Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

JUST egg

Plant-Based Eggs Starting to Crack Open The European Market

Here in the US, a version of a plant-based egg from Eat Just, Inc. has been on the market since 2013, starting with an earlier version from when the company was Hampton Creek. The company’s current product, which uses its flagship mung bean formulation, began selling in the US market in 2019.

But if you wanted to try JUST Egg in Europe, you were out of luck.

That’s about to change. That’s because the company just got approval for its mung bean protein from the European Commission. The approval, which follows an earlier greenlight last fall by the European Food Safety Authority, paves the way for the introduction of JUST Egg to the European market by the fourth quarter of 2022.

That’s not the only good news if you are looking for an egg alternative in Europe. Berlin-based Perfeggt has been working on an egg alternative that derives its protein punch from fava beans, and is starting to ship in Germany.

And then there’s Le Papondu (formerly known as Les Merveilloeuf). The French startup, which has been working on an alt-egg, started to work with restauranteurs in France to distribute its egg. The company originally planned on its egg arriving in a plant-based eggshell, but it looks like the egg is showing up, for now at least, sans shell.

Before both of these companies, there was Oggs. The UK startup, which uses aquafaba (the liquid left over from cooking chickpeas) as the secret sauce for its plant-based egg, started shipping in the UK market starting in 2020.

While Europe looks like it will see many new plant-based egg products on the market by the end of this year, newer products derived from techniques using precision fermentation or cellular agriculture might take a while longer. Europe’s strict GMO regulations apply to genetically modified microorganisms utilized in precision fermentation techniques used by the likes of The Every Company. Fiction Foods plans to introduce a cell-cultured egg in the third quarter of this year, but cultivated eggs are likely years from being approved for consumption in the European market.

A Leading QSR Chain in China Ditches Chicken Eggs for Eat Just’s Plant-Based Version

Eat Just announced this week its plant-based egg products have landed on the menu of Discos, one of China’s leading fast-food chains. More importantly, Discos won’t just be offering the JUST egg alongside animal-based eggs. According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the JUST egg will outright replace its traditional counterpart in several menu items.

Plant-based foods on QSR menus aren’t new — in fact, they’re arguably standard fare at this point. Eat Just’s news is, however, the first time a major quick-service chain has completely switched out an animal-based protein for a plant-based version, which could signal a new shift for the direction of QSR menus over the next several years.

Discos will start the switchover with 500 locations across Bejing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin and Hainan provinces. (The chain has roughly 2,600 stores across 32 provinces in China.) The JUST egg will be in three different breakfast burgers, three breakfast bagel sandwiches, and on a western-style breakfast plate.

Discos’ full shift to plant-based eggs also seems a long-term strategic play for the brand. Demand for plant-based meat in China is expected increase by 200 percent over the next five years, according to a December 2020 study by DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences. According to the firm, the change is “driven by consumer values around health, taste, and sustainability.”

The JUST egg, meanwhile, has been available in China since 2019 in both retail and foodservice businesses, as well as through e-commerce sites Tmall and JD.com.

Discos’ chief marketing officer Xie Yahui suggested in today’s press release that the decision to swap out the chicken egg for a plant-based one was a decision driven by consumer preference: “The introduction of JUST Egg at Discos is a product and brand upgrade based on consumers’ increasing interest in nutrition, healthier diets and environmental awareness,” she said. She added that future menu offerings from Eat Just will be based on consumers’ reactions to these first dishes available.

This swap by Discos most likely isn’t a one-off occurrence. Worldwide, demand for plant-based protein has steadily grown for the last couple years, with 2020 being an all-out banner year for popularity and investment dollars. QSRs, meanwhile, are drastically changing, from their store formats to what’s on the menu. Overhauling the amount of animal-based protein on those menus seems a logical next step, for China and beyond.  

A Plant-Based Egg Round-Up

According to the Good Food Institute, the plant-based egg industry is worth $10 million. This is a small number compared to the plant-based milk industry, which is worth a whopping $2 billion; however, the plant-based egg industry has grown by an impressive 228% in the past two years. With the entire plant-based food industry estimated to reach $74.2 billion by 2027, there is plenty of room for the plant-based egg category to continue to grow.

Plant-based eggs are poised to become the next big thing in the plant-based space, and it can be hard to keep up with all of the companies involved in this industry. We’ve pulled together some of the emerging and bigger players in this space.

Eat Just
Funding: $220M
About: After hitting the milestone of selling over 50 million plant-based eggs earlier this year, it is clear that Eat Just is one of the leaders in this industry. The company makes its liquid egg and folded egg patties with mung beans as the main ingredient. Eat Just products are available in retailers and restaurants nationwide (U.S.), and the company announced in October that it is expanding its products into Asia.

