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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

meat alternative

Jimmy Dean Launches Plant-Based Patty Sandwiches at Sam’s Club

Jimmy Dean, a US-based pork producer owned by Tyson Foods, announced today the launch of its new plant-based patty breakfast sandwiches at Sam’s Club and other undisclosed retailers. The company will be launching two different breakfast sandwiches with one already available in stores, and the other launching in Spring 2021.

The breakfast sandwich launched at the end of December 2020 is the Plant-Based Patty, Egg & Cheese Croissant Sandwich. Jimmy Dean is known for its breakfast patties and links, and this new product provides a meat-free breakfast alternative that still maintains a high amount of protein. The plant-based patty is made from soy protein, and egg whites, and the sandwich also includes American cheese and eggs, clocking in at 13g of protein.

Launching sometime in Spring 2021, the Plant-Based Patty & Frittata Sandwich totals 15G of protein and features a vegetable and grain patty made from black beans, quinoa, brown rice, soy protein, and egg whites. This sandwich uses an English muffin base, and also includes a spinach and egg frittata and American cheese. Although the sandwiches are not vegan friendly, they are suitable for those who follow a flexitarian or vegetarian diet.

Jimmy Dean is certainly not the first large meat producer to launch plant-based options. With the plant-based meat category being valued at $939 million in 2020 and a survey showing that 50% of consumers have tried plant-based meat, it makes sense for meat producers to add plant-based options to their portfolio. The largest producer of meat in the world, JBS, owns Planterra, which created a brand called Ozo that has an entire line of meatless burgers, grounds, and meatballs. Smithfield Foods, one of the largest pork producers in the world, launched a line of plant-based proteins through the brand Pure Farmland. Other meat producers such as Tyson, Hormel, and Cargill have also produced meatless products.

Located in the frozen aisle within Sam’s Clubs, the Plant-Based Patty, Egg & Cheese Croissant Sandwich comes in a pack of 12 and retails at $11.65. The Plant-Based Patty & Frittata Sandwich comes in a 4-count pack has a suggested retail price of $7.29, and it is currently undetermined which retailers this sandwich will launch in this upcoming spring.

We Tried the Plant-based Chicken Nuggets from High Tech Startup Rebellyous

Even though I technically have more time to cook during quarantine, there are some days when my motivation to scrounge up a meal is exactly zero. On those days, I turn to my freezer — frozen burritos, pre-made meals, and ravioli are always ready to go when I need them. Now I have a new staple to add to my freezer: plant-based chicken nuggets from Rebellyous Foods.

If you’re not familiar, Rebellyous is a plant-based meat company that’s reinventing manufacturing technology to make meat alternatives more scalable. After launching in 2017, the Seattle-based startup began selling its first product, a plant-based chicken nugget, to hospital and office cafeterias.

But with COVID-19 essentially closing down their marketplace, Rebellyous quickly pivoted to begin offering its nuggets on retail shelves. Last week the vegan nuggets hit the freezer sections of several small retailers in the Seattle area. A pack of 30 nuggets costs $5.99. The plant-based nuggets have a protein content comparable to regular chicken nuggets and are meant to be just as easy to prepare — whether in a corporate dining hall or a home kitchen.

A bag of Rebellyous plant-based nuggets. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

This week I was able to put that assertion to the test when I received a sample of Rebellyous’ frozen nuggets. I reached for the nuggets when I was feeling especially hangry, hoping that they wouldn’t take forever to cook. The package suggests three cooking methods: Bake, Pan Fry, or Deep Fry. It explicitly notes not to consume the nuggets raw or microwave them, which I assume would be bad for their texture.

I decided to bake my nuggets. I preheated the oven to 425°F, shook out a some nuggets onto a bare baking sheet, and popped them into the oven. Eight minutes and one flip later, and the nuggets were ready. They did stick to the baking sheet a little bit, so next time I would line the pan with parchment paper.

I’ve tasted Rebellyous’ nuggets before, so I knew what to expect. But in the past they’ve always been prepared by an air fryer; I was skeptical that my oven would provide the same crunchy exterior.

