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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based meat

I Tried a New Rival to Impossible’s Heme, and it Could Be A Game Changer

I have good news for mock meat makers who want to challenge the Impossible Burger: You’ll soon have access to Impossible’s magic ingredient — that’s heme, the molecule that makes its plant-based burgers bleed, sizzle, and taste so similar to the real thing.

Last month, Leonard Lerer, CEO of Back of the Yards Algae Sciences (BYAS), a Chicago-based start-up, invited me to a taste test of a beta-version of his heme, which is derived from spirulina, a blue green algae. The test gave me a chance to compare two popular plant-based burgers —Beyond and Morningstar — with burgers sprayed with low-concentrations of BYAS’s heme.

On a quick inspection, the heme-sprayed versions didn’t look significantly different, or smell different, but after a few bites, I had a clear favorite. It’s hard to pinpoint the source of my preference. Maybe the heme-flavor overshadowed the nutty aftertaste of Beyond? Perhaps it was an increase in umami? Whatever it was, the heme-sprayed burgers were a clear upgrade. In fact, I was so impressed with the heme’s flavoring that I tested the burger on the biggest mock-meat skeptic I know: my 11-year-old son.

As expected, Max shot a frown and yuck look after trying the standard Beyond. But after being persuaded to take one bite of the heme-sprayed version, Max had a shocking response. No frown. In fact, he said, “It’s pretty good.” My wife also tested the samples. While none of us thought the heme elevated Beyond to match the flavor of a real burger, we all agreed: Algal heme makes a big difference.

“There’s a lot of ways to give mock meats a meaty flavor, but there’s nothing quite like heme,” said Lerer, the lead developer of the heme. To date, plant-based heme has been virtually synonymous with Impossible, but BYAS aims to change that. “Impossible is a food company — and as far as I know, they don’t sell their heme. We’re an ingredient company, and want to give plant-based meat makers an option for a heme.”

Lerer describes what he believes is “heme 2.0” because it’s “healthier for people and for the planet.” According to Lerer, BYAS’s heme extraction process is all natural, uses less energy, and eliminates waste. And because BYAS’s heme is derived not from soy, but spirulina, a noted superfood, it brings an array of added health benefits to plant-based meat makers. “I don’t think there’s ever been a burger — plant-based or dead cow — that stimulates gut bacteria.” Lerer also notes that BYAS’s process is all natural and GMO-free, unlike Impossible’s, which he believes will appeal to plant-based burger makers aiming for a cleaner label.

Founded in 2018 by Lerer, who like Impossible founder Patrick Brown is a former physician, BYAS has just six full-time employees in its Chicago lab. The company recently partnered with LiquaDry, a Utah-based specialist in converting natural products into powders, to develop an industrial scale production facility for its algal-derived ingredients. The debut of a product with BYAS’s algal heme will be next month when Brytlife Foods, a vegan food maker, introduces a burger, dubbed the “Biome Burger,” in four specialty grocers in New York City, including the Park Slope Food Coop and Orchard Grocer.

The Backstory of Algal Heme: An “Accidental” Discovery and a Food Waste Solution
Lerer said the idea for the algal heme can be traced to a “serendipitous” discovery that occurred while doing research three years ago for one of BYAS’s core businesses: meeting the food industry’s exploding demand for natural colorant. While working on a process to make the color purple, Lerer isolated spirulina’s leghemoglobin protein. “It was intriguing,” he recalled. “But I didn’t taste it. I didn’t smell it, as I was focused on colorant.”

As BYAS and its food colorant business grew, Lerer & BYAS team started trying to find solutions to another problem: waste. The colorant extraction produces a huge amount of high value algal protein. “Most dye makers just trash it,” Lerer said. “We pride ourselves on zero waste.”A big reason for Lerer’s emphasis on waste reduction is because BYAS is based in The Plant, a former meat packing facility on Chicago’s South Side, which is one of the world’s only food business incubators that functions as a “closed loop ecosystem,” where the waste of one business is used as an input for another. For example, carbon dioxide from a brewery on The Plant’s ground floor is piped into the BYAS’s lab where it feeds the growth of spirulina.