Zero Egg
Funding: $8M
About: Zero Egg launched its plant-based egg powder alternative earlier this year in October on World Egg Day. The egg alternative is crafted from soy protein isolate and pea flour and comes in two different varieties: EGG Basics as a direct replacement for scrambles or omelets and BAKE Basics for specialty baking. Zero Egg’s products are available globally to foodservice operators and manufacturers in the US, Europe, and Israel.

Float Foods
Funding: Undisclosed
About: According to Green Queen, Float Foods is the first company in Asia to create a plant-based egg white and yolk. This new product is called OnlyEg, and it is set to become available commercially in 2022. This plant-based egg was developed using a mixture of undisclosed legumes. In September of this year, Float Foods also launched an incubator for plant-based food innovators.

Evo Foods
Funding: $335K
About: This is India’s first plant-based egg start-up, and it has said it will be launching a plant-based liquid egg alternative sometime this year. Evo Foods uses biotechnology to extract protein from lentils for its formula. The product will first be made available D2C on its website and restaurants in India, and the company has plans to launch in the US by April 2021.

Crack’d
Funding: Unknown
About: The company recently announced at the beginning of November that it will be launching its liquid plant-based egg in the UK market. The egg formula is comprised of pea protein, nutritional yeast, and black salt. According to Crack’d, its liquid egg can be used for both baking and creating traditional egg dishes.

Eat Just’s Josh Tetrick on the 4 Phases of Bringing Cell-Based Meat to the Masses

When will cell-based meat be available to the masses?

It depends on who you ask. At one SKS 2020 panel this week, participants said maybe 10 years. In another, Impossible CEO Pat Brown more or less said never.

Josh Tetrick, founder and CEO of Eat Just, reckons the timeline is “somewhere north of 15 years.” 

Eat Just, which is best known at this point for its plant-based egg products, is in the process of developing its own cell-based meats, including chicken nuggets and chicken breast. The north-of-15-years timeframe for those and other cell-based meat products comes from an important factor Tetrick pointed out when we chatted this week at SKS: that a successful prototype in a lab does not automatically equal commercial success. 

A lot must happen in between those two endpoints, prototype and commercialization, and during our talk, Tetrick broke the journey down into four distinct phases. These are as applicable to other food businesses as they are to Eat Just.

The first is getting that prototype out of the lab. Launching in a single restaurant is one example. To do this, companies need to have not only developed a prototype, they must also have gotten regulatory approval for their product. Tetrick told me that Eat Just hopes this step happens for his company this year or next.

The second phase moves companies out from a single location and into some restaurants, say 50–100, and perhaps smaller retailers. At the moment, there are no cell-based meat companies with products at this stage.

Phase three is even further off. That’s the point when a company’s products are on food retail shelves across the country, from Whole Foods in San Francisco to Walmart in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Eat Just is currently at this point with its plant-based egg products, which are in more than 17,000 locations in the U.S.

That final phase is what Tetrick calls “the Coca-Cola phase.” The product is available everywhere and at a low cost. He believes this is “the phase that will transform the planet,” meaning it will curb the larger population’s reliance on animal protein. To get to that kind of world, phase four is ultimately where Eat Just and other companies need to be.

Not that getting there will be easy. Tetrick doesn’t agree with Pat Brown’s statement that cell-based meat “is never going to be a thing,” but he does concede that it’s no easy feat. In fact, he equated the process from prototype to ubiquity with scaling a really tall mountain. “[It’s] not confusing what needs to be done, it’s just really hard.” 

That climb, so to speak, will require the right investments in cell line development, media, and bioreactors. It will require “a thoughtful approach” to working with regulators and an effective marketing strategy. It will involve enormous amounts of risk and millions if not billions of dollars.

Ultimately, Tetrick believes companies that can get us through this enormously difficult process will enable the majority of the population to live in a world where eating meat doesn’t necessarily mean slaughtering animals or destroying the planet. For many, getting there will be a mountain worth climbing.

JUST to Launch Plant-based Omelet. Will It Attract Fast Food Partners?

Today, alternative protein company JUST announced its newest product: a pre-cooked plant-based omelet. The so-called “folded egg” will be made from mung beans, similar to JUST’s liquid eggless scramble.

I’m currently in the midst of Veganuary, so I’m personally bummed that JUST’s eggless omelet won’t be available until April. The new folded egg will be sold as boxes of four and will roll out in the freezer section of 5,000 retailers, including Whole Foods. They will also be sold in restaurants and other foodservice providers for the SRP of $4.99.

Photo: JUST

JUST’s original liquid egg is also getting a makeover. In May, the San Francisco-based startup will begin selling a new version of JUST Egg, which, according to a press release emailed to The Spoon, is “cleaner, creamier and more egg-like than many chicken eggs.” I’m not sure how an egg can be more egg-like than eggs, but having tasted JUST Egg myself recently, I can say there’s definitely room for some improvement in the flavor department.

This flurry of news comes just a few months after JUST announced it had acquired a manufacturing facility to turn up the dial on its production capacity. As a result, the company noted in the aforementioned press release that its liquid egg will undergo a price reduction to a $4.99 SRP.