Happily I was wrong. The nuggets had a crisp, crunchy coating and a juicy interior that almost exactly mimics the nuggets I grew up eating in my elementary school cafeteria. It’s almost uncanny. The nuggets were tasty enough that I didn’t even feel the need to use a dipping sauce, though a side of barbecue would have been delicious.

Rebellyous’ nuggets post-bake. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

I just enjoyed one serving, which is six Rebellyous nuggets. One serving has 160 calories, 7 grams of fat and 14 grams of protein (Rebellyous uses wheat protein). The serving didn’t look like a whole lot on my plate, but they actually filled me up quite nicely. Since they have a relatively low calorie and fat count, you could double the serving size or just eat them as a snack.

Rebellyous is certainly heading to retail at an opportune time. Sales of plant-based meats have increased dramatically during the pandemic, as meat prices spike and people search for healthier foods. A handful of plant-based companies have also raised funding over the past few weeks, including Rebellyous itself.

Rebellyous is actually cashing in on three food trends right now: plant-based meat, comfort food, and frozen food. Consumers are looking for food that keeps well, prepares easily, and satisfies. Rebellyous ticks all of those boxes, and has the bonus that it’s kid-friendly (a boon for parents working from home).

I may not be a kid, but after trying them I’m a fan of Rebellyous’ nuggets. The fact that they cook in ten minutes, require no prep, taste satisfying and provide a hearty serving of protein means that they’ve definitely earned a spot in my freezer rotation.

Rebellyous’ nuggets are only available in the Seattle area for now. If you buy a pack, please leave us a comment and let us know what you thought!

If The End of Meat is Here, What’s Next?

The New York Times ran an Opinion piece this morning entitled ‘The End of Meat is Here” that soon had that phrase trending on Twitter. The piece was written by Jonathan Safran Foer, novelist and author of the book Eating Animals.

The full article is definitely worth a read, but here, I’ll just summarize Safran Foer’s key points:

  • Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of global warming.
  • We don’t need animal protein to survive and thrive.
  • Family farms will not suffer if factory farming goes away.

He also dives into why COVID-19, in particular, is shedding light on the problems that come with industrial meat farming. He points to the high amounts of infection within meat slaughterhouses, and how farmers are forced to euthanize animals as said slaughterhouses close. For these reasons, Safran Foer states, the sun might finally be setting on meat.

“Our hand has been reaching for the doorknob for the last few years. Covid-19 has kicked open the door,” he writes. “At the very least it has forced us to look.”

If the time of meat is ending, what’s next?

That’s where foodtech will come in. Here’s what I envision the End of Meat could look like, based on recent shifts we’ve seen during COVID-19:

Mostly plant-based

If traditional factory-farmed meat goes away, plant-based meat certainly seems like the most viable replacement. Consumers are already familiar with it, from industry veterans like Tofurky to disruptors like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. It’s so ubiquitous that you can even get an Impossible Whopper at a Burger King drive-thru.

In fact, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of meat alternatives have skyrocketed. In response that growing demand — and the fact that its restaurant partners are struggling — Impossible Foods has rapidly increased its retail footprint. Big Food companies like Cargill are also entering the space with their own plant-based plays. And smaller startups, like Rebellyous and Plantible, are taking new funding to accelerate their commercialization timelines.

Right now companies are developing technologies to make realistic plant-based versions of everything from steak to raw tuna. Are they perfect? Not yet. But with more investment, within the next decade or so consumers could theoretically buy any and every type of meat — just made from plants. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more consumers turn towards meat alternatives, the better they will be.

Finally time for blended meat?

Blended meat, which is made from a combination of animal meat and plant-based protein, could be a stop-gap on the transition away from factory-farmed meat. Consumers who aren’t ready to switch over to a diet of Impossible burgers and Rebellyous nuggets could wean off meat with blended beef burgers and chicken nuggets.

Right now there aren’t a ton of companies offering blended meat products. However, two of the biggest meat producers in the world — Tyson and Perdue — launched lines of hybrid products over the past few months. If the pandemic continues to throw a wrench into meat production, it would make sense for more leading meat companies to develop blended products to both stretch their own meat supply and lower their costs.

Photo: Raised & Rooted blended burgers from Tyson Foods

Futuristic protein sources

Not all meat alternatives will rely on plants as their protein source. Companies like Motif Foodworks are using fermentation of microbes to create bespoke proteins — and other elements — to more accurately mimic meat. Some companies, like Air Protein and Solar Foods, are even using carbon dioxide to create protein.