In an effort to upcycle colorant waste, BYAS first aimed to use the leftover algal protein to create a meat analogue for burgers that offer an alternative to soy. But after almost two years of R&D, Lerer stopped the project. “We tried everything and made a lot of progress,” he said, “but it still tasted like crap.”

It was after this failed attempt at algal meat that Lerer had the breakthrough idea — instead of using algae as the burger’s meat, he could explore its potential as a flavoring source. He revisited the heme that he encountered. “And voila, with a little tweaking there it was.”

Lerer said the approach that BYAS is using to develop heme is radically simpler than Impossible’s method. Impossible generates its star ingredient by inserting the DNA of soybean heme into yeast, and then fermenting that yeast at industrial scale. But while the process is much more environmentally-friendly than harvesting heme directly from soy plants, it still requires fermentation, which is energy-intensive and costly.

BYAS’s process doesn’t require genetic engineering or fermentation. The heme is extracted from algae that will be grown outside in tanks in Abraham, Utah, feeding on water and sunlight. While Lerer didn’t reveal his process, he said, it’s a simple, all-natural process and because it’s natural algal heme, it’s already Generally Recognized as Safe.

The “Biome Burger”
The earliest adopter of algal heme, Brytlife Food’s founder Lita Dwight, said that her new product, dubbed the “Biome Burger” isn’t just intended to match the meaty taste properties of Impossible, it’s also, as the name suggests, developed to highlight the health benefits of algal ingredients. Dwight hopes that by incorporating BYAS’s heme, and other spirulina extracts, she will be able to differentiate her product in a crowded marketplace.

She was initially drawn to algae because of its high protein density, but noted that studies have shown that spirulina stimulates the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, which helps with everything from digestion to nutrient absorption. While it’s not unusual to hear about antioxidants and probiotics in the food industry — it still is in the burger world. Plant-based burger makers have made upgrades to their burger’s health profiles, but have largely focused on increasing protein, reducing saturated fat, and sodium.

“This is likely the first burger with probiotic benefits,” Dwight said. “And I really think that more healthy is the future of the market.”

But Lerer said he hopes the “Biome Burger” will not only raise the bar for the nutritional content of plant-based burgers, but also the environmental sustainability of mock meats. “Our goal is to reduce dependence on industrial soy and pea,” he said. “There’s so much waste in getting soy protein levels so high.” He notes that the “meat” of the Brytlife burger will be a blend of oats and mycelium, ingredients that require less intensive farming than soy, but are less frequently used because they’re bland.

Lerer’s research has found that algal heme provides such a powerful flavor-enhancing meaty quality that food makers could shift to plant protein sources that are less environmentally-damaging, such as oats and mushrooms.

While I ordinarily would been deeply skeptical about an oats-based burger — flashbacks to the veggie burgers of the 1990s — after seeing my son happily chewing a heme-enhanced Beyond burger for the first time, it suddenly seemed plausible.

Whatever happens with the Biome Burger, here’s one prediction. At such a hyper-innovative, health-obsessed time in the plant-based world, it’s almost inevitable that key player in the space (hello, Beyond), will introduce an algal heme-enhanced burger in the coming year.

XPRIZE Launches a Four-Year-Long Competition to Improve Alt-Meat

Non-profit XPRIZE today launched a four-year-long competition to transform the global meat industry. Done in partnership with ASPIRE, the project management pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion competition will foster technological breakthroughs for a more secure food system as we inch towards 2050 and a larger population. Registration is open now, according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The competition was developed in response to XPRIZE’s recently released Future of Food Impact Roadmap, where the organization pinpointed 12 “breakthrough opportunities” that could help build a better food system. Alt-protein is one of those areas. XPRIZE noted today that “the need for alternative proteins at-scale was identified as a critical impact area that requires significant technological advances, decreased price points, and notable shifts in consumers’ preferences – all while maintaining positive health and environmental benefits as compared to animal-based proteins.”

