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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based

McDonalds in Israel to Start Selling Nestlé’s Meatless Incredible Burger

Back in April McDonald’s in Germany began selling the Big Vegan TS, a plant-based burger made with Nestlé’s Incredible patty. In his piece on the news, author Chris asked: “will Nestlé be able to replicate this type of McDonald’s deal quickly and establish a stronghold in Europe before Beyond and Impossible can make a meaningful leap across the Atlantic?”

It’s looking more and more like the answer will be yes. Yesterday the Israeli publication Globes reported that McDonald’s Israel will start selling its own meatless burger featuring Nestlé’s Incredible patties. Called the Big Vegan, it will start off as a pilot in several locations in Tel Aviv in roughly six weeks. Pricing has not yet been revealed.

Switzerland-based Nestlé seems to be doing very well establishing itself in fast-food restaurants in Europe. What’s not as clear is if it will be able to break into the same market across the Atlantic. Nestlé is launching its plant-based Awesome burger in retail under its Sweet Earth brand this fall. Will there be an Awesome Big Mac in our future?

Probably not anytime soon. The U.S. contingent of its current fast food partner, McDonald’s, isn’t quite sold on plant-based meat yet. At its annual shareholder meeting last month, McDonald’s global chief marketing officer and menu director Silvia Lagnado said that the company was monitoring meat alternative options but didn’t yet have any plans to announce. “We obviously have to assess whether consumer demand [would be at a] level we believe would be sustained,” she said.

The consumer demand is certainly there right now. Chains like Del Taco, Burger King, and White Castle have all seen a spike in foot traffic after introducing products featuring plant-based meat from Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat.

At the same time, McDonald’s is selling more regular burgers than ever. Last year the fast-food chain decided to switch from frozen to fresh beef, and reportedly sold 40 million more quarter pounders in the U.S. in Q1 than it did a year ago. Maybe McDonald’s is thinking if it ain’t broke, why make it meatless?

Nonetheless, the buzzing popularity of plant-based meat is getting harder and harder to ignore. More and more fast-food chains — from Qdoba to Carl’s Jr. — are embracing meat alternatives. Eventually I’m betting that the pressure to introduce vegan options will become so great that McDonald’s will give in and put a plant-based burger on its menu. The real question is whether it will be from Nestlé or another alt-meat player.

Watch Out, Beyond Meat? U.K.’s Meatless Farm is Heading to U.S. Whole Foods

Beyond Meat might have some competition coming in from across the pond.

Today news broke that Meatless Farm, a startup based in Leeds, U.K., will sell its products in U.S. Whole Foods stores for six months starting this summer. Founded in 2017, Meatless Farms makes plant-based burgers, ground “beef,” and sausages out of a mixture of pea, rice and soy protein. It currently sells its products in retailers in the U.K., Canada, the UAE, Sweden and Hong Kong.

Shares of Beyond Meat fell as much as 10 percent after the news got out. Clearly potential investors were worried about a new plant-based meat competitor swooping in and threatening Beyond’s retail foothold.

However, I’m not so sure Beyond has anything to worry about. Purely judging from the photos, Meatless Farm’s products don’t have the same trompe l’oeil qualities as Beyond’s beef-like burger patties. They also don’t have the same name recognition.

Most importantly, though, the plant-based meat market is not a zero-sum game. Beyond Meat’s retail success (and Impossible’s production struggles) go to show that consumer’s demand for alternative proteins is not a fleeting trend — it’s here to stay.

While Meatless Farm will certainly benefit from Beyond Meat’s work to take plant-based meat mainstream, the British startup is so small and new that I doubt it will steal any significant portion of their sales. Eventually, as more and more companies start to wake up to the alternative protein trend, the plant-based meat category will start to become pretty saturated. Then Beyond might start to sweat.

Or, you know, when Impossible hits retail shelves later this year.

Future Food: Is Fast Food’s Love Affair with Plant-Based Meat Going to Last?

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Whenever a musician, actor, or politician would go on the dearly departed satirical  show The Colbert Report, they would get something called “The Colbert Bump.” Host Stephen Colbert coined the term, which describes how his guests would experience an uptick in popularity/downloads/votes immediately after they appeared on the show.