As the popularity of meat alternatives grows, producers will likely explore new inputs beyond just pea and soy protein. Fermentation could be a key to unlocking more evolved, more affordable alt-meat.

Coming soon: cell-based meat

We’ll know that the End of Meat is truly here when cell-based meat comes to market. Or at least when it becomes semi-affordable and accessible.

After all, if consumers can buy a steak that tastes like a cow, cooks like a cow, and is made of cow cells, will they really care if it came from a cow or from a lab? There is certainly some consumer resistance to the idea of cultured meat. But as COVID-19 sheds light on some of the less savory aspects of meat production — especially in slaughterhouses — I’m guessing that eating meat grown in sterile lab conditions could seem a lot more appealing.

Regulatory issues are the biggest hurdle for cultured meat right now. We’re at least a year from cell-based meat hitting the market, and likely a decade away from it reaching price parity with real meat. But if COVID-19 continues to cause meat prices to spike then cultured meat could actually reach price parity sooner than expected.

Photo: Impossible Foods

So what’s next?

Safran Foer’s piece argues why it’s time for the End of Meat. But how exactly will it come about? That’s a lot more complex.

Meat won’t disappear all at once with a fiery bang. Instead, we’ll likely see a gradual transition from traditional meat to meat alternatives, including plant-based and blended meat. That’s actually good news for the disruptors making alternative protein. Plant-based and cell-based meat will have to increase production astronomically to fulfill consumer demand for protein left behind by industrial meat. And once cultured meat comes into its own, the need for factory farmed meat will be all but gone.

That will be when the End of Meat can indeed transition into the Dawn of Meat Alternatives.

Unlimeat, a Beef Alternative from South Korea, to Launch in U.S. Market

Zikooin, a South Korean food manufacturing company, today announced it would bring its plant-based Unlimeat to the U.S. market this year. Unlimeat is made from grains, oats and nuts and is meant to look and taste like thinly-sliced cuts of beef. It’s currently sold exclusively in South Korea.

According to a press release, Zikooin uses ingredients that would typically be thrown away due to cosmetic imperfections. Those ingredients are combined through Zikooin’s patented “protein compression” technology, which apparently gives the finished product a very meat-like texture. The company has stated that this manufacturing process is already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Obviously I haven’t tasted Unlimeat yet, but I do think there’s a significant market opportunity in the U.S. for plant-based meats that aren’t burgers, sausages, deli meats or chicken nuggets. Americans demand diverse cuisines and ingredients — and that expands to meat alternatives, as well. Impossible is already rising to meet that demand for the new with its latest product: plant-based ground pork. But when it comes to meatless whole cuts of beef, there are very few options out there.

Zikooin is smart to bring its plant-based beef filets to the U.S. market before it becomes crowded with competitors making a similar product. As of now there are very few alt-steak offerings already available, mostly because of the textural challenge of making whole-muscle “meat” from plants. Some are developing more sophisticated 3D-printed or cell-based versions, which truly emulate the texture of beef, but it’ll be quite a few years before you can pick up those options in a grocery store.

Zikooin’s choice to use upcycled ingredients is also an interesting one. Not only is it a smart environmental and economical choice to make use of often-wasted foods, but it can also help sell to more sustainability-minded consumers — just ask Misfit Foods, Imperfect Foods (formerly Imperfect Produce) and Full Harvest. To tap into growing demand for sustainable ingredients, Zikooin would be smart to emphasize the whole “ugly produce” angle on its packaging when it does hit store shelves.

We’ll soon find out. Over email Keum Chae, CEO of Unlimeat, said that the product is already sold in SUPER FRESH MART in NYC and will be featured for a limited time in several San Francisco restaurants. In April, the company will begin selling Unlimeat online and later this year they plan to selling Unlimeat BBQ and Dumpling products at Costco and Whole Foods. The plant-based beef will sell for around $9 per pound, which is on par with a package of Beyond Meat sausages.

Unlimeat isn’t only expanding into the U.S., however. Chae said that the product will soon launch in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and China.