In keeping with that, the Feed the Next Billion Competition will incentivize teams to produce chicken breast and fish fillet alternatives that “replicate or outperform” the real thing in terms of nutrition, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and taste and texture, according to the competition’s site.

Participants will need to develop multiple consistent cuts of meat alternatives that look, taste, and feel like traditional animal-based meat. All teams will also need to demonstrate the ability to scale production for global distribution. 

The competition comes at a time when the meat and dairy industry account for about 14.5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases and concerns about how to feed a growing world population abound. Alternative proteins, whether plant-based or cultured, have emerged in recent years as a key tool in fighting off the environmental and humanitarian consequences of traditional meat production. There are many routes to alt-protein out there, from Meat-Tech’s 3D-printed cultured beef to the growing list of companies in the $10 million plant-based egg industry. Especially noteworthy recent developments include Eat Just getting the world’s first regulatory approval for cultured meat and Israel’s newly stated goal to develop a national plan for alternative proteins. 

Companies from around the world are invited to register for XPRIZE’s four-year-long competition. Registration will run through April 28, 2021. A total of $15 million will be given to multiple grand prize winners (a specific number of winners was not named) in the first quarter of 2024.

3D Meat Printing Startup SavorEat Goes Public, Raises $13M via IPO

SavorEat, the Israeli startup developing a 3D printing platform for plant-based meat alternatives, has had an initial public offering (IPO) on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), raising NIS 42.6 million ($13 million) in funding.

The company is the second 3D meat-printing startup to go public this year, but will be the first company focused on plant-based meat analogs to trade on Israel’s stock exchange. The first meat printing startup, MeaTech (trading as Meat-Tech 3D Ltd), is developing technology for printing cultured steak.

The IPO comes on the heels of $5.5 million in venture funding raised earlier this year, including a $3 million funding round raised this summer. According to the company, they plan on using the IPO funds to continue developing its technology, which is unique in that it both prints and cooks the meat simultaneously.

From The Spoon’s earlier post on SavorEat:

SavorEat’s technology prints and cooks simultaneously, which allows the company’s printers to make a fully cooked piece of 3D printed meat like you might see produced by a futuristic appliance like that in the TV show Upload.

The food comes out “ready to be eaten,” said Racheli Vizman, company CEO. “We’re printing one layer, then we cook one layer, print one layer, cook one layer. So at the end, you get something that’s ready to be consumed.”

I caught up with Vizman via email to ask her about why she decided to take SavorEat public. You can see her answers below:

Why did you decide to go IPO vs. raise venture funding for more financing? 

Vizman: Going IPO has some additional advantages, such as the recognition of the potential we have as a company in the local ecosystem as well as the potential of the foodtech market, this brings a lot of new growing and business opportunities locally and globally, access to capital in the future and the money we raised will help us to continue to develop our technology, product and market penetration.

How big a deal is it to be publicly traded in Israel? In the US, it takes quite a bit of work in advance to prepare for an IPO for NASDAQ or the NYSE. 

Vizman: Since I have experience in preparing for an IPO in Nasdaq (in Beyond Air), the requirement are more or less similar while the timeframe in TASE is shorter. Putting this aside, it is a very big deal on its own as there have been just a very few IPOs in TASE in the past year, being one of this few showcases the importance of the company’s activity for the local market. 

What do you plan to do with the money? 

Vizman: To boost the development activities, adding additional pilots testing and support commercialization. We are also in the stage in which we are looking for global partnerships (with a focus on the US market) and we hope this recognition of TASE will boost that as well.

Is being public similar to the US where you have to report financial results every quarter? 

