, a cheese spreading station and a pepperoni applying station.” The robot will have an articulating arm with a gripper attached to grab onto pizzas, as well as a rotary dial system to ensure proper cheese and pepperoni distribution.

The Little Caesar pizza robot in action.

The background and summary section of the patent frames the pizza robot as a tool to help retail workers. By partially automating the “labor-intensive endeavor” of pizza-making, the robot can free workers up to perform “other value added tasks.” It will also help improve efficiency, ensuring a more consistent quality pizza at a faster speed.

If Little Caesars put its new patent to use by employing an army of pizza robots in its restaurants, it will mark yet another step forward for automation in casual dining. We’ve already seen food running and bussing robots in the front of house and burger-flipping robots in the kitchen. Judging from the patent photos, Little Caesar’s proposed robot can handle the entire pizza assembly process, handing off a finished product to a human who could either place it on a buffet or slide it into a box for delivery.

Little Caesar isn’t the first company to create an automated pizza assembly system. Zume Pizza in Silicon Valley uses robots to stretch their pizza dough, add sauce, and shuttle their pies into the oven. However, last we heard, they still needed humans to add the toppings—something that Little Caesar’s robot is able to do on its own.

This patent shows that fast food chains are trying to optimize what customers like—speed and low price point—and reduce what they care less about: who (or what) is cooking their food.

Robot or Cobot? Companies Taking Varying Paths As Food Robots Reach Viability

Flying in the face of the claim of being “the best first job in America,” burger chains and other fast food eateries are on the brink of replacing young workers with machines. Labor costs (especially the fight for a higher minimum wage) and shrinking profits are driving changes. Specifically, the strategic move is to deploy self-service kiosks and burger-flipping robots at such places as Wendy’s and McDonalds. Both of these fast food outlet have announced some tech-driven strategies aimed at improving the bottom line.

Drawing the most attention in this area is Miso Robotics’ “Flippy,” a kitchen assistant equipped with a camera, sensor and AI software. It can cook a hamburger to a perfect temperature by flipping it at predetermined intervals. The machine is built to place the hamburger on a bun and even work collaboratively with human workers. The human worker can pitch in by adding toppings and wrapping the food for service.

Miso Robotics joins other companies such as Chowbotics. This company, by creating a robot (the size of a dorm refrigerator), can make a salad, eliminating the need for salad bars and often inaccurate hand-made greenery orders. Wanting to own the entire process, San Francisco’s Momentum Machines is in the process of opening its own retail location featuring its robotic technology that can crank out 400 custom burgers an hour.

Flippy is scheduled to be implemented in 2018 by CaliBurger, a chain with locations in California, Washington State, Washington D.C., Canada, Mexico, China, Kuwait, Malaysia and other spots around the world. The first implementation of Flippy with be at a CaliBurger outlet in Los Angeles.

“We take into account all of our customers’ needs for everything from food safety to maximum uptime,” Miso Robotics CEO David Zito told CNBC. “Today our software allows robots to work at a grill, doing some of the nasty and dangerous work that people don’t want to do all day. But these systems can be adapted so that robots can work, say, standing in front of a fryer or chopping onions. These are all areas of high turnover, especially for quick service restaurants.”

If you marry robotic technology, cloud computing, and keen market awareness, the result is Zume Pizza, a San Francisco startup rewriting the rules in food delivery. In a recent Smart Kitchen Show podcast, Zume’s co-founder Julia Collins explained some of the “secret sauce” that separates her company from other tech-enabled food delivery players.

The process, Collins said, is what she calls a “co-bot” culture where tasks are divided between robots and humans where repetitive and dangerous tasks such as making perfectly shaped dough balls and taking a pie in and out of an 800-degree oven are handled by robots. The more artisanal parts of the process are tackled by humans.

Zume’s delivery service stand alone in the market by deploying carefully designed pizza wagons that take partially cooked pizzas and, using predictive analytics, provides a movable storefront where pies can be sent to areas based on demand and data-driven factors such as holidays. The concept is a logistics marvel that breaks the mold of needing to open multiple storefronts to serve a wide geographic area.

Doing an 180 from its campaign touting its role in lives of first-time workers, McDonald’s is using technology to cut down on the number of counter staff it employs. McDonald’s claims its new service-service, touchscreen ordering kiosks—which it will add to 2,500 of its restaurants—won’t eliminate cashier jobs but instead move those workers to more customer-service positions such as concierges.

“MCD is cultivating a digital platform through mobile ordering and Experience of the Future (EOTF), an in-store technological overhaul most conspicuous through kiosk ordering and table delivery,” Andrew Charles of analyst firm Cowen told Wall Street Investors.

The new technology will cost each franchisee between $150,000 and $700,000 with the parent company picking up an undisclosed part of the tab.