Something similar is happening in fast food right now. After debuting a new plant-based meat item — usually featuring Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat — QSR’s are experiencing a bump in foot traffic and sales. So far we’ve seen it with Burger King, White Castle, and Del Taco.

Novelty is at least partially responsible. Consumers want to try these new meatless products that claim to taste — and even bleed — just like the real thing. The hype is spurred even further by the media frenzy around Beyond Meat’s still-climbing shares.

Once that novelty wears off, however, will people still keep coming back to Carl’s Jr. to try the Beyond Famous Star Burger, or return to White Castle to regularly order the Impossible Slider?

Certainly vegetarians and vegans will. By putting plant-based meat on the menu QSR’s are inviting in a whole new demographic that might not have been able to, or willing to, dine there before.

When it comes to flexitarians, however, the rate of return is less clear. Fast-food chains may be getting a lot of media buzz for embracing plant-based meat right now, which is helping them stand out from a crowded field where one burger combo is pretty much indistinguishable from any other. However, with the rapid pace of adoption, soon meatless meat will be commonplace for QSR’s (except for you, Arby’s).

Once all fast-food restaurants have rolled out their own plant-based options and consumers have given each of them a whirl, will meatless meats (and dairy, and eggs) stop being such a draw?

Seeing as the plant-based meat market is growing at 6.8 percent CAGR with no signs of slowing, I think there will still be plenty of consumers seeking out alternative proteins in fast-food. My guess is that the brand of plant-based meat will become more and more important; consumers might end up creating fast-food loyalties based off of their preference for Impossible, Beyond, or whatever other meatless brands make their way onto QSR menus (Nestlé, is that you?).

That’s a Whopper

Speaking of fast food and meatless meat, this week a San Francisco-based Spoon reader Tom G did what I did not (mea culpa!) and tried the new Impossible Whopper from Burger King. The plant-based patty launched in the Bay Area last week, the fifth region on the way to its nationwide rollout.

So what did he think? 

“It was good. Probably 85% of the way there,” Tom wrote.

A B+ ain’t bad. Interestingly, Tom noted that the Impossible Whopper had “a slightly artificial taste but since the Whoppers do already that’s ironically in their favor.” Some have complained about how plant-based meats are too filled with chemicals and heavily processed ingredients, but maybe that’s exactly what will make them such a good replacement for fast-food staples.

Photo: Allplants.

Protein new ’round the web

That’s it from me this week. I bought some cricket chips (cheddar flavor) on a whim, which are going to be my afternoon snack. I’ll report back.

Eat well,
Catherine

Beyond Beyond Meat: Which Companies Have Developed “Bleeding” Meatless Burgers?

When vegetarians went out to eat and ordered a veggie burger, even as recently as a few years ago they’d get a hardened puck of black beans or mish-mashed vegetables.

Now it’s a whole new world. Vegetarians and flexitarians alike can bring Beyond Burgers to backyard barbecues and order Impossible patties as a sub at local restaurants (if they’re in stock, that is).

Impossible and Beyond may be the two names that even most carnivores are familiar with, but they’re far from the only ones making plant-based burgers meant to look, grill, and even “bleed” like real beef. Should you want to venture — cough, beyond — here are a few other options in the grocery aisle.

Nestlé: The Incredible and Awesome Burger

Photo: Nestlé

Nestlé announced last December that it would be launching two meaty plant-based burgers over the next year. Launched under the Swiss giant’s Garden Gourmet brand, the Incredible Burger (in no way inspired by the Impossible Burger) became available in Europe this spring. It currently stars in the Big Vegan TS at McDonalds in Germany. Stateside, Nestlé plans to release the Awesome Burger under its Sweet Earth brand in the fall of this year.

Lightlife: The Plant-Based Burger

Lightlife’s plant-based ground “beef”

Earlier this year plant-based food brand Lightlife began selling its new plant-based burger, called… The Plant-Based Burger. Like Beyond Meat, Lightlife’s burger uses beets to get its red color. Interestingly, Lightlife (along with fellow vegan meat brand Field Roast) are owned by Maple Leaf Foods, a major Canadian meat processing company which recently announced it was building the largest plant-based protein factory in North America.

