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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based meat

Beyond Meat Will Build Production Facilities in China

Beyond Meat announced today that it will build two production facilities in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, near Shanghai. According to a recent announcement from Beyond, this is the first time a fully plant-based, foreign company has expanded its facilities to China.

Beyond Meat already has roots in China; this year it launched its plant-based beef product in over 3,300 Starbucks throughout the country. Additionally, the company debuted a limited-time trial run of its plant-based burgers in several KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut franchises throughout China at the beginning of summer.

China’s meat supply chain was greatly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused mass shortages and price inflation. China is an animal protein-hungry country with a growing population, and disruptions in the meat supply chain open up an opportunity for Beyond Meat to offer its plant-based alternatives to the country. Beyond Meat will face competition from already established plant-based meat companies in China, Omnipork and Starfield among them.

China and the U.S. are not the only markets that Beyond Meat has penetrated. Earlier this summer, the company acquired a new production site and opened a co-manufacturing facility in the Netherlands. Additionally, Beyond Meat is available in major Canadian grocery stores and has also recently launched a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site (that only serves the U.S., however).

Demand for plant-based meat alternatives us certainly not limited to one area of the world. The global plant-based meat market is expected to grow to be worth 4.2 billion by 2021, and Beyond isn’t the only major player in plant-based proteins expanding internationally. Eat JUST has several global partnerships at work, and Impossible Foods just announced today it is expanding into Canada.

The future Beyond Meat facilities in China will produce plant-based beef, pork, and chicken alternatives under the Beyond Meat brand. The facilities are expected to reach full-scale production by early 2021.

OmniPork Launches in Retailers Throughout China

OmniPork, producers of plant-based pork products in Asia, announced this week that it will be launching in 210 stores across China (h/t Vegconomist). This decision to expand comes after the recent supply disruptions and inflation of pork in China.

Pork is the most consumed meat in both China and worldwide. OmniPork produces plant-based pork-inspired products such as ground meat, luncheon meat, strips, stuffed buns, dumplings, and prepared meals. On top of the recent disruption and price inflation in the pork industry, China experienced a major outbreak of African Swine Flu in 2019 that devastated the world’s largest swine herd. All of these factors are converging to create a void for OmniPork’s plant-based pork products to fill.

COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in supply chains throughout the world. However, companies in the plant-based space have seen an advantage to these disruptions. Data shows that after the peak of panic-buying food in March, plant-based foods continued to outpace total food retail sales. Plant-based producers are not exposed to animal-spread disease risks, like African Swine Flu. Slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants require a more hands-on approach and workers to be closer together for efficiency, thus increasing the risk for the spread of COVID-19. Plant-based facilities have the benefit of being more automated and workers are able to spread out further apart.

This summer, the Chinese fast-food chain, JiXiang Wonton, released an OmniPork’s wonton in 500 of its locations in ShangHai. Within a week, many locations were sold out of the product, and JiXiang Wonton announced it will soon release OmniPork’s wonton in all of its locations throughout China. The rest of OmniPork’s products will soon be released in supermarket chains throughout Hong Kong and mainland China.

Beyond Meat Now Sells Directly to Consumers

Beyond Meat announced today that it has launched a new e-commerce site that allows consumers to buy the company’s plant-based beef and sausage products directly from the company.

The store is open to people in the contiguous U.S., and features two-day shipping for all orders. From the press announcement, items sold on the site include:

  • Burgers & Beef Combo Pack – A carton of 10 Beyond Burger patties and two 1lb. packages of Beyond Beef ($54.99)
  • Brats & Beef Combo Pack – A carton of 10 Beyond Sausage Original Brat links and two 1lb. packages of Beyond Beef ($59.99)
  • Beef Bulk Pack – Six 1lb. packages of Beyond Beef ($71.99)
  • Breakfast Sausage Variety Pack – One 22-count carton of Classic Beyond Breakfast Sausage and one 22-count carton of Spicy Beyond Breakfast Sausage ($54.99)
  • Go Beyond Trial Pack – One package of Beyond Burgers (two 4oz patties), one package of Beyond Beef (1lb.), one package of Beyond Sausage Original Brat (four links) and one package of Classic Beyond Breakfast Sausage (six patties) ($49.99) 

Beyond mentioned the new D2C channel in June, when it launched bulk packaging of its burgers, so today’s news is not surprising. Nor is it surprising in the broader, competitive context of the plant-based meat sector. Earlier this summer, Beyond’s big rival, Impossible Foods launched its own D2C channel through which it sells its own plant-based burgers in bulk.