If you’re in San Francisco, you can give this alt-beef an early taste test: the company is holding a free pop-up event on January 19th at the Ferry Building where it will be grilling up samples of Unlimeat in a Korean-style barbecue. If you hit it up, be sure to let us know what you think!

NovaMeat Unveils Version 2.0 of its 3D-Printed Meatless Steak

NovaMeat, the Spanish startup which creates realistic meat alternatives through 3D printing plant proteins, has developed a new version of its faux steak. CEO Giuseppe Scionti told me that its new product, which he called Steak 2.0, is “the first to mimic simultaneously the texture and the appearance of an animal whole muscle cut, in this case a beef steak.” The steak cost €1.35 ($1.50) per 50 grams to produce.

Scionti claims this is the most realistic plant-based steak that has yet been developed. Steak and other whole muscle cuts — like chicken breast or pork chops — have a tricky texture that’s much more difficult to make from plants than, say, ground meat. And unlike burgers, there are very few plant-based steak options out there right now, outside of a few smaller brands mainly selling in Europe.

Down the road, however, that will likely change. Redefine Meat is also using 3D printing to make realistic meat alternatives, Atlast Food is developing a mycelium (mushroom root) based scaffold for whole cuts of plant-based meat, and Emergy Foods is creating plant-based steak that looks eerily similar to the real thing — but neither of them have brought a product to market yet. On the cell-based front, Aleph Farms has already successfully grown cultured steak the width and thickness of a credit card (though that’s also a ways from being available).

NovaMeat’s Steak 2.0 has yet to be put to a public taste test, so it’s hard to substantiate Scionti’s claims regarding its superior taste and texture. It’ll be a while yet before we’re able to taste it ourselves. The startup will license its micro-extrusion technology to plant-based meat manufacturers in two to three years. However, Scionti told me that he hopes to start selling his steaks at a small scale to restaurants in Europe by the end of 2020.

By that time, there will likely be a lot more players making plant-based whole muscle cuts that actually look and taste like the real thing. Most notable is Impossible Foods, maker of the plant-based “bleeding” burger. The startup is set to unveil a brand new product at CES 2020 tomorrow, and last year Impossible’s CEO Pat Brown told The Spoon that their next product would likely be steak. Check back tomorrow to see if NovaMeat’s Steak 2.0 is about to get some serious competition!

Future Food: What’s Next for Alternative Protein in 2020? Think: Small Batch, Clean Label

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Welcome to 2020, Future Food readers! It wouldn’t be the end of the year/the start of a new one without a flurry of year-end look back pieces. Last week, I did a deep dive into the growth (and challenges) experienced by the plant-based food landscape in 2019. Here’s the full piece if you’re interested, but TL;DR:

  • Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat launched version 2.0 of their plant-based beef, and it was really tasty (especially Impossible’s).
  • Beyond Meat went public (!!!) and smashed expectations with a record-setting IPO.
  • Big Food began to muscle its way into the plant-based meat space.
  • Europe and Asia saw major growth in alternative proteins, both in grocery stores and restaurants.
  • Plant-based meat struggled against public pushback re: processing, as well as labeling restrictions.

Overall, it was a very tumultuous — and chiefly successful — year for animal alternatives, from burgers to dairy. And 2020 is shaping up to be just as exciting. Here are a few of my predictions for the next 364 days:

  • Fast-food chains will continue to embrace plant-based meat, and not just burgers (think: faux chicken).
  • Plant-based foods will make headway in the fight against restrictive state labeling laws, as they have in Mississippi.
  • We’ll see a rise in innovative (and sustainable) protein creation methods, from fermented dairy proteins to protein grown from air and water.
  • As a response to the criticism over heavy processing in plant-based meat production, we’ll see a rise in smaller, clean label, organic brands.
Photo: Daring Foods

I want to explore that last point a bit deeper because I think it’s a significant sea change we’ll see in the plant-based meat space in 2020. One of the biggest challenges for meat alternatives in 2019 was growing pushback against its production methods, which can include processing for texture, dyes, preservatives, or even lab-grown ingredients like Impossible’s ace in the hole, heme. That came to a head when Chipotle’s CEO called plant-based meat “too processed” for its stores.