Dr. Praeger’s: The Perfect Burger

Photo: Dr. Praeger’s.

Natural food company Dr. Praeger’s just launched its new plant-based burger… today! Modestly called The Perfect Burger, it’s made of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots and beets (presumably for color). Dr. Praeger’s offering is significantly lower in fat and sodium than options from Beyond and Impossible, and is seemingly trying to position itself as a more wholesome, natural alternative to their heavily-processed patties. The Perfect Burger is currently available for foodservice and will soon roll out in retail.

Morningstar Farms: Meat Lovers Vegan Burgers

Photo: Morningstar Farms.

Though not quite as meaty-looking as any of the above, Morningstar Farms, a stalwart of vegan animal products, released the Meat Lovers Vegan Burger last year. It comes pre-cooked and doesn’t contain any beets to get that rosy color, but it does have tomatoes, soy and wheat protein, and lots of spices, making it less of a neutral base and more like veggie burgers of yore. However, the Meat Lovers burger does have a whopping 27g of protein per serving — significantly more than Beyond or Impossible.

Moving Mountains: The Moving Mountains Burger

Photo: Moving Mountains burger.

If you’re in the U.K. or Europe you can try Moving Mountain’s eponymous plant-based burger. Made with a very similar ingredient list to the Beyond Burger — pea protein, coconut oil, and beets — the plant-based burger launched in select London restaurants last year. The Moving Mountains burger is currently available in over 3,000 foodservice establishments in the U.K. and Europe.

Have you tried any of the above meatless burgers? Which was your favorite? Sound off in the comments below!

Del Taco Debuts New Beyond Meat Burritos as Fast Food Embraces Plant-Based Meat

Today Del Taco announced two pieces of (meatless) meaty news. First, it revealed that the Beyond Meat Taco, which hit Del Taco menus nationwide in April, was one of its most successful product launches ever. Springboarding off this popularity, the fast-food chain also announced that it’s expanding its plant-based lineup with two new Beyond Meat burritos.

The Beyond 8 Layer Burrito ($4.49) and the Epic Beyond Cali Burrito ($6.49) will be available in more than 580 Del Taco locations nationwide. The two look pretty similar, except the Epic Beyond Cali Burrito subs in french fries (!) for beans and is therefore presumably better for curing hangovers.

It’s no wonder that Del Taco is introducing more products featuring the plant-based beef. In the weeks following April’s widespread launch of Beyond Tacos, Del Taco reported an increase in both check size and traffic. According to an email from Del Taco, so far the chain has sold a whopping 2 million Beyond Tacos.

Del Taco isn’t the only fast-food restaurant experiencing an uptick in sales after introducing new meatless products to their menus. Burger King decided to roll out the Impossible Whopper nationwide after only one month of testing, during which its pilot location in St. Louis saw an 18 percent increase in sales. White Castle reps also stated that sales of the Impossible Slider exceeded expectations and that the new product appealed to both new and existing customers.

Skeptics may question whether these sales bumps are just that — bumps. Once the novelty wears off, will consumers keep returning to certain restaurants just to get the Impossible Whopper or Epic Beyond Cali Burrito?

Seeing as the alternative meat market is rising at a CAGR of 6.8 percent with no sign of slowing, my bet is yes. However, as more and more fast-food restaurants embrace plant-based meat (except for you, Arby’s), chains will have to come up with new ways to differentiate themselves and lure in curious consumers.

We’ll see if the new Beyond Burritos can help Del Taco lure diners away from Mexican fast-food competitor Qdoba, who serves bowls and tacos made with Impossible “beef,” or Taco Bell, which has a vegetarian menu (though no plant-based meat).

Adding french fries into the mix can’t hurt.

Tyson Foods Debuts Raised & Rooted, its Long-Anticipated Line of Alternative Proteins

Today poultry giant Tyson Foods announced Raised & Rooted, its new brand selling alternative proteins.

Raised & Rooted’s first products will be plant-based “chicken” nuggets (made with a pea protein blend) and blended burger patties (which combine beef and pea protein). The products have lower calories and saturated fat than traditional chicken nuggets and beef burgers, respectively.