The timing is right for both of these companies to go directly to consumers. Sales of plant-based meat have taken off during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted inequities and inefficiencies in our traditional meat supply chain. The pandemic has also pushed people into record levels of grocery e-commerce, so buying something like plant-based meat online no longer seems like a foreign concept for many.

In addition to this D2C rivalry, it has been an incredible active summer in for both Beyond and Impossible overall. Beyond Meat has done multiple deals with restaurant chains in China, and launched a second plant-based chicken pilot with KFC in California. For its part, Impossible has raised $200 million, vastly expanded its U.S. retail presence and launched its plant-based sausage in earnest to restaurants around the country.

While summer was certainly a hot time for plant-based meats, don’t expect things to cool off in the sector any time soon. Both companies are expanding their product lines and will continue to expand their retail footprints.

Lever VC Launches Alt-Protein Fund for Early-Stage Companies

Alt-protein-focused venture capital firm Lever VC announced this week that it has launched a new fund targeting early stage plant- and cell-based protein companies. The Lever VC Fund I currently has $23 million in capital commitments, according to a company press release. 

Lever’s partners had previously invested in Beyond Meat, Impossible, Memphis Meats, and other notable alt-protein companies. Managing Partner Nick Cooney also founded the Good Food Institute, a non-profit for alternative protein companies.

Speaking this week to Food Navigator, Cooney said Lever’s new fund is doing 20 to 25 early stage investments that have so far been between $200,000 and “close to $1m.” He added that Lever tracks alt-protein companies in a proprietary database.

“For us as a sector specialist fund, we have the ability to really look across the board to identify the companies that are exciting but also have a valuation that makes sense from a risk return perspective,” he said. 

Lever has already invested roughly $5 million across 10 companies. Those companies include TurtleTree Labs, which makes cell-cultured human breastmilk, and Mission Barns, a company that recently made headlines for its cell-based bacon. Better Meat Co., GOOD PLANet Foods, The Good Spoon, and Bond Pet Foods, Avant, Grounded, Marvelous Foods, and A Dozen Cousins.

Globally, investment in alternative protein has already reached $1.1 billion in 2020 so far, which is almost double the total investment number for all of 2019. The pandemic is partly responsible for this huge uptick in interest in the category as consumers rethink their reliance on animal-based meats and dairy items. The entire market for alternative protein is expected to grow to $17.9 billion by 2025.

Lever said in today’s press release that it will continue to invest in early-stage companies working in the alt-protein space and remains open to additional investors until the Fund’s final close.

Impossible Foods Raises Another $200 Million

Plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods announced yesterday that it raised another $200 million in funding. According to TechCrunch, the new round was led by tech-focused hedge fund Caotue with participation from XN, another hedge fund. This brings Impossible’s total funding raised so far to $1.5 billion.

This new cash follows a $500 million round of funding Impossible secured in March of this year to weather global volatility (read: impending pandemic at the time). But the company has certainly been spending its money. This has been an, errr, impossibly busy summer for the company. Just since June, Impossible has:

Phew! Hopefully that new money is paying people overtime.

The funding also comes during a time when the global pandemic is highlighting ethical and logistical issues with the animal-based meat supply. That in turn has led to a soaring demand of plant-based meat. As illustrated by the list above, Impossible has clearly been able to scale up production to meet that demand.

Impossible’s main rival, Beyond Meat, has also been busy this summer with China deals, as well as piloting a new plant-based chicken at KFC. The company has also said it will launch its own direct-to-consumer channel at some point in the future.

Impossible said that it will use the new funding to develop new lines of products such as steak and milk, and will continue to build out its manufacturing.

Report: Plant-based Meat Sales Increased 23 Percent When Sold Next to Real Meat

Sales of plant-based meat products increased 23 percent when those products were sold in the same department as traditional meat, according to a newly released study from the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) and Kroger.

The study ran from December 2019 to February 2020 in 60 Kroger test stores across three states: Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana. Plant-based meat products were placed “in a three-foot set within the meat department,” according to the study. 