As a response, I think we’ll see a rise in more clean label plant-based meat products over the coming year; ones that use fewer, minimally processed, and even organic ingredients. Several of these brands already exist and are starting to gain traction: Planted and Daring Foods both make chicken alternatives from five ingredients or under. No Evil makes clean label, non-GMO faux chicken and ground beef. And Fast Company reported this week on how Abbot’s Butcher, a self-described “small batch” meat alternative, is striking deals with fast-casual restaurant chains.

Right now these players are all quite small. I haven’t tasted most of their products, but I imagine it’s hard to make clean label food compete flavor-wise with the umami bomb of an Impossible burger, or the realistic snap of a Beyond Meat sausage. It’ll also be a challenge to compete against Beyond and Impossible’s widespread availability and brand recognition.

But in 2020, I bet we’ll see more of these artisanal meat alternatives popping up — and more restaurants choosing to put them on their menus to cash into consumer demand for organic and non-GMO foods. I’ll check back in a year to see if I was right.

JUST Egg on the left, traditional eggs on the right. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

JUST Egg taste test
The meat alternative space may be diversifying, but plant-based eggs are still a pretty niche product. One that I put to the test over the holidays.

This is a bit of a tradition for me at this point. Last year over Christmas break my extended family — all seventeen of us — did a taste test of White Castle’s plant-based Impossible Sliders. They were a hit. So we decided to continue the try-a-new-animal-product-alternative thing this year with JUST Egg, a mung bean-based liquid scrambled egg substitute.

You can read the full piece here, but long story short, JUST Egg was not as big of a hit as the Impossible Whopper. I did the taste test alongside a plate of scrambled chicken eggs, and while the textures of the two was quite similar, JUST Egg has a uniform pale yellow color that makes it obvious which is which. A couple testers also noted that it had an artificial (though not entirely unpleasant) flavor, or that it tasted “bean-y.”

That said, everyone who tried JUST Egg was impressed by how close the texture was to the real thing. Even my brother, a scrambled egg lover, said that if you mixed it with cheese or tucked it into a breakfast burrito, he probably wouldn’t have known the difference. Here’s to more plant-based egg innovation in 2020.

Photo: KFC

Protein ’round the web
– Starting today, KFC will add its Vegan Burger (a plant-based fried chicken sandwich) to all of its menus across the U.K. (h/t VegNews)
– Speaking of the U.K., LiveKindly reports that Pizza Huts nationwide are now offering plant-based pepperoni made from pea protein for a limited time.
– Plantible, a San Diego-based startup, has developed a new plant-based protein from lemna (AKA the aquatic plant duckweed).

Eat well,
Catherine

From Nestlé to Trader Joe’s, Six New Plant-Based Burger Brands Have Popped Up in the Last Month

A year or two ago, when you wanted to taste one of the new, ultra-meat plant-based burgers you could basically choose between Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods — assuming you were in one of the areas where one or both was available. A few months ago, you’d have a couple more options, like Lightlife and Meatless Farm.

But over the past four weeks alone (yes, just September), the faux burger space has virtually exploded with new players, all trying to take advantage of consumers’ burgeoning desire for plant-based meat. Six, to be exact. To help you keep track and figure out which alt-meat burgers to keep an eye out for in the grocery aisle, we’ve rounded ’em up for you:

“Protein Patties” from Trader Joe’s
A few weeks ago a Trader Joe’s employee posted on Facebook that the beloved grocery chain would soon launch its own meaty plant-based burger called “Protein Patties.” According to VegNews, the patties will contain 18 grams of protein each, and two-pack of the 4-ounce burgers will cost $4.99. The price is notable: the vast majority of meaty plant-based burgers out there, like Lightlife and Beyond Meat, cost $5.99 for a two-pack. Trader Joe’s can push its faux burgers in its store, which attract droves of consumers — especially millennials and Gen Z — because of its low prices, cheery staff and cult-status snack products.

“Better Than Beef” from Don Lee Farms
News broke last week that Costco would start selling Don Lee Farms’ Better Than Beef plant-based burgers in select locations. According to a press release, the new burgers will be available at Costco stores in six Western states, Texas grocery chain H-E-B and other retailers. No numbers were provided, but the same release stated that the burgers will have “the lowest calories, fat and saturated fat compared to other leading brands.” Don Lee Farms was one of the original copackers for Beyond and is now involved in a lawsuit with the plant-based meat company.