Vizman: Yes it is more or less similar but for medium size companies we need to report every 6 months

Beyond Meat Launches Minced Pork Product in China

Beyond Meat debuted its new plant-based pork product made specifically for the Chinese market yesterday, according to a report in Green Queen. Called Beyond Pork, the new offering is minced and meant to be used in a variety of Asian dishes including dumplings, spring rolls and on ramen.

Beyond Pork will be available at a number of different Shanghai restaurants including Egg, RAC and Solo X for a limited time between now and November 24.

The unveiling of Beyond Pork comes just days after Beyond announced the next versions of its signature Beyond Meat burger patty here in the U.S. But it’s also just the latest in a series of moves the company has made to expand into China. The company has signed deals to get on the menus of Starbucks, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut in China, as well as on retail shelves at Alibaba stores. More importantly, however, Beyond is building two production facilities in China (one of which is near Shanghai) that will go into full production next year.

But Beyond is going to be the away team in this particular game to get plant-based pork into the hands of Chinese consumers. Omnipork, which is operated by Hong Kong-based Green Monday, already has a number of plant-based pork products at market in China.

Plant-based pork is coming at an auspicious time. China is the world’s largest consumer of pork, but the country has been battling outbreaks of swine fever over the past two years reducing domestic herd counts and driving up prices. Plant-based meat products like those from Beyond and Omnipork can sidestep those issues.

Beyond Meat Launches Two New Versions of its Plant-Based Burger

Beyond Meat announced today two new iterations of its plant-based burger, with one version offering a more “meaty” experience and the other being a more nutritious version of it burger, according to the press release.

The new patties don’t have their own dedicated brand names, and in the press announcement are just described by their characteristics. One of the new patties, the juicier/meatier one, will have 35 percent less saturated fat than 80/20 beef. The other new burger, which is being billed as the Beyond’s most nutritious patty yet, will have 55 percent less saturated fat than 80/20 beef. Both new burgers will launch in “early 2021.”

Beyond hinted that this news was coming during its earnings report last week. On that call, Beyond CEO, Ethan Brown, said that its “Beyond Burger 3.0” would make the current version of Beyond “obsolete.”

As a quick aside, this use of “obsolete” is interesting. A little more than a year ago I wrote that as companies like Beyond and Impossible Foods continue to tweak their recipes, food was becoming more like software. From that piece:

The new version of Beyond Meat (and the sister product, Beyond Beef ground) is so much better than the first version. At least for meat eaters and flexitarians who were looking for something like meat, but less ethically and environmentally complicated. As Beyond and Impossible spend more on research and development, they will uncover new ingredients, new combinations and new manufacturing techniques to make their products even better and tastier.

The same can’t be said for traditional animal meat. Sure, there will be varying degrees of quality, but beef is going to always taste and feel like beef, chicken like chicken and pork like pork. The cow (or pig or chicken) is not going to become a different animal.

In other words, this new Beyond Burger 3.0 will one day too, become obsolete. And, there are chances that Beyond will develop the “New Coke” of burgers that people may not like as much. Something to keep an eye on, anyway.

Beyond has been on a product tear this year, debuting plant-based sausage patties, sausage links and meatballs. Oh, and it also helped McDonald’s create its new McPlant sandwich, though the exact details of that relationship remain cloudy.

The timing is certainly right for all these moves. Sales of plant-based meats are on the rise, and were pushed even higher thanks to the pandemic. As a result, both Beyond and Impossible have been in a bit of a back and forth throughout the year, releasing new products, launching D2C channels, vastly expanding at retail and growing internationally.

Given all the back-and-forth, will Impossible announce new iterations to its burgers? The year isn’t over yet…

Muji Releases a Line of Shelf-Stable Plant-Based Meat Items

U.S.-based fans of Muji largely know the brand as a home goods store. But in other countries, including Muji’s home base of Japan, consumers can also purchase a variety of food and beverage items, making the brand more akin to IKEA than just another housewares store. Add plant-based protein to that list of edible goods one can purchase, as the company just released four soy-based dishes meant to take the place of regular ol’ meat.