Results varied by region. In the Midwest stores, where widespread adoption of plant-based meat is only just beginning to catch, sales were up 32 percent. Stores in the Denver, CO area, which the study says “already had a high concentration of plant-based consumers,” saw a 13 percent increase.

Other notable stats from the study include:

  • Shoppers purchasing a wider variety of plant-based meats increased by 33%
  • Shoppers increased their number of purchase occasions by 34%.

This rise in purchases of plant-based meat products isn’t too surprising, given the recent overall spike in demand. But retailers are still determining which section of the grocery store plant-based meat products belong in, and depending on where you go, they could be int he vegan section, with the organic meat products, or with regular ol’ Big Meat. 

Despite demand, plant-based companies have gotten pushback over the last year or so from Big Meat over labeling their products as “meat.” In 2019, the PBFA actually sued Mississippi over the state’s restrictive labeling rules, which originally prevented plant-based meat companies from using terms like “burger” or “hot dog.” Those laws were overturned in Mississippi, but Arkansas, Missouri, and other states have passed similar legislation. What labeling laws are in any given state will inevitably affect where plant-based products wind up in the grocery store.

Of course the debate of where to put plant-based meats may be rendered less important if current trends in grocery shopping continue. Online shopping is still popular, and the uptick in coronavirus cases may ensure it stays high for some time longer. At the same time, leading plant-based meat companies like Impossible and Beyond have launched or are planning to launch direct-to-consumer sites. Though to be honest, you’d have to be a pretty dedicated fan of those products to take the time to buy in bulk directly. For plant-based meat companies looking to reach newer flexitarians and casually curious consumers, the grocery store aisle — and specifically the meat aisle — remains their best bet.

Karana Raises $1.7M to Develop ‘Pork’ Products From Jackfruit

Singapore-based Karana announced today it has closed a $1.7 million seed round to further develop its plant-based meat products, the first of which are derived from jackfruit. The round was led by Big Idea Ventures, Monde Nissin Corp CEO Henry Soesanto, and Germi8, along with angel investors Kevin Poon and Gerald Li.

Karana says it will use the funding to launch its pork product made from jackfruit in restaurants in Asia, and to further its research and development around jackfruit and other plants as meat substitutes. 

Jackfruit makes a good alternative ingredient for pork products because it can be cooked and shredded like the real thing. If prepared the right way, it can mimic the textures of pork (or in some cases chicken), which is a key element to get right when it comes to plant-based proteins. The plant is native to India and also grows in Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America. 

Karana says it uses a proprietary “innovative mechanical technique” to process the fruit, while retaining its nutritional profile and other health benefits. In other words, Karana’s products aren’t as highly processed as, say Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers or Beyond’s patties.

Karana cofounder Blair Crichton made mention of that point to AgFunder today, saying, “There are plenty of consumers — myself included — that really like those other products on the market, but don’t want to eat a heavily processed burger or sausage every day.” Substitutes derived from jackfruit are one possible alternative.

Karana’s funding announcement lands in what’s been a very busy week for alternative proteins. Since Tuesday of this week, cell-based meat companies IntegriCulture and Shiok Meats announced a new partnership, Motif FoodWorks said it is doubling down on its quest to find the perfect alt-meat texture, and fake chicken company NUGGS raised $4.1 million. In the alt-dairy space, Perfect Day made its own funding announcement, the expansion of its Series C round to $300 million. Meanwhile, sales of plant-based meat in general have gone up since the start of the pandemic, thanks in no small part to meat shortage scares and panic shopping sprees.

Karana’s choice of plant-based pork as its first product is a wise bet. Pork is the most widely consumed meat in Asia, but between the aforementioned pandemic-induced problems with meat supply and calls from Asian governments to cut meat consumption, the time is ripe for plant-based alternatives.

Fake Chicken Co. NUGGS Raises $4.1M, Rebrands as Simulate, Adds DOGGS to its Lineup

NUGGS, the company behind the plant-based chicken nuggets of the same name, announced a bunch of things this morning including: It’s rebranding its parent company name to Simulate, it has raised an addition $4.1 million and it is developing a new spicy version of its NUGGS as well as a line of DOGGS (faux hot dogs).

That’s a lot to parse, so we’ll go through it line by line.

Re-branding from NUGGS to Simulate makes sense, especially since the company is expanding its product line in to non-nugget foods. Having a broader corporate name allows it to venture into more categories without any confusion. Plus, who wants to say they work for a company called NUGGS?