In addition to the new Raised & Rooted brand, Tyson is also introducing new alt-protein products through its existing Aidells brand, which sells meaty sausages, burgers, and meatballs. Aidells Whole Blends’ new sausages and meatballs contain a blend of chicken and protein-heavy plants such as quinoa, black beans, and lentils.

Raised & Rooted’s plant-based nuggets will launch in retailers in late summer. The blended burgers will follow this fall. Outside the grocery channel, Tyson will also sell its new alternative protein products through foodservice partners. Aidells’ Whole Blends are already available.

“For us, this is about ‘and’ – not ‘or,'” said Tyson Foods CEO Noel White in a press release emailed to the Spoon. “We remain firmly committed to our growing traditional meat business and expect to be a market leader in alternative protein, which is experiencing double-digit growth and could someday be a billion-dollar business for our company.”

Tyson’s venture capital arm, Tyson Ventures, has invested in mushroom protein company MycoTechnology and cell-based meat startups Memphis Meats and Future Meat Technologies. They had purchased a 6.5 percent ownership in Beyond Meat but quietly dissolved their ties in April — likely since Tyson (understandably) didn’t want to compete directly with one of its portfolio companies once it started developing its own line of plant-based protein.

When the second largest meat processor in the world creates its own line(s) of plant-based and blended chicken and burgers, there’s no longer any doubt that alternative proteins are a profitable opportunity. This news also comes a day after Perdue, another large poultry producer, launched its line of Chicken Plus products: chicken nuggets, tenders, and patties blended with vegetables and proteins sourced from Better Meat Co.

Seattle Food Tech, Maker of Plant-Based Nuggets, Rebrands as Rebellyous

Today Seattle Food Tech, a startup that makes and sells plant-based chicken nuggets for the foodservice industry, announced it is rebranding as Rebellyous.

“Now that the company is pretty well established and we have a product that’s resonating, we feel like we’ve defined ourselves,” Rebellyous’ CEO and founder Christie Lagally told me on the phone this morning. “[The rebrand] is an opportunity to give our success a name.”

Founded in 2017, Rebellyous makes vegan chicken nuggets from ingredients like soy and wheat protein. By focusing on B2B foodservice sales and scalable manufacturing (Lagally is a former Boeing engineer), the startup’s goal is to sell their plant-based nuggets for the same price as chicken. They’re projecting consistent price parity with chicken nuggets in roughly two years. Rebellyous has raised just over $2 million in funding so far.

While the name Seattle Food Tech may accurately describe the startup’s goals — to use technology to affordably scale plant-based food production in, well, Seattle — it didn’t necessarily resonate with customers in the same way as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. “Our partners were looking for something that described our brand,” said Lagally.

The new name comes at a time when the startup is beginning to ramp up production in earnest. According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ nuggets are in 6 to 10 restaurants in the Pacific Northwest through their partnership with vegan food wholesaler Earthly Gourmet. They’re also on menus at two Swedish Hospital locations in Seattle and have completed two trials in office cafeterias: one at Adobe in Seattle and one at visual computing tech company Nvidia in the Bay Area.

According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ new name is meant to express the company’s “lighthearted but determined efforts to make plant-based meat accessible to everyone.”

There’s not a lot of plant-based chicken competition gunning for the B2B foodservice sector as of yet. However, as demand for alternative proteins continues to grow you can bet there soon will be — especially once poultry giant Tyson Foods launches its line of plant-based protein. It’s a smart move on Rebellyous’ part to rebrand with a name that’ll stick in customers’ minds and (hopefully) keep them coming back for more.

Future Food: Impossible? Beyond? Our Guide to Meatless Meat in Fast Food

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Quick service restaurants (QSRs) can read the tea leaves: consumers want more tasty, meatless options. The month after it put the Impossible Whopper on St. Louis store menus, Burger King reported an 18 percent increase in foot traffic. Del Taco’s introduction of the Beyond Meat tacos was one of the chain’s most successful product launches ever.