“Incogmeato” from MorningStar Farms
Earlier this month MorningStar Farms, a subsidiary of the Kellogg Company which has been making meat alternatives for over 40 years, announced it would launch a new line of meatier plant-based meats in retail in 2020. Called “Incogmeato,” the new line includes faux beef burgers as well as frozen chik’n tenders and nuggets. Though MorningStar Farms has been in the alt-meat biz for quite a while, their Incogmeato burger will be its first cook-from-fresh product, which will be sold in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

The Awesome Burger by Sweet Earth Foods (Photo: Hardy Wilson)

“Awesome Burger” from Sweet Earth Foods (Nestlé)
Just last week Sweet Earth Foods, a U.S. company owned by CPG giant Nestlé, announced it would start selling its meaty plant-based Awesome Burger in foodservice and retail on October 1st. This is Nestlé’s first foray into more realistic alt-meat burgers in the U.S., but in Europe the Swiss company already sells the plant-based Incredible Burger to a variety of foodservice spots, including McDonald’s locations in Israel and Germany. The Awesome Burger has 26 grams of protein and a two-pack of the patties will likely retail for $5.99.

“Simple Truth Plant Based” by Kroger
At the Good Food Conference earlier this month Kroger, the largest grocer in the U.S., announced that it would soon debut its own line of plant-based products under its Simple Truth brand. In addition to alt-meat staples like burgers, the Simple Truth Plant Based line will also include cookie dough, creamy dips, and more, all with a pea protein base. The animal-free product line will debut at 1,800 Kroger stores this fall.

“Happy Little Plants” by Hormel
It’s not a pre-formed burger per se, but this month Hormel Foods, owner of brands like Skippy peanut butter, announced the launch of its Happy Little Plants line. Its first product will be a plant-based ground “meat” product that can be turned into meatballs, tacos, pasta sauce and, yes, burgers. Happy Little Plants are currently available in Hy-Vee grocery stores in select states.

If you want to know more about the plant-based revolution and the eater of the future, you better get one of the last tickets to the Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} in Seattle next week! We’ll see you there. 

Good Dot Paves Way for Plant-Based Meats in India with Vegan “Mutton”

Plant-based meat companies are largely based in two continents: Europe and North America. But in places where alterna-meats could have the largest impact on health and the environment, there are very few options available.

One company working to change that is Good Dot, a startup making plant-based meats, as their website states, “in India, for India, by India.”

Founded in 2016, the Udaipur-based company makes meat alternatives out of soy, wheat, and pea protein. Its flagship product is a vegan mutton, and it also has a dehydrated plant-based “chicken” product and an “egg” scramble in its lineup (some Indians don’t consider eggs vegetarian). The company is also working on a shredded-chicken alternative.

When I first heard about Good Dot, I wondered: in a land where 80 percent of the population believes that cows are sacred, and where vegetarian dishes like palak paneer, lentil-based dal and curried bhindi are the norm, is there really a need for meat alternative?

Apparently, I — and many others — am completely off base here. “It’s a huge misconception that India is a primarily vegetarian country,” said Abhishek Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Good Dot. In fact, he told me that around 72 percent of Indians do consume meat.

In a country of 1.3 billion, that still leaves over 360 million vegetarians. Like most alterna-meat companies, however, Good Dot isn’t just targeting vegetarians. Instead, it markets its products as an easy replacement that tastes as good as meat but is healthier for you (lower saturated fat, etc.) and better for the planet. Good Dot’s products are also shelf-stable, which means that people can store them for long periods of time (up to one year) without worrying about spoilage, as they would with meat.

In order to gain a foothold in the market, however, Sinha knew that Good Dot needed to get its products to cost the same — or less — than regular meat. “We believe that to make plant-based meat mainstream it is important to have cost parity with real meat,” he said. “This is where our strength lies.” Good Dot’s “mutton” is at price parity to its traditional counterpart, and its vegan egg product is cheaper than traditional eggs.