The new funding came from Lerer Hippeau, AgFunder, Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Walter Robb (former CEO of Whole Foods), and Jasmine Tookes (a model). This cash expansion brings the total amount of funding raised by NUG–, err, Simulate to $11 million.

Simulate will need the money because the fake chicken nugget space getting crowded. In addition to NUGGS, which made the move into retail this March, rival nuggets maker Rebellyous has also started to sell through grocery stores. Big meat company Tyson launched its line of Raised and Rooted plant-based nuggets in stores last year. And there are the existing stalwarts like Morningstar and Quorn.

Given all that competition, Simulate’s addition of new product lines like DOGGS isn’t that surprising. Besides, sales of plant-based foods have been on the rise over the past two years, so diversifying its product line to nab a bigger piece of that faux meat pie seems like a good idea.

SavorEat Plans to Build an Appliance For The Home That Prints & Cooks Meat

“That’s our goal,” said Vizman when I caught up with her via a zoom call. “Where we can also have, next to a microwave, we can have machines that you know can create variety of products.”

But to get there, first her company is working on building a product that can print and cook food instantly for a large quick service food chains, starting with one of the biggest in Israel, BBB (Burgus Burger Bar).

“We are about to start this testing it in their facility within a year, while we believe that we will be commercialize it in a larger scale two years from closing the financial round that we are now running.”

That financial round Vizman is looking to close is a $3.5 million seed round led by a company called Next Food, an Israel based food tech investment fund. Next Food led SavorEat’s pre-seed round of $1.75 million.

3D printed meat has gained momentum over the past couple years, especially, it seems, in Israel. SavorEat joins two other venture funded Israel based 3D meat printing startups in Redefine Meat (formerly Jet Eat) and Meatech, a company which prints cultured meat cells into steak.

Two things set SavorEat’s technology apart from those and other 3D meat printing startups. The first is the company’s binder, which is a proprietary plant-based cellulose. The cellulose is combined with other ingredients such as plant-based fats and protein to make the final product.

“We’re using the cellulose to bind a variety of fats and proteins and other tastes and flavors and combine a very stable emulsion,” said Vizman.

The other big differentiator for SavorEat’s technology is that it 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 Vizman. “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.”

This print and cook technology, according to Vizman, will give the cook a high degree of precision of over the final print.

“The nice thing about that is that you can also control the way you cook it. You can decide whether you want it medium, you want in rare, well done. How you want to cook it in the you want to grill it from the inside and rare from the outside.”

The company’s technology was invented by Oded Shoseyov, a serial inventor and entrepreneur who spends much of his time spinning out new ideas from his research lab at Hebrew University. Shoseyov is SavorEat’s chief science officer. Shoseyov and Vizman are joined by other executives from companies like Stratasys (3D printing) and IFF/Frutarom (flavors).

The full interview with Vizman, where we go in depth on the company and its technology, can be read below if you are a Spoon Plus subscriber. Find more information here about subscribing to Spoon Plus. 

Beyond Meat Arrives at Alibaba Stores in China

Beyond Meat continues its expansion in China, this time into the retail sector. The company is bringing its Beyond Burgers to Alibaba’s Heme supermarkets, first in Shanghai, then elsewhere in the country later this year, according to TechCrunch. 

Beyond debuted in China earlier this year with a Starbucks partnership, selling its plant-based meat products in cafes across the country. Availability of Beyond products expanded to the Yum China empire, where they were at Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell for a limited time.

The company’s arrival in Alibaba stores is its first foray into retail in China. Though it makes sense. China has the world’s largest population and is also the world’s largest consumer of meat. The Chinese government has been urging citizens for some time now to cut down their meat consumption, which makes China a lucrative market for plant-based meat products.

This move is also the latest salvo in what has been a busy few months of back-and-forth expansion news for both Beyond and its main plant-based rival, Impossible Foods. Impossible launched a direct-to-consumer sales channel at the beginning of June. Shortly after, Beyond released bulk packaging that narrowed the price gap between its burgers and traditional meat. Beyond also announced plans for its own D2C site, which has yet to launch. Then earlier this week, Impossible announced that its Impossible Sausage is now available to all restaurants in the U.S. 