It’s a smart play for fast-food joints to embrace plant-based meat, allowing them to:

  • Attract new customers who might not otherwise opt to eat at the restaurant
  • Draw back lapsed customers who might have pivoted away from fast-food to embrace a more plant-based diet
  • Boost their brand and frame themselves as an innovator.

With all this action, it can be hard to keep track of which chains are serving which meat alternatives. Who’s got the Impossible patty? Which spots are hitching their horse to Beyond Meat? Which restaurants have yet to make a move, and is anybody rejecting meat alternatives altogether? (Cough, Arby’s, cough.)

It’s a lot to keep straight. Thankfully, we drew up a handy one-sheet outlining which QSR’s are lining up behind which meat alternatives. Check out the full piece for details, then go order a vegan combo meal.

Image: The Spoon.

Beefing up the portfolio

Big Food is going whole-hog on plant-based meat investment.

Tyson, the world’s second-largest meat processor, made headlines when they decided to invest in Beyond Meat. (It has since cut ties, but that’s a different story.) Major Canadian packaged meat company Maple Leaf Foods acquired vegan meat veterans Field Roast and Lightlife Foods and has plans to build the largest plant-based protein factory in North America. Late last year, Unilever snapped up Dutch startup the Vegetarian Butcher.

Photo: Before the Butcher.

This week that list got a little longer when the owners of Jensen Meat Company, a ground beef processor, acquired meatless meat startup Before the Butcher. It’s a textbook symbiotic relationship. Big Beef gets to diversify its portfolio and carve out a chunk of the white-hot alterna-meat market. Before the Butcher gains access to more capital and bigger production facilities, which can help the startup scale and differentiate itself in the crowded plant-based protein market.

Win, win. Expect to see quite a few more of these type of acquisitions coming around the curve. But also expect to see some consumer pushback against big meat companies coming in and sticking their noses (and pocketbooks) into the alterna-meat space.

Photo: Moving Mountains

Protein new ’round the web

Photo: Beyond Meat sausages and burgers.

In the spirit of research and summertime I grilled up a few Beyond Meat burger patties and sausage links last night. Look out for a meatless meat grilling guide coming at you soon.

Eat well,
Catherine

Plant-Based Meat Startup Before the Butcher Acquired by Big Beef

Big Meat just can’t keep its hands off smaller alternative meat companies.

Plant-based meat startup Before the Butcher announced yesterday that it has been acquired by private investors Jeff and Gregg Hamann, who also own the ground beef-centric Jensen Meat Company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, Entrepreneur reports that the California-based company will gain access to a $25 million line of credit, a 90,000 square foot production space, and warehousing facilities.

Founded two years ago, Before the Butcher makes 12 products, including plant-based burgers, chorizo, and breakfast sausage patties. They’re currently served at over 1,000 restaurants in the U.S. The company is also gearing up for a retail launch, heading to over 3,000 locations by the end of August.

Before the Butcher’s founder Danny O’Malley told Entrepreneur that the acquisition will give them “both the financial resources and the production capacity to support our strong growth forecasts,” and will turn the company “from a startup to a major player in the space.”

We’ll see. The plant-based meat space is becoming quite crowded, and will only get more so after Impossible heads into retail later this year. However, Before the Butcher does set itself apart with its extensive product line (most companies only make a handful of “meats”). And now that they have some bigger (plant-based) muscle behind them, the company’s can invest more in marketing and other strategies to suck in more customers.

On the Hamann’s end, the Before the Butcher acquisition can help them diversify their portfolio and cash in on the white-hot plant-based meat trend. They’re not the only ones doing these types of deals. Lately quite a few major meat corporations have been investing in — or all-out acquiring — alternative protein startups. Tyson Foods was an early investor in Beyond Meat before the poultry giant cut ties to pursue their own line of plant-based protein; Canada’s Maple Leaf Foods acquired Field Roast and Lightlife; and Unilever bought the Vegetarian Butcher.

The plant-based protein space projected to be worth $140 billion over the next decade and capture around 10 percent of the global meat market. With those numbers, it’s no wonder that more traditional meat companies are starting to take note — and take action.

Which Fast Food Restaurants Serve Plant-Based Meat (or Are Thinking About It)?