As more and more fast-food and fast-casual chains begin testing out plant-based breakfast options, the time is ripe for a pre-made vegan egg patty. Unlike the JUST Egg scramble, which was already sold in the JUST frittata at Le Pain Quotidien last year, the folded option is premade and only needs to be heated up. The new omelet is more similar to the JUST Egg patty, which JUST’s Head of Global Communications Andrew Noyes told me is sold at more than half of JUST’s foodservice partners. IMHO, the fact that both the patties and the omelets are pre-made (just heat and serve) makes them a much a pretty appealing option for quick service restaurants.

In fact, I could see Dunkin’ adding the folded JUST Egg to its Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich, or Burger King listing it as an option for its new Impossible Croissan’wich. JUST Egg could even fit the bill for Starbuck’s, which is reportedly looking to expand plant-based menu offerings.

The question will become whether or not JUST can produce enough mung bean eggs to meet the needs of a massive fast-food operator. Something tells me that before the end of the year, we’ll find out.

JUST Egg Heads to Kroger Grocery Banners as Demand for Plant-Based Egg Grows

On Friday alternative protein startup JUST announced that it would be selling JUST Egg at 2,100 Kroger-owned grocery stores around the U.S.

JUST Egg is a plant-based liquid egg substitute made of mung beans and contains no saturated fat or cholesterol. Over the next few weeks, the product will be sold in the egg aisle of Kroger, as well as Kroger grocery banners like Fred Meyer, and QFC. It’s currently available at Kroger-owned Harris Teeter and Roundy’s brands.

This news is just the latest in JUST Egg’s latest expansion efforts. The plant-based scramble is already pretty widely available in retail: you can find it at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and even Costco, where it’s sold in a 2-pack for $9.99 (at other stores it typically costs almost that much for one 12-ounce bottle).

JUST Egg is also amping up its restaurant presence, and just forged its first fast-food partnership with Tim Horton’s in Canada. And that’s just in North America. Internationally, JUST Egg is also available at both retailers and restaurants in Hong Kong, China, and Europe.

But the fact that JUST is expanding the footprint of its Egg product so quickly indicates that there’s significant consumer demand for a tasty plant-based egg alternative — from both vegans and flexitarians. In fact, in an email to The Spoon JUST reported that a whopping 77 percent of those who buy JUST Egg also eat meat. The fact that JUST will be selling its plant-based scramble in the egg section means that the company has an even better chance of capturing flexitarians who are either curious to try a new product or want to reduce their environmental footprint.

As of now, JUST Egg doesn’t have any significant competition. But given its popularity, I doubt that will be the case for very long. It’s smart to snap up as much retail shelf space and build brand recognition while it’s still the #1 player — before the grocery egg section gets crowded with more alternatives.

If you want to stay up to date on all the plant-based food trends, make sure to subscribe to our weekly alternative protein newsletter Future Food! It’s fun, we promise. 

JUST Rolls Out Plant-Based Egg in Whole Foods

If you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs — unless you use JUST Egg.

Today JUST, makers of plant-based food products that include mayo and cookie dough, announced it will launch its vegan JUST Egg in Sprouts nationally this month and Whole Foods nationally in April. JUST Egg first debuted in retailers in the Midwest, expanded to Albertsons nationwide last month and is currently available at a number of local grocery chains and natural grocers.

The pale yellow liquid, made of mung beans, comes in a bottle and scrambles pretty darn similarly to eggs. The suggested retail price is $7.99, which is a lot pricier than a carton of eggs, even free range/organic ones.

But JUST Egg can likely get away with its higher price since it’s the first product of its kind. For vegans, there’s an obvious draw: nothing else out there scrambles like eggs. For flexitarians, there’s the appeal of the new.

While JUST may be continuing its march into retail, I think its real potential could be in QSRs and large-scale food operations, like corporate cafeterias, hospitals, airlines, and sports stadiums. So far, JUST Egg is available in the fast-casual chain Veggie Grill, and here and there at individual restaurants. But there’s room for a lot more growth, especially in places like school cafeterias.

Consumers are looking for more convenient flexitarian options — as we’ve seen from the success of Impossible’s sliders at White Castle and Beyond’s burgers at Carl’s Jr. — and JUST Egg would fit the bill nicely. Their eggless patties (not available in retail) are practically begging to be slipped into a breakfast sandwich that college kids (because you know millennials/Gen Z love to eat flexitarian) could grab at the cafeteria on their way to History 101, for example. [Update: JUST Egg is currrently available at UIUC, UC Berkeley, Michigan State and a few other universities.]

In addition to the U.S., JUST’s eggless scramble is now available in Hong Kong and China, and has partnered with Eurovo to bring the product to Europe. I have no doubt we’ll hear a lot more news about JUST expanding the availablility of its vegan egg in the months to come, in retail and out.