Another challenge Good Dot had to tackle was distribution. Chain grocery stores aren’t common in India; locals rely on smaller neighborhood shops and outdoors markets. To get around this hurdle, Good Dot sells its products through RCM, a direct selling company in India with 7,500 stores, as well as online via the Good Dot website and Amazon. In addition to its direct-to-consumer channel, the company also supplies its plant-based meats to hotels and restaurants throughout India.

In addition to its CPG business, Good Dot also has a food stall franchise called GoodDo which sells fried “chicken” made with Good Dot’s plant-based meat. GoodDo currently has four locations in India, and Sinha told me they plan to open 30 more.

Good Dot currently has a team of around 120 people and has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from New Crop Capital, as well as angel investors.

Its products are only available in India for now, but Sinha said Good Dot is in “advanced stage” talks with Canada and UAE about distribution opportunities. The startup can carve out some space in these markets thanks to the novelty of its products: while Beyond and Impossible already offer vegan burgers and sausages, no one is offering plant-based mutton (yet).

However, the place where Good Dot can make the biggest impact is on its home turf. Demand for meat in India is growing rapidly: as national wealth increases, more and more people are turning to a meat-heavy diet. This shift puts pressure on environmental resources, especially water, and also leads to more greenhouse gas emissions.

A similar dietary change is happening in China, where there’s a growing demand for pork despite the government’s goal to cut meat consumption in half.  There, Omnipork is trying to do with pork what Good Dot is doing with chicken and mutton: feed the local demand for meat with a plant-based alternative, one that’s developed specifically for the tastes of the local population instead of the Western world.

The lack of consumer demand for plant-based meat in India is partly because, up to now, there haven’t been good options available. “Bleeding” vegan burgers from Impossible and Beyond wouldn’t make sense in the Indian market, since more than three-quarters of the country are Hindu and don’t eat beef in the first place. By targeting culturally appropriate meats (mutton and chicken), Good Dot has a chance to catalyze demand in the second-highest populated country globally and pave the way for more alterna-meat companies outside the Western world.

Plant-Based Seafood Company Good Catch Foods Nets $5.5M

Tuna melts are great and all, but they can lose some of their appeal when you hear about mercury in the fish, or how dolphins sometimes get killed by being caught in tuna fishing nets.

Pennsylvania-based company Good Catch Foods is developing vegetarian shredded tuna, crab cakes, and fish patties made of lentils, chickpeas, fava beans, and other legumes. Founded in 2017, the startup is trying to change the way we look at tuna by, according to their website, “disrupting the seafood category, not the ocean’s resources.” Last week they got a little closer to their goal when they raised $5.5 million in Series A funding from Stray Dog Capital.

Good Catch is one of many companies capitalizing on the recent consumer trend towards plant-based and flexitarian eating. Vegan burgers have been creating a lot of buzz as of late — think Beyond Meat and the Impossible burger — but there are surprisingly few players working to create seafood alternatives, especially considering the popularity of seafood and the fishing industry’s massive environmental and ethical costs.

According to Good Catch’s website, fish are the largest class of farmed animals and account for roughly 4 out of every 10 pounds of animal product consumed. 90% of global fish stocks are overfished and fully depleted, and those that are wild-caught can have high levels of mercury or other contaminants.

These sobering stats have led to the creation of startups like Aquabyte, which uses machine learning to optimize fish farming, and Hatch, an accelerator geared specifically at aquaculture companies.

But they’ve also prompted some companies to start looking at ways to replace seafood altogether. Wild Type, a cellular agriculture startup, recently raised $3.5 million to continue its development of lab-grown salmon. Finless Foods is working on culturing bluefin tuna, which they hope to have to market by 2019. And New Wave Foods recently created the world’s first plant-based shrimp alternative, while Ocean Hugger Food is making the first vegan alternative to raw tuna.

Good Catch’s is developing plant-based tuna in three flavors: original, Mediterranean, and olive oil & herbs. They’re made with their signature 6-Bean Non-GMO Plant Protein Blend, and has 13 grams of protein per serving. That’s roughly half the protein of canned tuna, which has 25g of protein per similar-sized serving.

Good Catch claims their fish-free tuna will be in the market by the end of 2018. It will be interesting to see if their product makes the same splash (sorry) as other recently-launched meat alternatives, like the Impossible burger. I guess I’ll have to wait and put it to the test myself — preferably in a tuna melt.