Thanks to fast-food chains, meatless meats are no longer a niche product meant for vegetarians or vegans — they’re the norm. They’re making plant-based meat more affordable and accessible, and democratizing the alternative protein revolution.

Adopting meat alternatives is also a smart business play for QSR’s. Case and point: Del Taco and Burger King have reported sales increases in the months after they introduced plant-based meat options.

As alternative meats spread like wildfire onto fast-food menus, it can be hard to keep track of which chains have embraced meat alternatives and which are still mulling it over. To help straighten things out we decided to make a handy-dandy list showing which QSR’s in the U.S. and Canada have plant-based meat on their menus, what products they’re serving (Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, other), and even which restaurants refuse to touch the stuff with a 10-foot pole.

Click on the photo below to enlarge.

Photo: The Spoon

But this list is just a high-level overview. If you want more context into the plant-based meat strategies behind some of the most widespread fast-food restaurants, we’ve laid that out below.

Impossible Foods

Photo: the Impossible Whopper at Burger King.

Burger King: On April 1 Burger King launched a Whopper made with plant-based Impossible Foods patties in select St. Louis locations. Just a month later, the fast-food chain announced it would begin rolling out the Impossible Whopper in all of its 7,300 locations nationwide by the end of the year. First stop(s): Miami, Florida; Columbus, Georgia; and Montgomery, Alabama.

White Castle: White Castle was kind of the trendsetter of fast-food restaurants embracing plant-based meat. In April 2018 the chain first started serving the Impossible Slider for $1.99 at select locations on the East Coast before rolling it out nationwide in September of that year.

Qdoba: The Mexican food chain began testing bowls and tacos made with ground Impossible “beef” in February of 2019. As of May 2019, the plant-based options are available at all Qdoba locations.

Little Caesar’s: The new Impossible Supreme pie — featuring Impossible Foods sausage, green peppers, mushrooms and caramelized onions — is available at select Little Caesar’s in Florida, New Mexico and Washington State. The pizza chain plans to expand it to all of their stores if it proves popular.

Red Robin: As of April 2019, diners can sub an Impossible patty for any burger at all 570 Red Robin locations.

Cheesecake Factory: The Impossible Burger hopped on select Cheesecake Factory menus in August 2018.

Umami Burger: Umami Burger currently sells four different Impossible burgers.

Hard Rock Cafe: As of January of this year, patrons can get an Impossible cheeseburger at select Hard Rock Cafe locations.

Beyond Meat

Photo: Beyond Meat x Del Taco.

Del Taco: The fast-food Mexican restaurant began offering Beyond Meat’s plant-based “beef” as a protein option on their tacos, burritos, and bowls in September 2018. As of this April, it’s available at all 580 locations across the U.S.

Tim Horton’s: The Canadian fast-food chain added Beyond Meat sausages to their menus last month. Customers can add the plant-based sausage patty to three of Tim Horton’s breakfast sandwiches.

Applebee’s: The Beyond Burger is available at select Applebee’s locations in NYC.

Carl’s Jr.: Beyond Meat’s first big play into the fast-food burger space was with Carl’s Jr. The Beyond Famous Star burger debuted on Carl’s Jr. menus in January of 2019 and quickly spread to all of its 1,000+ locations. (We did a taste test, if you’re interested.)

TGI Friday’s: The fast-casual restaurant began testing Beyond Burgers on its menus in 2017, rolling them out to all 469 locations in January of 2018.

A&W: In July of 2018 Canadian fast-food chain A&W began selling the Beyond Burger. It’s currently available at all of their 925 locations in Canada.

Dunkin’: In July of 2019 Dunkin’ locations in Manhattan began selling a Beyond Breakfast Sausage Sandwich, making it the first place in the U.S. to serve Beyond’s plant-based sausage patties.

Subway: Subway will start testing a Beyond Meatball Marinara sandwich at 685 locations in the U.S. and Canada for a limited time in September 2019. Beyond developed a meatball specifically for the partnership.

KFC: The fried chicken chain will start testing Beyond Meat chicken nuggets and wings at a location in suburban Atlanta for a limited time.