The products are available right now to Muji customers in Japan via both the company’s brick-and-mortar stores and its website. Dishes include plant-based versions of a burger, minced meat, meatballs, and a thinly sliced meat. All products come ready to serve and are shelf stable, so they can be stored at room temperature and need no additional hydration. They cost roughly $2.75 USD per pack.

Muji hasn’t yet said if there will be an international expansion. Though given the company’s geographical reach at this point — the brand is in 35 countries — an overseas expansion would not come as a surprise.

International expansion also makes sense given the sheer demand right now for plant-based proteins. Global demand for plant-based protein options is on the rise, and some estimates expect the market to be worth $17.9 billion by 2025. 

That growth is happening around the globe. In Asia, Omnipork parent Green Monday just raised $70 million, and both Just Eat and Impossible — major alt-protein players in the U.S. — are opening production facilities in that region. Both Impossible and Beyond also released direct-to-consumer e-commerce ventures this year. Further south, Chile-based NotCo just expanded to the U.S., while over in Australia, V2food just raised $55 million. Those developments are a sampling of all the recent activity, which shows no signs of slowing down. 

Muji’s news is another example of plant-based protein’s reach not just geographically but also in terms of the types of settings in which consumers can now purchase these goods. Not so long ago, plant-based proteins were largely the territory of QSRs. Now they’ve infiltrated every type of restaurant, along with grocery stores, wholesale retailers, and chains like Muji that sell much more than food items.  

Vive La Veggie Burger! EU Says Plant-Based Meats Can Keep Their Name

There’s good news for European vege- and flexitarians! Instead of having to order and shop for veggie “discs” and “tubes” they can order veggie burgers and sausages.

The European Parliament today rejected a proposal from the EU agriculture committee submitted last year to ban the use of meat labels like “burger” and “sausage” on similar plant-based substitutes. Proponents of the legislation believed that terms like “burger” on veggie products would cause confusion in the marketplace. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and you don’t have to shop for plant-based “pucks.”

We’re having our own labeling fight here in the U.S., where a number of states have put forward their own legislation banning plant-based products from using terms like burger and meat. Mississippi, one of the states advancing the restrictive re-naming agenda, wound up easing its policies, allowing terms like “veggie burger” to be used.

These labeling laws seem meant to stifle competition, especially at a time when sales of plant-based meats are on the rise. As we wrote last year:

Big Meat trying to quash alterna-meats’ popularity by telling companies how they can or can’t label themselves feels protectionist and ineffective, not to mention desperate, at this point. After all, the flexitarian movement is gaining strength not because consumers are unclear about whether the burgers they’re buying are made from plants or beef; rather, it’s bolstered by growing environmental and ethical concerns, health reasons, or because meatless meat is a media darling.

Since the time of that writing, the pandemic sparked a surge in sales of plant-based meat, and illuminated the ethical and logistical shortcomings of our existing traditional meat processing infrastructure. And with companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat rapidly expanding their retail presence across the country, the innovation and mainstreaming of plant-based burgers and hot dogs could quickly outpace any legislation aiming to curb it.

That doesn’t mean existing entities won’t try to inhibit plant-based alternatives. It wasn’t all good labeling news in Europe today. While you can order veggie burgers, the EU Parliament also imposed stricter rules for dairy substitutes, saying even the terms such as “milk-like” cannot be used on dairy-free products.

Beyond Meat Serves Up New Sausage Links

Beyond Meat announced today the launch of its new plant-based Breakfast Sausage Links. The new breakfast food will be available a grocers nationwide starting this month and cost $5.99 for a package of eight links.

Plant-based meat sales have enjoyed a boom during this global pandemic. COVID-19 not only has people eating at home more, it’s also highlighted limitations and ethical problems with traditional animal meat production.

Beyond has certainly kept busy during the pandemic, rolling out a number of new products throughout the past seven months. The company debuted its sausage patties, repackaged its burgers into a bulk offering, launched a direct-to-consumer sales channel, kicked off another plant-based chicken pilot with KFC in southern California, and debuted a line of meatballs.