This latest deal with Alibaba helps bolster Beyond’s foothold in China. Impossible is not yet in Chinese markets, though the company has suggested in the past it plans to eventually launch products there. As demand for plant-based meat offerings has surged since the start of the global pandemic, it’s a safe bet to expect the back-and-forth news from both companies to continue throughout the year.

Redefine Meat Announces High Volume 3D Printing For Plant-Based Steaks

Redefine Meat announced today it has achieved the ability to produce its 3D printed, plant-based steaks using high-production industrial-level 3D printing capabilities.

This new capability, which the company says allows them to now print up to 50 steaks an hour, will help company roll out its 3D printed steaks to select restaurants in Europe this fall for market tests as it prepares for a broader rollout of its industrial 3D meat printers to meat distributors in 2021.

Redefine’s plant-based steak is printed from three different ingredient packs which company calls ‘Alt-Fat’, ‘Alt-Muscle’ and ‘Alt-Blood.’ According to the company, they have mapped out 70 sensorial parameters that allow its printers to control texture, juiciness, fat distribution and mouthfeel.

“By using separate formulations for muscle, fat and blood, we can focus on each individual aspect of creating the perfect Alt-Steak product,” said company CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit in a release. “This is unique to our 3D printing technology and lets us achieve unprecedented control of what happens inside the matrix of alt-meat.”

When we spoke to Redefine last fall, at the time the company said printers cost up $100,000, but I’m guessing prices will come down slightly as they scale manufacturing of the hardware.

And while 50-steaks-per-hour production volume is certainly higher than early prototypes we’ve seen for plant-based meat production, it’s not quite industrial animal meat processing volume. As a result, the company’s printed steaks are currently only priced for higher end restaurants.

I’m hoping as the volume of production goes up and printer prices eventually drop, the price for the end user will come down enough for the company’s steak products to be sold outside of high-end restaurants at retail.

As part of the announcement, the company also announced a new partner in global flavor conglomerate Givaudan, who worked closely with the company in mapping the flavor components of the company’s Alt-Steak formulation.

Planterra’s Plant-based Meat Brand Ozo Hits Retail Store Shelves, E-Commerce

JBS-owned Planterra Foods announced this week it will launch its first Ozo product on grocery stores shelves in June, and will also make them available direct to consumers via its e-commerce site. To start, the brand will launch its burgers (two-4 oz patties), its Ground product (12 oz), and Mexican-Seasoned Ground (12 oz).

Colorado-based Planterra first announced Ozo in March of this year, saying the new line of plant-based products would include burgers, grounds, and meatballs. All Ozo products are a mix of pea protein and rice protein fermented with shiitake mycelia (root). 

According this week’s press release, Ozo products will hit store shelves in several different states:

Albertsons and Safeway locations in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming; Kroger* stores in 12 states (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee) and, as well as military bases across the country.

Customers will also be able to order Ozo’s meatless meat through the brand’s website and through Wild Fork Foods for customers in Florida.

And for those looking to try before they buy, Planterra is also sending out its own fleet of vans to offer curbside-pickup samples of its products during the rest of June. Those vans will make stops in Denver, Boulder, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Additional cities are planned for the next 12 months, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Nashville, among others. Finally, “special deliveries will be made to fire stations, hospitals and other locations to serve frontline workers this summer,” according to the company press release.

Selling meatless meat directly to consumers is fast becoming a standard trend for companies, particularly with the restaurant industry — formerly a key channel for plant-based products — still in the throes of its pandemic-induced upheaval. Earlier this month, Impossible launched a direct-to-consumer channel for its “bleeding” meat products that’s available to anyone in the lower 48 states. Its chief competitor Beyond followed with an announcement of its own forthcoming D2C store, which is slated to launch at some point this summer. 

Meanwhile, demand for plant-based meat keeps rising, thanks in no small part to panic buying sprees and meat shortage scares, and online grocery shopping has hit record numbers in the last couple months. That makes now an ideal time to launch direct-to-consumer stores, and also to get new meat alternatives onto store shelves across the country.

It’s unclear if the demand for online grocery shopping will keep now that economies are reopening, so Planterra’s Ozo shop, not to mention those of other plant-based retailers, may or may not be a hit. That said, Ozo’s website says products can be stored frozen for up to 60 days, so flexitarians wanting to stock up may find a D2C e-commerce site a convenient addition to their online shopping.