To Be Determined

Photo: Chick-Fil-A

Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Dunkin’, Papa John’s: These chains are also rumored to be in talks with Impossible Foods to develop a plant-based menu option.

Chick-fil-A: Last month Chick-fil-A announced that it was exploring new vegan entrée options, including one made with realistic plant-based meat. Exactly what type of entrée is still TBD, but according to Chick-fil-A’s executive menu director, it might be “some type of alternative meat on a sandwich.”

Taco Bell: The fast-food chain has a relatively hefty vegetarian menu but no plant-based meat options as of yet. In London Taco Bell briefly experimented with a meatless ground beef option made from pulled oats, but seems to have taken it off the menu.

Starbuck’s: Though they have plenty of alternative milk options, Starbuck’s has yet to introduce a plant-based meat option to their breakfast, lunch or snack offerings.

McDonald’s: Ah, the White Whale. Despite the fact that all its competitors seem to embracing plant-based meat, McDonald’s is hanging back. At a recent shareholder meeting the fast-food giant stated that it would introduce an alterna-meat menu item once it was sure that there was sufficient consumer demand. Over in Germany, McDonald’s serves Nestlé’s “bleeding” plant-based Incredible burger.

 

No Way

Photo: Arby’s Meat Mountain sandwich.

Arby’s: When Arby’s president Rob Lynch heard rumors that the chain was looking into a plant-based menu option featuring Impossible “meat,” he panicked — and then set the record straight. He stated categorically that Arby’s has no plans to introduce any meatless meat options to its menu, now or in the future.

Have you tried meatless meat at any fast-food chains? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

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

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. The newsletter has exclusive additional content, so be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

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

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

But plenty of groups are out to rock the boat.

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

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

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

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

Alternative meat companies better prepare to fight.

Photo: Arby’s

We’ve got the meats

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

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

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

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

Protein new ’round the web

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

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

Eat well,
Catherine

Impossible Foods Practices Right Jab, Warming Up for More Attacks against Plant-Based Meat

Early last week Rachel Konrad, the Chief Communications Officer for Impossible Foods, published a fiery rebuttal against Mom’s Across America (MAA)‘s recent article that stated Impossible Burger tests 11 times higher for Glyphosate weed killer than Beyond Meat burgers. Impossible’s clap-back was impassioned, to say the least; Konrad used the words “charlatans” and “quackery,” among others.

MAA is a vocal opponent to GMOs and is against Impossible’s use of genetic engineering to make heme, the ingredient that gives the plant-based burgers their bloody taste and hue. Claims about weed killer are questionable at best, and the whole post (and Konrad’s response) is arguably something of a footnote in the grand scheme of plant-based meat. However, both highlight an important point: Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and other alt-protein companies will have to prepare themselves for a lot more of these sort of attacks in the coming months and years.

Both companies have enjoyed relatively little pushback up until this point. They’ve been getting glowing publicity, locking down buzzy new fast food partnerships, and Beyond blew past already high expectations with their wildly successful IPO.

However, as these companies become more successful, they compete with bigger and bigger players. In the future, Impossible and Beyond will have to look out for attacks from organizations with a lot more reach and funding than MAA.

Big Beef, for one, has made it quite clear they don’t approve of companies branding plant-based products as “meat.” Organizations like the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association or the National Chicken Council have even tried to ban vegetarian burgers, sausages and the like from using the word “meat” on their labels.

In some ways, Big Meat’s reaction is unsurprising. Plant-based options for dairy and meat are projected to take over 10 percent of the $1.4 trillion global meat industry over the next decade. That’s a lot of pressure for Big Meat to live up to, and not all of those companies are going to pull a Tyson or a Cargill and invest in their own disruption.

It’s not hard to guess traditional meat companies’ lines of attack. They’ll likely frame plant-based meat as “unnatural,” “unhealthy,” and full of suspect ingredients. In short: fake news — er, meat.

So far, it seems like Impossible has come out swinging — perhaps a little too hard, at least in the case of Konrad’s Medium post. Hopefully Impossible and friends can find a sustainable way to deal with the quackery from Big Meat and their friends, because it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.