Not to be outdone, Beyond rival Impossible Foods has been busy as well launching its own sausage, it’s own D2C channel as vastly ramping up its retail presence.

As I’ve written before, I’m a big fan of the Beyond sausage patties (FWIW, the rest of my family scarfs them down as well). However, I’m a little more leery of something like a Beyond sausage link. I prefer Beyond products as part of something more than as a standalone item. So a sausage patty sandwich with egg and cheese is delicious. But Beyond’s bratwurst just on its own is… fine, though not my favorite. I’m curious to see if the links will change my mind.

Regardless, I find that I’m doing exactly what both Beyond and Impossible want: eating less meat. And as both companies continue to roll out a wider variety of products, I don’t think that I will be going back.

Sustainable Food Ventures, a Rolling Fund for Alt-Protein, Launches on AngelList

Impact investor and Wild Earth CEO Ryan Bethencourt and Finless Foods’ former head of science Mariliis Holm unveiled this week a new fund for early-stage founders working in the alternative protein space. Sustainable Food Ventures (SFV) is the first rolling fund on the AngelList platform and will work with cell-based, plant-based, and recombinant companies. The Plant CEO podcast was first to break the news.

The fund specifically looks for young CPG companies working in the cell, plant, and recombinant spaces to make food products more sustainable and better for the planet. SFV clearly states on its website that it does not invest in companies involved with animal agriculture.

As Bethencourt and Holm discussed on the Plant CEO podcast, SFV is a rolling fund, where investments are are made each quarter of the year rather than as a single lump sum. Bethencourt said this approach is “democratizing access to earlier stage investments” because it allows individual investors to contribute smaller amounts of money to a company (e.g., $10,000). Previously, there was “no vehicle” in which to contribute these small amounts.

“I think it’s going to be a huge game-changer for founders who would like to do more to help their fellow founders,” he said. For example, Dr. Sandhya Sriram, cofounder and CEO of Shiok Meats, is already committed to the fund.

The fund will also look for what Bethencourt and Holm call “under-appreciated founders”—that is, women, minorities, and those who don’t fit the age range or geographic location of the average tech startup founder. SFV itself is based in North Carolina, not the typical location for a tech startup.

So far, SFV’s fund has over $1.5 million committed for this quarter and aims to reach a total fund size between $6 million and $10 million over the next year. The fund will invest between $50,000 and $150,000 into each company. 

Both Bethencourt and Holm have a long history in the food tech world. Outside of Wild Earth, Bethencourt has backed  numerous early-stage startups including Shiok Meats, The NotCo, Geltor, and Memphis Meats. Holmes co-founded alt-protein company Nonfood before her work at Finless Foods.

Daring Receives $8 Million For Expansion, New Product To Launch Soon

Daring , which makes plant-based chicken pieces, announced today that it raised an $8 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Maveron, with participation from goodFriends, Stray Dog Capital, PalmTree Crew Investments. Private investors include Mike Smith (CFO of Stitch Fix) and Brian Swette (former Chair of Burger King). To date, Daring has roughly raised $12 million in funding.

I spoke on the phone with Ross Mackay, CEO and co-founder of Daring, this week, who told me the funding will be put towards marketing efforts, and used to grow the Daring team. Additionally, the money will assist in their new product launch of plant-based breaded chicken pieces, which will be released next month. 

The chicken pieces are made from soy protein, as well as sunflower oil and a spice blend. Soy is not necessarily a unique ingredient in the plant-based space, but Mackay emphasized that their product is unique due to its “clean label” and simple ingredients. Daring chicken is made with non-GMO ingredients, and their current chicken flavors include original, cajun, and lemon herb. 

Mackay said on our call that many plant-based meat companies are focusing on creating red meat alternative products, but Daring is “laser-like focused” on plant-based chicken products. Plant-based beef does get a lot of attention, however, there are several other companies that make plant-based chicken products. Rebellyous Foods and Nuggs both make plant-based chicken nuggets, and UK-based THIS creates chicken pieces and nuggets. Beyond Meat partnered with KFC this summer to release plant-based chicken sandwiches at 50 locations through Southern California.

Daring chicken is available direct-to-consumer on the company’s website starting at $29.99 for a 32oz pouch, and also in Sprouts Farmers Markets. Starting October 1st, Daring’s chicken will be made available in Gelson’s Markets, Bristol Farms, and Fresh Thymes Marketplace. Daring has also partnered with Just Salad, located on the East Coast, and the plant-based chicken pieces will soon be launched in 36 of its locations.

 Disclaimer: I work as an independent scout for Stray Dog Capital and was not aware of Stray Dog Capital’s investment prior to the press release. Stray Dog’s participation did not influence the reporting of this story.

Beyond Meat Launches New Plant-Based Meatballs

Beyond Meat announced today that it has launched Beyond Meatballs, a new line of pre-formed and pre-seasoned plant-based meatballs that will be available at select grocers nationwide starting this week.

According to the press announcemt, Beyond’s new meatballs, which are derived from peas and brown rice have:

  • 19g of plant-based protein
  • 30 percent less saturated fat and sodium than leading brands of animal-based meatballs
  • No cholesterol, antibiotics or hormones

Beyond said this is the company’s third new retail product launch for this year, but really it’s more like two and a half. The company launched its plant-based sausage at retail in March, then launched its Cookout Classic in June, but the latter was really a bulk re-packaging of its existing burgers.

The addition of meatballs is more of a convenience play. Sure, you could make your own plant-based meatballs by forming them out of the ground Beyond Meat. But that takes more work. Having meatballs ready to go for a sandwich or spaghetti is a smart way to diversify your flexitarian menu-planning options.

Beyond’s announcement today also continues the rapid back and forth announcements that have gone on all summer long between Beyond and its main rival, Impossible Foods. As I wrote earlier, most of the announcements from the two plant-based giants have been about scale and not entirely new lines of products (i.e., new kinds of plant-based meat) and these Beyond Meatballs continue that trend.

The Beyond Meatballs will hit retailers such as Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Kroger and Albertsons across the U.S. this week and continue rolling out through October. They will have a suggested retail price of $6.99 for 12 meatballs.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post said that the meatballs would be available in early October.

Chinese Start-Up Hey Maet Scores Investment And Partnership

Hey Maet, makers of pea protein-based meat alternatives, announced yesterday that it received investment from and secured a partnership with Shuangta Food (tip of the hat to Green Queen). The investment amount was not disclosed.

Hey Maet will use this investment towards R&D and opening a food laboratory in Shanghai. Hey Maet employs food scientists from MIT, UC Berkely, and the University of Helsinki to create a diversity of meat alternatives such as faux beef cubes, minced pork, sausages, and even burgers and nuggets for the Westerner’s palate. The main ingredients in its products are pea protein, soy, and rice protein.

Yesterday was a busy day for plant-based meat as Beyond Meat made the announcement that it will soon launch two production facilities near Shanghai to facilitate further expansion throughout China. In a bit of a twist, Shuangta supplies pea protein to both Hey Maet and Beyond Meat. Needless to say, Shuangta’s investment in Hey Maet will make it intriguing to see how these two companies compete in China’s plant-based market.

Beyond Meat and Hey Maet are not the only players that recognize China as a booming market for plant-based animal protein alternatives. Eat Just has launched products in the Chinese market, Omnipork is rapidly expanding into retailers throughout China, and Nestlé plans to open a plant-based meat factory near Beijing. 

In addition to Shuangta Foods, Hey Maet also received funding from from Shenzhen Tiantu Capital and UpHonest Capital. Hey Maet plans on launching into thousands of restaurants and working with caterers throughout China by the end of this year.